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J? /-■5' 


THE ANNALS 


OF OUR TIMI 


^ I 





















THE 


NNALS OF OUR TIME 

A DIURNAL OF EVENTS, 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL, HOME AND FOREIGN, 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA, 
JUNE 20, 1837. 


JOSEPH IRVING. 


A NEW EDITION CAREFULLY REVISED 
AND BROUGHT DOWN 

TO THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES, 


FEBRUARY 28, 1871. 



Sucmbxw. 

MACMILLAN AND CO. 
1S75. 

r 

[ The right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved .] 




V. C LAV, 


.—y nb£D 



© 

c c 

SONS, <AND' CAYLOK, PRINTERS, 
BREAD STREET HILL 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 


The reception accorded to the First Edition of these “ Annals ” was of a character 
sufficient to show that the book filled up in an acceptable way a vacant space in that 
department of literature concerned in the production of works combining the speciali¬ 
ties of ready reference for the student with useful details for the general reader. The 
entire edition was exhausted within a few months from publication, while the approval 
given by the Press was so marked and universal as to excite a belief that it had 
reference rather to the general design of the volume than to the manner in which that 
design had been completed in all its minute features. This became more apparent to 
the writer as the task of revision was carried on. With every desire to set forth 
occurrences accurately and fully, he found painstaking labour had not been able 
to exclude errors, and that even some events of national interest were omitted 
altogether. This was the case particularly in the first half of the book, and arose from 
the difficulty of fixing at the commencement of so considerable an undertaking the 
precise scale necessary to be applied to the Annals of each year. In the present edition 
all this has been put right. The entire period embraced in the book has been gone 
over a second time day by day ; name by name and date by date have been verified 
or corrected, and additions made to an extent best explained by contrasting certain 
details in the two issues. In the First Edition the period between 1837 and 1847 was 
embraced within 127 pages ; in the present it is extended to 230 : another addition of 
50 pages has been made between 1848 and i860. Nor does even this indicate all the 
changes, for the careful condensation of some of the larger articles has permitted scores 
of pages of altogether new matter to be introduced without adding inconveniently to the 
bulk of the volume, or lessening in any way its usefulness a-s a complete handbook of 
modern history. The Obituary notices alone have been extended from 425 pages in 
the First Edition to above 1,000 in the present. The cycle of History has been further 
completed by the addition of Annals of the last two years, as many as 46 pages being 
occupied by an impartial exhibition of the wonderful series of events marking the latter 
half of 1870. The War is made to tell its own story as it occurred, without reference 
to any special theory explanatory of its injustice on one side or necessity on the 
other. Proclamations and addresses, sieges and engagements, speak fully for them¬ 
selves. The Table of Administrations during her Majesty’s reign has been corrected 
down to the present time, and its usefulness increased by a record of divisions showing 

majorities determining the fate of each Ministry. 

One other fact may be mentioned. The last edition of the “ Annals” extended to 

734 pages ; the present contains 1,034 pages. 


PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 


'vl 


With the Index renewed care has been taken. It has not only been extended, as 
was necessary by the introduction of additional matter into the text, but the plan has 
been so far improved upon as to permit it to be readily used for ordinary historical 
and biographical purposes—for the events making up the history of nations, and the 
chief facts in the lives of eminent men. Even a slight examination of this portion of 
the book will satisfy those working in the byways of literature that many occurrences 
are noticed which could hardly fill a place in a general history of the period, however 
special and comprehensive. In particular, readers will find abundant reference to the 
intellectual activity of the age so far as this could be illustrated by personal, political, 
and ecclesiastical controversy, while it is hoped they will not think the text unduly 
burdened in setting forth legislative movements regarding the great Schools of the 
country, and for increasing the usefulness of our national Universities. 

On the whole, and apart from some minute errors (unknown, but still to be antici¬ 
pated), the “ Annals ” are now submitted in as complete a state as the writer can ever 
expect to present them, and worthy, he trusts, of being continued in future years as a 
faithful record of these inquiring and eventful times. It is some recompense for the 
labour bestowed to believe that readers may experience surprise as to how their 
knowledge of a continuous narrative of events nearly concerning them could be kept 
readily available for exact use without such a reference-book as is now placed in their 
hands. By avoiding disquisition, it will be seen that it is possible to present the 
material points of history within a limited space, while the rigid exclusion of comments 
or mere discursive matter goes far to make apologies for even unconscious injustice 
to individuals or parties unnecessary. 

The many correspondents and friends who have assisted the Author will find their 
best thanks in observing that in nearly every case their corrections or suggestions have 
been adopted, and that they have all helped to complete a work deserving, as they 
thought, of being improved and extended. 

For the utility and general design of the u Annals,” the reader is referred to the 
accompanying Preface to the First Edition. 


J. I. 


March 1871. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 


While the title-page in some measure explains the design of this book, it may 
assist the reader still further to mention that he is entitled to look within its pages 
for a notice of every event which has in any way excited or moulded our national 
life during the last thirty years. Regarding the more important of these events, 
an endeavour has been made to exhibit them with such fulness as will, in ordinary 
cases, supersede a reference to any other authority. Brevity, of course, required 
to be studied in every instance; and for the purpose of bringing the kernel of the 
occurrence before the reader in the shortest space, it has been sought as often 
as possible to get the more important incidents narrated in the precise way they 
appeared to those who actually saw or took part in them. Any tendency that 
witnesses might have to exaggerate or misreport has been checked, as occasion 
required, by referring to other sources of unquestionable authority. 

The main idea of the Annalist was to bring before the reader all the noteworthy 
occurrences which have taken place in our time, and to furnish him with such details 
regarding them as would enable him to comprehend the events in an intelligent 
manner. Every occurrence—metropolitan or provincial—which gave rise to public 
excitement or discussion, or became the starting-point for new trains of thought 
affecting our social life, has been judged proper matter for this volume. The 
measure throughout of the importance of an event has invariably been the extent 
to which it influenced our habits or recollections, not the apparent importance at the 
time it happened. This may be particularly noticed under the head of Accidents 
of certain classes—fires, shipwrecks, and colliery explosions, where, however calami¬ 
tous in themselves, the details are in general so uniform, that little more than the 
mere facts of the occurrence were necessary to be recorded. When an incident 
was found to possess the requisite conditions for record, another object constantly 
present to the Compiler was, to let the reader see not only how important were the 
events of his own time, but the precise order in which the little occurrences making 
up the life or body of an event unrolled themselves in the great historic scroll. 

In the proceedings of Parliament, an endeavour has been made to notice all 
those Debates which were either remarkable as affecting the fate of Parties, or led to 
important changes in our relations with Foreign Powers. A note has also been made 
of the progress of all important Bills through Parliament, and the majorities by which 
they were carried or rejected. 

Foreign occurrences, so far as they affected the interests of this country, or even 
gave rise to public discussion here, have been recorded, it is hoped, with circumstan- 


PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 


viii 

tial accuracy. The widest possible interpretation has always been given to any event 
in h oreign Countries which could be considered even remotely to affect the interests 
of this kingdom. 

A few incidents have been recorded mainly remarkable for their curiosity; but it 
was not thought likely to add to the usefulness of this compilation by making these 
a prominent feature of the book. Again, though a complete Obituary was no part 
of the plan, it was considered to be in perfect harmony with the main design of 
the volume, to present brief notices of the death of such persons as were prominently 
mixed up with the public events of the time, or were widely known for their connexion 
with Literature, Science, or Art. 

Dealing with a great variety of occurrences which could only be included or set 
aside from an individual opinion of their importance, it is not to be expected that the 
“ Annals * can reach any other standard of acknowledged excellence than one of 
degree corresponding to the utility with which each reader finds it facilitate his 
researches, and illustrate or enlarge his knowledge. Mere word-books, or books 
written with reference to a single branch of inquiry, may through time attain 
that kind of perfection which includes all it is possible to exhibit for the reader’s 
information. Here there can at best be only such an approximation to completeness 
as is consonant with the exercise of judgment and discretion—judgment as to what it 
was essential to record, and discretion as to the manner of recording. Any plan so 
detailed and minute as to include all events, would have reduced the “ Annals ” to 
a mere Index, entering thereby on fields already well occupied, and destroying at the 
same time that special feature in the book of describing occurrences at a length 
proportionate to their apparent interest. 

To correct omissions from want of judgment as well as errors from ignorance, the 
writer looks for such help as Criticism fairly applied can always furnish to the first 
issue of a work dealing so frequently with names and dates. A few matters omitted 
by accident have been added at the end. 

Though the events are set down day by day in their order of occurrence, the 
book is, in its own way, the history of an important and well-defined historic 
cycle, framed in a manner likely to inform only less exactly than those higher 
classed treatises where events are generalized and commented upon with reference 
to some theory or party. In these “Annals” the ordinary reader may make himself 
acquainted with the history of his own time in a way that has at least the merit of 
simplicity and readiness ; the more cultivated student will doubtless be thankful for 
the opportunity given him of passing down the historic stream, undisturbed by 
any other theoretical or party feeling than what he himself has at hand to explain the 
philosophy of our national story. 

Some trouble has been taken to verify the dates of the more important occur¬ 
rences; a labour not always easily accomplished, owing to the vague manner in which 
the precise day was originally indicated. Phrases like “ recently,” “ last week ” or “ a 
few days back,” give much trouble to the careful annalist. Without pretending that 
perfection has been attained in even such a simple matter as this, it is hoped that 
no error has been committed likely to mislead to any serious extent either the general 
reader or special student. 



PREFACE TO TIIE FIRST EDITION. 


ix 


As the utility of a work of this kind greatly depends on the readiness with which 
the required incident can be found, considerable care has been taken in the 
construction of the Index. Framed mainly to facilitate a reference to occurrences, it 
was judged better to classify many of the entries under general headings, than to 
index exactly with reference to persons and places. At the same time it win be 
found that the latter system has not been altogether excluded from the scheme ; 
for while every event in the text has been entered primarily under the letter where 
it appeared most natural to place it, many occurrences of importance have two, and 
even three cross-references identifying them with some locality or individual. It was 
found that exclusive adherence to either system would lessen the usefulness of the 
Index as a guide to a collection of facts so numerous and varied as almost to defy 
classification. Wherever the general headings admitted of entries being made with 
an exclusive regard to proper names, a sub-alphabetical arrangement has been carried 
out: in others it was thought that the incident sought for would be sooner seized by 
simply following the order of occurrence. The single exception to this latter rule 
occurs under the head “ Parliament, : ” where the entries are too varied and uncon¬ 
nected to permit of the chronological system being applied. With these explana¬ 
tions, the reader may be reminded that an Index at best can only aid the memory, 
and never supersede it altogether. For an inquirer who has only a vague notion 
that some occurrence did take place at an indefinite period, but who neither knows 
where it happened, who took part in it, or any details from which the precise 
character of the event could be gathered — for such an inquirer no index yet 
devised can afford much help. The “ Annals ” Index will be found in some respects 
even fuller than the text, for in the case of such occurrences as the meetings of 
Learned Societies, and Annual Festivals, which admitted of only brief entries in the 
text, it was thought best to confine them to the Index altogether, and show the event 
there year by year. 

The main foundation for a work like the “ Annals ” was, of course, the newspaper 
of the day; but these watchful recorders of events required to be themselves watched, 
and even corrected and modified, wherever the passing current of feeling tended to 
obscure or twist the facts of an occurrence. The reader will see how frequently this 
has been done by the references made to personal and official records, consisting for 
the most part of Memoirs, Diaries, Parliamentary Votes and Debates, Diplomatic 
Correspondence, the proceedings of Learned Societies, and Law Reports. In addition 
to these, and tending greatly to facilitate the labour of compilation, the volumes most 
frequently consulted were the comprehensive Date Books of Haydn and Townsend, 
the useful series of Annual Registers extending over the period, and the Companion 
to the Almanac so long issued under the careful supervision of Mr. Charles Knight. 

The Table of Administrations is designed to assist the reader in following the 
various political changes noticed in their chronological order in the “ Annals.” 


J. I. 


December 1868. 




TABLE OF ADMINISTRATIONS, 

1835 TO 1868. 


TABLE OF ADMIN It 

(i Continued to 



April 1835. 

Sept. 1841. 

First Lord of Treasury ....... 

Viscount Melbourne 

Sir R. Peel 

Lord Chancellor . 

Lord Cottenham. 

Lord Lyndhurst 

Lord President of Council . 

Marquis of Lansdowne 

Lord Whamcliffe 

Lord Privy Seal . 

(Lord Duncannon 

Duke of Buckingham \ 

(Earl of Clarendon. 

Duke of Buccleuch / 

Chancellor of the Exchequer . . . 

/Spring Rice, Esq. \ 

(F. T. Baring, Esq. J 

H. Goulburn, Esq. 

Home Secretary. 

ILord J. Russell 1 

(Marquis of Normanby J 

Sir J. Graham 

Foreign Secretary. 

Lord Palmerston 

Earl of Aberdeen 

Colonial Secretary . 

(Lord Glenelg ) 

4 Marquis of Normanby > 
(Lord J. Russell ) 

Lord Stanley \ 

W. E. Gladstone, Esq. / 

Secretary-at-War . ........ 

(Viscount Howick 
(T. B. Macaulay, Esq. 

(Sir H. Hardinge ) 

<SirT. Fremantle > 

(Sidney Herbert, Esq. ) 

War Secretary .. 

— 

— 


(Lord Ellenborough ) 

Board of Control (India) ...... 

Sir J. C. Hobhouse 

sLord Fitzgerald > 

(Earl of Ripon ) 

Indian Secretary . 

— 

— 

Board of Trade . 

/C. P. Thomson, Esq. 

(H. Labouchere, Esq. 

Ear! of Ripon 1 

W. E. Gladstone, Esq. 

Duchy of Lancaster . 

/Lord Holland 1 

(Earl of Clarendon J 

Lord G. Somerset 

Postmaster-General ....... 

Earl of Lichfield 

Lord Lowther 

First Lord of Admiralty . 

Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland .... 

Earl of Minto 

Earl of Haddington 

(Viscount Ebrington ) 

\ Earl De Grey 1 

(Lord Heytesbury ) 

Earl of Mulgrave 


Chief Secretary of Ireland .... 

Lord Morpeth 

/ I.ord Eliot 
(Sir T. Fremantle 

Woods and Forests (Public Works) . . 

Viscount Duncannon 

Earl of Lincoln 

Vice-President of Board of Trade . 

R. L. Shiel, Esq. 

(W. E. Gladstone, Esq. * 
(Lord Dalhousie j 



( Sir T. Wilde ) 

Attorney-General. . 

Sir J. Campbell 

1 Sir F. Pollock ; 

| Sir W. Follett ( 

VSir F. Thesiger ) 

Solicitor-General. 

f Sir R. M. Rolfe 

Sir W. Follett 


i Sir T. Wilde 

Sir F. Thesiger 

Lord Advocate of Scotland .... 

J. A. Murray, Esq. 

(Sir William Rae \ 

(D. McNeil, Esq. / 


Majorities determining the fate of 
above Ministries. 


Motion : —Address at 
opening of Session. 

For ..... 269 

Against .... 360 

Majority ... 91 

(See Aug. 28, 1841, p. 

9 °). 

Duration, 6 yrs. 5 ms. 


Motion :—Second read¬ 
ing of Irish Coercion 
Bill. 


Against .... 292 

Majority ... 73 

(See June 25, 1846, p. 
203.) 

Duration, 4 yrs. 10 ms. 



■ 















































TRATIONS—1835 to 1868 

next folio.) 


July 1848. 


Lord J. Russell 

| Lord Cottenham [res.) ( 
(Lord Truro j 

Marquis of Lansdowne 
Earl of Minto 


Sir C. Wood 

Sir C. Grey 

(Lord Palmerston 
(Earl Granville 

Earl Grey 

Fox Maule, Esq. 


Feb. 1852. 


Sir J. C. Hobhouse (l 
Earl of Dalhousie 


Earl of Derby 
Lord St. Leonards 
Earl of Lonsdale 
Marquis of Salisbury 

B. Disraeli, Esq. 

S. H. Walpole, Esq. 
Earl of Malmesbury 

Sir J. Pakington 
W. Beresford, Esq. 

j ' J. C. Herries, Esq. 


Earl of Clarendon \ 1 

H. Labouchere, Esq. j; 

(Lord Campbell V 

(Earl of Carlisle j 

Marquis of Clanricarde 

(Earl of Auckland 1 
(Sir F. T. Baring J 

Earl of Besborough 1 

Earl of Clarendon J 

H. Labouchere, Esq. 1 
Sir W. Somerville / 

Lord Seymour 
T. Milner Gibson, Esq. 

Sir J. Jervis 
Sir J. Romilly 
Sir A. J. E. Cockburn 

Sir D. Dundas 
Sir J. Romilly 

A. Rutherford, Esq. 


J. W. Henley, Esq. 

R. A. Chris topher, Esq 
Earl of Hardwicke 
Du. of Northumberland 
Earl of Eglinton 

Lord Naas 
Lord J. Manners 
Lord Colchester 

Sir F. Thesiger 

Sir F. Kelly 
John Inglis, Esq. 


Dec. 1852. 


Earl of Aberdeen 

Lord Cranworth 

I Earl Granville j 

(Lord J. Russell / 

Duke of Argyll 
W. E. Gladstone. Esq. 

Lord Palmerston 

(Lord J. Russell 1 

\Earl of Clarendon j 

(Duke of Newcastle 
(Sir George Grey 

Sidney Herbert, Esq. 
Duke of Newcastle 

Sir C. Wood 


E. Cardwell, Esq. 

IJ Edward Strutt. Esq. 
(Earl of Clarendon 

Viscount Canning 
Sir J. Graham 
Earl St. Germans 

Sir J. Young 

Sir W. Molesworth 

Ld. Stanley of Alderley 

Sir A. J. E. Cockburn 

Sir R. Bethell 
J. Moncreiff, Esq. 


Feb. 1855. 


Viscount Palmerston 
Lord Cranworth 

Earl Granville 

/Duke of Argyll 
(Earl of Harrotvby 

(W.E. Gladstone, Esq. res. 
(Sir C. Lewis 

Sir G. Grey 

Earl of Clarendon 

fS. Herbert, Esq. [res.) 

J Lord J. Russell 
j Sir W. Molesworth 

I.H. Labouchere, Esq. 

Lord Panmure 

(Sir C. Wood 

IR. Vernon Smith, Esq. 

(E. Cardwell, Esq. 

(Ld. Stanley of Alderley 

Earl of Harrowby 
M. T. Baines, Esq. 

/Viscount Canning 
(Duke of Argyll 

/Sir J. Graham (res.) 

(Sir C. Wood 

Earl of Carlisle 

Edward Horsman, Esq. 

Sir B. Hall 

(E. P. Bouverie, Esq. 
(R. Lowe, Esq. 

/Sir A. J. E. Cockburn 
(Sir R. Bethell 

Sir R. Bethell 

J. S. Wortley, Esq. 

Sir H. Keating 
J. Moncreiff, Esq. 


Motion :—Militia Bill ; 
substitution of‘'regu¬ 
lar ” for “local.” 

For.126 

Against .... 135 

Majority ... 9 

(See Feb. 20, 1852, p. 
347>- 

Duration, 5 yrs. 7 ms. 


Motion :—Budget reso¬ 
lutions. 


For . 
Against 


236 

3°S 


Majority ... 19 

(See Dec. 16, 1852, p. 
37 1 )- 

Duration, 10 months. 


Motion : — Sebastopol 
Committee of Inquiry. 


for . 
Against 


148 

305 


Majority . . . 157 

(See Jan. 29, 1855, p. 
429.) 

Duration, 2 yrs. 9 ms. 


Motion :—Second read¬ 
ing of Conspiracy to 
Murder Bill. 

For.215 

Against .... 234 

Majority ... 19 

(See Feb. 19, 1858, p. 
5io-) 

Duration, 3 years. 


































TABLE OF ADMINi: 

(Continued fro, 


First Lord of Treasury. 

Lord Chancellor. 

Lord President of Council. 

Lord Privy Seal. 

Chancellor of the Exchequer . . . 

Home Secretary. 

Foreign Secretary. 

Colonial Secretary. 

Secretary-at-War. 

War Secretary. 

Board of Control (India). 

Indian Secretary. 

Board of Trade.. . 

Duchy of Lancaster. 

Postmaster-General. 

First Lord of Admiralty. 

Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland .... 

Chief Secretary of Ireland. 

Woods and Forests (Public Works) . . 
Vice-President of Board of Trade . 

Attorney-General ......... 

Solicitor-General. 

Lord Advocate of Scotland . . 


Majorities determining the fate of 
above Ministries. 


Feb. 1858. 


June 1859. 


Earl of Derby 
Lord Chelmsford 


Marquis of Salisbury 


Earl of Hardwicke 


B. Disraeli, Esq. 


fS. H.Walpole,Esq. [res.) 
[S. Estcourt, Esq. 


Earl of Malmesbury 


(Lord Stanley 
(.Sir E. B. Lytton 


Colonel Peel 


(Ld. Ellenborough (res. 
(Lord Stanley 


Lord Stanley 

fj. W. Henley, Esq. 
(Earl of Donoughmore 


Duke of Montrose 


Lord Colchester 


Sir J. Pakington 
Earl of Eglinton 
Lord Naas 
Lord J. Manners 
Earl of Donoughmore 

Sir F. Kelly 

Sir H. M. Cairns 
Charles Baillie, Esq. 


Visct. Palmerston 


'Lord Campbell 
1 Lord Westbury (res.) * 
.Lord Cranworth 


Earl Granville 


/Duke of Argyll 
(Marquis of Clanricardef 

W. E. Gladstone, Esq. 

Sir G. C. Lewis 
Sir G. Grey 

Lord J. Russell 


Du. of Newcastle (?w.)\ 
E. Cardwell, Esq. j 


(S. Herbert, Esq. 
\Sir G. C. Lewis 
.Earl De Grey 


Sir C. Wood 
T. Milner Gibson, Esq. 


| Sir G. Grey 
1 E. Cardwell, Esq. 
(Earl of Clarendon 


Earl of Elgin ] 

Duke of Argyll 

Ld. Stanley of AlderleyJ 




Duke of Somerset 


( 


Earl of Carlisle 


E. Cardwell, Esq. 
Sir R. Peel 


H. Fitzroy, Esq. 

/W. F. Cowper, Esq. 
(W. Hutt, Esq. 

/Sir R. Bethell 
(SirW. Atherton 

/ Sir William Atherton 
(Sir R. Palmer 

J. Moncreiff, Esq. 


Motion: — No confi¬ 
dence. 


For . . 
Against . 


325 

312 


Majority ... 13 

(See June 10, 1859, p. 
547 -) 

Duration, 1 yr. 4 ms. 


Lord Palmerston died 
in office, Oct. 18. 
1865. ' 

(See p. 718.) 


•Resigned July 3,1865. 
(See p. 708.) 






















































IRATIONS—1835 to 1868. 

previous folio.) 



Nov. 1865. 

June 1866. 

Feb. 1868. 

Dec. 1868, 


Earl Russell 

Earl of Derby 

B. Disraeli, Esq. 

W. E. Gladstone, Esq. 


Lord Cranworth 

Lord Chelmsford 

Lord Cairns 

Lord Hatherley 


Earl Granville 

(Duke of Buckingham 1 
\Duke of Marlborough J 

Duke of Marlborough 

Earl De Grey 


Duke of Argyll 

Earl of Malmesbury 

Earl of Malmesbury 

/Earl of Kimberley 
(Viscount Halifax 


W. E. Gladstone, Esq. 

B. Disraeli, Esq. 

G. W. Hunt, Esq. 

Robert Lowe, Esq. 


Sir G. Grey 

/S.H. Walpole, Esq. (res.)) 
\Gathorne Hardy, Esq. J 

Gathorne Hardy, Esq. 

H. A. Bruce, Esq. 


Lord Clarendon 

E. Cardwell, Esq. 

Lord Stanley 

(E. of Carnarvon (res.) * ( 
\Duke of Buckingham j 

Lord Stanley 

Duke of Buckingham 

(Earl of Clarendon 
(Earl Granville 
/Earl Granville 
\Earl of Kimberley 


Earl De Grey 

Marquis of Hartington 

General Peel [res.) * 1 

Sir J. Pakington / 

Sir J. Pakington 

Edward Cardwell, Esq. 


(Sir C. Wood 
(Earl De Grey 

Vise. Cranborne [res.)* 1 
Sir S. Northcote | 

Sir S. Northcote 

Duke of Argyll 


T. Milner Gibson, Esq. 

(Sir S. Northcote \ 

\ Duke of Richmond J 

Duke of Richmond 

/John Bright (res.) 

(Ch. Fortescue, Esq. 


G. J. Goschen, Esq. 

(Earl of Devon 1 

(Colonel Wilson Patten J 

Colonel Wilson Patten 

Lord Duflferin 


Ld. Stanley of Alderley 

Duke of Montrose 

Duke of Montrose 

(Marquis of Hartington 
(W. Monsell, Esq. 


/Duke of Somerset 1 

(H. T. L. Corry, Esq. J 

Sir J. Pakington 

H. T. L. Corry, Esq. 

/H. C. E. Childers, Esq. 
(G. J. Goschen, Esq. 


Earl of Carlisle 

Marquis of Abercom 

Marquis of Abercom 

Earl Spencer 

* 

Sir R. Peel \ 

C. Fortescue, Esq. / 

W. Hutt, Esq. \ 

G. J. Goschen, Esq. / 

Lord Naas 

Lord J. Manners 

S. Cave, Esq. 

Earl of Mayo (Naas) 

Lord J. Manners 

S. Cave, Esq. 

(Ch. Fortescue, Esq. 
(Marquis of Hartington 
(A. H. Layard, Esq. 

(A. S. Ayrton, Esq. 

W. H. Gladstone, Esq. 


Sir W. Atherton \ 

Sir R. Palmer j 

Sir J. Rolt 

Sir J. B. Karslake 

Sir R. P. Collier 


Sir R. Palmer \ 

Sir R. P. Collier / 

J. Moncreiff, Esq. 

Sir W. Bovill 

George Patton, Esq. 

/Sir C. J. Sehvyn 1 

(Sir R. Baggallay / 

E. S. Gordon, Esq. 

Sir J. D. Coleridge 

(J. Moncreiff, Esq. 

(Geo. Young, Esq. 


Motion: — BoroughFran- 
chise ; “rating” in¬ 
stead of “rental.” 

For.304 

Against .... 315 

Majority ... 11 

(See June 18, 1866, p. 
742 -) 

Duration, 6 yrs. 5 ms. 

• 

The Earl of Derby re¬ 
signed through failing 
health, Feb. 25, 1868. 
(See p. 805.) 

* Resigned on Reform 
Bill, March 2, 1867. 
(See p. 776.) 

Mr. Disraeli resigned 
before the assembling 
of the new Parlia¬ 
ment, Dec. 1868. 

(See p. 850). 

Ministerial Majority. 
Irish Church Bill (third 
reading). 

For.361 

Against .... 247 

Majority . . . 114 

(See May 31, 1869, p. 
872.) 



































■ 




ANNALS OF OUR TIME 


1837. 

June 20.—Accession of Queen Victoria. On 
Tuesday morning, shortly after 2 o’clock, the 
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Cham¬ 
berlain (Marquis of Conyngham) left Windsor 
for Kensington Palace—where the Princess 
Victoria was residing with her mother—to in¬ 
form her Royal Highness of the King’s death. 
The details of the interview current in society 
at the time were thus set down by Miss Wynn : 
“They reached Kensington Palace at about 
5 : they knocked, they rang, they thumped for a 
considerable time before they could rouse the 
porter at the gate ; they were again kept wait¬ 
ing in the courtyard, then turned into one of 
the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten 
by everybody. They rang the bell, and de¬ 
sired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria 
might be sent to inform her Royal Highness 
that they requested an audience on business of 
importance. After another delay, and another 
ringing to inquire the cause, the attendant was 
summoned, who stated that the Princess was 
in such a sweet sleep she could not venture to 
disturb her. Then they said, ‘We are come 
to the Queen on business of state, and even her 
sleep must give way to that!’ It did; and to 
prove that she* did not keep them waiting, in 
a few minutes she came into the room in a 
loose white nightgown , and shawl, her night¬ 
cap thrown off, and her hair falling upon her 
shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her 
eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified.” 
Lord Melbourne was immediately sent for, 
and the Privy Council summoned to assemble 
at Kensington at 11 o’clock. At that hour the 
Queen, with the Duchess of Kent, entered the 
council chamber, attended by her officers of 
state, and took her seat on a throne erected for 
the occasion. The Lord Chancellor then ad¬ 
ministered to her the usual oaths, binding 
her to govern the kingdom according to its 
laws and customs. She thereafter received the 
homage of her uncles, the Dukes of Cum¬ 
berland and Sussex, the Queen with admirable 
grace standing up and preventing the latter 
from kneeling. The Cabinet Ministers and 
other privy councillors present took the oath 

♦ (1) 


of allegiance and supremacy, kneeling before 
the throne. The former surrendered their seals 
of office, which her Majesty returned, and 
Ministers kissed hands on re-appointment. A 
declaration was drawn up, and signed by all 
present, stating that, “Whereas it has pleased 
Almighty God to call to His mercy our late 
Sovereign Lord King William the Fourth, of 
blessed and glorious memory, by whose decease 
the imperial crown of the United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland is solely and right¬ 
fully come to the High and Mighty Princess 
Alexandrina Victoria, saving the rights of any 
issue of his late Majesty King William the 
Fourth which may be born of his late Majesty’s 
consort: we, therefore, the Lords Spiritual and 
Temporal of this realm, being here assisted 
with those of his late Majesty’s Privy Council, 
with numbers of others, principally gentlemen 
of quality, with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, 
and citizens of London, do now hereby, with 
one voice and consent of tongue and heart, 
publish and proclaim that the High and Mighty 
Princess Alexandrina Victoria is now, by the 
death of our late Sovereign of happy memory, 
become our only lawful and rightful liege, 
Lady Victoria, by the grace of God, Queen of 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland, Defender of the Faith, saving as 
aforesaid. To whom, saving as aforesaid, we do 
acknowledge all faith and constant obedience, 
with all hearty and humble affection ; beseech¬ 
ing God, by whom kings - and queens do 
reign, to bless the Royal Princess Victoria with 
long and happy years to reign over us.” Her 
Majesty was pleased to make the following 
declaration:—“The severe and afflicting loss 
which the nation has sustained by the death of 
Jiis Majesty my beloved uncle, has devolved 
. upon me the duty of administering the govern¬ 
ment of this empire. This awful responsibility 
is imposed upon me so suddenly, and at so 
early a period of my life, that I should feel 
myself utterly oppressed by the burden were I 
not sustained by the hope that Divine Provi¬ 
dence, which has called me to this work, will 
give me strength for the performance of it, and 
that I shall find in the purity of my intentions, 
and in my zeal for the public welfare, that 

13 





JUNE 


JUNE 


I S3;. 


support and those resources which usually 
belong to a more mature age and to longer 
experience. I place my firm reliance upon the 
wisdom of Parliament, and upon the loyalty 
and affection of my people. I esteem it also a 
peculiar advantage that I succeed to a sove¬ 
reign whose constant regard for the rights and 
liberties of his subjects, and whose desire to 
promote the amelioration of the laws and insti¬ 
tutions of the country, have rendered his name 
the object of general attachment and venera¬ 
tion. Educated in England, under the tender 
and enlightened care of a most affectionate 
mother, I have learned from my infancy to 
respect and love the constitution of my native 
country. It will be my unceasing study to 
maintain .the Reformed religion as by law 
established, securing at the same time to all the 
full enjoyment of religious liberty ; and I shall 
steadily protect the rights, and promote to the 
utmost of my power the happiness and welfare, 
of all classes of my subjects.” Her Majesty 
was also pleased to take and subscribe the oath 
relating to the security of the Church of Scot¬ 
land. The Queen styled herself simply 
“Victoria,” and not, as had been anticipated, 
“ Alexandrina Victoria,” a variation which led 
next day to certain alterations in the written 
rolls of the House of Lords and the printed 
form of oath used by members of the House of 
Commons. 

21 . —Proclamation of the Queen. Her Ma¬ 
jesty left Kensington between 9 and 10 a.m. 
for St. James’s Palace, where she was received 
by members of the Royal family, Cabinet 
Ministers, and officers of the household. In 
a short time she made her appearance at the 
window of an ante-room adjoining the audience 
chamber, and was received with deafening 
cheers. Her Majesty was observed to look 
fatigued and pale, but acknowledged the cheers 
which greeted her with ease and dignity. She 
was dressed in deep mourning, with white 
tippet, white cuffs, and a border of white lace 
under a small black bonnet, which was placed 
far back on her head, exhibiting her fair hair in 
front, parted over the forehead. Her Majesty 
was accompanied to the window by Lord Mel¬ 
bourne, Prime Minister, and Lord Lansdowne, 
President of the Council. In the courtyard be¬ 
neath the window of the presence chamber was 
Garter King-at-arms, with heralds, pursuivants, 
and other officials in their robes of state. The 
proclamation read was uniform in phraseology 
with the declaration signed at yesterday’s Privy 
Council. When Garter King-at-arms had ceased 
reading, the band played the National Anthem, 
and the Park and Tower gyms pealed out a 
jubilant chorus. The City dignitaries then formed 
themselves into order of procession, and marched 
off to proclaim the Queen at various points with¬ 
in their jurisdiction. 

22. —A royal message laid on the table of 
both Houses of Parliament, stating that it was 
inexpedient, in the judgment of her Majesty, 
that any new measure should be recommended 

(2) 


for their adoption beyond such as might be 
requisite for carrying on the public service from 
the close of the present session to the meeting 
of the new Parliament. The debate which 
ensued was characterised hy an entire una¬ 
nimity as to the merits of the late King, though 
there was a wide difference of opinion regarding 
the policy of Ministers. When the Commons 
rose to-day, 521 members had taken the oath 
of allegiance to the Queen. 

23 . —At the close of-a discussion to-night on 
the order of public business, Lord Lyndhurst 
took occasion to censure Ministers for their care¬ 
lessness and incapacity. “During a session,” 
he said, “ \Vhich wanted only a few days of five 
months’ duration, only two Acts of distinct and 
special legislation had been passed—the Post- 
Office Contracts and the Scottish Sedition Bills 
—while there was at the present date no fewer 
than seventy-five public bills depending in the 
other House. So far as the foreign policy of 
Ministers was concerned, it elicited the pity of 
their friends and excited the scorn and deri¬ 
sion of their enemies. ”—Lord Melbourne endea¬ 
voured to defend his Ministry from what he de¬ 
scribed as “the bitter and vehement” attack of 
the learned ex-Chancellor.—In the Commons, 
Lord John Russell, when speaking of the Re¬ 
form Act, said, “Her Majesty’s Ministers, 
while they consider it a final measure (see July 
3d, 1849), do not intend that it should remain 
a barren Act upon the Statute-book, but that 
it should be followed up in such a manner as 
would ennoble, invigorate, and enlarge the 
institutions of the country.” 

24 . —Explosion at the Blaina Iron Works, 
Monmouthshire, resulting in the death of 
twelve workmen, about a third of the entire 
number employed in the workings. The 
calamity was thought to have been occasioned 
by one of the labourers venturing into an 
unsafe passage with a lighted candle. 

— Mr. Montefiore (afterwards Sir Moses) 
chosen Sheriff of-London ; the first Jew elected 
to that office in England. 

27 .—Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, 
makes a decree on an information by the 
Attorney-General against the University and 
Corporation of Cambridge and others, relative 
to the mismanagement of Hobson’s Work- 
house and the misappropriation of the funds, 
especially of the sum bequeathed by John 
Bowtell for apprenticing poor boys. His lord- 
ship declared that the purposes for which the 
workhouse was used ought not to be continued, 
and that certain salaries which had been paid 
ought to cease. He referred it to the Master 
to take into account and settle a scheme for 
the future management of the charity. 

7- Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, 
and since the death of William IV. Kino- 
of Hanover, enters his kingdom. He was 
favourably received by the people. 

29 -—The Times , looked upon as the organ 
of the Tory party, writes with great bitterness 





JUNE 


yui. y 


1837. 


against Ministers:—“ It will be observed that 
the anticipations of certain Irish Roman 
Catholics respecting the success of their war¬ 
fare against the Protestant Church and State, 
under the auspices of these not untried 
Ministers, into whose hands the all but infant 
and helpless Queen has been compelled by her 
unhappy condition to deliver up herself and 
her indignant people, are to be taken for 
nothing and as worth nothing but the chimeras 
of a band of visionary traitors. When they 
boast that her Majesty will in the end turn 
Papist, or that she will marry a Papist, or in 
any manner follow the footsteps of the Coburg 
family, whom these incendiaries describe as 
Papists, it is clear enough that the circulators 
of such insane slanders have carefully concealed 
from the dupes who listen to them that the 
legal consequence of such lapse into Popery 
would be an immediate forfeiture of the British 
Crown.” 

30 .—Forty bills, public and private, re¬ 
ceived her Majesty’s royal assent to-day, being 
the first passed in her reign. The ceremony 
led to some trifling mistakes in consequence of 
the officials of the House having been so long 
accustomed to say “his Majesty ” and “le Roi 
le veut.” 

— The Budget introduced to the House 
of Commons by the Hon. Spring Rice, Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer. The gross income 
for the ensuing year he estimated at 47,240,000/. 
and the expenditure at 46,631,415/. The 
Customs he considered likely to produce 
21,100,000/., and the Excise 13,800,000/. 
The amount of tea cleared for home consump¬ 
tion in 1836 was 49,844,000 lbs. and the duty 
3,886,000/. 


[• Considerable political excitement through¬ 
out the country during the past ten days con¬ 
sequent upon the preparations for a general 
election to the first Parliament of the young 
Queen. Lord John Russell writes to the 
•electors of Stroud: “I have endeavoured to 
strengthen our institutions by reforming them ; 
to obtain complete and full liberty for every 
religious opinion; to give to Ireland the fran¬ 
chises of Great Britain. But in so doing, I 
have been cautious not so to innovate as to 
admit any principle by which our ancient insti¬ 
tutions might themselves be endangered ; not so 
to define religious liberty as to weaken the Es¬ 
tablished Church; not so to provide for the 
wants and "wishes of the people of Ireland as 
to break or disturb the unity of the Empire. 
In this spirit I must always oppose any propo¬ 
sition for the adoption of an elective House of 
Lords, or of the voluntary principle in religion.” 
To the electors of Tamworth, Sir Robert Peel 
wrote: “In cordial concurrence with that 
powerful Conservative party with which I 
am proud to boast of my connexion, looking 
rather to the defence of great principles than 
to the mere temporary interests of party, 1 
have given a zealous support to a weak and 

( 3 ) 


inefficient Government, whenever it has of¬ 
fered an opposition, however lukewarm and 
hesitating, to projects of further change in the 
system of representation or in the balance of 
the constituted authorities of the State.” Sir 
F. Burdett retired from Westminster at this 
time in favour of Sir George Murray, Tory, 
and mention is made that Maidstone was to be 
contested by Mr. Disraeli, the younger. 

July 3 .—A Bill for carrying on the govern¬ 
ment of the country in case of a demise of the 
Crown when the next heir was not in England, 
read a second time in the House of Lords. It 
provided that the great officers of state, the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Justice of 
the King’s Bench, and an indefinite number of 
persons to be named by the heir-presumptive, 
should carry on the government in the event of 
the Queen’s death. 

4 . —Grand Junction Railway, from Liverpool 
to Birmingham, opened. 

5 . —The King of Hanover issues a pro¬ 
clamation calling in question the Constitution 
of 1833. The Constitution, he affirmed, was 
neither in form or substance binding on him, 
and he was not satisfied that it gave any gua¬ 
rantee for the permanent prosperity of his 
subjects. Writing to the Duke of Buck¬ 
ingham, he says: “I had a most difficult 
card to play, and until I could see my way 
plainly I could not act true to my principles. . . 
Radicalism has been here all the order of the 
day, and all the lower class appointed to office 
were more or less imbued with these laudable 
principles. . . But I have cut the wings of this 
democracy.” 

3.—The Earl of Durham having been con¬ 
sulted by the Reformers of his own county on 
the approaching elections, writes to Mr. Russell 
Bowlby : “I wish to rally as large a portion 
of the British people as possible around the 
existing institutions of the country—the Throne, 
Lords, Commons, and the Established Church. 
I do not wish to make new institutions, but to 
preserve and strengthen the old. ... It has 
been my ruling principle throughout my poli¬ 
tical life to endeavour to bring all classes— 
especially the middle and lower—within the 

? ale of the true, not the spurious, constitution. 

have ever wished to give the latter an interest 
in the preservation of privileges which exclu¬ 
sion would render obnoxious to them; to 
make them feel that whilst the Crown enjoyed 
its prerogatives, and the upper classes their 
honours, they also were invested with privileges 
most valuable to them; and, moreover, that 
all, separately and collectively, rested on the 
common basis of national utility.” A Durham 
Ministry was spoken of at this time, and several 
candidates for the new Parliament avowed 
themselves to be supporters of his lordship’s 
policy. 

— The late King William IV. buried this 
evening with great solemnity in the Royal 

b 2 






JULY 


JULY 


1837. 


C Impel of S t. Cfeorge, Windsor. Chief mourner, 
the Duke of Sussex. The Dowager-Queen 
Adelaide was present in the royal closet. 

13. — Her Majesty and the Duchess of Kent 
leave Kensington, and take up their residence 
in Buckingham Palace. 

14. — The Peers refuse permission to the 
Duke of Sussex to present a Quaker petition 
against capital punishment, on the plea that 
their lordships were described as “Peers of 
the United Kingdom,” instead of “Lords 
Spiritual and Temporal.” 

— The fourth centenary of the invention of 
printing celebrated by a festival at Mayence, 
extending over three days. Thorwaldsen’s 
statue of Guttenberg was unveiled with great 
ceremony on the occasion. A banquet at 
Edinburgh, in honour of the event, was pre¬ 
sided over by the poet Campbell. 

15 . —The forces of the Queen of Spain 
encounter the Carlists near Valencia, and gain 
an important victory. Don Carlos, who had 
ventured incautiously near the city walls, retired 
to the village of Brunol, and latterly to the 
mountains. 

17 . — Parliament prorogued by the Queen 
in person. The Royal Speech for the occasion 
was prepared w’th unusual care, and delivered 
in a style which disarmed criticism. “It will 
be my care,” her Majesty said, “ to strengthen 
our institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, by dis¬ 
creet improvement wherever improvement is 
required, and to do all in my power to com¬ 
pose and allay animosity and discord.” The 
Queen read the Speech deliberately, with a 
small but sweet voice heard over all the House. 
Her demeanour was described at the time as be¬ 
ing characterised by a natural grace and modest 
self-possession. This being the first visit of the 
Queen to Parliament, an unusual amount of 
enthusiasm was shown. Every spot from which 
a view of the pageant could be obtained was 
densely crowded, and deafening cheers greeted 
the youthful sovereign at every step. Pier 
Majesty was dressed in a white satin robe, 
decorated with jewels and gold, the Garter on 
her arm, and a mantle of crimson velvet over 
her shoulders. In the Gazette of the same 
evening appeared a proclamation dissolving 
this Parliament (the third of William IV.). 
Writs for the election of members to serve in 
the new House were despatched the same even¬ 
ing. They were made returnable on the 11 th 
September. 

18 . —A letter designed, it was said, to influ¬ 
ence the Irish elections, sent by Lord John 
Russell to the Earl of Mulgrave, expressing 
“her Majesty’s entire approbation of your past 
conduct, and her desire that you should con¬ 
tinue to be guided by the same principles on 
which you have hitherto acted. The Queen 
willingly recognises in her Irish subjects a spirit 
of loyalty and devotion towards her person and 
government. Her Majesty is desirous to see 

( 4 ) 


them in the full enjoyment of that civil and 
political equality to which, by recent statute, . 
they are fully entitled; and her Majesty' is ■' 
persuaded that when' invidious distinctions are j 
altogether obliterated, her throne will be still ; 
more secure and her people more truly united.” ; 

13.—The Marquis and Marchioness of Lon¬ 
donderry urge their Durham tenantry to vote 1 
for the Conservative candidate (H. T. Liddell) 1 
at the ensuing election. “We assure all those 
who answer to the solemn appeal that we make j 
to them—who step forward with heart and soul j 
in the Conservative cause to rescue the country 1 
from Radical domination—that the sense of > 
the obligation to us personally will be for ever | 
registered in our memories ; and that the grati* | 
tude of ourselves and our family, to those who j 
live around us and upon our property, will be I 
in proportion to this important demand we | 
make upon them to prove their fidelity and 1 
their attachment to our sentiments and confi- j 
dence in our opinions. We send these our re- ] 
commendations to our esteemed friend, the j 
Honourable Henry Liddell, to make every use ] 
of he shall think fit; and we have begged him 3 
especially to report to us those who answer j 
zealously our call, and those who are unmindful 3 
and indifferent to our earnest wishes. (Signed) J 
Vane Londonderry; Frances Ann Vane | 
Londonderry.” 

24 . —An extraordinary and fatal parachute j 
descent was made by Robert Cocking, painter, ] 
from Mr. Green’s balloon, which rose in Vaux- j 
hall Gardens about 8 o’clock. Over Kenning- J 
ton Common Mr. Green said the balloon was J 
stationary for a time, and Cocking, then swing- I] 
ing in his basket below, wished to know their ] 
altitude. “About 1,000 feet,” Mr. Green re- I 
plied. “ Very well; let me know when we | 
arrive at about 1,500 feet, and at every addi- j 
tional 500 feet, until we arrive at 5,000 feet, | 
for that is the altitude at which I wish to ► 
descend.” This was done, and the parachute |i 
severed, when the balloon shot up with the I 
velocity of a rocket. The parachute, unable | 
to resist the pressure of the atmosphere, col- | 
lapsed round the poor inventor, and came ’ 
thundering to the earth. The fall was seen by t 
several people in the neighbourhood of Nor- | 
wood. The unfortunate man died almost in¬ 
stantly from the injuries he received on reach- i 
ing the ground. Mr. Green and a companion 
made a descent at Maidstone about 9 o’clock. 

25 . —First experiment with the electric tele¬ 

graph between Euston Square and Camden j 
Town stations, the North-Western Company i 
having sanctioned the laying down of wires 
between those places immediately upon the I 
taking out of the patent by Messrs. Wheat¬ 
stone and Cook. Besides these two operators, I 
Mr. Fox and Mr. R. Stephenson were present to 
witness the infant triumphs of this wonderful 
invention. - % 

27 .—At an election dinner at Stroud, Lord 

John Russell thus referred to the term “Con- I 
servative,” which the Tories were now using in ; 









jul y 


1837. 


AUGUST 


place of the old name:—“If they are really 
and truly Conservatives as regards the general 
institutions of the country, no name is deserving 
of more adherents, or would meet with more 
general approval; but with them it is a mere 
change of name, a mere alias to persons who 
do not like to be known under their former 
designation, and who under the name of 
Conservatives mean to be conservative only of 
every abuse—of everything that is rotten—of 
everything that is corrupt. If that, then, is 
the name that pleases them,—if they say that 
the distinction of Whig and Tory should no 
longer be kept up—I am ready, in opposition 
to their name of Conservative, to take the 
name of Reformer, and to stand by that oppo¬ 
sition. (Cheers.) And in looking back to 
history, taking their sense of the denomina¬ 
tion of Conservative, I think one may be as 
proud of the name of Reformer as they can be 
of the name of Conservative. What was 
Luther? Luther was a Reformer. Leo the 
Tenth, who opposed the Reformation, was a 
Conservative. What was Galileo ? Galileo, 
who made great discoveries in science, was a 
Reformer. The Inquisition, who put him into 
prison, was Conservative. So, in the same 
way, with respect to every part of history, we 
find that in all times and in all countries there 
have been Reformers and Conservatives. The 
Christians who suffered martyrdom in Rome 
were Reformers. The Emperor who put these 
Christians to death, Nero, was a Conservative.” 
The term here commented on was thought to 
have been first applied to a political party by 
Mr. Croker in an article in the Quarterly Review 
for Jan. 1830. “We despise, ” he wrote, ‘ ‘ and 
abominate the details of partisan warfare, but 
we are now, as we always have been, decidedly 
and conscientiously attached to what is called 
the Tory, and which might with more propriety 
be called the Conservative, party. ” 

29 .—In the elections up to this date, the 
Whig and Tory gains and losses were nearly 
balanced. In the City'of London Mr. Grote 
was elected (by a majority of 6 over Mr. 
Palmer) along with Wood, Crawford, and 
Pattison. Mr. Disraeli was successful at 
Maidstone (along with Mr. Wyndham Lewis) 
by 688 votes against Colonel Thompson’s 529. 
Mr. Lewis was unseated on petition, and Mr. 
Fector, Tory, elected after a contest. Roebuck 
and his colleague Palmer were defeated by 
two Tories at Bath, Sir James Graham at 
Cumberland, and Hume in Middlesex. The 
latter afterwards found a seat at Kilkenny, 
rendered vacant by the election of O’Connell 
for Dublin. The West Riding of Yorkshire 
was carried after a keen contest by two Whig 
candidates, Lord Morpeth and Sir George 
Strickland. 

August 5.— Died at her residence in Pic¬ 
cadilly, Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans, aged 
sixty-six. Her father, Matthew Mellon, held 
a commission in the East India Company s 
service, but died shortly before she was born. 


Her mother married a second time, and after¬ 
wards went on the stage, taking young Harriet 
with her for juvenile characiers. She con¬ 
tinued on the stage, meeting with great favour, 
till her marriage with Mr. Coutts, the banker, 
in 1815. He died in 1822, at the advanced 
age of eighty-seven, leaving her universal 
legatee, with a share in the business of the 
banking-house. The personalty was sworn 
under 600,000/. In 1827 she married William, 
Duke of St. Albans, then in the twenty-seventh 
year of his age, and on her death bequeathed 
to his Grace 10,000/. per annum, Sir Francis 
Burdett’s house in Piccadilly, and an estate at 
Highgate. 

7.— A meeting held at the “ King’s Head, ” 
Poultry, in aid of the Paisley weavers, 14,000 
of. whom had been out of employ for four 
months. 

— At a dinner in the Town Hall, Tam- 
worth, held to celebrate the return of Tory 
candidates, Sir Robert Peel warned his hearers 
that they, had now a duty to perform to the 
Constitution. “ It might be disagreeable, and 
indeed inconvenient, to them to attend to the 
registration of voters which annually took place 
throughout the country. All this might be 
revolting to them; but they might depend upon 
it that it was better they should take that 
trouble than that they should allow the Consti¬ 
tution to become the victim of false friends, or 
that they should be trampled under the hoof of 
a ruthless Democracy. The advice which had 
been given to some persons was, ‘ Agitate, 
agitate, agitate! ’ The advice which he would 
give to them would be this : ‘ Register, 

register, register ! ’ ” 

12 .—General Espartero enters Madrid at 
the head of the Royal troops, but is coldly 
received. 

1-4.—Lord Durham writes to the Sundei'land 
electors :—“ Be assured of this, that in all cir¬ 
cumstances—at all hazards—be the personal 
consequences what they may — I will ever 
respond to your call. Whenever my aid to 
the cause of Reform and liberal principles is 
required, it shall be freely and cordially given.” 

— A boy three years and a half old mur¬ 
dered in the playground at Leeds by an 
idiot youth named Jeffgate. 

16 .—The Gravesend steamboat Medway , 
with about 150 passengers on board, takes fire 
in the Thames off Northfleet. One person was 
drowned and another burnt. 

— Died, aged 68, William Daniell, R.A. 

18 . —An extraordinary session of the Par¬ 
liament of Lower Canada opened by the Earl 
of Gosford, Governor-in-chief. M. Papineau, 
Speaker of the Lower House, led the opposition 
to the Government proposals regarding the 
application of the revenues of the province. 

19 . —The elections being now over, it is 
found that the Liberals replaced by Tories 
amounted to 66, and the Tories replaced by 

( 5 ) 






AUGUST 


1837. 


OCTOBER 


Liberals to only 53. The Liberal majority 
elected to the last Peel Parliament was 356 to 
302 ; the majority in the present Melbourne 
Parliament, 336 to 322. The petitions pre¬ 
sented against returns amounted to 60. In the 
case of 14 the members were declared not duly 
elected, and the seats transferred; 25 were 
declared duly elected, and 21 pettions were not 
proceeded with. 

23. —A lighter laden with gunpowder .ex¬ 
plodes off East Greenwich, causing considerable 
damage to shipping in the river, and injury to 
several people. 

— Irruption of water into the Thames 
Tunnel. One of Mr. Brunei’s assistants writes : 
“ Seeing a quantity of loose sand falling near 
the gallery, I gave the signal to be hauled into 
the shaft. I had scarcely done so when I ob¬ 
served the ground give way, and the water 
descending in a thousand streams, like a cas¬ 
cade.” Within an hour the Tunnel was en¬ 
tirely filled." No lives were lost. 

26. —Railroad from Paris to St. Germains 
(the first in France) opened. 

Septembers. — Collision in the Thames 
between the Apollo steamer, from Yarmouth, 
and the Monarch , a Leith packet. The Apollo 
sank, but those on board, with the exception 
of the stewardess and two children, were saved 
by the Monarch crew. 

— The first session of the twenty-fifth Con¬ 
gress of the United States opened with a 
message from the new President, Martin Van 
Buren. The document dealt mainly with one 
subject, the financial embarrassment of the 
country, for the consideration of which Con¬ 
gress had been especially convened three 
months earlier than usual. 

— Died at his cottage, near Durham, aged 
98, Count Barowloski, the well-known Polish 
dwarf. His height was under thirty-six inches, 
but his body was of the most perfect symmetry, 
and his mind cultivated to an extraordinary 
degree by travel and study. 

— Died at his seat, Gelligron, Glamorgan¬ 
shire, aged 67, Owen Rees, partner in the 
publishing house of Longman & Co. 

9 .—Collision at the Kenyon Junction of the 
Liverpool and Manchester railway, causing the 
death of one woman and an infant, and injury 
to several passengers. 

— News received of the mutiny and mur¬ 
ders on board the British ship Fanny , Captain 
M ‘Kay. A mixed crew of Manilla men and 
Lascars fell upon the Europeans, murdered the 
commander and other officers, and plundered 
the ship, which they afterwards sunk. 

13. —Letter received by the Geographical 
Society from Captain Back, R.N., describing 
the obstacles which prevented his carrying out 
th© mission of discovery on the N. W. shore of 
the Hudson Bay territories, on which he had 
(6) 


started in H.M. ship Terror in June 1836, and 
from which he was now returning. 

14. —Fire at an india-rubber and shell shop 
in the Strand. Three inmates on the second 
floor—Mr. Harris, his child, and servant—lost 
their lives. 

19. —Musical festival at Birmingham, ex¬ 
tending over four days, and remarkable, among 
many similar displays, for Mendelssohn’s play¬ 
ing of one of Bach’s preludes and fugues. The 
great composer’s own oratorio of “St. Paul” 
was performed on the second day of the fes¬ 
tival, and Plandel’s “ Messiah” on the third. 

20 . —Captain Alexander Burnes—“ Bok¬ 
hara Burnes;” as he was known in London 
society, from his travels in Central Asia— 
arrives at Cabul as head of the commercial 
mission sent thither by the Governor-General, 
Lord Auckland. He was received with great 
honour by Akhbar Khan, and conducted to the 
court of his father Dost Mahomed. At a con¬ 
ference on the 24th, the Ameer said : “Instead 
of renewing the conflict with Runjeet Singh, it 
would be a source of real gratification to me if 
the British Government would counsel me how 
to act—none of our other neighbours can avail 
me; and. in return I would pledge myself to 
forward its commercial and political views.” 
Burnes thereupon assured him, that the British 
Government would exert itself to secure peace 
between the Punjaub and Affghanistan; and 
added, that although he could not hold out any 
promise of interference for the restoration of 
Peshawur, which had been won and preserved 
by the sword, he believed that the Maharajah 
intended to make some change in its manage¬ 
ment, but that it sprang from himself and not 
from the Briiish Government. 

— The Duke of Terceira and his friends 
seek refuge in England after their unsuccessful 
attempt to restore the Charter of Don Pedro at 
Lisbon. 

29 . —Foundation stone laid of the new 
University Library, Cambridge. 

9?*—The first anniversary meeting of the 
British Medical Association held in the London 
Coffee House, presided over by Dr. Webster. 

A petition was adopted for the institution of a 
National Faculty of Medicine. 


October 3. —The old royal stud, bequeathed 
to the I itz-Clarence family by the late Kino-, 
sold at the Hampton Court paddocks. Total 
realized, 15,692 guineas. 

4 -—The Queen leaves Windsor for Brighton, 
where she met with a reception of surpassing 
splendour, and was presented with an address. 

5 .—Died at Aremberg, aged 54, Hortense 
Eugenie de Beauharnais, ex-Queen of Holland, 
mother of Prince Louis Napoleon. 

O.—Died, in his 72d year, Samuel Wesley, 
musician, son of Charles Wesley and nephew 
01 the founder of Methodism. 











OCTOBER 


0C7 OBFJR 


1837. 


13.— The French in Algeria. To-day Ge¬ 
neral Dameremont attacks Constantina, the 
stronghold of Achmet Bey and the capital of 
ancient Numidia, which is carried by assault 
after a desperate resistance. 

15. —Major Rawlinson encounters the Rus¬ 
sian agent Vickovich journeying with presents 
to the camp of Mahomed Shah, at Herat. 
“I tracked them,” he writes, “ for some dis¬ 
tance along the high road, and then found that 
they had turned off to a gorge in the hills. 
Then at length I came upon the group, seated 
at breakfast by the side of a clear sparkling 
rivulet. The officer, for such he evidently was, 
was a young man of slight make, very fair com¬ 
plexion, with bright eyes, and a look of great 
animation. He rose and bowed to me as I 
rode up, but said nothing. I addressed him in 
French—the general language of communication 
between Europeans in the East, but he shook 
his head. I then spoke English, and he 
answered in Russian. When I tried Persian, 
he seemed not to understand a word ; at length 
he expressed himself hesitatingly in Turcoman, 
or Uzbeg Turkish. I knew just sufficient of 
this language to carry on a simple conversation, 
but not enough to be inquisitive. This was 
evidently what my friend wanted, for when he 
found I was not strong enough in Jaghatai to 
proceed very rapidly, he rattled on with his 
rough Turkish as glibly as possible. All I 
could find out was that he was a bond fide 
Russian officer carrying resents from the 
Emperor to Mahomed Shah. More he would 
not admit; so, after smoking another pipe 
with him, I remounted, and reached the loyal 
camp beyond Nishapoor before dark. I had 
an immediate audience of the Shah, and in 
the course of common conversation, mention¬ 
ing to his Majesty 'my adventure of the morn¬ 
ing, he replied, ‘ Bringing presents to me! 
Why, I have nothing to do with him; he is 
sent direct from the Emperor to Dost Mahomed 
of Cabul, and 1 am merely asked to help him 
on his journey.’” Major Rawlinson at once 
returned to Teheran to acquaint Mr. M*Neill 
with the communication which was going on 
between St. Petersburg and Cabul. 

17.— Sir F. B. Head writes from Toronto 
to Sir J. Colbome, Lower Canada :—“In re¬ 
ference to that part of your letter of the 10th 
instant (this moment received) in which you 
state that you have made arrangements for 
assembling troops at certain points to aid the 
civil authorities, and to encourage the loyal, 
which will compel you to withdraw from 
Upper Canada as many companies of the 
24th as I can spare you, to show a good front 
at this crisis, I have pleasure in being able to 
inform you, that excepting the small detach¬ 
ment at Bytown, I consider that this province 
can dispense with as many of the troops as you 
may deem it desirable to require.” About a 
month later Sir Francis was in danger of being' 
made a prisoner in his own capital. 

— Addressing a meeting of local Reformerr, 


Lord Durham referred to the iate defeat which 
his party had sustained in his own county. 
“Having been abroad for a considerable time,” 
he said, “ I am not prepared to trace all the 
small and minor causes which have led to that 
temporary eclipse of your former Liberal as¬ 
cendency ; suffice it to say that it has happened, 
and that if I live it shall never happen again.” 
Lord Durham expressed himself as favourable 
to the ballot, if no other means could be devised 
of protecting the voter. 

17. — Died at Weimar, aged 59, Johann 
Nepomuk Hummel, composer and pianoforte 
player. 

23. —Meeting of the Six Counties at St. 
Charles, Lower Canada, to protest against the 
threats of the English Parliament to annihilate 
the fundamental laws of the colony. 

25. —Heard in the Court of Common Pleas 
the case of libel raised by Mr. Easthope, M. P. 
one of the proprietors of the Morning Chronicle, 
against C. M. Westmacott, of the Age. The 
libel was contained in a placard issued for 
electioneering purposes, and insinuating that 
the plaintiff had failed to repay money bor¬ 
rowed from a friend. A verdict for 40/. damage 
was given against the defendant. 

26. —Meeting at Manchester to promote a 
system of national education. 

27. —Don Carlos arrives at Durango in his 
flight to the north side of the Ebro. 

29. —From Cabul, Burnes writes to Captain 
Jacob:—“ With war come intrigues, and I have 
had the good fortune to find out all the doings 
of the Czar and his emissaries here, where they 
have sent letters and presents. After proving 
this, I plainly asked the Governor-General if 
such things were to be allowed, and I got a 
reply a week ago altering all my instructions, 
giving me power to go on to Herat, and any¬ 
where, indeed, I could do good. The first 
exercise of this authority has been to despatch 
a messenger to Candahar, to tell them to dis¬ 
continue their intercourse with Persia and 
Russia, on pain of displeasure ; and not before 
it was time, for a son of the chief of the city, 
with presents for the Russian ambassador, is 
ready to set out for Teheran.” Next day :— 
“Here a hundred things are passing of the 
highest interest. Dost Mahomed Khan has 
fallen into all our views, and in so doing has 
either thought for himself or followed my 
counsel, but for doing the former I give him 
-every credit, and things now stand so that I 
think we are on the threshold of a negotiation 
with King Runjeet, the basis of which will be 
his withdrawal from Peshawur, and a Baruk- 
zye receiving it as tributary from Lahore, the 
chief of Cabul sending his son to ask pardon. 
What say you to this, after all that has been 
urged by Dost Mahomed Khan’s putting forth 
extravagant pretensions ? Runjeet will accede 
to the plan, I am certain. I have on behalf of 
Government agreed to stand as mediator with 
the parties, and Dost Mahomed has cut asunder 

(7) 







OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1837. 


all his connexion with Russia and Persia, and 
refused to receive the ambassador from the 
Shah now at Candahar.” 

31 .—The Irish National Association meet 
in Dublin for the last time, O’Connell carrying 
a motion expressing confidence that the present 
Administration would give full effect to the 
wishes of the people of Ireland. 

Numerous political meetings held during 
this month in favour of the ballot and triennial 
Parliaments 

November 1.—Decree of the King of 
Hanover annulling the Constitution of 1833. 

2 . —The Fitzwilliam Museum buildings, 
Cambridge, commenced. 

3 . —Another irruption of water into the 
Thames Tunnel: one man drowned. 

4 . —The Queen returns from Brighton to 
Buckingham Palace. 

5. —In the Consistory Court Dr. Lushing- 
ton gives a decree in favour of the right of 
the churchwardens of Braintree to levy a 
church rate on the parishioners, and in opposi¬ 
tion to the decision of a majority of the latter 
assembled in vestry. 

9 .—This being the first Lord Mayor’s Day 
since her accession, the Queen proceeded 
through the City in state to dine with his lord- 
ship (Sir John Cowan, Bt.) at Guildhall. The 
Queen leit Buckingham Palace at 2, accom¬ 
panied in the state carriage by the Duchess of 
Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes, and the 
Earl of Albemarle, Master of the Horse. The 
Royal family, ambassadors, Cabinet Ministers, 
and nobility followed in a train of two hundred 
carriages, extending nearly a mile and a half. 
The day was kept as a holiday throughout 
London, and, though the weather was bad, 
nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which 
her Majesty was greeted by the dense crowds 
she passed through. At Temple Bar the Lord 
Mayor delivered the keys of" the City to the 
Queen, which she restored in the most gracious 
manner to his lordship, who then took his 
place immediately in front of the royal carriage. 
On passing St. Paul’s, the senior scholar of 
Christ’s Hospital delivered an address of con¬ 
gratulation, and the National Anthem was 
sung by the -pupils. Guildhall was reached 
about half-past 3 o’clock. A throne and chair 
of state were placed upon a raised platform at 
the east end of the banqueting-hall. The Queen 
wore the order of the Garter, and a magnificent 
diamond circlet on her head. After the ban¬ 
quet, the Lord Mayor proposed “The health 
of her most gracious Majesty,” which her 
Majesty acknowledged, and gave in return 
“ The Lord Mayor, and prosperity to the City 
of London.” The only other toast, “The 
Royal Family,” was given by the Lord Mayor. 
Her Majesty left for Buckingham Palace at 
half-past 8. The City was illuminated in the 
evening. 

(«) 


9 .—Moses Montefiore knighted by the Queen, 
being the first Jew who had received this 
honour. 

13 .—Serious disturbances throughout Ca" 
nada, arising from the opposition offered in the 
Legislature to resolutions carried in the House 
of Commons in March 1836, declining to make 
the Council of Lower Canada elective, con¬ 
tinuing the Charter of the Land Company, and 
authorizing the Provincial Government, inde¬ 
pendent of the Legislature, to appropriate the 
money in the treasury for the administration of 
justice and the support of the civil govern¬ 
ment. Lord Gosford had some months since 
written to the Colonial Secretary: “In con¬ 
sequence of meetings held and about to be 
held in different parts of the Province, I 
cannot conceal from you my impression that a 
system of organization, under the influence and 
guidance of M. Papineau and a few designing 
individuals ready to execute his purposes, is at 
this moment going on. The primary and osten¬ 
sible object of M. Papineau’s plan seems to be, 
to procure a public expression of indignation 
against the Ministerial measures, and eventu¬ 
ally to excite a hostile feeling against the 
Government, and to establish a convention, 
which he expects will overawe the constituted 
authorities, and thus carry all his destructive 
views into execution. Under this conviction, 
I am prepared to adopt prompt measures, 
should they be necessary, to check the evil in 
its infancy. I contemplate therefore issuing a 
proclamation, warning the people against the 
misrepresentations and machinations of the 
designing, and exercising the discretion you 
confided to me, for increasing the militaiy 
force here, by despatching your letter to Sir 
Colin Campbell, with a request for one of the 
regiments now stationed at Halifax. I must 
repeat, that these steps would not be dictated 
by the apprehension of any serious commotion, 
for I have every reason to believe that the mass 
of the Canadians are loyal and contented ; but 
from the persuasion that the presence of a larger 
military force in this province might of itself 
prevent the occurrence of any disturbance, by 
deterring the ill-disposed, securing the waver¬ 
ing, and giving confidence to the timid.” To¬ 
day warrants were issued at Quebec for the 
arrest of five ringleaders, on a charge of 
treason. A party of eighteen of the Montreal 
Volunteer Cavalry were despatched to St. 
John’s to seize two other suspected persons. 
When lieturning with their prisoners they were 
attacked- near Chambly by about 300 men 
armed with rifles, who fired upon them from 
behind a breastwork of felled trees. After a 
short resistance the cavalry fled, leaving their 
prisoners^ in the hands of the assailants. 
Colonel Wetherall thereupon marched against 
St. Charles, where the Papineau party or 
“Liberty boys” had taken refuge, and with 
the assistance of a large body of Canadians 
drove them into the woods. Colonel Gore 
made an attack on St. Denis, but the rebels 
resisted successfully till they heard of Wether- 





NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1837. 


all’s success at St. Charles, when they retreated 
from their stronghold. 

15 .—The new Parliament opened by com¬ 
mission, for preliminary business. The Right 
Hon. James Abercromby re-elected Speaker. 
Next day he reported himself to the House of 
Lords, and claimed the free exercise of all the 
ancient and undoubted rights possessed by the 
Commons. 

20 .—Parliament opened by her Majes-y. 
An important paragraph in the Royal Speech 
related to the Civil List. “ I place unreservedly 
at your disposal those hereditary revenues 
which were transferred to the public by my 
immediate predecessor ; and I have commanded 
that such papers as may' be necessary for the 
full examination of this subject shall be pre¬ 
pared and laid before you. Desirous that the 
expenditure in this, as in every other depart¬ 
ment of the Government, should be kept 
within due limits, I feel confident that you 
will gladly make adequate provision for the 
support of the honour and dignity of the 
Crown.” The speech concluded:—“ In meet¬ 
ing this Parliament, the first that has been 
elected under my authority, I am anxious to 
declare my confidence in your loyalty and 
wisdom. / The early age at which I am called 
to the sovereignty of this kingdom renders it 
a more imperative duty that, under Divine 
Providence, I should place my reliance upon 
your cordial co-operation, and upon the love 
and affection of all my people.” (The Ad¬ 
dress, moved by the Duke of Sussex and se¬ 
conded by Lord Portman, was carried in the 
Lords without a division. In the Commons, 
an amendment moved by Mr. Wakley and 
seconded by Sir W. Molesworth, relating to 
the representation of the people, was defeated 
by a majority of 509 to 20. Speaking on the 
subject of Reform, Lord John Russell said : 
“I think that the entering into this question 
of the construction of the representation so 
soon again, would destroy the stability of our 
institutions. It is quite impossible for me, 
having been one who brought forward the 
measure of Reform—who felt bound by the 
declarations then made—to take any part in 
these large measures of reconstruction, or to 
consent to the repeal of the Reform Act, 
without being guilty of what I think would be 
a breach of faith towards those with whom I 
was then acting. If the people of England 
are not of that mind, they may reject me. 
They can prevent me from taking part either 
in the Legislature or in the Councils of the 
Sovereign ; they can place others there who 
may have wider and more extended, enlarged, 
and enlightened views; but they must not 
expect me to entertain those views.” 

23 .—The Persians, urged on, as was believed 
at the time, by Russia, renew the siege of the 
Affghan city of Herat. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer, after 
a debate of some length, obtains the consent 


of the House to the appointment of a Com¬ 
mittee to settle a new Civil List. 

27 . —Mr. Charles Buller’s motion for amend¬ 
ing the law relating to the trial of election peti¬ 
tions read a second time, by a majority of 214 
to 160. He proposed to reduce the number of 
members composing the committee from eleven 
to five, and that an assessor named by the 
Speaker, but subject to the approval of the 
House, should preside as chairman and explain 
the law. 

December 2 .—In consequence of disputes 
with the local governor concerning the opium 
trade, Capt. Elliot, the British Superintendent 
at Canton, removes his flag to Macao. 

5 . —The Lord Chancellor’s bill abolishing 
imprisonment for debt read a second time in the 
House of Lords. 

— The Canadian disturbances extend to the 
Upper Provinces, and Sir Francis Head issues 
warrants for the arrest of several prominent 
citizens of Toronto. An unsuccessful attempt 
was made to-day to seize the city. 

— The usual session of the United States 
Congress opened at Washington. 

6. —The House of Commons, when dis¬ 
cussing certain points of order connected with 
Irish election petitions, forgets its decorum so 
far as to compel the Speaker, on the following 
evening, to intimate his intention of resigning 
should such a scene be repeated. The subject 
was introduced by Mr. Smith O’Brien, who 
presented a petition from himself, complaining 
of the public subscription set on foot to defray 
the cost of petitions against the Irish members ; 
and especially of the conduct of Sir Francis 
Burdett, who, by contributing to the subscrip¬ 
tion, had made himself a party in a cause 
which he might be called upon to judge. 

7. —In the course of another irregular and 
noisy debate on the legality of the Irish election 
petition fund, Mr. B. Disraeli (following Mr. 
O’Connell) made his first speech in Parliament. 
He contended that the subscribers to the Spot- 
tiswoode fund were men anxious to work out 
the Reform Act, by putting an end to the sys¬ 
tem of boroughmongering, which in a different 
shape prevailed more extensively than ever. 
The mortified feelings of these individuals 
should be taken into consideration, before the 
inquiry was instituted. (Here Mr. Disraeli 
experienced much interruption, and repeatedly 
implored the House to grant him a hearing.) 
He had something to say in vindication of her 
Majesty’s Government, and wished the House 
would give him five minutes : “I stand here 
to-night, Sir, not formally, but in some degree 
virtually, the representative of a considerable 
number of Members of Parliament. (Bursts 
of laughter.) Now, why smile? (Continued 
laughter.) Why envy me ? (Here the laughter 
became long and general.) Why should not I 
have a tale to unfold to-night? (Roars of 
laughter.) Do you forget that band of 158 





DECEMBER 


1837. 


DECEMBER 


members—those ingenuous and inexperienced 
youths, to whose unsophisticated minds the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in those tones of 

winning pathos- (Excessive laughter, and 

loud cries of ‘ Question ! ’) Now, a consider¬ 
able misconception exists in the minds of many 
members on this side of the House as to the 
conduct of her Majesty’s Government with re¬ 
spect to these elections, and I wish to remove 
it. I will not twit the noble lord opposite with 
opinions which are not ascribable to him, or to 
his more immediate supporters, but which were 
expressed by the more popular section of his 
party some few months back. About that time, 
Sir, when the bell of our cathedral announced 
the death of the monarch—(laughter)—we all 
read then, Sir—(groans, and cries of ‘Oh ! ’)— 
we all then read-. (Laughter, and great inter¬ 

ruption. ) I know nothing which to me is more 
delightful than to show courtesy to a new mem¬ 
ber, particularly if he happens to appeal to me 
from the party opposed to myself (hear, hear). 
At that time, we read that it was the death- 
knell of Toryism ; that the doom of that party 
was sealed; that their funeral obsequies were 
about to be consummated. We were told that, 
with the dissolution of that much-vilified Par¬ 
liament which the right honourable baronet had 
called together, the hopes and prospects of the 
Tories would be thrown for ever to the winds ; 
and that affairs were again to be brought exactly 
to what they were at the period when the hurried 
Mr. Hudson rushed into the chambers of the 
Vatican.” (Great laughter.) If hon. gentlemen 
thought this fair, he would submit. He would 
not do so to others, that was all (laughter). 
Nothing was so easy as to laugh. He wished 
before he sat down to show the House clearly 
their position. When they remembered that, 
in spite of the honourable and learned member 
for Dublin (O’Connell) and his well-disciplined 
band of patriots, there was a little shyness ex¬ 
hibited by former supporters of her Majesty’s 
Government: when they recollected the “ new 
loves ” and the “old loves” in which so much of 
passion and recrimination was mixed up, be¬ 
tween the noble Tityrus of the Treasury Bench 
and the learned Daphne of Liskeard (Charles 
Buller)—(loud laughter)—notwithstanding the 
amantium ires had resulted, as he had always 
expected, in the amoris redintegratio (renewed 
laughter)—notwithstanding that political duels 
had been fought, in which more than one shot 
was interchanged, but in which recourse was 
had to the secure arbitrament of blank car¬ 
tridges (laughter) — notwithstanding emanci¬ 
pated Ireland and enslaved England, the noble 
lord might wave in one hand the keys of St. 
Peter and in the other- (The shouts that fol¬ 

lowed drowned the conclusion of the sentence). 
Let them see the philosophical prejudice of men. 
He would certainly gladly hear a cheer, even 
though it came from the lips of a political op¬ 
ponent. He was not at all surprised at the 
reception which he had experienced. He had 
begun several times many things, and he had 
often succeeded at last. He would sit down 
(10) 


now, but the time would come when they would 
hear him. Mr. Disraeli hereupon sat down 
amid marks of great impatience, and was fol¬ 
lowed by Lord Stanley. 

7 . —The Birmingham Political Union issue 
a manifesto calling upon Reformers throughout 
the kingdom to combine and agitate for uni¬ 
versal suffrage, vote by ballot, and triennial 
parliaments. Meetings in favour of these 
changes were afterwards held in most of the 
large cities of the kingdom. 

8 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer ob¬ 
tains the appointment of a select committee to 
inquire ‘ ‘ how far pensions granted in virtue of 
1st William IV. c. 24, and charged on the 
Civil List, and in virtue of 2d & 3d William IV. 
c. 24, and charged on the Consolidated Fund, 
ought to be continued; having due regard 
to the just claims of the parties, and to 
economy in the public expenditure.” The 
motion was opposed by Sir Robert Peel and 
his party, but carried on a division by 295 to 
233 votes. 

11 .— Message from her Majesty, recom¬ 
mending to the consideration of Parliament 
an increase of the grant formerly made to the 
Duchess of Kent. 30,000/. voted. In the 
Lords, the proposal gave rise to sharp discus¬ 
sion between the Premier and Lord Brougham. 
The latter said, “Her Royal Highness the 
Duchess of Kent was Queen Mother.”—Lord 
Melbourne: “No, not Queen Mother, but 
Mother of the Queen.”—Lord Brougham here¬ 
upon confessed that he was but rude in speech, 
but ill versed in terms of courtly etiquette. 
His noble friend had so much more re¬ 
cently been accustomed to the language of 
courts than he had—was so much more of the 
courtier—his tongue was so well hung, and 
framed and attuned to courtly airs—he was so 
much better acquainted with the motions of 
those who glozed and fawned and bent the knee 
in courts—that he could not pretend for a 
moment to compete with the noble viscount in 
such matters, or to pretend to anything like the 
same accurate knowledge of courtly phrase¬ 
ology. He, however, knew the difference 
between a Queen-mother and the mother of a 
Queen, perhaps as well as the noble viscount. — 
Lord Melbourne replied that he did not under¬ 
stand anything about hanging a tongue with - 
reference to this matter ; but this he would say, 
and he begged his noble and learned friend to 
understand, that when he spoke of gloze and 
flattery and bending the knee, he knew no man 
in this country, be he who he might, who could 
more gloze and flatter and bend the knee than 
his noble and learned friend; and he felt totally 
unable to compete with him, when he had an 
opportunity, or when he found any occasion to 
exercise it.—Lord Brougham retorted that he 
had said nothing about hanging a tongue. He 
did not say—but he might have said—that the 
noble viscount’s tongue was better attuned to 
court airs, ay, and to new court airs—airs 
with variations—than his was. The noble 





DECEMBER 


1837. 


DECEMBER 


viscount had been pleased to make certain 
charges against him, when his noble friend 
must know, when he reflected on the matter— 
or whether he reflected on it or not, he must 
know—that such observations were altogether 
inapplicable to him. He owned that he was 
much surprised. Indeed, much as he was of 
late accustomed to be astonished, he was as¬ 
tounded at the language of his noble friend. 
“ I repeat what I have already said—first, that 
the imputation or insinuation that I ever, in the 
discharge of my duty, stooped to gloze, or to 
bow before, or to flatter, any human being, 
much more any inmate of a court, is utterly, 
absolutely, and, I will say, notoriously, without 
foundation. The next part of the insinuation 
is, if possible, equally groundless—that, if I 
had an opportunity of having recourse to these 
arts, peradventure I should excel in them. I 
want no such opportunity. If I did, I have 
the opportunity. I disdain it. No access 
which I have had has ever, to the injury of 
others, to the betrayal of duty, to my own 
shame, been so abused, not even for one in¬ 
stant ; and opportunity to abuse it I have, if I 
were base enough so to avail myself of it.” 

12 . —Seven professors of Gottingen, in¬ 
cluding Ewald, the brothers Grimm, and Ger- 
vinus, having protested against the recent 
decree of the King of Hanover, are deprived of 
their offices and means of livelihood. 

13 . —Sir John Colbome marches from Mon¬ 
treal for St. Eustace in the district of the 
Grand Brule, which he reached next day. 
Here he found the insurgents mustered 1,200 
strong. The greater part fled on the appear¬ 
ance of the Queen’s troops, but others occupied 
the church and neighbouring houses, and fired 
upon their assailants. They were soon com¬ 
pelled to cease resistance. All who surrendered 
themselves prisoners were spared ; those who 
attempted to escape were shot. 

14 . —Intimation made that St. Paul’s Cathe¬ 
dral is in future to be open to the public free of 
charge. 

15 . —The Royal Civil List Bill settled in 
committee. Mr. Hume’s proposal to reduce 
the sum total of 385,000/. by 50,000/. was re¬ 
jected by 199 to 19, and another by Mr. Hawes 
to strike off 10,000/. by 173 to 41. 

— Reduction of postage rates discussed in 
both Houses of Parliament. 

18 . —Debate in the House of Commons on 
the exclusion of Mr. D. W. Harvey from the 
Pension List Committee, the plea set up by the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer being that the 
Member for Southwark had published the pro¬ 
ceedings of the Poor-Law Committee from day 
to day before they were submitted to the House, 
and would not give any pledge that he would 
refrain from doing so in the present instance. 

19 . —The Russian agent Vickovich enters 
Cabul with credentials from Count Simonich at 
Teheran, and a letter (though its authenticity 


was disputed) purporting to be from the Em¬ 
peror himself. He was at first coldly received 
by Dost Mahomed, but as the prospect of aid 
from the British Government gradually grew 
fainter the Russian rose in favour, and was 
latterly paraded in public through the streets 
of Cabul. 

20 . —-By a majority of 135 to 60 votes the 
American House of Representatives decree 
“ that all petitions and resolutions praying for 
the abolition of slavery in the district of Co¬ 
lumbia, and all memorials or resolutions in 
relation to slavery in the different States, 
should be laid upon the table, without reading, 
without reference, without printing, and with¬ 
out discussion.” 

21. —In the course of a debate on the Civil 
List, Lord Brougham surprised the House by 
an impassioned appeal in favour of economy. 
“I trust,” he said, “I shall never live to see 
that House less zealous hereafter than hereto¬ 
fore ; but, for the present, a cloud has come 
over their vision—for a moment a cloud has 
passed over them, which has blinded their 
senses, which has charmed their accustomed 
activity, which has put to sleep their watchful¬ 
ness, their wakeful care, over the purse of the 
Commons, entrusted to them, the people’s 
faithful representatives. And when we are 
charged with too much attention to the purse 
of the people, it is said : ‘ Why should you 
take so much care ? why should you, the Lords, 
be more watchful than the people themselves, 
speaking through their representatives in the 
Commons House ? ’ To that appeal I have no 
answer to give, save this : I believe that before 
long the people may awake, and that they will 
ring a peal in the ears of the present guardians 
of the public purse which will be remembered, 
not to the last hour of the official existence of 
the Government, but to a much later period— 
to the last hour of the public life of the youngest 
public functionary in the country. ” 

22. —Involvement of the British Govern¬ 
ment with the Candahar chiefs. Writing to 
a friend, Burnes recorded that they had gone 
over to Persia. “I have detached them and 
offered them British protection and cash if they 
would recede, and Persia attacked them. I 
have no authority to do so ; but am I to stand 
by and see us ruined at Candahar when the 
Government tell me an attack on Herat would 
be most unpalatable? Herat has been besieged 
fifty days, and if the Persians move on Canda¬ 
har, I am off there with the Ameer and his 
forces, and mean to pay the piper myself.” 
The Governor-General was at this time on his 
way to Simla, and caused Secretary Mac- 
naghten to write to Burnes: “ It is with great 
pain that his lorJ ship must next proceed to 
advert to the subject of the promises which you 
have held out to the chiefs of Candahar. Those 
promises were entirely unauthorized by any part 
of your instructions. They are most unneces¬ 
sarily made in unqualified terms, and they 
would, if supported, commit the Government 





DECEMBER 


I837-38- 


JANUARY 


upon the gravest questions of general policy. 
His lordship is compelled, therefore, decidedly 
to disapprove of them. He is only withheld from 
a direct disavowal of these engagements to the 
chiefs of Candahar, because such disavowal 
would carry with it the declaration of a dif¬ 
ference between you and your Government, and 
might weaken your personal influence, and 
because events might in this instance have 
occurred which would render such a course 
unnecessary.” 

22.—Debate in the Commons on the affairs 
of Lower Canada, the Assembly having re¬ 
fused to entertain the supplies, or proceed 
otherwise to the despatch of business. The 
complaints were : Arbitrary conduct on the 
‘part of Governors ; insufficiency of the Legis¬ 
lative Council; illegal appropriation of public 
money; violent prorogation of the Provincial 
Parliament; Government connivance at the 
insolvency of the Receiver-General; and, to 
the British portion of the community, the 
additional grievance of being subject to French 
law and procedure. 

— Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the action for libel raised by T. S. Dun- 
combe, M. P., against Mr. Daniel, barrister. 
In the course of the recent contest in Finsbury 
the defendant, in a communication to the Tory 
newspapers, charged Mr. Duncombe with hav¬ 
ing fraudulently obtained an injunction from the 
Vice-Chancellor by false affidavits to prevent a 
creditor from proceeding against him; and with 
defrauding another person by a cheque which 
he knew would be dishonoured, having himself 
withdrawn the funds which he stated would be 
at the bankers to meet it. The defendant 
pleaded the general issue, also a justification 
that the libel was true. The trial lasted over 
two days, and resulted in a verdict for the 
plaintiff, with damages of 100/. Sum divided 
among Finsbury charities. 

£ 3 .—Parliament prorogued by the Queen to 
the 16th January. 

26 .—Riot at Sheepshead Workhouse, Lei¬ 
cestershire. The mob smashed the windows 
and destroyed the furniture, but dispersed on 
the military being brought from Nottingham. 

— Information received at the Colonial 
Office of the outbreak in Canada. Sir John 
Colbome, in forwarding the reports of Colonel 
Wetherall and Colonel Gore, writes The 
troops which have been called to act in the dis¬ 
turbed districts, and to put down this sudden and 
extensively combined revolt, have had to con¬ 
tend with great difficulties; their communica¬ 
tions with head-quarters having been completely 
interrupted by the armed peasantry assembled 
on the line of march. Many of the deluded 
inhabitants are returning to their homes; and I 
trust that the events which have taken place 
may be the means of quickly restoring tran¬ 
quillity to the country.” 

20 .—Fire at Davis’ wharf, on the Thames. 
Damage estimated at 150,000/. 

(12) 


29 . —Colonel M ‘Nab, in the course of ope¬ 
rations against the rebels on Navy Island, 
Niagara River, seizes the steamer Caroline , 
engaged in carrying supplies, sets her on fire, 
and permits her to drift over the Falls. 

30 , —From Cabul Burnes writes :—“ The 
present position of the British Government at 
this capital appears to me a most gratifying 
proof of the estimation in which it is held by 
the Affghan nation. Russia has come forward 
with offers which are certainly substantial. 
Persia has been lavish in her promises, and 
Bokhara and other states have not been back¬ 
ward. Yet in all that has passed or is daily 
transpiring, the chief of Cabul declares that he 
prefers the sympathy and friendly offices of the 
British to all these offers, however alluring they 
may seem, from Persia or from the Emperor; 
which certainly places his good sense in a light 
more than prominent, and, in my humble judg¬ 
ment, proves that by an earlier attention to 
these countries we might have escaped the 
whole of these intrigues and held long since a 
stable influence in Cabul.” 


1838. 

January 3 .—Commenced before the High 
Court of Justiciary the trial of the five Glasgow 
cotton-spinners charged—(1) With framing an 
association with other parties, cotton-spinners 
of Glasgow, for the purpose of intimidating and 
molesting spinners who did not conform to the 
rules of the Association, but worked for lower 
wages than the Association fixed. (2) With 
mobbing and molesting spinners at work at 
the Oakbanlc factory, on the 8th and 9th of 
May 1837. (3) With the like offences at the 

Mile End cotton-factory. (4) With conspiring 
to set fire, on the 23d of May, to the factory 
of Messrs. Hussey and Son, Dale Street, 
Bridgeton, and offering 20/. to any person 
who would attempt that crime. (5) With 
appointing a secret committee, by ballot, on 
the 14th June, for the purpose of setting fire 
to cotton-mills, sending threatening letters 
to proprietors of cotton-mills, invading the 
dwellings of, committing assaults upon, and 
shooting at or murdering cotton-spinners. (6) 
With especially offering a reward of 10/. for 
an assault on workmen at the Adelphi cotton- 
mills. (7) With sending a threatening letter, 
dated 20th June, to Alexander Arthur. (8) 
With sending another letter of like import, on 
the 3d of July. (9) With sending a similar 
letter to John Bryson. (10) With breaking 
open the dwelling of Thomas Donaghey, and 
forcing him to promise not to work at the 
mills. (11) With setting fire to the house of 
Janies Wood and Francis Wood, cotton- 
spinners of Bridgeton. (12) With hiring the 
prisoner M‘Lean to murder John Smith, an 
operative cotton-spinner, for a reward of 20 1 . 
The trial was protracted till the nth, when the 
jury, after deliberating five hours, returned a 





JANUARY 


1835. 


JANUARY 


verdict by a majority, that the prisoners were 
guilty of the first, second, third, and tenth counts 
in the indictment. The Court sentenced them 
to seven years’ transportation. 

4. —Great meeting at the “ Crown and An¬ 
chor ” to express sympathy, with the insurgents 
of Lower Canada. Resolutions were proposed 
declaring, “That this meeting, while deeply 
lamenting the disastrous civil war now existing 
in the colony of Lower Canada, is of opinion 
that this deplorable occurrence is to be ascribed 
to the misconduct of the British Ministry in 
refusing timely redress to the repeated com¬ 
plaints of the Canadian people, and in attempt¬ 
ing to sustain that refusal by measures of gross 
injustice and coercion.” Mr. Roebuck spoke— 
first, he said, as a British citizen entitled to 
express his opinion on a great subject; and 
secondly, as an avowed advocate of Canada. 

5 . —The Canadian insurgents attack Toronto, 
but are repulsed by the Governor, Sir F. 
Head. 

7. —Hard frost commenced. 

IO.—The Royal Exchange burnt. The 
flames were first perceived issuing from Lloyd’s 
coffee-room, in the north-west comer, about 
half-past 10 o’clock. Owing to the intense 
frost there was much difficulty in procuring 
water, and the flames were not got under till 
the fire had in a measure exhausted itself, at 
noon the following day. Two hours after its 
outbreak, the whole range of offices belonging 
to the Exchange Insurance Company, Lloyd’s 
captains’ room, and underwriters’ room, were 
one mass of fire. The flames reached the new 
tower about 1 o’clock, and the bells, eight in 
number, which had been chiming during the 
destruction, fell one after the other, carrying 
along with them the roof, stonework, and 
arch over the central entrance. The Lord 
Mayor and several aldermen were present 
during the greater part of the conflagration. 
The police were assisted by a party of soldiers 
from the Tower and the Bank guard. The 
statue of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder, 
which had escaped the Great Fire of 1666, 
was totally destroyed. So vivid and extensive 
was the conflagration, that it was seen at 
Windsor with the greatest distinctness. It was 
generally believed that the fire originated from 
the overheating of a stove in or below one of 
Lloyd’s rooms. 

13 . —Died, in his eighty-seventh year, John 
Scott, Earl of Eldon, Attorney-General for six 
years, and Lord Chancellor for nearly twenty- 
five. He finally resigned the Great Seal in 
April 1827, but would probably have held 
office for some years longer, had he agreed to 
the policy of yielding to the Roman Catholic 
claims. His personal property was sworn 
under 600,000/. 

14. —Continuance of severe frost. Ther¬ 
mometer (at Chiswick) 4 0 Fahr. 

15. —The jury, in the case of Miss Neville, 
tried in the Irish Court of Queen’s Bench, find 


that she was not capable of managing her 
own affairs. Her delusions were of a religious 
character. 

15 . —Sir Francis Head, having differed from 
the Home Government on one or two points of 
Colonial policy, resigns the office of Lieutenant- 
Governor of Upper Canada. 

16 . —Parliament re-assembles. Lord John 
Russell, by a majority of 188 to 28, carries a 
motion for an Address to the Queen, expressing 
“our deep concern that a disaffected party in 
Canada should have had recourse to open 
violence and rebellion, with a view to throw off 
their allegiance to the Crown; to declare to 
her Majesty our satisfaction that their designs 
have been opposed no less by her Majesty’s 
loyal subjects in North America than by her 
Majesty’s forces ; and to assure her Majesty, 
that while this House is ever ready to afford 
relief to real grievances, we are fully deter¬ 
mined to support the efforts of her Majesty for 
the suppression of revolt and the restoration of 
tranquillity.” Lord John Russell thereafter 
obtained leave to bring in a bill to.make tem¬ 
porary provision for the government of Lower 
Canada. In the debate to which the Address 
gave rise in the Upper House, Lord Brougham 
said :—“If you will have plantations in every 
clime—if you will have subjects by millions in 
opposite sides of the globe—if you will under¬ 
take to manage the affairs of an empire ex¬ 
tending over both hemispheres, over an empire 
on which the sun never sets—whether such a 
determination on your parts be prudent or im¬ 
politic, whether its effects be beneficial or 
detrimental to our highest interests, I will not 
now stop to inquire ; but if you make up your 
minds to this, at all events it imposes on you 
the absolute necessity that you shall be alive, 
and awake, and vigilant—that you shall not 
sleep and slumber—that you shall not, like the 
sluggard, let your hands sleep before you, as if 
you were administering the affairs of a parish, 
or even of a kingdom near at home, to which 
and from which the post goes and arrives every 
day in the week.” (Some laughter was'Caused 
among their lordships by this language, as it 
was understood to apply to Lord Glenelg’s 
reputed somnolency.) 

—■ Earl of Durham appointed Governor- 
General and High Commissioner for the adjust¬ 
ment of the affairs of the provinces of Lower 
and Upper Canada. 

—• Decision in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
that no steamboat shall navigate between 
London Bridge and Limehouse Reach at ’a 
greater speed than five miles an hour. 

20 . —Thermometer in Hyde Park at 6.30 

a.m. 3 0 Fahr. The Thames blocked with ice, 
so that people could pass from shore to shore 
below bridge. , v 

21. —The Italian Opera House, Paris, burnt. 
M. Sever ini, the acting manager, was killed 
while endeavouring to make his escape from 
the fourth sttfry of the building. 


( 13 ) 







JANUARY 


lS 3 8. 


FEBRUARY 


22 .—Mr. Roebuck heard at the bar of the 
House of Commons against the Canadian Bill. 
To establish its injustice he entered at length 
into a detailed history of events in Canada 
from 1763 to the present time, dividing that 
period into four epochs, 1763 to 1810, 1810 to 
1828, 1828 to 1834, and 1834 to the present 
period. Sir George Grey replied to Mr. Roe¬ 
buck, and the debate was continued by other 
Members, the House at its close going into 
committee on the bill by 262 against 16, who 
supported Mr. Hume’s amendment in opposi¬ 
tion. 

24 .—Nine persons drowned while skating 
on the reservoir at Hollinwood, Oldham. 

— Died in Kensington Union Workhouse, 
Charles Baron Kierrulf, a Swedish nobleman 
and brigadier-general in the army. He was dis¬ 
covered in a state of destitution in November 
last. 

26 .—Lord John Russell announces to the 
House in Committee on the Canada Bill that 
Ministers had resolved to adopt the amendment 
of Sir Robert Peel by striking out of the pre¬ 
amble of the Bill the words recognising the 
assembling of Lord Durham’s Council of 
Advice, and the clause empowering the Queen 
in Council to repeal the Act at pleasure. 
These concessions were received with cheers by 
the Opposition. The bill was read a third 
time on the 29th. 

29 .—Lord Brougham, in the course of pre¬ 
senting an Anti-Slavery petition from Leeds, 
took occasion to speak at length, and with 
great animation, on that traffic, which he said 
flourished under the very expedient adopted to 
crush it, and increased in consequence of the 
very measures resorted to for its extinction. 

February 2 .—In the debate on the second 
reading of the Canada Bill in the Upper House, 
Lord Brougham strongly urged the necessity of 
sending out Lord Durham with powers far 
more ample than Ministers proposed to give 
him. He cited from the history .of his “re¬ 
vered relative” (Dr. Robertson) the account of 
Gasca’s mission to quell Pizarro’s revolt in 
South America, a service Gasca performed by 
the vigorous exercise of the unlimited powers 
wisely given him by Charles V.—In reply to 
taunts thrown out against the Ministry, Lord 
Melbourne said he had for some time been ex¬ 
pecting an ebullition of acrimony and acerbity 
from Lord Brougham. He knew it must come ; 
and the longer it was repressed and kept back, 
the more violent it was sure to become. Ever 
since 1833 that' bitterness and acerbity had 
been gaining strength from its forcible suppres¬ 
sion, and Lord Melbourne was by no means 
surprised that it had broken out at last. It 
was nothing more than what was naturally 
to be expected; but, unfortunately, people 
were' generally so blind to all that concerned 
themselves, that they were often at a loss to 
perceive that which was quite plain and mani- 
(14) 


fest to the rest of mankind. However, he 
thanked the noble lord for the active support 
which he had given him in 1835 ; he thanked 
him equally for his absence in 1836 ; he thanked 
him for the less active support which he afforded 
him in 1837; and he could assure him that he 
now felt' no irritation at the very’'’altered tone 
and at the course of observation in which the 
noble and learned lord had indulged, and which 
no one could doubt that the noble and learned 
lord’s zeal for the public welfare, his great 
patriotism, and his anxiety for the well-being of 
the nation, compelled him to adopt during the 
present session. 

5 .—Mr. Roebuck heard at the bar of the 
House of Lords against the Canada Bill. He 
concluded: “At this moment every one of 
you must feel that war with the United States 
has been risked by this insane quarrel with our 
colonies. No greater calamity could happen 
to mankind than such a war; and yet have we 
heedlessly—may I not say criminally?—in¬ 
curred the danger of it : and for what? To 
maintain a wretched band of hungry officials 
in the possession of ill-used as well as ill-gotten 
power—to shelter a few peculating servants 
from the just indignation of their robbed and 
insulted masters. This, my Lords, is the real 
end of all our great expense, of all our loss of 
money, time, and blood—the magnificent ob¬ 
ject for which we have stayed all improvement 
in Canada—for which we now seek to outrage 
the feelings of the whole continent of America 
—for which we have already risked the chance 
of the most disastrous calamity which ignorance 
and wickedness combined could inflict on man¬ 
kind ! Is not this, my Lords, a magnificent 
requital for such a risk ? And are we not, by 
our proceedings, exhibiting to the world a 
scene humiliating to the national character for 
sense, for honour, and generosity? To you, 
my Lords, as the supposed guardians of our 
ancient honour, I appeal to save us from this 
degradation and disgrace.” 

. — The Irish Poor Law Bill read a second 
time in the House of Commons. 

8.—The Canada Bill passed the House of 
Lords; Lords Ellenborough, Fitzwilliam, and 
Brougham dissenting. 

— Navigation resumed on the Thames, the 
thaw having commenced on the 6th. 

13 .—A meeting of women held at Elland, 
in Yorkshire, to protest against the New Poor 
Law Amendment Act. The measure was de¬ 
nounced with great fervour. 

— The question of trades’ unions brought 
under the notice of the House by Mr. Wakley 
and Mr. O’Connell. Government promised 
inquiry. 

* 5 . Mr. Grote’s annual motion regarding 
the ballot defeated on a division, by 31c to 
198 votes. - 3 0 3 

—The House of Lords reject two sets 
of resolutions submitted by Lord Brougham, 







FEBRUARY 


1838. 


MARCH 


having reference to the suppression of the slave 
trade and the early emancipation of negro 
apprentices. Speaking of the latter, he said : 
“ The slave has shown by four years’ blameless 
behaviour and devotion, unsurpassed by any 
English peasant, to the pursuits of peaceful in¬ 
dustry, that he is as .fit for his freedom as any 
lord whom I now address. I demand his rights. 
I demand his liberty without stint, in the 
name of justice and of law—in the name of 
reason—in the name of God, who has given 
you no right to work injustice. I demand 
that your brother be no longer trampled upon 
as your slave. I make my appeal to the Com¬ 
mons, who represent the free people of Eng¬ 
land j and I require at their hands the per¬ 
formance of that condition for which they paid 
so enormous a price—that condition which all 
their constituents are in breathless anxiety to 
see fulfilled ! I appeal to this House—the 
hereditary judges of the first tribunal in the 
world—to you I appeal for justice. Patrons 
of all the arts that humanize mankind, under 
your protection I place Humanity herself! To 
the merciful Sovereign of a free people I call 
aloud for mercy ; to the hundreds of thousands 
in whose behalf half a million of her Christian 
sisters have cried aloud, that their cry may not 
have risen in vain. But first I turn my eye to 
the Throne of all justice, and devoutly humbling 
myself before Him who is of purer eyes than 
to behold any longer such vast iniquities, I 
implore that the curse over our heads of unjust 
oppression be averted from us—that your 
hearts may be turned to mercy—and that over 
all the earth His will may at length be done !” 

20 . —Mr. Fielden,’ M. P. for Oldham, moves 
the repeal of the Poor Law Amendment Act. 
Sir Robert Peel stated that, considering the ex¬ 
periment had lasted only four years, it was as 
satisfactory as any man could expect. Motion 
rejected. 

21 . —Died at Paris, aged 80, Silvestre de 
Sacy, Oriental scholar. 

— Bumes receives intimation from the 
Governor-General, that the proposals of Dost 
Mahomed regarding Peshawur could not be 
acceded to, and that it .must be left to the 
Sikhs. 

23 .—Colonel Bunbury, Provisional Governor 
of St. Lucia, issues a proclamation substituting 
English for the French language used in the 
courts of justice, in retaliation, as he explained, 
for the advocates refusing to appear before his 
judges. 

25 . —At Notting-hill, a pedestrian named 
Earle performed the task of walking twenty 
miles backward, and the same number forward, 
in eight hours. 

26 . —The House of Commons discuss an 
alleged case of breach of privilege committed 
by O’Connell, in so far as he had stated at a 
meeting in the “Crown and Anchor that 
foul perjury was committed by the Tory elec¬ 


tion committees. Lord Maidstone’s motion, 
that the charge was a false and scandalous 
imputation on the honour and conduct of 
members, was carried against the Ministerial 
amendment of “the previous question” by a 
majority of 263 to 254. Next day the Speaker 
formally reprimanded Mr. O’Connell, when 
the latter reiterated his statement, and declared 
that he had nothing to retract. 

26 .—In connexion with a motion made oy 
Lord Lyndhurst for papers relating to certain 
cases of cruelty alleged to have occurred in 
Milbank Penitentiary, Lord Melbourne took 
occasion to contrast the course which would 
have been followed in such a matter by the 
Duke of Wellington. He would have given 
notice. “ The noble duke would rather have 
cut off his right hand than have taken such a 
course as that taken by the noble and learned 
lord. The noble duke is a man of honour and 
a gentleman ; the noble duke is actuated and 
governed by the feelings of a gentleman and a 
man of honour, and I feel confident that he 
would not have acted in this manner.”—Lord 
Lyndhurst wished for an explanation of Lord 
Melbourne’s remarks: “The noble viscount 
says that he wishes the noble duke had been 
here, because the noble duke is a man of 
honour and a gentleman. That observation, 
which is true of the noble duke, was employed 
by the noble viscount in such a manner as to 
bear a different construction as applied to 
others. I wish to know in what sense the 
noble viscount applies those terms?”—Lord 
Melbourne : “I beg to state, that when I 
referred to the noble duke, I meant to say 
that, from the studied and scrupulous care 
which the noble duke takes in advertising 
those opposite to him of any observations 
which he intends to make in regard to them 
—I meant to say, knowing the scrupulous care 
of the noble duke in this particular, that he 
would not have acted as the noble and learned 
lord has done on this occasion. What fol¬ 
lowed—what the words were I used, and what 
the manner was I used, I do not recollect. 
But I distinctly state, that if I said anything 
in reference to the noble and learned lord— 
anything to the effect that he had acted unlike 
a man of honour, or unbecoming a gentleman, 
I most fully retract those words. ”—Lord Lynd¬ 
hurst : “I am perfectly satisfied.” 

Various outrages committed oft females 
during the past week by s character known 
as “ Spring-heeled Jack,” or “ The Ghost.” 

March 6.—Sir W. Molesworth introduces a 
vote of censure on Lord Glenelg, Secretary for 
the Colonies, but withdraws it after a discussion 
of two nights, in favour of an amendment, 
proposed by Lord Sandon, declaring that the 
present condition of Canada was owing to the 
ambiguous, dilatory, and irresolute course of 
her Majesty’s Ministers. Division—for Mi¬ 
nisters, 316; against, 287. 


( 15 ) 






MARCH 


1838. 


APRIL 


6. —Destructive fire in Paper-buildings, Tem¬ 
ple, presumed to have arisen from a candle left 
burning in the chambers of Mr. Maule, M. P. ; 
Nos. 12, 13, and 14, three houses comprising 
about eighty chambers, were destroyed. The 
Attorney-General was one of the greatest suf¬ 
ferers. 

8 . —Decision of the Court of Session in the 
Auchterarder case. The Lords of the First 
Division, having considered the cases for the 
Earl of Kinnoul, Rev. Robert Young, and the 
Presbytery of Auchterarder, find that the Earl 
has legally and effectually exercised his right 
as patron, and that the Presbytery, in refusing to 
take trial of Mr. Young’s qualifications, have 
acted to the hurt and prejudice of the pursuer 
and contrary to the provisions of the statute, 
libelled on. The case originated in the exer¬ 
cise of an interim Act of Assembly passed in 
1834, enacting “That it shall be an instruc¬ 
tion to Presbyteries that if, at the moderating 
in a call to a vacant pastoral charge, the 
major part of the male heads of families, 
members of the vacant congregation, and in 
full communion with the church, shall dis¬ 
approve of the person in whose favour the 
call is proposed to be moderated in, such 
disapproval shall be judged sufficient ground 
for the Presbytery rejecting such person, and 
that he shall be rejected accordingly.” The 
Earl of Kinnoul presented Mr. Young to 
the parish of Auchterarder; but the majority 
of the male communicants rejected him by 
exercising this veto. As the Veto Act pro¬ 
ceeded exclusively from the General Assembly, 
and was not ratified by Parliament, the Earl 
and Mr. Young brought this action in the 
Court of Session against the Presbytery. The 
court now decided that the Veto Act had no 
force in law ; that Mr. Young had a right 
to the parish, and the Earl to the emoluments, 
until the Presbytery should induct him in due 
form. 

14 . —Crowded meeting in Exeter Hall, pre¬ 
sided over by Lord Brougham, to petition 
Parliament for the immediate abolition of 
negro apprenticeship. 

15 . —Mr. Villiers moves that the House re¬ 
solve itself into a committee to consider the 
Act relating to the importation of corn. In 
favour, 95 ; against, 300. 

16 . —Boiler explosion on board the Victoria, 
of Hull, when running an experimental trip 
from London to the Nore. Chief-engineer 
Allen, hearing the explosion when on deck, 
rushed into the engine-room and stopped the 
engines, but was so frightfully scalded that he 
died in a few hours. r hree assistant-engineers 
were also killed. 

17 -—A slight earthquake felt at Shrewsbury. 

19 .—Owen Swift kills Brighton Bill in a 
prize-fight at Barkway, Hertfordshire, this being 
his third victim. At the inquest a verdict of 
manslaughter was returned. 

(16) 


19 . —Mr. Poulett Thomson obtains leave to 
introduce a bill for the establishment of a sys¬ 
tem of international copyright. 

20. —Lord Palmerston informs our am¬ 
bassadors at Paris and Vienna of certain out¬ 
rages committed on members of the British 
Mission in Persia, and instructs them in no 
way to recognise the mission of Hoossein 
Khan, who had left Teheran, with the view, as 
was given out, of congratulating her Majesty on 
her accession, but in reality to obtain the recall 
of Mr. M‘Neill from the post he presently held' 
at the Persian Court. 

21 . —The Ameer Dost Mahomed makes a 
final and unsuccessful appeal to Lord Auckland 
to remedy the grievances of the Affghans, and 
to give them a little encouragement and power. 
Burnes soon after took his departure from the 
city. 

24 .—Died at Chelsea, Thomas Attwood, 

musician, aged 72. 

26 .—Meeting at the Thatched HouseTavern 
to organize measures for erecting a monument 
to the memory of Lord Nelson. 

30 .—Sir George Strickland’s motion for 
abolishing negro apprenticeship on 1st August 
of the present year, defeated by a majority of 
269 to 205. Mr. Gladstone spoke with ad¬ 
mitted ability on behalf of the planters. 

— Came on at Warwick Assizes the trial of 
Muntz and three others, charged with riot and . 
“an affray” at a vestry meeting held in St. .1 
Martin’s Church, Birmingham, on the 28th 
March last. The jury found two guilty of “an 
affray” only, and two not guilty. 

— The post of Grand Vizier abolished by 
the Sultan. 


April 3 .—Material saved from the burning 
of the Royal Exchange sold by auction for 
2,000/. 

— Thomas Martin, M.P. for Galway, im¬ 
prisoned for two months, and fined 50/. for 
leading a faction fight against the O’Flahertys ; 
at Aughterard. 

— The Marquis of Chandos’ motion limiting 
the expenditure on Lord Durham’s mission to i 
the 12,000/. allowed to the Earl of Gosford, 
defeated by 160 to 158 votes. 

— A supplement to the Gazette of this date 
contains a proclamation “declaring her Ma¬ 
jesty’s pleasure touching her royal coronation 
and the solemnity thereof.” The coronation 
to take place on Tuesday the 26th June. The 
Privy Council to sit at Whitehall on the 28th 
instant, and afterwards from time to time as - 
occasion may require to hear and decide upon 
the claims of individuals “to do,and perform 
divers services ” on the day of coronation. 
The day was afterwards changed to the 28th, 
on the ground, as was alleged, that the date ‘ 








APRIL 


1838 


MAY 


first mentioned was the anniversary of the 
death of George IV. 

4 . —The Sirius screw-ship leaves Cork for 
New York, being the first vessel of this class 
which ever navigated the Atlantic. She ar¬ 
rived at her destination on the 23d, St. 
George’s day. The Great Western left Bristol 
on the 8th, and arrived at New York also on 
the 23d. 

6 . —Robert Miers, tried at the Central Cri¬ 
minal Court for setting fire to his house in 
Marylebone, with intent to defraud the Union 
Insurance Company, was, on the third day, 
found guilty, and sentenced to transportation 
for life. 

— Mr. M‘Neill, the British Minister at the 
Persian Court, arrives in the camp of Mahomed 
Shah, to remonstrate against the continuance 
of the siege of Herat as a violation of the treaty 
with Great Britain. He was admitted into the 
beleaguered city on the 21st, and endeavoured 
afterwards to negotiate a peace between the 
contending parties, but without effect. On the 
part of Persia, Mahomed Shah said : ‘ ‘ Either 
the whole people of Herat shall make their 
submission, and acknowledge themselves my 
subjects, or I will take possession of the for¬ 
tress by force of arms, and make them obedient 
and submissive. ” 

9 . —Came on in the New Court, before Mr. 
Baron Parke, the trial of Thomas Williams, 
a person of high position in Carnarvonshire, 
charged with forging the will of his late father- 
in-law, Mr. Panton of the same county. The 
specific object of the prosecution was to set 
aside a will in which a large sum of money 
was left to the prisoner’s wife, by . proving that 
the prisoner, who practised as a solicitor, pro¬ 
cured the signature of the deceased to pencil 
writings, which were afterwards erased, and 
their place supplied with different instructions ; 
also that the will was forged. The trial 
lasted an entire week, and to the great delight 
of a crowded court resulted in a verdict of Not 
Guilty. 

— James Burke, a Catholic priest, and three 
brothers named Crean, convicted at Cork assizes 
for conspiracy in attempting to prove the mur¬ 
der of the father of the Creans, in 1834, against 
Wright, a tithe proctor, who was tried and 
acquitted on the charge. 

11.— The Camden sails from Gravesend 
having on board the Rev. John Williams and 
a party of missionaries with their wives and 
families, for the unexplored islands in the South 
Sea, where they desired to labour for the con¬ 
version of the natives. 

18 .—The poet Wordsworth writes from 
Kydal Mount, to Serjeant Talfourd, expressing 
the gratitude of English authors for the exer¬ 
tions he was making in Parliament to protect 
their rights against the claims put forth on 
behalf of printers and publishers in connexion 

07 ) 


with the proposed alteration in the Copyright 
Act. 

25. —The second reading of Mr. Talfourd’s 
Copyright Bill carried in a small House by a 
majority of 5. This measure was withdrawn 
later in the session. 

— Under the auspices of the Religious In¬ 
fluence Society, Dr. Chalmers, of Edinburgh, 
enters upon a course of lectures on Spiritual 
Independence, at Hanover Square Rooms. 
The remarks of the Rev. Doctor on Church 
Establishments gave occasion to a violent attack 
by O’Connell, at a meeting of the Church Rate 
Abolition Society, held in the City of London 
Tavern. 

26. —Shipwreck of the Margaret of Newry, 
transport, off Cape Clear. The vessel was 
caught in a snow-storm about midnight, and 
struck on a rock two miles from the shore. Of 
forty-one hands on board, only two were 
saved. 

28. —The estate of Worksop sold by the 
Duke of Norfolk to the Duke of Newcastle for 
370,000/., the rental being set down at 10,000/. 
a year, and the wood at the gross value of 
150,000/. 

30. —A Royal Commission appointed to 
inquire into the system of pensions and retire¬ 
ments in the army and navy. 

May 1 .— Mr. Hume’s motion to stop the 
pension of 21,000/. per annum granted to the 
King of Hanover when Duke of Cumberland, 
on the ground of his inability to support the 
British Constitution, and the possibility there 
was of his using the money to the injury of 
his country, negatived by 97 to 62 votes. 

— Died in Bethlehem Hospital, Jonathan 
Martin, the incendiary who fired York Minster 
on the 2d February, 1829. 

7 . —Trial commenced at Paris of the indi¬ 
viduals charged with being concerned in a plot 
against the life of the King of the French. 
The principal actor was one Hubert, a currier, 
who, when arrested in December, had con¬ 
cealed in his hat the plan of a machine re¬ 
sembling Fieschi’s, but more scientifically con¬ 
structed. A letter written in cypher was also 
traced to him, which, after much study, was 
deciphered, and detailed the plan of attack. 
“We intend to hire an apartment in the 
neighbourhood of the Chamber of Deputies, 
and a stable in the same house, where we 
will place the material necessary for the 
construction of the two machines, which will be 
put together the day before the opening of the 
session. When the King shall have reached 
within a certain distance we shall bring out 
the machines from under the gateway, and in 
three minutes I pledge myself to have foudroyS 
the King and the whole of his staff. In the 
meantime, two men stationed on the roof oi 
the house will throw Congreve rockets on the 
Chamber of Deputies, which will be in a blaze 

c 





MAY 


1838. 


MAY 


in less than five minutes.” Hubert was sen¬ 
tenced to transportation for life, three others 
to five years’ imprisonment, one to three years’, 
and three acquitted. 

8 . —Riot in the churchyard of Tuam, caused 
by the Protestant curate attempting to read the 
English service over the grave of a person said 
to have died a Roman Catholic. 

— Riot at Truro, caused by the church¬ 
wardens attaching goods belonging to four dis¬ 
senters in the town who refused payment of 
church rates. 

— Hostile meeting at Wormwood Scrubbs 
between Mr. Rushout, M.P., and Mr. Peter 
Borthwick. After the second firing, friends 
present interfered, and the party left the 
ground. The quarrel originated in observa¬ 
tions said to have been made by Mr. Rushout 
in connexion with Mr. Borthwick’s ejection from 
his seat at Evesham by a Parliamentary Com¬ 
mittee. 

9 . —Meeting, presided over by Earl Spencer, 
held in the Freemasons’ Tavern, for the pur¬ 
pose of forming an Agricultural Society, on 
the plan of the Highland Society of Scotland. 

10. —The contest for the bitterly-contested 
seat of Woodstock closed to-day, with a 
majority of 5 for the Marquis of Blandford 
over his younger brother, Lord John Churchill. 

12 . —Public dinner given to Sir Robert 
Peel at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, by 300 Con¬ 
servative Members of the House of Commons. 
In the course of a lengthy exposition of his 
policy, Sir Robert said : “ My object for some 
years past has been to lay the foundations of 
a great party, which, existing in the House of 
Commons, and deriving its strength from the 
popular will, should diminish the risk and 
deaden the shock of collisions between the two 
deliberative branches of the Legislature.” 

14 .—Lord John Russell explains the Govern¬ 
ment scheme for settling the Irish Tithe 
Question. It was proposed to substitute a 
nominal renLcharge of 70/. for every 100/. of 
tithe composition; these rent-charges to be 
made over to the State at the rate of sixteen 
years’ purchase on every 100/. of original 
tithe composition; the rent-charges to be 
collected by the Commissioners of Woods and 
Forests, and to be applied towards supporting 
the Irish police, charities, and schools. As a 
preliminary step to discussing the scheme, 
Sir T. A eland moved to rescind the resolu¬ 
tions of 7th and 8th April, 1835, providing 
“That any surplus revenue of the present 
Church Establishment in Ireland not required 
for the spiritual care of its members be ap¬ 
plied to the moral and religious education of 
all classes of the people without distinction of 
religious persuasion, providing for the re¬ 
sumption of such surplus, or of any such part 
of it as may be required By an increase 
in the number of members of the Established 
Church.” O’Connell made a speech, listened 
to with great impatience. “ Shall Ireland,” 


he asked, “ be governed by a section ? 
(Vehement shouts from the Opposition.) I 
thank you—(noise renewed)—for that shriek. 
Many a shout of insolent domination—• 
(noise)—despicable and contemptible as it 
is — (noise) — have I heard against my 
country.” (Uproar continued, during which 
Mr. O’Connell, with uplifted fist and great 
violence of manner, uttered several sentences 
which were inaudible in the gallery. The 
Speaker was at last obliged to interfere and 
call the House to order.) “Let them shout. 
It is a senseless yell. It is the spirit of the 
party that has placed you there. Ireland will 
hear your shrieks. (Continued uproar.) Yes; 
you may want us again. (Roars of laughter.) 
What would Waterloo have been if we had 
not been there? (Ministerial cheers, and 
Opposition laughter.) I ask not that question 
for your renowned Commander-in-chief, who 
is himself an Irishman, but for the hardy 
soldiery of Ireland, who fought the battle for 
him. (“Question” and laughter from the 
Opposition.) I say again, that is the ques¬ 
tion. The question is, shall the people of 
Ireland be amalgamated with the people of 
England ? Refuse to receive us into that 
amalgamation, and abide the consequences. 
(Cries of “ Hear!” from the Opposition 
benches.) Sneer at me as you like, but re¬ 
collect that I speak the voice of millions, 
who will hear again of the base insult offered 
to me this evening. (Cheers from the Irish 
Members, accompanied by an observation from 
Mr. Grattan, which was not heard in the gal¬ 
lery, but which caused a titter on the Opposi¬ 
tion benches.) Why should the son of Grattan 

say-(Here the cheers and laughter drowned 

the remainder of the sentence.) The English 
people, too, are auditors of your taunt. You 
tell us that you can command a majority: I 
say to you in reply, carry your bribery a little 
further, and you will really have a majority. 
(“Question! question!”) More extensive bri¬ 
bery than you practised at the last election 
never yet was practised in this world ; and the 
highest amongst you shrink from its investiga¬ 
tion.” (“ Question! question !”) The Govern¬ 
ment proposal was carried by 317 to 298 votes. 

14 .—The Speaker of the Arkansas House 
of Assembly tried for killing a member with 
a bowie knife, on the floor of the House while 
in Session. The jury found him guilty of 
excusable homicide. 

— Meeting at the “ Crown and Anchor” for 
the purpose of petitioning Parliament to take 
into consideration the claims of the officers and 
men lately serving in the British Auxiliary 
Legion in Spain, and the sufferings of the 
widows and orphans of those who had fallen. 

16 .—Died at his residence in Clarges-street, 
in his 71st year, Zachary Macaulay, a zealous 
advocate for the abolition of slavery. His dis¬ 
tinguished son, Thomas Babington, was at this 
time on his return voyage from India, whither 




MAY 


1838 


MAY 


he had gone in 1834, as Law Member of 
Council. 

17. —The Queen’s birthday celebrated by a 
Drawing-room of unusual splendour. 

— Died at his hotel, in the Rue de Flo- 
rentin, Paris, in his eighty-fourth year, Prince 
Talleyrand, statesman and diplomatist. *His 
will forbade his autobiography to be published 
before 1868. 

18. —The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces the annual Budget. Last year ex¬ 
hibited a deficiency of income amounting to 
1,150,000/., and an excess in expenditure of 
646,000/., caused, as was explained, by extra 
expense in Canada and interest on West India 
loan. He now proposed to raise 13,000,000/. 
on Exchequer Bills for the service of the year 
1838. 

21 . —Reported robbery of 12,000/. in sove¬ 
reigns, from the residence of T. Rogers, bill- 
broker, Mile End, by thieves, who had appa¬ 
rently secreted themselves in the house. 
Rogers was afterwards apprehended, and com¬ 
mitted on suspicion of attempting to defraud 
his creditors by reporting the robbery. He 
was, however, liberated on 26th July. 

22 . —Government defeated in a thin House 
by a majority of 3, on Sir Eardley Wilmot’s 
motion that negro apprenticeship should imme¬ 
diately cease. This vote was afterwards re¬ 
versed. 

24 .—By a majority of 30 in a House of 196, 
Mr. Cresswell carries his motion for an Address 
to the Queen, praying that commissioners might 
be employed to examine the claims of persons 
for losses on account of book-debts and goods 
ashore at Copenhagen in 1807, and to examine 
also the claims of persons who suffered losses 
through the seizure of ships and cargoes by the 
Danish Government in the same year. 

* — Launch, at Limehouse, of the steam¬ 
ship British Queen, intended to carry goods 
and passengers between Liverpool and New 
York. She was considered the largest vessel 
in the world, being 275 feet in length, and 40 
feet in breadth between the paddle-boxes; 
tonnage, 1,860 tons. 

26 .—-Eliza Grimwood found murdered in her 
bedroom, Wellington-terrace, Waterloo-road. 
She was wounded in several places, but the im¬ 
mediate cause of death was a wound in the neck, 
extending nearly from ear to ear, and severing 
the windpipe. Her left thumb was also cut, 
as if she had struggled with the murderer. The 
unfortunate woman lived with a person named 
Hubbard, a bricklayer, separated from his wife, 
and had been in the habit of taking persons 
home with her from the theatres. On the Friday 
night she was said to have met with a person 
in the Strand, who had the look of a foreigner,' 
and dressed like a gentleman. At the inquest, 
the person able to speak to Eliza Grimwood’s 
latest movements was a companion named 
Catherine Edwin, who was with her in the 
( 19 ) 


Strand when the foreigner came up. He was 
an Italian, but could speak English fluently, 
and had been acquainted with the deceased for 
months. He frequented the neighbourhood of 
the “Spread Eagle,” Regent-circus, and wore a 
ring given him by deceased, bearing the words 
“Semper fidelis.” He also carried a clasp- 
knife, with which the wounds might have been 
inflicted. With this person she entered a 
cab, and drove home about midnight. He 
was not afterwards seen, and how or when 
he left the house was never ascertained. Hub¬ 
bard slept in an apartment alone, and dis¬ 
covered the body (he said) when going out to 
work in the morning. He awoke a com¬ 
mercial traveller who slept in the house with 
another woman, and then alarmed the police. 
The deceased was about twenty-five years of 
age, of sober habits, and had saved a little 
money. At the inquest a verdict of wilful 
murder was returned against some person or 
persons unknown. On the nth June Hubbard 
was committed to Horsemonger-lane prison, 
in consequence of an anonymous letter pur¬ 
porting to come from the person who accom¬ 
panied Eliza Grimwood home, but no evidence 
being forthcoming before the magistrate he 
was discharged, and afterwards went to Ame¬ 
rica. On the 13th June the effects of the mur¬ 
dered woman were sold on the premises, and 
realized high prices. 

28 .—Riotous proceedings commenced at 
Boughton, Kent, under the leadership of John 
Thom, alias Sir William Courtenay, a cha¬ 
racter who had formerly made himself con¬ 
spicuous in the neighbourhood of Canterbury. 
He had been for some time confined in a lunatic 
asylum, but since his release had been living 
among the peasantry of Boughton, boasting 
of his birth, and the great possessions unjustly 
withheld from him. He also blasphemously 
styled himself the Saviour of the world. In 
the character of a political reformer, and under 
pretence of relieving them from the terrors of 
the New Poor Law, he gathered a band of 1 
nearly 100 ignorant and discontented people, 
and drew them up near Bossenden farm on the 
evening of the 30th. On the following morning 
he deliberately shot a constable named Mears. 
The county now became alarmed, and a party 
of military was sent from Canterbury to break 
up the gang. On seeing the soldiers ad¬ 
vance, Courtenay again deliberately drew his 
pistol, and shot Lieut. Bennett, of the 45 th 
regiment, who was riding in advance of his 
party, and fell dead upon the spot. The sol¬ 
diers then immediately fired, when Courtenay 
and eight others fell dead, two were mortally 
wounded, and a number crippled for life. 
Before the engagement Courtenay administered 
the Sacrament in a wood, and addressed 
his followers as their Saviour. At the close of 
his harangue several of the deluded victims 
knelt down at his feet and worshipped him. 
So earnest were they in their belief, that for 
some time after bis death they actually ex¬ 
pected him to rise from the dead as he had 

C 2 





MAY 


1838. 


JUNE 


promised, and at the burial of the body the 
officiating clergyman, being apprehensive of a 
disturbance on this ground, omitted that por¬ 
tion of the service relating to the resurrection 
of the dead. 

28 .—The Earl of Durham, family, and suite 
arrive at Quebec. Next day, having taken the 
necessary oaths, the Earl issues a proclamation 
announcing that he had assumed the adminis¬ 
tration of the Government of Canada ; that he 
would protect and encourage all loyal subjects 
without regard to party, race, or politics ; that 
he would unsparingly use the power he held, 
civil and military, to punish the violators of 
the law ; and that he invited the co-operation 
of the people of British America in the work 
of constructing a system of government that 
should protect the rights and interests of all 
classes. 

31 .—The General Assembly of the Church 
of Scotland, in the course of a discussion 
touching the settlement of Mr. Young in 
Auchterarder, resolved, by a majority of 183 
to 142, that it would regard any application 
to a civil court by its members as a breach of 
ecclesiastical discipline. 

June 3 .—Rupture between Great Britain 
and Persia. For the purpose, apparently, of 
lessening British influence at Herat, the 
Ambassador at the Shah’s camp was treated 
with studied disrespect, and some members 
of the mission directly insulted. To-day Mr. 
M‘Neill addressed a letter to the Foreign 
Minister at the Persian camp, announcing his 
intention to depart for the frontier on the 
following day. ‘ ‘ I feel myself called upon, ” 
he concluded, “to inform you that, until the 
reparation and satisfaction I have demanded 
for the indignities already offered shall have 
been fully given, the Queen of England cannot 
receive at her Court any Minister who may be 
sent thither by the Shah of Persia.” 

5 .—Mr. B. Disraeli writes to the Editor of 
the Morning Post :—“ In opening the case of 
the petitioners against the return of Mr. Fector 
for Maidstone on Friday last, Mr. Austin stated, 
that ‘ Mr. Disraeli, at the general election, had 
entered into engagements with the electors of 
Maidstone, and made pecuniary promises to 
them, which he had left unfulfilled.’ I should 
have instantly noticed this assertion of the 
learned gentleman had not a friend, to whose 
opinion I was bound to defer, assured me that 
Mr. Austin, by the custom of his profession, 
was authorized to make any statement from 
his brief which he was prepared to sub¬ 
stantiate, or attempt to substantiate. The 
inquiry into the last Maidstone election has 
now terminated; and I take the earliest op¬ 
portunity of declaring, and in a manner the 
most unqualified and unequivocal, that the 
statement of the learned gentleman is utterly 
false. There is not the slightest shadow of 
foundation for it. I myself never, either 
directly or indirectly, entered into any pecu- 
(20) 


niary engagements with, or made any pecu¬ 
niary promises to, the electors of Maidstone; 
and therefore I cannot have broken any, or 
left any unfulfilled. The whole expenses of 
the contest in question were defrayed by my 
lamented colleague; and I discharged to him 
my moiety of those expenses, as is well known 
to those who are entitled to any knowledge on 
the subject. Sir, I am informed that it is quite 
useless, and even unreasonable, in me to expect 
from Mr. Austin any satisfaction for these im¬ 
pertinent calumnies, because Mr. Austin is a 
member of an honourable profession, the first 
principle of whose practice appears to be that 
they may say anything provided they be paid 
for it. The privilege of circulating falsehoods 
with impunity is delicately described as doing 
your duty towards your client; which appears 
to be a very different process to doing your 
duty towards your neighbour. This may be 
the usage of Mr. Austin’s profession, and it 
may be the custom of society to submit to its 
practice; but, for my part, it appears to be 
nothing better than a disgusting and intolerable 
tyranny; and I for one shall not bow to it in 
silence. I therefore repeat, that the statement 
of Mr. Austin was false; and inasmuch as he 
never attempted to substantiate it, I conclude 
that it was on his side but the blustering artifice 
of a rhetorical hireling, availing himself of the 
vile licence of a loose-tongued lawyer, not only 
to make a statement which was false, but to 
make it with a consciousness of its falsehood.” 
(See Nov. 22.) 

11 .—At a banquet given in Manchester to 
Mr. Fielding, M.P. for Oldham, the Rev. J. 
R. Stephens thus sought to excite his hearers 
against the New Poor Law “ I do think the 
country needs the stalwart arm, the mighty 
tongue, and the powerful energetic movements 
of brave people with arms in their hands, to say, 

‘ We will shed the last drop of our blood on the 
field rather than submit to that law of devils. ’ 
Unless the people of England arm, and use their 
arms, if needs be, there will be no doubt of the 
fact, that the New Poor Law Bastiles are in¬ 
tended to be a chain of barracks round the 1 
country, each capable of holding from five 
hundred to a thousand men, and each intended 
to be garrisoned in part by the regular military, 
and in part by the Russellite Rural Police.” 

14 .—Riot in the streets of Lisbon while the 
King with his Court and ecclesiastics were 
engaged in celebrating the festival of Corpus 
Christi. Sa da Bandeira was wounded in his 
carriage. Next day several battalions of the 
National Guard were disbanded. 

16 .—Duel at Wormwood Scrubbs between 
Lord Castlereagh and M. de Melcy, husband 
of Madame Grisi, arising out of a declaration of 
attachment made to the latter by his lordship. 
He was slightly wounded by the first shot, 
after which the parties left the ground mutually 
satisfied. 

the course of a debate raised by the 
Marquis of Londonderry regarding the treat- 





JUNE 


1838. 


JUNE 


ment of the British Legion in Spain, an alter¬ 
cation causing considerable excitement in the 
House takes place between the Marquis and 
Lord Lyndhurst with reference to the phrase 
“catastrophe” or “dire catastrophe” used by 
the latter. The noble Marquis vehemently pro¬ 
tested against the frequent interruption to which 
he was subjected. 

19 .—A British expedition enters the Persian 
Gulf, and takes undisputed possession of Kar- 
rack. The expedition was despatched by Lord 
Auckland to hold itself in readiness for any 
service upon which Mr. M‘Neill might deem it 
expedient to employ it upon “with a view to 
the maintenance of our interests in Persia.” 

21 . —Fire in the Christian quarter of Cairo, 
destroying two streets. 

23 . —Twelve coronation peerages gazetted. 

24 . —The Persians make a desperate attack 
bn Herat, but are driven back by the Affghan 
garrison, aided greatly by the courageous 
example of young Eldred Pottinger, who had 
been within the city for weeks as the adviser of 
Yar Mahomed. 

25 . —Great storm in Lancashire, accom¬ 
panied by destruction of life and property. 

26 . —Sir E. Knatchbull obtains the appoint¬ 
ment of a select committee to inquire into all 
the circumstances connected with the discharge 
of Thom, alias Courtenay, from Kent Lunatic 
Asylum. 

— Lord Auckland involves Great Britain 
in the politics of Afghanistan, a treaty of 
alliance and friendship being executed this day 
between Maharajah Runjeet Singh of Lahore and 
the exiled ruler of Affghanistan, Shah Soojah- 
ool-Moolk, “with the approbation of, and in 
concert with, the British Government.” The 
main design of the treaty was the destruction of 
the power of the Barukzye Sirdars, as repre¬ 
sented by Dost Mahomed, and the replacing of 
the old King on the throne. It was also pro¬ 
vided that Shah-Soojah’s rights over Sindh 
and Shikarpoor should be arbitrated and ad¬ 
justed by the British Government. 

28 .—Coronation of Queen Victoria. The 
morning (Thursday) dawned rather un- 
towardly, but cleared up in the forenoon, 
and continued favourable throughout the day. 
The procession left Buckingham Palace soon 
after 10 o’clock, and passed up Constitution- 
hill, along Piccadilly, St. James’s-street, Pall 
Mall, Charing Cross, and Parliament-street, to 
Westminster Abbey, which was reached about 
half-past 11. Her Majesty was received with 
enthusiasm by the multitude of eager spectators 
who lined the route. At the west door of the 
Abbey she was received by the great officers of 
state, and then proceeded to her robing chamber. 
At 12 o’clock the grand procession passed up 
the nave into the choir. As the Queen ad¬ 
vanced slowly towards the centre of the choir 
to the chair of homage, the anthem “ I was 
glad ” was sung, and the Westminster boys 


chanted “ Vivat Victoria Regina.” On reach¬ 
ing a chair placed midway between the chair 
of homage and the altar, the Queen knelt, 
and repeated her private prayers. The “ Re¬ 
cognition ” then took place by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury : “ Sirs, I here present unto 
you Queen Victoria, the undoubted Queen 
of this realm ; wherefore all you who are 
come this day to do your homage, are you 
willing to do the same ? ” The universal ac¬ 
clamation then burst forth, “ God save Queen 
Victoria ! ” The prescribed prayers, Litany, 
and Communion Service were then said by 
the Archbishop ; and a sermon, on 2 Chron. 
xxxiv. 31, preached by the Bishop of London. 
Then followed the administration of the Oath, 
the Veni Creator , the Anointing, and the 
Coronation. The Dean of Westminster took 
the crown from the altar, and passed it to the 
Ai'chbishop, who reverently placed it on the 
Queen’s head. From every part of the crowded 
edifice there then arose the enthusiastic cry, 
“ God save the Queen ! ” The peers and peer¬ 
esses put on their coronets, the bishops their 
caps, and the kings of arms their crowns; 
trumpets sounded, drums were beat, and the 
Tower and Park guns fired by signal. The 
presentation of the Bible, Benediction, and 
Homage were the next features in the cere¬ 
mony, after which the Queen received the two 
sceptres, and an anthem, “This is the day,” 
was sung. The Sacrament was then adminis¬ 
tered, at the conclusion of which her Majesty 
was invested in her royal robes by the Lord 
Chamberlain, and proceeded to the west door 
of the Abbey, wearing her crown, and holding 
the sceptre with the cross in her right hand 
and the orb in her left. It was about a quarter 
to 4 o’clock when the royal procession passed 
through the nave in the same order in which 
it had entered. In their return to the Palace 
the Queen wore her crown, and the royal 
and noble personages their coronets. Among 
many foreigners of distinction present, Marshal 
Soult (French Envoy Extraordinary) was par¬ 
ticularly noticed and applauded. In the even¬ 
ing the Queen entertained a dinner-party, and 
witnessed from the Palace the discharge of 
fireworks in the Green Park. The Duke of 
Wellington also gave a grand ball at Apsley 
House. The theatres and nearly all the other 
places of amusements were, by her Majesty’s 
command, opened gratuitously for the evening. 
A fair was also commenced in Hyde Park 
which continued to the end of the week. The 
immense concourse of people which filled Lon¬ 
don during the day conducted themselves with 
the greatest order, and no accident of any 
moment occurred. 

28 .—During the Coronation rejoicings at 
Liverpool the first stone of St. George’s Hall 
was laid. 

— Lord Durham calls together his first 
Special Council, consisting for the most part of 
members of his own suite, and issues an “ Ordi¬ 
nance to provide for the security of the Province 

(21) 




JUNE 


1838. 


JULY 


of Lower Canada.” This Ordinance decreed 
that five of the most prominent rebels who 
had “acknowledged their participation in high 
treason, and submitted themselves to the plea¬ 
sure of her Majesty,” and sixteen others, 
among whom were JPapineau and Nelson, 
who had absconded, were ordered to be 
transported to Bermuda during pleasure. The 
Ordinance further enacted, “That if any of 
the above-mentioned who have been so con¬ 
demned, or against whom warrants have been 
so issued, shall at any time hereafter, except 
by permission of the Governor-General of her 
Majesty’s provinces on the continent of North 
America and High Commissioner for the ad¬ 
justment of certain important questions de¬ 
pending in the provinces of Upper and Lower 
Canada, or, if there shall be no such Governor- 
General and High Commissioner, by the per¬ 
mission of the Governor-in-chief, or Governor, 
or other person administering the government 
of this province as hereinafter provided, be 
found at large, or come within the said pro¬ 
vince, they or he shall in such case be deemed 
and taken to be guilty of high treason, and 
shall on conviction of being so found at large 
or coming within the said province, without 
such permission as aforesaid, suffer death ac¬ 
cordingly. ” 

29 . —Died at Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, 
Alexander Jolly, Bishop of Moray, in the 
eighty-third year of his age and forty-second 
of his episcopate. During his long life he 
presented a rare union of simple piety with 
profound learning. 

30 . —Musical Festival commenced in West¬ 
minster Abbey, where the Coronation deco¬ 
rations were still kept up. The rehearsal was 
on this day and the performance on July 2. 

— Mrs. Fitzherbert’s marriage to the 
Prince Regent. Lord Stourton writes to-day 
to the editor of the Edinburgh Review :— 
“The ceremony was performed, not out of 
the kingdom, as you have stated, but in the 
drawing-room of her house in town, in the pre¬ 
sence of an officiating Protestant clergyman, 
and two of her own nearest relatives. All the 
parties being now deceased, to ordinary readers 
this discrepancy will appear of little moment; 
as the ceremony, wherever it was performed, 
could confer no legal rights ; and no issue fol¬ 
lowed this union. But when I inform you 
that, in the one case—that stated in your 
article—it would have been an invalid mar¬ 
riage as affecting the conscience of Mrs. Fitz- 
herbert in the sight of her own Church; and 
that, in the other case, it formed a conscien¬ 
tious connexion in the opinion of such portions 
of Christendom as hold communion with the 
see of Rome, I am confident you will permit 
this statement, under my name and responsi¬ 
bility, to appear in your journal. I shall, 
moreover, add, that the conscientious validity 
of the contract depended upon the fact that the 
discipline of the Council of Trent as to marriage 
has never been received in this country. ” 

( 22 ) 


July 5.—Review of Artillery and Engineers 
at Woolwich, for the entertainment of distin¬ 
guished foreigners present at the Coronation. 


9 .—Review of Cavalry and Infantry in 
Hyde Park, attended by the Queen, the Duke 
of Wellington, Marshal Soult, Princes Ester- 
hazy and Schwartzenberg, and other foreigners 
of distinction. 

— Died at Dupoorie, East Indies, aged 53, 
the Right Hon. Sir Robert Grant, Governor of 
Bombay. 

12 .—John Rickey, a soldier, tried for shoot¬ 
ing Sergeant Hamilton of the 12th Lancers, 
at Hampton Court. He was found guilty, and 
sentenced to death, but afterwards received a 
pardon. 

— Hostilities break out between France and 
Mexico. 


13 .—Banquet at Guildhall to Ambassadors 
Extraordinary, and other foreign visitors. The 
Duke of Wellington and Marshal Soult were 
toasted together. 

17 . —The Court of Chancer}' decided the 
Leeman baronetcy case, and the immense 
accompanying fortune, in favour of a poor 
Nottingham mechanic of that name. 

18 . —The Rev. Mr. Gathercole convicted at 
York Assizes of publishing in The Watchman 
a libel imputing improper practices to nuns at 
Darlington and Stockton. 


19 .—Discussion in the House of Commons 
on the Million Loan (Ireland) Bill and the 
payment of Irish tithe arrears. In opposition . 
to an amendment proposed by Mr. Hume, 
Lord John Russell, by a large majority, car¬ 
ried his motion: “ That Exchequer Bills, to 
an amount not exceeding the residue of the 
sum of one million, remaining unappropriated 
under an Act of the 3d and 4th of King 
William the Fourth, chapter 100, and under 
an Act of the 6th and 7th year of his said 
Majesty, chapter 108, be issued and applied, 
together with the instalments paid, or which 
may be paid, under the first-mentioned Act, 
to the relief of the owners of compositions for 
tithes in Ireland, for’the years 1836 and 1837 • 
and that the Commissioners of her Majesty’s 
Treasury be authorized to remit such instal¬ 
ments in such cases.” 


20.—Marshal Soult, his son the Marquis 
of Dalmatia, and a party of French gentlemen, 
leave London for a tour in the manufacturing 
districts. 

— Died, at East Lodge, Enfield, aged 80, 
Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, G.C.B. He 
commanded the Donegal from 1805 to 1811, 
and was engaged at Trafalgar, where he took 
a Spanish three-decker. Among his last im¬ 
portant appointments was that of Commander- 
in-chief on the St. Helena station during the 
residence of Napoleon. 





JUL Y 


1838. 


AUGUST 


23 .—The Irish Tithe Bill read a third time in 
the House of Commons by a majority of 148 to 30. 

26 .—The first stone of two new wings to 
Bethlehem Hospital laid by Sir P. Laurie. 

— The Internal Discipline of the Church 
Bill read a third time in the House of Lords, 
the object of the measure being to abolish the 
jurisdiction of diocesan courts in certain cases, 
and to bring clergymen charged with offences 
at once before the Arches Court. 

29 . —Departure of Marshal Soult for France. 

30 . —Lord Brougham draws the attention of 
the House of Lords to the highly illegal charac¬ 
ter of the Ordinances issued by Lord Durham for 
securing the peace of Lower Canada. “ Even 
with persons,” he said, “who had committed 
the crime of rebellion, they ought to have been 
tried; they could not be put to death without 
trial, and without sentence of death in due 
course of law. Even if the Queen—if the 
Crown—had in a certain case commuted the 
sentence of death to that of banishment, the 
man returning from banishment could not be 
put to death. It was only after trial that a 
man could be ordered to be put to death. The 
returning from transportation was made a capi¬ 
tal felony by Act of Parliament in certain cases ; 
but here death was ordered without a trial, and 
without the regular sentence of the law to sanc¬ 
tion it. This, however, was going upon the 
vulgar error, that a man who returned before 
the period of his banishment had expired could 
be put to death by any one. There was, then, 
the case of M. Papineau and one or two others, 
who had not confessed themselves guilty of any * 
crime.”—Lord Lyndhurst: “ Their confessions 
would only be evidence.”—Lord Brougham : 
“But they had not confessed; and men had 
been acquitted notwithstanding their confession. 
Yet Papineau and the others were to be put to 
death, not confessing anything, and not having 
been tried. Nothing was more monstrous than 
this The Act authorized Lord Durham to 
make a general law, but not to hang men 
without the form of law.” The subject was 
resumed in the Lords on the 5 th August, when 
Lord Brougham introduced a bill declaring the 
true intent and meaning of the Act passed by 
the British Parliament, making temporary pro¬ 
vision for the government of Lower Canada. 
Lord Glenelg admitted the illegality of that 
part of the Ordinances which related to Ber¬ 
muda ; but the best course would be to write 
simply to the Governor, informing him that the 
prisoners were free. The second reading of 
the bill was carried against Ministers by a 
majority of 18 in a House of 9 °* 

31. —The Marquis of Waterford, and others, 
tried at the Derby Assizes, on the charge of 
riotous and disorderly conduct near Melton 
Mowbray, on 5th April last. Fined 100/. each. 

— International Copyright Act passed. 

August 1.— The negro population of 
Jamaica enter on the full enjoyment of their 


freedom. The governor and the bishop rf 
the island both describe the conduct of the 
people as in the highest degree praiseworthy. 
The event was celebrated in a festive manner 
in various towns throughout England. 

I. —Great eruption of Vesuvius commenced. 

A.—John Drew Woods, pedlar, murdered 

at Dundee, whilst in a state of intoxication. 
His father and mother were afterwards tried 
for the crime, and the former condemned to 
death. 

6 .—A Radical meeting held at Birmingham, 
and addressed by Attwood, Scholefield, and 
Feargus O’Connor. Resolution adopted, pray¬ 
ing the House of Commons to use their utmost 
endeavours to get a law passed granting to 
every male of lawful age, sound mind, and 
unconvicted of crime, the right of voting for 
members of Parliament, and enacting voting 
by ballot, annual parliaments, the abolition of 
all property qualifications by members of the 
House, and the payment of those attending to 
its duties. This manifesto came to be known 
as the National or Chartist petition. 

9 . —A number of fhe followers of Thom, or 
Courtenay, tried before Lord Denman, at Maid¬ 
stone Assizes, for the murder of Constable 
Mears and Lieut. Bennett. They were all 
sentenced to death, but their punishment was 
commuted to various terms of imprisonment. 

10. — Lord Melbourne announces that 
Ministers had resolved upon disallowing Lord 
Durham’s Ordinances, and would accept Lord 
Brougham’s Indemnity Bill with certain altera¬ 
tions. On the third reading of the measure 
the Lord Chief Justice (Denman) said the pro¬ 
ceedings of Lord Durham were perfectly inde¬ 
fensible, and a violation of the first principle? 
of the Constitution. 

II. —Colonel Stoddart arrives in the Per¬ 
sian camp with an ultimatum that the Shah 
must quit Herat or fight Great Britain. The 
Shah undertook to raise the siege, and called 
off his troops in the direction of Teheran early 
in the following month. Towards the close 
of the year Stoddart was despatched by Sir J. 
M‘Neill on a mission to the Ameer of Bokhara, 
from which he never returned. He was at first 
received favourably; but the tyrant Ameer, 
taking offence at his letter to the Queen being 
answered by the Governor-General of India, 
afterwards treated the mission with disrespect 
and cruelty. 

13 .—Report presented by the Select Com¬ 
mittee appointed to inquire into the present 
rates and mode of charging postage, with a 
view to such a reduction thereof as may be 
made without injury to the revenue; and for 
this purpose to examine especially into the 
mode recommended for charging and collecting 
postage in a pamphlet published by Mr. Row¬ 
land Hill. The Committee sat sixty-thrcc days, 
and, exclusive of Post-office officials, examined 
83 witnesses of various occupations, professions, 
and trades. The petitions presented during the 






AUGUST 


1838, 


SEPTEMBER 


session amounted to 320 in number, bearing 
38,709 signatures. So far as Mr. Rowland 
Hill’s plan was concerned, the Committee re¬ 
ported “That considerable time would be saved 
in the delivery of letters; the expenses in almost 
every branch of the department, but principally 
in the Inland and Letter-carrier offices, much 
reduced ; the complex accounts of the Bye and 
and Dead-letter offices greatly simplified, and 
the expenses greatly diminished. That the 
system of accounts between the deputy post¬ 
masters, which presents so many opportunities 
and facilities for combination and fraud, would 
disappear; the labour and responsibility of sur¬ 
veyors be curtailed ; a system of complex and 
intricate duty, inseparable from the existing 
nature of the country part of the Post-office, 
give way to one of simplicity and uniformity ; 
and the entire principle and machinery of the 
Post-office be changed in its character, greatly 
contributing to the security, comfort, and ad¬ 
vantage of the community, in its connexion 
with the public correspondence. That in the 
opinion of all the witnesses, excepting most of 
the officers of the Post-office, the adoption of 
Mr. Hill’s plan would occasion a very great 
increase in the number of letters posted; and 
in the opinion of most of them, a far greater 
increase than would be required to maintain 
the revenue at its present amount.” 

14 .—Inquiry regarding an explosion on 
board the Victoria steamship, results in a 
verdict condemning the construction of the 
boiler. A deodand of 1,500/. levied on the 
boiler and steam-engine. 

16 .—Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. In the Royal speech reference was 
made, as usual, to the principal measures of 
the session. “The disturbances,” it was said, 
“and insurrections which had unfortunately 
broken out in Upper and Lower Canada have 
been promptly suppressed; and I entertain a 
confident hope that firm and judicious measures 
will empower you to restore a constitutional 
form of government, which unhappy events 
have compelled you for a time to suspend. I 
rejoice at the progress which has been made in 
my colonial possessions towards the entire 
abolition of Negro Apprenticeship. I have 
observed with much satisfaction the attention 
which you have bestowed upon the amendment 
of the domestic institutions of the country. I 
trust that the mitigation of the law of Impri¬ 
sonment for Debt will prove at once favourable 
to the liberty of my subject, and safe for com¬ 
mercial credit; and that the Established 
Church will derive increased strength and 
efficiency from the restriction of granting bene¬ 
fices in plurality. I have felt great pleasure m 
giving my assent to the Bill for the Relief of 
the Destitute Poor in Ireland. I cherish the 
expectation that its provisions have been so 
cautiously framed, and will be so prudently 
executed, that, whilst they contribute to relieve 
distress, they will tend to preserve order and 
to encourage habits of industry and exertion. 

(24) 


I trust, likewise, that the Act which you have 
passed relating to the Compositions for Tithe in 
Ireland will increase the security of that pro¬ 
perty, and promote internal peace.” During 
this session the House sat 173 days, and spent 
1,134 hours in public business. 

22 .—Duel on Wimbledon Common, between 
John Flower Mirfin and Francis L. Eliot, the 
former of whom died from his wounds. The 
parties had previously quarrelled at Epsom 
races, and again in town, at a disreputable 
haunt known as the Saloon. 

24 .—The Duchess of Orleans delivered of a 
son, the Count de Paris. 

27 .—At a dinner at Cork O’Connell tells 
his hearers that matters are continually grow¬ 
ing worse for Ireland in the British Parlia¬ 
ment. * ‘ They fancy we will be put down. I 
tell you we will not. I’ll raise my voice, and it 
shall sweep from the Giant’s Causeway to Cape 
Clear, and Connemara to the Hill of Howth. 
I’ll raise all Ireland to determination. We 
will complain of the Tithe system. Without 
its extinction there can be no religious liberty. 
No man should contribute to that from which 
he derives no benefit or instruction. It was said 
I approved of it. I never did. I said directly 
the reverse. I said it shifted Whiteboyism 
from rags and friezes to Whiteboyism in broad 
cloth. I promise you that from Moore Park 
to Bantry you will no longer see Peep-o’-day- 
boys, but in the full noontide of the sun will 
be coming forward meetings—influential meet¬ 
ings—to prove that rent-charge means tithes, 
and that abolition is the remedy for both one 
and the other.” 

30 . —Died at Oodypore, the Maharajah Ju- 
wan Singh. Two queens and six concubines 
were burnt on his funeral pyre. 

31 . —A report being busily circulated that 
Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds, had been dismissed 
from his post of Chaplain at the Chapel Royal, 
on account of certain passages in a sermon, 
afterwards published with the title of “ Hear 
the Church,” the Doctor writes to-day: “I 
have received no notice whatever to that effect; 
nor have I any reason to suppose that her 
Majesty is otherwise than pleased with what I 
stated in my sermon when I was last in waiting 
I thought it necessary to publish that sermon, 
because many false reports of what had been 
advanced in it were spread abroad ; and it is to 
these that allusion is made in the note which is 
prefixed to it.” 

September l.--rhe aggregate average of 
the price of wheat for the six weeks ending on 
Saturday last was *]2s. 1 id. per quarter, being 
within a penny of the mark at which the duty 
would have been lowered from 2s. 8 d. to is. 
A week later 73J. was reached, and foreign 
com was offered in market as “duty free.” 
There was said to be a good demand for all 
descriptions, and a flight advance on previous 
rates was obtained. 




SEPTEMBER 


1838. 


OCTOBER 


1.—The Emperor of Austria crowned King 
of Lombardy at Milan. The ceremonies and 
rejoicings extended over four days. 

4. —The King and Queen of the Belgians 
visit England as the guests of her Majesty. 

6 . Wreck of the steamer Forfarshire, trad¬ 
ing from Hull to Dundee, on the Fern Islands. 
Her machinery becoming disabled, the vessel 
drifted southward for about five hours, when 
she struck at 3 o’clock a.m. on the outer rock. 
The hull almost instantly parted, and, with 
one exception, the whole of the cabin pas¬ 
sengers, twenty-five in number, were drowned. 
The captain was washed overboard with his 
wife in his arms. Of a crew of twenty-two, 
ten were drowned; eight were preserved in an 
open boat, and taken to Shields. Four of the 
crew and five steerage passengers were taken 
off the wreck by the dauntless intrepidity of 
Grace Darling and her father, the keeper of 
Longstone lighthouse. She induced her father 
to enter the lifeboat, and with great difficulty 
they reached the wreck, when Darling himself 
picked the survivors off, while his heroic 
daughter managed to keep the boat from being 
dashed to pieces. 

17 .—A London demonstration in favour of 
Parliamentary Reform, held in New Palace 
Yard. A petition was adopted in favour of 
the People’s Charter, now being circulated in 
the form of an “Act to provide for the just 
representation of the People.”—The Bath 
meeting was attended by Colonel Napier, who 
supported one of the resolutions. Mr. Vincent, 
in the course of his speech, remarked that they 
had been kept down by those who were knaves. 
Lord John Russell was a knave; Harry 
Brougham was a knave; Peel was a knave; the 
Duke of Wellington was a knave”—(Col. Sir W. 
Napier rushed to the front of the hustings, and 
with much earnestness exclaimed, “ I contra¬ 
dict that; the Duke of Wellington is no knave. 
He fought for the country nobly, bravely, and 
successfully; and he is no knave.”) Mr. 
Vincent resumed : “ I say that any man, be 
he a Wellington, a Russell, or a Napier, who 
denies to me the right to vote, is a knave. 
The present representation is a combination to 
deprive the people of just and equal laws ; and 
I call on the people to arouse, and put an end 
to such a state of things, and it can be done by 
moral force, if the people will only firmly exert 
themselves.” Colonel Napier said that Mr. Vin¬ 
cent had degraded himself by applying the term 
“knave” to the Duke of Wellington : “Cal¬ 
ling names did no good to any cause. They 
ought to remember the force of early prejudices 
and impressions; and that a very honest man 
might be mistaken in politics. That he be¬ 
lieved to be the Duke of Wellington s case; 
but he was one of the greatest soldiers Europe 
had ever produced, and ought not^ to have had 
the term ‘knave’ applied to him.” • 

— London and Birmingham Railway opened 
throughout. 


21 . —Young and Webber, two of the seconds 
in the Mirfin and Eliot duel, convicted of 
murder, and sentenced to death, afterwards 
commuted to one year’s imprisonment. 

22. —Lord Durham announces his resigna¬ 
tion of the office of Governor-General of 
Canada. In answer to an address from the 
Delegates presented to-day, his Lordship 
said : “I had, as you know, devoted the most 
careful attention to all subjects which could 
affect the general interests of all the colonies ; 
and had brought nearly to maturity the plan 
which I intended to submit in the first in¬ 
stance to the consideration of the Provinces, 
and eventually of the Cabinet and the Im¬ 
perial Parliament. In this, I trust, useful 
course, I have been suddenly arrested by the 
interference of a branch of the British Legis¬ 
lature, in which the responsible advisers of the 
Crown have deemed it their duty to acquiesce. 
Under these circumstances, I have but one 
step to take—to resign that authority, the 
exercise of which has thus been so weakened 
as to render it totally inadequate to the grave 
emergency which alone called for its existence.” 

24 .—John Larner, under pretence of being 
the proper heir, makes a forcible entry into 
Stanfield Hall, Norfolk, then in the possession 
of Mr. Isaac Jermy. The house was afterwards 
surrounded by military, who conveyed Lamer 
and all his disorderly followers to prison. 

— The Duke of Sussex announces his in¬ 
tention of resigning the presidency of the Royal 
Society, owing to circumstances connected with 
his private affairs over which he had no control 
making it incumbent on him to leave London. 

Numerous meetings held throughout Ire¬ 
land this month, in support of O’Connell’s 
“Precursor” Society. 

The French Government pressing the Swiss 
to expel Prince Louis Bonaparte from their 
territory, the Prince writes to the Executive 
of the Canton of Thurgovia abandoning his 
claim to citizenship, on the ground that he 
cannot under any circumstances give up his 
title to be considered a Frenchman. It was 
rumoured that he had applied to the British 
Envoy for passports to England. 

October 1 . —Lord Auckland issues a “ma¬ 
nifesto ” from Simla, stating the reasons which 
had induced him to direct the assemblage of a 
British force for service across the Indus. 
“After much time,” it was said, “spent by 
Captain Bumes in fruitless negotiation at 
Cabul, it appeared that Dost Mahomed Khan, 
chiefly in consequence of his reliance upon 
Persian encouragement and assistance, per¬ 
sisted, as respects his misunderstanding with 
the Sikhs, in urging the most unreasonable pre¬ 
tensions, such as the Governor-General could 
not, consistently with justice and his regard 
for the friendship of Maharajah Runjeet Singh, 
be the channel of submitting to the considera¬ 
tion of his Highness ; that he avowed schemes 





0C70BER 


1838. 


OCTOBER 


of aggrandisement and ambition injurious to 
the security and peace of the frontiers of 
India; and that he openly threatened, in 
furtherance of these schemes, to call in every 
foreign aid which he could command.” Re¬ 
ference was then made in the manifesto to 
the unjustifiable aggression of Persia upon 
Herat, and the countenance which had been 
given to the expedition by Dost Mahomed, 
and his brother Sirdar of Candahar. “ After 
various and mature deliberation the Governor- 
General was satisfied that a pressing necessity, 
as well as every consideration of policy and 
justice, warranted us in espousing the cause 
of Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, whose popularity 
throughout Affghanistan has been proved to 
his Lordship by the strong and unanimous 
testimony of the best authorities. A guaranteed 
independence will upon favourable conditions 
be tendered to the Ameer of Sindh, and the 
integrity of Herat in the possession of its pre¬ 
sent ruler will be fully respected ; while, by 
the measures completed or in progress, it may 
reasonably be hoped that the general freedom 
and security of commerce will be promoted; 
that the known and just influence of the 
British Government will gain its proper foot¬ 
ing among the nations of Central Asia; that 
tranquillity will be established upon the most 
important frontier of India ; and that a lasting 
barrier will be raised against hostile intrigue 
and encroachment. His Majesty Shah Soojah- 
ool-Moolk will enter Affghanistan sui'rounded 
by his own troops, and will be supported 
against foreign interference and factious oppo¬ 
sition by a British army. The Governor- 
General confidently hopes that the Shah will 
be speedily replaced on his throne by his own 
subjects and adherents; and when once he 
shall be secured in power, and the independ¬ 
ence and integrity of Affghanistan established, 
the British army will be withdrawn. The 
Governor-General has been led to these mea¬ 
sures by the duty which is imposed upon him 
of providing for the security of the possessions 
of the British Crown ; but he rejoices that in 
the discharge of his duty he will be enabled 
to assist in restoring the union and prosperity 
of the Affghan people. Throughout the ap¬ 
proaching operations British influence will be 
sedulously employed to further every measure 
of general benefit, to reconcile differences, to 
secure oblivion of injuries, and to put an end 
to the distractions by which for so many years 
the welfare and happiness of the Affghans have 
been impaired.” A notification was at the 
same time made that Mr. W. H. Macnaghten, 
Secretary to the Government, would assume 
the function of Envoy and Minister at the 
Court of Shah Soojah, and that Captain 
Burnes would be employed under his direction 
as Envoy to the Chief of Khelat or other 
States. A number of political assistants were 
also appointed. It was of this proclamation 
Sir J. C. Hobhouse said afterwards, speaking 
officially : “ Lord Auckland must not be per¬ 

mitted to bear the blame of the Simla mani- 

(26) 


festo against Dost Mahomed. It was the 
policy of the Government; and he might men¬ 
tion that the despatch which he wrote, stating 
his opinion of the course that ought to be taken 
in order to meet expected emergencies, and 
that written by Lord Auckland informing him 
that the expedition had already been under¬ 
taken, crossed each other on the way. ” 

2 . — The Perth and Edinburgh coach, 
“Coburg,” upset into the sea over the pier 
at South Queensferry. Two passengers and 
two horses drowned. 

3 . —A parachute descent successfully per¬ 
formed at Cheltenham, by an aeronaut named 
Hampden. At an altitude of 9,000 feet he 
freed his parachute from the balloon, and de¬ 
scended gently to the earth in the space of 
thirteen minutes. 

5.—Fire in warehouses, Robert-street, Liver¬ 
pool, destroying cotton, indigo, oil, turpentine, 
and spices to the value of 200,000/. 

7 . —Meeting held in the saloon of the Hay- 
market Theatre to establish an association for 
the relief of aged and infirm actors. 

8. —At a banquet in Liverpool, Lord John 
Russell took occasion to allude to the public 
meetings now in the course of being held in 
various parts of the country. There were some, 
perhaps, who would put down such meetings. 
But such was not his opinion, nor that of the 
Government with which he acted. He thought 
the people had a right to free discussion. It 
was free discussion which elicited truth. They 
had a right to meet. If they had grievances 
they had a right to declare them, that they 
might be known and redressed. If they had 
no grievances, common sense would speedily 
come to the rescue, and put an end to these 
meetings. It was not from free discussion, it 
was not from the unchecked declaration of 
public opinion, that Governments had anything 
to fear. There was fear when men were 
driven by force to secret combinations. There 
was the fear, there was the danger, and not in 
free discussion.” 

9 . —In a proclamation, dated from “the 
Castle of St. L*r/is in the city of Quebec,” 
Lord Durham announces her Majesty’s dis¬ 
allowance of the Ordinances formerly issued. 
“I had reason,” he writes, “to believe that I 
was armed with all the power which I thought 
requisite, by the commissions and instructions 
under the royal sign manual with which I was 
charged as Governor-General and High Com¬ 
missioner, by the authority vested in me and 
my Council, by the Act of the Imperial Legis¬ 
lature, and by the general approbation of my 
appointment which all parties were pleased to 
express. I also trusted that I should enjoy 
throughout the course of my administration all 
the strength which the cordial and stedfast sup¬ 
port of the authorities at home can alone give 
to their distant officers, and that even party 
feeling would refrain from molesting me whilst 
occupied in maintaining the integrity of the 







OCTOBER 


1838. 


OCTOBER 


British Empire. In these just expectations I 
have been painfully disappointed. From the 
very commencement of my task, the minutest 
details of my administration have been exposed 
to incessant criticism, iri a spirit which has 
evinced an entire ignorance of the state of this 
country, and of the only mode in which the 
supremacy of the British Crown can here be 
upheld and exercised. Those who have, in the 
British Legislature, systematically depreciated 
my powers, and the Ministers of the Crown, 
by their tacit acquiescence therein, have pro¬ 
duced the effect of making it too clear that my 
authority is inadequate for the emergency 
which called it into existence. At length an 
act of my government, the first and most im¬ 
portant which was brought under the notice of 
the authorities at home, has been annulled; 
and the entire policy, of which that act was a 
small though essential part, has thus been 
defeated.” On the question of the disposal of 
the prisoners, Lord Durham said that he was 
perfectly aware his powers extended only to 
the landing of them on the shores of Bermuda, 
but he presumed that Parliament would sanc¬ 
tion their forcible detention if necessary. 

12.—Upsetting of the Oxford coach at Ted- 
dington, causing the death of Mr. G. Broderick, 
of Brasenose College. 

— Meeting at the Jerusalem Coffee-house, 
presided over by Sir R. W. Horton, “to con¬ 
sider the practicability and expediency of form¬ 
ing a private company” to carry on steam 
communication with India. The scheme, as 
submitted by Captain Barber, was that a vessel 
should sail monthly to the three Presidencies 
and the Straits of Batavia ; the passage-money 
not to exceed that now charged by vessels 
passing the Cape of Good Hope. “Five 
steamships, of 600 horse-power each, and 1,500 
tons’ burden, with two smaller vessels for the 
Bombay branch, are to be built. It is expected 
that the voyage to Ceylon will be performed 
in thirty-six days, to Madras in forty, Bombay 
forty-two, and Calcutta forty-three. The 
transit through Egypt to be performed by 
means of iron steamboats to Cairo, and omni¬ 
buses and vans across to Suez; skeleton car¬ 
riages to be used for the land transit of goods 
and luggage, made to fit the same places in 
both vessels, so that there will be no dis¬ 
turbance of packages and no uncovering till 
they reach the final port. In Bengal alone, 
800 shares, amounting to 140,000/., had been 
conditionally subscribed for; which showed 
how much interest the subject excited in India. 
The amount of capital required was only 
400,000/.; and, on the calculation that there 
would be 2,300 passengers (only half the num¬ 
ber that went to India in 1836) and a propor¬ 
tionate carriage of goods, the company might 
expect a dividend of 70,000/. on their 
400,000/.” 

— So engrossed were the inhabitants of 
Montreal with their constitutional struggle, that 
when the Theatre was opened to-night not one 


person was found in attendance. The doors 
were quietly closed again. 

15 .—Died at Cape Coast Castle, South 
Africa, from an overdose of prussic acid, 
Letitia Elizabeth, wife of Governor Maclean, 
famous in the literature of her time as L. E. L. 

18 .—The Protector , East Indiaman, lost in 
a storm in the Hooghly river, with nearly all 
on board—116 recruits for the Company’s ser¬ 
vice, a crew of 36, 9 male passengers, and 26 
women and children., 

22 . —Fire at Harrow, destroying the resi¬ 
dences of Rev. Mr. Wordsworth and Rev. Mr. 
Colenso, mathematical master. 

23 . —Apiece of ground nearly a mile square, 
covering a salt mine at Northwich, Chester, 
suddenly sinks to a depth of between fifteen 
and twenty yards, and carries with it the 
engine-house, stables, and cottages erected 
thereon. Four dead bodies were dug out of 
the ruins. 

24 . —Explosion in the “John Pit” colliery 
at Lowca, near Whitehaven, causing the death 
of 35 labourers, the whole employed in the 
ninety-five-fathom workings. Two men and 
one boy, in the act of descending the shaft, 
were blown to pieces; another boy lighted on 
a bank overlooking the blazing fissure, and 
was rescued little injured. 

— Died at New York, aged 68, from 
injuries received in the street, Joseph Lan¬ 
caster, originator of the Lancastrian system 
of education. 

25 . —The Bishop of Durham (Dr. Maltby), 
in a letter to Archdeacon Thorp, defends him¬ 
self from the imputation of countenancing Uni- 
tarianism, in so far as he had subscribed for a 
volume of sermons about to be published by a 
heterodox Dissenting minister named Turner. 
“ I never have intentionally,” he writes, 
“ countenanced any doctrine which is at vari¬ 
ance with those of our Church, still less could 
I have thought-of countenancing errors so 
grievous as I hold those of the Unitarians to 
be. Yet this feeling, as to the extent of their 
error, ought not to prevent us from showing 
all possible charity to their persons ; and that, 
I assure you, was all that I contemplated by 
this act of courtesy, which has drawn upon me, 
I cannot help thinking, much unmerited cen¬ 
sure. I need scarcely remind you that Dr. 
Lardner’s Works, edited by Dr. Kippis, also 
a Unitarian, were published by subscription; 
and that almost all the bishops ot that day, 
with the leading men of the Church, were sub¬ 
scribers. Yet Dr. Lardner’s Works contained 
not merely his masterly labours on the ‘ Credi¬ 
bility,’ but various sermons and tracts, including 
his celebrated but heterodox ‘Letter on the 
Logos.’ Now I am not aware, and certainly 
I do not expect, that either you or I shall find 
any offensive matter in the forthcoming volume 
of Mr. Turner. Surely, then, I am at least as 
much justified in subscribing to it as the bishops 

(27) 






OCTOBER 


1838. 


NOVEMBER 


and divines of our Church were in 1788, in 
prefixing their names to the Works of Dr. 
Lardner, which contained the avowal and de¬ 
fence of all his erroneous opinions.” 

26 .—John Teuton, printer, sentenced to 
fifteen months’ imprisonment for attempting to 
extort money from the Marquis of Downshire, 
by the publication of a pamphlet entitled “ The 
Secret History,” relating to the late Lady Mary 
Hill, sister to the Marquis. 

— Lord Palmerston instructs Lord Clanri- 
carde to obtain from Co'ant Nesselrode an ex¬ 
planation of the conduct of the Russian officials 
at the Persian Court. 

28 .—Severe gale on the east and west coast. 
Among the more serious of the disasters was 
the sinking of . the Northern Yacht steamboat 
trading between Leith and Newcastle, with 10 
passengers and her entire crew of 13 persons. 

November 3 .—Madrid declared in a state 
of siege. In the provinces the most severe re¬ 
taliatory measures are now being put in force by 
Carlists and Royalists. Cabrera writes : “I 
have ordered all the cavalry prisoners to be 
shot, because they refused to give quarter to 15 
volunteers who fell into their hands at the be¬ 
ginning of the action. The number thus shot 
was 161 ; of whom 2 were captains, 3 lieu¬ 
tenants, 4 sub-lieutenants, 8 first sergeants, 5 
second sergeants, 12 corporals, and 132 sol¬ 
diers.” Subsequently, Cabrera ordered 55 
prisoners, taken at Villamefa, in Arragon, to 
be shot. On the other side, the National 
Guard at Murcia massacred 30 Carlist pri¬ 
soners ; and at Alicante two others—all they 
had—were killed. The authorities at Cartha- 
gena saved the lives of the prisoners there by 
putting them on board ships in the harbour. 

4 . —Renewal of disturbance in Canada. 
To-day (Sunday) the rebels made an attack 
on the Indians of Cochanawaga, who sal¬ 
lied out of the church where they were as¬ 
sembled for Divine Service, repulsed their 
assailants, and captured seventy prisoners. 
The insurgents also made an unsuccessful 
attempt to-day to burn the steamboat Victoria , 
which had taken a detachment of artillery from 
Montreal to La Prairie. Frustrated in this 
design, they marched against the village of 
Beauhamois, the chief place of the seigniory, 
and well known as the property of Mr. Edward 
Ellice, and drove off the inhabitants. Here 
also they made a prisoner of Mr. Ellice, jun., 
M.P., Lord Durham’s Secretary, who was 
conveyed along with others to a nunnery at 
Chateauguay. 

7 . —Twenty-five men employed on the Ply¬ 
mouth Breakwater drowned in a squall when 
attempting to pass in an open boat to the Cat- 
water. 

8. —Fire at an hotel in Tam worth, and six 
servants of the house suffocated. 

(28) 


8 . —Explosion at Hale’s powder-mill, Oare, 
Faversham, causing the death of three men 
employed in the works, and another engaged 
in a field fifty yards distant. 

9 . —The rebel army in Canada quit their 
strongholds at Napiersville, and Sir John Col- 
borne concentrates his troops there. 

10. —Outrage on the British Minister at 
Teheran; M. Semino, an officer who had 
lately received the rank of General in the Per¬ 
sian service, endeavouring to take forcible 
possession of a house occupied by Major Todd, 
overlooking the garden of the Minister. In 
answer to Mr. M‘Neill’s report of the transac¬ 
tion, Lord Palmerston directed that a written 
and formal apology be demanded from the 
Persian Prime Minister. A week later another 
insult was offered at Bushire, a forcible en¬ 
trance being effected into the house of the Resi¬ 
dency Shroff (or agent), and the occupant treated 
with great indignity. For this outrage Lieut.- 
Col. Shiel was instructed to demand satisfac¬ 
tion, and the punishment of the persons chiefly 
concerned. 

12 .— O’Connell commences a career of 
agitation in favour of the establishment of 
“Precursor” Societies. To-day he spoke at 
Tralee, and during the week at Kanturk and 
Thurles. 

— Three fishing-boats upset off the coast of 
Suffolk. With the exception of one man, the 
crews, amounting to twenty-nine in number, 
perished. 

15 .—Lord Glenelg writes to Lord Durham : 
“The proclamation of the 9th of October, 
her Majesty’s confidential advisers regard not 
merely as a deviation from the course which has 
hitherto been invariably pursued by the gover¬ 
nors of the British possessions abroad, but as a 
dangerous departure from the practice and 
principles of the constitution. They consider 
as open to most serious objection an appeal by 
such an officer to the public at large from 
measures adopted by the Sovereign, with the 
advice and consent of Parliament. The terms 
in which that appeal has in this instance been 
made, appear to her Majesty’s Ministers calcu¬ 
lated to impair the reverence due to the Royal 
authority in the colony, to derogate from the 
character of the Imperial Legislature, to excite 
amongst the disaffected hopes of impunity, and 
to enhance the difficulties with which your 
Lordship’s successor will have to contend. The 
Ministers of the Crown having humbly sub¬ 
mitted this opinion to the Queen, it is my duty 
to inform you, that I have received her Ma¬ 
jesty’s commands to signify to your Lordship her 
Majesty’s disapprobation of your proclamation 
of the 9th of October. Under these circum¬ 
stances, her Majesty’s Government are com¬ 
pelled to admit that your continuance in the 
government of British North America could 
be attended with no beneficial results. I pre¬ 
sume that before your receipt of this rlespatch, 
your Lordship will have delivered over the 





NOVEMBER 


1838. 


NOVEMBER 


government of Lower Canada to Sir John 
Colbome, to whom I shall address the requi¬ 
site instructions for his guidance. ” 

15 . —Defeat of Canadian insurgents. To¬ 
day Colonel Dundas reached Prescott from 
Kingston, with four companies of the 83d regi¬ 
ment, two 18-pounders, and a howitzer. He 
took up his position about 400 yards from the 
windmill; and with his field-pieces opened 
a sharp‘fire upon the stone building near 
the mill, whilst Captain Sandom with two 
18-pounders in two gunboats fired upon it 
from the water. After this operation had lasted 
about an hour, a white flag was hung out from 
the building, and its occupants surrendered 
themselves unconditionally to Colonel Dundas. 
There were 102 altogether, of whom 16 were 
wounded. 

16 . —Desire Rousselle, a native of Brittany, 
attempts to assassinate a Frenchman calling 
himself Charles Louis de Bourbon, Duke of 
Normandy, a pretended son of Louis XVI. 
and Marie Antoinette, in the house 21, Clarence 
Place, Camberwell. Rousselle escaped after 
firing at his victim, but was seized some days 
later lurking about the premises. 

— Raphoe Palace, then unoccupied, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

— Died at Paris, in his seventieth year, the 
Rt. Hon. Robert Cutlar Ferguson, Judge Ad¬ 
vocate-General and M. P. for the Stewartry of 
Kirkcudbright. Mr. Ferguson won a foremost 
place at the bar, both in England and Calcutta, 
and was one of the most prominent members 
of the Reform party in the beginning of the 
century. He was tried along with the Earl of 
Thanet for aiding O’Connor in his attempted 
escape from Maidstone Court-house, and sen¬ 
tenced to twelve months’ imprisonment in the 
King’s Bench. 

— Treaty of commerce between Great Bri¬ 
tain and Turkey ratified. British manufactures 
subjected to an ad valorem duty of 3 per cent., 
and 2 per cent, in lieu of all other inland im¬ 
posts. Charge on shipping entering the Dar¬ 
danelles, Bosphorus, and Black Sea, to be 
abolished, and a free transit allowed for goods 
passing through Turkey for exportation. 

17. — As tending somewhat to counteract 
the proceedings of the High Church party 
at Oxford, a proposal is issued to-day from 
Magdalen Hall for the erection of a monument 
to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, “ who had 
so large a share in restoring our own branch of 
the Catholic Church to primitive orthodoxy, and 
who, for the maintenance of the Scriptural 
truths which they embodied in its Articles and 
other formularies, suffered death in this city.” 

19 .—Came on in the Arches Court, before 
Sir Herbert Jenner, the case of Breeks v. 
Woolfrey, a suit brought by letters of request 
from the Vicar-General of the Bishop of Win¬ 
chester. The articles alleged, that by the laws, 
customs, and usages of the realm it is for¬ 
bidden to erect in the churchyard of any parish 


a tomb or headstone, or other monument, 
without the consent of the rector or vicar, 
or without a faculty for the purpose ; and that 
it is by the 22d Article of the Church of Eng¬ 
land, agreed upon in 1562, declared that the 
Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardon, 
and other things therein mentioned, is “ a fond 
thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no 
warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to 
the Word of God that any person erecting, 
or causing to be erected, in the churchyard of 
any parish, any monument, without such con¬ 
sent or faculty, ought to be peremptorily mo¬ 
nished immediately to remove the same; and 
further, that if such monument contain any in¬ 
scription contrary to the doctrine and discipline 
of the Church of England, and to the Articles 
of the said Church, the person or persons so 
offending ought not only to be peremptorily 
monished immediately to remove the same, but 
also duly corrected and punished according to 
law ; that the defendant, notwithstanding, did 
erect a tomb or headstone in the churchyard of 
Carisbrooke, to the memory of her husband, 
without the consent of the Vicar and without a 
faculty, and that upon such tomb or headstone 
were contained, amongst other, the two follow¬ 
ing inscriptions—“ Pray for the soul of J. 
Woolfreyand “ It is a holy and wholesome 
thought to pray for the dead” (2 Mac¬ 
cabees xii.); both which inscriptions were 
contrary to the doctrine and discipline of the 
Church of England, and to the articles, canons, 
and constitutions thereof, and particularly to 
the 22d Article ; that due notice had been 
given to the defendant to remove the stone, 
but she had refused, or neglected to do so, and 
that the same still remains, to the great scandal 
and offence of the parishioners and others. 
The prayer was, that the defendant be de¬ 
creed and monished to remove the stone, be 
canonically corrected and punished, and con¬ 
demned in the costs. Dr. Addams, for the 
defendant, entered into a long argument, and 
quoted many authorities, to prove that prayers 
for the dead were neither unscriptural nor con¬ 
trary to the doctrine or practice of the Church 
of England, nor necessarily connected with the 
Romish doctrine of Purgatory. The Queen’s 
Advocate spoke on the other side, and moved 
the Court to issue a “ peremptory monition” 
for the removal of the monument. The 
judgment of the Court was postponed. (See 
Dec. 12.) 

20 .—Count Nesselrode acquaints Lord Clan- 
ricarde that Count Simovich had acted at the 
Court of the Shah in a manner entitling Great 
Britain to complain, and that the ambassador 
had been in consequence recalled. 

— A coroner’s jury sitting on the body 
of Robert Watson, who had strangled himself 
in bed at the “ Blue Anchor” tavern, St. Mary- 
at-Hill, ascertain the details of a career of 
more than ordinary interest. Deceased had 
been at one time secretary to Lord George 
Gordon, and was deeply implicated in the 





NOVEMBER 


1838. 


NOVEMBER 


riots of 1780. He afterwards became presi¬ 
dent for a time to the London Corresponding 
Society, and on resigning that situation suffered 
various vicissitudes in foreign countries. Being 
at Rome in the year 1812, he became acquainted 
with a person who had in his possession several 
important documents relating to the Stuart 
family, and to the secret history of the Papal 
Government, particularly with respect to its 
connexion with the exiled royal family. Having 
made this discovery, Watson communicated it 
to Lord Castlereagh, who authorized him to 
procure the documents in question at any price. 
After much difficulty he succeeded in obtaining 
them ; and a frigate was sent out by the 
English Government to bring him with the 
documents to this country. In the meantime, 
the Papal Government, being apprised of the 
existence of the documents, seized and set its 
seal upon them. After much negotiation, the 
Papal Government consented to give up those 
portions of the documents that related to the 
Stuart family and this country, on condition 
that it should be allowed to retain those papers 
which referred to its own acts in behalf of the 
Stuarts. In so far as Watson’s death was con¬ 
cerned, the jury returned a verdict of “Tem¬ 
porary derangement.” 

21. —Riots at Todmorden, caused by the re¬ 
fusal of Overseer Ingham to collect a rate im¬ 
posed by the guardians under the New Poor 
Law. The constables who attempted to exe¬ 
cute a distress warrant on Ingham were forced 
to promise to execute no more warrants, and 
then stripped and beaten. 

22. —In the Court of Queen’s Bench Mr. 
Disraeli, M. P., appeared to receive sentence for 
a libel on Mr. Austin, a barrister (see June 5), 
judgment having gone against him by default. 
Mr. Disraeli said : “As to my offence against 
the law, I throw myself on your lordships’mercy ; 
as to my offence against the individual, I have 
made him that reparation which a gentleman 
should under the circumstances cheerfully 
proffer, and with which a gentleman should, in 
my opinion, be cheerfully content. I make this, 
my lords, not to avoid the consequences of my 
conduct; for, right or wrong, good or bad, these 
consequences I am ever prepared to encounter; 
but because I am anxious to soothe the feelings 
which I have unjustly injured, and evince my 
respect to the suggestions of the Bench. But 
as to my offence against the Bar, I do with the 
utmost confidence appeal to your lordships, 
however you may disapprove of my opinions— 
however objectionable, however offensive, even 
however odious they may be to you—that you 
will not permit me to be arraigned for one 
offence and punished for another. In a word, 
my lords, it is to the Bench I look with con¬ 
fidence to shield me from the vengeance of an 
irritated and powerful profession.” Apology 
accepted, and prayer for judgment withdrawn. 

— To-day, the Attorney-General showed 
cause against a rule for a criminal information 

(30/ 


obtained by the Marquis of Blandford against 
the publisher of the Satirist newspaper. The 
Marchioness of Blandford and her children 
were also parties to the application on which 
the rule was granted. The complaint against 
the newspaper was for the publication of a libel 
impugning the legality of the marriage of Lord 
Blandford, and the legitimacy of his children 
by that marriage. The libel alleged that the 
Marquis of Blandford, in 1817, married Miss 
Susan Adelaide Law, a young lady of seven 
teen, residing with her father and mother in 
Seymour-place, Bryanston-square ; that he had 
a daughter by her ; and took the mother and 
his child to Scotland, where Miss Law was 
introduced to the present Marquis of Breadal- 
bane, Sir William Elliot, and Sir Tyrwhitt 
Jones, as his wife; that subsequently Lord 
Blandford married the daughter of the Earl of 
Galloway, and had children by her—the present 
Earl of Sunderland, and others, who were ille¬ 
gitimate. The affidavit of Lord Blandford, on 
which the rule for the criminal information was 
obtained, denied that there had been any mar¬ 
riage with Miss Law; though the parties had 
lived together, and 400/. a year had been paid 
to the lady as an allowance. After consulting 
with the other judges, Lord Denman said that 
notwithstanding the misconduct of Lord Bland¬ 
ford, Lady Blandford and the Earl of Sunder¬ 
land were entitled to have the rule made 
absolute. 

22 .—The Common Council of London vote 
the freedom of the City to be presented in a 
gold box to the venerable Thomas Clarkson, 
“as a small but grateful testimonial of the 
Corporation of London to the public services 
and worth of one who had the merit of origi¬ 
nating, and has the consolation of living to 
witness, the triumph of the great struggle for 
the deliverance of the enslaved African from 
the most oppressive bondage that ever tried the 
endurance of afflicted humanity, thereby ob¬ 
taining for his country the high distinction of 
separating her commercial greatness from prin¬ 
ciples incompatible with the exercise of the 
religion of mercy, and achieving a moral vic¬ 
tory, whose trophies shall endure while justice, 
freedom, the clemency of power, and the 
peaceful glories of civilization shall have a 
place in the admiration of mankind.” 

— Court-martial assembled at Kingston for 
trial of Canadian rebels. Nine were sentenced 
to death, and the others to various periods of 
banishment. 

27 . —Count Lobau, Marshal of France, 
died at Paris, aged 68. 

28 . —Conference at Birmingham between 
the “Physical Force” and “Moral Force” 
Chartists. On the part of the former, Feargus 
O’Connor explained that his language regard¬ 
ing arming had been misunderstood, and the two 
parties formally resolved to continue their joint 
action in favour of the National Petition. 




NOVEMBER 


1838. 


DECEMBER 


29 . —Preparatory to the march of the army 
of the Indus into Afghanistan, the Governor- 
General makes a ceremonial visit to Runjeet 
Singh at the camp, Ferozepore. He after¬ 
wards accompanied “the Lion of Lahore” to 
his capital. The Bengal army now at Feroze¬ 
pore consisted of about 9,500 men of all arms. 
The levy raised for the immediate service of 
Shah Soojah was then passing through Feroze¬ 
pore. It comprised two regiments of cavalry, 
four regiments of infantry, and a troop of horse 
artillery; in all about 6,000 men. Runjeet’s 
troops were to advance on Cabul from Peshawur 
through the Khyber Pass. As it was designed 
to deal a blow at the Ameers of Scinde in pass¬ 
ing, the Company’s troops were to proceed in a 
south-westerly direction through the territories 
of Bahwulpore, crossing near Subzulkote the 
frontier of Scinde, striking down to the banks 
of the Indus, and crossing the river at Bukkur. 
It then took a north-westerly course, passing 
through Shikarpoor, Bhag, and Dadur to the 
mouth of the Bolan Pass; thence through the 
Pass to Quettah, and from Quettah through the 
Kojuck to Candahar. The troops were under 
the command of Sir John Keane, Commander- 
in-chief of the forces. The crossing of the 
army at Bukkur was ineffectually opposed by 
Meer Roostum. 

30 . —Queen Pomare and the chiefs of Tahiti 
send a letter to Queen Victoria, praying for the 
assistance and protection of England against 
the encroachments of French residents on the 
islands under her sway. 

— The French Government refusing to raise 
a blockade which they had laid on the port of 
Vera Cruz to enforce compensation for injuries 
said to have been inflicted on French subjects, 
Mexico makes a declaration of war against that 
Power. 

— Lord Durham lands at Plymouth from 
Quebec. Replying to an address presented 
next day by the Mayor of Devonport, his lord- 
ship said: “What relates to myself is of no 
importance when compared with the interests 
of your fellow-subjects, the inhabitants of 
British North America. To the furtherance of 
those interests I have publicly and solemnly 
declared that I would devote myself with 
singleness of purpose, and independently of 
all party considerations in this country. I am 
glad of an opportunity, at the very moment of 
landing in England, to repeat that pledge. 
The necessity for this course is well understood 
by the people of British America, and will, 
before long, be also comprehended by the 
people of England ; involving as it does the 
very existence of British supremacy all over 
the world, and the efficient maintenance or 
weak abandonment of that national .policy 
which is expressed by the words ‘ Ships, Colo¬ 
nies, and Commerce. ’ ” 

December 1 . —Sir William Molesworth 
writes to his constituents from Devonport : 
“ The opinion that I have formed after much 


and careful reflection, and the infbrmation that 
I have received within the last few months 
with regard to Canada, make me believe, that 
when Lord Durham shall lay his plans before 
the Houses of Parliament, I for one shall be 
able to give them my most cordial support, and 
that all real Liberals will equally be able to 
rally round the noble lord, and with justice 
acknowledge him to be their leader.” 

4 . —Fracas in the Tuileries garden between 
Mr. Somers, M.P., and Mr. Wentworth Beau¬ 
mont. Mr. Beaumont’s counsel stated in the 
Court of Correctional Police that Mr. Somers 
had made a demand for money to suppress a 
letter, and, on receiving a refusal, struck his 
client with a whip. Mr. Somers was con¬ 
demned in absence to two years’ imprisonment 
and a fine of 100 francs. 

— Disturbance at Canton, resulting in the 
stoppage of all trade. The Chinese authorities 
declined negotiation until the opium traffic was 
abolished. 

5 . —A woman performed penance at the door 
of Walton Church, by order of the Ecclesias¬ 
tical Court, for defaming the character of a 
neighbour. 

7 .—John Millie, clerk in the Newcastle 
Savings Bank, found murdered in his office, 
and Archibald Bolam, actuary of the bank, dis¬ 
covered in the same room, apparently insensible 
and slightly injured. Bolam, on recovering, 
sought to fix the crime upon a rough-spoken 
man who attacked them both, intending to rob 
the bank ; but at the inquest the jury returned 
a verdict of wilful murder against himself. 

12 .—Sir Herbert Jenner gives judgment in 
the case of Breeks v. Woolfrey (see Nov. 19). 
“ It appears,” said the learned judge, “ that the 
whole question turned upon the point whether 
praying for the dead was necessarily connected 
with the Romish doctrine of Purgatory, so as 
to make them inseparable. It was the doctrine 
of Purgatory that the Articles of the Church 
denounced ; and beyond the Articles the 
Court could not go. It was necessary, there¬ 
fore, to inquire what was the Romish doctrine 
of Purgatory.” The judge then went into a 
learned history of the origin and progress of 
the doctrine ; and came to the conclusion that 
it was not introduced till the year 593, whilst 
the practice of praying for the dead prevailed 
at a much earlier period. He quoted the 
works of Jeremy Taylor, the formula of Henry 
the Eighth, the Book of Common Praye* pro¬ 
mulgated by Edward the Sixth, and other 
documents, to prove that prayers for the dead 
had been duly authorized by the Protestant 
Church of England. There could, therefore, 
be no doubt that prayers for the dead were 
not considered as part of the Romish doctrine 
of Purgatory, by the fathers of the English 
Reformed Church. It was, however, against 
that doctrine that the 22d Article, chiefly re¬ 
lied on, was directed. It was urged that the 

(30 







DECEMBER 


1838. 


DECEMBER 


35th Article, which set forth certain homilies 
as containing good and wholesome doctrine, 
was decisive against prayers for the dead ; for 
the Homily No. 7, it was alleged, designated 
such prayers as erroneous. But though erro¬ 
neous, they were not denounced as unlawful; 
and on this head also he was of opinion, that 
there had been no violation of the Articles of 
the Church of England. It was again main¬ 
tained, that the words “ It is a holy and whole¬ 
some thought to pray for the dead,” were not 
those used in the English version of Maccabees : 
but then, he considered the main point to be, 
not whether they were according to the 
Romish or Protestant version, but whether 
they were consistent with the latter, and not 
opposed to the doctrine of the Church. The 
citation was also defective : it ought to have 
stated that the tombstone was erected without 
the consent of the Vicar; and the defendant 
might have been prepared with an answer to 
what was a distinct and separate offence. The 
citation was . insufficient to raise that point. 
On this last head, therefore, the “articles were 
also inadmissible,” and must be dismissed with 
costs. 

12 .—Royal proclamation issued, warning jus¬ 
tices that “great numbers of evil-disposed 
and disorderly persons have lately, in some 
parts of Great Britain, assembled themselves 
together after sunset, by torch-light, in large 
bodies and in a tumultuous manner, with 
banners, flags, and other ensigns, and have 
continued so assembled until a late hour of the 
night, and during the time they were so assem¬ 
bled have by loud shouts and noises, and by 
the discharge of fire-arms and the display of 
weapons of offence, greatly alarmed the in¬ 
habitants of the neighbourhood of such assem¬ 
blies, and endangered the public peace.” 

14 . —Sir John Colborne, G.C.B., gazetted 
as Governor - General, Vice - Admiral, and 
Captain-General of all her Majesty’s Provinces 
within and adjacent to the Continent of 
North America. 

15 . —The Earl of Durham declines to re¬ 
ceive a deputation from the Westminster 
Reform Association, on the ground that the 
body they represented, as appeared from their 
public meeting, merely wanted to use the in¬ 
fluence of his name for their own ends. Ex¬ 
planations made by the office-bearers of the 
society led to the address being afterwards 
forwarded to Lord Durham. 

19 . —Came on in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, the case of Conroy v. Lawson, a prose¬ 
cution for a libel which appeared in the Times 
newspaper of March 9th. The article im¬ 
puted to “a certain newly-created Baronet, 
attached to the household of the Duchess of 
Kent,” mismanagement of the concerns of her 
Royal Highness, who had accumulated a debt 
of 80,000/., towards the silent discharge of 
which debt Parliament had voted an annuity 
of 30,000/. Disrespectful conduct to William 
IV. was insinuated against the “ Baronet 
( 32 ) 


who, it was said, wished to have been sent 
Ambassador to Sweden, but the Queen refused 
to give him the opportunity of exhibiting his 
“ respectful ” manners to the King of Sweden. 
And then came the two following paragraphs, 
in which the pith of the offence lay :—“ Should 
he quit his present position, we ask, where are 
talents to be found capable of applying a due 
portion of the 30,000/. to the liquidation of 
the 80,000/., and who can so well understand 
wiping off as he who has chalked on ? There 
is another matter also worth notice. There is 
a certain estate in Wales, purchased and paid 
for not long ago. If any public inquiry should 
take place whence the money for the payment 
came, who so competent to answer the ques¬ 
tion as the Baronet?” For the defendant, 
Sir John Campbell said that nothing like fraud 
was insinuated against Sir John Conroy, and 
that he ought to have presented himself in 
court for cross-examination if he * wished to 
exonerate himself from the rumours in circu¬ 
lation. The jury returned a verdict against 
the defendant, and Lord Denman sentenced 
him to pay a fine of 200/. and suffer imprison¬ 
ment for one month. 

20.—Meeting in King-street, Manchester, 
for considering measures to be adopted to secure 
the total and immediate repeal of the Corn 
Laws. This was the beginning of the Anti- 
Com-Law League agitation, the Manchester 
Chamber of Commerce adopting a petition to¬ 
day against the monopolists. 

— The second centenary of the famous 
Assembly of 1638 celebrated at Glasgow by a 
banquet in the Trades Hall. 

26 . —The Tory party defeated in all the 
Birmingham wards at the first municipal elec¬ 
tion under the new charter of incorpora¬ 
tion. Mr. William Scholefield was elected the 
first mayor. 

27 . —Apprehension, near Manchester, of 
Stephens, a Wesleyan preacher, and one of the 
most violent agitators against the New Poor 
Law. At the examination it was shown that 
he had repeatedly denounced people by name, ; 
and sought to incite the crowds who followed 1 
him to acts of destruction. One witness said 
he told the people to get guns and pikes, and 
have them ready over their chimney-pieces. 
When the grand attack was to be made, they 
were to go to the factories with a dagger in one 
hand and a torch in the other. He also talked 
about tarring and feathering one person, and 
sending him as a present to the Poor Law Com¬ 
missioners. Stephens was liberated on bail, 
and soon afterwards addressed a meeting of 
5,000 at Ashton-under-Lyne, declaring that 
with the aid of a rural police the Poor 
Law Commissioners intended to destroy all \ 
children above the number of three born of 
poor people. 

—The Polish leader Skrzynezki made a 
Belgian general, but dismissed at the instance 
of Austria and Prussia. 





JANUARY 


1839. 


1839. 

January 1.—The Earl of Norbury shot 
when walking in the shrubbery near his own 
house, Kilbeggan, county of Meath. The 
assassin was seen to escape, but in the con¬ 
fusion managed to elude his pursuers ; nor was 
his identity ever ascertained. A statement cur¬ 
rent at the time, that the ground from which the 
shot was fired showed the print of a well-made 
boot, gave rise to much wild speculation as to 
the person and motive of the murderer. A re¬ 
ward' of 1,000/. with an annuity of 100/. was 
offered for his discovery. 

2 .—A correspondent of the Times men¬ 
tions that the authorities of London University 
having intimated they could no longer tolerate 
the absurd and indecent mummeries of animal 
magnetism, Dr. Elliotson had tendered his re¬ 
signation. 

7 . —Violent hurricane experienced over the 
kingdom generally, but most destructive on the 
west coast and in Ireland. The Pennsylvania , 
St. A ndrew’s, Lockwood , and many other vessels 
wrecked, with great loss of life. The Edin¬ 
burgh and Carlisle mail coach blown off the 
road near Selkirk. In Liverpool and neigh¬ 
bourhood, about 100 lives were lost; and 
throughout the south of Scotland most of the 
towns presented the appearance of having suf¬ 
fered a severe cannonading. The wooden road¬ 
way of the Menai bridge was torn up and car¬ 
ried away by the fury of the tempest. The 
anemometer of the Birmingham Philosophical 
Institution showed that the pressure had risen 
from 2 lbs. per foot on Saturday night to 30lbs. 
per foot on Monday morning. 

— The French Academy reports on the in¬ 
vention of M. Daguerre, by which the pictures 
of the camera lucida are rendered permanent. 

IO.—The magistrates of King’s County meet 
in the Court-house of Tullamore to take into 
consideration the disturbed state of the country, 
particularly with reference to the murder of the 
Earl of Norbury. Lengthy political speeches 
were delivered by Lord Oxmantown, who pre¬ 
sided, and Lord Charleville. Resolutions ex¬ 
pressive of “horror and indignation” at the 
murder, and of condolence with Lord Norbury’s 
family under “this dreadful and awful cala¬ 
mity ” were passed unanimously. In acknow¬ 
ledging receipt of the resolution, the Lord- 
Lieutenant caused Mr. Secretary Drummond 
to write : “ While his Excellency is disposed 
to make allowance for the excited feelings pro¬ 
duced by the recent melancholy occurrence, he 
cannot but lament that a body of magistrates, 
called together as such, and presided over by the 
lord-lieutenant of their county, should have so 
far forgotten the object of their meeting as to 
convert it into a display of political feeling; 
and his Excellency believes that those who 
took a prominent part in the proceedings will, 
( 33 ) 


JANUAR y 


when they return to the exercise of their cooler 
judgment, perceive that the intemperate course 
which they have pursued is ill-calculated to 
promote the professed object of the meeting, 
or to lessen those social evils the existence of 
which they deplore.” 

11 .—Earthquake at Martinique, almost en¬ 
tirely destroying Fort Royal. 

13 . —Duel between Lord Londonderry and 
Mr. Grattan. Shots were exchanged without 
effect. 

14 . —Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, the arguments of counsel in the case of 
the twelve Canadian prisoners brought from 
Liverpool, where they were in custody of the 
gaoler, to London, on writs of habeas corpus 
granted by Mr. Justice Littledale. For the 
prisoners it was contended, that there had been 
no legal conviction; that it was an old-estab¬ 
lished maxim of law that no man could suffer 
punishment by his own consent, or by contract; 
and the authority to inflict punishment must be 
derived, not from the prisoner’s consent, but 
from undoubted law; that in the case of the 
prisoners, the Governor of Upper Canada had 
no such authority; that the privilege of pardon 
in cases of high treason and murder was ex¬ 
pressly denied to Colonial Governors, and 
retained for the Sovereign ; that it would be 
most impolitic to empower a Colonial Governor 
to make bargains with prisoners, to impose con¬ 
ditions of commutation of punishment; that 
such a contract was illegal; that the Governor 
of Upper Canada, who could not transport a 
prisoner to Bermuda, or to Calcutta, had no 
authority to send him to Van Diemen’s Land ; 
that even supposing the power to transport 
existed, the transportation had not been legally 
conducted, inasmuch as the prisoners had been 
transferred first to the Sheriff of Quebec, and 
then to the gaoler at Liverpool, neither ot 
whom had power to detain them ; and the 
Governor of Lower Canada took upon himself 
to forward the prisoners to England, though 
possessing no legal authority over them. Lord 
Denman delivered the decision of the Judges 
on the 21 st, alfirming the right of a single 
Judge in vacation to issue writs of habeai 
corpus , but on the other points was hostile 
to the prisoners. The Court was of opinion, 
that in passing the law by which the prisoners’ 
sentence was commuted by their own consent 
from death to transportation, the Legislature of 
Upper Canada had not exceeded its powers ; 
and that the officers of the Government, in 
carrying the sentence of transportation into 
effect, had not transgressed the law except in 
one instance, where the name of the prisoner 
was not inserted in the mandatory part of the 
return. 

15 . —An extreme Chartist party being anxious 
to force on the question of Universal Suffrage 
in preference to the Corn Laws, Feargus O’Con¬ 
nor made an unsuccessful attempt to-day at the 
Leeds meeting to carry a resolution : ‘ ‘ That 
we consider all restrictions upon the importa- 

l) 





JAiVUAR V 


FEBRUARY 


IS 39 - 


tion of foreign grain as unjust in principle and 
injurious in its effects ; nevertheless we are of 
opinion that no salutary alteration can be made 
in the present system until those for whose 
benefit the change is contemplated shall have a 
voice in the choice of those Representatives to 
whom shall be entrusted the power of prevent¬ 
ing the recurrence of so great an evil as the 
present Corn Law. ”— At Birmingham the 
Chartists were successful in carrying their re¬ 
solution in opposition to the Anti-Com-Law 
party who had called the meeting. 

15 .—A Special Commission opened at Clon¬ 
mel for the trial of various persons charged 
with murder, and other Whiteboy offences. 

18 . —Three lives lost on the ice at Dud- 
dingstone Loch, Edinburgh. 

19 . —The Sultan refusing to fulfil his en¬ 
gagements regarding the cession of Aden, the 
place is bombarded and taken to-day by a 
naval and military force under Captain H. 
Smith, of the Volage. This was the first 
occasion in which her Majesty’s forces by sea 
and land were engaged in warfare together. 

20. —The Chilians defeat the Peruvians 
under Santa Cruz, at Yungay. 

21 . —Anti-Com-Law meeting at Manchester, 
attended by many members of Parliament and 
extensive manufacturers.—Writing to-day to 
his Stroud constituents, Lord John Russell 
said : “I gave my support to the Bill of 1829, 
considering it an improvement on the former 
prohibitory system ; but it is my opinion that 
a moderate fixed duty would be more advan¬ 
tageous, not only to trade and manufactures, 
but likewise to agriculture, than our present 
fluctuating scale. It is desirable not to alter 
too frequently the laws by which the direction 
of capital and the channels of industry are 
regulated ; but it is also desirable not to main¬ 
tain a system of duties which, as experience 
has shown, increases the high prices of dear 
years to the consumer, and depresses the low 
prices of cheap years to the producer. I give 
you this as my individual opinion ; but it is 
one which I shall be ready to support by my 
vote in the House of Commons.” 

— In the Arches Court Sir H. Jenner 
Fust gives judgment in the case promoted by 
Capt. Grant against his wife, for adultery with 
Capt. Vincent. Separation granted. 

— Great Anti-Com-Law meeting held in 
Edinburgh, presided over by the Lord Provost, 
Sir James Forrest. 

22 . —The Queen goes in state to Drury Lane 
Theatre. 

— The Mole Ministry resign, but after an 
interregnum of a fortnight, during which various 
attempts were made by Marshal Soult and 
others to form a Cabinet, the old officials were 
recalled by the King. 

28 . —Died, aged 86, Sir William Beechey, 
R. A. 

( 34 ) 


February 1 .— Case of Lady Flora Hastings. 
Lord Melbourne informs Sir James Clark, 
M.D., that a communication has been made by 
Lady Tavistock respecting Lady Flora Hastings 
(in the Duchess of Kent’s household), whose 
appearance had given rise to a suspicion in the 
Palace that she might have been privately mar¬ 
ried. Sir James stated, that while deprecating 
such suspicions he was bound to admit that 
Lady Flora’s appearance in some degree coun¬ 
tenanced them, but would not venture to give 
an opinion without more ample means of ob¬ 
servation than she had permitted. On the l6lh 
Sir James acquaints Lady Flora with the ex¬ 
isting suspicions, when she stated that for these 
suspicions there was not the slightest ground. 
“ After the interview with Lady Flora, it re¬ 
mained for me,” writes Sir James Clark, “to 
communicate what had passed to her Royal 
Highness the Duchess of Kent. I therefore 
informed Lady Flora that I was going to her 
Royal Highness for that purpose : to the pro¬ 
priety of this Lady Flora immediately assented. 
I accordingly went to the Duchess of Kent, 
and stated the nature of the interview I had 
had with Lady Flora. Her Royal Highness 
immediately expressed her entire disbelief of 
anything injurious to Lady Flora’s character, 
and she asked me my opinion. However re¬ 
luctant I felt to express any doubts on the 
subject after Lady Flora’s declaration, I could 
not decline giving a conscientious reply to her 
Royal Highness’s question ; and I answered to 
the effect that the suspicions I previously enter¬ 
tained were not removed. In the course of the 
evening of the day on which I made the com¬ 
munication to Lady Flora Hastings, I received 
a note from her Ladyship, of which the follow¬ 
ing is a copy :—‘ Saturday.—Sir, although I 
think you perfectly understood me this morn¬ 
ing, that I did not wish you to take any steps 
without hearing from me, it is perhaps better 
to obviate the possibility of any mistake that I 
should distinctly say so. I shall be governed 
entirely by her Royal Highness’s wishes and 
orders.—Yours sincerely, Flora Eliz. Hast¬ 
ings.’ —I heard nothing more on the subject 
till the afternoon of the following day (Sunday, 
February 17th), when I received another note 
from Lady Flora, of which the following is a 
copy :—‘ Sir, by her Royal Highness’s com¬ 
mand, I have written to ask Sir Charles Clarke 
to name an hour this afternoon to come to me. 
He has answered my note by coming, and is 
now here. Could you come and meet him ?— 
Yours sincerely, F. E. Hastings.’ —On re¬ 
ceiving this note, I immediately went to Lady 
Flora, and found Sir Charles with her Lady¬ 
ship. He stated to me, in Lady Flora’s pre¬ 
sence, as part of the conversation he had had 
with her, that he urged her, if there were any 
grounds for the suspicions entertained, to admit 
the fact now, as after the examination it would 
be too late. Aftet this conversation. Lady 
Flora requested that Lady Portman might be 
called in. On her arrival, Lady Flora retired 
to her chamber, where her maid was in attend- 






FEDRUARY 


1839. 


FEBRUARY 


ance. After Sir Charles Clarke had made an 
examination, he returned with me to the sitting- 
room, and stated, as the result, that there could 
be no pregnancy ; but at the same time he ex¬ 
pressed a wish that I also should make an 
examination. This I at first declined, stating 
it to be unnecessary ; but, on his earnestly 
urging me to do so, I felt that a further refusal 
might be construed into a desire to shrink from 
a share of the responsibility, and I accordingly 
yielded. After finally consulting, we gave the 
following certificate :—‘ Buckingham Palace, 
17th February, 1839.—We have examined 
with great care the state of Lady Flora Hast¬ 
ings, with a view to determine the existence or 
non-existence of pregnancy, and it is our opinion, 
although there is an enlargement of the stomach, 
that there are no grounds for suspicion that preg¬ 
nancy does exist, or ever did exist.—(Signed) 
Charles M. Clarke, M.D.; James Clark, 
M. D. ’—Before parting with Lady Flora, both 
Sir Charles Clarke and myself pressed upon her 
Ladyship the expediency of her appearing on 
that day at table as usual.” 

3. —Kurrachee bombarded and taken by the 
British. 

4 . —The Baptist missionaries of Jamaica 
address the Governor on the willingness of the 
blacks to work, if reasonable wages are given, 
and describe their own sect as distinguished in 
the island by “the misrepresentations and 
calumnies of unreasonable and wicked men.” 

5 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in per¬ 
son. The attendance of Peers and Peeresses, 
both in the body of the House and in the 
strangers’ gallery was observed to be unusually 
numerous. Referring to the engagements with 
Affghanistan, “events,” said her Majesty in 
the Royal Speech, “have induced the Governor- 
General of India to take measures for protecting 
British interests in that quarter of the world, 
and to enter into engagements the fulfilment of 
which may render military operations necessary. ” 
Regarding Canada, it was with deep concern 
her Majesty acquainted “my Lords and Gentle¬ 
men ” that “ the province of Lower Canada has 
again been disturbed by insurrection, and hos¬ 
tile incursions have been made into Upper 
Canada by certain lawless inhabitants of the 
United States of America.” The Speech con¬ 
tained the following allusion to the Chartist 
agitation :—“I have observed with pain the 
persevering efforts which have been made in 
some parts of the country to excite my subjects 
to disobedience and resistance to the law, and 
to recommend dangerous and illegal practices. 
For. the counteraction of all such designs I de¬ 
pend upon the efficacy of the law, which it will 
be my duty to enforce, upon the good sense 
and right disposition of my people, upon their 
attachment to the principles of justice, and 
their abhorrence of violence and disorder.’ 
The measures promised to be brought forward 
related to Irish municipal corporations, the 
Ecclesiastical Commission, and law reform. 
In the debate on the Address in the Lords, 

( 35 ) 


Lord Brougham made a bitter attack on 
O’Connell, for insinuating at a public meet¬ 
ing in Dublin that Lord Norbury had been 
assassinated by his own son.—The Member 
for Dublin retaliated in the Commons. He de¬ 
spised the malignity of the attack, and sought to 
demonstrate its falsehood. “ I admit,” he said, 

* ‘ I should ask myself what right I have to com¬ 
plain when even maiden modesty cannot protect 
her who holds the highest station in the empire 
from the obscene slanders of those who have 
dared to pollute her name by coupling it with an 
insinuation too base to mention. The sycophant 
of one monarch and the slanderer of another, I 
admit that a charge coming from so foul and pol¬ 
luted a source is best treated when it is despised. 
He may call himself the ‘ Friertd of the People; ’ 
he may be the enemy of the Throne : I don’t 
envy him the notoriety which he has acquired 
in either character. An amendment on the 
Address in the Commons relating to the im¬ 
proved representation of the people, moved 
by Mr. Duncombe, was negatived by 426 to 86 
votes. 

8 . —In consequence of a re-arrangement of 
offices having been resolved upon without his 
knowledge, Lord Glenelg intimates that he had 
resigned the seals of the Colonial Office. He 
was succeeded by Lord Normanby. 

9 . —Discovery of the Balleny Islands, a 
group of five, in lat. 66° 22' of the Antarctic 
circle. 

11. —Lord Durham’s report on the affairs of 
British North America, with accompanying 
correspondence, laid on the table of the House 
of Lords by Lord Melbourne. The late High 
Commissioner described at great length, and 
with admitted ability, the contest between the 
French and English races in Lower Canada, 
their utter incompatibility of character and 
implacable hatred of each other; noticed the 
struggle which had so long existed between 
the House of Assembly and the Executive 
Government, the complicated distraction of 
Upper Canada, and the evils still unremedied, 
grievances unredressed, and abuses unreformed 
at this hour. The concluding portion of the 
Report was occupied with the consideration 
and suggestion of remedial measures, the 
first of which was the early restoration of the 
Union of the Canadas—one Province with one 
Legislature. ” 

12 . —Lord John Russell announces the in¬ 
tention of Government to constitute a Board 
of Education, consisting of five Privy Council¬ 
lors, and to place at its disposal from 20,000/. 
to 30,000/. per annum for aid to schools: 
This scheme was abandoned later in the 
session, and the National Society and British 
and Foreign Bible Society allowed to divide 
between them such grant as was given. (See 
June 3.) 

14 .—In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Barnard 
Gregory, of the Satirist , was found guilty of a 
libel on Mrs. Hogg, the wife of the M.P. for 

D 2 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1S39. 


Beverley, in so far as it stated that she had two 
husbands living, and had formed an improper 
intimacy with a friend of Lord Byron’s. There 
did not appear to be the slightest foundation 
for the calumnies. Sentence, three months’ 
imprisonment. 

15 .—Five of the Canadian rebels executed 
at Montreal. 

18 . —Lord Brougham proposes that the 
petitions in favour of the abolition of the Com 
Laws be referred to a committee of the whole 
House, and that evidence be heard at the bar. 
The motion was negatived without a division. 

— Explosion of fire-damp in the William 
coal pit, Cumberland, and loss of twenty-three 
lives. 

19 . —Mr. Villiers’ motion that certain parties 
be heard at the bar of the House by wit¬ 
nesses, agents, or counsel, in support of the 
allegations of their petitions against the Corn 
Laws, rejected by 361 to 172 votes. 

20 . —Sir Herbert Jenner Fust gives judgment 
in the long-pending case respecting the will and 
codicil of the late James Wood of Gloucester. 
The effect of the decision, which set aside both 
documents, was to make over the personal 
property, amounting to nearly one million 
sterling, to two second cousins as next of kin, 
while testator’s real property, valued at 250,000/. 
passed to the heir-at-law, who was no party to 
the cause, and not even known. Notice of 
appeal was given. . 

23 .—Mr. John Frost of Monmouth, not 
having disavowed the language attributed to 
him, “that if Lord John Russell struck his 
name off the magistracy the people would put 
it on again,” the Secretary of State for the 
Home Department recommends the Lord 
Chancellor to issue a new commission for 
the borough in which the name of Mr. Frost 
should not be included. 

25 . —The Government Ecclesiastical Duties 
and Revenues Bill read a second time in the 
House of Commons. It was proposed to 
reduce cathedral establishments to one dean, 
four prebendaries, and four canons, and with 
the funds thus obtained to raise all livings in 
England and Wales to the annual value of 
300/. 

26 . —The Chinese authorities at Canton 
execute a reputed smuggler in front of the 
British factories, avowedly with the view of 
terrifying the opium traders, but really, as ex¬ 
plained by Captain Elliott, with the design of 
degrading foreign residents. 

27 . —Mr. Serjeant Talfourd’s Copyright Bill 
read a second time by 73 to 37 votes. 

23 .—Duel at Combe Wood, between Lord 
Powerscourt, M.P., and Mr. Roebuck, in 
consequence of the latter, in a speech at Bath, 
having charged the former with using his name 
“at some drunken exhibition,” in “a way 
that no gentleman would have done.” Mr. 
( 36 ) 


Roebuck received his opponent’s fire, and dis¬ 
charged his own pistol in the air. He then 
apologized to Lord Powerscourt, saying that 
he did not mean to imply anything personally 
offensive. 

28 .—Lord Lyndhurst draws the attention 
of the House of Lords to a speech made on 
the Irish Tithe Bill by Lord Ebrington, in 
which he was reported to have said, “ Al¬ 
though I do not approve of the bill, I shall 
vote for it, as it will render the war now 
raging in Ireland against the Protestant Church 
more formidable.” Lord Lyndhurst wished 
to know whether Lord Melbourne was aware 
of these observations when he appointed Lord 
Ebrington to the office of Lord-Lieutenant of 
Ireland.—Lord Melbourne said he was aware 
of Lord Ebrington’s general opinion on the 
Irish Church, but he knew nothing of any 
particular expression used which could dis¬ 
qualify him for the office to which he was ap¬ 
pointed.—An altercation then ai'ose between 
the Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Lyndhurst. 
Lord Lansdowne referred to Lord Lyndhurst’s 
“alien” speech; remarking, that if any man 
was more interested than another in preventing 
a particular expression from being made a dis¬ 
qualification for office, that nobleman was Lord 
Lyndhurst.—To this taunt Lord Lyndhurst 
replied, that he was not ashamed of the ex¬ 
pression, which had been explained over and 
over again ; but with respect to Lord Ebring¬ 
ton’s words, he would not allow it to be sup¬ 
posed that they might not have been used by 
him. They appeared in a corrected report; 
they were commented upon in the debate ; 
they had been heard by persons whom he had 
consulted ; and he was sure Lord Ebrington 
himself would not deny them.—Lord Holland 
maintained, that as it was one of the main 
principles of the Bill of Rights that freedom 
bf speech should not be questioned out of 
Parliament, the attempt to make a speech 
delivered in the House of Commons a dis¬ 
qualification for office was unconstitutional.—■ 
Lord Wicklow said that was not the question.—. 
Lord Holland rose to order : there was no ques¬ 
tion.—Lord Brougham interrupted Lord Hoi- j 

land : he moved-. Lord Holland : “You ■ 

can’t move, while I’m speaking to order.”—- 
Lord Brougham: “Well, now I may move 
an adjournment. We have been out of order, 
no doubt ; but not more disorderly than we < 
have been every other night of the session.” j 
Lord Brougham proceeded to controvert Lord I 
Holland’s constitutional doctrines. It was, he 
argued, a most absurd mistake to suppose 
that the term “questioned” meant anything 
in the Bill of Rights except an indictment, 
impeachment, or prosecution. The words in 
the context, “any other court or place,” ! 
proved that. In fact, this interpretation had i 
never been questioned except in a factious vote \ 
of the House of Commons, by which a Mr. ] 
Jones was imprisoned for propounding a ques- j 
tion relating to Members of the House. Both | 
Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson agreed that j 








MARCH 


1839. 


MARCH 


nothing so absurd had been done by the House 
of Commons.—Lord Holland still maintained, 
that before anything could be founded on the 
expressions attributed to Lord Ebrington, it 
would be necessary to ascertain that he really 
used them, and that would be a “'questioning ” 
of the proceedings in the other House.—Lord 
Strangford reminded Ministers of the successful 
opposition to Lord Londonderry’s appoint¬ 
ment, founded on a speech delivered in Parlia¬ 
ment.—Lord Brougham subsequently with¬ 
drew his motion, and the subject dropped. 

March 4 .—An attempt made to injure 
Madame Vestris, by sending her a box filled 
with explosive matter. The design was frus¬ 
trated by a carpenter at the theatre forcing the 
lid in instead of out. 

5 .—Three prisoners tried at Cavan for at¬ 
tempting to assassinate the Rev. M. P. Beres- 
ford, when proceeding to church on the 22d of 
July last. The principal of the gang was sen¬ 
tenced to transportation for life. 

— With reference to the Palace scandal, 
Lady Tavistock writes to-day :—“ When I 
went to Buckingham Palace, at the end of 
January, to attend upon the Queen, I found 
strong suspicions of an unpleasant nature ex¬ 
isting there with respect to Lady Flora Hast¬ 
ings’s state of health. It was considered ne¬ 
cessary, for the honour of her Majesty and the 
character of the Household, that these suspi¬ 
cions should not be permitted to continue and 
spread without some step being taken to put 
a stop to them. Observing the opinion in 
question to be borne out by appearances, and 
conceiving that Lady Flora might have been 
privately married, I felt much desire to speak 
to her at once upon the subject ; but circum¬ 
stances occurred which prevented my carrying 
this wish into effect, and rendered it my pain¬ 
ful duty to inform the Prime Minister of the 
opinion that had been unfortunately entertained. 
I hope I did so in the most delicate and cau¬ 
tious manner, and for this I consider myself 
responsible. ” 

— The brothers Edward and Sydney Orford 
sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment for 
the abduction of Miss Boyd of Alton. Their 
father had been hired to guard the young lady 
and her two sisters from the importunities of 
the brothers Grey. 

7 .—During a debate in the House of Com¬ 
mons on the condition of Ireland, O’Connell 
denounces certain Irish members, who had 
calumniated their country by supporting a 
motion for an inquiry as to the increase of 
crime there. 

— The Marchioness of Hastings writes to 
the Queen praying for further inquiry into the 
origin of the suspicions against her daughter, 
the Lady Flora. “It is my duty respect¬ 
fully to call your Majesty’s attention to its 
not being more important for my daughter 
than essentially consonant to your Majesty’s 


honour and justice, not to suffer the criminal 
inventor of such falsehoods to remain with¬ 
out discovery.” The letter was entrusted for 
presentation to Lord Melbourne, who replied : 
“ The allowance which her Majesty is anxious 
to make for the natural feelings of a mother 
upon such an occasion tended to diminish that 
surprise which could not but be otherwise than 
excited by the tone and substance of your 
Ladyship’s letter. Her Majesty commands 
me to convey to your. Ladyship the expression 
of her deep concern at the unfortunate circum¬ 
stances which have recently taken place. Her 
Majesty hastened to seize the first opportunity 
of testifying to Lady Flora Hastings her con¬ 
viction of the error of the impression which 
had prevailed : and her Majesty is still most 
desirous to do everything in her power to 
soothe the feelings of Lady Flora and her 
family, which must have been painfully affected 
by the events which have occurred.” The 
Marchioness then demanded the removal of 
Sir James Clark as physician to her Majesty : 
“A demand” (wrote Lord Melbourne) “so 
unprecedented and objectionable, that even the 
respect due to your Ladyship’s sex, rank, 
family, and character would not justify me in 
more, if indeed it authorizes so much, than 
acknowledging that letter for the sole purpose 
of acquainting your Ladyship that I have 
received it.” 

8 . —Lady Flora writes an account of the 
Palace conspiracy to her uncle, Hamilton Fitz¬ 
gerald, at Brussels. “ The Queen endeavoured 
to show her regret "by her civility to me, and 
expressed it handsomely, with tears in her 
eyes. ” A mother could not have been kinder 
than the Duchess of Kent. The affair had 
made her ill, but she was getting round, and 
hoped soon to be better. 

9 . —Francis Hastings Medhurst stabs a 
fellow-pupil, named Alsop, during a quarrel, 
at the house of their teacher, Mr. Sturmer, of 
Uxbridge. The coroner’s jury found a verdict 
of wilful murder, but by the magistrates Med¬ 
hurst was committed on the charge of man¬ 
slaughter only. 

— Mexico concludes a peace with France at 
Vera Cruz. 

16 .—The Chartists meet at the “ Crown and 
Anchor ” to promote the cause of the National 
Petition. O’Connor said, if those in power 
were determined to oppose the claims of the 
petitioners by violence, the latter must resist 
by force ; while Mr. Julian Harney was deter¬ 
mined that before the close of the year “ the 
people should have universal suffrage or death. ” 

18 .—The Imperial Commissioner Lin issues 
an edict, addressed to all foreigners, prohibiting 
the importation of opium into Chinese ports 
under severe penalties. “ I am now about to 
command the Hong merchants to proceed to 
your factories, to instruct and admonish you. 
A term of three days is prescribed for an address 
to be sent in reply to me. And, at the same 






MARCH 


1839. 


MARCH 


time, let your duly attested and faithful bonds 
be given, waiting for me, in conjunction with 
the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, to ap¬ 
point a time for the opium to be delivered up. 
Do not indulge in idle expectations, or seek to 
postpone matters, deferring to repent until its 
lateness render it ineffectual. ” 

18 .—The army of the Indus, under Sir John 
Keane, enters the Pass of the Bolan in their 
march against Dost Mahomed. They were 
harassed on their journey by Mehrat Khan, 
chief of Khelat. 

— Mr. Villiers’ motion “that the House 
immediately resolve itself into a committee to 
take into consideration the law regulating the 
importation of foreign com,” defeated after a 
debate extending over five sittings by 342 to 
195 votes. 

21 . —Mr. Hume’s motion in favour of 
Household Suffrage rejected by 85 votes to 50. 

— The Earl of Roden’s motion for a 
Select Committee to inquire into the state of 
Ireland since 1835, especially with reference to 
the prevalence of crime in that country, carried 
against Ministers by a majority of 5. His 
Lordship contended that sufficient evidence 
existed of a widely-spread Ribbon conspiracy, 
and that it had been encouraged by the mis¬ 
taken policy of the Government. 

22 . —Superintendent Elliott, having urgent 
reasons for the withdrawal of confidence in 
the just and moderate dispositions of the pro¬ 
vincial Government, requires that all the ships 
of her Majesty’s subjects at the outer anchor¬ 
ages should proceed forthwith to Hong Kong, 
and, hoisting theii national colours, be prepared 
to resist every act of aggression on the part of 
the Chinese Government. On the 25 th the 
Superintendent claimed passports for the Eng¬ 
lish ships and people within three days, and 
expressed his conviction that the peace between 
the two countries was in imminent jeopardy. 
On this the Prefect Choo remarked : “In re¬ 
gard to the style of the address, there is much 
that cannot be understood. Thus, for instance, 
the words ‘ the two countries, ’ I know not 
the meaning of. While our Celestial Court 
has in humble submission to it ten thousand 
{i.e. all) regions, and the heaven-like goodness 
of the great Emperor overshadows all, the 
nation aforesaid and the Americans have, by 
their trade at Canton during many years, 
enjoyed, of all those in subjection, the largest 
measure of favours. And I presume it must 
be England and America that are conjointly 
named ‘ the two countries. ’ ” 

24 -. —Progress of Russia in Central Asia. 
In order to carry on operations so as to excite 
the least degree of hostility on the part of 
foreign Powers, the Emperor to-day approves 
of tne following measures, which had been 
recommended by a committee to consider and 
report on an expedition to Khiva “ 1. To 
commence at once the organization of an 
expedition against Khiva, and to establish the 
( 38 ) 


necessary depots and stations on the route with¬ 
out delay. 2. To conceal the real object of 
the expedition, which should be given out as 
a scientific expedition to the Ural Sea. 3. 
To postpone the departure of the expedition 
until after the settlement of English matters 
in Affghanistan in order that the influence and 
impression of the Russian proceedings might 
have more weight in Central Asia ; and that 
England, in consequence of her own conquests, 
might no longer have any ground for calling on 
the Russian Government for explanations ; on 
no account, however, to delay the expedition 
later than the spring of 1840. 4. In the event 

of the expedition terminating successfully, to 
replace the Khan of Khiva by a trustworthy 
Kazzak Sultan ; to establish order and security 
as far as possible ; to release all the prisoners, 
and to give full freedom to the Russian trade, 
5. To assign 425,000 silver roubles and 12,000 
gold ducats for the expenses of the expedi¬ 
tion.” 

% 

25 . —Two boxes of gold-dust, valued at 
5,000/., stolen from the St. Katherine’s Docks. 

— In the course of the pleadings to¬ 
day before the Lord Chancellor and Lord 
Brougham, in the Auchterarder case, Sir Fre¬ 
derick Pollock, who appeared for the Presbytery, 
complained of interruption on the part of Sir 
John Campbell, retained on the other side. 
Lord Brougham said : “The Church of Scot¬ 
land is founded on a rock : the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it, much less the sneers 
of her Majesty’s Attorney-General.” 

26 . —A committee of the Chartist Conven¬ 
tion appointed to draw up a petition, praying 
that Mr. John Frost might be reinstated as 
magistrate. 

— Died, in Vauxhall-bridge-road, London, 
aged 67, Captain Johnson, who, in 1809, was 
taken out of prison, where he was confined 
for smuggling, in order to pilot the English 
fleet of the Walcherert expedition into Flushing 
harbour. For this service he received a pen¬ 
sion of 100/. per annum, upon condition that 
he should refrain from smuggling. 

27 . —In compliance with threatening re¬ 
monstrances from the Governor of Canton, 
Superintendent Elliott, at present forcibly de¬ 
tained, issues an order for the surrender of all 
opium owned by merchants belonging to this 
country, and on behalf of his Government de¬ 
clares himself responsible for the value of the 
cargoes. Half the quantity delivered up was 
given over to the Chinese, and destroyed at 
once. The remaining half, amounting to 
20,283 chests, was given up in May. The total 
value was computed at 3,000,000/. 

— The defeat of the Government on Irish 
affairs in the House of Lords tending to weaken 
the executive, Lord John Russell intimates his 
intention of submitting the question to the Com¬ 
mons on the earliest convenient day after" the 
recess—15th April. 





APRIL 


APRIL 


I 339 - 


April 1 .— Public meeting in Edinburgh to 
support the Ministry. The Chartists mus¬ 
tered in great force, and succeeded in ejecting 
the Lord Provost from the chair, after which 
they passed a series of resolutions opposed to 
those originally intended. 

— A riot at Devizes, arising out of a 
Chartist demonstration. Vincent and others 
entered the town at the head of about 1,000 
men, armed with bludgeons, and attempted to 
address them in the market-place. The popu¬ 
lace rose against the agitators, and but for the 
interference of the civil authorities serious 
results were likely to happen. 

6 . —Great dinner to Mr. Macready by the 
Shakspeare Club. 

9 .—Mr. Labouchere obtains leave to bring 
in a bill to make temporary provision for the 
government of Jamaica, the House of As¬ 
sembly having refused to proceed to business 
until their right to legislate on the internal 
affairs of the colony was admitted by the 
British Government. It was now proposed to 
set aside the House of Assembly, and to em¬ 
power the Government and Council, aided by 
three salaried Commissioners, to administer the 
affairs of the island for five years. This step 
gave rise to much opposition on the part of 
Jamaica proprietors in this country, and in 
a short time a strong party was formed in Par¬ 
liament opposed to it. 

11.—Died at Greenock, John Galt, novelist, 
aged 60. 

13 .—Lamer, charged with unlawfully enter¬ 
ing Stanfield Hall, convicted at the Norfolk 
Assizes, and sentenced to three months’ im¬ 
prisonment. 

— Medhurst tried for the murder of Alsop, 
at Stunner’s school. Justice Coleridge, in sen¬ 
tencing Medhurst to three years’ imprisonment, 
admitted the absence of malice or premeditation 
on the part of the prisoner, and commented 
severely on the master’s conduct in leaving 
the pupils together when he knew they were 
quarrelling. 

15 .—Discussion on Lord John Russell’s 
resolution : “ That it is the opinion of this 
House, that it is expedient to persevere in 
those principles which have guided the Exe¬ 
cutive Government of Ireland of late years, 
and which have tended to the effectual adminis¬ 
tration of the law and the general improvement 
of that part of the kingdom. ” After a some¬ 
what languid debate, protracted over five 
nights, the motion was affirmed in opposition 
to Sir R. Peel’s amendment by 318 to 296 
votes. On the last evening of the debate, Sir 
George Sinclair amused the House by a con¬ 
versation alleged to have occurred between 
himself and a Conservative frondeur in a Rich¬ 
mond omnibus. “I daresay, sir,” said his 
friend, “you remember as well as I do the 
exploits and the prow r ess of my eloquent and 
accomplished friend Croker during the two 
Reform Bill campaigns. His premature re¬ 
tirement from public life is a public misfor¬ 


tune. He is now become ‘ the recluse of West 
Moulsey,’ and ‘ armis Herculis ad postern fixis, 
latet abditus agro.’ Though never leader oi 
the Opposition, he might well be called a 
‘ thunderbolt of war,’ and was, at all events, 
‘Lieutenant-General to the Earl of Mar.’ I 
used to think, sir, that he would never let them 
get through the letter A of schedule A. The 
rottenest borough had its Thermopylae. The 
ground was disputed street by street, where 
there were any streets, and inch by inch where 
there were none. I believe even Petersfield 
had its barricades and its glorious days. Me- 
thinks I see Croker now defending the bridge 
of Appleby with all the ardour of Horatius 
Codes, against a whole battalion of Reformers, 
and now leading on the forlorn-hope in a fierce 
and fruitless onslaught upon Gateshead. How 
different were such feats as those from the dull 
drills and pacific parades of modern times ! If 
I had a say in the matter, sir, I’d bring the 
Government to their marrow-bones before the 
end of April.” (Great laughter.) “ Here,” said 
Sir George, “our conversation was suddenly 
brought to an end by my communicative friend 
arriving at his destination. The omnibus 
stopped, my friend got out, and we never met 
again.” (Continued laughter.) 

19 . —Treaty between Holland and Belgium 
signed at London ; to the latter kingdom were 
assigned the limits she possessed in 1790, with 
the addition of Luxembourg. 

20 . —The “London Equitable Loan Com¬ 
pany, of Glasgow,” having advertised the Duke 
of Wellington as one of their patrons, the Duke 
writes to Mr. P. Mackenzie that he thinks them 
a gang of swindlers, and will put himself to 
any reasonable trouble to expose them before a 
magistrate. 

23 . —Numerous petitions presented to Par¬ 
liament in favour of Mr. Rowland Hill’s Penny 
Postage scheme. 

24 . —The Marquis of Lansdowne entertains 
her Majesty at Lansdowne House. 

25 . —The Bengal army march with Shah 
Soojah into Candahar, the western capital of 
Affghanistan, and are favourably received by 
the people. Major Todd was despatched from 
this place on a mission to Herat. The army 
recommenced its march on the 27th June, the 
two months’ halt being mainly occupied in the 
task of provisioning the troops. 

29 .—Stirling Peerage Case. Commenced at 
Edinburgh, before the High Court of Justiciary, 
the trial of Alexander Humphreys, or Alexander 
Stirling, styling himself Earl of Stirling, charged 
with forging, using, and uttering documents. 
The first document was an extract from a 
pretended charter, by Charles I., in favour of 
William, first Earl of Stirling, conveying to him 
the whole of Nova Scotia, and a large portion 
of Canada, with powers to create baronets. 
Mr. Humphreys, as representing the above Earl 
of Stirling, raised two actions against private 
parties, which w T ere dismissed. He was then 

( 39 ) 





APRIL 


1839. 


MAY 


served heir to the Earl of Stirling in right of 
his mother, and sought infeoffment of certain 
lands claimed. Upon this, the Officers of State 
in Scotland took measures to reduce the service 
and infeoffment; andthepleasof Mr. Humphreys 
not being considered satisfactory by the Lord 
Ordinary (Cockburn), he was called on to pro¬ 
duce further proof. This he sought to supply by 
an old map of Canada, on the back of which 
was written what purported to be extracts from 
the charter of King Charles, these extracts 
having been made, it was alleged, in 1707 by 
a person who had seen the originals in Canada. 
There were also various certificates attached to 
the map, bearing the names of Louis XV. and 
Fenelon, the Bishop of Nismes. This docu¬ 
ment, Humphreys alleged, was given him by 
Mdlle. Le Normand, a fortune-teller in Paris. 
Various other documents mentioned in the libel 
were found to have come from the same quarter. 
The trial lasted four days, during which the 
most eminent experts in France and Britain 
were examined concerning the documents. The 
prisoner’s counsel, Mr. Patrick Robertson, made 
a feeling and eloquent speech on his behalf. 
The jury found the documents on the map 
forged, but that it was not proved that the 
prisoner forged them, or uttered them know¬ 
ing them to be forged. The other documents 
they found were not proven to be forged, or 
uttered by the prisoner knowing them to be 
forged. On the verdict being pronounced, 
the prisoner fell into the arms of his friend, 
Colonel D’Aguilar, who had accompanied him 
daily into court. Lord Meadowbank pro¬ 
nounced judgment, and assoilzied the prisoner. 

29 . —Chartist riot at Llanidloes, Wales. The 
“Trewythen Arms” inn ransacked, and the in¬ 
mates expelled. The mob were armed with 
guns, pistols, and pikes, and seemed to be, for 
a while, in entire possession of the town. 

30 . —Lord Brougham proposes, but after¬ 
wards withdraws, a motion to disallow certain 
Ordinances relating to the liberty of the press 
in Malta, founded on a report presented by the 
special commissioners, Mr. Geo. C. Lewis and 
Mr. John Austin. 

May 1 . —The ship Tory leaves England 
with the first company of emigrants for New 
Zealand. 

3 .—Lord John Russell appears at the 
bar of the House with a Royal Message, re¬ 
commending the Commons to consider such 
measures as might be submitted to them for 
promoting the union of the two Provinces of 
Canada. 

— The House of Lords dismiss the appeal 
in the Auchterarder case, and affirm the judg¬ 
ment of the court below. Lord Brougham 
and the Lord Chancellor spoke at considerable 
length. 

— Cheltenham Theatre destroyed by fire. 

— Government issues a proclamation em¬ 
powering magistrates to apprehend all persons 
illegally assembled for drilling, or meeting 

(40) 


armed with bludgeons in a manner calculated 
to cause breaches of the peace. 

4 . —The opium in the British factories at 
China having been all delivered up, Captain 
Elliott, with some difficulty, obtains the release 
of the merchants and others held in confine¬ 
ment under the orders of Commissioner Lin. 

— The Duke of Newcastle dismissed from 
the Lord-Lieutenancy of Nottingham, for re¬ 
fusing to make additions to the Commission of 
the Peace recommended by the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor, because the parties were not of his 
opinions in politics, and did not belong to the 
Established Church. 

— The Rt. Hon. J. Abercromby announces 
his intention of retiring from the Speakership 
of the House of Commons. 

5 . —Mehemet Ali, claiming hereditary power 
in Syria, takes the field against the Sultan. 

6 . —Debate in the House of Commons on the 
Government proposal to suspend the constitution 
in Jamaica, because the Assembly there had re¬ 
fused to adopt the Prisons Act passed by the 
Imperial Legislature. The technical question 
before the House was, “ That the Speaker do 
now leave the chair.” The debate was pro¬ 
tracted till 2 A.M., when the division showed 
a Ministerial majority against Sir R. Peel’s 
amendment of only 5 in a House of 583. 

— In the Court of Exchequer, Lord Abinger 
delivers judgment in the case of the Canadian 
prisoners. The Court were of opinion that 
the return to the writ of habeas corpus was a 
sufficient and valid return, and, therefore, that 
the prisoners must be remanded to their former 
custody. The Court was not called upon to pro¬ 
nounce an opinion as to whether the prisoners 
had been legally sentenced to transportation or 
not, as her Majesty’s Government would be 
advised on that subject; but it was clear they 
had pleaded guilty to the crime of high treason 
in Upper Canada, and therefore, if the sentence 
of transportation was irregular, and the pri¬ 
soners wished to avail themselves of that irre¬ 
gularity, they might be again indicted, and put 
upon their trial for high treason in this country. | 
Under all the circumstances, the Court felt 
bound to discharge the writ of habeas corpus, 
and to order that the prisoners be remanded to 
their former custody. 

7 . —The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert 
Peel have an audience of her Majesty this after¬ 
noon, on the business, as was currently re¬ 
ported, of the formation of a new Ministry. 

— Lord Melbourne in the Lords, and Lord 
John Russell in the Commons, announce the 
resignation of Ministers in consequence of the 
vote on the Jamaica Bill—a measure requiring 
more than ordinary support and confidence, bu< 
which had met with less than was usually | 
accorded to them. 

8 . —Henry Vincent, delegate to the Chartist 
National Convention, arrested on the charge of 
inciting to riot at Newport. 








MAY 


I839. 


MA Y 


8 . —On the recommendation of Lord Mel¬ 
bourne, the Queen sends for the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington to assist her in the formation of a 
Government. The Duke explains that, as the 
principal difficulty of a new Ministry would be 
in the House of Commons, he would recom¬ 
mend that Sir Robert Peel should be at once 
consulted. This was immediately done, and 
Sir Robert intimated that though he was not 
insensible to the difficulties that might beset a 
new Government, yet having been a party to the 
vote of the House which led to those difficulties, 
nothing would prevent him from giving her 
Majesty every assistance in his power. In the 
evening Sir Robert submitted to her Majesty 
the names of the Duke of Wellington, the Earl 
of Aberdeen, Lords Lyndhurst, Ellenborough, 
and Stanley, Sir James Graham, Sir Henry Har- 
dinge, and Mr. Goulbum, as colleagues with 
whom he was prepared to act. To these col¬ 
leagues, as Sir Robert Peel afterwards explained, 
he mentioned that in all the subordinate appoint¬ 
ments in the Household, below the rank of a 
Lady of the Bedchamber, he would propose no 
change to her Majesty; and that in the superior 
class he took it for granted the holders would 
at once resign their offices. 

9 . —During an interview with the Queen, 
Sir Robert Peel states that it would be of great 
importance as an indication of her confidence if 
certain offices of the Household of the higher 
rank, which might not be voluntarily relin¬ 
quished by the ladies holding them, were sub¬ 
ject to some change. Her Majesty stated in 
reply that she must reserve the whole of these 
appointments for herself. 

— The Globe, a Ministerial paper, announces 
“The determination which it is well known 
her Majesty has taken, not to allow the change 
in the Government to interfere with the ladies 
of her Court, has given great offence to the 
Tories.” 

10. —The Queen to Sir Robert Peel: “ The 
Queen, having considered the proposal made 
to her yesterday by Sir Robert Peel, to re¬ 
move the Ladies of her Bedchamber, cannot 
consent to a course which she conceives to be 
contrary to usage, and is repugnant to her feel¬ 
ings.” 

— Sir Robert Peel to the Queen: “ Having 
had the opportunity through your Majesty’s 
gracious consideration of reflecting upon this 
point, he humbly submits to your Majesty that 
he is reluctantly compelled by a sense of public 
duty, and of the interests of your Majesty’s ser¬ 
vice, to adhere to the opinion which he ven¬ 
tured to express to your Majesty. He trusts 
he may be permitted at the same time to ex¬ 
press to your Majesty his grateful acknowledg¬ 
ments for the distinction which your Majesty 
conferred upon him by requiring his advice and 
assistance in the attempt to form an Adminis¬ 
tration, and his earnest prayer that whatever 
arrangements your Majesty may be enabled to 
make for that purpose may be most conducive 


to your Majesty’s personal comfort and happi¬ 
ness, and to the promotion of the public welfare.” 

11 .—The Melbourne Ministry recalled. At 
a Cabinet meeting the following minute was 
adopted:—“Her Majesty’s confidential ser¬ 
vants having taken into consideration the letter 
addressed to her Majesty by Sir Robert Peel 
on the 10th of May, and the reply of Sir Robert 
Peel of the same day, are of opinion that, for 
the purpose of giving to the Administration that 
character of efficiency and stability, and those 
marks of the constitutional support of the 
Crown which are required to enable it to act 
usefully to the public service, it is reasonable 
that the great officers of the Court, and situa¬ 
tions in the Household held by Members of 
Parliament, should be included in the political 
arrangements made in a change in the Adminis¬ 
tration; but they are not of opinion that a 
similar principle should be applied or extended 
to the offices held by ladies in her Majesty’s 
Household.” 

— Meeting of the Society for the Protection 
of Religious Liberty. The Duke of Sussex 
congratulated the country on the return of the 
Liberal party to power. 

— The literature of the Ministerial crisis 
receives to-day an addition of a kind not so 
common thirty years ago as now, in the form 
of an account, by a correspondent of the Spec¬ 
tator, of a dreadful shipwreck in a calm sea; 
‘ * one of those awful visitations of Providence 
which occasionally arise to cast a shadow over 
the spirit of human enterprise.” The conduct 
of the crew is thus set forth :— Rice : “If she 
did not leak so confoundedly, I should feel 
equally satisfied. But don’t you think—to put 
it merely as a matter of personal safety, and 
not (God knows) that I care a button about the 
property of our employers—don’t you think, 

somehow-” (boat strikes again). Russell 

(Chief Mate) : “I only think that we are 
getting too near to this infernal island. ’Bout 
ship there ! d’ye hear ? you at the helm ! ” 
The Fish (in choice Punic—from behind) : 
“ Maning me, sir ? And is it turning of me tail 
again that your honour will see me, before I 
git me biscuit and me grog ? Isn’t it me that’s 
making this splash now, and that’s laving the 
sea behind me in such an iligant manner: 
and what would your honour do widout me ? ” 
Russell : “Throw that beast something, d’ye 
hear?” “Ay, ay, sir.” Howick (as they 
approach) : “What do you say—suppose w- 
were to land ? I don’t wish to say anything to 
vex our mate, but it will not be denied that 
the boat is going down. ” Russell (in great 
wrath): “ Who says going down ? My boat 
—built with these hands— going down ! Sir, 
she can't go down—I defy her ! (Ship gradu¬ 
ally sinking, in a manner particularly apparent 
to those on shore, who raise ironical cheers.) 
No, no, she can’t go down.” Holland : 
Yet perhaps we could get a little nearer to 
the shore, in case of accident. If forced at 
last (which God forbid) to land among these 





MAY 


MAY 


i*39- 


people, we could easily protest we loved them, 
and had always intended this visit. They 
might maul us a little, perhaps, after all our 
rogueries—yet even that’s better than drown¬ 
ing, you know. At all events, I suspect we 
shall gain nothing further by stopping here. 
In the first place, here are these waves playing 
the very devil with the boat; then there’s that 
beast behind, grabbing all our biscuits ; and 
vis-a-vis we have those incensed natives, ready 
to tear us to pieces, some say. A pretty situation, t 
by G — ! ” Russell (with all the spurious 
dignity of a little man in a dilemma of his 
own making): “I regard, sir, with perfect 
satisfaction the present posture of affairs. I 
am persuaded that this cockboat is working 
gradually a great and useful change. (Boat¬ 
swain announces another leak.) I think our 
present situation so satisfactory, that, for my 
part, I wish to cast anchor exactly where we 
are, neither further from the sea nor nearer 
to the shore than we find ourselves at this 
moment. My advice is, that we remain in this 
situation for the term of our natural lives. 

(Boatswain announces a new hole in the boat’s 
bottom; water heard rushing in.) Yes, I 
know all about that. You’ll say the water is 
coming in. Well, sir, what then ?—Sir, ‘ in 
scanning the general scope ’ of this boat, I and 
my partners, you must know, always con¬ 
sidered that the water would have as fair a 
prospect as any other element of obtaining a 
position in it; and guided, sir, by those 

principles which I have ever-” (sudden and 

total immersion of the cockboat, amidst the 
most horrible yells of triumphant execration 
ever heard on this coast). “ Friday afternoon. 
—I break open my letter to announce the 
extraordinary fact, that, after three days’ im¬ 
mersion, the bodies have been seen this after¬ 
noon floating on the water, and that the vital 
spark is not extinct! Four o'clock. —The men 
live, and are swimming for their lives. Five 
o'clock. —They are trying to reach this shore. 
What will the natives do with them ? ” 

12 . —Outbreak in Paris and attack by the 
rioters on the Conciergerie and Hotel de Ville. 
The National Guard speedily mustered in great 
numbers, destroyed the barricades, and seized 
the more prominent disturbers of the peace. 
About ioo, it was reported, were killed. This 
rising had the effect of terminating a ministerial 
crisis of some weeks’ duration, Marshal Soult 
at once placing himself at the head of affairs. 

13 . —Explanations in the House of Com¬ 

mons, by Lord John Russell and Sir Robert 
Peel, regarding the Ministerial crisis. The 
latter explained his position with reference to 
the Ladies of the Bedchamber. Frankly ad¬ 
mitting that his difficulties were neither Canada 
nor Jamaica, but Ireland, Sir Robert pro¬ 
ceeded : “ Would it be considered by the 

public that a Minister had the confidence 
of the Crown when the relatives of his 
immediate political opponents held the highest 
offices about the person of the Sovereign ? 

( 42 ) 


My impression decidedly was, that I should 
not appear to the country to be in posses¬ 
sion of that confidence; and that impression 
I could not overcome; and upon that im¬ 
pression I resolved to act. Who were my 
political opponents ? Why, of the two I have 
named, one, the Marquis of Normanby, was 
publicly stated to be a candidate for the very 
same office which it was proposed I should fill, 
namely, the. office of Prime Minister. The 
other noble lord has been designated as the 
leader of this House ; and I know not why his 
talents might not justify his appointment, in 
case of the retirement of his predecessor. Is 
it possible—I ask you to go back to othei 
times; take Pitt, or Fox, or any other 
Minister of this proud country, and answer for 
yourselves this question—is it fitting that one 
man shall be the Minister, responsible for the 
most arduous charge that can fall to the lot of 
man, and that the wife of the other—that other 
his most formidable political enemy—shall, 
with his express consent, hold office in imme¬ 
diate attendance on the Sovereign? Oh no! 

I felt it was impossible; I could not consent 
to this. Yes, feelings more powerful than 
reasoning on those precedents told me that it 
was not for my own honour or the public 
interests that I should consent to be Minister 
of England. The public interests may suffer 
nothing by my abandonment of that high trust; 
the public interests may suffer nothing by my 
eternal exclusion from power ; but the public 
interests would suffer, and I should be aban¬ 
doning my duty to myself, my country, and, 
above all, to the Queen my sovereign, if I weit, 
to consent to hold power on conditions which 
I felt to be—which I had the strongest convic¬ 
tion were—incompatible with the authority and 
with the duty of a Prime Minister.”—In the 
Upper House, Lord Melbourne said: “I 
frankly declare that I resume office unequi¬ 
vocally and solely for this reason, that I will 
not abandon my Sovereign in a situation of 
difficulty and distress, and especially when a 
demand is made upon her Majesty with which 
I think she ought not to comply—a demand 
inconsistent with her personal honour, and 
which, if acquiesced in, would render her 
reign liable to all the changes and variations of 
political parties, and make her domestic life 
one constant scene of unhappiness and dis¬ 
comfort. ” 

13 .—The small remnant of the Cha-tist Na¬ 
tional Convention removes its sittings from 
London to Birmingham. They were met at 
the railway by a mob of about 5,000 people, 
and conducted through the principal streets, 
to the great terror of peaceable people. At 
their first meeting a majority of the delegates 
adopted a manifesto, urging their supporters 
to withdraw any money they might have in 
banks, to deal exclusively with Chartists, to 
rest a “sacred month” from all labour, and to 
prepare themselves with the arms of freemen 
to defend themselves. In the Northern Star 
Feargus O’Connor urged that their memorial to 





MAY 


1839. 


ma y 


the Queen, asking her to dismiss her present 
Ministry and appoint another which would 
make the People’s Charter a Cabinet measure, 
“should be presented by a deputation of 
500,000 men, proceeding in peaceful and 
orderly procession, each with a musket over 
his arm/’ 

13 . —Died at Rome, in his 77th year, Car¬ 
dinal Fesch, maternal uncle of Napoleon I. 

. — Died, aged 66, the Duke of Bassano, 
Minister for Foreign Affairs under Napoleon I. 

14. —Numerous meetings throughout the 
country to express approval of the Queen’s re¬ 
jection of the conditions sought to be imposed 
on her by Sir Robert Peel and his party. 

17 . —-Prince Louis Napoleon writes from 
“17, Carlton House Terrace,” to the editor of 
the Times: “ I see with pain in your Paris cor¬ 
respondence that it is wished to cast upon me 
the responsibility of the late insurrection. I 
rely upon your kindness to refute in the most 
distinct manner this insinuation. The intel¬ 
ligence of the bloody scenes which took place 
has caused me as much surprise as grief. If I 
were the soul of a plot, I would also be the 
chief actor in it in the day of danger; nor would 
I shrink back after a defeat. ” 

18 . —Disturbance at Glasgow on the occa¬ 
sion of her Majesty’s birthday. At night a mob 
200 strong mustered on the Green, and, armed 
with sticks, marched up to the Cross with the 
view of creating a disturbance. They were 
overpowered by the police, and the most 
prominent carried off to prison. 

— Fire in Bucklersbury, near the Mansion 
House, destroying the premises occupied by 
Mr. Baker, stationer, and causing the death of 
two of his children and two domestics. 

— Died at Florence, Caroline Murat, sister 
of Napoleon I. and ex-Queen of Naples. 

20 .—At the Dublin meeting to address the 
Queen on the stand she had made against the 
Tories, Mr. Henry Grattan declared that if they 
had succeeded her Majesty’s life would not 
have been safe. “ I tell you more, that if her 
Majesty was once fairly placed in the hands of 
the Tories I would not give an orange-peel for 
her life. If some of the low miscreants of the 
party got round her Majesty, and had the mix¬ 
ing of the Royal bowl at night, I fear she 
would have a long sleep.”—O’Connell was 
ready with even more than his usual flattery. 
“When I entered the Reform Club,” he said, 
“a friend seized me by both hands, exclaiming, 

* She has done it ! England has triumphed, 
and Ireland is saved.’ May the great God of 
heaven bless her who did it !—that creature of 
only nineteen—lovely as she is young, and pure 
as she is exalted. She was something which 
might be dreamed of in chivalry or fairyland. 
There she was, in the power of the weakness 
of her sex. . . . But it was not her head that 
she consulted ; it was from the overflowing 


feelings of her young heart that she was in¬ 
duced to take the course she so nobly pursued. 
Those excellent women who had been so long 
attached to her, who had nursed and tended to 
her wants in her childhood, who had watched 
over her in her sickness, whose eyes beamed 
with delight as they watched her increasing daily 
in beauty and in loveliness—when they were 
threatened to be forced away from her, her 
heart told her that she could as well part with 
that heart itself as with those whom it held so 
dear.” 

21. —Lord Palmerston writes to Sir J. 
M‘Neill, atShahrood, authorizing him to inform 
the Shah that his designs upon AfTghanistan are 
in complete contravention of the spirit of the 
alliance subsisting between the two nations. 

22. —Three motions discussed by the General 
Assembly regarding the Auchterarder case. Dr. 
Cook proposed that the Veto Act having been 
found to infringe on civil and patrimonial rights, 
Presbyteries should be instructed to proceed 
with settlements in the manner practised before 
the Act was passed.—Dr. Muir sought to make 
an addition, to the effect that Presbyteries, in 
settling presentees, ought to consider their suit¬ 
ableness to the mind and situation of the people 
of the parish.—Dr. Chalmers, while admitting 
that the Ilouse of Lords had settled the mere 
“ civil right” in the Auchterarder case, insisted 
that the principle of non-intrusion was an integral 
part of the Church’s constitution which should 
not be abandoned, and that no presentee should 
be forced upon any parish contrary to the will 
of the congregation. For Dr. Chalmers’s motion 
as against Dr. Muir’s the numbers were 197 to 
161; and as against Dr. Cook’s, 204 to 155. 
Dr. Chalmers’s motion was therefore declared 
to be carried by a majority of 49. 

24 .—Capt. Elliott and the British merchants 
leave Canton. 

23 . —Great Chartist demonstration on Kersal 
Moor, near Manchester. Feargus O’Connor 
said he came there because the magistrates 
and the Queen pronounced the meeting illegal 
and unconstitutional. “ I have good authority 
for asserting,” he said, “ that all the Hanoverian 
clubs in London are at work to know how they 
can dispose of our young Queen, and place 
the bloody Cumberland on her throne in her 
stead. ” Other violent speeches were delivered 
by Rushton of Manchester, Fletcher of Bury, 
and others. 

27 .—Mr. Charles Shaw Lefevre elected 
Speaker of the House of Commons, by a 
majority over Mr. Goulburn of 18 in a House 
of 620. In this division there were 8 pairs, 
11 Liberals and 9 Tories absent, and two 
vacancies—Ludlow and Carlow. 

30 .—In retaliation to some extent for the 
attempts of Government to control the liberties 
of the City, the Court of Common Council, 
by a majority of 46, decline to forward any 
address on the subject of the recent Ministerial 
crisis. 


( 43 ) 






MAY 


JUNE 


1S39. 


30 . —Mr. T. B. Macaulay addresses the 
electors of Edinburgh with the view of suc¬ 
ceeding Mr. Abercromby in the representation 
of the city. He was elected without opposi¬ 
tion on the 4th of June. 

31 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Lord 
Denman gave judgment in the case of Stock- 
dale v. Hansard—an action for defamatory 
libel against the printers to the House of Com¬ 
mons for the publication of the Report of Com¬ 
missioners of Prisons, in which certain strictures 
were made on some obscene books printed by 
the plaintiff. Lord Denman said that the su¬ 
premacy of Parliament, on which the claim for 
exemption from responsibility was made to rest, 
might have been recognised as a valid authority, 
but the report complained of was not made by 
the sanction of the three co-ordinate powers 
acting harmoniously together, but by the 
House of Commons singly; a usurpation of 
authority abhorrent to the constitution of Eng¬ 
land. ‘"'Most willingly,” said the Lord Chief 
Justice, “ would I decline to enter upon an in¬ 
quiry which may lead to my differing from that 
great and powerful assembly. But when one 
of my fellow-subjects presents himself before 
me in this court demanding justice for an in¬ 
jury, it is not at my option to grant or to with¬ 
hold redress. I am bound to afford it him, ir 
the law declares him entitled to it. Parliament 
is said to be supreme: I most fully acknow¬ 
ledge its supremacy. It follows, then, that 
neither branch of it is supreme when acting by 
itself.” A jury summoned afterwards to assess 
damages, awarded 100/. to Stockdale. 

June 1.— -The inhabitants of Melbourne, 
Australia, celebrate the second anniversary of 
their city. Within the two years certain lots 
of land had advanced in price from 7/. to 600/., 
and from 27/. to 930/. 

3 . —The Lords of the Committee of Privy 
Council recommend that the sum of 10,000/., 
granted by Parliament in 1835 towards the 
erection of normal or model schools, be given 
in equal proportion to the National §ociety 
and the British and Foreign School Society. 
They also recommend, that no further grant be 
made now or hereafter for these schools unless 
the right of inspection be retained, in order to 
secure a uniformity in the several schools, with 
such improvements as may from time to time 
be suggested by the Committee. 

— Lord John Russell introduces a bill for 
the legislative union of the two Canadas. 

4 . —Lord John Russell intimates the aban¬ 
donment of the Government scheme of educa¬ 
tion, in consequence of the opposition manifested 
by various religious bodies. 

7 . —The Right Hon. James Abercromby, 
Speaker of the House of Commons, raised to 
the peerage with the title of Lord Dunferm¬ 
line. 

IO.—An attempt made by a madman to 
enter Buckingham .Palace, with designs against 

Cu) 


the Queen. He was seized by a sentry, and 
afterwards sent to Bridewell. 

13 . —Duel at Wimbledon between Lord 
Londonderry and Mr. H. Grattan, M.P., arising 
out of statements made by the latter at Dublin 
(see May 20), which Lord Londonderry had 
described as ‘ ‘ base and infamous. ” Lord 
Londonderry received his opponent’s fire, and 
fired in the air. A hostile correspondence on 
the same subject took place between Mr. Grat¬ 
tan and Lord Brougham. 

— Murder of Capt. Bergholty, on board his 
vessel at Monkwearmouth, by the mate. After 
the murder the body was thrown over the 
ship’s side, attached to a small boat, and rowed 
by Ehlert and one Muller up towards the 
bridge, where it was found on a sandbank by 
the police. 

14 . —The Lord President of the Court of 
Session pronounces censure on seven members 
of the Presbytery of Dunkeld, for their con¬ 
tempt of court in having inducted a minister 
to the church and parish of Lethendy, in de¬ 
fiance of the interdict of the Court. They 
were also found liable in expenses. 

— Mr. Attwood presents a Chartist petition 
to the House of Commons, said to be signed by 
1,280,000 people. It consisted of a cylinder 
of parchment about the diameter of a coach 
wheel, and was literally rolled into the House. 
His motion to submit the grievances complained 
of to the consideration of a Select Committee 
was negatived by 235 to 46 votes. 

15 . —A woman, describing herself as Sophia 
Elizabeth Guelph Sims, makes application at 
the Mansion House for advice and assistance 
to prove herself the lawful child of George IV. 
and Mrs. Fitzherbert. 

— The Select Committee on Printed Papers 
present a Report on the Stockdale v. Han¬ 
sard prosecution. In conformity with certain 
abstract views expressed in the debate, Lord 
John Russell submitted two resolutions ; the 
first declaring the inexpediency of adopting 
measures for the purpose of staying execution 
of the writ against Hansard ; the second that 
the House would enter into a consideration 
of the means of defending its essential privi¬ 
lege of publishing its votes and proceedings, 
as soon as the Committee on Printed Papers 
had made its full report on the subject. 

18 .—-Mr. Grote’s annual motion on the Ballot 
rejected by 333 to 216 votes. Mr. Macaulay 
spoke in favour of the measure, being the first 
time he addressed the House since his return 
from India. 

— Opening of railways from Newcastle to 
North Shields, and from Newcastle to South 
Shields and Sunderland. 

20 .—As the result of two conversations with 
the French Ambassador, Lord Palmerston pro¬ 
nounces it as his opinion that it was necessary 
to save the Ottoman Empire from an exclusive 






JUNE 


1839. 


JULY 


protection, which would sooner or later prove 
fatal to it if France and England were not 
agreed. 

20 . —Late this evening, and during a slight 
storm, eleven young people returning from a 
cricket-match at Putney were drowned in Chel¬ 
sea Reach by the upsetting of four boats. 

21 . —The Earl of Winchelsea presents a 
petition to the House of Lords, demanding 
the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation Act, 
on the ground of its injury to the Established 

Church. 

23 . —Died at the convent at Jfin, in the 
Lebanon, aged 73, Lady Hester Lucy Stan¬ 
hope. 

24 . —Tried at the Central Criminal Court, 
the Caspars, father and son, Emanuel Moses, 
and Alice Abrahams, as principals and ac¬ 
cessories in gold-dust robbery—102lbs., worth 
5,000/. They were convicted principally on the 
evidence of an informer named Moss, who 
described the means taken by the younger 
Caspar to secure the gold he had charge of 
as clerk to Hartley and Co. (See March 25.) 

25 . —Ibrahim Pacha defeats the Turks at 
Nezib, near Aleppo. As many as 4,000 of the 
Sultan’s army were said to be killed, and 
5,000 taken prisoners. 

26 . —Colonel Maza, formerly Rosas’ legal 
adviser, and President of the Buenos Ayres 
House of Representatives, assassinated in the 
Assembly buildings. His son was shot in 
prison next day. 

27 . —Died at Lahore, in his sixtieth year, 
Maharajah Runjeet Singh, chief of Lahore. 
Four princesses—his wives—and seven slave 
girls were permitted to burn themselves on his 
funeral pyre. He left the celebrated diamond 
“Koh-i-noor,” so long coveted by the princes 
of India, as a legacy to be worn by the chief 
idol of Juggernaut. 

28 . —Explosion at St. Hilda’s Colliery, 
South Shields. The site of the disaster was 
nearly two miles from the shaft, and therefore 
considerable time elapsed before even the in¬ 
trepid men who volunteered to search could 
reach the sufferers. Sixty lives were lost on 
this occasion. The coroner’s jury returned a 
verdict of “accidental death, with a special 
recommendation from the jury that the practice 
of working coal-mines with candles be aban¬ 
doned, and lamps adopted in their stead, 
as, from the evidence taken at this inquest, 
it evidently appears that the explosion has 
been caused by the carelessntss of one of the 
men going with a lighted candle into what 
is termed the tenth board of the mine, which 
had been foul.” 

29 . —The Morning Post gives currency to a 
story, that the Duchess of Montrose and Lady 
Sarah Ingestre were among those who hissed 
her Majesty on the Ascot racecourse. Lady 
Lichfield was said to be implicated in convey¬ 


ing this report to her Majesty, but afterwards 
denied in writing that she had given utter¬ 
ance to such a calumny. 

July 1 . —Died, Sultan Mahmoud II., aged 
54 ; succeeded by Abdul-Medjid. 

— Lord Lyndhurst’s motion for expunging 
the first clause of the Jamaica bill authorizing 
the Governor and Council to make laws for the 
regulation of hired labour, the prevention of 
vagrancy, and the illegal occupation of waste 
lands, which had been retained in the Commons 
by the narrow majority of 10, carried in the 
House of Lords against Ministers by 149 
to 80. 

2 .—Mr. Milner Gibson resigns his seat for 
Ipswich, on the ground that his feelings on 
many great questions were now at variance 
with those of the Conservative party to whom 
he owed his election. He stood as a candidate 
at the new election, but was defeated by Sir 
Thomas Cochrane, the numbers being 621 
votes to 615. 

4 . —Chartist riots at Birmingham. Two 
thousand people assembled in the Bull Ring 
about 9 o’clock P.M., and, when desired to 
disperse, fell upon the constables, and wounded 
two severely. The military ultimately dis¬ 
persed the rioters, and enabled the police to 
apprehend ten of the more prominent of them. 
The General Convention thereupon issued a 
proclamation, declaring “That a wanton, fla¬ 
grant, and unjust outrage had been made upon 
the people of Birmingham by a bloodthirsty 
and unconstitutional force from London, acting 
under the authority of men who wished to 
keep the people in degradation. ” The Secre¬ 
tary of the Convention was apprehended at the 
place of meeting. 

5 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer brings 
forward his Annual Budget. A deficiency, 
caused mainly, as was explained, by the con¬ 
tinued heavy expenditure in Canada, had oc¬ 
curred during the past year of 224,000/. The 
revenue for the current year he estimated at 
48,128,000/. and the expenditure at 47,988,000/. 
showing an available surplus of 140,000/. In 
immediate connexion with his statement the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed a reso¬ 
lution : “That it is expedient to reduce the 
postage on letters to one uniform rate of one 
penny, charged upon every letter of a weight 
to be hereafter fixed by law ; Parliamentary 
privileges of franking being abolished, and 
official franking strictly regulated : this House 
pledging itself, at the same time, to make 
good any deficiency of revenue which may 
be occasioned by such an alteration in the rates 
of the existing duties. ” 

— Died at Buckingham Palace, from en¬ 
largement of the liver, Lady Flora Hastings, 
aged 33. Shortly before her death her Majesty 
had an interview with Lady Flora. Her death 
was generally understood to have been ac- 





JULY 


1839. 


JULY 


celerated by the painful occurrences in the 
Palace at the beginning of the year. 

8 . —Tried at Edinburgh, an action raised 
by Sir David and Lady Milne against George 
Horne for slanderous allegations contained in 
a book written by the defendant, entitled “ Me¬ 
moirs of an Aristocrat.” Damages awarded, 
1,000/. 

9 . —Mr. Villiers introduces, but afterwards 
withdraws, a motion for the House resolving 
itself into a committee to consider the present 
duties levied on foreign and colonial timber. 

11 . —Affray between English and American 
seamen at Hong-Kong. One Chinaman was 
killed, for which Commissioner Lin demanded 
instant satisfaction. 

— In answer to a resolution for an Address 
to the Crown to rescind the Order in Council 
appointing an Educational Committee, the 
Queen mildly rebukes the Peers for insinuating 
that she was inattentive to the interests of the 
Established Church, or- disposed to treat with 
neglect the advice of the House of Lords. 
“ Of the proceedings of the Committee, annual 
reports will be laid before Parliament, so that 
the House of Lords will be enabled to exercise 
its judgment upon them; and I trust that the 
funds placed at my disposal' will be found 
to have been strictly applied to the objects 
for which they were granted.” 

— The French Court of Peers pronounce a 
decision in the case of the prisoners concerned 
in the recent insurrection. The Court was 
unanimous in declaring Barbes and Mialon 
guilty of having headed the insurrection. By 
120 votes Barbes was declared guilty of the 
murder of the lieutenant who commanded 
the poste at the Palais de Justice. By the same 
majority Mialon was declared guilty of the mur¬ 
der of the Brigadier Joanas. All the remaining 
prisoners were declared guilty of having parti¬ 
cipated in the insurrection, and of having been 
taken, with arms in their hands. Barbes was 
sentenced to death, but afterwards respited ; 
the others to various periods of transportation 
and imprisonment. 

12 . —Mr. Goulbum’s motion for the post¬ 
ponement of the Penny Postage Bill defeated 
by a majority of 213 to 113 ; and Sir Robert 
Peel’s motion, to omit from the resolution the 
Ifc-ords pledging the Government to make up any 
deficiency which might arise, also defeated, by a 
majority of 184 to 125. 

13 . —As the British Government still refused 
to “ present ” Hoossein Khan (now arrived in 
London) to the Queen till full satisfaction had 
been given for all past offences on the part of 
the Persian Court, Lord Palmerston grants the 
Envoy an interview this afternoon with the 
view of removing the misunderstandings, but 
is successful only so far as to make him fami¬ 
liar with the requirements of Britain as formally 
put before the Shah :—First, that a written 
apology shall be made to the British Govern- 

( 46 ) 


ment for what happened with regard to the 
British messenger; that apology not to be 
accompanied by any objectionable matter, and 
might be made either by the Prime Minister, 
the Hajee, or, if the Shah prefers it, by a letter 
from the Shah to the Queen. Secondly, that 
a firmaun shall be published in Persia, and 
a copy of it communicated to the British Go¬ 
vernment, assuring protection to all persons, 
whether British, Persian, or others, who may 
be employed in the service of the British 
Mission. This firmaun to be in conformity 
with what was stated in Sir John M‘Neill’s 
Memorandum, given to the Shah on the 4th 
of June, 1838. Thirdly, that Ghorian and the 
other places in Affghanistan which have been 
occupied by the Persian garrisons, shall be 
evacuated by their troops, and restored to the 
Affghans. Fourthly, that a written apology 
shall be made by the Persian Government for 
the attempt made by Major-General Semino 
to seize the house at Teheran, which the Shah 
had placed at the disposal of Major Todd. (See 
Nov. 10, 1838.) Fifthly, that all persons con¬ 
cerned in the outrage committed on the pferson 
and property of the broker of the British Re¬ 
sidency at Bushire, in the month of November 
last, shall be punished. Sixthly, that the 
Governor of Bushire, who was guilty of the 
affront lately offered to Sir F. Maitland, the 
British Admiral, shall be removed from his 
command, and that the reason of his removal 
shall be publicly made known by the Persian 
Government. Seventhly, that the claims of Sir 
Henry Bethune, on account of the ironworks 
in Karadagh, shall be liquidated. Eighthly, 
that the sums due to the British officers shall 
be paid. Ninthly, that the signature of a 
commercial treaty between Great Britain and 
Persia shall accompany the re-establishment of 
diplomatic relations betv een the two States. 

14 . —The Turkish admiral leads his fleet 
into the harbour of Alexandria, and delivers it 
up to Mehemet Ali. 

15 . —Another Chartist riot in Birmingham. 
The mob, having mustered in great force at the 
Bull Ring, formed themselves into order of 
procession, and in passing through the streets 
attacked the houses and shops of those known 
to be opposed to their views, or where they 
thought suitable plunder could be obtained. 
Encouraged in their excesses by the timidity of 
the magistracy, the rioters set fire to several 
shops, and it was at one time feared the whole 
city would fall a prey to their fury. As it was, 
the neighbourhood of the muster-ground pre¬ 
sented an appearance which compelled the 
Duke of Wellington to declare was worse than 
that of a city taken by storm, and all done, he 
said, in the presence of magistrates appointed, 
not under the Great Seal, but by the Home 
Secretary. This outbreak was ultimately 
put down by the military without loss of life. 
The damage committed was estimated at from 
40,000/. to 50,000/. 

— Died, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Esq , 





'JUL Y 


JULY 


1839. 


wit and poet, aged 36. His death caused a 
vacancy in the representation of Aylesbury. 

16 . —Discussion in the House of Lords on 
the Birmingham riots, the Duke of Wellington 
taunting the Government with having done 
nothing to prevent their occurrence during the 
ten days over which they had extended. The 
subject was taken up the following evening in 
the House of Commons. 

17 . —The Mayor of Birmingham (Schole- 
field) forwards to the Home Secretary an ac¬ 
count of the riots on the 15th, which he looked 
upon as altogether of an exceptional and un¬ 
expected character. “The magistrates,” he 
wrote, “were at the police office on the 15th, 
as on other days during the disturbance, and 
only left when there appeared to be no just 
ground for fear that the peace of the town would 
be disturbed.” 

— The Queen annoyed when taking an 
airing in Hyde Park by a man on horseback, 
who persisted in crossing before her Majesty, 
waving his hand, and placing it on his breast. 
Refusing to desist from his ridiculous conduct, 
he was given into custody by Capt. Cavendish. 
The offender, who described himself as a tra¬ 
veller for a wholesale house in the City, was 
committed to prison for two months. 

16 .—The Llanidloes rioters tried at the 
Montgomeryshire Assizes, and sentenced to 
various terms of imprisonment. 

— Captain Elliott writes from Macao to 
Lord Palmerston: “I am more and more 
convinced that the late crisis, and the just 
ground of interference afforded to her Majesty’s 
Government, will enable it to interpose, under 
the most favourable circumstances, for .the 
establishment of regular and honourable trade 
on a firm basis, and, let me take the liberty to 
add, for the effectual check or regulation of a 
traffic which, by the present manner of its pur¬ 
suit, must every day become more dangerous to 
the peace of this ancient empire, and most dis¬ 
creditable to the character of the Christian 
nations under whose flags it is carried on. 
But, my lord, the difficulties in China are not 
confined to this matter of opium. The true 
and far more important question to be solved 
is, whether there shall be honourable and ex¬ 
tending trade with this empire ; or whether the 
coasts shall be delivered over to a state of 
things which will pass rapidly from the worst 
character of forced trade to plain buccaneering. ” 

19. — Feargus O’Connor tried for a libel on 
the Warminster guardians, in so far as he had 
inserted in his newspaper a statement to the 
effect that they had starved a boy to death. A 
verdict of guilty was returned, and the defendant 
entered into recognizances to appear for judg¬ 
ment when called on. 

20 . —Chartist riot at Newcastle, though the 
Northern Union had previously issued a placard 
calling upon its members to respect the lives 
and property of all the inhabitants, in conse¬ 


quence of their nightly meetings not having been 
interfered with. 

20.—Dinner to Mr. Macready : the Duke of 
Sussex in the chair. 

22. —In the National Convention, Delegate 
O’Brien moves to rescind a former resolution 
fixing the 12th of August as the commence¬ 
ment of the “sacred month,” on the ground 
that the people were not yet generally prepar ed 
for that event. 

23 . —The important frontier fortress of 
Ghuznee, Affghanistan, stormed by a British 
force, under the command of Lieut.-General 
Keane, commander of the Army of the Indus. 
“At daylight on the 22d,” he writes, “ I recon¬ 
noitred the place, in company with the chief 
engineer and others, with the view of making 
such arrangements as were necessary for carry¬ 
ing the place by storm. Instead of the tedious 
process of breaching (for which we were all 
prepared), it was resolved to bLow in the 
Cabul Gate, the weakest point, with gun¬ 
powder. A few minutes before 3 o’clock this 
morning the explosion took place, and proved 
completely successful. With the view of para¬ 
lysing the enemy, a heavy fire was then opened 
upon the citadel and ramparts of the fort, and 
about the same time the storming party, led 
with great gallantry by Brigadier Sale, suc¬ 
ceeded in establishing a position within the 
fort. The struggle here was very sharp for a 
time, but the courage and fortitude of our 
army overcame all opposition, and by 5 o’clock 
the British standard was planted on the citadel, 
amidst the cheers of all ranks. Our casualties 
in killed and wounded amounted to about 200. 
Of the garrison 500 were killed, and a large 
number made prisoners.” 

24 . —Disturbances by Jews at the Garrick 
Theatre, in consequence of the production of 
a play founded on the recent gold-dust robbery. 

— Fracas in the streets of Manchester be¬ 
tween the editors of the Guardian and Courier , 
arising out of personalities indulged in through 
their newspapers. 

— Lord John Russell obtains the consent 
of the House to introduce a bill for the estab¬ 
lishment of county and district constables by 
authority of Justices of the Peace in England 
and Wales. 

26 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s 
resolution for prolonging the exclusive privilege 
of the Bank of Ireland till 1844, carried after 
a lengthened discussion by 79 votes to 24. 

— The Prussian seaman Ehlert tried at 
Durham Assizes for the murder of his captain, 
and sentenced to be executed. Pie was con¬ 
demned mainly on the testimony of an appren¬ 
tice, whose assistance he had secured to carry 
out the crime. 

23 .—The Marquis of Londonderry writes 
that the rumour of his refusal to drink the 
Queen’s health with the usual honours at the 

( 47 ) 





JULY 


1839. 


AUGUS 


Duke of Somerset’s Wimbledon f&te, was a base 
and infamous falsehood. 

29 . —In committee on the Birmingham 
Police Bill, Lord John Russell consented to 
abandon his own clauses authorizing the Town 
Council to take special steps for preserving the 
peace of the town, in favour of others suggested 
by Sir Robert Peel, making special com¬ 
missioners appointed by the Home Office re¬ 
sponsible for the peace of the locality. The 
plea put forward for thus superseding the local 
authority was the acknowledged democratic 
character of the Town Council, and the doubt 
whether it had the power to levy a rate for such 
an increase in the police force as would be 
required. 

— The new Postage Duties Bill passed the 
House of Commons. 

30 . —Trial of Bolamat the Northumberland 
Assizes for the murder of Joseph Millie, at 
Newcastle (Dec. 7, 1838). The jury returned 
a verdict of manslaughter, and Baron Maule 
sentenced him to transportation for life. 

31 . —Lord John Russell writes to the magis¬ 
trates of Manchester, warning them to be 
watchful of the movements of evil-disposed 
people, who were seeking to obtain money 
from householders and shopkeepers, by threat¬ 
ening them with personal danger and loss of 
business, or marking down their names and 
reporting them as enemies. 

— A majority (39 to 13) of the Original 
Burgher Associate Synod resolved to annex 
themselves to the Church of Scotland. 

— The House of Commons engage to-day 
in the discussion of another case of breach of 
privilege, the Messrs. Hansard presenting a 
petition for protection from the consequences of 
an action raised against them for printing and 
publishing a report and minutes of evidence 
respecting the island of New Zealand. The 
action was subsequently departed from, so 
that the House contented itself with a simple 
expression of opinion. 

August 2.—Vincent, Edwards, Townsend, 
and Dickenson, Chartist agitators, tried at 
Monmouth for sedition, and sentenced to terms 
of imprisonment varying from six to twelve 
months. 

— At a meeting of the Exeter Town Council, 
the City Treasurer declared that he had neither 
money nor credit, and that the city did not 
possess sufficient funds to pay 3/. for a supply 
of potatoes to the gaol. 

— In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham 
carries his motion for an address to the Crown 
un the subject of the Portuguese slave-trade. 

3 . —Five of the Birmingham rioters tried at 
Warwick; Howell, Roberts, and Jones sen¬ 
tenced to death, but afterwards reprieved. 

— At the Crown Court at Bodmin, Felix 
Lovell, for twenty years a clerk in the Customs, 

(48) 


was sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation 
for embezzling 300 sovereigns and various bills 
of exchange. 

5 . —The purchasers of land in the first town¬ 
ship of New Zealand meet in the rooms of 
the Company to determine by lot who shall 
have precedence of selection. One-tenth of all 
the surveyed lands was said to be set aside for 
the aborigines. 

6. —Lord Brougham’s series of five resolu¬ 
tions, involving censure on the Government for 
their recent Irish policy, carried in the House 
of Lords by 86 to 52 votes. Lord Melbourne 
described the ex-Chancellor’s speech as violent, 
intemperate, and criminating. 

— The Chartist National Convention re¬ 
moves from Bolt-court, Fleet-street, to the 
Arundel Coffee-house, where they issue a 
declaration concerning the postponement of 
the “ sacred month. ” Though the people are 
not generally prepared to carry out the month 
in its entirety, the delegates are convinced that 
“most of the trades may be induced to cease 
working on the 12th for two or three days, in 
order to devote the 'whole of that time to 
solemn processions and meetings for deliber¬ 
ating on the present awful state of the country.” 

7 . —Cabul captured, and entered by Shah 
Soojah, accompanied by the British Envoy, the 
commanding officer of the army, and a squadron 
of British cavalry. After traversing the streets 
and reaching the palace in the Bala Hissar, a 
royal salute was fired, and congratulations 
offered to his Majesty on regaining the throne 
of his ancestors. Envoy Macnaghten describes 
the breaking-up of the army and flight of Dost 
Mahomed Khan. “He was not accompanied 
by any person of consequence, and his followers 
are said to have been reduced below the num¬ 
ber of 100 on the day of his departure.” 

8 . —The Postage Duties Bill passes the 
House of Lords. It received the Royal absent 
on the 17th. 

— Died at Rockhall, Dumfriesshire, Sir 
Robert Grierson, the fourth baronet of Lag, a 
lieutenant on half-pay in the nth Foot. He 
was over 100 years of age, and had drawn half¬ 
pay for seventy-six years. 

9 . —Pera, the Christian suburb of Constan¬ 
tinople, nearly destroyed by fire. The loss 
was estimated at 4,800,000/. 

— In a debate on Mr. Duncombe’s series 
of resolutions censuring Ministers, Mr. Dis¬ 
raeli said: “They had been for seven years 
attacking the Church. They had revolu¬ 
tionized the parochial jurisdiction of the coun¬ 
try— the most ancient jurisdiction, and one 
bearing a much finer relation to the feelings 
and wants of the people than any other part of 
the constitution. The Government had further 
attacked trial by jury ; they destroyed Corpora¬ 
tions, and had not spared the ancient Police of 
the country. (Laughter.) They had impaired 






AUGUST 


'339 


AUGUST 


all local administration, and had confiscated 
the property of the people. Why should not 
such things occasion discontent? Why should 
not a people be exasperated, whose physical 
comforts, moral resources, and self-respect were 
assailed in so reffkless a manner ? ” Mr. Dun- 
combe’s resolutions were rejected by 51 votes 
to 29. 

11 . --This (Sunday) afternoon, a body of 
about 500 Chartists met in West Smithfield, 
and walked in procession to St. Paul’s Cathe¬ 
dral, which they occupied for some time. At 
Manchester, in conformity with O’Connor’s 
advice, they also took possession of the Cathe¬ 
dral, but left abruptly on the preacher an¬ 
nouncing as his text, “ My house is the house 
of prayer, but ye have made it a den of 
thieves. ” 

12 . —At Manchester, Bolton, Macclesfield, 
and various other centres of industry, the 
Chartists seek to raise disturbances by com¬ 
pelling working men to cease from their labour 
during the “sacred month.” No excitement 
throughout the country generally. 

— At Chester, Mr. Baron Gurney thus lays 
down the law of conspiracy as bearing on the 
prisoners now awaiting trial:—“ In a conspi¬ 
racy it is not necessary, nor is it even possible, 
that all the parties should do one and the same 
thing. A conspiracy is carried into execution 
by different persons in different places, doing 
different things, all conducing to the accom¬ 
plishment of the design in which they are 
engaged. Some would call meetings ; others 
would preside ; others speak, instruct, and in¬ 
flame. Others would go about privately to 
stir up ; others distribute publications explana¬ 
tory of the objects to be obtained, and the 
means to procure them. Others would manu¬ 
facture arms, and others obtain their disposal. 
For the purpose of making a conspiracy it is 
not necessary that they should all have known 
of it; but if by means of these speeches and 
publications they are induced to act, though at 
a distance from each other, in the execution of 
the same plan, they are still conspirators. The 
act of one is the act of all. An act done in 
this county for the furtherance of the common 
design, is an act for which they are all answer- 
able, even though the parties should never have 
designed it; and though they should reside in 
another county, they may be properly charged 
in one and the same indictment. ” 

14 -. —The Commission of the General As¬ 
sembly of the Church of Scotland agree to 
Dr. Gordon’s hostile resolution in the Auch- 
terarder case : “The Commission are of opinion 
that the application of Mr. Young is incom¬ 
petent, not only because he was finally rejected 
by a sentence of Presbytery, which was not 
appealed from, a similar application having 
been directed to be refused by the Assembly of 
1838, but also because it would be a complete 
violation of the fundamental principles of the 
Church, in contravention of her standing laws, 
( 49 ) 


and in defiance of the authority of the last 
General Assembly, who, on a report of the 
Auchterarder case being laid before them, de¬ 
clared that no presentee should be forced upon 
the people; as also, because it was opposed to 
the sentence of the Commission in May last. 
And the Commission are further of opinion, 
that no sentence of the civil court can justify 
their compliance. The Commission, further, 
considering the motion which was made by the 
minority of the Presbytery to take Mr. Young 
on his trials, hereby prohibit the Presbytery in 
any event from taking Mr. Young on his trials, 
as they shall be accountable.”—Dr. Cook moved 
an amendment: “ Having maturely considered 
the reference of the Presbytery of Auchterarder, 
the Commission earnestly advise that Presbytery, 
in conformity with the judgment of the Court of 
Session, affirmed upon appeal by the House of 
Peers, to take upon trial Mr. Robert Young, 
presentee to the parish of Auchterarder; so 
that, if they find him qualified, they may pro¬ 
ceed to the settlement with all convenient speed, 
according to the rules of the Church.” Dr. 
Gordon’s motion was carried by a vote of 104 
to 23. 

15 . —Came on at Chester Assizes the trial 
of the Rev. J. R. Stephens, charged with mis¬ 
demeanour, in so far as he had attended an 
unlawful meeting, and incited those present to 
a disturbance of the public peace. The meet¬ 
ing mainly relied on was held at the Cotton 
Tree, near Hyde. Many who attended it 
carried arms, and bore banners with the in¬ 
scriptions—“ Tyiants, believe and tremble,” 
“ Liberty or Death,” “Ashton demands Uni¬ 
versal Suffrage or Universal Vengeance,” “For 
children and wife we’ll war to the knife.” 
There was also a transparency with the word 
* * Blood. ” At this meeting the prisoner was 
charged with using inflammatory language. 
He told the meeting that “he had good news 
for them ; he had been to the barracks, seen 
the soldiers, and the soldiers would not act 
against the people.” He asked if they had 
fire-arms, and were ready; and the answer 
was given by a discharge of fire-arms. This 
meeting continued till midnight. Stephens, 
who spoke for five hours in defence, was found 
guilty, and sentenced to eighteen months’ im¬ 
prisonment in Knutsford Gaol. 

— Don Carlos, closely pressed by Espartero, 
crosses the frontier and surrenders himself to the 
French Sub-prefect at Bayonne. 

16 . —The clergy of Ripon and neighbour¬ 
hood having remonstrated with the Marquis of 
Londonderry for fighting a duel with Mr. 
Grattan, the Marquis replies :—“ I should 
lose the degree of character I have (I hope) 
obtained through life, for candour and straight¬ 
forwardness, if I did not at once declare that 
while you, as clergymen, are compelled to 
view this transaction as unsanctioned and un¬ 
authorized by God, we as soldiers are' bound 
to fight to uphold the Altar and Throne when 
attacked, and for this high duty our garments 

E 




AVGUST 


1839 - 


AUGUST 


must be unsullied as yours ; and while you in 
the due exercise of your high calling are bound 
to preach the Gospel and administer consolation 
to the repentant sinner, you must leave to the 
British soldier the unfettered right of being the 
best judge and arbiter of his own honour, while 
he religiously believes that in doing his duty 
in that state of life to which Providence has 
called him he will find mercy in the Redeemer, 
instead of drawing down the wrath of God, as 
you seem to announce. ” 

16 .—Lord Tavistock writes to the Chronicle , 
denying that Lady Tavistock took any part 
whatever against Lady Flora Hastings, or ever 
imparted any suspicion, or made any communi¬ 
cation, direct or indirect, to her Majesty con¬ 
cerning that lady. 

19 . —The Lords 1 amendment to the Portu¬ 
guese Slave Trade Bill agreed to by the Com¬ 
mons, and sent back to the Upper House to 
receive the Royal Assent. A protest against 
the measure was entered by the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington, on the ground that the right of search 
provided for in the bill was liable to be resented 
and retaliated by other Powers. 

20 . —Detention of the army of the Indus 
to maintain Shah Soojah in Cabul. “I am 
anxiously desirous,” writes Lord Auckland, 
“ that the forces should be once more 
stationed within our own provinces. The 
political effect of their return could not but 
be advantageous. It would put an end to 
the injurious speculations which have been 
founded on their absence. It might check the 
restless and unfriendly spirit which has pre¬ 
vailed beyond our northern and eastern fron¬ 
tiers, and would give us disposable strength for 
the requisition which it seems probable, in the 
present aspect of affairs, may in more quarters 
than one be made for military demonstration. 
Yet I need scarcely add that'even these objects, 
and the immediate reduction of expenditure, 
would be ill attained at the price of leaving 
unaccomplished the great purposes with which 
the expedition to Cabul was undertaken.” 
As Shah Soojah was utterly unable of himself 
to support his claim to the throne of Afghan¬ 
istan, a general order was issued on the 9th 
October, commanding the whole of the troops 
to be distributed between Cabul, Jellalabad, 
Ghuznee, and Candahar, the latter under the 
command of Major-General Nott. 

22. —The Morning Post gives currency to 
the rumour that the Queen was about to ally 
herself in marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe 
Coburg. 

23 . —In reviewing the legislative work of 
the session, Lord Lyndhurst taunted the Home 
Secretary with now being compelled to suppress 
by force in Birmingham opinions which some 
time since he had said were as “the voice of 
the nation” compared to “the whisper of a 
faction. ” 

26 .—Tried at Liverpool the case of Rutter 

( 5 °) 


v. Chapman, involving the validity of the 
Manchester Charter. The judge directed a • 
verdict for the defendant, on the ground that j 
the Privy Council could grant the charter on 
the petition which had been presented from 
Manchester; but allowed IVfr. Cresswell to 
tender a bill of exceptions, on which the cas^ 
could be argued in the court above. 

26 . —To-day new writs were issued for Tip¬ 
perary in room of Mr. Shiel, appointed Vice- ; 
President of the Board of Trade, and fo' 
Manchester in room of Mr. Poulett Thomson* 
appointed Governor-General of Canada. 

— Under severe threats from the native 
Government, the British residents leave Macao I 
and seek shelter with Captain Elliot, who ! 
ordered the British vessels to the Bay of 
Coalloon. 

27 . —Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. The Speaker presented the last Supply 
Bill of the session. In the Royal Speech re¬ 
ference was made to the treaty between Holland 
and Belgium, negotiated by the mediation of 
the Five Powers, who were alike determined to 
uphold the independence and integrity of the j 
Ottoman Empire. “I regret that the dif- j 
ferences which led to the withdrawal of my 
Minister from the Court of Teheran have not 
yet been satisfactorily adjusted by the Govern- j 
ment of Persia. In order to fulfil the engage- ! 
ments announced to you at the opening of the 
present session, the Governor-General of India 
has moved an army across the Indus; and I 
have much satisfaction in being able to inform 
you that the advance of that expedition has ; 
been hitherto unopposed, and there is every 
reason to hope that the important objects for 
which these military operations have been under¬ 
taken will be finally obtained. It has been with 
satisfaction that I have given my consent to a 
reduction of the postage duties. I trust that 
the Act which has been passed on this subject 
will be a relief and encouragement to trade, 
and that by facilitating intercourse and corre¬ 
spondence it will be productive of much social 
advantage and improvement. ” It was with great 
pain, it was mentioned, the Crown “had been 
compelled to enforce the law against those who 
no longer concealed their design of resisting 
by force the lawful authorities, and of subverting 
the institutions of the country. ” 

28 . —Tournament at Eglinton Castle. The 
tilt-yard was formed on a lawn a little south of 
the castle. A wooden paling, about five feet 
in height, served to keep back the crowd ; 
while the grand stand, with seats for 800 
persons, and two smaller galleries right and 
left, containing 700 each, formed nearly the 
whole southern side of the arena. At each 
end, and within the enclosure, the encamp¬ 
ments or positions of the various knights were 
pitched. The rising ground on the northern 
side of the lists was completely covered with 
spectators, and in various places throughout 
the park, wherever a glimpse of the lists could 




AUGUST 


1839. 


SEPTEMBER 


be obtained, vehicles crowded with visitors were 
drawn up. The weather, unfortunately, was 
most unfavourable. The rain commenced to 
fall heavily in the forenoon, which not only 
led to a curtailment in the splendour of the 
grand procession from the castle, but damped 
the enthusiasm of many who had undertaken 
long journeys to be present at this revival of 
ancient state. After the procession had moved 
round the arena, the King of the Tournament 
(the Marquis of Londonderry) and the Queen 
of Beauty (Lady Seymour), with their at¬ 
tendants, took their places on the grand stand, 
and the knights, with their suites, withdrew to 
their respective tents. Some jousting then 
took place in the tilting-ground, the most 
noticeable encounters being those between the 
Earl of Eglinton (Lord of the Tournament) 
and the Marquis of Waterford (Knight of the 
Dragon). There was -also a broadsword en¬ 
counter between Prince Louis Napoleon and 
Mr. Lamb, Knight of the White Rose. On the 
following day (Thursday), the weather put a 
complete stop to all outdoor display ; but on 
Friday the sports were resumed, and carried 
through with great spirit. Throughout the 
kingdom the interest in the Tournament was 
so great, that it was calculated no less than 
100,000 visitors gathered round “ the Castle 
o’ Montgomery ” on the first day of the 
spectacle. 

28 . —Intelligence arrives from Bombay to the 
4th of July, and from Calcutta to the 18th of 
June, intimating that all was going well with 
the Affghanistan army. Sir John Keane in¬ 
tended to march against Cabul on the 15th June, 
and anticipated an easy victory over Dost Ma¬ 
homed, who was reported to have fled in the 
direction of Bokhara. At Herat, Lieut. Pot- 
tinger was said to have completely established 
British supremacy. 

— Died at Northampton, aged 70 years, 
William Smith, LL.D., F.G.S., “the father 
of English Geology. ” 

29 . —Affray at Egham Races between a 
band of thimble-riggers and certain soldiers of 
the 45 th regiment. 

30 . —Mr. Macnaghten, the British Envoy 
at Cabul, writes: “Everything is going on 
well here. Two regiments of infantry, and 
one of cavalry, are to be left at Cabul, and 
another at Jellalabad, where it is thought Shah 
Soojah intends to winter.” 

— Grand entertainment at Dover to the 
Duke, of Wellington, as Lord Warden of the 
Cinque Ports. The toast of the day was spoken 
to by Lord Brougham, who bestowed bound¬ 
less praise on the noble Duke. 

— The Directors of the Thames Tunnel 
Company give a dinner in the works, to 
celebrate the reaching of low-water mark. 

Ministerial changes. Mr. Baring became 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was re¬ 

(50 


elected for Portsmouth without opposition. 
Mr. Spring Rice was called to the House of 
Lords with the title of Lord Monteagle. The 
Marquis of Normanby and Lord John Russell 
change places, the former becoming Home 
Secretary and the latter Colonial Secretary. 
Mr. Labouchere succeeded Mr. Poulett Thom¬ 
son at the Board of Trade. 

The Rev. Theobald Mathew organizes great 
temperance demonstrations at Limerick. On 
one of the days the crush of people was so 
immense, that the cavalry called out to preserve 
order were swept off the ground. Thousands 
were anxious even to touch the hem of his gar¬ 
ment. At Nenagh 20,000 persons took the 
pledge in one day, and 100,000 at Galway 
in two days. 

September 3 .—A committee of Maryle- 
bone Vestry recommend the paving of the 
whole of Oxford Street with wood. 

— Miss Ellen Tree makes her first appear¬ 
ance in the Haymarket Theatre after her return 
from America, as Viola , in “Twelfth Night.” 

— The Presbytery of Aberdeen declare their 
intention of withdrawing their certificate from 
Professor Blackie, on the ground that he did 
not sign and accept the Confession of Faith 
in that unqualified manner required by the Act 
of Parliament. 

— Captain Wade reaches Cabul with Run- 
jeet Singh’s detachment, having fought his 
way through the Khyber Pass, and seized the 
important hill fortress of Ali-Musjid. The 
Prince Timr>ur, who accompanied him, was 
received in state. 

4 .— In the Presbytery of Glasgow, the Rev. 
Mr. Fairbaim, of Bridgeton, calls attention to 
the extraordinary revival of religion which had 
manifested itself among the people of Kilsyth. 
The Rev. Mr. Bums afterwards addressed the 
Presbytery, detailing the chief characteristics 
by which this revival was distinguished. 

— Affray between Captain Elliot and 
Chinese, in the Bay of Coalloon, on account of 
the latter refusing to supply provisions to the 
boats till satisfaction had been made for the 
alleged murder of a native at Hong Kong. 

7 . —Fall of a house on the east side of the 
Edgware-road ; one female killed. 

— M. Daguerre’s new invention for taking 
pictures publicly exhibited in the Quai d’Orsay 
by order of the Minister of Interior. The 
Journal des Debats described the apparatus 
and process. The first experiment in England 
was made on the 13th, when M. St. Croix ex¬ 
hibited the instrument and process in presence 
of a select party of scientific men and artists, 
lie also succeeded in producing a picture of the 
place of meeting, No. 7, Piccadilly. 

11.—At the Surrey Sessions, John Benchey 
and Martha Stone, indicted for stealing, with 
great violence, from the person of Robert 
Young, W.S., Edinburgh, a watch, pair of 

E 2 




SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1839- 


spectacles, and wig, were sentenced to ten 
years’ transportation. 

11. —A young woman named Margaret Moyes 
commits suicide by throwing herself from the 
top of the Monument. At the inquest a witness, 
living in Monument-yard, said he saw the de¬ 
ceased in her descent. She turned round twice, 
and made motions with her arms. He found 
her on the ground, the left arm several feet 
from the body, and a good deal of blood 
flowing. A rope was found on the railings, 
which she had used as a stirrup to mount to 
the top. The jury returned a verdict of tem¬ 
porary insanity, with a recommendation to the 
Corporation to rail in the top of the Monument, 
to prevent the recurrence of similar acts. The 
Common Council made some demur to this 
recommendation, on the ground that druggists 
might as well be prohibited from selling poi¬ 
sons, or cutlers from disposing of a razor. 

12 . —Robbery in the United Service Club¬ 
house, which led to an inquiry, ending in the 
dismissal of Mr. Fenn, the steward. 

— A detachment of British and native 
troops leave Cabul to break up the power of 
Dost Mahomed in the Hindoo Coosh district, 
where he had taken refuge. They passed the 
winter at Bameean. 

— Daniel O’Connell issues a manifesto from 
Darrynane, pressing upon his countrymen the 
necessity of registering, to prevent a flood of 
evils from overwhelming the land ; for “at no 
period of English history did there exist towards 
Ireland, among the English people, a stronger 
spirit of hate and antipathy than at present. ” 

14 . —Dissolution of the Chartist National 
Convention. 

16 .—Disturbance in various towns in France, 
caused by the scarcity, and consequent high 
price, of corn. 

19 . —The Bombay column of the army of 
the Indus, under the command of General 
Willshire, leaves Afghanistan on its return to 
India by the route of the Kojuck and the 
Bolan. Such portions of the Bengal army as 
could be spared returned to India under Sir 
John Keane, by the Khyber route. 

20. —Feargus O’Connor arrested at Man¬ 
chester, on a judge’s warrant, for seditious 
conspiracy. 

— Died, aged 70, Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas 
Hardy, of Copenhagen and Trafalgar, flag- 
captain to Nelson on board the Victory. 

21 . —r Lucy Brown, a young woman seduced 
and afterwards discarded by a wine-merchant in 
London, commits suicide by leaping from the 
bridge into the Serpentine. 

23 .—Colonel Pasley, R. E. succeeds in raising 
a portion of the wreck of the Royal George 
by an explosion of gunpowder. The main¬ 
mast, pieces of the hull, capstan, and tiller, 
and several guns were brought up by the aid 
of divers, who descended after the explosion. 
The operation were continued with interesting 
results for some seasons. 

(52) 


23 .—Ebenezer Elliott addresses his “plun¬ 
dered fellow-townsmen ” of Sheffield :—“ You 
could not, if you were unanimous (which you 
are not), carry by physical or moral force, or 
any means whatever, any great public object, 
without the assistance of some of the other 
productive classes. The children of the Sunday 
Schools, who walked through our streets in 
procession last Whit-Monday, were then better 
prepared and able to contend with the military 
than you were. If you were this day arrayed 
for fight with all your present means, be they 
what they may, a troop of soldiers’ wives 
from the barracks, if they made their appear¬ 
ance unarmed, and with or without their hus¬ 
bands’ cloaks over their shoulders, would 
scare you out of the parish. And the adult 
daughters of the other productive classes (be¬ 
cause they have surplus funds, which you 
have not, and cannot have, until you get rid 
of the Corn Laws) could, if need were, not 
by coming behind folks, as some of your 
leaders advise you to do, but in fair battle, and 
without the aid of a single policeman or 
soldier, defeat and exterminate you. . . Potato- 
fed men, having no surplus, are necessarily 
slaves—and the Breadtaxry mean to bring you 
down to potato wages. You will soon, then, 

I venture to hope, see the folly of allowing 
yourselves to be led the wrong way, by paid 
agents of the scoundrel Breadtaxry, who, 
favoured by your deplorable ignorance, have 
contrived to place themselves at the head of 
the Chartists, not merely to defeat the other 
wise and holy movement, but, by so doing, to 
sustain the all-beggaring food-monopoly, and 
make the Liberal cause itself hateful and 
ridiculous.” 

27 .—Mr. Macaulay gazetted Secretary-at- 
War, and sworn of her Majesty’s Privy Council.^-- 
A similar honour was conferred at this time 
upon Mr. R. L. Shiel, who had been appointed 
Vice-President of the Board of Trade. The 
excessive unfairness with which public men on 
all sides were treated at this time may be 
illustrated by a passage from the Times con¬ 
cerning these appointments:—“These men 
Privy Councillors ! These men petted at 
Windsor Castle! Faugh! Why, they are 
hardly fit to fill up the vacancies that have 
occurred by the lamented death of her Majesty’s 
two favourite monkeys.” On the 1st October 
Mr. Macaulay forwarded to his Edinburgh con¬ 
stituents an address, dated “ Windsor Castle,” 
in which he said : “I have accepted office be¬ 
cause I am of opinion that in office I can most 
effectually promote the success of those prin¬ 
ciples which recommended me to your favour. 

I shall quit office with far more pleasure than I 
accepted it, as soon as I am convinced that by 
quitting it I should serve the cause of temperate 
liberty and progressive reform.” The Times 
again attacked the member for Edinburgh 
“ But if the ground of Mr. Shiel’s appointment 
be still a mystery, there can no longer be any 
doubt of the qualification which recommended 
Mr. Babble-tongue Macaulay to the favour of 




OCTOBER 


1839. 


OCTOBER 


Ministers. No; his letter to the electors of 
Edinburgh has set that point at rest. His 
cast-iron impudence has earned his promotion. 

‘ Set a beggar on horseback, ’ and our readers 
know how he will ride. Mr. Babble-tongue 
Macaulay’s epistle furnishes a striking illustra¬ 
tion of the truth of that proverbial saying. 
It seems that his uncouth, uncomfortable pre¬ 
sence has been obtruded on her Majesty at 
Windsor, and the creature has actually had 
the impudence to date his letter to the canaille 
of the Edinburgh electors from ‘ Windsor 
Castle!’ We would fain persuade ourselves 
that the Scotch papers have been hoaxing 
us, and that Mr. Babble-tongue Macaulay 
addressed his letter, not from the Castle, but 
from the Castle Tavern, Windsor, ay, and 
from the most proper part thereof for the pur¬ 
pose, namely, the tap. But no ; he has soine- 
how or other been pitchforked into the Palace ; 
and though, in all probability, he has been 
admitted as a guest there only for the sake of 
being made fun of by Lord Melbourne and the 
ladies, still the ‘ distinguished honour ’ has given 
his brain another turn. This is evident from 
the insufferably conceited strain of his epistle 
to the scum of the Edinburgh electors.” The 
Times , it is pleasant to remember, lived to out¬ 
grow this bitter personal warfare, and most 
handsomely acknowledged Mr. Macaulay’s ser¬ 
vices in the walks of literature as well as politics. 

October 4.—The New Zealand exploring 
expedition under Col. Wakefield leave Port 
Nicholson for Cloudy Bay, having made an 
advantageous purchase of the harbour and ad¬ 
joining land from the natives. 

6 . —Capture of the fort of Kurnoul, in the 
Deccan, by a body of troops belonging to the 
Madras Presidency. 

7. —Bombay advices of this date make 
mention that the war in Affghanistan might be 
considered at an end. Shah Soojah was 
showering honours upon Sir John Keane and 
his officers. 

— With the view of rebutting various 
rumours in circulation as to the case of Lady 
Flora Hastings, Sir Janies Clark forwards to 
the newspapers for publication a narrative of 
his share in the transaction. (See Feb. I.) 

— The creditors of the late Duke of Kent 
wait upon the Queen to present an address of 
thanks to her for payment of the Duke’s debts. 
No less than 50 , 000 /. was said to have been 
furnished by her Majesty’s privy purse for this 
filial act. 

9. —Robbery of a box, containing 5 , 000 /. in 
gold and notes, from the boot of the coach 
running between Manchester and the Potteries. 

— Suspension of specie payments in Phila¬ 
delphia and other cities of the Union. 

10. —Prince Albert and his brother, the 
hereditary Prince of Saxe Coburg, arrive at the 
Tower, and proceed first to Buckingham Palace, 
and then to Windsor, on a visit to the Queen. 


13. —J ames Bryan, a native of Ayrshire, and 
a person of weak intellect, presents himself at 
Windsor as a suitor for the hand of her Majesty. 

14. —Fight between English and Irish 
navvies employed on the Chester and Birken¬ 
head Railway. The military were called in to 
disperse the combatants. 

— The Queen informs Lord Melbourne 
that she had now made up her mind to ally 
herself in marriage with her cousin Prince 
Albert, presently on a visit to Windsor with 
his brother Ernest. “I think,” said Lord 
Melbourne, “ it will be very well received, for 
I hear there is an anxiety now that it should 
be, and I am very glad of it; ” adding in quite 
a paternal tone, “You will be very much 
more comfortable ; for a woman cannot stand 
alone for any time, in whatever position she 
may be.” 

15. —The Queen informs Prince Albert of 
her intentions as to her marriage. He had 
been out hunting early with his brother, but 
returned at twelve, and half an hour afterwards 
obeyed the Queen’s summons to her room, 
where he found her alone. After a few 
minutes’ conversation on other subjects, the 
Queen told him why she had sent for him. 
How the Prince received the offer appears 
from the few lines written to the old friend of 
the family, Baron Stockmar : “ Victoria is so 
good and kind to me that I am often at a loss 
to believe that such affection ( Herzlichkeit) 
should be shared by me.” The Queen herself 
wrote that the Prince received her offer without 
any hesitation, and with the warmest demon¬ 
strations of kindness and affection. Writing 
to her uncle, the King of the Belgians, on the 
same day, the Queen says : “I love him more 
than I can say, and shall do everything in my 
power to render this sacrifice (for such in my 
opinion it is) as small as I can. He seems to 
have very great tact, a very necessary thing 
in his position. These last few days have 
passed like a dream to me, and I am so much 
bewildered by it all that I hardly know how 
to write ; but I do feel very happy. . . . Lord 
Melbourne has acted in this business as he has 
always done towards me, with the greatest 
kindness and affection. We also think it 
better, and Albert quite approves of it, that 
we should be married very soon after Parlia¬ 
ment meets, about the beginning of February.” 

— The British Queen arrives at Ports¬ 
mouth with news of a financial crisis in New 
York, and the probable suspension of several 
banks. 

— The Queen Dowager leaves Bushey Park 
for a “progress” through Warwickshire and 
Devonshire. 

17. —Mr. Poulett Thomson arrives at Quebec 
as Governor of British North America. 

18. —The Queen of the French struck on the 
face with a stone thrown into the royal car¬ 
riage near the Tuileries, by a mad woman 
named Giordet. 

(S3) 





OCTOBER 


I§ 39 - 


NOVEMBER 


18 . —Another suicide from the top of the 
Monument. Several spectators saw a lad de¬ 
liberately climb over the iron breastwork of the 
gallery, stand upon the edge of the coping out¬ 
side, turn round, so as to have his back to the 
railing over which he had clambered, and then, 
after a moment’s pause, leap to the earth. 
The body was shockingly mangled, and death 
instantaneous. A Bible which he had carried 
up was found on the floor of the gallery. The 
lad was named Hawes, and not over fifteen 
years of age. 

19 . —Sir John Colborne, who had rendered 
great services in the settlement of Canadian 
affairs, leaves Montreal for England. 

— The Canadian Gazette publishes Gover¬ 
nor Thomson’s first proclamation promising 
the earliest possible restoration of a free 
Assembly. 

20. —Died, at the Doune of Rothiemurchie, 
Inverness-shire, in his seventy-fourth year, from 
apoplexy, John Russell, sixth Duke of Bedford. 

22 .—A false account published by London 
papers of the death of Lord Brougham, by the 
overturning of his carriage near Penrith, with 
comments on his character. The Ministerial 
Chronicle laid aside party politics on the occa¬ 
sion, and wrote :—“And now, while ‘the ex¬ 
travagant and erring spirit hies to his confine’ — 
there, we devoutly hope, to repose in ‘the 
bosom of his Father and his God’—we feel 
rising upon us the recollections of many an 
arduous and vigorous struggle for the right; 
for unrestricted commerce; for the spread of 
knowledge; for legal and representative re¬ 
forms ; for the suffering and enslaved African ; 
for freedom, civil and religious; for many a 
political victim marked for sacrifice ; for a per¬ 
secuted Queen ; and for the poor and ignorant, 
the injured and helpless in our own land, and 
all the world over. Such recollections, in spite 
of all deductions and exceptions, which sink 
into disregard now that the great account is 
closed, will endear and enshrine his memory. 
The Legislature—the country at lai-ge—all par¬ 
ties, sects, classes—must feel that a great public 
loss has been sustained. And on the future 
annals of our eventful times, conspicuous and 
Illustrious will stand the name of Henry Lord 
Brougham.” The Morning Post was even 
more eulogistic :—“He is gone—torn away by 
a horrid and violent death, while his mind was 
yet in its full vigour, and his spirits as elastic 
and buoyant as ever ! We have no feeling now 
with respect to him but that of grief. The 
most wonderful genius that belonged to public 
life is no more, and we, as belonging to the 
public, are grief-stricken mourners over his un¬ 
timely grave.” The Times cast doubts on the 
rumoured accident, and did not comment on 
Lord Brougham’s career till its falsity was estab¬ 
lished. The report originated in a letter re¬ 
ceived by Alfred Montgomery, Kingston House, 
Knightsbridge, and said to have been written by 
a Mr. Shafto from Brougham Hall, who stated 
( 54 ) 


that he saw his Lordship killed by the horses 
in the carriage after it was upset. 

23 . —Died, at Inverary Castle, from apo¬ 
plexy, George William Campbell, Duke of 
Argyll. 

24 . —Banquet at Edinburgh to Sir John 
Campbell, one of the city members, and At¬ 
torney-General. In reply to the toast of the 
evening, the learned gentleman passed in review 
the work of the session, and the measures 
taken to obstruct it by the Opposition. He 
spoke of Chartism as an agitation which had 
passed away. 

30 .—The Gazette publishes despatches from 
Sir John Keane, announcing the fall of Ghuznee 
and the entry of Shah Soojah into Cabul. 
The latest dates from the army were to the 9th 
of August, from Simla, w r here the Governor- 
General had taken up his residence, and 
from Bombay, 12th September. 

The violent harangues of the most violent 
Chartist equalled by Mr. Bradshaw, M. P. 
for Canterbury, at a Tory gathering in that 
city. “The Prime Minister,” he said, “tells 
us, with rare effrontery, that it is his duty to 
get support wherever he can. Nothing is too 
low or too foul for his purpose. The stews of 
the Tower Hamlets and the bogs of Ireland 
are ransacked for recruits ; and thus lie crawls 
on, having cast behind him every feeling of 
honour and high principle. But his Ministry, 
his sheet-anchor, is the body of Irish Papists 
and Rapparees whom the priests return to the 
House of Commons. These are the men who 
represent the bigoted savages, hardly more 
civilized than the natives of New Zealand, but 
animated with a fierce, undying hatred of 
England. I repeat then deliberately, that 
the Papists of Ireland, priest and layman, peer 
and peasant, are alike our enemies—aliens are 
they in blood, language, and religion. Their 
hatred of this country is as undisguised as it is 
inextinguishable, and they have become only 
more rampant and hostile by the concessions 
so unadvisedly made to them. Yet on these 
men are bestowed the countenance and support 
of the Queen of Protestant England. But, 
alas ! her Majesty is queen only of a faction, 
and is as much of a partisan as the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor himself.” (See Jan. 15, 1840.) 

At a Conservative dinner at Ashton-under- 
Lyne, a Mr. Roby uses expressions regard¬ 
ing the Queen and the Ministry which compels 
the Commander-in-chief to bring it under the 
notice of certain officers who were present; 
reminding them that, as military servants, 
they are bound to confine themselves to their 
military duties; and that when they thus ven¬ 
ture to connect themselves with any party 
association, under any circumstances, or upon 
any pretence whatsoever, they incur a heavy 
responsibility, and expose themselves to the 
heaviest blame. 

November 3 .—H.M. frigates Volage and 
Hyacinth attacked by a squadron of 2S Chinese 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1839- 


junks at Hong Kong. The effect of our shots 
was soon visible, one junk being blown up, 
three sunk, and several others shattered and 
deserted by their crews. The remainder retired 
in great confusion to the anchorage above the 
battery. 

4 . —Serious Chartist riots at Newport, Mon¬ 
mouthshire. According to a preconcerted ar¬ 
rangement numerous disaffected “hill men,” 
chiefly under the leadership of John Frost and 
Zephaniah Williams, commenced their march on 
Saturday night (2d), armed with guns, pistols, 
swords, crowbars, and pickaxes. Sacking the 
villages through which they passed, and com¬ 
pelling the adult male population to join them, 
they reached Tredegar Park about four o’clock 
this morning, 20,000 strong ; there they waited 
two hours for, another division from Pontypool 
and its neighbourhood, under the leadership of 
William Jones. This junction being effected, 
they formed into two divisions, and entered New¬ 
port, one marching down Snow-hill, the other 
through Charles-street, and both joining in 
the centre of the principal street. The magis¬ 
trates, having private information as to the 
intention of the rioters, were at this time as¬ 
sembled in the Westgate Arms Inn, supported 
by a party of the 45th Foot, under the com¬ 
mand of Lieut. Gray. Led by John Frost, the 
mob directed its course to the Westgate Inn, 
and at once proceeded to demolish the house 
and fire upon the soldiers within. Before a 
soldier was allowed to act, the magistrates at¬ 
tempted to restore peace by remonstrating with 
the deluded men. Finding this ineffectual, 
however, the Mayor (Mr. T. Phillips) gave the 
soldiers an order to load. “While the men 
were loading I heard several shots fired in the 
passage of the house, and the windows of the 
room containing the soldiers were beaten against 
on the outside. I was wounded in the arm 
and hip in the act of opening the window- 
shutter before the soldiers fired.” Lieut. Gray 
said : “I directed the men to spare their ammu¬ 
nition. We began with twenty-two rounds, 
and fired about three upon the average. I 
believe the mob fired deliberately upon us after 
we had unmasked ourselves by opening the 
window. I stood before them in my uniform, 
and the soldiers in a line behind me. We 
found nine dead bodies.” The rioters broke 
up under the steady fire of the soldiers, and 
retired to the outskirts of the town, carrying 
their wounded, and some of their dead, with 
them. Frost was apprehended next day, and 
on his person were found three pistols, a flask 
of powder, and a large quantity of balls and 
percussion caps. Apart from the sanguinary 
character of this attack, another circumstance, 
investing it with special significance, was the 
comparative respectability and seriousness of 
the people concerned in it. They were mostly 
well-paid, able-bodied workmen, and one was 
a master gardener who paid wages to others. 

7.— Preliminary compulsory postage minute 
issued by the Treasury. 


7 . —The Duke of Sussex, presently a guest 
of the Earl of Durham, visits Newcastle, and 
is enthusiastically received. Sunderland and 
Durham were also visited. 

8 . —Twelve lives sacrificed at Radstock 
Wells-way Pit, Somersetshire, by some mali¬ 
cious person cutting the rope which let the 
men down to the workings. The cage fell a 
distance of 756 feet. 

9 . —The Qu«en commands Lord Normanby 
to express to Mr. T. Phillips, the Mayor of 
Newport, her high approval of the conduct of 
himself and other magistrates, on the occasion 
of the recent outbreak there, and in token of 
which she afterwards conferred upon him the 
honour of knighthood. 

— At the Lord Mayor’s dinner, Lord Mel¬ 
bourne, in returning thanks for “her Majesty’s 
Ministers,” was received with noisy signs of 
disapprobation. The tumult latterly became 
so outrageous and undignified, that the Lord 
Mayor was compelled to interfere, by declaring 
that the company were not paying that respect 
to himself and the Sheriffs which they had a 
right to expect. The disturbance was thought 
to be only partially due to political feeling, the 
chief incentive being the interference of the 
Ministry with City privileges. 

12 . —Stockdale raises a new action against 
Messrs. Hansard, printers to the House of 
Commons, concluding for 50,000/. damages. 
Messrs. Hansard were instructed not to respond. 
The case was heard by the Under-Sheriff and 
a jury in Red Lion-square, who awarded 600/. 
damages. 

— Fire in Widegate-alley, Bishopsgate, in 
which eight lives were lost. 

13 . —General Willshire captures the im¬ 
portant fortress of Khelat, after a severe en¬ 
counter with Mehrab Khan, who, it was alleged, 
had instigated the tribes in the Bolan Pass to 
attack our troops. 

14 . —The magistrates of Newport and 
Pontypool occupied almost daily in examining 
witnesses and committing prisoners concerned 
in the recent outbreak. Zephaniah Williams 
was captured off Cardiff on board a small 
vessel, on the eve of sailing for Oporto. 

15 . —Colonel Pasley, R.E., reports the dis¬ 
continuance, for the present, of efforts to raise 
the wreck of the Royal George at Spithead. 
During the recent experiments, 12,940 lbs. of 
powder had been spent in blasting, and about 
100 tons of wreck were raised. 

16 . —Service of plate, valued at 1,250 
guineas, presented to Mr. Robert Stephenson, 
engineer, by the contractors of tiie London 
and Birmingham Railway, at a public dinner 
in the “Albion” tavern. 

— Died, at London, John Lander, African 
traveller, aged 32. 

18 .—Sudden illness of the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington, at Walmer Castle. 

(55) 






NOVEMBER 


1839. 


DECEMBER 


20 . —The Commander-in-chief, Lord Hill, 
censures Colonel Thomas and other officers for 
being present at the political dinner at Ashton- 
under-Lyne, where abusive language was used 
concerning the Queen. (See Nov. 30.) 

— Murder of Rev. John Williams,, mission¬ 
ary, in South Sea Islands. 

23 .—Meeting at Birmingham to protest 
against the introduction of Government police 
into the City. 

— Special meeting of the Privy Council at 
Buckingliam Palace, to hear the Queen intimate 
her intention of allying herself in marriage 
with Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg. “ Pre¬ 
cisely at 2,” the Queen records in her Journal, 
“ I went in. The room was full, but I hardly 
knew who was there. Lord Melbourne I saw 
looking kindly at me with tears in his eyes, 
but he was not near me. I then read my short 
declaration. I felt my hands shook, but I did 
not make one mistake. I felt more happy and 
thankful when it was over. Lord Lansdowne 
then rose, and, in the name of the Privy Council, 
asked that ‘ this most gracious and most wel¬ 
come communication might be printed.’ I 
then left the room—the whole thing not lasting 
above two or three minutes. The Duke of 
Cambridge came into the small library where 
I was standing, and wished me joy.” The 
Royal declaration was in these words : “ I have 
caused you to be summoned at the present time 
in order that I may acquaint you with my re¬ 
solution in a matter which deeply concerns the 
welfare of my people and the happiness of my 
future life. It is my intention to ally myself 
in marriage with the Pxince Albert of Saxe 
Coburg and Gotha. Deeply impressed with 
the solemnity of the engagement which I am 
about to contract, I have not come to this 
decision without mature consideration, nor 
without feeling a strong assurance that, with 
the blessing of Almighty God, it will at once 
secure my domestic felicity and serve the 
interests of my country. I have thought fit to 
make this resolution known to you at the 
earliest period, in order that you may be fully 
apprised of a matter so highly important to me 
and my kingdom, and which I persuade my¬ 
self will be most acceptable to all my loving 
subjects.” Eighty-three members of Privy 
Council were present on this interesting 
occasion. 

24 -.—Abd-el-Kader proclaims war against 
the French in Algeria, and suddenly attacks 
their outposts. The immediate cause was said 
to be the recent expedition of the Duke of 
Orleans and Marshal Valee to the Iron Gates, 
through a portion of territory claimed by the 
Emir, but to which his title was doubtful. 

29 .—Lieut. Basil Gray, who commanded the 
military at Newport, gazetted to an unattached 
captaincy without purchase. 

December 2 .—In his address to the Con¬ 
gress, President Van Burcn discusses at some 
( 5 *) 


length the unsettled question of the north¬ 
eastern boundary between the United States 
and the British possessions. 

2 . —Father Mathew, a Dominican friar, admi¬ 
nisters the temperance pledge in Limerick to a 
vast assembly. Thousands of poor people were 
on their knees, bareheaded, in Mallow-street, 
while the rev. father and two other clergy¬ 
men were administering the pledges. 

— Died, Frederick VI. King of Denmark, in 
the 72d year of his age, and 33d of his reign ; 
succeeded by his son, Christian VIII. 

— Died at her residence in Picardy-place, 
Edinburgh, Miss Innes of Stow, sister to the 
late Gilbert Innes, banker, whom she succeeded 
in a fortune estimated at not less than one 
million sterling. 

3 . —Inquest on the bodies of the ten rioters 
killed in the attack on the Westgate Arms 
Inn, Newport. Verdict, “ That deceased came 
to their deaths through an act of justifiable homi¬ 
cide, by some persons unknown.” 

S. —A uniform postage-rate of fourpence per 
half-ounce on extra-metropolitan letters intro¬ 
duced, as preparatoiy to a penny rate. In the 
metropolitan district, the number posted rose 
from 39,000 to 60,000. 

— At Bandon, O’Connell to-day was more 
than usually full of exuberant “loyalty —“We 
must be—we are—loyal to our young and 
lovely Queen. God bless her ! (Tumultuous 
cheering.) We must be—we are—attached to 
the Throne, and to the lovely being by whom 
it is filled. She is going to be married ! (Tre¬ 
mendous cheers from over thirty thousand 
persons congregated in the great area, and 
waving of handkerchiefs by hundreds of ele¬ 
gantly-dressed ladies, who crowded the hotel 
and other buildings.) I wish she may have 
as many children as my grandmother had 
—two-and-twenty ! (Immense cheering and 
laughter.) God bless the Queen! I am a 
father, and a grandfather ; and, in the face of 
Heaven, I pray with as much honesty and 
fervency for Queen Victoria, as I do for any 
one of my own progeny. The moment I heard 
of the daring and audacious menaces of the 
Tories towards the Sovereign, I promulgated, 
through the press, my feelings of detestation 
and my determination on the matter. Oh ! if 
I be not greatly mistaken, I’d get, in one day, 
500,000 brave Irishmen to defend the life, 
the honour, and the person of the beloved 
young lady by whom England’s Throne is now 
filled. (Exulting and protracted cheers.) Let 
every man in the vast and multitudinous as¬ 
sembly stretched out before me, who is loyal to 
the Queen, and would defend her to the last, 
lift up his right hand. (The entire assembly 
responded to the appeal.) There are hearts 
in those hands. I tell you, that if necessity 
required, there would be swords in them ! ” 
(Great cheering.) 

6-—The Emperor of China issues an edict 





DECEMBER 


1839. 


DECEMBER 


putting an end to British trade. Last servant of 
East India Company leaves. 

9 . —The President, Atlantic iron steamship, 
launched at Limehouse. 

10. —Special Commission opened at Mon¬ 
mouth, for the trial of the rioters in South 
Wales. Three hundred and fifteen special 
jurors were summoned, and twenty-four gentle¬ 
men of station sworn on the grand jury; 
thirty-eight prisoners awaited trial. The jury 
found a true bill for high treason against John 
Frost and thirteen others. The court adjourned 
to the 31st instant. 

11 . —The Court of Directors of the East 
India Company unanimously pass votes of 
thanks to Lord Auckland, ‘ * for the sagacity 
and promptitude with which he had planned ” 
the expedition against Affghanistan, and the 
‘ * zeal and vigour which he had displayed in 
preparing the troops for the field ; ” to Sir 
John Keane, for his “great and eminent ser¬ 
vices, and for the invincible intrepidity and 
spirit manifested by him in the command of 
the army serving in Affghanistan ; ” to the 
general, field, and other officers, commissioned 
and non-commissioned, and privates, European 
and native, for their “gallant and meritorious 
conduct, zeal, discipline, and bravery,” during 
the expedition. At the Quarterly Court Sir 
Charles Forbes objected to the vote, and 
quoted the opinion of the Duke of Wellington, 
that they should wait till they saw the troops 
safely out of Affghanistan. 

— The Commission of the General As¬ 
sembly pronounce another decision, which 
again brings it into collision with the civil 
courts. In 1837, a presentation of the Rev. 
Mr. Edwards to the living of Marnoch had 
been sustained by the Presbytery of Strath- 
bogie. In 1838, the General Assembly deter¬ 
mined to enforce the Veto law, and “ remitted ” 
to the Presbytery to reject Mr. Edwards ; but, 
in 1839, the General Assembly again expressly 
enjoined the Presbytery not to take any steps 
towards admitting Mr. Edwards. The Pres¬ 
bytery, however, preferring to obey the deci¬ 
sion of the Court of Session and of the House 
of Lords, as given in the Auchterarder case, 
admitted Mr. Edwards to the living at Mar¬ 
noch, by a majority of 7 to 4. Mr. Candlish, 
after stating the facts at length, now submitted 
a motion to the Assembly to suspend the seven 
ministers forming the majority from “the 
exercise of any of their functions,” and to 
authorize the “remanent and unsuspended” 
members to “repone ” any of their suspended 
brethren, who should “compear personally and 
subscribe an assurance that they will submit 
themselves to the judicataries of the Church in 
this and in all other matters, but not other¬ 
wise ;” and, in the meanwhile, to procure a 
supply of stated ministerial services for the 
parishes under the care of the suspended clergy¬ 
men. The motion was supported by the Lord 
Provost of Glasgow ; Dr. Brown, of Aberdeen; 
Dr. Bums, of Paisley; and Dr. Chalmers.—Dr. 


Lee denied that there was any law authorizing 
the Assembly to suspend the ministers.—Dr. 
Bryce said the Presbytery of Strathbogie had 
only obeyed the law of the land ; and he moved 
an amendment—that the Commission approve 
of the conduct of the Presbytery, and refer the 
matter to the next General Assembly.—Dr. 
Muir proposed another amendment, expressing 
disapproval of the conduct of the Presbytery, 
appointing a Committee to confer with the 
Presbytery, and postponing all proceedings to 
the meeting of the General Assembly. It was 
decided, by a vote of 15 to 9, that the question 
should be taken on Dr. Muir’s motion and Mr. 
Candlish’s ; when there appeared : For Dr. 
Muir’s, 14; for Mr. Candlish’s, 121. The 
announcement of numbers was received with 
loud cheers and clapping of hands by persons 
in the body and galleries of the Tolbooth 
Church, where the Commission sat. Protests 
against the decision were presented on behalf 
of the Strathbogie Presbytery, and by six 
members of the Assembly; also by the agent 
of the Presbytery : the latter declaring that 
each and all of the parties accessory to the 
vote just recorded should be held liable for 
the damage inflicted on the suspended ministers, 
by proceedings “arbitrary, illegal, oppressive, 
and in evident contempt of the law of the 
land.” 

17 .—At a meeting of the Court of Aldermen, 
one of the Sheriffs intimates that a writ had 
been served upon him while sitting on the 
Bench, intimating they would be held liable if 
they executed the process against Hansard. 

20 .—Indian promotions gazetted : Lord 
Auckland to be Earl; Sir John Keane, Baron 
of Ghuznee; and Macnaghten and Pottinger, 
Baronets. Several others were created Knights 
and C.B.’s. 

— The Home Secretary writes to the Mayor 
of Birmingham acquitting the magistrates of 
any wilful neglect of duty during the riots of 
July. 

22. —Strathbogie case. The Court of Ses¬ 
sion having granted an interdict on the appli¬ 
cation of the Rev. J. Cruickshank, and the six 
other ministers, members of the Strathbogie 
Presbytery, suspended by the Commission of 
the General Assembly of the Church of Scot¬ 
land, the ministers who were appointed in con¬ 
formity with the Assembly’s order were thereby 
formally prohibited from entering the churches, 
churchyards, or school-houses, or in any man¬ 
ner interfering with the legal rights of the 
suspended ministers. In defiance, however, 
of this injunction, an exciting attempt was 
made this day (Sunday) to execute the sentence 
of suspension pronounced by the Commission 
of the General Assembly against two members 
of the Strathbogie presbytery, the ministers of 
Mortlach and Keith. 

23 . —The republic of Hayti accedes to the 
conventions of November 30th, 1831, and 

( 57 ) 




DECEMBER 


1839-40. 


JAtfUAR V 


March 22d, 1833, between Great Britain and 
France, for the suppression of the slave trade. 

24 . — Public meeting in Edinburgh, for 
taking steps to erect a national memorial to 
the Duke of Wellington. 

— Died Dr. Davies Gilbert, F.R.S. &c. 
aged 72. 

2 , 4 - 27 .—Extensive landslip on the Dorset¬ 
shire coast, between Lyme-Regis and Seaton, 
accompanied by earthquake shocks. 

26 .—Mutiny on board the Indiaman Mer¬ 
maid, suppressed without loss of life by the 
calmness and decision of the ship’s officers. 

— Treasury minute issued relating to the 
new envelopes and letter stamps. 

30 . —Died at sea, on board his flag-ship the 
Wellesley , Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Mait¬ 
land, K.C.B. After Napoleon’s flight from 
Waterloo, when resolved to deliver himself up 
io “the most powerful, the most constant, and 
the most generous of his enemies, ” he surren¬ 
dered unconditionally to Captain Maitland, then 
commanding the Bellerophon off Rochefort. 

— Died, aged 53, William Hilton, R.A. 

31 . —Trial of John Frost, for high treason, 
at Monmouth, before Chief Justice Tindal, 
Baron Parke, and Mr. Justice Williams. The 
Attorney-General prosecuted, and Sir Frederick 
Pollock and Mr. Kelly defended Frost. At the 
commencement of the proceedings an objec¬ 
tion was taken that the list' of witnesses had 
not been delivered to the prisoner, in confor¬ 
mity with the statute. The Chief Justice re¬ 
served this objection for consideration by the 
judges at Westminster. Evidence was adduced 
showing the prisoner’s complicity in various 
arrangements made for the outbreak, as well 
as his active participation in the excesses of 
the rising at Newport. James Hodge, one 
of the men whom Frost had compelled to 
march into Newport with him, said : “ When 
we arrived at the Welsh Oak, the prisoner 
said the guns should take the front, the blud¬ 
geons next, and then the people without arms. 
On his giving these orders, I went up to him, 
to ask in the name of God what he was going 
to do. He said he was going to attack New¬ 
port, and take it, and blow up the bridge to 
prevent the Welsh mail from proceeding to 
Birmingham. There would be three delegates, 
he said, to wait for the coach there, an hour 
and a half after the time ; and if the mail 
did not arrive, the attack was to commence at 
Birmingham, and from thence to the north of 
England ; and that was to be a signal for the 
whole nation. ” The trial lasted till the 8th of 
January, when the jury brought in a verdict 
of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy. 
Williams was tried on the 9th, and Jones on 
the 13th January, when similar verdicts were 
returned. Upon this, five of the ringleaders 
withdrew their former pleas and pleaded guilty, 
on the understanding that their sentence should 
be commuted to transportation for life. On 


the 16th, Chief Justice Tindal passed sentence 
of death on Frost, Williams, and Jones. On 
the 28th January the judges informed the 
Secretary of State for the Home Department, 
that a majority of their body, in the proportion 
of nine to six, were of opinion that the delivery 
of the list of witnesses was not a good delivery 
in point of law. In consequence of this differ¬ 
ence of opinion, the sentence of death was 
remitted, and the three prisoners transported 
for life. 


1840. 

January 6. —Inquest held on the body of 
Mary Davis, the wife of a farmer, near New¬ 
port, who had committed suicide in conse¬ 
quence of threatening language used by a 
Chartist who called at her house for signatures 
to his petition. She was bewildered about the 
Chartists, she said, a few minutes before she 
died, and wanted to go out of the way. Verdict, 
“ Temporary insanity.” 

— Died at Bath, in her eighty-eighth year, 
Madame D’Arblay (Miss Burney), a distin¬ 
guished authoress of the latter part of last 
century. 

7 . —In a debate on the address in the French 
Chamber of Deputies, M. de Lamartine said : 
“France ought, not to legitimize and make 
hereditary the dynasty of Mehemet Ali. To 
do so would be to proclaim war for a century 
against England in the East. That Power 
would never consent to recognise the existence 
of a Power which would hold the keys of the 
Arabian Gulf, and impede her intercourse with 
India. The system of policy with regard to 
the East ought to be to partition the lifeless 
and decaying empire of the Sultan. It was 
already crumbling to pieces, and every stone 
that fell-from it would cause a shock, and 
struggle, and disturbance in Europe.” 

8 . — Four lives lost on the ice in St. James’s 
Park. 

IO.— Commencement of Rowland Hill’s 
system of Penny Postage. The number of 
letters despatched from London was about 
four times the average quantity, and no less 
than seven-eighths were prepaid. 

13 .—Anti-Com-Law banquet at Manchester, 
held in a pavilion erected for the purpose in 
Peter-street. A great gathering of operatives 
was held in the same place the following 
evening. 

15 .—The Chinese Commissioner Lin pub¬ 
lishes a letter to the Queen of England, ‘ ‘ for 
the purpose of giving her clear and distinct in¬ 
formation.” Passing in review the various 
attempts of the Emperor to repress the opium 
trade, he concludes by an abstract of the new 
law about to be put in force. “ Any foreigner 
bringing opium to the Celestial Land with 
design to sell the same, the principals shall 
most assuredly be decapitated and the acces- 







JANUARY 


1840. 


JANUARY 


sories strangled, and all property found on 
board the ship confiscated. The space of a 
year and a half is granted within which if any 
bringing opium by mistake shall voluntarily 
deliver the same, he shall be absolved from all 
consequences of his crime.” 

15 . —Hostile correspondence between Mr. 
Bradshaw, M.P. for Canterbury, and Mr. 
Horsman, M.P. for Cockermouth, arising out 
of a statement made by the latter to his consti¬ 
tuents that the former “has the tongue of a 
traitor, but lacks the courage to become a 
rebel.” (See October 31, 1839.) To-day, in 
replying to Colonel Gurwood, who acted for 
Mr. Bradshaw, Mr. Horsman writes that this 
speech “was a public insult to his Sovereign—■ 
that Sovereign a lady, and the only lady 
in her dominions without those natural pro¬ 
tectors who, in a more humble rank, would 
have secured her from being insulted with im¬ 
punity. Under these circumstances, I con¬ 
ceive it to be the right and the duty of every 
loyal subject to come forward in her defence, 
and be as ready to guard her character as to 
protect her person ; and as Mr. Bradshaw, on 
the most public occasion he could find, thought 
fit to assail her Majesty, in the most unmea¬ 
sured terms, and for which he knew he could 
not be held accountable, he has little right to 
complain that I on another public occasion, 
with reference to his speech, used equally 
strong terms in repelling its disloyal asper¬ 
sions.” A “ meeting” was therefore arranged, 
which took place at Wormwood Scrubbs. 
Shots were interchanged without effect. Mr. 
Bradshaw thereafter caused his second to ex¬ 
press regret for the language made use of, 
which he felt on reflection was unjust towards 
her Majesty. 

16 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The first paragraph in the Royal 
Speech made reference to the impending mar¬ 
riage with Prince Albert, which it was hoped 
might be “conducive to the interests of my 
people, as well as to my own domestic happi¬ 
ness.” Notice was then taken of the conclu¬ 
sion of the civil war in Spain, the continued 
disputes with Persia and China, the success of 
our arms in India, and that spirit of insub¬ 
ordination at home which had in some parts 
broken out into violence, but had been “speedily 
repressed by the firmness and energy of the 
magistrates, and by the steadiness and good 
conduct of my troops.” In the debate on the 
Address, the Duke of Wellington insisted that 
it was necessary Prince Albert should be de¬ 
scribed as a Protestant, and Lord Melbourne 
utlimately consented to the insertion of the 
word, though he thought it at the same time 

! unnecessary, and even prejudicial. Everybody 
knew not only that he was a Protestant, but 
descended from the most Protestant family in 
Europe.—In the Commons the Address was 
agreed to without a division, and after a short 
debate, confined mainly to the negotiations be¬ 
tween Lord Howard dc Walden and the Por¬ 


tuguese Government as to the slave trade. 
Before the Royal Speech was read in the Lower 
House, Lord John Russell carried a motion 
relating to a breach of privilege, in so far as 
the Sheriffs of Middlesex had awarded damages 
against Messrs. Hansard. 

17 . —Stockdale, the printer, committed to 
the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms for con¬ 
tempt of the House and high breach of pri¬ 
vilege in raising a second action against Messrs. 
Hansar^. (See Nov. 12, 1839.) Mr. Pem¬ 
berton delivered an elaborate speech to prove 
that the House was taking a most injudicious 
and unprecedented course on the question of 
privilege. They should not only attack sub¬ 
ordinates, but Lord Chief Justice Denman ; 
who, if summoned, would reply as Holt did 
on the Bombay case, that when summoned in 
due course of law to explain his judgment, 
he would do so, but not otherwise. Lord John 
Russell’s motion for committal was carried by 
239 to 135. 

20 .—Rev. Sydney Smith writes to the Times'. 
“As my friend, Lord John Russell, having 
destroyed the Bishops, is now busy sending the 
Judges to gaol, I shall be obliged to you 
to insert the following protest against his 
demolition of Deans and Chapters, which, I 
understand, is to be brought on as soon as the 
Queen’s Bench is safe in the Poultry Compter. ” 
The protest was embodied in nineteen objec¬ 
tions. A petition from the reverend Canon was 
presented to the House of Lords during the 
session by the Bishop of Rochester. 

— Debate in the Commons on the Privilege 
Question. Lord John Russell’s motion, that the 
prosecution in the case of Stockdale was “ in 
contempt” of the privileges of the House, 
was met by an amendment from Mr. F. 
Kelly, proposing that Messrs. Hansard be in¬ 
demnified against all costs and actions sus¬ 
tained by them.—Sir Robert Peel supported 
the Ministry, contending that whatever privilege 
was necessary for the proper and effectual dis¬ 
charge of its functions the House of Commons 
possessed ; that the particular privilege of free 
publication not liable to be questioned by a 
court of law was absolutely necessary ; and that 
there was no security for the proper and effec¬ 
tual discharge of that privilege unless they 
were enabled by their own declared power to 
vindicate it. Lord John Russell’s motion was 
carried by 205 to 90 votes.—Next day Mr. 
Fitzroy Kelly presented a petition from the 
Sheriffs of London, expressive of their sorrow 
at having incurred the displeasure of the House 
of Commons in Stockdale’s case, and stating 
that they had acted in the belief that it was 
their duty to their sovereign and the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, whose sworn servants they 
were. The House resolved, by a majority of 
101, that they had been guilty of a breach of 
privilege, and should be committed to the 
custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms. 

— Bill for the naturalization of Prince Albert 
passes through all its stages in the House of 

( 59 ) 





JANUARY 


1840. 


FEBRUARY 


Lords, the Standing Orders having been sus¬ 
pended for that purpose. It was intended to 
insert a clause in this bill giving Prince Albert 
precedence for life “next after her Majesty in 
Parliament or elsewhere, as her Majesty may 
think fit and properbut as the title made no 
reference to such clause, the further considera¬ 
tion of the subject was adjourned at this time, 
and ultimately dropped altogether on its being 
ascertained that the object could be accom¬ 
plished by “Letters Patent” from the Queen. 
The Queen admitted that she was most in¬ 
dignant at what occurred, as the impression 
made on the mind of the young Prince was likely 
to be a painful one. “ But he soon understood 
the nature of our political parties, and that the 
proceedings in Parliament were only the result 
of high party feeling, and were by no means 
to be taken as marks of personal disrespect, or 
of want of kind feeling towards himself. ” 

22 . —The rival parties at Strathbogie meet 
in Presbytery, and engage in a noisy and dis¬ 
orderly discussion as to the qualifications of 
Mr. Edwards, and the respect due to the civil 
court. 

— Died at Gottingen, aged 87, Professor 
Blumenbach. He celebrated the fiftieth anni¬ 
versary of his Professorship in 1826. 

23 . —Prince Albert invested with the Order 
of the Garter at Gotha. Accompanied by 
Viscount Torrington and the Hon. C. Grey, 
who had been charged with the mission of 
investiture, Prince Albert quitted Gotha for 
England on the 28th. 

24 . —The Bishop of Exeter presents a peti¬ 
tion to the House of Lords, signed by 4,000 
inhabitants of Birmingham, alleging the danger 
to morals from the spread of the system deno¬ 
minated Socialism, and praying their Lordships 
to take steps to check the evil. The petition 
arose partly out of the presentation of Robert 
Owen to the Queen, in which Lord Melbourne 
now admitted that he had acted indiscreetly. 

27 .—Lord John Russell proposes to settle 
50,000/. per annum on Prince Albert. Mr. 
Hume’s motion to reduce it to 21,000/. was 
negatived by 305 to 38 votes ; but Colonel 
Sibthorp’s motion, supported by the Opposi¬ 
tion, reducing the amount to 30,000/. per 
annum, was carried by 262 to 158 votes. 

— The Serjeant-at-Arms, in return to a 
writ of habeas corpus , appears in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, with the Sheriffs of London in 
custody. The return to the writ having been 
handed in by Sir William Gossett, and read by 
the Clerk, Mr. Richards moved that the return 
be filed, and the Sheriffs discharged from 
custody. He addressed the Court in support 
of his motion, alleging that the return was bad, 
inasmuch as it did not state the offence with 
which the Sheriffs were charged, and that the 
Sheriffs were entitled to the protection of the 
Court, having faithfully discharged their duties 
in conformity with their oaths. Mr. Watson 
and Mr. Kennedy followed on the same side. 
(60) 


No counsel appeared to oppose the application 
for the Sheriffs’ discharge. After consulting 
with the other judges, Lord Denman delivered 
an opinion that the House of Commons had 
power to commit for “a general contempt 
though, if particular facts were stated in justi¬ 
fication of the commitment, and these facts 
appeared insufficient to justify the commitment, 
the Court had power to release the prisoners. 
In the present case no particulars were stated ; 
and the Court was bound to remand the pri¬ 
soners, for the warrant must be held good. 
The Sheriffs left the Court in the Serjeant’s 
custody. 

23 .—Commencement of ^debate on Sir J. 
Yarde Buller’s motion, “That her Majesty’s 
Government, as at present constituted, does not 
possess the confidence of this House. ” After a 
discussion of four nights the motion was re¬ 
jected by 308 votes to 287. On the concluding 
night of the debate, Sir Robert Peel, who 
spoke immediately before Lord John Russell, 
replied to the taunts which had been thrown 
out as to his own inability to carry on the 
Government:—“I have no such affection 
for office that I will consent to retain it, 
and be the instrument for carrying other men’s 
opinions. My ambition is of another kind ; 
it is not for any personal object; I want 
not office, I want not the distinctions which 
office brings with it. I am content with the 
power which I exercise, and with the confi¬ 
dence which I enjoy ; and I never will consent 
to hold office upon any terms which I think 
dishonourable, or inconsistent with the consti¬ 
tutional functions of a Minister; nor will I 
consent to hold office if my own opinions are 
overruled, and those who are to be my sup¬ 
porters will lend me their adherence on no 
other terms than that I should conform to 
theirs. Whether these opinions are capable 
of being reduced to practice I will not pre¬ 
tend to declare : they are not avowed for the 
purpose of conciliating such a degree of support 
as shall enable me to reduce them to practice. 
They are those on which I mean to act, in 
office and out of office; perfectly content to 
remain out of office when it shall be proved I 
that they are impracticable.” 

29 . —Captain Hobson, the first Governor of 
New Zealand, lands at Wellington. A few 
days afterwards a treaty was concluded at 
Waitangi in terms of which the native chiefs 
ceded a large amount of land. 

30 . —Mr. Bullhead, a linendraper, commits 
suicide by throwing himself from the tower of 
Glastonbury Church, while in a state of de¬ 
spondency caused by pecuniary losses. 

February 1.—The State of Pennsylvania 
declared insolvent. 

— The Emperor’s Sub-Inspector at Canton | 
issues an edict, stating that he had received i 
instructions to seize all the English in Macao, j 
including Captain Elliot and the two inter- | 
prefers, Gutzlaff and Morrison. 





FEBRUARY 


1840. 


MARCH 


4 .—Thanks of both Houses of Parliament 
voted to the Governor-General of India, and 
the commanders, officers, and men engaged 
in A Afghanistan. The Duke of Wellington 
praised the arrangements that had been made 
for the campaign, which appeared to include 
an adequate provision for all the contingencies 
which could occur during such a service. 

6 . —Prince Albert, with the Duke of Saxe 
Coburg, the Hereditary Prince, Lord Tor- 
rington, and the Hon. C. Grey, arrive at Dover 
from Ostend. The next day was passed at 
Canterbury ; and on the 8th (Saturday) the 
party arrived at Buckingham Palace, where a 
royal reception was given to the Prince and his 
friends by the Queen and her household. On 
the same day the Lord Chancellor administered 
the oath of naturalization to the Prince. 

7 . —Treaty for the marriage of her Majesty 
with Prince Albert signed at London. 

IO.—Marriage of the Queen and Prince 
Albert. As soon as daylight broke this morn¬ 
ing the metropolis presented all the charac¬ 
teristics that mark the opening of a universal 
and joyous holiday. Crowds were hastening 
from all quarters in the direction of Buck¬ 
ingham Palace, or the Chapel Royal, St. 
James’s, where the ceremony was to be per¬ 
formed. At the Palace the Duchess of Kent 
and twelve bridesmaids were in attendance on 
her Majesty at an early hour. Prince Albert 
and his party left the Palace about a quarter 
of an hour before her Majesty’s departure, 

12 o’clock. Her Majesty, on arriving at St. 
James’s, was conducted to her apartments behind 
the Throne-room, where she remained, attended 
by her maids of honour and train-bearers, till 
summoned by the Lord Chamberlain to take 
her part in the procession. As the bride¬ 
groom’s procession moved along the colonnade 
leading to the chapel he was loudly cheered, 
and appeared delighted with his reception. 
The royal procession passed along the colonnade 
a few minutes later, entering the chapel about 
twenty minutes to 1 o’clock. Her Majesty 
wore a Honiton lace robe and veil, of the most 
exquisite workmanship. The only ornament 
on her head was a wreath of orange-flowers and 
a small diamond pin, by which the nuptial 
veil was fastened to her hair. Her train was 
of white satin, with a deep fringe of lace. 
Prince Albert met her Majesty on the haut-pas , 
and conducted her to her seat on the right side 
of the altar. The ceremony was then proceeded 
with by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At 
the conclusion the several members of the 
Royal family congratulated her Majesty and the 
Prince in an unceremonious and cordial manner. 
The Prince then took her Majesty’s hand, and 
led her out of the chapel, the spectators all 
standing. On reaching the Throne-room, the 
marriage register was signed and attested by the 
Royal family and officers of state. The Queen 
and Prince Albert immediately afterwards re¬ 
turned to Buckingham Palace in one carriage, 
and were welcomed most heartily by the cheers I 


of her subjects. The royal bridal party left in 
the afternoon for Windsor Castle. The re¬ 
joicings throughout the kingdom in connexion 
with the event were universal and enthusiastic. 

IO. —-In proroguing the Parliament of Upper 
Canada, Governor Thomson thanked the mem¬ 
bers for their attention to public business, and 
expressed peculiar satisfaction with their pro¬ 
ceedings on the Reunion and Clergy Reserve 
Bills. 

— Died at London, in his 74th year, Sir 
Jeffrey Wyatville, R.A., architect. 

13 . —Ministers defeated by a majority of 10 
on Mr. Herries’ motion regarding the financial 
arrangements for the current year. 

14 . —The Court of Session delivers judg¬ 
ment in the Strathbogie case, extending the 
interdict originally granted for two Sundays to 
a period unlimited, and sanctioning its effect 
throughout the entire parishes of the seven 
suspended ministers 

15 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench a jury 
awards 100/. damages against the proprietors of 
the Morning Chronicle for a libel upon Vis¬ 
count Beresford, in so far as it had imputed to 
him harshness and cruelty in the ejection of 
tenants from one of his Irish estates. 

26 . —Her Majesty and Prince Albert visit 
Drury Lane Theatre in state, being their first 
appearance in public since their marriage. On 
the 28th they attended Covent Garden. 

27 . —The Ministry again defeated, by 240 to 
212 votes, on Mr. Liddell’s motion censuring 
them for arrangements made with Sir John 
Newport to induce him to retire from the office 
of Comptroller of Exchequer to make way for 
Mr. Spring Rice, elevated to the peerage. 

— The Home Secretary issues a circular to 
lord-lieutenants warning them to be watchful 
against the circulation within their counties of 
papers containing blasphemous or immoral doc¬ 
trines. 

28 . —The Chinese attempt to bum the 
British shipping and gunboats in Tongkoo Bay 
by means of fire junks. 

March. 1 .—Defeated on the proposed mat* 
riage allowance to the Due de Nemours, the 
Soult Cabinet resign, and a new one is formed, 
presided over by M. Thiers. 

3. —Hostile meeting on Wimbledon Common 
between Prince Louis Napoleon and Count 
Leon, a reputed son of the Emperor Napoleon. 
The police interfered, and carried the parties 
to Bow-street, where they were bound over to 
keep the peace. 

— To put an end to the numerous actions 
and cross-actions which had arisen out of Stock- 
dale’s case, Lord John Russell gives notice of his 
intention to bring in a bill affording summary 
protection to all persons employed in the publi¬ 
cation of parliamentary papers. 





MARCH 


1840. 


MARCH 


3 .—Letters Patent issued conferring upon 
Prince Albert precedence next the Queen. 

— From a statement submitted to the House 
of Lords by the Marquis of Londonderry, it 
appeared that the present Government had been 
defeated in no fewer than 107 divisions since 
their accession to office in 1835. In 1838, 
21 divisions had been recorded against them in 
the Commons alone, and in that session they 
introduced, but were compelled to abandon, 34 
bills. 

8 . —The newspapers publish a correspon¬ 
dence between Lady Seymour, the Eglinton 
“Queen of Beauty,” and Lady Shuckburgh. 
Lady Seymour wxites to know the character of 
a servant named Stedman, and whether she 
was a good plain cook or not. Lady Shuck¬ 
burgh replies, that having a professed cook and 
housekeeper, she knows nothing about the 
under-servants. Lady Seymour explains, that 
she understood Stedman, in addition to her 
other talents, had some practice in cooking for 
the little Shuckburghs. The housemaid is 
instructed to answer this note, and say, “ Sted¬ 
man informs me that your ladyship does not 
keep either a cook or housekeeper, and that 
you only require a girl who can cook a mutton- 
chop ; if so, Stedman, or any other scullion, 
will be found fully equal to cook for, or manage 
the establishment of the Queen of Beauty.” 

9 . —Steeplechase at Sheffield, between a 
hunting-horse and Cootes the celebrated runner; 
won by the latter. 

— In moving the army estimates, Mr. Mac¬ 
aulay explained that the addition of 30,000/. 
to last year’s estimates of 6,000,000/. had 
been caused by Indian purposes, and would be 
a charge on Indian revenue. The whole force 
for which the estimate was now taken 
amounted to 121,112 men. 

10. —Dinner to Mr. Byng, in celebration of 
his services for fifty years as Member of Parlia¬ 
ment for the County of Middlesex. 

12.—In answer to Sir Robert Peel, Lord Pal¬ 
merston states that any communication which 
might be made with China as to recent oc¬ 
currences in that country, would be made in the 
name of the Queen, and not of the Governor- 
General of India. 

15 .—The English Ambassador at Naples 
presents a note x-equiring the dissolution of the 
French Company presently monopolizing the 
sulphur trade. This difference was afterwards 
settled by the mediation of the French Govern¬ 
ment. 

k 

17 .—Elopement of the wife of Captain 
Heaviside, a Brighton magistrate, with Dr. D. 
Lardner, a scientific writer and lecturer. 

— An unsuccessful attempt was made in 
the Commons to-day to extend the privilege 
granted by Lord John Russell’s Printed Papers 
Bill to newspapers, it being alleged in a petition 
from the printers of the Times and Morning 
Post that it was absolutely necessary they should 
(62) 


publish the Reports of the House. Lord John 
Russell regarded the attempt as a direct intei-- 
ference with the privileges of the House. 

17 .—Feargus O’Connor tried at York Assizes 
for inciting the working classes, through his 
speeches and writings, to rebellion. Judg¬ 
ment deferred. 

— Action by Lady Bulwer against the pub¬ 
lishers of the Court Journal , for inserting a 
paragraph to the effect that she had conducted 
herself in an offensive manner towards Mr. 
Hem-y Bulwer, at a party in Paris. Damages 
awarded, 50/. 

19 . —Lord John Russell explains that the 
warlike preparations authorized for China were 
designed to obtain reparation for the insults and 
injuries offered to her Majesty’s Superintendent, 
indemnification for the loss of property, and 
secuiity for future trade and commerce. 

20. —The Printed Papers Bill read a third 
time in the House of Commons; and a petition 
from Stockdale, who described it as a bill of 
pains and penalties so far as he was concerned, 
for leave to be heard at the bar, rejected on the 
ground of disrespectful language. 

23 . —Fire at Fordington, Dorsetshire, end¬ 
ing in the destruction of fifty-four small houses. 

— Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill for uniting the Provinces of 
Upper and Lower Canada. It provided for the 
election of 39 Representatives from each of 
the Provinces, to meet in one House of As¬ 
sembly ; for the appointment by the Crown of 
the members of a Legislative Council, not 
fewer in number than 20, who will retain office 
for life ; the resumption by the Crown of the 
duties surrendered to the House of Assembly 
by Lord Ripon; the grant of a permanent 
civil list of 75,000/. per annum, out of which 
fund the Governor, the Judges, and other func¬ 
tionaries of the Government were to be paid, 
and the Crown from the same source to be 
empowered to grant pensions to the amount of 
5,000/. or 6,000/. a year; the debt of Upper 
Canada to form part of the debt of the United 
Provinces; municipal institutions to be extended 
to both Upper and Lower Canada; waste lands 
to be sold, and the proceeds applied to pro¬ 
mote emigration, on the principles established 
by Mr. Wakefield. 

24 . —The Opposition in the American House 
of Repi-esentatives, determined to defeat a Mi¬ 
nisterial Bill regulating the issue of Treasury 
notes, protract the sitting through the whole 
of this day and night and up to 5 p.m. on the 
25th. Members were kept awake by officers 
for the purpose of giving their votes. 

25 . —The Anti-Com-Law League assemble 
at Brown’s Hotel, Palace Yard, and pass re¬ 
solutions for the abolition of the corn duties. 

— Lord Stanley’s Irish Registration Bill,, 
providing for an annual revision of the lists by 
resident barristers with the privilege of appeal 
to the Judge of Assize, carried against Minis¬ 
ters by 250 to 234 votes. 




MARCH 


1840. 


APRIL 


26 . —The Agricultural Society of England, 
established in 1838, receives to-day a Royal 
Charter of incorporation. 

27 . —Lady Buhver again brings an action 
against Messrs. Lawson and Thackeray, this 
time in the Tribunal of Correctional Police, 
Paris, but is defeated on the plea that her 
husband was not a consenting party to the 
proceedings. 

30 . —The wife of the Duke of Sussex 
created Duchess of Inverness. She was de¬ 
scribed as the Right Honourable Lady Cecilia 
Letitia Underwood, &dest surviving daughter 
of the second Earl of Arran, and widow of 
Sir George Buggin, attorney. 

— In answer to a Royal Message, the House 
of Commons agree to confer on Lord Seaton 
(Sir J. Colborne) a pension of 2,000/. per 
annum, with continuance for two lives after his 
own. 

— Died in the asylum of the Bon Sauveur, 
Calais, aged 62, Beau Brummel. 

31 . —Up to this date, the total number of 
petitions presented against the Com Laws was 
2,141, bearing 980,352 signatures. In favour 
of the Corn Laws, 2,886, bearing 138,051 sig¬ 
natures. 

— M. Guizot arrives in London as French 
Minister at the Court of St. James’s. 

April 2.—The House of Assembly at Nova 
Scotia vote resolutions affirming the necessity of 
remodelling the Executive Council on the prin¬ 
ciple of Lord John Russell’s despatch of the 
16th October, 1839, so as to produce harmony 
between the Government and the House of 
Assembly. The resolutions having been com¬ 
municated to the Governor (Sir Colin Camp¬ 
bell), his Excellency replied, that he had no 
reason to believe any alteration in the sen¬ 
timents of the Queen’s Ministers had occurred; 
and that he was in every way satisfied with the 
assistance he had received from his Council. 
The Assembly then remonstrated with the 
Governor, pressing him to carry out the prin¬ 
ciple laid down by the head of the Colonial 
] department. Sir Colin replied, that he could 
n >t put the same interpretation on the despatch 
as the Assembly, but promised to refer the 
address and resolutions of the Assembly to the 
Government at home. Thereupon the As¬ 
sembly adopted a petition to the Queen to 
remove Sir Colin Campbell; and Sir Colin 
immediately prorogued his Parliament. 

3. —The discussion on Mr. Villiers’ annual 
motion regarding the Com Laws was brought 
to an unexpected termination to-night by a divi¬ 
sion being taken on the motion for adjourn¬ 
ment, when 129 voted for, and 245 against. 

A.—Died at Kingsland, London, Rev. J ohn 
Campbell, missionary traveller in Africa. 

6 . —Mi\ Temple Frere drowned at Cam¬ 
bridge, when attempting to save the life of 
a fellow-student in the river. 


7 . — Commencement of a debate on Sir 
James Graham’s motion—“That it appears 
to this House, on consideration of the papers 
relating to China, presented by command 
of her Majesty, that the interruption in our 
commercial and friendly intercourse with that 
country, and the hostilities which have since 
taken place, are mainly to be attributed to the 
want of foresight and precaution on the part of 
her Majesty’s present advisers, in respect to our 
relations with China, and especially to their 
neglect to furnish the Superintendent at Canton 
with powers and instructions calculated to pro¬ 
vide against the growing evils connected with 
the contraband traffic in opium, and adapted to 
the novel and difficult situation in which the 
Superintendent was placed.” Sir James de¬ 
livered an elaborate speech against Ministers, 
with the view of showing that they had neg¬ 
lected to alter that part of the original Order 
in Council, and of the instructions to Lord 
Napier, which directed the Superintendent to 
reside at Canton, after experience had proved 
the inexpediency of attempting to carry out that 
direction ; that they had omitted to correct 
another error in the instruction, by which the 
Superintendent was ordered to communicate 
directly with the Chinese authorities, and on 
equal terms—not as a petitioner ; that although 
the presence of a naval force off the coast of 
China was most desirable, and recommended in 
a memorandum left by the Duke of Wellington 
when he quitted office in 1835, no such force 
had been placed at the disposal of the Superin¬ 
tendent till 1839; that they had not supplied 
Captain Elliot with power to suppress the illicit 
trade in opium; and throughout the whole of 
the difficult circumstances in which he was 
placed, had neglected to furnish him with in¬ 
structions. Sir James supported his allegations 
by quotations from the China papers laid before 
Parliament; calling particular attention to the 
meagre despatches which, at long intervals, 
Lord Palmerston vouchsafed in reply to Captain 
Elliot’s pressing representations of the difficulties 
which surrounded him, and of the serious con-< 
sequences likely to arise from perseverance in 
ihe opium-trade, and the growing jealousy of 
the Chinese authorities. He then went on to 
deprecate a war with China on account of the 
great revenue derived by this country, no less 
than from the great number and wealth of the 
people. Speaking of the Chinese jealousy of 
England, “They have only,” said Sir James, 
“to look across the Himalayas, and they see 
Plindostan prostrate at the feet of Great Britain. 
They are not so ignorant as not to be perfectly 
aware of the policy that led to this conquest. 
Hardly a century is passed since our empire, 
by small beginnings, arose. And how did it 
arise ? It arose under the pretense of trade and 
the semblance of commerce. Scarcely a cen¬ 
tury has elapsed since our first factory was 
established in that country. We began by 
building a warehouse—we surrounded it with 
walls—we added a ditch—we armed our work¬ 
men—we increased the number of Europeans; 

(63) 





APRIL 


1840. 


APRIL 


we formed a garrison; we treated with the 
native powers—we soon discovered their weak¬ 
ness; the garrison marched out—Arcot was 
seized—the battle of Plassey was won; what 
Clive commenced the Wellesleys concluded; 
Seringapatam was taken, the Mysore was van¬ 
quished, the Mahratta war was terminated by the 
battle of Assaye, and India became ours. Nor 
is this all—the Indus and the Ganges no longer 
bound the limits of our empire; the Hydaspes 
has been passed, Cabul and Candahar have wit¬ 
nessed the advance of our armies, Central Asia 
trembles at our presence and almost acknow¬ 
ledges our dominion; and on the borders of 
such an empire, is it not natural that the 
Chinese, seeing what has passed, should feel 
the utmost jealousy at the settlement of any of 
the British within their territories ?” The pro¬ 
poser of the resolution concluded:—“When 
they saw on the part of her Majesty’s advisers 
the most pertinacious adherence to the erro¬ 
neous course repudiated both by experience and 
reason—when they saw that they attempted to 
force on a proud and powerful people a mode 
of proceeding to which the weakest would not 
tamely submit—when they saw that the advice 
of one of the greatest and most prudent of our 
statesmen, who himself had warned them, was 
disregarded and rejected—when they saw re¬ 
peated warnings given by the servants of the 
same Administration equally unattended to— 
when they saw that branch of the trade which 
the confidential servants of the Administration 
had declared to be piratical, not put down by 
the interference of her Majesty’s Government— 
when they saw nothing done or attempted to be 
done, whilst her Majesty’s Superintendent was 
left without power, without instruction, and 
without force to meet the emergency which 
must have been naturally expected to follow— 
he could not help asking the House, whether 
they did believe that the people of this country 
would patiently submit to the burden which 
this Parliament must of necessity impose, and 
whether that people could repose confidence in 
an Administration that, by a mismanagement 
of five years, had destroyed a trade which had 
flourished for centuries, and which, in addition 
to the loss the country had already under¬ 
gone, had almost plunged it into a war in which 
success would not be attended with glory, and 
in which defeat would be our ruin and our 
shame.”—Mr. Macaulay undertook the defence 
of the Ministry immediately on the question 
being put from the Chair. He said it was 
impossible for Ministers to have given such 
copious and particular directions as were suffi¬ 
cient in every possible emergency for the gui¬ 
dance of a functionary who was fifteen thousand 
miles off. The trade of China, like the politics 
of India, must be mainly directed by officials on 
the spot; and so far as direct interference with 
the opium trade was concerned, he sought to 
show that, during the greater part of a year pre¬ 
ceding the disturbances, there was every reason 
for believing that the Emperor intended openly 
to legalize and regulate the trade. He denied 

(64) 


that the disturbance was in any degree attri¬ 
butable to the new method which had been 
adopted, of communicating with the Viceroy. 
“It is not,” said Mr. Macaulay, “a question 
of phrases and ceremonies. The liberties and 
lives of Englishmen are at stake; and it is fit 
that all nations, civilized and uncivilized, should 
know, that wherever the Englishman may 
wander he is followed by the eye and guarded 
by the power of England. I was much touched, 
and so I dare say were many other gentlemen, 
by a passage in one of Captain Elliot’s des¬ 
patches : I mean that passage in which he 
describes his arrival at the factory in the moment 
of extreme danger. As soon as he landed he 
was surrounded by his countrymen, all in an 
agony of distress and despair. The first thing 
which he did was to order the British flag to be 
brought from his boat and planted in the bal¬ 
cony. The sight immediately revived the hearts 
of those who had a minute before given them¬ 
selves up for lost. It was natural that they 
should look up with hope and confidence to 
that victorious flag; for it reminded them that 
they belonged to a country unaccustomed to 
defeat, to submission, or to shame ; to a country 
which had exacted such reparation for the 
wrongs of her children as had made the ears ot 
all who heard it to tingle; to a country which 
had made the Dey of Algiers humble himself 
to the dust before her insulted Consul; to a 
country which had avenged the victims of the 
Black Hole on the field of Plassey; to a country 
which had not degenerated since the great Pro¬ 
tector vowed that he would make the name of 
Englishman as much respected as ever had been 
the name of Roman citizen. ”—Mr. F. Thesiger, 
the new member for Woodstock, spoke on the 
second night of the debate, against Ministers. 
After three nights’ discussion the motion was 
rejected by 271 to 261 votes. 

8 . —At the Liverpool Assizes, Bronterre 
O’Brien, found guilty of sedition, was sentenced 
to eighteen months’ imprisonment, and ordered 
to find sureties in 300/. to keep the peace. 

9 . —Mr. Duncombe carries a resolution for 
an Address to the Queen praying that she 
would cause the Lord Chamberlain to withdraw 
the prohibition he had issued against the 
delivery of a lecture on astronomy at thf 
Opera-house during Passion-week. 

10. —At a meeting of the Sub-Committee ol 
the Nelson monument, the offer of Messrs. 
Grissell and Peto to erect the column in Tra- 
falgar-square for 17,860/. in two years, was 
accepted. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 83 years, Alex¬ 
ander Nasmyth, founder of the Scottish school 
of landscape painting. 

14 .—Richard Gould tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for the murder of John Tem- 
plemann, at Islington, in March last, and 
acquitted. He was afterwards tried for the 
burglary committed on the premises, and found 
guilty. 





APRIL 


1840. 


MAY 


14 . —Royal assent given to the bill affording 
summary protection to persons employed in 
the publication of parliamentary papers. 

15 . —Meeting in the Guildhall, to protest 
against the establishment of a penal settlement 
in any part of New Zealand. 

— Five footmen, in the service of noble¬ 
men in London, charged at Queen-square 
with assaulting and threatening a servant in 
Earl Galloway's employment, because he would 
not conform to the rules of the footmen’s club 
by paying his “footing” for the use of the 
room set apart for them at the House of Lords. 
They were fined iar. each. 

— Died at the Viceregal Lodge, Dublin, 
Captain Thomas Drummond, Under-Secretary 
for Ireland, and inventor of the Drummond or 
lime light. 

17 . —In consequence of the refusal of Fer¬ 
dinand II. of Naples, to discontinue the 
working of the Sicilian sulphur by private 
monopoly, in opposition to the treaty of 1816, 
the British Government commence hostilities. 
The monopoly was broken up the following 
month, 

18 . —O’Connell organizes a new Society in 
Dublin, to be called the “ National Association 
for Justice or Repeal,” and announces that the 
first sum collected for its support amounted 
to 44/. 

20.—Prince Albert thrown from his horse 
in the Home Park, but injured so slightly as to 
be able to mount again immediately, and pro¬ 
ceed to a stag-hunt at Ascot. 

24 . —Meeting in the Freemasons’ Hall, 
Earl Stanhope in the chair, to petition Par¬ 
liament against the continuance of the opium 
war. 

25 . —Died at Paris, aged 58, M. Poisson, 
President of the Academie des Sciences. 

27 . —The Court of Common Council, by 
a vote of 56 to 30, agree to present a piece 
of plate to each of the Sheriffs, in testimony of 
the Court’s approbation of their patriotic and 
magnanimous conduct in refusing to submit to 
the decrees of the House of Commons instead 
of the commands of the Court, whose officers 
they were. 

28 . —At the meeting of the Synod of Moray, 
the “moderate” party carried a resolution 
permitting the seven suspended Strathbogie 
ministers to vote on making up the poll, and to 
act and vote on any business taken up by the 
Synod. 

29 . —Disturbance in the Italian Opera- 
house, caused by Laporte’s non-engagement of 
Signor Tamburini. 

— It is reported regarding the wood pave¬ 
ment in the Metropolis, that, over the portion 
laid down in Oxford-street during the last six¬ 
teen months, there had travelled 7,000 vehicles 
and 12,000 horses, with scarcely any appearance 
of wear or change on the surface. 

( 65 ) 


29 . —A gardener, named Smith, attacks three 
police-officers in the prison yard at Hudders¬ 
field with a pruning-knife, and inflicts such 
injuries on Duke, the chief of the force, that 
he dies in a few hours. 

— On resuming business after the Easter 
recess, the Cambridge Election Committee 
report that Mr. Manners-Sutton had by his 
agents been guilty of bribery and treating, and 
that an extensive and corrupt system of treat¬ 
ing prevailed on the part of many influential 
members of the constituency of Cambridge. 
The elections at Ludlow and Totness were also 
declared void this session. 

30 . —Marriage of the Duke de Nemours 
with the Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg. 

May 1.— A penny postage envelope, de¬ 
signed by W. Mulready, R.A., issued to the 
public. 

2 .—In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Lord 
Denman reverses the decision of Dr. Lushing- 
ton in the Braintree Church Rate case, thus 
affirming the power alleged to be vested in 
a majority of the vestry. 

5 . —Sir William Molesworth brings the sub¬ 
ject of transportation before the Commons, in 
supporting two resolutions: (1) “That the 
punishment of transportation should be abo¬ 
lished, arid the penitentiary system of punishment 
adopted in its stead as soon as practicable;” 
and, (2) “That the funds to be derived from 
the sales of waste lands in New South Wales 
and Van Diemen’s Land ought to be anti¬ 
cipated by means of loans on that security, for 
the purpose of promoting extensive emigration 
to those colonies.” No division took place, the 
motion being simply recorded in the votes. 

— Select Committee appointed by the 
House of Commons to inquire into the several 
duties levied on imports into the United King¬ 
dom, and how far these duties are for the pro¬ 
tection of similar articles manufactured in this 
country, or for the purpose of revenue. Their 
report presented next session condemned the 
present tariff as incongruous and diffuse, and 
recommended an immediate change in the 
protective duties presently levied. 

6. —The Gresham Committee meet to de¬ 
cide between the plans of Mr. Tite and Mr. 
Cockerell for the New Royal Exchange. The 
former chosen by a vote of 13 to 7. 

— Lord William Russell found murdered in 
his bedroom, No. 14, Norfolk-street, Park- 
lane. “This morning,” said the housemaid, 
“ I rose about half-past six, and went down 
stairs about a quarter before seven o’clock. I 
went into the back drawing-room, and there I 
saw his lordship’s writing-desk broken open, 
and his keys and papers lying on the carpet. 
I opened the dining-room and found the 
drawers open, and the candlesticks and several 
other pieces of plate lying on the floor. I ran 
up stairs and told my neighbour servant the 
cook, with whom I slept, what had happened. 





MAY 


MAY 


1S4O. 


I also told the valet, who slept in an adjoining 
room, and asked him what he had been doing 
with the silver for it was lying all about. He 
said he had been doing nothing with it, but he 
got up and went down stairs, when he declared 
the place had been robbed. I then said, ‘ For 
God’s sake go and see where his lordship is.’ 
He went into his lordship’s room, and I fol¬ 
lowed him, when on opening the shutters we 
found his lordship in bed murdered. We then 
ran into the street, and alarmed some of the 
neighbours.” Dr. Elsegood was amongst the 
first who went into the room afterwards. “ I 
found his lordship in bed in the front room 
on the second floor, lying on his back, partially 
towards his right side. A towel was thrown 
over his face, which I removed. He appeared 
to have been dead about four hours. On re¬ 
moving the towel I found a wound extending 
from the left shoulder down to the trachea, 
four or five inches in depth, and seven inches 
long. The wound, which had been inflicted 
by some sharp instrument, must have caused 
almost immediate death. The deceased could 
not have inflicted such a wound on himself, 
and then placed the cloth over his face.” In 
a confession made in prison on the 22d June, 
the valet Courvoisier described the manner in 
which the murder was committed, thus : ‘ * As 
I was coming upstairs from the kitchen, 1 
thought it was all up with me. [Lord William 
Russell had been complaining of his conduct. ] 
My character was gone, and I thought mur¬ 
dering him was the only way to cover my 
faults. I went into the dining-room and took 
a knife from the sideboard. On going up¬ 
stairs I opened his door and heard him 
snoring in his sleep. There was a rushlight 
burning in his room at this time. I went 
near the bed by the side of the window, and 
then I murdered him. He just moved his 
arm a little, and never spoke a word. I took 
a towel which was on the back of the chair 
and wiped my hand and the knife. After 
that I took his key and opened the Russian 
leather box, and put it in the state in which 
it was found in the morning. The towel I 
put over his face, and undressed and went 
to bed.” 

6 .—Lord Stanley postpones his motion on 
the Irish Registration Bill, in consequence of 
the absence of Lord John Russell, caused by 
the death of Lord William. 

8 .— Police-officers searching the house of 
Lord William Russell find two bank-notes for 
10/. and 5/. hidden behind the skirting board 
adjoining the sink in the butler’s pantry, and 
to which Courvoisier only had access. In 
that portion of the house they also ultimately 
find the missing rings, locket, and gold coins 
secreted in obscure corners. “The watch and 
seal were in my jacket pocket which I had on 
until the Friday morning, and then I undid the 
ribbon and took the seal off. Having the 
watch in my pocket, the glass came out ; but 
1 did not know what to do with it, as the police 
( 66 ) 


were watching me. I dropt some of the pieces 
of glass about the dining-room, and at different 
times put the large pieces in my mouth, and 
afterwards having broken them with my teeth 
spat them in the fire-place. I afterwards 
burned the ribbon, and put the watch under, 
the lead in the sink.”— Confession. In Cour- 
voisier’s box were also discovered a screw- j 
driver and chisel with which certain marks in 
the pantry corresponded. On the evening of 
the 10th Courvoisier was taken into custody, 
and conveyed to Bow-strect. 

9. —Lord Palmerston writes to Earl Gran¬ 
ville at Paris : “ Her Majesty’s Government 
having taken into consideration the request 
made by the Government of France for permis- 1 
sion to remove from St. Helena to France the 
remains of Napoleon Buonaparte, your Excel -1 
lency is instructed to assure M. Thiers that her*, 
Majesty’s Government will, with great pleasure, 
accede to this request.” 

11 . —Feargus O’Connor sentenced to eigh¬ 
teen months’ imprisonment in York Castle, for 
libel. 

12. —The Rev. G. Grantham, of Magdalen 
College, Oxford, killed by falling from the 1 
window of his room on the second storey of 
the new buildings. 

— Earl Stanhope’s motion praying her | 
Majesty to take immediate steps for the sup-: 
pression of the opium trade, as dishonourable to 
the character and detrimental to the interests of 
her subjects, negatived in the House of Lords j 
without a division. 

14 . —-Motion in the House of Commons, by 
Mr. T. Duncombe, agreed to, that Stockdale 
and his attorney be discharged from Newgate, ij 

15 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer 1 
(Baring) introduces the Annual Budget. He 
estimated the gross income for the year at 
46,700,000/., and the expenditure at 49,43 2,000/. 
To meet the deficiency it was proposed to in¬ 
crease the Assessed Taxes 10 per cent.; the I 
Customs and Excise (with certain specified ex¬ 
ceptions) 5 per cent., and to lay an additional | 
duty of 4 d. per gallon on all spirits—British, j 
colonial, and foreign. 

19 . —The question of transportation dis- i 
cussed in the House of Lords in connexion f 
with a resolution submitted by the Archbishop ; 
of Dublin, that such punishment be abolished 1 
immediately, completely, and finally. 

20. —Lord Stanley’s Registration of Voters 
Bill (Ireland) carried into Committee by the I 
narrow majority of 3 in a House of 599. 

— A Government measure introduced into ] 
the House of Commons for dealing with the 
Canada Clergy Revenues. It provided for the i 
distribution of the proceeds of the sale of clergy 
lands on an equitable principle ; the Church of 
England and the Church of Scotland to have 
each one-fourth, the remaining half to be dis¬ 
tributed among the other religious denomi¬ 
nation?, including Roman Catholics, at the 





MAY 


1840. 


JUNE 


discretion of the Governor and Executive 
Council. 

20 . —Feargus O’Connor, writing fi 3m York 
Castle, complains of the severe treatment to 
which he, a political prisoner, is subjected, in 
being compelled to associate with criminals, 
and perform all the menial labour usually laid 
on that class. 

— York Minster narrowly escapes a second 
destruction by fire. As it was, the belfry, 
where the flames were first seen, was totally 
destroyed, and the oaken roof of the nave seri¬ 
ously injured. 

21 . —Opening of the General Assembly of 
the Church of Scotland. The first division 
was on the choice of a moderator, when Dr. 
Makeller, supported by the non-intrusion party, 
was carried (in opposition to Dr. Hill, of Dailly, 
nominated by the retiring moderator), by a 
majority of 195 to 147. 

• — The Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand 
proclaims the sovereignty of these islands to be 
vested in the Queen of Great Britain. Auck¬ 
land made the capital of the colony, Sept. 

19 th. 

22 . —Public meeting held at Edinburgh in 
support of the Earl of Aberdeen’s bill for 
removing doubts respecting the allocation and 
admission of ministers to benefices in Scotland. 
Resolutions approving of the bill were submitted 
and carried. Next day a meeting was held in 
the same city to express disapproval of the bill. 

25 . —At a meeting of the Roman Catholic 
Institute, in Freemasons’ Hall, an encyclical 
letter from Pope Gregory was read, approving 
of the design of the Institute, “ for protecting 
the followers of our divine faith in freedom and 
security, and for the publication of works vin¬ 
dicating the Spouse of the Immaculate Lamb 
from the calumnies of the heterodox. ” 

26 . —The General Assembly discuss the ap¬ 
peal of the Strathbogie ministers against the 
legality of the sentence of suspension. Patrick 
Robertson, advocate, was heard for the minis¬ 
ters, and Dr. Cook submitted a motion, declar¬ 
ing that the decision of the Commission exceeded 
its powers, and ought to be rescinded. A 
counter-motion, moved by the Procurator, was 
carried by a majority of 227 to 143. A few 
days afterwards this case came again before the 
Assembly, when it was carried by a majority, 
that the sentence of suspension be continued 
till the meeting of Commission in August next, 
when, if the seven ministers still continued 
contumacious, they should be served with a 
“libel.” 

— Died, aged 76, Adrnral Sir William 
Sydney Smith. 

27 . —Marshal Vallee reports serious disasters 
to the French army in Algeria. 

— Died at Nice, aged 56, Nicholas Paginmi, 
violinist. 

(67) 


23 .—Captain Otway, of the Life Guards, 
Killed in Hyde Park, by his horse falling back 
and crushing him. 

29 . —Confusion and many narrow escapes 
in Kensington Gardens, caused by the sudden 
appearance of a half-clad lunatic, on horse¬ 
back, while the crowd of nobility in their 
carriages were listening to the band of the 1st 
Life Guards. 

30 . —Intelligence reaches England of the suf¬ 
focation of 600 slaves in the “ middle passage,” 
and the death of 100 in the same vessel during 
her return to Mozambique for a new cargo. 

June 1 .—The first public meeting of the 
Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, 
and for the civilization of Africa, held in 
Exeter Hall, presided over by Prince Albert. 
“I sincerely trust,” he said, “that this great 
country will not relax in its efforts until it has 
finally and for ever put an end to a state of 
things so repugnant to the principles of Chris¬ 
tianity and to the best feelings of our nature.” 
This was the first public address delivered by 
Prince Albert in England, and was so well re¬ 
ceived as to reward his Royal Highness for the 
great anxiety he felt as to its delivery. “ He was 
nervous,” the Queen writes, “before he went, 
and had repeated his speech to me in the morn¬ 
ing by heart.” Mr. Fowell Buxton, Sir Robert 
Peel, Lord Ashley, and others, also addressed 
the meeting. 

— The General Assembly of the Church of 
Scotland, by a majority of 64, approve of the 
sentence of the Commission suspending the 
seven ministers of the Strathbogie Presbytery. 
(See Dec. 11, 1839.) 

2 . —Serjeant Talfourd calls the attention of 
the House of Commons to the unnecessarily 
harsh treatment of Vincent and O’Connor in 
prison. Lord John Russell stated in reply, that 
certain prison regulations at present in force 
would be relaxed; but that the facts had been 
greatly exaggerated. 

3 . —The fancy “properties” of the Eglinton 
tournament sold by auction, and purchased, in 
most instances, by the Metropolitan theatres. 

5 . —Count Bertrand, in presence of a brilliant 
court, delivers up to Louis Philippe the arms of 
Napoleon, which he had been long forced to 
conceal, but which he now hoped to see placed 
on the coffin of the great Captain, under a 
tomb “destined to attract the observation of 
the universe.” In reply, the King said : “I 
esteem myself happy that it should have been 
reserved to me to restore to the soil of France 
the mortal remains of one who has added so 
many glories to our triumphs, and to discharge 
the debt due by our common country in sur¬ 
rounding his bier by all the honours which 
are so justly due to him. ” 

7 .—Fire in Ivy-lane, Newgate-street, and 
loss of five lives—Mrs. Price and four children. 

— Died at Berlin, in his 70th year, Frede* 
rick William III., King of Prussia. 

F 2 





JUNE 


1840. 


JUNE 


8 . —The city of Natchez, New Orleans, 
nearly destroyed by a tornado. About twenty 
persons were killed, and the loss of property 
was estimated at over 1,000,000/. 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Lord 
Denman gives judgment in the case of Capel, 
Vicar of Watford, who had obtained a con¬ 
ditional rule for setting aside a rate which 
included his tithes. It was now decided that 
under Mr. Poulett Scrope’s Act, in spite of the 
Archbishop’s proviso, tithes and rent-charges 
must be rated like lands—at what they will 
let for. 

9 . —The Chinese attempt to bum the English 
shipping at Canton by fire-boats. 

10. —The newspapers publish the details of 
an attempt at murder said to have been made 
by the Swiss governess in the household of 
the Duke of Argyll. About midnight she was 
noticed with a knife in her hand making for 
the Duchess’s room, and secured mainly through 
the presence of mind of the youngest Lady 
Campbell. 

— Attempt to shoot the Queen and Prince 
Albert by Edward Oxford, pot-boy. About six 
o’clock this evening the Queen and Prince left 
Buckingham Palace by the garden gate open¬ 
ing from Constitution-hill. They were seated 
in a very low German droschky, drawn by four 
horses with postilions, preceded by two out¬ 
riders, and followed by two equerries. A 
number of people, assembled to witness her 
departure, were ranged in two lines outside the 
gate. After the carriage had proceeded a short 
distance up Constitution-hill, so as to be quite 
clear of the crowd, a young man on the Green 
Park side of the road presented a pistol, and 
fired it directly at her Majesty. The Prince, 
hearing the whistle of the ball, turned his head 
in the direction of the report, and her Majesty 
at the same instant rose, but Prince Albert 
suddenly pulled her down by his side. “ The 
report of the pistol,” says Perks, a witness, 
“ attracted my attention, and I heard a distinct 
whizzing or buzzing before my eyes, between 
my face and the carriage. The moment he fired 
the pistol he turned himself round as if to see 
if any one was behind him. He then set him¬ 
self back again, drew a second pistol with his 
left hand from his right breast, presented it 
across the one he had already fired, which he 
had in his right hand, and fired again, taking 
very deliberate aim. ” Several persons at once 
rushed upon him. He was then calm and col¬ 
lected, admitted firing the pistols, and went 
away quietly with two of the police to Queen- 
- square station. He there gave his name as 
Edward Oxford, 17 years of age. The Queen, 
as might be supposed, appeared extremely pale 
from the alarm, but, rising to show that she 
was unhurt, ordered the postilions to drive to 
Ingestre House, the residence of the Duchess 
of Kent, where her Majesty and the Prince 
remained a short time. On returning by Hyde 
Park the royal pair were received by a large 
gathering of ladies and gentlemen, anti escorted 


to Buckingham Palace, which they reached 
about twenty minutes past seven o’clock. In;, 
the evening large numbers of the nobility called j 
at the Palace to offer their congratulations. 

11. — On examination before the Privy; 
Council Oxford made the following declara-; 
tion:—“A great many witnesses against me.' 
Some say I shot with my left, others with my 
right.. They vary as to the distance. After I 
fired the first pistol Prince Albert got up as if; 
he would jump out of the coach, and sat down 
again as if he thought better of it. Then I fired 
the second pistol. This is all I shall say at 
present.” On searching his lodgings a quantity 
of powder and shot was found, and the rules of 
a secret society, styled “Young England,”pre-, 
scribing among other things that every member 
should, when ordered to meet, be armed with a 
brace of loaded pistols and a sword, and a black 
crape cap to cover his face. The prisoner was 
this day committed for trial on the charge of 
high treason in its most aggravated form—a 
direct attempt on the life of the Queen. The 
surmises as to the attempt being part of a wide¬ 
spread conspiracy were not established by the 
careful inquiries to which the outrage led. A 
joint address from both Houses of Parliament: 
was agreed upon to-day at a conference. 

— The Court of Session grant an interdict 
prohibiting the sentence of the General As- : 
sembly from being carried into execution against 
the seven suspended ministers of the Strath- 
bogie Presbytery. 

12. —At a Court held this afternoon at Buck¬ 
ingham Palace, the joint Address from botl 
Houses of Parliament was presented to heij 
Majesty, expressive of indignation at the latej 
attempt against her life, and of heartfelt con¬ 
gratulations on her preservation. Her Majest) 
replied, “I am deeply sensible of the mere) 
of Divine Providence, to whose continued pro 
tection I humbly commend myself, and I trusi 
that under all trials I shall find the same con 
solation and support which I now derive froir 
the loyal and affectionate attachment of m3! 
Parliament and my people.” Addresses wen 
also presented by many public bodies through: 
out the kingdom. F or some weeks the excite 
ment produced by the outrage absorbed alj 
other topics of public interest. 

13 . —The effect of the attempted assassi 
nation on certain portions of the Irish peoph 
may be seen from the language used by tht 
O’Connellite Pilot: “ There has been—we an 
ticipated there would be as soon as her Ma 
jesty was announced enceinte —there has beer 
a deliberate attempt to assassinate the Queer 
and put Cumberland on the throne. Yes. 
Cumberland and Orangeism plotted to murde: 
the Queen. The hand of God alone saveef 
her to her people. Oh, may that God lon^j 
protect her life, and preserve her people frorrl 
the domination of Cumberlandism and the fou j 
assassin Orange-Tory faction 1” 

15 .—The Canada Clergy Revenues Bill reacj 
a second time in the House of Commons. 







JUNE 


1840. 


JUNE 


IS-—In the Court of Queen’s Bench, A. Alaric 
Watts was fined 50/. for a libel on Admiral Om- 
manney, in so far as an article published in the 
United Service Gazette imputed to him disre¬ 
spectful conduct in the reception of the Queen 
Dowager at Malta. 

16 . —In the discussion on the Church of 
Scotland Benefices Bill, Lord Aberdeen ex¬ 
plained, that one leading principle of the bill 
was to preserve to the civil power the right 
of cognizance of acts of excess which the 
General Assembly might commit in the exer¬ 
cise of what they were pleased to call their 
right to give effect to what they considered their 
solemn conviction. The bill had been received 
with satisfaction, he said, by a large body of 
the clergy and laity, though it was admitted 
the General Assembly took a less favourable 
view of it. The second reading was carried 
to-day in the Upper House by 74 to 27 votes. 

— The Atlantic steamship British Queen 
arrived at Portsmouth, having made the voyage 
from New York in fourteen days, fourteen 
hours, less longitude. Her last outward voyage 
was made in thirteen days, eleven hours, from 
port to port, the quickest yet made. 

17 . —The Lord William Bentinck and the 
Lord Castlereagh , troop-ships, wrecked off 
Bombay. 

18 . —Commenced in the Central Criminal 
Court, before Chief Justice Tindal and Baron 
Parke, the trial of Francis Benjamin Cour- 
voisier, for the murder of Lord William Russell. 
Counsel for the prosecution, Messrs. Adolphus, 
Bodkin, and Chambers; for the prisoner, Mr. 
Charles Phillips and Mr. Clarkson. The first 
witness examined was the housemaid, Sarah 
Mancel, who spoke to the appearance of the 
house on the morning of the murder, and the 
conduct of the prisoner when they found their 
master murdered. On the second day an im¬ 
portant witness turned up, viz. Charlotte Pio- 
laine, of the Hotel Dieppe, Leicester-square, 
who spoke to the fact of the prisoner (formerly 
a servant there) having left a portion of the 
missing plate with her, some days before the 
murder was committed. “ He had a paper 
parcel in his hand, and asked me if I would take 
care of it until the Tuesday following, when he 
v ould call for it. I said, ‘ Certainly, I would; ’ 
and he left it with me and went away. I put 
the parcel in a closet, locked it up, and never 
saw the prisoner till this day. I took the parcel 
out of the closet yesterday for the first time, in 
consequence of a statement read by my cousin 
out of a French newspaper, to the effect that it 
was likely, seeing that the prisoner was a 
foreigner, he might have disposed of the missing 
plate at some of the foreign hotels in London.” 
On the following morning the prisoner made a 
confession of guilt to his counsel, Mr. Phillips; 
but after consultation with the Judges it was 
considered proper to carry on the original line 
of defence, particularly as the prisoner himself 
wished this done. Mr. Phillips continued to dis¬ 
charge his irksome task to the close of the trial 


on the third day, when he addressed the Court 
in defence of Courvoisier. The concluding por¬ 
tion of his address gave rise to sharp criticism 
as to the responsibilities resting on counsel with 
reference to prisoners who had confessed their 
guilt:—“It was not a strong suspicion,” said 
Mr. Phillips, “or a moral conviction which 
would justify the jury in finding a man guilty 
of murder. If, notwithstanding that suspicion, 
they felt bound to acquit the prisoner, he was 
still answerable to the laws of his country for 
the robbery, if guilty; and even supposing 
him guilty of the murder—which indeed was 
known to Almighty God alone, and of which, 
for the sake of his eternal soul, Mr. Phillips 
hoped he was innocent—it was better far that 
in the dreadful solitude of exile he should, 
though not in the sight of man yet before the 
presence of God, atone by a lingering repent¬ 
ance for the deed, than that he should now 
be sent in the dawning of his manhood to an 
ignominious death, in a case where the truth 
was not clear. After having now travelled 
through this case of mystery and darkness, his 
anxious task was done: that of the jury was 
about to begin. Might God direct their judg¬ 
ment ! One of the attributes of the Almighty 
was that day given to them—the issue of life 
and death was in their hands. To them was 
given to restore this man once more to the 
enjoyments of existence and the dignity of free¬ 
dom, or to consign him to an ignominious fate, 
and brand upon his grave a murderer’s epitaph. 
His had been a painful and an awful task, but 
still more awful was their responsibility. To 
violate the living temple which the Lord had 
' made—to quench the fire which His breath had 
given—was an awful and tremendous responsi¬ 
bility. The word once gone forth was irre¬ 
vocable. Speak not that word lightly. Speak 
it not on suspicion however strong, on moral 
conviction however cogent, on inference, doubt, 
or anything but a clear, irresistible, bright, 
noonday certainty. He spoke to them in no 
spirit of hostile admonition; Heaven knew he 
did not. He spoke to them in the spirit of a 
friend and fellow-Christian; and in that spirit 
he told them, that if they pronounced the word 
lightly its memory would never die within 
them. It would accompany them in their 
walks; it would follow them in their solitary 
retirements like a shadow; it would haunt them 
in their sleep and hover round their bed; it 
would take the shape of an accusing spirit, and 
confront and condemn them before the judg¬ 
ment seat of their God. So let them beware 
how they acted.” Chief Justice Tindal then 
charged the jury, who afterwards retired, de¬ 
liberated an hour and twenty minutes, and re¬ 
turned with a verdict of “Guilty.” The Chief 
Justice prefaced the sentence of death with a 
brief and feeling address, interrupted by his 
own sobs; his utterance at times was quite 
choked. “The age of your victim,” said Chief 
Justice Tindal, “his situation of master, had no 
effect on you. To atone to society, which has 
received a shock by your crime, and to prevent 

(69) 





JUNE 


1840. 


the recurrence of it, you must suffer an igno¬ 
minious death. What may have been your 
precise or actual motive it is impossible to state. 
I fear it has been the lust of filthy lucre. It 
has been demonstrated in this instance by the 
providence of God, in no ordinary manner, that 
the crime committed in darkness should be 
brought to light.” The prisoner was sentenced 
to be executed on the 6th of July. He looked 
very pale, but in other respects betrayed little 
emotion. 

18 .—Edward Oxford writes from the prison 
of Newgate, to Mr. Pelham, his solicitor: 
“Have the goodness to write to Lord Nor- 
manby, and ask him to let me have some 
books to read; 'such as ‘Jack the Giant-Killer,’ 

‘ Jack and the Bean-stalk,’ ‘Jack and his Eleven 
Wives,’ ‘My Little Tom Thumb,’ ‘The 
Arabian Nights’ Entertainment,’ and all such 
books from such celebrated authors. And ask 
him, as a prisoner of war, whether I may not 
be allowed on a parole of honour? and on 
what grounds, ask him, does he detain one of 
her Majesty’s subjects ? ” 

20. —Severe strictures passed on the Tory 
press for affecting to believe that the attempt of 
Oxford was a mere Whig trick to secure the 
Ministry in office. 

21. —General thanksgiving for her Majesty’s 
recent escape. 

24 . —-Sir J. J. Gordon Bremer issues a notice 
declaring the river and harbour of Canton in a 
state of siege. 

25 . —Mr. Fitzroy Kelly obtains leave to 
introduce a bill abolishing the punishment of 
death in all cases except murder and treason. 

29 . —Tried at Durham Sessions, Robert 
Taylor, under twenty years of age, charged 
with six acts of bigamy, and obtaining money 
under the pretence of being heir to large pro¬ 
perties. Two cases were proved against him, 
and he was sentenced to imprisonment for two 
years and a half. 

— Experiments with Glegg and Samuda’s 
atmospheric railway at Wormwood Scrubbs. 

— Died at Viterbo, near Rome, aged 65, 
Lucien Buonaparte, Prince of Canino, brother 
of Napoleon I. 

30 . —The Canada Government Bill read a 
second time in the House of Lords to-day; 
but the Duke of Wellington warned the Go¬ 
vernment of opposition in Committee, on the 
ground that the present was not the time, nor 
the measure before the House the method, of 
permanently settling the Canadian differences. 

July 2 .—O’Connell’s motion, that it be an 
instruction to the Committee on the Registra¬ 
tion of Irish Voters to make provision for 
defining the qualification entitling persons in 
Ireland to register, rejected by 311 to 162 
votes. 

5 .—The Island of Chusan captured by the 
British force, under the command of Brigadier 
( 70 ) 


yuL y 


Burrel. The capital, Ting-hae-heen, was given 
over to the pillage of our troops. 

6 .—Execution of Courvoisier. His ap¬ 
pearance upon the scaffold was the signal for a 
shout of execration from the thousands assem- * 
bled below, but he appeared totally unmoved, j 
and stood firm while the executioner fastened 
the noose. He died after a brief struggle. 

— Lord Stanley intimates his abandonment J 
of the Irish Registration Bill, which had | 
undergone the ordeal of ten divisions in the j 
House, and been successful in nine. 

8.—The trial of Edward Oxford, for high 
treason, commenced at the Central Criminal j 
Court, before Lord Denman, Baron Alderson, 
and Mr. Justice Patteson. Parties were admitted 
by ticket to the body of the Court, and on 
and ground the bench several members of the 
aristocracy were accommodated with seats. 
When Oxford was brought into Court he ad- j 
vanced with a smile to the bar, cast his eyes j; 
quickly around, and then commenced playing,] 
in a listless manner with the herbs strewn in | 
front of the dock. The Attorney-General 
stated the case for the Crown, which was based | 
mainly on his statements and confession. I 
(See June 10, 11.) For the defence, the plea of> 
insanity was set up by prisoner’s counsel, Mr. ] 
Sidney Taylor, and it was sought to be esta- a 
blished in evidence that the fact was well i 
known to his relatives and acquaintance. His j 
grandfather had been repeatedly confined in a | 
lunatic asylum, and his father was subject to ] 
fits of mental aberration. So far as connexion | 
with any secret society was concerned, the j 
Crown had not been able to establish one ,] 
single circumstance even of suspicion, and it j 
was now urged in defence that the regulations 1 
and threatening letters found in the prisoner’s •; 
possession had all been written by himself, 1 
while labouring under the delusions to which he | 
was subject. Chief Justice Denman charged the 
jury on the 10th. On the subject of insanity he \ 
said : “If they thought the prisoner was at the i 
time labouring under any delusion which pre- ! 
vented him from judging of the effects of the act \ 
he had committed, they could not find him j 
guilty. He might be labouring, perhaps, under a 
delusion which affected every part of his conduct, j 
and was not directed to one object alone. If 
that were the case, and if .the disease affected ? 
him at the time the act was committed, then , 
he could not be held accountable for it. One ! 
cannot say what a person labouring under such ] 
a delusion may do ; and the motive, in that I 
case, would not be apparent. With regard to ; 
the motive, a love of notoriety had been sug¬ 
gested ; but might this absurd sort of love of 
notoriety not as well have been gratified by 
firing pistols unloaded as loaded ? And if they 
were unloaded, there could not be an offence. 
But although he laboured under a delusion, if 
he fired the loaded pistols at the Queen know- 
ing the result which would follow his con¬ 
duct, although forced by his morbid desire for 
notoriety to the act, he would be responsible 








JULY 


1840. 


jul y 


for his conduct, and liable to criminal punish¬ 
ment. ... It is for you to determine whether 
the prisoner did fire the pistols, or either 
of them, at her Majesty, and whether the 
pistols, both or either of them, were loaded 
with a bullet. Supposing, gentlemen, that 
you should come to a satisfactory conclusion 
that the pistols, or one of them, were levelled 
at her Majesty, and that they or either of 
them were loaded, then the defence which 
has been set up raises the further inquiry 
whether, at the time the prisoner committed 
the act, he was responsible for it.” The jury 
then retired to -consult, and having been absent 
about three-quarters of an hour, they returned 
the following special verdict: “We find the 
prisoner, Edward Oxford, guilty of discharging 
the contents of two pistols, but whether or not 
they were loaded with ball has not been satisfac¬ 
torily proved to us; he being of unsound state of 
mind at the time.” Some discussion then took 
place on a motion by the Attorney-General for 
confining the prisoner under the 40th Geo. III., 
during her Majesty’s pleasure ; which was 
resisted by Mr. Taylor, on the ground that the 
jury had acquitted the prisoner of the offence 
with which he was charged by negativing the 
fact that the pistols were loaded with bullets. 
The jury again retired, and were absent nearly 
an hour, when they returned with a verdict of 
“Guilty, prisoner being at the time insane. ” Mr. 
Baron Alderson : “Thenyou find the prisoner 
guilty but for his insanity?” The Foreman : 
“We do, my Lord.” Lord Denman: “The 
Court asked you this question, Do you acquit 
the prisoner on the ground of insanity ? ” The 
Foreman: “Yes, my Lord, that is our inten¬ 
tion.” Lord Denman : * ‘ Then the verdict will 
stand thus, * Not guilty, on the ground of 
insanity.’” The Attorney-General : “That 
being the case, I have now humbly to move 
your Lordships, on behalf of the Crown, that 
the prisoner at the bar, Edward Oxford, be 
confined in strict custody during her Majesty’s 
pleasure.” Lord Denman : “That is a matter 
of course.” The prisoner, who had remained 
unmoved during the whole of this argument, 
walked briskly from the bar, apparently glad 
that the trial was over. 

8 .—A formal union completed between the 
Synod of Ulster and the Secession Synod, 
numbering together about 700,000 Presby¬ 
terians. 

— Lord Aberdeen withdraws his Scotch 
Benefices Bill. 

11 .— Lord Keane entertained by the East 
India Company at the London Tavern. In 
the course of the evening, the President of the 
Board of Control (Sir J. C. Hobhouse) an¬ 
nounced that within these last few weeks, the 
Government of India “had been enabled to 
make an addition to its territory, the vast con¬ 
sequences of which could scarcely be imagined 
in the wildest dreams of fancy, and which for 
centuries would be of advantage to the empire.” 
It was not generally understood whether allu¬ 


sion was made to acquisitions in China or Aff- 
ghanistan. 

13 . —The Canada Government Bill read a 
third time in the House of Lords, the most 
important of the alterations made in committee 
relating to the extension of time for proclaim¬ 
ing the Act. The amendments were after¬ 
wards accepted by the Commons, and the Bill 
received the Royal Assent. 

— A Royal Message read in the House of 
Lords, recommending the introduction of a 
Regency Bill to the attention of their lordships. 
In compliance therewith, a bill was introduced 
by the Lord Chancellor, constituting Prince 
Albert sole regent in the event of her Majesty’s 
demise before her offspring attained legal age. 

— Crowded meeting of the Loyal Na¬ 
tional Association of Ireland held in Dublin, 
when O’Connell delivered a speech, promising 
Repeal within a year. 

14 . —Mr. Hume’s motion for an address to 
the Queen praying for the opening of the 
British Museum and National Galleries on 
Sundays, rejected by 82 to 44 votes. 

15 . —Convention signed at London between 
the Courts of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, 
and Russia, on the one part, and the Ottoman 
Porte on the other, for the pacification of the 
Levant. To the surprise of many, France was 
not included in the alliance. The terms an¬ 
nexed to the Convention were, that Mehemet 
Ali should within ten days accept from the 
Sultan the administration of the Pashalic of 
Egypt, with the command of the fortress of St. 
Jean d’Acre, and pay an annual tribute corre¬ 
sponding to the extent of territory placed under 
his protectorate. The fifth condition prescribed 
that all the treaties and all the laws ot the 
Ottoman Empire should be applicable to Egypt 
and the Pashalic of Acre, but the Sultan con¬ 
sents “that, on condition of the regular payment 
of tribute above-mentioned, Mehemet Ali and 
his descendants shall levy imposts in the name 
of the Sultan, and as the delegate of his High¬ 
ness, in the provinces of which the administra¬ 
tion is to be to him confided. It is further 
understood, that, on the condition of receiving 
the above taxes and imposts, Mehemet Ali 
and his descendants shall provide for all ex¬ 
penses of the civil and military administration 
of said provinces.” The terms were rejected 
by Mehemet Ali, and warlike proceedings at 
once took place along the Syrian coast. Lord 
Palmerston, in a note to M. Guizot, thus 
alludes to the withdrawal of France as a party 
to the Convention: “The Four Powers, in 
signing this Convention, could not but feel the 
greatest regret to find themselves thus momen¬ 
tarily separated from France in an affair so 
essentially European; but this regret is dimi 
nished by the reiterated declarations which the 
French Government has made to them that 
it has nothing to object to the arrangements 
which the Four Powers desire to make Mehemet 
All accept, provided Mehemet Ali consents to 






JUL Y 


1840. 


JULY 


them ; that in no case will France oppose the 
measures which the Four Courts, in concert 
with the Sultan, might judge necessary to 
obtain the assent of the Pasha of Egpyt; and 
that the only motive which has prevented 
France from uniting with the other Powers 
on this occasion is derived from considerations 
of various kinds, which rendered it impossible 
for the French Government to take a part in 
coercive measures against Mehemet Ali. The 
Four Courts entertain, then, the well-grounded 
hope that their separation from France on this 
subject will be only of short duration, and will 
not in any manner interfere with the relations 
of sincere friendship which they so earnestly 
desire to preserve with France ; and moreover, 
that they anxiously address themselves to the 
French Government in order to obtain its 
moral support, notwithstanding they cannot 
hope for its material co-operation.” 

20 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
carries a resolution making the duty payable 
on sugar manufactured within this country 
from any material whatever, the same as that 
on sugar extracted from beetroot. 

— The line of the Great Western Railway 
further opened from Steventon to the Faringdon 
Road, a distance of sixty-three miles from 
London. 

21 . —On the occasion of the second reading 
of the Regency Bill, the Duke of Sussex took 
occasion to allude to his own relation to the 
Queen, not because he was ambitious of being 
included in the Regency, but because he 
thought the position of the Royal Family 
should not be altogether overlooked. 

22. —The Morning Chronicle announces that 
the Rev. Connop Thirl wall, D.D., has been 
appointed Bishop of St. David’s. 

23 . —Royal Assent given to the Protestant 
Episcopal Church Bill, permitting clergymen 
of that communion in Scotland to officiate in 
England under certain conditions. 

24 . —Discussion in the House of Commons 
on the case of John Thorogood, confined in 
Chelmsford jail for refusing to pay 5-r. 6 d. as 
church rates. 

— Mr. Simpson, a distinguished geographer 
in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 
shoots himself at Turtle River, while in a state 
of mental excitement brought on by recent 
successful discoveries in connexion with the 
North-West passage. He had previously shot 
two of his travelling companions. 

— Arthur Conolly appointed to proceed 
from Cabul on a mission to Bokhara, and the 
courts of other Trans-Oxian Khans. “Poor 
Stoddart’s health,” he wrote, “ was drunk last 
night at the Ghuznee anniversary dinner, after 
a briefly eloquent speech by Sir Alexander 
[Burnes], who concluded by expressing a hope 
that, if the last of Sir W. Macnaghten’s 
amiable endeavours to bring the Ameer to 
reason should fail, our gallant and unfortunate 


countrymen would be relieved. ” A few weeks 
later:—“ If the British Government would only 
play the grand game—help Russia cordially to 
all she has a right to expect—shake hands with 
Persia—get her all possible amends from the 
Oosbegs, and secure her such a frontier as would 
both keep these savages and man-stealers in 
wholesome check, and take away her pretext 
for pushing herself and letting herself be pushed 
on to the Oxus—force the Bokhara Ameer to be 
just to us, the Affghans and the other Oosbegs 
states, and his own kingdom.. .. The necessity 
of them will be seen, and we shall play the noble 
part that the first Christian nation of the world 
ought to fill. ” 

28 . —The column of July inaugurated at 
Paris. 

— Died at Cowes, aged 48, John George 
Lambton, first Earl of Durham. He had been 
in failing health almost since his return from 
America in 1839. 

29 . —Ovation in Manchester to the Glasgow 
cotton-spinners on their return from trans¬ 
portation. 

31 .—Action commenced at Lewes Assizes 
by Captain Richard Heaviside against Dr. 
Lardner, for compensation for the seduction of 
his wife. In summing up, Baron Gurney said 
one point urged in favour of the defendant 
was, that he was chastised by the plaintiff; and 
if he had put the defendant’s life in danger, it 
would certainly go in mitigation of damages; 
but under the peculiar circumstances he would 
leave that entirely to the jury. They must not 
estimate the damages by the pecuniary re¬ 
sources of the defendant, but by the injury 
the plaintiff had sustained. He had lost an 
affectionate wife, and his children were de¬ 
prived of the instruction and example of a 
mother. Damages, 8,000/. 

In explanation of the differences presently 
existing between the Ottoman Court and 
Mehemet Ali, the latter despatches a circular 
to all the Pashas of the empire, intimating, that, 
Khosreff Pasha’s intrigues were the cause of 
his troops being attacked by the Sultan’s ; that, 
on learning the accession of Abdul Medjid, he 
(Mehemet) had ordered Ibrahim not to follow 
up his advantages ; that on learning that 
Khosreff was appointed Vizier, he (Mehemet) 
felt convinced the ascendency of that minister 
must be destructive to the empire ; that Ahmet 
Capitan Pasha had formed the same opinion, 
and acted upon it by keeping his fleet out of 
the power of Khosreff, and uniting it with the 
fleet of Alexandria, in order that the conjoined 
fleets might be in a condition to serve the 
sovereign and the nation. The circular adds, 
that Mehemet Ali had received the Capitan 
Pasha with distinction; had written to Khosreff 
Pasha, urging him to tender his resignation to 
the Sultan ; and had at the same time addressed 
letters to the mother and aunt of the Sultan, 
the Sceich-ul-Islam and Habil Pasha, con¬ 
juring them to co-operate for the removal of 







AUGUST 


1840, 


AUGUST 


Khosreff from the administration in order to 
save the country. A few days afterwards, six 
of Mehemet’s couriers, with the above letter 
in their possession, were seized and detained 
at Salonica. 

August A.—Lord Ashley carries a motion for 
an address to the Crown concerning the em¬ 
ployment of the children of the poorer classes in 
mines and factories ; “ and to collect informa¬ 
tion as to the ages at which they are em¬ 
ployed, the number of hours they are engaged 
in work, the time allowed each day for meals, 
and as to the actual state, condition, and treat¬ 
ment of such children, and as to the effects of 
such employment both with regard to their 
morals and their bodily health.” 

6 . —At a forenoon meeting at Tuam, O’Con¬ 
nell describes Lords Lyndhurst and Stanley as 
the greatest traitors in the Queen’s dominions: 
and in the evening, after dinner, thus alluded 
to the honour reserved for himself: * ‘ Oh, it 
will be a glorious day when the Repeal comes ! 
A column commemorative of that proud event 
—that glorious triumph—shall be erected on 
that spot where stands at present that monu¬ 
ment to bigotry and intolerance, the statue 
of King William. Perhaps its summit will be 
adorned by a figure which has become familiar 
to you.” At Dublin, he said: *‘The over¬ 
whelming kindness of my countrymen some¬ 
times now gives me the name of the Liberator : 
I have never taken it, or written it; I have 
scarcely allowed my pride to encourage it; but 
if I live to repeal the Union—if I live to see 
the emancipated Irish people assembled in 
College Green, to witness the opening of the 
new Parliament—and if I hear the shout of 
joy which will arise from them when they get 
their own, for it is no more, and when they see 
the procession coining to the House—if I live 
to see that day, then let one word be written on 
my tomb, and let that word be ‘ The Libe¬ 
rator.’ ” 

— The Canada Clergy Reserve Bill read a 
third time in the House of Lords. 

— Louis Napoleon’s attempt on Boulogne. 
This morning, about 4 o’clock, the City of 
Edinburgh, steamer from the Thames arrived 
off Boulogne, with Prince Louis Napoleon, 
fifty-eight followers, eight horses, and two 
carriages. On landing, the party immediately 
proceeded to the barracks, where, having 
secured the sentinel, the Prince made overtures 
to the soldiers, and offered them a consider¬ 
able increase of pay. This, however, had no 
effect, and he then went through the town, 
distributing proclamations to the citizens and 
soldiers. Few joined them; and very soon 
the National Guard were assembled, and 
the party driven to the sands. Here some of 
them attempted to regain the steamer, but the 
boat upsetting they were precipitated into the 
water, when the National Guard fired and 
killed several, Some were drowned ; and 
Prince Louis himself was picked up half a mile 


out, and carried to the guard-house, along 
with General Montholon and Colonel Vau- 
drey. The whole of the survivors were 
arrested during the day, and the steamer 
taken possession of till it could be ascertained 
whether the owners were aware of the purpose 
for which she was chartered. A London morn¬ 
ing paper, speaking of the attempt, says, “The 
maniac Louis Napoleon is said to be in the 
present instance nothing but an unfortunate 
instrument in the hands of certain Stock Ex¬ 
change adventurers.” 

7 . —Act of Parliament passed prohibiting the 
use of climbing-boys as chimney-sweeps. 

— In the case of the College of Glasgow 
v. the Faculty of Physicians the House of Lords 
decide that the latter could grant degrees in 
surgery without the interference of the Senatus. 

— The Irish Corporation Bill passed by 
the House of Commons, the amendments 
moved in the Upper House by Lord Lynd¬ 
hurst being reluctantly assented to by Govern¬ 
ment. 

— Accident near the Howden Station of 
the Hull and Selby Railway, caused by the 
accidental fall of a huge iron casting from one 
of the trucks. Five passengers were killed. 
The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of acci¬ 
dental death, but laid a deodand of 500/. on the 
engine and carriages. 

8 . —Mr. Coppock, Secretary to the Reform 
Club, tried and acquitted at Shrewsbury As¬ 
sizes, for bribing a voter named Cook at the 
Ludlow election in 1839. 

11. —Parliament closed by the Queen in 
person. Prince Albert was seated near the 
Throne, and among the courtly circle sur¬ 
rounding her Majesty were the King and 
Queen of the Belgians. The most important 
sentences in the Address made reference to 
the negotiations engaged in for the pacification 
of the Levant, and the reparation which had 
been demanded from the Chinese for indig¬ 
nities. 

— Mr. P. Thomson, Governor-General of 
the Canadas, gazetted a Baron with the title of 
Baron Sydenham of Sydenham and Toronto. 

12 . —The seven suspended ministers of the 
Strathbogie Presbytery declining to appear 
before the Commission of the General As¬ 
sembly, a committee of that body was appointed 
by a majority of 114, to prepare a libel against 
them. 

—Sir W. Macnaghten advises Lord Auckland 
to annex Herat and claim a right of passage 
through the Punjaub. “ A vigorous policy,” 
he wrote, “is now that which ought to be 
pursued.” 

13 . —Riots at Caine, Wilts, arising out of the 
opposition of the poorer classes in the district 
to the new constabulary force. One special 
constable killed, others injured, and several 
houses sacked. 


( 73 ) 





AUGUST 


1840. 


SEPTEMBER 


15 .—The foundation-stone of the Scott monu¬ 
ment, at Edinburgh, laid with masonic honours 
by Sir James Forrest, G and Master, and pro¬ 
vost of the city. The inscription on a plate 
inserted in the stone recorded that the admi¬ 
rable writings of Sir Walter Scott “were 
allowed to have given more delight, and sug¬ 
gested better feeling, to a larger class of readers 
in every rank of society, than those of any 
other author, with the exception of Shak- 
speare alone, and were therefore thought likely 
to be remembered long after this act of grati¬ 
tude on the part of the first generation of his 
admirers should be forgotten.” Addresses 
were delivered by the Grand Master and Sir 
William Rae. 

17 .—The King of the French visits Bou¬ 
logne to thank and reward the inhabitants of 
that town for their loyalty on the late attempt 
of Louis Napoleon to disturb the peace of the 
country. A heavy sea preventing him from 
landing at the port, he proceeded after some 
delay to Calais, and then by land to meet the 
Boulonnais. 

19 . — The steamer Ontario , afterwards 
named the Lord Sydenham , navigated down 
the rapids between Prescott and Montreal. 

24 . —A man named Moore executed at 
Waterford, for the murder of Edward Casheen 
at Lismore. On the scaffold he was permitted 
to make a declaration of innocence, and ask 
the prayers of the spectators. While the peo¬ 
ple were kneeling a priest in attendance came 
to the front of the drop, and declared his belief 
in the truth of the statement made by the 
criminal. 

25 . —Festivities at Antwerp, on the occa¬ 
sion of unveiling the model of a statue to be 
erected to the painter Rubens, a native of the 
city. 

27 . —Attempted murder of William Mack- 
reth, in a bedroom of the Angel Inn, Ludlow. 
There was a severe wound in the throat, but 
not sufficient to cause death. It was generally 
believed the criminal in this instance had made 
a mistake, the intended victim being one Lud¬ 
low, a Birmingham cattle-dealer. 

— Died at Donare, county of Kildare, Mrs. 
Martha Rorke, reported to be 133 years of age. 

28 . —Presentation of the freedom of the 
City of London to Prince Albert. “ I shall 
always,” said the Prince in reply, “remember 
with pride and satisfaction the day on which 
I became your fellow-citizen, and it is especially 
gratifying to me as marking your loyalty and 
affection to the Queen. ” A banquet took place 
afterwards, at which, however, the Prince was 
not present. 

— Lord John Russell writes from Drum- 
lanrig Castle, where he was on a visit to the 
Duke of Buccleuch, expressing his inability to 
attend a banquet designed to be given in his 
honour in Edinburgh. 

( 74 ) 


29 . —Rev. Hugh Stowell tried at Liverpool, 
for a libel on a Catholic clergyman in Man¬ 
chester, who had, he declared, subjected one of 
his people to the indignity of walking on his 
hands and knees two hours a day for nine days, 
as a penance for sin. Verdict for the plaintiff, 
damages 40 s. This judgment was reversed 
after a re-hearing before Lord Chief Justice in 
the Court of Queen’s Bench, Nov. 27, 1841. 
The plaintiff was also condemned in costs. 

30 . —Collision on the river Lea between 
two small boats. They were both upset, and 
ten out of thirteen passengers drowned. 

31 . —Bath and Bristol Railway opened. 

September 3 .—Came on at Tulle the trial 
of Madame Laffarge, charged with murdering 
her husband, by administering poison to him at 
various times in cake and fowl. On the 9th, 
chemists reported that no arsenic could be found 
in the remains ; but on the 14th, Orfila and 
others stated that the poison was found in 
every part of the body submitted to them. 
The juiy found her guilty with extenuating 
circumstances, and she was sentenced to hard 
labour for life, with exposure in the pillory. 

5 .—Mehemet Ali refuses the terms of the 

Convention of July 15. 

— Envoy Macnaghten writes from Cabul 
to Lord Auckland : “We have just heard 
that the whole country between this and the 
Oxus is up in favour of Dost Mahomed Khan. 
Our troops have retired upon Bameoan, and 
if the enemy attack them in that position, I 
should have little fear of the result. The 
Kohistan is also ready to rise.” A week later, 
he reported that one entire company of Cap¬ 
tain Hopkins’ corps, with its arms and accou¬ 
trements, had gone over to the Dost. 

7 .—The bombardment of Beyrout com¬ 
menced by the allied fleet. 

10. —Riots in Paris, caused by disorderly as¬ 
semblies of workmen called together to put 
down the system of “middle-men,” which 
had greatly aggravated the recent reduction 
in wages. 

11 . —Prince Albert introduced and sworn 
of her Majesty’s Privy Council. 

12 . —The French Moniteur publishes an 
ordinance for the fortification of Paris. 

— Duel on Wimbledon Common between 
Lord Cardigan and Lieut. Tuckett, in conse¬ 
quence of the Earl obtaining information that 
Lieut. Tuckett was the author of certain letters 
in the newspapers reflecting, as his lordship 
supposed, on his character as an officer and a 
gentleman. The first shot \Vhs ineffectual on 
both sides. Mr. Tuckett received his adver¬ 
sary’s second ball in the back part of the lower 
ribs. The ball was extracted, and no fatal 
result followed. The miller of Wimbledon, 
with his wife and son, witnessed the duel from 
his mill, and being a constable, took the parties 







SEPTEMBER 


1840. 


OCTOBER 


into custody. They had exchanged shots about 
twelve yards from each other. 

18 . —Brigadier Dennie achieves a decisive 
victory near Bameean over the united forces of 
Dost Mahomed and the Walee of Khooloom. 
The retreating forces were followed for some 
distance along the valley, and many slain. 
Ten days afterwards Dr. Lord succeeded in 
completing a treaty in terms of which the 
Walee detached himself from Dost Mahomed, 
and bound himself to afford neither harbour 
nor assistance to the Ameer or his family. The 
country south of Syghan was formally added 
to Shah Soojah’s dominions. 

19 . —The Globe and other newspapers pub¬ 
lish the details of a mess squabble between 
Lord Cardigan and Capt. J. W. Reynolds. 
Capt. J ones delivered the following message to 
Capt. Reynolds, after a mess dinner, at which 
the latter had called for a bottle of Moselle, 
placed, as usual, on the table in a black bottle. 
“ The Colonel has desired me, as president of 
the mess committee, to tell you that you were 
wrong in having a black bottle placed on the 
table at a great dinner like last night, as the 
mess should be conducted like a gentleman’s 
table, and not like a tavern or pot-house.” 

20 . —Died, aged 83, Dr. Francia, Dictator 
of Paraguay, the “ El Supremo” of his slavish 
people. 

22.—Died at Ham House, Surrey, in her 
96th year, Louisa Talmash, sixth Countess of 
Dysart. 

— Died, at Clarence House, St. James’s, 
the Princess Augusta, sixth child and second 
daughter of George III. and Queen Charlotte, 
born in 1768. 

25 .— Died, at Courcelles, near Orleans, 
aged 75, Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Ta- 
rentum. 

27 . —Fire in Plymouth Dockyard, and total 
destruction of the Talavera, 74-gun ship, and 
the Imogene frigate, then in dock. The Minden 
was also much charred and burnt, and the Ade¬ 
laide Gallery destroyed, with all its interesting 
memorials of old ships, except the Royal George's 
capstan. 

— Sidon taken by the allied forces under 
Commodore Napier. 

28 . —Commenced before the Court of Peers 
of France, the trial of Prince Louis Napoleon, 
and other persons concerned in the landing at 
Boulogne. They were defended by M. Ber- 
ryer, but the address of this eloquent advo¬ 
cate did not avail much, as the Peers found 
the Prince guilty, and sentenced him to per¬ 
petual imprisonment in the frontier fortress of 
Ham. The others were sentenced to imprison¬ 
ment for various terms of years. 

30 .—Foundation-stone laid of the Nelson 
Monument in Trafalgar-square; the block 
with which the ceremony was performed being 
a piece of Dartmoor granite, weighing four¬ 


teen tons. The proceedings were conducted 
in a private manner, owing to the absence 
from town of most of the gentlemen com¬ 
posing the committee. 

30 .—Addressing the newly-elected members 
of the Dublin Corporation, the Lord Lieu¬ 
tenant (Ebrington) took occasion to declare, on 
behalf of himself and her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment, that they considered the maintenance of 
the Union between the two countries to be 
essential to the permanent security of the 
empire. “ Entertaining these opinions, I feel 
it my duty to discountenance and discourage, 
by all legal and constitutional means, the agi¬ 
tation of this question. I shall withhold all 
the Government favour and patronage which 
Administrations are considered entitled to con¬ 
fer on their supporters, from those who take 
part in this agitation, who will thereby lose 
the goodwill of the Government.” 

October 2 .—Attempt of an incendiary to 
fire the dockyard at Sheerness. Smoke having 
been observed issuing from the Camperdcnvn, 
120 guns, search was made, when part of 
the vessel was discovered to be on fire, but 
as it had just commenced it was got under 
before much damage was done. On further 
inspection, trains of oakum, pounded resin, 
and other inflammable materials were found 
laid throughout the ship in various directions. 

— The arrival of the news concerning Bey- 
rout this afternoon, taken in connexion with the 
fires in the royal dockyards, caused a panic in 
the Exchange, during which Consols fell from 
87^- to 86 : 100,000/. were offered at the latter 
price. An uneasy feeling regarding the relation 
in which France stood to the Four Contracting 
Powers also helped to keep the market in a 
fluctuating state at this time. 

5 . —Concluded at Brighton the court-martial 
on Captain J. W. Reynolds, arising out of 
charges preferred against him by his command¬ 
ing officer, the Earl of Cardigan, for writing an 
improper and intemperate letter. “I beg to 
tell your lordship,” he wrote, “that you are 
in no wise justified in speaking of me at all at 
a public party, given by your lordship, and 
more particularly in such a manner as to make 
it appear that my conduct has been such as to 
exclude me from your lordship’s house. ” Capt. 
Reynolds, to the astonishment of many, was 
dismissed the service, and the evidence of some 
of his witnesses severely censured. 

— Conclusion of the poll, rendered necessary 
by a combination to exclude Alderman Harmer, 
of the Dispatch , from the office of Mayor, to 
which he succeeded by rotation. Pirie, 2,741 ; 
Johnson, 2,713 ; Harmer, 2,294. 

7. —The King of Holland abdicates in favour 
of his son (the Prince of Orange), William II. 

8. —Replying to one of Lord Palmerston’s 
notes on the Eastern question, M. Thiers urges 
that the “ Prince Vassal” having succeeded in 
establishing a firm rule in two provinces, ought 

( 75 ) 




OCTOBER 


1840. 


NOVEMBER 


now to be considered an essential and neces¬ 
sary part of the Ottoman Empire. “ In this 
conviction, France, equally disinterested in the 
Oriental question with the Four Powers who 
have signed the protocol of September 17th, 
believes herself to be under the necessity of 
declaring that the deposition of the Viceroy, 
if put in force, will be, in her estimation, a 
blow given to the general equilibrium. The 
question with respect to the limits which ought 
to be established in Syria in order to divide 
the possessions of the Sultan from those of 
the Viceroy of Egypt, might with safety be 
left to the chances of the war now actually in 
progress, but France cannot prevail upon her¬ 
self to abandon to such a chance the existence 
of Mehemet Ali as Prince Vassal of the em¬ 
pire. Whatever territorial limits may ulti¬ 
mately separate the two Powers by the fortune 
of war, their continued double existence is 
necessary to Europe, and France cannot con¬ 
sent to admit the suppression either of the one 
or of the other. Disposed as she is to enter 
upon and take part in every acceptable arrange¬ 
ment which shall have for its basis the double 
guarantee of the existence of the Sultan and 
that of the Viceroy of Egypt, she confines her¬ 
self at present to the declaration on her part 
that she cannot consent to the carrying into 
execution the act of deposition pronounced at 
Constantinople. ” 

9 . —The Rev. Philip Wynter, D.D.,President 
of St. John’s College, Oxford, created Vice- 
Chancellor of the University. 

10. —Engagement near Beyrout, between 
the allied troops and Ibrahim Pasha, in which 
the latter is completely defeated, and forced 
to retreat to the mountains. Beyrout is eva¬ 
cuated the same night, and made the head¬ 
quarters of General Smith. 

12 .— The Queen Mother resigns the Spanish 
Regency, and retires to France. 

14 .—Proceedings in the Wandsworth Police 
Court concerning the duel fought by the Earl 
of Cardigan and Lieut. Tuckett on Sept. 12. 
Both were committed for trial on the charge of 
felony. 

16 .—A musket-shot fired at the King of the 
French this evening, when his Majesty was 
passing along the Quay of the Tuileries, on his 
return to St. Cloud, but no one hurt. Darmes, 
who fired the shot, was instantly arrested, and 
avowed the crime. 

20 .—Lord Palmerston writes to Earl Gran¬ 
ville at Paris : “Say to M. Thiers, that nothing 
can be more unjust than to assert that England 
has wished not to allow France any share in 
the settlement of the Turkish question. But as 
long as France insists that the question shall be 
settled only in her own way, against the opinion 
of all the other Powers, and in opposition to 
the engagements which the Four Powers have 
contracted with the Sultan, it is surely France 
that excludes herself from the settlement, and 
not the other Powers that exclude her. ” 

( 76 ) 


20.—The Thiers’ Ministry announce their 
resignation in consequence of objections enter¬ 
tained by the King to certain passages of a 
warlike nature which had been inserted in the 
Royal Speech prepared for delivery to the 
Chambers. M. Guizot and Marshal Soult there¬ 
upon undertook the formation of a ministry. 

— Died at Holland House, aged 67, the 
Right Hon. Henry Richard Vassall, Lord 
Holland, celebrated in the political and social 
life of the past half-century. 

24 . —Sir John Macdonald, Adjutant-Gene¬ 
ral, reads, by order of the Commander-in-chief, 
a memorandum to the officers the nth 
Hussars at Brighton barracks. Speaking of 
the commanding officer, Lord Cardigan, he 
says: ‘ ‘ He must recollect that it is expected 
from him not only to exercise the military 
command over the regiment, but to give an 
example of moderation, temper, and discretion. 
Such a, course of conduct would lead to far less 
frequent reference to his lordship from the 
nth Hussars than had been the case in the last 
few months.” 

25 . —John Henty, carpenter, tried by court- 
martial at Sheemess, for (among other counts) 
making a false report to his superior officer, 
on the extent and circumstances of the fire in 
the Camperdown. The Court found the charge 
established, but, in consideration of the pri¬ 
soner’s previous good character, sentenced him 
to be only severely reprimanded. 

— Accident at Faringdon, Great Western 
Railway, caused by the driver of a goods train 
neglecting to lessen his speed as he approached 
the station. The driver and guard were killed, 
and four passengers, in a truck, severely in¬ 
jured. 

27 .—Distressing case of hydrophobia at 
Kirkcaldy, in a boy, aged six, and a girl, aged 
two, who had been bitten by a rabid dog at 
Carronbrae, about seven weeks previously. 

— Died at Duddingstone Manse, near 
Edinburgh, the Rev. John Thomson, celebrated 
as a landscape painter. 

Meetings held in various towns throughout 
the kingdom this month to discourage the war 
feeling now thought to be existing between 
Great Britain and France. 

November 2. —The Native army of Dost 
Mahomed defeat a mixed British and Native 
force in the valley of Purwandurrah, Nijrau. 
“The Affghans,” writes Kay, “were on the hills 
skirting one side of the pass ; the British troops 
were on the opposite declivity. Dost Ma¬ 
homed saw our cavalry advancing, and from 
that moment cast behind him all thought of 
retreat. At the head of a small band of 
horsemen, strong sturdy Affghans, but badly 
mounted, he prepared to meet his assailants. 
Beside him rode the bearer of the blue standard 
which marked his place in the battle. He 
pointed to it; reined in his horse ; then snatch- 






NOVEMBER 


1840. 


NOVEMBER 


ing the white lunghi from his head, stood up in 
his stirrups, uncovered before his followers, 
and called upon them in the name of God and 
the Prophet to drive the cursed Kaffirs from 
the country of the faithful. ‘Follow me,’ he 
cried aloud, ‘ or I am a lost man.’ Slowly, 
but steadily, the Aflfghan horsemen advanced. 
The English officers who led our cavalry to the 
attack covered themselves with glory. The 
Native troopers fled like sheep. Emboldened 
by the craven conduct of the cavalry, the 
Aflfghan horsemen rode forward driving their 
enemy before them, and charging right up to 
the position of the British until almost within 
reach of our guns. The Aflfghan sabres told 
with cruel effect upon our mounted men. 
Lieutenants Broadfoot and Crispin were cut to 
pieces. A treacherous shot from a neighbour¬ 
ing bastion brought Dr. Lord to the ground, 
and the dagger of the assassin completed the 
work of death.” The victory was of little use 
to the Ameer, who left the field direct for 
Cabul to surrender himself. 

2 . —In the Arches Court,the Rev.Mr.Escott, 
Vicar of Gedney, put in a responsive allegation 
to a suit instituted against him for having re¬ 
fused to bury the corpse of a child baptized by 
a Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher. The allega¬ 
tion stated, that as the child had not been bap¬ 
tized by an ordained preacher, the baptism was 
null and void ; that baptisms by laymen had 
been repudiated by the Church from the time 
of the conferences at Hampton Court, in 1600, 
to the present time ; and in the eleventh article 
it was pleaded, that even according to the 
doctrines of the sect as laid down by John 
Wesley, their founder, preachers or teachers 
were not authorized to administer the Holy 
Sacraments. Sir Herbert Jenner Fust ad¬ 
mitted the allegation, with the exception of the 
eleventh article, in which the principles of 
Methodism were laid down, and which would 
necessarily introduce into the cause matter 
entirely extraneous. 

3. —Bombardment and capture of St. Jean 
d’Acre by the allied fleet, under the command 
of Admiral Stopford. The attack commenced 
about two o’clock, and became general at 
three. At twenty minutes past four a large 
magazine blew up, by which one entire regi¬ 
ment, on the ramparts, was sacrificed. During 
the night the place was evacuated. British 
loss, 22 killed and 42 wounded; Egyptians 
killed, about 2,000. 

— Surrender of Dost Mahomed Khan. Sir 
William Macnaghten writes to the Secretary of 
the Indian Government: “I was returning 
from my evening ride, and within a few yards 
of my own residence, when a single horseman 
galloped up to me, and having satisfied him 
that I was the envoy and minister, told me that 
Dost Mahomed Khan was arrived, and sought 
my protection. Dost Mahomed rode up to me, 
and alighted from his horse. After the usual 
salutation, I begged him to mount again, and 
we proceeded together to my residence, in the 


compound of which I have pitched a tent for 
the ex-chief, and provided him with everything 
necessary for his comfort. He put his sword 
into my hand as a token of submission, but I at 
once returned it to him, and he seemed grateful 
for this mark of confidence.” 

3 . —Lyons inundated by the sudden and un¬ 
looked-for rising of the Saone. Many large 
bridges were carried away, and the torrent 
rushed with resistless force through some of the 
busiest and most populous streets of the city. 

4 . —Collision in the British Channel between 
the brigs Hopewell , of Cork, and the Yauden y 
of Gloucester. Five people on board the 
former drowned. 

5 . —Kurrach Singh dies at Lahore. His 
favourite wife and three female attendants 
sacrificed themselves on the funeral pile. On 
the return of the procession to the palace, a 
beam from a gateway fell on the new sovereign, 
Nebal Singh. He died in a few hours. 

6. —Accidental bursting of another magazine 
in Acre, attended with the loss of nearly 300 
lives. 

— In opening the French Chambers, the 
King said : ‘ ‘ The measure which the Emperor 
of Austria, the Queen of Great Britain, the 
King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia 
have taken in concert to regulate the relations 
between the Sultan and the Pasha of Egypt, 
has imposed serious duties upon me. I have 
the dignity of our country at heart, as well as 
its safety and its repose. In persevering in the 
moderate and conciliatory policy of which for 
ten years we have reaped the fruits, I have put 
France into a condition of facing any chances 
which the course of events in the East might 
bring about. The extraordinary credits which 
have been opened for this purpose will be 
immediately submitted to you: you will appre¬ 
ciate the motives of them. I continue to hope 
that the peace of Europe will not be troubled : 
it is necessary to the common interest oi 
Europe, to the happiness of all nations, and 
to the progress of civilization. I count upon 
you to aid me in maintaining it, as I would 
count upon you if the honour of France and 
the rank which she occupies among the nations 
should command us to make new efforts.” As 
the King’s Speech was the subject of con¬ 
siderable interest in Britain, great efforts were 
made by the newspapers to obtain an early 
report, and the Morning Post expressed the 
pleasure it felt in being able to publish it first, 
within twenty-two hours and a half of the 
express leaving Paris. 

IO.—Exciting municipal contest in Edin¬ 
burgh, caused by the state of Church parties. 
The non-intrusion party in the council, with 
some aid from the Tories, carry Sir James 
Forrest as Lord Provost, against Mr. Adam 
Black, by 17 to 14. 

12 .—John Thorogood relieved from Chelms¬ 
ford jail, after an imprisonment of twenty-two 

( 77 ) 




NOVEMBER 


1840. 


NOVEMBER 


months for refusing to pay a church rate of 
5.. 6 d. An unknown individual paid the rate 
and costs. 

13 .—Severe storm on the north-east coast. 
The Syria was broken to pieces near Sunder¬ 
land pier, and four of her crew drowned. In 
the Irish Sea the fury of the gale was also 
severely felt. The City of Bristol steamship, 
trading between Waterford and Bristol, foun¬ 
dered off Warnes Head, with twenty-nine 
persons on board. Only two were saved. 

— Contest for the High Stewardship of 
Cambridge University. On this, the third and 
last day of polling, the numbers stood, Lord 
Lyndhurst, 973 ; Lord Lyttelton, 488. 

— Great Britain recognises the indepen¬ 
dence of Texas by entering into a treaty with 
that State. 

19 .—Burnes writes from Cabul to a friend 
at Bombay: ‘ ‘ What a year has been the past! 
—not to me, I mean, but to our affairs in the 
East. Further submission to what was going 
on, and our days of supremacy in the East 
were numbered. As it is we have brought 
upon ourselves some additional half-million of 
annual expenditure, and ere 1840 ends I predict 
that our frontiers and those of Russia will touch 
—that is, the states depending upon either of 
us will—and that is the same thing.” A month 
later: “ Everything past and present has been 
cast into the shade by the expedition which 
the Russians have now pushed into Central 
Asia. I have known it for eight weeks past, 
and had numerous and authentic reports con¬ 
cerning their waggons, materiel, &c., all of 
which are on a grand scale, giving rise to 
serious apprehensions that their plans are not 
confined to the chastisement of the petty Khan 
of Khiva; indeed our policy at Herat is 
already out of joint, and we have reason to 
know that Russia looks from Khiva to that 
city. Her attack on Khiva is justified by all 
the laws of nations, and in a country like 
England, where slave-dealing is so odiously 
detested, ought to find favour in men’s eyes 
rather than blame. Yet the time chosen wears 
a bad appearance, if it at once does not lead 
to the inference that Russia has put forth her 
forces merely to counteract our policy. The 
latter is my opinion; and by our advance on 
Cabul we have thus hastened the great crisis. 
England and Russia will divide Asia between 
them, and the two empires will enlarge like 
circles in the water till they are lost in nothing; 
and future generations will search for both of 
us in these regions as we now seek for the 
remains of Alexander and his Greeks.” 

21 . —This afternoon, at ten minutes before 
2 o’clock, the Queen was safely delivered of a 
daughter—the Princess Royal. 

27 .—The anxiety which had been for some 
time felt as to the safety of the President steam¬ 
ship, was allayed this morning by her safe 
arrival at Liverpool. She had left New York 
on the 2d, but was compelled by a severe head 
( 78 ) 


wind to put back again, and started a second 
time on the 9th. 

27 .—In one of the adjourned debates which 
took place in the French Chamber on the 
Address, M. Thiers thus sought to justify his 
warlike policy :—“ I wished to arm in order to 
obtain a modification of the treaty. I resolved 
on obtaining it, and I should have obtained it; 
and if I had not, I declare now, that I would 
have gone to war, for the honour and interest 
of my country demanded it. When I saw that 
the treaty was being hastily executed, I wrote 
as follows to M. Guizot: * We are arming, 
constantly arming; and when France shall be 
ready, if an arrangement does not take place, 
we shall have war. (Great sensation.) I do 
not hesitate in adopting an extreme course 
when I see that the honour of my country is 
about to be compromised.’ (Approbation.) 
Yes, gentlemen, I would have demanded the 
modification of the treaty. I would have de¬ 
manded it when France was ready for action ; 
and if it had been then refused, although, as a 
statesman, I know perfectly well how terrible 
the word war is for a country, I would have 
cried ‘ War, war! ’ and I should have found 
an echo in France. (‘Bravo! bravo!’ from 
the Left, and great agitation in the Chamber.) 
Let me be kept from power; let me be ban¬ 
ished for ever; but let it not be said that, as a 
French Minister, I would have ever permitted 
language insulting to the honour of France. 
Yes, gentlemen, whenever Europe, the whole 
of Europe, should say to us, ‘If you do not 
choose such or such a thing, we will do it 
without you, and in spite of you,’ I would cry 
‘ War.’ Let us be what our fathers were ; and 
let us never descend from the rank to which 
they raised us.”—General Bugeaud said: 
“An Austrian general, M. de Lassy, had pub¬ 
lished a book in favour of a war of detail, of 
cordons , and of petty manoeuvres. This was 
the kind of war that Europe waged against the 
French Revolution, which gave it breathing¬ 
time, and at last success. In the first campaign, 
the French were in general beaten. (Loud in¬ 
terruption. ) It was useful to state these things; 
for crowds believed that it was merely necessary 
to sing the ‘ Marseillaise ’ in order to rout all 
the armies of Europe. It was necessary to 
dissipate such illusions, and to show that the 
French Revolutionary armies were always 
beaten till they learned discipline. ”—M. Odilon 
Barrot here exclaimed, ‘ ‘ that enthusiasm and 
exaltation were a force.”—General Bugeaud 
replied, that he had infinite respect for the 
“Marseillaise,” but he thought it unable to 
secure victory. In action it was better not 
to sing, and the most formidable troops were 
silent ones. If the enemy had concentrated 
100,000 troops in the first campaign of the 
Revolution, they would have marched to Paris. 
(Murmurs.) He knew the strength of France, 
which lay in the arms of its twenty-four 
millions of peasants and eight millions of arti¬ 
sans—men, fortunately, who never spilled any 
ink. “ Europe knew this, and Europe will not 






tVOVL \TBER 


I840-4I. 


JANUARY 


treat us with disdain.”—M. Berryer spoke for 
war in support of M. Thiers, and M. Lamartine 
for peace in support of M. Guizot. After one 
of the most stormy discussions which had taken 
place during the King’s reign, the Address, 
with some modifications, was carried by 247 to 
161 votes. 

27 .—Commodore Napier enters into a Con¬ 
vention, in terms of which Mehemet Ali con¬ 
sents to evacuate Syria, restore the Turkish 
fleet, and receive Egypt as an hereditary fief of 
the Porte. 

30 *—The Belle Poule frigate, commanded by 
the Prince de Joinville, arrives off Cherbourg, 
with the remains of the Emperor Napoleon. 

December 2.—A youth, named William 
Jones (“the boy Jones”), gains access to Buck¬ 
ingham Palace, and continues secreted there 
several days. Plis presence was first detected 
by Mrs. Lilley, the nurse of the Princess Royal, 
who summoned some attendants, and had the 
intruder drawn from his hiding-place under the 
sofa. He gave various accounts of the manner 
in which he obtained admission, as well as his 
object, but the Privy Council did not think 
there was much cause for alarm. He was 
therefore sentenced to three months’ imprison¬ 
ment as a rogue and vagabond. 

— Admiral Stopford disallows the Con¬ 
vention concluded between Mehemet Ali and 
Commodore Napier: “I am very sorry,” he 
writes, “to find that Commodore Napier should 
have entered into a Convention with your 
Highness for the evacuation of Syria by the 
Egyptian troops, which he had no authority to 
do, and which I cannot approve or ratify. . . . 
I hope this hasty and unauthorized convention 
will not occasion any embarrassment to your 
Highness. It was no doubt done from an 
amicable motive, though under a limited view 
of the state of affairs in Syria.” In another 
letter dated at sea, off Cyprus, on the 6th, 
Admiral Stopford transmitted to the Pasha the 
official authority from the British Government 
on which he had acted. 

5 . —M. Guizot declares his policy to be the 
maintenance of peace with the present force of 
500,000 men, as opposed to the warlike de¬ 
mands of M. Thiers for 900,000. 

6 . —Prosecution of Hetherington in the 
Court of Queen’s Bench for issuing a blasphe¬ 
mous publication, entitled “ Haslam’s Letters 
to the Clergy of all Denominations.” Verdict, 
guilty. Sentence deferred. 

13 .—The Portuguese Council of State de¬ 
termine to resist the demands made by Spain 
regarding the navigation of the Douro. 

15 .—Remains of the Emperor Napoleon 
laid with great pomp in the tomb at the Inva- 
lides, Paris. In the present state of parties in 
France some disturbance was feared, but all 
passed off in comparative quiet. 


16 *—The Court of Session give judgment rn 
the Strathbogie case. Two sets of defences 
were lodged, the one for the majority of the 
clerical members, the seven ministers whose 
suspension had been declared illegal; the other 
for the minority of four clergymen who, ac¬ 
cording to the decisions of the Church Court, 
formed the legal Presbytery. The judgment 
of the Court was, that the Presbytery proceed 
forthwith to admit and receive Mr. Edwards as 
presented to Marnock. Lord Fullerton was in 
favour of delay, but was overruled by the Lord 
President, and Lords Gillies and Mackenzie. 

17 .—John Green, a “ganger,” or superin¬ 
tendent of labourers, on the Edinburgh and 
Glasgow Railway, murdered by two Irishmen 
at Crosshill. One of them struck Green on 
the head with a long iron poker, while the 
other repeatedly jumped upon the body. The 
outrage had its origin in jealousy between the 
English and Irish workmen on the line. 

25 .—Loss of life in Francis-street Roman 
Catholic Chapel, Dublin, during a panic caused 
by the spread of a false report that the building 
was falling. 

29 .—Admiral Elliot resigns command of the 
fleet in Chinese waters. 

— A majority of the Strathbogie Presby¬ 
tery resolve to induct Mr. Edwards to the 
parish in conformity with the peremptory orders 
of the Court of Session. 

31 .—The Court of Directors of the East 
India Company counsel the Supreme Govern¬ 
ment on the British position in Affghanistan:— 
“We pronounce our decided opinion that for 
many years to come the restored monarchy will 
have need of a British force in order to main¬ 
tain peace in its own territory, and prevent 
aggression from without. We must add, that 
to attempt to accomplish this by a small force, 
or by the mere influence of British Residents, 
will, in our opinion, be most unwise and frivo¬ 
lous, and that we should prefer the entire 
abandonment of the country, and a frank con¬ 
fession of complete failure, to any such policy. .. 
To whatever quarter we direct our attention, 
we behold the restored monarchy menaced by 
dangers which cannot possibly be encountered 
by the military means at the disposal of the 
minister of the Court of Shah Soojah; and 
we again desire you seriously to consider which 
of the two alternatives (a speedy retreat from 
Affghanistan, or a considerable increase in the 
military force of that country), you may find it 
your duty to adopt. We are convinced that 
you have no middle course to pursue with safety 
or with honour.” 


1*841. 

January 3 . --Thunderstorm in the Metro¬ 
polis and neighbourhood. Spitalfields Church 
and Streatham Church were seriously damaged. 

( 79 ) 







JANUARY 


JANUAR V 


1841. 


3 .—Fire at Dundee, originating from a stove 
in a passage betwixt the Steeple and South 
churches. The East Church, or Cathedral, a 
remarkable and much-admired building, and 
also the South and Cross churches, were de¬ 
stroyed. 

7 . —Commodore Bremer opens fire from his 
squadron on the Bogue Forts, Canton River, 
and reduces two, over which he plants the 
British flag. 

— Death at Lambeth Palace, caused by 
workmen heating a pan of charcoal in the 
room they were repairing. One man was 
entirely suffocated, and the rest had a narrow 
escape. 

8 . —Alexander M‘Rae sentenced to death 
by the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, 
for a capital offence committed on the body of 
Marjory MTntosh, near Docgarroch Loch, on 
the Caledonian Canal. 

11 .—Samuel Scott, the American diver, 
accidentally hangs himself when performing his 
rope-trick on Waterloo Bridge, preparatory to 
leaping into the river. 

— Mehemet Ali consents to give up Syria, 
and receive from the Sultan the hereditary 
government of Egypt. He restored the fleet 
on the 14th. 

15 . —Died at Tarbes, his native place, aged 
86, Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac, a prominent 
member of the “Committee of Public Safety,” 
and one of the most unscrupulous and blood¬ 
thirsty agents of the Revolution. 

16 . —Inundation at Brentford, caused by the 
bursting of the banks and locks of the Grand 
Junction Canal. At Shrewton and Mad ding- 
ton, on the same day, there was a considerable 
destruction of property by floods, from the sud¬ 
den melting of snow in the neighbourhood. 

18 . —O’Connell visits the Orange district of 
Ulster in the course of his Repeal agitation, and 
meets with numerous evidences of unpopularity. 

19 . —The Court of Queen’s Bench issue a 
writ prohibiting the Chancellor of the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford (the Duke of Wellington) 
from proceeding in a suit which had been 
instituted in the Chancellor’s Court against a 
tradesman of Oxford, for bringing an action 
against a member of the University. 

20 . —The Emperor of China issues an edict: 
“ Whereas Keshen has reported to us the mea¬ 
sures he has taken in reference to the circum¬ 
stances of the English foreigners ; that as these 
rebellious foreigners are without reason, and 
refuse to listen to our commands, a dreadful 
example of severity ought to be made in their 
regard. If the rebellious foreigners dare to 
approach our inner shores, let them be imme¬ 
diately exterminated. ” Keshen, in detailing to 
the Emperor the various encroachments of the 
barbarians, writes : “Your slave is vexed to 
death thinking of these things, even till he 
loathes his food, and till sleep has forsaken his 

(80) 


eyelids, forasmuch as he does not shrink from 
the heavy guilt he is incurring in taking all 
these facts, the result of his diligent inquiries, 
and annoying with them the ears of Heaven’s 
son.” Keshen was soon after degraded, and 
delivered over to the Board of Punishment. 

20. —Charles Elliot, H.M. Plenipotentiary, 
announces the conclusion of preliminary arrange¬ 
ments for a treaty of peace with China. The 
island of Hong Kong to be ceded to England, 
an indemnity of six million dollars to be paid, 
and the trade of Canton to be opened up. The | 
Emperor disavowed the Treaty, and hostilities 
were resumed early in February. 

21 . — Great Radical meeting on Holbeck 
Heath, Leeds, designed to bring about a coali¬ 
tion with the Chartists. Resolutions in favour 
of universal suffrage were almost unanimously 
carried; but the speakers differed widely from 
each other on the remaining “points” of the 
charter. 

— The “moderate” section of the Strath- 
bogie Presbytery meet at Mamoch to induct Jj 
Mr. Edwards into the ministry of that parish. 
The circumstances connected with this ordi¬ 
nation occasioned much discussion. A protest 
against the proceedings was read amid great 1 
excitement, and at its conclusion the audience 1 
set up a loud shout of approval. A portion, 
representing, it was said, the parishioners of ] 
Marnoch, then withdrew, but the number left 
in the church was still very considerable, and 
the shouting, cheering, and hissing continued 
in a manner which made the carrying out of 
the business of the court an impossibility. An 
attempt was made to prevent the moderator 
from entering the pulpit, and pieces of wood, 
nails, iron bolts, &c. were plentifully thrown 
among the members of Presbytery. This con¬ 
tinued for about an hour and a half, when the 
fury of the audience gave signs of having ex¬ 
pended itself. Words of warning and remon- 
strance were then offered by two or three known ; 
sympathisers with the non-intrusion movement, 
and the latter part of the ordination services | 
was conducted in the midst of comparative 
order and quiet. 

23 .—Died in Bethlehem Hospital, aged 69 
years, James Hatfield, who was tried at the j 
Old Bailey, in September 1802, for firing a 
loaded pistol at his Majesty King George III., 
and acquitted on the ground of insanity. 

26 .—Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech made reference I 
to the pacification of the Levant, the dis¬ 
turbances in China, and the differences between 
Spain and Portugal as to the passage of the I 
Douro. Measures were promised relating to 
the improvement of the administration of 
justice, and for .amending the laws relating, to 
the poor. The Address was agreed to without 
a division after a languid debate, having 
reference chiefly to affairs in the Levant. 

29 .—Mr. Serjeant Tatfourd obtains leave 
to re-introduce the Copyright Bill of last year. 







FEBRUARY 


I84I. 


FEBRUARY 


February 1.— Captain Elliot and Commo¬ 
dore Bremer issue a proclamation to the inha¬ 
bitants of Hong Kong, informing them that the 
city had become part of the dominion of the 
Queen of England, and that natives residing 
in the island must consider themselves as her 
subjects. 

; — Lord Shaftesbury presents the report of 

a Committee recommending that the case of 
the Earl of Cardigan, removed by a writ of 
certiorari from the Central Criminal Court, 
be taken up by the Peers on the 16th; the 
House to be fitted up for the trial, and the 
judges summoned to attend. 

2 . —Lord Stanley re-introduces his Regis¬ 
tration (Ireland) Bill. A rival Government 
measure was brought forward by Lord Mor¬ 
peth on the 4th. 

— The Antarctic expedition under the com¬ 
mand of Captain Ross reaches latitude 78° K 
south, being the farthest point attained by it, 
and nearly four degrees beyond that accom¬ 
plished by any previous navigator. 

5 . —The Duke of Wellington taken suddenly 
ill in the House of Lords, and conveyed to 
Apsley House. 

6 . —Mr. Justice Littledale takes his leave of 
the Bar in the Court of Queen’s Bench. 

9 . —Lord John Russell’s Bill for discharging 
the present Poor Law Commissioners read a 
second time; Mr. Disraeli’s amendment for 
delay being rejected by 201 to 54 votes. 

10. —Christening of the Princess Royal in 
Buckingham Palace. 

— Lord Sydenham assumes the government 
of the now united provinces of Upper and Lower 
Canada. 

12 . —The Commons vote a pension of 
2,000/. per annum to Lord Keane and his two 
next heirs. 

— Died, aged 73, Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 
surgeon. 

13 . —A banquet, attended by several Cabinet 
Ministers, and many members of Parliament, 
given by the New Zealand Company, to Lord 
John Russell. 

14 ..—The Buffalo Advertiser publishes a 
long circumstantial account of the destruction 
of Niagara Falls. “ At half-past seven a wide 
space of the frontal bastion near to Goat 
Island fell down, but what was actually taking 
place could only be surmised, as the great con¬ 
fluence of water hid the immediate stage of 
operations from sight. At half-past eight the 
Middle Tower and all the adjoining ground¬ 
work had disappeared. The tower sank into 
the gulf like a subsiding wave. Goat Island 
followed next. On the British side, the wall of 
loose friable rock was gored and ploughed away 
until the Table Rock, so much resorted to by 
visitors, fell down in fragments, the spiral stair¬ 
case toppled, and for a while it was expected 
(81) 


that the hotel would follow. It still stands, 
though in a perilous posture, all the furniture 
having been removed.” 

16 .—The Earl of Cardigan tried in the 
House of Lords for shooting at Captain 
Tuckett, with intent to do him bodily harm. 
The case broke down on a formal objection 
raised by the prisoner’s counsel, Sir William 
Follett. The prosecution, he said, had failed in 
proving a material part of their case, inasmuch 
as no evidence had been given that Captain 
Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett was the person 
alleged to have been on Wimbledon Common 
on the 12th September last, and whose card 
only bore the name Captain Harvey Tuckett. 
The peers present returned a verdict of “Not 
guilty,” with the exception of the Duke of 
Cleveland, who added, “Not guilty, legally.” 

— Ministers defeated by a majority of 31 
in a House of 223, on Mr. Cresswell’s motion 
for a committee on the Danish claims. 

19 .—Collision in the Irish Channel between 
the American emigrant ship Governor Fenner , 
and the steamer Nottingham , trading between 
Dublin and Liverpool. The former sank 
almost immediately, with passengers and crew 
to the number of 124. Only the master and 
mate were saved. 

— Wynyard Park, the seat of the Mar¬ 
quis of Londonderry, destroyed by fire, - sup¬ 
posed to have originated in a flue in the chapel 
forming the west wing of the premises, and 
first seen about midnight. There were only two 
servants in the house at the time, the Marquis 
and Marchioness being abroad with their at¬ 
tendants. The whole of the building, and by 
far the greater part of the rich furnishings, were 
destroyed. 

22.—Decision in Exchequer on the long- 
pending question regarding the validity of the 
charter of the city of Manchester. The ques¬ 
tion was raised in a suit Rutter v. Chapman, 
tried in 1839, before Mr. Baron Maule, at 
Liverpool, when the learned judge directed the 
jury to find for the validity, subject to a bill of 
exceptions for argument in Exchequer. The 
Attorney-General conducted the case for the 
Liberals, and Mr. Cresswell that of the Tory 
opponents of the corporation. The original 
judgment in favour of the charter was now con¬ 
firmed on all points, and costs allowed. The 
other Privy Council charters affected by this 
decision were Birmingham, Bolton, and Devon- 
p'ort. 

25 .—After a debate protracted over three 
nights, Lord Morpeth’s Irish Registration Bill 
is read a second time by the narrow majority of 
299 to 294 votes. Lord Stanley led the Oppo¬ 
sition. There were 23 “pairs” in the division, 
and 13 absentees; one seat (King’s County) 
was vacant. 

27 .—Fall of two houses adjoining the Dis¬ 
patch office, in Fleet-street. The tenants being 
warned of their danger, no life was lost, nor 
was there any casualty of the slightest nature. 

G 




MARCH 


1841. 


APRIL 


March 2.— In answer to Lord Dalhousie, 
Lord Aberdeen states that though his bill of 
last year had been well received by nearly one- 
half of the Church of Scotland, yet, as it had 
been furiously condemned by the other, and 
opposed also by the Government, he had re¬ 
solved to abandon it, and had no other measure 
to propose,—a resolution in which he was con¬ 
firmed by recent proceedings of the dominant 
party in the Church. 

3 .—Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court the trial of the two Wallaces, charged 
as accessaries in the wilful destruction of the 
ship Dryad, on her voyage from Liverpool to 
Santa Cruz, in October 1839, for the purpose 
of defrauding certain assurance companies and 
others. In summing up, the Lord Chief Justice 
said the jury must be satisfied that the captain 
wilfully cast the ship away with the intention 
of defrauding the underwriters; second, that 
the goods insured never had been shipped; and 
lastly, that a concerted scheme was prepared in 
London, to which the prisoners were consent¬ 
ing parties, and by whose aid it was carried out. 
They were each found guilty, and sentenced to 
transportation for life. 

— Died, aged 77, Claude Perrin Victor, 
Duke of Belluno ; created Marshal of France 
on the field of Friedland. 

4 -.—A gravedigger buried in St. Bride’s 
churchyard, by the falling in of the grave in 
which he was working. 

5 .—Mr. Macaulay brings forward the 
Army Estimates, amounting for the year to 
6,158,000/. 

— Rev. Dr. Gordon, Edinburgh, writes to 
the Duke of Argyll, that the Non-intrusion Com¬ 
mittee had no instructions from the General 
Assembly even to propose the abolition of 
patronage, as one way of settling the present 
difficulties of the Church of Scotland, far less 
to press it as the only way of putting an end to 
the present unhappy collision between the civil 
and ecclesiastical courts. 

15 .—Meeting of the Vice-Chancellor and 
heads of houses at Oxford, to censure No. XC. 
of “ Tracts for the Times.” It was resolved— 
“ That modes of interpretation such as are sug¬ 
gested in the said tract, evading rather than 
explaining the sense of the Thirty-nine Articles, 
and reconciling subscription to them with the 
adoption of errors which they were designed to 
counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsis¬ 
tent with the due observance, of the statutes of 
the University.” The following day the Rev. 
J. H. Newman addressed a letter to the Vice- 
Chancellor, acknowledging himself to be the 
author of Tract XC., and stating that his 
opinion remained unchanged of the truth and 
honesty of the principle therein maintained, 
and of the necessity of putting it forth. “ I am 
sincerely sorry for the trouble and anxiety I 
have given to the members of the Board, and 
I be^ to return my thanks to them for an act 
which, even though founded on misapprehen- 
(82) 


sion, may be made as profitable to myself as it 
is religiously and charitably intended.” 

15 .—The boy Jones enters Buckingham Pa¬ 
lace for the third time, but is seized almost imme¬ 
diately by a constable on duty. Instead of, 
sending him to prison again, the police magis¬ 
trate before whom he was brought induced 
his parents to let him be placed on board one 
of her Majesty’s ships. 

18 .—Her Majesty’s forces, after reducing the 
Chinese forts, and forcing their way to Canton, 
take possession of the British factory. On the 
20th a truce was agreed upon between Captain 
Elliot and the Imperial Commissioner Yang. 

21 . —The Rev. Mr. Guthrie, a prominent 
Non-intrusion agitator, addresses various meet¬ 
ings at Dublin on the Church of Scotland. “ I 
will cheerfully go,” he said, “where my fathers 
went before, to the dark dungeon; I will even 
go, like James Guthrie, to the Grass-market, 
and lay my head on the block; but I will sooner 
suffer this right hand to be cut off than lay it on 
the head of an Edwards of Marnoch.” 

22. —The Rolls Court order a commission 
to examine certain aged witnesses at the Court 
of Hanover, regarding the royal jewels be¬ 
queathed to the House of Hanover by Queen 
Charlotte. 

28 . —Robbery of plate and various articles 
of vertu at Windsor Castle, supposed to have 
been committed by a person in the employ of 
the Inspector-General of Palaces. 

29 . —A meeting having been called at Dept¬ 
ford on the subject of a repeal of the Corn Laws, 
a body of Chartists, as was their custom, took 
up a prominent position in the hall, and 
endeavoured in various ways to interrupt the 
proceedings. Acting upon the advice of the 
lecturer, Mr. Sydney Smith, the audience turned 
upon the Chartists, and after a short struggle 
succeeded in ejecting the whole of them.—At 
Leeds the Chartists were more successful in 
their opposition, the Mayor there being forced 
to retire from the platform with his friends. 

31 . -The Jews’ Declaration (Oath) Bill 
read a third time in the House of Commons by 
108 to 31 votes. It was thrown out in the 
Upper House on the nth June by 98 to 64 
votes. 

April 1. —The Paris Fortification Bill passes 
the Chamber of Peers. 

2 . —Rev. J. Keble, in a letter to Justice 
Coleridge, concerning Catholic subscription to 
the Thirty-nine Articles, discusses the duties 
and difficulties of English Catholics in the pre¬ 
sent religious crisis. 

Dr. Phillimore, acting as commissary 
for the Archbishop of York, gives judgment 
depriving the Rev. W. Cockburn, D.D., of his 
deanery on the ground of simoniacal practices. 

3 . Josiah Misters executed at Shrewsbury 
for the attempted murder of Mr. Mackreth in 





APRIL 


APRIL 


1841. 


the Angel Inn, Ludlow. He died declaring 
his innocence. 

4 . —Death of General Harrison, newly- 
elected President of the United States. He 
was succeeded by Vice-President Tyler. 

5 . —The Liverpool newspapers refer with 
serious apprehension to the non-arrival of the 
President steamship, which sailed from New 
York on the 11th March, with twenty-nine 
passengers. Insurance made with difficulty at 
25 per cent. 

6 . —Jerusalem placed under the protection 
of the Turkish Government. 

IX.—The Earl of Cardigan causes 100 lashes 
to be administered to Private Rogers of the 
nth Hussars, in the riding-school at Hounslow, 
immediately after divine service, and before 
the men could return to barracks. 

13 .—Accident at one of the furnaces of the 
Dowlais Iron Works. About three o’clock 
an alarm was raised that the loose stones 
were giving way, but only one of the men was 
able to leave the hole where they were at work, 
when the whole mass, to the estimated weight 
of 100 tons, came down on the scaffolding 
erected to carry on the repairs, and buried eight 
of the men. 

15 .—Settled before Baron Rolfe, at Liver¬ 
pool, the Brindle Will case. The question the 
special jury had to decide was whether the 
late Mr. Heatley* of Brindle, who devised his 
landed property to the defendant, the Rev. T. 
Sherburne, a Catholic priest, was competent 
to make a will. His competency to do so was 
disputed by the plaintiffs, who claimed through 
their wives, as heirs-at-law of the testator. An 
arrangement was come to between the parties, 
in terms of which a verdict was entered for the 
defendant. 

19 . —Public dinner in Liverpool to welcome 
Commodore Sir Charles Napier, on his return 
from service in the Levant. 

20. —Explanation on the Sunday flogging 

j case made by Mr. Macaulay in the House of 
Commons. “ It was a proceeding,” he said, 

| “which could not be reconciled with good 
sense or good taste, but it was not without. 
| precedent in both departments of the service. 

Such steps would now, however, be taken as 
) would prevent the recurrence of any similar 
case.” 

21. —Wreck of the Irish emigrant vessel 
Minstrel , on Red Island reef, and loss of 147 

lives. 

22 . —Order from the Adjutant-General ex¬ 
pressing surprise that Lord Cardigan should 
have carried out the sentence of a court-martial 
on Sunday, and prohibiting such a course in 
future, except in extreme necessity. 

23 . —Doolan, Redding, and Hickie tried at 
the Glasgow Circuit Court, for the murder of 
John Green, at Crosshill, on December 17th. 
A number of witnesses were examined as to the 
movements of the prisoners between the mur- 

(83) 


der and their apprehension, and two or three 
spoke to the fact of Redding being for some 
weeks in possession of a watch stolen from the 
body of the murdered man. The jury brought 
in a verdict of guilty against all three, but 
recommended Hickie, as an accessary, to the 
merciful consideration of the court. Lord Mon- 
crieff passed sentence of death, and fixed the 
place of execution as near as possible to the 
scene of the murder at Crosshill. 

2Q.—Discussion in Committee on Lord Mor¬ 
peth’s Registration of Voters’ (Ireland) Bill. 
The first clause declared, that upon the expira¬ 
tion of one month after a poor rate shall be 
established in any county or borough, the Act 
shall come into operation ; after which no per¬ 
son is “to be entitled as a freeholder or lease¬ 
holder to be registered as a voter for such 
county, in respect for any freehold or leasehold 
property in his actual occupation, save as here¬ 
in provided.” On this clause, Lord Howick 
proposed an amendment declaring that no 
person, “ claiming under any Act or Acts now 
in force, to be entitled to be registered and vote 
in a parliamentary election for any county in 
respect of any freehold or leasehold property 
in his actual occupation, shall be deemed to 
have a oeneficial interest therein of the clear 
yearly value required by such Act or Acts except 
as hereinafter provided. ” The amendment was 
carried against Ministers by a majority of 291 to 
270 votes. A second defeat on the franchise 
clause led to the withdrawal of the bill. 

27 .—A misunderstanding prevailing in the 
public mind as to the relative claims of Messrs. 
Cooke and Wheatstone, in the invention of 
the electric telegraph, it was mutually agreed 
to submit the matter to M. I. Brunei and Pro¬ 
fessor Daniell. After giving, in their “Award,” 
a brief history of the progress of the inven¬ 
tion in this country, they now state: “While 
Mr. Cooke is entitled to stand alone as 
the gentleman to whom this country is in¬ 
debted for having practically introduced and 
carried out the Electric Telegraph as a useful 
undertaking, promising to be a work of national 
importance; and Professor Wheatstone is 
acknowledged as the scientific man whose 
profound and successful researches had already 
prepared the public to receive it as a project 
capable of practical application; it is to the 
united labours of two gentlemen so well quali¬ 
fied for mutual assistance, that we must attri¬ 
bute the rapid progress which this important 
invention has made during the five years 
since they have been associated.” 

— Mr. Walter, Conservative, elected M.P. 
at Nottingham, by a majority of 296 over the 
Government candidate. 

30 .—St. George’s Hotel, Albemarle-street, 
destroyed by fire, originating in Lady Har- 
court’s bedroom. There were about fifty people 
in the building, but all escaped uninjured. 

— New Zealand declared to be independent 
of New South Wales. 

G 2 





APRIL 


1841. 


30 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Bar¬ 
ing) introduces the annual Budget. He esti¬ 
mated the total revenue for the current year at 
48,310,000/. and the expenditure at 50,731,226/. 
The deficiency of 2,421,000/. he proposed to 
meet for the most part by an alteration of the 
duties on sugar and timber. The present duty 
on Colonial sugar was 24J. a hundredweight, 
and on foreign 63 j. Mr. Baring proposed to 
leave the duty on Colonial sugar at its present 
rate, but to reduce the duty on foreign to 36J. 
The present duty on Colonial timber was ior. 
per load, and on Baltic 55 -n The Government 
proposal now was to raise the duty on Colonial 
timber to 20 s. and reduce the duty on Baltic to 
5 oj-. per load. From the change in the sugar 
duties 700,000/. was anticipated, and from tim¬ 
ber 600,000/. For the remaining deficiency, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed 
himself as willing to abide by the result of 
Lord John Russell’s motion on the Corn Laws. 
The scheme was opposed by the Protectionists, 
and ultimately led to the breaking up of the 
Ministry. 

— Lord John Russell surprises the House 
to-night by giving intimation that, on the first 
order day after the 31st of May, he should move 
that the House resolve itself into a Committee 
to consider the Acts relating to the trade in corn. 
On the 7th May, he announced that when the 
House went into Committee on the Corn Laws 
he should propose to fix the duties on wheat at 
8r. a quarter, rye at 5^., barley at 4s. 6 d., and 
on oats at 3 s. 6d. 

May 1. — Sir Rufane Donkin, Surveyor- 
General of the Ordnance and M. P. for Sand¬ 
wich, commits suicide by hanging himself in his 
bedroom. 

3 .—The Earl of Waldegrave and Capt. Duff 
sentenced in the Court of Queen’s Bench to six 
months’ imprisonment for assaulting a police¬ 
man at Hampton Wick ; the former to pay in 
addition a fine of 200/., the latter 50/. 

— In the course of a debate raised by the 
presentation of a number of petitions against 
any alterations in the Corn Laws, the Premier 
expresses himself in favour of a change. The 
time, he said, had now arrived, when we find 
it necessary to take large, wide, and extended 
financial measures, and doing that which will 
affect other interests seriously and deeply. It 
appears therefore impossible to leave this main 
and master interest unchanged under such cir¬ 
cumstances, in such a crisis. “ Undoubtedly I 
have changed the opinion which I formerly 
held—(great cheering and counter-cheering)— 
grounded as that opinion was on purely tem¬ 
porary interests.” 

6 .—The Duke of Argyll introduces a bill 
for the better regulation of Church Patronage 
in Scotland. 

— Lord John Russell intimates that the 
preliminary arrangements between the Chinese 
Government and Captain Elliot had been dis- 
( 84 ) 


MA ;j 


approved of by our Government, and tha 
officer recalled. 

7 . —Debate commenced on Lord Sandon’ i 
motion : “ That, considering the efforts an<, 
sacrifices which Parliament and the countrvj 
have made for the abolition of the slave-trad'j 
and of slavery, with the earnest hope that thei I 
exertions and example might lead to a mitiga 
tion and final extinction of these evils in othe I 
countries, this House is not prepared (especially 
with the present prospects of the supply oj 
sugar from the British possessions) to adopt th< 
measures proposed by her Majesty’s Govern ! 
ment for the reduction of the duty on foreigrl 
sugars.” The debate was continued over eigh' 
nights, and resulted on the 18th in a majority 
against Ministers of 36 in a House of 598. 

8. —In the Arches Court, Sir H. JennerFusj 
gives judgment against the defendant in thd 
case of Mastin v. Escott, involving the validity 
of lay baptism. (See Nov. 2, 1840.) 

10. —An Anti-Corn Law Meeting compelled 
to adjourn from the large Assembly-room, 
Edinburgh, to an ante-room, in consequence ol 
the noisy opposition of a body of Chartists and 
monopolists. 

11 . — At a farewell dinner given at Malta 
to Sir R. Stopford by the officers of the fleet, 
the Admiral claimed all the merit of the opera¬ 
tions in Syria to himself, and said that had Sir; 
Charles Napier not been present others would 
have been found to do his duty. 

12 . —Fire at Stoke Canon, near Exeter,, 
ending in the destruction of fifteen houses. 

14 .— Doolan and Redding executed atj 
Crosshill, Glasgow, for the murder of Green. At 
the place of execution it was supposed there! 
could not be less than 100,000 people, exclusive 
of the thousands who thronged the streets of 
Glasgow, to obtain a sight of the cavalcade and 
the two unfortunate beings who formed its chiet 
attraction. They were attended by Bishop 
Murdoch. Their demeanour throughout was 
calm and collected. The scaffold was erected 
in a field a short distance from the bridge on 
which the murder was committed, and the two 
•culprits had the fatal spot full in their view when 
they mounted the ladder. Dreading some at¬ 
tempt at rescue by the Irish labourers on the 
railway, the magistrates had on the ground 
500 of the 58th Foot and 1st Royal Dragoons, 
besides a detachment of the 4th Dragoons 
from Edinburgh, and three pieces of artillery. 
After hanging the usual time, the bodies were 
brought back to the city and interred within 
the prison. In the case of Hickie, the capital 
sentence was commuted. 

— The number of petitions presented up to 
this date in favour of the repeal of the Corn 
Laws was 1,607, signed by 474,448 people. 
The petitions against repeal amounted to 540, 
signed by 30,934. 

18 -—The emigrant ship Minstrel , from Ire¬ 
land for Quebec, wrecked in the St. Lawrence. 






MAY 


1841. 


JUNE 


Of 150 on board, only four were saved, the 
boats in which many of them had taken refuge 
being drawn down with the sinking vessel. 

19 . —Foundation-stone laid of the Martyrs’ 
Memorial at Oxford. 

20 . —The General Assembly commences its 
sittings at Edinburgh: Dr. Gordon unani¬ 
mously chosen moderator. A paragraph in 
the Queen’s letter earnestly recommended the 
members to inculcate upon the flocks under 
their charge lessons of good order and obe¬ 
dience to the Constitution under which they 
live. 

21 . — The British land and sea forces com¬ 
mence an attack on Canton, which is continued 
till the forts commanding the principal parts of 
the town are in their possession. The Chinese 
then solicited a short truce, during the continu¬ 
ance of which Plenipotentiary Elliot was induced 
to recommence negotiations, and offensive ope¬ 
rations were suddenly drawn to a close. Major- 
General Gough writes: “The flags of truce 
still appeared upon their walls at daylight on 
the 27th, and at a quarter past six o’clock I 
was on the point of sending the interpreter to 
explain that I could not respect such a display 
after my flag had been taken down, and should 
at once resume hostilities. At this moment an 
officer of the Royal Navy, who had been travel¬ 
ling all night, handed me a letter from her 
Majesty’s Plenipotentiary. Whatever might be 
my sentiments, my duty was to acquiesce; and 
the attack, which was to commence in forty- 
five minutes, was countermanded.” The terms 
required by the Plenipotentiary were, the evacua¬ 
tion of the city by all troops which did not be¬ 
long to the province; the payment of 6,000,000 
dollars within a week to England; and British 
troops to remain in position till the same was 
paid. The British loss was 15 killed and 127 
wounded. 

24 . —-Sir Robert Peel gives notice that he 
will, on the 27th inst., move a resolution to 
the effect, “That her Majesty’s Ministers do 
not sufficiently possess the confidence of the 
House of Commons to enable them to carry 
through the House measures which they deem 
of essential importance to the public welfare, 
and that their continuance in office under such 
circumstances is at variance with the spirit of 
the Constitution.” 

25 . —Mr. T. Duncombe presents petitions 
said to be signed by 1,300,000 people, praying 
for the remission of all sentences upon political 
prisoners, and the adoption by Government of 
the People’s Charter. 

27 .—Commencement of debate on Sir 
Robert Peel’s motion expressing want of con¬ 
fidence in Ministers. .Sir Robert’s speech to¬ 
night was mainly taken up with precedents 
furnished by former Ministers in yielding to 
public opinion as indicated by the House 
of Commons, and the opinion of eminent con¬ 
stitutional lawyers as to the propriety of the 
practice. Mr. Disraeli spoke this evening 


in support of the resolution. Regarding Sir 
Robert Peel, he said : “ Placed in an age of 
rapid civilization and rapid transition, he has 
adapted the practical character of his measures 
to the condition of the times. When in power 
he has never proposed a change which he did 
not carry, and, when in opposition, he never 
forgot that he was at the head of the great Con¬ 
servative party. He has never employed his 
influence for factious purposes, and has never 
been stimulated in his exertions by a disordered 
desire of obtaining office; above all, he has 
never carried himself to the opposite benches 
by making propositions by which he was not 
ready to abide. Whether in or out of office, 
the right honourable baronet has done his best 
to make the settlement of the new constitution 
of England work for the benefit of the present 
time and of posterity.” (See June 4.) 

27 .—Debate in the General Assembly on 
the Strathbogie case, ending in the deposition 
of the seven ministers, for yielding obedience to 
the civil court. On a division, Dr. Chalmers’s 
motion was carried by a majority of 97; 222 
voting for it, and 125 for Dr. Cook’s amend¬ 
ment. “ The Church of Scotland,” said Dr. 
Chalmers, “ cannot tolerate, and, what is more, 
she cannot survive, the scandal of quietly putting 
up with delinquencies so enormous as those into 
which their brethren have fallen. We must 
vindicate our outraged authority, though that 
vindication were indeed the precursor of the 
dissolution of the National Church.” A pro¬ 
test against the sentence of deposition was read 
by Dr. Cook. “The parties deposed,” he said, 
“ had done nothing which was not sanctioned 
both by ecclesiastical and civil law, and we 
cannot, without violating what we owe to the 
Church and to the State, cease to regard these 
excellent men still as ministers, or refuse to hold 
communion, just as if the proceedings against 
them had never been instituted. ” The Assembly 
Hall was crowded in every part during the day, 
and numbers even surrounded the doors out¬ 
side. Contrary to his usual custom, the Royal 
Commissioner, Lord Belhaven, was present in 
the evening, and sat till the discussion was over, 
about three o’clock in the morning. Mr. Ed¬ 
wards, the newly inducted minister of Marnoch, 
was deposed next day, and the Presbytery of 
Strathbogie instructed to proceed with the 
settlement of Mr. Henry in the charge. 

29 .—Colonel Wymer attacks a company of 
Affghans near Khelat-i-Ghilzie, and after a smart 
fight compels them to retreat, leaving eighty of 
their men dead on the field. 

— Interdict served on the General Assembly, 
prohibiting them from carrying into effect the 
sentence of deposition on the Strathbogie minis¬ 
ters. The Non-intrusion party object to the 
legality of the service, the papers having been 
left with their officer at the door, by a messenger- 
at-arms. 

June 1 . —Died at sea, off Gibraltar, Sir 
David Wilkie, R.A., aged 55 - 

(85) 





JUNE 


1841 


JUNE 


2 . —A public meeting held in the Assembly 
Rooms, Edinburgh, for the purpose of express¬ 
ing sympathy with the seven ministers of 
Strathbogie, and strong disapprobation of the 
conduct of the majority in the General As¬ 
sembly. Lord Dunfermline presided. 

— Anti-Corn Law meeting at Manchester, 
Mr. Cobden in the chair. The Chartists and 
monopolists again mustered in great force, and 
attempted to take possession of the place of 
meeting; but after a noisy struggle they were 
overpowered and dispersed. 

4 . —Conclusion of debate on Sir Robert 
Peel’s No-confidence motion. For, 312; against, 
311; Ministers being thus in a minority of one. 
Lord John Russell undertakes to state the 
intentions of the Government on Monday. In 
the meantime he intimated the withdrawal of 
his motion on the subject of the Corn Laws. 

5 . —Public intimation given that the under¬ 
writers, satisfied that the President steamship 
was lost, are ready to settle with parties who 
have claims on them. 

7 . —The British Consul at New York holds 
a court of inquiry concerning the loss of the 
President. Capt. Cole, of the Orpheus , left New 
York in company with her on the morning of 
the nth of March, and continued in sight until 
the evening of the 12th. He last saw her 
about midway between the Nantucket Shoal 
and the St. George’s Bank, rising on the top 
of a tremendous sea, pitching and labouring 
heavily. It was his belief that the President 
did not survive that gale, but foundered, with 
all on board, within a few hours after he saw 
her. In this opinion most of the other nautical 
men present concurred. 

— Lord John Russell announces the intention 
of the Ministry to advise the dissolution of the 
present Parliament, and the calling of a new 
one as early as possible. Sir Robert Peel 
thereupon intimated his withdrawal of all ob¬ 
jections to the granting of supplies for six 
months. 

8 . —Astley’s Amphitheatre destroyed by fire 
about 5.30 a.m. Mr. Ducrow and his family 
had a narrow escape, and one of the female ser¬ 
vants in the house was suffocated. There were 
about fifty horses in the stable, besides two 
zebras and a few asses. Only a small number 
were saved. The loss on the whole was esti¬ 
mated at 30,000/. The calamity so affected 
Mr. Ducrow that he lost his reason. 

—Sir Robert Peel announces his inten¬ 
tion of again standing for Tamworth. His 
addiess made no allusion to political questions. 

11 .— At a meeting of the United Secession 
Synod in Glasgow, a resolution, moved by 
Dr. Heugh, was carried, dismissing the appeal 
of Mr. Morrison from a sentence of the Pres¬ 
bytery of Kilmarnock, and continuing his sus¬ 
pension on the ground of errors in doctrine. 
Dr. Brown, of Edinburgh, opposed the sentence 
of suspension, because he was convinced that 


most of the doctrines charged against Mr. 
Morrison could not be proved contrary to 
Scripture. 

12 .— Dinner and presentation of plate to the , 
London sheriffs, in token of “high admiration of • 
the conduct of those gentlemen, who preferred 
to endure a painful and protracted imprison- j 
ment rather than submit to the undefined: and 
arbitrary privilege assumed by the House of 
Commons.” 

— In his address to the electors of the 
City of London, who had invited him to 
become a candidate at the ensuing general i 
election, Lord John Russell writes, that the 
main object of the Ministry had been to increase 
the comfort, promote the trade, and unchain 
the industry of the great and pervading interests 1 
of the community. 

14 . —Mr. Macaulay, M.P., in his address to 
the electors of Edinburgh, states that the I 
question now before the constituencies is 
simply whether they wish new contributions 
exacted from the people, or new markets 
opened up to them. 

_— Admiral Stopford writes from Malta to 
Sir Charles Napier, denying that he had ever 
accused the Commodore of arrogating to him¬ 
self the whole honour of the Syrian campaign. 

15 . —The number of petitions presented 
since the commencement of the session in 
favour of the repeal of the Corn Laws were 
3 > 9 I &> bearing 1,144,830 signatures, against 
1,758, with 110,721 signatures. 

— The Queen and Prince Albert visit 
Oxford on Commemoration Day. 

— Lord Aberdeen presents a petition from the 
seven suspended ministers of Strathbogie, pray- : 
ing the House to interfere to prevent the sen¬ 
tence of suspension being carried into effect; but 
Lord Melbourne, while sympathising with their 
position, declines to commit the Government 
to any direct course of action in their behalf. 

— Lord Plunket resigns the office of Lord 
Chancellor of Ireland in favour of the Attorney- 
General for England, Sir John Campbell. 

22 .—Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. ‘ ‘ I entertain, ” her Majesty said, ‘ * the 
hope that the progress of public business may 
be facilitated, and that divisions injurious to 
the cause of steady policy and useful legisla¬ 
tion may be removed, by the authority of a 
new Parliament, which I shall direct to be 
summoned without delay.” A Gazette Extra- 
ordinary published next day, announcing 


23 . Nomination day at Tamworth. In th 

«°™ Se i°- f his add, .' ess > Sir Robert Peel said 
My object in political life was not so much t 
gain a position of official power, but to buil 
up that great party, which has been gradual] 
acquiring strength., and now presents, in fin 
united ranks, a body of 300 members of Pai 
“ament The rumours you have heard ( 






JUNE 


1841. 


JULY 


jealousies and differences of opinion are alto¬ 
gether without foundation. The party which 
has paid me the compliment of taking my 
advice and counsel is a united party, and no 
difference of principle prevails as to the course 
which we ought to pursue. So far as the 
Com Laws are concerned, I cannot consent to 
substitute a fixed duty of &r. per quarter for the 
present ascending and descending scale. The 
proposition of buying com in the cheapest 
market is certainly tempting in theory ; but 
before you determine that it is just, you 
must ascertain the amount of the burdens to 
which land in other countries is subjected, and 
compare them with the burdens imposed upon 
land in this country. I think a prudent states¬ 
man would pause before he subverted the prin¬ 
ciple on which protection is given to agriculture 
in this country.” 

23 .—Trial of Mr. Moxon for blasphemy, in 
publishing Shelley’s works,before Lord Denman 
and a special jury, in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench. This case was originated by Henry 
Hetherington, a bookseller in the Strand, who, 
in April 1840, had been sentenced to four 
months’ imprisonment for selling Haslam’s 
“Letters to the Clergy.” Mr. Moxon was 
defended by his friend Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, 
who, in a speech of great power and beauty, 
pointed out the distinction between a man who 
ublishes works which are infidel or impure 
ecause they are infidel or impure, and pub¬ 
lishes them in a form and at a price which 
indicate the desire that they should work 
mischief, and one who publishes works in which 
evil of the same kind may be found, but who 
publishes them because, in spite of that im¬ 
perfection, they are, on the whole, for the 
edification and delight of mankind. Lord 
Denman explained to the jury that they were 
bound to take the law as it had been handed 
down to them. The only question for their 
consideration was, whether the work in question 
deserved the imputations which were cast upon 
it in the indictment. The jury, after deliberating 
for a quarter of an hour, declared the defendant 
guilty. 

— Died M. Gamier Pages, a French 
Republican deputy, interred with great honour 
on the 26th. 

25 .—Public dinner to Mr. Charles Dickens 
in the Waterloo Rooms, Edinburgh, Professor 
Wilson in the chair. “I feel,” he said, in 
replying to the toast of his health, “ as if I 
stood among old friends whom I had intimately 
known and highly valued. I feel as if the 
death of the fictitious creatures, in which you 
have been kind enough to express an interest, 
had endeared us to each other, as real afflictions 
deepen friendship in actual life.” 

27 . —Election riot at Carlisle, in which two 
constables lose their lives. 

29 .—Polling day in the City of London, 
ending in the return of two Conservatives and 
two Liberals, the former being Masterman and 


Lyle, and the latter Sir M. Wood and Lord 
John Russell. His lordship was lowest on the 
poll of those elected, and only ten above his 
Tory opponent, Mr. Attwood. 

30 . — Great Western Railway opened 
throughout from London to Bristol. Cost 
5,000,000/. 

Public attention directed to the destitute 
condition of the poet Clare. 

July 1. — Mr. Russell, the famous “Jerry 
Sneak” of Foote’s “ Mayor of Garratt,” takes 
a farewell benefit at the Haymarket, after 
having been in the profession for 64 years. 

2 .—Riots, suppressed by the military, be¬ 
tween the IrisE and Highland labourers on 
the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. 

5 . — Sixty-four persons drowned at Ro¬ 
therham, Yorkshire, by the capsizing of a vessel 
at launching. 

IO.— The Free-Trade candidates, Lord 
Howick and Lord Morpeth, defeated in North 
Northumberland and the West Riding. 

13 . —Treaty signed in London for the pacifi¬ 
cation of the Levant. The hereditary posses¬ 
sion of Egypt to be confirmed to Mehemet Ali 
and his descendants in a direct line ; the 
annual contribution to be 400,000/.; the Vice¬ 
roy not to be allowed to build a ship of war 
without the consent of the Sultan ; the laws 
and regulations of the Empire to be observed 
in Egypt, with such changes as the peculiarity 
of the Egyptian people may render necessary. 

14 . —The King of Hanover issues a pro¬ 
clamation explanatory of his views on the dis¬ 
pute between himself and the Second Chamber 
of State, which he had summarily dismissed. 

19 .—Queen Christina of Spain protests 
against the act of the Cortes depriving her of 
the guardianship of her daughter. 

— In thanking the electors of London, Lord 
John Russell thus refers to the results of the 
recent elections: “In the English cities and 
boroughs there is a small majority in our favour. 
In the Scotch cities and boroughs a very de¬ 
cided majority in the same way. In the Irish 
boroughs and counties there is also a majority 
in favour of the policy of the present Ministers. 
In the Scotch counties the majority will be the 
other way, and in the English counties that 
majority will be overwhelming.” Referring to 
the reforms his party had carried when in power, 
“None of them,” he wrote, “received the 
hearty assent of the main body of our opponents; 
to several they offered a violent and persevering 
resistance. But truth triumphed over them, 
and will again. Returned to office, they may 
adopt our measures and submit to the influence 
bf reason, or, if they refuse to do so, they will 
be obliged to relinquish power ; and the mono¬ 
poly of trade will share the fate of religious 
intolerance and political exclusion.” It did 
not pass unnoticed that his lordship’s address 






JULY 


1841. 


AUG US 7 


was issued the day before his marriage with 
Lady Frances Elliot. 

19 . —The King of Prussia’s scheme for pro¬ 
tecting the privileges of Christians in Turkey 
by establishing a bishop in Jerusalem, is now 
so far advanced that Chevalier Bunsen, then 
actively engaged in the project in England, is 
able to record in his diary : “This is a great 
day. I am just returned from Lord Pal¬ 
merston ; the principle is admitted, and orders 
to be transmitted accordingly to Lord Ponsonby 
at Constantinople, to demand the acknowledg¬ 
ment required. The successor of St. James 
will embark in October; he is by race an 
Israelite—born a Prussian in Breslau—in con¬ 
fession belonging to the Church of England— 
ripened (by hard work) in Ireland—twenty 
years Professor of Hebrew and Arabic in 
England (in what is now King’s College). So 
the beginning is made, please God, for the 
restoration of Israel. When I read with the 
warm-hearted, clear-headed Lord Ashley the 
translation of the Minute of which I send you 
a transcript, he exclaimed, * Since the days of 
David, no king has ever spoken such words ! ’ 
It was his fortunate idea that directed the choice 
of the future Bishop. ” The appointment of the 
“successor of St. James” was afterwards cele¬ 
brated by a dinner at the “ Star and Garter,” 
Richmond. (See Nov. 7.) 

20. —Riot at Rome, originating at the triple 
execution of the Riteozzi family for murder and 
robbery. Twelve people were said to have 
been killed, and as many as 250 wounded. 

— The Court of East Indian proprietors 
reject a motion for inquiring into the circum¬ 
stances connected with the deposition of the 
Rajah of Sattara. 

24 .—Prince Albert lays the foundation- 
stone of the Infant Orphan Asylum at Wan- 
stead, Epping Forest. 

— Results of the general election. The 
contests being now almost over, it is found that 
the Tory gain is even greater than the chiefs 
of that party anticipated. The most authentic 
lists gave 368 Tories to 292 Liberals, the 
two extra candidates being accounted for by 
double returns from Cardigan and Thetford. 
To the last Parliament 159 new members were 
returned ; to the present, 181. The Liberals 
replaced by Tories were set down at 78, 
and the Tories replaced by Liberals at 38, 
showing a gain of 80 on a division. The 
greatest Tory triumphs were in the English 
counties, the most important probably being 
West Yorkshire, where the two Tories, the 
Hon. J. S. Wortley and E. B. Denison, sup¬ 
planted two Liberals and defeated two other 
prominent Liberals—Lord Milton and Lord 
Morpeth ; and North Northumberland, where 
Mr. B. Cresswell defeated Lord Ilowick. At 
Westminster, Colonel De Lacy Evans was 
defeated by Captain Rous. One prominent 
Liberal victory was at Bath, where Viscount 
Duncan and Mr. Roebuck supplanted two 


Tories. Mr. Cobden secured a seat at Stock- 
port. Among the 16 exchanges were—Mr. 
Disraeli from Maidstone to Shrewsbury, Lord 
John Russell from Stroud to London, Sir 
James Graham from Pembroke to Dorchester, 
Mr. D. O’Connell (elected also for Meath) 
from Dublin to Cork County, and Mr. R. L. 
Shiel from Tipperary to Dungarvan. The 
election petitions were 39 in number. In 
the case of 5—Belfast, Ipswich, Nottingham, 
Southampton, and Sudbury—the elections 
were declared void ; 8 were declared not duly 
elected, and their seats transferred to other 
candidates ; 4 were found to have been duly 
elected ; and in the case of 22 the petitions 
were not proceeded with. 

26 .—O’Connell issues a declaration that 
the object of the Peel-Stanley party was to 
deprive the people of Ireland of all consti¬ 
tutional channels of exertion, and force them 
if possible into insurrection. 

— Her Majesty and Prince Albert leave 
Windsor to visit the Duke of Bedford, at 
Woburn, and Lord Melbourne, at Brocket 
Hall. 

28 .—Fire at Smyrna, destroying between 
9,000 and 10,000 houses and many mosques 
and synagogues. 

August 4 .—Messrs. William and Robert 
Chambers entertained at Peebles, and presented 
with the freedom of their native town, “ in 
testimony and approbation of their eminent 
services in literature, education, and popular 
improvement. ” 

6 . —Nine workmen killed, and four injured, 
by an explosion in Thornley Pit, near Sunder¬ 
land. About a dozen others were got out 
unharmed. 

7 . —Madame Laffarge, presently undergoing 
imprisonment for the murder of her husband, 
is, after a long trial, pronounced guilty of 
stealing certain diamonds, the property of 
Madame Leotaud. The prisoner’s defence 
was, that the diamonds had been given her 
for the purpose of raising money to purchase 
the silence of a certain M. Clavet, with whom 
Madame Leotaud had a friendship before her 
marriage. 

9 -—Burning of the steamship Erie, trading 
between Buffalo and Chicago, and loss of 170 
lives. 

— Sir Henry Pottinger and Admiral Parker 
arrive at Macao to supersede Captain Elliot 
and Sir J. Bremner. 

11 *—The Commission of the General As¬ 
sembly, on the motion of Mr. Candlish, agree 
by a large majority to institute proceedings 
against certain ministers and elders who had 
assisted at the communion in the parishes of the 
suspended ministers, Strathbogie. A protest 
was made by Dr. Cook and others, expressive 
of their intention to appeal without delay to a 
competent tribunal for a decision as to which 






AUGUST 


1841. 


AUGUST 


of the contending parties in the struggle was 
to be considered the Established Church of the 
country. 

12 .— After an interval of twenty years a 
Court of Conservancy of the river Thames and 
waters of the Medway is sworn at the Guild¬ 
hall, and afterwards inspects various obstruc¬ 
tions abutting the river between London 
Bridge and Temple Bar. 

14 -.—Accident to the royal hunting party 
near Virginia Water, caused by the dogs start¬ 
ling the horses in one of the carriages drawn 
up there to see the hunt. One of the postil¬ 
lions was much injured, and several narrow 
escapes were made from being thrown into the 
water. 

— Wheat quoted at 86 s. per quarter. 

15 . —Inauguration of the Napoleon column 
at Boulogne. “On this spot,” so it was re¬ 
corded, “ 16th of August, 1804, Napoleon in 
presence of the Grand Army distributed the 
decoration of the Legion of Honour to the 
soldiers and citizens who had deserved well of 
their country,—the four corps commanded by 
Marshal Soult, and the flotilla under the com¬ 
mand of Admiral Bruer. Wishing to perpetuate 
the remembrance of this day, Louis Philippe I., 
King of the French, finished this column, con¬ 
secrated by the Grand Army of Napoleon.” 

16 . —In the case of the will of James Wood, 
late mercer and banker of the city of Glou¬ 
cester, Lord Lyndhurst delivers the judgment 
of the Privy Council, pronouncing in favour of 
the validity of the codicil. 

— Tried at the Croydon Assizes, the great 
libel case of Bogle against Lawson, publisher 
of the Times newspaper. It arose out of 
a communication to the Times of 26th May, 
respecting an “Extraordinary and extensive 
forgery and swindling conspiracy on the Con¬ 
tinent,” to which it was insinuated that Mr. 
Allan Bogle, of the firm of Bogle, Kerrick, 
and Co., bankers at Florence, was a party. 
The conspiracy was an attempt to defraud 
Messrs. Glyn, and various bankers on the Con¬ 
tinent, by presenting forged letters of credit. 
The other parties said to be implicated were 
{he Marquis de Bourbell and Louis d’Argeson, 
who attended to the engraving of the plates 
in London ; Cunningham Graham of Gartmore 
(a stepfather of the plaintiff, Bogle), who de¬ 
signed the fac-similes, and his son, Alexander 
Graham. The two Grahams resided at Flo¬ 
rence. The conspirators succeeded in pos¬ 
sessing themselves of one of Messrs. Glyn’s 
genuine letters of credit, and produced from 
it an imitation so perfect that one of the 
partners in the house for a time was unable 
to distinguish between the two. With this 
instrument, multiplied by numerous copies, 
they started their scheme of depredation in 
Brussels, Cologne, Ghent, Turin, Bologna, 
and even Florence itself, with astonishing 
rapidity, and had they not been wholly de¬ 
ficient in caution might have escaped detec¬ 


tion for a much longer period than they did. 
It was proved that within a few days they 
succeeded in obtaining upon these forged letters 
of credit no less than 10,000/. Owing to a 
rule of evidence excluding from consideration 
certain private letters between the parties, the 
jury were not able legally to identify the 
plaintiff with the conspiracy, and they there¬ 
fore returned a verdict in his favour, with a 
farthing damages. Lord Chief Justice Tindal 
refused to allow him costs of suit. Though 
the verdict was thus technically against the 
Tunes , the mercantile community were so 
sensible of the value of the exposure that a 
sum of 2,700/. was subscribed for the purpose 
of defraying the great expense to which it 
had been subjected in getting up evidence in 
the case. This offer the proprietors declined, 
but the money was afterwards invested, in con¬ 
formity with their desire, in founding “ Times 
Scholarships ” at Oxford and Cambridge for 
boys in Christ’s Hospital and City of London 
School. Memorial tablets were also put up 
in those schools, in the Royal Exchange, and 
over the door of the Times office. 

17 .—Conference of Clergy at Manchester 
on the subject of the Corn Laws. An address 
was made by Mr. Cobden, and resolutions 
carried unanimously approving of the abolition. 
About 700 clergymen were present. 

19 .—The new Parliament assembles, and 
unanimously elects the Right Hon. Charles 
Shaw Lefevre to be their Speaker. 

24 .—Parliament opened by Commission. 
Referring to the necessity of increasing the 
public revenue, the Royal Speech contained 
the following paragraph :—“It will be for you 
to consider whether some of the duties are not 
so trifling in amount as to be unproductive to 
the revenue, while they are vexatious to com¬ 
merce. You may further examine whether the 
principle of protection upon which others of 
these duties are founded be not carried to an 
extent injurious alike to the income of the 
State and the interests of the people. Her 
Majesty is desirous that you should consider 
the laws which regulate the trade in corn. 
It will be for you to determine whether these 
laws do not aggravate the natural fluctuation 
of'supply, whether they do not embarrass trade, 
derange the currency, and by their operation 
diminish the comfort and increase the priva¬ 
tion of the great body of the community.” 
In the debate on the Address in the House of 
Lords, the Earl of Ripon’s amendment was car¬ 
ried against the Ministry by a majority of 72. 

— I. L. Goldsmid, Esq., gazetted a ba¬ 
ronet. 

— Died at his house near Fulham Bridge, 
Theodore Edward Hook, aged 53, journalist 
and novelist. 

26 .—Lord Chancellor Cottenham issues 
new rules, orders, and regulations for the busi¬ 
ness of the Court of Chancery. 

— The city of Amoy assaulted and taken 

(89) 





A UGUST 


1841. 


SEPTEMBER 


possession of by the British forces; the fleet 
under the command of Admiral Parker, and 
the land forces under Sir H. Gough. 

28 . —Fall of the Melbourne Ministry. The 
debate on the Address, protracted over three 
nights, was concluded at 3 o’clock this morn¬ 
ing, when Ministers found themselves in a 
minority of 91 in a House of 629. Lord 
John Russell moved a Committee of the 
Opposition to draw up an answer to the Ad¬ 
dress. In his closing speech as Minister, he 
said: “I am convinced that if this country 
is governed by enlarged and liberal counsels 
its power and might will spread and increase, 
and its influence will become greater and 
greater; Liberal principles will prevail, and 
civilization will be spread to all parts of the 
globe, and you will bless millions by your acts 
and mankind by your union.” 

— Meeting at the Thatched-house Tavern, 
presided over by Sir Robert Peel, for the purpose 
of considering the most appropriate method 
of doing honour to the memory of Sir David 
Wilkie. A statue in the National Gallery was 
ultimately resolved upon, and a subscription 
commenced for carrying it out. Lord John 
Russell proposed one of the resolutions. 

29 . — Envoy Macnaghten writes from 

Cabul : “ The Douranee chiefs who have 

been in rebellion must be effectually humbled, 
and we must put it out of their power to at¬ 
tempt any further mischief. The Barukyze 
Sirdars took the only effectual method of keep¬ 
ing these gentry quiet. We must never dream 
of conciliation ; terror is the only instrument 
which they respect. ” A few days later :— 
“Everything has a favourable aspect for us, 
and Tezeen and Dehrawut having been sub¬ 
dued, a more solid foundation will have been 
laid for the tranquillity of this country than 
was ever dreamt of.. .. Whether or not we shall 
have another brigade in lieu of the returning 
troops will depend upon circumstances. My 
own opinion is, that we could easily do without 
them, unless operations beyond our present 
boundary are contemplated.” 

30. — Ministers intimate their resignation of 
office, in consequence of the vote on the 
Address. 

31 . —Sir Robert Peel sent for by the Queen, 
and undertakes to construct a Ministry. 

September 1.— The Gresham Committee 
accept a tender for building the New Royal 
Exchange. Amount, Portland stone, 115,900/.; 
magnesian limestone, 124,700/. 

3 .—The Gazette publishes a minute of the 
Council held at Claremont this day, when the 
new Ministers were sworn into office. First 
Lord of the Treasury, Sir Robert Peel; Lord 
Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst ; President of the 
Council, Lord Whamcliffe; Home Secretary, 
Sir James Graham ; Foreign Secretary, Lord 
Aberdeen. Leader in the House of Lords, 
without office, Duke of Wellington. 

(90) 


7 . —The Gazette announces several changes 
in the Household offices ; the most important 
being the appointment of the Duchess of Buc- 
cleuch to be Mistress of the Robes, in room of 
the Duchess of Sutherland. 

8 . —New writs moved for the seats rendered 
vacant by the acceptance of office in the new 
Peel Ministry. The elections were, in most 
cases, unopposed, though Mr. Acland, an 
Anti-Corn Law candidate, was formally nomi¬ 
nated at Tam worth and North Lancashire. 
The House resumed its sittings on the 16th. 

9 . —Twenty-five houses destroyed by fire at 
Fordington, near Dorchester. 

— Vauxhall Gardens sold by auction for 
20,000/. 

— A party of British volunteers cross the 
frontier from Canada to the United States, and 
carry off Colonel Grogan. 

11 . —Strike of the masons at the new Houses 
of Parliament, owing to a dispute with the 
foreman regarding their “Union.” 

13 . —Attempt to assassinate the Duke of 
Orleans, while passing through Paris with 
three of his brothers at the head of the 17th 
Light Infantry. The shot did not take effect 
on the Duke, but one of the officers was 
wounded, and his horse shot under him. 

14 . —Mr. Gladstone, seeking re-election at 
Newark, states on the hustings : “There are 
two points on which the British farmer may 
rely ; the first of which is, that adequate pro¬ 
tection will be given to him, and the second 
is, that protection will be given him through 
the means of the sliding scale.” 

16 . —Riot at Monkwearmouth, on the occa¬ 
sion of “chairing” Lord Howick at the close 
of the poll with Attwood. A shower of 
stones was thrown from the Reform Tavern by 
Chartists, and the landlord, Liddell, fired a gun 
among the crowd. No one was seriously hurt, 
but the party in the street, exasperated by these 
proceedings, commenced an attack on the 
tavern, which they completely sacked, and to 
some extent destroyed. After some difficulty 
Liddell was apprehended, and the gun secured 
by Sir Hedworth Williamson. 

17 . —Sir Robert Peel’s motion for a Com¬ 
mittee of Supply leads to a lengthened debate 
on the general policy of the past as compared 
with the present Government. Mr. Fielden’s 
amendment, that it was the duty of the House 
to inquire into the existing distress before voting 
supplies, was rejected by 149 to 41 votes. 

19 *—Death of Lord Sydenham (Poulett 
Thomson), Governor of Canada, from lock-jaw, 
the effects of a fall from his horse. 

20 .—Discussion in the House of Commons 
concerning the issue of a writ for Ripon, Sir 
E. Sugden still continuing to occupy his seat 
although he had been appointed Lord Chan¬ 
cellor for Ireland. Sir R. Peel defended his 
Chancellor, as the appointment, though offered, 
was not yet completed. 






SEPTEMBER 


1841. 


OCTOBER 


21 .—Robert Blakesley murders Bourden, 
landlord of the King’s Head, Eastcheap, by 
stabbing him in the belly, and makes a mur¬ 
derous attack with a knife on two women,—one 
of them the wife of the murdered man, and 
the other her sister, wife of the murderer. 

— The lighthouse on Sunderland pier, 
weighing 300 tons, and 75 feet high from the 
base, removed by screw power 140 feet from 
its original position. This day it was moved 
11 feet in 15 minutes. 

— London and Brighton Railway opened. 

23 .—The freedom of the City of London 
presented to Admiral Sir R. Stopford and 
Commodore Napier. 

25 .—President Tyler issues a proclamation 
warning the lawless marauders, or “Hunters’ 
Lodges, ” on the frontier line of Canada, of the 
danger they run in the attempt to involve the 
two countries in hostilities. If any of the 
parties concerned in such proceedings fell into 
the hands of the British authorities, they would 
not be reclaimed as American citizens, nor 
would any interference be made in their behalf. 

28 . —The New Poor Law Commission Bill 
passes into Committee; two instructions re¬ 
garding the separation of husband and wife, 
and the formation of new unions, having been 
negatived by large majorities. 

29 . —The Niger Colonization Expedition 
broken up through disease and disaster. 

A party of about one hundred workmen 
left England this month to found a colony in 
Brazil on the system of Fourier. 

October 1 . — Ch'usan captured by the British 
force under Sir H. Pottinger. The loss of life 
was trifling, the steamboats moving into the 
inner harbour without opposition. “Arrange¬ 
ments,” wrote Sir Henry, next day, “will be 
made immediately for establishing a provisional 
government; and her Majesty’s Plenipotentiary 
deems it advisable, after what has already 
happened, to intimate to her Majesty’s sub¬ 
jects and all others, that under no circumstances 
will Tinghae and its dependencies be restored 
to the Chinese Government until the whole of 
the demands of England are not only complied 
with, but carried into full effect.” At Ningpo, 
on the loth, the Chusan soldiers refused to 
face the British troops, and the city was in 
consequence quietly taken possession of by Sir 
Hugh Gough. 

2.—An insurrection in favour of the ex- 
Queen Regent Christina, commenced at Pam- 
peluna by General O’Donnell. On the 7th, a 
desperate attempt was made at Madrid, by con¬ 
spirators in the interest of the Queen-mother, 
to storm the palace and get possession of the 
person of the young Queen. Through the 
loyalty and courage of the guard the enterprise 
was defeated, though not before the con¬ 
spirators had twice forced an entry into the 
royal apartments. Don Diego Leon, one of 


the leaders, was soon afterwards apprehended 
and shot. 

7 .—Parliament, described by the Whigs as 
“the Do-nothing,” prorogued by Commission. 

12 . — Accident at the Victoria Theatre from 
the gallery stairs giving way under the pressure 
of a crowd. 

— Major-Gen. Sir Robert Sale despatched 
by General Elphinstone from Cabul with the 
13th Light Infantry and the 35th Native In¬ 
fantry, to force the Khoord Pass, the Ghilzie 
chiefs having gathered at Tezeen, with the 
view of cutting off communication with British 
India. They entered the pass this day, and 
continued fighting their way to Gundamuck, 
which was reached on the 30th. They entered 
the ruined fortress of Jellalabad on the 12th 
November, and commenced to repair the walls. 
The state of the country would not permit any 
attempt to reach Cabul with supplies. 

— Concluded at Utica the trial of Alexander 
McLeod, charged with being concerned in the 
destruction of the Caroline in 1837, and the 
death of Dupree, an American citizen. The 
apprehension of McLeod on American terri¬ 
tory had given rise to much correspondence 
between the two countries, and it was at one 
time feared it might lead to a serious embroil¬ 
ment. All apprehension, however, was set at 
rest by the jury returning a verdict of acquittal 
on all the counts. 

13 . —Boiler explosion at the machine works 
of Messrs. Elce and Co., Ancoats, Manchester, 
causing the death of six workmen, the in¬ 
jury of many others, and the destruction of a 
large amount of property. 

14 . —At the meeting of the Norwich Branch 
of the Society for the Propagation of the Gos¬ 
pel, a band of Chartists interrupt the pro¬ 
ceedings, and cause the chairman, Lord 
Wodehouse, to leave the room. 

13 .—High tide in the Thames, attended 
with much destruction of property. At high 
water the depth at the entrance of St. Kathe¬ 
rine’s Dock was thirty-one feet. All the ap¬ 
proaches to the Thames police-office were cut 
off, and wherries employed to convey suitors 
to and from the court. The whole of the 
lower part of Westminster was inundated. If 
Parliament had been sitting, members could 
only have reached the House in boats; Palace- 
yard and the adjacent streets being under water. 
The floor of Westminster Hall, the Temple 
gardens, and the Duke of Buccleuch’s gardens, 
were all overflowed. A vitriol and naphtha 
manufactory in Battersea Fields suffered to the 
extent of 2,000/. 

21 .— Destruction by fire of Derby Town- 
hall, erected in 1828, at a cost of 12,000/. 
The fire was observed about two in the morn¬ 
ing by a policeman on duty, and it continued 
raging till six, in spite of great efforts. The 
town records were destroyed, and various 
documents belonging to the revising barrister. 

( 91 ) 






OCTOBER 


1841. 


OCTOBER 


21 . -*-Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. 
Launch of the Trafalgar man-of-war, at 
Woolwich, in the presence of the Queen, and 
an immense gathering of people. At the 
request of her Majesty, the vessel was chris¬ 
tened by Lady Bridport, a niece of Lord 
Nelson, and the wine used was a portion of 
that taken from the Victory after the battle of 
Trafalgar. There were about 500 people on 
board at the time of the launch, 100 of Avhom 
had taken part in the action after which the 
vessel was named. 

22 . —Reward offered by fire-offices for the 
discovery of incendiaries in Warwickshire. 
Numerous fires about this time in Bedfordshire, 
Nottingham, and Yorkshire. 

23 . —Distress in the manufacturing districts. 
At a meeting held in Leeds to consider the 
condition of the poor, it was reported that in 
4,752 families in that town, containing 19,936 
individuals, 16,156 were unemployed. The 
average weekly income of each was n| d., or 
something less than if*/. per day. 

— Lord Ellenborough having accepted the 
office of Governor-General of India, is suc¬ 
ceeded at the Board of Control by Lord Fitz¬ 
gerald. 

25 . —The surviving members of the Niger 
Colonizing Expedition, now nearly extirpated 
by fever, rescued by Captain Beecroft of the 
Ethiope. Captain Trotter arrived at Liverpool 
in the Albert on the 25 th January. 

26 . —Sir William Macnaghten writes from 
Cabul to the Secretary of the Indian Govern¬ 
ment, explaining the facts connected with the 
rising of certain Ghilzie chiefs, who, on account 
of the reduction of their allowances, had taken 
possession of some of the passes leading to the 
city. “There is no enemy to oppose us,” he 
writes, “on the open plain; and should we 
hereafter be forced into hostilities, a desultory 
mountain warfare will doubtless be that with 
which we shall have to contend.” He there¬ 
fore recommended the organization of three 
infantry corps of mountaineers to take the place 
of an equal number of regulars. 

— The London journals draw attention to 
serious frauds in Exchequer bills, afterwards 
found out to be accomplished through the con¬ 
nivance of Mr. Beaumont Smith, of the Comp¬ 
troller’s office. 

27 . —The American brig Creole sails from 
Hampton Roads for New Orleans, laden with 
slaves and tobacco. On the 7th November a 
mutiny took place on board, in the course of 
which the owner was killed, and the captain 
and officers placed in confinement. The vessel 
was then directed for Nassau, New Providence, 
where, against the protest of the American 
Consul, the English governor permitted all to 
go at liberty except those thought to be pro¬ 
minently concerned in the murder and mutiny. 

28 . -A miser, named Smith, died in his 
(92) 


house, Seven Dials, London, in the possession 
of funded, leasehold, and freehold property 
valued at 400,000/. 

2 8.—Treaty concluded between Great Britain 
and the Shah of Persia. It provides for the 
admission of each other’s goods and manufac¬ 
tures of every description, upon the payment 
in one sum, “once for all,” of the Customs’ 
duties exacted from the most favoured European 
nations; and the mutual cession to the subjects 
of either country of the privileges of the most 
favoured nation. Two British commercial agents 
are to reside in Persia, in the capital and at 
Tabriz, besides one at Bushire ; and commercial 
agents of Persia are to reside at London and 
Bombay. 

29 . —Lord Palmerston writes to Mr. Byng 
regarding the pronunciation of the name of his 
horse “ Iliona,” about which bets had been 
taken up at Newmarket. “There can be no 
doubt that in point of prosody the 0 in Iliona, 
or Ilione, is short. Virgil settled the question 
in his first ./Eneid, when he says : 

* Prseterea sceptrum, Ilione, quod gesserat olim 
Maxima natarum Priami. ’ ” 

— A mob of fanatical Orangemen attack the 
Dublin and Cork mail-coach, and severely mal¬ 
treat an aged gentleman, whom they took for 
the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork. 

30 . —The Duke of Wellington declines to 
receive a deputation relative to the distressed 
operatives of Paisley. “ A meeting,” he writes, 

‘ * to discuss their distresses is not necessary in 
order to draw his attention to them, and his 
other occupations render it necessary that he 
should decline to receive the deputation. He 
begs the deputation to observe, that lie is not in 
the Queen’s political service, that he does not 
fill any political office, and exercises no power 
or authority.” 

31 . —Fire at the Tower of London. About 
half-past 10 p. m. the sentry of the Scots 
Fusilier Guards, on the ramparts next to 
Tower-hill, observed a large body of smoke 
ascending as if from the centre of that part 
of the buildings known as the Grand Store¬ 
house and Small Armory. He sounded an 
alarm by discharging his musket, and the gar¬ 
rison immediately turned out. Unfortunately, 
no water could be got, and from the dry¬ 
ness of the place, and the quantity of timber 
in the building, the total destruction of the 
armory became inevitable. In less than a 
quarter of an hour after the discovery an im¬ 
mense body of fire was raging with uncontrolled 
fury. Engines soon arrived from the different 
metropolitan stations, but though fully manned 
by the Foot Guards and relays, all carefully 
provided, were utterly useless from want of 
water. Two hours elapsed before a supply 
could be procured ; the flames in the meantime 
extending in the direction of the Jewel Tower 
on the one side, and chapel and White Tower 
on the other. The regalia were fortunately 







NOVEMBER 


1841. 


NOVEMBER 


saved, and placed in the house of the governor, 
Major Elrington, without the loss of a single 
jewel. At two o’clock, when the fire had 
reached its fiercest power, considerable alarm 
was excited by the approach of the flames to¬ 
wards a magazine attached to the armory ; but 
at this time the tide was up, and the supply of 
water so abundant, that all danger from such an 
explosion was soon at an end. The powder 
itself, to the weight of about 9,000 tons, was 
got out and thrown into the moat. The fire 
was supposed to have been caused by the over¬ 
heating of a stove in the Round Table Tower. 
The total loss in stores and buildings was esti¬ 
mated at 200,000/. 

November 2. —Daniel O’Connell elected 
Lord Mayor of Dublin, being the first appoint¬ 
ment of the kind under the new Municipal 
Corporations Act. 

— Serious disturbances at Cabul. Between 
200 and 300 men attack the residence of Sir 
Alexander Burnes, and murder Sir Alexander, 
his brother Lieut. Burnes, and Lieut. Broad- 
foot, who was in the house at the time. “ The 
immediate cause of this outbreak,” writes Envoy 
Sir William Macnaghten, “in the capital was 
a seditious letter addressed by Abdoollah Khan 
to several chiefs of influence at Cabul, stating 
that it was the design of the Envoy to seize 
and send them all to London. The principal 
rebels met on the previous night, and, re¬ 
lying on the inflammable feelings of the people 
of Cabul, they pretended that the king had 
issued an order to put all infidels to death.” 
Three days afterwards the enemy obtained pos¬ 
session of the commissariat, a success not only 
greatly elating the Affghans outside the walls, 
but ultimately compelling the Envoy to nego¬ 
tiate with Akbar Khan for evacuating the city. 

4 . — At the usual complimentary dinner 
given by the Directors of the East India 
Company to the departing Governor-General, 
Lord Ellenborough made an emphatic decla¬ 
ration of his intention to govern upon peace 
principles. He abjured all thoughts of a war¬ 
like aggressive policy, and declared his settled 
determination, on assuming the reins of govern¬ 
ment, to direct all the energies of his mind to¬ 
wards the due cultivation of the arts of peace; 
to emulate the munificent benevolence of the 
Mahommedan conquerors ; and to elevate and 
improve the condition of the generous and 
mighty people of India. 

7 . —The Rev. M. S. Alexander consecrated 
Bishop of England and Ireland in Jerusalem by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Queen by 
licence assigned to his jurisdiction Syria, Chal¬ 
dea, Egypt, and Abyssinia, and the new 
bishopric was placed under the protection of 
England and Prussia. 

9 .—This morning, at twelve minutes before 
eleven o’clock, the Queen was safely delivered of 
a son—the Prince of Wales. The event was 
made known by the firing of the Park and 
Tower guns. 


9 . —Discussion in the Edinburgh Town Coun¬ 
cil, on the case of Butters, confectioner, Grass- 
market, who, at the instigation of Mr. Guthrie’s 
kirk-session, had been taken before Baillie 
Grieve, and fined 8j., with 2/. 13J. expenses, for 
keeping open his door on the Sunday, and sell¬ 
ing sweatmeats to children in the neighbour¬ 
hood. Being unable to pay the fine, he was 
lodged in the Calton jail. The Council now re¬ 
solved that a complete inquiry should be made 
into the case. 

10 . —Illness of the Queen Dowager. “The 
Queen Dowager had some hours of refreshing 
sleep in the night, but there is no alleviation 
of her Majesty’s symptoms this morning.” 

11 . —Riot at Culsalmond, on the occasion of 
inducting Mr. Middleton as assistant minister 
of the parish. An excited mob took possession 
of the church, and, with deafening yells, com¬ 
pelled the Presbytery to retire to the manse, 
and there complete the ordination. The up¬ 
roar was continued till midnight; the mob 
breaking the seats and windows of the church, 
and refreshing themselves at times with whisky 
and tobacco. 

14 . —Shocking tragedy in Burnley barracks. 
Private Morris, of the 60th Rifles, in a fit 
of jealousy, it was supposed, murders Lieut. 
O’Grady, and a female servant employed about 
the mess-room, by stabbing them with a carv¬ 
ing knife, and then committed suicide with the 
same weapon. 

— Died at Paris, aged 75, the Earl of Elgin, 
famous for introducing into this country the 
remains of ancient art known as the Elgin 
Marbles. 

15 . —Sir Robert Sale writes from Jellalabad, 
explaining the impossibility of returning to 
Cabul in his present position. ‘ ‘ A regard for 
the honour and interests of our Government 
compels me to adhere to my plan already 
formed, of putting this place into a state of 
defence, and holding it, if possible, until the 
Cabul force falls back upon me, or succour 
arrives from Peshawur or India.” 

— Execution of Blakesley for the murder of 
the innkeeper in Eastcheap. 

17 .—Attempt to fire the Horse Guards, 
and the barracks behind the National Gallery, 
by throwing in small hand-grenades. 

— Great commotion in Dublin, on the occa¬ 
sion of Daniel O’Connell attending the levee of 
the Lord Lieutenant. The Corporation pro¬ 
ceeded to the castle in full state, and the new 
Lord Mayor was favourably received. 

20 .—Cavanagh, the “ fasting man,” de¬ 
tected at Reading as an impostor, and sentenced 
to three months’ imprisonment. 

23 .—The Gazette announces the brevet pro¬ 
motions consequent upon the birth of the Prince 
of Wales. 

— Commission gazetted for inquiring into 
the best mode of promoting the Fine Arts in 
the United Kingdom. 

( 93 ) 





NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


184T. 


23 .—The Rev.W. Whewell, B. D., appointed 
Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in room 
of Dr. Christopner Wordsworth, resigned. 

24..—General Elphinstone writes to Envoy 
Macnaghten: “After having held our posi¬ 
tion here for upwards of three weeks in a state 
of siege, from the want of provisions and 
forage, the reduced state of our troops, the 
large number of wounded and sick, the diffi¬ 
culty of defending the extensive and ill-situated 
cantonment we occupy, the near approach of 
winter, our communications cut off, no pros¬ 
pects of relief, and the whole country in arms 
against us, I am of opinion that it is not fea¬ 
sible any longer to maintain our position in this 
country, and that you ought to avail yourself 
of the offer to negotiate which has been made 
to you.” 

25 .—Died suddenly at his residence, Pim¬ 
lico, from spasm of the heart, Sir Francis 
Chantrey, R. A., sculptor. The greater part of 
his valuable collection of paintings and sculp¬ 
ture was bequeathed to the nation, subject to 
the condition of providing a suitable building 
in which to place them. 

December 1 . —Meeting called by the Lord 
Provost in the Glasgow Royal Exchange, to 
devise means for relieving the distress in Pais¬ 
ley. It appeared that there were not fewer 
than 14,000 people in the town and neighbour¬ 
hood in absolute want. 

— Died, aged 65, Dr. G. Birkbeclc, founder 
of Mechanics’ Institutes. 

3 . —The Governor-General of India, having 
received information of events in Cabul to the 
9th November, and Jellalabad to the 15th, 
writes to General Sir Jasper Nicolls: “It 
would be vain to speculate upon the issue of 
the contest at Cabul; but in the extreme event 
of the military possession of that city, and the 
surrounding territory, having been entirely lost, 
it is not our intention to direct new and exten¬ 
sive operations for the re-establishment of our 
supremacy throughout Affghanistan. We can 
scarcely contemplate, in such case, that there 
will be any circumstances or political objects 
of sufficient weight to induce us to desire to 
retain possession of the remainder of that 
country ; and, unless such shall be obvious as 
arising from the course of events, we should 
wish our military and political officers so to 
shape their proceedings as will best promote 
the end of retiring with the least possible dis¬ 
credit.” Two days later the Governor-General 
writes to Sir William Macnaghten at Cabul: 
“ So serious appear to be the difficulties which 
are to be encountered at Cabul, amid a hostile 
population, by a force cut off for several months 
from support by the impassable state of the 
roads in the winter season, that the Governor- 
General in Council has felt compelled to take 
into his contemplation the possible occurrence 
of still more serious disaster to our troops there, 
and to provide even for the contingency of our 
political influence in that quarter being for a 


time entirely subverted; and the first duty of 
Government in issuing instructions suitable to 
such an event having been discharged, I am 
now directed to assure you that the Governor- 
General in Council will remain anxiously mind¬ 
ful of your position, and that every measure will 
be adopted, as the tenor of the information re¬ 
ceived may show to be necessary, of which the 
season will admit, and which may be otherwise 
practicable, for affording relief to yourself and 
to the troops by whom you are accompanied. 
We have only for the present to trust to an 
overruling Providence, and to the energy and 
perseverance of our gallant troops, for the main¬ 
tenance of the power and safety of our arms. ” 

4 .—Tried at the Central Criminal Court, 
Edward Beaumont Smith, charged with forging 
and uttering fraudulent Exchequer Bills to an 
immense amount. He pleaded guilty, and 
read a statement, explanatory of the gradual 
manner in which his necessities led him to com¬ 
mit the crimes with which he stood charged. 
“Whatever speculation,” he said, “may have 
been carried on by those who have used these 
bills, no profit eve. reached me, or ever was 
intended to do so. Year after year bills have 
been wrung from me, under pretence of re¬ 
deeming and cancelling those outstanding, in 
order to prevent discovery, and afterwards by 
the repeated misapplication of them the neces¬ 
sity was created for more, to accomplish the 
original purpose; and thus the frightful crime 
which has taken place was occasioned.” A 
subsequent statement was to the effect that no 
person of rank or public character was in any 
way mixed up in the transaction, the sole parties 
being himself, Solari, Rassallo, and another 
whose office was in Basinghall-street, where they 
used to arrange their plans. He believed the 
total amount fabricated to be about 340,000/., 
the whole of which was wasted in gambling 
transactions on the Stock Exchange. Sen¬ 
tenced to transportation for life. 

9 . —Sir William Macnaghten writes from 
Cabul to the Hon. Mr. Erskine, Bombay: 
“We have now been besieged thirty-eight days 
by a contemptible enemy, whom the cowardice 
of our troops, and certain other circumstances 
which I will not mention, have emboldened to 
assume an attitude of superiority. Our provi¬ 
sions will be out in two or three days more, and 
the military authorities have strongly urged me 
to capitulate. This I will not do till the last 
moment. We have rumours that a force is 
coming to our assistance from Candahar; and 
I sincerely trust it may, for we have no energy 
or spirit among those here.” 

— Died at Stuttgard, John Heinrich Dan- 
necker, sculptor, and friend of Schiller. 

10. —A Commercial Convention of the Mid¬ 
land Counties met at Derby to consider the 
grievances under which the various manufac¬ 
turing interests are placed by the restrictive 
policy of the Government. Resolutions approve 
ing of a relaxation of the tariff and the entire 
abolition of the Corn Laws were carried with- 






DECEMBER 


1841. 


DECEMBER 


out opposition. In Leeds, Nottingham, and 
Bradford, trade at this time was in a state of 
great depression, and thousands of operatives 
in a condition of pauperism. Numerous meet¬ 
ings were also held with the view of summoning 
Parliament, immediately for the despatch of 
business. 

11 .—Treaty entered into at Cabul between 
Sir William Macnaghten, on the one part, and 
Akbar Khan, with the principal chiefs of tribes, 
on the other. Immediate and ample supplies 
to be furnished to the troops previous to evacu¬ 
ating Afghanistan; Dost Mahomed to be re¬ 
leased ; and Shah Soojah to retire into private 
life, with a guaranteed payment of a lac of 
rupees annually. 

16 . —Explosion of a gasometer at the Dundee 
Gas Works. Two boys sitting in the retort 
house were killed, and most of the property in 
the neighbourhood seriously damaged. During 
the commotion caused by this occurrence a 
serious fire was raging in Westward’s Flax Mill, 
at the other end of the town. 

17 . —News of the disturbance at Cabul 
having reached Bokhara, the Ameer throws the 
two British agents Stoddart and Conolly into 
prison, the imputed offence being that the Queen 
of England, instead of answering his letters, 
had referred him through her Foreign Secretary 
to the Indian Government. Their condition 
became day by day more deplorable. They 
were not allowed a change of raiment, their 
clothes rotted on their back, vermin preyed 
upon their bodies, while they were either 
fed on the filthiest of food or deprived of 
nourishment altogether. 

20 .—Treaty signed in London, in terms of 
which France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia 
adopt the English laws against the slave-trade. 

23 .—Murder of Sir William Macnaghten 
and Captain Trevor while engaged in a 
conference with Akbar Khan. On the road 
to the interview the Envoy sent back all 
his escort except ten men, among whom were 
Captains Trevor, Lawrence, and Mackenzie. 
The latter gave the following account of the 
occurrence to Lieutenant Eyre: “I observed 
that a number of men armed to the teeth had 
gradually approached to the scene of conference, 
and were drawing round in a sort of circle. 
This Lawrence and myself pointed out to some 
of the chief men, who affected at first to drive 
them off with whips ; but Mahomed Akbar 
observed that it was of no consequence, as they 
were in the secret. I then heard Akbar call 
out ‘ Begeer! begeer!’ (Seize! seize !) and turning 
round I saw him grasp the Envoy’s left hand 
with an expression in his face of the most dia¬ 
bolical ferocity. I think it was .Sultan Jan who 
laid hold of the Envoy’s right hand. They 
dragged him in a stooping position down the 
hillock ; the only words I heard poor Sir Wil¬ 
liam utter being £ Az barae Khooda ’ (for God’s 
sake). I saw his face, however, and it was 
full of horror and astonishment.” Next day 


Lady Sale records: “ Numerous reports are cur* 
rent, but all agree in this, that both the Envoy’s 
and Trevor’s bodies are hanging in the public 
chouk ; the Envoy’s decapitated and a mere 
trunk, the limbs having been carried in triumph 
about the city. A fallen man meets but little 
justice ; and reports are rife that the Envoy was 
guilty of double dealing with Akbar Khan and 
Amenoolah Khan.” At the moment the Envoy 
was seized, Mackenzie, Trevor, and Lawrence 
were disarmed, and forced away behind dif¬ 
ferent chiefs. Trevor was cut down by Sultan 
Jan, but Lawrence and Mackenzie succeeded 
in saving their lives, and got back in a few 
days to the city. Lawrence then mentioned 
that he saw the Envoy grappling with Akbar, 
and the latter fire a pistol at him. 

24 .—Accident on the Great Western Rail¬ 
way at Sunning, the engine being thrown off 
the line by a fall of earth on the rails, and the 
carriages thrown violently together. Eight per¬ 
sons were killed on the spot and seventeen 
seriously injured, most of them being work¬ 
men engaged on the new Houses of Parliament, 
who were proceeding home for the Christmas 
holidays. 

— Early this morning a gang of armed 
burglars entered the dwelling-house of John 
Awdry, South Wraxhall, Somerset, and com¬ 
pelled his two daughters to point out all the 
valuables in the house, which they seized 
and carried off. Sophia Awdry said: ‘‘ Between 
two and three o’clock I heard the lock of my 
door move. I had not been asleep, and said, 
‘ Who is it ?'comean.’ In a few seconds the 
door was opened, and three men came in. 
They had large sticks in one hand and candles 
in the other. They all came round my bed, 
and one held a stick over my head, and said, 
‘ If you will lie still, we will not hurt you, but 
otherwise we will dash your brains out.’ I 
answered, ‘ I shall be quiet: what do you 
want ? ’ One said they were starving, and must 
have money. ‘ We have not been used to such 
ways, but it is no use resisting; we are ten.’ ” 
They afterwards went leisurely over the house, 
and took everything they wished. The gang 
were all apprehended in a short time, and sen¬ 
tenced by Justice Coleridge to transportation 
for life. 

27 .—In his speech at the opening of the 
French Chambers, King Louis Philippe said 
that he had joined the Four Powers in a con¬ 
vention which consecrates the common inten¬ 
tion “to maintain the peace of Europe and 
consolidate the repose of the Ottoman Empire.” 
He also announced, somewhat ambiguously, 
that he had “taken measures to prevent any 
external complication from disturbing the 
security of our African possessions.” The 
Opposition was sharply dealt with in another 
paragraph: “ Whatever may be the burdens 
of our situation, France would support them 
without difficulty if faction did not unceasingly 
obstruct the course of her powerful activity. 1 

( 95 ) 





DECEMBER 


1841-42. 


JANUARY 


will not dwell upon the intrigues and crimes of 
the factious; but let us not forget, gentlemen, 
that it is that which debars our country from 
fully enjoying all the blessings which Provi¬ 
dence has conferred upon it, and which retards 
the development of that legal and pacific liberty 
which France has at last achieved, and of which 
I make it my glory to insure her the posses¬ 
sion. ” 

27 . —The British force in Cabul give up 
fourteen lacs of rupees, and consent to the 
additional indignity of giving up their guns to 
the now triumphant and defiant Affghans. By 
the 10th article of the final treaty agreed to 
on the 1st January, it was provided: “The 
English can take six horse artillery guns and 
three mule guns, and the rest by way of friend¬ 
ship shall be left for our use. And all muskets 
and ordnance stores in the magazine shall, as 
a token of friendship, be made over to our 
agents.” The indignities to which the British 
troops were subjected by the supineness of the 
general commanding are thus referred to in 
Captain Johnson’s Journal, December 31st : 
“ The chiefs say they cannot control their men, 
and that if their people misbehave themselves 
at our gates, or around our walls, we must fire 
upon them. No orders, however, have been 
given by General Elphinstone to punish our in¬ 
sulting foe, who naturally attribute our forbear¬ 
ance to dastardly cowardice, and take every op¬ 
portunity of taunting us with it. The error lies 
with our leader, not with our troops. Several 
camels laden with grain plundered close to the 
Seeah-Sung gateway, within a few paces of a 
gun loaded with grape and a large guard 
of Europeans and natives. No steps taken to 
recover the plundered grain, or punish the 
offenders. How we must be despised by our 
miserable foe ! ” 

28 . —At a Chartist tea-meeting held in Bir¬ 
mingham to celebrate the first anniversary of the 
Chartist Christian Church, a memorial to the 
Queen was adopted, praying for the liberation of 
prisoners undergoing confinement for political 
offences. 

29 . —Serious commercial failures reported 
in Glasgow; among others that of Wingate, 
Son, & Co.; which had the effect of closing 
almost the whole of the few mills kept going in 
Paisley. 

1842. 

January 6 . — The British forces, consisting 
of about 4,500 fighting men and 12,000 fol¬ 
lowers, commence their disastrous retreat from 
Cabul. “All,” writes Lady Sale, “was con¬ 
fusion before daylight The day was clear 
and frosty, the snow nearly a foot on the 
ground, and the thermometer considerably 
below the freezing-point. When the rear-guard 
left cantonments, they were fired upon by 
Affghans. The servants who were not con¬ 
cerned in the plunder all threw away their 
( 96 ) 


loads and ran off. Private baggage, com¬ 
missariat, and ammunition were nearly anni¬ 
hilated at one fell swoop. The whole road 
was covered with men, women, and children, 
lying down in the snow to die.” Fighting 
their way inch by inch among a people wild 
with hatred and fanaticism, it was two days 
before they reached the entrance of the Khoord 
Cabul Pass, only ten miles from Cabul. This 
formidable defile was about five miles in length, 
and shut in on either side by a line of lofty 
hills, every point of which seemed alive with 
fierce and treacherous Ghilzies. In this pass 
the immense multitude got jammed together 
in one monstrous unmanageable mass. Captain 
Skinner returned to remonstrate with Mahomed 
Akbar, who promised a cessation of hos¬ 
tilities if Major Pottinger and Captains Law¬ 
rence and Mackenzie were given up to him, in 
addition to others. This was done, “and 
once more,” writes Lieut. Eyre, “the living 
mass of men and animals was in motion. At 
the entrance of the pass an attempt was made 
to separate the troops from the non-combatants, 
which was but partially successful, and created 
considerable delay. The rapid effects of two 
nights’ exposure to the frost in disorganizing 
the force can hardly be conceived. The idea 
of threading the stupendous pass before us 
in the face of an armed tribe of bloodthirsty 
barbarians, with such a dense irregular mul¬ 
titude, was frightful, and the spectacle then 
presented by that waving sea of animated 
beings can never be forgotten by those who 
witnessed it.” Notwithstanding Akbar’s pre¬ 
tended attempt to restrain the Ghilzies, their 
attacks were as frequent and cruel as ever, and 
it was calculated that in the pass alone over 
3,000 lives were lost. On the 9th Lady Sale, 
Lady Macnaghten, Mrs. Trevor, and some other 
ladies, were given up to Akbar, and so placed 
for a time beyond the dangers and dreadful 
privations of the camp. “ There was but faint 
hope,” writes Lady Sale, “of our ever getting 
over to Jellalabad, and we followed the stream. 
But although there was much talk regarding 
our going over, all I know of the affair is that 
I was told we were all to go, and that our 
horses were ready, and we must be immediately 
off.” On the evening of the 10th it was deter¬ 
mined, by a forced march, to try and reach 
Jugdulluk, a distance of twenty-two miles, but 
at eight in the morning they were still ten 
miles from that station. Here General Elphin¬ 
stone and Brigadier Shelton were given up as 
additional hostages, and here commenced a 
conflict with the treacherous Affghans, which 
lasted, foot by foot, and day by day, till the entire 
force left could not muster more than twenty mus¬ 
kets. Strong barriers were at some places put 
up across the defile, when the Affghans rushed 
in on the pent-up crowd and committed whole¬ 
sale slaughter. Not more than forty, it was 
thought, managed to clear these barriers, and 
of that number the greater part were slain 
at other points or taken into captivity. Dr. 
Brydone alone escaped, and was the only officer 







JANUAR Y 


1842. 


JANUAR Y 


of the whole Cabul force who reached the gar¬ 
rison of Jellalabad alive. 

7 . —A Chartist Convention commences its 
sittings in Glasgow, and is attended by sixty- 
three delegates, among whom was Feargus 
O’Connor, representing the ancient burgh of 
Rutherglen. 

8 . —Died, aged 72, Baron Cambronne, a 
French General of distinction in the campaigns 
of the Republic and the Empire. The words, 
“ La Garde meurt et ne se rend pas,” are attri¬ 
buted to him. 

10. —In the American Senate, Mr. Calhoun 
carries a motion calling for immediate redress 
from Great Britain for injury inflicted on 
American citizens by the capture of the Creole 
slaver. 

11 . —An Anti-Corn Law conference of Dis¬ 
senting Ministers commences its sittings at 
Edinburgh. 

13 .—Arrival at Jellalabad of Dr. Brydone, 
the sole survivor of the Cabul army. The 
startling incident is thus described by Kaye : 
“ When the garrison were busy on the works 
toiling with axe and shovel, with their arms piled 
and their accoutrements laid out close at hand, a 
sentry on the ramparts, looking out towards the 
Cabul road, saw a solitary white-faced horse¬ 
man struggling on towards the fort. The word 
was passed ; the tidings spread. Presently the 
ramparts were lined with officers, looking out 
with throbbing hearts through unsteady tele¬ 
scopes, as with straining eyes tracing the road. 
Slowly and painfully, as though horse and rider 
both were in an extremity of mortal weakness, 
the solitary mounted man came reeling, totter¬ 
ing on. They saw that he was an Englishman. 

()n a wretched weary pony, clinging as one sick 
or wounded to its neck, he sat, or rather 
leaned forward ; and there were those who, as 
they watched his progress, thought that he could 
never reach, unaided, the walls of Jellalabad. 
A shudder ran through the garrison. That 
solitary horseman looked like the messenger of 
death. Few doubted that he was the bearer 
of intelligence that would fill their souls with 
horror and dismay. Their worst forebodings 
seemed confirmed. There was the one man 
who was to tell the story of the massacre of a 
great army. A party of cavalry were sent out 
to succour him. They brought him in wounded, 
exhausted, half dead. The messenger was Dr. 
Brydone, and he now reported his belief that he 
was the sole survivor of an army of some sixteen 
thousand men.” It was said Colonel Dennie 
predicted that not a soul would escape except 
one man, and that he would come to tell that 
the rest were destroyed. The voice of Dennie 
sounded like the response of an oracle, when he 
exclaimed, “ Did I not say so ! here comes the 
messenger.” 

15. —Brigadier Wilde, having resolved to 
march forward to Jellalabad, enters the Khyber 
Pass, and captures the small fort of Ali Musjid, 
situate in a difficult part of the defile. From 
( 97 ) 


want of support by the native army he is com¬ 
pelled to abandon his conquest, and fall back 
on Peshawur. Ali Musjid was taken posses¬ 
sion of by the Afreedis on the 24th. 

16 . —A Montrose newspaper contradicts a 
report that Sir W. Burnes, a native of that 
town, had been killed at Cabul. News to that 
effect was rumoured to have been received 
from Meerut to-day by the Indian mail. 

17 . —The foundation-stone of the new Royal 
Exchange laid by Prince Albert. The civic 
authorities met the Prince at Guildhall, where 
his Royal Highness arrived shortly before two 
o’clock. After a short stay there the proces¬ 
sion was marshalled, and moved ^long Cheap- 
side to a pavilion erected over the site in Corn- 
hill. A Latin inscription placed on the foun¬ 
dation-stone referred to the burning of the two 
former Exchanges, and set forth that the City 
of London and ancient Company of Mercers 
again undertook “to restore the building at 
their own cost, on an enlarged and more orna¬ 
mental plan, the munificence of Parliament 
providing the means of extending the site and 
of widening the approaches and crooked streets 
in every direction, in order that there might at 
length arise under the auspices of Queen Vic¬ 
toria, built a third time from the ground, an 
Exchange worthy of this great nation and city, 
and suitable to the vastness of a commerce ex¬ 
tending over the habitable globe.” The Lord 
Mayor (Pirie) afterwards entertained the Prince 
and company in the Mansion House. 

20 . —Close of the contest for the Professor¬ 
ship of Poetry at Oxford, between Rev. Isaac 
Williams and Rev. James Garbett. After seve¬ 
ral meetings of the friends of both candidates 
to ascertain their relative strength, the numbers 
claimed were, Garbett, 921 ; Williams, 623. 
The latter thereupon retired. 

21. —Bishop Alexander makes a public 
entry into Jerusalem on this the eve of the 
great Mahomedan festival of the Courban 
Bairam. 

22. —From the results of an experiment 
recently made in Pall Mall, the Spectator says it 
may safely predict that in a few years the Bude 
light will have superseded gas as far as the 
latter has superseded oil for street lighting. 

—• Visit of the King of Prussia to Eng¬ 
land. He was received on landing at Green¬ 
wich by Prince Albert, the Duke of Wellington, 
and other persons of distinction. Baron von 
Humboldt was in the King’s suite. 

25 .—Christening of the Prince of Wales at 
Windsor. The ceremony was performed, amid 
much splendour, by the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury, with water brought from the river 
Jordan in 1825. The King of Prussia acted 
as sponsor. 

27 .— Revolutionary outbreak at Oporto, and 
establishment of a Provisional Junta in the 
city. 

H 





1842. 


FEBRUARY 


JANUARY 


28 . —The Gazette announces that Lord Ash¬ 
burton has been appointed to proceed on an 
extraordinary special mission to the United 
States. 

— Died in the York-road, Lambeth, 
A. Ducrow, equestrian, aged 48 years. He 
left the sum of 800/. for the erection of his 
tomb in Kensal Green Cemetery, and the in¬ 
terest of 200/. invested in the Three and a half 
per Cents, to be spent annually in the purchase 
of flowers for its adornment. 

29 . —Close of the contest for the represen¬ 
tation of Dublin, Mr. Gregory, Conservative, 
defeating Lord Morpeth, Whig, by 3,825 votes 
to 3 , 435 - 

— The Duke of Wellington makes a memo¬ 
randum regarding Envoy Macnaghten’s letter 
of October 25, 1841 : “ It is impossible to 

read the letter without being sensible of the 
precarious and dangerous position of our 
affairs in Central Asia. . . . Very possibly an 
Affghan will run over his native hills faster 
than an Englishman or an Hindoo. But we 
have carried on war in hill countries, as well 
in Hindostan and the Deccan as in the Spanish 
Peninsula ; and I never heard that our troops 
were not equal as well in personal activity as 
by their arms, to contend with and overcome 
any natives of hills whatever. Mr. Macnaghten 
ought to have learnt that hill countries are not 
conquered and their inhabitants kept in sub¬ 
jection, solely by running up the hills and 
firing at long distances. The whole of a hill 
country of which it is necessary to keep pos¬ 
session, particularly for the communications of 
the army, should be occupied by sufficient 
bodies of troops, well supplied, and capable 
of maintaining themselves ; and not only not a 
Ghilzie or insurgent should be able to run 
up and down hills, but not a cat or a goat, ex¬ 
cept under the fire of those occupying the hills. 
This is the mode of carrying on the war, and 
not by hiring Affghans with long matchlocks 
to protect and defend the communications of 
the British army. Shah Soojah Khan may 
have in his service any troops that he and Mr. 
Macnaghten please. But if the troops in the 
service of the East India Company are not 
able, armed and equipped as they are, to per¬ 
form the service required of them in Central 
Asia, I protest against their being left in 
Affghanistan. It will not do to raise, pay, 
and discipline matchlock-men in order to pro¬ 
tect the British troops and their communica¬ 
tions, discovered by Mr. Macnaghten to be no 
longer able to protect themselves.” 

— Intelligence of the Affghan disasters having 
now reached Calcutta, Lord Auckland causes 
a proclamation to be issued : “A faithless 
enemy, stained by the foul crime of assassina¬ 
tion, has, through a failure of supplies followed 
by consummate treachery, been able to over¬ 
come a body of British troops in a country re¬ 
moved by distance and difficulties of service 
from the possibility of succour. But the Go¬ 
vernor-General in Council, while he most deeply 


laments the loss of the brave officers and men, 
regards this partial reverse only as a new occa¬ 
sion for displaying the stability and vigour of 
the British power, and the admirable spirit and 
valour of the British Indian army. ” The Go¬ 
vernor-General, who was on the eve of leaving 
office, did not take any important steps to retrieve 
the errors of his Affghan policy, nor did it ap¬ 
pear certain whether he thought the isolated 
garrison still left in the country should be re¬ 
lieved, or permitted, if they were able, to fight 
their way alone back to British India. A force, 
however, was gradually concentrated at Pesha- 
wur, first under Brigadier Wilde, and then 
under General Pollock, who had been selected 
by the Commander-in-chief in India for the 
command of the avenging army. 

31 .—The Duke of Buckingham withdraws 
from the Cabinet, on the ground, as was stated, 
of his opposition to the Ministerial plan of 
dealing with the Corn Laws. He was succeeded 
in the office of Lord Privy Seal by the Duke of 
Buccleuch. 

February 1.— The Chartists and Monopo¬ 
lists succeed in breaking up an Anti-Corn Law 
meeting at Southampton, presided over by 
Lord Radnor. 

— Two people killed and several injured 
by the falling of an old dismantled house in 
Charles-street, Drury-lane. 

2 . —Anti-Com Law Bazaar opened at 
Manchester. The receipts for the first day 
amounted to 1,900/.; for the second, to 1,500/, 

3 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The King of Prussia and Prince Fer¬ 
dinand of Saxe Coburg were also present, seated 
near the throne. The Royal speech made re¬ 
ference to the birth of the Prince of Wales— 
“an event which has completed the measure of 
my domestic happiness ”—and to the relations 
of this country with Foreign Powers. “I regret,” 
it was said, “ that I am not enabled to announce 
to you the re-establishment of peaceful relations 
with the Government of China. The uniform 
success which has attended the hostile opera¬ 
tions directed against that Power, and my con¬ 
fidence in the skill and gallantry of my naval 
and military forces, encourage the hope on my 
part that our differences with the Government 
of China will be brought to an early termina¬ 
tion, and our commercial relations with that 
country placed on a satisfactory basis.” Ad¬ 
dressing the House of Commons, her Majesty 
said : “You will have seen with regret that, for 
several years past, the annual income has been 
inadequate to bear the public charges ; and I 
feel confident that, fully sensible of the evil 
which must result from a continued deficiency 
of this nature during a peace, you will fully 
consider the best means of averting it.” To 
“ My Lords and Gentlemen” her Majesty recom¬ 
mended the consideration of the laws relating 
to the importation of corn, and other articles 
the produce of foreign countries. She also ob- 








FEBRUARY 


1842. 


served with deep regret the continued distress 
in the manufacturing districts—a distress, she 
said, which was borne with exemplary patience 
and fortitude. “ I feel assured that your delibe¬ 
rations on the various important matters which 
will occupy your attention will be directed by 
a comprehensive regard for the interest and 
permanent welfare of all classes of my subjects, 
and I fervently pray that they may tend in their 
result to improve the national resources, and to 
encourage the industry and promote the happi¬ 
ness of my people.” So great was the crowd 
within and around the House on this occasion, 
that two hours elapsed before it could be cleared 
of spectators. The Address was agreed to with¬ 
out a division, Sir Robert Peel intimating that he 
would introduce the Government scheme re¬ 
lating to the importation of com on the 9th, and 
explain, as soon thereafter as possible, the com¬ 
plete financial arrangements for the year. 

3 . —New writ moved for Liverpool, in conse¬ 
quence of Sir Cress well Cresswell’s elevation to 
the bench. 

4 . —Lord Stanley introduces a bill to pro¬ 
vide better security to poor emigrants against 
frauds and inconvenience on their passage, and 
another to obviate the fluctuating system of 
alienating land in certain colonies. 

7 .—Arrival of the Indian mail with news of 
the outbreak at Cabul on the 2d November, 
and subsequent reverses of the British army 
stationed there. Despatches were received at 
the same time announcing the capture of 
Chusan, Shanghai, and Ningpo. 

9 . —Sir Robert Peel introduces his new 
sliding scale of com duties to the House of 
Commons. A duty of 20 j. to be levied when 
wheat is at 5U. per quarter, descending to is. 
when the price was 73 s., with rests or stops at 
53-r., 54J-., 66 s. and 68 s., designed to diminish 
the possibility of tampering with the averages. 
With respect to the duty on other kinds of 
grain, he proposed to preserve the same pro¬ 
portion between them and wheat as was main¬ 
tained in the existing scale : a maximum duty 
of 8 s. on oats, and 11s. on barley, rye, &c. 
Sir Robert said he considered the present not 
an unfavourable time to discuss the question 
of the Com Laws. There was no great stock 
of foreign growth on hand to alarm farmers; 
the recess, notwithstanding the distress, had 
been marked by universal calm ; there was no 
popular violence to interrupt legislation, and 
there was a disposition to view any proposal 
for the adjustment of the question with calm¬ 
ness and moderation.—Mr. Cobden denounced 
the scheme as an insult to a suffering people. 
During the sitting great excitement was mani¬ 
fested both within and around the House of 
Commons. A number of Anti-Corn Law 
del gates attempted to take possession of the 
lobbies, but after some resistance they were 
Induced by the police to. retire outside. 

10. —The largest meeting of the Anti-Corn 

( 99 ) 


FEBRUARY 


Law delegates which had yet been held took 
place this day in the Crown an l Anchor, Lon¬ 
don. Sir Robert Peel’s new sliding scale was 
spoken of as altogether unsatisfactory, and in no 
way calculated to relieve the distresses of the 
people. 

14 -.— Grand ball in the Park Theatre, New 
York, in honour of Charles Dickens. About 
2,500 people were present. 

— Replying to Lord Brougham’s motion 
for papers on the Creole affair, Lord Aberdeen 
said that, after the most serious consideration. 
Government had come to the conclusion that 
by the laws of this country there was no 
machinery or authority for bringing the refugee 
slaves to trial for murder or mutiny, and still 
less for delivering them up. Lord Denman, on 
behalf of the Judges, expressed their concur¬ 
rence in this view. 

— On the motion that the Speaker leave the 
chair preparatory to a discussion in committee 
on the Com Laws, Lord John Russell proposed : 
“ That this House, considering the evils which 
have been caused by the present Corn Laws, 
and especially by the fluctuation of the gra¬ 
duated or sliding scale, is not prepared to 
adopt the measure of her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment, which is founded on the same principles, 
and is likely to be attended by similar results. ” 
The opposition to the amendment was led by 
Mr. Gladstone, who said, whatever misrepre-' 
sentation Government might incur, they would 
be content with the reflection that they had 
conferred on their country a great boon, certain 
to secure ultimately the universal approbation 
which it merited. The debate was protracted 
to the. following evening, when Lord Pal¬ 
merston closed the argument on the Opposition 
side. “Why,” he asked, “is the earth on 
which we live divided into zones and climates ? 
Why do different countries yield different pro¬ 
ductions to people experiencing similar wants ? 
Why are they intersected with mighty rivers, 
the natural highways of nations ? Why are 
lands the most distant from each other brought 
almost into contact by that very ocean which 
seems to divide them ? Why, sir, it is that 
man may be dependent upon man. It is that 
the exchange of commodities may be accom¬ 
panied by the extension and diffusion of know¬ 
ledge—by the interchange of mutual benefits 
engendering mutual kind feelings—multiplying 
and confirming friendly relations. It is that 
commerce may freely go forth, leading civiliza¬ 
tion with one hand and peace with the other, 
to render mankind happier, wiser, better. Sir, 
this is the dispensation of Providence , this is 
the decree of that Power which created and 
disposed the universe. But in the face of it, 
with arrogant, presumptuous folly, the dealers 
in restrictive duties fly, fettering the inborn 
energies of man, and setting up their miser¬ 
able legislation instead of the great standing 
laws of nature.” On a division there voted for 
the original motion, 349 ; for the amendment, 
226. Majority for Ministers, 123. There 

11 2 


L.ofC. 








FEBRUARY 


1842. 


FEBRUARY 


were 17 pairs in connexion with this debate; 
8 Conservatives and 28 Liberals absent. 

15 . —Died at Paris, in his 77th year, the 
Count Pozzo di Borgo, a Corsican diplomatist, 
who in 1835 represented Russia at the Court 
of St. James’s. 

16 . —Riot at Northampton on the occasion 
of burning Sir Robert Peel in effigy. 

17 . —Robbery of 1,500/. in sovereigns, and 
500/. in Bank of England notes, from the boot 
of the Perseverance coach, running between 
Manchester and Blackburn. The robbery was 
effected at Bury, chiefly through the aid of a 
man who had managed to put the bank box in 
the inside of his carpet-bag before the coach 
started from Manchester. 

13. —Opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow 
Railway. For months back this event was 
looked forward to with extraordinary interest, 
and in the two cities it connected, as well as 
at all the prominent parts of the line, the 
greatest excitement prevailed. Tickets were 
issued by the directors to the shareholders, 
city dignitaries, and others, to the number 
of 1,100, and the whole party were safely con¬ 
veyed along the line. A banquet in Glasgow 
closed the day’s rejoicings. The line had taken 
about three years to construct, and cost fully 
one million and a quarter. 

— Came on for hearing the case of the Bank 
of England v. Tomkins, a claim for reimburse¬ 
ment founded on the negligence of the officials 
in connexion with the recent Exchequer Bill 
frauds. Defendant was one of the brokers em¬ 
ployed by De Berkem, the agent of Rapallo, 
to borrow money from the Bank of England 
to the extent of 8,000/. upon the security of 
Exchequer Bills, which were among those the 
Government pronounced forged. Lord Mont- 
eagle was examined to prove the forgery ; and 
he explained the mode of conducting the busi¬ 
ness of the Exchequer Bill Office, to the same 
purport as he had done before the Com¬ 
missioners of Inquiry. He stated that there 
were five checks for securing the validity of the 
bills,—the paper specially made for printing 
- bills upon ; the sealing or stamping with the 
Exchequer stamp; the numbering; the peculiar 
mode of cutting the bills out of the books in 
which they are put up, similar to bankers’ 
cheques, to the number of 500; and the sig¬ 
nature, either by the Comptroller or his deputy. 
The bills in question were valid with the excep¬ 
tion of the signature ; which was stated by 
Lord Monteagle not to be his, and it was also 
disowned by Mr. Perceval, his deputy. it ap¬ 
peared that the chief clerk, Mr. E. B. Smith, 
was entrusted with the entire superintendence 
of all the previous processes; and that he had 
(with the exception of signing the bills, per¬ 
formed by the Comptroller or his deputy) com¬ 
plete control over their production in all its 
various stages, without any kind of supervision. 
Verdict for the plaintiff. 

) (100) 


19 .—Earthquake at Jellalabad, destroying 
most of the defences thrown up by Sale for 
the defence of the garrison. 

— Lord Auckland addresses his last letter 
to the Secret Committee: “Since we have 
heard of the misfortune in the Khyber Pass, and 
have been convinced of the difficulties at pre¬ 
sent opposed to us, and as in the actual state of 
our preparations we could not expect, at least 
in this year, to maintain a position in the Jella¬ 
labad districts for any effective purpose, we 
have made our directions in regard to with¬ 
drawal from Jellalabad clear and positive ; and 
we shall rejoice to learn that Major-General 
Pollock will have anticipated these more ex¬ 
press orders by confining his efforts to the same 
objects.” 

22 .—A special meeting of the shareholders 
of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway called 
to consider the question of running a morn¬ 
ing and evening train between Edinburgh and 
Glasgow on Sundays. After a long and some¬ 
what bitter discussion, in which Sir Andrew 
Agnew and Mr. Makgill Crichton took a 
prominent part, the motion for running the 
trains, proposed by Mr. McNeil, was carried 
by a majority of 3,954 shares, or 554 votes. 
The Church newspapers wrote of this day as 
the most momentous which had dawned on 
Scotland for centuries. It was an object of 
interest in heaven and hell—the battle-field 
where the powers of light and darkness were 
engaged in a desperate conflict. 

— Came on for hearing in the Court of Ex¬ 
chequer the great betting case of Richard 
Thornton v. Portman and others. The de¬ 
fendants, for the purpose of protecting them¬ 
selves and others, purchased the betting debts 
of a defaulter named Gurney, in order that by 
paying them in full they might secure his and 
their winnings. They accordingly required 
Thornton to pay his loss of 1,350/.; but that 
gentleman, having heard that certain parties 
had been settled with on terms of composition 
at less than 20s. in the pound, refused to 
meet the demand, unless the defendants would 
give him a personal guarantee to repay the 
sum due from him, in the event of their not 
having paid all Gurney’s losings in full on or 
before the last day of the Houghton Meeting. 
The guarantee was given, and plaintiff gave 
them a cheque for 1,250/. and an order on one 
Atkins for 100/. This latter sum, the plaintiff 
urged, was never received, and he now sued 
for the repayment of the 1,250/. on the ground 
that the defendants had failed to fulfil thfc 
condition under which it had been paid to 
them. The jury found for the plaintiff, who 
handed over the amount to Christ’s Hospital. 
This action gave rise to another, Thornton v. 
Byng, the defendant in this instance being one 
of the Stewards of the Jockey Club, who 
declared that the plaintiff had acted dishonour¬ 
ably, and excluded him from all places in the oc¬ 
cupation or under the jurisdiction of the Club. 
The jury in this case gave damages for 500/. 









FEBRUARY 


1842. 


MARCH 


23 . —Correspondence between Mr. P. Shaw, 
advocate, and Mr. Makgill Crichton, regarding 
insinuations made by the latter at the Sunday- 
train meeting against Sir C. Shaw. Crichton 
in his last letter writes : “I am now satisfied 
that the statements referred to by you were 
erroneous impressions, and are calculated to 
convey imputations against his character which 
are unfounded. I therefore retract them: I 
regret having made them, and offer to your 
brother my apology. ” 

24 . —Conclusion of the debate on Mr. Vil- 
liers’ motion for the immediate repeal of the 
Com Laws. Mr. Cobden, taking advantage 
of Sir Robert Peel’s admission that it was 
impossible to fix the price of coni by any legis¬ 
lative enactments, said : “I would be obliged 
to him if he would not try to do it. It is 
a simple, open avowal that we are met here 
to legislate for a class against the people. 
There is no use in resorting to sophistry, no 
good in disguising the truth in a dexterous 
combination and shuffling of figures.”—Mr. 
Ferrand, amid marks of great impatience 
from the House, read extracts from a series of 
letters, in which the manufacturers who had 
joined the League were charged with cruelty 
to their operatives, a systematic evasion of the 
Truck Act, and the adulteration of their cloth 
with “ Devil’s Dust ” to an extent which made 
it worthless in foreign markets. In the divi¬ 
sion which took place, Ministers had a majo¬ 
rity of 303 in a House of 483. 

28 .—Lord Ellenborough lands at Calcutta, 
and takes the oath of office as Governor-Gene¬ 
ral of India. 

March 1.—Surrender of Ghuznee by Lieut.- 
Col. Palmer. “It is with much concern,” he 
writes to the officer commanding at Jellalabad, 
“ I acquaint you that I have been compelled to 
enter into terms to evacuate the citadel and forts 
within ten days. ... In capitulating I have 
only acted up to the orders of Major Pottinger 
and General Elphinstone, who directed me to 
evacuate the citadel and city on the arrival of 
Rohilla Khan. This chief arrived, and pro¬ 
mised to escort us in safety to Cabul.” The 
garrison were hardly out of the city when the 
treachery of the Affghans began. Day after 
day their attacks continued, and the troops were 
reduced to the last extremity of hunger and 
thirst, under a galling fire from the surrounding 
enemy. The Sepoys were the peculiar object of 
the hatred of the Ghilzies. Lieut.-Col. Palmer 
was seized and tortured, to make him give up 
treasure alleged to have been buried by the 
British troops. None ever reached Cabul 
except a few prisoners, kept alive for ransom. 

— Explosion of D’Ernst’s firework factory, 
Lambeth, causing the death of all the workmen 
employed therein—four in number. 

2 .—The Bishop of London addresses a 
pasioral to his clergy, expressive of his desire 
to have a collection made in their churches for 
the Colonial Bishopric Fund, in conformity 


with the resolution agreed upon at Lambeth 
Palace when the erection of Colonial sees was 
fixed. 

2 . —Lord Stanley intimates to Sir Charles 
Bagot that the English Government were willing 
to repeal the Imperial duties upon wheat from 
Canada if the Provincial Parliament imposed a 
duty on the same article from the United States. 
The Canadian Parliament agreed to accept the 
offer, and fixed the duty at 3 s. per quarter, or 
about per bushel. 

— Calcutta advices of the nth January 
received, making mention of the hostile pro¬ 
ceedings of the Affghans at Cabul, and the 
danger impending over the retirement of the 
British army. Accounts from Jellalabad reached 
to the 15th Dec., at which date the garrison 
w r ere reported to be on reduced rations, but 
working with great eagerness at the walls of 
the fort. 

3 . —Lord Mahon obtains permission to bring 
in a bill extending the term of copyright in a 
book to twenty-five years reckoned from the 
death of the author. 

— The City of Edinburgh steamer drifts 
from the pier at Ostend, and becomes a com¬ 
plete wreck. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer obtains 
the appointment of a Secret Committee to in¬ 
quire into the recent frauds practised in the 
issue of Exchequer Bills. 

4 . —The American Foreign Secretary in¬ 
structs the British Minister, Mr. Everett, to 
demand indemnification in the case of the 
Creole. 

— Mr. Cobden draws the attention of the 
House to certain slanderous assertions made 
by Mr. Ferrand, to the effect that while calling 
for a repeal of the Com Laws he (Mr. Cobden) 
was working his.own mill night and day, and by 
so doing had amassed a large fortune.—Mr. Fer¬ 
rand admitted that he had charged many Anti- 
Corn Law manufacturers with so acting, but de¬ 
nied saying they were all guilty.—The Speaker 
ruled that it was irregular and contrary to the 
rule of the House to question the positive denial 
of the honourable gentleman. 

— In introducing the Navy Estimates, Mr. 
Sidney Herbert explains that the present 
number of men would be retained, but the 
ships reduced in number, as it was intended in 
future that all should have their full comple¬ 
ment of hands. 

6 . —Died at Gottingen, in his 82d year. 
Professor Heeren, author csf “ Historical 
Researches.” 

7 . — Arrival of the Overland Mail with news 
of the dreadful disasters in Afghanistan. The 
correspondent of the Morning Post wrote : 
“Cabul has fallen; the whole British force 
there, amounting to about 6,000 men, anni¬ 
hilated ; one entire British regiment, the 44th, 
erased at one fell swoop from the Army l ist, 

(101) 





MARCH 


MARCH 


1842. 


and five native regiments cut to pieces. - ’ The 
Morning Chronicle was equally alarming: 
“ When last seen, the gallant 44th, or Queen’s, 
was reduced to about 150, still in a body, 
struggling through the snow, and being picked 
off like snipes. Lady Macnaghten and the 
other ladies were sent to grind corn.” The 
Times gave the intelligence in a more coherent 
form : “ The worst can no longer be doubted 
of the unhappy troops at Cabul. Accounts 
have been received in town which can be im¬ 
plicitly relied upon, and from which the follow¬ 
ing is an extract: ‘On the 18th January, Dr. 
Brydone staggered into Jellalabad, wounded 
and confused from suffering and fatigue. He 
relates that our people quitted Cabul, under 
the convention agreed upon by Major Pot- 
tinger, on the 5th instant. The cantonment 
was immediately occupied by the Affghans, 
and the English were almost instantly attacked. 
The march became, and continued, a constant 
fight. At Khoord Cabul Pass, about ten miles 
from Cabul, the ladies were sent back, under 
an escort of some of Akbar Khan’s people, 
who promised to protect them. At Tezeen, 
General Elphinstone and Colonel Shelton were 
made prisoners. The Native troops became 
disorganized and scattered. At Jugduluk, 400 
of her Majesty’s 44th, who had before kept 
well together, became disorganized also, broke 
and scattered. Beyond this the Doctor knows 
nothing, having with the greatest difficulty 
preserved his own life.’ ” The Duke of Wel¬ 
lington was reported to be deeply affected at 
the news, declaring that in all his experience, 
or in all history, he had never heard of so 
lamentable a sacrifice of life in a British force. 
A letter from Lady Sale to her husband, the 
hero of Jellalabad, giving an account of the 
outbreak of Cabul, excited much interest and 
enthusiasm for her ladyship. 

8 _Mr. Disraeli introduces, but withdraws 

without a division, a motion on diplomatic and 
consular establishments : “That it appears to 
•this House that great inconvenience and injury 
to the public welfare have arisen from the civil 
affairs of her Majesty in foreign countries being 
carried on by two distinct services ; and that, 
with a view of advancing those commercial 
interests which at this moment so much occupy 
our consideration, it is expedient that measures 
should be forthwith taken to blend the Consular 
with the Diplomatic body.” In the course 
of his address, Mr. Disraeli took occasion to 
censure several of the appointments made by 
Lord Palmerston. 

IO.—General Nott repels an attack on Can- 
dahar with such effect, that the enemy broke up 
their encampment and left him in quiet posses¬ 
sion of the place. 

— The Chinese attempt to drive the British 
out of Ningpo, but are defeated in the centre 
of the town with great slaughter. So terrible, it 
was said, was the destruction of human life in 
this case among the Chinese, that the bodies 
had to be laid in heaps along the sides of the 
( 102 ) 


street to permit the further advance of our 
destructive artillery. 

IQ.—When the House met to-night, Sir 
Robert Peel, in reply to Mr. Stuart Wortley, 
said the Governor-General of India had re¬ 
ceived intelligence of the murder of Sir Wm. 
Macnaghten on the 22d January; and though 
there was no later official intelligence, private 
letters left no doubt that our forces at Cabul 
had met with a great misfortune. There was 
no occasion for dismay, however, and he had 
no doubt Parliament would give every support 
to the demand which it would be the duty of 
Ministers to make for the purpose of repairing 
that disaster. 

11.—In a speech of great length and minute¬ 
ness Sir Robert Peel introduces the annual 
Budget, proposed in this instance in connexion 
with a series of comprehensive changes in the 
Tariff designed to improve the financial affairs 
of the country. He admitted the public 
accounts for the year would show a deficiency 
of 2,750,000/., and, with a frankness which 
alarmed some of his supporters, confessed that 
the country had arrived at the limit of taxation 
on articles of consumption. The additional 
duty of 5 per cent, laid on Customs and Excise 
had only realized ioj. per cent. The revenue for 
the coming year he estimated at 48,350,000/. 
and the expenditure at 50,820,000/. The yearly 
increasing deficiency Sir Robert proposed to 
meet by a tax on incomes calculated to produce 
3,700,000/. ; Irish equalized stamp and spirit 
duties, 410,000/.; and an export duty of 4^. on 
coal exported, 200,000/. Of the surplus of 
1,740,000/. thus obtained, 1,200,000/. was de¬ 
voted to a reduction of duties in a revised tariff 
now submitted to the House, and the balance 
would be applied to the extra expenses likely to 
be incurred in connexion with the armies in 
India and China. The main design of the 
Budget was the taxation of wealth and the relief 
of manufacturing industry. “We have applied 
ourselves,” said Sir Robert, “ to the simplifica¬ 
tion of the Tariff—to make it clear, intelligible, 
and as far as possible consistent: and that alone, 
without reference to the amount of duty, is, I 
apprehend, a great public object. We have 
also attempted, speaking generally, to remove 
all absolute prohibitions upon the import of 
foreign articles, and to reduce duties which are 
so high as to be prohibitory to such a scale as 
may admit of a fair competition with domestic 
produce. There are instances in which that 
principle has been departed from and where 
prohibitions are maintained, and in those cases 
we justify departure from the rule upon special 
circumstances; but the general rule has been, 
to abolish prohibitions and reduce prohibitory 
duties within the range of fair competition. 
Our object has been, speaking generally, to 
reduce the duties on raw materials which con¬ 
stitute the elements of manufactures to an almost 
nominal amount; to reduce the duties on half- 
manufactured articles, which enter almost as 
much as raw materials into domestic manufac- 






MARCH 


1842. 


MARCH 


tures, to a nominal amount; and with reference 
to articles completely manufactured, our object 
has been to remove prohibitions and reduce 
prohibitory duties, so as to enable the foreign 
producer to compete fairly with the domestic 
manufacturer; and I still entertain that con¬ 
fident belief and expectation which I expressed 
on first intimating the intentions of the Govern¬ 
ment with respect to this Tariff, that the general 
result of it, if adopted by the House, will be 
materially to diminish the charge of living in 
this country. The duties upon raw materials 
would in only a few instances exceed 5 per cent., 
on partially manufactured articles 12, and on 
complete manufactures the reduction in duty 
proposed would be about 20 per cent. There 
were 1,200 articles in the Tariff, and on 750 of 
them a reduction was proposed ; on foreign 
timber the reduction would be from 55^. to 25 s. 
a load, with the exception of Canadian, which 
would be treated as an integral part of the 
island, and bear a merely nominal duty. The 
Income-tax, calculated at 7 d. per pound on 
150/. and upwards, was to be limited to three 
years, with a possible extension to five years if 
the House should please to sanction its Con¬ 
tinuance.” Sir Robert concluded the exposi¬ 
tion of the Ministerial policy in these words :— 
“ I know that many gentlemen who are strong 
advocates for Free-trade may consider that I 
have not gone far enough. I believe that on 
the general principle of Free-trade there is now 
no great difference of opinion, and that all agree 
in the general rule that we should purchase in 
the cheapest market and sell in the deai-est. 
(Loud cheers from the Opposition benches.) 
I know the meaning of that cheer. I do not 
now wish to raise a discussion on the Corn Laws 
or the Sugar duties: I have stated the grounds, 
on more than one occasion, why I consider 
these exceptions to the general rule, and I will 
not go into the question now. I know that I 
may be met with the complaints of gentlemen 
opposite of the limited extent to which I have 
applied the general principle, to which I have 
adverted, to these important articles. I thought, 
after the best consideration that I could give to 
the subject, that if I proposed a greater change 
in the Com Laws than that which I submitted 
to the consideration of the House, I should only 
aggravate the distresses of the country, and only 
increase the alarm which prevailed among im¬ 
portant interests. I think that I have proposed, 
and the Legislature has sanctioned, as great a 
change in the Corn Laws as was just or prudent, 
considering the engagements existing between 
landlord and tenant, and also the large amount of 
capital which has been applied to the cultivation 
of the soil. Under these circumstances, I think 
that we have made as great a change as was 
consistent with the nature of the subject.” 

11 . —While addressing the House to-night 
on the financial policy of the Government, Sir 
Robert Peel created some surprise by quoting a 
letter from a smuggler illustrative of his state¬ 
ment that high duties were a mere delusion, and 
in no sense a protection to the manufacturer. 


After offering his services on goods from a 
certain part, the writer adds: “ I am aiso able 
to forward to you every week blondes and laces 
(I mean articles manufactured at Lille, Arras, 
Caen, Chantilly, &c.) at a very low premium by 
the indirect channel. (Laughter.) The goods 
would be delivered in London the same week 
of the reception here, by a sure and discreet 
individual: my means are always free of losses 
and damages, or I would not use them. Here 
follow the prices at which I might at present 
undertake the passage:—Blondes, by pieces, 
according to value, 9 per cent. ; blonde veils, 
according to value, 8 or per cent.; laces 
(Lille ditto) 8 or 8^ per cent.; silk gloves, II 
to 12 per cent. ; kid gloves, 12 to 13 per cent.; 
and generally all silk goods, as gros de Naples, 
satins, gros des Indes, gros de Paris, jewellery, 
&c., for which articles prices would have to be 
determined, but certainly a great deal under 
your Custom-house duties.” 

11 . —Arthur Conolly writes: “From our 
prison in the Bokhara citadel.—This is the 
eighty-third day we have been denied the 
means of getting a change of linen from the 
rags and vermin that cover us ; and yesterday, 
when we "begged for an amendment in this 
respect, the Topshee-Bashee who had before 
come occasionally as our host to speak en¬ 
couragingly, set his face like a flint to our 
request, showing that he was merely a vane 
to the withering wind of his heartless master, 
and could not help us thus, so that we need 

not ask him to do so.I did not think 

to shed one warm tear among such cold¬ 
blooded men, but yesterday evening, as I 
looked upon Stoddart’s half-naked and nail¬ 
lacerated body, conceiving that I was the 
special object of the King’s hatred because of 
my having come to him after visiting Khiva 
and Kokund, and told him that the British 
Government was too great to stir up secret 
enmity against any of its enemies, I wept on 
entreating one of our keepers, the gunner’s 
brother, to have conveyed to the chief my humble 
request that he would direct his anger upon me, 
and not further destroy by it my poor brother 
Stoddart, who had suffered so much and so 
meekly here for three years. My earnest 
words were answered by a * Don’t cry and 
distress yourself: ’ he also could do nothing. 
... We have risen again from bed with hearts 
comforted as if an angel had spoken to them, 
resolved, please God, to wear our English 
honesty and dignity to the last within all the 
filth and misery that this monster may try to 
degrade us with.” 

12 . —Captain James Ross’s exploring ex¬ 
pedition in the South Polar Seas narrowly 
escapes destruction. During a heavy breeze 
the Erebus and Terror were driven into violent 
collision with an extensive chain of icebergs. 
The Erebus was much damaged. 

13 . —George Lucas, Aldermanbury, murders 
three of his children, and then commits suicide. 

(103) 





MARCH 


1842. 


MARCH 


15 .—Sir James Graham announces that, as 
the question between the Church of Scotland 
and the Government was simply whether the 
law was to be obeyed or not, it was the fixed 
determination of Ministers to insist on obe¬ 
dience to the law. It was the duty of the 
Government to see that the Veto Act of the 
General Assembly did not prevail over the law 
of the land. 

— Lord Ellenborough writes to the Com¬ 
mander-in-chief in India, that in the present 
position of Shah Soojah he did not think the 
British Government was any longer compelled 
to peril its armies, and with its armies the Indian 
Empire, in support of the Tripartite treaty. 
“ Whatever course we may hereafter take must 
rest solely on military considerations, and have, 
in the first instance, regard to the safety of the 
detached body of our troops at Jellalabad, at 
Ghuznee, at Khelat-i-Ghilzie, and Candahar; to 
the'security of our troops now in the field from 
all unnecessary risk ; and finally to the re-estab¬ 
lishment of our military reputation by the inflic¬ 
tion of some signal and decisive blow on the A Af¬ 
ghans -which may make it appear to them and 
to our own subjects, and to our allies, that we 
have the power of inflicting punishment upon 
those who commit atrocities and violate their 
faith, and that we withdraw ultimately from 
Affghanistan, not from any deficiency of means 
to maintain our position, but because we are 
satisfied that the king we have set up has not, 
as we were erroneously led to imagine, the sup¬ 
port of the nation over which he has been 

{ flaced. ” In consequence, apparently, of Eng- 
and’s defeat at Hykulzye, this forward policy 
was abandoned for a few weeks, and orders 
were actually issued that Pollock should with¬ 
draw at once from Jellalabad, and Nott from 
Candahar. These timid counsels, however, 
were overcome, and an advance of both armies 
ordered on Cabul. An endeavour was to be 
made by negotiation to obtain a release of the 
prisoners in Akbar Khan’s hands, though it is 
not clear that General Nott understood their 
release to be an essential part of the expedition. 

16 .— Lord Francis Egerton’s motion for leave 
to introduce a bill legalizing marriage with a 
deceased wife’s sister, rejected by 123 to 100 
votes. 

— Came on at York Assizes the trial of 
Robert Goldsborough, indicted for the murder 
of William Huntley, at Crathorne, in the year 
1830. In the month of July in that year, 
Huntley received the balance of a legacy 
due to him ; he was shortly afterwards seen 
with Goldsborough, and then missed. Golds¬ 
borough said that he had gone to America. 
About that time Goldsborough was observed to 
have money; and two witnesses deposed that 
they had seen him carrying something bulky in 
a sack into his house. He subsequently left 
that part of the country; and the matter was 
forgotten until lately, when, during some im¬ 
provements in Stokesley-beck, the bones of a 
human body were discovered, and the skull 
(104) 


presented such appearances as led to the sup¬ 
position that it was the skull of Huntley. The 
jury were not satisfied of this identity; and a 
verdict of Not guilty was returned. 

16 .—-Died at his town residence, St. James’s- 
square, aged 77, Bernard Edward Howard, 
twelfth Duke of Norfolk, and the first Roman 
Catholic peer who took his seat in the House 
of Lords after the passing of the Emancipation 
Act. 

18 . —Income-tax resolutions opposed in 
Committee by Mr. F. Baring, Lord John Rus¬ 
sell, and Lord Ho wick, on the ground that 
the tax was needless in times of peace, and 
oppressive in its operation. 

19 . —Accident in Wombwell’s menagerie, 
Stafford. A rash visitor, named Martin, 
reaching his arm into the tigers’ den, was seized 
and mangled so severely that death ensued in 
a few days. 

20 . —The Earl of Munster commits suicide, 
shooting himself in his house in Belgrave • 
square. 

21 . —Explosion of the Telegraph high-pres¬ 
sure steamer at Helensburgh pier, Dumbarton¬ 
shire, and loss of fifteen lives. 

— Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” performed 
at Bologna with an effect hitherto unmatched 
in magnificence; Donizetti conducting, Ros¬ 
sini himself giving the time, and Clara Novello, 
Ivanhoff, and Prince Belgiojoso singing the 
solos. 

23 . —The Jellalabad garrison in the extre¬ 
mity of their peril. Sale writes to Pollock, who 
had been long detained at Peshawur with the 
relieving force by sickness and insubordination: 
“ I informed you definitely that I would, by 
God’s blessing, hold this place to the 31st inst., 
by which time you acquainted me that you 
could arrive at Jellalabad with the dragoons. 
You now state to me your expectation that they 
will only reach your present encampment by that 
date. Our European soldiers are now on two- 
thirds of their rations of salt meat, and this the 
Commissariat supply ; on the 4th proximo that 
part of the force will then be without meat, not¬ 
withstanding every arrangement to lessen the 
consumption. I have this day directed all the 
camels to be destroyed with the view of pre¬ 
serving the hay for the horses of the cavalry 
and artillery.” 

24 . —Trial of the Culsalmond rioters before 
the High Court of Justiciary. A verdict of 
Not proven was returned against all the parties 
charged, except Dr. Robertson, said to have 
been a leader in the disturbance, and now 
declared Not guilty. 

— The Commander-in-chief gives the 
following as the causes to which he was dis¬ 
posed to ascribe our failures in Affghanistan :—- 
1. Making war with a peace establishment. 2. 
Making war without a safe basis of operations. 
3. Carrying our native army out of India into 
a strange and cold climate where they and we 





MARCH 


1842. 


APRIL 


were foreigners, and both considered as infidels. 

4. Invading a poor country, and one unequal 
to supply our wants, especially our large estab¬ 
lishment of cattle. 5. Giving undue power to 
political agents. 6. Want of forethought and 
undue confidence in the Affghans on the part 
of Sir William Macnaghten. 7. Placing our 
magazines, even our treasures, in indefensible 
places. 8. Great military neglect and mis¬ 
management after the outbreak. 

25 . —Storm in the Frith of Clyde; much 
destruction of property, both on shore and at 
sea. 

28 . —Brigadier England, having entered the 
Pisheen Valley with the force intended to relieve 
Nott at Candahar, is repulsed in a defile lead¬ 
ing to the village of Hykulzye, and falls back 
with some loss on Quettah. 

Numerous meetings held during this month, 
to discuss the proposed alterations in the Tariff. 
At several the proposed income-tax was com¬ 
mented upon in severe terms. 

April 1. —Inundation at Derby. The streets 
under water for several hours, and one young 
woman drowned in her bed. 

2 . —General Nott advises General England 
either to remain where he is at Quettah or to 
push boldly through the Kojuck. ‘ ‘ Your mov¬ 
ing into Pisheen with a convoy known by the 
whole country to be intended for Candahar, and 
then halting or retiring to Quettah, will have 
the very worst effect throughout Afghanistan, 
and will be more injurious to my present posi¬ 
tion than 20,000 of the enemy in the field.” 

A.—The series of resolutions embodying the 
Income-tax scheme of the Government, carried 
through the Commons with only a slight 
attempt at opposition. 

— The Edinburgh newspapers publish a 
letter from Dr. Candlish, containing a scheme for 
reconstructing a new Church should the Estab¬ 
lishment be broken up. On their separation 
from the State he proposes that the Non¬ 
intrusion party still adhere to one another, and 
form a “protesting and testifying” Church, to 
be entitled the “ Non-Erastian Church of 
Scotland.” Funds for the maintenance of the 
ilergy and the building of churches are to be 
raised by large donations at the commence¬ 
ment, and afterwards by monthly or weekly 
contributions ; the money raised is to form a 
common stock, out of which the ministers are 
to be paid at the rate of 150/. or 200/. a year; 
other Presbyterian bodies are to be invited to 
co-operate with them; parishes left in the 
hands of Erastian incumbents are to be dealt 
with as vacant, and all the funds raised are to 
be placed at the disposal of a large central 
committee, composed of elders, deacons, and 
communicants, exclusive of ministers. 

5 .— At half-past 3 a.m. the troops under 
the command of General Pollock commence 
their march to force the Khyber Pass. From 


Jumrood on the east the pass extends for 
twenty-eight miles towards Jellalabad. As far 
as the fort of Ali Musjid it is deep and un¬ 
interrupted. For seven miles beyond the ascent 
is somewhat uniform, till near Sundu Khana, 
where for two miles it runs along the face of 
a frightful precipice, like the galleries of the 
Simplon. General Pollock found the mouth 
strongly fortified, and the enemy in force on 
the heights on either side, but two columns 
advanced and gained the crest of the hill, 
driving all before them. On the 9th the ad¬ 
vance guard reached Sundu Khana, and the 
whole force had cleared the pass before the 
14th, being the first instance of an army forcing 
its way through these defiles against an enemy. 

5 . —Concluded in the Commission Court, 
Dublin, the trial of Robert Caldwell, attorney, 
for assault with intent on the person of Mrs. 
James Corbett. The outrage was alleged to 
have taken place in Mr. Corbett’s house. Pri¬ 
soner’s counsel pleaded previous familiarity, 
and submitted letters said to have passed be¬ 
tween the parties. The jury returned a verdict 
of Guilty, and the prisoner was sentenced to 
two years’ imprisonment. 

6 . —In committee, Lord Mahon’s Copyright 
Bill receives various modifications, Mr. Ma¬ 
caulay arguing strongly in favour of the period 
being fixed at forty-two years, or the death of 
the author, whichever was longest. The other 
periods proposed, he contended, would either 
have the effect of checking the reproduction of 
certain popular works, or give undue protec¬ 
tion to the early and immature writings of men 
of genius. Mr. Wakeley caused some amuse¬ 
ment by alluding to the slight claim certain 
kinds of literature had for any protection at all. 
“ If they gave a poet an evening sky, dew, 
withering leaves, and a rivulet, he might make 
a very respectable poem. (Laughter.) Why, 
anybody might do it. (Laughter, and “Try it!”) 
Try it! he had tried it. (Great laughter.) And 
there” (pointing to Mr. Monckton Millies) “is an 
honourable gentleman who was a poet of the 
first water. He thought a member of society 
might employ his talents to much better advan¬ 
tage than in the composition of such productions 
as he had quoted. Who could not string such 
lines together by the bushel ? He could write 
them by the mile.” (Laughter.) 

— The police discover in the stable of 
Garnard Lodge, Roehampton, London, part of 
the body of a female. The police were drawn 
to the place in consequence of a pawnbroker 
in Wandsworth having charged the coachman 
Good with stealing a pair of trousers from his 
shop. Good evinced great concern when the 
officers entered the stable in search of the 
missing garment, and when their attention was 
directed to the fourth stall he suddenly rushed 
out, locked the door upon them, and fled. In 
that stall, beneath a little hay, they found an 
object which at first they could not understand, 
but which turned out to be the trunk of a 

( 105 ) 





APRIL 


1842. 


APRIL 


female, with the head and limbs cut off, the 
abdomen cut open, and the entrails extracted. 
The whole of the cuts through the flesh had 
been made with a sharp knife, but the bones 
were hacked with some blunt instrument. The 
stable-door was at once burst open, the 
alarm given, and on further search a quantity 
of burnt bones belonging to the body was dis¬ 
covered in the fireplace of the harness-room. 
It was impossible to identify the remains, but 
from inquiries instantly set on foot there was 
no doubt they were those of a woman 
brought by Good or his wife to the Lodge the 
preceding Sunday. At the inquest the jury 
found the body to be that of Jane Jones, or 
Good, and that Daniel Good had wilfully mur¬ 
dered her. Good eluded pursuit for nearly a 
fortnight, but was then discovered working as 
a bricklayer’s labourer at Tunbridge by a man 
who had formerly been in the police force at 
Wandsworth. He was at once taken before 
the magistrate. While under examination he 
took a comb from his pocket and with it turned 
back the hair from his forehead, as if to hide 
a bald place—a circumstance which corre¬ 
sponded with a known peculiarity of the mur¬ 
derer Good. He persisted in stating that his 
name was O’Connor, and knew nothing about 
the murder. He was committed to Maidstone 
jail, where he was again identified by two 
officers, and conveyed by them back to 
London. 

7 . —At daylight this morning Sir Robert 
Sale attacks the besieging force of Akbar 
Khan outside the walls of Jellalabad. “ The 
Afifghans,” he writes, “made repeated attempts 
to check our advance by throwing forward 
heavy bodies of horse, which twice threatened 
to force back the detachments of foot under Cap¬ 
tain Havelock; but in a short time they were 
dislodged from every point of their position, 
their cannon taken, and their camp involved in 
a general conflagration. The battle was over 
and the enemy in full retreat in the direction 
of Jughman by about 7 A.M. The defeat of 
Mahomed Akbar in open field by the troops 
whom he had boasted of blockading has been 
complete and signal.” Colonel Dennie, of 
the 13th Light Infantry, was shot during the 
engagement. 

8 . — Lord John Russell introduces an amend¬ 
ment on the Government Income-tax scheme, 
on the ground that it was inquisitorial, unequal, 
and had hitherto been considered in the light 
of a war reserve only. The debate lasted till 
the 13th, when, on a division, Ministers had 
a majority of 106, in a House of 510 members. 

— Concluded at Boulogne the trial of Vivier, 
who in his duty as courier of the Chronicle , 
Post , and Herald , was charged with defrauding 
the Post-office. Suspicious of the speed with 
which private Eastern despatches were conveyed 
between Marseilles and Calais, M. Thiers had 
issued a regulation compelling them to pass 
through the post-office, and pay the ordinary 
rate. Vivier, though defended with great 


ability by M. Berryer, was found guilty. Judg¬ 
ment deferred. * 

8 .—Lord Melbourne submits a resolution 
affirming the principle of a fixed instead of a 
fluctuating duty on corn, but is defeated by a 
large majority. 

14 .— Presenting a petition to-day from the 
farmers of Essex to the House of Lords, Lord 
Western complained that the agriculturists had 
been deceived by Sir Robert Peel, who had 
framed the new Corn Law, and by their repre¬ 
sentatives in Parliament who had supported it. 
The Duke of Wellington instantly replied : 
“ The noble Lord should have waited for the 
opportunity of stating the when, and the where, 
and the how, and in what words, my right 
honourable friend has deceived the public. 
But, my Lords, I deny the fact; and, as for¬ 
mally and emphatically as the noble Lord has 
stated it, I say it is not true ; and that’s the 
end of it.” 

16 . —The troops under General Pollock en¬ 
tered Jellalabad amidst enthusiastic greetings 
on both sides. The garrison mounted the walls 
of the fortress, and loud cheers, mingling with 
the roar of cannon, attested the joy with which 
the beleaguered troops welcomed the arrival 
of their deliverers. 

17 . —A religious service performed by signs 
to the inmates of the Deaf and Dumb Refuge, 
Holborn. 

18 . —The Corn Importation Bill read a 
second time in the House of Lords by a majo¬ 
rity of 117 to 68. It was read a third time, 
and passed without a division, on the 22d. 

21.—-Lord Ellenborough issues from Benares 
a notification regarding Sale’s victory over 
Akbar Khan: “That illustrious garrison, 
which by its constancy in enduring privations, 
and by its valour in action, has already obtained 
for itself the sympathy and respect of every 
true soldier, has now, sallying forth from its 
walls under the command of its gallant leader, 
Major-General Sir Robert Sale,. thoroughly 
beaten in open field an enemy of more than 
three times its pumbers, taken the standards of 
their boasted cavalry, destroyed their camp, 
and recaptured four guns, which, under circum¬ 
stances which can never again occur, had 
during the last winter fallen into their hands.” 
A salute of twenty-one guns was ordred to be 
fired at every principal station of the army. 

23 .—Commencement of the sale of the 
Strawberry Hill collection. A wooden building 
was erected on the lawn for the purpose of 
accommodating the visitors, no apartment in 
the dwelling-house being large enough. The 
sale opened with the library of books, to which 
six days were devoted. 

— Died a prisoner in the hands of Akbar 
Khan, Major-General Elphinstone, the com¬ 
mander of the British forces in Affghanistan. 





APRIL 


1842. 


MA y 


24 . —Serious fires, supposed to be the work 
of incendiaries, take place in Huddersfield, 
Kidderminster, and Bridport. 

25 . —Meetingin Freemasons’ Hall to honour 
the memory of Dr. Birkbeck by founding a 
Professorship of Machinery and Manufacture 
in University College, London. 

— Captain Colin* Mackenzie, one of the 
Cabul prisoners, arrives in General Pollock’s 
camp with proposals from Akbar Khan for a 
surrender of all the hostages. The conditions 
being considered improper and extravagant, no 
result came of the negotiations at this time. 

— Died suddenly at Paris, M. Humann, 
French Minister of Finance. He filled that 
office in seven out of the nineteen administra¬ 
tions which had existed since 1830. 

27 . —Meeting of the electors of the City of 
London, to demand the resignation of Lord 
John Russell on account of his “factious oppo¬ 
sition” to Sir Robert Peel’s new tariff. An 
amendment in the form of a vote of confidence 
was carried by a large majority. 

— The Marquis of Tweeddale sworn in as 
Governor of Madras, and Sir George Arthur as 
Governor of Bombay. 

28 . —The Duchess de Nemours, daughter of 
Duke Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg Gotha, gives 
birth to a son, the Count d’Eu. 

29 . —Bungaree, the Australian pugilist, dies 
from injuries received in a fight with Broome 
at Newmarket. 

— The new Com Law Bill receives the 
Royal Assent. 

— Died at Hallow Park, Worcester, Sir 
Charles Bell, Professor of Surgery in the Uni¬ 
versity of Edinburgh. 

May 2.— Demonstration of Chartists in the 
metropolis on occasion of taking their monster 
national petition to the House of Commons. 
The procession mustered in the square of Lin¬ 
coln’s Inn Fields about one o’clock, and pro¬ 
ceeded by way of Holborn, Tottenham-court- 
road, the New-road, Langham-place, and 
Regent-street, to Westminster, which was 
reached between three and four o’clock. The 
petition, described as having 3,317,702 names 
appended, was borne on the shoulders of sixteen 
men, representing different trades in the metro¬ 
polis. Being too large for admission at the door 
of the House, it was broken up and carried in 
piecemeal by"a long -line of men. Next day 
Mr. Duncombe moved that the petitioners 
should be heard at the bar by counsel. Mr. 
T. B. Macaulay opposed the motion, drawing 
special attention to one passage in the petition 
complaining of the obligation to pay the Na¬ 
tional Debt, and to another remonstrating 
against the monopoly of property in land. Sir 
Robert Peel opposed the motion because it was 
an impeachment of the whole constitution and 
social order of the kingdom, and the business 


of the country could not be suspended while 
the House inquired whether it would be fitting 
to sponge out the National Debt and repeal the 
Union. Mr. Roebuck described the petition as 
drawn up by a cowardly and malignant dema¬ 
gogue. On a division there appeared, for the 
hearing, 49; against, 287. 

2 . —Lady Chantrey presents to the Univer¬ 
sity of Oxford her husband’s valuable collection 
of original busts, and copies from the antique, 
on condition that a permanent place is assigned 
to them in the sculpture gallery. 

— Eighty-seven clauses of the Income-tax 
Bill passed in committee to-day with little dis¬ 
cussion. 

3 . —Died at St. Petersburg, aged 62, Sir 
Robert Kerr Porter, K.C.H., traveller. 

4 . —The Boers of Port Natal, unable, as they 
alleged, to obtain redress of grievances within 
the limits of the Cape Colony, are unsuccess¬ 
fully attacked to-day on the frontier by Sir H. 
Smith. He lost two officers and fourteen men. 

— The Literary Association of the Friends 
of Poland give a fete at Stafford House, in 
which Madame Rachel takes part, and the 
sum of 876/. is raised in aid of poor Poles. At 
another entertainment in the Guildhall, where 
Miss Adelaide Kemble and Miss Rainforth 
appeared, 736/. was collected. 

— A mode of compromising election peti¬ 
tions, which afterwards led to a parliamentary 
inquiry, was this day adopted with reference 
to the recent Nottingham contest. “ Memo¬ 
randum :—It is expedient to settle the petitions 
now pending ; and it is agreed that, 1. All the 
petitions shall be abandoned ; 2. Within four 
days from this day one seat will be vacated ; 
3. The sum of 1,000/. to be paid in considera¬ 
tion of expenses incurred in connexion with 
petitions ; 4. It is understood that Mr. Walter 
is to be returned at the election resulting 
from the above-mentioned vacancy.” Similar 
compromises took place at Harwich, Lewes, 
Reading, Falmouth, and Bridport. 

— Dr. Lushington gives judgment in the 
Consistory Court against the legality of a new 
Braintree church-rate, levied by a minority of 
the vestry. At a meeting in July last, called for 
voting a rate for the repairs of the parish church, 
a motion was made for a rate of two shillings 
in the pound, and duly seconded ; an amend¬ 
ment was then moved, and carried by a 
large majority, denouncing all connexion be¬ 
tween Church and State in general, and against 
church-rates in particular. After this the ma¬ 
jority of the parishioners left, and the church¬ 
wardens and others of the ratepayers carried 
the original resolution without opposition. 

5 . —A policeman shot, and two others 
wounded, by an armed footpad who had been 
prowling for some days about the neighbour¬ 
hood of Highbury-bam. On being pursued to 
Highbury-vale he appeared to have resolved on 
keeping his pursuers at bay. He placed his 

(107) 









MA \ 


1842. 


MAY 


back against a hedge, and pulled out another 
pistol in addition to the one he was seen to 
load. Police-constable Daly approached nearer 
than any one else to him, and advised him to 
surrender. He refused, and said he would 
murder the first man who touched him. Daly, 
assisted by a broker named Mott, then went up 
to take the ruffian into custody, when he fired 
both pistols off at once. Daly and Mott fell, 
the former being shot dead through the heart, 
and the latter badly wounded. The assassin then 
gave himself up, and was conveyed to Islington 
station. He gave his name as Thomas Cooper, 
bricklayer, Clerkenwell, and stated that starva¬ 
tion had compelled him to take to the road. 

5 . —A fearful conflagration bursts out in 
Hamburg, lasting five days, and burning the 
largest and wealthiest part of the city. On the 
evening of the 6th a witness writes: “ A great 
part of this rich and flourishing town has fallen 
a prey to a fire which hourly sweeps in volumes 
through street upon street with merciless fury. 
It burst forth at twelve o’clock on Wednesday 
night, and has so gained up to this time, aided 
by high winds, in the midst of misdirected efforts 
to extinguish it or arrest its progress, that it 
rages now with increased violence over a space 
so wide, that I believe it will yet require the 
sacrifice of nearly one-half the remainder of the 
town to place a sufficient gap to bar its con¬ 
tinuance to the destruction of the whole of this 
ancient city.” Three of the five principal 
churches were destroyed, the Borsenhalle, the 
Old Exchange, the Senate House, the Post 
Office, and domestic dwellings to an extent 
that made a fifth of the population houseless. 
From 150 to 200 lives were also sacrificed. The 
total loss was set down at 7,000,000/., about 
1,000,000/. of which fell on English insurance 
offices. Large sums were collected in this 
country for the relief of the sufferers. 

6 . —The Income-tax Bill passes through 
committee. Three divisions took place to-day. 
In the rules for assessing incomes under 
Schedule D, Mr. Hume moved that the profits 
of trade be calculated on the profits of the last 
year only, instead of the last three years ; but the 
original proposition was affirmed, by 76 to 27. 
On clause 88, he moved as an amendment, that 
the Act should be in force till the 6th of April, 
1843, instead of the same day in 1845. This 
was rejected by 174 to 52. Mr. Redhead 
Yorke moved a clause to exempt attorneys, 
solicitors, and proctors from the tax to the 
amount of the duty on their certificates, but 
this also was rejected by 183 to 18. 

— Mr. Roebuck brings under the notice of 
the House of Commons the suspicious circum¬ 
stances connected with the withdrawal of several 
election petitions—the result, as he alleged, of a 
corrupt compact between the parties interested. 
He put the question direct to various members 
whose case had been postponed by the Com¬ 
mittee, but they generally repudiated his right 
to interfere with their private arrangements. The 
(108) 


House, however, consented to the appointment 
of a select committee to inquire into the subject. 

6 . —Explosion in Hodge’s Distillery, Church- 
street, Lambeth, and great destruction of spirits 
and other property by fire. 

7 . —Earthquake at St. Domingo, demolish¬ 
ing the town of Cape Haytien, and destroying, 
it was calculated, not fewer than 10,000 lives. 
A fire broke out afterwards, blowing up the 
powder magazine, and with it the remnant of 
inhabitants who had escaped the earthquake. 

8 . —Horrible occurrence on the railway be¬ 
tween Paris and Versailles. A train of seven¬ 
teen carriages, filled with from 1,500 to 1,800 
passengers, who had been taking part in the 
King’s fete, left Versailles about six o’clock, 
drawn by two engines. Between Meudon and 
Bellevue the axle of the first engine broke, and 
the body fell to the ground. The second engine 
smashed it in pieces and passed over it, when 
the boiler burst and the unfortunate stoker was 
thrown into the air. The impetus which the 
carriages had received, aided by the engine be¬ 
hind, brought three of them over the wreck. 
Here they took fire, and the doors being locked, 
the whole of the passengers were consumed 
after frightful sufferings. The next three 
carriages also took fire, and though the whole 
of them were not entirely consumed, only two 
or three of the passengers escaped by crushing 
themselves through the window. About 150 
people in the carriages behind were crushed 
and broken in the most dreadful manner. The 
list of killed was officially set down at fifty, but 
it was generally thought many more perished 
in the flames. In some of the compartments 
there was no possibility of separating or iden¬ 
tifying the charred masses of humanity. Two 
stokers, at first stupified by the smoke, and 
then calcined by the fire, remained for a con¬ 
siderable time after they had expired standing 
at their post and grasping the tools they had 
been using. 

IO.— Disturbance in Paradise-terrace, Lam¬ 
beth, caused by the attempt of an officer of the 
Court of Session to serve an order upon the 
Dowager Lady Cardross to deliver up two of 
her children to their grandfather, the Earl of 
Buchan. The small house in Paradise-terrace 
to which she had retreated continued in a state 
of siege for several days. 

— The House of Commons discuss the 
New Tariff Bill in committee. 

— Mr. Redington obtains leave to bring in 
a bill for the disfranchisement of Sudbury, 
on the ground of “the most systematic and 
open bribery ever proved before any Com¬ 
mittee.” The issue of a new writ for Notting¬ 
ham was suspended till Mr. Roebuck’s com¬ 
mittee had concluded its labours. 

11 -—A royal letter issued to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury for a collection in aid of the 
working classes throughout England and Scot¬ 
land. 






MAY 


1842. 


MAY 


12 .— The Queen gives a fancy dress ball in 
the Throne Room, Buckingham Palace, with a 
success and magnificence unrivalled since the 
days of Charles II. Her Majesty appeared as 
Queen Philippa, consort of Edward III., and 
Prince Albert as Edward III. himself, the 
costumes of those of her Majesty’s own circle 
belonging mostly to this era. The Duchess of 
Cambridge was received in state as Anne of 
Brittany at the head of her court. Dancing 
was engaged in for some hours. At one o’clock 
the Lord Steward conducted her Majesty and 
the Prince to supper, which was served amid a 
blaze of splendour from costly salvers, vases, 
tankards, and jewelled cups. After supper the 
Queen danced a quadrille with Prince George 
of Cambridge, their vis-h-vis being the Duchess 
of Buccleuch and the Duke of Beaufort. Her 
Majesty left the ball-room at half-past two. 
The tent of Tippoo Sultan, erected within 
the Corinthian portico adjoining the Green 
Drawing-room, was used as a refreshment-room. 

— The West India Company’s steamer 
Medina wrecked on a reef while entering at 
Turk’s Island. No lives were lost; but the 
Earl of Elgin, the new Governor of Jamaica, 
who was on board with his Countess, was only 
able to save his despatches. 

— A theological statute passed at Oxford, 
constituting Dr. Hampden chairman of the 
new Theological Board, thus virtually rescind¬ 
ing the judgment passed by the University in 
1836, on the occasion of his appointment to 
the chair of Regius Professor of Divinity by 
the Whig Government. A formal motion to 
rescind this vote was afterwards negatived by 
334 to 219 votes. 

14 .—Trial of Daniel Good at the Central 
Criminal Court, before the Lord Chief Justice, 
Baron Alderson, and Justice Coltman. (See 
April 6.) His reputed wife, Mary Good, was 
also charged as being an accessary after the 
fact. They both pleaded Not guilty. The trial 
of Daniel Good was proceeded with separately, 
and lasted till 8 o’clock P.M., when the jury 
brought in a verdict of Guilty. The Chief 
Justice then passed sentence of death, after 
which Good made a rambling statement to the 
effect that a witness, Susan Butcher, produced 
on the trial, was the cause of the whole, the 
woman Jones having committed suicide in the 
stable through jealousy of his connexion with 
that person. The body, he said, was cut up 
and partially burned by a stranger, who offered 
to do it for a sovereign. He concluded his 
address—“Good night all, ladies and gentle¬ 
men ; I have a great deal more to say, but I 
am so bad I cannot say it.” He was then 
removed. The woman, Mary or Moll Good, 
was dismissed. 

16 .—Died at Passy, the Count de Las Casas, 
companion of Napoleon at St. Helena. 

18 .—The Duke of Buckingham, popularly 
known as “the Farmer’s Friend,” presented 
at Aylesbury with a testimonial subscribed for 


by his admirers in Buckinghamshire. In re¬ 
plying to an address presented, the Duke spoke 
of this as the last scene in his political life. 

19 . —Lord Elgin sworn in as Governor of 
Jamaica, in room of Lord Metcalfe, who re¬ 
turned to England. 

20 . —The Metropolitan Parliamentary Re¬ 
form Association meet for the first time in 
John-s*rect, Adel phi. 

23 .—“No change has taken place in our 
treatment,” writes Conolly, in the last sentences 
he is known to have penned in the Bokhara 
prison. “ About sunset, as Stoddart and myself 
were pacing up and down a small court of 
twenty feet long, which encloses our prison, one 
of the citadel door-keepers came and desired us 
both to sit in a corner; we complied, wondering 
what would follow, and presently saw heads 
peering at us from the adjoining roofs, when 
we understood that the Ameer’s heir, a youth 
of seventeen, had taken this way of getting a 
sight of the Feringhee Elchees. We must have 
given him but a poor impression, in the remains 
of our clothes, and with heads and beards un¬ 
combed for more than five months. ” All pre¬ 
cise trace of the captives is lost after this, 
though there is secondary evidence not to be 
lightly disputed, that they were both publicly 
executed by the Ameer when he returned 
glutted with conquest from the Kokund expedi¬ 
tion. “The most credible witness,” writes 
Kaye, “ is one Saleb Mahomed, a youth whom 
Major Todd despatched from Herat to join Cap¬ 
tain Conolly’s suite. His story was, that in the 
month of June of this year (the 17th most pro¬ 
bably) Stoddart and Conolly were taken out of 
their prison, and in the presence of an assembled 
multitude led into a small square. Their 
hands were bound together before them, their 
graves were dug before their eyes. Stoddart 
was first marked for death. He cried aloud 
against the tyranny of the Ameer; and his 
head was cut off with a knife. Conolly was 
then offered his life, on condition that he would 
adopt the Mussulman faith. But he indignantly 
rejected the proposal. ‘ Stoddart,’ he said, ‘ be¬ 
came a Mussulman, and yet you kill him : I am 
prepared to die.’ And then Arthur Conolly, full 
of faith in the merits of his Redeemer, stretched 
forth his neck and died.” Saleb Mahomed 
said his informant was one of the executioners. 

— In the General Assembly of the Church 
of Scotland the Rev. Mr. Cunningham moves 
that “The Assembly, having considered the 
overtures on patronage, resolve and declare 
that patronage is a grievance attended with 
injury to the cause of pure religion in this 
Church and kingdom, is the source of all the 
difficulties in which the Church is now involved, 
and therefore ought to be abolished.” An 
amendment, to the effect that it was inexpedient 
in the present circumstances to adopt the 
motion, was proposed by the Procurator. The 
debate lasted till 2 a.m. next morning, when a 
division took place; 216 voting for the motion, 

(109) 






MAY 


1842. 


a/a r 


and 147 for the amendment. On the 26th the 
Rev. Mr. Robertson of Ellon, the Rev. Charles 
Hope of Lamington, Dr. James Bryce, and 
the Rev. John Wilson, members of Assembly, 
with seven other ministers not members of 
Assembly, appeared at the bar, in answer to a 
citation for having held communion with the 
deposed ministers of Strathbogie. Dr. Cook 
recorded a protest against the competency of 
the Assembly to found upon the charge an 
ecclesiastical censure. Dr. Bryce stated, in the 
name of himself and his brethren, that they 
appeared to the citation from respect to the 
Assembly, without intending thereby to acknow¬ 
ledge the competency of the Court to inflict 
censure. Captain Elphinstone Dalrymple called 
upon the Assembly to place the whole minority 
at the bar; avowing that he himself had shared 
in the act for which the others were about to be 
censured. After a debate, in which many bitter 
words were used, the Assembly affirmed the 
motion of Dr. Candlish, censuring the parties 
at the bar, and appointing a Committee to 
“ deal ” with them, and report to the Assembly 
on Monday. On that day, Dr. Makellar, the 
Convener of the Committee, reported that the 
conference had been carried on in an affec¬ 
tionate Christian spirit, but that the ministers 
still adhered to their former views ; and he 
moved that they be suspended from their judi¬ 
cial functions as members of presbyteries and 
superior judicatories, until the first Wednesday 
in March next. After a sharp debate, this 
sentence was pronounced. On the 27th a 
majority in the Assembly deposed Clerk of 
Lethendy, and Livingstone of Cambusnethan, 
for resisting decrees of presbyteries; Duguid, of 
Glass, was declared to have forfeited his licence, 
on account of accepting induction at the hands 
of deposed ministers; and Mr. Middleton was 
rejected as the presentee to Culsalmond, on the 
ground of having violated the Veto Act. Next 
day Captain E. Dalrymple gave rise to a per¬ 
sonal discussion, by charging Mr. Cunningham 
with having had his veracity impugned in the 
newspapers—a crime, he said, worse than any 
for which the ministers were deposed, and giving 
him good reason to object to Mr. Cunningham’s 
commission. The Captain was ultimately in¬ 
duced to retract his expression. On the 30th 
the Assembly, taking into consideration the 
solemn circumstances in which the Church was 
placed, resolved and agreed on the famous 
Claim, Declaration, and Protest, which hence¬ 
forward became a basis for the proceedings of 
the majority. It was forwarded with an address 
to the Queen, signed "by the Moderator. 

23. —Execution of Daniel Good for the Roe- 
hampton murder. He died affirming his inno¬ 
cence in the face of a yelling, tumultuous mob, 
larger, it was said, than any which had assem¬ 
bled since the execution of Fauntleroy. 

25. —At a meeting at Stockport, to memo¬ 
rialize the Queen on the distress prevailing 
in that district, it was stated that the poor-rates 
had increased from 2,628/. in 1836-7 to 7,120/.; 
(no) 


more than half the master spinners had failed, 
and 3,000 dwelling-houses were untenanted 
In the suburb of Heaton Norris, one-fourth of 
the houses were untenanted, and about 1,000 
occupants had been relieved from the poor-rate 
on the score of poverty. 

26. —The Copyright Bill read a second time 
in the House of Lords, and passed into Com¬ 
mittee. 

— Lord Stanley obtains leave to bring in a bill 
for the better government of Newfoundland. It 
fixed the electoral qualification in the country 
districts at a forty-shilling freehold ; in towns 
at an occupancy of 5/.; which would include 
the great bulk of the householders. Instead of 
a separate Assembly and Legislative Council, 
the bill would unite the two as one Council ; 
two-fifths of the united Council to be nominated 
by the Crown, three-fifths elected by the 
people. Money-votes to originate with the 
Crown. The bill, with certain amendments, 
proposed by Mr. Buller and Mr. O’Connell, 
passed through both Houses during the session, 
and received the Royal Assent. 

— Grand ball in her Majesty’s Theatre for 
the benefit of the Spitalfields weavers. The 
Queen was present with a brilliant circle. 

— The British forces defeat the Boers at 
Port Natal, and occupy the place. 

30.— John Francis attempts to shoot the 
Queen. Colonel Arbuthnot, one of the Equer¬ 
ries, said: “ At the time, between six and seven 
o’clock, we were coming down Constitution- 
hill. When about half-way down I observed 
the prisoner, and on the carriage reaching him 
he took a pistol from his side and fired it in 
the direction of the Queen. He was not above 
seven feet from the carriage, which by instruc¬ 
tion was proceeding at a rapid rate then ; he 
should say twelve or thirteen miles an hour.” 
The Queen exhibited her usual calm demeanour 
under the outrage. Francis was seized instantly 
by private Allen of the Fusilier Guards and 
police-constable Trower, who was attempting 
to dash the pistol out of his hand when the 
shot was fired. He was taken to the lodge ad¬ 
joining the palace, where he was searched, and 
a ball, with a little powder and the still warm 
pistol, were taken from his person. Francis 
preserved a dogged silence regarding his motive, 
and refused to give any explanation about his 
antecedents; but it was soon ascertained that 
he was the son of a machinist in Drury-lane 
Theatre, and had for some months been out of 
employment. He was examined in the first 
instance before the Privy Council, and then 
committed to Newgate. On the news being 
conveyed to the Houses of Parliament the Lords 
and Commons adjourned in confusion, as it was 
found impossible to carry on the public busi¬ 
ness in the excitement the attempt had occa¬ 
sioned. Congratulatory addresses were voted 
next day by both Houses of Parliament, and 
many were afterwards forwaided by corporate 
bodies throughout the kingdom. Her Majesty 







AT A Y 


JUNE 


T842. 


attended the Italian Opera in the evening, and 
received an enthusiastic welcome. 

The Irish papers of this month give ac¬ 
counts of many outrages on the persons and 
properties of landowners and agents, particu¬ 
larly in the Tipperary and King’s County 
districts. 

June 1.—Ann Friesdale, a young woman of 
remarkable beauty, found drowned' in the Re¬ 
gent’s Canal, supposed to have been thrown in. 

— In answer’ to Mr. Disraeli’s charge of 
mutilating Sir A. Bumes’ Cabul correspond¬ 
ence, Sir J. Hobhouse explains that the blue- 
book recently issued purported to be only 
extracts, but no omission had been made which 
affected the spirit of the originals. 

— Strike of colliers in the Dudley district. 

3 . —In Glasgow large masses of the unem¬ 
ployed muster on the Green, and having formed 
themselves into marching order, commence a 
begging tour through the city. 

4 . —Explosion at Apothecaries’ Hall, caused 
by the bursting of a bomb-shell, on which Mr. 
Hennell, the principal analyser, was operating. 
He was blown to atoms, and everything in that 
part of the building destroyed. 

— Provision riots in Ireland. At Ennis 
the mob seized a boat being loaded with meal 
and flour for Kilrush, and took possession of the 
whole cargo. Towards evening the disorder 
in the town greatly increased, and the police 
fired among the mob, when two were killed and 
several wounded. In Cork an attack was made 
on the potato market, but the mob failed to 
force an entrance. 

— Sir James Graham refuses to present an 
address of congratulation to the Queen from 
the Orangemen of Birmingham. It implored 
Divine Providence to continue to watch over 
and protect her Majesty from treasonable vio¬ 
lence and “ Popish machination.” 

— Royal proclamation issued regarding light 
sovereigns and half-sovereigns in circulation. 

— Disturbance at Chatham* between the sea¬ 
men belonging to certain colliers in the Medway 
and the soldiers of the 26th Foot, then in gar¬ 
rison. 

6 . —Lord Congleton (formerly known as Sir 
Henry Parnell) commits suicide, by hanging 
himself from the bedpost with a neckerchief. 

— Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill for the better prevention of 
bribery at the election of members of Par¬ 
liament. 

7 . —Lord Ashley obtains leave to bring in a 
bill for restricting the employment of women 
and children in mines and factories. In the 
course of his speech he made a powerful use 
of the revolting facts brought to light by the 
special commission appointed to inquire into 
this subject. 


8.—Ely Cathedral injured by a fire which 
broke out in the roof of the fabric. 

IO.—In reply to Mr. Fox Maule, Sir James 
Graham states that after the late proceedings 
of the General Assembly of the Church of 
Scotland, Government had given up all inten¬ 
tion of interfering in the dispute, and Mr. 
Campbell’s bill, which was set down for the 
15th, would be opposed, as it interfered with 
the rights of the Crown. This statement was 
reiterated by Sir Robert Peel on the 17th. 

12. —Died, after a few hours’ illness, of heart 
disease, the Rev. Thomas Arnold, D.D., Head 
Master of Rugby School. 

13 . —In the House of Lords, the judges 
decide the case of Lady Hewley’s Charity in 
favour of Trinitarian Protestant Dissenters, and 
against the claims made by Unitarians to par¬ 
ticipate therein. 

14 . —Lord Campbell brings under the notice 
of the House of Lords the case of police-con¬ 
stable Simpson, whose evidence had been re¬ 
jected on a trial at Stirling, on the ground that 
he lay under suspicion of being an Atheist. 
After an explanation by the Lord Chancellor, 
the motion for the production of papers was 
withdrawn. 

15 . —A female monster in Liverpool muti¬ 
lates the body of her new-born infant by cut¬ 
ting off its head, legs, and arms with a pair of 
scissors. 

— Commencement of a series of highway 
robberies in the neighbourhood of Bristol by an 
armed gang. 

16 . —-A band of English colonists, on at¬ 
tempting to take possession of land at Cloudly 
Bay, Wairoo, sold to them by the New Zealand 
Company, are set upon by natives and nineteen 
of them killed; Captains Wakefield and Eng¬ 
land, and H. A.Thomson, Esq. magistrate, being 
among the number. 

17 . —Trial of Francis at the Central Criminal 
Court for attempting to shoot the Queen. He 
was found guilty, and sentenced to death. On 
the conclusion of Chief Justice Tindal’s address 
he fell insensible into the arms of one of the 
turnkeys, and in that state was carried out of 
the court. The sentence was afterwards com¬ 
muted to transportation for life. 

IS.—Royal Assent given to the bill imposing 
duties on profits arising from property, pro¬ 
fessions, trades, and offices, until 6th April, 
1845. 

19 .—Shanghai captured by the British, and 
the garrisons thrown open to the people. A 
number of the public buildings were destroyed 
during the excitement incident to our entry into 
the city. 

—• Died, aged 45, Frederick H. Yates, a 
comic actor of great popularity. 

23 .—Came on in the Court of Common 
Pleas, the case of Macready v. Harmer, being 

(HI) 





JUNE 


1842. 


JULY 


an action for libel raised by the eminent 
tragedian against the publisher of the Dispatch, 
newspaper, which had spoken of the plaintiff’s 
regulations to exclude women of the town from 
the body of the theatre as insincere, ineffectual, 
and dictated by improper motives. The jury 
gave 5 1. damages. 

24 . —Royal proclamation, announcing the 
issue of half-farthings, but no one to be com¬ 
pelled to take more in payment than the value 
of sixpence. 

25 . —The Marquis and Marchioness of 
Waterford thrown out of a carriage when 
driving through their grounds. The Marquis 
escaped unhurt, but her ladyship was severely 
cut and bruised. 

— Great depression in trade in the manu¬ 
facturing districts, manufacturers and shop¬ 
keepers alike urging upon Government the 
necessity of doing something to relieve them. 
To-day the Leeds Mercury records that 4,025 
families in that town, or about one-fifth of the 
entire population, were dependent on poor- 
rates. 

— Disturbance in the Italian Opera-house 
caused by the substitution of “Beatrice di 
Linda” for “II Puritani” on account of the 
illness of Persiani. 

— Died, near Geneva, aged 69, M. de Sis- 
mondi, historian. 

27 . —Cook’s circus, on Glasgow Green, de¬ 
stroyed by fire, originating in an escape of gas. 
The horses were got out, but portions of the 
properties were destroyed. Occurring at an 
early hour of the evening, there were only a 
few people in the gallery, and they escaped 
without injury. 

— Lord Denman withdraws his Oaths 
Affirmation Bill, but on the suggestion of the 
Bishop of London it is agreed to refer the 
whole question of oaths to a Select Committee. 

— The Paris Moniteur publishes a Royal 
ordinance augmenting the import duties on 
foreign linen and linen yarn. 

28 . —The new Tariff Bill passes through 
the House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel 
taking leave of the measure with a frank ac¬ 
knowledgment of the support he had received 
from political opponents as well as friends. 
“Looking,” he said, “to the whole changes 
that have been made, and to the complicated 
interests involved, he could not help thinking 
that the reflecting body of the community would 
be of opinion that the Government had exercised 
its influence for wise purposes, and that they 
had effected as great changes as it was possible 
for them to do without violently disturbing the 
various interests involved. For his own part, 
he was unwilling to disturb, by political feeling 
or party recrimination, that general assent 
which, greatly to the credit of the House, had 
prevailed during the discussion of this measure; 
and he now bade adieu to it, with an earnest 

(112) 


hope that the object of the present Government 
would be answered, and that, doing as little 
individual injury as possible, the ultimate result 
would be to promote the commerce of the 
country and to give new openings for its 
domestic industry. Such was his earnest hope; 
and if that end should be attained, he felt that 
all their labour would be more than re¬ 
compensed by such a desirable result. ” 

29 . —Mr. Roebuck reports to the House 
that the Committee on Election Proceedings 
desire to conduct their inquiry privately, and 
with only the witnesses under examination pre¬ 
sent. The inquiry, he said, was not designed to 
be of a personal incriminating character, but 
merely to discover the process by which certain 
things had been done as illustrations of a 
general practice. A committee was appointed 
to search for precedents. 

30 . —Destructive fire in Bermondsey, the 
damage to property being estimated at 
100,000/. 

July 1.—Royal Assent given to the Copy¬ 
right Bill. 

— Arrival of the Overland Mail with news 
of General Pollock’s relief of Jellalabad, and 
the safety of the captives carried away by 
Akbar Khan. 

— In a discussion on the distress presently 
prevailing throughout the country, Sir James 
Graham solemnly declared his belief that it 
could not be alleviated by the immediate repeal 
of the Corn Laws. Such a step would only 
displace and discourage agricultural industry 
and condemn agriculturists to common ruin 
with manufacturers.—Mr. Disraeli attributed 
the distress to the neglect of completing a 
commercial treaty with France, and to the dis¬ 
turbance which had been caused to our com¬ 
merce by the war with China.—Sir Robert 
Peel praised the forbearance of the people, but 
deprecated the introduction of motions making 
Government responsible for providing them 
with sustenance and employment, or deferring 
the prorogation till specific remedies were 
devised. 

2 . —Tipperary Special Commission closes to¬ 
day, conviction being obtained in most instances 
against parties concerned in agrarian outrages. 
Patrick Byrne was convicted of the murder of 
Robert Hall, the proprietor of land rented 
by one Kent and others, by shooting him in 
mid-day. Kent was charged with having insti¬ 
gated Byrne to commit the murder, out of re¬ 
venge for an ejectment which had been served 
against a relation of his by Mr. Hall.—Ti¬ 
mothy Quilty, alias Woods, was convicted of 
murdering Michael Laffan; who was dragged 
from his house, and shot in the open road, in 
the morning, and in the sight of several per¬ 
sons. The body was afterwards left on a 
dunghill, none of the inhabitants being willing 
to admit it into their houses ; the inquest was 
held in the street.—Jchn Pound was convicted of 




JULY 


1842. 


JULY 


having fired through the door of a dwelling- 
house a shot which wounded the wife of 
the owner in three several places so as seri¬ 
ously to endanger her life.—Michael Hayes 
was convicted of having, in company with 
another, waylaid and fired at John Ryan. It 
appeared that each of the persons concerned 
had fired, and that one of the shots took effect 
and killed the horse upon which Ryan was 
riding. The day after the Commission rose 
(Sunday) another murder and attack on pro¬ 
perty was reported from the townland of Dolla. 

2 . —Food riot in Dumfries, and the shops of 
various mealmongers on each side of the Nith 
plundered. 

— Festive entertainment at Cambridge in 
honour of the installation of the Duke of 
Northumberland as Chancellor of the Uni¬ 
versity. 

3 . —A deformed youth named Bean levels 
a pistol at her Majesty when passing from 
Buckingham Palace to the Chapel Royal, St. 
James’s. He was committed to trial for mis¬ 
demeanour, the capital charge being abandoned. 
The pistol was loaded, but it did not go off. 
Bean was not caught at the time—a circum¬ 
stance which led to the apprehension of a large 
number of humpbacked people in the metro¬ 
polis. Throughout London and its suburbs 
they only were safe who, like Prince Hal, 
“were straight enough in the shoulders and 
cared not who saw their backs. ” 

4 -.— Execution of Cooper for the murder of 
Constable Daly at Highbury. 

— The Tariff Bill read a second time in 
the House of Lords, an amendment by Lord 
Stanhope being rejected by 59 to 4 votes. 

— Lord Ellenborough suggests to General 
Nott that he might move from Candahar by 
going forward in the direction of Ghuznee, 
Cabul, and Jellalabad, and that General Pollock 
might assist this so-called withdrawal of the 
armies by moving forward upon Cabul. On 
reaching Ghuznee, Nott was instructed to de¬ 
spoil the tomb of Sultan Mahmoud. “You 
will bring away,” wrote the Governor-General, 
“ from the tomb of Mahmoud of Ghuznee his 
club, Which hangs over it, and you will bring 
away the gates of his tomb which are the gates 
of the temple of Somnauth.” 

5.—An Anti-Corn Law Conference assem¬ 
bles in London to discuss the present alarm¬ 
ing position of the manufacturing classes. So 
far as the Corn-Laws were concerned, Mr. 
Bright said the people themselves had the 
power to compel a settlement. “There were 
other weapons than those of war ; there were 
other weapons beside those which wounded the 
body ; there was a most beautiful and admi¬ 
rable system which the people had in their own 
power, to which he was fully persuaded they 
were rapidly drifting, which, if put into active 
operation, would not fail to bring the struggle 
to a successful issue.” During the sitting of 
(1131 


the Conference .accounts were daily received of 
the state of the country. At Sheffield it was 
reported that 10,000 people were suffering 
extreme distress ; in the Wolverhampton dis¬ 
trict 62 blast furnaces were at present idle; 
and at Stockport, a poor-rate, which in 1839 
at is. %d. had produced 5,000/., now failed to 
produce 3,600/. at 2 s. At Manchester, shop¬ 
keepers and operatives were meeting almost 
daily to devise measures of relief. The poor- 
rate here was presently y. 4 d. per pound. 
At Burslem the people became greatly excited, 
and the military required to be called out. 

5 . — In the House of Commons Lord 
Worsley draws the attention of the Secretary, 
at-War to the reports regarding certain dis¬ 
respectful words said to have been used by 
Colonel Henry Dundas when speaking of the 
Queen. Sir H. Hardinge stated, in reply, that 
the Colonel having failed to absolve himself 
from the grave offence, was now dismissed from 
the position of Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, 
and placed on the half-pay list. 

6 . —At a Free-trade Conference in Sheffield, 
the Rev. W. Bayley uses language regarding 
Sir Robert Peel which was afterwards com¬ 
mented on in Parliament. “ It was not words 
would move Parliament, but force : this should 
have effect, if they did not change their system. 
He had heard of a gentleman who in a private 
company said, that if a hundred persons cast 
lots among them, and the lot should fall upon 
him, he would take the lot to deprive Sir Ro¬ 
bert Peel of life. He felt convinced no such 
attempt should be made, on any pretence what¬ 
ever ; but was persuaded of this, that when Sir 
Robert Peel went to his grave there would be 
but few to shed one tear over him.” 

8 . — Conclusion of debate on Mr. Wallace’s 
amendment to defer the prorogation till mea¬ 
sures were in operation for relieving the distress 
throughout the country. For amendment, 49 ; 
against, 174. 

— Died, at St. Ann’s Hill, Chertsey, aged 
94, Elizabeth Bridget, widow of the Right Hon. 
Charles James Fox, the eminent rival of Wil¬ 
liam Pitt in the councils of the nation. 

9 . — A body of Anti-Corn Law delegates, 
numbering 144, obtain an interview with Sir 
Robert Peel on the subject of their grievance ; 
but the Premier refuses to give them any pledge 
as to immediate relief. 

— In the case of the Vicar of Gedney and 
the Wesleyan Methodists, the House of Lords 
pronounce a decision affirming the judgment of 
the Court below, in favour of lay baptism. 

11 . —Mr. Villiers’ motion, that the House 
resolve itself into a committee to consider the 
laws relating to the importation of com, lost 
on a division by 117 to 231. 

12. —Sir Robert Peel introduces a Bill for 
the better protection of the Queen’s person 
against minor offences, making offenders liable 

I 





JULY 


to seven years’ transportation, or imprisonment 
with corporeal chastisement. 

13 . —Death of the Duke of Orleans, eldest 
son of the King of the French, from the effects 
of a fall out of his cabriolet near the Porte 
Maillot. The French funds were injuriously 
affected by the event, the Three per Cents, 
falling as low as 76 f. or nearly 4 per cent. 

15 . —Affair of honour between Captain 
Boldero and the Hon. Craven Berkeley. The 
meeting arose out of an article in the Morning 
Chronicle , purporting to record expressions 
made use of by Captain Boldero in the library 
of the House of Commons, regarding the 
punishment to which Col. Dundas had been 
subjected for using language disrespectful of 
the Queen. “If any one,” he was reported 
to have said, “ drunk or sober, chose to swear 
at the Queen in my presence, I should take no 
notice of it; I am not an eavesdropper. ” 
Berkeley denied all knowledge of the article, 
but affirmed the general correctness of the 
report. The parties met in the neighbourhood 
of Osterley Park, and exchanged shots without 
effect. Explanations then took place, and the 
principals left the ground with their friends. 

18 . —Meetings held this day in Liverpool, 
Manchester, and Leeds, to consider the great 
and daily increasing distress of the country, 
and with the view, if possible, of inducing her 
Majesty’s Ministers to take steps, before the 
dissolution of Parliament, for carrying out some 
remedial measure. Deputations were appointed 
to wait on Sir Robert Peel and other members 
of the Government. 

— The Lord Chancellor’s bill for extend¬ 
ing the jurisdiction of the County Courts, read 
a second time in the Upper House. 

19 . —A trotting-match takes place in the 
grounds attached to the Rosemary Branch 
Tavern, Hoxton, when a grey pony, twelve 
hands and a half high, is ridden by one of Mr. 
Batty’s monkeys, dressed in racing costume, and 
accomplishes a distance of fourteen miles in 
fifty-seven minutes. 

21 . —The city of Chin-Kiang-Foo, com¬ 
manding the entrance to the Grand Canal, 
stormed and taken by the British forces under 
Sir Hugh Gough. The Tartar general, when 
he saw that all was lost, retired to his house, 
which he commanded his servants to set on 
fire, and sat in his chair till he was burned to 
death. One of the scaling-party writes :— 
“It is impossible to compute the loss of the 
Chinese, for when they found they could stand 
no longer against us, they cut the throats of 
their wives and children, or drove them into 
wells or ponds, and then destroyed themselves. 
In many houses there were from eight to twelve 
dead bodies, and I myself saw a dozen women 
und children drowning themselves in a small 
pond the day after the fight. ” The first man 
who reached the top of the battlement was 
Lieut. Cuddy, of the 55th, who planted the 
(U 4 ) 


JULY 


English ensign on the walls, under the fire; 
of the enemy, and then coolly assisted thei 
foremost of his party up the scaling-ladder.j 
The killed and wounded on the British sidfe 
amounted to 169. 

26 .—Captivity of Col. Stoddart and Capt. 
Conolly at Bokhara. Lady Sale records in the 
journal of her captivity : “ Colonel Stoddart 
and Captain Arthur Conolly are prisoners at 
Bokhara. The latter had been enthusiastically j 
employed in endeavouring to effect the release j 
of slaves in Kokhan. The King of Bokhara] 
conquered the chief of that country, and placed j 
Conolly in confinement at Bokhara. He and 
his fellow-prisoner, by the last account, had 
been 126 days confined in a dungeon under 
ground without light; they had never changed 
their clothes or washed, and their food was let 
down to them once in four or five days. A 
native who had compassion on them received 
a message through the person who took their 
food to them, and through him Conolly has 
communicated with his family here, who also 
are now powerless to assist him. ” 

— The King of the French opens an ex¬ 
traordinary session of the Chambers, rendered 
necessary by the death of the Duke of Orleans. 
His Majesty was much affected during the 
reading of the address, which made reference to 
the great calamity that had befallen his house, 
in the death of “ that dearly beloved son whom 
I considered destined to replace me on the 
throne, and who was the glory and support of 
my old age.” 

28 . —Mr. Roebuck moves a series of reso¬ 
lutions based on the report of the Election 
Compromises Committee, declaring that such 
arrangements cannot for the future pass un¬ 
punished ; that they violate the franchises of 
the people and the privileges of the House; 
and that the issue of writs for the places impli¬ 
cated must be suspended until measures be 
devised to protect the purity of elections. In 
the debate which ensued, Mr. Russell, one of the 
members for Reading, and a person implicated 
in the inquiry, taunted Mr. Roebuck with being 
an unfit person to have the conduct of such an 
inquiry, having himself sat in the House as the 
paid agent of the rebel colony of Canada. The 
first resolution was negatived, after a debate, 
by 136 to 47 votes, and the others without a 
division. 

— The Rev. Archibald Campbell Tait, 
Fellow and Tutor of Balliol, elected Head 
Master of Rugby School. . 

— Thunder-storm in the metropolis ; the 
lightning struck and injured the spire of the 
church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. 

29 . —The Lord Mayor (Pirie) gives an enter¬ 
tainment to a number of the City trading com¬ 
panies. 

30 . —The remains of the Duke of Orleans 
removed with great pomp from the chapel of 
the palace of Neuilly to the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame, preparatory to interment at Dreux. 


1842. 






AUGUST 


1842. 


AUGUST 


August 1 . —Opening of the Thames Tunnel. 
About 500 visitors pass through from the 
Wapping side to Rotherhithe. 

— The colliers and iron-miners in the Air¬ 
drie and Coatbridge districts strike work for 
an advance of wages. They were joined in a 
few days by the workmen in the Glasgow dis¬ 
trict, giving rise to great inconvenience through¬ 
out the west of Scotland. 

2. —Intelligence from Western Africa of 
this date announces the final breaking up of 
the African Civilization Colony on the Niger. 
The steamer Wilberforce took away the last of 
the colonists from the model farms. 

4 -.—Alarming disturbances break out in the 
manufacturing districts. The spinners and 
weavers of Staleybridge strike, in consequence 
of a proposal to reduce their wages, and the 
men, banding themselves together, succeed in 
turning out all the hands in the Ashton and 
Oldham mills. Gathering strength as they 
went on, they entered Manchester in great 
force, but divided into sections when they 
saw the military approaching. The mills here 
were mostly stopped, and attacked by the mob, 
the rioting continuing, with more or less seve¬ 
rity, over a week. During three days twenty- 
three people were taken to the infirmary in 
consequence of affrays between the military or 
special constables and the mob. As in other 
towns, they were chiefly under the direction of 
| Chartist demagogues. On the 7th, the town 
of Stockport was the scene of serious rioting. 
The mob forced an entrance into the union 
workhouse at Snowheath, and carried off 672 
loaves and 7/. in copper money. Next day a 
-conflict took place between the workmen and 
military in Preston, when the latter were com- 
tpelled to fire ; two or three were fatally wounded. 
Stockport, Macclesfield, Dudley, Bolton, and 
Huddersfield were all kept in terror by bands 
of excited operatives, demanding “a fair day’s 
wage for a fair day’s work.” On the 13th, a 
Cabinet Council assembled at the Foreign 
Office and sat for two hours. Shortly after 
orders were issued from the Horse Guards for 
the departure of ti'oops of Artillery and Grena¬ 
diers to Manchester; they left the metropolis 
that evening, and were joined by others from 
Woolwich and Portsmouth. At the same sitting 
of Council motions were drawn up commanding 
the magistrates to use their utmost endeavours 
to apprehend the “ lawless and disorderly per¬ 
sons who by force and violence were entering 
mills and manufactories, and by threats and inti¬ 
midation preventing peaceable people from fol¬ 
lowing their usual occupation.” During the 
week of greatest anxiety to the Government,— 
from the 18th to the 25th,—a clerk was sent 
down from the London Post-office, with direc¬ 
tions, under the authority of a Secretary of 
State s warrant, to open the letters of six parties 
named therein, all taking a prominent part in 
the disturbances. Two following warrants au¬ 
thorized him to open the letters of ten other 
per ons. Most of these parties were afterwards 
(115) 


apprehended, indicted, and convicted before the 
Special Commission appointed to try the parties 
charged with exciting the disturbances in the 
manufacturing districts. On the 15th, at Burs- 
lem, the house of Mr. Parker, a magistrate, 
was burnt to the ground, and the Town-hall, 
police offices, and several private houses ran¬ 
sacked. Here also the military were compelled 
to fire, killing three unfortunate agitators, and 
wounding a dozen others. In Dunfermline 
the weavers set fire to Watson’s factory and 
had possession of the town for the greater part 
of a night. During the disturbances an anony¬ 
mous letter was sent to Lady Peel, announcing 
the intention of the mob to burn Drayton 
Manor, and it was rumoured once or twice that 
the mansion had actually been fired. Another 
party were said to have been checked in their 
intention of occupying Leeds church, by an 
announcement that the vicar would be present 
and preach to them all night. 

5 . —The House of Lords give a final de¬ 
cision regarding Lady Hewley’s bequest of 
“certain manors in York, in trust to support 
godly preachers of Christ’s Holy Gospel,” a 
phrase taken to designate Protestant Dis¬ 
senters. In process of time the trust fell 
entirely into the hands of Unitarians, but 
attention was drawn to the subject by the 
report of the Charity Commissioners, and a 
bill was filed in Chancery to dispossess them. 
The Vice-Chancellor and Lord Chancellor de¬ 
cided against the claim of the Unitarians, 
Justice Erskine observing that those who denied 
the Trinity were, in Lady Hewley’s time, con¬ 
sidered blasphemers, and therefore could not be 
intended by the term “ godly preachers.” Lord 
Cottenham now pronounced judgment, affirm¬ 
ing the decree of the Court below, with costs. 

6 . —Died at Windgap cottage, near Leinster, 
in the 42d year of his age, John Banim, author 
of the O’Hara Tales. 

7 . —General Nott leaves Candahar to join 
General Pollock at Cabul, his route lying 
along the valley of the Tumuk river up to its 
source in the hills near Muhoor. He encoun¬ 
tered an Affghan force near Ghuznee, and scat¬ 
tered it without much loss on his own side. 

9 .—Treaty signed at Washington by Lord 
Ashburton on the part of the British Govern¬ 
ment, and Mr. Webster on behalf of the Ame¬ 
rican, regarding the north-west boundary of 
the two countries, the suppression of the slave- 
trade, and the extradition of criminals—ques¬ 
tions which had given rise to much correspond¬ 
ence between the two countries. 

— The House of Lords give judgment in the 
Auchterarder case, affirming the decision of the 
Court below, with costs. Lord Campbell said: 
“Since the days of Thomas a Becket there 
never had been a claim set up in England for a 
Church Assembly to be above the law ; and he 
was not aware that the Scotch Roman Catholic 
Church had ever claimed in that respect a 
higher degree of power than the English Roman 

I 2 





AUGUST 1842. AUGUST 


Catholic Church. The Scotch Church of'this 
day was a Church established by law, and must 
therefore act according to law : a Church which 
did not so act ceased to be a Church established 
by law, and became not the Church of the 
State conjoined with the State, but a mere sect 
in the country in which it existed. He called 
on the Church to follow the advice which it had 
received from its distinguished members, Mon- 
crieff, Erskine, and Robertson, or he feared it 
would materially weaken its authority.” 

9 . —John Orr M‘Gill, Jane Clayton, and two 
others tried at Liverpool Assizes for the ab¬ 
duction of Ann Crellin, a young woman of 
considerable property. She was decoyed from 
Liverpool, and taken in a state of perpetual 
intoxication, to Gretna Green, where some 
marriage ceremony was performed between her 
and M ‘Gill, with whom she found herself next 
day in bed, Mrs. Clayton being on the other 
side of the bridegroom. M‘Gill was sen¬ 
tenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment, and 
the others, for aiding and abetting, to twelve 
months. 

10. —In moving for a return of the various 
bills introduced and abandoned, Lord Palmer¬ 
ston enters on a review of the session, and com¬ 
ments with some severity on the home and 
foreign policy of the Government. Sir Robert 
Peel seconded the motion and defended the 
ministry. 

— President Tyler vetoes the Tariff Bill for 
the second time. 

13 .—Parliament prorogued by the Queen 
in person. The concluding paragraph of the 
Speech expressed the confidence she had that 
when “my lords and gentlemen” returned to 
their counties, they would do their utmost to 
encourage, by example and exertion, that spirit 
of order and submission to the law, without 
which there could be no enjoyment of the fruits 
of peaceful industry, and no advance in the 
course of social improvement. 

15 . —The trade delegates at Manchester, 
awed apparently by the military preparations 
of the Government, so far moderate their fii*st 
outrageous demands on the masters as to agree 
to the following resolutions :—“ 1. That this 
meeting pledges itself to discontinue all illegal 
proceedings ; and further, that they will endea¬ 
vour to preserve the public peace. 2. That 
they could not exist with the present rate of 
wages ; and that they are determined not to go 
to work until they obtain the wages of 1839. 
3. That each master pay the same for the 
same fabric of cloth throughout the whole of 
the manufacturing districts. 4. That it is the 
opinion of the meeting that their political 
rights are imperatively necessary for the pre¬ 
servation of their trade rights when they gain 
them.” 

16 . —The Duke of Wellington gazetted as 
Commander-in-chief in room of Lord Hill, 
retired. 

(116) 


17 . —A seditious placard, urging the people 
to rise against the authorities, issued in Man¬ 
chester by the Executive Committee of the 
National Chartist Association. “English¬ 
men!” it said, “the blood of your brothers 
reddens the streets of Preston and Blackburn, 
and the murderers thirst for more. Be firm, be 
courageous, be men ! Peace, law, and order 
have prevailed on our side : let them be revered 
until your brethren in Scotland, Wales, and 
Ireland are informed of your resolution ; and 
when a universal holiday prevails, which will be 
the case in eight days, then of what use will 
bayonets be against public opinion? Intelli¬ 
gence has reached us of the wide spreading of 
the strike ; and now within fifty miles of Man¬ 
chester every engine is at rest, and all is still 
save the miller’s useful wheels and the friendly 
sickle in the fields. Countrymen and brothers, 
centuries may roll on as they have fleeted past 
before such universal action may again be dis¬ 
played : we have made the cast for liberty, and 
we must stand, like men, the hazard of the die. 
Let none despond. Let all be cool and watch¬ 
ful, and, like the bridesmaids in the parable, 
keep your lamps burning; and let your con¬ 
tinued resolution be like a beacon to guide those 
who are now hastening far and wide to follow 
your memorable example.” 

18 . —The welcome intelligence sent from the 
manufacturing districts, “The pacification of 
the North is completed.” 

19 . —The Gazette announces the blockade of 
the ports of Nicaragua by Sir Charles Adams to 
enforce British claims against the Government, j 

— Jane Cooper, a domestic servant, com- j 
mits suicide by throwing herself from the top 
of the Monument. She took advantage of the 
momentary absence of the guard, to clamber 
over the railings, and precipitate herself into j 
Fish-street-hill. Cooper was the sixth person 
who had committed suicide in the same manner, j 
The City Lands Committee now resolved to 
enclose the top of the structure. 

20 . —Incendiary fires in two Liverpool tim¬ 
ber-yards, supposed to have been caused by 1 
parties connected with the sawyers’ combina¬ 
tion. 

— Father Mathew visits Scotland, and dis- j 
tributes his temperance pledges to masses of 
people in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other 
cities. 

— General Pollock commences his march I 
from Jellalabad to Cabul. The first conflict ; 
took place about two miles from Gundamuck, 
where 12,000 Affghans were repulsed and forced 
to retire upon Cabul. 

The French Regency Bill (appointing the 
Duke de Nemours) carried in the Chamber of 
Deputies by a majority of 216 votes, and after- j 
wards in the Peers by 163 to 14 votes. 

Died, aged 49, William Maginn, 
LL. D., scholar and wit. 







AUGUST 


1842. 


SEPTEMBER 


24 . —Nicholas Suisse tried for robbing his 
master, the late Marquis of Hertford, of cou¬ 
pons for stock in the French funds, valued at 
ioo,ooofrs. For the defence it was contended 
that the Marquis bestowed the most unbounded 
confidence in Suisse, left him a legacy, and was 
generally understood to act as agent in certain 
“delicate” negotiations which the Marquis 
carried on with loose women. One of these, 
Angeline Borel, was now put into the witness- 
box. She said she was a Frenchwoman, 
twenty-four years of age, and became acquainted 
with the Marquis when she was sixteen. He 
provided apartments for her ; and she had dined 
at Dorchester House, with Mr. Croker : Suisse 
used to come and fetch her. [At a former 
trial of Suisse, Mr. Croker admitted that he 
had dined with Borel at the Marquis’ table; 
but on another occasion, when the Marquis said 
he intended to call and drive her out, he (Mr. 
Croker) left the carriage rather than remain in 
such company.] She generally spent 7,000/. 
or 8,000/. a year: sometimes Suisse gave her 
the money, sometimes the Marquis, in sums of 
200/. or 300/. She had now an annuity of 
15,000 francs left to her by the Marquis. He 
once offered her coupons for 100,000 francs ; 
which she, not knowing their value, refused, 
and he gave them to Suisse. On the same day, 
he gave her 211,000 francs. She continued 
to visit the Marquis till December ; when she 
found another woman there, named Henriette, 
and then she refused to be his mistress any 
longer. Suisse was acquitted on the present 
indictment, as also on another laid against him 
the following day. 

— Five Colonial Bishops consecrated at 
Westminster, four of them being for the newly 
created sees of Gibraltar, Van Diemen’s Land, 
Antigua, and Guiana. 

— George White, a Birmingham Chartist, 
writes to Brother Cooper in Leicester: “My 
house has been surrounded with police these 
two nights, and a warrant has been issued for 
my apprehension. I have nevertheless marched 
with the sovereign people, and addressed them 
in defiance of their warrant. There was some 
ugly work last night. My body-guard chucked 
a raw lobster (a policeman) into the canal, and 
the town has been paraded by soldiers, our lads 
cheering and marching with them like trumps. ” 

25 . —Bean tried for assaulting the Queen 
with a pistol, and sentenced to eighteen months’ 
imprisonment in Millbank Penitentiary. 

26 . —Treaty of peace concluded with China. 
21,000,000 dollars to be paid within three 
years; Canton, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, Ningpo, 
and Shanghai to be thrown open to British 
merchants; and the island of Hong Kong to be 
ceded in perpetuity to her Britannic Majesty. 

27 . — The Abercrombie Robinson , with troops 
for Algoa, and the Waterloo, with convicts for 
Van Diemen’s Land, wrecked in Algoa Bay. 
About 200 of the latter were drowned. 


29.— The Queen and Prince Albert embark 
at Woolwich on their first visit to Scotland. 

— Died at Hampstead, from the effects of 
a fall off his horse, Thomas Norton Longman, 
a member of the eminent publishing firm, 
aged 72. 

September *.—The Queen arrives off Inch- 
keith about I o’clock this morning, and lands 
at Granton pier, at 9 o’clock, where she was 
received by the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord 
Lieutenant of the county. The royal cortege 
proceeded by way of Inverleith-row and Can- 
nonmill-bridge to the boundary of the city of 
Edinburgh, where it was expected her Majesty 
would be received by the lord provost and 
magistrates of the city. From a misunder¬ 
standing as to the hour of landing they had 
not left the council-chamber, where some of 
them had been sitting most of the night, and 
the procession continued its course through 
the city by way of Pitt-street, Hanover-street, 
Princes-street, and the Calton-hill. At Parson- 
green the dragoons closed up to the royal carriage, 
and a quicker pace was continued along the road 
to Dalkeith Palace. Edinburgh Was filled with 
visitors from various parts of Scotland, and 
great preparations had been made for giving 
her Majesty a truly royal welcome ; but the 
enthusiasm was somewhat checked by the 
want of proper arrangements as to the precise 
time when the city would be reached. To 
make up, as far as possible, for the disap¬ 
pointment thus experienced, her Majesty re¬ 
entered the city on the Saturday following 
(3d Sept.), and was received in great state by 
the magistrates. Sir R. Peel, who accompanied 
her Majesty in a separate carriage, was alter¬ 
nately cheered and hissed. The route, thickly 
packed with spectators, was from Holyrood, 
up the Canongate and High-street to the 
Castle, and then by way of the Earthen-mound 
and Princes-street to Dalmeny Park, the seat 
of the Earl of Roseberry. A gallery erected 
at the end of Princes-street-gardens unfor¬ 
tunately gave way, and between fifty and sixty 
people were more or less injured. The foun¬ 
dation-stone of Victoria Hall, designed for the 
use of the General Assembly, was laid this 
day, with a grand Masonic display, in honour 
of her Majesty’s visit. The Queen attended 
Divine service in Dalkeith private chapel on 
the 4th, and gave a reception in the Palace on 
the 5th. She left Dalkeith on the 6th, and 
visited the Earl of Mansfield, at Scone, the 
following day; the Marquis of Breadalbane, at 
Taymouth, on the 8th (where deer-stalking was 
engaged in by Prince Albert); and Lord Wil¬ 
loughby D’Eresby, at Drummond, on the 9th. 
Her Majesty departed fiom Granton pier on 
the 15th, after a stay in Scotland of fourteen 
days. In a letter addressed to the Lord Ad¬ 
vocate Lord Aberdeen was instructed to say : 
“ The Queen will leave Scotland with a feeling 
of regret that her visit on the present occasion 
could not be farther prolonged. Her Majesty 
fully expected to witness the loyalty and attach- 

(117) 






SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1S42. 


ment of her Scottish subjects; but the devotion 
and enthusiasm evinced in every quarter, and 
by all ranks, have produced an impression on 
the mind of her Majesty which can never be 
effaced. ” 

1.—The French admiral, Dupetit-Thouars, 
occupies the island of Tahiti. 

4. —The King of Prussia lays the foundation- 
stone of the new transept in Cologne Cathedral. 

— Correspondence of the Duke of Cleve¬ 
land with the Anti-Corn Law League. In 
answer to certain statements alleged to have 
been made by his Grace to the tenantry at 
Raby Castle, the Chairman of the League 
(Mr. George Wilson) forwarded several docu¬ 
ments with the view of convincing the Duke 
that he was in error. His Grace wrote to-day, 
that the statement in dispute was made in his 
own residence, at a private gathering of his 
own tenantry, and that for a stranger to write 
to him in a public capacity, venturing to lecture 
him on his private opinion, was “ a kind of im¬ 
pertinence which I treat with that contempt it 
deserves.” Mr. Wilson replied, regretting the 
unfriendly spirit shown by his Grace ; and the 
League at once despatched Mr. Acland to en¬ 
lighten the Raby tenantiy as to the real nature 
and extent of the taxes on land. Acknowledging 
receipt of the lecturer’s intimation of his arrival 
at Staindrop, the Duke taunted Mr. Acland 
with being a hired instrument, and declared 
that such interference was unjustifiable, repre¬ 
hensible, and impertinent in the highest degree. 
“Your Grace,” Mr. Acland replied, “is pleased 
to taunt me with being the ‘hired instrument’ 
of the League. It is true that I am so ; but I 
am far from considering that circumstance dis¬ 
graceful ; on the contrary, I glory in my occu¬ 
pation. It is of my free will that I battle 
against the corruptions of monopoly ; and it is 
my ^poverty, and not my will, which bows to 
the miserable necessity of being ‘ hired ’ in the 
service of the suffering and starving masses. 
It is by no means certain that your Grace, had 
you been bom without the pale of hereditary 
succession to an entailed estate, could have 
found any man or body of men to have hired 
you in your years of maturity, as an available 
Instrument for good. For my poor part, rather 
than entrust the advocacy of a great cause to 
your pen or tongue, I would have bribed you, 
and right liberally, to play dummy against a 
brace of dowagers, or sleep until awakened by 
the pealing knell of defunct monopoly. In 
truth, the ability to provide for my family by 
an honourable effort to enable millions to pro¬ 
vide for their families, is matter for great self- 
gratulation. The possession of such power is 
at once the source and guarantee of my inde¬ 
pendence. The mind with which God gifted 
me, enriched by an education generously be¬ 
stowed by a father, who toiled the more that I 
might be rendered the more intelligent, consti¬ 
tutes an estate whose-, title your Grace can 
neither invalidate nor impeach, whose record is 
in the chancery of the Eternal, whose possession 
(118) 


death alone can determine, and the due im¬ 
provement of which will secure a reversionary 
interest exceeding calculation, and enduring for 
ever.” 

5.— Tried at the York Assizes and Lanca¬ 
shire Assizes about 150 individuals charged 
with mobbing and rioting during the recent 
disturbances in those districts. They were 
sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. 
On one of the days of sitting Lord Chief 
Justice Denman thus expressed himself on 
the right of public meeting : On the part of 
the people of this country,, he must assert the 
right of free discussion and of peaceable state¬ 
ment of grievances; and, unfortunate as it was 
that the discussion either of political questions 
or of the laws regarding provisions should 
produce excitement and ill-feeling, it was the 
undoubted right of Englishmen to meet and 
peaceably to discuss the grounds of what they 
deemed just complaint. But there was a very 
wide difference between meeting for the pur¬ 
poses of peaceable discussion, or of petitioning 
the Sovereign and the Parliament—there was a 
wide difference between this and assembling 
riotously, and to the terror of the peaceable 
subjects of her Majesty, and with the view of 
committing acts grossly illegal and tyrannical. 
Nor was it fair or just to trace to perfectly legal 
and constitutional discussion all the unlawful 
acts which might thereafter be committed. 
Unfortunately, it was matter for astonishment 
and lamentation, that after all that had been 
done to enlighten and educate the people—and 
he would fearlessly add, to improve their con¬ 
dition and promote their comforts—there should 
be found in this country men, by the hundred 
and the thousand, ready to assemble together 
for the absurd, the insane, the suicidal purpose 
of throwing men in their own circumstances 
out of employment, and thus increasing terribly 
the distress which unhappily existed. 

— General Nott recaptures the fortress of 
Ghuznee, on his march to Cabul. “ I ordered,” 
he writes, “ the fortification and citadel to be 
destroyed, because it had been the scene of 
treachery, mutilation, torture, starvation, and 
cruel murder to our unresisting and imprisoned 
countrymen. ” 

8 .— The sandal-wood gates of Somnauth 
taken from the tomb of Sultan Mahmoud 
at the village of Roza. “The work,” writes 
Major Rawlinson, “was performed by Euro¬ 
peans, and all possible delicacy was observed 
in not desecrating the shrine further than 
was absolutely necessary. The guardians of 
the tomb, when they perceived our object, 
retired to one corner of the court and wept 
bitterly ; and when the removal was effected, 
they again prostrated themselves before the 
shrine, and uttered loud lamentations. Their 
only remark was, ‘You are lords of the country, 
and can of course work your will on us; but 
why this sacrilege ? of what value can these old 
timbers be to you? while to us they are as 
the breath of our nostrils.’ The reply was, 






SEPTEMBER 


1842. 


OCTOBER 


‘ The _ gates are the property of India ; taken 
from it by one conqueror, they are restored to 
it by another. We leave the shrine undese¬ 
crated, and merely take our own. ’ The sensa¬ 
tion is less than might have been expected, and 
no doubt the Moollahs who have had the guar¬ 
dianship of the tomb for generations in their 
family, will be the chief sufferers by the mea¬ 
sure.” Mr. Rawlinson thought the gates were 
not of the time of Sultan Mahmoud, but as 
recent as Sultan Abdool Rizak, who built the 
walls of Ghuznee, and was himself buried in 
a rude mausoleum in the outskirts of Roza. 
This opinion he formed by contrasting the pre¬ 
tended ancient Cufic inscription with another 
in the Nuskh character on the reverse of the 
sarcophagus. 

8 . —General Pollock defeats Akbar Khan 
first at Jugdulluk and then in the valley of 
Tezeen. No further opposition being offered 
to the advance of the British through the 
passes, they encamped on the race-ground at 
Cabul two days afterwards. The city was 
taken possession of on the 15 th. 

11 . — While the Affghan captives were 
being conveyed to what was to all appearances 
a hopeless captivity among the Oosbegs, the 
commander of the escort, Saleh Mahomed, is 
bribed to break through his instructions, and 
convey them in the direction of Cabul in the 
hope of meeting the British forces. 

13 . —To put an end to certain ministerial 
difficulties existing in Lower Canada, Sir Chas. 
Bagot resolves upon the re-admission of French 
Canadians and Reformers to the Government. 
M. Lafontaine thereupon accepted the post of 
Attorney - General. 

15 . —Jubilee of the Preston guild, a festival 
celebrated every twenty years. 

— Prince Michael and his family declared 
to have forfeited all right to the sovereignty of 
Servia, and Alexander Petrowitsch elected in 
his place by the national chiefs, acting, it was 
said, under the influence of Russia. 

16 . —The Queen arrives off Woolwich this 
morning at 10 o’clock, on her return voyage 
from Scotland. 

20 .—Release of the Affghan captives, con¬ 
fined by Akbar Khan in various parts through¬ 
out the Tezeen valley and at Bameean. At 
the pass near Kote Ashruffe, Sale left his 
infantry to hold the position, and proceeded at 
the head of the 3d Dragoons. “A party of 
Sultan Jan’s men,” writes Lady Sale, “were 
in the neighbourhood. Had we not received 
assistance our recapture was certain, but as it 
was they dared not attack the force they saw. 
It is impossible to express our feelings on Sale’s 
approa ch. When we arrived where the infantry 
were posted, they cheered all the captives as 
they passed them, and the men of the 13th 
pressed forward to welcome us individually. 
On arriving at the camp, Captain Backhouse 
fired a royal salute from his mountain-train 


guns ; and not only our old friends but all the 
officers in the party came to offer congratu¬ 
lations, and welcome our return from cap¬ 
tivity.” 

23 . —Fire in Crampton-street, Liverpool, 
which spread into Formby-street and Neptune- 
street, destroying a number of large ware¬ 
houses and sheds filled with costly merchandise. 
The damage was estimated at 700,000/., one- 
half being covered by insurances. About twenty 
lives were supposed to have been lost during 
the three days the conflagration raged. 

24 . —Died at Kingston House, Knights- 
bridge, aged 82, the Marquis Wellesley, once 
Governor-General of India, and twice Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland. 

27 . —Foundation-stone laid of the Victoria 
Harbour, Dunbar. 

— Inquiry into the fraud and conspiracy 
practised upon Mr. Woolley, a Bristol timber- 
merchant. Ann Morgan and Ann Byers (with 
the latter of whom he had been entrapped into 
a marriage) were committed to prison. 

28 . —Maxwelltown Church, Galloway, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

29 . —General M‘Caskill storms and cap¬ 
tures the town of Istalif, Kohistan. By General 
Pollock’s instruction the place was set on fire, 
a proceeding which excited both native and 
European soldiers to other acts of wanton 
cruelty and plunder, much commented on 
afterwards. 

30 . —Special Commission opened at Stafford, 
for the trial of prisoners concerned in the recent 
riots. Chief Justice Tindal laid down the law 
in terms similar to those employed by Lord 
Chief Justice Denman. Speaking of inciting to 
sedition by inflammatory speeches,he said : “ If 
such charges are brought forward, it must be 
left to your own sense to distinguish between an 
honest declaration of the speaker’s opinion upon 
the political subjects on which he treats—a free 
discussion on matters that concern the public, 
as to which full allowance should be made 
for the zeal of the speaker, though he may 
somewhat exceed the just bounds of modera¬ 
tion—and, on the other hand, a wicked de¬ 
sign, by inflammatory statement and crafty and 
subtle arguments, to poison the minds of the 
hearers, and render them the instruments of 
mischief. He that addresses himself to a 
crowded auditory of the poorer class, without 
employment or occupation, and brooding at the 
time over their wrongs, whether real or imagi¬ 
nary, will not want hearers ready to believe and 
apt followers of mischievous advice. ” 

— Feargus O’Connor arrested, on the 
charge of exciting to sedition, in Manchester 
and other towns, during the disturbances ia 
August last. 

October 1.—Lord Ellenborough issues a 
proclamation from Simla, announcing that the 

(1 19 ) 







OCTOBER 


1842. 


OCTOBER 


British army now in possession of Affghanistan 
would be withdrawn to the Sutlej. “The 
Governor-General will leave it to the Affghans 
themselves to create a government amidst the 
anarchy which is the consequence of their 
crimes. To force a sovereign upon a reluctant 
people would be as inconsistent with the policy 
as it is with the principles of the British Govern¬ 
ment, tending to place the arms and resources 
of that people at the disposal of the first in¬ 
vader, and to impose the burthen of supporting 
a sovereign without the prospect of benefit from 
his alliance. Content with the limits nature 
appears to have assigned to its empire, the 
Government of India will devote all its efforts 
to the establishment and maintenance of general 
peace, to the protection of the sovereigns and 
chiefs its allies, and to the prosperity and hap¬ 
piness of its own faithful subjects. The rivers 
of the Punjaub and the Indus, and the moun¬ 
tainous passes and the barbarous tribes of 
Affghanistan, will be placed between the British 
army and an enemy approaching from the West 
—if, indeed, such an enemy there can be—and 
no longer between the army and its supplies. 
The enormous expenditure required for the 
support of a large force in a false military posi¬ 
tion, at a distance from its own frontier and its 
resources, will no longer arrest every measure 
for the improvement of the country and of the 
people.” The date of this despatch was after¬ 
wards disputed in Parliament, on the ground 
that Lord Ellenborough could not possibly 
know that one of the main objects of the ex¬ 
pedition, the rescue of the prisoners, had been 
accomplished at this time. Mr. Macaulay al¬ 
leged that the proclamation had been ante¬ 
dated, for the purpose of contrasting with the 
manifesto of Lord Auckland against the Aff¬ 
ghans. (See Oct. 1, 1838.) 

1.—Unaware of the calamity which had be¬ 
fallen Stoddart and Conolly at Bokhara, Lord 
Ellenborough writes to the Ameer : “I was 
informed when I reached India that you de¬ 
tained in confinement two Englishmen, sup¬ 
posing them to have entertained designs against 
you. This must have been your reason, for no 
prince detains an innocent traveller. I am 
informed that they are innocent travellers. As 
individuals they could not entertain designs 
against you ; and I know they were not em¬ 
ployed by their Government in such designs, 
for their Government is friendly to you. Send 
them away towards Persia. It will redound 
to your honour. They shall never return to 
give you offence, but be sent back to their 
own country. Do this as you wish to have 
my friendship.” Many other attempts were 
made to soften the Ameer’s heart towards the 
captives by the Governments of Russia and 
Turkey, as well as by British agents at Herat, 
Khiva, and Cabul; but failure attended each 
successive appeal, chiefly, it was thought, from 
the refusal or unwillingness of the British 
Government to recognise the captives in any 
way as ambassadors or official agents. General 
pollock exerted himself successfully to obtain 
(120) 


an adjustment of the claims of Captain 
Conolly’s servants, though a letter written in 
connexion therewith by the Secretary for India 
shows in what light Lord Ellenborough re¬ 
garded the mission. “ I am directed to inform 
you,” wrote Mr. Maddock, “ that the Gover¬ 
nor-General has no knowledge of Lieutenant 
A. Conolly’s mission to Kokund having been 
authorized. On the contrary, his Lordship was 
informed by the late President of the Board of 
Control that Lieutenant A. Conolly was ex¬ 
pressly instructed by him not to go to Kokund, 
and in all probability he owes all his mis¬ 
fortunes to his direct transgression of that 
instruction. ” 

I. —Cargoes for America are so difficult to 
procure at Liverpool, that the owners of the 
Sydney agree to take out 180 Mormon converts 
for 115/.; and the owners of the Henry accept 
of 100/. for conveying 140, being a little more 
than 15^. per head. 

5. —The Governor-General of India an¬ 
nounces to the Secret Committee the fact of 
the safety of the British captives, of which he 
had been assured in a private note from Major- 
General Pollock of date 21st Sept. 

6 . —At an Anti-Corn Law meeting at Man¬ 
chester to-day, Mr. Cobden intimated that the 
League intended raising 50,000/. to promote 
its operations; they were presently spending 
100/. a week in agitating, and were ready to 
circulate 380,000 tracts. 

IO.—The Bishop of London delivers a 
Charge to his clergy in St. Paul’s, having 
reference principally to recent innovations, 
which he mildly censured. He urged a strict 
adherence to the Articles on the part of the 
clergy ; and he condemned ‘ ‘ forcing any inter¬ 
pretation of an Article on the Church which 
was not warranted by its plain, literal, and 
grammatical sense : ” the strict adherence to the 
Articles “would prove a check to much way¬ 
wardness.” He condemned the practice, which 
prevailed extensively, of altering or omitting 
portions of the baptismal service. “ What the 
Articles are with respect to doctrine, the Rubric 
and the Canons are with respect to discipline. 

A great degree of laxity has of late years crept 
into the Church; for the removal of much of 
which we are indebted to those pious and 
learned men who recommended a stricter i| 
discipline, but who, in some cases, had gone 
beyond the line in attaching importance to 
things in themselves non-essential. Those per- I 
sons were much to be condemned who over¬ 
looked the good that had been effected by those 
divines, while they regarded exclusively the 
evil. The observance of the Rubric ought to 
be complete.” 

II . —In his opening charge at the Lanca¬ 
shire Special Commission, Lord Abinger made 
reference to public meetings in a manner se- : 
verely criticised. “An assembly,” he said, 

“ consisting of such multitudes as to make all 
discussion and debate ridiculous and a farce, , 






OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1842. 


never can be assembled for the purpose of de¬ 
liberate and calm discussion. If, therefore, an 
assembly consists of such multitudes, or if you 
find that all attempts at debate are put down, 
and that the only object of the parties is to hear 
one side, the meeting ceases to be one avowedly 
for deliberation, and cannot protect itself under 
that pretension.” Speaking of the depression 
of trade, his lordship said: “Much has been 
said of the privations to which the working 
classes have been reduced ; and I make no 
doubt that they are considerable; for it cannot be 
denied that many of the usual channels of trade 
have been interrupted, and that there is 
existing a general feeling of despondency among 
commercial men as to the advantage of en¬ 
gaging in commercial enterprises the result of 
which was attended with great uncertainty : 
but, I am bound to say, from the experience I 
have acquired as to the history of this insurrec¬ 
tion in a neighbouring county, that that distress 
has been greatly exaggerated. It does not ap¬ 
pear, from any evidence which I have hitherto 
seen or read, that the parties engaged in these 
excesses either complained of the high price of 
provisions or the want of labour.” Lord Abin- 
ger also pointed out that Government might 
have framed the charge against the rioters as 
one of high treason. 

12 .—Evacuation of Affghanistan by the 
British forces. The united armies of General 
Pollock and General Nott commence their 
march from Cabul back to Peshawur. A 
great portion of the city was left in ruins, and 
the Char Chouk, or principal bazaar, where 
the remains of Sir William Macnaghten had 
been exposed to insult, was blown up. The 
British army now spread devastation and 
slaughter on every side of their route. “No 
troops,” writes General Pollock, “could feel 
otherwise than excited xt the sight of the 
skeletons of their late brethren in arms, which 
still lay covering the road from Gundamuck 
to Cabul; and as if the more to raise a spirit of 
revenge, the barricade at Jugdulluk was lite¬ 
rally covered with skeletons.” Jellalabad, so 
ably defended by Sale, was one among many 
other places levelled with the dust. General 
Pollock reached Peshawur on the 3d Novem¬ 
ber ; and on the 6th General Nott with the rear 
division emerged from the Khyber Pass at 
Jumrood. Major-Gen. England left Quettah, 
and marched towards British India by the 
Bolan Pass. 

17 .—In his opening address to the Assem¬ 
bly, the King of Holland announces that “the 
navy of the kingdom is in as satisfactory a 
condition as the sums granted in the budget 
permit. ” 

— A meeting of female politicians held in 
the Association Hall, Old Bailey, for the pur¬ 
pose of forming a female Chartist Association 
to co-operate with the original society. 

—. Dr. Buckland, Mr. George Stephenson, 
and Dr. Lyon Playfair, while on a visit to Sir 
Robert Peel, at Drayton, meet the tenantry 


at breakfast, and discuss various questions re¬ 
lating to agricultural improvement. 

18 . —Explosion of a steam-boiler in Bolc- 
kow’s iron-works, Middlesborough, by which 
four workmen were killed and twenty others 
scalded and bruised. 

— A meeting of provincial deputies in Ber¬ 
lin decide by a majority of 57 to 47 against a 
representative form of government. 

19 . —David Roberts, A.R. A.,entertained at 
a public dinner in the Hopetoun Rooms, Edin¬ 
burgh, as a compliment on his return from 
Syria. 

— The Walhalla, a temple designed to per¬ 
petuate the memory of illustrious Germans, 
opened at Ratisbon by the King of Bavaria. 

20. —Grace Darling, the heroine of the 
Longstone Lighthouse, dies at Bamborough, 
aged 25. 

23 . —Died, aged 56, Friedrich Heinrich 
Wilhelm Gesenius, German Oriental scholar. 

24 . —Storm followed by a great flood at 
Funchal, Madeira ; 200 houses said to be de¬ 
stroyed, and numerous lives lost in the attempt to 
escape from the unexpected visitation. Fayal, 
Porto Cruz, and other towns on the coast, also 
suffered damage. 

29 .—Died, aged 57, Allan Cunningham, a 
popular Scottish poet, but more widely known 
as assistant to Sir Francis Chantrey and corre¬ 
spondent of Sir Walter Scott. 

31 .—Came on for trial at the Central 
Criminal Court the charge of theft raised by 
Lord Frankfort, Baron Montmorency, against 
Alice Lowe, a young woman formerly resident 
in his house. In the coui'se of his evidence, 
his lordship said : “About ten o’clock on the 
evening of the 28th of May the prisoner came 
to my house in a cab. I asked her what she 
wanted, when she said she came to see me, 
and intended to stop. I kept her cab waiting 
till nearly I o’clock, and then, when I saw 
that she was determined to stop, I sent it away. 
She remained with me till the 22d of July.” 
With reference to the various articles of 
jewellery alleged to have been stolen by her, 
the jury considered they had been given to her 
as presents, and, without retiring, returned a 
verdict of Not Guilty. 

— Died in Bury Court, St. Mary Axe, 
aged 83, Dr. Solomon Hirschell, for forty-one 
years Chief Rabbi of the great synagogue in 
England. 

— Died, aged 67, General Lord Richard 
Hussey Vivian. 

November 2 . — Died, aged 68, Seijeant 
Spankie, standing counsel of the East India 
Company, and editor atone time of the Morning 
Chronicle. 

3 . —Fire at Pooley’s mill, Ancoats, Man¬ 
chester, resulting in the death cf eight work- 

(121) 






NOVEMBER 


1842. 


NOVEMBER 


men, whom the rapid spread of the flames cut 
off from all assistance. 

4. —As illustrating the increasing interest 
now being felt in the operations of the Anti- 
Corn Law League, Mr. Cobden mentions to-day 
at the weekly meeting, that “an elderly person 
having the appearance of a country gentleman 
called on me on Tuesday last, and put into 
my hand a bank-note with a written paper, “ A 
land-owner possessed of several farms sub¬ 
scribes 100/. to the Anti-Corn Law League 
fund. It is a money question, and the money 
speaks for itself. The subscription shall be 
repeated, if requisite.’ I never saw the gentle¬ 
man before — probably shall never see him 
again. He did not wait for any conversation. 
I tried to have a little talk with him as to his 
views on the Corn Laws as affecting his in¬ 
terests ; but I could get nothing from the old 
gentleman but this simple remark : ‘ It is a 
question of money, it is a question of money; 
and the money speaks for itself.’ ” 

5 . —A woman named Frances Bennett, re¬ 
siding at Ruardean-hill, in the Forest of Dean, 
confesses to having murdered each of her six 
children soon afterbirth, and buried them under 
the pavement of the brewhouse, with the assist¬ 
ance of the person who cohabited with her. On 
examination the skeletons were found where she 
described. 

— A Belgio-Dutch treaty signed at the 
Hague. 

6 . — Died at his house, Grove Place, Totten¬ 
ham, William Hone, whose early parodies 
drew down upon him the ire of a Government 
whom he defeated, and who latterly occupied his 
time in the compilation of works of an anti¬ 
quarian and religious character. 

7 . —Meeting to receive report of auditors of 
Times' Testimonial Fund (the Lord Mayor in 
the chair), now amounting to 2,702/., subscribed 
by 38 public companies, 64 London magistrates, 
58 bankers (London), 116 bankers (country), 
21 bankers (foreign), 129 London merchants, 
and 129 individual and anonymous. 

8 . —Captain Douglas, of the 49th Madras 
Infantry, committed to prison as a deserter, 
preparatory to bringing against him charges of 
malversation and acceptance of bribes when in 
India. 

9 . —Examination in bankruptcy of Lord 
Huntingtower, who sought to pass as a horse- 
dealer with 200,000/. liabilities, and very 
doubtful assets. He appeared to have been 
largely involved with professional bill-discoun¬ 
ters; one of them, a Mrs. Edmunds of St. James’s 
Place, described as “a particular friend of 
Colonel Copland.” 

10. —At a stormy meeting of the Marylebone 
Vestry, Mr. Hume, M.P., carries his motion, 
approving of a grant being made from the funds 
of the vestry to aid in erecting a monument to 
the Scottish Reformers of 1793. 

(122) 


IO.—Her Majesty visits the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington at Walmer Castle. 

12 .—Severe storm and numerous ship¬ 
wrecks. The Reliance , East Indiaman, was 
lost near Merlimont, Boulogne, and above 100 
of the people on board drowned. A large 
quantity of tea was also destroyed. 

14 .—Mr. Norton, the police-magistrate, 
makes inquiry concerning a painful case of 
destitution in Stepney. Two young women, 
daughters of the late Major Reynolds, of the 
5th West India Regiment, being left utterly 
unprovided for at his death, were now trying 
to preserve their existence by making shirts for 
a slop-shop at 1 \d. each. Public attention was 
drawn to the case, and a subscription raised in 
their behalf. 

— Dawson’s scythe-grinding mill at Ab¬ 
bey Dale, Sheffield, blown up by workmen on 
strike. 

16 .—Proclamation from the Governor-Gene¬ 
ral (Lord Ellenborough) to all the princes, and 
chiefs, and people of India:—“ My brothers 
and my friends, our victorious army bears the 
gates of the Temple of Somnauth in triumph 
from Affghanistan, and the despoiled tpmb of 
Sultan Mahmoud looks upon the ruins of 
Ghuznee. The insult of 800 years is at last 
avenged. The gates of the Temple of Som¬ 
nauth, so long the memorial of your humi¬ 
liation, are become the proudest record of your 
national glory, the proof of your superiority in 
arms over the nations beyond the Indus. To 
you, princes and chiefs of Sirhind, of Rajwarra, 
of Malwa, and Guzerat, I shall commit this 
glorious trophy of successful war. You will 
yourselves, with all honour, transmit the gates 
of sandal-wood through your respective terri¬ 
tories to the restored Temple of Somnauth. 
The chiefs of Sirhind shall be informed at what 
time our victorious army will first deliver the 
gates of the temple into their guardianship at 
the foot of the bridge of the Sutlej.” 

— Opening of the Glasgow Corn Exchange. 

18 . —A whale, sixteen feet long, caught in 
the Thames off Deptford pier. 

19 . —A convocation of non-intrusion clergy¬ 
men, held in Edinburgh, adopt a series of re¬ 
solutions pledging themselves to continued 
resistance to the claims put forth by the civil 
courts. A memorial to Government was also 
agreed upon. 

21 . —Division orders by Major-General Sir 
C. J. Napier, dated at Succur : “Gentlemen 
as well as beggars may, if they like, ride to the 
devil when they get on horseback; but neither 
gentlemen nor beggars have a right to send 
other people there, which will be the case if 
furious riding be allowed in camp or beyond.” 
The offender to be arrested, and Captain Pope 
to inflict punishment. 

22. -—Proposal made in the Edinburgh Town 
Council to pass a vote of censure on the Lord 







NOVEMBER 


1842. 


DECEMBER 


Provost, Sir James Forrest, for various offensive 
expressions he had used regarding the majority 
of that body at a dinner given to Councillor 
Johnstone. 

22 . —The Anti-Corn Law League hold a 
meeting in Manchester, at which they resolve 
to raise a 50,000/. fund for sending lecturers 
throughout the country, and otherwise inform¬ 
ing the public mind. 

— Arrival of the Overland mail with 
news of the treaty of peace with China, the 
recapture of Ghuznee and Cabul, and the 
rescue of the prisoners. The welcome intel¬ 
ligence was made known to the Queen 
(then at Walmer Castle) by special messenger 
from Downing-street. On the 23d, the Park, 
Tower, and War Office guns were fired in 
celebration of the events ; a general holiday 
and illumination were also talked of. Under 
the influence of the news, Consols advanced 
4 per cent., and cotton g of a penny per pound. 
India Stock rose 5 per cent. 

23 . —Sir H. Pottinger issues a proclama¬ 
tion at Amoy, warning the inhabitants of the 
satisfaction that would be demanded for the 
cruelty exercised towards the shipwrecked crews 
of the Nerbudda and Anna. 

28 . —Insurrection in Barcelona, directed 
against the Regent Espartero, and only sup¬ 
pressed under threat of bombardment of the city. 

30 . —The Fleet and Marshalsea Prisons 
closed. The prisoners were removed to the 
Queen’s Prison, under the authority of an Act 
passed last session. There were seventy in the 
Fleet and three in the Marshalsea. 

December 1. —The Queen directs letters 
patent to be passed under the Great Seal, 
granting the dignity of Baronet to Lieut.-Gen. 
Sir Hugh Gough. Sir Wm. Parker, Sir Henry 
Pottinger, and Major-Gen. Nott were created 
Knights Grand Cross of the Bath, and Major- 
Gen. Pollock Companion of the Bath. 

6 . —The President’s message to Congress 
makes mention of the difficulty which had oc¬ 
curred with European Powers as to the right of 
search in connexion with the slave trade. “ Our 
Minister at Paris,” it was said, “felt himself 
called upon to present a remonstrance to M. 
Guizot, and through him to the King of the 
French, against what has been called the Quin¬ 
tuple Treaty; and his conduct in this respect 
met with the approval of this Government. In 
close conformity with these views the 8th article 
of the treaty was framed, which provides that 
‘ each nation shall keep afloat in the African 
seas a force not less than eighty guns, to act 
separately and apart, under instructions from 
their respective Governments, and for the en¬ 
forcement of their respective laws and obliga¬ 
tions.’ From this it will be seen that the 
ground assumed in the message has been fully 
maintained, at the same time that the stipula¬ 
tions of the treaty of Ghent are to be carried 


out in good faith by the two countries, and that 
all pretence is removed for interference with 
our commerce for any purpose whatever by a 
foreign Government.” 

7 . —Riot at Canton, directed chiefly against 
the British residents. Three foreign factories 
were plundered and burnt, and nearly 100,000/. 
in specie carried off by the rioters. 

8 . —The Common Council of London adopt 
resolutions urging upon the Premier the 
necessity of adopting measures for the free 
importation of grain as early as possible after 
the meeting of Parliament. The League after¬ 
wards sent a congratulatory letter to the citi¬ 
zens of the metropolis. 

IO.—The Tractarian party issue proposals 
for the revival of monastic and conventual 
institutions on a plan adapted to the exigen¬ 
cies of the Reformed Catholic Church in 
England. The objects of such an institution 
the circular pronounced to be :—“ 1. To widen 
and deepen the legitimate influence of the 
Church ; 2. To promote and conduct Chris¬ 
tian education upon Church principles ; 3. To 
afford a retreat for the contemplative, the be¬ 
reaved, the destitute, and the straitened ; 4. To 
cherish a spirit of devotion, charity, humility, 
and obedience ; 5. To give better opportu¬ 
nities of acquiring self-knowledge, and exer¬ 
cising penitence; 6. To promote simplicity 
and godly sincerity in the intercourse of life ; 

7. To revive plainness and self-denial in 
diet, dress, furniture, personal attendance, &c.; 

8. To form habits of retirement, silence, and 
recollection.” The means—“ 1. A system by 
which the superabundance of the wealthy may 
be made available to supply the wants of the 
poorer members ; 2. Daily public devotion, 
and frequent Communion, agreeably to the 
orders of the Church; 3. Strict observance of 
the festivals, fasts, &c. prescribed by the 
Book of Common Prayer ; 4. A rule for dress, 
diet, furniture, recreations, &c. ; 5. Appointed 
times for silence, and subjects for meditation ; 
6. Corporal works of mercy ; 7. Exercises of 
penitence and obedience; 8. Bodily and 
mental labour, particularly in educating the 
young, composing works to meet the necessi¬ 
ties of the Church, working for the poor, and 
assisting in the various duties of the establish¬ 
ment.” There should be “no vows, but a 
solemn declaration and engagement of obedi¬ 
ence to the superior, and of compliance with 
the rules of the institution during residence.” 
The plan was reported to be already in opera¬ 
tion at Littlemore, Oxford, under the direction 
of Dr. Newman. 

— Died at Hardwicke Grange, near 
Shrewsbury, aged 71, General the Right Hon. 
Viscount Hill, G.C.B., lately Commander-in- 
chief. He had seen much service in Egypt 
and the Peninsula, and on the occupation of 
Paris by the Allies was appointed second in 
command. 

13 . —Correspondence between Peter Borth- 

(123) 





DECEMBER 


1842-43. 


JANUARY 


wick and Mr. Carter, regarding the statement 
made by the latter when undergoing his exa¬ 
mination in the Insolvent Court, to the effect 
that the M. P. for Evesham had been accom¬ 
modated with advances to pay his parliamentary 
accounts on the faith of a pretended guarantee 
fund of 3,000/. 

14 .—At a late hour this evening a fire broke 
out in a dwelling-house in the Minories. Two 
women were killed by throwing themselves out 
of a window on the second floor, and five were 
consumed inside. 

19. —Grand reception by the Governor- 
General of the Affghan army on the plain of 
Ferozepore. Sir R. Sale crossed the Sutlej on 
the 17th, and was received with special honour ; 
his own regiment, the 13th Light Infantry, 
marching at the head of the column through the 
army of reserve, and along streets of elephants 
caparisoned with Oriental magnificence. Gene¬ 
ral Pollock also crossed this day, and the united 
forces were afterwards manoeuvred with great 
effect over the wide plain where the first in¬ 
vading Affghan force had assembled. 

20 . —The Moniteur announces that the Mar¬ 
quesas Islands had been formally taken posses¬ 
sion of, in the name of the King of the French, 
by Rear-Admiral Dupetit-Thouars. 

25 .—During early Mass in Galway Point 
Chapel, a false alarm was raised that the gallery 
was falling, and in the rush to escape thirty 
people were killed, and many more bruised. 

27 .—The first election for an agricultural 
county since the passing of the Tariff takes 
place to-day at Carmarthen, and results in the 
return of a Conservative. 

30 . —Bursting of the embankment of Glan- 
derstone Dam, near Barrhead, Renfrewshire, 
and loss of nine lives. The print-works of 
Springfield and Arthurlie were almost swept 
off their sites by the current. 

31 . —The revenue tables for the quarter 
closing to-day exhibit an alarming decrease of 
940,062/. There was also a decrease over the 
whole year of 824,275/. in the Customs, 
1,173,614/. in the Excise, 218,346/. in the 
Stamps, and 209,319/. in the taxes. In the 
Post-office there was an increase of 14,000/. in 
the quarter, and 150,000/. for the year. 

— Miss Newell, an insane woman, attends 
at the Guildhall Police Court, for the purpose 
of urging her claim to the sovereignty of Eng¬ 
land. She had obtained, she said, a Divine 
revelation to that effect. Shaking hands with 
the presiding magistrate, Sir Chapman Marshall, 
she remarked, “ Pardon me, if I take leave of 
you in the words of the good old song, ‘ Adieu, 
thou dreary pile ! ’ ” 

— Arrival of the Overland mail, with intelli¬ 
gence of the final evacuation of Cabul and the 
successful withdrawal of the army of relief. 

Numerous meetings held during this month, 
to complain of the involved and meddlesome 
requirements of the new Income-tax Schedules. 

(124) 


1843. 

January 4 .—Sir James Graham replies to 
the Memorial and Addresses of the last General 
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. “Her 
Majesty’s ministers,” he answered, “ now 
understanding that nothing less than the total 
abrogation of the rights of the Crown and of 
other patrons will satisfy the Church, are bound 
with firmness to declare that they cannot advise 
her Majesty to consent to the grant of any such 
demand.” The Non-intrusion party now deter¬ 
mine to summon a Special Commission of the 
Assembly, and present their Claim of Right to 
Parliament. 

6 . —Liverpool Collegiate Institution opened. 

7 . —The Velveteen correspondence. Sir 
Robert Peel having accepted from Mr. Barlow, 
of Ancoats Vale Works, the gift of a piece of 
the new fabric known as velveteen, and 
stamped with a free-trade design, writes, “ that 
he was not aware till to-day that the specimen 
of manufacture bore any allusion to matters 
which are the subject of public controversy. 
He begged, therefore, to return that which 
had been accepted under an erroneous impres¬ 
sion. ” 

9 . —At the weekly Repeal meeting held in 
Dublin, a letter was read from O’Connell, 
announcing that he was able at present, “ with¬ 
out doubt or difficulty, to announce that the 
crisis has come upon us, and the Repeal of 
the Union is all but immediate. The present 
year is and shall be the great Repeal year. ” 

13 . —Severe storm experienced round the 
entire coast of Great Britain. Among the 
many shipwrecks reported the most calamitous, 
so far as the loss of life was concerned, was 
the East Indiaman Conqueror, which was 
driven ashore off Lionel, on the French coast. 
Out of seventy-eight persons on board, only 
one—a cabin-boy—was saved. While passing 
up the Channel before the storm burst upon 
her, letters were despatched from the Conqueror 
announcing that all was well with the vessel, 
passengers, and crew. The Jessie Logan , 
another East India trader, was also lost, with 
her crew, off Cornwall. 

14 . —The much-talked-of gates of Somnauth 
carried into Delhi in state, under a canopy of 
crimson and gold. 

16 .—Fire in Rolls’ floor-cloth manufactory, 
Old Kent-road. Three dwelling-houses adjoin¬ 
ing were also burnt down, and altogether it was 
estimated that property was destroyed to the 
extent of 50,000/. 

— In the Prerogative Court Sir Herbert 
Jenner Fust decides on granting administration 
of the effects of the late Sophy Dawes, the 
Baroness de Feucheres, The Baroness was the 
daughter of Richard Dawes and Jane Calla¬ 
way, who married in the Isle of Wight in 1775, 






JAA T UAR V 


JANUARY 


1 ^ 43 * 


and had several children. She became ac¬ 
quainted with the Duke of Bourbon, from 
whom she obtained the large property now to 
be distributed. The question raised was as to 
the identity of the deceased, she improperly 
describing herself as a widow named Dawes on 
her marriage with the Baron de Feucheres ; 
but the facts and documents were so clear, that 
Sir Herbert had no doubt that the parties 
claiming to administer were the legitimate 
brother and sister of the Baroness. The 
effect of this decision was to give to the sur¬ 
viving relatives of the Baroness the property 
in England and France, amounting to about 
200,000/.; except certain portions secured to 
the Baron by the marriage-settlement. 

17 .- —The Commissioners of Woods and 
Forests interfere to prevent the Marylebone 
Vestry erecting a monument to the Scottish 
political martyrs in Regent-circus, on the 
ground that the freehold was vested in her 
Majesty, and the vestry had no control there 
except for purposes of lighting and cleansing. 

IS.—The Morning Herald publishes a letter 
from Constantinople, of the 21st December, 
giving an account of the execution of Colonel 
Stoddart and Captain Conolly at Bokhara. 

20 .—Daniel McNaughten shoots Edward 
Drummond, private secretary to Sir Robert 
Peel, when passing along Whitehall, between 
the Admiralty and Horse Guards. Police-con¬ 
stable Silver, in describing the manner of the 
attack, said he saw Mr. Drummond put hisTand 
to his left side and reel, his coat being on fire 
at the time. When the assassin had fired one 
pistol he put it back into his breast and drew 
forth another, but the constable seized him at 
that moment, and the pistol went off in the 
struggle, the ball striking the pavement. It 
was not at first thought that the wound was 
fatal, but unfavourable symptoms presented 
themselves the day after the occurrence, and 
on a second examination it was found that the 
lowest of the ribs had been seriously injured by 
the pistol-ball. At nine o’clock on the morn¬ 
ing of the 25th, when pulsation could not be 
noticed and a slight fluttering of the heart was 
alone perceptible, he retained the power of 
moving his limbs. He pressed a friend’s hand, 
and, with an endearing smile on his counte¬ 
nance, asked if all hope was past. An answer 
being given in the affirmative, Mr. Drummond 
said : “ Well, I have endeavoured to live 
honestly, doing as much good as I could, and I 
place my hope in God’s mercy for my redemp¬ 
tion. ” Turning to his sister, whose self-devotion 
had been unequalled, and who was crying by his 
side, he said, “We have lived long and happily 
together, and my only regret is in parting with 
you.” He then asked if he should live much 
longer, and on being told perhaps an hour or 
two, he said, “The sooner the better—I don’t 
feel pain;” and added, with a smile, “That 
ugly French word malaise expresses most fully 
my burden.” Shortly after he said, “Will it 
be presumptuous in a man in my situation to 


ask for a little wine and water, with soda or 
potass water ? ” and on its being given to him, 
conveyed it to his mouth, and drank. He 
lingered until half-past ten o’clock; when he ex¬ 
pired, surrounded by his relatives. Mr. Drum¬ 
mond was in his fifty-first year. The ball, 
which was fired with the pistol close to the 
back, entered between the eleventh and twelfth 
ribs, and was found in front between the 
cartilages of the seventh and eighth ribs. 
McNaughten, as has been stated, was instantly 
seized, and on being taken to Gardener’s-lane 
station, sought to defend the act on the plea 
that the Tories had been persecuting him for 
years. From other remarks he let fall it was 
evident that the intended victim was not the 
secretary, but Sir Robert Peel himself. He 
was committed for trial on the charge of wilful 
murder. 

23 .—-Pomare, Queen of Tahiti, solicits the 
assistance of the Queen of Great Britain against 
the French. “Do not cast me away,” she 
wrote ; “ assist me quickly, my friend. I run 
to you for refuge, to be covered under your 
great shadow, the same as afforded relief to my 
fathers by your fathers, who are now dead, and 
whose kingdoms have descended to us the 
weaker vessels.” 

26 . —At the weekly meeting of the League 
to-day, Mr. George Wilson mentions that 
during the last week they had sent out 400,000 
tracts for distribution, and were prepared to 
send out three tons next day. Mr. John Bright, 
recently returned from Scotland, said that a 
subscription had been received from Mrs. 
Drummond, whose son, the late Under-Secre¬ 
tary for Ireland, had enunciated the ever- 
memorable sentence, “ Property has its duties 
as well as its rights.” 

— Monster powder-blast at Dover in con¬ 
nexion with the works of the South-Eastern 
Railway. A mine, formed of three cells, was 
sunk in the base of the cliff, and into this was 
placed the enormous quantity of 18,500 lbs. 
of gunpowder. The charge was fired by the 
voltaic battery, when not less than one million 
tons of chalk was dislodged by the shock, and 
settled gently down into the sea below. 

27 . —Sir Charles T. Metcalfe gazetted 
“ Governor-General of all her Majesty’s pro¬ 
vinces on the continent of North America and 
of the Island of Prince Edward.” 

31 .—A special meeting of the Commis¬ 
sioners of the General Assembly held in Edin¬ 
burgh. Resolutions carried by a majority to 
present petitions to Parliament, embodying 
their Claim of Right, in which two things are 
demanded—an efficient measure of non-intru¬ 
sion and a full recognition of an independent 
jurisdiction of the Church, altogether uncon¬ 
trolled by the civil courts. “The Commis¬ 
sion,” it was resolved, “consider it necessary 
to repeat explicitly what is intimated in the 
Claim of Rights, that if the Church do not obtain 
the redress sought, no result can be anticipated 

(125) 







FEBRUARY 


1843 - 


FEBRUARY 


but that those of her office-bearers and mem¬ 
bers who adhere to the great doctrines and 
principles for which she is now contending, 
must renounce their present connexion with 
the State, and abandon the temporal benefits 
of an establishment which will in that case be 
practically and in effect clogged with conditions 
which they cannot in conscience fulfil.” 

February 1 .—The Rev. W. Bailey, LL.D., 
tried at the Central Criminal Court, and sen¬ 
tenced to transportation for life, for forging and 
uttering a promissory note for 2,875/., with 
intent to defiaud the executors of Robert Smith, 
the well-known miser of Seven Dials. 

2.—Parliament opened by Commission. The 
Royal Speech made reference to the termina¬ 
tion of the Affghanistan and China wars, the 
settlement of disputes between Turkey and 
Syria, and the completion of a treaty of com¬ 
merce with Russia. Regarding home matters, 
her Majesty regretted “ the diminished receipt 
from some of the ordinary sources of revenue. 
She fears that it must be in part attributed to 
the reduced consumption of many articles, 
caused by the depression of the manufacturing 
industry of the country which had so long pre¬ 
vailed, and which her Majesty has so deeply 
lamented. In considering, however, the pre¬ 
sent state of the revenue, her Majesty is assured 
that you will bear in mind, that it has been 
materially affected by the extensive reductions 
in the Import-duties which received your sanc¬ 
tion during the last session of Parliament, and 
that little progress has been hitherto made in 
the collection of those taxes which were im¬ 
posed for the purpose of supplying the deficiency 
from that and other causes. Her Majesty feels 
confident that the future produce of the revenue 
will be sufficient to meet every exigency of the 
public service.” The Address in answer to the 
Speech was carried in each House without a 
division. The Earl of Auckland and Lord 
Ashburton spoke in the Upper House in de¬ 
fence of the policy they had pursued in India 
and Canada respectively. 

— In a debate in the French Chamber 
on a paragraph in the Address relating to 
the right of search, certain speakers taunted 
M. Guizot with undue partiality for England. 
Marshal Soult replied : “Much has been said 
of the English alliance. I declare, as I did 
some years back, that I am a warm partisan of 
that alliance. I had occasion to say it in this 
place on my return from London, when I called 
to mind that I had learned to estimate the 
English nation on the fields of battle. I fought 
the English down to Toulouse—(“You mean at 
Waterloo ”)—yes, at Waterloo. I was there : 
I was by the side of Cambronne when he said, 

* The Guard dies, but never surrenders.’ 
(Great interruption.) I repeat that I fought 
them down to Toulouse, when I defended the 
national independence, and fired the last 
cannon for it. In the meantime, I have been 
to London ; and France knows the reception 
1126) 


which I had. (“Yes, yes !” A voice—“The 
English themselves said, ‘Vive Soult !’—they 
cried, ‘Soult for ever 1 ’”) I repeat, then, that 
I am a warm partisan of the English alliance. 
But in saying so, do I say that I ever forgot— 
President of the Council, Marshal Soult, 
private soldier—that I ever forgot the inde¬ 
pendence and honour of France? No ; in spite 
of the avowal which I now make, and which 
I shall always make, if the chances of war 
were again to arrive, either with England or 
with any Power, I would sacrifice for my 
country my last breath of life ! I would, like 
Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy, have myself borne 
to the field of battle on a bier if necessary.” 
(Continued cheers.) (See also Feb. 10.) 

4. —Died, aged 73, Theodore Colocotronis, 
one of the heroes of the Greek war of indepen¬ 
dence. 

8 . —Destructive earthquake experienced in 
the West India Islands. At Antigua, St. 
Thomas, and St. Christopher, the property 
thrown down was considerable. Pointe-a-Pitre, 
Guadaloupe, was entirely destroyed, and many 
hundreds of persons buried in the ruins. 

9 . —Mr. Vernon Smith moves for the pro¬ 
duction of papers connected with Lord Ellen- 
borough’s proclamation regarding the gates of 
Somnauth—a proclamation, he said, which was 
an outrage upon the feelings of the people of 
India, and a source of ridicule to English¬ 
men. The proposal led to a debate, in the 
course of which Sir Robert Peel remarked: 

‘ ‘ I will ask you whether it is consistent with 
justice, with decency, or with common sense, 
that you, whose policy has been reversed, 
should take this single proclamation, and tell 
the Governor-General, * True, you have con¬ 
quered ; true, you have re-established the British 
name in Affghanistan; true, you have created 
one universal feeling of security throughout 
Hindostan : but you have issued an unwise, an 
improvident proclamation; and the reward of 
your labours shall be that you shall be dis¬ 
graced by a vote of condemnation.’ ” 

— Dr. Nicholl introduces, but afterwards 
withdraws, a bill for consolidating the ecclesi¬ 
astical courts of the kingdom. 

10. —Captain Dalrymple, M.P. for Wigton- 
shire, and Mr. Horsman, M.P. for Cocker- 
mouth, engage in a ploughing contest at Cleland 
House, Lanarkshire. They both made good 
work, but the judge, after some hesitation, 
pronounced in favour of Captain Dalrymple. 
The ground was afterwards named “The 
Members’ Acre.” 

— Lord Brougham having stated in the 
House of Lords that M. de Tocqueville, in a 
recent speech on the Address in the French 
Chambers, had not only shown a marvellous 
ignorance of the Right of Search, but sought 
to excite unhappy differences between the 
nations, that statesman now writes from Paris : 
“ Although your lordship seems in your own 





FEBRUARY 


1343 . 


FEBRUARY 


country to have acquired by long habit a sort 
of immunity in the employment of injurious 
language, it does not follow that foreigners 
must recognise any such privilege. If, then, 
my lord, you have in reality, which appears 
doubtful, cast upon me this odious imputation, 
I must tell you plainly that it is a sheer calumny. 
It is not true that I endeavoured to increase 
the mutual irritation between our two countries. 
I flatly deny so hateful a thought. On the 
contrary, I have, in several parts of the speech 
of which you have spoken without under¬ 
standing it, said that I deeply deplored that 
irritation, and that my object was to find a 
means of calming it. My language throughout, 
I venture to affirm, bears the stamp of this 
conciliatory spirit. I doubt not that, after 
having read the accompanying document, you 
will yourself perceive this truth; but would it 
not have been at once more equitable, and 
more becoming your lordship’s high position, 
to have taken the trouble of making this dis¬ 
covery before you spoke?”—Lord Brougham 
replied, that he accompanied his remarks upon 
M. de Tocqueville’s conduct with expressions 
of respect and even esteem. He believed M. de 
Tocqueville to have been extremely ignorant of 
the question, which is familiar to all lawyers 
in this country. He supposed him to have 
acted under the influence of party feelings as 
well as national ones. He followed the ex¬ 
ample of all times, since there were debates in 
France as well as in England ; that example 
having been set him by the statesmen both of 
France and of England, who have never failed, 
when the occasion required it, to refer mutually 
to what passed in each other’s Chambers of 
Parliament. He is sorry that he has given 
offence to M. de Tocqueville ; and he is very 
far indeed from desiring to imitate the abusive 
and unbecoming style of his letter. 

10. —The Carysfort, with Lord GeorgePoulett 
on board, arrives at Honolulu to obtain 
redress for grievances alleged to have been in¬ 
flicted on English subjects. (See Feb. 25.) 

11 . — The Lord Chancellor decides against 
the claim made by Lord Canterbury for com¬ 
pensation for damage done to his furniture and 
books by the fire which destroyed the two 
Houses of Parliament. 

13 .—Commencement of debate on Lord 
Howick’s motion for a committee of the whole 
Plouse to consider the reference in the Queen’s 
Speech to the long-continued depression of 
manufacturing industry. It was continued 
nightly till the 17th, when the motion was re¬ 
jected by 306 to 191 votes. Mr. Cobden spoke 
with great animation on the last evening of the 
debate. Taunting Ministers with being Free¬ 
traders only in the abstract, he asked, “Why 
do they not carry their principles into effect ? 
How am I met ? The right honourable gen¬ 
tleman the Vice-President of the Board of 
Trade admits the justice of the principles of 
Free-trade. He says that he does not want 
monopoly ; but then he applies these just princi¬ 


ples only in the abstract. Now I do not want 
abstractions. Every moment that we pass here 
which is not devoted to providing for the wel¬ 
fare of the community, is lost time. (Cheers 
from both sides of the House.) I tell the 
honourable member that I am a practical man ; 
I am not an abstract member ; and I ask what 
we have here to do with abstractions ? The 
right honourable gentleman is a Free-trader 
only in the abstract. We have nothing, I 
repeat, to do with abstractions here. The 
right honourable gentleman used another plea. 
He said that the system has been continued for 
centuries, and cannot now be abandoned. If 
the Attorney-General be in the House, and I 
hope he is, what would he say to such a plea 
in an action of trover ? Would he admit the 
plea? Would be say, ‘I know that you have 
right and justice on your side in the abstract ; 
but then the unjust possession has been for so 
long a time continued that it cannot be at once 
abandoned’? What woidd be the verdict in 
such a case? The verdict would be one of 
restitution—of total and immediate restitution.” 
Towards the close of the debate, a disagreeable 
feeling was created in the House through a 
phrase used by Mr. Cobden to the effect that 
he held Sir Robert Peel personally responsible 
for the present lamentable and dangerous state 
of affairs — words which Sir Robert inter¬ 
preted as an incentive to attacks upon his life. 
—Defending the League from attempts made 
in the House of Lords to connect it with “ an 
almost maniacal transaction” (the murder of 
Mr. Drummond), Mr. Cobden characterised 
the language used by Lord Brougham as ‘ ‘ the 
ebullition of an ill-regulated intellect, rather 
than the offspring of a malicious spirit.” He 
asked Sir Robert Peel what he meant to do, 
with capital melting away, pauperism rapidly 
increasing, and foreign trade declining. Every¬ 
body saw that he must adopt some change of 
plan ; and it was the duty of every independent 
member to throw on him the individual and 
personal responsibility of the present state of 
affairs—a responsibility, of course, arising from 
his position : he had the privilege of resigning 
office. —Mr. George Bankes rose, but gave way 
to Sir Robert Peel, who, in a state of excite¬ 
ment shared by the House, accused Mr. Cobden 
of holding him individually and personally re¬ 
sponsible for the distress of the country. He 
had said so before, at the conference of the 
Anti-Corn Law League. “But,” added Sir 
Robert, his voice almost drowned in the 
loud recurrent cheering, given with peculiar 
emphasis on the ministerial side, ‘‘be the 
consequences of these insinuations what they 
may—(a long burst of cheers)—never will I be 
influenced by menaces such as these—(another 
burst)—to hold language, or adopt a course 
which I consider in the slightest degree incon¬ 
sistent with my public duty.” (Much cheer¬ 
ing.)—Mr. Cobden said he did not say “per¬ 
sonally.”—Sir Robert Peel: “You did,— 
you did.” (Cheers, Sir James Graham hand¬ 
ing a paper to Sir Robert.) He admitted 

(127) 





FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1843- 


that he was not sure of the phrase ; but Mr. 
Cobclen held him individually responsible: 
“the honourable gentleman may do so, and 
he may induce others to hold me individually 
responsible—(a fresh burst of cheers)—but it 
shall in no way influence me in the discharge 
of my public duty.” (Renewed cheering.)— 
Amid much confusion Mr. Cobden was per¬ 
mitted to explain that what he meant was that 
the right hon. baronet was responsible in virtue 
of his office. Immediately before the division, 
about 4 A. M. , another personal altercation took 
place between Mr. Cobden and Mr. Roebuck, 
regarding the approval said to have been mani¬ 
fested by the latter at Lord Brougham’s bitter 
attack upon some of the League agitators in 
the House of Lords. 

13 . —LordCampbell obtains the appointment 
of a select committee to inquire into the law 
relating to defamation and libel. 

14 . —The Duke of Wellington in the Lords, 
and Lord Stanley in the Commons, move the 
thanks of the respective Houses to the fleet 
and army engaged in the China service. On 
the 20th a similar honour was paid to the Indian 
Army. 

1 5 .-Correspondence between Lord Brougham 
and Mr. Bright, the former seeking from the 
latter a disclaimer of the “ atrocious falsehood ” 
published in the Anti-Bread Tax Circular , to 
the effect that he had importuned a League 
deputation to entrust him with a motion in the 
House of Lords. Mr. Bright defended the 
League generally, and disavowed the author¬ 
ship of the report. 

17 .—Sir Charles Napier obtains an impor¬ 
tant victory over the Scinde chiefs at Meeanee. 
The Beloochees mustered about 30,000 infantry, 
5,000 cavalry, and 15 guns, while the British 
force was not computed at more than 2,600. 
After a fierce contest of three hours’ duration 
the Beloochees gave way, leaving their artillery 
and stores in the hands of the British. 

21. —-Robert Elliot, the Gretna Green priest, 
and successor of the famous blacksmith, writes 
to the Times , stating that he had married 
4,444 persons from 1811 to 1839, the largest 
number in any one year being 198, and the 
smallest 42. 

— Mr. Duncombe’s motion for an in¬ 
quiry into the conduct of Lord Abinger, during 
the sittings of the recent Special Commission, 
rejected by 228 to 73 votes. 

22. — Metropolitan demonstration of the 
friends of the League, to defend Mr. Cobden 
from the accusations being made against him 
by the Ministerial press. Several other meet¬ 
ings were held with a similar object throughout 
the manufacturing districts. 

— The electors of Edinburgh being anxious 
that their representatives should support a vote 
for the unqualified repeal of the Corn Laws, 
Mr. Macaulay writes: “In my opinion you 
are all in the wrong—not because you think all 
(128) 


protection bad, for I think so too; not even 
because you avow your opinion and attempt to 
propagate it, for I have always done and shall 
always do the same ; but because, being in a 
situation where your only hope is in a compro¬ 
mise, you refuse to hear of compromise ; be¬ 
cause, being in a situation where every person 
who will go a step with you on the right road 
ought to be cordially welcomed, you drive 
from you those who are willing and desirous to 
go with you half-way. To this policy I will 
be no party. I will not abandon those with 
whom I have hitherto acted, and without 
whose help I am confident that no great im¬ 
provement can be effected, for an object purely 
selfish.” 

23 . —Mr. Walter, in moving for such a re¬ 
construction of the existing Poor Law as should 
make it conformable to Christianity, sound 
policy, and the ancient Constitution of the 
realm—calls attention to a document emanating 
from the Commissioners of Inquiry into the old 
Poor Law, and on which the present law was 
said to be based. It recommended, ‘ ‘ That at 
any time after the passing of this Act, the Board 
of Control shall have power, by an order, with 
such exception as shall be thought necessary, 
to disallow the continuance of relief to the indi¬ 
gent, the aged, and the impotent, in any other 
mode than in a workhouse, regulated in such 
manner as by the aforesaid Board of Control 
shall be determined. The power of the Com¬ 
missioners would be to reduce allowances, but 
not to enlarge them. After this has been 
accomplished, orders may be sent forth direct¬ 
ing that after such a day all outdoor relief 
should be given partly in kind ; after another 
period, it should be wholly in kind ; that after 
such another period it should be gradually 
diminished in quantity, until that mode of 
relief was extinguished. From the first the 
relief should be altered in quality, coarse brown 
bread being substituted for fine white ; and, 
concurrently with these measures as to the out¬ 
door poor, a gradual reduction should be made 
in the diet of the indoor poor, and strict regu¬ 
lations enforced.” Mr. Walter’s resolution 
was opposed by the Ministry, nor was it till the 
inquiry into the affairs of the Andover Union 
that the document referred to was made public. 
Sir James Graham now stated that the Cabinet 
of Earl Grey, to which the Commissioners sub¬ 
mitted their proposals, refused to entertain 
them. Among the Commissioners whose 
names were appended to this objectionable or 
“ Dark Document,” as it came to be called, 
were the Bishops of London and Chester. 
Mr. Sturges Bourne, and Mr. Senior. 

24 . —The police force an entrance into the 
gaming-house, 34, St. James’s-street. The 
son of the proprietor, attempting to escape by 
the roof, fell in to. a back court, and received 
injuries from which he died next morning. 

25 -—Kamehameha HI. cedes the Sand¬ 
wich Islands to Great Britain, which, through 
Lord George Poulett, had presented a claim fat 






FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


I ^ 43 - 


redress of grievances suffered by English sub¬ 
jects. The cession was objected to by Com¬ 
modore Kearney, of U.S. Navy, and the islands 
were publicly restored on the 31st July. 

26 .—At the funeral of the notorious Richard 
Carlisle in Kensal-green Cemetery, a disturb¬ 
ance is created by the objection of relatives 
to have the funeral service read at the grave. 

28 .—The House of Commons agree to 
Lord Ashley’s motion for an address to the 
Queen, praying for the instant and serious 
consideration of the best means for promoting 
the blessings of a moral and religious education 
among the working classes. 

Several riotous assemblies, gathered together 
by “ Rebecca and her Daughters,” reported 
throughout Wales this month. 

March 1.—Commenced at Lancaster, the 
trial of Feargus O’Connor and fifty-eight others, 
charged with being concerned in the late dis¬ 
turbances in the manufacturing districts. O’Con¬ 
nor and fourteen others were found guilty on 
the fifth count, charging them with exciting dis¬ 
satisfaction and persuading workmen to leave 
their labours; but as there was some doubt whe¬ 
ther this was an offence or not, Baron Rolfe re¬ 
served the point for consideration by the Court 
of Queen’s Bench. Sixteen were found guilty 
on the fourth count, for employing threats to 
compel men to leave their work. Judgment 
deferred till next term. The rest were ac¬ 
quitted. 

2 . —Mr. Roebuck’s motion for the appoint¬ 
ment of a committee to inquire into the causes 
which led to the Affghan war rejected by 189 
to 75 votes. 

3 . —The first instalment of the Chinese in¬ 
demnity, amounting to 1,000,000/., arrives at 
the Mint in five waggons, each drawn by four 
horses, and escorted by a detachment of the 
60th Regiment. 

— Commenced at the Old Bailey the trial 
of Daniel McNaughten for the murder of Mr. 
Drummond. The Solicitor-General, Sir Wm. 
Follett, having stated the main facts of the case, 
and adduced witnesses in support thereof, a 
large array of medical evidence was adduced in 
defence to show that the crime had been com¬ 
mitted under the influence of an irresistible 
impulse, over which the prisoner had no 
controL The jury returned a verdict of Not 
guilty on the ground of insanity, and the 
prisoner, who did not appear in the least 
affected by his trial, was removed from the bar 
to be kept in confinement during her Majesty’s 
pleasure. 

5.—In a proclamation dated from the Palace 
of Agra, Lord Ellenborough announces the 
result of the battle of Meeanee : “Thus has 
victory placed at the disposal of the British 
Government the country on both banks of the 
Indus from Sukkur to the sea, with the excep¬ 
tion of such portions thereof as may belong 
to Meer Ali Morad of Khyrpore, and to any 
(129) 


other of the Ameers who may have remained 
faithful to his engagements. The Governor- 
General cannot forgive a treacherous attack 
upon a representative of the British Govern¬ 
ment, nor can he forgive hostile aggression pre¬ 
pared by those who were in the act of signing a 
treaty. It will be the first object of the Gover¬ 
nor-General to use the power victory has placed 
in his hands in the manner most conducive to 
the freedom of trade, and to the prosperity of 
the people of Scinde, so long misgoverned. 
To reward the fidelity of allies by substantial 
marks of favour, and so to punish the crime of 
treachery in princes as to deter all from its 
commission, are further objects which the 
Governor-General will not fail to effect.” 

6 . —Joshua Jones Ashley, formerly a banker 
and army-agent in Regent-street, tried at the 
Central Criminal Court for stealing knives, 
forks, and spoons from various clubs with 
which he was connected. Found guilty, and 
sentenced to seven years’ transportation. At 
the close no less than sixteen pawnbrokers 
were called, each of whom produced silver 
tablespoons and forks, which were identified 
by Club secretaries and handed over to them. 

7 . —Mr. Goulburn, Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer, applies at Bow-street Police-office for 
a warrant to arrest John Dillon, late an officer 
in the navy, who had threatened to shoot him. 

8 . — Mr. Fox Maule’s motion for a committee 
to take into consideration the petition of the 
Commission of the General Assembly of the 
Church of Scotland, negatived by a majority of 
2i 1 to 76 votes. 

9 . —Proposed censure on Lord Ellenborough 
in the House of Commons. Mr. Vernon Smith 
moves—“That this House, having regard to 
the high and important functions of the Gover¬ 
nor-General of India, the mixed character of 
the native population, and the recent measures 
of the Court of Directors for discontinuing any 
seeming sanction to idolatry in India, is of 
opinion that the conduct of Lord Ellenborough, 
in issuing the general orders of the 16th No¬ 
vember, 1842, and in addressing the letter of 
the same date to all the chiefs, princes, and 
people of India, respecting the restoration of 
the gates of a temple to Somnauth, is unwise, 
indecorous, and reprehensible.” The resolu¬ 
tion was supported by Mr. Macaulay, Mr. 
Mangles, Mr. Hume, Sir George Grey, Lord' 
Palmerston, and Lord John Russell. It was op¬ 
posed by Mr. Emerson Tennent, Mr. Hogg, 
Lord Stanley, and Sir Robert Peel. “But,” 
said Mr. Macaulay, “it is asked, what does it 
matter if the noble Lord has written a foolish 
rhapsody which is neither prose nor verse ? Is 
affected phraseology a subject for parliamentary 
censure ? What great man can be named who 
has not committed errors much more serious 
than the penning of a few sentences of turgid 
nonsense ? This, I admit, sounds plausible. It 
is quite true that very eminent men, Lord 
Somers, for example, Sir Robert Walpole, 
Lord Chatham, and his son, all committed 

K 





MARCH 


1843. 


MARCH 


faults which did much more harm than any 
fault of style can do. But I beg the House to 
observe this, that an error which produces the 
most serious consequences may not necessarily 
prove that the man who has committed it is 
not a very wise man ; and that, on the other 
hand, an error which directly produces no im¬ 
portant consequence, may prove the man who 
has committed it to be quite unfit for public 
trust.” Speaking of the Opposition, Sir Robert 
Peel said: “You are continually occupied in 
asking the question, ‘ What next ?’ in con¬ 
nexion with Lord Ellenborough’s acts. That 
was the sole occupation of Lord Ellenborough 
for four or five months after he reached India ; 
and that was your doing. He landed at 
Madras on the 15 th April, in full dependence 
upon your statements of the condition of that 
country—in full dependence upon the informa¬ 
tion furnished him by his predecessors in office. 
He landed, and the first thing he hears is that 
there is an insurrection at Cabul; that the re¬ 
presentatives of her Majesty, Sir William 
Macnaghten and Sir Alexander Burnes, have 
been murdered; and that there are strong 
doubts entertained of the safety of the British 
army in A Afghanistan. What next ? He pro¬ 
ceeds to Calcutta ; and what does he hear 
there? He there hears for the first time of 
the order issued by his predecessor in the 
government to evacuate Affghanistan with as 
little discredit as possible. He then repairs to 
Benares: and what next ? At Benares he 
hears the tremendous news that not only had 
we lost all military power in Affghanistan, but 
that the spirit of the native army had been 
so weakened and depressed as to render its 
recovery almost impossible. At Benares he 
hears the facts which caused Major-General 
Pollock to write this letter to Captain Macgre- 
gor—(Sir Robert Peel here read a note dated 
12th March, 1842, describing General Pollock’s 
helpless condition in Peshawur, unable to ad¬ 
vance to the relief of General Sale, because he 
wanted reinforcements, and because four regi¬ 
ments of Native troops were in a state of panic 
and consequent disaffection.)—What next ? On 
the 17th April he hears of the failure of General 
England in the Bolan Pass. What next? He 
hears that Ghuznee has fallen; that it is no 
longer in our possession ; that the barony of 
Ghuznee has no longer any territorial connexion 
with the title. These were the questions that 
Lord Ellenborough had to ask from day to day ; 
these are the questions that he had to consider 
during a period of four or five months, daily 
and hourly.” The Premier closed his speech 
by remarking, that it would give a ten times 
more fatal blow to religion than anything in 
the injudicious proclamation, if party hostility 
to Lord Ellenborough were cloaked under that 
sacred garb. On a division the motion was 
negatived by 242 to 15 7 votes. A motion in 
the Upper House expressing disapprobation of 
the proclamation was rejected by 83 to 25. 

IO.—Dr. Chalmers writes that, as convener 
of the Financial Committee of the Non-intrusion 
( 130 ) 


party, he is prepared to recommend an equal 
distribution of the funds collected in aid of the 
Free Presbyterian Church. 

IO. —Count Mariano Alberti convicted at 
Rome for fabricating manuscripts purporting to 
have been written by Tasso. 

— James Stevenson, a Cameronian enthu¬ 
siast, who had travelled from Lochwinnoch, 
Renfrewshire, examined at the Mansion-house, 
on the charge of using threatening language 
regarding the Queen and Sir Robert Peel. 
From the conversation which took place be¬ 
tween the prisoner and the Lord Mayor, the 
unfortunate man appeared to have gone crazy 
on the subject of the Kirk. 

— At an early hour this morning earthquake 
shocks are reported to have been felt through¬ 
out the north of England and the south of 
Scotland. 

13 . —The acquittal of McNaughten on the 
plea of insanity having drawn public attention 
to the present state of the law bearing on pleas of 
that description, the Lord Chancellor states his 
intention of introducing a bill on the subject 
during the present session. 

14 . —Mr. Ward’s motion for an inquiry into 
the peculiar burdens affecting the land rejected 
by 232 to 133 votes ; and an amendment by 
Mr. Bankes,directing the attention of the House 
to the unconstitutional operations of the League, 
negatived without a division. 

15 . —The Anti-Corn Law League renew their 
weekly meetings in Drury-lane Theatre. 

16 . —The Town Council of Glasgow pass a 
vote of censure on the Lord Provost (Sir James 
Campbell), for advising the Government to 
bring in a general Police Bill for the city, 
instead of supporting the three local bills pre¬ 
pared under the sanction of the Council. 

17 . —In the Prerogative Court, Sir Herbert 
Jenner Fust decides against the validity of three 
codicils to Lord Hertford’s will; bequeathing 
his house in the Regent’s Park, certain pictures, 
and stock to the Countess de Zichy Ferraris ; 
and 100,000 dollars, in United States Bank 
stock, to Mr. J. Wilson Croker. The codicils 
were unattested, but assumed to be rendered 
valid by one of later date. 

19 .—Sir John Herschel gives an account of 
a comet presently passing through our system. 
The tail only could yet be seen, as a vivid 
luminous streak about thirty degrees in length. 

21 . —Died, at his residence, Keswick, aged 
69, Robert Southey, D. C. L., Poet Laureate. 

— A special meeting of the Commission of 
the General Assembly held in Edinburgh, when 
a minute is agreed to, stating that in the cir¬ 
cumstances the Commission “deem it incumbent 
upon them to announce to the Church and to 
the country, as they now do with the utmost 
pain and sorrow, that the decisive rejection of 
the Church’s claims by the Government and by 
Parliament appears to them conclusive of the 
present struggle, and that, in the judgment of 





MARCH 


APRIL 


1843. 


the Commission, nothing remains but to make 
immediate preparations for the new state of 
things, which the Church must, so far as they 
can see, contemplate as inevitable.” 

21 . —Lord Palmerston draws the attention of 
the House to the terms of the Ashburton treaty, 
or capitulation, as he called it. Sir Robert 
Peel explains that the papers moved for could 
not be produced at the present time without 
detriment to the public interest. The motion 
was therefore withdrawn on the 23d. 

24 . —Major-General Napier writes from 
Dubba to Lord Ellenborough : “ The forces 
under my command marched from Hyderabad 
this morning at daybreak. About half-past 8 
o’clock we discovered and attacked the army 
under the personal command of Meer Shere 
Mahomed, consisting of about 20,000 men of 
all arms, strongly posted behind one of the 
large nullahs by which this country is inter¬ 
sected in all directions. After a combat of 
about three hours the enemy was wholly de¬ 
feated with considerable slaughter, and the loss 
of all his standards and cannon. ” 

— A bill introduced into the House of 
Commons, by Mr. Roebuck, for the purpose 
of enabling a new company to carry out the 
Aerial Transit patents originally granted to 
Mr. Henson. 

— The Factories Bill, one of the joint mea¬ 
sures of the Government Education Scheme, 
read a second time. 

25 . —Ceremonial opening of the Thames 

Tunnel. 

— At the Nenagh Assizes the Rev. John 
Mahon, priest of Tornavera, was examined as 
a witness in the trial of two men named Larkin 
and Gleeson, charged with shooting at Patrick 
Tierney, when he admitted having denounced 
Tierney in the chapel, on the morning of the 
day on which the attack was made. 

29 .—Numerous Presbytery meetings held 
throughout Scotland on this day, when the 
Non-intrusionists withdraw from the Mode¬ 
rates, and send up separate lists of ministers 
and elders for the ensuing General Assembly. 

April 1.—Augustus Sintzennich attempts to 
shoot the Rev. Mr. Hayden, in St. Paul’s 
Cathedral, during the afternoon service. The 
pistol missed fire, and was almost instantly 
taken possession of, when it was found to con¬ 
tain a charge of powder and five shots. Sint¬ 
zennich, who was thought to be insane at the 
time, was at once seized. 

4. —At the election for Durham city Lord 
Dungannon, Conservative, is returned by a 
majority of 101 over Mr. Bright, of the League. 

5 . —The police make a sudden descent upon 
the Dublin gaming-houses, and lodge most of 
the proprietors and frequenters in prison. 
Fines varying in amount were afterwards 
inflicted. 

— The public accounts for the quarter ending 

(m) 


to-day still show a deficiency, in certain branches 
of revenue, but not to such an alarming extent 
as those of 31st December last. In the Customs 
the decrease was 275,516/. and in the Excise 
1,788/. The income-tax collected for the quar¬ 
ter amounted to 1,885,232/., making up a nett 
increase on the quarter’s returns of 1,748,945/. 

6 . —William Wordsworth gazetted Poet 
Laureate to her Majesty. 

— Mr. Charles Buller introduces, but with¬ 
draws after debate, a motion for an address to 
the Queen, praying that extensive and sys¬ 
tematic colonization might be rendered avail¬ 
able for augmenting the resources of the 
kingdom, giving additional employment to 
capital and labour and thereby bettering the 
condition of the people. 

7 . —Explosion at Stormont Main Colliery, 
near Newcastle, and loss of twenty-seven lives. 

— The House of Lords pass a resolution 
approving of the Ashburton Treaty as advan¬ 
tageous and honourable to both parties. 

— Wreck of the Solway , one of the West 
India mail-steamers, on a rock twenty miles 
west of Corunna. Captain Duncan, with 
about thirty of the passengers and crew, 
perished in the ship. 

12 . —William Sharman charged with, at¬ 
tempting to bribe Lord Monteagle, by enclosing 
5/. in a letter to him, requesting an appoint¬ 
ment ini the Custom-house or Post-office. As 
the appointment was not made, Sharman raised 
an action to recover the amount; but the Com¬ 
missioners now intimated that instead of inflict¬ 
ing any further punishment they would simply 
order the 5/. to be paid over to the Exchequer 
Fund, as conscience-money. 

13 . —Explosion in Waltham powder-mill, 
when nearly the whole of the works were 
destroyed, there being over 2,000 lbs. in each 
of the two departments blown up. Seven 
lives were lost. 

19 .—The defeated Ameers of Scinde arrive 
as captives in Bombay, on board H.M. sloop 
Nimrod. 

21 .— Died at Kensington Palace, aged 70, 
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, and 
uncle to the Queen. 

24 . —At Sunderland, a sailor named Ferry, 
who a few days before had escaped from the 
lunatic asylum at Gateshead Fell, murders his 
wife and two children, by attacking them with 
a fire-shovel. 

25 . —This morning, at five minutes past 4, 
the Queen was safely delivered of a daughter, 
the Princess Alice Maud Mary. 

— Launched from the Pembroke dockyard, 
amid great rejoicing, her Majesty’s steam- 
yacht Victoria and Albei't. 

26 . —The South Sea whaler Diana blown up 
at St. Helena. At the time of the explosion, 
which was known to have been the work of an 

K 2 





APRIL 


MAY 


1843 


incendiary, an investigation was going on before 
the Island authorities regarding the murder of 
the captain by the second mate. 

27 .—Funeral of the Duke of Sussex. The 
remains, followed by a procession of about a 
mile in length, were interred in Kensal Green 
Cemetery. 

— The purchase of arms throughout Ireland 
being greatly on the increase of late, Lord 
Eliot obtains leave to bring in a bill relative 
to their manufacture, importation, and regis¬ 
tration. 

Numerous meetings in Ireland this month, 
regarding the withdrawal by Government of a 
contract for mail coaches from an Irish manu¬ 
factory. 

May 1.—An anonymous person writes to 
th« Chancellor of the Exchequer, that while 
he had made a true income-tax return on his 
legitimate trade, he had been for some time 
engaged in smuggling, and begged to hand over 
14,000/., the profits of three years’ transactions 
in that way, as conscience-money. 

2.—The number of petitions presented up 
to this date against the Factory Bill amounted 
to 11,611, bearing 1,757,297 signatures. The 
petitioners were mainly Dissenters, who objected 
to the educational clauses of the bill. 

— Mr. Hume’s motion expressing approval 
of the Ashburton Treaty as alike honourable 
and advantageous, carried by a majority of 
238 to 96. 

— Paris and Orleans Railway opened. 

S.—Sir Robert Peel introduces his scheme 
for relieving the spiritual wants of the kingdom, 
by the endowment of additional ministers and 
the augmentation of small livings. He pro¬ 
posed to authorize the advance of 600,000/. by 
the Bounty Board to the Ecclesiastical Com¬ 
missioners, on the security of certain revenues 
of the Ecclesiastical Fund; this advance, to 
the extent of 30,000/. a year, to be used, not 
in the erection of churches, for which private 
liberality would be sufficient, but solely for the 
endowment of ministers. 

8 . —An association of noblemen and officers 
in both branches of the service formed to sup¬ 
press duelling as sinful and irrational. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces the annual Budget. The estimates for 
the bygone year showed a deficiency of 
750,000/. in Customs, and 1,200,000/. in Excise, 
against which, however, there was to be placed 
2,580,000/. of uncollected Income-tax. The 
total revenue for the ensuing year was esti¬ 
mated at 50,150,000/., and the expenditure at 
49 , 387 , 645 ^ 

9 . —Mr. Villiers introduces his annual motion 
on the subject of the Corn Law, which after five 
nights’ debate is negatived by a majority of 381 
to 125. On the last night of the discussion 
Mr. Cobden, departing from his usual style of 

( 132) 


showing the evil effects of the system on manu¬ 
facturing interests, carried the war into the 
enemy’s country by showing that the laws in¬ 
jured the farmer. “The farmers,” he said, 
“are now disposed utterly to distrust every¬ 
body who promises them anything; and the 
very reason they are ready to look on us with 
friendly eyes is that we never promised them 
anything. We tell -them distinctly that legis¬ 
lation can do nothing for them. It is a fraud. 
They must never allow bargaining for loaves 
and rent to be mixed up with politics. They 
must deal with their landlords as with their 
wheelwrights and saddlers, with a view to busi¬ 
ness, and business alone. Those who are most 
rampant for Protection are the landlords of the 
wox'st-farmed land, the Members for Wilts, 
Dorset, Sussex, Somersetshire, and Devon¬ 
shire: and why is it so? Not because the 
tenants are inferior to those elsewhere—Eng¬ 
lishmen are much the same anywhere ; but the 
reason is, there are political landlords—meil 
who will not give their tenants leases but with 
a view to general elections.” 

9 .—In answer to Lord Jocelyn, Sir Robert 
Peel states the intentions of Government with 
reference to the Repeal demonstration now being 
made in Ireland. There was no influence, he 
said, power, or authority, which the preroga¬ 
tives of the Crown and existing laws give to 
Ministers, that would not be exercised for 
the purpose of maintaining the Union. An 
Executive Government can lose nothing of 
moral or real strength by confiding as long as 
possible in the ordinary powers which the law 
and constitution give them ; but if the neces¬ 
sity should arise for further powers, he should 
without an instant’s hesitation appeal to Parlia¬ 
ment. ‘‘1 am also prepared to make, in my 
place here, the declaration which was made, 
and nobly made, by my predecessor—I mean 
Lord Althorpe—that, deprecating as I do all 
war, but above all civil war, yet there is no 
alternative which I do not think preferable 
to the dismemberment, of this empire. ” 

11 . —At a meeting of the Repeal Association 
in Dublin, O’Connell denounces the Duke of 
Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Brougham, 
and others, for their vindictive hatred of Ire¬ 
land, and promises that when her Majesty visits 
her Irish subjects she will hear of nothing but 
Repeal from one end of the country to the 
other. 

12 . —Died, Lord Fitzgerald and Vesey, Pre¬ 
sident of the Board of Control. He was suc¬ 
ceeded by the Earl of Ripon. 

13 . —In the Court of Exchequer, a jury give 
a verdict of 4,500/. damages against Hurel 
and Vidil, glass importers, Old Jewry; and 
of 6,000/. against Candy & Co., silk importers, 
Watling-street, for illegally defrauding the 
Board of Customs, through the aid of officers 
appointed to inspect the imports. (See May 22.) 

— Singular accident to Mr. Brunei, en- 








MAY 


I843. 


ma y 


gineer. While amusing the children of a friend 
by seeming to pass a half-sovereign into his 
mouth and out at his ear, it suddenly slipped, 
and became lodged in the trachea. Various 
efforts we' nade to extract it, but they proved 
unavailing, and surgical aid was called in. 
Various consultations took place among the 
most eminent professional men, and an appa¬ 
ratus was constructed for inverting the body of 
the patien* in order that the weight of the coin 
might assist the natural effort to expel it by 
coughing. The first attempt in this way failed, 
but to-day, on being again inverted, Mr. Brunei 
felt the coin quit its place on the right side of 
the chest, and in a few seconds it dropped from 
his mouth, without causing distress or even 
inconvenience. 

15 .—Given at the Court of St. James’s, her 
Majesty’s letter to the General Assembly of 
the Church of Scotland. “The faith of our 
Crown,” it went on, “ is pledged to uphold you 
in the full enjoyment of every privilege which 
you can justly claim; but you will bear in mind 
that the rights and property of an Established 
Church are conferred by law ; it is by law that 
the Church of Scotland is united with the State, 
and that her endowments are secured; and the 
ministers of religion, claiming the sanction of 
law in defence of their privileges, are specially 
bound by their sacred calling to be examples of 
obedience. The Act ratifying the Confession of 
Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church govern¬ 
ment in Scotland, was adopted at the Union, 
and is now the Act of the British Parliament. 
The settlement thus fixed cannot be annulled 
by the will or declaration of any number of 
individuals. Those who are dissatisfied with 
the terms of this settlement may renounce it 
for themselves, but the union of the Church of 
Scotland with the State is indissoluble, while 
statutes remain unaffected -which recognise the 
Presbyterian Church as the Church established 
by law within the kingdom of Scotland.” The 
document was signed by Sir James Graham. 

18 .—Mr. Roebuck’s motion in favour of se¬ 
cular education, rejected by 156 to 60 votes. 

. — Disruption in the Church of Scotland. 

To-day the anxiously anticipated Assembly 
commenced its sittings in Edinburgh. Shortly 
before 1 o’clock Divine service was commenced 
in the High Church, and a sermon preached by 
Dr. Welsh, the retiring Moderator, who took 
for his text the words, “Let everv man be 
fully persuaded in his own mind. On the 
conclusion of the services the Assembly ad¬ 
journed to St. Andrew’s Church, fitted up as 
a temporary Hall of Assembly. The retiring 
Moderator took the chair about 3 o’clock. 
Soon afterwards the Lord High Commissioner, 
the Marquis of Bute, was announced, and 
the whole assemblage received him standing. 
Prayer was then offered up. On the members 
resuming their seats, Dr. Welsh rose. By 
the eager pressure forward,” writes the his¬ 
torian of the “Ten Years’ Conflict,” who was 
present, “the ‘Hush! hush!’ that burst from 


so many lips—the anxiety to hear threatened 
to defeat itself. The disturbance lasted but a 
moment. ‘Fathers and brethren,’ said Dr. 
Welsh—and now eveiy syllable fell upon the 
ear amid the breathless silence which pre¬ 
vailed—‘ according to the usual form of pro¬ 
cedure, this is the time for making up the roll. 
But, in consequence of certain proceedings 
affecting our rights and privileges, proceedings 
which have been sanctioned by her Majesty’s 
Government, and by the Legislature of the 
country ; and more especially in respect that 
there has been an infringement on the liberties 
of our constitution, so that we could not now 
constitute this Court without a violation of the 
terms of the union between Church and State 
in this land, as now authoritatively declared, I 
must protest against our proceeding further. 
The reasons that have led me to come to this 
conclusion are fully set forth in the document 
which I hold in my hand, and which, with per¬ 
mission of the house, I will now proceed to 
read.’ After a full narration of the rejection of 
the Claim of Right by the Legislature, and the 
coercion exercised by the civil courts, the pro¬ 
test concluded : ‘We protest that in the cir¬ 
cumstances in which we are placed, it is and 
shall be lawful for us, and such other Commis¬ 
sioners chosen to the Assembly appointed to 
have been this day holden as may concur with 
us, to withdraw to a separate place of meeting 
for the purpose of taking steps along with all 
who adhere to us—maintaining with us the con¬ 
fession of faith and standards of the Church of 
Scotland, for separating in an orderly way from 
the Establishment, and thereupon adopting such 
measures as may be competent to us, in humble 
dependence on God’s grace, and the aid of the 
Holy Spirit, for the advancement of His glory, 
the extension of the Gospel of our Lord and 
Saviour, and the administration of the affairs 
of Christ’s house according to His holy Word ; 
and we now withdraw accordingly, humbly and 
solemnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord 
in the things which have come upon us, because 
of our manifold sins, and the sins of the Church 
and nation ; but, at the same time, with assured 
conviction that we are not responsible for any 
consequences that may follow from this our en¬ 
forced separation from an establishment which 
we loved and prized, through interference with 
conscience, the dishonour done to Christ’s crown, 
and the rejection of His sole and supreme 
authority as King in His Church.’ Having 
finished the reading of this protest, Dr. Welsh 
laid it upon the table, turned and bowed re¬ 
spectfully to the Commissioner, left the chair, 
and proceeded along the aisle to the door of 
the church. Dr. Chalmers had been standing 
immediately on his left. He looked vacant and 
abstracted while the protest was being read; 
but Dr. Welsh’s movement awakei ed him from 
his reverie. Seizing eagerly upon his hat, he 
hurried after him with all the air of one im¬ 
patient to be gone. M". Campbell of Monzie, 
Dr. Gordon, Dr. Macdonald, and Dr.Macfarlane 
followed him.” The effect upon the audience 

(133) 





MAY 


1843. 


MAY 


was overwhelming. A loud cheer burst from 
the gallery, which, however, was suddenly 
hushed, and the whole audience stood gazing 
intently on the scene below, while the mem¬ 
bers of Assembly who remained also looked 
on in silence, as seat after seat became vacant. 
Whenever the leaders of the movement made 
their appearance outside they were received with 
bursts of applause from the masses assembled 
in George-street, and which were continued and 
reiterated with enthusiasm as they marched 
through the streets leading to Tanfield Hall, 
Canon-mills. The procession consisted of about 
1,000 persons, walking four abreast. At Tan¬ 
field the new Free Assembly was formally con¬ 
stituted, and Dr. Chalmers elected Moderator 
amid the most enthusiastic displays of feeling. 
Speaking of their new position, Dr. Chalmers 
said they hoped henceforward to prosecute their 
labours in peace, on the ground of British tolera¬ 
tion. They were neither Voluntaries nor An¬ 
archists : they quitted a vitiated Establishment, 
but would rejoice in returning to a pure one : 
they were advocates of a national recognition 
and support of religion. In the old Assembly, 
Principal Macfarlane of Glasgow was elected 
Moderator. The ten years’ conflict thus ended 
in the separation of the contending parties. On 
the 22d the sentence of deposition formerly pro¬ 
nounced against the Strathbogie ministers was 
declared by the old Assembly to be of no effect, 
by a majority of 148 to 33. The minority in 
this case urged that though the original sentence 
was harsh, and possibly unnecessary, yet having 
been pronounced by a competent court it ought 
to have been more observed than it was. The 
Assembly, taking into consideration the Protest 
and Deed of Demission, found that the ministers 
who attached their names to the Protest “ had 
ceased, by their own act, to be ministers of the 
Church of Scotland; that their several churches 
have become vacant, and that they are dis¬ 
qualified for receiving any presentation or ap¬ 
pointment to a parochial or other spiritual charge 
in the Church as by law established, unless 
reponed by the competent ecclesiastical judi¬ 
catories, and that the subscribing elders are no 
longer elders in any of the parishes or sessions 
Connected with the Establishment.” Presby¬ 
teries were instructed to intimate the vacancies 
without delay to patrons and those entitled to 
nominate. ‘ ‘ In respect that there are ministers 
and elders, not members of Assembly, who have 
adhered to the Protest and subscribed one of the 
same import, Presbyteries are instructed to meet 
to ascertain if any of their members have so 
done ; and on their acknowledging such signa¬ 
tures, or not appearing when cited to answer 
for it, steps to be taken as above for declaring 
their churches vacant, and supplying their 
places.” On the same day it was unanimously 
resolved that the Veto Act passed in 1834, 
having infringed on civil and patrimonial 
rights, was ultra vires of the Assembly. The 
Free Assembly sat till 30th May, the time 
being mostly occupied with discussions relat¬ 
ing to the fabric of their constitution. Up 
( 134 ) 


to that date the total number of ministers who 
signed the Protest was 444; of these 139 filled 
quoad sacra charges. The Act of Separatior 
was agreed to on the 23d, the signing 01 
the document occupying about four hours. 
It solemnly renounced for its subscribers thi 
status, privileges, and emoluments derived from 
the Establishment; reserving to ministers, how-- 
ever, the right to act as pastors of particular 
congregations or portions thereof adhering to 
them, with the rights and benefits accruing from 
the Ministers’ Widows’ Fund; and disavowing 
the renunciation of churches built by private 
contribution and not endowed by the State. It 
contained also the order, that the Act of Separa¬ 
tion should be transmitted to the Moderator of 
“ the Ecclesiastical Judicatory by law estab¬ 
lished.” 

20. —Lady Jane Colville burnt to death in 
her own drawing-room, Rosslyn House, Hamp¬ 
stead, by her dress coming in contact with a 
taper placed on the floor for convenience. 

21 . —Dr. Pusey preaches a sermon in Christ 
Church, Oxford, in which he was alleged to ha ve 
avowed a belief in the Romish doctrine of Tran- 
substantiation. Vice - Chancellor Wynter de¬ 
manded a copy of the sermon for examination by 
a Board of Heresy. A decision was given ad¬ 
verse to Dr. Pusey, and he was sentenced to be 
suspended from preaching before the University 
for two years. No reason was assigned for 
this decision. 

22 . —The Government Bill regulating the 
admission of Canadian com into the ports of 
Great Britain, read a second time in the House 
of Commons by a majority of 344 to 156 votes. 

— The Townshend Peerage Bill passes the 
House of Lords. 

— The Commissioners appointed to in¬ 
quire into the frauds carried on in the Inland 
Revenue department complete their report to 
Parliament. They had received specific informa¬ 
tion regarding the following frauds :—I. The 
granting of false certificates by the export-offi¬ 
cers, permitting the export of one article under 
the name of another ; as in the case of ma¬ 
chinery, the exportation of which is prohibited. 

2. Granting a false certificate of the quality, or 
of the existence of goods for exportation, to 
obtain an amount of drawback-duty far exceed¬ 
ing what is legally due, or a drawback for an 
imaginary exportation of articles which are not 
exported. 3. The “dummy” system, or the 
substitution of a package of low-duty goods for 
a package of high-duty goods. 4. The negli¬ 
gent or wilful under-valuation of goods, where 
they are subject to ad valorem duties ; and the 
dishonest or careless and faulty enumeration of 
the goods, where their amount is to be stated. 

5. The improper computation of tare in pack¬ 
ages. 6. A complicated method of under¬ 
valuing goods. 1 he landing-waiter entered an 
account of the goods in his “rough book 
the goods were permitted to pass under the 
inspection of the landing-surveyor, which was 





MA V 


1843. 


JUNE 


even invited : if they were actually examined 
by the superior officers, no fraud was at¬ 
tempted ; but if they passed without hindrance, 
the entry in the rough book was obliterated, 
and a false entry was made in the “blue book ” 
of the landing-waiter ; the importer paid a duty 
tallying with the entry in the blue book ; and 
thus the whole transaction acquired an appear¬ 
ance of correctness. 7. The removal of leaves 
from the landing-waiter’s blue book, and the 
substitution of others, with fraudulent entries ; 
as described by Mr. Burnby at the recent 
trials. 8. The obliteration of the entry in the 
blue book by a chemical process, and the sub¬ 
stitution of fraudulent entries. 

23 .—Lord Ffrench, having intimated an in¬ 
tention to be present at certain Repeal meetings, 
was this day removed from the commission of 
the peace for Galway. O’Connell, who was 
removed from the Kerry Commission on the 
25 th, threatened to impeach the Lord Chancellor 
in the new Irish Parliament—an event in his 
judgment not remote. Smith O’Brien resigned 
his commission for Limerick and Clare. 

24 -.—The will of Richard Arkwright, son of 
the inventor of the spinning-jenny, proved in 
the Prerogative Court. His heir came into the 
possession of about 8,000,000/. 

25 .— Mr. Christie’s bill for the abolition of 
certain oaths and subscriptions at the Univer¬ 
sities, negatived by 175 votes to 105. 

28 . —Died at New Haven, United States, 
aged 84, W. S. Noah Webster, LL.D., lexi¬ 
cographer. 

29 . —In the Established Assembly Dr. 
Simpson reads an answer to the Protest which 
had been drawn up by a committee appointed 
for the purpose. The answer generally denied 
the allegations in the Protest, holding that the 
Church courts, and not the Civil courts, had 
gone beyond their jurisdiction; and that on the 
whole there was no valid or sufficient ground in 
the Protest for the secession from the Establish¬ 
ment, in which when they got their licence they 
were solemnly sworn not to follow devisive 
courses. 

30 . —Orange riots at Carlow, Tyrone. 
Thirty houses gutted in the presence of the 
police. 

— The Purchase of Arms (Ireland) Bill 
read a second time in the Commons, after a 
debate on the present threatening condition of 
that country. 

June 2.—Dr. Pusey writes to the Vice- 
Chancellor, protesting against his suspension 
for two years, as an act unstatutable as well as 
unjust. “I have ground to think,” he says, 
“that as no propositions out of my sermon 
have been exhibited to me as at variance with 
the doctrines of the Church, so neither can 
they, but that I have been condemned either on 
a mistaken construction of my words, founded 
on the doctrinal opinion of my judges, or on 


grounds distinct from the formularies of the 
Church.” Dr. Pusey further intimated tnat he 
had the Vice-Chancellor’s full authority for say¬ 
ing that he had not been heard. An address, 
numerously signed by resident members of Con¬ 
vocation and Bachelors of Civil Law, was pre¬ 
sented to the Vice-Chancellor, requesting him 
to make known the grounds on which the sen¬ 
tence on Dr. Pusey was passed, that they might 
know what statements of doctrine it was intended 
“ to mark as dissonant from or contrary to the 
doctrine and discipline of the Church of Eng¬ 
land as publicly received.” The Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor still refused to assign any reasons. 

2 . —Lord Dudley Stuart assaulted by a Polish 
refugee of bad character, when entering the 
rooms of the Polish Literary Institution. 

3 . —B. T. Nyman, from America, delivers 
a lecture on mesmerism at the London Me¬ 
chanics’ Institution, and produces numerous 
practical illustrations. 

6 . —The Duke of Sutherland writes to the 
Right Hon. Fox Maule : “I dislike religious 
persecution, and I trust that I shall always be 
an opposer of measures tending to it or intole¬ 
rance. I cannot but think, however, that such 
are at present directed against the Establish¬ 
ment, and that if, as a proprietor, I were to 
grant sites for building for the purpose of oppos¬ 
ing the ministration, to do which a desperate 
spirit has been evinced, I should not only 
acquiesce in, but even sanction and encourage 
it, and this I should consider very wrong. ” 

8 . —Monster Repeal meeting at Kilkenny. 
Almost the entire male population of that 
county, with portions from Tipperary, Carlow, 
Wexford, Waterford, and Queen’s County, 
are said to have been present: 300,000 was 
the estimated number, 12,000 of whom were 
horsemen. The Agitator made a long ad¬ 
dress. “The Irish Parliament,” he con¬ 
cluded, “is not dead, it is only sleeping, 
and here am I sounding the trumpet of her 
resurrection.” His most exciting speech was 
reserved for the dinner-table. “ Peel and Wel¬ 
lington,” he said, “ may be second Cromwells. 
(“Hear!” and hisses.) They may get his 
blunted truncheon, and they may, O sacred 
Heaven ! enact on the fair occupants of that 
gallery (pointing to the ladies’ gallery) the 
murder of the Wexford ladies. (“Oh, oh!”) 
But I am wrong, they never shall. (Tremen¬ 
dous cheering and waving of handkerchiefs.) 
What alarms me is the progress of injustice. 
That ruffianly Saxon paper, the Times —(loud 
groans)—the number received by me this day, 
presumes to threaten us with such a fate. 
(“ Oh, oh ! ”) But let it not be supposed that 
I made that appeal to the ladies as a flight of 
my imagination. (“Hear, hear!”) No, the 
number of 300 ladies, the beauty and loveliness 
of Wexford, the young and old, the maid and 
the matron, when Cromwell entered the town 
by treachery—300 inoffensive women, of all 
ages and classes, were collected round the cross 
of Christ, erected in a part of the town called the 




JUNE 


JUNE 


1343- 


Bull Ring : they prayed to Heaven for mercy, 
and I hope they found it; they prayed to the 
English for humanity, and Cromwell slaughtered 

them. (“Oh, oh!” and great sensation.) I 
tell you this, 300 of the grace and beauty and 
virtue of Wexford were slaughtered by the 
English ruffians—sacred Heaven ! (Tremen¬ 
dous sensation, and cries of “ Oh, oh ! ”) I am 
not at all imaginative when I talk of the possi¬ 
bility of such occurrences anew; but yet I assert 
there is no danger of the women, for the men of 
Ireland would die to the last in their defence. 
(Here the entire company rose and cheered for 
several minutes.) We were a paltry remnant 

then, we are millions now.” (Renewed cheer¬ 
ing.) 

9. —Samuel Mayer examined at the Home 
Office for the offence of sending a letter to Sir 
James Graham, volunteering “to risk his life 
against Mr. O’Connell’s, as he might be 
ordered.” He now disavowed all evil in¬ 
tention towards the Agitator, and stated that 
the letter was the result of a drunken freak. 
He was bound over to appear at the Central 
Criminal Court when called upon. 

10. —Disturbance at Carmarthen by “Re¬ 
becca and her Daughters.” They marched 
through the town about 1,000 strong, took 
possession of the workhouse, and remained till 
the afternoon, when they were broken up by a 
troop of dragoons sent from Cardiff, and eighty 
of them taken prisoners. Their list of griev¬ 
ances embraced the removal of all the turnpike- 
gates in the county, the abolition of tithes, and 
rent-charge in lieu of tithe, the total abolition 
of the present Poor-law and of church-rates. 
The following evening another mob assembled 
at Mydrim, Rebecca being on horseback in 
female attire. They called at the public-houses 
of the place, cleared the cellars of the ale, 
and about 10 o’clock set out for St. Clears ; 
there they demolished the tumpike-gate, and 
obtained through intimidation sums of money 
at different houses. This destruction of turn¬ 
pike-gates by bands of disguised Rebeccaites 
continued for months to be an almost nightly 
occurrence in different parts of South Wales. 
At the time of the outbreak there were be¬ 
tween 100 and 150 gates, including side-bars 
and chains, in the county of Carmarthen; 
nearly half of these were destroyed, and in 
places where they were renewed the toll-house 
was generally destroyed along with the gate. 
Two or three sharp encounters took place with 
the authorities, but their familiarity with the 
district generally enabled the rioters to elude 
their pursuers. Their name was presumed to 
be derived from a preposterous application of a 
passage in the Book of Genesis, “ And they 
blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Let thy 
seed possess the gate of those which hate 
them. ” 

13 .—The Earl of Aberdeen’s Bill for re¬ 
moving doubts respecting the admission of 
Ministers into benefices in Scotland, read a 

(136) 


second time in the House of Lords. The bill, 
he explained, was similar in language and in¬ 
tention to the one introduced in 1840. 

13 . —An Anti-Slavery Convention, under the 
presidency of Mr. S. Gurney, commences its j 
sittings in Freemasons’ Hall. On one of the 
days of meeting a Free Trade motion ap¬ 
proving of the admission of Brazilian sugar as 

a necessary act of justice to all parties was 
negatived by a large majority. 

14 . —In consequence of the dissatisfaction 
caused by the confiscation of ecclesiastical pro¬ 
perty in Spain, a disturbance breaks out in 
Barcelona, and the regency of Espartero is 
seriously imperilled. 

15 . —In the case of Sanders v. Head 
(clerk in orders), the defendant, charged with 
publishing remarks derogatory to the Book of 
Common Prayer, was sentenced to-day in the 
Arches Court to be suspended for two years, 
and admonished. 

— Repeal demonstration at Ennis, attended, 
it was said, by about a quarter of a million 
people, the procession to the race-course ex¬ 
tending to a length of six miles. The particular 
point insisted on by the Agitator on this occasion 
was the power possessed by the Queen of 
reviving the Irish Parliament without consult¬ 
ing the Ministry. 

— Sir James Graham announces that it 
is not the intention of Government to proceed 
with the educational clauses of the Factory 
Bill. The success of the measure, he said, 
depended upon its being received as a measure 
of concord and conciliation, and it had been 
framed with that view; but soon after its 
introduction he found that the great body of 
Dissenters had insuperable objections to it. 
Extensive modifications had been made to 
meet these objections, but in that he had been 
wholly disappointed. The petitions against 
the clauses in their original form were 13,369, 
bearing 2,068,059 signatures; and in their 
amended form, 11,228, with 1,745,686 sig¬ 
natures. 

16 . —In the adjourned debate on the Irish 
Arms Bill, the Home Secretary (Sir J. Graham) 
makes a statement much commented on after¬ 
wards, in Parliament and at public meetings 
in Ireland. He had been a friend, he 
said, to Catholic Emancipation: he had be¬ 
lieved the declarations, the anticipations, and the 
oaths of the noblemen, gentlemen, and clergy of 
the Roman Catholic faith; who, however, now 
appeared to have greatly deceived themselves in 
their recorded statement, that if equality as 
citizens were given to them, they would rest 
satisfied with the terms of the Union, and 
that the Protestant Church in that country 
should be safe from attack. Catholic Emanci¬ 
pation had been carried ; conciliation had been 
carried out in Ireland to the extreme extent. 
(“No, no !”) No! then there he joined issue; 
and let those who thought so bring forward 







JUNE 


JUNE 


I843- 


further conciliatory measures. Unless the fatal 
day had come, however, when such dangerous 
concessions were to be made, he must think the 
withdrawal of legal precautions against the use 
of fire-arms madness. 

17 . —The Free Church of Scotland issues 
a Pastoral Address, explanatory of their posi¬ 
tion, appealing to the people as the true Church 
of their fathers,—the Church which holds the 
principles that they held, which bears the 
testimony that they bore, and which is now 
suffering in the cause of that great truth for 
which they suffered. The Pastoral of the 
Established Church referred in these terms to 
the secession : “ Towards our brethren who 
have gone out from us, it is our earnest desire 
to let brotherly love continue. We cannot 
admit that the course which they have followed 
is one to which they have been impelled by an 
irresistible necessity; but such appears to be 
their deliberate conviction, and we give them 

credit for their sincenty.Earnestly as 

we desire that you may be established in the 
present truth, we trust that you will be on your 
guard against all animosity and unbecoming 
vehemence in the discussion of questions which 
are apt to engender angry strife. We do not 
apprehend that you will fail to observe the 
courtesies of life in all your intercourse with 
those who have renounced our communion. 
We trust that you will cherish towards them 
the most cordial kindness. ‘ Let all bitterness, 
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil 
speaking, be put away from you, with all 
malice. ’ If you should ever be assailed with 
reviling, revile not again. ” 

— An attempt to execute a warrant produces 
a disastrous war with the natives of New Zea¬ 
land, which was renewed at intervals, till 1845. 

18 . —Died at St. Petersburg, aged 87, Field- 
Marshal Count Wittgenstein, Commander-in- 
chief of the Russian army during the greater 
part of the French war. 

19 . —Inauguration of the memorial erected 
“ in reverence of the memory ” of John Hamp¬ 
den, on Chalgrove Field. 

— Testimonial of silver plate subscribed for 
by lovers of the national drama, presented to 
Mr. Macready by his Royal Highness the Duke 
of Cambridge. 

— The Judges assemble in the House of 
Lords to deliver their opinions on the questions 
submitted to them with reference to criminals 
insane or reputed insane. On the fourth ques¬ 
tion, If a person under an insane delusion as to 
existing facts commits an offence in consequence 
thereof, is he thereby excused? the Judges 
were unanimously of opinion . that the party 
accused was equally liable with a person of 
sane mind. If the accused killed another in 
self-defence, he would be entitled to an ac¬ 
quittal ; but if committed for any supposed 
injury, he would then be liable to the punish¬ 
ment awarded by the law to his crime. 


19 . —In an adjourned debate on the Irish 
Arms Bill, Mr. Lane Fox declared that our 
Protestant Constitution was as much the law of 
God as that delivered to the Israelites from 
Mount Sinai; and his opinion was, that the 
time had arrived pointed out by Christ, when 
the sword must be drawn in defence of the 
Church. The time had now come when he 
that had no sword must sell his garment to buy 
one. To show that it was with the Roman 
power that the Church of England had to war, 
he must go back to the French Revolution. 
(Laughter.) France was an emanation from 
the Roman power, when she shook off Chris¬ 
tianity altogether; and it was to Rome that 
Israel was in subjection when the Saviour 
came. The Emperor of the French was the 
seventh head from Rome. (Loud laughter.) 
He acknowledged Mars as a god—(laughter)— 
and a mighty god he found him, for he left him 
in the lurch at last. (Great laughter.) If the 
Reformation was not of God, the Church of 
England rested on a very slender foundation : 
if it was, the admission of Roman Catholics to 
seats in that House could not be justified by 
any Jesuitical arguments whatever. (Continued 
laughter.) After some more remarks in the 
same strain, Mr. Fox stated his belief, that 
Rome was now more terrible than she ever was 
since the days of the old she-wolf the wet-nurse 
of Romulus and Remus. (Roars of laughter.) 
Lord Eldon said, that when Catholic Emanci¬ 
pation was passed, England’s sun would set. 
That Act was the abomination of modem 
legislation; but “Elias, who must come and 
restore all things,” could not be far off. 
(Great laughter and confusion, amidst which 
Mr. Fox resumed his seat.)—In the course 
of this debate Lord John Russell urged upon 
Ministers the necessity of re-entering into 
diplomatic relations with the Court of Rome, 
not with the immediate view of pacifying 
Ireland, but as a measure of permanent advan¬ 
tage to this country. 

20. —Audubon, writing from “ no miles 
above Fort Union,” informs Dr. Bachman of 
his discovery there of a new quadruped of the 
kangaroo species. 

21 . —In the Court of Common Pleas the 
jury return a verdict in favour of the Duke 
of Brunswick and others, charged with con¬ 
spiracy in so far as they had hired people to 
hiss Gregory of the Satirist when he appeared 
as an actor at Co vent Garden Theatre. Two 
days afterwards Gregory was convicted of a 
series of libels on the Duke insinuating that he 
was the murderer of Eliza Grim wood. (See 
May 26, 1838.) 

22 . —In Committee on the Sugar Duties, 
Mr. Cobden moved as an amendment: “It is 
not expedient that, in addition to the great 
expense to which the people of this country 
are subjected for the civil, military, and naval 
establishments of the Colonies, they should be 
compelled to pay a higher price for the prc- 






JUNE 


JULY 


In¬ 


ductions of those Colonies than that at which 
similar commodities could be procured from 
other countries; and that, therefore, all pro¬ 
ductive duties in favour of Colonial produce 
ought to be abolished.” The amendment was 
rejected by a majority of 81 in a House 
of 325. 

23 .—In a debate in Committee on the 
Arms (Ireland) Bill, Sir James Graham, pressed 
by Mr. Duncombe and others, as to the instruc¬ 
tions forwarded to the Irish Lord Chancellor 
for the removal of Repeal magistrates, replied: 
4 ‘ That considering the character of those mul¬ 
titudinous meetings, their martial array, their 
music, the danger to public peace, and the 
terror to be excited, he did not hesitate to 
declare that he had written to the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor of Ireland to point out, on his (Sir 
James’s) responsibility, that the time had ar¬ 
rived when it was necessary to exercise the 
undoubted power of the Sovereign, and not to 
continue magistrates in the commission when 
it was manifest they were pursuing a line of 
conduct inconsistent with their public duty 
and fatal to the peace of the kingdom. ” 

26 . —The Governor-General of India writes 
to the Secret Committee from Allahabad : 
“ The battle of Meeanee entirely changed the 
position in which the British Government 
stood with respect to the Ameers of Scinde. 
To have placed confidence in them thereafter 
would have been impossible. To have only 
exacted from them large cessions of territory 
would have been to give them what remained 
as the means of levying war for the purpose of 
regaining what was ceded. Foreigners in 
Scinde, they had only held their power by the 
sword, and by the sword they have lost it. . . . 
Their removal from the country with which 
they were no longer to be connected as sove¬ 
reigns was a measure of obvious expediency, 
and has apparently had the beneficial effect I 
intended from it.” 

— Hong Kong, the chief city of British 
trade in China, placed under the governorship 
of Sir H. Pottinger. 

27 . —A Committee of Privileges of the 
House of Lords decide that Washington Shirley 
Ferrars had made good his claim to the title and 
dignity of Earl Ferrars. The claimant’s case, as 
stated by Sir Harris Nicholas, rested on his prov¬ 
ing himself to be the grandson of the eighth and 
last earl, whose son, Viscount Tamworth, had 
pre-deceased his father, after marrying with 
Ann Weston and legitimizing his children. 

— Died at his residence in Albemarle- 
street, aged 65 years, John Murray, publisher. 

28 . —Married at Buckingham Palace, Fre¬ 
derick, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklen- 
burg-Strelitz, to the Princess Augusta, eldest 
daughter of the Duke of Cambridge. 

— Riotous scene at the Oxford Com¬ 
memoration, on the occasion of conferring the 
degree of D.C.L. on Mr. Everett, the American 

(138) 


Ambassador, and formerly, it was alleged, a 
Unitarian preacher. The effect of the uproar 
was to put a stop to the usual proceedings of 
the day; and the Vice-Chancellor was obliged 
to dissolve the Convocation without either of 
the prize essays being recited. 

29 .—General Serrano, now at the head of 
the Spanish army, declares Espartero to be de¬ 
prived of the Regency. 

July 1.—Lieut.-Col. Fawcett, of the 55th, 
shot in a duel near Camden Town by his 
brother-in-law, Lieut. Munro, of the Royal 
Horse Guards. The latter made his escape 
from the ground with a friend. The quarrel 
related to family affairs. At the inquest the 
jury returned a verdict of Wilful Murder. 

— The Nea'siistle Journal writes : “ It is 

stated that Bright, the Anti-Corn Law agitator, 
is expected to visit the wool fair, which will 
be held at Alnwick shortly, in order to scatter 
the seeds of disaffection in that quarter. Should 
he make his appearance, which is not impro¬ 
bable, it is to be hoped there may be found 
some stalwart yeoman ready to treat the dis¬ 
affected vagabond as he deserves.” 

3 .—Opened in Westminster Abbey the 
exhibition of cartoons, the result of the prizes 
offered by the Royal Commission for the en¬ 
couragement of the Fine Arts, with a view to 
the decoration of the interior of the new Houses 
of Parliament. There were 140 subjects, vary¬ 
ing in size from ten to fifteen feet. Three 
prizes of 300/. each, three of 200/., and three 
of 100/., were awarded to the most successful 
competitors. 

7 .—Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Exchequer, the case of Westmacot v. Clark, 
being an action to recover from the defendant, 
Mary Ann Clark, one of the sisters and next 
of kin of the late Baroness de Feuch&res, a sum 
of money for the services of the plaintiff in 
recovering for her, as one of the next of kin, 
her share of the property left by the late 
baroness. Mr. Thesiger having explained the 
extraordinary difficulties surmounted by the 
plaintiff in securing for the next of kin against 
many other claimants the very large properties 
left to the Baroness by the Due de Bourbon, 
under whose protection she lived, it was 
arranged, on the suggestion of the Court, to 
settle the matter by arbitration. The sum 
ultimately awarded was 15,548/., of which 
5 > 45 3^- was for actual disbursements ; 6,3 /1^/ . 
for personal services, and 3,751/. for the plain¬ 
tiff’s costs of the reference. (See Jan. 16, 1843.) 

11.—Celebration in Edinburgh of the Bicen¬ 
tenary of the Westminster Assembly. 

— At the weekly meeting of the National 
Repeal Association in Dublin, the rent col¬ 
lected for the week was announced as amount¬ 
ing to 1,690/. Intimation was also given that 
several magistrates had been dismissed for 
joining the Repeal Association. 





JULY 


1843 - 


AUGUST 


11 .—The Consistory Court grant a decree of 
divorce on the ground of adultery prayed for at 
the instance of the Viscountess Montmorency 
against her husband. 

, 12 .—Died, aged 78, Samuel Hahnemann, 
German physician and founder of the homoeo¬ 
pathic school. 

13 . —Concluded at half-past 2 o’clock this 
morning, the debate on Mr. Smith O’Brien’s 
motion for an inquiry into the cause of the 
present discontent in Ireland. The discussion 
was protracted over a week, and resulted in 
the rejection of the motion by 243 to 164 votes. 

14 . —Republican demonstration of Parisians 
in favour of Ireland, on this the anniversary of 
the capture of the Bastile. The toast of 
“ Ireland and France, the enemy of all op¬ 
pression,” was given by M. Ledru Rollin, who 
warmly advocated the Repeal of the Irish 
Union. 

17 . —Lord Aberdeen’s Church of Scotland 
Benefices Bill l'ead a third time in the House 
of Lords. 

18 . —A small steamboat scuttled and sunk 
in her berth at the east end of Loch Katrine, 
presumed to have been the work of some of 
the boatmen who formerly carried on the trade 
of the lake. 

19 . —The Great Britain iron steamship, 
the largest built up to this date, launched at 
Bristol, in presence of Prince Albert and a 
distinguished company. 

— Wreck of the Pegasus , Hull and Leith 
steamer, and loss of upwards of forty lives. 
She left Leith harbour this afternoon at half¬ 
past 5 o’clock, and about midnight struck, in 
calm weather, upon a reef off the inner Fern, 
known as the Goldstone Island. The captain 
attempted to run the vessel ashore, but the 
damage received was so serious that she foun¬ 
dered within 300 yards of the spot where she 
struck. An attempt was made to launch the 
boats, but the delay in getting them into the 
water was considerable, and the rush of pas¬ 
sengers and crew to take possession caused 
them to be swamped with the sinking ship. 
About 5 A. M. the steamer Martello came upon 
the wreck, and picked up six of the survivors, 
four of whom had contrived to float about with 
hatches and benches, and two who had clung 
to the topmast, still a few feet above water. 
One of them, named Bailie, a servant in at¬ 
tendance on Mr. Torry, had carefully stripped 
himself to swim during the few minutes allowed 
for preparation. When the ship was fast 
settling by the head, he saw the Rev. Mr. 
Mackenzie praying on the quarter-deck, sur¬ 
rounded by most of the male and female pas¬ 
sengers with their children. 

23 .—The insurrection in Spain had suc¬ 
ceeded so far up to this date, that Narvaez 
enters the capital in triumph. The Regent 


Espartero was understood to be attacking 
Seville. 

24 . —Mr. Cobden insulted and hustled in 
the Corn Exchange, Mark-lane. Mr. Ruding, 
one of the proprietors, writes : “ Sir, I beg 
to express my deep regret, as one of the pro¬ 
prietors of the Corn Exchange, at the scan¬ 
dalous treatment which you experienced this 
morning during your visit here, in which regret 
I believe every respectable party connected 
with the Corn Exchange sincerely joins, what¬ 
ever political opinions they may entertain.” 

25 . —Mr. Bright returned as Member of 
Parliament for Durham City, by a majority of 
78 over his Tory opponent, Mr. Purvis. He 
made affirmation and took his seat next day. 

27 .—City of Canton opened to British trade 
under the provisions of the treaty of Nankin. 

29 . —The Queen and Prince Albert proceed 
down the Thames in the royal barge to inspect 
the Tunnel. 

30 . —General Espartero, defeated at Seville, 
after a siege of twenty-one days, now leaves 
Spanish territory, and places himself under the 
protection of a British war-vessel off Cadiz. 

31 . —Commission of Lunacy opened regard¬ 
ing Mr. Dyce .Sombre, the son of Gen. Sombre 
and the Begum or Princess of Scinde. The 
most prominent evidence of insanity was jealousy 
of his wife. He had addressed a letter to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, calling upon him to 
produce another lady of rank, and let her have 
a duel with Mrs. Dyce Sombre of three fires. 
It also desired Lord St. Vincent, her father, to 
bring a roan horse, well broken, adding that, 
when the ground had been consecrated by a 
duel, he would reconsecrate it by bringing Mrs. 
Sombre home on the horse. The jury found 
that he had been of unsound mind since October 
1842. 

August 1.—In most of the metropolitan 
theatres the performances were for the benefit 
of the family of Mr. Elton, who had perished 
in the wreck of the Pegasus. 

— The Memnon steamship, with the Indian 
mail, wrecked near Cape Guardafin. 

2 . —Collision between the peasantry and the 
police at Turloughmore fair, near Galway. 
The police discharge their muskets to protect 
themselves. Two men (one a magistrate) killed, 
and eight or ten wounded. 

— Mr. Ward’s motion for an address to 
her Majesty, praying for the disestablishment 
of the Irish Church, defeated by a “count-out” 
after a languid debate protracted over two 
nights. 

3 . —Mr. Ancona, brother of the well-known 
architect, commits suicide by throwing himself 
off Waterloo-bridge. 

— Lord Panmure writes to the seceding 
elders of Ed yell parish : “You foolish men, 
return to your good old Kirk, where there is 
plenty of room, and when more is necessary you 

( 139 ) 






AUGUST 


1843. 


AUGUST 


will be provided with it. . . . Let peace, and 
comfort, and harmony surround your firesides, 
and you will always find in me, as principal 
heritor, a friend ready to promote your welfare 
and happiness. ” 

4..— Joseph Atkinson, “the priest of Lam- 
berton toll-bar,” tried at Newcastle Assizes, 
before Mr. Justice Cresswell, and sentenced to 
seven years’ transportation, for celebrating an 
irregular marriage at Berwick. 

— Correspondence between the Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor of Oxford (P. Wynter) and Mr. Badeley, 
regarding the acceptance of a memorial depre¬ 
cating the sentence passed on Dr. Pusey. It 
was signed by two hundred and thirty non¬ 
resident members of Convocation, Mr. Glad¬ 
stone and Mr. Justice Coleridge being among 
the number. The Vice-Chancellor thought the 
memorial deserving of the strongest censure, 
and refused to receive it. 

— Lord Brougham draws the attention of 
the House of Lords to an article in the Ex¬ 
aminer , of a highly libellous character, in so 
far as it imputed to him the slander of insinuat¬ 
ing that Mr. Cobden had recommended private 
assassination, in order to please the Tories, 
whom he (Brougham) looked to for judicial 
preferment. At the close of the discussion, 
Lord Brougham announced his intention of 
proceeding at common law against the printer. 

7 .—Mr. Bright makes his first speech in 
Parliament, supporting a resolution proposed 
by Mr. Ewart for the reduction of duties 
which pressed on the raw material of manu¬ 
facture and the food of the people. The 
House should recollect, he said, that a principle 
bad in one case was bad in another; if it was 
irrational for pitmen to attempt to control 
prices, it was equally irrational for landlords to 
seek to control them. The truth was, they 
had been sowing curses ; and, now that it was 
their time to reap them, they must not be sur¬ 
prised at finding their seed yield its fruit. 
They had sown dragons’ teeth, and the dragons 
were now springing up. He made some passing 
criticisms on Ministers,—Sir James Graham, 
who once held opinions which coincided with 
those of the League ; Lord Stanley, who at 
Durham had displayed the profoundest ignor¬ 
ance of the question; and, coming to Sir Robert 
Peel, he said that he should be glad to see him 
not only what he was termed, the Queen’s 
Minister, but the People’s Minister. He should 
be glad to see him disconnect himself from a 
party with which he did not agree, and appear 
to bear in mind not only the source from which 
he had sprung, but the fact that what had made 
him had also made much of the wealth and 
power of the empire. As for others in that 
House, he would beg them to reflect that such 
things as the overthrowing of oligarchies had 
taken place. Mr. Ewart’s motion was rejected 
by 52 to 25 votes. 

9 .—In the debate on the third reading of 
the Anns (Ireland) Bill, Mr. Disraeli censured 

140I 


Ministers for applying only partial remedies 
to the evils of that country. Nothing, he said, 
could be more strange in the history of this 
country than that the gentlemen of England, 
the descendants of the Cavaliers, should be 
already advocates for governing Ireland on the 
principles of the Roundheads. Ireland had 
arrived at the state which required a great man 
to have recourse to great remedial measures. 
You must re-organize the Government, and not 
the Government alone, but the whole social 
state of Ireland. No merely temporary measures 
of relief or of coercion would be of any avail. 
If he were to use a harsh term he should call 
the Arms Bill, as applied to the present state 
of Ireland, contemptible ; but the opposition 
to it had also been contemptible. Some 
measures there were which to introduce was 
disgraceful, and to oppose degrading. On the 
Arms Bill he had hitherto given no vote one way 
or the other, and he should continue to pursue 
the same course. He believed that the time 
would come when a party would be formed in 
this country on the principle of justice to Ire¬ 
land—not by quailing before agitation, but by 
really putting an end to that misery which long 
misgovemment had produced. 

11. —Tried at Appleby Assizes the case of 
Robinson v. Bird and others, involving the 
possession of the Brougham Hall estates. Bird, 
in support of his claim, had trespassed upon 
the estate, and taken from the stable a horse 
belonging to the plaintiff. It appeared that in 
1726 James Bird, an attorney, was the owner 
of Brougham Hall. He left two grand¬ 
daughters, and they sold the interest of the 
Birds to Lora Brougham’s ancestor—his great- 
great-uncle—for 5,000/., and by this trans¬ 
action the estate was brought back to the 
family to whom it had for generations belonged. 
The attempt of the defendant to make Lord 
Brougham now prove his title failed on the 
ground that he had no right whatever to inter¬ 
fere with the property. Verdict for the plaintiff, 
damages 40^. 

— A jury at Croydon Assizes return a 
verdict of 20/. damages against the publisher 
of the Times for describing Feargus O’Connor 
as venal, and charging him with receiving money 
in connexion with the last Nottingham election. 

12 . —Lieut. Mackay, Adjutant of the 5th 
Fusiliers, shot on parade at Parsonstown Bar¬ 
racks by one of the soldiers he was drilling. 

15 .—In a debate on the affairs of Servia, 
Mr. Disraeli described the foreign policy of 
Ministers as the laughing-stock of the world, 
and spoke of Russia making strides to the two 
strongest points in the globe, the Sound and 
the Dardanelles. 

— Great Repeal demonstration on Tara- 
hill. “At 2 o’clock,” writes ‘ One who has 
whistled at the Plough,’ who was present, 
“when, as I may say, the tide was at its 
height, when thousands yet arriving were about 
to be driven back by tens of thousands leaving,, 







AUC'JST 


1843. 


AUGUST 


• : 1 at hour on and around Tara there were 

above one million of people,probably 1,200,000. 
Taking into account the throngs that filled the 
roads, and never got within miles of Tara, 
there were certainly one million and a half 
drawn from their homes by the business of the 
day.” O’Connell addressed the multitude: 
“ When you get your Parliament,” he said, 
“ all your grievances will be put an end to. 
Your trade will be restored, the landlord will 
be placed on a fair footing, and the tenants who 
are now so sadly oppressed will be placed in 
their proper position. I believe I am now in 
a position to announce that in twelve months’ 
more you won’t be without hearing an hurrah 
for the Parliament on College Green. Old 
Ireland is a lovely land, blessed with the boun¬ 
teous gifts of nature, and where is the coward 
who would not die for her? (Cheers.) These 
cheers will penetrate to the extremity of civili¬ 
zation, for your movement is the admiration 
of the world. ” 

16 .—General Espartero, presently a fugitive 
in England, deprived of all his titles by the 
Government of Narvaez. 

19 .—Calamitous series of fires in the Metro¬ 
polis. The most destructive broke out in an 
oil and colour warehouse in Tooley-street, and 
extended to the church of St. Olave, which 
fell a prey to the flames during the performance 
of the marriage service, the hands of two 
couple being united by the vicar under the 
Cupola of the chancel while streams of water 
and burning timber were falling about them. 
The building known as the Shot Tower, but 
more recently used as a telegraph station for the 
communication of messages from the Downs 
and other parts of the coast, also caught fire, 
and almost instantly the flames burst forth at 
every window from the basement to the summit. 
The tower itself fell in a shower of fire shortly 
before 4 o’clock. At Topping’s Wharf, adjoin¬ 
ing the seat of the fire, the vessels moored 
alongside sustained considerable damage. 
While the fire was raging here in alarming 
strength, an explosion took place in the fire¬ 
work manufactory of Mr. Newberry, Fetter- 
lane, which scattered the shop-front and all its 
contents into the street, and set the adjoining 
properties on fire. Before the engines could 
be brought up a large quantity of gunpowder 
exploded, and blew the back part of the pre¬ 
mises against the houses in Bartlett’s-passage, 
occasioning great destruction of property in 
that quarter, and throwing the occupants into 
a state of the wildest confusion. When the 
excitement was at its height, Mr. Newbeny 
threw himself from the second-floor window 
of his premises, and sustained such severe 
injuries that he died in a few minutes. Four 
other occupants of the upper storey, after 
making the most frantic appeals for help, were 
surrounded by the flames, and perished almost 
within sight of the horrified spectators. Minor 
explosions of powder and bursting of fire¬ 
works were taking place so frequently as to 


render even attempts at aid out of the power 
of firemen or constables. Besides these, five 
other fires were raging at nearly the same 
time : at Stratford, Houndsditch, High-street 
Borough, Snows-fields, and Pudding-lane. 

19 . —The Opera House, Berlin, destroyed 
by fire. 

20 . —The divers engaged at the wreck of 
the Pegasus recover large quantities of luggage 
from the hold, including most of the theatrical 
wardrobe of Mr. Elton. Many of the bodies 
were also recovered floating in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the wreck. 

22.-—Father Mathew administers the pledge 
at various meetings in London. On the 23d 
he visited Greenwich, and was received by 
about 20,000 people on Blackheath. The pub¬ 
licans attempted an opposition display. 

— “ Rebecca and her Daughters” make a 
daring display at the Pothynid gate, on the 
Swansea road. They destroyed the toll-house, 
and compelled the parish constable to walk 
round the ruins on his knees while they ad¬ 
ministered sixty lashes. 

— Pope Gregoiy pronounces the garment 
preserved at Treves to be the identical coat 
worn by Christ at the crucifixion. It was 
exhibited the following year to an immense 
gathering of Catholic pilgrims. 

— O’Connell submits to the Repeal Asso¬ 
ciation his plan for the renewed action of the 
Irish Parliament: counties to return 173, and 
cities and boroughs 127 members ; all house¬ 
holders to be electors, and the vote to be taken 
by ballot. 

24 . —Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. Reference was made in the Royal 
speech to the Acts passed for increasing the 
means of spiritual instruction in populous 
parishes, and for removing doubts respecting 
the jurisdiction of the Church of Scotland in 
the admission of ministers. The disturbance 
in Wales, unconnected it was said with political 
causes, had led to measures likely to repress 
tumult and to ascertain the true source from 
which they arose. The Repeal agitation led 
her Majesty to declare that it was her firm de¬ 
termination “to maintain inviolate that great 
bond of connexion between the two countries,” 
the Legislative Union. The House of Com¬ 
mons sat 119 days during this session. 

— G. W. Hamilton, calling himself a 
solicitor, was sentenced at the Central Criminal 
Court to fourteen years’ transportation, for at¬ 
tempting to extort money from the friends of 
Miss Hopper, Bayswater, by threatening to 
send to the Satirist a report of the visits he 
untruthfully charged her with making to a house 
of ill-fame. 

25 . —Tried at the Central Criminal Court 
Lieut. Cuddy, of the 55th, and Mr. Gulliver, 
surgeon in the Royal Horse Guards, charged 
with being assistants at the fatal duel near 

(141) 






AUGUST 


1843. 


SEPTEMBER 


Camden Town on the 1st July. The charge 
against Gulliver was withdrawn, and he was 
admitted as a witness against Lieut. Cuddy, 
but his evidence did not explain much beyond 
the fact that the fatal shot was the result of a 
mistake. A verdict of Not guilty was returned, 
and Lieut. Cuddy, known as a brave soldier 
in the China war, was discharged. (See July 21, 
1842.) 

25 . —Robert Taylor, charged with no fewer 
than five acts of bigamy, sentenced at the Liver¬ 
pool Assizes to fourteen years’ transportation. 

26 . —Fire in Kingston, Jamaica, destroying 
a large part of the city. 

28 .—Her Majesty and Prince Albert leave 
Windsor Castle for Southampton, where they 
start in the new yacht, Victoria and Albert , on 
a marine excursion to the coast of France. The 
day was unfavourable for embarkation, and at 
the pier the Mayor and Aldermen, like so many 
Raleighs, spread down their crimson robes of 
office that her Majesty might walk dry-footed 
to her barge. 

— The King and Queen of the French, with 
most of the young members of the Royal 
Family, make a narrow escape from being 
thrown over a bridge at Treport, the horses 
drawing the char-a-banc in which they were 
seated having been startled by a salute fired in 
honour of the illustrious visitors. 

30 . —The Ti?nes y correspondent writes from 
Carmarthen that the spread of Dissent has 
contributed in no small degree to the present 
state of lawless organization which exists in 
Wales. 

31 . —Robert Dadd murdered in Cobham 
Park by his son, a young man subject to 
sudden fits of insanity, and who was well 
known among artists as the designer of the 
cartoon, “St. George after the death of the 
Dragon,” recently exhibited in Westminster 
Hall. 

September 2. — The Queen and Prince 
Albert arrive at Treport, where they are wel¬ 
comed by the King and Queen of the French. 
The first interview on board the royal yacht 
was one of great interest. Her Majesty, who 
had been anxiously watching the arrival of the 
King’s barge, went to the head of the ladder as 
soon as his Majesty came alongside in order to 
receive him. The King mounted with a quick 
step, and immediately on reaching the deck 
kissed the Queen s>nd shook hands with Prince 
Albert. On landing at Treport, the King pre¬ 
sented her Majesty to his queen, by whom she 
was conveyed to the pavilion over which waved 
the flags of France and England. Her Majesty, 
after resting a while at the pavilion, received 
the congratulations of the authorities, including 
the parish priests of Eu and Treport. In the 
evening the royal party set out for the Chateau 
d’Eu, where a grand banquet was served 
up. Her Majesty sat between the King and 
the Prince de Joinville. On the 4th a fPte 
(142) 


champetre was given at the Mont d’Orleans, a 
beautiful spot in the Forest of Eu. The visit 
lasted till the 7th, each day being marked by 
some special feature of festive or military 
display. 

2 . —“Rebecca” writes to the Welshman: 
“We don’t care a straw for all the soldiers, rural 
police, and special constables, for Rebecca can 
bring into the field a better force and a much 
more numerous one. Rebecca is more than a 
hundred thousand strong. If God spares her 
life, she will work out the redemption of her 
poor oppressed children.” 

3 . —Revolution in Greece, compelling King 
Otho to dismiss his Bavarian ministers, and 
re-establish the National Assembly. 

7 . —Fire in the old Castle Tavern, Bristol, 
when the landlord, a helpless, bedridden man, 
was burnt to death. 

— Public meeting in the Crown and Anchor 
Tavern, to consider what means should be 
adopted for ascertaining the fate of Colonel 
Stoddart and Capt. Conolly, the Bokhara cap¬ 
tives. It was intimated that Dr. Wolfe, who 
had long been in that part of the East, was 
ready to set out on the mission. 

8 . —The Bishop of Norwich (Dr. Stanley) 
introduces Father Mathew to a large meeting 
there : “I meet you,”he said, addressing the 
Apostle of Temperance, “ not as a priest, but 
as a Christian brother, upon neutral ground, 
where all denominations of Christians may 
delight to visit and unite together in a common 
and holy cause.” The right reverend prelate 
here bowed before the chairman, and extended 
his hand to Father Mathew, which was cor¬ 
dially grasped and shaken by the latter amidst 
the cheers of the assembled thousands. 

9 . —The Cardigan and Paget correspon¬ 
dence. The Dublin Evening Post having copied 
from the Satirist an account of the improper 
intercourse of the Earl of Cardigan with Lady 
William Paget, the Earl now writes that 
the alleged facts are entirely untrue, and a foul 
calumny against both the parties accused. Lord 
William Paget, with reference to this denial, 
writes : “ With a full conviction that I am 
painfully right, I shall rest my case, without 
further comment, in the hands of my legal 
advisers, until the result of a deliberate trial 
at law upon the evidence then to be adduced 
shall determine the guilt or innocence of the 
Earl of Cardigan.” (.See Feb. 27, 1844.) 

10. —-“ Rebecca” and her followers murder 
an old woman, keeper of Hendy tollgate. 
Government offered a reward of 500/. for 
the discovery of the ringleaders. 

— In connexion with the Repeal Agitation 
in Ireland, predatory bands now infest agri¬ 
cultural localities, and, under pretence of re¬ 
sisting payment of rent, or other charges on 
land, cut down and carry off crops held by 
the landlord as security. 






SEPTEMBER 


OCTOBER 


1*43- 


12 .— Six Liverpool thieves confined in the 
prison of Castle Rushin, Isle of Man, contrive 
to break out, and seizing the governor’s plea¬ 
sure-boat in the bay, sail off in the direction of 
Ireland. Certain of them were afterwards cap¬ 
tured in Anglesea. 

— The Queen and Prince Albert leave 
Brighton, in the royal yacht, on a visit to their 
uncle the King of the Belgians. During the 
ensuing week they visited Bruges, Ghent, 
Brussels, and Antwerp. 

14 -.—A revolutionary party at Athens esta¬ 
blish a new ministry and call upon the National 
Assembly to prepare a new constitution. The 
protecting Powers had previously expressed their 
dissatisfaction with the existing government. 

15 . —Revolution in the Punjaub, the minister 
Dhyan Singh causing the Maharajah Shere 
Singh to be murdered, with his son and all the 
members of his immediate family, at a review 
which took place near the north gate of Lahore. 
Dhuleep, son of Runjeet Singh, only ten years 
old, was placed on the throne. In the disturb¬ 
ance to which this series of murders gave rise 
as many as six hundred people were said to have 
been slain. British troops, described as “an 
army of observation,” were moved to the 
Lahore frontier. 

16 . —Numerous fires in London. About 
forty occurred between this date and the 2ist. 

19 .—Disturbance at Roskeen, Tain, on the 
occasion of the settlement of the Rev. John 
Mackenzie as minister of that parish. At the 
trial of the rioters, Mr. Gibson of Avoch, the 
presbytery clerk, said, on proceeding towards 
the church they met two or three brethren 
returning in a state of great excitement, having 
been prevented from entering the church by the 
mob. They remained together till the lord- 
lieutenant and convener of the county arrived, 
and then proceeded towards the church, but 
were driven back by stones. The presbytery 
were forced to take shelter behind a range of 
stables, where they remained half an hour. 
Sheriff Jardine read the Riot Act, and the 
coast-guard fired, but still the members could 
not reach the church for the mob, and they 
retired to Fortrose, where the process of induc¬ 
tion was completed. 

22 . —Prince Albert gazetted as Captain- 
General and Colonel of the Artillery Company 
in room of the late Duke of Sussex. 

23 . —A witch impostor tried at Dingwall, 
Ross-shire, and sentenced to three months’ im¬ 
prisonment, for obtaining money under a pre¬ 
tence of curing diseases and recovering stolen 
property. 

26 .—The Lord Mayor entertains General 
Espartero at the Mansion House. The Cor¬ 
poration also presented him with an address, 
expressive of their sympathy with him in his 
’“forced retirement.” 

28 .—The Anti-Corn Law League recom¬ 
mences agitation in the Metropolis with a mon¬ 


ster meeting in Covent Garden Theatre. During 
the past year its agents had distributed over 
nine million tracts, and addressed about 
500,000 electors in 24 counties and 187 
boroughs. It was resolved to continue this 
course of agitation in preference to petitioning 
Parliament. 

October 1 .—Another of the series of monster 
Repeal meetings took place this day (Sunday) 
at the Rath of Mullaghmast, county of Kildare. 
O’Connell arrived, seated in the front of an open 
carriage, and dressed in the scarlet velvet robe 
and gold chain which he wore as Lord Mayor of 
Dublin. He was accompanied by the majority 
of the corporation of Dublin in their official 
robes. In the course of his address, O’Connell 
said : “I thought this a fit and becoming spot 
on which to show our unanimity, and on which, 
in the open day, to evince our determination 
not to be misled by any treachery. Oh, my 
friends, I’ll keep you free of treachery. There 
will be no bargain, no compromise, nothing but 
repeal and a Parliament of our own. Confide 
in no false hopes till you hear me say, ‘ I’m 
satisfied ! ’ And I’ll tell you where I’ll say 
that—near the statue of King William on Col¬ 
lege Green. Amongst the nations of the earth 
Ireland stands No. I in the physical strength 
of her men, in the purity and beauty of her 
daughters, and in the religion, fidelity, bravery, 
and generosity of her people generally.” Near 
the close of the meeting the Irish national cap, 
made of green velvet lined with blue, in the 
form of an old Milesian crown, was placed on 
O’Connell’s head amid the acclamations of the 
multitude. In replying, the Agitator likened 
himself to Malachi when he wore the collar of 
gold “which he won from the proud invader.” 
“ He would wear it,” he said, “ while he lived, 
and have it buried with him when he died.” 
At the banquet which followed the outdoor 
gathering, O’Connell made repeated references 
to the so-called massacre which had taken 
place at Mullaghmast in the reign of Elizabeth. 
“ Three hundred and ninety Irish chiefs perished 
here ! They came, confiding in Saxon honour, 
relying on the protection of the Queen, to a 
friendly conference. In the midst of revelry, in 
the cheerful mirth of the banquet-house, they 
were surrounded and butchered. None re¬ 
turned, save one. Their wives were widows, 
their children fatherless. In their homesteads 
was heard the shrill shriek of despair—the cry 
of bitter agony. (Sensation, sobs, and cries 
of “Oh ! ”) Oh, Saxon cruelty ! how it cheers 
my heart in all its misery to think that you dare 
not attempt such a deed again ! (Enthusiastic 
cheering, and cries of “ Never dare they! ”) 
Let every mother who hears me think of the 
moment when each gallant chief left his home 
with a parting to his wife and babes. Let 
her—oh, let her imagine for a moment that 
husband, the father of those children, brought 
home to her a bruised and bloody corpse! In the 
pride of manhood, in the confidence of strength, 
with sinewy arm, capable, if but prepared, to 

( 143 ) 




OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1843. 


defend her from any foe, did he leave her; next 
day he was brought home in all the inanity of 
death—powerless to defend, incapable of afford¬ 
ing anything but bitter grief, interminable 
sorrow! O England, England 1 thy crimes 
have filled the cup of bitterness. The hour of 
the vengeance of God, I greatly fear me, cannot 
be far from you; but thou, O Ireland, hast 
days of glory still before thee.” 

1.—A blacksmith named Thomson enters the 
Secession Church, Main-street, Glasgow, where 
St. George’s Free congregation were assembled 
for worship. Ascending to the pulpit, he then 
composedly filled a glass with whisky, and pro¬ 
posed as a toast “ The Crown and the Con¬ 
gregation.” On attempting to leave the church 
he was seized by one or two of the astonished 
onlookers, and conveyed to the police-office. 
Next day he was fined 10/. for the offence, or 
failing payment, sixty days in Bridewell. The 
outrage, he said, had been committed to gain a 
bet of 5^. 

3 . —The Gazette of this day contains a royal 
proclamation respecting the Rebecca riots in 
South Wales, and especially in Pembroke, 
Cardigan, and Carmarthenshire; “ strictly com¬ 
manding all justices of the peace, sheriffs, 
under-sheriffs, and all other civil officers what¬ 
soever, that they do use their utmost endea¬ 
vours to repress all tumults, riots, outrages, and 
breaches of the peace, and to discover, appre¬ 
hend, and bring to justice the persons concerned 
m the riotous and wicked proceedings afore¬ 
said ;” enjoining the lieges to give “prompt 
and effectual assistance and offering rewards 
of 500/. for the discovery of the actual perpe¬ 
trators of incendiary fires or fatal outrages upon 
the person, and of 50/. for the discovery of 
perpetrators of the other outrages in question ; 
with a promise of pardon to all informers save 
the actual perpetrators. 

4 . —Painful exhibition at Stirling. Allan 
Mair, a grey-haired, stooping, but hale old 
man, 84 years of age, was executed in front of 
the court-house for the murder of his wife. 
A few minutes past 8 o’clock the prisoner was 
carried out of his cell to the court-room, where 
the customary religious exercise was engaged 
in. He cried a good deal at this time, the 
tears streaming through his bony fingers when 
he pressed them to his face, and every now and 
then he wrung his hands in intense agony at 
the injustice to which he thought he had been 
subjected. He was carried out of the court¬ 
room, and placed in a chair beneath the drop. 
In compliance with his earnest desire he was 
here permitted to speak, which he did with 
great vigour for fully ten minutes, denouncing 
with the most fearful imprecations every one 
who had taken any part in his apprehension, 
examination, or trial. This cursing, as he 
called it, of the witnesses, with all the curses 
of the 109th Psalm, was continued even after 
the white cap had been drawn over his face. 
When the bolt was drawn he raised one of his 
hands, which had not been properly pinioned, 

( 144 ) 


to the back of his neck, seized the rope con¬ 
vulsively, and endeavoured to save himself, 
but his grasp relaxed after a short and violent 
struggle. Allan Mair was a well-known cha¬ 
racter in the Stirlingshire district. He had 
been brought up on the farm of Blackstone, in 
Muiravonshire parish, and then removed to 
Heatherstocks, during the possession of which 
he wasted most of his means in raising 
trespass actions against his neighbours. All 
through life from the period of his dashing 
youth, he was known as a kind of wild, roving, 
litigious Ishmaelite. In his latter days he had 
a small allowance from the parish in which he 
resided. 

7. — The Lord Lieutenant issues a proclama¬ 
tion, prohibiting the great Repeal gathering 
announced for next day at Clontarf, as “cal¬ 
culated to excite reasonable and well-grounded 
apprehension that the motives and objects of 
the persons to be assembled thereat are not 
the fair legal exercise of constitutional rights 
and privileges, but to bring into hatred and 
contempt the government and constitution of 
the United Kingdom as by law established, 
and to accomplished alterations in the laws and 
constitution of the realm by intimidation and 
the demonstration of physical force. ” A strong 
body of military was also scattered over the 
ground selected for the meeting. Another pro¬ 
clamation followed from O’Connell, intimat¬ 
ing that the demonstration was abandoned. 
At the weekly Repeal meeting on Monday he 
said he did not hesitate to repeat, if he were to 
go to the scaffold for it, that if Government 
intended to entrap the people into a massacre 
they "would not have acted otherwise than they 
did. A Repeal banquet took place the same 
day in the Rotunda. The rent this week was 
reported to be 1,233/. 

8. —A Shields pilot rides across Tynemouth 
bar at low-water. At high-water, on the same 
day, the William Brandt , of Archangel, 1,000 
tons burden, sailed over it, being the largest 
laden vessel which ever left the Tyne. 

IO.—The Special Commission of the Free 
Church issue an address to the inhabitants of 
Ross-shire, warning them to lay aside that dis¬ 
orderly spirit which they had recently shown at 
the settlement of Established ministers within 
their bounds. 

— Royal Commission issued for making 
inquiry into the laws regulating turnpike roads 
in South Wales, and also into the circumstances 
which had led to the recent disturbances there. 

14 .—-The Rev. J. H. Newman writes to a 
friend : “I would tell you in a few words why 
I have resigned St. Mary’s, as you seem to wish, 
were it possible to do so. But it is most diffi¬ 
cult to bring out in brief, or even in extenso, 
any just view of my feelings and reasons. The 
nearest approach I can give to a general account 
of them is to say that it has been caused by the 
general repudiation of the view contained in 
No. XC. on the part of the Church. I would 







OCTOBER 


1843 - 


NOVEMBER 


r»ot stand against such unanimous an expression 
of opinion from the Bishop, supported, as it has 
been, by the concurrence, or at least silence, of 
all classes in the Church, lay and clerical. ” 
On the 25th : “It is not from disappointment, 
irritation, or impatience that I have, whether 
rightly or wrongly, resigned St. Mary’s, but 
because I think the Church of Rome the 
Catholic Church, and ours not a part of the 
Catholic Church because not in communion 
with Rome, and because I feel that I could 
not honestly be a teacher in it any longer. ” 

14 .—Daniel O’Connell and John O’Connell 
enter bail to answer any charge of conspiracy 
and misdemeanour which may be preferred 
against them by the Attorney-General next 
term. The Agitator immediately issued an 
address “ To the People of Ireland. If you 
will during this crisis follow my advice, and 
act as I entreat you to do, patiently, quietly, 
legally, I think I can pledge myself to you 
that the period is not distant when our revered 
Sovereign will open the Irish Parliament on 
College Green. ” 

— A vacancy having occurred in the repre¬ 
sentation of London by the death of Sir M. Wood, 
the Anti-Com Law League engage with great 
eagerness in the canvass to secure the return of 
Mr. Pattison against Mr. F. T. Baring. A 
great improvement took place to-day in the 
prospects of the League candidate by the publi¬ 
cation of a letter from Samuel Jones Loyd, Esq. 
announcing his adhesion to the League both in 
its general capacity and as a great election 
agency. 

17 .—The members of the Free Protesting 
Assembly commence their sittings in Glasgow 
City Hall. On taking the chair, the new 
moderator, Dr. Thomas Brown, insisted strongly 
on the identity of the seceders with the real 
Church of Scotland. “We meet not at this 
time,” he said, “for the purpose of framing a new 
constitution for the Church of Scotland. That 
constitution, under the guidance of the Spirit 
of God, has been framed by the skill and the 
wisdom of our forefathers—the men of emi¬ 
nence and the men of God of former times—our 
Protestant Reformers ; and it existed before it 
was brought into connexion with the State 
at all. We are the true Church, that was 
originally recognised by the State. ” 

21.—The last of the coaches, the “ Prince of 
Wales,” running between London and Bristol, 
was taken off the road this week. 

— The City of London contest terminates in 
the return of the Anti-Corn Law candidate, Mr. 
Pattison, by a majority of 165 over Mr. Baring. 

23 .—Opening of Conciliation Plall, Dublin, 
by the Repeal Association. O’Connell said : 
“ I wish that the first sentence which I have to 
utter in this Conciliation Hall, formed now as 
it is into an assembly, shall be this truth, that 
there is but one way to obtain the Repeal of 
the Union, and that is by strictly peaceable 
means. (Cheers.) My second sentence, and 
( 145 ) 


the only one I shall utter before I hand in 
money, is that the Repeal is certain.” (Deafen¬ 
ing applause.) A letter was read from Mr. W. 
S. O’Brien, giving in his adhesion to the cause 
of the Repealers, and forwarding a subscription. 
The Repeal rent for this week was reported to 
be 2,284A 

2 - 4 .—At the first annual meeting of the Tam- 
worth Farmers’ Club, the Premier delivers an 
address having reference almost exclusively to 
agricultural topics—improved farming, leases, 
and injury by game. 

25 . —The Queen and Prince Albert visit 
Cambridge, and receive addresses from the 
Heads of Colleges. In the afternoon the 
royal party set out for Wimpole, the seat of the 
Earl of Hardwicke, where they remained over 
the night. 

26 . —A Special Commission opened at Cardiff 
for the trial of the “ Rebecca” rioters. Those 
against whom the grand jury found true bills 
mostly pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to 
various terms of imprisonment. John Hughes, 
the leader of an attack against Pontardulais 
gate, and charged with shooting at Captain 
Napier, of the county police, with intent to 
murder him, was sentenced to be transported 
for twenty years. Up to this time Hughes was 
the only leader captured. 

— Mr. Thomas Attwood promulgates his 
scheme for organizing “The National Union, 
or general confederation of all classes, to hold 
the Ministers of the Crown legally responsible 
for the welfare of the people.” 

27 . —About midnight a gang of armed 
burglars enter the rectory of Sutton Bonning- 
ton. They plundered the house and bar¬ 
barously ill-treated the Rev. R. Meek, on at¬ 
tempting to make his escape in his night-dress 
to the nearest village. He was insensible for 
some time, but recovered consciousness when 
being led back by one of the gang through his 
own hall. They had all masks, he said, made 
of a kind of black calico, with large eyeholes 
cut in them, and hanging down below the chin. 
Under threat of instant death they compelled 
the other inmates of the house to bring the 
valuables to them, which were carefully packed 
up and removed by the burglars. At the 
ensuing Nottingham Assizes (December 18th) 
four of the gang were sentenced to transporta¬ 
tion for life. 

— In the Dublin Corporation, O’Connell’s 
motion censuring the Viceregal Government 
for the manner of issuing the recent proclama¬ 
tion was carried by 38 to 9 votes. (See Oct. 7.) 

November 1.—Announcement made that a 
commission was to be issued for inquiring into 
the tenure of land in Ireland. 

3 . —The Morning Chronicle publishes the 
first of Sydney Smith’s amusing letters on 
Pennsylvanian repudiation. 

4 . —Fatal affray at the Patent Saw Mills, 

L 






NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1343- 


Cork, originating in a dispute concerning the 
ownership. Dr. Quarry, one of the partners, 
was shot, and two workmen badly wounded. 

6 . —Attempt to assassinate General Narvaez 
while proceeding in his carriage to the Theatre 
del Circo. One of his attendants was killed, 
but the General escaped unhurt. 

7 . —Commotion in Liverpool commercial 
circles caused by an announcement that a tidal 
harbour with capacious dock was to be con¬ 
structed by local commissioners at Birkenhead 
on the opposite side of the Mersey. 

— Died, aged 71, William Frederick I., 
King of the Netherlands. 

8 . —The grand jury charged with the indict¬ 
ments against O’Connell and others return into 
court with true bills against all the parties. 
The traversers appeared upon their recogni¬ 
zances, and the judges sanctioned the application 
made to them by the Attorney-General that 
they should be called on to plead within four 
days. Before the expiry of this time they put 
in a plea of abatement, but after much legal 
wrangling it was pronounced bad in form and 
substance. The trial was ultimately arranged 
to commence on the 15th January. 

9 . —Came up for sentence before the High 
Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, Henry Robinson 
and Thomas Paterson, charged with selling 
blasphemous and indecent publications. The 
first was sentenced to imprisonment for twelve 
months and the second to fifteen months. 

— The lighthouse on the western end of 
Plymouth breakwater completed, the last stone 
being fixed to-day by Rear-Admiral Pym, 
Superintendent of the Dockyard. 

— Queen Pomare writes to the King of the 
French that the sovereignty of Tahiti had been 
seized by the French admiral, because she was 
accused of violating the treaty of September 
1843. “I never intended, when I placed my 
crown on my flag, to condemn the treaty and 
insult you, O King. Your admiral only re¬ 
quired a slight change in it; but had I acceded 
to his desire, I would have been despised by my 
great chiefs.” She further protested against the 
harsh measures of the Admiral, and hoped for 
support and compassion from the King. 

— Kendal election carried by the League, 
the numbers being : Warburton, Free Trader, 
182 ; Bentinck, Conservative, 119. 

11 . —Luton Hoo, the seat of the Marquis of 
Bute, destroyed by fire. The greater part of the 
furniture saved, and also the books and 
paintings. 

12 . —Sacrifice of the Mass offered up in the 
parish chapel of Ballintra, Donegal, for the 
spiritual and temporal benefit of the Libe¬ 
rator. 

— Murderous outrage by Irish peasants 
within the dwelling of Mr. Waller of Finnoe, 
near Bornsokane, county of Tipperary. They 
surrounded the house when the familv were 
(146) 


seated at dinner, and after firing on the in¬ 
mates, beat several of them in the most shock¬ 
ing manner in the course of the struggle which 
followed. Mr. Waller and two others died of 
the injuries received. 

14 . —The Anti-Com Law League, flushed 
with their victories in London and Kendal, 
now commence a course of agitation exciting 
and general beyond all former precedent. At 
a meeting in Manchester to-day, convened at 
the request of above seventy of the principal 
firms of the town, it was resolved to raise a fund 
of 100,000/. to assist in the dissemination of 
their principles. At the close of Mr. Cobdcn’s 
address, and amid evidences of the greatest 
enthusiasm on the part of those assembled, 
12,606/. was subscribed in the room. The list 
showed six subscribers of 500/., two of 400/., 
seven of 300/., one of 250/., eleven of 200/., 
one of 150/., and twenty-one of 100/. 

15 . —A rumour being current that the Mi¬ 
nistry intended to propose some provision for 
the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland, the 
hierarchy met to-day and renewed resolutions 
come to in 1837 and 1841, pledging themselves 
to resist the attempt. 

— A little girl frightened to death in Rat- 
cliffe-liighway by one of her companions sud¬ 
denly appearing in a white dress and black 
mask. 

16 . —Great alarm was excited throughout 
the south and west of Ireland to-night by the 
lighting of signal or “ bale ” fires on the hills, 
accompanied as the display was by serious 
outrages, thought to have connexion with the 
pending trials in Dublin. 

19 . —Tribute Sunday in Ireland. 3,490/. 
collected for the maintenance and defence of 
O’Connell. 

20 . —Barcelona surrenders to the Royalists. 

21 . —The Times declares the League to be 
a great fact. The number of its members, the 
amount of its funds, and the extent of its 
labours, are all facts. “ It is our duty to recog¬ 
nise, not conceal them ; to meet them, not to 
slight them ; to extract from an admitted evil 

the good which may lurk beneath.Let 

some concession be proposed, some neutral 
ground fixed on, and the voice of discord will 
be hushed.” 

— The Canadian Ministry resign office on 
the ground of differences with the Governor- 
General as to the exercise of patronage. 

23 .—O’Connell issues another address to 
the people of Ireland, warning them against 
Ribandism, riot, and violence. “Every man,” 
he said, “who is guilty of the slightest breach of 
the peace is an enemy of mine and of Ireland. 
This is my advice. No Ribandism. No 
Billy Smiths! No bonfires. Peace, quiet, 
and tranquillity ; and within twelve months the 
Repeal of the Union will be at hand.” 

28 .—The Spanish Cortes having declared 





NOVEMBER 


1843. 


DECEMBER 


the young Queen of age, S. Olozaga compels 
her to sign a decree for the dissolution of the 
Chambers. 

28. —Treaty signed by England and France 
recognising the independence of the Sandwich 
Islands. 

— The Queen and Prince Albert, with 
the Queen Dowager, visit Sir Robert Peel at 
Drayton Manor ; next day the Duke of Devon¬ 
shire, at Chatsworth ; and finally the Duke of 
Rutland at Belvoir. 

December 2.— Came on for hearing in the 
Court of Queen’s Bench the case of the Duke 
of Brunswick against Holt and the two Bran- 
ders, for libels published in the Age newspaper. 
The libels were contained in a number of 
articles, described by Serjeant Talfourd as con¬ 
veying abominable imputations in a dark and 
cowardly manner. The jury returned a verdict 
of Guilty. 

— The French Legitimists in London give 
a public welcome to the Duke of Bordeaux, 
presently living in Belgrave Square. 

5. —In his message to Congress, President 
Tyler speaks of the Oregon question as still 
remaining in dispute. He expressed himself 
as of opinion that America had rights to the 
entire country lying on the Pacific embraced 
within the 42 0 and 54 0 40' of north latitude. 
The President recommended the establishment 
of military posts for the protection of American 
citizens who had settled in the territory. 
Hostile measures were threatened against 
Mexico for her interference in Texas. 

8 . —At the Guildhall Police Court, Sir Peter 
Laurie permits an operative tailor to expose, 
and substantiate by evidence, the evils of the 
“ sweating system,” as practised by the lower 
class of clothiers in London. 

11 . —The 44th, Cabul Regiment, presented 
with new colours at Portsmouth by Lady 
Pakenham. 

1 2 . —Died, aged 71, William F rederick, Count 
of Nassau, ex-King of Holland. 

14. —Died at Bayswater, London, J. C. 
Loudon, landscape gardener. 

15. —Writing to M. Guizot on the subject of 
the marriage of the Queen of Spain, Lord 
Aberdeen expresses an opinion that, while her 
Majesty’s Government cannot admit that the 
preferable claims of any prince or family are 
such as to control the free choice of the Spanish 
Government, they would be fully disposed to 
concur in the proposition of the Cabinet of the 
Tuileries, and to recommend that the selection 
of the Queen’s Consort should be made from 
the descendants of Philip the Fifth. 

18. —Died, aged 83, Thomas Graham, 
Baron Lyndoch, the victor of Barossa. 

20.—A party of Ojibbeway Indians exhibit 
themselves at Windsor Castle, under the 
auspices of Mr. Catlin. 

(147) 


20 .—Numerous incendiary fires about this 
time in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Nor¬ 
folk. 

— Died in obscurity in Edinburgh, where he 
lived under the name of Thomas Wilson, the 
Rev. Percy Jocelyn, once Bishop of Clogher, 
but degraded for a crime committed in London 
in 1822. 

— The Governor-General of India announces 
his intention of interfering in the affairs of the 
Scindia district. “ The British Government 
has so long deferred intervention in the dis¬ 
tracted affairs of the Gwalior State, in the 
sincere hope that the chiefs themselves would 
establish an administration willing and able to 
satisfy its reasonable demands, and to maintain 
the accustomed friendly relations between the 
two States. The British Government can 
neither permit the existence of an unfriendly 
government within the territories of Scindia, 
nor that those territories should be without a 
government capable of coercing its own sub¬ 
jects. . . . The Governor-General will there¬ 
fore direct the immediate advance of forces 
amply sufficient to effect all the just purposes 
of the British Government,—to obtain guaran¬ 
tees for the future security of its own subjects 
on the common frontier of the two States, to 
protect the person of the Maharajah, to quell 
disturbances within his Highness’s territories, 
and to chastise all who shall remain in dis¬ 
obedience. ” 

25 .—Earthquake shock experienced in Ger¬ 
many. 

27 . —Between 4 and 5 o’clock this morning 
a murder is committed in the cottage of John 
Geddes, a farm labourer, living at Blaw Wearie, 
in the parish of West Calder. James Bryce, 
his brother-in-law, had called on him the night 
before to borrow money on the pretence that 
one of his children was dead. Geddes refused 
to give him any, but permitted Bryce to remain 
all night, as he had about twenty miles to walk 
back. He awoke him early to start on his 
return journey. Geddes arose at the same time 
to make him some brose for breakfast. They 
had some angry words about the money, as also 
about a watch formerly left for a small loan. 
“ 1 was sitting,” Bryce afterwards confessed, 
“ by the fire with the tongs in my hand. He 
had just put the pot on, and was turning round, 
when it came into my head to murder him, and 
I struck him with the tongs. He never spoke, 
but I kept beating him after he was down. I 
struck him many blows, and when he began to 
stir I took a cord which was lying on the floor, 
and put it round his neck to strangle him should 
he come to life again.” Bryce secured what 
money he could find in the house, and made his 
escape from the locality. He was apprehended 
near Dumfries on the 12th January. 

28 . —Fire in Liverpool, commencing in 
Brancker’s extensive sugar refinery, and de¬ 
stroying a range of premises filled with stock 
and machinery. One or two lives were lost. 

L 2 





DECEMBER. 


1843-44. 


JANUARY 


29 .—-The army of Gwalior, under the com¬ 
mand of Gen. Sir H. Gough, Commander-m- 
Chief, and in presence of the Governor-General, 
defeat the native forces at Maharajpoor. “ Your 
lordship,” writes Sir H. Gough, “must have 
witnessed with the same pride and pleasure that 
I did the brilliant advance of those columns 
under their respective leaders, the European 
and native soldiers appearing emulous to prove 
their loyalty and devotion ; and 1 must here do 
justice to the gallantry of their opponents, who 
received the shock without flinching, their guns 
doing severe execution as we advanced; but 
nothing could withstand the rush of British 
soldiers.” On the same day the left wing of 
the army, under Major-General Grey, defeated 
the Gwalior troops at Punniar. 


1844. 

January 1.—The Marquis of Westminster 
writes to the chairman of the council of the 
Anti-Corn Law League: “I have much plea¬ 
sure in sending a contribution of 500/. to your 
fund ; and I venture to express a hope that you 
will not relax your endeavours until you have 
obtained from Government, in whatever hands 
it may happen to be, the fullest measure of 
free trade compatible with what is due to the 
maintenance of public credit.” 

2 . —Two blacksmiths belonging to the Mor¬ 
mon body tried at the Chester assizes for 
causing the death of a female disciple by their 
violence at the ceremony of immersion. The 
evidence failed to connect the prisoners with 
the offence, and Justice Wightman instructed 
the jury to return a verdict of Acquittal. 

— Chantrey’s equestrian statue of George IV., 
originally designed to surmount the marble 
arch at Buckingham Palace, set up in Trafal- 
gar-square. 

3. —The Oxford delegates of appeal in 
Congregation give judgment in favour of Dr. 
Hampden, and against Mr. M‘Mullen, a can¬ 
didate for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, 
who refused to write on two exercises given out 
by Dr. Hampden :—“ 1. The Church of Eng¬ 
land does not teach, nor can it be proved from 
Scripture, that any change takes place in the 
elements of consecration in the Lord’s Supper. 
2. It is a mode of expression calculated to give 
erroneous views of Divine revelation, to speak 
of Scripture and tradition as joint authorities in 
the matter of Christian doctrine.” 

5.—The Queen’s carriage upset at Harton, 
near Datchet; her Majesty and companion, the 
Marchioness of Douro, escaped unhurt. 

— At the striking of a special jury for the 
State trials in Dublin, a protest was lodged 
against the proceedings on the part of the 
Crown, in so far as many names had been 
purposely omitted from the special jury list, 
and others inserted who did not reside in 
Dutlin. Objection was taken by the Crown 


to most of the Roman Catholics selected to 
serve on the special jury. 

IO.—Died, aged 77, Lieut.-General Sir 
Hudson Lowe, Governor of St. Helena during 
the captivity of Napoleon I. 

— In view of the meeting of Parliament, 
numerous Corn - Law and Anti - Corn - Law 
meetings were held throughout the country 
this week. At Northampton Sir C. Knightley 
characterised the Leaguers as “ragamuffins,” 
and the “ refuse of mankind. ” 

12. —Tried before the High Court of Jus¬ 
ticiary, Edinburgh, and acquitted, Christina 
Cochrane, or Gilmour, charged with poisoning 
her husband at Lochinvar. She was the first 
person surrendered on a criminal charge by the 
United States under the Ashburton Treaty. 

13 . —Came on for hearing in the Rolls 
Court the case of the Duke of Brunswick v. 
the King of Hanover, being a prayer that two 
instruments, and the appointment thereunder 
of the Duke of Cambridge as guardian of the 
fortunes of the plaintiff might be void, and the 
defendant held liable to account for the per¬ 
sonal estate and produce of the sales of the real 
estates of the plaintiff, received by the defendant 
as for his use since his appointment to the 
guardianship. Lord Langdale decided that 
the alleged acts of the defendant under the in¬ 
strument were not acts in respect of which the 
court had jurisdiction, or which the defendant 
was liable to be sued for in this court. 

15 .—Commenced in Dublin the trial of 
Daniel O’Connell and eight others, charged 
with conspiracy and misdemeanour. The evi¬ 
dence during the proceedings had reference 
chiefly to the language quoted in the huge in¬ 
dictment as having been used by the traversers 
at various Repeal demonstrations. 

19 .—The Gazette contains the following 
notice with reference to one of the principals 
in the late fatal duel:—“ Lieut, and Adjutant 
A. T. Monro, of the Royal Regiment of Horse 
Guards (Blue), is superseded, being absent 
without leave. ” 

— A private rehearsal of sacred music, the 
composition of Prince Albert, takes place in 
the Queen’s private chapel, under the superin¬ 
tendence of Dr. Elvey. 

23 .—Died in St. James’s-place, aged 74, 
Sir Francis Burdett, a zealous politician, who 
had attached himself to different parties in the 
State. 

^ 27 .—A special interest was given to the 
State prosecutions in Ireland to-day by the 
speech of the Right Hon. R. L. Shiel, in 
defence of John O’Connell. “Shall I,” he 
asked, “who stretch out to you in behalf of 
the son the hand whose fetters the father had 
struck off, live to cast my eyes upon that domi¬ 
cile of sorrow in the vicinity of this great 
metropolis, and say, ‘’Tis there they have 
immured the Liberator of Ireland, with his 






JANUAR V 


FEBRUARY 


1844. 


fondest and best-beloved child ?’ No ! it shall 
never be ! You will not consign him to the 
spot to which . the Attorney-General invites 
you to surrender him! No ! When the 
spring shall have come again, and the winter 
shall have passed, it is not through the windows 
of such a prison that the father of such a son, 
and the son of such a father, shall look on those 
green hills on which the eyes of so many a 
captive have gazed so wistfully in vain ; but in 
their own mountain home again they shall listen 
to the murmurs of the great Atlantic; they 
shall go forth and inhale the freshness of the 
morning air together ; * they shall be free of 
the mountain solitude ;’ they will be encom¬ 
passed with the loftiest images of liberty upon 
every side; and if time shall have stolen its 
suppleness from the father’s knee, or impaired 
the firmness of his tread, he shall lean upon 
the child of her that watches over him from 
heaven, and shall look out from some high place 
far and wide into the island whose greatness 
and whose glory shall be ever associated with his 
name. In your love of justice—in your love 
of Ireland—in your love of honesty and fair- 
play—I place my confidence. I ask you for 
an acquittal, not only for the sake of your 
country, but for your own. Upon the day 
when this trial shall have been brought to a 
termination, when, amidst the burst of public 
expectancy, in answer to the solemn interroga¬ 
tory which shall be put to you by the officer of 
the court, you shall answer ‘Not guilty,” 
with what a transport will that glorious nega¬ 
tive be welcomed ! How will you be blest, 
adored, worshipped ! And when, retiring from 
this scene of excitement and of passion, you 
shall return to your own tranquil homes, how 
pleasurably you will look upon your children 
in the consciousness that you will have left 
them a patrimony of peace, by impressing 
upon the British Cabinet that some other 
measure besides a State prosecution is neces¬ 
sary for the pacification of your country. ”—The 
suggestion of an ambulatory Parliament which 
Mr. Shiel had thrown out in his speech did 
not meet with the approval of his client, who 
took the earliest opportunity, on the morning of 
the 29th, to insist upon the right of Ireland to 
an independent Legislature. 

29 . —Died at Gotha, aged 60, the Grand 
Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha, father of Prince 
Albert. 

30 . —Scene at the O’Connell trial between 
the Attorney-General and Mr. Fitzgibbon, 
counsel for one of the traversers. On the 
return of the Court after refreshment, Mr. 
Fitzgibbon rose and said: “My lord, while I 
was endeavouring during the adjournment of the 
court to take a little rest, rendered so necessary 
by my state of health, a note was placed in my 
hand signed by the Attorney-General, which 
note I deemed it my duty to throw back again, 
and I now ask him to place it in your lordship’s 
hands.” The Attorney-General making no 
movement, Mr Fitzgibbon paused a few 


minutes, and then went on. “Pie will not. 
Then I must tell the court the substance of its 
contents. In that note the Attorney-General 
tells me that I have in my address to the court 
given him a personal offence, and that if I do not 
apologize at once, to name my friend. (Sensa¬ 
tion. ) I do not deny, my lord, that his position 
is one of difficulty. In the peculiar circum¬ 
stances of the case, it is for him to say whether 
he thinks it manly to adopt the course he has 
taken. I leave him, my lord, in your hands.” 
The Attorney-General replied: “The language 
complained of I have taken down, and it attri 
butes to me that I have been actuated by 
dishonourable motives in the conduct of this 
prosecution, and influenced by the effect that 
failure might have on my party and my pro¬ 
fessional advancement.” A mutual friend of 
the learned gentlemen having interposed with 
the sanction of the court, the Attorney-General 
withdrew the note, stating that he had been 
very much irritated at the time of writing it. 
This personal matter disposed of, Mr. P'itzgibbon 
resumed his address to the jury on behalf of his 
client, Dr. Gray. 

February 1 . —Parliament opened by the 
Queen in person. The Speech made reference 
to the condition of Ireland, the state of the 
revenue, and the revision of the charter of the 
Bank of England. An amendment on the 
Address by Mr. Hume, on the subject of the 
Corn Laws, and another by Mr. S. Crawford, 
seeking redress of grievances before voting 
supplies, were each negatived by large ma¬ 
jorities. 

5 . —Mr. Gladstone, now President of the 
Board of Trade, obtains the appointment of a 
select committee to consider the Standing 
Orders relating to Railways, with a view to 
new provisions in future railway bills for the 
improvement of the railway system. 

-— On this, the fifteenth day of trial, 
O’Connell delivers his defence to the jury, 
which occupied the entire time of the court. He 
denied that there was anything in the case to 
stain him with the guilt of conspiracy. 

6 . —Sir James Graham re-introduces a bill 
to amend the Factory Act. No child under 
eight to be employed in factories, nor any young 
person under sixteen. Children not to work 
more than six hours and a half daily, and young 
persons and women not more than twelve. 
Work on Saturdays to cease at 4 o’clock. Edu¬ 
cation clauses in the bill of last year omitted. 

8 .—Lord Ashley moves an address to the 
Crown, praying that her Majesty will be “ gra¬ 
ciously pleased to take into her consideration 
the situation and treatment of the Ameers of 
Scinde; and that she will direct their imme¬ 
diate restoration to liberty and the enjoyment 
of their estates, or make such provision for their 
future maintenance as may be considered a just 
equivalent.” On a division 68 voted for the 
motion and 202 against it. 

( 149 ) 





FEBRUAR V 


FEBRUARY 


1844. 


11. —At Bolton, the keeper of a menagerie, 
on entering one of the dens, is set upon by a 
leopard and worried to death. 

12 . —Verdict given in O’Connell’s case, 
being the twenty-fifth day of trial. O’Connell 
was found guilty on all the eleven counts re¬ 
lating to conspiracy, and the others on one or 
more counts. Appeal entered, and sentence de¬ 
ferred. 

— Thanks of both Houses voted to the 
army of Scinde. 

— Richard Oastler liberated from the 
Queen’s Bench Prison, after an incarceration 
of three years, at the instance of his former 
employer, Mr. Thornhill. The “Factory 
King,” as he was styled, immediately recom¬ 
menced an agitation in the manufacturing dis¬ 
tricts for a Ten Hours’ Bill. 

13 . —Lord John Russell moves for a Com¬ 
mittee of the whole House to inquire into the 
condition of Ireland. The debate lasted nine 
nights, the question being treated as one 
involving the entire policy of the Government 
towards that part of tire kingdom. Such of 
the traversers and their council as were mem¬ 
bers of the House, left Ireland for the purpose 
of engaging in the debate. The chief points 
on which the Ministry were assailed was the 
dismissal of magistrates, the manner of sup¬ 
pressing the Repeal demonstrations, the illegal 
tampering with the jury lists to secure a con¬ 
viction in the trials now pending, and 'the 
utter absence of beneficial or even concilia¬ 
tory measures. The most strenuous defenders 
of the Ministry were Sir J. Graham, Lord 
Stanley, and the Attorney-General. Mr. 
Macaulay spoke on the 19th, the fifth evening 
of debate. “England,” he said, “can do 
many things which are beyond the power of 
any other nation in the world. She has dic¬ 
tated peace to China. She rules Cafifraria and 
Australasia. She could again sweep from the 
ocean all commerce but her own. She could 
again blockade every port, from the Baltic to 
the Adriatic. She is able to guard her vast 
Indian dominions against all hostility by land 
or sea. But in this gigantic body there is one 
vulnerable spot near to the heart. At that 
spot, forty-six years ago, a blow was aimed 
which narrowly missed, and which, if it had 
not missed, must have been deadly. The Go¬ 
vernment and the Legislature, each in its own 
sphere, is deeply responsible for the continu¬ 
ance of a state of things which is fraught with 
danger to the State. From my share of that 
responsibility I shall clear myself by the vote 
which I am about jto give ; and I trust that the 
number and respectability of those in whose 
company I shall go into the lobby, will be such 
as to convince the Roman Catholics of Ireland 
that they need not yet relinquish all hope of 
obtaining relief from the wisdom and justice of 
an Imperial Parliament.”—Mr. Disraeli, who 
supported the Government, said the duty of 
an English Minister was to effect by policy all 
those changes which a revolution would do 

H5°) 


by force. The moment they had a strong 
executive, a just administration, and ecclesi¬ 
astical equality, they would have order in 
Ireland, and the improvement of the physical 
condition of the people would follow — not 
very rapidly, perhaps, and they must not 
flatter themselves that it would. But what 
was fifty years even in the history of a nation ? 
But he would say, if these recommendations 
were adopted, that in fifty years the men who 
would succeed the present generation in Par¬ 
liament would find the people in Ireland a 
contented and thriving peasantry. He looked 
to a power more influential, more intelligent, 
more beneficial—a power which had risen but 
lately in the world. (A voice, “ Young Eng¬ 
land?”) No, it was not Young England ; it 
was that irresistible law of our moral nature 
which provided that that which would not bear 
discussion was doomed.—Mr. O’Connell spoke 
on the last night of the debate, and was fol¬ 
lowed by Sir Robert Peel, the last speaker on 
the Ministerial side. The Premier concluded : 
‘ ‘ I will express my sincere and earnest hope 
that this agitation, and all the evil consequences 
of it, may be permitted to subside ; and here¬ 
after, in whatever capacity I may be, I should 
consider that the happiest day of my life when 
I could see the beloved Sovereign of these 
realms fulfilling the fondest wishes of her heart 
—possessing a feeling of affection towards all 
her people, but mingling that affection with 
sympathy and tenderness towards Ireland. I 
should hail the dawning of that auspicious day 
when she could alight like some benignant 
spirit on the shores of Ireland, and lay the 
foundations of a Temple of Peace ; when she 
could, in accents which proceeded from the 
heart, spoken to the heart rather than to the 
ear, call upon her Irish subjects of all classes 
and of all denominations, Protestants and 
Roman Catholics, Saxon and Celt, to forget 
the difference of creed and race, and to hallow 
that Temple of Peace which she should then 
found with sacrifices still holier than those by 
which the temples of old'were hallowed—by 
the sacrifice of those evil passions that dis¬ 
honour our common faith, and prevent the 
union of heart and hand in defence of our 
common country.” A division took place at 
four o’clock on the morning of the 24th, when 
Ministers were found to have a majority of 
99 in a House of 549. In a discussion on a 
similar question in the Upper House, Ministers 
had a majority of 97. 

15 .—Died at White Lodge, Richmond Park, 
aged 89, Henry Addington Viscount Sidmouth, 
Speaker of the House of Commons from 1789 
to 1801, and Prime Minister from 1801 to 
1804. 

— The water breaks into the Landshipping 
Colliery, Haverfordwest, which Was wrought 
beneath the river, and destroys the works. 
Fifty-eight men and boys were in the pit at the 
time, only eighteen of whom escaped. 

17 .—Establishment of a “Society for the 





FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1844. 


Protection of Agriculture,” designed to coun¬ 
teract the efforts of the Anti-Corn Law League. 
Duke of Richmond chairman. 

26 . —Proceedings in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench regarding the great frauds on the 
Custom-house. The imputed offence was con¬ 
spiracy to defraud the Crown of duties upon 
goods imported, by the fabrication of false 
entries and the insertion of the leaves ©n 
which these false entries were made into the 
Blue-books in which the “ light entries ” were 
made by the landing waiters, and on which the 
duties were charged. By the connivance and 
aid of Homersham and Bumby, two of these 
officers (the former since dead, and the latter 
the principal witness against the defendants,) 
Messrs. Mottram and Williams, silk merchants, 
Wood-street, and their clerk, Horsley (indicted 
with them), had carried on a course of fraud on 
the revenue for a considerable time and to a 
large amount. The present case was of ne¬ 
cessity limited to one charge, but Bumby esti¬ 
mated the gross amount of the fraud at from 
400,000/. to 500,000/. annually between the 
years 1837 and 1842, the time over which the 
transactions spread. Horsley had absconded, 
but the other defendant, Mottram, was now 
convicted. Sentence deferred. 

27 . —Tried in the Court of Common Pleas, 
an action for crim. con. brought by Lord 
William Paget against the Earl of Cardigan. 
The principal witness for the prosecution was 
a person named Winter, who swore that he 
had been directed by Lord William Paget 
to lie under a sofa in the back drawing-room 
in a position in which he was capable of seeing 
what passed in the front drawing-room, for 
the purpose of observing and hearing what 
passed between Lord Cardigan and Lady Paget; 
that in this situation he had partly seen and 
heard matters which, if true, could leave no 
doubt that criminal intercourse had taken place 
between the parties. The cross-examination of 
this witness tended very much to damage his 
evidence, and also reflected on the conduct of 
the plaintiff. Immediately on the conclusion 
of Sir W. Follett’s speech for the defendant, 
the foreman of the jury announced that they 
would spare the Lord Chief Justice the trouble 
of summing up; their verdict was “For the 
defendant. ” 

March 1 . —Mr. T. Duncombe moves for a 
return of all moneys paid to Hughes, Ross, apd 
Jackson, reporters for Mr. Gurney at the Re¬ 
peal demonstrations, on account of any com¬ 
munications made by them to the Government. 
Sir James Graham said he was not prepared to 
assent to any resolution, the effect of which 
would be to hold these people up to public 
execration, and possibly to expose them to 
popular fury. “ I think it my painful duty to 
risk the incurring of such obloquy. It is my 
proud satisfaction that upon the whole I have 
succeeded in administering the law, asking for j 
no extraordinary powers ; and ill putting down j 


dangerous turbulence in England, and in bring¬ 
ing to condign punishment great public offenders 
in Ireland, I have faithfully and honourably, I 
trust, pursued the path of duty, and am not to 
be deterred by any attacks of the hon. member.” 
The motion was lost by a majority of 144 to 73. 

3 . —D’Aubigny, commander of the French 
establishment in Tahiti, writes: “A French 
sentinel was attacked last night. In reprisal I 
have caused to be seized one Pritchard, the 
only mover and instigator of the disturb¬ 
ances of the natives. His property shall be 
answerable for all damage occasioned to our 
establishments by the insurgents ; and if French 
blood is spilt, every drop shall recoil on his 
head.” The proceedings of the Admiral were 
disavowed by the French Government. 

4. —Came on for trial in the Central Criminal 
Court the charge of libel raised at the instance 
of Lord William Paget against Thomas Holt, 
proprietor of the Age newspaper, in so far as 
he had alleged that the case heard in the Court 
of Common Pleas was a conspiracy on the 
part of Lord William and others to extort 
money from Lord Cardigan. The jury re¬ 
turned a verdict of Guilty, and defendant was 
sentenced to four months’ imprisonment in 
Newgate, to commence at the expiry of his 
present term in the Queen’s Prison. 

— James Knox Polk elected President of 
the United States. 

5 . —At the annual meeting of the pro¬ 
prietors of the Thames Tunnel, it was stated 
that 2,038,477 people had passed through it 
from 25 th March last. This had produced 
8,478/. 2s. Sd., besides 460/. paid by stall- 
keepers. 

6 . —At the Northampton Assizes a French¬ 
woman named Nathalie Miard was indicted 
for endeavouring to extort 400/. from the Rev. 
C. Marsh, rector of Bamock, and son of the 
late Bishop of Peterborough. It appeared that 
when in London the prosecutor was in the 
habit of frequenting a house of ill-fame kept 
by Madame Lodon. Here he became ac¬ 
quainted with the prisoner, and with her pro¬ 
ceeded to Paris, where they lived together for 
some time. The result of their intercourse 
was the birth of a child ; and for the purpose 
of keeping down all knowledge of the circum¬ 
stances in his parish, the prosecutor had from 
time to time paid Miard considerable sums, 
till her demands became so extravagant that he 
said he could not supply them. The jury 
returned a verdict of Not guilty, which was 
received with applause by a crowded court. 

7. —Mr. Labouchere’s motion for an address 
to the Queen regarding our commercial relations 
with Brazil rejected, after a debate, by 205 to 
132 votes. 

8 . — The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces his plan for the reduction of the 
Three-and-a-half per Cents. His intention was 
to propose the conversion of Three-and-a- 

.(150 





MARCH 


APRIL 


1844. 


half into Three-and-a-quarter per Cent, stock, 
which shouid continue till October 1854, after 
which period the interest should be reduced to 
three per cent, with a guarantee that for twenty 
years from 1854 there should be no further 
reduction. From 1844 to 1854 the public 
would save 625,000/. per annum, and for the 
year following 1,250,000/. per annum. 

8 . —The Lord Chancellor introduces the Dis¬ 
senters’ Chapels Bill, for confirming the pos¬ 
session of religious endowments in the hands 
of Dissenters, and arresting such litigations as 
had recently taken place in the case of the 
Lady Hewley charities,—originally given by 
her ladyship to Calvinistic Independents, but 
which had gradually passed to Unitarians, 
whose occupancy was successfully contested. 
The Lord Chancellor’s Bill proposed to ter¬ 
minate all further legal controversy respecting 
the right to voluntary endowments connected 
with Dissenting chapels, by vesting the pro¬ 
perty in the religious body in whose hands it 
had been for the preceding twenty years. The 
measure gave rise to considerable excitement 
out of doors among Church people, but was 
ultimately carried through both Houses with 
slight amendments. 

— Died, aged 80, Charles XIV. (Bemadotte) 
King of Sweden. 

9. — Died, in his 78th year, Sir Henry Hal¬ 
ford, Court physician. 

11. —Captain Bernal draws the attention of 
the House of Commons to the refusal of the 
War Office to allow a pension to Mrs. Fawcett, 
the widow of the officer who fell in the late 
duel. Sir H. Hardinge defended the refusal, 
not upon general grounds, but upon the special 
circumstances of the case, particularly the near 
relationship of the parties, the slightness of 
the affront, and the precipitancy of the hostile 
meeting. 

12 . — Banquet to O’Connell in Covent Garden 
Theatre, “ to show, on the part of Englishmen, 
the admiration entertained towards him for 
forty years’ constant and consistent advocacy 
of the rights and privileges of Irishmen.” Fie 
referred to the union with Ireland, and detailed 
at great length the grievances under which she 
laboured, maintaining that a remedy could only 
be found in an equal franchise, equal representa¬ 
tion, equal corporate reform, and equal freedom 
of conscience from a Church to which they did 
not belong. 

— Mr. Cobden’s motion for a Select Com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the effect of import 
duties on tenant farmers and farm labourers 
negatived by 224 to 133 votes. 

14. —Speaking against a motion making 
survivors in duels liable for the debts of their 
antagonists, Sir R. Peel said he preferred trust¬ 
ing to the state of public feeling on the subject 
rather than to legislative enactments. 

18. —Lord Ashley’s amendment on the Go¬ 
vernment Factory Bill, substituting six for 

(152) 


eight o’clock as the commencement of “night” 
carried against Ministers by a majority of 
9 in a House of 349. On the 22d, when it 
was proposed to substitute * ‘ ten hours ” for 
“twelve hours,” in the 8th clause, the Govern¬ 
ment was defeated by a majority of 3, and 
immediately afterwards Lord Ashley’s sub¬ 
stantive proposal was also defeated by a ma¬ 
jority of 7. The Committee on the Bill were 
afterwards discharged, and a new measure in¬ 
troduced, based for the most part on the resolu¬ 
tions to which the House had already agreed. 

18 .—Private Cordery convicted at Belfast of 
shooting his sergeant, but recommended by the 
jury to mercy ‘ ‘ on the ground of the previous 
intimacy of the parties.” 

20 . —At the Norfolk Assizes Lord Abinger 
sentences a young lad named White to trans¬ 
portation for life, for sending a letter to a farmer 
in the parish of Blaintisham, in December last, 
threatening to set fire to his premises unless he 
gave more work. 

24 . —Died suddenly, at Copenhagen, aged 
74, Albert Thorwaldsen, Danish sculptor. 

25 . —Fancy Fair in the Thames Tunnel. 

28 . —Prince Albert departs from Bucking¬ 
ham Palace on a visit of condolence to his 
relatives at Saxe Coburg Gotha. 

29 . —Waverley Ball in Edinburgh in aid of 
the'funds of the Scott monument. One who 
was present writes: “The White Lady of 
Avenel was there ; so was Anne of Geierstein, 
Amy Robsart, Julian Peveril, Isaac the Jew, 
Young Iiazlewood, Sultan Saladin, monks 
and friars, Highlanders, Turks and Saracens, 
whiskered, bronzed, and turbaned. Dominie 
Sampson intermitted his studies, and stepping 
in by mistake, no doubt, found himself in 
presence of Vanity Fair. The veritable Baillie 
Jarvie of the Saltmarket popped in, lighted by 
Matty, with lantern in hand and coats kilted.” 
This was the most successful fancy dress ball 
ever given in Edinburgh. 

April 1.—The American dwarf, known as 
General Tom Thumb, appears before the Court * 
at Buckingham Palace. 

— Lord Eliot introduces a new Irish Regis¬ 
tration Bill basing the franchise on the pay¬ 
ment of poor, borough, and police-rates. 

3 . —John Bryce executed at Edinburgh for 
the murder of John Geddes, his brother-in-law, 
at Blaw Wearie, West Calder, on the 27th 
December last. Bryce made a full confession 
before death, and described the precise manner 
in which the murder was perpetrated. (See Dec. 
27, 1843.) 

4 . —Fire at the Rose and Crown wine vaults, 
Oxford-street; six people burned. 

7. —Lord Abinger, Lord Chief Baron of 
the Exchequer, dies during the sitting of the 
assizes at Bury St. Edmunds. He was suc¬ 
ceeded in the Court of Exchequer by Sir F. 
Pollock, Sir W. Follett becoming Attorney- 





APRIL 


APRIL 


1844. 


General, and Mr. F. Thesiger Solicitor- 
General. 

IO.—Came on for trial at the Central 
Criminal Court the great conspiracy and will- 
forgery case, in which William Henry Barber, 
solicitor, Joshua Fletcher, surgeon, and three 
others, were charged with attempting to defraud 
the Commissioners of the National Debt, by 
forging wills and personating individuals, in 
whose names stock was invested in the Funds. 
The jury acquitted Barber in the first case. 
At the termination of the second case, charging 
them with uttering and publishing a testamen¬ 
tary writing purporting to be the will of Ann 
Slack, and thereby obtaining possession of 
3,500/. in the Three-and-a-half per Cents., the 
jury returned a verdict of Guilty. Barber, 
who seemed greatly astonished, then declared 
his innocence, and said Fletcher knew quite 
well he was innocent. These two were sen¬ 
tenced to transportation for life. The female 
prisoner, Dorey, who personated the sister of 
Ann Slack, taking lodgings in that name, and 
obtaining extracts of her pretended sister’s 
death, and another, Lydia Sanders, were each 
sentenced to ten years’ transportation. 

12 .— The Texans conclude a treaty for an¬ 
nexing themselves to the United States. 

15 . —Dr. Wolffe writes from Merve, 230 
miles from Bokhara, that the prospects of 
finding Stoddart and Conolly alive are getting 
dimmer and dimmer as he gets nearer the 
capital of the Khan. On the 19th he had an 
interview with Nayeb Samut, the chief of 
artillery to the King of Bokhara. By the 
King’s command he was then informed of the 
fate of Conolly and Stoddart. The Nayeb 
said : “ During the stay of Conolly and Stod¬ 
dart they took every opportunity of despatching, 
in the most stealthy manner, letters to Cabul ; 
and on this account his Majesty became dis¬ 
pleased [in June 1842]. Both were brought, 
with their hands tied, behind the palace. They 
kissed each other, and Stoddart said: ‘Tell 
the Queen I die a disbeliever in Mahommed, 
but a believer in Jesus—that I am a Christian, 
and die a Christian.’ Conolly said : ‘ We shall 
see each other in Paradise.’ Then Saadat gave 
the order first to cut off the head of Stoddart, 
which was done ; in the same manner the head 
of Conolly was cut off.” (See May 23, 1842.) 

16 . —Mr. Hume moves a resolution for 
giving effect to the recommendation of the 
Committee of 1841 upon National Monuments, 
that the public should be admitted more freely 
into Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s, and other 
cathedrals throughout the country. Expe¬ 
rience, he said, had now proved what had 
long been denied, that Englishmen may be 
admitted to places containing works of art 
without hazard to these works from misbe¬ 
haviour. Sir Robert Peel admitted the justice 
of the plea, but at present the control of these 
buildings belonged entirely to the ecclesiastical 
bodies, and while that right continued the 
House ought not to interfere by resolution. 


The motion was ultimately withdrawn, Mr. 
Hume expressing a wish that the sentiment 
now expressed would have its effect in the 
proper quarter. 

22.—Scene in the House of Commons with 
Mr. Ferrand, M.P. Mr. Roebuck first taunted 
him with having stated that Sir J. Graham had 
used his power as a Minister of the Crown to 
procure a false return relative to the Keighley 
Union rates, for the purpose of crushing him. 
Mr. Hume also drew attention to another state¬ 
ment publicly made by Mr. Ferrand, to the 
effect that Sir James Graham had made use 
of his official influence to make Mr. Hogg, 
the member for Beverley, commit perjury as 
chairman of an election committee, by deliver¬ 
ing an opinion contrary to his own feelings. 
Mr. Ferrand denied using the last expression 
but re-affirmed the truth of the first. Sir James 
Graham: “ I think it impossible, considering 
the nature of the assertion, and the position 
which I hold by the favour of her Majesty, 
that the matter can rest here; and I trust 
therefore that he is prepared to take the proper 
course for substantiating so grave a charge.” 
Mr. Ferrand appeared in his place next night, 
and repeated that what he had affirmed about 
the false return was quite true. He was pro¬ 
ceeding to state that if he had in any way 
wounded the personal honour of any member— 
when he was interrupted by a loud burst of 
laughter and ironical cheering, in the midst of 
which he took up his hat and hurried out of 
the House, Sir James Graham indicating by 
gestures his amazement at the proceeding. 
Sir Robert Peel said he would venture to say, 
that since the time when a public performer, 
undertook to compress himself into the limits 
of a quart bottle there had been no case which 
had given rise to more disappointment to the 
audience than this.—Mr. Disraeli said: “I 
cannot take on myself to decide, but this I do 
know, that no attempt by this blouse, whether 
right or wrong in the beginning, from the time 
of Sacheverell to our friend Mr. Stockdale, 
to run down an individual has ever succeeded, 
or has ever terminated to their advantage or 
the increase of their favour in public opinion. 
Remember, what another Sir Robert—not a 
greater man than our Sir Robert, but still a 
most distinguished one—said with respect to 
the case of Dr. Sacheverell. He said, ‘ he 
had had enough of roasting a parson;’ and 
I must say, having differed from the right 
honourable gentleman on subjects analogous to 
the present, and after the experience he has 
had of parliamentary privilege—although he 
was assisted on these occasions by the noble 
lord the member for London, who I observe 
has rather withdrawn his support of late from 
her Majesty’s Government—-I think the right 
honourable gentleman, taking as he does the 
great historical view of the case, the ‘ bottle 
conjuror’ view of the case, might really after 
what has occurred allow the matter to drop.” 
On the 24th it was agreed that Mr. Ferrand 
should have another opportunity of acknow- 





APRIL 


MAY 


1844. 


ledging or denying the accuracy of his repeated 
charges, and if he admitted their accuracy he 
was to be allowed to take proof before a select 
committee. On the 26th Mr. Ferrand made 
another attempt at explanation, but the House 
almost unanimously adopted the resolution of 
Sir Robert Peel, that the charges against Sir 
James Graham and Mr. Hogg were unfounded 
and calumnious. 

25 . —Amended articles against duelling 
issued from the War Office. They declare that 
it is suitable to the character of honourable 
men to apologize and offer redress for wrong or 
insult committed, and equally so for the party 
aggrieved to accept frankly and cordially ex¬ 
planation and apologies for the same. 

— Treaty signed at Madrid, in terms of 
which Chili was recognised by Spain as an 
independent Power. 

26 . —Sir Robert Peel, in answer to Mr. 
Macaulay, said the Court of Directors had 
exercised the power which the law gave them 
to recall the Governor - General of India. 
Lord Ellenborough was succeeded by Sir H. 
Hardinge. 

— Dr. Lushington delivers judgment in 
the suit for restitution of conjugal rights by 
the Earl of Dysart against his wife, who by 
way of answer pleaded cruelty on his part and 
prayed for a separation. The learned judge 
having gone over the main points of the 
case, thought they did not prove any risk of 
personal violence if Lady Dysart had con¬ 
ducted herself with prudence and submission. 
He therefore pronounced for the prayer of 
Lord Dysart. 

— Parliamentary Committee appointed to 
inquire into the state of the colony of New 
Zealand, and the proceedings of the New 
Zealand Company. 

29 . —Augustus Dalmas, a French chemist, 
murders Mrs. Sarah M‘Farlane on Battersea- 
bridge, about n o’clock at night, by cutting 
her throat. He afterwards delivered himself 
up to justice, and was convicted at the Central 
Criminal Court; but being considered of un¬ 
sound mind the extreme sentence of the law 
was departed from, and he was ordered to be 
confined for life as a criminal lunatic. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
(Goulbum) introduces the annual Budget. 
For the present year the gross surplus had 
reached 4,165,000/. instead of only 700,000/. 
as originally estimated, enabling Government 
not only to clear off a deficiency of 2,749,000/. 
pn last year’s estimate, but to have 1,400,000/. 
still in reserve. For the ensuing year he 
estimated the revenue at 51,790,000/., and the 
expenditure at 48,643,170/., leaving a surplus 
of 3,146,000/. With this he proposed to 
reduce the duties on flint glass, vinegar, dried 
currants, coffee, foreign wool, and marine 
insurance. 

30 . — Anti-State Church Conference assem¬ 
bles in London. 

( 154 ) 


May 1.—The London police make a simul¬ 
taneous attack on the West-end gaming-houses, 
and seize a quantity of gaming implements, 
about 3,000/. in cash, besides I.O.U.s, and 
capture seventy-three people, who are fined 
in sums varying from i/. to 60/. 

2.—Died at Bath, aged 84, William Beck- 
ford, author of “Vathek.” 

6 . —Sir Robert Peel introduces his new Bank 
Charter and banking regulations. In the course 
of one of his addresses he said: “I propose 
with respect to the Bank of England that there 
should be an actual separation of the two de¬ 
partments of issue and banking, that there 
should be different officers to each, and a 
different system of accounts. I likewise pro¬ 
pose, that to the issue department should be 
transferred the whole amount of bullion now 
in the possession of the Bank, and that the 
issue of bank-notes should hereafter take place 
on two foundations, and two foundations only 
—first, on a definite amount of securities, and 
after that, exclusively upon bullion; so that 
the action of the public would, in this latter 
respect, govern the amount of the circulation. 
There will be no power in the Bank to issue 
notes on deposits and discount of bills, and the 
issue department will have to place to the credit 
of the banking department the amount of notes 
which the issue department by law will be en¬ 
titled to issue. With respect to the banking 
business of the Bank, I propose that it should 
be governed on precisely the same principles as 
would regulate any other body dealing with 
Bank of England notes. The fixed amount of 
securities on which I propose that the Bank of 
England should issue notes is 14,000,000/., and 
the whole of the remainder of the circulation 
is to be issued exclusively on the foundation of 
bullion. I propose that there should be a 
complete and periodical publication of the 
accounts of the Bank of England, both of 
the banking and issue departments, as tending 
to increase the credit of the Bank, and to pre¬ 
vent panic and needless alarm. I would there¬ 
fore enact by law, that there should be returned 
to the Government a weekly account of the 
issue of notes by the Bank of England—of the 
amount of bullion—of the fluctuation of the 
bullion—of the amount of deposits—in short, 
an account of every transaction both in the 
issue department and the banking department 
of the Bank of England; and that the Govern¬ 
ment should forthwith publish unreservedly and 
weekly a full account of the circulation of the 
Bank.” The measure passed through both 
Houses during the session. 

— Commenced a series of riots at Phila¬ 
delphia, between the Roman Catholic Irish 
and a party known as “Native Americans.” 
During the four days over which the disturb¬ 
ance was protracted, two churches and above 
fifty houses were burnt, and about twenty 
people lost their lives. The rioting was renewed 
in July, when the military were brought out, and 
a considerable number killed on both sides. 





MAY 


1844. 


JUNE 


7 .—Theatre Royal, Manchester, destroyed 
by fire. The dressing-rooms only were saved, 
and a part of their furniture. 

! 3 .—Lord Ashley’s amendment to introduce 
a ten hours’ clause in the new Factory Bill, 
rejected by 297 to 159 votes. 

15 . —Sir Henry Hardinge sworn in as Go¬ 
vernor-General of India. On the same evening 
the East India Company gave their customary 
dinner to Sir Henry on his appointment. 

18 .—Fire at Naworth Castle, one of the 
seats of the Earl of Carlisle. The building 
itself, and a large collection of ancient fur¬ 
niture and pictures, were destroyed, with the 
exception of the tower of “Belted Will,” 
where there was a series of apartments kept fur¬ 
nished as they had been left by that border 
chief. 

— The Vice-Chancellor and heads of col¬ 
leges at Cambridge resolve to discommune 
tradesmen summoning persons in statu pupillari 
without first giving notice of claim to tutors. 

22 . —It is . announced in the Scotch Free 
Assembly that 70,000/. had been collected for 
the Sustentation Fund, 50,000/. for schools, 
32,000/. for missions; and that 230,000/. had 
been expended, or was expending, in the 
building of churches. 

— The ‘ * Derby ” won by Running Rein, 
a horse said to be over age, and the stakes 
claimed in consequence by Colonel Peel, owner 
of the second horse, Orlando. (See July 1.) 

23 . —The House of Lords sits as a Com¬ 
mittee of Privileges, to consider the claims of 
Sir Augustus Frederick D’Este to succeed his 
father as Duke of Sussex, Earl of Inverness, 
and Baron Arklow. At Rome, in 1792, the 
deceased Duke had met with Lady Augusta 
Murray, daughter of the Countess of Dunmore, 
and falling violently in love with her, they were 
after some delay married there by an English 
clergyman. On returning to this country they 
were married by banns in St. George’s, Hanover - 
square, which marriage, however, was admitted 
to be legally invalid. The openly manifested 
repugnance of the King to the match led to a 
separation after the birth of two children—the 
present claimant and a daughter. The chief 
points of the claim were submitted to the 
common-law judges in the fonn of a case. 
After due deliberation the judges came to a 
unanimous opinion that the Royal Marriage 
Act was in force in foreign countries as well as 
in England; and that a marriage at Rome, if 
otherwise valid, when contracted between indi¬ 
viduals who did not come within the scope of 
the Royal Marriage Act, became of no effect if 
one of the contracting parties was included 
within the provisions of that Act, and had 
married without the consent of the King. A 
decision was therefore recorded that the claims 
of Sir Augustus D’Este had not been esta¬ 
blished. 

24 . —The Dublin Court of Queen’s Bench 


affirm the conviction of the traversers, except 
so far as the Rev. William Tierney was con¬ 
cerned. Sentence was pronounced on the 29th. 
With respect to the principal traverser the sen¬ 
tence of the court was, that he be imprisoned 
for twelve months, pay a fine of 2,000/., and 
enter into security and recognizances for his 
future good behaviour for the term of seven 
years in the sum of 5,000/. The other tra¬ 
versers were sentenced to nine months’ im¬ 
prisonment, a fine of 50/., and to find securities 
for the same time in the sum of 1,000/. Mr. 
O’Connell, on entering to take his place in the 
traversers’ box was received with a shout of 
enthusiasm by the bar and the audience. The 
utmost consternation and amazement was shown 
at the severity of the sentence. Mr. O’Connell 
said: “I will not do anything so irregular 
as reply to the court, but I am entitled to 
remind Mr. Justice Barton that we each of us 
have sworn positively, and that I in particular 
have sworn positively, I was not engaged in. 
any conspiracy whatever. I am sorry to say 
that I feel it my imperative duty to add, that 
justice has not been done to me.” Shortly 
after the sentence the traversers, in custody of 
the sheriff, took their departure for Richmond 
Bridewell, the prison selected by the traversers 
themselves. O’Connell immediately issued a 
proclamation headed “Peace and Quiet,” 
urging the people to show their regard for him 
by their obedience to the law, and their total 
avoidance of any riot or violence. 

26 .—Died, aged 77, Jacques Lafitte, a pro¬ 
minent French banker and financier. 

28 .—The election for South Lancashire 
terminated to-day in favour of the Conservative 
candidate, Mr. Entwistle polling 7,571 votes, 
and Mr. Brown, a free trader, 6,973. 

June 1 . —The Emperor of Russia visits 
London. He at first took up his quarters at 
the Russian Embassy, but, on the pressing in¬ 
vitation of the Queen, removed to Buckingham 
Palace as the guest of her Majesty. During 
his visit the Emperor had several conversations 
with the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of 
Aberdeen, and Sir Robert Peel, relative to 
the state of Turkey, and the events that might 
be expected to follow in case of the dissolution 
of that empire, which in the opinion of the 
Czar was an event not far distant. Their con¬ 
versation ultimately took the form of a me¬ 
morandum, deposited originally in the secret 
archives of the Foreign Office, but brought to 
light in after years, when the Emperor pleaded a 
common understanding with England in defence 
of his proceedings against Turkey. “Russia 
and England” (so runs the memorandum) “are 
mutually penetrated with the conviction that it 
is for their common interest that the Ottoman 
Porte should maintain itself in a state of inde¬ 
pendence and of territorial possession which at 
present constitutes that empire, as that political 
combination is the one which is most compatible 
with the general interest and the maintenance of 

( 155 ) 





JUNE 


1844. 


JUNE 


peace. Being agreed on this principle, Russia 
and England have an equal interest in uniting 
their efforts in order to keep up the existence 
of the Ottoman Empire, and to avert all the 
dangers which can place in jeopardy its safety. 
With this object, the essential point is to suffer 
the Porte to live in repose, without needlessly 
disturbing it by diplomatic bickerings, and 
without interfering, without absolute necessity, 
in its internal affairs. In order to carry out 
skilfully this system of forbearance, with a view 
to the well-understood interest of the Porte, 
two things must not be lost sight of. They are 
these :—In the first place, the Porte has a con¬ 
stant tendency to extricate itself from the en¬ 
gagements imposed upon it by the treaties which 
it has concluded with other Powers. It hopes 
to do so with impunity, because it reckons on 
the mutual jealousy of the Cabinets. It thinks 
that if it fails in its engagements towards one 
of them, the rest will espouse its quarrel, and 
will screen it from all responsibility. It is 
essential not to confirm the Porte in this de¬ 
lusion. Every time that it fails in its obliga¬ 
tions towards one of the great Powers, it is the 
interest of all the rest to make it sensible of 
its error, and seriously to exhort it to act rightly 
towards the Cabinet which demands just re¬ 
paration. The object for which Russia and 
England will have to come to an understanding 
may be expressed in the following manner:— 

1. To seek to maintain the existence <»f the 
Ottoman Empire in its present state, so long as 
that political combination shall be possible. 

2. If we foresee that it must crumble to pieces, 
to enter into previous concert as to everything 
relating to the establishment of a new order 
of things, intended to replace that which now 
exists, and, in conjunction with each other, 
to see that the change which may have occurred 
in the internal situation of that empire shall 
not injuriously affect either the security of their 
own States, and the rights which the treaties 
assure to them respectively, or the maintenance 
of the balance of power in Europe. For the 
purpose thus stated, the policy of Russia and 
of Austria, as we have already said, is closely 
united by the principle of perfect identity. If 
England, as the principal maritime.power, acts 
in concert with them, it is to be supposed that 
France will find herself obliged to act in con¬ 
formity with the course agreed upon between 
St. Petersburg, London, and Vienna. Conflict 
between the great Powers being thus obviated, 
it is to be hoped that the peace of Europe will 
be maintained even in the midst of such serious 
circumstances.” 

3 . —At the weekly meeting of the Repeal 
Association, Smith O’Brien stated he had 
deliberately and solemnly come to the con¬ 
clusion that not one drop of intoxicating 
liquor should pass his lips until the Union was 
repealed. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer proposes 
his resolutions on the sugar duties. Colonial 
to continue as at present, 24.J. per cwt.; China, 
(IS6) 


Java, Manilla, and other countries, when not the 
produce of slave labour, at 34 - J ‘* J Brazil and 
slave-labour States to continue at 63^. On a 
division, the Government proposal was carried 
by 197 to 128, the minority supporting Lord 
John Russell’s amendment for fixing 341-. per 
cwt. as the duty leviable on all foreign sugars. 
A bill founded on the resolutions was prepared 
and brought in. 

3 . —Insurrection in the island of Dominica, 
in consequence of a misapprehension on the 
part of the negroes that the taking of the 
census was part of a plan for reducing them 
once more to a state of slavery. 

— Died at Goritz, the Due d’Angouleme, 
son of Charles X. His claims to the French 
throne were taken up by the Count de Chambord. 

4 . —Ascot races attended by the Emperor 
of Russia and the King of Saxony. 

5 . —Dinner to Mr. Charles Knight on the 
occasion of completing the ‘ ‘ Penny Cyclo¬ 
paedia,” and as a mark of respect to him as an 
author, editor, and publisher. 

6 . —Royal Assent given to the bill amending 
the laws relating to labour in factories. 

— The Dissenters’ Chapel Bill, sent down 
from the House of Lords, read a second time in 
the House of Commons by a majority of 307 to 
117 votes. The motion for the second reading 
was made by the Attorney-General, Sir W. 
Follett, who appeared in the House to-night 
for the first time after a sudden attack of ill¬ 
ness in the House of Lords. Mr. Macaulay 
supported the measure, and complimented 
Ministers upon its introduction. 

10. —-The Repeal rent for the week an¬ 
nounced as amounting to 3,229/., being the 
largest sum yet collected. 

11 . —The private bankers memorialize Sir 
Robert Peel regarding the clause in the New 
Bank Act restricting the issue to 14,000,000/. 
upon securities. “We respectfully submit 
that the effect of such an absolute limitation 
will be to restrict the business of the country, 
by leading to a general withdrawal of legitimate 
accommodation, unless some power be reserved 
by the bill for extending the issue, with the 
sanction of the authorities above alluded to, in 
cases of emergency to be made apparent to 
such authorities.” Sir Robert Peel, in reply, 
refused to allow of any other extension than 
that provided for in the bill. 

14 . —The Government defeated in com¬ 
mittee on the Sugar Duties Bill. An amend¬ 
ment on the first' clause, proposed by Mr. 
Miles, lowering the duties on both British and 
foreign grown sugar not the produce of slave 
labour, was carried by a majority of 20 in a 
House of 462. 

— Opening private letters at the Post 
Office. Mr. T. Duncombe presents a petition 
from M. Mazzini and three others, complaining 
that during the past month a number of their 
letters passing through the General Post Office, 





JUNE 


JULY 


1844. 


written for no political purpose, and containing 
no treasonable or libellous matter, had been 
regularly detained and opened.—Sir James 
Graham replied, that the Secretary of State 
had been invested by Parliament with the 
power, in certain cases, of issuing warrants 
directing letters to be opened. With respect 
to three of the petitioners, their statements 
were false ; but so far as one of them was con¬ 
cerned, he had considered it his duty to issue 
such a warrant, but it was not at present in 
force. The powers he alluded to had been 
conferred by Parliament, and he hoped that 
Parliament would not withdraw its confidence 
from the Government in this respect. He 
declined to give any information as to which of 
the petitioners he referred to, or how long the 
warrant had remained in force. 

15 . —Died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, whither he 
had retired for the benefit of his health, Thomas 
Campbell, author of “ The Pleasures of Hope,” 
aged 67. 

— Thomas Carlyle writes to the Times: “ I 
have had. the honour to know M. Mazzini for 
a series of years ; and whatever I may think 
of his practical insight and skill in worldly 
affairs, I can with great freedom testify to all 
men that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a 
man of genius and virtue, a man of sterling 
veracity, humanity, and nobleness of mind. . . . 
Whether the extraneous Austrian Emperor and 
miserable old chimera of a Pope shall maintain 
themselves in Italy, or be obliged to decamp 
from Italy, is not a question in the least vital 
to Englishmen. But it is a question vital to 
us that sealed letters in an English post-office 
be, as we all fancied they were, respected as 
things sacred ; that opening of men’s letters, a 
practice near of kin to picking men’s pockets, 
and to other still viler and far fataler forms of 
scoundrelism, be not resorted to in England, 
except in cases of the very last extremity. 
When some new Gunpowder Plot may be in 
the wind, some double-dyed high-treason, or 
imminent national wreck not avoidable other¬ 
wise, then let us open letters : not till then.” 

16 . —At a Cabinet Council held this day 
(Sunday), it was settled that Ministers would 
resign unless the House accepted the Sugar 
Duties Bill as originally framed. 

17 . —Under pressure of a threat of resigna¬ 
tion, slightly disguised in an exposition of 
the policy of Government on the Sugar ques¬ 
tion, Sir Robert Peel induces the House of 
Commons, by a majority of 255 to 233, to 
rescind the vote it had come to on the 14th. 
In the course of the debate to which the 
proposal gave rise, it was noticed that Mr. 
Disraeli commented with unusual severity on 
the Premier’s proceedings. “I think,” he 
said, “ the right hon. gentleman should deign 
to consult the feelings of his supporters a little 
more. I do not think he ought to drag them 
unreasonably through the mire. . . . The right 
hon. gentleman came forward with a detesta¬ 
tion of slavery in every place—except on the 


benches behind him. If the Anti-Slavery re¬ 
pugnance were only a little more prevalent— 
if the right hon. gentleman did not expect 
on every division, and at every crisis, that his 
gang should appear, and the whip should 
sound with that alacrity which he understood 
was now prevalent—it would be a little more 
consistent with the tone which he assumed 
with respect to the slave trade, and with that 
which was now the principal subject of dis¬ 
cussion. It was better for the House of Com¬ 
mons and for the right hon. baronet that 
this system should at once terminate. He 
deserved a better position than one that could 
only be retained by menacing his friends and 
cringing to his opponents. ” 

18 .—Inauguration of Chantrev’s statue of 
the Duke of Wellington, erected in front of 
the Royal Exchange. The King of Saxony' 
presently on a visit to the Queen, was among 
the crowd, and joined heartily in the cheering. 

24 . —In the course of a debate on Post- 
Office espionage, Mr. Shiel charged Sir James 
Graham, an English Secretary, with acting an 
un-English part in so far as he did, by a clan¬ 
destine and surreptitious instrumentality, lend 
himself to the procuration of evidence for 
foreign Powers against unfortunate exiles, and 
obtained through such means the revelation of 
secrets by which their property and their lives 
might be sacrificed. 

25 . —On a division, Mr. Villiers’ annual 
motion against the Corn Laws is defeated by a 
majority of 328 to 124. 

27 .—Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon 
sect, and his brother, murdered at Carthage, 
Illinois, by a mob who broke into the debtors’ 
prison where they were confined. 

July 1 . —The Running Rein case heard in 
the Court of Exchequer. Mr. Cockbum, who 
conducted the plaintiff’s case, gave the pedigree 
of Running Rein, and what was said to be his 
true history, from his possession by Mr. Good¬ 
man as a foal to his purchase by his client, 
Mr. Wood. On the conclusion of the evidence 
for the plaintiff, the Solicitor-General denounced 
the case as a gross and scandalous fraud. 
The horse was not Running Rein at all, but 
a colt by Gladiator out of a dam belonging 
originally to Sir Charles Ibbotson, and had the 
name of Running Rein imposed on it. It was 
originally called Maccabeus, and entered for 
certain stakes under that designation. His 
allegations, however, were not against Mr. 
Wood, but against Mr. Goodman, who had 
entered into a conspiracy with other persons to 
run horses above the proper age. On the 
second day of the trial, Baron Alderson 
ordered the production of the horse, but the 
plaintiff then declared it had been taken away 
without his knowledge, and he was not able 
therefore to produce it. Mr. Cockbum after- . 
wards stated, on behalf of his client, diat he 
was now convinced he had been deceived, and 

Q57) 




JULY 


1844 


JULY 


gave up the case. Mr. Baron Alderson, in 
directing the jury to return a verdict for the 
defendant, said: “Since the opening of this 
case a most atrocious fraud has been proved to 
have been practised; and I have seen with 
great regret gentlemen associating with persons 
much below themselves in station. If gentle¬ 
men would associate with gentlemen and race 
with gentlemen, we should have no such prac¬ 
tices ; but if gentlemen will condescend to race 
with blackguards, they must expect to be 
cheated.” Verdict for the defendant. 

1. —Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, before Lord Denman and a 
jury, the case of Kinder v. Lord Ashburton, 
Baring, and Mildmay, being a claim by the 
plaintiff for an alleged conspiracy to inflict 
injury on him with respect to the Parris estate of 
8,000,000 acres, purchased by both parties in 
Mexico. The bargain having turned out bad 
for the house of Baring, the plaintiff alleged 
that, to get' quit of it, they bribed the autho¬ 
rities of Mexico to pass a law preventing 
aliens holding estates in that country. The 
Barings denied all knowledge of bribery, 
though they admitted their agents might have 
bribed on their own responsibility. Verdict 
for the defendants. 

2 . — Mr. Duncombe moves fora Select Com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the department of the 
Post Office usually called the Secret Office, 
together with the duties of the persons em¬ 
ployed there, and the authority under which 
those duties were discharged. — Sir James 
Graham admitted that the question, whatever 
it had been before, was now a question be¬ 
tween the people and the Government. ‘ ‘ I 
am glad, therefore, that I can at once indulge 
my own private feelings and my sense of 
public duty by consenting to be a party to a 
most searching inquiry into the state of the 
law, and the practice of the law from the 
earliest period down to the latest moment. 
I think there must be inquiry, but that inquiry 
must not be carried on by a Select Committee, 
but by a Secret Committee.” A committee of 
this kind was appointed at the close of the 
debate, four members being selected from the 
Ministerial and five from the Opposition side of 
the House. Mr. Duncombe being in the posi¬ 
tion of accuser, was omitted, in conformity with 
the rule of the House. 

— Mr. Wallace defeated by a large majority 
in his motion for a Select Committee to in¬ 
quire into the conduct of the Lord Justice Clerk 
in browbeating the jury and counsel in a case 
heard at the last Glasgow circuit, where, in 
defiance of the wish of the jury, a charge of rape 
was departed from on his lordship insisting 
that the evidence was insufficient. 

— At Eynsham, Oxfordshire, a man burnt 
during confinement in the cage, where he had 
been placed for stabbing two people in a 
drunken quarrel. The cage accidentally caught 
fire, and before the key could be procured the 
( 158 ) 


prisoner was so severely burnt that he died in a 
few hours. 

3.—Funeral of Thomas Campbell, in West¬ 
minster Abbey. The procession passed from 
Jerusalem Chamber to Poet’s Corner. 

4 -.—Argued in the House of Lords, the writ 
of error moved for in the case of O’Connell and 
the other traversers. 

6 . —A declaration, made by Fletcher that 
to the best of his knowledge Barber had no 
guilty knowledge of the recent will-forgeries, 
submitted to the Home Secretary. (See April 
10.) 

3 .—Waverley Dress Ball at Willis’s Rooms, 
London, in aid of the funds of the Scott monu¬ 
ment. The ball-room was crowded with the rank 
and fashion of the metropolis. On Tolbecque’s 
band striking up the “March of the English 
Volunteers,” the procession fonned by the Mar¬ 
chioness of Londonderry’s monstre quadrille of 
Scott characters left the tea-room, and began 
its progress along the left centre of the Salon de 
Danse to the raised benches where the Royal 
Family and lady patronesses were seated. 
Dancing was prolonged till 5 o’clock the fol¬ 
lowing morning, there being no less than 
twenty-six sets danced in the principal ball¬ 
room. In the supper-room Scotch reels and 
country-dances were kept up with spirit. 

— The case of Dyce Sombre again before the 
Court of Chancery, Sir Thomas Wilde pleading 
that the commission of lunacy ought to be 
superseded, on the ground that the singularities 
founded upon his client’s conduct was but 
the result of his Indian birth and upbringing. 
The Lord Chancellor dismissed the petition, 
as he considered the lunacy of Mr. Sombre 
had been proved by the highest authorities. 
During the progress of the case the Nabob of 
Surat and his suite visited the court. 

— Read a second time and committed, the 
bill introduced by the Vice-President of the 
Board of Trade (Gladstone) for regulating the 
railway system of the country, and based on 
the report of a Select Committee moved for 
early in the Session. After the expiration of 
fifteen years, the Board of Trade is authorized 
to purchase any of the railways that come 
within the provisions of the bill, at twenty-five 
years’ purchase of the annual devisable profits, 
not exceeding ten per cent., but this option of 
purchase is not to extend to railways in which 
a revised scale of tolls has been imposed. The 
25th clause regulates the conditions on which 
third-class trains are to be established ; and all 
future railways are to act on its provisions from 
the commencement of their traffic. It provides 
that at least one train on every week day shall 
start from each end of the line to carry pas¬ 
sengers in covered carriages for one penny per 
mile ; that the speed of such trains shall not be 
less than twelve miles an hour including stop¬ 
pages ; that they shall stop to take up and set 
down passengers at every station; that half a 




JULY 


1844. 


AUGUST 


hundredweight of luggage shall be allowed 
each passenger without extra charge; that 
children under three years of age shall be con¬ 
veyed in such trains without charge, and those 
under twelve at half-price. 

12 . —The Royal Commission of Fine Arts 
select six artists to execute works for the deco¬ 
ration of the riew Houses of Parliament. 

13 . —At the assizes held at Tullamore, Peter 
Dolan was tried for shooting Lord Norbury on 
the 1st January, 1839. The prisoner was a 
tenant on the estate, and a notice of ejectment 
had been served on him along with others 
before the murder. The jury returned a verdict 
of Not guilty. 

16 - —Debate on the slave trade in the House 
of Commons, arising on a motion submitted 
by Lord Palmerston for returns of the number 
of negroes landed on the shores of America 
from 1815 to 1843. 

22 . — Fatal occurrence at the steamboat 
pier, Blackfriars Bridge. The pier and steps 
leading to it were unusually crowded by 
parties anxious to witness a boat-race on the 
opposite side, when the main timbers support¬ 
ing the stage gave way, and about twenty 
spectators were upset into the river. Five 
were taken out drowned, and the rest saved 
with difficulty. 

— In the case of two men, named Crane and 
Conway, tried at Limerick for riot, the jury, 
not being able to agree, were locked up in the 
usual way. At midnight they intimated that 
they had agreed upon a verdict, and Judge 
Ball came into court. When the foreman was 
asked to hand down the issue-paper, he, with 
much hesitation, passed to the judge a handful 
of small pieces of paper, varying in size from 
a shilling to a fourpenny-piece. Judge Ball : 
“What is the meaning of this?” Foreman: 
“ My lord, this is the issue-paper. The fact 
is, the jury quarrelled among themselves, and 
tore it up in this manner. I did all I could to 
save it, but without effect.” The judge deemed 
it his duty to receive the pieces, which re¬ 
corded a verdict of Guilty, with a recommenda¬ 
tion to mercy, but intimated that he could pay 
no attention to the recommendation of a jury 
which had conducted itself in such a dis¬ 
graceful manner. 

23 . —Capt. Warner sinks the yohn o' Gaunt 
off Brighton, in an experiment with his new 
and secret invention for destroying ships at 
sea. A smoke seemed suddenly to envelope the 
vessel, her mainmast shot up perpendicularly 
from her deck, no noise save that of the 
rending of timber was heard, and on the 
smoke and spray clearing away the smitten 
ship heeled over to port and sank. Between 
30,000 and 40,000 people were present on the 
beach. Lord Ingestre, Capt. Dickenson, and 
Capt. Henderson signed a document, stating 
that the operations were “under our manage¬ 
ment and control; that the explosion did not 
take place by combustible matter on board or 


alongside the ship, but was caused by Capt. 
Warner, who was on board the steamer Sir 
William Wallace , at the distance of 300 yards ; 
and that it took place in consequence of a 
signal made by us from the shore ; and that 
the time at which such was to be made could 
not have been known to Capt. Warner. We 
further declare our belief that Capt. Warner 
had never been on board the vessel since it left 
Gravesend.” 

23 . —Sir H. Hardinge arrives at Calcutta. 
Lord Ellenborough went down the river to 
meet him, and they came up the Hooghly 
together. 

24 . —S ir Robert and Lady Sale, with their 
widowed daughter, Mrs. Sturt, and child, and 
various officers of the Indian army, arrive at 
Lyme Regis, and receive a warm reception. 

25 . —Fatal encounter with natives in New 
Zealand. Nineteen settlers killed. 

26 . —Lord Heytesbury enters Dublin as Lord 
Lieutenant in room of Lord De Grey resigned. 

— Attempted assassination of the King of 
Prussia by Tesch, who fired two shots. 

27 . —Died at Manchester, in his 78th year, 
John Dalton, chemist and philosopher. 

28 . —Died at Florence, aged 76, Joseph, 
brother of Napoleon I., and ex-King of 
Naples. 

31 .—Sir Robert Peel, at the request of 
Lord Ingestre, consents to the publication of 
all the correspondence between the Govern¬ 
ment and Capt. Warner relative to his long- 
range and explosive shells. 

— In answer to Sir C. Napier, Sir R. Peel 
states that he has no hesitation in avowing his 
belief that a gross indignity had been committed 
in the apprehension of Mr. Pritchard at Tahiti. 
He expected that it would be disavowed by 
the French Government. (See March 3.) 

August 1.—Dr. Wolffe writes from Bok¬ 
hara : “To all the Monarchs of Europe.—I 
set out for Bokhara to ransom the lives of two 
officers, Stoddart and Conolly, but both of 
them were murdered many months previous to 
my departure, and I do not know whether or not 
this blood of mine shall be spilt. I do not 
supplicate for my own safety; but, Monarchs, 
two hundred thousand Persian slaves, many of 
them people of high talents, sigh in the kingdom 
of Bokhara. Endeavour to effect their libera¬ 
tion, and I shall rejoice in the grave that my 
blood has been thus the cause of the ransom of 
so many human beings. I am too much agi¬ 
tated, and watched besides, to write more.” 

— The Vicar of Liskeard temporarily sus¬ 
pended for omitting to read portions of the 
Burial Service over the body of a parishioner. 
The Vicar pleaded that he was- led to believe 
the man died in a state of intoxication; but 
the Bishop of Exeter decided that, even if this 
were so, the officiating clergyman had no right 

( 159 ) 






AUGUST 


AUGUST 


1844. 


to condemn the dead by omitting any portion 
of the Service. 

1.—Lord Sand on brought up the report of 
the Secret Committee appointed to inquire 
into the law and practice of opening private 
letters in the Post Office. It contained a com¬ 
plete history of the origin and exercise of the 
power vested by statute in the Secretary of 
State, and showed the instances in which it had 
been employed by the members of different 
Cabinets. “ If the result of the inquiry,” it is 
reported, “had been such as to impress your 
committee with a conviction of the importance 
of the frequent use of this power in the ordinary 
administration of affairs, they would have been 
prepared to recommend some legislative mea¬ 
sures for its regulation and control; and it 
might not be difficult to devise regulations 
which would materially diminish the obli¬ 
gations to its exercise, as, for example, that 
no criminal warrant should be issued except on 
a written information on oath ; that a formal 
record should be preserved in the Secretary of 
State’s Office of the grounds on which every 
warrant had been issued, of the time during 
which it remained in force, of the number of 
letters opened under it, and of the results ob¬ 
tained. It is, however, on the other hand, to 
be considered whether any legislative measure 
of this kind might not have an indirect effect 
in giving an additional sanction to the power 
in question, and thereby possibly extending its 
use.” From 1799 to 1844 the total number 
of warrants issued was 372, embracing 724 
persons. As the report showed that the annual 
average of warrants had rather decreased than 
increased in recent years, public excitement on 
the subject greatly subsided, and no imme¬ 
diate action was taken. 

— A small boat, overladen with Grissell and 
Peto’s labourers, upset in the Severn at Diglis, 
and twelve drowned. 

5 . —The Poor-law Act Amendment Bill read 
a third time in the House of Lords. 

6 . —At Windsor Castle this morning, at ten, 
minutes before eight o’clock, the Queen was 
safely delivered of a son, Prince Alfred Ernest 
Albert. 

— Tangier bombarded by three ships of 
the line, under the command of the Prince de 
Joinville. The batteries were dismantled in 
about two hours. 

— Burns Festival at Alloway, designed for 
the double purpose of honouring the memory 
of the poet and welcoming his sons to the 
land which their father’s genius had conse¬ 
crated. A procession of about a mile in 
length, composed of masons’ lodges, trade in¬ 
corporations, and deputations from municipal 
bodies, marched from Ayr to Alloway, where 
a huge banqueting pavilion was erected in a 
field adjoining the monument. The banquet 
was presided over by the Earl of Eglinton, 
and placed near, in seats of honour, were 
Robert, the eldest son of the poet, Colonel 


Burns, the second, and Major Burns, the 
youngest of the family ; also Mrs. Begg, sister, 
her two daughters, Mrs. Thomson (the “Jessie 
Lewars” of the bard), and various other friends 
and relations. The company comprised almost 
all that was famous in Scotland for law or 
literature, science or art. The croupier, Pro¬ 
fessor Wilson, in a speech of great length 
and eloquence, welcomed the family to their 
father’s land. “ There is but one soul,” he 
said, “in this our great national festival. To 
swell the multitudes that from morning light 
continued flocking towards old Ayr, till at mid¬ 
day they gathered into one mighty mass in 
front of Burns’ monument, came enthusiastic 
crowds from countless villages and towns, from 
our metropolis, and from the great city of the 
West, along with the sons of the soil dwell ng 
all round the breezy uplands of Kyle, and in 
regions that stretch away to the stormy moun¬ 
tains of Morven. ” Appropriate toasts followed 
from Sir John M‘Neill, Col. Mure of Caldwell, 
Mr. Aytoun, Mr. H. Bell, the Lord Justice 
General, and others. The early part of the 
day was favourable for the outdoor display, but 
towards evening, at the close of the banquet, 
the rain began to fall heavily, and the return to 
Ayr was made in a somewhat unceremonious 
manner. 

7 .—William Saville executed in Nottingham 
for the murder of his wife and three children 
by cutting their throats with a razor. When 
the drop fell, a sudden rush of the crowd took 
place down a narrow avenue known as Gamer’s 
Hill. Some of the foremost stumbled and fell, 
and before anything like order could be restored 
twelve people were killed, and thirty more or 
less.injured. 

— Sir Robert Sale entertained at the London 
Tavern by the Hon. East India Company. Sir 
Wm. Nott was prevented by indisposition 
from being present. Lady Sale and Mrs. Sturt 
were among the ladies in the gallery. 

— Sir James Graham obtains leave to bring 
in a bill for the better regulation of medical 
practice throughout the kingdom. Second 
reading fixed for this day three months. 

9 .—The Lords adjourn to the 3^ and the 
Commons to the 5th September—a proceeding 
rendered necessary by the delay of the judges 
in the O’Connell case. 

13 .—Dr. Leichhardt and party set out on 
their exploring expedition across that part of 
the Australian continent lying between Moreton 
Bay and Port Essington. 

15 .—The French attack Mogador. Prince 
de Joinville writes to the Minister of Marine: 
“After having destroyed the town and its 
batteries, we took possession of the island and 
of the ports. Sixty-eight men were killed or 
wounded. ” 

1 7 .—A Tartar soldier exhibits various feats 
in horsemanship and sword exercise in Hyde 
Park, near the barracks. 





AUG VST 


SEPTEMBER 


1844. 


21 . —Demonstration at Edinburgh on occa¬ 
sion of laying the foundation-stone of the monu¬ 
ment to be erected in the Calton burying-ground 
to the memory of the political martyrs of 1793-4. 
The ceremony was performed by Mr. Hume, 
M.P., who delivered an appropriate address. 
A dinner and soiree in honour of the event took 
place in the evening. 

21 . —James Cockburn Belaney tried at the 
Central Criminal Court for murdering his wife by 
administering prussic acid. The post-mortem 
examination showed death to have resulted from 
this poison, and it was established in evidence 
that the prisoner was seen to have a quantity of 
it in his possession a few minutes before his wife’s 
death. The jury returned a verdict of Not guilty. 

22 . —A poor needlewoman, in a fit of despe¬ 
ration, commits suicide by throwing herself into 
a secluded part of the Surrey Canal. She had 
been in the habit, along with her sisters, of 
making shirts at rates varying from i\d. to 3 d. 
each, but during the past week had been with¬ 
out work at even these rates, and for two days 
had not tasted food. 

24 . —The quarriers at Gehard, Kerry, having 
discovered a cave adjoining the works, enter to 
explore it, and no less than seven fall victims 
to the noxious vapours with which it was filled. 

28 . —The foundation-stone of the Durham 
Memorial, on Penshaw Hill, laid with masonic 
honours by the Earl of Zetland, Grand Master. 

— Lord Stanley retires from the representa¬ 
tion of North Lancashire by accepting the 
Stewardship of the Chiltem Hundreds, pre¬ 
paratory to his elevation to the House of Lords 
as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe. 

30 . —Died, aged 70, Francis Baily, one of 
the founders of the Astronomical Society. 

September 3 . —The Bank of England 
robbed of 8,000/. in gold through the aid of 
one of the clerks, named Burgess, and a con¬ 
federate, named Elder, who falsely personated 
Mr. Oxenford, the owner of Consols to that 
amount. The parties were subsequently traced 
by detective Forrester to the United States. 
Elder committed suicide, and Burgess, after a 
severe chase, was brought back to this country, 
and sentenced to transportation for life. Most 
of the money was recovered. 

4. —This morning was appointed for the 
delivery of the judgment of the House of Lords 
on the writ of error in the case of O’Connell 
and others v. the Queen. Eleven questions had 
been referred to the judges, and upon nine of 
these they were agreed. Upon the third and 
eleventh Mr. Justice Parke and Mr. Justice 
Coltman dissented from the opinion of their 
brethren. The indictment consisted of a number 
of counts : some of them were found bad and 
some good; and if the judgment delivered by 
the Irish Court had been confined to the latter, 
it would have been unexceptionable. But the 
judgment was general, and therefore tacitly 
assumed that all the counts were good. The 

(161) 


Lord Chancellor now moved that the judgment 
of the court below be sustained. Lord Campbell 
moved that it be reversed. On a division, con¬ 
fined exclusively to law lords, the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor announced that the judgment of the House 
was that the sentence of the court below should 
be reversed. O’Connell and the other prisoners 
were therefore at once liberated. On the order 
being handed to him on Friday afternoon (the 
6th) O’Connell read it aloud to his friends, and 
then returned it to his solicitor, who at once 
repaired to the governor and handed him the 
release. The news of the liberation caused 
the utmost excitement throughout Ireland, and 
demonstrations and addresses occupied the mind 
of the people for weeks together. The governor 
instantly communicated to the whole of the 
prisoners the welcome fact that they were now 
at liberty, and free to return to their homes. 
O’Connell repaired to his residence in Merrion- 
square, and addressed a large assembly from 
the balcony. On the 7th a great procession 
took place in Dublin to celebrate the liberation, 
and the Agitator and his fellow-prisoners took 
formal leave of the gaol. ‘ ‘ When the account, ” 
he says, “came to me of the decision in our 
favour, though the attorneys rushed into my 
presence, and one of them did me the honour 
of embracing me, still notwithstanding that 
kiss and the words which accompanied it, yet for 
a full half-hour afterwards I did not believe it. ” 

4 . —Royal Assent given to the bill amending 
and consolidating the laws relating to merchant 
seamen, and for keeping a register of seamen. 

5 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
Sir Robert Peel intimated that the outrage on 
Mr. Pritchard of Tahiti had been arranged 
amicably. 

6. —Preliminary treaty of peace signed be¬ 
tween France and Morocco off Tangier. 

11 .— Her Majesty enters the Firth of Tay, 
and lands at Dundee, on the occasion of her 
second visit to Scotland. She takes up her 
residence at Blair Athol, which is placed at 
her disposal by Lord Glenlyon. Prince Albert 
repeatedly engaged in deer-stalking through the 
forest of Glen Tilt. The royal party remained 
in Scotland till the 1st of October, when they 
embarked at Dundee. 

— Died at Haslar Hospital, in his 56th year, 
Capt. Basil Hall, R.N. 

— Enthusiastic reception of Sir William Nott 
on entering Carmarthen, his native place. 

16 .—Disturbance at Funchal, Madeira, 
through an attempt on the part of the autho¬ 
rities to put down Dr. Kalley, a Protestant 
preacher, recently liberated from prison. 

18 .—Died, aged 38, John Sterling, critic 
and essayist. g 

23 .—Died at Euston Hall, Suffolk, aged 84, 
George Henry Fitzroy, fourth Duke of Grafton. 

27 .—At the meeting of the British Asso¬ 
ciation at York, Professor Sedgwick comments 
with some seventy on the critical remarks read 

M 






SEPTEMBER 


OCTOBER 


1844. 


by the Dean of York on Dr. Buckland’s Bridge- 
water Treatise, and afterwards published in a 
pamphlet form under the title, “The Bible 
defended against the British Association.” 
“ We have nothing to do,” said the Professor, 
“as members of the Association, with morals, 
or religion, * or political truths, in which the 
elements of human passion are so liable to be 
mingled. Every one who brings a statement 
of facts to this meeting asserts his willingness to 
bide the test of observation and experiment, and 
when a paper is brought here which deals not 
with facts, but with theories and cosmogonies, 
we reject it altogether as in its nature unfit for 
our notice. Its discussion is permitted now 
(but will, I trust, never be permitted again) out 
of regard to certain opinions and feelings in 
which we participate with the Dean of York, 
and which not one of us would resign but with 
life itself. At the same time we are willing to 
show on all proper occasions (though this be a 
very improper one) that we are not afraid of 
facing any of the difficulties with which the 
speculative part of our subject may be sur¬ 
rounded.” 

27 . —Addressing a deputation from the Uni¬ 
tarian Synod of Ulster, who had an audience 
to offer congratulations on the passing of the 
Dissenters’ Chapels Bill, the Lord Lieutenant 
said: “As regards myself, it is my earnest 
desire to administer the existing laws with 
scrupulous impartiality, and with the full inten¬ 
tion to recommend such changes and improve¬ 
ments as may tend at once to secure the peace 
and prosperity of Ireland, and to confirm the 
power and integrity of the kingdom.” 

28 . —Colliery explosion at Haswell be¬ 
tween Durham and Sunderland. Ninety-five 
lives were lost, being the whole employed in 
the pit at the time, except three men and a boy, 
who were at the foot of the shaft. They also 
would have suffered had not the course of the 
explosive current been intercepted by loaded 
wagons standing in a rolley-way. A searching 
inquiry took place as to the immediate cause 
of the disaster, but no certain information was 
ever obtained. At the inquest on the bodies 
the jurv returned a verdict of “ Accidental 
Death.” 

— Mr. Sharman Crawford promulgates a 
scheme for a Federal Government in Ireland. 
It was opposed by the old Repealers. 

— The Court of Aldermen elect Aderman 
Gibbs as Lord Mayor. 

Octooer 1.—The iron steamer Windsor 
Castle, which had left Granton for Dundee with 
about two hundred passengers, to witness the 
Queen’s embarkation, strikes on the Carr rocks 
on her return voyage, and is run ashore near 
Crail. The accident fortunately took place 
before nightfall, or the loss of life might have 
been considerable, as there was only one small 
boat and one oar on board. 

3. —The “Young England” party appear 

(162) 


more prominently before the public this month 
than they had hitherto done. The soiree of the 
Manchester Athenaeum, celebrated to-day, was 
presided over by Mr. Disraeli, and attended by 
Lord John Manners and ti e Hon. G. Smythe. 
They all spoke on the oc vision in, their best 
style, and were highly complimented by Mr. 
Cobden and his friends. The party appeared 
again a few days later at a festival at Bingley, 
Yorkshire, held to celebrate the allotment ol 
ground for gardens to operatives. 

4. —The King of the French grants an 
amnesty to political offenders. 

6 . —The King of the French lands at Ports¬ 
mouth on a visit to Queen Victoria. He was 
received by the naval authorities, and had an 
address presented to him by the Mayor and 
Corporation before landing. ‘ ‘ I have not for • 
gotten,” he said, in answer, “the many kind 
nesses I have received from your countrymen 
during my residence among you many years 
since. At that period I was frequently pained 
at the existence of differences and feuds between 
our countries. I assure you, gentlemen, I shall 
endeavour at all times to prevent a repetition of 
those feelings and conduct, believing, as I do 
most sincerely, that the happiness and prosperity 
of a nation depend quite as much on the peace 
of those nations by which she is surrounded as 
on quiet within her own dominions.” Prince 
Albert and the Duke of Wellington arrived 
early in the forenoon, and accompanied the 
illustrious visitor to Windsor, where he was 
received by the Queen and Ministers of State 
about two o’clock. On the 9th the King was 
installed a Knight of the Garter. He was to 
have left Portsmouth on the 12th, but the un¬ 
toward state of the weather and a fire at the 
New Cross Station somewhat arrested his pro¬ 
gress, and he departed by way of Dover and 
Calais to Eu the following day. 

8 . —Dr. Symons elected Vice-Chancellor of 
Oxford University. 

— Unveiling of Marochetti’s equestrian statue 
of the Duke of Wellington, erected in front of 
the Royal Exchange, Glasgow. 

11 .—Lord Ellenborough arrives at Ports¬ 
mouth on his return from India. 

14 .—Mr. Hampden, the aeronaut, in endea¬ 
vouring to make a descent near Dublin, alights 
upon a house where the chimney is on fire. The 
balloon caught fire and exploded ; the unfor¬ 
tunate voyager narrowly escaping by dropping 
down the side of a house. 

16 . —Payment of the 60,000/. assigned by 
Parliament as prize-money to be distributed 
among the officers and crews of her Majesty’s 
ships of war engaged in the bombardment of 
St. Jean d’Acre and the various assaults made 
along the Syrian coast. 

17 . —At the Derbyshire sessions, William 
Henry Rose, a clergyman of the Church of 
England, was sentenced to twelve months* im- 








OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


I844. 


prisonment for assaulting, with intent, a girl 
eleven years of age, when returning from duty 
in the church at Glossop. 

21.—In the course of her voyage from Cowes 
to Portsmouth, the Queen goes on board the 
Victory , then decked out with wreaths and 
laurels in honour of the anniversary of the 
battle of Trafalgar. 

— Attempt to take possession of Stoneleigh 
Abbey, Warwickshire, by a party of thirty men 
and two women, under the direction of Job 
Leigh, who assumed to be the rightful owner 
of the estate. Preparations having been made 
for the attack, the assailants were driven back, 
and most of them carried prisoners to Leaming¬ 
ton, where they were committed for trial at the 
sessions on the charge of riot and assault. 

23 . —The foundation-stone of the new docks 
at Birkenhead laid with great ceremony and 
rejoicing. All ordinary business was suspended 
on that side of the river, and even in Liverpool 
numerous shops were closed, that the inmates 
might attend the festivities across the Mersey. 
The Birkenhead Commissioners gave the whole 
of their people a holiday, full wages being paid, 
and bread and meat distributed in plenty to- 
every family. An immense procession per¬ 
ambulated the boundary lines of the new town, 
and congregated about two o’clock at the Wood- 
side slip, when the ceremony of laying the stone 
was performed by Sir Philip de Malpas Grey 
Egerton, M.P. for South Cheshire. 

24 . —Extraordinary double suicide near Kil¬ 
marnock. This morning, about seven o’clock, 
the bodies of a man and woman were found 
lying in shallow water below an arch of the 
bridge. They were fastened arm to arm by 
two pocket-handkerchiefs, a white cambric and 
a red silk, the man’s right arm to the woman’s 
left. The bodies were identified as those of 
two strangers who had arrived a few weeks 
before at the Commercial Inn, and left the 
preceding night, with the design, as they said, 
of seeing the scenery in the neighbourhood. 
On reaching the bridge they appeared to have 
made the most deliberate preparation for com¬ 
mitting suicide. They bound themselves to¬ 
gether in the manner described above, and wad¬ 
ing into the shallow water laid themselves down 
side by side, where they remained, apparently 
without a struggle, till the sought-for death 
came. A watch, jewellery, and a little money 
were found on the bodies. A ticket inside the 
hat, which with the woman’s bonnet and veil 
were left at the water’s edge, contained a card 
bearing the name of Atkinson, London. From 
subsequent inquiries the parties turned out to 
be a Birmingham manufacturer, named Barker, 
and his wife—a cousin—who had taken refuge 
in Scotland, after some commercial disaster. 

28 .—The New Royal Exchange opened by 
the Queen in state. The procession left Buck¬ 
ingham Palace at eleven o’clock, and travers¬ 
ing Pall Mall, the Strand, Fleet-street, and 
Cheapside, all gaily decorated, reached the 

(163) 


Exchange a few minutes past twelve. The 
state carriages were seven in number, six of 
them being drawn by six horses, and the Queen’s 
by eight of the well-known cream-coloured stud. 
Her Majesty wore on the occasion a tiara of 
diamonds on her head and a white ermine 
mantle on her shoulders. The City authorities 
joined the procession at Temple Bar, where the 
usual ceremony was gone through of presenting 
the keys. On alighting at the Exchange, the 
Queen and Prince Albert, preceded by the 
Lord Mayor with his sword of state, walked 
round the quadrangle, across the ambulatory, 
then up to Lloyds’ Merchants’ Room, and lastly 
through the Underwriters’ Room to the Read¬ 
ing-room, where, seated on a throne, and sur¬ 
rounded by her Ministers, courtiers, and City 
dignitaries, she received the Address prepared 
for the occasion. “The privilege,” read the 
Recorder, “ we this day enjoy of approaching 
your royal person revives the memory of the 
older time when your Majesty’s illustrious pre¬ 
decessor, Queen Elizabeth, vouchsafed to adorn 
by her presence the simpler edifice, raised by a 
citizen and dedicated to the commerce of the 
world. . . Yielding to that eminent citizen and 
benefactor of his kind, Sir Thomas Gresham, 
the signal merit to plan and execute at his own 
charge this glorious work, we still rejoice to 
trace the assisting hand of the City and the 
ancient Company of Mercers from the earliest 
prosecution of the designs; and our gratitude 
is kindled on reflecting that each memorable 
epoch of the Royal Exchange is marked by the 
solicitude of the reigning monarch to raise and 
rebuild the structure from the ashes to which it 
has been twice reduced by the calamitous effects 
of fire. . . . Deign, therefore, most gracious 
Lady, to regard with your royal approbation 
this work of our hands, the noble and well- 
constructed pile again raised by the citizens of 
London, and erected on a site rendered worthy 
of the object of so vast an undertaking, to 
endure, we fervently pray, for ages a memorial 
and imperishable monument of the commercial 
grandeur and prosperity, and of the peaceful 
triumphs, of your Majesty’s happy reign. ” Her 
Majesty read a reply expressive of the delight 
it gave her “to behold the restoration of this 
noble edifice, which my royal ancestors re¬ 
garded with favour, and which I esteem worthy 
of my care. The relief of the indigent, the 
advancement of science, the extension of com¬ 
merce, were the objects contemplated by the 
founder of the Exchange. These objects are 
near to my heart, and their attainment will, I 
trust, be recorded amongst the peaceful triumphs 
of my reign.” Addressing the Lord Mayor, 
the Queen said, “It is my intention, Mr. 
Magnay, to confer the dignity of a baronet 
upon you to commemorate the event.” Turn¬ 
ing to the Home Secretary, she continued, 
“Sir Janies Graham, see that the patent is 
prepared.” This part of the ceremony over, a 
return was made to the Underwriters’ Room, 
where a sumptuous dSjcuner was provided 
for over 1,300 guests. The healths of hei 

M 2 





OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1844. 


Majesty, Prince Albert, the Royal Family, the 
Lord Mayor, and the City of London, were 
here duly honoured—the Queen joining in the 
last toast with a vivacity which showed the 
interest she felt in the prosperity of the City. 
At twenty minutes past two her Majesty pro¬ 
ceeded down stairs to the quadrangle. Here 
her Ministers, members of the corporation, and 
all the illustrious visitors, ranged themselves in 
a circle round her. The heralds having made 
proclamation, and silence been obtained, a slip 
of parchment was passed from Sir James 
Graham to the Queen, who said in an audible 
voice, "It is my royal will and pleasure that 
this building be hereafter called ‘ The Royal 
Exchange. ’ ” This concluded the ceremonies 
of the day; and after a few complimentary 
words to the Lord Mayor and the architect, her 
Majesty, still leaning on Prince Albert’s arm, 
roceeded to the royal carriage, and was driven 
ack to Buckingham Palace by the same route 
as she passed over in the forenoon. The cost 
of rebuilding the Royal Exchange was stated 
to be upwards of 400,000/. 

30 . —Sir Robert and Lady Sale visit the 
Queen at Windsor, and her Majesty hears from 
the lips of the heroic lady a narrative of the 
privations to which she with other captives had 
been exposed in Affghanistan. 

31 . —Fall of Radclifle’s Mill, Oldham. The 
arch on the topmost or sixth floor first gave 
wav, the other arches followed, and then the 
whole building came down with a crash, bury¬ 
ing in the ruins the whole of the workpeople 
who were then employed in it, thirty-four in 
number. Eight men, eight women, and four 
boys were killed, and seven more or less hurt. 
The remainder were dug out without serious 
injury. 

The Cardinal Prefect of the Propaganda 
addresses an epistle to the Roman Catholic 
Primate of Ireland, warning the clergy against 
the evils of continued agitation for mere politi¬ 
cal purposes. 

November 1.—Fire in Strathaven, Lanark¬ 
shire, by which forty houses, a brewery, and 
tan-work were destroyed, and nearly one hun¬ 
dred families rendered destitute. 

A .—The magistrates of Castlebrack hold a 
court in the churchyard, for the purpose of 
hearing evidence touching a tombstone there, 
by the aid of which James Tracy sought to 
establish his claim to the Tracy peerage. (See 
Aug. 3, 1848.) 

5 .—The new arch bridging over the Glitting 
Mill brook, Derby, gives way on removing the 
scaffolding, and six of the workmen are buried 
in the ruins. 

9 . —The new Lord Mayor (Gibbs) received 
with great disfavour at various parts on the 
route of the procession to Westminster. In 
Walbrook Ward, which he represented in the 
Court of Aldermen, the feeling was particularly 
strong. 


12 . —The Queen and Prince Albert leave 
Buckingham Palace on a visit to the Marquis 
of Exeter at Burleigh. 

— Explosion on board the Gipsy Queen at 
Blackwall, and loss of ten lives. The boilers 
were constructed to bear a pressure of 40 lbs. 
to the square inch ; on the trial trip that day 
they had been subjected to a pressure of 10 lbs., 
and it seemed doubtful if it could be got any 
higher. After the vessel was moored, Mr. 
Samuda, engineer, the builder of the boat, and 
well known in connexion with the atmospheric 
railway, set the safety-valve to 26 lbs. and 
directed that pressure to be tried. A few of 
those below went on deck to see whether any 
steam was blowing off, and had hardly cleared the 
engine-room when the explosion occurred. AH 
on board were involved in the calamity ; three 
on deck were killed, and the six left in the 
engine-room were found, as soon as an entrance 
could be made, lying scalded to death. The 
engines were of a new construction, known as 
‘ ‘ the bell-crank ” pattern, and were only pa¬ 
tented by Mr. Samuda in the beginning of the 
year. 

14-. —Closingprice of Three per Cent. Consols 
1 oof. 

— Died, aged 67, John Abercrombie, 
M.D., a Scotch physician, author of various 
treatises or. the intellectual and moral powers. 

15 .—General Prim sentenced to sixteen 
years’ imprisonment for rebelling against the 
Spanish Government. 

21 .—Collision on the Midland Railway, be¬ 
tween Nottingham and Beeston stations. Two 
passengers were killed and a great number 
injured. 

— William Duckett and Elizabeth Wil¬ 
liams, a young couple engaged to be married, 
commit suicide in a room at Mile-End by 
taking prussic acid. 

23 .—Robbery of 40,710/. in notes and bills 
of exchange from the banking-house of Rogers 
and Company, Clement’s-lane. The safe ap¬ 
peared to have been entered with a key acci¬ 
dentally left on the premises by one of the 
partners. 

29 . —Died, aged 72, the Princess Sophia 
Matilda, one of the daughters of George III. 

30 . —The Rev. W. G. Ward, of Balliol Col¬ 
lege, summoned before the Vice-Chancellor’s 
Court for teaching in his " Ideal of a Christian 
Church,” that "the Articles were not directed 
against those who retained the old doctrines, 
so that they were willing to join in a protest 
against the shameful corruptions in existence, 
and also to give up the Pope;” and that "the 
Articles did not exclude the opinions which had 
existed in the Church for an indefinite period.” 
Mr. Ward asked time to consider his answer, and 
on December 3 wrote to the Vice-Chancellor: 
" Whenever I am authoritatively informed of 
the whole method of proceeding which it is 




DECEMBER 


1844-45. 


JANUARY 


intended to pursue against me, there shall be no 
want of perfect openness on my side also ; but 
nothing surely could be more unreasonable than 
to expect that, so long as strict secrecy is pre¬ 
served on that head, I should volunteer any 
statement, however unimportant, or make any 
admission, however apparently insignificant.” 

December 2 .—Sir Robert Sale entertained 
by the Mayor and Corporation of Southampton 
previous to embarking for India. 

— Tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
before Lord Denman and a special jury, the 
case of Alexander Beresford Hope v. the 
Executors of Henry Philip Hope, being an 
action of trover, brought by the third son of 
Lady Beresford against the executors of his 
uncle, to recover a cabinet of diamonds and 
other precious stones, estimated to be worth 
about 50,000/., and which the plaintiff claimed 
under a deed of gift, executed in April 1838. 
Lord Denman left it to the jury to decide 
whether Mr. Henry Philip Hope, at the time 
of executing the deed, intended completely to 
divest himself of all legal rights to the diamonds, 
or merely to provide that such right should 
only vest in his nephew on his own death. 
Verdict for plaintiff, damages 40,000/. 

3. —Johannes Ronge excommunicated by the 
chapter of Breslau for publishing a letter di¬ 
rected against the reverence paid to the relic 
known as the Holy Coat of Treves. 

4 . —The Grand Stand and adjoining apart¬ 
ments on Newcastle race course destroyed by 
fire. 

6 .—President Tyler, in his Message to Con¬ 
gress, vindicates the proceedings of the United 
States with reference to the annexation of 
Texas, and warns Mexico against seeking to 
recover it by force of arms. 

11 .— Sir Henry Pottinger entertained at 
Merchant Taylors’ Hall by the merchants of 
London trading with China and the East 
Indies. 

14.—At Drury Lane Theatre, during the 
performance of “The Revolt of the Harem,” 
the dress of one of the dancers (Miss Webster) 
came in contact with the gas, and she was 
almost instantly enveloped in a body of fire. 
Amid the frantic cries of the audience and per¬ 
formers, one of the stage-carpenters made an 
attempt to smother the flames by throwing the 
poor woman down on the stage and rolling 
her over and over. In this way, in time, they 
were put out, but the injuries sustained by 
Miss Webster were so severe that she died three 
days afterwards. 

17. —Collision between the river steamers 
Sylph and Orwell off Greenwich. The former 
sunk in a few minutes, but with the exception 
of two, who were drowned, the whole of the 
passengers got on board the Orwell. 

18 . —In announcing the Irish Charitable Be¬ 
quest Commission, the Dublin Gazette publishes 


the titles of the Roman Catholic prelates, 
placed in order with Protestant bishops, accord¬ 
ing to rank in their respective hierarchies. 

21 .— Dr. Pusey writes that he cannot and 
will not subscribe the Articles of the Church 
in the sense in which they were propounded by 
those who framed them. “I sign the Articles 
as I ever have since I have known what 
Catholic antiquity is to which our Church 
guides us, in their ‘ literal, grammatical sense,* 
determined, where it is ambiguous, by the 
faith of the whole Church, before East and 
West were divided.” 

23.— As six boys and two men were de¬ 
scending the shaft of the coal-pit at Carlyn’s 
Hall, near Dudley, the chain to which the 
skip was attached broke, and the whole were 
crushed to death at the bottom of the shaft. 

— Disgraceful Repeal riot at Limerick during 
the funeral of Lord Limerick. Missiles of 
every kind were thrown on and into the car¬ 
riages of those attending the obsequies, and 
there was even an attempt made to upset the 
hearse into the river. 

Meetings connected with the Tractarian 
movement were unusually numerous this month. 
The most exciting were those held in the 
dioceses of Oxford and Exeter, where it was 
thought recently issued pastorals had tended 
to inflame the controversy. At a large gather¬ 
ing in Exeter Guildhall a resolution was 
passed: “That it is the opinion of this meet¬ 
ing that passive obedience or non-resistance on 
the part of the laity at this most momentous 
crisis will strengthen and encourage the known 
and avowed systematic attempt to bring back 
our and their Protestant Church to usages which 
are associated in the minds of the peo’ple with 
the superstitions and corruptions of Rome; 
and that they are resolved to declare and 
defend Protestant principles, the true founda¬ 
tion of the glory of England.” 


1845. 

January 1.—Murder at Salt Hill, near 
Slough. This evening Sarah Hart was found 
lying on the floor of her house almost insen¬ 
sible, by one of her neighbours, who had been 
attracted to the spot by a noise resembling 
‘stifled screams. On approaching the house 
she heard the door shut, and saw a man dressed 
like a Quaker walk along the path leading to the 
highway. He appeared to be greatly confused, 
and trembled very much. While he was open¬ 
ing the gate leading into the high road she 
asked him what was the matter with her neigh¬ 
bour, but he made no reply, and hurried 
onwards in the direction of Slough. This was 
John Tawell, at one time a member of the 
Society of Friends, but more recently engaged 
in business in Sydney, to the neighbourhood of 
which he had been transported for forgery on 

(165) 





JANUARY 


1845. 


JANUARY 


the Uxbridge Bank. His good conduct while 
in the colony obtained for him a ticket of 
leave after serving seven years—the third part 
of his time—and he set up business as a che¬ 
mist and druggist, by which he amassed con¬ 
siderable wealth. He now resided at Berk- 
hampstead, where he was held in fair respect, 
and generally reputed to be a man of pro¬ 
perty. From the suspicious circumstances 
attending the death of the woman Sarah 
Hart, a description of his person was at once 
telegraphed from Slough to London. He was 
watched on his arrival, and apprehended next 
day by a policeman, who closely followed him 
to every place he went. Tawell then denied 
having been to Slough, or knowing anybody 
there. On being handed over to the custody 
of the Berkshire police he admitted that the 
murdered woman had been in his service at 
one time, and that he had lately received letters 
pressing for money to support her children. 
At the adjourned inquest on the 4th, the sur¬ 
geon who made the post-mortem examination 
reported that death had been caused by prussic 
acid, or some poisonous acid akin thereto. 

1. —The merchants of London enter upon the 
possession of their new Exchange. 

— Died, aged 63, Major-General Sir William 
Nott, K.C.B., one of the heroes of the Affghan 
war. 

2 . — The “Antigone” of Sophocles produced 
at Drury Lane, with Mendelssohn’s music. 

3 . —Mr. Lane, American Minister in Lon¬ 
don, having been requested by his Government 
, to ascertain the reasons for the military pre¬ 
parations presently being made by England 
against the United States, writes to-day to the 
President, that he had received verbal assur¬ 
ances from the Earl of Aberdeen that the pre¬ 
parations in question had no special reference to 
differences with the United States on the Oregon 
question. “ They were defences proper in time 
of peace to meet the possible dangers of a war, 
and such as every prudent nation would make 
for the security of its own government.” 

11 .— The Archbishop of Canterbury issues 
an address to the clergy and laity of his pro¬ 
vince, recommending forbearance and mutual 
concession on the point disputed between the 
Tractarian and Anti-Tractarian party. Where 
the Tractarian innovations have been introduced 
and submitted to quietly, he would have them 
continued. Where they have been violently 
opposed, he advises the clergyman not to insist 
upon their observance. He thinks uniformity 
in the mode of conducting public worship ex¬ 
tremely desirable ; but as the rubric is not very 
consistent with itself, he admits that the plan¬ 
ners and advisers may be held to have con¬ 
templated the existence of some diversity when 
sanctioned by convenience. 

14.— A majority of the Bishops of the Estab¬ 
lished Church in Ireland issue a protest against 
the National system of education. 

(166) 


15 .—Her Majesty and Prince Albert leave 
Windsor for the purpose of visiting Stowe, the 
seat of his Grace the Duke of Buckingham. 
On one of the days the royal party repaired to 
a battue, which took place in preserves rigidly 
protected for the purpose. 

17 .—Sir Charles Metcalf, Governor of the 
Canadian Provinces, gazetted a peer, with the 
title of Baron Metcalf, of Fernhill, Berks. 

— Sir John Dodson and Mr. Bethell, Q. C., 
give an opinion that the House of Convocation 
has not the power of depriving Mr. Ward of 
his degrees in the manner or on the ground 
proposed; and that the statute proposing to 
annex a new sense to subscription was contrary 
to law. The statute was withdrawn, but the 
proceedings against Mr. Ward were perse¬ 
vered in. 

19 .—A fire breaks out in the old Greyfriars 
Church, Edinburgh, the result of which was 
the entire destruction of that ancient edifice, 
and the partial destruction of the church 
adjoining, known as the New Greyfriars. The 
flames were first observed about half-past 9 
a. m. , and within an hour after the whole eastern 
division of the edifice presented one huge 
whirling mass of fire, the great abundance 
and dry condition of the wood affording fit 
material for speedy combustion. Through the 
large window facing the gateway, the frame¬ 
work of which was now entirely gone, the 
interior was seen blazing like a vast furnace. 
The fire was believed to have originated from 
a stove, which it had been the custom to light 
in order to heat the church before the hour of 
divine service on Sunday morning. 

— Disturbance in St. Sidwell’s Church, 
Exeter, arising out of the Ritualistic practices 
observed by the Rev. Francis Courtenay. On 
a representation being made to the Bishop of 
Exeter by the Mayor, the former wrote to Mr. 
Courtenay: “If you receive this letter you 
will understand from it that I advise you to 
give way at the request of the civil authorities 
of Exeter, and not to persist in wearing the sur¬ 
plice in the pulpit, unless, conscienl iously and 
on full inquiry, you have satisfied yourself that 
your engagements to the Church require you 
to wear the surplice when you preach. I do 
not myself think that the matter is so free from 
doubt that you may not act on your bishop’s 
advice as now given to you. Still, I do not 
pretend to any right to order you to wear the 
gown : I only advise it, and advise it with this 
limitation, that you can without wounding 
your own conscience comply.” 

21 .— National testimonial presented to Row 
land Hill; Mr. Larpent, the chairman the of 
City of London Mercantile Committee on 
Postage, forwarding a cheque for 10,00c/. to 
the author of the penny postage scheme. 

23 .—A desperate conflict, attended with 
the loss of four or five lives, takes place at 
Clanfadda, near Killaloe, between a party of 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1845 - 


soldiers and two policemen, who interfered to 
recover two geese stolen from Farmer Gleeson 
in the afternoon. Several shots were fired 
between the parties, and one of the soldiers 
stabbed constable Callogan repeatedly with a 
bayonet. The other constable, Ellis, had a 
ramrod thrust into his mouth and through his 
neck. 

24.— The Great Britain steamship starts on 
her trial voyage from Bristol to the Thames. 
She encountered a severe gale, and sustained 
some damage, but continued her course, and 
anchored in the Downs a few minutes within 
twenty-nine hours from the time of departure. 
The distance run was 320 nautical miles. Her 
length of keel was 289 feet, main breadth 
50 feet 6 inches, and depth of hold 32 feet 
6 inches. Tonnage, 3,444 tons. 

28. —James Tapping, twenty years of age, 
murders Emma Wheter, in Manchester-street, 
Bethnal Green, by shooting her in the neck 
with a pistol. She was found soon after mid¬ 
night lying in the street, almost dead from 
loss of blood. Tapping was found guilty of the 
crime, and executed 24th March. 

Mr. Gladstone retires from the office of 
President of the Board of Trade, having a 
difference with his colleagues as to the con¬ 
templated increase of the Maynooth Endow¬ 
ment, and the establishme’nt of non-sectarian 
colleges. He was succeeded in office by Lord 
Dalhousie. 

February 1 . —Died at Testwood, South¬ 
ampton, Mr. Sturges Bourne, a Cabinet Mi¬ 
nister under Mr. Canning, member of the 
House for thirty years, and framer of an im¬ 
portant Act regulating parish vestries. 

3. —A fire consumes one of the houses in the 
village of Donnybrook, and on clearing away 
the ruins the police discover the bodies of the 
whole of the inmates, Captain Orsin, his wife, 
and two children. He had been resisting the 
landlord for some time, and it was supposed 
had committed the offences of murder, arson, 
and suicide. 

4. —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech referred to the 
abatement of political agitation in Ireland, 
“ and as a natural result private capital has 
been more freely applied to useful public 
enterprises, undertaken through the friendly 
co-operation of individuals interested in the 
welfare of Ireland.” Reference was also made 
to the probable increase in the navy estimates 
caused by the progress of steam navigation, to 
the Health of Towns Commission, to Scotch 
and Irish banks, and to the success of the 
measures which had been adopted three years 
since for supplying the deficiency in the public 
revenue. One paragraph recommended that a 
favourable consideration should be given to 
“ the policy of improving and extending the 


opportunities for academical education in 
Ireland.” In the course of the debate on the 
Address (carried without a division), Mr. 
Gladstone made a personal explanation as to 
his retirement from office. 

7. —As the British Museum was being 
closed this afternoon, a malicious person, who 
described himself as William Lloyd, a scene- 
painter from Dublin, seized a piece of granite 
from one of the shelves and dashed it against 
the case containing the Barberini Vase, better 
known as the Portland, from its having been 
purchased by the Duke of Portland for 2,000 
guineas. It was deposited by his Grace in the 
Museum for security, as well as to gratify the 
public with a splendid example of ancient art. 
The vase was dashed into a thousand atoms, 
almost defying the possibility of that after¬ 
restoration which was so ingeniously effected. 
On being examined at Bow-street Police-office, 
Lloyd said he had committed the act under 
nervous excitement, produced by previous in¬ 
temperance. The law as it then stood did not 
provide for the punishment of such an outrage, 
and the magistrate was therefore driven to the 
evasion of inflicting a fine of 3/., the value of 
the glass case, or in default of payment three 
months’ imprisonment. The fine was paid 
after a brief delay by an anonymous friend. 
An Act of Parliament was afterwards framed 
to protect works of art from similar disasters. 

IO.—The barque Henry takes fire off Black- 
wall. An attempt to scuttle and sink her in 
deep water having failed, she was towed 
aground on the North Flats, near Greenwich, 
and there permitted to burn down to her keel. 
A heavysnow storm was falling at the time, 
and through it the flaming vessel loomed like 
a wintry sunset. 

— Captain Burton, of the 17th Lancers, fined 
50/. as the owner of a monkey which had 
attacked the wife of a market-gardener, near 
Hounslow. The defence was that the animal 
had escaped from the defendant’s control, and 
he could not therefore be held liable for any 
damage it committed; but Justice Wightman 
ruled that if any one kept an animal feree na¬ 
tures, he was bound to take care that it did not 
escape. 

13. —Convocation at Oxford to condemn 
Mr. Ward’s book, and deprive him of his de¬ 
grees. Vice-Chancellor Wynter submitted the 
first proposition: “That the passages now 
read from the book, entitled, ‘ The Ideal of a 
Christian Church considered in comparison 
with Existing Practice,’ are utterly inconsistent 
with the Articles of Religion of the Church of 
England, and with the declaration in respect 
of these Articles made and subscribed by Mr. 
George Ward previously and in order to his 
being admitted to the degrees of b.a. and m.a. 
respectively, and with the good faith of him 
the said Mr. George Ward, in respect of such 
declaration and subscription.” Mr. Ward de¬ 
fended himself in a speech arguing strongly in 

(.67) 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1845 . 


favour of subscription in a non-natural sense. 
Dr. Grant, of New College, proposed, as an 
amendment: “That the passages now read 
from the book, entitled ‘ The Ideal of the 
Christian Church considered,’ are worthy of 
grave censure, but that the Convocation de¬ 
clines to express any opinion upon the good 
faith of the author, or to exercise the function 
of an ecclesiastical tribunal, by pronouncing 
judgment on the nature or degree of his 
offence.” Mr. Denison entered his protest 
against the whole proceedings. On a division, 
the Vice-Chancellor’s proposition was affirmed 
by 777 votes against 386, giving a majority ot 
391 against Mr. Ward. The Proctors then 
took the votes on the second proposition, for 
depriving Mr. Ward of his degrees. Mr. Ward 
again addressed Convocation, reminding his 
hearers that persons who had even gone over 
to the Church of Rome had not been deprived 
of their degrees, and that to degrade him, 
willing to serve in the Church of England, and 
much attached to it, would be harsh. The 
motion, however, was put and carried by a 
majority of 569 to 511 votes. Mr. Ward 
handed in a Latin protest, and left the theatre 
cheered by the undergraduates. Among the 
Non-placets were Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Hook, 
and Dr. Pusey. A proposition was made at 
the same meeting to censure Tract XC., but 
defeated by the votes of the Proctors. 

14. —Sir Robert Peel makes his annual 
financial statement. He calculated the revenue 
for the ensuing year at 51,100,000/. and the 
expenditure at 49,690,000/. He thought 
Ministers were justified in demanding an in¬ 
creased expenditure on account of the public 
service. No saving, he said, could be effected 
by the abolition of offices and the reduction 01 
salaries. A sufficient force of revenue-officers 
must be kept up to ensure the collection of the 
revenue, and to give facilities to the transac¬ 
tions of commerce. He proposed to the Com¬ 
mittee to continue the income-tax for a furthei 
limited period of three years, because he was 
convinced that the reduction in the price ot 
articles of great importance which would follow 
would be, if not a complete, yet a great com¬ 
pensation for such a burden. A surplus ot 
3,409,000/. he devoted to the reduction of the 
sugar duty, the abolition of the duty on glass, 
cotton, wool, and on the importation of Baltic 
staves. It was also proposed to abolish the 
duty on all those articles which merely yielded 
nominal amounts, a step which of itself would 
sweep away 430 articles from the Tariff. He 
did not deny that the financial scheme which he 
had explained was a bold experiment; but, re¬ 
sponsible as he was to Parliament for its suc¬ 
cess, he was not afraid to run the risk of making 
it. Sir Robert spoke for three hours and a 
half. 

— The O’Connell Repealers fraternize with 
the Orangemen of Dublin, the latter being 
represented at the weekly Repeal meeting bv 
(x68) 


the Rev. Tresham Gregg, “Grand Chaplain ot 
the Protestant Operative Association.” 

15. —The Statesman , a Dublin High Church 
and Orange paper, writes: “The policy ot 
our rulers is to declare decided war against our 
Lord Jesus Christ. We have long looked for 
nothing else at the hands of Sir Robert Peel, 
into whose policy the devil has entered, as 
manifestly as if an inspired historian had re¬ 
corded the fact in terms similar to those which 
described the madness of the predestinated 
prototype of all such traitors.” 

16 . —Sir Robert Peel’s resolution for con¬ 
tinuing the income-tax carried against Mr. 
Roebuck’s amendment to exclude “trades, 
professions, and offices ” from its operation, by 
263 to 55 votes. 

18 . —The American House of Represen¬ 
tatives pass a bill for establishing territorial 
government in Oregon. 

— Died, aged 78, the Marquis of West¬ 
minster. 

19 . —Mr. Duncombe moves for the appoint¬ 
ment of another Select Committee to inquire 
into the opening of his own letters in 1842. This 
was met on the 21st with an amendment by 
Lord Howick, asking for a Committee to 
inquire into the truth of Mr. Duncombe’s 
allegations. Mr. Disraeli, in seconding the 
amendment, taunted Sir Robert Peel with 
simulating a passion he did not feel. “The 
right honourable baronet had too great a mind, 
and filled too eminent a position, ever to lose 
his temper; but in a popular assembly it was 
sometimes expedient to enact the part of the 
choleric gentleman. His case was not always 
best when he violently tapped the red box on 
the table. I know from old experience that 
when one first enters the House these exhibi¬ 
tions are rather alarming, and I believe that 
some of the younger members were much 
frightened; but I advise them not to be terri¬ 
fied. I tell them that the right honourable 
baronet will not eat them up, will not even 
resign ; the very worst thing he will tell them 
to do will be to rescind a vote.”—In reply, 
Sir Robert said he believed Mr. Disraeli’s 
own calmness to be simulated, and his bitter¬ 
ness entirely sincere. “ Give me, ” he exclaimed, 

“ Give me the avowed, erect, and manly foe ! 

Firm I can meet him, perhaps return the blow; 

But of all plagues which Heaven in wrath can send. 
Save me, oh, save me from the candid friend.” 

At the close of the .debate, Mr. Disraeli 
apologized for attributing to Sir Robert Peel a 
friendship for a person who was concerned in 
Despard’s plot against King George III. ; a 
statement which Mr. Bonham Carter explained 
could only have originated by confounding 
him with his half-brother, who happened at 
the time to be confined in the Tower with 
Lord Cloncurry.—Mr. Duncombe withdrew 
his motion in favour of the amendment, which, 
however, was negatived by 240 to 145 votes. 

— Acting on l-epresentations made by 






FEBRUARY 


1845. 


MARCH 


Brazil, an Anglo-French fleet forces the chain 
which General Rosas had drawn across the 
La Plata, and destroy the batteries erected 
at Point Obligato. 

19. —Died at Northrepps, Norfolk, in his 
59th year, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, an 
enlightened and zealous labourer in the cause 
of slave emancipation. 

21 . —Jane Crosby, the keeper of a small 
public-house at Lamonby, near Penrith, takes 
the life of her child, aged seven years and 
a half, by roasting it on a large fire prepared 
for the purpose. After scorching it in the most 
shocking manner, the inhuman monster lifted 
the child off the fire, and held it on her knee 
till life was extinct, the little innocent faintly 
asking her elder sister for a drink of water. 
On trial the wretch was acquitted, the tender 
age of the elder child not being deemed safe 
for a capital conviction. 

— James Delarue, of Whittlebury-street, 
Euston-square, murdered by Henry Hocker, 
in the footpath leading from Chalk Farm to 
Belsize Park, Hampstead. Police-constable 
Boldock said : “ After the body was discovered, 
Sergeant Fletcher went for the stretcher, and 
I was left alone. In about a quarter of an 
hour a man came up and joined me. I heard 
him singing first, and then he said, ‘ Halloo, 
policeman ! ’ I said, ‘ I have a serious case 
here.’ * What is that?’ he said. I answered, 

‘ I think it is a person who has cut his throat.’ 
He then said, ‘ It is a nasty job, policeman,’ 
and he stooped down and felt the deceased’s 
pulse.” This was the murderer, Hocker, led 
back by some mysterious influence to the scene 
where the death-struggle had taken place about 
half an hour previously. A letter, proved to be 
in Hocker’s handwriting, was found on the 
body of the murdered man. It was signed 
“ Caroline,” and purported to be from a person 
seduced by Delarue, under the name of Cooper. 
She begged him to keep an appointment at the 
time and place where the murder was committed. 
The watch, rings, and other property belong¬ 
ing to the deceased were found in the posses¬ 
sion of Hocker, and all his attempts to account 
honestly for these articles, or to account for 
his presence anywhere else than at the scene of 
the murder, broke down. At the close of his 
trial at the Central Criminal Court, on the 
nth of April, Hocker read two statements, 
giving what he called the true account of the 
murder, but in which the persons, places, and 
occurrences were altogether imaginary. He 
was executed on the 28th of April. 

22 . —Sir H. Hardinge concludes a conven¬ 
tion for the purchase of the Danish possessions 
in India. 

— Died at his house in Green-street, 
Mayfaii, aged 76, the Rev. Sydney Smith. 
The personal estate was sworn under 80,000/. 

24 . -Lord Campbell introduces a bill for 
abolishing verdicts inflicting deodands. 

a&.—The Home Secretary’s Medical Reform 


Bill re-introduced, and also a bill conferring 
new charters on the College of Physicians in 
London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, and on the 
College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. 

26. —Lord John Russell’s amendment on 
one of the Budget resolutions censuring the 
distinction between free-labour and slave- 
labour sugar as illusory and detrimental to 
the revenue, rejected by a majority of 94 
in a House of 378. 

27. —Mr. Bright obtains the appointment of 
a Select Committee to inquire into the opera¬ 
tion of the Game Laws. 

28 . —In a renewed debate on Mr. Dun- 
combe’s motion asking for the examination of 
certain Post-Office officials at the bar of the 
House, Mr. Disraeli described Sir Robert Peel 
as having caught the Whigs bathing and run off 
with their clothes. He had tamed the shrew 
of Liberalism by her own tactics, and was the 
political Petruchio who had outbid them all. 
The Premier was advised to stick to quotation, 
because he had never quoted any passage 
which had not obtained the meed of Parlia¬ 
mentary approbation. Sir Robert had quoted 
Canning about preferring an open foe to a 
“candid friend;” but he might spare his 
courage in remembering that there is no oppo¬ 
sition to him. “There is another reason why 
he should not adopt this tone; he should not 
forget, after all, a great many of his supporters 
were elected on the hustings under very dif¬ 
ferent circumstances to those under which they 
sit here. He may object to me—although I 
think he has no great occasion to object—that I 
am sometimes in a different lobby to himself; 
but I was sent to swell a Tory majority—to 
support a Tory Ministry. (Cheers from the 
Opposition.) Whether a Tory Ministry exists 
or not, I do not pretend to decide ; but I am 
bound to believe that the Tory majority still 
remains; and therefore I do not think that it 
is the majority that should cross the House, 
but only the Ministry.—Sir Robert replied, that 
the attack had not at all interfered with his 
peace of mind. “ I tell the honourable gentle¬ 
man at once, that I will not condescend to 
reciprocate personalities with him, neither now 
nor at the end of a week. I also feel, Sir, that 
in this respect the honourable gentleman would 
have a very great advantage over me, because 
he has leisure to prepare his attacks.” 

The Conservative Club House, commenced 
two years since, opened in St. James’s-street. 

March 1.—The Swiss Cantons, by a majority 
of 10 to 8, vote the expulsion of the Jesuits from 
the territory of the Confederation. 

— President Tyler sanctions the bill for the 
annexation of Texas to the United States. The 
annexation was agreed to by the Texan Legis¬ 
lature on the 19th June. Iowa and Florida, 
formerly territories, were also admitted at this 
time into the Union as States. 

2 . —Uprising of the Spanish pirates on board 

(169) 





MARCH 


MARCH 


1845. 


the Feliddade. This was a Brazilian schooner, 
captured by H.M.’s cruiser the Wasp , in the 
Bight of Benin, near Lagos, on the 27th of 
February. She had no slaves on board, but 
was fitted up for the trade, and had a much 
greater quantity of provisions than was neces¬ 
sary for her crew of twenty-eight men. The 
schooner was therefore taken possession of, and 
her crew placed under arrest. Two days after¬ 
wards the Wasp captured another Brazilian 
schooner, named the Echo , with 430 slaves on 
board, and a crew of the same number as the 
Fclicidade. The one vessel was commanded by 
Antonio Cerquiera, and the other by Francisco 
Serva. The crews were divided ariiong the 
three vessels, and the Fclicidade given in charge 
of Mr. Palmer, with seven British seamen and 
two Kroomen, to take to the nearest port, for the 
purpose of getting her condemned. Sobrino da 
Costa, a black slave, who acted as barber, saw 
and heard what took place on the morning of 
the 2d. “ Majaval, the cook, came to the hatch¬ 
way where the prisoners were confined, and 
called down three times, ‘ Get ready to kill the 
English sailors.’ I saw Alves and Francisco get 
ready their knives, and heard them say, ‘ Let 
us rise. ’ They said to me, ‘ Get ready, or we 
will kill you as well. ’ I answered, ‘ Leave these 
things alone, or we shall be taken by the English 
cruisers.’ They then threatened to kill both 
Ribiero and myself unless we went with them. 
I said, ‘ If this is the case, when you go I will 
go too.’ They put their knives in their belts, 
and dropped their shirts over so as to hide them. 
Serva himself then came and called them up, 
and they all went on deck.” Cerquiera saw 
them first attack the quartermaster, who endea¬ 
voured to defend himself with a handspike, but 
was utterly overpowered and stabbed to death. 
Palmer, who had been bathing in a boat astern, 
was run through by Majaval, and thrown over¬ 
board. The English sentry was also thrown 
over, but hung by the fore sheet till Joaquim 
cut his fingers off, when he dropped down and 
disappeared. The two Kroomen, horrified at 
what was going on, jumped overboard and 
were drowned. After they had slain or thrown 
over the whole of the British on board, Servia 
gave orders to lower the peak of the mainsail 
as a signal to his brother-in-law on board the 
Echo to rise and do the same there. The signal 
was not answered, and Serva bore up to the 
Echo to inform the prisoners there that the 
English were all killed. He also fired two shots 
into her, but sailed away without making any 
serious attempt to recapture the vessel. Three 
days afterwards the Felicidade was captured by 
her Majesty’s ship Star, when Cerquiera gave 
information of the tragedy that had taken place 
on board. Ten of those most prominently 
concerned were put in irons and conveyed to 
England for trial. The Felicidade, after this 
her second capture, was sent to Sierra Leone 
for adjudication, under the command of Lieut. 
Wilson. On her voyage thither she was cap¬ 
sized by a sudden squall, but her gallant com¬ 
mander and a few of the crew, after enduring 
(170) 


the most horrible sufferings on a feeble raft for 
twenty days, managed to reach land. 

4 . —In the course of a discussion as to the 
best method of appointing railway committees 
Mr. Bernal said that he would be willing to 
transfer the private business of the House to 
a judge or judges. Sir Robert Peel replied 
sharply, that if the House so transferred its 
powers he should be ashamed to enter it. A 
young member, he said, would do more to 
raise his reputation by actively discharging his 
duties on a committee than by making a smart 
speech in a party debate. 

5. —A steam-boiler explodes at Blackwall, 
on the premises of Joseph Samuda, engineer, 
killing three men on the spot, and scalding and 
wounding others so severely that they died in a 
short time. One of the bodies and a portion of 
the boiler were found in the Plaistow marshes, 
on the opposite side of the Lea, about 150 yards 
from the engine works. The boiler was an old 
low-pressure one, which had only that morning 
been attached to the engine, and put to a high- 
pressure use. Seeing it work very slowly, 
Lowe, the foreman, caused a pole with a nail 
driven into the end to be so placed under the 
lever of the safety-valve as almost entirely to 
prevent its action, and thereby creating an 
enormous pressure of steam. At the coroner’s 
inquest the jury returned a verdict of man¬ 
slaughter against Lowe, but he was acquitted 
on trial. 

— Sir James South, the Astronomer Royal, 
takes observations with Lord Rosse’s monster 
telescope. “The night,” he writes, “was, I 
think, the finest I ever saw in Ireland. Many 
nebulae were observed by Lord Rosse, Dr. 
Robinson, and myself. Most of them were 
for the first time since their creation seen by us 
in groups or clusters of stars, while some, at 
least to my eyes, showed no such grouping. 
The most popularly known nebulae observed 
this night were the ring nebulae in the Canes 
Venatici, or the fifty-first of Messier’s catalogue, 
which was resolved into stars with a magnify¬ 
ing power of 548. ” 

7. —Stormy debates in the French Chamber 
of Peers regarding the Secret Service Money 
Bill. 

8 . —Explosion of two powder magazines at 
Algiers, killing forty-three workmen, ten 
artillerymen, and thirty-one pontonniers. 

9 . —Conclusion of the war in Scinde. Sir 
Charles Napier writes to the Govenor-Gene- 
ral : “I have to report to you the conclusion 
of the war against the mountain and desert 
tribes, who, driven from their last refuge, the 
stronghold of Truckee, have this day laid down 
their arms. The fort of Deyrah is destroyed 
and Islam Boogtie, the only chief not a pri¬ 
soner, is said to be a lonely fugitive in the 
Ketrau country, far in the north, and ruled by 
a chief whose daughter Islam married.” 

10. —Affray at Kororarika, New Zealand, 
between British and Natives. The chief, Honi 






MARCH 


APRIL 


1845. 


Heki, cut down the flag-staff, and then took the 
field. Most of the settlers were driven out of 
the district, and sought refuge at Auckland. 

12 . —Trial of John Tawell, the Quaker, for 
the Salt Hill murder. The court was crowded 
to excess, and Aylesbury presented more the 
appearance of a general election than of the 
ordinary sitting of assizes. On the forenoon 
of the third day the jury returned a verdict of 
Guilty, and Baron Parke sentenced the prisoner 
to be executed in front of the County Hall, 
Aylesbury. The children of the murdered 
woman, Sarah Hart, of which the prisoner 
was the reputed father, and his acknowledged 
wife, were all present in court. 

— At the annual meeting of the Literary 
Fund, it is announced that the Queen had 
granted the institution the honour of describing 
itself as the “ Royal Corporation of the Lite¬ 
rary Fund.” 

13 . —Mr. Cobden’s motion for a committee 
to inquire into the cause and extent of the 
alleged agricultural distress, lost by a majority 
of 213 against 121 votes. 

— Professor Daniell dies suddenly of apo¬ 
plexy, when attending a meeting of the Council 
of the Royal Society in Somerset House. 

14 . —At the inquest held on the body ot 
Mr. Cardwell, solicitor, who was presumed to 
have fallen a victim to homoeopathic treatment, 
the jury attached a declaration to their verdict, 
“ That the afflicted gentleman had been cruelly 
exposed to a system of starvation while in a 
state of the most extreme debility during 
about ten days previous to his death, he having 
during that long time been allowed nothing 
but cold water by the advice of his medical 
attendant.” 

17 .— Mr. Miles’ motion for an application 
of a portion of the surplus revenue to the 
relief of the agricultural interest, rejected by 
a majority of 213 to 78 votes. Towards the 
close of the debate, Mr. Disraeli (who spoke 
immediately before Sir Robert Peel), at the 
close of a speech fuller even than usual ot 
taunts against agricultural members who now 
supported the Premier, said : “ Protection 

appears to be in about the same state that 
Protestantism was in 1828. The country will 
draw its moral. For my part, if we are to 
have free trade, I, who honour genius, prefei 
that such measures should be proposed by the 
hon. member for Stockport, rather than by one 
who by skilful Parliamentary manoeuvres has 
tampered with the generous confidence of a 
great people and a great party. For myself, 
I care not what will be the result. Dissolve if 
you like the Parliament you have betrayed, and 
appeal to the people, who I believe mistrust 
you. For me there remains this, at least—the 
opportunity of expressing thus publicly my 
belief that a Conservative Government is an 
organized hypocrisy. ”—Sir Robert Peel said he 
would enter into no personal controversy with 
Mr. Disraeli. When the Tariff was proposed in 


1842, that gentleman said “the conduct pur¬ 
sued by the right honourable baronet was in 
exact, permanent, and perfect consistency with 
the principles of free-trade laid down by Mr. 
Pitt.” Sir Robert held the panegyric and the 
attack in the same estimation ; but he could 
not help being struck by the fact that they 
both proceeded from the same man. 

21.—Came on for hearing, before a Com¬ 
mission under the Church Discipline Act, at 
Doctors’ Commons, the charges of immorality 
preferred against the Rev. F. S. Monckton, 
perpetual curate of St. Peter’s, West Hackney. 
The principal witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. 
Williams, of the parish National Schools, 
and a discharged servant. They spoke as to 
drunkenness, indecent conversation, and undue 
familiarity with servants in the house. On the 
third of these heads the Commission found that 
the conduct of Mr. Monckton with regard to 
the female residents in his family was de¬ 
grading to him as a clergyman of the Church 
of England, and had produced great scandal 
in the Church. They considered that on this 
head there were sufficient grounds for further 
proceedings against Mr. Monckton. i (e was 
afterwards suspended for twelve months. 

28 .—With reference to the persecution 
alleged to have been endured by Dr. Kalley in 
Madeira, Mr. Addington, of the Foreign Office, 
is instructed to reply to the Lord Provost of 
Edinburgh that ‘ * Lord Aberdeen considers that 
that gentleman had been led by an erroneous 
conception of the terms of the treaty of 1842, 
and of the Portuguese Charter, to assume a 
position in which her Majesty’s Government 
cannot uphold him, inasmuch as he appears to 
suppose that he is borne out in opening his 
private dwelling-house for the celebration of 
public worship, and in preaching in the Portu¬ 
guese language to Portuguese subjects against 
the Roman Catholic religion. ” 

— John Tawell executed at Aylesbury for 
the Salt Hill murder. In the course of the 
preceding night he wrote out a confession of 
his guilt, and of a previous unsuccessful attempt 
referred to at the trial. He lived, it appeared, 
in perpetual dread of his connexion with 
Sarah Hart becoming known to his wife, 
and saw no other way of relieving his appre¬ 
hension than by destroying her. On the scaf¬ 
fold he wore his usual dress of a member of 
the Society of Friends. His sufferings were 
very protracted. 

31 .—Another murder, tending to keep up 
a most unhealthy excitement in the metro¬ 
polis, committed in George-street, St. Giles’s ; 
James Connor having stabbed his paramour, 
Ann Tape, or Brothers, in a bedroom they had 
engaged for the night. 

April 1 . —Mr. Shiel’s motion expressing the 
regret of the House that the contents of letters 
passing through the Post Office here had been 
communicated to foreign Governments, and 

U70 






APRIL 


APRIL 


1845. 


led to executions at Bologna, negatived by 52 
to 38 votes. 

1.—Intimation made in Hoods Magazine 
that the poet who “ sang the Song of the 
Shirt” is seriously unwell. “ He has taken leave 
of his friends,” it was said, “ forgiven his ene¬ 
mies (if any such he have), and ‘ turned his 
face to the wall.’ ” 

3 . —Sir Robert Peel introduces his bill for 
improving the condition of the Roman Catholic 
College of Maynooth. He proposed to give 
sufficient accommodation for 500 pupils, with 
suitable rooms to the president and professors, 
to have the repairs of the college executed as 
in other public buildings by the Board of 
Works, and to give a grant of 30,000/. a year 
not subject to an annual vote. “We do not 
think,” he said, “ that there is any violation of 
conscientious scruples involved in our proposi¬ 
tion. We believe that it is perfectly compatible 
to hold stedfast the profession of our faith with¬ 
out wavering, and at the same time to improve 
the education and elevate the character of those 
who, do what you will, must be the spiritual 
guides and religious instructors of millions of 
your fellow-countrymen.” The proposal gave 
rise to great excitement among the extreme 
Protestants, and the debate on the second 
reading lasted over six nights. Mr. Smythe 
having taunted Ministers with formerly declar¬ 
ing that concession had reached its utmost limits, 
Sir James Graham expressed his regret at ever 
having used such an expression. “ If I have 
given offence to Ireland,” he said, “ I deeply 
regret it, and I can only say from the very 
depth of my heart, that my actions have been 
better than my words. ” 

— Ordinance published at Madrid restor¬ 
ing confiscated ecclesiastical property to the 
Church. 

5. —Sarah Freeman sentenced to be exe¬ 
cuted at Taunton for the series of crimes 
known as the Shapwick murders, involving 
the destruction by arsenic of her husband, her 
illegitimate son, her mother, and her brother. 

6 . — A rate-collector murdered by “ Molly 
Maguires” at Ballyrahan, near Strokestown. 
Though one of the assassins was seized on the 
spot, the coroner’s jury returned a verdict 
of “Wilful murder against some persons un¬ 
known,” as no one would venture to identify 
the prisoner. 

7. —Lord Brougham draws the attention ot 
the House of Lords to the extensive gambling 
in railway shares, likely to end, he said, in such 
a crash as took place in 1825. 

8 . —Numerous meetings held throughout 
England and Scotland this week in opposition 
to the projected increase of the Maynooth 
endowment. At a great gathering in the 
Waterloo-room, Edinburgh, to-day, Dr. Cand- 
lish said: “I believe, so sure as I believe 
God’s Word to be true, a judgment must over¬ 
take this nation if we homologate this great 

(172) 


sin. Let every true-hearted man who trembles 
at the thought of anti-Christian error prevailing 
against the truth—let all who look forward to 
the destruction of Antichrist by the breathing 
of the Lord’s mouth and the brightness of His 
coming—let it be the duty of all such men to 
stand on the watch-tower, to give Israel no 
rest neither day nor night, until as one man 
this nation rises and demands to be delivered 
from the plague and from the sin and from 
the death which this proceeding of Government 
will assuredly entail upon us.”—At another 
gathering in Covent Garden Theatre on the 
14th, Dr. Croly described the Catholic Eman¬ 
cipation Act as “that unhappy, harsh, ill- 
judged, fatal measure.” A popular king 
(George IV.) had died soon after putting his 
signature to it, the House of Peers was de¬ 
graded to pass the Reform Bill, and the Houses 
of Parliament consumed by fire.—At a meeting 
in Surrey Chapel, Sir Culling Eardley Smith 
spoke of the measure as calculated to offend 
the majesty of Heaven and bring down judg¬ 
ments on the nation.—One meeting of English 
Roman Catholics (presided over by the Earl of 
Arundel and Surrey) was held at Freemasons’ 
Tavern in support of the Bill. 

10. —In explaining the absence from the 
House of one or two subordinate members of 
Government, Sir Robert Peel announces that 
Maynooth is not an open but a Government 
question. 

11 . —In the adjourned debate on the May¬ 
nooth Grant, Mr. Disraeli launched another 
philippic at the Premier:—“I know the right 
honourable gentleman who introduced the bill 
told us that upon this subject there were three 
courses open to us. I never heard the right 
honourable gentleman bring forward a measure 
without making the same confession. In a cer¬ 
tain sense, and looking to his own position, he is 
right. There is the course the right honourable 
gentleman has left. There is the course which 
the right honourable gentleman is following, 
and there is usually the course which the 
right honourable gentleman ought to pursue. 
Perhaps, Sir, I ought to say that there is a fourth 
course, because it is possible for the House of 
Commons to adopt'one of these courses indi¬ 
cated by the right honourable gentleman, and 
then, having voted for it, to rescind it. That 
is the fourth course, and in future I trust the 
right honourable gentleman will not forget it. 
He also tells us he always looks back to pre¬ 
cedents : he comes with a great measure, and 
he always has a small precedent. He traces 
the steam-engine always back to the tea-kettle. 
His precedents are generally tea-kettle pre¬ 
cedents. ... If you are to have a popular 
government, if you are to have a parliamentary 
administration, the conditions antecedent are 
that you should have a government which 
declares the principles on which its policy 
is founded, and then you can have on them 
the wholesome check of a constitutional oppo¬ 
sition. What have we got instead ? Some- 







APRIL 


1845. 


APRIL 


thing has risen up in this country as potent in 
the political world as it has been in the landed 
world of Ireland. We have a great par¬ 
liamentary middleman. It is well known what 
a middleman is ; he is a man who bamboozles 
one party and plunders the other, till, having 
obtained a position to which he is not entitled, 
he cries out, “ Let us have no party questions, 
but fixity of tenure.” I want to have a com¬ 
mission issued to inquire into the tenure by 
which Downing-street is held. Whatever may 
be the minor motives and impulses which 
animate different sections of opinion, there is, 
at least, one common ground of co-operation. 
There is one animating principle which may 
inspire us all. Let us in the House re-echo 
that which I believe to be the sovereign senti¬ 
ment of this country; let us tell persons in 
high places that cunning is not caution, and 
that habitual perfidy is not high policy of 
State. On that ground we may all join. Let 
us bring to this House that which it has for so 
long a time past been without—the legitimate 
influence and salutary check of a constitutional 
opposition. That is what the country requires 
-—what the country looks for. Let us do it at 
once in the only way in which it can be done, 
by dethroning this dynasty of deception, by 
putting an end to the intolerable yoke of par¬ 
liamentary imposture.—Mr. Macaulay took oc¬ 
casion to point out the inconsistency of those 
who supported the small grant but objected to 
the present addition—who were quite willing 
to subsidize what they considered error, pro¬ 
vided only it was subsidized in a mean and 
shabby manner. Objections of that kind came 
with very bad grace from members for Uni¬ 
versities. “ When I consider how munificently 
the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford are 
endowed, and with what pomp religion and 
learning are there surrounded ; when I call to 
mind the long streets of palaces, the towers 
and oriels, the venerable cloisters, the trim 
gardens, the organs, the altar-pieces, the 
solemn light of the stained windows, the li¬ 
braries, the museums, the galleries of painting 
and sculpture ; when I call to mind also the 
physical comforts which are provided both for 
instructors and pupils; when I reflect that the 
very sizars and servitors are far better lodged 
and fed than those students who are to be a 
few years hence the priests and bishops of the 
Irish people; when I think of the spacious 
and stately mansions of the heads of houses, 
of the commodious chambers of the fellows 
and scholars, of the refectories, the combina¬ 
tion room, the bowling-greens, the stabling ; 
of the state and luxury of the great feast-days, 
of the piles of old plate on the tables, of the 
savoury steam of the kitchens, of the multitude 
of grouse and capons which turn at once on 
the spits, of the oceans of excellent ale in the 
butteries; and when I remember from whom 
all this splendour and plenty is derived ; when 
I remember what was the faith of Edward the 
Third and of Henry the Sixth, of Margaret of 
Anjou and Margaret of Richmond, of William 


of Wykeham and William of Waynefleet, of 
Archbishop Chicheley and Cardinal Wolsey: 
when I remember what we have taken from 
the Roman Catholics—King’s College, New 
College, Christ Church, my own Trinity; and 
when I look at the miserable Dotheboys Hall 
which we have given them in exchange, I feel, 

I must own, less proud than I could wish 
of being a Protestant and a Cambridge man. ” 
Mr. Macaulay also taunted Ministers with 
their inconsistent policy towards Ireland. “Can 
we wonder that, from one end of the country 
to the other, everything should be ferment and 
uproar, that petitions should night after night 
whiten all our benches like a snowstorm ? Can 
we wonder that the people out of doors should 
be exasperated by seeing the very men who, 
when we were in office, voted against the old 
grant to Maynooth, now pushed and pulled 
into the House by your whippers-in to vote 
for an increased grant? The natural con¬ 
sequence follows. All those fierce spirits 
whom you hallooed on to harass us, now turn 
round and begin to worry you. The Orange¬ 
man raises his war-whoop ; Exeter Hall sets 
up its bray ; Mr. M‘Neile shudders to see 
more costly cheer than ever provided for the 
priests of Baal at the table of the Queen ; and 
the Protestant operatives of Dublin call for 
impeachment in exceedingly bad English. But 
what did you expect ? Did you think, when to 
serve your turn you called the devil up, that it 
was as easy to lay him as to raise him ? Did 
you think when you went on, session after ses¬ 
sion, thwarting and reviling those whom you 
knew to be in the right, and flattering all the 
worst passions of those whom you knew to be 
in the wrong, that the day of reckoning would 
never come ? It has come ; and there you sit, 
doing penance for the disingenuousness of years. 
If it be not so, stand up manfully and clear 
your fame before the House and the country. 
Show us that some steady principle has guided 
your conduct with respect to Irish affairs. Ex¬ 
plain to us why, after having goaded Ireland to 
madness for the purpose of ingratiating yourself 
with the English, you are now setting England 
on fire for the purpose of ingratiating your¬ 
selves with the Irish. Give us some reason 
which shall prove that the policy which you are 
following as Ministers is entitled to support, and 
which shall not equally prove you to have been 
the most factious and unprincipled Opposition 
that ever this country saw.” 

11. —Dr. Wolffe arrives at Southampton, 
after his researches in the East to clear up the 
fate of the Bokhara victims. 

12 . —The Emperor of China permits the 
erection of Christian churches within his domi¬ 
nions on condition that no attempt shall be made 
to convert his subjects. 

13 . —The Duke of Newcastle issues a mani¬ 
festo from Clumber against the “sinful endow¬ 
ment of the rebellious Popish seminary.” 
Petitions were to be instantly forwarded if 
the people wished “ to save their cherished 

073 ) 





APRIL 


1845. 


MAY 


land from the wrath of God and perfidy of 
man.” 

14 .—An amusing turn was given to the 
Maynooth debate in the Commons to-night. 
Mr. Fox Maule had quoted from a book 
written by Mr. Grant, of the Morning Ad¬ 
vertiser^ a passage conveying the impression 
that the College was at present in excellent 
order, and required no repairs. Mr. Serjeant 
Murphynow produced another book by the same 
writer, and read a series of extracts purporting 
to be a description of certain members of the 
House—how they looked, dressed, and spoke. 
Of Colonel Sibthorp it was recorded, that rather 
than submit to be shaved “he would see 
Tories, Constitution and all, scattered to the 
winds;” and the member for Perthshire himself 
(Mr. Fox Maule) was described as “ a man of 
exceedingly graceful proportions and very re¬ 
tiring manners.” The fun was renewed the 
next night by Colonel Sibthorp gravely as¬ 
suring Sir Robert Peel (whom he described as 
somewhat of a Mahomedan) that he would 
not only be shaved, but submit to have his head 
shaved off, rather than forget that he was a 
Protestant—“bom a Protestant, educated a 
Protestant, and by the blessing of God I will 
die a Protestant.” 

19 .—Closed at half-past 3 this morning the 
debate on the second reading of the Maynooth 
Endowment Bill. Majority for Ministers, 147; 
the numbers being 323 to 176. Conservatives 
in favour of the Bill, 158; Liberals, 165. 
Against—Conservatives, 145 ; Liberals, 31. 
There were 64 Conservatives and 84 Liberals 
absent in the division. 

21 . —At the weekly meeting of the Repeal 
Association O’Connell brings up a report from 
what he called the Parliamentary Committee, 
recommending it as essentially necessary for 
the alleviation of the misery of the people of 
Ireland that the Legislature should impose an 
absentee-tax of 10 per cent, on all landlords 
who were absent six months in the year, and 
had incomes exceeding 200/. per annum, such 
tax to be spent on some useful purpose within 
the estate where it was raised. He also said 
that now for the first time in his life he had 
an opportunity of praising Sir James Graham, 
and he did so most cordially on account of his 
manly speech concerning the Maynooth En¬ 
dowment. He held out both hands to him 
with forgiveness for the past, and thought he 
should be placed on a pedestal with “Justice 
to Ireland” inscribed on its base. He had 
expressed his sorrow for having used the 
expression that concession had reached its 
limits, and no man was either a Christian or 
a gentleman who would not forgive, after the 
symptoms of repentance manifested by the 
Home Secretary. (See April 3.) 

22. —The Queen visits the Great Britain 
steamship off Blackwall. Her Majesty ex¬ 
pressed herself much gratified with the sight 
of the magnificent ship, and wished Captain 

( 174 ) 


Hoskin every success in his voyage across the 
Atlantic. 

23 .—On the motion for going into com¬ 
mittee on the Maynooth College Bill, Mr. 
Ward submits an amendment for making pro¬ 
vision for the purposes of the bill out of the 
funds of the Church presently established in 
Ireland. Mr. Macaulay delivered an elaborate 
speech to-night against the Irish Church, which 
he described as the most indefensible of all our 
national institutions, having failed in either in¬ 
structing or converting the great body of the 
Irish people, as well as in securing the peace 
and security of civil society. He warned 
Ministers against making concession when it 
was too late—when it would be regarded, not 
as a great national act of justice, but as a con¬ 
fession of national weakness. “You will make 
it in such a way and at such a time that there 
will be but too much reason to doubt whether 
more mischief has been done by your long re¬ 
fusal, or by your tardy and enforced compli¬ 
ance.” The debate was continued over a 
second night, when the amendment was nega¬ 
tived by 322 to 148 votes. 

— New constitution promulgated for Spain, 
less liberal in its provisions than that of 1837. 

25 .—The Fine Arts Commission issue their 
fourth report regarding the decoration of the 
new Houses of Parliament. They point out 
certain portions of the building which they 
conceive might be properly adorned with in¬ 
sulated statues. These are St. Stephen’s 
Porch and St. Stephen’s Hall, in the former 
of which six insulated marble statues might 
be conveniently placed, and sixteen in the 
latter. In Appendix No. 2, relating to the 
selection of persons for the niches in the House 
of Lords, the committee state that no scheme 
was preferable to that suggested by Prince 
Albert, for filling them up with effigies of the 
principal barons who had signed the Magna 
Charta. 

— Sir Robert Pe^l introduces his measure 
for regulating banking in Scotland and Ireland. 

30 .—Crowded meeting at Exeter Hall to 
hear the statement of Dr. Wolffe relative to 
his Bokhara mission. 

— Mr. Macaulay writes to the Lord Provost 
of Edinburgh regarding his vote on the May¬ 
nooth Endowment Bill: “I have no apologies 
or retraction to make. I have done what I 
believed, and believe, to be right. I have 
opposed myself manfully to a great popular 
delusion. I shall continue to do so. I knew 
from the first what the penalty was, and I 
shall cheerfully pay it.” 

May 1 . —Hungerford Suspension Bridge 
opened to the public. There was no ceremony 
on the occasion, but it was very largely fre¬ 
quented by passengers till the evening, 36,000 
people passing from one side of the Thames to 
the other. The entire cost was about 120,000 i. 







MAY 


1845. 


MAY 


2 . —Came on for trial in the Court of Ex¬ 
chequer the Excise case, Regina v. Smith, in 
which the defendant, an extensive distiller in 
Whitechapel, was charged with making use of 
a concealed pipe for the conveyance of spirits 
between the distillery and the rectifying house. 
After a trial of eight days the jury found for 
the Crown, but expressed an opinion that no 
evidence had been adduced to show that the 
pipe referred to, and the existence of which 
could not be denied, had been fraudulently 
used by the defendant. The case was ulti¬ 
mately compromised, the Government accepting 
10,000/. and an obligation that the premises 
would be instantly altered in accordance with 
the Excise requirements. 

— Yarmouth Suspension Bridge gives way 
under the pressure of a crowd congregated to 
see a professional clown drawn down the river 
in a tub by four geese. Daring efforts were 
made by spectators of every rank to bring 
sufferers ashore, but the calamity was so un¬ 
looked-for and overwhelming in its magnitude, 
that on reckoning the loss the fearful .total 
amounted to seventy-nine, mostly women and 
children, either drowned in the river or 
dead from injuries received by falling balus¬ 
trades. At the inquiry following the calamity, 
Mr. Walker, engineer, who had been sent 
down by the Home Office, stated that the 
suspending chains were of bad construction, 
imperfectly welded, and of an inferior quality 
of iron. It was also ascertained that the 
bridge had been widened without any increase 
of the suspending power. Referring to the 
observation that as many people had frequently 
been on the bridge before, he said : ‘ ‘ When a 
bridge has been frequently loaded to the utmost 
which it will bear, it becomes weaker and 
weaker each time, and it may ultimately give 
way, although at first it was sufficiently strong 
to resist the w'eight put upon it. ” The engineer, 
Mr. Brunei, thus calculated the strength : the 
section of the chain at the centre of the span 
is 296 square inches; a square inch of iron 
breaks with 27 or 29 tons, but 174 tons is taken 
as the impairing weight, i.e. the weight at 
which it begins to stretch. There is therefore 
for the weight the bridge will actually bear, 
296 x 174 tons = 5180 tons, while 296 x 5 
tons = 1480 tons is the greatest load that can 
be put upon it, being 100 lbs. per square foot, 
for a crowd standing close together. 

3 . —Died at St. John’s Wood, London, 
aged 47, Thomas Hood, who “sang the Song 
of the Shirt.” 

5.—The elevation of Mr. W. F. Mackenzie 
to the office of a Lord of the Treasury having 
excited considerable discussion from its coin¬ 
cidence with a change of vote on the Maynooth 
question, he this day made the following ex¬ 
planation on the hustings at Peebles when 
seeking re-election: “I always voted against 
the small grant because I thought it was too 
small—(great laughter, hissing, and hooting)— 
but I over and over again declared, and my 


friends knew my opinion, that if a larger grant 
had been proposed I would have voted for it. 
(Cries of “Oh !” and laughter.) I assure you it 
is true. I voted against the small grant be¬ 
cause I thought it did mischief. I voted for 
the larger grant, not because I was certain it 
would do better, but because I thought the ex¬ 
periment ought to be tried.” 

7. —The Court of Directors issue instructions 
to the Governor-General of India regarding 
the principles which would guide them in the 

..construction of railways there, applications for 
making which on an extensive scale had .been 
received frormrprivate parties. They conceived 
that “ remuneration for railroads in India must 
for the present be drawn chiefly from the con¬ 
veyance of merchandise, and not from passengers. 
It cannot admit of question, that wherever rail¬ 
road communication can be advantageously 
introduced and maintained, it is eminently 
deserving of encouragement and co-operation 
from the Government.” The peculiar difficulties 
to which the Court drew the attention of the 
Governor-General were,—periodical rains and 
inundations ; the action of violent winds and 
the influence of a vertical sun ; the ravages of 
insects and vermin ; the destructive effects of 
spontaneous vegetation ; the unprotected state 
of the country through which the railway would 
pass ; and the difficulty and expense of securing 
the services of competent and trustworthy en¬ 
gineers. The Court proposed to depute to 
India three skilful engineers to suggest some 
feasible line of moderate length as an experi¬ 
ment for railroad communication in India. 

— The French Chamber of Deputies, by a 
majority of 227 to 144, carry a vote of 14,130,000 
francs for the fortifications of Paris. 

8 . — Opening of the Free-trade Bazaar in 
Covent Garden Theatre. The whole area of 
the pit and stage was boarded over and trans¬ 
formed into a “ Norman Gothic Hall,” filled to 
overflowing with the products of manufacturing 
industry. The grandeur of the exhibition and 
the excellence of the arrangements were uni¬ 
versally admitted. About 100,000 people visited 
the bazaar during the seventeen days it was 
open, and the large sum of 25,046/. was added 
to the funds of the League. The stalls were 
attended to by 400 ladies, the wives and 
daughters of leading Free-traders. 

9 . —Sir James Graham introduces the Go¬ 
vernment bill to endow three new colleges in 
Ireland for the advancement of learning. At a 
meeting of prelates in Dublin, a resolution 
was adopted expressive of thankfulness for the 
kind and generous intention of the Government 
to extend the benefits of academical education. 

— In the United Secession Synod, Edin¬ 
burgh, Dr. Heugh’s motion, declining to open 
up the Atonement controversy again, was 
carried by 243 against 118 who voted for Dr. 
Hay’s amendment, asking discussion on the 
ground that recent decisions in the Synod had 
given rise to much dissatisfaction and dissension. 

( 175 ) 




MAY 


1845 


JUNE 


12 .—Died, aged 78, Professor Augustus 
"William Von Schlegel, German critic, poet, 
and philologist. 

18 .—Died at Contin, Ross-shire, in his 65th 
year, William Laidlaw, author of “Lucy’s 
Flitting.” He was for many years the friend 
and steward of Sir Walter Scott at Abbots¬ 
ford. 

— Don Carlos renounces his claim to the 
throne of Spain in favour of his son, the 
Prince of the Asturias. 

20 . —Fatal duel on the shore near Gosport 
between Mr. Seaton, late of the nth Hussars, 
and Lieut. Hawkey, of the Royal Marines. 
They had quarrelled and insulted each other 
at an entertainment in the King’s Rooms, 
Southsea Reach, some days before. They 
fired at fifteen paces ; in the second round 
Mr. Seaton fell, mortally wounded in the ab¬ 
domen. Lieut. Hawkey instantly fled with his 
second. 

21 . —The Maynooth Bill read a third time in 
the House of Commons. The debate was 
protracted, but dull. 

— In reply to an address from the Corpora¬ 
tion of Dublin, the Queen said : “ Whenever I 
may be enabled to receive in Ireland the pro¬ 
mised welcome, I shall rely with confidence 
on the loyalty and affection of my faithful 
subjects.” 

26 .—Sir John Franklin sails from Sheemess 
with the ships Erebus and Terror on his last 
Arctic Exploring Expedition. He passed his 
first winter in a harbour at the entrance of 
Wellington Channel, after which date no letters 
were received from Sir John, his officers, or 
crew. His official instructions were: “To 
push to the westward without loss of time in 
the latitude of about 74J 0 , till you have reached 
the longitude of that portion of land on which 
Cape Walker is situated, or about 98° west. 
From that point we desire that every effort be 
used to endeavour to penetrate to the south¬ 
ward and westward, in a course as direct to¬ 
wards Behring’s Straits as the position and 
extent of the ice, or the existence of land at 
present unknown, may admit. We direct you to 
this particular part of the Polar Sea as affording 
the best prospect of accomplishing the passage 
to the Pacific.” 

— Fire in Raggett’s Hotel, Dover-street, 
Piccadilly. It broke out about midnight, and 
consumed nearly the whole building. The 
house being unusually full, the greatest con¬ 
fusion ensued when the inmates suddenly found 
the flames filling the passages and staircases. 
Mrs. Round, the wife of the member for 
Maldon, Mr. Raggett sen., the proprietor, 
Miss Raggett, and a nurse in the service of 
the Earl of Huntingdon, were either suffocated 
in their rooms or killed by throwing themselves 
from windows. Much valuable property in 
jewellery and furniture was destroyed. 

— Lord John Russell brings forward a 
( 176 ) 


series of nine resolutions relating to the con¬ 
dition of the labouring classes in so far as they 
were affected by protective duties, the law of 
settlement, and emigration. They were nega¬ 
tived on the 28th (the Derby day), when the 
number requisite to make a House could with 
difficulty be kept together. 

28 . —At the evening sederunt of the Free 
Assembly, Dr. Chalmers introduces MM. D’Au- 
bigne of Geneva, Monod of Paris, and Kuntze of 
Berlin, as a deputation from foreign Churches. 

— The old part of the city of Quebec almost 
entirely destroyed by fire. Between 1,500 and 
2,000 dwellings were consumed, and from 
10,000 to 12,000 people rendered homeless. 
One of the most painful incidents was the de¬ 
struction of the hospital, to which, as being 
considered entirely out of the reach of the con¬ 
flagration, numbers of sick persons of all classes 
were carried. The building became ignited by 
the flakes of fire carried by the wind, and many 
of the unfortunate inmates, unable to help them¬ 
selves, perished in the burning pile. On the 
1st of July following the remaining portion of 
the city suffered severely from a similar visita¬ 
tion: 1,300 houses were then destroyed, and 
13 blown down to arrest the progress of the 
flames. 

29 . —A new Convention between Great 
Britain and France for the suppression of the 
slave-trade signed at London. 

30 . —Mr. O’Connell and the other traversers 

hold a levee in the Rotunda, when numerous 
addresses from corporations and societies are 
presented. At the conclusion the Liberator and 
his friends were drawn in a triumphal car 
through the streets. , 

31 . — Railway opened between Peterborough 
and Northampton. 

June 2 .—The second reading of the May¬ 
nooth Bill moved in the House of Lords by the 
Duke of Wellington. He was interrupted at 
the outset of his speech by the Duke of New¬ 
castle, who wished to know whether the Queen 
had granted permission to propose such a bill, 
a question which Lord Brougham sharply re¬ 
buked as the most unconstitutional he had ever 
heard proposed in Parliament.—The Earl of 
Roden moved for an inquiry into the teaching 
at Maynooth, and alluded with sorrow' to the 
insult threatened by Repealers to “The 
Glorious and Immortal Memory,” in so far as 
they intended to hold one of their monster 
meetings on the banks of the Boyne on the 1st 
July. “The Protestants of Ireland consider 
they have been betrayed, and they are now 
thinking how they may best secure the safety 
of their families, their children, their altars, 
and their homes. He would tell her Majesty’s 
Government that their best and warmest friends, 
the Protestants of Ireland, who had stood by 
them in many a difficulty, were disgusted with 
their conduct.” The motion for a second read¬ 
ing was supported by the Archbishop of Dublin 






JUNE 


1845. 


JUNE 


and the Bishop of St. David’s, and opposed by 4 ' 
the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Cashel. 
On a division, Lord Roden’s amendment was 
rejected by 155 to 59 votes. 

2. —The Irish Colleges Bill read a second time 
in the House of Commons. (See May 9.) 

— The stewards of the Jockey Club expel 
William Day, Bioodsworth, and Stebbings, for 
conspiring to injure Mr. Gully’s horse, Old 
England, in the race for the Derby. On the 18th 
another case of fraud was established against 
John Day junior, in connexion with the run¬ 
ning of the Melody colt for the Derby of 1840. 

3. —On the motion of Mr. Hume, the Premier 
consents to bring the meritorious services of Sir 
H. Pottinger under the notice of the Crown. 
A pension of 1,500/. was voted later in the 
session. 

A .—Mexico declares war against the United 
States on the Texas question. 

— Thomas Steele, O’Connell’s Head Pacifi¬ 
cator, and Head Repeal Warden for Ireland, 
issues a proclamation denouncing the Molly 
Maguires of Leitrim and Cavan for rejecting 
“ the gentle and balmy counsel of your country’s 
almost sanctified benefactor and father, and the 
solemn adjuration of the clergy from their altars. 
You outcast traitors,” he concludes, “who give 
strength to Ireland’s enemies, your country dis¬ 
claims you—I abhor you ! ” 

6 . —Fancy dress ball at Buckingham Palace, 
illustrating the period of 1740-50. 

8 . —O’Connell, after a series of ovations com¬ 
mencing at Dublin, enters Cork in state in his 
triumphal car. The next most prominent object 
in the procession was a venerable minstrel sitting 
under the shade of an ivied branching oak, 
playing the harp which had been used before 
the Liberator at Tara, on the memorable 15th 
of August, 1843. On the same car were an 
Irish chieftain, two Irish knights with pages, 
and four members of the Repeal Committee. 

— Died, aged 78, Andrew Jackson, Presi¬ 
dent of the United States from 1829 to 1837. 

9 . —Lord Stanley obtains leave to introduce 
a bill into the Upper House providing for com- 

ensation in certain cases to tenants of land in 
reland. 

10. —Mr. Villiers’ annual motion on the 
Corn Laws defeated by a majority of 254 to 
122. 

16 . —The Maynooth Endowment Bill passes 
the House of Lords, the majority for the third 
reading being 131. 

17 . —Died, aged 67, the Rev. R. H. Barham, 
better known in the literary world as “ Thomas 
Ingoldsby,” author of “ Ingoldsby Legends.” 

18 . —After an interval of some weeks, the 
Anti-Com-Law Leaguers resume their weekly 
meetings. It was reported that the sum raised 
during the past year, including the returns from 
the Bazaar, amounted to 116,687/. 

( 177 ) • 


18. — Mr. Charles Buller’s motion, that the 
House resolve itself into a committee to con¬ 
sider the state of the colony of New Zealand 
and the case of the New Zealand Company, 
negatived by 223 to 172 votes. The debate 
was protracted over three nights, and assumed 
the form of a review of the entire colonial 
policy of Ministers. 

19. — Horrible outrage in Algeria on a body 
of Arabs by French troops. The Ouled Riahs, 
finding themselves closely pursued by the troops 
under Colonels Pelissier, St. Amaud, and De 
l’Admirault, took refuge in one of the caverns 
with which their country abounds. After sur¬ 
rounding the cavern, a few faggots were lighted 
and thrown before the entrance, to convince 
the Arabs that the French had the power, 
if they .pleased, of suffocating them in their 
hiding-place. The Colonel then threw in 
letters offering to them life and liberty if they 
would surrender their arms and their horses. 
At first they refused, but subsequently re¬ 
plied that they would consent if the French 
troops were withdrawn. This condition was 
considered inadmissible, and more burning 
faggots were thrown in. A great tumult now 
began, aad it was known afterwards that it 
arose from a discussion as to whether there 
should be a surrender or not. The party op¬ 
posed to a surrender carried their point, but a 
few of the minority made their escape. Col. 
Pelissier, wishing to spare the lives of those who 
remained in the cavern, sent Arabs to exhort 
them to surrender. They still refused, and cer¬ 
tain women, who did not partake of the savage 
fanaticism of the majority, attempted to fly, 
but their husbands and relations fired upon 
them, to prevent any escaping from the mar¬ 
tyrdom which they had themselves resolved 
to suffer. Colonel Pelissier then suspended 
the throwing of the burning faggots, and sent 
a French officer to hold a parley with the 
Ouled Riahs, but his messenger was received 
with a discharge of fire-arms, and could not 
perform his mission. This state of things con¬ 
tinued till the night of the 19th, when losing all 
patience, and no longer having a hope of other¬ 
wise subduing these fanatics, who formed, it was 
said, a perpetual nucleus of revolt in the country, 
the fire was rendered more intense than it had 
yet been. During this time the cries of the 
unhappy wretches who were being suffocated 
w ere dreadful, but gradually nothing was heard 
beyond the crackling of faggots. The troops 
entered, and found 500 dead bodies. About 
150, who still breathed, were brought into the 
fresh air, but a number of them died after¬ 
wards. 

20 . —In the Court of Exchequer Mr. Wakley, 
M. P., obtains a verdict of 150/. damages against 
the proprietor of the Medical Times for a libel 
charging him with ruining various medical 
•associations, by taking them under his pro¬ 
tection. 

— Discussion in the House of Commons on 
the railway gauge question arising on a mo- 




JUNE 


JULY 


1845. 


tion for the further consideration of the Oxford, 
Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway Bill— 
a line proposed by the Great Western Company 
with a broad gauge against another promoted 
by the London and Birmingham Company with 
a narrow gauge. The Board of Trade re¬ 
ported in favour of the latter, the Select Com¬ 
mittee of the House in favour of the former. 
Mr. Cobden’s motion for a Commission to 
inquire into and secure uniformity of gauge was 
defeated by 247 to 184 votes, Sir R. Peel and Mr. 
Laboucliere deprecating interference with the 
decision of the committee as detrimental to the 
authority of the House. A Commission under 
Letters Patent was issued on the 5th July, em¬ 
powered to inquire whether uniformity of gauge 
was expedient or practicable. The commis¬ 
sioners were Sir J. M. F. Small, R. E., 
G. B. Airy, Greenwich Observatory, and 
Professor Barlow, of Woolwich Military Aca¬ 
demy. 

23 .—Grand naval review at Spithead, in 
presence of the Queen, Prince Albert, the 
Lords of the Admiralty, and other distin¬ 
guished visitors. Her Majesty arrived at the 
fleet on the 21st, and was received on board 
the flag-ship St. Vincent , by Rear-Admiral 
Hyde Parker and Captain Rowley. The royal 
party afterwards visited the Trafalgar and 
Albion. To-day, on the royal yacht reaching 
Spithead, the yards were manned, and a general 
salute fired from all the ships of the fleet. It 
was remarked that at no time since the peace 
of 1815 had the roadstead exhibited so great an 
amount of actual naval strength. A variety of 
evolutions having been gone through by each of 
the divisions, the day’s display was concluded 
by the passage of her Majesty through the 
squadron on her return to Cowes. 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Henry 
Gompertz and W. R. Witham were found 
guilty of conspiring to defraud George Pitt 
Rose, late a captain in the 9th Lancers, of 
bills or acceptances to the amount of about 
17,000/. 

25 .—Ratification of a treaty of commerce 
between Great Britain and the Two Sicilies. 

28 .—The foundation-stone of St. Mary’s 
Hospital, Paddington, laid by Prince Albert. 

— Tamatave, Madagascar, bombarded by 
two English and French gunboats, in retalia¬ 
tion for the harsh measures adopted by the 
Queen towards foreign traders. 

— In the course of a debate on the Irish 
Colleges Bill, Mr. Roebuck described certain 
followers of O’Connell as deserving of little 
respect either for their position or intellect. 
The member for Sligo, Mr. Somers, sent him 
a challenge to “justify” his words, whereupon 
Mr. Roebuck replied that he would bring the 
matter under the notice of the Speaker, as he 
was determined that the free expression of 
opinion should not be coerced or checked in 
his person. Mr. Somers had assumed that 
Mr. Roebuck was too well read in the old 

(178) 


history of chivalry not to understand what was 
meant in the demand to “justify” the ex¬ 
pressions. Mr. Roebuck, in reply, hoped the 
member for Sligo was sufficiently learned in 
the old laws of the country to be aware of the 
position in which he had placed himself. The 
challenge was brought under the notice of the 
House to-night, when Mr. Somers withdrew 
his note and apologised for its terms. 

28 .--Died in Cumberland-terrace, Regent’s 
Park, aged 47, Sir William Follett, Attorney- 
General to her Majesty. This eminent pleader 
was buried with much solemnity in the Temple 
church, the procession being composed of 
Benchers of the Inner and Middle Temple, of 
Lincoln’s Inn, and Gray’s Inn, with many of 
the judges and other dignitaries. 

30 .—In the Arches Court, Sir Herbert 
Jenner Fust gives judgment in the suit pro¬ 
moted by the Bishop of London against the 
Rev. F. Oakeley, of Margaret Chapel. The 
judge elaborately analysed Mr. Oakeley’s letter 
to the Bishop, in which he claimed to hold 
the same principles as Mr. Ward, and chal¬ 
lenged him to institute proceedings. The pro¬ 
moters of the suit, said Sir Herbert, have suf¬ 
ficiently proved their case that Mr. Oakeley had 
rendered himself liable to ecclesiastical censure. 
If the proceeding had been under the statute 
of Elizabeth he must, in the first instance, have 
been called upon to retract his error, and if 
he refused be deprived of his preferment; but, 
as the proceeding was under the general law, 
the punishment was left to the discretion of the 
Court. The Court now revoked Mr. Oakeley’s 
licence, prohibited him from preaching within 
the province of Canterbury till he retracted his 
errors, and condemned him in the cost of pro¬ 
ceedings. 

— The police, on attempting to put down a 
faction fight at Ballinhassig Fair, near Cork, 
are set upon by both parties, and used so 
severely that they fire in self-defence from a 
temporary police-station in which they had 
taken refuge. Six of the fighting party were 
killed on the spot and twenty-five wounded. 

— Mr. Smith O’Brien declines to serve on 
a Railway Committee, on the ground that he 
attends Parliament exclusively on Irish business. 

July 1 . —A detachment of troops from Auck¬ 
land, under Colonel Despard, defeated by New 
Zealand natives while attempting to carry the 
fortified camp of the chief Heke. One-third of 
the men engaged fell in the attack, and during 
the eight days that operations were continued, 
the fourth of the whole number engaged—about 
500—were either killed or wounded. The 
camp was ultimately taken, and Heke retired 
into the interior. 

2 . —Great gathering of Scottish Dissenters 
in, the Music Hall, Edinburgh, for the purpose 
of enabling the friends of the voluntary prin¬ 
ciple to adopt such measures as may appear 
best calculated to avert the evils arising irom 




JULY 


1845. 


JULY 


the continued and aggravated violation of the 
civil and religious rights of Dissenters. 

2 . —The undress uniform coat and vest which 
Lord Nelson wore at the battle of Trafalgar 
having been discovered in private hands by Sir 
Harris Nicolas, Prince Albert causes them to 
be purchased in his name for 150/. with the view 
of presenting the precious relics to Greenwich 
Hospital. 

— Chief Justice Tindal pronounces a judg¬ 
ment in the Court of Queen’s Bench declaring 
the illegality of the lotteries known as “ Derby 
sweeps. ” 

4 .—Conflagration at Smyrna, destroying a 
great part of the city. In the Frank quarter 
thirty houses and shops, the hospital of St. 
Anthony, three-fourths of the establishment of 
the Sisters of Charity, with the Armenian church 
and school, fell a prey to the flames. 

9 . —The bill of Lord-Advocate Rutherford 
for regulating admission to the secular chairs 
of Scotch Universities thrown out on the second 
reading, by a majority of 116 to 108. Mr. 
Macaulay took charge of the bill on this occa¬ 
sion, and commented in strong terms on the 
inconsistency of the Government in dispensing 
with tests in Ireland one day, and insisting 
on them in Scotland the next, to support an 
ecclesiastical faction bent on persecution w ithout 
even the miserable excuse of fanaticism. 

10. —Discussion in the House of Lords con¬ 
cerning a petition presented by the Marquis of 
Breadalbane from the General Assembly of the 
Free Church of Scotland. It detailed at some 
length the grievances to which the Church was 
subjected by the refusal of proprietors in dif¬ 
ferent parts of Scotland to grant sites for erect¬ 
ing places of worship, and prayed the House to 
afford relief. 

— The Irish Colleges Bill read a third 
time in the House of Commons. 

12 .— Sir John Franklin forwards his last 
despatch to the Admiralty from the Whalefish 
Islands. The expedition was spoken by the 
Prince of Wales, whaler, on the 26th, the latest 
date of any intelligence regarding the disco- 
vererers at sea. 

— The report of a Select Committee ap¬ 
pointed to inquire into the affairs of the South 
Eastern Railway Company, issued to-day, cen¬ 
sures the proceedings of Mr. Hignett, Solicitor 
to the Board of Ordnance, Mr. Wray, the 
Receiver-General of Police, and Mr. Bonham. 

15 . —Lord Palmerston’s resolution opposing 
the admission of Spanish sugars under treaty, 
rejected by 175 to 87 votes. 

16 . —The “Press” admitted to inspect the 
decorations of the summer-house in Buckingham 
Palace gardens. The opening was made the 
subject of a ballad by Mr. Thackeray in his 
“ Lyra Hibernica,” then appearing in Punch. 

— Died, John Adolphus, a leading criminal 
pleader, and author of various historical works. 
( 179 ) 


17 .—A bill, sent down from the House of 
Lords for removing the disabilities under which 
the Jews laboured in accepting municipal offices, 
read a second time in the House of Commons. 

— Died at Ho wick Hall, Northumberland, 
aged 80, Charles, Earl Grey, the chief of the 
Cabinet which passed the Reform Bill and 
secured the abolition of slavery. 

19 .—Fire at New York, destroying property 
valued at about 2,000,000/. 

21. —Intelligence from New Zealand giving 
colour to the rumour that the British might 
be driven out of the colony altogether, Mr. C. 
Buller brings the subject before the House to¬ 
night, in the form of a motion expressing regret 
and apprehension at the present position of 
affairs. Negatived by 155 to 89 votes. 

— Died, aged 65, Viscount Canterbury 
(Charles Manners Sutton), Speaker of the 
House of Commons from 1817 to 1835. 

22. —In the course of a discussion in Com¬ 
mittee on the Irish Colleges Bill, Lord Stanley 
intimates that the Government intended to erect 
a central University to which the colleges could 
be affiliated. 

24 .— Came on at Taunton, before Mr. Baron 
Platt, the trial of James Majaval, Francisco 
Serva, and eight other of the Spanish pirates 
charged with the murders on board the Feli- 
cidade. (See March 2.) The main facts of 
the case having been brought out as mentioned 
above, Mr. Serjeant Manning submitted there 
was no case to go to a jury. In the first place, 
the Court had no jurisdiction, as the transaction 
took place in a foreign ship, and the parties 
were not within the peace of our Lady the 
Queen. Next, the Felicidade was not legally 
taken, and the men were not in legal custody, 
as they were not carrying on the slave-trade. 
The Felicidade had no slaves on board, and 
therefore the prisoners had a right to endeavour 
to escape, and they were justified in any act 
they might have committed with a view to 
accomplish that end. These men were not 
bound by the laws of any country of which they 
were not cognizant. In summing up, Baron 
Platt pointed out that the sea was the highway 
of nations, and all rovers and thieves and 
pirates who infested that highway were liable 
to punishment as much as highway robbers on 
land. They were the enemies of all nations, 
and might be hunted down by any Power 
whose flag could overcome and take them, for 
the highway of the seas received concurrent 
dominion from every country on the earth. 
He also thought, that not only was the Felicidade 
legally taken, but the prisoners were in the legal 
custody of the Queen’s officers when they com¬ 
menced to slay and drown. The jury returned 
a verdict of Guilty against seven of the pri 
soners, who were sentenced to death. [The 
technical objections taken at the trial were 
argued before the judges in the Court of Ex¬ 
chequer on the 15th November. The conviction 

N 2 







jul } 


AUGUST 


1845. 


was then declared to be invalid on two grounds: 
first, that it was not piracy for Brazilians to 
carry on the slave-trade until they made it to 
be so by Brazilian municipal law; and second, 
because the Felicidade was wrongfully taken, 
not having any slaves on board; and therefore, 
that she did not become a British ship when 
she was captured by the Wasp. The prisoners 
were therefore liberated, and despatched to 
Brazil at the expense of the British Govern¬ 
ment.] 

28 .—Lord Campbell moves the rescinding 
of a Standing Order prohibiting any person 
from publishing the lives of deceased Lords of 
Parliament without the consent of heirs and 
executors. It had not been applied, he said, 
since the time of Curll, who appeared on his 
knees at the bar for announcing the publication 
of a libellous life of the Duke of Buckingham. 
Lord Brougham had published lives of several 
peers, and he himself (Lord Campbell) had 
employed his leisure, he hoped without in¬ 
curring the censure of the House, in writing the 
lives of the predecessors of his noble and learned 
friend at that moment on the woolsack. The 
Lord Chancellor (Lyndhurst) hoped he did not 
come down to the present time. Lord Camp¬ 
bell : “ No, I hope it will be long before that is 
required. ” Order rescinded. 

Several Irish magistrates dismissed about this 
time, on the ground of their mischievous activity 
in organizing Orange Lodges. 

August 2 . — Explosion of fire-damp in 
Crombach Mine, near Merthyr Tydvil. There 
were 150 men and boys at work in the colliery 
at the time, 122 of whom were got out alive. 
The rest, 28 in number, were suffocated. The 
mine was generally reputed to be badly ven¬ 
tilated, but this did not prevent the men using 
naked lights in preference to the protected 
“Davy.” At the inquest on the bodies the 
jury expressed an opinion that sufficient pre¬ 
cautions had not been taken for ventilating the 
workings. 

— Such is the desperate eagerness for 
gambling in shares in Leeds, that the police 
have to be employed to keep the streets clear 
leading to the Stock Exchange. The chairman, 
at a meeting of stockbrokers called for the 
purpose, referred to the alarming spirit of 
reckless speculation going on, and warned 
them of the disastrous consequences. It was 
said to be not an uncommon thing for 100,000 
railway shares to be sold in one day in Leeds. 

A.—Wreck of the emigrant ship Cataraqui, 
and loss of 423 of her passengers and crew. 
During a heavy gale she struck on a reef on 
the west coast of King’s Island, Bass’s Straits, 
and being ground to pieces almost instantly by 
the fury of the waves, there were only nine out 
of all her company who could manage to keep 
on pieces of the wreck till the following morn¬ 
ing, when they contrived with difficulty to 
reach the shore. 

(180) 


4. —Royal Assent given to the bill for the 
amendment and better administration of the 
laws for the relief of the poor in Scotland. 

5. —Sir H. Jenner Fust gives judgment in 
the Arches Court in the case of the Rev. 
James Shore, a clergyman originally licensed 
to preach by the Bishop of Exeter in his diocese, 
but who had latterly officiated in various Dis¬ 
senting chapels. His plea was that, having 
taken the oaths required by the Toleration Act, 
he was no longer within the jurisdiction of the 
Bishop. The judge now pronounced this plea, 
inadmissible, as a person cannot throw off holy 
orders at pleasure. (See March 8, 1849.) 

7 . —In answer to Lord Campbell, the Lord 
Chancellor said that the law officers of the 
Crown did not think it was necessary or ex¬ 
pedient to appoint Lords Justices to exercise the 
Royal authority during the absence of the 
Sovereign from this country. 

8 . —Royal Assent given to a bill for punish¬ 
ing Brazilian slave-traders or pirates. 

9 . —Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech alluded to the 
chief measures passed during the session, and 
thanked the C immons for the liberal supplies 
voted. At the close of the ceremony, the 
crown, carried by the Duke of Argyll, fell from 
the cushion, but was not much injured. In the 
afternoon her Majesty left Buckingham Palace 
for Woolwich, where she embarked with Prince 
Albert on board the royal yacht for Antwerp 
en route to Germany. 

11 . —Early indications of the potato disease. 
R. Parker, potato dealer, writes to Sir James 
Graham : “ On Tuesday last I went down by 
the Dover 8 o’clock train. On my arrival 
there I immediately drove all round the neigh¬ 
bourhood, and found the whole of the crops, 
early and late, not excepting the cottagers’ 
gardens, were being entirely destroyed. On 
my return I could trace it by the side of the 
whole line at Tonbridge ; I have since looked 
over the tops that come as covering on that 
article to the different markets, and find they 
are all affected. . . . Being apprehensive it 
might be general, I thought it my duty to in¬ 
form you, as it is probable you might desire to 
make further inquiry.” This was amongst 
the first communications made to Government 
regarding the appearance of the potato disease 
in the country. 

12 . —Inauguration of the statue erected to 
Beethoven on the Munster Platz, Bonn, his 
native place. 

13 . —Riot at Dunfermline, and attempt by 
the mob to set fire to the house of Mr. Alex¬ 
ander, a manufacturer who was alleged to have 
made himself obnoxious by reducing wages. 

14 . —Mr. G. Hudson returned for Sunder¬ 
land by a majority of 128 votes over his op¬ 
ponent, Colonel Thompson. The contest ex¬ 
cited unusual interest, and both Mr. Cobden 
and Mr. Bright gave active service in aid of 






AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1845. 


their brother of the League. The express 
employed by the Times to carry the news, 
accomplished the distance, 305 miles, in eight 
hours, although a part of the journey had to be 
performed by post-horses. Copies of the Times , 
with the result of the poll, were delivered over 
the North of England next forenoon. 

15 .—Came on at Croydon Assizes, before 
Lord Chief Justice Tindal, the case of Cooke 
V. Wetherall, a prosecution raised against the 
reverend defendant for criminal conversation 
with Mrs. Cooke, his own daughter. He was 
fifty-five years of age, and had discharged the 
duties of Rector of By field, Northamptonshire. 
In support of the charge Mr. Serjeant Shee 
detailed the early quarrels of Mr. and Mrs. 
Cooke, her return to her father’s house, and 
the general deception which was practised 
towards his client. The criminal intimacy was 
chiefly spoken to by the domestic servants. 
Verdict for the plaintiff, damages 3,000/. 

— The last-received portion of the Sycee 
silver sent by the Chinese exposed to public 
competition; 400,000 ounces were sold for 
60 ^d. per ounce, and the remainder for 60 d. 
These prices were considered high, being ex¬ 
clusive (according to the terms of the contract) 
of all the gold above five grains in the pound 
troy which might be found in the silver, and 
which was to be paid for separately at another 
fixed rate. 

18 . — Fire in a Manchester warehouse, 
Aldermanbury, City, destroying stock and 
premises estimated at 250,000/. Although no 
life was lost on the occasion, the coroner exer¬ 
cised his ancient prerogative of summoning a 
jury to inquire into the cause of the fire. They 
returned a verdict to the effect that its origin 
was accidental. 

19 . —Whirlwind at Rouen, destroying in a 
few seconds three factories, and burying most 
of the workmen in the ruins. Upwards of 
200 oeople were reported killed or wounded, 
and the whole valley of Daville, through 
which the whirlwind took its course, presented 
a scene of desolation. 

— Centennial commemoration of the gather¬ 
ing of the clans at Glenfinnon in 1745 - Ar¬ 
rangements on a suitable scale, and in a very 
liberal spirit, were made by Macdonald of 
Glenalladale at the inn of Glenfinnon, for the 
accommodation of those whom the celebration 
might draw to the spot. The memory of those 
“out” in the perilous ’45 was proposed as a 
toast by Macdonald of Marr, who presided on 
the occasion. The visitors, with the neigh¬ 
bouring peasantry, who mustered strongly on 
the occasion, afterwards walked to the head of 
Lochshiel, and marched round the monument 
erected there to Prince Charles. The day’s 
roceedings were brought to a close by an ex- 
ibition of national games. 

21 . —Explosion of fire-damp in Jarrow 
Colliery, near South Shields, being the sixth 
calamity of the same kind in this pit during the 


last twenty-eight years. On seeing the dreaded 
cloud of smoke ascend from the shaft, a 
viewer and over-man went down to render 
assistance. In the first workings a few of the 
men were found alive, and sent up to the top, 
but as the whole of the ventilating apparatus 
had been destroyed by the explosion, two days 
elapsed before the pit could be completely 
searched. In the lower seam one man was 
found alive, but much exhausted, and ten 
corpses lying around him. During the 23d 
and following day, fifteen bodies were brought 
up. Thirty-nine in all perished, including the 
over-man Defty, who in his anxiety to render 
assistance penetrated too far into the workings, 
and was suffocated by the choke-damp. 

26 .—The anniversary of the birth of Prince 
Albert celebrated by the royal visitors at 
Coburg in a style of simplicity charmingly 
characteristic of German manners. The chief 
event of the day was the rustic festival at the 
Palace of Rosenau, where the illustrious visitors 
engaged in the holiday rejoicings of the homely 
villagers, who came swarming in from the sur¬ 
rounding district. The royal party left Rosenau 
on the 3d September, and returned homeward 
by way of Antwerp, where they were again 
received by the King of the Belgians ; and Eu, 
where they were received by the King and 
Queen of the French. 

30 . —A correspondent of the Dublin Even - 
ing Post, who had traversed the greater part of 
the counties of Dublin, Meath, Cavan, and 
Fermanagh, reports the prospects of the harvest 
to be in general most favourable. “ The potato 
crop, however, is far from satisfactory. These 
appear everywhere in great abundance, but in 
several districts a rot has set in, and two-thirds 
of the tubers are found to be rotten within, 
though large and well-looking without.” 

31 . —A combined English and French fleet 
blockade Buenos Ayres, with the view of pro¬ 
tecting settlers belonging to the two countries 
from the oppressions of Rosas. 

September 6.—The Gardeners Chronicle 
records :—“All that we see, or hear, or read of 
the potato crop, convinces us that the extent of 
the injury which has befallen it is in no degree 
exaggerated, but the contrary, and there is no 
present help for it. We see no prospect of 
stopping the murrain by human agency, and 
we believe that the best thing to do under the 
circumstances is to let the crops alone, unless 
means can be found of consuming them imme¬ 
diately, and in that case they should be taken 
up and dried.” 

— Captain Sturt compelled by drought to 
return on his voyage of discovery across the 
continent of South Australia. 

9 .—Fight for the championship and 200/. 
between Caunt and Bendigo of Nottingham. 
It was decided in favour of Bendigo, after a 
contest which lasted two hours and thirty-eight 
minutes, during which time ninety-three rounds 

(181) 





SEPTEMBER 


1845 - 


OCTOBER 


were fought. The fight commenced at New¬ 
port-Pagnell ; then they were compelled to 
move to Stoney Stratford, back to Wheddon 
Green, and ultimately to Lutfield Green. The 
spectators had thus to follow the pugilists 
between thirty and forty miles. 

9. —Died in consequence of injuries received 
through a fall from her horse, which she was 
exercising in a stubble-field at Hanworth, Mrs. 
Theobald, well known in the sporting world 
and to those who followed the Queen’s hounds. 

10. —The inquiry into the state of the An¬ 
dover Union Workhouse, which had been 
going on for a fortnight, was concluded this 
day, by the Poor-law Commissioners directing 
that an indictment be preferred against the 
master and mistress. It was shown in evidence 
that the miserable inmates, through want of 
food, were in the habit of gnawing at the 
decayed bones which they were sent to break 
for manure. 

— Addressing the electors of Southwark 
to-day, Sir W. Molesworth makes an elaborate 
defence against charges raised by one of his op¬ 
ponents, Mr. Miall, concerning the nature and 
tendency of the writings of Hobbes. At the 
polling next day, Sir William was elected to 
the vacant seat by a large majority. 

— Died at Boston, U.S., aged 66, Joseph 
Story, LL.D., a distinguished American judge. 

13 .—Fire at Martinhampstead, near Exeter, 
destroying about fifty small dwelling-houses. 

15 . —A violent eruption of Mount Hecla, 
opening two new craters. 

16 . —Destroyed by fire, the premises at 
Blackfriars occupied by Sir Charles Price and 
Co., oil and colour merchants. About three 
o’clock an alarming explosion occurred in 
the building, through one of the turpentine 
vats becoming ignited. To escape from this 
new disaster most of the firemen leapt into the 
Thames, and were rescued by small boats. 
The blazing liquid rushed into the river, set¬ 
ting fire to barges and other small craft moored 
in the vicinity. At one time there were 
blazing fifty puncheons of turpentine and eight 
tons of cod oil. 

— The Arabs under Abd-el-Kader cut up a 
squadron of French cavalry, entrapped into a 
dangerous locality in pursuit of the chieftain. 

— Died of gastric fever, at the early age of 
thirty, Thomas Davis, editor of the Nation , 
one of the most active and accomplished of the 
Repeal party in Ireland. 

17 . —Explosion at the Royal Arsenal, Wool¬ 
wich, caused by the ignition of the inflammable 
matter extracted from old fusees. Seven of the 
workmen employed in the operation were 
killed, and the building blown to pieces. 

— The Roman Catholic prelates issue a 
manifesto against the new Colleges as dangerous 
to the faith and morals of the people. 

(182) 


20.—The Amateur Dramatic Company, 
consisting of Dickens, Forster, Jerrold, Leech, 
Lemon, and others, appear with great success 
in Ben Jonson’s comedy of “ Every Man in his 
Humour,” at Miss Kelly’s theatre. 

23 .—Insurrectionary movements against the 
Pontifical Government in Rimini and other 
Italian cities. 

— The Irish National Education Society in¬ 
corporated by Royal charter. 

25 .— Monster Repeal demonstration at 
Cashel. O’Connell made a long address in 
his usual style, and collected 500/. in name of 
rent. 

Considerable attention was drawn to the Irish 
land question this month, by letters from the 
Times commissioner (T. C. Foster), who visited 
and minutely inspected various large estates in 
the south and west of the island belonging to 
resident as well as non-resident proprietors. 
His account of the miserable condition of the 
cottars, and their indolent, unthrifty habits, 
gave great offence to members of the Repeal 
party. In answer to one speech, John O’Connell, 
(in a letter signed “John Foster, Halesworth,”) 
was stated to be a “ liar and blackguard. ” Mr. 
O’Connell’s own estate at Darrynane and Ca- 
hirciveen was described, to the great indigna¬ 
tion of the agitator and his family, as one of 
the worst visited, and his peasantry as among 
the most wretched in the island. 

October 2.—Died at Wiseton Hall, Not¬ 
tinghamshire, aged 64, Earl Spencer, formerly 
Viscount Althorp, and Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer from 1830 to 1834. 

3 .—The League activity in the registrations 
was directed with such consummate ability, that 
at the close to-day of the revision for the West 
Riding they were found to have added 2,143 
adherents in that single division. 

8.—Rev. J. H. Newman writes to a friend: 
“ I am this night expecting Father Dominic, 
the Passionist, who from his youth has been 
led to have distinct and direct thoughts, first of 
the countries of the North, then of England. 
After thirty years’ waiting, he was, without his 
own act, sent here. But he has had little to 
do with conversions. I saw him here for a few 
minutes on St. John Baptist’s Day last year. 
He does not know of my intention ; but I mean 
to ask of him admission into the one Fold of 
Christ. . . . P.S. This will not go till all is 
over. Of course it requires no answer.” 

12. —Died, aged 65, Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, a 
philanthropic Quakeress, who devoted much of 
her time to ameliorating the condition of pri¬ 
soners confined in English gaols. 

13 . —Sir R. Peel to Sir J. Graham :—“ The 
accounts of the state of the potato crop in Ire¬ 
land are becoming very alarming. ... I foresee 
the necessity that may be impressed upon us at 
an early period of considering whether there is 
not that well-grounded apprehension of actual 





OCTOBER 


1845. 


NOVEMBER 


scarcity that justifies and compels the adoption 
of every means of relief which the exercise of 
the prerogative or legislation might afford. I 
have no confidence in such remedies as the 
prohibition of exports or the stoppage of dis¬ 
tilleries. The removal of impediments to import 
is the only effectual remedy.” 

16 .—Mr. Basevi, architect, killed by a fall 
from the belfry of Ely Cathedral, which he was 
engaged in restoring. 

— Rise in the rate of discount. To-day the 
directors of the Bank of England advanced the 
rate from to 3 per cent., and on the 6th 
Nov. to 34 per cent. 

20 .—During a fog on the Midland Railway, 
near Masborough, a special engine runs into the 
mail train, which had broken down, and injures 
many of the passengers. Two died after sur¬ 
gical operations had been performed. 

25 . —During the past week there were 
announced in three newspapers eighty-nine 
new schemes, with a capital of 84,055,000/.; 
during the month there were 357 new schemes 
announced, with an aggregate capital of 
332,000,000/. 

— Meeting at Kilkenny, presided over by 
the High Sheriff, to take into consideration 
what remedial measures could be adopted with 
reference to the present alarming state of the 
potato crop. On the same day the report from 
Galway is : “ The distemper is spreading with 
frightful rapidity. Several fields which last 
week were tried and found safe are now more 
or less affected.” From Drogheda it is also 
reported that the plague is extending its 
ravages ; and, “what is yet more alarming, we 
learn from various places that potatoes which 
had been pitted from three to fourteen days 
apparently sound are now diseased.” Yester¬ 
day the Government Commissioners presented 
their first report to the Lord-Lieutenant on the 
best means to be used for checking the spread 
of the disease. 

26 . —Dr. Lyon Playfair writes from Dublin 
to Sir R. Peel :—“I send you a draft-copy of 
a report which I intend to offer to my col¬ 
leagues to-morrow morning for their signature ; 
and, with verbal alterations, I am sure it will 
be adopted. You will. see the account is 
melancholy, and it cannot be looked upon in 
other than a most serious light. We are con¬ 
fident that the accounts are underrated rather 
than exaggerated. ... I am sorry to give you 
so desponding a letter, but we cannot conceal 
from ourselves that the case is much worse than 
the public suppose.” 

28 .—The British Museum receive in gift the 
rich library formed by the Rt. Hon. Thomas 
Grenville. 

30 .—The New Hall at Lincoln’s Inn opened 
by the Queen. At the grand banquet covers 
were laid for 500 guests. All the barristers 
were attired in their wigs and gowns. Trince 


Albert was admitted a Bencher on the occa¬ 
sion, and appeared in legal costume. In reply 
to a Royal Address, the Queen expressed a 
hope that learning might flourish and virtue and 
talent rise to eminence in the New Hall. 

31 .—Capt. Waghom reaches London with 
the express portion of the Indian mail, having 
made the journey from Trieste in fifteen 
minutes less than one hundred hours. His 
route was the German one, by way of Niedern- 
dorf, Innspruck, Kempten, Meningen, Stutt- 
gard, Cologne, Ostend, and Dover. 

— A Cabinet Council, held at the private 
residence of Sir Robert Peel, sits two hours 
and a half deliberating on the alarming pros¬ 
pects of the country through the failure of the 
potato crop. 

— Resolution of a meeting in Dublin, pre¬ 
sided over by the Duke of Leinster :—“That 
the Committee do respectfully represent to his 
Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant that it has 
now been ascertained beyond a doubt that 
famine, and consequent pestilence, are imme¬ 
diately imminent, unless the Government shall, 
without hesitation or delay, take the most 
prompt measures to provide for the people, 
and to organize means for the distribution of 
such food in each locality throughout the land. 
That we respectfully call upon his Excellency 
the Lord-Lieutenant forthwith to order the 
ports of Ireland to be opened for the impor¬ 
tation of Indian corn, rice, and other articles 
suited for human food. 

During this and the early part of the fol¬ 
lowing month the Anti-Corn-Law Leaguers 
were unusually active in pressing their question 
on the public mind, the speakers turning with 
much adroitness and force in their favour the 
present condition and future prospects of Ire¬ 
land. 

November 1 . —Cabinet memorandum :— 
“ The calling of Parliament,” writes the Prime 
Minister, “at an unusual period, on any matter 
connected with a scarcity of food, is a most 
important step. It compels an immediate de¬ 
cision on three questions : Shall we maintain 
unaltered?—shall we modify?—shall we sus¬ 
pend the operation of the Corn Laws? The 
first vote we propose—a vote of credit, for 
instance, for 100,000/., to be placed at the 
disposal of the Lord-Lieutenant for the supply 
of food—opens the whole question. Can we 
vote public money for the sustenance of any 
considerable portion of the people on account 
of actual or apprehended scarcity, and maintain 
in full operation the existing restrictions on the 
free import of grain ? I am bound to say m> 
impression is that we cannot.” 

— Mr. Newman, Mr.Oakeley, Mr. St. John, 
and Mr. Walker, all converts to Rome, receive 
the sacrament of confirmation in the chapel of 
Oscott College, at the hands of Dr. Wiseman. 
The Rev. F. W. Faber also went over this 
month. 

0 * 3 ) 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1845. 


2 . —Lord Stanley to Sir Robert Peel: “I 
find it difficult to express to you the regret 
with which I see how widely I differ in opinion 
with Graham and yourself as to the necessity 
for proposing to Parliament a repeal of the 
Corn Laws. Since the Cabinet on Saturday, 
I have reflected much and anxiously upon it; 
but I cannot bring my mind to any other con¬ 
clusion than that at which I had then arrived. 
... I foresee that this question, if you per¬ 
severe in your present opinion, must break up 
the Government one way or the other ; but I 
shall greatly regret, indeed, if it should be 
broken up, not in consequence of our feeling 
that we have prepared measures which it 
properly belonged to others to carry, but in 
consequence of difference of opinion among 
ourselves.” 

— Statue of William IV. set up in King 
William-street, facing London Bridge. 

3 . —Lord John Russell presented with the 
freedom of the city of Edinburgh. 

5. —Elopement from Brighton of Lady Adela 
Villiers, daughter of the Earl and Countess 
of Jersey, with Capt. Ibbetson, of the nth 
Hussars. They managed to elude pursuit till 
Gretna Green was reached, where an irregular 
marriage ceremony took place. They were 
afterwards married at St. Pancras Church. 

— At a meeting of the Council of the Royal 
Institution, Mr. Faraday announces a discovery 
tending to show that light, heat, and electricity 
are merely modifications of one great universal 
principle. The discovery was, that a beam of 
polarized light is deflected by the electric cur¬ 
rent, so that it may be made to rotate between 
the poles of a magnet. Thus the problem which 
had long disturbed science as to the power of 
magnetizing iron by the sun’s rays received 
satisfactory elucidation from the experiment of 
Mr. Faraday. 

6 . —Elizabeth Mundell, an old woman living 
in Westminster, murdered by Martha Brown¬ 
ing to secure possession of two notes, which 
turned out to be of the Bank of Elegance. The 
coroner’s jury in the first instance returned a 
verdict that the deceased had strangled herself 
while in a fit of temporary insanity ; but sus¬ 
picion afterwards attaching to the young woman 
living with her, she was apprehended and con¬ 
victed, making a full confession of the crime 
before her execution. 

— Cabinet memorandum: “ To issue forth¬ 
with an Order in Council remitting the duty on 
grain in bond to is. and opening the ports for 
the admission of all species of grain at a smaller 
rate of duty until a day named in the order.” 
“TheCabinet,” writes Sir Robert Peel, “by a 
very considerable majority, declined giving its 
assent to the proposals which I thus made to 
them. They were supported by only three 
members of the Cabinet—the Earl of Aber¬ 
deen, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Her¬ 
bert. The other members of the Cabinet, 
(184) 


some on the ground of objection to the principle 
of the measures recommended, others upon the 
ground that there was not yet sufficient evi¬ 
dence of the necessity for them, withheld their 
sanction. ” 

6 . —Died at Christchurch, Hants, aged 66, 
Lord Stuart de Rothesay, formerly British Am¬ 
bassador at St. Petersburg. 

7 . —The Orangemen of Armagh reorganize 
their society under the name of the Protestant 
Alliance. 

IO.—Sir Robert Peel writes to Lord Clon- 
curry, chairman of the Dublin Relief Com¬ 
mittee, with reference to his lordship’s proposal 
for opening the Irish ports for the importation 
of food free of duty, and closing them against 
exportation : “ Although considerations of 
public policy and public duty prevent me from 
entering into a discussion of the particular 
measures recommended for immediate adop¬ 
tion ; yet I beg to assure your lordship that the 
whole subject is occupying the unremitting at¬ 
tention of her Majesty’s confidential advisers.” 

12 . —The first sod of the Trent Valley Rail¬ 
way raised by Sir Robert Peel on a piece of 
ground near Tamworth. 

17 .—The Times publishes a table of all the 
railway companies registered up to the 31st of 
October,numbering 1,428, and involving an out¬ 
lay of 701,243,208/. “Take away,” it was re¬ 
marked, “ 140,000,000/. for railways completed 
or in progress, exclude all the most extravagant 
schemes, and divide the remainder by ten, can 
we add from our present resources even a tenth 
of the vast remainder ? Can we add 50,000,000/. 
to the railway speculations we are already irre¬ 
trievably embarked in? We cannot, without 
the most ruinous, universal, and desperate con¬ 
fusion.” 

— Inquiry at the Thames Police Court 
regarding the sickening and unheard-of cruel¬ 
ties perpetrated by Capt. George Johnstone 
upon the crew of the ship Tory. The first 
charge investigated was that of the mur¬ 
der of Mars, the second mate. The captain 
had obtained some wine and brandy from 
a French ship, and commenced afterwards a 
course of excessive intoxication, which led 
the crew to talk of securing him as a madman. 
“This,” says a witness (Yelverton), “ coming to 
the captain’s ears, he had Mars put in irons, 
and went down every half-hour to cut an inch off 
him. I saw one piece cut off about the size of 
my hand ; it was cut off his head, and all the 
hair was upon it. Afterwards the captain took 
Mars to the inner cabin, which was his bed¬ 
room, taking with him a strand and a hawser. 
I don’t know what was done there, but we 
heard Mars sing out as if he was choking. He 
brought him out again, and set him against 
the cabin-door, whilst he himself sat on the 
locker-head. Capt. Johnstone then commenced 
pitching the cutlass at him, sometimes sticking 
it in his head and sometimes in his breast.” 
The second charge was for the murder of 






NOVEMBER 


1845. 


NOVEMBER 


Thomas Reason by stabbing him with a bayonet 
in different parts of the body ; and the third 
concerned Rambert, the chief mate, who, to 
escape the captain’s cruelty, leaped overboard 
and was drowned. Many of the witnesses 
were cut and mangled in the most dreadful 
manner, either by cutlass strokes or having had 
powder fired into different parts of their body. 
Johnstone was tried for these enormous cruelties 
at the Central Criminal Court on the 5th of 
February following, but the jury returned a 
verdict of Not. guilty, on the ground of insanity. 

17 .—Died at an advanced age, Miss Mary 
Flaherty, founder of the Flaherty Scholarship 
in London University College. 

19 . — The Dublin Mansion House Relief 
Committee issue a series of resolutions relating 
to the approaching famine:—“We feel it an 
imperative duty to discharge our consciences of 
all responsibility regarding the undoubtedly 
approaching calamitous famine and pestilence 
throughout Ireland, an approach which is im¬ 
minent and almost immediate, and can be ob¬ 
viated only by the most prompt, universal, 
and efficacious measures of procuring food and 
employment for the people. We have ascer¬ 
tained beyond the shadow of a doubt, that 
considerably more than one-third of the entire 
of the potato crop in Ireland has been already 
destroyed by the potato disease, and that such 
disease has not by any means ceased its ravages, 
but, on the contrary, that it is daily expanding 
more and more, and that no reasonable con¬ 
jecture can be formed with respect to the limit 
of its effects short of the destruction of the 
entire remaining potato crop. ” The document 
concludes by impeaching the conduct of the 
Ministry for refusing to open the ports, or call 
Parliament together earlier than usual. 

— The Irish Roman Catholic prelates re¬ 
solve upon submitting the question of the new 
Colleges to the Pope. 

22 .—Lord John Russell writes from Edin¬ 
burgh to the electors of the City of London : 
“ The present state of the country in regard to 
its supply of food cannot be viewed without 
apprehension. Forethought and bold precau¬ 
tion may avert any serious evils, indecision and 
procrastination may produce a state of suffering 
which it is frightful to contemplate. ... It is 
no longer worth while to contend for a fixed 
duty. In 1841, the Free Trade party would 
have agreed to a duty of 8 s. per quarter on 
wheat, and after a lapse of years this duty 
might have been further reduced, and ultimately 
abolished. But the imposition of any duty at 
present, without a provision for its extinction 
within a short period, would but prolong a 
contest already sufficiently fruitful of animosity 
and discontent. . . . Let us, then, unite to put 
an end to a system which has been proved to 
be the blight of commerce, the bane of agri¬ 
culture, the source of bitter division among 
classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality, 
and crime among the people. But if this end 
is to be achieved, it must be gained by the un¬ 


equivocal expression of the public voice. It is 
not to be denied that many elections for cities 
and towns in 1841, and some in 1845, appear 
to favour the assertion that Free Trade is not 
popular with the great mass of the community. 
The Government appear to be waiting for some 
excuse to give up the present Com Laws. Let 
the people, by petition, by address, by remon¬ 
strance, afford them the excuse they seek. Let 
the Ministry prepare such a revision of the 
taxes as in their opinion may render the public 
burdens more just and more equal; let them 
add any other provision which courteous and 
even scrupulous forbearance may suggest; but 
let the removal of restrictions on the admission 
of the main articles of food and clothing used 
by the mass of the people be required in plain 
terms, as useful to all great interests and in¬ 
dispensable to the progress of the nation.” 

24 . —Lord Morpeth, in forwarding 5/. to 
^the League Fund, writes to Mr. Baines :—“I 

wish to record, in the most emphatic way I 
can, my conviction that the time is come for a 
final repeal of the Com Laws, and my protest 
against the continued inaction of the State in 
the present emergency.” On the letter being 
read at the Leeds meeting, “it was impossi¬ 
ble,” writes a spectator, “ to convey even the 
remotest idea of the enthusiasm with which 
the important announcement was received. 
For fully ten minutes after the reading of the 
letter from the platform a looker-on might 
have supposed that two thousand of the most 
respectable inhabitants of Leeds had become 
irrecoverably frantic with joy. Bursts of the 
most vehement cheering followed each other in 
quick and deafening succession. Every one 
felt that the cause of the League had received a 
new impetus — an impetus which would in¬ 
fallibly carry it onwards to speedy success.” 
In London the excitement was equally great. 

25 . —At a Cabinet Council Sir Robert Peel 
states that the instructions proposed to be 
issued to the Irish Famine Commissioners are 
inconsistent with a determination to maintain 
the present Com Laws, and he could not con¬ 
sent to their issue without reserving on his own 
part the power to propose to Parliament some 
measure of immediate relief. A majority was 
opposed to this step. 

30 .—Memorandum by the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington :—“ I am one of those who think the 
continuance of the Corn Laws essential to the 
agriculture of the country in its existing state, 
and particularly to that of Ireland, and a benefit 
to the whole community. ... In respect to 
my own course, my only object in public life 
is to support Sir Robert Peel’s administration 
of the government for the Queen. A good 
government for the country is more important 
than Corn Laws or any other consideration; 
and as long as Sir Robert Peel possesses the 
confidence of the Queen and of the public, and 
he has strength to perform the duties, his ad¬ 
ministration of the government must be sup¬ 
ported. My own judgment would lead me to 

( 185 ) 





NOVEMBER 


1845. 


DECEMBER 


maintain the Com Laws. Sir Robert Peel may 
think that his position in Parliament and in 
the public view requires that the course should 
be taken which I recommend ; and if that 
should be the case, I earnestly recommend that 
the Cabinet should support him, and I for one 
declare that I will do so. ” 

30 .—(Sunday). After one of the most hurried 
and desperate weeks known in the annals of 
railway history, plans were this (the last) day, 
lodged at the Board of Trade, which brought 
up the total number of railway schemes to 788. 
A large establishment of clerks was in attend¬ 
ance to register the deposits; but towards 
midnight the deliveries became so rapid that 
they were unable to keep pace with the work. 
The entrance hall became inconveniently 
crowded, and a general fear prevailed that the 
necessary formalities would not be got through 
before 12 o’clock ; this, however, was allayed 
by an assurance that admission into the hall 
before that hour would be sufficient to warrant 
the reception of the documents. Arrivals in 
hot haste from various parts of the country 
took place till the last moment, and even after 
the door was shut two or three parties sought 
to project their plans into the building, but had 
them thrown back into the street. 

December 2 .—President Polk delivers his 
Message to Congress. Referring to the annex¬ 
ation of Texas, he said: “We may rejoice 
that the tranquil and pervading influence of the 
American principle of self-government was suf¬ 
ficient to defeat the purposes of British and 
French interference, and that the almost unani¬ 
mous voice of the people of Texas has given to 
that interference a powerful and effective re¬ 
buke. From this example European Govern¬ 
ments may learn how vain diplomatic arts and 
intrigues must ever prove upon this continent 
against that system of self-government which 
seems natural to our soil, and which will ever 
reject foreign interference.” Again : “ Oregon 
is part of the North American continent, to 
which it is confidently affirmed the title of the 
United States is the best now in existence. 
The British proposition of compromise, which 
would make the Columbia line south of the 
forty-nine degrees, with a trifling addition of 
detached territory to the United States, north 
of that river, and would leave on the British 
side two-thirds of the whole Oregon territory, 
including the free navigation of the Columbia, 
and all the valuable harbours of the Pacific, 
can never for a moment be entertained by the 
United States, without an abandonment of 
their just and clear territorial rights, their own 
self-respect, and the national honour. ... It 
is well known to the American people, and to 
all nations, that this Government has never 
interfered with the relations subsisting between 
other Governments. We have never made our¬ 
selves parties to their wars or their alliances ; 
we have not sought their territories by con¬ 
quest ; we have not mingled with parties in 
their domestic struggles ; and, believing our 
(186) 


own form of government to be the best, we 
have never attempted to propagate it by in¬ 
trigues, by diplomacy, or by force. We may 
claim on this continent a like exemption from 
European interference. The nations of America 
are equally sovereign and independent with 
those of Europe. We must ever remember 
the principle that the people of this continent 
alone have the right to decide their own destiny. 

. . . Near a quarter of a century ago the principle 
was distinctly announced to the world in the 
annual message of one of my predecessors, 
that the American continents, by the free and 
independent condition which they have as¬ 
sumed and maintained, are henceforth not to 
be considered as subjects for future colonization 
by any European Power. In the existing cir¬ 
cumstances of the world the present is deemed 
a proper occasion to reiterate and to affirm the 
principle averred by Mr. Monroe, and to state 
my cordial concurrence in its wisdom and sound 
policy. ... It must be distinctly announced 
to the world as our settled policy, that no 
future European colony or dominion shall, 
with our consent, be planted or established on 
any part of the North American continent.” 

2.—Great meeting in Edinburgh, for the pur¬ 
pose of praying her Majesty that the ports 
might be immediately and permanently opened 
for the free importation of corn and other food. 
In conformity with the suggestions contained 
in Lord John Russell’s letter to the citizens of 
London, meetings with the same object, and 
attended in most instances by deputations from 
the League, were held about this time in all the 
principal towns in the kingdom. A ‘ ‘ deliberate 
and solemn” declaration was also issued by 
forty of the most eminent bankers and mer¬ 
chants in London, urging the Government to 
take immediate steps for meeting the present 
serious and alarming condition of the country. 
At the Bristol meeting, Mr. Cobien said the 
League did not mean to buy repeal ; they 
demanded it as a right, and they had no right 
to it unless they could so demand it. They 
did not ask it as a boon. Sir Robert Peel 
might have the statesmanship, the honour and 
the fame in history, of being the instrument to 
repeal the Com Laws, but he would beg to 
remind them that if he did repeal the Com Laws 
it was the League, and the League only, that 
enabled him to do it. He warned his hearers 
against being carried away by mere enthusiasm 
at this time. The bill for the abolition of 
slavery, and even the Reform Bill, had been 
crippled through premature rejoicing. They 
must work resolutely, for that was what their 
opponents feared. 

4 .—The Times contains this startling an¬ 
nouncement:—“The decision of the Cabinet 
is no longer a secret. Parliament, it is confi¬ 
dently reported, is to be summoned for the 
first week in January; and the Royal Speech 
will recommend an immediate consideration of 
the Corn Laws, preparatory to their total 
repeal. The Standard, under the heading of 






DECEMBER 


1845. 


DECEMBER 


“Atrocious Fabrication by the Times” de¬ 
clared it was in a position to give the rumour 
the most positive and direct contradiction. 
Referring to the doubts cast upon the announce¬ 
ment by the Standard and Herald , the Times 
writes :—“It has been the monomania of these 
two melancholy prints to imagine that they 
possessed the confidence of the Treasury, and 
they have been hobbling about the Corn Laws 
to the very last, under the erroneous impres¬ 
sion that they would be the first to be apprised 
of any important resolution of the Cabinet. . . . 
Humbly and obsequiously have they been 
grinding their organs under the windows of 
Downing-street, ready to play any tune that 
might be most pleasing to the Premier, but he 
has turned a deaf ear to their strains, and not 
even allowed his underlings an opportunity of 
throwing out an occasional morsel by way of 
encouragement. . . . The reason is obvious. 
The repeal of the Corn Laws is a thing for 
statesmen to do, and hot for old women to 
maunder about.” 

5 . —In the case of St. Paul’s Church, Edin¬ 
burgh, one of those selected to try the question 
it issue between the Established Church and 
the Free Church, as to the right of property in 
the quoad sacra churches, the Lord Ordinary 
(Robertson) issued an interlocutor in favour 
of the Establishment. 

— “ Lord Stanley and the Duke of Buccleuch 
having signified their inability to support a 
measure involving the ultimate repeal of the 
Com Laws, I thought it very doubtful,” 
writes Sir Robert Peel, “whether I could 
conduct the proposal to a successful issue. I 
thought that the public interest would be very 
injuriously affected by the failure of an attempt 
made by a Government to adjust that question. 
The other members of the Cabinet, without ex¬ 
ception I believe, concurred in this opinion; 
and under these circumstances I considered it 
to be my duty to tender my resignation to her 
Majesty. On the 5th of December I repaired 
to Osborne, Isle of Wight, and humbly 
solicited her Majesty to relieve me from duties 
which I felt I could no longer discharge with 
advantage to her Majesty’s service.” 

6 . —Sir Henry Hardinge to the Secret Com¬ 
mittee at the India House:—“I had moved 
with my camp from Umballah towards Loodia- 
nah, peaceably making my progress by the 
route I had announced, with the intention of 
visiting the Sikh protected States, according to 
the usual custom of my predecessors. In 
common with the most experienced officers of 
the Indian Government, I was not of opinion 
that the Sikh army would cross the Sutlej with 
its infantry and artillery.” On the 9 th> a t 
night, Captain Nicolson, the Assistant Political 
Agent at Ferozepore, reported that a portion of 
the Sikh army had approached within three 
miles of the river. On the 13th he received 
precise information that the Sikh army had 
crossed the Sutlej, and was concentrating in 
great force on the left bank of the river. On 


the same day the Governor-General issued a 
proclamation :—“ Since the death of the late 
Maharajah Shere Singh, the disorganized state 
of the Lahore Government has made it incum¬ 
bent to adopt precautionary measures for the 
protection of the British frontier. The nature 
of these measures, and the cause of their adop¬ 
tion, were at the time fully explained to the 
Lahore Durbar. . . . The Sikh army has now, 
without the shadow of provocation, invaded 
the British territories. The Governor-General 
must therefore take measures for effectually 
protecting the British provinces, for vindicating 
the authority of the British Government, and 
for punishing the violators of treaties and the 
disturbers of public peace. The Governor- 
General hereby declares the possessions of 
Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, on the left or 
British banks of the Sutlej, confiscated and 
annexed to the British Government.” 

8 . —Sir Robert Peel to the Queen : “ Youi 
Majesty has been good enough to inform Sir 
Robert Peel that it is your intention to propose 
to Lord John Russell to undertake the forma¬ 
tion of a Government. The principle on which 
Sir Robert Peel was prepared to recommend 
the reconsideration of the laws affecting the 
import of the main articles of food was in 
general accordance with that referred to in the 
concluding paragraph of Lord John Russell’s 
letter to the electors of the City of London. 
Sir Robert Peel wished to accompany the re¬ 
moval of restrictions on the admission of these 
articles with relief to the land from such charges 
as are unduly onerous, and with such other 
provisions as, in the terms of Lord John Rus¬ 
sell’s letter, caution and even scrupulous for¬ 
bearance may suggest. Sir Robert Peel will 
support measures founded on that general 
principle, and will exercise any influence he 
may possess to promote their success.” 

9 . —At a meeting of the Agricultural Pro¬ 
tection Society, the Duke of Richmond, refer¬ 
ring to Lord John Russell and Lord Morpeth, 
said: “Were one 01 two noblemen to frighten 
the yeomam-y of England, that they were not 
to express their opinion in favour of themselves 
and in favour of their labourers, because certain 
persons deserted their ranks ? With respect to 
the cry of ‘Famine,’ he believed that it was 
perfectly illusory; and no man of respectability 
could have put it in good faith if he had been 
acquainted with the facts within the knowledge 
of their society. With respect to the report 
that Ministers were to move the repeal of the 
Corn Laws, he could not believe that such 
perfidy existed.” 

11.—In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Lord 
Denman gives judgment for the Crown in the 
case of the Baron de Bode, who made a claim 
as an English subject on the indemnity fund 
paid by France to England at the close of the 
war. 

— Lord John Russell, presently in Edin¬ 
burgh, summoned by the Queen to undertake 
the formation of a Minisliy. 

( 1 * 7 ) 




DECEMBER 


1845. 


DECEMBER 


15 .—At the Free Trade meeting in the 
Guildhall, London, to-day, Mr. Cobden said 
he had been over almost every part of the 
country, and the accounts he had received of 
the potato crop were so bad that he believed in 
many districts before next spring there would 
not be any even for seed. What infatuation, 
then, must it be on the part of those dukes and 
squires who go maundering about like old 
women at public meetings—who rise in the 
morning and go out to shoot, and come home 
in the afternoon to their champagne and veni¬ 
son. If there was no potato rot, he wanted to 
know what murrain it was which had crept 
into the Cabinet. At a League gathering in 
Covent Garden Theatre on the 17th, Mr. 
Cobden said : “We have not striven to keep 
one party in or another out of office. We 
have worked with one object and one principle 
in view; and if we maintain that principle for 
but six months more, we shall attain to that 
state which I have so long and so anxiously 
desired, when the League shall be dissolved 
into its primitive elements by the triumph of 
its principles.” (Great cheering.) 

17 . —The Dublin Evening Mail , an Orange 
organ, writes of Peel:—“ He obtained power 
as a traitor, he abandoned it as a coward ; for, 
after all, the dastard has died of fear. At the 
head of the greatest party that England ever 
formed, with a majority in both Houses of Par¬ 
liament such as no Minister ever yet com¬ 
manded—what is he now ? A degraded creature 
at the feet of Lord John Russell, humbly 

raying that he may be a participator with 

im in power, or, this being refused, that he 
may be elevated to a peerage.” 

— Sir Robert Peel to the Queen :—“Lord 
John Russell requires assurances which amount 
substantially to a pledge, that Sir Robert will 
support the immediate and total repeal of 
the Com Laws. He humbly expresses his 
regret that he does not feel it to be consistent 
with his duty to enter upon the consideration 
of this important question in Parliament, fet¬ 
tered by a previous engagement of the nature 
of that required by him. ” 

18 . —Battle of Moodkee. On the march 
from Umballah to form a junction with the 
troops which had left Ferozepore under Sir 
John Littler, the Commander-in-chief, Sir 
Hugh Gough, encounters the Sikh force near 
the village of Moodkee. The troops were en¬ 
gaged in cooking their meals when Major 
Broadfoot received information that the Sikh 
army was in full march, with the intention of 
surprising the camp. The troops immediately 
stood to arms, and advanced. “The opposi¬ 
tion of the enemy,” writes the Commander-in- 
chief, “was such as might have been expected 
from troops who had everything at stake, and 
who had long boasted of being irresistible. 
Their ample and extended line, from their 
great superiority of numbers, far outflanked 
ours, but this was counteracted by the flank 
movement of our cavalry. The attack of the 

(188) 


infantry now commenced, and the roll of fire 
from this powerful arm soon convinced the 
Sikh army that they had met with a foe they 
little expected. Their whole force was driven 
from position after position with great slaughter, 
and the loss of seventeen pieces of artillery, 
some of them of heavy calibre; our infantry 
using that never-failing weapon the bayonet 
whenever the enemy stood. Night only saved 
them from worse disaster, for this stout conflict 
was maintained during an hour and a half of 
dim starlight, amidst a cloud of dust from the 
sandy plain, which yet more obscured every 
object.” The victory, though great, was 
dearly purchased by the death of Major-Gene¬ 
ral Sir Robert Sale, who received a fatal grape- 
shot wound in the left thigh, and Sir John 
M ‘Caskill, who was shot through the chest. 
The total number of killed and wounded on 
the British side amounted to 872. 

19. —Submission of the New Zealand chiefs 
to British authority. 

— Died, aged 69, Lord Wharncliffe, Presi¬ 
dent of the Council. 

20 . —“ Lord John Russell presents his 
humble duty to your Majesty, and has the 
honour to state that he has found it impossible 
to form an Administration.. . . Lord John Rus¬ 
sell is deeply sensible of the embarrassment 
caused by the present state of public affairs. 
He will be ready, therefore, to do all in his 
power, as a member of Parliament, to promote 
the settlement of that question which, in pre¬ 
sent circumstances, is the source of so much 
danger, especially to the welfare and peace of 
Ireland.” 

— “I repaired,” writes Sir Robert Peel, 
“to Windsor Castle at the time appointed. 
On entering ,the room her Majesty said to me 
very graciously, ‘ So far from taking leave of 
you, Sir Robert, I must require you to with¬ 
draw your resignation, and to remain in my 
service.’ Her Majesty was pleased to observe 
that I might naturally require time for reflec¬ 
tion., and for a communication with my col¬ 
leagues, before I gave a decisive answer. . . . 

I humbly advised her Majesty to permit me to 
decide at once upon the resumption of office, 
and to enable me to announce to my late col¬ 
leagues on my return to London that I had 
not hesitated to re-accept the appointment of 
First Minister. I thought I should speak with 
much greater authority if I were to invite them 
to support me in an effort in which I was de¬ 
termined, and which I had positively under¬ 
taken to make, than if I were to return to 
London apparently undecided, for the purpose 
of asking their opinions as to the propriety of 
making that effort. . . . The Queen was pleased 
cordially to approve of the suggestion I had 
ventured to offer, and I returned from Windsor 
Castle to London on the evening of the 20th, 
having resumed all the functions of First 
Minister of the Crown. Immediately on my 
arrival in Loudon I summoned a meeting of aU 






DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1845. 


those of my late colleagues who were within 
reach. It took place at Downing-street at a 
late hour of the evening.” 

21 .—Battle of Ferozeshah. The Com¬ 
mander-in-chief having determined to attack 
the Sikh camp, the now united force marched 
towards Ferozeshah. “ A very heavy can¬ 
nonade was opened by the enemy, who had 
dispersed over their position upwards of one 
hundred guns, more than forty of which were 
of battering calibre; these kept up a heavy and 
well-directed fire, which the practice of our far 
less numerous artillery of much lighter metal 
checked in some degree, but could not silence ; 
finally, in the face of a storm of shot and shell, 
our infantry advanced, and carried the formid¬ 
able entrenchments ; they threw themselves 
upon their guns, and with matchless gallantry 
wrested them from the enemy; but when the 
batteries were partially within our grasp our 
soldiers had to face such a fire of musketry 
from the Sikh infantry arrayed behind their 
guns, that in spite of the most heroic efforts a 
portion only of the entrenchments could be 
carried.” Evening fell while the conflict was 
everywhere raging. The Governor-General 
passed the night on the field with the troops, 
lying down with regiment after regiment to 
ascertain their temper and revive their spirits. 
His answer to every man was, that we must 
fight out the attack at daybreak, or die 
honourably on the field. All through the 
night the Sikhs made attempts to dislodge our 
troops, but, continues the Commander-in-chief, 
“with daylight of the 22d came retribution. 
Our infantry formed line, supported on both 
flanks by horse-artillery, whilst a fire was 
opened from our centre by such of our heavy 
guns as remained effective, aided by a flight of 
rockets. A masked battery played with great 
eficct upon this point, dismounting our pieces, 
and blowing up our tumbrils. At this moment 
Lieut. -General Sir Henry Hardinge (who vo¬ 
lunteered to take second in command) placed 
himself at the head of the left, whilst I rode 
at the head of the right wing. Our line 
advanced, and, unchecked by the enemy’s 
fire, drove them rapidly out of the village of 
Ferozeshah, and their encampment; then 
changing front to its left on its centre, our 
force continued to sweep the enemy, bearing 
down all opposition, and dislodged the enemy 
from the whole position. The line then halted 
as if on a day of manoeuvre, receiving its two 
leaders as they rode along in front, with a gra¬ 
tifying cheer, and displaying the captured 
standards of the Khalsa army. We had taken 
upwards of seventy-three pieces of cannon, and 
were masters of the whole field.” An attempt 
made by the Sirdar Tej Singh, about two hours 
later, to regain his position, was checked by a 
movement to attack both flanks at once. The 
number returned as killed in this engagement 
was 694; wounded, 1,721. Prince Walde- 
mar of Prussia took part in the first day’s 
action, and distinguished himself for his cool¬ 


ness and intrepidity. The number of British 
troops engaged was set down at 20,000. 

22 .—Mr. Macaulay to the Secretary of the 
Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce:—“You 
will have heard of our attempt to form a Go¬ 
vernment. All our plans were frustrated by 
Lord Grey, who objected to Lord Palmerston 
being Foreign Secretary. I hope that the 
public interests will not suffer. Sir Robert 
Peel must now undertake the settlement of the 
question. It is certain that he can settle it. 
It is by no means certain that we could have 
•done so. For we shall to a man support him ; 
and a large proportion of those who are now 
in office would have refused to support us. On 
my own share in these transactions I reflect 
with unmoved satisfaction. From the first I 
told Lord John Russell that I stipulated for 
one thing only—total and immediate repeal of 
the Com Laws ; that my objections to gradual 
abolition were insurmountable; but that, if he 
declared for total and immediate repeal, I 
would be as to all other matters absolutely in 
his hands; that I would take any office, or no 
office, just as suited him best; and that he 
should never be disturbed by any personal pre¬ 
tensions or jealousies on my part. If everybody 
else had acted thus, there would now have been 
a Liberal Ministry. However, as I said, per¬ 
haps it is best as it is.” 

— The Astronomer-Royal writes to the 
Times: “I have this day received from Pro¬ 
fessor Enclce, of Berlin, a letter of which I 
subjoin a translation. There appears to be no 
reasonable doubt that the object to which it 
relates is a new planet. As it is highly im¬ 
portant that observation should be made with 
the least possible delay, I request that you 
will have the goodness immediately to publish 
this in your paper.” Next day Schumacher 
writes from Altona : “Professor Encke has 
got an observation on the 20th inst., which 
enabled him to calculate the orbit of the new 
planet—of course only a first sketch ; but, 
however, sure enough there can be no material 
difference. The planet belongs to the family 
of the four small planets, and has in its revolu¬ 
tion the most likeness to Juno. The discoverer, 
Mr. Hencke, of Di-iessen, had left the name to 
be determined by Mr. Encke, and he calls it 
* Astraea.’ ” 

— The Duke of Buccleuch to Sir Robert 
Peel:—‘ ‘ I see clearly the position in which 
her Majesty is placed, and the only alternative 
left to her in the event of your failure. I per¬ 
ceive the disastrous consequences that must 
ensue, and also the present critical state of the 
country. Under these circumstances I feel it 
to be my imperative duty to my Sovereign and 
my country to make every personal sacrifice. 
I am ready, therefore, at the risk of any impu¬ 
tation that may be cast upon me, to give my 
decided support, not only to your administra¬ 
tion generally, but to the passing through Par¬ 
liament of a measure for the final settlement 
of the Corn Laws.” 

(189) 





DECEMBER 


JANUARY 


1845-46. 


23 .—An important meeting of the League 
was held to-day in Manchester, when it was 
resolved to raise a fund of a quarter of a mil¬ 
lion sterling, for the purpose of promoting their 
principles in the present national emergency. 
60,000/. was intimated as subscribed before the 
meeting broke up. There was one subscrip¬ 
tion of 1,500/., twenty-two of 1,000/., one of 
700/., and eighteen of 500/. 

25 . —Bursting of a tank, containing 250,000 
gallons of water, at the Liverpool and Har¬ 
rington Water-works, Sussex-street, Liverpool. 
The tank was a new one, and in process of 
being filled, when two sides of it gave way, 
bringing down a dwelling-house adjoining. 
Five lives were lost, eight persons injured, and 
much property in the neighbourhood destroyed. 

26 . —Sir Robert Peel to Madame de Lie- 
ven :—“ I resume power with greater means of 
rendering public service than I should have had 
if I had not relinquished it. But it is a strange 
dream. I feel like a man restored to life after 
his funeral service had been preached, highly 
gratified by such condolence on his death as I 
received from the King and our valued friend 
M. Guizot.” 

27 . — Colonel Gurwood, editor of the 
“Wellington Despatches,” commits suicide in 
his lodgings at Brighton, by cutting his throat 
with a razor. He was found dead by the land¬ 
lady of the house. At the inquest the jury re¬ 
turned a verdict that the deceased had destroyed 
himself while in a state of temporary insanity, 
caused by mental relaxation. 

29 .—The two Misses Cushman appear at 
the Haymarket Theatre as Romeo and Juliet. 

— An express, in anticipation of the Indian 
Mail, reached London in twenty-seven days 
from Bombay. This unprecedented feat was 
accomplished by the Morning Herald in co¬ 
operation with the French Government, the 
object of the exertion being to demonstrate 
the superiority of the route by Marseilles 
over that of Trieste, recommended by Lieut. 
Waghorn. In copying the news the Times 
remarked:—“For the first time since Oct. 
1840 we have been anticipated in the publi¬ 
cation of intelligence from India. We are 
more proud, however, of our defeat than of 
our most remarkable success. We have spared 
no expense, and no exertion, but we would 
not barter English interests for intelligence— 
we would not purchase M. Guizot’s favour by 
slavish adulation ; and if success can only be 
won at such a price, we are well content to 
copy, as we do now, our Indian intelligence 
from the Morning Herald.” 

31 .—At a meeting of the Royal Bucks Agri¬ 
cultural Association, the Duke of Buckingham 
said he did not wish to conceal from his hearers 
■his opinion that the agricultural body in this 
country had the power, if they pleased, to de¬ 
feat any attempt that might be made to repeal 
the Com Laws. He looked on this question 
(190) 


truly in a national point of view, and he could 
not view but with dismay the privations and 
the troubles likely to be inflicted on the country 
should the Com Laws be repealed.—At War¬ 
wick, on the same day, Mr. Newdegate carried 
a resolution, testifying against the fallacy and 
mischievous reports of a deficient harvest, and 
affirming that there was no reasonable ground 
for apprehending a scarcity of food, or that 
com, under the protection of the existing law, 
will maintain a price more than sufficiently re¬ 
munerative to the producer, or beyond what 
the industrious classes can afford.—At another 
meeting, the Duke of Norfolk made himself 
conspicuous in the agitation by recommending 
a curry powder which he had prepared himself 
as a substitute for bread and beer. The whole 
of the Protectionist gatherings held about this 
time were characterised by a unanimity in con¬ 
demning the conduct of Sir R. Peel. 

1846. 

January 2.—In the official lists of the 
restored Peel Cabinet, Mr. Gladstone takes the 
place of Lord Stanley as Secretary of State for 
the Colonies. Owing to the withdrawal of the 
support of the Duke of Newcastle, he did not 
offer himself for re-election at Newark, and 
continued without a seat during the ensuing 
session. 

3 .—The Lord Mayors of London and Dub¬ 
lin present addresses from their respective 
corporations to the Queen at Windsor Castle, 
recommending the immediate opening of the 
ports. In reply her Majesty said: “I have 
directed Parliament to assemble on an early 
day, and I shall gladly sanction any measures 
which the wisdom of the Legislature may sug¬ 
gest as conducive to the alleviation of this tem¬ 
porary distress, and to the permanent welfare 
of all classes of my people.” 

5 .—New regulations issued by the War 
Office, designed to improve the condition of 
non-commissioned officers and privates who 
merited distinction for good conduct. 

7 .—Died at Malta, in his 77th year, John 
Hookham Frere, author of the Whistlecraft 
jeu d'esprit, and a contributor to the Anti- 
Jacobin. 

IO.—A parliamentary paper of 540 folio 
pages issued, consisting of an alphabetical and 
numerical list of the names of all persons in 
Great Britain who subscribed towards the rail¬ 
ways of last session, for sums less than 2,000/. 

12 .—On receiving the freedom of the City 
of Glasgow, Lord J ohn Russell took the oppor¬ 
tunity of observing that “ the question of the 
Corn Laws is now in the hands of Sir Robert 
Peel. I know no more than yourselves what 
his proposition may be, or how he has agreed 
with the remaining colleagues with whom he 
differed, and who have again consented tc 
serve under him ; but of this I am fully con- 





JANUARY 


1846. 


JANUARY 


vinced, that if Sir Robert Peel wishes his 
measure to be safe—safe to propose and safe 
to carry—it must be formed on broad and 
extensive principles. ” 

12 .—The Central Protection Society meet at 
Willis’s Rooms for a revisal of a clause in their 
constitution, prohibiting them from interfering 
in election contests. 

14 . —Explosion of fire-damp in the Black 
Vein workings of Risca Colliery, and loss of 
thirty-five lives. 

— The authorities of the parish of Windsor 
having claimed to rate Flemish Farm, occupied 
by Prince Albert, he resisted the demand on 
the ground that it was royal property in royal 
occupation. The case was submitted to emi¬ 
nent legal authorities, whose opinion entirely 
supported Prince Albert’s view. Upon this 
the parochial authorities presented an address, 
admitting the non-liability of the farm, apo¬ 
logizing for the observations which had ap¬ 
peared in the public prints, and soliciting his 
Royal Highness’s consideration to the hardship 
inflicted upon the parish in consequence of the 
exemption of so considerable a property. The 
Prince informed them that he now felt himself 
at liberty to take the course which was most 
satisfactory to his own feelings, and to pay as a 
voluntary contribution a sum equal to the rate 
which would have been annually due, had his 
legal liability been established. 

15 . —Monster meeting in the Free Trade 

Hall, Manchester. Mr. Cobden, in the course 
of one of his most able arguments for imme¬ 
diate and total abolition, said : “ Whatever 

course is proposed by Sir Robert Peel, we, as 
Free Traders, have but one course to pursue. 
If he proposes a total and unconditional repeal 
we shall throw up our caps for Sir Robert 
Peel. If he proposes anything else, Mr. Vil- 
liers will be ready, as on former occasions. I 
am anxious to hear now, at the last meeting 
before we go to Parliament, that we occupy as 
much an isolated position as we did at the first 
moment of the formation of the League. We 
have nothing to do with Whigs or Tories. We 
are stronger than either of them; and if we 
stick to our principles, we can beat them 
both.” 

— The Overland Mail arrives with intelli¬ 
gence from Calcutta to the 7th December. 
The Sikhs, it was reported, were making hos¬ 
tile demonstrations on the banks of the Sutlej ; 
but it was not thought they had any serious 
intention of encountering the British forces in 
the field. 

20 .—The Irish Commission of Inquiry re¬ 
port that—“It appears from undoubted autho¬ 
rity, that of thirty-two counties in Ireland not 
one has escaped failure in the potato crop, and 
of 130 Poor-law Unions not one is exempt. . . 
That which is necessary on all such occasions 
is peculiarly necessary now. The extreme 
variety in the extent of the potato failure, and 
the minute and insulated subdivisions of land 


in which it prevails, lead us to entertain the 
greatest doubt whether any adjustment of 
public works can be made to meet the need 
wherever it may occur; and it must be met, 
or death from famine may be the result. Sir 
John M‘Neill, a highly competent authority, 
in a document transmitted to us, estimates the 
distance to which the benefit of employment 
in public works extends, at five miles only.” 

20. —Departure of Rev. J. H. Newman from 
Oxford. “On the Saturday and Sun day before,” 
he writes, “ I was in my house at Littlemore, 
simply by myself, as I had been for the first 
day or two when I had originally taken pos¬ 
session of it. Various friends came to see the 
last of me—Mr. Copeland, Mr. Church, Mr. 
Buckle, Mr. Pattison, and Mr. Lewis. Dr. 
Pusey, too, came up to take leave of me ; and 
I called on Dr. Ogle, one of my very oldest 
friends, for he was my private tutor when I 
was an undergraduate. In him I took leave 
of my first college, Trinity, which was so dear 
to me both when I was a boy and all through 
my Oxford life. Trinity had never been un¬ 
kind to me. There used to be much snap¬ 
dragon growing on the walls opposite my 
freshman’s room there, and I had for years 
taken it as the emblem of my own perpetual 
residence, even unto death, in my University. 
On the morning of the 23d I left the Uni¬ 
versity. I have never seen Oxford since,” (he 
writes in 1864,) “ excepting its spires, as they 
are seen from the railway. ” 

21. —The Daily News, anew Liberal organ, 
commenced under the editorial care of Mr. 
Charles Dickens. 

— Mr. T. Duncombe, M. P., entertained by 
the United Trades Association, at the Crown 
and Anchor. 

22. —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech contained these sen¬ 
tences : “I have had great satisfaction in giving 
my assent to the measures which you have 
presented to me from time to time, calculated 
to extend commerce and to stimulate domestic 
skill and industry, by the repeal of prohibitive 
and the relaxation of protective duties. I re¬ 
commend you to take into your early considera¬ 
tion whether the principle on which you have 
acted may not with advantage be yet more 
extensively applied.” The failure of the po¬ 
tato crop in Ireland, and the crimes against 
life and property in that country, w^ere also 
touched upon in the Royal Speech. In the 
course of the personal explanations which 
occurred during the debate on the Address, Sir 
Robert Peel said : “ The immediate cause of 
resignation was the great and mysterious cala¬ 
mity which has befallen Europe—the failure 
of the potato crop. But it would be unfair to 
the House if I were to say that I attached 
exclusive importance to that particular cause. 
I will not withhold the homage which is due 
to the progress of reason and to truth, by 
denying that my opinions on the subject of 

(191) 






JANUAR V 


1846. 


JANUARY 


Protection have undergone a change. Whether 
holding a private station, or in a public one, I 
will assert the privilege of yielding to the force 
of argument and conviction, and acting upon 
the results of enlarged experience. It may be 
supposed that there is something humiliating 
in making such admissions. Sir, I feel no 
such humiliation; I should feel humiliation, 
if, having modified or changed my opinions, I 
declined to acknowledge the change for fear 
of incurring the imputation of inconsistency. 
The question is, whether the facts are suffi¬ 
cient to account for the change, and the mo¬ 
tives for it are pure and disinterested. 
Nothing could be more base on the part of 
a public man than to protect himself from 
danger by pretending a change ; on the other 
hand, nothing could be more inconsistent 
with the duty he owes to his Sovereign and 
country than if, seeing reason to alter his 
course, he is precluded from that alteration 
by the fear of being taunted with it. ... I 
may, without irreverence, be permitted to say 
♦hat, like our physical frame, our ancient con¬ 
stitution is ‘ fearfully and wonderfully made ’ 
— that it is no easy task to ensure the harmo¬ 
nious and united action of an ancient monarchy, 
a proud aristocracy, and a reformed House of 
Commons. These are the objects which we 
have attempted to accomplish, and I cannot 
think they are inconsistent with a pure Conser¬ 
vatism. Power for such objects is really valu¬ 
able ; but for my own part I can say, with 
perfect truth, that even for these objects I do 
not covet it. It is a burden far above my 
physical, infinitely beyond my intellectual 
strength. The relief from it with honour would 
be a favour, and not a punishment. But 
while honour and a sense of public duty re¬ 
quire it, I do not shrink from office. I am 
ready to incur its responsibilities, to bear its 
sacrifices, to confront its honourable perils ; 
but I will not retain it with mutilated power 
and shackled authority. I will not stand at 
the helm during the tempestuous night if that 
helm is not allowed freely to traverse. I will 
not undertake to direct the course of the vessel 
by observations taken in the year 1842. I 
will reserve to myself the unfettered power of 
judging what will be for the public interest. I 
do not desire to be the Minister of England, 
but while I am Minister of England I will hold 
office by no servile tenure. I will hold office 
unshackled by any other obligation than that 
of consulting the public interest, and providing 
for the public safety.”—Sir Robert was fre¬ 
quently cheered throughout his speech, espe¬ 
cially by the Opposition, and when he sat down 
the applause was long and almost universal. 

23 .—Bryan Seery tried at Mullingar, before 
the Lord Chief Baron, for discharging a loaded 
gun at Sir Francis Hopkins, on the night of 
the 18th of November, 1845. Sir Francis, in 
the course of his examination, distinctly iden¬ 
tified the prisoner as the person who fired the 
gun, and whom he afterwards caught by the 
throat with the view of securing. He was 
(I92> 


sentenced to be executed. On the scaffold 
Seery raised a crucifix, and in a calm, loud, 
and steady tone, declared that he had neither 
act, part, hand, or knowledge of the crime 
for which he was about to suffer. His funeral 
was attended by an immense mob, who con¬ 
sidered him the victim of oppression, and 
even spoke of him as a martyr. 

20 .—Price of bread in the metropolis, 9 d. 
to 10 d. per four-pound loaf. Wheat average, 
55-r. 7 d. per quarter. 

27 .—Sir Robert Peel explains the com¬ 
mercial policy of the Government. On the 
great question of the Corn Laws he proposed 
a total repeal at the end of three years. From 
the passing of the Act, and until the 1st of 
February, 1849, the maximum duty to be icw., 
exigible when the price is under 48^., and to 
fall a shilling with every shilling of rise -in the 
price till the price reaches 53^., when the duty 
was to fall to the minimum of 4^. The duties 
on barley and oats to undergo an alteration 
proportionally the same ; all grain from British 
colonies to be admitted free of duty, and maize 
or Indian corn to be admitted, immediately 
after the passing of the Act, at a nominal duty. 
Other articles in the Tariff, under the heads of 
articles of food, agriculture, manufacture, and 
miscellaneous, were dealt with, to the amount 
of several hundred, in the way of duties re¬ 
pealed or reduced. In the matter of compen¬ 
sation to the landed interest, the Premier pro¬ 
posed a consolidation of parish-road trusts, an 
alteration in the law of settlement, transferring 
the burden from the parish of the pauper’s 
birth to that in which he had an industrial 
residence of five years last preceding his appli¬ 
cation for relief; the payment from the Trea¬ 
sury of one-half the cost of medical attendance 
on paupers ; and the removal from the local 
rates of the expenses of criminal prosecutions, 
which were to be defrayed in future by an 
annual parliamentary vote. “Because,” con¬ 
cluded Sir Robert, “this is a time of peace, 
because you are not subject to any coercion 
whatever, I entreat you to bear in mind that 
the aspect of affairs may change ; that we may 
have to contend with worse harvests than that 
of this year ; and that it may be wise to avail 
ourselves of the present moment to effect an 
adjustment which I believe must be ultimately 
made, and which could not be long delayed 
without engendering feelings of animosity among 
different classes of her Majesty’s subjects. From 
a sincere conviction that the settlement is not 
to be delayed ; that, accompanied with the pre¬ 
cautionary measures to which I have referred, 
it will not inflict injury on the agricultural 
interest—from these feelings I should deeply 
lament, exclusively on public grounds, the 
failure of the attempt which, at the instance of 
her Majesty’s Government, I have made on 
this occasion, to recommend to your calm and 
dispassionate consideration these proposals, with 
no other feeling or interest in the ultimate issue 
than that they may, to use the words of hex 







JANUARY 


1846. 


FEBRUARY 


Majesty’s speech, conduce to the promotion of 
‘ friendly feeling between different classes—to 
provide additional security for the continuance 
of peace—and to maintain contentment and 
happiness at home by increasing the comforts 
and bettering the condition of the great body 
of the people.’ ” 

28 . —Battle of Aliwal. In consequence of 
the movements of Sirdar Runjoor Singh, Major- 
General Sir Harry Smith was ordered to ad¬ 
vance with his brigade from Dhurrumkote 
towards Loodiana, which he effected with some 
difficulty and loss. He was here reinforced by 
Brigadier Godby, and afterwards by Brigadier 
Wheeler, the British troops on making the 
last junction taking up the abandoned position 
of Budhowal. Sir Harry Smith now deter¬ 
mined to attack the enemy, who was distant 
about six miles, drawn up along a ridge close 
to the village of Aliwal. ‘‘ After deployment.” 
writes Sir Harry, “ I observed the enemy’s left 
to outflank me ; I therefore broke into open 
columns, and took ground to my right : when 
I had gained sufficient, the troops wheeled 
into line. There was no dust, the sun shone 
brightly. These manoeuvres were performed 
with the celerity and precision of the most cor¬ 
rect field-day. The glistening of the bayonets 
and swords of this order of battle was most im¬ 
posing, and the line advanced. Scarcely had 
it moved forward 150 yards, when at ten o’clock 
the enemy opened a fierce cannonade from his 
whole line. At first his balls fell short, but 
quickly reached us. Thus upon him, and 
capable of better ascertaining his position, I 
was compelled to halt the line, though under 
fire, for a few moments, until I ascertained 
that by bringing up my right, and carrying the 
village of Aliwal, I could with great effect 
precipitate myself upon his left and centre .... 
The enemy, completely hemmed in, were flying 
from our fire, and precipitating themselves in 
disordered masses into the fords and boats in 
the utmost confusion and consternation. Our 
eight-inch howitzers soon began to play upon 
the boats when the debris of the Sikh army 
appeared upon the opposite and high bank of 
the river, flying in every direction, although a 
sort of line was attempted to countenance their 
retreat, until all our guns commenced a furious 
cannonade, when they quickly receded.” 

29 . —At a large meeting of the working 
classes in Edinburgh to petition against the 
Corn Laws, a small body of Chartists attempted 
to change its character by proposing resolutions 
expressive of their hatred of the Anti-Corn-Law 
Leaguers as “a set of deep, designing, money - 
mongering rogues.” It was (said one speaker) 
“a fiendish caper” of the League to interfere 
with the decrees of Providence in having per¬ 
mitted the potato crop to be visited by disease. 
What the working classes wanted was bread 
free to all who were starving, and at prime cost 
to those who were only partially employed. 
The most offensive of the party were expelled 

( 193 ) 


from the Toom, and the original resolutions 
carried with enthusiasm. 

30 . —Mr. Cobden addresses a letter to the 
tenant farmers of the United Kingdom, 
urging upon them that as the present was 
beyond all comparison, the most favourable 
moment ever known for abolishing the Com 
Laws, it would be for their interest to press 
for that repeal at once instead of having it 
deferred for three years. 

31 . —Protectionist meeting at Tam worth. 
A resolution was carried, declaring that Sir 
Robert Peel had forfeited all claim to public 
confidence, and that he ought to be called upon 
to resign back into the hands of the electors 
the trust which he had so greatly abused. A 
subscription was also proposed “to promote 
the return of a sound and confidential man to 
represent the borough in Parliament in place 
of the right honourable baronet.” 

February 1.—Dr. Pusey preaches in Christ¬ 
church Cathedral, Oxford, for the first time 
since his suspension in 1844. His sermon (St. 
John xx. 21—23) was a kind of sequel to that 
which led to his suspension, and commenced 
with an abrupt reference to his last appearance 
in the pulpit. There was no retractation or 
qualification of the opinions which had drawn 
down on him the censure of the University 
authorities. 

2 .—Sir H. Gough writes that the Sikhs had 
taken up a strong position on the banks of the 
Sutlej, from which he had as yet endeavoured 
in vain to dislodge them. He was now 
awaiting a fall of rain or thaw of snow upon 
the hills to advance against them, when they 
could repel the attack only at the bridge. The 
Commander-in-chief had the satisfaction of 
seeing the river rise rapidly in a few days. 

4 . —Riots at Inverness, occasioned by the 
shipment of potatoes for the south. 

— Lord Morpeth returned without opposi¬ 
tion, on Free Trade principles, for the West 
Riding of Yorkshire. 

5. —The Select Committee of the House of 
Commons report that for the purpose of facili¬ 
tating the despatch of railway business it is 
expedient that a portion of the bills should 
commence in the House of Lords ; and that 
among those to be taken there, Irish railway 
bills should have preference, as they might 
afford early and increased employment to the 
people of that country. 

— The Times publishes brief accounts of 
the victories of Moodkee and Ferozeshah, re¬ 
ceived in anticipation of the India Mail by way 
of Trieste. The news reached Bombay on the 
3d of January, about noon, when the mail 
steamer Victoria had left the harbour. She 
was signalled to return, and took the important 
despatches on board. The journey afterwards 
was thus described by the Times: “ The mails 
arrived at Suez on the 19th of January. They 
were then conveyed by the ordinary means 

o 




FEBRUARY 


1846. 


FEBRUARY 


across the Desert, and reached Alexandria on 
the morning of the 22d. The Austrian steamer 
Imperatrice was there in waiting, and departed 
at noon on that day with our despatch for 
Trieste. She arrived at Dwino, near Trieste, 
where her mails were landed on Thursday the 
29th ; and late that evening the courier who 
earned our despatches, and to whom we are 
indebted for most strenuous exertions on our 
behalf, left Dwino en route for Ostend. His 
first point was Carlsruhe, whence he hoped to 
obtain a steamer down the Rhine to Bonn or 
Cologne; but so.extensive was the inundation 
that no captain could be prevailed upon to 
undertake the voyage, and he was compelled 
to post onwards, encountering all the difficulties 
which flood, snow, and rain could interpose, 
until he reached the Belgium railroads. By 
this means he reached Ostend, and thence 
coming to London, succeeded with rare intelli¬ 
gence, although not speaking a word of English, 
in reaching our office without a moment’s delay. 
He arrived at 6 o’clock, and had thus performed 
the journey from Dwino, under every imagin¬ 
able difficulty, in some hours less than six days.” 

6 . —The Bencoolen wrecked on Taylor’s 
Bank, Holyhead, and thirteen of the crew, 
including a pilot who had newly boarded her, 
drowned. The remaining eight reached Liver¬ 
pool in a small boat. 

— Died, aged 56, Baron Biilow, Prussian 
Ambassador at the Court of St. James’s from 
1826 to 1841. 

7 . —At the dinner of the Buckinghamshire 
Agricultural Society, the Duke of Buckingham 
said he hoped they would be able to alter the 
measure of Sir Robert Peel, or so cripple or 
defeat it that it would not become the law of 
the land. “You may rely,” he continued, 
“that I shall be at my post with the Duke of 
Richmond to defeat, if possible, this measure, 
or do it all the harm we can. ” 

9 . —Died at his residence, Lower Grosvenor- 
street, aged 60, Henry Gaily Knight, M.P., 
author of several works on mediaeval archi¬ 
tecture. 

10. —Battle of Sobraon, and final defeat of 
the Sikhs. Beaten on the Upper Sutlej, the 
enemy continued to occupy his position on the 
right bank. “Our observations,” writes the 
Commander-in-chief, “coupled with the report 
of spies, convinced us that there had devolved 
on us the arduous task of attacking in a position 
covered with formidable entrenchments, not 
fewer than 30,000 men, the best of the Khalsa 
troops, with seventy pieces of cannon, united 
by a good bridge to a reserve on the opposite 
bank, on which the enemy had a considerable 
camp, and some artillery commanding and 
flanking his field-works on our side. ... It 
had been intended that the cannonade should 
have commenced at daybreak, but so heavy a 
mist hung over the plain and river that it 
became necessary to wait until the rays of the 
sun had penetrated it, and cleared the atmo- 

1 * 94 ) 


sphere. ... As the attack of the centre and 
right commenced, the fire of our heavy guns 
had first to be directed to the right, and 
then gradually to cease, but at one time the 
thunder of full 120 pieces of ordnance rever¬ 
berated in this mighty combat through the 
valley of the Sutlej, and it was soon seen that 
the weight of the whole force within the Sikh 
camp was likely to be thrown upon the two 
brigades that had passed its trenches ; it became 
necessary to convert into close and serious 
attacks the demonstration with skirmishers and 
artillery of the centre and right The Sikhs, 
even when at particular points their entrench¬ 
ments were mastered with the bayonet, strove 
to regain them by the fiercest conflict, sword in 
hand. Nor was it until the cavalry of the left, 
under Major-Gen. Sir Joseph Thackwell, had 
moved forward and ridden through the openings 
of the entrenchments made by our Sappers, in 
single file, and re-formed as they passed them ; 
and the 3d Dragoons, whom no obstacles usually 
held formidable by horse appear to check, had, 
on this day as at Ferozeshah, galloped over and 
cut down the obstinate defenders of batteries 
and field-works ; and until the full weight of 
three divisions of infantry, with every field 
artillery gun which could be sent to their aid, 
had been cast into the scale, that victory finally 
declared for the British. The fire of the Sikhs 
first slackened, and then nearly ceased, and 
the victors pressing them on every side, pre¬ 
cipitated them in masses over their bridge, and 
into the Sutlej, which a sudden rise of seven 
inches had rendered hardly fordable. In their 
efforts to reach the right bank through the 
deep water they suffered from our horse artillery 
a terrible carnage. Hundreds fell under this 
cannonade; hundreds upon hundreds were 
drowned in attempting the perilous passage. 
Their awful slaughter, confusion, and dismay 
were such as would have excited compassion 
in the hearts of their generous conquerors, if 
the Khalsa troops had not, in the early part 
of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaugh¬ 
tering and barbarously mangling every wounded 
soldier whom in the vicissitudes of attack the 
fortune of war left at their mercy.” Total 
British killed, 320 ; wounded, 2,063. 

14 .—Came on for trial in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench the action of breach of promise 
of marriage raised against Earl Ferrers by Mary 
Elizabeth Smith, daughter of a private gentle¬ 
man in Warwickshire. A number of letters 
breathing the warmest affection were produced 
in support of the case ; but it turned out on 
further inquiry that they had been written by 
the plaintiff herself, and did not even pretend 
to be in imitation of his lordship’s handwriting. 
On the fourth day of the trial, the Solicitor- 
General stated that he felt it was due to him¬ 
self and all concerned to abandon the case. A 
nonsuit was accordingly entered, and four of 
the letters impounded preparatory to an indict¬ 
ment for conspiracy being preferred against the 
plaintiff and others concerned with her in con¬ 
cocting the case. 




FEBRUARY 


1846. 


FEBRUARY 


14 .—The Governor-Genera] of India issues 
a proclamation from Kussoor: “ The Sikh 
army has been expelled from the left bank 
of the river Sutlej, having been defeated in 
every action with the loss of more than 220 
pieces of field artillery. The British army has 
crossed the Sutlej and entered the Punjaub. 
The Governor-General announces by this pro¬ 
clamation that this measure has been adopted 
by the Government of India in accordance with 
the intentions expressed in the proclamation of 
the 13th Dec.” On the 19th his Excellency 
received the Rajah Gholab Singh in durbar, as 
the representative of an offending Government, 
when the following conditions were demanded 
on behalf of the British Government and con¬ 
ceded:—The surrender in full sovereignty of 
the territory, hill and plain, lying between the 
Sutlej and Beas rivers, and the payment of 
one crore and a half of rupees as indemnity 
for expenses of the war; the disbandment of 
the existing Sikh army, and its reorganization 
on the system and regulation with regard to 
pay which obtained in the time of the late 
Maharajah Runjeet Singh; and the surrender of 
all the guns that have been pointed against the 
British army. ; ‘As on the occasion of the 
Rajah’s visit, I omitted the usual salute to the 
Maharajah, and curtailed the other customary 
ceremonies on his arrival at my tent, causing it 
to be explained that, until submission had been 
distinctly tendered by the Maharajah in person, 
he could not be recognised and received as a 
friendly prince.” In another proclamation, 
dated from Lahore, Feb. 22, the Governor- 
General intimates: “ The army of the Sutlej has 
now brought its operations in the field to a 
close, by the dispersion of the Sikh army, and 
the military occupation of Lahore, preceded by 
a series of the most triumphant successes ever 
recorded in the military history of India. . . . 
The soldiers of the army of the Sutlej have not 
only proved their superior prowess in battle, 
but have, on every occasion, with subordination 
and patience, endured the fatigues and priva¬ 
tions inseparable from a state of active opera¬ 
tions in the field. The native troops of this 
army have also proved that a faithful attach¬ 
ment to their colours and to the Company’s 
service is an honourable feature in the character 
of the British Sepoy.” 

16 .—James Bostock, a brass and gun-metal 
founder, shot by his apprentice, Wicks, in 
Pitt’s-place, Drury-lane. The lad was executed 
on the 30th March. 

— Philar&te Horeau, a Frenchman living at 
Camberwell, murders his three children, and 
then commits suicide by cutting his throat. At 
the coroner’s inquest Mdme. Horeau, who had 
escaped from the house and alarmed the neigh¬ 
bours, said her husband must have committed 
these crimes under great excitement caused by 
extreme want, being often unable to supply the 
children with food. He acted as a teacher of 
languages in the country, but latterly had not 
been able to procure a situation. They had 
(195) 


pawned and sold everything they had to pro¬ 
cure food, the last article they had left being 
pawned on Saturday. 

16 . —The Duke of Richmond informs the 
House of Lords that the Anti-Corn-Law 
League will never be dissolved until it has 
destroyed the Church and every other institu¬ 
tion in the country. 

17 . —O’Connell introduces, but withdraws 
after a debate, a motion for a commission to 
inquire into the disease and famine prevailing 
in Ireland. 

19 .—Sir De Lacy Evans, a Free Trade can¬ 
didate, elected for Westminster after a contest 
with Admiral Rous, who had vacated that seat 
on being appointed one of the Lords of the 
Admiralty. 

22 . —Attempted revolution in Poland, and 
massacre of nobles at the instigation of Austria 
in the district of Tarnow. The Russians sup¬ 
pressed the revolt in Cracow on the 29th. 

23 . —In introducing the Irish Coercion Bill, 
Lord St. Germans stated that during the years 
1844-45 there had been 242 cases of firing at 
the person; 1,048 cases of aggravated assault; 
710 robberies of arms; 79 bands of men ap¬ 
pearing in arms; 282 of administering unlawful 
oaths; 2,306 of sending threatening letters ; 
737 cases of attacking houses; and 205 cases 
of firing into houses. The chief seat of these 
outrages was the centre of the island, in the 
district extending from Cavan on the north to 
Tipperary on the south. He proposed to give 
the Lord-Lieutenant power to proclaim any 
district where crime abounded; inns and taverns 
therein to be subject to search; all persons found 
out of their houses between sunset and sunrise 
to be liable to apprehension; and authorizing 
his Excellency to assign a sum of money out of 
the rates to the relations of a murdered man. 

24 . —Wrecked off Corunna, the Peninsular 
and Oriental steam mail-ship the Great Liver - 
pool. The passengers were all landed, except 
three lost in the surf on the beach by the swamp¬ 
ing of a launch. The mail was also saved, but 
considerably damaged. 

25 . —South Nottingham carried by a Con¬ 
servative, Mr. Hildyard, against Lord Lincoln, 
the new Irish Secretary. The Duke of New¬ 
castle exercised all his influence to defeat his 
son. 

27 .—Payment of the railway deposits of 10 
per cent, on capital commenced at the office of 
the Accountant-General. In consequence of 
the formalities required to be gone through, the 
amount the first day was not so large as was 
expected. At 4 o’clock on the afternoon ot 
the 29th, when the statutory period expired, 
the amount paid reached the enormous total of 
11,492,000/. Of this sum Glyn & Co. paid 
1,500,000/., and Jones-Lloyd &Co. 1,000,000/. 

— After a debate extending over twelve 
nights, the first reading of Sir Robert Peel s 

o 2 




MARCH 


1846. 


MARCH 


Free Trade resolutions was carried by a majority 
of 337 to 240. Mr. Cobden spoke this evening, 
characterising Protection as now looked upon 
in the same light as witchcraft—protective laws 
like horse-shoes nailed to the door to keep 
out the witch. “We are, ” he said, ‘ ‘ on the eve 
of great changes. Let the party put themselves 
in a position for the coming work—be the real 
aristocracy of improvement and civilization.” 
Lord George Bentinck closed the debate, having 
spoken, to the surprise of the entire House and 
amid great interruption, for nearly three hours 
and a half beyond midnight. A personal al¬ 
tercation took place between Mr. Ferrand and 
Mr. Roebuck, in the course of which Mr. 
Disraeli said of the member for Bath: “We 
know that the tree must bring forth its fruit, 
that a crab-tree will produce crab-apples, and 
that a meagre and acid mind, if it produce a 
pamphlet or make a speech, will give evidence 
of its meagre and acid intelligence. When the 
honourable and learned gentleman (Mr. Roe¬ 
buck) says no one can impute to him conduct 
not permitted by the rules of the House, I say 
it is totally incorrect. I am stating what many 
know to be true; but perhaps the honourable and 
learned gentleman has become the instructor- 
general as well as the inquisitor-general of the 
House. I say that this melodramatic malignity 
and Sadlers Wells sarcasm, which are so easy 
to put on—this wagging the finger and bating 
the breath—this speaking daggers, but using 
none, is all very fine; and if it came from one 
justified in employing such language and using 
such gestures, I should say they were simply 
ridiculous; but coming from the quarter they 
do, they are not only ridiculous but offensive.” 
Speaking of the personalities indulged in by the 
House, Mr. Disraeli alluded to Sir Robert Peel 
as a member who had accused another of being 
an assassin—a statement which led to explana¬ 
tions of a most satisfactory character between 
the Premier and Mr. Cobden regarding the 
words used three years since. (See Feb. 13, 

1843-) 

March 2.—The thanks of both Houses 
voted to the Indian army for its triumphs at 
Moodkee and Ferozeshah. “ Sir Robert Sale, ” 
said the Premier, “whom all admired for his 
heroic achievements at Jellalabad, has closed 
in these victories a long career of military glory 
by a death which he foresaw and which he even 
wished for: ‘ Felix etiam in opportunitate 
mortis.’” In the course of this speech Sir 
Robert made a most effective use of private 
letters sent home to his family by the Governor- 
General regarding his experiences in the field. 

— The House of Commons meet in Com¬ 
mittee for the first time on the Corn Law 
Importation Bill. Mr. Villiers’ amendment on 
the first clause, making the action of the bill 
immediate instead of prospective, was negatived 
after a debate of two nights by 265 to 78 
votes. 

5 .—A Select Committee of the House of 

(196' 


Commons appointed to inquire into the con¬ 
dition and management of the Andover Union. 

6 . —At Durham Assizes, Margaret Stoker, a 
young woman, was found guilty of murdering 
her child. The case gave rise to considerable 
discussion in connexion with the administration 
of the New Poor Law. The unfortunate woman 
gave this account of the occurrence before the 
coroner:—“ I was coming home from my place, 
and was going to my father’s. When I was 
going over a beck I was very much in trouble, 
and I did not know what I was to do with the 
child; I had no place to take it to. I put it 
into the beck, and went to my father. He 
asked me where the child was, and I could not 
tell him. He said I must go back and seek it; 
so I came away at seven o’clock in the morning 
to seek it. I came along by the burn-side, and 
I saw my child lying in the burn, and I Could 
not take it out myself, so I went to this person 
and asked her to take it out for me, and she 
took it out of the beck, and I fetched it into 
the stable. I went before magistrates, and all 
things, wanting to go into the poor-house; they 
would not let me go, and I- could get nothing 
to keep it on. I was fairly banished to do this. 
I only wish to say this further: I was in a great 
deal of trouble when I did this; I had no place 
to put my head in ; I had been knocked about 
from dog to devil, and nothing to pay for a 
night’s lodging. I was paying is. a week for 
the bairn, and had only is. 4 d. a week for 
myself.” 

9 .—Report of the Committee on the New 
Corn Duties agreed to. The Tariff resolutions 
were also passed to-day without a division. 

— Treaty of Lahore, under which the Sikhs 
surrendered to Great Britain the sovereignty of 
the Dooab, and agreed to pay 1,500,000/. in 
name of war expenses. 

13 . —Sir James Graham obtains leave to 
introduce a bill making temporary provision 
for the relief of destitute persons afflicted with 
fever in Ireland. It was passed hastily through 
both Houses. 

— Treasury Order issued authorizing Indian 
corn, rice, and buckwheat to be passed through 
the Dublin custom-house at the nominal duty 
of is. per quarter. 

14 . —Earthquake in Norway, more serious 
in its consequences than any which had pre¬ 
viously happened in that country. 

17 . —General Narvaez forms a new Ministry 
at Madrid, but abandons office in a few days, 
and is compelled to leave Spain. 

18 . —-The bar-mess of the Oxford Circuit 
rescind their regulation against barristers re¬ 
porting fcj newspapers. 

20 .—The Timber Duties resolutions carried 
by 232 to 109 votes. 

22. —Died at his residence, Knightsbridge, 
aged 70, John Liston, comedian. 

23 , —Earl Grey’s motion for an inquiiy as 





MARCH 


1846. 


APRIL 


to the best means uf redressing Irish grievances, 
negatived by 61 votes to 17. 

24 .—The Times writes : “The anxiety and 
■excitement among the holders of railway shares 
are such as to make it difficult to convey a just 
idea of them to the public at large. To sell any 
shares connected with new lines has become 
almost impossible at-any sacrifice, and the only 
relief that the greater part of holders now hope 
for is the throwing out of the bills before Parlia¬ 
ment, and the rendering an account of the 
funds that remain unappropriated. This feeling 
exists even with respect to those lines which a 
few months back were regarded as the most 
promising; and the men of property who 
happen to have embarked in such undertakings 
find themselves considerably worse off than 
adventurers without capital, since they foresee 
that in the event of bills being obtained the 
weight of the whole concern must be thrown 
upon them. Probably there is not a single 
new company at this moment in which the 
majority of shareholders would not vote for 
abandonment.” 

— President Polk, in view of the warlike 
preparations being made by Britain, and in the 
still unsettled state of the Oregon question, 
sends a special message to Congress, recom¬ 
mending a large increase of the naval and 
military forces of the Union. 

27 .—The second reading of the Corn Im- 
ortation Bill carried by a majority of 88 in a 
louse of 516. 

April 1.—A salute of fifty guns fired from 
the Tower of London in honour of Sir Harry 
Smith’s newly-announced victory of Aliwal. 
At the Wellington Barracks the troops were 
formed into square, and the adjutant read from 
the Gazette the despatch of the Governor- 
General describing the battle. 

2 . —The thanks of both Houses voted to the 
army of India for the victories of Aliwal and 
Sobraon. 

6 . —Sir Robert Peel expresses the willingness 
of Government to introduce a bill giving a 
majority of shareholders in railway companies 
power to abandon bills. 

8 . —As the Irish members were using all the 
forms of the House to create delay in passing, 
and if possible defeat, the Coercion Bill, Sir 
Robert Peel intimates to-night, before adjourn¬ 
ing for Easter, that Government intend to give 
the debate on the first reading priority of all 
other business. When the bill reached that 
stage they would proceed with the Corn Bill, 
and not bring forward any other business till 
the sense of the House had been taken on that 
measure. 

9. —The Archbishop of Canterbury issues a 
form of prayer and thanksgiving for the Indian 
victories. 

13 .—Commenced a curious series of bigamy 
trials in the Dublin Commission Court. In 


1813 Mary Jane Scott married one Carter; in 
1821 she married Galway, Carter being alive ; 
and in 1833 she married Scott, both Carter 
and Galway being alive. Shortly after the last 
marriage she was indicted for marrying Scott, 
Galway being alive, and escaped by producing 
Carter, and proving him, and not Galway, to be 
her real husband. She was now indicted for 
marrying Galway, Carter being alive, and 
escaped by proving the marriage with Carter 
invalid ; and lastly, for marrying Scott, Carter 
being alive, from which she escaped on the 
same ground. 

13 . —Railway opened between London and 
Ramsgate. 

— After a debate extending over nine weeks, 
the Senate of the United States adopt a resolu¬ 
tion authorizing the President to give notice 
for terminating the joint occupancy of the Ore¬ 
gon territory. 

14 . —Famine riots in many towns in Ireland. 
A person writing from Clonmel records : 
“You can have no idea of the state this town 
is in since six o’clock this morning. We have 
cannon at either end of the town, and the 
streets are full of soldiers and police. This 
morning the mob broke into every baker’s shop 
in the place, and took out all the food they 
could lay their hands on. The banks and 
shops are all shut, and the town in a state of 
siege.” Report from Carrick-on-Suir : “This 
town is in a horrible state. The populace rose 
and broke into all the meal and provision 
stores, and afterwards into the shops generally. 
Unfortunately our resident magistrate was ab¬ 
sent from town, and there was no one could 
bring the military out. The mob had it all 
their own way, and the town looks as if it had 
been sacked by an army.” From Mayo the 
news is that the gaunt and long-dreaded scourge 
of famine had at length broke out. At Castle¬ 
bar market potatoes were from 2 \d. to 5 d. per 
stone, and oatmeal from 13^. to 1 6s. per cwt. 
A boat proceeding from Limerick to Clare was 
attacked by a body of starving peasants, and 
plundered of her cargo of corn and Indian 
flour. 

— An insurrection broke out in the N orthem 
Portuguese provinces of Guimaraens, Prado, 
and Penella. Don Miguel, after being pro¬ 
claimed king at Borey, issued a manifesto de¬ 
claring that he would never renounce his claim 
on any pretext whatever. 

16 .—Lecomte attempts to assassinate the 
King of the French, by firing at his Majesty 
when driving through the forest of Fontaine¬ 
bleau in a char-a-banc. 

— The centenary of the battle of Cullo- 
den commemorated at Inverness by a banquet, 
at which it was resolved to erect a monument 
on the field. 

19 .—The House of Representatives pass a 
bill providing for the occupation of the Oregon 
territory. 

097 ) 





APRIL 


1846. 


MAY 


24 .—Attempt made by the Irish members 
to defeat the Conspiracy Bill by coalescing 
with the Protectionists to carry a suspension of 
the Corn Law for three months only. Mr. 
Cobden remarked that the country had taken 
the question out of the hands of parties in the 
House, a statement said to have been cheered 
by Sir Robert Peel, which cheer in turn led 
to interrogations by Mr. Newdegate and Mr. 
P. Borthwick, and to an attack by Mr. Dis¬ 
raeli. The Premier denied the cheers. Mr. 
Disraeli (who had abruptly resumed his seat on 
the Premier’s pointed denial) afterwards ad¬ 
mitted that he must have been mistaken. 

27 .—In the adjourned debate on the Irish 
Coercion Bill, Sir Robert Peel hinted that 
Irish landlords depended too much upon the 
action of Parliament to relieve the distresses 
of their country. “My own impression,” he 
said, “ is, that though much may be done by 
good legislation, by which the foundation at 
least of social improvement may be laid, yet 
the immediate practical improvement of Ire¬ 
land will be most efficaciously promoted by a 
combination of the landlords, resident and 
absentee, to follow the example of Lord George 
Hill, to improve their own property, and to 
increase its productiveness, while at the same 
time they conciliate the affections and goodwill 
of those who stand towards them in the rela¬ 
tion of tenants.” 

23 .—Mr. Smith O’Brien committed to the 
custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms for contempt 
of the House, in so far as he had refused to 
serve on a committee named for sitting on 
certain railway bills. He remained confined in 
an apartment known as “the cellar of the 
House ” for twenty-five days, the period over 
which the labours of the committee were pro¬ 
tracted. 

— Royal message laid on the table of both 
Houses, recommending provision to be made 
for Lord Hardinge and Lord Gough, whose 
public services her Majesty was desirous of re¬ 
warding. On the 4th of May Sir Robert Peel’s 
proposal for granting an annual sum of 3,000/. 
to the first-named, and 2,000/. to the second, 
was accepted by the House of Commons. Pen¬ 
sions were also granted by the East India Com¬ 
pany. 

30 .—Sir James Graham introduces the Irish 
Coercion Bill. The bill in its main features 
was substantially the same as when introduced 
into the House of Lords (see Feb. 23). The 
Lord-Lieutenant was still to have power to 
proclaim a district where heinous crimes had 
been committed, to appoint salaried magistrates, 
and increase the constabulary force according 
to the necessities of the locality at the local 
expense; compensation was to be given to in¬ 
dividuals who might sustain injuries, and to the 
survivors of those who lost their lives; and 
power was given to the Lord-Lieutenant to cause 
the apprehension of persons found out of their 
dwellings between sunset and sunrise, to have 
(198) 


them tried by a jury and before a judge of 
assize. A division took place on the prelimi¬ 
nary motion for postponing the orders of the 
day, showing a majority for Ministers of 39 in 
a House of 255. Having obtained leave to 
introduce the measure, the Home Secretary 
went into the statistics of crime in five of the 
more disturbed counties for the years 1844 
and 1845. In Cavan the insurrectionary and 
agrarian offences had risen from 109 to 257 ; 
in Fermanagh, from 18 to 166; in King’s 
County, from 226 to 301 ; and in Leitrim, from 
228 to 922. In the five counties on which he 
wished to fix the attention of the House, with 
a population of only one-sixth of the entire 
island, the number of homicides committed 
in the year were 47, about one-third of the 
whole. In Tipperary alone, during the first 
two months of the present year, there were 8 
homicides, 6 offences of firing at the person, 
13 robberies of arms, 18 firings into houses, 
69 cases of threatening notices, and 14 attacks 
on houses. 

30 .—The Royal Commissioners appointed 
to inquire into the uniformity of railway gauge 
present their report to Parliament. The 
evidence of witnesses extended over 346 pages, 
and expressed the views of the most eminent 
engineers as to the comparative utility of the 
broad gauge of 7 ft., the narrow gauge of 4 ft. 
84 in.; as well as of an intermediate gauge of 6 ft., 
now advocated by scientific men. The conclu¬ 
sions arrived at were : (1) That as regards the 
safety, accommodation, and convenience of the 
passengers no decided preference is due to either 
gauge ; but that on the broad gauge the motion 
is generally more easy at high velocities. (2) 
That in respect of speed we consider the ad¬ 
vantages are with the broad gauge ; but we 
think that the public safety would be endangered 
in employing the greater capabilities of the 
broad gauge much beyond their present use, 
except on roads more consolidated and more 
substantially and perfectly formed than those 
of the existing lines. (3) That in the com¬ 
mercial case of the transport of goods, we be¬ 
lieve the narrow gauge to possess the greater 
convenience, and to be the more suited to the 
general traffic of the country. (4) That the 
broad gauge involves the greater outlay ; and 
that we have not been able to discover either in 
the maintenance of the way, in the cost of 
locomotive power, or in the other annual ex¬ 
penses, any adequate reduction to compensate 
for the additional first cost. The Royal Com¬ 
missioners laid down the principle that uni¬ 
formity of gauge was essential to the comfort, 
and even the safety, of passengers. While the 
report was under the consideration of the Board 
of Trade the directors of the Great Western 
made such representations as excluded them 
from the immediate operation of the changes 
recommended in their system. 

May 1 .—-Lord Lincoln, the new Irish Se¬ 
cretary, returned for the Falkirk District of 





MAY 


1846. 


MA \ 


Burghs by a majority of II over Mr. Wilson, 
Dundyvan. 

1. —The first reading of the Irish Coercion 
Bill carried in the House of Commons by a 
majority of 274 to 125. 

2 . —Mr. Hudson’s railway work. Under 
his direction the shareholders in the Midland 
Company gave their approval to twenty-six 
bills which they had presently in Parliament. 
On the following Monday, at ten o’clock, the 
York and North Midland sanctioned six bills 
and affirmed various deeds and agreements 
affecting the Manchester and Leeds and Hull 
and Selby Companies. Fifteen minutes later 
he induced the Newcastle and Darlington Com¬ 
pany to approve of seven bills and accompany¬ 
ing agreements ; and at half-past ten took his 
seat as controlling power at the board of the 
Newcastle and Berwick. During a portion of 
two days he obtained the consent of share¬ 
holders to forty bills, involving an expenditure 
of about 10,000,000/. 

— Eliza Clark, aged 24, wife of a painter 
living in Chelsea, throws three of her children 
over Battersea Bridge, and is seized at the 
moment she was attempting to throw herself 
into, the river. One of the children was got 
out alive, but the other two were drowned. 
The poor woman had been subjected to a 
course of brutal treatment by a profligate hus¬ 
band, and was besides in a state of extreme 
destitution. The coroner’s jury returned a 
verdict of wilful murder, but on her trial at 
the Central Criminal Court, on the 15th, she 
was acquitted on the ground of insanity. 

S. —General Taylor defeats the Mexicans at 
Palo Alto. 

— The Report on the Com Importation 
Bill brought up and received without a divi¬ 
sion, though not without a sharp personal 
discussion first between Mr. Roebuck and Mr. 
Disraeli as to the correctness of a quotation by 
the latter from John Stuart Mill’s writings, and 
then between Lord George Bentinck and the 
Earl of Lincoln as to the expenses of the Not¬ 
tingham contest. 

13. —War declared against Mexico by the 
United States Congress votes ten million 
dollars to carry on the Texan war, and autho¬ 
rizes an addition of 7,000 to the regular army. 
The services of volunteers to the number of 
50,000 would also be accepted. 

13. —The Com Importation Bill carried 
through the House of Commons by a majority 
of 98 in a House of 556. The last of the long 
series of hostile amendments for its rejection 
was moved by the Marquis of Granby and 
seconded by Mr. Milnes Gaskell. At the 
close of a long speech crammed with statistics, 
Mr. Disraeli made another attack on the 
Premier. “The right hon. baronet had been 
a trader on other people’s intelligence. His 
life was, in fact, one great principle of appro¬ 
priation—the political burglar of other men’s 
ideas—and after deserting his friends, acting as 


if they had deserted him. The occupants of 
the Treasury benches were political pedlars, 
who had bought their party in the cheapest 
market and sold it in the dearest. This betrayal 
of their friends would lead to the loss of all 
confidence in public men. The first day after 
the right hon. gentleman made his exposition 
to this House a gentleman well known and 
learned in all the political secrets behind the 
scenes met me, and said, ‘ What do you think 
of your chiefs plan ? ’ I said I did not exactly 
know what to say about it, but, to use the 
phrase of the hour, I supposed it was a great 
and comprehensive plan. ‘Oh,’ he replied, 

‘ we know all about it : it is not his plan at 
all ; it is Popkin’s plan.’ And, Sir, is Eng¬ 
land to be governed and convulsed for Popkin’s 
plan ? Will he appeal to the people on such a 
plan? Will he appeal to that ancient and 
famous England, which was once governed by 
statesmen such as Burleigh and Walsingham, 
Bolingbroke and Walpole, Chatham and 
Canning? Will he appeal to England on a 
fantastic scheme of some pedant ? I will not 
believe it.”—In addressing the House towards 
the close of the debate, Sir Robert Peel said: 
“ I foresaw that the course which I had taken 
from a sense of public duty would expose me 
to serious sacrifices. I foresaw, as its inevitable 
result, that I must forfeit friendships which I 
highly valued, that I must interrupt political 
relations in which I took a sincere pride ; bul 
the smallest penalty which I contemplated was 
the continued venomous attacks of the member 
for Shrewsbury. Sir, I will only say of that 
hon. gentleman, that if he, after reviewing the 
whole of my political life—a life of thirty years 
before my accession to office in 1841—if he 
then entertained the opinion of me which he 
now professes, it is surprising that in 1841, 
after that long experience of my public career, 
he should have been prepared to give me his 
confidence. It is still more surprising that he 
should have been ready, as I think he was, to 
unite his fortunes with mine in office, thus im¬ 
plying the strongest proof which any public 
man can give of confidence in the honour and 
integrity of a Minister of the Crown.” Mr. 
Disraeli denied that he had ever been directly 
an applicant for place in 1841, or at any other 
time. The division took place amid great 
excitement at four o’clock on the morning of 
the 16th. 

16 .—Fatal affray at Bird Hill, Tipperary, 
between the police, acting under the orders of 
the sub-sheriff of the county, and the servants 
of one Maunsell, a sub-tenant, who was made 
the subject of an action of ejectment. The 
house was barricaded and an entrance refused. 
After some delay the police fired, and killed 
four of those inside. A detachment of forty 
soldiers was also present, but their services 
were not required, as the besieged party capi¬ 
tulated almost immediately after the police fired. 

18 . —The foundation-stone of a memorial to 
John Knox laid at the Netherbow, Edinburgh. 

(199) 




MAY 


1846. 


MA } 


18 .—The Duke of Wellington moves the 
first reading of the Corn Importation Bill in 
the House of Lords. The principal speaker in 
opposition was the Duke of Richmond, who 
censured the Premier for the distinction he 
drew between public and private honour, and 
declared that, in the face of the understanding 
, come to with the agricultural party in 1842, he 
was not justified in abandoning the principle of 
Protection to British industry. No division 
took place on the first reading. 

— At the close of their labours in the 
Central Criminal Court, the grand jury ex¬ 
press a conviction, forced on them by their 
recent investigations, that there is something 
fundamentally defective in legislation both as 
regards the decrease of crime and the recla¬ 
mation of criminals, particularly as regards 
juveniles, and offenders convicted more than 
once. 

— Disturbance at the weekly Repeal meet¬ 
ing between the followers of O’Connell and 
Smith O’Brien, now looked upon as a rival 
leader of the National party. 

20. —The hospital and barracks of her 
Majesty’s 50th Regiment of Foot at Loodiana, 
Hindostan, destroyed by a hurricane. 84 per¬ 
sons were killed, and 135 wounded. 

— The foundation-stone of a new wing to 
University College Hospital laid by Lord 
Brougham. 

21. —At a meeting of Protectionists, held in 
Willis’s Rooms, the Duke of Richmond an¬ 
nounced that Lord Stanley was to be the leader 
of their party in the House of Lords. 

22 . —Lord Ashley’s Ten Hours Factory Bill 
thrown out of the House of Commons on a 
a second reading by 203 to 193 votes. 

25 . —At five minutes before three o’clock 
this afternoon the Queen was safely delivered 
of a daughter—the Princess Helena Augusta 
Victoria. 

— Prince Louis Napoleon escapes from the 
fortress of Ham in the disguise of a workman, 
and proceeds to Belgium. 

— Collision in the Mersey between the Sea 
Nymph , of Newry, and the Rambler , of Sligo, 
the latter having on board about 250 emigrants 
for America. Many of them were crushed to 
death in the collision, and several others were 
drowned out of a small boat which they had 
taken possession of when the vessel was run 
ashore. 

26 . —Debate in the House of Lords on the 
second reading of the Corn Importation Bill. 
The Duke of Richmond denied that the great 
body of the operatives in the country were in 
favour of such a measure. “ The Anti-Corn- 
Law League had never dared to hold an open 
meeting in Manchester. In the very hot-bed 
of their own sedition they would not trust 
their own operatives to have a public meeting 
without being admitted by tickets. The mea- 

(200) 


sure was only the first of a series of attacks 
that would shake the foundations of the throne, 
cripple the Church, endanger the institutions 
of the country, and plunge a happy and con¬ 
tented people into misery, confusion, and 
anarchy.”-—Lord Stanley said it was for their 
lordships to check hasty and ill-considered 
legislation, and to ‘ ‘ protect the people against 
the teaching of those whom they had chosen to 
represent their opinions, and the best reward 
you can have will be the approval of your own 
consciences in having done your duty ; but 
there will be another reward in the approbation 
and the thanks of a grateful and admiring 
people, who will then justly exclaim, ‘ Thank 
God, we have a House of Lords. ’ ”—The most 
prominent speaker in favour of the bill was 
Lord Brougham, who described Sir Robert 
Peel as one of the greatest Ministers who ever 
ruled over the destinies of a country. 

28 . —The second reading of the Corn Im¬ 
portation Bill carried through the House of 
Lords by a majority of 47. The chief speakers 
in favour of the bill were Earl Granville, 
the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Brougham, Earl 
Grey, and the Duke of Wellington ; against, 
the Duke of Cambridge, the Earl of Malmes¬ 
bury, Lord Beaumont, and the Duke of 
Beaufort. The Duke of Wellington said : “I 
shall ever lament any breaking up of the habits 
of confidence in public life with which your 
lordships have honoured me, but I will not 
allow this occasion to pass, even if this night 
should possibly be the last upon which I shall 
give you my advice, without giving my counsel 
as to the vote which I think your lordships 
should give on this occasion.” He warned 
them against rejecting a measure which had 
been passed by such majorities through the 
House of Commons. The division showed : 
Content, present 138, proxies 73; Not-content, 
present, 126, proxies 38. 

29 . —Public meeting in Edinburgh, called 
to consider the gift of certain sums of money to 
the Free Church by slave-holding congrega¬ 
tions in America. Mr. G. Thompson made a 
vehement appeal to the Church to send back 
the money. 

— Prince Louis Napoleon addresses a note 
to Count de St. Aulaire, announcing that his 
motive in escaping from prison was not to 
engage in new attempts against the French 
Government, but only to visit his aged father, 
then lying ill at Florence. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Goul- 
burn) submits the annual Budget to the House 
of Commons. Although the fiscal measures 
passed by the House this session had reduced 
duties to the extent of 1,041,000/. he estimated 
that he could yet calculate on a revenue of 
51,650,000/. The gross estimated outlay was 
set down at 50,873,000/., showing a surplus 
of 777,000/., the sum likely to be acquired 
under the treaty with China. 




JUNE 


1846. 


JUNE 


June 1 .— Died at Rome, aged 80, his Holi¬ 
ness Pope Gregory XVI. (Mauro Capellari). 
He was elected on the 2d February, 1831. 

4 . —About ten o’clock this evening, as a 
company of nine persons were crossing Ulver- 
stone Sands to Flookburg, on their return 
from the fair, they missed their way after ford¬ 
ing the channel, and fell into a hole known as 
the “Black Scar.” Horse, cart, and passen¬ 
gers went down and never rose again. 

— The new Custom Duties Bill read a 
second time in the House of Lords without a 
division. 

5 . —Ibrahim Pasha arrives at Portsmouth 
on a visit to England. On landing he was 
presented with an address by the Corporation, 
making special allusion to the facilities afforded 
to England by his father for keeping up a 
constant and uninterrupted communication 
with India. His Highness remained in Ports¬ 
mouth till the 8th, visiting in the interim the 
dockyard, bakery, and Nelson’s ship the 
Victory. On arriving in London with his 
suite he took up his residence in Mivart’s 
Hotel, and visited most of the places of in¬ 
terest in and around the metropolis. He 
dined with her Majesty on the nth, and after¬ 
wards with the Oriental Steam Navigation 
Company and the East India Company. 

6 . —Meeting of Lord John Russell’s sup¬ 
porters, at his residence, Chesham-place. It 
was unanimously resolved to oppose the Irish 
Coercion Bill in its future stages ; and support 
was also promised to his lordship’s motion for 
the admission of slave-grown sugar into this 
country at the same amount of duty as was 
levied on free-trade sugar. 

— The Society for Promoting the Amend¬ 
ment of the Law hold their first public meeting. 

8 .— Lecomte guillotined at the Barrier St. 
Jacques, for attempting to assassinate King 
Louis Philippe. 

— On the motion that the Irish Coercion 
Bill be read a second time, Sir W. Somerville 
proposed as an amendment that it be read a 
second time that day six months.—Lord George 
Bentinck said he and his friends had declared 
before the Easter holidays that they would 
support the measure if the Government pressed 
it forward with sincerity and earnestness, but 
he also said that if, on the contrary, they 
allowed othei measures of less importance to 
take precedence of it, he could not think them 
sincere in their support of so unconstitutional a 
measure, which nothing but the most urgent 
necessity could justify. They had allowed six 
weeks to elapse before they took any steps to 
advance its progress, and when it stood for the 
second reading they did not care to make a 
House on a Government night. From this it 
must be admitted that they had shown no 
great desire or earnestness to carry the bill. On 
these grounds his party were now determined 
to oppose the measure. “We have been told 


by the right hon. gentleman at the head of the 
Government that he would not consent to be a 
Minister on sufferance. Why, Sir, the right 
hon. gentleman must be deaf to all that is 
passing around him if he does not find out 
very soon that he is in that position. Do we 
not find him appealing from one side of the 
House to the other? Is he not supported some¬ 
times by the hon. gentlemen opposite, and 
sometimes by the hon. gentlemen around him ? 
His main supporters are his paid janissaries, 
and some seventy other auxiliaries, who, while 
they support him, express disgust at his con¬ 
duct. When we remember Sir Robert Peel’s 
conduct in 1825, in 1827, and 1829, though by 
long sitting on the stool of repentance we might 
forgive him, the country will not twice forgive 
such crimes in the same man. It is time that 
atonement should be made to the insulted 
country, to an insulted Parliament, and to the 
betrayed constituency of the empire.” 

8 . —The Commissioners of the National 
Vaccine Board report a considerable diminu¬ 
tion in the prevalence of small-pox. 

9 . —Fire at St. John’s, Newfoundland, laying 
waste a large part of the city, and consuming 
property valued at 1,000,000/. Several lives 
were also lost. 

12.—In the course of the adjourned debate 
on the Coercion Bill, Sir Robert Peel replied to 
the personal charge of having hunted Mr. Can¬ 
ning to death. The whole of the charge, he 
said, directed against him, of having stated in 
1827 that he told Lord Liverpool in 1825 he 
had changed his opinion on Catholic Emanci¬ 
pation, was wholly without foundation. On 
the 15th the charge was renewed by Mr. Dis¬ 
raeli, who contrasted the speech of Sir Robert 
as reported in the ‘ ‘ Mirror of Parliament, ” and 
as reported in “Hansard.” In the latter, 
which was stated to have been revised by Mr. 
Secretary Peel, the words referring to the 
statement made to Lord Liverpool were 
omitted. He was not surprised that his noble 
friend, Lord George Bentinck, felt so deeply 
as he did with reference to Mr. Canning. 
“ When would they see another Mr. Canning, 
—a man who ruled that House as a high-bred 
steed ? The temper of the House was not now 
as spirited as it was then, and he was not there¬ 
fore surprised that the vulture ruled where once 
the eagle reigned. The right hon. gentleman 
had said that Ireland was his greatest difficulty. 
He must be reminded of that by his present 
position. He must feel that it was Nemesis 
who regulated that division, and who was 
about to stamp with the seal of parliamentary 
reprobation the catastrophe of a sinister career.” 
In reply to this attack Sir Robert Peel said, he 
would trespass so far upon the favour of the 
House as to desire it to suspend its judgment 
on Jhe accusations now made. It was said 
there was a letter in existence confirmatory of 
the allegations. If so, why was it not now 
produced? His own impression was that the 
communication with Lord Liverpool was a 

(201) 





JUNE 


1846. 


JUNE 


verbal one, but if there was a letter in existence, 
or even a copy of one, he undertook that it 
would be presented to the House the next time 
he had occasion to address it on the subject. 
(See May 19.) 

12 . —Speaking to the motion for going into 
Committee on the Corn Importation Bill, the 
Bishop of Oxford admitted that it was likely to 
injure, to some extent, the incomes of the Eng¬ 
lish clergy; but many of them, he said, were 
looking forward with pleasure to the measure, 
as they thought its effect would be that they 
would minister to a happier and more elevated 
peasantry. 

—- Decided in the Court of Exchequer the 
case of Walstob v. Spottiswoode, establishing 
the liability of provisional committees not only 
to pay all the expenses incurred in connexion 
with bubble-schemes, but to return the de¬ 
posits. 

— With a view to the speedy and satisfac¬ 
tory settlement of the Oregon boundary ques¬ 
tion, President Polk, acting on the advice of 
the Senate, accepts the convention submitted 
by Mr. Pakenham on behalf of the British 
Government; the United States to possess 
up to 49 0 N. latitude, leaving to England the 
navigation of the Columbia. 

13 . —On her voyage to America, the Great 
Britain screw-steamer runs this day 330 knots, 
being an average of nearly sixteen statute miles 
per hour. 

15 .—Private White, of the 7th Hussars, 
flogged at Hounslow Barracks. He had been 
sentenced to 150 lashes for striking his ser¬ 
geant across the chest with a poker, and the 
whole number was administered by two far¬ 
riers, in presence of the men, and under the 
inspection of Dr. Warren, the su; eon of the 
regiment. At the conclusion White was able 
to walk to the hospital with a little assistance, 
but he got worse there, and expired on the 11 th 
July. A regimental post-mortem examination 
was made, and a certificate signed that death 
resulted from inflammation of the pleura, and 
was in no way connected with the corporal 
punishment to which he had been subjected. 
The coroner (Mr. Wakley) and Mr. Erasmus 
Wilson took a different view of the matter; 
the latter giving it as his opinion that, so far 
as appearances went, White might still have 
been alive but for the severe corporal punish¬ 
ment he had endured. The coroner’s jury re¬ 
turned a verdict to this effect, and urged upon 
the people the necessity of petitioning Parlia¬ 
ment to put a stop to the cruel practice. White’s 
comrades erected a stone in Helston church¬ 
yard as “a testimonial of their deep commise¬ 
ration of his fate, and out of respect to his 
memory. ” 

15 .—Mr. T. F. Meagher, making remarks at 
the Repeal meeting to-day thought to be depre¬ 
ciatory of O’Connell, his “ head pacificator,” 
Steele, replies that the people of Ireland had 
no other prophet or guide than the crownless 
(202) 


and sceptreless monarch of the hearts of the 
people—the lay pontiff of his own religion—• 
O’Connell, the august, the almost sanctified 
peaceful and moral force revolutionist. 

16 . —Sir Robert Peel writes to the artist 
Haydon :—“ I am sorry to hear of your con¬ 
tinued embarassments. From a limited fund 
which I have at my disposal, I send, as a con¬ 
tribution for your relief from these embarrass¬ 
ments, the sum of 50/.” It was on this day 
.Haydon recorded in his journal: “Sat from 
two to five o’clock staring at my picture like an 
idiot, my brain pressed down by anxiety and 
the anxious looks of my family, whom I have 
been compelled to inform of my condition. I 

have written to Sir Robert Peel, to -, &c. 

&c. Who answered first ? Tormented by Dis¬ 
raeli, harassed by public business, up came a 
letter from Sir Robert Peel.” 

— The foundation-stone of the new labora¬ 
tories of the Royal College of Chemistry laid 
by Prince Albert. 

17 . —Rowland Hill entertained at Blackwall, 
and presented with 13,000/. as a national testi¬ 
monial for his services in suggesting and carry¬ 
ing into execution the system of uniform penny 
postage. 

18 . —Formal opening of the North British 
Railway from Edinburgh to Berwick. 

19 . —Cardinal Jean Marie Mastai Ferretti 
elected Pope, by the Conclave of the Sacred 
College, and occupies the chair of St. Peter 
under the title of Pius IX. 

— Sir Robert Peel enters into a long per¬ 
sonal explanation with reference to the charges 
brought against him by Lord George Bentinck 
and Mr. Disraeli. Regarding the first count 
in the indictment, that, though he had vigo¬ 
rously opposed Catholic Emancipation in 1827, 
he had yet written a letter to Lord Liverpool 
in 1825, stating that he had changed his opinion 
on the Catholic question, and that the time 
was come, for a settlement, Sir Robert denied 
that he had ever made any such intimation by 
letter or otherwise, and produced letters from 
Lord Liverpool of the date in question, utterly 
irreconcilable with the idea that such a com¬ 
munication had been made. As regarded the 
discrepancy in the reports of his speech, he 
showed that the “Mirror of Parliament,” 
founded on by Mr. Disraeli, was not an inde¬ 
pendent anthority, but a transcript of the 
Times , which on the point in question differed 
from all the other morning papers. “ If the 
honourable gentlemen, twenty years after the 
death of Mr. Canning, is parading those feel¬ 
ings of affection for his memory for the pur¬ 
pose of wounding a political opponent, he is 
desecrating feelings which are in themselves 
entitled to esteem and respect; and so far from 
succeeding in his purpose of inflicting a blow 
on me, my firm belief is that he is rallying 
round me a degree of public sympathy, and 
bringing upon himself nothing but indignation 






JUNE 


1846. 


JUNE 


at the time and the circumstances and the 
motives which have led to this charge being 
made. ” 

22.—B. R. Haydon commits suicide by 
firing a pistol into his head, and then cutting 
his throat. Repeated disappointment to his 
ambition as an artist, a continued course of 
what appeared to him obstinate misconception 
and prejudice on the part of the public, and 
the irritating pressure of pecuniary embarrass¬ 
ments, all combined to embitter his later years, 
and tended to produce that disorder of the in¬ 
tellect which some unsuspected and slight dis¬ 
appointment seemed to urge beyond the limits 
of self-restraint. A diary which he had kept 
for many years was written up to the last 
minute of his life, the closing entry being 
“June 22.—God forgive me. Amen. Finis. 
B. R. Haydon. Stretch me no longer on this 
rough world ! ” Letters to his wife, family, and 
friends were also left in his studio, where the 
fatal deed was committed. The coroner’s jury 
returned a verdict that the unfortunate artist 
had died from wounds inflicted by himself, but 
that he was in an unsound state of mind at the 
time. They found the body lying before the 
painter’s colossal picture, “ Alfred the Great 
and the First British Jury,” on which he ap¬ 
peared to have been engaged during the fore¬ 
noon. 

25 .—The third reading of the Corn Impor¬ 
tation Bill carried in the House of Lords with¬ 
out a division. The Customs Duties Bill, a 
companion measure, was also passed without 
a division. The Royal Assent was given next 
day by commission. 

— Fall of the Peel Ministry. After a debate 
protracted over six sittings, Ministers were de¬ 
feated to-night on the motion for a second 
reading of the Irish Coercion Bill by 292 to 
219 votes. Mr. Shiel, who spoke for the first 
time this session, made a damaging speech 
against the Irish policy of Government. Speak¬ 
ing of the effect of the State prosecutions he 
said : “At last the long series of ignominious 
proceedings terminated in a discomfiture of the 
Government of which there is no former ex¬ 
ample—terminated with a denunciation pro¬ 
nounced by the Chief Justice of England, from 
the highest seat of judicature in the world, and 
in the conversion of the porch of a prison- 
house into an arch of triumph through which 
the most remarkable man in Europe, whom you 
had the temerity to call a convicted conspirator, 
was given back to the embraces of an enthu¬ 
siastic and devoted people.” Mr. Cobden and 
Mr. Buffer also spoke against the biff to-night, 
the former, however, praising the Premier for 
the ability with which during the last six months 
he had conducted one of the most magnificent 
commercial reforms ever carried in any country. 
The majority presented a combination of mem¬ 
bers opposed to the measure on its merits but 
not to the Premier, of those who formerly 
advocated such a biff but whose way to office 
would now be opened up by its defeat, and of 


those who would risk any consequence in re¬ 
senting their defeat on the Com Laws. The 
division was received by the House in silence ; 
and an immediate adjournment took place at a 
quarter-past two o’clock. 

27 .— General rejoicing throughout the com¬ 
mercial districts at the passing of the Corn Bill. 

— Sir Robert Peel waits upon the Queen at 
Osborne, and tenders the resignation of himself 
and colleagues. Lord John Russell had an 
audience on the 30th, and returned to town 
next day with commands to form a Ministry. 

29 .—Police-constable George Clarke mur¬ 
dered on his beat at Dagenham, by some per¬ 
son or persons unknown, who had also mangled 
the body in the most shocking and bloodthirsty 
manner. 

— Sir Robert Peel informs the House of 
Commons of the resignation of his Ministry 
in consequence of the adverse vote on the 
Coercion Biff. He also intimates that her 
Majesty had been pleased to entrust Lord John 
Russell with the formation of a new Cabinet. 
In the. course of his address, Sir Robert said : 
“ I admit that the withdrawal of the con¬ 
fidence of many of our friends was the natural 
result of the measures we proposed ; and I do 
think, when proposals of such a nature are 
made, apparently at variance with the course 
which Ministers heretofore have pursued, and 
subjecting them to the charge or taunt of in¬ 
consistency, upon the whole it is advantageous 
for the country, and for the genuine character 
of public men, that the proposal of measures 
of that kind, under such circumstances, should 
entail that which is supposed to be a fitting 
punishment; namely, expulsion from office. I 
therefore do not complain of it: anything is 
preferable to attempting to maintain ourselves 
in office without a full measure of the con¬ 
fidence of this House. (Cheers.) As I said 
before, Sir, in reference to our proposing these 
measures, I have no wish to rob any person of 
the credit which is justly due to him for them. 
But I may say, that neither the gentlemen 
sitting on the benches opposite, nor myself, 
nor the gentlemen sitting around me—I say 
that neither of us are the parties who are 
strictly entitled to the merit. There has been 
a combination of parties, and that combina¬ 
tion of parties, together with the influence of 
the Government, has led to the ultimate suc¬ 
cess of the measures. But, Sir, there is a name 
which ought to be associated with their suc¬ 
cess. It is not the name of the noble lord the 
member for the City of London, neither is it 
my name. Sir, the name which ought to be, 
and which will be, associated with the success 
of these measures, is the name of the man who, 
acting, I believe, from pure and disinterested 
motives, has advocated their cause with un* 
tiring energy, and by appeals to reason en¬ 
forced by an eloquence the more to be desired 
because it is unaffected and unadorned—the 
name which ought to be, and will be, asso« 

(203) 





JUNF. 


1846. 


JULY 


dated with the success of these measures, is 
the name of Richard Cobden. (Loud cheers.) 
Without scruple, Sir, I attribute the success of 
these measures to him.” In concluding his ad¬ 
dress, the right honourable baronet said : “I 
shall leave office, I fear, with a name severely 
censured by many honourable gentlemen, who, 
on public principle, deeply regret the severance 
of party ties, not from any interested or per¬ 
sonal motives, but because they believe fidelity 
to party engagements—the existence and main¬ 
tenance of a great party—to constitute a power¬ 
ful instrument of government; I shall surrender 
power severely censured, I fear, by many hon. 
gentlemen who, from no interested motives, 
have adhered to the principle of Protection as 
important to the welfare and interest of the 
country ; I shall leave a name execrated by 
every monopolist, who, from less honourable 
motives, maintains Protection for his own in¬ 
dividual benefit; but it may be that I shall 
leave a name sometimes remembered with 
expressions of goodwill in those places which 
are the abode of men whose lot it is to labour 
and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of 
their brow—a name remembered with expres¬ 
sions of goodwill when they shall recreate their 
exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed 
food, the sweeter because it is no longer lea¬ 
vened with a sense of injustice.” (Sir Robert’s 
concluding observations were received with 
general applause.) 

29 .—Meetings of the Liberal .party, held at 
the residence of Lord John Russell, and at 
Brookes’s Club. 

July 1.— Publication of the Report of the 
Select Committee of the House of Lords, ap¬ 
pointed to take into consideration the best 
means of enforcing one uniform system of 
management on railroads, and to secure the 
due fulfilment of the provisions of the Acts of 
Parliament under which the companies had 
obtained their power. After describing the 
deficiencies of the present system, the com¬ 
mittee recommended the creation of a depart¬ 
ment in the Executive for considering and 
controlling the entire railway system of the 
country. 

2 . —The Anti-Corn-Law League formally 
dissolved, with the exception of a committee, 
nominated to call the members together in the 
event of any sudden and unforeseen emergency 
demanding exertion. 10,000/. voted to Mr. 
Wilson for his services as chairman. Later in 
the day another meeting was held in Man¬ 
chester Town Hall for the purpose of raising 
a testimonial to Mr. Cobden, whose losses in 
connexion with the agitation were said to 
amount to 20,000/. 

3 . —Lord John Russell issues his address 
to the electors of the City of London. He 
trusted that “ the measures of commercial 
freedom which still remain to be accomplished 
will not occasion the renewal of angry conflict. 
The Government of this country ought to be- 

(204) 


hold with an impartial eye the various portions 
of the community engaged in agriculture, in 
manufacture, and in commerce. The feeling 
that any of them is treated with injustice pro¬ 
vokes ill-will, disturbs legislation, and directs 
attention from many useful and necessary re¬ 
forms. Great social improvements are required: 
public education is lamentably imperfect ; the 
treatment of criminals is a problem yet unde¬ 
cided ; the sanitary condition of our towns and 
villages has been grossly neglected. The ad¬ 
ministration of our colonies demands the most 
earnest and deliberate attention. Our recent 
discussions have laid bare the misery, the dis¬ 
content, and outrages in Ireland. They are 
too clearly authenticated to be denied—too 
extensive to be treated by any but the most 
comprehensive measures.” 

4 .—Sir Robert Peel to Lord Hardinge in 
India: “You will see that we are out-de¬ 
feated by a combination of Whigs and Protec¬ 
tionists. A much less emphatic hint would 
have sufficed for me. I would not have held 
office by sufferance for a week. Were I to 
write a quire of paper, I could not recount to 
you what has passed with half so much detail 
and accuracy as the public papers will recount 
it. There are no secrets. We have fallen in 
the face of day, and with our front to the 
enemy. There is nothing I would not have 
done to ensure the carrying of the measures I 
had proposed this session. I pique myself on 
never having proposed anything which I have 
not carried. But the moment their success was 
ensured, and I had the satisfaction of seeing 
two drowsy Masters in Chancery mumble out 
at the table of the House of Commons that the 
Lords had passed the Corn and Customs Bills, 

I was satisfied.”—Replying on the same day to 
a congratulatory address from the Manchester 
Chamber of Commerce, Sir Robert urged an 
early reconciliation of agricultural and manu¬ 
facturing interests, and remarked that full jus¬ 
tice had hardly yet been done to the moderation 
and forbearance of the class concerned in the 
cultivation of the soil. “Be assured,” he 
added, “that in a private station I shall give 
my continued support to those principles of 
commercial legislation which have been ap¬ 
proved equally by the deductions of reason and 
by the results- of practical experiment, and that 
I shall rejoice in the progress of all measures 
adopted with due caution and circumspection, 
that shall be calculated by extending commerce 
to give additional security for general peace, 
and by insuring their just reward to skill and 
industry, to lay the best foundation for the 
intellectual and moral improvement of the 
people.” 

6.—Died at Folkestone, aged 69, Chief 
Justice Sir N. C. Tindal. 

8 .— King Christian VIII. of Denmark 
issues letters patent declaratory of his right to 
the Duchy of Schleswig, and expressive of his 
intention to submit his claims to Holstein for 






JULY 


1846. 


AUGUST 


consideration. One portion of the inhabitants 
desired separation from Denmark that they 
might enter as an additional State into the 
German Confederation, while another appeared 
to prefer a union with Sweden and Norway. 

9 .—During a severe thunderstorm, the East 
Wheal Rose silver and lead mine, near Truro, 
was flooded, and thirty-nine of the workmen 
drowned, being the whole of those in the lower 
levels. The water gathered from the surround¬ 
ing hills in huge masses, and poured down the 
shaft till the workings were flooded to above 
the 50-fathom level. 

11 . —Ministerial re-elections, in most cases 
unopposed. 

13 .—The new Ministers take the oaths and 
their seats after re-election. Among those pre¬ 
sent were Lord John Russell, First Lord of the 
Treasury; Sir George Grey, Home Secretary; 
Lord Palmerston, Foreign Secretary; and Mr. 
C. Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer. (See 
Table of Administrations.) 

14 -.—Re-election of Mr. Macaulay for Edin¬ 
burgh, on the occasion of his accepting the office 
of Paymaster-General in the new Cabinet. At 
four o’clock the poll stood : Macaulay, 1,735 ; 
Sir C. E. Smith, 832. 

16 .—Lieut. Hawkey, the surviving principal 
in the Gosport duel, surrendering to take his 
trial, was arraigned to-day before Mr. Baron 
Platt for the wilful murder of Capt. Seaton. 
The learned judge summed up adversely to the 
accused on the law of the case, but favourably 
with regard to the evidence showing provoca¬ 
tion. The jury returned a verdict of Not 
guilty. Lieut. Hawkey was afterwards restored 
to his commission. 

— Lord John Russell explains the principles 
on which his Cabinet had been formed, and the 
policy he intended to follow in carrying through 
the work of the session. While he had been 
unable, he said, to construct a Ministry united 
on every measure likely to come up for dis¬ 
cussion, on the question of Free Trade there 
was but one opinion. He expressed himself 
as favourable to improvement in the repre¬ 
sentation of the people, but would not be a 
party to any scheme making an organic change 
in the franchise. 

20 .—Lord John Russell introduces the new 
Sugar Duties Bill. Instead of the old pro¬ 
hibitory duty of 63^., and a protecting duty of 
23s. 4^., he proposed that there should be 
upon all foreign muscovado sugar a duty of 
2 is. per cwt., and that that duty should gra¬ 
dually diminish from 21 s. in 1847, to 15^. 6 d. 
in 1851, and that from July of the latter year 
the smaller duty of 14s. should apply to all 
muscovado sugar. 

24 .—Lord Palmerston instructs the British 
Minister at Madrid to press upon the Spanish 
Cabinet the advantage of selecting Don Enrique 
b s a husband for the Queen. 


25 .—Died at Leghorn, in the 68th year of 
his age, Prince Louis Bonaparte, ex-king of 
Holland, father of the Emperor Napoleon III. 

27 .—Split in the Repeal Association—the 
Young Ireland party attaching themselves to 
Smith O’Brien, and the other to O’Connell. In 
one of the many scenes of confusion which 
took place during the proceedings, Mr. Meagher 
indignantly repudiated the notion that the 
sword should not be resorted to in extreme 
cases. Smith O’Brien’s party left the hall. The 
Liberator himself appeared at the next weekly 
meeting, and besought true Repealers not to 
be led away by physical-force enthusiasts, and 
also to give the present Government a fair trial, 
for he knew they had many good measures in 
preparation. 

— Discussion in the House of Commons 
on Lord George Bentinck’s amendment to the 
Government resolutions on the Sugar Duties : 
‘ ‘ That in the present state of the sugar cultiva¬ 
tion in the British East and West Indian posses¬ 
sions, the proposed reduction of duty upon 
foreign slave-grown sugar is alike unjust and 
impolitic, as tending to check the advance of 
production by British free labour, and to give 
a great additional stimulus to slave labour.” 
Sir Robert Peel expressed his approval of the 
measure, as giving the greatest encouragement 
to free labour production. The debate was 
protracted over two nights, and resulted in a 
majority for Government of 130 in a House 
of 400 members. 

29 . —Another attempt made to assassinate 
the King of the French by Joseph Henri, who 
fired while his Majesty was bowing on the bal¬ 
cony of the Tuileries to the multitude assembled 
to commemorate the anniversary of the Revo¬ 
lution of 1830. Henri was arrested instantly, 
and conveyed to prison. He was sentenced to 
hard labour for life. 

30 . —Prince Albert visits Liverpool, and 
opens the dock bearing his Royal Highness’s 
name. Next day he fulfilled the main purpose 
of his journey, by laying the foundation-stone 
of the Sailors’ Home. 

— The Under-Secretary for Ireland (Labou- 
chere) announces that Government was pre¬ 
pared to take into consideration the propriety 
of restoring the dismissed Repeal magistrates 
to the Commission of the Peace for their 
respective counties. 

August 1.—Serious storm of hail, rain, and 
thunder in the metropolis. At Buckingham 
Palace the glass in the picture gallery was 
totally destroyed, and the apartment flooded 
with water. 7,000 panes of glass were broken 
in the New Houses of Parliament; 300 at the 
Police-office, Scotland Yard, and no fewer than 
10,000 at Burford’s Panorama. The Surrey 
Theatre was so flooded that the evening per¬ 
formance could not be gone on with. The 
storm spread from London over a considerable 
breadth of country, but the damage done was 

(205) 




AUGUST 


AUGUST 


184 6. 


trifling compared with that sustained in the 
metropolis. 

1.—Died at his hotel, Albemarle-street, aged 
52, Baboo Dwarkanauth Tagore, a popular 
Hindoo nobleman, distinguished for his 
princely hospitality and munificent support 
of charitable institutions, European as well as 
Indian. 

4 .—-Protectionist banquet at Lynn, attended 
by Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli. 
In his speech, the latter insisted that the maxim 
of buying in the cheapest market and selling 
in the dearest could only be applied to a retail 
trade; the principle of commerce, he contended, 
was barter—an interchange on equal terms of 
equivalent advantages. 

6 . —The Prussian town of Elbing having 
congratulated Sir Robert Peel on the successful 
issue of the Free Trade struggle, the right hon. 
baronet Wrote in reply: “The social con¬ 
dition of that country which maintains with 
the greatest rigour the protective system will 
be opposed to the state of another which has 
adopted liberal principles, and the conviction 
of the value of such principles will not obtain 
unless by the encouragement of the freedom of 
exchange amongst all the nations of the world ; 
the well-being of each individual will be in¬ 
creased, the will of Providence will be fulfilled 
—that Providence which has given to every 
country a sun, a climate, and a soil, each dif¬ 
fering one from the other, not for the purpose 
of rendering them severally independent of 
each other, but, on the contrary, in order that 
the> may feel their reciprocal dependence by 
the exchange of their respective products, thus 
causing them to enjoy the common blessings 
of Providence. It is thus that we find in com¬ 
merce the means of advancing civilization, of 
appeasing jealousy and national prejudice, and 
of bringing about a universal peace, either from 
national interest or from Christian duty.” 

— Royal Assent given to a bill providing 
for the better administration of the law for the 
relief of the poor in Scotland, and assimilating 
the parochial system in that part of the kingdom 
to what prevailed in England. 

7 . —Dr. Bowring’s motion to abolish flogging 
in the army rejected by 90 votes to 37. Pre¬ 
vious to the commencement of the discussion, 
Lord John Russell intimated that the Com- 
mander-in-Chief was about to issue an order 
prohibiting court-martials from causing a 
greater number of lashes than fifty to be 
inflicted. 

— The brothers Gregory set out from Bol- 
gart Spring, on an Australian exploring expe¬ 
dition. They returned on the 22d September, 
having penetrated into the interior a distance 
of 953 miles. 

— Mr. Labouchere announces the inten¬ 
tion of Government to introduce an Irish Arms 
Bill, to continue in effect till 1st May. The 
measure excited considerable hostility, and was 
withdrawn on the 17th. 

(206) 


7. —From a return issued by order of the 
House of Commons, it appears that the total 
amount of subscriptions by persons who have 
subscribed 2,000/. and upwards to any railway 
subscription contract deposited in the Bill 
Office during the present session is 121,255,374/. 
ox. 8 d. Mr. Hudson is represented as sub¬ 
scribing 818,540/. for twenty-three lines in 
which he was concerned. 

— Speaking at a Protectionist banquet at 
Waltham, Mr. Disraeli remarked that “It was 
said by the millowners ‘ We are indebted for 
civilization to the towns ; that it dwells there ; 
and that therefore they ought to govern the 
country. ’ Magna Charta -was not procured by 
Manchester. Manchester was not known then. 
What were our patriots in past days ? Was Mr. 
Hampden, for instance, a manufacturer? No, 
he was a rural gentleman, and dwelt in the 
county in which I reside. He who founded 
the modern political constitution under which 
we live, when he rode into London, was sur¬ 
rounded by the yeomanry of his native county. 
And there was Mr. Pym also, who ranks among 
our noblest patriots; he came from Bedford¬ 
shire, which to this day does not possess a 
city. I want to see what foundation there is 
for the doctrine that we should be governed by 
towns. I believe that the liberties and rights 
of Englishmen spring from the land ; and as 
soon as the land is removed from its place, our 
liberties as Englishmen will be endangered.” 

— Mr. Cobden, presently on a Continental 
tour, entertained by the King of the French at 
the Chateau d’Eu. At various congratulatory 
entertainments which he received on his journey, 
Mr. Cobden spoke in favour of free trade, and 
explained the proceedings of the League in 
England. 

IO.—The Times publishes a list of the new 
railways authorized to be constructed in the 
present session, showing that they involved an 
expenditure of 129,229,767/. 

15 .—Inauguration of the Scott Monument, 
Edinburgh. The spectacle was designed on a 
scale of unusual splendour, but the unpropi- 
tious state of the weather curtailed the cere¬ 
monial part of the proceedings. The proces¬ 
sion, consisting of about 600 Freemasons, the 
Lord Provost and magistrates of Edinburgh, 
with deputations fiom numerous other incor¬ 
porated bodies, passed from Lothian-road to 
the monument in Princes-street. Lord Glen- 
lyon, the Grand Master, at the close of a short 
address, said his final duty was to hand over 
this monument, duly finished, to the care of 
the committee, and to the Lord Provost and 
magistrates of Edinburgh, as a testimony to 
the memory of the great novelist and minstrel, 
in whom Scotland has been so highly honoured. 
There was a banquet in the evening, presided 
over by Lord Provost Black. 

— The Lord Chancellor causes intimation to 
be sent to Mr. O’Connell that if he wished to 
resume the office of a magistrate he was pre- 






A VGUST 


1846. 


AUGUST 


spared to give the necessary instructions for 
replacing him on the Commission. The offer 
was accepted “with respectful gratitude.” 
Fourteen other magistrates, who had been 
removed for attending or countenancing Re¬ 
peal meetings, were restored at the same time. 

16 . —John Smith, cook, excited, as he ad¬ 
mitted, by jealousy, murders Susan Tolliday, 
servant, in the kitchen of the Guildhall Coffee 
House, by stabbing her with a knife. He was 
tried at the Central Criminal Court on the 
2 2d, and sentenced to death, but afterwards 
had his sentence commuted. 

— Santa Anna lands at Veru Cruz, and as¬ 
sumes the reins of power. 

17 . —Lord John Russell introduces a minis¬ 
terial measure relating to the relief and em¬ 
ployment of the Irish poor. It gave power to 
the Lord-Lieutenant to summon a meeting of 
the magistrates of any county or barony in 
which scarcity of employment was represented 
to exist, and empowered and required that 
meeting to order the execution of public works 
of the kind most needed in the locality, and 
of an extent proportionate to the deficiency of 
employment. The expense of the works so 
determined on was to be defrayed, in the first 
place, by a loan from the Treasury, to bear 
interest at three and a half per cent, and to be 
repaid in ten years. After the magistrates had 
determined on the nature and extent of the 
works to be erected, the operations were to be 
carried on under the superintendence of officers 
of the Government Board of Works. In cases 
where the locality in need of assistance was so 
poor as to be unable to bear the interest and 
repayment of a loan, grants might be given ; 
and the sum of 50,000/. was proposed to be 
voted during the present year to meet such 
cases. 

— The Select Committee of the House 
of Commons appointed to inquire into the 
affairs of the Andover Union complete their 
investigations, and agree to a report censuring 
the conduct of the Poor Law Commissioners. 

— Died, aged 76, Sir Charles Wetherell, 
Recorder of Bristol, well remembered for his 
connexion with the riots of 1831. 

18 . —Royal Assent given to the bill fixing 
the gauge of all railways to be constructed in 
future at 4 feet 84 inches. 

19. —The Evangelical Alliance commences 
its labours in Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen- 
street, London. The condition of member¬ 
ship was agreement in what were understood 
to be “ Evangelical ” views in regard to ques¬ 
tions of Christian doctrine. 

20 . —Lord George Bentinck having first 
attacked Lord Lyndhurst for exercising his 
patronage unfairly, in so far as the presentation 
to the living of Nocton, on the Ripon Estate, 
was concerned, and afterwards apologizing 
when he ascertained that the living was 
not in the Chancellor’s gift, Lord Lyndhurst 


defends himself this evening, showing that he 
had exercised his patronage in favour of Lord 
Ripon’s nominee, but in circumstances which 
would have, made a refusal not only uncour- 
teous, but highly improper. He severely cen¬ 
sured Lord George Bentinck for the aspersions 
he was at present casting about so freely, a 
habit which could probably be accounted for 
from his early associations. “To me, my lords, 
it is most humiliating, at the close of my public 
life, and at the close, I may almost say, of my 
natural life, to be called upon to repel accusa¬ 
tions of this kind. I know your lordships will 
bear with me upon an occasion like the present. 

I rely upon your lordships to come to a correct 
judgment; and I throw myself upon your 
lordships’ consideration, and the consideration 
of the country.” Lord George Bentinck re¬ 
taliated the following evening by charging the 
ex-Lord Chancellor with seeking to form an 
alliance with him, for the purpose of upsetting 
the late Government on the sugar duties. This 
was denied by Lord Lyndhurst at a mid-day 
sitting on the 22d. Any negotiations he had 
been concerned in with Lord George Bentinck 
was, he said, with the view of uniting the scattered 
members of the Conservative party, and had 
no reference to the sugar duties. 

21 . —The Berwick branch of the North of 
England Joint-Stock Bank robbed of 1,000/. 
in Bank of England notes, 1,443/. i n Scotch 
notes, 361/. 10s. in gold, and I/. in silver. 
The greater part of the money was discovered 
secreted in and about the manager’s house 
adjoining the bank, and his wife, Mrs. Thomp¬ 
son, was apprehended on suspicion of being 
concerned in the robbery. She was tried be¬ 
fore the Recorder on October 26th, when the 
jury returned a verdict of Not guilty. 

22 . —Manchester public parks opened. 

— The Limerick landowners protest against 
the proposed Labour Rate Act as a severe 
blow aimed at their property and influence. 

26 . —Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” performed 
for the first time at the Birmingham Festival. 
“ Never,” says the Times , “ was there a more 
complete triumph—never a more thorough and 
speedy recognition of a great work of art. 

‘ Elijah’ is not only the chef d'ceuvre of Men¬ 
delssohn, but altogether one of the most extra¬ 
ordinary achievements of human intelligence. ” 

— The County Courts Act, designed for 
“ the more easy recovery of debts and demands 
in England,” receives the Royal Assent. 

27 . —Capt. William Richardson, chairman 
of the Tenbury, Worcester, and Ludlow Rail¬ 
way Company, brought up at the Mansion 
House, charged with forging a cheque for 5,000/. 
on Coutts and Co. A cheque for a small 
sum, signed by the prisoner as chairman, and 
two other directors, had been altered to the 
larger amount, and paid over in five notes. 
These were alleged to have been cashed by or 
for the prisoner at the Bank of England. He 
was committed for trial, but at the ensuing 

(207) 






AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1846. 


session of the Central Criminal Court the grand 
jury ignored the bill. 

28 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
The Lord Chancellor read the Royal Speech, 
which expressed her Majesty’s confident hope 
that the free admission of the produce of foreign 
countries into the home market would increase 
the comforts and better the condition of the 
great body of the people. 

— The Queen of Spain announces her in¬ 
tention of marrying her cousin, Francis d’Assis, 
Duke of Cadiz. 

29 . —Colonel Thornton, late of the East 
India Company’s service, commits suicide by 
suspending himself to the grating of a police¬ 
cell, to which he had been conveyed on a 
charge of passing forged 5/. notes among the 
jewellers of Oxford-street. At his trial, which 
took place at Guildhall in September, it turned 
out that Mr. Job, paper manufacturer, had 
supplied the deceased with as much paper as 
would make ten thousand notes. Most of it 
was seized at Alexandria, on its way to Cairo, 
where Thornton had an establishment. 

September 1.—M. Guizot informs Lord 
Noi'manby that the marriage of the Queen of 
Spain with the Duke of Cadiz was settled, and 
that at the same time her sister was to obtain 
permission to marry the Duke de Montpensier. 

4 . —Twenty-four districts in Ireland pro¬ 
claimed to be in a state of distress, and 
extraordinary sessions summoned to make pre¬ 
sentments for the execution of works under the 
Labour Rate Act. O’Connell stated in Con¬ 
ciliation Hall that it would require from 
10,000,000/. to 12,000,000/., or about half the 
rental of Ireland, to feed the people during the 
impending calamity. 

5 . —Died at Rushanger, Basingstoke, aged 
61, Lord Metcalfe, Governor-General of India 
1835-6. 

8 . —The foundation stone laid of Trinity 
College, Glenalmond, Perthshire. 

9 . —At a Protectionist dinner to Mr. Newde- 
gate, in North Warwickshire, Lord George 
Bentinck says he thinks it possible that the 
potato failure is an act of just vengeance on the 
part of Almighty Providence for the impious 
ingratitude with which we had spoken of the 
last year’s harvest. 

11 . —About two hundred men, armed with 
scythes, pitchforks, and fire-arms, proceeded to 
a farm held under the Court of Chancery, near 
Clonoslee, Queen’s County. Having driven 
back the keepers in charge of the crops, they 
placed the grain on drays and cars, and drove 
the whole off, firing several shots in satisfaction 
at their success. 

12 . —The Count de Montemolin withdraws 
from Bourges, and issues a proclamation call¬ 
ing upon Spaniards to rally in support of his 
claim to the Queen’s hand. 

(208) 


12 . —Meetings throughout Cheshire and Lan¬ 
cashire to press on the attention of Govern¬ 
ment the propriety of modifying or altogether 
abolishing the salt monopoly enjoyed by the 
East India Company. 

13 . —Don Carlos escapes from France and 
removes to London. 

14 . —Intimation given to the Spanish Cortes 
of the intended royal marriages. The discus¬ 
sion on the message was protracted over five 
days. Of the deputies present, 178 voted in 
favour of the Queen’s marriage, and 158 for 
that of the Infanta. 

— King Louis Philippe writes to his 
daughter, the Queen of the Belgians, explain¬ 
ing the position of France and England with 
reference to the Spanish double marriage : 
“The Queen has just received a letter, or 
rather a reply from Queen Victoria to the one 
you know she had written to her, and that reply 
greatly grieves me. I am inclined to believe 
that our good little Queen was as sorry to write 
such a letter as I was to read it. But she now 
only sees things through the spectacles of Lord 
Palmerston, and these spectacles distort and 
disfigure things too often. The great difference 
between the spectacles of the excellent Aber¬ 
deen and those of Lord Palmerston proceeds 
from the difference of their dispositions. Lord 
Aberdeen wished to be well with his friends ; 
Lord Palmerston, I fear, wishes to quarrel 
with them. This is, my dear Louise, what 
caused my alarm respecting the maintenance of 
our cordial understanding, when Lord Palmer¬ 
ston resumed the direction of the Foreign 
Office.” The original draft of this letter, 
which covers many pages, was found in the 
Tuileries, when it was sacked by the mob in 
1848. 

22 .—Lord Palmerston, writing to the British 
Ambassador at Paris (Lord Normanby) on the 
subject of the Montpensier marriage, argues 
that “ the children or descendants of this mar¬ 
riage might endeavour to set up a claim in virtue 
of the rights which they might allege to have 
inherited from the Infanta, and thus unless all 
pretence for doubt on this point were at once 
removed by some valid act of renunciation on 
the part of the Infanta for herself and her 
descendants, the stipulation of the Treaty of 
Utrecht might be set aside by an evasion, or the 
peace of Europe might be disturbed by another 
war on account of the succession to the throne 
of Spain. 

— Stranding of the Great Britain steam¬ 
ship in Dundrum Bay. She left the Mersey 
about mid-day on the 21st, having on board 
181 passengers, and a crew of 90 hands. Cap¬ 
tain Hoskin took the north-about passage. 
Through some inadvertence, never very well 
explained, but most likely either in reckoning 
or mistaking a light, she got out of her course, 
and drifted in the gale on to the soft sandy beach 
of Dundrum. The passengers in alarm rushed 
upon deck, but after some delay they were 







SEPTEMBER 


1846. 


OCTOBER 


nearly all induced to return to their cabin and 
wait till daylight, when they were taken off in 
safety, the great steamship then lying in a foot 
or two of water. The mails and cargo were 
also got out and sent back to Liverpool. 

23 . —Fire at the Croydon Railway terminus, 
destroying most of the buildings and thirteen 
railway carriages. 

— Following out the marvellous calculations 
of Le Verrier of Paris, and Adams of Cam¬ 
bridge, concerning the celestial phenomenon 
known as “ the perturbations of Uranus,” 
M. Galle of Berlin discovers to-night the 
existence of a new planet, one of the greatest 
triumphs of theoretical astronomy. It was 
afterwards sought to identify this planet with 
one observed and recorded by Lalande, May 
10, 1795. 

24 . —Lord Normanby delivers to M. Guizot 
a formal protest by Great Britain against the 
contemplated marriage of the Duke de Mont- 
pensier with the Infanta Louisa of Spain. The 
protest was founded—first, upon the Treaty of 
Utrecht, by which the French branch of the 
Bourbons renounced all claim to the throne of 
Spain; and, secondly, upon the agreement 
come to between the French and English 
Ministers at the Chateau d’Eu—an agreement 
the more emphatic, because, though not re¬ 
duced to writing, it was concluded between the 
Ministers of the two States- and sanctioned be¬ 
sides by the presence and consent of their re¬ 
spective sovereigns. A similar protest was 
presented by Mr. Bulwer at Madrid. 

— Monterey, Mexico, taken by the United 
States army under General Taylor, after an 
attack extending over three days. 

25 . —The Times Commissioner writing from 
Ross-shire, records : “ Whatever we may con¬ 
clude to be the reason of perpetual distress oc¬ 
curring in the Highlands as in Ireland, whether 
we attribute it to a similarity of causes or not, 
that is wholly apart from the fact of the exist¬ 
ence of distress. Should it really exist, Eng¬ 
land will not watch it unfeelingly, but will be 
ready in all reasonableness to share the fruits of 
her industry with those who, if they would 
copy her example, would not need to beg of 
her bounty. ” 

26 . —Died at his residence, Play ford Hall, 
Suffolk, aged 86, Thomas Clarkson, the vener¬ 
able champion of the freedom of the black 
race. 

28 . —Three arches give way in the works of 
the Aberdeen Railway, and bury a company of 
workmen engaged below. Seven were taken 
out dead, and four much bruised. 

29 . —Wyatt’s colossal equestrian statue of 
the Duke of Wellington drawn in triumph 
from the artist’s premises in Harrow-road to 
a site over the arch at Hyde-park-corner. 
The car, drawn by twenty-nine strong horses, 
was surrounded along the route by Life-guards¬ 
men, and an incessant cheering kept up during 

(209) 


its progress. The statue was elevated to the 
top of the arch next day. 

October 1 . —In consequence of the recent tu¬ 
multuous assemblages in Dungarvon, Youghal, 
and other places, the Lord-Lieutenant issues a 
proclamation declaring his determination to 
afford to provision dealers that complete se¬ 
curity which is essential for the public safety; 
and also that he will cause public works to be 
discontinued where any system of combination 
is indulged in against the officers of the Board 
of Works. 

— Some contention having arisen in scientific 
circles as to the relative merits of Le Verrier 
and Adams in indicating the spot where the 
new planet (named “ Neptune ” by the French 
Board of Longitude) was to be looked for, Sir 
John Herschel writes to-day that the proba¬ 
bility of the existence of such a body had been 
suggested to him by Bessel in July 1842, and 
that it was known to him calculations similar 
to, but independent of, Le Verrier’s had been 
wrought out by “ a young Cambridge mathe¬ 
matician,” Mr. Adams. On the 15th Professor 
Challis, of Cambridge University, wrote that in 
September 1845 Mr. Adams had communi¬ 
cated to him values obtained for the heliocentric 
longitude, excentricity of orbit, longitude of 
perihelion, and mass of an assumed exterior 
planet, deduced entirely from unaccounted- 
for perturbations of Uranus. The same results, 
somewhat corrected, were communicated in 
October to the Astronomer-Royal, who sug¬ 
gested that the Northumberland telescope at 
Cambridge should be employed in a search 
after the hypothetical planet. On the 12th 
August of the present year Professor Challis, 
proceeding on Mr. Adams’s calculations, saw a 
star of the eighth magnitude in a zone previously 
examined without any result, which he now 
identified with the new planet. The hesitation 
of the Astronomer-Royal and Professor Challis 
in giving publicity to Mr. Adams’s calculations 
was explained by the importance and novelty 
of the object and the extraordinary difficulty of 
the research itself. 

2 . —Presentment Sessions under the Labour 
Rate Act (Ireland) up to this date, 248. 

— Died suddenly at his residence, St. John’s 
Wood, the Baron de Bode, whose claims for 
compensation as a British subject on account 
of losses sustained during the French Revolu¬ 
tion had been often made the subject of parlia¬ 
mentary discussion. 

3 . —Died at Wolseley Hall, Staffordshire, 
aged 78, Sir Charles Wolseley, a prominent 
political agitator of the early part of the century. 

5.—A correspondent of the Freeman's 
Journal, living in Tuam, writes : “lam sorry 
to inform you that this town is, I may say, in 
open rebellion. Cattle are taken away in the 
open day, in spite of the police and towns¬ 
people. The people cannot help the outbreak, 
for if they had money they cannot get bread, 






OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1846. 


as the Galway dealers are not letting any of it 
in to us. The people are watching the batches 
of bread coming out of the ovens, and almost 
killing each other for it. One of the mills was 
Kept going all day yesterday (Sunday) dressing 
and grinding whole flour, and people were 
engaged dividing it up to 2 o’clock this morn¬ 
ing.” The Repeal rent this week amounted to 
47/. nr. 3 d., being the lowest sum yet re¬ 
ceived. The proceedings at the different Pre¬ 
sentment Sessions, where relief was claimed 
under the Labour Act, were often disorderly 
and threatening. 

5 . —Disturbances in Geneva caused by the 
rising of the Roman Catholic Cantons against 
the decree of the Federal Diet for the expulsion 
of the fesuits. The Sonderbund consisted of 
the seven cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, 
Unterwalden, Freiburg, Zug, and Valais. 

8 . —Professor Schonbein performs a series 
of experiments with his gun-cotton before the 
chairman of the East India Company and a 
number of scientific persons. A rifle charged 
with 544 grains of gunpowder sent a ball 
through seven boards, each half an inch in 
thickness, at a distance of forty yards; the 
same gun, charged with forty grains of the 
cotton, sent the ball into the eighth board ; 
and with a fresh rifle the ball was sent through 
the eighth board at ninety yards. 

10. —The marriage of the Duke of Mont- 
pensier and the Infanta Louisa Maria takes place 
immediately after the espousals of the Queen 
of Spain with Francesco d’Assis, Duke of 
Cadiz, in the palace at Madrid. 

11 . —Destructive hurricane at Havannah. 
The French frigate Andromeda of 60 guns, the 
Blonde of 24 guns, and the Tonnh'e steamer, 
10 guns, were wrecked in the harbour, along 
with sixty-three foreign merchantmen, and four¬ 
teen Spanish men-of-war. The town suffered 
great damage, upwards of one hundred people 
being killed by the falling of houses. 

— Special prayer in the churches for relief 
from the dearth and scarcity presently existing 
in parts of the United Kingdom. 

12 . —Rebellion in Portugal. A Provisional 
Government established at Oporto under the 
Count dos Ortos, who assured Queen Maria II. 
that his object was to prevent civil war. The 
Queen thereupon issued a proclamation stating 
that she would exercise absolute sovereignty 
until the restoration of order. 

— The Minister of Public Instruction, 
M. de Salvandy, recommending the elevation 
of M. Le Verrier to the rank of officer of the 
Legion of Honour, writes that the young mem¬ 
ber of the Academy of Sciences, “by the 
unaided power of profound thinking, using the 
mathematics as its instrument, has grasped in 
the regions of space beyond our solar system 
a planet which, but for him, might have re¬ 
mained for ever undetected by observation.” 
M. Galle of Berlin received at the same time a 
similar honour. 

(210) 


IQ.—Disastrous inundations in the valleys of 
the Loire and Rhone. 

17 .—Lord John Russell, writing to the Duke 
of Leinster on the duties of Government and 
landlords in the present Irish crisis, says : “Un¬ 
less all classes co-operate, and meet the inflic¬ 
tion of Providence with fortitude and energy, 
the loss of the potato will only aggravate the 
woes and sufferings of Ireland. They should 
be taught to take advantage of the favourable 
condition of their soil and surrounding sea ; to 
work patiently for themselves in their own 
Country, as they work in London and Liver¬ 
pool for their employers ; to study economy, 
cleanliness, and the value of time ; and to aim 
at improving the condition of themselves and 
their children.” 

26 . —The Linlithgow Town Council, by a 
majority of 12 to 2, vote resolutions expressive 
of regret at the conduct of the new directors of 
the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in stopping 
the running of a Sunday train between those 
two cities. 

SO. —An uneasy feeling was excited through¬ 
out the country to-day by a semi-official an¬ 
nouncement in the Times that the ports were 
not to be opened, nor Parliament called to¬ 
gether earlier than usual. 

Three murderous attacks on land agents 
made within a few days of each Other in Long¬ 
ford county. 

November 2.—Mr. George Comewall Lewis, 
of the Poor-law Board, files a criminal infor¬ 
mation in the Court of Queen’s Bench against 
Mr. W. Busfield Ferrand for the publication of 
two letters in the Time r, charging him with 
conspiracy and falsehood in connexion with the 
Keighley Union inquiry in 1842. Rule made 
absolute on the 24th. Mr. Ferrand afterwards 
withdrew his charge, and the case was settled 
by arbitration out of court. 

— Died at Wexio, aged 64, Bishop Esias 
Tegner, a Swedish poet and divine, author of 
“Frithiofs Saga.” 

3 .—A meeting of “independent electors” 
of West Gloucestershire held at Bristol to 
consult on the state of the representation in 
reference to the scandalous family quarrel 
between Earl Fitzhardinge and Mr. Grantley 
Berkeley, the member for this division. The 
latter sought to gain admittance to the meet¬ 
ing, but was turned back on the ground that 
the meeting was confined to electors. A letter 
was read from Earl Fitzhardinge, giving "his 
version of the squabble. After some discussion 
the meeting unanimously adopted a resolution 
expressing dissatisfaction with Mr. Berkeley’s 
conduct on the Corn and Game Laws. 

— In answer to a London deputation, who 
waited upon Lord John Russell to press upon 
him the necessity of opening the ports, his 
lordship said that he would only consent to 
such a step in the event of prices rising con- 






NOVEMBER 


IS j6. 


DECEMBER 


siderably: 3,000,000 quarts of grain hacl already 
been imported under the Act of last session. 

4 -.—The new Philosophical Institution, 
Edinburgh, opened with an entertainment, 
in which Mr. Macaulay, M.P., Professor 
Wilson, and the Archbishop of Dublin take 
part. 

— The Garrick Theatre, Goodman’s-fields, 
London, destroyed by fire ; supposed to have 
originated from a piece of wadding lodging 
in the “ flies ” during the performance of “ The 
Battle of Waterloo” the previous evening. 

6 .—Died from injuries inflicted by his own 
hand, Thomas Massa Alsager, writer of the 
“City article” in the Times. 

— Reception at the Tuileries, when all the 
foreign ambassadors, with the exception of the 
Marquis of Normanby, were presented to the 
Duke and Duchess de Montpensier. 

9 .— The army brevet, in honour of the birth 
of the Prince of Wales, published in the 
Gazette. 

11 .— An imperial ordinance published at 
Vienna announces the annexation of Cracow 
and its territories to Austria. An experience 
of sixteen years, it was alleged, had proved 
that Cracow did not fulfil the conditions of its 
independent existence, but had been the inces¬ 
sant cradle of hostile intrigues against the three 
protecting Powers. 

21 .—Fire at Gravesend, destroying most of 
the houses in West-street, and from High-street 
to King-street. Among the more important 
buildings consumed were the Bank, the Pier 
Hotel, Pope’s Head Inn, and the Bee-hive 
Tavern. The damage was estimated at 
100,000/. 

26 .—To check the political troubles pre¬ 
vailing in Portugal, a British squadron, under 
Admiral Parker, takes up a position in the 
Tagus, at the request of the Queen of Por¬ 
tugal. 

23 .—Failure of Captain Warner’s long 
range. The Master-General of the Ordnance 
gave the inventor a spot in the Island of An¬ 
glesey, where he might try his experiment in 
the presence of officers appointed by Govern¬ 
ment. The place was a valley eight miles in 
length, at the extreme end of which there was 
a single tree. This, of course, could not be 
seen at the distance, but the exact bearings were 
furnished to Mr. Warner, and he was requested 
to fire in that direction. The first shell fell far 
short of the object; and none of them reached 
three miles. The Committee decided that the 
experiment was a failure, and that it did not 
appear to them that the invention could be 
made available for the general purposes of 
war. 

— The number of persons employed under 
the Irish Labour Act of last session had in¬ 
creased to-day from 26,193, reported in the 
first week of October, to 273,023, the expendi- 
(211) 


ture rising between the same dates from 6,193/. 
to 117,591/. The total expenditure for the 
month closing to-day was 345,065/. 

29 . —John Ware writes from Boston, U.S. 
regarding the discovery made by Dr. Jackson 
and Dr. Martin of the beneficial use of ether 
in surgical operations : “I found on my arrival 
here a new thing in the medical world, or rather 
the application of an old thing, of which, I 
think, you will like to hear. It is a mode of 
rendering patients insensible to the pain of sur¬ 
gical operation by the inhalation of the vapour 
of the strongest sulphuric ether. They are 
thrown into a state nearly resembling that of 
complete intoxication from ardent spirits, or of 
narcotism from opium. This state continues 
but a few minutes—five to ten—but during it 
the patient is insensible to pain. A thigh has 
been amputated, a breast extirpated, and teeth 
drawn without the slightest suffering. The 
number of operations of various kinds, especially 
those in dentistry, has been very considerable, 
and I believe but few persons resist the influence 
of the agent.” 

30 . —Mr. Rowland Hill enters the office of 
the Postmaster-General as Secretary. 

December 1.—The Queen visits the Duke 
of Norfolk at Arundel. 

— Treasury minute issued regulating the 
construction of drainage works in Ireland. 

2. —At a meeting in the Rotunda, the Young 
Ireland party resolve that Mr. O’Connell brought 
forward the new resolutions out of which the 
secession arose, not from any apprehension of 
physical force, but directly to produce a split, 
his object being to drive out of the Repeal Asso¬ 
ciation men certain to resist any compact with 
the English Government. 

3 . —Died at Paris, aged 75, M. Jourdan, 
chief editor of the Moniteur under the Direc¬ 
tory, and latterly chief cashier of the Treasury. 

4 . —Inquiry at Cambridge into the circum¬ 
stances connected with the death of Elizabeth 
Howe, a woman of ill-fame, who had been 
apprehended by the Proctor of the University 
and lodged in the Spinning House. The 
coroner’s jury found that she had died of rheu¬ 
matic fever, caused by a violent cold caught 
during confinement, and they could not separate 
without “ expressing their abhorrence at a 
system which sanctions the apprehension of 
females when not offending against the general 
law of the land, and confining them in a gaol 
unfit for the worst of felons. ” The coroner, as 
instructed by the jury, forwarded a report of 
the proceedings to the Home Secretary, who 
promised that further inquiry would be made. 

5 . —From Skibbereen the news is: “Hun¬ 
ger, nakedness, sickness, and mortality almost 
equal to the ravages of an epidemic disease, 
are the prevailing features of the dwellings of 
the poor. Fever afflicts hundreds of them, 
and dysentery produced by cold and want of 

P 2 





DECEMBER 


184O-47. 


JANUARY 


nutritious food is equally common. The work- 
house contains 900 paupers ; the fever hospital, 
built to accommodate 40 patients, contains 161. 
The number of deaths which took place in the 
infirmary during the month of November was 
87.” In the midst of this horrible starvation a 
universal mania seized the people for the pur¬ 
chase of fire-arms, while the miseries of the 
entire island were aggravated by the virulent 
squabbles of political agitators, who even sought 
to turn to their account the intense severity of 
the season. 

5 .—The Shannon steamer burnt at her 
moorings off Plymouth. 

7 .—President Polk opens Congress with a 
Message vindicating the Mexican war, and 
asking for a vote of 23,000,000 dollars to carry 
it on. He also expressed his adherence to the 
recent commercial policy of duties calculated 
for revenue and not for protection. 

13 .—Flixton Hall, near Bungay, the seat of 
Sir Shafto Adair, destroyed by fire. 

14 -.—The President of the Society of British 
Artists (Mr. Hurlestone) obtains 100/. damages 
in the Court of Queen’s Bench against the 
Spectator newspaper for libellous criticism on 
the. character and objects of the Society. 

17 . — Mr. Hudson, now Lord Mayor of the 
city of York, gives an official banquet attended 
by the Duke of Leeds, Lord George Bentinck, 
the Archdeacon of York, and Mr. George 
Stephenson. 

— Died, aged 91, the Right Hon. Thomas 
Grenville, Chief Justice of Eyre south of Trent, 
and donor of a magnificent library to the 
British Museum. 

18 . —Public meeting in Edinburgh to con¬ 
sider the present destitute state of the Highlands 
and Islands of Scotland, and to adopt such 
measures as might appear best calculated to 
give immediate relief. 

22.—The Dublin Evening Post records : 
“We do not know that a more disastrous 
summary of local events has ever appeared in 
this journal than that spread over our columns 
to-day. We cannot find room for half the 
details, and feel but too well how very inade¬ 
quate our reports are to convey the real state of 
the facts. We shall not point to particular dis¬ 
tricts, not even to Tipperary, where a murder 
has been committed in the vicinity of Cahir, 
within seven or eight miles of the county town, 
and where the whole population would seem to 
have turned out, partially armed, to prevent 
the departure of com to Limerick. But look 
everywhere. It is as if we were on the brink 
of a wild- convulsion. People seem absolutely 
beside themselves. They are either reduced to 
utter helplessness, or seem ready to band them¬ 
selves in a mad warfare with the authorities, who 
we know are labouring night and day to avert 
or to mitigate the manifold evils of the country. ” 
At Drogheda Fair two cartloads of fire-arms 
were disposed of amid great excitement, and at 
(212) 


Carlow a sale of arms and ammunition was 
protracted over several days. 

22 . —Marshal Saldanha gains an important 
victory at Torres Vedras over the Portuguese 
rebel forces under Count de Bomfin. 

27 .—Announcement made that Lancashire 
was to be made into a separate see, under the 
title of the Diocese of Manchester. 

23 . —Court-martial at Portsmouth to try 
Commander Patten for the loss of H.M. sloop 
Osprey at False Hokianga, New Zealand, in 
March last. At the close of the inquiry Capt. 
Patten received back his sword, and was at the 
same time complimented for the exertions he 
made to save the ship’s property after the vessel 
went ashore. 

31 .—Mr. Byng retires from the representa¬ 
tion of Middlesex after a continuous occupation 
of the seat for fifty-six years. He was the oldest 
member of either House. Mr. Byng was suc¬ 
ceeded in the representation by Lord Robert 
Grosvenor. 

— Wheat sold to-day at Uxbridge at 88 j. 
per quarter. 


1847. 

January 2.— A letter from Skibbereen de¬ 
scribes the poor-house as “unable to meet the 
exigencies of one-fourth of those who sought 
admittance. I passed through it on Wednes¬ 
day, and saw three or four in the same narrow 
bed. In November the deaths in the infirmary 
were 83 ; in December, up to the 28th, 135. 
In the entire two preceding years there were 
only 86. The mortality is very great among 
the poor, and the aspect of the burying-grounds 
is assuming a new form. In many cases the 
dead are buried without coffins, and instances 
are known where they are not even brought to 
a burial-ground, but interred in the fields. 
This day, in a glen in a wild part of the parish, 
I was told, in passing, that a family was in 
fever. I went into the cabin and found thirteen 
persons—five lying ill on some dirty straw in a 
corner, five in another place in a kind of bed, 
two girls recovering, and one little girl able 
only to hand the other a drink of water.” 
Another correspondent of the Morning Chro¬ 
nicle writes : “ Some few days ago the doctor 

was waited upon by a man from Windmill- 
hill, who requested him to visit his step¬ 
daughter who was unwell. He complied ; and 
when he went he found the girl stretched on a 
miserable sop of straw alongside a corpse that 
was green from putrescence, and her hands 
wrapped up in rags. He asked her if she had 
fits, as he feared she might have fallen in 
the fire while in that state and burned her¬ 
self, when she replied that she had not, but 
that she was lying for two days alongside the 
corpse, and that she found it so cold that 
she had got up to warm herself; but being 
weak she fell on the fire, and before she could 






JANUARY 


1847. 


JANUARY 


rise her hands had been burned as he saw 
them. But this melancholy business did not 
end here ; for the unhappy stepfather had to 
take his wife on his back to the Abbey grave¬ 
yard, where he left her stretched on a tomb¬ 
stone, not having sufficient strength to dig a 
grave for her, and she was buried next day by 
a poor labouring man who accidentally passed 
by. The stepfather returned to his miserable 
home; and being determined that his step¬ 
daughter at least should be attended to, he 
also took her on his back, and left her at the 
door of the Fever Hospital, where she was 
taken in and died in half an hour after her 
reception. ”—A voluntary subscription was now 
set on foot for the relief of the famishing people, 
the Queen heading the list with 2,000/. and 
the London bankers adding 1,000/. At the 
weekly Repeal meeting O’Connell proposed to 
borrow 40,000,000/. from the English Exche¬ 
quer. The rent this week was 71 1. 

4 . —Died, aged 59, John Joseph Gurney, 
English philanthropist. 

5 . —The vessels fitting out in British ports 
for the Ecuador buccaneering expedition seized 
by Government, and the whole scheme exposed 
through information given by Captain Harvey 
Tuckett, one of the parties engaged to raise a 
legion in Ireland. 

9 .—Newspapers give currency to the report 
of a trial at Sydney, involving a curious feature 
in testimony. An alibi was set up for the pri¬ 
soner to the effect that at the time of the alleged 
robbery he was in his own hut, listening to the 
recital of Horace Walpole’s “ Old English 
Baron ” which a man named Lane had with 
other novels committed to memory ; Lane was 
two hours and a half repeating the tale. This 
statement seemed so incredible, that the At¬ 
torney-General, for the prosecution, asked Lane 
if he really meant to assert that he could occupy 
two hours and a half with his recitation. “ I 
could,” replied the witness, “and I will if you 
please.” .“We’ll have a page or two,” said 
the Attorney-General; and to the great sur¬ 
prise not less of the learned gentleman than 
of the court and auditory, the witness after a 
preparatory hem! commenced—“In the time 
of King Henry, when the good Duke Hum¬ 
phrey returned from the wars in the Holy Land, 
where he had been sojourning for a number of 
years, there lived—” and so he went on for 
several minutes in a tone which showed he 
knew every word of the book; until he was 
stopped by the Attorney-General, who con¬ 
fessed he was satisfied. But the counsel for 
the defence was not; doubt had been cast upon 
Lane’s veracity, and he should be allowed to 
prove it, with the time occupied in the recita¬ 
tion, by repeating the whole novel ! The 
Chief Justice was in great consternation at this, 
and exclaimed, “But do you expect me to 
take it down ?” At last the matter was com¬ 
promised, the man of memory giving the 
concluding portions of the story. The prisoner 
was acquitted. 


13 .—Ronald Gordon, secretary and account¬ 
ant to the Exchange Bank of Scotland, sen¬ 
tenced to fifteen years’ transportation for stealing 
various sums of money, amounting in all to 
2,353/., the property of the bank. 

16 .—Food riots in France. At Chateauroux 
a wealthy corn-merchant, who defied the mob, 
was set upon and beaten to death. 

19 .—Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The first paragraph in the Royal 
Speech referred to the famine in Ireland and 
parts of Scotland. “ In Ireland especially the 
loss of the usual food of the people has been 
the cause of severe suffering, of disease, and 
greatly increased mortality among the poorer 
classes. Outrages have become more frequent, 
chiefly directed against property, and the transit 
of provisions has been rendered unsafe in some 
parts of the country. With a view to mitigate 
those evils, very large numbers of men have 
been employed, and have received wages, in 
pursuance of an Act passed in the last session 
of Parliament. Some deviations from that 
Act, which have been authorized by the Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland, in order to promote 
more useful employment, will, I trust, receive 
your sanction.” In the course of the debate 
which followed, Lord John Russell stated that 
the number of men employed under the Act of 
last session was 470,000, and the weekly pay¬ 
ment on some occasions 158,000/. 

21 .—Lord John Russell proposes the sus¬ 
pension of the Corn and Navigation Laws. 
Bills founded upon his resolutions were imme¬ 
diately brought in, and passed through both 
Houses with great expedition. 

— At an inquest held at the Galway work- 
house, on the body of a travelling vagrant, 
the jury found “ That the deceased died from 
the effects of starvation and destitution caused 
by a want of the common necessaries of life ; and 
if Lord John Russell, the head of her Majesty’s 
Government, has combined with Sir Randolph 
Routh to starve the Irish people by not, as 
was their duty, taking measures to prevent the 
present truly awful condition of the country, 
we find that the said Lord John Russell and 
the said Sir Randolph Routh are guilty of 
the wilful murder of said Mary Commins.” 
The coroner refused to receive their finding, 
and the jury afterwards agreed to a mori 
rational verdict. 

25 .—Lord John Russell introduces the Go¬ 
vernment scheme for alleviating the present 
and improving the future condition of Ireland. 
The Labour Rate Act of last session was to be 
withdrawn, as the landlords had grossly mis¬ 
managed the working of it; the people were 
immediately to be taken off the roads, &c. and 
enabled to work on their own holdings, by 
being supplied with food through local relief 
committees acting in connexion with the Poor- 
law guardians, the funds for this purpose to 
be supplied partly by additional subscriptions 
raised in England, partly by a Government 

( 213 ) 







JANUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1847 - 


grant , and partly by a temporary poor-rate ; so 
far as the payment of past expenses was con¬ 
cerned, the landlords were to receive a rever¬ 
sion of one-half of all that had been expended 
under the labour Rate Act; 50,000/. to be 
lent to buy seed for tenants on the security of 
the ensuing harvest ; 1,000,000/. to be devoted 
to the reclamation of waste lands, Government 
to have the power of purchasing the same ; 
and the Poor Law to be so extended as to 
authorize out-door relief in food to such able- 
bodied applicants as could not be put to useful 
labour. 

26 . —Died in Wimpole-street, aged 68, 
William Clowes, originator and proprietor of 
the extensive printing works in Stamford-street, 
Southwark. 

27 . —Corn and Navigation Laws suspended. 

February 3.— The King of Prussia pro¬ 
mulgates a new Constitution for his kingdom. 
A United Diet made up from the eight Provin¬ 
cial Diets was to be summoned as often as the 
King judged proper, and at such places as he 
might direct. The King reserved to himself 
the right of levying war-taxes without the assent 
of the Diet when circumstances did not admit 
of its being called together. 

4 .—Lord George Bentinck introduces his 
scheme for lending 16,000,000/. to Irish rail¬ 
way companies, at 3^ per cent., 2/. to be ad¬ 
vanced for every 1 /. raised by shareholders; 
and the whole loan, with interest, to be repaid 
within thirty-seven years after the opening of 
each line. It was thrown out on the 16th, on 
the proposal for a second reading, by a majority 
of 214. 

— In the French Chamber of Deputies, M. 
Thiers re-opens the question of the Spanish 
marriages, and censures the general policy of 
the Guizot Ministry. 

8.—Died off the Cape of Good Hope, 
on board the ship Wellesley , on his way home 
from Madras, Lieut.-Col. Sir Walter Scott of 
Abbotsford, the only surviving son of the 
author of “ Waverley.” 

12 . —Wreck of the Tweed , West India mail- 
steamer. She left Havarmah for Vera Cruz 
on the 9th, having on board sixty-two passen¬ 
gers, a crew numbering eighty-nine, the mails 
for England, a quantity of quicksilver valued 
at 18,000/., and a supply of coal for a Queen’s 
steamer at Cadiz. About half-past three this 
morning, when off the coast of Yucatan, while 
the commander was on deck, and the ship 
under full steam with the sails set, one of the 
look-out men exclaimed, “ Breakers ahead.” 
Capt. Parsons immediately ordered the engines 
to be stopped and reversed, but it was too late, 
and the vessel struck at almost full speed on 
the reef known as the Alacranes. The cylinder 
of one engine was forced upwards a consider¬ 
able distance, and the engineer compelled to 
abandon the engine-room. The ship then 
(214) 


struck a second time with great violence, and 
in a few minutes parted in two, the frantic 
passengers having hardly had time to realize 
the nature of the calamity. The total number 
drowned in their berths, or swept off the wreck, 
was thirty-one passengers, including the whole 
of the females, and forty-two of the crew. Ten 
of the remainder were saved in a small boat, 
and sixty-nine contrived to keep afloat on a 
raft for three days till they were rescued by the 
daring humanity of Bemardius Camp, com¬ 
mander of the Spanish brig Emilio. Besides 
a munificent sum collected at Havannah, which 
Capt. Camp wished to hand over to the suf¬ 
fering survivors, Lloyd’s Committee voted him 
an honorary medal in silver, and another in 
bronze, with a sum of money to the mate of 
the Emilio , Don Villa Verde. The British 
Government, in conformity with a proposal 
made by Lord John Russell, on the 16th of 
April, voted him a medal and a sum of 500/. 

— The Bideford and Torrington omnibus 
upset over the quay, and ten out of the twelve 
passengers drowned. 

13 .—Died at Winchmore Hill, aged 79, 
Sharon Turner, author of a “History of the 
Anglo-Saxons,” and other kindred works. 

15 .—Died at Madrid, aged 67, Don Palafox- 
y-Melzi, the renowned defender of Saragossa 
against the French in 1808-9. 

17 .—“Day by day,” writes the Dublin 
Evening Post , “ the accounts that reach us are 
becoming more horrifying. There is scarcely a 
county in Ireland—unless Kildare may be an 
exception—in which the people are not dying of 
starvation. Within one week there have been 
no less than ninety-five deaths in the union work- 
house of Lurgan, being nearly an eighth part 
of the entire inmates. In Fermanagh destitu¬ 
tion is rapidly extending, and, we are sorry to 
add, crime has greatly increased. In Sligo so 
rapid has been the mortality, that the coroners 
are totally unable to perform their duties ; in 
one place, Margharrow, there were forty dead 
bodies waiting inquests. A correspondent from 
Drogheda writes that wretched women and 
children were to be seen on the decks of 
steamers trying to appease their hunger with 
the turnips half-eaten by the cattle on board. 
So far as could be ascertained, the workhouse 
mortality in Ireland for the first week of Janu¬ 
ary was 1,405 out of 108,500 receiving relief, 
and in the second week 1,493 ou t of 110,561. 

— Died at London, aged 59, William Col¬ 
lins, R. A. 

2 0.—The Peninsular and Oriental Com¬ 
pany’s steamer Tiber wrecked on the coast of 
Spain. 

21 -—The Brechin Castle wrecked off Swan¬ 
sea with an Australian mail, and all on board 
drowned. 

22.— Disturbances at Wick, Thurso, and 
other places m the Highlands, in consequence 
ot the shipment of grain. 






FEBSUAlii' 


1847. 


MARCH 


22 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
(Wood) introduces the annual Budget. The in¬ 
crease of the revenue during the past year 
had exceeded all expectation, the surplus 
amounting to two millions beyond what was 
anticipated by Mr. Goulbum. This sum had 
been expended on public works in Ireland, and 
it would be necessary to provide an additional 
8,000,000/. for the ensuing year. The revenue 
for that period he estimated at 52,515,000/. 
and the expenditure at 52,183,000/. 

— The Mexicans defeated by General Taylor 
at Bueno Vista. 

26 . —Came on for hearing before Lord 
Langdale, Master of the Rolls, the case of 
Fiestel v. the Provost and Scholars of King’s 
College, Cambridge, involving the right of 
fellows to assign the profits of their fellow¬ 
ships for money lent. After various arguments. 
Lord Langdale held that the assignment by 
Buller of King’s College was not contrary to 
public policy in respect of the duties incident 
to his fellowship, and that there was nothing 
in the nature of the income from which it could 
be inferred that the emoluments are not assign¬ 
able in equity, although the assignment was 
contrary to the implied intention of the founder 
of the College, and might have been a violation 
of Mr. Buller’s duty to the College. 

27. —Prince Albert elected Chancellor of 
Cambridge University, by a majority of 112 
over Earl Powis. The number polled was 
1,790, being the highest on record. In accept¬ 
ing the honour, his Royal Plighness informed 
the Senate : “ I have been influenced by a 
respectful deference to the wishes of a majority 
of its members, by a great unwillingness to in¬ 
volve the University in the probable necessity 
of another contest, but above all by an earnest 
hope that, through a zealous and impartial dis¬ 
charge of the trust which I undertake, I shall 
succeed in establishing a claim on the confi¬ 
dence and good-will of the whole academical 
body. ” 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench, a 
defendant named Dunn was sentenced to 
eighteen months’ imprisonment for perjury, in 
so far as he had sworn before a Registrar in 
Bankruptcy that Miss Burdett Coutts was in¬ 
debted to him in the sum of 100,000/. as com¬ 
pensation for divers injuries and imprisonments. 

28 . —Carlsruhe Theatre destroyed by fire, 
and 104 people burnt in the ruins. 

March 1 .—At the bidding for the new eight- 
million (Ireland) loan, the houses of Baring 
and Rothschild unite their interests, and offer 
at the rate of 89 4 Three per Cent. Consol 
Stock, which was accepted by the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer. 

2 . —Mr. Bouverie, by a majority of 89 to 61, 
obtains the appointment of a select committee 
to inquire “ whether, and in what circum¬ 
stances, large numbers of her Majesty’s sub¬ 
jects had been deprived of the means of reli¬ 


gious worship by the refusal oi certain proprie¬ 
tors to grant them sites for the erection of 
churches. ” 

2. —Died at St. Germains, in his 65th year, 
Prince Jules de Polignac, Prime Minister of 
France under Charles X. 

3 . —First Exhibition of British Manufactures 
opened by the Society of Arts, Adelphi. 

4 . —Robert Kerr, commander of the barque 
Levenside , sentenced at the Criminal Court to 
seven years’ transportation, for stealing a quan¬ 
tity of diamonds entrusted to his charge at 
Bahia. 

— Mr. Hume moves a series of resolutions 
expressive of the alarm and indignation felt 
throughout Europe at the annexation of the 
free city of Cracow by Austria, and recom¬ 
mending the discontinuance of payments on 
the Russian-Dutch Loan. After a debate of 
three .nights the resolutions were withdrawn. 

5 . —Explosion of fire-damp in the Oaks Col¬ 
liery, near Barnsley. Out of about a hundred 
workmen, seventy were suffocated. 

— Earl Grey brings forward the new scheme 
of convict discipline, by which offenders trans¬ 
ported for a limited number of years, instead 
of being conveyed at great expense to distant 
colonies, would be employed on Portland Island 
here, and in the event of good behaviour would 
have a relative proportion of their period re¬ 
mitted on condition of quitting this country. 

— At a meeting of the shareholders of the 
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company, 
the amendment of Sir Andrew Agnew approv¬ 
ing of the conduct of the directors in stopping 
the running of Sunday trains on their line, and 
desiring to leave the question in their hands, 
was carried by a majority of 6,820 votes to 

6 , 751 - 

9 .—Mr. Roebuck’s motion for extending the 
Income Tax to Ireland, rejected by 121 to 26 
votes. 

— A meeting of old Etonians held in the 
British Coffee House to protest against the 
abolition of the annual Montem, now recom¬ 
mended by the Provost and Head Master. 

11 . —Treasury minute issued directing the 
gradual discontinuance of labour on public 
works in Ireland, and providing for the forma¬ 
tion of new relief committees. 

— Lola Montes writes from Munich to the 
Times , with reference to comments made by that 
journal on the influence she was exercising over 
the King of Bavaria : “I left Paris in June 
last on a professional trip, and, amongst other 
arrangements, decided upon visiting Munich, 
where, for the first time, I had the honour of 
appearing before his Majesty, and receiving 
from him marks of approbation, which you are 
aware is not a very unusual thing for a profes¬ 
sional person to receive at a foreign court. I 
had not been here a week before I discovered 
that there was a plot existing in the town to 








MARCH 


APRIL 


1847 


get me out of it, and that the party was the 
Jesuit party. . . . Since my residence here I can 
safely say that I have in no way interfered in 
any affairs not concerning myself; and as I 
intend making it my future abode, it is par¬ 
ticularly annoying to me hearing so many 
scandalous and unfounded reports which are 
daily propagated, and in justice to myself and 
my future prospects in life I trust that you will 
not hesitate to insert this letter in your widely 
circulated journal, and show my friends and the 
public how unjustly and cruelly I have been 
treated by the Jesuit party in Munich.” 

20.—-A general fast, fixed by proclamation, 
“ on account of the grievous scarcity and dearth 
of divers articles of sustenance and necessaries 
of life.” 

26 .—J. P. Kay Shuttleworth submits to the 
Lords of the Treasury an account of the balance 
remaining unappropriated from the grant for 
promoting education in Great Britain, the dis¬ 
tribution of which is superintended by the Com¬ 
mittee of Council on Education. This balance, 
including lapsed grants, amounted to 35,000/. 
Much of the expenditure for the ensuing year 
was reported as contingent and uncertain. 

29. —Sa-da-Bandiera, the Portuguese insur¬ 
gent leader, sails from Oporto with 1,250 men, 
collected by him to create a disturbance in 
Lagos, Algarve. 

— The city of Vera Cruz and the Castle of 
San Juan de Ulloa surrendered to the army of 
the United States. 

30 . —Lord Morpeth obtains leave to bring 
in a bill for improving the health of towns. 

April 5 .—A British force, under General 
d’Aguilar, destroys the Bogue forts, threatens 
Canton, and compels Commissioner Keying to 
accede to the demand made by the Governor 
for a redress of grievances. 

6 . — The Anti-Corn-Law League having 
given up the occupation of Covent Garden 
Theatre, it was re-opened to-night by M. Albano 
for Italian opera. Madame Grisi appeared as 
the Queen in “ Semiramide.” 

7 . —Opening of the new Docks and the new 
Park at Birkenhead. 

— The Young Ireland party make an Easter 
iemonstration in the Music Hall, Dublin. 

11 . —The King of Prussia opens the first 
session of the United Diet at Berlin to-day 
(Sunday). 

12 . —Lady Boothby, formerly Mrs. Nisbett, 
reappears at the Haymarket, in the “ Love 
Chase,” and is rapturously received. 

14 . —Burning of the Liverpool and Drogheda 
steamer Granuaile , near Lambay. Sixty-nine 
of the crew and passengers taken off by a 
fishing-smack; and twenty-two reported as 
lost. 

15 . —New Houses of Parliament used for 

(216) 


the first time by the Peers. The first stone of 
the fabric was laid without ceremony at the 
south-east comer of the Speaker’s House, 27th 
April, 1840. 

19 . —Lord John Russell submits the details 
of his plan for the education of the people, 
based upon the grant of 100,000/. to be asked 
for during the session. Roman Catholics were 
in the meantime to be excluded from the grant, 
but their case would be afterwards taken up 
separately. He thought that the proposal for 
making the education given by the State purely 
secular was opposed to the opinion of Parlia¬ 
ment. Amendments proposed by Mr. Dun- 
combe and Sir W. Clay were negatived by 
large majorities. 

— The new portico of the British Museum 
opened. 

20 . —Return issued relative to the Railways 
for which Acts were obtained in 1846. The 
stock amounted to 90,298,430/. and the sum 
actually subscribed to 57,675,690/. Borrowing 
powers existed for 42,318,938/. The amounts 
for the two preceding years were on a greatly 
inferior scale, though described as not incon¬ 
siderable at the time. In 1844 the stock 
amounted to 11,121,000/. and the sum autho¬ 
rized to be borrowed to 3,672,000/.-; in 1845 
the stock was 43,844,907/. and the loan 
15,768,619/. In 1846 the deposits made on 
Railway Bills, in virtue of the Standing Order 
of the House of Commons, amounted in Eng¬ 
land to 11,396,783/. gs. io</., and in Scotland 
to 2,323,371/. 10 s. 

24 .—Petitions presented to the French 
Chamber of Deputies on the subject of slavery 
lead to an exposure of the monstrous cruelties 
practised in Guadaloupe and Martinique. 

— Average of wheat 75 s. 10 d. per quarter, 
duty free. 

— Prince Albert presents to Mendelssohn a 
copy of “ Elijah,” with the inscription : “ To 
the noble artist who, surrounded by the Baal- 
worship of corrupted art, has been able by his 
genius and science to preserve faithfully, like 
another Elijah, the worship of true art, and once 
more to accustom our ear-*-lost in the whirl of 
an empty play of sounds—to the pure notes 
of expressive composition and legitimate har¬ 
mony ; to the great master who makes us con¬ 
scious of the nicety of his conception through 
the whole maze of his creation—from the soft 
whispering to the mighty raging of the ele¬ 
ments—written in token of grateful remem¬ 
brance by Albert.” 

28 .—The emigrant brig Exmouth wrecked 
on the island of Islay, and about 240 people 
drowned. 

30 -—Died at Vienna, in his 76th year, the 
Archduke Charles-Louis of Austria, famous 
as a military commander in the wars with 
France. 






MAY 


MAY 


1847. 


May 3 .—The Ten Hours Factories Bill read 
a third time in the House of Commons. 

4 .—Jenny Lind appears for the first time in 
England at her Majesty’s Theatre, as Alice, in 
‘ ‘ Robert le Diable. ” “ For a moment, ” writes 
the Times, “she appeared a little overcome by 
her immense reception, but it was for a moment 
only, and as a singer and actress she had per¬ 
fect possession of all her powers throughout the 
evening. ” 

— The life of the Queen of Spain attempted 
by La Riva. He was sentenced to “ death by 
the cord,” and executed June 23d. 

12 . —Triple murder at Mirfield, Yorkshire, 
Mr. and Mrs. Wraith, with their servant Caro¬ 
line Ellis, being found in the house dead, and 
mangled in a shocking manner. From informa¬ 
tion furnished by a hawker named McCabe, 
Patrick Reid, tinker, was apprehended, and 
tried before Mr. Justice Wightman at the York 
Assizes, on the charge of murdering Mr. Wraith. 
It was established in evidence that he was seen 
near the house about the time the murders were 
committed, a portion of the stolen property was 
traced to his possession, and the soldering-iron, 
with which some of the injuries might have 
been inflicted, was found along with the key 
of the house in the garden well. From the 
reasonable suspicion attaching to McCabe’s evi¬ 
dence, the jury could not come to a unanimous 
decision, and a verdict of Not guilty was re¬ 
turned. The prisoner, however, was kept in 
custody, and tried along with McCabe at the 
following winter assizes, when a verdict of 
Guilty was returned against both for the murder 
of the two women. Reid was executed. 

13 . —The United Associate Synod of the 
Secession Church, under the Moderatorship of 
Mr. Newlands, and the Relief Synod, under 
the Moderatorship of Mr. Auld, meet together 
in Tanfield Hall, Edinburgh, and formally 
become one body under the designation of the 
United Presbyterian Church. The first question 
of public interest taken up by the united body 
was the Government Education Bill, when a re¬ 
solution was agreed to, “ That it is not within the 
province of civil government to provide for the 
religious instruction of the subject; and that this 
department of the education of the young be¬ 
longs exclusively to the parent and the Church. ” 

— Mr. Stuart Wortley obtains the appoint¬ 
ment of a Commission to inquire into the opera¬ 
tion of the law prohibiting marriage with a 
deceased wife’s sister. 

15 .—Died at the Hotel Feder, Genoa, on 
his way to Rome, Daniel O’Connell, in his 
72d year. When the news reached Dublin, 
the event was made known by tolling of church 
bells and by intimation at Conciliation Hall. 
The Repeal Association issued an address to 
the people of Ireland, condoling with them 
upon the national calamity, and stating that the 
operations of the Association would be carried 
on under the same rules and in the same spirit 
as its founder had originally laid down. 


16 .—Died at the Viceregal Lodge, Dublin, 
John William Ponsonby, fourth Earl of Bes- 
borough, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. He was 
succeeded in office by the Earl of Clarendon. 
(See Table of Administrations.) 

20. —Died at St. John’s Wood, Mary Lamb, 
sister of the Author of the “ Essays of Elia.” 

21 . — Conference at London between the re¬ 
presentatives of Great Britain, France, Spain, 
and Portugal, for settling the disorders prevail¬ 
ing throughout the last-mentioned kingdom. 

— The Queen of Spain revokes the sentence 
of exile passed against Don Manuel de Godoy, 
Prince of Peace, Prime Minister of Charles IV. 
i 795~ i 8o8, and favourite of the Queen Maria 
Theresa of Parma. 

24 .—Accident on the Chester and Shrews¬ 
bury Railway, at the bridge crossing the Dee. 
Proceeding at its usual pace along the line, the 
train had crossed two of the arches of the bridge 
when, without a moment’s warning, the iron 
girders of the third arch gave way, and the 
whole of the carriages were precipitated into 
the river, a depth of about thirty feet. The 
engine and tender having cleared the broken 
arch were separated from the train, and con¬ 
tinued the journey across the bridge, till the 
tender was thrown across the line, and the 
engine brought up. The accident was seen by 
many people, and assistance of all kinds was 
at once rendered, but the work of extrication 
was necessarily slow and difficult. Five people 
were found drowned or bruised to death, and 
all the rest seriously injured, with the exception 
of one man who contrived to leap out of the 
window into the river, and swim ashore. At 
the lengthened investigation which followed 
various opinions were given by eminent en¬ 
gineers as to the cause of the accident. Mr. 
Yarrow thought it arose from repeated concus¬ 
sion loosening the stonework of the pier, and 
so displacing the girders; General Paisley, that 
the engine had broken the girder in passing 
over it, causing the masonry to give way; and 
Mr. Stephenson, that the engine and tender had 
been off the line, struck the girder laterally, and 
so broke it. 

— A company of Italian commercial re¬ 
formers entertain Mr. Cobden at a banquet in 
Turin. During an audience on the 26th, the 
King announced his intention of making reduc¬ 
tions in the tariff as soon as possible. At 
Venice the Free Trade champion issued his 
address to the electors of the West Riding of 
Y orkshire. 

— Mr. Disraeli, who had recently purchased 
the estate of Htighenden, issues an address to 
the electors of Buckinghamshire announcing his 
intention of standing for that county at the first 
general election. ‘ ‘ The temporary high price,” 
he wrote, “ that is stimulated by famine is not 
the agricultural prosperity which I wish to 
witness, while in the full play of unrestricted 
importation I already recognise a disturbing 

(217) 





MA Y 


i 8 47 . 


MAY 


cause which may shake our monetary system 
to its centre, and which nothing but the happy 
accident of our domestic enterprise has pre¬ 
vented, I believe, from exercising an injurious 
effect on the condition of the working classes 
of Great Britain. Notwithstanding this, how¬ 
ever, I am not one of those who would abet, 
or attempt factiously or forcibly to repeal the 
measures of 1846. The legislative sanction 
which they have obtained requires that they 
should receive an ample experiment. ... In 
the great struggle between popular principles 
and liberal opinions, which is the characteristic 
of our age, I hope ever to be found on the side 
of the people and of the institutions of England. 
It is our institutions that have made us free, 
and can alone keep us so by the bulwark which 
they offer to the insidious encroachments of a 
convenient yet enervating system of centraliza¬ 
tion, which if left unchecked will prove fatal to 
the national character. . . . Amid the universal 
crash of parties I advance to claim your con¬ 
fidence with none of the commonplaces of 
faction. I am not the organ of any section or 
the nominee of any individual All that I can 
offer you is the devotion of such energies as I 
possess ; all that I aspire to is to serve you as 
becomes the representative of a great, undi¬ 
vided, and historic county that has achieved vast 
results for our popular liberty, our parliamen¬ 
tary reputation, and our national greatness.” 

26 .—The Free Church Assembly adopt a 
series of resolutions relative to the Government 
Education scheme, in which, without absolutely 
approving of the scheme, an intimation is given 
of the Church’s willingness to take whatever 
money can be freely and voluntarily given under 
it for her own educational institutions. 

28 .—Lieutenant Gore, of the Franklin Polar 
Expedition, leaves the following written memo¬ 
rial of its presence at Point Victory : “ H.M. 
ships Erebus and Ta'ror wintered in the ice in 
lat. 70° 5' N., long. 98° 23' W., having win¬ 
tered in 1846-7 [1845-6] at Beechey Island in 
lat. 74 0 43' 28" N., long. 91 0 39' 15" W., after 
having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 
77 °, and returned by the west side of Corn¬ 
wallis Island. Sir John Franklin command¬ 
ing the expedition. All well. Party consisting 
of two officers and six men left the ship on 
Monday, 24th May, 1847. Wm. Gore, Lieut.; 
Chas. F. Des Voeux, Mate.” Round the 
margin of the paper (writes the discoverer, 
Capt. M‘Clintock) upon which Lieut. Gore in 
1847 wrote these words of hope and promise 
another hand had subsequently written the fol¬ 
lowing words: — “April 25, 1848.—H.M. 

ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on' the 
22d April, five leagues N.N.W. of this, having 
been beset since 12th September, 1846. The 
officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, 
under the command of Capt. F. R. M. Crozier, 
landed here in lat. 69° 37' 42" N., long. 98° 41' 
W. Sir John Franklin died on the nth June, 

1847 ; and the total loss by deaths in this ex¬ 
pedition has been to this date nine officers and 
(218) 


fifteen men. (Signed) F. R. M. Crozier, Captain 
and Senior Officer; James Fitzjames, Captain 
H. M.S. Erebus. Start to-morrow, 26th, for 
Back’s Fish River.” (See Sept. 21, 1859.) 

29. —Libel upon Eliza Cook. The Ad¬ 
vertiser writes: “Considerable anxiety has 
been excited on the part of the public who do 
not read the poetical contributions of the Dis¬ 
patch , to know what really can have induced 
its proprietor to present their subscribers with 
the portrait of a woman who has murdered her 
own child. Such is fame among the masses: 
a murderess is a heroine and a poetess un¬ 
known.” The first proceedings with reference 
to this calumny took place in the Bail Court, 
where Miss Cook’s affidavit was produced. It 
concluded : * ‘ And this deponent further saith 
that she never had or gave birth to a child; 
and that, on the contrary, she is a spinster of 
strict honour and perfect chastity; and she 
further saith that she has never murdered, or 
been concerned, or charged to have been con¬ 
cerned, in the murder or death of any child 
whatever. ” A retractation was published in the 
Advei'tiser, explaining that the criminal refer¬ 
ence was made, not to Eliza Cook the poetess, 
but to a person of the same name more familiar 
to many readers of the Dispatch , who had just 
been executed for child murder. In the Court 
of Queen’s Bench on the nth of June, Mr. 
Phinn showed cause why a criminal information 
should not be granted against the proprietors 
of the Advertiser. Lord Denman concurred, 
stating that he did not think the paragraph 
was intended to cast any imputation on Miss 
Cook. 

— Died, aged 81, Emanuel, Marquis 
Grouchy, Marshal of France. 

— Wheat average, io2j. 5 d. per quarter. 

30 . —Affray off Labuan, between Rajah 
Brooke and a band of Borneo pirates. Five 
boats were captured or destroyed, and about 
a hundred of the pirates killed. The loss on 
the Rajah’s side was trifling. 

31 . —Found dead in his bed this morning, 
Thomas Chalmers, D.D., Edinburgh. Intend¬ 
ing to. give in the Report of the College Com¬ 
mittee to the Assembly to-day, the reverend 
doctor, on going to bed last night, had placed 
writing materials beside him, that he might carry 
on his work during the night if so inclined. 
He appeared to have been sitting up when 
overtaken by the stroke of death, as he still in 
part retained that posture. The arms were 
peacefully folded on the breast. There was 
a slight air of heaviness and oppression on the 
brow, but not a wrinkle nor a trace of sorrow 
or pain disturbed its smoothness. The features 
wore an expression of deep repose, and the air 
of majesty on the countenance was thought even 
greater than had ever been perceived on the 
living face. A large company of mourners 
followed his remains to the grave in the Grange 
Cemetery on the 4th June. Dr. Chalmers was 
born in 1780. 






JUNE 


JUNE 


1847. 


June 1.—The Earl of Lincoln carries his 
resolution for an address to her Majesty, pray¬ 
ing her to take into consideration the means by 
which, colonization might be made subsidiary 
to other measures for the improvement of the 
social condition of Ireland. The House of 
Lords appointed a Select Committee to inquire 
into the subject. 

— Medals ordered to be struck to com¬ 
memorate the naval and military engagements 
between 1793 and 1815. 

5 .—Collision on the London and North- 
Western line at the Wolverton station. The 
down mail-train for Liverpool, consisting of 
nineteen carriages, was heard approaching the 
station at the proper time. A signal indicating 
that all was right for the train to enter the 
station was hoisted, but, to the astonishment of 
the officials, the engine turned off into a siding, 
and dashed through a mineral-train stationed 
there. The fifth and sixth carriages of the 
mail-train were smashed to pieces, and the 
passengers crushed in the most frightful manner. 
Seven were killed on the spot. The points¬ 
man at the Blue-bridge was apprehended, and 
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard 
labour, for neglect of duty. 

— A large portion of Maudsley’s engineer¬ 
ing establishment, Westminster-road, destroyed 
by fire. 

— A small company of Bosjesmans exhibited 
in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. 

10. —Sir Charles Wood moves a series of 
resolutions (based on the repdrt of a Select 
Committee) permitting shareholders in certain 
cases to suspend railway schemes, and limiting 
the power of speculators to lock up capital in 
prospective and accumulated schemes. 

— New writ ordered for Cork county in room 
of Daniel O’Connell, deceased. A Repealer 
(Dr. Power) was elected. 

11 . —Mr. Hume introduces a debate extend¬ 
ing over three nights, censuring Ministers for 
needlessly interfering in the affairs of Portugal. 
No division took place. 

12 . —Meeting in the great room of the 
. Society of Arts, Adelphi, to promote the 

erection of a monument to William Caxton in 
Westminster Abbey. 

— A Council of Ministers nominated by the 
Pope to carry out various reforms designed by 
his Holiness. 

15 .—The Queen and Prince Albert, with 
their suite, visit Her Majesty’s Theatre to hear 
Jenny Lind in “Norma.” 

— The Portuguese insurgent General Sa-da- 
Bandiera, and a large number of his followers, 
submit to Queen Maria II. 

17 .—The Irish Relief Commission report 
that out of the 2,049 electoral divisions of Ire¬ 
land 1,677 are now under the operation of the 
Temporary Relief Act, and are distributing 
1,923,361 rations per day gratuitously, at an 


average cost of 2 \d. per ration, besides 92,326 
rations sold. Of the divisions under the Act, 
1,479 have received loans or grants. 

22 .—In the course of a discussion in Com¬ 
mittee on the Manchester Bishopric Bill, the 
Bishop of Exeter objected to the preamble 
in so far as it contemplated the election of a 
bishop who might not be summoned to the 
House of Peers. Lord Coke, he said, and Sir 
Matthew Hale laid it down that the Crown 
was bound ex debito justiticz to issue a writ of 
summons to Parliament to every bishop qua 
bishop, not only in the case of bishoprics 
already existing, but of every one that might 
exist. The original clause was affirmed by 44 
to 14 votes. 

— Mr. Disraeli, now a candidate for the 
representation of Buckinghamshire, addresses 
the farmers at Amersham market on the im¬ 
portant position occupied by their county in the 
political history of the kingdom. “ The parlia¬ 
mentary constitution of England,” he said, 

‘ ‘ was born in the bosom of the Chilteni Hills; 
as to this day our parliamentary career is 
terminated among its Hundreds. (Cheers and 
laughter.) The parliamentary constitution of 
England was established when Mr. Hampden 
rode up to Westminster surrounded by his 
neighbours. Buckinghamshire did that for 
England. It has done more. It gave us the 
British Constitution in the seventeenth century, 
and it created the British Empire in the eigh¬ 
teenth. All the great statesmen of that century 
were born, or bred, or lived in this county. 
Throw your eye over the list—it is a glorious 
one—from Shelburne to Granville. Travel 
from Wycombe to Buckingham, from the first 
Lord Lansdowne, the most accomplished minis¬ 
ter this country ever produced, to the last of our 
classic statesmen. Even the sovereign genius 
of Chatham was nursed in the groves of Stowe 
and amid the templa quain dilecta of Cobham; 
and it was beneath his oaks at Beaconsfield that 
Mr. Burke poured forth those divine effusions 
that vindicated the social system and reconciled 
the authority of law with the liberty of men. 
(Great cheering.) And in our own time, faith¬ 
ful to its character and its mission, amid a great 
parliamentary revolution Buckingham called a 
new political class into existence, and en¬ 
franchised you and the farmers of England by 
the Chandos clause.” (Vehement cheering.) 

— Proclamation issued at Rome announcing 
the intention of the Ploly Father to persevei'e 
with wisdom and prudence in the cause of 
reform, but warning his subjects against being 
excited by desires and hopes beyond the limits 
of practicability. 

24 . —A new Poor-law Administration Bill 
read a third time in the House of Commons. 

25 . —M. Emilie Girardin discharged by the 
French Chamber of Peers, before which body 
he had been summoned on the charge of im¬ 
puting corrupt conduct to Ministers in sub¬ 
sidizing theatres, the conferring of decorative 

(219) 




JUNE 


jul y 


1847 - 


crosses , and the creation of peers. The accu¬ 
sation gave rise to a series of sharp debates in 
the Chamber of-Deputies. 

86 . —Trent Valley Railway opened. At a 
banquet in celebration of the event held at 
Tam worth, Sir Robert Peel made a series of 
amusing parallel references to the great north¬ 
western highway opened up two thousand years 
since by the Romans under Julius Agricola. 

28 . — The Ministerial Bill for voting 
620,000/. in aid of certain Irish railways, read 
a second time in the Commons by a majority 
of 175 to 62 votes. 

29 . —Royal Commission gazetted to inquire 
into the constitution and government of the 
British Museum. 

' — Explosion in Kirkless Hall Colliery, 

Wigan, causing the death of thirteen men em¬ 
ployed in the workings. 

— Consecration of four newly-appointed 
colonial bishops in Westminster Abbey, with 
unusual solemnity, the ceremony lasting over 
four hours. 

— Came on before a jury the case of Evans 
v. Lawson, involving the genuineness of a 
relic known as Lord Nelson’s sword, presented 
to Greenwich Hospital by Lord Say and Sele. 
The plaintiff, a dealer in curiosities, alleged 
that he bought the sword from the widow of 
Mr. Alderman Smith, who had received it, with 
other relics, from Lady Hamilton. He further 
maintained that it was the genuine sword which 
Lord Nelson had w r om at the Battle of Tra¬ 
falgar, and which was laid upon his coffin when 
he lay in state. He sold it to Lord Say and 
Sele for 100/. Sir Harris Nicolas upon this 
sent a letter to the Times , charging the plaintiff 
with palming off a spurious article as genuine. 
The sword itself (he wrote) proves that it never 
could have belonged to any British admiral 
whatever. The statement that Lord Nelson 
had worn it when he fell was false, because he 
Wore no sword on that occasion, and the evi¬ 
dence that the weapon had ever belonged to 
him was a forgery. These facts were established 
in evidence, and the jury at once returned a 
verdict for the defendant. 

30 . —In answer to Lord George Bentinck, 
Lord John Russell said the removal of the 
statue of the Duke of Wellington could not be 
considered disrespectful to the noble duke, as 
it was determined to place it in a more pro¬ 
minent and advantageous position; and he 
might add, that her Majesty had expressed a 
wish that the arch at Hyde Park should be 
decorated with emblems recording the victories 
of the noble duke. 

July 1.— The Berwick and Newcastle Rail¬ 
way opened, enabling passengers between 
London and Edinburgh to reach their destina¬ 
tion in fourteen hours. 

— Linlithgow Town Hall burnt. 

3 .—Came on for hearing at the Marl- 
(220) 


borough-street Police Court, the charge made 
by Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte against 
Charles Pollard, Essex-street, of stealing two 
bills of exchange of 1,000/. each. The pri¬ 
soner had taken them away after being signed 
by the Prince as acceptor and himself as drawer, 
for the purpose of getting them cashed; but he 
never returned with the money to the Prince, 
nor would he give up the bills. Counsel for 
Pollard contended that there was no case 
against his client. The stamp paper was his 
property, and it was quite lawful for him to 
take it away. The prisoner was committed for 
trial at the Central Criminal Court, but Baron 
Alderson then explained to the jury that though 
the transaction was no doubt dishonest on the 
part of Pollard, the precise charge of larceny 
could not be maintained. A verdict of acquittal 
was therefore recorded. 

5 . —Mr. Hume proposes, but withdraws 
after discussion, a motion for a Committee of 
Inquiry into the claims advanced by the Rajah 
of Sattara, a sovereign created by the British 
Government in India, and afterwards removed 
for non-fulfilment of treaty obligations and in¬ 
trigues with Powers known to be hostile to 
British rule. 

6. —Commencement of ceremonies connected 
with the installation of II. R. H. Prince Albert as 
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. 
Her Majesty was present at the investiture, and 
an Installation Ode, by Wordsworth, the Poet 
Laureate, was performed on the occasion. 

— In consideration of the lateness of the 
session and of the many amendments proposed 
on the measure, Lord John Russell announces 
the abandonment of the Health of Towns Bill 
introduced by Lord Morpeth. 

7 . —Three men attack the deliverer of the 
registered letters in Mitre-court, Wood-street, 
but, owing to the cries of their victim, were 
compelled to fly without securing any booty. 
A reward of 300/. failed in procuring infor¬ 
mation regarding the offenders. 

8 . —The Commons adopt Sir Charles Wood’s 
resolution sanctioning the application of an 
additional 300,000/. for the relief of Irish dis¬ 
tress, on the security of local rates. 

— Commenced in the French Chamber of 
Peers, the trial of General Cubieres and M. 
Parmentier, charged with corrupting officials by 
gifts in order to obtain the concession of the 
Goahenaus salt mines, and of M. Teste, then 
Minister of Public Works, charged with re¬ 
ceiving such gifts. On one of the days of trial 
the latter attempted to commit suicide by shoot¬ 
ing himself. They were all found guilty and 
fined in large sums, Teste in addition being 
adjudged to suffer three years’ imprisonment. 

9 . —Reform banquet at the Chateau Rouge, 
Paris. The “ Marseillaise” was played several 
times during the evening. 

12 .—In reference to an opinion entertained 
by the Duke of Wellington, that the removal 







JULY 


JULY 


T847. 


of his statue from the arch might now be con¬ 
sidered as a mark of disapprobation towards 
himself, Lord John Russell announces in the 
House this evening that Government did not in¬ 
tend to take any further steps in the matter. 

13 .—The new Bishoprics Bill read a second 
time in the House of Commons, by a majority 
of 124 to 15. 

14 *.—Calamity at Hall’s gun-cotton manu¬ 
factory, Faversham. In the forenoon one of 
the factories was blown up by an explosion of 
great violence, and the whole of the workmen 
killed. The burning debris falling upon the 
roof of an adjoining workship, an explosion 
took place there also with fatal results. In all 
twenty-one persons were killed, and sixteen 
seriously injured. The calamity was thought 
to have arisen from the overheating of the 
building. 

17 .—Sir Robert Peel issues a lengthy address 
to the electors of Tam worth, in which he seeks 
to vindicate the motives influencing his policy, 
and the measures to which he had been a party. 
The endowment of Maynooth he treated as an 
isolated act, in no way preparatory to a 
general endowment of the priesthood, though 
on the latter point he refused to fetter his 
discretion as a legislator by any pledge to re¬ 
fuse the consideration of such a scheme “at 
all times and in all circumstances.” Regard¬ 
ing his commercial policy Sir Robert wrote: 
“It is my firm persuasion that the course 
sanctioned by the present Parliament with 
reference to our financial and commercial 
policy has tended to fortify the established 
institutions of this country, to inspire con¬ 
fidence in the equity and benevolence of the 
Legislature, to maintain the just authority of 
an hereditary nobility, and to discourage the 
desire for democratic change in the constitu¬ 
tion of the House of Commons. ” He concluded 
by expressing a wish that the electors would 
choose a representative entirely on public 
grounds, and not permit considerations of mere 
personal regard, or of his long connexion with 
them, to influence their judgment. 

20 . —The Swiss Diet, after an animated 
debate, vote that the Sonderbund, or separate 
League of the seven Roman Catholic cantons, 
is illegal. The Federal party afterwards car¬ 
ried resolutions to the effect that the question 
of the Jesuits was within the competency of 
the High Diet, that the cantons in which they 
resided should be invited to expel them, and 
that their admission in future in any of the 
cantons was interdicted. 

21 . —The Manchester Bishopric Bill read a 
third time in the House of Commons, and 
passed by a majority of 93 to 14. 

23 .—The Queen in person prorogues Par¬ 
liament preparatory to its dissolution. Writs 
for the new election were made returnable on 
the 21st September. 

28 .—Elections to the new Parliament. The 


nomination for the City of London took place 
to-day in the Guildhall, and the polling on the 
29th. Lord John Russell received the largest 
number of votes, and was returned with two 
Liberals — Pattison and Rothschild — and 
one Conservative—Masterman. At West¬ 
minster Evans and Lushington were successful 
against Cochrane and Mandeville. At Bath 
Lord Ashley and Lord Duncan were success¬ 
ful, leaving Mr. Roebuck at the foot of the 
poll, after a connexion of fifteen years with 
the constituency. Sir Robert Peel was elected 
along with his brother without opposition for 
Tamworth, as were Mr.Cobden and Lord Mor¬ 
peth for the West Riding of Yorkshire, Mr. 
Beckett Denison, Protectionist, refusing to go 
to the poll on account of ‘ ‘ the suddenness of 
the invasion.” Mr. Cobden was also returned 
for Stockport. Mr. Villiers, another pro¬ 
minent member of the League, replaced a Pro¬ 
tectionist in South Lancashire. Mr. Disraeli, 
along with Dupre and Cavendish, was returned 
for Bucks. Mr. Gladstone secured a seat at 
Oxford University along with Sir R. H. Inglis, 
the numbers being—Inglis, 1,700; Gladstone, 
927 ; Round, 824. At Cambridge University 
the contest was unusually close, Mr. Goulburn 
being elected (along with C. E. Law) by a 
majority of only 42 over his opponent, Lord 
Feilding. At Tiverton Lord Palmerston was 
opposed by G. J. Harney, but no votes were 
recorded for the latter. Edinburgh, to the 
surprise and regret of many, showed its resent¬ 
ment at Mr. Macaulay’s Maynooth votes by 
placing him third on the poll, thus rejecting 
him in favour of his Free Church opponent, 
Mr. C. Cowan. The numbers in this contest 
were—Cowan, 2,063; Craig, 1,854; Macaulay, 
1,477; Blackburn, 980. At Falkirk Lord 
Lincoln was successful over Mr. Boyd by a 
majority of 31; and at Glasgow Mr. Mac- 
gregor of the Board of Trade and Lord Provost 
Hastie were successful over Messrs. Dixon 
and Dennistoun. At Nottingham Mr. F. 
O’Connor, Chartist, found a seat in conjunc¬ 
tion with Mr. John Walter. In Ireland the con¬ 
tests were chiefly remarkable for the virulent 
language interchanged between the “Old” and 
“Young” factions. By an unnatural alliance 
of Orangemen and Repealers Mr. Reynolds was 
returned for Dublin along with Mr. Grogan. 
The petitions arising out of the general elec¬ 
tion were 41 in number. Of these, 15 elections 
were declared void ; 1 member not duly elected, 
8 duly elected, and in 17 cases petitions were 
not proceeded with. 

28 . — Died at Printing House Square, 
London, in his 74th year, John Walter, of 
Bearwood, proprietor of the Times newspaper. 
The world stands indebted to Mr. Walter’s en¬ 
terprise for the application of steam to printing 
purposes on the 29th November, 1814, when 
he succeeded in throwing off 1,100 sheets of 
the Times per hour. The present speed is 
12,000 for each of four machines, printing on 
both sides, from a reel of paper containing 

{ 221 ) 






AUGUST 


AUGUST 


184 7 - 


3,300 sheets, an aggregate speed of 48,000 per 
hour, perfected. 

August 5. —The remains of Daniel O’Con¬ 
nell having been conveyed to Ireland, were in¬ 
terred this day in the cemetery of Glassnevin, 
in presence of the relatives of the deceased and 
an assembly of spectators estimated at 50,000. 
The coffin bore the inscription: “Daniel O’Con¬ 
nell, Ireland's Liberator, while on his journey 
to the seat of the Apostles, slept in the Lord at 
Genoa, on the 15th of May, in the year 1847. 
lie lived 71 years, 9 months, and 9 days. May 
he rest in peace. ” 

11 .— The Queen and Prince Albert, with 
the royal children and a numerous suite, leave 
the Isle of Wight in the Victoria and Albert 
yacht for a marine excursion to the Highlands 
of Scotland. They anchored the first night 
in the Roads, and sailed down the Channel 
next day to Dartmouth. On the 14th the royal 
squadron touched at Milford Haven, and after¬ 
wards bore up for Holyhead, where it halted 
for the night. The Queen and Prince Albert 
passed through the Menai Straits on board the 
Fairy , and rejoined the fleet in the evening. 
From Holyhead the course taken by the royal 
squadron was Loch Ryan on the 15 th, and 
Rothesay Bay on the 16th. Next morning the 
squadron sailed up the Clyde, and the party 
visited Dumbarton Castle. Retracing their 
course for a few miles, they first sailed up Loch 
Long to A n ochar, and then passed down to 
Rothesay Bay, where they again cast anchor 
for the night. On the 18th Inverary was 
reached, and a brief visit paid to the Duke of 
Argyll. Passing through the canal, the fleet 
halted in Crinan Bay that night, and in the 
morning made for Staffa. “ It was the first 
time,” writes her Majesty inher FHary, “that the 
British standard, with a Queen of Great Britain, 
and her husband and children, had ever entered 
Fingal’sCave ; and the men gave three cheers, 
which sounded very impressive there.” Iona 
was also visited this day, and at Tobermory the 
fleet anchored for the night. On the 20th the 
royal party reached Fort William, where they 
left the squadron and set out for their autumnal 
residence at Ardverikie. After a stay of four 
weeks, the squadron was again under weigh, 
and the return voyage safely accomplished to 
Fleetwood, where trains were in readiness to 
convey the royal party to London. 

. 13 .—Another new asteroid discovered. Mr. 
Hind writes to the Times: “At half-past 9 
o’clock this evening I noticed what appeared to 
be a star of the 8.9 magnitude, in the 19th 
hour of right ascension, not marked upon 
Wolfer’s map, and which I never saw before, 
though I have repeatedly examined this part of 
the heavens during the present summer. ” It 
was proposed that the name of this new visitant 
should be Iris. 

— Discontent in Ferrara, followed by the 
occupation of the city by Austrian soldiers, in 
opposition to a protest from the Papal Legate. 

( 222 ) 


The King of Sardinia also protested, and 
offered to place his army at the disposal of the 
Pope if the Pontifical divisions were further 
menaced by Austria. 

14..—One of the clerks of M. Spielman, 
money-changer, Paris, murdered in his office 
by a person who entered for purposes of 
robbery. 

IS. —Lieutenant Munro, having surrendered 
to take his trial for killing Colonel Fawcett in 
a duel at Camden Town in 1843, was this day 
placed at the bar of the Central Criminal 
Court, before Mr. Justice Erie. Various per¬ 
sons concerned as. seconds or witnesses were 
examined for the prosecution, and for the de¬ 
fence several officers of high standing spoke to 
the excellent character always borne by the 
prisoner at the bar. The jury retired for about 
twenty minutes, and then brought in a verdict 
of Guilty, accompanied with a strong recom¬ 
mendation to mercy. Judgment of death was 
recorded, but it was subsequently commuted to 
a twelvemonth’s imprisonment. 

— Murder of the Duchess de Choiseul- 
Praslin, and suicide of the Duke. The lady, who 
was the mother of nine children, was the only 
daughter of Marshal Sebastiani, formerly 
French Ambassador at the British Court. She 
left Paris at the beginning of the preceding 
week to visit her estate of Praslin, and be pre¬ 
sent at the distribution of the prizes of a school 
in which two of her children were being edu¬ 
cated, and returned to town on Tuesday even¬ 
ing. She intended to pass only one night in 
her hotel, and was to have left on the 17th 
with the Duke, her husband, for Dieppe, 
whither part of their household had pre¬ 
ceded them. Fatigued with her journey, the 
Duchess went to bed at an early hour ; and, 
as permission had been given to most of 
the domestics to absent themselves, she re¬ 
mained in the hotel with her femme-de¬ 
ck ombre —who slept in the storey above—the 
family governess, and two male domestics. 
The Duke and Duchess slept in separate 
chambers, which, however, communicated by 
means of a passage and antechamber. Be¬ 
tween 4 and 5 o’clock, when it was day-light, 
the femme-de-chambre was awakened by the 
noise of a bell pulled with violence. She rose, 
dressed, and proceeded to the apartment of her 
mistress, the door of which she in vain tried to 
open. She listened, and thought she heard a 
feeble groan. She then called the domestics 
to her help, and by uniting their efforts they 
succeeded in breaking the door open. Then 
they saw their unfortunate mistress lying on 
the floor, in the midst of a pool of blood, and 
apparently quite dead. A wound, in which 
three fingers could have been put, was seen 
gaping on the left side of the throat; there 
were two other severe wounds in the breast, 
and a fourth had almost separated the little 
finger from the right hand. There were also 
lesser wounds on other parts of her person. 
The cries of the servants appeared to rouse the 









AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1847. 


Duke de Praslin, who hastened to the spot, 
and threw himself on the bleeding body of his 
wife. She died two hours afterwards, without 
having spoken, or apparently recovered the 
slightest consciousness. The different wounds 
appeared to have been made with an instru¬ 
ment having a double-edged blade. Every¬ 
thing in the bedroom showed, besides, that 
though surprised in her slumber, the victim had 
offered a strong resistance to the murderer : 
a little table was overthrown ; porcelain and 
objects of art were spread about ; the dra¬ 
pery on the wall bore the traces of a bloody 
hand, as did also the rope of the bell, the ring¬ 
ing of which had awakened the femme-dc- 
chambre; and finally, between the clasped 
fingers of the left hand there was some of the 
murderer’s hair, whilst a considerable quantity, 
pulled out in the struggle, was fixed by the 
coagulating blood to the floor. The horror 
which this event excited throughout Europe 
was still more intensified when it became 
known, in the course of two or three days, 
that all the criminating circumstances in the 
inquiry pointed to the Duke as the murderer 
of his wife. This in its turn was quickly suc¬ 
ceeded by a feeling of indignation when the 
announcement was made in the Paris papers 
that the Duke had died on the evening of the 
24th from the effects of poison taken after he 
was apprehended. It was currently rumoured 
that the King and the Ministry had connived at 
the self-destruction of the murderer to avoid 
the scandal of a public trial. The Patrie 
writes: “The Duke de Praslin died incon¬ 
sequence of arsenic taken in considerable quan¬ 
tities, according to the official journal. It is 
not said who prepared or furnished the poison, 
or at what moment the Duke could have taken 
it. On the 22d the Duke was able to speak to 
the Chancellor and the Grand Referendary, 
and conversed during the whole day with his 
physician. On the 23d the vomitings returned, 
and he was in such a state that he could with 
great difficulty utter a few words in reply to the 
Chancellor. * Did you murder your wife ? ’ 
said the Chancellor. * In order to reply I need 
time and strength, and both are wanting.’ 
* But there is not much time or much strength 
required, ’ said the Chancellor ; ‘ it is yes or 
no. ’ ‘ I have no strength to reply. ’ The two 

interrogatories which took place in the prison 
of the Luxembourg may be summed up in 
these few words : he made no avowal; he re¬ 
plied decidedly to nothing. So far as the 
poison was concerned, he said he took it at his 
hotel, but was not prepared to admit who gave 
it to him.” Mdlle. de Luzy Desportes, the 
family governess, was apprehended and ex¬ 
amined on the charge of complicity in the 
murder ; but though numerous statements in 
the diaries and letters written by the Duchess 
indicated undue familiarity on her part with 
Duke, no directly criminating circumstance 
could be established against her. 

21 .—Encounter in Glen Tilt between the 


Duke of Atholl and a party of naturalists, who 
were compelled to return to Braemar. 

25 .—The elections being now nearly over, 
Ministerial organs claim a probable majority of 
25 to 30 in a fair party division. The new 
members amounted to 223. 

27 .—Explosion on board the Cricket steam¬ 
boat at Hungerford Bridge. She was about 
to start with her cargo of passengers for Lon¬ 
don Bridge, when a loud report was heard, 
and, to the horror of numerous eye-witnesses, 
fragments of the vessel, with human beings, 
were blown into the air in all directions. Six 
were killed, and twelve seriously injured. 
From the evidence taken before the coroner, it 
appeared that the engineer, Heasman, was in 
the habit of tying down the safety-valves, for 
the purpose of increasing the speed of the 
engine. He was apprehended, and tried be¬ 
fore Lord Chief Justice Denman, who sentenced 
him to two months’ imprisonment. 

— The Great Britain steamship floated 
from her sandy bed in Dundrum Bay. The 
works necessary for protecting the ship from 
the storms of winter had been mostly under¬ 
taken by Mr. Brunei, but the floating was 
accomplished by Mr. Brenner, of Wick. She 
was raised by means of caissons or camels, 
suspended over rows of piles driven into the 
beach from the vessel’s bow to a point about 
midships, and descending by means of chains 
and blocks as the tide rose. The actual im¬ 
pulse was given by powerful levers acting on 
fulcra under the bilges, and worked by cap¬ 
stans and other purchases on deck. She was 
towed in the first instance to Belfast by the 
Birkenhead steam-frigate, and, having under¬ 
gone certain necessary repairs there, was after¬ 
wards taken across the Channel to Liverpool. 

31 -—Disturbance at Lucca, followed first by 
a proclamation from the Grand Duke promising 
all reasonable reforms, and then by his flight 
from the capital. The Duchy was afterwards 
annexed to Tuscany. 

— Stowe Palace, the seat of the Duke of 
Buckingham, taken possession of by bailiffs. 

The Irish unions generally repudiate the 
demands of the Government for repayment of 
famine advances. 

September 1 .—Foundation-stone laid ot 
Sheffield Athenseum. 

2 . —Amnesty granted by the Queen of 
Spain to all concerned in the late disturb¬ 
ances. 

3. —Espartero, Duke of Victory, restored to 
favour at the Court of Spain. 

4. —The Cabinet of Vienna presents a note 
to Cardinal P'eretti, explanatory of the motives 
which induced Austria to throw troops into 
Ferrara. Loid Minto was now despatched on 
a special mission to the Italian States. 

5. — Riotous demonstrations against the 
Austrians in Milan. To cripple the Imperial 

(223) 





SEPTEMBER 


1847. 


OCTOBER 


finances, the Italians resolved to abstain from 
the use of tobacco. 

12. —The Observer announces the departure 
of the Duke of Buckingham from England, 
and the seizure of his effects at Stowe and else¬ 
where by creditors. The liabilities were spoken 
of as close on two millions sterling. 

13 . —Died, Charles Nicolas Oudinot, Duke 
of Reggio, Marshal of France. It is recorded 
of him, that at the Battle of Friedland he kept 
the entire Russian army in check with one 
corps till Napoleon came up. 

— The Duke d’Aumale appointed Go¬ 
vernor-General of Algeria in room of the 
Marshal Duke of Isly. 

14.,— The Grand Council of Berne vote an 
extraordinary credit of 155,000 Swiss francs to 
complete the equipment of 20,000 men for 
carrying into effect the recent decree of the 
Vorort for the dissolution of the Sonderbund, 
should opposition be attempted. 

— The Earl of Dalhousie entertained at 
a banquet in the Music Hall, Edinburgh, pre¬ 
vious to departing for India, as Governor- 
General in room of Lord Hardinge. 

15 . —Marshal Soult resigns the Presidency 
of the Council, and receives from the King, in 
acknowledgment of his sixty-three years of 
public service, the honorary dignity of Marshal- 
General of France, formerly held by Turenne 
and Villars. He was succeeded in the Council 
by M. Guizot. 

— The city of Mexico taken possession of 
by the United States army under General Scott. 
On the 20th, the Mexicans were again defeated 
at Charbuses. An armistice was afterwards con¬ 
cluded between the belligerents, but it was of 
short duration, and in a few weeks Santa Anna 
was driven from the capital. 

16 . — Shakespeare’s house, Stratford-on- 
Avon, sold for 3,000/. to the Shakespeare 
Committee by the trustees appointed under the 
will of the late owner. 

19 .—“Monster” meeting at Holy Cross, 
Tipperary, for the purpose of promoting the 
establishment in that county of the tenant-right 
custom prevailing in Ulster. 

21.—The Queen and Royal Family return 
to Buckingham Palace from Scotland. 

24 -.—The 43,000/. of bank-notes stolen 
from Messrs. Rogers’ bank in November 1844 
(see Nov. 23,1844), returned to the house through 
the Parcels Delivery Company in the shape in 
which they were originally deposited in the 
strong-room of the bank. The 1,200/. in gold 
taken away at the same time was not returned. 
The banking-house paid the promised reward 
of 2,500/. to the anonymous person who nego¬ 
tiated the return of the notes. 

27 —The celebrated “Quicksilver” mail- 
coach withdrawn from the Plymouth and Exeter 
road. 


29 .—A court analogous to the new County 
Courts for the recovery of debts comes into 
operation within the City of London. 

This month was marked by a series of 
commercial failures of great magnitude in 
themselves, and involving various interests. 
The Bank raised the rate of discount to 6, 7, 
and 8 per cent., and contracted the terms of 
advance to 90, 60, and 30 days. The funds 
fell one and sometimes two per cent, in a 
single day, Consols being on one occasion as 
low as 84. Railway shares fell in still greater 
proportion, and became latterly almost un¬ 
saleable. Among the most prominent firms 
which succumbed were Sanderson & Co., 
1,725,000/. ; Reid, Irving & Co., 1,500,000/.', 
Cockerell & Co. 600,000/.; Gower Nephews, 
450,000/. ; Robinson & Co. 96,000/., the prin¬ 
cipal in this firm being at the time Governor 
of the Bank of England. Many foreign houses 
fell under the pressure. 

October 4. —At Clifton a young lady, Miss 
Martha Welsh, falls from the highest part of 
the St. Vincent Rocks, and is found crushed to 
death at the bottom. 

7 .—Flood in the Tay, inundating a portion 
of the city of Perth, and committing considera¬ 
ble damage along the course of the river. 

9 . — Commercial panic. The Economist 
writes : “The most extraordinary pressure has 
occurred in the money market during the past 
■week which has been experienced since the 
crisis of 1825. On Tuesday the pressure was 
so great that the difference between the price of 
Consols for money and for the account due on 
the 14th inst. indicated a rate of interest of 50 
per cent, per annum for nine days ; while Ex¬ 
chequer Bills due in March next were currently 
sold at 30J. discount, indicating interest for the 
six months over which they have to run at the 
rate of 74 per cent, per annum.” The crisis 
was described as consisting in the gradually 
increasing liability of a continually increasing 
number of persons to provide capital they had 
contracted to find reaching a point at last, in 
which a very great number of merchants and 
manufacturers were simultaneously unable to 
fulfil their contracts. 

11 . — Mr. Bellchambers, engineer at the 
Esher-street marble works, robbed and mur¬ 
dered near his own residence, Wilton-street, 
Vincent-square. He was found lying insensible 
in the street, and all but exhausted from loss 
of blood. (See Dec. 16.) 

14 . —The newspapers publish a fabricated 
report of the murder of Ellen Lawson, widow, 
and two children, residing at Foot’s Cray, 
Kent, by an unknown person in the habit of 
visiting the house, and who was said to have 
been seen leaving it in the disguise of a work¬ 
man, after attempting to set fire to the premises. 

15 . —The Pope promulgates a decree for the 
institution of a Council of State, to consist of 


(224) 






OCTOBER 


1847. 


NOVEMBER 


Cardinal President, Vice-President, and twenty- 
four members. 

15 .—Numerous railways opened throughout 
Prussia. 

23 . —Conference, lasting, it was said, till 
midnight, between Sir Robert Peel and the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer at the residence 
of the former, Whitehall Gardens, on the sub¬ 
ject of the present commercial panic. Twelve 
per cent, was charged to-day by the Bank for 
loans on the security of Consols and Exchequer 
Bills, while the discount on good bills ranged 
from 10 to 12 per cent. It was even rumoured 
that the Bank itself was borrowing at from 
7 to 7 \ per cent. 

24 . —Denouncing of Irish landlords from 
the altar. At Strokestown, priest M ‘Dermott 
was reported to have said during the Sunday 
service: “There is Major Mahon, absent 
from you all this winter, not looking after your 
wants or distress, but amusing himself; and he 
returns and finds his property all safe, his place 
unmolested; and the return he makes to you 
is the burning and destroying of your houses, 
and leaving your poor to starve on the road. ” 
On the following Sunday, the 3 Is b h e added : 
“Major Mahon is worse than Cromwell, 
and yet he lives. ” A respectable person (said 
Lord Famham, when referring to the case in 
the House of Lords on the 6th December), on 
coming out of the chapel, remarked, “ If the 
Major lives a month after this, he is immortal!” 
He did not live forty-eight hours. Numerous 
other instances of altar denunciation were known 
to have been practised by priests at this time. 

25 {Monday ).—The First Lord of the Trea¬ 
sury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer au¬ 
thorize the suspension of the Banking Act of 
1844. “Her Majesty’s Government,” they 
write, “have seen with the deepest regret the 
pressure which has existed for some weeks 
upon the commercial interests of the country, 
and that this pressure has been aggravated by 
a want of that confidence which is necessary 
for carrying on the ordinary dealings of trade. 
On the same day the Court of Directors passed 
a formal resolution according to the different 
recommendations contained in the Ministerial 
letter; the minimum rate of discount on bills 
not having more than ninety-five days to run to 
be 8 per cent, 

26. —Settlement of the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy in England. The Times writes : 
“ The title of Vicar Apostolic is to cease, and 
the bishops are to be in future named after 
their respective sees. The further division of 
England into sees preparatory to an increase 
in the number of bishops is still under the con¬ 
sideration of his Holiness. There will also be 
one or two archbishoprics created/’ 

27 . —Birmingham Corn Exchange opened. 

28 . —William Davison, solicitor, of Blooms- 
bury-square, commits suicide by throwing him¬ 
self from the Whispering-gallery of St. Paul’s 
Cathedral. 

(225) 


28 . —The Swiss Cantons make an ineffectual 
attempt to settle their differences at a con¬ 
ference. 

29 . —Rajah Brooke presented with the free¬ 
dom of the City of London. 

The commercial failures this month were 
again of uncommon frequency and magnitude, 
particularly in the corn trade : Barton, Irlam, 
and Higginson, 1,000,000/.; Barclay, Brothers, 
& Co. 450,000/.; Scott, Bell, & Co. 240,000/.; 
D. & A. Denny, Glasgow, 300,000/. The 
following banks were also forced to suspend 
payment: The Royal Bank of Liverpool ; 
Knapp, Old Abingdon; Newcastle Union 
Joint-Stock Bank; Scholes and Co., Man¬ 
chester ; North and South Wales Bank ; 
Brodie, Salisbury, and Shaftesbury. The funds 
fell to 794 ; Exchequer Bills fluctuated from 
6 s. to 35 -r. discount. The rate at the Bank ranged 
from 8 to 12 per cent.; and out-of-doors accom¬ 
modation could scarcely be obtained at any 
price. The failures during the crisis were thus 
localized :—London, 85 ; Liverpool, 54 ; Man¬ 
chester, 33 ; Glasgow, 32 ; other provincial 
districts of England, 30 ; other provincial dis¬ 
tricts of Scotland, 3 ; Ireland, 8 ; foreign, 89. 

Numerous outrages in Ireland during this 
month, contrasting unfavourably with the calls 
made upon the Prime Minister by various Poor 
Law Unions for food to supply the wants of 
the starving peasantry. Thefts of farm pro¬ 
duce were also frequent. 

November 1.—The question of the pro¬ 
tectorate of the Holy Places at Jerusalem 
opened by the removal from the sanctuary 
claimed by the Latins of a silver star suspended 
to mark the site of the Saviour’s birth. The 
Greeks being charged with the offence, M. de 
Lavalette, the French representative at Con¬ 
stantinople, took up the case with eagerness on 
behalf of the Western Church, and obtained 
from the Porte the appointment of a mixed 
commission to inquire into the respective rights 
of the Greeks and Latins. 

2 . —Count Bresson, the French ambassador 
at Naples, commits suicide. 

3. —King Charles Albert of Sardinia leaves 
Turin for Genoa, where he receives an enthu¬ 
siastic welcome from the National Party. 

4 . —The Swiss Diet resolve that the decree 
of the 20th July against the Sonderbund must 
be enforced, and charge the Geqeral-in-Chief 
of the Federal troops with its execution. 

— The East India Company give their 
customary parting banquet to the Earl of Dal- 
housie, the new Governor-General. 

— Dr. Bowring, M.P., and his brother 
Charles, Llynvi Iron Works, South Wales, 
robbed of 1,000/. on the highway by two Irish 
labourers formerly in their employ. They 
were both captured the same evening, and 
most of the money recovered. 

Q 




NOVEMBER 


1847. 


NOVEMBER 


4. —Mr. James Stephen retires from the 
post of Under Secretary for the Colonies. 

— Died at Leipsic, aged 38, Dr. Felix 
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, musical composer. 

5 . —Died at the archiepiscopal palace, 
Bishopthorpe, in the 91st year of his age, the 
Honourable Edward Harcourt, D.C.L., Arch¬ 
bishop of York. He was succeeded by Dr. 
Musgrave, Bishop of Hereford. 

IO.—The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland issues 
a circular to lieutenants of counties, urging them 
to take instant steps for the repression of out¬ 
rages within their respective districts. 

12 . —Application of chloroform. Professor 
Simpson, Edinburgh, brings before the public 
his application of a new anaesthetic agent, as a 
substitute for sulphuric ether in surgery and 
midwifery. “I have,” he writes, “through 
the great kindness of Professor Miller and Dr. 
Duncan, had an opportunity of trying the 
effects of the inhalation of chloroform to-day 
in three cases of operations in the Royal In¬ 
firmary of Edinburgh. A great collection of 
professional gentlemen and students witnessed 
the results, and among the number was Pro¬ 
fessor Dumas of Paris, the chemist who first 
ascertained and established the chemical com¬ 
position of chloroform. Case 1, a boy, four 
or five years old, with necrosis of one of the 
bones of the fore-arm. On holding a hand¬ 
kerchief on which some chloroform had been 
sprinkled to his face, he became frightened, 
and wrestled to be away. He was held gently, 
however, and obliged to inhale. After a few 
inspirations he ceased to cry or move, and fell 
into a sound snoring sleep. A deep incision 
was now made down into the diseased bone, 
and by the use of the forceps nearly the whole 
of the radius, in the state of sequestrum, was 
extracted. During this operation, and the 
subsequent examination of the wound of the 
finger, not the slightest evidence of the suffer¬ 
ing of pain was given. He still slept on soundly, 
and was carried back to his ward in that state. 
Half an hour afterwards he was found in bed 
like a child newly awakened from a refreshing 
sleep, with a clear merry eye and placid ex¬ 
pression of countenance, wholly unlike what is 
found to obtain after ordinary etherization. He 
stated that he had never felt any pain, and felt 
none now. On being shown his wounded 
arm he looked much surprised, but neither 
cried nor otherwise expressed the slightest 
alarm.” The other two cases were equally 
successful. 

13 . —Friburg attacked and captured by 
General Dufour, commander of the forces 
under the Diet. 

15 .—The new Council of State opened at 
Rome with much ceremony. 

17 .—Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench the case of John Chadwick, 
involving the question of the legality of mar¬ 
riage with a deceased wife’s sister. The de- 
(226) 


fendant had been indicted at Liverpool assizes 
for bigamy in marrying a person named Eliza 
Bostock, his former wife, Ann Fisher, being 
alive. This Ann Fisher was the sister of 
Hannah Fisher, the prisoner’s first wife, who 
was dead : so that, if it should be held by the 
judges that the second marriage was good, 
notwithstanding the consanguinity, the third 
marriage to Eliza Bostock would constitute the 
crime of bigamy; if not, the third marriage 
would be good. The jury returning a special 
verdict, the prisoner was discharged, and the 
record removed into the Court of Queen’s 
Bench by writ of error. It was now most fully 
and ably argued by Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. 
Peacock, and Mr. Campbell Foster for the 
Crown ; and by Mr. Aspland for the defendant 
in error. The Court delivered judgment, 
declaring the marriage with the sister of the 
deceased wife to be null and void. 

18 .—Lord Robertson issues an interlocutor 
prohibiting Mr. Macdonald from exercising the 
function of professor of Hebrew in Edinburgh 
University, to which he had been appointed 
by the Town Council, for the reasons that he 
refused to sign the Confession of Faith and 
was not a member of the Established Church 
of Scotland. The interdict was craved by the 
Senatus Academicus of the University and a 
minority of the Town Council. 

— The new Parliament commences its 
sittings for the purpose of swearing in mem¬ 
bers. Sir C. S. Lefevre unanimously elected 
Speaker. On the 19th he proceeded to the 
bar of the House of Lords, and claimed all the 
undoubted rights and privileges belonging to 
the Commons. 

20 . —Came on for hearing in the Arches 
Court the case of Geils v. Geils, originally a 
suit for the restitution of conjugal rights, but 
now merged into a plea on the part of the 
defendant for a judicial separation on the 
ground of cruelty and adultery. (See April 
23, 1848. P 

— Circular issued by the Colonial Secretary, 
commanding colonial governors to address pre¬ 
lates of the Roman Catholic Church by the 
title to which their rank in their own Church 
would appear to give them a just claim. “ As 
Parliament by a recent Act (Charitable Be¬ 
quests) formally recognised the rank of the 
Irish Roman Catholic prelates, by giving them 
precedence immediately after the prelates of 
the Established Church of the same degrees, 
the Roman Catholic archbishops and bishops 
taking rank immediately after the prelates of 
the Established Church respectively, it has now 
appeared to her Majesty’s Government that it 
is their duty to conform to the rule thus laid 
down by the Legislature.” 

22.—The Swiss Federal army defeat the 
Leaguers of the Sonderbund near Lucerne, 
and enter the town without resistance. The 
Catholic cantons were afterwards occupied till 




NOVEMBER 


1847. 


NOVEMBER 


they could satisfy the Diet as to the expenses of 
the war. 

23. —The new Parliament opened by the 
Queen in person. “The prospects of trade” 
(it was stated in the Royal Speech) “ were at 
one period aggravated by so general a feeling 
of distrust and alarm that her Majesty, for the 
purpose of restoring confidence, authorized 
Ministers to recommend to the Directors of 
the Bank of England a course of proceeding 
suited to such an emergency. This course 
might have led to an infringement of the law; 
but her Majesty has great satisfaction in being 
able to inform you that the law has not been 
infringed—that the alarm has subsided—and 
that the pressure on the Bank and the com¬ 
mercial interest has been mitigated. ... Her 
Majesty feels it to be her duty to the peaceable 
and well-disposed subjects to ask the assistance 
of Parliament in taking further precautions 
against the perpetration of crime in certain 
counties in Ireland. Her Majesty recommends 
to the consideration of Parliament the laws 
which regulate the navigation of the United 
Kingdom, with a view to consider whether any 
change can be adopted which will, without 
danger to our maritime strength, promote the 
commercial and colonial interests of the empire. ” 
On this occasion the Queen’s speech was for 
the first time transmitted to the chief towns in 
the kingdom by the electric telegraph. The 
speed was at the rate of 55 letters per minute, 
or 430 words an hour. The Address was 
agreed to in each House without a division, 
though Lord Stanley and Lord George Ben- 
tinck made severe criticisms on the policy of 
the Government. 

— The First Lord of the Treasury and 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer write to the 
Directors of the Bank of England, that in con¬ 
sequence of the gradual revival of confidence 
among commercial classes it is not necessary 
to continue any longer in force their letter of 
25 th Oct. 

24-.— Darmstadt letters describe the post¬ 
mortem examination of the Countess of Goerlitz, 
murdered by strangulation, it was presumed, 
though the attempt made to burn the body 
gave rise to other rumours concerning the 
means employed. (See March 11, 1850.) 

25. —The murders and .outrages committed 
in Ireland continue to be of the most frightful 
character. Major Mahon was shot dead four 
miles from Strokestown, when returning from a 
meeting of the Roscommon Board of Guardians. 
(See Oct. 24.) A policeman engaged in making 
inquiries was afterwards shot near the same 
place. Heazleton, a bailiff, was stabbed near 
Pomeroy, Tyrone. Farmer Flynn was stabbed 
returning from the fair of Newtonhamilton, 
Armagh. Walsh, steward to O’Callaghan, of 
Ballynahinch, was shot on the highway near 
Scariff. Devitt was murdered at Nenagh while 
endeavouring to help a family whose house 
had been invaded by a band of ruffians. 
Hassara, treasurer to the grand jury of Fer¬ 


managh, was shot entering his own avenue. A 
woman was shot near Murroe when attempting 
to shield her husband from assassins. Ralph 
Hill, sub-agent to David Fitzgerald, was shot 
on the lands of Rathure, after distraining corn 
belonging to one of the tenants. O’Donnell, 
of Kilcash, sub-agent to the Marquis of Or¬ 
monde, was shot dead. About the close of 
the month the Rev. John Lloyd, vicar of 
Aughrim, was shot as he was riding home after 
preaching a sermon in the parish church. 

26.— The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
moves for leave to bring in a bill to extend the 
time for the purchase of land and the com¬ 
pletion of works by railway companies. In 
considering the monetary and commercial crisis 
of the time, he said he was impressed with the 
belief that the pressure had been partly caused 
by the great demand made on the capital of 
the country for the completion of railways. 
The average amounts expended on railways had 
risen from 1,470,000/. in 1841 to 14,000,000/. 
in 1845, and in the following year the sum 
rose at once up to 9,800,000/. in the first half, 
and 26,175,000/. in the second half. During 
the first half of the present year the sum with¬ 
drawn from the ordinary channels of circulation 
for railways was 25,700,000/. 

— The Earl of Arundel and Surrey ad¬ 
dresses the Roman Catholic Archbishop of 
Tuam (Dr. M‘Hale) on the injury and scandal 
inflicted on the Church by priestly denuncia¬ 
tions at the altar. The Archbishop replied, 
that the imputed offences rested mainly on vague 
charges put forth by bitter calumniators of the 
Church, and without seeking to extenuate in¬ 
discretion in some cases, he pleaded that in the 
peculiar circumstances of Ireland the clergy 
there should not be judged by an English 
standard. Following St. Gregory, he wrote 
that “the modes and topics of address suited 
to one may not be applicable to another,” but 
admit of a “judicious and seasonable variety 
and, denying that “denunciations by name 
are the practice in Ireland,” he likened mere 
general denunciations against “ the violators of 
justice and humanity ” to “ the practice of the 
ancient fathers, who denounced the cruelties 
and persecutions of the Pagans and heretics 
against their flocks.” In another letter ad¬ 
dressed to the Prime Minister, the Archbishop 
defended the clergy, and spoke of the outrages 
as the natural result of the injustice with which 
the people were treated, coercion being in¬ 
variably resorted to in preference to a just and 
ameliorating policy. 

28. —Valais, the last canton of the separate 
League, surrenders on the same terms as the 
others. 

29. —Sir George Grey introduces a bill for 
the repression of crime in Ireland. In the 
course of his speech he laid before the House 
a statement as to the four classes of crimes 
which during the last four months had so 
materially increased m certain counties of Irc- 

Q 2 




NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


In¬ 


land. The number of homicides, which in the 
six months ending Oct. 1846 was 68, had risen 
for the six months ending Oct. 1847 to 96. 
For the corresponding period the number of 
attempts on life by firing at the person had 
risen from 55 to 126 ; robberies of arms from 
207 to 530; and the firing of dwellings from 
51 to 116. During the last month the total 
number of these four classes of offences 
amounted to 195 over all Ireland. The 
counties of Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary 
furnished 139—the amount of crime in these 
counties being 71 per cent, of the whole of 
Ireland, while the population was only 13 
per cent. Sir George proposed to give power 
to the Lord Lieutenant to proclaim districts ; 
to increase the number of the police-officers by 
draughts from Dublin ; to prohibit the carrying 
of arms, except in special cases for the protec¬ 
tion of the person; and in the districts where 
murders were committed to have the power of 
calling out all males between sixteen and sixty 
to assist in capturing the assassins. 

30 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
moves for the appointment of a Select Com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the causes of the recent 
commercial distress, and as to the extent it was 
affected by the law regulating the issue of 
banknotes payable on demand. After a de¬ 
bate of three nights the House assented to the 
proposal. The Lords also nominated a com¬ 
mittee on the same subject. 

— In reply to Mr. Urquhart, Lord Palmer¬ 
ston states that her Majesty’s Government 
were ready, in conjunction with the other 
Powers, to offer friendly offices for the purpose 
of adjusting differences in Switzerland, but 
Great Britain would not be a party to any 
forcible interference. 

December 1.—T. Carlyle enriches Fraser 
of this month with thirty-five unpublished let¬ 
ters of Oliver Cromwell placed at his disposal 
with extraordinary precaution and some mystery 
by an unknown correspondent, who at the 
opening of the correspondence possessed, but 
subsequently destroyed, the originals. 

3 .—Oxford Convocation resolves, by a ma¬ 
jority of 52 to 10, to petition against the 
admission of Jews into Parliament. A pro¬ 
posal to petition against the elevation of Dr. 
Hampden to the see of Hereford was thrown 
out by the veto of the Vice-Chancellor. 

5 . —Six British residents attacked and 
slaughtered at Hwang-chu-Kee, a village four 
miles above Canton, whither they had gone in 
a small boat. The bodies were afterwards 
recovered, and four of the ringleaders executed. 

6 . —Mr. Salomons elected Alderman for the 
ward of Cordwainers, being the first Jew who 
held this dignity in the City of London. 

— The Bishop of St. Asaph presents a 
petition to the House of Lords complaining of 
the annual importation into Ireland of the Papal 
bull “In Coena Domini.” Lord Beaumont 
recommended the establishment of diplomatic 


relations with Rome as a means of removing 
anomalies like that complained of. 

7. —Mr. Feargus O’Connor’s motion, “to 
inquire and report on the means by which the 
dissolution of the Parliament of Ireland was 
effected, on the effects of that measure on Irev 
land, and the probable consequences of con¬ 
tinuing the legislative union,” rejected by 255 
votes to 23. 

8 . —Lord John Russell writes to the Bishops 
of London, Winchester, and other protesters 
against the appointment of Dr. Hampden to 
the see of Hereford : “I observe that your 
lordships do not state any want of confidence 
on your part in the soundness of Dr. Hamp¬ 
den’s doctrine. Your lordships refer me to a 
decree of the University of Oxford passed 
eleven years ago, and founded upon lectures 
delivered fifteen years ago. Since the date 
of that decree Dr. Hampden has acted as 
Regius Professor of Divinity. The Univer¬ 
sity of Oxford, and many bishops, as I am 
told, have required certificates of attendance 
on his lectures before they proceeded to 
ordain candidates who had received their edu¬ 
cation at Oxford. He has likewise preached 
sermons for which he has been honoured with 
the approbation of several prelates of our 
Church. Several months before I named 
Dr. Hampden to the Queen for the see of 
Hereford, I signified my intention to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and did not receive 
from him any discouragement. In these cir¬ 
cumstances it appears to me that, should I 
withdraw my recommendation of Dr. Hamp¬ 
den, which has been sanctioned by the Queen, 
I should virtually assent to the doctrine that a 
decree of the University of Oxford is a per¬ 
petual bar of exclusion against a clergyman of 
eminent learning and irreproachable life, and 
that, in fact, the supremacy which is now by 
law vested in the Crown is to be transferred 
to a majority of the members of one of the 
Universities : nor should it be forgotten that 
many of the most prominent of that majority 
have since joined the communion of the Church 
of Rome. I deeply regret the feeling which is 
said to be common among the clergy on this 
subject. But I cannot sacrifice the reputation 
of Dr. Hampden, the rights of the Crown, and 
what I believe to be the true interests of the 
Church, to a feeling which I believe to be 
founded on misapprehension and fomented by 
prejudice.” In answer to another remonstrance 
from “certain lay members of the Church of 
England,” Lord John Russell writes : “The 
consequences with which I am threatened I 
am prepared to encounter, as I believe the 
appointment will tend to strengthen the Pro¬ 
testant character of our Church, so seriously 
threatened of late by many defections to the 
Church of Rome. Among the chief of these 
defections are to be found the leading pro¬ 
moters of the movement against Dr. Hampden 
eleven years ago in the University of Oxford. 
I had hoped the conduct of Dr. Hampden as 





DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1847. 


Regius Professor of Divinity, and head of a 
theological Board at Oxford, had effaced the 
memory of that unworthy proceeding.” Similar 
sentiments were expressed by the Bishop of 
Norwich (Dr. Stanley). The Bishop of Exeter 
condemned the appointment, and defended the 
proceedings of the remonstrant prelates. Dr. 
Hampden defended himself in a pamphlet ad¬ 
dressed to Lord J ohn Russell. 

IO.—In answer to Sir R. Inglis, Lord Pal¬ 
merston states that Lord Minto had not been 
sent to Rome in any official capacity. 

— Resigning his seat at Stockport to-day, 
Mr. Cobden defended the effect of free trade 
on the commerce of the country, and argued 
strongly in favour of greater economy being 
observed in the naval and military service. The 
remarks he made being misapprehended in 
some quarters, Mr. Cobden took another op¬ 
portunity of explaining his views on these 
points at the nomination of a Free Trade candi¬ 
date for South Lancashire at Newton-in-the- 
Willows on the 20th. 

13 . —The Irish Coercion Bill read a third 
time in the House of Commons. It was taken 
to the House of Lords immediately afterwards. 

14 . —Mr. Horsman’s motion, censuring the 
Ecclesiastical Commissioners for not carrying 
out the provisions of the Act of Parliament 
regarding episcopal incomes, defeated by a 
majority of 130 to 65. 

16 . —Thomas Sale and George M‘Coy, 
coopers, tried at the Central Criminal Court 
for the murder of Mr. Bedchambers on the 
morning of the 11 th October last. They were 
found guilty, partly on evidence furnished by 
M ‘Coy when in prison, and sentenced to be 
executed. Some doubt arising as to the actual 
participation of M‘Coy in the murder, al¬ 
though there could be none as to subsequent 
guilty knowledge, his sentence was commuted 
to transportation for life. Sale was executed 
on the loth of January. 

17 . —Lord John Russell’s resolution in 
favour of the admission of Jews into Parliament 
carried by a majority of 253 to 186. Mr. 
Disraeli spoke on the first evening of debate, 
pressing the claims of the Jew on the ground 
of his near affinity to the Christian. So 
far, he said, as religion could be a sanction 
of conduct or a security for public morality, 
they had in the religion of the Jew the best 
sanction in the world, except that given by the 
faith of the Christian. A bill founded on the 
resolutions was introduced and read a first time 
on the 20th, when Colonel Sibthorp gravely 
objected to the measure on the ground that 
Jews were not likely to take their share of 
legislative work on Fridays or Saturdays. 

— Dr. Merewether, Dean of Hereford, me¬ 
morializes the Queen against the elevation of 
Dr. Hampden. 

18 . —Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench the case of Captain Charretie 
and Sir William Young, late a director of the 


East India Company, and others, charged with 
having fraudulently obtained and sold for 
money a cadetship in the East India Company’s 
service. In order to procure a cadetship for 
his son, Mr. Wotherspoon, W.S. Edinburgh, 
remitted 1,100/. to a Mrs. Stewart in London. 
Through one Trotter, she obtained an intro¬ 
duction to Captain Charretie, and through him 
she reached Sir William Young, a director. 
Trotter received 50/. for his aid ; the balance 
of Wotherspoon’s remittance was paid to Char¬ 
retie, who gave Mrs. Stewart a note from Sir 
William, stating that he would have much 
pleasure in making the appointment in Novem¬ 
ber. The appointment was then made, and 
the young man went out to Madras. The sus¬ 
picions of the Court of Directors being excited 
regarding various recent appointments to cadet¬ 
ships, a strict inquiry took place, and the re 
suit was the present trial. Against Captain. 
Charretie the jury returned a general verdict of 
guilty; but against Sir William Young the 
verdict was guilty on the second count only, 
charging a conspiracy to obtain the appoint¬ 
ment by sale. 

— Died at Parma, aged 56, Maria Louisa, 
Archduchess of Parma, widow of the Emperor 
Napoleon Buonaparte. After his death the 
Archduchess married first the Count de Niep- 
perg, and then the Count de Bourbelles, who 
survived her, and died in obscurity at Versailles 
in 1856. 

20. —Her Majesty’s steam-frigate Avenger 
wrecked on the Sorelle rocks, on the north 
coast of Africa. She had on board 270 per¬ 
sons, including crew and supernumeraries, all 
of whom were drowned, with the exception 
of a lieutenant and four men. The frigate, 
commanded by a stepson of Admiral Napier, 
appeared to have been carried out of her course 
by a current. 

— Parliament adjourns its sittings till Feb. 3. 

21 . —In conformity with an intimation given 
by Prince Metternich to other Powers, Austria 
begins to increase her army in Lombardy : 
Parma was occupied to-day, and Modena and 
Reggio on the 22d. General Radetzky’s army, 
60,000 strong, was also known to be moving 
in large masses towards the frontier of the 
Italian States. 

23 .—Abd-el-Kader surrenders to General 
Lamoriciere, on condition of being sent to 
Alexandria or St. Jean d’Acre. In defiance of 
this stipulation the Emir was sent with his 
family and attendants to France, and detained 
a prisoner, first at Toulon, and then in the 
Chateau d’Amboise. 

— Owing to differences with his party on the 
Jew bill and other measures, Lord George Ben- 
tinck, in a letter to Mr. Bankes, intimates his 
resignation of the Protectionist leadership which 
had been formerly temporarily assumed by him, 
“waiting till the country should have the oppor¬ 
tunity of sending to Parliament other men, 
better fitted by ability and talents, and better 






DECEMBER 


1847. 


DECEMBER 


suited by more universal sympathy with all the 
feelings of the great Protestant party, to lead the 
country gentlemen of England.” 

24 . —Died at Copenhagen, aged 64, Pro¬ 
fessor Finn Magnusen, a distinguished Danish 
antiquary. 

25 . —Lord John Russell to the Dean of 
Hereford :—“I have had the honour to receive 
your letter of the 22d inst., in which you inti¬ 
mate to me your intention of violating the 
law. I have the honour to be your obedient 
servant, ” &c. 

26 . —A Reform banquet held at Rouen, at¬ 
tended by 1,800 persons. About this time 
other Reform dinners on a large scale were 
held throughout the provinces, at which the 
usual toast of the King’s health was omitted. 

— Died, aged 85, the Earl of Harrowby, 
President of the Council under Lord Liverpool 
in 1812. 

27 . —The Times publishes another remon¬ 
strance from the Dean of Hereford against 
the elevation of Dr. Hampden to that see : 
“ Having fully counted the cost, having weighed 
the sum of bounden duty in the one scale against 
the consequence in the other, I have come to 
the deliberate resolve that on Tuesday next no 
earthly consideration shall induce me to give 
my vote in the Chapter of Hereford Cathedral 
for Dr. Hampden’s elevation to the see of 
Hereford.” Sir George Grey replied: “I 
have had the honour to lay the same before the 
Queen, and I am to inform you that her Majesty 
has not been pleased to issue any commands 
thereupon.” 

— An address bearing the signatures of 
nearly seven hundred of the clergy and laity of 
London, and several statesmen of distinction, 
presented to Dr. Hampden at Christchurch, 
Oxford, by Dr. Jeune, Master of Pembroke, 
and a deputation. The address congratulated 
Dr. Hampden on his advancement, and ex¬ 
pressed entire confidence in the soundness of 
his theological opinions, as well as his special 
fitness for the weighty responsibilities of the 
episcopal office. Another address from fifteen 
heads of houses in Oxford University also ex¬ 
pressed confidence in Dr. Hampden’s theologi¬ 
cal opinions, and concern at the reports circu¬ 
lated against him. 

— Lord Palmerston, differing from M. Guizot 
as to the right of any of the guaranteeing 
Powers to occupy Switzerland in the event of 
disturbance among the Cantons, writes to the 
Marquis of Normanby at Paris : “ The Go¬ 
vernment of her Majesty deems it of the highest 
importance to the general interests of Europe, 
as well as the honour of the five Powers, that 
those engagements should be strictly and 
literally observed ; that as long as Switzerland 
abstains from any acts at variance with its 
character of neutrality the inviolability of its 
territories ought to be respected, and conse¬ 
quently that no foreign troops ought to pene¬ 
trate those territories ; that the liberty of 

(230) 


Switzerland and its independence of all foreign 
influence ought to be maintained, and conse¬ 
quently that no foreign Power ought to seek to 
exercise a dictatorial authority in matters relat¬ 
ing to the internal affairs of the Confederation. 
No doubt if the Swiss were to assume an 
aggressive attitude with regard to their neigh¬ 
bours, the neutrality and inviolability guaran¬ 
teed to Switzerland could not shield them 
from the responsibility of their aggressions. 
But at this moment the SAviss have not com¬ 
mitted any such act of aggression. The Go¬ 
vernment of her Majesty is therefore of the 
opinion that the guarantee contained in the 
declaration of the 20th of November, 1815, 
subsists in full force, and that it ought to be 
observed and respected by all the Powers which 
took part in that convention.” 

28 .—The French Chambers opened by the 
King, who expressed a hope that “the pro¬ 
gress of general civilization will be eveiywhere 
accomplished by a good understanding between 
governments and people, without impairing 
internal order and the good relations between 
states.” He also intimated that the Due 
d’Aumale had been appointed to the command 
in Algeria. 

— Election of Dr. Hampden to the see of 
Hereford. Dean Merewether protested against 
the election being proceeded with till due in¬ 
quiry had been made into the charges preferred 
against Dr. Hampden by the University of 
Oxford, or till the Crown presented some more 
suitable person to the see. He also protested 
against the proceedings of that day so far as 
persons voted who were merely honorary pre¬ 
bendaries, and had not complied with the 
statutes of the Church; and because it was 
necessary that the dean should be included in 
the majority. The vote stood : for Dr. Hamp¬ 
den, three canons residentiary, five prebendaries 
of the old order, and six of the junior order ; 
against, the dean, and one canon residentiary, 
Dr. Huntingford. 

— The Bishop of Oxford explains that 
though he had signed the remonstrance against 
Dr. Hampden, and even for a time granted 
“ letters of request ” against him as his diocesan, 
yet such explanations had since been given con¬ 
cerning the disputed passages in his Avritings 
as might well suffice to quiet all just alarm at 
his consecration to the office of a bishop. 

30 .—Replying to an address from certain 
clergymen in Bedfordshire, approving of the 
elevation of Dr. Hampden, Lord John Russell 
writes: “Let us not mistake our position: 
the Church is not in that easy security of the 
last century which gave birth to so much 
negligence, to so much abuse of her wealth, to 
so much apathy. The Church of Rome on the 
one side, with abundant knowledge, with im¬ 
posing authority, seduces many to her com¬ 
munion. The right of private judgment is by 
many avoided as a dangerous snare ; the duty 
of private judgment is throAvn off by many 
more as too heavy a burthen. On the other 




DECEMBER 


1847-48. 


JANUARY 


side, the Protestant Dissenter assails the Church 
established as an engine for fettering the con¬ 
science and taxing the property of the subject. 
Novelties have their charm : the High Church¬ 
man and the Independent speak alike with 
complacency of separating Church and State. 
I know no better security against such a 
danger than an able and learned Episcopal 
bench, a zealous and God-fearing parochial 
clergy. Thus may the Reformation be defended; 
thus may the Establishment be maintained ; 
otherwise neither Parliament nor praemunire 
can beat off the assailants of our Church con¬ 
stitution.” 

31 .^Died, aged 70, Madame Adelaide, 
Princess of Orleans, sister of King Louis 
Philippe. 

1848. 

January 1.—The Kaffir War terminated 
by the surrender of several of the most power¬ 
ful chiefs to Colonel Somerset and the new 
Governor-General, Sir Harry Smith. 

2 . —Queen Christina, in opening the Portu¬ 
guese Cortes, expresses the pleasure she felt 
at being again surrounded by her peers and 
deputies after the violent troubles of the last 
two years. A decree disarming the people was 
authorized. 

3 . —The property of Tawell, the Salt Hill 
murderer, confiscated to the Crown, was this 
day restored to his widow. 

— Affray in the streets of Milan between 
the Austrian troops and the populace, caused 
by the troops smoking cigars, which the people 
had bound themselves not to consume in order 
to injure the revenue of the imperial treasury. 

— The Sacred Congregation, Rome,addresses 
a circular to the Irish prelates, instructing them 
to admonish the clergy not to mix themselves 
up with political matters, but sedulously to 
watch over the spiritual interests of the people 
committed to their charge. Propaganda also 
desired to be satisfied regarding the rumours 
presently current as to the priests being mixed 
up in recent outrages. 

4 . —Special Commission opened at Limerick 
for the trial of persons charged with murder, 
housebreaking, and robbery. In his charge to 
the grand jury, Lord Chief Justice Blackburn 
explained that they were not there to inquire 
into any of the causes to which the outrages 
might be attributed. “We are here to ad¬ 
minister the law; which does not admit any 
provocation to be an excuse or justification for 
the commission of crime. The law cannot 
tolerate its own violation. Wrongs there may 
be—injuries and sufferings there may be—all 
forming a just ground for complaint; but it is 
perfectly plain that, however those sufferings 
may be aggravated, they can never be alleviated 
or redressed by a violation of the law.”—The 
first offender tried was Ryan, alias Puck, 
reputed to have been concerned in nine mur¬ 


ders. He was found guilty of shooting John 
King, and sentenced to be executed on the 7th 
of February. Four others received sentence 
of death, and between twenty and thirty were 
transported for periods varying from two to 
fourteen years. Similar results followed the 
sitting of the Commission at Ennis on the 
12th, and Clonmel on the 24th. In the latter 
place there were upwards of 400 prisoners in 
gaol. 

4 .—The Quarterly Review ,published to-day, 
in an article on “ Ministerial Measures ” noticed 
the aggressive tendencies of the Papal See 
in words frequently referred to afterwards: 
‘ ‘ The Pope, it seems, has announced his in¬ 
tention of proving that he has power and 
authority, both temporal and spiritual, here in 
England itself, by creating those ecclesiastic 
officers heretofore tolerated under the modest 
and sufficient title of Vicar Apostolic into the 
dignities of Archbishops and Bishops, not 
merely nominal, not in partibus, but of Pope- 
created dioceses, in this by law Protestant 
realm of England ; but, having more respect 
for the special provisions of the Act of 1829 
than the English Minister or his Irish prelates, 
he calls them Bishops of Westminster and 
Birmingham.” 

— The Morning Chronicle publishes a 
letter on national defences addressed to Sir 
John Burgoyne by the Duke of Wellington, in 
January 1847. “ Some days have elapsed— 

indeed a fortnight has—since I received your 
note, with a copy of your observations on the 
possible results of a war with France, under 
our present system of military preparation. You 
are aware that I have for years been sensible 
of the alteration produced in maritime warfare 
and operations by the application of steam to 
the propelling of ships at sea. ... I have in 
vain endeavoured to awaken the attention of 
different administrations to this state of things, 
as well known to our neighbours as it is to our¬ 
selves. ... I have examined and reconnoitred 
over and over again the whole coast from the 
North Foreland, by Dover, Folkestone, Beachy 
Plead, Brighton, Arundel, to Selsey Bill near 
Portsmouth, and I say that, excepting imme¬ 
diately under the fire of Dover Castle, there is 
not a spot on the coast on which infantry might 
not be thrown on shore at any time of the tide, 
with any wind and in any weather, and from 
which such body of infantry, so thrown on 
shore, would not find, within the distance of 
five miles, a road into the interior of the coun¬ 
try through the cliffs practicable for the march of 
troops. . . . When did any man hear of allies 
of a country unable to defend itself? Views of 
economy of some, and I admit that the high 
views of national finance of others, induce them 
to postpone those measures absolutely necessary 
for mere defence and safety under existing cir¬ 
cumstances, forgetting altogether the common 
practice of successful armies, in modern times, 
imposing upon the conquered enormous pecu¬ 
niary contributions, as well as other valuable 

(230 





JANUARY 


1848 . 


JANUAR y 


and ornamental property. Do we suppose 
that we should be allowed to keep—could we 
advance a pretension to keep — more than 
the islands composing the United Kingdom; 
ceding disgracefully the Channel Islands, on 
which an invader has never established himself 
since the period of the Norman Conquest? I 
am bordering upon seventy-seven years of age 
passed in honour; I hope that the Almighty 
may protect me from being witness of the tra¬ 
gedy which I cannot persuade my contempo¬ 
raries to take measures to avert.” 

5 .—Violent scene in the Spanish Cortes, 
arising out of a charge of peculation made 
against Salamanca, the Minister of Finance. 

7 . —Died at Hanover, in her 98th year, 
Miss Caroline Lucretia Herschel, sister and 
assistant of the celebrated astronomer, to whose 
zeal, diligence, and accuracy he was greatly 
indebted. She also made many useful astro¬ 
nomical observations of her own, and wrote 
several scientific treatises. 

— Commencement of a debate on the Ad¬ 
dress in the French Chamber of Deputies. The 
paragraphs relating to Reform and Reform 
demonstrations gave rise to a stormy discussion 
on the 9th February, when the Ministry an¬ 
nounced their intention of prohibiting political 
meetings. 

8 . —Execution of Reid for the Mirfield mur¬ 
ders, at York. On the scaffold he said: “I 
alone am the guilty person; McCabe is entirely 
innocent. No human being in the world had 
anything to do with it except myself.” 
McCabe’s sentence had previously been com¬ 
muted to transportation for life. 

— Confirmation of the new Bishop of Man¬ 
chester (Rev. J. L. Prince, M.A.) in St. 
James’s Church, Piccadilly. He was conse¬ 
crated on the 16th in Whitehall Chapel. 

9 . —Riotous proceedings in Leghorn, arising 
out of demonstrations made by the National 
party- 

10. —A box, containing 1,500 sovereigns, 
stolen from the parcel van on the Great West¬ 
ern Railway, between London and Taunton. 

11. —Confirmation of Dr. Hampden in the 
Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. On 
the calling of objectors, a protest was presented 
against the proceedings; but the Commissioners 
declined to receive it on the ground that they 
were assembled under a commission, signed 
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to proceed 
with the confirmation, and if they failed to do 
so they were liable under the statute of Henry 
VIII. to heavy pains and penalties. The same 
course was taken in the case of a libel, which 
the objectors wished to have argued in the 
Ecclesiastical Courts. 

12 . —The Sicilians revolt at Palermo against 
King Ferdinand. A Constitution is conceded, 
but the city continues for many weeks in a 
discontented and unsettled state. 

(232) 


13. —The Emperor of Austria writes to the 
Archduke Rainer, Viceroy of the Lombardo- 
Venetian kingdom: “I have duly examined 
the events which occurred at Milan on the 2d 
and 3d inst. It is evident to me that a faction 
desirous to destroy public order and tranquillity 
exists in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. AH 
that you deemed necessary to satisfy the wants 
and wishes of the different provinces I have 
already done. I am not disposed to grant 
further concessions. Your Highness will fnake 
known my sentiments to the public. The atti¬ 
tude of the majority of the population of the 
Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, however, in¬ 
duces a hope that similar distressing scenes 
shall not occur again. At all events, I rely on 
the loyalty and courage, of my troops.” 

— Enthronization of Dr. Musgrave as Arch¬ 
bishop of York. 

14 . —Rajah Brooke entertained at a banquet 
in Fishmongers’ Hall. 

— The Swiss Diet refuse to recognise 
the Pope’s protest against the conduct of 
the Provisional Government in the Catholic 
cantons. 

— In the course of a debate on the Address 
in the French Chambers, the Count de Mon- 
talembert makes a vigorous attack on the Radi¬ 
cal party in Switzerland, and their sympathiser 
Lord Palmerston, “ the executioner of the 
independence of the Cantons.” 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench Sir 
Fitzroy Kelly obtains a rule for a mandamus, 
to compel the Archbishop of Canterbury to hear 
certain parties opposed to the elevation of Dr. 
Hampden to the see of Hereford. 

15 . —Marshal Radetzky, commander-in-chief 
of the Austrian forces in Italy, issues a general 
order to the troops, commanding them to pre¬ 
pare for an immediate struggle: “The efforts 
of fanatics, and a false spirit of innovation, will 
be shivered against your courage and fidelity 
like glass striking against a rock. My hand 
still firmly holds this sword that during sixty- 
five years I have carried with honour upon so 
many fields of battle. I still know how to use 
it, to protect the peace of a country, only lately 
so happy, and which a furious faction threatens 
to precipitate into incalculable misery.” 

17 . —The Mexican Congress reject all nego¬ 
tiations with the United States while their 
armies and fleet occupy the country. 

— Sir Henry Mildmay commits suicide by 
shooting himself in a fit of despondency. 

— Concluded at Aberdeen, after a trial pro¬ 
tracted over the long period of fourteen days, the 
complicated succession case of Wood of Wood- 
cot As in two preceding trials, a verdict was 
now given in favour of Mrs. Farrel, who 
claimed as the only surviving descendant of 
deceased’s aunt. 

18 . —In a lengthy epistle, dated from St. 
Jarlath’s, on the “Feast of the Chair of St 






JANUARY 


1848. 


FEBRUARY 


Peter,” Archbishop M‘Hale charges Lord 
Shrewsbury and other Roman Catholic peers 
in England with lending themselves to a con¬ 
spiracy against the lives of the Irish people and 
the character of the Catholic hierarchy, in so 
far as they had charged the latter with com¬ 
plicity in certain recent assassinations. 


of which it knows nothing.” The effect of 
this equal judgment was that no mandamus 
issued. 

26 .—Banquet at Manchester to celebrate 
the i-eturn of Free Trade candidates to Parlia¬ 
ment. 


19 .—Died at Bradenham House, Bucking¬ 
hamshire, aged 82, Isaac D’lsraeli, author of 
the “ Curiosities of Literature.” 


20 . —Several persons slain at Pavia in a 
collision between the students and Austrian 
soldiers. 

— Died at Copenhagen, aged 61, Christian 
VIII., King of Denmark. 

21 . —Debate on the sale of offices in the 
French Chamber of Deputies. M. Guizot 
treated the matter lightly, and described the 
practice as of old standing. 

— W. C. M. Plowden gazetted as her Ma¬ 
jesty’s consul in Abyssinia. 


22.—The Roman Gazette announces the ele¬ 
vation of Dr. Wiseman to the Archbishopric of 
Westminster. Referring to a proposal to build 
an Italian Catholic Church in London, it was 
intimated that subscriptions would be received 
by his Eminence the Cardinal Prefect of the 
Propaganda, and by his Eminence the Most 
Reverend Monsignor the Vicar Apostolic, “ now 
Archbishop of Westminster.” 


24 .—Revolution in Caraccas, Venezuela; 
five members killed in the Chamber of De¬ 
puties. 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench the At¬ 
torney-General shows cause against the rule 
granted on the 14th, why a mandamus should 
not issue against the Archbishop of Canterbury 
in the Hampden case. Judgment was given 
on the 1st of February. Mr. Justice Erie and 
Mr. Justice Coleridge held confirmation to be a 
solemn judicial act, and were in favour of the 
mandamus ; Mr. Justice Patteson and Lord 
Denman considered the Archbishop’s duty 
simply declaratory, and decided against further 
proceedings. “ Looking,” said Lord Denman, 
“ to the frightful state of theological animosity 
at present, the granting of the rule would 
create and perpetuate it for, perhaps, two years, 
by the sanction that it would give, at the avoid¬ 
ance of every see, to the course of summoning 
all mankind as objectors to the appointment of 
the Crown in an open court, which might, in 
fact, never be closed. Bearing in mind the 
discretion of this Court, even where it allowed 
the proceeding complained of to be judicial, 
and thought the judge might be compelled to 
hear objectors, he felt bound to refuse the writ. 
He had, however, no doubt on the law. With 
reference to the able argument of his brother 
Coleridge, it only confirmed him as to the 
danger of exposing the clear construction of the 
Acts of Parliament to those who would bring 
down the forgotten books, and wipe off in this 
Court the cobwebs from decretals and canons, 


28 . —Frederick VII. publishes a new Con¬ 
stitution, by which Schleswig, Holstein, and 
Denmark are to be governed by “ common 
states,” elected alternately in the duchies and 
the kingdom. 

29 . —Proclamation of the Constitution of 
1812 in Naples and Sicily. 

— Greenwich time adopted at Edinburgh, 
Glasgow, and other populous towns in Scot¬ 
land. The public clocks were found to be 
about 12^ minutes behind Greenwich time. 

— Animated debate in the French Chambers 
on the unity of Italy. M. Lamartine and M. 
Thiers spoke against the recent “Conservative” 
policy of Ministers, and were answered by M. 
Guizot. On the 2d February M. Thiers made 
another spirited assault on Ministers, for need¬ 
lessly interfering in the Swiss quarrel. 

30 . —Numerous arrests and great increase of 
Austrian military force in Milan and Verona. 
The Duke of Modena quits his capital. 

Several peace meetings held this month 
for the purpose of neutralizing, if possible, the 
effect of the Duke of Wellington’s warlike 
epistle. (See Jan. 4.) 

February 1.—The free importation of grain, 
granted in the last session of Parliament, ceases, 
as also the temporary suspension of the Navi¬ 
gation laws. 

— Sir J. Brooke leaves England as Governor 
of the new British possession of Labuan. 

— Preliminaries of peace between Mexico 
and the United States signed at Guadalupe- 
Hidalgo. 

— Upper California ceded to the United 
States. 

3 . —On the House of Commons resuming its 
sittings to-day, Lord George Bentinck presented 
petitions from West India planters and mer¬ 
chants in Britain and Jamaica, praying for the 
removal of burthens, for a full supply of African 
labour, an alteration of the Navigation laws, and 
an assimilation of the duties on colonial rum to 
those paid by the British distiller. He also 
proposed a motion asking for a select com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the present condition and 
prospects of the interests connected with and 
dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her 
Majesty’s East and West India possessions and 
the Mauritius, and to consider whether any and 
what measures can be adopted by Parliament 
for their relief. The motion was agreed to 
without a division. 

4 . —The foundation-stone of Sunderland 
Docks laid by Mr. George Hudson, M.P. 

( 233 ) 






FEBRUARY 


1848. 


FEBRUARY 


4 ,—Private Ducker, of the Coldstream 
Guards, shot in Birdcage Walk by Annette 
Myers, a young Frenchwoman, excited to the 
deed through jealousy. She was tried, found 
guilty, and sentenced to be executed, but 
ultimately respited. 

7 .—A bronze statue of Mr. Huskisson set up 
in Lloyd’s. 

— At a meeting of Protectionists, in his 
own house, Lord Stanley announced the 
resignation of Lord Geoige Bentinck as the 
leader of the country party in the House of 
Commons. 

— The second reading of the Government 
Bill for removing Jewish disabilities carried by 
a majority of 277 against 204. Mr. Shiel 
made an effective speech in favour of the mea¬ 
sure. “There have been repeated references 
in this House,” he said, “to the author of the 
* Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 
but 1 think that a name still more illustrious 
might have been cited. Was not Bolingbroke, 
the fatally accomplished Bolingbroke, to whose 
genius were offered tributes amounting almost to 
idolatrous veneration—was not Bolingbroke, 
who united to external accomplishment high in¬ 
tellectual endowments, and whose intercourse 
in private life exercised a species of fascination 
on all who had the misfortune to approach him 
—was not Bolingbroke, the infidel Bolingbroke, 
a member of this House ? Was he stopped by 
the test which arrested the Jew ? Did he not on 
the contrary tread upon it, and mount to the 
height of power, and become a confidential ad¬ 
viser of the Sovereign ? Is it not preposterous 
that a man by whom revelation was rejected, 
who doubted the immortality of the soul, who 
doubted a future state of reward and punish¬ 
ment, who doubted eternity and providence, 
who believed nothing, who feared nothing, who 
hoped for nothing, who laid no restraint upon 
his depravity, who had no incentive to virtue 
beyond such natural promptings as God may 
have given him—is it not monstrous that such 
a fiend should find his way into the House of 
Commons, and climb to the pinnacle of power, 
and that you should slap the door with indig¬ 
nation in the face of an honourable and con¬ 
scientious man, who adheres to the religion in 
which he was born and bred—of a man who 
believes in the facts which constitute the foun¬ 
dation of Christianity—who believes in the 
existence of the noble part of our being—who 
believes in the mercies of God, and who prac¬ 
tises humanity to man—who believes in the 
ten great injunctions on which all morality is 
based—whose ear is never deaf to the supplica¬ 
tions of the suffering, whose hand is open as 
day to melting charity—and whose life perhaps 
presents a better exemplification of the precepts 
of the Gospel than any of those men, for the 
sake of whose Christian religion the dishonour¬ 
ing disabilities are injuriously maintained ? ” Sir 
Robert Peel spoke and voted in favour of the 
bill. The third reading was carried by 234 
to 173. In the House of Lords the bill was 
( 234 ) 


thrown out on the second reading by a majority 

of 35 * 

8. —The King of Sardinia grants a new 
Constitution to his kingdom, conceding two 
Chambers and a free press. 

9 . —Disturbances in Munich, occasioned by 
Lola Montez interfering to protect a club of 
Alemanen students which she had taken under 
her patronage. She was attacked by the popu¬ 
lace, and made her escape with difficulty in the 
company of the King. 

— Disturbance among the students at Padua, 
leading to the closing of the University. It 
was not opened again till 1850. 

— Protectionist demonstration by seamen ot 
the mercantile marine, a procession of about 
2,000 masters and men sailing up the Thames, 
with petitions to be presented to Sir George Grey 
against the repeal of the Navigation laws. 

11 . —The Grand Duke of Tuscany grants a 
Constitution to his subjects. 

— Died the Most Rev. William Howley, 
D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury, aged 72, 
one of the most moderate and conciliatory of 
prelates. He was succeeded by Dr. Sumner, 
Bishop of Chester. 

12. —The discussion on the Address in the 
French Chamber brought to a close after a 
debate protracted over nineteen days. M. 
Guizot declared that he would make no con¬ 
cession. A division took place on the amend¬ 
ment respecting Reform, which was lost by 189 
to 222. The Opposition in a body refrained 
from voting on the Address. 

—- The Duffus family of Erichtbank—four 
sisters and two of their husbands—sentenced 
to four months’ imprisonment at Perth Circuit 
Court, for destroying a testamentary deed with 
intent to defraud the interests of minors under 
the settlement. 

13 . —The Opposition Deputies resolve unani¬ 
mously that a grand Reform banquet which they 
would attend must be held in Paris on the 20th 
(Sunday), and that none of them would par¬ 
ticipate in the ceremony of presenting the 
Address to the King. 

14 . —The case of the Rev. James Shore-- 
an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the 
Privy Council against a decision pronounced by 
Sir H. J. Fust, treating him as a clergyman of 
the Church of England still amenable to disci¬ 
pline, although he had taken the oath prescribed 
for the relief of Protestant Dissenting ministers 
—dismissed, on the technical plea that the 
appeal did not originate at the proper stage in 
the Lower Court. 

IS*—The Pope decrees a Constitution for 
the Roman States. 

Opening of the Caledonian Railway be¬ 
tween Carlisle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. 

16 -~The Emperor of Russia declares him¬ 
self discharged from his engagement under the 




FEBRUARY 


1848 . 


FEBRUARY 


Treaty of Vienna to maintain the neutrality of 
the Swiss Confederation. 

16 . —Romeo Coates, thirty years since “ the 
Amateur of Fashion,” run over by a hansom 
cab near the Hummums Hotel, Co vent Garden, 
and injured so severely that death resulted in a 
few days. 

17 . —The proferred mediation of Lord Minto 
between the Sicilians and the King of Naples 
accepted. 

— The Marquis of Lansdowne moves the 
second reading of a bill enabling her Majesty 
to open up and carry on diplomatic relations 
with the Court of Rome. After considerable 
discussion the second reading was carried 
without a division. In committee, the Earl of 
Egl inton carried an amendment against the 
Government, prohibiting the reception of any 
ecclesiastic as the accredited minister of the 
Tope in this country. The bill was afterwards 
sent down to the Commons, and passed on the 
29th of August. 

18 . —Lord John Russell submits the finan¬ 
cial scheme of the Government; and, in con¬ 
sideration mainly of the large sum required for 
our national defences, proposes to continue the 
income-tax for three years at the increased rate 
of five per cent. He calculated the revenue at 
54,709,000/. and the expenditure at 54,596,000/. 
The proposal to increase the income-tax gave 
rise to so much opposition throughout the 
country, as well as in the House, that on the 
28th the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Wood) 
announced that Government did not intend at 
present to press this portion of their scheme, 
but would draw upon the balance presently in 
Exchequer for the expenses of the Kaffir War 
and the excess on naval expenditure. (See 
April 5.) 

19 . —An express train from London to 
Glasgow performs the journey (4724 miles) in 
104 hours. 

20. —The Reform banquet in Paris fixed 
for to-day deferred to the 22d. French funds 
—Three per Cents 73 f. 35 c. ; Five per Cents 
115 f. 90 c. 

21 . —Died at Washington, in the 81st year 
of his age, John Quincey Adams, sixth Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, 1825-9. 

— The Committee of the Paris Reform 
Banquet issue a programme of their proceed¬ 
ings and the route of the intended procession. 
On the evening of the same day the Govern¬ 
ment issued a counter proclamation, prohibiting 
the banquet. “ By the manifesto published this 
morning, calling the public to a demonstration, 
convoking the National Guards, assigning them 
a place in rank with the Legions, and ranging 
them in line, a Government is raised in opposi¬ 
tion to the real Government, which usurps the 
public power, and openly violates the Charter. 
These are acts which the Government cannot 
tolerate. In consequence, the banquet of the 
twelfth arrondissement will not take place. 


Parisians, remain deaf to every excitement of 
disorder. Do not by tumultuous assemblages 
afford grounds for a repression which the Go¬ 
vernment would deplore. ” 

22 . —Great Reform demonstration in Paris. 
Hdtel Guizot attacked; barricades also begin 
to appear in the streets. In the Chamber the 
impeachment of M. Guizot was proposed, but 
defeated by a large majority. The Minister was 
said to have treated the articles of accusation 
with derision, one report stating that “ M. Guizot 
laughed immoderately.” 

— Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench the action brought by Alfred 
Bunn against Jenny Lind for breach of her 
engagement to sing at Drury-lane Theatre. 
Damages laid at 10,000/. The jury found a 
verdict for the plaintiff, and the case was ulti¬ 
mately settled by a payment of 2,000/. by Miss 
Lind to Mr. Bunn. 

— Martial law proclaimed in Lombardy 
by order of the Austrian Government. The 
people were also prohibited from meeting in 
certain places, or wearing particular colours, 
and cannon were placed in the streets of the 
principal towns. 

— Messina bombarded for three days by the 
Neapolitan troops, and property estimated at 
400,000/. destroyed. 

23 . —Died at Dundee, William Thom, “the 
Inverury poet. ” 

— Serious disturbances at Milan. The 
city declared in a state of siege. 

— In Paris, great numbers of the National 
Guards declare in favour of Reform, and join 
with the people in demanding the dismissal of 
the Ministers. The Municipal Guards, after 
firing upon the people, were compelled by the 
National Guards to surrender their colours. 
In the evening the troops fired upon the people 
before the H6tel Guizot, owing, it was thought, 
to the accidental discharge of a gun being mis¬ 
taken for an attack. Barricades were now got 
up with great speed, and throughout the city the 
troops were seen fraternizing with the people. 
M. Guizot having resigned in the course of the 
day, the King sent for M. Thiers to undertake 
the task of forming a new Ministry. By mid¬ 
night the city might be said to be entirely in the 
hands of the people. 

— Fluctuation in the English funds caused 
by the French Revolution. This day (Wednes¬ 
day) Consols opened at 89, but on the arrival 
of the French news fell to 88f ; next day they 
opened at 88f, and on the news of the King’s 
flight fell to 854; on Monday they opened at 
8 if to 8 if, but fell to 79f, being the lowest 
point reached during the excitement. On the 
28th the French funds fell in London to 8of. 

— Mr. Anstey, in a rambling and vitu¬ 
perative speech, occupying between four and 
five hours, sets forth his accusations against the 
foreign policy of Lord Palmerston for the last 
seventeen years in Russia, Turkey, Persia, and 

( 235 ) 





FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1848 . 


America. The charge elaborated with the 
greatest minuteness was that of subserviency 
to the designs of Russia. Mr. Urquhart se¬ 
conded the motion for papers. Lord Palmer¬ 
ston’s reply was cut short at six o’clock, by the 
Speaker announcing that the debate must be 
adjourned, to stand as an order of the day for 
Thursday. (See March 1st.) 

23 . —Writing of the importance of the barri¬ 
cades in street warfare, an eye-witness in Paris 
thus describes their construction :—“ Suppose 
the Commissioners of Pavements, in one of 
their perpetual diggings-up, piled the stones of 
Fleet Street across the way instead of along it, 
inserting a shop front or two on the top, with a 
few lengths of iron railing, and half-a-dozen 
trees from the Temple Gardens as a finish, that 
would be a barricade like scores which have 
been raised in Paris in the last movement. 
They are rude enough to the eye, but most 
formidable in their effect. Troops can do little 
against them; cavalry are quite useless; as 
they are placed at all intersections of the streets. 
Whichever way a battalion turned it would 
find itself in cul-de-sac: and they are formed 
with a rapidity truly marvellous. I have ex¬ 
amined a hundred of them with much more 
interest than I should feel in the Pyramids.” 

24 . —Abdication and flight of Louis Phi¬ 
lippe. “ The King,” writes one who was pre¬ 
sent, “bewildered by conflicting counsels and 
contradictory reports, which were brought to 
him from all sides, determined to make a 
last effort. Followed by his sons and aides- 
de-camp, some of whom had not even time 
to put on their uniforms, he mounted his 
horse and rode along the troops drawn up 
in the inner court-yard of the palace, and on 
the Place du Carrousel. . . . Repeated cries 
of ‘ Vive le Roi! ’ for an instant revived their 
hopes; but soon these shouts were over¬ 
powered by those of ‘ Vive la Reforme! ’ The 
King saw clearly the state of things. The 
coolness with which the National Guard received 
him showed him at once that his natural sup¬ 
porters, those upon whom he had a right to rely, 
had deserted him. His countenance betrayed 
neither fear nor agitation, but wore the calm 
sadness of a man struck to the heart. He re¬ 
turned to his own room, and whilst sitting there 
with his head in his hands, trying to collect his 
thoughts, an officer hurriedly entered and ex¬ 
claimed, ‘ Sire, there is not a moment to lose ; 
give orders to the troops or abdicate.’ The 
King, after a moment’s silence, replied : ‘ I 
have always been a pacific king ; I will abdi¬ 
cate.’ Then rising from his seat he opened the 
door of his closet, adjoining the apartment in 
which the Queen and Princesses were assem¬ 
bled, and repeated with a firm voice, * I abdi¬ 
cate ! ’ Resisting the entreaties of his family to 
recall the words, he went to his closet and wrote 
the act of abdication in the presence of many 
strangers who had forced themselves into the 
apartment. The confusion was so great that 
the act of abdication was snatched from the 

( 236 ) 


King’s hand before a copy could be made of it, 
nor was it afterwards known what became of 
the original. M. Lamartine says it found its way 
into the hands of Lagrange, and was by him 
given to Antony Thouret, of the Riforme. The 
act was expressed in these words : ‘ I abdicate 
the crown, which I assumed in compliance with 
the will of the nation, in favour of my grand¬ 
son the Comte de Paris. May he succeed in 
the great task which this day devolves upon 
him.’ ‘ May he resemble his grandfather,’ ex¬ 
claimed the Queen.’ ” The Duchess of Orleans 
implored the King not to impose upon his 
grandson a burden which he thought himself 
unable to sustain. The King and Queen, most 
of the royal family, and a few staunch friends, 
quitted the Tuileries as the mob were entering to 
take possession and sack the royal apartments. 
M. C. Maurice, of the Courier des Spectacles y 
writes that he saw the royal family “at this 
moment approach the Pont Tournant preceded 
by a troop of National Guards appealing to the 
people against hostile demonstrations, and fol¬ 
lowed by about thirty persons in uniform. The 
King appeared to lean on the Queen for sup¬ 
port. The Queen walked with a firm step, and 
cast around looks of assurance and anger inter¬ 
mingled. The King wore a black coat with 
a common black hat and no orders. The 
Queen was in full mourning. A report was cir¬ 
culated that they were going to the Chamber 
of Deputies to present the act of abdication. 
Cries of ‘Vive la Reforme!’ ‘Vive la France!’ 
and even by two or three persons ‘Vive la 
Roi! ’ were heard. The procession had scarcely 
passed the Pont Tournant and arrived at the 
pavement surrounding the Obelisk, when the 
King, the Queen, and the whole party made a 
sudden halt, apparently without any necessity. 
In a moment they were surrounded by a crowd 
on foot and horseback, and so pressed that 
they had no longer their freedom of motion. 
Louis Philippe appeared alarmed at this sudden 
approach. In fact the spot, fatally chosen by 
an effect of chance, produced a strange feeling. 
A few paces off, a Bourbon king, an innocent 
and resigned victim, would have been happy to 
have experienced no other treatment. Louis 
Philippe turned quickly round, let go the 
Queen’s arm, took off his hat, raised it in the 
air, and cried out something which noise pre¬ 
vented my hearing; in fact the cries and pile 
mile were general. The Queen became alarmed 
at no longer feeling the King’s arm, and turned 
round with extreme haste, saying something that 
I could not catch. At this moment I said, 

* Madame, ne craignez rien; continuez, les 
rangs vont s’ouvrir devant vous.’ Whether 
her anxiety gave a false interpretation to my 
intention or not I am ignorant, but pushing 
back my hand she exclaimed ‘ Laissez-moi ’ 
with a most irritated accent. She seized hold 
of the King’s arm, and they both turned their 
steps towards two small black carriages with 
one horse each, which had been sent to that 
point by the Due de Nemours. In the first 
were two young children. The King took the 






FEBRUARY 


1848 . 


FEBRUARY 


left and the Queen the right, and the children 
with their faces to the glass of the vehicle look¬ 
ing at the crowd with the utmost curiosity ; the 
coachman whipped his horse violently—in fact 
with so much rapidity did it take place that the 
coach appeared rather carried than driven away; 
it passed before me surrounded by the cavalry 
and National Guards present and Cuirassiers 
and Dragoons. The second carriage, in which 
were two ladies, followed the other at the same 
pace; and the escort, which amounted to about 
two hundred men under the command of Gene¬ 
ral Regnault, set off at full gallop, taking the 
water-side towardsSt. Cloud. ’* Here the fugitives 
were divided into two parties : the younger, 
under the charge of the Prefect of Versailles, 
had little difficulty in reaching Eu, and then 
Boulogne, where they were joined by the Due 
de Nemours, and got on board a steamer which 
landed them at Folkestone, on Sunday the 27th. 
The King’s party proceeded with little interrup¬ 
tion to Dreux, where the first night was spent, 
but between this place and Trouville various 
inconvenient and unforeseen interruptions oc¬ 
curred ; and it was not till the 2d of March that 
the royal fugitives, under the names of Mr. and 
Mrs. Smith, managed to get on board the Ex¬ 
press steamer at Havre, which landed them at 
Newhaven early the following morning. Prince 
Louis Napoleon left his residence in London 
on the 26th, and proceeded to Paris by way of 
Boulogne. Along with other members of the 
Buonaparte family he tendered his services to 
the Republic, but was induced to return to 
England. 

24 .—About 11 a.m. the Duchess of Orleans 
appears in the Chamber of Deputies with her 
children. When the Princes entered the disorder 
was extreme ; deputies besieged the tribune, 
and a strange crowd blocked up the lobbies, 
barring the entrance of the royal party. She 
took her place (writes her biographer) near the 
tribune, and remained standing there, with her 
two children at her side ; behind her stood the 
persons of her suite, using all their efforts to keep 
off the crowd that pressed around her. M. 
Dupin ascended the tribune to announce that 
the act of abdication was about to be presented 
to the Chamber by M. Barrot; meanwhile, 
he strongly urged that the unanimous accla¬ 
mations which had hailed the Comte de Paris 
as King, and the Duchess of Orleans as Re¬ 
gent, should be entered in the proces-verbal. 
These words were received with violent oppo¬ 
sition from a part of the Chamber and the 
tribunes. The President thought fit to call 
upon all strangers to quit the Chamber, and 
requested the Princes to withdraw, in defe¬ 
rence to the rules. * * Sir, ” replied the Duchess, 
“this is a royal sitting.” Some of her friends, 
alarmed at the increasing tumult, entreated her 
to leave the Chamber. “ If I leave this As¬ 
sembly, my son will never enter it again,” she 
replied, and remained immoveable in her place. 
But the crowd kept advancing, the noise in¬ 
creased, and the heat became so excessive that 
the young Princes could hardly breathe. The 


Duchess was then conducted along the left- 
hand lobby running at the back of the semicircle, 
to the upper benches opposite to the tribune, 
where she seated herself with the Due de Ne¬ 
mours and her children. At this moment M. 
Odilon Barrot, who had just returned from the 
Tuileries, obtained silence. “The Crown of 
July rests upon the head of a child,” he said. 
... At the acclamations of “Vive le Comte de 
Paris ! ” the Duchess of Orleans rose from her 
seat, as if to speak. While one side of the 
Chamber cried out “Parlez! parlez !” the other 
tried to drown her voice. She began with the 
words, “My son and I are come”—but was 
instantly interrupted. She again attempted to 
speak, but was unable to make herself heard, 
and sat down. Several speakers rose one 
after another, amidst a confusion impossible 
to describe. Towards the close of M. Lamar¬ 
tine’s speech a violent knocking resounded 
through the hall; the doors of the tribune 
of the press were burst open by an armed 
mob, who rushed forward with loud cries ; 
they pointed their loaded muskets towards 
different parts of the Chamber, till at length 
they perceived the royal mother and her 
children, at whom they took deliberate aim. 
Most of the deputies quitted the Chamber, 
leaving the Duchess of Orleans and her little 
sons (with no other protection than that of 
the few deputies remaining in their places 
before her) exposed to the musket-balls of the 
infuriated mob. From the calmness of her 
face it might have been thought that she alone 
was in no danger. Leaning over to the bench 
below her, she gently placed her hand on the 
shoulder of a deputy, and said, in a voice 
which betrayed no emotion, “ What do you 
advise me to do?” “Madam, the deputies 
are no longer here ; you must go to the Pre¬ 
sident’s house to collect the Chamber.” “ But 
how can I get there?” she replied, still 
without moving from her place, or betraying 
any alarm at the muskets which glittered 
above head. “Follow me,” said M. Jules 
de Lasteyrie. Descending from bench to bench, 
he conducted her to the left comer of the 
Chamber, where there was an exit reserved for 
the deputies, leading into a dimly-lighted cor¬ 
ridor. M. de Lasteyrie made his way out by 
pushing aside the crowd, and perceiving a 
company of National Guards outside the door, 
called to them to form lines to protect the 
Duchess of Orleans, who was following him ; 
which they immediately did. In the confusion 
the Duchess was for a short time separated 
from her sons, but they were carefully pro¬ 
tected and restored to her. During the ex¬ 
citing scene in the Chamber of Deputies the 
Peers sat awaiting the arrival of the Duchess, 
for whose reception special preparation was 
made. She left Paris that evening, taking 
refuge first at the Chateau de Ligny, then at 
Ems, and latterly at the Chateau of Eisenach, 
which her maternal uncle, the Grand Duke of 
Saxe-Weimar, placed at her disposal. 

24 . — After an exciting discussion at the Hotel 

( 237 ) 





FEBRUARY 


1848. 


FEBRUARY 


de Ville, in the presence of a tumultuous as¬ 
sembly, a majority of the deputies there assem¬ 
bled resolve that the new form of Government 
to be proposed to the people shall be Repub¬ 
lican. Late in the evening the Provisional 
Government issued its first proclamation : 
“ A retrograde Government has been over¬ 
turned by the heroism of the people of Paris. 
This Government has fled, leaving behind it 
traces of blood which will for ever forbid its 
return. The blood of the people has flowed, 
as in July ; but happily it has not been shed in 
vain. It has secured a national and popular 
Government, in accordance with the rights, 
the progress, and the will of this great and 
generous people. A Provisional Government, 
at the call of the people and some deputies in 
the sitting of the 24th of February, is for the 
moment invested with the care of organizing 
and securing the national victory. It is com¬ 
posed of MM. Dupont (de l’Eure), Lamartine, 
Cremieux, Arago, Ledru-Rollin, and Garnier- 
Pagfcs. The secretaries to this Government 
are MM. Armand Marrast, Louis Blanc, and 
Ferdinand Flocon. These citizens have not 
hesitated for an instant to accept the patriotic 
mission which has been imposed on them by 
the urgency of the occasion. Frenchmen, give 
to the world the example Paris has given to 
France. Prepare yourselves, by order and 
confidence in yourselves, for the institutions 
which are about to be given to you. The Pro¬ 
visional Government desires a Republic, pend¬ 
ing the ratification of the French people, who 
are to be immediately consulted. Neither the 
people of Paris nor the Provisional Govern¬ 
ment desire to substitute their opinions for those 
of the citizens at large, upon the definite form 
of government which the national sovereignty 
shall proclaim. Uuniti de la nation , formed 
henceforth of all classes of the people which 
compose it; the government of the nation 
itself; Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for 
its principles ; the people to devise and to 
maintain order : such is the Democratic Go¬ 
vernment which France owes to herself, and 
which our efforts will assure to her. Such are 
the first acts of the Provisional Government. 
(Signed) Dupont (de l’Eure), Lamartine, 
Ledru-Rollin, Bedeau, Michel Goudchaux, 
Arago, Bethmont, Marie, Carnot, Cavaignac, 
Gamier-Pages. The Municipal Guard is dis¬ 
banded. The protection of the city of Paris 
is confided to the National Guard, under the 
orders of M. Courtais.” The Provisional 
Government continued its sitting with little 
intermission night and day for sixty hours, 
their deliberations being frequently interrupted 
and disturbed by the excited mob who thronged 
the Hotel de Ville. 

25 .—Addressing an excited assembly of 
ultra-Republicans, who demanded that the red 
flag should be substituted for the tricolor, at 
the Hotel de Ville, M. Lamartine said: 

' “Citizens, for my part, I will never adopt the 
red flag; and I will explain in a word why 
I will oppose it with all the strength of my 

(238) 


patriotism. It is, citizens, because the tri¬ 
colored flag has made the tour of the world 
under the Republic and the Empire, with our 
liberties and our glories, and that the red flag 
has only made the tour of the Champ de Mars, 
trailed through torrents of the blood of the 
people. ” The effect was described as electric. 
Loud cheering and clapping of hands fol¬ 
lowed the address, and the orator was nearly 
suffocated by the efforts of the multitude to 
embrace him. 

25 . —Numerous adhesions to the Republic. 
The Bank of France, closed since the 22d, 
reopened its doors this afternoon. Baron 
Rothschild also announced his intention to 
observe all his engagements to the State for 
the new loan. 

— Revolution in Paris. The Times surprised 
its readers with the following telegraphic an¬ 
nouncement : “No mail from Paris, the rail¬ 
way stations and barriers being in possession 
of the people. The rails taken up some dis¬ 
tance from Paris to prevent troops from reach¬ 
ing the capital town from the provinces. The 
loss of life is frightful.—3 A. M. Messengers just 
returned from Neufchatel. All communication 
cut off from Paris. The mail and passengers 
have returned. Amiens has revolted.” The 
most feverish feeling was manifested on the Ex¬ 
change, a rumour being busily circulated that 
the French royal family had opened a credit 
for 150,000/. at Coutts’. The evening sitting 
of the House of Commons was carried on amid 
unusual excitement caused by the arrival of 
telegrams describing from hour to hour the 
progress of the revolt. 

— Outbreak in Madrid, suppressed by Nar¬ 
vaez. 

26 . —The Republic officially proclaimed at 
the Hotel de Ville. M. Lamartine, attended 
by the other members of the Provisional 
Government, descended the steps of the great 
staircase, and thus addressed the vast assem¬ 
blage : “ Citizens, the Provisional Govern¬ 
ment of the Republic has called upon the 
people to witness its gratitude for the mag¬ 
nificent national co-operation which has just 
accepted these new institutions. The Pro¬ 
visional Government of the Republic has only 
joyful intelligence to announce to the people 
here assembled. Royalty is abolished. The 
Republic is proclaimed. The people will exer¬ 
cise their political rights. National workshops 
are open for those who are without work. 
The army is being reorganized. The National 
Guard indissolubly unites itself with the people, 
so as to promptly restore order with the same 
hand that had only the preceding moment 
conquered our liberty. Finally, citizens, the 
Provisional Government was anxious to be 
itself the bearer to you of the last decree it has 
resolved on and signed in this memorable 
sitting; that is, the abolition of the penalty 01 
death for political matters. This is the noblest 
decree, citizens, that has ever issued from the 
mouths of a people the day after then victory. 





FEBRUARY 


1848. 


MARCH 


It is the character of the French nation which 
escapes in one spontaneous cry from the soul 
of its Government. We have brought it with 
us, and I will now read it to you. There is 
not a more becoming homage to a people than 
the spectacle of its own magnanimity.” 

27 . —Inauguration of the French Republic 
round the Column of July. M. Arago formally 
announced the change of government, and was 
followed by the aged M. Dupont de l’Eure. 

— M. Lamartine, in his capacity of Mi¬ 
nister for Foreign Affairs, addresses a note to 
ambassadors in Paris announcing that the 
leaders of the new Government had neither 
changed the place of France in Europe nor 
her loyal and sincere disposition to maintain 
relations of good harmony with the Powers 
who desire, like herself, the independence of 
nations and the peace of the world. The 
Foreign Ambassadors resolved on remaining 
at their posts till further instructed by their 
respective Governments. 

28 . —Lord John Russell announces that this 
country will not interfere in any way with the 
internal affairs of France. 

29 . —In compliance with a demand made 
by his subjects, the Grand Duke of Baden 
consents to liberty of the press, trial by jury, 
and establishment of a National Guard. 

— The Canton of Neufchatel declares itself 
independent of Prussia. 

March 1 . —Lord Palmerston announces, in 
the House of Commons, that Great Britain had 
officially recognised the French Provisional 
Government. His lordship afterwards spoke 
five hours in reply to Mr. Anstey’s motion 
impeaching his foreign policy. He apologised 
to the House for detaining it with a discussion 
on transactions twenty years old, at a time when 
events of overwhelming interest were suc¬ 
ceeding each other with unexampled rapidity. 
The topics to which Mr. Anstey had called the 
attention of the House were forty in number, 
had been the subject of 139 discussions in Par¬ 
liament, and were contained in a correspon¬ 
dence filling 2,775 folio volumes of official 
papers. It would not (he said) be consistent 
with his duty to lay before the House the 
secret papers for which Mr. Anstey moved ; 
but if the House should think it right to appoint 
a secret committee to look into all those trans¬ 
actions, he had no objection whatever. Lord 
Palmerston then proceeded to deny the truth 
of all the charges which Mr. Anstey had pre¬ 
ferred against him, and vindicated himself 
from the insinuations, taunts, and accusations 
of Mr. Anstey and Mr. Urquhart. England, 
he said, should have neither eternal friendships 
nor eternal enmities. She should continue 
moderate and just, and avoid being the Quixote 
of nations. He adopted the expression of 
Mr. Canning, that the interest of England is 
ever the shibboleth of peace. 

2 .—The Duchess of Orleans and her two 
children arrive at Ems, in Prussia. 


2. —-The Grand Duke of Baden consents to 
the demand of his people, and dismisses his 
obnoxious Ministers. 

— A correspondent of the Standard , writ¬ 
ing from Folkestone, says: “Prince Louis 
Napoleon and General Houdetot arrived here 
by steamer this morning. The Prince told 
me, that on his arrival in the French capital 
he placed himself in communication with 
the members of the Provisional Govern¬ 
ment, and offered his services should they be 
needed in the then existing crisis; but that he 
had been requested, in consequence of the dis¬ 
ordered state of public affairs, to retire from 
France for a short time.” 

— Edward Rixon, keeper of the Gallery of 
the Society of British Artists, sentenced to one 
year’s imprisonment with hard labour, for em¬ 
bezzling sums of money paid to him by prize- 
holders ill Tie Art Union. 

3 . —The Due d’Aumale and the Prince de 
Joinville quit Algiers for Gibraltar. 

— Disturbance at Cologne, on the occa¬ 
sion of the people demanding a redress of 
grievances. The military were called out, and 
the streets cleared with difficulty. 

— M. Guizot arrives in England. 

4 . —The French Provisional Government 
fix the convocation of the electoral assem¬ 
blies for the 9th of April, and the meeting of 
the Constitutional Assembly for the 20th. The 
following principles were adopted:—1. The 
National Assembly shall decree the Consti¬ 
tution. 2. The election shall have population 
for its basis. 3. The representatives of the 
people shall amount to 900 in number. 4. The 
suffrage shall be direct and universal, without 
any limitation as to property. 5. All French¬ 
men of the age of 21 years shall be electors. 
6. The ballot shall be secret. 

— The United Irishman , the Dublin organ 
of the Young Ireland party, instructs the 
people thus: “Above all, let the man amongst 
you who has no gun sell his garment to buy 
one. Every street is an excellent shooting- 
gallery for disciplined troops ; but it is a better 
defile in which to take them. In the voca¬ 
bulary of drilling is no such phrase as ‘ In¬ 
fantry, prepare for window-pots, brickbats, 
logs of wood, chimney-pieces, heavy furniture, 
light pokers, &c.,’ and these thrown vertically 
on the heads of a column below, from the ele¬ 
vation of a parapet or top storey, are irre¬ 
sistible. The propelling forces—viz. ladies, or 
chambermaids, or men who can do no better 
—have the additional advantage of security; 
and the narrower the street, and the higher 
the houses, the worse the damage and the 
greater the security.” To such missiles at 
broken glass, for maiming the horses’ feet, 
“ revolutionary citizens add always boiling 
water or grease, or, better, cold vitriol if avail¬ 
able. Molten lead is good, but too valuable ; 
it should be always cast in bullets, and allowed 
to cool. The house-tops and spouts furnish 

(239) 




MARCH 


1848 . 


MARCH 


in every city abundance; but care should be 
taken, as they do in Paris, to run the balls 
solid. You cannot calculate on a hollow ball, 
and that might be the very one selected to 
shoot a field-officer.” In the same number 
the following sentiments were expressed re¬ 
garding John O’Connell’s visit to Paris: 
“ Let no man in France dream for one instant 
that this dastard, this born slave and beggar, 
represents Ireland, or is in any manner autho¬ 
rized to offer Ireland’s arm in war to any 
nation, least of all to England. In the name 
of our country, we disavow the scandalous 
negotiator. It was not in Ireland’s name that 
two weeks ago he sent round amongst those 
Parisians a dead man’s haf—a posthumous 
begging-box—to crave alms for his country. 
It is not in Ireland’s name he now dares to 
blaspheme the sacrificial blood poured out for 
freedom and for right. Ireland spurns him, 
and will yet curse the very name he bears. 
He is not fit to untie the latchet of the meanest 
citizen-soldier in Paris. ” 

4..— Insurrection at Munich, and capture of 
the arsenal by the people. On the King yield¬ 
ing to their demands, the arms seized were 
restored, and the people dispersed in quiet¬ 
ness. 

— The funeral honours decreed by the Re¬ 
public to the citizens slain in the late conflicts 
celebrated in Paris. The spectacle consisted 
of a procession from the H6tel de Ville to the 
Madeleine, a performance of funeral rites at that 
church, a procession to the Place de la Bas¬ 
tille, and an interment of the dead in the vaults 
beneath the Column of July. The population 
turned out in myriads to witness the proces¬ 
sion, which was partly composed of liberated 
political offenders and citizens wounded during 
the recent encounters. As the clergy of the 
Madeleine approached certain stations the Mar¬ 
seillaise was sung—the verses by female voices 
and the choruses by men—and the crowd un¬ 
covered till the cars containing the coffins 
passed. 

6 . —Disorderly gathering in Trafalgar-square, 
occasioned by a proposal to hold an open-air 
meeting there on the subject of the income- 
tax. A small detachment of the A division 
of police was sent to break up and disperse the 
mob, but they met with vigorous resistance, 
and were ultimately compelled to retire to 
Scotland-yard. A body of 500 was thereafter 
sent out, which separated the mob into sections, 
and took the most mischievous of the leaders 
into custody. Shortly after six o’clock the 
police were withdrawn, but groups of noisy 
people continued to keep possession of the 
square ; about eight o’clock it was found that 
their numbers were rapidly increasing and their 
conduct more threatening. The palisades around 
the Nelson column were taken down, and seve¬ 
ral of the public lamps destroyed. The police 
were again brought out in great force, and some 
sharp skirmishing took place, but the mob were 
ultimately driven back at every point. About 
(240) 


nine o’clock a youth in epaulettes, with a dis¬ 
orderly following of over 200, dashed through 
Pall Mall to St. James’s Park; a good many 
windows, and also one of the large lamps at 
Buckingham Palace, were broken by this de¬ 
tachment. By midnight the city was in its 
usual state of order and quiet. 

6 . —Riot and loss of life in Glasgow. Under 
the pretence that they were starving and had 
been refused employment, a large mob col¬ 
lected on the Green early in the day, and after¬ 
wards passed through Argyll-street, Buchanan- 
street, and Jamaica-street, to the south side of 
the city, breaking into several shops where they 
thought arms or more valuable plunder could 
be secured. The ordinary police force was quite 
unable to cope with the outbreak, and some 
delay unfortunately occurred before either in¬ 
fantry or cavalry could be brought to disperse 
the plundering mob. Emboldened by their 
success, and with the view of giving a political 
colour to their organized attack upon the peace 
and wealth of the city, the thieves attempted 
next day to stop certain mills -at Bridgeton. 
After due warning they were here fired upon by 
a company of pensioners belonging to the city, 
and two or three of them killed. Baffled in 
their first design and excited with rage, the mob 
placed one of the bodies on a shutter and bore 
it through the streets, shouting “Murder” 
and “ Vive la Republique.” Detachments of 
the 3d Royal Irish Dragoons, with the 1st 
Royals and 71st Regiments, were now brought 
into the town, and their presence alone caused 
the riotous gatherings to melt away. The 
military bivouacked in the streets for the night, 
but their active interference was not necessary. 
Riots of a similar character, but on a smaller 
scale and unattended with loss of life, took 
place in Edinburgh, Liverpool, and some other 
towns. 

— The tubular bridge over the Conway 
Straits floated to its position between the abut¬ 
ments. 

7 . —Arrival at Portsmouth of large numbers 
of English workmen expelled from France. 

8 . —The Elector of Hesse-Cassel concedes 
the reforms demanded by the people. 

— Second Exhibition of British Manufactures 
opened at the Society of Arts, Adelphi. 

IO.—In the course of a discussion in Com¬ 
mittee on Ways and Means, Mr. Disraeli, 
replying to Mr. Wilson of the Board of Trade, 
denied the success of Sir Robert Peel’s com¬ 
mercial policy. He, “a Freetrader but not a 
freebooter ” of the Manchester school, warned 
Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright, the representatives 
of peace and plenty who preached to a starving 
world in arms, not to venture on middle-class 
legislation against realized property. 

— Complaint having been made by the 
French Provisional Government of the extreme 
kindness and regard shown by Great Britain 
towards the ex-royal family, Lord Palmerston 
writes to-day that the attention shown to the 





MARCH 


MARCJj 


1848 . 


King and his Ministers was “ mere hospitality 
suitable to the occasion.” 

10. —Confirmation of Dr. R. Bird Sumner 
Archbishop of Canterbury, in Bow Church. 

11 . —Report on the state of the national 
finances of France issued by M. Gamier-Pages, 
Provisional Minister of Finance. The debt was 
set down at 5,179,644,730 francs, showing an 
increase of 912,329,328 francs in seven years. 
The Government decreed the sale of the Crown 
diamonds, the coining of the plate into money 
bearing a figure of Liberty, and the alienation 
of State forests to the extent of 100,000,000 
francs. 

12 . —A colossal bust of Liberty carried by 
sculptors through Paris, and blessed by a priest. 

13 . —Mr. Hume’s amendment on the Go¬ 
vernment proposal, limiting the income-tax to 
one year, lost by a majority of 225. 

— Monster meeting at Berlin to petition the 
King that the reform granted to other countries 
might be conceded to Prussia. The assembly 
was of a highly tumultuous character, and before 
it was dissolved several people were shot by the 
soldiers. 

— M. Ledru-Rollin, Minister of the Interior 
in the New Pi'ovisional Government, issues a 
circular to the Local Commissioners showing 
them how to control the ensuing elections. 
“Cause,” he writes, “in all points of your 
department the meeting of electoral committees, 
examine closely the qualification of the candi¬ 
dates, and stop only at those who appear to 
present the strongest guarantee of republGan 
opinion and the greatest chance of success. 
No compromises; no complaisance. Let tne 
day of election be the triumph of the Revolu¬ 
tion.” The circular was so unconstitutional in 
character that it was at once repudiated by his 
colleagues. 

— Chartist demonstration on Kennington 
Common. In anticipation of a disturbance a 
strong police force was posted in the neigh¬ 
bourhood, but its services were not required, 
the people dispersing in quietness earlier than 
was anticipated under the influence of heavy 
rain. Mr. Ernest Jones entreated his hearers 
not to “ fear the vile men of the law, the police, 
the troops who sympathise with you, or the shop¬ 
keeping ‘specials’ who turn pale at a crowd 
jf three boys deliberating over an orange. 
Down with the Ministry; dissolve the Parlia¬ 
ment ; the Charter, and no surrender.” 

— The opening of the Diet of Lower Austria 
signalized by an outbreak in Vienna, which led 
to the resignation and flight of Metternich. The 
fighting, in which the students bore a prominent 
part, was continued over part of this day and 
night, and was only stopped by the active inter¬ 
ference of the Burgher Guard. “Tell me,” 
said the Archduke Louis, irritated at one of the 
requests made by a deputation of students, “ tell 
me who governs here, I, or the gentlemen at 
the University?” Dr. Schilling promptly re¬ 
plied : “ Up to this hour your Imperial High- 
<2 4 I) 


ness has governed, that is certain ; but who 
will govern an hour hence nobody can tell.” 
Next morning the vacillating old Emperor 
issued a decree abolishing the censorship of 
the press and establishing a National Guard. 

14 . —The Chinese junk Keying arrives at 
Jersey from Boston in twenty-one days. 

— The Pope issues a proclamation announ¬ 
cing the grant of a new Constitution, giving his 
people, among other benefits, a representative 
system, not merely consultative, but delibera¬ 
tive. 

15 . —Run on the Bank of France, leading to 
the suspension of cash payments, and a serious 
commercial panic, in which many old houses 
close their doors. Gouin and Co., Baud on and 
Co., and Gaunaron and Co., the three principal 
joint-stock bankers in Paris, were among those 
forced to suspend. 

16 . —Rupture of diplomatic relations with 
Spain. Lord Palmerston to Sir Henry Lytton- 
Bulwer, British Minister at Madrid:—“ I have 
to instruct you to recommend earnestly to the 
Spanish Government and to the Queen-Mother, 
if you have an opportunity of doing so, the 
adoption of a legal and constitutional course of 
government in Spain. The recent downfall of 
the King of the French and of his family, and 
the expulsion of his Ministers, ought to indicate 
to the Spanish Court and Government the 
danger to which they expose themselves in 
endeavouring to govern a country in a manner 
opposed to the sentiments and opinions of the 
nation; and the catastrophe which has just 
occurred in France is sufficient to show that 
even a numerous and well-disciplined army 
offers only an insufficient defence of the Crown, 
when the system followed by it is not in har¬ 
mony with the general system of the country. 
The Queen of Spain would act wisely, in the 
present critical state of affairs, if she were to 
strengthen her Executive Government by widen¬ 
ing the basis on which the Administration re¬ 
poses, and in calling to her councils some of 
the men in whom the Liberal party place con 
fidence.” Sir Henry not only communicated 
the terms of this despatch to Queen Christina 
and the Due de Sotomayor, but caused publi¬ 
cation of it to be made in some of the Oppo¬ 
sition journals. The head of the Ministry 
promptly replied: “The Cabinet cannot see 
without the most extreme surprise the extra¬ 
ordinary pretensions of Lord Palmerston to 
interfere with the internal affairs of Spain, and 
to support himself on inexact and equivocal 
data, the qualification and appreciation of 
which cannot in any case come within his pro¬ 
vince. . . . Animated by sentiments suitable to 
Spanish dignity and to every Government which 
respects itself, the Cabinet of her Catholic 
Majesty cannot avoid protesting in the most 
energetic manner against the despatches of Lord 
Palmerston and of your Excellency; and consi¬ 
dering that it cannot retain them without being 
wanting in dignity, it returns them enclosed, and 
at the same time declares that if you2 Excel 

R 






MARCH 


MARCH 


1848. 


lency should, at any other time, in your official 
communications on points of international rights, 
go beyond the bounds of your mission, and in¬ 
terfere in the particular and private affairs of the 
Spanish Government, I shall consider myself 
under the painful necessity of returning your 
despatches without further remark. ” The result 
of this correspondence was, that on the 19th 
May the British Minister received his passports 
with a peremptory order to quit the kingdom 
in forty-eight hours, or sooner if possible, ‘ ‘ for 
circumstances are urgent, and there would be 
much to lament if this took place too late.” 

17 . —The proposed extension of the income- 
tax to Ireland negatived in the House of Com¬ 
mons by 218 votes to 138. 

— Great demonstration of labourers in Paris; 
the troops ordered to quit the capital. Discon¬ 
tent general throughout the provinces. 

— In Milan the people rise against the Aus¬ 
trian troops, and succeed in overpowering the 
guard of the Government House. The fighting 
continued with little interval for nearly a week, 
when Marshal Radetzky retired from the city, 
and a Provisional Government was proclaimed. 
During the struggle small balloons were sent up 
from the battlements filled with proclamations 
designed to raise the people of the neighbour¬ 
hood against the Austrians. They were also 
advised to destroy the bridges on the roads to 
Verona and Mantua, to prevent the arrival of 
reinforcements of artillery, which it was pro¬ 
bable Marshal Radetzky would demand. 

18 . —Bloody struggle at Berlin between the 
populace and military, on the occasion of assem¬ 
bling in the square before the Palace to hear 
the King’s decree conceding the liberties asked 
for on the 13th. Above 100 were killed. The 
fighting had scarcely ceased when the King 
issued a proclamation stating that his “faith¬ 
ful soldiers had only cleared the court-yard at a 
walking pace, with their weapons sheathed, and 
that the guns had gone off of themselves, with¬ 
out, thanks be to God, causing any injury.” 

— At Buckingham Palace, this morning, at 
eight o’clock, the Queen was safely delivered of 
a daughter—the Princess Louisa. 

— The treason press of Ireland, waxing 
bolder by the immunity hitherto enjoyed from 
prosecution, now plainly state: “As for the 
warlike and treasonable articles in this (the 
United Irishman ) newspaper, they will be 
steadily continued and improved upon, week 
after week, until they have produced their 
effect—the effect not of a street riot to disturb 
a peaceable meeting, but of a deliberate and 
universal armament to sweep this island clear of 
British butchers, and plant the green flag on 
Dublin Castle.” 

— The King of Hanover accedes to the 
demands of a deputation from various states 
for Reform, including freedom of the press and 
an amnesty to all political offenders. 

— The inhabitants of Cracow proclaim a 

(242) 


Republic, after compelling the Government to 
release 400 political prisoners. 

18 . —Died at Cardiff Castle, aged 55, the 
Marquis of Bute. 

19 . —Vicenza and Padua in open insurrec¬ 
tion. 

20. —Arming and equipment of the Garde 
Mobile in Paris; General Cavaignac appointed 
Minister of War. 

— Revolution at Modena; the Duke de¬ 
posed and imprisoned. 

— Discussion on the Navy Estimates, and 
rejection of Mr. Hume’s amendment for a 
reduction of the force, by 347 to 38 votes. 
Referring to the present condition of France, 
Mr. Henry Drummond expressed his distrust of 
all Ministries, especially such as were formed 
of poets and astronomers, and of counsels pro¬ 
ceeding from any body of 900 illiterate paupers. 
He besought the House to reject the idea that 
naval establishments were all for the behoof 
of the genteel classes, and that the Throne could 
any more stand safely on cotton than the Queen 
could sit on spinning-jennies. 

21. —The King of Bavaria, unable to bear up 
any longer against the indignation caused by 
the elevation of Lola Montez into a Countess, 
abdicates in favour of his son Maximilian-Joseph 
II. The new King opened the Chambers next 
day with a speech which was favourably re¬ 
ceived. 

— King Frederick William issues a pro¬ 
clamation annihilating the kingdom of Prussia, 
and declaring his intention of once more uniting 
Germany and taking it under his guidance in 
these moments of peril and anarchy. The pro¬ 
clamation was received with enthusiasm, and on 
the following day the King rode through Berlin, 
wearing the German national colours, escorted 
by half the population cheering him to the 
skies—the blood of his slain subjects hardly 
dried in the streets, and their bodies lying in 
state in all the churches. His Majesty made a 
declaration that he did not intend to dethrone 
any one German prince, did not Wish for the 
Imperial Crown, and only wanted liberty, union, 
and good order in Germany. 

— Informations sworn against O’Brien, 
Meagher, and Mitchel. 

22 . —The Emperor of Austria consents to 
be proclaimed “King of Poland,” and pro¬ 
mises to grant a free Constitution. 

— The Austrians are forced to withdraw 
from Venice, and a Provisional Government, 
directed by Daniel Manin, is formed prepara¬ 
tory to the declaration of a Republic. 

— The Queen of Spain issues a decree 
suspending indefinitely the assembling of the 
Cortes. 

23 . —The Emperor of Russia, who had 
recently placed his army on a war footing, 
orders to-day 150,000 soldiers to the frontiers 
of Poland. 







MARCH 


1848. 


MARCH 


23 .—To satisfy the demands of his excited 
people, the Emperor of Austria causes 150 
state prisoners to be released from the fortress 
of Spielberg. 

— Charles-Albert, King of Sardinia, an¬ 
nounces his determination to take part in the 
Italian struggle : “For the purpose of more 
fully showing by exterior signs the sentiments 
of Italian unity, we wish that our troops should 
enter the territory of Lombardy and Venice, 
bearing the arms of Savoy above the Italian 
tricolored flag.” 

24 -.—Insurrection at Kiel, and formation of 
a Provisional Government to accomplish the 
separation of the duchies of Schleswig and 
Holstein from Denmark. 

— Forgery of documents purporting to be 
“The Inedited Works of Lord Byron.” A 
person describing himself as George Gordon 
Byron, son of the poet, having caused intima* 
tion to be made of the intended publication of a 
work containing Lord Byron’s Letters, Journals, 
and other MSS., the solicitors of Lady Leigh, 
the poet’s sister, to whom reference was made, 
write: “We have authority to say, and have 
evidence to prove, that Lord Byron’s family 
never heard of his lordship’s having any such 
son ; that the editor is much better known by 
that excellent institution called ‘ The Society of 
Guardians for Protection of Trade’ than by the 
family; that he never had any access whatever 
to any MS. in the possession of the poet’s sister; 
and that no documents have been confided to 
him by any of the family.” 

25 .—-Holstein, incited by Prussian promises 
of support to the Duke of Augustenburg, de¬ 
clares itself independent of Denmark. 

— Sir John Richardson and Dr. Rae leave 
Liverpool to commence an overland search for 
the missing Franklin expedition, concerning 
which much anxiety was now being felt. 

— The United Irishman publishes a letter 
from John Mitchel to “The Right Honour¬ 
able the Earl of Clarendon, her Majesty’s 
Executioner-General and General Butcher of 
Ireland.” The epistle concludes: “I cannot 
help repeating my congratulations to you on 
the fact that the Irish nation and the British 
Government are now finally at issue. Which¬ 
ever field of battle you prefer, the Queen’s 
Bench or the streets and fields—whichever 
weapon, packed juries or whetted sabres—I 
trust, I believe, you will now be stoutly met. 
One party or the other must absolutely yield ; 
you must put us down, or we will put you 
down. I remain, my Lord, your Lordship’s 
mortal enemy,” &c. &c. At a meeting of the 
Irish Confederation in the Music Hall, Dublin, 
Mitchel said he was sick with talking and 
writing. The time had come for something 
more effectual. He conjured them for the love 
of God to get guns. A decent rifle could be 
bought for 3/.; but still, as many present could 
not afford to give that for a weapon, there was 
a simpler mode of obtaining a very effective one. 
(2431 


Let each man get a stout ash pole of seven feet 
in length, and let that be properly mounted. 
He was accused by the English Viceroy of 
writing sedition. He must tell them it was he 
who wrote the article called seditious, and lie 
would write more sedition; nay, he would go 
further: it was his intention to commit high 
treason. He meant to call upon every one of 
those present to commit high treason ; and un¬ 
less they made up their minds to be slaves for 
ever, they must rise at an early day or early 
night, march through that Castle, and tear down 
that English flag.—The other speeches were of 
an equally inflammatory description. 

26 . —Another insurrection at Madrid, in 
which about 200 persons are killed. 

— Dr. Hampden “consecrated” Bishop of 
Hereford in the chapel of Lambeth Palace. 

— The Provisional Government of Venice 
writes to the Milanese: “We are united to 
you, Lombards, not only by the tie of affection, 
but also by a community of misfortunes and 
hopes. When the hallowed soil of the country 
shall have ceased to be sullied by the foot of 
the foreign oppressor, we shall join you in dis¬ 
cussing the form of government most conducive 
to our common glory.” 

— The Emperor of Russia issues a manifesto 
to his subjects, warning them to beware of 
revolutionary agents on the German frontier. 

27 . —Came on for hearing at Exeter Assizes 
the case of the Queen v. Latimer, involving the 
question of a libel upon the Bishop of Exeter. 
The defendant, the proprietor of the Western 
Times newspaper, in commenting upon a dispute 
between the Bishop and the Duke of Somerset, 
described the former as a brawler and a conse¬ 
crated and careless perverter of truth. He 
pleaded first that he was not guilty, and, second, 
justification. The jury found for the Crown 
upon the first issue, and for the defendant on 
the second. The verdict was received with 
shouts of applause, and in the evening great 
rejoicings took place in the city. 

29 . —The Paris mob attack the office of La 
Presse, but are repulsed by the energy of the 
editor, M. de Girardin. 

30 . —The whole country from the Po to the 
Alps of Tyrol in arms against Austria. Hun¬ 
gary also declared its independence to-day. 

31 . —Two trading vessels in the British 
Channel, having hoisted the Irish national flag, 
were chased by a Government tender till the 
rebellious emblem was lowered. 

— In consequence of the incessant marching 
of deputations through the streels of Paris, the 
Provisional Government issue a proclamation 
advising the people to return to their work, and 
adopt their accustomed mode of life. 

— National Congress at Frankfort-on-the- 
Maine, to discuss the question of a United or 
Universal German Parliament. 

— Died at Pelham Crescent, Brompton, the 
retreat of her distinguished son, Madame Guizot, 

R 2 






APRIL 


1848 . 


APRIL 


mother of the French ex-Premier, in her 85th 
year. 

April 1 .— The attempt of a band of French 
Republicans to invade Belgium frustrated at 
Quievrain, where most of them were seized in 
the railway carriages and taken into custody. 

— Formation of insurrectionary rifle clubs 
in Ireland. Mitchel instructs the members : 

‘ ‘ Where bayonets cannot be had, we beg to 
remind all tenant-right-less fanners and able- 
bodied paupers, that a strong English reaping- 
hook straightened, with the saw-edge ground 
sharp, and rounded, and a socket-hilt welded 
to the tang, makes a weapon which, when 
attached to a duck-gun or long fowling-piece, is 
as deadly as the pike and as complete as the 
bayonet. You can make it any length con¬ 
venient to your purpose and the length of 
your barrel, from one foot to three. A scythe- 
blade, fixed by a welded socket-hilt on a half 
pike or shaft, becomes a weapon equally 
deadly. Such are the glorious faucheurs by 
which Poland avenged her slavery when she 
failed to win her freedom. Meantime the 
virtues of the hour are patience and perse¬ 
verance to get guns and run bullets. ” 

2 . —Died, aged 65, Sir Samuel R..Meyrick, 
historian of ancient arms and armour- 

3. —Mr. Smith O’Brien and other members 
of the Irish Confederation deputation wait 
upon the French Provisional Government. 
M. Lamartine warned them not to expect the 
Republic to interfere in Irish grievances, as 
they wished to be on good terms, not with this 
or that part of Great Britain, but with Great 
Britain entire. 

— The Australian traveller Leichardt is 
heard of for the last time at McPherson station, 
Cogpon. 

— In the House of Lords, the Marquis of 
Lansdowne states that the King of Sardinia 
had acted towards Austria contrary to the 
advice of the British Government. 

4 . —A National Convention of Chartist 
delegates commence their sittings in London, 
and organize a demonstration for the 10th. 
Ernest Jones spoke of the people as ready to 
fight ; and Vernon went so far as to express a 
wish for a collision with the military. “If 
a few hundreds,” he said, “did fall on each 
side, they would only be the casualties in a 
mighty movement.” O’Brien advised that no 
step should be taken against the law till they 
were sure the people were stronger than the 
law. 

5 . —The balances in the Exchequer up to 
this date for the preceding ten years were— 
1839, 497.000/.; 1840, 1,007,000/.; 1841, 
874,000/.; 1842, 857,000/.; 1843, 956,000/.; 
1844, 2,235,000/.; 1845, 6,257,000/.; 1846, 
6,507,000/.; 1847,5,459,000/.; 1848 (January 
5), 8,400,000/. 

— Banquet in the London Tavern to Lord 
Hardinge, recently returned from India. 

J244) 


6 . —Mr. Feargus O’Connor’s motion for an 
address to the Queen, praying that she would 
be graciously pleased to extend her Royal 
pardon to Frost, Williams, and Johns, rejected 
by 91 votes to 23. 

7. —Sir George Grey introduces a bill for 
the better security of the Crown and Govern¬ 
ment of the United Kingdom, embracing 
within its scope all persons who sought to 
accomplish seditious ends by open and advised 
speaking. This measure, popularly known in 
Ireland as the “ Gagging Act,” was read a 
first time, after an animated discussion, by 283 
votes to 24. 

— Lord Brougham applies to M. Cremieux, 
the French Minister of Justice, to be naturalized 
as a citizen of that kingdom, but departed from 
the intention on being informed that he would 
lose all the privileges and advantages which 
he enjoyed in England. Lord Brougham had 
previously made application to the mayor of 
Cannes to be brought forward as a candidate 
for the National Assembly. 

8. —The army of Charles-Albert forces the 
Austrian lines on the Mincio, and, crossing 
the Adige, takes up a position to the north of 
Verona, where Radetzky had moved his forces 
after withdrawing from Milan. 

— Died at Bergomo, his native place, aged 
50, Gaetano Donizetti, composer of “ Lucia de 
Lammermoor,” “Don Pasquale,” and many 
other popular operas. 

— Mitchel again addresses the Lord 
Lieutenant: “As for me, my lord, your 
lordship’s humble correspondent, you have 
been told that I am mad—a dangerous lunatic, 
labouring under cacoethes scribendi. Do not 
believe it: I am merely possessed with a 
rebellious spirit; and think I have a mission, 
to bear a hand in the final destruction of the 
bloody old ‘ British Empire,’ the greedy carni- 
verous old monster that has lain so long like 
a load upon the heart and limbs of England, 
and drank the blood and sucked the marrow 
from the bones of Ireland. Against that empire 
of hell a thousand ghosts of my slaughtered 
countrymen shriek nightly for vengeance ; their 
blood cries continually from the ground for 
vengeance ! vengeance ! and Heaven has heard 
it. . . . Thank God, they are arming. Young 
men everywhere in Ireland begin to love the 
clear glancing of the steel, and to cherish 
their dainty rifles as the very apple of their 
eyes. They walk more proudly; they feel 
themselves more and more of men. Like 
the Prussian students (when the work had to 
be done for Prussia) they take the bright 
weapons to their hearts, and clasp their virgin 
swords like virgin brides.” 

9 *—The Danes defeated near Flensburg. 

lO- Chartist demonstration on Kennington 
Common. This gathering was designed by 
the leading Chartists as a huge exhibition of 
the physical power of the class who had pre¬ 
pared a petition to the House of Commons 







APRIL 


APRIL 


1848 . 


reported to bear the enormous number of five 
million signatures. The delegate* to the Con¬ 
vention, with their followers, were to proceed, 
in the first instance, in detachments through 
the streets of London to Kennington, where 
they were to be harangued by Feargus O’Con¬ 
nor and others ; they were then to form into 
marching order and return to the door of the 
House of Commons with their monster petition. 
In the excited state of the public mind, the 
Government thought it proper to take every 
precaution for preserving the peace and pro¬ 
tecting property. The Duke of Wellington 
undertook all the arrangements for guarding 
the Bank, Custom House, Exchange, Post 
Office, and other public buildings, and gene¬ 
rally the complete military defence of the 
metropolis. Troops were introduced in large 
numbers, and, without any offensive display, 
placed in quarters where they could be used 
with effect. Probably the most significant 
check received by the agitators was furnished by 
the inhabitants of the metropolis enrolling them¬ 
selves, to the number of a quarter of a million, 
as special constables, Prince Louis Napoleon 
being among the number. A proclamation 
was also issued warning people against collect¬ 
ing for disorderly purposes. The thoroughfare 
along Downing-street from Parliament-street to 
the Park was barricaded. The gates of the 
Admiralty, the Horse Guards, and the Board 
of Control were closed, and barriers erected 
inside to give additional support. A body of 
2,600 Household Troops were sent over to 
Kennington Common early in the morning, 
and at a later hour 1,700 belonging to different 
regiments of the line. At a meeting on Sunday 
evening, the 9th, a split took place among the 
Chartist leaders ; one section of the Conven¬ 
tion, represented by Bronterre O’Brien, wish¬ 
ing every man to proceed armed to the demon¬ 
stration,* while another, represented by O’Con¬ 
nor, refused to permit the original peaceable 
designs of the gathering to be thus interfered 
with. O’Brien and his party withdrew. O’Con¬ 
nor and his brother delegates passed through 
the streets on a high car decorated for the occa¬ 
sion, and followed by a smaller one bearing 
the petition arranged in a series of monster 
rolls. The proceedings on the Common turned 
out to be tame and spiritless. There was at no 
time more than 20,000 or 25,000 persons pre¬ 
sent, not one-half of whom were Chartists. 
The orators quarrelled among themselves as to 
the order of their proceedings, one Cuffey de¬ 
claring the whole Convention to be composed 
of cowardly humbugs. The second procession, 
to the House of Commons, was finally aban¬ 
doned, and O’Connor undertook to present the 
petition in the usual way, which he did that 
evening.—In the House of Lords, the Duke of 
Wellington said that no great society had ever 
suffered such a grievance as that endured by 
London during the past few days. If such 
scenes were to be repeated, he trusted that 
effectual measures would be taken by the 
Legislature for securing the peace and trade of 


this great metropolis against similar interrup¬ 
tions.—Next day the Home Secretary was 
able to telegraph to all the chief magistrates 
of the country the welcome news that London 
was perfectly quiet, and that not the slightest 
disturbance had taken place any where. 

10. —The Crown and Government Security 
Bill read a second time in the House of Com¬ 
mons by a majority of 452 to 35 votes. In 
the debate which took place, repeated reference 
was made to the treasonable proceedings of 
Mr. Smith O’Brien in soliciting the aid of men 
from France. The discussion in Committee 
was confined chiefly to the third clause, in 
which the words concerning “open and ad¬ 
vised speaking” occurred. 

— Consols opened this morning at 80, bul 
advanced during the day to 814- 

— The church of St. Matthias, Liverpool, 
destroyed by fire. 

11 . —Commencement of a debate (afterwards 
indefinitely postponed) on Mr. John O’Connell’s 
motion for leave to bring in a bill enabling her 
Majesty to call a Parliament in Ireland. 

12 . —Thomas Gutteridge, surgeon, Birming¬ 
ham, convicted at Warwick Assizes for uttering 
scandalous and injurious libels concerning Dr. 
Lee, now Bishop of Manchester. 

— A resolution proposed in the Chartist 
Convention recommending the working classes 
not to deal with any of the shopkeepers who 
had acted as special constables on Monday. 
The president deprecated such a resolution ; 
but Cuffey, one of the delegates for London, 
said he did not see why they should be so deli¬ 
cate in the matter. Having been out of work 
lately, he had allowed Mrs. Cuffey to go out 
working, and at one of the houses where she had 
been in the habit of charing she was asked 
whether she was the wife of Cuffey of the 
Convention. She said she was, and intimation 
was then made to her that her services would 
not be required again. 

— Silesia and Posen in a disturbed state ; 
armed associations forbidden in the latter place. 

13 . —The Venetian Republic accept the 
offer of a female battalion to attend the wounded 
in battle. 

— The Sicilian Parliament vote for the de¬ 
position of the King of Naples. 

— An Alien Bill, giving Government power 
to deal in a summary manner with numerous 
disreputable foreigners at present in London 
for purposes unconnected with business or 
pleasure, read a second time in the House of 
Lords. 

— The Dublin correspondent of the Daily 
News writes: “ Curiosity led me to visit 
Hyland’s pike manufactory in Charles-street, 
within half a pistol shot of the Four Courts. 
Outside is a sign-board with a pike painted 
thereon. Inside the picture is lealized, for I 
saw half-a-dozen pikes spread forth 011 the 
dinpv counter, and two purchasers comparing 

( 245 ) 





APRIL 


APRIL 


1848. 


the size, strength, and polish of the various 
blades. There is no secret or mystery about 
the sale. Hyland vends his wares openly, and 
boasts of the extent of his trade, which keeps 
up five furnaces and twice the number of anvils, 
all busy with pikes. The night sales, I under¬ 
stand, are considerable.” 

13 . —In the House of Commons, the Chair¬ 
man of Petitions, Mr. Thornely, brings up the 
report of the Committee on the monster peti¬ 
tion presented on the 10th. Instead of bear- 
ing 5,706,000 signatures, there were only 
1,975,472 ; and not only were there numerous 
portions in the same handwriting, but the same 
name was frequently repeated, particular pro¬ 
minence being given to the Queen, Prince 
Albert, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert 
Peel, Colonel Sibthorp, and other names of an 
absurd and imaginary character. The weight 
also, instead of being five tons, was little over 
five hundredweight. In the course of the 
discussion to which the presentation of the re¬ 
port gave rise, Mr. Cripps spoke of the member 
for Nottingham as having forfeited all title to 
credence by his exaggerated statements, words 
which Mr. O’Connor afterabrief reply said must 
be “ explained elsewhere.” Mr. Disraeli hoped 
the Speaker would interpose his authority to 
prevent any more serious and painful meeting 
on Kennington Common than had already 
taken place. Mr. O’Connor was taken into 
custody by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and appeared 
in the House later in the evening, when mutual 
explanations took place. 

— Washington illuminated in honour of the 
French Republic. 

14 . —The Prussian Government despatch 
troops and artillery to assist the Duchies 
against Denmark. 

15 . —The Marquis of Northampton gives 
his last conversazione as President of the Royal 
Society. He was succeeded by Earl Rosse. 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Dublin, 
the grand jury find true bills against O’Brien, 
Meagher, and Mitchel, for seditious practices 
tending to the disturbance of the public peace. 

17 . —The election writ for Derby suspended 
by a resolution of the House of Commons. 
A new writ was moved for August 24th. 

18 . —The third reading of the Crown and 
Government Security Bill carried by 295 to 40 
votes. Sir Robert Peel, noticing Feargus 
O’Connor’s boast that if he got Democratic 
institutions it was a matter of indifference to 
him whether Beelzebub sat on the throne, 
hoped that when the member for Nottingham 
got the sovereign of his choice, he might enjoy, 
the confidence of the Crown. The bill was at 
once introduced into the House of Lords. 

19 . —The distress in Paris was so great at 
this time that the Provisional Government were 
distributing in alms no less than 5,000/. daily. 

20 . — Prince Metternich arrives in London 
a fugitive from Vienna. 

(246) 


20. —The Indian steamship Benares burnt at 
Rajmahal; thirty passengers drowned. 

— The insurgent army of Hecker and Struve 
defeated on the heights of Schlechtenau, near 
Raudern, by the troops of the Germanic Diet. 

— Great national fete in Paris, on occasion 
of the Provisional Government presenting co¬ 
lours to the National Guard and troops of the 
line. It was calculated that 400,000 armed 
men defiled in front of the Arc de Triomphe, 
where the amphitheatre was erected. 

— Lord Palmerston writes to Sir H. 
Bulwer, that her Majesty’s Government entirely 
approved of the manner in which he had com¬ 
municated the despatch of March 16th to the 
Spanish Court, nor were they in any way 
offended at the return of his notes or the 
angry tone of the Duke of Sotomayor’s letter. 
The Cabinet felt, he said, that in making the 
communication they were discharging a duty, 
and not taking any undue liberty. 

21 . —Special prayer for the maintenance of 
peace and tranquillity read in all the churches. 

— Mr. Vans Agnew and Lieutenant An¬ 
derson of the Bombay Fusiliers barbarously 
murdered at Mooltan, while engaged in a mis¬ 
sion to substitute Sirdar Khan-Singh for Mool- 
raj in the governorship. 

22 . —The Royal Assent given to the Crown 
and Government Security (Ireland) Bill, making 
all written incitement to insurrection and resist¬ 
ance to the Government felony, punishable with 
transportation. The treason newspapers were 
on this, their last occasion of speaking with 
impunity, unusually audacious. The Nation 
wi-ites:—“Animated by that spirit, warned 
by its experience, and stimulated by its heroic 
instances, we swear before God, before the 
whole Irish race, and the congregation of the 
free states of Europe, never to rest or relax in 
our labours until these conquerors of ours shall 
sue for peace and forgiveness, like sinners be¬ 
fore a shrine, at the feet of emancipated Ireland. 
The time of the sword has come ; the cant ol 
the Constitution is obsolete as Ogham stones.” 
In the United Irishman Mitchel wrote: 
“ The first thing to be done is to stop the 
thoroughfares, to cut off communication, to 
entrench liberty in the heart of the capital, to 
split up, divide, draw into fastnesses, make 
powerless, and slaughter the opposing troops. 

. . . Give up for ever the notion of surprises. 
Surprise involves secrecy, dissimulation, places 
you at the mercy of spies and traitors, and runs 
the gauntlet through ten thousand chances. It 
is the muffle of bravery and screen of cowards. 
We will none of your secrecies and surprises. 
Gird up your loins, oil your guns, and meet 
your enemies openly, in daylight, muzzle to 
muzzle. Then you shall conquer—otherwise 
not. The notion of a man pilfering liberty—• 
of a nation of eight millions, in its own land, 
sneaking through darkness, skulking through 
back ways to freedom—is disgusting.” 

23 . (Easter Sunday).—The Prussians un- 





APRIL 


MAY 


1848. 


der General Von Wrangel attack the Danes 
near Schleswig, and force them from the main¬ 
land to the islands of Alsen and Fiinen on the 
east coast. 

— A new star of the fifth magnitude dis¬ 
covered in the constellation Ophiucus. 

25 .—The remnant of the officers and crew 
(105 in number) of the Franklin expedition 
leave their ships with the intention of proceed¬ 
ing in the direction of Back’s Fish River. This 
was the last news received from the explorers. 

— Sir H. J. Fust pronounces judgment 
in the Arches Court in the case of Geils v. 
Geils. Mrs. Geils replied to a suit for a resti¬ 
tution of marital rights raised by her husband 
in 1845 by praying a divorce on the ground of 
adultery and cruelty. As to the latter, the 
Court now held that some of them had not 
been proved, and that others did not amount 
to “legal cruelty.” Certain charges of an 
especially offensive nature were held not to be 
sustained by sufficient proofs to warrant the 
consequences of a conviction to all parties. 
Separation decreed on the ground of adultery. 

£ 26 .—New Constitution published in Austria; 
the legislative body to be composed of the 
Emperor, a Senate, and a Chamber of Deputies. 

29 .—Sir John Richardson arrives at Lake 
Superior, on his overland journey to the Arctic 
regions in search of Sir John Franklin. 

— Free Exhibition of select British manu¬ 
factures at the Society of Arts closed, having 
been visited by many thousand persons. 

— The Pope, in conclave, disavows the act 
of the Papal troops in crossing the frontier to 
assist the Sardinian army against Austria. Two 
days afterwards, yielding to the threatening 
demands of his subjects, he consented to de¬ 
clare war against Austria. A new Liberal 
Ministry was also appointed. 

— The Paris papers publish the official an¬ 
nouncement of the result of the elections for 
the capital, Lamartine heading the list with 
259,800 votes. The extreme Republican party, 
represented by Ledru-Rollin, were all low on 
the list. 

— Affray in Limerick between the Old and 
Young Irelanders. O’Brien, Mitchel, and 
Meagher having arrived there to attend a soiree 
given by the Sarsfield Club in their honour, 
were set upon by a party of “ moral force ” 
O’Connellites. O’Brien was so severely handled 
that he could not attend the entertainment, 
while the others were subjected to the mortifi¬ 
cation of seeing the place of meeting battered 
in and almost burnt about their ears. The 
police interfering successfully between the com¬ 
batants, the broken windows and doors were 
covered with boards, and the soiree was closed 
amid comparative quiet. Meagher spoke with 
his usual severity on the “Gagging Act” 
which had so effectually frustrated their plans : 
“ These sentiments are no doubt seditious, and 
the expression of them may bring me within 
the provisions of the new Felony Bill—-the 


bill, mind you, that is to strike this nation 
dumb. Yes ! from this day out you must lie 
down and eat your words. Yes !—you—you, 
starved wretch, lying naked in that ditch, with 
clenched teeth and starting eye, gazing on the 
clouds that redden with the flames in which 
your hovel is destroyed. What matters it that 
the claw of hunger is fastening in your heart ? 
what matters it that the hot poison of the fever 
is shooting through your brain ? what matters 
it that the tooth of the lean dog is cutting 
through the bone of that dead child, of which 
you were once the guardian ? what matters it 
that the lips of that spectre there, once the 
pride and beauty of the village, when you 
wooed and won her as your bride, are blackened 
with the blood of the youngest to whom she 
has given birth? what matters it that the golden 
grain which has sprung from the sweat you 
squandered on the soil be torn from your grasp, 
and Heaven’s first decree to man contravened 
by human law ? what matters it that you are 
thus pained and stung, thus lashed and mad¬ 
dened ? Bite the tongue that bums to complain, 
beat back the passion that rushes from your 
heart, check the curse that gurgles to your 
throat. Die ! die without a groan—die with¬ 
out a shriek—die without a struggle, for the 
Government that starves you desires you to 
live in peace. Shall it be so ? Shall the con¬ 
quest of Ireland be this year completed ? Why 
should I put this question, after all? Have I 
not been answered by that flash of arms which 
purifies the air where the pestilence has been. 
The mind of Ireland no longer wavers. It has 
acquired the faith, the constancy, the heroism 
of a predestined martyr. It foresees the worst, 
prepares for the worst. The Cross, as in 
Milan, already glitters in the haze of battle, 
and points to eternity. We shall no longer 
seek for liberty in the byways. On a broad 
field, in front of the foreign swords, the soul of 
this nation, grown young and chivalrous again, 
shall clothe itself like the angel of the resurrec¬ 
tion, in the white robe, and point to the sepul¬ 
chre that is void, as it shall mount the scaf¬ 
fold—that eminence on which many a radiant 
transfiguration has taken place—and bequeath 
to the crowd below a lesson for their instruc¬ 
tion and an idol for their worship.” 

30 .—Five persons suffocated in a fire at the 
Sciennes, Edinburgh. 

Numerous meetings held during this and the 
following month to promote the union of the 
middle and working classes in favour of a 
scheme of Parliamentary Reform prepared by 
active members of the late Anti-Corn Law 
League. 

May 1.— Jutland occupied by Prussian forces. 

— The German Diet commences its sittings 
at Frankfort. Chevalier Bunsen elected Deputy 
for Schleswig. 

— Frightful butchery of Polish insurgents 
in Posen by Prussian troops ; the whole of the 
Grand Duchy in revolt. 

( 247 ) 






MAY 


MAY 


1848. 


1. —The proposed assemblage of a Council of 
Three Hundred, and enrolment of a National 
Guard in Dublin, prohibited by proclamation. 

— Chester and Holyhead Railway opened 
to Bangor. 

2 . —General Cavaignac recalled from Algeria 
to Paris. 

A .—Opening of the French National As¬ 
sembly, the members of the Provisional Go¬ 
vernment marching to the place of meeting on 
foot. The oath of fidelity to the Republic dis¬ 
pensed with. Next day M. Buchez was elected 
President. On the 7th an Executive Commis¬ 
sion was elected to carry on the government. 

— The third reading of the Jewish Dis¬ 
abilities Bill carried in the House of Commons 
by 234 to 173 votes. 

5 . —The Prior-Forster controversy relating 
to the copyright of certain facts in the life 
of Goldsmith. Prior writes from Richmond: 
“As a matter of courtesy I accept your volume, 
but I cannot consent to do so without stating 
distinctly that its contents thus given out under 
your name—as far as they relate to Goldsmith 
—are, and have been for eleven years past, 
that is, since the publication of my Life of him, 
exclusively mine ; they are mine in substance 
as in detail—in dates, facts, and innumerable 
personal matters—in the discovery of many of 
his writings previously unknown-—in the ascer¬ 
tainment of several doubtful points—in all the 
data, in short, which go to form authentic 
biography as distinct from what then only 
existed of him in the form of an imperfect and 
scanty biographical preface. These were gleaned 
with great care and assiduity. I hunted for 
them in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and 
several parts of the Continent. London, its 
libraries, collections, and localities, were tra¬ 
versed in their length and breadth for some 
years in the pursuit. They therefore cost me 
much time, much labour, and were acquired at 
considerable expense. Several were supplied 
to me as matter of personal favour, and would 
not have been given to any one else.” At the 
close of a detailed defence of his independent 
sources of information Mr. Forster replied : 
“As to the claim which you put forth 
to an absolute property and possession in 
such dates, facts, and innumerable personal 
matters of Goldsmith’s life as you may yourself 
have discovered, I have only to say that it is 
based on an assumption, which, if admitted or 
sanctioned to the smallest extent, would be 
the most serious invasion of the rights of litera¬ 
ture that has been practised or attempted in 
any country. ” Commenting upon this dispute, 
the Athencsum writes: “There is a curious 
confusion in Mr. Prior’s mind between the 
right to works of imagination and the right 
to works of fact. The first are the product 
of a man’s own mind, the last a mere con¬ 
version to his use of what all the world may 
use as well as he. No labour bestowed on a 
leries of facts can make them any man’s private 
(248) 


property. An author cannot by seizure acquire 
a right of monopoly in the events of another 
man’s life, though he may have employed great 
industry in discovering them, and therefore 
seem to suffer a hardship. He who by long 
seeking should find ores in land belonging to 
the public would not thereby acquire the right 
to appropriate the ores. In a word, Mr. Prior’s 
materials, with whatever amount of trouble col¬ 
lected, when once collected are public materials, 
and he cannot plead a law of treasure-trove 
against all the world, even for facts which first 
turned up to himself.” 

6 . —Engagement between the Austrians and 
Piedmontese before the walls of Verona. The 
conflict lasted from nine in the morning until 
five in the afternoon, and was gallantly sustained 
on both sides. The result was slightly against 
the Piedmontese, who were compelled to retire 
to their original position overlooking the plain 
of Verona. 

— The Warwick magistrates engage in the 
investigation of an absurd charge of murder 
against Lord Leigh, his mother, and others, 
alleged to have been committed to damage 
a claim made on the estate. 

7 . —The Polish insurgents under Mierow- 
lawski, after repeated engagements and great 
slaughter, surrender to the Prussian troops. 

— A battalipn of troops revolt at Madrid, 
and about 200 of them killed or wounded. 

9 .—The Queen and Prince Albert visit the 
ex-royal family of France at Claremont, the 
seat placed at their disposal by the British 
Government. 

— Lord George Bentinck questions the 
Prime Minister regarding the commands lately 
issued by the Queen, making it imperative that 
ladies attending Court should appear in dresses 
exclusively the product of native industry. 
Lord John Russell explained that the Cham¬ 
berlain’s order had nothing to do with the 
general question of Protection, but was simply 
designed to encourage certain branches of trade 
depressed at home. 

10 - — A portion of the Buckingham and 
Chandos estates, situate in the counties of Buck¬ 
ingham, Oxford, and Northampton, sold by 
public auction at Garraway’s. Finmore, Ox¬ 
fordshire, with a rental of 1,226/. per annum, 
was knocked down at 31,000/.; and Hellesden, 
Buckinghamshire, with a rental of 4,763/., 
brought 130,500/. The total amount realized 
was 262,990/. 

— Accident on the Great Western Railway 
at Shrivenham Station, caused by a cattle-truck 
left on the line used by the mid-day express 
train from Exeter. Seven persons killed. 

11 - —Sir James Ross in the Enterprise, and 
Captain Bird in the 1 nvestigator , leave England 
for the Arctic Regions, in search of Sir John 
Franklin. 

13 —Mr. Redhead York, M.P. for York, 





MAY 


1848 . 


MAY 


commits suicide in Regent’s Park by swallow¬ 
ing a dose of prussic acid. 

13 .—The Sicilians declare themselves inde¬ 
pendent of Naples. 

— Died at Longleat, aged 74, Alexander 
Baring, Lord Ashburton. 

— Mr. Thomas Carlyle publishes an ap¬ 
peal to Lord John Russell, “British chief 
governor,” to set about accomplishing some 
more important remedial measures for Ireland 
than what he proposed in his County and Mu¬ 
nicipal Registration Bills. Among other things 
suggested was the “regimenting of their indis¬ 
putable talent for spade-work ”—a drawing out 
and controlling the industrial resources of the 
country for the benefit of all. Speaking of the 
Premier, Mr. Carlyle wrote : “ Alas ! I know, 
or can figure in some measure, the shoreless 
imbroglio of red tape and parliamentary elo¬ 
quence in which he lives and has his sorrowful 
being ; tape-thrums heaped high above him as 
the heaven, and deep below him as the abyss ; 
and loud inane eloquence (public speaking trans¬ 
acted in the hearing of twenty-seven millions, 
many of whom are fools !) beating on him like¬ 
wise as a mad ocean, and every single billow, 
and every separate tape-thrum, singing merely, 

‘ Impossible, impossible, to do any real business 
here ! Nothing but parliamentary eloquence 
possible here ! ’ . . . Nevertheless all this 
will not excuse an unfortunate British Premier. 
He stands at the summit of our society ; has 
with his own eyes open, and what real or 
imaginary views he knows best, taken his 
station there ; and to him inevitably do perish¬ 
ing British subjects cry,—if not for help, yet 
for some signal that somebody, somewhere, 
in some manner should at least begin to try 
to help them. . . . Let the British chief go¬ 
vernor cry earnestly from the abysses, and the 
red-tape imbroglios, whatever they may be : a 
Jonah was heard from the whale’s belly ; and 
he too, unless the Heavens help him to some 
scheme or counsel, he and we are lost ! ” 

15 .—Another insurrectionary movement in 
Paris. About 50,000 extreme democrats 
marched from the Bastile to the Chamber of 
Deputies, where they forced the gate and 
swarmed into the building. Great uproar en¬ 
sued, and all authority was for a time at an 
end. The delegates of. Communistic clubs 
spoke from the tribune, and proposed motions 
in favour of Poland and Italy, which were 
carried by acclamation. The Chamber was 
declared dissolved, and a new Government 
appointed, consisting of Ledru-Rollin, Barbes, 
Louis Blanc, and others. The troops of the 
line being instantly called out, and the National 
Guard placed under arms, the mob retreated 
from the Chamber to the H6tel de Ville, where 
various new schemes of government were 
brought up for discussion. There they were 
followed by the National Guard, who re¬ 
mained true to the Chamber, expelling the mob 
and arresting the most prominent leaders. 

— Mr. Labouchere introduces the Govern¬ 


ment scheme for throwing open the navigation 
of the country of every sort and description 
with the exception of the coasting trade. A 
resolution, moved by Mr. Herries, to maintain 
the fundamental principles bf the existing Na¬ 
vigation law, was lost by a majority of 294 to 
177. The Government measure gave rise to 
much opposition, and was abandoned towards 
the close of the session. 

15 . —Sanguinary insurrection at Naples ; the 
city given up to pillage by the Government ; 
400 troops killed ; the National Guard dis¬ 
banded, and a new Ministry formed. 

— Tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
Dublin, before Lord Chief Justice Blackburn 
and a special jury, William Smith O’Brien, 
charged with uttering a seditious speech at a 
meeting of the Irish Confederation, on the 15th 
March last. The jury being unable to agree 
upon a verdict, were discharged with consent 
of the Attorney-General. A similar result took 
place in the case of Meagher, tried in the same 
Court next day. In this case the jury were all 
agreed except one—a Roman Catholic. 

16 . —The Chartist National Convention 
breaks up. 

— The Emperor of Austria, with the Em¬ 
press and other members of the Imperial family, 
quit the capital in consequence of its disturbed 
state, and take up their residence at Innspruck, 
in the Tyrol. From this retreat the Emperor 
issued a proclamation announcing that he 
would not grant anything to the forcible exac¬ 
tions of unauthorized and armed individuals. 

— In the House of Commons, Mr. Bouverie 
moves the second reading of a bill for securing 
sites for churches in Scotland. It was based 
upon the report of a Select Committee, pre¬ 
sented last session, wherein it was stated that 
“ Congregations are in the habit of meeting for 
public worship in places and under circum¬ 
stances which are unfit for the administration 
of the sacred ordinances of the Christian reli¬ 
gion, and which expose both the minister and 
the people to weather injurious to their health, 
and to inconveniences which ought not to attend 
the free exercise of religious privileges.” The 
bill was thrown out on the third reading by a 
majority of 93 to 59. 

18 . —The Piedmontese troops undertake the 
siege of the city and fortress of Peschiera. The 
place held out for twelve days, when, the pro¬ 
visions being neai'ly exhausted, and the can¬ 
nonade unusually destructive, a submission was 
made, and Charles-Albert entered the city. 

— The Encumbered Estates (Ireland) Bill, 
originated in the House of Lords, read a 
second time in the Commons. 

—• The German National Assembly com¬ 
mences its sittings at Frankfort. The Diet 
despatched a message desiring to act in friendly 
unison and co-operation with the newly-created 
representatives of the great German family. 

19 . —Ratification of the treaty under which 

(249) 




MA Y 


1848. 


MAY 


Mexico cedes California and New Mexico to 
the United States. 

21 . —Grand Fete de la Concorde at Paris. 
As many as 1,200,000 people were said to have 
been present at the striking and costly alle¬ 
gorical procession. 

22. —The united forces of Radetzky and 
Nugent enter Verona. 

— Intimation given that several paintings 
of great value had been stolen from the Ex¬ 
hibition of the Royal Academy. 

23 . —Acrimonious discussion on the post¬ 
ponement of Mr. Hume’s motion on Reform. 
Defending Mr. Hume from the charge of 
“juggling the working classes” raised by the 
member for Nottingham, Mr. Cobden said: 
“For seven years I had directed against me 
the relentless hostility of the honourable gen¬ 
tleman while advocating what I believed 
then, and what I believe still, to be the good 
of the working classes—I mean the abolition 
of the tax on food. That honourable gen¬ 
tleman did all he could to array the working 
classes against me on that subject; and I had 
more hostility to encounter from him and his 
party than I had from the Duke of Buckingham 
and all his followers. What was the result? 
I never fraternized with the honourable gentle¬ 
man or his myrmidons—I never succumbed to 
them for a moment. I always treated him as 
the leader of a small, insignificant, and power¬ 
less party. I never identified him with the 
mass of the working classes of the country. I 
treated him then as I treat him now, not as the 
leader of the working classes of the country, 
but as the leader of an organised faction of the 
smallest portion of the community.” 

— Freedom of the negro proclaimed at St. 
Pierre, Martinique. A riot followed, in which 
thirty-two persons were killed. 

24 . —Letters from the Orleans family at 
Claremont read in the National Assembly, 
protesting against their banishment from 
France. 

— Wreck of the emigrant ship Commerce , 
of Limerick, on the coast of Nova Scotia, and 
loss of about 100 lives. The vessel ran ashore ; 
and although a communication was made in a 
short time with the land, the sea swept the 
deck with such violence that not more than 
eighty of the passengers and crew could be 
saved. 

— Came on for trial in the Commission 
Court, Dublin, before Baron Lefroy and Mr. 
Justice Moore, the case of the Queen v. John 
Mitchel, charged with felony under the new 
Act for the better security of the Crown and 
Government. Initiatory proceedings had been 
commenced on the 26th April, but the prisoner 
pressing various dilatory pleas, it was not till 
this day he could be called upon to plead to the 
charge. Even now his counsel, Sir Coleman 
O’Loghlen, handed in a challenge to the jury 
on the ground that it had been arranged favour¬ 
able to the Queen and adverse to the prisoner. 
(250) 


The Crown joined issue, and criers were a; - 
pointed, who found against the traverser. The 
Attorney-General explained at some length the 
circumstances under which the prosecution had 
been instituted against the prisoner, and pro¬ 
duced evidence of his crime in the shape of 
speeches made by him at public meetings and 
articles written by him in his newspaper called 
the United Irishman. The case was brought 
to a conclusion on the 26th, when the jury, 
after an absence of nearly three hours, returned 
a verdict of Guilty. Next day, amid a scene 
of great excitement, Mitchel was sentenced to 
be transported beyond the seas for the term of 
fourteen years. He was sent the same evening 
to Spike Island, Cork, preparatory to being 
placed on board a convict vessel for Bermuda. 
Mitchel’s conviction gave rise to considerable 
commotion among the physical-force Repealers 
and Chartists throughout the country; in 
London the gatherings in Clerkenwell Green 
and Bethnal Green were for several nights of a 
most menacing nature, but suppressed without 
bloodshed. 

25 .—Second reading of the Jewish Dis¬ 
abilities Bill, thrown out of the House of Lords 
by 163 to 128. 

— The new dock at Portsmouth opened 
in presence of the Queen, Prince Albert, the 
Duke of Wellington, and a brilliant company. 

27 . —Meeting in the City of London Tavern, 
of merchants, bankers, and others, “anxious 
to uphold the system of free labour in the 
British possessions, and to prevent this country 
from becoming dependent for its supply of 
sugar and coffee upon the extension of culti¬ 
vation by means of slavery and the slave- 
trade.” Resolutions in conformity therewith 
were carried unanimously. 

— Died at Kensington Palace, in her.71st 
year, the Princess Sophia, youngest daughter 
of George III. 

— The N ational Assembly of Franee resolve 
on the election of a single President and a 
single Chamber, both by universal suffrage. 

28 . —Ministers defeated in the House of 
Lords, on the Irish Poor Law Bill, by a 
majority of 6, and in the Commons by 1, on 
Dr. Bowring’s motion regarding the Public 
Accounts and Revenue. 

29 . —Insurrection at Prague. Taking ad¬ 
vantage of the Emperor’s decree of equality 
between the Sclavonic and German races in 
Bohemia, Count Leo Thun and other leaders 
of the Czechs determined to establish a Pro¬ 
visional Government at Prague independent of 
the Government at Vienna. Three hundred 
deputies were sent from the different Sclavonic 
states, and the Congress was formally opened 
for business on the 2d of June. The Viennese 
Ministry refusing to recognise the Prague As¬ 
sembly, Prince Windischgratz, the Austrian 
governor of the city, used military force to 
put down and dissolve the new revolutionary 
Government. The fighting continued for three 






MAY 


1848. 


JUNE 


days ; the first being mainly noticeable from the 
death of the Princess Windischgratz, who was 
killed in her apartment by a rifle-ball. Lat¬ 
terly the General withdrew his troops to the 
adjoining heights, and commenced to bombard 
the city. The infuriated Czechs refused to 
yield, and it was not until the evening of the 
17th, when a great part of the city was de 
stroyed, that the soldiers regained possession of 
Prague and put down the insurrection. 

29 . —Addressing a meeting at Dunboyne, 
Meath, Doherty, who had signalized himself 
by his vociferous applause of Mitchel in 
Court, said : “We did not commence this 
contest to terminate it by a compromise. One 
thing I can assure you, that we shall lie in 
shroudless graves or this island shall be free 
before another year. I do not speak felony 
here to-night for this reason, that there is no 
honour five or six of us more aspire to than 
to be the next felon, and I had to give a solemn 
pledge to them that I would not take advantage 
and be the first. We shall determine it among 
ourselves who shall be next, and next, and next, 
until the harvest sun shall gleam upon us, and 
England have to determine to battle with our 
bravery, and not to starve us.” 

— Statement submitted to a meeting in Man¬ 
chester from the Committee of the Cobden Tes¬ 
timonial Fund, showing the amount subscribed 
to be 79,000/. 

— The Italian army defeated by the Aus¬ 
trians at Curtatone. 

— Died at the Grange House, Edinburgh, 
aged 63, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, of Fountain- 
hall, author of the “ Moray Floods,” and other 
works. 

30 . —Sir G. Sugden’s appointment of his 
son to the Assistant-Registrarship of the Court 
of Chancery set aside in the Dublin Court of 
Queen’s Bench in favour of Mr. Kelly. 

— An army of 30,000 Austrians defeated by 
15,000 Piedmontese at Goito. 

— Mr. Bouverie introduces, but afterwards 
withdraws, a resolution calling for an inquiry 
into the working of the Ecclesiastical Courts ; 
Sir George Grey explaining that Government 
was alive to the importance of the subject, but 
had no hope of getting an efficient measure 
passed this session. 

— Louis Philippe and his family condemned 
by the National Assembly to perpetual banish¬ 
ment from France. 

31 . —The wooden bridge crossing the Usk, 
in connexion with the South Wales Railway, 
destroyed by fire. 

June 1.—Gold excitement at California. A 
letter from San Francisco says: “The whole 
of this part of California is in the highest state 
of excitement relative to the Placera or gold 
regions recently discovered on the branches of 
the Sacramento river. Three-fourths of the 
houses in San Francisco are vacated. Even 
lawyers have closed their books and taken 


passage with spade and wooden dish to make 
fortunes by washing out gold from the sands 
of the Sacramento.” 

2 . —The Peninsular and Oriental steamship 
Ariel wrecked off Leghorn ; crew and passen¬ 
gers saved. 

3 . —The proposed prosecution of M. Louis 
Blanc rejected by the French Assembly. 

— Union of Old and Young Irelanders in a 
new association to be called “The Irish Na¬ 
tional Association.” 

4 . —Annexation of Lombardy to Piedmont 
proclaimed at Milan. 

— Announcing a monster gathering of Char¬ 
tists for Whit-Monday (the 12th), Ernest Jones 
declares to-night, at a meeting in Bonner’s 
Fields, that “it is of no use the Government 
attempting to put me down ; for I shall never 
cease agitating until I have procured for the 
poor man his rights, and brought the nose of 
the rich to the grindstone.” He promised that 
“in a few days the green flag would float 
over Downing-street; Mitchel and John Frost 
would be on their way to England, and Lord 
John Russell and Lord Grey on their way 
to Baffin’s Bay.” 

5 . —In opposition to the Emperor’s prohi¬ 
bition, Baron Jellachich, Ban of Croatia, holds 
a Sclavonic Diet at Agram. War was there¬ 
after declared against the Croats. 

— Discussion in the Commons on Lord 
Palmerston’s Spanish policy, which had ended 
in the expulsion of Sir Henry Bulwer from 
Madrid. The motion submitted, and after¬ 
wards withdrawn by Mr. Bankes, was in these 
terms: “That this House learns with deep 
regret, from a correspondence between the 
British Government and the Government of 
Spain now upon the table of this House, that 
a proposed interference with the internal con¬ 
cerns of the Spanish Government as conducted 
under the authority, and with the entire ap¬ 
proval, of her Majesty’s ministers, has placed 
the British Government, and our representative 
at the Court of Madrid, in a position humi¬ 
liating in its character, and which is calculated 
to affect the friendly relations heretofore exist¬ 
ing between the Governments of Great Britain 
and Spain.” He went through the corre¬ 
spondence which took place between Lord 
Palmerston and Sir H. Bulwer, and contended 
that the tone of the letters as regarded the 
Government of Spain was calculated to excite 
a feeling of irritation on the part of the Govern¬ 
ment of that country towards England.—Lord 
Palmerston entered ihto a long defence of his 
policy, but admitted that his note was intended 
as a text for the sentiments which Sir Henry 
Bulwer was to express, and not for communi¬ 
cation to the Duke of Sotomayor. He sought 
to justify his interference in the affairs of Spain 
on the ground of the treaty obligations incurred 
by Great Britain to support the present reign¬ 
ing House, and the responsibility incurred by 
former advice.—Mr. Disraeli spoke in praise of 







JUNE 


1848. 


JUNE 


Sir H. Bulwer, but attacked that political 
Liberalism which aimed at the introduction of 
philosophical ideas, instead of political princi¬ 
ples, "into the practical business of life, always 
weaving a political brotherhood with some 
small faction abroad, and preaching to it a 
House of Lords, a House of Commons, and a 
commercial treaty with Great Britain. 

6 . —Fire at the Earl of Harrowby’s resi¬ 
dence, Standon Hall, near Stafford. The furni¬ 
ture, pictures, books, and statues were mostly 
got out on the lawn, but the building itself 
suffered severely. 

— The Chartists Jones, Williams, Fussel, 
and Sharp arrested for sedition and committed 
to Newgate. 

— Break-up of O’Connell’s Repeal Asso¬ 
ciation. Last week the rent had dwindled 
down to 12/. 

7. —Twenty persons poisoned at Northamp¬ 
ton, in consequence of partaking of coloured 
blanc-mange at a public dinner held to cele¬ 
brate the ordination of a new clergyman. One 
of the party, Mr. Caufield, an accountant, died 
next day, and six others continued for some 
time in a precarious state. The cook was 
taken into custody. 

— In Hayti upwards of 1,000 blacks rise in 
insurrection, and attack the town of Jacmel, 
which they set on fire in several places. 

10. —George John Hansom, a prisoner in 
Coldbath Fields, murders William Henry 
Woodhouse, one of the keepers, by stabbing 
him with a knife used in the oakum room. He 
was tried for the offence on the 7th July fol¬ 
lowing, and being found guilty was executed on 
the 24th. At the time of the murder Hansom 
was under conviction for aiding to conceal the 
birth of a child, the result of an incestuous 
intercourse with his own daughter. He had 
altogether by her a family of four children, 
two of whom he was said to have murdered. 

11 . —Precautions against Chartist risings 
in the metropolis. The whole of the superin¬ 
tendents of the metropolitan police force met 
in the chief office, Great Scotland Yard, to 
receive their final instructions as to the pro¬ 
ceedings to be adopted next day for suppress¬ 
ing the intended demonstration. A number 
of steamboats were filled with soldiers, who 
were lo move off to any part at a moment’s 
notice, if their services were needed. The 
Bank of England, although not outwardly 
fortified as on the 10th of April, had a double 
guard inside, and the soldiers were so arranged 
within the building that every part of it was 
amply protected. Similar precautions were 
adopted at the Mint, Custom House, and other 
Government Offices. At the Houses of Parlia¬ 
ment, not only was every part well protected, 
but a large supply of provisions laid in. 

•— Radetzky surprises Vicenza, and compels 
Durando to recross the Po with his army, under 
a promise not to lift a sword in the war for three 
months. The wily old General returned to 
(2S2) 


Verona as Charles-Albert was about to enter 
that city in the belief that it was evacuated. 

12 . —Failure of the Chartist demonstration. 
“ It ended,” says the Times, “not in smoke, 
but in ruin. There is absolutely nothing to 
record—nothing except the blankest expecta¬ 
tion, the most miserable gaping, gossiping, and 
grumbling of disappointed listeners ; the stand¬ 
ing about, the roaming to and fro, the dispersing 
and the sneaking home of poor simpletons who 
had wandered forth in the hope of some mira¬ 
culous crisis in their affairs. There was nothing, 
absolutely nothing, anywhere that could be 
called an assemblage, except by the merest 
courtesy. ” 

— Disturbance at Drury-lane Theatre on 
the occasion of M. Jullien attempting to in¬ 
troduce the Thi&tre Historique. The piece 
selected was “Monte Christo,” but not one 
word could be heard for the yelling and groan¬ 
ing of the audience. A few of the more pro¬ 
minent leaders in the disturbance were taken 
into custody. 

— The Vice-Chancellor pronounces a de¬ 
cision which has the effect of removing Scotch 
Presbyterian bodies from any participation in 
the Lady Hewley charities. 

— Another insurrection breaks out at Prague. 

13 . —In opposition to the Executive led by 
M. Lamartine, the French National Assembly 
resolve by a large majority to permit Louis 
Napoleon to take his seat as representative for 
Lower Charente. Availing himself of a slight 
disturbance which had taken place yesterday on 
the Place de la Concorde, M. Lamartine hastily 
ascended the tribune, and declared that civil 
war had begun and blood been shed on behalf 
of Louis Napoleon. He asked the Assembly 
to assent by acclamation to a Provisional 
Decree which recited that the Prince had 
twice appeared in France as a Pretender; 
that his presence might compromise the Re¬ 
public ; and concluding with a declaration that 
Government should cause the law of 1832 to 
be executed against Louis Napoleon Buona¬ 
parte until such time as the National Assembly 
shall decide otherwise. The proposal appeared 
to be received with some favour at first, but in 
preference to passing a decree by acclamation 
returned to the interrupted discussion on fi¬ 
nance. To-day the Assembly by a large ma¬ 
jority agreed to let the Prince take his seat. 
M. Louis Blanc spoke boldly for his admission. 
It was unfair to the people, he said, to suppose 
Louis Napoleon could become Emperor. As 
to his becoming President, it was easy of pre¬ 
vention by decreeing there should be no Pre¬ 
sident whatever. M. Jules Favre and M. 
Viellard also spoke on the same side, while 
M. Fresneau taunted the Assembly with ex¬ 
citing public feeling against an unoffending 
man, “the heir of Napoleon.” 

14 . —Disturbances at Gueret, Nimes, and 
Perpignan, with much loss of life. There was 
also a renewal of the street conflicts at Berlin 
to-day. 






JUNE 


1848. 


JUNE 


14 . —Louis Napoleon writes from London to 
the President of the National Assembly: “I 
was about to set off in order to appear at 
my post, when I learnt that my election had 
been made the pretext for disorders and dis¬ 
astrous errors. I repudiate all the suspicions 
of which I have been the object, for I seek not 
for power. • If the people impose duties on me, 

I shall know how to fulfil them, but I disavow 
all those who have made use of my name to 
excite disturbance. The name which I bear 
is, above all, a symbol of order, of nationality, 
of glory, and rather than be the subject of 
disorder and anarchy, I should prefer remain¬ 
ing in exile. ” The reading of this letter caused 
great excitement in the Assembly. Next 
day the writer addressed to the President 
another communication deprecating the in¬ 
jurious suspicions to which his election had 
given rise, and formally tendering the resigna¬ 
tion of his seat. 

— Diplomatic relations suspended between 
Spain and England. Senor Isturitz, the Spanish 
Minister in London, took his departure for 
Madrid to-day. 

15 . —Suicide of T. Steele, .O’Connell’s 
“ Head Pacificator.” 

16 . —Lord John Russell introduces his 
scheme for relieving West India distress by 
reducing the sugar duty from 13J. to ioj. ; 
muscovado to remain as it was, but new and 
distinctive duties to be fixed for foreign brown 
clayed. On the 19th Sir John Palcington pro¬ 
posed an amendment, censuring the Govern¬ 
ment scheme as unlikely either to relieve the 
existing distress, or check the stimulus to the 
slave trade which the diminution of the culti¬ 
vation of sugar in those colonies inevitably 
occasioned. An acrimonious discussion, having 
reference principally to a charge made by Lord 
George Bentinck against the Colonial Office, of 
suppressing important information for the pur¬ 
pose of keeping the House in the dark, was 
carried on night after night in connexion with 
this debate. Lord John Russell said that such 
tricks were not the fault or the characteristic of 
men high in office. They were rather the 
characteristic of men engaged in such pursuits 
as the noble lord long followed. Some time 
ago the noble lord very greatly distinguished 
himself by detecting a fraud with respect to the 
name and age of a horse—a transaction in which 
he showed very great quickness of apprehension. 
Mr. Disraeli replied, that Lord George Bentinck 
was not to be bullied either in the ring or on the 
Treasury bench. So far as the matter of the 
horse was concerned, he had been thanked for 
his conduct at Newmarket by a meeting pre¬ 
sided over by the Duke of Bedford. A personal 
rencontre also took place between Mr. Hudson 
and Mr. Hume; the latter insinuating that the 
former spoke under the influence of champagne, 
the member for Sunderland replying that he 
would never charge Mr. Hume with dining out 
or giving a dinner to a friend. A division took 
place on the 29th, when Lord John Russell’s pro¬ 


posal was carried by a majority of 260 to 245. A 
bill founded on the resolutions was subsequently 
passed through both Houses of Parliament, after 
many tedious, dull debates. 

18 . —The Austrians defeated by the Pied¬ 
montese near Rivoli. 

— Lieutenant Edwardes, a young officer of 
the 1st Fusileers, defeats the Sikh forces at 
Noonaree, capturing also six of their guns and 
the whole of their field baggage and stores. 

19 . —Draft of the Constitution of the French 
Republic read to the National Assembly. 

20. —The Select Committee appointed to 
inquire into the character of the commercial 
distress last year and the operation of the Bank 
Charter Act report that it is not expedient to 
make any alteration in the Bank Act. 

— Mr. Hume submits a motion for im¬ 
provement in the representation of the people, 
by the introduction of household suffrage, trien¬ 
nial parliaments, vote by ballot, and equal 
electoral districts. Lord John Russell denied 
that there was any spontaneous or extensive de¬ 
mand for such a measure, and said that if passed 
the franchise question would still remain un¬ 
settled. What the people were entitled to was 
not the franchise, but the best government and 
legislation possible. Speaking of the present agi¬ 
tation Mr. Disraeli said: “ Certain honourable 
gentlemen think diplomacy going out of fashion 
—possibly it maybe; many people think lawyers 
useless—they make their own wills and die; 
then there are those who think doctors good 
for nothing—they take quack medicines and 
die also ; and there may be ministers of state 
who think that they can dispense with the ser¬ 
vices of envoys and ambassadors. But those 
who are interested in finding employment for 
the rising generation will be glad to learn that 
a new profession has been discovered, and that 
is the profession of agitation. The moral I 
draw from all this—from observing this system 
of organized agitation—this playing and potter¬ 
ing with popular pensions for the aggrandize¬ 
ment of one too ambitious class—the moral I 
draw and the question I ask is this : Why are the 
people of England forced to find leaders among 
these persons? The proper leaders are the gentry 
of England; and if they are not the leaders of the 
people, it is because the gentlemen of England 
have been so negligent of their duties and so 
unmindful of their station, that this system of 
professional agitation, so ruinous to the best 
interests of the country, has arisen in England.” 
After many adjournments a division took place 
on the 6th July, when Mr. Hume’s resolution 
was rejected by 358 to 84 votes. 

21 . —Eleven lives lost in the Victoria Iron 
Stone Pit, near Monmouth, by the upsetting of 
a bucket in which the workmen were descend¬ 
ing the shaft. 

23 .—Uprising of the Red Republican party 
in Paris, leading to the resignation of the 
Executive Committee. The city was declared 
in a state of siege, and unlimited military power 

( 253 ) 





JUNE 


JUL V 


1S4S. 


delegated to General Cavaignac. The barri¬ 
cades were of an unusually massive description, 
and set up in positions which enabled the insur¬ 
gents to baffle for a time the best-directed attacks 
of the National Guard. The fighting continued 
over three days, at which time the party behind 
the barricade in the Faubourg St. Antoine alone 
held out. General Lamoriciere threatening to 
bombard the place, a flag of truce was sent out, 
and a capitulation followed immediately. The 
25th was signalized by the death of the Arch¬ 
bishop of Paris, Denis Auguste Afre. Under 
the impression that the insurgents might be 
induced to listen to him as a mediator, he 
proceeded, clad in his sacred vestments and 
attended by two grand-vicars, towards the 
Faubourg St. Antoine. He halted first at the 
foot of the column of the Bastile, where a 
strong barricade was erected and firing actively 
going on. This ceased as soon as the Arch¬ 
bishop was recognised, and he bravely mounted 
the barricade to address the insurgents on the 
other side. His words seemed to produce some 
effect, when suddenly a drum-roll was heard 
and a shot fired. The conflict was immediately 
renewed, and the venerable Archbishop, struck 
by a ball in the loins, fell on the barricade. 
The insurgents rushed forward, and lifting him 
gently, carried him to a house within the bar¬ 
rier, where he lingered till the 27th. General 
Negrier, an officer of distinguished merit in 
the Algerine campaign, was killed during the 
day, and, with attendant circumstances of great 
atrocity, Generals Brea and Desure. In con¬ 
sideration of his services during this outbreak, 
General Cavaignac was named President of the 
Council. In a formal report presented to the 
Assembly on the subject of this insurrection 
Louis Blanc, Ledru-Rollin, Barbes, Blanqui, 
and Caussidiere were named as mixed up with 
the outbreak. The national workshops, in which 
it had its origin, were afterwards remodelled and 
partly suppressed. The most savage atrocities 
were committed by female furies on the prisoners 
who were so unfortunate as to fall within their 
power. The loss on the side of the insurgents 
was trifling compared with that sustained by the 
regular troops, more of whom, it was said, were 
slain during the three days the insurrection lasted 
than had fallen in all the disturbances in 
Paris since 1789. As many as 10,000 were 
killed or wounded, and 4,000 arrested for being 
concerned in this sanguinary outbreak. 

23 .—Renewed excitement created by a 
brief message from Paris in a second edition of 
the Morning Chronicle: “The struggle has 
commenced in Paris. An awful sacrifice of 
life. All is in confusion. The troops and 
National Guard are fighting with the people.” 
English Consols fell 4 - 

27 . —Died at Aaran, Switzerland, Henry 
Zschokke, a distinguished German writer of 
histories and tales. 

28 . —The Sardinian Chambers vote the an¬ 
nexation of Lombardy to Sardinia. 

(254) 


29 .—The Germanic Diet elect John, Arch¬ 
duke of Austria, to be Lieutenant-General, or 
Regent, of the German empire. The installa¬ 
tion took place on the 12th July. 

— The new missionary college of St. Au¬ 
gustine, Canterbury, (for the establishment of 
which 60,000/. was contributed by Mr. A. J. 
Beresford Hope) consecrated by the Arch¬ 
bishop. 

— In the course of the adjourned debate on 
the Sugar Duties the Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer introduces another Budget, the third 
for the session, explanatory of certain reductions 
which would bring down the contemplated 
deficiency to about 500,000/. The chief fea¬ 
tures were afterwards described by Mr. Disraeli 
(Aug. 30) as appropriating money originally 
destined for another purpose, and by not apply¬ 
ing certain other money for the purpose to 
which it was originally voted. 

July 1.—The Moultanees again defeated 
by Major Edwardes, under the walls of their 
capital. 

— Opening of the Irish Great Southern and 
Western Railway, uniting the Limerick and 
Waterford Lines. 

3 .—Annuity-tax disturbance in Edinburgh ; 
the police and military called out to protect an 
impounding creditor. 

A-. —Died at Paris, aged 78, M. de Chateau¬ 
briand, author of the “ Genius of Christianity,” 
and other works. 

— Opening of St. George’s Roman Catholic 
Church, London. There were present the Arch¬ 
bishop of Treves, the Bishops of Liege, Tournav, 
Chalons, and Chersonesus, with their canons and 
chaplains. The body of the church was filled 
with Roman Catholic laity. Dr. Wiseman cele¬ 
brated high mass, assisted by Dr. Doyle, the 
pastor of the chapel; offertory sung by Tam- 
burini. The building was erected at a cost of 
40,000/., and designed to accommodate 4,000 
people. 

— The Venetian Assembly vote the incor¬ 
poration of Venice with Sardinia. 

7 . —Trial of Chartist seditionistsatthe Central 
Criminal Court, London, before Lord Chief 
Justice Wilde. Fussel, Williams, Sharpe, 
Vernon, Looney, and Ernest Jones were each 
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and 
bound over in various sums to keep the peace 
afterwards, for periods varying from three to 
five years. 

8 . — Punch promotes the cause of “law and 
order ” in Ireland, by exhibiting ‘ ‘ My Lord 
Assassin Clarendon murdering the Irish”—a doll 
in uniform representing the Lord Lieutenant 
receiving with smiling resignation the fire of a 
gang of ruffians. 

Jl<—The differences of Hungary with 
Vienna, on the one hand, and Croatia on the 
other, compel Kossuth to address the Diet in 
these words: “Do not deceive yourselves, 








JULY 


1848. 


JULY 


citizens; the Magyars stand alone in the world 
against the conspiracy of the sovereigns and 
nations which surround them. The Emperor 
of Russia besets us through the Principalities, 
and everywhere, even in Servia, we detect his 
hand and his gold. In the north the armed 
band of Sclaves are endeavouring to join the 
rebels of Croatia, and are preparing to march 
against us. In Vienna the courtiers and states¬ 
men are calculating the advent of the day when 
they shall be able again to rivet the chains on 
their old slaves the Magyars, an undisciplined 
*nd rebellious race. O my fellow citizens, it 
is thus that tyrants have ever designated free¬ 
men. You are alone, I repeat. Are you ready 
and willing to fight ? ” 

11 . —Mr. George Thompson’s motion for a 
Select Committee to inquire into the grievances 
alleged to have been inflicted on the Rajah of 
Sarawak rejected by 77 to 8 votes. 

— In answer to a deputation composed of 
peers and members of Parliament, Sir George 
Grey intimates that Government intend to 
exercise such powers as the law afforded for 
suppressing the Irish Confederate clubs. 

— The Sicilians elect the Duke of Genoa as 
King, an act protested against by the King of 
Naples. 

— Mr. O’Brien, accompanied by a number 
of leading Confederates, “ reviews ” the military 
clubs at Cork. 

13 .—Lord Robertson, one of the Lords Or¬ 
dinary of the Court of Session, pronounces a 
decision in favour of the able-bodied poor being 
entitled to parochial relief. “What is it to 
the unemployed, ” he said, ‘ ‘ to the unemployed 
craving for work, that he has legs and arms, 
and thews and sinews, if he cannot get whereon 
to employ his strength, and thereby to gain 
that support which he is anxious to secure by 
his own industry ? Surely the law of no Chris¬ 
tian country can enact such a tardy and per¬ 
haps useless relief as that the party must be¬ 
come sick from actual want before he is offered 
that which, timeously administered, would save 
him from sickness altogether.” 

— Lord John Russell submits to the Commons 
the details of a bill for the more effectual sup¬ 
pression of bribery and other corrupt practices 
at elections. 

15 .—Re-interment in the Chapel Royal, 
Holyrood, of the remains of Mary of Gueldres, 
Queen of James II., discovered in the sacristy 
when removing Trinity College Church. 

— The Moniteur publishes a decree of the 
National Assembly, authorizing the Treasury 
of the Republic to borrow 150,000,000 f. from 
the Bank of France, on the guarantee of half 
the amount from the sinking fund, and the rest 
by a deed of sale of the State forests to that 
amount. The Moniteur also publishes another 
decree of the National Assembly, authorizing 
the Minister of Finance to convert the amount 
of the deposits in the savings’ banks into Rentes, 
bearing five per cent, interest for every eighty 
francs deposited in the savings' banks. 


17 . —Conflagration at Pera (Constantinople), 
destroying 3,000 houses. 

18 . —In consequence of the violent language 
of the Repeal political clubs in Ireland, the 
Lord Lieutenant issues a proclamation having 
special reference to treasonable proceedings 
in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda. 
“ Matters,” writes the Times correspondent, 
“are now evidently approaching a crisis, and 
either in Dublin or the country there will soon 
be civil war, if the Confederation is not now at 
once and for ever suppressed. On the publi¬ 
cation of the Lord Lieutenant’s proclamation 
the council of the Confederates met, and de¬ 
cided, by a majority of one, that only a passive 
resistance should be offered to the step taken 
for disarming the clubs. It is ascertained that 
considerable quantities of arms have been 
carried out of Dublin to evade the search which 
the authorities will make, and that the weapons 
which remain in the city have been carefully 
concealed.” 

20. —The bill compelling proprietors of land 
in Scotland to grant sites for churches thrown 
out in the House of Commons, on the third 
reading, by a majority of 98 to 50. 

— The Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill 
read a second time, Colonel Sibthorp protest¬ 
ing against the Ministry as the most incom¬ 
petent and deceitful that had ever conducted 
public affairs. 

21 . —Lord John Russell announces the in¬ 
tention to introduce a bill for the suspension 
of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. 

22. —The rebel Nation writes: “ It is a death 
struggle now between the murderer and his 
victim. Strike ! Rise, men of Ireland, since 
Providence so wills it. Rise in your cities and 
in your fields, on your hills, in your valleys, by 
your dark mountain-passes, by your rivers and 
lakes and ocean-washed shores. Rise as a 
nation! ” On the same day the Irish Felon 
writes: “ In the case of Ireland now there is 
but one fact to deal with, and one question to 
be considered. The fact is this, that there are 
at present in occupation of our country some 
40,000 armed men in the livery and service of 
England; and the question is, how best and 
soonest to kill and capture these 40,000 men.” 

— General Ospre forces the Sardinian lines 
at Rivoli, and two days afterwards attacks them 
at different points in the country between the 
Adige and Mincio. The conflict was kept up 
with varying success for four days, when the 
Austrians were largely reinforced by troops 
withdrawn from the Venetian garrisons, and 
Charles-Albert commenced a retreat across the 
Mincio. They were intercepted at Volta, but 
bravely fought their way through, and found 
refuge in Milan on the 3d of August. 

— Lord John Russell introduces a bill em¬ 
powering the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to 
apprehend and detain, until the 1st day of 
March next, such persons as he shall suspect 
of conspiring against her Majesty’s person and 

(25s) 





JULY 


1848. 


JULY 


Government. It was with the greatest reluc¬ 
tance, he said, that he asked Parliament to give 
authority to the Government to suspend for a 
limited period the constitutional privileges of 
Ireland. The state of that country, however, 
rendered such a measure absolutely necessary. 
Seditious language of the most violent descrip¬ 
tion was daily used, and, if not prevented, must 
lead to an outbreak and loss of life. During 
Lord John Russell’s address the greatest silence 
reigned throughout a crowded House, and at 
its conclusion the cheers from members on both 
sides were loud and long-continued.—Sir Robert 
Peel said he would give the measure proposed 
by Government a decisive and unqualified sup¬ 
port—a support not qualified by previous party 
contentions, a support not qualified by any 
political feeling, but a suppor unequivocal 
because it was a support to strengthen the 
hands of the Government against conspirators. 
The bill passed through the House of Com¬ 
mons the same day, and was immediately taken 
to the House of Lords, through which it was 
carried with equal promptness. The Act was 
put in force in Dublin on the 26th. 

25 . —Smith O’Brien, accompanied by Dillon, 
O’Donoghue, Cantwell, and a few others, enter 
Mullinahone for the purpose of inciting the 
people there to rise against the Government. 
After haranguing an assembly gathered together 
by the ringing of the chapel bell, they visited the 
police barracks, but got such a reception as 
caused them to leave the place with the least 
possible delay. The party then proceeded to 
Sliverdagh and Ballingarry, where their at¬ 
tempts to create an insurrection were equally 
fruitless. 

— Sir W. Molesworth introduces a resolu¬ 
tion (afterwards withdrawn) expressive of an 
opinion that colonial expenditure could be 
diminished without detriment to the interests 
of the empire ; and that to accomplish such an 
object colonists ought to be invested with large 
powers for the administration of their local 
affairs. 

26 . —An engagement takes place between the 
Austrian and Piedmontese troops near Verona, 
and three days later another at Goito. In both 
the Italians were defeated. 

— The London evening papers publish a 
report, fabricated in Liverpool, of an alarming 
outbreak in Ireland:—“Dublin, Wednesday. 
The whole of the south of Ireland is in rebel¬ 
lion. A special engine has just arrived in 
Dublin, from four miles this side of Thurles. 
The station at Thurles is on fire ; the rail for 
several miles torn up; and, as the engines 
arrive, the mob intend detaining them. At 
Clonmel the fighting is dreadful; the people 
arrived in masses ; the Dublin club-leaders are 
there ; the troops were speedily overpowered. 
The military at Carrick have been driven back 
and their quarters fired. At Kilkenny the 
contest is proceeding, and there the mob are 
also said to be successful. The Queen’s mes¬ 
senger is just started with despatches for 
(2^6) 


London.” On the arrival of the Dublin mail 
at Liverpool on the following evening, the 
mayor and magistrates issued an announcement 
informing the public that the alarming intel¬ 
ligence was entirely untrue. In the House of 
Commons, the same evening, the Home Secre¬ 
tary showed the utter groundlessness of the 
report. 

27 . —-The Health 'of Towns Bill passed by 
the House of Lords. 

28 . —In Dublin a detachment of police take 
possession of the offices of the Irish Felon and 
Nation newspapers, and remove the type, 
papers, and machinery to the Castle. On the 
same day a Hue and Cry appeared in an extra 
Gazette , calling on all magistrates, constables, 
and others in authority to detain thirteen of the 
more prominent rebel leaders therein* described. 

— Thomas Carlyle addresses a letter to the 
secretary of the Lancashire Fublic School 
Association, wishing the enterprise speedy and 
perfect success. “Speedy or not, I believe 
success in such an enterprise, if wisely prose¬ 
cuted, is certain, for the object is great, simple, 
and legitimate, at once feasible and of prime 
necessity, and will gradually vindicate that 
character for itself to every just mind, however 
prepossessed.” 

— Privy Council -at Dublin Castle to resolve 
on measures for the capture of the Confederate 
leaders. A reward of 500/. was fixed upon for 
the apprehension of Smith O’Brien, and 300/. 
for Meagher, Dillon, and Doherty, the imputed 
offence in each case being “taking up arms 
against her Majesty.” 

29 . —Encounter of Smith O’Brien’s rebel 
followers with the police force at Widow Cor- 
mack’s house, Bog of Boulagh, Ballingarry. 
The first brunt of the engagement was borne 
by a party of 50 men under Sub-inspectoi 
Trant, relieved in a short time by a body of 
19 constables from Callan, and 90 from Killen- 
aule. Mrs. Cormack’s account of the skirmish 
was to this effectKnowing that disturbances 
were likely to take place, she had gathered 
within her house, as a sanctuary, five of her 
children. When the police took possession of 
it, the rebels shook their pikes at her, which 
alarmed her so much that she sought out Mr. 
Smith O’Brien, whom she found with the ’82 
Club cap on his head, seated in her cabbage 
garden, to avoid the fire of the little garrison 
within the house. The widow besought the 
ex-king of Munster to go and speak to the 
police, but he declined to do so, and asked her 
to go back and tell them that all he wanted 
was their arms. The police refusing to accede 
to this proposal, Widow Cormack returned 
again to the rebel leader and seized him by the 
collar, with the view of dragging him into the 
presence of Sub-inspector Trant. At the 
moment when O’Brien entered the court-yard 
the police were busy barricading the windows 
upstairs. As the cross-fire from the rebels in 
adjoining outhouses made communication 







JULY 


1848. 


AUGUST 


somewhat dangerous, O’Brien retreated from 
the place, and was seen by the police creeping 
on all-fours out of the enclosure. When she 
had brought O’Brien within her house, Mrs. 
Cormack instantly set off to the priest, and re¬ 
turned just in time to see the insurgents carry¬ 
ing off their dead and wounded. The Metro¬ 
politan Commissioners of Police at once issued 
an order with reference to the above en¬ 
counter :—“The Commissioners of Police are 
happy to be able to inform the force that a 
small party of constabulary, unassisted by 
military, near Killenaule, in the county of 
Tipperary, attacked one thousand men, mostly 
armed with fire-arms and pikes, under the im¬ 
mediate command of Smith O’Brien. Not a 
man of the police has been injured, but seven 
of the rebels were killed, and a great many 
wounded. O’Brien’s party ran away in the 
greatest confusion, and were completely dis¬ 
persed. About an hour afterwards a large 
military force was on the ground, but too late 
to be of service. The Commissioners con¬ 
gratulate the men of the Dublin police on the 
gallant conduct of their comrades of the con¬ 
stabulary, knowing that the metropolitan force 
was always ready to do their duty and set the 
disaffected at defiance.” On the evening of the 
5th of August O’Brien was captured at the 
Thurles railway station, when on the point of 
leaving for Limerick. He made no resistance, 
and carried no arms beyond a small fancy 
pistol in his waistcoat pocket. 

31 .—Messrs. Sotheby, auctioneers, com¬ 
mence the dispersion of the celebrated Pem¬ 
broke collection of coins. The sale extended 
over twelve days, and realized 5,905/. 

— Boiler explosion at Lambert Bottom 
Mills, Preston, causing the death of seven 
persons. 

August 2 .—At Rome a Papal edict de¬ 
scribing new changes in the Ministry is torn 
down by the people. 

— Banquet in honour of Lieutenant-General 
Sir Charles James Napier by the Junior United 
Service Club. 

3.— -Exposure of fraudulent evidence in the 
Tracy Peerage case. When the claim was 
before the House of Lords last year an import¬ 
ant link in the evidence was supplied by the 
production of the fragment of a tombstone 
which was said to have been originally erected 
over the grave “ To the memory of William 

Tracy, third son of- Tracy, a Judge of 

the Common Pleas in England.” A witness, 
Holton, now stated that, some time in the year 
1845, he had been employed by a man of the 
name of M‘Ginnis to assist in engraving this 
identical tombstone ; that they were to engrave 
it in the old style of letters ; that they did so 
during certain nights in McGinnis’s bedroom ; 
that afterwards they held the stone over the 
fire for the purpose of darkening it, so as 
to make it look like old ; that they then broke 
the stone in pieces with a sledge-hammer ; that 

( 257 ) 


M ‘Ginnis told him the stone was engraved for 
the purpose of being sent to London as evidence 
in a court of law, and that if the party for whom 
it was done was successful in his suit they would 
both make a very good thing of the business. 
On the application of Sir Fitzroy Kelly, time 
was allowed to bring M ‘Ginnis from America 
for the purpose of disproving Holton’s state¬ 
ment ; but he was never produced before their 
lordships. 

3 —Died at Boulogne, aged 49, Sir Nicholas 
Harris Nicolas, antiquary and genealogist. 

5 .—Milan capitulates to the Austrian army 
under Marshal Radetzky. During the night 
the Piedmontese troops retired on the road to 
Turin. On the following morning (Sunday) 
the Austrians, in great strength and in the finest 
order, entered the city and took possession. 
The utmost silence prevailed during the pas¬ 
sage of the troops through the Corso and prin¬ 
cipal streets. On the morning of the 7th a 
proclamation was issued declaring Lombardy in 
a state of siege, and announcing that all offences 
against good order would be punished by 
martial law. 

7 . —Died at Stockholm, in his 69th year, 
Baron Berzelius, a distinguished chemist. 

8 . —Mr. Berkeley’s motion in favour of the 
Ballot carried against the Government by 86 
to 81 votes. 

— Bombardment of Bologna by General 
Welden. The act was afterwards disavowed 
by the Austrian Government, and the General 
recalled. 

— Special Commission opened at Dublin 
for the trial of the treason rioters and rebels. 
Doherty was acquitted on two occasions, from 
the unwillingness of the jury to agree upon a 
verdict. 

9 . —Discussion on the Navy Estimates. 
Replying to Mr. Cobden’s statement, that all 
past wars arose from the quarrels of crowned 
heads, Mr. Disraeli instanced the three last 
great conflicts—the Thirty Years’ War, the wars 
of Louis XIV., and the French Revolutionary 
War—as springing from popular passions, prin¬ 
ciples, or creeds. 

— An armistice concluded between Sardinia 
and Austria. 

— Died at Langham, Norfolk, aged 55, 
Captain Marryat, R. N., author of many popular 
novels. 

12 .—Meagher, Leyne, and O’Donoghue, 
three of the Irish rebel leaders, arrested be¬ 
tween Holycross and Rathcannon. They were 
unarmed, and made no resistance. 

— Died, at Tapton House, near Chester¬ 
field, in the 68th year of his age, George 
Stephenson, engineer. 

— The Emperor of Austria returns to 
Vienna. 

14 -.—-Chartist rising at Ashton-under-Lyne. 

s 




AUGUST 


1848. 


AUGUST 


They assembled in large numbers in the streets 
about midnight, armed with pistols and pikes, 
and having formed themselves into marching 
order proceeded in the direction of the Town 
Hall, with the view, as the leaders alleged, of 
taking forcible possession of the building. On 
their march thither they murdered a policeman 
named Bright, by first shooting and then stab¬ 
bing him. Before reaching their proposed 
destination they encountered a small force of 
armed police and special constables, when the 
Chartists turned and fled in different directions. 
A few random shots were fired on the Chartist 
side without causing any serious injury. Several 
of those most prominently concerned in the 
outbreak were apprehended before daybreak 
and lodged in prison. 

14 . —Festival at Cologne, in celebration of 
the sixth centenary of laying the foundation- 
stone of the Cathedral. The ceremony was 
attended by the Archduke John, administrator 
of the Empire, and the King of Prussia, who 
publicly embraced each other next day at a 
grand banquet served in the Surzenide Hall. 

15 . —Fourteen Chartist agitators arrested at 
Manchester, on the ground of inciting certain 
classes in that and neighbouring towns to rise 
in arms and create disorder. 

— Commencement of the sale of the Stowe 
property; the Times writing with severity of the 
Duke as “ a man of the highest rank, and of a 
property not unequal to his rank, who has 
flung all away by extravagance and folly, and 
reduced his honours to the tinsel of a pauper and 
the baubles of a fool.” Th e Standard blamed 
“ Peel’s currency laws ” for the calamity. 

16 . —Arrest of armed Chartists in London 
at the Orange Tree public-house, Orange 
Street. The landlord of the tavern was also 
arrested, and, along with the whole of the 
company, eighteen in number, conveyed to 
the police station at Bow-street. Another 
armed division was arrested at a house in Moor- 
street. Here some resistance was attempted, 
but on the police drawing their cutlasses the 
Chartists threw down their arms and escaped 
as they best could from the premises. Four of 
the more violent were taken into custody. The 
design was understood to be to unite the dif¬ 
ferent clubs about midnight, and attack the 
principal buildings in the metropolis. Con¬ 
siderable quantities of ammunition were found 
at the residences of those apprehended, and 
gunpowder was discovered carefully hidden in 
some of the churchyards. 

— Fire at Constantinople, causing the death 
of twenty people, and the destruction of pro¬ 
perty valued at above 3,000,000/. Another 
occurred in the same city in October, destroy¬ 
ing 280 public and private buildings. 

— Taking advantage of a vote passed in a 
Committee of Ways and Means for the ex¬ 
penses of the Foreign Secretary’s department, 
Mr. Disraeli censures Ministers for their med¬ 
dling unofficial interference in Italian politics. 

(258) 


“ I wish to know,” he said, “ what is to be the 
principle of the intended mediation; whether 
it is to be a political principle founded upon 
the law of nations and the stipulation of treaties, 
or upon this modem, newfangled, sentimental 
principle of notoriety which will lead to inex¬ 
tricable confusion, and difficulty, and danger. 
What are the means by which the mediation is 
to be carried into effect ? Is it to be an armed 
mediation ? If so, Austria being in possession 
of her states, and Sardinia of hers—war not 
being at this moment waged between the two 
sovereigns—an armed mediation would be an 
invasion ; we should be securing peace by be¬ 
ginning war. As to the end of this mediation, 
what is to be done if Lombardy be relinquished 
by Austria ? Is it to be given to Charles-Albert 
in reward for his nocturnal attack on a neigh¬ 
bour, or to be erected into a weak, independent 
state ? Is it to be a kingdom or a republic ? 
a revolutionary republic or a Conservative 
republic—*a red republic or a white republic 
—a republic with a red cap or a republic with 
a white feather?” Speaking of the mediation 
as designed to prevent France invading Italy, 
“ How,” he asked, “is France to act in this 
frantic and illegal manner ? What is her posi¬ 
tion at this moment? She has 50,000 men 
guarding her metropolis; she has achieved a 
freedom upon paper, and it is secured in her 
streets by her artillery. She has 50,000 men 
encamped at Lyons. She has an army of occu¬ 
pation in every great city, under the plausible 
name of * extraordinary garrisons. ’ The noble 
lord at the head of the Government lately spoke 
of ‘ the powerful government of France.’ The 
Government of France is powerful, for this 
simple and single reason—they have transferred 
the government of Algiers to the streets of 
Paris. The Lord High Protector of Equality 
has recently executed a monster razzia on the 
fraternal multitude. But foreign aggression is 
another thing. Tom by domestic faction, with 
an empty exchequer, a paralysed credit, and 
a people without enthusiasm, why are you to 
suppose that France is going to conquer the 
world, and why to prevent that are you going 
to sacrifice your allies?” The Foreign Secre¬ 
tary might add to his own influence and to the 
greatness of his country. He might in this 
craven age vindicate the grandeur of public 
justice as a British Minister should do, for no 
bandit nations would ever cross mountains and 
invade capitals when they knew that England 
was on the side of the law and ready to uphold 
it. “ In public as in private matters, I have 
seen enough to be convinced that in the long 
run nothing can withstand the majesty of 
law, the force of truth, and the inspiration of 
honour.” Lord Palmerston explained that the 
presence of such a representative as Lord Minto 
was desired by various Italian Governments 
when the Reform policy was commenced at 
Rome by the Pope. 

17 .—Accounts from the south of Ireland 
describe everything as tranquil; the Con- 






AUGUST 


AUG US 7 


1S48. 


federate clubs mostly broken up, and the 
people returning to their customary pursuits. ■ 

17 . —Explosion in Newton Colliery, Seaham, 
Durham, causing the death of fourteen men 
employed in the pit. 

18 . —At the examination of Cuffey, Ritchie, 
the leader of the secret band, and other 
Chartists at Bow-street, a delegate named 
Powell is put into the witness-box, and de¬ 
scribes the entire scheme of the projected rising 
in the metropolis. 

19 . —Great storm along the north-east coast 
of Scotland. For miles the shore was strewn 
with the wreck of fishing-boats and the dead 
bodies of fishermen. Twenty-three corpses 
were carried into Peterhead alone. 

— John Martin sentenced by Mr. Baron 
Pennefather to ten years’ transportation for 
writing a seditious paper in the Irish Felon. 

— Disastrous hurricane in the West India 
Islands. Antigua and St. Kitts suffered most 
severely ; the loss of life in these places being 
greater than at the fatal earthquake of 1843. 
In one harbour the Government loss was esti¬ 
mated at 25,000/. About 2,000 buildings were 
unroofed, and 700 totally destroyed. 

22 .—The Scottish South-Western Railway 
opened between Dumfries and Carlisle. 

24 .—Burning of the American emigrant ship 
Ocean Monarch in the Channel, and loss of 178 
lives. She left Liverpool in the morning, having 
on board 396 persons, crew and passengers. 
The calamity, caused by one of the passengers 
lighting a fire in a wooden ventilator in the after 
part of the ship, under the impression that it 
was a grate, was noticed about noon when 
off Orme’s Head. She was at this time seen 
by Mr. Littledale, returning in his yacht from 
Beaumaris regatta, who at once put out 
to render assistance. The flames were then 
bursting with immense fury from the stern 
and centre of the vessel. So great was the 
heat there, that the passengers, men, women, 
and children, crowded to the fore part; and 
in their wild despair some jumped overboard 
with their children in their arms. In a few 
minutes the mizenmast went overboard, and in 
a second or two the mainmast shared the same 
fate. ’ Retreating still further forward before 
the advancing flames, the passengers and crew 
were clinging in clusters to the jibboom, when 
the foremast dropped down on the fastenings, 
and the jibboom fell into the water with its load 
of human beings. In addition to the aid given 
by Mr. Littledale, who took off thirty-two in 
his yacht, most valuable assistance was given by 
the Brazilian steam-frigate Affonzo , then out on 
a pleasure trip with the Prince and Princess de 
Joinville and the Duke and Duchess d’Aumale. 
They not only took off 160 of the survivors, 
but contributed a handsome sum for their 
succour, the Prince de Joinville writing: 
“ Take this for these poor people. It was 
intended to be expended on a tour of pleasure, 
which after this it is impossible to enjoy.” 
( 259 ) 


Seventeen were also taken off by the Prince of 
Wales steamer, then on her passage to Bangor, 
and thirteen by the New World packet ship 
bound for New York. The Ocean Monarch 
went down at her anchors at half-past one 
o’clock the following morning. With the 
exception of the solid timbers about the bow, 
on which was the figure-head in an almost 
perfect state, the fire consumed the whole of 
the hull to within a few inches of the water 
edge. As she gradually settled herself into the 
bosom of the sea, large volumes of flames 
rushed forward with a hissing and crackling 
sound, till at length the water completely 
buried her, and the remains of the vessel dis¬ 
appeared in about fourteen fathoms, causing a 
heavy swell for the moment. A large subscrip¬ 
tion was raised for the relief of the sufferers, 
and supplies of food and clothing furnished 
with unsparing generosity by the magistrates 
and inhabitants of Liverpool. 

25 . —Trial of the London Chartists for 
sedition, at the Central Criminal Court, be¬ 
fore Mr. Baron Platt. They were in most 
instances found guilty, and sentenced to two 
years’ imprisonment with hard labour. At 
Liverpool, next day, Mr. Justice Creswell in¬ 
flicted a similar punishment upon the more 
prominent leaders in the Lancashire disturb¬ 
ances. 

— In the National Assembly MM. Ledru- 
Rollin, Louis Blanc, and Caussidiere seek to 
defend themselves from the imputations cast 
upon them by the committee appointed to 
investigate the causes of the disturbances in 
May and June. The Assembly assenting to 
the demand of the Procureur-General for a 
civil prosecution, the suspected deputies sud¬ 
denly fled from France to England. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer, after 
explaining at some length the present financial 
condition of the country, proposes to borrow 
2,000,000/. for the purpose of making up the 
deficiency in the revenue. Mr. Hume and 
others strongly objected to the proposal, urging 
upon the Government the necessity of instantly 
retrenching the expenditure. A motion for re¬ 
jecting the Government scheme was negatived 
by a majority of 66 to 45. 

26 . —Armistice concluded between Prussia 
and Denmark with reference*to the occupation 
of the Duchies: the form of government in 
force previous to the events of March to be 
re-established during the continuance of the 
armistice. In the event of the four members 
for Prussia and Denmark disagreeing as to the 
choice of a President of the collective ad¬ 
ministration of the Duchies, Great Britain, as 
mediating Power,was to make the appointment. 

29 . —Sir Harry Smith encounters the rebel 
Boers at Bolm Plaats, Cape of Good Hope, 
and after a short contest defeats and drives 
them back with great loss. 

30 . —Taking for his text the announcement 
in a Sunday paper that the annual whitebait 

S 2 





AUGUST 


1848. 


SEPTEMBER 


dinner had been postponed from the 19th to 
the 26th, in consequence of the desire for pro¬ 
tracted discussion in the House of Commons, 
Mr. Disraeli enters upon a review of the session. 
He classified and compared the four budgets 
introduced between February and August, 
traced the vicissitudes of legislation on corrupt 
boroughs, from the nineteen irregular and pre¬ 
liminary discussions on writs to the third bill, 
withdrawn on the suggestion of Lord Denman, 
as liable to objections of every description. 
He reviewed the mistakes and corrections in the 
various Sugar Bills, and generally sought to 
establish that Ministers themselves were to 
blame for wasting the session by the introduc¬ 
tion of unnecessary bills, and the encourage¬ 
ment of irrelevant discussion regarding them. 
The paragraph referred to he described as 
being in an official paper.—Lord John Russell : 
“Is it the London Gazette?” —Mr. Disraeli: 
“ No ; but it is a paper to which are entrusted 
Government secrets far more interesting and 
important than ever appear in the London 
Gazette.” The conduct of Ministers with re¬ 
spect to the Treasury letter of October he 
described as weak and whimsical. “ Why 
they should have been so long before they 
counselled the infringement of the law—why, 
when they had done so, they should have been 
so delighted that the Bank did not avail itself 
of the privilege—and why, having done all this 
which amounted to nothing, they should have 
written the paragraph in the Queen’s Speech, 
completely puzzles me. I scarcely know to 
what to compare this conduct. In a delightful 
city of the south with which many honourable 
gentlemen are familiar, and which is now, I 
believe, blockaded or bullied by the English 
fleet, an annual ceremony takes place, when 
the whole population are in a state of the 
greatest alarm and sorrow. A procession 
moves through the streets in which the blood 
of a saint is carried in a consecrated vase. 
The people throng around the vase, and there 
is a great pressure, as there was in London at 
the time to which I am alluding. This pressure 
in time becomes a panic, just as it is in London. 
It is curious that in both cases the cause is 
the same—a cause of congested circulation. 
(Laughter.) Just at the moment when unutter¬ 
able gloom overspreads the population, when 
nothing but despair and consternation prevail, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer—I beg pardon, 
the Archbishop of Tarento — announces the 
liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, as 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced 
that a wholesome state of currency had re¬ 
turned : the people resume their gaiety and 
cheerfulness ; the panic and the pressure dis¬ 
appear ; everybody returns to music and mac- 
caroni, as in London everybody returned to 
business; and in both cases the remedy is 
equally efficient, and equally a hoax. ” Speak¬ 
ing of the first budget, “not entrusted to the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer—Tamworth itself 
could not have arranged a programme more 
magnificent and more solemn,” Mr. Disraeli 
(260) 


passed on to criticise the three other financial 
schemes introduced by this “ Government of 
all the Budgets.” The small and gloomy attend¬ 
ance at the last “irresistibly reminded me of 
a celebrated character who, like the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, had four trials in his time, 
his last the most unsuccessful—I mean the 
great hero of Cervantes, when he had returned 
from his fourth and final expedition. The vil¬ 
lagers, like the Opposition, were drawn out to 
receive him ; and Cervantes tells us that al¬ 
though they were aware of his weakness, they 
treated him with respect. (Laughter.) His 
immediate friends, the Barber, the Curate, and 
the Bachelor Sampson Carrasco—whose places 
might be supplied in this House by the First 
Lord of the Treasury, the Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs, and the President of the Board 
of Trade—were assembled ; and with demure 
reverence and feigned sympathy they greeted 
him, broken in spirit, and about for ever to 
renounce those delightful illusions under which 
he had sallied forth so triumphantly ; but just 
at that moment, when everything was in the 
best taste, Sancho’s wife rushes forward and 
exclaims, * Never mind your kicks and cuffs, 
so you’ve brought home some money’—just 
the thing the Chancellor of the Exchequer has 
not brought. (Laughter.)”—Lord John Russeir 
replied, thanking Mr. Disraeli for his amusing 
speech, and denied that it was the practice of the 
Prime Minister to introduce important measures 
himself—a statement which he illustrated by a 
reference to the cases of Walpole, Chatham, and 
Pitt; and sought to qualify his critic’s remarks 
on the disorganization of party, by showing 
that it was not the fault of Ministers if the 
Opposition had hitherto been unable to present 
a united front to the Treasury benches. In 
seeking for the revival of Protection they were 
straining after the unattainable, and they must 
have small ground for believing their party 
could be kept together. 

September 1.—Lord John Russell arrives 
at Kingstown on a visit to Ireland. 

2.—The Sicilians having formally thrown off 
the rule of King Ferdinand, he causes Messina 
to be bombarded. A simultaneous attack was 
made upon the city from the fire of thfe gar¬ 
rison, the Neapolitan fleet in the harbour, and 
a large force which had landed on the shore. 
The citizens fought with desperation, but the 
contest was too unequal, and after a bom¬ 
bardment of four days, during which a large 
portion of the city was reduced to ruins, they 
were compelled to surrender. The conflict 
was marked by circumstances of such great 
cruelty on both sides, that the English and 
French admirals on the station interfered to 
prevent the further effusion of blood. 

— Ibrahim Pasha invested with the go¬ 
vernment of Egypt by the Sultan, Abdul 
Medjid. 

The French Assembly, by a majority of 
529 to 140, resolve to maintain the state of 




SEPTEMBER 


1848. 


SEPTEMBER 


siege in Paris during the discussion of the 
Constitution. 

2. —The Great Northern Railway of France 
opened from Lille to Calais. 

— Series of calamities leading to loss of life 
and injury to many passengers at the Newton- 
road Station of the London and North 
Western Railway. 

3 . —Insurrection at Leghorn. On the issuing 
of a proclamation prohibiting the meeting of 
political clubs the people mustered in great 
force in the centre of the city, and fired on the 
troops drawn out for its protection. About 
sixty were killed during the early part of the 
day. Towards evening several troops of infantry 
laid down their arms and fraternized with the 
people. The Governor with most of the cavalry 
retreated to the citadel. 

— Act passed authorizing diplomatic inter¬ 
course with the See of Rome. 

4 . —Died, aged 19, Nasr-ul-Deen, Shah of 
Persia. 

5 . —A box of 2,000 sovereigns stolen in the 
course of its transmission from Praed and Co. ’s, 
bankers, Fleet-street, to Tweedie and Co.’s, 
bankers, Cornwall. 

— Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person, having sat, with brief intervals, at 
Christmas, Whitsuntide, and Easter, for the un¬ 
exampled period of ten months. In the Royal 
Speech read on the occasion it was mentioned 
that in Ireland “organized confederates took 
advantage of the existing pressure to excite my 
suffering subjects to rebellion. • Hopes of plunder 
and confiscation were held out to tempt the 
distressed, while the most visionary prospects 
were exhibited to the ambitious. In this con¬ 
juncture I applied to your loyalty and wisdom 
for increased power and strength, and by your 
prompt concurrence my Government were en¬ 
abled to defeat, in a few days, machinations 
which had been prepared during many months. 
The energy and decision shown by the Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland in this emergency deserve 
my utmost approbation. . . . Amidst these 
[continental] convulsions, I have had the satis¬ 
faction of being able to preserve peace in my 
dominions, and to maintain our domestic tran¬ 
quillity. The strength of our institutions has 
not been found wanting. I have studied to 
preserve the people committed to my care in 
the enjoyment of that temperate freedom which 
they so justly value. My people, on their side, 
feel too sensibly the advantages of order and 
security to allow the promoters of pillage and 
confusion any chance of success in their wicked 
designs.” 

— The Queen and Prince Albert, with the 
Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal, em¬ 
bark at Woolwich for Balmoral, placed at their 
disposal by the Earl of Aberdeen. 

— The National Assembly at Frankfort 
renew hostilities in Schleswig-Holstein by a 
vote suspending measures for carrying the 


armistice into effect. This step led to a change 
of Ministers at Frankfort and Berlin. 

8 . —Rumours being current that Lord George 
Bentinck intended like Lord John Russell 
to make a personal inquiry in Ireland into 
alleged grievances, his lordship writes to-day 
that he has no such intention, and that in his 
opinion “ the brightest page in the history of the 
present Government is that which records the 
firmness and determination with which it put 
down rebellion, maintained peace, and brought 
criminals to justice in Ireland.” 

9 . —Fire at Brooklyn, United States, de¬ 
stroying about 300 houses. 

12 . —General Whish invests Mooltan, but 
in consequence of the defection of Shere Singh, 
who went over to the enemy with about 5,000 
men, the army was withdrawn after the capture 
of the outer or first intrenchment. 

— Switzerland adopts a new federal Con¬ 
stitution. 

14 .—Bands of disaffected rebels in the 
neighbourhood of Waterford and Carrick-on- 
Suir, finding themselves unable to cope with 
either the military or police, commit various 
acts of wanton destruction on the property of 
private persons who had rendered themselves 
obnoxious by assisting the Government. 

— Rumoured renewal of insurrectionary 
movement in Ireland; 4,000 said to be encamped 
on the Slievenamon hills under Doherty and 
O’Gorman. 

— At the Stowe sale the Chandos portrait 
of Shakspeare was sold to Mr. Rodd for 355 
guineas. The equally famous Rembrandt, 
“The Unmerciful Servant,” was knocked 
down to Mr. Manson for 2,200 guineas. The 
forty days’ sale of pictures, china, plate, furni¬ 
ture, &c. produced 75,562/. 

16 .—France abolishes slavery throughout 
all her possessions. 

18 . —Disturbance at Frankfort, arising from 
the disagreement of the people with the pro¬ 
ceedings of a majority in the Diet. The Arch¬ 
duke ordered martial law to be proclaimed, and 
directed the military to fire upon the barri¬ 
cades. This decided the contest, and by mid¬ 
night the insurgents withdrew from all their 
points of defence. In the course of the day 
the people disgraced their cause by maltreating 
and murdering Major Auerswald and the young 
Prince Lichnowski, a distinguished member of 
the Assembly. 

— Cholera appears in Paris. 

19 . —Prince Louis Napoleon elected repre¬ 
sentative for the Seine. He was also elected 
for the departments of the Moselle, Yonne, 
Lower Charente, and Corsica. 

20. —A Peace Congress assembles at Brussels. 

21 . —Lord George Bentinck found dead in 
one of the Welbeck parks. He had set out 
from his father’s house to visit Lord Manvers, 
but only got a short distance along the path 

(261) 





SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1848. 


leading in that direction, when he was seized 
with a spasmodical attack, and died unseen 
by any. “A woodman and some peasants,” 
writes Mr. Disraeli, “passing near the spot 
observed Lord George, whom, at the distance, 
they had mistaken for his brother, the Marquis 
of Titchfield, leaning against the gate. It was 
then about half-past four o’clock, or it might 
be a quarter to five ; so he could not have left 
his home much more than half an hour. The 
woodman and his companions thought ‘the 
gentleman’ was reading, as he held his head 
down. One of them lingered for a minute 
looking at the gentleman, who then turned 
round and might have seen these passers-by, 
but he made no sign to them.” 

21 .— Special commission opened at Clonmel 
for the trial of parties implicated in the 
recent insurrection in the South of Ireland. 
William Smith O’Brien was indicted for high 
treason on the 28th. The trial was continued 
till the 8th of October, when the jury found 
him guilty of the charge of levying war against 
the Queen, but recommended him to the mer¬ 
ciful consideration of Government, being unani¬ 
mously of opinion, for many reasons, that his 
life should be spared. On being brought into 
court next day, Mr. Whiteside moved an 
arrest of judgment, and submitted three ques¬ 
tions on which he craved the opinion of the 
judges. The Attorney-General showed cause 
against the motion, and the objections were 
overruled by the Lord Chief Justice. On 
being asked why sentence of death should not 
be passed on him, the prisoner said he was 
prepared to abide the consequences of having 
done his duty to his native land. The Lord 
Chief Justice, after a brief address, sentenced 
the prisoner to b» hanged, and afterwards be¬ 
headed and quartered. M‘Manus was found 
guilty on the 12th October, O’Donoghue on 
the 15 th, and Meagher on the 21st. On being 
brought up for sentence, on the 23d, they 
each addressed the Court at some length in 
defence of their conduct. Meagher said : 
“I am here to regret nothing I have ever 
done, to retract nothing I have ever said. Far 
from it ! Even here, where the thief, the liber¬ 
tine, and the murderer have left their foot¬ 
prints in the dust—here, on this spot where 
the shadows of death surround me, and from 
which I see my early grave in an unconsecrated 
soil opened to receive me—even here, encir¬ 
cled by these terrors, the hope which beckoned 
me on to embark on the perilous sea on which 
I have been wrecked still consoles, animates, 
and enraptures me. ... I hope I shall be able 
with a light heart and a clear conscience to 
appear before a higher tribunal—a tribunal 
where a Judge of infinite goodness, as well as 
of infinite justice, will preside, and where, 
my lords, many, many of the judgments of this 
world will be reversed.” Sentence of death 
was then passed upon them in the usual form. 

25 .—Commencement of the Hungarian War 
of Independence. The Emperor having given 
(262) 


an unsatisfactory answer to a deputation from 
the Diet appointed to wait on him to obtain a ( 
redress of grievances, and the National Assembly 
at Vienna absolutely refusing to receive a second,. 
Louis Kossuth was invested with full dictatorial 
powers. The Archduke Palatine retreated from 
the kingdom to Moravia. 

26 .—Louis Napoleon takes his seat in the 
National Assembly. On the commotion caused 
by his appearance subsiding, he said: “After 
thirty-three years of proscription and exile, I at 
last recover my country and all my rights as a 
citizen. The Republic has given me this hap¬ 
piness ; let the Republic receive my oath of 
gratitude; and may my generous countrymen 
who have brought me into this Assembly be 
certain that I shall endeavour to justify their 
votes by labouring with you for the maintenance 
of tranquillity—that first necessity of the country 
—and for the development of democratic in¬ 
stitutions, which the people have the right to 
demand. . . . My conduct will prove, with re¬ 
spect to the persons who have endeavoured to 
blacken my character in order again to proscribe 
me, that no one here is more resolved than I 
am to devote himself to the defence and freedom 
of the Republic.” 

— Came on for trial at the Central Criminal 
Court, before Mr. Baron Platt and Mr. Justice 
Williams, the case of Cuffey, Lacy, Fay, and 
others, charged with inciting to rebellion and 
fire-raising in the streets of London on the 
night of the 16th August last. The principal 
witness was Powell, the informer, who described 
with great minuteness the different features of 
the conspiracy, the swearing in of members at 
midnight gatherings, the recent election of a 
“visionary president,” and the settled deter¬ 
mination evinced to slay and bum. He was 
subjected to a severe cross-examination by Ser¬ 
jeant Ballantine, with the view of showing that 
he was a worthless character, on whose word 
no reliance could be placed. On the third day 
of trial the jury returned a verdict of guilty 
against all the prisoners, and they were sen- j 
tenced to be transported beyond the seas for the 
period of their natural lives. 

27 . —'The National Assembly carry a vote for 
one Chamber, as opposed to two, by a majority 
of 530 against 289. 

28 . —Order in Council authorizing the en¬ 
forcement of the Contagious Diseases Act in 
view of the near approach of cholera. 

29 . —Murder of Count Lamberg, in Pesth. 
He had just arrived in the city to undertake the 
duty of Generalissimo of the Emperor’s forces 
in Hungary, when he was met by a mob armed 
with spades and scythes, and while hastening to 
take refuge in the Diet was murdered by the 
infuriated populace on the bridge. 

— In several parts of the kingdom the 
seamen of the mercantile marine service ex¬ 
hibit tributes of respect to the memory of Lord 
George Bentinck, interred to-day in Maryle- 
bone old church. 






OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1848, 


October 1 . —The Pope issues a motu pro- 
prio detailing the proposed reforms in the mu¬ 
nicipal organization of Rome. 

3 .—The Ban of Croatia having made up his 
differences with the Emperor, is appointed by 
an Imperial decree Lieutenant Field-Marshal 
of alb the troops in Hungary and Commissary 
Plenipotentiary, “ with full and unlimited 
powers, that he may act as circumstances re¬ 
quire the representative of our royal person.” 

6. —A notice posted at Lloyd’s, intimating 
that, in consequence of several deaths from 
Asiatic cholera having come to the knowledge 
of her Majesty’s Privy Council as happening 
on board vessels trading to Hamburg and other 
northern parts, positive orders were issued to 
the heads of the Customs at the various ports 
to place all descriptions of craft coming from 
these places under quarantine laws. On the 
4th two cases were admitted into Bartholomew’s 
Hospital; and on the 8th twenty cases were 
reported as having occurred within the London 
bills of mortality. 

— Insurrection in Vienna, and murder of 
the War Minister, Count Latour. The military 
refusing to march against the Hungarians, part 
of the National Guard joined in the mutiny, 
barricades were erected, the tocsin sounded, 
and the arsenal bombarded and sacked. Plaving 
routed the Government troops, the insurgents 
marched from the suburbs into the town, and 
planted their guns in the middle of the Univer¬ 
sity square. The gates of the town were guarded 
by students and National Guards, and a central 
committee formed for carrying on a war. The 
War Office was entered in the afternoon, and 
Count Latour seized. The wretched man was 
conducted into the street, and there murdered 
with axes and sledge-hammers. The excited 
people tore the clothes from the bleeding body 
and hung the naked corpse on a gibbet, where 
it remained suspended for a whole day, as a 
target to the National Guards. The cannon, 
arms, and papers seized in the office were con¬ 
veyed to the University. The Emperor fled 
from the capital next day towards Olmutz, to 
gain, as he explained, a more appropriate stand¬ 
ing-point in the monarchy. 

7. —The French National Assembly decide, 
by a majority of 602 to 211, that the President 
of the Republic shall be elected by universal 
suffrage, and hold office for four years. 

— The right of entry into Canton having 
been fixed to take effect in two years, in terms 
of the treaty with Commissioner Keying, Mr. 
Bonham wrote for instructions, and Lord Pal¬ 
merston now replies: “It is inexpedient to 
resort to force to compel the Chinese to execute 
promises from the performance of which no real 
advantage to British interest would accrue. It 
has always appeared to me doubtful whether 
the right of entering the city of Canton would 
be productive of any material advantage to 
British interests.” 

— Major-General W. Napier, subpoenaed to 


produce at O’Brien’s trial a document known 
as the “Home Office Letter,” suggesting a 
physical force demonstration during the Reform 
Bill agitation, writes that he never made any 
secret of its existence and was under no obliga¬ 
tion to do so. 

11 .—Papal rescript issued condemning the 
Government Colleges in Ireland as full of 
grievous and intrinsic danger. 

— Prince Albert instructs the Queen’s private 
solicitor to procure an injunction preventing 
Mr. Strange, publisher, Paternoster-row, from 
issuing to the public copies of any of the private 
engravings referred to in “A Descriptive Cata¬ 
logue of the Royal Victoria and Albert Gallery 
of Etchings.” Injunction granted.—On subse¬ 
quent inquiry it was found that copies of the 
engravings had been purloined by one of the 
workmen employed by a printer at Windsor to 
take impressions for her Majesty. 

— Captain McQuhae, of H.M. ship Dcedalus, 
sends to the Admiralty an official report on the 
subject of the sea-serpent seen by him and his 
crew on the 6th of August last, on the passage 
home from the East Indies. From the account 
and sketch together Professor Owen came to 
the conclusion that the creature seen from the 
Dcedalus was not a cold-blooded reptile of the 
snake or serpent species, but a large seal floated 
down on an iceberg, and seeking for shelter. 
The learned professor was further of opinion 
that no such creature existed in nature as the 
so-called sea-serpent. 

15 .—Died at Devon-grove, Dollar, aged 63, 
William Tennant, LL.D., author of “ Anster 
Fair ” and other works. 

17 .—Opening of the branch of the Great 
Northern Railway extending from Peter¬ 
borough to Lincoln by way of Boston. 

19 . —Lord Morpeth, now Earl of Carlisle, 
issues a valedictory address to the electors of 
the West Riding of Yorkshii*e, devoting to 
them “ the last signature of a name that derived 
its chief illustration from its connexion with 
them.” He was succeeded in the representa¬ 
tion by Mr. Beckett Denison, Conservative. 

20 . —■-Siege in Paris raised. 

22.—Upwards of 400 of the Parisian Na¬ 
tional Guard, attired in their uniform, and 
wearing side arms, arrive in London by the 
South-Eastern Railway. From London Bridge 
a cavalcade of omnibuses and cabs conveyed 
them to the foreign hotels in the vicinity of 
Leicester-square. In company with another 
detachment of 300, which arrived next day, 
they visited most of the public institutions and 
places of amusement in London. A large 
deputation of them was also received by the 
Lord Mayor. 

— The Emperor of Austria issues a mani¬ 
festo, suspending the sittings of the Diet at 
Vienna, and ordering it to re-assemble at 
Kremsier, in Moravia, on the 15th November. 

(263) 







OCTOBER 


1843 . 


NOVEMBER 


22 .—The Ban of Croatia announces his in¬ 
tention to aid Austria against the Hungarians, 
the hereditary enemies of the Sclavonian race. 

23 —The Vernon Gallery of pictures, valued 
at 30,000/., made available to the public in the 
National Gallery, Trafalgar-square. 

24 .—At a Cabinet Council held to-day it 
was resolved to commute the extreme sentence 
of the law passed on the Irish rebels to trans¬ 
portation for life. They refused at first to 
assent to this modification of their sentence, 
and insisted that they should either be liberated 
or suffer the punishment awarded in Court. 

26 .—W. H. Bateson, President and Senior 
Bursar of St. John’s College, Cambridge, elected 
Public Orator by 458 votes against 376 given to 
his opponent, the Rev. Rowland Williams. 

— The French National Assembly fix the 
election of a President to take place on the 
loth December. Louis Napoleon spoke to¬ 
day, deprecating the numerous personal dis¬ 
cussions engaged in by the Assembly. 

28 . —Explosion at Whinnyhill Pit, Cleaton 
Moor, near Whitehaven. Of thirty-one in the 
works at the time, only one escaped. 

— Labuan, ceded to the English Government 
in 1846, and now a British colony, occupied by 
Sir James Brooke. 

29 . —The Viennese surrender to Prince 
Windischgratz, but afterwards resume hostili¬ 
ties on hearing that a Hungarian army was 
approaching to their relief. In the course of 
the severe cannonading to which the city was 
subjected it was thought that as many as two 
thousand of the insurgents and about an equal 
number of the royal troops were slain. The 
portion of the city around the royal palace was 
completely destroyed. 

30 . —Fall of a sugar-house in Glasgow, be¬ 
longing to Wilson and Sons, Alston-street. 
The floors, six in number, gave way in rapid 
succession, and buried in their ruins the whole 
of the workmen, nineteen in number, employed 
in the building at the time. Only five were got 
out alive, and they were severely injured. Ten 
days elapsed before the last of the sufferers 
could be reached. 

31 . —The Cambridge Syndicate present a 
report to the Congregation for confirmation, 
recommending various changes, with the view 
of giving greater encouragement to the pursuit 
of those studies for the cultivation of which 
professorships had been founded in the Uni¬ 
versity. 

— Viscount Midleton commits suicide by 
igniting a brazier of charcoal in his bedroom. 
Fie was found dead on the floor the following 
morning by one of the domestics. 

— Defeat of the Hungarian army advancing 
to the relief of the Viennese insurgents. De¬ 
spairing of future aid, and pressed on every 
side by the troops under the Ban of Croatia and 
Prince Windischgratz, the people of Vienna 
now surrendered to the Imperial authority, after 
(264) 


heroically defending the city against numerous 
combined and well-directed attacks. During 
the engagement with the Hungarians, Messen- 
hauser, commander of the National Guard, 
issued the following proclamation:—“From the 
spire of St. Stephen’s.—The battle appears to 
be drawing towards Oberlin and Ingersdorf. 
The fog prevents me from having a clear view. 
Hitherto the Hungarians appear to be advancing 
victoriously. In case a defeated army shall 
approach the walls of the city, it will be the 
duty of all armed bodies to assemble under 
arms, even without command.” 

November 1.—Opening of railway from 
Reading to Basingstoke, connecting the Great 
Western with South-Western line. 

2. —A rupture takes place at Berlin between 
the King and the Legislative Assembly, caused 
by his Majesty having entrusted the formation 
of a new Ministry to Count Brandenburg. 

3 . —Disturbance in Drury-lane Theatre, 
arising out of the excited enthusiasm exhibited 
for M. Jullien’s new arrangement of the National 
Anthem. 

— Guezo, King of Dahomey, urges Queen 
Victoria to put an end to the slave-trade in all 
dominions except his own, and solicits the gift 
of Tower guns and blunderbusses for the pur¬ 
pose of fighting his neighbours. 

4 . —The new Constitution of the Republic 
finally adopted and carried by the National 
Assembly. A formal proclamation of the Re¬ 
public took place eight days afterwards. 

7 .—Inquiry at the Marylebone Police-court 
into the charge made by Sir J. Hoare, Bath, 
against the Baroness St. Mart, of stealing from 
him two valuable diamond rings. In the course 
of a visit to Bath, in April 1847, the rings had 
been shown by Sir John to the Baroness. After 
trying them on her finger she said she returned 
them to their owner, but he denied having re¬ 
ceived them either then or at any subsequent 
period. He further denied having at any time 
made an offer of marriage to her. The Ba¬ 
roness was acquitted at the Central Criminal 
Court, December 2d. 

9 . —Collision in Berlin between the Branden¬ 
burg Ministry and the National Assembly. 
The latter, ejected from their hall, and driven 
from place to place by the military, took refuge 
in a cafS under the Linden, where a resolution 
was adopted to refuse the grant of any more 
taxes. 

.— Robert Blum, of Leipsic, executed at 
Vienna for the part he had taken in the insur¬ 
rectionary movement there. A few minutes 
before his execution Blum wrote to his wife : 
“Farewell for the time men call eternity, but 
which will not be so. Bring up our—now only 
your—children to be honest men, so that they 
will never disgrace their father’s name. ... All 
that I feel and would say at this moment 
escapes me in tears ; only once more, then, 






NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1848. 


farewell. P.S.—I had forgotten the rings. On 
that of our betrothal I press for you a last 
kiss; my seal-ring is for Hans, the watch for 
Richard, the diamond studs for Ida, and the 
chain for Alfred, as memorials. All the rest 
divide as you please. They are coming. 
Farewell.”—Messenhauser was shot on the 
15 th. 

IO.—Died at Cairo, aged 59, Ibrahim 
Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt. (See Sept. 2.) 

lb—Radetzky levies an enforced contribu¬ 
tion on the Milanese. 

12 .—Berlin declared to be in a state of 
siege. The King issues a proclamation dis¬ 
solving the Burgher Guard, and the Assembly 
adopt a resolution to sit en permanence. 

— Inauguration of the French Constitution 
celebrated in the Place de la Concorde. 

14..— Wreck of the Burgundy and Atlantic , 
German emigrant vessels, on the Goodwin 
Sands. Nearly the whole of the crew and 
passengers in both instances were saved. 

15 .—Count Rossi, Minister of the Interior, 
assassinated at Rome. On alighting from his 
carriage at the Chamber of Deputies he was 
stabbed in the neck, and died almost instantly. 
The murderer mingled with the crowd, and no 
attempt was made to arrest him. The Chamber 
took no notice of the occurrence, but proceeded 
with the ordinary business of the day. A dis¬ 
turbance took place in the city next forenoon, 
when the Pope was besieged in his own palace, 
and only saved from violence by the bravery of 
a handful of Swiss Guards. 

— Mr. Macaulay elected Lord Rector of 
Glasgow University. 

— The Berlin Assembly, at a special evening 
sitting in a cafe in the Linden, pass a decree 
prohibiting the levying of taxes by the present 
Ministry. An ineffective attempt was made to 
dissolve the meeting by force. 

18 .—Died, aged 64, Charles Pleath, en¬ 
graver. 

22 . —Disastrous attack by British troops on 
a body of Sikhs, in a nullah at Ramnuggur. 
The Commander-in-chief issued an order to 
Colonel Havelock to attack the Sikh cavalry 
and follow them to their batteries, when the 
British troops charged down the bank, and on 
returning to form again into line were exposed 
to a fire from the enemy, which carried off 
three officers and a large portion of the troops 
under their command. 

— Costa Rica secedes from the Central 
American Confederacy, and is recognized as 
an independent republic. 

— Meeting at the London Tavern of specu¬ 
lators desirous of establishing a “ British 
Bank,” on the principle of the Scotch com¬ 
panies. 

23 . —Died at London, aged 84, Sir John 
Barrow, Bart., for many years Secretary to 
the Admiralty, and author of various works 
of travel and discovery. 


24 . —Died, at Melbourne House, Derby¬ 
shire, in his 70th year, William Lamb, Lord 
Melbourne, first Prime Minister of Queen 
Victoria. His lordship was in office from July 
to December 1834, and again from April 1835 
to September 1841. (See Table of Administra¬ 
tions. ) 

— Flight of the Pope from Rome. Since 
the assassination of Count Rossi the Pontiff 
kept himself shut up in the Quirinal, with 
the Due d’Harcourt, the French Ambassador, 
who resided in the palace for the purpose 
of affording the protection of the Repub¬ 
lican flag to his Holiness. At an hour pre¬ 
viously agreed on the Pope retired into a 
private room and disguised himself as a servant 
to Count de Spaur of the Bavarian Legation. 
On leaving the Quirinal he took his seat on the 
box of the carriage beside the coachman, and 
proceeded to the residence of the Bavarian 
Minister, where his costume was changed to 
that of a private chaplain. In this garb Count 
Spaur and his reverend charge cleared the 
gates of Rome, and arrived the following 
day at Gaeta, where his Holiness received a 
welcome reception from the King of Naples. 
The French Consul reported to his Govern¬ 
ment that the Pope intended to proceed to 
France, but the welcome he received at Gaeta 
caused his Holiness to decline the offer of a 
vessel placed at his disposal by the Republic. 

25 . —General Cavaignac defends himself in 
the National Assembly from charges brought 
against him by Barthelemy St. Hilaire, of 
encouraging the insurrection of June in order to 
secure the position of military dictator. 

27 . —Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, address¬ 
ing the electors of France on the subject of the 
Presidential election, writes : “I am not an 
ambitious man, who at one time dreams of em¬ 
pire and war, and at another of the application 
of subversive theories. Educated in free coun¬ 
tries in the school of misfortune, I shall ever 
remain faithful to the duties which your votes 
and the will of the Assembly may impose upon 
me. If I were named President, I would not 
shrink from any danger or from any sacrifice 
to defend society, now so audaciously attacked. 
I would devote myself entirely, without any 
concealed view, to the consolidation of a Re¬ 
public, wise by its laws, honest by its intention, 
great and powerful by its acts. I should con¬ 
sider it a point of honour to leave to my 
successor, at the conclusion of four years, a 
consolidated government, liberty, interest, and 
a real progress accomplished.” 

28 . —Dreadful murders at Stanfield Hall, 
near Norwich, the seat of I. P. Jermy, Esq., 
Recorder of that city. Mr. Jermy, his son, 
and Mrs. Jermy, dined together this afternoon, 
there being then on the premises a butler, a 
man-servant, and two females. About half¬ 
past eight o’clock Mr. Jermy left the dining¬ 
room and walked through the hall to the front 
of the building. On returning, as he entered 
the porch, a man, wrapped in a cloak and 




NOVEMBER 


1848. 


DECEMBER 


wearing a mask, fired a pistol at him, the 
ball lodging in the upper part of the left 
breast, close to the shoulder. He fell and 
instantly expired, but owing to what followed 
was not removed for nearly an hour. The as¬ 
sassin, after firing, went to the servants’ en¬ 
trance to the right, passed through the passage 
across the building, met the butler, whom he 
forced by threats to retire into the pantry, and 
proceeded onwards to the turn of the passage, 
where there was a dark recess, with a door 
opening into another passage leading to the 
back of the premises. Mr. Jermy’s son, alarmed 
at the report of a pistol, left the dining-room 
and passed to the door opening into the back 
passage : here the murderer fired and shot 
him through the right breast, killing him on 
the spot. Mrs. Jermy hearing a noise went to 
the same place, and while she knelt over the 
lifeless body of her husband the assassin fired 
a pistol at her, the shot shivering one of her 
arms and wounding her in the breast. Her 
maid, Eliza Chestney, more courageous than 
the other servants, went also to the passage to 
see what was the matter ; and while embra¬ 
cing her mistress the murderer discharged an¬ 
other pistol, and seriously wounded her in the 
thigh. The female servants, now thinking they 
would all be murdered, hid themselves. The 
man-servant, who was in the stables, hearing 
the firing, and supposing that the place was 
attacked by a number of ruffians, swam across 
the moat which surrounds the house, and set off 
to Wymondham, where he gave the alarm, and 
caused a telegraphic message to be sent to the 
Norwich police-station. The murderer, there¬ 
fore, had no difficulty in making his escape. 
Suspicion pointed to a man named Blom- 
field Rush, a farmer and auctioneer, living 
in the neighbourhood, with whom Mr. Jermy 
had had frequent disputes ; and he was imme¬ 
diately arrested. Mrs. Jermy and the servant 
retained sufficient recollection to declare that, 
though disguised, they were certain he was the 
assassin. The most important evidence at the 
inquest and at the examination before the 
magistrates was that of Emily James, or 
Sandford, a young woman who lived in Rush’s 
family, first as governess, latterly as his house¬ 
keeper or mistress : she described herself as a 
widow, but afterwards admitted that she 
was unmarried, and far advanced in pregnancy. 
First she said that Rush came home to tea 
at six, and took off his boots for the 
night; went out of the room at about nine, 
for ten minutes only ; returned then, and did 
not again leave the house. Subsequently, 
under a more rigorous examination, she des¬ 
cribed Rush’s proceedings on the night of 
the murders with a minuteness which clearly 
indicated his presence at the Hall during the 
perpetration of the murders. 

29 .—Incited apparently by the example of 
the Viennese, the Italians renew insurrectionary 
movements in Como. 

29 .—The Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel in- 
(266) 


timates. his secession from the Church of 
England. 

— Died, at his residence, Chester-place, Pim¬ 
lico, aged 42 years, Mr. Charles Buller, M. P. 
for Liskeard, and President of the Poor Law 
Board. 

December 1 . —A tragedy only paralleled 
in horror by the Black Hole of Calcutta oc¬ 
curred this evening on board the Londonderry 
steamboat, trading between Liverpool and 
Sligo. She left Sligo in the afternoon with 
nearly 200 passengers on board, a large number 
of whom were emigrants, intending to proceed 
from Liverpool to America. The night setting 
in dark and stormy, the captain (Johnstone) 
considered it necessary for the proper working 
of the vessel to send the whole of the passen¬ 
gers below. They were for a time unwilling to 
obey this command, but coercive measures 
being resorted to, they were all driven into 
the steerage cabin, a confined space about 18 
feet long, 11 wide, and 7 high. The hatches 
were then closed, and as some of the poor crea¬ 
tures attempted to free themselves from this 
den, a tarpaulin was thrown over the entrance 
and nailed down. The most horrible results 
now followed. The air was insufficient to main¬ 
tain existence beyond a few seconds. Sinking 
from exhaustion or trampled down by others in 
the madness of despair, a large portion of the 
wretched passengers were suffocated amid a 
scene which no survivor could adequately 
describe. One, more fortunate than the 
others, succeeded in freeing himself from the 
hideous charnel-house, and gave the alarm of 
what had taken place to the captain and 
mate. The hatches were at once taken off, 
and a few of the survivors crawled on deck. 
The number of victims amounted to 72 ; 23 men, 
31 women, and 18 children. The steamer put 
into Derry, where most of the survivors were 
landed, and every attention paid to their restora¬ 
tion. The inquest resulted in a verdict “ That 
death was caused by suffocation in consequence 
of the gross negligence and total want of the 
usual and necessary caution on the part of 
Captain Alexander Johnstone, Richard Hughes, 
first mate, and Ninian Crawford, second mate ; 
and we therefore find them guilty of man¬ 
slaughter : and we further consider it our duty 
to express, in the strongest terms, our abhor¬ 
rence of the inhuman conduct of the remainder 
of the seamen on board on the melancholy oc¬ 
casion.” The captain and mates were tried and 
acquitted at Donegal Assizes on the 21st March 
ensuing. 

2 .—In the Exchequer and Common Pleas 
two cases were prosecuted to a successful issue 
under Lord Campbell’s Act (9th and 10th Viet, 
c. 93), making masters and companies liable 
for the negligence of servants in their employ. 
In the one case damages of 600/. and in the 
other of ioo l. were recovered by the plaintiffs. 

— Abdication of the Emperor of Austria in 
favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. “The 







DECEMBER 


1848. 


DECEMBER 


pressure of events and the immediate want of a> 
comprehensive reformation of our forms of 
state—which v/e, in the month of March, en¬ 
deavoured to meet and promote—have con¬ 
vinced us that more careful powers are needed 
to complete this grand work.” The young 
Emperor issued his first proclamation on the 
5th, expressing his conviction of the necessity 
of free institutions and his determination to 
reform the monarchy on the basis of true liberty 
and the equal rights of the people. 

3 .—Died, at Shepperton, Professor Samuel 
Cooper, F.R.S., President of the College of 
Surgeons, and author of the “ Surgical Dic¬ 
tionary.” 

5 . —The King of Prussia dissolves the Na¬ 
tional Assembly, and proclaims a new Consti¬ 
tution guaranteeing personal freedom, liberty 
of religious worship, the general education of 
the people, freedom of the press, and the 
popular election of two legislative chambers. 

6 . —The Fanny Kemble divorce case tried 
at Philadelphia. The libel was filed by the 
husband, Pierce Butler, and alleged wilful 
desertion from her habitation for a period of 
two years. The respondent denied the charge 
of desertion, a"d averred that her husband’s 
treatment of her was so cruel as to make life 
burdensome. She further alleged that her 
absence from time to time during the period 
spoken to was with the knowledge and consent 
of her husband. The inquiry was protracted 
over many months, and resulted in judgment 
being given for a divorce. 

7 . —Upsetting of a ferry boat crossing from 
Kingston Cotton Mills to Hull, and loss of 
seventeen lives. 

9 . —In opposition to a vote of the Senate at 
Washington approving of a petition from the 
people of New Mexico to exclude domestic 
slavery from that country, the Assembly of South 
Carolina passes a series of resolutions, deny¬ 
ing the power of Congress to prohibit the in¬ 
troduction of slavery into any territory acquired 
by treaty or the joint arms of all the States. 

12 . —Dr. Trower, Episcopal Bishop of Glas¬ 
gow, intimates to the Duke of Argyll his in¬ 
tention of refusing him the Holy Communion 
at the ensuing festival, on. account of the bitter 
and contemptuous spirit which his Grace had 
exhibited towards Scotch Episcopacy in his 
recent work on Church Government. 

15 .—Storm in Scotland, felt with greatest 
severity in the Frith of Clyde. The floating 
lighthouse at Garmoyle filled and sunk. 

?— The Spanish Cortes opened by Queen 
Isabella, who intimated in the Royal Speech 
that “ disagreeable events, which it was not in 
the hands of my Government to avoid, have 
occasioned the interruption of diplomatic re¬ 
lations with England ; but I trust they will 
be re-established as is befitting two friendly 


nations, as soon as the acts and instructions of 
my Government are duly appreciated.” 

15 .—Two Chartists named Ratcliffe and 
Constantine were tried at Liverpool Assizes for 
the murder of the policeman Bright, during the 
riot at Ashton, on the night of the 14th August. 
A number of witnesses testified to the fact of 
Ratcliffe thrusting a pike into the policeman’s 
thigh, and others swore they saw him fire the 
shot from which the constable died. The jury 
acquitted Constantine, but returned a verdict 
of guilty against Ratcliffe, with a recommenda¬ 
tion to mercy. On further inquiry being made, 
suspicion was found to attach to the evidence 
of some of the witnesses, and Ratcliffe was 
reprieved. 

— Mr. Denison, the Conservative candi¬ 
date, carries the West Riding election against 
Sir Culling Eardley by a majority of 14,743 
against 11,795. 

18 .—Lincoln and Hull Railway opened. 

20.—At a public meeting at Liverpool Mr. 
Cobden submits the details of his scheme of 
financial reform and economy in the different 
departments of the public service. 

— Louis Napoleon Buonaparte proclaimed 
President of the French Republic by the 
National Assembly. The Secretaries of the 
Election Committee announced the votes to be: 
for Louis Napoleon 5,534,520; the next highest 
on the list being General Cavaignac, with 
1,448,302. M. Marrast said: “In the name 
of the French people. Whereas citizen Charles 
Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, born in Paris, 
possesses all the qualifications of eligibility re¬ 
quired by the 44th article of the Constitution ; 
whereas the ballot gave him the absolute ma¬ 
jority of suffrages for the Presidency ; by virtue 
of the powers conferred on the Assembly by 
the 47th and 48th articles of the Constitution, I 
proclaim him President of the French Republic 
from this day until the second Sunday of May 
1852 ; and I now invite him to ascend the tri¬ 
bune and take the oath required by the Con¬ 
stitution.”— “ We have,” said Louis Napoleon 
in reply, “a great mission to fulfil: it is to 
found a Republic in the interest of all, and a 
Government just and firm, which shall be ani¬ 
mated by a sincere love of progress without 
being either reactionary or Utopian. Let us 
be men of our country, not men of a party, and 
by the help of God we shall be able at last 
to do some good, if we are not able to do great 
things.” The Prince was afterwards escorted 
to the Palace Elysee National, which had been 
assigned as the residence of the President. On 
the same evening the following names appeared 
in the Moniteur in the list of the new Ministry: 
—Odillon Barrot, President of the Council and 
Minister of Justice ; Drouyn de Lhuys, Foreign- 
Affairs; Leon de Maleville, Interior; Hippolyte 
Passy, Finance; Leon Faucher, Public Works ; 
Bixio, Commerce ; General Rulhieres, War ; 
and De Tracy, Marine. By a decree of the 
President Marshal Bugeaud was appointed 
Commandcr-in-chief of the Army of the Alps. 

(267) 





DECEMBER 


1848-49. 


JANUARY 


23 .—Abd-el-Kader presents a petition to 
■the President of the French Republic, praying 
that the conditions of his surrender might be 
fulfilled by sending him to Syria, “near the 
sacred tomb of the prophets, that I might en¬ 
lighten myself with new light, and my days be 
wholly devoted to the happiness of my family, 
far removed from the hazards of war, the 
theatre of which I abandoned for ever to the 
domination of France, in execution of the will 
of the Almighty, who lowers or raises empires 
as He pleases.” 

— The Mayor and Corporation of Dublin 
present an address to the Lord Lieutenant 
thanking him for “the temperate, able, and 
humane manner in which he had used the ex¬ 
traordinary powers entrusted to him by Parlia¬ 
ment for the suppression of unhappy disturb¬ 
ances,” and praying for an extended inquiry 
into the causes of discontent. 

— A young family of five children acci¬ 
dentally suffocated in a travelling waggon at 
Faversham. 

24 -. (Sunday ).—Military spectacle in the 
Champs Elysee in honour of the President of 
the French Republic. 

26 . —Prince Windischgratz issues a pro¬ 
clamation from his head-quarters at Nicola: 
“ Any inhabitant who is taken with a weapon 
of any description in his hand will be imme¬ 
diately hanged. If the inhabitants of any place 
shall, united, dare to attack any Imperial 
military courier, any transports, any or single 
commanding officers, so as to injure them in 
any way whatsoever, such place shall be made 
level with the earth. The authorities of the 
different places shall answer with their heads 
for the preservation of the public peace.” 

— Panic at the Victoria Theatre, resulting 
in the death of two boys, and the injury of 
several others crowding on the stairs for ad¬ 
mittance. 

— M. Odillon Barrot explains the policy of 
the new French Ministry as based on the re¬ 
storation of order and progress. 

— Died, Sir Augustus Frederick d’Este, 
son of the late Duke of Sussex, by Lady 
Augusta Murray. (See May 23, 1844.) 

27 . —The President of the French Republic 
to M. de Maleville, Minister of the Interior : 
“I asked the Prefect of Police if he did not 
occasionally receive reports on diplomatic 
affairs. He replied in the affirmative ; and he 
added that he had addressed to you yesterday 
copies of a despatch from Italy. These de¬ 
spatches, you will understand, ought to be 
directly forwarded to me, and I must express 
to you my displeasure at this delay in their 
communication. I request you likewise to 
send me the sixteen boxes I had before de¬ 
manded. I must have them on Thursday. 
They contain documents relative to the affairs 
of Strasbourg and Boulogne. I do not intend 
either that the Minister of the Interior should 
prepare the articles personal to myself. This 

(268) 


was not the case under Louis Philippe, and 
should not be the practice now. Besides, I 
have not received for some days my telegraphic 
despatches. On the whole, I perceive that the 
Ministers I have named wish to treat me as if 
the famous Constitution of Sieyes was in 
vigour, but I will not suffer it.” This com¬ 
munication led to the retirement of M. de 
Maleville. 

29 . —The Constituent Assembly sitting at 
Rome decree the deposition of the Pope, and 
proclaim the fact to the people by firing 101 
guns from the Castle of St. Angelo. 

30 . —In the course of the siege operations 
before Mooltan the British troops explode the 
principal magazine in the fort, containing, it 
was rumoured, 16,000 lbs. of powder. Many 
of the principal houses and temples were blown 
up at the same moment. Moolraj caused in 
timation to be made in the British camp next 
morning that he had still enough powder and 
shot to hold out for twelve months. The sum¬ 
mons to surrender he indignantly rammed 
down his largest gun and fired back to General 
Whish. 

1849. 

J anuary 1.—From Gaeta the Pope threatens 
the Roman insurgents with excommunication. 

— The King of Prussia issues a general order 
wishing “a happy new year to his glorious 
war-army—line and Landwehr,” and thank¬ 
ing them for their services during the year 1848. 

— At a “reception” in the Palace of the 
Elysee National, the President of the Republic 
assures the Ambassadors present of his desire 
for peace and union, and expresses to the Apo¬ 
stolic Nuncio a hope that his Holiness would 
soon be re-established in his states. Among 
those who waited on the President to-day were 
sixty soldiers representing every branch of the 
old Imperial army. 

— Died at the Grange, Hants, in his 65th 
year, Lord Auckland, Governor-General of 
India during the greater part of the disastrous 
Affghan war, which he initiated with his pro¬ 
clamation from Simla against Dost Mahomed. 

2 . —Calamitous outbreak of cholera at 
Drewet’s Infant Poor Establishment, Tooting. 
In one week the deaths amounted to 112. 

3 . —Fire at the Caledonian Railway Station, 
Edinburgh, and destruction of a group of goods 
sheds. 

5 .—Pesth surrenders to the Imperial force, 
under Prince Windischgratz. An attempt was 
made by the Chamber to obtain conditions, 
but the Prince refused to listen to the proposals, 
and took undisputed possession of the capital. 
Buda was entered at the same time by Baron 
Jellachich. M. Kossuth and the greater part 
of the Magyar troops retired to Debreczin, 
carrying with them the iron crown of Hungary 
and a machine for printing paper-money. 






JANUAR Y 


JANUARY 


1849 

* 


5 . —Revival of old Christmas gambols in 
the Free-trade Hall, Manchester. 

6 . — Discussion in the French Assembly 1 
concerning the public documents said to have 
been removed by the President from the 
national archives. (See Dec. 27, 1848.) 

— Died, at his cottage, Rydal Water, aged 
55, Hartley Coleridge, son of the author of 
“ Christabel.” 

7 . — Sanguinary engagement between the 
Spanish troops and the insurgents, with Cabrera 
at their head ; the latter defeated. 

8 . —The Roman Assembly formally depose 
the Pope as Sovereign of the Papal States. 

9 . —In New Orleans the cholera makes 
frightful ravages, the deaths per day averaging 
from fifty to eighty per cent, of the population. 
Latterly the place presented the appearance of 
a deserted city. 

— Opening of the new Cattle Market, 
Islington, designed to give accommodation to 
8,000 cattle, 50,000 sheep, besides horses and 
pigs. 

10. —Fifteen persons swept off the pier at 
Peterhead and drowned. 

— At a meeting in Manchester Mr. Cobden 
proposed a resolution pledging himself to “ co¬ 
operate with the Liverpool Financial Reform 
Association in its efforts to reduce the expendi¬ 
ture to at least the standard of 1835, and to 
secure a more equitable and economical system 
of taxation.” 

12 . —John Bowring, Esq., gazetted Consul 
at Canton. 

13 . —A sanguinary conflict takes place at 
Chillianwallah between the British and Sikh 
forces. Lord Gough reports his troops to be 
victorious, but the triumph—such as it was— 
was dearly purchased by the loss of 602 men 
and about three times that number wounded. 

— Fire at Hampstead Water Works; loss 
estimated at 8,000/. 

— The Hudson’s Bay Company receive from 
the Crown the grant of Vancouver’s Island. 

14. —The West India mail-packet Forth 
wrecked on the Alcranes reef, where the Tweed 
was lost two years since. The passengers and 
crew, 126 men in number, were saved mainly 
by the efforts of the officers of the ship, directed 
by Captain Sturdee. The people were landed 
on a small island, and as many as could find 
room embarked in a brigantine, which landed 
them at Campeachy on the evening of the 18th. 

— Fire at Lincoln’s Inn, destroying the 
chambers forming No. 2 on the east side of 
the square. 

15. — In the Court of Queen’s Bench the At¬ 
torney-General moved for a writ to be directed 
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, calling upon 
him to inquire into the conduct of the Bishop 
of Exeter, in refusing to induct the Rev. Mr. 
Gorham into a living within the diocese of the 


Bishop. The Bishop alleged that, on-examin¬ 
ing Mr. Gorham, he found he held unsound 
doctrines, in so far as he believed that spiritual 
regeneration was not given or confirmed by the 
sacrament of baptism, that infants were not 
thereby regenerate, and that by reason of the 
maintenance of these doctrines Mr. Gorham 
was unfit to be inducted into the living. The 
replication affirmed that he was not unfit, and 
did not hold unsound doctrines. It was, said 
the Attorney-General, a question to be tried by 
Lords Spiritual, and it was customary for that 
Court to direct a writ to the Primate, to 
examine the clerk, and make the return to the 
Court. If the clerk accused of unsound doc¬ 
trines should be dead, the question must be tried 
by a jury; but if alive, by the Metropolitan him¬ 
self. Rule granted, on the presumption that the 
Bishop would not appear to oppose. 

15 . —Conference at the Aldersgate-street Lite¬ 
rary Institution to discuss a new scheme of 
prison discipline submitted by Mr. Charles Pear¬ 
son. 

16 . —The Chief Justice of Ireland (Black- 
burne) gives judgment in the cases of O’Brien, 
Meagher, M‘Manus, and O’Donoghue, against 
the writs of error brought to reverse the judg¬ 
ment pronounced at Clonmel. The Commis¬ 
sion Court decided against the Crown in Duffy’s 
case. 

— Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce grants an 
injunction restraining Mr. Strange from publish¬ 
ing any portion of the Royal engravings. (See 
Jan. 26.) 

17 . —Heroic conduct of an Irish peasant girl 
at Ballylenahan, near Belfast. Suspicious of 
an attempt to set fire to the stackyard, Grace 
M‘Veogh with her sister kept watch till past 
midnight, when she saw one of a party of incen¬ 
diaries apply the match to a haystack. Taking 
such aim as she could in the darkness with an 
old blunderbuss, she discharged the contents at 
his head, and had the satisfaction of seeing him 
fall badly wounded in the yard. One of his 
companions approaching to see what had hap¬ 
pened, she attacked him with an old bayonet 
fastened to the end of a pole, and though armed 
with a pistol, which he fired in her face, he was 
compelled to retreat to a car occupied by some 
others of the party, when they all fled in haste 
from the farm. An alarm was instantly sent to 
the police at Newtown-Breda, but before they 
could arrive to make a search the body of the 
man first wounded had been removed; his cap 
and part of his clothing covered in blood were 
found near the spot where he fell. 

19 .—Coroner’s inquest on the bodies of four 
children, who had died in the London Free 
Hospital after removal from Drewet’s pauper 
establishment at Tooting. The jury found that 
the children had been attacked by virulent 
cholera at a time when they were suffering from 
insufficient food, defective clothing, and impure 
air, and censured the guardians of St. Pancras 
for not obliging Drewet to perform his duty to 
the children committed to his care in a more 

(269) 








JANUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1849. 


efficient manner than was brought out in evi¬ 
dence. The average number of pauper children 
in Drewet’s establishment was 1,500, clothed, 
fed, and instructed at 4^. 6 d. per head per week, 
and the number who died of cholera this season 
exceeded 150. The Holbom Union obtained 
from another jury a verdict of manslaughter, 
and Drewet was placed at the bar of the Central 
Criminal Court on the 13th April. The jury 
returned a verdict of not guilty. 

20 . —Conclusion of the sale of the first por¬ 
tion of the Stowe Library. The total amount 
realized was 4,581/. in. 6c/. The vellum 
“Junius,” supposed to be unique, was sold to 
Mr. Rodd for 9/. 

— Died at Ratho House, near Edinburgh, 
aged 60, Robert Cadell, distinguished as the 
publisher of the works of Sir Walter Scott. 

21 . —About 100,000 tons of chalk fall from 
Shakspeare’s Cliff, Dover. The Tigress , East 
Indiaman, was wrecked off the cliff the same day. 

22. —The lengthened and disastrous siege 
of Mooltan brought to a close by the uncon¬ 
ditional surrender of Moolraj. This was the 
day fixed by General Whish for blowing up the 
citadel. 

— The Buonapartists carry the election of 
M. Boulay as Vice-President of the Republic. 

24 . —Explosion at Darnley Main Colliery, 
near Barnsley, resulting in the loss of 75 lives. 
The calamity was supposed to have been caused 
by an accumulation of gas preventing the usual 
passage of ventilating draughts through the 
workings. Twenty-seven of the workmen were 
recovered in an almost insensible state and 
brought to the surface. 

— H. M. S. Dido arrived at Portsmouth from 
New Zealand in eighty-one days, being the 
quickest passage on record up to this date. 

25 . —Destructive inundation at Inverness, 
caused mainly by an unprecedented accumula¬ 
tion of water in Loch Ness, and partly by the 
bank of the Caledonian Canal giving way at 
Dochgarroch Loch. The river Ness came down 
with alarming force, spreading desolation along 
its course, and sweeping away the old stone 
bridge which had withstood the floods of a 
century and a half. A great many streets of 
the town on both sides of the river were sub¬ 
merged, and the inhabitants to the number of 
about 500 escaped with difficulty in open boats. 
A number of small bridges at Glenmoriston and 
Glengarry were also carried away. 

— Fire at the Canongate Gas Works, Edin¬ 
burgh, and destruction of the gasometer. The 
immediate cause of this occurrence was the 
failure of a guide-rod on one side of the gaso¬ 
meter, which caused it to tilt against the frame, 
driving the standards outward at the same time 
and deranging the works of the water-lock. 
The gas then escaped in huge quantities and 
became ignited by some means never very 
clearly ascertained, but conjectured to have 
been from the friction of the masses of iron as 
(270) 


they fell from the frame. About 300,000 cubic 
feet of gas were consumed. 

26 . —Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Chancery, the case of Prince Albert v. Strange, 
in the form of an appeal motion to discharge the 
injunction granted by Vice-Chancellor Knight 
Bruce, to restrain the defendant, a publisher in 
Paternoster-row, from publishing a descriptive 
catalogue of etchings or engravings by her 
Majesty and the Prince, and which etchings 
the plaintiff alleged to have been surreptitiously 
obtained by Strange, or by Judge, another 
defendant. On the 8th of February the Lord 
Chancellor gave judgment confirming and con¬ 
tinuing the injunction granted by the Vice- 
Chancellor. 

— The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland urges upon 
the Home Secretary the necessity for further 
suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, “ to secure 
for Ireland that continued repose which is so 
vitally essential to her prosperity, to protect 
the country from the renewal of an agitation for 
objects that cannot be attained, and which 
for many years has disturbed its tranquillity, 
scaring away capital, destroying confidence, and 
rendering impossible the steady application of 
industry.” 

27 . —The National Assembly resolve to sup¬ 
press the Communistic clubs now plotting to 
renew disturbances in Paris. An attempted 
rising was made on the 29th. 

31 .—Final abolition of the Corn Laws. The 
event was celebrated at Manchester by a banquet 
protracted beyond midnight, to welcome in with 
rejoicings the first day of Free Trade. 

February 1 . —Parliament opened by the 
Queen in person. The Royal Speech made 
reference to the hostilities in Sicily, “attended 
by circumstances so revolting that the British 
and French Admirals were impelled by motives 
of humanity to interfere to the war in the 
Punjaub ; and to the Navigation laws : “ If 
you should find that these laws are in whole or 
in part necessary for the maintenance of our 
maritime power, while they fetter trade and 
industry, you will no doubt deem it right to 
modify their provisions.” It was also an¬ 
nounced that “the present aspect of affairs 
has enabled me to make large reductions in the 
estimates of last year.” While the insurrection 
in Ireland had been suppressed, there was still 
a spirit of disaffection existing which called for 
a continuance for a limited time of the special 
powers granted last session. Commerce was 
said to be reviving, and the revenue in a state 
of progressive improvement. Amendments on 
the Address were moved in the House of Lords 
by Lord Stanley, and in the Commons by Mr. 
Disraeli, but in each case they were withdrawn 
without a division. The latter said the new 
commercial policy had failed in the trial, and 
should be superseded by a system based on re¬ 
ciprocity. He also contrasted the warlike con¬ 
dition of Europe with the promised reduction 
in the estimates, and declared that his party 




FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1849. 


stood there not only to uphold the Throne, 
but the Empire, to vindicate the industrial 
privileges of the working classes, and the re¬ 
construction of the colonial system. “We 
stand here to uphold the Church, not only 
assailed now by Appropriation Clauses, but by 
visored foes, and to maintain the majority of 
Parliament against the Jacobin manoeuvrers of 
Lancashire. ” 

2 .—Fracas in the Court of Exchequer be¬ 
tween Sir Frederick Thesiger, on the one 
side, and Chief Baron Pollock, with his son- 
in-law, Mr. Martin, Q.C., on the other. After 
some altercation between counsel as to the 
relevancy of certain questions put to a witness. 
Sir Frederick said : “My lord, I cannot but 
feel that my learned friend is allowed a discre¬ 
tion in this case, and in this Court generally, 
which would not be extended to myself or other 
counsel in this or any other Court. ” Mr. Martin 
threatened to give up practising in the Court, 
but was persuaded by the Attorney-General, 
next morning, to continue. The Lord Chief 
Baron then made an explanation to show that 
his words had been misapprehended by both 
parties. 

5 . —On the House proceeding to vote the ses¬ 
sional orders, Lord John Russell consented to 
withdraw the 14th and 15th resolutions, which 
proposed to give precedence to orders of the 
day over notices of motion after the 1st of 
May, and to limit the duration of all speeches 
to one hour except in the case of a member in¬ 
troducing an original motion, or a Minister of 
the Crown speaking in reply. Lord John 
Russell, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir H. Inglis 
spoke in opposition to the motion, and Mr. 
Hume and Mr. Cobden in its favour. On a 
division it was lost by a majority of 96 to 62. 

— A Constituent Assembly commences its 
sittings at Rome. 

6 . — Sir George Grey brings forward a bill, 
afterwards carried through the House, to con¬ 
tinue the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act 
in Ireland for a further period of six months. 
It was admitted there were no parties now in 
arms against the Crown, but the secret organi¬ 
zations, which had stimulated the late insurrec¬ 
tion, were still in existence. 

7 . —Flight of the Grand Duke of Tuscany 
from Sienna, and formation of a Provisional 
Government. 

— In Committee the Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer proposed a grant of 50,000/. for the 
relief of Irish distress in three Unions where, 
owing to the severity of that distress, a suffi¬ 
cient rate could not be collected. After a 
debate extending over two nights the motion 
was carried by 220 to 143. 

S. —Fire in Lamb-street, Spitalfields, de¬ 
stroying the house No. 34 and five of the 
occupants. 

— At Rome the Constituent Assembly depose 
the Pope as temporal sovereign, and proclaim 


the Papal territory a united republic. Full and 
adequate guarantees were to be provided for 
the Pontiffs independent exercise of his spiritual 
authority. The Pope issued a protest from 
Gaeta against these resolutions. 

12 . —In the Constituent Assembly of Rome 
M. Tomaboni moved that Joseph Mazzini be 
invited to Rome, and that the title of citizen be 
conferred on him. At the same sitting the 
following “projects of law” were carried by 
acclamation:—1. The laws shall be made and 
justice rendered in the name of God and the 
people. 2. The flag of the Roman Republic 
shall be tricoloured, with an eagle in the centre. 
3. All public functionaries, civil and military, 
are relieved from their oaths to the abolished 
Government. 

— The bonnets rouges removed from the 
Parisian trees of liberty by order of the Minister 
of the Interior. Severe measures, leading to 
animated discussions in the Assembly, were 
also taken for the more complete suppression 
of the Socialistic clubs. 

13 . —Sir Walter Gilbert, with a reconnoitring 
party from Lord Gough’s army in Chillian- 
wallah, discovers that Shere Singh had aban¬ 
doned Rossool, and that the main body of his 
army, instead of crossing the Jhelum, was on 
its march to Lahore. The united movements 
of Lord Gough and General Whish forced him 
towards Goojerat. 

14 . —Mr. Labouchere explains the policy of 
the Government concerning the Navigation 
laws, and obtains leave to introduce a bill on 
the subject. 

16 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench the 
East India Company obtain verdicts against 
the following parties for illegally trafficking 
in the sale of commissions :—Kendal, one 
year’s imprisonment and a fine of 1,000/.; Mrs. 
Bincks, one year’s imprisonment ; Mrs. Linley, 
six months’ imprisonment j and Bickley, one 
year’s imprisonment. 

17 . —Frightful occurrence in Dunlop-street 
Theatre, Glasgow. About eight o’clock, and 
when the company had just concluded the first 
act of the “Surrender of Calais,” an alarm of 
fire was raised from the north-west corner of 
the upper gallery ; a small flame appeared on 
the front edging, but it was so insignificant that 
when the workmen behind the scenes were 
apprised of it and proceeded to the spot, one 
of them extinguished the light with his cap. 
It was believed to have originated from some 
careless person in the gallery stealthily lighting 
his pipe and throwing down the paper at 
his feet; this, coming in contact with an acci¬ 
dental leakage in the gas-pipe, produced a flame 
which no doubt would have been attended with 
disastrous results to the building if not extin¬ 
guished on the instant. The commotion had 
in a great measure subsided, when, it was be¬ 
lieved mainly through the appearance of a fire¬ 
man in the gallery, a frantic panic took posses¬ 
sion of the occupants, and a general rush was 

(27D 





FEBRUARY 


1849. 


MARCH 


made for the main stairs leading to the street. 
The rush of the excited crowd would in 
ordinary cases have spent itself in a few seconds 
in the Open air, but for the unfortunate circum¬ 
stance that some of the foremost stumbled 
and fell at the landing-place immediately 
above the short flight of steps leading to the 
street. The rush was so rapid, and so many 
joined in it, that one fell over another, and the 
poor creatures soon formed a compact mass at 
this spot, unable to extricate themselves or 
move forward, although the street door was open 
only a few yards before them. The occupants 
of other parts of the house were for a time 
ignorant of the calamity happening so near them, 
and though they made every endeavour on learn¬ 
ing the state of matters to render what assistance 
they could, the success of their efforts was greatly 
lessened by their ignorance of the means of 
access to the gallery stairs. In order to reach 
the bodies a partition which separated a portion 
of the lower gallery from the staircase to the 
upper gallery was torn down, and then the 
frightful extent of the calamity presented itself. 
After hurrying in to adjoining apartments as 
many as were only bruised or insensible, it was 
found that no fewer than sixty-one had perished 
in the mad struggle for life. Three more died 
after removal to the Infirmary, and one in Clyde- 
street Hospital, to which place most of the 
bodies were taken for identification. No fewer 
than twenty-four of those who perished were 
boys of sixteen or seventeen years of age. 

18 . —The Pope appeals to the great Catholic 
Powers for an armed intervention on his behalf. 

19 . —Died at Woodbridge, Suffolk, aged 64, 
Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet. 

20 . —The York, Newcastle, and Berwick 
Railway Company appoint a committee to in- 
quireintothe purchase andre-saleby their chair¬ 
man, Mr. Hudson, of certain shares in the Great 
North of England line, bought over in 1846. 
The report declared that he had acted im¬ 
properly in purchasing shares on his own 
account and then selling them to the company, 
after he had been instructed to purchase for 
the company alone ; that the auditors had mis¬ 
apprehended their duty ; that the directors had 
been blameably remiss ; and that the secretary 
had not confined himself to the business of 
the company. The Eastern Counties share¬ 
holders at this time also instituted inquiries 
into the conduct of Mr. Hudson, chairman, and 
Mr. Waddington, vice-chairman. In this case 
both were found to have systematically acted 
in a deceptive manner with the company’s 
accounts. 

21 . —In Dublin the trial of Charles Gavin 
Duffy, on the fifth indictment directed against 
him, closed, as in the case of the preceding 
four, with the jury refusing to agree upon a 
verdict 

— Lord Gough defeats the Sikhs at Goojerat, 
where they mustered 6o,oco strong under Chut- 
tur Singh and Shere Singh, with a reinforce- 
(272) 


ment of 15,000 Affghan horse, led by Akbar 
Khan, son of Dost Mahomed. Lord Gough 
writes to the Governor-General: “The ranks of 
the enemy broken, their position carried, their 
guns, ammunition, camp equipage, and baggage 
captured ; their flying masses driven before the 
victorious pursuers from mid-day to dark, re¬ 
ceiving most severe punishment in their flight; 
and, my lord, with gratitude to a merciful 
Providence, I have the satisfaction of adding 
that, notwithstanding the obstinate resistance of 
the enemy, this triumphant success, this bril¬ 
liant victory, has been achieved with compara¬ 
tively little loss on our side. . . . The cannon¬ 
ade now opened upon the enemy was the most 
magnificent I ever witnessed, and as terrible in 
its effects. The Sikh guns wei*e served with 
their customary rapidity, and the enemy well 
and resolutely maintained his position ; but the 
terrific force of our fire obliged them, after an 
obstinate resistance, to fall back. I then de¬ 
ployed the infantry, and directed a general ad¬ 
vance, covering the movement by my artillery 
as before.” Brigadier-General Campbell’s di¬ 
vision was reported to have suffered severely in 
advancing against a cross fire from the Sikh 
guns. 

24 .—The Danish Government announce 
their intention not to renew the armistice of 
Malmo, which expired on the 26th. 

26 .—Mr. Cobden brings forward his motion 
in the House of Commons for reducing the 
expenditure of the country—particularly in 
the War Department—from 54,185,000/. to 
44,420,000/., the sum expended in 1835. The 
motion was seconded by Mr. Hume, and, after 
a debate, negatived by 275 to 78. 

— Mr. Baillie obtains the appointment of a 
committee to inquire into the grievances com¬ 
plained of in the Crown colonies of Ceylon and 
British Guiana. 

28 .—The Floridian , emigrant ship, trading 
between Antwerp and New York, wrecked in 
a storm on the English coast, and 200 pas- 
sengers drowned. The small boats capsized, 
one after another, as they were launched, and 
the whole of those who sought refuge in them 
were lost. The crew took to the rigging, and 
lashed themselves there, while upwards of 100 
emigrants congregated on the quarter-deck. 
In about an hour the ship broke in two amid¬ 
ships ; the mainmast fell Over the side, and a 
tremendous sea carried away the quarter-deck 
with the mass of human beings gathered on it. 
On the morning after the wreck about a dozen 
remained alive, but several of these were frozen 
to death during the day; on the second morn¬ 
ing, when relief came, only four were left- 
three sailors and one passenger, who had lost 
his senses through terror and suffering. 

March 1.—Lord Ashley succeeds in carry¬ 
ing a motion for an address to her Majesty, 
praying for a commission to inquire into the 
practicability of subdividing parishes for ecclesi- 






march 


MARCH 


i$ 49 - 


astical purposes, so that the population for each 
parish should not exceed 4,000. 

1 . —Lord Palmerston enters into an explana¬ 
tion of his foreign policy on the Sicilian ques¬ 
tion and the occupation by the Russians of two 
towns on the borders of Wallachia. The de¬ 
bate was renewed in the House of Lords on the 
6th on a motion submitted by Lord Stanley. 

2 . —In a Committee of the whole House 
Lord John Russell introduces the Government 
resolution for the relief of Ireland by a rate-in¬ 
aid :—“ That in each of the next two years 
there shall be paid by every Union in Ireland 
a sum equal to the rate of 6 d. in the pound on 
each electoral division in such Union towards a 
general fund for the relief of the poor in Ireland. 
That the same shall be paid to a separate account 
at the Bank of Ireland, in the name of the Pay¬ 
master of Civil Service in Ireland, s.nd shall 
be applied in such manner as Parliament shall 
direct.” A bill founded on this resolution was 
afterwards passed through both Houses, and an 
advance of 100,000/. voted in anticipation of 
the rate-in-aid. 

4 . —The Austrian Emperor promulgates a 
new Constitution, promising increased liberty 
to his people. He proclaimed a charter of the 
Constitution for the one and indivisible empire 
of Austria, and dissolved the Diet now as¬ 
sembling at Kremsier. 

— Inauguration of General Taylor as Pre¬ 
sident of the United States. 

6 . —Twelve lives lost in an explosion at the 
Middle Patricroft Colliery, between Wigan and 
Hindley. 

7 . —Mr. Bankes moves for an account of all 
ordnance stores ordered in the year 1848 “for 
the purpose of being sent to the Sicilian insur¬ 
gents in arms against her Majesty’s ally, the 
King of the Two Sicilies, with the consent of 
her Majesty’s Government,” which elicited 
sharp speeches in reply from Lord Palmerston 
and Lord John Russell in vindication of the 
policy of the Government. The motion was 
lost by 134 to 39. 

8 . —The Rev. Mr. Shore, at the suit of the 
Bishop of Exeter, arrested for contempt of 
court, in so far as he persisted in ministering in 
an unconsecrated building. To avoid further 
interference by the Bishop, Mr. Shore on the 
15th subscribed before a magistrate of Totnes 
such oaths and declarations as he thought would 
qualify him for becoming a dissenting minister; 
but the Bishop, acting upon the legal indeli¬ 
bility of holy orders, obtained decisions against 
Mr. Shore in various ecclesiastical courts, and 
ultimately succeeded in throwing him into prison 
for costs. (See Aug. 5, 1845.) 

11.—Blockade of the railway system at 
Clifton, arising out of disputes between the 
East Lancashire and Yorkshire Companies. 
The proceeding led to such inconvenience and 
disorder as called for the interference of the 
civil power. 


12. —The second reading of the Government 
Navigation Laws Bill carried by a majority of 
56, in a House of 476. 

— The Sardinian Government denounce the 
armistice of 8th August, 1848, and resume 
hostilities against Austria. 

13 . —Duel, at Paris, between MM. Ledru- 
Rollin and Denjoy; neither were wounded. 

— Mr. Trelawney’s resolution for abolishing 
church-rates lost by 183 to 20; and an amend¬ 
ment, supported by Sir Robert Peel and Mr. 
Gladstone, urging the House not to come to a 
premature decision, by 119 to 84. 

14 . —The Sikh army, 15,000 strong, submit 
to General Gilbert, who continued to pursue 
their Affghan allies in their flight to Cabul. 

— Charles II., Duke of Parma, abdicates in 
favour of his son. 

15 . —In the House of Commons Viscount 
Drumlanrig proposes, but afterwards with¬ 
draws, a motion for a return of all the expense 
incurred in collecting, printing, and publishing 
the various returns moved for by Mr. Hume, 
from February 1848 to February 1849. 

— Mr. Ewart obtains the appointment of a 
Select Committee to inquire into the condition 
and management of the public libraries of the 
United Kingdom. 

— After a debate extending over two nights, 
Mr. Disraeli’s resolution declaring that the 
whole taxation of the country presses with 
undue severity on real property was rejected 
by 280 to 189. 

— Died, aged 79, Cardinal Mezzofanti, a 
learned ecclesiastic. 

17 .—Sir Charles J. Napier sworn in Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the East India Company’s 
forces, and entertained at dinner by the 
directors at the London Tavern. He left 
on the 24th, and entered Calcutta on the 6th 
May. 

— Died at the Hague, aged 56, William II., 
King of the Netherlands. 

21 . —Mr. Macaulay installed as Lord Rector 
of Glasgow University, and presented with the 
freedom of the city on the following day. 

— The Austrian army, under Field- 
Marshal Radetzky, crosses the Ticino near 
Vigevano, and defeats a division of the Sar¬ 
dinian army occupying Mortaro. 

23 .—Sir F. Baring announces in the House 
of Commons that Government had determined 
on offering 20,000/. to any vessel that would 
afford efficient assistance in saving Sir John 
Franklin and those under him. A “ Notice to 
Mariners ” embodying the offer was at once 
issued by the Admiralty, the conditions being 
that claimants should have rendered efficient 
assistance to Sir John, his ships and crews, 
or contributed directly to extricate them from 
the ice. 

— In the course of a debate on the Navi¬ 
gation Bill, Mr. Labouchere states that the 

T 





MARCH 


APRIL 


1849. 


Government did not intend to press that part 
of the measure which had reference to the 
coasting trade. The bill as amended passed 
through Committee on the 26th. 

23 .—The Austrian troops under Radetzky 
defeat the Piedmontese near Novara, and 
decide against them the issue of the whole 
campaign. The contest began at 10 a.m. and 
lasted till late in the evening, the Sardinians 
losing over 3,000 men killed or wounded, as 
many prisoners, and 27 cannon. This disas¬ 
trous defeat led to the abdication of Charles- 
Albert in favour of his son, the Duke of Savoy. 

25 . —Hostilities resumed between Denmark 
and the Duchies, the armistice entered into on 
the 26th of August last having failed in se¬ 
curing even the basis of a permanent peace 
between the belligerents. 

26 . —The Duke of Savoy proclaimed King 
of Sardinia under the title of Victor Emmanuel. 

27 . —Lord Palmerston instructs the Marquis 
of Normanby that Great Britain desired to see 
a reconciliation between the Pope and his sub¬ 
jects, accompanied with Constitutional Reform 
in his States, and the separation if possible of 
the spiritual and temporal authority. 

28 . —Atrocious series of murders perpetrated 
In Liverpool by John Gleeson Wilson. About 
noon, near one of the most crowded thorough¬ 
fares, and surrounded by houses on every side, 
Mrs. Henrichson, a captain’s wife, far advanced 
in pregnancy, her two children, and waiting- 
maid, were found with their throats cut and 
their heads bruised in a shocking manner. 
Life was not quite extinct in all the cases when 
an entry was made into the house by neigh¬ 
bours; but none of the victims, with the 
exception of the servant, were able to give 
an explanation touching the details or object 
of the dreadful outrage. Wilson was appre¬ 
hended the next night, when attempting to 
pawn a gold watch belonging to the murdered 
woman. 

29 . —Commenced in Norwich, before Baron 
Rolfe, the trial of Rush for the Stanfield Hall 
murders. It lasted over six days, Rush himself 
occupying the greater part of two with a speech 
in defence. After an absence of six minutes, 
the jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and he 
was sentenced to be executed. The sentence 
was carried into effect on the 21st of April, on a 
drop erected on the west side of Norwich Castle. 
An immense black banner was unfurled from 
the battlements by the sheriff to mark the extra¬ 
ordinary guilt of the criminal. 

— The Olympic Theatre, London, destroyed 
by fire, the flames being observed by the stage- 
manager when the actors were beginning to 
assemble for the evening’s performance. 

— The Neapolitan forces resume military 
operations against the Sicilians. Catania taken 
by General Filangieri, after a bombardment 
which laid the greater part of the city in ruins. 
Syracuse surrendered without resistance as soon 
as the Neapolitan fleet arrived and the troops 
( 274 ) 


landed for the attack. On the 22d April a 
deputation from Palermo surrendered the keys 
of the city, and offered unqualified submis¬ 
sion to the King’s authority. This put an 
end to all outward signs of insurrection in the 
island. 

29 . —The Governor-General of India issues a 
proclamation announcing the annexation of the 
Punjaub to the British Empire in India:—“ The 
Government of India has no desire for conquest 
now; but it is bound in its duty to provide 
fully for its own security, and to guard the 
interests of those committed to its charge. To 
that end, and as the only sure mode of protect¬ 
ing the State from the perpetual recurrence of 
unprovoked and wasting wars, the Governor- 
General is compelled to resolve upon the entire 
subjection of a people whom their own Govern¬ 
ment has long been unable to control, and whom 
(as events have shown) no punishment can deter 
from violence, and no acts of friendship con¬ 
ciliate to peace.” His Highness the Maharajah 
Dhuleep Singh to be treated with honour and 
consideration, but Moolraj, the ex-Dewan of 
Mooltan, to be put on his trial for aiding and 
abetting in the murder of Mr. Vans Agnew 
and Lieutenant Anderson, on the 21st April, 
1848. 

30 . —General Haynau arrives with troops 
and a battering train before Brescia, which had 
rebelled against the Austrians. After a six 
hours’ bombardment the city was entered, the 
barricades carried with great slaughter, and the 
city almost destroyed. 

April 2.—The trial of the Paris insurgents of 
the 15th May, 1848, concluded before the High 
Court of Justice at Bourges. General Courtais 
was acquitted, Barbes and Albert transported 
for life, Blanqui for ten years, Sobrier for seven, 
and Raspail for six. 

— The city of Genoa seized by an insurgent 
mob, who, after a murderous struggle, drive 
out the Sardinian garrison and proclaim a re¬ 
public. The city was next day declared to be in 
a state of siege. 

— Died at Brighton, aged 66, Thomas 
Morjer, author of “ Hajji Baba” and other 
popular Oriental tales. 

3 .—The King of Prussia receives a deputa¬ 
tion from the Frankfort Parliament, offering 
him the crown of Germany. He undertook 
to consult with the crowned Princes and Free 
States on the subject, and declined the honour 
on the 29th. 

— Sarah Thomas tried at the Gloucester 
Assizes for the murder of her mistress, Eliza¬ 
beth Jeffries, aged 61, by beating her on the 
head with a stone or other blunt instrument 
There had also been a robbery committed on 
the premises, but it appeared to have been 
an after-thought to divert suspicion from the 
prisoner. The jury now found her guilty, and 
she was sentenced to be executed. On the 
morning of the execution she was seized with 






APRIL 


APRIL 


1849. 


one of her violent and ungovernable fits of rage. 
She stamped and wrestled with the prison 
officials, two of whom forced her up the ladder, 
and her screams did not cease till the bolt was 
drawn. 

4 .—Mr. H. G. Ward appointed Lord High 
Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. 

6 . —Sudden death from cholera of Dr. 
Crolly, Primate of the Irish Roman Catholic 
Church. He was succeeded by Dr. Dixon, 
Maynooth. 

10. —The Genoese, after defending their city 
with great vigour for eight days, surrendered to 
the besieging force under General La Marmora. 
A general amnesty was granted to the whole of 
the inhabitants, except those officials of the old 
regime who had accepted office under the Pro¬ 
visional Government. 

— Engagement between the Danes and the 
united armies in the Duchies. The former were 
victorious. 

11. —Mr. Cobden entertained at a banquet at 
Wakefield in celebration of his return for the 
West Riding. 

12 . —A reaction at Florence in favour of the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany; most of the revolu¬ 
tionary bodies suddenly quit the city. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 56, Sir Andrew 
Agnew of Lochaw, well known in Scotland for 
his Sabbatarian zeal. 

13 . —The Danes defeated by a combined 
German army on the Duppel heights, opposite 
the Isle of Alsen. 

14 . —Hungary declares itself a free State, 
with Kossuth for supreme governor. 

16 . —The French National Assembly, by a 
majority of 112, decide for armed intervention 
in the States of the Church. 

— Mr. Francis Scott’s motion for a Select 
Committee to inquire into the financial relations 
between Great Britain and her dependencies, 
with a view to reduce the charges of the British 
Treasury and enlarge the functions of the 
Colonial Legislature, negatived by 81 to 34 
votes. 

17 . —The new Constitution of Rome sub¬ 
mitted to the Assembly. It provided that 
there should be an Assembly of Representatives 
elected for three years by universal suffrage; 
that there should be two Consuls, elected by 
the same process, charged with the executive 
power; and twelve Tribunes similarly elected 
for five years, to whom the Consuls were to 
give an account of their administration. The 
Tribunes were also specially entrusted with the 
mission of guarding against any violation of the 
Constitution. 

18 . —Prince Albert lays the foundation-stone 
of the Great Grimsby Docks. 

21 .—The Prussian Cabinet refuse to re¬ 
cognize the Frankfort Constitution. 

23 .—The third reading of the Navigation 

( 275 ) 


Bill carried in the House of Commons by a 
majority of 275 to 214. 

24 . —Votes of thanks passed in both Houses 
of Parliament to the Governor-General of India, 
the Commander-in-Chief, and the officers and 
soldiers of the army in India, for their late 
brilliant and successful exploits. 

— Advices from Vienna announce the defeat 
of the Imperialists before Gran by the Hun¬ 
garian insurgents, the raising of the siege of 
Comom, and the evacuation of Pesth by the 
Austrians. 

25 . —Disturbance at Montreal on the occa¬ 
sion of the Governor-General, Lord Elgin, 
giving his consent to a bill for indemnifying 
those inhabitants of Lower Canada (mostly 
French) whose property was injured or de¬ 
stroyed during the rebellion of 1837-38. The 
Governor-General was personally assaulted, the 
Parliament dissolved by mob violence, and the 
Hall of Assembly set on fire. A large portion 
of the archives of the province and a precious 
library attached to the building were destroyed. 
The rebel party, among whom were many 
Canadians of distinction, were overpowered by 
the military. 

26 . —Eleven children drowned at the Black 
Rocks, Leith, the tide unexpectedly cutting off 
their retreat to the shore, while engaged in the 
holiday pursuit of shell-fishing. 

— Five thousand lambs lost in a snow-storm 
in Romney Marsh. 

— The King of Prussia suddenly dissolves 
the Second Berlin Chamber for calling on the 
Government immediately to terminate the state 
of siege declared on the 12th November. The 
sittings of the Upper Chamber were adjourned 
the same day. A new electoral law was issued 
on the 31st May. 

— The French expeditionary army in support 
of the Pope lands at Civita Vecchia, and takes 
possession of the town without opposition. At 
Rome the Triumvirs order a levy of 50,000 
men, and while protesting against the unex¬ 
pected invasion, declare at the same time their 
firm purpose of resisting, and of holding France 
responsible for the consequences. General 
Oudinot issued the following proclamation : 
“ Inhabitants of the Roman States,—In pre¬ 
sence of the events which agitate Italy, the 
French Republic resolves to send a corps 
clarmSe into your territory, not to defend the 
present Government, which it has not recog¬ 
nized, but to avert great misfortunes from your 
country. France does not arrogate to herself 
the right to regulate interests which are, before 
all, those of the Roman people, and which ex¬ 
tend themselves to the whole of Europe, and to 
- all the Christian world ; she has only considered 
that by her position she was particularly called 
upon to interfere, to facilitate the establishment 
of a regime equally removed from the abuses 
which have for ever been destroyed by the gene¬ 
rosity of the illustrious Pius IX. and from the 

T 2 





APRIL 


ma y 


I3.4.9. 


anarchy of these late days. The flag which I 
have just raised on your shores is that of peace, 
order, conciliation, and true liberty. Round 
it will rally all who wish to co-operate in 
the accomplishment of this patriotic and sacred 
work.” A counter-proclamation designed to 
turn the Roman people against this violation of 
the soil of the Republic was instantly issued by 
the Triumvirs, Mazzini, Saffi, and Armellini. 

26 . —Additional Irish remedial measures in¬ 
troduced into the House of Lords by the Lord 
Chancellor, and into the House of Commons 
by Lord John Russell. The scheme consisted 
of bills to convert leaseholds perpetually re¬ 
newable on payment of fines into fee simple, 
by securing to the landlord a fee-farm rent; to 
equalize the rates leviable for the relief of the 
poor, so that in no electoral district could pro¬ 
perty be burdened to a greater extent than 5^. 
per pound ; and to extend the usefulness of the 
Encumbered Estates Act passed last year, by 
simplifying the title under which property could 
be legally held in Ireland. In reference to this 
last measure it was stated that claimants for 
estates, in the shape of tenants-for-life, annui¬ 
tants, mortgagees, judgment creditors, tenants- 
in-tail, remainder-men, and reversioners, were 
contending for the ownership of more than 700 
estates then under the control of the Court of 
Chancery, and that there were probably as 
many more in such a condition that no effort 
could long preserve them from the same fate. 
The measures were favourably received by both 
sides of the House. 

27 . —Count Nesselrode issues a manifesto to 
the Courts of Europe, seeking to justify the 
interference of Russia between Austria and the 
Hungarians. ‘ ‘ Raised on the basis of anarchy, 
and imbued with that hostile spirit which the 
Hungarian chiefs have against Russia, there is 
nevertheless a great danger for us in a move¬ 
ment in the extension of which we dare not 
concur. In protecting his Polish and Danu- 
bian provinces from the scourge of a propa¬ 
ganda which means to convulse them, and by 
granting the assistance which the Austrian 
Government claim at his hands, the Emperor- 
flatters himself that he acts in his own interest 
and also in the interest of European peace and 
tranquillity.” 

29 . —The Hannah , emigrant ship, wrecked 
on her passage from Newry to Quebec, and 
sixty people drowned. 

— The King of Naples, at the head of a 
small force, enters the States of the Church at 
Terracina. 

30 . —Treaty between Russia and Turkey 
fixing the government of the Danubian Prin¬ 
cipalities. 

— Died at London, aged 59, Samuel 
Maunder, author of many useful books of 
reference. 

May 1 .—A Protectionist gathering in 
London, presided over by the Duke of Rich- 
( 376 ) 


mond. Resolutions were unanimously adopted 
to the effect that free trade had failed to pro¬ 
duce the benefit predicted by its promoters, 
and had been followed by deep injury to many 
of the great interests in the country. Those 
present agreed to form a “National Associa¬ 
tion for the Protection of British Industry and 
Capital.” 

1.—The Russian troops set out on theii mprch 
through Gallicia, to assist Austria in her war 
against Hungary. 

—The Stowe Manuscripts purchased by Lord 
Ashburton for 8,000/. 

4 -.—In anticipation of the threatened dissent 
of Prussia from their decree, the Deputies of the 
Frankfort Parliament resolved that “Should 
Prussia in particular not be represented in that 
Parliament, and therefore not have acknow¬ 
ledged the Constitution, either expressly or de 
facto , then the Sovereign of the State which 
has the greatest number of inhabitants among 
them represented shall enter upon the rights 
and duties of the Emperor, under the title of 
Regent or Stadtholder of the Empire.” The 
Diet split up on the 6th June, when a number 
of the Deputies withdrew fo Stuttgardt. 

— The anniversary of the proclamation of 
the Republic celebrated in Paris. 

— Died, aged 63, Mr. Horace Twiss, bio¬ 
grapher of Lord Eldon. 

5 . —Riotous proceedings at Fen Ditton, 
Cambridge, arising out of an attempt to inflict 
penance upon a person charged with slandering 
the rector’s wife. 

6. —A murderous foray carried out by the 
British troops under Major Hill and Mr. 
Norman Macdonald, Governor of the British 
colony of Bathurst, against a native king, on the 
banks of the Gambia. The towns of Keeming 
and Bombacco were burnt, and a great number 
of natives destroyed with grape and canister, to 
avenge an alleged affront. 

8 .—The second reading of the Navigation 
Bill carried in the House of Lords by a ma¬ 
jority of 10. The debate continued till half¬ 
past four o’clock the following morning. 

— The President of the French Republic 
to General Oudinot :—“ The telegraphic news 
announcing the unforeseen resistance which 
you have met with under the walls of Rome 
has greatly grieved me. I had hoped, as you 
know, that the inhabitants of Rome, opening 
their eyes to evidence, would receive with 
eagerness an army which had arrived there to 
accomplish a friendly and disinterested mission. 
This has not been the case. Our soldiers have 
been received as enemies. Our military honour 
iis engaged. I will not suffer it to be assailed. 
Reinforcements shall not be wanting to you. 
Tell your soldiers that I appreciate their 
bravery, and take part in what they endure; 
and they may always rely on my support 
and my gratitude. ” 

9 *—General Garibaldi defeats the Nea- 





MAY 


1849. 


JUNE 


politans, 7,000 strong, at Palestrina. He re¬ 
turned to Rome on the 11 th, and was received 
in triumph. 

9 . —Rioting in New York theatres, caused by 
a rumoured jealousy between the tragedian 
Macready, then on a visit to the States, and a 
native actor named Forrest. Driven from the 
stage of the Astor House Theatre on the 7th, 
Mr. Macready, in compliance with a requisi¬ 
tion, now made his appearance a second time, 
and his friends were found to have mustered in 
sufficient numbers to turn the disaffected out of 
the building by force. This led to a serious 
rioting in the streets, at the height of which 
the military were called out and fired into the 
mob. Three or four were killed and a much 
larger number'injured by the discharge. Mr. 
Macready escaped from the theatre to his hotel 
in disguise, and embarked for England at the 
earliest opportunity. 

10. —Martial law proclaimed in Prussia. 

11. —In reply to Mr. B. Osborne, Lord Pal¬ 
merston states that notice had been received 
from the Cabinet at Vienna of the advance of 
Russian forces into Hungary, but that the 
British Government had made no offer of 
mediation between the contending parties. 

— The Rate-in-aid Bill read a second time 
in the House of Lords by a majority of 1. 

— Died in Paris, from cholera, aged 72, 
Madame Recamier. 

13 . —The Neapolitans capture Palermo. 

14 . —Insurrection in Baden, and flight of the 
Grand Duke from Carlsruhe. 

15 . —In consequence of the morning news¬ 
papers declining to report the frequent lengthy 
speeches of Mr. John O’Connell, the hon. 
gentleman attempts to avail himself of an 
Act long in abeyance, to expel the reporters 
from the House along with all other strangers. 
On the 8th June they were kept out of the 
House during the discussion in committee of 
the Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill. 

16 . —Bologna, after a sanguinary struggle of 
eight days, surrenders to the Austrians. 

— The North Star leaves the Thames for 
the polar seas with supplies for the Ross Search 
Expedition. 

17 . —Fight between a bull and a tiger at 
Madrid; about 90,000 people said to have been 
present. 

— Petition presented to the House of Com¬ 
mons from thirty-one shareholders in the 
Eastern Counties Railway Company, making 
grave charges against Mr. Hudson, in his 
capacity of chairman of the company. Mr. 
Hudson endeavoured to exonerate himself from 
the charges of acting in an unauthorized manner 
and tampering with the share-list. 

18 . —Fire in the harbour at St. Louis, 
United States, consuming twenty-seven steam¬ 
boats and many warehouses richly stocked 
with merchandise. 


18 . —Smith O’Brien expelled from the House 
of Commons by a formal vote, and a new writ 
ordered for Limerick County. 

19 . —An Irish bricklayer, named Hamilton, 
fires a pistol, charged with powder, at the 
Queen, when proceeding down Constitution- 
hill towards Buckingham Palace. He was in¬ 
stantly arrested and committed for trial under 
the Act, passed in 1842, to punish those who 
attacked her Majesty with intent to alarm. On 
his trial he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 
seven years’ transportation. 

— A body of 10,000 Russian troops arrive 
at Czernowitz to aid the Austrians in their 
operations against Hungary. 

21 . —Died at Edgeworthtown, County 
Longford, in her 83d year, Maria Edgeworth, 
the well-known authoress of many stories of 
Irish life and modern society. 

— The furnishings of Prince Louis Napoleon’s 
house in St. James’s-square sold by auction. 

22 . —Interview between the Emperors of 
Russia and Austria, in Warsaw. 

— First meeting of the Metropolitan Finan¬ 
cial and Parliamentary Reform Association, in 
the London Tavern, Sir Joshua Walmsley 
presiding. 

— Died in London, aged 74, Robert 
Vernon, F.S.A. He expended upwards of 
150,000/. in the purchase of modem British 
paintings, which he generously bequeathed to 
the nation. 

25 .—Uhland’s proclamation to the German 
people read in the Frankfort Assembly. 

27 . —The French Legislative Assembly of 
750 members holds its first sitting. 

— Four thousand Spanish troops land at 
Gaeta to assist the Pope. 

28 . —At Toomavara, Tipperary, 500 of the 
famine-stricken inhabitants were evicted under 
circumstances which led to repeated reference 
being made to the case in Parliament. 


June 3 .—General Oudinot, apparently 
anxious to spare the historical part of Rome, 
where the defence was weakest, moves a column 
of attack against the Villa Pamphili. He 
surprised 200 of Mellora’s free corps and took 
them prisoners. Garibaldi’s party in the villa 
were on the alert, and gave the alarm to the 
defenders of the walls overlooking the battle¬ 
ground. A desperate engagement took place, 
the villa being several times taken and re-taken 
in the course of the day. At nightfall it re¬ 
mained in the hands of the French. The 
Church of San Pancrazzio, the Corsini and 
Valentini Villas, were afterwards attacked and 
carried. The Triumvirs issued a proclama¬ 
tion :—“No one imagined that France would, 
like a thief in the night, steal into our city ; 
but it did so, and succeeded to a certain point. 
. . . Whilst Oudinot resorts to this infamous 

( 277 ) 




JUNE 


JUNE 


1849. 


act, France rises up and recalls its troops from 
this work of invasion. One more effort, Romans, 
and the country is saved for ever ! Rome by its 
constancy regenerates all Europe ! ” 

3 . —In Paris to-day the deaths from cholera 
number 119. 

4 . —Died suddenly, at Paris, aged 60, 
Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, a leader 
of fashion in English society, and an authoress 
of various works of fiction and travel. 

— Mr. Hume brings forward a motion on 
the subject of Parliamentary Reform, leave 
being asked therein to bring in a bill to extend 
the electoral franchise to all householders, to 
enact voting by ballot, to shorten the duration 
of Parliament to three years, and to equalize 
the proportion of representatives to electors. 
On a division the motion was negatived by 268 
to 82. Lord John Russell praised the Man¬ 
chester politicians for their knowledge of certain 
economical questions in which they were parti¬ 
cularly interested, but accused them of narrow¬ 
ness of understanding concerning “the great* 
principles on which our ancestors founded the 
Constitution of this country, and which we their 
successors humbly admire and endeavour to 
follow.” 

5 . —Explosion in the Hebburn Colliery, near 
Newcastle-on-Tyne, causing the death of 33 
men. 

10. —Deaths in Paris from cholera, 672, the 
maximum number. Marshal Bugeaud died 
to-day. 

11 . —Mr. Cobden’s motion for an address to 
the Crown in favour of settling disputes by a 
scheme of international arbitration defeated by 
a majority of 176 against 79. 

— The Jews’ Emancipation Bill read a third 
time ,in the House of Commons by a majority 
of 66. 

— Violent scene in the French Assembly, 
arising from the declaration of Ledru-Rollin 
that the Constitution had been violated by the 
force sent out in support of the Pope having 
attacked the Roman people in their own 
capital. On the 13th the elements of discord 
were so alarming that Paris was declared in a 
state of siege. Attempts were even made to 
erect barricades; but those stationed at them 
generally fled on the approach of the military 
without any serious fighting. Several of the 
more violent Red Republicans were seized and 
their organs suppressed. 

— The General Board of Health issue a 
notification regarding the visitation of cholera 
to this country. Since the latter end of March 
the disease had broken out in twelve different 
parts of the metropolis, in 27 towns in England 
and Wales, and 17 towns in Scotland. In the 
two months from the 29th of March to the 29th 
of May the total number of cases was 428, but 
in the twelve days preceding the date of the 
present notice the number was 673. The total 
number of deaths up to the time of the renewal 
(278) 


of the Order in Council were 6,319 out of 
14,332 attacks, whereas the returns now gave 
638 deaths out of 1,203 attacks. 

11_The Irish S tate prisoners, whose sentence 

had been commuted to transportation for life, 
demand that they should either be set at liberty 
or executed according to the original sentence. 

12 . —The third reading of the Navigation 
Bill carried in the House of Lords without a 
division. The Bishop of Oxford’s amendment 
on the motion that the bill do pass was rejected 
by 23 to 9. 

14 . —In consequence of the difficulty which 
had arisen in connexion with the commutation 
of the sentence upon the Irish traitors, a bill is 
brought in to-day, and carried hastily through 
both Houses, to remove any doubt which might 
exist with regard to the Crown’s right to exer¬ 
cise the prerogative of mercy in cases of high 
treason. 

— Died at Paris, from cholera, aged 70, 
Madame Catalani, vocalist. 

15 . —Died at his residence, near Nashville, 
Tennessee, aged 53, J. K. Polk, late President 
of the United States. 

19 . —Loss of the transport ship Richard 
Dart , on the north side of Prince Edward’s 
Island. She struck during a storm of such 
severity that the waves tore the lifeboats from 
the quarter-deck, and swept off 47 of the pas¬ 
sengers and crew. Of these the mate alone 
contrived to reach the rocks. The commander 
and a few others took refuge in the rigging, and 
were saved by the mainmast falling inshore. 
They were exposed to great hardships on the 
island till they fell in with an exploring party 
from Capetown, who maintained them for 
thirty-two days, when a vessel passed for the 
Cape. 

20. —Great gathering at the Menai Straits, 
to witness the fixing of the first tube of the 
Britannia Bridge. The operation, at once deli¬ 
cate and stupendous, was accomplished without 
accident to the tube, but one life was lost, and 
a short delay occasioned, by the bursting of 
one of the cylinders of a hydraulic press. 

21 . —The Austro-Russian troops defeat the 
Hungarians, who retreat across the Waag. 

22. —The annual budget introduced by Sir 
Charles Wood. He calculated the total income 
at 52,252,000/., and the expenditure at 
51,515,064/. With the small surplus at his 
disposal, he did not propose to make any 
reduction in the taxation. 

23 . —The Pope, in exile, makes a contribu¬ 
tion of 20,000 francs for the relief of the 
starving Irish. 

25 .—Carlsruhe, the capital of the Grand 
Duchy of Baden, occupied by the Prussians. 

— Came on at Westminster, before the Lord 
Chief Baron, the case of Nottidge v. Ripley 
and another, an action for damages raised by 






JUNE 


JULY 


1849. 


Miss Louisa Nottidge against her brother and 
brother-in-law for confining her in a private 
lunatic asylum. Along with three sisters, the 
plaintiff had in 1846 adopted the opinions 
of Mr. Prince, believing him to be a divine 
person and herself immortal, and joined the 
small community gathered together at the 
Agapemone, or “Abode of Love,” at Charlinch, 
near Taunton. One of the inmates, William, 
stated in examination that he believed the 
plaintiff to be as sane as himself, and possessed 
of a quiet but happy spirit. The jury gave a 
verdict in her favour, with 50/. damages, but 
expressed an opinion that the defendants had 
not been actuated by any mercenary motives 
in their proceedings. (See July 25, i860.) 

25 . —Died, aged 57, Karl Gottlob Zumpt, 
philologist and grammarian. 

26 . —The Jewish Disabilities Bill thrown 
out in the House of Lords, on a second reading, 
by a majority of 25. Baron Rothschild re¬ 
signed his seat for London, but was re-elected 
on the 3d July, by a large majority over Lord 
John Manners. 

— Protectionist meeting in Drury-lane 
Theatre, presided over by the Duke of Rich¬ 
mond. Lord Malmesbury, in moving one of 
the resolutions, said it was not too late yet to 
retrace steps so rashly taken in 1846. He 
hoped the time would never come when the 
free-trade theory would be consummated; “but 
should it please God in His anger that it should 
be effected, then would this great kingdom 
soon return to its normal and natural state—a 
weather-beaten island in a northern sea.” 

— Sir William Molesworth’s motion for an 
address to the Queen praying for the appoint¬ 
ment of a commission to inquire into Colonial 
grievances rejected by 163 to 89 votes. 

27 . —Collision between the American mail 
steamer Europa , making for Liverpool, and 
the emigrant ship Charles Bartlett , on her out¬ 
ward voyage. The occurrence took place in 
lat. 50° 49' N., long. 29 0 30' W., during a thick 
fog. The Europa , steaming at the rate of 
eleven or twelve knots an hour, struck the 
Charles Bartlett midway between the main and 
mizen masts, cutting her completely in two, 
and almost passing through the sinking halves. 
The damage sustained by the Europa was of 
the most trifling description. Her engines were 
immediately stopped, and the boats lowered to 
save as many as possible, out of the people on 
board the barque. Out of 176, only forty-two 
could be rescued, the ill-fated vessel, cut far 
below the water-mark, and heavily laden with 
lead, iron, and chalk, sinking rapidly. It was 
thought that not fewer than thirty people were 
crushed to death during the time the steamer 
kept pressing on the barque. 

30 .—At a meeting of the Society of Arts 
to-day, called by Prince Albert and held in 
Buckingham Palace, the Prince proposes that 
an Exhibition of the Works of All Nations be 
undertaken under their auspices, to be divided 


into four sections : the first, raw materials and 
produce, illustrative of the natural productions 
in which human industry is employed ; the 
second, machinery for agricultural, manufac¬ 
turing, engineering, and other purposes, and 
mechanical inventions illustrative of the agents 
which human ingenuity brings to bear upon 
the products of nature ; the third, manufactures 
illustrative of the results produced by the opera¬ 
tion of human industry upon natural produce ; 
the fourth, sculpture, models, and the plastic 
arts generally, illustrative of the skill displayed 
in such applications of human industry. 

July 1.— For the six months closing to-day 
the large sum of 22,000,000/. of foreign capital 
was invested in the English funds. 

— At an early hour this morning the French 
succeed in obtaining a footing within the 
walls of Rome. Four hundred of the garrison 
were bayoneted on the spot, and 230 taken 
prisoners. Thirteen pieces of artillery found 
in the bastion were spiked, and a heavy fire 
opened against other weak places in the walls. 
At 5 p.m. General Rosselli sent a despatch to 
General Oudinot : “ The Assembly ceases 
a defence which has become impossible, and 
remains at its post. It charges the Trium¬ 
virate with the execution of its present de¬ 
cree.” A suspension of hostilities was after¬ 
wards agreed upon, and General Oudinot 
entered the city at the head of his staff on 
the 3d. 

2 . — General Oudinot telegraphs to the 
French Minister of War : “The assault made 
on the night of the 30th produced the result I 
expected. Overtures of submission were made 
to me yesterday by a deputation of the Roman 
Municipality. The bastion No. 9 is occupied 
by our troops. The gates of San Paolo, 
Portese, and San Pancrazzio have just been 
opened to us. Measures have been adopted 
to ensure the occupation of the city with the 
greatest order. The discipline of our soldiers 
equals their valour.” The key of one of the 
gates was sent to the Pope at Gaeta, who 
returned an answer congratulating the French 
General on his triumph over the enemies of 
human society. 

— The Hungarians defeated by a Russo- 
Austrian force at Acz. 

3 . —During the debate on O’Connor’s motion 
relative to the Charter, Lord John Russell dis¬ 
claimed ever having used to any person or in 
any debate the word “ Finality,” with which 
his name had become somehow associated. (See 
June 23, 1837.) 

4. —The inhabitants of Capetown resolve in 
public meeting, “That the British Government 
had no right to degrade into a penal settlement 
the Cape of Good Hope, which became a por¬ 
tion of the British Empire by capitulation and 
cession from a friendly Power, and that all 
attempts so to injure and degrade it are unjust 
and tyrannical, and may be constitutionally 

( 279 ) 




jul v 


yuL s- 


1849. 


resisted by the inhabitants as British subjects.” 
Notwithstanding this strong manifestation of 
feeling on the part of the colonists, the ship 
Neptune, loaded with convicts, was despatched 
from Bermuda to Simon’s Bay; but the op¬ 
position becoming too significant to be mis¬ 
understood, the vessel was withdrawn, and the 
offensive Order in Council of 4th September, 
1848, cancelled. 

5 . —Came on at the Central Criminal Court 
the trial of Prince Granatelli and others, charged 
on an indictment, at the instance of Prince 
Castelcicala, Neapolitan Minister here, with 
unlawfully fitting out the Bombay and Vectis 
steamers, as ships of war for the purpose of 
making war against the King of the Two 
Sicilies, the lawful sovereign of a friendly State. 
Lord Palmerston, in examination, said he knew 
the defendants, and had met them at the Foreign 
Office and his own house, but no permission 
had ever been given to them to act in a hostile 
manner against a Power with which we were 
still at peace. On the third day of trial the 
jury returned a verdict acquitting all the 
defendants. 

6 . —After a debate extending over two 
nights, Mr. Disraeli’s motion, that the House 
should resolve itself into a committee to take 
into consideration the state of the nation, was 
negatived by a majority of 296 to 156. Speak¬ 
ing to-night towards the close of the debate, 
Sir Robert Peel said the repeal of the Corn 
Laws was not a lucky accident. “My belief 
is, that it pleased Almighty God to listen to 
your prayers, to turn scarcity and dearth into 
cheapness and plenty, and so to direct and 
prosper your consultations on the brink of a 
great precipice and on the coming of a tre¬ 
mendous calamity, that you ‘ established peace 
and happiness’ on the foundations of ‘truth 
and justice.’ (Enthusiastic cheering.) You 
have reaped the reward of that policy. You 
have passed unscathed through the sternest 
trials to which the institutions of any nation 
ever were subjected. You stood erect amid the 
convulsions of Europe. (Great cheering.) And 
now you are to have a proposal made to you of 
some paltry fixed duty. (Cheers and counter 
cheers.) Take, then, your 5^. duty and con¬ 
sider what it is. If it be 5-f. on wheat, it 
will give you 2 s. 6 d. on barley, 2 s. on oats; 
that is, is. 6 d. more on barley and is. more on 
oats than you have at present—an equivocal 
advantage at the best. But by eveiy considera¬ 
tion which can influence consistent and rational 
legislators—(ironical cheers from the Protec¬ 
tionists, and counter cheers from the rest of the 
House)—by the highest suggestions of a 
generous policy, by the boldest calculations of 
the lowest and most selfish prudence, I implore 
you to reject this proffered boon. (Renewed 
cheering.) I implore you not to sacrifice nor to 
barter the glorious heritage you have obtained 
by your sagacious and most timely policy, for 
the smallest and most worthless policy for 
which the greatest advantage was ever sur- 

(280) 


rendered since the days of him who sold his 
birthright for a mess of pottage. (Loud and 
general cheering, except from the Protectionist 
benches, from which came ironical laughter.)” 

7 . —Madame Sontag, after a retirement of 
twenty years, reappears as Linda at the 
Italian Opera. 

8 . —Died at Quebec, aged 48, John Wilson, 
a popular Scottish vocalist. 

10. —Armistice concluded between Prussia 
and Denmark, to last for six months. 

— Mr. Osborne’s motion for a committee to 
inquire into the present state of the temporali¬ 
ties of the Irish Church rejected by 170 to 103 
votes. 

11 . —The Hungarians defeat the Austrians 
at Comom. 

12. —Affray at Dolly’s Brae, near Castle- 
wellan, County Down, between a party of 
Ribbonmen and an Orange procession pro¬ 
ceeding to Tollymore Park, on a visit to Lord 
Roden. Early in the month the Government 
had been apprised of intended strife at this 
place, and detachments of military and police 
were sent forward to preserve the peace, but 
their presence did not prevent shots being ex¬ 
changed between the rival factions, with the 
loss of several lives. The conflict led to much 
official correspondence, and to various discus¬ 
sions in Parliament. 

— Died, aged 70, Horace Smith, joint 
author of the “ Rejected Addresses.” 

14 . —Battle of Waitzen between the Rus¬ 
sians and Hungarians commenced ; it did not 
terminate till the 17th, on which day the Hun¬ 
garian cavalry, under Gorgey, had broken 
through the Russian lines and was in full 
retreat northwards in order to get behind the 
Theiss. 

15 . —Re-establishment of the temporal 
authority of the Pope proclaimed at Rome. 

18 . —At a meeting held in York, the direc¬ 
tors and shareholders of the Newcastle and 
Berwick Railway resolve to proceed against 
Mr. Hudson for illegally applying 184,204/. of 
the funds of the company to his own use. PI is 
proceedings were now regarded with so much 
suspicion, that his retirement from several com¬ 
panies became necessary. 

— Riot and loss of life at St. Boswall’s 
Fair, Kelso, caused by the attempted rescue of 
a railway labourer who had been taken into 
custody for assault. 

19 . —The Pope writes to his beloved sub¬ 
jects from Gaeta : “We hail with satisfaction 
the day when we are to return among you. 
Without delay, for the reorganization of public 
affairs, we are about to name a commission 
which, furnished with full powers and aided by 
a Ministry, will regulate the government of the 
State.” 

20. —Lord Brougham’s motion expressing 





JULY 


1849. 


AUGUST 


regret at the unfriendly feeling shown by the 
Government towards the King of Naples re¬ 
jected by 108 to 96 votes. 

21 . —C. Fitzsimon, son-in-law of the late 
D. O’Connell, writes to Corry Connellan, 
private secretary of the Lord Lieutenant, the 
following letter, which gave rise to much ani¬ 
madversion later in the year:—“My dear 
Connellan, I trust I shall be pardoned for 
mentioning a suggestion. I make it from my 
sincere anxiety that no chance accident should 
in any way damp the enthusiasm with which 
the people are ready to receive the Queen. . . . 
Lord Roden is looked upon as the cause of 
the late lamented affair in the North. His 
daughter-in-law coming in so immediately after 
in attendance on her Majesty would be of 
niauvaise augure. I know the people of 
Dublin would feel it so. Could not Lady 
Jocelyn get toothache, or some other malady, 
to entitle her to sick-leave for the time, and 
allow some other less dangerous name to 
appear in the Queen’s suite ?” 

— Military spectacle at Chatham. The 
“operations ” consisted of attacks by a besieg¬ 
ing army which had beaten a force sent to 
relieve the fortress besieged, and returned 
to the siege operations; and of a defence by 
the besiegers, which was successful up to a 
certain point, but at last failed against the 
superior force and offensive materiel of the 
attacking body. 

— The Liberal members meet in one of the 
committee-rooms of the House to resolve upon 
a united course of action during the next session 
of Parliament, upon the questions of the Irish 
Church, the English and Irish franchise, and 
the tenure of land in Ireland. 

— In the course of a debate on the advance 
of the Russian troops against Hungary, Lord 
Palmerston defends himself from the charge of 
stirring up opposition to Austria, which had 
been made by Lord Brougham in the House of 
Lords. 

22 . —During a visit to the scene of his 
captivity at Ham, Prince Louis Napoleon 
said, in reply to a toast by the Mayor: “Now 
that I am by the choice of all France become 
the legitimate chief of this great nation, I 
cannot glory in a captivity which had for its 
cause an attack against a regular Government. 
1 propose to you a toast in honour of the men 
who are determined, in spite of their convic¬ 
tion, to respect the institutions of their country.” 

23 . — Public meeting in the London Tavern 
to express sympathy with “ the noble, maligned, 
and betrayed people of Hungary.” Mr. Cobden 
was the principal speaker, arguing at great 
length against the impolicy and inhumanity of 
assisting Austria or Russia with loans raised in 
this country. 

24 . —The Austrian Commander-in-chief, 
General Haynau, to the inhabitants of Buda 
and Pesth: “After several victories which 
the Imperial arms have obtained over those 


of the traitors, we are again among you. 
We have again planted the Imperial standard 
on your steeples. But our feelings are far dif¬ 
ferent from what they were when we left you 
a short time ago. Doomed to death is every 
person, no matter of what rank or sex—doomed 
to instant death on the spot of the crime is 
every one who dares to assist the cause of the 
rebels, by words or deeds, or by revolutionary 
dress ; doomed to instant death is every one 
who dai-es to insult any of my soldiers or those 
of our allies ; doomed to instant death is every 
one who enters into traitorous communication 
with the enemies of the Crown, or who mali¬ 
ciously presumes by rumours to assist the 
rebellion, or to conceal weapons.” 

25 .—The foundation-stone of the break¬ 
water of Portland Harbour sunk by Prince 
Albert. 

28 .—Berlin relieved from the state of siege 
imposed November 12. 

— The Grand Duke of Tuscany returns to 
Florence. 

— Royal Assent given to the Encum¬ 
bered Estates (Ireland) Act, permitting owners 
of lands leased for sixty years to apply within 
three years to Commissioners for a sale. 

— Died at Oporto, aged 51, Charles-Albert, 
ex-King of Sardinia. 

31 .—Great slaughter of Borneo pirates by a 
small European force at Palo. Of 120 prahus 
said to have started on the expedition, and 
all in the bay on the preceding evening, eighty 
were destroyed, and the loss of life was placed 
as high as 1,200 men. 

August 1 . —Parliament prorogued by com¬ 
mission. With reference to the most important 
act of the session, the Speech recorded that 
“ Her Majesty has given her assent to the im¬ 
portant measure you have passed to amend the 
Navigation Laws, in full confidence that the 
enterprise, skill, and hardihood of her people 
will assure to them a full share of the com¬ 
merce of the world, and maintain upon the 
seas the ancient renown of this nation. ” The 
number of divisions during the session was 
219, showing an average of nearly 2 at each 
ordinary sitting of the House. 

— Her Majesty and the Royal Family take 
their departure from the Isle of Wight on then- 
first visit to Ireland. It was intended to cast 
anchor in Portland Roads, but, the weather 
being unusually favourable, the voyage was 
continued without interruption to the Cove of 
Cork, which was reached in about thirty 
hours after the departure from Osborne. Next 
day the Queen received addresses on board 
the royal yacht, and stepped ashore for a 
short time about 3 o’clock. On entering the 
pavilion prepared for her reception, her Majesty 
said to Dr. Power, “ I have to inform you that 
I comply with the -wishes of the inhabitants 
to change the name of this town.” The old 
flag with the word “Cove” on it was then 




AUGUST 


1849. 


AUGUST 


hauled down, and another with the new in¬ 
scription “Queenstown” took its place. On 
proceeding up the river to Cork numerous ad¬ 
dresses were presented, and her Majesty con¬ 
ferred the honour of knighthood on the Mayor, 
William Lyons, Esq. From Cork the squadron 
dropped down the river, and made direct for 
Kingston harbour, which was reached in the 
evening about 7 o’clock. The royal visit to 
Dublin was made on the 6th. “Such a day 
of jubilee,” writes the Times, “such a night 
of rejoicing, has never been beheld in the 
ancient capital of Ireland since first it arose on 
the banks of the Liffey. No ovation of olden 
Rome enriched with the spoils of conquered 
nations, and illustrated by the wealth of cap¬ 
tured kings, was so glorious as the triumphant 
entry of Queen Victoria into Dublin.” The 
royal cortege occupied an hour and a half in 
passing through the streets from the railway 
station to the Viceregal Lodge. A decorated 
archway was erected at Canal Bridge, where 
the Lord Mayor presented her Majesty with 
the keys of the city and with the mace and 
sword. On returning the keys the Queen said: 
“ I am delighted to be in Dublin. I am gratified 
at the reception I have met with in this the 
second city of my empire.” Next day the royal 
party visited the Bank, the National Board of 
Education, and Trinity College. In the early 
part of the 8th Prince Albert inspected a troop 
of hussars in Phoenix Park, and in the after¬ 
noon her Majesty held a levee in the Castle. 
The address of the Dublin Corporation was 
replied to in these words:—“ It affords me 
sincere pleasure to receive your address in my 
ancient and loyal city of Dublin, and I gladly 
avail myself of this occasion to express my 
grateful acknowledgment for the ardent affection 
and loyalty with which my arrival has been 
hailed. ... I gladly share with you the hope 
that the heavy visitation with which Provi¬ 
dence has recently visited large numbers of 
people in this country is passing away. I have 
felt deeply for their sufferings, and it will be a 
source of heartfelt satisfaction to me if I am 
permitted to witness the future and lasting 
prosperity of this portion of the United King¬ 
dom.” A review in Phoenix Park was the 
main feature of Thursday’s rejoicings, and on 
Friday her Majesty visited the Duke of Leinster, 
at Carton. Belfast was similarly honoured on 
Saturday; and on Sunday the royal squadron 
stood out for the Firth of Clyde, but was com¬ 
pelled to seek shelter for the night in Loch 
Ryan. On Monday the 13th the royal squadron 
sailed up Loch Long, and Prince Albert passed 
across from Arrochar to Loch Lomond, and 
joined the Queen on board the Fairy , in the 
Clyde, when the fleet passed up the river to 
Glasgow. Here her Majesty was received by 
the Corporation of Glasgow and the gentry of 
the West of Scotland; accompanied by them, 
the royal party proceeded through the streets to 
the Cathedral and University, and afterwards 
departed by railway on their journey northward 
to Balmoral. 

(282) 


2 .—In the case of Gorham v. the Bishop of 
Exeter, the Arches Court give judgment that 
the Bishop was justified in his refusal to induct 
the plaintiff into the living of Brampford- 
Speke. 

— Died at Alexandria, aged 80, Mehemet 
Ali, ex-Pasha of Egypt. 

4.. —Mr. Berwick, Q.C., Government Com¬ 
missioner, closes his court of inquiry into the 
circumstances connected with the collision at 
Dolly’s Brae. A protest against the closing of 
the inquiry was made by Mr. Rae, who acted 
as attorney for the Ribbon party. 

6 . —Lola Montez brought up at Marlborough- 
street Police-court on a charge of bigamy, in so 
far as she had intermarried with Lieut. Heald 
of the 2d Life Guards, her former husband, 
Captain James, being still alive. The suit was 
instituted by the friends of Lieut. Heald, who 
had only come of age in January last, and was 
entitled to a fortune of between 6,000/. and 
7,000/. a year. The prisoner admitted her first 
marriage with Captain James, but said she then 
passed under a false name, and that to com¬ 
plete its nullity a divorce had been obtained by 
mutual consent. On inquiry it turned out that 
the sentence of the Consistorial Court prohibited 
either from marrying during the lifetime of the 
other. The case was adjourned from time to 
time for the production of witnesses, but the 
non-appearance of the defendant at the later 
stages led to an estreating of the recognizances. 

— Examination in bankruptcy of E. T. 
Delafield, lessee of the Royal Italian Opera, 
Co vent Garden. 

— Treaty of peace concluded between 
Austria and Sardinia at Milan, the last-men¬ 
tioned Power surrending Peschiera, and with¬ 
drawing her troops from Venice. 

10. —Serious defeat of the Hungarians by 
General Haynau, at Temeswar, which was 
captured after a siege of 107 days. 

11 . —Explosion of fire-damp in the Lletty 
Shenkin Colliery, Aberdare, causing the death 
of fifty-two workmen out of 112 employed 
in the pit. 

— The blockade of the Elbe and Weser 
raised, and also that of the Baltic ports, with 
the exception of those on the east coast of 
Holstein. 

— The Hungarian dictator Gorgey, at the 
head of between 30,000 and 40,000 men, sur¬ 
renders to the Russians at Arad. He writes to 
General Rudiger: “The Provisional Govern¬ 
ment exists no longer. The height of peril had 
found it at the weakest. I, the man of action, 
but not of ineffectual action, saw that all further 
bloodshed was useless—disastrous for Hungary. 

I had seen it in the beginning of the Russian 
intervention. I called to-day upon the Pro¬ 
visional Government to abdicate unconditionally, 
because its continuance in power could only 
render the future of our fatherland darker from 
day to day, and more deplorable. The Pro- 





AUGUST 


1849. 


AUGUST 


visional Government admitted this, and volun¬ 
tarily resigned, laying down the supreme power 
m my hands. I avail myself of this circum¬ 
stance, according to my best persuasion, to 
spare the effusion of blood, and to liberate 
my peaceful fellow-citizens (whom 1 am too 
weak any longer to protect from at least the 
miseries of war), by laying down arms uncon¬ 
ditionally, and thereby giving the impulse to 
the leaders of the divisions of the Hungarian 
forces separated from me shortly to do the same, 
acknowledging with me that this is the best 
thing that can at present be done for Hungary. ” 
Gorgey concluded by describing his intended 
route, so that the Russians, to whom alone he 
would surrender, might throw themselves be¬ 
tween his forces and the Austrians. On the 
16th he writes to General Klapka: “ Since we 
saw one another events have taken place which 
were not indeed unexpected, but have been 
decisive. The everlasting jealousy of the Go¬ 
vernment had fortunately brought matters to 
the point which I foretold as early as April, 
when I passed the Theiss at Tokay. After 
many honourable battles with the Russians, 
the Diet declared its wish that I should be Com- 
mander-in-chief. Kossuth secretly appointed 
Bern. The country believed that Kossuth had 
appointed me from the jesuitical answer which 
he gave to the motion of the Diet. This knavery 
was the source of all that befell later.” On the 
14th Kossuth writes to Bern, from Terregova: 
‘ ‘ I advise, as a good citizen and honourable 
man, that you set down a committee of repre¬ 
sentatives of the people, for only the sovereign 
power can act over the Government. Send 
couriers to Comorn and Peterwardein to hold 
out. Assure yourself of the co-operation of 
the commandant of the fortress of Arad. This, 
and not my presence, is before all things neces¬ 
sary ; for since you are now reduced to employ 
force against the people to subsist your army, 
I neither can nor will sanction such measures 
by my presence.” 

11.—Proclamation of the President of the 
United States against a marauding expedition 
secretly fitting out in that country against 
Cuba. 

13 .—The first aggregate meeting of the 
Financial and Parliamentary Reform League 
held in Drury-lane Theatre. 

17 .—Discovery of the remains of Patrick 
O’Connor, a custom-house officer, murdered 
by Mr. and Mrs. Manning, and buried in the 
back kitchen of their house, Miniver-place, 
Bermondsey. Suspicion having been excited 
by the absence of O’Connor from his lodgings 
since the 9th inst., a search was made in the 
house occupied by his acquaintances the Man¬ 
nings, and in the place above described the 
body was found lying on the face, with the legs 
doubled up and tied to the haunches. A 
quantity of quick lime had been thrown into 
the hole to hasten the decay of the remains. 
At the time of the discovery the house was un¬ 
occupied. Mrs. Manning, presuming upon her 


intimacy with O’Connor, had gone to his lodg¬ 
ings immediately after the murder, and taker, 
possession of a considerable amount of railway 
scrip and certain sums of money kept in his 
drawers. She returned to her house and re¬ 
mained there for three days, during one of 
which the police made a cursory inspection of 
the place, under the belief that the missing 
man was most likely to be found there. On 
the 12th, under the assumed name of Mrs. 
Smith, she fled with her plunder to Edinburgh, 
and on the 20th was apprehended in a private 
lodging-house there by Superintendent Moxey, 
who was set on her track by a stockbroker 
to whom she had offered O’Connor’s scrip for 
sale. Manning was captured at Jersey eight 
days afterwards. The examination into the 
charges made against them extended over 
several days at Southwark Police-office, and 
resulted in the committal of both for trial. In 
the course of the inquiry, Manning made a 
statement to the effect that his wife having in¬ 
duced O’Connor to come to dinner, asked him 
to go down stairs to wash his hands; and as he 
reached the passage leading to the kitchen she 
put one arm round his neck and shot him with 
the other. (See October 25.) 

18 .—The President of the French Republic, 
in a letter to Lieut.-Col. Edgar Ney, declares 
that the restoration of the Pope to temporal 
power ought to be accompanied by a general 
amnesty, the secularization of administration, 
the Code Napoleon, and a liberal Government. 
“ When our armies made the round of Europe, 
the trace of their passage was eveiywhere 
marked by the destruction of the abuses of 
feudalism and by the germs of liberty. It shall 
not be said in 1849 that a French army has 
acted in another sense to bring about other 
results. Tell the General to thank the army 
in my name for its noble conduct. I have 
learned with pain that even physically it has not 
been treated as it ought to have been : nothing 
should be neglected for the comfort of our 
troops.” 

21 . — The Hungarian leaders, Kossuth, Bern, 
and others, escape to the Turkish frontier, and 
obtain the protection of the Porte. 

—Mary Ann Geering executed, in front of 
Lewes gaol, for the series of crimes known as 
the Guestling Poisonings, the convict in this 
case having caused the death of her husband 
and two sons by poison, for the purpose of 
obtaining “burial money” from a society of 
which they were members. 

22 . —After a lengthened and obstinate siege, 
Venice capitulates to the Austrians. The terms 
were—a complete surrender of all weapons, 
pardon to subaltern officers, permission for 
those to leave the territory who choose to do 
so, and banishment from the State of forty 
leaders of the Republican party. 

— The Peace Congress of Paris, presided 
over by M. Victor Hugo, commences its sittings 
in the Salle de St. Cecile. 

(283) 




AUGUST 


1849. 


SEPTEMBER 


22. —John Gleeson Wilson tried at the 
Northern Circuit, Liverpool, for the murder of 
Ann Henrichson. True bills had also been found 
against him for the murder of the two children 
and servant. At the close of the evidence the 
jury deliberated only a few minutes before re¬ 
turning a verdict of Guilty. The sentence of 
execution was carried into effect in front of 
Kirkdale gaol on the 15th September. 

23 . —Rebecca Smith executed at Devizes for 
the murder of her youngest child, one month 
old. After conviction, this hardened criminal, 
who affected a great outward show of piety, 
confessed to the chaplain of the gaol that she 
had destroyed seven others of her children by 
poison. 

— Speaking at a Confirmation at Cong, 
Mayo, Dr. M‘Hale described the Established 
Church as a cursed and corrupted institution—• 
“a base and damnable Church”—which was 
poisoning the minds of the young with “the 
loathsome and soul-killing doctrines of Luther 
and Calvin.” 

26 . —Hayti proclaimed an empire under the 
late President Solouque, who takes the title of 
Faustin I. 

27 . —Insurrection in Cephalonia and Corfu. 

— M. Leon Faucher, ex-Minister of Interior, 

addressing his townsmen at Limoges, spoke of 
the Revolution of February as a chastisement 
on the middle classes, for not making a good 
use of the power confided to them for eighteen 
years. He protested against being considered 
a Republican, nor did he think the Revolution 
an event on which France ought to congratulate 
herself. 

23 .—Mr. A. H. Layard and party leave 
Constantinople to resume excavations in the 
buried cities of Nineveh and Babylon, inter¬ 
rupted in 1847. They disembarked at Trebi- 
zond on the 31st, and proceeded by Erzeroum 
to Mossul and Nimroud, where a successful 
search was commenced for those wonderful 
remains of ancient art afterwards conveyed to 
this country. 

29 .—The Russians capture the Circassian 
fortress at Achula, the residence of Schamyl, 
who escaped to the mountains. 

31 .—The three expelled Wesleyan ministers, 
Griffith, Dunn, and Everett, appear in Exeter 
Hall to defend the resistance they had shown 
to the inquisitorial proceedings of Conference 
with reference to the authors of the “ Fly 
Sheets.” 

— Expiry of the Habeas Corpus Suspension 
Act in Ireland. 

September 2 . —Catherine Thomson murders 
her husband at Tulla, Leinster, by beating his 
brains out with a hammer, and then, with the 
help of her mother, mutilates the body for the 
purpose of conveying it secretly to a hole in 
Rossmare bog, where it was found. The mur¬ 
deress left home under the pretence of meeting 
her husband in Liverpool, and then returned 
(284) 


with the story of his desertion. The body was 
found by this time, and she ultimately confessed 
her guilt. 

5 .—Mr. Hume having drawn the attention 
of Lord John Russell to the refusal of Mr. 
More O’Ferral, Governor of Malta, to permit 
the Roman refugees to land on the island, his 
lordship writes: “What has been the hard¬ 
ship inflicted ? These persons were in no danger 
of their lives while they were on board a French 
vessel. They took their passages to England, 
or to Greece if they chose. They were pre¬ 
vented from disturbing Malta, and that was all. 
Lord Grey has, therefore, with my full concur¬ 
rence, expressed his approbation of the course 
pursued by the Governor of Malta. ” 

7 . —The King of Prussia meets the Emperor 
of Austria at Toplitz, and next day they visit 
the King of Saxony at Pillnitz. 

8. —Frederick William IV. of Prussia de¬ 
clared head of the Bavarian Imperial Constitu¬ 
tion by the Frankfort Assembly. 

10 . —Falling in of a well at M‘Cullough’s 
starch manufactory, Belfast. Four men engaged 
in digging a site for a new cistern were over¬ 
whelmed in the rush of earth and stone, but 
through prompt and persevering exertion were 
all got out alive. 

11 . —The Prince of Wales gazetted as Earl 
of Dublin. 

12 . —The Pope issues a motu proprio to his 
subjects from the palace of Portici. 

— At a meeting of the Royal Bucks Agri¬ 
cultural Association Mr. Disraeli reproduces his 
scheme for relieving agricultural distress by the 
equalization of the land-tax and the creation of 
a sinking fund, which would raise consols above 
par, and enable both landlords and tenants to 
obtain money on easy terms. 

13 . —The magistrates assembled in Petty 
Session at Castlewellan refuse to take informa¬ 
tion against persons alleged to have created the 
disturbance at Dolly’s Brae. The refusal was 
repeated on the 9th October. 

IS.—Gold dust and Mexican dollars to the 
value of about 6,000,000/. lodged in the Bank 
of England. The precious load was conveyed 
from the London Bridge terminus in fifteen 
vans escorted by the police. 

— Riots in By town, near Montreal, between 
the Canadian Reformers, who had met to pre¬ 
pare a congratulatory address to Lord Elgin, 
and the Tory or Orange party. Both sides being 
armed, several of the rioters were wounded in 
the fight. The original chairman was ejected 
from his office, and a resolution passed con¬ 
demnatory of Lord Elgin’s policy. 

— In London, during the past week, the 
excessive number of deaths from cholera raised 
the mortality from the ordinary average of 1,008 

3 > I &3. Next day (Sunday), by order of the 
Queen, prayers were offered up in all the 
churches for the removal of the scourge. 





SEPTEMBER 


OCTOBER 


I 349 - 


16 . —The Turkish Government refuses to 
surrender Kossuth, Bern, and other Hungarian 
and Polish refugees who had taken refuge 
within its territory after the late untoward 
events in the War of Independence. 

17 . —Pursuant to a decree of the President of 
the Republic, the Synod or Council of Gallican 
Bishops hold their first sitting at St. Sulpice, in 
Paris. 

18 . —Rupture of diplomatic relations be¬ 
tween Turkey and Russia and Austria, in con¬ 
sequence of the refusal of the former to give up 
the Hungarian fugitives. 

— Flogging of women by the Austrian 
soldiers. Madame F. Von Maderspach writes 
from Ruskby: “I was torn from the arms of 
my husband, from the circle of my children, 
from the hallowed sanctuary of my home, 
charged with no offence, allowed no hearing, 
arraigned before no judge. I, a woman, wife, 
and mother, was in my own native town, before 
the people accustomed to treat me with respect, 
dragged into a square of soldiers, and there 
scourged with rods. Look, I can write this 
without dropping dead ! But my husband killed 
himself. Robbed of all other weapons, he shot 
himself with a pocket-pistol. The people rose 
and would have killed those who instigated 
these horrors, but their lives were saved by the 
interference of the military.” 

19 . —The foundation-stone of the new 
Grammar School of Magdalen College, Ox¬ 
ford, laid by the venerable president, Dr. 
Routh, who this day entered upon his 95 th 

year. 

20 . —Kossuth claims the protection of Eng¬ 
land for himself and his fellow-refugees, who, 
he writes to Lord Palmerston, had been offered 
the alternative of embracing Islamism in order 
to evade the demands of Russia and Austria for 
their extradition—a-n alternative which Bern and 
some others had accepted. 

— Proclamation from the Pope circulated at 
Rome, granting a Council of State, a State 
Committee for the finances, the confirmation 
of Provincial Councils, an extension of the 
franchise in the municipalities, reforms in the 
civil, criminal, and administrative legislation, 
and an amnesty under certain restrictions. 

23 .—The fortifications of MooLtan destroyed 
by an inundation of the Chenaub and Jhelum. 

28 .—At Newcastle, on the return south 
from Scotland, the Queen is received with 
great enthusiasm, and presented with an ad¬ 
dress on the High Level Bridge. Corporation 
addresses were also presented at York and 
Gloucester. 

— The fortress of Comorn, the last of 
the Hungarian strongholds, surrenders to the 
Austrians. 

October 6.—Count Louis Batthyany exe¬ 
cuted amid circumstances of great indignity at 
Pesth. The crime specially laid to his charge 


was that of instigating the assassination of Count 
Latour, Minister of War. He was said to have 
wounded himself in the throat with a nail to 
avoid the disgrace of a public execution. As 
the soldiers fired the Count fell, repeating “Eljen 
a haza” (My country for ever). 

8 . —Meeting at the London Tavern to pro¬ 
test against the practice of raising loans for the 
purpose of war, and more particularly to depre¬ 
cate the taking up of any portion of the new 
Austrian loan of 7,000,000/. Mr. Cobden was 
the chief speaker. 

9 . —Publication of Lord Clarendon’s letter 
to the Lord Chancellor, recommending the 
dismissal from the commission of the peace of 
Lord Roden and other Orange magistrates im¬ 
plicated in the affair at Dolly’s Brae on the 
12th July last. “ The step is taken from a due 
regard to the future preservation of the peace 
of the district in question, and for the adminis¬ 
tration of justice therein in a manner which 
will be entitled to public confidence and re¬ 
spect.” The dismissal was carried out. 

12. —Five men suffocated in a sewer in Kenil- 
worth-street, Pimlico. 

— Explosion at Barling’s firework factoiy, 
Bermondsey, causing the death of four persons. 

13 . —Cholera disappears from London. The 
total number of deaths from this cause regis¬ 
tered from the 1st October, 1848, to this date 
was 14,497. 

14 . —Died, aged 73, Rev. J. R. Coplestone, 
D.D., Bishop of Llandaff. 

16 . —Sir Robert Peel presented with the 
freedom of the city of Aberdeen. 

17 . —Meeting of merchants and bankers in 
London to promote the success of the contem¬ 
plated Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations 
in 1851. 

20.—The vote for expenses incurred by the 
French expedition to Rome passed the Legis¬ 
lative Assembly by a majority of 469 to 180. 
The debate was very violent, and led to a duel 
between MM. Thiers and Bixio, the latter having 
taunted the former with declaring that the 
election of Louis Napoleon would be a disgrace 
to France. The principals returned to the 
Assembly after exchanging shots. 

23 .—Fire on the premises of Baiss Brothers, 
druggists, Fish-street-hill. There were twenty- 
two workmen employed about the building at 
the time, and the spread of the flames w ? as so 
rapid that they had in most instances to save 
themselves by leaping out of the windows. 

25 .—Commenced at the Old Bailey the trial 
of the Mannings for the Bermondsey murder. 
It continued over two days, during which evi¬ 
dence of the most precise kind was produced 
connecting both prisoners with the crime. 
Serjeant Wilkins addressed the Court for the 
male prisoner, and Mr. Ballantine for Mrs. 
Manning. After an absence of fifteen minutes 
the jury returned a verdict of Guilty against 

(285) 






OCTOBER 


1849. 


NOVEMBER 


both. Mrs. Manning, who spoke in excellent 
English but with a slight French accent, de¬ 
clared that she had not been justly treated, and 
that there was no law in this country to execute 
her. If her counsel had called witnesses, she 
could have proved that she bought the shares 
found in her possession with her own money, 
and that they never belonged to O’Connor. 
“ She had not,” she said, “been treated like a 
Christian, but like a wild beast of the forest.” 
Mr. Justice Cresswell sentenced both prisoners 
to be executed. 

25 .—The 1,000th anniversary of the birth of 
Alfred the Great celebrated by a public ban¬ 
quet at Wantage. 

— First petition filed in the Encumbered 
Estates Court, Ireland. 

30 . —Opening of the New Coal Exchange 
by Prince Albert, who, accompanied by the 
Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Prime 
Minister, and many visitors of distinction, passed 
through the building and afterwards partook of 
luncheon with the Corporation. The Royal 
party proceeded in great state by water from 
Whitehall-stairs to the Custom-house quay, and 
returned the same way. 

— Meeting of Ulster Orangemen in Belfast 
to sympathize with Lord Roden on his dis¬ 
missal from the magistracy. 

31 . — President Buonaparte dismisses the 
Barrot Ministry ; “ France, in the confusion of 
parties, seeking the standard of the elected of 
loth December.” General d’Hautpool now 
undertook the direction of affairs. 

November 2 .—Mr. Plowden negotiates a 
treaty of commerce with Ras Ali, Emperor of 
Abyssinia. 

3 .—The Judges of France formally installed 
into office in the Church of St. Louis in pre¬ 
sence of the President and his new Ministers. 

— The Enterprise (Captain Ross) and the 
Investigator (Captain Bird) arrived off Scar¬ 
borough, with the intelligence that nothing had 
been seen or heard of Sir John Franklin and 
his party. 

— Died, James Stuart of Dunearn, latterly 
an inspector of factories, but more widely 
known for the fatal duel in which he was con¬ 
cerned with Sir Alexander Boswell in 1822. 

6 . —Sheffield Athenaeum opened. 

7 . —With reference to the plea raised in the 
Exchequer Chamber that Mrs. Manning, being 
an alien, had not been fairly convicted by a 
jury altogether English, the judges to-day gave 
it as their unanimous opinion that, though 
alieft born, being married to a British subject, 
she also, ipso facto, becomes a British subject, 
and was not therefore entitled to a new trial. 

-— Inauguration of Queen’s College, Cork. 
Sir Robert Kane delivered the opening address. 

IO.—John Francis, prisoner in Millbank 
Penitentiary, attacks John Hall, warder, and 
(286) 


murders him by repeated blows on the head 
with an earthen vessel. He was tried at the 
Central Criminal Court on the 29th, and ac 
quitted on the ground of insanity. 

10. —The Rev. Henry Hart Milman, D.D., 
succeeds to the Deanery of St. Paul’s, vacant 
by the death of the Bishop of Llandaff. 

11 . —St. Michael’s Church, Cambridge, partly 
destroyed by fire. 

— Fire on board the emigrant ship Caleb 
Grimshaw , having on board 427 passengers, 
and officers and crew to the number of thirty. 
When the flames were got under, the vessel was 
a complete wreck, and every effort was made 
to get off those on board either into the small 
boats or rafts hastily prepared for the purpose. 
In the confusion incident to those attempts a 
great number perished. Groups of those who 
left the ship contrived for several days to keep 
near those on the wreck, till relief appeared in 
the shape of the British barque Sarah , Captain 
Cook. Ninety-two were missing when all 
within sight were taken aboard, and eight died 
on the passage to Fayal. Of the ninety-two 
missing, thirty went off on the raft the day after 
the accident, forty perished from want of water 
and food, twelve were drowned by the swamp¬ 
ing of the quarter-deck, and the remainder 
were presumed to have been suffocated in their 
berths. 

12 . —Opening of the Shrewsbury and Bir¬ 
mingham Railway. 

— Austria protests against the Bavarian 
Constitution, and the alliance of Prussia with 
the minor German States. 

13 . —Execution of the Mannings in front of 
Horsemonger-lane Gaol. The husband made 
a confession of a kind imputing the guilt chiefly 
to his wife, while she, on the other hand, 
repeatedly declared that he knew she was inno¬ 
cent, and begged him therefore to save her life. 
In one of his statements he said: “ My wife 
asked O’Connor to go down stairs, and in about 
a minute afterwards I heard the report of a 
pistol. She then came up to me and said, 

‘ Thank God, I have made him all right at last; 
it will never be found out; as we are on such 
extraordinary good terms, no one will have the 
least suspicion of my murdering him.’ To 
which I replied, ‘ I am quite certain you will 
be hanged for this act;’ and she said, ‘It won’t 
be you that is to suffer; it will be me.’ After 
shooting him she said, ‘ I think no more of 
what I have done than if I shot the cat on the 
wall.’ Upon her coming to me upstairs she 
insisted on my going down immediately; and 
upon my reaching the kitchen I found him 
lying there. He moaned; I never liked him 
well, and I battered his head with a ripping 
chisel. ” On being led on to the scaffold it was 
noticed that Mrs. Manning was attired in the 
black satin dress which she wore at the trial, and 
had a long lace veil thrown over her face to con¬ 
ceal her features. When the wretched creatures 




NOVEMBER 


1849. 


NOVEMBER 


were placed beneath the drop, they shook hands 
together with as much apparent cordiality as the 
pinions round their arms permitted. The bolt 
was drawn immediately afterwards. In a letter 
to the Times on their execution, Mr. Dickens 
writes:—“ I believe that a sight so inconceiv¬ 
ably awful as the wickedness and levity of the 
immense crowd collected at the execution this 
morning could be imagined by no man, and pre¬ 
sented by no heathen land under the sun. The 
horrors of the gibbet and of the crime which 
brought the wretched murderers to it faded in 
my mind before the atrocious bearing, looks, 
and language of the assembled spectators. 
When I came upon the scene, at midnight, 
the shrillness of the cries and howls that were 
raised from time to time, denoting that they 
came from a concourse of boys and girls already 
assembled in the best places, made my blood 
run cold. . . . When the two miserable creatures 
who attracted all this ghastly sight about them 
were turned quivering into the air, there was 
no more emotion, no more pity, no more 
thought that two immortal souls had gone to 
judgment, no more restraint in any of the pre¬ 
vious obscenities, than if the name of Christ 
had never been heard in this world, and there 
were no belief among men but that they perish 
like the beasts. ” 

14 .—Died in York, his native town, aged 
62, William Etty, R.A. 

16 . —Cliefden House, near Maidenhead, the 
seat of the Duke of Sutherland, destroyed by 
fire. 

17 . —M. Pierre Buonaparte, who had unex¬ 
pectedly returned from a special mission to 
Algiers, defends his proceedings in the As¬ 
sembly. 

20 .—In the City of London County Court, 
Mr. Commissioner Bullock decides that the 
letting out of newspapers is illegal, under the 
23 Geo. III. cap. 50. 

— A new centre of agitation organized 
in Ireland, under the name of “The Irish 
Alliance.” 

— Mr. Charles Phillips, barrister, writes to 
the Tivies , denying the truth of certain scandals, 
now revived in connexion with the Manning 
case, regarding his defence of Courvoisier. The 
criminal’s defence, he said, was continued after 
the confession of guilt at his (Courvoisier’s) own 
request, and with the full approval of Mr. 
Baron Parke, who sat on the bench. He 
denied having appealed to Heaven in support 
of Courvoisier’s innocence, or having insinuated 
that certain other servants in the house were 
guilty of the murder. 

23 .—Dr. Webster, professor of chemistry 
in Harvard University, Boston, murders Dr. 
George Parkman in one of the rooms of the 
Medical College. The clothes were burnt in 
a stove of the laboratory, and the body imme¬ 
diately dismembered; the head, viscera, and 
some of the limbs thrown into the furnace, 


where a fire was kept for the purpose of making 
oxygen gas, and the remainder hid in two 
water cisterns, one of which was under the lid 
of the lecture-room table where the murderer 
met his students. Dr. Parkman was never seen 
alive after he went to visit Dr. Webster con¬ 
cerning certain pecuniary transactions which 
had taken place between them. Webster was 
apprehended on the 30th, and sentenced to 
death by the Supreme Judicial Court of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, at Boston, on the 19th of March, 
1850. 

24 .—Sir F. Thesiger applies to Mr. Justice 
Patteson, in the Bail Court, for a rule calling 
upon the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral 
church of Rochester to show cause why a writ 
of prohibition should not issue to prevent their 
proceeding further in the matter of certain 
charges preferred against the Rev. Robert 
Whiston, in connexion with his publication, 
“ Cathedral Trusts and their fulfilment.” Ac¬ 
cording to the affidavits and documents pro¬ 
duced, it appeared that the cathedral church of 
Rochester was founded and endowed by Henry 
VIII. in 1542. By that endowment the Dean 
and Chapter were made a corporation, and 
estates and possessions were given to them for 
divers purposes; but one material purpose was 
the foundation and endowment of a grammar 
school, which was to consist of a head master, 
under master, 24 scholars, and other boys. 
Incomes were fixed for all the parties. The 
Dean was to receive 100/. a year, the Canon 
20/. a year, the free scholars 2/. 13^. 4 d., and 
the four students sent to the University 5/. a 
year until they took the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts, and 61 . 13^. 4 d. from then till they took 
the degree of Master of Arts. Mr. Whiston 
was appointed head master of the grammar 
school—an office which he considered to be 
held for life, or during good behaviour. Find¬ 
ing that no provision had been made for the 
accommodation of boarders in the school, he 
laid out 4,000/. in the purchase of a house and 
land for the purpose, and expended a further 
sum of 2,700/. in fitting up the residence. This 
he alleged he would not have done except on 
the understanding that he could not be removed 
unless he became “slothful and negligent, unfit 
or unapt to teach.” At that time there was 
not a single free scholar in the school, though 
the full number were admitted soon after¬ 
wards. From an examination of the statutes 
Mr. Whiston inferred that all the different 
persons mentioned, and in particular the free 
scholars and students, should be maintained by 
the stipends allotted to them under the statutes; 
and further, that the whole of the possessions 
of the Dean and Chapter should be exhausted, 
in certain proportions, in satisfaction of the 
different stipends. The Dean’s stipend was 
now 1,500/. a year, and the Canon’s 700/., 
while the free scholars were still kept at the 
original 2/. 13^. 44/. Believing that the Dean 
and Chapter were evading their just respon¬ 
sibility under the statutes, Mr. Whiston wrote 
to his patron requesting a more equitable dis- 




NOVEMBER 


1849. 


DECEMBER 


tribution of the funds. A correspondence 
ensued, which terminated in the Dean and 
Chapter depriving Mr. Whiston of his office, 
on the ground of having committed a grave 
offence in publishing his pamphlet on “ Cathedral 
Trusts. ” They afterwards restored him to office; 
but subsequent proceedings on their part led 
to a protest from Mr. Whiston and his removal 
from office a second time. The question on 
its merits was at present before the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor, and pending the appeal in his court 
the present application was made. In de¬ 
ference to the opinion of Mr. Justice Patteson, 
instead of a rule a mandamus was granted, 
calling upon the Dean and Chapter to restore 
Mr. Whiston. 

26 . —Mr.Cobden inaugurates a new agitation 
by addressing a meeting in the London Tavern, 
in favour of a forty-shilling freehold franchise. 

27 . —Commercial treaty signed at San Jose 
between Great Britain and the Republic of 
Costa Rica. 

December 1.—The new number of Fraser’s 
Magazine contains an “ Occasional Discourse 
on the Nigger Question,” leading to con¬ 
siderable controversy from the countenance it 
gave to sharp measures for compelling Quashee, 
“up to the ears in pumpkin,” to work under 
the direction of the white man, for the develop¬ 
ment of all such produce as could be best 
grown in the West Indies. The authorship was 
unmistakeable, and hardly needed the indorsa¬ 
tion it afterwards received of being included in 
the collected writings of Mr. Thomas Carlyle. 

— Died at Argilt-hill, near Barnsley, aged 
60, Ebenezer Elliott, the “ Corn-Law Rhymer.” 

— Dissolution of the Oxford Society for 
the Protection of Agriculture, on the ground 
that it was of no use, never had been, nor was 
ever likely to be, and was besides an anomaly, 
inasmuch as the farmers had now nothing to 
protect. 

2.—This morning, at seven minutes before 
two o’clock, Queen Adelaide died at Stanmore 
Priory, aged 56. A general mourning was 
ordered “in pursuance of her Majesty’s com¬ 
mands.” The interment took place in the 
Royal Chapel, St. George’s, Windsor, with less 
ceremony than usual, in conformity with the 
expressed wishes of her late Majesty. 

4 .—The Providence lifeboat, of South 
Shields, upset at the mouth of the Tyne when 
attempting to reach a brig in distress on the 
Herd Sands. Of the twenty-four experienced 
pilots on board, only four succeeded in reaching 
the shore. The others perished in sight of the 
crew of the little vessel they were attempting 
to aid. 

—- M. Waldeck, a prominent leader of the 
Liberal party in the German Parliament, tried 
at Berlin and acquitted on various treasonable 
charges, brought against him by one Ohm, a 
Prussian Titus Oates, and M. Von Hinkeldy, 
chief of the police. 

(288) 


6.—The new Corn Exchange, in Edinburgh, 
opened. 

6.—Carew’s relief of the Death of Nelson 
placed in the base of the monument in Trafal- 
gar-square. 

12 .— At Kilrush forty-one of the starving 
peasantry, who had sought ineffectually to gain 
admission to the workhouse, are drowned on 
their return homeward by the upsetting of an 
old worn-out ferry boat. 

'— A Commission de lunatico inquirendo , 
sitting at Farrance’s Hotel, with Mr. Commis¬ 
sioner Barlow, find that Augustus Frederick, 
Earl of Albemarle, is of unsound mind, and 
incapable of managing his own affairs. 

— Died in London, aged 80, Sir Marc Isam- 
bard Brunei, engineer of the Thames Tunnel. 

15 . —Sir Charles Napier issues a General 
Order from head-quarters, Lahore, censuring 
in severe terms the commanding officers of cer¬ 
tain regiments lately reviewed on the plain of 
Meean Meer. “The Sepoy,” he said, “is a 
brave and an obedient soldier; and whenever he 
behaves ill, it is in a great measure the fault of 
his commanding officer. The drill and dis-' 
cipline of all armies rest mainly with the com¬ 
manders of regiments and of companies. They 
are in immediate contact with the officers, non¬ 
commissioned officers, and private soldiers, and 
to them general officers must look for that 
perfect obedience, without which any army is 
an armed mob, dangerous to its friends and 
contemptible to its enemies.” 

16 . —Fire at Belper, Derbyshire, destroying 
property estimated at 100,000/., and throwing 
1,500 people out of employment. 

18 .—Rev. E. M. Goulbum, examining chap¬ 
lain to the Bishop of Oxford, elected Head 
Master of Rugby School, in room of Dr. Tait, 
translated to the deanery of Carlisle, vacant by 
the removal of Dr. Hinds to the see of Norwich. 

20 .—Inauguration of Queen’s College, Bel¬ 
fast. A declaration was made by each of the 
professors that they would discharge the duties 
of their office with truth, diligence, and fidelity. 

— Cases of spirit-rapping reported from 
New York. 

24 .—In the course of a long address to the 
tenant-farmers on his estate, Sir Robert Peel 
writes : “ It is my firm persuasion that neither 
the present nor any future Parliament will con¬ 
sent to reimpose duties upon the main articles 
of human food, either for the purpose of pro¬ 
tection or revenue.” 

— One half of the city of San Francisco 
destroyed by fire. 

— Died at Malvern, aged 58, Patrick 
Fraser Tytler, author of the “ History of 
Scotland,” and other works. 

26 .—The Palace Court closed, the measures 
necessary for its dissolution having been greatly 
hastened by exposures in connection with the 
case of “Jacob Omnium’s” horse. 

28 —Narrow escape of Madame Sontagand 






DECEMBER 


1849-50. 


JANUAP Y 


other musical celebrities from perishing in a 
snow-storm on the railway near Laurencekirk, 
Aberdeenshire. The engine got embedded in 
a snow-wreath, and the party took refuge in 
the house of a hospitable farmer in the neigh¬ 
bourhood. 

31 .—Russia resumes diplomatic relations 
with Turkey, which had been interrupted by 
the refusal of the latter Power to give up the 
Hungarian refugees. 


1850. 

January 1 . —Charlotte Wilson robs Barnet 
Lea, near St. George’s Church, Southwark, by 
passing a handkerchief saturated with chloro¬ 
form over his face. She was sentenced to ten 
years’ transportation for the offence. 

— At a meeting of the York, Newcastle, 
and Berwick Railway Company, the share¬ 
holders agree to compromise their claims on 
Mr. Hudson. Besides the 90,000/. paid during 
the year, he bound himself to pay over 100,000/. 
and all the expenses the company had been put 
to. In the course of an explanation and de¬ 
fence regarding the various schemes with which 
his name was associated, Mr. Hudson wrote : 
* * Allow me to ask you to review those trans¬ 
actions with some remembrance of the excited 
period in which they occurred, of the multi¬ 
plicity of concerns which I had to superin¬ 
tend and direct, of the brief opportunities I 
had for reflection, and of the impossibility 
of giving sufficient attention to the public 
duties and private matters which then claimed 
my attention.” 

3 .—The Irish residents in Manchester and 
Salford present an address to Mr. Bright, 
thanking him for the manner in which he had 
advocated the claims of Ireland. Mr. Bright 
replied at some length, describing the manner 
in which the land of Ireland was closed against 
the industry of its people through its legal 
possession by an alien or insolvent proprietary, 
and indicating the measures which he would 
advise for the redemption of Ireland. These 
included abolition of primogeniture for un¬ 
devised property, and restriction on its devise 
to lives not in being ; registry of property ; 
reduction of the enormous stamp charges for 
the sale and purchase of land ; security of 
tenure for the actual cultivators of the soil; 
abolition of the Established Church in Ireland ; 
and extension of the suffrage. He expected 
the intelligent and upright men of Ireland to 
come forth from their isolation and claim the 
aid of the English people in forcing upon the 
Government proper measures for their country. 
Lord John Russell, he said, had now an 
opportunity of doing more for this country 
than almost any Minister of our time. He 
might add the industry and affection of 
millions to the wealth and strength of the 
empire. “ But if he should fail ; if he should 
prove himself to be the agent of a timid and 


selfish oligarchy rather than the Prime Minister 
of the Crown and of the people; if he should not 
dare to do these things, which in my conscience 
I believe he knows to be necessary ; even then 
we will not despair, for there is growing up 
in England, and I hope in Ireland, a party so 
strong and so numerous, that by and by it will 
leave out only the pauperism at one end of the 
scale and, it may be, the titled and the privi¬ 
leged at the other—it will include almost the 
whole people. ” 

4 .—The Gazette contains the names of the 
Royal Commission ‘ ‘ for the Promotion of the 
Exhibition of the Works of all Nations, to be 
holden in the year 1851.” The Commissioners 
order an inquiry as to the best mode of intro¬ 
ducing the productions of colonies and foreign 
countries, the best site, the general conduct of 
the Exhibition, and the distribution of the 
prizes. A. meeting was held in London on the 
25th to raise funds. 

7 . —Revolt in the workhouse of Barham 
Union, near Ipswich. A number of young 
men discharged from farm labour about Christ¬ 
mas became riotously disposed, atid broke into 
the master’s office, demanding more food. 
They afterwards destroyed all the furniture 
they could lay their hands on, and were only 
overpowered when a strong body of constables 
made their entry into the house. 

8 . —Mr. Disraeli addresses a meeting at Great 
Marlow, called “to take into consideration the 
depressed state of agriculture, and all classes 
dependent thereon.” Replying to Mr. Cobden’s 
challenge, he promised to meet that gentleman 
on the floor of the House. 

— Died at his residence, Pentonville, in 
the 49th year of his age, Lieutenant Waghorn, 
R.N., an intrepid traveller, and originator of 
the Overland route to India. 

9 . —The King of Prussia’s Message, recom¬ 
mending certain alterations in the Constitution, 
presented to the Cham bers in Berlin. The most 
important articles, relating to the formation of 
a hereditary Chamber and the creation of a 
special court for the trial of political offenders, 
were agreed to, with slight alteration, on the 
30th. 

— The Turin Chambers vote the ratification 
of the treaty of peace with Austria by 112 
to 17. 

— A meeting in connexion with the Finan¬ 
cial and Parliamentary Reform movement held 
in Aylesbury, to receive Mr. Cobden, who, in 
a speech at Leeds, had challenged the Protec¬ 
tionists to meet him in their own stronghold to 
discuss the question of Protection and Free- 
trade. Mr. Cobden was proceeding to illus¬ 
trate his views on the relation between land¬ 
lord and tenant by reference to the management 
of his own small estate in Sussex, when he was 
interrupted by cries of ‘ ‘ How did you get it ? ” 
“I am indebted for it,” he answered, “ to the 
bounty of my countrymen. It was the scene 
of my birth and my infancy; it was the property 

u 





JANUARY 


1850. 


JANUARY 


of my ancestors; and it is by the munificence 
of my countrymen that this small estate, which 
had been alienated from my father by necessity, 
has again come into my hands, and enabled me 
to light up afresh the hearth of my father, where 
I spent my childhood. And I say that no 
warrior duke who owns a vast domain by the 
vote of the Imperial Parliament holds his 
property by a more honourable title than I 
possess mine.” When the vehement cheer¬ 
ing produced by these words had subsided, 
Mr. Cobden proceeded to describe the course 
he adopted when he first visited the place after 
it came into his possession. 

10. —A disorderly Protectionist meeting held 
at Stafford. The farmers mustered about 
400 strong, and the townspeople in still greater 
numbers. Lord St. Vincent, in moving that 
Lord Talbot take the chair, used expressions 
which raised shouts of disapprobation. Be¬ 
fore long, weapons were in use on both sides, 
and the townsmen were ejected from the hall. 
Exasperated by this defeat, they broke the win¬ 
dows and scoured the streets for increased num¬ 
bers to burst open the hall doors. This was 
ultimately accomplished, and the fight re¬ 
newed with increasing asperity inside. An 
address to the Queen, praying for a dissolution 
of Parliament, was carried in dumb show amid a 
shower of missiles. Lord Talbot and others 
were severely hurt, and the farmers were finally 
compelled to seek refuge in the hotels and rail¬ 
way station. Meetings marked by a similar 
spirit of disorder took place at Stepney, Lin¬ 
coln, Northampton, Penenden Heath, and in 
various counties in Ireland. 

— The Enterprise and Investigator again 
leave Woolwich to proceed to the Polar Seas, 
in search of Sir John Franklin. 

11 . —Ellen Bright, the Lion Queen, killed 
at Chatham by a tiger which she was exhibiting 
in the menagerie of her uncle, Mr. Womb- 
well. The brute was beaten off by one of the 
keepers, and the unfortunate girl removed from 
the stage, bleeding profusely and life all but 
extinct. The coroner’s jury expressed a strong 
opinion against the practice of entering the 
dens of wild animals. 

12 . — In the Central Criminal Court, Lewis 
Joel, jeweller and bill-discounter, sentenced to 
ten years’ transportation for forging a bill of 
exchange in the name of Lieut. Clements. 

14 -.—At Killarney a fire broke out in a build¬ 
ing known as the College, used by the guardians 
as a workhouse hospital. Scarcely had the 
flames in one portion been suppressed before 
they broke out in another called the Brewery, 
used as a dormitory for a number of children. 
The doors and windows were fastened, and the 
only ready access was by a loft, through which 
the flames were pouring with great fierceness. 
The police and multitudes of assistants made 
extraordinary efforts to drag forth every one of 
the children and their nurses; but when they 
had nearly performed their perilous task the 
(290) 


rafters of the loft gave way, and twenty-eight 
were instantly killed and as many more severely 
injured. 

17 . —Meeting of tailors in Exeter Hall to 
petition Parliament with reference to the slop 
and “middle” system. 

— In answer to a deputation of Ulster 
Catholics, who waited upon the Lord Lieu¬ 
tenant with a memorial desiring the dismissal of 
all the Castlewellan magistrates, and demanding 
that the authors of the Dolly’s Brae outrage 
should be brought to justice, his Excellency 
said that he could not properly recommend to 
the Lord Chancellor the dismissal of these ma¬ 
gistrates. They were not personally implicated 
in the transactions impugned; they acted on 
their own judgment and responsibility in re¬ 
jecting the informations ; and they should not 
be removed merely because they declined to 
abide by the opinion of the law-officer of the 
Crown. 

— M. Montalembert, in the course of a debate 
on the organic law of public instruction, cen¬ 
sures the Socialist party for the mischievous 
influence they had exercised on the literature of 
France. 

18 . —Admiral Parker, in command of the 
British Mediterranean fleet, blockades the har- I 
bour of the Piraeus, the Greek Government 
having refused to satisfy the claims made by 
Mr. Finlay, a British -subject, for land appro- ; 
priated by the Crown in 1836, and by M. i 
Pacifico, a Jew, for damage done to his i 
house and furniture in a riot at Athens on the 
4th April, 1847. There were also various claims ! 
made on behalf of the English Government, in 
consideration of the ill-treatment of certain i 
Ionians at Pyrgos and Patras, and for the 
islands of Cervi and Sapienza, on the ground j 
that they formed part of the Ionian Islands, j 
and therefore belonged to England. 

— A meeting, called by Mr. Cobden, held ! 
in the London Tavern, to protest against the 
negotiation in this country of the new Russian i 
loan of 5,500,000/., given out to be required for 
the completion of the railway from St. Peters- ' 
burg to Moscow. Mr. Cobden moved a reso- 1 
lution, which was carried unanimously, declaring 
that the real object of the loan was to replenish 
the Russian treasury, exhausted by the Hun¬ 
garian war, and that to lend the money for such 
a purpose would be virtually to sanction the 
deeds of blood in Hungary, and tempt to future 
aggression and conquest. 

19 . —In the Consistory Court the Duchess of 
Buckingham obtains a decree of divorce against 
her husband on the ground of adultery. 

22 .—-In the Court of Exchequer a majority 
of the judges confirm the decision of the Court 
of Queen’s Bench, declaring the legality of the 
church-rate levied at Braintree by a minority of 
the parishioners. 

25 .—Meeting at the Mansion House to 
organize measures for collecting subscriptions j 






JANUARY 


1850. 


FEBRUARY 


in aid of the forthcoming Exhibition of the 
Industry of all Nations; 10,000/. collected. 

26 .—The French and Russian Ambassadors 
appeal to the English to withdraw their 
blockade of the Greek ports, on the plea that 
by checking commerce the Greek Govern¬ 
ment would find it impossible to fulfil their 
pecuniary obligations. The proferred media¬ 
tion was declined by England in the mean¬ 
time. 

— Died at his residence, Murray-place, 
Edinburgh, in his 77th year, Francis Jeffrey, 
a senator of the College of Justice, and long 
known as the most eminent of British critics. 

— Died, aged 71, Adam Oehlenschlager, 
Danish poet and dramatist. 

28 . —At a Rutland Protectionist meeting 
Mr. Cheetham describes Sir Robert Peel as a 
traitor who was entitled to live in dread of the 
poniard and dagger. 

29 . —Great tide in the Thames. At Wands¬ 
worth the streets were inundated, and the fires 
in the gas-works extinguished. 

— Another distressing Irish calamity occurred 
to-day, one of the floors of the auxiliary work- 
house in Clare-street, Limerick, giving way 
under a false alarm of fire, and burying twenty- 
seven of the inmates in the ruins. 

30 . —The Aborigines Protection and Peace 
Society holds a meeting at the London Tavern 
to petition Parliament for the total and imme¬ 
diate abolition of the practice of awarding head- 
money for the destruction of pirates. 

31 . —Parliament opened by commission. 
The Royal Speech referred to the amicable 
settlement of the dispute between Russia and 
Austria on the one hand, and Turkey on the 
other, concerning the Hungarian refugees; to 
the negotiations with foreign states rendered 
necessary by the relaxation of our Navigation 
laws; the loyal welcome received by her Ma¬ 
jesty in Ireland ; and to the complaints proceed¬ 
ing from the owners and occupiers of land. 
With reference to the cholera, “Her Majesty 
is persuaded that we shall best evince our 
gratitude by vigilant precautions against the 
more obvious causes of sickness, and an en¬ 
lightened consideration for those who are most 
exposed to its attacks. ” A Protectionist amend¬ 
ment to the Address was negatived in the Lords 
by 152 to 103, and in the Commons by 311 to 
192. 

— The French Government concede to Brett 
and Co. the right to establish an electric tele¬ 
graph line between France and England, by a 
submarine wire across the Channel. 

February 2 .—Mutiny of a native regiment 
at Umritsur, Bengal. The mutineers were all 
seized before they could possess themselves of 
their arms piled on the playground, and placed 
in confinement under the guns of the fort. 

4 . —Disturbance in the St. Martin district of 
Paris, caused by the Socialists trying to prevent 
(291) 


the cutting down of the trees of liberty. The 
troops were called out, and a few lives lost. 

5 . —M. Drouyn de Lhuys, on behalf of 
France, one of the Powers guaranteeing the 
independence of Greece, tenders to Lord 
Palmerston the good offices of his Government 
in procuring a satisfactory adjustment of the 
disputed claims. Lord Palmerston accepted 
the offer with an acknowledgment that Eng¬ 
land would prefer owing such satisfaction to 
the friendly intervention of France rather than 
to the continued employment of force. This 
arrangement was ratified by notes exchanged 
on the 12th. Baron Gros entered on his special 
mission at Athens on the 5th March. On the 
21st of the following month, in a conference 
on board the Inflexible, he expressed his deep 
regret that he had been unsuccessful in his 
negotiations, but still offered to continue his 
services in a non-official capacity, between Mr. 
Wise and the Greek Government. The claim 
was settled on the 26th on the basis of the pay¬ 
ment of 180,000 drachmas, to be distributed 
by the British Government to the different 
claimants, and 150,000 drachmas as securities, 
to be handed over to the British Government, 
to meet such claims as M. Pacifico might suc¬ 
ceed in establishing against the Portuguese 
Government. The papers relating to this latter 
claim were alleged by M. Pacifico to have been 
destroyed by the riot in which he otherwise 
suffered. 

— In moving the second reading of the 
Ecclesiastical Commission Bill, the Marquis of 
Lansdowne explained that its principal object 
was to separate the financial from the ecclesias¬ 
tical duties of the Commission, the former 
being referred to two paid and responsible 
commissioners—one appointed by the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, and the other by the 
Crown. 

— Mr. Horsman moves, but afterwards 
withdraws, a resolution for the appointment 
of three paid commissioners to manage eccle¬ 
siastical property. Sir George Grey explained 
that a bill on the subject had been introduced 
into the Upper House. 

— A hurricane of a severe and destructive 
character sweeps over the greater part of the 
kingdom. The pressure throughout the after¬ 
noon was from 9 to 11 lbs. on the square foot; 
but at six o’clock it suddenly rose to 17 lbs., 
being the highest pressure experienced at Lloyd's 
since the wind-gauge was set up. The shipping 
on the coast suffered severely. 

6 . —Mr. Hawes moves the reappointment 
of a select committee to inquire into the 
grievances complained of in connexion with the 
administration of the government of Ceylon. 
Mr. Hume censured Ministers for the cruelties 
they permitted to take place on the island, 
and charged them with doing everything in 
their power to cover the excesses of Lord T01- 
rington. Mr. Disraeli proposed to add an 
additional clause to the motion, condemnatory 

u 2 








FEBRUARY 


1850. 


FEBRUARY 


of the manner in which the Government had 
evaded the understanding arrived at last session 
for the production of witnesses from Ceylon. 
This was negatived by 140 to 68; and Mr. 
Bright’s motion, that four witnesses be ex¬ 
amined by the Committee, by 109 to 100. 

6 . —The King of Prussia and the two Cham¬ 
bers take the oath to the Constitution of 30th 
January. 

— The New York papers are much occupied 
with the details of a boiler explosion in Hogue- 
street, causing the destruction of a printing 
establishment six stories in height and the loss 
of above thirty workmen smothered in the ruins 
or burnt in the fire which immediately broke 
out. 

7 . —In a discussion on Hungarian affairs in 
the House of Commons, Lord Dudley Stuart 
observed that he was not satisfied Turkey was 
powerful enough to protect the refugees, for 
Austria was unscrupulous; and attempts had 
already been made by persons with Austrian 
passports to destroy Kossuth by poison. Lord 
Claude Hamilton said, with much warmth, that 
he believed this charge to be a base calumny 
against a faithful ally; on which Mr. Grattan, 
as an Irishman, disclaimed the sentiments of 
Lord C. Hamilton, whose parasitical adulations 
of a band of assassins he utterly condemned. 
He had read an account of the alleged flogging 
of an Hungarian countess by Austrian soldiers. 
“ What would his lordship say, ” he exclaimed, 
“if the Marchioness of Abercom was to be 
flogged, in a square, by the Guards, in Bird¬ 
cage-walk? What if the Duchess of Devon¬ 
shire were to be ? ”—a supposition at the 
suggestion of which the House roared with 
laughter; Mr. Grattan declaring that the 
scoffers ought to be spit upon by the children 
in the street. 

— Altercation in the House of Commons 
between Mr. Horsman and Lord John Russell, 
arising out of charges made against the Govern¬ 
ment by the former in a letter to his constitu¬ 
ents. On the nth, by the mediation of Lord 
Ashley, satisfactory explanations were made. 

8 . —Mr. Baron Parke gives judgment in 
the case of Rider v. Mills, involving the ques¬ 
tion whether factory owners were liable to a 
penalty for working women, or young persons 
under 18, on a “ shift or relay system. The 
learned Baron pronounced the system not to 
be illegal. 

11 . —Assassination becomes so prevalent 
within the city of Rome, that General Bara- 
guay d’Hilliers is compelled to issue a pro¬ 
clamation prohibiting the carrying of knives 
or stilettoes. “Whoever shall be found with 
such arms about his person shall be instantly 
shot. ” 

13 .—At a meeting held in Willis’s Rooms, 
to condemn the Government scheme of educa¬ 
tion, and attended by several bishops and 
noblemen, the Rev. Dr. Biber said it was 
averred by the Privy Council that the only 
(292) 


Gospel taught at Kneller Hall Normal School 
was that which was comprised in the moral 
agencies relied upon by the Poor-law Com¬ 
missioners for the elevation of the poor. Of 
him who sought to introduce such a Gospel 
into the education of this country he hesitated 
not to say, without any personal feeling, “Let 
him be accursed; ” and he believed that the 
events which would be witnessed by the next 
two generations would fully justify the use of 
such language. 

15 . —In a Committee of the whole House 
Lord John Russell enters into a detailed 
account of the origin of the distress which 
called for the advances made to Irish Unions. 
He proposed to consolidate the 4,483,000/. 
still unpaid, and to allow forty years for its 
gradual repayment. In order to release from 
their liabilities ten distressed Unions in which 
the workhouse property had been seized for 
debts due to contractors and others, he pro¬ 
posed a further loan of 300,000/. The resolu¬ 
tions were agreed to. 

16 . —Concluded in the Court of Exchequer 
the case of O’Connor v. Bradshaw, being an 
action for libel raised at the instance of the 
member for Nottingham against Mr. Brad¬ 
shaw, proprietor of the Nottingham Journal , 
wherein the plaintiff had been described as 
cheating the people of England out of 10,000/. 
in connexion with his Land Scheme. Verdict 
for the defendant. 

18 . —Lord Stanley brings forward his 
charges against the Lord Lieutenant and the 
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, for their official 
conduct in regard to the collision at Dolly’s 
Brae. He spoke for three hours, accusing the 
Government of tyranny and injustice in dis¬ 
missing any of the Castlewellan magistrates for 
refusing to receive the information, and at the 
same time omitting to take any steps after¬ 
wards to get the information sworn to. He was 
replied to by Lord Clarendon, who hoped that 
his attendance in Parliament would not be 
considered a precedent for a Lord Lieutenant 
appearing in the House in person to answer 
attacks upon his administration. At the close 
of the debate the papers moved ' for were 
ordered to be presented. 

19 . —Mr. Disraeli moves for a committee 
to revise and amend the Poor laws, for the 
purpose of affording relief to the agricultural 
classes. He proposed to defray the expenses 
known as establishment charges out of the 
general revenue of the State, which would re¬ 
lieve local taxation to the extent of 1,500.000/., 
and to defray from the same source rates levied 
by the Poor-law machinery, which had nothing 
to do with the relief of the poor, as also the 
entire cost of relieving the casual poor.—On 
the second night of the debate Sir Robert 
Peel characterised Mr. Disraeli’s scheme as a 
plan tending to stop confidence in public 
credit, and he would consider its adoption a 
most precipitate and unwise act. He had been 




FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1850. 


charged with acting treacherously towards a 
certain interest. What reason (he asked amid 
loud cheers) could he have for such a course ? 
Lord H. Bentinck accused him of having a 
pecuniary interest in supporting the funds as 
against the land. Lord H. Bentinck should, 
if he wished to speak the truth, have exactly 
reversed his statement. He then defended 
himself for his course upon the Com laws—a 
course which, he said, he believed to have been 
his duty to God and his country, and of the 
wisdom of which he was more convinced than 
ever. Protection never could be revived ; and 
the landed aristocracy would one day see that 
the abrogation of protection had established 
their just influence more firmly than ever.— 
Mr. Gladstone voted for the motion, though 
he protested against the supposition that it 
involved a reversion of free-trade policy.—The 
debate extended over two nights, and resulted 
in a division rejecting Mr. Disraeli’s motion by 
273 to 252 votes. 

21 . —The Building Committee of the Great 
Exhibition Commissioners select a site in Hyde- 
park for the structure. 

23 . —Died at Edinburgh, aged 67, Sir W. 
Allan, R.A., President of the Royal Scottish 
Academy. 

24 . —The Peninsular and Oriental Com- 
any’s steamship Indus arrives at Southampton, 
aving as passengers the two heroes of the late 

Indian war, Lord Gough and Major Edwardes. 
They each received a warm welcome from the 
citizens. 

25 . —Discussion on the order of the day 
for going into Committee on the Irish Par¬ 
liamentary Franchise. The chief feature was 
the extension of the franchise to all occupiers 
of land to the amount of 8/. per annum, adopt¬ 
ing the rating as the ultimate standard of 
value. Various amendments were proposed, 
but mostly rejected by the Commons. The 
third reading was carried by a majority of 254 
to 186. In the House of Lords the qualification 
was raised to 15/., the Ministry being defeated 
by a majority of 72 to 50. A 12/. qualification 
was finally accepted as a compromise by both 
Houses, and the bill thereafter passed. 

27 . —Treaty signed at Munich between 
Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and Wurtemberg, 
to effect a German Union under a federal 
directory of seven members, a federal repre¬ 
sentative assembly of 300 members, and a 
federal tribunal. 

28 . —Mr. Hume’s motion on the subject of 
Parliamentary Reform negatived, after a short 
debate, by 296 to 242. 

— Died, aged 64, the Rev. Edward Bicker- 
steth, one of the leaders of the Evangelical 
party in the Church of England. 

March 1.—Samuel Jones Lloyd, Esq. 
gazetted to the dignity of Baron Overstone, 
of Overstone and Fotheringay in the county 
of Northampton. 


5 . —Mr. Slaney’s motion for a Standing 
Committee to report on plans “for the social 
improvement of the working classes ” with¬ 
drawn after a short discussion. 

— The first completed tube of the Britannia 
Bridge across the Menai Straits opened with 
triumphant success. The last of 2,000,000 
rivets used in making the tube was driven in 
by Mr. Stephenson. Experimental trains 
afterwards passed through at a slow speed. 

— Lord Campbell takes the oath as Lord 
Chief Justice of England in room of Lord 
Denman, retired. 

6 . —In the course of an adjourned discussion 
on the second reading of the Marriages Bill, 
Mr. A. Beresford-Hope said if this measure 
passed it would be necessary for the Legisla¬ 
ture to recognise old marriages contracted 
in violation of the present law. No fewer 
than 280 clergymen in various parts of the 
country had made up returns showing that 
they knew of 269 marriages within the pro¬ 
hibited degrees. Of these cases 178 were 
marriages of the deceased wife’s sister ; the 
remaining 91 cases were marriages of persons 
standing in the relations following :—Marriages 
with a brother’s widow, 41; own aunt, 6 ; own 
niece, 19; wife’s daughter, 6; own half- 
sister, I ; father’s wife, I ; brother’s wife’s 
daughter, I ; son’s wife, 2 ; uncle’s wife, 3 ; 
wife’s niece, 11. The marriages with the wife’s 
sister were “almost without one exception ” in 
the upper and middle ranks of life; and the 
other marriages were mostly in those ranks. 
In one of the marriages with an uncle’s wife the 
parties were a clergyman and a peeress. The 
cases of marriage with the aunt and the niece 
were those of tradesmen, yeomen, and farmers, 
generally men of substance. A lieutenant- 
general in the army married a lady, and then 
her aunt; subsequently a third lady, and then 
the third lady’s niece. It was visible from 
these cases, said Mr. Hope, that the grievance 
was not one that pressed especially on the 
poor. The second reading was carried by a 
majority of 182 to 130. 

— Died at Riccarton, aged 85, Sir James 
Gibson Craig, the leader of the Whig party 
in Edinburgh. 

7 . —The Times announces the determination 
of the Government to abolish the office of 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Lord John Rus¬ 
sell repeated the statement next night in the 
House of Commons. 

— Meeting in Exeter Flail to welcome 
Dr. Achilli on his escape to this country from 
(as was said) the dungeons of the Inquisition. 
The crowd was so great that several subsidiary 
meetings had to be held in the adjoining rooms, 
Dr. Achilli appearing at each in turn. 

8 . —On a motion for going into Committee 
of Supply on the Army Estimates, Mr. Cobden 
submits a resolution:—“That the net expen¬ 
diture of the Government for the year 1835 
amounted to 44,422,000/. : that the net cx- 

( 293 ) 





MARCH 


1850. 


MARCH 


penditure for the year ending 5 th of January, 
1850, amounted to 50,853,000/., the increase 
of upwards of 6,000,000/. having been caused 
principally by successive augmentations of our 
warlike establishments, and outlays for defen¬ 
sive armaments : that no foreign danger, or 
necessary cost of the civil government, or in¬ 
dispensable disbursements for the service in our 
dependencies abroad, warranted the continu¬ 
ance of this increase of expenditureand “that 
it was expedient that the House should take 
steps to reduce the annual expenditure with 
all practicable speed, to an amount not ex¬ 
ceeding the sum which -within the last fifteen 
years has been proved to be sufficient for the 
maintenance of the security, the honour, and 
the dignity of the nation.” At the close of 
the debate the resolution was negatived by a 
majority of 277 to 89. 

8 . —The Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council give judgment in the case of Gorham 
v. the Bishop of Exeter. It was to the effect 
that “the doctrine held by Mr. Gorham is not 
contrary or repugnant to the declared doctrine 
of the Church of England as by law established, 
and that Mr. Gorham ought not by reason of 
the doctrine held by him to have been refused 
admission to the vicarage of Brampford-Speke; 
therefore that the sentence of the Arches Court 
of Canterbury ought to be reversed, and that it 
ought to be declared that the Lord Bishop of 
Exeter has not shown sufficient cause why he 
did not institute Mr. Gorham to the said vicar¬ 
age ; and finally, that the cause be remitted to 
the Arches Court, to the end that right and 
justice may there be done.” Her Majesty had 
been advised that, as this case raised questions 
deeply interesting in a theological point of 
view to a large portion of the clergy and laity, 
it would be proper to take the opinions of the 
episcopal members of the Privy Council upon 
it. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York 
and the Bishop of London were therefore sum¬ 
moned by the Queen’s command to attend in 
addition to the six lay members of the Privy 
Council who heard the appeal. The judgment 
of the Privy Council (which gave rise to much 
controversy in the Church) proceeded on the 
assumption that the Court had no jurisdiction 
or authority to settle matters of faith, or to 
determine what ought in any particular to be 
the doctrine of the Church of England. “ Its 
duty extends only to the consideration of that 
which is by law established to be the doctrines 
of the Church of England, upon the true and 
legal construction of her Articles and Formu¬ 
laries.” Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce and 
the Bishop of London dissented. The Bishop 
of Exeter afterwards addressed a letter to the 
Primate, protesting that if he obeyed. the 
Queen’s monition he (the Archbishop) was a 
“favourer and supporter of Mr. Gorham’s 
heresies,” and adding, “I protest, in conclusion, 
that I cannot without sin,—and by God’s grace 
I will not,—hold communion with him, be he 
who he may, who shall so abuse the high com¬ 
mission which he bears.” The Archbishop, 
( 294 ) 


undeterred by the threat, proceeded in due 
course to execute the law; upon which the 
Bishop of Exeter, when his clergy assembled at 
his next visitation, deliberately informed them 
that the Primate had “become a fautor of 
heretical tenets,” and as such had “forfeited 
his right to Catholic communion,” and that he 
thereupon “renounced communion with him.” 
He also declared that the judges had committed 
themselves to “ a statement notoriously at vari¬ 
ance with the real facts of the casetheir 
judgment proceeded “on an utter disregard of 
the canons of the Church; and their sentence, 
swayed by other motives besides mere justice 
and truth, was a grievous perversion of justice.” 

8 .— The Gazette offers rewards for the disco¬ 
very of Sir John Franklin:—1st, To any party 
or parties who, in the judgment of the Board of 
Admiralty, shall discover and effectually relieve 
the crews of her Majesty’s ships Erebus and 
Terror, the sum of 20,000/.; or, 2d, shall con¬ 
vey such intelligence as shall lead to a relief of 
the crews or any of them, 10,000/.; or, 3d, 
shall by virtue of his or their efforts first suc¬ 
ceed in ascertaining their state, 10,000/. 

— On the third reading of the Party Pro¬ 
cession (Ireland) Bill, in the House of Lords, 
the Duke of Wellington attempted, but unsuc¬ 
cessfully, to get a clause inserted, making it an 
offence under the Act for parties carrying arms 
to assemble in a greater number than three. 

11 . — Explosion at Curtis and Harvey’s 
powder mills, Hounslow. Eight lives were 
lost, and two other workmen seriously injured. 
The shocks of the successive explosions were 
felt at Brentford, Kew, and even Richmond. 

— Conviction for murder in the mysterious 
Gorlitz case. On June 13, 1847, the body of 
the Countess of Gorlitz, in Silesia, was found 
in her sitting-room nearly consumed by fire 
under circumstances which appeared to indicate 
that death had resulted from spontaneous com¬ 
bustion. In November suspicion was directed 
towards her servant, Johann Stauff, by the dis¬ 
covery in his possession of several jewels iden¬ 
tified as the property of his late mistress. The 
body was exhumed in August 1848, and after 
a prolonged controversy, in which Dr. Sieboldt 
maintained the spontaneous combustion theory 
in opposition to the eminent chemists Liebig 
and Bischoff, Stauff was brought to trial now, 
and convicted after an inquiry protracted over 
the unusual term of thirty-four days. He after¬ 
wards confessed that, being detected by the 
Countess in the act of stealing the articles 
which led to his apprehension, he had strangled 
her, and burned the corpse to conceal the 
evidence of his crime. Stauff was sentenced to 
imprisonment for life. 

— The Bishop of London, writing to Mr. 
Beresford-Hope on the Gorham case, explains 
that neither the sentence of an ecclesiastical 
court nor of the Judicial Committee can be re¬ 
garded as finally settling any question of doc¬ 
trine. Meanwhile the friends of the Church 
must not leave it till Convocation shall by a 





MARCH 


1850. 


MARCH 


solemn act reject the doctrine of baptismal re¬ 
generation ; before that it would be an act of 
schism—an abandonment of the ship in distress. 

13 .—Fire at Westhead’s warehouses, Pic- 
cadilly-street, Manchester, destroying property 
to the amount of 100,000/. The buildings had 
five shafts piercing each floor, and covered by 
a dome skylight. When the glass was de¬ 
stroyed, each of the series of openings acted 
as immense flues, through which a resistless 
draught of air rushed, roaring and spouting 
forth like so many volcanoes. Rolls of 
ribbons, and the remnants of partially con¬ 
sumed light goods, drawn within the vortex of 
these flues, were shot up into the air like 
rockets. 

14 -.—Lord Ashley obtains leave to bring in 
a bill to declare the intention of the Legisla¬ 
ture in respect of the hours and mode of work¬ 
ing under the Factory Act, the object being to 
interdict the shift and relay system. The mea¬ 
sure, with some emendations, passed through 
both Houses, and received the Royal Assent 
on the 5 th of August. 

15 . —Wurtemberg denounces the insidious 
action of the King of Prussia in German poli¬ 
tics, and intimates an intention of allying her¬ 
self, under the sanction of Austria, with 
Bavaria and Saxony. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces his annual Budget, the income for the 
ensuing year being set down at 52,285,000/., 
and the expenditure at 50,613,582/. The 
surplus he purposed disposing of in reducing 
certain recently contracted debts, repealing 
the duty on bricks, and in reducing the stamp 
duties upon the transfer of landed property. 

— Official announcement made of the elec¬ 
tion of three Socialist candidates for the city of 
Paris; and extensive military preparations 
commenced against threatened outbreaks. 

16 . —Explosion of fire-damp in Evan and 
Turner’s Rock Pit, Haydock. Eleven of the 
workmen, engaged in a drift 1,000 yards from 
the shaft when the explosion took place, were 
burnt to death. 

— Lord Gough entertained by the East 
India Company on his return home. 

17. — Dr. Wilson, a medical practitioner 
residing at Juniper Green, near Edinburgh, 
and his aged mother living in the same house, 
murdered and mangled by a maniac named 
Pearson. He was found next morning sound 
asleep in one of the rooms upstairs, stripped of 
his ordinary apparel, which he appeared to 
have burnt in one of the grates. 

18 . —In the House of Commons, Mr. Hutt 
moves for an address praying her Majesty to 
direct negotiations to be commenced for the 
purpose of relieving the country from all 
treaties which at present engage us to main¬ 
tain a squadron on the coast of Africa. 
Negatived by 232 to 154. 


20. —Extensive sugar refinery burnt near 
the London Docks. 

— Hohenzollem-Hechinzen and Hohen- 
zollern-Sigmaringen, for many centuries in the 
possession of the elder branch, united to 
Prussia by treaty. 

21 . —The Lord Mayor of London gives a 
banquet at the Mansion House to the chief 
magistrates of the cities, towns, and boroughs 
of the United Kingdom, with the view of ex¬ 
citing an interest in the projected Exhibition 
of Industry. Prince Albert said: “Whilst 
formerly the greatest mental energies strove 
at universal knowledge, and that knowledge 
was confined to the few, now they are 
directed on specialities, and in these, again, 
even to the minutest points; but the knowledge 
acquired becomes at once the property of the 
community at large. For, whilst formerly 
discovery was wrapped in secrecy, the publicity 
of the present day causes, that no sooner is a 
discovery or invention made than it is improved 
upon and surpassed by competing efforts. The 
products of all quarters of the globe are placed 
at our disposal, and we have only to choose 
which is the best and the cheapest for our pur¬ 
poses, and the powers of production are en¬ 
trusted to the stimulus of competition and 
capital. . . . The Exhibition of 1851 is to 
give us a true test and a living picture of the 
point of development at which the whole of 
mankind has arrived in this great task, and a 
new starting-point from which all nations will 
be able to direct their further exertions. ” 

22. —The Bishop of Exeter, in a letter to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, protests against 
the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the 
Privy Council, and against the consequences of 
the judgment; and further, refuses to institute 
Mr. Gorham into the vicarage of Brampford- 
Speke. 

— Letters patent issued separating the 
Orange Sovereignty (annexed by Sir H. Smith 
in 1848) from the Cape Colony as to its laws 
and administration, and creating for its govern¬ 
ment a local council nominated by the Crown. 

— The Wurtemberg and Prussian Ambas¬ 
sadors withdraw respectively from Berlin and 
Stuttgardt, a difference having arisen between 
the Powers, in consequence of remarks made 
by the King of Wurtemberg on the insidious 
designs of Prussia, when announcing to his 
States the formation of a German League. (See 
15th March.) 

. — Lord Brougham, in referring to the con¬ 
templated Exhibition in 1851 of the works of 
all nations, said he had been designated by 
Lord Stanley, at the Lord Mayor’s dinner on 
the previous evening, as his “volatile friend.” 
“Volatile,” said Lord Brougham, “means 
flighty ; but I, to answer a speech made in my 
presence in the House of Lords, have never 
flown to the House of Mayors.”—Lord Stan 
ley was sorry he had occasioned disquietude 
to his noble and learned and very grave and 

( 295 ) 




MARCH 


1850. 


APRIL 


discreet friend, but he had been ‘‘somewhat 
volatile.” “In point of acuteness, activity, 
rapidity, and pungency, sal-volatile is nothing 
when compared with my noble and learned 
friend. You may put a stopper of glass or 
leather on that etherial essence, but I defy any 
human power, even that of my noble and 
learned friend himself, to put any stopper, 
either of glass, or leather, or any other mate¬ 
rial, over the activity, ingenuity, and pungency 
of his mind. Volatile his wit and readiness of 
humour are, but acrimonious or offensive never : 
that I shall at all times be prepared to deny. 
I hope the long friendship between us will not 
be disturbed for a single moment by the ex¬ 
pression I used. I will form a more correct 
estimate of his character ; I will look on him, 
not as one of those great, rapid, and energetic 
men, who take part in any and every question— 
and come in with such velocity that they seem 
not many questions, but one continuous ques¬ 
tion—but as a man of a grave, serious, plod¬ 
ding, and rather slow and heavy nature ; not 
hasty in taking up a subject, nor in laying it 
down—nor in expressing his opinion upon it, 
unless he had previously considered it in every 
light and in every bearing.”—Lord Brougham, 
who sat covering his face with his hand, now 
rose to reply, with much energy. In the course 
of his speech he declared that he possessed the 
kindest and most benevolent feeling that he 
could possibly entertain for Lord Stanley, but 
rebuked him for attempting by a dull joke to 
set people laughing at an absent man. He 
concluded by saying, that no one could enter¬ 
tain a higher respect “for that illustrious 
Prince a respect increased by the interest 
which the Prince had recently shown in the 
condition of the working classes, “ so that it is 
difficult to know which most to admire, the 
sound judgment or the benevolent feelings of 
the Prince.”—Their lordships, who had roared 
with laughter during the encounter, then pro¬ 
ceeded to business. 

25 .—Hostilities resumed between Denmark 
and the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. 

28 .—At the Liverpool assizes, Dr. Nolan, 
minister of a congregation of Independents at 
Manchester, appeared as plaintiff in an action 
of slander against one Pettigrew, for stating, 
in the presence of a person named Ford, that 
Dr. Nolan had seduced certain female mem¬ 
bers, and given medicine to one to prevent the 
consequences. There had been religious strife 
in Dr. Nolan’s congregation ; he had resigned, 
and been re-elected minister; afterwards it was 
found that the re-election was not legal in form, 
and a heated canvassing and contest arose. It 
was in the course of this agitation that the 
defendant made the statement complained of. 
The defence was—that the communication 
was privileged; and that it was true. The 
evidence was contradictory, scandalous facts 
being sworn to on the one hand, and denied 
on the other. The judge ruled that the com¬ 
munication was privileged ; and a verdict was 
given for the defendant. 

(296) 


29 . —The church of St. Anne’s, Limehouse, 
destroyed by fire, originating in the chamber 
between the ceiling and the roof, where a flue- 
pipe conducted the smoke outside, 

30 . —The Royal Adelaide steamship, trading 
between Cork and London, wrecked on the 
Tongue Sand, North Foreland, and all on 
board drowned. She had put into Plymouth 
all right, and was known to have left there 
with 180 passengers, a crew of 24, and a cargo 
of general merchandise. 

31 . —Died at Washington, aged 67, J. C. 
Calhoun, American statesman. 

Publicity given to a recriminatory corre¬ 
spondence between Sir Charles Napier and the 
Board of Admiralty regarding the discretion of 
the former. 

April 2 .—Lord John Russell, on a visit to 
Manchester, presented with an address by the 
Corporation. 

4 . —Wreck of the Indian on the Cargados 
reef, near the Mauritius. About eight o’clock 
at night, when running at six knots an hour, 
through some mistake, as it appeared, in the 
reckoning, she suddenly struck with a dreadful 
crash, and almost immediately went to pieces. 

— Destructive incendiary fires at Cottenham, 
Cambridgeshire, the greater part of the village 
being consumed, along with a large amount o 
agricultural produce. 

— Banquet given by the Corporation of 
Liverpool to Major Edwardes in acknowledg¬ 
ment of his Indian achievements. 

7 . —Died at Salisbury, aged 89, Rev. W. 
L. Bowles, poet. 

8 . — Prince Albert writes to the Duke of 
Wellington, declining to agree in a proposed 
new arrangement by which he was to assume 
the command of the British army:—“The 
Queen and myself have thoroughly considered 
your proposal to join the offices of Adjutant- 
General and Quartermaster-General into one 
of a chief of the staff, with a view to facilitate 
the future assumption of the command of the 
army by myself. . . The question, whether it 
will be advisable that I should take the com¬ 
mand of the army or not, has been most anxi¬ 
ously weighed by me, and I have come to the 
conclusion that my decision ought entirely and 
solely to be guided by the consideration, 
whether it would interfere with, or assist, my 
position of Consort of the Sovereign, and the 
performance of the duties which this position 
imposes on me. This position is a most pecu¬ 
liar and delicate one. Whilst a female sove¬ 
reign has a great many disadvantages in com¬ 
parison with a king, yet if she is married, and 
her husband understands and does his duty, 
her position, on the other hand, has many 
compensating advantages, and, in the long 
run, will be found even to be stronger than 
that of a male sovereign. But this requires 
that the husband should entirely sink his own 
individual existence in that of his wife ; that 





APRIL 


1850. 


ATRTL 


he should aim at no power by himself or for 
himself—should shun all ostentation—assume 
no separate responsibility before the public, 
but make his position entirely a part of hers ; 
fill up every gap which, as a woman, she 
would naturally leave in the exercise of her 
regal functions; continually and anxiously 
watch every part of the public business, in 
order to be able to advise and assist her at any 
moment, in any of the multifarious and diffi¬ 
cult questions or duties brought before her, 
sometimes intematiqpal, sometimes political, 
or social, or personal. As the natural head of 
her family, superintendent of her household, 
manager of her private affairs, sole confidential 
adviser in politics, and only assistant in her 
communications with the officers of Govern¬ 
ment, he is, besides husband of the Queen, the 
tutor of the Royal children, the private secre¬ 
tary of the Sovereign, and her permanent 
minister. How far would it be consistent with 
this position to undertake the management 
and administration of a most important branch 
of the public service, and the individual 
responsibility attaching to it—becoming an 
executive officer of the Crown, receiving the 
Queen’s commands through her Secretaries of 
State, &c. &c.? I feel sure that, having un¬ 
dertaken the responsibility, I should not be 
satisfied to leave the business and real work 
in the hands of another (the chief of the staff), 
but should feel it my duty to look to them 
myself. But whilst I should in this manner 
perform duties which, I am sure, every able 
general officer, who has gained experience in 
the field, would be able to perform better than 
myself, who have not had the advantage of 
such experience, most important duties con¬ 
nected with the welfare of the Sovereign would 
be left unperformed, which nobody could per¬ 
form but myself. I am afraid, therefore, that 
I must discard the tempting idea of being 
placed in command of the British army.” 

8 . —Great meeting at Dublin, to petition 
against the abolition of the Viceroyalty. 

— Numerous meetings held approving of as 
well as censuring the decision of the Privy 
Council in the Gorham case. In many of the 
memorials it did not pass unobserved that the 
same parties now complained of the judgment 
who in 1845 thanked the Oxford Proctors for 
preventing a censure of Tract XC.; the “ stam¬ 
mering lips of ambiguous formularies” being 
looked on as an evil in the one case and a 
benefit in the other. 

— The Senate of Turin pass a bill previously 
sanctioned by the Chamber of Deputies, and 
known as the Siccardi Law, for the abolition 
of exceptional tribunals for the clergy and 
the right of asylum. 

12 .—Lord John Russell’s motion for a select 
committee to inquire into ministerial, judicial, 
and diplomatic salaries carried by 250 to 159 
votes over Mr. Disraeli’s amendment, asking 
for immediate legislation on the subject. 

— The Pope re-enters Rome with great 


ceremony and splendour. His Holiness pro¬ 
ceeded in state to the Vatican, and afterwards 
received the Sacred College and Corps Diplo¬ 
matique in the palace. 

13 .—The brigs Lody Franklin and Sophia 
sail from Aberdeen in search of Sir John 
F ranklin. 

15 . —Ministers defeated on their Stamp Duty 
Bill, a majority of 164 to 135 supporting Six 
Henry Willoughby’s amendment for fixing the 
duty at ij-. instead of 2 s. 6 d. on 50/. 

16 . —Died, in her 90th year, Madame Tus- 
saud, of the popular wax exhibition in Baker- 
street, and one of the survivors of the first 
French Revolution. 

— The French nth regiment, on the 
march to Algiers (whither they were being 
sent for taking part in a democratic demon¬ 
stration), lose 252 men by the breaking down 
of the wire suspension bridge over the Loire, 
at Angers. 

— Mr. M. Gibson’s series of resolutions for 
repealing the taxes on knowledge negatived 
by the narrow majority of 190 to 189 votes. 

18 . —Severe hailstorm in Dublin, destroy¬ 
ing glass alone to the estimated amount of 
27,000 /. 

— The Pope pronounces a public bene¬ 
diction on the French troops assembled in the 
great Piazza of St. Peter. 

19 . — Signed at Washington the Bulwer- 
Clayton treaty, providing for the construction 
of a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans. The contracting parties stipulated 
that they would not erect fortifications in the 
line of the proposed canal, nor assume do¬ 
minion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mos¬ 
quito Coast, or any part of Central America. 
From the involvements to which it gave rise, 
and in pursuance of the President’s Message in 
1857, this treaty was abrogated. 

20. —Sir Fitzroy Kelly applies to the Court 
of Queen’s Bench for a rule calling on Sir H. 
J. Fust to show cause why he should not be 
prohibited from carrying out the sentence of 
the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, in the 
case of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter. The 
statutes relied on were the 24th Henry VIII., 
c. 12, and the 25th of same reign, c. 19 ; show¬ 
ing, it was affirmed, the right of appeal in the 
first instance from the archdeacon to the bishop, 
then to the archbishop, and in the case of any 
matter touching the king the final appeal was 
to the Upper House of Convocation, who alone 
had power to determine the same. Lord Chief 
Justice Campbell delivered the judgment of the 
Court against the rule. He adhered to the con¬ 
struction put upon the statute by Lord Coke, 
and acted upon since his time, that the final 
appeal in ecclesiastical cases w’as not to Convo¬ 
cation, but to the commissioners of the king in 
Chancery, or, in other words, the High Court of 
Delegates, now represented by the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council. 




APRIL 


1850. 


MAY 


23 .—Died at Rydal Mount, aged 80, 
William Wordsworth, Poet Laureate. 

25 .—In the course of the debate on Mr. 
Hey wood’s motion for inquiry into the state 
of the Universities, Lord John Russell inti¬ 
mates that it is the intention of Ministers to 
advise her Majesty to issue a Royal Com¬ 
mission to inquire into the affairs of the two 
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The 
utility and legality* of the projected com¬ 
mission led to frequent discussion in both 
Houses of Parliament, but Government suc¬ 
ceeded in carrying out its intention. 

' 26 .—Invitation issued to the German States 
by Austria, to meet in congress at Frankfort, 
preparatory to opening a plenary assembly. 

29 .—Sir George Grey moves the second 
reading of the Ecclesiastical Commission Bill. 
He said the principal feature of the measure 
was the separation of the ecclesiastical and lay 
departments by the appointment of a tribunal 
to be designated the “Church Estates Com¬ 
mittee,” which was to be invested with the 
management of the property of the Church, 
and to report to the Commission thereupon. 
This Estates Committee was to consist of three 
persons, two to be appointed by the Crown, 
and the third by the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury ; one of the former and the latter to be 
paid Commissioners. In the course of the 
debate which ensued, Mr. Horsman made a 
smart attack on the Episcopal Bench. The 
Church, he said, had been plundered often— 
by the monarchs first, then by the nobles ; in 
the last century by the bishops, in the present 
day by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. ‘* The 
bishops are not exempt from human infirmities, 
and think they are taking care of all when 
sometimes taking care of themselves alone. 
In earlier days, the bishop’s residence was in 
the cathedral city ; he was at the centre of a 
religious community, ever at home, ever in the 
public gaze, ever accessible to his clergy and 
people : now he is metamorphosed into a rural 
dignitary, secluded in an aristocratic mansion, 
which the clergy penetrate with difficulty, the 
people not at all. In this age of active specu¬ 
lation and cultivated intellect—in this age so 
unsusceptible of belief—who should be the 
guides in the arduous and critical warfare? 
Surely men of a higher spiritual order than 
those who, though styled ‘ Fathers in God,’ are 
yet wholly engrossed with worldly affairs, vigi¬ 
lant only of the Church’s moneys, tenacious 
only of her dignities and ranks—more likely to 
smite and sink her than to save her in the 
struggle.” Mr. Goulburn vindicated the bench 
of bishops with great warmth, and made a 
personal attack on Mr. Horsman, who, he 
said, had assaulted and vilified them with labo¬ 
riously prepared eloquence. He described Mr. 
Horsman as a “disappointed man,” who had 
once been a Lord of the Treasury, and desired 
higher office — a taunt which Mr. Bernal 
Osborne repaid by describing Mr. Goulburn 

(298) 


as a “ tin kettle attached to the tail of the 
member for Tam worth.” 

May 1 .—At twenty-five minutes past eight 
o’clock this morning the Queen gave birth to 
a son, Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert. 
On the same day Prince Albert visited the 
Duke of Wellington to congratulate him on 
his eighty-first birthday, and stated that the 
Queen, as a token of regard, intended to 
have the royal infant baptized by the name 
of Arthur. 

— M. de Blainville, the successor of Cuvier 
in the chair of Comparative Anatomy at the 
Museum of Natural History at Paris, found dead 
in one of the carriages of the night train on the 
Rouen Railway, while on his way to England. 
He was in his seventy-second year. 

— Explosion of a fleet of powder-laden 
boats at Benares, causing the death of 420 
human beings on the spot, and injuring over 
800 employed about the river. 

— Motion for leave to bring in a bill to 
repeal the duties on attorneys’ certificates 
carried against Ministers by 155 to 136 votes. 

2 . —The Ultra-democrats of Paris succeed 
in returning M. Eugene Sue, the Socialist 
candidate, for their representative, by a large 
majority over M. Leclerc, of the Moderate 
party. The French funds fell 2 per cent. 

— The Duke of Richmond presents above 
one hundred petitions complaining of agricul¬ 
tural distress. 

4 -.— The ships Resolute , Assistance, Intrepid, 
and Pioneer sail from Greenhithe, under the 
command of Captain Austin, in search of Sir 
John Franklin. On the 23d Sir John Ross 
sailed with other two vessels from Ardrossan, 
and on the same day the Advance and 
Rescue, equipped by the liberality of Mr. 
Henry Grinnel, New York, left that port to 
join in the search for the missing expedition. 

— A large portion of the town of Bingen on 
the Rhine destroyed by fire. 

6 .— In the House of Lords, the Archbishop 
of Canterbury makes a formal explanation 
relative to the appointment of his son to the 
Registrarship of the Prerogative Court of 
Chancery. 

— The Bishop of London introduces a 
bill to amend the law with reference to appeals 
from Ecclesiastical Courts to her Majesty’s 
Privy Council. 

— The house at Charlecote Lucy, near 
Stratford-on-Avon, entered by robbers, and 
various relics of the Shakspearian age stolen. 

— The Court of Queen’s Bench refuses a 
rule moved for by Mr. Cockbum, calling on 
Mr. John Murray, publisher, to show cause 
why a criminal information should not issue 
against him for an article in the Quarterly , im¬ 
puting to Count Pulszky an actual agency in 
the murder of Count Latour in 1848. 







MAY 


1850. 


ma v 


7 . —A Protectionist demonstration, attended 
by eleven peers and forty members of the House 
of Commons, held in the Crown and Anchor 
Tavern. Mr. Chowler, a Nottinghamshire 
farmer, said the farmers would not mount their 
horses to stop the labourers from coming for¬ 
ward to claim their just rights. If the land¬ 
lords would only stick to them, they would 
stick to the landlords. Mr. E. Ball said it 
was painful to speak of the landlords in terms 
of disparagement, but it was too true that the 
farmers had fallen, not by the League, nor 
yet by the treachery of Sir Robert Peel, but 
because their landlords had swerved from their 
duty. Would they tell him, a broken-hearted 
man passing into a state of poverty, that he was 
to fear the threats of a demagogue ? The tenant- 
farmers should be prepared to take those terrible 
steps which it was frightful to imagine, but which 
necessity was driving them to contemplate. 
This dark sentiment was followed by tremen¬ 
dous cheering, at the close of which a person 
on the platform proposed three groans for “ Sir 
Robert Peel, the arch-enemy of the human 
species. ” 

— Came on for hearing in the Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor’s Court the case of Thomas v. Roberts, 
being a claim made by “a nearest friend” on 
behalf of a former inmate of the Agapemone, 
to appoint a guardian to her infant, on the 
ground of the father’s moral unfitness for its 
custody and education. Mr. Price, the hus¬ 
band of one of the plaintiffs sisters, said : 
“There are fifty or sixty living in the Agape¬ 
mone. We have horses and carriages, and 
live in good style; but consider all we do to 
be for the glory of God. Every one does as he 
pleases on the Sunday. We make no difference 
between that and any other day. All play at 
hockey, males as well as females.” The de¬ 
fendant denied the charge of irreligion and 
immorality. On the 23d, after commenting 
in the severest language on the conduct of 
Thomas and his associates, his Honour ordered 
that the child shall remain in the care of his 
mother and maternal grandmother, and that 
the father and his agent be restrained from 
interfering. 

8 . —Lord John Russell writes to the Chan¬ 
cellors of Oxford and Cambridge, that the ob¬ 
ject of the proposed commission is to ascertain 
what new regulations have been promulgated, 
and * ‘ what obstacles are interposed by the will 
of founders, the retention of customs, and the 
decision of competent authority, to the full de¬ 
velopment of that large and improved system of 
study which the universities have sought to 
establish.” Remonstrances were forwarded 
from each university opposing the commission 
as ill-time'd and unnecessary. 

9. —Died at Paris, aged 71, Gay-Lussac, 
a peef of France, and widely known for his 
researches in chemical science. 

10. —Walter Watts, late lessee of the 
Olympic Theatre, tried at the Central Criminal 
Court, on the charge of stealing a cheque for 


1,400/. from his employers the Globe Insur¬ 
ance Company. Watts’s nefarious designs were 
carried out with great ingenuity. A cheque 
for 554/. 1 or., represented as for annuity No. 6, 
was drawn and paid by the bankers, and en¬ 
tered by them in the pass-book. When the 
book came into Watts’s hands, he erased the 
55, thus making the payment appear 4/. 10s. ; 
and in order to mystify the matter further, 
he altered the number of the annuity to 
64, by adding the figure 4. But, in point 
of fact, no such claim existed against the 
company at the time as annuity No. 6 ; and 
the payments on annuity No. 64 having been 
previously made, a fictitious claim of 4/. ior. 
appeared in the pass-book as paid, in order 
to provide facilities for covering the abstrac¬ 
tion. But the difference of 550/. being still 
left between the payment, as it appeared by 
the falsified entry in the pass-book, and the 
actual amount paid, Watts had to find some 
means of covering the discrepancy in order to 
avoid detection. For this purpose he selected 
a trifling fire loss, say of 7/. ioj., which had 
been paid some time before, but which had not 
yet been passed, and falsified that entry in 
the pass-book, adding to it the 550/.,'and 
making it appear that 557/. iar. was the sum 
which had been paid ; and thus, by making the 
total addition in the book correct, the cover 
for the fraud was perfected. Watts’s delin¬ 
quencies amounted to the almost incredible 
extent of 70,000/. ; and so thoroughly sys¬ 
tematic were his arrangements, that the 
balance of cash at the bankers at the date 
showed a discrepancy of over 9,000/., which 
for the most part was covered by false addi¬ 
tions in the pass-book, until an opportunity 
offered of altering individual entries that might 
suit his purpose, previously to their perma¬ 
nent transference to the general books of the 
company, when detection was no longer to be 
apprehended. The jury found Watts guilty 
of one count in the indictment charging him 
with stealing “a piece of paper.” A point of 
law as to the sufficiency of the count was re¬ 
served, and afterwards decided against the 
prisoner. On the 12th of July he was sentenced 
to ten years’ transportation, but committed 
suicide in prison the same night, by hanging 
himself to the iron grating of his cell. 

IO. —The German Powers, with the excep¬ 
tion of Prussia, meet in congress at Frankfort. 

13 .—The Metropolitan undertakers create a 
disturbance in a meeting at the Whittington 
Club in support of the Metropolitan Interment 
Bill, and ultimately succeed in breaking it up. 

— Australian Colonies Bill read a third time 
in the House of Commons, by a majority 
of 226 to 128. Sir W. Molesworth’s motion 
for a recommittal of the bill had been pre¬ 
viously defeated by a division, showing 165 
against 42; and Mr. Gladstone’s amendment, to 
give the Church of England in the colonies a 
power of synodical action, by 187 votes against 
102. Certain amendments introduced into the 

( 299 ) 





MAY 


18 so. 


MAY 


bill during its progress through the House of 
Lords were afterwards adopted by the Com¬ 
mons. 

14 . —Henri Joseph Stephan, a horn-player 
in the orchestra of her Majesty’s Theatre, 
commits suicide by throwing himself from the 
top of the Duke of York’s column, Carlton 
Gardens. In compliance with a recommen¬ 
dation from the coroner’s jury, a railing was 
afterwards placed round the top of the 
column. 

15 . —The French Ambassador, M. Drouyn 
de Lhuys, suddenly leaves London, causing a 
fall in the funds from 96^ to 95. Next night 
the Marquis of Lansdowne and Lord Palmer¬ 
ston explained, in their respective places, that 
this departure on her Majesty’s birthday was 
purely accidental, and in no way intended to 
show disrespect to her Majesty or this country. 
It was thought that the presence of the Ambas¬ 
sador in Paris would be more useful at the 
moment than in London. The announcement 
of the withdrawal was received in the French 
Assembly with cheers of the liveliest satis¬ 
faction. 

17 .—Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill for abolishing the office of Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland. It afterwards passed 
a second reading, but was thrown aside towards 
the end of the session. 

19 .—General Lopez, at the head of a 
buccaneering expedition, lands at Cardenas, in 
Cuba, and, after a short struggle, obtains 
possession of the town. The same evening a 
Spanish force arrive from Matanzos, when the 
pirates were driven on board their steamer, 
with the loss of thirty men. 

22 . —The King of Prussia fired at by an old 
soldier in Berlin, and slightly wounded in the 
arm. 

23 . —Robert Lindsay Mauleverer, a magis¬ 
trate of the county of Londonderry, and agent 
over extensive estates in the north of Ireland, 
shot, near Dundalk, while riding home on his 
car. Two men towa rds whom suspicion strongly 
pointed were tried for the offence, but the 
jury refused to convict. 

— Renewed explanations, in Parliament on 
the subject of the withdrawal of the French 
Ambassador. 

— The Morning Post publishes a corre¬ 
spondence of a hostile nature between Mr. 
Garbett, on behalf of Captain Aaron Smith, 
and Mr. Cobden, regarding a charge of piracy 
brought by the latter against the former in a 
speech delivered in the House of Commons on 
the subject of the Borneo massacres. 

— Died, aged 74, Miss Jane Porter, novelist. 

24 . —In the course of a debate on the new 
electoral law, M. Thiers attacks pretended Re¬ 
publicans as the vile multitude who had at all 
times betrayed and delivered up liberty—men 
who applauded the execution of the Girondists, 
and afterwards rejoiced at the merited death of 

(300) 


Robespierre. “ It was this multitude which, 
after being subjected to the great man who 
knew it well, in 1815 placed a cord round the 
neck of his statue to drag it through the mire.” 
This expression called up M. Napoleon Buona¬ 
parte, who said it was not Republicans who 
had offered this indignity to the Emperor, but 
Royalists and Cossacks. 

25 .—The Nepaulese Ambassadors arrive 
at Southampton, on a mission to the Court of 
Queen Victoria. The young hippopotamus, a 
gift to the Zoological Gardens from the Vice¬ 
roy of Egypt, arrived by the same steamer. 

27 . —Prince Albert to the Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Cambridge : “ Although 
I had hoped that the University would have 
been allowed to go on in their course of self-im¬ 
provement without any extraneous interference, 
now that I find the Government irrevocably 
pledged to the issue of the Commission, I would 
recommend the authorities of the University 
not to meet it with opposition, but rather to 
take it as the expression on the part of the 
Crown and Parliament of a natural desire to be 
accurately informed upon the present state of 
institutions so closely connected with, and of 
such vital importance to, the best interests of 
the nation ; and to take a pride in showing to 
those who have indulged in attacks against 
them, that they have conscientiously and 
zealously fulfilled the great task entrusted to 
them.” 

— Attack on the Queen by Robert Pate, 
late lieutenant of the 10th Hussars. Her 
Majesty, accompanied by a lady-in-waiting and 
the Royal children, had been to inquire after the 
health of the Duke of Cambridge, at his resi¬ 
dence in Piccadilly. When the carriage was 
passing out at the gate, a man, who had been 
observed loitering about, deliberately aimed a 
blow at her Majesty with a stick which he 
held in his hand, striking her on the cheek, 
and crushing her bonnet over her forehead. 
He was instantly seized by some of the by¬ 
standers, and the weapon taken from him. 
Her Majesty quietly proceeded to Buckingham 
Palace. (See July 11.) 

28 . —Lord John Russell announces the in¬ 
tended resignation of Lord Chancellor Cotten- 
ham. The great seal to be put in commission. 

— Lord Lincoln’s Divorce Bill read a second 
time in the House of Lords. Lord Lincoln, 
son and heir of the Duke of Newcastle, was 
married in 1832 to Lady Susan Hamilton, only 
daughter of the Duke of Hamilton. They 
lived together up to August 1848, and had five 
children. In that month Lady Lincoln went 
to the Continent without her husband’s leave, 
but ostensibly to consult the German physicians 
about her health. On the Continent it was 
'soon found that she was constantly accompanied 
by Lord Walpole, eldest son of the Earl of 
Orford. While it was believed that her con¬ 
duct amounted only to indiscretion, Mr. Glad¬ 
stone, M.P., as the friend of both parties, went 






MAY 


1850. 


JUNE 


in search of her, and discovered that she was 
living near Como, under the assumed name of 
Mrs. Lawrence, but found it impossible to obtain 
access to her. In August 1849 she gave birth, at 
Como, to a son, who could not have been her 
husband’s, and was christened by the name 
of Horatio Walpole. These, and other circum¬ 
stances establishing her criminality, were proved 
by evidence before the House ; and it was now 
stated by her solicitor that she had given in¬ 
structions not to oppose the bill. 

29 . —Died at Rome, aged 56, Richard J. 
Wyatt, sculptor. 

30 . —The House of Commons meet for the 
first time in their new chamber, at an experi¬ 
mental mid-day sitting. Most of the speakers 
felt a difficulty in making themselves heard. 
The original estimate was 785,000/.; expendi¬ 
ture up to the present time 2,500,000/. 

— Lord Ashley’s resolution for the pre¬ 
sentation of an address to her Majesty, praying 
that she would be graciously pleased to direct 
that the collection and delivery of letters on 
Sundays might in future entirely cease in all 
parts of the kingdom, carried on a division 
against the Government, by 93 to 68. 

— The Corporation of London conferred the 
freedom of the City on Lord Gough, and enter¬ 
tained him at a banquet in the evening. He 
was made a D.C.L. at the Oxford Commemo¬ 
ration, June 12, along with Major Edwardes, 
Major Rawlinson, and others. 

June 1 . —Rejoicings at Galway on the occa¬ 
sion of the sailing of the Viceroy , the first of 
the new line of mail steamers between that port 
and New York. 

3 .—Discussion in the House of Lords on the 
second reading of the Bishop of London’s bill 
providing for a new episcopal Court of Appeal, 
in cases involving questions of heresy. He 
argued that it was a principle of our constitu¬ 
tion from the earliest to the present time, that 
“ it doth not appertain to the king’s court to 
determine schisms or heresies,” but that “the 
king’s court is to consult with divines to know 
whether it be schism or not.” The Marquis of 
Lansdowne objected to the bill as a perilous 
measure, because, under the present circum¬ 
stances, it would be impossible to alter in 
haste the tribunal which has given a certain 
sentence without its being practically an impu¬ 
tation on that tribunal, and a manifestation of 
censure upon it on account of that decision. 
But the measure was still more objectionable 
as striking a blow at the Queen’s prerogative, 
taking, as it did, from her Majesty that which 
from the earliest to the present time had been 
deemed the essential prerogative of the Crown, 
the government of the Church, the power of 
controlling decisions in ecclesiastical cases, of 
pronouncing upon such causes through persons 
whom it thinks fit to employ, and of setting 
aside the decisions of those persons. Bill 
thrown out by 84 to 51. 


5 . —Mr. Fox’s Secular Education Bill 
thrown out on the second reading by 287 votes 
to 53 - 

6. —Turbulent meeting in St. Martin’s Hall, 
under the auspices of the Society for improving 
the Condition of the Labouring Classes. On 
Mr. G. W. M. Reynolds attempting to thrust 
himself forward on the platform, he was seized 
by Lord Harrowby and pushed in the direction 
of his friends at the lower part of the hall. 
The meeting was afterwards addressed by the 
Chairman, Lord John Russell, and Lord 
Ashley. 

10. —Her Majesty answers the address of 
the 93 members of the House of Commons on 
the subject of Sunday labour in the Post Office: 
“ I have received your address praying that 
the transmission and delivery of letters on 
Sunday may in future entirely cease in all parts 
of the kingdom; also that inquiry may be 
made as to how far, without injury to the 
public service, the transmission of mails on 
the Lord’s Day might be diminished or entirely 
suspended; and, in compliance with your re¬ 
quest, I shall give directions accordingly.” 
Lord John Russell announced that no ex¬ 
ception would be made in favour of foreign 
correspondence, it being the intention of Go¬ 
vernment completely to carry out the vote. 
Instructions in conformity therewith were after¬ 
wards issued from the General Post Office; but 
the inconvenience suffered by the public led to 
the question being again brought before Parlia¬ 
ment, and the Sunday delivery was thereafter 
placed on its former footing. 

— Died at Catrine, Ayrshire, James Smith, 
of Deanston, inventor of the modem system 
of drainage. 

11 . —The new church of St. Barnabas, 
Pimlico, consecrated by the Bishop of London. 
The ceremony attracted more than ordinary 
attention from the numbers of High Church 
bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, who 
attended in full canonicals. 

15 . —The East India Company gives a 
sumptuous entertainment at Willis’s Rooms in 
honour of Prince Jung Bahadoor’s visit to this 
country as Ambassador from their neighbour 
and ally the Rajah of Nepaul. 

— The church of St. Ann’s, Montreal, with 
200 houses, destroyed by fire. 

16 . —The steamship Griffith , sailing between 
Buffalo and Toronto, burnt. Of 326 people on 
board only 40 were saved. 

17 . —Commencement of the debate on Lord 
Stanley’s motion, censuring Government for 
undue interference in the affairs of Greece, 
“Various claims” (it affirmed) “against the 
Greek Government, doubtful in point of justice, 
or exaggerated in amount, had been enforced 
by coercive measures directed against the com¬ 
merce and people of Greece, and calculated 
to endanger the continuance of our friendly 
relations with other Powers.” Previous to the 

(30O 





JUNE 


1850. 


7UXE 


commencement of the discussion, a scene was 
occasioned by Lord Brougham commanding 
Black Rod to remove Chevalier Bunsen from 
a seat which he occupied in the peeresses’ 
gallery. The debate lasted over two nights, 
and terminated in a majority against Ministers 
of 37. 

18 . —In the House of Lords the clauses in 
the Irish Encumbered Estates Amendment Act, 
prohibiting sales for less than fifteen years’ 
purchase, carried against the Government by 
32 to 30. 

— Wreck of the Liverpool and Glasgow 
steamer Orton, off Portpatrick. About one 
o’clock in the morning, when the sea was 
smooth as a mirror, and most of the passen¬ 
gers asleep, the Orion struck on a sunken rock, 
and in five minutes heeled over in seven- 
fathom water. Every one crowded on deck in 
consternation and despair; the boats were 
launched with difficulty, and the first, greatly 
overcrowded, upset with all on board. The 
second got safely to shore, by which time other 
boats had put off to render what assistance was 
possible. Before any could reach the ship she 
filled and sank, leaving such as were on deck 
struggling to keep themselves afloat with pieces 
of the wreck. Out of 150 passengers about 
50 perished, among them being M‘Neil of 
Colonsay; Captain M‘Neil, who made many 
brave attempts to save others; Professor Burns, 
Glasgow ; Mr. Roby of Rochdale, author of 
“ The Duke of Mantua;” and Mr. Splott, with 
his wife and three daughters, who were about 
to proceed to Australia. Various circumstances 
connected with this wreck showed an amount 
of carelessness which excited great indignation 
in the public mind, and a warrant was issued 
for the apprehension of Captain Henderson 
and the mate Williams. They were tried be¬ 
fore the High Court of Justiciary on the 29th 
of August. It was proved that during the 
watch of the second mate the Orion approached 
closer to the shore than was usual by upwards 
of a mile, and that this unusual course was 
taken when the weather was hazy, and against 
the warning exclamations of the seaman who 
had the look-out watch. Henderson was sen¬ 
tenced to be imprisoned for eighteen months, 
and Williams to be transported for seven years. 

19 . —Lord Dunboyne tried in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench on the charge of making a false 
statement in the register of his marriage. In 
August 1842 Lord Dunboyne was privately 
married, at Paddington Church, to Miss Vin¬ 
cent Vaughan, of Bell Hatch, in the county of 
Oxford. The opposition made to Lady Dun- 
boyne’s marriage wore off, and the parties were 
married again at St. George’s, Hanover-square, 
in December 1843; and on this occasion, as on 
the former one, the parties were described as 
widower and widow, though then man and 
wife. This false description was the offence. 
Lord Campbell instructed the jury, that they 
must be satisfied that the representation had 
been made falsely, fraudulently, and corruptly; 

(302) 


a conclusion which there would be some diffi¬ 
culty in coming to, as the defendant had no 
motive to injure anybody by his act. Verdict 
of Not guilty. 

20.—In the course of a ministerial statement 
regarding the adverse vote in the House of 
Peers, Lord John Russell took occasion to 
defend the general policy of the Government, 
and eulogized Lord Palmerston for having acted 
in foreign affairs “ not as the minister of Austria, 
not as the minister of Russia, not as the minis¬ 
ter of France, or any other foreign country, but 
only as the minister of England. At the close 
of the explanation, Mr. Roebuck gave notice of 
his intention to submit the following motion: 
“ That the principles which have hitherto regu¬ 
lated the foreign policy of her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment are such as were required to preserve 
untarnished the honour and dignity of this 
country, and at all times best calculated to 
maintain peace between this country and the 
various nations of the world. ” 

22 . —An American squadron enters the 
Tagus to enforce certain claims made by the 
United States against the Portuguese Govern¬ 
ment. 

— Portrait of Lord Palmerston presented 
to Lady Palmerston by members of the 
Llouse of Commons, in acknowledgment of his 
independent policy and the great exertions he 
had made for the suppression of the slave- 
trade. 

23 . —Sunday delivery of letters ceases. 

24 . —Mr. Roebuck introduces a debate on 
the foreign policy of the Government, by pro¬ 
posing his resolution (see 20). On the even¬ 
ing of the 25th Lord Palmerston spoke in de¬ 
fence of his policy for five hours—from the dusk 
of a summer evening to the dawn of a summer 
morning. He deemed the doctrine advanced 
on the other side, that British subjects in foreign 
lands were entitled to no protection but that of 
the laws and tribunals of the country in which 
they might happen to be, a doctrine on which 
no English minister had acted, and which the 
people of England would never suffer. He 
did not, however, mean that British subjects 
abroad were to be above the laws : they were 
bound, in the first place, to have recourse to 
the laws of the land in which they were. But 
there might be governments in which the 
tribunals were not of a character to inspire 
confidence. The present administration of 
government in Greece was full of abuses; the 
police inflicted revolting tortures upon both 
sexes, to which British subjects would be 
equally exposed, unless they had the protection 
of their own country. Lord Palmerston then 
detailed the injuries suffered by British subjects 
in Greece, and showed the reasonableness and 
moderation of the demands made for repara¬ 
tion. He entered very minutely into the dates 
and particulars of the recent negotiations con¬ 
nected with the question and with the media¬ 
tion of France, correcting also an erroneous 









JUNE 


JUNE 


1850. 


impression that M. Gros had communicated to 
Mr. Wyse the convention of London, and that, 
with a knowledge of this convention, Mr. Wyse 
had renewed hostilities. He (Lord Palmerston) 
was sorry that the convention did not arrive at 
Athens until after the other arrangements had 
been made there ; but this was not his fault, and 
the negotiations had been put an end to, not 
by Mr. Wyse, but by M. Gros himself. The 
negotiations between the English and French 
Governments were now brought to a satisfactory 
conclusion, and such portions of the London 
convention as were still applicable would be 
adopted in place of the corresponding terms 
agreed to at Athens. Lord Palmerston then 
followed Sir James Graham over the wider field 
which had been taken, reviewing and vindi¬ 
cating the policy he had pursued in relation 
to Belgium, Holland, Spain, France, Switzer¬ 
land, and Italy. He concluded by challenging 
the verdict of the House, whether the prin¬ 
ciples which had guided the foreign policy of 
the Government had been proper and fitting, 
and whether, as a subject of ancient Rome 
could hold himself free from indignity by say¬ 
ing “ Civis Romanus sum,” a British subject in 
a foreign country should not be protected by 
the vigilant eye and the strong arm of his 
Government against injustice and wrong.—On 
the evening of the 27th Mr. Gladstone, advert¬ 
ing to Lord Palmerston’s remark as to the 
condition of a Roman citizen, asked, “ What 
was a Roman citizen ? A Roman citizen was 
the member of a privileged caste, of a victorious 
and conquering nation, of a nation that held all 
others bound down by the strong arm of 
power—which had one law for him and an¬ 
other for all the rest of the world, which 
asserted in his favour principles which it 
denied to all others. Was such the view of 
the noble lord as to the relation of England 
towards all the rest of the world? Did he 
claim for us that we are to stand on a platform, 
as it were, high above all other nations? It 
was clear from the whole expression and spirit 
of the noble Viscount’s speech that such is his 
impression—that he thinks we are to be the 
censor of the vice and follies of all the peoples 
of the world, the teacher of the nations, and 
that all who do not think proper to admit the 
assumption must have diplomatic war declared 
against them. And certainly, if the business 
of a Foreign Secretary was merely to carry on 
diplomatic war, all must admit the perfection 
of the noble lord in the discharge of his func¬ 
tions. But it was not the duty of a Foreign 
Minister to be like a knight-errant, ever prick¬ 
ing forth, armed at all points, to challenge all 
comers, and lay as many adversaries as possible 
sprawling, or the noble lord would be a master 
of his art; but to maintain that sound code of 
international principles which is a monument 
of human wisdom, and a precious inheritance 
bequeathed by our fathers for the preservation 
of the future brotherhood of nations. ”—On the 
28th the debate was resumed by Mr. Cockburn 
in a speech of great ability on behalf of the 


Government. Referring to Mr. Gladstone’s 
statement, that Rome only protected its citizens 
because it exercised universal dominion, he 
dissented from that proposition altogether. It 
was not after the Roman empire had been 
established over the whole world that that 
position was first assumed; the principle was 
acted upon from the earliest ages, and therefore 
was the great orator entitled to feel all the 
pride and triumph of a Roman, when he uttered 
the memorable exclamation: “ Quot bella 
majores nostri susceperint; quot cives Ro¬ 
mani injuria affecti sunt, naviculari retenti, 
mercatores spoliati esse dicerentur.” (Cheers.) 
It was not only when she had established her 
dominion over nearly the whole civilized world, 
but while she had yet to fight the battle of 
empire almost on equal terms, that Rome 
invariably asserted the first duty of a state was 
to protect its citizens, and to redress their 
wrongs. Touching on the disunited agricul¬ 
tural party, the honourable member for South¬ 
ampton considered they might say:— 

“ Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves ; 

Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves.” 

(Laughter.) Or if they were disposed to follow 
like sheep the honourable and gallant member 
for Lincoln:— 

“ Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes.” 

On this evening (the 28th) Sir Robert Peel 
made his last appearance in the House—an 
appearance generally admitted to be charac¬ 
terised by great kindliness of feeling and 
political foresight. He spoke against the 
resolution as being too comprehensive. “ It 
is my firm belief,” he said, “that you will 
not advance the cause of constitutional govern* 
ment by attempting to dictate to other nations. 
If you do, your intentions will be mistaken, 
you will rouse feelings upon which you do not 
calculate, you will invite opposition to Govern¬ 
ment ; and beware that the time does not 
arrive when, frightened by your own inter- 
- ference, you withdraw your countenance from 
those whom you have excited, and leave upon 
their minds the bitter recollection that you 
have betrayed them. If you succeed, I doubt 
whether or no the institutions that take root 
under your patronage will be lasting. Consti¬ 
tutional liberty will be best worked out by 
those who aspire to freedom by their efforts. 
You will only overload it by your help. I 
have so little disposition for entering into any 
angry or hostile controversy that I shall make 
no reference whatever to many of the topics 
which were introduced into that most ^ble and 
temperate speech (Lord Palmerston’s), a speech 
which made us all proud of the man who de¬ 
livered it.” The debate was continued over 
four nights, and ended in a majority for 
Ministers of 46 in a House of 574. 

29 .—Fatal accident to Sir Robert Peel. 
Riding up Constitution-hill about five o’clock 
this afternoon, his horse shied at some passing 
object, and threw him over its head. Sir Robert 

( 303 ) 





JUNE 


1850. 


JULY 


fell on his face, but keeping hold of the 
reins, the animal came down upon him with its 
knees between his shoulders. Being recog¬ 
nised by several gentlemen he was immediately 
lifted up, placed in a private carriage, and 
attended home by Dr. Foucart, who had 
observed the accident, and by Sir James 
Clark, the Queen’s physician. Other medical 
men were instantly called in, and an exami¬ 
nation showed that the great statesman had 
sustained a fracture of the collar-bone, with 
a severe injury of the shoulder. It was at first 
thought that he was going on favourably, and 
the bulletin of the 1st July announced that 
Sir Robert had enjoyed refreshing sleep ; but 
in the course of that day the symptoms became 
more and more alarming, and in the evening 
he became slightly delirious. In the pa¬ 
roxysms of his sufferings Sir Robert’s thoughts 
were with his oldest and dearest friends, and 
the names of Hardinge and Graham were fre¬ 
quently upon his lips. He died about eleven 
on the night of the 2d of July, in presence of 
three of his sons (the eldest, Robert, being 
absent at his diplomatic post in Switzerland), 
his three brothers, his son-in-law Lord Villiers, 
Lord Hardinge and Sir James Graham. The 
death of no public man probably ever excited 
more general and unmingled sorrow. The 
Queen, Prince Albert, and the most distin¬ 
guished members of every political party were 
unceasing in their inquiries, while the neigh¬ 
bourhood of his house in Whitehall-gardens 
was thronged by multitudes eager to catch every 
gleam of hope. Touching tributes were paid 
to his memory in both Houses of Parliament, 
and by members of all shades of opinion. 
“Every heart,” said Mr. Gladstone, on the 
evening of the 3d of July, “is much too 
full to allow us to enter so early upon the 
consideration of the amount of that calamity 
with which the country has been visited in, 
I will say, the premature death of Sir Robert 
Peel; for although he has died full of years 
and full of honours, yet it is a death that in 
human eyes is premature, because we had 
fondly hoped that, in whatever position Pro¬ 
vidence might assign to him, by the weight of 
his ability, by the splendour of his talents, and 
by the purity of his virtues, he might still 
have been spared to render us most essential 
services. 

* Now is the stately column broke, 

The beacon light is quench’d in smoke, 

The trumpet’s silvery sound is still, 

The warder silent on the hill.’ 

The tribute of respect which we now offer 
will, I am sure, be all the more valuable—all 
the more readily received—from the silence 
which has prevailed, and which has arisen, not 
from a want, but from an excess of feeling.” 
M. Dupin, the President of the French As¬ 
sembly, also paid an unprecedented tribute to 
the memory of the great English statesman. 

July 2. —Treaty of peace concluded at 
Berlin between Denmark and Prussia, regard- 
( 3 ° 4 ) 


ing the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. 
By this treaty all the dominions united under 
the sceptre of Denmark were to devolve to 
Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Son- 
derburg Glucksburg, and upon his issue in the 
male line by his marriage with Louisa, Princess 
of Hesse. The principle of the integrity of 
the Danish monarchy was acknowledged, but 
the rights of the German Confederation with 
regard to the Duchies of Holstein and Lauen- 
burg were not to be affected by this treaty. 
The Duchies now made preparation for carry¬ 
ing on the war on their own account. 

2 . —Sir Charles Napier resigns the command 
of the British forces in India, in consequence of 
a misunderstanding which had arisen between 
him and Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General, 
regarding the sum to be allowed the Sepoys 
for the purchase of food. 

3. —The Koh-i-noor diamond presented to 
her Majesty by the Chairman and Deputy- 
Chairman of the East India Company. 

4-.— Lord Campbell presents a petition 
against the selection of Hyde-park as the site 
of the intended Exhibition. It was supported 
by Lord Brougham, who thought the erection 
would be a monstrous interference with the 
rights of the public. In the House of Com¬ 
mons, the same evening, Colonel Sibthorp 
pronounced the Exhibition by which the park 
was to be desecrated the greatest trash, the 
greatest fraud, and the greatest imposition that 
was ever attempted to be put upon the people 
of this country. 

— The integrity of Denmark guaranteed by 
England, France, Prussia, and Sweden. 

— Lord John Russell, with the sanction of 
the Crown, proposes to inter the remains of 
Sir Robert Peel with public honours. Mr. 
Goulburn, on the part of the family, and in 
compliance with the expressed wish of the dead 
statesman, declined the proposal. 

— Died at Barham, Suffolk, aged 90, the 
Rev. William Kirby, the father of British 
entomology. 

6 . —Came on in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the case of Barry v. Reid, being an 
action for libel, raised by the architect of the 
House of Commons against the ventilator. 
The words complained of were used at a con¬ 
ference regarding the ventilation of the build¬ 
ing, when Dr. Reid refused to proceed, 
remarking. “I’ll transact no business in a 
meeting in which Mr. Meesom is, because he 
and Mr. Barry sent in a forged document to 
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests.” 
The Chief Justice thought the plaintiff had 
no case because the communication was privi¬ 
leged, and suggested a compromise, which was 
agreed to. 

The Court of Queen’s Bench pronounces 
a decision refusing to restore to his status as 
an attoi-ney Mr. Barber, who had been trans¬ 
ported in 1844 f°r alleged complicity in the 





JULY 


1850. 


JULY 


Fletcher will frauds, but subsequently par¬ 
doned. 

6 . —The Illustrated News publishes the inge¬ 
nious designs of Mr. Paxton’s crystal palace 
for the Exhibition building. 

8 . —The Court of Exchequer gives judg¬ 
ment in the Gorham case, being the third 
decision of a court of law on the question. 
The Bishop of Exeter first applied to the 
Court of Queen’s Bench for a rule to prohibit 
the Court of Arches from giving effect to the 
decision of the Privy Council in Mr. Gorham’s 
favour. On its being refused, the Bishop made 
a similar application to the Court of Common 
Pleas, by whom it was also refused ; and he 
then brought the matter in the same form 
before the Court of Exchequer. After the 
question had been argued at length, this court 
now found, as the two other courts had done, 
that the appeal from the Court of Arches 
was to the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council, and refused the Bishop’s application 
with costs. On the 20th, the Bishop pre¬ 
sented his answer to the monition of the 
Arches Court, along with a protest. The court 
received the answer, but rejected the protest. 
Mr. Gorham was inducted to the living on the 
loth of August. 

— Exciting scene in the French Assembly, 
caused by an expression used by M. Rouher, 
that the Revolution of February was “a disas¬ 
trous catastrophe.” The Opposition, led by M. 
Girardin, protested against the language as an 
indignity, and threatened to resign. 

— Died at Cambridge House, Piccadilly, 
aged 76, his Royal Highness the Duke of 
Cambridge, tenth child and youngest son of 
George III. 

9. —General Zachary Taylor, President of 
the United States, dies at Washington from 
cholera, after twenty-four hours’ illness. He 
was succeeded by Vice-president Millard 
Fillimore. 

— The remains of Sir Robert Peel interred 
in the parish church of Drayton-Basset; the 
ceremony, in compliance with the deceased 
statesman’s own wish, being as far as possible 
“without ostentation or parade of any kind.” 

10. —“Speech day” at Harrow, specially 
memorable for the great company drawn to¬ 
gether in honour of the memory of Sir Robert 
Peel. Most of those present examined the 
name of the great statesman, carved on a panel 
now in the seat of the head-master, and also the 
speech list for 1804 in the monitors’ library, 
where “ Robert Peel ” appeared along with 
Lord Byron. In presenting the Peel medal for 
the Latin essay, “ Quamdiu Colonise sint re¬ 
tin endse,” Dr. Vaughan said to the successful 
pupil (D’Arcy), “ I give you this medal founded 
by Sir Robert Peel for the encouragement of 
Latin literature ; and the receipt of this the 
perpetual prize of that eminent man must be 
considered to have additional value from the 
distressing circumstance which the country 

( 305 ) 


now deplores.” At the entertainment which 
took place in the afternoon M. Drouyn de 
Lhuys, in acknowledging the toast of the 
Foreign Ministers, touched with great delicacy 
on the school life of the “ exalted man to whose 
untimely grave both foreign nations and his 
bereaved countrymen were bringing their tri¬ 
butes of praise.” 

11 . —Robert Pate tried at the Old Bailey 
Sessions for assaulting the Queen (May 27). 
A defence of insanity was set up, but the jury 
found him guilty, and Baron Alderson sen¬ 
tenced the prisoner to transportation for seven 
years, but so far gave effect to the plea of in¬ 
sanity as to omit whipping from the punish¬ 
ment the Court might have awarded. 

12 . —A Congress of Deputies from the 
several states included in the Prussian Zoll- 
verein opened in Cassel. 

— On the motion of Lord John Russell, 
the House unanimously votes an Address to 
her Majesty, praying that directions might be 
given for the erection of a monument to Sir 
Robert Peel in Westminster Abbey, “with 
an inscription expressive of the public sense or 
so great and irreparable a loss.” 

— Mrs. Glover {nee Betterton), after a 
successful career extending over sixty years, 
takes her leave of the stage at Drury Lane 
in the character of Mrs. Malaprop in “The 
Rivals. ” She endeavoured to sustain the part 
with all her old animation, and with such success 
as made her death four days afterwards an 
event as unlooked for as it was regretted by 
both old and young playgoers. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 78, Robert 
Stevenson, an eminent civil engineer, who 
designed and executed the Bell Rock Light¬ 
house. 

14. — Died at Berlin, aged 61, Professor 
Neander, a widely-known German theologian 
and Church historian. 

15. —The new Lord Chancellor, Baron 
Truro (Sir T. Wilde), takes the oaths and his 
seat. The promotions caused by this elevation 
were Sir -John Romilly, Attorney-General, 
re-elected for Devonport, and Sir Alexander 
Cockbum, Solicitor-General, re-elected for 
Southampton. (See Table of Administrations.) 

— Meeting in the Egyptian Hall, Mansion 
House, to take steps for erecting a suitable 
monument, within the city of London, to the 
memory of Sir Robert Peel. Meetings were 
also held in many other cities, with the view 
of carrying out a national memorial to the 
great statesman. One in Willis’s Rooms, on 
the 23d, was presided over by the Earl of 
Aberdeen, and addressed by the Duke of 
Wellington. 

— Lord R. Grosvenor carries his Attor¬ 
neys’ Certificates Bill against Ministers a second 
time by a majority of 139 to 122. 

— Royal Assent given to a bill making more 
effectual provision for regulating the police- 

x 




JULY 


1850. 


JULY 


towns and populous places in Scotland, and 
for paving, draining, lighting, and cleansing the 
same. 

16. —The Commissioners of the Great Ex¬ 
hibition accept Mr. Paxton’s design of a crystal 
palace for the Exhibition building. 

— Drowned at sea, off Long Island, with 
her husband and child, Margaret Fuller, Coun¬ 
tess Ossoli. 

18. —Fire at Cracow, laying waste a large 
portion of the city. 

19. —Sir Robert Peel returned for Tam- 
worth in room of his late father. 

— In Committee, Lord John Russell’s reso¬ 
lution to grant 12,000/. a year to the Duke 
of Cambridge carried against Mr. Hume’s 
amendment for 8,000/. by 206 to 53 votes. 

— Lord Stanley presents a petition, signed 
by 16,000 landowners, tenants, and tradesmen 
of Lancashire, praying for protection to British 
industry. 

20 . —The members of the Reform Club 
give a banquet to Lord Palmerston, to express 
their confidence in his policy, and in comme¬ 
moration of his late triumph in the House of 
Commons. 

— A treaty prepared by the Cabinets of 
England and France signed at Athens by the 
English Envoy and Greek Foreign Minister. 

21 . —Explosion of the Red Rover steamer 
at Bristol. The engines and machinery were 
torn to pieces and hurled high into the air, 
six passengers killed, and almost every one on 
board injured. 

23.—Explosion of fire-damp in Common- 
head Pit, Airdrie. Out of twenty men engaged 
in the works at the time, only one escaped. 

— A gathering, described as an “ aggre¬ 
gate meeting of the clergy of the Church , of 
England,” held in St. Martin’s Hall, Long- 
acre, to protest against the decision of the law- 
courts in the Gorham case, and to take steps 
to prevent the order of the Court of Arches to 
induct Mr. Gorham from being carried into 
effect. A protest against Mr. Gorham’s here¬ 
sies was carried, as also an address to the 
Archbishop, and a petition to the Queen, pray¬ 
ing for the revival of synodical action. A 
supplemental meeting, presided over by Dr. 
Pusey, was held simultaneously in Freemasons’ 
Tavern. 

24-. —In moving the second reading of the 
Compound Householders Bill, Sir William 
Clay explained that his object was to remove 
a grievance affecting a numerous class of house¬ 
holders. At present, if the owner of a house 
compounded with the parish officers for the 
payment of the parochial rates, the overseers 
had no power to return the name- of the occu¬ 
pants to the returning officer as entitled to vote 
in the election of members to serve in Parlia¬ 
ment. The tenants of proprietors who, under 
local acts, compounded for their rates, though 
(306) 


they occupied tenements to a higher value than 
10/., were allowed to be placed upon the 
register only after payment of the existing 
rate ; consequently after every rate they were 
obliged to make a fresh application. The 
effect of this system was, that great numbers of 
persons in the metropolis and other places who, 
according to the spirit of the Reform Bill, were 
entitled to be upon the register, were disfran¬ 
chised. This bill would obviate the necessity 
of parties so placed making incessant claims ; 
in short, it would place them, in this respect, 
upon a par with county voters who, having 
once substantiated a claim, were not under the 
necessity of renewing it so long as they re¬ 
mained in the occupation of the same house. 
They were, however, relieved from none of 
the conditions of residence or payment of rates 
which were required by the Reform Act. The 
measure was approved by Government, and 
passed through both Houses. 

25. —Battle of Idstadt between the armies 
of Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. It lasted 
over two days, and resulted in a loss to the 
Duchies of nearly 3,000 men. This was the 
first engagement of any moment since the sus¬ 
pension of arms in July 1849. 

— The Prohibited Marriages Bill with¬ 
drawn by the Earl of St. Germains. 

26. —Baron Rothschild attempts to take his 
seat in the House of Commons, but withdraws 
on the refusal of the Speaker to swear him 
upon the Old Testament only. On the 30th 
he was sworn on the Old Testament, and con¬ 
tinued taking the oath till he came to the 
words “ on the true faith of a Christian,” 
which he refused to take, and withdrew. Sir 
F. Thesiger then moved that a new writ be 
issued for the City of London ; and Mr. Wood 
an amendment, that the representation was 
full. The latter was negatived by 221 to 117, 
and the former without a division. 

— In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham 
criticises with great severity the Attorney- 
General’s refusal to file an application to the 
Court of Chancery for an injunction to stay 
proceeding with the proposed Exhibition build¬ 
ing in Hyde Park. 

— A committee of the Metropolitan Church 
Union having informed the Archbishop of 
Canterbury that they intend presenting him 
with an address requesting him not to proceed 
with the institution of Mr. Gorham, his Grace 
writes : “ Your address proposes that I should 
assume to myself the authority of reversing 
the sentence of this (the legitimate) court, 
should refuse to do what the law requires of 
me, and’ should deny to Mr. Gorham a right 
to which, after a legal trial and examination, 
he is declared to be entitled. I submit to 
your committee, with all due deference, that 
I cannot consistently receive an address of 
which this is the purport; and I must there¬ 
fore respectfully decline to name a time for its 
presentation to me.” In reply to a remon- 




JULY 


1850. 


AUGUST 


strance from the committee, the Primate again 
wrote: “Assuredly there are occasions, as 
you remind me, when it becomes a duty to 
obey God rather than man. But I beg to ob¬ 
serve, that before any one takes upon himself 
the responsibility of contravening the law of 
man he ought to be very certain that in doing 
so he would be obeying God. Now nothing 
which I find in the law of God gives me reason 
to believe that I should be acting in confor¬ 
mity with His will if I refused Mr. Gorham ad¬ 
mission to the cure of souls, on the ground of 
his hesitating to affirm the spiritual regenera¬ 
tion of every baptized child; and the will of 
God in this matter had need be very plainly 
declared before I could think myself justified 
in accusing Mr. Gorham of heresy, much 
more before I could assume the right of indivi¬ 
dually condemning him after the decision of 
the legitimate tribunal in his favour.” 

26. — The Commissioners of the Great Exhi¬ 
bition accept Messrs. Fox and Henderson’s ten¬ 
der of 79,800/. for the erection of Mr. Paxton’s 
design on the.site selected by them in Hyde 
Park. The contractors obtained possession of 
the ground four days afterwards. 

27. —County Mayo election terminates in 
favour of the Free-trade candidate, Mr. 
O’Higgins, who polled 141 votes ; his oppo¬ 
nent, Mr. Butt, 95. It was said there were 
not 25 more votes unpolled in the county, 
which had a population of about 300,000. 

29.— Heard at Stafford Assizes the case of 
Bainbrigge v. Bainbrigge, raised to try the 
validity of a will alleged to have been made by 
an insane person, under circumstances of fraud. 
Thomas Bainbrigge, the testator, was a person 
of ancient family and large estates. Originally 
of polished taste and cultivated manners, an 
early disappointment in love affected his mind, 
and drove him into seclusion, a soured and 
slightly eccentric man. An illicit connexion 
with his housekeeper brought him a daughter, 
to whom he became much attached. The child 
w r as educated in a costly manner, and as she 
grew up was introduced to society and well 
received, as Miss Bainbrigge. At the age of 
thirteen, he made a will entailing his estates on 
her and her issue ; but at sixteen she w r ent 
astray with the coachman, to her father’s ex¬ 
cessive but not unrelenting indignation. A 
child was born in 1803, in her father’s house, 
received the name of Marianne, and soon se¬ 
cured his eccentric affections. Two years later 
his daughter eloped with the son of a tenant on 
the estate, named Arnold, who was greatly dis¬ 
liked by Bainbrigge. He then made a fresh 
will, in which he cut off Mrs. Arnold, and re¬ 
settled all his estates on her daughter Marianne. 
A fall from his horse at Derby increased his 
eccentricity at times to madness. He became 
careless in his personal habits, and encouraged 
his grand-daughter in language and conduct of 
the most depraved character. He tried on one 
occasion a horse which had offended him, 
sentenced it to transportation, but afterwards 
( 3 ° 7 ) 


commuted the sentence to confinement in a 
dark room. Still, at the justices’ meetings his 
brother magistrates were not able to discover 
anything so far irregular as to preclude him 
from taking part in the public business of the 
district. Matters continued in this way till the 
15 th June, 1818, when an excessive indulgence 
in brandy-drinking, to which he was addicted, 
brought him to his death-bed; and Mr. Blair, 
his solicitor, a man of high professional station 
and character, was sent for to make his will. 
This gentleman drew a testament which gave 
the reversion of the estates—to the prejudice of 
the testator’s nephew and heir-at-law—to per¬ 
sons whom the testator had regarded with the 
utmost aversion ; namely, after the death of his 
grand-daughter Marianne and her issue, to the 
sons of his daughter Mrs. Arnold. Marianne, 
like her mother, had run 'away at sixteen, and 
had two children ; but she and her children 
were dead, and the question of succession now 
arose between the testator’s heir-at-law and the 
family of the Arnolds, in whose favour the will 
had been made. It was declared by some of 
the attesting witnesses that the testator was 
never conscious from the day he took to his 
bed, on Monday the 15th of June, till his death 
on the next Saturday, and that Mr. Blair 
guided his hand to sign the will when he 
was in a state of dying stupor. Mr. Blair him¬ 
self took advantages under the will, and the 
testator’s relations were kept from seeing the 
deceased during the whole of his last illness. 
After the death, when the will was read over, 
the youngest brother of the deceased — then 
Captain, now Major-General, Bainbrigge— 
saw the original full of blanks and pencil inter¬ 
lineations. When, after years of foreign ser¬ 
vice, he came home and went to Doctors’ 
Commons, he found the original will so different 
a document in appearance, that he believed it 
to be one substituted for that which was read 
over to the relatives in 1818. On the other 
hand, respectable clerks, who were in Mr. 
Blair’s employment when he drew the will, 
swore to having written the original document 
and to the identity of the original with the one 
now in Doctors’ Commons. Lord Campbell’s 
opinion in summing up was favourable to the 
good faith of Mr. Blair, and the validity of the 
will; but the verdict of the jury was in favour 
of the plaintiff, the heir-at-law. 

30. — Fall of the Brinthsw r ay cotton mill, 
Stockport, causing the death of eleven people, 
several being women and children. 

31. —Scene at Newcastle Assizes between 
Mr. Justice Wightman and the county justices, 
who refused to permit his lordship to pass 
through the room to consult with Justice 
Cresswell, while they were sitting transacting 
business. After a sharp altercation, the High 
Sheriff led Mr. Justice Wightman through the 
apartment. 

August 1 . —Railway accident at Glasgow, 
in connexion with a special train conveying 

x 2 




AUGUST 


1850. AUGUST 


excursionists from Perth to the Highland and 
Agricultural Society’s show. At Cowlairs the 
train was divided into two sections, one of 
which was sent down the tunnel, but brought 
to a stand after entering some little way, in 
consequence of another train in front. While 
in this position the second section came down 
at great speed, and dashed into the first, smash¬ 
ing two of the trucks occupied by the excur¬ 
sionists. Five people were killed on the spot, 
and many others injured. 

1. —The Attorney-General submits two reso¬ 
lutions which had been framed to meet Baron 
Rothschild’s case,—the first denying his right 
to vote or sit in the House till he had taken 
the oath of abjuration in the form appointed by 
law, and the second pledging the House to a 
measure of relief for the Jews next session. At 
the conclusion of an animated debate, on the 
5th, the first was carried by 166 to 92, and the 
second by 142 to 106. 

— Fire at the New Model Prison, Park- 
hurst, Isle of Wight, destroying one of the 
principal wings containing 200 cells. 

2. —Lord Brougham censures the House of 
Lords for its deference to Royalty in the matter 
of the Exhibition site. “ When I lately brought 
forward the subject, there was dead silence 
within your lordships’ House, and dead silence 
also in the House of Commons, showing most 
painfully that absolute prostration of the under¬ 
standing which takes place even in the minds 
of the bravest when the word ‘ Prince’ is men¬ 
tioned in this country.” The learned ex- 
Chancellor was engaged in another fracas the 
same evening, in connexion with his proposal 
for a revision of the Civil List. 

4. —The mediation of the King of Belgium 
between Great Britain and Spain is so far 
successful as to lead to-day to the renewal of 
diplomatic intercourse between the two coun¬ 
tries. Lord Howden presented his credentials 
as Ambassador of her Majesty at the court of 
Madrid. 

5. — Opening of the Great Northern Railway 
from Maiden-lane to Peterborough. 

6 . — In a highly characteristic speech in the 
House of Lords, Lord Brougham defends 
himself against the “ slanderous” and “scur¬ 
rilous” attacks of the Daily News on his 
management of the appellate jurisdiction of 
the House. 

10. —Died, aged 71, Vice-Chancellor Sir 
Lancelot Shadwell. 

11 . — Fire at Gravesend, destroying twenty- 
nine houses, mostly wood, in the High-street, 
and causing considerable damage to eleven 
others. 

— Dr. Wiseman delivers an address in St. 
George’s Cathedral, Westminster-road, pre¬ 
vious to leaving for Rome to be raised to the 
dignity of Cardinal. 

12 . —Louis Napoleon sets out on a tour 

(308) 


through the southern provinces of the Republic. 
At Lyons the President’s reception was pecu¬ 
liarly impressive, and the day spent there the 
most brilliant of the journey. 

14. —Royal Assent given to a bill extending 
the jurisdiction of the County Courts to sums j 
not exceeding 50/. The Public Libraries’ Bill 
was passed at the same time, and a bill autho-1 
rizing the erection of a National Gallery in, 
Edinburgh. 

15 . —Parliament prorogued by the Queen: 
in person. The Royal Speech made reference 
principally to the Acts just passed for the better 
government of Australia, for discontinuing j 
interments within the metropolis, and for ex¬ 
tending the Elective Franchise in Ireland. 

— A bill to admit California as a member 
of the United States passes the Senate. 

16. — The Bishop of Exeter informs the 
churchwardens of Brampford-Speke that he 
cannot license another preacher to the parish, 
as that would be illegal, and subject the dioce¬ 
san to punishment ; but if it was found after 
experience that Mr. Gorham administered the 
rites of the Church in a heterodox manner, pro¬ 
ceedings against him would then be instituted. 

— Mdlle. Jenny Lind sings at Liverpool, 
being intercepted there by the Philharmonic 
Society, on her journey from the Continent to 
America. 

— Disastrous floods in the country be¬ 
tween Brussels and the French frontier. 

17. —William Bennison executed at Edin¬ 
burgh, for poisoning his wife with arsenic. 
The criminal was greatly celebrated for his 
“gift” in prayer; and when his wife had passed 
for ever from his cruel treatment, he thanked 
God that she had gone to glory! “I have 
seen many a death-bed,” he said, “but never a 
pleasanter one than my wife’s.” 

— Cession of the Danish possessions on the 
coast of Africa to Great Britain. 

18 . —Died at lais residence, Quartier Beau- 
jon, Paris, Honore de Balzac, novelist. 

19. —Died at Brighton, in his 81st year, 
Sir Martin Archer Shee, President of the Royal 
Academy. 

22 .—Synod of Roman Catholic prelates and 
clergy at Thurles, “to hold council together 
for the settling of controversies, the extirpation 
of heresies, the improvement of morals and 
discipline, and for devising and establishing 
whatever means can tend to the greater glory 
of God, the better education of the people, the 
peace and harmony of society, and the salva¬ 
tion of souls.” They condemned the Queen’s 
Colleges, and recommended the establishment 
of a Catholic University. 

— A Peace Congress assembles at Frankfort. 

25 .—Prussia informs the Austrian Cabinet 
of its refusal to join in the restricted Diet at 
Frankfort. 




AUGUST 


1850. 


SEPTEMBER 


26. —Died at Claremont, in his 77th year, 
Louis Philippe, ex-king of the French. He 
was buried in the Roman Catholic chapel at 
Weybridge. Low mass was celebrated in the 
chapel of the Tuileries on the 5th. Sept. 

27. —The Queen, Prince Albert, and Royal 
Family leave Osborne for Scotland by way of 
Castle Howard and Edinburgh to Balmoral. 
On their progress the Royal party made a formal 
opening of the High Level Bridge at New¬ 
castle and the Border Railway Bridge at Ber¬ 
wick; and on the 30th, during the sojourn of 
the Court at Holyrood, Prince Albert laid the 
foundation stone of the Scottish National 
Gallery. 

28. —The submarine electric telegraph laid 
down between the English and French coasts. 
The points chosen were Shakespeare’s Cliff, 
at Dover, and the opposite chalk headland at 
Cape Grisnez, midway between Calais and 
Boulogne. In settling down into the bed of 
the ocean the wire received injuries which fora 
time interrupted the communication. 

31. —Royal Commission appointed to in¬ 
quire into the state, study, discipline, and re* 
venue of Oxford University. (See April 23, 
1852.) 

September 1 . —The delivery of letters on 
Sunday resumed at all post-offices. 

2 .—Died, aged 74, Sir Charles Watkin 
Williams Wynne, M.P. for Montgomeryshire, 
a politician of much influence in the House on 
questions of privilege and points of order. 

4. —Attack on General Haynau at Barclay 
and Co.’s brewery. Presenting himself with 
some friends to inspect the premises, the la¬ 
bourers and draymen supplied themselves with 
brooms and mud, with which they belaboured 
“the Austrian butcher,” and compelled him to 
retreat along the Bankside to the George public- 
house. Here the attacking party were rein¬ 
forced in large numbers, but all attempts made 
to discover the apartment in which the General 
was locked up failed. He was conveyed by a 
party of police across the river to Somerset 
House, and from thence in a cab to Morley’s 
Hotel, and left England on the 6th for the 
Continent. This occurrence gave rise to a 
diplomatic correspondence between Austria and 
Great Britain, the Ambassador of the first- 
mentioned Power complaining of the insult 
offered to a distinguished subject of the Empire, 
and asking for the punishment of those con¬ 
cerned in the outrage. The Home Secretary 
explained the difficulty of proceeding in a 
summary manner with the case, as General 
Haynau refused to make any distinct charge 
to the police at the time of its occurrence ; and 
so far as inquiry afterwards was concerned, 
although the assistance of police had been 
offered to Barclay and Co., neither the origina¬ 
tors of the attack nor even the most prominent 
actors had been discovered. The correspond¬ 
ence was closed by the Austrian Ambassador 


expressing the intention of his Government to 
reserve to themselves “the right to consider 
in a similar case whether we should or should 
not act reciprocally towards British subjects 
in Austria.” 

4. —Decree issued by the Emperor of Brazil, 
making the importation of slaves a piratical 
offence. 

6 . —The municipal authorities of Cherbourg 
entertain the President on his northern tour, 
and invite a number of distinguished English 
naval officers to meet him. The President pro¬ 
posed as a toast “The City of Cherbourg.” 
“ I propose this toast in the presence of these 
distinguished strangers, now our guests. They 
can convince themselves of the fact, that if we 
desire peace it is not because we are weak, but 
from that community of interests and those 
sentiments of mutual esteem which bind to¬ 
gether the two most civilized nations of the 
globe.” These words were followed by re¬ 
peated shouts of “ Vive l’Empereur ! ” ” Vive 
Napoleon ! ” 

8 . —Died at Beaumaris, Chief Justice Doherty, 
of the Irish Court of Common Pleas, the op¬ 
ponent of O’Connell in the once famous 
Donervile conspiracy case. 

9. —Lieut. Gale, aeronaut, killed in the 
neighbourhood of Bordeaux. He ascended on 
horseback from that place, and had reached 
the ground safely between Merignac and Cestas. 
He was engaged in exhausting the balloon of 
the remaining gas, when the peasantry who as¬ 
sisted him succeeded earlier than he seemed to 
expect in removing his horse. The balloon, 
disencumbered of the horse’s weight, instantly 
soared aloft, snapping in two a young fir-tree 
which held the grapnel. Mr. Gale was not in 
the car, but got entangled in the ropes : he 
held on while the balloon floated nearly two 
miles, and dropped either with it or just before 
it fell. His body was found in a tree, and the 
collapsed balloon in an adjoining wood. 

13. —Congress pass a Fugitive Slave Bill, 
permitting owners to follow them into free 
states, and making penal any assistance shown 
in their flight or opposition offered to their 
arrest. In further concession to the Southern 
States the free-soilers now agreed to reject 
the testimony of slaves in the courts of justice. 

15 . —The Elector of Hesse-Cassel quits his 
capital in consequence of the refusal of his Diet 
to vote supplies without a budget. His Prime 
Minister, the Austrian agent Hassenpflug, 
secures for the King the support of the Frank¬ 
fort Diet. Prussia moved her army to assist 
the Hessians. 

16 . —Explosion of a firework factory in 
Weaver-street, Spitalfields, destroying the pre¬ 
mises, damaging thirty-eight adjoining houses, 
and injuring a number of operatives employed 
in the factory. 

— Affray between Lord Brougham and a 
body of watchers, on the river Eamont. Ac- 

( 309 ) 




SEPTEMBER 


1850. 


SEPTEMBER 


companied by the Marquis of Douro, Lady 
Malet, and others, his lordship caused the 
keepers to cast his nets into the river, when a 
party of ten watchers in ambush, connected 
with the Eamont Angling Association, rushed 
out, and began fighting for their possession. 
A local constable formally seized the nets 
under the Solway Act, and the society’s men 
afterwards managed to cut off about eighty 
yards. On the matter being investigated be¬ 
fore the magistrate at Penrith, a fine of $ 1 . 
was inflicted on one of Lord Brougham’s men 
for using an improper net, and the various 
cross-charges of assault were withdrawn. 

18. — During a fog, on the Eastern Coun¬ 
ties Railway, a train passes over and kills nine 
surfacemen who, in the hurry of the moment, 
had stepped from the line where they were 
working on to the up-line, instead of occupying 
the space between the two till the train had 
passed. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict 
of “Death by misadventure.” 

19. — Fire in Mark-lane, the largest and 
most destructive which had taken place in the 
City since the destruction of the Royal Ex¬ 
change. Owing to the immense mass of the 
old buildings (once the city residence of a 
foreign Ambassador) and the great quantity of 
inflammable merchandise stored in the build¬ 
ings, the flames broke out anew for days after¬ 
wards whenever the wind rose. The damage 
was estimated at 200,000/. 

— Inauguration of the Coronation Stone of 
the Saxon kings at Kingston. 

— A portion of Seaford Cliff, Dover, 300 
feet broad, nearly 300 feet long towards the 
sea, and about 100 feet high, dislodged by a 
charge of gunpowder. At a height of about 50 
feet above high-water mark two galleries were 
driven into the cliff, in each chamber of which 
was deposited a charge of 12,000 lbs. of powder. 
Above this, and on the top of the cliff, three 
shafts or pits were sunk to the depth of 41 feet, 
and 600 lbs. of powder deposited in each. 
The charges were fired by three voltaic bat¬ 
teries, when the whole mass fell gently forward 
into the sea. 

20 . —Burglary with violence on the premises 
of the Rev. O. E. Vidal, Arlington, Sussex. 

21 . —Mr. Cureton, of the British Museum, 
robbed and assaulted in his lodgings in Alders- 
gate-street. In the afternoon three men, 
fashionably dressed, inquired for him in the 
lower part of the house, and were directed to 
go upstairs. They remained there about a 
quarter of an hour, and then left. On Mr. 
Cureton’s attendant entering the room with 
some milk for his tea she found him insensible 
on the floor, his face quite black, and blood 
flowing from a wound in his forehead. Seven 
hours elapsed before he was restored to con¬ 
sciousness. Mr. Cureton then said that he 
had been robbed as well as maltreated. The 
three visitors, under pretence of purchasing an 
old crown-piece of William and Mary, induced 

(3*o) 


their victim to produce his collection of coins, 
when one of them forced an instrument round 
his throat, and at the same time administered 
a blow on the forehead which deprived him of 
consciousness. The thieves then ransacked 
the place, carrying off a watch, a diamond 
pin, a box of cigars, and old coins worth 
from 300/. to 400/. as antiques, but not so 
many shillings if melted down for silver. 

21 .—The Prussian Government inform the 
Cabinet of Vienna of their intention to uphold 
the Constitution of Hesse-Cassel in opposition 
to the arbitrary proceedings of the Elector’s 
Minister Hassenpflug. 

24-. —Papal bull “given at St. Peter’s, 
Rome, under the Seal of the Fisherman,” 
establishing a Romish hierarchy in England. 
“ In maturing this design, we have not failed 
to implore the aid of the almighty and most 
gracious God, and that He would grant us 
grace in this weighty affair to resolve upon that 
which should be most suitable to augment 
the prosperity of the Church. We have further 
besought the assistance of the most blessed 
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and of the 
saints whose virtues have made England illus¬ 
trious, that they would deign to obtain, by their 
intercession with God, the happy success of 
this enterprise. We have since commended 
the whole business to the grave and serious con¬ 
sideration of our venerable brothers, the Car¬ 
dinals of the Holy Roman Church, forming our 
Congregation for Propagating the Faith. Their 
sentiments having been found completely con¬ 
formable to our own, we have resolved to 
sanction them, and carry them into execution. 
It is for this reason, after having weighed the 
whole matter most scrupulously, that, of our 
own proper motion, in our certain knowledge, 
and in the plenitude of our apostolic power, we 
have resolved, and do hereby decree, the re¬ 
establishment in the kingdom of England, and 
according to the common laws of the Church, 
of a hierarchy of bishops deriving their titles 
from their own sees, which we constitute by 
the present letter in the various apostolic dis¬ 
tricts. ” 

26. —The first column of the Great Exhibi¬ 
tion building set up in Hyde Park. 

27. —Farewell meeting of the emigrants of 
Mrs. Chisholm’s Family Colonization Land 
Society, who sailed for Australia on the 30th, 
in the Slains Castle. 

— Rev. Mr. Holiest, perpetual curate of 
Frimley Grove, murdered in his own bedroom 
by a band of ruffians, who broke into the 
house soon after midnight Four well-known 
London thieves, Hiram Smith, Levi and 
Samuel Harwood, and Jones, were appre¬ 
hended on suspicion of being concerned in 
the outrage. In the pocket of one of the 
prisoners there was found a copper coin, 
which Mrs. Holiest was able to identify as 
one which she had put into the “ clothes fund 
bag ” some days before the attack. Smith 





SEPTEMBER 


1850. 


OCTOBER 


made a confession in prison, admitting the 
guilt of all the parties in custody, so far as the 
robbery was concerned, but charging Levi Har¬ 
wood with firing the fatal shot at Mr. Holiest. 
Mrs. Holiest herself was of opinion that it was 
this Smith who struggled with her husband, and 
afterwards fired the fatal shot. At the trial at 
Kingston, on the 1st of April following, Levi 
Harwood and Jones were found guilty, and 
sentenced to be executed. Samuel Harwood 
was acquitted, but instantly arrested for being 
concerned in another burglary in Sussex. 
Smith was ordered to be confined during her 
Majesty’s pleasure. 

28 . —The North Star , which sailed for the 
Polar regions in May 1849, with supplies for 
Sir John Franklin, returns to Portsmouth with¬ 
out any tidings of the expedition. The Prince 
Albert returned to Aberdeen three days later, 
reporting slight traces of the expedition at Cape 
Riley and Beechey Island. 

29 . —The Donna Maria , a Portuguese 
frigate, blown up at Macao, when firing a 
salute in honour of the Prince Consort. Two 
hundred men and boys reported to have 
perished. 

October 1.—Sir G. W. Anderson gazetted 
Governor of Ceylon in room of Lord Tor- 
rington, removed. 

2. —Died at Woodford, Gloucestershire, 
aged 93, James Ingram, landlord of the Fox 
Inn, the last survivor of the crew of the Royal 
George , which went down at Spithead in 1782. 

3. — A lunacy case, curious for the technical 
objection which was the subject of prelimi¬ 
nary discussion, decided by the Sheriff-sub¬ 
stitute of Dumfries-shire. The subject of 
investigation was the state of mind of Pulteney 
William Mein, Canonbie. The pleadings or 
brieves described the party as “ maximusfilius .” 
This description was objected to on the part 
of the defendant as being misdescriptive. It 
was contended that maximus filius would have 
been a good description of the largest son, but 
to describe the eldest it should have been 
maximus natu. Sheriff Trotter overruled the 
objection, and the case proceeded on its merits, 
when, after an inquiry of three days, the jury 
found a verdict “cognoscing” Mr. Mein—in 
other words, finding him insane. 

— A strong body of Chinese rebels rise 
against the Tartar dynasty. 

4. — The Holsteiners, who had been laying 
siege to Friedrichstadt since the 29th of Sep¬ 
tember, bombard the fortress to-day, and 
greatly injure the town. They were, how¬ 
ever compelled to retire, leaving the place 
in the hands of the Danes. The Prussian 
volunteers being recalled soon afterwards, the 
Duchies for the time being submitted to the 
authority of Denmark. 

7.— “Given out of the Flaminian Gate,” a 
pastoral letter by Dr. Wiseman, to be publicly 


read in all the Roman Catholic chapels in 
London. “ Your beloved country,” he wrote, 
‘ ‘ has received a place among the fair churches 
which normally constituted form the splendid 
a gg re S ate °f Catholic communion : Catholic 
England has been restored to its orbit in the 
ecclesiastical firmament, from which its light 
had long vanished ; and begins now anew its 
course of regularly-adjusted action round the 
centre of unity, the source of jurisdiction, of 
light, and of vigour.” 

10. —The President of the French Republic 
reviews the troops on the Plaine de Satory. 
The infantry make no demonstrations in his 
favour, but various regiments of cavalry 
passed by, shouting “Vive le President!” 
“Vive l’Empereur! ” 

11 . —Died at Ostend, aged 38, Louise Queen 
of the Belgians, eldest daughter of Louis 
Philippe. 

12 . —The Committee of Permanence of the 
French Legislative Assembly pass a reso¬ 
lution, censuring General D’Hautpoul, the 
Minister of War, for not observing the military 
regulations and the discipline of the army, 
during the above review at Satory. 

13 . —The Abdul Medjid t Turkish line-of- 
battle ship, accidentally blown up in the Bos¬ 
phorus, and about 500 of the people on board 
killed. 

— A gang of burglars who had entered 
Holford House, Regent’s Park, beaten back by 
the servants, and two of them seriously injured. 

16 .—Massacre of the Christian population 
of Aleppo. After nightfall, numerous armed 
bands of fanatical Moslems forcibly entered 
the dwellings of the Christians, plundering 
every house, and, wherever the least resistance 
was shown, wounding and murdering the in¬ 
mates. On the 17th the same scenes continued 
to be perpetrated. The roads leading from the 
city were thronged with Christians—men, 
women, and children—all hurrying away in 
terror from the burning of their churches, the 
desecration of their houses, and the ruthless 
slaughter of their relatives. On the morning 
of the 17th, the Pasha hastily removed to 
the military barracks, where, surrounded 
by the troops, he remained an almost passive 
spectator of what was going on in the 
town beneath. Honourable mention was made 
of the conduct of M. Lesseps, the French 
Consul, who distinguished himself in his un¬ 
ceasing endeavours to provide for the wants of 
the distressed. He received in his consulate 
upwards of 200, and daily supplied the per¬ 
sonal requirements of about 600 others. A 
signal chastisement was inflicted on the Mos¬ 
lems by Kerim Pasha on the 7th of Decem¬ 
ber. Their quarter of the city was almost 
entirely destroyed, and about 1,800 of the 
rebels shot. 

20 .—Cardinal Wiseman issues an appeal to 
the reason and good feeling of the people of 

( 3 ”) 





OCTOBER 


1850. 


NOVEMBER 


England in justification of the recent measures 
of the Pope. In an introduction, he treated (1) 
of the Royal Supremacy, and bishops named by 
the Crown; (2) of the extent of religious tolera¬ 
tion granted to Catholics; (3) how Catholics could 
obtain their hierarchy; (4) does the appoint¬ 
ment of a Catholic hierarchy tread on the preroga¬ 
tive of the Crown? (5) has the mode of establish¬ 
ing the hierarchy been insolent or insidious? 
(6) the title of Westminster. On the last 
point he wrote : “ The diocese consists of two 
very different parts. One comprises the stately 
Abbey with its adjacent palaces and its royal 
parks. To this portion the duties and occupa¬ 
tion of the Dean and Chapter are mainly con¬ 
fined ; and they shall range there undisturbed. 
To the venerable old church I may repair, as I 
have been wont to do. But, perhaps the Dean 
and Chapter are not aware that, were I dis¬ 
posed to claim more than the right to tread the 
Catholic pavement of that noble building, and 
breathe its air of ancient consecration, another 
might step in with a prior claim. For succes¬ 
sive generations there has existed ever, in the 
Benedictine order, an Abbot of Westminster, 
the representative, in religious dignity, of those 
who erected, and beautified, and governed that 
church and cloister. Have they ever been dis¬ 
turbed by this ‘ titular' ? Then let them fear 
no greater aggression now. Like him, I may 
visit, as I have said, the old abbey, and say my 
prayer by the shrine of good Saint Edward; 
and meditate on the olden times, when the 
church filled without a coronation, and multi¬ 
tudes hourly worshipped without a service. 
Yet this splendid monument, its treasures of 
art, and its fitting endowments, form not the 
part of Westminster which will concern me. 
For there is another part which stands in 
frightful contrast, though in immediate con¬ 
tact, with this magnificence. Close under the 
Abbey of Westminster there lie concealed 
labyrinths of lanes, and courts, and alleys, and 
slums, nests of ignorance, vice, depravity, and 
crime, as well as of squalor, wretchedness, and 
disease; whose atmosphere is typhus, whose 
ventilation is cholera; in which swarms a huge 
and almost countless population, in great mea¬ 
sure, nominally at least, Catholic; haunts of filth 
which no sewage committee can reach—dark 
comers which no lighting board can brighten. 
This is the part of Westminster which alone I 
covet, and which I shall be glad to claim and 
visit as a blessed pasture in which sheep of 
Holy Church are to be tended, in which a 
bishop’s godly work has to be done, of con¬ 
soling, converting, and preserving.” 

20. —Three British vessels destroy a Chinese 
piratical fleet in the Bay of Tonquin. 

21 . —The second line of tubes of the Bri¬ 
tannia Bridge opened for public traffic, that 
great structure being now in all respects com¬ 
plete. A train consisting of two locomotives 
and twenty-eight waggons, with 280 tons of 
coal, caused a deflection of only three-fourths 
of an inch. 

( 312 ) 


23 .—In accordance with the terms of a sug¬ 
gestive article by Dr. Veron in the Constitu- 
tionnel , General D’Hautpoul is made temporary 
Governor of Algeria, to make room for the 
apparent advancement of General Changarnier. 

25 . —Banquet given by the. Lord Mayor of 
York to Prince Albert and the Mayors of the 
chief cities and towns of the United Kingdom. 
Lord John Russell attended with several mem¬ 
bers of the Government, and the Commissioners 
for the Great Exhibition of 1851. His Royal 
Highness, in responding to the toast of his 
health, took occasion to refer to the loss which 
the Commissioners had sustained by the death 
of Sir Robert Peel. “ The constitution of Sir 
Robert Peel’s mind,” he said, “ was peculiarly 
that of a statesman. He was Liberal from 
feeling, but Conservative upon principle: whilst 
his impulse drove him to foster progress, his 
sagacious mind and great experience showed 
him how easily the whole machinery of a State 
and of society is deranged, and how important 
and how difficult also it is to direct its further 
development in accordance with its fundamental 
principles, like organic growth in nature. It 
was peculiar to him, that in great things, as in 
small, all the difficulties and objections occurred 
to him first. He would anxiously consider 
them, pause, and warn against rash resolu¬ 
tions ; but, having convinced himself, after a 
long and careful investigation, that a step was 
not only right to be taken, but of the practical 
mode also of safely taking it, it became to him 
a necessity and a duty to take it. All his 
caution and apparent timidity changed into 
courage and power of action, and, at the same 
time, readiness cheerfully to make any personal 
sacrifice which its execution might demand.” 

26 . —Captain M‘Clure discovers the North¬ 
west Passage in the course of his search in the 
Investigator for the Franklin expedition. 

30 .—An Educational Conference held in 
Manchester, for the purpose of converting the 
Lancashire Public Schools Association into a 
National Public School Association, with purely 
unsectarian objects. 

The numerous burglaries with violence 
during this and the preceding month led to 
much indignant comment on the inefficiency of 
the rural constabulary, and the light punishment 
with which criminals of that class were gene¬ 
rally visited. 

November 1.— An Austro-Bavarian force 
occupies Hanau, and a Prussian force Cassel, 
both within the Duchy. 

2 .—Rupture between the President of the 
French Republic and General Changarnier. 
The latter issued an order of the day remind¬ 
ing the army under his command that its 
province was not to deliberate, and that it 
must utter no cry whatever when in arms. 

— The Frankfort Diet commands the im¬ 
mediate suspension of hostilities in Schleswig- 




NOVEMBER 


1850. 


NOVEMBER 


Holstein, under pain of the armed intervention 
of the Germanic Confederation. 

2 . —The Bishop of London addresses his 
clergy on the bearings of the Gorham case, the 
assumption of spiritual jurisdiction by the Pope, 
and the danger to be apprehended from the 
progress of rationalistic theology. 

3. —Cardinal Wiseman writes from Vienna 
to Lord John Russell, stating his regret at the 
excitement caused by the Pope’s bull establish¬ 
ing the hierarchy in England, and explaining 
that it invested himself and the bishops ap¬ 
pointed under it with only spiritual functions. 

4-. —Commencement of the Papal Aggres¬ 
sion agitation. Lord John Russell, dating from 
“Downing Street,” writes to the Bishop of 
Durham (whose letter was not made public) 

“ I agree with you in considering the late ag¬ 
gression of the Pope upon our Protestantism 
as insolent and insidious, and I therefore feel as 
indignant as you can do upon the subject. I 
not only promoted to the utmost of my power 
the claims of the Roman Catholics to all civil 
rights, but I thought it right, and even de¬ 
sirable, that the ecclesiastical system of the 
Roman Catholics should be the means of 
giving instruction to the numerous Irish immi¬ 
grants in London or elsewhere, who, without 
such help, would be left in heathen ignorance. 
This might have been done, however, without 
any such innovation as that which we have now 
seen. It is impossible to confound the recent 
measures of the Pope with the division of Scot¬ 
land into dioceses by the Episcopal Church, or 
the arrangement of districts in England by the 
Wesleyan Conference. There is an assump¬ 
tion of power in all the documents which have 
come from Rome, a pretension of supremacy 
over the realm of England, and a claim to sole 
and undivided sway, which is inconsistent with 
the Queen’s supremacy, with the rights of our 
bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual inde¬ 
pendence of the nation as asserted even in the 
Roman Catholic times. I confess, however, 
that my alarm is not equal to my indignation. 
Even if it shall appear that the ministers and 
servants of the Pope in this country have not 
transgressed the law, I feel persuaded that we 
are strong enough to repel any outward at¬ 
tacks. The liberty of Protestantism has been 
enjoyed too long in England to allow of any 
successful attempt to impose a foreign yoke 
upon our minds and consciences. No foreign 
prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten 
his fetters upon a nation which has so long 
and so nobly vindicated its right to freedom of 
opinion, civil, political, and religious. Upon 
this subject, then, I will only say, that the 
present state of the law shall be carefully 
examined, and the propriety of adopting any 
proceedings with reference to the recent as¬ 
sumption of power deliberately considered. 
There is a danger, however, which alarms me 
much more than any aggression of a foreign 
sovereign. Clergymen of our own Church, 
who have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, 


and acknowledged in explicit terms the 
Queen’s supremacy, have been the most for¬ 
ward in leading their flocks, * step by step, to 
the very verge of the precipice.’ The honour 
paid to saints, the claim of infallibility for the 
Church, the superstitious use of the sign of the 
Cross, the muttering of the Liturgy so as to 
disguise the language in which it is written, 
the recommendation of auricular confession, 
and the administration of penance and abso¬ 
lution—all these things are pointed out by 
clergymen of the Church of England as worthy 
of adoption, and are now openly reprehended 
by the Bishop of London in his charge to the 
clergy of his diocese. What, then, is the 
danger to be apprehended from a foreign 
prince of no great power, compared to the 
danger within the gates from the unworthy 
sons of the Church of England herself? I 
have little hope that the propounders and 
framers of these innovations will desist from 
their insidious course. But I rely with confi¬ 
dence on the people of England, and I will 
not bate a jot of heart or hope, so long as the 
glorious principles and the immortal martyrs 
of the Reformation shall be held in reverence 
by the great mass of a nation which looks 
with contempt on the mummeries of super¬ 
stition, and with scorn at the laborious endea¬ 
vours which are now making to confine the 
intellect and enslave the soul.” 

5. — “Guy Fawkes’ Day” celebrated in the 
metropolis with many noisy displays, repre¬ 
senting Cardinal Wiseman and the new bishops. 

— Operation for cataract performed on a 
Californian or grizzly bear in the Zoological 
Gardens. A second successful operation was 
performed on another on the 15 th. 

6. —Died suddenly, Count Brandenburg, the 
Prussian minister under whose direction the 
present opposition to Austria was organized. 
He was succeeded by M. Radowitz. 

7 . —The King of Prussia issues a decree 
calling out the whole Prussian army. 

8 . —Addressing the Lord Lieutenant of 
Buckinghamshire on the recent aggression by 
Rome, Mr. Disraeli writes : “ After the recog¬ 
nition given by the Government to the Irish 
hierarchy, his Holiness might well deem himself 
at liberty to apportion England into dioceses 
to be ruled over by bishops. Instead of sup¬ 
posing he was taking a step * insolent and insi¬ 
dious,’ he might conceive he was acting in 
strict accordance with her Majesty’s Government. 
The fact is, the whole question has been sur¬ 
rendered and decided in favour of the Pope by 
the present Government. The Ministers who re¬ 
cognised the pseudo-Archbishop of Tuam as a 
peer and a prelate cannot object to the appoint¬ 
ment of a pseudo-Archbishop of Westminster, 
even though he be a Cardinal. On the contrary, 
the loftier dignity should, according to. their 
table of precedence, rather invest his Eminence 
with a still higher patent of nobility, and permit 
him to take the wall of his Grace of Canterbury 

( 313 ) 




NOVEMBER 


1850. 


NO VEMBER 


and the highest nobles of the land. The 
policy of the present Government is, that there 
shall be no distinction between England and 
Ireland. I am, therefore, rather surprised that 
the Cabinet are so ‘ indignant ’ as a certain letter 
with which we have just been favoured informs 
us they are.” In reply to this assertion, Mr. 
C. C. Greville, of the Privy Council Office, 
explained that the recognition of the Catholic 
prelates had taken place before the present Gov¬ 
ernment acceded to power ; a Warrant or Royal 
Commission for carrying out the Charitable 
Bequests Act having recognised the spiritual 
rank of the Irish prelates so far back as Jan. 
13, 1845. (See Nov. 20, 1847.) 

— The French war-ship Valmy blown up 
off Torbay, and twenty of her crew killed. 

9. —An Austrian force of 30,000 men ad¬ 
vance into Hesse-Cassel on the march to the 
Duchies. 

— At the Lord Mayor’s dinner to-day Lord 
John Russell and other Cabinet Ministers made 
repeated allusion to the insult offered to this 
country by the Pope in parcelling it out into 
dioceses. 

10. —Disturbance (renewed from Sunday to 
Sunday) at St. Barnabas Church, Pimlico, 
arising out of the ritualistic practices indulged 
in by the incumbent, Mr. Bennett. 

11 . —Explosion of fire-damp in Houghton 
Pit, near Durham. The occurrence took place 
while 150 miners were in the workings. A few 
were choked or blown to atoms, but the largest 
number reached a spot where, though sur¬ 
rounded by the choke-damp on every side, they 
yet had breathing space for some hours. A 
communication was fortunately effected with 
them, and 124 were brought up the shaft alive. 
The remaining twenty-six were found dead in 
the workings. 

12 . —The Goldsmiths’ Company decide to 
award 1,000/. for prizes to be given to artists 
of the craft in the United Kingdom, who can 
produce works of the highest design and merit, 
in gold or silver plate, for the Exhibition of 
1851. 

13 . —Prince Louis Napoleon, in his address 
to the Assembly, writes that “ the first duty of 
the authorities was to inspire the people with 
respect for law, by never deviating from it 
themselves. His anxiety was, not to know who 
would govern France in 1852, but to employ 
the time at his disposal so that the transition, 
whatever it might be, should be effected without 
agitation or disturbance. The noblest object, 
and the most worthy of an exalted mind, is not 
to seek when in power to perpetuate it, but to 
labour inseparably to fortify, for the benefit of 
all, those principles of authority and morality 
which defy the fashions of mankind and the 
instability of laws.” 

16 .—The President of the French Republic 
calls out to active service 40,000 additional 
men, in consequence of the threatening state of 
affairs in Germany. 

( 314 ) 


17. —Died in his caravan at Richmond, 
Yorkshire, aged 73, Jeremiah Wombwell, or 
“ Old Jerry,” as he was familiarly called, the 
owner of the greatest itinerating menagerie ever 
collected in this country. 

— The English Catholics adopt an address 
expressive of loyalty to the Queen, and explan¬ 
atory of the purely spiritual character of the 
new organization granted by the Pope. 

19 . —Wreck of the Edmond in a storm on 
Dungana Rocks, bay of Kilkee, and loss of 
66 lives: 100 of the survivors were rescued by 
the Coast-guard. 

20. —Lord Beaumont, a Roman Catholic 
peer, expresses his regret to the Earl of Zetland 
that the Pope “by his ill-advised measures has 
placed the Roman Catholics of this country in 
a position where they must either break with 
Rome or violate their allegiance to the con¬ 
stitution of these realms.” He approved of 
the conduct of Lord John Russell “as a true 
friend of the British constitution. ” 

21 . —The King of Prussia opens the Cham¬ 
bers with a speech in which he declares the 
failure of his attempt to frame a constitution 
that should answer the wants of the German 
nation. 

22 . —Sir John Herschel announced as the 
successor of Mr. Shiel in the Mastership of the 
Mint. 

— Demonstration at York against the Papal 
Aggression, attended by over 8,000 people, 
many representatives being present of the great 
houses of the county, Catholic as well as Pro¬ 
testant. 

26 . —The Worthing lifeboat upset when 
attempting to render assistance to the Lalla 
Rookh, East Indiaman. The whole of those on 
board, eleven in number, were drowned. So 
much interest was excited by the gallantry of 
the unfortunate seamen, that 5,000/. was col¬ 
lected in a short time for the relief of their 
wives and orphans, sixty in number. 

27. —Resignation by Mr. Bennett of his per¬ 
petual curacy of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, and 
of his ministrations at St. Barnabas, Pimlico. 
The Bishop of London wrote: “ Upon the 
whole, if you are not prepared to comply sim- 
pliciter ex animo with the requisition contained 
in my letter, I must call upon you to fulfil 
your offer of retiring from a charge which, I 
deliberately think, you could not in that case 
continue to hold without great injury to the 
Church.” 

— The attacks by Punch on the new Roman 
hierarchy lead to the withdrawal from the 
staff of Mr. Richard Doyle, known amongst 
his associates as the “Professor of Mediaeval 
Design.” 

28 . —Conference at Olmutz between Russia 
and Austria and Prussia, to arrange the Duchy 
dispute. The Prussian parliament rejected 
the terms accepted by Baron von Manteuffel 
recognising the Frankfort Diet. 




NOVEMBER 


1850. 


DECEMBER 


23 .—The hereditary head of the English 
Roman Catholics pronounces against the ag¬ 
gressive organization of the hierarchy. The 
Duke of Norfolk writes to Lord Beaumont: 
“ I so entirely coincide in the opinions in your 
letter to Lord Zetland, that I must write to 
you to express my agreement with them. I 
should think that you must feel as we do, that 
Ultramontane opinions are totally incompatible 
with allegiance to our Sovereign and with our 
Constitution. ” 

30 .—Out of about 300 notices in the Gazette 
plans for about 104 new schemes were deposited 
to-day in the Private Bill Office. 

In his “Private History of the Creation of the 
Roman Catholic Hierarchy in England ” Sir 
George Bowyer writes, that after Dr. Wise¬ 
man’s arrival in London, ‘ ‘ By the advice of 
the late Mr. Charles Greville, I went to Lord 
Lansdowne, then Lord President of the Council, 
and found him deeply distressed at the state of 
things in the country. He assured me that 
Lord John Russell had published the Durham 
letter without communication with his col¬ 
leagues, and that he (Lord Lansdowne) deeply 
regretted it. After listening attentively to my 
explanations, his lordship told me there was a 
matter which must be cleared up, because it 
affected the personal loyalty of the Cardinal. 
It had been stated that he had struck out the 
prayer for the Queen from the Missal, and this 
accusation having reached her Majesty, had 
naturally made a very unfavourable impression 
on her mind.” This fact, Sir George continues, 
was fully and satisfactorily explained to Lord 
Lansdowne as arising from the mistake of the 
publisher of the Missal for the Litany, inserting 
the prayer for the Queen in the Canon of the 
Mass—which was the exclusive privilege of the 
kings of Spain. Her Majesty was prayed for 
in the same way as Catholic sovereigns were 
prayed for in their own dominions. 

December 2 .—George Hacket (a notorious 
thief) escapes from the Model Prison, Penton- 
ville. 

— As illustrating the fervour of the Aggres¬ 
sion agitation, the Publishers' Circular of this 
date contains a list of 78 works on the Papal 
controversy, published between the 14th and 
30th November. 

— President Fillmore opens Congress with 
a peace Message. 

5. —The Prussian troops withdraw from 
CasseL 

6. —The Bishop of Exeter's petition to the 
Queen, in which he refused to acknowledge her 
as head of the Church, returned on the ground 
of informality. 

— Cardinal Wiseman enthroned at St. 
George’s, Southwark. 

7 . —Inquiry commenced at the Guildhall 
Police Court into the charges preferred agamst 
George Sloane, a special pleader in the Middle 


Temple, and his wife, of starving and maltreat¬ 
ing their servant, Jane Willbred. The details 
were of so revolting a description that the people 
in the court burst frequently into shouts of in¬ 
dignation, and Alderman Humphrey declared 
that his feelings would hardly allow him to 
continue the examination. On leaving the court 
on one of the days of inquiry, Sloane was set 
upon by a mob and pelted almost through the 
City to his chambers in the Temple. The 
Sloanes were tried at the Central Criminal 
Court before Mr. Justice Coleridge, on the 5th 
of February ensuing, and sentenced to imprison¬ 
ment for two years. 

8.—In the divorce case of King v. King the 
Consistory Court find that the adultery of both 
parties had been established—the defendant 
with Vicomte de St. Jean, the plaintiff with 
Julie Imhoff—but that the connivance of the 
husband had not been established : the petition 
of each party was therefore dismissed, and a 
divorce refused. 

IO.—The Queen gives audience to deputa¬ 
tions from the Corporation of London and 
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to 
present addresses adopted by them with refer¬ 
ence to the establishment of a Romish hierarchy 
in this country. To the University of Oxford 
her Majesty replied: “ While I cordially concur 
in the wish that all classes of my subjects should 
enjoy the free exercise of their religion, you 
may rely on my determination to uphold alike 
the rights of my Crown, and the independence 
of my people, against all aggressions and en¬ 
croachments of any foreign power.” 

— At a fete given in the Hotel de Ville, 
to celebrate the anniversary of the election of 
the President, Louis Napoleon said : “ At pre¬ 
sent I am happy to be able to admit that calm 
has returned to men’s minds; that the dangers 
which existed two years back have disappeared; 
and that, notwithstanding the uncertainty of 
matters, a future peace is reckoned on, because 
it is felt that if modifications are to take place 
they will be accomplished without trouble. ” 

— Austria and Prussia mutually decree a 
reduction of their armed forces. 

12 . —The Queen resumes the dramatic en¬ 
tertainments at Windsor Castle, under the 
direction of Mr. Charles Kean. 

15 . —Sir Charles Napier issues a farewell 
address to the Indian army, censuring with 
great severity the habits of extravagance which 
had taken root among the officers, and espe¬ 
cially the ruinous vice of getting deeply into 
debt. 

16 . —The tide breaks into the new sewage 
works under Northumberland-street, Charing 
Cross, and drowns two workmen engaged in 
the drain. The others, fourteen in number,, 
escaped. 

18 .—Concluding a correspondence with Ad¬ 
miral Sir Thomas Hastings regarding certain 
misreported observations of Mr. Bright’s on the 

( 3 ^) 




DECEMBER 


1850-51, 


JANUARY 


“superstitious fear of a war with France,” 
Mr. Cobden writes : “You must, like all public 
men, expect that your conduct will be freely 
canvassed ; and your fate will be a luckier one 
than most of us if you do not find yourself often 
misapprehended and sometimes misrepresented. 
If, unable to restrain the ebullitions of an iras¬ 
cible temper, you must needs challenge a mem¬ 
ber of the Legislature to mortal combat merely 
because another member is reported to have 
made a mistake in a single word in a speech 
of an hour’s length, or because a reporter’s pen 
may have slipped at a critical moment, then 
you have mistaken your vocation, and you would 
be consulting your own reputation and the in¬ 
terest of the country by retiring from the public 
service and seeking security for your susceptible 
nerves within the inviolable precincts of your 
own domestic circle.” 

21 . —Congratulatory address presented to 
Cardinal Wiseman by Roman Catholic noble¬ 
men. 

23 .—Conference opened in the Bruhl Palace, 
Dresden, for the purpose of adjusting the federal 
relations of the German states. 

24 -.—Mr. Jacob Bell carries St. Albans 
election by a majority of 276 to Alderman Car¬ 
den’s 147 votes. 

28 . —Rangoon nearly destroyed by fire ; 
there was also considerable destruction of 
shipping in the river. 

29 . —Outbreak of another Caffre war at the 
Cape. Sir Harry Smith being shut up with a 
small force at Fort Cox, Colonel Somerset 
attempted to push forward a relieving detach¬ 
ment from Fort Hare. The Caffres, well 
armed with guns and spears, attacked him in 
immense numbers and with determined courage. 
After four hours’ hard fighting, frequently hand 
to hand, Colonel Somerset was compelled to 
retire, leaving in the enemy’s hands the only 
piece of artillery which had been used on the 
field. On the 21st of the following month 
the Caffres, then about 6,000 strong, attacked 
Fort Hare, and were driven back with a loss 
of about 100. The Fingoes, a native race, 
formerly held in bondage by the Caffres, 
assisted the British troops on this occasion 
with great courage and fortitude. 

31 .—The Archbishop of Canterbury, in re¬ 
plying to an address from the Irish prelates com¬ 
plaining that in the recent address to her Majesty 
the phrase had been used “ the Archbishop and 
Bishops of the Church of England” instead of 
“ the United Church of England and Ireland,” 
writes : “ The designation did not originate 
in any desire to represent ourselves as a sepa¬ 
rate body, but was employed solely because 
in the present instance ‘ the movement of the 
common adversary’ was immediately directed 
against ourselves.” The Irish* prelates after¬ 
wards presented an address of their own, con¬ 
cluding : “Whatever may be the defensive 
measures determined on for securing the Na¬ 
tional Church against injury, the two t ortions of 
(3i6) 


it must not be regarded or treated as having 
separate interests, but one and the same legis¬ 
lative protection must be extended to both 
branches of the Church in common.” 

Large and excited meetings were held 
almost daily throughout the kingdom this month 
on the subject of the Papal Aggression, the gross 
number up to this date being set down at 6,700. 
At Bath, Lord Ashley said the ecclesiastics had 
troubled the Church in all ages, while the laity 
had invariably reformed it; and at Nottingham 
one speaker consigned Tractarians and their 
abettors to burn in the bottomless pit for ever. 
At the Surrey meeting Sir Edward Sugden 
came forth from his retirement to explain the 
utter illegality of the Papal pretensions, the 
minor Relief Act of 1847, as he argued, merely 
repealing certain of the severer penalties enact¬ 
ed by the 13th Elizabeth. The Birmingham 
meeting was conducted amid a disturbance which 
ended in results unsatisfactory to Protestants as 
well as Catholics. 


1851. 

January 1 . —Burglary with great violence 
on the premises of the Misses Famscombe, 
Uckfield, near Lewes. The gang retreated 
with plunder valued at 300/., but quarrelling 
over its division they were all secured by the 
police, and sentenced at Lewes Assizes to 
transportation for life. 

5. —Father Gavazzi, an Italian priest, of 
extreme Republican views, commences a course 
of anti-Popery lectures in the Princess’s Con¬ 
cert-room. He spoke in Italian with extra¬ 
ordinary force and eloquence, and his lectures 
attracted crowds of exiled Italians and English 
hearers. 

8 .— Meeting at Manchester to promote the 
establishment of a free library and museum. 

10. —The Stadtholders of Holstein issue a 
proclamation, placing the rights of the country 
under the protection of the Germanic Con¬ 
federation. 

— The hostility between the Representa¬ 
tives and Executive leads to the formation of 
a new French Ministry, and removal of General 
Changamier from the office of Commander-in- 
chief of the National Guard of the Seine. He 
was succeeded by General Baraguay d’Hilliers. 

11 . —Concluded in the Court of Delegates, 
Dublin, the protracted and important case of 
Thewles v. Kelly. It arose out of the will of 
the late Mr. Edward Kelly, a Galway solicitor 
and land-agent, who had accumulated a for¬ 
tune, in real and personal property, to the 
amount of 3,000/. a year in landed estates, and 
250,000/. in the Funds. This was left by the 
disputed will to the respondent, who, it was 
alleged, was married to him. On the part of 
the appellants, it was contended that the will 
was the result of undue influence. The dele¬ 
gates were now unanimous in annulling that 






JANUARY 


185 I. 


FEBRUARY 


instrument. The respondent was also con¬ 
demned in costs amounting to 15,000/. 

11. —The brig New Commercial , of Whitby, 
wrecked off Land’s End, and the crew washed 
one by one off a ledge of rock on which they 
sought to take refuge from the tempest. 

— The Schleswig-Holstein strife closed for 
a time by the submission of Denmark to the 
terms proposed by the Germanic Confederation. 

12. —Died at Clumber Park, Nottingham, 
in his 76th year, the Duke of Newcastle, cele¬ 
brated for his resistance to the Reform Bill of 
1832. 

14. —Clerical meeting in Freemasons’ Hall, 
to address the Crown for the revival of Convo¬ 
cation. 

— The Bishop of Durham addresses the 
Archdeacon of Lindisfame on the subject of the 
Papal Aggression : “I am persuaded that no 
wish exists generally for any measure but what 
self-defence requires. An outrageous attack 
has been made upon us, but I trust adequate 
means may be devised for our own security, 
without disturbing the free exercise of religion 
by others, or infringing their rights of con¬ 
science. It surely cannot be necessary to the 
maintenance of these great ends, that a foreign 
potentate should be permitted to insult a great 
nation, trample upon the rights of the Sove¬ 
reign as secured by law, and disturb the peace 
and good order of the Established Church. 
In order to prevent such evils, it may be neces¬ 
sary to provide some restrictions upon the 
introduction and circulation of Papal bulls in 
this island, and to prohibit the assumption of 
episcopal titles conferred by Rome, and deriv¬ 
ing their name from any place in this country. 
It may also be desirable to forbid the existence 
of monastic institutions, strictly so called ; nor 
can the residence of any Jesuits appear other¬ 
wise than injurious among Scotch and English 
Protestants. ” 

15 . —Fire in Ben Caunt’s public-house, 
St. Martin’s-lane, resulting in the death of 
one woman and two children, whose retreat 
was cut off by the flames before assistance 
could reach them. 

18 . —The French Legislative Assembly vote 
a want of confidence in the new Ministry, by 
417 against 278. 

— The 150th anniversary of the Prussian 
monarchy celebrated throughout that kingdom 
with great rejoicing. 

19 . —The Socialists of the Bernese Oberland 
seize Interlaken, but are expelled next day by 
the Cantonal troops. 

20 . —Commencement of strike of seamen in 
the north-east ports against the Mercantile 
Marine Act. Between 6,000 and 7,000 sailors 
left their ships. 

22 . —Mr. Joseph Paxton memorializes Lord 
John Russell to authorize a Crown grant of 
sufficient amount to permit the Crystal Palace 


to be opened free to all classes every day 
during the week, except Wednesday. 

23 .—At a great meeting of the friends of 
the Liberal and Free-trade interests, called to 
discuss the present aspect of public affairs, 
Mr. Cobden makes reference to the charge 
brought against him of being a disappointed 
demagogue : “This ‘disappointed demagogue’ 
wants no public employment; if I did, I might 
have had it before now. I want no favour, 
and, as my friend Bright says, no title. I 
want nothing that any Government or any 
party can give me ; and if I am in the House 
of Commons at all, it is to give my feeble aid 
to the advancement of certain questions on 
which I have strong convictions. Deprive me 
of that power ; tell me I am not to do this, 
because it is likely to destroy a Government 
with which, at the present moment, I can have 
no sympathy; I say then, the sooner I return 
to printing calicoes, or something more pro¬ 
fitable than sitting up in the House of Com¬ 
mons, night after night, the better both for me 
and my friends.” 

25 .—A troop of banditti seize the keys of 
Forlini-Popoli, and entering the theatre, where 
most of the inhabitants were assembled, rob 
them of all their valuables. 

27 . —Earl Grey writes to Lord Elgin, Go¬ 
vernor-General of Canada, that her Majesty 
has been pleased to receive very graciously 
the address of the Canadian Assembly, praying 
that the clergy revenues might be placed at the 
disposal of the colonial legislature. “While 
her Majesty’s servants greatly regret that a 
subject of so much difficulty should, after an 
interval of some years, have again been brought 
under discussion, it has appeared to them, on 
mature deliberation, that the desire expressed 
by the Assembly in this address ought to be 
acceded to. They will accordingly be pre¬ 
pared to recommend to Parliament that an act 
should be passed, giving to the provincial 
legislature full authority to make such altera¬ 
tions as they may think fit in the existing 
arrangements, provided that existing interests 
are respected.” 

— Meeting in Dublin, to protest against 
the contemplated abolition of the Viceroyalty. 

— Died at New York, aged 76, James 
Audubon, F.R.S., naturalist. 

28 . —Fire at New Cross railway station, 
destroying twenty carriages. 

— Died at Bithoor, Bajee Rao, ex-Peishwa 
of the Mahrattas. His adopted heir, Nana 
Sahib, made an unsuccessful application to the 
Company for a continuance of the pension of 
80,000/. 

February 1.—Died at her residence, Ches- 
ter-square, London, aged 53, Mary Woll- 
stonecraft, daughter of William Godwin, and 
wife of the poet Shelley. 

2 — England protests against the entrance 

1317 ) 






FEBRUARY 


1851. 


FEBRUAR Y 


of Austria, with all her states, into the Ger¬ 
manic Confederation. A French protest had 
been sent to Vienna a few days earlier. 

2.—General Urquiza defeats the troops of 
the Dictator Rosas in the plain of Moron. 

4. —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The most important paragraph in the 
Royal Speech referred to the Papal Aggres¬ 
sion :—“ The recent assumption of certain 
ecclesiastical titles conferred by a foreign Power 
has excited strong feelings in this country ; and 
large bodies of my subjects have presented ad¬ 
dresses to me, expressing attachment to the 
Throne, and praying that such assumptions 
should be resisted. I have assured them of my 
resolution to maintain the rights of my Crown 
and the independence of the nation against all 
encroachments, from whatever quarter they may 
proceed. I have at the same time expressed 
my earnest desire and firm determination, under 
God’s blessing, to maintain unimpaired the re¬ 
ligious liberty which is so justly prized by the 
people of this country. It will be for you to 
consider the measure which will be laid be¬ 
fore you on this subject.” Another paragraph 
lamented “ the difficulties which are still felt by 
that important body among my people who are 
owners and occupiers of land.” Bills were 
promised in connexion with reform in the 
courts of law and equity, and for the establish¬ 
ment of a system of registration of deeds re¬ 
lating to the transfer of landed property. In 
the debate on the Address, Mr. Roebuck cen¬ 
sured Lord John Russell for needlessly raising 
an excitement on the subject of the Papal 
bishops. “ This so-called territorial aggression 
was no new thing ; it began years ago, and had 
been sanctioned by the noble lord himself. 
Where was the aggression upon her Majesty’s 
prerogative, because Dr. Wiseman chose to 
call himself a Cardinal, and put on a large hat 
and red stockings? Was it (he asked) wise 
or worthy of the noble lord, so long the advo¬ 
cate of civil and religious liberty, to aid a cry 
which had its source in some of the vilest pas¬ 
sions, and lend the sanction of his great name 
to the puritanical bigotry of England ? ”—Mr. 
Disraeli also criticised the letter of Lord John 
Russell, which he thought had not been pro¬ 
voked solely by the appointment of Dr. Wise¬ 
man ; an act not insidious, but frank almost to 
indiscretion—nor insolent, for it was fully ex¬ 
pected, and was in daily operation in Ireland. 
It was connected with the existing state of our 
relations with Rome.—Lord John Russell de¬ 
fended his letter, denied any wish to persecute 
Roman Catholics, and promised to bring in a 
bill on the subject.—The Address was voted 
without a division. 

— In the course of the debate on the Ad¬ 
dress, Colonel Sibthorp prayed that some hail¬ 
storm or some visitation of lightning might 
descend to defeat the ill-advised project in 
Hyde Park. When the foreigners came, he 
warned the people of this metropolis to beware 
of thieves, pickpockets, and whoremongers: 

( 318 ) 


“Take care,” he said, “of your wives and 
daughters; take care of your lives and pro¬ 
perty.” 

4. — Lord Redesdale elected Chairman of 
Committees in the Lords, in room of Lord 
Shaftesbury, resigned. 

5. —The two Houses of Convocation meet 
in the Jerusalem Chamber, but on the Lower 
House attempting to discuss a petition to the 
Archbishop, lamenting the suppression of syno¬ 
dical action, an officer entered the Chamber 
and prorogued the assembly. 

— Explosion of the Plover while getting up 
steam in Glasgow harbour. 

7. —Lord John Russell moves for leave to 
bring in a bill to prevent the assumption of 
certain ecclesiastical titles, in respect of places 
in the United Kingdom. In order, he said, to 
protect the Catholic laity from aggression, and 
to guard against the absorption of endowments, 
the measure he designed to introduce would 
forbid the assumption by Roman Catholics of 
titles taken from any territory or place within 
the United Kingdom, and would contain clauses 
rendering void all acts done by parties under 
these titles. Any bequest made to them would 
at once fall into the power of the Crown to 
administer. Referring to the alleged com¬ 
plicity of Lord Minto in the Aggression, Lord 
John stated that certainly, at one interview, the 
Pope, pointing to a table in the room, said, 
“There is something there that regards you.” 
But Lord Minto did not look at the paper, or 
make any observation whatever on the subject. 
Neither the Pope nor any other person said, 
“Here is a paper that we would wish you to 
take and peruse, and afterwards submit to your 
Government.” If anything was said at all, it 
was only, “That is a project that concerns you.” 
The debate was continued over a week, when 
leave was given to bring in the bill, by a 
majority of 395 to 63. 

10. —Debate on the President’s Dotation 
Bill commenced in the French Chamber. Re¬ 
jected by 396 to 294. 

11 . —Mr. Disraeli moves, “That the severe 
distress which continues to exist in the United 
Kingdom among that important class of her 
Majesty’s subjects, the owners and occupiers 
of land, and which is justly lamented in her 
Majesty’s Speech, renders it the duty of her 
Majesty’s Ministers to introduce without delay 
such measures as may be most effectual for the 
relief thereof.” The object of the motion, he 
explained, was not to dispute the fact of the 
general prosperity of the country, or to attack 
the new commercial system, but to adapt the 
condition of the owners and occupiers of land 
to that system. What these classes required 
was only justice. They did not shrink from 
competition, but they asked not to be forced 
into it manacled. The House of Commons, he 
said, had an opportunity now which was not to 
be lightly treated—“a golden occasion, to 
which, in my mind, it would not be easy to 





FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1851. 


find a parallel in the records of the Parliament 
of England. They may perform a great office 
and fulfil an august duty ; they may step for¬ 
ward and do that which the Minister shrinks 
from doing; they may terminate the bitter 
controversy of years. They may bring back 
that which Lord Clarendon called the good old 
temper of the people of England. They may 
terminate the unhappy controversy between 
town and country. They may build up again 
the fortunes of the land of England—that land 
to which we owe so much of our power and of 
our freedom—which has fulfilled the union of 
two qualities, for the combination of which a 
Roman Emperor was deified, “ imperium et 
libertas;” and this, too, not by favour, not by 
power, not by sectarian arrangements, not by 
class legislation, but by asserting the principles 
of political justice and by obeying the dictates 
of social equity.”—On the second night of the 
debate Sir James Graham said the day for 
recalling Protection, or for any attempt to 
enhance the price of food, was past. “You 
may convulse the country—you may endanger 
property—you may shake our institutions to 
the foundations, but I am satisfied there is no 
person in England who can permanently en¬ 
hance by force of law the price of bread. That 
is my honest and firm conviction. I feel we 
have arrived at a period when it is necessary to 
speak the truth, and I have spoken it without 
reservation.” He appealed in an impressive 
manner to the latest declaration of the ‘ ‘ cham¬ 
pion of our present policy,” the late Sir Robert 
Peel. “ He has ceased from his labour—he is at 
rest, and takes no longer a share in these angry 
strifes and contentions. But although he is 
dead he still speaks, and from his tomb, as it 
were, I hear the echo of his voice in this House. 
Well do I remember the memorable words— 
and do not you forget them—when he closed 
the peroration of that magnificent speech which 
he delivered upon the occasion of the discussion 
to which I have before referred. His words 
were these : ‘ I still adhere to my opinion and 
belief; and earnestly I hope that I may never 
live to see the day when the House of Com¬ 
mons will retrace its steps.’ He indeed is 
gone, but may the omen be averted that the 
House of Commons is about to retrace its steps! 
His gigantic strength is wanting to us; my 
voice is feeble, my power insignificant—but my 
part is taken. I hold it to be my sacred duty 
and sacred trust to defend that policy to the 
best of my ability. As a proof of my sincerity, 
as an earnest of my zeal, I will give an unhesi¬ 
tating vote against this proposition.” On a 
division, at the close of the second night’s 
debate, the numbers were — for the motion, 
267 ; against, 281. 

14 .—J. W. Hodgetts, chemist, killed in an 
explosion at Springfield-lane Chemical Works, 
near Salford. 

17 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer sub¬ 
mits his annual financial statement to the 
House. The income from all sources he esti¬ 


mated at 52,140,000/., and the expenditure at 
50,247,171 /. He proposed to apply 1,000,000/. 
of the anticipated surplus in inducing a portion 
of the recently contracted National Debt, and 
the balance in making up the deficiency that 
would arise by the transference of the tax on 
windows to a tax on houses of a certain value. 
The Budget was unfavourably received, parti¬ 
cularly the portion relating to the qualified 
repeal of the Window-duty. 

17 . —A Royal Commission appointed to in¬ 
quire into the state of Dublin University. 

18 . —Concluded in the Court of Exche¬ 
quer, after a trial extending over twelve days, 
the case of the Attorney-General v. the London 
Dock Company. The Board of Customs 
charged the Company with systematically en¬ 
couraging and countenancing, on the part of 
their servants, fraudulent malpractices for the 
Company’s benefit, and to the injury both of 
the mercantile community and of the Customs’ 
revenue. The case presented was an informa¬ 
tion filed by the Attorney-General with refer¬ 
ence to 8,000 lbs. of coffee and 250 cwt. of 
ginger, landed by the Dock Company without 
being duly reported to the Customs’ authorities. 
The first count in the information charged the 
defendants with having landed these goods 
without a due report having been made ; the 
second, with landing them without the duty 
being paid or secured; the third, with deliver¬ 
ing them out without the duty being paid or 
secured ; the fourth and fifth, for warehousing 
them without due entry ; sixth, for clandestinely 
moving the goods from one warehouse to 
another; seventh, for fraudulently concealing 
them in a warehouse ; eighth, for fraudulent 
moving them from the warehouse. A vast num¬ 
ber of witnesses were examined in the course of 
the trial, the evidence for the Crown seeking to 
establish against the Dock Company the prac¬ 
tice of a system of breach of legal regulations, 
fraudulent extraction of goods and evasion of 
duties, to an extent of several thousand pounds 
sterling a year. Many of the witnesses for the 
Crown were formerly in the service of the Dock 
Company, but previously to and during the 
trial were supported by funds supplied by the 
Customs. According to their testimony, it was 
quite a usual practice on the part of the Dock 
officers to abstract from every cargo of sugar a 
quantity varying from half a ton to three or 
four tons, and apply it to the service and bene¬ 
fit of the Company in various ways,—a locality 
named Davis’s Comer being especially men¬ 
tioned, where good sugar was customarily adul¬ 
terated and prepared so as to make refuse or 
molasses to sell to refiners and scum-boilers at 
a profit. Several of these witnesses, however, 
on cross-examination, proved to be men of in¬ 
different character, and their testimony not to 
be worthy of much credit. The personal alle¬ 
gations against the Directors were withdrawn in 
the course of the trial. The jury returned the fol¬ 
lowing verdict: “ We find for the Crown on the 
seventh and eighth counts ; as to the two boxes 

( 319 ) 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1851. 


of sugar, and as to all the fifty-seven packages 
of cocoa, for the defendants : at the same time 
we couple with the verdict a recommendation 
that greater strictness should be observed by 
the Company towards their subordinate ser¬ 
vants, in order to prevent irregularities which 
have occurred.” 

18 . —Died at his residence, Leith Links, 
Edinburgh, aged 92, George Thomson, the 
musical correspondent of the poet Bums. 

19 . —Destructive fire in Tooley-street, break¬ 
ing out in the warehouse belonging to Mr. 
Alderman Humphrey. Damage estimated at 
60,000/.—The following evening another fire 
of great magnitude occurred in Eastcheap, de¬ 
stroying a large quantity of foreign produce. 

20. —Mr. Locke King obtains leave to bring 
in a bill to reduce the franchise in counties to 
10/. by a majority of 100 to 52 over Ministers. 

21 . —Edward Hargreaves, formerly of Cali¬ 
fornia, discovers gold at Conobolos, near 
Bathurst. He obtained a reward from the 
Colonial Government, and the appointment of 
Commissioner of Crown Lands. 

22. —The Times makes the unexpected an¬ 
nouncement that, owing to the loss of Parlia¬ 
mentary confidence, Lord John Russell and his 
colleagues had resigned office. Consols fell 
from 96 J to 951. 

— Sailors’ strike on the Tyne and Wear 
terminated by the Board of Trade engaging to 
suspend the operation of the obnoxious clauses 
of the Mercantile Marine Act of last session. 

— The Court of Queen’s Bench lays down 
the principle that railways were to be rated for 
parochial relief, not upon the proportion of the 
gross earnings of the line, but upon the earnings 
of the railway within the particular parish. 

23 . —Died at Hampstead, aged 89, Joanna 
Baillie, poetess. 

24 . —Announcement of the Ministerial crisis. 
Lord John Russell, adverting to the results of 
Mr. Disraeli’s and Mr. Locke King’s motions— 
the first giving the Government a majority of 
only fourteen upon a vital question, the second 
leaving them in a minority—said he had come 
to the conclusion that they were not in a posi¬ 
tion to conduct satisfactorily the business of 
the country in that House during the session. 
He had, therefore, with the concurrence of his 
colleagues, tendered their resignation to her 
Majesty, who had accepted it, and informed 
him of her intention to send for Lord Stanley. 
He had since been informed by her Majesty, 
that Lord Stanley was not prepared to form a 
government, and her Majesty had asked him 
to undertake the charge of reconstructing one. 
He was now attempting that task, and asked 
the House to adjourn till Friday the 28th. Mr. 
Disraeli expressed his conviction, that in saying 
Lord Stanley had informed her Majesty he 
was not then prepared to form an administra¬ 
tion, Lord J. Russell had made a statement to 
the House which, on further consideration, he 

( 320 ) 


would acknowledge was not founded upon what 
had really occurred. A statement similar in 
substance to Lord John Russell’s was made in 
the House of Lords by the Marquis of Lans- 
downe. On the 28th, Lord Aberdeen explained 
the reluctance of the Peelites to join Lord 
John Russell’s administration, by their great 
objection to his Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. On 
the same day Lord John Russell further ex¬ 
plained the various abortive attempts which 
had been made to form a ministry, and defended 
himself from the charge brought against him 
by Mr. Disraeli by the production of the let¬ 
ters which had passed between Lord Stanley 
and the Qheen and Prince Albert. On the 
3d of March it was intimated in both Houses 
that, in obedience to the Queen’s invitation, 
and in conformity with the advice of the Duke 
of Wellington, her Majesty’s former Ministers 
had resumed their places. 

25. —Meeting of Roman Catholic prelates at 
Dublin, to protest against the impolicy and in¬ 
justice of the proposed Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. 
“ We view the proposed measure as retrogres¬ 
sive and penal in its character, an infringement 
upon religious liberty, an unwarrantable inter¬ 
ference with the discipline of our Church, and 
a departure from the policy recently pursued 
by the Legislature in facilitating the voluntary 
endowment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy 
and clergy in this country. . . . We object to 
the measure, because it has been conceived 
and formed in a spirit of hostility to the Roman 
Catholic religion, and because it is calculated 
to revive animosities which have been so baneful 
to our country, and which in latter years have 
been rapidly subsiding.” The Romish Arch¬ 
bishop of Tuam wrote to Lord John Russell: 
“Opposition—stern, persevering opposition— 
to your hateful measure, in season and out of 
season, is the paramount duty of every Irish 
member of Parliament, as well as opposition 
to every other measure you propose, until you 
abandon the bill which in an evil hour you 
proposed, or until once more you abandon the 
helm.” 

— The Earl of St. Germains’ Bill for Mar¬ 
riage with a deceased Wife’s Sister thrown out 
in the House of Lords, by 50 to 16 votes. 

26. — Mr. Macready takes leave of the stage 
in a farewell benefit at Drury Lane, sustaining 
the character of Macbeth. 

27. —The pretender Tien-teh (Celestial Vir¬ 
tue) appears at the head of a body of Chinese 
insurgents who had risen to expel the Tartars, 
and drive the young Emperor from the throne. 
They became afterwards known as Taepings, 
or “ Princes of Peace,” and affected some out¬ 
ward regard for the doctrines of Christianity. 

— A retired naval lieutenant named Acher- 
ley, a Worcestershire magistrate, tried at Swan¬ 
sea for causing the death of a miner named 
Dingle by unskilful treatment. The defendant 
spoke with fluency for an hour and a half, 
grounding his case on an extraordinary mixture 
of exploded physical dogmas and Bible lore. 





MARCH 


1851. 


MARCH 


Nature, he said, abhorring a vacuum, there must 
be a circulation of air between the periosteum 
and the bones, and by means of a lamp pro* 
duced, which he had used on his scorched 
patient, he was able to remove “the atmo¬ 
spheric tonnage ” from the human system. The 
jury returned a verdict of Not guilty. 

March 1.—Dinner given to Mr. Macready 
in the Hall of Commerce on his retirement from 
the stage. The chair was occupied by Sir E. 
Bulwer Lytton. In the course of the evening 
Mr. Forster read a parting sonnet addressed to 
their guest by the Poet Laureate. 

3. —Eight fires raging in the metropolis at 
one time this evening. 

— The American Senate adopt a resolu¬ 
tion to dispatch a Government vessel to carry 
Kossuth and his companions to the United 
States. 

— The fine old Indiaman Buckingham¬ 
shire destroyed by incendiary Lascars in the 
Hooghly, a little below Diamond Harbour. 
The whole of her valuable cargo was lost, and 
two of the crew. 

— The University of Oxford issue a protest 
in the form of a legal opinion that the contem¬ 
plated Royal Commission of inquiry is uncon¬ 
stitutional and illegal, and such as the University 
was not bound to obey. They also claimed to 
be heard by counsel against it. 

4. —Died at the village of Ungurutua, 
Bornou, James Richardson, an enterprising 
African traveller. 

5 . —Meeting in St. Martin’s Hall, Long 
Acre, to promote the repeal of the taxes on 
knowledge. 

6 . —Tried at Chelmsford Assizes, Sarah 
Chesham, a woman of masculine proportions, 
charged with administering poison to her hus¬ 
band with intent to murder him. This case 
excited much interest on account of the terrible 
celebrity gained by the prisoner. She was tried 
in 1847, at the same assizes, for poisoning the 
illegitimate child of Lydia Taylor, but acquitted. 
In 1848 she was again acquitted on a charge 
of poisoning two of her own children. She 
was subsequently implicated in another charge 
of poisoning, but again escaped justice ; and 
in 1849 a woman named May, who was con¬ 
victed of poisoning her husband, and executed 
for the crime, confessed that she had been in¬ 
stigated by the prisoner to the commission 
of the offence for which she suffered. The 
evidence now adduced fully brought home the 
charge to the prisoner of having administered 
arsenic in a rice-pudding to her husband, who, 
after lingering in pain for some weeks, died in 
May 1849. She was sentenced to be executed, 
and heard her doom without the slightest 
emotion. 

7 . —Sir George Grey re-introduces the 
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, with the omission of 
the second and third clauses relating to the 

( 321 ) 


collation and induction of priests in Ireland, 
and the succession to bequests; the measure, 
as he explained, thus bearing an unambiguous 
declaration of Parliament against the assump¬ 
tion of titles only. 

7. —The Lord Mayor of Dublin, accom¬ 
panied by several aldermen, appears at the 
bar of the House of Commons to present a 
petition against the abolition of the Irish Vice¬ 
royalty. 

8. —Tried at Chelmsford Assizes, Thomas 
Drory, farmer, aged 23, charged with murder¬ 
ing Jael Denny, at Doddinghurst, by strangling 
her with a rope. Drory had previously seduced 
his victim. He was found guilty, and executed 
with Sarah Chesham above referred to. 

9 . —Died at Copenhagen, in his 74th year, 
Professor Oersted, a Danish natural philosopher, 
discoverer of the connexion between galvanism 
and electricity. 

10. —The Upper Parliament House in Berlin 
destroyed by fire. 

11. —Government defeated by a majority of 
one on Lord Duncan’s motion to bring the 
revenues of Crown lands under control of the 
House of Commons. 

13. — Died, Carl Lachmann of Berlin, one of 
the greatest of modern philologists, aged 57. 

14. — Compromise agreed to in the Court of 
Chancery in the case of Metaire v. Wiseman. 
This suit was brought by the next of kin of 
Mathurin Carre, a French refugee who came to 
this country in the year 1797, and, by the most 
penurious habits, amassed 10,000/. On his 
death-bed he disposed of 7,000/. of his money, 
by a deed of gift, for the purpose of founding 
a girls’ school in connexion with the Roman 
Catholic chapel of St. Aloysius, in Somers 
Town. Cardinal Wiseman was the nominal 
defendant, in consequence of his ecclesiastical 
status. The allegations of the plaintiffs were 
that their relative, a weak old man in the last 
stage of a mortal disease, had fallen under the 
influence of Holdstock, priest of the above 
chapel, who, hearing of his condition and the 
amount of his property, had forced himself 
upon Carre, and induced, or rather compelled 
him, by religious threats, to make the deed of 
gift in question, to the prejudice of his own 
kindred. After the plaintiffs had been heard 
at great length, the defendant, instead of enter¬ 
ing upon his case, made an offer through counsel 
to pay the fund in dispute into court. This pro¬ 
posal was agreed to, and the proceedings came 
to an abrupt conclusion. 

15. — Explosion of fire-damp in the Victoria 
Pit at Nitshill, near Paisley. Sixty-three men 
and a boy were in the works at the time of the 
explosion, and about twenty hours elapsed 
before communication could be had with any 
of them. Two were then got out alive, and 
though greatly exhausted were able to explain 
that they had been working in a part of the 
mine where the explosion was not so severe. 

v 





MARCH 


1851. 


MARCH 


Their belief was that few or none of the others 
could then be living. This unfortunately turned 
out to be too true, all, sixty-one in number, 
being found dead in the pit. 

16 . —Concordat signed by Spain with Rome. 

17 . —Died in Drummond-place, Edinburgh, 
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, described by Sir 
Walter Scott as the Horace Walpole of Scot¬ 
land. 

— Boiler explosion at Mainland’s cotton 
factory, Stockport, causing the death of twenty 
people. 

25 .—After a debate extending over the 
greater part of seven nights, the second read¬ 
ing of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was carried 
by a majority of 438 to 95. In the course of 
the discussion, on the 20th, being the fourth 
night, considerable excitement was created in 
the House by Mr. Henry Drummond declaring 
that nunneries might be considered as either 
prisons or brothels, accompanying the remark 
with an offensive allusion to the “ Virgin Mary’s 
milk.” The Earl of Arundel and Surrey in¬ 
stantly called on the Speaker to interfere ; but 
it was ruled that the member for Surrey was 
not out of order, inasmuch as he had used no 
expression which could be considered personally 
offensive to any member. At the same time 
the Speaker expressed a hope that members, in 
discussing a question of so much delicacy, would 
abstain from all expressions that might cause 
irritation. Sir James Graham said: “I have 
seen a gentleman, an accomplished gentleman 
and a scholar, so much heated by the subject 
we are now discussing as entirely to forget what, 
I must say, is due to the feelings of a large body 
sitting in this House on terms of perfect equality. 
Although the order of the House, according 
to its letter, may not have been violated by 
the honourable gentleman, yet, if Catholics are 
to sit here and take part in our debates, I must 
say that the rules of the House can hardly be 
preserved in spirit if scenes like the one we have 
just witnessed are allowed to be repeated. My 
noble friend (Lord J. Russell) has referred 
proudly to the names of Mackintosh, Romilly, 
Horner, Grey, and Althorp; but, alas! he 
omitted the great name of Grattan—now lying 
in the Abbey by the side of Pitt, Fox, Canning, 
and Wilberforce : does Lord John in his heart 
and conscience believe they would approve of 
this measure ? Appealing then from the dead 
to the living, does Plunkett approve of it? 
does Brougham approve of it? does Denman 
approve of it ?—oh that he were here to speak 
for himself !—Does Macaulay, the great histo¬ 
rian of the Revolution, approve of the principle 
of this measure ? There may have been some 
movement towards Rome on the surface of 
what are called the higher ranks; but the deep 
under-current of the feeling of this country is 
essentially Protestant. It is written in their 
very hearts’ core ; what is more, it is written 
in those Bibles to which they have access ; and 
while they enjoy those privileges and possess 
(322) 


those feelings, we have no occasion for a bill 
like this. I say there is no danger in England 
which justifies it—every feeling in Ireland con¬ 
demns it. It is a brand of discord cast down 
to inflame the passions of the people; and, with 
confidence in the wisdom of Parliament, I hope, 
and confidently predict, the bill will never pass 
into a law.” The bill was discussed in com¬ 
mittee with much minuteness and energy for 
the greater part of three months. Attempts 
made to exempt Ireland from the operations 
of the bill were repeatedly negatived by large 
majorities. 

25 .—Lord Langdale takes his leave of the 
bar practising in the Rolls Court, and is suc¬ 
ceeded by Lord Romilly. 

27 .—Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill for the better administration of 
the Court of Chancery. The intention, he said, 
was to retain the present combination of the 
legal and political functions in the office of Lord 
Chancellor, but to give him the assistance of 
the Master of the Rolls and a Common Law 
judge. It was further intended to transfer to 
the Crown the ecclesiastical patronage now 
vested in the Lord Chancellor, the Prime 
Minister of the day being responsible for its 
disposal. The bill, as amended in committee, 
passed through both Houses, and received the 
Royal Assent on the 7th of August. 

29 .—Imprisonment of Abd-el-Kader at the 
Chateau d’Amboise, on the Loire. Prince 
Louis Napoleon writes to the Marquis of Lon¬ 
donderry, who had interceded for the release of 
the captive Emir : “ What you tell me of the 
Emir Abd-el-Kader has greatly interested me, 
and I find markedly in your solicitude for him 
the same generous heart that interceded some 
years since in favour of the prisoner of Ham... . 
No person will be more happy than I when it 
will be permitted me to render liberty to Abd- 
el-Kader. I shall be very glad to see the 
Emir; but I can only see him to announce 
good news. I am therefore, until that period 
arrives, deprived of the possibility of granting 
his request. ” 

— The Marble Arch, formerly at Bucking¬ 
ham Palace, set up at Cumberland-gate, Hycle 
Park. 

— The English bishops issue a manifesto 
to their clergy concerning the trouble and dis¬ 
content which had arisen in many parishes by 
the introduction of excessive ritualistic obser¬ 
vances. “ It was manifest,” they said, “ that the 
licence contended for is wholly incompatible 
with any uniformity of worship whatsoever, 
and at variance with the universal practice of 
the Catholic Church, which has never given to 
the officiating minister of separate congregations 
any such large discretion in the selection of 
ritual observances. ” The clergy generally were 
earnestly called upon to strengthen the side of 
order by avoiding all unnecessary deviations 
from the Church’s rule. 





MARCH 


1851. 


APRIL 


31 .—Census of the United Kingdom taken. 
England and Wales, 17,922,768; Scotland, 
2,870,784; and Ireland, 6,515,794 (against 
8,175,124m 1841): London, 2,361,640. 

April 1.—Sir George Grey, by the Queen’s 
command, transmits to the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury an address presented to her Majesty, 
signed by 230,000 members of the Established 
Church, with a letter recommending his Grace 
to take measures for discouraging and pre¬ 
venting innovations in the forms of public 
worship. 

— In the course of a debate on Lord Tor- 
rington’s administration of Ceylon, Earl Grey 
eulogized the ex-governor, and appealed to the 
Duke of Wellington to attest the difficulty of 
checking abuses during the existence of courts- 
martial. “My Lords,” replied the Duke, “ I 
have in a foreign country carried on martial 
law ; that is to say, I governed a large propor¬ 
tion of the country by my own will. What 
does that mean? Why, it means that the 
country should be governed by national laws. 
I governed the country by the laws of the 
country; and governed it, I must say, with 
such moderation, that the political servants of 
the country and of the Government whose forces 
were driven out acted under my direction, and 
the judges sat in the courts of law, to conduct 
the business of the country, under my direction. 
I never was in such a position as the noble 
Viscount who made the address to you has 
been in, and,” continued the Duke, raising 
his voice to the highest pitch, and vehemently 
striking the table, “ I protest against being 
called into comparison in any way whatever 
with him.” 

2 . —Mr. Locke King’s bill for assimilating 
the county and borough franchises defeated 
on the motion for a second reading, by 299 
to 83. 

— Sir Alexander Cockburn, the new At¬ 
torney-General in room of Sir John Romilly, 
removed to the Rolls, re-elected for South¬ 
ampton, without opposition. 

— Silver shield presented to Mr. Brassey, 
railway contractor, by engineers, superinten¬ 
dents, and others with whom his great under¬ 
takings had brought him into contact. 

— Lord Stanley entertained at Merchant 
Taylors’Hall by 280 of his political supporters. 
In replying to the toast of his health, he en¬ 
tered at great length into the present aspect of 
public affairs. 

3 . —Explosion of the powder magazine at 
Temezvar, Hungary. 

— The Rev. Mr. Ward, late Vicar of St. 
Saviour’s, Leeds, with several of his curates and 
lay members, received into the Romish Com¬ 
munion, and addressed by Dr. Newman in 
St. Ann’s Church. 

4. —At Taunton Assizes, John Willes and 
John Smith were sentenced to be executed for 
murdering William Wilkins, at Nempnett, by 

( 323 ) 


beating him with a spade. They had com¬ 
menced by robbing the premises occupied by 
Wilkins and his wife, an aged couple, and 
then, to screen themselves from detection, made 
a murderous attack on them with a spade and 
an Italian-iron. Wilkins died from the injuries 
received, but his wife recovered, and was able 
to identify the prisoners and give evidence in 
court. Willes and Smith were executed on the 
23d. 

5. —The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces an amended Budget to the House, show¬ 
ing, among other improvements, an unqualified 
abolition of the Window-duty. 

7. —In a Committee of Ways and Means 
Mr. Herries submits a resolution: “That the 
Income and Property-tax, and the Stamp-duties 
in Ireland, were granted for limited periods, 
and to meet temporary exigencies; that it is 
expedient to adhere to the declared intentions 
of Parliament; and in order to secure their 
speedy cessation, to limit the renewal of any 
portion of these taxes to such an amount as may 
suffice to provide for the expenditure sanctioned 
by Parliament and for the maintenance of public 
credit. ” After considerable discussion, the reso¬ 
lution was negatived by a majority of 278 to 
239 - 

— The French refugees in London issue an 
address, disclaiming the principle of assassina¬ 
tion and pillage attributed to them by Feargus 
O’Connor and others. 

3. —Lord Ashley obtains leave to bring in a 
bill for the erection of lodging-houses for the 
working classes. 

11 . —The Duke of Saldanha issues a mani¬ 
festo against the new Portuguese Minister 
Thomar. He was soon after placed at the 
head of affairs, and entered Lisbon in state. 

— Bill passed extending the provisions of the 
Designs Act of 1850, and giving protection from 
piracy to persons exhibiting new inventions in 
the forthcoming Great Exhibition. 

— Mr. Disraeli’s renewed resolution in favour 
of the owners and occupiers of land rejected 
by 263 to 250 votes. 

14. —The St. Albans Election Committee 
report that Mr. Jacob Bell was duly elected, 
but having been prevented from obtaining 
necessary evidence as to the improper prac¬ 
tices alleged to have been carried on there, 
they recommend that a Commission be issued 
for inquiring into the alleged cases of bribery 
and corruption. 

— The Lords Committee of Privileges com¬ 
mence to hear pleadings in the Montrose peerage 
case, James Earl of Crawford and Balcarres 
petitioning that he might be declared and ad¬ 
judged entitled to the ancient honour and 
dignity of Duke of Montrose, created from the 
burgh and town of Montrose by James the 
Third of Scotland. At the first sitting, after 
argument, leave was given to the present Duke 
of Mont”ose to lodge a printed case in opposi- 

Y 2 





APRIL 


1851. 


APRIL 


tion to the claimant whose title would, if suc¬ 
cessful, be the same as his own. 

14 . —The Bishop of Exeter issues a pastoral 
letter to his clergy, in which he charges the 
Archbishop of Canterbury with holding here¬ 
tical opinions, and announces his intention to 
hold a diocesan synod for the purpose of ex¬ 
pressing or refusing concurrence in those articles 
of the Creed affected by the decision of the 
Privy Council in the Gorham case. 

15 . —Lord Mahon calls the attention of the 
House of Commons to the publication of 
school-books at the national expense; a step 
considered to be an undue interference with 
private competition, a grievance to the publish¬ 
ing trade, and an especial grievance to many 
deserving men who had produced, by their own 
means, publications for the use of schools. 

— Mr. Adderley moves for the presentation 
of an address to her Majesty, praying the 
appointment of a Commission, with instruc¬ 
tions to proceed to South Africa, to inquire 
and report as to the best mode of adjusting the 
relations between this country and the Cafifre 
tribes. Describing our attempt at the adminis¬ 
tration of the colony as an entire failure, he 
entered into an examination of the conduct of 
Sir Harry Smith, seeking to show that he was 
as much a prisoner just now as ever, with this 
important difference, that he was shut up with 
5,000 men. The motion was negatived on a 
division ; and an amendment moved by Lord 
John Russell, extending the inquiry to our 
relations with all the tribes on the South 
African boundary, was carried by a majority of 
128 to 60. 

— Sir E. Bulwer Lytton publishes a Pro¬ 
tectionist pamphlet in the form of a “ Letter to 
John Bull, Esq., on Affairs connected with 
his Landed Property, and those who live 
thereon. ” 

16 . —Mr. Armstrong, of Sorbitrees, Cumber¬ 
land, shot by the Rev. Joseph Smith, Walton, 
who in the night-time had fired a pistol at 
random to scare away persons whom he thought 
were attempting to break into the house. Mr. 
Smith was tried for the offence of manslaughter 
at the Northumberland Assizes. Baron Platt 
ruled that the mischief which occurred to Mr. 
Armstrong was the result of his own act. “If 
he had gone home instead of going to the resi¬ 
dence of this clergyman, and disturbing the 
inmates, he would have avoided the unfortunate 
consequences which ensued. If a man so con¬ 
duct himself, by making noises at untimely 
hours, as to cause the inmates of a house to 
believe that it is going to be broken into, it is 
precisely the same as if a burglary was com¬ 
mitted ; and, no question, a man has a right to 
go forth and alarm persons so acting, either by 
shooting over their heads or in the direction in 
which he fancies they are, to prevent a bur¬ 
glary.” The jury acquitted Mr. Smith, who 
instantly feT down on his knees in the dock to 
express thankfulness for his deliverance. He 

( 3 2 4 ) 


appeared to be of an unusually nervous and 
timid disposition, and much alarmed by the 
recent outrage at Frimley Grove. 

16 . — Foundation - stone laid of Victoria 
Bridge, Glasgow. 

18 .—Died at Tunbridge Wells, in his 68th 
year, the Right Hon. Henry Bickersteth, 
Baron Langdale, late Master of the Rolls. 

— A swindler, describing himself at one 
time as “Captain” and at others as “Sir 
Richard Douglas, of Orpington House, Kent,” 
convicted at the Central Criminal Court, with 
his two sons as accomplices. He conducted his 
Cheating operations upon the most methodical 
scale, keeping a diary of his transactions, and 
prefacing it with a list of people to be victimized. 
The first day of the new year for 1851 opened 
with prayer, asking Providence to bless the 
exertions of the writer and his sons, and make 
them more prosperous than they were last year. 
The diary was filled with such entries as— 
“Jan. 5. Phaeton and horse seized. Fear ex¬ 
posure at Ascot, and all chance up there. Fear 
we must cut.—7. All day ill. Row about stable. 
Forcible possession taken of it. Row all day 
with one person or another. Fearful how things 
will end. Three boys at home idle, all order¬ 
ing things.—18. Went to boys, to dinner— 
champagne—very merry. Providence not quite 
deserted us.” A begging letter which fell into 
the hands of a police constable put an end to 
the family’s operations. “Sir Richard” was 
sentenced to twelve months’ and the sons to 
three months’ imprisonment. 

— The Lord Chancellor gives judgment on 
two petitions presented with reference to Miss 
Augusta Talbot. Dr. Doyle’s petition prayed 
that Miss Talbot might be allowed, during the 
absence of the Earl and Countess of Shrews¬ 
bury abroad, to remain under the charge of 
some proper person, to be approved of by the 
court, during the approaching season of 1851; 
that an additional allowance of 1,500/. might 
be made for her maintenance ; and, if necessary, 
that it be referred to the Master to approve of 
a scheme as to her residence. Mr. Berkeley’s 
petition alleged that the Countess of Shrews¬ 
bury had exercised an undue influence over 
Miss Talbot, and had endeavoured to induce 
her to marry a Frenchman named Roche- 
foucault; that Miss Talbot had persisted in 
refusing, and that thereupon the Countess sent 
back Miss Talbot to a convent, not as a pupil, 
but as a postulant, with the avowed object of 
compelling her to take the veil; and it prayed 
that Miss Talbot might be removed from under 
the care and management of the Earl and 
Countess of Shrewsbury. The Lord Chan¬ 
cellor, in giving judgment, entered minutely 
into the circumstances of the case. He declared 
his opinion that, tn the first instance, the Coun¬ 
tess of Shrewsbury was competent to judge on 
the propriety of placing Miss Talbot in the con¬ 
vent. But since the young lady had been in 
the world, and her prospects had otherwise 
changed, and since it became uncertain how 




APRIL 


1851. 


MAY 


long the Earl and Countess would remain 
absent from this country, Dr. Doyle ought to 
have exercised greater diligence in his care 
over his ward. A very high contempt of the 
authority of the court would have been com¬ 
mitted by allowing a ward of court either to 
become a postulant or to take any other step 
calculated to bind her future life to any parti¬ 
cular course. He believed that ever since the 
Statute of Westminster it had been a very high 
offence to make a ward of court take the veil— 
an offence liable to indictment, heavy forfeiture, 
and imprisonment. That statute continued. 
If a marriage were contracted without the ap¬ 
probation of the court, it was a contempt of the 
court; h fortiori , much more so was it to make 
persons devote themselves to a religious life. 
Marriage was consistent with persons retaining 
their ordinary position in life, but taking the 
veil was so serious a change, that to allow a 
person not arrived at the age of maturity to bind 
the future life, not probably by actual vows, but 
by some influence or other more cogent than 
physical force, was a much greater offence ; 
and the Lord Chancellor declared that he 
should have had no hesitation, and should have 
felt it his duty, to commit bishops, priests, 
governesses, clergymen, or any other who 
had been connected with such a transaction. 
But no bad motives could be imputed to Dr. 
Doyle, as he seemed to have been under the 
impression that the young lady was in the con¬ 
vent as a boarder; and, therefore, the interests 
of the ward did not require her removal. In 
reference to Mr. Craven Berkeley’s petition, 
the Lord Chancellor felt that upon the whole 
it had been of great advantage to the ward. 
But the most material statements in that peti¬ 
tion were not correct. The Lord Chancellor 
had ascertained from personal conversation 
with Miss Talbot, when he visited Alton 
Towers, that the marriage then oh the carpet 
was not regarded with personal repugnance by 
Miss Talbot; and when it was broken off, 
chiefly from the Lord Chancellor’s own disap¬ 
proval of it. Miss Talbot expressed her resig¬ 
nation in terms not consistent with the notion 
of the alleged repugnance. The matter thus 
charged in Mr. Berkeley’s petition was of a 
character deeply reflecting on other parties, and 
was unfounded in fact. In that point of view 
solely, the petition might be dismissed with 
costs ; but the petition had been the means of 
rendering a great and worthy service to the 
court and to the ward. The order of the court, 
therefore, was, that Mr. Berkeley’s petition be 
dismissed, and that the costs be paid out of the 
estate. 

23 .—The hundredth anniversary of the 
Society of Antiquaries celebrated at Free¬ 
masons’ Tavern. On the same day the three 
hundredth anniversary of Shrewsbury School 
was celebrated. 

26 .—Inquiry into the death of James Tom¬ 
lin, barrister, who was killed by falling from 
his window in King’s Bench Walk, Temple. 


The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental 
death.” 

28 .—Died at Eaton-square, aged 81, Ad¬ 
miral Codrington, the hero of Navarino. 

30 .—The House of Commons agree to a 
motion offering a reward for the apprehension 
of persons connected with the St. Albans 
election, who had hitherto eluded the service 
of the Speaker’s warrant. 

— Triple collision, attended with the loss of 
six lives, on the Lancashire and Cheshire Junc¬ 
tion Railway, caused by the breaking down of 
a train in the tunnel between Frodsham and 
Sutton. 

May 1 . — Opening of the Great Exhibition 
in Hyde Park. This event drew together a 
greater assemblage of people than was ever 
known in London before; as many as half a 
million, it was thought, being massed together 
in Hyde Park about noon, when the Queen 
drove from Buckingham Palace. The line of 
carriages of all descriptions reached westwards 
from the entrance gates of the Park to Ken¬ 
sington towards Hammersmith, and eastwards 
as far as Long-acre. The day on the whole 
was beautiful, one passing shower, which fell 
shortly before the Queen made her appearance, 
serving but to lay the dust and freshen the 
air. The Queen left Buckingham Palace a 
little before twelve o’clock. Nine carriages 
conveyed her Majesty, Prince Albert, two of 
the Royal children, with a number of visitors 
and attendants, up Constitution-hill, and along 
Rotten-row, to the northern entrance of the 
Palace. As the cortege drew up, the reception 
of her Majesty was enthusiastic, and she entered 
the building amidst a burst of genuine good feel • 
ing. The doors had been opened at nine o’clock 
for the holders of season tickets. The crowd 
kept flowing in for more than an hour in such 
dense columns, that the temporary barriers 
placed to protect the space round the throne 
were in part swept away, and the entire 
nave seemed to be permanently in pos¬ 
session of the spectators. The Duke of 
Wellington arrived early, and was particu¬ 
larly noticed, as was also Mr. Paxton, who 
designed the building, and the Mandarin 
Hesing, of the Chinese junk. As her 
Majesty ascended the throne, attended by the 
Royal Family and the distinguished visitors 
to her Court, the organ pealed forth the notes 
of the National Anthem ; and the immense 
choir collected for the occasion accompanied 
the music. At the close, Prince Albert joined 
the Royal Commissioners (who then drew near 
to the throne), and read to her Majesty 
the report of their proceedings. After an 
account of the origin of the Exhibition, and 
the efforts made to accomplish its object, the 
report proceeded : “ Within the short period 
of seven months, owing to the energy of the, 
contractors and the active industry of the 
workmen employed by them, a building has 
been erected entirely novel in its construction, 

( 325 ) 




MA V 


1851. 


MAY 


covering a space of more than eighteen acres, 
measuring 1,851 feet in length, 456 in ex¬ 
treme breadth, capable of containing 40,000 
visitors, and affording frontage for the exhi¬ 
bition of gc-ods to the extent of more than 
ten miles. ” The Queen read a reply, cordially 
concurring in the prayer “that, by God’s 
blessing, this undertaking may conduce to the 
welfare of my people, and to the common 
interests of the human race, by encouraging 
the arts of peace and industry, strengthening 
the bonds of union among the nations of the 
earth, and promoting a friendly and honourable 
rivalry in the useful exercise of those faculties 
which have been conferred by a beneficent 
Providence for the good and the happiness of 
mankind.” The Archbishop of Canterbury 
approached the throne, and offered up a 
prayer, invoking a blessing on the undertaking. 
At the close, the choir joined in singing the 
Hallelujah Chorus. The Royal procession 
was next formed, and moved slowly round 
the interior of the building amid vehement 
cheers and waving of hats and handkerchiefs, 
till it returned to the point from whence it 
started. The Marquis of Breadalbane then 
announced in a loud voice that the Queen 
declared “the Exhibition open,” a flourish 
of trumpets giving intimation of the fact to the 
multitudes outside. The Royal party with¬ 
drew, as the choir took up the strains of the 
National Anthem. The barriers which had 
hitherto restrained the spectators within narrow 
limits were now withdrawn, and the pent-up 
mass spread over every part of the building. 

1. —Lord John Russell’s bill for admitting 
Jews into Parliament read a second time, by a 
majority of 202 to 177. There was no division 
on the second reading. 

2 . —Mr. Hume’s motion, limiting the 
income-tax for one year, that the entire 
scheme of taxation might be considered by a 
Select Committee, carried against Ministers 
by 244 to 230. 

— In the course of a discussion with refer¬ 
ence to the language used by the Bishop of 
Exeter towards the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
Lord John Russell said that it was well known 
the Primate was a man of peculiar mildness of 
character and truly Christian forbearance, “ and 
I think it is because he is a man of peculiar 
mildness of character, and of well-known Chris¬ 
tian forbearance, that that language has been 
used. (Loud and general cries of * Hear ! ’ 
from both sides of the House.) But, without 
any intervention of Government, the Archbishop 
will so conduct himself as to retain the venera¬ 
tion hitherto accorded to him ; and nothing 
which the Bishop of Exeter has said or can say 
against him will in the least diminish the re¬ 
spect for him, or cause him to depart from the 
character he has acquired, so far as, by the use 
of unworthy language, or by the interchange of 
epithets of invective, to diminish in any way 
the purity and the holiness which belong to his 
exalted office. (Loud and continued cheering.)” 
(326) 


3 . —San Francisco almost entirely destroyed 
by fire, being the seventh time the city had 
been thus scourged during the four years of its 
existence. 

4 . —M. Schoffler, a Roman Catholic priest, 
suffers martyrdom at the town of Son Tay, 
Cochin China. 

— Saldanha elected head of the Portuguese 
Ministry. 

6 . —The Ministry, by the casting vote of the 
Speaker, are again in a minority of one on a 
motion made by Lord Naas regarding the duty 
levied on home-made spirits taken out of bond. 

7 . —The Canterbury Colony Association ce¬ 
lebrate the arrival of the first emigrants at their 
settlement by a public breakfast. In addition 
to the ten ships already sent out, six new ones 
were now exhibited in the West India Docks, 
as ready to take their departure. 

8. —Died, aged 70, Lord Cottenham (Charles 
Christopher Pepys), late Lord Chancellor of 
England. 

9. —Seven thousand pounds’ worth of gold- 
dust stolen from the carriages of the South 
Western Railway in the course of transit 
from Southampton to London. One of the 
boxes was found near the Winchester railway 
station, secreted there, apparently, by one 
Pamplin, a tailor living in Soho. He was 
found guilty of receiving the same knowing it 
to have been stolen, and sentenced to trans¬ 
portation for ten years. 

10. —The Metropolitan Local Commis¬ 
sioners of the Great Exhibition entertain the 
Foreign Commissioners at the Castle Hotel, 
Richmond. 

— A court-martial, sitting at Colombo, 
acquit Captain Albert Watson of the charges 
of severity and untruthfulness brought against 
him in connexion with the suppression of the 
rebellion in Ceylon in 1848. 

12. —The Museum of Practical Geology 
in Jermyn-street opened by Prince Albert. Sir 
Henry de la Beche read an address to his 
Royal Highness, embodying in a concise form 
the origin and progress of the institution. A 
tinge of sadness was cast over the ceremony 
by the death, in the course of the preceding 
day, of the curator, Mr. Phillips. 

— Captain Somerset committed to the 
House of Correction twelve days for assaulting 
a policeman. 

13 . —Great match at York for 1,000 guineas, 
between Lord Eglinton’s Flying Dutchman, 
the winner of the Derby and St. Leger in 1849, 
and Lord Zetland’s Voltigeur, the winner 
of the same races in 1850. The former car¬ 
ried 8st. 8|lb., and was ridden by Marlow ; 
the latter 8st., and was ridden by Flatman, 
Voltigeur took the lead and held it at a 
great pace till round the last turn; the Dutch¬ 
man then drew up, and at the gravel-road 
got his head Wei ; he was a little first 




MAY 


1851. 


MAY 


half-way up the distance, and won cleverly, 
but not easily, by a length. 

13 .—In the Court of Exchequer,Lord Camp¬ 
bell gives judgment in the case of Boosey v. 
Purday, involving an important feature in the 
law of copyright. The opera “ La Sonnam- 
bula ” was composed by Bellini, while residing 
as an alien at Milan, in 1831. When the work 
was complete it was legally assigned to Ricordi, 
also an alien. Ricordi came to England, and 
assigned to Boosey, the plaintiff, who was an 
Englishman bom, the copyright of the opera 
“ for and in Great Britain.” Boosey published 
the opera on the 10th of June, 1831; and there 
had been no prior publication either in this 
country or abroad. The defendant, Purday, 
pirated “ A Cavatina from the opera of ‘ La 
Sonnambula ’ by Bellini, ” thus published ; and 
the plaintiff then raised his action. On the 
authority of a previous case between the same 
parties, Baron Rolfe, now Lord Cranworth, 
directed the jury to find a verdict for the de¬ 
fendant : a bill of exceptions was thereupon ten¬ 
dered, and the case brought into this court of 
error. Lord Campbell delivered the judgment 
of the court, establishing the right of an alien 
author to acquire a British copyright, by first 
publishing his works in this country. The 
court was of opinion that Baron Rolfe’s 
direction was wrong, and that he ought to 
have directed the jury to find a verdict for the 
plaintiff. This judgment was confirmed by the 
House of Lords on appeal in 1854. A ma¬ 
jority of the judges were then of opinion that 
the publication in this country by Purday gave 
Boosey a right of action against him, inasmuch 
as that the assignment of the copyright and 
property therein was a complete and valid 
assignment. 

16 . —Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton’s comedy, 
“Not so Bad as we Seem,” performed at De¬ 
vonshire House, in aid of the newly-organized 
Guild of Literature and Art. The Queen and 
Prince Albert were present. Among the ama¬ 
teurs were C. Dickens, D. Jerrold, J. Foster, 
R. H. Home, Mark Lemon, and Frank Stone. 

17 . —Fall of an extensive building in course 
of constmction in Gracechurch-street. An iron 
girder in the top story was heard to give way 
with a crack, and the entire centre portion of 
the structure fell to the earth. Six of the work¬ 
men were killed. 

18 . —Fire in the Rose and Crown Tavern, 
Lower Thames-street, causing the death of the 
proprietor and three other of the inmates. 

20 . —James Young, a gentleman of property, 
residing in the neighbourhood of Regent’s Park, 
commits suicide by laying his neck across the 
rails near the Camden railway station when the 
Liverpool mail train was advancing at great 
speed. 

21 . —In a Convocation holden at Oxford, it 
was resolved, by 249 to 105, to affix the Uni¬ 
versity seal to a petition praying the Queen to 
revoke the University Commission, or allow 


the University to be heard against that Com¬ 
mission by counsel. 

22. —The Governor of New South Wales 
issues a proclamation at Sydney claiming the 
precious metals in the newly-discovered gold 
districts, and threatening with punishment all 
who should search, or dig, without a licence of 
30J. per month. 

— Mr. Thackeray commences a course of 
lectures on “The English Humourists,” at 
Willis’s Rooms. 

— Mr. Fox’s motion in favour of secular 
education lost in the Commons by a majority 
of 30. 

23 . —Died at Florence, where he discharged 
the duties of British Minister, the Right Hon. 
Richard Lalor Sheil, aged 57 years. 

26 . —First shilling day at the Great Exhi¬ 
bition : 920/. taken. 

27 . —Debate on Mr. Henry Baillie’s reso¬ 
lution relative to the harsh measures taken by 
Lord Torrington in the suppression of the dis¬ 
turbances in Ceylon, 1848. He sought to affirm, 
“That the conduct of Earl Grey in signifying* 
her Majesty’s unqualified approbation of Lord 
Torrington’s administration of Ceylon has been 
precipitate and injurious, tending to establish 
precedents of rigour and severity in the govern¬ 
ment of her Majesty’s foreign possessions, and 
injurious to the character of this country for 
justice and humanity.” After a discussion ex¬ 
tending over two nights, and engaged in with 
great animation by both sides of the House, as 
it was understood the fate of the Ministry was 
involved in the result, the resolution was nega¬ 
tived by 282 to 202. 

28 . —Riot at Tam worth on the occasion of 
a meeting of farmers of North Warwickshire 
in the Town Hall, for the purpose of discussing 
the grievances they were subjected to by the 
Free-trade policy. Sir Robert Peel had pre¬ 
viously caused circulars to be issued among his 
tenantry disapproving of the meeting. The riot 
gave rise to a recriminatory correspondence be¬ 
tween Sir Robert Peel and Mr. G. F. Young, 
in which the latter insinuated that the young 
baronet was a profligate and a gambler, and 
practised on his tenantry contemptible freaks 
of impotent tyranny. 

30 . —The Frankfort Diet meet for the 
dispatch of business. 

31 . —Unveiling of Rauch’s equestrian statue 
of Frederick the Great, at Berlin, in presence 
of the King and his Ministers. 

The Hottentots rise in rebellion against 
the colonists of Caffiraria, and, joining the chiefs 
already in revolt, greatly harass the British 
troops scattered over the colony. 

About this time various American female 
lecturers deliver addresses on a new costume, 
known as the “Bloomer,” with a view of re¬ 
commending its adoption in England. 

( 327 ) 




JUNE 


1851. 


JUNE 


June 1.—The United Kingdom Alliance for 
the legislative suppression of the traffic in intoxi¬ 
cating drinks established at Manchester. 

— Addressing the inhabitants of Dijon as¬ 
sembled to celebrate the opening of a railway 
to Tonnerre, the President of the Republic said: 
‘ ‘ I wish that those persons who doubt of the 
future had accompanied me through the popu¬ 
lations of the Yonne and the C6te d’Or. They 
would soon have had their minds set at rest, by 
being able to judge by themselves of the real 
state of the public feeling. They would have 
seen that neither intrigues nor attacks, nor 
passionate discussions of parties, are in har¬ 
mony with the sentiments and state of the 
country. France does not wish either the 
return of the ancient regime —no matter 
under what form it may be disguised—nor 
the trial of evil and impracticable Utopias. 
Whatever duties the country may impose on 
me, it will find me resolute to execute its will. 
And believe me, gentlemen, France will not 
perish in my hands. I profit by this banquet 
as if it were a public tribune, to open to my 
fellow-citizens the bottom of my heart. A new 
phase of our political life is commencing. From 
one end of France to the other, petitions are 
being signed in favour of the revision of the 
Constitution ; I await with confidence the mani¬ 
festation of the country and the decision of the 
Assembly, which can only be actuated by the 
sole thought of the public good. ” 

2 . —Died at his residence in Dorsetshire, 
aged 83, Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, 
for forty years Chairman of Committees of the 
House of Lords. 

4 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench Lord 
Campbell pronounces the final decision of the 
court on the claim of W. H. Barber to be re¬ 
admitted as an attorney. The application was 
refused, on the ground that Barber, if not directly 
cognizant of the fraud and forgery, was wilfully 
blind. 

— Terence Bellew M‘Manus, sentenced to 
penal servitude for his complicity in the Irish 
Rebellion of 1848, escapes from Launceston, 
Australia, and lands at San Francisco, where 
he receives a public welcome. 

6.—Lord Naas again defeats the Ministry on 
their proposal for going into committee on the 
financial resolutions already agreed to. On the 
proposal that the Chairman leave the chair, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer was outvoted by 
140 to 123. Lord Naas’s resolutions were after¬ 
wards defeated by 194 to 166. 

IO.—Three sons of the late Earl of Aid- 
borough arrested at Leghorn on a charge of 
conspiring against the Tuscan Government. 

12 . —M. Victor Hugo sentenced to a fine of 
500 francs and six months’ imprisonment for 
writing an article in the Eve 7 iement condemna¬ 
tory of capital punishment. 

13 . —The Plymouth packet wrecked and all 
on board lost, including 18 emigrants. 

( 328 ) 


13 . — Bal costume at Buckingham Palace, the 
period chosen for illustration being the reign of 
Charles II. 

— The Government Bill for improving the 
Administration of Justice in the Court of Chan¬ 
cery and the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council read a first time. 

14 . —Died at Brighton, aged 69, Vice- 
Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm, K.C.B. 

— Died, aged 75, Christian Frederick Tieck, 
German sculptor. 

16 . —Mr. and Mrs. Graham severely injured 
in a balloon which had ascended from Batty’s 
Hippodrome, Kensington. In consequence of 
the silk getting tom by a flag-staff, the aeronauts 
were tossed about the north-western portion of 
London, at an altitude not much above the 
chimney-tops. They were ultimately jammed 
against the park front of Colonel North’s house 
and thrown out on the roof. 

— Third jubilee of the Society for the Pro¬ 
pagation of the Gospel celebrated in West¬ 
minster Abbey. A meeting was held next day 
in St. Martin’s Hall, Prince Albert in the 
chair. He referred in his address to the 
sovereign who had chartered the society, 
William the Third, as “the greatest sovereign 
this country has to boast of—by whose sagacity 
and energy was closed that bloody struggle for 
civil and religious liberty which had been so 
long convulsing this country, and there were 
secured to us the inestimable advantages of our 
Constitution and of our Protestant faith.” His 
Royal Highness also contrasted the present 
condition of religious life in this country with 
what it was when the society celebrated its first 
and second jubilee. 

17 . —Mr. Cobden moves an address pray¬ 
ing her Majesty to direct the Foreign Secretary 
to enter into communication with the French 
Government, with the view to a mutual reduc¬ 
tion of armaments. Considerable discussion 
followed, after which the motion was with¬ 
drawn, Government concurring in its principle 
and object, but not engaging to enter into nego¬ 
tiations on the subject. 

— In his charge to the grand jury at New¬ 
castle Assizes, Mr. Baron Platt takes occasion 
to comment on the conduct of the High Sheriff, 
Sir Horace St. Paul, for escorting the judges in 
a plain clarence carriage, instead of with the 
customary procession of javelin men, outriders, 
and trumpeters. “ I cannot leave you,” he 
said, “without expressing my regret, that in 
this great country and in this great county of 
Northumberland the gentry are so reduced as 
not to show the ordinary respect and loyalty 
to the Crown. It is not merely as judges that 
we come here : we are ministers under the 
Royal Commission. We have the honour to 
attend before you under the commission or sign- 
manual of her Majesty; and in this country, 
where any disloyalty or any disregard to the 
administration of justice is considered a slur, I 




JUNE 


JUNE 


1851. 


do regret that the usual and ordinary garniture 
by which that loyalty is displayed should not 
have been exhibited on the present occasion.” 
The High Sheriff, rising in considerable per¬ 
turbation, said : “I have been directly charged 
with disloyalty. I publicly declare that the 
accusation is unjust and unfounded. I am as 
loyal a subject as there is in any county in 
the kingdom.” The Judge : “ I must certainly 
say that, as a gentleman of ample means, 
loyalty to the Crown and respect for her Ma¬ 
jesty’s Commission has not been exhibited.” 

17 . —The opening of the new hospital of St. 
Mary’s celebrated by a public dinner in the 
London Tavern, presided over by the Earl of 
Carlisle. 

21 . —The recipients of the “War Medal” 
entertain the Duke of Richmond to dinner, and 
present him with a piece of plate in acknow¬ 
ledgment of his exertions. 

— Human remains discovered in and about 
Norwich. While a lad was walking in a lane 
near Trowse, his dog entered a plantation and 
returned with a human hand in its mouth. A 
foot was soon after discovered, and the police 
came on the pelvis of a female, vertebrae, and 
various pieces of flesh, inserted among the high 
grass of the meadows and plantations. The 
remains were generally thought to be those of 
a murdered person, but no one was known to 
be missing from the city at the time. After 
various inquiries had been gone into by the 
magistrates, a portion of the remains was ordered 
to be preserved, and the excitement gradually 
lessened down till a confession of the murderer 
many years afterwards recalled and explained 
the horrid mystery. (See Jan. 2, 1869.) 

23 . —Fire at Montague-close, Southwark, 
destroying three warehouses, and injuring the 
church of St. Saviour. 

— The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill and the 
Jewish Disabilities Bill pass through com¬ 
mittee. 

24 . —Lady Godiva procession at Coventry 
celebrated with extraordinary splendour in pre¬ 
sence, it was computed, of 60,000 spectators. 

25 . —The first stone of the City of London 
Hospital for Consumption, at Brompton, laid 
by Prince Albert. 

— The centenary festival of St. Luke’s 
Hospital for Lunatics celebrated by a dinner 
in the London Tavern, presided over by the 
Speaker of the House of Commons. 

— A Diocesan Synod convened by the 
Bishop of Exeter commences its sittings. The 
Dean and certain of the Chapter declined to 
attend, but of the thirty-two rural deaneries only 
two refused to send delegates. After special 
prayer the Bishop delivered an address in vin¬ 
dication of diocesan synods as the legitimate 
means of restoring and defending the rights of 
the inferior clergy. Declarations of faith with 
regard to baptism were agreed to after some 
discussion, as was also another, that “ the ap¬ 


pointment to a see of Plymouth by the Pope is 
schismatical and void, setting up altar against 
altar in our diocese, and usurping the primacy 
of England.” 

26 . —Excessive heat. Thermometer in Hyde 
Park 90° in the shade. In the Champ de Mars, 
Paris, during a review, eight soldiers fell victims 
to coup-de-soleil. 

— Electioneering contest at Greenwich, be¬ 
tween Alderman Wire and Alderman Salo¬ 
mons, who pledged himself, if elected, to take 
his seat in the House, and bring to an issue 
the question of the competency of Jews to sit 
in Parliament. He was elected by a majority 
of 887 votes. 

27 . —On the Committee bringing up the re¬ 
port of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, the Irish 
members retired in a body from the House, 
enabling Sir F. Thesiger to carry certain reso¬ 
lutions of which he had given notice, against 
the Government: they were three in number, 
and sought (1) to amend the first declaratory 
clause, so that it should apply to all rescripts, 
and not only to the one rescript establishing the 
hierarchy; (2) to give the prosecuting power to 
any individual with the sanction of the law- 
officers of the Crown ; and (3) to make penal 
the introduction of bulls. The first was carried 
against Ministers by 135 to 100; the second 
without a division; and the third by 165 to 
109. 

30 .— Died at Knowsley,aged 76,Earl Derby. 
He was succeeded by his son, Lord Stanley, 
whose eldest son, M. P. for King’s Lynn, as¬ 
sumed the courtesy title. 

— Discussion upon Mr. Disraeli’s resolu¬ 
tion, “That in the provisional state of the 
financial arrangements of the country it appears 
to this House to be most consistent with a due 
regard to the maintenance of public credit, 
and the exigencies of the public sendee, not 
to make any material sacrifice of public income 
in effecting such changes as may be deemed 
advisable in other branches of taxation.” He 
censured the Chancellor of the Exchequer for 
bringing forward a budget which had to be 
withdrawn, and at the same time availing him¬ 
self of the surplus which it indicated. Referring 
to the charge of insincerity brought against him 
by Mr. Philip Pusey in a letter to his Berkshire 
constituents, Mr. Disraeli remarked: “It is 
always difficult to penetrate the bosom of any 
man, and, in the absence of a knowledge of 
real motives, it is always considered the juster 
course to give him credit for good motives. 
That is the more natural, the more charitable, 
and the more obvious course. I may have been 
mistaken, and yet not insincere. My reason 
may have misled me, my vanity may have mis¬ 
guided me : I may have been a foolish man, or 
a very vain man. It is better to think that 
than that I should be an insincere man. At 
least it must always be a question of contro¬ 
versy whether my motions were efficient or 
inefficient, whether my motives were sincere or 






JULY 


JUL Y 


1851. 


insincere. But what are we to say of a member 
of Parliament who, when motions are brought 
forward which he believes to be futile, and by 
a gentleman who he is convinced is insincere, yet 
omits no opportunity of following him into the 
lobby and supporting him by his suffrage ? 
(Cheers.) We all know that men are actuated 
not only by mixed motives, but often by con¬ 
fused ones; and it is very possible for a man to 
be in possession of very considerable ability, 
to have received remarkable culture, to be in 
possession of many reputable and of some 
amiable qualities, and yet to be gifted with such 
an uncouth and blundering organization that 
he is perpetually doing that which he did not 
intend, and saying and writing that which he 
did not mean: and that is the charitable view 
I take of the honourable member for Berk¬ 
shire.”—The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
defended the policy of Government. “Mr. 
Disraeli,” he said, “would not jeopardize 
public credit; but, only six days after Mr. 
Hume’s motion was carried, Mr. Cayley moved 
the House to yield up 5,000,000/. for the re¬ 
peal of the malt tax. If it is wrong to jeopar¬ 
dize public credit, surely it was as much en¬ 
dangered on the 8th of May as on the 30th of 
June ; and yet on the division list in favour of 
that motion I find the name of Benjamin 
Disraeli. (Laughter.) Can it be that there 
are two Benjamins in the field—one Benjamin 
voting for the reduction of 5,000,000/. of taxes, 
and another Benjamin who is afraid that to 
meddle with a surplus of 1,600,000/. would 
endanger the finances of the country ? ” Reso¬ 
lution rejected, after a languid debate, by 243 
to 126. 

July 1.—The signatures to the petitions pre¬ 
sented to the French Assembly, up to this date, 
for the revision of the Constitution, amounted 
to 741,011 ; for the revision and prolongation 
of powers alone, 12,103. On the 19th, when 
the question had been debated in the Assembly, 
446 voted for the revision, and 278 against it. 
The majority being 97 short of the required 
three-fourths of the whole vote, the motion for 
revision was lost. The President visited Poic- 
tiers to-day, and addressed the municipality in a 
speech laudatory of ‘ * the persevering efforts of 
Royalty.” 

— The subject of Church Extension brought 
under notice by the Marquis of Blandford, in 
terms of the following resolution : “ That an 
humble address be presented to her Majesty, 
praying that she would be graciously pleased 
to take into her consideration the state of 
spiritual destitution existing throughout England 
and Wales, with a view that her Majesty might 
be pleased to direct the adoption of such mea¬ 
sures as she might deem expedient, for afford¬ 
ing more efficient relief to the spiritual wants of 
the people, and for an extension of the parochial 
system, corresponding to the growth of a rapidly 
increasing population, by the help which might 
be drawn from the resources of the Established 
Church itself.” 

( 330 ) 


1.—Died at his apartments in Davis-street, 
Dyce Sombre, the son of an Indian princess of 
great wealth, and whose mad freaks had led to 
frequent appearances in English law-courts. 

4 . —The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill read a 
third time in the House of Commons by a 
majority of 263 to 49. Lord John Russell 
moved the omission of the clauses added by 
Sir F. Thesiger, making it penal to introduce 
bulls or publish them, and giving power to 
private informers to prosecute for penalties. 
The proposal of the Prime Minister was re¬ 
jected in the one case by a majority of 79, and 
in the other by a majority of 51. On the 
formal question of affixing a title to the bill, 
Mr. Grattan moved that it be entitled “ A Bill 
to prevent the Free Exercise of the Roman 
Catholic Religion in the United Kingdom.” 
This was negatived without a division, and the 
bill was ordered, amid cheers from different 
parts of the House, to be taken up to the House 
of Lords. The motion, ‘ ‘ That the bill do pass, ” 
was carried somewhat unexpectedly, before a 
final discussion could be entered into upon its 
merits. In the course of the personal expla¬ 
nations which thereupon took place, Mr. Glad¬ 
stone protested against the bill * ‘ as hostile to 
the institutions of this country, more especially 
to its established religion ; because it would 
teach it to rely on other support than that of 
the spiritual strength and vitality which alone 
could give it vigour; because its tendency was 
to undermine and weaken the authority of the 
law in Ireland ; because it was disparaging to 
the great principle of religious freedom, on 
which this wise and understanding people had 
permanently built its legislation of late years ; 
and lastly, because it would tend to relax and 
destroy those bonds of concord and goodwill 
which ought to unite all classes and persuasions 
of her Majesty’s subjects.” 

— Mr. George Peabody, merchant, enter¬ 
tains the American Minister and Mrs. Law¬ 
rence at a banquet in Willis’s Rooms. 

5 . —A charcoal-burner in Paris commits sui¬ 
cide by throwing himself from the Column of 

July. 

6 . —Died suddenly, at Dumfries, while on a 
visit to Mr. Aird, Dr. D. M. Moir, of Mussel¬ 
burgh, the “Delta” of Blackwood's Magazine. 

7 . —The steamer Euxine arrives at South¬ 
ampton with 130 Hungarian and Polish re¬ 
fugees from Turkey. 

8 . —M. de Tocqueville submits to the French 
Assembly the report of the Committee concern¬ 
ing the revision of the Constitution. The chief 
defects pointed out related to the manner in 
which the sovereignty of the people was exer¬ 
cised in the election of the Assembly, and to the 
natrn-e and relations of the deliberative and 
executive branches of the Legislature. 

9*—Her Majesty, accompanied by Prince 
Albert, attends an entertainment given by the 
Corporation of London, in the Guildhall, in 
honour of the Great Exhibition. The State 




JULY 


JULY 


1851. 


procession left Buckingham Palace at 9 P.M., 
and passed through Pall Mall, the Strand, and 
City, in the midst of a crowd of spectators 
great beyond all precedent. At the Guild¬ 
hall, the supper-tables were laid out with 
great splendour; and among the rare wines 
produced from the civic cellars was sherry a 
105 years old, which had been bottled for the 
Emperor Napoleon. Her Majesty returned 
to Buckingham Palace between one and two 
o’clock in the morning, through a dense cheering 
multitude. 

10. —William Canty, among the last sur¬ 
vivors of the “receivers” or “ putters-up ” of 
bank and jewel robberies, under the old police 
system, sentenced to ten years’ transportation, 
for stealing, in company with another, the cash- 
box of the London and Westminster Bank. 
The bank officials had been warned of the 
intended design on their premises, and sub¬ 
stituted dead weight for the ordinary precious 
contents of the box. The two thieves were 
seized with it in their possession a few minutes 
after leaving the bank. It was thought that 
Canty was one of the parties concerned in the 
robbery of Rogers’ bank, and negotiated for the 
return of the notes. 

— Died at Petit Brie, near Paris, aged 62, 
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, inventor of 
the process of portrait-taking which bears his 

name. 

11 . —The revival of Convocation urged by 
Lord Redesdale, when formally moving for a 
copy of the petitions presented by the clergy 
and laity of the province of Canterbury to 
both Houses of Convocation, on the 5th of 
February last. The Archbishop of Canterbury 
declared himself unfavourable to the revival of 
Convocation, principally because it was liable 
to engender dissensions and controversy. The 
Bishop of London and the Bishop of Oxford 
supported Lord Redesdale ; and ultimately the 
motion for papers was agreed to. 

13 .— Died at Hornby, near Lancaster, in 
his 82d year, the Rev. Dr. Lingard, Roman 
Catholic historian of England. 

16 . —Cauldwell, a money-lender at Oxford, 
tried for shooting at an undergraduate named 
Alexander Ross. About midnight on the 26th of 
June, a party of collegians entered Cauldwell’s 
premises, and attempted to throw certain cannon 
over the battlemented coping of his front wall. 
Cauldwell was awakened, crept to his window, 
and fired a blunderbuss loaded with shot. 
The charge taking effect in Ross’s neck and 
shoulders, his companions took him home, and 
then returned to smash Cauldwell’s windows. 
Next day he was arrested by the University 
authorities, and charged with the crime of 
shooting to the danger of life. He avowed 
the act, justifying it as one of defence to his 
property, and alleging that many similar of¬ 
fences had recently been committed on his 
premises. The jury now returned a verdict of 
acquittal. Next day Cauldwell was tried on 


a charge of perjury connected with his money¬ 
dealing transactions, and sentenced to seven 
years’ transportation. 

16 . —At the Marlborough-street Police Court, 
Ann Hicks was charged with attempting to sell 
cakes near the Exhibition building. She said 
she had once been the occupant of a stall in 
the Park which had descended to her from her 
grandfather, who assisted in saving George II. 
from drowning in the Serpentine. In Novem¬ 
ber last, Lord Seymour ordered all stalls to be 
removed from the Park—a proceeding, she said, 
which had driven one woman out of her mind, 
sent another to Kensington workhouse, a third 
to St. George’s, and a fourth she had met that 
morning nearly broken-hearted trying to sell 
medals in the Park. On a reluctant promise 
being given not to sell cakes again in the Park, 
Ann Hicks was set at liberty. The case at¬ 
tracted much attention, and a considerable 
supi of money was raised for the poor woman’s 
benefit, though the connexion of her grand¬ 
father with George II. was never clearly esta¬ 
blished. 

17 . —The House of Lords reject the Bill for 
admitting Jews into Parliament, by a majority 
of 36. 

— With reference to the English and French 
protests against German annexation and incor¬ 
poration, the Frankfort Diet resolve that, “ This 
is exclusively a German question, and that none 
of the non-German Governments shall be per¬ 
mitted to influence its decision.” Prussia came 
to a similar resolution. 

— In the course of the debate to-day in 
the French Assembly concerning the revision of 
the Constitution, M. Victor Hugo spoke with 
great bitterness of the President and his sup¬ 
porters. “ What would the Emperor say,” he 
asked, “ if he knew that his heir had for apolo¬ 
gists and advisers men who, when they heard 
the words ‘liberty, democracy, progress,’ fell 
flat upon their faces to listen for the Russian 
cannon?” He asked why, because a man reigned 
who had won the battle of Marengo, another 
should reign who had only won the battle of Sa- 
tory? “If there had been a Napoleon the 
Great, was that any reason why there should 
be a Napoleon the Little?—after Augustus, 
Augustulus ? ” 

18 . —Mr. Salomons attempts to take his seat 
as member for Greenwich. Declining to repeat 
the words “upon the true faith of a Christian,” 
the Speaker ordered Mr. Salomons to with¬ 
draw, but instead of doing so he passed, amid 
a tempest of cheering and shouting, to the 
benches of the House and took his seat. In 
answer to Sir B. Hall, Lord John Russell said 
the Government had no intention at present to 
institute proceedings against Mr. Salomons for 
taking his seat in this informal manner. 

19 . —The inhabitants of Grahamstown having 
formed themselves into a Defence Association 
against the marauding Caffres, write to Sir 
Harry Smith: “ Within the last six weeks the 

(330 





yuL v 


1851. 


JULY 


enemy has swept from the district of Somerset 
alone upwards of 20,000 sheep, 3,000 herd of 
cattle, and 300 horses. Since the commence¬ 
ment of the war 200 farmhouses on the north¬ 
eastern border have been reduced to ashes, and 
a large amount of bread, corn, and other pro¬ 
perty has been wantonly destroyed. While the 
frontier colonists have become prostrated by the 
harassing events of seven months’ hostilities, 
the enemy has received within the present week 
large accessions to his numbers, by the desertion 
of the Hottentot servants, who up to this time 
had remained faithful to their employers ; and 
being at the present moment in possession of 
more cattle than before the war, is not likely to 
be subdued by famine. ” The Governor replied: 
“The course I have pursued in British Caf- 
fraria is the correct one. Had I swerved from 
a perseverance in it, however awfully the 
marauding parties have recently carried on 
their depredations, there would then have been 
a general rush into the colony of the whole of the 
Caffre tribes. In war, that must be attempted 
which carries with it a prospect of the greatest 
general benefit to the whole.” He further in¬ 
timated that he was in daily expectation of 
reinforcements from England, which would 
enable him to make a more extended dispersion 
of the force under his command. 

19. —Mr. Hume’s motion to inquire into the 
conduct of Rajah Brooke defeated by a ma¬ 
jority of 230 to 19. 

— The Scarborough election contest ter¬ 
minates in the return of Mr. G. F. Young, 
Protectionist, by a majority of 33 over Lord 
Mulgrave, a Ministerial candidate. 

— Two letters published from Mr. Gladstone 
to Lord Aberdeen, on the present administration 
of law in Naples. (See Aug. 7 and 18.) 

20 . —As the monks of the Convent of Wal- 
dimar, near Moscow, were setting out in pro¬ 
cession to visit an image of the Virgin at a 
neighbouring village, a wooden bridge thrown 
over the moat gave way, and out of 200 monks 
158 were drowned. 

21 . — Collision in the Straits of Malacca 
between the steamers Pacha and Erin , both 
belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Com¬ 
pany. The Pacha sank in a few minutes with 
a valuable cargo, an3 sixteen of her passengers 
and crew. 

In the course of a discussion, in the House 
of Lords, on the second reading of the Eccle¬ 
siastical Titles Bill, the Earl of Minto gave an 
explanation concerning his knowledge of the 
Pope’s intention to introduce the hierarchy 
into England. So far as the paragraph in 
the Roman Gazette was concerned, he was not 
aware, till he entered the House, that a person 
described as the “ Archbishop of Westminster” 
was therein mentioned. On a former occasion 
he had acknowledged that he was aware of the 
existence of an intention to create Cardinal 
Wiseman Archbishop of Westminster. Every 
( 332 ) 


one knew it. It was spoken of on all hands ; 
and, he might even say, he knew of it before 
he went to Rome.—The Earl of Winchelsea 
chaiucterised the measure as a paltry bill, below 
contempt, which endeavoured to vindicate in 
pounds, shillings, and pence the wounded 
honour of our illustrious Queen. He would 
vote neither for it nor against it. 

21. —Mr. Alderman Salomons again attempts 
to take his seat in the House. As he had on 
the 18th refused to take the customary oath, 
“Upon the true faith of a Christian,” the 
Speaker now requested him to withdraw. Mr. 
Osborne moved as an amendment, that Mr. 
Salomons was entitled to take his seat, and on a 
division was defeated by a majority of 229 to 81. 
Mr. Salomons explained to the House the course 
he now intended to pursue, and also voted in 
two motions which arose in connexion with his 
case. The Speaker then directed the Serjeant- 
at-arms to remove Mr. Salomons, who had 
previously declared his readiness to leave the 
House, provided enough was done to make it 
appear that he acted under coercion. The 
Serjeant accordingly touched his shoulder, and 
he immediately rose and retired. 

22. —Miss Talbot (see April 18) married to 
Lord Edward Fitzalan Howard, brother of the 
Duke of Norfolk. 

25 .— The Randolph, East India trader, 
wrecked on a reef off the Mauritius, and between 
twenty and thirty of her passengers drowned. 

— Petition from the electors of London and 
Greenwich, praying to be heard at the bar of 
the House in support of the claims of Baron 
Rothschild and Mr. Salomons to sit as their 
representatives, ordered to be printed. A 
motion subsequently made, that the petitioners 
be heard, was negatived by 77 to 44. 

27 . —Superstitious dread of the eclipse at 
Vienna. The following “ Christian invitation ” 
was posted at the entrance of the Church of the 
Minorites: “The 27 th July being the eve of 
a great phenomenon of nature, processions will 
be made by the faithful to the shrines of our 
Lady at Maria Zell and Klein Maria Taferl, 
to pray for the intercession of the Queen of 
Heaven that no harm may happen to our be¬ 
loved city of Vienna. The faithful assemble 
at the Convent of the Carmelites, at six in the 
morning, and are requested to bring with them 
female children clothed in white to attend the 
Cross.” 

28 . —Total eclipse of the sun, imperfectly 
seen in London from the cloudy state of the 
atmosphere. 

— Henry Groom sentenced to death at 
Norwich for shooting John Ayton, in Holkham 
plantation, on the 4th inst. The victim was an 
old man who acted as superintendent in a brick¬ 
field, and he was returning from Lord Leicester’s 
with money to pay the workmen when the shot 
was fired. The money taken from his person 
was found in the prisoner’s possession, wrapped 
in a piece of a letter taken from Ayton’s pocket- 







JULY 


185 I. 


AUGUST 


book. Groom was executed on the 6th of 
August, after a full confession. 

28 . —Mr. Salomons informs the Speaker of 
the House of Commons that two actions have 
been raised against him for having taken his 
seat and voted as member for Greenwich. 

29 . —The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill read a 
third time in the House of Lords, and passed 
without a division. 

— In the House of Commons Mr. Heywood 
moved an address praying her Majesty to direct 
that the Crystal Palace might be preserved until 
the 1st of May next, with a view to determine 
if it could be adapted to purposes of public 
utility and recreation. Her Majesty replied 
that it would be necessary to consider carefully 
the engagements of the Royal Commissioners, 
and that she would direct inquiry into these, 
and various matters of detail, which must be 
ascertained before a decision could be come to. 

— The Select Committee appointed to in¬ 
quire into the state and operation of the laws 
relating to newspaper stamps report that, apart 
from fiscal considerations, they did not consider 
news of itself a desirable subject for taxation. 

August 1.—Dublin and Galway Railway 
opened. 

— Died at Clifton, aged 95, the patriarch of 
English literature, Miss Harriet Lee, authoress 
of “Canterbury Tales,” and other pleasant 
story-books. 

2 . —The municipality of Paris entertain the 
Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, 
in the Hotel de Ville. On the 3d and follow • 
ing days fetes in honour of the English visitors 
took place at Versailles and St. Cloud ; there 
was also a reception at the British Embassy 
and a review on the Champ de Mars. 

A .—Cardinal Wiseman preaches to an as¬ 
sembly of poor Irish, in an open court off 
Orchard-street, Portman-square. 

— Died, aged 94, Lady Louisa Stuart, 
granddaughter of Lady Mary Wortley Monta¬ 
gue and youngest daughter of the Earl of 
Bute, favourite Minister of George III. and his 
mother. 

5 . —Mr. Paxton, designer of the Crystal 
Palace, entertained at a public dinner at Derby. 
The Duke of Devonshire was present, and spoke 
highly in praise of the guest. 

— Extensive inundations in the Tyrol, Ba¬ 
varia, Wurtemberg, and other places situate on 
the great rivers flowing west and north from 
the Alps. 

6. —Another of the Isaacs, and Samuel Hare- 
wood, who had been concerned in the Frimley 
outrage, were this day sentenced at Croydon 
Assizes to transportation for life, for burglary 
accompanied, as was the habit of the gang, with 
great violence, at Mrs. Stoner’s, Kirdford, on 
the 3d of June, 1850. The police appeared to 
have been put on their track mainly through 


the information of Hamilton, a ruffian who had 
also “split” in the Uckfield burglary. Be¬ 
tween executions and transportation the gang 
was now understood to be broken up. 

6 . — Victoria-street, Westminster, opened. 

7 . — In reply to Sir De Lacy Evans, Lord 
Palmerston said he thought Mr. Gladstone had 
done himself very great honour by the course 
he pursued at Naples, and he had felt it his 
duty to send copies of that gentleman’s pam¬ 
phlet to our Ministers at the Courts of Europe, 
thereby affording them an opportunity of exert¬ 
ing their influence in this matter. 

8 . —Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech referred as usual 
to the most prominent Acts passed during the 
session: “It is satisfactory to observe that, 
notwithstanding very large reduction of taxes, 
the revenue for the past year considerably ex¬ 
ceeded the public expenditure for the same 
pei'iod. I am rejoiced to find that you have 
thereby been enabled to relieve my people from 
an impost which restricted the enjoyment of 
light and air in their dwellings. ... It has been 
very gratifying to me, on an occasion which has 
brought so many foreigners to this country, to 
observe the spirit of kindness and goodwill 
which so generally prevailed.” 

9 . —Six men killed in descending the Malaga 
Vale Pit, Bedminster; the heavy wire-rope 
giving way when near the bottom, and falling 
on them along with the iron shield to which it 
was attached. 

— Gounod’s opera of “ Sappho ” produced 
at the Royal Italian Opera. 

— The French National Assembly meet 
for the last time this session. There was not a 
sufficient number of members present to make 
a house. 

— Died at Victoria, Hong Kong, aged 48, 
the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff, D.D., a Chinese 
scholar of great ability. 

10. —Died, aged 73, Dr. Lorenz Oken, Swiss 
physiologist and anatomist. 

11. —Died, a prisoner on the road to Alla¬ 
habad, the Dewan Moolraj, late governor of 
Mooltan. 

12 . —Adonijah Edward Jordan, aged 29, 
sentenced to death, at Gloucester Assizes, for 
setting fire to his mother’s dwelling-house, with 
intent to do her grievous bodily harm. 

— Mr. Albert Smith and party ascend Mont 
Blanc. They reached the summit in safety, at 
9.30 the following morning. On returning to 
Chamounix, they received an enthusiastic wel¬ 
come. Mr. Vansittart ascended the same day. 

— Fire in the church of the Invalides, Paris, 
occasioned by one of the candles on the altar 
coming in contact with the catafalque over the 
coffin of Marshal Sebastiani, whose remains 
were being interred. A number or battle 
trophies were destroyed. 

12 .—Professor Janse, violinist,dismissed from 
his post in the Imperial chapel at Vienna for 

( 333 ) 





AUGUST 


1851. 


AUGUST 


assisting at a concert in London to benefit the 
Hungarian refugees. 

14 .—Severe earthquake in Italy, causing 
much destruction over the Peninsula, from 
Point Campanella, below the Bay of Naples, 
along the range of the Apennines, through the 
upper portion of the Basilicata, and the whole 
length of the Terra di Bori on the Adriatic 
coast. At Amalfi two thousand people were 
said to have been overtaken in the calamity. 

16 . —General Lopez having effected a land¬ 
ing on Cuba, at Cubanos, on the 12th, fifty of 
his followers were this day captured in small 
boats and taken to Havannah to be shot. They 
were despatched generally in batches of six. 
Lopez was afterwards taken in the interior, 
wandering alone, and nearly exhausted from 
hunger. He was garotted early on the morn¬ 
ing of the 1st September. Facing the multi¬ 
tude of citizens and troops, he said, ‘ ‘ I die for 
my beloved Cuba.” Lopez then took his seat, 
the machine was adjusted, and at the first twist 
of the screw his head dropped forward. 

17 . —The City Bridewell broken into, and 
several articles of plate stolen. 

18 . —Explosion at Washington Colliery, near 
Newcastle, attended with the loss of thirty- 
five lives. From the evidence adduced at the 
coroner’s inquest it appeared that the pit was 
but indifferently ventilated, and that the under¬ 
viewer in charge was absent drinking on the 
evening of the calamity. 

•— Lord Palmerston having been requested 
by Prince Castelcicala to forward the reply of 
the Neapolitan Government to the different 
European Courts to which Mr. Gladstone’s 
pamphlet had been sent, replies that he “ must 
decline being accessory to the circulation of a 
pamphlet which, in my opinion, does no credit 
to its writer, or the Government which he de¬ 
fends, or to the political party of which he pro¬ 
fesses to be the champion.” 

19 . —Aggregate meeting of Roman Catholics 
in the Rotunda, Dublin, for the inauguration of 
the Catholic Defence Association. The attend¬ 
ance of the newly-appointed dignitaries was 
very large, but the lay element was not so fully 
represented as was expected. Lord Gorman- 
ston moved that “ the Most Reverend Dr. 
Cullen, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of 
all Ireland, be requested to take the chair.” 
The Primate in addressing the meeting held up 
for imitation the example of the great O’Con¬ 
nell, whose loss he described as an irreparable 
calamity, and concluded with a prayer to “the 
most holy Queen of Heaven ” for good counsel; 
and to “our good saints St. Patrick, St. Ma- 
lachy, and St. Lawrence O’Toole for direction, 
and a beneficial fructifying influence on the 
undertaking. ” Resolutions demanding a redress 
of grievances, and expressive of undying hos¬ 
tility to the recently passed Titles Act, were 
carried with acclamation. 

( 334 ) 


19 . —Conference of Swedenborgians held in 
Freemasons’ Hall, for the purpose of discussing 
and publishing various resolutions relating to 
the New Church of Jerusalem. 

20 . —Vice-Chancellor Rolfe gives judgment 
in the case of Egerton v. Brownlow and others, 
trustees of the late Earl of Bridgewater. The 
plaintiff filed a bill praying for a declaration 
that he should be declared equitable tenant in 
tail male in possession of the estates devised 
under the will, and that the trustees might be 
decreed to account with him for the rents and 
profits received by them since the death of Lord 
Althorpe. The question turned on the validity 
of certain clauses of the will of the late John 
William, Earl of Bridgewater, which the bill 
set out at full length. The effect of Sir Robert 
Rolfe’s judgment was to deprive Lord Al- 
thorpe’s male heirs of their rights to the im¬ 
mense estates in dispute, unless the present 
Earl Brownlow should be created Duke or 
Marquis of Bridgewater, with limitation for 
the title to his heirs male by his late wife Lady 
Sophia Egerton. 

— The Emperor of Austria issues a pro¬ 
clamation declaring the Cabinet to be no longer 
responsible to Parliament, but to himself. On 
the 26th he issued a decree dissolving all the 
national guards of the Empire and substituting 
burgher guards, as previous to 1848. 

— Destruction of the whaling ship Ann 
Alexander , of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 
the South Pacific, by the repeated attacks of a 
whale which the crow had harpooned. Having 
destroyed two of the small boats first used in 
the attack, it rushed with great violence 
against the vessel, and knocked a hole through 
her bottom about the foremast, and a little 
above the keel. The crew took to the re¬ 
maining boats, and were picked up two days 
afterwards by the Nantucket of Massachusetts. 

— Died, Tom Spring, the last representa¬ 
tive of the bygone generation of English prize¬ 
fighters. 

22 .—The United States clipper yacht 
America, 170 tons, beats the vessels of the 
Royal Yacht Club, at Cowes, the nearest on 
her arrival being eight miles distant. On the 
28th, she beat the Titania, iron yacht, 100 tons, 
by fifty-two minutes out of six and a half hours’ 
sailing. 

24 -.—Lynch-law at San Francisco. A co¬ 
roner’s jury return a verdict that “Samuel 
Whittaker and Robert Mackenzie came to their 
death by being hanged by the neck, thereby 
producing strangulation, by the act of a body 
of citizens styling themselves the Vigilance 
Committee of San Francisco, on the afternoon 
of Sunday, in front of the Vigilance Committee 
Room in Eattery-street, from the second storey 
thereof.” 

27 .—Banquet at Bangor, to Mr. Robert 
Stephenson, in commemoration of the success- 






AUGUST 


1851. 


SEPTEMBER 


ful accomplishment of the great works at the 
Menai and Conway Straits. 

27 . —W. R. F. Gathorne, a Romish pervert, 
writing under the signature of W. Francis, 
practises a fraud on the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury, to draw from him an opinion adverse to 
that expressed by the Bishop of London, that 
certain pastors of foreign Protestant Churches 
were not validly ordained. His Grace wrote 
to W. Francis, that throughout the Church 
there were few or none ‘‘who would deny the 
validity of the orders of these pastors, solely 
on account of their wanting the imposition of 
episcopal hands.” The fraud was afterwards 
exposed by Mr. Page, of Christ Church, Westr 
minster, to whom Gathorne offered to submit 
the “private” letters. 

28 . —The Times in a leading article discusses 
the practicability of bringing London and Cal¬ 
cutta within seven days’ journey of each other 
by means of a Euphrates Valley Railway. 

29 . —Died of apoplexy, aged 77, Charles 
Konig, F. R.S., Keeper of the mineralogical 
collections in the British Museum. 

30 . —The so-called Baroness von Beck dies 
in the police-office, Birmingham, shortly before 
the hour fixed for examining into the truthful¬ 
ness of her alleged adventures in Hungary. 
Constant Darra, who had assisted the lady in 
her schemes since her arrival in Liverpool, was 
dismissed by the magistrates. 

31 . —Home’s coach factory, Long-acre, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

— The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk attend 
divine service in the parish church of Arundel, 
thus indicating their secession from Rome. 

— At a meeting of the Leeds Northern 
Railway Company Mr. E. Ward-Jackson, 
Government Inspector of Mines, reports the 
discovery of an extremely rich bed of ironstone 
of vast extent in Cleveland, between Stokesley 
and Whitby. The discovery was early taken 
advantage of by practical ironmasters and a 
number of furnaces erected, which became 
the nucleus of Middlesborough, soon to be 
ranked among the most important seats of 
industry in the north of England. 

September 1.—Seven young girls drowned 
in the Tyne, when attempting to reach a 
steamer in a small boat, for the purpose of 
joining in an excursion to Marsden Rock. 
The boat put off at Howden, with seventeen 
passengers on board, but had scarcely got 
twenty yards from the shore when it was driven 
by the tide against two vessels lying in the 
river, and the whole were thrown out. Seven 
were drowned, and the other ten rescued with 
difficulty. 

2 . —The arbitrators appointed in the case 
award to Mr. Hobbs, an American locksmith, 
the two hundred guineas offered by Messrs. 
Bramah to any one who would pick the famous 
lock exhibited in their window in Piccadilly. 


4 .—Fourteen men perish by a colliery acci¬ 
dent at Aberdare. When descending the pit 
the chain broke, and the carriage fell 180 feet, 
killing every man on the spot.—An accident of 
a similar character, but less fatal in its results, 
happened on the same day in the Deep Pit, 
Kingswood, near Bristol. 

6 . —Accident at the Bicester station of the 
Buckinghamshire Railway, caused by the 
engine getting off the rails, and throwing down 
three of the nearest carriages. Six of the pas¬ 
sengers were killed.—Two days afterwards an 
Exhibition excursion train ran into another on 
the Great Northern line near Hornsey. The 
damage to the carriages and injury to passen¬ 
gers were considerable, but no lives were lost. 

IO.—The West Indian mail-steamer Teviot 
brings news that advices had been received 
from Sydney by way of the Isthmus, of the 
discovery of large quantities of gold in the 
neighbourhood of Bathurst. 

14 . —Died at Cooperstown, New York, 
aged 62, James Fenimore Cooper, novelist. 

15 . —On laying the foundation-stone of the 
Central Market-place of Paris, Prince Louis 
Napoleon said: “I deliver myself with confi¬ 
dence to the hope that, with the support of 
good citizens, and with the protection of 
Heaven, it will be given to us to lay upon the 
soil of France some foundations whereupon 
will be erected a social edifice sufficiently solid 
to offer a shelter against the violence and mo¬ 
bility of human passions.” Addressing M. 
Leon Faucher, the President said : “I am 
aware that every instant of your time is de¬ 
voted to the duties of your office. I cannot 
but acknowledge such devotedness to the 
public good, and I accordingly nominate you 
Commander of the Legion of Honour.” A 
deputation of 300 of the “dames de la Halle,” 
or market-women, waited upon the President 
next day at the Elysee, to offer him their con¬ 
gratulations. Refreshments were laid out in the 
dining-room, where the President proposed as 
a toast, “ A la sante des dames de la Halle de 
Paris,” which was responded to by an elderly 
matron proposing “La sante de Napoleon.” 

17 .—In an after-dinner speech at Ayles¬ 
bury, Mr. Disraeli said he was convinced that 
the system generally known as “the protec¬ 
tionist system ” could never be brought back 
unless the nation should declare in an unmis- 
takeable manner that it was for the interest of 
all classes such a system ought to regulate the 
national industry. 

20 .—The Emperor of Austria enters Milan, 
the inhabitants maintaining a dead silence 
during the march of the Imperial cavalcade 
along the streets. 

22.—The Austrian authorities at Pesth exe¬ 
cute the Hungarian refugees in effigy, with all 
the solemnities which usually accompany the 
execution of a human being. 

— Meeting of emigrants about to proceed to 

' 335 ) 






SEPTEMBER 


1851. 


OCTOBER 


Australia, under the auspices of Mrs. Chis¬ 
holm’s Family Colonization Loan Society. 
The gathering took place on board the 
Athenian , in the East India Docks, and was 
presided over by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who, 
with Mr. Lowe, Mr. Sidney, and Mr. Foster, 
gave good advice to the emigrants, and much 
information concerning the colony. 

22 . —Died at Twickenham, aged 77, Mrs. 
Sherwood, writer of many popular tales. 

23 . —The number of petitions presented to 
the Irish Encumbered Estates Court from its 
institution in November 1849 the present 
date were 1,945 J number of estates sold, 440 ; 
amount realized, 3,654,500/. ; . distributed to 
auditors, 1,798,000/. Among the petitioners 
were one marquis, thirteen earls, three vis¬ 
counts, four barons, one lord, five honourables, 
twenty baronets, five knights, seven members 
of Parliament, and five ex-members of Parlia¬ 
ment. 

24 . —Marriage of Don Miguel with the 
Princess Adelaide of Lowenstein-Rosenberg. 

25 . —Sir John Ross arrives at Stranraer after 
another unsuccessful search for the missing 
Arctic navigators. Captain Austin’s expedition 
arrived off Scarborough three days later. The 
American ships also returned to New York at 
the close of the month. 

27 . —Several Unions throughout Ireland 
having manifested a strong opposition to the 
repayment of loans advanced during the famine 
of 1845, Lord John Russell remonstrates with 
Lord Lucan, and advises him to substitute 
considerations to which the Treasury could 
properly listen for the claim set up of being 
above the law. 

— The French Government refuse per¬ 
mission to Kossuth to pass through France to 
England. 

— Illegal and absurd behaviour of Mr. 
Ramshay, a judge in the Liverpool County 
Court. Mr. Whitty, of the Journal, having 
made severe comments on his character as a 
judge, Mr. Ramshay took occasion to say in the 
course of a case before him : ‘ * The witnesses, 
like many persons in this part of the country, 
appear not to have the slightest regard for 
the solemnity of an oath, and to be equally 
destitute of the feelings of humanity.” In 
the Journal placards this was described as 
“Mr. Ramshay’s opinion of the people of 
Liverpool.” The judge thereupon resolved to 
proceed against Mr. Whitty for contempt, and 
despatched his officers to make immediate ap¬ 
prehension. Mr. Whitty refused to stir unless 
a proper warrant was exhibited, and, on a 
second attempt being made, gave the two officers 
into custody. Attending under a summons on 
the Monday following, Mr. Ramshay fined his 
enemy in the sum of 5/-? with the alternative 
of seven days’ imprisonment in Lancaster 
Castle. “It was me,” he said, “who gave 
the order to bring him, and by the word 
( 336 ) 


‘ bring ’ I meant force to be used, if necessary. 
Even if it required ten thousand men, I would 
get him. I care for no man living who opposes 
me.” The audience in court here burst into 
laughter, the judge continuing : “ If you bailiffs 
don’t take one of these men, I will fine you. 
Bring him before me this instant, or I will fine 
you. ” Two of the parties in court were dragged 
forward and fined 5/. Addressing himself to 
Whitty, the judge said : “I tell you, sir, that 
you look like a man in whose eyes and in whose 
face the worst passions and the worst feelings 
of our human nature are delineated.” Mr. 
Whitty, preferring incarceration to payment, 
took his departure for Lancaster amidst an 
immense and sympathising gathering of his 
townsmen. The fines in each case were ulti¬ 
mately paid by friends, and a hearty welcome 
given to the prisoners on their return to Liver¬ 
pool. The Earl of Carlisle, as Chancellor of 
the Duchy, instituted an inquiry into the con¬ 
duct of Mr. Ramshay, and at the close pro¬ 
nounced a judgment removing him from his 
judicial office. 

30 . —Ingle Rudge, a London stockbroker, 
commits suicide in Mr. Routh’s counting- 
house, by swallowing prussic-acid, while under 
temporary derangement from inability to meet 
the claims made upon him on settling-day. The 
members of the Stock Exchange subscribed 
1,000/. for his widow and children. 

October 1.—The freedom of the City of 
Aberdeen presented to Sir James Graham, 
while on a visit to the Earl of Aberdeen at 
Haddo House. 

3 . —A boa-constrictor in the Zoological 
Gardens performs the extraordinary feat of 
swallowing a coarse thick blanket which had 
been introduced into its case for the purpose 
of affording a little extra heat. It remained 
in the creature’s stomach till the 8th of Novem¬ 
ber, when the blanket was disgorged, shorn of 
its woolly surface and somewhat reduced in 
size. 

4 . — A storm off Prince Edward’s Island, 
continuing for two days, and causing the death 
of about 800 people. 

— Died at Paris, aged 86, Don Manuel 
Godoy, Prince of Peace (1795), and Prime 
Minister of Charles IV. of Spain. 

5 . —Whirlwind at Limerick, destroying a 
considerable, amount of property in the town, 
and injuring many of the inhabitants. 

6 . —Commencement of the sale of the Natural 1 
History collection at Knowsley, formed by the 
late Earl of Derby. Amount realized, 7,000/. 

7 . —Largest attendance at the Great Exhi¬ 
bition, the number being 109,915. 

9 .— The Queen visits Liverpool on her re¬ 
turn from Scotland, and is received with great 
enthusiasm. In the Town Hall the address of 
the Corporation was presented by the Mayor, 
Mr. Bent, on whom her Majesty conferred the 
honour jf knighthood. The Royal party after- 





OCTOBER 


1851. 


OCTOBER 


wards proceeded to Worsley Hall, the seat of 
the Earl of Ellesmere. Salford and Manchester 
were visited on the 10th. In reply to the 
address of the Corporation of the latter town, 
her Majesty said: “I rejoice to have been 
enabled to visit your borough, the capital of 
one of the most important branches of industry 
earned on in my dominions; and I have de¬ 
rived the highest gratification from the favour¬ 
able account you are enabled to give me of the 
condition of my people.” Her Majesty con¬ 
ferred the honour of knighthood on the Mayor, 
Mr. Potter. 

11 .— Closing of the Great Exhibition. At 
five o’clock all the organs in the building played 
the National Anthem, after which the ringing 
of a bell warned the visitors to depart. They 
moved out slowly but quietly, and by half-past 
six every person not connected with the build¬ 
ing had retired. On the 13th and 14th the 
privilege of a separate inspection was granted 
to each of the exhibitors, with two friends. The 
15th was the day appointed to receive the re¬ 
ports of the juries relative to medals. About 
20,000 persons were assembled in the building 
at mid-day, when Prince Albert took his seat 
on the throne presented to the Queen by the 
Rajah of Travancore. The medals awarded 
were of two kinds—Prize Medals “whenever 
a certain standard of excellence in production 
or workmanship had been attained ; ” and Coun¬ 
cil Medals in cases of ‘ ‘ some important novelty 
of invention or application either in material 
or processes of manufacture, or originality 
combined with great beauty of design.” Of 
the first 2,918 were awarded, and of the second 
170. The total number of exhibitors was 
17,000, and the task of the juries involved 
the consideration and judgment of at least one 
million articles. A report on the award of 
the juries was read by Viscount Canning, and 
replied to by Prince Albert, who thanked all 
the great bodies who had concerned them¬ 
selves in the success of the Exhibition. A 
closing prayer was then offered up by the 
Bishop of London, and the choir completed 
the ceremony of the day by singing the 
Hallelujah Chorus. The proceedings did not 
occupy more than thirty minutes. The entire 
sum drawn from the opening to the close of 
the Exhibition was 505,107/. 5-r. 7 d., including 
season-tickets, catalogues, and refreshments. 
Of the money received at the doors, 275,000/. 
was in silver, and 81,000/. in gold ; 90/. of bad 
silver was taken, but it was a noticeable fact 
that most of this was received on the half- 
crown and five-shilling days. The cash was 
received by eighteen money-takers. From 
them it was gathered by four money-porters, 
who carried it to as many collectors charged 
with the task of counting it. From them it 
went to two tellers, who verified the sum and 
handed it to the custody of the chief financial 
officer. Each day’s amount was kept in safes 
in the building till next* morning, when it was 
taken in boxes of 600/. each in a cab to the 
Bank of England by a bank clerk and porter. 

( 337 ) 


On eight of the principal railways the receipts 
for the twenty-four weeks of the Exhibition 
were 2,952,802/. against 2,201,647/. for the cor¬ 
responding period of 1850. On four of them 
the number of passengers was 11,505,544, com¬ 
pared with 8,671,300 in the preceding year. 

13 . —Died in St. James’s Palace, aged 69, 
Lady Augusta Leigh, sister of Lord Byron. 

14 . —The Ottoman Porte interfering to pre¬ 
vent the construction of the Egyptian Railway, 
a meeting of merchants and others interested 
was held at the London Tavern, for the purpose 
of considering and adopting such means as 
might be thought most advisable, to avert the 
danger now threatening important British in¬ 
terests connected with our colonies and posses¬ 
sions in the East. Resolutions were adopted, 
requesting the prompt and active interference 
of the Government, and expressive of sympathy 
with the Viceroy of Egypt. 

15 . —Meeting of the leading members of 
the boards of guardians for the province of 
Munster held at Limerick, to oppose repay¬ 
ment of the famine advances. A letter was 
read from Lord John Russell, mentioning that 
“ any statement showing the heavy pressure of 
the poor rate, and the difficulty of supporting 
the poor, will be attentively considered by the 
Government; but no Government can give any 
countenance to the doctrine of repudiation 
which has been so unfortunately broached in 
some parts of Ireland.” Resolutions were 
adopted, disclaiming the wish to evade any 
payment which justice and sound policy might 
sanction, but earnestly impressing on the Go¬ 
vernment the strong conviction of the meeting 
* ‘ that the payment of the advances should be 
for the present suspended ; that the calculation 
erroneously made of the liabilities of each 
district should be corrected; and that an in¬ 
tention of reconsidering the whole question 
should be at once announced.” 

19 .—Died at Frohsdorff, aged 72, Theresa, 
Duchess of Angouleme, daughter of Louis 
XVI. and Marie Antoinette. 

23 . —The Hungarian leader, Kossuth, arrives 
at Southampton, from Turkey. He received 
a warm welcome—particularly from the Hun¬ 
garian refugees—and was presented with an 
address by the Corporation in the Town Hall. 
On the 25th the Mayor entertained M. Kossuth 
at his residence near Winchester. 

— Burglary with violence at Portway, near 
Oldbury ; the house attacked in this instance 
being occupied by an elderly maiden lady 
named Nicklin, her brother, in infirm health, 
and a niece. Mr. Nicklin was repeatedly shot 
at and beaten, and left for dead by his assail¬ 
ants. The gang was afterwards apprehended 
in connexion with another outrage in Cornwall, 
and sentenced to transportation for life. 

24 . —Burglary at Great Raveley, Hunting¬ 
don. The occupant, Mr. Fairley, was awoke 
during the night by a crash against his back 
door. Arming himself with a revolving pistol, 

z 




OCTOBER 


1851. 


NOVEMBER 


he went to the top of the stairs, and saw by 
a light below the face of a man at the foot. 
The man then blew out the light and re¬ 
treated, when Mr. Fairley discovered another 
person in the kitchen, at whom he fired, 
this shot being returned. He then saw other 
men, some of them with masks, and fired 
again, when several shots were given in return. 
They afterwards set fire to the parlour. Mr. 
Fairley, becoming overpowered by the smoke 
and wounds he had received, and the burglars 
threatening to shoot his wife, who came to his 
assistance, was compelled to submit. After 
this they ransacked the house, and regaled 
themselves with what meat and drink they could 
find. At the Huntingdon Assizes, on the 10th 
of March following, three of the gang were 
sentenced to transportation for life. 

26. —An equestrian statue of William of 
Normandy erected at Falaise, his native town. 
M. Guizot addressed the company on the 
merits of “The Conqueror.” 

27. —The Royal Commission for inquiring 
into the alleged corrupt transactions at the 
St. Albans election commences its sittings at 
that place. The principal witnesses examined 
were Mr. Edwards and Mr. Coppock ; the for¬ 
mer a local electioneering agent, presently in 
confinement by order of the House of Com¬ 
mons, the latter the recognised London agent 
for the Liberal party. Bribery was admitted 
to be general and systematic, the money finding 
its way through Coppock’s office to St. Albans, 
where Edwards disposed of it in sums varying 
from 5/. to 8/. at an obscure house in a lane 
known to most of the electors as “Sovereign 
Alley.” At the last election Mr. Jacob Bell, 
the successful candidate, had paid, for what was 
called “preliminary expenses,” 2,500/. The 
inquiry closed on the 1st December. 

— Treaty of commerce concluded at London 
between Great Britain and Belgium. 

29. —In consequence of the unsatisfactory 
state of our relations with Burmah, arising out 
of a disputed reference made by English 
merchants to a native judge, a British force is 
despatched to Rangoon. Commodore Lambert 
was instructed to allow the Viceroy thirty-five 
days to obtain instructions. 

— Ignatius Francis Coyle tried at the 
Central Criminal Court for forging and utter¬ 
ing a promissory note for 1,150/. The note 
purported to be signed by Viscount Cliefden, 
and was given to Captain Alexander McGeachy 
Alleyne. Coyle was a bill-discounter and 
keeper of a betting-house near Leicester-square. 
Captain Alleyne had betted with him, gone 
shares in bets, and also lent him money. As 
a security for the money lent, Coyle gave 
Alleyne the note in question : he subsequently 
admitted it was forged, and imploring Alleyne 
to forgive him, obtained a qualified pardon. 
The Captain, therefore, refrained for a time 
from prosecuting the forger. The chief effort 
made in defence of the prisoner was an attempt 
to damage the character of Captain Alleyne 


and his brother, in cross-examination. The 
jury found the prisoner guilty of uttering the 
note knowing it to be forged, and he was sen¬ 
tenced to twelve months’ imprisonment in 
Newgate. (See Dec. 2.) 

29. — Died, at Brighton, in his 57th year, 
William Wyon, the most celebrated of modern 
medallists and die-sinkers. 

30. — The Corporation of London present an 
address to Kossuth, who was received by im¬ 
mense crowds on his route from Eaton-square 
to Guildhall. In his reply he said: “What 
I wish is, that the public opinion of England 
may establish it as a ruling principle of the 
politics of Europe to acknowledge the right of 
every nation to dispose of its own internal 
concerns, and not to give a charter to the Czar 
to dispose of the fate of nations.” Next day 
he was presented with an address from ‘ ‘ Repub¬ 
licans, Revolutionists, and Socialists, men, con¬ 
sequently, not attracted towards you by either 
the eclat of your title or the renown of your 
name. ” On the 3d of the following month a 
great metropolitan demonstration was made in 
his favour at Copenhagen-fields. It was esti¬ 
mated that about 25,000 people were present 
on the occasion. Great assemblies also wel¬ 
comed him at Birmingham and Manchester, 
while addresses from almost every town of note 
in the kingdom were forwarded up to the 20th 
of November, when the popular exile sailed 
for the United States. 

November 4. —Prince Louis Napoleon, in 
his Message to the Assembly, says : “A vast 
demagogical conspiracy is now organizing in 
France and Europe. Secret societies are en¬ 
deavouring to extend their ramifications even 
into the smallest communes. All the madness 
and violence of party is brought forth. While 
those men are not even agreed on persons or 
things, they are agreed to meet in 1852, not to 
construct, but to overthrow. Your patriotism 
and your courage, with which I shall endeavour 
to keep pace, will, I am sure, save France from 
the danger with which she is threatened.” 
With reference to the proposed change in the 
electoral law by restoring universal suffrage, 
he says : “You will have presented to you the 
draft of a law which restores that principle 
in all its fulness, retaining at the same time 
in the law of the 31st May everything which 
winnows universal suffrage from impure ele¬ 
ments.” On the 13th a Ministerial bill founded 
on this proposal was thrown out by a majority 
of 355 to 348. 

5.— Explosion on board a steam-tug, at 
Conharn Ferry, near Bristol Bridge. The 
deck was blown out and hurled into the air, 
while the hull, shattered and tom asunder, 
sank to the bottom of the stream. There 
were four men on board at the time, three of 
whom were blown to pieces and the fourth 
much injured. 

9 .—When receiving the officers of the regi¬ 
ments newly arrived in Paris, the President of 






NOVEMBER 


1851. 


DECEMBER 


the Republic said : “ If ever the day of danger 
shall arrive, I will not do as the Government 
which has preceded me did. I will not say 
to you, ‘ March, and I will follow you ; ’ but I 
will say to you, ‘ I march; follow me.’ ” 

IO.—The new West India mail-steamer 
Demerarci grounded in the Avon, while being 
towed from the building-yard at Bristol. 

13.— A new wire having been successfully 
laid across the Channel, telegraphic communi¬ 
cation is renewed between France and England. 
The Stock Exchange markets were known in 
each of the capitals within business hours 

— The Court of Common Council agree to 
refer to a Ward Committee Mr. Charles Pear¬ 
son’s plan of a Central Railway Terminus for 
the City of London. 

18 .—Died, in his 81st year, Ernest Augustus, 
King of Hanover and Duke of Cumberland, 
fifth son of George III. 

— A deputation waits upon Lord Pal¬ 
merston to present addresses from the inhabi¬ 
tants of Finsbury and Islington, congratulating 
his lordship on the aid he rendered the Sultan 
of Turkey in effecting the liberation of Kossuth. 
In reply his lordship said he was fully aware 
of the sympathies of the British nation in 
favour of the cause of Hungary; but, of course, 
as the organ of her Majesty’s Government, in 
triendly alliance with the great foreign Powers 
which had been referred to, it could not be 
expected that he should concur in some of the 
expressions used in the addresses. The moral 
power of the British Government was immense, 
more than people generally imagined; but it 
could only be effective so long as the people 
and the Government wrought together. 

20 . —Panic in Ward School, New York, 
occasioned by a false alarm of fire in the build¬ 
ing. The children rushed with such force from 
the upper floors, that the balustrades of the stairs 
were thrown down and about fifty pupils killed. 

— Judgment given in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, in the action of libel raised at the 
instance of William Henry Clarkson, a Wes¬ 
leyan superintendent minister, against John 
Kay, publisher of the Wesleyan Times , who 
had permitted to appear in his paper a series 
of articles insinuating that the plaintiff was 
the father of a bastard child, the mother being 
Charlotte Irons, a domestic formerly in Clark¬ 
son’s household. The defendant was sentenced 
to be imprisoned in the Queen’s Bench Prison 
for four months. 

23. —The distribution of the medals awarded 
by the London Exhibition gives rise to a 
threatening disturbance in Paris. 3,000 tickets 
were issued for a room in the Louvre, which 
could accommodate only 1,200. When the 
doors opened, the rush was tremendous, and 
the Prince President could with difficulty 
rea-:h the platform. A sort of order having 
been obtained, the Prince proposed an adjourn¬ 
ment to a larger gallery; but this was found 
(339) 


impracticable, owing to the confusion in the 
crowd. The tumult was still increasing when 
he again stepped to the front of the platform 
and said : “ Gentlemen, I am most desirous of 
seeing you around me, and as near as possible 
on this interesting occasion. As, however, 
this cannot be the case, I beg to propose an 
adjournment of the proceedings to another 
day.” The crowd then began to disperse, and 
the President departed to the Tuileries. 

23 .—-A designing political article appears in 
the Paris Constitutionnel , a paper devoted to 
the policy of the Prince President, accusing the 
majority of the Legislative Assembly of con¬ 
spiring against the head of the Government 
with the view of making General Changarnier 
military dictator. The President and his party 
disavowed all connection with the article. 

26 .—Under the auspices of the Society of 
Arts, Dr. Whewell, Master of Trinity, com¬ 
mences a course of lectures, to be continued by 
eminent scientific men, on the probable results 
of the Great Exhibition. 

— Died, at his chateau of Soult-Berg, 
aged 82, Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, Duke of 
Dalmatia, and Marshal-General of France. 

— Died, at Graefenberg, aged 52, Herr 
Priessnitz, founder of hydropathy. 

December 2.— Louis Napoleon abolishes 
the Constitution of the Republic. After a 
reception of unusual brilliancy at the Elysee, 
the President retired to his cabinet with a band 
of close friends, among whom w'ere De Morny, 
St. Arnaud, Maupas, and a few others of less 
note. Under the instructions of Major Fleury, 
a battalion of gendarmerie was quietly moved 
to the neighbourhood of the Elysee, and sur¬ 
rounded the doors of the State printing-office. 
“ From that moment,” writes Mr. Kinglake, 
“ until their work was done, the printers w r ere 
all close captives, for no one of them was suf¬ 
fered to go out. For some time they were kept 
waiting. At length Colonel Beville came from 
the Elysee with his packet of manuscripts. 
These papers were the proclamations required 
for the early morning; and M. St.-Georges, 
the director, gave orders to put them into type. 
It is said there was something like resistance ; 
but in the end, if not at first, the printers 
obeyed. Each compositor stood while he 
worked between two policemen, and the manu¬ 
script being cut into many pieces, no one could 
make out the sense of what he was printing.” 
One of them when put together was an address 
to the people. “ Persuaded,” said the Presi¬ 
dent, “that the instability of the Government 
and the preponderance of a single Assembly 
are permanent causes of trouble and disorder, 
I submit to your suffrages the following fun¬ 
damental basis of a Constitution, which 
Assemblies will afterwards develop:—(1) A 
responsible head, named for ten years; (2) 
Ministers dependent on the Executive Power 
alone ; (3) a Council of State formed of the 

Z 2 




DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


I 85 T. 


most eminent men, preparing the laws, and 
supporting the discussion of them before the 
Legislative Body ; (4) a Legislative Body, dis¬ 
cussing and voting laws, named by universal 
suffrage, without scrutin de liste , which falsifies 
the election ; (5) a second Assembly formed of 
all the illustrious of the country, a prepon¬ 
derating power guardian of the fundamental 
compact and of public liberties. The system 
created by the First Consul at the commence¬ 
ment of the century has already given to 
France repose and prosperity, and it would 
again guarantee them to it, such is my pro¬ 
found conviction. If you share in it, declare 
it by your suffrages. If, on the contrary, you 
prefer a Government with strength, monarchical 
or republican, borrowed from I know not 
what past or from some chimerical future, 
reply negatively. Thus, then, for the first 
time since 1804, you will vote with a know¬ 
ledge of what you are doing, in knowing well 
for whom and for what. If I do not obtain 
the majority of your suffrages, I will then call 
for the meeting of a new Assembly, and I 
will give up the charge which I have received 
from you. But if you believe that the cause 
of which my name is the symbol—that is to 
say, France regenerated by the Revolution of 
’89, and organized by the Emperor—is still 
your own, proclaim it by consecrating the 
powers which I ask from you. Then France 
and Europe will be preserved from anarchy, 
obstacles will be removed, rivalries will have 
disappeared, for in the decision of the people 
all will respect the decree of Providence.” 
Another proclamation was to the following 
effect:—“ In the name of the French people, 
the President of the Republic decrees :—Art. 
1. The National Assembly is dissolved. 2. 
Universal suffrage is re-established. 3. The 
French people is convoked in its elective col¬ 
leges from the 14th of December to the 21st of 
December following. 4. The state of siege is 
decreed throughout the first military division. 
5. The Council of State is dissolved. 6. 
The Minister of the Interior is charged with 
the execution of the present decree. (Signed) 
Louis Napoleon Buonaparte. De Morny, 
the Minister of the Interior, Palace of the 
Elysee, Dec. 2.” A third proclamation was 
addressed to the army. “Vote,” the Presi¬ 
dent wrote, “freely as citizens, but do not 
forget that passive obedience to the orders of 
the Chief of the Government is the rigorous 
duty of the army, from the general down to 
the soldier. It is for me, who am responsible 
for my actions before the people and posterity, 
to adopt the measures most conducive to the 
public welfare.” Early on the morning of the 
3d, when the proclamations had been put up 
on the walls, the city was well occupied by 
troops, and the most distinguished generals 
and members of the Assembly, to whom the 
friends of law and order might have turned for 
help, were found to be in prison. The Depu¬ 
ties, availing themselves of a side entrance to 
the Hall of Assembly, attempted to carry on 
( 340 ) 


such business as the outrage rendered neces¬ 
sary ; but the military handled the body 
roughly, and the unfortunate members were 
compelled to retreat to the Mairie of the tenth 
arrondissement. Here they voted the act of the 
President high treason, and enjoined the High 
Court of Justice to proceed immediately to 
judgment. The decree had hardly been signed, 
when the military again broke in upon them, 
and, after some little parleying, marched the 
whole body off to the barracks on the Quai 
d’Orsay. The judges met at the Palace of 
Justice, with the view of carrying out the 
decree of the Assembly, but suddenly broke 
up without coming to any decision. Some of 
the members of the Assembly still at large 
strove to raise the people in the Faubourg St. 
Antoine, and a barricade on a small scale was 
erected at the corner of the Rue St. Margue¬ 
rite. Against this there marched a battalion 
of the 19th Regiment; “and then,” writes 
Mr. Kinglake, “ there occurred a scene which 
may make one smile for a moment, and may 
then almost force one to admire the touching 
pedantry of brave men, who imagined that, 
without policy or warlike means, they could 
be strong with the bare strength of the law. 
Laying aside their fire-arms, and throwing 
across their shoulders scarves which marked 
them as representatives of the people, the 
Deputies ranged themselves in front of the 
barricade ; and one of them, Charles Baudin, 
held ready in his hand the Book of the Consti¬ 
tution. When the head of the column was 
within a few yards of the barricade, it was 
halted. For some moments there was silence. 
Law and Force had met. On the one side was 
the Code Democratique, which France had de¬ 
clared to be pei-petual; on the other, a batta¬ 
lion of the line. Charles Baudin, pointing to 
his book, began to show what he held to be 
the clear duty of the battalion ; but the whole 
basis of his argument was an assumption that 
the law ought to be obeyed; and it seemed 
that the officer in command refused to con¬ 
cede what logicians call the ‘major premiss,’ 
for, instead of accepting its necessary conse¬ 
quence, he gave an important sign. Sud¬ 
denly the muskets of the front-rank men came 
down, came up, came level, and in another 
instant their fire pelted straight into the group 
of the scarfed Deputies. Baudin fell dead, his 
head being pierced by more than one ball. I 
The Book of the Constitution had fallen to the 
ground, and the defenders of the law recurred I 
to their fire-arms.” (See Nov. 10, 1868.) On 
Thursday, the 4th, the hostility of the Repub¬ 
lican party to the new system of things became 
more apparent, and barricades to the number 
of about one hundred were erected throughout 
the city. These were attacked one after 
another by the troops, and carried, after great 
loss on the part of the populace. It was ru¬ 
moured that shots were fired from Tortoni’s 
coffee-house, and it was immediately attacked 
by the soldiery. The same plea was urged for 
attacking M. Sallandroze’s carpet manufactory, 






DECEMBER 


1851. 


DECEMBER 


which was riddled with cannon, and at least 
thirty of the workmen killed. Charges of 
large bodies of lancers were made every five 
minutes to clear the Boulevards. No quarter 
was given to the people, and a number taken 
between two barricades in the Rue Chapon 
were shot on the spot. Along the Boulevards, 
volleys were fired in at the windows, and great 
numbers killed. The large barrier at the Porte 
St. Martin was not taken till after two hours’ 
hard fighting, and the loss of from fifty to a 
hundred lives. The total number slain was 
never truly ascertained, large bodies of prisoners 
being shot, it w r as said, secretly at night, in 
platoons, in the gardens of the Luxembourg 
and on the esplanade of the Invalides. The 
number . of soldiers killed was twenty-five. 
On the 5th there was no general renewal of 
the fighting, though numerous unprovoked out¬ 
rages were committed by the soldiers. 

2 . —By mid-day the astounding news was 
received in London:—“Paris in a state of 
siege. The President re-establishes universal 
suffrage, and appeals to the people.” Consols 
fell from 985 to 964 ; but as the telegrams 
during the day were of a reassuring description, 
so far as the prospect of peace was concerned, 
the price rose again to 97 f. 

— Concluded in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the case of the Queen v. Holder 
Alleyne, McGeachy Alleyne, and T. D’Arcy, 
being a prosecution for conspiracy to defraud 
Robert Blair Kennedy of the sum of 7,300/. 
By skilful management Kennedy had been in¬ 
duced to bet against a mare in the hands of the 
Alleynes, 100/. that she could not trot twelve 
miles within the hour, and so on for various 
sums up to 3,200/. that she could not trot 
seventeen miles. A day was fixed for the 
match ; but, through the pressure of one or two 
of the parties on trial, Kennedy paid the sum 
total of his bets, on condition of obtaining half 
ownership in the mare. He subsequently 
ascertained that the mare, instead of being 
Pigeon, as represented, was no other than the 
American fast-trotter Fanny Jenks, which had 
accomplished 100 miles in ten hours, and could 
cover nineteen miles in one hour. At the time 
fixed for the match she was lame, and could 
not be trotted for any distance. The chief 
witness, besides Kennedy, was Coyle, then 
undergoing sentence in Newgate for passing a 
forged bill to Holder Alleyne (see Oct. 29). 
The jury found all the defendants guilty, and 
Lord Campbell sentenced them to be im¬ 
prisoned for terms varying from two years to 
six months. 

— President Fillmore, in his annual Message 
to Congress, writes “ In every regularly 
documented merchant - vessel the crew who 
navigate it, and those on board of it, will find 
their protection in the flag which is over them. 
No American ship can be allowed to be visited 
or searched for the purpose of ascertaining the 
character of individuals on board, nor can 
there be allowed any watch by the vessels of 


any foreign nation over American vessels on 
the coasts of the United States or the seas 
adjacent thereto.” The President also referred 
to his correspondence with Turkey relative to 
the release of Kossuth and his companions. 

2 . —Explosion of a rocket factory at Dart- 
ford, Kent, and loss of seven lives. 

3. —Reform Conference held at Manchester, 
to consider what course ought to be taken by 
the friends of Parliamentary Reform in con¬ 
sequence of the intimation made by Lord John 
Russell that it was the intention of the Govern¬ 
ment to bring forward a measure of Parliamen¬ 
tary Reform in the next session of Parliament. 
Mr. Bright moved a series of resolutions for 
extending the franchise to all occupying rate¬ 
payers ; changing the distribution of seats, so 
that no constituency should consist of more 
that 5,000 electors ; for adopting the ballot; 
shortening the duration of Parliament; and 
abolishing the property qualification of mem¬ 
bers. These resolutions, after some discussion, 
were adopted almost unanimously. 

— The merchants of London, with deputa¬ 
tions from other cities in the kingdom, meet at 
the London Tavern, to take steps for obtaining 
a thorough reform in the Customs Department 
of the public business. Besides agreeing to a 
formal report on the subject, it was resolved to 
wait on Lord John Russell, with the view of 
securing the reappointment next session of the 
Select Committee on the Customs. 

4. — Murder of Mr. Thos. Bateson, brother 
of Sir Robert, and manager of the estates of 
Lord Templeton in the county of Monaghan. 
"When returning from the model-farm of Castle- 
blaney, he was attacked by three men, who 
lay in wait for him in a hollow of the road 
near some plantations which afforded a cover. 
A shot was first fired, and then the three men 
rushed on their victim and beat him down with 
pistols or bludgeons. Several persons were at 
once placed on trial for the outrage, but the 
jury refused to convict. (See April 10, 1854.) 

5. —Lord Palmerston writes to the British 
Ambassador at Paris (Lord Normanby), that 
he had been commanded by her Majesty to 
instruct his Excellency not to make any change 
in his relations with the French Government. 
“ It is her Majesty’s desire that nothing should 
be done which could even wear the appearance 
of an interference of any kind in the internal 
affairs of France.” In acknowledging the com¬ 
munication, the Ambassador said he had called 
on M. Turgot, and informed him that any delay 
which had occurred was owing to material 
circumstances not connected with any doubt on 
the subject. “ M. Turgot replied that the delay 
had been of less importance, as he had two 
days since heard from M. Walewski that your 
lordship had expressed to him your entire appro¬ 
bation of the act of the President, and your 
conviction that he could not have acted other¬ 
wise than he had done. I said I had no know- 

( 341 ) 




DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1851. 


ledge of any such communication.” Returning 
to the subject on the 15th, the Ambassador 
represented to Lord Palmerston that this ap¬ 
proval of satisfaction, taken in connexion with 
his instructions not to interfere in the internal 
affairs of France, placed him in an awkward 
position for misrepresentation and suspicion. 
Lord Palmerston replied next day : ‘ * The in¬ 
structions contained in my despatch, No. 600 of 
the 5th instant, to which your Excellency refers, 
were sent to you not in reply to a question as to 
what opinions your Excellency should express, 
but in reply to a question, which I understood 
to be, whether your Excellency should continue 
your usual diplomatic relations with the Presi¬ 
dent during the interval which was to elapse 
between the date of your Excellency’s despatch, 
No. 365 of the 3d instant, and the voting by 
the French nation on the question to be pro¬ 
posed to them by the President. As to ap¬ 
proving or condemning the step taken by the 
President in dissolving the Assembly, I con¬ 
ceive it is for the French nation, and not for 
the British Secretary of State, or for the British 
Ambassador, to pronounce judgment upon that 
event: but if your Excellency wishes to know 
my own opinion on the change which has taken 
place in France, it is, that such a state of 
antagonism had arisen between the President 
and the Assembly, that it was becoming every 
day more clear that their co-existence could 
not be of long duration ; and it seemed to me 
better for the interests of France, and through 
them for the interests of the rest of Europe, 
that the power of the President should pre¬ 
vail, inasmuch as the continuance of his autho¬ 
rity might afford a prospect of the maintenance 
of social order in France, whereas the divisions 
of opinions and parties in the Assembly ap¬ 
peared to betoken that their victory over the 
President would be the starting-point for disas¬ 
trous civil strife. Whether my opinion was 
right or wrong, it' seems to be shared by per¬ 
sons interested in property in France, as far at 
least as the great and sudden rise in the Funds 
and in other investments may be assumed to 
be indications of increasing confidence in the 
improved prospect of internal tranquillity in 
France.” 

5. —Kossuth arrives at New York on the 
invitation of the United States Legislature. 

6 . —Concluded in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, Dublin, the action raised by James 
Birch, proprietor of the World newspaper, 
against Sir William Somerville, Chief Secre¬ 
tary for Ireland, to recover 7,000 1 . for politi¬ 
cal services rendered to the Irish Government 
by devoting his paper to the cause of “law 
and order.” The Earl of Clarendon was ex¬ 
amined, and stated that he first knew of Birch 
by receiving communications from him, offering 
his paper in support of the Government ; and 
at the critical period of 1848 he felt it his 
duty as the head of the Government to accept 
the services of every man who offered himself 
in support of law and order. He had paid 

( 342 ) 


him from time to time as much as 3,700/., the 
sum being in the first instance partly taken out 
of the public money, but afterwards repaid out 
of his own pocket. In cross-examining Birch, 
it appeared that one of his editors for whose 
services he claimed remuneration was at the 
same time sub-editor of the United Irishman. 
The jury gave a verdict for the defendant, with 
sixpence costs. 

6.—Died at Trinity, near Edinburgh, George 
Dunbar, Professor of Greek in Edinburgh 
University, and compiler of a well-known 
Dictionary. 

8 . —“ Frenchmen! ” writes Louis Napoleon, 

‘ ‘ the disturbances are appeased. Whatever 
may be the decision of the people, society is 
saved. The first part of my task is accom¬ 
plished. The appeal to the nation, for the 
purpose of terminating the struggles of parties, 

I knew would not cause any serious risk to the 
public tranquillity. Why should the people 
have risen against me ? If I do not any longer 
possess your confidence—if your ideas are 
changed—there is no occasion to make precious 
blood flow; it will be sufficient to place an 
adverse vote in the urn. I shall always respect 
the decision of the people. But as long as the 
nation shall not have spoken, I shall not recede 
before any effort, before any sacrifice, to defeat 
the attempts of the factious. That task is, be¬ 
sides, made easy to me. On the one hand, it 
has been seen how foolish it is to struggle 
against an army united by the bonds of disci¬ 
pline, animated by the sentiment of military 
honour and by devotion to the mother-country. 
On the other hand, the calm attitude of the 
people of Paris, the reprobation with which 
they condemned the insurrection, have testified 
with sufficient clearness for whom the capital 
pronounced itself. In the populous quarters in 
which the insurrection formerly recruited itself 
so quickly among ouvriers, docile with respect to 
such matters, anarchy on this occasion was able 
to find nothing but repugnance for those detest¬ 
able excitations. Thanks be rendered to the 
intelligent and patriotic population of Paris ! 
Let it persuade itself more and more that my 
only ambition is to ensure the repose and pros¬ 
perity of Fi'ance. Let it continue to lend its 
aid to the authorities, and the country will be 
able soon to accomplish, in tranquillity, the 
solemn act which must inaugurate a new sera 
for the Republic.” 

— In the Court of Exchequer, in the case 
of Aldennan Salomons, M.P., Baron Martin 
undertakes to prepare a special case, on which 
the opinion of the court could be taken, to de¬ 
termine whether a Jew may or may not legally 
sit in the House of Commons. 

11 .—M. de Tocqueville communicates to the 
Times a narrative of the coup d'etat, as seen 
and experienced by a member of the Legislative 
Assembly, who had joined in voting the act of 
the President treason, and been confined in the 
barracks on the Quai d’Orsay. 





DECEMBER 


1851. 


DECEMBER 


14 .—The result of the voting for Louis 
Napoleon as President of the French Republic 
was 7,439,219 against 640,737. The voting 
in Algeria was against the election. He there¬ 
upon issued decrees regulating the constitu¬ 
tion of the Senate, the Legislative Corps, the 
Council of State, and the High Court of Justice. 

17 .—Lord John Russell advises the dis¬ 
missal of Lord Palmerston from the office 
of Foreign Secretary, on the ground that he 
had, first, in a conversation with the French 
Ambassador, and next in a despatch to Lord 
Normanby, expressed officially his approval 
of the recent proceedings of Louis Napoleon. 
The Cabinet having instructed Lord Normanby 
not to meddle in any way in the internal affairs 
of France, this interference on the part of our 
Foreign Minister was held to transgress the 
following instructions, laid down by her Ma¬ 
jesty in 1850, for the guidance of her Secre¬ 
tary:—“The Queen requires, first, that Lord 
Palmerston will distinctly state what he pro¬ 
poses, in a given case, in order that the Queen 
may know as distinctly to what she is giving 
her Royal sanction. Secondly, having once 
given her sanction to a measure, that it be not 
arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister. 
Such an act she must consider as failing in 
sincerity towards the Crown, and justly to be 
Visited by the exercise of her constitutional 
right of dismissing that Minister. She expects 
to be kept informed of what passes between 
him and the Foreign Ministers before important 
decisions are taken based upon that inter¬ 
course ; to receive the foreign despatches in 
good time, and to have the drafts for her ap¬ 
proval sent to her in sufficient time to make 
herself acquainted with their contents before 
they must be sent off. ” Lord Palmerston was 
succeeded at the Foreign - Office by Earl 
Granville. 

19 . —Died, aged 86, Henry Luttrell, a noted 
humourist of the “ Holland House” set. 

— Died at Chelsea, aged 76, J. M. W. 
Turner, R.A., English landscape painter, and 
donor of a magnificent collection of his works 
to the National Gallery. 

— Fire at Messrs. Collard and Collard’s 
pianoforte manufactory, Camden-town, de¬ 
stroying many instruments of great value— 
200 in one floor alone. 

20 . —Explosion in Rawmarsh Colliery, near 
Rotherham, Yorkshire. Fifty workmen were 
blown to pieces in the pit, and of the twenty- 
three survivors two died from injuries received, 
seven were grievously hurt, and fourteen 
escaped with slight bruises. The coroner’s 
jury found a verdict, that the deceased were 
accidentally killed, but added severe remarks 
upon the generally lax manner in which this 
unusually fiery coal-seam had been managed. 

— “An Englishman” commences a series 
of letters in the Times , remarkable for their 
brilliant invective and scornful castigation of 
Louis Napoleon and his Imperial designs. 


24 .—Another agrarian outrage in Ireland 
was perpetrated this day; Mr. Eastwood, a 
deputy-lieutenant and magistrate of Dundalk, 
being beaten till he was insensible, then 
robbed, and afterwards throwm into a quarry 
hole. 

— Fire at the Capitol, Washington, and 
destruction of the greater part of the valuable 
library collected there. 

— Instructions issued by prefects of de¬ 
partments throughout France, to the effect that 
every political inscription, without exception, and 
in particular the words “liberty,” “equality,” 
and “ fraternity,” shall be immediately removed 
from the front of public edifices and private 
dwellings. The trees of liberty to be cut down 
or rooted up. 

— The Amalgamated Society of Engineers 
precipitate a serious strike in their trade, by 
the issue of a circular announcing their resolu¬ 
tion to abolish piece-work and over-time after 
the 31st December. 

26 . —The Gazette of this evening states that 
the amount of gold and silver in the cellars of 
the Bank of England is 17,413,564/., being the 
largest amount ever deposited there. 

27 . —At Belper, Anthony Turner murders 
Mrs. Barnes, a widow lady of eccentric habits, 
by rushing into the room where she was sitting 
and cutting her throat with a carving-knife 
which he had borrowed from a neighbouring 
provision dealer. Turner was tipsy at the time, 
but declared before the coroner that he was ex¬ 
cited to the crime by the refusal of Mrs. Barnes 
to advance money for the support of her 
deceased husband’s illegitimate child. He was 
tried at Derby Spring Assizes, found guilty, and 
executed. 

29 . —Erskine Mather, a young Englishman 
belonging to South Shields, struck down in 
the streets of Florence by an Austrian officer 
at the head of his troops. He had stepped a 
foot or two within the line of march, but dis¬ 
claimed any intention of passing between the 
band and the troops, as was alleged by the 
officer in defence. The negotiations connected 
with this outrage on a British subject were long 
and complicated. Reference was made to it at 
various meetings throughout the country, and 
the affair on several occasions engaged the 
attention of both Houses of Parliament. It 
ended in an apology from the officer, and the 
payment of 240/. by the Tuscan Government as 
compensation for the injury. 

30 . —Mutiny of convicts at Woolwich. On 
the return of one of the gangs on board the 
Warrior to dinner, they rushed down and took 
possession of two of the decks, defying the guards 
or any of the military to come near them. 
After a brief delay a party of marines with 
drawn cutlasses went below, and heavily ironed 
thirty-eight of the most outrageous, depriving 
the others of such trifling arms as they had pro¬ 
cured. Seven were flogged as an example. 

( 343 ) 







DECEMBER 


1851-52. 


JANUARY 


Opposition of the Constitutional party in 
France to the Imperial schemes of the President. 
M. Leon Faucher writes : “It is with painful 
astonishment I have learned that my name 
figures amongst those of the members of a 
Consultative Commission which you have just 
instituted. I did not think I had given you the 
right to do me so much injury. The services 
which I have rendered you, believing that I 
rendered them to my country, authorized me, I 
think, to expect another kind of gratitude from 
you. In any case, my character deserved more 
respect. You know that, during an already 
long career, I have no more belied my Liberal 
principles than my devotion to order. I have 
never participated, directly or indirectly, in the 
violation of the laws; and, in order to decline 
the post which you, without my consent, confer 
on me, I have only to recall that which I re¬ 
ceived from the people, and which I retain.” 


1852. 

January 1 . —Grand religious ceremony at 
Notre-Dame, to inaugurate Louis Napoleon’s 
acceptance of the ten years’ Presidency. The 
Moniteur of the same day publishes the follow¬ 
ing decree:—“ The President, considering that 
the French Republic in its new form, sanc¬ 
tioned by the suffrage of the people, may adopt 
without umbrage the souvenirs of the Empire, 
and the symbols which recall the glory of that 
period, and considering that the national flag 
should no longer be deprived of the renowned 
emblem which conducted our soldiers to victory 
in a hundred battles, decrees (1) that the 
French eagle shall be re-established 011 the 
colours of the army; and (2) that it is also 
re-established on the Cross of the Legion of 
Honour.” 

— The Statutes of the Roman Catholic Synod 
of Thurles, as approved by the Apostolic See, 
regulating the administration of the sacraments 
in Ireland, and prohibiting the Catholic clergy 
from holding office in the Queen’s Colleges, read 
in all the Catholic churches and chapels in 
Ireland. 

— The Emperor of Austria annuls the Con¬ 
stitution of March 1849. 

3. —John Mitchel, one of the Irish political 
convicts at large in Australia on a ticket of 
leave, succeeds in escaping to a vessel on the 
coast, which conveys him to America. 

— In answer to remonstrances against the 
appointment of Mr. Bennett, of Knightsbridge, 
to the vicarage of Frome, the Marchioness of 
Bath writes that the appointment has already 
been made and cannot be revoked. The Bishop 
also announced his intention of instituting Mr. 
Bennett, as he was convinced that clergyman 
had a firm and deep-rooted attachment to the 
Church of England. 

— The Manchester engineering firms an¬ 
nounce their intention of closing their works 
( 344 ) 


with the view of aiding the London employers 
in their resistance to demands made by work¬ 
men. 

4. —Destruction of the West India steamship 
Amazon by fire. She sailed on her first voyage 
from Southampton on the 2d. At a quarter 
before 10 o’clock this (Sunday) morning, when 
the ship was about 110 miles W.S. W. of Scilly, 
a fire suddenly broke out forward on the star¬ 
board side, between the steam-chest and the 
under part of the gallery; and shortly after 
the flames rushed up the gangway in front of 
the fore funnel. Wet sacks and other loose 
things were placed on the gratings of the spar- 
deck hatch, and a hose was brought to play on 
the main deck, but quickly abandoned in con¬ 
sequence of the heat. The deck pump was 
also kept at work until the men were forced to 
retire. The wind was then blowing half a gale 
from the S.W. and the vessel going 84 knots, 
her average rate from the time of departure. 
Captain Symonds ordered some hay between 
the engine-room crank gratings to be thrown 
overboard, and two trusses were hove over; 
but the fire soon igniting the main body, the 
hencoops on each side, and the paddle-boxes, 
the men were obliged to abandon the deck. 
Many were burnt in their berths, others suffo¬ 
cated, and a great number drowned in lowering 
the boats. Every possible exertion was made 
to put out the fire, but with no effect. The 
mail-boat, lowered with twenty or twenty-five 
persons in it, was immediately swamped and 
went astern, the people clinging to one another, 
and all sinking together. The pinnace was 
next lowered, but she hung by the fore-tackle, 
and was swamped. In lowering the second 
cutter, the sea raised her and unhooked the 
fore-tackle, so that she fell down perpendi¬ 
cularly, and most of the people in her were 
washed out. Over one hundred perished by 
fire or drowning, Mr. Eliot Warburton being 
among the number. The fire was thought to 
have originated in the overheating of the engine 
bearings. 

— In retaliation for injuries sustained by 
British seamen at Rangoon, the passage of the 
Irrawaddy is forced to-day, and preparations 
made for attacking the capital. 

5. —Kossuth is formally presented to the 
American House of Representatives, but is 
coldly received. He was afterwards said to 
have admitted that his mission to Washington 
was a failure. 

9 . —Without being subjected to a trial of any 
kind, 468 prisoners of state were secretly con¬ 
veyed from Ivry to Brest, there to be shipped 
for Cayenne. Next day the Moniteur publishes 
decrees of proscription against numerous distin¬ 
guished soldiers, politicians, and men of letters, 
whose presence in France, it was alleged, 
might impede the re-establishment of tran¬ 
quillity. 

10. —Sir Harry Smith superseded in his 
command at the Cape of Good Hope, and 
General Cathcart appointed. 




JANUARY 


1852. 


JANUARY 


IO.—The Executive Council of the Amal¬ 
gamated Society of Engineers recommend that 
10,000/. be set apart to start a co-operative 
engineering establishment. Lord Cranworth 
having been asked to arbitrate in the dispute 
between the workmen and their employers, 
writes to Lord Ashburton : “I fear, from what 
has passed, that there is too much heat now to 
expect that any temperate advice will be attended 
to. Sure I am that a time will come when the 
workmen will deeply regret the steps they have 
taken, if they really are endeavouring by com¬ 
bination to deprive the masters of their natural 
right of managing their own business in their own 
way. I feel deeply for the men, and I should 
have been very glad if we could have seen our 
way to suggest any sort of arbitration which 
could solve the difficulty, but I cannot.” The 
masters issued a document explanatory of their 
position, in which they said: ‘ * All we want is 
to be let alone. With less than that we shall 
not be satisfied. Until we accomplish that we 
shall not reopen our establishments. With 
every respect to noble and distinguished referees 
whose arbitration has been tendered to us, and 
with no reason to doubt that their award would 
be honest, intelligent, and satisfactory, we must 
take leave to say that we alone are the com¬ 
petent judges of our own business, that we are 
respectively the masters of our own establish¬ 
ments, and that it is our own firm determination 
to remain so. To this principle we recognise 
no exceptions.” 

12 . —The Moniteur publishes a decree dis¬ 
solving the National Guard, preparatory to its 
reorganization upon a new basis. 

14. —The Prince President, Louis Napoleon, 
issues the new Constitution, prefaced by a 
proclamation descriptive of its leading features 
—the President, the Senate, the Legislative 
Body, the Council of State, and the High 
Court of Justice. 

15. —The African chief Sandilla sues for 
peace, but afterwards refuses to comply with 
the conditions laid down by Governor Smith. 

16. —Severe snowstorm in the North of 
Scotland, and loss of life near Crieff and 
Killen. 

18 . —As illustrating the value of the gold 
harvest in Australia, a letter of this date from 
Mount Alexander diggings records : “ From 
where I write are the main diggings in the 
country. They extend for about ten miles, and 
three weeks since contained from i5>o°° to 
20,000 persons. Gold is still being found in 
several new places in the colony. To give you 
an idea of the business carried on, I may men¬ 
tion that I sent down 261b. of gold and about 
200/. in sacks last escort, the proceeds of one 
week.” 

19 . —Discovery of the remains of a party of 
British missionaries who had perished by star¬ 
vation in Patagonia. They left this country in 
the autumn of 1850, and landed at Picton 
Island, Terra del Fuego, on the 6th December 


following. Rumours that they had perished 
by the hands of the natives reached this country 
some months since, and Captain Moorshead, 
of her Majesty’s ship Dido , was instructed to 
ascertain their fate on his way to the Pacific 
station. For some time no traces of the mis¬ 
sionaries were found, but as the explorers were 
about to return to the Dido certain writing was 
noticed on rocks across the river and else¬ 
where, which proved to be the words, “ Go to 
Spaniard Harbour.” Hastening to Spaniard 
Harbour, they saw on the beach a boat turned, 
upside down; and on coming near to it they 
found two dead bodies, which were identified, 
by scattered books and papers near them, as 
those of Captain Gardiner and Mr. Maidment. 
On one of the papers was written legibly, but 
without date: “If you will walk along the 
beach for a mile and a half, you will find us in 
the other boat, hauled up in the mouth of a 
river at the head of the harbour, on the south 
side. Delay not; we are starving.” Hurry¬ 
ing to the point indicated, they found the wreck 
of a second boat, and the remains of two more 
bodies, which they supposed to be those of Mr. 
Williams, surgeon, and John Pearce, Cornish 
fisherman, other members of the expedition. 
The papers showed that all the others had died 
of starvation, and were buried near to where the 
survivors were found. The tale of their suffer¬ 
ings was told in the diary of Captain Gardiner, 
the superintendent, kept by him with tolerable 
regularity till near the hour of his death—the 
last words of it being scarcely legible from the 
weakness of the hand which wrote them. 

22 .— The Prince President of the French Re¬ 
public decrees the confiscation of the property 
of the Orleans family. The dotation made by 
Louis Philippe in favour of his children of the 
reversionary interest of the Orleans estates was 
also cancelled. 

25 .—Titles of nobility restored in France. 

28 . —Provisional Diets restored to Holstein. 

— In answer to a representation from 
Newcastle, Sir George Grey announces that 
the propriety of sanctioning the formation of 
volunteer rifle corps is at present under the 
consideration of the Government. 

29 . —The Duke de Nemours and the Prince 
de Joinville, in addressing M. Montalembert 
and M. Dupin, Procureur-General, who had 
protested against the confiscation of the Orleans 
property, write: “We will not lower our¬ 
selves to point out how particularly odious the 
calumnies are when brought forward by a man 
who on two different occasions received proofs 
of the magnanimity of King Louis Philippe, 
and whose family never received anything from 
him but benefit. We leave it to public opinion 
to do justice to the words as well as to the act 
which accompanies them; and if we are to 
believe the testimonies of sympathy which we 
receive from every side, we are sufficiently 
avenged.” 

( 345 ) 




FEBRUAR V 


1852. 


FEBRUARY 


February 2.—Martin Merino, a priest of 
the Franciscan order, attempts to assassinate 
the Queen of Spain when passing with her Court 
along one of the galleries of the Escurial to the 
church of the Atocha. The stays worn by her 
Majesty caused the dagger to turn aside from 
the vital part aimed at her, and the assassin suc¬ 
ceeded in inflicting only a flesh wound, which, 
however, bled profusely. Merino was sentenced 
to death by the garotte, and executed on the 
Campo de Guardias, after being deprived, amid 
much ceremony, of his priestly office. 

3. —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person ; the state procession passing for the 
first time under the great arch of the Victoria 
Tower. The Royal Speech indicated that bills 
would be introduced for improving the adminis¬ 
tration of justice in its various departments, and 
also for making such amendments in the Act of 
the late reign relating to the representation of 
the people, as might be considered likely to 
carry into more complete effect the principles 
upon which that law was founded. At the 
evening sitting Lord John Russell explained the 
circumstances connected with the resignation 
of the Foreign Office by Lord Palmerston, in 
December last. In the course of his defence 
the ex-Secretaiy said: “It was obvious that 
if the Minister for Foreign Affairs were never 
allowed, in easy and familiar conversation with 
foreign Ministers, to express an opinion on 
foreign events, whether important or not, not 
as the organ of the Government, but as an 
opinion which he had himself formed at the 
moment, then such a restriction on the conduct 
of Foreign Ministers would be extremely in¬ 
jurious and prejudicial to the public service. It 
was a misrepresentation of the fact to say that 
he had given instructions to Lord Normanby 
inconsistent with the relations of general inter¬ 
course between England and France. It was 
no instruction at all. He did not profess to give 
the opinion of the Government as that of Eng¬ 
land. It was his own opinion, and, whether 
right or wrong, it was shared by numbers in 
France. So far as his conversation with the 
French Ambassador went, he had merely ex¬ 
pressed his individual opinion that there had 
been for some time such an antagonism between 
the President and the Assembly, that their co¬ 
existence had become an impossibility, and if 
one or the other side were to prevail, it would 
be better that it should be the President. ” 

— Overthrow of General Rosas as Dictator 
of Buenos Ayres. A severe action was fought 
near the Passo del Rey, between the forces of 
Rosas and the allied Brazilian troops under the 
command of General Urquiza, when the former 
was completely defeated and a large portion of 
his army destroyed. 

— The Moniteur publishes the organic de¬ 
cree for the election of deputies to the French 
Assembly : one deputy for every 35,000 elec¬ 
tors, with an additional one when there was a 
surplus of 25,000 in the department. All 
Frenchmen twenty years of age, enjoying civil 
and political rights, to be electors. 

( 346 ) 


4 . —Convocation assembles in the Jerusalem 
Chamber, Westminster Abbey. In the de¬ 
bate which took place in the Upper House, 
concerning the prayer of several petitioners 
that Convocation might sit for the despatch 
of business, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
said, however much Synodical action might 
be desired, he did not think that any good 
would accrue from petitioning her Majesty, for 
he felt quite certain that in the present state 
of the Church and its multitudinous divisions, 
their prayer would not be granted. The Lower 
House carried an address on the subject, but 
were immediately afterwards dismissed by the 
Archbishop’s Apparitor. The Convocation for 
the Northern Province was also dismissed. 

5. —Mr. Forbes Mackenzie’s Bill regulating 
public-houses in Scotland read the first time in 
the House of Commons. 

— Catastrophe at Holmfirth, a village in the 
West Riding of Yorkshire, situate in a narrow 
pass, where several valleys converged towards 
the plain, and down which ran a narrow 
stream, the drainage of the neighbouring hills. 
In order to maintain an adequate supply of 
water for the factories thickly scattered along 
the valley, large reservoirs had been formed 
above the town, but most of them were of 
inadequate strength, and from recent long- 
continued rains were now unusually full. Soon 
after midnight of the 4th, the embankment of 
the Bilberry reservoir 150 yards long and 90 
feet high, gave way, and the whole mass of 
the pent-up water, about 50 feet in depth, 
rushed down the gorge in one solid column. 
Mills and dye-houses, walls, cottages, barns, 
and stables went down before the flood ; trees 
were uprooted, carts and waggons swept away. 
The numerous bridges which crossed the stream 
intercepted the rolling debris, and formed dams 
behind which the waters for a time accumulated. 
Then rushing forward with increased force, 
the deluge swept through the hamlet of Holm, 
carrying away or wrecking whole streets of 
cottages, shops, and manufactories (in numerous 
cases overwhelming the terrified inmates in 
the surging waters), and thence proceeded on 
its devastating course down the gorge for a 
distance of five miles, where the valley opened 
out into flatter ground, and the flood spread 
over a surface, which in a great measure dissi¬ 
pated its power. Nearly a hundred human 
peings were overwhelmed in this destructive 
flood. In many cases whole families were 
drowned ; one old man attending the corpses 
of nine children and grandchildren to the 
grave: there were seven Croslands, seven 
Charlesworths, six Hellawells, and nine Met- 
tericks. The damage to property was estimated 
at 600,000/. Adults to the number of 4,986, 
and children to the number of 2,142, earning 
between them 4,000/. per week, were rendered 
destitute. The extent of the catastrophe ex¬ 
cited universal sympathy throughout the king¬ 
dom and the colonies, and the sum of 45,000/, 
was gathered in a short time for the relief of 
the sufferers. This not only met the claims 




FEBRUARY 


1852. 


FEBRUARY 


made upon the fund, but helped to restore the 
reservoir to a condition which revived the in¬ 
dustry of the valley. From the inquiry which 
took place before the coroner, it appeared that 
when the reservoir was constructed a waste pit 
was formed in the dam to carry off all water 
after it had risen to a certain height, and the 
orifice of this was, of course, below the level of 
the top of the embankment. As the embank¬ 
ment gradually settled down this was reversed, 
and the opening of this safety-valve became 
considerably above the top level. "When the 
waters therefore rose to the top of the dam, 
they began to pour over the edge, the embank¬ 
ment yielded, and in a moment the mass of 
water burst through the rotten works. The coro¬ 
ner’s jury returned a verdict imputing gross 
and culpable negligence to the commissioners, 
engineers, and overlookers, and regretted that, 
in consequence of the commissioners being a 
corporate body, they could not find them guilty 
of manslaughter. 

7 .—Lord Londonderry opens a correspond¬ 
ence with his nephew regarding the represen¬ 
tation of Downshire, for which his son was at 
present sitting, but who had incurred parental 
dislike by joining the Tenant-right party. His 
lordship desired the member to be his own 
nominee, and claimed to have his right recog¬ 
nised, in consideration of the great sums his 
family had expended in contesting it. 

9 .—Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill to extend the right of voting for 
members of Parliament, and to amend the laws 
relating to the representation of the people. 
Disputing the right of every man to the suffrage, 
seeing that the only object in view ought to be 
the good government of the country, he wished 
to preserve the balance of county and borough 
representation, and also small boroughs, with¬ 
out which many able men would be excluded 
from Parliament. He did not in the meantime 
propose to disfranchise any constituency, but 
would deal with electoral corruption under 
another bill. He proposed to lower the fran¬ 
chise in boroughs, to householders rated at 5/. 
instead of 10/. ; in counties, to occupiers of 
houses rated at 20/., to copyholders and long 
leaseholders of 5/. instead of 10/. ; and, lastly, 
to give a vote to persons in counties or boroughs 
paying assessed or income tax to the amount of 
40^. per annum. The bill, which was but 
coldly received, was read a first time on the 
12th, but afterwards withdrawn on the defeat 
of the Ministry. 

14 .—Turkey concludes a treaty with France 
respecting the Holy Places of Palestine. 

16 .—Lord John Russell explains the Go¬ 
vernment Militia Bill. He proposed to establish 
it on the local instead of the old regular 
Militia plan ; two-thirds of the officers to be 
appointed by the lord-lieutenant, and one- 
third by the Crown; the limits subjecting 
parties to the ballot to be, in the first year, 20 
to 23 years of age; in the second, 20 to 25 ; 


and in the third, 20 to 30. The men were to 
be formed into battalions, and assembled foi 
training, 28 days in the first year and 14 in 
each subsequent year. In the event of danger 
of invasion, the corps might be embodied and 
sent to any part of the country ; 70,000 to be 
raised the first year, 100,000 the second, and 
150,000 the third; the final extent to be deter¬ 
mined by the Crown and Parliament hereafter. 

16 . —Sir George Grey introduces a bill to 
disfranchise the borough of St. Albans, the 
sitting member, Mr. Bell, protesting that, in the 
present condition of members generally with 
reference to election expenses, it was as if the 
40,000 rogues outside the House of Correction 
were to hang the 140 prisoners within it for the 
purpose of establishing the respectability of 
their own characters. 

17 . —Decree issued in France, making the 
birthday of the Emperor Napoleon I. (August 
15) the only national holiday. 

18 . —The representatives of Austria and 
Prussia formally transfer the Government of 
Holstein to the Danish Commissary at Kiel. 
The integrity of the Danish monarchy was 
secured, and the administration and independ¬ 
ence of Schleswig and its old union with 
Holstein guaranteed, by treaty. 

19 . —Lord Naas’s motion censuring Lord 
Clarendon for entering into relations with Birch, 
of Dublin, rejected by 229 to 137 votes. 

20 . —Died, in his 75th year, Sir H. J. Fust, 
Judge of the Court of Arches. 

— Government defeated in a preliminary 
stage of their Militia Bill; Lord Palmerston’s 
proposal to substitute the word “ regular ” for 
“local” being carried by 135 to 126 votes. 
Accepting this as an indication of want of con¬ 
fidence, Lord John Russell gave up the bill, 
and announced the intention of the Ministry to 
tender their resignation to her Majesty. As 
usual in such cases, the House adjourned in 
confusion. 

21 . —A letter from Sir G. Grey to Earl 
Fitzhardinge conveys the Royal sanction to the 
formation of a rifle corps in Cheltenham. 

— Publication of the forged “ Letters of 
Percy Bysshe Shelley, with an Introductory 
Essay by Robert Browning.” In reviewing the 
book, the Athenceum wrote : “ On the whole, 
the contents are valuable chiefly for incorpora¬ 
tion in some future edition of the complete 
essays and letters of Shelley.” Suspicion 
having been excited by Mr. F. T. Palgrave’s 
discovery that one of the so-called Essays, 
descriptive of Florence and bearing the post¬ 
mark of Ravenna, had been copied from an 
article by his father, in an old number of the 
Quarterly Review, a rigid inquiry was made 
into the history of the collection. It turned 
out that the letters had been purchased singly, 
from time to time, by Mr. White, bookseller, 
Pall Mall, the vendor being a lady who repre¬ 
sented herself as acting for an invalid sister, 

( 347 ) 




FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1852. 


but whom Mr. White latterly discovered t) be 
acting in suspicious complicity with the so- 
called George Gordon Byron. The letters 
were afterwards sent for sale to Sotheby and 
Wilkinson’s, and purchased by Mr. Moxon 
at high prices. Many glaring instances of 
plagiarism having been pointed out, the book 
was withdrawn from circulation. A collec¬ 
tion of 147 pretended Byron letters, obtained 
through the same channel, had, in April 1849, 
been sold privately by Mr. White to Mr. 
Murray, of Albemarle-street, for 123/. Mr. 
Moxon’s experience prevented any of these 
coming before the public. 

22 . — The Earl of Derby summoned to Buck¬ 
ingham Palace on the business of constructing 
a Ministry. 

23 . —The resignation of the Russell Ministry 
formally announced in both Houses, and intima¬ 
tion given that Earl Derby was engaged in the 
task of forming a Cabinet. An adjournment 
was made till the 27th. 

25 .—The Birkenhead steamship, conveying 
troops to the Caffre War, wrecked in calm 
weather on Point Danger, about fifty miles 
from Simon’s Bay, on the South African coast. 
In about twenty minutes she broke into three 
pieces and went down, earring hundreds with 
her, and leaving hundreds more struggling with 
sharks amid fragments of the wreck. The 
rush of water through the hole aft the foremast 
where she struck was so great that the whole of 
the men in the lower troop-deck must have 
been drowned in their hammocks. Captain 
Wright, of the 91st, writes: “The order and 
regularity that prevailed on board, from the 
time the ship struck till she totally disappeared, 
far exceeded anything that I thought could be 
effected by the best discipline. Every one did 
as he was directed, and there was not a murmur 
nor a cry among them till the vessel made her 
final plunge.” Of 630 officers, seamen, soldiers, 
and boys on board, 438 were drowned. As to 
the course which the Birkenhead was steering, 
it was established in evidence at a court-mar¬ 
tial afterwards held on board the Victory , at 
Portsmouth, that she was three miles from 
the shore, which, however, was not visible 
in the darkness ; that soundings were taken; 
that the rate of speed at the time was 
knots ; that a light had been discovered shortly 
before the catastrophe took place ; and that the 
sound of the surf was not distinguishable. It 
was also shown that the boats were in perfect 
order for launching, had time been permitted ; 
that the captain was perfectly collected, and 
that the orders which he issued were obeyed ; 
that the engines were backed for two minutes 
after the ship struck, and that she yielded to 
them ; that in ten minutes the fires were com¬ 
pletely extinguished, and that she went down 
in less than half an hour. In giving judgment 
on the calamity, the court expressed an opinion 
“ that while it might be unjust to censure de¬ 
ceased officers whose motive for keeping so 
near the shore could not be explained, they 
(348) 


must at the same time record their opinion that 
this fatal loss was owing to the course having 
been calculated to keep the land in close 
proximity. If such be the case, they still are 
not precluded from speaking with praise of the 
departed, for the coolness which they displayed 
in the moment of extreme peril, and for the 
laudable anxiety shown for the safety of the 
women and children, to the exclusion of all 
selfish considerations. ” 

25 .—Died at Sloperton Cottage, near De¬ 
vizes, in his 72d year, Thomas Moore, poet. 

27 .—In the course of a statement explana¬ 
tory of his reasons for accepting the responsi¬ 
bilities of office at the present time, Lord Derby 
contends that when the entire supply of an 
article came from abroad the whole increase of 
price caused by taxation fell upon the consumer, 
but that was not the case when the article was 
partly of foreign and partly of home supply; 
and he would not shrink from declaring his 
opinion that there was no reason why corn 
should be the solitary exception to the rule. 
Though a revision of our financial policy might 
be desirable, it was a question only to be 
solved by reference to the clearly-expressed 
and well-understood opinion of the intelligent 
part of the people. 

March 1 . —At the opening of the Ayles¬ 
bury Assizes, Lord Campbell censures Mr. 
Scott Murray, the high sheriff of Berks, for 
permitting his Romish chaplain to ride in the 
carriage with the judges, and sit in the court 
with them in the garb of his order. “ The 
sheriff’s chaplain,” he said, “becomes for the 
time the chaplain of the judges, and the re¬ 
ligion of the judges is the Protestant religion. ” 
In a letter published afterwards, the high 
sheriff disputed both of those propositions, and 
justified the presence of his chaplain by prece¬ 
dents in other counties. 

— Ministerial statements. In his address 
to the electors of Buckinghamshire, Mr. 
Disraeli writes: “ Our first duty will be to 
provide for the ordinary and current exigencies 
of the public service ; but, at no distant period, 
we hope, with the concurrence of the country, 
to establish a policy in conformity with the 
principles which in Opposition we have felt it 
our duty to maintain. We shall endeavour 
to terminate that strife of classes which of late 
years has exercised so pernicious an influence 
over the welfare of this kingdom; to accomplish 
those remedial measures which great productive 
interests, suffering from unequal taxation, have 
a right to demand from a just Government; to 
cultivate friendly relations with all Foreign 
Powers, and secure honourable peace; to up¬ 
hold in their spirit, as well as in their, form, 
our political institutions ; and to increase the 
efficiency, as well as maintain the rights, of our 
National and Protestant Church.” To the 
North Lincolnshire electors, Mr. Christopher, 
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, writes 
that he accepted office from a conviction of 






MARCH 


1852. 


MARCH 


Lord Derby’s sincere desire to “ reverse in a 
new Parliament that financial policy which has 
proved so injurious to native industry and 
capital.” At Midhurst, the Home Secretary, 
Mr. Walpole, promised extensive reforms in 
the administration of justice and the Court of 
Chancery, and “ compounding equivalents” for 
protection. At Stratford, the Secretary for 
War, Major Beresford, gave much offence by 
declaring that the duty he had to perform was 
to the freeholders or county voters, and not to 
the rabble from the factories. The Secretary 
for Ireland, Lord Naas, was defeated in Kildare 
County, but elected for Coleraine, in room of 
Dr. Boyd, who resigned. 

2 . —Meeting at Manchester to reconstruct 
the Anti-Corn-Law League. It was agreed to 
address her Majesty on the peril to which the 
industry of the country was exposed, by the 
accession to power of a Government pledged 
by all the obligations of personal honour and 
public duty to attempt the restoration of odious 
restrictions on trade. 

— Died at Venice, aged 77, Marshal Mar- 
mont, Duke of Ragusa. 

5.—In the lists of the new Ministry, Sir 
E. Sugden (Lord St. Leonards) appears as 
Lord Chancellor; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
Mr. Disraeli; Home Secretary, Mr. Walpole ; 
Foreign, Earl of Malmesbury ; Colonial, Sir 
J. Pakington. (See Table of Administrations.) 

— In the course of the debate on the St. 
Albans Disfranchisement Bill, Mr. Roebuck 
replied to a taunt from Lord Claud Hamilton, 
by denying that he had ever any connection 
with the Liberal agent, Mr. Coppock. In the 
Sun of this evening the latter publishes a state¬ 
ment fortified by letters from Mr. Roebuck 
himself, showing that the member for Sheffield 
had repeatedly solicited the assistance of the 
Liberal agent, and had even condescended on 
one occasion to accept payment of election ex¬ 
penses from a private fund at his disposal. 

IO.—The Earl of Eglinton makes his entry 
mto Dublin as the new Lord-Lieutenant. 

12 . — Parliament re-assembles after the 
Ministerial elections. In the House of Lords 
a discussion took place on the subject of law 
reform. 

— At a meeting of 160 members of the 
House of Commons, at Lord John Russell’s 
residence, Chesham-place, it was resolved to 
compel the new Government to make a full 
declaration of its policy. 

15 .—In accordance with notice previously 
given, Mr. Charles Villiers rises in a full House 
to make inquiries “with a view to obtaining 
from her Majesty’s Ministers some infor¬ 
mation of the principles of that policy upon 
which the Government has undertaken to 
regulate the foreign commerce of this country, 
and more especially that branch of commerce 
which relates to the food of the people.” The 
specific question he put was whether the 


Government intended to propose any scheme 
of commercial or fiscal legislation before the 
dissolution of Parliament, in such a way that 
the question of the principle of protection or a 
duty on corn should be submitted to the de¬ 
liberate judgment of the electors ? The Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer replied that it was not 
the intention of Government to do anything of 
the kind. In the course of his speech he said 
that her Majesty’s present Ministers believed 
that very great injustice had been done to the 
agricultural and other interests in 1846, and 
that it was desirable for the benefit of all 
classes that this injustice should be remedied ; 
but they were not pledged to any specific 
measure, and no proposition could be made till 
the verdict of the country had been obtained. 
The debate was continued by Lord J. Russell, 
Sir J. Graham, and Mr. Walpole. In answer 
to Lord Beaumont, the Earl of Derby made 
a similar declaration in the House of Lords. 
“The next election,” he said, “must finally 
decide, at once and for ever, the great question 
of our commercial policy.” He deprecated 
making an appeal to the country on a single 
question when the entire general policy of the 
late Government was in dispute. ' Describing 
the Chesliam House Conservative as a fit rival 
for the Lichfield House Compact, he said, in 
words permitted to be used by the meanest 
felon in the dock, “ I elect that we shall be 
tried by God and our country.” 

15 .—Died at Vanbrugh Lodge, Blackheath, 
aged 75, Captain Sir Samuel Brown, R.N., 
inventor of iron suspension bridges. 

19 .—Again interrogated on the subject of .. 
his policy, the Earl of Derby replied that it 
would be inconsistent with his duty to her 
Majesty to fix a dissolution at any particular 
date, but he thought that the autumn should not 
be allowed to pass over without the country and 
Parliament having had an opportunity of pass¬ 
ing judgment on the course which should be 
taken by Ministers. A statement similar in 
spirit was made in the House of Commons by 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in reply to 
Lord John Russell. 

22 . —Kalabergo, a young Italian, hanged at 
Oxford for murdering his uncle by shooting him 
through the head, when riding together. 

— The St. Albans Disfranchisement Bill 
passes through committee in the Commons, 
Mr. Jacob Bell making a final appeal to the 
House to spare the borough. The bill passed 
early in the session through the House of 
Lords, and received the Royal assent. 

23 . —The Gazette announces that the pre¬ 
sentation of the Very Rev. Monsignore Searle 
(chaplain to Sheriff Swift) at the levee on the 
26th February was cancelled, his title “ having 
been assumed without the required authority.” 

25 . —Mr. Hume’s motion in favour of a 
household and lodger franchise, vote by ballot, 
and triennial Parliaments, negatived by 244 to 
89 votes. 

( 349 ) 




MARCH 


1852, 


APRIL 


25. —John Keene, of Albury, aged 20, and 
Janet Keene, his wife, aged 25, tried at Kingston 
Assizes for the murder of the latter prisoner’s 
illegitimate child, by throwing it down a well 
near Albuxy Heath. Keene was convicted and 
executed, and the female prisoner acquitted. 

26. —Died in Dublin, in his 84th year, the 
Most Rev. Dr. Murray, Roman Catholic Arch¬ 
bishop of Dublin, a man of singular piety and 
moderation. 

29.— Lord Ellenborough moves for and 
obtains a return of the papers connected with 
the forfeiture of the territories held by Prince 
Ali Morad, seized on the ground of his 
having been guilty of fraud and forgery in 
obtaining them. Lord Broughton imputed to 
the machinations of Ali Morad the Scinde 
War, which ended in the destruction of the 
power of the Ameers. Lord Derby stated that 
a light altogether unexpected had been recently 
thrown on the case of the Ameers of Scinde; 
and an inquiry had been directed to ascertain 
how far the Indian Government had acted at 
any time on the advice of Ali Morad. 

— Imperial projects of the French Presi¬ 
dent. At the swearing-in of the Senate and 
Legislative Body the President hinted that the 
Empire might yet be called into existence as a 
necessity. “If by underhand intrigues parties 
endeavour to sap the basis of my Government; 
if, in their blindness, they contest the legitimacy 
of the popular election ; if, finally, they en¬ 
danger by their incessant attacks the future 
prospects of the country ; then, and only then, 
it may be reasonable to demand from the 
people, in the name of the repose of France, a 
new title which will irrevocably fix upon my 
head the power with which they invested me. ” 
This intention to assume imperial power 
having been brought under the notice of the 
Russian and Prussian Cabinets, they replied 
that it would be a violation of the treaties of 
1814 and 1815, inasmuch as these treaties ex¬ 
cluded for ever the family of Buonaparte from 
the throne of France. They might not, how¬ 
ever, be indisposed to recognise him as an 
elective emperor enjoying for life a station 
analogous to the kings of Poland, if such title 
were conferred on him by a new plebiscite. 

— In the House of Commons the Home 
Secretary, Mr. Walpole, moves that a bill be 
prepared to amend and consolidate the laws 
relating to the Militia. He proposed to raise, if 
possible, without abandoning the ballot, 80,000 
volunteers, to be drilled and trained under 
the Regulations of the 43d George III., and to 
receive bounties of 3/. or 4/., either paid at 
once or at the rate of is. or is. 6d. per month, 
as the volunteer might prefer. The number of 
days’ training in the year would be generally 
twenty-one, but the Crown would have the 
power of increasing it to seven weeks, or limit¬ 
ing it to thr£e days. 

April 1 .— Advices from the Cape mention 
that Sir H. Smith, placing himself personally 
(350) 


at the head of his troops, had at last driven 
Macomo out of the Water Kloof, destroying 
his camp and capturing his chief wife, and was 
advancing on him and Sandilla united in their 
last stronghold of the Amatolas. Our loss in 
rank and file had been heavy, and there were 
credible statements that horrible tortures were 
inflicted by the CafFres on the English prisoners. 

2 .—In bringing up the Militia Bill, Mr. 
Walpole gives notice that he will move the in¬ 
sertion of a clause providing ‘ ‘ that any person 
who shall serve in the Militia for two years 
shall be entitled to be registered and have a 
vote for the county in which he resides.” He 
intimated on the 5th that he did not intend to 
press the motton, Mr. C. Williams declaring 
that the proposal originated in an after-dinner 
joke of Lord Derby’s. The bill, after a minute 
discussion in committee, was read a third time 
on the 7th of June, and passed the House of 
Lords on the 21st of the same month. 

— In Dublin, Dr. Cullen, Roman Catholic 
Primate, is elected successor of the late Arch¬ 
bishop Murray. A Papal bull confirming the 
election was received 4th June. 

— On the motion of Lord Derby, a Select 
Committee is appointed to inquire into the 
Act regulating the affairs of the East India 
Company, with a view of ascertaining chiefly 
whether it would at this time be advisable to 
abolish the Court of Directors, and have the 
nominal as well as the real ruling authority 
vested in a responsible department of Govern¬ 
ment. 

5. —In the House of Lords, Lord Ellen¬ 
borough submits a resolution requesting the 
production of papers relating to the Burmese 
War. In assenting, the Earl of Derby explained 
that the expedition now on its way to the Bur¬ 
mese shores, or already on them, was not in¬ 
tended to be against the capital or interior of 
the country; but only to strike a blow against 
Rangoon and Martaban, which, by terrifying 
the Burmese and showing the efficiency of our 
forces, would induce them to accept our terms. 
The second time Commodore Lambert entered 
the Irrawaddy he only made the same demands 
as at first; and now, on his third entry, he 
bore word to the King of Ava, that if he would 
express his regret for what had occurred, and 
pay a sum to reimburse the expenditure of our 
preparations, hostilities would be suspended 
and peace restored. Lord Derby concluded by 
observing, that “if the steps taken shall not 
be sufficient before the rainy reason to induce 
the Burmese authorities to tender their submis¬ 
sion and to enter into terms of peace, then it 
will be for the Governor-General to consider 
what steps it will be his duty to take in the 
arduous struggle which will then be forced 
upon him.” 

— “ Grand Promenade ” demonstration in 
the Exhibition building, with the view of in¬ 
ducing the Government to preserve the structure 
for purposes of public utility and recreation, 
About 80,000 people present. (See May 29.) 





APRIL 


1852, 


APRIL 


5 . —Died at Vienna, aged 51, Prince Schwart- 
zenberg, Prime Minister of Austria. 

6 . — Parliament adjourns for the Easter 
holidays, till the 19th inst. 

IO.—Thomas C. Wheeler, a young man 
residing in Kennington-road, in a fit of insanity 
murders his mother by cutting her throat with 
a carving-knife, and then cuts off her head, 
which he placed on a table set out for dinner. 

14 -.—Rangoon stormed by a force under 
General Godwin. “The advance,” he writes, 
“to the east entrance of the pagoda was of 
about 800 yards, which the troops crossed in a 
most steady manner, under the fire of the walls 
crowded with the enemy. When the storming 
party reached the steps, a tremendous rush was 
made to the upper terrace, and a deafening 
cheer told that the pagoda no longer belonged 
to the Burmese. The enemy ran in confusion 
from the southern and western gates, where 
they were met by the fire of the steamers. All 
the country round has fallen with the pagoda.” 

15 . —Seven children perish in a fire at Ren¬ 
ton, near Glasgow. The flames extended over 
two small houses, and before any aid could be 
rendered the roof fell in, burying the whole of 
the children in the house at the time. 

— Another Arctic search expedition, under 
the command of Sir Edward Belcher, sails 
from Woolwich. 

16 . —The tercentenary of King Edward’s 
School, Birmingham, celebrated with great 
rejoicings in that town. 

— At the Perth Circuit Court, the Frazers, 
mother and son, were sentenced to be executed 
for poisoning James Frazer, sen., by the ad¬ 
ministration of arsenic. 

17 . —The Goldsmiths’ Company entertain 
her Majesty’s Ministers. Lord Derby, illustra¬ 
ting his recent efforts to form a Ministry by the 
new gold discoveries, said : “It was supposed 
that the crop of statesmen was one of very 
limited amount, for which, if you were disposed 
to search, you must dig in certain favoured 
localities, and confine yourself to searching for 
them there. I am happy to think, gentlemen, 
that to some extent I have been instrumental 
in dispelling that illusion. A fortunate ad¬ 
venturer, I have boldly opened a new mine, 
and I am happy to say that in the opinion of 
competent judges, so far as it has been yet 
worked, the ore that has been raised contains 
among it as large a proportion of sterling 
metal, with as little admixture of dross, as any 
that was ever drawn from the old and exclusive 
mines to which we were formerly confined.” 

— Died, aged 79, Count Gerard, Marshal 
of France. He served in the battle of Auster- 
litz and Wagram, and captured Antwerp after 
a two years’ siege. 

19 .—Baron Alderson delivers the judgment 
of the Exchequer Court in the case of Miller v. 
Salomons, who had taken' part in the proceed¬ 
ings of the House after refusing to take the 


customary oath “upon the true faith of a 
Christian.”—“I am of opinion,” said the 
learned judge, “that these words do form a 
distinct and essential part of the oath; because 
they interpret, and give a peculiar and stringent 
sense to the previous words, and are, in fact, 
incorporated in and form part of each sentence 
in that oath, so that without them no part of 
the oath has exactly the same meaning that it 
has when they are added to it. I believe that 
they were advisedly and on great consideration 
originally adopted (perhaps on Sir Edward 
Coke’s advice), and that they have been found 
effectual, and for that reason retained ever 
since. I think, therefore, that the oath is not 
taken at all if these words are omitted by the 
person swearing, and that Mr. Salomons has 
therefore voted without previously taking the 
Oath of Abjuration. I do most seriously regret 
that I am obliged, as a mere expounder of the 
law, to come to this conclusion, for I do not 
believe that the case of the Jews was at all 
thought of by the Legislature when they framed 
these provisions. I think that it would be move 
worthy of this country to exclude the Jews from 
these privileges, if they are to be excluded at 
all (as to which I say nothing), by some direct 
enactment, and not merely by the casual opera¬ 
tion of a clause, intended apparently in its 
object and origin to apply to a very different 
class of the subjects of England. I regret also 
that the consequences are so serious, involving 
disabilities of the most fearful kind, in addition 
to the penalty sought to be recovered in this 
action, and in fact making Mr. Salomons for 
the future almost an outlaw. It is to be hoped 
that some remedy will be provided for these 
consequences, at least, by the Legislature. My 
duty is, however, plain : it is to expound the 
law, not to make it; to decide on it as I find 
it, not as I wish it to be. It seems to me that 
the law on this point is quite clear, and that the 
judgment must be for the plaintiff.” The Lord 
Chief Baron and Mr. Baron Parke concurred. 
Mr. Baron Martin was of opinion that the 
defendant had lawfully taken the oath. 

20.—Mr. Horsman’s motion for an address 
to her Majesty, praying that inquiry might be 
made whether due respect was paid to the 
decrees and canons of the Church in the in¬ 
stitution of Mr. Bennett into the vicarage of 
Frome, lost by 100 votes to 80. 

22. —The House of Lords, after the second 
reading of the St. Albans Disfranchisement 
Bill, agree, by a majority of 41 to 15, to hear 
counsel at the bar against the bill; but the pri¬ 
vilege was declined. 

23 . —The Oxford University Commissioners 
conclude their inquiry, having met eighty-seven 
times since the 19th October, 1850. Their 
elaborate Report, which ultimately led to 
various reforms, gave a complete review of 
the history, condition, and present working of 
the most important colleges. Amongst the 
reforms recommended were the creation of a 
new Senate or “ Congregation,” in addition to 

(350 





APRIL 


1852. 


MAY 


the Hebdomadal Board, with ample powers 
of self-government and of acting by special 
committees, Convocation retaining a veto; 
abolition of promissory oaths; abolition of 
distinctions in social rank; checks on ex¬ 
travagant credit and debt; power to found 
new halls; power of private and inexpensive 
residence; thorough reorganization of studies; 
reconstruction of professorships ; fellowships to 
have professorial duties and scholarships to be 
opened, &c. On the subject of subscription, 
the Commissioners express a well-founded con¬ 
viction, “that the imposition of Subscription, in 
the manner in which it is now imposed in the 
University of Oxford, habituates the mind to 
give a careless assent to truths which it has 
never considered, and naturally leads to sophis¬ 
try in the interpretation of solemn obliga¬ 
tions.” 

23. —Injunction moved for in the Court of 
Chancery, to restrain Mdlle. Wagner from 
singing at the Royal Italian Opera House, 
Covent Garden, without the consent of Ben¬ 
jamin Lumley, with whom she had entered into 
an agreement at Berlin on the 9th November 
last. Injunction granted, and judgment given, 
after argument, on the 10th, that it should con¬ 
tinue over the period engaged for with Mr. 
Lumley. Mdlle. Wagner soon after left this 
country for the season. A disagreeable feeling 
was also created against her by the words used 
in one of her father’s letters : “England is to 
be valued only for her money”—a phrase sought 
to be explained by the fact that England re¬ 
warded with money only, and not with honours, 
as on the Continent. 

25. —General Rosas lands at Plymouth from 
Buenos Ayres. 

27. —The Count de Chambord issues a mani¬ 
festo from Venice, urging French Royalists to 
enter into no engagement in opposition to their 
political faith. The salvation of France, he 
urged, was connected with the re-establishment 
of the legitimate monarchy. 

28. — The motion for the second reading of 
the bill abolishing tests in the Universities of 
Scotland negatived by 172 to 157. 

30. —The ordinary revenue for the ensuing 
year exhibiting a probable deficiency of fully 
2,180,000/., the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
in introducing his Budget, proposed to continue 
the income tax for another year, as a provisional 
remedy, until other means could be devised. 
The Government, he said, were not averse to 
considering the whole of our financial system, 
but it was impossible they could have done so 
hitherto, and he felt strongly that; nothing could 
be more unwise than tampering with the indirect 
taxation of the country before they had laid down 
any fixed principle upon which our system of 
taxation should be based. The expenditure as 
arranged by Mr. Disraeli’s predecessor, Sir C. 
Wood, amounted to 51,163,979/., and the in¬ 
come to 48,983,500/. The financial scheme 
was generally concurred in by both sides of the 
House. 

( 352 ) 


May 3. —Sir J. Pakington introduces a bill 
conferring a representative constitution upon 
New Zealand. 

5. —The schooner Titania t the property of 
Mr. R. Stephenson, engineer, destroyed by fire 
in Cowes harbour. 

— A lump of auriferous quartz from Mel¬ 
bourne, valued at 800/., exhibited in the Stock 
Exchange. 

8 . —International treaty relative to the suc¬ 
cession of the Crown of Denmark signed in 
London. The treaty recognised the transmis¬ 
sion of the Danish Crown (in default of male 
issue in the direct line of King Frederick III. 
of Denmark) to the issue of Prince Christian , 
of Schleswig-Holstein and his consort Louisa, 
Princess of Hesse, in order of primogeniture 
from male to male, and provided also for the 
continued union of all the States presently 
united under the sceptre of the King of Den¬ 
mark. 

— At a Mansion House banquet to-night 
Lord Derby said: “Itwould be an easy task 
for a Minister to avail himself upon every 
occasion of every gust of popular opinion—to 
scud before the gale, and to congratulate him¬ 
self upon the rapidity of his progress, reckless 
and regardless in what direction that gale is 
blowing, and whether it is bearing him upon a 
lee-shore, or upon a dangerous rock, with the 
more certain destruction the more rapid may be 
his progress. But the aim of the noble science 
of statesmanship surely must be to use the popu- 
lar elements as the valuable breeze which fills 
the sails—not setting your course in the teeth of 
the wind that blows, nor scudding blindly before 
it, but availing yourself of that breeze to speed 
you on your destined course, and with a steady 
hand upon the wheel, and with mind and eye 
fixed upon one single object—the safety of the 
good ship, the crew, and the priceless cargo— 
to consider, not the rapidity of your progress, 
but the certainty of the course you are pursuing. 
Then, by the application of the doctrine of 
opposing forces, let the wind blow from the 
north or from the south, the steady hand at the 
helm may speed the vessel on her destined 
course, whether that course be east or west. 
My lord, I well know that such a course is not 
that which at all times will secure to the 
Minister who pursues it the greatest amount of 
momentary or of popular applause ; but I have 
that opinion of my countrymen, that I am cer¬ 
tain they will more consider the steadiness of 
the course than the rapidity of the progress. 
They will look to the object which the Govern¬ 
ment have in hand ; and if they see them pro¬ 
ceeding in their own course steadily and de¬ 
terminedly, availing themselves, no doubt, of 
popular favour, but neither courting nor blindly 
following the passions of the moment, I am con¬ 
vinced that in the long run a Minister pursuing 
such a course, even if he should at times par¬ 
tially fail, will obtain the approval and ulti¬ 
mately the confidence of his countrymen.” 




MAY 


1852. 


MAY 


9 . —M. Arago refuses to take the oath of 
allegiance to the new Constitution. He writes 
to the Minitser of Instruction: “ Circumstances 
rendered me in 1848, as a member of the Pro¬ 
visional Government, one of the founders of the 
Republic: as such, and 1 glory in it at present, 

I contributed to the abolition of all political 
oaths. At a later period I was named by the 
Constituent Assembly president of the Executive 
Committee. My acts in that last-named situa¬ 
tion are too well known to the public for me to 
have need to mention them here. You can 
comprehend, Monsieur le Ministre, that in pre¬ 
sence of these reminiscences my conscience has 
imposed on me a resolution which perhaps the 
director of the Observatory would have hesitated 
to come to. I have, therefore, to request you 
to appoint a day on which I shall have to quit 
an establishment which I have been inhabiting 
now for nearly half a century. ” On the same 
subject General Changamier writes thus to the 
Minister of the Interior: “I have no need to 
deliberate upon a question of duty and honour. 
This oath, exacted by the perjured man who has 
failed to corrupt me—this oath I refuse.” By 
special decree M. Arago was permitted to remain 
at the Observatory without taking the oath. 

9 . — Riot in Cork workhouse, the inmates 
making a furious attack on the officers while 
attempting to confine two doorkeepers who had 
secreted a bottle of whisky in the building. 
The rioters were aided by a mob outside, who 
burst through the gates, and defied for a time 
the military and police called in to restore 
order. 

10. —The ceremony of distributing the eagles 
and standards to the French army takes place 
with imposing splendour in the Champ de Mars. 
When the distribution was completed, the Pre¬ 
sident said: “Soldiers! the history of nations 
is in a great measure the history of armies. 
On their success or reverse depends the fate of 
civilization and of the country. If conquered, 
the result is invasion or anarchy. If victorious, 
it is glory or order. Thus nations, like armies, 
entertain a religious veneration for those em¬ 
blems of military honour which sum up in 
themselves a past history of struggles and of 
trials. The Roman eagle, adopted by the Em¬ 
peror Napoleon at the commencement of this 
century, was the most striking signification of 
the regeneration and of the grandeur of France. 
It disappeared in our misfortunes; it ought to 
return when France, recovered from her defeats 
and mistress of herself, seems not any longer to 
repudiate her own glory. Soldiers! resume 
these eagles, not as a menace against foreign 
Powers, but as the symbol of our independence, 
as the souvenir of an heroic epoch, as a sign of 
the nobleness of each regiment. Take again 
the eagles which have so often led our fathers 
to victory; and swear to die if necessary in 
their defence.” The standard-bearers then 
marched to the chapel erected on the ground 
for the purpose of getting their insignia blessed 
and sprinkled with holy water. The Arch- 

( 353 ) 


bishop pronounced a short address to the 
standard-bearers justifying the ceremony of 
blessing the insignia of war. At the close of 
the religious part of the ceremony it was noticed 
that the cavalry shouted “Vive l’Empereur” 
with great enthusiasm. 

10. —The Chancellor of the Exchequer pro¬ 
poses to assign the four seats for Sudbury and 
St. Albans to the West Riding of Yorkshire 
and the southern division of Lancashire. Mr. 
Gladstone moved the order of the day, there 
being, he thought, no urgency for the settle¬ 
ment of such a question as this. On a division, 
the Government proposal was negatived by 234 
to 148. 

— Colliery explosion in the Duffryn Pit, 
Aberdare, Glamorganshire, and loss of sixty- 
four lives. In trying to escape, the workmen 
had in several places fallen on each other and 
blocked up the passages leading to the shaft. 
They were found suffocated, piled up in heaps. 
—On the same day, the water broke into the 
Gwendraeth Vale Pit between Llanelly and 
Carmarthen, and, with one exception, drowned 
the whole of the twenty-eight men in the works 
at the time. 

11 . — Commencement of debate on Mr. 
Spooner’s motion for a Select Committee to 
inquire into the system of education carried on 
at the College of Maynooth. The motion for 
inquiry was supported by Government on the 
grounds that the conditions of the grant had not 
been adequately fulfilled, and that the objects 
for which it was made no longer existed to the 
same extent. Mr. Gladstone said, while he 
would throw no obstacle in the way of the pro¬ 
posed inquiry, at the same time, if the endow¬ 
ment was to be withdrawn, which was the 
logical consequence of the course the House 
was entering on, Parliament must be prepared 
to enter upon the whole subject of the recon¬ 
struction of ecclesiastical arrangements in Ire¬ 
land. After a debate adjourned over se/eral 
evenings till the 15th of June, the motion was 
abandoned by its proposer. 

19 . —Commencement of the sale of Marshal 
Soult’s pictures. The gem of the collection, 
Murillo’s “ Conception of the Virgin,” was 
purchased for the Louvre, at 23,440/. Titian’s 
“Tribute Money” was bought for our own 
National Gallery, at 4,500/. The total sum 
realized was 1,477,838 francs, or about 60,000/. 

— A dispute between the London Book¬ 
sellers’ Association and the retail booksellers 
having been referred to Lord Campbell, Dean 
Milman, and Mr. Grote, as arbitrators, Lord 
Campbell this day delivered judgment, finding 
that the attempt made by the Association to 
establish the alleged exceptional nature of the 
commerce in books had failed, and that it ought 
no longer to be carried on under those regula¬ 
tions. 

— The city of Bassein, in Burmah, taken by 
the British. 


A A 




20 .—Royal warrant issued erecting certain 
islands in the Bay of Honduras into an English 
colony under the name of the Bay Islands. 

— The miners of the Downbrow Pit, Pres¬ 
ton, making light of warnings in certain danger¬ 
ous parts of the workings, enter one of them 
with a lighted candle, and thereby cause an ex¬ 
plosion in which thirty-five lives are sacrificed. 

— Secret treaty agreed to between Russia, 
Austria, and Prussia, recognising hereditary 
monarchy as the national law of Europe, and 
reserving to themselves the right to apply the 
principle to France, whose legitimate hereditary 
head they declared to be the Count de Cham- 
bord. “ In the case that the Prince Louis Buo¬ 
naparte, present President of the French Re¬ 
public, should get himself elected by univer¬ 
sal suffrage as Emperor for life, the Powers 
will not recognise that new form of elective 
power till after explanations shall have been 
demanded from Prince Louis Buonaparte as 
to the sense and meaning of his new title, and 
after he shall have taken an engagement 
—first, to respect the treaties ; secondly, not 
to endeavour to extend the territorial limits 
of France ; and thirdly, formally to renounce 
all pretension to the continuation or founding 
of a dynasty. In the case that the Prince 
Louis Buonaparte should declare himself here¬ 
ditary Emperor, the Powers will not recog¬ 
nise the new Emperor; and will address to the 
French Government, as well as to all the other 
European Governments, a protest founded on 
the principles of public law and on the letter 
of the treaties. They will afterwards consult, 
according to the circumstances, as to the ulterior 
measures which they may think it necessary to 
take.” 

— Museum of Practical and Ornamental 
Art, under the auspices of the Board of Trade, 
opened in Marlborough House. The nucleus 
of the collection was formed with a Treasury 
grant of 5,000/. apportioned to the Board of 
Trade for the purchase of suitable objects from 
the Great Exhibition. 

24 .— The escort from Mount Alexander 
diggings brings into Melbourne 31,478 ounces 
of gold, the result of a week’s digging, and the 
largest quantity yet obtained. 

— Conference of plenipotentiaries from the 
Five Great Powers regarding the principality 
and canton of Neufchatel. At this conference 
the Prussian envoy was instructed to declare 
that the existence of a solemn recognition, 
by the Powers assembled, of the rights of 
his sovereign would “ serve as the basis of 
negotiation with the Helvetic Confederation,” 
and “ dispense the King of Prussia from assert¬ 
ing his rights by other meansand also “ that 
this agreement was not intended to pledge the 
other Powers to any active interference, but 
merely to give the sanction of Europe to the 
subsequent negotiation. On these grounds, the 
four other Powers unanimously recognised the 
rights of the Prussian Crown to the Principality, 
( 354 ) 


and expressed their readiness to agree upon the 
means best adapted to induce the Swiss Con-; 
federation to defer to the international engage- j 
ments by virtue of which Neufchatel was made, i 
under the guarantee of Europe, a canton of 
Switzerland. By another document, the King 
of Prussia spontaneously pledged himself to 
resort to no other means for the assertion of his 
rights during the course of this negotiation. J 

26 .—The Colonial Secretary addresses a note 
to the Government of the United States re¬ 
specting the encroachments of their vessels on 
British fisheries off the coast. 

28 . —Industrial Exhibition at Berlin opened, i 

29 . —Mr. Heywood’s motion, for the ap¬ 
pointment of a Select Committee to consider; 
the preservation of the Crystal Palace, with a 
view to its applicability to purposes of public 
recreation and instruction, lost by 221 votes 
against 103. The building was afterwards 
purchased for 70,000/. by Mr. Laing, M. P., I 
chairman of the Brighton Railway, and others, 
for erection on a new site at Sydenham. 

30 . — Sir Harry Smith arrives at Portsmouth j 
from the Cape, and is welcomed with a com- j 
plimentary address from the Corporation. 

31 . —James Birch, of the World newspaper, 
Dublin, sentenced to twelve months’ imprison¬ 
ment for an outrageous attack on the character. 
of a widow lady, Mrs. French, daughter of 
Mr. Brewster, Q.C., who was leading counsel 
for Sir William Somerville in the action of 
Birch v. Somerville. 

June 1.— Ireland connected with England j 
by submarine telegraph. 

2.—In his address to the electors of Buck¬ 
inghamshire the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
says : “ The time has gone by when injuries 
which the great producing interests endure 
can be alleviated or removed by a recurrence j 
to the laws which, previously to 1846, pro¬ 
tected them from such calamities. The spirit ! 
of the age tends to free intercourse, and no j 
statesman can disregard with impunity the j 
genius of the epoch in which he lives. But 
every principle of abstract justice and every j 
consideration of high policy counsel that the 
producer should be treated as fairly as the con- 
sumer ; and intimate that when the native pro¬ 
ducer is thrown into unrestricted competition 
with external rivals, it is the duty of the Legis¬ 
lature in every way to diminish, certainly not 
to increase, the cost of production. It is the 
intention of her Majesty’s Ministers to recom¬ 
mend to Parliament, as soon as it is in their 
power, measures which may effect this end. 
One of the soundest means, among others, by 
which the result may be accomplished, is a 
revision of our taxation.” 

— In the course of a discussion on the 
Museum Vote, Lord Mahon suggested the 
establishment of a National Gallery of Portraits. 
The Chancellor of the Exchequer undertook to 
bring up the subject in connexion with the 
whole subject of the fine arts. 






JUNE 


1852. 


JUNE 


6 . —The Paris correspondents of London 
newspapers warned that they will be held re¬ 
sponsible for the sentiments expressed by their 
organs in London towards the President. 

8 . —The floor of the Liverpool Corn Ex¬ 
change gives way under an audience gathered 
to hear the two Protectionist candidates, Mac¬ 
kenzie and Turner. Two workmen were 
killed. 

— In opposition to Ministers, and by a 
majority of 45, Mr. Horsman carries his motion 
for a Select Committee to inquire into the facts 
connected with the institution of Mr. Bennett 
to the vicarage of Frome. He afterwards 
abandoned the case, owing to the difficulty 
experienced in forming the committee, and 
because his opponents insisted that he should 
himself prepare the articles of charge against 
the Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

— Owing to the disorderly proceedings of 
Mr. Feargus O’Connor in the House of Com¬ 
mons, arising from mental aberration, the hon. 
member, on the motion of Mr. Walpole, was 
committed to the custody of the Serjeant-at- 
arms. He was afterwards removed, at the 
wish of his friends, to Dr. Tooke’s establish¬ 
ment at Chiswick. 

IO.—Fire at Messrs. Clowes’ printing-office, 
Duke-street, Southwark. In the warehouse, 
known as the “chapel,” about 200 tons of type 
were melted, 20,000 reams of paper and a vast 
quantity of printed sheets destroyed, amongst 
the latter being the 8vo. edition of the Exhi¬ 
bition Catalogue. 

— In the Arches Court, Sir J. Dodson gives 
judgment in the case of the Rev. Mr. Glad¬ 
stone, affirming the decision of the Bishop of 
London, and admonishing the rev. gentleman 
against preaching or administering divine ser¬ 
vice in the unconsecrated chapel of Long-acre, 
and from performing divine service there of 
elsewhere in the diocese of London and pro¬ 
vince of Canterbury till he had obtained a 
licence. Mr. Gladstone was likewise con¬ 
demned in the costs of the proceedings. 

— The National Exhibition of Irish In¬ 
dustry and Art, at Cork, opened by the Lord 
Lieutenant. The weather was unfavourable, 
and the number of spectators not so large as 
was anticipated. 

14. —Lord Malmesbury intimates the inten¬ 
tion of Government to withdraw the Surrender 
of Criminals Bill, on the ground of a serious 
alteration which had just taken place in the law 
of France. Under that law, as it now stood, 
the French Government would seem to have 
the power to reclaim any criminal from any 
part of the world, wherever he committed the 
offence, though it were not committed on 
French ground, and though the party com¬ 
mitting it were not a Frenchman. 

— A number of Edinburgh electors ex¬ 
hibiting a willingness to atone for their rejec¬ 
tion of Mr. Macaulay in 1847, he was to-day 

( 355 ) 


again put in nomination for the city, Mr. Adam 
Black pledging his word that their former 
member would serve them faithfully if elected. 
Writing to Mr. Black during the contest, he 
said : “I despair of being able to use words 
which malice will not distort. How stands the 
case ? I say that a distinction is so rare that I 
lately thought it unattainable, and that even new 
I hardly venture to expect that I shall attain it; 
and I am told that I hold it cheap. I say that 
to be elected member for Edinburgh without 
appearing as a candidate would be a high and 
peculiar honour—an honour which would in¬ 
duce me to make a sacrifice such as I would 
make in no other case; and I am told that it 
is to treat the electors contemptuously. My 
feeling towards the people of Edinburgh is the 
very reverse of contemptuous.” This letter 
was called forth by one previously addressed 
to the Secretary of the Scottish Reformation 
Society, on the subject of Maynooth. “ I have 
agreat respect” (he said) “ for the gentlemen in 
whose name you write, but I have nothing to 
ask of them : I am not a candidate for their 
suffrages ; I have no desire to sit again in Par¬ 
liament ; and I certainly shall never again sit 
there, except in an event which I did not till 
very lately contemplate as possible, and which 
even now seems to me highly improbable- If, 
indeed, the electors of such a city as Edinburgh 
should, without requiring from me any explana¬ 
tion or any guarantee, think fit to confide their 
interests to my care, I should not feel myself 
justified in refusing to accept a public trust 
offered to me in a manner so honourable and 
so peculiar. I have not, I am sensible, the 
smallest right to expect that I shall, on such 
terms, be chosen to represent a great constituent 
body. But I have a right to say that on no 
other terms can I be induced to leave that quiet 
and happy retirement in which I have passed 
the last four years.” 

15. —Royal proclamation issued prohibiting 
Roman Catholic ecclesiastics from engaging 
in religious processions, or appearing in their 
priestly dress in any other than their ordinary 
place of worship. 

18 .—John Nicholls, schoolmaster, dies in 
Gray’s-inn-lane from starvation. He was lat¬ 
terly reduced to earn his livelihood by writing 
bills for tradesmen’s windows. The parish 
authorities allowed a loaf a week for the sup¬ 
port of himself and his paralytic wife. The 
poor woman found him dead in bed at her side 
in the course of the morning. The following 
day Nicholls became entitled to 120/. in cash 
and an annuity of 60/. The coroner’s jury 
returned a verdict censuring the parochial 
authorities for their cruelty m the case. 

— Recent proceedings of Mr. Gladstone 
having excited some discontent in the Uni¬ 
versity, Dr. Wynter writes to-day, in reply to a 
remonstrance from the Rev. R. Gres well, that 
his opponents did not as yet feel warranted in 
discontinuing their exertions to make a change 
in the representation. 


A A 2 







JUNE 


185? 


JUNE 


18 .— The '•nnual Waterloo banquet cele¬ 
brated at Apsley House—for the last time, as it 
turned out. Eighty-four of the old Duke’s 
companions-in-arms surrounded him on this 
occasion. 

— Died at his residence, Belgrave-square, 
aged 81, William Scrope, author of the two 
popular sporting works “ Days of Deer Stalk¬ 
ing” and “ Nights of Salmon Fishing.” 


21 .—Came on for trial, in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, the action for libel raised by 
Dr. Achilli, formerly a priest of the Church of 
Rome, but now a Protestant preacher, against 
Dr. Newman, of the Oratory. The alleged 
libel was contained in a pamphlet published in 
October last, entitled “ Letters on the pre¬ 
sent Position of Catholics in England.” 
“ Mothers of families (this Achilli seems to 
say), gentle maidens, innocent children, look at 
me, for I am worth looking at. You do not 
see such a sight every day. Can any Church 
live over the imputation of such a production 
as I am ? I have been a Catholic and an 
infidel; I have been a Roman priest and a 
hypocrite; I have been a profligate under a 
cowl. I am that Father Achilli who, as early 
as 1826, was deprived of my faculty to lecture 
for an offence which my superiors did their 
best to conceal, and who in 1827 had already 
earned the reputation of a scandalous friar. I 
am that Achilli who, in the diocese of Viterbo, 
in February 1831, robbed of her honour a 
young woman of eighteen ; who in September 
1833 was found guilty of a second such crime, 
in the case of a person of twenty-eight ; and 
who perpetrated a third, in July 1834, in the 
case of another aged twenty-four. I am that 
Cavaliere Achilli who went to Corfu, made the 
wife of a tailor faithless to her husband, and 
lived publicly and travelled about with the wife 
of a chorus singer. I am that professor in the 
Protestant College at Malta who, with two 
others, was dismissed from my post for offences 
which the authorities cannot get themselves to 
describe.” In another passage Dr. Newman 
spoke of the Reformed Church: “ In the midst 
of outrages such as these, my brothers of the 
Oratory, wiping its mouth, clasping its hands, 
and turning up its eyes, it trudges to the 
Town Hall to hear Dr. Achilli expose the 
Inquisition.” The defendant brought forward 
evidence in justification, and several women 
were examined, who deposed to the acts of 
immorality alleged against Achilli in Italy, and 
also in London. Evidence was also given of 
the judgment of the Inquisition, whereby, on 
the ground of such charges, he was deprived 
of all ecclesiastical functions for ever, and sent 
to a convent for three years. The plaintiff’s 
evidence comprised an account of his life from 
the age of sixteen, when he entered the Domini¬ 
can order, to his marriage at Rome in 1849, 
when he had ceased to be a priest of the 
Church of Rome. He specifically denied the 
acts of immorality with which he was charged, 
and stated that it was concerning matters of 
( 356 ) 


• doctrine only he had been called before the 
Inquisition. The jury returned a verdict of 
Guilty of libel and publication ; and found 
the 19th charge (that Dr. Achilli had been 
deprived of his professorship, and prohibited 
from preaching) proved. Lord Campbell di¬ 
rected a verdict to be entered for the Crown 
on both pleas, and stated that he would report 
the above special finding to the court when 
necessary. 

22 . —Addressing his constituents of King’s 
Lynn, Lord Stanley writes : “ With regard to 
a tax on the importation of foreign corn, I can¬ 
not consider it as in principle more objection¬ 
able than any other impost falling on the public 
at large. But in questions of taxation especially 
the feeling of the people is to be considered ; 
and I have no hesitation in saying, that I be¬ 
lieve that feeling to be such as to render the 
imposition of any protective duty impossible. 
It is to economy in the national expenditure, 
and revision of the national taxation, that the 
farmers of England must look for the ameliora¬ 
tion of their present condition.” 

23 . —Public inauguration of Hall’s eques¬ 
trian statue of the Duke of Wellington erected 

* in front of the Register House, Edinburgh. 

25 . —The ceremony of fixing the keystone 
of the noble arch over the western portion of 
Cologne Cathedral performed with extraordi¬ 
nary pomp by the King of Prussia. 

28 . —The Prince President closes the session 
of the Legislative Assembly with an address, 
assuring the members that there existed in 
France “a Government animated with the 
faith and the love of good which reposes on 
the people, the source of all power; on the 
army, the source of all force ; and on religion, 
the source of all justice.” 

— After lengthy and repeated discussions 
in both Houses of Parliament, the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer is able to-day to intimate 
that the misunderstanding between this country 
and Tuscany, arising out of the Mather case, 
has been entirely removed. “There had been 
a most ample acknowledgment of regret on 
the part of the Tuscan Government, and the 
very best sentiments now subsisted between 
the two Powers.” 

— Riot at Stockport between Irish Catholic 
and English Protestant working-men. The 
immediate exciting cause was a procession of 
children attending the Roman Catholic schools 
the previous .Sunday. By the Protestants two 
chapels were broken into, and the decorations 
torn out and burnt on the highway ; the re¬ 
taliatory measures consisting of an attack on a 
school connected with St. James’s Church, and 
the breaking of the windows of Mr. Graham, 
a surgeon, who had rendered himself obnoxious 
to the Roman Catholic party. The rioters had 
repeated encounters with each other, and out 
of the 114 apprehended 60 were suffering 
under injuries received in the disturbance. An 
Irishman named Moran, who wounded several 




JUNE 


1852. 


JULY 


with a pitchfork, was himself struck down, and 
beaten so unmercifully that he died in the 
course of the evening. Ten English and ten 
Irish were committed for trial at Chester 
Assizes, and there sentenced to terms of im¬ 
prisonment varying from two years to two 
months. 

29 . —Sir Harry Verney introduces, but after¬ 
wards withdraws, a motion calling upon the 
Government to take immediate steps to secure 
redress for injuries inflicted on certain Scotch 
missionaries who had been driven by Austria 
out of her dominions. 

— Died at Washington, aged 75, Henry 
Clay, statesman. 

30 . —Died at his residence, Finchley-road, 
Sir James Macadam, the originator of the 
system of road making bearing his name. 

July 1 .—Parliament prorogued by the Queen 
in person. The Royal Speech was of unusual 
length, and made reference to her Majesty’s 
relations with foreign Powers and the principal 
Acts passed during the session. The last para¬ 
graph referred to the impending dissolution in 
words of more than usual import and seriousness. 
“It is my intention without delay to dissolve 
this present Parliament; and it is my earnest 
prayer, that in the exercise of the high func¬ 
tions which according to our free constitution 
will devolve upon the several constituencies, 
they may be directed by an All-wise Providence 
to the selection of representatives, whose wisdom 
and patriotism may aid me in my unceasing en¬ 
deavours to sustain the honour and dignity of 
my crown ; to uphold the Protestant institu¬ 
tions of the country, and the civil and religious 
liberty which is their natural result; to extend 
and improve the national education; to develop 
and encourage industry, art, and science; and 
to elevate the moral and social condition, and 
thereby promote the welfare and happiness, of 
my people.” 

— The new Metropolitan Burial Act comes 
into operation, empowering parochial authori¬ 
ties to form cemeteries on the representation of 
ten or more rate-payers that the present place 
of burial is insufficient or dangerous to health. 

— Collision off Northfleet between the 
Margate steam-ship Duchess of Kent and the 
Ravensbourne , bound for Antwerp. The 
damage sustained by the former was so serious 
that she filled and sank in deep water nine 
minutes after the accident. With one excep¬ 
tion, the passengers were got off, either by the 
Ravensbourne or other . boats close at hand 
when the collision took place. 

2 . —Trial of anchors at Sheemess, resulting 
in the victory of Trotman over all competitors. 

5.—A provincial synod of English Roman 
Catholics assembles in St. Mary’s College, 
Oscott. 

9. —Capital punishment for political offences 
abolished in Portugal. 


©■— Order in Council issued fixing the militia 
quotas in each of the counties in England and 
Wales under the new Act. The total force was 
80,000 for two years. 

12 . —Election riots at Cork and Liaiencic, 
The interference with voters was carried to an 
extent which compelled the clerks to close the 
booths and suspend the polling. At Limerick 
one man was thrown from the gallery of the 
hustings, and spiked on the rails beneath. The 
military were attacked with stones, five of them 
unhorsed, and two officers wounded. The 
troops then charged with drawn swords; next 
day thirteen persons were under hospital treat¬ 
ment. 

— Accident at Burnley station to a train of 
thirty-five carriages returning with an excursion 
party of Sabbath-school children and teachers. 
Owing to an omission on the part of the points¬ 
man, the train entered the station on the wrong 
rails, and came into collision with the buffers 
fixed in the wall of a bridge. Three.chiidren 
and one adult were killed. 

13 . —Election riot at Belfast between Pro¬ 
testants and Romanists. The chief seat of 
the disturbance was between College-square 
and Barrack-street, where many houses were 
wrecked, and, in the latter stages of the strug¬ 
gle, two or three people seriously injured by the 
discharge of fire-arms. Respectably dressed 
women were seen supplying the combatants 
with paving-stones and brickbats from the rear 
of the houses, while girls were engaged break¬ 
ing the more unwieldy missiles into smaller 
sizes for the use of the rioters. A troop of 
Dragoons, and two companies of the 46th Foot, 
were sent from the barracks, and succeeded in 
clearing the streets. 

14 . —After a four days’ poll the Oxford 
University contest ended in the return of Sir 
R. Inglis and Mr. Gladstone, the numbers 
being—Inglis, 1,368; Gladstone, 1,108; Dr. 
Marsham, Warden of Merton, 758. The poll 
was thus analysed :—Split votes for Inglis 
and Gladstone, 638 ; split votes for Inglis and 
Marsham, 698 : plumpers for Inglis, 33; 
plumpers for Gladstone, 470; plumpers for 
Marsham, 60. (For former poll see Aug. 29, 
1847.) 

16 . —At the nomination for Buckingham¬ 
shire Mr. Disraeli, asked to explain precisely 
the “ events looming in the future” which he 
had spoken of at Newport-Pagnell on the 14th, 
answered, that the first event looming ir. the 
future was, that he, in a few days, would be one 
of the members for Buckinghamshire. “We 
have been taunted to-day,” he said, “ with the 
question, ‘Are you a Free-trader, or are you 
not ? ’ I am almost surprised that the big and 
the little loaf did not appear in the procession 
of the gentlemen opposite. The time has gone 
by when these exploded politics could interest 
the people of this country. No one supposes 
that the present administration has any inten¬ 
tion, or ever had any intention, to bring back 
the laws that were repealed in 1846. (Shouts 

( 357 ) 




JUL Y 


yUL Y 


TS5-2. 


of 'Oh, oh !’ and cheers.) I would express 
my firm and solemn conviction, in the face of 
the county of Buckingham, after witnessing the 
present temper of the public mind, and scanning 
—I am sure with no prejudice—the results of 
the general election, that the Ministry will be 
permitted to bring forward their measures ; 
that no manoeuvres of faction will terminate 
their career ; and that those measures will ob¬ 
tain the assent, and I will even say the enthu¬ 
siastic approbation, of the great body of the 
people. ” 

17 .—The Prince President leaves Paris on a 
visit to Strasbourg, where he reviewed the 
troops. 

— Numerous elections to the new Parlia¬ 
ment were now taking place. The City of 
London returned one Conservative (Masterman) 
and three Liberals (Russell, Duke, and Roths¬ 
child). In the metropolitan boroughs, Shelley 
and Evans were returned to Westminster; 
Challis and Duncombe for Finsbury; Clay 
and Butler for Tower Hamlets ; Moles worth 
and Pellatt for Southwark ; and Wilkins and 
Williams for Lambeth. Gibson and Bright 
were successful at Manchester, while Liverpool 
returned two Conservatives, Turner and Mac¬ 
kenzie. Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Dupre were 
returned unopposed for Buckinghamshire, Mr. 
Walpole for Midhurst, Lord Palmerston for 
Tiverton, and Mr. Cobden and Mr. Dennison 
for the West Riding. Among the Scotch elec¬ 
tions, Edinburgh excited the greatest interest, 
and the result was generally received with 
satisfaction, Mr. Macaulay being returned at 
the top of the poll. Among the most promi¬ 
nent'Liberal defeats were Sir G. C. Lewis at 
Hertford, Sir G. Grey at North Northumber¬ 
land, Mr. Horsman at Cockermouth, and Mr. 
Cardwell at Liverpool. Mr. R. Lowe entered 
Parliament for the first time at this election as 
member for Kidderminster. Ninety-five pe¬ 
titions were lodged against the return of mem¬ 
bers. In 24 cases the elections were declared 
void ; 3 not duly elected ; 22 duly elected; 
and 45 petitions were withdrawn. 

20 .—General Cathcart issues a circular 
warning the inhabitants of the Cape that they 
must look to themselves in a great measure for 
future defence against Cafifre invasions. 

22 .—Conflict at Six-mile Bridge, Clare, 
between the peasantry and a small body of 
military called out to protect the tenants of the 
Marquis of Conyngham to the polling-booth. 
Exasperated by the usage to which they were 
subjected, the soldiers fired upon their assail¬ 
ants, when six were shot and as many more 
wounded. The coroner’s jury returned a ver¬ 
dict of wilful murder against one of the magis¬ 
trates and eight of the soldiers. The bill was 
thrown out at Clare Assizes, and a cross prose¬ 
cution raised against two priests withdrawn. 

— A diversity giving rise to much com¬ 
ment was noticed in the speeches delivered 
during the present election contest by Minis¬ 

(35*) 


terial supporters, regarding the view’s of the 
Cabinet on the subject of Free-trade. At 
Lynn, Lord Stanley said, “The question ot 
Protection is set at rest, and I am glad of it.’* 
“Why,” said Mr. Disraeli at the Bucks elec¬ 
tion dinner, “no one can suppose that the 
present administration has any intention, or 
ever had any intention, of taxing the food of 
the people, or of bringing back the laws re¬ 
pealed in 1846.” In Lincolnshire, Mr. Chris¬ 
topher plainly stated that he believed it to be 
Lord Derby’s intention to restore Protection; a 
sentiment echoed with more or less distinctness 
by Mr. Walpole at Midhurst, Lord John Man¬ 
ners at Colchester, and Lord Granby at North 
Leicestershire. Not only, said Mr. Macaulay, 
did they suit their language to town or county 
constituencies, but individual candidates were 
seen from the same reason to change all their 
former professions. Lord Maidstone, a vehe¬ 
ment Protectionist, adopted the policy of Sir 
Robert Peel when standing for Westminster* 
while Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Peel’s Solicitor-Gene¬ 
ral, made a speech at East Suffolk which might 
have been composed out of Lord Maidstone’s 
hexameters. The one forgot his votes; the 
other his verse. 

26 .— Addressing the electors of East Cum¬ 
berland at a festive gathering, Sir James 
Graham ridiculed the conduct of Lord Derby 
in throwing the question of his policy before 
the people and leaving the people to decide. 
“We are told that after the overthrow of Lord 
Derby’s Government the deluge comes. What 
was the fact before the deluge is recorded? We 
read that all people spoke one language. What 
was the post-diluvian symptom ? There was a 
confusion of tongues. I think the deluge is 
past and Babel is come. There are not two 
members who hold the same language. 
(Cheers and laughter.)” Later in his speech, 
he said: “ We hear of things ‘ looming in the 
future. ’ I will tell you what is ‘ looming in 
the future. ’ A quart-bottle, into which a con¬ 
juror is to jump. (Laughter).” He charac¬ 
terized Mr. Disraeli’s promised revision of taxa¬ 
tion as a “ vain delusion, which would be dissi¬ 
pated into thin air. ” 

30 . — The elections up to this evening 
showed, as near as could be calculated, 310 
Ministerialists to 344 in Opposition. 

31 . — The most distant of the elections, 
Orkney and Shetland, takes place to-day, and 
results in the return of Mr. Dundas by a. 
majority of 33 over Mr. Inglis, Lord Ad¬ 
vocate. 

Curious case of bribery at Derby election. 
Flewker, an election agent, having betrayed 
the confidence of the Ministerial candidates, 
the chairman of the Opposition committee, 
with two or three policemen in plain clothes, 
all duly furnished with the sign and pass-word, 
proceeded to one of the rooms in the County 
Tavern. Some opposition was made to their 
entrance at first, but on each placing his fore¬ 
finger on his lip and using the words “It’s all 





AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1852. 


right, Radford sent us,” they were at once 
admitted. In the room they discovered a man 
named Morgan, whom they at once appre¬ 
hended. They found upon him 265/. in gold 
and 40/. in notes, and on the table before him 
was a book in which were entered names and 
numbers from the register of voters, and 
against certain of them were figures indicating 
the sums paid. They also found upon him the 
following letter:—“A good and safe man, 
with judgment and quickness, is wanted imme¬ 
diately at Derby. I suppose that you cannot 
leave your own place ; if not, send some one 
in whom you can trust in your place. Let him 
go to Derby on receiving this, and find the 
County Tavern in the centre of the town, and 
send his card to Cox, Brothers, and Company, 
lead-works, as coming from Chester. That 
will be enough. W.B., Monday.” On ex¬ 
amination before a magistrate, Morgan freely 
admitted that his book contained the names 
of electors who had received money for their 
vote. The note was afterwards traced to the 
Secretary-at-War, Major Beresford, and his 
complicity in the transaction led to a parlia¬ 
mentary inquiry. (See Dec. 16.) 

August 3 .—Died, at Paris, aged 52, Alfred 
Count d’Orsay, a fashionable writer and artist. 

5. —The first pillar of the New Crystal 
Palace at Sydenham fixed by Mr. Laing, the 
chairman of the company, in the presence of a 
large and distinguished company. Speeches 
were delivered on the occasion by Sir J. Paxton, 
Sir C. Lyell, and Mr. Scott Russell. 

6 . —Numerous fires at Constantinople, pre¬ 
sumed to be the work of incendiaries. 

8 . —A decree of the Prince President permits 
M. Thiers, and certain other exiles, to return to 
France. 

9 . —In the Encumbered Estates Court, 
Dublin, the number of estates disposed of up to 
this date were 777, in 4,083 lots, producing 
a total of 7 » 353 » 73 ^/. 

10. —Lord Frankfort appears at Bow-street 
Police-court on a charge of sending a letter of 
an improper character to Lord Henry Lennox. 
The letter, written under a feigned name, was 
similar in character to a bundle of others taken 
from Lord Frankfort’s servant at the Post- 
office, informing different parties that the writer, 
having been trained under Wilmer Harris, still 
continued to arrange assignations between ladies 
and gentlemen. Lord Frankfort was committed 
for trial at the Central Criminal Court, but the 
case was removed by a writ of certiorari to the 
Queen’s Bench. It came on for hearing there 
on the 3d December, when the jury returned a 
verdict of “Guilty of defamation,” and the 
court sentenced Lord Frankfort to twelve 
months’ imprisonment in the House of Correc¬ 
tion. 

— Establishment of an Association for pro¬ 
moting a Cheap System of Colonial and Inter¬ 
national Postage, Earl Granville president. 


13. —The Emperor of Austria returns to 
Vienna from a tour in Hungary, where he had 
been favourably received by the people. 

15. —The festival of Napoleon celebrated 
with great splendour in Paris. A mock naval 
fight on the Seine proved a source of great 
attraction to the Sunday holiday-makers. 

16. —So great is the scarcity of harvest 
labourers in West Sussex, that the farmers 
apply for the help of the Fusilier Guards sta¬ 
tioned at Chichester, to cut their wheat. 

20 . —Earthquake at St. Jago, Cuba, destroy¬ 
ing the southern part of the city, and many of 
the inhabitants. 

— Manchester adopts a rate for the main¬ 
tenance of the Free Library recently started 
there, the votes being 3,962 against 40. The 
Library was formally opened on the 2d Sept., 
when speeches were delivered by Sir E. Bulwer, 
Mr. Dickens, Mr. Thackeray, Mr. M. Milnes, 
Sir J. Stephens, and others. 

21 . —American newspapers of this date an¬ 
nounce the formation in Alabama and other 
Southern States of a secret society called the 
“ Order of the Lone Star,” whose object was 
declared to be “the extension of the institutions, 
the power, the influence, and the commerce of 
the United States over the whole of the Western 
hemisphere and the Islands of the Atlantic 
and Pacific seas.” 

28 .—Collision on Lake Erie between the 
steamer Atlantic> laden with Norwegian emi¬ 
grants, and the propeller Ogsdenburg. The 
former sank, and about 200 of those on board 
were drowned. 

30.— Private Edward Dunn, of the 30th 
depot, Dover Castle, commits suicide by throw¬ 
ing himself from Shakspeare’s Cliff. 

September 3. —Died at Tunbridge Wells, 
aged 59, G. R. Porter, author of “The Pro¬ 
gress of the Nation. ” 

5 .— Destructive flood in the valley of the 
Severn. 

— Died at Aberdeen, Professor Macgillivray, 
ornithologist. 

7. — Mr. Simpson, of Cremorne Gardens, 
with Monsieur and Madame Poitevin, appear 
at the Westminster Police-court, to answer a 
charge of cruelty to horses, in so far as they 
had on different occasions attached one to a bal¬ 
loon, and permitted it to ascend with a person 
sitting on its back. The evidence as to the 
cruelty attending the feat was of a contradictory 
character, but on Mr. Simpson promising that 
it would not be repeated, the summons was 
dismissed. At the Ilford Petty Sessions the 
same parties were fined 5/. each, for permitting 
a heifer to ascend bearing Madame Poitevin on 
its back as Europa. 

8 . —Bronze statue of Sir Robert Peel un¬ 
covered in the market-place of Bury, the states¬ 
man’s native town. 

( 359 ) 






SEPTEMBER 


1852. 


SEPTEMBER 


8 . —Conference of Irish members in Dublin, 
to secure the passing of Mr. Sharman Craw¬ 
ford’s Tenant-Right Bill through Parliament. 

13. —The French Senate prays the re-estab¬ 
lishment of the hereditary power in the Buona¬ 
parte family. 

14 . —The Constitutionnel publishes an article 
hinting at the invasion of England as an event 
within the power of France to accomplish, and 
in certain circumstances justifiable. 

— The Moniteur announces that the Pre¬ 
sident had been received at Bruges not only as 
the Emperor elect of the French people, but as 
“ the elect of God.” 

— The Milan Gazette announces that in future 
the two universities of Pavia and Padua would 
be open without restriction, as they were before 
the events of 1848. 

— Death of the Duke of Wellington at 
Walmer Castle. Preserving to the last the 
activity for which he was distinguished, the 
Duke took his customary walk in the grounds 
on the 13th, inspected the stables, and gave 
directions regarding a journey to Dover. After 
dining with his customary cheerfulness on 
venison, he retired to rest apparently in his 
usual health. Early on the following morning, 
when his valet came to awake him, his Grace 
did not get up, but ordered the apothecary, 
Mr. Hulke, to be sent for. He arrived at the 
Castle shortly before nine o’clock, and found 
his Grace complaining of uneasiness in the 
chest and stomach, though perfectly conscious, 
and answering all the questions put to him 
correctly. Medicine was ordered, and during 
its preparation the Duke took a little tea and 
dry toast. ‘ ‘ At this time, ” writes J. W. Hulke, 
“ there were no symptoms indicative of danger, 
and my father went home. Shortly he received 
another communication, stating that the Duke 
was much worse. My father and I directly 
went to the Castle. His Grace was in bed, 
unconscious, breathing laboriously. Remedial 
measures, which in former attacks had been 
useful, were now of no avail. Dr. McArthur 
soon arrived, and advised an emetic to be given, 
as this had been very serviceable on a former 
occasion. Soon after one o’clock he became 
very restless; he tried to turn on the left side, 
and there was occasionally twitching of the left 
arm. Respiration was extremely difficult, but 
easier when he was raised. This induced us 
to place his Grace in an easy chair ; and his 
breathing became immediately much more free, 
but the pulse sank. He was now brought into 
a more horizontal posture; the pulse rallied 
for a short time, and then gradually declined. 
Respiration became very feeble, and at twenty- 
five minutes past three o’clock, P.M., he ex¬ 
pired. So easy and gentle was the transition, 
that for the moment it was doubted. I held a 
mirror before his mouth. It remained bright. 
He was indeed no more! ” The Duke of 
Wellington was born in Merrion-street, Dublin, 
1st May, 1769. 

( 360 ) 


14 .— Died at Ramsgate, aged 40, Augustus 
Welby Pugin, an enthusiast in Gothic art, and 
an architect of great genius. 

16 . —The Queen receives intelligence of the 
death of the Duke of Wellington. Writing at 
Alt-na-Giuthasach, her Majesty records : “ We 
were startled this morning, at seven o’clock, by 
a letter from Colonel Phipps, enclosing a tele¬ 
graphic despatch, with the report, from the 
sixth edition of the Sun, of the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington’s death the day before yesterday ; which 
report, however, we did not at all believe. . . . 
We got off our ponies (at the Dhu Loch), and 
I had just sat down to sketch, when Mackenzie 
returned, saying my watch >vas safe at home, and 
bringing letters: amongst them there was one 
from Lord Derby, which I tore open, and alas! 
it contained the confirmation of the fatal news 
—that England’s, or rather Britain’s pride, her 
glory, her hero, the greatest man she ever had 
produced, was no more! Sad day! Great 
and irreparable national loss! Lord Derby 
enclosed a few lines from Lord Charles Welles¬ 
ley, saying that his dear great father had died 
on Tuesday, at three o’clock, after a few hours’ 
illness and no suffering. God’s will be done ! 
The day must have come. The Duke was 
eighty-three. It is well for him that he has 
been taken when still in the possession of his 
great mind, and without a long illness; but 
what a loss ! One cannot think of this country 
without ‘the Duke,’—an immortal hero! In 
him centred almost every earthly honour a sub¬ 
ject could possess. His position was the highest 
a subject ever had; above party, looked up to ' 
by all, revered by the whole nation, the friend 
of the Sovereign; and how simply he carried 
these honours! With what singleness of pur¬ 
pose, what straightforwardness, what courage, 
were all the motives of his actions guided! 
The Crown never found, and I fear never will, 
so devoted, loyal, and faithful a subject, so 
staunch a supporter. To us (who also have 
lost now so many of our valued and experienced 
friends) his loss is irreparable, for his readiness 
to aid and advise, if it could be of use to us, 
and to overcome any and every difficulty, was 
unequalled. To Albert he showed the greatest 
kindness and his utmost confidence. His ex¬ 
perience and the knowledge of the past were so 
great, too; he was a link which connected us 
with bygone times, with the last century. Not 
an eye will be dry in the whole country.” 

19. —Evidently with a view of putting the 
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill to the test, “John, 
Archbishop of Tuam,” writes to the Earl of 
Derby, as First Minister of the Crown, on this 
the anniversary of “ the Feast of the Seven 
Dolours of the Blessed Virgin.” 

20 . —The Queen, at Balmoral, causes the 
Earl of Derby to write to the Home Secretary, 
that she “ had received with the deepest grief, 
on Thursday last, the afflicting intelligence of 
the sudden death of his Grace the late Duke 

of Wellington.Her Majesty is well 

aware that, as in the case of Lord Nelson, she 






SEPTEMBER 


1852. 


SEPTEMBER 


might, of her own authority, have given imme¬ 
diate orders for this public mark of veneration 
for the memory of the illustrious Duke, and has 
no doubt but that Parliament and the country 
would cordially have approved the step. But 
her Majesty, anxious that this tribute of grati¬ 
tude and of sorrow should be deprived of 
nothing which could invest it with a thoroughly 
national character,—anxious that the greatest 
possible number of her subjects should have an 
opportunity of joining it,—is anxious, above 
all, that such honours should not appear to 
emanate from the Crown alone ; and that the 
two Houses of Parliament should have an op¬ 
portunity, by their previous sanction, of stamp¬ 
ing the proposed ceremony with increased 
solemnity, and of associating themselves with 
her Majesty in paying honour to the memory 
of one whom no Englishman can name without 
pride and sorrow. The body of the Duke of 
Wellington will, therefore, remain, with the 
concurrence of his family, under proper guard¬ 
ianship, until the Queen shall have received 
the formal approval of Parliament of the course 
which it will be the duty of her Majesty’s 
servants to submit to both Houses upon their 
re-assembling. As soon as possible after that 
approval shall have been obtained, it is her 
Majesty’s wish, should no unforeseen impedi¬ 
ment arise, that the mortal remains of the late 
illustrious and venerated Commander-in-chief 
should, at the public expense, and with all the 
solemnity due to the greatness of the occasion, 
be deposited in the cathedral church of St. 
Paul’s, there to rest by the side of Nelson,— 
the greatest military by the side of the greatest 
naval chief who ever reflected lustre upon the 
annals of England.” 

20 .—During his “ progress ” in the southern 
departments, the President of the Republic 
presided at the inauguration of an equestrian 
statue erected to the Emperor Napoleon at 
Lyons. “Your town,” he said, “has ever 
been associated with remarkable incidents in 
the different phases of the life of the Emperor. 
You selected him Consul on his way to cross 
the mountains to collect fresh laurels; you 
selected him Emperor, all powerful; and when 
Europe confined him to an island, you were 
again the first, in 1815, to salute him Emperor. 
.... Prudence and patriotism require that 
the nation take counsel before fixing its des¬ 
tinies, and it is still difficult for me to know 
under what name I can render the greatest 
services. If the modest title of President 
could facilitate the mission that was confided to 
me, and from which I have not shrunk, it is 
not from any personal interest that I would 
desire to change this title for that of Emperor. 
Let us, then, offer on this stone our homage to 
a great man. In doing so we at once do honour 
to the glory of France and the generous grati¬ 
tude of the people. We thus record the fidelity 
of the Lyonnese to immortal recollections.” 
In an address to his clergy, the Bishop of 
Chalons spoke thus of the President : “May 
he be blessed, this man of God, this great 


man ; for it is God who has raised him up for 
the happiness of our country, to cure all the 
wounds which sixty years of revolution have 
inflicted. ” 

20. —Died at his residence, Chelsea, in his 
65th year, William Finden, engraver. 

21. —Lord John Russell reviews the great 
public services of the Duke of Wellington 
on the occasion of being presented with the 
freedom of the burgh of Stirling. He received 
the same honour at Perth on the 24th. 

22. —The Bishop of Exeter gives judgment 
in favour of the Rev. G. R. Prynne, Incumbent 
of St. Peter’s at Eldad, near Plymouth, who 
was alleged to have introduced the practice of 
compulsory confession among the girls attend¬ 
ing the Orphan Home set up in his parish by 
Miss Sellon. 

23 . — Lieutenant-General Viscount Hard- 
inge, the new Commander-in-chief, issues his first 
“ General Order ” relating to the mourning of 
the army for “the greatest commander whom 
England ever saw. and whose life has afforded 
the brightest example by which a British army 
can be guided in the performance of its duties.” 

— Infernal machine intended, it was said, 
to destroy the French President, seized at Mar¬ 
seilles. 

26 .—For the twenty-three days preceding 
this date the yield of gold in the Victoria 
diggings was reported at 366,193 oz. 

29 . —The American ship Mobile wrecked in 
a storm off the Blackwater Bank, near Wex¬ 
ford. There were sixty passengers and a crew 
of twenty-three on board when the vessel 
struck ; she went to pieces with such rapidity, 
that only one passenger and eight of the crew 
were saved. 

30 . —The broad-gauge line between London 
and Birmingham opened for passenger traffic. 
There was a slight collision near Banbury, but 
no lives were lost. 

— The late Duke of Wellington being a 
Field Marshal in the Austrian army, high 
funeral honours were this day paid to his 
memory by the garrison of Vienna, headed by 
the Emperor in person. 

During this month considerable attention 
was directed to a case of imposture and cre¬ 
dulity at Shottesham, Suffolk, where a young 
girl, named Elizabeth Squirrel, was said to 
have lived three months without food, and to 
have been favoured during that time with nu¬ 
merous angelic visions. “ Medical men,” 
writes the Ipswich Express, “clergymen, Dis¬ 
senting ministers, and members of the aristo¬ 
cracy, alike shared in the intense desire to gaze 
on this extraordinary child, and to listen to the 
words which fell from her, with as much 
weight as if she had really indisputable cre¬ 
dentials that she was an oracle from heaven.” 
On being subjected to a rigid watch, it was 
found that food must have been conveyed to 
her secretly. 




OCTOBER 


1852. 


OCTOBER 


October 1.—Eliot Bower, the Paris corre¬ 
spondent of the Morning Advertiser , murders 
Saville Morton, of the Daily News, by wound¬ 
ing him in the neck with a knife when leaving 
his house in the Rue de Seze. Bower was 
incited to the attack through revelations made 
by his wife (during an attack of fever) regard¬ 
ing the paternity of her youngest child. He 
fled immediately to England, but returned to 
take his trial before the Court of Assizes of the 
Seine. The jury returned a verdict of acquittal 
on the 28th of December, and Mr. Bower was 
thereafter set at liberty. 

2 .—Died at Edinburgh, aged 84, Thomas 
Thomson, a Record scholar, and constitutional 
lawyer of great attainments. 

4. —At a political banquet in Belfast, Mr. 
Bright spoke at some length on the land 
question, as the chief source of the evils with 
which Ireland was beset. “In Ireland,” he 
said, “ the land is not possessed by the people. 
They live upon it—or rather they may be said 
to sojourn upon it; they walk over it; they 
grow potatoes upon it; they drag out a miser¬ 
able existence upon it; but they do not possess 
it. And I believe that in that single fact—and 
a great economical fact it is—is to be found the 
true secret why the people of Ireland, or at 
least its rural population, have made less pro¬ 
gress during the last hundred and fifty years 
than the people of England and Scotland.” 
The speaker further declared that the Encum¬ 
bered Estates Court had probably done more 
for Ireland than all the laws which have been 
passed since the Union. As to tenant-right, 
he would give a right to retrospective compen¬ 
sation for all substantial and valuable improve¬ 
ments made on the land during a period of 
twenty years. 

5. — In the will case of Gilmour v. Gilmour 
and others, tried before a jury at Glasgow, the 
Lord Advocate, on the part of the plaintiff, 
withdraws from the contest, as his client was 
now satisfied, from the evidence adduced, that 
no unfair means had been used to induce the 
testator, Allen Gilmour, to make the second 
will in favour of the defendant. 

— The new prison at Holloway formally 
handed over to the City Prison Committee. It 
was designed to accommodate 283 male adults, 
60 women, and 61 juveniles. 

6 . — The City of Oxford declares in favour 
of a Public Library rate by 705 to 62 votes. 

7. —Proclamation of the Empire at Sevres. 
“ The town of Sevres, obeying its sentiments 
of affection and gratitude for Prince Louis Na¬ 
poleon Buonaparte, the Envoy of God, and the 
elect of France, her saviour and her glory, 
proclaims him Emperor of the French under 
the name of Napoleon III., and confers on 
him and his descendants hereditary right. ” 

9. —Addressing the Chamber of Commerce 
at Bordeaux, the President said : “ To pro¬ 
mote the welfare of the country, it is not neces- 
(362) 


sary to adopt new systems, but the chief point 
above all is to produce confidence in the present 
and security for the future. For these reasons, 
it seems, France desires a return to the Empire. 
There is one objection to which I must reply. 
Certain minds seem to entertain a dread of 
war; certain persons say the Empire is only 
war. But” (speaking with strong emphasis) 
“I say the Empire is peace, for France desires 
it, and when France is satisfied the world is 
tranquil. ” [These words, uttered with a firm 
voice, were reported to have produced a 
magical effect on the assembly, enthusiastic 
“ bravos ” bursting out on all sides.] . . . “We 
have immense waste territories to cultivate, 
roads to open, ports to dig, rivers to render 
navigable, a system of railroads to complete ; 
we have opposite to Marseilles a vast kingdom, 
which we must assimilate to France ; we have 
to bring all our great Western ports into con¬ 
nexion with the American continent, by a 
rapidity of communication which we still want ; 
lastly, we have ruins to restore, false gods to 
overthrow, and truths to be made triumphant. 
This is the sense which I attach to the Empire, 
if the Empire is to be restored. Such are the 
conquests which I contemplate; and all you 
who surround me, and who, like me, desire 
your country’s welfare—you are my soldiers. 
Glory descends by inheritance, but not war.” 
On returning to Paris, the President received a 
royal reception, and was presented with ad¬ 
dresses from the Municipal Council, imploring 
him to yield to the wishes of his entire people, 
“by resuming the crown of the immortal 
founder of your dynasty, as it is only under the 
title of Emperor that you can accomplish the 
promises of the magnificent programme you 
addressed to attentive Europe at Bordeaux.” 

11. —Sydney University opened. 

12 . - —The Earl of Derby elected Chancellor 
of the University of Oxford, in room of the 
late Duke of Wellington. 

— Meeting in Edinburgh, to adopt me¬ 
morials praying for the relief of the Madia 
family, confined by the Grand Duke of Tus¬ 
cany for a religious offence. 

— Lord Fitzroy Somerset gazetted as Baron 
Raglan of Raglan, county of Monmouth. 

— The Queen leaves Balmoral for Windsor, 
by way of Edinburgh, Preston, Bangor, and 
Shrewsbury. On the 14th, in company with 
Prince Albert and the Royal children, her 
Majesty visited the famous tubular bridge over 
the Menai Straits. 

13. —Cannon, a ferocious London sweep, 
sentenced to death for a savage attack on 
police-constable Dwyer, at the “Bricklayers’ 
Arms ” public-house. The savage first rushed 
against the officer, head forwards, and having 
thrown him upon the ground, commenced 
trampling upon his prostrate victim. He had 
been convicted twenty times before for assaults, 
chiefly on constables, but on this occasion, to 
his great astonishment, he was not indicted on 





OCTOBER 


1852. 


OCTOBER 


the ordinary charge, but for inflicting bodily 
injury with intent to murder. He offered no 
defence, and was found guilty. 

15. —Release of Abd-el-Kader. On return¬ 
ing from his tour in the provinces, Prince Louis 
Napoleon entered the Chateau d’Amboise, and 
informed the chief that his captivity was at an 
end. The Emir was to be taken to Broussa, 
m the states of the Sultan, and as soon as 
the necessary preparations could be made he 
would receive from the French Government an 
allowance worthy of his former rank. 

18 . —Liverpool Free Library opened. 

— The Bishop of Rochester gives judgment 
in the case of the Rev. Robert Whiston, re¬ 
moved from the Mastership of Rochester 
School, in 1849, for publishing a pamphlet 
exposing the administration of the Dean and 
Chapter. The Bishop pronounced the pam¬ 
phlet libellous, as regards the Dean and Chap¬ 
ter ; but thought Mr. Whiston might have been 
misled by legal opinions of high authority 
upon the main charge against the Dean and 
Chapter, of illegally appropriating to their 
own use a disproportionate share of the cathe¬ 
dral revenues. Sentence of suspension con¬ 
firmed till the 1st of January, 1853, on which 
day Mr. Whiston was to be reinstated in his 
office. (See Nov. 24, 1849.) 

— The Times announces that Lord Derby 
had advised the Crown to issue licence permit¬ 
ting Convocation to resume its synodical func¬ 
tions. A formal meeting took place on the 
22d, at the close of which it was intimated 
that an adjournment would be made to the 
5th November, when Convocation would 
assemble “for the despatch of divers urgent 
business.” (See Nov. 5.) 

19. —M. Coumet, formerly an officer in the 
French navy, shot by E. Barthelemy, in a 
duel at Crown Farm, near Windsor. Both 
principals and seconds were refugees, and the 
quarrel leading to the encounter appeared to 
have originated in a political dispute. (See Dec. 
8, 1854.) 

22 . —The will of James Camden Neild 
proved in Doctors’ Commons by the Keeper of 
her Majesty’s Privy Purse, and other executors, 
lie bequeathed all his real personal property 
to the Queen, for her own private use and 
advantage. The estate was sworn to as under 
250,000/. 

— Edward Gurling, a keeper in the Zoo¬ 
logical Gardens, dies after a few hours’ illness, 
from the effects of the bite of a cobra snake 
which he had rashly taken out of its case and 
placed round his neck. The wounds were 
small punctures on each side of the nose. 

23. —Dr. Cotton, Provost of Worcester 
College, takes the oaths rendered necessary by 
his elevation to the office of Vice-Chancellor of 
the University of Oxford. 

— Demise of the legal fictions “John Doe” 
and “Richard Roe,” an Act now coming into 


operation providing that “ instead of the 
present proceeding by ejectment a writ shall 
be issued, directed to the persons in possession 
of the property claimed, which property shall 
be described in the writ with reasonable cer¬ 
tainty. ” 

24.— Died at Marshfield, aged 70, Daniel 
Webster, American statesman. 

26. —Lord Roden writes to Lord Shaftes¬ 
bury that he had received a reply from the 
Tuscan Minister for Foreign Affairs, declining 
to receive a deputation on the subject of Madia. 
“ They are Tuscan subjects,” writes the Minis¬ 
ter, ‘ ‘ and have been condemned to five years’ 
imprisonment by the ordinary tribunals for pro¬ 
pagating Protestantism, which is prescribed by> 
our laws as an attack upon the religion of the 
state. Their punishment is the application of 
these laws, and their appeal for a reversal of 
their sentence has been rejected by the Court 
of Cassation.” 

— Died, aged 51, Vincenzo Gioberti, Prime 
Minister of Sardinia. 

27. —Conference at Jerusalem between re¬ 
presentatives of the Greek and Latin Churches 
and certain Turkish dignitaries, for the purpose 
of arranging the rival claims to the Holy 
Places—a dispute with which the Porte, as 
protecting power, had been for three years 
greatly troubled. Alif Bey read an order from 
the Sultan permitting the Latins to celebrate 
Mass once a year, but requiring the altar and 
its ornaments to remain undisturbed. “No 
sooner,” writes the British Consul, “were 
these words uttered than the Latins, who had 
come to record their triumph over the Orientals, 
broke out into loud exclamations as to the im¬ 
possibility of celebrating Mass upon a schis¬ 
matic slab of marble, with a covering of silk 
and gold instead of plain linen, among schis¬ 
matic vases, and before a crucifix which had 
the feet separated instead of one nailed over 
the other.” The Conference broke up in con¬ 
fusion. 

28. —Conference of the Religious Equality 
Association, in the Rotunda, Dublin. The 
main object of the association was the abolition 
of the present Church establishment. A reso¬ 
lution was passed disclaiming any intention of 
demanding a portion of the revenue of the 
Established Church for the Roman Catholic 
Church. Irish members were also urged to 
keep in opposition to any Government not 
willing to concede perfect religious equality. 
Apologising for his inability to attend a Re¬ 
ligious Equality Conference, to be held in 
Dublin to-day, Mr. Bright explains at some 
length his views on the I rish Church Establish¬ 
ment. He proposed the establishment of a 
Church Property Commission, authorized to 
appropriate the 10,000,000/. of revenue in 
certain proportions among the Established, 
Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic Churches. 
In dividing the sum he would appropriate 
so much of it to the Roman Catholics as 

( 363 ) 




OCTOBER 


1852. 


NOVEMBER 


would provide a small piece of land in every 
parish—“say from ten to twenty acres”—in 
the “possession of the Catholic Church,” 
to be “ made over absolutely and for ever to 
the Catholics of Ireland.” “Under an arrange¬ 
ment of this kind of course the special grant 
to the College of Maynooth would be with¬ 
drawn.” In their turn, the Presbyterians 
would resign the Regium Donum, and receive 
instead such a portion of the general fund, 
absolutely and for ever, as would produce 
a revenue equal to the Parliamentary grant. 
Similarly he would treat the Protestant Epis¬ 
copalians ; giving them absolutely a sum about 
equal to that bestowed on the others, together 
with the privilege of possessing their churches 
at a nominal rent, so long as there should be a 
congregation. Thus he would have exhausted 
three out of the ten millions to be allotted. 

* ‘ The remaining five or seven millions, as the 
case may be, might, and in my opinion ought 
to be reserved for purposes strictly Irish, and 
directed to the educational and moral improve¬ 
ment of the people, without respect to class or 
creed.” Mr. Bright looked for objections to 
the scheme, but the case, he said, was desperate, 
and whoever waited for a remedy pleasant to 
everybody must wait for ever. 

31. —The Fire Annihilator Works, Batter- 
sea-fields, destroyed by fire. 

November 1.—A meeting held at the Lon¬ 
don Tavern to consider Mr. Pearson’s scheme 
for making a City railway terminus communi¬ 
cating with the railways north of the Thames, 
by means of four underground lines. The meet¬ 
ing passed resolutions approving of the scheme, 
and took steps also for carrying it into effect. 

— The directors of the Submarine Telegraph 
Company celebrate the re-opening of telegra¬ 
phic communication between London and Paris 
by sending a message to the Prince President, 
expressive of their wish that “ this wonderful, 
invention may serve, under the Empire, to 
promote the peace and prosperity of the 
world.” 

2 .—At the request of several prominent 
pleaders in his court, the Lord Chancellor 
consents to adjourn the sittings in Chancery 
from Westminster to Lincoln’s-inn for the pre¬ 
sent term. 

— Mr. Macaulay addresses his constituents 
at Edinburgh for the first time since his re-elec¬ 
tion. After a tender reference to Edinburgh 
friends recently dead, the orator proceeded with 
great brilliancy and power to touch upon the 
principal political topics of the day, comment¬ 
ing with severity on certain recent Minis¬ 
terial blunderings, most notably on Mr. Wal¬ 
pole’s proposition to confer the franchise on 
Militiamen, as possessing the qualification of 

* ‘ youth, poverty, ignorance, a roving disposi¬ 
tion, and five-feet two.” 

— Great Free-trade meeting in Manchester, 
designed to afford an opportunity to the advo¬ 

(364) 


cates of unrestricted commercial intercourse, on 
the eve of the meeting of Parliament, for de¬ 
claring their firm adherence to the principles 
of Free-trade adopted in 1846. It was attended 
by 79 members of Parliament. The speeches 
delivered on the occasion showed a determina¬ 
tion to bring the question of Free-trade to an 
immediate settlement in Parliament, and a per¬ 
fect unanimity to reorganize, if necessary, all 
the machinery of the League in support of their 
views. 

4-.— The new Parliament opened by com¬ 
mission, the Commons meeting for the first 
time in their new chamber in the Palace of West¬ 
minster. Mr. Shaw Lefevre was unanimously 
re-elected Speaker, and the swearing-in of 
members thereafter proceeded with. 

— The French Senate receive a message 
from the President:—“The nation has clearly 
manifested its wish for the re-establishment of 
the Empire. Confident in your patriotism and 
your intelligence, I have convoked you for the 
purpose of legally deliberating on that grave 
question, and of entrusting you with the regu¬ 
lation of the new order of things. If you 
should adopt it, you will think, no doubt, as I 
do, that the Constitution of 1852 ought to be 
maintained ; and then the modifications recog¬ 
nised as indispensable will in no way touch its 
fundamental basis. The change which is in 
preparation will bear chiefly on the form ; and 
yet the resumption of the Imperial system is 
for France of immense signification. In fact, 
in the re-establishment of the Empire the 
people finds a guarantee for its interests, and a 
satisfaction for its just pride. That re-establish¬ 
ment guarantees the interests of the people, by 
insuring the future, by closing the sera of revo¬ 
lutions, and by again consecrating the conquests 
of ’89. It satisfies its just pride, because in 
restoring with liberty and reflection that which 
thirty-seven years ago the entife of Europe had 
overturned by the force of arms, in the midst 
of the disasters of the country, the people 
nobly avenges its reverses without making vic¬ 
tims, without threatening any independence, 
and without troubling the peace of the world. 

I do not dissimulate, nevertheless, all that is 
redoubtable in at this day accepting and placing 
on one’s head the crown of Napoleon : but my 
apprehensions diminish with the idea that, 
representing as I do, by so many titles, the 
cause of the people and the national will, it 
will be the nation which, in elevating me to 
the throne, will herself crown me.” 

5. —The two Houses of Convocation com¬ 
mence a sitting of one week’s duration. 
Various discussions took place on the renewal 
of synodical action, but they led to no result. 
It was agreed to forward an address to the 
Queen relating to the spiritual condition of the 
kingdom, and praying that Convocation might 
be permitted to proceed with its necessary 
business. The Bishops of Oxford, Salisbury, 
Chichester, and St. David’s joined in a protest 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1852. 


against the Primate adjourning the Synod sine 
consensu fratrum. 

7 . —The French Senate pass a Senatus Con- 
sultum re-establishing the Imperial dynasty: 
Louis Napoleon to be Emperor, with the title 
of Napoleon III.; the Imperial dignity to be 
hereditary in the direct descendants, natural 
and legitimate, of Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, 
from male to male, by order of primogeniture, 
and to the perpetual exclusion of the females 
and their descendants. A decree deposited in 
the Archives fixed the order of succession in 
the Buonaparte family, in case he should leave 
no direct legitimate or adopted heir. 

8 . —The Victoria steamer wrecked in a storm 
off Wingo Beacon, near Gottenburg. 

9 . —The shock of an earthquake felt on the 
shores of Dublin and Wicklow. Taking nearly 
a circular direction, it was noticed in England 
as far as Gloucester. No actual damage was 

done. 

10. —At a meeting of the Society of the 
Friends of Italy, in the Music Hall, Store- 
street, London, Kossuth apologised to Mazzini 
and others for not making a speech. ‘ ‘ In con¬ 
sequence of my duty I have taken the rule that 
for the future I have only a single speech re¬ 
served for due time, and that speech is, ‘ Up, 
boys, and at them—follow me !’ Until I have 
an occasion to deliver that speech, I will have 
none else. So I am done with oratory.” 

— In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Dublin, 
the Attorney-General obtains a conditional order 
to quash the verdict of the coroner’s inquest 
against the soldiers engaged in the Six-mile 
Bridge affray. 

— Lying in state of the Duke of Welling¬ 
ton. The body was brought from Walmer to 
Chelsea Hospital this day, and lay in state there 
till Monday the 15th, when it was removed to 
the Horse Guards, where the Audience Cham¬ 
ber had been prepared for its reception. On 
Saturday the 13th, one of the days on which 
the public were admitted to the lying in state 
without tickets, a frightful confusion took place, 
two women being crushed to death, and others 
seriously injured. On some of the days 100,000 
people passed through the Hospital. The 
Queen, Prince Albert, and several of the Royal 
children visited on the nth, and on the 15th 
the new Duke of Wellington, with a number of 
relatives and the entire household, passed some 
time uninterrupted in the hall. 

— Died at his residence, Pimlico, aged 62, 
G. A. Mantell, LL.D., Vice-President of the 
Geological Society. 

11 . —The new Parliament opened. The 
Queen attended in person and delivered the 
Speech from the throne. It opened with a 
reference to the death of the Duke of Welling¬ 
ton, and a desire that steps should be taken to 
indicate the loss sustained by the nation. ‘ ‘ It 
gives me much pleasure to be enabled by the 
blessing of Providence to congratulate you on 


the generally improved condition of ihe work¬ 
ing classes. If you should be of opinion that 
recent legislation, in contributing with other 
causes to this happy result, has at the same 
time inflicted unavoidable injury on certain 
important interests, I recommend you dispas¬ 
sionately to consider how far it may be practi¬ 
cable equitably to mitigate that injury, and to 
enable the industry of the country to meet suc¬ 
cessfully that unrestricted competition to which 
Parliament in its wisdom has decided that it 
should be subjected.” A liberal and generous 
policy was recommended towards Ireland, and 
bills promised relating to improvements in the 
educational systems of Oxford and Cambridge, 
secondary punishments, and law reform. In 
the debate which followed, Lord Derby took 
occasion to intimate, that in consequence of the 
result of the elections the Government did not 
intend to revive the question of Protection. 
“On the part of myself and my colleagues, I 
bow to the decision of the country; and having 
so bowed, I declare on their part and on mine, 
that, while desirous to the utmost of our power 
to mitigate that unavoidable injury which the 
adoption of the policy to which I refer has 
inflicted, and must inflict, upon important 
classes, I do not adopt it with any reserve 
whatever. I adopt it frankly as the decision, 
of the country, and honestly and fairly I am 
prepared to carry it out as the decision of the 
country.”—In the House of Commons, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer said: “Neither 
myself nor any of my colleagues have the slight¬ 
est intention to propose any policy which would 
give artificial prices, or attempt to give what 
hon. gentlemen on the other side have men¬ 
tioned as compensation for the losses occasioned 
by changes in the legislation which has regulated 
the commercial interests of this count ry; but 
what we do say is ; —and I will state it as dis¬ 
tinctly as I can succeed in expressing myself, 
with none of those cloudy words for which the 
noble lord has given me credit,—that we think 
those commercial changes have been effected 
without at the same time a change—a corre¬ 
sponding change—in our financial system; and 
I say, notwithstanding what the noble lord has 
asserted, that it is our intention, believing that 
a proper revision of our taxation has not taken 
place, to put before this House a policy that will 
place our financial system more in harmony with 
our commercial system.”—Mr. Villiers.who was 
supported by both the Peelite and Whig sections 
of the Opposition, intimated his intention of 
introducing a Free-trade resolution as early as 
the forms of Parliament admitted. 

14 -. —Great floods in the midland counties, 
causing serious damage to property, and in 
some instances loss of life. Two were drowned 
at Windsor and four at Walton. 

15 . —On the motion for considering a mes¬ 
sage from the Queen respecting the funeral of 
the Duke of Wellington, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer entered at some length into the 
characteristics and achievements of the warrior- 

065 ) 





NOVEMBER 


1852. 


NOVEMBER 


statesman. The greatness of his exploits was 
only equalled by the difficulties he overcame. 
He had to encounter at the same time a feeble 
Government, a factious Opposition, and a dis¬ 
trustful people, scandalous allies, and the most 
powerful enemy in the world. He gained vic¬ 
tories with starving troops, and carried on 
sieges without tools; and, as if to complete the 
fatality which in this sense always awaited him, 
when he had succeeded in creating an army 
worthy of Roman legions and of himself, this 
invincible host was broken up, on the eve of 
the greatest conjuncture of his life, and he en¬ 
tered the field of Waterloo with raw levies and 
discomfited allies. Next evening a critic in the 
Globe drew attention to one passage of notice¬ 
able neatness, describing the various accom¬ 
plishments a general required to possess, as 
taken almost word for word from an eulogy 
pronounced by M. Thiers on Marshal Gouvion 
de St. Cyr, in 1829, and quoted in the Morn¬ 
ing Chronicle of July 1st, 1848. “The Duke 
of Wellington,” says the Globe , “has expe¬ 
rienced the vicissitudes of either fortune, and 
his calamities were occasionally scarcely less 
conspicuous than the homage which he ulti¬ 
mately secured. He was pelted by a mob. 
He braved the dagger of Cantillon. The 
wretched Capefigue even accused him of pecu¬ 
lation. But surely it was the last refinement of 
insult that his funeral oration, pronounced by 
the official chief of the English Parliament, 
should be stolen word for word from a trashy 
panegyric on a second-rate French Marshal.” 
On the 21st, Mr. G. S. Smyth, the writer of the 
article in the Morning Chronicle, sent a letter 
to the Times , stating that Mr. Disraeli, instead 
of being indebted to him, was the person who 
had first drawn his attention to M. Thiers’ 
striking eulogium on the military character. 

16. —-Mr. Hume’s motion for a call of the 
House, prior to the discussion of Mr. Villiers’ 
resolutions, carried by 147 to 142. This motion 
was withdrawn on the 22d. 

18. —Funeral of the Duke of Wellington. 
Before daybreak this morning the troops com¬ 
menced to take up their positions in and about 
Whitehall. At eight o’clock the hangings of 
the tent covering the funeral car were unfurled, 
and the first minute-gun fired. Some idea of 
the grandeur and extent of this great military 
display may be realized from the fact that, 
though the Rifles led the way when the first 
gun was fired, it was an hour and a half before 
the car was in motion, and half an hour later 
still before the extreme rear started. The 
Rifles were then close upon Charing-cross. 
The route of the procession was from White* 
hall, through St. James’s Park, up Constitution- 
hill, and along Piccadilly, St. James’s-street, 
Pall-mall, Charing-cross, the Strand, Fleet- 
street, and Ludgate-hill, to St. Paul’s. Gal¬ 
leries crowded with spectators were erected 
along almost the entire line, while beneath 
these again, and closely packed, were spectators 
in the streets, who had gathered, it was esti- 
'36 6 ) 


mated, to the number of a million and a half. 
A few policemen were sufficient to preserve 
peace and order in this mighty multitude. The 
car reached the Cathedral door a few minutes 
past twelve o’clock. Under the dome on either 
side of the area rose the segments of an am¬ 
phitheatre, in which were the seats allotted to 
the two Houses of Parliament, the foremost 
being occupied by the Ministry, Judges, and 
high functionaries of the State. Following the 
choristers, along the nave came various groups 
of soldiers, the foreign marshals carrying the 
Duke’s colours, and Prince Albert, with the 
sword of state before him, and a company of 
officers following. The coffin was conveyed 
upon a wheeled bier, the pall being flung back 
and the white feathers of the Duke’s hat waving 
in the wind which swept along the nave. Dean 
Milman read the service, in a clear and sonorous 
voice. At its conclusion, Garter King-at-Arms 
proclaimed the style and titles of the Duke ; a 
wand was broken and thrown down on the 
coffin; and the ceremony closed with a bene¬ 
diction pronounced by the Bishop of London. 
The military engaged in the procession were 
then marched back to their quarters, and the 
huge assembly of spectators quietly dispersed.— 
In addressing the House of Lords the follow¬ 
ing night, Lord Derby said: “When, amidst 
solemn and mournful music, slowly and inch 
by inch the coffin which held the illustrious dead 
descended into its last long resting-place, I was 
near enough to see the countenances of many 
of the veterans who were companions of his 
labours and of his triumphs, and was near 
enough to hear the suppressed sobs and see the 
hardly-checked tears, which would not have 
disgraced the cheeks of England’s greatest 
warriors, as they looked down for the last time 
upon all that was mortal of our mighty hero. 
Honour, my lords, to the people who so well 
knew how to reverence the illustrious dead ! 
Honour to the friendly visitors—especially to 
France, the great and friendly nation, that 
testified by the presence of their representative 
their respect and veneration’ for his memory ! 
They regarded him as a foe worthy of their 
steel. His object was not fame nor glory, but 
a lasting peace. We have buried in our greatest 
hero the man among us who had the greatest 
horror of war. The great object of this country 
is to maintain peace. To do that, however, a 
nation must possess the means of self-defence. 
I trust that we shall bear this in mind, not in 
words only, but in our actions and policy, set¬ 
ting aside all political and party considerations, 
and that we shall concur in this opinion—that, 
in order to be peaceful, England must be 
powerful; but that, if England ought to be 
powerful, she ought to be so in order, that she 
should be more secure of peace.” 

19. —Meeting of Ministerial supporters at 
the official residence of the Premier, Downing- 
street, to hear an explanation of his intended 
policy and take steps for securing the thorough 
unity of his party. A spirit of complete con¬ 
fidence was said to be manifested. 




A T 0 VEMBER 


1852. 


NOVEMBER 


20 . —Died at her house in Curzon-street, in 
her 90th year, Miss Berry, the last survivor of 
the Horace Walpole “set.” 

21 . —The city of Pegu, in Burmah, taken by 
the British. It was annexed by proclamation 
on the 30th of the following month. 

22. —The Court of Queen’s Bench grant a 
rule for a new trial in the case of Achilli v. 
Newman, on the ground that the verdict for¬ 
merly given for the plaintiff was against evi¬ 
dence. The matter did not proceed further. 

23 . —Judgment against the Crown in the 
Irish Queen’s Bench on Attorney - General 
Napier’s notice to quash the coroner’s return of 
a verdict of wilful murder against the soldiers 
in the Six-mile Bridge affray. 

— Mr. Villiers introduces his series of Free- 
trade resolutions, declaring it to be the opinion 
of Parliament “ That the improved condition of 
the country, and particularly of the industrious 
classes, is mainly the result of recent commercial 
legislation, and especially of the Act of 1846, 
which established the free admission of foreign 
com, and that that Act was a wise, just, and 
beneficial measure; That it is the opinion of this 
House that the maintenance and further exten¬ 
sion of the policy of Free-trade, as opposed to 
that of Protection, will best enable the property 
and industry of the nation to bear the burden 
to which they are exposed, and will most con¬ 
tribute to the general prosperity, welfare, and 
contentment of the people; And that this 
House is ready to take into its consideration 
any measure consistent with the principles of 
these resolutions which may be laid before it 
by her Majesty’s Ministers.” On the first night 
of the debate the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
moved an amendment, “That the House ac¬ 
knowledges with satisfaction that the cheapness 
of provisions occasioned by recent legislation 
has mainly contributed to improve the condition 
and increase the comfort of the working-classes, 
and that unrestricted competition having been 
adopted after due deliberation as the principle 
of our commercial system, this House is of 
opinion that it is the duty of the Government 
unreservedly to adhere to that policy in those 
measures of financial and administrative reform 
which, under the circumstances of the country, 
they may deem it their duty to introduce.” As 
the Ministry looked upon the question in the 
light of a vote of confidence or no confidence, 
this amendment was withdrawn in favour of 
one more skilfully framed by Lord Palmerston, 
and introduced the second night of the debate : 
“That it is the opinion of this House that the 
policy of unrestricted competition, firmly main¬ 
tained and prudently extended, will best enable 
the industry of the country to bear its burden, 
and will thereby most surely promote the wel¬ 
fare and contentment of the people ; and that 
the House will be ready to take into considera¬ 
tion any measures consistent with these prin¬ 
ciples, which, in pursuance of her Majesty’s 
gracious speech and recommendation, may be 
laid before it.” The discussion extended over 


three nights, when, on a division, Mr. Villiers’ 
motion was negatived by a majority of 256 to 
236, and Lord Palmerston’s amendment carried 
by 468 votes against 53; the latter representing 
the minority into which the great Protectionist 
party had now dwindled. 

23. —Large importation of Australian gold. 
Three vessels arrive in the Thames, bearing 
seven tons of the precious metal. One of them 
(the Eagle) carried the unheard-of quantity of 
six tons. She made the passage from Mel¬ 
bourne to the Downs in 76 days. 

— General Sir Charles Napier makes appli¬ 
cation in the Court of Queen’s Bench for a 
criminal information against Mr. Murray, pub¬ 
lisher, in respect of an article in the Quarterly 
Review , alleged to reflect unjustly on his cha¬ 
racter in regard to his proceedings with the 
Ameers of Scinde, and on the conduct of his 
troops towards the women of the Ameers on 
taking possession of Hyderabad. Lord Camp¬ 
bell thought the application not well founded, 
and refused the rule. 

25. —Decree of imprisonment passed by the 
Tuscan judges against Francesco and Rosa 
Madia for reading the Scriptures in their own 
house, and otherwise acting in hostility to the 
religion of the State. 

26. — In the debate on Mr. Villiers’ reso¬ 
lutions, Colonel Sibthorp created great amuse¬ 
ment by his earnest advocacy of Protection. 
“Let them go,” he said, “to the farmer, the 
tradesman, the labourer, and ask each of them 
what he had been and what he was now, and 
they would soon find out the truth. Why, half 
of the farmers were on the parish. And then 
they talked of emigration as a means of im¬ 
proving the country! Did any one ever hear 
of improving a country by sending people out 
of it? When all classes had been injured by 
these Free-trade measures, as they were called, 
and when nothing else could' by done to ruin 
them, they had got up the Great Exhibition. 
(A laugh.) Talk about the good effects of that 
display ! He affirmed that one effect of it was, 
that there never was more disease in the metro¬ 
polis than ever since. (A laugh.) The noble 
lord’s resolution was a trap to catch the unwary, 
but he had not been caught in it yet. (A laugh.) 
He believed the day would come when those 
who advocated the cause of Free-trade would 
admit with sorrow that they never were 
more mistaken in their lives. For himself he 
would not vote for either of their resolutions. 
(Cheers and laughter.) He would not do any¬ 
thing to place his countrymen in the power of 
those whom he looked on as plunderers and 
robbers from the beginning, and who would 
first rob us of our trade and of our indepen¬ 
dence, and then rob us of our honour—males 
and females. (Cheers and laughter.)” 

27. —Died, in her 37th year, Ada Augusta, 
Countess of Lovelace, only child of Lord 
and Lady Byron. 

29.— Sir Alexander Cockburn, after a statc- 

( 367 ) 






NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1852. 


ment of the election proceedings at Derby, ob¬ 
tains the appointment of a committee toinqr're 
into the system of bribery and corruption said 
to prevail there ; the parties concerned to have 
liberty to appear personally or by counsel. 
Sir J. Y. Buller expressed Major Beresford’s 
concurrence in the proposal. 

30 .—The Court of Aldermen engage in the 
consideration of a proposal submitted to them 
by Lord Derby, to found a Wellington school 
or college for educating the orphan children of 
indigent or meritorious officers in the army. 

— The House of Lords pronounce a final 
judgment in the case of Geils v. Geils. (See 
Nov. 20, 1847.) Mrs. Geils had separated 
from her husband, and Mr. Geils instituted a 
suit for “the restitution of conjugal rights.” 
In her defence, Mrs. Geils set up a plea of 
cruelty and adultery, and prayed for a separa¬ 
tion a mensa et ihoro. The facts alleged in 
defence were substantially proved, and the 
Court of Arches granted the separation in 
1848. Mrs. Geils carried the matter into the 
Scotch Court of Session, and sued for a divorce 
a vinculo matrimonii. Against this Mr. Geils 
contended, that the action was barred by the 
previous decision of the Court of Arches. 
The Scotch Court, however, decided that the 
English decision was no bar to the action ; and 
against this Mr. Geils appealed to the House 
of Lords. With the concurrence of the Lords 
sitting on appeals, the Lord Chancellor now 
affirmed the decision of the Court of Session, 
and dismissed the appeal, without costs on 
either side. 

December 1 . —The Corps Legislatif an¬ 
nounce the result of the appeal to the people 
on the subject of reviving the Empire:—Ayes, 
7,864,189; Noes, 253,145; Nil, 63,326. On 
being informed of the result of the scrutiny, 
the Prince said : “Not only do I recognise the 
Governments which have preceded me, but I 
inherit in seme manner all that they have 
accomplished of good and evil; for Govern¬ 
ments which succeed one to another are, 
notwithstanding different origin, liable for 
their predecessors. But the more completely 
that I accept all that for fifty years history 
transmits to us with her inflexible authority, 
the less is it permitted to me to pass in silence 
over the glorious reign of the head of my family, 
and the regular though ephemeral title of his 
son, whom the two Chambers proclaimed in 
the last burst of vanquished patriotism.” The 
proclamation of the Empire took place at Paris 
next day, the anniversary of the coup d'Stat , and 
throughout France on the 5 th. The oath of 
allegiance was now made to express obedience 
to the Constitution, and fidelity to the Empire. 
In all the churches of the diocese of Paris the 
“ Domine salvum fac Imperatorem nostrum 
Napoleonem” was chanted according to the 
form prescribed by the Papal .See in 1804. The 
Emperor was proclaimed under the title of 
Napoleon III. 

(368) 


1.—Lord Malmesbury announces the recog¬ 
nition of the French Empire by the British 
Government. On making a similar intimation 
in the House of Commons on the 6th, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer said it had been 
announced in a friendly way to the Govern¬ 
ment, that in accepting the new title the 
Emperor did not, in any sense, wish to assert an 
hereditary claim; but, on the contrary, accepted 
all the acts of the Governments from 1814. 

— Mutiny on board the English ship Berenice 
in the Straits of Gaspar. The Java and Manilla 
men, who made up the greater part of the crew, 
under the pretence that their rations were im¬ 
properly withheld, attacked Captain Candy, 
when on deck, and stabbed him in the presence 
of his wife, whom they afterwards attacked 
and murdered along with two servants, while 
the-third mate and a French passenger were 
drowned in their attempt to escape. Having 
attached weights to the whole of the bodies 
and thrown them into the sea, the mutineers 
set fire to the ship, and escaped in a small boat 
to Maraybaya. 

3 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces his financial statement. His main 
propositions were five in number, and affected 
the duties on malt, hops, and tea, the house 
tax and the income tax. 1. The duty on malt 
to be reduced from 2 s. 7 \d. and 5 per cent, to 
is. 2 >h,d- an d 5 per cent, on the bushel. This 
duty to be levied uniformly on all malt made 
from barley, bere or bigg ; the discrimination 
in favour of bere or bigg being abolished. 
The drawback allowed to spirits distilled from 
malt in Scotland to be likewise repealed. The 
loss to the revenue from this reduction was esti¬ 
mated at 2,500,000/. Instead of the absolute 
prohibition of the importation of malt im¬ 
posed By the existing law, foreign malt to be 
admitted at a duty of is. 8 d. and 5 per cent, 
upon a bushel. 2. The Excise duty on native 
hops to be reduced from 2 d. and 5 per cent, to 
id. and 5 per cent, per lb. The Customs’ duty 
on foreign hops to be reduced from 2/. 5-r. to 
I /. 2s. 6 d. per cwt. ; or from about 4 d. to 
nearly 2d. per lb. The loss of revenue by this 
reduction was estimated at 120,000 1 . 3. The 

duty on tea to be reduced from its present rate 
of 2 s. 2\d. per lb., the reduction being 4 \d. 
in 1853, and 2d. in each of the next five 
years, when the duty would remain fixed at ij. 

4. The tax on inhabited houses—shops, 
public-houses, and farm-houses—to be in¬ 
creased to is. and is. 6 d. in the pound, and to 
be extended to houses worth the annual rent of 
10/. or upwards. The tax so augmented was 
estimated to produce 1,723,000/. a year. 

5. With respect to the income tax, the tax 
on fanners’ profits, Schedule B, to be reduced 
from 3 {d. to I \d. in the pound in England, 
and from 2 \d. to I \d. in the pound in 
Scotland. The tax on Schedules D and E 
(trades, professions, and offices) to be reduced 
from yd. to 5 4 ^- in the pound. The duties in 
Schedules C and E (funds and public offices) 








DECEMBER 


1852. 


DECEMBER 


to be extended to Ireland. In Schedules A 
and C (land and funds) the minimum to be 
reduced from incomes of 150/. to incomes of 
50/. a year. In Schedules B, D, and E, 
(farmers’ profits, trades, professions, and offices) 
the minimum to be reduced from incomes of 
150/. to incomes of 100/. a year. The in¬ 
come tax, so modified, was estimated to pro¬ 
duce 5,421,000/., nearly the same as its present 
amount. The reduction in all branches would 
affect the revenue to the extent of over 
3,000,000/. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
also proposed to extend the income-tax to 
property and salaries in Ireland; and, with 
reference to that source of income generally, 
he proposed to introduce a distinction between 
permanent and precarious incomes, making the 
exemptions on industrial incomes commence at 
lool. a year, and on incomes arising from pro¬ 
perty at 50/. a year. By this means he calcu¬ 
lated that for the financial year (1853-54) there 
would be 2,500,000/. in hand to meet an extra 
expenditure of 2,100,000/. The Budget was 
unfavourably received by the Free-trade party 
in the House, and the discussion upon it un¬ 
usually protracted. 

6 . —In his message to Congress, President 
Fillmore announces that though the United 
States had declined entering into any formal 
treaty with England and France, disclaiming 
ulterior designs against Cuba, he could not but 
regard its incorporation with the Union in 
present circumstances as a very hazardous 
measure. He thought the fishery dispute with 
Great Britain might be settled by a convention 
during the present winter. 

7. —Among the miscellaneous estimates 
passed to-day were 150,000/. for the purchase 
of land at South Kensington and 80,000/. for 
the Wellington funeral expenses. 

IO.—In the Dublin Commission Court, 
Henry Kirwan, artist, was found guilty of 
murdering his wife with a sword-cane, and 
afterwards throwing her into the water at 
Ireland’s Eye. He had been married twelve 
years, yet during the whole of that time had 
been living with another woman, by whom 
he had eight children. Neither of the women 
knew of the other until April last, when Mrs. 
Kirwan learned the fact. On the 6th of Sep¬ 
tember the Kirwans went to the island above 
mentioned in Dublin Bay, for the avowed pur¬ 
pose of sketching. He had then a sword-stick 
with him. Another party visited the island, and 
at four o’clock saw Mrs. Kirwan alive; the 
couple being then alone on the island. At seven 
o’clock cries of distress were heard. When the 
boatmen returned at eight o’clock, according to 
instructions, Mrs. Kirwan was missing; and 
after a search her body was found on a rock, 
with marks of violence in various places. A 
coroner’s jury returned a verdict of “ Acci¬ 
dental death; ” and the body was buried in 
a part of Glasnevin cemetery so wet, that in 
two months it had decomposed. The position 
of the corpse on the beach was described by one 
( 369 ) 


of the boatmen: “Her bathing-dress was up 
under her arms, and there was a sheet under 
her; her head was lying back in a hole, and 
her feet were in a pool of water about the size 
of my hat. I saw cuts on her forehead and 
under her eye; there was also blood coming 
down from her ears, her side, breast, and other 
places.” Kirwan told the boatman that his 
wife left him to bathe at half-past six o’clock ; 
but the continued fall of the tide proved that 
she could not have been drowned, or carried 
by the water to the spot where she was found. 
The clothes were found in a spot which had 
been previously searched, and after Kirwan 
had been a short time away from the searchers. 
Mr. Justice Crampton passed sentence of 
death, but a commutation was afterwards 
granted. 

IO. —The correspondent of the Morning 
Chronide arrested in Vienna, on the ground 
that his written communications were inimical 
to the welfare of the country. Austria after¬ 
wards explained and apologised. 

— Died at Haileybury College, aged 62, 
Professor William Empson, editor of the Edin¬ 
burgh Review . 

13. —In the adjourned Budget debate Mr. 
Lowe made an elaborate speech against the 
propositions it embodied, particularly with 
reference to the malt tax, which he considered 
the keystone of the structure. In the face of 
the close monopoly of the brewers, it was by 
no means clear, he said, that a diminution of 
prime cost would be followed by a reduction in 
the retail price. The publicans were entirely 
in the brewers’ hands, and to make up for the 
small profits allowed them they either adult¬ 
erated the liquor or reduced the measure till 
the quart bottle appeared likely soon to become 
a pint and the pint a medicine bottle.—Mr. 
Walpole defended the Budget, and passed a 
glowing eulogium on the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer. “The best judges of the country,” 
he said, “ would declare, as I believe they have 
declared, that by his Budget he has put him¬ 
self on a level with the boldest and at the same 
time with the most prudent financiers whom 
the country has ever seen. (Cries of ‘ Oh ! ’ 
from the Opposition side of the House, echoed 
by cheers from the other.) They will tell you, 
at any rate, that in the greatest emporium of 
commerce in the globe these plans of his have 
reflected on him, in the judgment of those 
capable of judging on the subject, honour of 
the highest kind. They will tell you, as you 
have been reminded to-night, that he has dis¬ 
proved by his propositions the common fallacy 
which the world runs away with, that a man of 
genius cannot be essentially and practically a 
man of business. And, whatever may be the 
result of this debate—whatever may be the 
effect of that ill-sorted alliance which I see 
before me—the country will see that my right 
honourable friend has earned for himself a 
reputation as extensive as the empire for which 
he is so wisely legislating—(Laughter from the 

B B 










DECEMBER 


1852. 


DECEMBER 


Opposition benches)—and a gratitude as per¬ 
manent as the honest generosity of a thankful, 
enlightened, and reflecting community. (Minis¬ 
terial cheers, and renewed laughter from the 
Opposition.)”—On the following (Tuesday) 
evening Mr. B. Osborne made a rattling speech 
against the Budget, which he declared to be 
based on tyranny and injustice.—The opening 
sentences of Sir James Graham’s speech led 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to explain 
that it was not necessary in the meantime to 
discuss the whole of the propositions embodied 
in the Budget, but simply the principle em¬ 
bodied in the first, with reference to the area 
over which the house tax should be extended. 

15 . —The Turkish frontier, from Dulcigno 
northwards, blockaded by the Turkish fleet, in 
order to prevent the Montenegrins receiving 
munitions of war or provisions by sea. 

16 . —The Select Committee appointed to 
inquire into the bribery alleged to prevail at 
last Derby election report that the evidence 
satisfied them that an organized system of 
bribery was carried on in the borough. The 
letter found on Morgan, and addressed to Frail 
of Shrewsbury, they were also satisfied was 
written by the Right Hon. William Beresford, 
Secretary-at-War, and a member of the House. 
They did not think, however, there was suffi¬ 
cient evidence that the arrangements, scheme, 
and object referred to in the petition were 
known to be concurred in by that gentleman ; 
* ‘ but your Committee are of opinion that the 
equivocal expressions of that letter ought, at 
least, to have suggested to him an idea of the 
improper use to which that letter might have 
been, and in fact was, applied. And they think 
it exhibited a reckless indifference and regard 
to consequences which they cannot too highly 
censure. ” 

— Fall of the Derby Ministry. On this 
the fifth evening of the debate on the Budget 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied to his 
assailants. Alluding to the argument that the 
brewer, not the consumer, would be benefited 
by the repeal of the malt tax, he called to mind 
that similar observations were made when they 
used to discuss “the effect of taxation on another 
article.” “ I do not care now to remember from 
what quarter they emanated, but the effect and 
object of those observations were exactly the 
same. Then it was, * Oh, those villains the 
bakers ! ’ (Cheering and laughter.) You may 
reduce the price of com—you may injure the agri¬ 
cultural interest—you may ruin the fanners and 
the country gentlemen—but you could not re¬ 
duce the price of the loaf to the consumer. No, 
the bakers took it all. (Cheers and laughter.) 
Oh yes, and there were the millers. The 
millers were worst of all; they carried off all 
the reduction. (Cheers renewed.) Well, those 
arguments had a considerable effect, and there 
was such a prejudice raised against the bakers 
throughout the country, that I should not have 
been surprised if they had been all hanged in 
one day, as the bakers had once been in Con- 
( 370 ) 


stantinople. Well, here are those who wanted 
to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest 
market using all the fallacies which we at least 
have had the courage honourably to give up. 
(Great cheering.) Tell me Protection is dead! 
Tell me there is no Protectionist party ! Why, j 
’tis rampant, and ’tis there (pointing to the 
Opposition benches. Prolonged cheering and. 
some ironical laughter.) They have taken up, 
our principles with our benches ; and I believe 
they will be quite as unsuccessful.” Criticising, 
the financial proposals of Sir C. Wood, in 1848 
(see Aug. 30, 1848), Mr. Disraeli said: “Talk 
of recklessness, why, in the whole history of 
finance there is nothing like this recklessness ofj 
the right hon. gentleman. And what was the 
ground on which he withdrew the monstrous 
and enormous proposition which he vainly 
sought to justify? When he was defeated, 
baffled, and humiliated—(cheers)—he came 
down to the House and found that he had| 
sufficient revenue, without doubling the income j 
and property tax. Why, history will not 
credit it. (Hear, hear.) The future historian j 
will not be believed who tells us that a Minister, 
proposed to double the property and income 
tax, and when refused, that he came down to 
say that he had sufficient ways and means 
without it. (Vehement cheering.) And then 
he tells me, in not very polished and scarcely 
parliamentary language, that I do not know- 
my business. (Loud cheers.) He may have] 
learned his business. (Laughter.) The House 
of Commons is the best judge of that. (Cheers.) 
I care not to be his critic; but if he has learned 
his business, he has still to learn that petulance* 
is not sarcasm, and that insolence is not invec-1 
tive. (Loud and prolonged Ministerial cheer¬ 
ing. ) . . . We had last night from the member,! 
for Carlisle a most piteous appeal to the House ! 
upon the hardship of taxing poor clerks of 
between 100/. and 150/. a year. He stated;! 
that 150/. was exactly the point where skilled! 
labour ends. You can recall the effective! 
manner in which the right hon. gentleman said 
that—(great laughter)—an unrivalled artist in ! 
my opinion when he tells us that this is the 
point where the fustian jacket ceases to be! 
worn, and broadcloth becomes the ordinary 
attire. (Much laughter.) Such, Sir, was the! 
representation of that eminent personage, for 
whom I have great regard—I don’t so much 
respect him, but I greatly regard him. (Roars ' 
of laughter.)” A good deal of amusement and 
no little astonishment were created by a Shan- 
dean allusion to the national “reserve of produc¬ 
ing power,” which he observed had been over¬ 
looked by Mr. Lowe in his criticism. “ The 
reserve of producing power we possess may be 
inferred from the fact that now, in a south¬ 
eastern county, the Census shows that, to 100 
married women of from 20 to 45 years of age, 
there are 70 women of the same ages unmarried, 
and of whom only 7 bear children notwith¬ 
standing. (Continued laughter.) I have a con¬ 
fidence in this reserve of producing power, 
which the hon. and learned gentleman, with 







DECEMBER 


1852. 


DECEMBER 


his colonial experience, has not given this 
country full credit for. ” The Chancellor of the 
Exchequer concluded : “I know what I have 
to face—I have to face a coalition. (Cheers.) 
The combination may be successful. A com¬ 
bination has been before this successful; but 
coalitions, though they may be successful, have 
always found that their triumphs have been but 
brief. (Cheering again.) This I know, that 
England does not love coalitions. (Cheers.) 
And I appeal from the coalition to that public 
opinion which governs the country—that public 
opinion whose wise and irresistible influence 
can control even the decrees of Parliament, and 
without whose support even the most august 
and ancient institutions are but as the baseless 
fabric of a vision.”—Mr. Gladstone followed, 
and closed the debate, censuring the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer for the unwarrantable licence 
he had assumed in his speech. Amid frequent 
and noisy interruptions from the Ministerialists, 
he was heard to say: “ The right hon. gentle¬ 
man must permit me to tell him that he is not 
entitled to charge with insolence men of as high 
position and of as high character in this House 
as himself. I must tell him that he is not en¬ 
titled to say to my right hon. friend the member 
for Carlisle, that he regards but does not respect 
him. And I must tell him that whatever else 
he may have learnt, he has not learnt to keep 
within those limits, in discussion, of moderation 
and of forbearance, that ought to restrain the 
conduct and language of every member of this 
House; the disregard of which, while it is an 
offence in the meanest amongst us, is an offence 
of tenfold weight when committed by the leader 
of the House of Commons. ” Speaking of the 
statement as a scheme of finance, he said, if the 
House gave the sanction of its high authority 
to this unsound and delusive scheme, the day 
would come when they would look back on 
their vote with a bitter lament and ineffectual 
repentance. On a division on the house-tax 
resolution, a majority of 19 appeared against 
the Government, the numbers being—For, 286; 
against, 305. The remaining members of the 
House were thus accounted for : Paired, 28; 
absent, Conservatives 8, Liberals 18; seats 
vacant, 4 ; tellers and Chairman of Committee, 
5. On the motion of the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, the House adjourned at four o’clock 
ou Friday morning till Monday the 20th. 

17 . —In consequence of the division in the 
Lower House last night, and the presence of 
the Premier at Osborne, the Earl of Malmes¬ 
bury moves the adjournment of the Lords to 
>.he 20th. 

18 . —The Mvniteur contains a decree of the 
Emperor to the following effect : “ In case of 
our leaving no direct heir, legitimate or adopted, 
our well-beloved uncle, Jerome Napoleon Buo¬ 
naparte, and his descendants, direct and legiti¬ 
mate, the issue of his marriage with the Prin¬ 
cess Catharine of Wurtemburg, from male to 
male, by order of primogeniture, to the per¬ 
petual exclusion of the females, are appointed 
o succeed us.” 

( 371 ) 


20 .—Proclamation, at Rangoon, of the 
annexation of Pegu. “The Court of Ava 
having refused to make amends for the injuries 
and insults which British subjects had suffered 
at the hands of its servants, the Governor- 
General of India in Council resolved to exact 
reparation by force of arms. The forts and 
cities upon the coast were forthwith attacked 
and captured; the Burmah forces have been 
dispersed wherever they have been met; and 
the province of Pegu is now in the occupation 
of British troops. The just and moderate de¬ 
mands of the Government of India have been 
rejected by the king; the ample opportunity 
that has been afforded him for repairing the 
injury that was done has been disregarded; 
and the timely submission, which alone could 
have been effectual to prevent the dismember¬ 
ment of his kingdom, is still withheld. There¬ 
fore, in compensation for the past, and for 
better security in the future, the Governor- 
General in Council has resolved, and hereby 
proclaims, that the province of Pegu is now, 
and shall be henceforth, a portion of the British 
territories in the East.” 

— Intimation made in both Houses that 
die Ministry had tendered their resignation to 
her Majesty, who had been pleased to send for 
the Earl of Aberdeen. In the Lords, Earl 
Derby declared that the Government had fallen 
before an unprincipled combination of parties 
in the Lower House, who had leagued them¬ 
selves together for its destruction from the first 
moment of the session.—The Duke of New¬ 
castle replied that the statement was entirely 
without foundation, and the duty which the 
Queen had now laid upon the Earl of Aberdeen 
ought to have protected that nobleman from 
such an imputation.—Mr. Gladstone, in a letter 
to Mr. Phillimore, afterwards declared the state¬ 
ment to be an entire fiction.—In the House of 
Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
made a graceful amende for any unnecessary 
severity he may have manifested towards op¬ 
ponents in the heat of debate. “ I hope,” he 
said, “the house will not think it presump¬ 
tuous on my part if I venture to offer my 
grateful thanks for the indulgent—I may even 
say the generous—manner in which on both 
sides of the House I have been supported in the 
attempt to conduct the business of this House. 
If, Sir, in maintaining a too unequal struggle, 
any word has escaped my lips (I hope, never 
except in the way of retort) which has hurt 
the feelings of any gentleman in this House, I 
deeply regret it ; and I hope that the impres¬ 
sion on their part will be as transient as the 
sense of provocation was on my own. (General 
cheers.) The kind opinion of members of this 
House,whatever may be their political opinions, 
and wherever I may sit, will always be to me 
a most precious possession, and one which I 
shall always covet and most highly appreciate. 
(Loud cheers.)” The sentiments expressed by 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer were concurred 
in by Lord John Russell, Sir C. Wood, and Sir 
James Graham, the latter expressing admiration 

n B 2 




DECEMBER 


I852-53- 


JANUARY 


for the talents of Mr. Disraeli, who, he admitted, 
had conducted the cause of the Government 
for the last ten months with signal ability. It 
was agreed that the House at its rising should 
adjourn till Thursday the 23d inst. This was 
afterwards extended till the 27th. 

20 .—Mr. Gladstone, M.P., insulted at the 
Carlton Club by certain Conservative members 
who had been feasting Major Beresford on his 
so-called acquittal by the committee on the 
Derby election. 

22 .—Dispute between the Greek and Latin 
Churches concerning the Holy Places at Jeru¬ 
salem. Stated in bare terms (says Mr. Kmg- 
lake), the question was, whether, for the purpose 
of passing through the building into their grotto, 
the Latin monks should have the key of the 
chief door of the church of Bethlehem, and 
' also one of the keys of each of the two doors of 
the Sacred Manger; and whether they should be 
at liberty to place in the sanctuary of the Na¬ 
tivity a silver star adorned with the arms of 
France. In pursuance of urgent instructions 
from the French Emperor, M. de Lavalette 
pressed his case with such success at Constan¬ 
tinople, that on this day the Latin patriarch, 
amid great ceremony, was permitted to replace 
the glittering star in the sanctuary of Beth¬ 
lehem, and had handed over to him, at the 
same time, the key of the great door of the 
church and the keys of the Sacred Manger. 
Indignant at this outrage on the orthodox 
Church, Count Nesselrode wrote to Baron 
Brunnow: “It may happen that France, per¬ 
ceiving any hesitation on the part of the Porte, 
may again have recourse to menace, and press 
upon it so as to prevent it from listening to our 
just demands. The Emperor has, therefore, 
considered it necessary to adopt, at the outset, 
some precautionary measures in order to sup¬ 
port our negotiations, to neutralize the effects 
of M. Lavalette’s threats, and to guard himself 
in any contingency which may occur against a 
Government accustomed to act by surprises.” 
One of the “ precautionary measures” was the 
despatch of the 5th corps d’armee to the frontiers 
of the Danubian provinces. 

26 .—Ministerial addresses. In almost every 
case reference was made to the division on the 
Budget as finally establishing the principle 
that our recent commercial policy was not an 
evil to be reversed or mitigated, but a just and 
beneficial system which should be strengthened 
and upheld. To the electors of the City of 
London, Lord John Russell pledged the Go¬ 
vernment to “rational and enlightened pro¬ 
gress.” Lord Palmerston trusted that it would 
answer “the just expectation of the country.” 
Sir James Graham said they would promote 
“ cautious but progressive reform, based on a 
desire to improve the condition, extend the 
education, and enlarge the liberty, both civil 
and religious, of the great body of the people.” 
Sir Charles Wood spoke of “well-advised but 
certain progress;” Mr. Sydney Herbert of 
“ the wisdom and rectitude ” of the Premier ; 
( 372 ) 


and Sir W. Molesworth of the general agree¬ 
ment which existed between his colleagues and 
himself “as to the manner in which the affairs 
of this country ought to be conducted in these 
critical times.” The Ministerial candidates 
were in most instances elected without oppo¬ 
sition. 

27 .—The Earl of Aberdeen explains the cir¬ 
cumstances which induced him to undertake 
the formation of a Ministry, and points out the 
policy intended to be pursued on various public 
questions. With regard to foreign Powers, he 
would adhere to the principle pursued for the 
last thirty years, in respecting the rights of all 
independent states, in abstaining from inter¬ 
ference in their internal affairs, while at the 
same time we asserted our own rights and in¬ 
terests ; above all, his earnest desire would be 
to secure the general peace of Europe. This 
policy might be observed without any relaxation 
of thosedefensive measures which had been lately 
undertaken, after, perhaps, too long neglect. At 
home, the mission of the Government would be 
to maintain and extend Free-trade principles, 
and to pursue the commercial and financial 
system of the late Sir Robert Peel. A crisis 
in our financial arrangements would speedily 
occur by the cessation of a large branch of the 
revenue, and it would tax the ingenuity of all 
concerned to readjust our finances according 
to the principles of justice and equity. The 
questions of education and legal reform would 
receive every attention at the hands of the 
Government; nor would an amendment of the 
representative system, undertaken without haste 
or rashness, be excluded from its mature con¬ 
sideration. The House at its rising adjourned 
till Feb. 10th. 

— New writs moved for to fill up fourteen 
vacancies in the House of Commons, caused 
by acceptance of office in the new Administra¬ 
tion. Other writs were moved for on the 31st, 
when the Commons adjourned till the 10th 
February. 

29 . —Died, the Rev. Francis Hodgson, 
Provost of Eton, a ripe scholar and successful 
teacher. He was succeeded by Dr. Haw trey, 
head master. 

30 . —The Prince of Augustenburg, in consi¬ 
deration of a sum of 3,500,000 dollars, signs an 
act, renouncing for himself and his family all 
right to the succession of any part of the Danish 
dominions. The Prussian plenipotentiary at 
Frankfort who negotiated this renunciation was 
Herr von Bismarck. 

1853. I 

January 1.— List of the new Coalition 
Ministry published. First Lord of the Trea¬ 
sury, Earl of Aberdeen ; Secretaries of State—' 
Foreign, Lord John Russell; Home, Viscount 
Palmerston; Colonial, Duke of Newcastle; 
Lord Chancellor, Lord C ran worth; Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone; 










JANUARY 


1353 


JANUARY 


Lord President, Earl Granville; Lord Privy 
Seal, Duke of Argyll; First Lord of the 
Admiralty, Sir James Graham ; Board of Con¬ 
trol, Sir C. Wood; Secretary at War, Rt. 
Hon. Sidney Herbert; First Commissioner of 
Works, Sir W. Molesworth. In the Cabinet, 
without office, Marquis of Lansdowne. The 
re-election of Ministers to the seats vacant 
through the acceptance of office commenced 
to-day. (See Table of Administrations.) 

1.—The Marquis of Chandos declines to con¬ 
test the University of Oxford in opposition to 
Mr. Gladstone. An opponent was afterwards 
found in the person of Mr. Dudley Perceval, of 
Christchurch, son of a former Premier, the 
Right Hon. Spencer Perceval. 

3.—Mr. Max Muller appointed to a Lecture¬ 
ship of Modern Literature in Oxford Univer¬ 
sity. 

— Ministerial re-elections. The new Foreign 
Secretary, in his address to the electors of the 
City of London, thus defended his party from 
the charge of factious combination brought 
against it by Lord Derby: “If an omnibus, 
with some dozen passengers, were seen going 
down Ludgate-hill at a furious pace, and break¬ 
ing into the shop-windows, and injuring every¬ 
body that was going by, why, every man would 
concur—the men that were going eastward and 
the men that were going westward—all would 
concur in stopping that omnibus, and telling 
the coachman to get off his box. And how 
much surprised would all those passengers with 
the policeman at their head be, if the coachman 
were to say, ‘ Why, this is a factious combina¬ 
tion. You, gentlemen, are going some of you 
one way and some another, and yet you have 
all combined to prevent me driving my omnibus 
into the shops.’ Such, however, was the charge 
made against us—a charge, however, which I 
think you will say we need not be very much 
concerned at.”—At Tiverton, on the same day, 
the Home Secretaiy said he trusted the new 
Government would be able to maintain peace 
abroad with dignity and honour. He asked 
for the Government nothing but that which an 
Englishman will always accord—a free stage 
and no favour—a fair trial and a just and im¬ 
partial judgment.—At Carlow, Mr. Sadleir, 
who had accepted the appointment of a Lord 
of the Treasury, lost his election by 8 votes. 
He afteiwards obtained a seat in Tipperary 
county. 

_ Railway accident near the Oxford station 

of the London and North-Western Company’s 
Buckinghamshire branch. In consequence of 
the late rains, a portion of a tunnel between 
Wolvercote and Oxford had fallen in. The 
injury was partially repaired; but meanwhile 
the up line only had been reserved for traffic, 
while the down line was appropriated to the 
use of the contractors until the tunnel should 
have been suitably restored. One set of rails, 
therefore, was assigned to the traffic. At the 
bridge, a little way out of Oxford, the signal¬ 
man, who should have shown a red light, 


showed a green or “ go on ” lamp, which en¬ 
couraged the driver of the passenger train to 
pursue his way at an increased speed. The 
result was a collision with a coal train, then 
advancing from an opposite direction. The 
engine of the passenger train was turned round 
and thrown into a ditch. The first engine at¬ 
tached to the coal train fell upon it, and the 
wheels became fixed, while the second engine 
ran into a ditch. The third-class and second- 
class carriages were broken up, and the pas¬ 
sengers scattered about in every direction. The 
two engine-drivers and three out of the four 
stokers were killed on the spot, two of the 
passengers died soon after from injuries received, 
and nearly the whole of those in the carriages 
were more or less injured. 

4. —Nomination-day at Oxford University. 
Mr. Gladstone was proposed by Dr. Hawkins, 
Provost of Oriel, and Mr. Perceval by Arch¬ 
deacon Denison. In conformity with the 
etiquette of University elections, neither of the 
candidates were present. The opposition 
offered to Mr. Gladstone was based principally 
on his recent votes on ecclesiastical questions, 
and his acceptance of office in a Ministry com¬ 
posed of Conservatives, Whigs, and Radicals. 
The Times wrote of the new candidate as “ a 
very near relative of our old friend, Mrs. Hams. 
To remove any doubt on this point, let him be 
exhibited at Exeter Hall, with documentary 
evidence of his name, existence, and history; 
his first-class, his defeat at Finsbury, his 
‘talents,’ and his principles. If we must go 
to Oxford to record our votes, it would at least 
be something to know that we were voting 
against a real man, and not a mere name.” 
The Morning Chronicle , in a similar strain, 
said : “ A section of the Carlton Club, doubt¬ 
less under the auspices of Major Beresford, are 
making a tool of the Oxford Convocation for 
the purposes of the meanest and smallest poli¬ 
tical rancour against Mr. Gladstone.” 

5. —Convention entered into between the 
Persian Government and Colonel Shiel, the 
British Minister at the court of Teheran, 
whereby the Shah undertook not to send 
troops to Herat, unless the Herat territory was 
invaded by a foreign army ; and in that case, if 
troops were sent, to withdraw them as soon as 
the foreigners should retire. He engaged, 
also, not to interfere in the internal affairs of 
Herat, “ except so far as interference existed 
in the time of Yar Mahomed Khan (who had 
paid tribute-money to the Shah as a sign of 
nominal fealty), and to recall within four 
months the Persian agent from Herat.” If, 
however, Great Britain interfered in the affairs 
of Herat, the Convention was to be invalid. 
The British Minister, on his part, undertook to 
use all his influence to induce foreign Powers 
to leave Herat in a state of independence. 

6 . —In a letter to the Chairman of his Ox¬ 
ford Committee Mr. Gladstone writes : “Un¬ 
less I had as full and clear conviction that the 
interests of the Church, whether as relates to 

( 373 ) 






JANUARY 


JANUARY 


1853 . 


the legislative functions of Parliament, or the 
impartial and wise recommendation of fit persons 
to her Majesty for high ecclesiastical offices, 
were at least as safe in the hands of Lord 
Aberdeen as in those of Lord Derby (though 
I would on no account disparage Lord Derby’s 
personal sentiments toward the Church), I 
should not have accepted office under Lord 
Aberdeen. As regards the second, if it be 
thought that during twenty years of public life, 
or that during the latter part of them, I have 
failed to give guarantees of attachment to the 
interests of the Church, to such as so think I 
can offer neither apology nor pledge. To those 
who think otherwise, I tender the assurance 
that I have not by my recent assumption of 
office made any change whatever in that parti¬ 
cular, or in my principles relating to it.” 

9 . —Sir Hamilton Seymour, meeting the 
Emperor of Russia in the Palace of the Arch¬ 
duchess Helen, is engaged in a conversation 
by his Majesty, which proves the first of a 
series of confidential communications on the 
affairs of Turkey. These affairs (the Emperor 
said to our Ambassador) were “ in a very dis¬ 
organized condition; the country itself seems 
to be falling to pieces. The fall will be a very 
great misfortune ; and it is very important that 
England and Russia should come to a perfectly 
good understanding upon these affairs, and that 
neither should take any decisive step of which 
the other is not apprised.” On the 21st Feb. 
the Emperor repeated: “I tell you, if your 
Government has been led to believe that 
Turkey retains any element of existence, your 
Government must have received incorrect in¬ 
formation. I repeat to you that the sick man 
is dying, and we can never allow such an event 
to take us by surprise. We must come to some 
understanding; and this we should do, I am 
convinced, if I could hold but ten minutes’ 
conversation with your Minister’s—with Lord 
Aberdeen, for instance, who knows me so well, 
who has full confidence in me, as I have in him. 
And, remember, I do not ask for a treaty or a 
protocol; a general understanding is all I re¬ 
quire—that between gentlemen is sufficient; 
and, in this case, I am certain that the com 
fidence would be as great on the side of the 
Queen’s Ministers as on mine.” On the 22d 
February the Emperor said: “There are! 
several things which I will never tolerate. If 
will begin with ourselves. I will not tolerate 
the permanent occupation of Constantinople by ! 
the Russians. Having said this, I will say 
that it never shall be held by the English or 
French, or any other great nation. Again, I 
never will permit an attempt at the reconstruc¬ 
tion of a Byzantine empire, or such an exten¬ 
sion of Greece as would render her a powerful 
state; still less will I permit the breaking-up 
of Turkey into little republics—asylums for the 
Kossjiths and Mazzinis, and other revolutionists 
of Europe. Rather than submit to any of these 
arrangements, I would go to war, and, as long 
as I have a man and a musket left, would carry 
it on.” The Emperor then went on to say 


that, in the event of a dissolution of the Otto¬ 
man empire, he thought it might be less diffi¬ 
cult to arrive at a satisfactory territorial 
arrangement than was commonly believed. 
“ The Principalities are,” he said, “in fact, an 
independent state, under my. protection: this 
might so continue. Servia might receive the 
same form of Government. So again with 
Bulgaria. There seems to be no reason why 
this province should not form an independent 
state. As to Egypt, I quite understand the 
importance to England of that territory. I 
can, then, only say that if, in the event of 
a distribution of the Ottoman succession upon 
the fall of the empire, you should take posses¬ 
sion of Egypt, I shall have no objection to 
offer. I would say the same thing of Candia; 
that island might suit you, and I do not know 
why it should not become an English posses¬ 
sion.” (See March 13, 1856.) 

10. —Robert Ferdinand Pries, a grain mer¬ 
chant, of Crosby-hall Chambers, examined at 
the Mansion House, on the charge of uttering 
forged bills of lading, whereby he had frau¬ 
dulently obtafned the sum of 18,000/. from 
Holford and Co., bankers, New Broad-street. 
The prisoner was further charged with obtain¬ 
ing 51,000/. by a similar fraud from Collman 
and Stolterfoht, and 9,000/. from Monteaux 
and Co. Being committed for trial at the 
Central Criminal Court, he was there con¬ 
victed and sentenced to transportation for life. 
So enormous were the prisoner’s transactions 
in grain that they affected the price of the 
general market, and the fluctuations consequent 
thereon were for a time attributed to political 
action. The sum lost in one operation was 
estimated at 100,000/. 

11 . —The Irish Tenant League censure 
Messrs. Keogh, Sadleir, and Monsell, for 
taking office under Lord Aberdeen. 

— The steamer Australian , now overdue, 
arrives at Plymouth from Melbourne with 
222,293 ounces of gold on board, and the 
famous Victoria nugget, weighing twenty-eight 
pounds, sent by the Colonial Government as a 
gift to the Queen. 

-**, 18 .—Lord John Russell urges upon Sir 
Henry Bulwer the necessity of remonstrating 
with the Tuscan Government on the subject of 
the Madiai. “ As this is a matter affecting a 
Tuscan subject, it may be said that her Majesty’s 
Government have no right to interfere. If this 
means that interference by force of arms would 
not be justifiable, I confess at once that nothing 
but the most extreme case would justify such 
an interference. But if it be meant that her 
Majesty has not the right to point- out to a 
friendly sovereign the arguments which have 
prevailed in the most civilized nations against 
the use of the civil sword to punish religious 
opinions, I entirely deny the truth of such an 
allegation. ” 

20.—After a poll extending over fifteen 
days, Mr. Gladstone is elected member for 
Oxford University by a majority of 124, the 




JANUARY 


1853. 


FEBRUARY 


numbers being—Gladstone, 1,022 ; Perceval, 
898. Christchurch polled for Mr. Gladstone 
153, to 92 against; Balliol, 67 to 37; and 
Exeter, 103 to 40. Mr. Perceval had small 
majorities in Queen’s, New, St. John’s, Wad- 
ham, and Magdalen Hall. Of the Professors 
and others in authority, 74 voted for Gladstone, 
15 for Perceval, and 12 remained neutral. In 
1852, Mr. Gladstone polled 1,108 votes; and 
in 1847, 997- 

20. —Dr. Price, head master of Christ’s 
Hospital, commits suicide by hanging him¬ 
self from the bedpost. He was understood to 
be in a deranged state at the time. 

21 . —Collision in the Channel between the 
Herald and Johanna Karl. The former sunk 
unexpectedly within a few hours, and of nine¬ 
teen persons on board only one was saved. 

22. —The Emperor Napoleon announces 
his intended marriage with Mademoiselle de 
Montijo, Comtesse de Teba. 

28 . —Lord John Russell writes to Lord 
Cowley regarding the dispute between Russia 
and Turkey about the Holy Blaces :—“Her 
Majesty’s Government cannot avoid perceiving 
that the Ambassador of France at Constanti¬ 
nople was the first to disturb the status quo in 
which the matter rested. Not that the dis¬ 
putes of the Latin and Greek Churches were 
not very active, but without some political 
action on the part of’ France those quarrels 
would never have troubled the relations of 
friendly Powers. In the next place, if report 
is to be believed, the French Ambassador was 
the first to speak of having recourse to force, 
and to threaten the intervention of a French 
fleet to enforce the demands of his country. 
I regret to say that this evil example has been 
partly followed by Russia; and although the 
report of the march of 50,000 Russian troops 
to the Turkish frontier appears to have been 
unfounded or premature, yet it is but too 
certain that, if the quarrel is prolonged, the 
Emperor means to support his negotiations by 
arms.” 

29 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Mr. 
Justice Coleridge delivers judgment in the 
adjourned case of Achilli v. Newman. Pie 
expressed the conviction of the court, that 
Dr, Newman honestly believed the truth of 
the allegations he made against Dr. Achilli, 
an I that he did not compose and publish the 
lib:l from personal malice, but because Dr. 
Achilli had assailed a religion Dr. Newman 
held dear, and had done so in Birmingham, 
where it was extremely important his authority 
should not be lessened. Still, it was not to be 
denied that he had repeated the offensive ex¬ 
pressions, as if they were matter for exultation 
and merriment, and, as it would appear, with 
utter recklessness of their great importance 
and serious nature. “ Firmly attached as I am, 
and I believe ever shall be, to the Church of 
England, in which I have lived and in which 
I hope to die, yet there is nothing on my mind 
on seeing you before me but the deepest regret. 


I can hardly expect that you will take in good 
part many of the observations I have felt it my 
duty to make. Suffer me, however, to say one 
or two words more. The great controversy 
between the Churches will go on, we know not, 
through God’s pleasure, how long. Whether 
henceforward you will take any part in it or 
not, it will be for you to determine; but I 
think the pages before me should give you 
this warning, upon calm consideration, that if 
you engage in this controversy, you should 
engage in it neither personally nor bitterly. 
The best road to unity is by increase of holi¬ 
ness of life. If you for the future sustain, as 
you may think you are bound to do, by your 
publications the cause of the Church of Rome, 
I entreat you to do it in a spirit of charity, in a 
spirit of humility, in a spirit worthy of your 
great abilities, of your ardent piety, of your 
holy life, and of our common Christianity. 
The sentence of the court is that you pay to 
her Majesty a fine of 100/., and that you 
be imprisoned in the first class of misdemean¬ 
ants in the Queen’s Prison until the fine be 
paid.” The fine was instantly paid, and Dr. 
Newman left the court with his solicitor. 

29.— Marriage of the Emperor of the French 
to her Excellency Mademoiselle Eugenie de 
Montijo, Comtesse de Teba. The civil cele¬ 
bration was performed in the Tuileries by M. 
Fould, and the ecclesiastical, on the 30th, in 
Notre-Dame, by the Archbishop of Paris. 

February 3.— The Earl of St. Germains 
(with his Countess) makes a triumphal entry 
into Dublin, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
One of his first official acts was to restore the 
Earl of Roden and Messrs. Beers to the 
Commission of the Peace, and Mr. Kirwin to 
his magisterial duties at Roscommon. 

— Sir Charles Wood, the new Secretary to 
the Board of Control, addresses his Halifax 
constituents at a banquet in language which 
Mr. Disraeli afterwards brought under the no¬ 
tice of Parliament:— “Take our nearest neigh¬ 
bours. Such a despotism never prevailed in 
France, even at the time of Napoleon the First. 
The press gagged, liberty suppressed, no man 
allowed to speak his opinion, the neighbouring 
country of Belgium forced to gag her press, no 
press in Europe free but ours, which, thank 
God, he cannot gag. And hence his hatred of 
our press, which alone dares to speak the truth.” 
(See Feb. 18.) 

6 . —Renewed disturbances at Milan, and 
circulation of insurrectionary proclamations, ad¬ 
dressed to the Italians by Mazzini, and to the 
Hungarians by Kossuth. 

7 . —Dissolution of the National Association 
for the Protection of British Industry. 

9.—A family of eight persons suffocated in 
a fire in Morgan’s Royal Oak inn, near Brecon. 

— Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Exchequer the action for libel raised by the 
Hon. Lennox Butler against Mr. Oliveira, 
M.P. The alleged libel was uttered during 

( 375 ) 




FEBRUARY 


1853 - 


FEBRUARY 


the last election contest at Hull, when the 
defendant described the plaintiff as a person 
who had been expelled from the Star Club 
some years since for refusing to pay the sum of 
10/. Ss.; and further that he (Oliveira) had 
threatened to kick Butler out of his house. 
Verdict for the plaintiff, damages 100/. 

10. —Re-assembling of Parliament, pursuant 
to the adjournment of 31st December last. 
Lord John Russell made a statement of the 
measures intended to be brought forward during 
the session, which included national defences, 
surrender of clergy reserves in Canada, a 
pilotage bill, and Jewish disabilities. 

11 . —Judgment given in the Rolls Court 
against Mr. George Hudson in the suit at the 
instance of the York and North Midland Rail¬ 
way. The defendant was ordered to account 
for all the shares appropriated by him, as well 
as for those alleged to have been presented to 
persons of influence in Parliament, to facilitate 
the passing of the Company’s bills. 

12 . —Three soldiers, belonging to the 7th 
Royal Fusiliers, perish in the snow on Dart¬ 
moor, when on their way to Dartmoor Prison. 

14. —The Lord Chancellor explains the in¬ 
tention of the Government with respect to Law 
Reform, and lays on the table a bill for the 
registration of assurances in England. The 
measures in contemplation were : (1) a bill 
of relief to suitors in Chancery ; (2) three bills 
in regal'd to lunacy ; and (3) a bill abolishing 
second and third class certificates in cases of 
insolvency. 

15. —The Liverpool and Dublin steamer 
Queen Victoria strikes upon the rocks of Howth 
during a snow-storm, and sinks almost instantly 
with between sixty and seventy of the crew and 
passengers. About an equal number were 
saved. From an inquiry made into the cause 
of the disaster, it appeared to have been owing 
mainly to the negligence of the captain and 
mates, who went down with the vessel. Though 
unable to see the light through the storm, they 
neither slackened speed nor took soundings. 

16. —Convocation meets : the Upper House 
in the Bounty Office, the Lower in the Jeru¬ 
salem Chamber. The Queen’s answer to the 
Address agreed on at last meeting was read, and 
various petitions received relating to the status 
and discipline of the clergy. The Lower House 
was chiefly occupied with a debate as to its 
right to sit, and the powers necessary to vest 
in a committee appointed to meet during the 
recess. The Archbishop of Canterbury brought 
the proceedings to a close in {he afternoon. 

17. — Mr. Kinnaird proposes, but afterwards 
withdraws, a motion for an address to the 
Queen on the subject of the persecution of 
Protestants in Tuscany. Pointed reference 
having been made to the Madiai case in the 
course of the debate, Mr. Lucas replied that 
they had both been engaged in a system of 
proselytism at the instigation of foreign emis¬ 
saries. At this moment, he said, acts of 

( 376 ) 


persecution were going on against Roman Ca¬ 
tholics in Protestant countries quite as deserving 
of our interference as the case of the Madiais, 
and he intended to bring some of them before 
the House. 

17 . —The Queen’s Advocate applies to the 
Prerogative Court for delivery from the registry 
of the will and codicils of the late Napoleon 
Buonaparte, who died at the island of St. 
Helena, 5th May, 1821, leaving property within 
the jurisdiction of the court not exceeding 
600/. The learned judge, in compliance with 
the wish of her Majesty’s Government, granted 
the request, though not in the precise terms 
of the application. 

— The Earl of Cardigan urges the Govern¬ 
ment to abolish the office of Lord Lieutenant 
of Ireland. In answer to an address pre¬ 
sented at his first levee by the Corporation 
of Dublin, the new Lord Lieutenant, the Earl 
of St. Germans, said :—“ I am persuaded that 
the abolition of Lord Lieutenant would be pro¬ 
ductive of much practical inconvenience, and 
of little countervailing practical advantage ; I 
am, moreover, persuaded that the maintenance 
of this office is desired by the great body of the 
Irish people ; and I therefore think that its 
abolition would be highly inexpedient. ” 

18 . —Joseph Libeny, a Hungarian, attempts 
to assassinate the Emperor of Austria, on the 
ramparts of Vienna, by stabbing him in the neck. 
He was immediately seized, tried, and executed. 

— Debate in the House of Commons on 
our relations with France, and the language 
used by the Secretary of the Board of Control 
to his constituents at Halifax, regarding that 
Power. “There is no doubt,” said Mr. Disraeli, 
“ that there is a considerable prejudice in this 
country against the present ruler of France, 
because he has terminated what we esteem a 
parliamentary constitution, and has abrogated 
the liberty of the press. It is unnecessary for 
me to say, that it is not probable I shall ever 
say or do anything which should tend to de¬ 
preciate the influence or to diminish the power 
of Parliament or the press. (Hear, hear.) My 
greatest honour is to be a member of this 
House, in which all my thoughts and feelings 
are concentrated ; and as for the press, I am 
myself a gentleman of the press, and have no 
other scutcheon. (Cheers.)” Passing on to the 
peculiar position of France with reference to 
the change of rulers, and expressing a hearty 
sympathy with the fallen dynasty, Mr. Disraeli 
alluded to the discretion and moderation which 
should be exercised by the responsible advisers 
of her Majesty when speaking of neighbour¬ 
ing friendly Powers. “Some people are un¬ 
charitable enough to suppose that the present 
Government have neither a principle nor a 
party ; but, in Pleaven’s name, why are they 
a Ministry if they have not got discretion? 
(Hear.) That was the great point upon which 
the Cabinet was established. Vast experience, 
administrative adroitness—safe men who never 
would blunder. These were the men who not 





FEBRUARY 


1853. 


FEBRUARY 


only took the government without a principle 
and without a party, but to whom the country 
ought to be grateful for taking it under such 
circumstances.” Mr. Disraeli afterwards ad¬ 
dressed himself to the President of the Board 
of Control. “ I know the right honourable 
gentleman is in the habit of saying very offen¬ 
sive things without meaning it ; I know he has 
outraged the feelings of many individuals with¬ 
out the slightest intention of doing so ; and, 
therefore, in reference to his peculiar organi¬ 
zation, I can only say that it is a very awkward 
accomplishment. As regards the First Lord 
of the Admiralty, he has had a great deal of 
experience, to be sure, but then he has been a 
long time in Opposition; and something might 
be said for him in the way of excuse on that 
account, if, indeed, so great a personage could 
condescend to an excuse. (Laughter.) The 
right hon. baronet might say, or some one 
might say for him, that he had been a good 
many years without attending a Cabinet Coun¬ 
cil ; that no new Council had been summoned 
before he went to his constituents ; that he was 
called upon unexpectedly, and without previous 
arrangement and understanding with his col¬ 
leagues ; that it was a strange thing he should 
have made such a business of it, but still these 
things would happen sometimes. (Cheers and 
laughter.) But what is the position of the 
President of the Board of Control? He was 
hardly out of office before he was in again. (A 
laugh.) He had been in office for five or 
six years, and a hardish time he had of it, no 
doubt (a laugh); but, nevertheless, he agreed 
again to lend his gravity to the councils of his 
royal mistress. (Laughter.) He was properly 
anxious that the people of this country should 
have none but discreet men to administer their 
affairs, and, therefore, without making any 
stipulations as to the policy or principles of the 
Government, he became a Minister again, and 
attended twenty Cabinet Councils before he 
went down to make the Halifax demonstration. 
(Cheers and laughter.) And yet, with this 
renovated sense of responsibility—knowing 
how much depended on everything said by a 
Minister under these circumstances—the right 
hon. gentleman, fresh from Cabinet Councils, 
knowing all the questions at issue, goes to his 
constituents, and describes the ruler of the 
French in language which I have more than 
once referred to, and will not now repeat.” 
Pointing out the peculiar necessity for a cordial 
alliance with France at this time, on account 
of the threatening aspect of the Eastern ques¬ 
tion, Mr. Disraeli took occasion to comment 
on the anomalous position occupied in the 
Ministry by Lord John Russell. “We under¬ 
stood from the first that the noble lord had 
accepted office as Secretary of State provision¬ 
ally ; but people were surprised at this ; and 
then there came forth a paragraph, in which 
they were ‘ authorized to state ’ that this was a 
mistake ; that the noble lord was not to hold 
office as Secretaiy of State for Foreign Affairs, 
but was to have some office where there was 


nothing to do somewhere in the neighbourhood 
of Waterloo-bridge. (A laugh.) In fact, the 
only place the description met was that of the 
toll-gatherer of that unfortunate bridge. (Roars 
of laughter.) Well, Sir, that paragraph was 
not satisfactory. The noble lord, whatever 
the opinions of some of us may be, is rather a 
favourite of the people of England (hear, hear), 
and they did not consider that exactly the 
treatment to which a man of his position was 
entitled. (Cheers.) There was then another 
paragraph, in which it was stated ‘on authority’ 
that all the other paragraphs were erroneous, 
that the noble lord was going to resign the 
office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
but was certainly to continue leader of the 
House, and that he was to have a room allowed 
him in the office of the Secretary of State. 
(Laughter.) But the climax was reached when 
a fourth and rather an angry paragraph, 
written, it seemed, with some feeling of per¬ 
sonal indignation, appeared, in which it was 
stated that nothing could be more erroneous or 
premature than the announcements that the 
noble lord was going to remain in the Foreign 
Office—that he was not to continue leader of 
the House of Commons—that he was to have 
a room in the Foreign Office—a small room, I 
think it said—but that he was to be allowed 
two clerks. (Much laughter.) Sir, I confess 
I must protest against this system of shutting 
up great men in small rooms (renewed laugh¬ 
ter), and of binding to the triumphal chariot- 
wheels of administrative ability all the fame 
and genius of the Whig party. (Cheers.) I 
think I have a right to ask the noble lord 
frankly, ‘ Are you Secretary of State, or are 
you not?’ (Loud cheers.)” Appealing from 
the great Liberal and Whig parties to the 
Radicals, “Where,” asked Mr. Disraeli, “are 
the Radicals ? Is there a man in the House 
who declares himself to be a Radical ? Not 
one. He would be afraid of being caught and 
turned into a Conservative Minister. ... We 
have now got a Ministry of ‘progress,’ and 
everyone stands still. (Cheers.) We never 
hear the word ‘ reform ’ now ; it is no longer 
a Ministry of Reform, it is a Ministry of Pro¬ 
gress, every member of which resolves to do 
nothing. (Laughter.) All difficult questions 
are suspended. (Hear, hear.) All questions 
which cannot be agreed upon are open ques¬ 
tions. Now, I don’t want to be unreasonable, 
but I think there ought to be some limit to 
this system of open questions. (Cheers.) It 
is a system which has hitherto prevailed only 
partially in this country, and which never has 
prevailed with any advantage to it. Let us, at 
least, fix on some limits to it. Let Parlia¬ 
mentary reform, let the ballot, be open questions 
if you please ; let every institution in Church 
and State be open questions ; but, at least, let 
your answer to me to-night prove that, among 
your open questions, you are not going to make 
' one of the peace of Europe. (Cheers.)”—Sir 
James Graham, in reply, taunted Mr. Disraeli, 
not only with decorating the tomb of Welling- 

( 377 ) 




FEBRUARY 


1853 - 


MARCH 


ton with a branch plucked from the funeral 
wreath of a French marshal, but with describing 
other friendly Powers, in presence of repre¬ 
sentatives of their own nation, as our “scan¬ 
dalous and discomfited allies.” “He says the 
press is his escutcheon. I must say the leaders 
in the Morning Chronicle are also his sup¬ 
porters, and his Standard -bearer is to be found 
in the evening press. (Laughter.)” Reminding 
him of the dislike of the people of this country 
to misquotations as well as to coalitions, the 
member for Carlisle denied that, even in the 
heat of a contested election, he had used the 
words attributed to him by Mr. Disraeli. “ I 
must be allowed,” he said, in concluding, “to 
state that, although willing and anxious to 
maintain the most friendly relations with 
France, and though desirous that not one word 
should fall from me to excite their enmity, still 
if I am not, either on the hustings or in this 
House, to*say that which my heart dictates, 
and my mind and conscience dictate, then cer¬ 
tainly I am not fit to be a Minister, or to sit in 
the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) I 
am still a member of a free community, a com¬ 
munity that dares to defend the truth, and 
loves the truth, and is still the guardian of this 
happy country—which, after all, is the last 
refuge of the liberties of Europe. (Cheers.)” 

21.—John Williams, a native of Boston, 
United States, tried before the High Court of 
Justiciary, Edinburgh, for the murder, on the 
highway, of Andrew Mather, toll-keeper at 
Cleekhinion, Berwickshire. The daughters of 
the murdered man found the prisoner sleeping 
beside the body of his victim, and under the 
plaid which Mather had worn when attacked, 
Williams was found guilty, and executed at 
Greenlaw. 

23 . —Mr. Spooner’s motion for withdrawing 
the grant to Maynooth negatived after a debate 
by 192 votes to 162. 

24 . —Accident in the Ealing cutting of the 
Great Western Railway, resulting in the death 
of one of the directors of the Company, Mr. 
Gibbs, of Clifton, and the serious injury of 
another, Dr. Pritchard Smith. 

27 . —Termination of the Caffre War by the 
submission of the powerful Gaika chief San- 
dilla. The conditions granted by General 
Cathcart extended the Royal mercy and pardon 
to the rebel chief and his people, but declared 
that the Gaika tribes cannot be permitted to 
retain the Amatolas and their other frontier 
lands, which are forfeited to the Government. 

28 . —St. George’s Church, Doncaster, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. The destruction of this fine 
specimen of ecclesiastical architecture excited 
a wide-spread regret, and meetings of the local 
gentry and clergy were at once held to take 
steps for rebuilding the church in something 
like its original splendour. The oldest part of 
the edifice destroyed was said to date back to 
1070 A. d., and the n^ve and the tower to the 
reign of Henry III. 

( 378 ) 


March 2 .—Prince Menschikoff, accredited 
to Constantinople as Russian Ambassador and 
Plenipotentiary, visits the Grand Vizier, but 
refuses to call upon the Foreign Minister, Fuad 
Efifendi, on the ground that the Russian Minister 
at Constantinople had accused him of breach 
of faith. In consequence of this insult Fuad 
Efifendi resigned office, and was succeeded by 
Rifaat Pasha. Lord Stratford de Redcliflfe, who 
reached Constantinople soon after, wrote to 
Lord Clarendon, that at an interview with the 
Grand Vizier and Minister for Foreign Affairs 
they had informed him, “ That since the arrival 
of Prince Menschikoff the language held by 
the Russian Embassy to them had been a mix¬ 
ture of angry complaints and friendly assurances, 
accompanied with positive requisitions as to the 
Holy Places in Palestine, indications of some 
ulterior views, and a general tone of resistance, 
at times bordering on intimidation.” 

— Misgovemment of Turkey. The Times 
writes : “ We have already intimated that the 
time is fast approaching when the maintenance 
of the Ottoman empire in its present form will 
be found to be impracticable, acknowledged to 
be undesirable; but whatever political vicissi¬ 
tudes the Christian and Sclavonic provinces of 
Turkey may witness, they can pass under no 
form of government more barbarous and 
oppressive than that which has so long over¬ 
whelmed them. We profess, therefore, to feel 
no anxiety for the maintenance of the Ottoman 
empire, which bears the stamp of a tyrannical 
past, a worthless present, and an extinct 
future. ” 

4 .—Accident near the Dixenfold station of 
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. While 
the express train was proceeding at the rate of 
between forty and fifty miles an hour, one of 
the driving-wheels of the engine broke, causing 
it to fall across the line. Three of the carriages 
following were hurled off the rails and smashed 
to pieces, and the passengers injured in the 
most frightful manner. Three of them, with 
the engine-driver, were killed on the spot; and 
two others died after lingering for some days. 

— Second reading of the Canada Clergy 
Reserves Bill, in the House of Commons, 
carried by a majority of 83. 

8 . —The jubilee of the British and Foreign 
Bible Society celebrated in Exeter Hall, under 
the presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury. 
Since its commencement the Society had insti¬ 
tuted 8,000 branches, and circulated 43,000,000 
copies of the Scriptures. 

— Gervinus, author of an “ Introduction to 
the History of the Nineteenth Century,” con¬ 
demned to four months’ imprisonment by the 
High Court of Mannheim for exciting sedition 
in that work. This sentence was afterwards 
cancelled as too lenient, and a new trial ordered 
for inciting to high treason. 

11.—Died, aged 66, M. J. B. Orfila, French 

I chemist and physician. 




MARCH 


1853 - 


APRIL 


11. —Second reading of the Jewish Disabilities 
Bill, in the House of Commons, carried by 263 
votes to 212, on Sir F. Thesiger’s amendment 
to discuss it that day six months. 

12 . —Another explosion in the Risca Vale 
Colliery, near Newport, and loss of ten lives. 

13 . —Disturbances at Yeadon, near Leeds, 
between the Wesleyans and Reformed Metho¬ 
dists : one of the latter shot. 

14 -.—Abraham Sewell, a maniac, aged 38, 
living at West Auckland, Durham, murders his 
mother, aged 82, by beating her when in bed 
with a poker and rolling-pin, and inflicts serious 
injury upon his father, while attempting to 
protect the old woman. 

— Died at Vienna, aged 67, the Austrian 
Field Marshal Haynau. 

17 .—Santa Anna elected President of the 
Mexican Republic. 

— The Madai family liberated by the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany. 

19 .—Fire in the Prince of Wales’ Tower, 
Windsor Castle. The state apartments, with 
their priceless furniture, were for some time 
placed in the greatest jeopardy, but the exer¬ 
tions of the firemen and assistants, headed by 
Prince Albert, confined the fire to the room in 
which it originated, and two storeys of bed¬ 
rooms above. 

25 .—Explosion in the Arley Coal Mine, 
Wigan. On the officers of the pit effecting a 
descent into the works, they found the strong 
doors dividing the up-cast from the down-cast 
shaft blown to atoms, and among the fragments 
fifteen of the workmen dead. A little further 
on twenty men and boys were found alive, then 
two others, and near the extremity of the work¬ 
ings various groups of suffocated miners were 
discovered. Fifty-eight perished in all. 

— Election riot at Blackburn, dispersed by 
the military after several houses had been broken 
into and wrecked. 

29 .—Meeting at Newcastle to memorialize 
Government on the Turkish question. Lord 
John Russell promised in reply that the utmost 
vigilance would be shown, as the independence 
of Turkey could not be subverted without 
serious injury to British commerce. 

31 .—The correspondence of Lord Nelson 
with Lady Plamilton, and of the Queen of 
Naples with Lady Hamilton, amounting in all 
to about 600 letters, sold at Sotheby and Wil¬ 
kinson’s. The naval hero’s last letter, written 
on board the Victory , before going into action 
at Trafalgar, was bought for the British Museum 
at 23/. The entire collection brought 501/. 
6 s. 6 d. 

— Lady Franklin’s vessel, the Isabel screw- 
steainer, sails from Woolwich in search of the 
missing explorers. 

April 1.—Wreck of the London and Aber¬ 
deen steamer Duke of Sutherland , at the en¬ 


trance of Aberdeen harbour, and loss of sixteen 
of the passengers and crew. While trying to 
avoid the risk caused by a south gale the vessel 
struck upon the dangerous rocks beyond the 
pier-head, and in about ten minutes commenced 
to break up under a violent sea. A few of the 
crew launched the life-boat ; but they had not 
pulled many yards from the wreck when she 
was upset, and those who had sought refuge in 
her were only saved by the exertions of people 
on shore. A coble put off to the wreck, but 
also upset, and six out of the seven men who 
manned her were drowned. A few were got off 
the steamer by rocket lines. Those washed off 
and drowned were two ladies (cabin passengers), 
three steerage passengers, the commander, 
Captain Howland, who attempted to reach the 
shore by the rocket' line, and ten of the crew. 

1.—Manchester made a city by Royal Charter. 

4 . —The merchants, bankers, and traders of 
London having presented an address to the 
Emperor of the French, expressive of their 
desire for the continuance of cordiality and 
goodwill between this country and France, Lord 
Campbell called the attention of the House of 
Lords to the occurrence, as a transgression of 
that rule which authorized the carrying on of 
intercourse between independent nations by 
ambassadors only, or some other official ap¬ 
pointed by Government. He wished to know 
whether the deputation which was said to have 
waited on the Emperor had been sanctioned by 
the Government of her Majesty. The Earl of 
Clarendon said that sanction had not been given 
or asked, but the Address itself, though un¬ 
necessary, was at the same time unobjectionable. 

— Lord John Russell explains the intentions 
of the Government with respect to National 
Education, and obtains leave to introduce a bill 
on the subject. He showed what had been 
done with respect to the education of the poorer 
classes since public day-schools were established, 
examined the voluntary and secular system, de¬ 
ciding against each, and gave an outline of the 
Government measure, which embraced an ex¬ 
tension of the present system, and a plan for 
dealing with educational charities. Of secular 
education he said:—“ The people of this 
country act on a right instinct when they openly 
declare that there shall be religious training, 
which shall comprise all the great doctrines 
of Christianity. Therefoi*e neither I nor the 
present Government can be a party to any plan 
proposing a secular mode of teaching.” 

— Lord Stratford de Redcliffe arrives at 
Constantinople to-day, and the French Am¬ 
bassador, M. de la Cour, on the 5th. 

6 . —Captain McClure and the search crew 
of the Investigator discovered by Lieutenant 
Pirn, and relieved by Captain Kellett, of the 
Herald , then lying at Dealy Island. 

7. —At ten minutes past one o’clock this 
afternoon the Queen was safely delivered of a 
son—Prince Leopold. 


( 379 ) 




APRIL 


1853 * 


APRIL 


8 . —Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer, brings forward his resolutions on the 
National Debt. His plan consisted of three 
parts : First, the liquidation of certain minor 
stocks amounting to 9,500,000/. ; second, a 
change in the issue of Exchequer Bonds ; and 
third, a voluntary commutation of the Three 
per Cent. Consols and the Three per Cent. Re¬ 
duced, making together a capital of nearly 
500,000,000/., thereby laying the foundation of 
a permanent irredeemable Two and a Half per 
Cent. Stock, which was the ultimate aim of the 
Government, and the key to the resolutions he 
submitted to the House. These resolutions, 
after considerable discussion, were agreed to. 

11. —The Lord Chancellor moves the second 
reading of a bill for altering the punishment of 
transportation. He thought they should only 
leave as subjects for transportation those who 
were now liable for fourteen years and upwards, 
including cases of receiving stolen goods, out¬ 
rages, assaults on the person, attempts to do 
grievous bodily harm, housebreaking, burglary, 
and cattle-stealing. For the remaining class, he 
thought that those who would have been trans¬ 
ported for seven years should henceforth be 
kept in penal servitude for four, and so on in 
proportion up to fifteen, for which term he 
proposed ten years’ penal servitude. In the 
House of Commons, Mr. Keating objected to 
the ticket-of-leave clauses ; but the bill ulti¬ 
mately passed the Commons as it came from 
the Lords. 

12. —Mr. Butt moves the presentation of an 
address to the Queen, praying that the orders 
given for the gradual abolition of Kilmainham 
Hospital may be -cancelled. The motion was 
opposed by the Secretary of War, chiefly on the 
ground that the pensioners preferred out-door 
relief; but on a division the House authorized 
the address by a majority of 198 to 131. 

— The foundation-stone of the first Model 
Lodging-house, erected by the Society for 
Improving the Dwellings of the Working 
Classes, laid in New-street, Golden-square, by 
the Duke of Cambridge. 

14 . —Mr. Milner Gibson’s resolution for abo¬ 
lishing the advertisement-duty carried against 
Government by 200 to 169. The resolutions 
proposed at the same time relative to the stamp 
and paper duties were negatived by considerable 
majorities. 

— Seizure of gunpowder and war rockets in 
a house in Rotherhithe, reported by the Times 
to be in possession of M. Kossuth. In the 
debate which took place in Parliament on the 
subject next evening, the exile’s friends denied 
that he was in any way mixed up in the 
transaction. 

15. —The Jewish Disabilities Bill read a 
third time in the House of Commons : ma¬ 
jority, 288 to 230. 

18 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a 
speech of five hours’ duration, introduces the 
financial scheme of the Government. The main 


features were the extension^ of the legacy-duty, 
gradual reduction of the Income-tax, equaliza¬ 
tion of spirit duties, abolition of soap-duty, 
universal penny receipt stamp, reduction of 
duty on cabs and hackney-coaches, and the 
equalization of assessed taxes. The resolutions 
moved in terms of the Budget showed that 123 
articles at present paying duty would be set free 
altogether, and in the case of 133 the present 
duties were to be reduced. The total relief he 
estimated at 5,384,000/. On the subject of the 
Income-tax—the colossal engine of finance— 
Mr. Gladstone said :—“ If the Committee have 
followed me, they wall see that we stand on the 
principle that the Income-tax ought to be 
marked as a temporary measure; that the 
public feeling that relief should be given to 
intelligence and skill, as compared with pro¬ 
perty, ought to be met, and may be met; that 
the Income-tax in its operation ought to be 
mitigated by every rational means compatible 
with its integrity ; and, above all, that it should 
be associated in the last terms of its existence, 
as it was in its first, with those remissions of 
indirect taxation which have so greatly re¬ 
dounded to the profit of this country, and have 
set so admirable an example—an example that 
has already in some quarters proved contagious 
—to the other nations of the earth. I may be 
permitted to add, that while we have sought to 
do justice, by the changes we propose in taxa¬ 
tion, to intelligence and skill as compared with 
property—while we have sought to do justice to 
the great labour community of England by 
furthering their relief from indirect taxation—we 
have not been guided by any desire to put one 
class against another; we have felt we should 
best maintain our own honour, that we should 
best meet the views of Parliament, and best pro¬ 
mote the interests of the country, by declining 
to draw any invidious distinction between 
class and class—by adopting it to ourselves as 
a sacred aim to diffuse and distribute the 
burdens if we must, and the benefits if we can, 
with equal and impartial hand ; and we have 
the consolation of‘believing, that by proposals 
such as these we contribute as far as in us lies, 
not only to develop the material resources of 
the country, but to knit the various parts of 
this great nation yet more closely than ever to 
that throne and to those institutions under 
which it is our happiness to live.” 

22 .—A body of peasantry, under the direc¬ 
tions of the Jesuits, attempt to seize Friburg, 
but are driven into the College, and surren¬ 
der to the Civic Guards after the loss of a few 
lives. 

25 .—In a debate on Lord Derby’s amend¬ 
ment on the Canada Clergy Reserves Bill, the 
Bishop of Oxford took occasion to read an 
extract from Burke, illustrative of the state¬ 
ment that the Americans became untractable 
whenever they saw the least attempt to wrest 
freedom from them by force, or shuffle it from 
them by chicane.—The Earl of Derby would 
not admit that by this amendment they at¬ 
tempted either to “ wrest by force” or “ shuffle 






APRIL 


1853. 


MA Y 


by chicane.” The Bishop of Oxford would, he 
was sure, regret the use of such expressions, 
and think some apology due for having so 
pointedly characterised the amendment. It was 
an application of terms which could not be 
made without giving offence.—The Bishop of 
Oxford explained, that he had made the allusion 
with a smile, in a playful way, and had no in¬ 
tention to do what was offensive. At the same 
time, he must remind the noble Earl, that to 
speak of the promoters of this bill as advocating 
a shuffling and shifting policy was calculated to 
prove offensive to them, as he believed it had 
proved to his noble friends near him.—The Earl 
of Derby : “My Lords, I accept at once the 
explanation which has been offered by the right 
reverend prelate : but when he tells me that it 
is impossible for him to say anything offensive 
because he has a smiling face, he will forgive me 
if I quote in his presence from a well-known 
author, without intending in the least to apply 
the words to him— 

‘A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain.' 

(Cheers, laughter, and some deprecatory re¬ 
marks. ) I am at a loss to conceive to whom 

what I say can be offensive.”-The Earl of 

Clarendon (interposing with great energy and 
excitement of manner): “It is to me. (Loud 
cheers.) It is to me, I say. (Renewed cheer¬ 
ing.) I and my noble friends near me were 
offended by that expression. We are not 
accustomed to hear such expressions. (Repeated 
and prolonged cheering.) We are not accus¬ 
tomed, even in the language of poetry, to hear 
such a word as * villain’ applied to any noble 
Lord in this House. (Loud cheering.)”—The 
Earl of Derby thought this interference un¬ 
called for, and somewhat angrily explained that 
he meant nothing personally offensive. The 
amendment was rejected by a majority of 40. 

28 . —Died at Berlin, aged 80, Ludwig Tieck, 
German writer. 

29 . —The Government Jewish Disabilities 
Bill thrown out in the House of Lords on the 
second reading by a majority of 49. 

— Wreck of the Rebecca , of London, on 
the west coast of Van Diemen’s Land, while 
on her passage home from Sydney. She 
struck on a reef when sailing at the rate of 
84 knots an hour, and drifted shoreward, where 
she went to pieces under a heavy sea. Of 30 
persons on board only 11 were saved. 

30 . —Mendaco and Maria Giusto hanged on 
the mole at Genoa for murdering the wife of 
the former. 

May 2.—The Budget resolutions relating 
to the Income-tax carried, after three nights’ 
debate, by 323 to 252 votes. 

3 . —Wreck of the American emigrant ship 
William and Mary, in the channel of the 
Bahamas, and less of 170 lives. The captain, 
most of the crew, and about thirty passengers 
got off in two of the boats, and were picked 
up by passing vessels. 


4 -.—The city of Shiraz, in Persia, visited by 
an earthquake, in which it was reported that 
no less than 10,000 of the inhabitants were 
overwhelmed. 

5 .—Prince Menschikoff presents his ulti¬ 
matum to the Porte, in the shape of a note 
accompanied by the draught of a proposed 
convention or arrangement which the Porte 
was to sign within five days, under a threat of 
serious consequences if a longer delay took 
place. The note (which was written in the 
third person, in the name of the Ambassador) 
demanded that “The Orthodox Eastern re¬ 
ligion, its clergy, and its possessions, shall enjoy 
for the future, without any prejudice, under the 
protection of his Majesty the Sultan, the pri¬ 
vileges and immunities which are assured to 
them ab antique, and, upon the principle of 
perfect equity, shall participate in the advan¬ 
tages accorded to the other Christian sects.” 
He could not consider any delay in answering 
other “ than as a want of respect towards his 
Government, which would impose on him the 
most painful duty.” After an interview with 
our Ambassador Rifaat Pasha wrote on the 10th 
that, while the Porte was willing to negotiate 
with respect to certain of the demands made by 
Russia, it was “contrary to international rights 
that our Government should conclude a treaty 
with another on a dangerous matter, affecting 
not only those things on which her indepen¬ 
dence was grounded, but, as was well known, 
her independence itself in its very foundations. ” 
On the 12th Prince Menschikoff succeeded in 
obtaining a private audience of the Sultan ; but 
his Highness having previously been informed 
by the English Ambassador that, in the event 
of imminent danger, he was instructed to 
request the aid of her Majesty’s fleet in the 
Mediterranean, the Russian Envoy did not suc¬ 
ceed in his attempt to turn the Sultan from the 
line of policy advised by England, viz. to treat 
as two distinct things the original question of 
the Holy Places and this new claim for a 
Russian Protectorate under a secret treaty. 
The Ottoman Council declining to enter into 
the treaty or convention required by Russia, 
Prince Menschikoff took his departure from 
Constantinople with the Embassy on the 15 th. 
Having ascertained on leaving that the Sultan 
was about to issue a firman confirming the 
privileges of the Greek Church, Prince Men¬ 
schikoff wrote to the Turkish Minister for 
Foreign Affairs : “Whatever may be the 
motive of this determination, a declaration or 
any other act which, although it may preserve 
the integrity of the purely spiritual right of the 
Orthodox Eastern Church, tends to invalidate 
the other rights, privileges, and immunities 
accorded to her religion and clergy from the 
most ancient times, and which they enjoy to 
the present moment, will be considered by the 
Imperial Cabinet as an act of hostility to 
Russia and to her religion.” 

— In Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. 
Lawless made a motion to exempt Ireland 
from the Income-tax. A “ scene ” was created 

( 38 i) 






MAY 


1853- 


MA Y 


by Mr. Duffy’s declaration “ that in the worst 
days of Walpole and the Pelhams more scan¬ 
dalous corruptions did not exist than he had 
seen practised under his own eye in corrupting 
Irish members.” The debate was at once 
interrupted by Mr. V. Scully and Mr. J. Ball, 
rising together. Amid great confusion, Lord 
John Russell challenged Mr. Duffy to make 
good his words or retract them. The words 
were ordered to be taken down; and on being 
reported to the House, the chairman formally 
called upon Mr. Duffy to explain or retract. 
Mr. Duffy said, if the House granted him a 
committee, he would lay all the facts before it; 
and then withdrew. Next night he made 
an explanation expressive of regret if he had 
offended against any rule of the House. 

6 . —Commencement of the sale of Louis 
Philippe’s Spanish and Standish galleries at 
Christie’s. The first, containing 528 pictures, 
produced 27,000/. ; and the second, 244 pic¬ 
tures, 10,000 -guineas. 

— Professor W. E. Aytoun (Edinburgh) 
commences a course of lectures on poetry and 
dramatic literature at Willis’s Rooms. 

8 . —Died at Rome, where he was held in 
high regard, Father Roothan, General of the 
Jesuits. 

9 . —Royal assent given to the Canada Clergy 
Reserves Bill, abolishing the title of the Protes¬ 
tant clergy to certain portions of waste lands in 

the colony. 

10. —By a majority of 138 to 115 votes Mr. 
T. Chambers obtains leave to introduce a bill 
for facilitating the recovery of personal liberty 
in nunneries. 

— Attempt made to extort money from 
Mr. Gladstone, by charging him with improper 
conduct towards a female in the Haymarket. 
Walking home from the Italian Opera, whither 
he had gone in his brougham after the division 
on the Nunneries Bill, he was accosted by one 
of the unfortunates frequenting that locality. 
While listening to her story, a person named 
Wilson stepped forward, and addressing him 
by name, said he would expose him in the 
Morning Herald, unless a sum of money was 
paid there and then, or a situation promised 
in Somerset House. After some little delay, 
during which the female passed into her lodg¬ 
ings, a policeman was procured, and the 
offender given into custody. He was tried at 
the Central Criminal Court, on the 15th of 
J une, and sentenced to twelve months’ imprison¬ 
ment with hard labour. 

12 . —Opening of the Dublin Exhibition, 
erected by Mr. Dargan, for displaying works 
of industry to his countrymen by way of en- 
couragment and example. The ceremony was 
performed by the Lord Lieutenant (the Earl 
of St. Germains), accompanied by the Countess 
and a large train of Irish nobility and gentry, 
knights of St Patrick, officials, and digni¬ 
taries. 

(382) 


15 .—Proclamation of the new Constitution 
of the Argentine Confederation. 

17 _Destruction by fire of Brogden’s North 

Shore Cotton Mills, Liverpool. Advantage 
had been taken of the absence of the workmen 
during the Whitsun holidays to execute repairs 
in the machinery, and it was supposed the 
disaster originated through the carelessness^ of 
some of the tradesmen thus employed. Ihe 
value of the buildings, machinery, and goods 
destroyed was estimated at 80,000/. 

— The Governor of Jamaica, in opening the 
Legislature, censures both Houses for attempt¬ 
ing, under cover of providing for the principal 
supplies, to appropriate its grants so as to 
defeat former permanent appropriations. 

— At the annual meeting of the British and 
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society Mrs. Beecher 
Stowe was present, with some friends from 
America, and received a flattering welcome. 
Eight days afterwards she was presented with 
an address by the same body in Willis’s Rooms. 

19 .—The ship Argyll foundered at sea near 
the coast of Newfoundland, while on her pas¬ 
sage to Quebec. The passengers and crew, 
numbering 17 persons, escaped in the boats, but 
only to endure such privations from famine and 
exposure that 15 of them perished. The sur¬ 
vivors were picked up by a French brig in lat. 
50° N., long. 32 0 W. The Aurora of Hull went 
down next day, with 26 of her passengers and 
crew, in lat. 46° N., long. 38° W. 

24 -.—The Edinburgh Adelphi Theatre de¬ 
stroyed by a fire which broke out about hve 
P.M. in the music-room. 

27 .—In answer to Mr. Disraeli, Lord John 
Russell said that the most perfect confidence 
and accordance subsisted between her Majesty’s 
Ambassador at Constantinople and the Ambas¬ 
sador of the Emperor of the French. They each 
took the same view of the Russian proposals. 
In the present state of the negotiations, it would 
be improper to produce the instructions upon 
which Lord Stratford acted ; but he might say 
the policy which dictated them was that of 
maintaining inviolate the faith of treaties and 
the independence of Turkey. 

30 .—Lord John Russell declines to inform 
Mr. Disraeli whether or not the British fleet 
had been ordered to the Dardanelles. 

— Election of Chamberlain for the City 
of London. Sir John Key, alderman of the 
ward of Bridge Without, and twice Lord 
Mayor, the candidate started by the Corpora¬ 
tion, obtained 3,185 votes, against Mr. Scott, of 
the Chamberlain’s office, who polled 2,914. 
This was the largest number of the Livery who 
ever voted in such a contest. 

— The withdrawal of the Russian Envoy 
from Constantinople being now fully confirmed, 
a sudden reduction takes place in Consols. The 
market closed heavily to-day ioo|—§. Next 
day they fell a |, owing it was thought, to the 
silence observed by Ministers regarding the 
probable movements of the fleet. 





MAY 


T853. 


7UNR 


31 .—Lord Lyndhurst’s Alteration of Oaths 
Bill, designed to strike out such portions from 
the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjura¬ 
tion as were inoperative, idle, and absurd, 
thrown out in the House of Lords, on a second 
reading, by a majority of 15. 

— Count Nesselrode writes to Redsehid 
Pasha, at Constantinople :— “ Place once more 
the real situation of affairs before his Highness ; 
the moderation and the justice of the demand 
of Russia ; the very great insult done to the 
Emperor by opposing to his intentions, which 
have constantly been friendly and generous, 
unfounded mistrust and inexcusable refusals. 
The dignity of his Majesty, the interests of his 
empire, the voice of his conscience, do not per¬ 
mit him to accept such proceedings in return for 
those which he has had, and still wishes to en¬ 
tertain, with Turkey. He must seek to obtain 
their reparation, and to provide against their 
recurrence in future. In a few weeks the 
troops will receive the order to cross the fron¬ 
tiers of the empire, not to wage war, which it 
is repugnant to his Majesty to undertake against 
a Sovereign whom it has always pleased him 
to consider a sincere ally, but to obtain those 
material guarantees until the moment when, 
brought to more equitable sentiments, the 
Ottoman Government will give to Russia the 
moral securities which she has in vain de¬ 
manded for two years through her representa¬ 
tives at Constantinople, and in the last instance 
by her Ambassador. The draft of the note 
which Prince Menschikoff presented to you is 
in your hands. Let your Excellency hasten, 
after having obtained the consent of his High¬ 
ness the Sultan, to sign that note satis variantes , 
and to transmit it without delay to our Ambas¬ 
sador at Odessa, where he still sojourns.” 
Redsehid Pasha replied :— “I entertain the 
hope that the Court of Russia will appreciate 
with a feeling of confident consideration the 
sincere and loyal intentions of the Sublime 
Porte, and will take into account the utter im¬ 
possibility in which it finds itself to defer to the 
desires which have been expressed. Let that 
impossibility be appreciated as it merits to be, 
and the Sublime Porte, I can assure your 
Excellency, will not hesitate to instruct an 
Ambassador Extraordinary to proceed to St. 
Petersburgh to reopen there the negotiations, 
and to seek, in concert with the Government 
of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, an 
arrangement which, while it may be agreeable 
to his Majesty, shall be also such as the Porte 
can accept without affecting either the basis of 
its independence or the; sovereign authority of 
his Majesty the Sultan.” 

— Mr. G. H. Moore’s motion for a select 
committee to inquire into the ecclesiastical 
revenues of Ireland, with a view of ascertaining 
how far they could be made applicable to the 
benefit of the Irish people, rejected by 240 to 
98 votes. Lord John Russell created some 
discussion in the House, and a temporary split 
in the Ministerial ranks, by denying that the 
Roman Catholics were in a state of social and 


political degradation, or had any social in¬ 
equalities to complain of. “ If Roman Catho¬ 
lics of former years,” he said, “ have expressed 
gratitude for concessions made in their favour, 
they are extremely unlike some of the Roman 
Catholics of the present day, who have met 
the largest concessions of Parliament with 
reproaches and revilings ; as if they wish to 
prove how much they differ from their ances¬ 
tors, and to make up for their exuberance of 
loyalty and attachment to their country.” It 
was evident of late years that the Roman Ca¬ 
tholic clergy have aimed at political power at 
variance with the due attachment of the Crown, 
the liberties of the subject, and the general 
course of liberty. He was obliged, therefore, 
to conclude most unwillingly, but decidedly, 
that the endowment of the Roman Catholic 
religion in Ireland was a measure which the Par¬ 
liament of this country ought not to sanction. 

June 1 . —Count Nesselrode sends from 
St. Petersburg a despatch informing Baron 
Brunow of the Emperor’s intention to occupy 
the Principalities. On the same day a des¬ 
patch was forwarded from the Foreign Office 
here to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, authorizing 
him in certain specified contingencies to send 
for the fleet, which would then repair to such 
place as he might point out. Next day in¬ 
structions were sent to Admiral Dundas to 
proceed at once to the neighbourhood of the 
Dardanelles, and there place himself in com¬ 
munication with her Majesty’s Ambassador. 

— Lord Hotham’s Judges Exclusion Bill 
thrown out in the Commons on the motion for 
a third reading. Mr. Macaulay addressed the 
House with great vigour against the bill. 
There was no more reason, he said, for ex¬ 
cluding judges from the House of Commons 
than from the House of Lords, where every 
member was in some measure a judge. Without 
affording any compensating benefit whatever, 
it was a measure which would lower the in¬ 
fluence and lessen the usefulness of the House 
of Commons. 

— At the Custom House, tea deliveries at 
the reduced duty are made to-day to the 
amount of 200,000/. 

2 . —Explosion on board the Times screw- 
steamer in Dublin harbour. Two of the pas¬ 
sengers were killed on the spot, and ten died 
after their removal to the hospital. 

3 . —Sir Charles Wood introduces the new 
Bill for the government of India, in a speech 
of five hours’ length. He proposed to continue 
the relations of the Board of Control to the 
Board of Directors as they stand, but to change 
the constitution and limit the patronage of the 
Court of Directors. The thirty members of 
the Court were to be reduced to eighteen— 
twelve elected in the usual way, and six nomi¬ 
nated by the Crown from persons who have 
been Indian servants for ten years. With re¬ 
spect to patronage, now entirely in the hands 





JUNE 


1853. 


JUNE 


of the Court of Directors, it was proposed to 
do away altogether with nomination by favour, 
and to make civil and scientific appointments 
depend on merit alone. The bill gave rise to 
frequent and lengthy discussions in the Com¬ 
mons, but was finally passed, with some trifling 
amendments, on the 28th of July. Sir John 
• Pakington’s motion for abolishing the salt 
monopoly was carried against the Government 
by 117 to 107. In the House of Lords the bill 
was severely criticised by Lord Ellenborough, 
but was ultimately carried through all its stages 
there, and in due course received the Royal 
Assent. 

3.—Messrs. Keogh, Monsell, and Sadleir, 
having resigned their appointments under Lord 
Aberdeen, in consequence of the language used 
by Lord J. Russell regarding the Catholic 
religion in the debate on the ecclesiastical 
revenues of Ireland, Lord Aberdeen now writes 
to these members of his party: “While the 
vote on that occasion had the sanction of the 
Government, the reasons for that vote given by 
Lord John Russell, and the sentiments of which 
you complain, are not shared by me, nor by 
many of my colleagues.” This explanation 
led to a withdrawal of the resignations. 

5. —Fire on the premises of the Patent Gutta 
Percha Company, City-road, and destruction 
of property valued at 100,000/. The flames 
spread to two vessels lying in the basin, and from 
them to a range of warehouses on the oppo¬ 
site side. Among the premises destroyed were 
a Patent Fire-wood Factory and the works of 
a Patent Cooperage Company. 

6. —Wreck of the Nessree, thirty-five miles 
south of Bombay, and loss of about 350 pas¬ 
sengers, chiefly Indian pilgrims coming from 
Arabia. 

8 . — Drummond’s (Duke de Melfort) Resti¬ 
tution Bill read a second time in the House of 
Lords ; the object, as explained by the Lord 
Chancellor, being the removal of the attainder 
against the earldom of Perth, forfeited for the 
adherence of the fifth Earl to the fortunes of 
the Stuarts in the Rebellion of 1745. 

9 . —Gavazzi riots in Canada. At Quebec 
the reverend padre was thrown out of his 
pulpit, and at Montreal the disturbance was so 
serious that the military called out to repress it 
were compelled to fire in self-defence. Seven 
persons were killed on the spot, six severely or 
mortally wounded, and ten or twelve others 
slightly injured. 

— During the Commemoration at Oxford, 
the Earl of Derby is installed as Chancellor, 
and a large number of his friends and political 
supporters receive the honorary degree of 
D.C.L. 

10. —Exhibited in Wyld’s Globe, Leicester- 
square, a nugget found at Ballarat diggings, 
sixty-six feet below the surface, weighing 
134 lbs. 11 oz., and valued at 6,000/. 

11 . —In the House of Commons, Mr. Keogh 
entered into an examination of the charges 

(384) 


made against him with reference to the forma¬ 
tion of the late and the present Government— • 
charges which, he said, impeached his veracity, j 
and were derogatory to his personal honour. 

12 . —Count Nesselrode addresses a circular j 
note to the Russian ministers and diplomatic 
agents throughout Europe, explanatory o! 
Prince Menschikoff’s mission to Constanti- j 
nople, and designed to “ rectify the false state¬ 
ments which may have been circulated about 
it in the countries in which they resided.” A 
note was appended to the circular, showing 
the terms Russia was willing to accept for the 
protection of “the orthodox religion of the 
Orient, its clergy, churches, and possessions.” 
This note, and another dated the 20th, was 
answered by M. Drouyn de Lhuys on behalf 
of France, and by the Earl of Clarendon on 
behalf of England. 

13 . —The Morning Herald affirms that the 
Premier, and also the Earl of Clarendon, were 
some time since fully acquainted with the 
designs of Russia, and approved of them. 
The Times of the 16th contained a semi¬ 
official explanation, that the knowledge of the 
Cabinet was confined solely to the alleged 
violations by Turkey of treaties concerning the 
Holy Places. 

14 . —Formation of a military encampment 
on Chobham Common, the force comprising 
four regiments of cavalry, three battalions of 
Guards, two brigades of infantry, each com¬ 
prising three regiments, one troop of Royal 
Horse Artillery, three batteries of Horse 
Artillery, a company of Sappers, and a Pon¬ 
toon train. A variety of military displays 
were made in the presence of large gatherings 
between the 21st of June, when operations in 
the field commenced, and the 20th of August, 
when the camp broke up. 

16 .—More personal explanations in the 
House of Commons between Mr. Keogh, Lord 
Naas, and others, as to the offer of office to 
the former by Lord Derby. 

21. —St. John’s College, Hurstpierpoint, a 
Middle Class Training Institution, opened. 

— The Liverpool Election Committee re¬ 
port that they found neither Mr. Turner nor 
Mr. Forbes Mackenzie duly elected to serve in 
the present Parliament. 

22 . —Martin Kossta, a Hungarian by birth, 
but now an affiliated citizen of the United 
States, seized by the Austrian authorities at 
Smyrna as a rebel. He was afterwards sur¬ 
rendered to Captain Ingraham of the United 

^States corvette, St. Louis. 

23 . —In the debate on the second reading 
of the India Bill, Lord Stanley, in a very thin 
House, moved, “ That further information is 
necessary to enable Parliament to legislate with 
advantage for the permanent government of 
India; and that at this late period of the 
session it is inexpedient to proceed with a 
measure which, while it disturbs existing ar- 






JUNE 


JULY 


IS53. 


rangements, cannot be considered as a final 
settlement.” On the evening of the 24th, Mr. 
Macaulay spoke for the last time in the House, 
supporting the bill as one introducing present 
improvements, and leaving scope for future 
reforms. The chief part of his speech was 
devoted to the question of admission to the 
Civil Service of India by competition. “It 
seems to me,” he said, “that there never was 
a fact better proved by an immense mass of 
evidence—by an experience almost unvaried— 
than this ; that men who distinguished them¬ 
selves in youth above their contemporaries in 
academic competition almost always keep to 
the end of their lives the start they have gained 
in the earlier part of their career. Look to 
the Parliament from the time when parlia¬ 
mentary government began in this country— 
from the days of Montagu and St. John to 
those of Canning and Peel. You need not 
stop there, but come down to the time of Lord 
Derby and my right honourable friend the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Has it not 
always been the case, that the men who were 
first in the competition of the schools have 
been the first in the competition of life ? Look 
also to India. The ablest man who ever 
governed India was Warren Hastings, and was 
he not in the first rank at Westminster ? The 
ablest civil servant I ever knew in India was 
Sir Charles Metcalfe, and was he not a man of 
the first standing at Eton? The most distin¬ 
guished member of the aristocracy who ever 
governed India was Lord Wellesley. What 
was his European reputation? What was his 
Oxford reputation?” Noticing the academical 
triumphs of Lord Ellenborough himself, who 
was now so much opposed to the Government 
bill, Mr. Macaulay referred to the great array 
of judges who had been eminent in youthful 
study, and concluded by expressing his approval 
of the measure, because it provided the best 
means that can be imagined for effecting the 
gradual admission of natives to a share in the 
higher offices of the Government. The de¬ 
bate was continued over a week, and resulted 
in the second reading of the bill by a majority 
of 182. ■ 

26 . —The Emperor of Russia issues a mani¬ 
festo, in which he declares that, “having ex¬ 
hausted all the means of persuasion, and all 
the means of obtaining in a friendly manner 
the satisfaction due to our just reclamations, 
we have deemed it indispensable to order our 
troops to enter the Danubian Principalities, 
and thus show the Porte how far its obstinacy 
may lead it. Nevertheless, even now, it is not 
our intention to commence war. By the occu¬ 
pation of the Principalities, we wish to have 
in our hands a pledge which will guarantee to 
us in every respect the re-establishment of our 
just rights.” 

27 . —Professor Faraday sends to the Athe- 
vaum a description of the nature and results of 
the indicator he had constructed for exposing 
the current delusion of table turning. 

( 3 « 5 ) 


27 . —The rivers of Bolivia flowing into the 
Amazonas and La Plata declared free to the 
navigation of all nations. 

28 . —Income-tax Bill passed, extending the 
operations of the measure to Ireland. 

30 .—The termination of the Burmese war 
officially proclaimed by the Governor-General 
of India. 

July 1.—Explosion at the Bent Grange 
Colliery, Oldham, resulting in the death of 
seventeen men and boys. 

2 . —The Russian troops, in two divisions, 
cross the Pruth and occupy the Principalities. 

3 . —An American squadron, commanded by 
Commodore Perry, arrives at Japan, with a 
letter from President Franklin proposing a 
treaty of amity and commerce. 

4 . —The Leith steamship Trident destroyed 
by fire in St. Katherine’s Docks. 

6.—Died at Cape Town, Lady Florentia 
Sale, widow of General Sir Robert Sale, and 
author of “Journal of the Disasters in Aff- 
ghanistan.” 

8 . —Died, aged 70, Charles Frederick, 
Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar. 

9 . —Inundations throughout South Wales, 
caused by heavy rains. At Brecon, the river 
Honddu rose with great rapidity, and carried 
away the bridge from its foundations. The 
inhabitants of certain streets only escaped by 
retreating to the upper storey of their dwellings. 

10. —Treaty entered into by England and 
France with the Argentine Confederation, 
respecting the navigation of the Panama. 

13 . —Earl Shaftesbury challenged to fight 
a duel. In a speech on the Juvenile Mendi¬ 
cants Bill, he had cited the judgment of Lord 
Eldon in the case of William Pole-Tylney- 
Long-Wellesley (Lord Mornington), to show 
that the proposed detention of children whose 
parents are immoral was nothing new in law. 
Lord M. resented this as an interference with 
his private affairs, without taking notice of his 
justification in being twice elected for Essex, 
and writes to the Earl that he must apologize 
or fight. Lord Shaftesbury, in answer, briefly 
defended his quotation from an ordinary legal 
authority, and, so far as the challenge was con¬ 
cerned, referred Lord M. to the magistrate at 
Bow-street, or to his solicitors. Lord Morning- 
ton rejoined that this added to the original 
insult, and was besides “ very absurdly imperti¬ 
nent.” In a case before the Lords Justices in 
Chancery, the same week, Lord Mornington 
wrote, “ I have ever felt as a peer of the realm 
that I am more bound to respect the law than 
other men.” 

14. —Wreck of the Fail Kereetn , an Arab 
ship which left Aden the previous day with 
the Calcutta and Bombay mails, transferred 
from the East India Company’s steamers 

c c 







yui .: r 


AUGUS7 


IS53. 


Ajadha. Out of 191 persons on board, only 
eleven were saved, ten escaping in the long¬ 
boat, and one floating ashore on a plank. 

14 -.—The Porte protests against the occupa¬ 
tion of the Principalities by Russia. 

— The New York Exhibition opened by the 
President of the United States. 

15 .—The Merchant Shipping Bill passes 
through Committee in the Commons. 

— The city of Venezuela, in South America, 
destroyed by an earthquake. As many as 800 
persons were said to have been buried in the 
ruins ; an entire company of artillery, with 
Colonel Percy, perishing in their quarters. 

ai.—Bill passed amending and consolidating 
the different Acts relating to the volunteer force 
in Great Britain. 

22 . —In the discussion on the Succession 
Duties Bill, the Earl of Malmesbury denounced 
the scheme as cruel in principle. It took a 
man at a time and fleeced him ; and when he 
had disappeared, it took another and fleeced 
him ; so that it would be impossible ever to 
collect a numerically strong expression of 
opinion respecting it against the Minister of 
the day. By the bill, Chancellors of the Ex¬ 
chequer would in future be like vultures soaring 
over society, and watching for a harvest of 
dead meat. —Earl Granville complimented Lord 
Malmesbury on the introduction of a new style 
in debate. 

23 . —Speaking this evening at a Lord 
Mayor’s banquet, the Premier declares that 
* * the policy—the essential policy—of her 
Majesty’s Government is a policy of peace.” 

27 .—Archbishop Whately, ex-Chancellor 
Blackburn, and Mr. Baron Green withdraw, 
underpressure, from the Irish Board of National 
Education. 

— Cab-strike in the metropolis, in retaliation 
against the new Act passed, reducing the fares 
from 8 d. to 6 d. per mile. 

31 .—The representatives of the four great 
Towers (Great Britain, France, Austria, and 
Prussia), assembled in conference at Vienna, 
agree upon a note to be submitted to Russia 
and Turkey, as a basis for settling the differences 
between these Powers. The propositions, 
which originated with Austria, and were slightly 
altered by France, were accepted by the 
Emperor of Russia. 

August 1.—Sir John Romilly, Master of 
the Rolls, gives judgment in the case of the 
Hon. and Rev. Earl of Guildford and the 
Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, the question 
being brought before him in the form of an in¬ 
formation to obtain a decree for the regulation 
and future management of two charities ; one 
the hospital above referred to, the other the 
Almshouse of Noble Poverty—separate in¬ 
stitutions, but both practically one charity. The 
nospital was founded in the twelfth century, by 
( 336 ) 


Henry de Blois ; the almshouse in 1446, by 
Cardinal Beaufort; and they were intended to 
support thirteen poor men, and give a dinner 
every day to one hundred people, with other 
benefits for the indigent. Three several times 
the Master of the hospital had attempted to 
obtain the revenues for his own use ; first, in 
the fourteenth century, when William of Wyke- 
ham successfully resisted the attempt. He was 
opposed by William de S to well, then the 
Master of the charity, and by Sir Roger de 
Cloud his successor. The dispute was ultimately 
referred to the Pope, who condemned Sir Roger 
in costs, and decided in favour of William of 
Wykeham. The second attempt was in the 
reign of Elizabeth, when an Act was passed to 
confirm the original trust, providing that no 
Master should have power to grant lands, and 
that the funds of the charity must henceforward 
be applied for the relief of the poor. The 
third attempt was made in 1696, when the 
brethren and two chaplains agreed to a docu¬ 
ment called a Consuetudinarium, or settlement 
of the custom of administering the funds of the 
hospital, making over the revenues to the 
Master. This was sanctioned by the Visitor, the 
Bishop of Winchester, though Sir John Romilly 
now described it as one of the most extraordi¬ 
nary and nefarious deeds which the court had 
ever perused. It commenced by stating, that 
after diligent search, no deeds or documents 
had been discovered for the government of the 
charity, although at the very time the Master 
and brethren were in possession of the original 
deed, the Pope’s Bull, the statutes of Henry and 
Elizabeth, and the documents of the House of 
Noble Poverty. Under this glaring and dis¬ 
creditable deed the charity was carried on for a 
century and a half, though not without warn¬ 
ings, frpm time to time, that the funds were 
being misapplied. Sir John Romilly now 
decided that an injunction must be issued to 
restrain the granting of any lands or fines of 
the charity, and an inquiry directed as to the 
laws now existing, the present state of the 
charity, and the appropriation of the funds. 
The Attorney-General had left it to the court to 
settle the time at which the present Master, the 
Earl of Guildford, should be called upon to 
render an account; but from the framing of the 
information the court could not go further back 
than the date of filing. The costs of the 
Bishop of Winchester to come out of the 
funds. 

1.—Sir James Graham introduces the Naval 
Coast Volunteers Bill, which passes without 
opposition, through both Houses, before the 
close of the session. 

5 .—The Lords Committee of Privileges 
pronounce a decision in the Montrose peerage 
case, to the effect that “The Charter, bearing 
date the 18th May, 1488, by which James the 
Third of Scotland granted the Dukedom of 
Montrose to David Earl of Crawford, et heredi- 
bus suis, was annulled and made void by the 
Act of the first year of the reign of King James 








AUGUST 


AUG US 7 


18.53- 


the Fourth of Scotland, called the Act Re- 
cissory ; that the grant of the Dukedom made 
by King James the Fourth to David Earl of 
Crawford, in 1489, was a grant for the term of 
his life only; and that the petitioner, James 
Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, had not 
established any title to the Dukedom of Mont¬ 
rose, created in 1488. 

6 . —Mutiny on board the Aratoom Opcar, 
trading between Hong Kong and Calcutta ; the 
Chinese sailors murdering Captain Lovett and 
five other of the passengers and crew. 

8 . —Commenced at Gloucester Assizes the 
case of Smyth (or Provis, the impostor) against 
Smyth and others. The object of the action 
was to recover certain estates in the county of 
Gloucester, formerly the property of Sir Hugh 
Smyth, Bart., of Ashton Hall, near Bristol, the 
plaintiff claiming to be the son and heir of Sir 
Hugh Smyth, who died in the year 1824. Sir 
H. Smyth was known to have been twice 
married, but had no issue by either marriage. 
The plaintift claimed to be the son of Sir H. 
Smyth by a third and earlier marriage, alleged 
to have taken place in Ireland, with Jane, the 
daughter of Count Vandenberg, in the year 
1796, and to have been born at Warminster, in 
the county of Wilts. His mother having died 
in childbirth, he was brought up by a woman 
named Lydia Reed, and his birth was for some 
reason kept secret. Plaintiff went abroad, and 
on his return to this country he was not made 
acquainted with his pedigree till recently, when, 
by the discovery of certain documents, he came 
to the knowledge that he was entitled to a 
baronetcy, and estates which were variously es¬ 
timated to be worth from 20,000/. to 35,000/. a 
year. The defendant was the grandson of Sir 
Hugh Smyth’s sister Florence, and still a 
minor. The plaintiff was put into the witness 
box on the second day of the trial, and made to 
tell the story of his life under the searching 
pressure of Sir. F. Thesiger. He stood the 
first day’s examination with rare coolness; but 
on the morning of the third day appeared chop- 
fallen and disconcerted. The first decisive blow 
given to his story was when it was shown that 
a letter, in his handwriting, sealed with the 
Smyth seal, was dated the 13th March, while he 
had sworn that he did not obtain an impression 
of the seal before the 17th, and had then to get 
it engraved. What defence he would have 
made at this point of the evidence it is im¬ 
possible to say ; but he turned pale, and re¬ 
quested permission to retire. At this moment 
a telegram from London brought the news that 
the police had discovered that the plaintiff 
applied to an engraver at 161, Oxford-street, in 
January last, to engrave the Bandon crest on 
the ring which had been produced during the 
trial as a relic, and the words “F. Gookin” on 
a brooch, which he had sworn was in his 
possession as another family relic for years. 
Upon this a dramatic scene occurred. The 
plaintiff admitted that this was true, and Sir F. 
Thesiger sat down deeply moved. The court 
( 387 ) 


was hushed in silence. Sir F. Thesiger then 
rose again, and said he should not spare his 
feelings longer. Sir F. Thesiger : You said 
yesterday, that for eighteen months, during the 
years 1818 and 1819, you were in the house of 
Dr. Williams, in Parliament-street, suffering 
from illness? Plaintiff: I did not say Dr. 
Williams. Sir F. Thesiger: Now, were you 
not during those eighteen months in Uchester 
Gaol, under a conviction for horse-stealing? 
Plaintiff: No, I was not. Sir F. Thesiger : 
Were you not sentenced to death, under the 
name of Thomas Provis, for stealing a gelding, 
the goods and chattels of George Hadden ? and 
was not your sentence commuted to eighteen 
months’ imprisonment, in consideration of your 
youth ? Plaintiff: It was not I; it must be 
some other person. Sir F. Thesiger : Have 
you got the marks of the evil on your neck, and 
also on your right hand ? The witness hesitated, 
but at last bared his neck and hand; and there 
the marks were apparent. Those on the right 
hand were the marks he alleged to have been 
inflicted in childbirth, and which he represented 
in a deed as the indelible marks of identity of 
the Smyth family. Sir F. Thesiger: You 
mentioned in one of your letters that you were 
at Colonel Hadden’s on a visit ? Plaintiff : I 
do not remember the name. Sir F. Thesiger : 
Was his name George Hadden ? Plaintiff: I 
do not know. Here Sir F. Thesiger drew 
attention to the fact that the motto on the deed 
of 1823 was “ Qui capit capitur.” The cross- 
examination was continued for a short time 
longer, when the judge spoke to the plaintiff’s 
counsel, Mr. Bovill; and that gentleman rising, 
said that after so appalling an exhibition ne and 
his brethren would not continue the contest any 
longer. The plaintiff was then removed to 
Gloucester Gaol. He was tried on the 1st April 
ensuing, on charges of forgery and perjury, and 
sentenced to twenty-one years’ transportation. 
Provis was reported to have died in Dartmoor 
prison in May 1855. 

8 . —Grand naval review at Spithead. Some 
idea of this demonstration may be formed from 
an enumeration of the aggregate of guns, horse¬ 
power, and tonnage in the fleet, and from the 
number of men employed for the full comple¬ 
ment of each ship. There was an engine 
power of 9,780 horses (nominally, but in reality- 
double that amount); 44,146 tons of shipping; 
and ships’ companies that should altogether 
have amounted to 10,825 hands, although the 
actual number fell short of that by 1,000. The 
fleet comprised twenty-five ships of war, 
thirteen of which were screw-steamers, nine 
paddle-wheel, and three sailing ships of the 
line. There were no less than 1,087 guns, the 
smallest being 32-pounders, and the largest 
throwing 84-pound shells ; but the 68-pounders 
were the chief features of the armament. A t 
forty-five minutes past ten the Victoria and 
Albert entered between the leeward ships of the 
fleet, passing first the Vesuvius and Terrible , 
and then proceeding straight down the line 
towards the Duke cf Wellington at the weather 

c c 2 




AUGUST 


1853' 


AUGUST 


exthemity Her Majesty was greeted in the 
most enthusiastic manner by the passengers in 
the steamers which happened to be near enough 
to see her. After the Queen and suite had in¬ 
spected the Duke of Wellington , the signal was 
given to weigh, and her Majesty led the fleet 
out to sea, the royal yacht occupying a central 
position between the Duke on the starboard and 
the Agamemnon on the port side, but slightly in 
advance of both. A few miles below the Mole 
the signal was given to form line abreast, which 
the ships did at cable length from each other, 
the line from end to end extending a distance of 
three miles. At 2.40 the signal was given “ to 
chase,” and later in the afternoon the exciting 
series of manoeuvres culminated in an engage¬ 
ment between the most powerful vessels of the 
fleet. An Admiralty order was issued next day 
expressing her Majesty’s high approval of the 
exemplary conduct exhibited on the occasion by 
admirals, captains, officers, and men. “The 
Queen received also with peculiar pleasure the 
hearty proofs of goodwill and attachment to 
her person and family which mingled grateful 
feelings with proud recollections, and added 
happiness to conscious strength, in witnessing 
the evolutions of such a fleet ready to defend 
the power of the Crown and the independence 
of the nation.” 

8 . —The head waiter of the George Inn, at 
Portsmouth, shot in the lobby of that house by 
the accidental explosion of a fowling-piece 
which Mr. Powell, of Chichester, had taken 
with him to the review and neglected to dis¬ 
charge or uncap before packing up. 

— Hans Smith Macfarlane and Helen 
Blackwood executed at Glasgow, for their 
share in the murder of a ship-carpenter named 
Boyd, whom they threw out of the window 
of a brothel, when in a state of helpless 
intoxication. 

12 .— The House of Lords finally disposed of 
the Braintree Church Rate case, after a litiga¬ 
tion of twelve years. In 1841 a rate of two 
shillings in the pound was proposed in the 
Braintree Vestry. The Dissenters moved an 
amendment, condemning church-rates in gene¬ 
ral and refusing that rate in particular. The 
amendment was carried by a large majority. 
It was then asked whether any amendment was 
proposed as to the amount of the rate, and no 
answer was given. The rate was then produced, 
and signed by the Vicar, the Churchwardens, 
and several ratepayers; the mover of the 
amendment, Mr. S. Courtauld, protesting. 
The question as to the validity of a rate thus 
made had been decided both negatively and 
affirmatively in several courts ; and now it 
came before the House of Lords on an appeal 
in error against the judgment of the Court of 
Exchequer, which had sustained the rate. The 
House of Lords reversed the judgment of the 
court below, on the ground that the rate was 
made by the minority against the will of the 
majority. 

15 .—Accident at the Crystal Palace, Syden- 

( 388 ) 


ham. While a number of workmen were engaged 
on the scaffolding at the north end of the middle 
transept, constructing “trusses” for the erection 
of the iron ribs, the platform suddenly gave 
way, and the whole of the men fell to the floor 
of the building, a distance of 102 feet. Ten were 
taken up dead, and two more died after remo¬ 
val to Guy’s Hospital. Other five sustained 
severe injuries. 

15 . —Royal Assent given to the measure 
known as the Forbes-Mackenzie Act, framed 
to regulate the sale of beer and spirits in 
Scotland. 

16 . —Lord John Russell, in concluding his 
promised explanation relative to the Eastern 
negotiations, said he thought, from the accep¬ 
tance of the Vienna note from Russia, there was 
now a fair prospect of securing the objects in 
view without involving Europe in hostilities 
or exposing the independence and integrity of 
Turkey. 

17 . —Robbery at Middleton Hall, Derby¬ 
shire, the seat of Lord Denman. A box con¬ 
taining the freedom of the City of London, 
three gold coronation medals, and two or three 
articles of silver plate, was carried off. The 
crime was traced to a man named Simpson, 
who offered a piece of the stolen silver plate 
for sale at York, and who appeared to have 
obtained access to the house through the 
culpable conduct of the under-butler. 

18 . —Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy, 
drowned at Cape Grinnel, Wellington Channel, 
while aiding in the search for Sir John Franklin 
by carrying the Admiralty despatches to Sir 
Edward Belcher. 

— Died suddenly at the Athenaeum Club, 
Bransby Cooper, brother of Sir Astley, and 
author of various medical works. 

— Numerous earthquake shocks experienced 
throughout Greece. Thebes was almost entirely 
thrown down. 

— In connexion with a claim, raised to-day 
in the Westminster County Court, against the 
Hon. Mrs. Norton, Mr. Norton sought to de¬ 
fend his conduct in reducing the private settle¬ 
ment from 500/. to 300/. on the plea that his 
wife was in receipt of an annuity of 600/. from 
Lord Melbourne’s estate, and earned besides 
large sums by her writings. Mrs. Norton ad¬ 
mitted receiving 600/. from Lady Palmerston, 
but it was given in charity as an acknowledg¬ 
ment of the wrongs which had been unjustly 
inflicted on her. The judge decreed a nonsuit. 
A long correspondence afterwards took place 
in the public journals between the Hon. Mrs. 
Norton and her husband, in which the latter 
was described by his own arbitrator to have 
treated his wife with the grossest cruelty, inj ustice, 
and inconsistency. “Since,” wrote Mrs. Norton, 
“inhowever bounded and narrowadegree, there 
is a chance that I may be remembered after 
death, I will not have my whole life misrepre¬ 
sented. Let those women who have the true 
woman’s lot, of being unknown out of the circle 




AUGUST 


1853- 


AUG US 7 


of their homes, thank God for that blessing— 
it if a blessing; but for me publicity is no 
longer a matter of choice. Defence is possible 
to me ; not silence. And I must remind those 
who think the right of a husband so indefeasible 
that a wife ought rather to submit to the mar¬ 
tyrdom of her reputation than be justified at his 
expense, that I have refrained. All I state now 
I might have stated at any time during the past 
unhappy years ; and I never did publicly state 
it till now—now, when I find Mr. Norton 
slandering the mother of his sons by coarse 
anecdotes, signed by his name and published 
by his authority, endeavouring thus to over¬ 
whelm me with infamy, for no offence but that 
of having rashly asserted a claim upon him 
which was found not to be valid in law, but 
only binding on him ‘as a man of business.’ ” 

19.—The House of Lords reverse the de¬ 
cision of the judges in the Bridgewater Will 
case. When the late Earl died, in 1823, it 
was found that he had devised a great portion 
of his vast property to Lord Alford, son of 
Earl Brownlow, with remainder in succession to 
the Egertons of Tatton, Milton, and Malpas, in 
Cheshire, and their heirs male ; but he annexed 
to the possession of the estates the strange con¬ 
dition, that the possessor under the will should 
obtain the marquisate or dukedom of Bridge- 
water within five years, or that the property 
should pass to the next heir. Lord Alford. 
became possessed of the property, and assumed 
the name of Egerton, in 1849, on the death of 
the Countess of Bridgewater; but he died in 
1851 without having fulfilled the condition of 
the will; and his son filed a bill in Chancery 
against the trustees, praying that he might be 
declared equitable tenant in tail male in pos¬ 
session. To this Mr. Charles Henry Egerton, • 
brother of the late Lord Alford, demurred ; 
and Lord Cranworth decided, that, as the late 
Lord Alford had not attained to the dignity of 
Marquis or Duke of Bridgewater, the estates 
passed to Mr. Charles Henry Egerton. Against 
this decree the son of the late Lord Alford, 
John William Spencer Brownlow Egerton, 
appealed to the House of Lords. The general 
arguments for the appellant were, that the con¬ 
dition was a subsequent condition, and therefore 
illegal; that it was against public policy thus 
to tie up the estates and embarrass the Crown; 
that Lord Alford cou'd not comply with the 
proviso, for he could not make himself Marquis 
or Duke of Bridgewater, and that therefore the 
condition could not be performed. Counsel 
having been heard, the Lord Chancellor, on 
the 30th ult., submitted several questions to 
the judges for their opinion. Certain of the 
judges affirmed the decision of the courts below, 
but Lords Lyndhurst, Brougham, Truro, and 
St. Leonard’s took an opposite view, and the 
Lord Chancellor therefore now pronounced 
judgment reversing the decree. 

— The Porte declines to accept the Vienna 
note without certain alterations, to which Russia 
will not consent 


20 .—Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
Lord Palmerston expressed the belief of the 
Government that Parliament might be pro¬ 
rogued without anxiety. With reference to 
the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities, 
the Emperor of Russia (he was confident) 
would take the earliest opportunity of the 
settlement of the difference with Turkey to 
evacuate the territory of his own accord. The 
Royal Speech referred to the Eastern difficulty 
in these words : “ It is with deep interest and 
concern that her Majesty has viewed the serious 
misunderstanding which has recently arisen 
between Russia and the Ottoman Porte. The 
Emperor of the French has united with her 
Majesty in earnest endeavours to reconcile dif¬ 
ferences the continuance of which might in¬ 
volve Europe in war. Acting in concert with 
the Allies, and relying on the exertions of 
the Conference now assembled at Vienna, her 
Majesty has good reason to hope that an 
honourable arrangement will speedily be accom¬ 
plished.” Since the opening of the session in 
November, the Lords sat 120 times, and the 
Commons 175. 

22.—Private O’Neill, of the 12th Foot, 
shoots Corporal Brown in Belfast barracks for 
threatening to report him for misconduct. 
When seized in the barrack-yard, O’Neill ad¬ 
mitted firing the shot, and expressed himself as 
highly satisfied with the result. 

— Marriage of the Duke of Brabant, heii 
apparent to the throne of Belgium, with the 
Archduchess Maria of Austria. 

24 .—Joseph Mobbs, of the Minories, known 
as “General Haynau,” from his systematic 
course of brutality towards his wife, com¬ 
pleted his career of cruelty early this morning 
by cutting her throat. He afterwards sought 
to commit suicide, but failing in the attempt 
was tried for the murder, and executed 21st 
November. 

— Collision on the Great Northern line 
at Hornsey, an express train running into 
the engine and tender of a number of coal 
waggons being shunted at the station there. 

— Meridian , passenger ship, wrecked on 
the desolate island of Amsterdam, in the 
Pacific. Nearly all on board were saved, but 
great suffering endured for a week, when the 
destitute company was taken off by an Ameri¬ 
can whaling-boat. 

27 .—The foundation-stone of Melbourne 
Athenaeum laid by Lord Palmerston, who 
also delivered an address on the educational 
facilities afforded by such institutions. 

29 .—The Queen and Prince Albert, with 
the Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred, visit 
Dublin, and inspect the Exhibition of Irish 
Industry there. Mr. Dargan was presented, 
and kissed hands. 

— Died at Oaklands, near Portsmouth, 
aged 71, Sir Charles James Napier, the con 
queror of Scinde. 

(389) 





A UGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1*53- 


31 .—Bread riot at Liege, leading to the 
suspension of the Corn-laws. 

September 3 .—Died at Soleure, aged 83, 
Colonel Victor de Gibelin, the last survivor of 
the Swiss officers present at the aattck on the 
Tuileries, 10th August, 1792. 

4 .—Cholera breaks out with great severity 
at Newcastle. It appeared in London on the 
11 th, in the same quarter where the disastrous 
outbreak of 1849 took place. 

8.—Fall of a house in the Strand, adjoining 
Arundel-street, causing the death of the occu¬ 
pant, Mr. Thompson, tailor, his wife, and 
foreman. The coroner’s jury found that the 
accident was owing to the gross negligence of 
Mr. Abraham, surveyor to the Duke of Nor¬ 
folk, in not causing the party wall to be suffi¬ 
ciently shored up and underpinned before the 
excavations for certain new buildings adjoining 
were commenced. When put on his trial, the 
judge interrupted the statement of counsel for 
the Crown, by saying that it was clear the 
indictment could not be sustained, as the law 
of manslaughter had not been understood by 
the jury. 

— Died at Christiania, suddenly, from an 
attack of cholera, Mr. Bradshaw, the projector 
of the popular railway guide. 

10. —Fire at the ship-building yard of F. 
Scott Russell & Co., Millwall, destroying 
property valued at 100,000/. The fire was 
discovered almost simultaneously by a police¬ 
man on duty in the neighbourhood and by the 
watchman employed on the premises. It was 
at first thought the flames could be confined 
to the building in which they broke out, but 
the combustible nature of the stock afforded 
such ready and abundant fuel that the fire 
spread in all directions, igniting in succession 
the erecting shops and the long range of 
workshops used by the carpenters and painters. 

— A body of thirty-five students belong¬ 
ing to the “ Ulemah ” present a petition to the 
Supreme Council of the Sultan, enjoining war 
on the enemies of Islam, under threats of great 
disturbance throughout the empire. 

11 . —The Vienna Gazette announces the dis¬ 
covery of the crown of St. Stephen, and other 
regalia of Hungary, at Orsova, where they had 
been buried in 1849 by the Hungarian in¬ 
surgents. They were now presented to the 
Emperor of Austria. 

13 .—The clipper ship Marco Polo accom¬ 
plished a feat as yet unparalleled in the 
annals of navigation, by entering the Mersey 
to-day on her second voyage to and from 
Melbourne, both completed in ten days less 
than a twelvemonth. 

17 —Explosion of a powder-magazine at 
Gibraltar, used by the 30th Regiment. Of the 
six men employed in the magazine at the time, 
five were killed, and the other dangerously 
injured. 

I390) 


19 . —Lord John Russell, in acknowledging 
the presentation of an address in Greenock, 
spoke of the duty laid on Great Britain of 
endeavouring to secure the just rights of 
nations by peace if possible. * But while we 
endeavour to maintain peace, I certainly should 
be the last to forget that if peace cannot be 
maintained with honour, it is no longer peace. 
(Loud and enthusiastic cheering, thrice repeated.) 
It becomes then, as I have said, no longer 
peace, but a truce—a precarious truce—to be 
denounced by others whenever they may think 
fit—whenever they may think that an oppor¬ 
tunity has occurred to enforce by arms their 
unjust demands either upon us or upon our 
allies. I trust that so long as I can bear any 
part in the public councils of this kingdom such 
will be my sentiments, and such my conduct.”— 
Lord Palmerston spoke at Perth and Glasgow 
towards the close of the month, but made only 
general allusions to the war question and home 
politics. 

20 . —Festival at Saltaire to celebrate the 
opening of Mr. Titus Salt’s extensive alpaca 
works. Nearly 4,000 guests were present. 

23 .—During an interview with Lord Aber¬ 
deen and Lord Clarendon, Count Walewski, 
after speaking of the crisis at Constantinople 
which M. de La Cour’s despatch had led the 
French Government to expect, said that his 
Government thought it “indispensably neces¬ 
sary that both fleets should be ordered up to 
Constantinople,” and added that “he was di¬ 
rected to ask for the immediate decision of her 
Majesty’s Government, in order that no time 
might be lost in sending instructions to the 
ambassadors and admirals.” Lord Clarendon, 
while admitting that no intelligence of the 
natui-e referred to by M. de La Cour had been 
received from Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, 
intimated that they would without hesitation 
take upon themselves to agree to the proposals 
of the French Government. On the same day 
Lord Stratford was instructed to bring the 
British fleet to Constantinople. 

24 -.—Interview between the Emperors of 
Russia and Austria at Olmiitz. 

27 . —Inquiry commenced at the Thames 
Police-court into the mutinous occurrences on 
board the Queen of the Teign , between Singa¬ 
pore and the west coast of Africa, resulting in 
the death of five of the mutinous Lascars. The 
master, two seamen, and two Lascars were sent 
over in custody by the Governor of Gibral¬ 
tar on a charge of murder ; but full inquiry 
showed they had only acted in self-defence, and 
two of the Lascar witnesses, Ahalt and Ali, were 
committed for trial. At the Central Criminal 
Court the jury ignored the bill against the master 
and seamen, but sent the two above-named to 
trial. They were found guilty, and sentenced 
to fifteen years’ transportation. 

28 . —The damage at sea caused by the 
equinoxial gales was unusually great this 
season. The most serious casualty occuired 





SEPTEMBER 


1853. 


OCTOBER 


off the coast of Barra, one of the western 
islands, where the Anna Jane, of Liverpool, 
was driven ashore with about 500 emigrants 
on board. The masts went overboard in suc¬ 
cession, and soon afterwards the ship broke 
up, the deck between the main and mizen- 
mast being crushed down upon the berths 
below, occupied by terror-stricken women and 
sleeping children. The poop and forecastle 
drifted ashore, and on these were all who sur¬ 
vived the wreck, 102 in number. At day¬ 
break next morning the shore was lined with 
corpses, and over 250 were gathered together 
and buried in pits. 

29 .—The Queen lays the foundation-stone 
of the great tower at Balmoral Palace, in 
presence of a large company invited to the 
ceremony. 

Numerous meetings held about this time, 
in the larger towns, to urge upon the Govern¬ 
ment the necessity of energetic action in the 
present important crisis of the Eastern ques¬ 
tion. 

October 1 . —Two burglars effect an en¬ 
trance into the shop of D. C. Rait, jeweller, 
Glasgow, by raising the hearth-stone of one of 
the rooms above, and collect about 2,000/. 
worth of plunder. An alarm being raised by 
the private watchman of the court, the rob¬ 
bers attempted to escape, leaving their bag of 
plunder on the stairs of the warehouse. One 
was captured, the other got off. 

2. —Died at Paris, aged 67, M. Arago, 
French astronomer. 

3. — The floor of one of the rooms of the 
Corporation Arms public-house, Preston, gives 
way under a crowd of work-people, collected 
to receive their weekly “ strike ” money. One 
girl was taken out dead, and about fifty others, 
mostly females, suffered severe fractures. 

4. —Fire at Lee Mill, Halifax, destroying 
buildings and machinery affording employment 
to 1,000 people. 

5. —Serious calamity near the Straffan sta¬ 
tion of the Great Southern and Western Rail¬ 
way of Ireland. A slight accident occurring to 
the express train which left Cork at 12 noon, 
the guard and stoker were sent down the line 
to exhibit the danger signals, and warn the 
driver of a goods train known to be behind. 
The signals being either unseen or unheeded, 
this train came up full speed against the express, 
smashing the last carriages to fragments, and 
inflicting serious injuries on the occupants. 
Thirteen passengers were killed on the spot, 
three died after long suffering, and many were 
maimed for life. The coroner’s jury returned 
a verdict of manslaughter against the driver 
and stoker of the goods train. 

— The Porte issues a declaration making the 
further continuance of peace dependent upon 
the evacuation of the Principalities within 
fifteen days. The Russian general replied 


that he had no orders to commence hostilities, 
nor to conclude peace, nor to evacuaLe the 
Principalities. 

7 . —Interview between the Emperor of 
Russia and the King of Prussia, at Potsdam. 

— Despatches received at the Admiralty 
announcing that Captain M'Clure, of the 
Investigator , had completed the discovery of 
the North-West Passage. 

12 .—Inauguration of the Peel statue erected 
in front of the'Royal Infirmary, Manchester, 
and presentation of the freedom of that city to 
Mr. Gladstone. In the course of his speech 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed his 
belief that peace might yet be maintained. 

14 -.—The combined fleets of England and 
France, which had for some time been lying 
in Besika Bay, passed up the Straits at the 
request of the Sultan. The Turkish Govern¬ 
ment addressed a note to the representatives of 
Austria and Prussia, explaining and justifying 
the step. 

15 .—Lock-out at Preston, forty-nine mills 
being closed to-day and 20,000 people thrown 
idle. 

18 . —The ship Dalhousie, one of the White 
Horse line of Australian passenger ships, 
founders in the Channel off Beachy Head, 
with the whole of her crew and passengers, 
sixty-three or four in number. Only one 
seaman escaped to tell the story of the dis¬ 
aster. On coming to the surface he placed 
himself on one of the “ chocks ” of the 
long-boat, and managed to float about till he 
was rescued by a brig, and taken to Dover. 
It was supposed that this calamity, which occa¬ 
sioned a great sensation at Lloyd’s, originated 
in the starting of a “ butt,” or that the vessel 
struck upon a wreck or spar floating in the 
Channel. The afternoon was stormy, but not 
so severe as to excite fears for the safety of the 
ship. 

19 . —Lord Palmerston advises the Presby¬ 
tery of Edinburgh on the subject of cholera : 
“ It does not appear to Lord Palmerston that 
a national fast would be suitable to the circum¬ 
stances of the present moment. The Maker of 
the universe established certain laws of nature 
for the planet in which we live; and the weal or 
woe of mankind depends upon the observance 
or neglect of those laws. One of those laws 
connects health with the absence of those 
gaseous exhalations which proceed from over¬ 
crowded human beings, or from decomposing 
substances, whether animal or vegetable ; and 
those same laws render sickness the almost 
inevitable consequence of exposure to those 
noxious influences. But it has pleased Provi¬ 
dence to place it within the power of man to make 
such arrangements as will prevent, or disperse, 
such exhalations, so as to render them harm¬ 
less ; and it is the duty of man to attend to those 
laws of nature, and to exert the faculties which 
Providence has thus given to man for his own 

(39*) 




OCTOBER 


1 S 53 . 


NOVEMBER 


welfare. . . . Lord Palmerston would, there¬ 
fore, suggest, that the best course which the 
people of this country can pursue to deserve 
that the further progress of the cholera should 
be stayed, will be to employ the interval that 
will elapse between the present time and the 
beginning of next spring in planning and exe¬ 
cuting measures by which those portions of 
their towns and cities which are inhabited by 
the poorer classes, and which, from the nature 
of things, must most need purification and im¬ 
provement, may be freed from fhose causes and 
sources of contagion which, if allowed to re¬ 
main, will infallibly breed pestilence, and be 
fruitful in death, in spite of all the prayers and 
fastings of an united but inactive nation. When 
man has done his utmost for his own safety, 
then is the time to invoke the blessing of 
Heaven to give effect to his exertions.” 

20 .—A wagon filled with forty people, many 
of them children, engaged in hop-picking, upset 
in passing over a small bridge near Tunbridge. 
The stream being unusually swollen, about thirty 
were swept down the current and drowned. 
The survivors managed to cling to the wagon 
or sides of the bridge till assistance reached 
them. 

24 .—Previous to her departure for Australia, 
Mrs. Chisholm delivers a farewell address to 
a company of emigrants and their friends, in 
Spitalfields. A resolution was carried expres¬ 
sive of gratitude for her exertions on their 
behalf. 

— At the opening of the Birmingham 
Sessions Mr. Recorder Hill delivers a charge 
to the grand jury on the subject of prison dis¬ 
cipline, which he treated mainly with reference 
to the recent disclosures in connexion with 
their own prison. 

27 .—Dismissal of the Rev. F. D. Maurice 
from his professorships in King’s College. At 
the first meeting of the Council after the long 
vacation, Principal Jelf laid before that body, 
in his official capacity, a correspondence (pri¬ 
vately printed) which had taken place during 
the three preceding months between Mr. 
Maurice and himself, on the subject of certain 
statements made by the Professor in the con¬ 
cluding paper of his lately-published work, 
“Theological Essays.” These statements had 
reference to the eternity of the future punish¬ 
ment of the wicked. At the same meeting 
of the Council Mr. Maurice put in a printed 
“Answer to the Principal’s Final Letter. ” With 
these documents in their hands, the Council 
adjourned till to-day, when at a special meet¬ 
ing summoned for the purpose they entered 
fully into the consideration of the whole matter, 
and came to the resolution that the opinions 
set forth and the doubts expressed in the Essay 
laid before them were of dangerous tendency, 
and calculated to unsettle the minds of theo¬ 
logical students; and that the continuance of 
Mr. Maurice’s connexion with the College 
would be seriously detrimental to its usefulness. 
As the Principal had advised Mr. Maurice to 
( 392 ) 


be present at the opening of the term to com¬ 
mence his usual courses, the Professor forwarded 
a remonstrance to the Council on the 7th Nov., 
calling upon them to state what article of faith 
condemned his teaching. “ I cannot, my lords 
and gentlemen, believe that, great as are the 
privileges which the Right Rev. Bench has 
conceded to the Principal of King’s College, 
their lordships the bishops ever intended to 
give him an authority superior to their own, 
superior to that of the Articles by which they 
are bound; I cannot think that they wish to 
constitute him and the Council arbiters of the 
theology of the English Church. Such a claim 
would be as alarming, I apprehend, to the public 
as to our ecclesiastical rulers. If some parents 
have been suspicious of the influence which I 
might exercise over their sons, I believe that 
there are few parents in England who will 
not complain that the College has departed 
from its original principle when it gives such a 
scope to the private judgment of its chief 
officer, or even to the judgment of the body 
which manages its affairs. ... If I have violated 
any law of the Church, that law can be at once 
pointed out; the nature of the transgression 
can be defined, without any reference to possible 
tendencies and results. It is this justice, anc 
not any personal favour, my lords and gentle¬ 
men, which I now request at your hands. ”— 
After reading this letter, the Council decided 
that they did not think it necessary to enter 
further into the subject, and declared the two 
chairs held by Mr. Maurice in the College to 
be vacant. He was succeeded in the chair of 
Ecclesiastical History by Dr. A. M'Caul, and 
in that of English Literature by Mr. G. W. 
Dasent. 

28 . —Riots at Wigan, originating in disputes 
between the masters and the factory workmen 
and colliers, about 9,000 of whom were out on 
strike for increase of wages. They attacked 
the Royal Hotel, where the masters held 
their meetings, and attempted to burn the 
houses of parties who had rendered themselves 
obnoxious to the mob. They were driven from 
the streets, late in the afternoon, by a detach¬ 
ment of the 34th Foot which arrived by train. 
The rioters next day attempted to destroy the 
saw-mills at Haig, but were driven back by 
work-people and police who garrisoned the 
building. 

— Died at Blackrock, aged 81, Lord Clon- 
curry, a conspicuous Irish politician during the 
Union debates. 

29 . —At the Central Criminal Court, the 
Rev. Wade Meara pleaded guilty to printing 
and publishing false and scandalous libels 
against the Hon. Craven Fitzhardinge Berke¬ 
ley and others. A written apology was read 
in court, and Meara bound over in his own 
recognisances to appear for judgment when 
called on. 

November 1 . —Moses Hatto, groom, mur¬ 
ders Mary Ann Sturgeon, housekeeper to Mr. 







NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1853- 


Goodwin, of the Burnham Abbey farm, near 
Windsor. In the absence of his master, and 
in a fit of passionate revenge (as he afterwards 
described it), the murderer entered the house¬ 
keeper’s room, and there attacked her with the 
lard-beater; he afterwards followed the poor 
woman to her bedroom, where he finished his 
murderous work with a poker. To hide his 
crime Hatto set fire to the body, by surround¬ 
ing it with inflammable material; and, but for 
the arrival of his master, all trace of guilt might 
thus have been lost. As it was, the body was 
consumed above the waist, and the under part 
considerably scorched. From the murderer 
exhibiting unusual cunning in destroying the 
most prominent traces of his connexion with 
the crime, the evidence produced against 
Hatto was purely circumstantial. The jury 
returned a verdict of Guilty, and he was 
ordered for execution. He confessed his guilt 
the same night. 

1.—The Dublin Exhibition closed in the pre¬ 
sence of 20,000 people. The Lord Lieutenant 
said he could not declare the Exhibition closed 
without expressing an earnest wish for the 
health, happiness, and prosperity of the man to 
whom they were all indebted for the instruction 
they had x*eceived from the many productions of 
art and nature contained within the walls. On 
the following day a grand dinner was given to 
Mr. Dargan at the Mansion House. 

— The Emperor of Russia declares war 
against Turkey. “ By our manifesto of the 26th 
of June of the present year we made known 
to our faithful and dearly-beloved subjects the 
motives which had placed us under the obliga¬ 
tion of demanding from the Ottoman Porte 
inviolable guarantees in favour of the sacred 
rights of the Orthodox Church. We also an¬ 
nounced to them that all our efforts to recall 
the Porte, by means of amicable persuasion, to 
sentiments of equity and to the faithful obser¬ 
vance of treaties, had remained unfruitful, and 
that we had consequently deemed it indispen¬ 
sable to cause our troops to advance into the 
Danubian Principalities; but in taking this step 
we still entertained the hope that the Porte 
would acknowledge its wrong-doings, and 
would decide on acceding to our just demands. 
Our expectation has been deceived. Even the 
chief Powers of Europe have in vain sought by 
their exhortations to shake the blind obstinacy 
of the Ottoman Government. It is by a declara¬ 
tion of war, by a proclamation filled with lying 
accusations against Russia, that it has responded 
to the pacific efforts of Europe, as well as to 
our spirit of long-suffering. At last, enrolling 
in the ranks of its army revolutionary exiles 
from all countries, the Porte has just com¬ 
menced hostilities on the Danube. Russia is 
challenged to the combat, and she has no other 
course left her than, putting her trust in God, 
to have recourse to force of arms, and so compel 
the Ottoman Government to respect treaties, 
and obtain reparation for the insults with which 
it has responded to our most moderate demands, 
and to our most legitimate solicitude for the 


defence of the orthodox faith in the East, pro¬ 
fessed also by the people of Russia. We are 
firmly convinced that our faithful subjects will 
join their prayers to those wffiich we address to 
the Almighty, beseeching Him to bless with 
His hand our arms in this just and holy cause, 
which has always found ardent defenders in 
our ancestors. In te, Domine , speravi ; nor 
confundar in ceternum. Nicholas.” —At a 
review of troops on the 2d, the Emperor handed 
a copy of the manifesto to the colonel of each 
regiment. 

1. —The English Archbishops issue a declara¬ 
tion designed to protect Bishop Gobat, of 
Jerusalem, from the attacks now being made 
upon him by a section of the Church for 
proselytizing, and expressing sympathy with him 
in the difficulties by which he was surrounded. 

2 . —Formation of an Association for the 
Vindication of Scottish Rights, under the pre¬ 
sidency of the Earl of Eglinton. 

— Disastrous floods in Cork ; St. Patrick’s 
Bridge, over the Lee, being swept away with all 
the people on it at the moment. 

4 . —The American barque Victoria , 600 tons 
burthen, loaded partly with iron and partly with 
box and bale goods, destroyed by fire, in the 
Clyde, opposite Whitinch. 

— First encounter between the Russians and 
Turkish forces at Oltenitza. “The engage¬ 
ment,” writes Omer Pasha, “lasted four hours 
from noon, and during this interval their wagons 
never ceased carrying off the dead. At 5 P- m. 
a total confusion ensued in the Russian ranks ; 
their lines were completely broken and their re¬ 
treat precipitate. An hour later some few 
rallied in the neighbouring villages, but the re¬ 
mainder fled in disorder. Our loss amounted to 
106 men.” 

— Meeting in Willis’s Rooms to organize 
measures for erecting a monument, and otherwise 
commemorating the services of Lieut. Bellot 
The chairman (Sir Roderick Murchison), hir 
James Graham, and others, spoke strongly i 
favour of the movement. 

7. —Commenced before the Court of Assizes, 
in Paris, the trial of thirty-three persons accuse 1 
of plotting to assassinate the Emperor Napoleer 
The trial terminated on the 15th, when ten f 
the conspirators were condemned to transport a- 
tion for life, and the rest to terms of imprison¬ 
ment varying from three to ten years. 

— Meeting at the Mansion House to con 
sider the propriety of erecting a memorial of 
the Great Exhibition in connexion with a testi¬ 
monial of admiration and esteem to Prince 
Albert. Speeches were delivered by the Bishop 
of Oxford, the Provost of Eton, Mr. Scott 
Russell, and others. 

9 .— At the Lord Mayor’s Show, an allegorical 
procession representing Justice, the Nations, 
and Prosperity, excited great interest in passing 
along the streets. 

13 .—The Turks blow up the works at 

(393) 




NOVEMBER 


1853. 


NOVEMBER 


Oltenitza, and retire across the Danube to 
Kalafat, where they kept the Russians in check 
for some time. 

14 . —An Admiralty Board established in 
Prussia, and a separation made between the 
naval and military departments of the Govern¬ 
ment. 

15 . —Died suddenly, in childbirth, Maria II., 
Queen of Portugal. The King Consort was 
declared Regent, in name of his son, Don 
Pedro V. 

16 . —The hundredth session of the Society 
of Arts opened with an address retrospective 
and prospective, by Mr. Harry Chester. 

17 . —Rumoured fusion at Frohdorf of the 
Chambord and Orleans branches of the House 
of Bourbon. 

18 . —Lorenzo Beha, a German Jew silver¬ 
smith, residing in Norwich, murdered and 
robbed between Wellingham and Tittleshall, 
West Norfolk. The body was found lying by 
the side of a ditch, on Tittleshall Common, the 
head nearly cut off, and four deep wounds 
across the face. Suspicion pointing to a 
labourer named Thompson, he was at once 
apprehended, and on searching his house most 
of the stolen property was discovered. On his 
trial at the spring assizes he was found guilty, 
and confessed the crime previous to execution. 

22 .—Dense fog in the metropolis. On the 
streets and river the utmost confusion prevailed, 
and in the neighbourhood of railway stations a 
complete block existed for hours. In the shops 
there was an entire cessation of business. 

— Prince Albert, accompanied by the Duke 
of Brabant, visits Cambridge for the first time 
since his election as Chancellor. 

25 . —Abel Burrows, a fanatical Methodist, 
mad with drink, murders an old woman in the 
village of Reach, near Leighton Buzzard, to give 
effect to what he called his religious enthusiasm. 
The capital sentence was commuted to penal 
servitude for life. 

26 . —Meeting of ladies at Stafford House, 
to agree upon an address to the women of the 
United States on the subject of slavery. The 
Duchess of Sutherland read a draft of the 
proposed memorial, stating that “a common 
origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely 
believe, a common cause, urge us at the pre¬ 
sent moment to address you on the subject of 
that system of negro slavery which still prevails 
so extensively, and, even under kindly-dis¬ 
posed masters, with such frightful results, in 
many of the vast regions of the Western world.” 
The address was replied to by Mrs. Tyler, wife 
of the ex-President, who pointed out where the 
Duchess might find fitting objects for her sym¬ 
pathy, in London, in Ireland, and on her own 
Highland estates. “ Leave it,” she said, “ to 
the women of the South to alleviate the suffer¬ 
ings of their dependants, while you take care 
of your own. The negro of the South lives 
sumptuously in comparison with 100,000 of 
your white population in London.” 

(394) 


28 .—Collision between the Marshall, screw 
steamship trading between Hamburg and Hull, 
and the Swedish barque IVoodhouse, near the 
Newsand Float. The steamer sank, it was 
supposed, almost immediately, but no survi¬ 
vor was left to tell the story of her disaster. 
She had on board 150 emigrants, a crew of 18, 
and a miscellaneous cargo. The captain of the 
Woodhouse deposed that the steamer struck 
his vessel twice, and then passed on without 
answering any of his remonstrances. The night 
was extremely dark, and the breeze fresh from 
the south-west. The mast-heads of the Man hall 
were seen at low water about five miles from 
the Float. 

30 .—Dr. Colenso (late Rector of Forncett 
St. Mary’s, Norfolk) consecrated Bishop of 
Natal in the church of St. Mary, Lambeth, by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of 
London, and the Bishop of Lincoln. Dr. 
Armstrong was at the same time consecrated 
Bishop of the other new see of Grahamstown. 
The Bishop of Oxford preached a sermon on the 
occasion (“Separate me Barnabas and Saul”), 
to which after-occurrences gave much signifi¬ 
cance. “Yes, beloved brethren in the Lord,” 
said the Bishop, “it is to such a strife and 
into such dangers that you go, and to which 
we dare to send you. And how could you or 
we venture on such works, unless the Holy 
Ghost had said, ‘ Separate me Barnabas and 
Saul for the work whereunto I have called 
them;’ unless your office were of God’s ap¬ 
pointment ; unless you were certain of Christ’s 
presence with you in fulfilling it, of His per¬ 
petual sympathy, of the strength and love 
which He pours on those who serve under His 
cross, of the repeated cleansing of your soul 
from sins of commission and neglect through 
His most precious blood; unless your service 
were indeed the upholding and perpetuation of 
His own personal ministry; unless it were in¬ 
deed full of the power of God the Holy Ghost; 
unless those words which we shall use over 
you to-day meant in very deed all, and more 
than all, which their mysterious fulness utters, 
‘Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and 
work of a Bishop in the Church of God, now 
committed unto thee by the imposition of our 
hands, in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ Yes, be¬ 
loved brethren, here is might enough to turn 
into strength all your uttermost weakness. 
Here is that undying certainty of power and 
love to which we dare to trust you, whilst we 
add you as new links to the ever-lengthening 
chain of Christ’s anointed witnesses.” In 
December 1862 the Bishop of Oxford, and 
nearly every other Bishop of the Church, pro¬ 
hibited this most recent link in the chain of 
anointed witnesses from preaching in any 
pulpit within their dioceses. 

—- Destruction of the Turkish fleet in the 
harbour of Sinope. About noon the Russian 
squadron, composed of six sail of the line, two 
sailing frigates, and three steamers, entered the 
bay. The line-of-battle ships anchored near the 




DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1S53. 


Turkish vessels, and immediately lowered and 
armed their boats. At half-past one o’clock, 
at the moment when a boat was pushed off 
from the Russian admiral’s ship, the frigate of 
the Turkish admiral opened fire. The Russian 
vessel recalled her boat, and the action com¬ 
menced. In half an hour one Turkish frigate 
was blown up, an hour after two others met 
the same fate, and within two hours and a half 
all the squadron was disabled, with the excep¬ 
tion of one frigate which managed to elude the 
pursuit of the Russian ships, and carried the 
news of the disaster to Constantinople. A large 
portion of the town was also fired. The Turks 
were reported to have lost 4,000 men. When 
the Emperor received news of the engagement, 
he addressed a letter to Prince Menschikoff, 
requesting him, on behalf of the honour and 
glory of Russia, to thank his brave seamen for 
the success of the Russian flag. The feeling 
which this outrage excited in Western Europe 
was given expression to by Lord Clarendon, in 
a despatch to the British Minister at St. Peters¬ 
burg. “It would,” he writes, “have been a 
matter of sincere satisfaction to her Majesty’s 
Government, that the combined fleets should 
have remained at anchor in the Bosphorus, 
while negotiations were pending. But this has 
been rendered impossible by the attack on the 
Turkish squadron at Sinope. The intentions 
of the English and French Governments, which 
were long since announced to the Porte, must 
be firmly and faithfully executed. For this 
purpose, although with no hostile designs 
against Russia, it is essential that the com¬ 
bined fleets should have the command of the 
Black Sea; and the necessary instructions have 
accordingly been addressed to the ambassadors 
and admirals of England and France. ” The 
Russian fleet, thereafter, withdrew within the 
defences of Sebastopol. 

December 1 . —Suffocation of the Sadler 
family, three in number, at Elesecar village, 
near Rotherham. From an examination of 
the room in which the bodies were found, Mr. 
Haywood, chemist, gave it as his opinion that 
they had all died from inhaling the vapours of 
cyanide of potassium, proceeding from the 
adjoining stack of the blast furnace used in 
Elesecar Ironworks. 

2 . —Died at Norwich, aged 84, Miss Amelia 
Opie, a popular authoress of the last genera¬ 
tion, but more celebrated for the engaging 
qualities she exhibited as a fashionable 
Quakeress. 

3 . —In the suit brought by the York and 
North Midland Railway Company against 
George Hudson for 54,000/., the Master of 
the Rolls gives judgment in favour of the 
Company. 

7 .—Inauguration of the statue of Marshal 
Ney, erected on the spot where he was exe¬ 
cuted, in the Avenue of the Observatory, 
Paris. 


IO.—Great fires in New York. Through 
the carelessness of one of the workmen, the 
premises of Harper Brothers, publishers, were 
totally consumed, and about 3,000 work-people 
thrown out of employment Ten days after 
wards a fire in Front-street spread to the ship¬ 
ping in the East River, and destroyed amongst 
others the Great Republic , valued at 300,000 
dollars. 

11 -—The Governors of the Charterhouse 
decline acceding to the prayer of the Poor 
Brethren of the Institution for an increase to 
the pension of 25/. allotted under the foundation 
of Thomas Sutton. 

— Death of the Rajah of Nagpore, the 
last descendant of Rajogee, and annexation 
of his territories to the British possessions in 
India. 

12. —General Santa Anna assumes dictatorial 
power, and the title of Most Serene Highness, 
with the consent of the Mexicans. 

13 . —Issue of the Charter for the new Wel¬ 
lington College. It recited that upwards of 
100,000/. had been subscribed to found a col¬ 
lege for the education of the children of 
deceased military officers who have borne 
commissions in the Royal Army or in the 
East India Company’s service. The governors 
were empowered to hold property as a cor¬ 
poration to the annual value of 15,000/., and 
to manage all matters appertaining or inciden¬ 
tal to the government of the College. The 
Queen to be Visitor. Rev. E. W. Benson first 
head master. 

16 .—The Times and Chronicle make the un¬ 
expected announcement that Lord Palmerston 
had resigned his office of Secretary of State for 
the Home Department, the cause assigned being 
his opposition to the contemplated Reform Bill 
of the Government. Rumours of other resigna¬ 
tions were so frequent at this time as to lead to 
the belief that the Cabinet was falling to pieces. 
Lord Palmerston was afterwards induced to 
resume the duties of his office. 

20 .—John Charles Topner tried before the 
Royal Court, Guernsey, for the barbarous mur¬ 
der of the widow Saujon, who resided by herself 
in a cottage in the Relte Road. After Topner 
had overpowered his victim, but to all appear¬ 
ance long before she was dead, he set fire to 
her clothes, and then seized what plunder he 
could conveniently take away. When found, 
the body was in a great measure consumed, 
but sufficient remained to furnish evidence of 
the most frightful protracted suffering. The 
prisoner was found guilty, and executed on 
the 10th February. 

— Conference at Birmingham to promote 
the establishment of reformatory schools for 
juvenile delinquents. 

23 .—The Royal Paper Mills at Esher de¬ 
stroyed by fire. The flames were first dis¬ 
covered in the rag warehouse, and, as they 
were then raging with terrific fury, they soon 

(395) 







DECEMBER 


1853-54- 


JANUARY 


extended to the different ranges of buildings 
used as the engine and heating houses, the 
hydraulic press houses, the weighing depart¬ 
ment, and the finishing house, where eight 
steam-engines were employed. Nothing was 
saved. 

24 .—Wreck of the American steamship 
San Francisco, on her voyage with troops from 
New York to California. The number on board 
was between 750 and 800 ; of these above 200 
were swept overboard during the storm, and 
another 100 were carried off by an epidemic 
which broke out among the survivors during 
the seven days they kept by the sinking ship. 
They were discovered still afloat by the British 
barque The Three Bells, on the 31st, and taken 
off by her and The Antartic, which came up 
two days later. 

28 .—During a gale in the Irish Channel, 
the steatner Eva, of Glasgow, breaks in two. 
Of seventeen persons on board six were saved 
by the crew of a fishing trawl and taken to 
Kingston. The Eva had been built for light 
river traffic, and at the time of the disaster was 
setting out on a voyage to Australia, rigged 
as a sailing vessel. 

30 . —The American packet ship Stafford¬ 
shire, from Liverpool to Boston, wrecked ofl 
Cape Sable, and 175 of her passengers and crew 
drowned. 

31 . —Fire in the City, destroying various 
warehouses in Bread-street, Friday-street, 
Watling-street, and Cheapside. By great ex¬ 
ertions, and with an abundant supply of water, 
the firemen were able to keep down a confla¬ 
gration which at one time threatened the entire 
centre of the City. 

— Professor Owen and other eminent men 
of science entertained at dinner in the model 
of the Iguanodon, in the grounds of the Crystal 
Palace, Sydenham. 

— Reschid Pasha, on behalf of the Sultan, 
accepts a new note prepared by the four great 
Powers, and desires that a definite answer be 
sent from St. Petersburg within forty days. 
On the 13th January the Plenipotentiaries in 
Vienna approve of Reschid Pasha’s answer, 
and forward the note to St. Petersburg. On 
the 28th of the same month Count Orloff ar¬ 
rived at the Austrian capital with the answer of 
Russia, refusing the new note, and bearing cer¬ 
tain counter-proposals as the basis for negotia¬ 
tion. At their meeting on the 2d February 
the Plenipotentiaries declared these terms inad¬ 
missible, and such as ought not to be trans¬ 
mitted to the Government of the Sultan. 


1854- 

January 1 . —The Cathedral of the “Holy 
Catholic Apostolic Church,” Gordon-square, 
opened for worship. 

— Died at Turin, aged 64, Silvio Pellico, 

( 396 ) 


an Italian patriot and victim of Austrian 
tyranny, having been seized in 1820 as a Car- 
bonaro, and confined for ten years in the fortress 
of Spielberg. 

1. —Austria decrees that all state proceedings 
in Hungary are in future to be transacted in the 
German language. 

2 . —Sweden announces her neutrality in the 
Eastern question. 

3 . —Severe snow-storm accompanied by 
intense cold. In London the thermometer 
indicated eight degrees below zero. The 
North-Western line was blocked up at the 
Tring cutting, and a mail-train lay imbedded 
there for five hours. The Great Northern was 
blocked up on both rails at Grantham, and traffic 
between Peterborough and Newark became 
impossible by either road or rail. In conse¬ 
quence of the blocking up of the Thames coals 
rose to an enormous price, and the metropolis 
was threatened with total darkness, from the 
inability of the gas companies to procure a 
supply. On one of the days of the storm there 
were only three laden coal vessels in the river. 

— Kelsall’s woollen mills, at Rochdale, de¬ 
stroyed by fire, and three of the work-people 
killed in their attempt to escape from the fourth 
storey of the building. Ten or twelve others 
who threw themselves out were much injured, 
and conveyed to the hospital. 

4 . —Disastrous gale on the north-east coast. 
At Sunderland 25 vessels were wrecked on the 
shore, and at Shields 17. In the course of the 
month there were recorded at Lloyd’s 300 
wrecks, in which 700 people perished. 

— Died, aged 90, Lord Plunket, Lord 
Chancellor of Ireland from 1830 to 1841. 

6 . —Commencement of a series of engage¬ 
ments on the banks of the Danube near Citate, 
in which the Turks under Omer Pasha were 
generally successful against General Gortscha- 
koff’s forces, 

9 . —Bread riots at Exeter, caused by the 
advance of the 4 lb. loaf to 9 d. The shops 
were broken into, and the food as usual 
stolen or destroyed by the mob. Similar dis¬ 
turbances took place at Tiverton, Taunton, 
and Bideford. 

10. —Died at Bedgebury Park, Hants, aged 
83, General Viscount Beresford, G. C. B., the 
hero of Buenos Ayres and Albuera, and 
one of Wellington’s most trusted Peninsular 
veterans. 

13 .—Sir R. H. Inglis resigns his seat for 
the University of Oxford, (whichhe had repre¬ 
sented in nine successive Parliaments,) on the 
score of ill-health, as mentioned in a letter to 
the Vice-Chancellor. He was succeeded by 
Sir W. Heathcote. 

17 .—A rumour being busily circulated at 
this time to the effect that Prince Albert was 
interfering unduly in the conduct of public 
affairs, Mr. Greville, the Clerk to the Privy 





JANUAR > 


■354- 


JANUARY 


Council, writes to the Times explaining the 
position occupied by the Prince Consort in 
the Council and the true effect of the Act of 
Naturalization passed in his favour. 

18 .—Fall of a portion of the old Excise- 
office in Broad-street, killing two men and injur¬ 
ing four others. 

21 .— Wreck of the emigrant ship Tayleiir , 
on Lambay Island, a few miles north of 
Howth. She left the Mersey at noon on 
Thursday the 19th, with fair weather; but it 
soon came on to blow, making it necessary to 
close-reef topsails. This was effected with dif¬ 
ficulty, owing to the stiffness of the rigging 
and the insufficiency of the crew, many of the 
latter being foreigners scarcely able to under¬ 
stand orders. They were six hours taking in- 
two reefs. During all this time the vessel was 
drifting to leeward in a narrow sea. All Fri¬ 
day the wind blew a gale, and the ship was 
repeatedly put about. She was described to 
have been very fast, but, owing to some defect 
of construction or management, she was slow in 
“going round” and drifted some five miles to 
leeward each time. She also seemed to lose her 
speed as soon as she was overpressed with sail. 
Another defect was now discovered—all the 
compasses, disturbed by the iron hull and fit¬ 
tings, differed some points from each other, and 
others would not work at all. Under these cir¬ 
cumstances, with a slight haze, and owing to the 
numerous tacks and shifts of wind, the captain 
lost all knowledge of his position till 4 A. M. on 
Saturday, when the Skerries light was sighted, 
and the ship was found to be at about the same 
spot at which the pilot quitted her on Thurs¬ 
day evening. The wind continued to blow hard 
and shifted to the S. S. W., when suddenly the 
haze lifted, and land was seen. The ship 
was instantly put about, but refused to act, 
and drifted rapidly towards the shore. Two 
anchors were then dropped, but the chain- 
cables snapped, and the ship struck on the 
rocks. The greatest confusion prevailed among 
the passengers, many attempting to jump on to 
the rocks, but perishing in the sea. Spars and 
ropes were extended from the ship to the shore, 
and by this means a large portion of the male 
passengers saved themselves; but of more than 
100 women three only were rescued. The 
ship continued to roll heavily against the rocks 
for a little time, when a sea broke over her 
carrying everything before it, and she went 
down stern foremost. Of 528 persons, 290 
were drowned. 

26 .—Commencement of the Croker-Rus- 
sell correspondence regarding Moore’s Diary. 
As illustrative of a passage in the sixth 
volume, where Barnes of the Times requested 
Moore to spare Croker in anything he might 
write, Lord John Russell added a note :— 
“To Moore it was unnecessary to address a 
request to spare a friend. If the request had 
been addressed to the other party, asking him 
to spare Moore, what would have been the 
result ? Probably while Moore was alive, and 


able to wield his pen, it might have been suc¬ 
cessful. Had Moore been dead, it would 
have served only to give additional zest to the 
pleasure of safe malignity.” Mr. Croker now 
writes to Lord John Russell:—“ I do not feel 
myself called upon to examine the conjectural 
estimate that your lordship makes of ‘ the zest 
and pleasure ’ of ‘ safe malignity.’ It has been, 
no doubt, formed on the best data a man can 
have for his opinions—the feelings of his own 
mind ; ‘ Those can best paint them who have 
felt them most : ’ and when it is recollected 
that the person to whom you have thus hypo¬ 
thetically attributed the results of your own 
personal experience is in his 74th year, and in 
a probably advanced stage of mortal disease, 
it will be, I think, generally admitted that 
your lordship is well entitled to lecture us on 
both the theory and practice of ‘safe malignity.’ 
Your lordship’s opinion of me, or mine of you, 
is a matter on which I should not have thought 
it worth while to have said a word ; but you 
have embodied with your personal impertinence 
a gross misrepresentation of a fact, which I 
wish to set right. In that passage your lord- 
ship thought fit to leave the name in blank ; 
but with a spiteful slyness, which, I believe, 
is a main feature of your character, you give in 
the next page but one an unmistakable desig¬ 
nation of the person meant. So that those 
who might not recognise me under the injurious 
character given in the first passage could have 
no doubt, from the incidental circumstances of 
the second, which identified me.” Next day 
Lord John Russell answered :— “ The note to 
which you refer in your letter of yesterday’s 
date was written on the supposition that you 
are the author of an article on Moore in the 
Quarterly Reviezu. I endeavoured, in pub¬ 
lishing the ‘Diary ’ to omit passages offensive 
to individuals. 1 omitted some regarding you, 
which, though not bitter or malicious, might, 
I thought, give you pain. There was one in 
which he said he found you less clever and 
more vain than he expected or had supposed. 
This I allowed to stand. As one of the public 
men of the day you are accustomed to write 
most severely of others. To escape all criti¬ 
cism on yourself seems an immunity hardly to 
be expected.”—“I have not been guilty,” 
replied Croker, “ of any such absurdity. I 
believe that few men have had, during a long 
life, more incessant proof that I have no such 
convenient privilege. Such an idea I never 
uttered nor entertained. It would be not 
merely arrogance, but imbecility; and I trust 
this correspondence will convince your lordship 
I am not yet in my dotage.” In closing his 
side of the correspondence, Lord John Russell 
used the words : “It would be useless for us to 
attempt to persuade one another.”—“I had no 
motive,” replied the critic, “and no intention 
to persuade your lordship to anything. I 
did not meddle with your opinion. I charged 
you with a gross and wilful offence against me • 
the public is now the judge whether I have 
proved my charge. ” 

( 397 ) 




JANUARY 


1854. 


JANUARY 


27 . —Wreck of the Liverpool ship IV. H. 
Davis, in the North Channel, and loss of 
twenty-three people, all on board with one 
exception. The ship had become unmanage¬ 
able in the course of the recent westerly gales, 
and when attempting, during the night, to 
weather Barra Head, she went ashore on the 
rocks of Vatersay, within a short distance of 
the spot where the Anna Jane was lost in Sep¬ 
tember last. The master and crew took to 
the rigging, but the ship was dashed to pieces 
in a few minutes after she struck, and they 
perished amid the falling wreck. The steward 
was the only person who escaped. 

28 . —The Greek provinces of Epirus and 
Albania, incited and supported, as was believed, 
by Russia, revolt against the power of the 
Sultan. 

29 . —The Emperor Napoleon writes to the 
Emperor of Russia :—“ Your Majesty has 
given so many proofs of your solicitude for the 
tranquillity of Europe, and by your beneficent 
influence has so powerfully arrested the spirit 
of disorder, that I cannot doubt as to the 
course you will take in the alternative which 
presents itself to your choice. Should your 
Majesty be as desirous as myself of a pacific 
conclusion, what would be more simple than 
to declare that an armistice shall now be signed, 
that all hostilities shall cease, and that the 
belligerent forces shall retire from the places 
to which motives of war have led them ? Thus 
the Russian troops would abandon the Princi¬ 
palities, and our squadrons the Black Sea. 
Your Majesty, preferring to treat directly with 
Turkey, might appoint an ambassador, who 
could negotiate with a plenipotentiary of the 
Sultan a convention, which might be submitted 
to a conference of the four Powers. Let your 
Majesty adopt this plan, upon which the Queen 
of England and myself are perfectly agreed, 
and tranquillity will be re-established and the 
world satisfied. There is nothing in the plan 
which is unworthy of your Majesty, nothing 
which can wouijjl your honour ; but if, from a 
motive difficult to understand, your Majesty 
should refuse this proposal, then France, as 
well as England, will be compelled to leave to 
the fate of arms, and the chances of war, that 
which might now be decided by reason and 
justice.”—The Emperor of Russia replied on 
the 9th of February“ I have made, for the 
maintenance of peace, all the concessions, both 
of form and substance, compatible with my 
honour ; and in claiming for my co-religionists 
in Turkey the confirmation of the rights and 
privileges which they have long acquired at the 
price of Russian blood, I claimed nothing 
which was not confirmed by treaties. If the 
Porte had been left to herself, the difference 
which has so long kept Europe in suspense 
would have been solved. A fatal influence has 
thrown everything into confusion. By provok- 
ing gratuitous suspicions, by exciting the fa¬ 
naticism of the Turks, and by deceiving their 
Government as to my intentions and the real 

(398) 


scope of my demands, it has so exaggerated 
the extent of the questions, that the probable 
result seems to be war. . . . My confidence is 
in God and in my right, and Russia, as I can 
guarantee, will prove herself in 1854 what she 
was in 1812. If, however, your Majesty, less 
indifferent to my honour, should frankly return 
to our programme—if you should proffer me a 
cordial hand, as I now offer it to you at this 
last moment—I will willingly forget whatever 
has wounded my feelings in the past. Then, 
Sire, but then only, we may discuss, and, per¬ 
haps, we may come to an understanding. Let 
your fleet limit itself to preventing the Turks 
from sending additional forces to the theatre of 
war : I willingly promise that they shall have 
nothing to fear from my attempts. Let them 
send a negotiator : I will receive him in a 
suitable manner. My conditions are known 
at Vienna. That is the only basis upon which 
I can allow discussion.” 

31 .—Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. “ I have continued,” said her Majesty, 
in reference to the Eastern difficulty, “to act 
in cordial co-operation with the Emperor of the 
French, and my endeavours, in conjunction 
with my allies, to preserve and to restore peace 
between the contending parties, although 
hitherto unsuccessful, have been unremitting. 

I will not fail to persevere in these endeavours; 
but as the continuance of the war may deeply 
affect the interests of this country and of 
Europe, I think it requisite to make a further 
augmentation of my naval and military forces, 
with the view of supporting my representations, 
and of more effectually contributing to the 
restoration of peace.” In both Houses the 
debate on the Address had refeience chiefly to 
the rupture between Russia and Turkey, and to 
the alleged undue influence exercised by Prince 
Albert in the conduct of the public business of 
the country. “ It is intimated to us,” said 
Lord Derby, “ that a state of warfare has 
ensued from the failure of all our negotiations. 
A state of warfare with whom ? Are we belli¬ 
gerents ? Are we partisans ? Are we carrying 
on war openly and boldly, or are we carrying 
on that which is tantamount to war, but a war 
carried on in a pettifogging manner, and, I 
might almost say, in a manner discreditable 
to this great country? . . . The policy of 
Russia for the last 150 years has been a policy 
of gradual aggression—not a policy of conquest, 
but of aggression. It has never proceeded by 
storm, but by sap and mine. The first process 
has been invariably that of fomenting discon¬ 
tent and dissatisfaction amongst the subjects 
of subordinate states—then proffering media¬ 
tion—then offering assistance to the weaker 
party—then declaring the independence of that 
party—then placing that independence under 
the protection of Russia—and, finally, from 
protection proceeding to the incorporation, 
one by one, of those states into the gigantic 
body of the Russian empire. I say nothing of 
Poland, or of Livonia, but I speak of Min- 
grelia, Imeritia, and the countries of the 





FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1854 . 


Caspian, even as far as the boundary of the 
Araxes; and, again, the Crimea itself. Al¬ 
though she has pursued this steady course for 
150 years, she has from time to time desisted 
from her schemes where she has found that 
they met with opposition, and has never 
carried any one of them into effect where she 
has been certain to meet the opposition of 
this country.”—The Marquis of Clanricarde 
characterised the foreign policy of the Govern¬ 
ment as secret, vacillating, and unsuccessful. 

—The Earl of Clarendon defended the Govern¬ 
ment, which was warranted, he said, in pro¬ 
tracting negotiations rather than commit the 
country to the terrible alternative of war.— 
In the House of Commons, Lord John Russell 
triumphantly refuted the calumnies relating to 
the Prince Consort’s interference in the foreign 
affairs of the country. The Address was agreed 
to in both Houses without a division. 

February 1 .—The Parliament buildings of 
Quebec again destroyed by fire. 

3 .—Mr. Cardwell obtains leave to bring in 
two bills for the amendment of the Navigation- 
laws : one to throw open the coasting trade to 
foreign vessels ; the other to consolidate and 
amend those laws which, since the repeal of 
the Navigation Act, had been passed for the 
benefit of British shipping. The second bill 
(he said) would consolidate the law with 
respect to registry and measurement, abolish 
the registry ticket, and introduce the greatly 
improved system of measurement known as 
Captain Moorsom’s. It was proposed to 
appropriate a small sum from the Board of 
Trade funds for the purpose of organising the 
lifeboats on the coast, so that more lives 
might be saved. Mr. Cardwell reported that 
the recent changes in the Navigation-laws had 
worked well ; not realizing the apprehensions 
of overwhelming foreign competition. Wages 
were higher than ever, and freights higher. 
There were not enough British ships for the 
purposes of the coasting trade, while fleets of 
foreign ships entered the Tyne in ballast. Last 
year 190,000 seamen left the ports of the king¬ 
dom ; and during the first three months of the 
operation of the new manning clause there 
were only 25,000 foreign seamen. Our ship¬ 
ping trade and commerce increased by 
2,282,639/. in 1851, and by 2,564,429/. in 1852. 
It was on such grounds that, after mature 
inquiry and deliberation, Ministers resolved to 
adopt the postponed measure permitting foreign 
vessels to engage in our coasting trade. The 
bill was carried through both Houses during 
the session. 

4 . —The survivors of the Bona Dea , from 
Savannah, picked off the wreck by the Cuba , of 
Sunderland. For eleven days they had suffered 
the most extreme agony from want of food'and 
water, everything having been washed out of 
the vessel in the storm of 25th January. One 
of the survivors records : “ February 1. The 
men again drew lots. One poor fellow, who 
appeared to be in a dying state, offered himself 


to save the rest. Mr. M ‘Leod interfered, and 
cheered them up with the prospect of being 
soon relieved.—February 2. The men now be¬ 
coming unmanageable and determined to have 
the dying man sacrificed. The poor fellow 
had offered to do the deed himself, and cut 
his arms in two places to bleed to death, but 
no blood came. The men afterwards surrounded 
him, and one of them cut his throat. The 
scene that followed was too horrible to detail. — 
February 3. Many of the men frantically mad, 
and crawling about the deck in a shocking 
manner.—February 4. Mr. M‘Leod and two 
men the only portion of the crew able to go 
about. The remainder were prostrate, and 
four quite deranged. All, in fact, were fast 
sinking, and could not possibly have survived 
another day, the immense quantity of salt 
water they drank increasing their sufferings to 
a frightful degree.” About 9 a.m. the Cuba 
was observed through the haze, and within an 
hour a boat was alongside to take them off. 

6 . —Lord John Russell announces in the 
House of Commons that the Russian ambas¬ 
sador intended to withdraw from the Court of 
St. James’s. Baron Brunow left the Embassy 
next day. 

7. —Mr. Butt obtains the appointment of a 
Select Committee to inquire into charges of 
corruption made against the Irish members at 
a public dinner in Tuam. The Times having 
drawn attention to these charges, Mr. Mow¬ 
bray Morris, the manager of the paper, was 
examined; but, though closely questioned, the 
Committee did not succeed in obtaining from 
him much valuable information. In answer to 
one question put by Mr. Bright, Mr. Morris 
said :—“ With all respect to the Committee, I 
submit that the question here involved is the 
independence of the press. I think that the 
press of this country—there being no cen¬ 
sorship established by law—is amenable to no 
authority whatever except that of the courts 
of law, and that not even a Committee of 
the House of Commons has a right to question 
the conductors of the paper as regards the 
opinions they have expressed ; and that there 
is no tribunal except the courts of justice which 
can compel them to do so. I therefore think 
I should sacrifice the interests of the Times , 
and do a grievous injury to the press of this 
country, if I answered the question.” Dr. 
Gifford, of the Standard , was also examined. 
After various sittings, the Committee resolved 
to report that the charges made against a 
section of the Irish members had not been 
established. 

8 . —Eight lives lost in a fire at the back 
of St. Anne’s Church, Prmces-street, Soho. 
Within a few minutes after the fire had been 
discovered, an interpreter named Puzzi, who 
lived on the second floor, appeared at the 
windows with his wife and three children, 
imploring assistance. He afterwards threw 
himself into the street, but sustained such 
injuries that he died after his removal to 

(399) 







FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1854. 


Charing Cross Hospital. In a few minutes 
afterwards, and before the arrival of either 
engines or fire-escape, all the inmates pre¬ 
viously seen at the windows had disappeared. 
The charred remains of seven were found on 
the second floor when the fire was subdued. 

8 . —The Russian ambassador, Baron Bru- 
now, leaves London, passing over from Dover 
to Calais the following morning. 

©.—In the case of Major Beresford and ten 
others charged, in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
with conspiracy to corrupt and bribe the 
electors of the borough of Derby, in July 1853 
(see p. 358), Mr. Lewis explained that he did 
not intend to offer any evidence in support of 
the indictment. The jury thereupon returned a 
verdict of Not guilty. 

IO.—A deputation from the Society of 
Friends, composed of Sturge of Birmingham, 
Charlton of Bristol, and Pease of Darlington, 
waits upon the Emperor of Russia at St. 
Petersburg, to present an address expressive of 
the sorrow which filled their hearts at the 
thought of the approaching war. The Emperor 
replied verbally and in writing that he 
abhorred war as sincerely as they did, and was 
ready to forget the past if an opportunity was 
afforded. He must, however, insist on Turkey 
discharging the obligations imposed on her by 
treaties. 

13 .—Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill to amend the laws relating to 
the Representation of the People of England 
and Wales. He proposed to disfranchise all 
boroughs which had fallen below 300 electors, 
or had a smaller population than 5,000, 
and to take one member from thirty-three 
boroughs having less than 500 electors, or a 
population under 10,000 inhabitants. He would 
divide certain counties, and give three members 
to each division, and an additional member to 
each county and town with more than 100,000 
inhabitants. He would give four additional 
members to Yorkshire, four to Lancashire, 
and thirty-eight to other counties ; and one 
to Southwark. This would in all give fifty- 
five new members. The three towns of 
Birkenhead, Staleybridge, and Barnsley, having 
more than 20,000 inhabitants, would have a 
member each ; and Kensington and Chelsea 
would, as had been suggested, be formed into 
a borough with two members. He proposed to 
give the franchise to the Inns of Court, and one 
member to the University of London. To make 
full provision for the representation of minori¬ 
ties, electors in districts returning three mem¬ 
bers would have two votes only, so that any 
section comprising not fewer than two-fifths of 
the gross electorate would secure the return of 
their candidate. It was intended to make 
several franchises common to counties and 
towns : namely, first, a salary of 100/. for any 
employment, public or private, paid half-yearly 
or quarterly, and not as weekly wages ; 
secondly, 10/. a year dividends from the funds, 
bank stock, or the East India Company; 

(400) 


thirdly, the payment of 40/. Income-tax or 
assessed taxes; fourthly, the being a graduate 
of any university; and fifthly, the having had 
for three years 50/. in a savings’-bank. As 
regarded counties and boroughs, it was pro¬ 
posed to admit the 10/. householder to the 
county franchise; but in order to avoid vote- 
manufacture, the building must be rated at 5/. 
a year, unless the voter was resident. As re¬ 
garded the borough franchise, he considered 
that the Reform Act did not make sufficient 
provision for the admission of the working 
classes ; and after a tribute to these classes, foi 
whom he thought the door ought to be opened 
wider, he proposed that the borough franchise 
should follow a 61 . municipal rating. There 
would be under his scheme sixty-six vacancies ; 
sixty-three of these he apportioned under one 
of the schedules, and the remaining three he 
proposed to give to populous towns in Scot¬ 
land and to a Scotch University. 

14 .—The Earl of Clarendon states in the 
House of Lords, that though war was not yet 
declared, it could hardly be said we were at 
peace. He thought we were in an inter¬ 
mediate state, but every hour drifting nearer 
and nearer to a state of war. 

16 . —Bursting of the Sheffield and Tinsley 
Canal, the inundation causing extensive damage 
to the warehouses, workshops, and cottages on 
the banks. 

17 . —In the course of a debate on Mr. 
Layard’s motion on the Eastern Question Lord 
John Russell said :—“For my part, if most 
unexpectedly the Emperor of Russia recede 
from his former demands, and at the sight of 
all Europe disapproving his conduct, and of 
two of the most considerable nations of Europe 
being prepared to act in arms, if necessary, 
against him, he should acknowledge the in¬ 
dependence and integrity of the Porte in the 
only manner in which it could be satisfactorily 
done, I shall, and we shall, rejoice to be 
spared the efforts and the burdens of a conflict. 
But, if that is not to be, and if peace is no 
longer consistent with our duty to Europe, and 
our duty to the world—if the ambition of this 
enormous Power has got to such a pitch that 
even its moderation is more ambitious than the 
ambition of other states—if Russia will not be 
contented with anything less than the subjuga¬ 
tion of the whole empire of Turkey and the 
possession of Constantinople itself—if such are 
her feelings and such are her objects—then we 
can only endeavour to enter into this contest 
with a stout heart. May God defend the right! 
And for my part I shall willingly share the 
burden and the responsibility.” The debate was 
adjourned to the 20th, when Mr. Cobden 
spoke at some length against the Ministerial 
policy. Mr. Disraeli, after commenting on the 
suspicious complicity of Lord Aberdeen in the 
grasping policy of Russia, said, on the part of 
the Opposition, he would agree at once to the 
vote for additional men which Lord John 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUAK Y 


1854. 


Russell wished to pass. “I can answer (he 
said) for myself, and for my friends, that no 
future Wellesley on the banks of the Danube 
will have to make a bitter record of the exer¬ 
tions of an English Opposition that depre¬ 
ciated his efforts and ridiculed his talents. 
(Cheers from the Opposition.) We shall 
remember what we believe to be our duty to 
this country; and however protracted may be 
the war—however unfortunate your counsels— 
at least we shall never despair of the Republic. 
(Loud cheers.)” 

17 . —Died, aged 65, John Martin, an ima¬ 
ginative artist. 

18 . —Another explosion in the Arley coal 
mine, near Wigan, causing the destruction of 
eighty-nine lives. Nearly three hours elapsed 
before the fire could be extinguished, so as to 
enable the searchers to enter the levels; and 
when they did descend, their progress was 
necessarily slow on account of the destruction 
of brattices, doors, and stoppings by the ex¬ 
plosion. The work was of the most disagree¬ 
able character, heaps of dead workmen and 
mutilated remains requiring to be passed in 
order that the first attention might be given 
to the living. A few were saved by great 
exertion, but the number was trifling com¬ 
pared with the dead bodies sent up to the pit 
mouth. 

20 . — Insurrection in Saragossa, against 
Queen Christina, leading to that city being 
declared in a state of siege. 

21 . —The Emperor of Russia issues a war 
manifesto. “ England and France have ranged 
themselves by the side of the enemies of 
Christianity against Russia fighting for the 
orthodox faith. But Russia will not alter her 
divine mission ; and if enemies fall upon her 
frontiers, we are ready to meet them with the 
firmness which our ancestors have bequeathed 
to us. Are we not now the same Russian 
nation of whose deeds of valour the memorable 
events of 1812 bear witness? May the Al¬ 
mighty assist us to prove this by deeds. And 
in this trust, taking up arms for our persecuted 
brethren professing the Christian faith, we 
will exclaim, with the whole of Russia, with 
one heart, ‘ O Lord, our Saviour, whom have 
we to fear ? ’ ” 

22 . —Count Buol, the Austrian Minister, 
informs the Prussian Ambassador, Baron de 
Bourqueney, “ If England and France will fix 
a day for the evacuatioh of the Principalities, 
the expiration of which shall be the signal for 
hostilities, the Cabinet of Vienna will support 
the summons.” In reply to Lord Clarendon’s 
question, if Austria in such circumstances would 
declare war herself, the only reply was that she 
would “support the summons.” On the 20th 
of April, weeks after England and France were 
committed to a war policy, Austria and Prussia 
contracted an offensive and defensive alliance 
by which they guaranteed to each other all their 
respective possessions (so that an attack upon 


the territory of the one would be regarded by 
the other as an act of hostility against its own 
territory), and engaged to hold a part of their 
forces “ in readiness for war.” The occupation 
of the territories on the Lower Danube by 
Russia being a danger to the whole German 
Confederation, Austria was to address a com¬ 
munication to the Russian court, with the view 
of putting a stop to the further advance of the 
Czar’s armies upon Turkish territory. 

22.—Departure of the Guards for the war. 
At 5 o’clock this morning the Grenadiers 
marched from St. George’s Barracks, Trafalgar- 
square, to the Waterloo railway station, for 
Southampton, amid the warm greetings of 
thousands who lined the streets. At South¬ 
ampton they were joined by the Coldstreams, 
who had unexpectedly been brought down from 
Chichester. Crowds of people watched the 
dock gates, and rushed in with the soldiers ; 
nor were their hearty cheers and embraces ter¬ 
minated until the gigantic transports swung 
from their moorings and steamed down the 
river. The 28th embarked at Liverpool, and 
the 33d and 50th at Dublin, amid similar 
demonstrations. The Fusiliers left the Wel¬ 
lington Barracks on the morning of the 28th, 
the Queen and Royal family cheering them as 
they passed, from a balcony of Buckingham 
Palace. 

— Concluded in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the case of Lumley v. Gye, the plaintiff 
alleging that the defendant had wrongfully in¬ 
duced Miss Joanna Wagner to break her en¬ 
gagement with him, whereby he had lost 
divers large sums of money. Damages laid 
at 30,000/. Verdict for the defendant. 

26 . —The Irish political convict, Smith 
O’Brien, receives a free pardon, but is not 
permitted to return to the United Kingdom. 
This liberty was also conceded afterwards. 

27 . —The steamship Edinburgh , trading 
between Leith and Hamburg, runs ashore on 
Borkum Reef, at the mouth of the Texel. 
Three of her passengers and nine seamen were 
drowned while endeavouring to save themselves 
in the boats. The vessel was afterwards got 
off, and the remainder of the crew managed to 
navigate her to Hamburg. 

— Ultimatum of England to Russia. Lord 
Clarendon writes to Count Nesselrode 
“The British Government, having exhausted 
all the efforts of negotiation, is compelled 
to declare to the Cabinet of St. Peters¬ 
burg that, if Russia should decline to restrict 
within purely diplomatic limits the discussion 
in which she has for some time past been en¬ 
gaged with the Sublime Porte, and does not, 
by return of the messenger who is the bearer 
of my present letter, announce her intention of 
causing the Russian troops under the orders of 
Prince Gortschakoff to commence their march 
with a view to recross the Pruth, so that the 
provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia shall be 
completely evacuated on the 30th of April next, 

D D 




MARCH 


MARCH 


1854. 


the British Government must consider the re¬ 
fusal or the silence of the Cabinet of St. 
Petersburg as equivalent to a declaration of 
war, and will take its measures accordingly. 
The messenger who is the bearer of this letter 
to your Excellency is directed not to wait more 
than six days at St. Petersburg for your reply.” 
On the fifth day from the messenger’s arrival, 
Count Nesselrode verbally informed the Eng¬ 
lish Consul that “ his Majesty does not think 
it becoming in him to give any reply to Lord 
Clarendon’s letter.” In the course of the same 
interview, the British agent asked the Count 
what the intentions of his Government were 
with reference to the consular arrangements 
between the two countries, in the event of a 
declaration of war. Count Nesselrode replied : 
—“ That will entirely depend upon the course 
her Britannic Majesty’s Government may adopt. 
We shall not declare war.” The messenger 
(Captain Blackwood) returned to England on 
the 25th March. 

March 1.—Departure of the City of Glasgow 
steamship from Liverpool for Philadelphia. 
She had on board III cabin passengers, 293 
steerage, and a crew of 76. She was never 
heard of afterwards, nor were any fragments 
picked up which could be identified as belong¬ 
ing to her. 

— Died at London, aged 75, Charles Wil¬ 
liam Vane-Stewart, Marquis of Londonderry, 
reputed to be the most dashing officer of the 
Peninsular campaign, and much occupied in his 
later years with developing the resources of the 
estate of Seaham, on the Durham coast, which 
came to him by his wife Frances Ann Vane. 

2. —Jeremiah Smith, Mayor of Rye, sen¬ 
tenced to twelve months’ confinement in New¬ 
gate, for perjury committed before a Com¬ 
mittee of the House of Commons appointed to 
inquire into the cases of bribery alleged to 
have occurred in connection with the last elec¬ 
tion for the borough of Rye. 

— Died, aged 58, Signor Giambattista Ru- 
bini, the greatest tenor singer of his time. 

3 . —Lord John Russell announces the post¬ 
ponement of the Bill for amending the Repre¬ 
sentation of the People. 

6 .—Exportation of corn from the Baltic and 
Black Sea ports of Russia prohibited. 

— Explosion of a firework factory in 
Westminster-road, causing the death of the 
proprietor (Coton) and a young assistant. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer brings 
forward the Budget. In making the financial 
statement of the year, he said that Ministers 
had been induced to select this early day in 
order that foreign nations might be aware of 
the promptitude with which Parliament was 
prepared to find the ways and means for carry¬ 
ing on the struggle in which we are about to em¬ 
bark, and also that the House might be enabled 
fully to consider them, as war entailed the dis¬ 
agreeable consequence of increased expendi- 
(402) 


ture. But for the extraordinary circumstances 
connected with our foreign relations, a surplus 
of 1,166,000/. might have been anticipated with 
confidence; but as matters now stood, the total 
difference against the Exchequer, resulting from 
a comparison of the income and expenditure of 
1854 and those of 1853, would be 4,506,000/. 
He proposed that in the meantime a sum of 
1,250,000/. be voted for the expenses of the 
army in the East, being at a rate of 50/. a head 
for 25,000 men. 

7 .—The Reform Club entertain Admiral 
Sir Charles Napier at dinner previous to his 
departure with the Baltic fleet. Lord Palmer¬ 
ston occupied the chair, and gave the toast of 
the evening in an entertaining speech. Sir 
James Graham said that he looked upon Sir 
Charles not only as a gallant but as a discreet 
commander, and he had his entire confidence. 
“ He does not go forth under any hypocritical 
pretence of conducting a religious war, but to 
assert the independence of Europe, to maintain 
the balance of power, and to resist as lawless a 
spirit of aggression and of reckless aggrandise¬ 
ment as ever disgraced any country. My gal¬ 
lant friend says when he goes into the Baltic 
he will declare war. I, as First Lord of the 
Admiralty, give him my free consent to do so. 

I hope that the war may be short, and that it 
may be sharp.” 

8-—Commercial treaty concluded between 
the United States and Japan. 


11 -—The Baltic fleet leaves Spithead under 
Admbal Sir Charles Napier, having been 
visited on the previous day by her Majesty. 
The fleet arrived in Wingo Sound on the 15th, 
and passed through the Great Belt on the 25 th. 

13 .—The Earl of Derby draws the attention 
of the House of Lords to a document published 
in the St. Petersburg Journal , purporting to be 
an official answer from the Emperor of "Russia 
to a speech made by Lord John Russell in the 
House of Commons. The Times had com¬ 
mented on this article in a manner which 
induced Lord Aberdeen to say that informa¬ 
tion had been obtained by a breach of confi¬ 
dence on the part of some person in the 
Foreign Office. This charge was afterwards 
withdrawn. As the defence set up by the 
Emperor rested upon the communications made 
to the British Cabinet through Sir Hamilton 
Seymour, the Government now consented to 
submit their “secret and confidential” de¬ 
spatches to the House. (See Jan. 9, 1853.) 

— Mr. Justice Talfourd dies in the Assize 
Court, Stafford, in the act of charging the grand 
jury. While urging the necessity of increased 
sympathy between the different classes of society, 
the learned judge suddenly fell forward with 
his face upon his book, and then swayed on 
one side towards his senior clerk and younger 
son, who caught him in their arms, and carried 
him out, still wearing his scarlet robes. Life 
was extinct within five minutes. Mr. Justice 
YV ightman, who was then sitting on the civil 







MARCH 


MARCH 


1854 - 


side, made intimation of the event in his court, 
and at once suspended business. 

13 . —Acrimonious discussion in the House 
of Commons regarding statements made by 
Ministers at the Napier banquet. Mr. Bright 
said he had read the proceedings with pain and 
humiliation; the reckless levity displayed being 
in his opinion discreditable to the grave and 
responsible statesmen of a civilized and Christian 
nation.—On rising to reply, Lord Palmerston 
said, “Sir, the honourable and reverend gentle¬ 
man,”—when Mr. Cobden started up to call 
the attention of the Speaker to the phrase as 
flippant, undeserved, and not justified by the 
rules of the House.—Lord Palmerston: “1 
will not quarrel about words (a laugh), but as 
the hon. gentleman has been pleased to advert 
to the circumstance of my being chairman at 
the dinner to which allusion has been made, 
and as he has been kind enough to express an 
opinion as to my conduct on that occasion, I 
deem it right to inform the hon. gentleman 
that any opinion he may entertain either of 
me personally, or of my conduct, private or 
political, is to me a matter of the most perfect 
indifference. (Cheers and laughter.) I am 
further convinced that the opinion of this 
country with regard to me and to my conduct 
will in no way whatever be influenced by any¬ 
thing that the hon. gentleman may say. I 
therefore treat the censure of the hon. gentle¬ 
man with the most perfect indifference and 
contempt. (Some cries of ‘Order!’) Is that 
parliamentary or not ? (Laughter.) If it is not, 
I do not insist upon the expression. (Cheers 
and laughter.)” 

— The names of Sir John Franklin, his 
officers, and crew, removed from the Navy List, 
as the Admiralty now concluded there was no 
reasonable ground for believing any of them to 
be living. 

16 . —Mr. F. Peel intimates that, after a full 
inquiry into the allegations made against Mr. 
Stonor, the Duke of Newcastle had thought it 
right not to confirm his appointment to the 
judgeship of Melbourne. 

17 . —Lord John Russell introduces the 
promised ministerial measure to make further 
provision for the good government and exten¬ 
sion of the University of Oxford and colleges 
therein. The bill, amended in various clauses, 
passed both Houses during the session. 

21 . —The Earl of Ellenborough draws the 
attention of the House of Lords to the frauds 
committed in the contract for hay furnished to 
the vessels conveying cavalry to the East. Hay 
paid for at the rate of 7/. ioj. per ton, packed 
in trusses, had been found stuffed with shavings 
and other refuse matter. The Duke of New¬ 
castle admitted the correctness of the report, 
and undertook to see that the law was brought 
to bear upon the authors of the fraud. 

22. —This afternoon the avenues of West- 
minster-hall and of the Peers’ entrance to the 
House of Lords were occupied by a large as¬ 

( 403 ) 


semblage of persons anxious to see her Ma¬ 
jesty’s Ministers come down to Parliament with 
the declaration of war against Russia. The 
Lord Chancellor took his seat upon the wool¬ 
sack a few minutes before five o’clock, at 
which hour the ladies’ gallery on either side of 
the throne was filled with peeresses. The space 
below the bar was crowded with members of 
the House of Commons and others having the 
privilege of entrSe. There was a large attend¬ 
ance of peers both on the Ministerial and 
Opposition benches. After the presentation of 
petitions, the Earl of Aberdeen (whose rising 
was followed by a loud cry of “ Order, order! ”) 
advanced to the table and said, “A Message 
from the Queen, my Lords.” The noble earl 
having handed her Majesty’s Message to the 
clerk-assistant, Mr. Lefevre, it was by him 
taken to the Lord Chancellor. The Lord 
Chancellor, rising, then read the Message, amid 
breathless silence, informkig the House that 
the negotiations with the Emperor of Russia 
had terminated, and that her Majesty felt 
bound “to afford active assistance to her ally 
the Sultan against unprovoked aggression.” 
An address in answer, after a long debate, 
was agreed to on the 31st, Lord Aberdeen de¬ 
claring that even now, when compelled to 
make war, he should carry it on with the 
utmost vigour only for the sake of securing 
a speedy peace, and, like the purest patriot 
of our Civil War, who, when buckling on his 
armour, murmured “ Peace, peace ! ” a prayer 
for a return of peace would ever be uppermost 
in his mind. 

24 . —Prince Gortschakoff crosses the Danube 
to occupy the Dobrudja. 

— Collision in the Channel, about nineteen 
miles off the Start, between the American ship 
Ann Kemble and the barque Bonetta, of Liver¬ 
pool. Of a crew of fourteen on board the latter, 
only the captain, mate, and second mate were 
saved. 

26 .— The Duke of Parma assassinated in the 
streets of Turin. The Duchess assumed the 
regency, and Baron Ward was ordered to leave 
the country. 

23 .—Declaration of the causes of war pub¬ 
lished in the London Gazette :—“It is with 
deep regret that her Majesty announces the 
failure of her anxious and protracted endea¬ 
vours to preserve for her people and for Europe 
the blessings of peace. The unprovoked ag¬ 
gression of the Emperor of Russia against the 
Sublime Porte has been persisted in with such 
disregard of consequences, that, after the rejec¬ 
tion by the Emperor of Russia of terms which 
the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of the 
French, and the King of Prussia, as well as her 
Majesty, considered just and equitable, her 
Majesty is compelled, by a sense of what is due 
to the honour of her crown, to the interests of 
her people, and to the independence of the 
states of Europe, to come forward in defence 
of an ally whose territory is invaded, and whose 
dignity and independence are assailed.” Her 

D D 2 




MARCH 


1854. 


APRIL 


Majesty, in justification of the course she is 
about to pursue, refers to the transactions in 
which she has been engaged. “ The Emperor of 
Russia had some cause of complaint against 
the Sultan with reference to the settlement 
which his Highness had sanctioned, of the con¬ 
flicting claims of the Greek and Latin Churches 
to a portion of the Holy Places of Jerusalem 
and its neighbourhood. To the complaint of 
the Emperor of Russia on this head justice 
was done ; and her Majesty’s Ambassador at 
Constantinople had the satisfaction of promo¬ 
ting an arrangement to which no exception was 
taken by the Russian Government. But while 
the Russian Government repeatedly assured the 
Queen’s Government that the mission of Prince 
Menschikoff to Constantinople was exclusively 
directed to the settlement of the question of the 
Holy Places at Jerusalem, Prince Menschikoff 
himself pressed upon the Porte other demands 
of a far more serious and important character, 
the nature of which he in the first instance 
endeavoured, as far as possible, to conceal from 
her Majesty’s Ambassador: And these de¬ 
mands, thus studiously concealed, affected not 
the privileges of the Greek Church at Jeru¬ 
salem, but the position of many millions of 
Turkish subjects in their relations to their 
Sovereign the Sultan. These demands were 
rejected by the spontaneous decision of the 
Sublime Porte. Two assurances had been given 
to her Majesty: one, that the mission of P ' ; nce 
Menschikoff only regarded the Holy Places ; 
the other, that his mission would be of a con¬ 
ciliatory character. In both respects her 
just expectations were disappointed. . . . Her 
Majesty, in conjunction with the sovereigns 
of Austria, France, and Prussia, has made 
various attempts to meet any just demands 
of the Emperor of Russia without affecting the 
dignity and independence of the Sultan; and 
had it been the sole object of Russia to obtain 
security for the enjoyment by the Christian 
subjects of the Porte of their privileges and 
immunities, she would have found it in the 
offers that have been made by the Sultan. 
But as that security was not offered in the 
shape of a special and separate stipulation with 
Russia, it was rejected. Twice has this offer 
been made by the Sultan, and recommended 
by the four Powers : once by a note originally 
prepared at Vienna, and subsequently modified 
by the Porte; once by the proposal of bases of 
negotiation agreed upon at Constantinople on 
the 31st of December, and approved at Vienna 
on the 13th January, as offering to the two 
parties the means of arriving at an understand¬ 
ing in a becoming and honourable manner. It 
is thus manifest that a right for Russia to inter¬ 
fere in the ordinary relations of Turkish subjects 
to their sovereign, and not the happiness of 
Christian communities in Turkey, was the 
object sought for by the Russian Government: 
to such a demand the Sultan would not submit, 
and his Highness, in self-defence, declared war 
upon Russia; but her Majesty, nevertheless, in 
conjunction with her allies, has not ceased her 
(404) 


endeavours to restore peace between the con¬ 
tending parties. The time has, however, now 
arrived when the advice and remonstrances of 
the four Powers have proved wholly ineffec¬ 
tual, and the military preparations of Russia 
becoming daily more extended, it is but too 
obvious that the Emperor of Russia has entered 
upon a course of policy which, if unchecked, 
must lead to the destruction of the Ottoman 
Empire. In this conjuncture her Majesty feels 
called upon, by regard for an ally, the integrity 
and independence of whose empire have been 
recognised as essential to the peace of Europe, 
by the sympathies of her people with right 
against wrong, by a desire to avert from her 
dominions most injurious consequences, and to 
save Europe from the preponderance of a 
Power which has violated the faith of treaties, 
and defies the opinion of the civilized world, 
to take up arms in conjunction with the 
Emperor of the French, for the defence of the 
Sultan. Her Majesty is persuaded that in so 
acting she will have the cordial support of her 
people ; and that the pretext of zeal for the 
Christian religion will be used in vain to cover 
an aggression undertaken in disregard of its holy 
precepts, and of its true and beneficent spirit. 
Her Majesty humbly trusts that her efforts may 
be successful, and that by the blessing of Provi¬ 
dence peace may be re-established on safe and 
solid foundations.” 

31 .— According to an ancient custom, the 
Sergeant-a t-arms, accompanied by other officials 
of the City, read her Majesty’s declaration of 
war from the steps of the Royal Exchange. 

— Debate in both Houses on the Message 
conveying her Majesty’s declaration of war. 

— Hungerford Hall, Strand, London, one 
of the speculative structures of the Exhibition 
year, destroyed by a fire which broke out at 
half-past seven o’clock in the evening. 

During this month the war intelligence caused 
Consols to fluctuate from 91 § to 854. 

April 1 .—Commenced at Kingston Assizes, 
before Mr. Baron Parke and a special jury, an 
issue sent down from the Court of Chancery re¬ 
specting the validity of a will made by the late 
Duchess of Manchester, in October 1848. The 
bill was filed by Lady Olivia Sparrow, the 
mother of the late Duchess, and the question for 
the jury to decide was the validity of the docu¬ 
ment. Lady Olivia impeached it on the alle¬ 
gation that the Duchess was not in a state of 
mind to enable her to execute such an instru¬ 
ment, and that her husband had exercised aq 
undue influence over her. After a trial extend 
ing over four days, the jury returned a verdict 
for the plaintiff, thus establishing the validity 
of the will. y 

3 .— At half-past two o’clock this afternoon 
members of both Houses of Parliament pro¬ 
ceeded in procession to Buckingham Palace, to 
present the Address to the Queen in answer to 
her Majesty’s Message relating to the declara- 






APRIL 


APRIL 


1854 * 


tion of war against Russia. When the House 
reassembled at half-past five, the Speaker read 
the Royal answer to the Address. 

3 . —Died at Edinburgh,aged 68, JohnWilson, 
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University 
of Edinburgh, but still more widely known from 
his writings in Blackwood’s Magazine, under the 
notn deplume of “ Christopher North.” 

4..— The Treasury order the seizure of two 
steam-frigates building at Northfleet for the 
Emperor of Russia as “ the property of an 
enemy. ” They were added to her Majesty’s navy 
under the names of the Cossack and Tartar *. 

6.—On the Baltic fleet returning to its 
anchorage at Kioge Bay, Admiral Napier 
signalled the following address to the fleet :— 
“ Lads ! war is declared. We are to meet a 
bold and numerous enemy. Should they offer 
us battle, you know how to dispose of them. 
Should they remain in port, we must try to get 
at them. Success depends upon the quickness 
and precision of your fire. Lads, sharpen your 
cutlasses, and the day is your own.” An address 
similar in spirit was signalled through the fleet on 
the arrival of the war despatches on the 14th; the 
rigging was instantly manned, and three cheers 
given for the Queen and “ the old Commodore.” 

8.—Opening of the main line of the great 
Indian Canal, designed by Sir Proby Cautley, 
for irrigating the country between the Ganges 
and the Sumna. The entire scheme when 
completed would be 900 miles in length, and 
irrigate 1,476,000 acres. 

10 .—Three men executed at Monaghan for 
the murder of Thomas Bateson in 1851. The 
scene near the scaffold was striking and unusual. 
After partaking of a good breakfast, they walked 
together for some time in the prison yard, two 
of them smoking, and all exhilarated. When 
pitied, Coomey replied he never felt so happy; 
he was sure of meeting his Saviour ! Quin 
said he would not accept a reprieve if it came. 
The sub-sheriff said he was sorry to see men in 
their position. “ Sorry! ” said one of them in 
a tone of surprise ; “ why, it is glad you should 
be, Sir.” He then asked them if they had any 
statement to make to him in relation to the 
offence for which they were to die. “No, 
said Coomey, “our Saviour said nothing when 
He was executed ! ” Quin and Grant were first 
taken to the scaffold. Quin said, “ Hell cannot 
how scare us ; ” and, addressing the hangman, 
“he’s doing the best job ever done for us.” 
At their request the priests blessed them ; 
and one said, “ Remember the thief on the 
cross ; in one moment you’ll be in heaven : ” 
upon which Quin exclaimed, “Mary, Mother 
of God! receive us; prepare heaven for us.” 
Grant said nothing. When they were hanged, 
the crowd shrieked and yelled. Coomey came 
next. “I am quite content; I am going to 
my God,” said he. When the rope was ad¬ 
justed, he meekly asked, “May I now go, 
gentlemen?” The drop fell, and the culprit 


died without a struggle, amid the frantic shouts 
and cries of the multitude below. 

10. —Treaty of alliance signed between 
England and France. The high contracting 
parties engaged to do what lay in their power 
for the re-establishment of a peace which should 
secure Europe against the return of the exist¬ 
ing troubles; and, in order to set free the 
Sultan’s dominions, they promised to use all 
the land and sea forces required for the purpose. 
They engaged to receive no overture tending 
to the cessation of hostilities, and to enter into 
no engagement with the Russian Court, with¬ 
out having deliberated in common. They re¬ 
nounced all aim at separate advantage, and 
declared their readiness to receive into their 
alliance any of the other Powers of Europe. 

— Lord Raglan, Commander-in-chief of the 
British expedition, and the Duke of Cambridge, 
leave London for the East. 

— Lord John Russell announces the with¬ 
drawal of the Government Reform Measure. 
Towards the close of his speech his lordship’s 
feelings were overcome, and as he used the 
woi*d “suspicion,” in reference to his motives, 
his utterance was choked, and the sentences he 
struggled to pronounce were evidently given 
through tears. As soon as this was perceived, 
loud and cordial cheers broke out in every part 
of the House, and were repeated again and 
again. “ If I have done anything,” he con¬ 
tinued, “ in the cause of Reform, I trust that I 
have deserved some degree of confidence ; but, 
at all events, I feel if I do not possess that 
confidence, I shall be of no use to the Crown 
or to the country, and I can no longer hold the 
position I now occupy. (Loud cheers.) These, 
Sir, are times of no ordinary importance, and 
questions arise of the utmost difficulty. I shall 
endeavour to arrive at those conclusions which 
will be for the best interests of the Crown and 
of the country, and I trust that I may meet with 
support.”—Mr. Disraeli commented with some 
severity on the details of the measure now 
withdrawn, but avowed the most heartfelt 
respect for Lord John Russell personally, whose 
character and career he described as ‘ ‘ precious 
possessions of the House of Commons.” 

— Baily’s colossal marble statue of the late 
George Stephenson uncovered in the great hall 
of the Euston-square terminus. The memorial 
originated with the Society of Mechanical 
Engineers, of which Mr. Stephenson was the 
founder, and was erected chiefly by subscrip¬ 
tions from working men and private friends. 

11 . —Orders in Council issued defining the 
condition and limits within which arms and 
ammunition might be exported. Another, on 
the 15th, set forth the rights of neutrals and 
friendly flags. 

12 . —Commenced in the High Court of 
Justiciary the trial of William Smith, surgeon, 
for the murder of William M‘Donald, farm- 
servant at Burnside, parish of St. Fergus, 
Aberdeenshire, on the 19th November lavt. 

(4GS) 








APRIL 


1854. 


APRIL 


lie was found shot in the prisoner’s field, with 
a pistol lying beside him, and suspicion at once 
fastened on the prisoner—a suspicion partly 
based on the nature of the wound, but more 
particularly from the circumstance that Smith 
had effected three insurances upon M ‘Donald’s 
life, one of them for 999/. 19J. expiring five 
days after the murder. In the policies of all 
these insurances it was a condition that they 
should not be vitiated in the event of suicide. 
In summing up on the third day of trial, the 
Lord Justice Clerk said he did not think there 
was sufficient evidence to infer the guilt of the 
prisoner, or even to establish the fact that a 
murder was committed. The jury, by a 
majority, returned a verdict of “Not Proven.” 

13 .—Moses Moses, a general dealer in Houns- 
ditch, examined at the Mansion House on a 
charge of receiving stolen goods. The police 
were induced to search his premises in con¬ 
nection with a recent theft of wool, and dis¬ 
covered vast quantities of goods, the produce 
of various burglaries and robberies. A wagon 
could hardly contain the pile of furs and silver 
plate, while the value was estimated at little 
short of 10,000/. Moses was tried at the Cen¬ 
tral Criminal Court and sentenced to fourteen 
years’ transportation. 

15 . —The American emigrant ship Pow- 
hattan , from Havre, wrecked on the United 
States coast, and 250 of those on board 
drowned. 

16 . —The City of San Salvador destroyed 
by an earthquake. 

17 . —At the Lord Mayor’s Easter banquet 
Sir Hamilton Seymour, late British Minister 
at St. Petersburg, enters into a lengthened 
explanation of the delusive character of Rus¬ 
sian diplomacy, and the disastrous results 
likely to attend its relations with foreign coun¬ 
tries. “He was satisfied,” he said, “that if 
any friend of the Emperor Nicholas had been 
courageous enough to explain to him the 
real feeling of other nations as to his inter¬ 
ference in Turkish affairs, his Majesty would 
never have followed his present unfortunate 
course.” 

18 . —An Urquhart meeting on the war 
question being summoned at Manchester, Mr. 
Bright writes : “I believe the war to be alto¬ 
gether unnecessary, and that nothing can be said 
either for its justice or its expediency. I believe, 
further, that after having permitted the country, 
by a series of blunders, to drift into war, the 
Ministers who have chiefly spoken on the sub¬ 
ject, with the exception of Lord Aberdeen, 
have misrepresented the facts of the case, or 
have thereby misled public opinion. With 
regard to the professed objects of the war, I 
believe them to be impossible of attainment; 
and that Russia, in her wildest dreams of am¬ 
bition, never imagined so many calamities to 
Turkey as have been brought upon that devoted 
country in a single year by the friendship which 
our Government has professed towards her.” 

(406) 


21 . —Her Majesty’s revenue steam-cruiser, 
Argus , tows the first prize of war into Ports¬ 
mouth harbour, the vessel being the Froya 
(440 tons), bound with salt for Abo, and cap¬ 
tured off Beachy Head. 

— The Lords of the Treasury give notice 
that tenders will be received at the Bank of 
England daily for an immediate loan of 
6,000,000/. upon Exchequer Bonds in three 
sets, redeemable in May 1858, 1859, and i860. 

22. —The first gun of the allied fleet fired 
against the Russians at Odessa, in revenge for 
an outrage committed upon a flag of truce. 
The fortifications were subjected to a fire which 
lasted ten hours, and did not cease until most 
of the batteries were silenced or destroyed. 

— The Turks defeat the insurgent Greeks 
at Damoko. 

23 . —The Emperor of Russia issues another 
war manifesto. 

24 -. —Collision off the coast of Genoa be¬ 
tween the Silicia and the Ercolano , the latter 
a passenger steamboat, with several English 
families on board. The casualty occurred after 
nightfall, and appeared to have been occa¬ 
sioned by the want of watchmen on board 
the Ercolano . She was cut to the water’s 
edge, and began at once to settle down in deep 
water. A few of the passengers and crew were 
saved by the boats of the Silicia , and some 
others, among whom was Sir Robert Peel, 
managed to swim or float ashore on pieces of 
the wreck, but by far the greater number on 
board went down with the vessel. Mr. Halsey, 
M.P. for Hertfordshire, his wife, son, and 
two domestics, were among those drowned. 

— Marriage of the Emperor of Austria with 
the Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria. 

26 . —General fast to implore the Divine 
blessing on our arms and that peace may be 
early restored. Dean Milman and the Bishop 
of London officiated in St. Paul’s. 

— Died at Bonaly, Edinburgh, aged 75, 
Henry Cockburn, Senator of the College of 
Justice, and biographer of his friend Lord 
Jeffrey. 

— Died in London, aged 72, Professor 
Gabrielle Rossetti, commentator on Dante. 

28 .— Another collision in the Channel, 
between the American ship Hesper and the 
emigrant ship Favourite , with 191 passengers 
on board, besides crew. When the ships 
parted from each other, the emigrants could 
be seen rushing about the deck of the sinking 
vessel in frantic confusion; but the heavy sea 
and wind prevented the Hesper from render¬ 
ing any prompt aid, and the whole of the un¬ 
fortunate people on board went down with the 
Favourite. 

— In answer to inquiries in the House of 
Commons, Sir James Graham states that since 
9th February last Government had despatched 
to the East 830 officers, 21,119 ipen, 2,259 





APRIL 


1854. 


MAY 


horses, 2,800 tons of provisions and commis¬ 
sariat stores, and 3,000 tons of ordnance stores. 
Up to this time 92 transports had been engaged 
in the service. 

28 . —-The Government of the United States 
announces its neutrality in the Eastern ques¬ 
tion. 

29 . —A fire broke out in Brossette’s beer- 
shop, Whitechapel, attended with serious loss 
of life. Wood, director of the fire-escape, found 
the family on the first floor, almost suffocated 
by the smoke. Holding one child by its 
clothes in his teeth, and another with the 
mother under each arm, he brought them down 
the ladder; on a second attempt he rescued 
the landlord himself; but on trying a third 
time the fire ignited the ladder, and imme¬ 
diately afterwards the whole upper part of the 
premises gave way, killing two of the firemen 
and burying eight inmates in the smoking ruins. 
The bodies were found next morning. 

— Died at London, aged 85, Field-Marshal 
the Marquis of Anglesey, wounded at Waterloo 
when charging with the First Life Guards. He 
was Master-General of the Ordnance from 1846 
to 1852. 

30 . —Died at Sheffield, aged 82, James 
Montgomery, poet. 

May 1. —Sir J. Graham advises Sir C. 
Napier, in the first instance, to feel his way, 
and to make good his hold in the Gulf of Fin¬ 
land. “ When I say this, I by no means con¬ 
template an attack either on Sweaborg or on 
Cronstadt. I have a great respect for stone 
walls, and have no fancy for running even 
screw line-of-battle ships against them. Be¬ 
cause the public here may be impatient, you 
must not be rash ; because they, at a distance 
from danger, are foolhardy, you must not risk 
the loss of a fleet in an impossible enterprise.” 
Sir James adds, that he believes “ both Swea¬ 
borg and Cronstadt to be all but impregnable 
from the sea—Sweaborg more especially ; and 
none but a very large army could co-operate 
by land efficiently, in the presence of such a 
force as Russia could readily concentrate for 
the immediate defence of the approaches to 
her capital.” He advises the Admiral, then, 
if he has none but naval means at his com¬ 
mand, to pause long, and consider well, 
before he attempts any attack on the Russian 
squadrons in their strongholds, being afraid 
that they were much too cautious to come out 
and meet him. “ Had you been weaker,” Sir 
Tames observes, “they might have done so. 
Now they will wait and watch an opportunity, 
in the hope that you will seriously cripple your 
force, by knocking your head against their 
forts, when they may take you at a serious 
disadvantage, and inflict a fatal blow. These 
considerations must not be overlooked by you ; 
I recall them to your mind, lest, in the eager 
desire to achieve a great exploit, and to satisfy 
the wild wishes of an impatient multitude, you 


should yield to some rash impulse, and fail in 
the discharge of one of the noblest duties, 
which is the moral courage to do what you 
know to be right, at the risk of being accused 
of having done wrong. You will reflect on it, 
and I am certain that your judgment will not 
err.” (See Oct. 17.) 

1. —The committee conducting the Preston 
strike announce that the employers had “ suc¬ 
ceeded in their unholy undertaking ” of resist¬ 
ing the rise of 10 per cent. This was the 37th 
week of the struggle, and it was calculated 
that as much as 500,000/. was lost in carrying 
it on. 

2 . —Three masons killed by lightning while 
working at the church of Mount St. Mary, 
Richmond-hill, Leeds. 

— Wreck of the Liverpool emigrant ship 
Winchester. She left Liverpool on the 9th 
with 447 people on board. On the 17th she 
lost her masts, and afterwards drifted about 
for sixteen days, making water fast. She was 
then in the track of vessels, and the crew of 
the steamship Washington greatly exerted 
themselves to save as many as possible of the 
passengers. Many died from injuries received 
by the rolling of the vessel, and numbers were 
swept overboard in the storm. A few minutes 
after the Washington had completed her humane 
work, the Winchester foundered, carrying with 
her the corpses of 25 passengers who had died 
on board. 

— Mr. Bowyer’s Criminal Conversation Bill, 
abolishing damages to be paid to the husband in 
actions for criminal conversation, and substitu¬ 
ting in lieu a fine to be paid to the Crown by 
way of punishment, thrown out on a division 
by 121 to 49. 

5.—Serious rioting, accompanied by murdei 
and robbery, takes place among the Chinese 
settlers at Singapore. 

8 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a 
speech of thi'ee hours and a half duration, sub¬ 
mits a supplementary financial statement show¬ 
ing a total extra expenditure to be provided 
for of 6,850,000/. The Income-tax to be 
doubled till the end of the year ; is. per gallon 
added to Scotch and 8 d. to Irish whisky. A 
readjustment of the sugar-duties it was 
calculated would produce 700,000/., and an 
increase of the Malt-tax from 2s. 9 d. to 4-r., 
2,450,000/. The gross nett augmentation of 
the public burdens in consequence of the war 
was calculated at present to amount to 
8,683,000/. 

9. —In a Committee of Ways and Means, 
Mr. Ball’s motion to omit the word “ malt ” in 
the resolution increasing the duties on certain 
articles was negatived by 224 to 143 votes. It 
was afterwards agreed that the increased Malt- 
tax should be continued during the war. 

— Lord Campbell’s Unauthorized Negotia¬ 
tion Bill read a second time in the House of 
Lords. 

(do?) 




MAY 




1854. MAY 


9 . —In connection with the Metropolitan 
Churches Fund, the Bishop of London states 
to-day that, since its organization in 1836, 
seventy-eight churches had been erected, in¬ 
volving a gross expenditure of 530,000/. 

10. —The Lady Nugent , transport-ship, sails 
from Madras for Rangoon, with 350 rank and 
file of the 25th Madras Light Infantry, twenty 
women and children, the staff officers, and a 
crew of thirty seamen. She was never after¬ 
wards heard of, nor any portion of her wreck 
identified. It was generally thought she went 
down with all hands on board during a severe 
gale which swept across her path about fourteen 
days after leaving Madras. 

— The bicentenary of the Sons of the Clergy 
celebrated by a festival in St. Paul’s Cathe¬ 
dral and a banquet in Merchant Taylors’ 
Hall. 

— The Commissioners appointed to inquire 
into the state of the Corporation of London 
issue a report, treating at length of the various 
privileges and grievances which had been 
brought under their notice in connection with 
the affairs of the City and Thames Conservancy. 
They declined to recommend a municipality 
for the whole of London, on the ground that 
it would convert an area of 723 acres into an 
area of 78,029 acres, a population of 129,128 
into a population of 2,362,236, and an assess¬ 
ment of 953,110/. into an assessment of 
9,964,348/. “ A change of this magnitude 

would not only alter the whole character of the 
City Corporation, but it would, as it seems to 
us, defeat the main purpose of municipal 
institutions.” Among the improvements sug¬ 
gested was the creation of a Metropolitan 
Board of Works, composed of members 
deputed from each of the new Metropolitan 
municipal bodies, including the Common 
Council of the City. It was also recommended 
that the City police be incorporated with the 
Metropolitan. 

12 . —Her Majesty’s steam-frigate Tiger , run¬ 
ning ashore off Odessa, is fired upon and 
destroyed by the Russians. Her crew, many 
of them severely wounded, were taken prisoners 
into the city, and kindly treated. 

— Bal costume given by the French Am¬ 
bassador in London, attended by her Majesty 
and Prince Albert. Among the magnificent 
decorations were various emblems illustrative 
of the alliance between France and England. 

15 . —Royal Message read in both Houses, 
communicating the intention of her Majesty 
to call out a portion of the Militia force to be 
trained, disposed, and posted as occasion might 
require. 

16 . —Mr. Milner Gibson’s resolution con¬ 
cerning the unsatisfactory state of the law 
affecting the periodical press, and pledging 
Parliament to an early consideration of the 
same, carried without a division. 

19 .—The Arrogant and Hecla bombard the 

(408) 


little fort of Eckness on the coast of Finland, 
and capture a merchant vessel. 

22 . —Bombardment of Gustafsvaern by Sir 
Charles Napier, the first act of hostility by the 
Baltic fleet. 

23 . —The secret treaty between Austria and 
Prussia communicated to the Conference sitting 
at Vienna. 

24 . —The German Diet express their con¬ 
currence in the Austro-Prussian treaty, and a 
determination to keep the confederated estates 
faithfully united to each other. 

25 . —In consequence of the entry of an 
Anglo-French fleet into the Piraeus, the King 
issues a proclamation, announcing that Greece 
will maintain a strict neutrality in the war with 
Russia. 

— Lord John Russell’s Oaths Bill thrown 
out by the Commons, on the proposal for a 
second reading, by 251 to 247. 

29 .—Lord John Russell intimates that 
6,000 men had been sent from France to 
occupy the Piraeus along with a regiment from 
this country, on account of the Greek Govern¬ 
ment conniving at insurrection in the adjoining 
Turkish provinces. They were determined 
that Greece should not be either secretly 
or openly the ally of Russia in the present 
war. 

— On the withdrawal of the Canterbury 
Bribery Prevention Bill, a debate took place in 
which Mr. Disraeli assailed the Government, 
and Lord John Russell in particular, on the 
ground of the repeated defeats they had ex¬ 
perienced, and the humiliating spectacle pre¬ 
sented by a Ministry compelled to withdraw so 
many important measures. Lord John Russell 
in reply defended the measures brought for¬ 
ward by Government, showed how many of 
importance had been passed, and charged Mr. 
Disraeli with acting for or against the Oaths 
Bill, according to the political conveniences of 
the hour. Later in the evening, Mr. Disraeli 
returned to the charge, denying emphatically 
that he had ever absented himself from a 
division when measures designed for the relief 
of the Jews were under discussion. From the 
first series of papers presented to the House on 
the subject of the war, he had been led to 
charge the Government with credulity or con¬ 
nivance. The secret despatches showed it to 
be connivance and credulity. Mr. Disraeli 
also charged Lord John Russell with offering a 
factious opposition to Lord Derby’s Ministry, 
while he was now engaged in carrying out the 
very measures they had planned, with the aid 
of colleagues to whom he had all his life been 
opposed. ‘ ‘ Look, ” he said, “ at the distinguished 
and gifted beings before me ; what have they 
done at all equal to the establishment of the 
Militia on the voluntary principle or the reform 
of the Court of Chancery? Then there was 
another enlightened £fhd liberal proposition. 




MAY 


JUNE 


lS$4. 


which laid down the principle since adopted 
by Lord John in his Reform Bill, that 
the forfeited seats should be given to great 
counties ; and they proposed to give them to 
the West Riding and to Lancashire. (Hear, 
hear ! Oh, oh ! and laughter.) How was that 
opposed? By the sanctimonious eloquence of 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who said 
that a Government upon sufferance could not 
be permitted to bring forward a measure of 
Parliamentary Reform. I suppose the vision 
of a perfect Reform Government passed before 
the prescient and prophetic glance of the right 
honourable gentleman. Yet what have you 
got in the way of Parliamentary Reform from 
the Government of All the Talents? When 
we brought forward financial measures and 
failed, we did that which it was our part to 
do—at least when I have the misfortune to 
propose measures and fail; for I will never be 
a Minister upon sufferance.” Lord John 
Russell had denounced the proposal for a gradu¬ 
ated Income-tax, and then joined a Govern¬ 
ment which carried a graduated Income- 
tax. “ He parted from the colleagues 
who had all his life been faithful to him, 
to take into his bosom those ancient foes 
who had passed their lives in depreciating his 
talent, and in decrying his eminent ability ; ” 
he “ broke up the very being of a great historic 
party, the confidence of which ought not to 
have been less precious to him than the favour 
of his Sovereign ; and he did this to carry 
great measures,—the great measure of educa¬ 
tion, for example, which evaporated while he 
was expounding it to the House. What 
relations now subsist between him and the 
Government ? Defeated on all these great 
measures, Lord John still retains his place. 
The most eminent statesman of this country 
—one of the oldest and most experienced 
members of this House—one who has been 
thrice Secretary of State, and who was Prime 
Minister for a long time—one who is associated 
with the memory of a great principle, believed 
in by large bodies of the people of this 
country, and who was the leader of a noble 
historic party—without a department, con¬ 
descends to accept subordinate office, under 
one who is not only a Minister not entitled to 
-the confidence of the country, but who was his 
ancient and inveterate political opponent, and 
whom only four years ago he rose and de¬ 
nounced in this House—he talks of ‘ conniv¬ 
ance ’ now—as a ‘ conniver ’ with foreign con¬ 
spirators.”—Lord John Russell replied with 
great animation, explaining the reasons which 
had induced him to accept office under Lord 
Aberdeen, and the confidence he had in the 
wisdom of the colleagues with whom he was 
acting. “ I think,” he said, “we are engaged 
at present in a most difficult task, apart from 
any measures of reform of Parliament, of oaths, 
or of corrupt purposes/ Should I be of opi¬ 
nion that the conduct of the war is not safe in 
the hands of the present Government—that 
that Government is not carrying on the war 


with the vigour which makes war successful, 
and with a view to a peace which alone could 
be safe and honourable—from that moment I 
should cease to be a member of it. (Loud 
cheers.) But, Sir, considering that that is the 
great and pressing question of the country, no 
taunts of the right honourable gentleman would 
make me leave the Government with which 
I am connected—a position, God knows, of 
more labour and anxiety than of any pleasure, 
profit, or emolument. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) 
1 repeat that, unless I were convinced that the 
present Government was more likely than any 
Government which could be formed to carry 
on the war successfully, and to conclude it by 
an honourable peace, I should cease to be one 
of its members ; but so long* as I have that 
opinion, I shall trust to the House and to 
the country for putting a fair interpretation upon 
my conduct. (Loud cheers.) I rely upon that 
justice which hardly ever fails to construe 
rightly the actions of public men. (Loud 
and continued cheering.) ” 

30 . —Kansas admitted as a territory of the 
United States. 

31 . —Destruction of the Europa troop-ship 
by fire while on her voyage to the East. 
Lieut.-Col. Moore, veterinary-surgeon Kelly, 
four sergeants, twelve rank and file, and one 
woman perished on the occasion, with the 
whole of the horses, baggage, and equipment 
of the troops on board. Lieut.-Col. Moore 
remained on board the burning vessel to the 
last, making the best arrangements in his 
power for removing the men ; he was stated to 
have been at last driven into the mizen chains 
by the violence of the flames and to have 
perished there. The surviving officers and men 
were saved in the boat, and picked up by three 
different vessels, whence they were removed to 
her Majesty’s ship Tribune , which met them 
at sea. The origin of the fire was never dis¬ 
covered. 

— Owing, it was believed, to his refusal to 
concur in the dilatory policy of Prussia on the 
Eastern question, Chevalier Bunsen is recalled 
as Envoy Extraordinary, and takes leave to-day, 
at a Court held at Buckingham Palace. 

June 3 .—The Sachem Indians assembled 
at their Council Fire to address her Majesty on 
the war:—“We, the Chiefs and Sachems of 
the six nations of Indians residing on the 
Grand River, in Canada West, being assembled 
at our Council Fire General, take this 
opportunity of assuring your Majesty of our 
unalterable attachment to your Majesty. Great 
Mother, we have heard that your Majesty is 
now at war with a powerful nation, and that 
your warriors, with those of the French, as 
your allies, have gone on the war-path. We 
are happy to hear of this alliance, and we feel 
that our Great Mother’s cause must be just. 
Great Mother, your children of the six nations 
have always been faithful and active allies of 
the Crown, and the ancestors of your red 

( 409 ) 





JUNE 


JUNE 


1354 - 


children never failed to assist in the battles of 
your illustrious ancestors. Great Mother, we 
now renew the offer of our services against any 
external or internal enemy that may dare to 
attack this portion of your dominions, and we 
pray the Great Spirit to bless your warriors 
and those of your allies with victory. ” 

3 . —The young King of Portugal, Pedro V., 
visits London. 

6 . —Abolition of “ Clothing Colonels.” 
Under a warrant of this date, the colonels of 
all regiments were in future to receive a fixed 
allowance in lieu of the pecuniary emolument 
hitherto derived from the off-reckonings. 

7 . —Lord Elgin concludes a treaty at Wash¬ 
ington, by which the British American coast 
fisheries are thrown open to the States, the 
free navigation of the St. Lawrence and Cana¬ 
dian lakes guaranteed to them, and the pro¬ 
ducts of the United States and British Ame¬ 
rica, with the exception of sugar and tobacco, 
reciprocally admitted duty free. 

8. —Lord John Russell intimates the inten¬ 
tion of the Government to divide the functions 
of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. 
The following evening the Earl of Aberdeen 
said the Duke of Newcastle would fill the for¬ 
mer office, but without control over the finance 
or patronage of the army. Sir George Grey 
succeeded to the Colonial department. Several 
other changes took place in the Cabinet at this 
time, Lord John Russell becoming President of 
the Council in room of Earl Granville, who 
became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 
an office vacant by the retirement of Mr. Strutt. 
A new writ for the City of London was moved 
for on the 9th. (See Table of Administrations.) 

IO.—Mrs. Brough, of Esher, formerly in 
the service of her Majesty as nurse to the 
Prince of Wales, murders her family of six 
children, by cutting their throats, and then 
attempts to commit suicide by cutting her own. 
She was found in a state of great weakness 
from loss of blood by two labourers in Clare¬ 
mont Gardens, who had their attention drawn 
to the house by seeing a pillow stained with 
blood hanging out of the window. One of 
them got a ladder, and, mounting to the top, saw 
Mrs. Brough coming up the staircase with her 
hair hanging down and her face covered with 
blood. The children were found dead in the 
bedroom. Mrs. Brough made a statement to 
the chief of the Surrey Constabulary, to the 
effect that during the night she was so ill that 
she went downstairs to get a knife to cut her own 
throat. “ Finding a razor,” she said, “ I went 
to Georgy, and cut her first; then to Carry, 
and cut her ; then to Henry, who said ‘ Don’t, 
mother.’ I said, ‘I must,’ and did cut him. 
Then I went to Bill: he was fast asleep. I 
turned him over; he never woke : I served 
him the same. The two other children, 
Harriet and George, were awake. They made 
no resistance at all. I then laid down and did 
myself. I cannot state what occurred for some 
(410) 


time after that, as I found myself weak and lying 
on the floor. The great nasty black cloud was 
gone then.” The woman was living alone 
with her children at the time, her husband 
having recently been compelled to separate 
from her on account of his discovery of an im¬ 
proper intimacy in London. At her trial at 
Guildford, on the 9th August, the jury returned 
a verdict of Not Guilty on the ground of 
insanity. 

IO. —The Crystal Palace, Sydenham, opened 
by the Queen, with great ceremony, in the 
presence of 40,000 spectators. The commo¬ 
tion incident to this event was noticed in the 
City from an early hour in the forenoon, and 
by the time the doors were opened the closely- 
packed multitude stretched far into the grounds 
of the Palace. Around the dais in the centre 
of the transept were gathered the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, the diplomatic body, the Di¬ 
rectors of the Company, the Lord Mayors of 
London, Dublin, and York, and the civic 
dignitaries of other cities throughout the king¬ 
dom. At three o’clock the Queen entered the 
Palace, leaning on the arm of Prince Albert, 
and followed by the King of Portugal, the 
Duke of Oporto, and a brilliant company. 
The National Anthem was led off by a crowded 
orchestra, under the baton of Mr. Costa ; Miss 
Clara Novello and Signor Lablache being the 
most noticeable of the singers. In answer to 
the address presented by Mr. S. Laing, M. P., 
Chairman of the Company, her Majesty said:— 
“It is my earnest wish and hope that the 
bright anticipations which have been formed as 
to its future destiny may, under the blessing of 
Divine Providence, be completely realized, and 
that this wonderful structure and the treasures 
of art and knowledge which it contains may 
long continue to elevate and interest as well as 
to delight and amuse the minds of all classes 
of my people.” Copies of the guide-books to 
the various departments of the Palace having 
been presented to her Majesty by the authors 
and other officials, the Royal procession was 
formed and proceeded through the building. 
Prayer was then offered up by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, after which the orchestra per¬ 
formed the Hallelujah chorus with immense 
effect. When it had ceased, her Majesty, 
through her Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of 
Breadalbane, declared the Palace open. This 
concluded the more formal part of the day’s 
ceremony, her Majesty then retiring, while the 
notes of the National Anthem were once m jre 
swelling through the Palace. 

13 .—The Lord Chancellor, in moving the 
second reading of the Divorce Bill, explained 
that the object of the measure was to facilitate 
divorces on account of adultery, and to trans¬ 
fer the jurisdiction over matrimonial suits from 
the ecclesiastical courts to Chancery, where a 
Court of Divorce was proposed to be esta¬ 
blished. The new court would consist of the 
Lord Chancellor, the Chief Justice of the 
Queen’s Bench, the Master of the Rolls, and 





JUNE 


JUNE 


1S54- 


two other members appointed under the Great 
Seal. Bill read a second time. 

13 . —Miguel Yzsquierdo, a young Spaniard, 
sentenced to death for the murder of a lad 
named Scales at North Mimms. On first 
being called to plead, the jury found him mute 
by the visitation of God. They now found 
him wilfully mute, which enabled Mr. Justice 
Erie to enter a plea of Not Guilty. The 
extreme sentence of the law was afterwards 
commuted. 

14 . —When addressing the electors of the 
City of London, after his acceptance of the 
office of President of the Council, Lord John 
Russell said:—“We have all reviewed the 
glories of Nelson, of St. Vincent, and of Cam- 
perdown ; but the victories which they gained 
were achieved over an enemy which came out 
into the open sea to meet them, and who in 
fair fight were encountered by the valour and 
the prowess of our admirals and sailors. We 
have now to deal with an enemy who encloses 
his ships in walls of granite, who places them 
behind stone walls and batteries of guns, and 
who has never ventured to meet Dundas or 
Napier in the open sea. If he did, no doubt 
these gallant admirals would be able, in the 
nautical phrase, to give a good account of the 
Russian fleets.” 

— Treaty of Boyadji-Keuy, providing for 
the occupation of the Principalities, entered 
into between Austria and Turkey. 

15 . —The Times gives expression to a feeling 
now being widely discussed, that Sebastopol 
ought to be attacked by the Allies:—“The 
grand political and military objects of the war 
cannot be attained as long as Sebastopol and 
the Russian fleet are in existence ; but if that 
central position of the Russian power in the 
south of the empire were annihilated, the 
whole fabric, which it had cost the Czars of 
Russia a century to raise, falls to the ground. 

. . . The taking of Sebastopol, and the occu¬ 
pation of the Crimea, are objects which would 
repay all the costs of the present war, and 
would permanently settle in our favour the 
principal questions in dispute. ... A peace 
■which should leave Russia in possession of the 
same means of aggression would only enable 
her to recommence the war at her pleasure.” 
(See June 29.) 

18 . —Died in Mexico, of cholera, aged 49, 
Madame Henrietta Sonntag (Countess de 
Rossi), soprano singer. 

19 . —Lord Lyndhurst, in a speech of great 
clearness and ability, draws attention to the 
Memorandum lately issued by the Cabinets of 
Vienna and Berlin to the envoys at the Ger¬ 
manic Diet, contending that the ambition and 
aggressive policy of Russia, which he fully ex¬ 
posed, required more vigorous measures of 
opposition than a mere return to the status quo 
in any future arrangements with that Power. 
He unhesitatingly declared that in no event, ex¬ 
cept that of extreme necessity, ought we to make 


peace without previously destroying the Russian 
fleet in the Black Sea, and laying prostrate 
the fortifications by which it was defended.— 
Lord Clarendon in reply expressed his disbelief 
that Austria had any intention of concluding 
peace with Russia on the terms suggested by 
Lord Lyndhurst, which he fully declared would 
be unacceptable to England and France. No¬ 
thing but some result sufficient to fetter and 
cripple the enemy would be considered satisfac¬ 
tory.—The Earl of Derby maintained that the 
Memorandum bound Austria and Prussia to 
accept peace whenever Russia consented to 
evacuate the Principalities; but the peace of 
Europe must be secured from Russian am¬ 
bition ; some of the past conquests of Russia 
must be wrested from her grasp ; the Black 
Sea must not remain a Russian lake, nor the 
Danube a Russian river.—The Earl of Aber¬ 
deen remarked that the war from the beginning 
had been defensive—to preserve Turkey from 
encroachment; but that contingencies might 
require the invasion of Russia. The Western 
Powers were not bound to accede to any Aus¬ 
trian propositions for peace. He denied that 
Europe had suffered much real peril from the 
ambition of Russia, instancing that, even to¬ 
wards Turkey, Russia since the Treaty of 
Adrianople had interfered only for the purpose 
of protecting the Porte from a rebellious vassal. 
War should be waged merely for the sake of 
peace, though not less vigorously on that ac¬ 
count, and should be terminated at the first 
moment that peace became possible on a just 
and honourable basis. The unseasonable, tem¬ 
perate tone of the Premier’s speech gave rise 
to considerable discontent, and led him to 
move for the production of his own celebrated 
despatch of September 14th, 1829, regarding 
the Treaty of Adrianople. (See June 26.) 

20 . —Mrs. Hudson Kirby burnt on the stage 
of Plymouth theatre while taking her part in 
an amateur performance given by the officers 
of the garrison. 

— Collision between the Olympics, from 
Liverpool, and the Trade Wind from New 
York, in lat. 41 0 50'and long. 57 0 2'. Both 
vessels went down within an hour and a half 
after the occurrence, a few only of each of the 
crews being saved in the boats. 

21 . —Sir William Clay’s Church-rates Abo¬ 
lition Bill lost by a majority of 27 in a House 
of 391 - 

22. —In the House of Lords a debate on 
a breach of privilege was originated by the 
Marquis of Clanricarde, who complained that 
certain returns respecting the commissariat, 
ordered on the motion of Earl Grey on the 8th 
April, included a document of later date, con¬ 
taining various strictures on the noble Earl’s 
speech, by Sir C. Trevelyan, a Government 
official. After a prolonged discussion the 
papers were withdrawn for the purpose of sub¬ 
stituting an amended return. 

— On bringing up the Report on the 

( 4 ”) 





JUNE 


JULY 


1854. 


Oxford University Bill, in the Commons, Mr. 
Heywood’s clause to abolish the Matriculation 
Oath was carried against Government, by 252 
to 161. A second clause, for abolishing the 
oath on taking degrees, was rejected by 205 
to 196. 

23 .—The Russians retire from the siege of 
Silistria, and retreat across the Danube, pur¬ 
sued by the Turks. In this siege of thirty- 
nine days the Russians were reported to have 
lost 12,000 men, Schilders, their chief en¬ 
gineer, being among the killed, and many 
other generals of distinction. Between 40,000 
and 50,000 projectiles were thrown among the 
gallant defenders of the fortress. Its success¬ 
ful defence was mainly due to the bravery of 
the Governor, Moussa Pasha (killed by a shell 
in the last days of the siege), to Gruch, a 
scientific Prussian officer, and to two British 
officers, Captain Butler and Lieutenant Na¬ 
smyth, who, being accidentally in the place 
when the Russians sat down before it, remained 
to share its dangers. Butler died of fever and 
exhaustion two hours before the Russian re¬ 
treat was discovered. 

— Died at Rome, Patrick Chalmers, of 
Auldbar, an accomplished Scottish antiquary. 

2 - 4 .—In the Court of Common Pleas, a 
Somersetshire magistrate, named Cridland, was 
sentenced to pay 1,000/. damages for writing 
offensive letters to his wife, from whom he was 
divorced. 

26 . —Fire at Olney, Buckinghamshire, com¬ 
mencing in a tradesman’s shop in the High- 
street, and burning about sixty houses and a 
large amount of agricultural produce. 

— During a debate on Lord Aberdeen’s 
motion for the production of a despatch in re¬ 
ference to the Treaty of Adrianople, the Mar¬ 
quis of Clanricarde declared that the noble 
Earl had shown himself the constant supporter 
of arbitrary power in every nation of Europe, 
a partisan of Russia, and an opponent of every 
national effort to obtain constitutional liberties 
wherever undertaken. He was, in a word, the 
evil genius of the present Government. 

27 . —Mr. Collier carries a resolution, pledg¬ 
ing the House to a modification of the law of 
partnership, so as to permit persons to embark 
in commercial enterprise with limited liability. 

— Spain declared in a state of siege, 
O’Donnell having taken the field with 2,000 
cavalry of the garrison of Madrid. 

29 .—The Duke of Newcastle urges upon 
Lord Raglan the necessity of making an im¬ 
mediate attack upon Sebastopol:—“I have, 
on the part of her Majesty’s Government, to 
instruct your lordship to concert measures for 
the siege of Sebastopol, unless with the infor¬ 
mation in your possession, but at present un¬ 
known in this country, you should be decidedly 
of opinion that it could not be undertaken with 
a reasonable prospect of success. The confi¬ 
dence with which her Majesty placed under 
( 4 * 2 ) 


your command the gallant army now in Tur¬ 
key is unabated; and if, upon mature reflection, 
you should consider that the united strength of 
the two armies is insufficient' for this undertak¬ 
ing, you are not to be precluded from the 
exercise of the discretion originally vested in 
you, though her Majesty’s Government will 
learn with regret that an attack from which 
such important consequences are anticipated 
must be any longer delayed. The difficulties 
of the siege of Sebastopol appear to her 
Majesty’s Government to be more likely to 
increase than diminish by delay.” The draft of 
this despatch was read over to the Cabinet, and 
assented to without discussion. (See July 18.) 

29 .—Quarrel, leading to a court-martial, 
between Lieutenant Greer and Lieutenant 
Perry, of the 46th Regiment, stationed at 
Windsor Barracks. The verdict laid before 
the Commander-in-chief recommended that 
Lieutenant Perry be dismissed from the ser¬ 
vice, and Greer severely reprimanded ; but this 
being thought contrary to evidence, her Ma¬ 
jesty was pleased not to confirm the sentence. 
A Horse-Guards’ memorandum of the 2d of 
September explained the course which Lord 
Hardinge thought proper to take in bringing 
the questions relating to the discipline of the 
46th to an issue. 

— The Oxford University Bill read a 
third time in the Commons, with the addition 
of a supplementary clause abolishing Test oaths 
on taking the B. A. degree. 

July 2 .—Attempted abduction of Miss 
Eleanor Arbuthnot, by Mr. John Carden, of 
Barnane, Clonmel. She was seized when re¬ 
turning from church in a covered car, and in 
the company of several lady friends, who were 
fortunately able to offer such resistance as 
prevented the abductor carrying out his design. 
The screams of the terrified women brought 
speedy assistance, and Carden, with his party 
of six assistants, fled with precipitate haste. 
They were overtaken by the mounted police 
near Farna Castle, and immediately committed 
to prison. In Carden’s carriage, which was 
overturned in a ditch, there was found a six- 
barrel revolver, bottles of chloroform, salts, 
cords, disguises, and 315/. in gold and notes. 
At the trial at Clonmel Assizes, on July 28th, 
the jury, so far as the chief prisoner was con¬ 
cerned, returned a verdict of Not guilty of the 
felony, but Guilty of an attempt to commit it. 
Judge Ball sentenced him to two years’ im¬ 
prisonment with hard labour. On being 
placed a second time at the bar for assaulting 
Smethwick, a shepherd, who had interfered 
to protect Miss Arbuthnot, the jury returned a 
verdict of Not guilty. (See October 18th, 1858.) 

3 .—The Centenary Festival of the Society 
of Arts celebrated by a banquet in the Crystal 
Palace. 

7 .—The Oxford University Bill passes 
through Committee in the Lords, with certain 
amendments bringing the measure nearer its 





JULY 


JULY 


I ^54- 


original design. It was read a third time and 
passed on the 13th, and received the Royal 
Assent on the 7th August. 

7 .—Victory of the Turks at Giurgevo. 

11. —The Gazette announces the blockade of 
ports in the Gulf of Finland by the allied 
fleets. 

12 . —The Emperor Napoleon reviews the 
French troops at Boulogne, previous to their 
embarkation in British ships of war for the 
Baltic. 

13 . —Lord Granville enters into a personal 
explanation in the House of Lords, with respect 
to a charge made against him of introducing 
the Russian Count Pahlen into a London club. 
The Count (he said), an old friend of his father’s, 
and of many eminent statesmen in this coun¬ 
try, had arrived in London on no political 
mission, but solely with a view of settling his 
own private affairs. In such circumstances he 
signed, as he had frequently done before, the 
printed form recommending a foreigner to the 
Travellers’ Club. He did not believe such 
conduct illegal or unpatriotic ; on the contrary, 
he thought that civility towards an individual 
stranger with whose country we were at war 
was just one of those mitigations of the old 
barbarous rights of war which modern civili¬ 
zation had introduced. 

— Bombardment of Grey town, Central 
America, by a United States man-of-war, in 
retaliation for offences alleged to be committed 
by Spaniards against the American Consul. 

15 .—Explosion of a boiler at Williamson’s 
calico factory, Rochdale, causing the death of 
ten persons employed in or about the works, 
and seriously injuring thirteen others. The ex¬ 
plosion took place while an attempt was being 
made to get up steam by parties not accustomed 
to the work. 

17 .—The House of Commons agree to a 
vote of 17,300/. to defray the expenses of the 
new office of Secretary of State for War. 

— Insurrection in Madrid, ending in the 
flight of the Ministry, and the appointment of 
a Junta to restore the municipality of 1843. 

10.—After ten sittings, a coroner’s jury re¬ 
turned a verdict that a child named Richardson 
had died in consequence of an operation for 
lithotomy unskilfully performed by surgeons at 
the Royal Free Hospital, Gray’s-inn-lane. 

— Lord Raglan informs the Duke of New¬ 
castle that he intended to attack Sebastopol, 
“ more in deference to the views of the British 
Government, and to the known acquiescence 
of the Emperor Napoleon in these views, than 
to any information in the possession of the 
naval and military authorities either as to the 
extent of the enemy’s forces or their state of 
preparation. The fact must not be concealed 
that neither the English nor the French admi¬ 
rals have been able to obtain any intelligence 
on which they can rely with respect to the 


army which the Russians may destine for ope¬ 
rations in the field or to the number of men 
allotted for the defence of Sebastopol; and 
Marshal St. Arnaud and myself are equally 
deficient in information upon these all-impor¬ 
tant questions, and there would seem to be no 
chance of our acquiring it.” In replying to 
this despatch, the Duke wrote:—-“I cannot 
help seeing, through the calm and noble tone 
of your announcement of the decision to attack 
Sebastopol, that it has been taken in order to 
meet the views and desires of the Government, 
and not in entire accordance with your own 
opinion. I wrote to the Queen the moment I 
received your despatch, and in answer she 
said : ‘ The very important news which he 
conveyed to her in it of the decision of the 
generals and admirals to attack Sebastopol 
have filled the Queen with mixed feelings of 
satisfaction and anxiety. May the Almighty 
protect her army and her fleet, and bless this 
great undertaking with success 1’ ” 

IO.—Inauguration of the monument erected 
to the memory of Thomas Hood in Kensal 
Green Cemetery. Mr. Monckton Milnes pro¬ 
nounced an eulogium on the author of “ Thp 
Song of the Shirt.” 

20 . —Died at Buckland, near Lymington, 
Mrs. Southey (Caroline Bowles), widow of the 
late Poet Laureate. 

— Convocation resumes its sittings to-day. 
In the Upper House, the Bishop of London 
presented a report from the Committee ap¬ 
pointed to consider what reforms might be 
needful in the constitution of Convocation to 
enable it to treat of such matters as the Queen 
might permit. This report suggested several 
changes in the election of the Lower House, 
with a view to the fuller representation of the 
clergy ; and recommended that all beneficed 
clergy, curates, and chaplains, being in priests’ 
orders and licensed by the bishop, should have 
a vote at the election of a proctor. It also set 
forth rules and regulations, chiefly founded on 
precedents, for facilitating the transaction of 
business. The questions of bringing the Con¬ 
vocations of Canterbury and York to deliberate 
together, and of introducing the lay element, 
were passed over as matters that might be 
more profitably discussed by the clergy in Con¬ 
vocation. The Lower House was but thinly 
attended, and the chief business had reference 
to reports from the Committee of Privileges 
and Gravamina. 

— Political meeting at Lord John Russell’s 
residence, called in anticipation of the Opposi¬ 
tion objecting to the 3,000,000/. vote on war ex¬ 
penses. His lordship spoke at some length on 
the measures, abandoned and carried, which 
had been introduced by Government. 

21. —Cholera breaks out among the troops 
at Varna, sixteen French soldiers dying out of 
twenty-five attacked. It increased with such 
rapidity that fatigue parties were almost con¬ 
stantly engaged in the melancholy duty of 

(413) 






JULY 


AUGUST 


1854. 


burying the dead. The troops in consequence 
were much dispirited. Regiments were reduced 
to 300 or 400 sickly men, and letters sent home 
were full of prayers that, at whatever risk, 
they might be led against the enemy rather 
than die by the inglorious death so fast decima¬ 
ting their ranks. By August the brigade of 
Guards — the flower of the army —was so 
exhausted and beaten that they had to make 
two marches to get over the ten miles of ground 
lying between Alladyn and Varna. In this 
brigade alone there were upwards of 600 
attacked by cholera. The Light Division lost 
112 men, and Sir De Lacy Evans’ about 100. 
Among the French the mortality was still more 
frightful. Nearly 3,000 were reported to have 
perished under General d’Espinasse during an 
expedition to Kostendji, one of the worst 
regions in the pestilential Dobrudscha. 

21 . —Circular Memorandum issued from the 
Horse Guards giving the army generally per¬ 
mission to keep the upper lip unshaven, as the 
practice has been found beneficial by the army 
in the East. But ‘ ‘ a clear space of two inches 
must be left between the corner of the mouth 
and the whisker, where whiskers are grown. 
The chin, the under lip, and at least two 
inches of the upper part of the throat must be 
clean shaven, so that no hair can be seen above 
the stock in that place.” 

22 . —Lord Clarendon writes to Lord West¬ 
moreland at Vienna :—“ After making such 
great efforts and sacrifices, and engaged as 
they are in a just cause, the Allied Powers will 
not stop in their course without the certainty 
that they will not again be called upon after a 
short interval to recommence the war. . . . The 
privileged frontier of Russia in the Black Sea 
has enabled her to establish in those waters a 
naval power which, in the absence of any 
counterbalancing force, is a standing menace to 
the Ottoman empire. The uncontrolled pos¬ 
session by Russia of the principal mouth of the 
Danube has created obstacles to the navigation 
of that great river which seriously affect the 
general commerce of Europe. Finally, the 
stipulation of the Treaty of Kutschuk-Kain- 
ardji relative to the protection of the Christians 
has become by a wrongful interpretation the 
principal cause of the present struggle. Upon 
these points the status quo ante bellum must 
undergo important modifications.” 

24 .—The House of Commons agree to a 
vote of 3,000,000/. for carrying on the war. 
There was no division, but the debate was 
long, and Ministers severely censured. 

28 . —The Bribery Bill passes the House of 
Commons. It was read a third time in the 
Blouse of Lords on the 7th August, the Com¬ 
mons accepting the amendments made there, 
on condition that the measure was restricted in 
operation to one year instead of two. 

29 . —The King of Denmark proclaims a 
new constitution for the united monarchy. 

— Precise instructions sent to Lord Raglan 
to attack Sebastopol. 

(4H) 


August 1.—Came on for trial at the Kil¬ 
kenny Assizes, before Mr. Justice Ball and a 
jury, the great Mountgarret case, involving a 
peerage and estates of the value of 10,000/. 
per annum. The plaintiff was Mr. Pierce 
Somerset Butler, the eldest son of Colonel the 
Hon. Pierce Butler, fourth son of Edmund, 
eleventh Viscount Mountgarret; and the de¬ 
fendant was the son of the Hon. Henry Butler, 
the third son of the said Edmund, being the 
son of Henry Butler by Anne, daughter of 
John Harrison, Esq. This lady, the plaintiff 
asserted, Henry had married while he had 
another wife still living; that, consequently^ 
this marriage was a nullity, and the issue—-of 
whom the defendant was the eldest son—il¬ 
legitimate : from which it followed that the 
plaintiff, and not the defendant, became heir to 
the viscounty and family estates on the death 
of the three elder brothers without lawful issue, 
his own father being dead. It appeared that 
Somerset Butler, the second, Henry Butler, 
the third, and Pierce Butler, the fourth son 
of Edmund, predeceased the eldest son Ed¬ 
mund, who had been advanced to the dignity 
of Earl of Kilkenny, limited to him and his 
issue, whereby, at his death without children, 
the earldom lapsed, and the viscounty only 
passed to his collateral heirs ; and that the de- j 
fendant, presuming his legitimacy, had assumed 
the title, and entered into possession of the 
estates, from which the plaintiff now sought to 
eject him. The fact of the legal marriage of 
Henry Butler with Amanda Colebrooke, prior | 
to his marriage with Anne Harrison, was the j 
fact really to be decided by this trial,—On the 
fourth day of trial the jury returned a verdict 
for the plaintiff, with 6 d. damages. The de- ! 
fendant obtained a new trial in March 1855, ' 
when the jury gave a verdict reinstating him in 
his property. 

4 . —Experiment off Portsmouth with the 
new Lancaster gun. The target was one of 
the Needle rocks. The first and second shots 
failed ; the third, fourth, and fifth took a very 
high flight, went far above the rocks over the 
lofty hill on which the lighthouse stands, 
and damaged that structure on bursting. 
The terrified inhabitants soon made signals 
of distress, and the firing was discontinued. 

— At the Appleby Assizes, John Atkinson, 
organist, was sentenced to nine months’ im¬ 
prisonment for carrying off (with her own con¬ 
sent) Ann Jane Ward, a pupil in Miss Bishop’s 
boarding-school, twelve years of age, and heiress 
of io,ooo/. A marriage ceremony had been 
gone through at Gretna Green. 

5 . —Portrait of Joseph Hume, M.P., sub¬ 
scribed for by members of the House of Com¬ 
mons and others, presented to Mrs. Hume. 

6 . —At Kuruk-Dere, General Guyon (Kur- 
shid Pasha) attacks a force of 20,000 Russians 
approaching Kars ; but, after a loose irregular 
combat of four hours’ duration, the Turks re¬ 
treated in confusion, leaving 1,200 killed on 
the field, 1,800 wounded, and 15 pieces of 






AUGUST 


1854. 


SEPTEMBER 


cannon. Above 2,000 were taken prisoners. 
Long before the fight became general, there 
was scarcely one superior officer to be seen on 
the field. 

7. —Royal Assent given to a bill providing 
for the better registration of births, deaths, and 
marriages in Scotland. 

9 . —During a severe thunderstorm at Ips¬ 
wich, St. Mary’s National School was set on 
fire by lightning, and three of the children 
killed. Nearly the whole of the pupils in the 
boys’ department were thrown down and in¬ 
jured. 

— Died near Innsbruck, from the effects 
of a fall from his horse, Frederick Augustus, 
King of Saxony. 

10. —Fire at Varna, destroying large quan¬ 
tities of the military stores gathered there by 
the allied armies. 

— Act to amend and consolidate the laws 
relating to merchant shipping passed. 

11 . —The Russian Securities Bill, designed 
to frustrate the attempt of that Power to obtain 
loans in foreign countries, read a third time in 
the House of Lords, and passed. 

12 . —Parliament prorogued by the Queen in 
person. Her Majesty expressed her warmest 
thanks for the liberal supplies which had been 
granted to carry on the war, although she 
lamented the increased burdens necessarily im¬ 
posed upon the people. “ In cordial co-opera¬ 
tion with the Emperor of the French my efforts 
will be directed to the effectual repression of 
that ambitious and aggressive spirit on the part 
of Russia, which has compelled us to take up 
arms* in defence of an ally and to secure the 
future tranquillity of Europe.” Referring to 
the more important Acts passed during the 
session, her Majesty hoped that the measure 
designed for the prevention of bribery and 
corrupt practices at elections might “prove 
effectual in the correction of an evil which, if 
unchecked, threatens to fix a deep stain upon 
our representative system.” During the de¬ 
livery of the speech from the Throne his High¬ 
ness the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh occupied a 
seat on the woolsack. 

15 . —At the Fete NapoUon intimation is 
made that the Emperor had set apart 8,cxx>,ooo 
francs to carry out the will of Napoleon I. 

16 . —The Rev. Thomas Robinson, a benc- 
ficed clergyman of the Isle of Wight, commits 
suicide by throwing himself from the summit 
of Shakspeare’s Cliff. 

— The fortress of Bomarsund, occupied by 
2,235 men, surrenders to the allied fleet in the 
Baltic, after a severe cannonade. The news of 
this first success in the war was received with 
great enthusiasm throughout Britain and France, 
on the 19th. 

17 . —Fire on the premises of Messrs. Cubitt, 
builders, Pimlico. The workshops were nearly 
all destroyed, and their contents greatly in¬ 
jured. 


19 -—The Queen, of Spain restores peace 
to her kingdom by placing Espartero at the 
head of affairs. 

20 . —Died in Switzerland, aged 79, Frederick 
W. J. Von Schelling, German metaphysician. 

21. —Collision at the Croydon station be¬ 
tween a ballast-engine taking in water there 
and an excursion-train carrying passengers from 
Dover to the Crystal Palace. Two people were 
killed, and several injured. A coroner’s jury 
returned a verdict of manslaughter against the 
driver of the excursion train, and recommended 
an improvement in the signalling system at 
Croydon. 

22 . —Lillywhite, the champion cricketer, 
died at Islington, from cholera. 

26 .—Gathering of Literary and Scientific 
Institutions at Worsley Hall, the seat of the 
Earl of Ellesmere, for the purpose of securing 
a friendly reunion, and of aiding a fund to 
purchase a library for the Institutional Associa¬ 
tion of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 

28 . —Renewed disturbances at Madrid in 
consequence of the removal of the Queen- 
mother to Portugal. 

29 . —A combined English and French 
squadron make an unsuccessful attack on the 
fortified Russian town of Petropaulovski, in 
KamschatkS,. The commander of the English 
division (Admiral Price) committed suicide in 
his cabin during the engagement. 

30 . —Archdeacon Robert Wilberforceresigns 
his preferment in the Established Church, ‘ ‘ not 
being any longer able to subscribe to the 
Supremacy of the Crown.” He had previously 
published a book on the doctrine of “ The 
Real Presence in the Eucharist.” 

September 4 .—Laying of the submarine 
telegraph between Holyhead and Balscadden 
Bay, Ireland. 

5.—The Emperor of the French visits 
Boulogne and reviews the troops at Helfaut, in 
presence of Prince Albert, the Kings of Bel¬ 
gium and Portugal, and a distinguished com¬ 
pany of British officers. 

8 .— Died, aged 72, Cardinal Angelo Mai, 
Oriental and Biblical scholar. 

14 .—The allied forces land in the Crimea. 
The troops, consisting of 24,000 English, 
22,000 French, and 8,000 Turks, sailed from 
Varna on the 5th, and arrived at daybreak this 
morning at the place of disembarkation, near 
Old Fort. Before nightfall all the infantry 
and part of the artillery were landed. On the 
15th the swell on the shore considerably im¬ 
peded operations, but some progress was made 
through the exertions of the fleet under the 
command of Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons. 
Before leaving Varna a series of instructions was 
issued to our troops by Lord Raglan, providing 
for all contingencies likely to happen before 

( 4 * 5 ) 







SEPTEMBER 


1854 


landing. Owing to the shifting, through acci¬ 
dent or some other cause, of a buoy laid 
down on the night of the 13th, to mark the" 
common landing-place, the English troops were 
separated a little from the French, and landed 
on the narrow strip of beach which divided the 
Lake of Kamishlu from the sea. 

15 .—Attempt to upset a train conveying a 
party of Orangemen from Londonderry to 
Enniskillen. Large stones were laid along the 
line at various places, and on the train coming 
up one of the engines was thrown down the 
embankment, and the other came into collision 
with the carriages. One driver was killed, and 
two others injured. The Orangemen attributed 
the outrage to the malevolence of the Roman 
Catholics, who in turn denied the accusation, 
and offered 100/. reward to discover the per¬ 
petrators. The coroner’s jury returned a ver¬ 
dict of wilful murder against six persons, all 
workmen on the line, believing that the out¬ 
rage had originated in a dispute with their 
employers. 

13 .—The Rev. Hugh Pollard Willoughby, 
Rector of Burthorpe, Gloucestershire, attempts 
to shoot Mr. Giffard, barrister, in the Central 
Criminal Court. The ball fell out of the pistol, 
and the powder inflicted only a slight wound. 
When tried for the offence, the jury returned 
a verdict of Not guilty, on the; ground of 
insanity. 

— St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, formally 
opened with a musical festival. The British 
Association commenced its sittings in the build¬ 
ing on the 20th. 

19 . —The Charlotte troop-ship wrecked in 
Algoa Bay. Every means was taken to make a 
communication with the shore. The lifeboat 
was launched, and three times approached the 
wreck, but by some strange terror the unfor¬ 
tunate persons on board could not avail them¬ 
selves of the means of safety thus brought 
within their reach. At daybreak next morning 
not a vestige of the ill-fated vessel was to be 
seen, beyond a mass ri ''-''ken masts and timber 
entangled in ropes ana sails lying along the 
shore. By this disaster sixty-two soldiers of 
the 27th, eleven women, all the children, 
twenty-six in number, and eighteen of the crew 
perished. The few who were saved leaped 
over the side and trusted to the mercy of the 
waves. 

20 . —Battle of the Alma. General Bosquet’s 
division crossed the river near the mouth about 
11.30 ; the Turkish battalion passing at the 
same time close to the bar and within musket 
range of the beach. This movement was un¬ 
opposed. With inconceivable rapidity the 
Zouaves swarmed up the cliff, and it was not 
till they formed on the height and deployed 
from behind a mound there that the Russian 
batteries opened upon them. Waiting the de¬ 
velopment of the French attack, Lord Raglan 
caused our infantry for a time to lie down and 

(416) 


SEPTEMBE 




remain quite passive ; but, wearying of this in-,, 
activity, and anticipating a little in a military 
point of view the crisis of action, he gavei 
orders for our whole line to advance. “ Up] 
rose those serried masses,” writes the Times) 
correspondent, “and, passing through a fear-] 
ful shower of round case-shot and shell, they 
dashed into the Alma, and floundered through,] 
the waters, which were literally torn into foam] 
by the deadly hail. At the other side of the 
river were a number of vineyards occupied by] 
Russian riflemen. Three of the staff were here j 
shot down ; but, led by Lord Raglan in person, 
they advanced, cheering on the men. And 
now came the turning-point of the battle, in; 
which Lord Raglan, by his sagacity and 
military skill, probably secured the victory at ] 
a smaller sacrifice than would have been other- i 
wise the case. He dashed over the bridge 
followed by his staff. Then commenced one 
of the most bloody and determined struggles in ! 
the annals of war. The 2d Division, led by 
Sir De Lacy Evans, in the most dashing | 
manner crossed the stream on the right. The I 
7th Fusiliers, led by Colonel Yea, were swept 
down by fifties. The 55th, 30th, and 95th, 
led by Brigadier Pennefather (who was in the 
thickest of the fight, cheering on his men), 
again and again were checked, indeed, but 
never drew back in their onward progress, 
which was marked by a fierce roll of Minie 
musketry; and Brigadier Adams, with the 
4 I st, 47th, and 49th, bravely charged up the 
hill, and aided them in the battle. Sir Georg-e 
Brown, conspicuous on a grey horse, rode In 
front of his Light Division, urging them with 
voice and gesture. The 7th, diminished by 
one half, fell back to reform their columns lost 
for the time; the 23d, with eight officers dead 
and four wounded, were still mshing to the 
front, aided by the 15th, 33d, 77th, and 
55 th. Down went Sir George in a cloud of 
dust in front of the battery. He was soon up, 
and shouted, ‘ 23d, I’m all right. Be sure I’ll 
remember this day,’ and led them on again ; 1 
but in the shock produced by the fall of their 
chief the gallant regiment suffered terribly, 
while paralysed for the moment. Meantime, 
the Guards on the right of the Light Division 
and the brigade of the Highlanders were storm¬ 
ing the heights on the left. Their line was 
almost as regular as though they were in Hyde- 
park. Suddenly a tornado of round and grape 
rushed through from the terrible battery, and a 
roar of musketry from behind it thinned their 
front rank by dozens. It was evident that our 
troops were just able to contend with the 
Russians, favoured as they were by a great 
position. At this very time an immense mass 
of Russian infantry were seen moving down 
towards the battery. They halted. It was 
the crisis of the day. Sharp, angular, and solid, 
they looked as if they were cut out of the solid 
rock. It was beyond all doubt that, if our 
infantry, harassed and thinned as they were 
got into the battery, they would have to 
encounter a formidable fire, which they were 







SEPTEMBER 


1854. 


SEPTEMBER 


but ill calculated to bear. Lord Raglan saw 
the difficulties of the situation. He asked if it 
would be possible to get a couple of guns to 
bear on these masses. The reply was ‘Yes ; ’ 
and an artillery officer brought up two guns 
to fire on the Russian squares. The first shot 
missed, but the next, and the next, and the 
next cut through the ranks so cleanly, and 
so keenly, that a clear lane could be seen 
for a moment through the square. After a 
few rounds the columns of the square became 
broken, waved to and fro, broke, and fled 
over the brow of the hill, leaving behind 
them six or seven distinct lines of dead, lying 
as close as possible to each other, marking 
the passage of the fatal messengers. This 
act relieved our infantry of a great incubus, 
and they continued their magnificent and fear¬ 
ful progress. The Duke of Cambridge en¬ 
couraged his men by voice and example, and 
proved himself worthy of his proud command 
and of the Royal race from whence he comes. 
* Highlanders,’ said Sir C. Campbell, ere they 
came to the charge, ‘ I am going to ask a 
favour of you : it is, that you will act so as 
to justify me in asking permission of the 
Queen for you to wear a bonnet! Don’t pull 
a trigger till you’re within a yard of the 
Russians ! ’ They charged, and well they 
obeyed their chieftain’s wish. Sir Colin had 
his horse shot under him; but he was up 
immediately and at the head of his men, 
shouting, ‘We’ll hae naen but Highland 
bonnets here! ’ but the Guards passed on 
abreast, and claimed, with the 33d, the 
honour of capturing a cannon. They had 
stormed the right of the battery ere the High¬ 
landers had got into the left, and it is said the 
Scots Fusilier Guards were the first to enter. 
The 2d and Light Division crowned the 
heights. The French turned the guns on the 
hill against the flying masses, which the 
cavalry in vain tried to cover. A few faint 
struggles from the scattered infantry, a few 
rounds of cannon and musketry, and the 
enemy fled to the south-east, leaving three 
generals, 700 prisoners, and 4,000 killed and 
wounded behind them.” The Allied loss was 
619 killed and 2,860 wounded. The Russian 
loss was reported to be about 8,000. 

22 . —Died at Stoke Albany, Notts, in his 
76th year, Lord Denman, Chief Justice of the 
Queen’s Bench from 1832 to 1850. 

23 . —The Russians sink seven vessels of 
their Black Sea fleet at the entrance of the 
harbour of Sebastopol. An eye-witness writes : 
“Two days after the Alma a rumour spread 
through the Allied fleet that the Russian squa¬ 
dron, after so many months’ confinement, was 
about to weigh anchor, and try a desperate con¬ 
flict with the force which had so long con¬ 
demned it to inactivity. But it soon appeared 
that a sacrifice after the fashion of Moscow was 
contemplated by the Russian commandant. 
While the English were looking on, the seven 
vessels began slowly to sink at their moorings, 

(417) 


and within half an hour they lay at the bottom, 
with nothing visible but the tops of their masts, 
effectually barring the entrance against any 
force for many a month to come.” 

27 . —Collision off Cape Race, between the 
French steamer Vesta , carrying 147 passengers, 
and the English mail-steamer Arctic , carrying 
233 passengers, and a crew numbering 135. 
The Vesta was so seriously injured that a num¬ 
ber of those on board took to the boats for the 
purpose of reaching the Arctic , but, in the 
confusion incident to the collision, they were 
both swamped, and all on board drowned. By 
great skill the captain managed to keep his 
shattered vessel afloat till he reached St. John’s. 
To the Arctic the accident was of the most ca¬ 
lamitous character. The head of the vessel 
was laid for the nearest land, Cape Race, but, 
in four hours and a half after the collision, the 
water rose to the fires, and the ship foundered. 
Out of all on board only 31 of the crew and 
14 passengers were saved. They were in two 
boats, and managed to reach the coast of New¬ 
foundland. 

28 . —The Allied armies, after accomplishing 
a brilliant and successful flank-march, establish 
a basis of operations at Balaklava. 

29 . —Death of Marshal St. Arnaud, leader 
of the French division of the expeditionary 
force in the Crimea. Writing to his widow, 
the Emperor said :—“ He associated his name 
with the military glory of France on the day 
when, having decided upon landing in the 
Crimea, in spite of timid counsels, he gained 
with Lord Raglan the battle of the Alma, and 
opened to our army the road to Sebastopol. 
I have lost in him a devoted friend in difficult 
positions, as France has lost in him a soldier 
always ready to serve her in the moment 
of danger.” The words “timid counsels” 
giving rise to some irritation here, a paragraph 
afterwards appeared in the Moniteur explaining 
that their only aim was “ to throw out in 
stronger relief the energy of Marshal St. 
Arnaud, by contrasting it with those very 
natural differences of opinion which, on the 
eve of so important a decision, had manifested 
themselves in the councils of the French army 
and fleet.” 

30 . —Arrival of the news of the battle of 
the Alma. A Gazette extraordinary was at 
once issued, containing the telegraphic despatch 
sent by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Earl 
of Clarendon, by way of Belgrade. Shortly 
before 10 o’clock at night, the Lord Mayor 
proclaimed the victory from the steps of the 
Royal Exchange. 

The Czar’s reception of the news of the 
Alma. Mr. Kinglake embodies various cur¬ 
rent stories in his narrative of this occurrence. 
“ Prince Menschikoff wrote no despatch re¬ 
counting the disaster h e had undergone on the 
Alma, but he sent an aide-de-camp to St. 
Petersburg. For several days towards the close 
of the month of September the Czar had been 

£ E 




OCTOBER 


1854. 


OCTOBER 


growing more and more impatient for tidings— 
an impatience rather longing for good news 
than expecting evil. It was said that he looked 
upon what he deemed to be the unwarlike 
rashness of the invasion with a feeling akin to 
pity; and assuring himself that the Allies 
would soon be his prisoners, he ordered, they 
say, that in that event the captive armies of 
the West, but more especially the English, 
should be treated with kindness. At length 
the moment came when it was announced to 
the Czar that an aide-de-camp fresh from 
the Crimea was in the ante-room. He was 
instantly brought into the Czar’s presence. By 
brief word or eager gesture he was ordered to 
speak. He spoke: ‘ Sire, your army has 

covered itself with glory, but-’ Then 

instantly the Czar knew that the tale to be told 
was one of disaster. With violent impreca¬ 
tions he drove the aide-de-camp from his pre¬ 
sence. The aide-de-camp, however, under¬ 
stood that he was liable to be again called in ; 
and after a time (a quarter of an hour I think 
I have heard) he was once more in the Czar’s 
presence. The Czar was changed in look. 
He seemed to be more composed than he had 
been, but was pale. When the aide-de-camp 
approached, the Czar thrust forward his hand 
as though to snatch at something, and impera¬ 
tively cried, ‘ The despatch ! ’ The aide-de- 
camp answered, ‘Sire, I bring no despatch.’ 
—‘ No despatch ? ’ the Czar asked, his fury 
beginning to rekindle as he spoke. ‘ Sire, 
Prince Menschikoff was much hurried, and 

-’—‘ Hurried I ’ interrupted the Czar. 

‘ What ! what do you mean ? Do you mean to 
say he was running ? ’ Again his fury became 
uncontrollable ; and it seems that it was some 
time before he was able to hear the cruel 
sound of the truth. When at length the Czar 
came to know what had befallen his army, he 
gave way to sheer despair ; for he deemed 
Sebastopol lost, and had no longer any belief 
that the Chersonese was still a field on which he 
might use his energies.” 

October 1 (Sunday). —General thanksgiv¬ 
ing for the abundant harvest observed with 
great devotion and gratitude. Allusion was 
made in most of the churches to the victory of 
the Alma. 

2 . -The morning papers publish telegrams 
announcing the fall of Sebastopol. One, dated 
Bucharest, September 28th, and purporting to 
come from the Consul of France to his Excel¬ 
lency the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in 
these words :—“ A French steamer, coming 
out of the Bosphorus, met another coming 
from the Crimea, which announced that she 
was carrying to Constantinople the intelli¬ 
gence of the capture of Sebastopol. The steamer 
from the Bosphorus touched at Varna to an¬ 
nounce the event, of which we expect hourly 
an official confirmation.” On the 3d a despatch 
in confirmation of the above was received by 
the Turkish Minister from Vienna :—“ To-day 
(October 2), at noon, a Tartar arrived from 
(418) 


Constantinople with despatches from Omar 
Pasha : his Highness being at Silistria, the 
despatches had to be forwarded to him at that 
place. The Tartar announced the capture of 
Sebastopol. 18,000 Russians were killed and 
wounded, and 22,000 made prisoners. Fort 
Constantine was destroyed, and other forts 
mounting 200 guns taken. Of the Russian 
fleet, six sail of the line were sunk, and Prince 
Menschikoff had retired to the bottom of the 
bay with the remaining vessels, declaring that 
he would burn them if the attack continued.” 
“The public,” wrote the Times , “must form 
their own opinion for the present as to the 
credibility of this statement, but we are enabled 
to say that it is regarded with great confidence 
in the highest quarters, and when the same de¬ 
spatch reached the Emperor of the French at 
the camp at Helfaut, he instantly announced 
to the troops that Sebastopol had fallen.” 

4 .—Conflagration at Memel, destroying the 
greater part of the town, including the Custom¬ 
house, the banks, churches, immense ware¬ 
houses, and stacks of timber, hemp, flax, and 
tallow. 

6 .—Fire at Newcastle and Gateshead. Be¬ 
tween twelve and one o’clock this morning a 
fire broke out in Wilson’s worsted manufac¬ 
tory, Hillgate, Gateshead. After raging with 
great fury for about two hours, the roof fell in, 
and the heat became so intense that it melted 
the sulphur stored in an adjoining bonded 
warehouse, which came pouring out in burning 
torrents, and communicated the fire to every 
storey of the building. In the immediate 
neighbourhood was another warehouse filled 
with the most inflammable materials—3,000 
tons of sulphur, 130 tons of nitrate of soda, 10 
tons of peat-ash, and 5 tons of arsenic. Soon 
after the flames had taken possession of this 
building an explosion took place which shook 
to their foundations the towns on each side of 
the Tyne, and an enormous mass of burning 
material was projected across the river to the 
houses on the Quay-side. The bridges shook 
as if they would fall to pieces, and the sur¬ 
face of the river was agitated as by a storm. 
The shock of this tremendous explosion was 
felt over the whole eastern sea-board, from 
Blyth, in Northumberland, to Seaham, in 
Durham. The crowds assembled upon the 
quay to witness the fire on the Gateshead 
side were mown down as if by a discharge of 
artillery, many of them being killed on the 
spot by the blazing material or suffocated by 
the sulphur. The fire also began to spread 
rapidly among the “chares,” or lanes, lead¬ 
ing off the Quay, scores of houses and offices 
falling before its fury. The Custom-house 
was at one time in serious danger, and the 
shipping in the river required to be moved 
to a lower berth. All through the night, and 
the two following days, the fire continued its 
devouring course, the most prominent proDerties 
then destroyed being Davidson’s large* flour¬ 
mill, standing near the original seat of the 




OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1854. 


fire, and the timber-yard of Carr & Co. In 
Gateshead, the entire mass of buildings— 
extending several hundred yards—from Bridge- 
street and Church-street, eastward, and from 
Church-walk to the river, was entirely con¬ 
sumed. On the Newcastle side, from the 
corner of Sandgate to within a few yards of 
the Custom-house and back to the Botcher- 
bank, shops, offices, warehouses, and dwelling- 
houses were one mass of calcined ruins. The 
loss of life was also great. Upwards of forty 
bodies were recovered from the ruins, among 
the number being Ensign Poynter of the 26th 
Cameramans, and Corporal Stephenson of 
the same regiment, who perished exerting 
themselves to subdue the flames and protect 
property; Mr. Bertram, a magistrate; Mr. 
Dobson, architect; and a family of four, 
named Hart. Fifty were carried, wounded, 
to the Infirmary, and about an equal num¬ 
ber to the Dispensary. A general opinion 
prevailing that gunpowder in large quantities 
had been stored in the warehouse where the 
explosion took place, a most searching inquiry 
was made under the direction of officials sent 
by Government. It was not established that 
gunpowder to any extent whatever was stored 
in the warehouse, but from the evidence 
(after experiments) of H. L. Pattinson, of 
Felling Chemical Works, it appeared that the 
inflammable substances piled on the various 
floors, when mixed together, as naturally 
happened, and subjected to copious streams of 
water, became possessed of an explosive force 
much greater than even manufactured gun¬ 
powder. 

8 . —The Bank of Victoria at Ballarat broken 
into, and 14,300/. in money and 200 ounces of 
gold-dust carried off. The two watchers on 
the premises were overpowered, and the safe 
rifled by three men disguised with crape over 
their faces. On the testimony of Quinn, an 
accomplice, Henry Garratt, an English convict, 
was apprehended in London, and a large part 
of the plunder found in his possession. He 
was sent back to Melbourne, where he was 
tried and executed for the offence. 

11.— The New Stamp Act for bills and 
promissory notes comes into operation. 

13.— Her Majesty issues a Commission 
directed to Prince Albert and a large number 
of noblemen and gentlemen, empowering them 
to raise and distribute a “ Patriotic Fund ” for 
relief of the orphans and widows of soldiers, 
sailors, and marines, who may fall in the pre¬ 
sent war. Public feeling being greatly roused 
by the alleged insufficient provision made for 
the wounded, the Times undertook to ad¬ 
minister a fund which, in seven days, amounted 
to 7,000/. It distributed in all no less than 
25,462/. A third body, calling itself “The 
Central Association in aid of the Wives and 
Families of Soldiers ordered on Foreign Ser¬ 
vice,” administered upwards of 100,000/. 

14..— Died at Brighton, aged 39, Samuel 
Phillips, novelist and critic. 


15 . —Mr. Sidney Herbert solicits, on behalf 
of the Government, the assistance of Miss 
Florence Nightingale, of the Sick Governesses 
Institution, Harley-street, to organize and 
superintend the nursing department of the 
soldiers, hospital at Scutari. “You would, 
of course, have plenary authority over all the 
nurses, and I think I could secure you the 
fullest assistance and co-operation from the me¬ 
dical staff, and you would also have an un¬ 
limited power of drawing on the Government 
for whatever you think requisite for the success 
of your mission. On this part of the subject 
the details are too many for a letter, and I 
reserve it for our meeting; for, whatever 
decision you take, I know you will give me 
every assistance and advice. I do not say one 
word to press you. You are the only person 
who can judge for yourself which of conflicting 
or incompatible duties is the first, or the 
highest; but I think I must not conceal from 
you that upon your decision will depend the 
ultimate success or failure of the plan. Your 
own personal qualities, your knowledge, and 
your power of administration, and, among 
greater things, your rank and position in society, 
give you advantages in such a work which 
no other person possesses. If this succeeds, 
an enormous amount of good will be done 
now, and to persons deserving everything at 
our hands, and which will multiply the good 
to all time.” 

17 . —Recriminatory correspondence between 
Sir James Graham and Admiral Napier. Sir 
James Graham, in answer to a letter from Sir 
C. Napier, write?:—“You refer to my letters 
at the end of August, as contemplating then 
the early termination of active operations in the 
Baltic for this year. I was not prepared, 
even at that time, for the immediate departure 
of the French army after the capture of 
Bomarsund, and I pointed out to you Abo, 
Sweaborg, and Revel as points which, with 
military aid, were open to attack. Much less 
was I prepared for the withdrawal of the 
French squadron from the combined naval 
operations, almost instantaneously with the 
departure of the army, so soon as Bomarsund 
had been destroyed.” Sir Charles’s reply is 
dated from Kiel. Referring to the lateness of 
the season, and the continuation of bad 
weather, the Admiral says :—“ Had people 
considered one moment, they would have seen 
the impracticability of the attempt; but they 
thought Sebastopol was taken, and I must 
take Sweaborg, Revel, and Cronstadt. After 
the French general had reconnoitred Sweaborg, 
I examined it again, and sent home my opinion 
as to how it ought to be attacked—by ships, 
batteries, gun-boats, mortar-boats, &c., at 
great length ; and the Admiralty, as if anxious 
to get up a case against me, take it into their 
heads that I meant to attack it with the fleet 
alone, and were going to send back the French 
squadron and Admiral Plumridge’s ships ; and 
though I have remonstrated, they persist in 
still thinking so; and you, Sir James, seem 

R E 2 





OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1854. 


to have fallen into the same error. You say, 

4 Then came your own second reconnaissance, 
and a plan of naval attack, which you con¬ 
sidered practicable.’ Had I seen the smallest 
chance of success, I should have attacked 
without the French ; but I did not : and surely 
my opinion is worth more than a general of 
Engineers ; but the Admiralty seem to think 
differently. The general talked of destroying 
Sweaborg in two hours. It is much more 
likely the ships would have been set fire to 
by red-hot shot and shells, and some of them 
on shore by that time. Be assured it is a 
most difficult place to attack, and whoever 
does it will have a hard nut to crack. No 
admiral has as yet ventured to attack such a 
fortress, defended, as it is, by art and nature. 
The sunken rocks alone, combined with the 
smoke from the guns and steamers, is no bad 
defence.” Sir Charles winds up as follows :— 
“ I am conscious of having done my duty ; and 
if you are dissatisfied, you can bring me to 
a court-martial, or remove me : as I before 
mentioned to the Admiralty, I am very far 
from well; and I assure you this correspond¬ 
ence has not improved my health ; and I am 
suffering much from cold. . .” To this letter 
Sir J. Graham rejoined :—“ I am very unwill¬ 
ing to be involved in a written controversy with 
you, but you have brought it on yourself, by 
your report of the 25th September, after your 
second reconnaissance of Sweaborg. That re¬ 
port appeared to me to be entirely at variance 
with the opinions previously expressed by you ; 
and I certainly understood you then to say, 
that if you had mortars, rockets, and Lan¬ 
caster guns, you considered Sweaborg assail¬ 
able by sea. In May you declared it to be 
unassailable by sea or land, and the Admi¬ 
ralty did not. send you the appliances which, 
in September, you declared to be wanting, be¬ 
cause they believed, from your account, they 
would be useless against a place which in the 
first instance you pronounced to be impreg¬ 
nable. I could not bring myself to believe 
that the want of Lancaster guns, or even of 
mortars, rendered a sea attack, on your plan 
of the 25th September, impossible, if you had 
twenty-five sail of the line assembled before 
the place, with all the means of vertical fire. 
I am sincerely sorry to hear that you are un¬ 
well. I hope that Kiel harbour and milder 
air will restore you to health. ” In the last of 
the series, written from Kiel, November 6th, 
Sir C. Napier says :—“There is not a word 
in either my public or private letters that 
justifies the construction that you and the 
Admiralty have thought proper to put on 
them. My letter in answer to their lordships’ 
last despatch is plain enough ; but if their 
lordships think proper to deliberate on one 
part of my letter, and ignore another part, I 
can only protest against it; and I am quite 
prepared to defend myself against any unjust 
attacks that are made against me. Enough 
has not been done to satisfy an impatient public, 
as you call them; some one must be blamed, 
( 420 ) 


and I am the chosen one ; but I will not 
allow myself to be crushed because I could 
not do impossibilities. All this stir has been 
caused by the reports of two Engineers (one 
French and the other English), diametrically 
opposed to each other; in addition to which 
was the report of the capture of Sebastopol, • 
not yet taken, though the fleet there is as- • 
sisted by an army of 70,000 men, in a fine 
climate ; and I have been expected to take 
places much stronger with a fleet alone; and 
the same people who so often warned me 
against unnecessarily risking my fleet, are 
now dissatisfied because I did not expose ;i 
them to certain destruction. I have gone 
through the world with honour and credit to 
myself, and just as I am about to leave it 
unworthy attempts are being made to ruin my 
reputation ; but they will fail, and recoil on 
themselves.” 

17 .—The siege batteries of the Allied armies 
opened fire upon the Russian works south of 
Sebastopol about half-past six o’clock this 
morning, exploding a magazine in Fort Con¬ 
stantine, and injuring the face of the fort. 

— Courts-martial at Sheemess to inquire into 
the circumstances attending the abandonment 
of the Investigator , Resolute , and Assistance 
in the Arctic seas. Captain M'Clure, Captain 
Kellett, and Sir Edward Belcher, the officers 
in command, were honourably acquitted, and 
received back their swords with the praise of 
the court. 

22 .—Dr. Rae, the Arctic traveller, arrives 
at Deal with intelligence of the fate of Sir 
John Franklin’s expedition. According to 
information from Esquimaux in Pelly Bay, in 
the spring, four winters past (1850) a party of 
white men, amounting to about forty, were seen 
travelling southward over the ice, and dragging 
a boat with them, by Esquimaux, who were 
killing seals near the north shore of King 
William’s Land. None of the party could 
speak the Esquimaux language ; but by signs 
the natives were made to understand that their 
ship, or ships, had been crushed by ice, and 
that they were now going to where they ex¬ 
pected to find deer to shoot. From the ap¬ 
pearance of the men, all of whom, except one 
officer, looked thin, they were then supposed 
to be getting short of provisions, and they 
purchased a small seal from the natives. The 
same season, at a later date, but pi-eviously to 
the breaking-up of the ice, the bodies of some 
thirty persons were discovered on the continent, 
and five on an island near it, about a long 
day’s journey to the N.W. of a large stream, 
which could be no other than Back’s Great 
Fish River (named by the Esquimaux Oot- 
ko-hi-ca-lik), as its description and that of 
the low shore in the neighbourhood of Point 
Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with 
that of Sir George Back. Some of the bodies 
had been buried (probably those of the first 
victims of famine), some were in tents, others 
under the boat, which had been turned over to 







OCTOBER 


1854. 


OCTOBER 


form a shelter, and several lay scattered about 
in different directions. Of those found on the 
island, one was supposed to have been an 
officer, as he had a telescope strapped over his 
shoulders, and his double-barrelled gun lay 
underneath him. From the mutilated state of 
many of the corpses, and the contents of the 
kettles, it was evident that, our wretched 
countrymen had been driven to cannibalism 
as a means of prolonging existence. There 
appeared to have been an abundant stock of 
ammunition, as the powder was emptied in a 
heap on the ground by the natives out of the 
kegs or cases containing it; and a quantity of 
ball and shot was found below high-water 
mark, having probably been left on the ice 
close to the beach. 

24 . —Election of the New Hebdomadal 
Council at the University of Oxford, under the 
Act of last session. 

25 . —Tried at the Central Criminal Court 
Joseph Windle Cole, merchant, charged with 
obtaining money by representing that he had a 
disposable power in certain spelter and tin, 
and of issuing, with the assistance o£ a wharf¬ 
inger named Maltby (not in custody), invalid 
dock-warrants with intent to defraud. The 
first case taken up was that of Messrs. Laing 
and Co., of Mincing-lane, who, on the faith of 
warrants handed to them by the prisoner, had 
advanced the sum of 10,000/. The jury re¬ 
turned a verdict of Guilty, and the prisoner was 
sentenced, by Chief Baron Pollock, to four 
years’ imprisonment. Other false warrants had 
been knowingly put into circulation through 
the house of Overend, Gurney, and Co. 

— The African mail-steamer Forerunner 
wrecked off the coast of Madeira, under cir¬ 
cumstances of inexcusable folly. She went 
down headforemost in 120 feet of water, car- 
rying fourteen persons with her. The Board of 
Trade Commission pronounced that the wreck 
was occasioned by the vessel “being negli¬ 
gently run upon a well-known rock, situate 
about 200 yards from the cliff of Fara, the 
land being at the time distinctly visible, and 
no necessity whatever existing for the vessel 
being so near the spot.” The captain was de¬ 
clared incompetent and dismissed the service. 

— Battle of Balaklava. “The enemy,” 
writes Lord Raglan, “commenced their ope¬ 
rations by attacking the work on our side of 
the village of Camara, and after very little 
resistance carried it. They likewise got pos¬ 
session of the three others in contiguity to it, 
being opposed only in one, and that only for 
a very short space of time. The furthest of 
the three they did not retain, but the imme¬ 
diate abandonment of the others enabled them 
to take possession of the guns in them, amount¬ 
ing in the whole to seven. Those in the three 
lesser forts were spiked by the one English 
artilleryman who was in each. The Russian 
cavalry at once advanced, supported by artil¬ 
lery in very great strength. One portion of 


them assailed the front and right flank of the 
93d, and were instantly driven back by the 
vigorous and steady fire of that distinguished 
regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Ainslie. 
The other and larger mass turned towards her 
Majesty’s heavy cavalry, and afforded Brigadier- 
General Scarlett, under the guidance of Lieu¬ 
tenant-General the Earl of Lucan, the oppor¬ 
tunity of inflicting upon them a most signal 
defeat. The ground was very unfavourable for 
the attack of our Dragoons, but no obstacle 
was sufficient to check their advance, and they 
charged into the Russian column, which soon 
sought safety in flight, although far superior in 
numbers. As the enemy withdrew from the 
ground which they had inomentarily occupied, 

I directed the cavalry, supported by the 4th 
Division, under Lieutenant-General Sir George 
Cathcart, to move forward, and take advan¬ 
tage of any opportunity to regain the heights ; 
and, not having been able to accomplish this 
immediately, and it appearing that an attempt 
was making to remove the captured guns, the 
Earl of Lucan was desired to advance rapidly, 
follow the enemy in their retreat, and try to 
prevent them from effecting their object. In 
the meanwhile the Russians had time to re-form 
on their own ground, with artillery in front and 
upon their flanks. From some misconception 
of the instruction to advance, the Lieutenant- 
General considered that he was bound to attack 
at all hazards, and he accordingly ordered 
Major-General the Earl of Cardigan to move 
forward with the Light Brigade. This order was 
obeyed in the most spirited manner. Lord Car¬ 
digan charged with the utmost vigour, attacked 
a battery which was firing upon the advancing 
squadrons, and, having passed beyond it, en¬ 
gaged the Russian cavalry in its rear; but there 
his troops were assailed by artillery and infantry 
as well as cavalry, and necessarily retired, after 
having committed much havoc upon the enemy. 
They effected this movement without haste or 
confusion ; but the loss they have sustained has, 

I deeply lament, been very severe in officers, 
men, and horses, only counterbalanced by the 
brilliancy of the attack and the gallantry, order, 
and discipline which distinguished it, forming a 
striking contrast to the conduct of the enemy’s 
cavalry, which had previously been engaged 
with the Heavy Brigade.” Next day the 
enemy moved out of Sebastopol with a large 
force of infantry, cavalry, and artillery— 
amounting to 6,000 or 7,000 men—and attacked 
the left of the 2d Division, commanded by 
Lieutenant-General Sir De Lacy Evans, who 
speedily and energetically repulsed them, as¬ 
sisted by one of the batteries of the 1st Division, 
and some guns of the Light Division. He was 
supported by the brigade of Guards, also by 
several regiments of the 4th Division, and in 
the rear by the French division commanded by 
General Bosquet, who was most eager in his 
desire to give him every aid. 

25 .—The charge of the Light Brigade at 
Balaklava, which gave rise to much criticism, 
was caused by the following written ©rde» 

(421) 




OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1S54. 


placed in the hands of Lord Lucan by Captain 
Nolan:—“ Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry tc 
advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, 
and try to prevent the enemy carrying away 
the guns. Troop of Horse Artillery may 
accompany. French cavalry is on your left. 
Immediate.—R. Airey.” "“After carefully 
reading the order,” writes Lord Lucan, “I 
hesitated, and urged the uselessness of such an 
attack, and the dangers attending it. The 
aide-de-camp, in the most authoritative tone, 
stated that they were Lord Raglan’s orders ; 
that the cavalry should attack immediately. 
I asked him, * Where, and what to do?’ as 
neither enemy nor guns were within sight. He 
replied in a most disrespectful but significant 
manner, pointing to the further end of the 
valley, * There, my lord, is your enemy ; there 
are your guns.’ So distinct in my opinion were 
your written instructions, and so positive and 
urgent were the orders delivered by the aide- 
de-camp, that I felt it was imperative on me 
to obey, and I informed Lord Cardigan that 
he was to advance; and to the objections 
he made, and in which I entirely agreed, I 
replied that the order was from your lordship. ” 
Captain Nolan, the bearer of the order, was 
among the earliest who fell in the charge. The 
Times correspondent described the unparalleled 
feat, as witnessed from a point commanding 
a view of the charge:—“The whole brigade 
scarcely made one effective regiment, according 
to the numbers of continental armies ; and yet 
it was more than we could spare. As they 
passed towards the front, the Russians opened 
on them from the guns in the redoubt on the 
right, with volleys of musketry and rifles. They 
swept proudly past, glittering in the morning 
sun in all the pride and splendour of war. We 
could scarcely believe the evidence of our 
senses ! Surely that handful of men are not 
going to charge an army in position ? Alas ! 
it was but too true ; their desperate valour 
knew no bounds, and far indeed was it removed 
from its so-called better part— discretion. They 
advanced in two lines, quickening their pace 
as they closed towards the enemy. A more 
fearful spectacle was never witnessed than by 
those who, without the power to aid, beheld 
their heroic countrymen rushing to the arms of 
death. At the distance of 1,200 yards the 
whole line of the enemy belched forth, from 
thirty iron mouths, a flood of smoke and 
flame, through which hissed the deadly balls. 
Their flight was marked by instant gaps in our 
ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying 
wounded or riderless across the plain. The 
first line is broken, it is joined by the second, 
they never halt or check their speed an instant; 
with diminished ranks, thinned by those thirty 
guns, which the Russians had laid with the 
most deadly accuracy, with a halo of flashing 
6teel above their heads, and with a cheer which 
was many a noble fellow’s death-cry, they flew 
into the smoke of the batteries ; but ere they 
were lost from view the plain was strewn with 
their bodies, and with the carcases of horses. 


They were exposed to an oblique fire from the 
batteries on the hills on both sides, as well as to 
a direct fire of musketry. Through the clouds 
of smoke we could see their sabres flashing as 
they rode up to the guns and dashed between 
them, cutting down the gunners as they stood. 
We saw them riding through the guns, as I 
have said: to our delight we saw them return¬ 
ing, after breaking through a column of Russian 
infantry, and scattering them like chaff, when 
the flank fire of the battery on the hill swept 
them down, scattered and broken as they were. 
Wounded men and dismounted troopers flying 
towards us told the sad tale: demi-gods could 
not have done what we had failed to do. At the 
very moment when they were about to retreat, 
an enormous mass of Lancers was hurled on 
their flank. Colonel Shewell, of the 8th 
Hussars, saw the danger, and rode his few 
men straight at them, cutting his way through 
with fearful loss. The other regiments turned 
and engaged in a desperate encounter. With 
courage too great almost for credence, they 
were breaking their way through the columns 
which enveloped them, when there took place 
an act of atrocity without parallel in the modern 
warfare of civilized nations. The Russian 
gunners, when the storm of cavalry passed, 
returned to their guns. They saw their own 
cavalry mingled with the troopers who had just 
ridden over them, and, to the eternal disgrace 
of the Russian name, the miscreants poured a 
murderous volley of grape and canister on the 
mass of struggling men and horses, mingling 
friend and foe in one common ruin. It was as 
much as our Heavy Cavalry Brigade could do 
to cover the retreat of the miserable remnants 
of that band of heroes as they returned to the 
place they had so lately quitted in all the pride 
of life. At 11.35 not a British soldier, except 
the dead and dying, was left in fr©nt of those 
bloody Muscovite guns. Our loss, as far as 
it could be ascertained, in killed, wounded, 
and missing, at two o’clock to-day, was as 
follows :— 


4th Light Dragoons 
8th Hussars. . 
nth Hussars. . 
13th Light Dragoons 
17th Lancers. . . 


Action. 

Strong. 

Il8 

IO4 

no 

130 

145 

607 


Returned 


from 

Loss. 

Action. 


39 

79 

38 

66 

25 

85 

61 

69 

35 

no 

198 

409.” 


25 .—Lord John Russell, in the course of an 
address at the opening of a new Athenaeum in 
Bristol, referred to the want in our literature ol 
a truly national history which would do justice 
to our struggles for religion and liberty as well 
as our achievements in science and literature. 


26 .— Destruction by fire of the bonded ware¬ 
houses in Launcelot’s Hay, Liverpool, destroy¬ 
ing property valued at over 95,000/. 

— The Dutch Boers blockade a tribe of 
Caffres under Makapan in a cavern to which 
they had retreated. When a capitulation was 






OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1854. 


made in November, it was found that 900 of 
them were suffocated. 

28 . —Musical fete at the Crystal Palace in 
support of the Patriotic Fund. The great 
attraction of the day was the performance of 
the band of the French Guides, sent over for 
the occasion by the Emperor. 

29 . —John Bright writes in reply to an invi¬ 
tation to attend the Manchester Patriotic Fund 
Meeting : “ My doctrine would have been non¬ 
intervention in this case. The danger of the 
Russian power was a phantom ; the necessity 
of permanently upholding the Mahometan 
rule in Europe is an absurdity. Our love for 
civilization, when we subject the Greeks and 
Christians to the Turks, is a sham ; and our 
sacrifices for freedom, when working out the 
behests of the Emperor of the French, and 
coaxing Austria to help us, are pitiful impos¬ 
ture. The evils of non-intervention were 
remote and vague, and could neither be 
weighed nor described in any accurate terms.... 
You must excuse me, if I cannot go with you ; 
I will have no part in this terrible crime. My 
hands shall be unstained with the blood which 
is being shed. The necessity of maintaining 
themselves in office may influence an Adminis¬ 
tration ; delusion may mislead a people ; Vattel 
may afford you a law and a defence ; but no 
respect for men who form a Government, no 
regard I have for going with the stream, and 
no fear of being deemed wanting in patriotism, 
shall influence me in favour of a policy which, 
in my conscience, I believe to be as criminal 
before God as it is destructive of the true interests 
of my country.” This letter, which gave rise 
to much indignation among the war party, and 
led to the hon. member being burnt in effigy 
by his constituents at New Cross, was printed 
in the St. Petersburg Journal of Nov. 19. 

30 .—A Working Men’s College opened in 
Red Lion-square. The inaugural lecture was 
spoken by the Rev. F. D. Maurice, in St. 
Martin’s Hall. 

November 3 .—Riot at Cambridge, between 
the police and the undergraduates, who inter¬ 
rupted a lecture being delivered in the Town 
Hall against the use of tobacco. 

5. —Battle of Inkerman. Soon after mid¬ 
night those who guarded the trenches or lay 
sleepless in their tents heard the tolling of bells 
as for some sacred ceremony. The distant 
sounds of chanting were even said to have been 
caught up by persons who watched still nearer 
to the beleaguered city. The solemn peal 
ceased about two hours before daylight, and 
was succeeded by the bright flash and heavy 
report of ordnance in the rear of the British 
lines. After a little time there was again a deep 
silence, only broken by a low rumbling heard 
by the furthest pickets, who thought it to be 
the noise of wagons laden with supplies enter¬ 
ing the town. The morning was extremely 
dark, with a drizzling rain, rendering it almost 


impossible to discover anything beyond the 
flash and smoke of artillery and heavy musketry 
fire. It soon became evident that the enemy, 
under cover of a vast cloud of skirmishers, 
supported by dense columns of infantry, had 
advanced numerous batteries of large calibre to 
the high ground to the left and front of the 2d 
Division, while powerful columns of infantry 
attacked with great vigour the brigade of 
Guards. Additional batteries of heavy artillery 
were also placed by the enemy on the slope to 
our left; the guns in the field amounting in the 
whole to ninety pieces, independently of the 
ship-guns and those in the works of Sebas¬ 
topol. Protected by a tremendous fire of 
shot, shell, and grape, the Russian columns 
advanced in great force, requiring every effort 
of gallantry on the part of our troops to resist 
them. At this time two battalions of French 
infantry, which had on the first notice been 
sent by General Bosquet, joined our right, and 
very materially contributed to the successful 
resistance to the attack, cheering with our men, 
and charging the enemy down the hill with 
great loss. About the same time a determined 
assault was made on our extreme left, and for 
a moment the enemy possessed themselves of 
four of our guns, three of which were retaken 
by the 88th, while the fourth was speedily re¬ 
captured by the 77th Regiment under Lieu¬ 
tenant-Colonel Egerton. In the opposite 
direction the brigade of Guards, under his 
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, was 
engaged in a severe conflict. The enemy, 
under the cover of thick brushwood, advanced 
in two heavy bodies, and assaulted with great 
determination a small redoubt which had been 
constructed for two guns, but was not armed. 
The combat was most arduous, and the brigade, 
after displaying the utmost steadiness and 
gallantry, was obliged to retire before very 
superior numbers, until supported by a wing of 
the 20th Regiment of the 4th Division, when 
they again advanced and retook the redoubt. 
This ground was afterwards occupied by French 
troops, and the Guards speedily reformed in 
rear of the right flank of the 2d Division. 
In the meanwhile Lieut.-General the Hon. 
Sir George Cathcart, with a few companies 
of the 68th Regiment, considering that he 
might make a strong impression by descending 
into the valley, and taking the enemy in flank, 
moved rapidly forward ; but finding the heights 
above him in full occupation of the Russians, 
he suddenly discovered that he was entangled 
with a superior force ; and, while attempting 
to withdraw his men, he received a mortal 
wound : shortly previous to which Brigadier- 
General Torrens, when leading the 68th, was 
likewise severely wounded. After this the 
battle continued with unabated vigour and 
with no positive result (the enemy bringing 
upon our line not only the fire of all the field 
batteries, but those in front of the works of the 
place, and the ship-guns) till the afternoon, 
when the symptoms of giving way first became 
apparent; and, although the fire did not cease, 

( 423 ) 






NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1854. 


the retreat became general. Heavy masses 
were observed retiring over the bridge of the 
Inkerman, and ascending the opposite heights, 
abandoning on the field of battle five or six 
thousand dead and wounded, multitudes of the 
latter having already been carried off by them. 
In this, the severest engagement of the cam¬ 
paign, the British loss in killed and wounded 
was 2,612, of whom 145 were officers. French 
loss, 1,726. The Russians, said to have mus¬ 
tered 50,000 strong, were reported to have 
lost 12,000; but in no engagement during the 
war could the loss of the enemy be precisely 
ascertained. 

5 .—Arrival of Miss Florence Nightingale, 
with her nurses, at Scutari, on their mission of 
mercy to the wounded soldiers in hospital. 
Five rooms which had been set apart for 
wcunded general officers, and were now for¬ 
tunately unoccupied, were given up to the new 
nurses, who in appearance and demeanour 
formed a strong contrast to the usual aspect of 
hospital attendants. Under their management 
the chaotic confusion of the place was quickly 
reduced to order, and the wounded, before 
left for many long hours unattended, now 
scarcely uttered a groan without some gentle 
nurse being at hand to adjust their pillow or 
alleviate their pain. One of the nurses writing 
home on the nth, when the wounded from 
Inkerman were being brought in, says: “I 
know not which sight is most heartrending ; to 
witness fine strong men worn down by exhaus¬ 
tion and sinking under it, or others coming in 
fearfully wounded. The whole of yesterday 
was spent in sewing men’s mattresses together, 
then in washing and assisting the surgeon to 
dress their wounds, and seeing the poor fellows 
made as comfortable as their circumstances 
would admit of after five days’ confinement on 
board ship, during which their wounds were 
not dressed. Out of the four wards committed 
to my charge, eleven men died in the night 
simply from exhaustion, which, humanly speak¬ 
ing, might have been stopped could I have 
laid my hands upon such nourishment as I 
know they ought to have had.” Medical as 
well as all other stores had been sent in pro¬ 
fusion from England; yet even lint was want¬ 
ing, or could not be found, for the dressing of 
the wounds. Medicines and medical appli¬ 
ances lay rotting on the beach at Varna, or 
buried in the hold of vessels in Balaklava 
harbour. It was even asserted that hospital 
stores sent from England by the Government 
were openly sold in the bazaars of Constanti¬ 
nople, and as far inland as Adrianople. In 
the discussions to which the neglect of the 
wounded gave rise, the Secretary-at-War ad¬ 
mitted that a system had been engendered 
during the peace, ‘ ‘ which greatly encumbered 
the hospitals, of check and countercheck, for 
the purpose of economy. There have been all 
manner of forms to be gone through before the 
stores could be issued to the medical officers. 
Every account I get says this: The medical 
men in their vocation arc beyond all praise; 
( 424 ) 


they work night and day; their tenderness, 
humanity, zeal, and energy arc mentioned by 
every one, friend or foe. But it does appear 
to me that the deficiency is this : that, with 
plenty of stores, no one seemed to know where 
to lay their hands upon them ; with plenty of 
materials at their disposal, the forms were so 
cumbrous that they never could be produced 
with the rapidity required for the purposes of a 
military hospital.” 

11 . —Seven lives lost at the Thistleyfield 
Colliery by the breaking of the chain to which 
the cage was attached. 

— The Times , in a leading article, draws 
public attention to the sufferings and losses 
which had befallen our army in the Crimea :— 
“We are carrying on our part of the siege of 
Sebastopol with an army which sickness, the 
bloody victory of the Alma, and the inevitable 
consumption of life by an army acting in the 
face of an enemy, have reduced to little more 
than one-half of the number with which we 
landed in the Crimea on the 14th of September. 
We are obliged to eke out the scanty numbers 
of our force by draughts from the fleet, and 
when our ships were called upon to attack the 
Russian forts, their crews, weakened by cholera, 
and by the numbers detached to serve in the 
siege, did not suffice to work the whole of the 
guns.” 

12 . —Died at London, again 79, Charles 
Kemble, actor. 

13 . —The meeting of the Geographical 
Society to-night presented a feature of unusual 
interest from the attendance of Dr. Rae and a 
company of distinguished Arctic voyagers. 

14 -.—Disastrous storm in the Black Sea. 
Of the French line-of-battle ships within the 
harbour of Balaklava two were wrecked and 
three disabled. The English Agamemnon and 
Sanspareil were driven ashore, but afterwards 
got off. Outside the roadstead the destruction 
among the transports was appalling. The 
Prince, a superb steamer of 2,700 tons, lately 
purchased for the transport service, had just 
arrived with a large body of troops, and an 
immense quantity of stores—being, in fact, the 
greater part of the winter clothing for . the 
troops, medicines, and hospital necessaries. 
She had landed the troops; but not being able 
to enter the crowded harbour, was ordered 
outside. When the gale reached its height, 
she threw out additional anchors. The chain 
cables, however, had not been secured at the 
ends, and of course ran out of the hawse-holes, 
when the ship drove on to the cliffs, where she 
was speedily dashed to fragments. All her 
crew (except a midshipman and six sailors) 
and some valuable officers of the Army and 
Medical Service, who chanced to be on board 
perished with her. The money value of the 
vessel and cargo was not less than half a million. 
1 he Resolute, which was freighted with a pro¬ 
digious quantity of munitions of war (including 
700 tons of gunpowder), met the same fate. 






NO VEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1854 - 


In an instant not a vestige was left of the ship or 
cargo, and all on board were drowned. Thirty- 
two English transports, many of them of great 
size and value, were wrecked either on the 
steep cliffs of Balaklava and the Chersonese 
promontory, or along the coast about Eupa- 
toria. Many of these were burnt to prevent 
them falling into the hands of the Cossacks, 
who thronged down on the shore, and were 
said to have deliberately shot down the wrecked 
seamen as they clung to the rigging. The 
French transports did not suffer so seriously. 
They were much smaller than the English, and 
were sheltered in the bays and creeks which 
indented the French position. Of the trans¬ 
ports saved, the greater part were dismasted, 
and many otherwise injured. The destruc¬ 
tion of the Prince and her cargo was an in¬ 
calculable mischief to the British army; and 
much of the intense suffering of the troops 
during the winter was caused by the loss of 
the clothing, blanketing, and other provisions 
against the severity of the climate, which she 
brought out. The loss of life was lamentable, 
exceeding 1,000, and the value of the shipping 
destroyed was over 2,000,000/. The armies 
on shore also suffered greatly from the effects 
of the storm. The tents were torn up from 
their fastenings, huts were blown down, and 
the men exposed naked and half-starved to the 
full severity of the gale, and the bitter cold 
with which it was accompanied. Many soldiers 
were found dead in the trenches or on the 
heights; the sick and wounded were destroyed 
wholesale ; horses died of cold and starvation; 
and the whole sanitary condition of the army 
became seriously deteriorated. It is probable 
that the enemy’s troops suffered even more 
severely than the Allies—particularly those on 
the march over the exposed steppes of the 
Crimea and Southern Russia. 

17 .—Lord John Russell urges upon Lord 
Aberdeen the necessity for some change being 
made in the office of Secretary-at-War. “ In 
order to carry on the war with efficiency, either 
the Prime Minister must be constantly urging, 
hastening, completing the military prepara¬ 
tions, or the Minister of War must be strong 
enough to control other departments. Every 
objection of other Ministers—the plea of foreign 
interests to be attended to, of naval preparations 
not yet complete, and a thousand others, justi¬ 
fiable in the separate heads of departments, must 
be forced to yield to the paramount necessity 
of carrying on the war with efficiency of each 
service, and completeness of means to the end 
in view. If, therefore, the first considerations 
here presented lead to the conclusion that the 
Secretary of State for the War Department 
must be in the House of Commons, the latter 
considerarions point to the necessity of having 
in that office a man who, from experience of 
military details, from inherent vigour of mind, 
and from weight with the House of Commons, 
can be expected to guide the great operations 
of war with authority and success. There is 
only one person belonging to the Government 


who combines these advantages. My con¬ 
clusion is that before Parliament meets Lord 
Palmerston should be entrusted with the seals 
of the War Department.” Lord Aberdeen 
answered: “ I think you will admit that, 
although another person might, perhaps, have 
been preferred on the first constitution of an 
office, it is a very different thing to displace a 
man who has discharged his duties ably and 
honourably, merely in the belief that another 
might be found still more efficient. Un¬ 
doubtedly, the public service must be the first 
object; but, in the absence of any proved 
defect, or alleged incapacity, I can see no 
sufficient reason for such a change; which, 
indeed, I think is forbidden by a sense of 
justice and good faith. ... On the whole, 
then, believing that any change like that pro¬ 
posed would be of doubtful advantage to the 
public, feeling very strongly that it would be 
an act of unfairness and injustice towards a 
colleague, and thinking, also, that all such 
changes, unless absolutely necessary, only tend 
to weaken Government, I must repeat that I 
could not honestly recommend it to the Queen.” 

17 . — Died at Stockholm, of fever, aged 51, 
Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart, M.P., the zealous 
advocate of the rights of Poland. 

18 . —Died, at his residence near Great 
Yarmouth, in his 90th year, Captain G. W. 
Manby, well known as the inventor of appa¬ 
ratus for saving life in cases of shipwreck. 

— Died at Wardie, near Edinburgh, aged 
33, Edward Forbes, Professor of Natural His¬ 
tory in the University of Edinburgh. 

20 . —The Lord Chancellor delivers judg¬ 
ment in the case of Thornhill v. Thornhill, 
where a ward in Chancery had been abducted 
by G. A. H. Chichester, with the connivance 
and knowledge of his sister, Augusta Arabella, 
Countess of Ferrers. The latter was censured 
in the severest terms, and Chichester himself 
committed to the Queen’s Prison. 

21 . —Lord Raglan gazetted a Field Marshal; 
the commission to bear date 5th November. 

23 . —The Mary Graham , with a cargo of 
coals on board, driven ashore near Sunderland. 
Of twenty-four on board, only one escaped. 

24 . —The Court of Queen’s Bench refuse Sir 
Frederick Thesiger’s application for a rule pro¬ 
hibiting the Archbishop of Canterbury from 
proceeding under the Church Discipline Act in 
a case of erroneous doctrine against the Vener¬ 
able George Anthony Denison, Archdeacon of 
Taunton and Vicar of East Brent, in the dio¬ 
cese of Bath and Wells, on the ground that the 
matter had been already adjudicated upon, and 
was not within the jurisdiction of the Arch¬ 
bishop. The charge was, that certain sermons 
preached by Mr. Denison at Wells in 1853 
contained doctrines on the subject of the Holy 
Communion repugnant to the Thirty-nine Ar¬ 
ticles. These charges were submitted by the 
Reverend Mr. Ditcher, Vicar of South Brent; 
and by due process they went before the late 

(42S) 




NOVEMBER 


1854. 


DECEMBER 


Bishop of Bath and Wells. The Bishop de¬ 
clined to send the charges before the Court of 
Arches, but “ convented ” the Archdeacon him¬ 
self. Mr. Denison defended his opinion by- 
letter; and by letter the late Bishop, dissent¬ 
ing from some of Mr. Denison’s opinions, yet 
regarding them as uncensured by the Church, 
“monished” Mr. Denison not to put forward 
his own views of the Real Presence in his preach¬ 
ing. This, it was contended, determined the 
matter; and a variety of legal arguments were 
used to sustain that view. Lord Campbell now 
delivered judgment, that the proceeding of the 
late Bishop was not an adjudication of the 
matter at issue ; and his refusal to grant letters 
of request was, in point of law, no bar to the 
proceedings taken by the Archbishop. 

25 .—Died at Abbotsford, whither he had 
retired in broken health, John Gibson Lock¬ 
hart, editor of the Quarterly Review and bio¬ 
grapher of his great father-in-law, Sir Walter 
Scott. 

— Died at Stuttgardt, aged 50, John Kitto, 
Biblical scholar, and author of “The Lost 
Senses.” 

29 .—Tried at the Central Criminal Court 
the Rev. Thomas Tierney Ferguson, a Roman 
Catholic priest, charged with felony, in so far 
as he had unlawfully solemnized a marriage 
between two persons of the Roman Catholic 
persuasion in a place other than the one men¬ 
tioned in the certificate of the superintending 
registrar, and also in the absence of the regis¬ 
trar for the district. He was found guilty; but 
as the sole object of the prosecution was to have 
the law declared, he was only called upon to give 
recognizances to appear to receive judgment 
when called on. 

— Speaking at a war-medal dinner at Edin¬ 
burgh, the Duke of Richmond made a graceful 
allusion to the kindly feeling which had existed 
between the English and French soldiers even 
when opposed to each other. ‘ ‘ There is no 
Peninsular officer here present,” he said, “who 
will not remember, that when we were opposed 
to the French troops in the Peninsula, the 
moment our cross-belts were off, the soldiers 
of the two armies would meet beside the same 
rivulet, washing their muskets in the same 
stream, and sharing with each other their 
brandy and their biscuits. There always was 
a feeling of respect on the part of the English 
towards the French in those wars, which was 
also felt by the French towards the English. 
We fought not as savages ; and I hope and trust 
that, in performing the important duty which 
we owe to the land of our birth, we shall never 
degrade ourselves into being barbarians. If 
it be true that some of the Russian troops 
murdered the wounded men, I only hope that 
no retaliation of their inhumanity will take 
place. We must look for their punishment to 
the universal contempt of all mankind.” 

29 .—At the twenty-fourth anniversary of the 
Polish revolution M. Kossuth delivers an ad- 
1426 ) 


dress full of reflections on the war policy of the 
Government, and suggesting the immediate 
formation of a Polish brigade to aid the allies 
in the Crimea. 

30 .—The Nile, coasting steamer trading 
between London and Liverpool, lost with all 
hands in a storm, about forty miles from the 
Longship Light. A portion of her wreck was 
discovered next day washed ashore at Port- 
reath, and five of the bodies at Tehidy. 

— At the opening of the Prussian Chambers 
to-day the King declared it to be his task to 
plead for peace and moderation. The army, 
however, was to be prepared for war. 

From the imperfect arrangements in the 
Commissariat and Land Transport depart¬ 
ments, the sufferings endured by our army in 
the Crimea throughout this and the following 
month were of the most intense description, 
and excited a corresponding feeling in Eng¬ 
land. The siege was practically in abeyance ; 
our army, weakened by losses and sickness, 
was scarcely able to hold its own; the batteries 
were nearly silent; the camp was rapidly be¬ 
coming a quagmire; the roads, cut up by the 
daily passage of heavy guns and Commissariat 
wagons, became almost impassable. Horses 
and mules died of cold, starvation, and hard 
work; indeed, the army had more than it could 
do to feed itself. Worn out by night-work in 
the trenches, amid rain and storm, the men 
returned to the camp only to find dripping 
tents, rotten straw embedded in mud to lie 
upon, and an overtasked Commissariat unable 
any longer to supply them with rations. To 
add to this catalogue of disasters, the cholera 
again broke out in the camp this morning, and 
for weeks carried off, on an average, sixty 
men a day. The poor Turks encamped above 
Balaklava, neglected by their own authorities, 
were cut off in hundreds by famine and disease, 
till of a force originally 8,000 strong less than 
one-half remained of famine-stricken spectres. 

December 2 .—Treaty of alliance between 
Gx-eat Britain, France, and Austria. Assist¬ 
ance was promised to the latter Power in the 
event of hostilities breaking out between her 
and Russia, and they reciprocally engaged not 
to entertain any overtures regarding the cessa¬ 
tion of hostilities without a general understand¬ 
standing among all the contracting parties. 
Prussia, on being invited to join in this 
alliance, professed herself as satisfied with the 
intentions of the three Powers, but required a 
new interpretation of the four points. 

3 .—Affray between soldiers and the gold- 
diggers at Eureka, Ballarat, who were resisting 
payment of the customary licence-fee to dig. 
The troops surrounded the camp of the Insur¬ 
gents, and fired over their heads; but the 
diggers at once rushed for their guns, and shot 
three of the military. After a sustained fight 
of about twenty minutes the diggers hauled 
down their flag and surrendered to the soldiers. 






DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1854. 


when it was found that twenty-six of them were 
killed; 126 were made prisoners. 

3. —Destruction by fire of the Whittington 
Club, Arundel-street, a building formerly 
having a wide reputation as the Crown and 
Anchor Tavern. The engines were powerless 
for saving any of the contents, but prevented 
the fire extending to adjoining properties. 

6 .—The Queen to Mr. Sidney Herbert:— 
“Would you tell Mrs. Herbert that I begged 
she would let me see frequently the accounts 
she receives from Miss Nightingale or Miss 
Bracebridge, as I have no details of the 
wounded, though I see so many from officers, 
&c., about the battle-field; and naturally the 
former must interest me more than any one. 
Let Mrs. Herbert also know that I wish Miss 
Nightingale and the ladies would tell these 
poor noble wounded and sick men that no one 
takes a warmer interest, or feels more for their 
sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism 
more, than their Queen. Day and night she 
thinks of her beloved troops. So does the 
Prince. Beg Mrs. Herbert to communicate 
these my words to those ladies, as I know that 
our sympathy is much valued by these noble 
fellows. Victoria.” 

8.—Ceremony of promulgating the dogma 
of the Immaculate Conception at Rome. Amid 
extraordinary splendour and solemnity the 
Pope placed a diadem on the figure of the 
Madonna which forms the upper portion of 
the altar-piece in the Cardinals’ Chapel of St. 
Peter’s. Fifty-four cardinals walked in the 
procession, forty-four archbishops, ninety-four 
bishops, and a multitude of priests beyond 
numbering. During High Mass his Holiness 
read with deep emotion a brief abstract of the 
Bull, declaring, pronouncing, and defining, 
“ that the doctrine which holds that the 
blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her 
conception, by a singular privilege and grace 
of the omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits 
of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was 
preserved immaculate from all stain of original 
sin, has been revealed by God, and, therefore, 
should be firmly and constantly believed by all 
the faithful. Whoever shall presume to think 
otherwise has suffered shipwreck of the faith, 
has revolted from the unity of the Church; and 
if he gives utterance to his thoughts he incurs, 
by h‘s own act, the penalties justly established 
against heresy.” The number of strangers 
who flocked to Rome to view the ceremony 
exceeded all modem precedent. 

— Emmanuel Barthelemy, a French re¬ 
fugee, murders George Moore, by attacking 
him with a loaded cane in his own house, 
Warren-street, New-road. Finding his means 
of escape at the back cut off by a locked gate, 
the murderer retraced his steps through the 
house to get into the New-road, and, on meet¬ 
ing -with resistance, shot an old soldier named 
Collard, living next door, whom the screams of 
the servant had called to the assistance of her 


master. Collard died in University College 
Hospital the same evening. A woman who 
entered the house with Barthelemy succeeded 
in making her escape amid the confusion. The 
object of both was presumed to be the plunder 
of Moore’s house and shop. The murderer 
was seized after a short run from the scene of 
crime; and on being taken to the police- 
station in George-street was identified as the 
person who shot Cournet in the duel at Egham. 
(See Oct. 19, 1852.) There were found on him a 
piece of a cane (the head was lying in Moore’s 
house), a dagger in a sheath sewn into the 
body of his coat, twenty-four ball-cartridges 
fitting the pistol, and some percussion caps. On 
the 4th of January Barthelemy was tried at the 
Central Criminal Court for the murder of Col¬ 
lard, it being thought that this case admitted of 
more precise proof than the other. He was 
found guilty, and sentenced to be executed on 
the 22d. He died impenitent and unbelieving. 
“I don’t want forgiveness of God,” he often 
said ; “I want forgiveness of men. I want 
these doors to be opened.” On the scaffold he 
said he had no belief, and it was of no use 
therefore to ask forgiveness. Notwithstand¬ 
ing his ferocious professions of Republicanism, 
other French refugees always suspected Bar¬ 
thelemy to be in the pay of the French police. 

8 . —The Pride of the Sea burnt in Cardigan 
Bay. The fire, which was supposed to have 
originated in spontaneous combustion, con¬ 
sumed the whole of the cargo, valued at 
30,000/. 

12 .—Order issued from the Horse Guards 
authorizing Lord Raglan, by command of the 
Queen, to recommend one sergeant from every 
regiment under his command to a cornetcy or 
ensigncy,—the commissions to date from the 
battle of Inkerman. 

— Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The Speech from the Throne made 
reference to the unusual period at which Par¬ 
liament had been called together, to take such 
measures as would lead to the prosecution of 
the war with the utmost vigour and effect. 
During the debate on the Address, the Earl of 
Derby paid an eloquent and touching tribute 
to the bravery of the army in the Crimea:— 
“ When we read the history of that campaign,” 
he said,—“when we read it, not as politicians, 
but as men and as Englishmen, there cannot 
be a heart that does not throb w th honest and 
generous pride, that these much enduring, all¬ 
daring, all-achieving men were o.ir countrymen 
—that they were British subjects like ourselves 
—and there is hardly an eye from which a tear 
will not spring unbidden, when we reflect that 
so many of them are numbered with the dead.” 
In the House of Commons, Mr. Layard criti¬ 
cized the proceedings of the Government at 
great length. Mr. Disraeli attacked Ministers 
for anticipating a great war and providing for 
a small one, recalled the attacks made by some 
of them on our ally, and expressed doubts 
about the Austrian treaty. 


( 427 ) 




DECEMBER 


1854. 


DECEMBER 


12 . —The Duke of Newcastle introduces the 
Foreign Enlistment Bill, the object of which, 
as he briefly explained, was to raise a force of 
15,000 foreigners to be drilled in this country. 
Lord Ellenborough, Lord Derby, and others 
opposed the bill as dangerous in principle and 
policy; but the measure, with slight amend¬ 
ment, was successfully carried through all its 
stages and passed to the Commons. The bill 
was read there a third time on the 22d; 
Ministers, on a division, having a majority of 
38 in a House of 308. 

15 .—The Duke of Newcastle in the Lords, 
and Lord John Russell in the Commons, move 
the thanks of Parliament to the British forces 
in the Crimea. 

— Died at Marseilles, aged 55, Leon 
Faucher, a French politician of great accom¬ 
plishments and marked consistency. 

17 . —The winter in the Baltic commencing 
with its usual severity, the Allied fleet is broken 
up, and a return made to home ports. 

18 . —Baron de Manteuffel forwards to 
Foreign Courts a circular designed to be ex¬ 
planatory of the vacillating policy of Prussia. 
“ The King appreciates the high importance of 
the step taken by the Cabinets who signed the 
treaty of the 2d December by inviting Prussia 
to adhere thereto ; and the more desirous his 
Majesty is to respond to the sentiments which 
dictated that measure, the more reason have 
we to hope that confidential explanations of the 
interpretation of the four guarantees will enable 
us to judge of the bearing of the engagements 
we should have in that case to contract.” 

19 . —Davidson and Gordon sentenced to 
two years’ imprisonment with hard labour for 
obtaining goods under false pretences within 
three months of their bankruptcy. Availing 
themselves of legal technicalities, the prisoners 
escaped the punishment due to their offences 
of non-surrender and embezzlement. 

20. —In the case of Birch z\ Forster, an action 
for libel against the proprietor of the Examiner 
for comments on the case of Birch v. Somerville 
in 1851, the jury found the writing justified, 
and returned a verdict for the defendant. 

22.—Died at Oxford, in his 100th year, 
Martin Joseph Routh, D.D., President of 
Magdalen College for the long period of sixty- 
three years. He had known Dr. Theophilus 
Leigh, Master of Balliol, the contemporary of 
Addison, and who pointed out to him the 
situation of Addison’s rooms ; he had seen Dr. 
Johnson in his brown wig scrambling up the 
steps of University College; he had been 
told by a lady of her aunt having seen 
Charles II. walking round the parks at Oxford 
(when the Parliament was held there during 
the Plague of London) with his dogs, and turn¬ 
ing by the cross-path to the other side when he 
saw the Heads of Houses coming. Dr. Routh 
had admitted 183 fellows, 234 demies, and 162 
choristers to the College. 

(428) 


23 .—The Times again makes a fierce attack 
on the war administrative departments:—“ We 
echo,” it wrote, “ the opinion of almost every 
experienced soldier or well-informed gentle¬ 
man, when we say that the noblest army 
England ever sent from these shores has been 
sacrificed to the grossest mismanagement. In¬ 
competency, lethargy, aristocratic hauteur, 
official indifference, favour, routine, perverse¬ 
ness, and stupidity reign, revel, and riot in 
the camp before Sebastopol, in the harbour of 
Balaklava, in the hospitals of Scutari, and how 
much nearer' home we do not venture to say. 
We say it with extremest reluctance,—no one 
sees or hears anything of the Commander-in- 
chief. Officers who landed on the 14th of 
September, and have been incessantly engaged 
in all the operations of the siege, are not even 
acquainted with the face of their commander.... 
Send out some man with competent administra¬ 
tive powers to the necessary basis of our opera¬ 
tions, Constantinople : give him the command 
of the hospitals, that present so scandalous a 
contrast to the French hospitals ; the command 
of the post-office, and of transports waiting for 
orders ; and give him also the ordering of such 
supplies for the ,army as can be procured in 
that neighbourhood, and which the French 
have not obtained before us. Nobody has yet 
had command of this important station who 
was fit for anything else than to be the figure¬ 
head of his own ship. ” 

— The Commissioners (Mr. Macaulay, 
Lord Ashburton, Mr. H. Melville, Mr. B. 
Jowett, and Mr. J. Shaw Lefevre) appointed to 
consider and report upon the best means of 
carrying out the clauses in the India Act of 
1853, relating to the admission of candidates to 
writerships in the East India Company, com¬ 
plete their labours. They recommended that 
students be admitted to Haileybury College up 
to the age of twenty-three, and fixed eighteen 
as the earliest, and twenty-three as the latest, at 
which they could go out to India in the Civil 
Service. In order to determine the place of a 
candidate a system of marks was devised, so 
distributed that no class of schools should ex¬ 
clusively furnish servants to the East India 
Company. “ It seems to us probable that a 
candidate who is at once a distinguished classical 
scholar and a distinguished mathematician will 
be, as he ought to be, certain of success. A 
classical scholar who is no mathematician, or a 
mathematician who is no classical scholar, will 
be certain of success if he is well read in the 
history and literature of his own country. A 
young man who has scarcely any knowledge of 
mathematics, little Latin, and no Greek, may 
pass such an examination in English, French, 
Italian, German, geology, and chemistry, that 
he may stand at the head of the list. ” 

25 .—Died at Edinburgh, aged 84, Sir Adam 
Ferguson, widely known from his connection 
with Sir Walter Scott. 

30 .—All slaves of the Portuguese Crown 
declared free. 




JANUARY 


JANUAR Y 


1855. 


1855. 

January 7. —Luigi Buronelli murders Jo¬ 
seph Latham (or Lambert) in his house, Foley 
Place, Marylebone, by shooting him through 
the head, and also attempts to murder Mrs. 
Lambert by wounding her on the head and 
neck. The murderer, who appeared to be 
labouring under a fit of jealousy, made an 
attempt to commit suicide before he left the 
house, but was frustrated in his design, and 
taken into custody. At his trial a plea of 
insanity was set up, but the jury unanimously 
found him guilty. Buronelli was executed on 
the 30th April. 

9. —The Earl of Elgin arrives at Liverpool 
from Canada, where he had acted as Governor- 
General since 1846.—In reply to an address 
presented to him at Dunfermline, he said that 
when he first went to Canada the revenue was 
400,000/. a year ; he left it at 4,000,000/. : 
while 22 miles of railway had developed into 
1,000 completed, and 2,000 in progress. 

10. —The Commissioners appointed by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury to inquire into the 
allegations made against Archdeacon Denison 
for preaching. doctrines concerning the Eu¬ 
charist contrary to the Articles, report that 
there is sufficient primA facie ground for insti¬ 
tuting further proceedings. They think it due, 
at the same time, to state that the Archdeacon, 
with reference to the sermons under considera¬ 
tion, has expressed his full assent and consent 
to the Articles of religion; and that he has 
ex animo condemned the doctrines of the 
Church of Rome, and particularly the Romish 
doctrine of Transubstantiation. 

— Died at Swallowfield Cottage, near 
Reading, aged 66, Mary Russell Mitford, 
author of “ Our Village ” and other works. 

17. —Mr. Cobden addresses his constituents 
at Leeds on the subject of the Russian war. A 
resolution to prosecute the contest with vigour 
was carried against the honourable member. 

20 .—Four lads drowned in St. James’s Park 
while skating. The frost about this time 
was so intense that at Richmond there was 
nearly three miles of strong continuous ice. 
Derwent water and Windermere were com¬ 
pletely frozen over, and Loch Lomond par¬ 
tially so. 

23 .—Parliament reassembles after the 
Christmas recess. Mr. Roebuck gave notice 
that he intended to move for the appointment 
of a Select Committee “to inquire into the 
condition of our army before Sebastopol, and 
into the conduct of those departments of the 
Government whose duty it has been to minister 
to the wants of that army. ” 

— Resignation of Lord John Russell. 
Writing to Lord Aberdeen, he says:—“Mr. 
Roebuck has given notice of a motion to in¬ 
quire into the conduct of the war. I do not 


see how this motion is to be resisted ; but as it 
involves a censure upon the War Department, 
with which some of my colleagues are con¬ 
nected, my only course is to tender my resig¬ 
nation. I therefore have to request you will 
lay my humble resignation of the office which 
I have the honour to hold before the Queen, 
with the expression of my gratitude for her 
Majesty’s kindness for many years.” 

23 .—Died, aged 60, Archdeacon Hare, an 
active English divine of the Broad Church 
School. 

26 .—Sardinia joins the alliance of the 
Western Powers in terms of the fifth article 
of the Treaty of 10th April, 1854. 

29 .—Defeat of the Coalition Government 
on Mr. Roebuck’s motion. On this the second 
night of debate a division took place, showing a 
majority against Ministers of 157 in a House 
of 453. This large majority appeared to take 
all parties by surprise, and instead of the usual 
cheering there was a murmur of amazement 
ending in derisive laughter. Speaking of the 
objects of the inquiry, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) said:—“Your 
inquiry will never take place as a real in¬ 
quiry ; or, if it did, it would lead to nothing 
but confusion and disturbance, increased dis¬ 
asters, shame at home, and weakness abroad ; 
it would convey no consolation to those 
whom you seek to aid, but it would carry 
malignant joy to the hearts of the enemies 
of England ; and, for my part, I ever shall re¬ 
joice, if this motion is carried to-night, that 
my own last words as a member of the Cabinet 
of the Earl of Aberdeen have been words of 
solemn and earnest protest against a proceed¬ 
ing which has no foundation either in the 
constitution or in the practice of preceding 
Parliaments ; which is useless and mischievous 
for the purpose which it appears to con¬ 
template, and which, in my judgment, is full 
of danger to the power, dignity, and usefulness 
of the Commons of England.”—Mr. Disraeli 
said:—“Personally, I care nothing for the 
consequence, but I feel called upon to decide 
on an issue which Ministers have interpreted 
into a question of approbation or confidence. 
I care not by what name it is called, and I 
must decide according to the opinions I 
entertain. Sir, I have no confidence what¬ 
ever in the existing Government. I told them 
a year ago, when taunted for not asking the 
House of Commons to ratify that opinion of 
mine, that, as they had no confidence in each 
other, a vote of want of confidence was super¬ 
fluous. I ask the House of Commons to 
decide if twelve months have not proved that 
I was right in that assumption, although its 
accuracy was then questioned. What con¬ 
fidence has the noble lord the late President of 
the Council in the Minister for War? What 
confidence have this variety of Ministers in 
each other’s counsels ? They stand before us 
confessedly as men who have not that union of 
feelings and of sympathy necessary to enable 

( 429 ) 




JANUARY 


1855. 


FEBRUARY 


them successfully to conduct public affairs. 
The late President of the Council, in scatter¬ 
ing some compliments among the colleagues he 
was quitting, dilated upon the patience and 
ability with which the Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs had conducted the duties of his 
department. I am not here to question these 
valuable qualities or that patience, but I say 
that all the patience and all the ability with 
which the Earl of Clarendon may have wrought 
are completely lost by scenes like this ; and 
when the Ministers of this country have them¬ 
selves revealed their weakness to foreign 
Courts, all. the ability and patience of that 
statesman cannot make up for the weakness 
which is known to prevail in the councils of 
England. At all times such a circumstance 
must be injurious, but at the present moment 
it may be more than injurious. Two years 
ago England was the leading Power in Europe ; 
but is there any man in this House who can 
pretend that she holds that position now ? If 
this be the case—if we are called upon to 
decide whether the House of Commons has 
confidence in the Ministry, when the debate is 
commenced by the secession of the most emi¬ 
nent member of the Government, when affairs 
are in a calamitous state, and when we are 
told by the late Lord President that the con¬ 
duct of the war is entrusted to a Minister w T ho 
he thinks is unequal to the task—I ask the 
country, I ask the Ministers themselves, 
whether they can complain that a member of 
the Opposition should give his vote according 
to the belief which he entertains, that the 
affairs of the country are intrusted to a deplor¬ 
able Administration?” Commenting on the 
result of the division, the Times writes :—“It 
would tax the best-read historical student to 
produce a more complete case of political 
collapse than that which it is England’s ill fate, 
sore cost, and we had almost said foul dis¬ 
honour, to witness this day. The vast prestige 
of that naval and .military organization which 
we have been nursing so sedulously for these 
forty years, at the cost of fifteen millions a 
year, has gone with a touch at the moment of 
trial.” 

29. —Debate in the House of Lords on the 
conduct of the war. Earl Grey, at the close of 
a long address, submitted a resolution, “ That 
it is the opinion of this House that great evils 
have arisen from the present division of au¬ 
thority and responsibility in the administration 
of the army, and that the whole of the busi¬ 
ness connected with this important branch of 
the public service, which is now distributed 
among different offices, ought therefore to be 
brought under the direct control of a single 
and well-organized department.” The Duke 
of Newcastle and Viscount Hardinge were 
willing to consent to the resolution, though 
they disputed in detail some of the occurrences 
referred to by Earl Grey. After an earnest 
appeal from Lord Ellenborough, the resolution 
was withdrawn. 

< 43 °) 


30 .—The Duke of Cambridge arrives at 
Dover from the Crimea. 

— Mr. Justice Coleridge delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the Court of Queen’s Bench in the 
case of libel raised against Mr. Harrison, printer 
of the Times , by the Directors of the London and 
South-Western Railway Company. The jury, 
he said, gave their verdict at last sittings; 
and there the matter might have rested but for 
an article on the 25th December, the purport 
of which was that the writer did not consider 
himself interested in the matter. A fine of 
300/. was inflicted, and immediately paid. 

February 1. —Lord Aberdeen in the House 
of Lords, and Lord Palmerston in the House 
of Commons, formally announce the resigna¬ 
tion of the Ministry, in consequence of the vote 
on Mr. Roebuck’s motion. The Duke of New¬ 
castle entered at some length into a defence of 
his conduct as War Minister :—“I have been 
charged,” he said, “with indolence and indiffer¬ 
ence. As regards indolence, the public have 
had every hour, every minute, of my time. To 
not one hour of amusement or recreation have 
I presumed to think I was entitled. The other 
charge—indifference — is one which is still 
more painful to me. Indifference, my Lords, 
to what ? ” he continued, with deep emotion ; 
“indifference to the honour of the country, 
to the success and to the safety of the army ? 
My Lords, I have, like many who listen to me, 
too dear hostages for my interest in the welfare 
of the military and naval services of the country 
to allow of such a sentiment. I have two sons 
engaged in those professions j and that alone, 
I think, would be sufficient. But, my Lords, 
as a Minister, as a man, I should be unworthy 
to stand in any assembly, if the charge of 
indifference under such circumstances could 
fairly be brought against me. Many a sleep¬ 
less night have I passed in thinking over the 
ills which the public believe and say that I 
could have cured, and which, God knows, I 
would have cured if it had been in my power. 
Indolence and indifference are not charges 
which can be brought against me ; and I trust 
that my countrymen may before long be 
satisfied—whatever they may think of my 
capacity—that there is no ground for fixing that 
unjust stigma upon me.” 

2 .—Sir De Lacy Evans thanked, in his 
place in the House, for his services in the 
Crimea, where he had cheerfully volunteered to 
take a subordinate command in one of the 
engagements. 

5 .—Lord John Russell intimates that he 
had accepted her Majesty’s commands to form 
an Administration, but found insuperable ob¬ 
stacles to the accomplishment of that duty. 
The Earl of Derby also attempted to construct 
an Administration, but failed from the reluct¬ 
ance of Lord Palmerston, and other members 
of the old Cabinet, to join him in office. 

— A monition issued from the Consistory 
Court of the Bishop of London, citing the 





FEBRUARY 


FEBRIARY 


1855. 


Hon. and Rev. Robert Liddell, perpetual 
curate of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, to show 
cause why a licence should not be granted to 
Charles Westerton, churchwarden, to remove 
the altar, cross, candles, credence table, and 
certain cloths from that church. 

6 .—At a dinner given by the Lord Mayor of 
London Sir C. Napier details his experiences 
as commander in the Baltic, and complains of 
his treatment by the Admiralty. The Earl of 
Cardigan, who was also present, enlarged upon 
the Light Cavalry charge at Balaklava. 

— Earl Granville announces, in the House 
of Lords, that Lord Palmerston, at the request 
of her Majesty, had succeeded in forming a 
Ministry. On the names becoming known, it 
was found to be virtually a reconstruction of 
the old Cabinet, with some partial changes, 
and redistribution of offices. The same day 
Ministers were sworn into office at a Privy 
Council held at Windsor Castle. 

— Convocation meets in the Jerusalem 
Chamber, and proceeds to the transaction of 
business, regulating the order of proceeding in 
each House. 

9. —The screw collier Will-o'-the- Wisp lost 
off the Island of Lambay, with all hands. 

12.—Dr. Baikie attends a meeting of the 
Geographical Society to give an account of his 
travels in Africa, and in particular of his suc¬ 
cessful expedition up the Chadda. 

— Compromise agreed to in the case of 
Handcock v. Delacour, or De Burgh, Dublin 
Court of Chancery. It arose upon a petition 
filed by John Stratford Handcock, the heir- 
at-law of the late Miss Honoria Handcock, 
praying that certain charges created by the 
will of Josephine Handcock might not affect 
the Canentrilla estate ; and that a deed exe¬ 
cuted by Honoria might be declared 'fraudu¬ 
lent and void. The pleadings went to show 
that Lord Clanricarde had first brought about 
Handcock’s marriage with an attractive Irish 
adventuress named Josephine Kelly ; that he 
continued for years afterwards to keep up an 
improper intimacy with her; that one son, 
John Delacour, was the result of this con¬ 
nection ; that though husband and wife had 
been separated from 1840 to 1843, a recon¬ 
ciliation then took place through the influ¬ 
ence of Lord Clanricarde, and a will was exe¬ 
cuted by Mr. Handcock shortly before death, 
by which his w'ife and two children succeeded 
to his property. Mrs. Handcock continued 
on terms of intimacy with Lord Clanricarde, 
neglected her husband’s children, and died, 
leaving everything she possessed to her son 
John Delacour. The allegatipns made against 
Lord Clanricarde, of drawing up wills and dis¬ 
entailing deeds in connection with the estate, 
were denied. It was now arranged that the 
petitioner Handcock, the heir-at-law, should 
get the estates on condition of paying the re¬ 
spondent Delacour 20,000/. when he came of 
age, being the sum to which he succeeded 


under his mother’s will. In a letter to the 
Daily Nevus, Lord Clanricarde characterized 
the allegations made against him as “ entirely 
untrue,” and further stated, that any part he 
had taken in the family affairs of the Hand- 
cocks had been generally opposed to Mrs. 
Handcock. 

13-— Died at Edinburgh, aged 52, James 
Dennistoun, of Dennistoun, author of “The 
Duke of Urbino” and other works relating to 
arts and antiquities. 

14. —The action brought by Mr. Adrian 
John Hope against the Count Aguado, to 
recover damages for criminal conversation with 
Mrs. Hope, terminated in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench to-day, with a verdict for the plaintiff 
—damages 200/. Witnesses spoke to impro¬ 
prieties between the parties at Paris, Havre, 
and Folkestone. 

— Lord John Russell appointed to proceed 
on a special mission to the impending Vienna 
Conference. 

16 . —In the House of Commons, Lord Pal¬ 
merston makes an ineffectual attempt to stay 
further action on the part of the Sebastopol 
Inquiry Committee, by pledging the Govern¬ 
ment to make a most stringent investigation 
into the conduct of the war. Colonel Tulloch 
and Sir John M‘Neill were despatched to make 
special inquiries in the Crimea. 

17. —A Russian force, said to number 
40,000, defeated by Omar Pasha in an attack 
on Eupatoria. The Turkish loss was incon¬ 
siderable, but Salim Pasha, commanding the 
Egyptian brigade, was killed. The British 
fleet covered both flanks with great effect. 
After a combat of four hours the Russians 
withdrew. 

19 . — Mr. Layard draws the attention of the 
Plouse of Commons to what he called the pre¬ 
sent deplorable state of public affairs. The 
House, he said, had declared its want of con¬ 
fidence in the late Administration, and yet the 
new Ministry merely presented the same men 
in different offices. What the country wanted 
was not “ septuagenarian experience, but more 
of youthful activity and energy.” Lord Pal¬ 
merston defended the Government he had 
formed under circumstances of great difficulty, 
at a time when no other person could succeed 
in the task. 

20. —Died, at Burnley Hall, Norfolk, in his 
78th year, Joseph Hume, Esq., a respected 
member of the House of Commons, whose 
services in the cause of economy were fully ac¬ 
knowledged by politicians of all parties. 

— The Queen receives a company of wounded 
Guards at Buckingham Palace. 

21 . —Bread riots in Stepney, Bethnal-green, 
Shoreditch, and Bermondsey. In Liverpool 
the disturbance from the same cause was at one 
time of the most threatening description.' 

23 .—Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, 

(43 0 





FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1S55. 


and Mr. Sidney Herbert explain how the ap¬ 
pointment of the Crimean Inquiry Committee 
led to their withdrawal from Lord Palmerston’s 
new Ministry. In the course of the debate to 
which these personal explanations gave rise, 
Mr. Bright made an earnest appeal to Lord 
Palmerston to stay the war :—“The Angel of 
Death,” he said, “has been abroad throughout 
the land ; you may almost hear the very beat¬ 
ing of his wings. There is no one to sprinkle 
with blood the lintel and the side-posts of our 
doors that he may spare and pass on ; but he 
calls at the castle of the noble, and the mansion 
of the wealthy, equally as at the cottage of the 
humble ; and it is on behalf of all these classes 
that I make this solemn appeal. I tell the 
noble lord that if he be ready honestly and 
frankly to endeavour, if possible, by the nego¬ 
tiations to be opened at Vienna, to put an end 
to this war, no word of mine, no vote of mine, 
will be given to shake his power for one single 
moment, or to change his position in this 
House. I am sure that the noble lord is not 
inaccessible to appeals made to him from honest 
motives, and with no unfriendly feeling. The 
noble lord has been for more than forty years a 
member of this House. Before I was born he 
sat upon the Treasury Bench, and he has spent 
his life in the service of his country. He is no 
longer young, and his life has extended almost 
to the term allotted to man. I would ask, I 
would entreat, the noble lord to take a course 
which, when he looks back upon his whole 
political career—whatever he may therein find 
to be pleased with, whatever to regret— 
cannot but be a source of gratification to him. 
By adopting that course he would have the 
satisfaction of reflecting that, having obtained 
the object of his laudable ambition—having be¬ 
come the foremost subject of the Crown, the 
director of, it may be, the destinies of his 
country, and the presiding genius of her 
councils—he had achieved a still higher and 
nobler ambition, that he had returned the sword 
to its scabbard—that at his words torrents of 
blood had ceased to flow—that he had returned 
tranquillity to Europe, and saved this country 
from the indescribable calamities of war. ” 

28 .—The offices in the Cabinet vacant by 
resignation and otherwise were reported to¬ 
day to have been filled up :—Exchequer, 
Sir G. C. Lewis ; Colonies, Lord John Rus¬ 
sell; Admiralty, Sir C. Wood ; Board of Con¬ 
trol, Mr. V. Smith; Board of Trade, Lord 
Stanley of Alderley. Other appointments 
made at this time were Sir R. Peel, Junior 
Lord of the Admiralty, and Mr. Harrison, 
Secretary for Ireland. (See Table of Admi¬ 
nistrations. ) 

March 1.— Lord Goderich’s motion for an 
address to her Majesty respecting the present 
system of promotion in the army negatived by 
a majority of 158 to 114. 

2 .— The Emperor of Russia dies of pulmo¬ 
nary apoplexy, after an attack of influenza. 
( 432 ) 


The striking and unexpected news was an¬ 
nounced in the House of Lords by the Earl of 
Clarendon, and in the House of Commons by 
Lord Palmerston. The intelligence caused 
great excitement in the money market. Con¬ 
sols rose 2 per cent. ; but the foreign market 
was so confused, that brokers refused to 
cite even nominal quotations. The Emperor 
Nicholas was born in 1796, and ascended the 
throne in 1825. He was succeeded by his son 
Alexander II. 

2. Mr. Roebuck’s motion for making the 
Sebastopol Committee a Committee of Secrecy 
withdrawn, after a decision in which the House 
expressed an unequivocal opinion against the 
proposal. 

4. —Sardinia declares war against Russia in 
conformity with the terms of the recently con¬ 
tracted alliance with the Western Powers. 

5. —The Committee appointed to inquire 
into the condition of the army in the Crimea 
commenced its sittings to-day. It continued 
its labours almost daily till the 15th of May, 
when the examination of Lord Aberdeen closed 
the voluminous pile of evidence. 

— Commencement of the sale of the Bernal 
collection of miniatures, porcelain, armour, and 
antique gems. It continued over thirty days, 
and realized about 100,000/. 

6 . —At the Oxford Assizes, the Rev. John 
Allen Giles, D.C.L., a member of the Univer¬ 
sity, was sentenced by Lord Campbell to twelve 
months’ imprisonment for making a false entry 
as to the particulars of a marriage solemnized 
by him in the church of Bampton. As to Dr. 
Giles’ motive for inserting the false date, nothing 
came to light during the trial to show that it 
was other than a desire to oblige the young 
couple by secretly marrying them to avoid ex¬ 
posure of the frailty of the woman, a servant in 
his own family. 

— The Chinese Imperialists defeat the in¬ 
surgents, and recapture Canton and Shanghae. 

8 . —Mr. Malins introduces, but withdraws 
after discussion, a motion for papers connected 
with the services of Sir Charles Napier in the 
Baltic. Sir James Graham defended the Ad¬ 
miralty against the charges brought against 
them in connection with the dismissal of Ad¬ 
miral Napier from his command. 

9 . —Lord Palmerston, in answer to Mr. 
Williams, states that there is no intention at 
present of forming Volunteer Rifle Corps. He 
thought they would occasion considerable ex¬ 
pense, without offering any corresponding 
advantage. The persons who had volunteered 
for the service were chiefly engaged in civil 
employment, and wholly unfit to endure the 
hardships of a soldier’s life. 

10. —In Punch of this day John Leech intro¬ 
duces the memorable cartoon of “General 
Fevrier turned traitor,” illustrating the state¬ 
ment of the late Emperor, that “Russia has two 
generals in whom she can confide—Generals 






MARCH 


1855. 


APRIL 


Janvier and Fevrier,” the latter being death in 
the uniform of a Russian officer laying his hand 
on the form of the prostrate sovereign. 

10 . —Died, aged 67, Don Carlos, Infanta of 
Spain, and Pretender to the throne. 

15 . —Another attempt made to restore peace 
to Europe, by assembling a Conference of the 
Great Powers at Vienna, to agree upon a new 
basis of negotiations. According to the in¬ 
structions given to Lord John Russell, who re¬ 
presented England on the occasion, the end in 
view was the formal recognition of the Turkish 
empire in its character as an independent and 
self-existent State, as a member of the great 
European family, and as an essential element 
of the balance of power in Europe. One of 
the means, it was thought, by which that end 
could be accomplished was through the abro¬ 
gation of Russian supremacy in the Black Sea. 
How to effect this with the least inconvenience 
to the Powers of Europe was the problem to 
be solved. Resolutions relating to the Prin¬ 
cipalities, the free navigation of the Danube, 
and the independence of the Porte, were agreed 
to without much difficulty, but the attempt to 
limit the preponderance of Russia in the Black 
Sea proved the rock on which this diplomatic 
effort to restore peace split. In answer to M. 
Drouyn de Lhuys’ question, whether Russia 
would consider her rights of sovereignty in¬ 
fringed if she deprived herself of the liberty of 
building an unlimited number of ships of war 
in the Black Sea, Prince Gortschakoff, after a 
delay of forty-eight hours from the 19th, replied 
that Russia would not consent to the strength 
of her navy being restricted to any fixed num¬ 
ber, either by treaty or in any other manner. 
Instead of a limitation, he proposed a counter- 
j oise of forces in the Black Sea, by opening 
the Straits of the Dardanelles to the flags of 
war of all nations ; but, as this might compel 
the other Powers to maintain expensive arma¬ 
ments there, it was not thought the proposal 
rested on a basis which would secure the object 
of the Conference. The last formal sitting was 
held on the 26th of April. 

16 . —Fire in Bermondsey, depriving nearly 
100 people of all they possessed, and laying in 
ruins two of the largest granaries on that side 
of the river. It broke out soon after 5 a. m. 
at Lucas’s Wharf; and as there was a large 
quantity of linseed oil, and upwards of 5,000 
barrels of tar, in one of the warehouses, the 
flames soon spread to the adjoining properties. 
The fire was not subdued till late in the 
evening. 

19 . —In the House of Lords, the Earl of 
Lucan enters into a defence of his conduct 
regarding the Light Cavalry charge at Bala- 
klava. In a letter now produced, Lord Raglan 
stated that, after ordering the attack on his own 
responsibility, Lord Lucan had not done what 
he could to make it as little perilous as pos¬ 
sible. 

20 . —Lord Lyndhurst denounces the vacilla- 

( 433 ) 


tion and timidity of Prussia with regard to the 
war. The Earl of Clarendon admitted the 
justice of many of the remarks, but hoped that 
Power would yet join the Allies. 

20. —Fall of the newiron bridge spanning the 
Avon, near the Temple Gate, Bristol. A barge 
going down the river at a great speed struck the 
iron stays under the water on the Bristol side, 
causing the whole fabric to give way. 

21 . —Fast-day appointed by proclamation, 
that special prayer may be made for a blessing 
on “ the just and necessary -war in which we 
are engaged.” The House of Lords attended 
Divine worship in Westminster Abbey, and 
the Commons in the parish church of St. Mar¬ 
garet’s. 

24 .—Opened in Pall-mall an Exhibition 
of Water-Colour Drawings and Pictures by 
amateur artists, and art contributions, in aid of 
a fund for the relief of the widows and orphans 
of British officers engaged in the war with 
Russia. Five of the Queen’s children were 
contributors. 

— Armistice for two hours in the hostile 
camps at Sebastopol for the purpose of burying 
those slain in an attack at the Mamelon on the 
night of the 22d. 

29. —An event unprecedented in the history 
of the Irish Church occurs to-day in the com¬ 
pletion by the Primate (Dr. Beresford) of his 
fiftieth year of office. 

31 .—Fire at Sunderland, destroying a drug¬ 
gist’s warehouse and six dwelling-houses in 
Number’s Garth. 

— Died, at Haworth, aged 39, Mrs. 
Nicholls (Charlotte Bronte), author of “Jane 
Eyre,” &c. 

— Mr. Pemberton Leigh delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council in the case of the Mecklenburg vessel 
Ostsee, which had left Cronstadt on the 16th 
May last, and was seized by a Baltic cruiser. On 
being sent home for condemnation as a lawful 
prize of war, the Crown admitted that there 
was no blockade in the Baltic on the 16th 
May, and returned the vessel to the owners, 
who immediately instituted an action for 
damages. Judgment was now given in their 
favour. 

April 3 .—At Liverpool Assizes, in the case 
of Evans v. Evans (formerly Miss Carrington) 
and Robinson, the jury gave a verdict for 
the plaintiff with 500/. damages, the alleged 
adultery being established on the evidence of 
parties employed by detective Field, to bore 
gimlet-holes in doors and partitions, so as to 
command a view of the defendants, 

4, —The first squadron of the Baltic fleet, 
under the command of Rear-Admiral Dundas, 
sailed this afternoon to resume operations 
against the enemy in that sea. 

9. —The Allied armies in the Crimea reopen 
the siege of Sebastopol, During the whole of 

F F 





APRIL 


MAY 


1855. 


.this day the fire of the besiegers was superior 
to that of the besieged, and the impression in 
the Allied armies was most favourable. _ The 
bombardment was continued with little inter¬ 
mission till the 30th, when, being still unsuc¬ 
cessful, it was reduced to the ordinary fire 
necessary to cover the operations of the 
engineers. 

11 .— In theHopwood will case, tried at the 
Liverpool Assizes, the jury returned a verdict 
for the defendant on both issues—that neither 
the alleged will of 1853 by which Captain 
Hopwood was disinherited, nor the codicils 
attached thereto, were the will and codicils 
of the testator, R. G. Hopwood, sen. 

13 .—Charles King, an acting detective 
officer in the C division, sentenced to fourteen 
years’ transportation for receiving stolen articles 
from young thieves whom he made it his busi¬ 
ness to train and protect. 

— Died, aged 59, Sir Henry Thos. de la 
Beche, Director of the Museum of Practical 
Geology. 

16 . —Visit of the Emperor and Empress of 
the French to the Queen. They were received 
at Dover by Prince Albert and Count Walewski, 
and conducted, in the first instance, to the 
Lord Warden Hotel, where luncheon was par¬ 
taken of and a congratulatory address presented 
by the Mayor and Corporation. They then 
set out for Windsor, passing in carriages, amid 
enthusiastic crowds, through that part of the 
metropolis lying between the Bricklayers’ Arms 
Station and the Great Western Railway. The 
illustrious visitors reached Windsor about 7 
P.M., and were received in the grand hall by 
her Majesty and the Royal Family, surrounded 
by the great officers of State and of the House¬ 
hold. On the 18th, the Emperor was elected 
a Knight of the Garter, and invested in the 
Throne-room with the Ribbon of the Order by 
her Majesty. The Emperor and Empress next 
day visited the City of London, and were re¬ 
ceived with great magnificence in the Guildhall 
by the Lord Mayor, who had also as his guests 
the Prefet of the Seine and Municipality of 
Paris. On the evening of this day, the Queen 
accompanied her Imperial guests to the Royal 
Italian Opera, and next day to the Crystal 
Palace, where an immense gathering of people 
welcomed the visitors. The Imperial visit ter¬ 
minated on Saturday, the 21st, when they left 
Buckingham Palace for Dover, where the 
Empress mail-steamer was in readiness to con¬ 
vey them to Calais. 

17 . —Cambridge University Reform Bill read 
a second time in the House of Lords. The 
measure was abandoned during the session. 

— Lord Robert Grosvenor obtains leave 
to introduce a bill to prevent Sunday trading 
jn the metropolis. 

20 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir 
G. C. Lewis) introduced the annual Budget. 
He estimated the income from all sources for 
( 434 ) 


1855 at 63,339,000/., and the expenditure at 
86,339,000/. The deficiency of 20,000,0c nh 
he proposed to meet for the most part by a 
new loan. 

20 . —The Rothschilds agree to take up the 
whole of the new loan of 16,000,000/. on 
the terms proposed by the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer—100/. money for every 100/. Three 
per cent. Consols, the lender of each 100/. 
receiving an annuity of 14 s. 6 d. terminable at 
the end of thirty years. 

21 . —At a banquet given in his honour at 
Liverpool, Mr. Layarcl discussed the Eastern 
question at great length, and criticised in an 
unfavourable spirit the proposals made by 
Austria. 

23 . —Intimation made in both Houses oi 
Parliament that the Conference at Vienna was 
not likely to end in any satisfactory result. 

24 . —The Croesus steam transport destroyed 
by fire off Corsica, when conveying the Sardi¬ 
nian contingent from Genoa to the Crimea. 
Most of those on board were taken off by 
other transports in sight. 

29 . —Giovanni Pianori attempts to assassi¬ 
nate the Emperor of the French, by twice 
firing at him with a double-barrelled pistol, 
at the corner of the Rue Balzac. He was 
executed for the offence on the morning of 
the 14th May. 

30 . —Died, aged 68, Sir Henry R. Bishop, 
musical composer. 

— Lord John Russell submits to the Houst 
of Commons a detailed account of the Vienm j 
Conference and its fruitless results. 

— Died, aged 77, the Right Hon. J. C, 
Herries, Chancellor of the Exchequer in th< 
short-lived Goderich administration, 1827-8. 

May 1.—Captain Christie, of theTranspor 
Service, dies in the Crimea, awaiting ai 
inquiry into his conduct in connection with th< 
loss of the Prince . 

— An irruption of Vesuvius commenced 
It continued with considerable violence til 
the 19th. 

3 .—Wreck of the emigrant-ship John 01 
the Manacle Rocks off Falmouth, and loss 0 1 
190 lives. Of the four boats on board, on 
was in bad condition, and the life-boat was sv 
improperly stowed as to be unavailable for im 
mediate service. The crew tried the long 
boat, but the state of the tide prevented he ] 
being launched, and she remained hanging t* j 
the davits. None of the survivors seemed t> j 
know what became of the fourth boat, th 
pinnace. Deprived of every means of escape 
the unhappy passengers crowded the bulwark 
and rigging of the wrecked vessel, and wer 
swept in scores into the sea by the fury of th 
waves. By active exertion two boats put oi 
next morning from the shore, and 93 of th 
survivors were taken off the wreck, it beinjl 
remarked at the time as a significant circum ; 







ma y 


ma y 


1855 - 


stance, that this number included the whole 
of the officers and crew. The coroner’s jury 
returned a verdict of manslaughter against 
Captain Rawle, but he was acquitted on trial. 

3. —The Etna floating battery destroyed by 
fire in the ship-building yard of Mr. Scott 
Russell at Mill wall. She was to have been 
launched with all her engines ready for sea in 
a few days. During the fire the huge ignited 
mass slipped from her stocks, and launched 
herself majestically into the river. 

— Lord R. Grosvenor’s Sunday Trading 
Bill read a second time in the House of Com¬ 
mons, without a division. 

4. —Completion of the submarine telegraph 
between the Crimea and Varna. The first 
message, transmitted to-day, announced that 
“ a sharp engagement took place on the night 
of the 1st May, in front and left attack. The 
whole of the Russian rifle-pits were taken, 
eight light mortars, and 200 prisoners. ” 

— Discussion in the House of Commons on 
the delay in presenting the papers relating 
to the Vienna negotiation, Mr. Disraeli draw¬ 
ing an unfavourable contrast between the 
conduct of the present Government and that 
of 1796, when Lord Malmesbury sought to 
negotiate peace with France. Lord Palmer¬ 
ston, in explanation, said that the circumstances 
were not the same in the two cases, Great 
Britain being engaged in negotiating not 
directly with Russia, but through the interven¬ 
tion of Austria. “We have failed,” he 
admitted, “in the attempt we have made ; but 
I am not prepared to say there are no other 
means open, through which, by the interven¬ 
tion of the friendly offices of Austria, a proposi¬ 
tion may not be made which it may become 
the duty of the Government seriously to con¬ 
sider, with a view to a determination whether 
it is still possible to bring those differences to a 
close. I should be neglectful of my own duty 
if I held out false hopes which cannot be 
realized. The Government would equally fail 
in their duty if they stated that all hopes of 
negotiation have disappeared. I wish to leave 
the question in the state in which it now is— 
(ironical cheers from the Opposition)—I wish 
to leave the door for negotiation open : I wish 
that door to be open to every possible 
accommodation, but not by such steps as the 
right honourable gentleman would drive the 

Government to.But while, on the one 

hand, we are determined to continue that 
contest in a manner consistent with the honour, 
the dignity, and the interests of the country, so, 
on the other hand, we will not be parties to 
shutting the door against any possibility of 
concluding an honourable and satisfactory 
peace.” 

5 . —An Administrative Reform Meeting 
lield in the London Tavern, to carry resolu¬ 
tions alleging that the true remedy for the 
system of mal-administration which has caused 
*0 lamentable a sacrifice of labour, money, and 

( 435 ) 


human life, is to be sought for in the introduc¬ 
tion of large experience and practical ability 
into the service of the State. 

5 .—Died, aged 69, Sir Robert Harry Inglis, 
M.P. for Oxford University, from 1829 (when 
Sir Robert Peel resigned) to 1853. 

7. —Owing to the illness of the Speaker of 
the House, the chair is occupied to-day by the 
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and 
Means. 

9. —General de la Marmora joins the 
Allies in the Crimea with a portion of the 
Sardinian contingent. The state of the wea¬ 
ther prevented the whole being landed at 
Balaklava. 

11 . —The Newspaper Stamp Bill read a 
third time in the House of Commons, by 138 
to 60. It passed the Lords June 6. 

14. —Fall of the Atlas Iron Works, South¬ 
wark, and destruction of a large quantity of 
shot and shell prepared for the army in the 
Crimea. Seventeen of the workmen were 
seriously injured, and conveyed to St. Thomas’s 
Plospital. An uneasy feeling was created by 
this renewed disaster at a work engaged in the 
public service, taken in connection with the de¬ 
struction of the Etna on the 3d. 

— Lord Ellenborough proposes an address 
to her Majesty, expressive of the convic¬ 
tion that the conduct of the war has occasioned 
general dissatisfaction, and given rise to just 
complaints, and “that we most humbly lay 
before her Majesty our deliberate opinion that 
it is only through the selection of men for 
public employment, without regard to anything 
but the public service, that the country can 
hope to prosecute the war successfully, and to 
obtain its only legitimate object—a secure and 
honourable peace.” Attacking Lord Palmer¬ 
ston’s pretended knowledge of military 
affairs, the noble Earl said : “I recollect sit¬ 
ting by the side of the Duke of Wellington in 
the House of Lords, during the unfortunate 
difficulty between him and Mr. Huskisson, 
which led to the resignation of a portion of the 
gentlemen forming the Government. The 
Duke of Wellington was suddenly called out 
of the House, and when he returned he said to 
me, * That was Palmerston who wanted to see 
me, to tell me if Huskisson went he must go 
too. ’ The Duke continued, * I said nothing ; 
it was not for me to fire great guns at small 
birds.’ That was the opinion of the Duke of 
Wellington.”—Earl Granville defended the 
Government on the ground mainly that able, 
practical men could not be induced to give up 
their business to accept political office. And 
noticing the charge that the Cabinet was com¬ 
posed of Gowers, Howards, and Cavendishes, 
he said, “My Lords, I had better make a 
clean breast of it at once ; and I am obliged to 
admit that some of those who went before me 
had such quivers full of daughters who did not 
die old maids, that I have relations upon this 

F f 2 






ArA y 


1855. 


MAY 


side of the House, relations upon the cross 
benches, relations upon the opposite side of 
the House, and I actually had the unparal¬ 
leled misfortune to have no fewer than three 
daughters in the Protectionist Administration 
of my noble friend opposite. ” After a debate 
continued beyond midnight, the resolutions 
were rejected by a majority of 181 to 71. 
Proxies were not called for the “ contents. ” 

15 .—Great bullion robbery on the South- 
Eastern Railway. This evening, three large 
boxes, containing gold, were delivered by their 
owners to Messrs. Chaplin and Horae, the 
carriers, and by this firm they were conveyed 
to the South-Eastern Railway, London Bridge. 
The gold belonged to Messrs. Abell and Co., 
Messrs. Spielmann, and Messrs. Bult. Every 
caution was taken with the precious freight. 
The boxes were bound with iron bars, sealed 
and weighed by Messrs. Chaplin, and placed 
in iron safes secured by Chubb’s patent locks. 
To these safes there were duplicate keys, in 
the possession only of confidential servants of 
the Railway Company—keys in London, in 
Folkestone, and also in the possession of the 
captains of the boats belonging to the South- 
Eastern Railway. The safes were all specially 
placed in the guard’s van, under his immediate 
care. On the boxes being taken out of the 
safes at Boulogne, it was discovered that one 
weighed 4olbs. less than it ought to have 
weighed, while the other two each weighed a 
trifle more than they should have done. 
Examination proved that the gold had been 
stolen on the railway. The precious metal 
had been abstracted, shot substituted, and 
the outward appearance of the safes restored 
as they were before. The principal actors 
in this elaborate crime were Burgess, who 
had been for thirteen years a guard on the 
South - Eastern Railway ; Pierce, a ticket- 
printer to the Company ; Tester, a clerk in the 
Traffic Superintendent’s office; and Agar, 
who had been for years a professional thief. 
Notwithstanding the most anxious inquiries by 
the police, none of the perpetrators of this daring 
robbery were traced till Agar himself, in a fit 
of passion at Pierce’s conduct to a woman 
whom he had left in his care, made known the 
whole details of the crime (see January 15th, 

1857). 

— In the House of Lords, the Earl of 
Albemarle’s resolution for placing greater re¬ 
strictions upon the trade of Russia, in order to 
bring the war to a speedy termination, was 
negatived by 47 to 31. 

— Lord Redesdale complains of the pre¬ 
sence of ladies in the House of Lords in places 
not set apart for their reception. It had (he 
said) a very prejudicial effect on the appearance 
of the House, and made it look more like a 
’casino than anything else. (Oh ! and laughter.) 
He hoped it would not be repeated, for he 
knew at least one peer who would have spoken 
but for his unwillingness to address an audience 
of that kind.—Earl Granville accepted his noble 
( 436 ) 


friend’s satisfactory explanation why some of 
the speeches delivered on the other side were 
in the opinion of the supporters of Ministers 
much less effective than usual. 

16 . —General Canrobert resigns the com¬ 
mand of the French forces in the Crimea. After 
recommending General Pelissier to the Em¬ 
peror, the General wrote : “ The army which 
I leave him is intact, hardened to war, full of 
ardour and confidence. I beseech the Emperor 
to give me a soldier’s place as commander 01 
a simple division. ” 

17 . —The French Palace of Industry opened 
in state by the Emperor and Empress. In 
his address the Emperor said, “ In inviting 
all nations hither, it has been my desire to 
open a Temple of Concord.” 

18 . —Distribution of War Medals to the 
Crimean heroes by the Queen. A royal dais 
was erected in the centre of the parade of the 
Horse Guards, and the public offices which , 
surround it were fitted up with galleries for 
spectators. The recipients of the honours were 
drawn up in the rear of the Foot Guards, who 
kept the ground. On a given command the 
soldiers formed four deep, and through the 
line thus made the Crimean heroes passed to 
the presence of the Queen. The officers and 
men then passed before her Majesty in single 
file, each handing to an officer a card whereon 
was inscribed his name, rank, wounds, and 
battles. This card was delivered to her Ma¬ 
jesty, who then, with much tenderness and 
sympathy, presented the medal. A touching 
feature of the ceremony was the presence of 
many hardly able to limp past the Queen, 
and a few so severely wounded as to be com¬ 
pelled to be wheeled before her in Bath chairs. 
About 450 medals were also presented to 
sailors and marines. 

20 . —The King of Hanover abolishes free 
institutions on the advice of the Federal Diet. 

21 . —In reply to Mr. S. Herbert, Lord 
Palmerston states that the means of pacifica¬ 
tion were not exhausted ; that the Vienna 
Conferences were suspended, not closed ; and 
that proposals made by Russia through Austria 
would still be favourably received.—Mr. 
Disraeli taunted the Ministers with shirking 
discussion on the affairs of the Conference, and 
was replied to by Lord Palmerston, who said 
he declined to invite discussion himself, because 
the result might be to shut the door to all 
further hope of peace. If the negotiations 
did not result in peace, the fault lay not with 
Lord John Russell, nor with France, nor with 
Austria—“our ally to a certain extent”—but 
with the Government of Russia.—Lord John 
Russell recapitulated the incidents of the last 
sitting, and expressed his expectation that Aus¬ 
tria would make some further propositions 
which must terminate the Conference, or re¬ 
open them under more favourable auspices than 
heretofore.—Mr, Milner Gibson’s motion re- 







MAY 


JUNK 


1855 . 


garding the Vienna peace proposal was 
adjourned. 

21 . —Order in Council issued, appointing a 
Commission to examine candidates for the Civil 
Service. 

22 . —A British force, sent from Sierra Leone 
to enforce payment of an indemnity from the 
King of Mallaghea, repulsed with great loss, 
more than half the party being slain. 

24 -.—Mr. Disraeli submits a motion expres¬ 
sive of the dissatisfaction of the House at the 
ambiguous language and uncertain conduct of 
her Majesty’s Government in reference to the 
great question of peace or war. His speech 
was mainly taken up with a review of Lord 
John Russell’s unsuccessful diplomacy at 
Vienna, and an urgent appeal not to permit 
the country to drift into an ignominious peace, 
as it had before drifted into a disastrous war. 
Lord J. Russell made a warlike speech in de¬ 
fence, and endeavoured to explain the true 
position of Austria. An amendment was pro¬ 
posed by Sir F. Baring, simply expressing 
regret that the Conferences at Vienna had not 
led to a termination of hostilities, and after a 
two nights’ debate Mr. Disraeli’s motion was 
rejected by a majority of 319 to 219. Lord 
Palmerston spoke on the evening of the 25 th in 
defence of his Government, and the means it 
had taken on the one hand to secure peace, and 
on the other to accomplish the just objects of 
the war. The conduct of Ministers was still 
further kept under review, by continuing the 
debate over the recess, on an amendment 
proposed by Mr. Lowe, declaring that the 
refusal of Russia to restrict the strength of her 
navy in the Black Sea had exhausted the 
means of suspending hostilities by negotiation. 

25 .—The Gazette announces that her Ma¬ 
jesty had been pleased to order letters patent 
to be passed under the Great Seal vesting the 
civil administration of the army and ordnance 
in the hands of Lord Panmure. This was the 
first appointment under the new arrangement 
for consolidating under one Secretary all the 
civil offices connected with the service. 

— Earl Grey proposes that an humble ad¬ 
dress be presented to her Majesty—“ To thank 
her for having ordered the protocols of the 
recent negotiations at Vienna to be laid before 
us; to inform her Majesty that this House 
deeply deplores the failure of the attempt to 
put an end by these negotiations to the calami¬ 
ties of the war in which the country is now 
engaged ; and to express our opinion that the 
proposals of Russia were such as to afford a 
fair prospect of concluding a peace by which 
all the original objects of the war might have 
been gained, and by which her Majesty and 
her allies might have obtained all the advan¬ 
tages which can reasonably be demanded from 
Russia.” After a debate, the proposal was 
negatived without a division. 

— Parliament adjourns for the Easter recess 
till June 4. 


25 .—Died at his residence, Hailey Street, 
aged 74, Lord Strangford, diplomatist and poet. 

27 .—Capture of Kertch. Lord Raglan to 
Lord Panmure :—“ We are masters of the Sea 
of Azoff without a casualty. The troops landed 
at Kertch on her Majesty’s birthday, and the 
enemy fled, blowing up their fortifications on 
both sides of the Straits, and destroying the 
steamers ; some vessels of fifty guns have fallen 
into the hands of the Allies.” 

30 . —The United Kingdom Alliance meet in 
Exeter, and adopt resolutions in favour of the 
Maine Liquor Law. 

31 . —At an adjourned examination in bank¬ 
ruptcy of Davidson and Gordon, two merchants 
concerned in the Cole ‘ ‘ warrant ” swindles, 
several witnesses were called to make out 
charges against them of obtaining large quanti¬ 
ties of goods on fraudulent pretences within 
three months of bankruptcy. But the chief 
interest of the proceedings centred in the 
connection of Overend and Co. with the bank¬ 
rupts. Mr. Ballantine referred to the state¬ 
ment of Mr. Chapman, partner in the firm of 
Overend, that his house had no dealings with 
the accused after October 1853, when it was 
discovered that the metal warrants were false ; 
and called a witness, formerly clerk to Davidson 
and Gordon, who proved that Overend and 
Co. discounted bills for the bankrupts between 
November 1853, and the 3d April, 1854, 
amounting to about 8,000/. Mr. Chapman had 
also stated that his firm, on moral grounds, 
would have nothing to do with the lease of the 
bankrupts’ distillery ; but Mr. Ballantine pro¬ 
duced an agreement by which the lease was 
conveyed to Mr. Chapman; and the solicitor 
to Overend and Co. stated that he had 
altered and signed the agreement on their 
behalf. (See Dec. 16.) 

June 2.—Died at Oxford, aged 74, Thomas 
Gaisford, Dean of Christ Church, and Regius 
Professor of Greek. He was succeeded in the 
Deanery by the Rev. H. G. Liddell, head¬ 
master’ of Westminster School ; and in the 
Greek chair by the Rev. B. Jowett. 

3 . —The town of Taganrog bombarded by 
an Anglo-French fleet, and a great quantity of 
Government stores destroyed. 

4. —Mr. M. Gibson resumes the debate in 
the adjourned discussion on Mr. Lowe’s amend¬ 
ment. Sir E. B. Lytton expressed himself as 
anxious to anticipate the verdict of history. 

‘ ‘ Let me suppose that when the future philan¬ 
thropist shall ask what service on the human 
race did we in our generation signally confer, 
some one trained perhaps in the schools of 
Oxford or the Institute of Manchester shall 
answer: * A Power that commanded myriads— 
as many as those that under Xerxes exhausted 
rivers in their march—embodied all the forces 
of barbarism on the outskirts of civilization ; 
left there to develop its own natural resources ; 
no State molested, though all apprehended, itu 

( 437 ) 







JUNE 


1855. 


JUNE 


growth. But, long pent by merciful Nature in 
its own legitimate domains, this Power schemed 
for the outlet to its instinctive ambition : to 
that outlet it crept by dissimulating guile— 
by successive treaties that, promising peace, 
graduated spoliation to the opportunities of 
fraud. At length, under pretexts too gross to 
deceive the common sense of mankind, it pro¬ 
posed to seize that outlet—to storm the feeble 
gates between itself and the world beyond.’ 
Then the historian shall say that we in our 
generation—the united fan ilies of England 
< and France—made ourselves the vanguard of 
alarmed and shrinking Europe, and did not 
sheath the sword until we had redeemed the 
pledge to humanity, made on the faith of two 
Christian Sovereigns, and ratified at those 
distant graves which liberty and justice shall 
revere for ever.”—The debate was protracted 
to the 8th, when Lord Palmerston closed with a 
sharp attack on the peace-at-any-price party : 
“ With peace in their mouths, they have never¬ 
theless had war in their hearts ; and their 
speeches were full of passion, vituperation, 
and abuse, and delivered in a manner 
which showed that angry passions strived for 
mastery within them. (Cries of ‘Oh!’ and 
cheers.) I must say, judging from their speeches, 
their manner, and their language, that they 
would do much better for leaders of a party 
for war at all hazards, instead of a party for 
peace at any cost. (Loud cheers.) .... The 
honourable gentleman [Mr. Cobden] did at 
last tell us that he would fight—no, not that he 
would fight—but he said there was something 
for which the country must fight ; and he 
added that if Portsmouth were menaced—he 
said nothing about the Isle of Wight—he 
would go into the hospital. (Laughter.) Well, 
there are many people in this country who think 
that the party to which the honourable gentle¬ 
man belongs would do well to go immediately 
into hospital, but an hospital of a different 
kind from that which the honourable gentleman 
meant, and which I shall not mention. (Re¬ 
newed laughter.)”—Mr. Baring’s amendment 
was accepted without a division. 

4 . —Treasury warrant issued fixing reduced 
rates for the postage of books and pamphlets, 
and regulating the mode of their transmission. 

—- Dissolution of the Vienna Conference. 
The event was announced the following even¬ 
ing by the Earl of Clarendon in the House of 
Lords. 

5 . —Massacre of a boat’s crew at Hango, 
Gulf of Finland. When attempting to land 
certain prisoners under a flag of truce, Lieut. 
Geneste and his party were fired upon, six 
being killed and the rest taken prisoners, with 
the exception of one wounded seaman who was 
working the boat back to the ship when dis¬ 
covered. The outrage gave rise to much indig¬ 
nant comment in Parliament and throughout 
the country generally. The Russians defended 
their proceedings by alleging that the boat was 
taking soundings, that the white flag was not 

(438) 


visible, and that the officer in command did 
not wait for, ask, or obtain the necessary per¬ 
mission which is required to land men under a 
flag of truce. They, therefore, refused to give 
up the prisoners, Lieut. Geneste, Dr. Easton, 
and two others. 

6. —The Lord Mayor of London, the 
Sheriffs, and a deputation from the Aldermen 
and Common Council arrive in Paris on a visit 
to the Prefet of the Seine. 

7 . —The French attack and carry the 
Mamelon at Sebastopol. General Pelissier 
telegraphs to the Minister of War:—“At 6.30 
our signals for assault were given, and one hour 
afterwards our eagles floated over the Mamelon 
Vert and over the two redoubts of Careening 
Bay. The artillery of the enemy fell into our 
hands. We are said to have taken 400 pri¬ 
soners. Our legions occupy the conquered 
works. On their side our allies, with their 
usual resolution, carried the works in the quar¬ 
ries, and established themselves there. All the 
troops showed the most admirable devotion and 
intrepidity.” 

9.— At the annual Trinity House dinner, 
Prince Albert, in proposing the toast of “ Her 
Majesty’s Ministers,” took occasion to allude to 
the present grave aspect of public affairs:— 
“If ever there was a time when the Queen’s 
Government, by whomsoever conducted, re¬ 
quired the support, ay, not the support alone, 
but the confidence, goodwill, and sympathy of 
their fellow-countrymen, it is the present. It 
is not the way to success in war to support it, 
however ardently and energetically, and to run 
down and weaken those who have to conduct 
it. We are engaged with a mighty adversary, 
who uses against us all those wonderful powers 
which have sprung up under the generating in¬ 
fluence of our liberty and our civilization, and 
employs them with all the force which unity 
of purpose and action, impenetrable secrecy, 
and uncontrolled despotic power give him; 
whilst we have to meet him under a state of 
things intended for peace and the promotion of 
that very civilization, a civilization the offspring 
of public discussion, the friction of parties, and 
popular control over the Government of the 
State. The Queen has no power to levy troops, 
and none at her command, except such as 
voluntarily offer their services. Her Govern¬ 
ment can entertain no measures for the prosecu¬ 
tion of the war without having to explain them 
publicly in Parliament; her armies and fleets 
can make no movement, nor even prepare for 
any, without its being proclaimed by the press ; 
and no mistake, however trifling, can occur, no 
weakness exist, which it may be of the utmost 
importance to conceal from the world, without 
its being publicly denounced, and even fre¬ 
quently exaggerated, with a morbid satisfaction. 
The Queen’s ambassadors can carry on no nego¬ 
tiation which has not to be publicly defended 
by entering into all the arguments which a 
negotiator, to have success, must be able to 
shut up in the innermost recesses of his heart- 







JUNE 


JUNE 


t8 


nay, at the most critical moment, when the 
complications of military measures and diplo¬ 
matic negotiations may be at their height, an 
adverse vote in Parliament may of a sudden 
deprive her of all her confidential servants. 
Gentlemen, constitutional government is under 
a heavy trial, and can only pass triumphantly 
through it if the country will grant its con¬ 
fidence—a patriotic, indulgent, and self-deny¬ 
ing confidence—to her Majesty’s Government. 
Without this all their labours must be in vain.” 

11 . —Old Smithfield market closed for the 
sale of cattle, horses, and sheep. 

— Messrs. Strahan, Paul, and Bates, bankers 
and navy agents, suspend payment. The total 
amount of debts proved against the two con¬ 
cerns was in round numbers three-quarters of a 
million, and the dividend realized was 3-r. 2 d. 
per pound. A week after the petition in bank¬ 
ruptcy had issued an application was made to 
the magistrate at Bow-street Police-office to 
apprehend the three partners on a charge of 
having unlawfully negotiated or otherwise dis¬ 
posed of certain deeds or securities to the value 
of 22,000/. which had been entrusted to them by 
the Rev. Dr. Griffith, of Rochester. Bates 
was apprehended the same evening at 41, Nor- 
folk-street, Strand. The officers found Sir 
John Dean Paul at his house at Rcigate later 
in the night, but on starting with him next 
morning for London, they got separated at the 
station and the bankrupt arrived in the city 
alone. He gave himself up at Bow-street 
Police-station about eight o’clock the following 
evening. Strahan was seized when entering a 
house in Bryanston-square on the night of the 
20th June. They were brought up from time 
to time for examination, and the charge gone 
into at great length. When the case was com¬ 
pleted, the prisoners were committed for trial, 
but admitted to bail on giving recognizances to 
the amount of 10,000/., and two sureties of 
5,000/. for each prisoner. 

12 . — Mr. William Brown moves a series of 
resolutions in the House of Commons on the 
subject of a decimal coinage:—“That, in the 
opinion of this House, the initiation of the deci¬ 
mal system of coinage, by the issue of the florin 
[in 1849], has been eminently successful and 
satisfactory; That a further extension of such 
system will be of great public advantage ; That 
an humble address be presented to her Majesty, 
praying that she will be graciously pleased to 
complete the decimal scale with the pound and 
the florin, as suggested by two Commissions 
and a Committee of the House of Commons, 
by authorizing the issue of silver coins to re¬ 
present the value of the one-hundredth part of 
a pound, and copper coins to represent the 
one-thousandth part of a pound, to be called 
* cents ’ and * mils ’ respectively, or to bear 
such other names as to her Majesty may seem 
advisable.” After a debate, in which Mr. 
Lowe and others opposed the third resolution 
as fixing the unit too high, the House divided 
on the first, and carried it by 135 to 56; the 


55 - 


second was adopted without a division; and the 
third withdrawn. 

13 .—The New Metropolitan Cattle Market, 
Copenhagen Fields, opened by the Lord Mayor 
and Corporation in presence of the Prince 
Consort. Sales commenced on Friday, the 
15th. 

— The Administrative Reform Association 
hold a great central meeting in Drury Lane 
Theatre. Thirty-three members of Parlia¬ 
ment were reported to be present. 

15 .—Mr. Layard introduces a debate on 
Administrative Reform, by submitting a mo¬ 
tion to the House, stating that it “ views with 
deep and increasing concern the state of the 
nation, and is of opinion that the manner in 
which merit and efficiency have been sacrificed 
in public appointments to party and family 
influences, and to a blind adherence to routine, 
has given rise to great misfortunes, and 
threatens to bring discredit upon the national 
character, and to involve the country in grave 
disasters.” Many of the evils complained of 
were admitted in the course of the debate, 
which extended over two nights, but on a 
division the resolution was negatived by 359 
to 46. 

— The “Know-nothing” council in the 
United States issues its “ Platform of Prin¬ 
ciple,” showing a broad avowal in favour of 
slavery, and decided hostility to the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

— Royal consent given to a bill amending 
the laws relating to the stamp duty on news¬ 
papers, and providing for the transmission by 
post of periodical publications. 

18 .—The Allied forces make a desperate but 
unsuccessful attack on the Redan and Malakhoff 
batteries. In the face of a frightful fire from 
the guns, the French swarmed up the Mamelon, 
planted a flag on the summit, and fought for a 
short time hand to hand in the interior. The 
check experienced in the assault was mainly 
occasioned by General Mazan mistaking a blaz¬ 
ing fusee sent up from the Brancion redoubt 
for the rocket signals which had been agreed 
on as the notice for a general advance. The 
English lost 21 officers and 144 men killed ; 68 
officers and 1,058 men wounded. The French 
lost 37 officers and 1,544 men killed or missing. 
The Russians admitted the loss of 781 killed 
and nearly 4,000 wounded. Next day Prince 
Gortschakoff addressed the troops:—“Sol¬ 
diers, the enemy is beaten,—driven back with 
enormous loss. Allow your commander to 
repeat his gratitude to you in the name of the 
Emperor, our august monarch, in the name of 
oui country, of our holy and orthodox Russia. 
The hour is approaching when the pride of the 
enemy will be lowered, their armies swept 
from our soil like chaff blown away by the 
wind. Till then, let us put trust in God, and 
let us fight for the Emperor and for oui 
country.” 









VJAT£ 


1855. 


JUNE 


18 .—The Sebastopol Inquiry Committee 
present the Report to the House of Commons, 
detailing the result of their examination into 
the condition of the army, and the departments 
controlling the same, with suggestions for the 
improvement of both. The Report concluded: 
“ Your Committee repoi't that the suffering of 
the army resulted mainly from the circum¬ 
stances under which the expedition to the 
Crimea was undertaken and executed. The 
Administration which ordered that expedition 
had no adequate information as to the amount 
of the forces in the Crimea. They were not 
acquainted with the strength of the fortresses to 
be attacked, or with the resources of the 
country to be invaded. They hoped and 
expected the expedition to be immediately 
successful; and as they did not foresee the 
probability of a protracted struggle, they made 
no provision for a winter campaign. The 
patience and fortitude of the army demand the 
admiration and gratitude of the nation on 
whose behalf they have fought, bled, and 
suffered. Their heroic valour, and equally 
heroic patience under sufferings and privations, 
have given them claims upon their country 
■yvhieh will doubtless be gratefully acknow¬ 
ledged. Your Committee will now close their 
Report with a hope that every British army may 
in future display the valour which this noble 
army has displayed, and that none may here¬ 
after be exposed to such sufferings as are 
recorded in these pages. 5 ’ 

22 .—Mr. Roebuck gives notice of a motion 
for the 3d July:—“That this House, deeply 
lamenting the sufferings of our army during 
the winter campaign in the Crimea, and 
coinciding with the resolution of their Com¬ 
mittee that the conduct of the Administration 
was the first and chief cause of those misfortunes, 
hereby visits with its severe reprehension 
every member of the Cabinet whose counsels 
led to such disastrous results.” The debate 
on this resolution was delayed from time tc 
time till July 17. 

— Lord Clarendon instructs Mr. Cramp- 
ton, at Washington, not to persevere in his 
recruiting schemes, under the Enlistment Act 
of last session, as the United States Govern¬ 
ment felt aggrieved at his proceedings. 

— Died, at London, aged 72, John Black, 
for many years editor of the Morning Chronicle. 

24 —Commencement of the Sunday riots 
in Hyde Park, caused by the assembling of 
crowds who thought their liberty infringed by 
Lord Robert Grosvenor’s new bill to prevent 
Sunday trading in the metropolis. The dis¬ 
turbance was continued with increasing vio¬ 
lence over the two following Sundays ; the mob 
on the . 8th of July, not resting content with 
hooting and hustling the frequenters of the park, 
broke many windows, and in one or two in¬ 
stances attempted to set fire to houses. A Com¬ 
mission was afterwards appointed to inquire 
into the severities alleged to have been practised 
( 440 ) 


by the police when attempting to suppress the 
disturbances. 

26 .—Lord Lyndhurst introduces a debate 
on the position of Austria, with reference to 
the Western Powers. Lord Clarendon ex¬ 
pressed himself as satisfied with the promise 
of Austria to continue her occupation of the 
Principalities in virtue of her treaty with 
Turkey; but so far as the four points were 
concerned, the Allies felt themselves free from 
any obligation. 

28 . —Death of Lord Raglan. Until four 
o’clock this afternoon his lordship had. been 
progressing from his recent illness to the satis¬ 
faction of the medical attendant; but alarming 
symptoms then presented themselves, attended 
with difficulty of breathing. From 5 P.M. he 
was unconscious ; and he continued gradually 
to sink till 25 minutes before 9, at which hour 
he died. A general order issued from the 
Horse Guards described Lord Raglan as during 
a long peace employing an unwearied attention 
to the interests and welfare of the army, shown 
by the kindness, the impartiality, and justice 
with which he transacted its duties. “ At the 
head of the troops during the arduous operations 
of the campaign, he resumed the early habits of 
his life ; by his calmness in the hottest moments 
of battle, and by his quick perception in taking 
advantage of the ground or the movements of 
the enemy, he won the confidence of his army, 
and performed great and brilliant services.” 
Lord Raglan’s body was brought to England 
in the Caradoc, and interred in the cemetery of 
his ancestors at Bodminton. The Commander- 
in-chief was bom in 1788, and, as Lord Fitzroy 
Somerset, greatly distinguished himself in the 
Peninsula. He was succeeded in the Crimea 
by General Simpson, recently sent out as the 
Chief of the Staff. 

— A seaman named Veale murders the 
captain, mate, and one of the crew of the brig 
Her Majesty , bound for Cork from Salonica 
with a cargo of Indian corn. On the rest of 
the crew arming themselves to secure the mur¬ 
derer, he shut himself up in the forecastle and 
committed suicide. The vessel was brought 
into Cork by a portion of the crew of the 
merchantman Isabella , who had seen the 
signals of distress raised by those on board 
Her Majesty. 

— The American filibuster, Walker, who 
had landed some days since at Nicaragua, 
totally routed by native troops, near San Juan 
del Sur. He afterwards retrieved his fortunes, 
and made himself for a time dictator of the 
State. 

29 . —Unaware of the death or even the 
serious illness of Lord Raglan, Lord Panmure 
and Lord Palmerston take occasion to-night to 
contradict the rumour current regarding his 
resignation, and mention further that they 
understood the Commander-in-chief to have 
almost recovered from his recent attack. 




JUNE 


1855 . 


JULY 


30 .—Died, aged 69, James Silk Bucking¬ 
ham, traveller and journalist. 

July 2. —In consequence of the disturbance 
to which it had given rise, Lord R. Grosvenor 
withdraws his Sunday Trading Bill. 

— Royal Message read in both Houses of 
Parliament, recommending that some distin¬ 
guished mark of favour be conferred on the 
widow and family of the late Lord Raglan. 
Eulogiums were passed on the Commander- 
in-chief by statesmen of all parties, as well as 
by old companions in arms. 

6 . —In the course of a debate on the conduct 
of the police in Hyde Park on the 1st inst., 
Mr. G. Dundas recommended as the best tran¬ 
quillizer of a mob, “ the click upon the pave¬ 
ment of the trail of a six-pounder.” In defer¬ 
ence to a remonstrance from Mr. Roebuck, 
Mr. Dundas afterwards apologized for this 
language. 

— In answer to Mr. Milner Gibson, Lord 
John Russell explains that, though he was 
personally convinced that the Austrian pro¬ 
posals gave a very fair prospect to the cessa¬ 
tion of hostilities, yet the Government on his 
return home came to the conclusion that the 
peace proposed would not be a safe peace, and 
that they could not recommend its adoption. 
H is continuation in office was based upon a con¬ 
sideration of the exigencies of the times, the 
failure of himself and Lord Derby to form 
Ministries, and the appearance of instability his 
retirement might give to the present Cabinet. 
“ And this,” said Mr. Disraeli, “is the end of 
this important session—this is the end of break¬ 
ing up so many Governments—this is the end 
of your great national intentions, great national 
disasters—this is the end of the Government, 
at the head of which you were to have a 
Minister of surpassing energy, and, no doubt, 
transcendent experience—this is the end of the 
Ministry which was to put the right men in 
the right places ; this is the end, that even 
peace and war have become mere party con¬ 
siderations—that the interests of the country are 
sacrificed to the menace of a majority, and that 
the tumults and turbulent assemblies of Down- 
ing-street are to baffle all the sagacity of all 
the Conferences of Vienna.” 

8 . —Died at Ems, Norway, aged 65, Rear- 
Adm ral Sir William Edward Parry, Arctic 
voyager. 

IO.—Sir E. B. Lytton gives notice of a 
motion, “That the conduct of the Minister 
charged with the negotiations at Vienna, and 
his continuance in office as a responsible adviser 
of the Crown, have shaken the confidence 
which the country should place in those, to 
whom the administration of public affairs is 
entrusted.” 

16 .—Parliamentary censure being to all 
appearances unavoidable, if he remained in the 
Cabinet, Lord John Russell anticipated the 
effect of Sir E. B. Lytton’s motion by an¬ 


nouncing to-day that he had resigned. He 
explained the motives which influenced him to 
continue in the Cabinet notwithstanding his 
difference of opinion as to the Austrian pro¬ 
posals, vindicated his position on the ground 
of public duty, and noticed the abuse recently 
showered on his head, but regarding which, he 
said, he was entitled to feel neither surprise 
nor dissatisfaction. He was succeeded in the 
Colonial Office by Sir W. Molesworth. The 
retirement of Lord John Russell at this time 
gave rise to considerable comment, as it was 
alleged that the step was taken not so much 
from the fear of political opponents as through 
the advice of outspoken candid friends. Promi¬ 
nent among these was the Vice-President of the 
Board of Trade, Mr. Bouverie. “ It must have 
been an awful moment,” the Times remarked, 

“ when doubts as to the excellency of his idol 
began to throb through the soul of this placid 
neophyte. What after all if Lord Tohn were mis¬ 
taken ? What if he were self-willed, opinionated, 
perverse, and his doctrines a strong delusion? 
What if he were to blow cold at Vienna and 
hot in London, to coo like a turtle-dove at one 
moment, and scream like a kite on the search 
for prey the next ? Lord John a trimmer! 
Desdemona unchaste ! Brookes’s in revolt like 
a mere assemblage of ordinary men, subject to 
the like infirmities and passions as their fellow- 
creatures, and Mr. Bouverie standing by with 
fiery brain to witness the awful catastrophe ! ” 
Referring to the untoward result of the Con¬ 
ference, Mr. Disraeli said in the course of the 
debate, that it required a divinity inspired by 
the spirit of a Vice-President of the Board of 
Trade to disentangle a knot of such difficulty 
and delicacy as the one which the noble lord 
had encountered. “There have been many 
instances,” he said, “ of friends and friendships. 
Friendship is the gift of God, and the most 
precious to man. It has long occupied the 
thought and consideration of essayists and 
philosophers. There is the devoted friend, 
who stands or falls by one, like the noble lord 
(Lord Palmerston); but there is another kind 
of friend, immortalized by an epithet which 
should not be mentioned to ears polite. We 
all know that friend. It was, I believe, a 
brilliant ornament of this House who described 
that kind of friend, and I must say that 
although as the devoted friend the Prime 
Minister must after to-night be allowed to take 
the highest position, still for a friend of the 
other description—candid and not bad-natured 
—commend me to the Vice-President of the 
Board of Trade.”—In consequence of the resig¬ 
nation of Lord John Russell, Sir E. B. Lytton’s 
motion was withdrawn, after a debate in which 
Mr. Disraeli, insisting on the secret sympathy of 
other members of the Cabinet with the peace 
party, declared tuat Lord Palmerston had that 
night shown by his language that if the honour 
and interests of the country were any longer 
committed to his care, the first would be de¬ 
graded and the last would be betrayed. 

17 .—An attempt having been made to eject 

( 441 ) 





JULY 


A UGUST 


T^S- 


Baron Rothschild from his seat for London, on 
the ground that he had entered into a contract 
tvith the Government, Mr. Walpole to-day 
brings up the report of the Select Committee 
appointed to inquire into the question. They 
found that Baron Rothschild had not forfeited 
his seat by contracting for the loan. 

17 .—Debate, extending over two nights, on 
Mr. Roebuck’s resolution pledging the House 
to visit with severe reprehension every member 
of the Cabinet whose counsels led to the 
Crimean disasters. The “previous question” 
was carried by 289 to 182 votes. 

— Mr. William Farren retires from the stage 
after a performance at the Haymarket of the 
“Clandestine Marriage,” in which the veteran 
sustained the part of Lord Ogleby. 

19 .—A fire broke out in the Hotel d’Angle- 
terre, Chamounix, and destroyed the greater 
part of the village. 

21 . —Uncovering of Behnes’ statue of Sir 
Robert Peel, in Cheapside. 

24 . —An English snake found dead in the 
Highwoods, Colchester, measuring 9 feet 5 
inches in length, and 11 inches in girth at the 
thickest part. It weighed between 140 and 
150 pounds. 

25 . —Died, aged81, William Selwyn, Q.C., 
author of a standard legal work on proceedings 
in Nisi Prius. 

30 . —The returns relative to the French 
loan of 75o,ooo,ooofr. give a total capital sub¬ 
scribed of 3,652,591,985ft., or nearly five 
times the amount required. The total number 
of subscribers was 316,864. No less than 
231,920,155ft. were made up of subscriptions 
of 50ft. and under. 

31 . —The Queen performs the ceremony of 
christening the new screw line-of-battle ship 
Marlborough , launched at Portsmouth to-day. 

August 1.—Viscount Canning entertained 
by the East India Company on his appoint¬ 
ment as Governor-General of India. 

— In conformity with the desire expressed 
in a Royal Message, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer submits a scheme for issuing 
7,000,000/. Exchequer Bills, to provide for 
additional expenses connected with the war. 

— Treasury minute issued reconstituting 
the management of the National Gallery; 
board of trustees to be changed, a director 
appointed, the offices of keeper and secretary 
to be united, and a travelling agent to be em¬ 
ployed. 

3 .— Came on, at Warwick Assizes, the trial 
of Lieutenant William Austin, formerly Go¬ 
vernor of Birmingham Borough Gaol, indicted 
on ten counts for having practised various 
cruelties by hooks, nails, strait-jackets, &c., 
upon the person of Edward Andrews, formerly a 
prisoner in the gaol, and who committed suicide 
there on the night of the 27th April, 1853. 

( 442 ) 


The chaplain said he knew the boy Andrews. 
‘ 1 He appeared to be of a mild disposition. I 
went into his cell on the 19th of April, and 
found him crying. They were the cries of a 
person in much pain. The word ‘ murder ’ 
was used frequently. He was strapped to the 
wall, and complained of the compression of his 
limbs and' the tightness of the collar round his 
neck. I could not get my finger within his 
collar. He always complained of being too 
weakly for the crank labour, and so he ap¬ 
peared.” Various other acts of cruelty having 
been spoken to by gaol officials, Mr. Justice 
Coleridge said, that the use of the strait- 
waistcoat, the collar, and water were clearly 
illegal punishments. The jury at once returned 
a verdict of guilty. Lieutenant Austin was 
then tried in company with Blount, the sur¬ 
geon of the gaol, for assaulting a prisoner 
named Hunt. They were acquitted on this 
count, but convicted on another, charging them 
with omitting to make entries in the prison 
books required by Act of Parliament. Austin 
was brought before the Court of Queen’s Bench 
and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. 

3. —In the course of a discussion in the 
House of Commons on the Vienna negotiations, 
a personal altercation takes place between Mr. 
Cobden and Sir W. Molesworth, the former 
charging the latter with using to his consti¬ 
tuents misleading language on the subject of 
the Turkish loan. 

7. —On the order of the day for the third read¬ 
ing of the Appropriation Bill, Lord J. Russell 
called attention to the prospects of the war, its 
expenses amounting to 49,000,000/. for the pre¬ 
sent year; to the inability of the Baltic and Black 
Sea Fleets, however powerful, to effect its ter¬ 
mination ; to the failure of the Foreign En¬ 
listment Act, and our consequent inability to 
ward off the danger that threatens the Asiatic 
frontier of Turkey; to the fact that the Turkish 
Plenipotentiary was satisfied with the proposal 
for peace made by Count Buol, and that con¬ 
sequently, if the war was commenced, not for 
the integrity of Turkey, but for the maintenance 
of the military renown of France and England, 
it would be the duty of these Powers not to 
guarantee loans, but to give direct subsidies 
to Turkey. 

9. —Santa Anna abdicates the dictatorship 
of Mexico. 

— Bombardment of Sweaborg by the allied 
fleets in the Baltic. Heavy explosions and 
destructive fires were produced in a few hours. 
Nearly all the principal buildings on Vargoe 
and many more on Swartoe, including the 
dockyard and arsenal, were burnt. The firing 
was continued till 4 o’clock on the morn- 
ning of the nth, at which time 1,000 tons of 
iron shot and shell had been thrown into the 
forts by the English alone. The Russian ac¬ 
count of the iotli says :— “ Since nightfall 
the aggressor has been firing Congreve rockets 
into Sweaborg. According to an approximate 
calculation at least 10,000 shells must have 







AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1855. 


been fired on the 9th, from 7 A.M. to 8 p.m. 
The enemy is now firing thirty rockets a mi¬ 
nute.” The loss on the side of the Allies was 
trifling. 

14. —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
Referring to the war, her Majesty expressed her¬ 
self convinced that “You will share her satis¬ 
faction at finding that the progress of events has 
tended to cement more firmly that union which 
has so happily been established between our 
Government and that of our ally, the Emperor 
of the French; and her Majesty trusts that the 
alliance founded on a sense of the general in¬ 
terests of Europe, consolidated by good faith, 
will long survive the events which have given 
rise to it, and will contribute to the permanent 
well-being and prosperity of the two great 
nations whom it has linked together in the 
bonds of honourable friendship.” Reference 
was also made to the Metropolitan Improve¬ 
ment Bill, the abolition of the duty on news¬ 
papers, and the application of the principle of 
limited liability to joint-stock associations. 

15. —The loan of 5,000,000/. raised for the 
Ottoman Porte on the joint guarantee of France 
and England taken up by Messrs. Rothschild. 
The interest was to be 4 per cent, and the 
sum paid 102/. I2J-. 6 d. for each 100/. stock. 

— King Ferdinand, of Naples, formally 
declines the mediation of the Western Powers 
in the internal affairs of his State, as contrary 
to the rules of international law, and an attack 
on the independence and dignity of the Crown. 
If any attempt, he wrote, were made to coerce 
him, he would appeal to the patriotism of his 
people, and, trusting to his brave and faithful 
people, would repel force by force. 

16 . —Battle of the Tchemaya. This despe¬ 
rate attempt to raise the siege was made under 
General Liprandi, who brought into the field 
five divisions of infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 20 
batteries. Despite the skilful concentration ot 
these massess collected during the night, they 
were repulsed with great vigour by the French 
divisions which bore the chief weight of the 
assault. The Sardinian contingent, placed on 
the right, fought with great bravery. The 
Russians were in full retreat on Mackenzie’s 
Farm when the allied reserves were being 
brought up. They left 2,500 dead on the field, 
and 1,620 wounded. The allied loss was 180 
killed and 810 wounded. 

18.— The Queen, with Prince Albert, the 
Prince of Wales, and the Princess Royal, visit 
the Emperor and Empress of the French at 
Paris. They were received by the Emperor at 
Boulogne, and conducted to the capital in the 
evening. During the week over which the so¬ 
journ extended, royal visits were paid to the 
Exposition d’l'ndustrie, the Louvre, and the 
Opera. A splendid entertainment was given 
by the Municipality of Paris in the Hotel-de- 
Ville, and a ball at Versailles, by the Emperor, 
which in magnificence eclipsed everything since 
the days of Louis XIV. There was also a 


military display on the Champs de Mars, and 
another at parting, on the 27th, on the 
heights above Boulogne. Lord Clarendon 
wrote to Sir George Grey:—“The Queen is 
profoundly sensible of the kindness with which 
she has been received by the Emperor and 
Empress, and of those manifestations of respect 
and cordiality on the part of the French nation 
by which she has everywhere been greeted. On 
personal and political grounds the visit to Paris 
has afforded the highest gratification to her 
Majesty.” 

18 .—Concordat signed between Rome and 
Austria, whereby the House of Hapsburg sur¬ 
rendered to the Papal See greater rights and 
privileges than had ever before been extorted 
from any German sovereign. The first article 
guarantees the maintenance of the Roman 
Catholic religion with all the privileges which 
by the laws of the Church it ought to have. 
The second article gives to the bishops, clergy, 
and laity free communication with the Pope. 
The third article gives the bishops complete 
authority, pastoral and clerical. The fourth 
article enables them to do everything belonging 
to the government of their sees which is in ac¬ 
cordance with the explanations or stipulations 
of the canonical laws, and which, in respect to 
the discipline of the Church, is approved by the 
Papal chair. The fifth article places all public 
and private schools under the control of the 
bishops; and the sixth gives the bishops the 
power of appointing and removing the only 
persons allowed to teach theology. The 
seventh article provides that none but Catholic 
priests shall be allowed to teach anything in 
the middle-class schools, and that the books 
of instruction be chosen by the bishop. By 
the eighth article the Emperor is permitted to 
choose the inspectors of the school of the dio¬ 
cese, but under the declared condition that the 
candidates from whom he may select shall be 
chosen by the bishops. The ninth article pro¬ 
mises the help of the Government to suppress 
such books as are dangerous to religion in the 
judgment of the bishops. The tenth article 
establishes ecclesiastical courts for the punish¬ 
ment of the clergy and the trial of cases relat¬ 
ing to marriage and betrothal. The eleventh 
article invests the bishops with the power of 
inflicting ecclesiastical punishment on clergy 
and laity. The twelfth article renders to the 
civil courts the power of deciding on the right 
of patronage, except in the case of a disputed 
succession. 

27. —Hollins’s statue of Sir Robert Peel 
inaugurated at Birmingham. 

30.— Died at Notting Hill, aged 59, 
Feargus O’Connor, a once-popular Chartist 
leader. 

September 3. —Bartholomew Fair—which 
dated from the erection of the Priory by 
Rahere in 1123—proclaimed in Smithfield for 
the last time. 


( 443 ) 





SEPTEMBER 


1855 - 


SEPTEMBER 


5. —Apologizing for his inability to attend a 
farewell banquet, designed in honour of Gavin 
Duffy, Mr. T. Carlyle writes : “I have a real 
regard and even affection for Duffy, whose fine 
truthful intellect and ardent humane character 
were always recognisable to me in the worst 
tumult of Irish confusions. His course, then, 
which I never could applaud for wisdom, nor 
rebuke without pity and respect, has all along 
seemed to me one of the most tragical; and 
surely it has been troublous enough, tumbling 
in the wake of that monster of Blarney, Big O, 
and his ‘justice for Ireland’ (the ugliest im¬ 
postor generated in my time). ” 

8 . —Dr. Barth, African traveller, whose 
fate had given rise to much anxiety in 
the public mind, arrives at Marseilles from 
Tripoli. 

— Edouard Bellemarre, a person of weak 
intellect, attempts to assassinate the Emperor 
of the French by shooting at him with a pistol 
when passing into the Italian theatre. 

— Retreat of the Russians from Sebastopol. 
At daybreak, on the morning of the 5th, the 
opening fire commenced from our mortar bat¬ 
teries. It was thenceforward continued without 
cessation by day and night. Besides the huge 
array of land batteries opposed to the east face, 
there were six English and six French mortar 
boats firing shells from Strelitska Bay into the 
Forts Quarantine and Alexander. It was 
determined that at noon this day the enemy’s 
works should be stormed, and accordingly the 
French undertook the assault of the Malakhoff 
and the English the assault of the Redan Bat¬ 
teries. At the precise hour fixed on, the French 
soldiers rushed from their advanced places 
d'amies. They crossed the ditches with sur¬ 
prising agility, and, climbing on the parapets, 
attacked the enemy to the cry of “ Vive l’Em- 
pereur!” At the Malakhoff Fort, the slopes 
on the inside being very high, the first arrivals 
stopped for a moment in order to form, then 
mounted on the parapet and leaped into the 
work. The contest, which had commenced by 
musket shots, was continued with the bayonet, 
butt-ends, and stones. The Russian artillery¬ 
men made use of their rammers as weapons ; 
but they were eveiywhere killed, taken 
prisoners, or driven off, and in a quarter of an 
hour the French flag was floating on the con¬ 
quered redoubt. This was the signal agreed 
on for the advance of the English to the Redan. 
The Light Division left the trenches, and 
moved accross the ground under a withering 
fire of artillery, preceded by a covering party of 
200 men and a ladder party of 320. On arriv¬ 
ing at the crest of the ditch, the ladders were 
placed, and the men immediately stormed the 
parapet of the Redan, penetrating into the 
salient angle. A most determined and bloody 
contest was here maintained for nearly an 
hour. Young Massy, of the 19th, and Colonel 
Windham were particularly noticed for their 
courage in the face of the enemy ; but, although 
the greatest bravery was displayed, it was 
( 444 ) 


found impossible to maintain the position. 
Chiefly, it was thought, from the want of flank 
support at the battery, the men in the salient 
were obliged to retreat and seek refuge with 
the main body of the army in the trenches. 
After this failure, the trenches were so crow r ded 
with troops that General Simpson was unable 
to renew the assault, but, after a conference 
with his officers, it was settled to make a new 
attempt the following morning. The retreat 
of the Russians made this unnecessary. A 
piquet party creeping stealthily to the Redan 
after nightfall found the place deserted. A 
series of tremendous explosions in the arsenals, 
and numerous fires, proclaimed about the same 
time that the enemy was preparing to leave the 
doomed city. “Soon afterwards,” writes the 
Times correspondent, ‘ ‘ wandering fires gleamed 
through the streets and outskirts of the town—■ 
point after point became alight—the flames 
shone out of the windows of the houses—rows 
of mansions caught and burnt up, and before 
daybreak the town of Sebastopol, that fine 
and stately mistress of the Euxine, on which 
we had so often turned a longing eye, was on 
fire from the sea to the Dockyard Creek. At 
sunrise, four large explosions followed in quick 
succession, and at 5.30 Fort Alexander and 
the Grand Magazine, with all their deadly 
stores, were blown into the air. The former 
exploded with a stupendous crash, that made 
the very earth reel. All this time the Rus¬ 
sians were marching with sullen tramp across 
the bridge, and boats were busy carrying 
materiel off from the town, or bearing men 
to the south side to complete the work of 
destruction, and renew the fire of hidden 
mines, or light up untouched houses. When 
the town could be safely entered, heaps of 
wounded and dead were found lying in stores 
to which they had been carried after the 
assault. Of all the pictures of the horrors 
of war ever presented to the world, the hospital 
of Sebastopol was the most horrible, heart- 
rendering, and revolting. It cannot be de¬ 
scribed, and the imagination of a Fuseli could 
not conceive anything at all like unto it. How 
the poor human body can be mutilated, and yet 
hold its soul within, when every limb is shat¬ 
tered, and every vein and artery is pouring out 
the life-stream, one might study here at every 
step, and at the same time wonder how little 
could kill. In a long, low room, supported by 
square pillars, arched at the top, and dimly 
lighted through shattered and unglazed window 
frames, lay the wounded Russians, who had 
been abandoned to our mercies by their gene¬ 
ral.” Between the 5th and the 8th, they lost 
4 superior officers, 47 subalterns, and 3,917 
soldiers, without reckoning the artillerymen 
who perished at the guns. “Taking advan¬ 
tage,” writes Prince Gortschakoff, “of the 
superiority of their fire at short ranges, the 
enemy, after the concentrated action of their 
artillery for thirty days, commenced that 
infernal bombardment from their innumerable 
engines of war, and of a calibre hitherto tin- 





SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1855. 


known, which destroyed our defences, which 
had been repaired at night with great labour 
and at great loss, under the incessant fire of 
the enemy, the principal work having ex- 
erienced considerable and irreparable damage, 
'o continue, under these circumstances, the 
defence of the south side, would have been to 
expose our troops daily to a useless butchery, 
and their preservation is to-day more than 
ever necessary to the Emperor of Russia. For 
these reasons, with sorrow in my heart, but 
with a full conviction, I resolved to evacuate 
Sebastopol, and to take over the troops to 
the north side of the bridge constructed 
beforehand over the bay, and by boats. 
.... Remember the sacrifice we made upon 
the altar of our country in 1812. Moscow was 

surely as valuable as Sebastopol. It is 

not Sebastopol which we have left to them, but 
the burning ruins of the town, which we 
ourselves set fire to, having maintained the 
honour of the defence in such a manner that 
our great-grandchildren may recall the re¬ 
membrance thereof with pride to all posterity.” 
Thus ended this memorable siege of 349 days’ 
duration. The besieging army had about 700 
guns in battery during the various attacks, 
and upwards of i,6oo,cxx) shots were fired. 
Our approaches, which were in many cases 
cut through the rock by means of gunpowder, 
had an extent of fully fifty miles. We em¬ 
ployed 80,000 gabions, 60,000 fascines, and 
nearly, a million of sandbags. The French 
lost in the Malakhoff attack 24 superioi 
officers killed, 4 wounded, and 2 missing; 
1 16 subaltern officers killed, 224 wounded, 
8 missing; 1,489 sous-officers and soldiers 
killed, 4,259 wounded, and 1,400 missing: 
total, 7,551. The English lost at the Redan 
385 killed, 1,886 wounded, 176 missing: 
total, 2,447. 

IO.—The news of the fall of Sebastopol 
reached England on the afternoon of this day 
(Monday), and gave rise to various patriotic 
demonstrations. The eventful intelligence was 
conveyed by express to the Queen at Balmoral, 
who caused a huge bonfire to be kindled on 
the summit of Craigcowan in celebration of the 
victory. The guns were fired at St. James’s 
Park and at the Tower. Intimation of the 
event was also made in the theatres during the 
evening ; and special prayers relating thereto 
were offered up in the churches on the 30th. 

— Influence of the fall of Sebastopol on 
the money market. The news was not pub¬ 
lished till after business hours, and in the 
earlier part of the day the effect of the an¬ 
nouncement of the taking of the Malakhoff 
was partially counteracted by anxiety regard¬ 
ing the casualties that might possibly have 
been sustained in the assault on the Redan. 
Consols for money, which left off on Saturday at 
90I to I, were first quoted at 91, but a tendency 
to relapse was soon observable, and after the 
appearance of the second edition of the papers, 
with the despatch from General Pelissier men¬ 


tioning serious losses, a decline took place to 
90^ to £ for money, and 90^- to 91 for the ac¬ 
count, from which there was no alteration up 
to the official close. At a later hour, rumours 
began to circulate of the receipt of some further 
great intelligence, and transactions were again 
entered into at 91 to ^ for the account. Among 
minor influences during the day on the unfa¬ 
vourable side, were the continued firmness of 
the corn market and the attempt on the life of 
the Emperor Napoleon, while, on the other 
hand, the market was supported by some ar¬ 
rivals of specie. 

11 . —The morning newspapers make the 
welcome announcement, “ Sebastopol is in the 
possession of the Allies.” Lord Panmure’s 
telegram, dated Crimea, 9th, said: “The 
enemy during the night and this morning have 
evacuated the south side, after exploding their 
magazines and setting fire to the whole of the 
town.” Another to Sir Charles Wood from 
Lord Lyons : “During the night the Russians 
have sunk all the remainder of the line-of-battle 
ships in Sebastopol harbour.” Telegraphing 
on the 10th the capture of the Malakhoff, 
General Simpson announced, ‘The casualties, 
I regret to say, are somewhat heavy. No 
general officer killed. Names shall be sent as 
soon as possible.” 

— The Duke of Modena writes : “ Dear 
Forni,—I answer a few words to yours of yes¬ 
terday, which brought me the two sad tele¬ 
graphic despatches relating to the Crimea. In 
this world, but only in this world, blackguards 
(i birbi) can triumph, and usually do triumph. 
For the rest, I believe that the Western Powers 
are at the highest point of their glory. Hence¬ 
forward, as after the burning of Moscow, things 
will turn, please God, to their ruin. Mean¬ 
while, we are to be prepared for revolutionary 
excitement, and for redoubled insolence on the 
part of the Western Powers. Austria is para¬ 
lysed, and this is the most fatal thing for us.” 

12 . —The United States Attorney - General 
Cushing writes to the Attorney-General of the 
State of Philadelphia, regarding the alleged 
infraction of international law committed by 
Great Britain, in permitting in Canada the 
enlistment of subjects of the United States 
under the recently passed Foreign Enlistment 
Act: “This Government has, of course, ad¬ 
dressed to that of Great Britain such demands 
of public redress and satisfaction in the pre¬ 
mises as the national honour requires. But 
the Government of Great Britain, with extra¬ 
ordinary inattention to the grave aspect of its 
acts—namely, the flagrant violation of our 
sovereign rights involved in them—has sup¬ 
posed it a sufficient justification of what it has 
done, to reply that it gave instructions to its 
agents so to proceed as not to infringe our 
municipal laws ; and it quotes the remarks of 
Judge Kane in support of the idea that it has 
succeeded in this purpose. It may be so ; 
Judge Kane is an upright and intelligent judge, 

( 445 ) 





OCTOBER 


1855. 


OCTOBER 


and will pronounce the law as it is, without fear 
or favour. But if the British Government has, 
by ingenious contrivances, succeeded in shelter¬ 
ing its agents from conviction as malefactors, 
it has, in so doing, doubled the magnitude 
of the national wrong inflicted on the United 
States.” 

14 .—Lord Palmerston, in the course of an 
address at Melbourne, Derbyshire, said he had 
it on the best authority that the hospitals in 
the Crimea were now in the most admirable 
condition; they might in fact be almost re¬ 
garded as models for the hospitals of London. 
The troops enjoyed every comfort compatible 
with a military campaign, and were in as good 
a condition as if they were in a peace estab¬ 
lishment at home. “ After what has occurred 
at Sebastopol, it was impossible,” he said, 
“that the war could be brought to any other 
conclusion than that w r hich would secure to 
Europe safety against the future aggression of 
Russia. ” 

16 .—Pedro V. assumes the government of 
Portugal. 

22.—The Revolutionary International Com¬ 
mittee of the democratic and social Republicans 
meet in the Scientific Hall, John-street, Lon¬ 
don, to commemorate the anniversary of the 
proclamation of the first French Republic in 
1792. The speeches at the meeting, which 
were extremely violent, were published in a 
Jersey newspaper called VHomme, as was also 
an address to the Queen signed by the Com¬ 
mittee of the Revolutionary Society. Rebellion 
and assassination were openly advocated both 
in the address and in the speeches. All the 
persons connected with the newspaper, and the 
refugees who advocated their principles, were 
driven from the island during a disturbance 
which took place the following month. 

29 .—Alderman Salomons elected Lord 
Mayor of London, being the first Jew called to 
this honour. 

— The Sultan’s troops defeat the Russians 
under General Mouravieff, at Kars. Colonel 
Williams reported that during this combat, 
which lasted nearly seven hours, the Turkish 
infantry, as well as artillery, fought with the 
most determined courage. The Russians left 
on the field more than 5,000 dead; but, not¬ 
withstanding this bloody repulse, they still 
clung to the blockade with extreme obstinacy, 
and continued to invest Kars on all sides, in 
the hope of compelling the garrison to surrender 
under the pressure of famine. 

October 2. —The King of Denmark pub¬ 
lishes a new constitution. 

3 .—The King of Prussia lays the foundation 
stone of a new bridge over the Rhine at Co¬ 
logne. He completed the south door of the 
Cathedral next day, and commenced a new 
museum for the city. 

— Died, aged 92, Sir Robert Adair, an 
English diplomatist, Ambassador at Vienna 
( 446 ) 


in 1806, and at Constantinople from 1809 to 
1811. 

8. —Died, aged 72, Francis Magendie, 
French anatomist. 

9 . —Boiler explosion at the Walker Iron 
Works, near Newcastle, throwing down most 
of the low rolling-mill and killing six of the 
workmen. Three were hurled into the Tyne 
by the force of the explosion, and others 
severely scalded and burnt. 

12 . —Miss Charlotte Hinds murderously as¬ 
saulted and shot by some of her tenants when 
returning home on a car from the market of 
Ballyconnell, county Cavan. The lady had for 
months before been marked out as a victim by 
the members of a secret association on the 
estate. 

14 . —Commencement of a series of disor¬ 
derly gatherings in Hyde Park to give expres¬ 
sion to popular feeling regarding the present 
high price of provisions. 

15 . —The Emperor of Russia issues an ukase 
ordering a levy of 10 men for every 1,000 to 
recruit his army. 

16 . —The three hundredth anniversary of the 
burning of Ridley and Latimer celebrated at 
Oxford. 

17 . —Bombardment of Kinbum, in the Black 
Sea, by the allied fleet. All the forts, garrison 
of 1,500 men, and 70guns taken; the prisoners 
sent to Constantinople. 

— Siege of Kars. Dr. Sandwith writes: 
“ Our troops suffering fearfully from their diet 
of bread and water. They are no longer the 
stout and hardy men who fought for seven hours 
against overwhelming odds, and drove back a 
magnificent Russian army. A visible emacia¬ 
tion is observed throughout the ranks, and the 
newly-opened hospitals are filling daily with 
men whose only disease is exhaustion from 
want of nutriment. The high price of bread, 
too, in the town induces many poor fellows 
to sell half their rations, and those who yield 
to this temptation immediately sink at their 
posts and die.—21st. Swarms of vultures hover 
round our lines preying on the corpses that the 
hungry dogs which have forsaken the city have 
scratched out of their graves. The grass is 
torn up in all the open spaces, and the roots 
eaten by the soldiers and people. ” 

18 . —-Rev. F. J. McDougall consecrated 
first Bishop of Labuan. 

22 .—A young thief stolen by his comrades 
from the Middlesex Hospital, whither he had 
been conveyed after a fall when attempting to 
rob a house in Harley-street. His companions 
got over the garden wall of the hospital early 
in the morning, and entering the ward where 
the lad was lying, succeeded in carrying him 
off to a cab without alarm. They kept him 
concealed nearly a month, when the anxious 
searches of the police were rewarded by dis¬ 
covering him in an obscure lodging-house, still 
confined to his pallet by the broken limb. 






OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1355 . 


22 .—Died, aged 45, Sir W. Molesworth, 
Bart., M. P., Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
He was succeeded in his seat at Southwark by 
Admiral Sir C. Napier, and in office by Mr. 
Labouchere. 

24. —Exposure of Alice Grey, the female 
impostor, at Wolverhampton Police-court. In 
the course of an inquiry into a charge made 
against two boys for stealing her purse, she 
was recognised as a woman who had made a 
similar charge at Birmingham. Likenesses of 
her were thereafter sent to different towns, 
which resulted in her detection as a systematic 
swindler. The earliest trace of her appeared 
at Dublin, where in 1849, under the name of 
Armstrong, she charged a man with robbing 
her, but failed to secure a conviction. In 
Yorkshire and Derbyshire she passed herself 
off as a clergyman’s daughter. At Canterbury 
she was a Roman Catholic, persecuted by 
Baptists. In various parts of Scotland, and at 
Bristol, Bath, and London, she brought 
charges of robbery of imaginary trunks and 
purses against twenty-nine persons, sometimes 
obtaining a conviction, and nearly always 
money from the benevolent whom she interested 
in her story. She was committed for trial at 
the Spring Assizes, and then sentenced to four 
years’ penal servitude. 

25. —The engraved steel plates of various 
pictures by Landseer, Leslie, and Salter, de¬ 
faced to prevent further impressions being 
taken. The mutilated plates were exhibited 
to-day at the Albion, and the stock of copies 
in the hands of the proprietors submitted to 
public competition. 

26. —Trial of Strahan, Paul, and Bates, at 
the Central Criminal Court, for fraudulently 
appropriating to their own use certain Danish 
bonds of the value of 5,000/. committed to their 
keeping as bankers, by Dr. Griffith, prebendary 
of Rochester. The case for the prosecution 
was stated by the Attorney-General. It was 
proved that Sir John Dean Paul instructed the 
secretary of the National Insurance Company 
to sell Dr. Griffith’s bonds; and Dr. Griffith 
deposed to conversations subsequent to the 
bankruptcy, from which it appeared that Mr. 
Strahan and Mr. Bates were accessory to the 
transaction. Sir F. Thesiger, who appeared 
for Mr. Strahan, defended him on the ground 
that the sale of the Danish bonds was effected 
solely by Sir John Paul; that he received the 
proceeds ; and that there was no proof that 
Mr. Strahan was privy to the transaction; and 
further, that Mr. Strahan, having made a dis¬ 
closure of the circumstances before the Court 
of Bankruptcy, was not (according to the Act 
of 7 and 8 Geo. IV.) liable to be indicted on 
account of such circumstances. Mr. Serjeant 
Byles, for Sir John Paul, admitted the facts as 
stated by Dr. Griffith, but said that it was his 
intention to replace the bonds, as was shown 
by his subsequently purchasing others to a 
similar amount. He also maintained that 
Sir J. Paul, having made a full disclosure in 


the Bankruptcy Court, was no longer liable to 
criminal proceedings. Mr. James, for Mr. 
Bates, rested his case upon his total ignorance 
of the transaction in question. The court then 
adjourned to the following morning, when 
Baron Alderson having charged the jury, after 
an absence of half an hour they returned a 
verdict of Guilty against all the prisoners. The 
judge proceeded to pass sentence. Comment¬ 
ing on the heinous nature of the offence, he 
observed that all the prisoners had been well 
educated, and moved in a high position of 
society. The punishment which was about to 
fall on them, therefore, would be far more 
heavy and more keenly felt than by persons in 
a lower condition of life. It would also, he 
regretted to say, afflict those who were con¬ 
nected with them. These, however, were not 
considerations for him at that moment: all he 
had to do was to say that he could not conceive 
any worse case of the sort that could arise 
under the statute upon which they had been 
convicted, and that being the case, he had no 
alternative but to pass upon them the sentence 
which the Act of Parliament provided for the 
worst class of offences arising under it; that 
was, that they be severally transported for the 
term of fourteen years. 

27 .—The new school at Pinner, designed for 
the children of commercial travellers, formally 
opened by Prince Albert in the presence of the 
Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and a large com¬ 
pany. 

November 1 . —Murder of Robert Stirling, 
a young surgeon, assistant to Mr. Watson, of 
Byer’s-green, near Newcastle. Stirling left 
his residence on the forenoon of this day to 
visit patients residing in the outlying districts 
of Thornley, Barlow, and Low Spen. H e com¬ 
pleted his last visit about I o’clock P.M. and 
was not seen alive afterwards. Mr. Watson, 
thinking his assistant had gone suddenly off 
to join the Turkish contingent, to which he 
had been appointed, took no immediate alarm, 
and, indeed, wrote to Stirling’s friends in 
Scotland that he had left suddenly. The 
young man’s father, doubtful that he would 
leave in this manner, set out for Byer’s-green, 
and caused a search to be instituted in the 
neighbourhood. On the evening of the 6th 
the body was discovered in a copse near Der- 
went-bridge, a short distance from Gibside- 
park. The face was dreadfully beaten in and 
bruised, and it was found on examination that 
he had been shot through the abdomen. His 
watch was stolen, and his pockets rifled. It 
appeared that, on leaving the house of the 
patient last visited, young Stirling proceeded 
down a solitary lane leading past Derwent- 
bridge, and on passing a clump of trees was 
shot by some one lying in ambush, and dragged 
through a hedge to the plantation where his 
body was found. In this place the murderer 
seemed to have finished his victim, either by 
beating him about the head with the butt end 
of his gun, or with two large stones found near. 

( 447 ) 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1855. 


The most anxious search could discover nothing 
but slight traces of the perpetrators of the crime. 
The time of the murder might be gathered 
from the testimony of a boy working in a neigh¬ 
bouring potato-field, who said that between 
1 and 2 o’clock he heard a gun fired in Smaile’s 
Wood, and afterwards a voice shouting, “ Oh, 
dear ! oh, dear ! ” He thought some one had 
been firing at a hare, and that the gun burst. 
A farmer riding through the lane shortly before 
this met two men, but they were unknown to 
him. In a wood close by was concealed a 
large illicit whisky still, which brought a 
number of questionable characters into the 
vicinity. As many as were thought to be con¬ 
nected with it were arrested ; among others, 
one known as John Cain, or “ Whisky Jack; ” 
but nothing appeared to attach the crime to 
any of them, until a boy, attracted to the 
scene of the murder, discovered among the 
leaves a glass button, traced to have be¬ 
longed to the waistcoat of “ Whisky Jack,” 
from which it was now missing. The farmer 
also thought he recognised in “Whisky 
Jack” and a companion, Richard Rayne, the 
two men whom he had seen in the lane; 
while a watch resembling that which belonged 
to Mr. Stirling was offered to a pawnbroker 
in Durham by a man very like “ Whisky 
Jack’s ” companion. From other minute par¬ 
ticulars traced by the police, the two prisoners 
were ultimately committed for trial. The case, 
which excited an interest far beyond the bounds 
of the locality where it occurred, came on at 
Durham Assizes on the 26th of July following. 
The evidence told more against “ Whisky 
Jack” than his companion. Elizabeth Wilson, 
servant in a public-house in the Castle Garth, 
Newcastle, said that one morning, soon after 
the murder, Cain asked her to wash a shirt. 
She found it covered with blood both on the 
breast and on the sleeves, and the latter so 
much so as to appear as if they had been wrung 
out. She said to him, “ Canny man, where 
have you been?” Cain replied, “It’s no use 
saying anything, as I have been here, there, and 
everywhere. I have been skinning a hare ; 
and if anybody asks you about the shirt, you 
must say so.” His companion (whom she 
could not identify as Rayne) also gave her a 
shirt to wash, more bloody than the other. 
“Why,” said the girl, “you have not both 
been killing a hare ; ” upon which the men 
laughed. They then asked for something to 
clean a gun, and left the house. A number of 
other circumstances were brought out in evi¬ 
dence against the prisoners, but the jury did 
not think they would warrant a conviction 
against either ; they therefore returned a ver¬ 
dict of Not guilty. 

2 . —Between this date and the 28th about 
twenty cases of murder or attempted murder, 
at the instigation of secret Ribbon Associations, 
are reported in the Irish newspapers. In one 
case four infuriated women set upon a process- 
server, at Ballylinan, Leinster, and, after fail- 
( 44 8 ) 


ing in an attempt to hang him, beat him nearly 
to death with bludgeons. In only a few of the 
cases could witnesses be got to criminate the 
parties apprehended by the police. 

3. —Dr. Hermann Francks, formerly editor 
of the Allgemeine Zeitung, commits suicide 
by throwing himself out of a window of the 
Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton. His son was 
found suffocated in his bedroom, but whether 
by his own hand or his father’s, or from naturaL 
causes, was never ascertained. 

— The Saturday Review commenced, with 
the new and special features of leading articles 
and reviews only. 

— Robert Philip, lately chief magistrate of 
Leith, sentenced by the High Court of Justi¬ 
ciary to fifteen years’ transportation for im¬ 
proper practices with girls under age. 

— The Czar visits Odessa. He was received 
next day by Archbishop Innocent, at the cathe¬ 
dral, in which the Emperor Nicholas returned 
thanks after his escape from shipwreck. 

5 . —The ratepayers of the metropolis reject 
a proposal made for establishing a free library 
and museum under Mr. Ewart’s Act. 

6 . —Omar Pasha, in his march to the relief 
of Kars, forces the passage of the Ingour, and 
defeats the Russians, 16,000 strong. 

— Powder magazine at Rhodes struck by 
lightning, causing the loss of about 300 lives, 
and the destruction of 400 houses. 

8 .—The Emperor of Russia visits his army 
in the Crimea. He left Nicholaieff on the 7th, 
passed through Perekop, and arrived at Sim- 
pheropol to-day. He inspected the different 
divisions of his army, and on the 10th visited 
the advanced position on the north side as far 
as Mackenzie’s Farm. He returned to Nicho¬ 
laieff on the 12th. 

10. —General Simpson resigns the command 
of the British army in the Crimea, and is 
succeeded by General Codrington. 

11 . —An insurrection breaks out at Sara¬ 
gossa. 

— Died, aged 73, Thomas Wilde, first 
Baron Truro, and Lord Chancellor from July 
1850 to February 1852. 

— Destructive earthquake at Jeddo. As 
many as 30,000 of the inhabitants were said to 
have been overwhelmed in the calamity. 

15 .—Explosion in the camp, Sebastopol. 
The French magazine, which had been the 
supply-store to their works during the attack 
on the Malakhoff, and contained 3,000 kilo¬ 
grammes of powder, 600,000 cartridges, 300 
charged shells and rockets, and indeed every 
conceivable munition of attack, blew up with 
awful effect, setting fire to and exploding the 
adjoining British magazine. Our loss by the 
explosion was 21 killed and 116 wounded ; 
the French had 32 men killed and several 
hundred wounded, 




NOVEMBER 


I855. 


NOVEMBER 


15 .—Paris Exhibition closed by the Em¬ 
peror in person. 

18 . — Fire at Stirling Castle, destroying 
the ancient apartment known as the Douglas 
room. 

— Fire at Chaillot, Paris, destroying the 
grain and flour garnered there for supplying the 
armv. 

20 . —Mademoiselle Julie burnt to death in 
Plymouth theatre, by her dress coming in 
contact with a stage light while performing her 
part in a fairy extravaganza. 

21 . —John Parsons Cook poisoned at Ruge- 
ley. Attending Shrewsbury races, with his 
horse Pole Star, Cook was suddenly taken 
ill while drinking in company with his friend 
William Palmer. Though not without sus¬ 
picion that he had been “dosed,” Cook, 
on recovering somewhat, permitted himself 
to be conveyed by Palmer to Rugeley, where 
a room was taken for him at the Talbot 
Arms. Mr. Jones, a surgeon at Lutter¬ 
worth, was sent for by Palmer, who stated 
that Cook had been taken suddenly ill with 
a severe bilious attack. In company with 
another surgeon, Mr. Bamford, he attended 
upon Cook on the 20th, and left in the 
evening in the belief that he was improving, 
Mr. Jones thus describes the end of the un¬ 
fortunate man:—“When he had retired to 
arrange what should be given to him during 
the night, it was proposed between Mr. 
Palmer and Mr. Bamford, that the morphine 
pills should be repeated as on the previous 
night; and it was suggested by Mr. Palmer 
that Mr. Cook should not know what the 
pills contained, as he strongly objected to them 
on the previous night, because they made him 
so ill. I believe it was a little after eleven 
o’clock at night that Mr. Palmer came over 
and produced the pills, which he gave to Mr. 
Cook in my presence. I believe there were 
two pills. . Mr. Cook made strong protesta¬ 
tions against taking them, saying that he was 
certain they made him ill the night before. 
Almost immediately after he had swallowed 
the pills he vomited ; and I and Mr. Palmer 
searched the vessel for the pills, but could not 
detect them. A few minutes before twelve 
o’clock I went to his bedroom, and, at his sug¬ 
gestion, slept in that room. After a short 
conversation I undressed and got into bed, and 
wished him good-night. At that time he 
appeared as comfortable as usual. I suppose 
I had not been in bed more than a quarter of 
an hour or twenty minutes when he sud¬ 
denly jumped up in bed uttering these words, 

* Doctor, get up ; I am going to be ill; ring 
the bell for Mr. Palmer.’ I went to him and 
pulled the bell, and he called out to the 
chambermaid, ‘Fetch Mr. Palmer directly.’ 
Mr. Palmer came in the space of two minutes, 
making the remark that he thought he had 
never dressed so quickly in his life. Mr. 
Palmer lived opposite the Talbot Arms, 
( 449 ) 


where Mr. Cook was stopping. 1 believe Mr. 
Palmer gave him two pills which he brought 
with him, and which he told me contained 
ammonia. I could not see from Mr. Palmer’s 
appearance whether he had been in bed. 
Immediately after taking the pills Mr. Cook 
uttered loud screams and threw himself back 
on the bed in strong convulsions. He then 
requested to be raised up, saying, ‘ I shall be 
suffocated.’ We endeavoured to raise him up, 
but he was so stiffened out with spasms that 
it was impossible to do so. When he found we 
could not raise him, he said, ‘Turn me over,’and 
I turned him over on his right side. I listened 
to the action of his heart, which I found 
gradually to cease ; and in a few minutes he 
died. I never heard of his having a fit before. 
I have never seen symptoms so strong before. 
They were symptoms of convulsions and 
tetanus; every muscle of the body was stiffened. 

I cannot say what was the cause of convul¬ 
sions. My impression at the time was, that 
it was from over-excitement. I believe the 
jaw was fixed and closed. His body was 
stretched out, and resting on his hands and 
heels. I never knew any one keep ammonia 
pills made up.” At the coroner’s inquest, 
medical witnesses who examined the body 
of the deceased deposed that they could find 
nothing which would account for his sudden 
death; nor were the symptoms those of 
apoplexy or any other known disease. Dr. 
Alfred S. Taylor, lecturer on Medical Juris¬ 
prudence and Chemistry at Guy’s Hospital, and 
Dr. Rees, Assistant Physician at Guy’s Hos¬ 
pital, examined the intestines of the deceased. 
They found antimony present in all parts in 
considerable quantities, and examined for 
morphia and strychnine, but without discover¬ 
ing any trace of either. The viscera of the 
deceased presented no appearance whatever to 
account for death from natural causes. After 
making some inquiries of the witnesses, Dr. 
Taylor declared that he was fully prepared to 
give his opinion as to the cause of death. ‘ ‘ My 
belief is that he died from tetanus, and that 
tetanus was caused by medicine given to him 
shortly before his death. I believe that the 
pills administered on Monday night and Tues¬ 
day night contained strychnine. I do not 
believe that the medicines prescribed by Mr. 
Bamford could have produced any such effects 
as those I have heard described. It is not 
possible for them to have produced the effect. 
There is not the slightest indication of morphia 
in the body. Further than this, we find no 
mercury in the liver or other parts of the body, 
and I do not think that mercury could have 
been taken on the Monday and Tuesday nights 
without discovering traces in the liver: and 
there were none.” The coroner’s jury found 
that the deceased died of poison wilfully 
administered to him by William Palmer. 
Inquiries were subsequently made into the 
suspicious circumstances attending the death of 
various of Palmer’s friends and acquaintances. 
The bodies of his wife and brother were 

G G 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1855. 


exhumed, and a verdict of “Wilful Murder” 
pronounced against him in each case. The 
trial commenced on May 14th, 1856. 

21 . —William Henry Barber, transported in 
1844 for his alleged complicity in the Fletcher 
will forgeries, and afterwards pardoned, was 
this day replaced on the rolls as an attorney. 
In delivering judgment upon his petition, Lord 
Campbell said: “The evidence to establish his 
connivance in the frauds was too doubtful for 
us to continue his exclusion any longer. ” 

— Treaty concluded between France, Eng¬ 
land, and Sweden, for the avoidance of any 
complications which might arise from the in¬ 
terference of Russia in the affairs of Northern 
Europe. 

22 . —Prince Albert lays the foundation-stone 
of the Birmingham Midland Counties’ Institute. 

— The Dublin Court of Queen’s Bench 
give judgment in the case of Beamish v. 
Beamish, establishing the principle that a 
clergyman could legally officiate at his own 
marriage, although, it was admitted, such 
marriage was clandestine and irregular. 

24 .—Died suddenly, at Champlateaux, aged 
75, Count Mole, Prime Minister of France, 
1836. 

26 .—Victoria Docks, Plaistow, opened. 

28 . —Surrender of Kars to the Russians 
under Mouravieff. The conditions were highly 
honourable to the besieged and famishing gar¬ 
rison, the second article being in these terms : 
“ The garrison of Kars, surrendering prisoners 
of war, with the Commander-in-chief of the 
Turkish army and all the military authorities, 
will leave the place with the honours of war, 
and deposit their arms, flags, &c., in a spot 
agreed upon previously, whence they will pro¬ 
ceed to the destination indicated to them by 
the Russian Commander-in-chief. As a testi¬ 
mony of the valorous resistance made by the 
garrison of Kars, the officers of all ranks are 
to keep their swords. ” To General Williams 
was reserved the right of designating at his 
choice, in a list to be submitted to the Russian 
commander, a certain number of persons to 
whom permission would be given to return to 
their homes. In his order of the day, General 
Mouravieff thus addressed the troops :—“ At 
the price of your blood and your labour the 
bulwark of Asia Minor has been placed at the 
feet of his Majesty the Emperor ; the Russian 
standard floats on the wails of Kars. It pro¬ 
claims the victory of the cross of the Saviour. 
The whole of the army of Anatolia, 30,000 
strong, has vanished like a shadow. Its Com¬ 
mander-in-chief, with all his Pashas and of¬ 
ficers, and the English general who directed the 
defence, with his staff, are our prisoners. 
Thousands of Turkish prisoners who return to 
their homes will proclaim your deeds of arms.” 
Major Teesdale, Colonel Lake, and Major 
Thomson assisted Williams at Kars. 

29. — At Cwmannan Collery, near Aber- 
( 45 °) 


dare, a carriage, containing eight miners, is 
carried up beyond the pit-mouth to the pulley- 
wheel at the top, where the men were cap¬ 
sized and fell down the shaft, a depth of 750 
feet. They were all killed. 

2 9.—Meeting in Willis’s Rooms, presided over 
by the Duke of Cambridge, to organize a plan 
for presenting a testimonial to Miss Nightin¬ 
gale, in acknowledgment of her great services 
in the Crimean hospitals. Resolutions were 
proposed and carried to the following effect:—- 
That the noble exertions of Miss Nightingale 
and her associates in the hospitals of the East, 
and the invaluable services rendered by them 
to the sick and wounded of the British forces, 
demand the grateful recognition of the British 
people; That it is desirable to perpetuate the 
memory of Miss Nightingale’s signal devotion, 
and to record the gratitude of the nation, by a 
testimonial of a substantial character; and that, 
as she has expressed her unwillingness to 
accept any tribute designed for her own personal 
advantage, funds be raised to enable her 
to establish an institution for the training, 
sustenance, and protection of nurses and 
hospital attendants; That to accomplish this 
object on a scale worthy of the nation, and 
honourable to Miss Nightingale, all classes be 
invited to contribute ; That the sums so 
collected be vested in trustees to be appointed 
by the Committee, and applied for the purpose 
expressed in the second resolution, in such 
manner and under such regulations as Miss 
Nightingale shall from time to time approve, 
the subscribers having entire confidence in her 
experience, energy, and judgment; That with 
a view to secure, under all circumstances, the 
appropriation of the funds raised to the purpose 
expressed in the second resolution, Miss 
Nightingale be requested to name a Council 
(selected from the Committee) to co-operate 
with her, and who may represent her until her 
return to this country, or in the event of any 
suspension of her labours. Speaking of Miss 
Nightingale’s devoted zeal, Mr. Sidney Herbert 
said, great as was his friendship for her, he 
would be merciless to her in one respect. The 
abilities which she had displayed could not 
again be allowed to slumber. So long as 
she lived her labours were marked out for 
her; the diamond had shown itself, and it 
must not be allowed to return to the mine. It 
was, perhaps, a concomitant disadvantage of 
all great geniuses, but during her mission at 
Scutari she had developed talents which must 
chain her to the oar for the rest of her life ; 
and therefore it was that he hoped an en¬ 
larged field of labour would be provided for 
her, so that she might be enabled to rescue ' 
our hospitals from a great disadvantage under 
which they at present labour, to raise the 
system of nursing to a pitch of efficiency 
never, before known here, and thus confer 
incalculable benefits on the country at large. 
The Marquis of Lansdowne, speaking of the 
numerous cases of absence from the Crimea 
on “urgent private affairs,” said that Miss 







NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


18*5. 


Nightingale had declared that while the 
war lasted and the necessity for her services 
continued, and as long as her own health 
remained unimpaired, her “private affairs” 
should not become “urgent,” and she would 
not abandon her self-imposed duty. 

30 .—The King of Sardinia arrived at Dover 
on a visit to her Majesty, and was received 
with the enthusiasm due to one who had thrown 
the weight of his kingdom into the scale of the 
Western alliance against Russia. On the 2d 
of December he visited the City of London ; 
and on the 3d was made a Knight of the 
Garter. 

— Several Ministerial changes took place 
this week. The Duke of Argyll became Post¬ 
master-General, and Lord Harrowby Lord 
Privy Seal ;• Mr. Baines succeeded to the Duchy 
of Lancaster, with a seat in the Cabinet. 
Lord Stanley of Alderley was also admitted 
to the Cabinet at this time. (See Table of 
Administrations.) 

December 2 . —Mr. Marcy requests the 
recall of Mr. Crampton, the British Minister at 
Washington, on the ground of his illegal 
proceedings in the enlistment of subjects of the 
United States. 

3 . —Died, at Brighton, aged 48, the Rev. 
Robert Montgomery, author of “ Satan ” and 
other poems. 

4. —General Codrington writes from Sebas¬ 
topol : “ The enemy continue to fire oc¬ 

casionally, and sometimes heavily, on parts 
of the town. They must have expended a 
considerable quantity of valuable ammunition 
without causing us any loss or inconvenience. 
The winter broke upon us suddenly on the 26th 
and 27th, with snow, varied with gales and 
rain ; a very deep state of the ground has 
damaged all communications.” 

5 . —Dr. Lushington delivers judgment in 
the Consistory Court, in the case of Westerton 
and Beale v. Liddell. As to St. Paul’s, the 
learned judge decided that a faculty do issue 
to the incumbent and both the churchwardens 
to remove the credence-table and the cross on 
or near to the communion-table; to take away 
all cloths at present used in the church for 
covering the communion-table during Divine 
service, and to substitute one only covering for 
such purpose, of silk or other decent stuff. 
With respect to St. Barnabas, Dr. Lushington 
decreed that a monition dp issue to the church¬ 
wardens to remove the present structure of 
stone used as a communion-table, and to sub¬ 
stitute therefor a moveable table of wood : to 
remove the credence-table: to remove the cross 
on the chancel-screen, and that on or near the 
present structure used as a communion-table : 
to take away all the cloths at present used in 
the church for covering the structure used as a 
communion-table during Divine service, and to 
substitute one only covering for such purpose, 
of silk or other decent stuff; and further, to 

(450 


remove any cover used at the time of the 
ministration of the sacrament, worked or em¬ 
broidered with lace or otherwise ornamented, 
and to substitute a fair white linen cloth, with¬ 
out lace or embroidery or other ornament; to 
cover the communion-table at the time of the 
ministration of the sacrament; and to cause 
the Ten Commandments to be set up on the 
East end of the church, in compliance with the 
terms of the canon. 

7 .—Came on for hearing in the Irish Court 
of Queen’s Bench, the charge made against the 
Rev. Valdimir Petcherine, one of the Redemp- 
torist Fathers of Kingstown, of causing a copy 
of the Scriptures to be contemptuously burnt, 
“ to the high displeasure of Almighty God, and 
the great disrespect, discredit, and dishonour of 
the religion established bylaw.” The Attorney- 
General prosecuted, and described the precise 
legal guilt the accused had incurred. A boy 
engaged in the work of burning deposed that, 
at the request of Father Petcherine, he wheeled 
a barrow full of books from the Father’s lodg¬ 
ings to the court-yard of the.chapel. Another 
boy wheeled a second barrow. When Father 
Petcherine arrived, the books were tumbled 
out ; and the Father, giving orders that they 
should be set on fire, went away towards the 
vestry. A crowd of persons was then collected. 
The fire was not lighted until the Father had 
gone. When the Father came back, the books 
were well burnt, but not consumed. Henry 
Lawson, labourer, said that he saw among the 
books Byron’s Poems, some tracts, a New 
Testament, a Prayer-book, and a Bible. Mr. 
W. T. Darkin, sub-inspector of factories, and 
Police-officer Halpin, deposed that they saw a 
Bible and Testament in the fire; and the Rev. 
R. Wallace, Dissenting minister, produced a 
portion of the Books of Deuteronomy and 
Joshua, which he had rescued from the flames. 
The defence was a denial both of the intention 
and the fact. The defendant had, in the dis¬ 
charge of his religious duty, attempted to put 
an end to the circulation of immoral publica¬ 
tions in Kingstown, and had required his flock 
to deliver up all such at his lodgings. They 
were sent there in quantities, and the rev. 
gentleman directed that they should be burnt. 
No doubt it would have been better if they had 
not been publicly burnt. There was little 
evidence to show that he had examined the 
books directed to be destroyed, so as to ascer¬ 
tain their nature individually, certainly none 
that he was cognizant of the presence of Bibles 
and Prayer-books, or rather of a Prayer-book 
and Bible, for one only had been deposed to. 
Very possibly, the persons who attended the 
bonfire might have thrown a Proteftant Bible 
and Prayer-book into the flames. It was also 
denied that the Roman Catholic Church had 
any hostility to the Scriptures translated into 
the vernacular tongues. The jury, which con¬ 
sisted of five Protestants and seven Roman 
Catholics, after some deliberation, acquitted 
the accused. The announcement was received 
with applause. In the evening the streets 

G G 2 





DECEMBER 


JANUAR V 


1855-56. 


occupied by Roman Catholics were illumi¬ 
nated. 

7. —Came on at Durham Assizes, the trial of 
Joseph Snaith Wooler, charged with having 
murdered his wife by administering poison to 
her during a very long illness. The case lasted 
over three days, but the witnesses for the pro¬ 
secution called to prove the offence broke down 
in cross-examination, and the jury, after an 
absence of ten minutes, returned a verdict of 
Not guilty. 

8 . —Alvarez abdicates the dictatorship of 
Mexico, and is succeeded by Comonfort. 

11 .—The Rev. W. D. Beresford, rector of 
the parish of Inniscarra, Cork, and heir to a 
peerage, sentenced at York Assizes to be 
transported for the period of his natural life, 
for uttering a forged bill of exchange, value 
loo/., with intent to defraud John Cunliffe 
Kay, of Manningham Hall, near Bradford. 

14 .—Explosion of an iron furnace at Bilston, 
causing the death of five of the workmen. 
About six tons of molten iron and burning 
cinders were blown about the works. 

18 .—Died, in his house, St. James’s Place, 
in his 93rd year, Samuel Rogers, poet and 
banker. 

20 . —Died, at Denbies, Dorking, aged 78, 
Thomas Cubitt, the builder of a large portion 
of the West-end of London. 

21. —Carton House, Maynooth, the seat of 
the Duke of Leinster, destroyed by fire. 

— Mr. John Thwaites elected Chairman of 
the new Metropolitan Board of Works. 

22. —The Austrian Cabinet having ac¬ 
quainted Russia with a new scheme of negotia¬ 
tion to secure peace, that Power, in a despatch 
to its agents at foreign Courts, thus expresses 
its willingness to treat : “As soon as informa¬ 
tion reached the Government of his Majesty, 
that his enemies were disposed to take up 
again the negotiations of peace on the basis 
of the four points, such as they had been 
defined in the Conferences, the Imperial 
Cabinet did not hesitate to come forward 
frankly to meet these peaceful dispositions, and 
to seek frankly for a possible solution for the 
third point in the order of ideas which had 
appeared in turn satisfactory to all parties.” 
The solution here alluded to consisted in an 
offer on the part of Russia to consent to an 
arrangement of the question of the Black Sea, 
on the following terms : ‘ ‘ The principle of the 
closing of the Straits of the Dardanelles to be 
maintained; no war flag to be admitted into 
the Black Sea except that of the forces which 
Russia and Turkey might judge it necessary to 
maintain there by mutual agreement. The 
amount of these forces to be fixed by a direct 
arrangement between Russia and Turkey, with¬ 
out the ostensible participation of the other 
Powers.” 

— The Edinburgh address to the King of 
( 452 ) 


Sardinia containing various expressions of theo¬ 
logical acrimony relating to the Holy See, his 
Majesty caused the Marquis D’Azeglio to an¬ 
swer—“ I cannot conceal from you that it is 
with extreme regret that his Majesty has been 
informed of the expressions of contempt by 
which your address stigmatizes the Court of 
Rome. The King, as well as his predecessors, 
has considered it a duty to maintain the civil 
power in his hand intact. He may have 
deplored profoundly the line of conduct which 
the Holy See has thought it its duty to adopt 
towards him of late years; but descended as 
he is from a long line of Catholic princes, and 
sovereign of subjects almost entirely Catholics, 
he cannot admit of words of reprobation thus 
severe and, above all, injurious towards the 
head of that Church on earth.” 

26 . —Thomas Carrigan, a foreman in the 
East India Company’s warehouses, murders 
his wife by stabbing her in a house in the 
Minories, where they had been keeping Christ¬ 
mas. At the first examination at the Thames 
Police-court, the female witnesses of the oc¬ 
currence appeared so terror-stricken that they 
could neither speak to the facts within their 
knowledge, nor look at the prisoner to identify 
him. He was tried at the Central Criminal 
Court and condemned to death, but respited 
on the morning fixed for the execution. It was 
thought he was labouring under an attack of 
delirium tremens at the time the crime was 
committed. 

27 . —Died, at London, aged 66, Josiah 
Conder, editor of the “Modem Traveller,” 
and a voluminous writer. 

29 .—The Imperial Guard, recalled from 
the Crimea, enter Paris in martial state. 
“Soldiers,” said the Emperor, as they rode 
past the Place Vendfime, “ though the war be 
not finished, I have recalled you, because it is 
just to relieve in turn those regiments which 
suffer most. All alike can thus go and partake 
in their share of glory; and the country that 
maintains 600,000 soldiers is interested that 
there is now in France a numerous and veteran 
army ready to show itself where circumstances 
may demand.” 


1856. 

January 1 . —First meeting of the Metro¬ 
politan Board of Works. 

8 . —At the Central Criminal Court, Edward 
Harvey and Harriet Ray were indicted for 
the wilful murder of Harriet Harvey, aged 5, 
by starving her to death. Dr. Letheby, who 
examined the intestines and stomach of the 
deceased, was of opinion that death was caused 
by a long-continued course of starvation. In 
the stomach were found some small pieces of 
wood apparently devoured in the extremity of 
hunger. The jury found the male prisoner guilty 
of manslaughter, and acquitted the woman. 








JANUARY 


JANUARY 


1856. 


8 .— J. P. Collier makes affidavit in Judges’ 
Chambers regarding a copy of Shakspeare’s 
works known as the “Perkins folio,” certain 
M S. emendations in which he had published as 
improvements on the text made by a person 
living near the date of publication, 1632. The 
affidavit had reference to the condition of the 
volume at the date of the purchase from Mr. 
Rodd, in 1849, and the past history of the book 
so far as the same could be ascertained. 

— Under the title of “What Next?” Mr. 
Cobden issues a pamphlet in opposition to the 
continued war policy of the Cabinet, and sug¬ 
gesting that Austria and Germany should be 
looked to as the best protection against Russian 
aggression. 

11 . —The morning newspapers publish the 
text of the Austrian proposals made to Russia. 
On the subject of the neutralization of the Black 
Sea, the third article proposed:—“This sea 

. shall be open to merchant vessels, closed but to 
war navies; and no military arsenals shall be 
created or maintained there. The protection 
of the commercial and maritime interests of all 
nations shall be assured in the respective ports 
of the Black Sea by the establishment of 
institutions conformable to international law, 
and to the customs sanctioned in such matters. 
The two Powers which hold the coast engage 
themselves to maintain only the number of light 
vessels, at a fixed force, necessary for the coast 
service. This convention, concluded separately 
between these two Powers, shall form part as 
an annex of the general treaty, after receiving 
the approval of the contracting parties. This 
separate convention cannot be annulled or 
modified without the consent of the signataries 
of the general treaty.” 

— A Council of War held at Paris. 

12. —Died, aged 72, Henry Goulburn, 
Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1841 to 
1846. He was succeeded in the representa¬ 
tion of Cambridge University by Mr. Spencer 
H. Walpole, Mr. S. Warren obtaining the seat 
thus vacant at Mid hurst. 

IS.—George Waugh, solicitor, shot dead in 
Bed ford-row by Charles Broadfoot Westron, 
clerk. Mr. Beecher, of Stationers’ Hall-court, 
made the following statement before the 
coroner: “ This day, about half-past ten 

o’clock, I was proceeding along Bedford-street, 
Bedford-row. I saw a gentleman before me 
about to turn down Hand-court. I then saw 
the prisoner run across the road, lift up his 
hand, and fire. Mr. Waugh bounded about a 
foot up in the air, and fell on the ground, 
breaking his hat in the fall. A gentleman 
then came up and took hold of the prisoner’s 
arm.” He was tried at the Central Criminal 
Court, on the 7th of February, when the jury 
returned a verdict of Guilty, with a strong 
recommendation to mercy, on account of his 
predisposition to insanity. Sentence of death 
was afterwards commuted into penal servitude 
for life. 


17.—The Times, in a second edition, 
publishes the following telegram from Vienna : 
‘ ‘ Russia has unconditionally accepted the pro¬ 
position of the Allies. This is authentic.” 
The news produced a great commotion on the 
Stock Exchange, the funds experiencing a total 
rise of more than 3 per cent. The opening 
prices of Consols were 874 for money, and 874 
for the account. On the publication of the 
news, a sudden rise occurred to 884 for money, 
then another to 904, while for the account 
bargains were entered into at 904. At the 
peace with France in 1801, the rise was from 
59 t t° 7° > after the treaty of Amiens in 1802, 
from 704 to 79 ; after the Battle of Waterloo, 
from S34 to 594. To-day in the markets for 
Russian produce, there was great agitation. 
Tallow receded from 6 ys. per cwt. to 62 s. 6 d. 

— Died, Joseph Haydn, the’ careful com¬ 
piler of the “ Dictionary of Dates.” 

19 .— Mr. Macaulay retires from the repre¬ 
sentation of Edinburgh, the experience of the 
last two years having convinced him that his 
health would not again permit him to perform, 
even in an imperfect manner, those duties which 
the public had a right to expect from every 
member of the House of Commons. He was 
succeeded in the representation by Mr. Adam 
Black. 

21 . —At the sittings at Nisi Prius, West¬ 
minster, a cause was tried which placed in a 
strong light the depravity of Palmer, the 
Rugeley poisoner. The plaintiff in Padwick 
v. Sarah Palmer sued the defendant, Palmer’s 
mother, upon a bill of exchange for 2,000/. 
drawn by William Palmer upon and accepted 
by Sarah Palmer, and endorsed by William 
Palmer to the plaintiff. The defence was that 
the bill was a forgery. Palmer was brought 
up from Stafford Gaol to give evidence. On 
the bill being placed in his hand, Mr. James 
said, “You applied to Mr. Padwick to advance 
money on that bill ?—I did. Who wrote the 
acceptance ‘Sarah Palmer’?—Ann Palmer 
Who is she ?—She is now dead. Do you mean 
your wife ?—Yes. Did you see her write it ?— 
Yes. You may now retire.” The jury imme¬ 
diately returned a verdict for the defendant. 
Commenting on Palmer’s case next day, the 
Times writes : “ Palmer has found numerous 
partisans in the town of Rugeley, the scene of 
his operations. The postmaster of the place 
is a spy in his interest, intercepts let.ers, and 
reports to him the contents. The very coroner 
of the adjacent county town, his judge, is for 
him as though he had been engaged as solicitor 
for his defence, receives from him intercepted 
evidence from the other side, shrewd sugges¬ 
tions in his favour, and a present of game. 
The case will be amongst the most remarkable 
in our criminal annals, not only from the unut¬ 
terable atrocity of the crimes charged, but from 
the proof it affords that in this country great 
criminals can upon occasions break down all 
the barriers which society has raised for its 
protection. ” 


( 453 ) 






JANUAR Y 


FEBRUARY 


1856. 


22 . —Three persons poisoned at dinner in 
the house of Provost MTver, Dingwall, by 
partaking of monkshood at table in mistake 
for horse-radish. 

— Proclamation issued abolishing the prac¬ 
tice of deducting the clothing supplied to re¬ 
cruits from their bounty-money. 

23 . —The Pacific steamship sails from Liver¬ 
pool for New York, with 45 passengers on 
board, a crew of 141 men, and a valuable 
general cargo. She was not afterwards heard 
of, and was supposed to have struck on an 
iceberg, and foundered with all on board. 
Among the passengers were Mr. Eliot Warbur- 
ton, and Mr. Gather wood, the explorer of Cen¬ 
tral America. The insurances on the vessel 
amounted to 2,000,000 dollars. 

— Died, at Easter Moniack, Inverness-shire, 
aged 72James BaillieFraser, author of “Travels 
in Khorasan ” and other works. 

24 . —The Board of Trade certify an addition 
of 100,000/. to the subscribed capital of the 
Royal British Bank (now said to be 300,000/.), 
and on which 50 per cent, had been paid. 
During the year 172 new shareholders had 
subscribed the deed of settlement. 

29 .—Her Majesty’s steam-sloop Polyphemus 
wrecked in a fog off the west coast of Jutland, 
and fourteen of the crew drowned by the 
upsetting of one of the lifeboats. 

31 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. In the Royal Speech her Majesty re 
ferred to the negotiations recently resumed 
with the view of accomplishing a suspension 
of hostilities. Among the new measures re¬ 
commended to the attention of Parliament 
were the improvement of the laws of partner¬ 
ship, local shipping dues, and law reform. The 
customary Address was carried, without a di¬ 
vision, after a short debate. 

February 1.—Protocol signed at Vienna 
by the representatives of the Five Powers : 
“In consequence of the acceptance by their 
respective Courts of the five propositions con¬ 
tained in the document hereunto annexed, 
under the title of Draft Preliminaries, the 
undersigned, after having paragraphed it con¬ 
formably to authorization received to that effect, 
have agreed that their Governments shall each 
nominate plenipotentiaries who, furnished with 
the full powers necessary for proceeding to the 
signature of formal preliminaries of peace, shall 
conclude an armistice and a definitive treaty of 
peace. The said plenipotentiaries shall as¬ 
semble at Paris within the term of three 
weeks, dating from this day, or sooner if it 
can be done.” The armistice in the mean¬ 
time to extend from 29th February to the 
31st March. Prussia was admitted to be 
a party in this Conference, on the ground that 
certain treaties to which she had consented 
were to be discussed. 

— The docks of Sebastopol destroyed. Fort 
Nicholas was also destroyed on the 4th, and 
Fort Alexander on the nth. 

(454) 


1. —In consequence of a difference with the 
Persian Court respecting the servants of the 
embassy, Mr. Murray, the British Minister, 
quits Teheran for Bagdad. 

2 . —General Sir Patrick Grant, of the East 
Indian service, appointed by the Company 
Commander-in-chief of the Madras army—the 
first promotion of the kind. 

3 . —William Bousfield, Portland-street, 
Soho, murders his wife and three children by 
cutting their throats, and, failing in an attempt 
upon his own life, walks to Bow-street station, 
where he delivered himself up to the constable 
on duty. The poor woman was last heard of 
in life by a neighbour, who knocked at the door 
late the preceding night, for the purpose of 
purchasing a little firewood in which Mrs. Bous¬ 
field dealt. She was heard to ask her husband 
to rise, but he sullenly refused to stir out of bed. 
He was known to be of lazy habits and morose 
disposition ; but the inquiry did not show any 
precise motive for committing so dreadful an 
offence. Bousfield was tried at the Central 
Criminal Court in March, and condemned to 
be executed. (See March 31). 

— Collision in the channel off Folkestone, 
between the Josephine Willis packet-ship, with 
emigrants for Auckland, and the iron screw- 
steamer Mangerton> causing a loss of 90 of the 
passengers and crew of the former vessel. 

4 . —In Committee to-day, the Vice-Presi¬ 
dent of the Board of Trade (Mr. Lowe) carries 
the resolutions necessary for introducing a bill 
regulating the local dues on shipping. 

5 . —On the motion of the Lord Chancellor 
a bill was read a first time, by which power 
was given to the Queen’s Bench, in cases where 
in the opinion of the court such a course was 
desirable to remove trials to the Central Cri¬ 
minal Court. 

-- The Gazette announces the rules and 
regulations connected with the new order of 
the Victoria Cross to be conferred on members 
of the naval or military service, as a reward for 
individual instances of merit and valour. 

— Government accept Mr. Napier’s resolu¬ 
tion calling for the establishment of a Ministry 
of Justice. 

7 . —Destructive storm and flood in the west 
of Scotland. At Glasgow, during the night, 
a large range of workshops in the course of 
erection for the Caledonian Railway were re¬ 
duced to ruins. At Whitinch the building 
sheds of Tod and M‘Gregor were unroofed^ 
and at Bowling the damage to the shipping in 
the dock was of the most serious description. 

— The Governor-General of India issues a 
proclamation announcing the annexation of the 
kingdom of Oude: “ The time has come 
when the British Government can no longer 
tolerate in Oude those evils and abuses, while 
its position under the treaty serves indirectly 
to sustain or continue to the sovereign that 
protection which alone upholds the power 




FEBRUARV 


FEBRUARY 


1856. 


whereby such evils are inflicted. Fifty years 
of sad experience have proved that the treaty 
of 1801 has wholly failed to secure the hap¬ 
piness and prosperity of Oude ; and have con¬ 
clusively shown that no effectual security can 
be had for the release of the people of that 
country from the grievous oppression they have 
long endured, unless the exclusive administra¬ 
tion of the territories shall be permanently 
transferred to the British Government.” 

7.—Discussion in the House of Lords on 
the subject of life-peerages. Lord Lyndhurst 
moved, ‘ ‘ That a copy of the letters patent pur¬ 
porting to create the Right Honourable Sir 
James Parke, Knight, a Baron of the United 
Kingdom for life, which has been laid upon the 
table, be referred to the Committee for Privi¬ 
leges, with directions to examine and consider 
the same, and report thereon to the House.” 
The subject, he said, was one of no ordinary 
interest, as it involved the question, whether 
the ancient hereditary character of the House 
should continue, or whether it should be broken 
in upon and new-modelled to the extent desired 
by, and according to the discretion and interest 
of, the Minister for the time being. The Lord 
Chancellor defended the appointment and op¬ 
posed the motion, but on a division it was car¬ 
ried by a majority of 138 to 105. The Com¬ 
mittee commenced to sit on the 12th, and 
called before it a number of officials to give 
evidence on the question.—On the 22nd Lord 
Glenelg, supported by Government, sought to 
get the question referred to the judges, but was 
defeated on a division.—On the same day Lord 
Lyndhurst moved that the Committee having, 
as ordered by the House, examined and con¬ 
sidered the copy of the letters patent, report it 
as their opinion that neither the said letters 
patent, nor the said letters patent with the 
usual writ of summons issued in pursuance 
thereof, can entitle the grantee therein named 
to sit and vote in Parliament. In a speech of 
remarkable ability he sought to establish the 
two positions, that there were certain limits to 
the power of the Crown in the creation of 
peers, and that the House of Lords had a 
jurisdiction and a right to decide on the va¬ 
lidity of the patents by which commoners are 
admitted to the privilege of peers.—Lord Grey 
proposed to substitute an amendment, “ That 
the highest legal authorities having concurred 
in declaring the Crown to possess the power of 
creating peerages for life, and this power having 
in some cases been exercised in former times, 
the House of Lords would not be justified in 
assuming the illegality of the patent creating the 
Right Honourable James Pai'lce Baron Wens- 
leydale for life, and in refusing upon that as¬ 
sumption to permit him to take his seat as a 
peer.” On a division, the numbers were—for 
Lord Grey’s amendment 57, against it 92. 
Lord Lyndhurst’s resolution was then put, and 
agreed to. The Government soon after gave 
up the contest by creating Baron Parke a peer, 
with title to issue. 

9 .—Close of the contest for Cambridge Uni¬ 


versity, Mr. Walpole having polled up to this 
afternoon 886 votes against Mr. Denman’s 419. 
The proceedings closed amid some disorder 
between the townsmen and students. 

14 . —Sir F. Kelly obtains leave to bring in 
a bill to consolidate the statute-law relating to 
offences against the person. ‘ ‘ These statutes, ” 
he said, “ were comprised in 40 folio volumes, 
and embraced from 18,000 to 20,000 different 
statutes. He proposed to subdivide and 
classify the whole of the subjects, and to re¬ 
enact the existing laws relating to each in one 
Act, so that the Statute-book, instead of 20,000 
Acts, would contain 200 or 300 only, each Act 
embodying the whole statute-law upon one par¬ 
ticular subject.” 

15 . —In the House of Lords, Lord Brougham 
presents a petition from the inhabitants of 
Carlisle, complaining of the conduct of the 
Bishop in not consecrating the burial-ground 
appropriated to Churchmen in consequence 
of the absence of any separation but a road 
between it and the rest of the ground. Earl 
Granville expressed a hope that the new 
Bishop of Carlisle would take a wider and 
more liberal view of the matter than had been 
taken by a very small portion of the Episcopal 
Bench. 

16 . —John Sadleir, M.P. for Sligo borough, 
commits suicide on Hampstead Heath, by 
swallowing a quantity of essential oil of 
almonds. The body was found early in the 
morning on the rise of a small mound at the 
back of Jack Straw’s Castle, the head close, 
to a furze bush, the clothes undisturbed, and 
the hat at a distance. It had evidently 
been lying there the greater part of the night, 
as it was quite cold, and the rigor mortis com¬ 
pletely established. The corpse was taken to 
Hampstead Workhouse. In the course of the 
inquest it came out that the deceased had been 
concerned in a series of gigantic embezzlements 
and forgeries. Two letters written by him 
before he left the house were laid before the 
jury. One of them addressed to Mr. Keating, 
M.P. for Waterford, was in these words:— 
“No one has been privy to my crimes; they 
sprung from my own cursed brain alone. I 
have swindled and deceived without the know¬ 
ledge of any one. Stevens and Norris are 
both innocent, and have no knowledge of the 
fabrication of deeds and forgeries by me, and 
by which I have sought to go on in the horrid 
hope of retrieving. It was a sad day for all 
when I came to London. I can give but little 
aid to unravel accounts and transactions.” 
The full extent of Sadleir’s embezzlements and 
forgeries was never exactly known. One frau¬ 
dulent transaction in respect to the Royal 
Swedish Railway, consisted of an over-issue 
of shares and obligations to the. amount of at 
least 150,000/. In respect of the Tipperary 
Bank, the manager, his brother, had permitted 
him to overdraw more than 200,000/., and, 
with other fraudulent mismanagement, the 
deficit of the bank exceeded 400,000/. The 

(455) 









FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1856. 


assets were stated to be little more than 
30,000/. The misery caused by this infamous 
confederacy was unspeakable. Not only were 
the depositors in the South of Ireland—chiefly 
small farmers and tradesmen—defrauded of their 
savings, but the shareholders were stripped, for 
the most part, of everything they possessed. 
The means taken to entrap the last-named 
class were unusually nefarious. On the 1st of 
February—one month before the crash—the 
Sadleirs published a balance-sheet and report, 
in which the concern was represented as most 
flourishing. A dividend at the rate of 61 . per 
cent, with a bonus of 3/. per cent, was de¬ 
clared, and 3,000/. was carried to the Reserve 
Fund, raising it to 17,000/. By means of this 
fabrication, a considerable number of persons, 
most of them widows, spinsters, and half-pay 
officers, were induced to become shareholders, 
and lost their all. Endless suits were brought 
by attorneys, who had purchased debts due by 
the Company, against these unhappy people. 
Some declared themselves insolvent, while 
others fled to the United States with as much 
of their property as they could hastily secure. 
Mr. James Sadleir absconded, under circum¬ 
stances which gave rise to much discussion. 

17 . —Died, at Brompton, aged 82, John 
Braham, the famous tenor-singer. 

IS.—Died suddenly, at Arundel Castle, 
aged 65, the Duke of Norfolk, Hereditary Earl 
Marshal of England. 

20 . —The Duchesse de Caumont-Laforce 
murdered in Paris by her groom, who, in a fit 
of passion at her interference, first knocked her 
down with his fist in the stable-yard, and then 
smothered her beneath a heap of litter. 

— The emigrant ship John Routledge, from 
Liverpool to New Y ork, strikes upon an ice¬ 
berg and founders. Most of the crew and 
passengers succeeded in getting into the boats, 
but between casualties from the storm and 
privations only a very few were saved. In 
one of the small boats launched with thirteen, 
Thomas Nye was the only survivor. He had 
not strength to throw the corpses overboard, 
when he was picked up at sea by the Germania , 
from Havre. 

21 . —Lord Panmure announces in the House 
of Lords that her Majesty had appointed, by 
the advice of her Ministers, a board of general 
officers to inquire into the matters adverted to 
in the report made by the Commissioners sent 
out to the Crimea ; the Board to have the 
power to receive and consider the statements 
of those officers whose conduct had been ani¬ 
madverted on in the report of Sir J. M‘Neill 
and Colonel Tulloch. In the Lower House 
Mr. Roebuck made an attempt to stop this 
inquiry, on the ground of its inefficiency, but 
withdrew his motion after discussion. The 
Court commenced its sittings in the Board- 
room of Chelsea Hospital on the 7th of April. 

— William Tatham, a Liverpool merchant, 
commits suicide by cutting his throat in one of 

( 456 ) 


the apartments of the Exchange News-rooms, 
while in a state of nervous excitement caused 
by imaginary losses in business. 

25 . —Rioting in British Guiana, a crazy 
enthusiast known as the “Angel Gabriel,” or 
Orr, exciting the natives to rise against certain 
Portuguese Roman Catholics. 

— Replying to arguments in favour of pre¬ 
scriptive rights urged against the new Shipping 
Dues Bill, Mr. Lowe said it was ridiculous to 
pretend that passing tolls were not just as much 
funds in which there was a vested interest as 
any other funds dealt with by the bill. The 
principle contended for by Sir F. Thesiger was 
just as much violated in the case of the four 
harbours as in that of Liverpool, only Liver¬ 
pool was wealthy and influential enough to 
secure learned advocacy in its behalf. “ Where 
Sir Frederick Thesiger talks of property, the bill 
talks of taxes. There is property in land and 
capital; but property in another man’s property 
is of that kind which is not legal; it was M. 
Prudhomme’s property— le void* 

26 . —Lord Palmerston announces in the 
House of Commons that the Government had 
resolved to withdraw their Local Dues on 
Shipping Bill, for the purpose of taking the 
whole matter into further consideration, pre¬ 
vious to referring the complicated details to a 
Select Committee. — Mr. Disraeli censured 
Ministers for their gratuitous attack on muni¬ 
cipal institutions, and the ill-considered schemes 
they were in the habit of submitting to the 
House. 

— Opening of the Peace Conference in 
Paris, under the presidency of Count Walewski; 
Great Britain being represented by the Earl of 
Clarendon and Lord Cowley. 

29 .— The Earl of Albemarle, in moving for 
certain returns relating to the administration of 
justice in the Madras Presidency, called the 
attention of the House to the fact, discredit¬ 
able to the East India Company and the 
British nation, that for fifty years a system had 
been in use, under which horrible tortures were 
inflicted on natives of India, on the plea of 
eliciting evidence, especially in enforcing the 
collection of taxes. The question came up for 
discussion in the House of Lords on the 14th 
April, on a petition from the inhabitants of 
Madras, when Government assented to a reso¬ 
lution calling for the speedy extirpation of 
the disgraceful practices complained of. 

— Suspension of hostilities agreed upon at 
a Conference at Traktir Bridge. 

— Mr. Roebuck introduces, but withdraws 
after debate, a resolution objecting to the pro¬ 
posed appointment of a Commission of general 
officers to inquire into the allegations and cen¬ 
sures contained in the M'Neill-Tulloch report. 

March 4 -.— Earl Stanhope moves an ad¬ 
dress to her Majesty for the formation of a 
National Portrait Gallery. The address was 
agreed to, the portraits “to consist, as f. r as 







MARCH 


1856. 


MARCH 


possible, of the most eminent persons in British 
history.” The Gallery was established by a 
Treasury warrant dated Dec. 2. 

r A .—The Emperor of the French opens the 
session of the Legislative Body with an address, 
in which he advises the Chamber to draw still 
closer, if that were possible, “ the alliance 
which has been formed by a common partici¬ 
pation in glory and in sacrifices, and of which 
peace will make the mutual advantages appear 
even more conspicuous.” 

5 . —Covent Garden Theatre destroyed by 
fire. The alarm was raised about a quarter 
before 5 A.M., and in two hours the stately 
fabric was in ruins. During the operatic recess 
Mr. Gye, the lessee of the theatre, had sublet 
it to one Anderson, a performer of sleight-of- 
hand feats, and so-called “Professor.” He 
brought his short season to a close by an enter¬ 
tainment described as a “ Grand Carnival Com¬ 
plimentary Benefit and Dramatic Gala, to com¬ 
mence on Monday morning and terminate with 
a bal masque on Tuesday night.” On the last 
day of the show, the amusements proceeded 
with animation, and if with freedom still with 
decorum, until, as the night advanced, the more 
respectable or cautious withdrew, and the dis¬ 
reputable yielded to the temptation of excite¬ 
ment and wine. After midnight the theatre is 
said to have presented a scene of undisguised 
indecency, drunkenness, and vice, such as the 
lowest places of resort have rarely witnessed. 
Between four and five o’clock the Professor 
thought it time to close the orgies, and com¬ 
manded the band to play the National Anthem. 
The gas at the same time was turned down a 
little to warn the revellers to departi At this 
moment the gasfitter discovered the fire issuing 
from the cracks of the ceiling, and amid the 
wildest shrieking and confusion the drunken, 
panic-stricken masquers rushed to the street. 
It was now hardly five o’clock, and yet in the 
few minutes which had elapsed the doom of 
the theatre was sealed. The flames had burst 
through the roof, sending high up into the air 
columns of fire, which threw into bright re¬ 
flection every tower and spire within the circuit 
of the metropolis, brilliantly illuminating the 
whole fabric of St. Paul’s, and throwing a flood 
of light across Waterloo Bridge, which set out 
in bold relief the dark outline of the Surrey 
hills. This glare operated as a speedy mes¬ 
senger in bringing up the fire-engines from every 
quarter of London at a tearing gallop to the 
scene of conflagration. . There was no want 
of water; but neither engines nor water were 
of any avail in saving the property. The 
theatre blazed within its four hollow walls like 
a furnace; and at half-past five o’clock the 
roof fell in with a tremendous crash. The 
building was uninsured, no office having been 
willing to grant a policy after the fire of 1808. 
Mr. Gye had effected an insurance on his pro¬ 
perties to the amount of 8,000/., and Mr. An¬ 
derson to the amount of 2,000/. Mr. Braid wood, 
the experienced Superintendent of the London 


Fire Establishment, was of opinion that the fire 
had originated from spontaneous combustion 
among the masses of waste stuff accumulated 
in the workshops—an opinion strengthened by 
the evidence of Mr. Grieve, the scene painter, 
who stated that on a previous occasion he had 
called attention to a heap of such materials 
allowed to gather, and which, when removed 
by his authority, were found to be too hot for 
handling. 

5 . —The second reading of Sir William Clay’s 
Church-rates Abolition Bill carried in the 
House of Commons by 221 to 178. 

6 . —Lord John Russell introduces a series 
of resolutions on the subject of education. 

— John Fowkes, labourer, sentenced to 
death at Leicester for shooting John Acres 
Fowkes at Snareston, on the 25th of Novem¬ 
ber last. The murderer fired through the 
window at night, and killed his victim in his 
own bedroom. The case was rendered unusually 
shocking from the circumstance that the mur¬ 
dered man was the murderer’s nephew, and the 
principal witnesses against him his brother and 
sister. 

— Thomas Jones, sentenced to death at 
Winchester for the murder of Charles William 
Hope, surgeon on board the Stirling Castle 
convict-hulk at Portsmouth. In revenge for 
being removed from one part of the ship to 
another by the surgeon’s orders, the prisoner 
suddenly attacked him when stepping out of 
the surgery, and, with a ship’s knife he had 
contrived to secrete, inflicted a wound in the 
neck from which Mr. Hope died in a few 
minutes. 

— Lord Dalhousie leaves Calcutta for Eng¬ 
land, “faint (it was reported) and weak with 
work and suffering.” Replying to an address 
presented at Government House on the 5th, he 
warned the executive against relying on a long- 
continued peace in India, though he thought 
at present there was a reasonable ground for 
believing that the schemes of internal im¬ 
provement lately entered upon might be carried 
to a successful issue. “Nearly thirteen years 
have passed away since first I entered the ser¬ 
vice of the Crown. Through all these years, 
with but one short interval, public employment 
of the heaviest responsibility and labour has 
been imposed upon me. I am wearied and worn, 
and have no other thought or wish than to 
seek the retirement of which I stand in need, 
and which is all I now am fit for.” 

— Died, at Great Malvern, Thomas Att- 
wood, a prominent member of the Birmingham 
Political Union—the “King Tom ” of Cobbett 5 
Register. 

7 . —Explosion of the Hatton Powder Mills, 
Hounslow, and loss of three lives. The acci¬ 
dent appeared to have been caused by a spark 
from an oil-lamp used near the mixing-house. 

IO.—M. de Hinckeldy, chief of the Berlin 
Police, shot in a duel by M. de Rochow, a 
young member of the Jockey Club. 

(457) 






MARCH 


MARCH 


1856. 


IO.—Stormy discussions in the United States 
Senate concerning offences alleged to have been 
committed by England in enlisting subjects of 
the States. 

— Sir George Grey’s Bill for assimilating 
the powers possessed by County and Borough 
Police read a third time in the Commons, by a 
majority of 250 to 106. 

13 .—Admiral Sir Charles Napier moves for 
the appointment of a Select Committee to in¬ 
quire into the operations of the Baltic Fleet 
during the last two years. The discussion 
partook in a great measure of the character of an 
altercation between the Admiral and Sir James 
Graham. (See May 1 and October 17, 1854.) 
It was renewed on the evening of 4th April, 
when Sir James read to the House letters and 
statements in support of assertions he had 
made as to the conduct of Sir Charles Napier 
at St. Jean d’Acre. 

— The barque Blake, of Liverpool, from 
the Mississippi to Cork, struck by a sea and 
completely disabled. Seven men were washed 
overboard, with all the provisions, water, and 
deck-gear. The vessel partly righted ; but, as 
the masts were carried away by the deck, the 
survivors could do little or nothing to navigate 
her through the storm. They continued in a 
state of starvation and misery for seventeen 
days. On the 13th the master reported :— T 
‘ ‘ Another seaman died this day of starvation. 
We did not put him overboard, but reserved 
his corpse for our own use, and in this state 
we lingered for four days more, living off the 
body of our dead companion, but I must say 
very sparingly indeed, for the thoughts of it 
were almost as bad as death itself. We had 
not a dry place to lie in, and the sea was con¬ 
tinually washing over us; some of us would 
drop off in a dozing state, dream of feasting, 
and then wake, shouting to see the dead body 
of our comrade hanging in the pale moon¬ 
light.” Of this miserable ship’s company, the 
master and seven men were rescued by the 
Mercury, and brought to Torbay. 

14 -. —Alexander Smart, a retired watch and 
clock maker, commits suicide by throwing him¬ 
self from the Whispering Gallery of St. Paul’s. 
The verger said, Smart waited in the gallery 
till the clock struck twelve, and then, mounting 
the railing, gave three hysterical laughs, and 
leaped to the space below the dome. 

— Samuel Cheshire, late postmaster at 
Rugeley, sentenced at the Stafford Assizes to 
twelve months’ imprisonment for opening a 
letter, sent by Professor Taylor, London, to 
Mr. Gardner, attorney, concerning the analysis 
of Cook’s stomach, and the non-discovery 
therein of arsenic or other poison. The con¬ 
tents of the letter Cheshire communicated to 
Palmer. 

15 . —The Royal nursery plate stolen in the 
course of its transmission to Windsor, whither 
it was being conveyed in a carrier’s cart, in¬ 
stead of a private conveyance, under the care 
of the yeoman of the silver pantry. 

( 458 ) 


16 . —The Empress of the French safely 
delivered of a son, baptized, the same day, 
Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph, “ fils de 
France.” In celebration of the event, the Em¬ 
peror granted an amnesty to 1,000 political 
exiles. 

18 . —Died at Malta, aged 67, Sir Henry 
Pottinger, soldier and diplomatist in India and 
China. 

29 . —Felice Orsini, a fearless member of 
the Mazzini party, escapes from his dungeon in 
the Castle of St. Georgio, Mantua. 

— Nineteen persons killed, and forty in¬ 
jured, by the falling of an old house in Pen- 
ton-square, Cork, during the celebration of 
a “wake.” 

30 . (Sunday).—Treaty of Peace signed at 
Paris. The territories conquered or occupied 

-during the war to be reciprocally evacuated ; 
Turkey to be admitted to participate in the 
public law and system of Europe; the Black 
Sea to be neutralised, its waters and ports 
thrown open to the mercantile marine of every 
nation, and formally and in perpetuity inter¬ 
dicted to the flag of war of either of the Powers 
possessing its coasts, or of any other Power ; 
the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan mutually 
en g a g e n ot to establish or to maintain upon 
that coast any military-maritime arsenal. At 
10 p.m. intimation of the important event was 
given to the metropolis by the firing of the guns 
in St. James’s Park and at the Tower. The 
bells of many of the churches also rang out 
merry peals in celebration of the good news. 
The Lord Mayor proclaimed the event the next 
day in front of the Mansion House and at the 
Royal Exchange. Throughout the nation the 
rejoicings were spontaneous and enthusiastic. 
At Paris, when the last signature was affixed, 
the guns of the Invalides fired a salute of 
101 guns, and in the evening the city was 
brilliantly illuminated. 

31 .—Frightful scene at the execution of 
Bousfield, the Soho murderer. When placed 
under the beam he appeared to be so utterly 
powerless that he could not stand, and the 
halter was put round his neck when seated on 
a chair on the scaffold. Scarcely had the dull 
heavy sound of the falling drop been heard, 
when an exclamation issued from the crowd, 
“He is up again!” To the horror of the 
spectators it was seen that Bousfield had made 
an extraordinary muscular effort, by which he 
raised his lower limbs to the level of the drop, 
both his feet resting on the edge, while he was 
trying to raise his pinioned arms to the rope. 
One of the officers instantly rushed upon the 
scaffold, and pushed the wretched man’s feet 
from their resting-place; when, by another 
marvellous effort, he threw himself towards the 
other side, and again succeeded in getting both 
his feet on the edge of the drop. Calcraft, the 
executioner, who had left the scaffold, now 
returned, and forced his feet from the scaffold, 
so that he remained suspended. The dreadful 











MARCH 


1856. 


APRIL 


scene was not yet over. The short relief the 
criminal obtained had probably enabled him 
to breathe, and, to the astonishment of the 
spectators, he for the third time succeeded in 
placing his feet upon the edge of the scaffold. 
Calcraft and other officers again pulled off his 
feet from their rest, and held the body from 
further exertion until it had ceased to live. 
During the enactment of this fearful scene the 
bells of the neighbouring churches were ringing 
out merry peals in celebration of the peace just 
concluded. 

31 .— Lord Palmerston interrupts the proceed¬ 
ings of the Committee of Supply to announce 
the details of the Treaty of Peace. 

— Sir II. Ellis retires from the post of 
Chief Librarian in the British Museum, and is 
succeeded by Mr. Panizzi. 

— Sequestration of ecclesiastical property 
in Mexico. 

April 2.— Marshal Pelissier congratulates 
the soldiers of the Empire on their early return 
to France, “happy at a peace signed at the 
cradle of an Imperial infant.” 

3 .—First sitting of the Crimean (Board 
of Officers) Inquiry Committee at Chelsea 
Hospital. 

5 .—Discussion in both Houses on the terms 
of the Treaty of Peace. 

— Peace proclaimed amid much rejoicing 
at the allied camp, Sebastopol. No notice was 
taken of the event by the Russians on the north 
side. 

S. —Mrs. Sarah Kelly shot on her estate of 
Ballinderry, in the county of Wexford, by two 
men disguised in women’s clothes. Her nephew, 
Stevens, who managed the property, was taken 
into custody for being concerned in the crime, 
but afterwards liberated. (See Jan. 11, 1851.) 

— Shortly before the close of the sittings 
of the Conference, Count Walewski said that it 
was desirable that the Plenipotentiaries, before 
they separated, should interchange their ideas 
on different subjects which required to be 
settled, and which it might be advantageous 
to discuss in order to prevent fresh complica¬ 
tions. He alluded particularly to the ab¬ 
normal state of Greece, the Papal States, 
Italy, and Naples. His remarks on the Bel¬ 
gian press give great offence in that country. 
He remarked that quite recently Belgian 
newspapers had ventured to extol the society 
called “La Marianne,” the tendencies and 
objects of which were known ; and that all 
these publications were so many implements 
of Avar directed against the tranquillity of 
France by the enemies of social order, who, 
relying on the impunity which they found 
under the shelter of the Belgian legislation, 
retained the hope of eventually realizing their 
culpable designs. — Lord Clarendon said, as 
one of the representatives of a country in 
which a free press was, so to say, one of the 
fundamental institutions, he could not agree to 


measures of coercion against the press of 
another State. At the same time, he was 
willing to admit that the authors of the 
execrable doctrines referred to were unde¬ 
serving of protection. — Count Orloff said that 
the powers with which he was furnished 
having for their sole object the restoration of 
peace, he did not consider himself authorized 
to take part in a discussion which his instruc¬ 
tions had not provided for. The reference to 
Naples gave rise to some sharp correspond¬ 
ence between that. Power and the other Ca¬ 
binets of Europe. Before separating, the 
Conference also agreed to the following im¬ 
portant resolutions on the subject of maritime 
law in time of war:—“ 1. Privateering is, and 
remains, abolished; 2. The neutral flag covers 
enemies’ goods, with the exception of contra¬ 
band of war. 3. Neutral goods, with the ex¬ 
ception of contraband of war, are not liable 
to capture under enemy’s flag ; 4. Blockades, 
in order to be binding, must be effective, that 
is to say, maintained by a force sufficient 
really to prevent access to the coast of the 
enemy.” The Government of the United 
States also accepted the resolutions, with the 
exception of the first, relating to privateering, 
which, Mr. Marcy argued, was as clear a right 
as the use of public-armed ships, or any other 
right appertaining to a belligerent. 

9 .—At the Central Criminal Court, Eliza¬ 
beth Anne Harris was sentenced to death for 
the murder of her two children by throwing 
them into the canal near Uxbridge ; and next 
day Celestina Sommer, aged 34, was sentenced 
to a similar fate for murdering her daughter, 
aged 10 years and 6 months, by cutting her 
throat in the cellar of her house at Islington. 
In both cases the punishment was mitigated 
to transportation for life. The dissatisfaction 
long felt by the public at the uncertainty of 
the sentences of courts of justice, and the 
still greater uncertainty whether the sentences 
passed would be really inflicted, led to much 
public discussion, and repeated reference was 
made in Parliament to these unexpected re¬ 
prieves. 

— The new Abjuration Bill, framed to 
admit Jews into Parliament, read a second 
time by 230 to 195 votes. Mr. Disraeli said 
he supported the bill, not on the ground of re¬ 
ligious liberty, but because this was a Christian 
community, and could not have been so except, 
under Divine inspiration, for the efforts and 
exertions of a Jew. 

11 . —The House of Commons having re¬ 
solved itself into a Committee of the whole 
House to consider the present state of edu¬ 
cation in England and Wales, rejected, by a 
majority of 260 to 102, the resolutions submitted 
by Lord John Russell on the 6th of March. 
His proposal was to extend, revise, and conso¬ 
lidate the Minutes of Council on Education ; 
to provide for an. inquiry into the state of edu¬ 
cation in every part of England and Wales, by 
the addition of eighty s ib-inspectos’S ; that on 

( 459 ) 





APRIL 


1856. 


APRIL 


the report of the inspectors and sub-inspectors, 
the Committee of Privy Council should have 
power to form school districts consisting of 
parishes or parts of parishes ; and that the 
sub-inspectors should be instructed to report 
on the state and means of the education of the 
poor in each district. He also proposed that 
the power of the Charitable Trusts Commis¬ 
sioners should be enlarged, so as to apply 
their funds to the education of the middle 
and poorer classes. The resolution giving rise 
to the greatest opposition .was the 8th, de¬ 
claring that after the 1st of January, 1858, 
when any school district shall have been de¬ 
clared to be deficient in adequate means for 
the education of the poor, the Quarter Sessions 
of the peace for the county, city, or borough 
should have power to impose a school-rate. 
Mr. Henry Drummond was of opinion that it 
was not possible to educate people by Act of 
Parliament; and as for criminals, there appeared 
to be only two ways of dealing with them, to 
send those who offended least out of the coun¬ 
try, and those who offended most out of the 
world. 

12 . —Grand banquet to the members of the 
Peace Congress at Paris. The Emperor pro¬ 
posed the following toast : “To the union so 
happily established by the Sovereigns. May it 
be durable ; and it will be so if it reposes on 
truth, justice, and the true and legitimate inter¬ 
ests of the peoples. ” 

13 . —Fire at the Caledonian Distillery, 
Edinburgh, destroying machinery, stock, and 
buildings, valued at 30,000/. 

— The bands commence to play in Ken¬ 
sington Gardens on Sunday afternoons. 

15 .—Government defeated on Mr. Spooner’s 
motion that the House should go into Com¬ 
mittee “for the purpose of considering the 
Acts for the endowment of the College of 
Maynooth, with a view to the withdrawal of 
any endowment out of the Consolidated Fund, 
due regard being had to vested rights or inter¬ 
ests. ” On a division, there appeared for the 
resolution 159, against it 133. On the main 
question, the introduction of the bill, the num¬ 
bers were, ayes 159, noes I42. On the 25th 
June, when the bill was brought up for a second 
reading, Mr. Henry Herbert moved that it be 
read a second time that day six months. This 
was negatived by 174. to 168. This, however, 
was the last triumph, Mr. Spooner moving on 
the 25th June that the order for the second 
reading be discharged, as, in consequence of 
the hostility of its opponents, further progress 
with the bill was hopeless during the session. 

— In Convocation to-day, petitions were 
presented to both Houses, praying that 
measures might be taken for the restoration of 
the Wesleyan Methodists to the communion 
of the Church of England. The business was 
chiefly confined to the Lower House, and 
referred to the organization of a court for 
clergy discipline. 

(460) 


15 . —A Common Hall held in the Guildhall, 
for the purpose of opposing Sir George Grey’s 
Bill for improving the Corporation. 

16 . —Her Majesty visits the military hos¬ 
pital at Chatham, to manifest her interest in 
the wounded soldiers brought home from the 
Crimea. 

— The Sardinian Plenipotentiaries. request 
England and France to decide against the 
military occupation of Italy by foreign Powers. 

17 . —An Italian refugee named Foschini 
attacks three of his countrymen with a dagger, 
in a coffee-house in Rupert-street, Haymarket. 
They were all severely wounded, one of them, 
Ronelli, lying long at the point of death. The 
assassin succeeded in effecting his escape. 

— The new American Minister, Mr. Dallas 
entertained by the Lord Mayor (Salomons) at 
the Mansion House. 

— Quebec made the seat of the Canadian 
Government. 

21. —The Lord Chancellor’s bill for improv¬ 
ing the administration of the Ecclesiastical 
Courts rejected by 41 to 33 votes. The 
details of the measure were opposed by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 
Exeter. 

22. —The Rev. Henry Melville gazetted a 
Canon of St. Paul’s, in room of Dr. Villiers, 
created Bishop of Carlisle. 

23 . —A naval review takes place at Spit- 
head, in the presence of her Majesty, on an 
unprecedented scale, both as to the power of 
vessels engaged, and the number of spectators 
whom it attracted. The members of both 
Houses of Parliament were to have been pre¬ 
sent to take up a prominent position, but a 
succession of mal-arrangements prevented them 
reaching the rendezvous till the display was 
nearly over. The fleet was illuminated in the 
evening. 

28 . —In the House of Commons, Mr. 
Whiteside moves, “ That while this House 
feels it to be its duty to express its admiration 
of the gallantry of the Turkish soldiery, and of 
the devotion of the British officers at the siege 
of Kars, it feels it to be equally a duty to ex¬ 
press its conviction that the capitulation of that 
fortress, and the surrender of the army which 
defended it, thereby endangering the safety of 
the Asiatic provinces of Turkey, were in a 
great measure owing to the want of foresight 
and energy on the part of her Majesty’s 
Administration.” The debate extended over 
three nights, and ended in a division showing 
303 in favour of Ministers, in a House of 479. 

— Commencement of the twelve days’ sale 
of the art collections formed by Mr. Samuel 
Rogers. 

29 . —Public announcement made of the in¬ 
tended marriage of the Princess Royal with 
Prince Frederick William of Prussia. 

30 . —Controversy, initiated by Mr. Jellingcr 

. 






MA Y 


MAY 


1856. 


Symons, as to the Moon's motion round the 
earth, and the contrast between lunar revolu¬ 
tion and axial rotation. 

May 2.—Peace Celebration Fete at the 
Crystal Palace. 

3 . —Amnesty granted to the Monmouth¬ 
shire Chartists convicted in 1840, and to such 
of the Irish political offenders as had not 
broken their parole. 

— Baron Brunow, Russian Ambassador, 
obtains audience of her Majesty for the purpose 
of formally announcing the accession of his 
Majesty the Emperor Alexander. 

■ 4 . —The Queen, Prince Albert, and the Royal 
Family attend afternoon service in Westminster 
Abbey, on the occasion of the national thanks¬ 
giving for the restoration of peace. The 
Commons, headed by the Speaker, attended 
the services at St. Margaret’s. 

5 . — Address agreed upon by the Lords, and 
on the 6th, after two nights’ debate, by the Com¬ 
mons, regarding the Treaty of Peace. 

6 . —Died, aged 68, Sir William Hamilton, 
Bart., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in 
Edinburgh University. 

— Bursting of the City Canal, West India 
Dock. At the Limehouse end of the canal 
the outer gates of the lock were under repair, 
so that the whole pressure of the water was 
sustained by the inner pair. About half-past 
nine o’clock the tide in the river was nearly at 
its lowest ebb, the entrance lock as far as the 
inner gate being almost dry. On the other 
side of the gate there was a depth of about 
twenty feet of water. Suddenly the whole 
neighbourhood was aroused by a tremendous 
crash caused by the bursting of the lock. The 
whole of the ponderous gates, weighing about 
twenty tons, were crushed outwards and swept 
in fragments into the river, and the waters of 
the canal burst down the lock with overwhelm¬ 
ing fury. With the torrent, craft of every 
description were swept from their moorings and 
carried as masses of wreck into the Thames. 
Large vessels, stranding in the mud, were 
less damaged. The canal was dry in about 
ten minutes. 

7 . —After a debate extending over two days, 
the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies carry a 
motion expressing approval of Count Cavour’s 
policy for redressing the grievances prevailing 
throughout the Legations. 

8. —Thanks of both Houses of Parliament 
voted to the soldiers and sailors engaged in the 
late war. 

— The members of both Houses proceed 
in procession from Westminster to Buckingham 
Palace, to present the Addresses agreed upon 
regarding the Treaty of Peace. 

— Royal Message brought up requesting 
the concurrence of each House in conferring a 
pension of 1,000/. a year on Majdr-General Sir 


William Fenwick Williams, K.C.B., M for his 
eminent and distinguished services, particularly 
in the defence of Kars.” 

IO.—In answer to remonstrances from the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Palmerston 
states that steps will be taken for discontinuing 
the bands playing in Kensington Gardens and 
in the parks on Sundays. 

— Resolutions submitted to the Carlton 
Club for the expulsion of Peelite members, 
whose presence was said to be “injurious to 
the interest of the Conservative party, and at 
variance with the principles upon which the 
Club was established.” 

14 -. —Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court, before Lord Chief Justice Campbell, 
Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell, 
the trial of William Palmer for the Rugeley 
poisonings. The Attorney-General appeared 
for the Crown, and Mr. Serjeant Shee for the 
prisoner. The trial excited the most intense 
interest throughout the kingdom, and during 
the twelve days over which it extended, the 
Old Bailey was crowded by an assembly such 
as rarely gathers within its walls. The first 
case proceeded with was the poisoning of Cook. 
The Crown alleged murder by strychnia, but 
admitted that none was found in the body. 
The proof was therefore of an entirely 
circumstantial character, illustrating minutely 
the pecuniary transactions of the prisoner, the 
probable motives which might actuate him to 
commit the crime, the opportunities he had 
for administering the poison, and the evidence 
of medical men and professional chemists as to 
the nature and action of that poison. Soon 
after tw r o p.m. on the 27th, the Lord Chief 
Justice concluded his summing-up in these 
words :—“ Gentlemen, the case is now in your 
hands ; and unless upon the part of the prosecu¬ 
tion a clear conviction has been brought to your 
minds of the guilt of the prisoner, it is your 
duty to acquit him. You are not to proceed 
even upon a strong suspicion. There must be 
the strongest conviction in your minds that he 
was guilty of this offence ; and if there be any 
reasonable doubt remaining in your minds, you 
will give him the benefit of that doubt; but if 
you come to a clear conviction that he was 
guilty, you will not be deterred from doing 
your duty by any considerations such as have 
been suggested to you. You will remember 
the oath you have taken, and you will act 
accordingly. Gentlemen, I have performed 
my task; you have now to discharge yours, 
and may God direct you to a right finding.” 
The jury retired at eighteen minutes past two 
P.M., and returned into court at twenty-four 
minutes to four P. M. , with a verdict of Guilty. 
As the jury entered and were about to deliver 
their verdict, it was observed that the prisoner 
looked pale, and his countenance exhibited 
some show of anxiety; but he almost instantly 
recovered his self-possession, and heard the 
verdict delivered with perfect calmness. The 
Lord Chief Justice solemnly adjudged the 

(461) 






MA Y 


JUICE 


1856. 


prisoner to be executed at Stafford on the 14th 
of June. 

14 -.—A Court of Proprietors of the East 
India Company sanction a proposal of the 
Court of Directors to allow Lord Dalhousie a 
pension of 5,000/. per annum, in consideration 
of his eminent services. 

— Lord John Russell addresses the mem¬ 
bers of the Stroud Mechanics’ Institute on 
“The Study of History.” 

15 .—Mr. Charles Russell, late chairman of 
the Great Western Railway Company, commits 
suicide by shooting himself. 

19 .— The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces his Budget. The total expenditure 
for 1855-6 was 88,428,355/., exclusive of the 
1,000,000/. loan to Sardinia; and the income, 
65,704,491/. The total expenditure in two 
years of war was 155,121,307/.; and in the 
preceding two years of peace, 102,032,596/. 
The present he considered still a year of war 
expenditure, in consequence of the prepara¬ 
tions that had been incurred. The probable 
expenditure he estimated at 82,113,000/., and 
the income from all sources at 71,740,000/. 
He would not propose any new taxes at this 
time, but would make up the deficiency by a 
loan. 

— The new 5,000,000/. loan contracted for 
by Messrs. Rothschild at 93—the sum fixed by 
Government. 

21 . —Died, aged 51, Augustin Thierry, 
French historian. 

22. —Charles Bird Sumner assaulted and 
severely wounded by Colonel Preston Brooks, 
in the Senate House, Washington, for having, 
as was imputed, used language, in a slavery 
debate, offensive to the State of South Carolina 
and to Judge Butler. 

26 . —The Earl of Clarendon instructs Sir 
James Hudson to represent to the King of 
Sardinia, that the occupation of Papal territory 
by foreign troops constitutes a state of things 
tending to disturb the equilibrium and endanger 
the peace of Europe. 

27 . —Mr. Mi all’s motion in favour of the 
secularization of the revenues of the Irish 
Church, rejected by 165 to 95 votes. 

— A political amnesty granted to the Poles 
by Alexander II. of Russia. 

23 . —The misunderstanding between Great 
Britain and the United States on the enlistment 
question becomes so serious that Mr. Crampton, 
the British Minister, is ordered to leave Wash¬ 
ington. He arrived at Liverpool on the 15th 
June. 

29 .—Peace rejoicings. Throughout the 
kingdom the day was marked by a cessation 
from work, and during the night illuminations 
and fireworks were all but universal. In 
London the display was costly and effective, 
the places selected being Hyde Park, the G:een 
Park, Victoria Park, and Primrose-hill. 

(462) 


29 . —M. de Metz, of Mettray, presently on a 
philanthropic tour through England, addresses 
the members of the National Reformatory Union 
in London. 

30 . —Great inundations in France. In con¬ 
sequence of excessive rains, large tracts of 
country from Paris to Lyons and onwards to 
the sea were laid under water. Roads and 
railways were rendered impassable. Human 
bodies, cattle, furniture, and agricultural pro¬ 
duce were borne along the flood, and the 
streets of many towns were only passable in 
boats. When the Emperor visited Lyons to 
sympathize with and encourage the inhabitants, 
he had to give up his horse and was rowed from 
place to place. At the Orleans railway station 
the water reached the fourth story, and at 
Tours it was ten feet deep. At Angers the 
immense slate quarries were inundated, and ten 
thousand men thrown out of employment. In 
some places whole villages were swept away. 
At a sitting of the Legislative Body, 2,000,000 
francs were voted for the relief of the sufferers, 
and the Council of Ministers applied a new 
credit of 10,000,000 francs to the same pur¬ 
pose. Public subscriptions were set on foot in 
all directions; one raised in England reached 
40,000/. 

— The Lord Chancellor’s Appellate Juris¬ 
diction Bill, providing for the elevation of two 
lawyers to the Upper House, as peers for life, 
with the view of assisting in the judicial busi¬ 
ness, read a second time. 

— Discussion in Committee on Cambridge 
University Bill, designed to supersede the pre¬ 
sent constitution by a body elected from resident 
members having legislative functions, and the 
power of imposing new bye-laws. The pro¬ 
posal to abolish the oaths excluding Dissenters 
gave rise to many divisions, and was carried in 
only a modified form. 

31 . —Prince Albert lays the foundation- 
stone of an Institution at Limehouse, intended 
to afford accommodation to Oriental strangers, 
seamen, and others, whom commerce leads to 
that part of the metropolis. 

June 1 .—Corporal Niven, of the 56th Foot, 
shoots Sergeant Robinson, on board the convict 
ship Runnymede , lying in Plymouth Sound. 
He was tried at Bodmin for the offence, found 
guilty, and executed on the nth of August. 

2 .—Her Majesty lays the foundation-stone 
of Wellington College, at Sandhurst, an institu¬ 
tion designed to provide shelter and education 
to 250 sons of officers who had served in the 
army of the Queen or the East India’Company. 
A review of troops brought from Aldershot was 
a prominent feature in the day’s proceedings. 

4 .—Commemoration day at Oxford, cele¬ 
brated with unusual gaiety in connexion with 
the Peace rejoicings. 

— Died at Sevenoalcs, aged 93, Sir Alex- 
[ ander Crichton, physician for many years to 





JUNE 


1856 . 


jul y 


the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia, and one 
of the oldest members of the Royal Academy. 

5. —Died, at Paris, on his return from the south 
of France, Samuel Gurney, head of the great 
discounting firm of Overend, Gurney, and Co. 

6. —Resignation of the Saldanha Ministry in 
Portugal, and accession to power of the Mar¬ 
quis of Louie. 

— Died, aged 72, Dr. Monk, Bishop of 
Gloucester and Bristol, the successor of Porson 
in the Greek chair at Cambridge. 

12 .—Sir George Grey brings forward the 
Education Estimates, and moves that a sum 
of 151,000/. be voted for that purpose, in addi¬ 
tion to the 300,000/. usually given. In defence 
of the extended vote he reviewed the course of 
public education, showing the increase of ex¬ 
penditure since 1839, when it was 30,000/., 
and 1850, when it was 200,000/. Since the 
latter year, pupil teachers had increased from 
4,660 to 8,524; Queen’s scholars, from 39 to 
972 ; inspectors, from 19 to 36; and children, 
from 214,873 to 569,076. 

14.. —William Palmer executed at Stafford. 
The criminal slept his last sleep quietly, and in 
the morning, when the chaplain entered his 
cell, declared himself to be comfortable and 
quite prepared. When asked by the High 
Sheriff whether he was prepared to acknow¬ 
ledge the justice of his sentence, he replied 
with energy, “ No, sir, I do not; I go to the 
scaffold a murdered man.” He moved forward 
to the drop with a slight step, and nothing but 
the pallor of his face showed any undercurrent 
of feeling. Pie died, to all appearances, instan¬ 
taneously. 

16 . —In answer to Lord John Russell, Lord 
Palmerston explains that the dismissal of Mr. 
Crampton from Washington did not break up 
diplomatic relations with the United States : 
the American Government still wished to engage 
in diplomatic intercourse on questions removed 
from the cause of quarrel. 

— Sir William F. Williams, the hero of Kars, 
arrives at Dover, and is presented with a con¬ 
gratulatory address, in answer to which he 
urged the necessity of the country being always 
prepared for war. 

17 . —Admiral Lyons gazetted Baron Lyons, 
of Christchurch, in the county of Southampton. 

— Official intimation given that Dr. Rae and 
his companions were entitled to the 10,000/. 
reward offered for the discovery of the fate of 
the Franklin expedition. 

— Mr. Walpole carries a resolution against 
the Government for an Address to the Queen 
praying for a modification in certain rules 
drawn up to carry on the National System of 
Education in Ireland. The motion was reversed 
on the 23d, by 232 to 95 votes. 

18. — First display of the great fountains at 
the Crystal Palace in presence of her Majesty 
and a gathering of about 20,000 people. 


19 . — The Hawaiian monarch, Kamehameha 
IV., marries Emma, daughter of Naea, a lineal 
descendant of the ancient island kings, and 
granddaughter of John Young, an English¬ 
man. 

— William Lewis tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for feloniously attempting to 
induce a seaman to revolt and piratically take 
possession of the ship Stebonheath, on the 
voyage from Melbourne. The felonious pro- 
posal of the prisoner, with all its details of 
blood and massacre, were minutely related by 
one of the seamen whom he had taken into his 
confidence. The jury returned a verdict of 
Guilty, and Lewis was sentenced to transporta¬ 
tion for life. 

20. —-The Moniteur publishes the project of 
a Senatus Consultum regulating the succession 
to the Regency of the Empire. 

24 . —Demonstration in the King’s Park, 
Stirling, for the purpose of adopting resolutions 
in support of the erection of a monument to Sir 
William Wallace, on the Abbey Craig. The 
gathering was presided over by the Earl of 
Elgin. 

— The President of the United States 
recognizes the filibuster Walker as President of 
Nicaragua. 

26 . — “Speech day” at Harrow. General 
Williams was present, and laid the foundation- 
stone of a memorial to the Harrovians who had 
fallen in the late war. 

27 . —Lord Elcho carries a resolution against 

the Government for an Address to the Queen, 
praying that a Royal Commission might be 
appointed to determine on a site for the new 
National Gallery. < 

28 . —Banquet given by the Army and Navy 
Club to General Williams and the officers of 
Kars. They spoke in the highest terms of the 
gallantry and humanity of General Mouravieff 
and the Emperor Alexander. 

30 . —Jenny Lind gives a farewell concert in 
Exeter Hall—an entertainment creating an 
excitement even exceeding that of her first ap¬ 
pearance at Pier Majesty’s Theatre nine years 
ago. 

July 1.—Sir Colin Campbell presented 
with a sword and the freedom of the city of 
Glasgow. 

— Conclusion of the debate on Mr. G. H. 
Moore’s motion, “ That the conduct of her 
Majesty’s Government in the differences that 
have arisen with America on the question of 
enlistment has not entitled them to the appro¬ 
bation of the House.” Majority of 194 for 
Ministers in a House of 354. 

2.—The French Legislative Body pass a bill 
granting 600,000 francs Rentes to the Orleans 
Princesses. Acting under the advice of mem¬ 
bers and adherents of the family, this grant was 
declined as a feeble attempt at reparation for 
an act of spoliation. 









JULY 


1856. 


JULY 


2 . —Sir Roderick Murchison announces that 
the Bellot Testimonial Fund amounted to 
2,281/. 17 s. Sd. The amount was paid over 
to his family, with the exception of the sum 
required to erect a monument overlooking the 
Thames at Greenwich, in memory of “the in¬ 
trepid young Bellot, of the French navy, who, 
in the endeavour to rescue Franklin, shared the 
fate and the glory of that illustrious navigator.” 

3 . —Prince Albert, writing to the Earl of 
Ellesmere regarding a proposed Exhibition of 
Art.Treasures at Manchester, states, that “No 
country invests a larger amount of capital in 
works of art of all kind than England, and in 
none almost is so little done for art education ! 
If the collection you propose to form were 
made to illustrate the history of art in a chrono¬ 
logical and systematic arrangement, it would 
speak powerfully to the public mind, and en¬ 
able in a practical way the most uneducated 
eye to gather the lesson which ages of thought 
and scientific research have attempted to ab¬ 
stract, and would present to the world, for the 
first time, a gallery such as no other country 
could produce, but for which I feel convinced 
the materials exist abundantly in private hands 
among us.” 

4 . —Mr. George Peabody, a wealthy American 
merchant residing in London, celebrates the 
80th anniversary of the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence by a dinner to a number of his dis¬ 
tinguished countrymen and friends at the Star 
and Garter, Richmond. A hearty reception was 
given to-General Cadwallader’s toast, “Great 
Britain and the United States—frank inter¬ 
course, cordial friendship, and perpetual peace 
between them.” 

6 . —Collision at the mouth of the Mersey, 
between the Excelsior and Mail Irish steam¬ 
boat. The bow of the Excelsior knocked off 
the figure-head of the Mail, entered the port- 
bow near the bowsprit, and tore its way through 
the spar-deck as far as the foremost. In the 
fore part of the Mail lay a number of deck 
passengers, chiefly Irish, coming to the harvest 
in England. They were nearly all asleep, with 
their heads close up to the bow of the ship. 
Five were killed instantly, three died in a short 
time, and six were injured. The Mail kept 
afloat till assistance arrived to tow her up the 
river. 

7 . —The Tipperary Militia mutiny at Nenagh, 
and refuse to give up their clothes or arms till 
additional bounty-money is paid. In the course 
of the disturbance three of the mutineers were 
shot, and one soldier of the 41st. Being com¬ 
pletely overpowered by the regular troops, the 
ringleaders were seized and brought to trial. 
The mutineer who shot the soldier was sentenced 
to death, subsequently commuted to transpor¬ 
tation for life; five men to twenty-one years, 
five to fifteen, and two to twelve years’ trans¬ 
portation. 

— The Queen reviews the troops at Aider- 
shot, and expresses her admiration at the con¬ 
duct of those retii rned from the Crimea. 

(464) 


7 . —Ministers carry the second reading of the 
Appellate Jurisdiction Bill by a majority of 
191 to 142; but on the 10th are defeated by 
Mr. Raikes Currie, who carries a resolution 
for referring the measure to a Select Com¬ 
mittee. 

8. —Sir John Burgoyne, G.C.B., gazetted to 
the rank of General. Major-Generals Sir R. 
England and Sir Colin Campbell to be Lieu¬ 
tenant-Generals. 

9 . —The Guards make a public entry into 
London on their return from the Crimea, the 
Queen welcoming them from the balcony as 
they passed Buckingham Palace, and after¬ 
wards attending the review in Hyde Park. 

— Sir William Williams of Kars returned 
as member for Caine (in room of Lord Shel¬ 
burne, created Baron Wycombe), with the view, 
as commonly understood at the time, of assist¬ 
ing Ministers in the details of their military 
organization. 

10. —Ainsworth’s cotton-mills, at Bolton, 
destroyed by fire. 

12 .—Final evacuation of the Crimea by the 
British forces. All the remaining stores and 
establishments having been embarked, a com¬ 
pany of the 50th Regiment was posted outside 
the town of Balaklava to receive the Russian 
troops, and on their approach marched in with 
the Russian Guard, composed of about fifty 
mounted Cossacks, and a similar number of 
Infantry Cossacks. The usual form of salutes 
took place; the Russians placed sentries where 
they wished, and the English troops marched 
on board H. M.S. Algiers. General Codrington 
embarked with his personal staff at the same 
time. During the war the English lost—killed 
in action and died of wounds, 3,500; died of 
cholera, 4,244 ; of other diseases nearly 16,000; 
—total, 24,000 (including 270 officers) ; 2,873 
were disabled. The French loss was estimated 
at 63,500 men, and the Russian as high as 
500,000. The war added to the National Debt 
41,041,000/. 

— Another Kars banquet given to General 
Williams by the Reform Club. 

14 . —Debate in both Houses on the affairs 
of Italy, Lord John Russell moving for the 
production of the correspondence with Austria 
and the King of the Two Sicilies ; and Lord 
Lyndhurst attacking the Government of the 
King of Naples as tyrannical to its own people 
and insulting to this country. 

— Renewed disturbance in Spain, leading to 
the resignation of the Espartero Ministry, and 
the accession to power of General O’Donnell. 
In the riot at Madrid, six officers were reported 
to have been killed, and 32 privates. 

15 . —-The Barrett family tried at Bedford for 
starving Helen Barrett, aged 18, now dead, 
and two younger girls presently in the work- 
house. The mother and eldest daughter com¬ 
pelled the younger members of the family to 
work at lace, and if they failed in their allotted 






jul \ 


1856. 


JULY 


task, they were altogether deprived of their 
miserable allowance of bad food. They were 
also beaten and otherwise shamefully abused. 
The father, ™hc pleaded ignorance, was sen¬ 
tenced to twelve months’ imprisonment, and 
the two women to two years’ penal servitude 
each. 

15 . —Explosion in the Cymmer Colliery, 
near Pontypridd, and loss of 114 lives. In the 
course of the investigation which followed, it 
was clearly established that this calamity was 
occasioned by a total absence of all the pre¬ 
cautions provided by Acts of Parliament. 
Though many parts of the pit were known to 
be dangerous, safety-lamps were not used, and 
the ordinary way of testing a “heading’’was 
to place a lighted candle in it. 

— The Lord Chancellor explains the nature 
of the Government Bill framed to permit the 
retirement of the Bishops of London and Dur¬ 
ham upon an allowance. The measure was 
objected to on the ground that it legalized 
simony, but ultimately passed as introduced. In 
the House of Commons the retiring allowance 
of the Bishop of London was fixed at 6,000/., 
and of the Bishop of Durham at 4,500/., being 
the sums proposed by these prelates respec¬ 
tively. 

— Field Marshal Viscount Hardinge, resign¬ 
ing the post of General Commanding-in-Chief, 
states in a “ General Order ” that at no former 
eriod of the military history of this country 
as the devoted conduct of the troops been 
surpassed. “ These soldier-like qualities stood 
the test of a siege carried on through a vigorous 
winter, and for eleven months of open trenches. 
The valour and perseverance of that gallant 
army and of its brave allies were at length 
rewarded with the capture of the enemy’s 
fortress, and the attainment of an honourable 
peace.” He congratulated the army on the 
selection of the Duke of Cambridge as a 
successor, his name being associated with some 
of the most splendid triumphs of the war, and 
his devotion to the interest of the service well 
known. Another “General Order” issued 
next day formally announced the Duke’s acces¬ 
sion to the office, and expressed his anxiety to 
maintain the army in the high state of 
efficiency in which it had been left by his 
distinguished predecessor. 

16 . —Came on at York Assizes the trial of 
William Dove, of Leeds, for poisoning his wife 
by administering strychnia in medicine. The 
case lasted three days, and ended in a verdict 
of Guilty being returned against the prisoner, 
with a recommendation to mercy on the 
ground of defective intellect. He appeared to 
have been excited to the crime partly from 
an innate love of cruelty, and partly from the 
effects of the disclosures in Palmer’s case on an 
ignorant, superstitious mind. After his convic¬ 
tion, he made a declaration, describing the 
manner in which the crime was committed, 
and imputing the chief guilt to a Leeds 

14 & 5 ) 


“wizard” named Harrison, whom he was in 
the habit of consulting, and who told him that 
he would never have any happiness till his wife 
was out of the way. One letter, written with 
his own blood, was in these words:—“Dear 
Devil,—If you will get me clear at the assizes, 
and let me have the enjoyment of life, health, 
wealth, tobacco here, more food and better, 
and my wishes granted till I am sixty, come 
to me to-night. I remain your faithful subject, 
William Dove.” On reconsidering the case, 
the Home Secretary did not think there was 
anything which took it out of the category of 
wilful and deliberate murder, and the sentence 
was therefore carried into execution. 

17 . —Collision near the Camphill station of 
the North Pennsylvanian line, U.S., causing 
the death of 100 children starting on a pic-nic 
excursion. The locomotives rose on end, and 
were locked together, while the foremost cars 
of the excursion train were first ground to 
splinters, and then set on fire from the engine. 

21 . —The Report of the Chelsea Board of 
General Officers laid on the table of the House 
of Commons. The Earl of Lucan was ac¬ 
quitted of blame, and the censure passed on 
most of the other officers in the Crimean Report 
either modified or cancelled. 

— Mr. Roebuck makes an attempt to get 
Mr. James Sadleir formally expelled from the 
House, but is unsuccessful in the absence of 
any confession from or recorded conviction of 
the criminal. 

— The Earl of Malmesbury, in moving for 
papers, enters into an examination of the 
present unsatisfactory state of our relations 
with Brazil—a power, he said, most desirous of 
being on friendly terms with Great Britain. 

22 . —Earl Granville appointed Ambassador 
Extraordinary, to attend the coronation of the 
Emperor of Russia. 

— Bill read a third time in the Commons 
authorizing the appointment of a paid Minister 
of Education to act as Vice-President of the 
Council. 

— Mr. Hey wood introduces, but withdraws, 
after a short debate, a motion for an Address, 
praying that her Majesty would appoint a 
Commission for revising the present translation 
of the Bible; Sir George Grey insisting that 
the object of the Address was not in accordance 
with public feeling, which alone would justify 
the House in moving in such an important 
matter. 

25 . —Mr. Disraeli reviews the work of the 
session, and contrasts Ministerial measures with 
the Conservative policy of recognising the just 
influence of landed property, the alliance be¬ 
tween Church and State, respect for corporate 
rights, and the existence of a free magistracy. 
Lord Palmerston replied, defending the at¬ 
tention and ability displayed by his government 
in the conduct of public affairs, and charging 
Mr. Disraeli with seeking to excite disunion in 

II h 





JULY 


1856. 


AUGUST 


the Ministerial ranks after encouraging deser¬ 
tion in his own. 

26 .—Collision at Church Fenton station of 
the North-Eastern Railway, a goods trains from 
York dashing into an excursion train returning 
heavily laden from Market Weighton cattle- 
show : two people were killed on the spot, and 
twenty more or less injured. 

29 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
After noticing the most important measures 
passed during the sesssion—the Borough Police 
Act, the Act for Improving the University of 
Cambridge, and the Act for regulating Joint- 
Stock Companies, the Royal speech proceeded: 
—“ Her Majesty commands us to congratulate 
you on the favourable state of the revenue and 
upon the thriving condition of all branches of 
the national industry; and she acknowledges 
with gratitude the loyalty of her faithful sub¬ 
jects, and that spirit of order and that respect 
for law which prevail in every part of her do¬ 
minions.” The differences with the United 
States on the Central American question were 
stated to be in the way of satisfactory adjust¬ 
ment. During the parliamentary session thus 
terminated the number of Ministerial bills 
introduced into both Houses was 130; of which 
95 passed into law, while the remaining 35 were 
either withdrawn or rejected. 

— Died at Endenich, near Bonn, aged 46, 
Robert Schumann, musicai composer. 

30 . —Disorderly proceedings in Christ 
Church, West Hartlepool, arising out of differ¬ 
ences between Mr. R. W. Jackson, who had 
erected the fabric, and the incumbent, Rev. J. 
H. Burgess. An attempt being made to build 
up the doors of the church, a company of idle 
men and women took possession of the build¬ 
ing, and kept up a scene of indecent disorder 
and clamour till late in the evening, when they 
dispersed on an intimation from the incumbent 
that, whether consecrated property or not, he 
was determined to retain possession. 

31 . —Sir William Fenwick Williams of Kars 
entertained by the Corporation of London and 
presented with the freedom of the City and a 
sword. 

— Concluded at Edinburgh the case of 
M ‘Laren v. Ruchie and Russell, being an action 
to recover 1,000/. in the name of damages for 
having been “ calumniously and injuriously 
ridiculed ” during the late election contest in 
that city. The plaintiff was a keen partisan of 
the defeated candidate, Mr. Brown Douglas, 
and the defendants proprietors of the Scotsman 
newspaper, zealous supporters of Mr. Adam 
Black. It was complained that the Scotsman 
had greatly exceeded the language of fair 
criticism, Mr. M‘Laren being often mentioned 
as a “reptile” and sometimes as a “viper.” 
It had also sought to nail the epithet with 
Scripture, by applying to him the words, “ On 
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust thou shalt 
eat all the days of thy life.” For the defence, 
( 4 ^; 


a letter was submitted from Sir W. Johnston, 
dated 1852, in which the plaintiff was alluded 
to as “a cold little snake.” A witness was 
called who said that the name had been given 
to him in 1852, and was frequently applied to 
him good-naturedly. It was alleged also that 
the writing on Mr. M‘Laren’s side was equally 
personal and violent. He had himself at a 
former election called his present frienc" Mr. 
Douglas “a calumniator,” and his supporters 
“ betrayers, ” “ slanderers,” and “ snakes. ” The 
jury awarded 400/. damages, the amount be'ng 
fixed by taking the average of what was pro¬ 
posed by the entire jury. The damages, with 
a large sum additional, were made good by a 
public testimonial. 

August 1.—Marshal Pelissier entertained 
at Marseilles, and raised by the Emperor to the 
dignity of the Duke of Malakhoff. 

2 . —General Windham, hero of the Redan, 
publicly welcomed to Norwich, his native 
county, and presented with two swords. 

3 . —Dedea Redanies, a Servian soldier 
in the British Foreign Legion, murders the 
sisters Caroline and Maria Back, by stabbing 
them while walking on the beach near 
Folkestone. The act was not seen by any per¬ 
son, and the girls when found were quite dead. 
The motives actuating the murderer to this 
crime were somewhat confusedly set forth in a 
letter addressed in German to Mrs. Back :— 
“On the first lines, I pray to forgive me the 
awful accident to the unlucky Dedea Redanies 
which I committed upon my very dear Caroline 
and Maria Back, yesterday morning at five 
o’clock. Scarcely I am able to write, by heart¬ 
break for my ever-memorable Caroline and 
Mary Ann. The cause of my deed is :—1. As 
I heard that Caroline is not in the family wa), 
as I at first believed ; 2. Because Caroline in¬ 
tends going to Woolwich ; 3. Because I cannot 
stay with my very dear Caroline, it made my 
heart so scattered that I put into my mind at 
last that Caroline rather may die from my 
hands than to allow Caroline’s love being be¬ 
stowed upon others. However, I did not intend 
to murder also Mary Ann, her sister ; but not 
having another opportunity, and as she was in 
my way, I could not do otherwise—I must 
stab her too.” The murderer failed in an 
attempt upon his own life, and was at once 
secured. He was tried at the Maidstone Assizes, 
convicted, and executed. 

5 . —The Queen having completed her re¬ 
view of the regiments returned from the East, 
a General Order is issued expressing her Ma¬ 
jesty’s admii ation of thei: good order, discipline, 
and the brave yet patient spirit with which 
they had endured evils inseparable from war. 
“ The Queen deplores the loss of many of her 
best officers and bravest men ; but history will 
consecrate the ground before Sebastopol as the 
grave of heroes. ” 

6 —The Corporation of Rochester entertain. 






AUGUST 


1856. 


SEPTEMBER 


their brethren of London in the course of the 
septennial inspection of the Thames and Med¬ 
way boundaries. 

6 . —Dissatisfaction expressed by the English 
and continental press as to the evasion by Rus¬ 
sia of the 20th article of the treaty, relating to 
the evacuation of the Isle of Serpents, at the 
mouth of the Danube, and the restoration of 
certain fortresses in Asia Minor to Turkey. 

9 . —Died at Fulham, aged 59, Mrs. C. 
Matthews, better known in the theatrical 
world as Madame Vestris. 

12 .—Broadwood’s pianoforte manufactory, 
Horseferry-road, Westminster, destroyed by 
fire. The peculiar construction of the work¬ 
shops—built to obtain the best possible light, 
and consisting of distinct floors several hundred 
feet long without a break of any kind—ren¬ 
dered them an easy prey to the flames. 200 
instruments were saved, but 1,000, in various 
stages of manufacture, were lost, as also a 
stock of precious woods, and the whole of 
the tools belonging to the workmen. Only a 
portion of the north shops were saved. 

— Dr. Lushington, representing the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, concludes an inquiry at 
Bath into the charges preferred against Arch¬ 
deacon Denison, with an intimation that unless 
the errors in doctrine complained of were re¬ 
voked, sentence would issue against him on 
21st October. 

— Explosion in Ramrod-hall Colliery, 
near Oldbury, caused by the incautious use 
of a lighted candle in descending the shaft. 
Seven of the workmen were blown to the 
surface, and four killed below. 

— The British Association closes its 
sittings at Cheltenham. On one of the days 
of meeting Sir Roderick Murchison described 
the travels and discoveries of Dr. Livingstone 
in South Africa, and on another Mr. Grove, 
Q, C., lectured on ‘ ‘ The Correlation of Physical 
Science.” Mr. J. Symons also read a paper 
on “ Lunar Motion,” which gave rise to an 
animated discussion. 

14 .—Died at Chatham, aged 72, Dr. Buck- 
land, Dean of Westminster, and an eminent 
geologist. 

16 .—Conflict at Washington between the 
Senate and the House of Representatives re¬ 
garding a proviso attached by the latter to the 
Army Appropriation Bill, prohibiting the em¬ 
ployment of Federal soldiers in Kansas. A 
special Congress was summoned on the 21st 
to arrange the difficulty. 

20 . —A Reformatory Union Conference com¬ 
mences its sittings at Bristol, under the presi¬ 
dency of Lord Stanley. 

21 . —The Queen-mother of Oude, with her 
grandson and brothei of the King, arrive at 
Southampton, to institute an inquiry in this 
country as to the appropriation of their terri¬ 
tory. 


24 . —Died, aged 66, Sir William Temple 
(brother of Lord Palmerston), late British 
Minister at Naples. 

25 . —Dinner to the Guards in the Surrey 
Music Hall. 

23 . — Died, aged 46, Gilbert Abbott 
a’Beckett, a London police magistrate, and 
author of numerous papers in Punch. 

30 . —Died, aged 79, Admiral Sir John Ross, 
Arctic navigator. 

— The Earl of Cardigan enters on a defence 
of his conduct at Balaklava, in the course of an 
entertainment given in his honour at Leeds. 
In explaining the duties of a cavalry general 
in action, he ought always, he said, to lead his 
first line against the enemy ; but it was never 
expected he should wait and receive the second 
line before bringing his brigade out. A general 
officer had only to do with the regiments imme¬ 
diately under his command, those who followed 
in support being under the superior officer of 
each line. 

September 1.—Died in London, aged 81, 
Sir R. Westmacott, R.A., sculptor. 

— Died at Yarmouth, aged 72, William 
Yarrell, naturalist. 

2. —Circular despatch issued by Prince 
Gortschakoff, complaining of the proceedings 
of the Western Powers, in departing from 
the principle they had laid down in Con¬ 
ference to abstain from interfering in the in¬ 
ternal affairs of other States. The endeavour, 
it was said, to obtain from the King of Naples 
concessions regarding the affairs of his own 
kingdom by threats or menacing demonstra¬ 
tions was a violent usurpation of authority, 
and an open declaration of the right of the 
strong over the weak. 

3 . —Prussia attempts, unsuccessfully, to get 
her authority recognised in the Republic of 
Neufchatel. Several Royalists being thrown 
into prison, Prussia mustered an army to de¬ 
liver them by force. 

— Failure of the Royal British Bank. The 
share capital in this country was stated to be 
300,000/., of which 150,000/. was described as 
‘ ‘ paid up. ” The debts due to depositors were 
upwards of 500,000/.; the assets consisted of 
bills discounted and other securities. It soon 
became known that the greater part of these 
securities were worthless; that more than 
100,000/. had been advanced, under extraor¬ 
dinary circumstances, to a Welsh coal mine, 
which was not worth one-third of the value; 
and that the directors, manager, and auditors 
had been helping themselves to the funds with¬ 
out scruple. Mr. Gwynne, a retired director, 
was indebted 13,600/.; John M‘Gregor, M.P., 
the founder of the bapk, 7,000/. ; Humphrey 
Brown, M.P., upwards of 70,000/. ; Mr. 
Cameron, the manager, about 30,000/. The 
osition of affairs was, that when the.share- 
olders had paid up their calls, there might be 

H H 2 


(467) 




SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


18 


about 8 s. or icw. in the pound for creditors, 
with the entire loss of the capital of the bank. 
An attempt was made to wind up the Com¬ 
pany under the Winding-up Act. The official 
manager got in large sums of money, and also 
made a call upon the shareholders of 75/. per 
share; but another set of creditors resolved to 
have the affairs of the Company wound up 
by the Court of Bankruptcy, and a fiat was 
accordingly issued and assignees appointed. 
This step was resisted on the ground that the 
Winding-up Act being in operation the power 
of the Bankruptcy Court was superseded; but 
it did not appear that there was any express 
provision to that effect, and the official assignee 
proceeded to enforce his call of 50/. per share 
upon the unfortunate shareholders. Many of 
them, unable to meet the call, passed through 
the Insolvent Court, or went out of the country. 
The investigation into the affairs of the Bank 
showed that it had been conducted in a manner 
too scandalous to be overlooked, and, in the 
following year, Government instituted criminal 
proceedings against the directors. (See Feb. 
17, 1858.) 

3 . —Testimonial, consisting of a portrait and 
a purse containing eleven hundred guineas, 
presented to Mr. Roebuck by the electors of 
Sheffield, in consideration of the national ser¬ 
vices he had rendered in Parliament. 

— Fall of an old house in Little Swan-alley, 
Tokenhouse-yard. The whole of the inmates 
were overwhelmed in the ruins, but eventually 
dug out alive, with the exception of one man 
and three of his step-children. 

5 .—Public intimation given of the intention 
of the Queen to make the Sultan a Knight of 
the Garter. 

7 . —Coronation of the Emperor of Russia at 
Moscow. The ceremony took place in the 
Uspenski Ssabor, and the act of crowning 
was performed by Archbishop Philarete, the 
Metropolitan of Moscow. Among the special 
ambassadors present were Earl Granville, the 
Count de Morny, Prince Esterhazy, M. Costal - 
bargone, and the representative of the Sultan. 
An immense crowd assembled in the Kremlin 
Palace, and great enthusiasm was everywhere 
manifested. The ringing of bells, the firing of 
cannon, the parade of troops, the ceremonial 
of the church, the procession to the palace, 
and the decorations of the city, rendered the 
display remarkable, even among state cere¬ 
monies of Russia. 

15 . —After an attempt to get up a proces¬ 
sion, which met with only indifferent success, 
the Chartists of London gather on Primrose- 
hill to present an address to John Frost on 
his return from exile. 

16 . —The Constitution of 184.5 re-established 
in Spain. 

17 . —Discovery of Robson’s frauds on the 
Crystal Palace Company. It was communi¬ 
cated to the Stock Exchange in the laconic 

{468) 


56. 


sentence, “Something wrong with Crystal 
Palace shares; Robson, the clerk, has de¬ 
camped. ” The immediate effect was a fall in 
price. A reward of 500/. was offered for his 
apprehension, which took place at Copenhagen, 
on the 7th of October. 

18 .—Ten workmen tried before Baron Bram- 
well, at the Central Criminal Court, for mis¬ 
demeanor, in having unlawfully conspired 
together to prevent and intimidate certain 
workmen from entering into the employment 
of Young, Magnay, and Young, shipbuilders. 
The learned judge thus laid down the law :— 
“It was quite competent for either masters or 
workmen to combine together for their mutual 
protection, and for the advancement of their 
mutual interests. A master is at liberty to say 
that he will not give employment except upon 
certain terms, and workmen are equally at 
liberty to refuse their labour except upon cer¬ 
tain conditions. Neither party, however, has 
a right to go beyond this ; and the law will 
not permit persons who choose to accept other 
terms to be obstructed ; and still less will it 
permit them to be intimidated.” The evidence 
for the prosecution fully established the law¬ 
less proceedings of the unionists ; and, on the 
advice of their counsel, the prisoners retracted 
their plea of “Not guilty,” and admitted their 
offence. Under these circumstances, Baron 
Bramwell was content to order them to put 
in recognizances to appear to receive judgment 
when called upon. 

22 .—Oldham Lyceum opened, and addresses 
delivered by Lord Stanley, Sir J. Kay-Shuttle- 
worth, Mr. W. J. Fox, and others. 

— An International Free Trade Congress 
assembles in the Hotel de Ville, Brussels, to 
give effect, as far as possible, to the recom¬ 
mendations of the Society of Economists, who 
had met in the same place in 1847. 

24 . —Died, aged 83, General Sir Colin 
Halkett, Governor of Chelsea Hospital, and 
Commander of the second division of Lord 
Hill’s corps at Waterloo. 

— Died at South Park, Tunbridge Wells, 
aged 71, Field-Marshal Henry Lord Hardinge, 
GovernQr-General of India, 1844-48. (See 
Dec. 21, 1845.) 

26 . —Six men suffocated in a Worcester 
brewery from foul gas, while engaged in clear¬ 
ing out a vat. 

— The followers of Brother Prince, of the 
Agapemone, assemble in Hanover Square 
Rooms, to promote the extension of their prin¬ 
ciples. The meeting proved a failure. 

29 . —Mr. Gladstone speaks at Mold, Flint¬ 
shire, and at Liverpool, on behalf of the Society 
for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

30 . —Archdeacon Denison causes intimation 
to be made to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
that it is not in his power to make the revoca¬ 
tion required by his Court; but if it could be 
shown to him that the language complained of 






OCTOBER 


1856. 


OCTOBER 


presented the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper 
under any aspect new or strange to the Re¬ 
formed Church of England, he would alter his 
language to that extent. 

October 1 . —Brynmally coal mines, Wrex¬ 
ham, inundated by water from the old work¬ 
ings, and thirteen men drowned. 

8 . —At Canton, a party of Chinese in charge 
of an officer boarded the lorcha Arrow, a 
vessel registered under an ordinance passed at 
Hong-Kong eighteen months before, tore 
down the British flag, and carried off the 
Chinese crew, refusing to listen either to the 
remonstrances of the master or of the Con¬ 
sul, and insisting that the vessel was not 
British, but Chinese. Her papers were at that 
time in the Consulate, but her register had 
expired more than a month before. The Arrow 
was known to the Chinese authorities to have 
been built in China, Chinese-owned, Chinese- 
manned, and of evil repute for piracy and 
smuggling. The right to use the British flag 
she possessed by an Act of the Colonial Legis¬ 
lature, framed mainly if not altogether for 
vessels of another class. The Chinese Com¬ 
missioners afterwards assented to reparation 
in a form described by Consul Parkes as “very 
proper.” As it appeared desirable, however, 
to Sir John Bowring that British influence 
should be increased at Canton, he wrote on the 
24th to Sir Michael Seymour, the naval com¬ 
mander on the station :—“ I cannot doubt that 
the Imperial Commissioner will now feel the 
absolute necessity of complying with the de¬ 
mands which have been made, and I have to 
add, that if your Excellency and the Consul 
should concur with me in opinion that the cir¬ 
cumstances are auspicious for requiring the 
fulfilment of treaty obligations as regards the 
city of Canton, and for arranging an official 
meeting with the Imperial Commissioner 
within the city walls, I shall willingly come to 
Canton for that purpose. ” On the plea that the 
Imperial Commissioner Yeh paid little atten¬ 
tion to the remonstrances of the British Consul, 
Admiral Seymour commenced on the 23d 
to exact satisfaction by destroying the forts on 
the river. On the 25th, the island and fort 
of Dutch Folly were taken and occupied with¬ 
out opposition. So far from convincing Yeh 
that he had been guilty of any irregularity, 
these proceedings made him the more obsti¬ 
nate, and he at length offered a reward of 
thirty dollars for the head of every Englishman. 

9 .— Died, aged 69, N. Cabet, founder of 
Icaria, Illinois. 

— Mr. George Peabody entertained at Dan¬ 
vers, U. S., his native place, where he had en¬ 
dowed schools and founded a public library. 
He was received by a guard of honour, and 
made the hero of a procession three miles long. 

12 . —An earthquake, extensive in its opera¬ 
tions, and destructive in its effects, felt on the 
islands and eastern shores of the Mediterranean. 
In the city of Valetta scarcely a building 


escaped injury, and at Civita Vecchia the 
dome of the cathedral was rent, and the belfry 
much injured. At Thyrce and Candia the 
ruined buildings took fire and many lives were 
lost. Trifling damage was also caused by the 
shock at Cairo and Alexandria. 

13 .— Herat taken by the Persians, leading 
to a rupture between that Power and Great 
Britain. 

14 -.—The Gazette announces that Dr. Long- 
ley, Bishop of Ripon, is to be translated to the 
see of Durham, vacant by the resignation of 
Dr. Maltby; and that Dr. Tait, Dean of Carlisle, 
is to be elevated to the see of London in room 
of Bishop Blomfield, also resigned. The same 
authority announced the promotion of the Rev. 
R. C. Trench to the deanery of Westminster, 
in room of Dr. Buckland, deceased. He had 
previously been mentioned for the see of Glou¬ 
cester and Bristol, to which, however, Dr. 
Baring was appointed. The Rev. F. Close 
was promoted to the vacant deanery of Car¬ 
lisle. 

15 . —The Times publishes an extraordinary 
narrative concerning “Railways and Revolvers 
in Georgia, ” in which an “Eye-witness” describes 
a series of duels said to have taken place among 
the passengers in the railway cars between 
Macon and Augusta, on the 28th Aug. Five 
people were said to have been killed, and one 
boy coolly murdered and thrown out of the train. 
As the story was thought to illustrate the pre¬ 
sent lawless condition of the Southern States, 
its accuracy was canvassed with eager keenness 
by partisan writers, who sought to show that 
the Times^zA been made the subject of a care¬ 
fully-planned hoax. The president of the 
railway and the British Consul in the district 
gave an unqualified contradiction to the story, 
for which they said there was no foundation 
whatever—no outrage of any kind having taken 
place on the line, and only one death during 
the year, the result of an accident. In the end 
it was admitted that the narrator, “John Arrow- 
smith, Liverpool,” must have been labouring 
under a hallucination. 

17.—In connexion with recent cases of in¬ 
subordination and practical joking at Brighton 
barracks, the Gazette to-day intimates that, 
“ Cornets Lord Ernest Vane Tempest and 
William J. Birt of the 4th Light Dragoons are 
dismissed from her Majesty’s Army in conse¬ 
quence of conduct unbecoming officers and 
gentlemen, and subversive of good order and 
military discipline. ” 

— Clarendon-Dallas Treaty signed at Wash¬ 
ington, the object being the settlement of 
disputes which had arisen concerning the 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of April 1850. Certain 
clauses were objected to by the British Govern¬ 
ment, and the treaty was never ratified. 

— Died at Florence, aged 70, the Chevalier 
Canina, Italian archaeologist. 

19.—Accident at the Surrey Gardens Music 
Hall. An enormous aud.ence having assembled 

(469) 





OCTOBER 


1856. 


NOVEMBER 


there to hear Mr. Spurgeon preach, some 
person in the body of the hall raised an alarm 
of fire, and an instant rush was made to the 
doors. In the lower part of the building escape 
was comparatively easy ; but the people in the 
first gallery, disregarding the other means of 
descent, ran in a body to the staircase in the 
north-west tower. On the landing at the top 
of this staircase they met with the stream of 
people who were rushing from the upper 
galleries. The way speedily became blocked, 
and as the pressure from behind increased, 
many of those in front stumbled or were trodden 
down. In this manner five persons lost their 
lives. In spite of the cries of the wounded, 
the crowd behind pressed still more, till the 
balustrades of the staircase gave way, and many 
fell to the passage below. This accident on 
the stairs had the effect of lessening the crowd 
behind, and the officials in charge of the build¬ 
ing succeeded in their efforts to get the people 
back to the galleries, there being no fire what¬ 
ever in the building. It was then found that 
the killed amounted in all to seven, the majority 
being females, and the injured to between 
twenty and thirty. At the inquest on the 
bodies a verdict of accidental death was re¬ 
turned. 

20. —Robert Marley, or Jenkins, a surgical 
instrument maker, murders Richard Cope, 
jeweller, Parliament-street, by beating him in 
the shop with a life-preserver. The victim 
lingered in hospital till the 9th of November, 
and was able to make a declaration identifying 
the prisoner as the person who had attacked 
him. Marley, whose object was supposed to be 
plunder, was scared during his attack, and on 
leaving the shop was followed by two or three 
people till seized in Palace-yard. He was 
tried on the 28th of November following, found 
guilty, and executed Dec. 15th. 

21 . — The anniversary of the battle of Tra¬ 
falgar celebrated at North Shields by the 
opening of the New Sailors’ Home, erected 
and endowed by the Duke of Northumberland. 

22. —Dr. Lushington, as assessor to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the court assembled under the Church 
Discipline Act, within the diocese of Bath and 
Wells, to try the case of Ditcher v. Denison. 
The principal charge was contained in the 9th 
article of complaint, that the defendant taught 
“that the Body and Blood of Christ, being 
really present after an immaterial and spiritual 
manner in the consecrated bread and wine, 
are therein and thereby given to all, and are 
received by all who come to the Lord’s table. ” 
The court found that this charge had been 
established in evidence, and that it was contrary 
to the 28th and 29th Articles. Archdeacon 
Denison was sentenced to be deprived of all 
his ecclesiastical promotions. Notice was given 
of appeal to the Court of Arches. 

— Ten oil-paintings, valued at 10,000/., 
stolen from the Earl of Suffolk’s gallery, at 
Charlton Park. The thief contrived to elude 
( 470 ) 


detection for many months ; but in February 
1858, the pictures were traced to the residence 
of a person formerly employed as a valet in 
the house, and who appeared to have sold them 
for trifling sums to pawnbrokers and picture- 
dealers. They had been cut out of their frames 
at Charlton, and were found rolled up and 
hidden in obscure corners. 

22 .—The citizens of Dublin entertain 3,500 
Crimean soldiers to a banquet in the large 
room of the Custom House. The Lord Lieu¬ 
tenant (Lord Carlisle) was present, and made a 
brief speech. 

— Addressing the members of the Falkirk 
School of Arts, the Lord Advocate (Moncrieff) 
suggests the placing of a huge cairn of granite 
on the Abbey Craig as a suitable monument, 
to perpetuate the memory of Wallace. 

28 . —The differences between Naples and 
the French and English Courts now assume an 
aspect so serious as to lead to the withdrawal 
of the Ambassadors of the latter Powers. 

29 . —Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Co., 
builders, suspend payment. 

31 . —Circular letter addressed by the Russian 
Government to its agents at foreign courts, 
justifying its proceedings on the Bessarabian 
frontier. 

— The citizens of Edinburgh entertain 
about 1,100 Crimean soldiers to a banquet in 
the Corn Exchange. 

November 1.—In announcing the com¬ 
mencement of hostilities between Great Britain 
and Persia, the Governor-General of India 
writes :—“ While the British Government has 
faithfully and constantly adhered to the obliga¬ 
tions which it accepted under the agreement of 
January 1853, the Government of Persia has 
manifested a deliberate and persevering disre¬ 
gard of the reciprocal engagements by which, 
at the same time, it became bound, and is now 
endeavouring to subvert by force the indepen¬ 
dence of Herat, which was the declared object 
of the agreement in question.” 

— W. J. Robson tried at the Central Cri¬ 
minal Court for larceny and forgery upon the 
Crystal Palace Company. He pleaded guilty 
to the charge of larceny. On the charge of 
forgery the case went to proof. From the 
address of Mr. Serjeant Ballantine, the fol¬ 
lowing appeared to be the manner in which 
the proceeds of the forgery were obtained. 
Robson directed a Mr. Clement, stockbroker, 
to sell 100 shares in the Company—50 to 
one person and 50 to another. For these 
shares the broker received 295/. which he 
paid over, less commission, to Robson. The 
document by which these shares were trans¬ 
ferred DUrported to convey the shares from oae 
Johnson, the prisoner’s brother-in-law, to the 
purchasers. The signature to the deed, where 
the name of the transferrer should be, was that 
of Henry Johnson, written by the prisoner, 







NOVEMBER 


1856. 


NOVEMBER 


and also witnessed by him. From the report 
of the accountants, it appeared that the gross 
amount of money thus appropriated by the 
prisoner was 27,000/. The jury found Robson 
guilty, and Mr. Justice Erie sentenced him 
to twenty years’ transportation for the larcenies, 
and fourteen years for the forgery. 

1.—Died, aged 54, Sir John Jervis, Chief 
Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and 
M.P. for Chester from 1832 to 1850. 

4.. —At Washington, the votes of the Elec¬ 
toral College for President were found to be 
—Buchanan, 163 (112 Southern States) ; Col. 
Fremont, 126; and Mr. Fillmore, 8 (all Free 
States). 

— Died at Paris, aged 59, Paul Delaroche, 
French painter. 

5. —Lord Palmerston visits Manchester and 
Liverpool, and is presented with addresses by the 
Corporations and various commercial bodies. 

6 . —Powder magazine at Rhodes struck by 
lightning. About 400 houses were thrown 
down, and nearly as many people killed. 

7. — First election at Cambridge of the new 
Council, designed by the Act of last session to 
fulfil the combined functions of the Heads of 
Colleges and the Caput Senatus, in the nomi¬ 
nation of University officers and the introduc¬ 
tion of legislative proposals to the Senate. 

IO.—At the Lord Mayor’s inaugural dinner, 
Lord Palmerston spoke in decided terms with 
reference to the points supposed to be in dis¬ 
pute between the Russian and British autho¬ 
rities as to the precise interpretation of the 
Treaty of Paris :—“ We were convinced that 
the people of England would willingly forego 
the prospect of future military and naval glory 
when they were satisfied that the objects of 
the war had been successfully accomplished. 
It now remains that the conditions of the 
Peace shall be faithfully executed and honour¬ 
ably observed, and I trust that the peace of 
Europe will be placed upon a secure and per¬ 
manent foundation.” 

— The American General, Hornsby, defeats 
a Nicaraguan, army near Canas. 

12 .— Mr. Cyrus Field explains the details 
of the proposed Atlantic Submarine Telegraph 
scheme to the merchants of Liverpool. 

_ Died, aged 52, Prince Leiningen, son of 

the Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg (Duchess 
of Kent), and half-brother to the Queen. 

— Formal opening of the last section of the 
Canadian Grand Trunk Railway, connecting 
Quebec and Toronto. 

X 3. —The new bell for the clock-tower of 
Westminster Palace tested in presence of 
the designer, Mr. Denison, and others. The 
note was found to be E natural. 

14.. —George Little, cashier of the Great 
Western Railway, Ireland, found murdered in 
his office at the Broadstone Station, Kingston. 


Between 400/. and 500/. in money was carried 
off. No indication was left by which to trace 
the murderer, except some supposed smears of 
blood on a door-post of the basement story, 
far distant from the scene of the tragedy. As 
the murderer had not succeeded in opening 
the door, it was presumed that he returned to 
a window in the corridor opening on to the 
platform, and which was marked as though a 
person had gone out by it. A hammer, such as 
might have struck the heavy blows, and a razor 
were found in the adjoining canal; but the 
precautions taken by the murderer long baffled 
the most searching inquiries of the police. 

15 . —Discovery of the immense frauds per¬ 
petrated by Leopold Redpath on the share¬ 
holders of the Great Northern Railway. To 
maintain himself in a position of show and 
expense, Redpath, who had charge of the 
stock register-books of the Company, was in 
the habit of altering the sums standing in the 
name of some bona fide stock-holder to a much 
larger amount. The surplus stock thus cre¬ 
ated, Redpath sold in the stock market, forging 
the name of the supposed transferrer, passing 
the sum to the account of the supposed trans¬ 
feree in the register, and either attesting it 
himself or causing it to be attested by a 
young man, a protege and tool, but who ap¬ 
peared to be free from guilty cognizance. By 
these processes the number of shareholders 
and the amount of stock on the Company’s 
register became greatly magnified, while, as the 
actual holders of stock remained credited with 
their proper investments, there was no occa¬ 
sion for suspicion on their part. But the 
Directors, finding that the amount paid for divi¬ 
dends was rapidly exceeding the rateable pro¬ 
portion to the capital stock, a Committee of 
Investigation was appointed, which continued 
its labours till the whole gigantic fraud was 
revealed. The gross amount appropriated was 
set down at about a quarter of a million ster¬ 
ling. Redpath fled in the first instance to Paris, 
but afterwards returned to London, and was 
apprehended by a constable in a house in the 
New-road. His residences in Chester-terrace 
and at Weybridge were taken possession of by 
railway officials. 

— The Attorney-General, Sir A. Cock- 
bum, accepts the office of Chief Justice of the 
Common Pleas. He was succeeded in office 
by the Solicitor-General, Sir R. Bethell, whose 
place was filled by Mr. Recorder Stuart 
Wortley. 

16 . —Gregory’s Australian exploring expe¬ 
dition returns to Brisbane, after one of the 
most extensive surveys ever made on the 
Australian continent. 

19 . —Collision on the Waterford and Kil¬ 
kenny Railway at Dunkitt. A mail train 
from Dublin, going at the rate of forty miles an 
hour, ran into some ballast waggons, drawn up 
at a siding, where the points had improperly 
been left open. When the collision was seen 

471 ) 






NO VEMBER 


1856. 


DECEMBER 


to be inevitable, the men in the ballast train 
jumped out, and attempted to get up a steep 
embankment. Several tumbled back again, 
and being caught by the train were cut to 
pieces ; and one, who was the only victim who 
showed signs of life after the collision, had his 
arms cut off. In all seven persons were killed, 
and nearly every one in the mail train more or 
less injured. The coroner’s jury returned a 
verdict of manslaughter against the pointsman, 
Michael Brien. 

25 . —Died at Denmark-hill, aged 35, Angus 
B. Reach, journalist. 

26 . —Unveiled in Trafalgar-square, the 
statue of Sir C. J. Napier, “ erected by public 
subscription from all classes, civil and military, 
the most numerous being private soldiers. ” 

— The first session of the first Parliament 
of the colony of Victoria opened in Melbourne, 
by General M ‘Arthur, the officer administering 
the government. 

29 . —Died in London, aged 60, Rear-Ad¬ 
miral Frederick William Beechey, voyager and 
geographer. 

30 . —Rev. R. Biclcersteth, Rector of St. 
Giles’s and Canon of Salisbury, made Bishop 
of Ripon. 

December 1 .—Congress opened with a 
message from President Pierce, having refer¬ 
ence chiefly to the recent election and the 
rivalry of the North and South. 

2. —Treaty settling frontier lines signed at 
Bayonne, by France and Spain. 

3 . — An action brought by the Earl of Lucan 
in the Court of Exchequer against the Daily 
News for libel, contained in an article in that 
paper, on July 26, with reference to his lord¬ 
ship’s conduct in the Crimea, decided in favour 
of the Daily News. The writer had described 
Lord Lucan’s insubordinate conduct in the 
Crimea, his defects as a Divisional General, 
his fatal misinterpretation of the order which 
resulted in the Balaklava charge; and gene¬ 
rally had referred to his conduct as one among 
other illustrations of the bad system under 
which our military resources are sacrificed by 
the appointment of inefficient commanders, 
and the attempt to conduct operations of war 
in distant regions by civilians sitting in 
London. Chief Baron Pollock directed the 
jury that the critic had without malice exercised 
the right of pronouncing an opinion upon the 
acts of a public man. 

— M. Ponsard, recently elected to a seat 
in the French Academy, delivers an address 
on dramatic literature, in which he spoke of 
Shakspeare as the “ divine William,” before 
whom their own native dramatists had been 
humiliated and neglected. 

4 . — Enthronization of Dr. Tait, the new 
Bishop of London, in St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

— Exhibition of the Soulage Collection 
of majolica, bronze, and cinque-cento fur- 
(472) 


niture in Marlborough House, with the view of 
securing its purchase by Government. 

4 . —The Island of Karrack, in the Persian 
Gulf, occupied, without opposition, by a British 
force under Major-General Stolker. 

5 . —In the Court of Arches, Sir J. Dodson 
gives judgment in the case of Ditcher v. Deni¬ 
son, dismissing the appeal of Archdeacon 
Denison. (See Oct. 22, 1856 ; April 23, 1857). 

6 . —Died, suddenly, Baron Nathan, dancing- 
master and professional “M.C.”—a popular 
man in his peculiar line. 

8.—A soldier, named Milano, attempts to 
stab the King of Naples with his bayonet, at 
a review of troops. 

IO.—The fleet under the command of Ad¬ 
miral Sir Henry Leek attacks and captures the 
fortified town of Bushire on the Persian Gulf. 
During the four hours’ cannonading, although 
the hull, masts, and rigging of our ships were 
frequently struck by the enemy’s shot, not a 
single casualty occurred to life or limb. The 
British colours were hoisted at the Residency, 
and the town of Bushire declared to be a mili¬ 
tary post under British rule, and temporarily 
subject to martial law. The traffic in slaves 
was abolished. 

— Dr. Livingstone, a distinguished African 
missionary and traveller, arrives in London, 
after an absence of sixteen years. He was 
presented with the Gold Medal of the Royal 
Geographical Society on the 15th, when he 
gave a detailed account of the countries through 
which he had passed. Next day a banquet 
was given in his honour at Freemasons’ Tavern. 

— The English Cathedral at Montreal 
destroyed by fire ; origin unknown. 

— Died at Queenstown, aged 67, Rev. 
Theobald Mathew, the “ Apostle of Tem¬ 
perance.” Between 40,000 and 50,000 people 
attended his funeral. 

13 .—The Queen causes to be set up in the 
Church of St. Thomas, Newport, a monument 
“ To the memory of the Princess Elizabeth 
(daughter of King Charles the First), who died 
at Carisbrook Castle, on Sunday, September 
8, 1650, and is interred beneath the chancel of 
this church. This monument is erected as a 
token of respect for her virtues, and of sympathy 
for her sufferings, by Victoria R., 1856.” 

— Died, R. R. MTan, A.R.A. Edin¬ 
burgh. 

15 . —Marley executed at Newgate for the 
murder of Cope, the shopman, in Westminster. 

16 . —The Resolute exploring-ship, abandoned 
by Captain Kellet in accordance with orders 
from Sir Edward Belcher, and afterwards 
recovered by a company of Connecticut whalers 
and purchased by the United States Govern¬ 
ment, presented by Captain Hartstein to the 
Queen, at Cowes, as a token of friendship, love, 
and admiration. Captain Seymour obtained 
formal possession of the vessel on the 31st. 





DECEMBER 


T856-57. 


JANUARY 


18 . —The inhabitants of Birmingham and 
other towns meet to protest against the Income- 
tax, as unjust, oppressive, and degrading. 

19 . —The Liverpool and American packet- 
ship New York wrecked on the American 
coast. The crew and passengers, 301 in all, 
were got ashore ; but before leaving, a number 
of the seamen engaged at Liverpool rose in 
mutiny, and after nearly murdering the captain, 
robbed the ship and passengers of all the valu¬ 
ables they could secure. One of them, known 
as “Philadelphia Jim,” was afterwards mur¬ 
dered by his companions for interfering to save 
the mate. 

— After a debate protracted from about mid¬ 
day till midnight, the Edinburgh Town Council, 
by a majority of 28 to 12, decline to recon¬ 
struct Trinity Church after the original design ; 
and resolve, by 26 to 14, to erect a new church 
“ suitable for the district.” 

— At the Maidstone Winter Assizes, Private 
Thomas Mansell was sentenced to be exe¬ 
cuted for the murder of Alexander M‘Bumie, 
of the 49th Regiment, in the camp near Dover. 
The Crown in this instance experienced a con¬ 
siderable difficulty in procuring a conviction, 
from the number of jurymen known to be 
opposed to capital punishment. Certain ob¬ 
jections taken by prisoner’s counsel at the trial 
were made the foundation of a writ of error, 
and the points argued with much ingenuity 
before the judges at Westminister. They were 
unanimously of opinion that the prisoner had 
had a fair trial, and the sentence was carried 
into execution seven months after it was pro¬ 
nounced. 

20 . —Judgment given in the Arches Court, 
by Sir J. Dodson, in the Knightsbridge Church 
case, known as Westerton v. Beale. The 
learned judge confirmed the decision of Dr. 
Lushington in the court below in every parti¬ 
cular, holding that nothing could be put up or 
used in church which couM not be shown to 
have been used by authority of Parliament in 
the second year of Edward the Sixth. 

— The Atheneeum announces the bequest of 
large legacies to numerous literary friends, 
under the will of the deceased John Kenyon, 
poet. 

23 . —Lugava, Barbalano, and Piettrici, three 
Italian sailors, executed at Winchester for 
murder and piracy. 

24 -.—Died, by his own hand, at Portobello. 
in his 54th year, Hugh Miller, geologist and 
journalist. His health had for some time been 
shattered by attacks of illness, presenting indi¬ 
cations of mental disease, and the toil incident 
to the preparation of his new book, “ The 
Testimony of the Rocks,” aggravated all the 
previous symptoms. Fits of somnambulism, 
to which he had been subject in his youth, re¬ 
turned, and he got little refreshing sleep. 
On awaking in the morning he felt as if he 
had been * * abroad in the night-wind, dragged 
through places by some invisible power, and 


ridden by witches. ” The evening of his last 
day was spent with his family. He read aloud 
Cowper’s “Castaway,” the sonnet to Maiy 
Unwin, and some lighter verses. Miller then 
retired to his own separate bedroom, where he 
appeared to have passed through one of his 
harrowing trances. On awaking he wrote on 
a sheet of paper, in a hand much larger than 
usual, the following lines to his wife : “ Dearest 
Lydia, my brain bums. I must have walked; 
and a fearful dream rises upon me. I cannot 
bear the horrible thought. God and Father 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me ! 
Dearest Lydia, dear children, farewell ! My 
brain bums as the recollection grows. My 
dear, dear wife, farewell!— Hugh Miller.” 
In order to facilitate the fatal pistol shot, he had 
opened his shirt and flannel vest, and placed 
the muzzle close to his breast. The report 
was not heard, but next morning the body was 
found stretched on the floor. Death was sup¬ 
posed to have been instantaneous. 

24 .— Died at his residence, Dover Street, 
aged 81, Dr. J. A. Paris, President of the 
College of Physicians. 

26 .—A rumour being current that Lord 
Palmerston had openly interfered in the election 
contest now going on at Southampton, between 
the two Liberals—Mr. Andrews and Mr. 
Weguelin—his lordship writes to the former 
that there was no doubt he had, in conver¬ 
sation, expressed an opinion in favour of Mr. 
Weguelin, but it was entirely in a personal and 
private way, and involved no disparagement to 
Mr. Andrews. 

30 .—The British steamer Thistle, on her 
voyage from Canton to Hong Kong, seized by 
Chinese soldiers, who got on board in disguise 
and murdered her crew and passengers. 

1857. 

January 1 .—The new year was ushered in 
with a succession of storms causing great da¬ 
mage and loss of life. At Rhyl, on the Welsh 
coast, six wrecks were visible from one point. 
The Point of Ayr life-boat, manned with 
thirteen experienced seamen, was lost with all 
on board. On the north-east coast there were 
at least sixty vessels on shore, and it was com¬ 
puted that no fewer than fifteen foundered 
with all on board. The gale reached its height 
on the night of the 4th and morning of the 5th. 
The Northern Belle , a vessel of 1100 tons, was 
wrecked in the Downs, crew saved ; but a 
Margate lugger, when attempting to render 
assistance, went down with all on board. The 
Violet steamer, trading between Ostend and 
Dover, also went down with all hands. The 
loss of this vessel was attributed to a mistake ol 
the light, caused by the blinding nature of the 
snowstorm. 

— Gretna-green or runaway-marriage en¬ 
gagements abolished in terms of an Act passed 
last session. 


( 473 ) 






JANUARY 


JANUARY 


1857. 


2. —Died in London, aged 78 years. Dr. 
Andrew Ure, author of many well-known 
works on Chemical Science. 

3 . —Assassiuation of Monseigneur Sibour, 
Archbishop of Paris, while celebrating the 
Feast of St. Genevieve in the church of St. 
Etienne du Mont. After the procession was 
over, and when the Archbishop had turned 
round to bless the people, before entering the 
vestry, one Verger, a priest under censure, 
rushed forward and plunged a large Catalan 
knife into the prelate’s breast, exclaiming, as 
he delivered the blow, “No Goddess!” The 
Archbishop fell with a cry of “ Le malheureux !” 
and being carried into the vestry expired 
immediately after receiving absolution. The 
assassin was at once arrested, and, being 
questioned as to the meaning of his words, 
replied, that he wished to protest against so 
impious a doctrine as that of the Immaculate 
Conception. He was subsequently brought to 
trial, and after a display of great violence, in 
consequence of which he was several times 
removed from the court, he was found guilty 
of the crime of murder without extenuating cir¬ 
cumstances. The defence set up by his counsel 
was lunacy. He was executed on the 30th in the 
Place de la Roquette. The funeral of the 
Archbishop was attended by an immense crowd 
of people. 

5. —Sir Robert Peel delivers a lecture at the 
opening of the new Library, Adderley Park, 
in which he afforded his audience much 
amusement by an eccentric description of the 
ambassadors present at the coronation of the 
Emperor Alexander, the magnificence of St. 
Petersburg “all outside paint and stucco,” the 
“ soft-sawder” of Archduke Constantine; 
the “doing” of Russian innkeepers; the 
“screwing ” of General Sovrochokoff, who let 
houses at exorbitant rates; “ the brick of a 
governor ; ” the furious travelling, with shoeless 
postilions; and generally the poverty, tyranny, 
and encroaching policy of the empire. The 
Address was afterwards severely commented on 
by Russian and French journals, and formed 
the subject of a Parliamentary debate. 

6. —The Commission at Paris, convened for 
settling differences which had arisen in con¬ 
nexion with the Treaty of Paris, agree on 
terms satisfactory to each Power, so far as 
respects the Danubian Principalities and the 
Isle of Serpents. 

9 . —Dr. Dionysius Wielobycki, homoeopathic 
physician, tried before the High Court of Jus- ! 
ticiary, Edinburgh, for forgery, and uttering a 
forged will with intent to defraud the heir of 
Isabella Darling. He was sentenced to four¬ 
teen years’ transportation. 

— Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Canon 
of Canterbury, gazetted to the chair of Regius 
Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford. 

12 . —The West India Royal Mail Company’s 
steamer Tyne runs ashore near St. Alban’s 
(474) 


Head, when coming up the Channel. Her 
crew, passengers, and cargo were got ashore 
with difficulty; and on the 12th March the 
measures taken to float the vessel proved 
successful, the Tyne once more tal< ing her place 
among the regular passenger ships of -the 
Company. 

12. —Mr. Justice Crowder delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the Court of Common Pleas in the case 
of Swinfen v. Swinfen, a compromise in a will 
case carried out by the leading counsel on each 
side—Sir F. Thesiger and Sir A. Cockburn. 
Mrs. Swinfen, the plaintiff, refused to 
acknowledge the validity of the agreement, 
made, as she affirmed, not only without her 
consent, but contrary to her instructions; and 
a motion was therefore made for an attachment 
on the plea of disobedience. Mr. Justice 
Crowder, while entirely exonerating Sir F. 
Thesiger from the serious allegations made 
against him in the pleadings, and without 
deciding whether the compromise ought to be 
considered binding, was of opinion that the 
Court ought not to issue an attachment in the 
circumstances. Rule discharged, but without 
costs. 

13 . —Came on at the Central Criminal Court 
the trial of Pierce, Burgess, and Tester, for 
the bullion-robbery committed on the South- 
Eastern Railway, during the night of May 15, 
1855. The principal witness was Agar, then 
undergoing penal servitude at Portland for 
another offence, who had been induced to turn 
king’s evidence upon his companions in con¬ 
sequence of Pierce neglecting to pay over to 
Fanny Kay and her child a sum of money at 
stated seasons out of Agar’s estate. He de¬ 
scribed with great minuteness every feature of 
the plot; how they became acquainted with 
each other; what part each of them played ; 
how the wax impressions were obtained to 
make false keys ; and how the plunder was 
divided on their return to London. Pierce 
and himself, he said, on reaching London, 
hired a horse and cart, and conveyed the bars 
of gold to Cambridge Villas, where he lived. 
“ The bags were first put into the parlour, 
but afterwards removed to a trunk in my 
bedroom. Pierce took back the horse and cart, 
and I saw no more of him that day. A day 
or two later P’erce came to my house and cut 
off 100 ounces of gold from one of the bars, 
and sold it for 3/. per ounce. I had the pro¬ 
ceeds of that, namely 300/. We then deter¬ 
mined to make a furnace and melt the gold. 
This was done in my first-floor back room. 
We took out some of the stones of the floor for 
the purpose, and replaced them with fire-bricks. 
The brick now produced is one of them, and 
on it small particles of gold can now be de¬ 
tected, from the running over of the melting 
pot. The melted gold was poured into an 
ingot prepared to receive it. In removing ane 
of the crucibles from the fire I met with an 
accident. The crucible broke, and the gold 
was scattered about the floor, which was burnt. 
While we were thus occupied, Fanny Kay, on 






JANUARY 


1857. 


FEBRUARY 


one occasion* complained of the great heat, and 
asked what we were about. I told her never 
to mind, as we were engaged about our own 
business. Pierce stayed all day and took his 
meals with me, but he went home to sleep. 
When he had melted the gold, and run it into 
ingots, I began to sell it. I first sold 200 oz. 
to a man named Saward. I have known him 
for some years. When I first knew him he 
had chambers at No. 4, Inner-court, Temple. 
He was a barrister, I understood ; indeed, I 
have seen him pleading in Westminster Hall as 
a barrister (see March 5, 1857). Pierce, 

Tester, and I had 600/. each, and Burgess 700/. 
The money divided was in notes, which had 
been obtained by Pierce in exchange for the 
gold which I received from Saward. My notes 
were in a trunk at my lodgings at Stanley-grove, 
Paddington-green, where I was arrested. The 
rest of the gold, which was unsold, was buried 
by Pierce in a hole which he dug in his pantry, 
under the front steps of his house.” Other 
witnesses having been examined, the jury, after 
an absence of little more than ten minutes, 
returned a verdict of Guilty on the second count 
(larceny) against Pierce, and Guilty on the first 
count (stealing the property of their employers) 
against Burgess and Tester. The first, after 
a censure by Mr. Baron Martin for cheating the 
paramour and child of his confederate, w r as sen¬ 
tenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard 
labour—three of the months to be passed in 
solitary confinement. Burgess and Tester w'ere 
sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation. 

13. —Destruction of the old bridge at 
Rochester, by gunpowder. Three shafts were 
excavated in the piers to .depths ranging from 
15 to 24 feet, in which were placed charges of 
gunpowder of 60 lbs., and two lesser charges 
of 30 lbs., the total amount used being 300 lbs. 
The destruction of the piers was most complete, 
although the only sight visible to the spectators 
was the upheaving of the water, and the disap¬ 
pearance of the masonry. 

14. —Halifax Mechanics’ Institute opened. 

15. —The Chinese baker A-lum attempts to 
poison Sir J. Bowring and other British resi¬ 
dents at Hong-Kong by mixing arsenic in their 
bread. It was used in such large quantities as 
to defeat the end in view, though all who par¬ 
took of it suffered severe pains. The bread was 
analysed by Liebig, and in each pound from 38 
to 40 grains of arsenic found. 

16. —Leopold Redpath tried at the Central 
Criminal Court, and sentenced to transportation 
for life for his frauds on the Great Northern 
Railway Company. J. C. Kent, a clerk in the 
office, accused of abetting Redpath in his 
forgeries, was acquitted. 

20 .—Lord Campbell pronounces the judg¬ 
ment of the Court of Queen’s Bench in the 
case of Alicia Reece v. the Hampstead School. 
The child was the daughter of a sergeant of 
marines who was killed in the attack on Petro- 
paulovski in 1854. He was a Protestant, and 


wrote, for the guidance and comfort of his 
wife, a letter full of pious instructions regard¬ 
ing his children, a few hours before the com¬ 
mencement of the action in which he fell. 
Mrs. Reece was a Roman Catholic, and now 
sought—under priestly influence, it was said— 
to withdraw her daughter from an institution 
in which she had been placed by the Commis¬ 
sioners of the Patriotic Fund in 1855. The 
girl, who was under eleven years of age, was 
unwilling to leave the school, and strongly ob¬ 
jected to attend a Roman Catholic place of 
worship. It was pleaded on her behalf, that 
her religious conviction ought to be respected, 
and also that the rule generally observed in all 
military and naval schools was to bring up 
children in the religion of their father. Lord 
Campbell decided that the child was not of an 
age at which she was entitled to exercise the 
responsibility of electing what school she should 
attend, and that she must therefore be given 
into the custody of her mother as her guardian 
for nurture. “ At the same time (said his lord- 
ship) the Court must express a hope that she 
would be treated in that tender way which her 
father hoped for, when he wrote that letter so 
honourable to a Christian soldier expecting to 
fall in the service of his country.” 

23. —Indian Mutiny. Major-General Hear- 
sey, commanding the Presidency division, in¬ 
forms the Indian Government that at Dumdum, 
near Calcutta, an uneasy feeling existed among 
the Sepoys, caused, as they alleged, by the belief 
that the grease used in the preparation of their 
cartridges consisted of a mixture of fat of cows 
and pigs—animals abhorrent to both Hindoos 
and Mahommedans. 

26. —Died at Paris, the Princess Lieven, 
celebrated for the part she took in the secret 
diplomacy of Europe during the past half cen¬ 
tury. 

27. —A detachment of British troops under 
General Outram lands at Bushire to operate 
against Persia. 

— Died after a short illness, m his 70th 
year, Baron Alderson. 

28. —The Court of Queen’s Bench gives 
judgment that the rule must be made absolute 
for a mandamus, compelling the judge in the 
Arches Court to hear the appeal in the case of 
Ditcher v. Denison. 

February 3. —Parliament opened by Com¬ 
mission. The Royal Speech made reference 
to the final adjustment of the Treaty of Paris, 
the settlement of the Neufchatel difficulty, the 
cessation of diplomatic intercourse with Naples, 
the commencement of hostilities with Persia 
and China, and the renewal of the Bank 
Charter. Her Majesty commanded her Com¬ 
missioners “ to express the gratification which 
it afforded her to witness the general well-being 
and contentment of the people; and to find 
that, notwithstanding the sacrifices unavoidably 
attendant upon such a war as that lately termi- 

(475) 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1857. 


nated, the resources of the country remain un¬ 
impaired, and its productive industry continues 
unchecked in its course of progressive develop¬ 
ment.” An amendment to the Address, pro¬ 
posed in the House of Lords by Earl Grey, 
censuring Ministers for not having called Parlia¬ 
ment together earlier to inform them of the 
state of affairs in Persia, was negatived by 
45 votes to 12. In the House of Commons 
the Address was carried without a division, 
although in the course of the debate Mr. 
Disraeli made serious charges against the 
Ministry in connexion with a secret treaty, said 
to have been concluded on the 22d Dec. 1854, 
between France and Austria regarding the 
possessions of the latter in Italy. Lord Pal¬ 
merston denied that any such treaty was ever 
made known to her Majesty’s Government, 
and sought to invalidate the evidence as to its 
existence which Mr. Disraeli had obtained in 
Paris. This subject was again discussed on 
the evening of the 12th, when Mr. Disraeli com¬ 
plained of the manner of Lord Palmerston’s 
denial, and explained still more fully the 
grounds on which he had made the assertion 
as to the existence of the treaty. 

5. _john Paul, assistant clerk to the Guar¬ 
dians of the Poor of the City Union, sentenced 
to fourteen years’ transportation for embezzling 
an order for the payment of 378/., the property 
of his employers. From an official statement 
subsequently submitted to the Poor-law Board 
by the Guardians, it appeared that their losses 
through the frauds committed by the prisoner 
and the late collector, between the years 1843 
and 1856, amounted to over 22,400/. 

6 . —In the Court of Common Pleas, Captain 
Ling recovers 1,000/. damages from Major 
Croker, of the 14th Light Dragoons, for 
seducing his wife, although the defendant 
pleaded “leave and licence” on the part of 
the husband. A series of disgraceful letters, 
purporting to be written by Captain Ling to 
his wife, were treated as forgeries designed to 
damage his case. 

— The Gazette announces the nomination of 
trustees appointed for the formation of a Gallery 
of Portraits of the most eminent men in British 
history. 

— A Sepoy informs the officers of the 34th 
N. I. at Barrackpore that he had become 
cognizant of a plot amongst the men of the 
four regiments at that station; that they were 
apprehensive of being forced to give up their 
caste and be made Christians; that, conse¬ 
quently, they were determined to rise against 
their officers, and commence by either plunder¬ 
ing or burning the bungalows. During this 
month, chepatties, or cakes of unleavened bread, 
were observed to be passed throughout all the 
North-western Province of British India. 

8 . —The Persians defeated by the British at 
Khooshab, with the loss of 700 killed. 

9 . — Sir George Grey states the intention of 
lie Government on the subject of Secondary 

( 476 ) 


Punishments. Admitting, to some extent, the 
justice of the complaints made against ticket- 
of-leave men, he said the Government, after 
full consideration, proposed to give effect to 
the recommendation of the Committee of the 
House of Commons, that the sentence of penal 
servitude should be lengthened so as to make 
it of the same duration as that of transportation 
under the old law; and they proposed to 
abolish all obstacles to the removal of convicts 
sentenced to penal servitude to any possession 
of the Crown, so that such a sentence should 
carry with it, though not necessarily, removal 
from the country—the Government being 
thereby enabled to send convicts to Western • 
Australia, or to avail themselves of any addi¬ 
tional facilities for their transportation to other 
penal settlements. With regard to convicts 
under sentence of penal servitude, who would 
be kept at home, he indicated his views as to 
the rules which should govern remissions of the 
sentence, and proposed to maintain the power, 
which he thought useful to retain, of granting 
the conditional licences called tickets-of-leave. 

9 . —In the House of Lords, the Earl of Car¬ 
digan complains of the strictures passed upon 
his professional conduct in Major Calthorpe’s 
“ Letters from Head-Quarters, by a Staff Officer.” 
Lord Panmure replied that the book being 
anonymous, no notice could be taken of it by 
the war authorities. 

10. —The Lord Chancellor (Cranworth) in¬ 
troduces the first instalment of his promised 
law reforms, in the shape of a series of bills 
dealing with the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical 
Courts—the Courts of Probate, Divorce, and 
Clergy Discipline. 

13 .—In introducing his Budget, the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer (Sir G. C. Lewis) said 
that the Government proposed to fix the Income- 
tax, for the next three years, at 7 d. per pound, 
as originally done by Sir Robert Peel. The 
effect would be that the Exchequer would re¬ 
ceive twenty-one instead of twenty millions. 
The total revenue for the ensuing year he es¬ 
timated at 66,365,000/., which would leave a 
surplus over the expenditure of 891,000/. The 
total amount of taxes remitted was 11,971,000/. 

If the liabilities of the next three years were 
discharged, and the accruing liabilities met, the 
entire debt of 40,000,000/., arising out of the 

war, w'ould be extinguished in twenty years. 

A resolution, proposed on the 20th, by Mr. 
Disraeli, for “adjusting the estimated income 
and expenditure in the manner best calculated 
to secure the country against the risk of a 
deficiency in the years 1858-59 and 1859-60, 
and to provide for such a balance of revenue 
and charge respectively in the year i860 as 
may place it in the power of Parliament at 
that period, without embarrassment to the 
finances, altogether to remit the Income-tax,” 

was, after a lengthy debate, negatived by 286 
to 206 votes. 

16 ,—The Emperor Napoleon opens the 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1857 . 


legislative session with a speech explanatory 
of the prosperous state of the empire, and pro¬ 
mising increased economy in the public service. 

18. —Sir John Pakington’s Permissive Edu¬ 
cation Bill, founded on the plan advocated by 
the Manchester Reformers, read a first time 
without a division. 

— Died at Bridgewater House, aged 57, 
Francis, Earl of Ellesmere. 

19. —Expulsion of James Sadleir, M.P. for 
Tipperary, from the House of Commons. No 
opposition was offered to the resolution moved 
by the Attorney-General for Ireland, “That 
James Sadleir, Esq., a memoer 01 this House, 
having been charged with divers frauds and 
fraudulent practices, and bills of indictment 
for certain misdemeanors having been found 
against him, and warrants issued for his appre¬ 
hension—and the said James Sadleir having 
failed to obey an order of this House, that he 
should attend in his place on Thursday, the 
24th day of July last, and having fled from 
justice, that the said James Sadleir be expelled 
this House.” 

— Mr. Locke King’s motion for leave to 
bring in a Bill to reduce the franchise in 
counties to occupiers of tenements rated at 
10I. thrown out by a majority of 192 against 
172. Lord Palmerston voted against the pro¬ 
posal for two reasons—that it sought to 
identify the right of voting in boroughs and 
counties, and that in the present state of public 
business there was no likelihood of passing 
such a measure this session. 

— Frightful explosion and loss of 189 lives 
at the Lundhill Colliery, near Barnsley. As 
usual on such occurrences, the machinery for 
ascending and descending the shaft was de¬ 
stroyed, and it was, therefore, some time before 
the few resolute volunteer searchers could enter 
the workings. When a descent was made, 
they found clustered at the bottom—some of 
them much burnt—the few workmen out of 200 
who had escaped the fatal effects of the ex¬ 
plosion. As the pit was on fire over a very 
wide surface, it was impossible to penetrate 
any distance, and after many days of daring 
perseverance the task was given up as hopeless. 
In order to preserve the mine, and continue 
employment to the people, an attempt was 
made to subdue the fire by closing the 
pit-mouth, so as to exclude the atmospheric 
air, but it was only partially successful; and 
on the advice of the most eminent coal-viewers, 
a neighbouring brook was turned into the 
workings. This succeeded in the course of 
two or three weeks, clouds of steam coming 
constantly from the shaft to show how great 
was the body of fire below. On emptying the 
pit, which was done by large cisterns, holding 
600 gallons each, the bodies were gradually 
recovered, but identification was impossible, 
and the task of attempting it was gradually 
given up. A large sum was raised for the 
re lief of the suffering families. 


20 .—Lord Panmure intimates to Colonel 
Tulloch and Sir John McNeill, that Govern¬ 
ment had decided to mark the services rei> 
dered by them in the dischaige of their duties 
in the Crimea by tendering to each of them 
the sum of 1000/. The grant was declined, on 
the ground that it appeared to involve the ad¬ 
mission that the result of the laborious Report 
prepared on the state of the army was so 
insignificant as to be without appreciable value 
to the public. A motion was afterwards carried 
in the House of Commons, and concurred in 
after some explanations by Lord Palmerston, 
for an address to the Queen, praying that she 
would confer some special mark of her appro¬ 
bation upon the reporters. 

23. —The “Tabernacle” in Tottenham- 
court-road, erected by George Whitefield, de¬ 
stroyed by fire, originating in the overheating 
of a flue running from a stove used for warming 
the school. 

24. —Commencement of debate in the House 
of Lords on the series of resolutions moved by 
the Earl of Derby, censuring Government for 
their proceedings in China. He made an 
elaborate analysis of the paper submitted to 
Parliament in justification of the war, and 
pointed out numerous incidents in which the 
Government had not only overstepped their 
own legitimate sphere of action, but acted with 
great harshness, if not positive cruelty, towards 
the Chinese. He concluded with an eloquent 
appeal to the episcopal bench to aid the 
hereditary peerage. “ I should deeply de¬ 
plore,” he said, “upon such an occasion, if 
the Church, as represented by the right 
reverend bench, should give an uncertain 
sound; if their sanction should be extended 
to deeds of violence, which in their consciences 
they cannot approve, or if they should allow 
any feelings of whatever character to overbear 
what must, I think, be their solemn convic¬ 
tions on this question. (Cheers.) I make my 
appeal to those who have done me the honour 
of listening with patience—with exemplary 
patience—to the long and painful statement 
which I have laid before you. To the here¬ 
ditary peerage I turn humbly, earnestly, but 
with confidence (and this is the last word with 
which I shall trouble your lordships) ; I appeal 
to them by their vote this night to declare that 
they will not sanction the usurpation by foreign 
authorities of that most awful prerogative of 
the Crown—the declaring of war ; that they 
will not tolerate, nor by their silence appear 
to approve, upon light and trivial grounds of 
quarrel, and upon cases of doubtful justice as 
far as regards the merits of our first demands, 
the capture of commercial vessels ; that they 
will not tolerate the destruction of the forts ot 
a friendly country ; that they will not tolerate 
the bombardment and the shelling of an un¬ 
defended and commercial city ; and that they 
will not on any consideration give the sanction 
of their voice to the shedding of the blood 
of unwarlike and innocent people without 
warrant of law, without moral justification.” 

( 477 ) 





FEBRVAR Y 


MARCH 


1857. 


The noble lord, who resumed his seat amid 
loud and general applause, concluded by pro¬ 
posing the following resolutions :—“ That this 
House has heard with deep regret of the in¬ 
terruption of amicable relations between her 
Majesty’s subjects and the Chinese authorities 
at Canton, arising out of the measures adopted 
by her Majesty’s Chief Superintendent of Trade 
to obtain reparation for alleged infractions of 
the supplementary treaty of the 8th of October, 
1843 ; That in the opinion of this House, the 
occurrence of differences on this subject ren¬ 
dered the time peculiarly unsuited for pressing 
on the Chinese authorities a claim for the ad¬ 
mittance of British subjects into Canton, which 
has been left in abeyance since 1849, and for 
supporting the same by force of arms ; That 
in the opinion of this House operations of 
actual hostility ought not to have been under¬ 
taken without the express instructions, pre¬ 
viously received, of her Majesty’s Government; 
and that neither of the subjects adverted to in 
the foregoing resolutions afforded sufficient 
justification for such operations.” The debate 
continued over two nights, when the division 
showed : Contents, present 53, proxies 57— 
no; not-contents, present 71, proxies 75— 
146. Majority against resolutions, 36. 

24 . —A supplement to the Gazette contains the 
names and services of the soldiers, sailors, and 
officers to whom her Majesty had awarded the 
Victoria Cross, or Order of Valour, “on account 
of acts of bravery performed by them before 
the enemy during the late war.” 

25 . — Indian Mutiny. At Berhampore, 
when the 19th N. I. were ordered to parade 
on the following morning, and percussion caps 
were, according to the usual custom, about to 
be issued to them, the men refused to receive 
them, saying that there was some doubt as to 
how the cartridges were made. On the same 
night they broke open the places where their 
arms were piled, and, taking possession of 
their muskets and ammunition, carried them 
to their lines. The cavalry and artillery being 
called out to suppress this insubordination, the 
men laid down their arms, and the regiment 
was afterwards disbanded. 

26 . —Explosion of the fog signal factory 
of the Eastern Counties Railway Company, 
near the Stratford Junction Station. The 
signal-house itself was blown to pieces, and 
three men killed. There was about 160 lbs. 
of gunpowder and over 5,000 percussion caps 
in the building. 

— Student riots in Edinburgh, arising out 
of rival lectures on temperance by Professor 
Laycock and Dr. M‘Culloch. The magistrates 
at one period caused the college gates to be 
closed, and turned the students into the street. 

— Commencement of the debate on Mr. 
Cobden’s motion, “That this House has heard 
with concern of the conflicts which have oc¬ 
curred between the British and Chinese au¬ 
thorities in the Canton river ; and, without ex- 
( 473 ) 


pressing an opinion as to the extent to which 
the Government of China may have afforded 
this country cause of complaint respecting the 
non-fulfilment of the treaty of 1842, this House 
considers that the papers which have been laid 
upon the table fail to establish satisfactory 
grounds for the violent measures resorted to at 
Canton in the late affair of the Arrow; and 
that a select committee be appointed to inquire 
into the state of our commercial relations with 
China.” Disowning any personal or party 
object in his motion, and expressing the 
utmost desire to avoid giving pain to Sir 
John Bowring, with whom he had been ac¬ 
quainted for twenty years, Mr. Cobden suc¬ 
cinctly related the facts connected with the 
seizure of the Arrow and the bombardment 
of Canton. He agreed with Lord Lyndhurst 
that the Chinese Governor was right in 
respect to the seizure, and contrasted the 
severity of our Government with the slight 
provocation alleged to have been given in the 
blue book, ostentatiously described, “ Corre¬ 
spondence respecting insults in China.” On 
the one side, as Lord Derby said, there had 
been courtesy, forbearance, and temper ; on 
the other arrogance and presumption. It was 
not, he thought, for the benefit of traders at 
Canton that they should be able to summon 
an overwhelming force to their aid. There 
might be too much protection for British 
merchants as well as for British agriculture. 
“ Civis Romanus sum ” was not a very con¬ 
ciliatory motto to put over counting-houses 
abroad. Urging the extension of commerce 
throughout China by peaceable means, he 
asked Parliament to show by their votes that 
we had done an injustice to an ingenious and 
civilized people who were learned when our 
Plantagenet kings could not write—who had 
logic before Aristotle, and morals before So¬ 
crates. Mr. Cobden was followed on the side 
of the Government by Mr. Labouchere, Mr. 
Lowe, and Sir R. Bethell, and on the Op¬ 
position side by Sir E. L. Bulwer and Lord 
John Russell. 

27 .—The Opposition meet to-day at Lord 
Eglinton’s residence, and resolve to give a com¬ 
bined support to the vote of censure on the 
Ministry on the China question. Referring to 
a charge of coalition now being brought against 
the Conservative party, Lord Derby said that 
when members from identity of sentiment 
were frequently thrown together into the same 
lobby, it was impossible to doubt that a band 
of political union was established which no 
party could refuse to acknowledge. 

March 2.—This afternoon Lord Palmerston 
called his supporters together to the number 
of about 180, and addressed them on the 
present position of affairs. The tone of 
the meeting was one of confidence in the 
noble lord’s administration, and indicative of 
a desire to support him against the combined 
attacks being made. 







MARCH 


185 7. 


MARCH 


3 .—Defeat of the Government on Mr. Cob- 
den’s China resolutions. On this, the fourth 
night of the debate, Lord Palmerston defended 
the conduct of the Government, and avowed 
his intention to treat the vote as one of 
“no confidence.” The chief speakers on the 
Opposition side were Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. 
Gladstone, and Mr. Disraeli; the latter touch¬ 
ing with some severity on the Premier’s alleged 
hostility to coalitions—“himself an infant Her¬ 
cules picked out of a Whig cradle, who had 
been connected with every party in the House, 
and accustomed to command majorities without 
the assertion of a single principle. Let the 
noble lord (he said) not only complain to the 
country, but let him appeal to it. 1 hope that 
my constituency will return me again ; if they 
do not, 1 shall be most happy to meet him on 
the hustings at Tiverton. I should like to see 
the programme of the proud leaders of the 
Liberal party—no reform, new taxes, Canton 
blazing, Pekin invaded. I hope the House will 
not for a moment be influenced by the languid 
menaces of the noble lord. I hope that hon¬ 
ourable members will feel to-night that they 
have a duty to perform which will be remem¬ 
bered long after this Parliament has ceased to 
exist; and that, not frightened by the menace 
of a Minister, they will dare to vindicate the 
course of justice, and lay down a principle 
without the observance of which the empire of 
which we are so proud may soon be questioned. ” 
Mr. Cobden briefly repudiated the charge of 
conspiring to drive the Ministry from office, but 
declared at the same time that he never knew 
of a change there from which the people did 
not benefit ; and, much as he admired the 
general conduct of the Premier, he thought 
he would make a most excellent bargain for the 
country if he disposed of him for the 2,000,000/. 
of remitted taxation which might follow his 
dismissal. The vote was then taken, and 
showed, as had been anticipated for some days, 
a majority against the Government, the num¬ 
bers being 263 and 249. As soon as the 
clerk at the table handed the statement to Mr. 
Cobden there was a loud cheer, suspended for 
a moment while the numbers were being read, 
and then repeated and continued for several 
minutes. Certain routine business was then 
transacted, but the Premier made no formal 
statement of the intention of Government. An 
analysis of the division showed, For the reso¬ 
lution—Conservatives, 198; Liberals, 35; Peel- 
ites, 22 ; Irish, 10. Against—Liberals, 228 ; 
Conservatives, 21. 

— Died Mr. Serjeant Wilkins, an eminent 
pleader in breach of promise cases. 

4 . —Celebrated with great pomp at Gun- 
nersbury Park, near Chiswick, the marriage of 
Miss Leonora, eldest daughter of Baron Lionel 
Rothschild, of London, and Baron Alphonse, 
eldest son of Baron James Rothschild, of Paris. 
It was reported, perhaps without truth, that 
the Rothschild family, independently of formal 
settlements, presented the newly married couple 
with a gift of 1,000,000/. 


4 . —Treaty of peace between her Majesty 
and the Shah of Persia signed at Paris. The 
ratifications were exchanged at Bagdad on the 
2d of May. His Majesty engaged to abstain 
hereafter from all interference with the internal 
affairs of Affghanistan, to recognise the inde¬ 
pendence of Herat, to refer disputes to the 
friendly offices of the British Government, and 
to receive back the British mission to Teheran 
with the necessary apologies and ceremonies. 

5 . —Lord Palmerston intimates that in con¬ 
sequence of the vote on the China dispute, 
ministers had advised her Majesty to dis¬ 
solve Parliament at the earliest period consist¬ 
ent with the due discharge of public business. 
He thought the circumstances in w r hich the 
Ministry was placed were so peculiar as to 
warrant a dissolution instead of a resignation. 
“ Looking on the one hand to the simple result 
of the debate, we might say that we had lost 
the confidence of this House ,* yet on the other 
hand, looking to the divisions which took place 
shortly before on questions involving very im¬ 
portant portions of the policy of the Govern¬ 
ment, the result was Of a very different 
character. And I feel myself free to say that 
some of those who concurred in the vote on 
Tuesday night made it understood that that 
vote was not to be considered as implying a 
want of confidence on their part in her Majesty’s 
Government. We had proposed to arrange 
certain taxes for three years; we shall now 
propose to determine them for only one year. 
We shall propose to the House to vote sums 
on account of the estimates for only a portion of 
the year, and to pass a Mutiny Act for a similar 
period; thus leaving the new Parliament, 
which may probably assemble towards the end 
of May, free to deal with all these great 
matters according to its discretion.”—Mr. 
Disraeli admitted that the course proposed 
would be the best for the public service, and 
he would give every facility for carrying it 
out.—Mr. Cobden, and many of his supporters, 
thought the Executive Government had no 
right to continue in office unless they were 
prepared to shape their China policy in 
conformity with the vote of the House. 
Lord Palmerston would not promise this— 
the policy of the Government was to main¬ 
tain the rights and defend the lives and 
properties of British subjects, and to improve 
our relations with China. So far as the dissolu¬ 
tion was concerned, Mr. Cobden predicted 
such a winnowing of parties in the House and 
throughout the country as would be of great 
use to them all. 

— James Townsend Saward (see January 
13, 1857), alias “ Jem the Penman,”— 

described in the indictment as a labourer, but 
in reality a barrister of the Inner Temple—and 
James Anderson, servant, tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for forging and uttering a bank 
cheque for 100/. with intent to defraud Messrs. 
Hankey and Co. From the preliminary state¬ 
ment made by Sir F. Thesiger, it appeared 
that this was but one of a series of frauds, 

( 479 ) 







it I ARCH 


1857. 


MARCH 


which for skill in combination and daring in 
execution had never been surpassed. Saward, 
as has been already mentioned, was mixed up 
with the great gold-dust robbery, at least to 
the extent of disposing of the plunder ; but 
Agar was not the only thief he had deal¬ 
ings with. He was apprehended on the 26th 
of December, by two City officers named Moss 
and Huggett. They went to a coffee-shop in 
John-street, Oxford-street, where they inquired 
for a Mr. Hopkins. A woman answered that he 
had gone to a public-house in Oxford-market. 
They went there, Huggett entering first, and 
Moss remaining a little behind. Observing a 
door open rather gently, Moss hastily entered 
and found Saward there. He said, “ My name 
is Hopkins.” “No !” said Moss, “yourname 
is Saward.” He said, “You are mistaken.” 
Shortly afterwards Moss said, “ You are James 
Saward.” Saward said, “ I know nothing at 
all about him.” Huggett then said, “ I must 
apprehend you for forgery—for forging a bill 
of 1,000/. upon Messrs. Heywood and Co., 
and with also being concerned with Anderson, 
Hardwicke, and Atwell.” Saward said, “I 
don’t know any such persons.” The officers 
then apprehended Saward, and searched 
him ; they found two bank cheques of the St 
James’s branch of the London and Westminster 
Bank. Saward said to Huggett, “Of course 
you have no desire to do anything with them.” 
A little while after, as he was being taken in 
the cab, Saward said, ‘ ‘ I suppose I need not 
hold out any longer. My name is Jem Saward. ” 
At least three others—Hardwicke, Atwell, and 
Anderson—had been the means of bringing 
him blank cheques, the produce of robberies, 
which cheques he contrived with great dexterity 
to fill up for different large sums in the name 
of customers of different banks in London. 
Bills of exchange were dealt with in the same 
way ; and to such an extent was the conspiracy 
carried, that it was beginning to affect the 
security of the entire mercantile community. 
The cheques were generally taken to the bank 
by young persons innocent of the fraud, and 
watched at different points of their journey by 
confederates, who gave the gang the signal 
of good or ill success. They all changed their 
names and residences frequently, and generally 
laid their plains in some quiet public-house or 
obscure lodging. Lawyers were repeatedly 
their victims, a copy of their signature being 
always obtained by one of the gang employing 
him to recover a debt from another, usually 
paid by a cheque to a third. Hardwicke and 
Atwell, then undergoing imprisonment for their 
share in a fraud attempted at Yarmouth, now 
appeared in the witness box, and described the 
whole details of the scheme. Their evidence 
was corroborated by waiters whom they had 
despatched from the Magpie, the White Hart, 
and the Four Swans, public-houses in and 
about Bishopsgate-street. The jury, after a 
short deliberation, found both prisoners Guilty, 
and they were sentenced to be transported for 
life. 

(480) 


7 . —Came on at Oxford Assizes the case of 
Coglan v. La Mert, the action being in the 
form of an interpleader to try in whom lay the 
right of property in the horse called Gemma 
di Vergy, formerly belonging to Palmer of 
Rugeley. The plaintiff, who appeared to have 
passed a troubled career on the turf, said he 
purchased the horse from the Honourable Mr. 
Lawley, now absent from the country in conse¬ 
quence of pecuniary difficu'ties, and represented 
in court by a person reputed to be a common 
crossing-sweeper. The question before the 
Court was whether the sale from Lawley to 
Coglan was a bond fide proceeding. Verdict 
for the plaintiff. 

9 .—The Speaker of the House of Commons 
(Sir J. S. Lefevre) intimates his intention of 
retiring from the chair at the close of the pre¬ 
sent session. “ It is now nearly eighteen years 
(he said) since I first had the honour of being 
elected Speaker of this House ; and I cannot 
contemplate the end of my official career with¬ 
out great pain. Nor can I allow it to close 
without offering to the House my sincere and 
grateful acknowledgments for that uniform con¬ 
fidence and support which I have received, not 
only from all parties in this House, but I may 
say with perfect truth from every member of it. 

It has been my constant endeavour, as is well 
known to the House, to improve and simplify 
their forms of proceeding ; but, at the same 
time, I have striven to maintain unimpaired all 
their rights and privileges, together with all 
those rules and orders sanctioned by ancient 
usage which long experience has taught me to 
respect and venerate, and which I believe never 
can be relaxed or materially altered without 
prejudice to the freedom and independence 
of the House of Commons.” Next day, Lord 
Palmerston, seconded by Mr. Disraeli, formally 
conveyed to the Speaker the thanks of the 
House for his eminent services. An annuity of 
4,000/. was afterwards voted, and at the disso¬ 
lution her Majesty raised him to the peerage, 
with the title of Viscount Eversley. 

— Explaining the grounds of his refusal to 
contest the seat for Cambridge University, Mr. 
Arthur Helps writes : “Like the rest of the 
world, I admixe Lord Palmerston for his 
many brilliant qualities, and for much of his 
conduct of the late war ; but I think his home 
administration singularly deficient in purpose 
and usefulness. He holds out little or no 
promise, that I can see, of political or social 
reforms ; and with regard to the subject at 
present at issue, I am obliged to admit that, 
if I had been in Parliament, I must, however 
reluctantly, have voted against him on the 
China question. ... I firmly believe that 
amidst the din of wars, the intricacies of 
foreign politics, the contentions of party, and 
the difficulties arising from the want of prepa¬ 
ration and the inefficient conduct of legislative 
business, the interests, the welfare, the amuse¬ 
ments, and the education of what we ml] the 
lower classes are studiously neglected-—oi those 






MARCH 


MARCH 


IS 57 - 


people to whose stalwart energy, habitual 
obedience to law, and wonderful endurance 
here at home as well as on the battle-field 
we owe the pre-eminence that we enjoy, as a 
nation, in arms, in industrial conquests, and 
in political organization.” 

1 1 . —Died at Madrid, aged 85, the Spanish 
poet, Quintana. 

12 . —The railway suspension bridge cross¬ 
ing the Des Jardins Canal between Toronto and 
Hamilton, gives way under a train which had 
gone off the rails, and the carriages, filled with 

assengers, were precipitated into the abyss 
eneath. Out of 97 only 20 people were 
saved. 

13 . —Died at Sevenoaks, aged 84, Earl 
Amherst,- ambassador-extraordinary to China 
in 1816, and Governor-General of India 
1823-28. 

14 . —Treaty between Denmark and the 
principal States of Europe for the abolition of 
the Sound dues signed at Copenhagen. Each 
maritime State agreed to pay to Denmark an 
equivalent for the amount of duty paid by the 
ships of their respective countries calculated on 
an average of five years, and capitalised at the 
rate of four per cent. The portion of England 
was 1,125,206/. 

— In his address to the electors of the 
City of London, Lord John Russell justified 
his vote on the China debate on these grounds: 
— 1. That the audience demanded with the 
Commissioner was grafted upon a quarrel which 
might otherwise have been amicably settled ; 
2. That it led to scenes of bloodshed and 
destruction wherein many innocent persons 
perished ; 3. That such a demand ought to 
have been addressed to the Emperor, and that 
due time should have been allowed for an 
answer; 4. That, before hostilities were com¬ 
menced, due preparation should have been 
made in concert with the authorities at home 
for the protection of the lives and properties 
of British subjects; 5. That the demand of 
access to the Commissioner was not authorized 
by the instruction of the Secretary of State. 

— Overpowered apparently with the respon¬ 
sibilities laid upon him in connexion with the 
Persian expedition, Major-General Stalker 
commits suicide at Bushire this morning by 
shooting himself. Commodore Ethersey fol¬ 
lowed the sad example three days afterwards. 

15 . —Conference held in Paris to arrange 
the dispute of Prussia with Neufchatel. The 
King resigned his claim on obtaining a nomi¬ 
nal pecuniary compensation, but retained the 
title, without political rights, of Prince of 
Neufchatel. 

16 . —The Austrian Ambassador withdrawn 
from Turin in consequence of the violent lan¬ 
guage used by the Sardinian press towards 
Austria. A week later the Sardinian Ambas¬ 
sador was recalled from Vienna. 

(481) 


16 . —Lord Derby, with the view, as was 
generally believed, of influencing the elections 
in favour of his party, enters into a lengthened 
criticism of ministerial policy, and denies the 
charge of coalition now frequently made against 
Conservatives. He also ridiculed the cries 
got up in favour of Ministers—“Palmer¬ 
ston the true Protestant,” “ Palmerston 
the only Christian Premier,” and “ Palmerston 
the man of God-,” as recalling pictures of the 
late King William looking at the Reform Bill 
and wondering, “Can this be meant for me?” 
or the elderly lady roused from a long sleep, 
and, finding her dress in slight disorder, “ Sure, 
this is none of I ?” 

17 . —The Lords Justices give judgment in 
the case of Stourton v. Stourton,—a plea 
concerning the custody of a minor. Mr. Stour¬ 
ton, a Roman Catholic, died in 1847, leaving 
an infant son. Five years afterwards Mrs. 
Stourton, the widow, became a convert to the 
English Church, and had since been bringing 
up her child in that faith. The present action 
was raised to set aside the mother as guardian, 
and to appoint another to bring up the child in 
the faith of its father. Their lordships, after 
an interview with the child, decided that the 
mother should continue its guardian. 

— In his address to the electors of Buck¬ 
ingham, Mr. Disraeli writes that the Premier’s 
plea for dissolving the House of Commons was 
a mere pretext, and that the real object ap¬ 
peared to be to waste a year. ‘ * Lord Pal¬ 
merston is an eminent man who has deserved 
well of his country, but as a Prime Minister he 
occupies a false position. He is the Tory chief 
of a Radical Cabinet. With no domestic 
policy, he is obliged to divert the attention of 
the people from the consideration of their own 
affairs to the distractions of foreign politics. 
His external system is turbulent and aggres¬ 
sive, that his rule at home may be tranquil and 
unassailed. Hence arises excessive expendi¬ 
ture, heavy taxation, and the stoppage of all 
social improvement. . . . The general policy 
which I should enforce at this juncture may 
be contained in these words—‘honourable 
peace, reduced taxation, and social improve¬ 
ment.’ There is an attempt at the present day 
to play off the parties which exist, and have 
always to a certain point existed, in the Church 
against each other, for political objects. This 
is a dangerous course for Churchmen to sanc¬ 
tion. The Church, which, irrespective of its 
higher functions, is one of the great guarantees 
of English happiness, has foes enough without 
seeking for them in her own bosom; and it 
would appear to me that instead of quarrelling 
among themselves Churchmen should evince 
mutual forbearance, unite on the common 
ground of ecclesiastical policy, and oppose all 
efforts to impair the integrity of that Reformed 
Church of England, which is the best security 
for the religious liberty of all classes and creeds 
of her Majesty’s subjects. ” 

19 .—The Registration Association having 

1 1 





MARCH 


1857. 


MARCH 


started four commercial candidates for the 
representation of the City of London, Lord 
John Russell addresses the electors to-day, 
complaining of his exclusion. “ If a gentle¬ 
man were disposed to part with his butler, his 
coachman, or his gamekeeper,—or if a mer¬ 
chant were disposed to part with an old 
servant, a warehouseman, a clerk, or even a 
porter,—he would say to him, ‘John (laughter), 
I think your faculties are somewhat decayed ; 
you are growing old ; you have made several 
mistakes ; and I think of putting a young man 
from Northampton in your place.’ (Laughter 
and cheers.) I think a gentleman would be¬ 
have in that way to his servant, and thereby 
give John an opportunity of answering that he 
thought his faculties were not so much decayed, 
and that he was able to go on at all events 
some five or six years longer. That oppor¬ 
tunity was not given to me. The question was 
decided in my absence, without any intimation 
to me, and I come now to ask you and the 
citizens of London to reverse that decision. ” 

20 . — At the Stafford Assizes, James Tunni- 
cliff was sentenced to twelve months’ imprison¬ 
ment for fraud and imposition, in so far as he 
had undertaken to free a Mr. Charlesworth, of 
Bromley Hurst, his wife, servants, and cattle, 
from the charm of witchcraft, under which 
“the wise man” said they were labouring. 
The witch in the case was said to be Charles- 
worth’s own mother, who had been displeased 
with his marriage. The wizard extracted 37/. 
from his dupes for charms and exorcisms. 

21 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission, 
preparatory to its dissolution. 

— Mr. Pemberton Leigh delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the Privy Council, on the appeal from 
the Arches Court regarding the decorations of 
St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, and St. Barnabas. 
He drew a distinction between crosses used as 
architectural ornaments, and crosses or cruci¬ 
fixes used as images for superstitious purposes ; 
and reversed the judgment in so far as it directed 
certain crosses within the building to be re¬ 
moved. He also drew a distinction between 
a stone “altar,” which involves an idea of 
sacrifice, and a “ table,” or God’s board, 
whereat the Lord’s Supper is eaten ; and he 
confirmed the judgment ordering the removal 
of the stone altar and wooden cross attached to 
it, which stands in St. Barnabas’ Church, and 
the substitution of a movable table of wood. 
With regard to “ credence tables,” it was deter¬ 
mined that they were not improper adjuncts of 
a Communion-table, when used as side tables 
for the bread and wine before consecration. 
It was thought that the question whether 
coloured cloths are suitable or not must be left 
to the Ordinary; but the sentence of the Court 
below, ordering the removal of embroidered 
linen cloths fringed with lace, and used at the 
time of the ministration of the Holy Com¬ 
munion, was confirmed, as embroidery and lace 
were not consistent with the meaning of the 
expression, “a fair white linen cloth,” which 
(482) 


the rubric and canon prescribed. As the judg¬ 
ment of the Court below was materially altered, 
each party was left to pay their own costs. 

21 .—Died at Torquay, aged 67, William 
Scoresby, D.D., F. R.S.E., Arctic navigator. 

23 .—In his address to the electors of Tiver¬ 
ton, Lord Palmerston writes: “An insolent 
barbarian, wielding authority at Canton, \io- 
lated the British flag, broke the engagements of 
treaties, offered rewards for the heads of British 
subjects in that part of China, and planned 
their destruction by murder, assassination, and 
poison. The British officers—civil and naval— 
on the station took those measures which ap¬ 
peared to them to be proper and necessary to 
obtain satisfaction and redress; and her Majesty’s 
Government had approved the course pursued 
by those officers in vindication of the national 
honour, and for the assertion of our national 
rights. A combination of political parties, not 
till this last session united, carried a resolution, 
declaring the course pursued by our officers in 
China unjustifiable, and consequently censuring 
her Majesty’s Government for having approved 
that course; but, if that course was unjusti¬ 
fiable, the British Government, instead of 
expecting satisfaction, ought to offer compen¬ 
sation to the Chinese Commissioner; and this 
course the combined opponents of the Govern¬ 
ment, if their parliamentary victory had in¬ 
stalled them in office, must, in consistency, have 
been prepared to pursue. Will the British nation 
give their support to men who have thus endea¬ 
voured to make the humiliation and degradation 
of their country the stepping stone to power?” 

26 .—The British troops attack the Persians 
in the fortified position of Mohammerah and 
capture the place with trifling loss. They also 
took possession of all the tents and camp equi¬ 
pages, and seventeen guns, which the retreating 
force left behind them. 

— Died at Dublin, aged 50, John M. 
Kemble, Esq., a distinguished Anglo-Saxon 
scholar, editor of the Codex Diplomatics , &c. 

23 .—The Sultan makes a state visit to Ad¬ 
miral Lord Lyons on board the Royal Albert , 
lying in the Bosphorus. His Highness wore the 
Ribbon and Star of the Order of the Garter. 
Pie begged Lord Lyons to inform her Majesty 
how grateful he was for the prompt assistance 
which had been rendered to his country, and 
for having sent such a man as the Admiral to be 
one of the defenders of Turkey. The captains 
and commanders of the fleet were presented to 
his Imperial Highness. 

31 .—The General Election. The first mem¬ 
bers returned to the new Parliament were Sir 
De Lacy Evans and Sir John Shelley for West¬ 
minster. Lord John Russell was returned for 
London, along with other three Liberals—Baron 
Rothschild, Sir James Duke, and Mr. R. W. 
Crawford. In the Tower Hamlets, Ayrton and 
Butler were elected, and the late member. Sir 
W. Clay, rejected. Mr. Disraeli was unopposed 








APRIL 


i8 57 . 


MAY 


in Buckinghamshire, and Lord Palmerston at 
Tiverton. At Carlisle Sir James Graham was 
carried, along with a Conservative (Hodgson); 
and at Aylesbury Mr. Layard was rejected in 
favour of Mr. Bernard, a Liberal Conservative. 
At Manchester, the “Peace party,” Messrs. 
Bright and Gibson, were defeated by two Con¬ 
servative candidates, Messrs. Potter and Turner; 
Mr. Cobden also sustained a galling defeat at 
Huddersfield, whiiher he had fled from the West 
Riding. Only two members of Lord Palmer¬ 
ston’s Administration lost their seats—Admiral 
Berkeley at Gloucester, and Mr. Frederick Peel 
at Bury. At Kidderminster, Mr. Lowe was re¬ 
elected, but nearly paid the penalty of his life 
for his success; an infuriated mob making a 
savage attack on himself and friends when 
leaving the south polling-booth on Blakeway- 
green. The new Parliament contained 189 new 
members ; the first under the Reform Bill had 
275; that of 1835, 139; of 1841, 181; of 1847, 
211; of 1852, 199. The Liberal members in 
the new House were set down at 371, and Con¬ 
servatives at 284. Petitions were lodged in the 
case of fifty-seven elections. 

31 .—Mr. Bright having been informed of the 
result of the Manchester election, writes from 
Florence :—“In taking my leave of you and of 
public life, let me assure you that I can never 
forget the innumerable kindnesses I have re¬ 
ceived from my friends among you. No one 
will rejoice more than I shall in all that brings 
you prosperity and honour; and I am not 
without a hope that, when a calmer hour shall 
come, you shall say of Mr. Gibson and of me 
that, as colleagues in your representation for ten 
years, we have not sacrificed our principles to 
gain popularity, or bartered our independence 
for the emoluments of office or the favours of 
the great.” 

— Died at her residence in Piccadilly, aged 
93, Hester Maria Thrale, Viscountess Keith, 
an admired member of the Johnsonian circle at 
Streatham. 

April 2 .—Proclamation issued prohibiting 
the importation of cattle or hides from places 
bordering on the Gulf of Finland, or any other 
part of the Baltic Sea between the Gulf and the 
city of Lubeck, infected with cattle murrain. 

8 . —Indian Mutiny. Mangal Pandy executed 
at Barrackpore for insubordinate conduct, and 
attempting to incite the Sepoy troops to 
mutiny. 

11 .—The Times publishes an Indian tele¬ 
gram, making mention of the mutiny of the 
19th N. I. regiment at Moorshedabad, and its 
suppression by a small force of cavalry and 
artillery. 

13 .—Abolition of Greenwich Easter Fair, 
in compliance with a memorial to the Home 
Secretary signed by 2,000 inhabitants. 

14..—At Buckingham Palace this afternoon, 
at a quarter before two o’clock, the Queen 

(483) 


was safely delivered of a daughter—the Princess 
Beatrice. 

14 .—Wreck of her Majesty’s frigate Raleigh, 
50 guns, between five and six miles south of 
Macao. The vessel struck on a sunken rock, 
and sustained such serious injury that it was 
necessary to run her ashore on the east side of 
Ko-ho Island. The crew were relieved by a 
French vessel of war attracted to the spot by 
the signals of distress. The commander, Cap¬ 
tain Keppel, was honourably acquitted of all 
blame. 

21 .—The Earl of Elgin leaves England on a 
diplomatic mission to the Emperor of China. 

23 .—Sir John Dodson delivers the judgment 
of the Court of Arches in the appeal of Denison 
v. Ditcher, absolving Archdeacon Denison from, 
the sentence pronounced against him in the 
Archbishop’s Court at Bath, on the 22d October 
last, on the ground that more than two years 
had been allowed to elapse between the com¬ 
mission of the alleged offence and the raising of 
the action. 

— Died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, aged 60, John 
M‘Gregor, author of various statistical works, 
and M.P. for Glasgow from 1847 to 1857. 

29 . —Marriage of the King of Portugal with 
the Princess Stephanie of Hohenzollem-Sig- 
maringen celebrated, by proxy, at Berlin. 

30 . —Died, aged 81, Mary, Duchess of Glou¬ 
cester, the last of the family of George III. 

— Meeting of the new Parliament. John 
Evelyn Denison, Esq., M.P. for North Not¬ 
tinghamshire, unanimously elected Speaker. 
Next day he presented himself at the bar ot 
the House of Lords, and claimed in the usual 
manner the rights and privileges of the 
Commons. 

May 2 .—Died at Paris, suddenly, aged 45, 
Alfred de Musset, poet, and member of the 
French Academy. 

5 .—The Exhibition of Art Treasures at 
Manchester opened by Prince Albert. The 
magnificent collection, gathered together by the 
Executive Committee, was arranged with con¬ 
summate skill to constitute one vast work of 
art divided into seven principal sections:—1. 
Paintings by Ancient Masters; 2. Paintings 
by Modern Masters; 3. British Portrait Gal¬ 
lery ; 4. Sculpture; 5. Museum of Om .- 
mental Art; 6. Water-Colour Drawings; 7. 
FIistorical Miniatures. “ You have done well,” 
said his Royal Highness, “ not to aim at a 
mere accumulation of works of art and objects 
of general interest, but to give to your collec¬ 
tion, by a scientific and historical arrangement, 
an educational character; thus not losing the 
opportunity of teaching the mind as well as 
gratifying the senses. And manifold are the 
lessons which it will present to us ! If art is 
the purest expression of the state of mental and 
religious culture, and of general civilization of 
any age or people, an historical and chronolo- 

I I 2 








MA Y 


1857 . 


MAY 


gical review given at one glance cannot fail to 
impress us with a just appreciation of the pecu¬ 
liar characteristics of the different periods and 
countries the works of which are here exhibited 
to us, and of the influence which they have 
exercised upon each other. In comparing these 
works with those of our own age and country, 
while we may well be proud of the immense 
development of knowledge and power of pro¬ 
duction which we possess, we have reason also 
for humility in contemplating the refinement of 
feeling and intensity of thought manifested in the 
works of the oldest schools.” The Exhibition 
was afterwards visited by her Majesty, and con¬ 
tinued through the summer the greatest resort 
of visitors in the kingdom. 

7 . —In the Royal Speech, at the opening of 
Parliament, her Majesty commanded her Com¬ 
missioners to express regret that, at the date of the 
latest advices from China, the differences which 
had arisen between the High Commissioner 
at Canton and her Majesty’s civil and naval 
officers in China still remain unadjusted. “But 
her Majesty has sent to China a plenipoten¬ 
tiary fully intrusted to deal with all matters of 
difference, and that plenipotentiary will be 
supported by an adequate naval and military 
force, in the event of such assistance becoming 
necessary.” Bills were promised for improving 
the law relating to the Testamentary and Ma¬ 
trimonial Jurisdiction now exercised by Eccle¬ 
siastical Courts, and also for checking fraudulent 
breaches of trust. The customary Address was 
agreed to in each House without a division. 

8. —The new Reading Room at the British 
Museum opened to the public. The first 
column was raised in January 1855, and the 
entire dome was roofed in, and the copper 
covering laid, in September of the same year. 
The dome is 140 feet in diameter, and 106 
feet in height. The reading-desks give com¬ 
fortable accommodation to 300 readers, and 
the whole arrangements are a credit to the 
country and to all concerned. 

— Address carried in Convocation expressive 
of regret that the shortness of the time hitherto 
given for consultation has in a great measure 
frustrated the advantages likely to result from 
ascertaining the opinions of the clergy by dis¬ 
cussion in Convocation. 

9 . —Fali of three houses in Tottenham Court- 
road, between Grafton-s.reet and Tottenham- 
place. Byng, a cleik, was crushed to death 
in bed ; Ann Briscoe, engaged at the moment 
in preparing breakfast, was hurled down with 
the ruins and also killed ; three of the work¬ 
men engaged in making the alterations which 
led to the disaster were taken out dead ; and 
the son of the contractor was so seriously in¬ 
jured that he died without recovering con¬ 
sciousness. An inquiry into the cause of the 
accident resulted in a verdict attributing it to 
the improper removal of a wall ; and indirectly 
to the defective state of the law with respect to 
the public surveyors. 

10. —Indian Mutiny. This (Sunday) even- 

(484) 


ning, the native regiments stationed at Meerut 
rise in mutiny, fire upon their officers, break open 
the jail, and relieve the prisoners confined on the 
9th for insubordination. Every European resi¬ 
dence was attacked, and a great number of 
officers, together with women and children, were 
barbarously murdered by the Sepoys before the 
English troops ha 1 time to come up. When 
the alarm first reached them they were pre¬ 
paring for church-parade, and they immediately 
marched on the native lines, pouring on them 
a fire of grape and musketry. The 3d Light 
Cavalry and 20th Native Infantry fled towards 
Delhi, being pursued a short distance by the 
Carabineers, and a considerable number of 
them cut down. At Delhi the remnant entered 
by the Calcutta' gate without opposition, and 
instantly began to attack every European they 
met. They were soon joined there by muti¬ 
neers from all quarters. Many of the Euro¬ 
peans tied for protection, or were taken by 
force and butchered in the presence or with 
the knowledge of the aged King and his blood¬ 
thirsty sons. Children were tossed on the 
points of bayonets before their mothers’ eyes, 
ladies were dragged naked through the streets, 
and exposed to the most shocking indignities 
at the bazaar. In. a few days the Sepoys 
had the entire city at their mercy, the maga¬ 
zine having been blown up to save it falling 
into their bands. The British besieging force 
took up their quarters about two miles north 
of Delhi, with the old cantonment in front, a 
canal in their rear, and the river Jumna on 
their left. 

12. —Mr. Dillwyn obtains leave to bringina 
Bill making better provision for the prevention 
and punishment of aggravated assaults upon 
women and children. He proposed to substi¬ 
tute flogging for imprisonment. 

13 . —Thomas Fuller Bacon, and Martha 
Bacon, his wife, tried at the Central Criminal 
Court, for the murder of their two children, by 
cutting their throats in a house in Four Acre- 
street, Lambeth, on the 28th of December last. 
At one of the preliminary investigations Mrs. 
Bacon sought to fix the entire guilt on her 
husband, but it was now found there was no 
evidence to connect him with the crime beyond 
his own ill-advised conduct in supporting the 
first false story told by his wife, to the effect 
that the murders were committed by a burglar, 
who forcibly entered the house, and took 
away some of her property. A verdict of 
Not Guilty was recorded against Bacon. Mrs. 
Bacon, known in her lucid moments to be a 
gentle affectionate mother, was acquitted on 
the ground of insanity, and ordered to be con¬ 
fined during her Majesty’s pleasure. The un¬ 
fortunate woman had only been a few weeks 
out of St. Luke’s Asylum. She subsequently 
confessed that she alone committed the murder. 
Bacon himself, who had some time before been 
acquitted at Stamford on a charge of arson, 
had afterwards sentence of death recorded 
against him there for poisoning his mother by 
administering prussic acid during the summer 





of 1855. The body was exhumed, and traces 
of the poison discovered by Dr. Taylor. 

13 .—Died, aged 78, F. F. Vidocq, a noted 
French police officer, author of Memoirs of his 
own Life. 

14 -.—In answer to Lord Shaftesbury’s ques¬ 
tion as to the legality of the sale, of opium in 
India, the Lord Chancellor said a case had 
been drawn up by the legal advisers of the 
Board of Control, and was about to be sub¬ 
mitted to the law officers of the Crown. On 
the 24th of August an opinion was presented 
that the trade was not illegal. 

— Died at Dumfries, aged 71, Robert Turns, 
eldest son of the poet. 

16 —Indian Mutiny. The Governor-G me- 
ral of India issues a proclamation warn'ng th; 
army of Bengal that the tales by which the men 
of certain regiments have been led to suspect 
that offence to their religion, or injury to their 
caste, is meditated by the Government of India, 
are malicious falsehoods. “The Government 
of India has invariably treated the religious feel¬ 
ings of all its subjects with careful respect. The 
Governor-General in Council has declared that 
it will never cease to do so. He now repeats 
that declaration, and he emphatically proclaims 
that the Government of India entertains no 
desire to interfere with their religion or caste, 
and that nothing has been, or will be, done by 
the Government to affect the free exercise of 
the observances of religion or caste by every 
class of the people.” 

— The first official intimation given in the 
Staats Anzeiger (the Prussian Gazette ) of the 
intended marriage of H. R. H. Prince Frederick 
William of Prussia to the Princess Royal of 
England. 

17 .—The Morning Advertiser amuses the 
town as the victim of a wicked correspondent, 
who sought to support certain editorial remarks 
on the “ Westerton ” judgment, identifying the 
Cross with the Pagan phallus, by the testimony 
of “a very ancient MS. discovered some years 
since in a cellar belonging to the Monastery 
of Apati, a Carthusian establishment,” in the 
Levant. “The MS.,” wrote the audacious 
“G. Allan Saunders,” “is in possession of my 
friend, Signor P. Montomini, an authority of 
great weight in these matters, now engaged on 
a new edition of the ‘Auctores Priapici.’ As 
the contents of this curious MS, will be dis¬ 
cussed in an elaborate note to this work, I 
will now merely state that it is therein related 
that a certain monk, Afnphillas by name, who 
lived at Edessa in the latter part of the fourth 
century, noticing the great popularity which 
Priapus enjoyed among the ‘ Dii minores ’ of 
these parts, conceived the audacious idea of 
supplanting his worship by that of the Cross.” 
The joke was capped by the mythical Pietro 
Montomini writing next day from the Craven 
Hotel :—“ I have read the letter of Mr. Allan 
Saunders on the subject of the emblem which 
has been put forth as that of the Christian reli¬ 


gion ; and I have also read the leading article on 
the same subject in your impression of yester¬ 
day, in which you refer to a certain ‘ Israelitish 
monarch,’ and to the image which he adored, 
and which you rightly conjecture to have re¬ 
presented the aforesaid emblem. That your 
view, sir, was perfectly correct, I am happy to 
be able to bring forward, out of the work I am 
at present editing, the following passage to 
prove :— 

‘ $epou<ri 5r) oi 'leaves, on 6 (ia<ri\evs & fxeyas 
rwv 'lovSa'iaov, rbv Qebv. to s (kvcTTeas irpoerKwcav, 
Kal (piKij/uaeri rrjv elxova eaTr\eK6/nevos, e’x t C r ? T ‘ a > 
/cal rdv xiirpov iv reus ava^vpicn, k. t. 

The above has been erroneously attributed 
to Athenseus, but I am in a position to prove 
that it is of a much later period. I will not 
take up your space with further remarks on the 
resemblance between Popish and Pagan cere- 
monies. Their name, sir, is Legion ; and you 
are probably as well acquainted with them ar 
myself. ” 

18 . —The hundredth anniversary of th* 
military order of Maria Theresa celebrated at 
Vienna. 

19 . —Addresses in answer to her Majesty’s 
message are moved in both Houses of Parlia¬ 
ment with reference to the approaching marriage 
of the Princess Royal. The House of Com¬ 
mons afterwards voted her Royal Highness a 
marriage portion of 40,000/., and an annuity 
of 4,000/. a year. 

— In the House of Commons, the second 
reading of the Ministers’ Money (Ireland) Bill 
is carried by a majority of 313 to 174. It was 
afterwards carried through the House of Lords, 
and received the Royal Assent. 

— The Ultramontane party in the Belgian 
Chamber introduce a Bill placing the adminis¬ 
tration of public charities entirely in the hands 
of the Catholic clergy. The measure gave rise 
to much excitement, and was abandoned next 
month. 

22 .—Lord Palmerston proposes the ad¬ 
journment of the House over the day celebrated 
in honour of the Queen’s birth, the 26th, and 
also over the following day, “on which our Isth¬ 
mian games are celebrated.” 

25 .—The Hon. John Russell Colvin, Lieu¬ 
tenant-Governor of the North-Western Pro¬ 
vinces of India, issues a proclamation to the 
rebel Sepoys which gave rise to much hostile 
criticism on account of its mistimed leniency ; 
—“Soldiers engaged in the late disturbances, 
who are desirous of going to their own homes, 
and who give up their arms at the nearest Go¬ 
vernment civil or military post, and retire 
quietly, shall be permitted to do so unmo¬ 
lested. Many faithful soldiers have been driven 
into resistance to Government only because they 
were in the ranks, and could not escape from 
them, and because they really thought their 
feelings of religion and honour injured by the 
measures of Government. This feeling was 
wholly a mistake, but it acted on men’s minds. 








MAY 


JUNE 


1857. 


A proclamation of the Governor-General now 
issued is perfectly explicit, and will remove all 
doubts on these points. Every evil-minded in¬ 
stigator in the disturbance, and those guilty of 
heinous crimes against private persons, shall be 
punished. All those who appear in arms 
against the Government after this notification 
is known shall be treated as open enemies. ” 

27 .—Died at Kurnaul, aged 59, General 
the Hon. George Anson, Commander-in-chief 
of the forces in India. 

29 .—Argued in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
at sittings in banco, the case of the Attorney- 
General v. The Provost and College of Eton, 
and Clark (clerk)—an action of quare impedit, 
involving the right of the Crown to presenta¬ 
tion to benefices vacated by the appointment of 
colonial bishops. To the declaration on behalf 
of the Crown, the Provost and College of 
Eton pleaded that they were seised in fee of 
the advowson of the living of Stratford-Mor- 
timer, under a charter and letters patent of 
King Henry VI., confirmed by Parliament, 
and that on the avoidance of the benefice by 
the consecration of the former incumbent as 
Bishop of Christchurch, in New Zealand, they 
presented the other defendant Clark to the 
living, and he was duly admitted, instituted, 
and inducted, as perpetual vicar and incumbent. 
For himself, Clark pleaded that the Queen 
ought not to sue him, because, though it was 
true that the former incumbent had been conse¬ 
crated to a bishopric, yet such bishopric was 
situated wholly in parts beyond the seas, and 
not within any part of the United Kingdom. 
To these pleas the Crown demurred, and thus 
raised the two questions before the court: (1) 
Whether, on the avoidance of a living by the 
consecration of the incumbent as a colonial 
bishop, the Crown had the power to present to 
the living so vacated ; and (2) Whether in this 
particular case the claim was not inconsistent 
with the original grant of the advowson to the 
College. Judgment for the Crown. 

— A party of eight young men, who had 
been attending the Lancashire hirings, drowned 
while crossing Ulverstone Sands, at night in 
a cart. 

30 .—The Grand Duke Constantine, of 
Russia, visits her Majesty at Osborne. On the 
following day the Queen took her guest for a 
cruise among the fleet at Spithead. 

— The mutiny at Lucknow breaks out in 
cantonments amongst the lines of the 71st 
N. I., and soon became general. The Sepoys 
burnt down some of the buildings, and fired 
into the mess-room of the officers of the 71st. 
One or two officers were afterwards shot dead ; 
and it was not until a part of the 32d had 
charged the rebels, and the artilleiy opened 
upon them, under the personal direction of Sir 
Henry Lawrence, that they gave way and quit¬ 
ted the cantonments. They retired to Mood- 
ripore, where they were joined by the 7th 
Light Cavalry, who murdered one of their 

• (486) 


officers on the spot. The state of Lucknow 
now became threatening in the extreme ; but 
Sir Henry Lawrence hoped by vigorous measures 
of repression to strike terror into the minds of 
the inhabitants, and prevent a general using. 
Numbers of men convicted of tampering with 
the troops were hanged on a gallows erected in 
front of the Mutchee Bhawn, and two members 
of the royal family at Delhi, and a brother of 
the ex-King of Oude, were arrested and im¬ 
prisoned there. The Residency itself was 
crowded with women and children, and every 
house and outhouse was occupied. Prepara¬ 
tions for defence were continued, and thousands 
of Coolies employed at the batteries, stock¬ 
ades, and trenches, which were everywhere being 
constructed. The treasure and ammunition, of 
which fortunately there was a large supply, were 
buried, and ns many guns as could be collected 
brought together. The Residency and Mutchee 
Bhawn presented most animated scenes. There 
were soldiers, Sepoys, prisoners in irons, men, 
women, and children, hundreds of servants, 
respectable natives in their carriages, Coolies 
carrying weights, heavy cannons, field-pieces, 
carts, elephants, camels, bullocks, horses, all 
moving about hither and thither, and continual 
bustle and noise was kept up from morning to 
night. There was scarcely a corner which 
was not in some way occupied and turned to 
account. 

30 .—The King of the Belgians adjourns the 
Legislative Chambers in consequence of the 
popular feeling against the Public Charities 
Bill. 

— The French Minister of Interior issues, 
a circular to Prefets announcing the intention 
of Government to promote the return of candi¬ 
dates attached to the Empire at the ensuing 
election of Deputies. 

June 1 . —Following up an attack com¬ 
menced by Commodore Elliot, on the 25th, 
Sir M. Seymour completes to-day the destruc¬ 
tion of the Chinese fleet in Canton waters. 

3 .—Fall of the new Roman Catholic Cathe¬ 
dral at Plymouth. The recently-finished roof 
fell in with a crash, and the building, with 
its lofty western front standing apart from the 
roof which connects the transept with the chan¬ 
cel of the church, presented the appearance of 
a ruin. 

5 .—Statute promulgated at Oxford for ex¬ 
tending academic education to the middle 
classes. 

— The House of Commons consent to ' 
the proposal of the Chancellor of the Exche¬ 
quer for the vote of 1,125,206/., as the propor¬ 
tion to be paid by Great Britain to Denmark 
for the redemption of the Sound dues, the 
Danish Government undertaking the main¬ 
tenance of lighthouses and other buildings 
of similar character, for the benefit of com¬ 
merce. 

©.—Indian Mutiny. At Allahabad, while 








JUNE 


JUNE 


1857. 


the English officers were at mess, utterly un¬ 
suspicious of danger, the alarm bugle suddenly 
sounded, the Sepoy mutineers fired, and after¬ 
wards attacked them with sword and bayonet 
Out of 17 officers at mess 14 were butchered on 
the spot, some of them mere youths who had 
just joined the regiment. The treasury was 
plundered, the jail broken open, and the station 
set on fire and destroyed. It was reported that 
not less than 50 Europeans were murdered at 
Allahabad the first night. By the end of this 
month the Sepoy troops had mutinied at twenty- 
two stations throughout the Bengal Presidency. 
On the 14th, at Gwalior, they shot down the 
officers at their lines, and afterwards set fire 
to the houses occupied by Europeans. The 
Maharajah here behaved with loyalty and firm¬ 
ness. He temporised with the rebels, in order 
to give the Europeans the opportunity of 
escaping, and had carriages and palkis prepared 
to convey some of them on the road to Agra. 

6 . —The morning newspapers publish tele¬ 
grams from India, announcing that the 3d 
Bengal Cavalry at Meerut were in open mutiny. 

7 . —Sixty-two people killed at Leghorn, 
through a panic caused by an alarm of fire in 
the Teatro degli Acquedotti, during the per¬ 
formance of a piece entitled “ The Taking of 
Sebastopol. ” 

8 . —Died at his residence, Kilbum Priory, 
aged 54, Douglas Jerrold, wit, dramatist, and 
satirist. 

— Discussion in the House of Lords in the 
case of W. P. R. Sheddon, occasioned by Earl 
Grey presenting a petition complaining that, by 
a decision of the Court of Session in Scotland 
in 1803, confirmed by the House of Lords in 
1808, Sheddon had been wrongfully deprived 
of his status as a natural-born subject, and stig¬ 
matized as illegitimate. On a division, the 
motion for inquiry was rejected by 19 to 11. 

9 . —Fire at the premises of Messrs. Pick- 
ford, at the Camden-town rail way-station. A 
large quantity of merchandise was consumed, 
but the large stud of draught horses—with one 
exception, known as “ The Man-hater,” who 
refused to allow any one to approach him— 
was got out in safety, and galloped off in the 
direction of Hampstead. 

11 . —In committee on the Divorce and 
Matrimonial Causes Bill, a clause proposed 
by the Bishop of Oxford to the effect that 
it will be lawful to pass on the guilty parties, 
or either of them, sentence of fine or imprison¬ 
ment, as though such parties had been guilty 
of a misdemeanor at common law, was 
carried by 43 to 33. This was omitted on the 
third reading, by 49 to 29. An amendment 
proposed by the Lord Chancellor, permitting 
the woman to marry after divorce, was carried 
by 46 to 24. An addition proposed by Lord 
Wensleydale, providing that the adulterer and 
adulteress should not marry with each other, 
was rejected by 37 to 28. 


11.—Died, aged 77, Moritz Retszch, German 
illustrator of Shakspeare, Goethe, and Schiller. 

14 . —Indian Mutiny. Sir Hugh Wheeler 
writes from Cawnpore to Mr. Gubbins, at Luck¬ 
now, the letter being cunningly secreted on the 
person of a Hindoo messenger, who contrived 
to elude the manifold perils which beset the 
road :—“ We have been besieged since the 6th 
by the Nana Sahib, joined by the whole of the 
native troops, who broke out on the morning of 
the 4th. The enemy have two 24-pounders, 
and several other guns. We have only eight 
9-pounders. The whole Christian population 
is with us in a temporary intrenchment, and 
our defence has been noble and wonderful ; 
our loss heavy and cruel. We want aid, aid, 
aid ! Regards to Lawrence.” It being thought 
impossible to send aid from Lucknow at this 
time, Captain Moore, of the 32nd, writes on 
the 18th, that “ Sir Hugh regrets you cannot 
send him the 200 men, as he believes with their 
assistance we could drive the insurgents from 
Cawnpore and capture their guns.” While 
expressing an intention of holding out to the 
last, Captain Moore closed his epistle with 
the touching declaration, “ Any news of relief 
will cheer us. ” 

15 . 17 , 19 .—Handel Festival at the Crystal 
Palace, Sydenham, preparatory to the com¬ 
memoration of his death in 1859. 

16 . —Decided in the Court of Exchequer 
the great revenue case of the Attorney-General 
v. Allen, the defendant being charged under 30 
counts with incurring penalties to the extent of 
375,000/., for infractions of the excise laws, 
committed in his malting works at Worthing, 
Moulsey, and Horsham. Having had their at¬ 
tention directed to the first-mentioned place, 
the excise officers made a strict search, and 
found a trap-door opening into an underground 
passage, at the end of which were two vaults 
completely fitted up with malting cisterns and 
couch-frames of a capacity nearly equal to those 
above which had been regularly entered. At 
the other works similar contrivances were dis¬ 
covered. All the malt and barley found were 
seized, and proceedings instituted to recover 
penalties for using unentered premises and ir¬ 
regularly working those which had been en¬ 
tered, as well as to recover treble value of 
the malt seized, and to cause its condemna¬ 
tion. Verdict entered for the Crown for the 
sum of 100,000/. 

17 . —Oxford statutes affecting professors 
settled in Congregation. They were all passed 
with the exception of one, allowing professors 
to hold preelectorships, if permitted by decree 
of Convocation. This was put to the vote in 
connexion with six different professors, and 
rejected by majorities varying from 32 to 62. 
The Craven statute was rejected by 54 votes 
to 31, the main objection being the assignment 
of these scholarships to physical science. The 
statute altering the Bampton Lecture Trust 
was rejected by 49 votes to 38. The form 










JUNE 


185/. 


JUNE 


of statute establishing an examination for the 
middle classes was read and submitted to 
the vote. The main provisions of the statute 
were carried by 81 votes to 16, and the title 
of Associate in Arts by 62 to 38. 

22 . —In bringing up the report on the Oaths 
Bill, Mr. S. Fitzgerald proposed a clause, pro¬ 
viding that no Jew should hold the office of 
Regent of the Kingdom, Prime Minister, Lord 
Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, or 
Commissioner to the General Assembly of the 
Church of Scotland. The clause was adopted 
by Government. 

— Heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
the case of Sidebottom v. Adkins—a claim 
made by a Manchester millowner to recover 
from a professional gambler the sum of 6,525/., 
lost through the use of false dice. Verdict for 
the amount claimed. 

— In the Court of Common Pleas, the jury 
give a verdict for 100/. damages, against the 
Honourable James William Macdonald for 
trim. con. with Mrs. Armitage, who had for 
years been living separate from her husband, 
the plaintiff. 

— Educational Conference, presided over by 
Prince Albert, opened at Willis’s Rooms. 

23 . —The Marriage and Divorce Bill read 
a third time in the House of Lords. In the 
debate on the second reading in the House of 
Commons, Mr. Walpole supported the Govern¬ 
ment, affirming that the measure had been 
misunderstood and misinterpreted. The rela¬ 
tions of marriage, he said, were in no degree 
loosened by it, the only object being to sub¬ 
stitute one good tribunal for three tribunals, 
in one of which the proceedings were a scandal 
and a disgrace to the country. The second 
reading was carried by a majority of 208 to 
97. The third reading was carried without a 
division. The amendments made in committee 
were afterwards discussed in the House of 
Lords and approved of, with the exception of 
one introduced by Lord J. Manners against the 
wish of the Government. 

— The 1 ooth anniversary of the Battle of 
Plassey celebrated by a meeting of noblemen 
and gentlemen to organize measures for raising 
a monument to Lord Clive on a conspicuous 
spot near Shrewsbury, the chief town of his 
native county. The meeting was presided over 
by Lord Hill. 

24 -.—South Kensington Museum opened. 

— Meeting in the Mansion House to hear 
explanations from M. Lesseps regarding his 
project for constructing a ship canal accross the 
Isthmus of Suez. The project was unfavour¬ 
ably received by politicians, as well as by capi¬ 
talists and engineers. 

25 .—The Bribery Election Committees 
commence their inquiries. In Mayo county 
it was shown in evidence that the priests were 
the ringleaders of the mob, and had cursed 
Colonel Higgins and his supporters from the 
altar. 

( 483 ) 


25 _Lord Campbell’s Bill for suppressing the 

sale of obscene prints and publications, giving 
the police power to enter premises and search 
under a magistrate’s warrant, read a second 
time in the House of Lords. Lord Lyndhurst 
withdrew an amendment rejecting the bill on 
the understanding that it would be amended 
in committee, so as to exclude from its opera¬ 
tion the possession of ancient works of art or 
literary treasures. 

— At a Court at Buckingham Palace this 
day, the Home Secretary was ordered to pre¬ 
pare for her Majesty’s signature Letters Patent 
conferring upon Prince Albert the title and. 
dignity of Prince Consort. 

26 . —The Montreal steamship, trading be¬ 
tween Quebec and Montreal, burnt soon after 
leaving the first-mentioned city. Out of about 
400 people understood to be on board, only 
170 were saved. 

— In Hyde Park this forenoon, her Majesty, 
attended by a brilliant circle, makes the first 
distribution of the Victoria Cross for signal acts 
of valour in the presence of the enemy. The 
recipients of the much-prized honour were sixty- 
two in number, and as each passed up to get 
the cross pinned on his breast by the Queen, 
the cheering from the immense assembly of 
spectators was loud and general. 

27 . —Indian Mutiny. News arrives that 
Delhi is in possession of the mutineers ; that 
the Europeans had been massacred without re¬ 
gard to age or sex ; that the bank had been 
plundered; and the son of the late Mogul 
Emperor proclaimed as king. The intelligence 
caused the greatest anxiety in official, commer¬ 
cial, and private circles. On the 24th, Consols 
opened at 93 1 to and on the 30th had fallen 
to 924 to f. 

28 . —At the Lewisham station on the North 
Kent Railway, the 9.30 train runs into another 
stopped there by an exhibition of the danger 
signal. The break-van and next open pas¬ 
senger carriage of the stationary train were 
smashed to pieces, and 11 persons either killed 
on the instant or injured, so that they died 
before removal. Besides these, 163 passengers 
were more or less injured. The stoker and 
driver of the train were committed for trial, 
but acquitted. The shareholders were heavily 
mulcted in a series of actions for compensation 
by those injured, and by the relatives of the 
killed. 

29 . —The alarming position of the British 
Government in India, as indicated by the in¬ 
telligence received from that country, forms the 
subject of inquiry in both Houses of Parlia¬ 
ment, by Lord Ellenborough and Mr. Disraeli. 
The President of the Board of Control (Mr. 
Vernon Smith) said that 14,000 additional men 
would be in India by the middle of next 
month. “He could not concur,” he said, 
“with some members who had spoken as to 
our Indian Empire being imperilled by the 
present disaster. On the contrary, he was 





JUNE 


1857. 


JUNE 


sanguine that it would be effectually sup¬ 
pressed by the force already in the country. 
He also defended Lord Canning, who. he 
considered, had behaved in the emergency 
with all the vigour and judgment which was to 
be expected from so distinguished a servant of 
the Crown.” 

29 . —The Cagliari , a Sardinian mail boat, 
which had been taken possession of by an 
armed party on board, and directed to Ponza, 
v here the Neapolitan prison was broken open, 
is now seized by a Neapolitan squadron, and, 
though not within the jurisdiction of Naples, 
all hands are taken into custody. The case 
of two English engineers, Watt and Park, 
gave rise to much correspondence between 
the Governments,, and also to several debates 
in Parliament. 

30 . —Commenced before the High Court of 
Justiciary, Edinburgh, the trial of Madeleine 
Hamilton Smith, for poisoning Pierre Emile 
L’Angelier, by administering arsenic in food 
given him on three separate occasions between 
the 19th of February and the 23d of March 
last. The case excited considerable interest 
throughout the kingdom from the social posi¬ 
tion "of the accused, and the purely circum¬ 
stantial character of the evidence by which the 
Crown sought to connect her with the crime. 
The Lord Advocate (Moncriefif) conducted the 
case for the Crown, and the Dean of Faculty 
(Inglis) defended the panel. Evidence was led 
at great length to show the relation in which 
the accused stood to the deceased—a relation 
illustrated by the production of above 100 
letters, prints, portraits, and books, showing 
that a guilty intercourse had been carried on 
for months between them, in the prospect of 
an early marriage. It was also shown that the 
deceased died from the effects of arsenic ; that 
the prisoner was known to have purchased and 
kept poison of that kind in her possession ; 
that though there was no witness of any inter¬ 
view, he was seen proceeding in the direction 
of prisoner’s house on the night when poison 
was last administered ; that she had oppor¬ 
tunities for administering it; and that she had 
a motive for his removal in the fact that she 
was at the time of his decease about to contract 
marriage with a person of higher social stand¬ 
ing. The evidence for the prosecution was 
continued over five days and a portion of the 
sixth ; exculpatory evidence completed the 
sixth day. The seventh was taken up by the 
speech of the Lord Advocate, marked through¬ 
out by a rare spirit of .moderation and feeling. 
On the ninth day the Dean of Faculty 
addressed the Court for the prisoner in a speech 
of great power. “The charge against the 
prisoner,” he began, “is murder, and the 
punishment of murder is death ; and that 
simple statement is sufficient to suggest to us 
the awful solemnity of the occasion which 
brings you and me face to face. But, gentle¬ 
men, there are peculiarities in the present case 
of so singular a kind—there is such an air of 


romance and mystery investing it from begin¬ 
ning to end—there is something so touching 
and exciting in the age, and the sex, and the 
social position of the accused—ay, and I must 
add, the public attention is so directed to the 
trial, that they watch our proceedings, and 
hang on our very accents, with such an anxiety 
and eagerness of expectation, that I feel almost 
bowed down and overwhelmed by the mag¬ 
nitude of the task that is imposed on. me. 
You are invited and encouraged by the pro¬ 
secutor to snap the thread of that young life, 
and to consign to an ignominious death on the 
scaffold one who, within a few short months, 
was known only as a gentle, confiding, and 
affectionate girl, the ornament and pride of 
her happy home. Gentlemen, the tone in 
which my learned friend the Lord Advocate 
addressed you yesterday, could not fail to strike 
you as most remarkable. It was characterised 
by great moderation—by such moderation as 
I think must have convinced you that he could 
hardly expect a verdict at your hands ; and in 
the course of that address, for which I give 
him the highest credit, he could not resist 
the expression of his own deep feeling of 
commiseration for the position in which the 
prisoner is placed—an involuntary homage paid 
by the official prosecutor to the kind and 
generous nature of the man. But, gentlemen, 

I am going to ask you for something very 
different from commiseration ; I am going to 
ask you for that which I will not condescend 
to beg, but which I will loudly and importu¬ 
nately demand—that to which every person is 
entitled, whether she be the lowest of her sex, 
or the maiden whose purity is as the unsunned 
snow. I ask you for justice ; and if you w'ill 
kindly lend me your attention for the requisite 
period, and if Heaven grant me patience and 
strength for the task, I shall tear to tatters that 
web of sophistry in which the prosecutor has 
striven to involve this poor girl and her sad 
strange story. ” After a most careful examina¬ 

tion of the evidence, and the degree in which 
it bore on the prisoner, the Dean concluded 
his speech, of four hours’ duration, by an ex¬ 
pression of unwillingness to part with the 
jury :—“ Never did 1 feel as if I had said so 
little as I feel now after this long address. I 
cannot explain it myself except by a strong 
and overwhelming conviction of what your 
verdict ought to be. I am deeply conscious 
of a personal interest in your verdict, for if 
there should be any failure of justice, I could 
attribute it to no other cause than my own 
inability to conduct the defence; and I am 
persuaded that, if it were so, the recollection 
of this day, and this prisoner, would haunt me 
as a dismal and blighting spectre to the end 
of life. May the Spirit of all Truth guide 
you to an honest, a just, and a true verdict ! 
But no verdict will be either honest, or just, or 
tine, unless it at once satisfy the reasonable 
scruples of the severest judgment, and yet 
leave undisturbed, and unvexed, the tenderest 
conscience among you.” The Lord Justice 

( 489 ) 





JUNE 1857 . JULY 


Clerk proceeded to sum up the evidence, 
resuming when the Court opened next morn¬ 
ing (the tenth day of trial), and continuing 
till one o’clock. The jury then retired to 
consider their verdict, and were absent about 
hail an hour. On returning, their chancellor 
gave in the following :—“ The jury find the 
panel not guilty of the first charge in the in¬ 
dictment by a majority ; of the second charge, 
not proven, by a majority; and of the third 
charge, also, not proven, by a majority.” The 
verdict was received with great applause, 
which the officers of the Court attempted in 
vain to suppress. 

30 .—Mr. Berkeley’s motion in favour of the 
ballot rejected by 257 to 189 votes. 

July 1.—The Fox screw-steamer, fitted out 
by Lady Franklin, and commanded by Captain 
M ‘Clintock, sails in search of the Franklin 
Expedition. 

— The Queen, accompanied by Prince 
Albert, several members of the Royal Family, 
and the Prince of Prussia, visits Manchester, 
and inspects the Art Treasures Exhibition. 

2 . —The new statutes for the regulation of 
Oxford Colleges published in the Gazette. 

— Sir Henry Lawrence wounded by a shell, 
which burst in the room occupied by him in 
the Residency, Lucknow. He lingered in great 
agony till the" morning of the 4th, when this 
wise ruler and gallant soldier expired. Lieut.- 
General Barnard died next day, from wounds 
received before Delhi. 

— Stormy discussion in the Ionian House 
of Assembly, regarding a rumoured proposal 
to cede Corfu to Great Britain. 

3. —Ten persons drowned at Shrewsbury, 
when leaving M. Jullien’s musical fete, held on 
the Island of Poplars. During the rush of 
spectators to reach the shore at the close of the 
performance, the bridge of boats gave way, 
and about 150 were thrown into the river. 
The majority were speedily rescued by persons 
who thronged the bank, but those swamped 
beneath the centre punt, which had been ma¬ 
liciously upset, being unable to extricate them¬ 
selves, were drowned. 

8.—Lord Palmerston, in answer to Mr. G. 
Berkeley, explains that the opposition of Great 
Britain to the construction of the Suez Canal 
was based, first, on the fact that it would tend 
to the more easy separation of Egypt from 
Turkey, and would therefore be in direct viola¬ 
tion of a policy supported by war and the treaty 
of Paris; second, “remote speculations with 
regard to easier access to our Indian possessions 
only requiring to be indistinctly shadowed forth 
to be fully appreciated.” 

IO.—The Bill introduced by Government 
for admitting Jews into Parliament thrown 
out on the second reading in the House of 
Lords by a majority of 173 to 139; the proxies 
in the minority numbering 48, and in the 
majority 64. 

(490) 


10. —Letters arrive in London this evening 
with intelligence of the rapid spread of the 
mutiny in the Bengal provinces. A Trieste des¬ 
patch, in anticipation of the Overland Mail, 
brought news from Calcutta to the 7th June, and 
from Bombay to the 15 th. By the latter route 
there was news from Delhi to the 8th June, 
when the heights around the city were in posses¬ 
sion of the British troops. At the time the mail 
left, news of the capture of the place was hourly 
expected. 

11 . —Cabinet Council called to consider the 
alarming intelligence received from India. The 
command of the troops was offered to Sir Colin 
Campbell, who took his departure next day. 

— The Queen lays the foundation-stone of 
the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum, to be 
erected by the Royal Patriotic Fund Commis¬ 
sioners, on Wandsworth Common, for the 
accommodation of 300 daughters of soldiers, 
sailors, and marines. From a statement made 
by the Royal Commissioners, it appeared that 
the total subscriptions to the fund amounted to 
1,458,000/. Of this sum England and Wales 
contributed 384,990/. ; Scotland, 149,746/. ; 
Ireland, 60,046/.; Army, Navy, Dockyards, 
&c., 12,099/. ; British Possessions, 315,389/. ; 
British residents and others in foreign countries, 
30,771 /. Besides giving immediate relief to 
about 4,000 widows and 5,000 children, the 
Commissioners had purchased for 25,000/. 
eighteen nominations to the Wellington Col¬ 
lege for the education of the sons of military 
men; for 3,000/. five nominations to the Cam¬ 
bridge Asylum for widows of non-commissioned 
officers and privates; also, eleven presentations 
to the Naval and Military School at Ports¬ 
mouth, and thirteen to that of Plymouth. The 
payment to the widows of non-commissioned 
officers ranged from 5^. to 7 s. a week, with 2 s. 
for the first, and is. for every additional child. 
The widows of colonels and the corresponding 
ranks received 66/. a year, with 16/. for each 
child ; those of ensigns, 27/. a year, and 10/. 
for each child. 

12 . —General Nicholson destroys a large 
body of Sepoy rebels at Sealcote. 

13 . —Sir Frederick Thesiger opens the great 
contest for the Earldom of Shrewsbury by ad¬ 
dressing the House of Lords on behalf of the 
claimant, the Right Honourable Henry John 
Chetwynd Talbot, Earl Talbot. 

— The freedom of the City of London pre¬ 
sented to Prince Frederick William of Prussia. 
In acknowledging the honour, he expressed a 
hope that the future happiness of the Princess 
Royal, his affianced bride, might prove equal to 
his endeavours to secure it, and to the devoted 
and hearty attachment which he bore to the 
Queen, her mother. 

14 -.—The Government accept Lord Gode¬ 
rich’s motion, “That the experience acquired 
since the issuing of the Order in Council of the 
21 st of May, 1855, is in favour of the adoption 
of the principle of competition as a condition of 






7 UL y 


i ‘°>5 7 - 


entrance to the Civil Service; and that the appli¬ 
cation of that principle ought to be extended in 
conformity with the resolution of the House 
agreed to on the 21st April, 1856.” 

15 .—Massacre of Cawnpore. The mutiny 
here broke out on the forenoon of the 7th of 
June, and from that day to the 24th an almost 
incessant fire was kept up on the intrenched camp, 
where General Wheeler and the whole of the 
Europeans had congregated. On the last-men¬ 
tioned day a message was sent by Nana Sahib, 
chief of Bithoor, offering to allow them all to 
go to Allahabad in safety, if they would abandon 
the intrenchment, and give up the treasures and 
stores in the camp. The proposal was assented 
to by General Wheeler, and for the two days 
following the frightened residents in the in¬ 
trenchment enjoyed comparative quiet to pre¬ 
pare for the journey. “ On the 26th,” writes 
Lieutenant Delafosse (one of only four sur¬ 
vivors of this treacherous scheme), “a com¬ 
mittee of officers went to the river to see that 
the boats were ready and serviceable; and 
everything being reported ready, and carriages 
for the wounded having arrived, we gave over 
our guns, &c., and marched on the morning of 
the 27th of June, about seven o’clock. We got 
down to the river and into the boats without 
being molested in the least, but no sooner were 
we in the boats, and had laid down our muskets, 
and taken off our coats to work easier at the 
boats, than the cavalry gave the order to fire. 
Two guns that had been hidden were run out 
and opened on us immediately, while Sepoys 
came from all directions and kept up a fire. 
The men jumped out of the boats, and, instead 
of trying to get the boats loose from their moor¬ 
ings, swam to the first boat they saw loose. 
Only three boats got safely over to the opposite 
side of the river, but were met there by two 
field-pieces, guarded by a number of cavalry 
and infantry. Before theae boats had got a mile 
down the stream, half our small party were either 
killed or wounded, and two of our boats had 
been swamped. We had now only one boat, 
crowded with wounded, and having on board 
more than she could carry. The two guns 
followed us the whole of the day, the infantry 
firing on us the whole of that night.” Those 
in the boats who Were not killed by the fire of 
the Sepoys w r ere seized and carried back to 
Cawnpore, where the men were all shot, and 
the women carried to a building which had 
been formerly used as an assembly room, and 
kept close prisoners. They were not kept 
long in suspense as to their fate. The Nana 
having learned on the 15th that the British 
troops had carried the bridge over the Pandoo 
Nuddee, and that nothing could stop the irre¬ 
sistible march of Havelock’s column, issued, 
through the Begum, a frightful order to slay the 
entire company. His instructions were but too 
faithfully obeyed. The Begum approached the 
building in which the Europeans were confined, 
accompanied by five men, each armed with 
a sabre; two of them appeared to be Hindoo 
peasants; two were known to be butchers, 


JUL 1/ 


Mahommedans ; and one was dressed in the 
red uniform of the Maharajah’s body-guard. 
The horrible work commenced by half-a-dozen 
Sepoys discharging their muskets at random- 
through the windows upon the defenceless vic¬ 
tims. The five men armed with sabres were 
then observed to enter the building quietly, 
and close the doors. What next took place 
no one w T as spared to relate. Shrieks and 
scuffling were heard at significant intervals, 
acquainting those outside that the hired exe¬ 
cutioners were earning their pay. The one in 
the red uniform was observed to come to the 
door twice, and obtain a new sabre in ex¬ 
change for one handed out hacked and broken. 
The noise gradually lessened, and at nightfall 
the executioners could lock the doors and retire 
from the building, with the feeble moans of a 
few half-slaughtered women ringing in their ears. 
Three at least survived till the morning (the 
16th), when the doors of the slaughter-house 
were once more opened, and the naked bodies 
and dismembered limbs dragged ignominiously 
across the compound to a dry well situated 
behind some trees which grew near by. The 
three (writes Mr. Trevelyan) prayed for the 
sake of God that an end might be put to their 
suffering. Their prayer was heard. Their 
bodies were cast with the others into the well, 
and the bloody work fitly finished by the 
slaughter of two fair-haired children, who in 
some unknown manner had escaped the sword 
the night before, and were now moving in 
childish terror about the well. One person was 
of opinion that the man who threw them in first 
took the trouble to kill the children—others 
thought not. ‘ ‘ I have seen the fearful 

slaughter-house,” writes the Times correspon¬ 
dent, “and also saw one of the First Native 
Infantry men, according to order, wash up 
part of the blood which stains the floor before 
burying; the quantities of dresses, clogged 
thickly with blood, children’s frocks, frills, 
and ladies’ under-clothing of all kinds, also 
boys’ trousers, leaves of Bibles, and of one 
book in particular which seemed to be strewed 
over the whole place, called ‘ Preparation for 
Death,’ also broken daguerreotype cases only, 
lots of them, and hair, some nearly a yard 
long; bonnets all bloody, and one or two shoes. 
I picked up a bit of paper with on it ‘ Ned’s 
hair, with love,’ and opened, I found a little bit 
tied up with a riband.” An officer in Have¬ 
lock’s corps thus describes the appearance of 
the place when the avenging army entered the 
town on the 17th:—“I was directed to the 
house where all the poor miserable ladies had 
been murdered. It was alongside the Cawn¬ 
pore Hotel, where the Nana lived. I never 
was more horrified. The place was one mass 
of blood. I am not exaggerating when I tell 
you that the soles of my boots were more than 
covered with the blood of these poor wretched 
creatures. Portions of their dresses, collars, 
children’s socks, and ladies’ round hats, lay 
about, saturated with blood ; and in the sword- 
cuts on the wooden pillars of the room long, 

(490 








JULY 


jul y 


1857. 


dark hair was carried by the edge of the 
weapon, and there hung their tresses—a most 
painful sight. I have often wished since that I 
had never been there, but sometimes wish that 
every soldier was taken there, that he might 
witness the barbarities our poor countrywomen 
suffered. Their bodies were afterwards dragged 
out and thrown down a well outside the build¬ 
ing, where their limbs were to be seen sticking 
out in a mass of gory confusion.” Nana Sahib 
did not venture to make a stand at Bithoor, 
whither he first fled after the massacre, and 
General Havelock, after occcupying Cawnpore, 
took possession of his palace without firing a 
shot. Leaving General Neill, who came up 
from Benares, in charge of Cawnpore, Have¬ 
lock set out towards Lucknow, dealing out to 
the rebels as he went along a full measure of 
stern retribution. 

16 . —Mr. Roebuck’s motion, declaring the 
authority of the House weakened by the 
Government entering on a war with Persia 
without laying papers before members, rejected, 
after two nights’ discussion, by a majority of 
352 against 38. 

— Died, aged 77, J. P. Beranger, national 
poet of France. 

17 . —In consequence of the fitting out of a 
French expedition at Marseilles, Lord Brougham 
moves an address to her Majesty, praying that 
she would give no encouragement to the scheme 
of importing Africans to her own tropical do¬ 
minions, and would use her influence with her 
allies to discountenance any such project. Ad¬ 
dress agreed to. 

20.—The exhibition of the eighty-three 
competitive designs for the Wellington monu¬ 
ment to be erected in St. Paul’s, thrown open 
to public inspection in Westminster Hall. 
The designs shown were generally considered 
inappropriate and trifling, and none of them 
judged worthy to be accepted by the public as 
a full expression of their feelings towards the 
late Duke. 

— Great excitement in the metropolis, caused 
by the false announcement, said to be sent 
through Russian sources, that the whole of the 
Bombay army had revolted and united itself to 
the Bengal mutineers. 

— Kerr and Gilbertson, two men of the 
artisan class, sentenced by the Edinburgh High 
Court of Justiciary to twenty-one years’ penal 
servitude for being concerned in a series of shop 
robberies committed last winter. 

— The Transit , Government steamship, 
ends a long series of disasters by running 
ashore at Banca. The failure of this and two 
sister ships, the Urgent and Perseverance , was 
the subject of frequent discussion in Parliament. 
The Transit had been selected to convey the 
House of Lords to the memorable Naval Review 
at Spithead, in 1855, and, as many anticipated, 
duly faded. When she now struck she was 
engaged in conveying troops to China. She 
left Spithead with 700 on board, on April 7, 
(492) 


but on the following night, while anchored 
near the Needles, swung on to her anchors 
and knocked a hole in her bottom. This 
damage was repaired, and she sailed again, on 
her voyage across the Bay of Biscay, but 
shipped so much water that she half drowned 
her passengers in their berths, and put into 
Corunna in great distress. She lay there some 
time undergoing repairs and alterations, and 
then sailed for the East. To-day she put a 
final close to all speculations as to her sea¬ 
worthiness by running on a reef in the Straits 
of Banca. Assistance was sent from Singapore, 
and the troops and crew transferred to another 
vessel without any casualty. 

21 .—The contest for the City of Oxford 
results in Mr. Cardwell polling 1,085 votes 
against Mr. Thackeray’s 1,018. 

— As the result of various negotiations 
and brief debates in the House since the rejec¬ 
tion of the Oaths Bill by the Lords, Lord John 
Russell obtains leave to introduce another bill, 
permitting members to take the oaths in the 
form and manner most binding on their con¬ 
science. 

24 .—The opposition to the Divorce Bill 
having manifested itself by repeated attempts 
to get it thrown out on points of order, Lord 
Palmerston intimated to-night—at the close of a 
long discussion on Mr. Henley’s motion, to defer 
further consideration of it for a month—that in 
order to carry it among certain other important 
measures, he proposed to continue the session, 
if necessary, to September. “ I hope,” he 
added, “ it may be unnecessary to sit for so 
long a period, but it is trifling with our duties 
—it is trifling with the great interests committed 
to our charge—to say that because it happens 
now to be the 24th of July we are not to take 
into consideration a measure so important in 
itself, so anxiously expected by the country, 
and which for years has occupied public atten¬ 
tion.” Mr. Henley’s motion was negatived by 
217 to 130. 

27 .—At the Durham Assizes, Robert Bal- 
leny, a magistrate of the county, was sentenced 
to pay a fine of 200/., or suffer one year’s im¬ 
prisonment, for having unlawfully and by colour 
of h*is office extorted the sum of one pound 
sterling from two men brought before him on a 
charge of trespassing upon his lands in pursuit 
of game. 

— Debate in the House of Commons on 
our recent policy in India raised by Mr. 
Disraeli’s motion for the immediate production 
of papers connected with the present outbreak. 
Noticing the trifling importance which had 
been attached to the mutiny by the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, as a mere sudden impulse 
occasioned by superstitious feeling, and also 
Lord Dalhousie’s statement made at the close 
of his administration, that the condition of the 
native soldier had long been such as hardly to 
admit of improvement, —Mr. Disraeli entered 
at great length into the character of the treaties 






JULY 


AUGUST 


185 ;. 


we had compelled native princes to sign, 
and referred particularly to the circumstances 
connected with the annexation of Oude. He 
recommended the issue of a Royal Commission 
to inquire into Indian grievances, and a Royal 
Proclamation declaring that the Queen was not 
a sovereign who would countenance the viola¬ 
tion of treaties. To allow of a sufficient force 
being sent out at once, he recommended the 
calling out and embodying of the militia, and 
asked Ministers to make a declaration of their 
Indian policy, to avoid the necessity of again 
appealing to the country. “ If this is not done, 
I for one . will not shrink from responsibility. 
I will then appeal with confidence to an indig¬ 
nant people, and to a determined Parliament, 
and I will ask them with united energies to 
save an endangered empire. ” Lord John Russell 
proposed, as an amendment, an address to her 
Majesty assuring her of support—“ One of those 
dry constitutional platitudes,” said Mr. Disraeli 
in reply, “ which in a moment of difficulty the 
noble lord pulls out of the dusty pigeon-holes 
of his mind, and shakes in the perplexed face of 
the baffled House of Commons. He was not a 
stormy petrel, but the halcyon brooding on the 
waters, who, when the Government was in any 
difficulty, produced a card—a conciliatory card. 
It was one of those amendments which nobody 
can support, and nobody can oppose.” The 
amendment was carried without a division. 

23 .—Died, Lieut. James Holman, R.N., 
the blind traveller. 

29 . —Died at Paris, aged 54, Charles 
Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, cousin to the 
Emperor of the French, and an eminent 
naturalist. 

30 . —Thomas Pooley, a labourer inLiskeard, 
tried at Bodmin Assizes, for writing blasphemous 
expressions on public places in the neighbour¬ 
hood where he lived. He was found guilty, 
and sentenced to imprisonment for one year 
and nine months. Efforts being afterwards 
made for Pooley’s liberation, on the plea of 
insanity, Mr. Justice Coleridge wrote to the 
Home Office : “ There was not the slightest 
suggestion made to me of his being other than 
perlectly sane, nor was there anything in his 
demeanour at the trial, or in the conduct of his 
defence by himself, which indicated it; nor did 
I collect it from the manner in which he, as it 
seemed, habitually committed the offence. But 
I see no reason whatever why he should not 
receive a free pardon under the circumstances 
stated in your letter. Had I been informed of 
anything which had led me to inquire into his 
sanity, during the trial, it is probable I might 
have discovered enough to have led to an ac¬ 
quittal on the ground of insanity, which, on 
such a charge, I should have been very glad 
to have arrived at.” Pooley was thereafter 
pardoned. This case acquired some notoriety 
from a violent attack on Mr. Justice Coleridge’s 
decision by Mr. Buckle in an article in Fraser* s 
Magazine\ (See May 21, 1859.) 


31 .—After a debate, which extended over 
two nights—Mr. Gladstone making a long 
speech in opposition—the second reading of the 
Divorce Bill was carried by a majority of 208 
against 97. 

— Arrival of the Indian mail, with intelli¬ 
gence of the spread of the mutiny in Oude, and 
the continued resistance of the rebels in the 
city of Delhi up to the 16th June. Concerning 
the cruelties practised by Sepoys, the Times 
wrote: “We claim the confidence of our 
readers when we tell them that we have 
received letters from the seat of rebellion 
which inform us that these merciless fiends 
have treated our countrymen, and still worse 
our countrywomen and their children, in such 
a manner, that even men can scarcely hint to 
each other in whispers the awful details. ” 

August 1 . —General Havelock, finding him¬ 
self not strong enough to advance nearer Luck¬ 
now than Unao, where he had defeated the 
rebels on the 29th, and being besides encum¬ 
bered with sick and wounded, abandons the 
idea of relieving the Residency till reinforce-, 
ments should come up. He therefore fell back 
on Mungulwar, about six miles from the left or 
Oude side of the Ganges, opposite Cawnpore. 
In a communication made a few days after¬ 
wards to the commander-in-chief, he said that 
the enemy was in such force at Lucknow that to 
encounter him five marches from that position 
would be to court annihilation. On the 5th, 
and again on the 11 th, he attacked the rebels 
at Busherutgunge, and drove them out of the 
town with great loss. He then crossed to Cawn¬ 
pore, and uniting his wearied forces with those 
of General Neill, made another successful attack 
on the rebels near Bithoor, on the 17th, being 
the ninth engagement since the 12th July. 
The force was now reduced to 700 men in the 
field, exclusive of detachments which guarded 
the entrenchments at Cawnpore, and kept open 
communication with Allahabad. Before decid¬ 
ing to return to Cawnpore a letter was conveyed 
to the besieged garrison at Lucknow informing 
them of the advance of troops, and promising 
relief in five or six days. This welcome intelli¬ 
gence reached the garrison on the twenty-sixth 
day of the siege, and a messenger was instantly 
despatched to request that, on the evening of 
the arrival of the troops at the outskirts of the 
city, two rockets might be sent up in order that 
they might take the necessary measures for 
assisting them while forcing their way in. It 
was not till the 29th of August, thirty-five days 
later, that the besieged knew how the relieving 
force, after performing prodigies of valour, 
were compelled to turn back and await rein¬ 
forcements. 

— Explosion in the Flays Colliery near 
Ashton, causing the death of forty workmen. 

3 .—Lord Panmure introduces a bill, after¬ 
wards carried through both Houses, enabling 
Government to embody the militia without 
calling Parliament together. 


493 ) 







,A 170 US T 


J857. 


AUGUST 


3 . —Major Eyre defeats the Sepoy rebels, 
and the troops of the Rajah Koor Singh. On 
the 12th he took possession of the Rajah’s 
palace of Jugdapore. 

— Died at Annecy, Savoy, aged 56, Eugene 
Sue, author of “ The Wandering Jew ” and 
other romances. 

— The inhabitants of Calcutta meet to 
petition Parliament in favour of the transfer 
of the government of India from the East 
India Company to the Queen, with an open 
Legislative Council. 

5. —Fire in James’s Court, Edinburgh, de¬ 
stroying, among other interesting relics of the 
old town, the houses occupied by David Hume, 
Dr. Blair, and James Boswell. By this oc¬ 
currence no fewer than 150 poor people were 
thrown on the charity of the affluent. 

— Died, aged 71, the Right Rev. Charles 
James Blomfield, D.D., late Bishop of London. 

— The shore end of the Atlantic telegraph 
cable fixed at Valentia, in presence of the Lord 
Lieutenant. The vessels engaged in the service 
were the British Agamemnon, 91 guns, and the 
American frigate Niagara . On the morning 
of the 11th, when 300 miles had been sunk, 
Mr. Bright, the chief engineer, found it neces¬ 
sary to go on deck to learn the rate of progress 
the Niagara was making, and left the care of 
the break in the hands of one of his subordi¬ 
nates. Shortly after his departure the vessel 
gave a heavier pitch than usual, and the strain 
on the drum not having been sufficiently re¬ 
laxed, the cable snapped. This was fatal to 
the expedition. 

6 . —The Emperor and Empress of the French 
visit the Queen at Osborne. They remained 
four days, during which the utmost privacy was 
observed. 

— Tried at Paris, the Italians Tibaldi, Bar- 
tolotti, and Grilli, charged with being engaged 
in an attempt to assassinate the Emperor, 
planned by Mazzini, Ledru-Rollin, Campa- 
nella, and Massarenti. The confession of Grilli 
was principally relied on, supported as it was 
by the possession of arms, both on the part of 
himself and his accomplices. That prisoner 
said he was instructed by Mazzini to carry out 
this “affair of Paris,” as it was termed, by 
making himself acquainted with the habits of 
the Emperor, and striking the blow whenever 
he found a favourable opportunity. Tibaldi 
was sentenced to transportation and the two 
others to 15 years’ imprisonment. Mazzini, 
and the other reputed projectors, were after¬ 
wards tried in their absence, and sentenced to 
transportation. 

— In committee on the Divorce Bill, Mr. 
Drummond moves that the clause relating to 
the constitution of the Court be struck out, 
with the view of making the judge of the Court 
of Probate judge also in matrimonial causes, 
with an appeal to the Privy Council—suitors 
applying to the County Courts to have appeal 
only to the Court of Probate. This, he said, 
1494) 


would get rid of the objections to the original 
Court, and provide a cheap remedy to the 
poorer classes. Rejected by 139 to 80. 

7 . —James Spollen tried at Dublin for the 
murder of Mr. Little, the railway cashier, at the 
Broadstone station, on the 13th November last. 
The prisoner was employed at the station, and 
had access to the different apartments. It was 
established in evidence—partly by his own child¬ 
ren—that he was close to the cashier’s room 
on the night in question ; that he was seen to 
carry away from it some round thing wrapped 
in a bag; that he secreted this in the top of a 
chimney in the grease house; that the stolen 
money was found there, wrapped in a piece of 
calico taken off one of his children’s bonnets ; 
and that a razor discovered by the police, with 
which the wounds might have been inflicted, 
was the prisoner’s property. Evidence of a 
secondary nature was also adduced to show 
that Mrs. Spollen knew of her husband’s guilt, 
but was not permitted to hold intercourse with 
any one prior to her death, which took place 
about a week before his apprehension. Spol- 
len’s own declarations accounting for his move¬ 
ments that night agreed neither with each 
other nor with the evidence. After a trial 
extending over six days, the jury, to the 
amazement of many in court, brought in a 
verdict of Not Guilty. Spollen afterwards came 
before the public as a lecturer on the myste¬ 
rious murder, but public indignation against 
him was so strong that he was compelled to 
withdraw from the platform. 

— In committee on the Divorce Bill, Mr. 
Gladstone made an elaborate speech against 
Clause 25, providing that on adultery of wife 
or incest of husband petitions for dissolution 
of marriages might be presented. “You are 
going, ” he said, ‘ ‘ to give the remedy of divorce 
to women in cases where the husband is guilty 
of adultery, provided that it be combined with 
cruelty, such as would procure an ecclesiastical 
divorce in an ecclesiastical court. Now, what 
is the meaning of cruelty ? I have made some 
inquiries on this matter, and I understand that 
there is no doubt whatever among the highest 
ecclesiastical authorities, in accordance with the 
dictum of Lord Stowell, that cruelty for which 
divorce is to be given in those courts must 
import danger to life, limb, or health, or a 
reasonable apprehension of such danger. Is 
that the only kind of cruelty which prevails in 
civilized society? Is that the only kind of 
cruelty which finds it! way into the hearts of 
educated and refined women? Is not the 
cruelty of insult just as gross, just as wicked, 
just as abominable, as the cruelty of mere 
force ? and is not that a very common kind of 
case ? Is it not too notorious that there exists 
a multitude of instances in which no remedy 
has been sought for, or none granted, by our 
law—instances in which the adulteries of the 
husband have not only been occasional, but 
continuous—not only continuous, but open— 
not only open, but committed under his very 
roof, and in connexion with persons placed in 







august 


AUGUST 


1857. 


the closest relations with the wife ? And is not 
the insult inflicted in these cases one which 
sends the iron into the soul as deeply and far 
more sharply than any material instrument can 
send it into the body ? On what principle, then, 
is it that you give a remedy to .the wife in a 
case of bodily cruelty on the part of the hus¬ 
band, while where the cruelty is directed to 
the soul, though this may inflict tenfold greater 
torture, you declare there shall be no remedy 
at all ? ” On a division, the clause, as originally 
proposed, was carried by 125 to 65. 

10. —The vacancy in the representation of 
Birmingham, caused by the death of Mr. 
Muntz, filled up by the election of Mr. John 
Bright, in his absence. 

— Died at Hampton, aged 76, the Right Hon¬ 
ourable J. W. Croker, for many years secretary 
to the Admiralty, and one of the’projectors of 
the Quarterly Review, to which he contributed 
many caustic articles. 

11 . —Mr. Sullivan, the British Minister at 
Lima, shot in his own house by an unknown 
assassin, who succeeded in making his escape. 

12 . —Colonel Inglis writes to General Have¬ 
lock from the beleaguered fortress of Lucknow: 
—“It is quite impossible, with my weak and 
shattered force, that I can leave my defences. 
You must bear in mind how I am hampered, 
that I have upwards of 120 sick and wounded, 
and at least 220 women, and about 230 child¬ 
ren, and no carriage of any description, besides 
sacrificing 23 lacs of treasure, and about 30 
guns of all sorts. In consequence of the news 
received, I shall put this force on half rations. 
Our provisions will last us then till about the 
10th of September. If you hope to save this 
force, no time must be lost in pushing forward. 
We are daily being attacked by the enemy, 
who are within a few yards of our defences. 
Their mines have already weakened our post, 
and I have every reason to believe they are 
carrying on others. Their 18-pounders are 
within 150 yards of some of our batteries, and 
from their position, and our inability to form 
working parties, we cannot reply to them, and, 
therefore, the damage is very great. My 
strength now in Europeans is 350, and 300 
natives, and the men dreadfully harassed : 
owing to part of the Residency having been 
brought dov/n by round shot, many are without 
shelter. If our native force, who are losing 
confidence, leave us, I do not know how the 
defences are to be manned.” This letter reached 
General Havelock at Cawnpore on the 23d. 

13 - —The calm summer weather was, after 
a long continuance, rudely put an end to by a 
succession of violent and destructive thunder¬ 
storms. They came sweeping from the south¬ 
west, and spread their ravages principally 
over the central and south-eastern districts of 
England. 

14 - .—The Louvre, commenced in-1541 by 
Francis L, inaugurated with great ceremony by 
the Emperor of the French. 


14 .—Sir Colin Campbell, the newly ap¬ 
pointed Commander-in-chief of the Indian army, 
arrives at Calcutta. On the 17th he issued an 
address to the army, expressing his confidence 
that they would continue to be courag ous, 
faithful, obedient, and enduring, and so secure 
the return of tranquillity and prosperity. 

20 . —Captain Heury Rogers, of the British 
ship Martha Jane , the mate Miles, and second 
mate Seymour, tried at Liverpool Assizes for 
the murder of Andrew Rose, a seaman shipped 
at Barbadoes, between the ntn May and 
the 5th June. The cruelties to which Rose had 
been subjected by the ship’s officers were of 
the most severe and revolting description—beat¬ 
ing him with rods, hanging him with ropes, 
starving him in a barrel over the ship’s side, 
baiting him with dogs, and finally thrusting his 
own excrement down his throat. When death 
relieved the wretched sufferer, he was such a 
mass of sores that none of the crew would touch 
him, but dragged the body along the deck with 
ropes and threw it overboard. These facts were 
fully proved in all their horrible details by 
the crew ; and a verdict of Guilty was returned 
against the prisoners. The punishment of 
the first and second mate was subsequently 
commuted to transportation for life, but Cap¬ 
tain Rogers was executed at Liverpool, on the 
nth September, in the presence of a crowd 
of people calculated at 50,000. 

— Wreck of the clipper ship Dunbar off 
Sydney Head. In a night of unusual dark¬ 
ness, with heavy squalls, Captain Green ap¬ 
peared to be unable to make out his exact 
position, and in bearing up, as he thought, for 
the harbour, the vessel ran on to the rocks 
under the Head Light, and went to pieces 
almost instantly. Of the passengers and crew, 
numbering in all 122, only one was saved, this 
solitary survivor being thrown upon the ledge 
of a rock, where he contrived to maintain his 
footing for thirty hours ; the Sydney pilots by 
that time were made aware of the wreck, and 
drew him up with a rope to the summit of the 
rock, a distance of 200 feet. 

— The Divorce Bill read a third time in the 
House of Commons, and taken up to the 
Lords, where Lord Redesdale at once moved 
‘ ‘ That the Commons’ amendments be discussed 
that day six months.” It was found that this 
motion could not be put in the absence of the 
ordinary notice, and the discussion of the 
amended clauses was proceeded with and agreed 
to, with trifling exceptions, the bill being finally 
passed by the Commons on the 25th. 

21 . —News arrives that Delhi had not been 
taken ; that General Barnard and Sir H. Law¬ 
rence were dead ; that the whole of the troops 
in Oude had mutinied; and that the rumours 
regarding the massacre of Europeans at Cawn¬ 
pore had greatly understated the calamity. 
The intelligence caused the most intense 
excitement. The funds, however, remained 
unaffected, at 90J to 9of. The feeling of 
horror and indignation was heightened to a 











AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1857- 


most painful degree of intensity by the Times' 
private despatch five days later “ Sir Hugh 
Wheeler has been killed at Cawnpore. The 
garrison, pressed by famine, surrendered the 
place to Nana Sahib, by whom, in violation of 
his solemn promise, all were massacred. ” (See 
July 15, 1857.) 

23 . —A series of riots between Protestants, 
and Roman Carholics commence at Belfast, 
which leads the Lord Lieutenant to place the 
town under the operation of the Crime and 
Outrage Act. The most prominent zealot ap¬ 
peared to be Hanna, a Protestant preacher, 
who, in the course of the disturbances, issued a 
violent address to his followers announcing his 
intention to persevere “ in the vindication of 
their blood-bought and cherished rights.” The 
assaults mostly took place in the evening, and 
each party being plentifully provided with guns, 
the firing was frequent and serious. The mili¬ 
tary and constabulary were on active duty for 
about a fortnight endeavouring to suppress the 
feud. A Commission was appointed by Govern¬ 
ment to inquire into the cause and extent of the 
disturbance, as well as to suggest measures to 
prevent a repetition. 

24 . —The screw steamer Clyde lost on the 
Paraguettes, Gulf of St. Lawrence, on her 
voyage from Quebec to Glasgow. Crew and 
passengers saved, and taken into the Hudson 
Bay Company’s port at Mingou. 

25 . —Meeting at the Mansion House to 
organize an Indian Relief Fund. By next 
night’s post the Lord Mayor was able to send 
out 20,000 rupees in aid of the suffering sol¬ 
diers, women, and children. The Queen, with 
Prince Albert and the Duchess of Kent, sub¬ 
scribed 1,400/; the Emperor Napoleon 1,000/., 
accompanied with 400/. from the Imperial 
Guard ; and the Sultan, 1,000/. The Indian 
Relief Fund ultimately reached a very large 
sum, England and Wales subscribing 285,000/., 
Scotland, 10,276/., and Ireland, 22,696/. Up 
to February 1858 there was received a total 
of 342,929/. There had been then sent to 
Calcutta, 41,049/., Bombay, 15,428/., Agra, 
10,356/., Oude, 5,178/., Delhi, 5 , 344 ^, Lahore, 
6,000/., and the Lawrence Asylum, 2,000/. 
About 8,000/. was granted to sufferers in this 
country. 

26 . —Died at Edinburgh, Mrs. Johnstone, 
author of “ Meg Dods’ Cookery,” “Clan 
Albyn,” and many other works. 

28 .—•Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
Tht Royal Speech referred to the present peace¬ 
able stat-e of Europe, the delay in fulfilling the 
stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, the barbarities 
inflicted on her Majesty’s subjects in India, the 
redemption of the Sound Dues, and other Acts 
passed during the session. The House of 
Commons this session sat 116 days, the average 
duration of each sitting being over seven hours. 

September 2 .—The Glasgow Polytechnic 
Institution destroyed by fire, Watt’s first steam 
engine being among the curiosities lost. 

( 496 ) 


5.—Died, aged 59, Auguste Comte, a French 
metaphysician and philosopher, founder of the 
Positive School. 

7 . —Died at Brighton, aged 76, Sir Charles 
. Mansfield Clarke, a distinguished ornament of 

the medical profession. 

8 . —The Evangelical Alliance commences 
its sittings at Berlin. The members visited the 
King on the nth by invitation, when he ex¬ 
pressed a hope that the “ period of their inter¬ 
course might be as that of the disciples after 
the first day of Pentecost.” 

— Circular issued from the Horse Guards, 
detailing the qualifications necessary on the 
part of gentlemen desirous of obtaining com¬ 
missions in the line by raising 100 recruits. 

IO.—The Rt. Hon. T. B. Macaulay gazetted 
Baron Macaulay, of Rothley, in the county of 
Leicester : “an honour,” said the Times , “which 
belongs peculiarly to the man, aind which is a 
fitting if not an adequate return for a life spent 
in the public service and devoted to literary 
labour of the most dignified order. ” 

12 .—The steamship Central America foun¬ 
dered during a gale in the Gulf of Mexico, 
carrying with her between 400 and 500 persons, \; 
and specie to the value of 2,500,000 dollars. 
The vessel got disabled two days before, and, 
though heroic attempts were made by the of¬ 
ficers, and indeed by all on board, to get her 
once more head on, she was the most of this 
day drifting helplessly about the Gulf. The 
Marine —herself greatly damaged—sighted the 
sinking ship, and, with the consent of all on 
board—many of them rough Californian miners 
—managed to take off the women and children. 
When the last boat had gone, a terrific sea 
broke over the steamer, and she plunged and 
sank with all on board. Of these only a few 
survivors were picked up, three of them being 
found in a most miserable condition on a feeble 
raft 600 miles from the scene of the catastrophe. 

— Mr. Wilson, his son and two daughters, 
drowned at Dunbar, the two latter while bathing, 
and the former in attempting a rescue. 

16 .—General Sir James Outram joins Have¬ 
lock with reinforcements at Cawnpore. In 
gratitude, he said, for the admiration of the 
brilliant deeds of arms achieved by General 
Havelock and his gallant troops, he would 
waive his own rank and accompany the force 
to Lucknow in his civil capacity, as Chief 
Commissioner of Oude, tendering his military 
services as a volunteer. The march com¬ 
menced on the 19th, the entire relieving force 
consisting of two Infantry and one Artillery 
Brigade, amounting altogether to about 2,500 
men and 17 guns. They came upon the 
enemy in position at Mungulwar, and, after an 
obstinate conflict of four hours, completely 
routed them, and captured four guns. The 
next encounter was at Alumbagh, on the 24th, 
where our troops were also successful. 

18 .—Antonio de Salvi placed at the bar of 






SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1857. 


the Central Criminal Court for the murder of 
Robert Henderson Robertson, by stabbing him 
in the neck with a small knife, during an in¬ 
terview in the Queen’s Prison relative to the 
settlement of a debt due to the prisoner. He 
had previously been tried and sentenced to 
fifteen years’ penal servitude for wounding 
with intent to do grievous bodily harm ; but 
as Robertson died the day after the trial, De 
Salvi was now arraigned on the capital charge. 
He first pleaded not guilty, but afterwards sub¬ 
stituted a plea of autrefois acquit , on the ground 
that, as the jury at his former trial had ac¬ 
quitted him of the intent to murder, he could 
not be tried again on an indictment which 
involved the same intent. The case was ad¬ 
journed to the next sitting of the Court on the 
30th October, when the judges overruled the 
plea on the ground that it only applied when 
the second charge was entirely identical with 
the former one. De Salvi was found guilty of 
manslaughter, and sentenced to fifteen years’ 
penal servitude, the time to be reckoned from 
the date of the second conviction. 

20 . —Capture of Delhi. The besieging force, 
composed almost exclusively of such troops as 
could be collected in the Punjaub and North¬ 
west, received the long looked-for siege-train 
from Meerut on the 4th. No time was lost in 
arming our batteries, and in order, to over¬ 
come the fire from the walls in front of the 
intended attack, fifty-four siege guns were placed 
in position in different batteries. Fire was 
opened on the 1 ith; two days afterwards the 
Cashmere Gate was blown up, the feat being 
accomplished by a handful of brave men in the 
face of what seemed certain annihilation. Dur¬ 
ing the next few days a determined opposition 
was kept up in the city, and our troops were 
able only slowly to make good their progress ; 
but on the morning of this day they got pos¬ 
session of the Lahore Gate, and then gradually 
advanced upon the other bastions and gates, 
until the whole of the external defences of Delhi 
were in our hands. The King fled from the 
palace, and nearly the whole of the rebels 
rushed in confusion out of the city, across the 
bridge of boats into the Doab, abandoning their 
camp-property, many of their sick and wounded, 
and the greater part of their field-artillery. 
General Wilson established his head quarters 
in the palace, about noon. In the evening the 
health of Queen Victoria was drunk in the 
Dewan i-Khos, or chief hall of the Palace of 
the Great Mogul. The old King was cap¬ 
tured next day, and two of his sons shot, by 
Lieutenant Hodson. 

21 . —Freedom of the city of Edinburgh pre¬ 
sented to Dr. Livingstone, African traveller. 

22. —Died, aged 53, Daniel Manin, Italian 
patriot. 

23 . —“Revival meetings,” or gatherings of 
excited people to engage in religious exercises, 
are observed to become common iq the United 
$tates. 

( 497 ) 


24 . —The Great Northern express-train from 
Manchester to London runs off the rails on the 
viaduct crossing the Newark and Tuxfoid road. 
Five passengers killed. 

— A Royal Proclamation issued command 
ing a solemn fast on the 7th day of October, in 
consideration of ‘ ‘ the grievous mutiny and dis¬ 
turbances which have broken out in India.” 

25 . —General Havelock relieves the garrison 
at Lucknow, after being besieged by the rebel 
Sepoys for eighty-seven days. The fighting 
during the day was so severe that at nightfall 
Sir James Outram proposed to halt till morn¬ 
ing, within the courts of the Meha], “ But,” 
writes General Havelock, ‘ ‘ I esteemed it to be 
of such importance to let the beleaguered garri¬ 
son know that succour was at hand, that with 
his ultimate sanction I directed the main body 
of the 78th Highlanders, and the Regiment of 
Ferozepore, to advance. This column rushed 
on with a desperate gallantry, led by Sir James 
Outram and myself, and Lieuts. Hudson and 
Hargood of my staff, through streets of flat- 
roofed loopholed houses, from which a per¬ 
petual fire was kept up, and, overcoming every 
obstacle, established itself within the enclosure 
of the Residency. The joy of the garrison 
may be more easily conceived than described ; 
but it was not till the next evening that the 
whole of my troops, guns, tumbrils, and sick 
and wounded, continually exposed to the at¬ 
tacks of the enemy, could be brought step by 
step within this enceinte and the adjacent palace 
of the Fureed Buksh. To form an adequate 
idea of the obstacles overcome, reference must 
be made to the events that are known to have 
occurred at Buenos Ayres and Saragossa. 
Our advance was through streets of houses 
such, as I have described, and thus each forming 
a separate fortress. I am filled with surprise at 
the success of the operation, which demanded 
the efforts of 10,000 good troops. The advantage 
gained has cost us dear. The killed, wounded, 
and missing—the latter being wounded soldiers, 
who, I much fear, some or all, have fallen into 
the hands of a merciless foe—amounted, up to 
the evening of the 26th, to 535 officers and 
men.” Amongst those who were killed was 
General Neill, shot dead by a bullet, than 
whom no better or braver soldier fell in India 
this year. Although the beleaguered garrison 
at the Residency was thus nominally relieved, 
it was impossible to extricate the helpless mass 
of women and children, and non-combatants, 
from their perilous position by attempting to 
march back upon Cawnpore. The Generals, 
therefore, determined to remain at Lucknow, 
strengthening the garrison by the troops they 
had brought, and to waft until Sir Colin Camp¬ 
bell, the new Commander-in-chief, should come 
up and secure their safety. (See Nov. 17.) 

— Interview at Stuttgard between the Em¬ 
perors of France and Russia. 

27 ,—Colonel Greathead defeats the Sepoy 
rebels Bolundshohur, and two days after¬ 
wards destroyed a fort at Molaghur. 

K K 





SEPTEMBER 


OCTOBER 


1857 


30 .—William Reid, late teller, and Thomas 
Gentles, accountant, in the Commercial Bank 
at Falkirk, sentenced to eighteen months’ im¬ 
prisonment, for aiding Henry Salmon, manager, 
in schemes for appropriating the money of the 
bank to his own use. When examining the 
books in May last, the inspector discovered a 
deficiency of between 25,000/. and 30,000/. ; 
Salmon then absconded, and committed suicide 
by hanging himself in a stable at Conway. 

October 1 . —Interview at Weimar between 
the Emperors of Russia and Austria. 

2.—Discovery of the great tea frauds per¬ 
petrated in Belfast by the person trading under 
the name of John James Moore and Co. The 
bonded warehouse where Moore stored the tea 
consigned to him adjoined his own premises, 
and when the outer gate of the latter was shut 
the warehouse was enclosed from observation. 
To the back of this warehouse Moore had a 
false key, and, when the business of the day 
was over, and the gate shut, his habit was to 
enter with his assistants, remove what chests 
suited him, and replace them by his own old 
chests filled with bricks or turf to the marked 
weight. The scheme, known to customers as 
well as assistants, was in operation for about 
twelve months, and tea valued at from 10,000/. 
to 12,000/. had been removed. The proceed¬ 
ings of the authorities were so dilatory that 
Moore succeeded in making his escape. 

7 .—The national fast and humiliation ap¬ 
pointed for this day was observed with general 
and deep solemnity. In the Crystal Palace a 
sermon was preached to an immense assembly 
by the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon. 

9 .—Discovery of human remains on one of 
the abutments of Waterloo-bridge. In the 
grey of the early morning two lads rowing up 
the river discovered a carpet-bag locked and 
corded, with a considerable portion of the cord 
hanging down into the water. The boys car¬ 
ried off what they believed to be a prize, but 
when the bag was opened it was found to con¬ 
tain the mutilated fragments of a human body. 
Twenty pieces of what had recently been a 
living creature were exposed to view. Limbs 
had been sawn into bits, flesh hacked from 
the bones, the trunk was disembowelled, and 
the head wanting. A quantity of clothing, 
bloody and pierced as if with a dagger, was also 
in the bag, but no marks left on them by which 
they could be identified. The remains were 
removed to Bow-street Police-station, and a 
minute investigation made. It was at first 
thought that the whole affair was a joke on the 
part of some medical students, but the reports 
of Mr. Poynter, the divisional surgeon, and 
Professor Taylor upset this hypothesis. The 
conclusions of the latter were as follow :—“ 1. 
The remains are those of a person of the male 
sex, of adult age, and in stature of at least 5 
feet 9 inches. That they present no physiolo¬ 
gical or pathological peculiarities by which 
they can be identified. The only fact ob- 
1498) 


servable under this head is, that the portions ol 
skin remaining are thickly covered with dark 
hairs on the wrist and right knee, and that 
the deceased was therefore probably a dark 
hairy man. 2. That the remains present no 
mark of disease or of violent injury inflicted 
during life, with the exception of one stab in 
the space between the third and fourth ribs on 
the left side of the chest. This stab was in a 
situation to penetrate the heart and to cause 
dea h. It presents the character of a stab in¬ 
flicted on a person either living or recently 
dead. 3. That the remains have not been 
dissected or used for the purposes of anatomy. 
All those parts which are useful to the anato¬ 
mist have been roughly severed and destroyed 
by a person or persons quite ignorant of the 
anatomical relations of parts. They have- been 
cut and sawn before the rigidity of death had 
ceased, i.e. in from eighteen to twenty-four 
hours after death, and in this state have been 
partially boiled and subsequently salted. The 
body of the deceased has not been laid out or 
attended like that of a person dying from 
natural causes, which body might be lawfully 
used for anatomical purposes. 4. That the 
person of whose body these remains are a part 
may have been dead for a period of three or 
four weeks prior to the date at which they were 
examined by me—namely, on the 21st of Oc¬ 
tober.” With regard to the other contents of 
the bag, he thought that the person who wore 
the clothes must have been subjected to great 
violence ; that blood had flowed from the 
body while alive ; that the corpse had become 
rigid and the limbs contracted before the j 
clothes were removed ; and that it was pro- I 
bable the clothes were those of the man under j 
examination. Government offered a reward of j 
300/. for the discovery of the supposed mur- 
derer ; but no information was ever obtained i 
regarding the identity of the remains, or the ; 
person who had dropped them over the j 
bridge. 

IO.—Died near Paris, aged 54, General 
Cavaignac, military Dictator during the Re- | 
volution of 1848. 

12 . —The anxiously expected telegram, in 
anticipation of the Overland Mail, published i 
this morning, announces that “ The safety of 
the garrison of Lucknow might be looked upon j 
as perfectly secured.” 

— The first meeting of a new body calling : 
itself the Social Science Association held in 
Birmingham, under the presidency of Lord 
Brougham. (See Index, Association.) 

13 . —New York experiences a commercial 
panic of such unexampled severity as to lead to 
the fall of eighteen banks in one day, and the 
breaking up of many old mercantile firms and 
great railway companies. 

15 .—Arrival of the Indian mail, with news 
from Delhi to the 29th August, and from 
Lucknow to the 2d September. 







OCTOBER 


1 857. 


NOVEMBER 


17 .—Exhibition of Art Treasures at Man¬ 
chester closed. The entire number of visitors 
was 1,335,000, and the receipts 100,000/. The 
expenditure was 4,000/. over the income, but 
against the deficiency there was the Exhibition 
building. 

23 . —In consequence of the severe illness of 
Frederick William IV. of Prussia, the Crown 
Prince is appointed Regent for three months. 
The period was afterwards extended to em¬ 
brace the King’s life. 

24 . —Accident to the bell “Big Ben” of 
Westminster. On ringing, as was customary, 
for a short time at one o’clock on Saturdays, it 
was noticed that the tone was not the old 
familiar E, but a cracked uncertain sound. 
On examining minutely, with a lighted candle, 
a crack was noticed to extend from the rim 
about half-way up the side. The bell, 
since its arrival, had been kept in a tem¬ 
porary position, and when the accident oc¬ 
curred every preparation was completed for 
hoisting it to its proper lofty eminence in the 
Clock Tower. 

26 . —News received at the Foreign Office of 
the fall of Delhi. The funds advanced 4 ; but 
untoward commercial intelligence from New 
York was adverse to any activity in the money 
market. 

-— A new Ministry formed in Spain under 
Admiral Armero. 

27 . —Tried at the Central Criminal Court 
Thomas Diamond Evans, formerly a clerk in 
the Submarine Telegraph Company, and Cap- 
lain Henry Thome, on the charge of con¬ 
spiring to obtain money from the Hon. F. W. 
Cadogan, Deputy-Chairman of the Company, 
by threatening to send to the Times for publi¬ 
cation a letter accusing him of tampering with 
the telegraphic messages for the private benefit 
of himself or friends. The prisoner pleaded a 
justification, and sought to show that the accu¬ 
sation against Mr. Cadogan was well-founded. 
In examination the latter admitted that he was 
frequently in the instrument-room, and had 
looked at messages on various occasions, but 
never used them to any private advantage. 
He had on one occasion, and one only, given 
precedence to a message sent by Baron Roths¬ 
child, but it was in order that it might reach 
a distant part of Europe that day, and did not 
relate to Funds. The jury returned a verdict 
of Guilty upon the counts charging conspi¬ 
racy and attempt to extort,. and the Recorder 
passed a sentence of twelve months’ imprison¬ 
ment upon each of the prisoners. 

28 . —Lord Brougham entertained at a ban¬ 
quet, in Penrith, “to commemorate his eminent 
services in the cause of educational and social 
improvement. ” 

29 . —A tiger, in the course of conveyance 
from the London Docks to the premises 
of Mr. Jamrach, a dealer in animals, burst out 

( 499 ) 


of the van and attacks a boy in the street. One 
of the attendants overpowered the brute with 
a crowbar, and got it back to the cage. The 
boy recovered, and brought an action against 
the owner, his counsel pleading in aggravation 
that the tiger was Then being exhibited as the 
one “that ate the boy in the Minories.” 

29 . —The ancient church of St. Deniol, Ha- 
warden, destroyed by fire, supposed to be the 
work of an incendiary. 

30 . —Died at Basildon Park, Berkshire, aged 
68 years, James Morrison, of Morrison and 
Dillon, Fore-street, who by perseverance and 
enterprise had raised himself from the humble 
post of porter to an influential position in the 
House of Commons, and the possession of a 
fortune reported to amount to the enormous 
sum of four millions sterling. 

— Lord Shaftesbury, speaking at Wimborne, 
in aid of the Indian Relief Fund, refers in 
pointed terms to the reserve exhibited by the 
press in alluding to the cruelties practised on 
our children and countrywomen by the Sepoys, 
as tending to lessen the sympathy and assistance 
now solicited. He had himself, he said, seen a 
letter from the highest lady now in India de¬ 
scribing a case in which parents were forced 
to swallow portions of their own children pre¬ 
vious to being burnt themselves over a slow 
fire. Lord Shaftesbury afterwards explained 
that he had not seen, but only heard concerning 
a letter from Lady Canning making reference 
to the above atrocities. 

November 1 . —At Kadjwa, 24 miles dis¬ 
tant from Futtehpore, the English naval bri¬ 
gade under Captain Peel, along with a small 
military force under Captain Powell, defeats a 
large force of rebel Sepoys. 

3 .—First attempt to launch the Leviathan 
from the yard of Mr. Scott Russell at Millwall. 
At half-past one o’clock the daughter of the 
Chairman of the Company, Miss Hope, ap¬ 
peared, and, dashing a bottle of wine on the 
bows, bade the Leviathan God speed, amid 
the cheers of thousands assembled about the 
works and on the river. The huge mass at 
first showing no signs of moving, powerful 
rams were applied, which pushed her forward 
three or four feet; but even they latterly failed 
to have any effect, and the launch was not com¬ 
pleted till months had elapsed, and the aid of 
almost every appliance of mechanical art tested. 
Some days she was moved a few inches with 
comparatively little strain, and on others she 
remained immovable with all that could be 
applied. On one occasion a hydraulic ram gave 
way at a pressure of 12,000 lbs. to the square 
inch. When she had been brought to a point 
where she sat in from eight to ten feet at 
high water, it was thought advisable to suspend 
further operations till the high tides of January 
could materially assist the final effort. 

5.—The Non-Regent House, Cambridge, 

K K 2 








NOVEMBER 


NO VEMBER 


1S57. 


by a majority of 73 to 20, reject the proposal 
of the Council to abolish the Heresy Board. 

6 . —Massacre of European missionaries at 
Terra del Fuego. The natives rose upon them 
during divine service, and having put them to 
death with clubs, took possession of the mis¬ 
sion ship, the Allen Gardiner , which had 
brought the party from the Falkland Isles. 
The cook was the only one who escaped, and 
he was kept and treated with kindness by 
the savages till a ship appeared in the oiling, 
when he was sent aboard. 

7 . —Freedom of the City of London pre¬ 
sented to the Duke of Cambridge. He was 
afterwards entertained by the Lord Mayor in 
the Mansion House. 

9 . —Sir Colin Campbell, who had hurried 
up from Calcutta, as soon as the work of 
organization was completed, starts from 
Cawnpore with reinforcements to effect the 
release of the Lucknow garrison. By a rapid 
march he joined the troops under General 
Hope Grant about six miles from the Alum- 
bagh on the same day He waited there for 
more reinforcements until the 12th, when he ad¬ 
vanced ; and, after a short skirmish with a body 
of rebels who attacked his vanguard, and the 
capture of their guns, he reached the Alum- 
bagh in the evening, and pitched his camp 
close to the place. 

— Failure of the Western Bank of Scot¬ 
land. This, the forerunner of a series of com¬ 
mercial disasters of unusual magnitude, was 
reported, in the first instance, to be owing to 
the disarrangements of American commerce, 
and the consequent absence of the usual remit¬ 
tances from that country. Further and exact 
inquiry showed that the Bank had for years 
been in an insolvent condition, owing to the 
immense advances made by the late manager to 
speculating firms whose assets were of a merely 
nominal character. On the 24th June, when 
the last annual report was issued, the profits 
for the preceding year were represented to be 
145,826/. $s. 6 d., and a dividend of 9 percent, 
was paid, absorbing 135,000/. ; the balance, 
10,826/. 5-r. 6d., was carried to the “rest,” 
then put down at 226,776/. 3s. 3 d. The 

bank was experiencing serious difficulties all 
through the summer and autumn. On the 
17th October, the Directors, “having taken 
into consideration the alarming financial posi¬ 
tion of the Bank, consequent on the mismanage¬ 
ment of their affairs by Mr. Taylor, the late 
manager, deputed James Dunlop, Esq., one 
of their numbers, to go to Edinburgh, and 
ask assistance from the Bank of Scotland in 
the present emergency, explaining to Mr. 
Blair, the treasurer, at the same time, the state 
of the Western Bank.” The required assist¬ 
ance was refused, except to a limited extent, 
and on the condition that the business of the 
bank was wound up. Various other proposals 
were made by the Western directorate, from 
time to time, during the next three weeks, 
tioo) 


without resulting in anything ; and the final 
request for 1,000,000/., made on the 6th 
November, was of so speculative a character 
that the Edinburgh banks were unanimously 
of opinion it could not be entertained. The 
Western Bank, unwilling to succumb, managed 
to tide on till Monday the 9th, when a 
telegraphic message from Edit burgh inform¬ 
ing the Directors that the banks there an tiered 
to their original resolution led to a closing 
of the doors at two o’clock. The occurrence 
caused the wildest excitement in the city, and 
next day, when the other banks opened, a 
“run” was commenced upon them, which 
threatened to end in the most disastrous re¬ 
sults. By the timely arrival of gold from 
London they were all able to satisfy the de¬ 
mands upon them, with the exception of the 
City of Glasgow, which shut its doors on the 
nth, and for a few weeks suspended pay¬ 
ment. Several attempts were made and meet¬ 
ings held, both by shareholders and depositors, 
for the purpose of resuscitating the Western 
Bank Company, but their intentions received 
a sudden check when, on the 17th December, 
a committee of inquiry made public the alarm¬ 
ing statement, that the estimated loss on the 
whole operations of the bank amounted to 
2,020,584 1 . The total liabilities amounted to 
8,911,932/. 

10. —-Serious fluctuation in the Funds. On 
the 4th general dulness prevailed, Consols 
opening at 89^ to f ; a struggle was made 
against the depression, but the rise on the 
following day in the rates of discount to 9 per 
cent, brought them down to 87-f-, the lowest 
point reached during the week. A recovery, 
however, immediately commenced, and they 
closed on the 7th at 88f- to £. The further rise 
in the rate of discount and the Glasgow failures 
caused a temporary fall of ^ per cent, on the 
9th, but to-day the public becoming large 
buyers, an absolute buoyancy set in, and having 
touched 89J they closed at 89 for money. On 
the nth, the announcement of the fall of the 
house of Sandeman, and other great commercial 
disasters, brought Consols down to 884. 

— The Master of the Rolls gives judgment 
in the case of Swinfen v. Swinfen, in which 
the question raised was how far the principal 
to a suit could be bound by a compromise 
entered into without plaintiff’s consent by her 
counsel, with or without the tacit, implied, 
or expressed authority of her attorney. His 
Honour was of opinion, that no case had been 
made out for specific performance of the com¬ 
promise entered into by Sir Frederick Thesiger, j 
but the case must be sent back to a law court 
to try the issue, devisavit vel non. (See July 4, 
I859-) 

11. —Burning of the transport ship Sarah 
Sands , about 400 miles oft the Mauritius. She 
had on board upwards of 300 rank and file of 
the 54th Regiment. When the fire was first 
observed in the after-hold among the Govern¬ 
ment stores, every effort was made to reach 








NOVEMBER 


1857. 


NOVEMBER 


its seat, but without avail; the most that could 
be done to save the vessel from instant destruc¬ 
tion was to clear out the magazine in the same 
quarter of the vessel. All was got out except 
two barrels of powder, which in exploding 
blew away the port quarter of the ship, and 
spread the flames from the main rigging to 
the stern. The bulk-head fortunately with¬ 
stood the shock, and enabled the brave people 
crowded forward to play the water with such 
effect on the burning mass as to prevent it 
spreading beyond midships. Rafts were pre¬ 
pared, and the boats launched with the utmost 
order by the crew, while the soldiers mus¬ 
tered on deck to be told off for special 
duties with as much order as if on the parade 
ground. After the fire had been raging for 
twenty-four hours, it showed signs of abatement, 
and was completely extinguished by daylight 
next morning. The wind getting up, a battle 
now commenced with the waves to keep the 
ship afloat, by passing hawsers under her 
bottom, and stopping up the yawning hole in 
the port quarter with sails and blankets. The 
desperate fight for life was continued without 
intermission till the evening of the 13th, when 
the sea moderated a little, and permitted the 
vessel to be trimmed to the wind. After eight 
days’ sail, under the unceasing directions of 
the commander, Captain Castle, the wreck 
reached the Mauritius without the loss of a 
single life. 

12 . —In the metropolis, and throughout the 
large seats of manufacturing industry, the com¬ 
mercial pressure is so severe as to lead Govern¬ 
ment to suspend, for a time, the operation of the 
Bank Charter Act of 1844. The failure of bank¬ 
ing companies and private firms was of a mag¬ 
nitude hitherto unheard of. The estimated 
liabilities of a few of the more important were :— 
Liverpool Borough Bank, 5,000,000/.; Nor¬ 
thumberland and Durham, 3,000,000/. ; Wol¬ 
verhampton, 1,000,000/. ; Sanderson, Sande- 
man, and Co., 5,298,997/. ; Dennistone and 
Co., 2,143,701/. From the statement of affairs 
made by 146 firms and 5 banks, the total 
liabilities might be set down at 41,427,569/., 
and the deficiency at 7,754,900/. On the 8th 
of October, the bank rate of discount stood at 
54 per cent. ; it was then raised to 6. On the 
12th, to 7 ; the funds then falling 14 per cent. 
On the 19th, discount was 8 per cent. ; and 
on the 4th of November it advanced to the 
unprecedented rate of 9 per cent. On the 
nth, the bullion in the Bank had diminished 
to 7,171,000/.; while the notes in circulation, 
and liabilities of the Bank on private de¬ 
posits and securities, amounted to 60,000,000/. 
The applications for discount at the Bank 
were now greater than at any former period, 
and the demand for gold for country banks 
incessant and large. In these threatening cir¬ 
cumstances the following letter was to-day for¬ 
warded to the Governor and Deputy-Governor 
of the Bank of England:—“Her Majesty’s 
Government have observed, with great concern, 
the serious consequences which have ensued 


from the failure of several joint-stock banks in 
England and Scotland, as well as several large 
mercantile houses, chiefly connected with the 
American trade. The discredit and distrust 
which have resulted from these events, and the 
withdrawal of a large amount of the paper 
circulation authorized by the existing Bank 
Acts, appear to her Majesty’s Government to 
render it necessary for them to inform the Bank 
of England that if they should be unable, in the 
present emergency, to meet the demands for 
discounts and advances on approved securities, 
without exceeding the limits of their circula¬ 
tion prescribed by the Act of 1844, the 
Government will be prepared to propose to 
Parliament, upon its meeting, a bill of in¬ 
demnity for any excess so issued. In order to 
prevent this temporary relaxation of the law 
being extended beyond the actual necessities 
of the occasion, her Majesty’s Government are 
of opinion that the bank terms of discount 
should not be reduced below their present 
rate. Her Majesty’s Government reserves for 
future consideration the appropriation of any 
profits which may arise upon issues in excess 
of the statutory amount. Her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment are fully impressed with the import¬ 
ance of maintaining the letter of the law, even 
in a time of considerable mercantile difficulty ; 
but they believe that, for the removal of ap¬ 
prehensions which have checked the course of 
monetary transactions, such a measure as is 
now contemplated has become necessary, and 
they rely upon the discretion and prudence of 
the Directors for confining its operations within 
the strict limits of the exigencies of the case. 
(Signed) Palmerston. G. C. Lewis.” The 
permission given in terms of this letter was 
attended with the most beneficial results. The 
Issue Department issued to the Banking De¬ 
partment 2,000,000/. in excess of the statutable 
amount; but the latter issued to the public 
only 928,000/. in excess, the largest excess 
being issued the day after the permission was 
granted. On the 1st of December, the over¬ 
issue was entirely returned, and 2,000,000/. 
of reserve in the Banking Department. Public 
confidence was further restored by the announce¬ 
ment that Parliament would be called together 
on an early day, to consider the alarming finan¬ 
cial condition of the country. 

12 .—The Rev. Frederick Temple elected 
Head Master of Rugby School, in room of 
Dr. Goulburn, being the third Balliol Scholar 
selected in succession to this honour. 

16 .—The three Siamese Ambassadors re¬ 
ceived at Windsor Castle by the Queen. The 
peculiar mode of approaching Majesty enjoined 
by Siamese etiquette was adopted on this occa¬ 
sion by the Ambassadors. They drew near 
the Royal Throne in a position between crouch¬ 
ing and crawling, and pushed their presents 
before them as they advanced. 

— A supplement to the Gazette announces 
that Parliament is to be called together for the 
despatch of business on 3d December. 

(SOI). 







VEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1857. 


16 . —Died, aged 39, Lord Strangford, for¬ 
merly the Hon. George Smythe, author of 
“Historic Fancies,” and a prominent member 
of what was at one time known as the “Young 
England ” party. 

17 . —Relief of Lucknow. Early on the 
morning of the 15th the British advanced to 
attack the Secunderbagh, north of the canal. 
On the head of the column marching up the 
lane to the left, fire was opened by the rebels, 
and a sharp fight commenced on both sides, 
lasting for about an hour and a half. It was 
then determined to carry the place by storm, 
through a small breach which had been made. 
“This,” writes the Commander-in-chief, “was 
done in the most brilliant manner by the 
remainder of the Highlanders, with the 53d 
and the 4th Punjaub Infantry, supported by a 
battalion of detachments under Major Barn- 
ston. There never was a bolder feat of arms, 
and the loss inflicted on the enemy, after the 
entrance of the Secunderbagh was effected, 
was immense. More than 2,000 of the enemy 
were afterwards carried out. The officers who 
led those troops were Lieutenant-Colonel L. 
Hay, H.M.'s 93d Highlanders; Lieutenant- 
Colonel Gordon, H. M.’s 93d Highlanders; 
Captain Walton, H.M.’s 53d Foot; Lieu¬ 
tenant Paul, 4th Panjub Infantry (since dead); 
and Major Barnston, H.M.’s 90th Foot. 
Captain Peel’s Royal Naval Siege Train then 
went to the front, and advanced towards the 
Shah Nujjeef, together with the field battalion 
and some mortars, the village to the left having 
been cleared by Brigadier Hope and Lieutenant- 
Colonel Gordon. The Shah Nujjeef is a domed 
mosque with a garden, of which the most had 
been made by the enemy. The wall of the 
enclosure of the mosque was loopholed with 
great care. The entrance to it had been covered 
by a regular work in masonry, and the top of 
the building was crowned with a parapet. From 
this, and from the defences in the garden, an 
unceasing fire of musketry was kept up from 
the commencement of the attack. This posi¬ 
tion was defended with great resolution against 
a heavy cannonade for three hours. It was 
then stormed in the boldest manner by the 93d 
Highlanders, under Brigadier Hope, supported 
by a battalion of detachments under Major 
Barnston—who was, I regret to say, severely 
wounded ; Captain Peel leading up his heavy 
guns with extraordinary gallantry within a few 
yards of the building to batter the massive stone 
walls. The withering fire of the Highlanders 
effectually covered the Naval Brigade from 
great loss, but it was an action almost un¬ 
exampled in war. Captain Peel behaved very 
much as if he had been laying the Shannon 
alongside an enemy’s frigate. This brought 
the day’s operations to a close.” Next day a 
building called the Mess-house, which was of 
considerable size, and defended by a ditch and 
loophooled mud wall, was taken by storm ; 
“and then,” says the Commander-in-chief, 
“the troops pressed forward with great vigour, 
and lined the wall separating the Mess-house 

(502) 


from the Motee Mahal, which consists of a 
wide enclosure and many buildings. Ti e 
enemy here made a last stand, which was over¬ 
come after an hour, openings having been 
broken in the wall, through which the troops 
poured, with a body of Sappers, and accom¬ 
plished our communications with the Residency. 
I had the inexpressible satisfaction, shortly 
afterwards, of greeting Sir James Outram and 
Sir Henry Havelock, who came out to meet 
me before the action was at an end. The relief 
of the besieged garrison had been accom¬ 
plished.” While the Commander-in-chief was 
thus winning his way to the Residency, by his 
own admirable strategy and the resistless gal¬ 
lantry of his troops, General Havelock and the 
garrison pent up within its walls were not 
idle. Mines were driven under the outer wall 
of the garden in advance of the palace, which 
had been already breached in several places by 
the rebels ; and also under some buildings in 
the vicinity; and as soon as it became known 
that Sir Colin Campbell was attacking the 
Secunderbagh these mines were exploded. Two 
powerful batteries, which had been erected 
in the enclosure, masked by the outer wall, 
were then brought into play, and poured shot 
and shell into the palace. At last the advance 
sounded. “ It was impossible,” wrote General 
Havelock, ‘ ‘ to describe the enthusiasm with 
which the signal was received by the troops. 
Pent up in inaction for upwards of six weeks, 
and subjected to constant attacks, they felt 
that the hour of retribution and glorious exer¬ 
tion had returned. Their cheers echoed 
through the courts of the palace responsive 
to the bugle sound, and on they rushed to 
assured victory. The enemy could nowhere 
withstand them. In a few minutes the whole 
of the buildings were in our possession, and 
have since been armed with cannon and steadily 
held against all attack.” Sir Colin Campbell’s 
great object now was to effect the removal ot 
the non-combatants from the Residency, in¬ 
cluding the sick and wounded, without exposing 
them to the fire of the enemy. For this pur¬ 
pose he formed a line of posts on the left rear 
of his position, which were maintained unbroken, 
notwithstanding many attacks and a vigorous 
fire kept up by the rebels. He thus describes 
the masterly evolutions that followed : “ Upon 
the 20th, fire was opened on the Kaiserbagh, 
which gradually increased in importance till it 
assumed the character of regular breaching and 
bombardment. The Kaiserbagh was breached 
in three places by Captain Peel, R. N., and I 
have been told that the enemy suffered much 
loss within its precincts. Having thus led the 
enemy to believe that immediate assault was 
contemplated, orders were issued for the retreat 
of the garrison through the lines of our picquets 
at midnight on the 22d. The ladies and 
families, the wounded, the treasure, the guns 
it was thought worth while to keep, the ord¬ 
nance stores, the grain still possessed by the 
commissary of the garrison, and the state pir- 
soners, had all been previously removed. Sir 






NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1857. 


James Outram had received orders to burst the 
guns which it was thought undesirable to take 
away; and he was finally directed silently to 
evacuate the Residency of Lucknow at the hour 
indicated. The dispositions to cover their re¬ 
treat and to resist the enemy, should he pursue, 
were ably carried out by Brigadier Hon. A. 
Hope ; but I am happy to say the enemy was 
completely deceived, and did not attempt to 
follow. On the contrary, he began firing on 
our old positions, many hours after we had left 
them. The movement of retreat was admirably 
executed, and AVas a perfect lesson in such com¬ 
binations. Each exterior line came gradually 
retiring through its supports, till at length 
nothing remained but the last line of infantry 
and guns, with which I was myself to crush the 
enemy, if he had dared to follow up the picquets. 
The only line of retreat lay through a long and 
tortuous lane, and all these precautions were 
absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of the 
force. It was my endeavour that nothing 
should be left to chance, and the conduct of 
the officers in exactly carrying out their instruc¬ 
tions was beyond all praise. During all these 
operations from the 16th inst., the remnant of 
Brigadier Greathead’s brigade closed in the rear, 
and now again formed the rearguard as we 
retired to the Dilkoosha.” The Dilkoosha was 
reached at 4 A. M. on the 23d inst. by the whole 
force. 

18. — Died at Oxford, aged 69, the Rev. 
Philip Bliss, D.C.L., Principal of St. Mary’s 
Hall, editor of Wood’s “ Athenae Oxonienses ” 
and other works. 

19. —Died at his residence, Cleveland-row, 
aged 59, James Coppock, the leading parlia¬ 
mentary agent for the Liberal party. 

20. —Came on in the Court of Chancery the 
case of Brook v. Brook, involving the question 
whether the marriage of a British subject with 
his deceased wife’s sister at Altona, where such 
marriages were legal, was valid in England, and 
consequently whether, according to the law of 
England, the children of such marriage were 
legitimate. M r. Justice Creswell gave j udgment 
on the 4th of December that the marriage was 
void. (See April 17, 1858.) 

21 . —Memorial set up at Cawnpore “To 
the women and children of her Majesty’s 32d 
Regiment, who were slaughtered near this spot 
on the 16th of July, a.d. 1857. This memo¬ 
rial was erected by twenty men of the same 
regiment who were passing through Cawn¬ 
pore.” 

— Commencement of the diplomatic involve¬ 
ment knowm as “The Affair of the Charles et 
Georges.” The English consul at Mozambique 
having informed the authorities that there was 
a vessel in Portuguese waters supposed to be 
taking in slaves, a Portuguese vessel of war 
proceeded to the ship indicated, and found on 
board forty negroes who had just been shipped 
from the Portuguese coast. Eleven of them 
had their arms tied, and all asserted that they 


were taken on board against their own free will. 
This ship—which proved to be the French 
Charles et Georges , Captain Rouxel, of St. 
Malo—was taken to Mozambique, where the 
governor appointed a special commission to 
inquire into the circumstances, and decide 
whether the case ought to be handed over to 
the judicial tribunals. The commission de¬ 
cided that there was a primA facie case against 
the vessel, and in due time a judicial tribunal 
pronounced a sentence by which the ship was 
condemned to be sold by public auction, and 
the captain sentenced to three years’ imprison¬ 
ment Count Walewski, with the knowledge 
of Lord Malmesbury, afterwards coerced the 
Portuguese Government to restore the vessel 
and indemnify the captain. The affair gave rise 
to much correspondence between the Courts, 
and formed the subject of debate in both 
Houses of Parliament early in the session of 

1859. 

23.— Explosion of a boiler at the Uppei 
Apsley Mill, near Huddersfield, killing seven 
women and one man on the spot, and injuring 
four others so severely that they died in a few 
days. The disaster was traceable to the mis¬ 
conduct of the engineer, who, for the purpose 
of getting up steam rapidly, had screwed down 
the steam-valve, cutting off all communication 
with the boiler and safety-valve. 

25. —Died in camp at the Dilkoosha, from 
dysentery, General Havelock, aged 62. 

27. —The Commander-in-chief commences 
his march from Alumbagh to Cawnpore, with 
a portion of his force and the whole of the 
families who had been rescued at Lucknow, 
besides the sick and wounded, amounting to a 
helpless body of not less than 2,000 souls. In 
the course of his march he was able to afford 
much-needed aid to General Windham, who in 
an attack on a large body of rebels on the 
Pandoo Nuddee had been compelled to fall 
back upon his intrenchments with the loss of 
a portion of his tents and camp equipage. 

28. — Newcastle Corn Exchange opened. 

— The Queen of Spain delivered of a son— 

the Prince of Asturias. 

30.— Great loss of life among the fishermen 
on the Banffshire coast. In the morning,« 14 
boats went out from Port-Knockie, 29 from 
Buckie, and 5 from Port-Gordon, with nine 
men in each ; while engaged in fishing they 
were suddenly caught in a gale, and an attempt 
was at once made to get within the headlands. 
Five of the boats were lost, and forty-two 
fishermen drowned within sight of their homes 
and families. 

December 3. —Parliament opened by the 
Queen in person. “ Circumstances,” said her 
Majesty, “have arisen connected with the mer¬ 
cantile interest of the country which have 
induced me to call Parliament together before 
the usual time. The failure of certain joint- 
stock banks, and of s<*ne commercial firms, 

' 5 ° 3 > 




DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1857. 


produced such an extent of distrust as led me 
to authorize my Ministers to recommend to 
the Directors of the Bank of England the adop¬ 
tion of a course of proceeding which appeared 
necessary for allaying the prevalent alarm. As 
that course has involved a departure from the 
existing law, a bill for indemnifying those who 
advised, and those who adopted it, will be 
submitted for your consideration.” Reference 
was also made to the Indian mutiny, the affairs 
of the East Indian dominions generally, and 
“My Lords and gentlemen” were informed 
that during the session their attention would be 
called ‘ ‘ to the laws which regulate the repre¬ 
sentation of the people in Parliament, with a 
view to consider what amendments may be 
safely and beneficially made therein. ” In the 
debate on the Address, the conduct of the 
Ministry in declining to send out strong rein¬ 
forcements to India during the early stages of 
the insurrection was sharply commented on by 
Lord Derby in the House of Lords, and Mr. 
Disraeli in the House of Commons. The Ad¬ 
dress was agreed to without a division. 

3 *—Died at Dresden, aged 80, Professor 
Christian Rauch, sculptor. 

7. —The Lord Chancellor communicates to 
the House of Lords a message from her Ma¬ 
jesty, announcing her intention of conferring a 
pension on General Havelock of 1,000/. a 
year. The House afterwards agreed to con¬ 
tinue the annuity to his son. 

8. —The Earl of Shaftesbury explains the 
provisions of the Bill introduced to permit 
religious services, in connection with the 
Church of England, to be conducted in such 
places as Exeter Hall, without interference from 
parochial clergy. 

9 . —The Probate and Administration Bill 
passed last session having abolished, among 
other venerable institutions, the Prerogative 
Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the last 
sitting was held to-day, under the presidency 
of Sir John Dodson, judge. 

— In his first Message to Congress, President 
Buchanan recommends that an imposing 
military force be despatched to Utah for the 
purpose of compelling the Mormons to submit 
to the authority of the States. Kansas, he 
thought, had already occupied too much public 
attention, and should be left to regulate its own 
affairs. 

10. —Lord John Russell obtains leave to 
bring in a bill to substitute one oath for the 
oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjura¬ 
tion, and for the relief of those professing the 
Jewish religion. The chief feature of the new 
bill was the addition to the proposed oath of 
the words, “on the true faith of a Christian,” 
and a clause permitting them to be omitted 
when a Jew was sworn. 

11 . —In the House of Commons, the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer moves for the reap¬ 
pointment of a Committee of Inquiry into the 
Bank Charter Act, which was carried against 

(504) 


Mr. Disraeli’s motion, that further inquiry was 
unnecessary, by a majority of 295 against 117- 

11 . —The Bank Charter Indemnity Act read 
a third time in the House of Lords, and passed 
without a division. Parliament thereafter ad¬ 
journed to the usual period of meeting—Feb¬ 
ruary 4. 

12 . —Mr. Milner Gibson elected Member of 
Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne. 

14. —Came on at Evreux the trial of 
Madame W. Jeufosse, her three sons, and a 
gamekeeper, charged with shooting M. Guillot, 
a neighbour, who was encouraged about the 
chateau so long as he confined his attentions 
to the governess, but excited the most bitter 
hostility when it was known that he wished 
to ingratiate himself into the affections of 
Jeufosse’s daughter. The case was continued 
to the 13th, when the jury returned a verdict of 
Not guilty. 

— Memorial presented to Lord Palmerston, 
praying for the introduction of an educational 
franchise into the contemplated Reform Bill. 

15. —Atwell, the thief (see March 5), 
tried at the Central Criminal Court for steal¬ 
ing from a cab, on the 22d of January, 
1856, a trunk containing various articles of 
jewellery, the property of the Countess of 
Ellesmere, and valued at 15,000/. His com¬ 
panions, Saint and Whitby, who had assisted 
at the seizure and shared in the plunder, sold 
in most cases for trifling sums, were not yet 
in custody ; but as there was no reason to 
doubt the truth of Atwell’s own statement, so 
far as it criminated himself, six months were 
added as a prolongation of his current period 
of imprisonment. Lady Ellesmere’s stays 
and linen were given by Whitby to a female 
known as “Polly Gentleman;” the other 
articles of apparel were sold under the instruc¬ 
tions of a colleague called “ California ” to one 
Britton ; and the gems passed to Jews, or were 
thrown away in terror into obscure corners about 
Spitalfields and Whitechapel. 

— Died, aged 84, Sir George Cayley, 
scientific agriculturist. 

16. —Earthquake, extending from the Medi¬ 
terranean to the Adriatic with varying violence, 
but inflicting the greatest damage at Naples. 
It was thought that as many as 10,000 lives 
were sacrificed in this visitation, complete vil¬ 
lages being in some cases engulfed in the 
yawning fissures. 

— At the Exeter Assizes, Jonathan Roone 
was indicted for feloniously assaulting Jane 
Stone, and causing injuries to life with intent 
to murder her, at Torquay, on the nth of No¬ 
vember last. The shocking barbarity of the 
crime, and the almost providential manner in 
which the victim’s life was saved, gave this case 
unusual interest. For the purpose of concealing 
the result of an illicit intercourse, the prisoner 
seized the girl in a garden on the night in 
question, and having rendered her almost in- 






DECEMBER 


1857. 


DEC. EMBER 


sensible by blows on the head and face, thrust 
his hand down her throat for the purpose of 
choking her. The feeble screams her strength 
permitted the victim to make were heard in the 
adjoining house by a little dog, which barked 
so long as to excite the attention of the inmates, 
and bring assistance to the poor girl. Nobody 
expecting her to recover, she mule a formal 
declaration regarding the person who made this 
attempt upon her life. She now appeared in 
court with her head and face beaten out of all 
form, and apparently held together only by the 
dressing. The jury found the prisoner guilty of 
the attempt to do serious bodily hann, and 
Mr. Justice Wills sentenced him to transpor¬ 
tation for life. 

17. —Died, aged 83, Rear-Admiral Sir 
Francis Beaufort, K.C.B. 

21 * —The Earl of Carrick steamer, trading 
between Ayr and Liverpool, wrecked on Dalby 
Point, Isle of Man, and the entire company on 
board, with the exception of two, drowned. 

23. —News received at the Foreign Office of 
the relief of Lucknow by Sir Colin Campbell, 
and of the retirement of the sick and wounded, 
with the women and children, to Cawnpore on 
the 20th November. 

24-. —John Thompson, alias Peter Walker, 
tailor, found guilty, at the Glasgow Circuit 
Court, of poisoning Agnes Montgomery, at 
Eaglesham, by administering prussic acid in a 
drink of beer. The first link in the chain con¬ 
necting the prisoner with the offence was sup¬ 
plied by a little girl, who, although too young 
to be produced in evidence in court, prattled 
out at home words of such significance as in¬ 
duced her mother to get the body disinterred 
and subjected to a medical investigation. This 
was about a fortnight after the poisoning, when 
Thompson was away from Eaglesham, and 
had made a second attempt on two lives in the 
house where he lodged in Glasgow. Thompson 
was executed at Paisley on the 14th January. 
He confessed his guilt before he died, and at¬ 
tributed the deed to a desire to possess the 
girl’s money. It seemed, however, not im¬ 
probable that the great poisoning case tried in 
Edinburgh in July had produced an effect on 
a morbid mind not unlike that exhibited by 
Dove after Palmer’s trial. 

25. —This Christmas was celebrated with 
unwonted cheerfulness, in consequence of the 
welcome news that Lucknow had been relieved. 
The death of Major-General Havelock on the 
25th November was not yet known. 

29.— Capture of Canton by the British and 
French forces. At daybreak on the 28th, a 
slow dropping fire was opened from the ships 
lying on the southern side of Canton. The 
guns bore on the south-west and south-east 
angles of the old and new city wall, swept 
the eastern rampart, and breached the wall of 
the south. From the Dutch Folly—a fort in 
the centre of the river—four mortars and two 
rockets played upon Magazine Hill and the 


other heights inside the north gate, as well as 
upon Gough Fort, Blue Jacket Fort, and the 
heights beyond. While this fire of shot and 
shell was destroying the defences of the city, 
General Von Straubenzee was preparing to 
land his men, Admirals Seymour and Genouilly 
co-operating. Before nightfall, not only were 
the whole 5,700 men and a large amount of 
materials and stores landed, but Fort Lin was 
in our possession, the Chinese having left early 
in the day, when they saw they were likely 
to be surrounded. It was agreed that the 
escalade should take place at nine o’clock on 
the morning of the 29th, and in order to ensure 
success, the French and English gunboats near 
the French Folly at the south-east corner of the 
city were to enfilade the wall from the east to 
the north-east gate till the hour of assault. At 
five o’clock in the morning, the troops were 
under arms. A temple was seized close to 
the walls by M ‘Clui'e and Osborne; Captain 
Bate, in a daring reconnaissance to select the 
best place for the scaling ladders, was struck 
by a gingall, and died on- the spot. From 
an excess of zeal or desire to gain credit by 
a manoeuvre, the French troops were at the 
foot of the walls before the English. When 
the English general gave the word, the blue¬ 
jackets and red-coats rushed on, scaled the 
walls, and planted our flag on the battlements 
of Canton. Division after division clambered 
swiftly up the ladders, formed at the top, and 
swept along the rampart to the northward. 
Within an hour and a half the whole eastern 
half of Canton from the north gate to the south 
gate was in our hands. Our loss was merely 
nominal—fifteen men killed, and 113 wounded. 
Commissioner Yeh was captured on the 5th of 
January, and conveyed on board the Inflexible. 
He strenuously denied his identity, and it was 
not till Mr. Parkes had several times the 
satisfaction and triumph of assuring his old 
enemy of his personal safety that he grew com¬ 
posed. Then all his old arrogance returned. 
He posed himself magnificently in his chair, 
laughed at the idea of giving up his seals or 
of being led away. He would wait there, he 
said, to receive the men Elgin and Gros. They 
searched all his packages for papers, and found 
among other things the original ratification 
of the treaties with England, France, and 
America. They were, as Yeh intimated, too 
unimportant documents to be sent to Paris. 
Yeh was conveyed to Calcutta, where he died 
in April following. The inhabitants generally 
did not show much opposition to the barbarian 
invaders. The force at the disposal of Lord 
Elgin being greatly insufficient to control the 
people, and at the same time carry on the 
government of the city, Governor Pihkwei was 
re-installed into office, and undertook to carry 
on affairs under conditions laid down by his 
lordship till peace was concluded. 

31 .—Certain jewels, collected by George II., 
George III., and Queen Charlotte, sent back 
to Hanover under the terms of an award by 

( 505 ) 








DECEMBER 


1857-58. 


JANUARY 


Lord Wensleydale, Sir Page Wood, and Sir 
Laurence Peel. 

31. —The summary vengeance inflicted on 
Sepoy rebels by blowing them from guns gave 
occasion for criticism hurtful to the well-earned 
reputation of our troops for humanity in the 
hour of victory. The scene at one station was 
thus described by a spectator :—“The doomed 
five were marched to the five fatal guns. They 
were bound by the arms to the wheels, but 
their legs were free, and the end man —the 
only one I could entirely see from my place 
on the flank—leaned his back against the 
muzzle, as loungers lean against a mantelpiece. 
I fixed my eyes intently on that man, not fifty 
yards away, and in a moment the signal was 
given. There was a roar, and the whizzing 
of a bullet, far away from the firing party; 
a bank of white smoke, and a jet and shower 
of black fragments, sharp and clear, which 
leaped and bounded in the air; this, and a 
fearful sound from the spectators, as if reality 
so far exceeded all previous fancy, that it 
was intolerable; then a dead stillness. I 
walked straight to the scattered and smok¬ 
ing floor before the guns. I first camq to 
an arm, torn off above the elbow, the fist 
clenched, the bone projecting several inches, 
bare ; then the ground sown with red grisly 
fragments, then a black-haired head and the 
other arm still held together—this was the 
man 1 had watched. Close by lay the lower 
half of the body of the next, torn quite in 
two, and long coils of entrails twined on 
the ground. Then a long cloth in which one 
had been dressed, rolled open like a floor-cloth 
and on fire. One man lay in a complete and 
shattered heap, all but the arms; the legs 
were straddled wide apart, and the smashed 
body on the middle of them ; the spine ex¬ 
posed ; the head lay close by, too. The last 
body was that of a native officer, who was the 
arch-fiend of the mutiny ; he was a short man 
with a cruel face. His head had been cut 
clean off; but the muscles of the neck had 
contracted round the throat like a frill. His 
face was half upturned and calm, the eyes 
shut. I saw no expression of pain on any of 
them. What had been his body lay on its 
face, the legs, as usual, not shattered, but all 
the flesh torn like cloth from a sharp angle 
in the hollow of the back, off and off, till it 
merged in one mangled heap.” 

1858. 

January 1.—The metropolis divided into 
ten postal districts for the purpose of facilitating 
the delivery of letters. 

2 .—Died at Acton, Dr. Forbes Royle, 
F. R. S., a distinguished Indian botanist. 

— In consequence of certain recent scandals 
attached to the name of the Marquis of Clanri- 
carde, his admission into the Cabinet as 
Lord Privy Seal caused much comment. To- 
(506J 


day the Daily News writes :—“ Men of high 
honour, of elevated sentiments, of public moral¬ 
ity, and of deep interest in the country, cannot 
do otherwise than accept this act of Lord 
Palmerston as indicative of a personal reck¬ 
lessness and disregard of enlightened public 
opinion, wholly unsuited to the position to 
which the generous feelings of the country have 
raised him.” 

2. —Sir Colin Campbell, being opposed by 
the rebels at the bridge over the Kalee Nuddee, 
on his march to Futteghur, attacks and defeats 
them this day with heavy loss and the cap¬ 
ture of seven guns, two of them 8-pounders. 
Futteghur was occupied without opposition 
on the 4th. The British guns were found 
in position, and much property belonging to 
the gun and clothing agencies. Goruckpore 
was taken on the 6th, by the forces under the 
Maharajah Jung JBahadoor. The enemy had 
intrenched themselves strongly, but made a 
feeble resistance. Seven guns were taken, and 
200 men killed. 

3. —Died at Cannes, aged 38, Madame 
Rachel, the queen of French tragedy. 

5 . —Died, at Milan, aged 92, Field-Marshal 
Radetzky, Commander-in-chief of the Austrian 
army in Italy, and the oldest officer in the 
Austrian service. 

6 . — Christian Sattler sentenced to death at 
the Central Criminal Court for shooting Charles 
Thain, of the City of London Police, while 
being conveyed from Hamburg on a charge of 
felony committed in this country. 

7. — Publication of a telegram from India, 
announcing that General Havelock had died on 
the 25th November, from dysentery, brought on 
by exposure and anxiety. 

— Died at Constantinople, aged 55, Red- 
schid Pasha, Grand Vizier of Turkey. 

8. —Calcutta correspondents write : “ Our 
prospects brighten rapidly. In almost every 
part of the disturbed districts we have encoun¬ 
tered the rebels and defeated them. In almost 
every part we have succeeded in opening the 
roads, and the communication with Delhi is 
now direct.” 

— The wounded of the relieved garrison 
at Lucknow, with the women and children, 
are landed at Calcutta, from the steam-ship 
Madras , and received with all the honour 
which their heroism and sufferings com¬ 
manded. 

13. —Mr. John S. Rarey, the American horse- 
tamer, exhibits his skill before her Majesty in 
the riding-school, Windsor. 

14-. —Orsini and others attempt to assassinate 
the Emperor and Empress of the French, by 
throwing shells filled with detonating powder 
beneath the carriage conveying them to the 
Opera. The first bomb was thrown when the 
vehicle entered the Rue Lepelletier. It did not 
touch the Emperor, nor even the vehicle, but it 






JANUARY 


1858. 


JANUARY 


wounded about twenty persons. On this the 
coachman whipped up his horses ; but almost 
immediately a second bomb burst, and one of 
the horses, being struck by three projectiles, 
fell to the ground. A third bomb, thrown with 
more precision, fell beneath the carriage itself, 
and burst with tremendous force, smashing part 
of it in pieces. The splinters of this bomb 
wounded the second horse, which expired some 
hours after. The coachman, Ledoux, was 
wounded in the head. The only person in 
the carriage with the Emperor and Empress 
was General Roguet, who received a slight in¬ 
jury. The escape of their Majesties was almost 
miraculous. The Emperor received a slight 
cut on the side of the nose by a piece of glass 
from the carriage-window. Another piece of 
glass struck the Empress at the corner of the 
left eye, but left no trace. Superintendent 
Hebert, of the police, who opened the door o.f 
the Emperor’s carriage at the moment of the 
third explosion, was dangerously wounded. 
The pieces of iron flew on every side to a vast 
distance, marking the front of the houses and 
the pillars of the theatre to a great height, and 
breaking a considerable number of windows. 
The stupor at the first moment was indescri¬ 
bable, as no one could tell what had really 
occurred ; and the persons who saw their neigh¬ 
bours falling around them did not know but at 
the next moment it might be their own turn. 
The carriage itself was taken into the courtyard 
of the Tuileries, and visited by great numbers 
of persons. All the under part and front of 
the vehicle had the appearance of being blown 
to pieces. At the moment of the last'explosion 
a man was seen to rush to the carriage, armed 
with a dagger and revolver, and was caught full 
in front by a sergent de ville; the murderer 
made a desperate attempt to escape, and during 
the struggle wounded his captor. He was 
searched, and another revolver was found on 
him. Another man was also arrested on the 
spot, carrying a carpet-bag containing pistols 
and daggers and a small box. He had in his 
pockets 270 francs in gold. A third, a well- 
dressed man, in white gloves, who was seen 
to raise his hat and wave it, perhaps as a 
signal, was also arrested. Five minutes pre¬ 
vious to the explosion M. Hebert recognised, 
at the corner of the Rue Lepelletier, an Italian, 
named Pierri, who was expelled from France 
in 1852, but had recently returned to Paris with 
a false passport. He was found to carry on 
his person a six-barrelled revolver, a bomb 
similar to those exploded, and a long dagger. 
After having lodged Pierri in the guard-house, 
M. Hebert was in time to open the door of the 
Emperor’s carriage, as mentioned above. At 
three o’clock in the morning Felix Orsini was 
arrested in his lodging in the Rue Mont 
Thabor. He confessed that he threw one of 
the bombs. They were of cast iron, oblong, in 
the form of a pear, and in the widest part from 
four to five inches in diameter. The bombs were 
loaded with detonating gunpowder, and each 
bomb was armed with several caps, the contact 


of which with a hard substance necessarily 
caused an explosion. 

15. —A committee established under the 
Presidency of the Emperor of Russia, to con¬ 
sider the best measures for ameliorating the 
condition of the serfs. 

16 . —The Court tor Divorce and Matrimo¬ 
nial Causes sits for the first time, Sir Creswell 
Creswell acting as Judge Ordinary. The first 
case heard was Deane v. Deane, a suit for 
divorce, by reason of adultery, promoted by 
Mrs. Deane against her husband. 

17. —In his speech at the opening of the 
Chambers, the Emperor thus referred to the 
assassination plot :—“ Such plots convey a use¬ 
ful lesson. In the first place, those who have 
recourse to them betray their own weakness 
and impotence. In the second place, assassina¬ 
tion never serves the cause of the assassins. 
Neither they who struck Julius Caesar, nor they 
who struck Henri IV., profited by their murder. 
God sometimes permits the death of the just, 
but never allows the triumph of crime. These 
attempts can neither disturb the present nor 
the future. If I live, the Empire will live with 
me ; if I fall, the Empire will be confirmed even 
by my death, for the indignation of the French 
people and army will afford a fresh prop to 
the throne of my son. Let us look upon the 
future with confidence. Let us betake our 
selves, without disquieting pre-occupation, to 
the labours of each day, for the advantage and 
improvement of the country. Dieu protege la 
France .” In his reply to the address of the 
diplomatic body, the Emperor said :—“I flatter 
myself that all the sovereigns of Europe regard 
my existence as necessary to the maintenance of 
tranquillity.” 

20 .—Hostile feeling in France towards 
England for harbouring assassin refugees. 
Count Walewski, Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
writes to Count Persigny, French Ambassador 
in London:—“It is no longer the hostility of 
misguided parties manifesting itself by all the 
excesses of the press and every violence of 
language; it is no longer even the labours of 
factions seeking to agitate opinion and to pro¬ 
voke disorder : it is assassination reduced to a 
doctrine, preached openly, practised in repeated 
attempts, the most recent of which has just 
struck Europe with stupefaction. Ought, then, 
the right of asylum to protect such a state of 
things ? Is hospitality due to assassins ? Should 
English legislation serve to favour their designs 
and their manoeuvres, and can it continue to 
protect persons who place themselves by fla¬ 
grant acts without the pale of the common law, 
and expose themselves to the law of humanity? 
... Full of confidence in the exalted reason 
of the English Cabinet, we abstain from all 
indication as regards the measures which it may 
be suitable to take. We rely on them in this 
matter for a careful appreciation of the deci¬ 
sion which they shall judge most proper ; and 
we congratulate ourselves in the firm persua- 

(So 7 ) 






JANUARY 


1858. 


JANUARY 


sion that we shall not have appealed in vain to 
their conscience and their loyalty.” On the 
23d, in answer to a deputation informing him 
of an address voted to the Emperor by the 
corporation of the City of London, M. de 
Persigny said :—“ My country too well under¬ 
stands what is honourable feeling ever to 
demand from the friendship of England any¬ 
thing which could touch her honour. Permit me, 
then, to tell you what is the true question ; it 
does not lie in the attempts at assassinations in 
themselves, nor even in the crime of the 14th of 
January, which your Government would have 
hastened to warn us against, if it could have 
known it beforehand ; the whole question 
is in the moral situation of France, which has 
become anxiously doubtful of the real senti¬ 
ment of England. Reasoning by analogy, 
popular opinion declares that if there were in 
France men sufficiently infamous to recommend 
at their clubs, in their papers, in their writings 
of every kind, the assassination of a foreign 
sovereign, and actually to prepare its execution, 
a French administration would not wait to 
receive the demands of a foreign government, 
nor to see the enterprise set on foot. To 
act against such conspiracies, to anticipate 
such crimes, public notoriety would be suffi¬ 
cient to set our law in motion, and measures 
of security would be taken immediately. Well, 
then, France is astonished that nothing of a 
like nature should have taken place in Eng¬ 
land, and Frenchmen say, Either the English 
law is sufficient, as certain lawyers declare ; 
and why then is it not applied ? Or it is 
insufficient, which is the opinion of other 
lawyers ; and in this case why does not a free 
country, which makes its own laws, remedy this 
omission? In one word, France does not un¬ 
derstand, and cannot understand, this state of 
things, and in that resides the harm; for she 
may mistake the true sentiments of her ally, 
and no longer believe her sincerity. Now, 
gentlemen, if ever that mutual confidence 
between nation and nation, which is the true 
foundation of a stable alliance, should be im¬ 
paired, it would be a deplorable misfortune for 
both countries, and for the whole of civilization; 
but, thank God, for two nations interested 
in preserving cordial relations between their 
two Governments, who esteem one another, 
and are continually displaying towards each 
other the most friendly sentiments, the oc¬ 
currence of such an evil is, I am persuaded, 
almost impossible.” The congratulatory ad¬ 
dresses presented by the army bristled with 
offensive remarks concerning England. The 
5th Lancers:—“The army is afflicted that 
powerful friends, whose brave armies so lately 
fought by our side, should, under the name of 
hospitality, protect conspirators and assassins 
surpassing those who have gone before them 
in all that is odious.” The 59th Regiment :— 

“ But in our manly hearts indignation against 
the perverse, succeeding to our gratitude to 
God, moves us to demand an account from the 
land of impurity which contains the haunts of 
(5o8) 


the monsters who are sheltered by its laws. 
Give us the order, Sire, and we will pursue 
them even to their strongholds.” The Rouen 
division:—“Let the miserable assassins, the 
subordinate agents of such crimes, receive the 
chastisement due to their abominable attempts ; 
but let also the infamous haunt in which 
machinations so infernal are planned be de¬ 
stroyed for ever.” These addresses caused 
so much irritation in England that Count 
Walewski formally apologized for their pub¬ 
lication. “They are,” he writes to Count 
Persigny, “ too much opposed to the language 
which the Emperor’s Government has not 
ceased to hold to that of her Britannic Majesty, 
for it to be possible to attribute them to any¬ 
thing else than inadvertence caused by the 
number of these addresses. The Emperor 
enjoins you to say to Lord Clarendon how 
much he regrets it.” 

21 .—General Zuloaga defeats President 
Comonfort, and usurps the Government of 
Mexico. 

23. —Died at Naples, aged 63, Louis 
Lablache, a popular Italian bass singer, in¬ 
structor of Queen Victoria. 

24. — Died at Paris, where she had arrived 
a few days before from England, the ex-Queen 
of Oude, aged 53. 

25. —Marriage of the Princess Royal and 
Prince Frederick William of Prussia. The 
ceremony was performed at the Chapel Royal, 
St. James’s, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
in presence of the Queen, the most illustrious 
princes and princesses of the two Royal house¬ 
holds, and a brilliant gathering of invited 
guests. The drive from Buckingham Palace 
to St. James’s was crowded with spectators, 
who cheered the Royal party with great enthu¬ 
siasm as they passed to the chapel. In the 
evening the City was illuminated, and rejoicings 
were general all over the kingdom. The 
Royal couple proceeded to Windsor in the 
afternoon by railway, and were received at the 
station by Eton boys, who dragged the carriage 
to the Castle. They left England for Prussia 
on the 2d of February ; their journey through 
the metropolis, where they were received by 
the Mayor and Corporation, taking place dur¬ 
ing a heavy fall of snow. 

27. —Resolution carried at the Court of the 
East India Company, “ That the proposed 
transfer of the governing powers of the East 
India Company to the Crown is fraught with 
danger to the constitutional interests of Eng¬ 
land, is perilous to the safety of our Indian 
empire, and calls for the resistance of the Cor¬ 
poration by all constitutional means.” A 
petition to Parliament embodying these views 
was also agreed to. 

28 -—Sir Hugh Rose drives the rebels out 
of Ratghur, one of the strongest forts of Cen¬ 
tral India. The place was afterwards given 
up to the Ranee of Bhopal, who had remained 





JANUARY 


1858. 


FEBRUARY 


steadfast to our cause in the midst of the 
general declension. 

31 .—The Leviathan launched on the 
Thames, and towed down to her moorings 
at Deptford. The original company having 
exhausted their capital of 640,000/. in building 
the hull, a new company was formed to com¬ 
plete the vessel, purchasing her for about, a fifth 
of the original cost. 

February 1.— The Emperor of the French 
sends a message to the Chambers, designating 
the Empress as regent, and providing for the 
establishment of a Council of Regency, in the 
event of his death. 

2 .—Explosion at Bardsley Colliery, near 
Ashton-under-Lyne, causing the death of fifty- 
two workmen. 

4. —The Houses of Parliament resume their 
sittings in pursuance of the adjournment from 
December. 

5. —The Archbishop of Canterbury intro¬ 
duces a bill for legalizing special services in 
unconsecrated buildings, in connexion with the 
Church of England. 

— The House of Commons consent to the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer’s resolution for 
granting pensions of 1,000/. per annum to 
Lady Havelock and Sir H. M. Havelock, 
eldest son of the late General. 

— Lord Justice Knight Bruce delivers the 
judgment of the Judicial Committee of the 
Privy Council, dismissing the appeal from the 
Court of Arches in the case of Ditcher v. 
Denison. 

6. —Publication of Lord Canning’s despatch 
of December 11, vindicating himself from 
charges brought against the policy he had 
pursued during the mutiny. 

8. —Resolutions submitted to both Houses 
of Parliament thanking the civil and military 
officers of India for the energy and ability dis¬ 
played by them in suppressing the Mutiny. 
Lord Derby in the one House, and Mr. 
Disraeli in the other, moved the omission, in 
the meantime, of the name of Lord Canning, 
till an opportunity had been given of discuss¬ 
ing his policy. The resolutions, however, were 
carried as introduced by Government. 

— The liquidators of the Western Bank of 
Scotland make a first call of 25/. per share, 
payable by equal instalments in March and 
June. A second call of 100/. per share was 
made October 4, payable the 1st of November 
following. 

9. —Lord Palmerston introduces the new 
Conspiracy to Murder Bill, removing con¬ 
spiracy from the class of misdemeanors to 
that of felony, punishable with penal servitude 
for five years, as a minimum, or for life, as a 
maximum. Mr. Kinglake moved an amend¬ 
ment, “That this Plouse, while sympathising 
with the French nation in its indignant abhor¬ 
rence of the late atrocious attempt against the 


life of the Emperor, and anxious upon a proper 
occasion to consider any amendment of the 
criminal law which may be likely to defeat 
a repetition of such attempts, deems it inex¬ 
pedient to legislate in compliance with the 
demand made in Count Walewski’s despatch 
of the 20th of January, until further informa¬ 
tion is before it of the communications between 
the two Governments subsequent to the date 
of that despatch.” After a discussion, leave was 
given to bring in the bill by a majority of 299 
to 99. In anticipation of the second reading, 
Mr. Milner Gibson submitted as an amend¬ 
ment, “That this House hears with much 
concern that it is alleged that the recent 
attempt on the life of the Emperor of the 
French has been devised in England, and 
expresses its detestation for such a wicked 
enterprise ; and that, while the House is ready 
at all times to assist in remedying any defects in 
the criminal law which after due investigation 
are proved to exist, it cannot but regret that 
her Majesty’s Government (previously to want¬ 
ing the House to amend the laws relating to 
conspiracy at the present time) have not felt 
it to be their duty to make some reply to the 
despatch received from the French Govern¬ 
ment, dated Paris, January 20, 1858, and 
which they had laid before Parliament.” 

10. —Lord John Russell’s Oaths Bill read 
a second time without any debate. 

— The two Houses of Convocation of the 
Province of Canterbury assemble for the 
despatch of business. 

11 . —Orsini writes from the prison of Mazas 
to the Emperor Napoleon, entreating him to 
use his influence to promote the independence 
of Italy. 

— Disturbance at Vera Cruz, arising from 
the proclamation of Juarez as Constitutional 
President of Mexico. 

— Collision in the Channel, off Holyhead, 
between the American ship Leander, and the 
steamer North A meric an. The Leander sank 
with ten of her passengers and crew. 

12 . — In the House of Commons, in answer 
to Mr. Stirling, Lord Palmerston denied that 
any portion of the legacy left by the first 
Napoleon to Cantillon, for attempting to 
assassinate the Duke of Wellington, had been 
paid by the present Emperor. The commis¬ 
sioners appointed to deal with the will in 
1854 refused to make any issue, alleging that, 
in their opinion, the testator must have been 
in a state of mental aberration when he made 
the bequest. The only money Cantillon ever 
received under the deed had been small sums 
paid to account between the years 1823 and 
1826. Mr. Stirling afterwards wrote to the 
Times :—“ In the Moniteur of Sunday, May 6, 
1855, No. 126, in the list of 64 legatees, 
Cantillon appears to have received of capital 
and interest 10,343 francs, or 343 francs more 
than the original legacy; 31 persons had re¬ 
ceived sums to account; 32 had as yet been 

( 5 ° 9 ) 





FEBRUARY 


T858. 


FEBRUARY 


paid nothing. One legatee only had received, 
or was to receive, his full legacy, and that one 
was Cantilion, who had received more than his 
legacy. ” 

12 . —Lord Palmerston introduces a bill for 
transferring the government of her Majesty’s 
dominions in the East from the East India 
Company to the Crown. The course of double 
government which had been established he 
described as exceedingly cumbrous. The 
East India Company had from the first been 
treated as a commercial body, until the year- 
1833, when the Company became a phan¬ 
tom in that respect. They now carried on 
political functions without ministerial respon¬ 
sibility. There was no responsibility to Par¬ 
liament, to public opinion, or to the Crown ; 
and the persons enjoying these functions were 
simply persons holding so much Indian stock. 
They were elected by bodies and gentlemen 
who knew nothing about India, and yet the 
Company had the power of removing the 
Governor-General at any moment. The bill 
he proposed was confined entirely to a change 
in the home administration, and would not 
make any change in the government of India. 
The functions of the Court of Directors and 
the Court of Proprietors were to cease, and 
the government would be administered by a 
Minister responsible to Parliament, assisted by 
a Council. Mr. Baring moved as an amend¬ 
ment, that it was not expedient at present to 
legislate on the government of India. After a 
debate adjourned over three nights, leave was 
given to bring in the bill by a majority of 
318 to 173. 

13. — Dr. Livingstone, the African traveller, 
entertained by the President and Members of 
the Geographical Society in Freemasons’ Hall, 
previous to leaving this country in the capacity 
of British consul to the Portuguese settlements 
in Southern Africa. 

14. — Dr. Simon Bernard arrested in his 
lodgings, Park-street, Bayswater, on a charge 
of complicity in the recent attempt toassassinate 
the Emperor of the French. The examinations 
commenced next day at Bow-street, and were 
adjourned from time to time till it was thought 
evidence sufficient had been produced to justify 
hi6 committal on the charges of murder, and as 
an accessory before the fact. 

16 .—Wreck of the Peninsular and Oriental 
Company’s steamer Ava on Pigeon’s Island, off 
Trincomalee. The mails were lost, but all the 
passengers—many of them ladies of the Luck¬ 
now garrison—were saved, as was also a por¬ 
tion of the treasure intended for the Bombay 
Government. 

18 .—At the Lancaster Assizes, Thomas 
Monk, surgeon, magistrate of the borough 
of Preston, and also a deputy-lieutenant, sen¬ 
tenced to penal servitude for life for felony, 
in forging and uttering, knowing it to be 
forged, what purported to be the will of 
Edward Turner, reedmaker, deceased. 

( 5 IQ ) 


19. — Defeat of the Ministry on the Con¬ 
spiracy to Murder Bill, Mr. Milner Gibson s 
amendment being carried against them, on the 
proposal for a second reading, by a majority 
of 234 against 215. Lord Palmerston wound 
up the debate with a sharp attack on Mr. 
Milner Gibson in his new character of defender 
of the honour of England, and, amid much 
interruption from an impatient House, appealed 
to it not to stultify the vote it had given for 
introducing the bill. The majority was com¬ 
posed of 146 Conservatives, 84 Liberals, and 
4 Peelites—Gladstone, Graham, Cardwell, and 
Herbert. The announcement of the division 
was received with great cheering by the 
majority. As the result of a Cabinet Council 
held next day, Lord Palmerston placed his 
resignation in the hands of her Majesty, who 
at once sent for the Earl of Derby, and con¬ 
fided to him the duty of forming a Ministry. 
On the 23d, intimation of the resignation was 
made in both Houses of Parliament, and an 
adjournment made to the 26th. 

20. —Earl Cowley to the Earl of Claren¬ 
don :—“ Having learnt by telegraph that 
certain resolutions imputing blame to H.M. 
Government for not having made any reply to 
Count Walewski’s despatch to Count Persigny, 
dated January 20, had been affirmed by a 
majority of the House of Commons, I think it a 
duty to your Lordship to place on record that, 
although I have not been charged to make any 
official communication to the French Government 
in answer to that despatch, I have been enabled, 
by your Lordship’s private instructions, to place 
before the French Government the views of 
H.M. Government far more fully, and, 1 cannot 
but believe, more satisfactorily, than would have 
been the case had my language been clothed in 
more official garb. ... I know not what may 
be the result of last night’s vote, but, at all 
events, I lose no time in stating my conviction 
that to your Lordship’s judicious and prudent 
conduct at a very critical moment it is owing 
that, without the shadow of the sacrifice of a 
single principle, our relations with this Govern¬ 
ment have not received a check which might 
have been fatal to the friendship which yet 
happily prevails between the two nations.” 

— As usual, the defeat of Ministers on a 
question of international policy caused con¬ 
siderable fluctuation in the Funds. To-day 
(Saturday) Consols opened at 97I, fell to 96!, 
then advanced to 97, and closed at 96! to |. 
On Monday, when the uneasiness concerning 
the irritation in France was at its height, they 
fell to 96, being the lowest point reached, but 
recovered greatly next day. 

21 . —The Greek city of Corinth almost de¬ 
stroyed by an earthquake. 

22 . —Mr. Roebuck obtains the appointment 
of a Select Committee to inquire into the 
alleged unparliamentary conduct of Mr. Isaac 
Butt in having corruptly entered into an agree¬ 
ment with the Ameer Ali Moorad to prose- 










FEBRUARY 


1858. 


FEBRUARY 


cute and to advocate his claims in the House 
of Commons to recover the territories of which 
he had been deprived by annexation. After 
taking evidence, the Committee agreed to a 
resolution acquitting Mr. Butt of the charge 
made against him. It was established that 
various sums of money had been paid by the 
Ameer to Mr. Butt, but not that it had re¬ 
ference to proceedings in Parliament. 

24. —Heloise Thaubin, a French prostitute, 
murdered by Giovanni Lani, in a brothel off 
the Haymarket. The murderer was discovered 
leaving this country on board the barque Pride 
of the Thames , and brought back to London 
with a portion of the property stolen from the 
deceased and found among his luggage. He 
was tried at the Central Criminal Court for the 
offence, found guilty, and executed. 

— Explosion at Lower Dufferyn Colliery, 
Newport, causing the death of twenty workmen. 

25. —Commenced at Paris, before the Court 
of Assizes, the trial of the conspirators charged 
with attempting to take the life of the Emperor 
and Empress on the evening of the 14th January 
last. Five persons were directly accused as 
authors of the plot; viz. Orsini, Pierri, Rudio, 
Gomez, and Bernard (the last not in custody). 
The three first-named, who threw the shells, 
were further accused of the murder of divers 
persons who had died from the wounds received. 
The court was presided over by M. Delangle. 
The prisoners were each subjected to an 
examination and cross-examination, with the 
view of making them explain their movements 
prior to, as well as on the day the attempt was 
made. The trial lasted two days, the jury at 
the close returning a verdict of Guilty against 
all the prisoners, and admitting extenuating 
circumstances in favour of Gomez only. The 
three chief conspirators were sentenced to be 
executed as parricides, and Gomez to hard 
labour for life. The punishment of Rudio 
was afterwards commuted to penal servitude 
for life. 

26. —Resenting certain remarks made in 
the House of Lords on the opinion he had 
expressed regarding the English law of aliens, 
Sir R. Bethell took occasion to enlarge to-night 
on the inconvenience that would arise if, in any 
nation possessing two deliberative assemblies, 
the members did not observe the rules of 
decency and regularity, reciprocally abstaining 
Irom personal and offensive criticism. He then 
intimated, with the circumlocution technically 
demanded in such cases, that certain of the 
judges in the House of Peers had repeatedly 
been guilty of a practice which might have 
been pardoned in younger members, but not 
in grave, reverend, and aged men, who ought 
to be examples of order, regularity, and de¬ 
cency. (Some amusement was afforded by 
Sir Richard Bethell’s ingeniously-measured 
expressions of intense vituperative retaliation.) 
The practice, he said, had been repeatedly 
pursued, frequently remonstrated against in 


private, forborne to be noticed in public; and, 
for his own part he avowed he felt a great 
deal of pity for the irritable feeling that 
prompted these observations. He mentioned 
three cases in which the Lord Chief Justice 
had reflected upon himself as Solicitor-General 
or Attorney-General, in August last, in dis¬ 
cussing the Trustees Relief Bill; subsequently, 
in discussing the Supreme Court of Appeal, 
where Sir Richard was represented as attack 
ing the judicial jurisdiction of the Peers ; and 
in his recent statement of the English law of 
aliens. In the first case, Lord St. Leonards 
had mentioned a Solicitor-General as having 
spoken “ with a confidence that belonged to 
him.” Now, the individual alluded to unques¬ 
tionably felt a good deal of pity for the irritable 
feeling prompting these observations. In the 
second, Lord Campbell had spoken of the same 
Solicitor-General as “ never likely to be satisfied 
till he sat on the woolsack ”—a species of per¬ 
sonality indicating great want of good breed¬ 
ing and good manners. With reference to the 
observations of the noble lords on his state¬ 
ments as to the law of aliens, Sir Richard 
remarked : “ It is the province of the judges 
of the land to declare a law, but to declare 
the law in their courts, after argument, upon a 
judicial occasion, and after grave deliberation. 
(Cheers.) It is most deeply to be deplored if 
there should happen to be in any country a 
judge of the greatest eminence and authority, 
who must know well that, in a particular con¬ 
juncture of circumstances, he might be called 
upon to sit in judgment upon a particular case, 
and who yet, with reference to that case, before 
it came before him, gratuitously and unneces¬ 
sarily rushed into public, and declared that the 
law which governed the case was so-and-so, 
and that all who held a different opinion com¬ 
mitted such grievous errors that it gave him 
the most acute pain to observe the blunders 
into which they had fallen. (Hear, hear ! and 
a laugh.) Well, sir, if there is a man who 
should have done such a thing, and if such a 
man should be clothed with the ermine of the 
highest station, I think this House will be of 
opinion with me that he would disqualify him¬ 
self from sitting as a judge to hear and deter¬ 
mine that question, if the case on which he 
had thus given an opinion and decision should 
arise. (Cheers.) There is nothing more to 
be deplored in the judges of the land than that 
they should be ‘ incontinent of tongue.’ ” 

26. —Died at London, aged 48, Thomas 
Tooke, F. R. S., statist, and author of “Thoughts 
and Details of High and Low Prices.” 

27. —The members of Lord Derby’s Minis¬ 
try take formal possession of their offices. (See 
Table of Administrations.) 

— Came on in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
Guildhall, before Lord Chief Justice Campbell 
and a special jury, the trial of the Directors of 
the Royal British Bank. Humphrey Brown, 
Edward Esdaile, H. D. Macleod, Alderman R. 

( 5 11 ) 






FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1858. 


H. Kennedy, W. D. Owen, James Stapleton, 
and Hugh James Cameron were placed at the 
bar, charged with a conspiracy to defraud. 
Loran de Wolfe Cochran was also included in 
the indictment, but did not surrender. The 
indictment was framed on an ex-officio informa¬ 
tion filed by her Majesty’s late Attorney- 
General (Sir Richard Bethell), and was in sub¬ 
stance as follows:—The first count charged a 
conspiracy to publish and represent to such of 
the shareholders as were ignorant, &c., that the 
bank and its affairs had been during the half-year 
ended the 31st of December, 1855, and then 
were in a sound and prosperous condition, pro¬ 
ducing profits divisible, &c., the defendants 
well knowing the contrary, &c., with intent to 
deceive and defraud such of the shareholders 
as were not aware of the true state of its affairs, 
and to induce them to continue customers and 
creditors of the bank. The count then set out 
the following overt acts:—1st overt act, pub¬ 
lishing a false report for the half-year to De¬ 
cember 31, 1855, declaring a dividend of six 
per cent., and that new shares would be issued 
at a premium; 2d overt act, issuing new shares, 
showing the bank to be in a failing condition ; 
3d overt act, publishing a balance-sheet for the 
year, false in the amount of assets, in the pro¬ 
vision for bad debts, and in the profit and loss 
account; 4th overt act, paying a dividend when 
no profits were made; 5th, overt act, buying the 
bank’s shares with the bank’s money, to keep 
up the price; 6th overt act, publishing a cir¬ 
cular, September 10, 1855, to the shareholders, 
to induce them to buy new shares, when the 
bank was in a failing condition ; 7th overt act, 
publishing an advertisement inviting persons to 
open accounts when the bank was approaching 
insolvency; 8th overt act, publishing an issue of 
2,000 more shares when the bank was failing. 
The 2d count charged a similar conspiracy 
against the customers and creditors of the 
bank ; and contained seven overt acts, similar 
to Nos. I to 7 in the 1st count. The 3d count 
charged a similar conspiracy against the Queen’s 
subjects generally; the overt acts were similar 
to those in the 1st count. The 4th count 
charged a conspiracy to cheat and defraud such 
of the shareholders as were ignorant of the 
true state of the bank, by inducing them by 
false pretences to purchase and hold additional 
shares in the bank, the defendants knowing the 
bank to be in a dangerous condition and ap¬ 
proaching insolvency, and that the shares were 
unsafe and might be ruinous to the holders; the 
overt acts were the same as Nos. 1 to 5 in the 
1st count. The 5th count charged a similar 
conspiracy against the Queen’s subjects gene¬ 
rally ; the overt acts were the same as Nos. 1 
to 5 in the 1st count. The 6th count charged 
a general conspiracy to cheat and defraud John 
Arundel, and several other persons named, of 
their money. The jury found all the defen¬ 
dants guilty, recommending Stapleton, Ken¬ 
nedy, Owen, and Macleod strongly to mercy. 
On Brown, Esdaile, and Cameron the Lord 
Chief Justice passed a sentence of one year’s 
(512) 


imprisonment, adding that they had been con¬ 
victed, “on the clearest evidence, of an infamous 
crime;” on Kennedy, nine months’ imprison¬ 
ment ; on Owen, six months; on Macleod, 
three months; on Stapleton, “I cannot con¬ 
scientiously order you to do more than pay a 
fine of one shilling to her Majesty, and be dis¬ 
charged.” 

March 2. —The Commander-in-chief in 
India having received the whole of the 
convoy and siege-trains from Agra, sets out 
on his second march from Cawnpore to 
Lucknow, where the rebels were again en¬ 
trenching themselves. He despatched Sir 
James Outram across the Goomtee on the 6th, 
and took up a position himself at Dilkoosha, 
Sir James crossed with 6,000 men and thirty 
guns, and on the 21st was attacked by the 
rebels, who swarmed in great force, flanking 
two sides of his position, and having a heavy 
column in the centre. He moved out on the 
approach of the enemy, cut off both their 
flanks, took two guns, and forced them to 
retreat. Frank’s column had also a decided 
action. To prevent a junction between two 
insurgent corps, he marched on the 29th Feb-" 
ruary in advance of Budlapoore, and encoun¬ 
tered the enemy separately near Shandina, 
killing or wounding 2,800 men, and taking all 
the rebel guns. 

3. —The Governor-General of India issues a 
proclamation from Allahabad, addressed to the 
chiefs and people of Oude :—“ The army of 
his Excellency the Commander-in-chief is in 
possession of Lucknow, and the city lies at 
the mercy of the British Government, whose 
authority it has for nine months rebelliously 
defied and resisted. The resistance begun by a 
mutinous soldiery has found support from the 
inhabitants of the city and of the province of 
Oude at large. Many who ow T ed their pros¬ 
perity to the British Government, as well as 
those who believed themselves aggrieved by it, 
have joined in this bad cause, and ranged them¬ 
selves with the enemies of the State. The 
first care of the Governor-General will be to 
reward those who have been steadfast in their 
allegiance at a time when the authority of the 
Government was partially overborne, and who 
have proved this by the support and assistance 
which they have given to British officers.” 
The proclamation then specified the names 
of six talookdars, or landowners of Oude, in¬ 
cluding two rajahs, and declared that they “ are 
henceforward the sole hereditary proprietors of 
the lands which they held when Oude came 
under British rule, subject only to such moderate 
assessment as maybe imposed upon them, and 
that those loyal men will be further rewarded 
in such manner and to such extent as, upon 
consideration of their merits and their position, 
the Governor-General shall determine. A pro¬ 
portionate measure of reward and honour, 
according to their deserts, will be conferred 
upon others in whose favour like claims may 





MARCH 


1858. 


MARCH 


be established to the satisfaction of the Govern¬ 
ment. ” The Governor-General further pro¬ 
claims to the people of Oude, that, with the 
above-mentioned exceptions, the proprietary 
right in the soil of the province is confiscated 
to the British Government, which will dispose 
of that right in such manner as may seem 
fitting. “To those talookdars, chiefs, and 
landholders, with their followers, who shall 
make immediate submission to the Chief Com¬ 
missioner of Oude, surrendering their arms and 
obeyinghis orders, the Right Hon. the Governor- 
General promises that their lives and honour 
shall be safe, provided that their hands are 
unstained by English blood murderously shed. 
But as regards any further indulgence which 
may be extended to them, and the conditions 
in which they may hereafter be placed, they 
must throw themselves upon the justice and 
mercy of the British Government. .... As 
participation in the murder of Englishmen and 
Englishwomen will exclude those who are guilty 
of it from all mercy, so will those who have 
protected English lives be specially entitled to 
consideration and leniency.”—When the pro¬ 
clamation was forwarded to Sir James Outram, 
the Chief Commissioner of Oude, he was so 
strongly impressed with the impolicy of pub¬ 
lishing it in all the naked severity of the terms 
it imposed upon the landholders, and making 
confiscation of their proprietary rights the rule, 
instead of the exception, that he at once 
resolved to remonstrate. Tie therefore directed 
his secretary to write to the Government of 
India, and plead for a modification of the pro¬ 
visions it contained. In this letter, which was 
dated, “Camp, Chinhut, March 8,” he said, 
“ The Chief Commissioner desires me to 
observe, that, in his belief, there are not a 
dozen landholders in the province who have 
not themselves borne arms against us or sent a 
representative to the Durbar, or assisted the 
rebel Government with men or money. The 
effect of the proclamation, therefore, will be to 
confiscate the entire proprietary right in the 
soil; and this being the case, it is, of course, 
hopeless to attempt to enlist the landholders on 
the side of order; on the contrary, it is the 
Chief Commissioner’s firm conviction that as 
soon as the chiefs and talookdars become 
acquainted with the determination of the 
Government to confiscate their rights, they will 
betake themselves at once to their domains and 
prepare for a desperate resistance. The Chief 
Commissioner deems this matter of such vital 
importance that, at the risk of being deemed 
importunate, he ventures to submit his views 
once more, in the hope that the Right Honour¬ 
able the Governor-General may yet be induced 
to reconsider the subject. He is of opinion 
that the landholders were most unjustly treated 
under our settlement operations, and, even had 
they not been so, that it would have required a 
degree of fidelity on their part quite foreign 
to the usual character of an Asiatic to have 
remained faithful to our Government under the 
shocks to which it was exposed in Oude. In 

( 513 ) 


fact, It was not till our rule was virtually at an 
end, the whole country overrun, and the capital 
in the hands of the rebel soldiery, that the 
talookdars, smarting as they were under the 
loss of their lands, sided against us. The 
Chief Commissioner thinks, therefore, that they 
ought hardly to be considered as rebels, but 
rather as honourable enemies, to whom terms, 
such as they could without loss of dignity accept, 
should be offered at the termination of the 
campaign. If these men be given bade their 
lands they will at once aid us in restoring order, 
and a police will soon be organized with their 
co-operation, which will render unnecessary the 
presence of our enormous army to re-establish 
tranquillity and confidence. But if their life 
and freedom from imprisonment only be offered, 
they will resist; and the Chief Commissioner 
foresees that we are only at the commencement 
of a guerilla war for the extirpation, root and 
branch, of this class of men, which will involve 
the loss of thousands of Europeans by battle, 
disease, and exposure. It must be borne in 
mind that this species of warfare has always 
been peculiarly harassing to our Indian forces, 
and will be far more so at present, when we are 
without a native army. For the above reasons 
the Chief Commissioner earnestly requests that 
such landholders and chiefs as have not been 
accomplices in the cold-blooded murder of 
Europeans may be enlisted on our side by the 
restoration of their ancient possessions, subject 
to such restrictions as will protect their depen¬ 
dants from oppression. If his Lordship agree 
to this proposition, it will not yet be too late to 
communicate his assent by electric telegraph 
before the fall of the city, which will probably 
not take place for some days. Should no such 
communication be received, the Chief Com¬ 
missioner will act upon his present instructions, 
satisfied that he has done all in his power to 
convince his Lordship that they will be inef¬ 
fectual to re-establish our rule on a firm basis in 
Oude. The Governor-General was not con¬ 
vinced by this reasoning, but in consequence of 
so strong an expression of opinion by an officer 
whose views as to the policy proper to be pur¬ 
sued in Oude were entitled to so much weight, 
he consented to add to the intended procla¬ 
mation, after the paragraph which ended with 
the words “justice and mercy of the British 
Government,” the following clause : “To those 
among them who shall promptly come forward 
and give to * the Chief Commissioner their 
support in the restoration of peace and order, 
this indulgence will be large, and the Governor- 
General will be ready to view liberally the 
claims which they may thus acquire to a resti¬ 
tution of their former rights.” 

4. —The Earl of Malmesbury answers the 
despatch of Count Walewski : “Your Lord- 
ship will remark to Count Walewski that his 
Excellency, in stating that the attempt which 
has just providentially foiled, like others which 
have preceded, was devised in England; in 
speaking, with reference to the ‘ adeptes de la 
demagogic ’ established in England, of ‘ assas- 

L I. 






MARCH 


1858. 


MARCH 


sination elevated to doctrine, preached openly, 
practised in repeated attempts ; ’ and in asking 
‘whether the right of asylum should protect 
such a state of things or contribute to favour 
their designs and their plans,' has not un¬ 
naturally been understood to imply imputations, 
not only that the offences enumerated are not 
recognised as such by the English law, and 
may be committed with impunity, but that the 
spirit of English legislation is such as designedly 
to shelter and screen the offender from punish¬ 
ment. Her Majesty’s Government are persuaded 
that had Count Walewski known, when his 
Excellency held with your Lordship the con¬ 
versation to which I have adverted above, that 
such construction was put upon certain portions 
of his despatch of January 20, he would have 
had no difficulty in adding to the assurance 
then given—the assurance that nothing could 
have been further from his intention than to 
convey an imputation injurious alike to the 
morality and the honour of the British nation. ” 

5. —Jeremiah Carpenter tried at the Hert¬ 
ford Assizes for the murder of John Starkins, 
a member of the Herts constabulary, stationed 
at Stevenage. The deceased had been ap¬ 
pointed to watch the prisoner by a farmer at 
Norton Green, who, from time to time, had 
been missing small quantities of wheat from 
his barn, and the presumption was that an 
encounter had taken place between them 
in the Cooper’s Braches field. The body was 
found lying there in a pool; the skull and face 
frightfully disfigured. It was set forth in evi¬ 
dence that the accused was seen to leave his 
work in the Railway field a little earlier than 
usual on the night in question ; that he pro¬ 
ceeded in the direction of Norton Green farm¬ 
house ; that he must have ' passed through 
Cooper’s Braches field before his return home 
to Stevenage ; that a quantity of seed wheat, 
found at the scene of the struggle, was similar 
to that stolen from Norton Green, and also to 
some found in prisoner’s house; that he was 
seen to return home later than usual and a 
little lame; that he changed his clothes, and 
pretended an accident in his garden to account 
for his lameness ; that a portion of his clothes 
found were spotted with blood, and that his 
knife, which had been carefully washed, also 
showed traces of blood. Notwithstanding these 
suspicious circumstances, the jury returned a 
verdict of Not guilty—impressed, apparently, 
by Serjeant Parry’s argument, pleaded in de¬ 
fence, that even if the jury should be of 
opinion there was no moral doubt in the case, 
still, if the evidence was not conclusive, they 
ought to acquit the prisoner. 

6 . —The mansion of Wynnstay, in North 
Wales, the seat of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 
destroyed by fire; the greater part of the 
jewels, plate, furniture, paintings, and books, 
being also destroyed. The Countess Vane, 
and some other guests, made a narrow escape 
with their lives. The loss was estimated at 
70000/. 

( 514 ) 


10. —The Times of this morning contains 
the following advertisement:—“Fifty Pounds 
Reward. It having come to the knowledge of 
the Committee of the Army and Navy Club 
that a caricature, with most coarse and vulgar 
language appended thereto, [Punch's cartoon 
of * The crowing Colonel ’] was sent to an 
officer in command of a French regiment, 
accompanied with a forged message from the 
Club, the above reward will, within six weeks 
from this date, be paid by the Secretary of the 
Club on due conviction and punishment of the 
offender. ” 

— A South African Exploring Expedition, 
under Dr. Livingstone, sails from Liverpool. 

11. —Publication of the Imperial pamphlet, 
“L’Empereur Napoleon III. et l’Angleterre. ” 
Describing the facilities afforded in England 
for concocting treasonable schemes, the writer 
says :—“ There is a coffee-house near Temple- 
bar, in London, where the question to be dis¬ 
cussed in the evening is announced in the 
morning. The public are invited to take part 
in the discussion. This coffee-house is called 
‘Discussion Forum.’ People eat and drink 
there, and, at the same time, talk politics. A 
man, paid by the proprietor, presides and 
directs the debates. In the month of Novem¬ 
ber, the following order of the day was publicly 
posted:—‘ Is regicide permitted under certain 
circumstances?’ The question was publicly 
discussed. This is, moreover, not a transitory 
or isolated fact; and that which has taken 
place since, and takes place every day, aggra¬ 
vates it still more. On the 9th of February 
last, the French club which meets at Wyld’s 
Reading-rooms, Leicester-square, held a sitting 
at which Simon Bernard, the accomplice of 
Orsini, expressed himself with the greatest 
violence. He declared that the Emperor, his 
Ministers, M. de Persigny—all the high French 
functionaries—were out of the pale of the law, 
and he invited all those listening to him to 
rush upon them by all means in their power. 
This speech, in which the ignoble contends 
with the horrible, was hailed with enthusiastic 
applause.” 

12 . —Intimation is made in both Houses 
of Parliament, that the painful misconceptions 
which have subsisted for a time between the 
French and English Governments have ter¬ 
minated in a friendly and honourable manner. 

— Disturbance in Dublin between the 
students and police, on the occasion of the 
Earl of Eglinton’s entry into the city as the 
new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 

13 . —Orsini and Pierri executed at Paris. 
At the scaffold, Orsini was supported by the 
chaplain of the Conciergerie, and his calmness 
never abandoned him for a moment. When 
he appeared on the platform it could be seen 
from the movement of his body and of his 
head, though covered with a veil, that he was 
looking out for the crowd, and probably in¬ 
tended addressing them ; but they were too 




MARCH 


1858. 


MARCH 


far off. The grefficr then directed the usher to 
read the sentence of the Court condemning the 
prisoners to the death of parricides. The 
usher, who was an old man, over 60, was 
evidently much moved at having to perform 
this duty, and he trembled as much from emo¬ 
tion as from cold while reading the document, 
which no one listened to. After this formality 
was terminated, Orsini and Pierri embraced 
their spiritual attendants, and pressed their 
lips on the crucifix offered to them. They 
then gave themselves up to the headsman. 
Pierri was attached to the plank in an instant, 
and executed first. The moment his veil was 
raised, and before his head was laid on the 
block, it was affirmed that he cried, “Vive 
l’ltalie ! Vive la Republique ! ” Orsini was 
then taken in hand; his veil was raised, but 
his countenance still betrayed no emotion. 
Before he was fastened to the plank he turned 
in the direction of the distant crowd, and, it 
was said, cried “ Vive la France ! ” 

13 .—Died, aged 75, Richard Griffin, Lord 
Braybrooke, editor of “ Pepys’s Diary.” 

17 .—The Court of Session, Edinburgh, 
pronounce judgment in the case of Fairholme 
v. Pringle, in which it was found in point of 
law that all the persons who went out in the 
Franklin expedition must be presumed to have 
been dead before 1853. The case arose thus:— 
Adam Fairholme of Chapel, who died on 23d 
May, 1853, by codicil executed in 1842 directed 
his trustees to pay the whole residue of 
his estate to James Walter Fairholme, his 
nephew, and his issue, whom failing to George 
Fairholme, another nephew. J. W. Fairholme 
was a lieutenant in the navy, and had volun¬ 
teered to go with Sir John Franklin. He sailed 
from Kent, on board the Erebus , on 19th May, 
1845. The last intelligence of the expedition 
was dated 26th July, 1845, and George Fair¬ 
holme, on the theory that the lieutenant had 
died before the death of Adam Fairholme the 
testator in May 1853, claimed to be preferred 
to the moveable estate left by him. The Court 
directed a proof to be taken, in which Dr. Rae, 
Messrs. Hargrave, Smith, and Stewart, officers 
of the Hudson Bay Company, Sir John 
Richardson, and Capt. Penny, were examined 
along with other witnesses, and the official 
reports to the Admiralty were produced and 
founded on. The result arrived at by the Court 
was stated by the Lord Justice Clerk: “In 
February 1845 the expedition entered the 
Polar Seas. From that time not one of the 
expedition has ever returned, and the evidence 
irresistibly proves that after the summer of 
1850 not one of them survived. The only 
account we get of the fate of any of them, and 
which on the whole I believe to be authentic, 
is that a small party, exhausted and starving, 
was seen in 1850 by the Esquimaux, and ap¬ 
parently one man, later than his comrades, of 
large frame, but in the greatest extremity. It 
does not appear *hat this man was of the 
appearance or size of Lieutenant Fairholme; 

(515^ 


but even had the description corresponded with 
his, it is plain that this last survivor could not 
have existed over the summer. ” 

20.—William Davies was this day sentenced 
to death for the murder of an old woman, 
named Ann Evans, residing at Wenlock, 
Shropshire, under circumstances curious for 
the light they shed upon the superstitions of 
large parts of the population. The deceased 
had the reputation of being a witch, and con¬ 
trived to exercise an influence in this way over 
the prisoner, who acted as her servant. Her 
reputation, apart from her alleged dealings 
with the devil, was by no means good. She 
had been known under several names, and 
did not appear always under the same designa¬ 
tion, even in the proceedings at the trial. In 
a fit of passion, to which she was frequently 
subject, the prisoner was provoked to knock 
her down in her own house, and fearful of her 
curses if she recovered, he stabbed her in the 
neck, and fled in terror from the place. Her 
supernatural influence was so firmly established, 
that the mother of a little girl, one of the wit¬ 
nesses, would not allow her to stand alone in 
the witness-box when under examination, so 
certain was she that the influence of the witch 
could still be made powerful. The extreme 
sentence of the law was afterwards commuted. 

22 .—Sir Colin Campbell establishes himself 
again in Lucknow. “ On the 19th,” he writes, 
“a combined armament was organized. Sir 
James Outram moved forward directly on the 
Moosabagh, the last position of the enemy on 
the line of the Goomtee. Sir J. Hope Grant 
cannonaded the latter from the left bank, while 
Brigadier Campbell, moving right round the 
western side from the Alumbagh, prevented 
retreat in that direction. The rout was now 
complete, and great loss was inflicted on the 
enemy by all these columns. On the 16th, for 
the last time, the enemy had shown in some 
strength before the Alumbagh, which that day 
was held by only two of our regiments. Jung 
Bahadoor was requested to move to his left up 
the canal, and take the position in reverse from 
which our position at the Alumbagh had been 
so long annoyed. This was executed very well 
by his Highness, and he seized the positions, 
one after another, with very little loss to him¬ 
self. The guns of the enemy, which the latter 
did not stop to take away, fell into his hands. 
On the 21st, Sir E. Lugard was directed to 
attack a stronghold, held by Moulvie, in the 
heart of the city. This he occupied after a sharp 
contest, and it now became possible to invite 
the return of the inhabitants, and to rescue the 
city from the horrors of this prolonged con¬ 
test.” “ It was late in the evening,” writes the 
Times' correspondent, “when we returned to 
camp, through roads thronged with at least 
20,000 camp-followers, all staggering under 
loads of plunder—the most extraordinary and 
indescribable spectacle I ever beheld ; coolies, 
syces, kitmutgars, dhooly-beaters, Sikhs, grass- 
cutters, a flood of men covered with clothing 

L L 2 




MARCH 


1858. 


APRIL 


not their own, carrying on heads and shoulders 
looking-glasses, mirrors, pictures, brass pots, 
swords, firelocks, rich shawls, scarfs, em¬ 
broidered dresses, all the ‘ loot ’ of ransacked 
palaces. The noise, the dust, the shouting, 
the excitement, were almost beyond endurance. 
Lucknow was borne away, piece-meal, to camp, 
and the wild Ghoorkas and Sikhs, with open 
mouths and glaring eyes, burning with haste 
to get rich, were contending fiercely against 
the current as they sought to get to the sources 
of such unexpected wealth.” 

24. —Towards the close of this month a 
sharp controversy was carried on through the 
newspapers regarding Lord Shaftesbury’s state¬ 
ment that mutilation had been frequently re¬ 
sorted to by the rebel Sepoys. (See Oct. 30.) 
Exact inquiry made it appear that, though the 
most remorseless spirit had been shown so far 
as the destruction of life was concerned, muti¬ 
lation could not be established to any consider¬ 
able extent. The reported cases faded away 
wherever exact inquiry was set on foot regard¬ 
ing them. 

25 . —Mr. Roebuck’s motion to abolish the 
Irish Viceroyalty thrown out by 243 to 116. 

26 . —Mr. Disraeli introduces the new India 
Bill to the House of Commons. While de¬ 
sirous, with Lord Palmerston, to abolish the 
Court of Directors, and transfer their powers to 
the responsible servants of the Crown, he sought 
to secure the support of the democratic section 
of the community, by making certain members 
of the Council' elective, and vesting the choice 
of them in large parliamentary constituencies. 
Permission was given to introduce the bill, but 
it met generally with an unfavourable reception, 
and was abandoned soon after the Easter recess, 
in favour of a scheme suggested by Lord John 
Russell, of proceeding by resolution in a Com¬ 
mittee of the whole House. 

— In the case of Rendall v. Crystal Palace 
Directors, Vice-Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood 
grants injunction restraining the defendants 
from issuing tickets to admit persons to the 
building and grounds on Sunday in consi¬ 
deration of any money payment directly or 
indirectly. 

27. —Died at Went worth-place, Dublin, 
aged 57, John Hogan, sculptor. 

23. —Nicaragua places herself under the 
protection of the United States. 

29. —Calamitous fire in Gilbert - street, 
Bloomsbury, causing the loss of fifteen lives, 
fourteen being suffocated or burnt in the pre¬ 
mises, and one dying of injuries received in 
leaping from an upper window to the street. 

April 1.—Sir H. Rose’s besieging force at¬ 
tacked by Tantia Topee before Jhansi. With¬ 
out abandoning the investment, he gave battle 
to the relieving army, capturing eighteen guns, 
several elephants, and all the camp equipage. 
The town was stormed and taken, on the 2d, 
( 5 l6 ) 


after a struggle in which our loss was consider¬ 
able. The Ranee fled towards Jaloum. 

1.—At Lerwick, Peter Williamson, merchant, 
up to this time a quiet well-conducted man, 
murders his wife and four children by cutting 
their throats, and then commits suicide in the 
most deliberate manner by cutting his own. 
One of his children, a boy, escaped maimed 
and bleeding from his father’s murderous attack, 
and raised an alarm in the servants’ room. 
By that time the sickening tragedy was com¬ 
pleted upstairs. It was noticed the day before 
that Williamson did not appear quite in his 
usual way, and talked a good deal to people in 
his shop about murders and executions. 

6 .—At the Gloucester Assizes, the Rev. 
Samuel Smith was sentenced to five yeai-s’ 
penal servitude for beating John Leech, road 
contractor, of Croydon, with intent to do him 
grievous bodily injury. Mr. Smith made an 
elaborate defence, in which he admitted the 
attack, but sought to justify it on the ground 
that the prosecutor had been for years carrying 
on a seci'et adulterous intercourse with his wife. 
Mrs. Smith, who was also charged as a party to 
the assault—in so far as she had written the 
letters which led to the meeting, and induced 
Leech to accompany her to a lonely spot at 
Yate, near Bristol—was discharged. 

9. —At the Central Criminal Court, Edward 
Auchmuty Glover is sentenced to three 
months’ imprisonment in Newgate for making 
a false declaration as to his qualification to 
sit in the House of Commons as a member for 
Beverley. 

— Opened, at the Central Criminal Court, 
the Special Commission for the trial of Dr. 
Simon Bernard, charged as an accessory before 
the fact to the attempt of Orsini and others to 
assassinate the Emperor of the French. The 
trial took place under the Statute of the 7th and 
8th Geo. IV., c. 31, sec. 7, which enacted that 
if any subject should be an accessory before 01 
after the fact to the commission of any murder 
or manslaughter, upon land out of the domi¬ 
nions of his Majesty, the offence was to be tried 
at the Central Criminal Court under a Special 
Commission. The Commission included the 
Lord Mayor, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Chief 
Baron, Mr. Justice Erie, Mr. Justice Crowder, 
the City Recorder, Commissioner Prendergast, 
the Common Serjeant, and all the Aldermen, 
according to their seniority. The Lord Chief 
Justice thus referred to the evidence in his 
charge to the Grand Jury :—“The depositions 
clearly show that, whether Bernard was privy 
to it or not, a wicked plot had been formed in 
the year 1857 by certain foreigners, who had 
found an asylum in England, to assassinate the 
Emperor of the French by the explosion of gun¬ 
powder. The two chief conspirators were 
Felix Orsini and Joseph Pierri. They pro¬ 
cured the grenades to be manufactured in 
England, and to be carried first to Brussels 
and afterwards to Paris. At Paris, accom- 





APRIL 


1858. 


APRIL 


panied by Antonio Gomez, a servant of Piern, 
and by another foreigner, named De Rudio, 
who was hired in London to assist them in 
their enterprise, Orsini and Pierri, armed with 
the grenades and with revolvers sent to them 
from England, actually did make the attempt, 
by throwing the grenades, and causing them to 
explode, as the Emperor was about to alight 
from his carriage. Bernard was not present ; 
he was still in England ; and there is not in the 
depositions any direct, positive evidence to 
prove that he was aware of the purpose to 
which the grenades were to be applied. But 
the depositions do disclose serious facts which, 
till contradicted or explained, may lead to the 
presumption that he was an accomplice. A 
few of the most prominent of these I will 
mention to you. Residing in London, and 
being very intimate with Orsini, Bernard was 
instrumental in causing the grenades to be 
manufactured, and in November 1857 he on 
two occasions purchased materials from which 
the fulminating powder for the explosion of the 
grenades is compounded. When the grenades 
were completed, in December, he induced the 
keeper of the Cafe Suisse in London to carry 
them secretly to Brussels, on the representation 
that they were connected with a new invention 
for the making of gas. In the end of Decem¬ 
ber, when the grenades had been carried over 
to Brussels, Bernard went thither himself, 
and there he met Pierri, likewise Orsini, who 
j was passing under the name of Allsopp, and 
whom he appears to have assisted in obtaining 
a false passport which enabled him to do so. 
At Brussels Bernard remained some days, till, 
with his privity, the grenades were delivered to 
a waiter of an hotel to be carried to Paris, and 
Orsini left Brussels for Paris in the same train 
as the waiter. Bernard then returned to Lon¬ 
don, and, according to the depositions, was 
very active in inducing De Rudio, who was 
then in a state of great destitution and misery, 
to go over to Paris, that he might there put 
himself under the orders of Orsini. Bernard 
procured a passport for De Rudio in the name 
of De Silva, and when De Rudio had gone 
over to Paris he supplied small sums of money 
to De Rudio’s wife, and sent her into the 
country, making use of mysterious language as 
to how she was to conduct herself if she should 
read anything in the newspapers about her 
husband. It further appeared that, to facilitate 
Orsini’s personation of Allsopp at Paris, 
Bernard, in December, wrote several letters to 
one Outrequin, a commission agent at Paris, 
and advised Outrequin of the consignment of a 
package containing revolvers, which, in fact, 
had been purchased by Pierri in England, and 
were to be delivered to Orsini in Paris. The 
last fact stated in the depositions with which I 
will trouble you is, that, on the 2d of January, 
1858, Bernard himself brought the package 
containing the revolvers to the office of the 
South-Eastern Railway, in Regent Cii'cus, 
directed to “ Monsieur Outrequin, 277, Rue 
St. Denis, Paris,” making use of language 


which, although it may indicate the knowledge 
of some plot against the existing Government 
in France, yet, if spoken seriously and sincerely, 
repels the notion that Bernard was then aware 
that this plot contemplated the assassination of 
the Emperor.” The speeches of counsel, and 
the examination of witnesses to prove their 
allegations, occupied six days. On the last 
day, the jury retired about twenty minutes, and 
returned with a verdict of Not guilty. The 
people in court burst into a cheer, which the 
officers could not repress, and the prisoner 
himself waved his handkerchief over his head 
in great excitement. The law officers of the 
Crown relinquished the other charges in the 
indictment, and the prisoner was liberated. 

13 .—Government telegram announcing the 
fall of Lucknow read in both Houses of Par¬ 
liament amid great cheering. 

— The outbreak in India being, to at 
least an appreciable extent, connected with 
religious scruples, the Court of Directors in¬ 
struct the Governor-General:—“The Govern¬ 
ment will adhere with good faith to its ancient 
policy of perfect neutrality in matters affecting 
the religion of the people of India, and we 
most earnestly caution all those in authority 
under it not to afford by their conduct the least 
colour to the suspicion that that policy has 
undergone, or will undergo, any change. It is 
perilous for men in authority to do, as indivi¬ 
duals, that which they officially condemn. The 
real intention of the Government will be in¬ 
ferred from their acts, and they may unwit¬ 
tingly expose it to the greatest of all dangers, 
that of being regarded with general distrust by 
the people. We rely upon the honourable 
feelings which have ever distinguished our ser¬ 
vice, for the furtherance of the views we express. 
When the Government of India makes a pro¬ 
mise to the people, there must not be afforded 
to them grounds for a doubt as to its fidelity to 
its word.” 

15 .—Marshal Pelissier appointed French 
Ambassador at the Court of St. James’s. 

17 .—Vice-Chancellor Stuart gives judg¬ 
ment in the case of Brook v. Brook, involving 
the question of marriage with a deceased 
wife’s sister in a new phase. In 1847, Char¬ 
lotte, the first wife of William Leigh Brook, 
of Meltham Hall, near Huddersfield, died, 
leaving issue a son and daughter. In 1851, 
Mr. Brook and the sister of the deceased wife 
went from this country, where they were and 
continued to be domiciled, to Altona, and 
were there married. In 1855, Mr. and Mrs. 
Brook died of cholera within a few days of 
each other. There was issue of this marriage 
one son and two daughters. Mr. Brook, by 
his will, left all his real and personal property 
to be equally distributed between the children 
of both marriages. In 1856, the son of the 
second marriage died an infant. The question 
was, who was entitled to his property ? If the 
marriage of his father with the sister of the 





AFRIL 


1858. 


MAi 


deceased wife, at Altona, was valid, his two 
sisters of the whole blood would succeed to 
his real estate ; and his three sisters of the half 
blood and whole blood would be entitled to 
the personalty. But if the marriage was 
illegal and invalid, the deceased son and his 
two sisters would be illegitimate, and his pro¬ 
perty would devolve to the Crown ; a bastard 
having, in the eye of the law, neither collateral 
heirs nor next of kin. That a marriage with a 
deceased wife’s sister is contrary to the law 
of. England was admitted ; but it is legal ac¬ 
cording to the law of Altona; and the next 
question was, whether the lex loci contractus 
operated to make a marriage performed there 
valid in this country. The judgment of the 
Vice-Chancellor was to the effect that, the 
law of England expressly prohibiting such mar¬ 
riages, no resort to the laws of Denmark, or 
any other foreign country, can give validity to 
a contract which the law of England has made 
absolutely null and void. 

19.— Lord Ellenborough, President of the 
Board of Control, forwards to the Governor- 
General of India a despatch strongly condem¬ 
natory of his Oude proclamation (see March 3). 
“We cannot but express to you our apprehen¬ 
sion that this decree, pronouncing the disin¬ 
herison of a people, will throw difficulties almost 
insurmountable in the way of the re-establish- 
ment of peace. We are under the impression 
that the war in Oude has derived much of its 
popular character from the rigorous manner in 
which, without regard to what the chief land- 
owners had become accustomed to consider 
their rights, the summary settlement had in a 
large portion of the province been carried out 
by your officers. . . . Other conquerors, when 
they have succeeded in overcoming resistance, 
have excepted a few persons as still deserving 
of punishment, but have, with a generous 
policy, extended their clemency to the great 
body of the people. You have acted upon a 
different principle : you have reserved a few 
as deserving of special favour, and you have 
struck, with what they feel as the severest of 
punishments, the mass of the inhabitants of the 
country. We cannot but think that the pre¬ 
cedents from which you have departed will 
appear to have been conceived in a spirit of 
wisdom superior to that which appears in the 
precedent you have made. We desire that 
you will mitigate, in practice, the stringent 
severity of the decree of confiscation you have 
issued against the landowners of Oude. We 
desire to see British authority in India rest 
upon the willing obedience of a contented 
people. There cannot be contentment where 
there is general confiscation. Government 
cannot long be maintained by any force in a 
country where the whole is rendered hostile by 
a sense of wrong ; and if it were possible so to 
maintain it, it would not be a consummation 
to be desired. ” 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces the annual Budget. He calculated 

(Si8) 


the expenditure at 67,110,000/., and the revenue 
at 63,120,000/., the deficiency to be met by re¬ 
pealing the War Sinking Fund Act, or at least 
suspending it until the Exchequer Bonds were 
provided for, and postponing payment of these 
till 1862-63. He proposed to equalize the 
duties on spirits, from which he hoped to ob¬ 
tain 500,000/.; and to put a stamp on bankers’ 
cheques, which he thought would yield 300,000/. 
The Budget was favourably received. 

19. —General Whitlock defeats the Sepoy 
rebels at Banda, and secures a rich booty in 
gold and jewels collected there. 

21 . —Gold discovered on the Fraser River, 
British Columbia. 

22 . —Died, aged 70, Robert Stephen Rin- 
toul, projector, proprietor, and editor of the 
Spectator newspaper. 

27 .—Captain Sir W. Peel, the brave leader 
of the Naval Brigade against the Indian rebels, 
dies at Cawnpore, of small-pox. 

23 . —Mr. Caird’s Agricultural Statistics Bill 
thrown out on the second reading by 241 to 
135 votes. 

May 1.—Nicaragua and Costa Rica, ha¬ 
rassed by filibusters, appeal to the great Euro¬ 
pean Powers for protection. 

3. —The Bishop of London intimates to 
the Rev. A. Poole his intention of with¬ 
drawing his licence as curate of St. Barnabas’, 
Pimlico, in consequence of the probability 
that the course he was pursuing with reference 
to confession would cause scandal and injury 
to the Church. 

— Mr. Locke King introduces a bill, which 
afterwards passes through both Houses, abolish¬ 
ing the property qualification hitherto required 
from members of English and Irish constitu¬ 
encies. It was notorious, he said, that the 
existing law was easily and systematically 
evaded by means of fictitious conveyances, 
and that the security which the law pur¬ 
ported to give for the character and fitness of 
the representatives of the people was entirely 
illusory. 

5 . —Lord Campbell delivered, this morning, 
the unanimous opinion of the judges, that there 
ought to be no new trial in the case of the 
Manager and Directors of the Royal British 
Bank. They were also of opinion that the 
conviction was right, and that the defendants 
were privy to the fallacious statements of ac¬ 
counts while declaring a dividend of six per 
cent., and that at the time they well knew 
the bank to be insolvent and the balance-sheet 
false. 

6 . —The French Figaro publishes a jesting 
paragraph which leads to a series of duels 
between the sub-editor, M. Pene, and certain 
sous-officiers of the French army. Writing of 
a ball given by a Russian merchant, then 
dazzling Paris by his profuse expenditure, 
Figaro remarked “ A marked progress has 






MAY 


1858, 


MAY 


been made. The inevitable sub-lieutenant in 
uniform, who tears ladies’ laces with his spurs, 
and makes a razzia on the refreshments—the 
plague, the inevitable plague of the drawing¬ 
room—was not there ! People may invite him 
once, but never twice. The first act of the 
drawing-rooms, now opened for the season, 
is to get rid of him ; they send him off, as 
Sixtus V. did his crutches after his election ! ” 
This joke gave great offence to the sous-ojjficiers 
of the French army, and challenges showered 
in upon the sub-editor, M. de Pene, who was 
held answerable for the article. It was not 
known how the angry officers settled the cham¬ 
pionship ; but M. de Pene, attended by the 
Due de Rovigo, and M. Courtiel, attended 
by the sub-lieutenants Hyenne and Roge, met 
at Vezimay. The combat was of short duration, 
M. de Pene wounding his adversary in the 
hand, and placing him hors de co?nbat. Ap¬ 
proaching his disabled adversary, M. de Pene 
said a few words to him expressive of his 
sorrow for what had happened, and assuring 
him that his article was not meant to be of¬ 
fensive. The combatants had hardly shaken 
hands when M. de Pene was challenged by 
another officer, M. Hyenne— said to be the 
fencing-master of the regiment—and run 
through the body. The unfortunate sub-editor 
lingered for some days in great danger, but 
ultimately recovered. 

7. —Debate in both Houses concerning Lord 
Ellenborough’s censure of the Oude proclama¬ 
tion, and the discrepancies in the copies sub¬ 
mitted to each House—four paragraphs, relating 
to the acquisition of the province by Great 
Britain, being omitted in that presented to the 
House of Lords, on the ground, as admitted by 
Lord Ellenborough, that it would be incon¬ 
venient to publish them. Notices of motion 
were given for further debate ; and for many 
days it was understood the fate of the Ministry 
depended on the result. 

— Napoleon’s tomb and the house in which 
he dwelt at Longwood, St. Helena, sold to the 
Emperor of the French. 

11 . —The Rev. George Ratcliffe, rector of 
St. Edmund’s, Salisbury, sentenced in the 
Central Criminal Court to seven years’ trans¬ 
portation for forging the signature of a co¬ 
trustee to a transfer of 1,028/. stock, and for 
forging a certificate of the death and burial 
of the person interested. 

— Died at San Borgia, South America, aged 
84, M. Aime Bonpland, French botanist. 

— Lord Macaulay elected High Steward of 
Cambridge University, in room of the deceased 
Earl Fitzwilliam. 

13 .—At the Central Criminal Court, William 
Lakey, master and part owner of the Clipper , 
was sentenced to eight years’ penal servitude 
for wilfully sinking his vessel off Dungeness, 
with intent to defraud the insurance-brokers. 
Chestney, the cook and steward of the Clipper , 
deposed that the prisoner asked him to go 


down to the lazaretto with him, and there the 
prisoner bored one hole through the vessel, 
and witness another ; afterwards the prisoner 
bored a third. The mate also deposed that 
he was fully aware of what was going on— 
he heard the sound of the auger, and saw the 
prisoner and the last witness at work. He 
heard the prisoner give orders to knock out 
the ballast-port. The prisoner had said that 
the ship would sink and be a coffin to them 
all, and that it was better she should sink 
at once than afterwards. He also said that 
if she was assisted into port the bill for repairs 
would come to more than she was worth, and 
would be the ruin of him. It was also proved 
that the crime was contemplated before the 
ship sailed, and that the prisoner had left all 
his sea-going valuables at home. 

14. — In the House of Commons, Mr. Card- 
well submits the following resolution censuring 
the Government for thfeir Indian policy :— 
“That while this House, in its present state 
of information, has abstained from expressing 
an opinion on the policy of any proclamation 
which may have been issued by the Governor- 
General of India with relation to Oude, it has 
seen with regret and serious apprehension that 
her Majesty’s Government have addressed 
the Governor-General through the secret com¬ 
mittee of the Court of Directors, and have 
published a despatch, condemning in strong 
terms the conduct of the Governor-General; 
and is of opinion that such a course on the 
part of the Government must tend, in the 
present circumstances of India, to produce 
the most prejudicial effect, by weakening the 
authority of the Governor-General, and en¬ 
couraging resistance of those who are in arms 
against us.” In the House of Lords, this 
evening, Lord Shaftesbury’s motion, similar 
in terms to the above, was defeated on a divi¬ 
sion by a majority of nine in favour of Ministers. 
It was of these motions Mr. Disraeli after¬ 
wards said:—“The cabal, which had itself 
rather a tainted character, chose its instru¬ 
ments with pharisaical accuracy. I can assure 
you that, when the rig*ht honourable gentleman 
who brought forward the motion in the House 
of Commons rose to impeach me, I was terrified 
at my own shortcomings, and I listened atten¬ 
tively to a Nisi Prius narrative, ending with 
a resolution which, I think, must have been 
drawn up by a conveyancer. In the other 
House, a still greater reputation condescended 
to appear upon the human stage. Gamaliel 
himself, with broad phylacteries upon his 
forehead, called upon God to witness, in the 
voice and accents of majestic adoration, that he 
was not as other men were, for that he was 
never influenced by party motives.” 

15. —The English and French consuls and 
about twenty other Europeans massacred at 
Jeddo. 

18. —Died at Richmond, aged 44, her Royal 
Highness Helena Louisa Elizabeth of Meck¬ 
lenburg!!-Schwerin, Duchess of Orleans, and 

( 519 ) 





MAX 


1858, 


ma y 


mother of the Comte de Paris—a Princess 
whose devoted endurance under many trials 
made her the centre of an attached circle of 
friends. 

19 . —Epsom Races. The Derby won by 
Beadsman (Earl Derby’s Toxopholite, second); 
and the Oaks (21st) by Governess. The 
adjournment of the House of Commons for the 
Derby day, in ■ the midst of the Indian debate, 
forms the subject of a striking section in the 
Comte de Montalembert’s pamphlet,. “Un 
Debat sur l’lnde au Parlement Anglais.” 

20 . —The Chinese forts at the mouth of the 
Peiho taken by a combined English and 
French force. 

21 . —An eruption of great grandeur com¬ 
mences from Mount Vesuvius. It continued 
for a considerable time, and the magnificence 
of the spectacle brought crowds of visitors to 
Naples. No fewer than seven new craters 
opened in the side of the mountain, whence the 
lava issued in a broad stream, and fell in cas¬ 
cades down the side. 

— After a debate of four nights, Mr. Card- 
well consents to withdraw his motion for a 
vote of censure on the Ministry, many of his 
supporters having expressed an opinion that 
the new papers laid on the table of the House 
shed a fresh light, not only on the discus¬ 
sion, but on the policy pursued by Ministers. 
In a speech at Slough, on the 26th, the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Disraeli) thus 
described the scene: “There is nothing like 
that last Friday evening, in the history of the 
House of Commons. We came down to the 
House expecting to divide at four o’clock in 
the morning : I myself expecting probably to 
deliver an address two hours after midnight; 
and I believe that even with the consciousness 
of a good cause that is no mean effort. Well, 
gentlemen, we were all assembled, our benches 
with their serried ranks seemed to rival those 
of our proud opponents, when suddenly there 
arose a wail of distress—but not from us : I 
can only liken the scene to the mutiny of the 
Bengal army. Regiment after regiment, corps 
after corps, general after general, all acknow¬ 
ledged that they could not march through 
Coventry. It was like a convulsion of nature 
rather than any ordinary transaction of human 
life. I can only liken it to one of those earth¬ 
i-quakes which take place in Calabria or Peru : 
/ there was a rumbling murmur, a groan, a shriek, 
a sound of distant thunder. No one knew 
whether it came from the top or the bottom of 
the House. There was a rent, a fissure in the 
ground ; and then a village disappeared ; then 
a tall tower toppled down ; and the whole of 
the Opposition benches became one great dis¬ 
solving view of anarchy. Are these the people 
whom you want to govern the country—people 
in whose camp there is anarchy, between whom 
there is discord upon every point, and who are 
not even united by the common bond of wish¬ 
ing to seize upon the spoils of office ? ” 

(520) 


22. —By great exertion, the rebuilding of the 
Royal Italian Opera House, Covent Garden 
(architect E. M. Barry), was sufficiently ad¬ 
vanced to admit of its being opened for the 
season this evening, with the opera of ‘ ‘ The 
Huguenots. ” 

23 . —The Conservative electors of Bucks 
entertain Mr. Disraeli at Slough. In reply to 
the toast of “Her Majesty’s Ministers,” he 
described how they had come into office by 
the collapse of a Government supposed to be 
omnipotent, but falling suddenly to pieces in 
a manner altogether unprecedented. Noticing 
the successful manner in which the difficulties 
incident to its position had been overcome, he 
commented with great severity on what he 
called the unprincipled opposition with which 
it was met in the House. ‘ ‘ There existed at 
this moment,” he said, “ that which has not 
existed in England since the days of Charles II. 
—a cabal which has no other object but to 
upset the Government of the Queen and to 
obtain its own ends in a manner the most 
reckless but the most determined. They have 
succeeded in doing that which no cabal in 
modem times, I am proud to say, has yet suc¬ 
ceeded in accomplishing; they have, in a great 
degree, corrupted the once pure and indepen¬ 
dent press of England. Innocent people in the 
country, who look to the leading articles in the 
newspapers for advice and direction—who look 
to what are called leading organs to be the 
guardians of their privileges and the directors 
of their political consciences—are not the least 
aware, because this sort of knowledge travels 
slowly, that leading organs now are place- 
hunters of the cabal, and that the once stern 
guardians of popular rights simper in the ener¬ 
vating atmosphere of gilded saloons. Yes, 
gentlemen, it is too true that the shepherds 
who were once the guardians of the flock are 
now in league with the wolves ; and therefore 
it is that, though we have been only three 
months in office, though during that space we 
have vindicated your honour, maintained the 
peace of Europe, which was in manifest peril, 
rescued our countrymen from a foreign dungeon, 
made up a great deficiency in your finances 
and yet reduced taxation, and laid a deep 
foundation for your future Empire in the East, 
innocent people in the country who read lead¬ 
ing organs believe we are a Government that do 
nothing ; that we are a weak Government, and 
not entitled to the confidence of our country.” 

28 .—Russia concludes a frontier treaty Math 
China. 

30 .—In the House of Commons, Lord John 
Russell enters into an examination of the state¬ 
ments made by Mr. Disraeli to his constituents 
at Slough. He sought to show that the foreign 
relations of this country were in a most satis¬ 
factory condition when the late Government 
retired from office, and censured the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer for holding over the House 
the threat of a penal dissolution if it did not 
indorse the policy of the Ministry.- -In reply 






MA Y 


JUNE 


1858. 


the Chancellor of the Exchequer reminded the 
House that information had not only been re¬ 
fused for the reason that it might infuse a spirit 
of irritation, of bitterness, and of animosity 
between the two countries, but that the French 
Ambassador had actually taken his departure. 
—The following evening Lord Palmerston criti¬ 
cized Mr. Disraeli’s after-dinner speech:— 
“ With reference to the assertion that we are 
a cabal, if the use of that term implies that we 
are few in number, I have only to say that the 
result will yet show which of the two sides has 
the greater number in the House. (Cheers.) 
But I deny entirely, if we are a cabal in the 
sense of a party aiming at upsetting the Govern¬ 
ment, that that is a novel proceeding. To say 
that there has never been a cabal since the 
days of Charles II. having for its object to 
upset the Government, is an assertion I did not 
expect to hear from a quarter so enlightened. 
Such a thing is no novelty; but I will tell the 
right hon. gentleman what is such a novelty. 
It is not that there should be a cabal in opposi¬ 
tion, but that there should be a factious Govern¬ 
ment carrying into office all the factious feelings 
by which they were actuated in opposition— 
(cheers); a Government which publishes libels 
on the former advisers of the Crown, and on 
acts of the Crown carried out by those former 
Ministers—(cheers) ; a factious Government 
that sends forth and publishes, not only to 
Europe, but to India, principles which, if 
carried into execution, would lead to the dis¬ 
memberment of our Indian empire; and a 
Government which, whatever motives it may 
have been actuated by, publishes to the world a 
most affronting insult to the highest officer of 
the Crown in any of her Majesty’s dominions. 
(Cheers.)”—The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
replied:—“What has taken place on this 
subject reminds me of a very unfortunate cir¬ 
cumstance that has happened in that country 
which has been so much the subject of the 
remarks of the noble lord. A gentleman of 
letters, having done, or said, or written some¬ 
thing that offended a very powerful army, was 
called to account by a member of it. He met 
his opponent without any hesitation, and, in 
the first instance, conducted himself with fair 
repute and success. (Ministerial cheers.) But 
no sooner was this first affair over than another 
gentleman was sent for—one whose fierce mien 
and formidable reputation—(laughter)—were 
* such that his friends thought he would put 
the matter right. (Cheers and laughter.) He, 
too, demands satisfaction—(laughter)—and he 
is accompanied by a considerable body of other 
gentlemen, who seem by their appearance to 
signify that if the second assailant is not more 
successful than the first, they will find others 
to succeed him. (Cheers.) In short, having 
somehow or other got into a scrape, they mean 
to bully him by numbers. . . . The noble lord 
is quite horrified that I should have spoken in 
a booth on matters of State policy. Special 
announcements on matters of State—on matters 
of peace or war—should be at a carousal in a 


club-room, such as we may remember; when 
you invite her Majesty’s officers who are to 
undertake operations of warfare, and when 
Prime Ministers take the chair, and, in what is 
styled (though not by me) an inebriated as¬ 
sembly, announce for the first time to the 
country that a great military expedition is to be 
undertaken. . . . What I call a cabal is a body 
of men, whether it be in this House or in 
another house—either a private house or a house 
devoted to the affairs of the State—banded to¬ 
gether, not to carry out a policy, not to recom¬ 
mend by their wisdom and their eloquence great 
measures to the approving sympathy of the com¬ 
munity, but uniting all their resources, their 
abilities, and their varied influence—for what? 
To upset the Queen’s Government, without 
even, in so doing, declaring any policy of their 
own, or giving any further clue to their opinions 
than this—that the first article of their creed is 
place. (Cheers.) It is this conduct which 
has made the great body of the people of this 
country look with aversion on these machina¬ 
tions and manoeuvres, and has gained for her 
Majesty’s Government the sympathy of all 
honourable and generous minds. If I wanted to 
confirm the Government in power, if I wanted 
to assure a longer tenure of office, I should beg 
the noble lord and his friends to continue their 
practices ; I should be delighted, night after 
night, if they called on me to defend statements 
made to my constituents, not one word of 
which I retract, and which I made with that 
due thought which such statements required. 
I should wish the noble lord to continue this 
course, for I am quite certain that, whatever 
difference of opinion there may be in this 
House, or in England, between the Conserva¬ 
tive party and the great Liberal party, there is 
this one point of union between us—that we 
are equally resolved, both in this House and 
throughout the country, no longer to be made 
the tools or the victims of an obsolete oli¬ 
garchy.” 

June 1 . —Debate in the House of Lords on 
Mr. Disraeli’s Slough speech, the Earl of 
Clarendon disputing the allegation that war 
with France was imminent when he quitted 
the Foreign Office, or that the late Govern¬ 
ment had neglected the interests of this country 
in the dispute with Naples. The Earl of 
Derby adopted the speech and defended the 
statements made by the Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer. He did not know whether the noble 
earl had read it with as much amusement as he 
did ; but greater even than his amusement was 
his conviction of its truthfulness. “ I felt emi¬ 
nently convinced that, great as was the wit, 
great as was the clearness, great as was the 
humour of that most graphic description, that 
which most peculiarly appertained to it was its 
undeniable truth. There was no exaggeration 
even of colouring, for no exaggeration could be 
applied to that matchless scene, at which—I 
shall remember it to the last day of my life —1 
had the good fortune to be present.” 

( 521 ) 




JUNE 


1858. 


JUNE 


I. —The Committee of Privileges of the 
House of Lords decide that Plenry John Chet- 
wynd, Earl Talbot, had made out his claim to 
the title, honour, and dignity of Earl of Shrews¬ 
bury, as heir male of the first earl. 

7 . —Five of the India resolutions having 
passed the House, Lord Stanley now intimates 
that a bill founded on them will be at once 
introduced. It was read a second time on the 
24th, and a third time on the 8th July. An 
amendment, proposed by Lord Palmerston, to 
limit the continuance of the new scheme to 
five years, was negatived by a majority of 149 
to 115. The bill was also carried through the 
House of Lords with few amendments, the dis¬ 
cussion principally turning on the question of 
competitive examinations of candidates for the 
scientific corps of the Indian army. The bill 
received the Royal assent on the last day of the 
session (August 3). 

8 . —Settlement of the Cagliari dispute by 
the payment of compensation, and the sur¬ 
render of the prisoners and vessel. The 
Neapolitan Minister for Foreign Affairs writes 
to Lord Malmesbury:—“I have the honour of 
informing your Excellency that the sum of 
3,000/., paid into the mercantile house of Pook, 
is at the disposal of the English Government. 
As far as concerns the men forming the crew of 
the Cagliari , now under trial before the Grand 
Criminal Court of Salerno, and the Cagliari her¬ 
self, I have it in my power to announce to you 
that the men and the vessel are at the disposal 
of Mr. Lyons; they are consigned to him; their 
departure will depend on him, and orders have 
been given to the competent authorities. This 
being settled, the Government of his Sicilian 
Majesty has no need to accept any mediation, 
and it delivers up everything to the absolute 
will of the British Government.” This satis¬ 
factory termination of the dispute was an¬ 
nounced in both Houses of Parliament on the 
evening of the nth. 

IO.—-Died at London, aged 84, Robert 
Brown, D.C.L., botanist. 

II. —Public meeting in St. James’s Hall, 
on the subject of the use of the confessional 
by the Rev. Alfred Poole, late curate of St. 
Barnabas’, and others connected with that 
church. The Hon. and Rev. F. Baring was 
the chief speaker, his statements resting mainly 
j>n the evidence of women of indifferent repu¬ 
tation, who appeared to have attended con¬ 
fession for the sake of the advantage of certain 
grocery tickets distributed among them. The 
meeting resolved that the circumstances were 
such as to demand the fullest publicity. Mr. 
Poole openly denied every allegation made 
against him. 

12 .—Mr. Justice Coleridge formally retires 
from the Court of Queen’s Bench after a part¬ 
ing address to the Bar, full of kindly recollec¬ 
tions and tender sympathy. “ I hope,” he said, 
“ that in your happy meetings you will bear in 
mind that I desire long to be remembered here. 
(522) 


And, now, Mr. Attorney-General, Gentlemen 
of the Bar and Masters, my dear Lord and 
brethren, earnestly, gratefully, and affec¬ 
tionately I bid you all farewell, and may God 
bless you.” As soon as his lordship had 
finished these words he bowed, and rushed 
hastily out of court, evidently overcome with 
emotion. 

12 .—Charles Dickens publishes in his perio¬ 
dical, Household Words, a solemn declaration 
in his own name and his wife’s, that lately- 
whispered rumours, touching certain domestic 
troubles of his, were altogether untrue. ‘ ‘ Those 
who know me and my nature,” he writes, “need 
no assurance under my hand that such calum¬ 
nies are as irreconcilable with me as they are 
in their frantic incoherence with one another. 
But there is a great multitude who know me 
through my writings, and who do not know me 
otherwise ; and I cannot bear that one of them 
should be left in doubt, or hazard of doubt, 
through my poorly shrinking from taking the 
unusual means to which I now resort for 
circulating the truth.” 

— A young member of the Garrick Club 
(Mr. Yates) writes to-day, in a weekly sheet of 
“Town Talk,” a gossiping account of Mr. 
Thackeray’s appearance, career, and success, 
describing the novelist’s bearing as cold and un¬ 
inviting, his style of conversation openly cynical 
or affectedly good-natured and benevolent, his 
bonhomie forced, his wit biting, his pride easily 
touched, and imputing to the novelist also 
an extravagant adulation of rank and position 
when he knew it to be for his interest to 
flatter the aristocracy. Mr. Thackeray at once 
wrote to the reputed author :—“Allow me to 
inform you that the talk which you have heard 
[at the Club] is not intended for newspaper 
remark, and to beg, as I have a right to do, 
that you will refrain from printing comments 
upon my private conversations ; that you will 
forego discussions, however blundering, upon my 
private affairs ; and that you will henceforth 
please to consider any question of my personal 
truth and sincerity as quite out of the province 
of your criticism.” After some further 
correspondence (in the latter part of which Mr. 
Dickens appeared as the adviser of Mr. Yates), 
the aggrieved novelist left it to the committee 
of the Club to decide whether the publication 
of such articles would not be fatal to the com¬ 
fort of the Club and intolerable in a society of 
gentlemen. The committee decided that the 
writer was bound to make ample apology or 
retire—a resolution which led to the engage¬ 
ment of counsel, and the temporary estrange¬ 
ment of Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Dickens. 

1 - 4 .—The Shakspeare autograph attached 
to the mortgage deed of the Blackfriars pro¬ 
perty purchased by the British Museum for 
315 ^ 

15 .—Aston Park, Birmingham, opened by 
the Queen. From the Town Hall her Majesty 
drove through streets lined with shouting 





JUNE 


1858. 


JUNE: 


thousands, and up the noble avenue of the 
park to Aston Hall. She here received the 
address of the Committee of Management, 
and appeared on the terrace to declare the 
Hall and Park open. Her Majesty afterwards 
returned to Stoneleigh Abbey. 

15 . —Mr. Brady obtains, with the consent of 
Government, the appointment of a committee 
to inquire into the grievance sustained by Mr. 
Barber, solicitor, in connexion with his wrong¬ 
ful conviction for complicity in the Fletcher 
forgeries. 

— Died, aged 63, Ary Scheffer, French 
historical painter. 

— Massacre of Christians at Jeddah. In 
revenge for what they considered an insult 
offered to the Turkish flag, the Moslem section 
of the population attacked the house of the 
French consul, seriously wounding him and 
his daughter, and murdering his wife. The 
majority of the other Christians in the town 
afterwards fell victims to the fury of the law¬ 
less mob. On the 5th August the town was 
bombarded by the British war-steamer Cyclops , 
and after some delay on the part of the Turkish 
authorities, eleven of the murderers were given 
up and beheaded near the town in the pre¬ 
sence of Turkish and Egyptian troops. 

16 . —Heard in the Divorce Court the case 
of Robinson v. Robinson and Lane, co-re¬ 
spondent, the latter being proprietor of the 
hydropathic establishment at Moor Park. The 
chief evidence was a diary written by Mrs. 
Robinson, a woman upwards of fifty, which her 
husband had discovered when she was lying 
ill. It consisted of three thick volumes, 
and described in glowing and impassioned 
language her supposed amours with Dr. 
Lane, a man of thirty, with a young wife 
and children. The diary was admitted in 
evidence against Mrs. Robinson, but could not 
be used, the court decided, against Dr. Lane. 
The defence was, that the diary was not a 
narrative of actual occurrences, but of imagi¬ 
nary scenes. Various important questions of 
law arose in connexion with the case ; the first 
being whether the co-respondent could be ad¬ 
mitted as a witness, Dr. Lane being prepared 
to deny on oath that there was any foundation 
for the charge. He was tendered to give evi¬ 
dence on behalf of Mrs. Robinson. 1 he court 
decided unanimously that as co-respondent 
he could not be examined. A second question 
then arose whether he could not be dismissed 
from the suit and then called as a witness. 
When the case came before the court again 
in December, the judge decided that this 
could be done ; and Dr. Lane gave evidence in 
detail, showing the illusory character of the 
diary, on the evidence of which an ecclesias¬ 
tical court had already granted a divorce, a 
mensa et thoro. 

_ The Galway Company’s steamer Indian 

Empire wrecked on Saint Marguerite Rock, 
in Galway channel. 


16 .—At a meeting of the Jerusalem Dio¬ 
cesan Missionary Fund, held in the Library of 
the House of Lords, a resolution was adopted 
with reference to the charges made against 
Bishop Gobat, that those present have 
“ satisfied themselves the aspersions referred to 
have no just foundation, and that they partly 
arise from false accusation, and partly from 
distorted and exaggerated statements of matters 
of fact. ” The charges in question, which had 
given rise to much bitter controversy, had 
reference primarily to undue facilities given to 
the successive marriages of Hanna Hadoub, a 
converted dragoman of indifferent reputation 
in Jerusalem, whose adventurous career was 
latterly terminated by a conviction for burglary. 

— Heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
the libel case of Hughes v. Lady Dinorben. 
The plaintiff was nephew of the defendant’s 
husband, and the alleged libels were contained 
in a series of anonymous letters addressed to 
the late Lord Ravensworth, the grandfather, 
and the present Lord Ravensworth, the father, 
of a young lady to whom, at the tim^ the 
plaintiff was engaged to be married; also 
to the plaintiff himself, and various other 
persons connected with him. In the present 
action Lady Dinorben was charged with being 
the author of these anonymous letters. The 
plaintiff was, in 1852, the next entitled to the 
property of the second Lord Dinorben, who 
was insane, and on whom a commission of 
lunacy was about to be held. If the plaintiff 
had no child, the estates would go to Lady 
Dinorben’s daughter and only child ; so that 
she had an interest in preventing plaintiff’s 
marriage. Lady Dinorben was now placed in 
the witness-box, and denied having either writ¬ 
ten, or caused to be written, any of the letters 
founded on. The jury, however, after a con¬ 
sultation of only ten minutes, returned a 
verdict for plaintiff, with 40^. damages against 
her ladyship. 

— Rev. D. Sadleir, senior Dean of Trinity 
College, Dublin, commits suicide in the Phoenix 
Park, by hanging himself to a tree, while 
labouring under temporary insanity. 

17 . —The Commission de lunatico inqui- 
rendo upon Sir Henry Meux, Bart., return a 
verdict that he is at present of unsound mind; 
but whether he was so or not at the date of the 
will in dispute, they could not say. 

— In pursuance of a motion made by the 
Bishop of Oxford, Government promise to 
produce all the papers in their possession re¬ 
lative to the Spanish slave-trade at Cuba, said 
to be now carried on in the most open manner, 
in defiance of treaties. 

18 . —The Soldiers’ Daughters’ Home at 
Hampstead, for 200 girls, opened by the Prince 
Consort. 

19 . —Capture of Gwalior by Sir Hugh Rose. 
The enemy, who held possession of a range of 
heights in front, made a fierce attack upon our 
lines, but were driven back ; and after a severely 

( 523 ) 









June 


JULY 


1858. 


contested fight on the plain lying between the 
heights and the town, they were completely 
routed ; Gwalior was taken possession of by 
the British troops, and the Maharajah Scindia 
was again restored to his capital. The rebels 
left 27 guns. Amongst the slain was the 
Ranee of Jhansi, who died fighting hand to 
hand with her foes like a private soldier. Our 
loss was trifling, the men suffering more from 
the heat of the sun than from the bullets or 
swords of the enemy. After this crowning 
victory, the Central India Field Force, which 
had so greatly distinguished itself throughout 
the whole campaign, was broken up and distri¬ 
buted into garrisons. Sir Hugh Rose himself 
returned to the Bombay Presidency. 

20.—Died at Old Brompton, aged 82, 
Dawson Turner, botanist and antiquary. 

22 .—At the auction mart, one-sixth of an 
entire thirty-sixth share in the New River 
Company sold for 3,300/. 

24. — The foundation-stone of a new hall 
for the Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Scot¬ 
land, laid by the Duke of Athol, in George 
Street, Edinburgh. 

25. —The Master of the Rolls orders that 
the policy for 13,000/. effected with the Prince 
of Wales Insurance Company by William 
Palmer, the Rugeley poisoner, upon the life of 
his brother Walter, should be delivered up and 
cancelled as fraudulent and void. 

26. —After many tedious delays and evasions 
on the part of the Chinese plenipotentiaries, 
Lord Elgin succeeds in completing a treaty of 
peace at Tien-tsin on the Peiho, whither the 
fleet had proceeded after leaving Canton. It 
renewed the treaty of Nankin (1842); authorized 
the appointment of ambassadors, the residence 
of one at Pekin, British subjects to travel into 
the interior, British merchant-ships to trade 
upon the Great River (Yangtsze), five addi¬ 
tional cities to be opened up for commerce; 
and generally prescribed the condition upon 
which intercourse was to be carried on. A 
separate article annexed to the treaty pro¬ 
vided for the payfnent of two millions of taels, 
on account of losses sustained by British sub¬ 
jects at.Canton ; and a second sum of two mil¬ 
lions of taels, on account of the expense of the 
present expedition. At the urgent entreaty of 
the Chinese plenipotentiary, and to secure in¬ 
cidental advantages not mentioned in the treaty, 
the 3rd Article, regarding the residence of a 
British minister at Pekin, was afterwards so far 
modified as to authorize his presence there only 
when the exigencies of the public service made 
such a step necessary. 

— The Agamemnon and Niagara com¬ 
mence laying the Atlantic telegraph. When 
the ships were about five miles apart, the cable 
parted on board the Niagara through getting 
off the pulley. By a preconcerted arrange¬ 
ment, a fresh splice was made, and all went 
well till about forty miles were paid out, when 
( 524 ) 


the electricians reported a rupture of continuity, 
the cable having parted near the bottom of 
the ocean. A third splice was made, and by 
the night of that day 146 miles were paid out. 
To facilitate the shifting from one coil - to 
another, the Agamemnon's speed was slackened, 
and all for a moment seemed right, when, 
without any warning, the cable parted close to 
the ship. She repaired to • her rendezvous 
again, but the Niagara had left, and both 
vessels then made for Queenstown. The cable 
was thought to have been injured in a violent 
storm encountered by the Agamemnon between 
the 20th and 24th. 

28 . —Bill abolishing Property Qualification 
of Members receives the Royal assent. 

— Mr. Rarey, the American horse-tamer, 
exhibits his achievements with the horse Cruiser 
to her Majesty. 

29 . —A fire, supposed to have been caused 
by the spontaneous combustion of goods stored 
in the building, breaks out in the south quay 
range of warehouses, London Docks, and 
destroys property of the estimated value of 
150,000/. 

30 . —The state of the Thames during this 
month gave rise to much anxious deliberation. 
Parliamentary Committees could not sit in the 
rooms overlooking the river; several of the 
officers were laid up by sickness ; the attend¬ 
ance of members was as brief as possible ; and 
it was at one time even under consideration, 
whether the House should not adjourn to some 
more healthy locality. In the Courts at West¬ 
minster, judges and juries performed their 
duties under a sense of danger, and got away 
as quickly as possible. The peril caused by 
the condition of the river this season was 
thought to have given a sensible impulse to 
the great engineering schemes for the drainage 
of the metropolis, so long under consideration. 
The water was of a deep blackish-green tint, 
the result of the combination of the sulphu¬ 
retted hydrogen with the iron contained in the 
clays suspended in the water. The month 
throughout was the hottest on record, save 
one; the mean high day temperature being 
76 ‘5° or 8 '6° above the average, and the mean 
low night temperature 53-9° or 4 0 above the 
average. On the 16th the mean temperature 
at Greenwich was 76-9°, but at certain hours 
of the day it rose as high as 102°. At Bedford 
113-1° was reached; and at Norwich Priory 
116-5° was highest recorded. 

July 1 . —Compromise between the House 
of Lords and House of Commons concerning 
the admission of Jews into Parliament. An 
Oaths Bill, with this object in view, was intro¬ 
duced by Lord John Russell early in the 
session, but after being read a third time in 
the Commons, the clause relating to the Jews 
was thrown out in the Upper House. The 
Commons, on the motion of Lord John Russell, 
refused to accept the bill as altered, and ap¬ 
pointed a committee to draw up reasons for their 







JULY 


JULY 


1858. 


dissent. In the discussions to which this step 
gc ve rise in the House of Lords, the Earl of 
Lucan proposed a solution of the difference 
by the insertion of a clause enabling either 
House by its resolution to modify the form of 
oath. Lord John Russell, while objecting to 
this method of procedure, agreed to accept 
the compromise ; and a bill embodying the 
principle was this day introduced, and passed 
quickly through both Houses. Baron Roth¬ 
schild took his seat for the City of London on 
the 26th. 

1.—Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Secretary of State 
for the Colonies, introduces a bill to provide 
for the government of New Caledonia, defining 
the boundaries of that settlement, and regula¬ 
ting the administration of its affairs for a limited 
period through the mediation of a local legisla¬ 
ture. The measure passed, almost unopposed, 
through both Houses. 

— General O’Donnell again placed at the 
head of affairs at Spain. 

9 .—Aristocratic fete at Cremorne, designed 
for the benefit of certain metropolitan chari¬ 
ties. About 2,000 attended, but the weather 
prevented any enjoyment of those out-door 
amusements for which this Paphian resort is 
celebrated. 

12 . —Mr. Hutt’s motion, “That it is expe¬ 
dient to discontinue the practice of authorizing 
her Majesty’s ships to visit and search vessels 
under foreign flags, with the view of suppress¬ 
ing the traffic in slaves,” negatived by 223 
to 24. 

— Explosion at Madame Coton’s pyro¬ 
technic works, Lambeth. The house, with the 
exception of the external walls, was blown into 
the air; and the rockets and other fireworks 
falling in myriads on the street, not only injured 
many of those gathered to assist, but set fire to 
another work of a similar kind conducted by 
Mr. Gibson. The explosion here was of the 
same terrific character as at Madame Coton’s. 
The proprietress herself, three female children, 
and one man were killed; sixteen were taken 
into the hospital; sixty were known to have 
had their wounds dressed by neighbouring 
surgeons, and over 200 others were more or 
less injured. 

13 . —Died, aged 58, Mrs. J. W. Loudon, 
authoress of works on gardening. 

15 -—The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
brings forward the Government measure for 
cleansing the Thames. The estimated cost of 
the necessary works was 3,000,000/. The 
Government proposed to enable the Board of 
Works to levy a special rate of 3 d ,. in the 
pound for forty years. This would yield 
140,000/. a year, and not only pay for the 
works, but furnish a sinking fund to liquidate 
the advances. The Government further 
proposed to guarantee the advances up to 
3,000,000/. at a rate of interest not exceeding 
4 per cent. Perfect freedom would be granted 
to the Board as regarded the construction of 


the works, anti the whole were to be finished 
in five years and a half. The measure was 
favourably entertained, and passed through 
both Houses, with little alteration, before the 
close of the session. 

15 .—In Committee on the India Bill,the Earl 
of Derby carries two important amendments 
on the measure as sent up from the Commons. 
The first had reference to the application of 
Indian revenues for the employment of troops, 
declaring that “it shall not be competent, 
except to repel actual invasion, or in a sudden 
or urgent emergency, to make the revenues of 
India applicable, without the consent of Par¬ 
liament, to defray the expenses of military opera¬ 
tions carried on beyond the frontier.” The 
other led to the omission of the words making 
it incumbent on the Government to admit 
candidates for the civil service in the order of 
their proficiency at a competitive examination, 
and leaving the law as it stands with regard to 
admission to the service, subject to such regu¬ 
lations as might be issued by the Secretary 
of State, with the approval of the Crown. 

— The Legitimacy Declaration Bill passes 
through committee. 

— Lady Bulwer Lytton having been sum¬ 
marily conveyed to a lunatic asylum, intimation 
is now made that she is free from all restraint, 
and about to travel in company with her son 
and female friend. Dr. Winslow writes that 
it is “but an act of justice to Sir Edward B. 
Lytton to state that, upon the facts which I 
have ascertained were submitted to him, and 
upon the certificates of the medical men whom 
he was obliged to consult, the course which 
he has pursued through these painful proceed¬ 
ings cannot be considered as harsh or unjusti¬ 
fiable.” 

21 .— Meeting at the Princess’s Theatre, to 
settle the conditions of the Dodd gift of land 
and money to found a Dramatic College for 
decayed actors and actresses. A dispute after¬ 
wards took place between the donor and com¬ 
mittee, and the offer was ultimately rejected. 

— Battle of Kostainizza, in which the Mon¬ 
tenegrins defeat the Turks. 

23 .—Came on for hearing at Stafford As¬ 
sizes the case of Swinfen v. Swinfen, involving, 
besides properties of great value, an important 
question relating to the power of counsel. The 
plaintiff in the case, Patience Swinfen, was the 
widow of Henry John Swinfen, the only son of 
Samuel Swinfen, late of Swinfen Hall. The 
son died on the 15 th of June, 1854, at Swinfen 
Hall, and the father died, at the same place on 
the 26th of July following, at the advanced age 
of 81. On the 7th of July, only nineteen days 
before his death, he executed a will devising 
the Swinfen estate, valued at between 60,000/. 
and 70,000/., to the plaintiff, his son’s widow, 
but leaving personal estates to a large amount 
undisposed of. The defendant, Frederick Hay 
Swinfen, was the son of Francis Swinfen, who 
was the testator’s eldest half-brother, and 

( 525 ) 






JUL Y 


1858. 


AUGUST 


claimed the estate as heir-at-law on the ground 
of the testator’s insanity. The issue was first 
brought to trial at the Assizes held at Stafford 
on the 15th of March, 1856, when, at the com¬ 
mencement of the second day’s proceedings, an 
arrangement was made by plaintiff’s counsel, 
Sir F. Thesiger, that the devisee should have 
an annuity for life out of the estate, with her 
jointure of 300/. a year. Mrs. Swinfen, how¬ 
ever, refused to carry out this agreement, 
alleging that it was entered into by her counsel 
without her consent, and in defiance of her 
express instructions. The Court of Common 
Pleas was applied to, but that court, without 
expressing any opinion as to the validity of 
the agreement in law or in equity, refused to 
enforce it by attaching the plaintiff; and the 
Court of Chancery, when subsequently applied 
to, refused to enforce it in equity. The result 
was that it directed the issue to come down for 
a second trial. The objection raised to the 
will was the incompetency of the testator from 
age and infirmity, and undue influence over 
him by the plaintiff. The trial lasted four 
days, and as there was no doubt that the will 
had been formally executed, and that the testa¬ 
tor was all his life perfectly sane, and had par¬ 
tially lost his testamentary capacity (as it was 
affirmed) only by the effects of age, the testimony 
of the numerous witnesses—friends, lawyers, 
medical practitioners, servants, and trades¬ 
people—was very conflicting. The jury, to the 
great satisfaction of a Staffordshire audience, 
returned a verdict for the plaintiff, establishing 
the will. 

23. —Jeddo bombarded by a British ship of 

war. The firing was renewed on the 5th of 
August and on the 6th. Eleven persons who 
took part in the massacre of the 15th of May 
were put to death. 

29. — The Commons’ reasons for disagreeing 
with the Lords’ amendments to the India Bill 
considered in the Upper House. The result 

was, that, although on some points Lord Derby 
still maintained his opinion, he agreed not to 
insist upon any amendments except one—that 
relating to competitive examination for ap¬ 
pointments to the scientific branches of the 
Indian army. This was afterwards acceded to 
by the House of Commons, and the bill 
passed. 

30. —The House of Lords pronounce in 
favour of the claim of the Princess Giustiniani 
of Naples to the barony of Newburgh, in the 
peerage of Scotland. 

August 2.—The Bourse at Antwerp, erected 
in 1531, and which suggested the idea and fur¬ 
nished the model to Sir Thomas Gresham of 
our own Royal Exchange, was this day de¬ 
stroyed by fire. So sudden was the destruction 
of this splendid edifice, that all the archives 
belonging to the different commercial bodies 
using it were consumed. 

— Parliament prorogued by Commission. 

(526) 


2 . —Distribution of the Victoria Cross by the 
Queen to twelve persons, on Southsea Com¬ 
mon, Portsmouth. Five were Crimean heroes, 
and the seven others mostly Indian. A large 
number to whom the Cross was awarded were 
still with the army in India. 

— The Royal assent given to the Thames 
Improvement Bill, providing for the main 
drainage of the metropolis and purifying and 
embanking the river. 

— Sir Colin Campbell created a peer of the 
United Kingdom by the title of Baron Clyde 
of Clydesdale. 

3. —The Victoria Nyanza discovered by Capt. 
John Hannen Speke, an African explorer who 
first suggested the idea that the Nile had its 
source in the waters of this great lake. 

4-. —Inauguration of Cherbourg. The first 
of the great displays designed for this occasion 
was the opening of the railway, and the second 
the filling of the Grand Basin, or Napoleon 
Docks—two works the completion of which 
was the consummation of the designs of a cen¬ 
tury. The Emperor and Empress were both 
present, and the Queen, with Prince Albert and 
the Prince of Wales, also took part in the cere¬ 
mony. A magnificent naval demonstration 
was made in the harbour. 

5 .—The Agamemnon and Niagara , having 
started on their expedition a second time, suc¬ 
ceeded in laying the Atlantic telegraph. The 
weather was unfavourable, but no misfortune 
occurred to mar the progress of the work, al¬ 
though one or two narrow escapes were made. 
On the 30th an injury was noticed on the coil 
of the Agamemnon , a mile or two from the part 
paid out. The course of the ship was stopped 
and the break applied ; but as this failed to give 
sufficient time for repairing the injury, the des¬ 
perate expedient was resorted to of letting the 
huge ship swing upon the wire. It was a time 
of breathless anxiety ; but, to the gratification 
of all, the cable held, the injured part was 
taken out, the ends spliced, and the delivery 
resumed. The first national use made of the 
cable was on the 16th, when an interchange of 
good wishes took place between her Majestj 
and the President of the United States. A 
message was also transmitted regarding a col¬ 
lision between the steamships Europa and 
Arabia. Great rejoicings took place throughout 
America on the 17th in celebration of the event. 
In a few days the signals became too faint to 
decipher, and at length, from some cause un¬ 
known, disappeared altogether. 

— Case of libel against the Atheneeum 
heard at Guildford Assizes, the plaintiff being 
one Eastwood, a dealer in antiquities, who 
professed to feel aggrieved at the contents of 
a paper on “ Recent Forgeries in Lead,” read 
at the British Archaeological Association, and 
published in the above journal as part of the 
proceedings. The paper complained of made 
pointed reference to certain leaden articles 





AUGUST 


1858. 


AUGUST 


known as “pilgrim signs” (some of which had 
been sold by the plaintiff), *as modern fabri¬ 
cations, and warned collectors to be on their 
guard against them. The evidence adduced 
by the plaintiff showed that he had purchased 
pieces of lead from labourers and others em¬ 
ployed in excavating the new dock at Shad- 
well, and their genuineness as pilgrim signs 
was spoken to by two antiquaries. On its 
being urged for the defendants that there was 
no case against them to go to a jury, Mr. 
Justice Willes, after a brief consideration, said 
he was of opinion that the article complained 
of was not a libel in the eye of the law. It 
had been laid down by one of the sages of the 
law that what a man said honestly and bond fide 
in the course of a public discussion on matters 
concerning the public interest, no matter even 
if he spoke rashly, and what he said was not 
true—still any statement made under such cir¬ 
cumstances would not be a libel. It had also 
been equally clearly laid down that, before any 
plaintiff could ask redress for a libel, he must 
show distinctly that the libel complained of 
applied to him, and to no other person. It 
would be a new doctrine, indeed, if it were to 
be held that any person who said that all 
lawyers were rogues might be sued by every 
individual lawyer in the kingdom; and it ap¬ 
peared to him that the article now complained 
of applied to the particular trade of dealing in 
antiquities rather than to the plaintiff per¬ 
sonally. Plaintiff nonsuited. 

7 .—Ottawa, formerly By town, named as the 
capital for the new dominion of Canada. 

IO.—Her Majesty and the Prince Consort 
embark at Gravesend on a visit to their daughter 
the Princess Frederick William of Prussia. 

12 .— The Earl of Elgin visits Jeddo, and 
concludes a treaty of peace and commerce with 
the Japanese. 

14 -.—Died at Moor Park, Surrey, aged 69, 
George Combe, author of “ The Constitution of 
Man ” and other works. 

19 .—The Danubian Principalities of Mol¬ 
davia and Wallachia united in terms of a con¬ 
vention signed by the principal European 
Powers at Paris. They were to enjoy the pri¬ 
vilege of self-government under the suzerainty 
of the Sultan. 

21 .—Intelligence received vid St. Peters¬ 
burg of the treaty of peace concluded at Tien¬ 
tsin with the Emperor of . China. 

23 .—Accident to an excursion train, con¬ 
veying a gathering of Sunday-school children, 
between Worcester and Wolverhampton. On 
returning at night, the train for greater safety 
was divided into two sections, started, how¬ 
ever, within a few minutes’ interval of each 
other. Near Round Oak station one of the 
couplings in the first train gave way, eighteen 
of the carriages rushed back down the incline 
with fearful velocity, and came into collision 


with the second train. Eleven lifeless pas¬ 
sengers were discovered among the broken 
carriages. Three died soon after removal, and 
scores were maimed for life. The coroner’s 
jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against 
Cook, the guard; but he was acquitted on 
trial. 

23 .—Came on for trial at the Wilts Assizes, 
before Mr. Baron Channell and a jury, the 
case of Yescombe v. Landor; being an action 
for libel raised by a clergyman in Bath against 
the author of “ Imaginary Conversations,” now 
nearly ninety years of age. The libels were 
directed against Mrs. Yescombe, and appeared 
chiefly in a book recently published by the 
poet, entitled “Dry Sticks, faggoted by 
Walter Savage Landor.” Up to May 1857 
Mr. Landor and Mr. and Mrs. Yescombe 
had been on intimate terms at Bath, the poet 
dining with them two or three times a week ; 
but about that time Mr. Landor took offence 
at Mrs. Yescombe for sending away to Chel¬ 
tenham Miss Hooper, a young lady of nine¬ 
teen, daughter of a gentleman living next dooi 
to them, who had been staying in the family, 
assisting to educate the children, and proceed¬ 
ing with her own training under Mrs. Yes- 
combe’s superintendence. In the first instance 
Mr. Landor issued a pamphlet, “Walter Savage 
Landor and the Hon. Mrs. Yescombe,” in which 
he charged her with six distinct acts of petty 
dishonesty or deceit. Mrs. Yescombe thereupon 
directed her solicitor to require an apology; 
but the only answer was another pamphlet, 
“ Walter Savage Landor threatened,” in which 
he made an outrageous attack on the solicitor. 
This led to the action. After briefs had been 
prepared and counsel retained, Mr. John Forster 
arrived from London as a friend of Mr. Landor’s 
and succeeded, not only in inducing him to 
withdraw all his statements, but to sign an 
undertaking not to repeat them. This apo¬ 
logy was accepted in consideration of the 
advanced age of Mr. Landor; but scarcely had 
this been done when he commenced issuing a 
series of disgusting anonymous rhymes concern¬ 
ing both Mrs. Yescombe and Miss Hooper. 
Several of these were reissued in the volume 
entitled “Dry Sticks,” and formed the basis of 
the libel for which redress was now sought. 
The evidence was short, consisting mainly in 
the production of the aged poet’s unworthy 
rhymes. No plea of justification was recorded, 
nor were any witnesses produced on his side. 
An attempt was made by counsel to treat 
the libels as the visions of an old man whose 
youth had been passed in an age less con¬ 
ventional than the present. The jury found a 
verdict for the plaintiff. Damages, 1,000/. Mr. 
Landor soon after left England for Florence. 

23 .—The Eastern City , from Liverpool to 
Melbourne, destroyed by fire soon after cross¬ 
ing the equator. She had on board 180 pas¬ 
sengers, 47 men—officers and crew—and 1,600 
tons of general cargo. Mainly through the 
well-directed energy of Captain Johnstone the 

( 527 ) 





AUGUST 


1858. 


SEPTEMBER 


whole of those on board, with the exception of 
one man suffocated in his berth, were placed 
in safety on board the troop-ship Merchant¬ 
man , which fortunately bore down on the burn¬ 
ing ship. 

26 .—A small pleasure-yacht upset off Worth¬ 
ing. Of eleven children, six servants, and tw r o 
boatmen on board, nine children, two servants, 
and one boatman were drowned. 

— Treaty of peace, friendship, and com¬ 
merce, between her Majesty and the Tycoon 
of Japan, signed at Jeddo by Lord Elgin on 
the one side, and the Japanese Commissioners 
on the other. The ports and towns of Hako- 
dadi, Kanagawa, and Nagasaki to be opened to 
British subjects, 1st July, 1859; a convenient 
port on the west coast, 1st January, i860; and 
Hiogo, 1st January, 1863. A British diplo¬ 
matic agent to reside at Jeddo, and consular 
agents at the other ports ; the Tycoon having, 
on the other hand, power to appoint a diplo¬ 
matic agent in London, and consuls at any port 
in Great Britain. 

31 .—Close of the Encumbered Estates 
Court, Ireland. Since the first petition was 
filed, in October 1849, there had been sold 
through its agency 11,024 lots, representing a 
money value of 23,161,093/. The total number 
of petitions presented, including those for par¬ 
tition and exchange, were 4,413, and the number 
of conveyances executed by the Commissioners, 
8,364. 

September 1 . —Died, aged 62, Richard 
Ford, Esq., an eminent authority in Spanish 
literature and topography. 

— The East India proprietors held their 
court as governors of India for the last time, 
the new Act having transferred their powers 
to a Board controlled by, and responsible to, 
the Legislature. 

6.—In her journey to Scotland this year, 
her Majesty halts at Leeds to open the new 
Town Hall. In the course of the ceremonies 
observed on the occasion, she was pleased to 
confer upon the Mayor the honour of knight¬ 
hood. The Hall was afterwards used for the 
performance of a great musical festival. 

— Donati’s comet visible to the naked eye 
as a star of the fourth magnitude. The comet 
arrived at its least distance from the sun on the 
morning of the 30th September, and for ten 
nights afterwards presented an appearance of 
great magnificence in the heavens. At one 
time the tail covered thirty-six degrees, and 
was calculated to measure 80,000,000 miles in 
length. On the 5th October the nucleus was 
ve v y nearly in a line with the bright star Arc- 
turus, which could be clearly seen through the 
densest part of the tail. On the 10th Octo¬ 
ber the comet was at its nearest distance to the 
earth, 51,000,000 miles. After this the weather 
became unsettled, and the comet was rarely 
visible. The time of its revolution is calculated 
at 2,495 years 

(5*S> 


9.—Conference of railway representatives at 
the Euston Hotel, London, to devise measures 
for improving the property of the shareholders, 
and increasing the efficiency of the railway 
system. 

13 .—Accident at the Music Hall, Sheffield, 
caused by an explosion of gas, or, as some 
thought, the firing of a pistol in the gallery. 
In the block on the gallery stairs, four young 
men and a young woman were crushed to death. 
The number of persons injured was very corn 
siderable. 

— The emigrant steamer Austria , 2,500 
tons, trading between Hamburg and New 
York, burnt at sea when nine days from Ham¬ 
burg, and 471 of the passengers and crew 
drowned by leaping from the ship, or swamped 
in the boats. “At one time,” writes a sur¬ 
vivor, “the scene on the quarter-deck was 
indescribable and truly heartrending. Pas¬ 
sengers were rushing frantically to and fro— 
husbands seeking their wives, wives in search 
of husbands, relatives looking after relatives, 
mothers lamenting the loss of their children; 
some wholly paralysed by fear, others madly 
crying to be saved; only a few perfectly calm 
and collected. The flames pressed so closely 
upon them, that many jumped into the sea; 
relatives, clasped in each other’s arms, leapt 
over, and met a watery grave. Two girls, sup¬ 
posed to be sisters, jumped over and sank, 
kissing each other. A missionary and wife 
leapt into the sea together, and the stewardess 
and assistant steward, arm in arm, followed. 
One Hungarian gentleman, with seven children, 
four of them girls, made his wife jump in, then 
blessed his six eldest children, made them jump 
in one after another, and followed them with 
an infant in his own arms.” 

15 .—Died, aged 56, William Weir, editor of 

the Daily News. 

21 .— Unveiling of the statue of Sir Isaac 
Newton erected at Grantham, his native place. 
Lord Brougham delivered an eloquent panegyric 
on the great philosopher. 

24 .—The Commission issued by the Bishop 
of Oxford, under the Church Discipline Act, to 
investigate the charges against the Rev. R. T. 
West, in connexion with the use of the confes¬ 
sional, take evidence in the Town Hall, Read¬ 
ing. The result was a report to the Bishop that 
there was not sufficient ground for instituting 
proceedings against Mr. West. 

— Died at Vienna, Baron Ward, who from 
a Yorkshire stable-boy became Prime Minister 
of Parma. He dethroned Charles II., and 
placed Charles III. on the throne. 

October 1 .— Explosion at the Page Bank 
Colliery, Brancepeth, Durham, causing the loss 
of ten lives. 

4 .—The Directors of the Western Bank make 
a final call of 100/. per share on the share- 




OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1858. 


holders, for the purpose of clearing off the 
liabilities of the' bank to depositors. 

5 . —The Crystal Palace at New York de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

6. —Robert Bond, of Torton, near Preston, 
in a fit of jealousy at being refused by his sweet¬ 
heart, murders her, by shooting her through the 
head, and then commits suicide by blowing his 
own brains out. 

7 . —The Prince of Prussia made Regent of 
the kingdom during the illness of his brother, 
the King. 

13 .—Thirteen lives lost by an explosion at 
the Primrose Colliery, near Swansea. 

18 .—Meeting of metropolitan vestrymen in 
St. James’s Hall, to protest against the use 
of the confessional in the Church of England. 

— John Carden, of Barnane, held to bail in 
the sum of 5,000/. to keep the peace towards 
Miss Arbuthnot, in consequence of having 
recently made renewed attempts to accomplish 
her abduction. (See July 2, 1854.) 

27 .—Died, aged 63, Madame Ida Pfeiffer, 
traveller. 

— Mr. Bright re-enters the political arena 
with an address to his new constituents at Bir¬ 
mingham, in which he defended the opinion he 
had expressed in opposition to Lord Palmer¬ 
ston’s foreign policy, urged upon his hearers 
the necessity of Parliamentary Reform, and 
drew an unflattering picture of the House of 
Peers, particularly of the spiritual peers ; 
“a creature—what shall I say ?—of monstrous, 
nay, even of adulterous birth. ” At a banquet 
on the 29th, Mr. Bright strongly urged a peace 
policy in foreign affairs, vindicating his views 
by declaring that he promulgated none which 
had not been upheld by the most revered names 
in English history. “We have past experience,” 
he said; “we have beacons, we have land¬ 
marks enough ; we know what the past has 
cost us, we know how much and how far we 
have wandered, but we are not left without a 
guide. It is true we have not, as an ancient 
people had, the Urim and Thummim—the 
oracular gems on Aaron’s breast—from which 
to take counsel, but we have the unchangeable 
and eternal principles of the moral law to 
guide us; and only so far as we live by that 
guidance can we be permanently a great nation, 
or our people a happy people.” Speaking of 
the aristocracy, he said : “There is no actuary in 
existence who can calculate how much of the 
wealth, of the strength, of the supremacy of the 
territorial families of England has been derived 
from an unholy participation in the fruits of the 
industry of the people, which have been wrested 
from them by every device of taxation, and 
squandered in every conceivable crime of which 
a government could possibly be guilty. (Cheers.) 
The more you examine this matter, the more 
you will come to the conclusion which I have 
arrived at, that this foreign policy, this regard 

( 5 2 9 ) 


for * the liberties of Europe, ’ this care at one 
time for ‘the Protestant interests,’ this excessive 
love for ‘ the balance of power,’ is neither more 
nor less than a gigantic system for the out-door 
relief of the aristocracy of Great Britain. 
(Great cheering and laughter.)” 

30 . —Accidental poisonings at Bradford* 
An apothecary’s assistant in Shipley having 
sent to a confectioner in Bradford 12 lbs. of 
arsenic in mistake for an equal quantity of 
“ daff ” or gypsum, the compound was made up 
into sweetmeats, 40 lbs. of which were sold to 
a small trader called Hardaker, who kept a 
stall in the market. The poisoned lozenges were 
in the course of the day vended to an extent 
which caused the death of eighteen persons, 
and placed the lives of 200 in great jeopardy. 
Hodgson, the chemist, was indicted for man¬ 
slaughter at the York Assizes, but after hearing 
the evidence Baron Watson stopped the case, 
there being nothing in his opinion for the jury 
to consider. 

— The Emperor Napoleon, in a letter 
addressed to his cousin, the Minister of Algeria 
and the Colonies, intimates the withdrawal of 
his sanction from the attempt to obtain negro 
labourers on the African coast. “ If their en¬ 
rolment,” he writes, “be only the slave-trade 
in disguise, I will have it on no terms.” He 
recommends that an effort be made to obtain 
Indian coolies as free labourers. 

31 . —Died, Major-General Sir W. Reid, 
author of “ The Law of Storms,” Governor of 
Bermuda and Malta. 

November 1.—The Governor-General of 
India issues a proclamation from Allahabad, 
announcing that henceforth all acts of the 
Government of India would be done in the 
name of the Queen alone ; and calling upon 
the millions of her Majesty’s subjects in India 
to yield a loyal obedience to the call which, in 
words full of benevolence and mercy, their 
Sovereign made upon their allegiance and 
faithfulness. 

5 . —The funeral car of Napoleon 1 . pre¬ 
sented to France by Queen Victoria. 

— Resignation of the Manteuffel Ministry 
in Berlin, and accession to power of the Prince 
of Hohenzollem-Sigmaringen. 

6. —Denmark makes various organic changes 
in the constitution of Holstein. 

IO.—At the Central Criminal Court, Lemon 
Oliver, stockbroker, but not a member of the 
Stock Exchange, was sentenced to twenty 
years’ penal servitude for forging the signature 
of Rpbert Swan, and defrauding him of 
various securities deposited for safety in the 
London and County Bank. There was also a 
charge against him of appropriating to his own 
use 5,000/. entrusted to him by a lady named 
Dance, residing at Southsea, for the purpose of 
investing in Canadian securities. 


M M 





NOVEMBER 


1858. 


NOVEMBER 


12.—The Daily News publishes two impor¬ 
tant despatches improperly conveyed from the 
Colonial Office, in which Sir John Young, the 
Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, 
advocated the abandonment of our protectorate 
over all the islands except Corfu, which strong 
fortress he recommended to be retained as a 
military post. Soon after receipt of the de¬ 
spatches they were ordered to be printed for the 
use of the Cabinet, and the copies lay for some 
weeks in the Library of the Colonial Office 
under the charge of the sub-librarian. A per¬ 
son named Guernsey, who was a frequent 
visitor to the library, was tried on the 15 th 
December for purloining the documents ; and 
though his counsel did not deny that it was 
through him the Daily News obtained the 
despatches, he urged that the offence did not 
amount to felony, for which he was indicted. 
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty. 

16 . —The Rifled Ordnance Committee, ap¬ 
pointed Aug. 30, issue a report recommending 
the use of the Armstrong gun. 

17 . —Died at Newton, Wales, where he 
was born, aged 89, Robert Owen, socialist. 

18 . —The new great bell for the Palace at 
Westminster rung for the first time. Round 
the outer lip was inscribed :—“ This bell, 
weighing 13 tons 10 cwt. 3 qrs. 15 lbs., was 
cast by George Mears, Whitechapel, for the 
clock of the Houses of Parliament, under the 
direction of Edmund Beckett Denison, Q.C., 
in the twenty-first year of the reign of Queen 
Victoria, and in the year of our Lord 
mdccclviii.” Diameter of bell, 9 feet; and 
height outside, 7 ft. 6 in. (See Oct. 1, 1859.) 

23 .—The Court of Queen’s Bench grant a 
rule to show cause why a mandamus should 
not issue, directing the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury to hear Mr. Poole’s appeal against the 
withdrawal of his licence. 

— Died at Arundel Castle, aged 68, 
Admiral Lord Lyons. 

25 .—Came on in Paris, before the Court 
of Correctional Police, the trial of the Count 
de Montalembert, for publishing the pamphlet 
“ Un Debat sur l’Inde ” (see May 19, 1858), in 
which he contrasted English and French institu¬ 
tions in a manner unfavourable to the latter. 
One passage said to have given especial offence 
was in these words:—“When I feel the 
pestilential influence rising higher and higher 
around me, when my ears ache with the buz¬ 
zing of anteroom gossips, or the fracas of 
fanatics who think themselves our masters, or 
of hypocrites who believe us to be their dupes— 
when I feel smothered under the weight of an 
atmosphere loaded with servile and corrupting 
vapours—I rush to breathe for a time a pure 
medium, and to take a life-bath in the free air 
of England. I was unusually fortunate the 
last time thafc I gave myself this consolation, 
and happened to fall into the very midst of one 
of those grand and glorious debates in which 
all the resources of intellect and all the 
(S 3 ©) 


emotions of conscience of a great people are 
brought into play, in which the highest problems 
which can agitate a nation emancipated from 
tutelage are presented to be elucidated in 
broad day by the intervention of great minds ; 
where men and things, parties and individuals, 
orators and writers, depositaries of the powers 
of the State and organs of public opinion, are 
called upon to reproduce in the heart of a new 
Rome the picture drawn of old, by a Roman 
fresh from the moving incidents of the Forum— 
‘ Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate, &c.’ ” 
M. Montalembert declined to withdraw or 
apologize for any statement in the pamphlet, 
and pleaded, both personally and through his 
eloquent advocate, M. Berryer, that it was not 
in excess of what was permitted by the Consti¬ 
tution. The President, addressing M. Berryer, 
said, “The court has suffered some very warm 
expressions and some very lively allusions to 
pass, but I am obliged to stop you in the danger¬ 
ous course you are pursuing. You plead for 
the writings of M. de Montalembert; you re¬ 
new the offence in endeavouring to justify it.” 
M. Berryer: “ Allusions, M. le President ! 

My language has betrayed me if it has in any 
way hid my thoughts.” (Laughter.) The Presi¬ 
dent : “I cannot allow you to say that there 
is no longer liberty in France.” M. Berryer : 
“ Ah ! M. le President, if it be so, if it be neces- 
saiy to deny what is clearer than the light of day, 
if it be necessary to lie, to lie towards my intel¬ 
ligence, to lie towards my conscience, I have 
nothing else to do but to be silent; I have 
nothing to do but to sit down and throw up my 
brief.” The President: “No, M. Berryer, you 
will not lie. In 1811, when you became a mem¬ 
ber of that bar which you have rendered illus¬ 
trious, you took an oath which you have since 
renewed—an oath to observe the respect due to 
the laws ; you have always observed that oath, 
and you will keep it also to-day.” M. Berryer : 

‘ £ I remember my oath : but you make me 
shudder, M. le President; you carry back my 
thoughts to a time when the praise of a good 
man, the approval of a virtue, of a good senti¬ 
ment, of a good law, was not considered as a 
crime. No, I do not wish to recall that period 
to your memory,— legimus capitale fuisse. No, I 
do not consent that the praise of a free Govern¬ 
ment should be considered as an insult, for the 
reason alone, that this Government contrasts 
with the present institutions of France. This 
praise in the mouth of M. de Montalembert 
was altogether patriotic.” M. Berryer then 
examined in detail the different heads of the 
accusation, and argued that no one of them 
was borne out by any passage in the article. 
Coming to the most important count in the 
indictment, that of an attack on “the rights 
of the Emperor under the Constitution and 
the principle of universal suffrage,” he as¬ 
serted that the Chief of the State was neither 
named nor designated. Not only so, but 
there was not a scrap of law to support the 
charge. The prosecution has recourse, in 
order to punish the pietended offence, to the 





NOVEMBER 


1858. 


DECEMBER 


laws of 1848 and 1849. . . . “ Ah J gentlemen, 
do not regard as a crime our legitimate regrets. 
We are already far advanced in life, we have 
but a warmth which is passing away ; allow us 
to die tranquil and faithful. We are suffi¬ 
ciently unfortunate in seeing our cause, our 
holy and glorious cause, betrayed, vanquished, 
denied, insulted. Suffer us to believe that we 
can preserve for it an inviolable attachment in 
the bottom of our hearts. Suffer us to think 
so. Suffer us to say so. Allow us to preserve 
and to recall the remembrance of those great 
combats of eloquence which have made known 
to us, and have caused us to love, the generous 
institutions which we have defended, which we 
will always defend, and to which we will be 
faithful to our very last hour." The judges, 
after deliberating an hour, inflicted a fine of 
6,000 francs, and ordered the Count to be im¬ 
prisoned for six months. An appeal was made 
against the sentence, pending which the sen¬ 
tence was cancelled by the Emperor. The 
Count insisting on his right of appeal, was again 
convicted, but had the sentence finally remitted 
on the 21 st of December. 

26 .—At a court-martial at Chatham, Pri¬ 
vate Thomas Tole, late of the 1st battalion 7th 
Royal Fusiliers, was found guilty of deserting 
to the Russians from the army before Sebas¬ 
topol. He was sentenced to penal servitude 
for life. 

28 . —Sunday evening service celebrated for 
the first time under the dome of St. Paul’s. 
The Bishop of London preached on the occa¬ 
sion to a crowded and attentive audience. 

29 . —Mr. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., arrives at 
Corfu as Lord High Commissioner Extraordi¬ 
nary to the Ionian Islands. On the 3d he ad¬ 
dressed the Senate in explanation of the object 
of his mission. “It avoided," he said, “every 
ulterior question that could derogate from the 
relations in which, by the consent of so many 
great States, England and the Islands have 
been reciprocally placed. The liberties gua¬ 
ranteed by the treaties of Paris and by Ionian 
law are, in the eyes of her Majesty, sacred. On 
the other hand, the purpose for which she has 
sent me is not to inquire into the British pro¬ 
tectorate, but to examine in what way Great 
Britain may most honourably and amply dis¬ 
charge the obligations which, for purposes 
European and Ionian rather than British, she 
has contracted." 

30 . —Concluded in the Divorce Court, after 
a hearing of eight days, the case of Marchmont 
v. Marchmont, in which the wife, formerly the 
widow of a tavern-keeper in Threadneedle- 
street, who left her 5o,ooq/., petitioned for a 
judicial separation from her husband, formerly 
an Independent minister at Islington, on the 
ground of cruelty. The evidence showed that 
from the day after the marriage the respondent 
had indulged in a course of systematic cruelty 
in word and deed, threatening often, if she did 
not accede to his demands for money, that he 
would murder her. A plea of condonation 

( 531 ) 


was entered for the respondent, but it was net 
established. Judicial separation granted. 

Accidents by fire to the voluminous folds of 
ladies’ dresses lamentably frequent this month. 

December 1.—A deputation of merchants 
and others wait upon the Premier, for the 
purpose of urging him to concede a protec¬ 
torate to British' interests at Sarawak. Earl 
Derby was unfavourable to the proposal, as 
likely to involve this country in difficulties 
with a district not absolutely surrendered to 
the British Crown. 

— Meeting in Willis’s Rooms, with speeches 
by the Bishop of London and the Bishop of 
Oxford, “ to direct attention to the providential 
openings recently made for the introduction of 
Christianity into China and Japan.” 

2 . —A sentence of indefinite suspension 
passed by a majority of bishops of the Scotch 
Episcopal Church upon the Rev. Mr. Cheyne, 
Aberdeen, for teaching that there was a sub¬ 
stantial presence in the Eucharist. 

3 . —The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland issues 
a proclamation against societies of a seditious 
or treasonable character, and offers a reward 
of 100/. for such information as would lead to 
the conviction of parties administering unlawful 
oaths. On the 8th, twelve were arrested in 
Skibbereen, twelve in Kenmare, four in Bantry, 
and three in Killarney. On being brought up, 
O’Donovan Rossa and his associates pleaded 
guilty to the charge of treason-felony, and were 
liberated. 

11 . —Explosion at Tyldesley Colliery, near 
Leigh, causing the death of all employed in 
the pit—25 in number. The workings were 
generally considered dangerous, and many of 
the workmen had from time to time withdrawn 
in alarm. 

16 .—At York Assizes two cases of the 
murder of sweethearts were tried. The first, 
Atkinson, of Darley, a person of weak intel¬ 
lect but easily excited, who had cut the girl’s 
throat in eight different places, and then thrown 
her into a ditch, was acquitted on the ground 
of insanity. The other, Whitworth, of Threap- 
ham, who made a brutal attack with a knife 
on the young woman, inflicting injuries from 
which she died in a few days, was found guilty, 
and sentenced to be executed. 

— The Times , giving expression to an 
opinion current in commercial circles as to the 
suspicious manner in which the firm of Overend, 
Gurney, and Co., appeared from recent ex¬ 
aminations in bankruptcy (see May 31) to be 
mixed up with the fraudulent warrant transac¬ 
tions of Cole, Davidson, and Gordon, Mr. D. 
B. Champman, of the firm of Overend, writes 
to-day, that “ it was most painful to us not to 
divulge the fraud under which we were suffer¬ 
ing ; but its magnitude took it out of the course 

MM2 





DECEMBER 


1858-59. 


of all ordinary proceedings, and compelled us to 
have consideration for our own position with the 
public.” On this the Times remarks : “We 
cannot admit that because a large sum was at 
stake this house was justified in confederating 
with swindlers in the circulation of false 
securities. We cannot allow that the laws that 
protect property do not apply to very large 
transactions, or that magnitude in the operation 
converts wrong into right. There is something 
dramatic in the comicality of Mr. Chapman 
selling these fictitious warrants, and starting 
at the idea of ‘ defiling himself ’ with a distil¬ 
lery. ” In another communication Mr. Chap¬ 
man denied that any of the warrants had ever 
left their possession after the discovery of the 
fraud, and instructions were at once issued to 
the junior partners on no account to part with 
them. In delivering judgment in the case of 
Davidson and Gordon, on the 5th of January, 
Mr. Commissioner Goulburn expressed it as 
his opinion that Mr. Chapman was an acces¬ 
sory after the fact to a most gross and wicked 
fraud. In his examination Mr. Chapman had 
stated : “ Mr. Gordon called at our office, and 
I said to him, ‘ I should like to go through 
your warrants with you.’ He assented : upon 
which I called Mr. Bois, who brought a parcel 
of warrants. Upon turning them over, we 
observed three warrants endorsed by a most 
respectable house—Messrs. Gregson and Co. 

I immediately said, ‘ It is impossible there 
can be anything wrong with such warrants as 
these ;’ upon which Gordon said, ‘No ; there 
is nothing wrong with the warrants : but the • 
fact is, I have shipped the copper.’ I was 
shocked. He stood before me in a different 
light, and has done so ever since.” Again, in 
answer to Mr. Linklater’s searching questions, 
the witness said : “ When these warrants were 
applied for by the parties of whom we received 
the money, it appeared that there was not a 
sufficient quantity of spelter on the wharf 
to satisfy them. There were only eighty-two 
tons. Mr. Cole sent his clerk to inform us 
that he could not supply the spelter, unless we 
paid him 15/. a ton, because he had abstracted 
the spelter and borrowed 15/. a ton upon it. 
We said we would have nothing to do with 
Hagen’s wharf, but if he would bring our war¬ 
rants with the parties’ receipt upon those 
whose money we had obtained, we would pay 
the 15/. a ton. We did not pay the money 
until the warrants were returned to us. The 
purchasers of our warrants never became aware 
they were of so doubtful a character.” In 
answer to the question, whether the mode in 
which he carried out the transaction was to 
conceal the fact that the warrants were of a 
fictitious character, Mr. Chapman said, “I 
really must decline to answer that question. 

I only know the object was to fulfil our con¬ 
tract with the man whose money we had 
received.”—“This,” wrote the Times , return¬ 
ing to the charge, “ is the evidence upon which 
we formed our opinion, that Mr. Chapman, 
acting for Overend and Gurney, did pass away ; 
^ ( 532 ) 


JANUARY 


for valuable consideration warrants which he 
knew to be of a fictitious character. ” 

20. —Final suppression of the Indian Mutiny. 
The Commander-in-chief writes to the Go¬ 
vernor-General that “ the campaign is at an 
end, there being no longer even the vestige of 
rebellion in the province of Oude ; and that the 
last remnant of the mutineers and insurgents 
have been hopelessly driven across the moun¬ 
tains which form the barrier between the 
kingdom of Nepaul and her Majesty’s empire 
of Hindostan.” 

21 . —Fall of Beacon-terrace, Torquay. Two 
of the occupiers were found crushed to death 
in their beds, two others sustained severe frac¬ 
tures, and many sustained lesser injuries from 
the falling mass. 

22. —Tried at the Middlesex Sessions 
Thomas William Capron, charged with as¬ 
saulting Mr. Mowbray Morris, manager of the 
Times. The two parties appeared to have 
been friends some years ago, hunting and 
dining together; but eventually Capron’s 
jealousy was raised by Morris’s conduct towards 
his wife, and the acquaintance terminated in 
October 1852. On the 6th November last i 
Morris was to be married; and the defendant il 
selected the previous evening to perpetrate the 
outrageous assault with which he was now 
charged. He took a cab, tracked Morris from 
place to place, till he found him at the house of j 
his intended wife’s brother; and, encountering 
the object of his search, struck him over the 
head with a stick, remarking, “I hope I have | 
now given him two black eyes to go to the | 
church with.” In explanation of the alleged 
improper intimacy with Mrs. Capron, pleaded j 
in extenuation, it was submitted in evidence [ 
that Morris was instructing her as a friend in an 
action for divorce she had raised on the ground 
of cruelty. The jury found Capron guilty, and 
he was sentenced to twenty-one days’ impri¬ 
sonment, a fine of 50/., and ordered to find 
sureties in 1,500/. to keep the peace. 

— Faustin I. of Hayti is deposed, and a 
republic again proclaimed under the presidency 
of Geffrard. 

27 .—Accident at the Victoria Theatre, 
caused by a panic-stricken crowd from the 
gallery meeting on the staircase with a crowd 
waiting for admission to the new pantomime 
of “ Harlequin True Blue.” Fifteen lads were 
crushed or trampled to death, and thirty were 
picked up maimed or insensible. 

31 .—Russia concludes a commercial treaty 
with Great Britain. 

1859. 

January 1 .— Estrangement between France 
and Austria. Earl Cowley writes from Paris 
to the Earl of Malmesbury : “ It is the custom 
of the Emperor, when the diplomatic body 








January 


JANUARY 


1859 - 


wait upon his Majesty on the occasion of the 
new year, to say a word or two to each of them 
individually. This afternoon, when his Majesty 
approached the Austrian ambassador, he said, 
with some severity of tone, that, although the 
relations between the two empires were not 
such as he could desire, he begged to assure the 
Emperor of Austria that his personal feelings 
towards his Majesty remained unaltered.” On 
the 3d Earl Cowley writes: “The words 
spoken by the Emperor to the Austrian am¬ 
bassador during the reception of the diplo¬ 
matic body by his Majesty on New Year’s 
Day, to which I had the honour to call your 
lordship’s attention in my despatch of the 1st 
instant, have, of course, been commented upon, 
with the usual additions and exaggerations that 
accompany the repetition of verbal statements, 
and have occasioned considerable disquietude 
in the public mind. Yesterday evening, at the 
Empress’s reception, the Emperor accosted 
M. de Hiibner with his usual affability; and 
it may be hoped, therefore, that this incident 
will be forgotten.” The Moniteur of the 7th 
contained the following : “ Public opinion has 
been agitated for some days past by alarming 
reports, to which it is the duty of the Govern¬ 
ment to put an end by declaring that nothing 
in our diplomatic relations authorizes the fears 
to which these reports tend to give birth.” On 
the 3d there was a fall of I per cent, on the 
French Bourse. 

3 . —Accident at the Polytechnic Institution, 
Regent-street, caused by the falling of the 
geometrical stone staircase when the audience 
were leaving in the evening. About 40 people 
were injured, but in only one case did the 
injuries result in death. 

4 . —At Agecroft Colliery, Pendlebury, near 
Manchester, the cage bringing seven workmen 
up the shaft is brought into collision with the 
gearing over the pit-mouth, and falls down the 
shaft, a distance of 360 yards. All its occu¬ 
pants were killed on the spot. 

6.—General Miguel Miramon elected Pre¬ 
sident of Mexico by the Revolutionary Junta. 
Zuloaga abdicated soon afterwards, and Mira¬ 
mon entered the capital in state. 

11. —The saw-grinders of Sheffield attempt 
to blow up the house of a workman named 
Linley, on the ground that he was injuring 
their union. 

12 . —The Earl of Malmesbury writes to 
Lord A. Loftus at Vienna: “ Her Majesty’s 
Government entertain but little doubt that if 
Austria and France—the former an Italian, 
and both Catholic States—laying aside mutual 
suspicion, were to join heartily with a view to 
promote, by peaceful means, the regeneration 
of Italy, their combined influence would 
speedily effect a change in the present unhappy 
state of affairs, and contribute to establish con¬ 
fidence between rulers and their subjects. Her 
Majesty’s Government have not failed to press 
upon the Government of France considerations 


such as these ; and they have not hesitated to 
express their conviction that France, though 
she may have no material stake at issue, could 
have little or nothing to gain in an Italian war. 
As the common friends, then, of both parties, 
and as sincerely desirous of the welfare of the 
Italian people, her Majesty’s Government 
entreat the two Imperial Courts to lay aside 
their animosities, and to act in peaceful concert 
for that important object. Her Majesty’s 
Government think that it would not only be 
becoming in Austria, from her peculiar position 
in Italy, but also advantageous to her in the 
public opinion of Europe, if she were to make 
the first advances, and propose to the French 
Government to join with her in considering 
the best means of reforming the glaring abuses 
in the Papal dominions which occupy Central 
Italy. Austria is an Italian State, and both 
France and Austria are now occupying the 
Papal territories with their troops. Si?ch a 
position cannot be lasting, and her Majesty’s 
Government submit to both Austria and France 
that it is their public duty to terminate, if 
possible, a state of things which has become 
intolerable. ” 

1 * 7 .—In addressing the electors of Bradford, 
in St. George’s Hall, Mr. Bright gives an 
outline of a new Reform Bill which he thought 
would settle the question for some time, and be 
satisfactory to a large section of the community, 
—a franchise to be based on rating; 56 boroughs 
to cease to return members, and 30 to be 
reduced from two to one member, the avail¬ 
able number to be conferred on the large 
boroughs and cities. 

18 . —The London Gazette publishes a warrant 
under the royal sign manual, commanding the 
discontinuance of the special prayers offered up 
on January 30, May 29, and November 5. 

19 . —Died at the late Laureate’s residence, 
Rydal Mount, Mrs. Wordsworth, wife of the 
poet, and the venerable but cheerful prop of 
his declining years. 

21 .—Died, aged 81, Henry Hallam, his¬ 
torian of the Middle Ages, the Revival of 
Letters, and the English Constitution, and 
father of Arthur Hallam, the subject of 
Tennyson’s In Memoriam. 

23 .—During a heavy gale on the south coast 
of England, the steamship Czar , of 937 tons, 
loaded with Government stores, shot, and shell 
for Malta, foundered off the Lizard, and the 
commander, his wife and son, passengers, and. 
several of the crew, in all fourteen persons, 
perished with her. 

25 .—The centenary of the birth of Robert 
Burns celebrated with almost universal rejoic¬ 
ing throughout Scotland, the enthusiasm being 
naturally greatest in places associated with the 
life of the poet by birth or residence. Among 
the most popular of the English gatherings was 
the “ Burns Festival ” at the Crystal Palace, 
where a prize poem, by Miss Isa Craig, was 
recited in memory of the poet. 


( 533 ) 








JANUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1859. 


27 .—In consequence of the Ministerial pro¬ 
posals regarding the extension of the county 
franchise, Mr. Walpole proposes to withdraw 
from the Cabinet. Writing to Lord Derby, he 
says:—“I regret to say that I am about to 
take the most painful step which I have ever 
had to take in the whole of my life. I am 
going to request you to place my resignation in 
her Majesty’s hands, because I find it utterly 
impossible for me to sanction or countenance 
the course of policy which the Government 
have now determined to adopt on the impor¬ 
tant subject of Parliamentary Reform. I can¬ 
not help saying that the measure which the 
Cabinet are prepared to recommend is one 
which we should all of us have stoutly opposed 
if either Lord Palmerston or Lord John Russell 
had ventured to bring it forward. Under all 
these circumstances, I have no alternative but 
to repeat the request with which I commenced ; 
and I shall therefore consider myself as only 
holding the seals of office until you can con¬ 
veniently fill up my place.” Mr. Walpole was 
succeeded at the Home Office by Mr. Sotheron 
Estcourt. Mr. Henley retired at the same 
time, for a similar reason. 

— The members of the Ionian Legislative 
Assembly pass a resolution declaring for a 
union with Greece. Next day Mr. Gladstone, 
who was then discharging all the duties of Lord 
High Commissioner, induced the Assembly to 
appoint a committee to proceed in the usual 
way by petition, memorial, or representation, 
to the protecting Powers. Her Majesty after¬ 
wards declined to grant the prayer of the peti¬ 
tion, but caused her representative to submit a 
scheme of reform assimilating the Constitution 
as far as possible to that of a British colony 
with responsible government. 

20.—The Court of Queen’s Bench, without 
hearing Mr. Poole’s counsel, decide that he is 
entitled to be heard by the Archbishop on his 
appeal against the suspension of his licence for 
alleged irregularities regarding the use of the 
confessional. 

— Died at Boston, U.S., aged 63, William 
Hickling Prescott, American historian. 

— Died, aged 77, Frederick John Robinson, 
Earl of Ripon, who had filled many offices of 
State. 

29 . —Inauguration of Wellington College 
by the Queen, the fabric being the result of a 
public subscription to commemorate the me¬ 
mory of the great Duke. 

30 . —The Princess Clotilde, eldest daughter 
of the King of Sardinia, married to Prince 
Napoleon, cousin of the Emperor Napoleon. 

February 1 . —In the Divorce Court, the 
first case under the Legitimacy Declaration 
Act was made in the intricate and voluminous 
Sheddon suit; the petitioners, William Patrick 
Ralston Sheddon, and his daughter Annabella 
Jean Ralston Sheddon, praying that the mar¬ 
riage of the parents of the first-mentioned, 
( 534 ) 


which took place in America, might be de¬ 
clared valid. A final order as to the omission 
from the cit ition of a person since dead was 

made. 

2 . —Sir Henry Storks appointed Lord High 
Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. 

— The West Highland Crinan Canal de¬ 
stroyed by the bursting of one of the reservoirs 
employed to feed it. After an unprecedented 
wet season, about eight o’clock this evening 
one of the reservoirs above Cairnban becoming 
overcharged suddenly burst, and precipitated 
itself into the one beneath; the contents of 
both then bounded into a third, and with a 
roar which shook the country for miles around 
an avalanche of water, rocks, and earth rolled 
down the mountain side, furrowing a deep 
watercourse in its way, and instantly filling 
up the canal under a mountain of rocks and 
stones. The water shed off in great fury, one 
part finding an outlet into Loch Fine, near Loch¬ 
gilphead, and the other rushing over the Crinan 
morass into the western sea. In the course 
of the session Parliament voted 12,000/. to 
restore the canal to its former efficiency. 

3 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in per¬ 
son. In addressing the Commons, her Majesty 
said: “The universal introduction of steam- 
power into naval warfare will render necessary 
a temporary increase of expenditure in provid¬ 
ing for the reconstruction of the British navy ; 
but I am persuaded that you will cheerfully 
vote whatever sums you may find to be requisite 
for an object of such vital importance as the 
maintenance of the maritime power of the 
country.” It was also intimated that their 
attention would be called to the state of the 
law regulating the representation of the people. 
In both Houses the Address was agreed to 
without a division. 

4 . —Professor Owen lectures at the Royal 
Institution on the Gorilla. 

7 .—The convict-hulk system being now 
abolished, the staff of the Stirling Castle , the 
last employed in the service, was broken up 
to-day. 

9 .—In the case of Colonel Dickson v. the 
Earl of Wilton, heard in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, the jury return a verdict for the pri¬ 
soner, with damages of 200/. for the slander 
spoken to Mr. Duncombe, in which the Earl 
charged the Colonel with having instigated the 
creditors of the regiment to take legal pro¬ 
ceedings against himself, and 5/. each for the 
two letters charging the Colonel with misap¬ 
propriating the mess funds. 

11.—Debate in the Commons on the pro¬ 
posed plan for rebuilding the India Office, 
several members objecting to the Gothic style 
adopted, as also to the additional expense 
thereof. 

14 -—Lord Stanley, the new Secretary of 
State for India, after making a statement re¬ 
garding the financial condition of that country, 






FEBRUARY 


1859. 


MARCH 


ask the House to authorize a loan to the 
Government of India for 7,000,000/. The pro¬ 
posal was assented to, and a measure founded 
on the resolution was afterwards carried 
through both Houses, 

22 .—The steam-tug Black Eagle explodes 
in Cardiff dock, causing the death of five 
persons on board, 

— Mr. Mackinnon, M. P., obtains leave to 
bring in a bill to establish councils of con¬ 
ciliation and arbitration to adjust differences 
between masters and operatives. 

— The Pope declares his willingness to per¬ 
mit the French and Austrian troops to leave 
his territories. 

24 . —Mr. Caird’s motion in the House, 
to the effect that it would be advantageous 
to the public interest to publish periodically 
the agricultural statistics of Great Britain, as 
respects the extent of acres under the several 
crops of corn, vegetables, and grass, lost by 
163 votes to 152. 

25 . —Lord Palmerston, in a crowded House, 
calls attention to the present aspect of con¬ 
tinental affairs. He thought there was no 
sufficient cause for war. The present troubled 
state of Europe he attributed to the jealousies 
between France and Austria, brought into ac¬ 
tion by their occupation of the Roman States. 
Mr. Disraeli replied : “I have the satisfaction 
of informing the noble Lord and the House 
that we have received communications which 
give us ground for believing that both Austria 
and France will evacuate the Roman States 
with the concurrence of the Papal Govern¬ 
ment. Under these circumstances, Lord 
Cowley has been sent to Vienna on a confi¬ 
dential mission. I cannot inform the House 
of the precise character of that mission, but 
I may say, generally, that it is one of pe.ace 
and conciliation.” 

26 . —A fire breaks out in the shop of 
Mr. Reeves, eating-house keeper, Great James- 
street, Marylebone, in which he, with the 
whole of his family, and a nurse, perished. 

— The Calais packet, Prince Frederick 
William , is driven ashore at Calais, when 
endeavouring to enter the harbour in a ground 
swell. During the excitement caused by the 
occurrence, some of the passengers entered a 
life-boat sent from the shore; but it capsized in 
the confusion, and three of those on board were 
drowned. Most of the passengers and crew 
in the packet-boat remained by her till ebb 
tide, when they all got ashore in safety. 

— The Hon. D. E. Sickles, of New York, 
a member of Congress, shoots Philip Barton 
Key, lawyer, in the streets of Washington, the 
ground of offence being a systematic career of 
guilty intercourse with his young wife. At the 
trial, the jury returned a verdict of Not guilty 
against Sickles; and popular favour manifested 
itself so strongly on his side, as to make the 
journey from the court to his house an enthu¬ 


siastic ovation. He afterwards publicly an¬ 
nounced that the erring wife was once inoie 
under her husband’s protection. 

26 .—The Armstrong gun introduced into 
the artillery service of Great Britain. 

— Lord Cowley sets out on a special mission 
to Vienna, to mediate between Austria and 
France, in reference to the affairs of Italy. 

28 .—In the House of Commons, the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer states the intentions of 
Government with respect to the representation 
of the people. “ It is not proposed,’” he said, 
“to alter the limits of the franchise, but to 
introduce into boroughs a new kind of franchise 
founded upon personal property and to give a 
vote to persons having property to the amount 
of 10/. a year in the funds, bank stock, and East 
India stock ; a person having 60/. in a savings 
bank would, under the bill, be an elector for the 
borough in which he resided ; as also recipients 
of pensions in the naval, military, and civil 
services amounting to 20/. a year. Dwellers 
in a portion of a house whose aggregate rent 
was 20/. a year would likewise have a vote. 
The suffrage would also be conferred upon 
graduates of the universities, ministers of reli¬ 
gion, members of the legal and medical pro¬ 
fessions, and certain schoolmasters.” In 
considering the county franchise, he reviewed 
the controversy respecting the Chandos Clause 
in the Act of 1832. To terminate the heart¬ 
burnings arising from it, and to restore the 
county constituency to its natural state, and 
bring about a general content and sympathy 
between the different portions of the consti¬ 
tuent body, the Government proposed to recog¬ 
nise the principle of identity of suffrage between 
the counties and towns. They also proposed 
that Boundary Commissioners should visit the 
boroughs in England, re-arrange them, and 
adapt them to the altered circumstances of the 
times; their appointment to be delegated to the 
Enclosure Commissioners. The effect of giving 
to counties a 10/. franchise would be, according 
to the estimate of the Government, to add 
200,000 to the county constituency. 

March. 1 . —Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley 
state to the House of Commons their reasons 
for retiring from the Government of Earl 
Derby. 

— The English Government having re¬ 
quested the Cabinet of Sardinia to state in 
express terms what were the particulars of the 
general complaint against Austria in respect of 
Italy, Count Cavour responds to the invitation, 
showing in a lengthy and ably-reasoned State 
paper how Austria had abused the powers 
within the territories which she held by treaty, 
and overawed States in which she could not 
even plead treaty rights. He thought that the 
danger of a war or revolution might be warded 
off, and the Italian difficulty practically solved, 
by the following changes:—“ By obtaining from 
Austria, not in virtue of treaties, but in the 
name of the principles of humanity and eternal 

( 535 ) 





MARCH 


1859. 


MARCH 


justice, a national and separate Government 
for Lombardy and Venetia. By requiring, in 
conformity with the letter and spirit of the 
Treaty of Vienna, that the domination of Austria 
over the States of Central Italy should cease, 
and, consequently, that the detached forts con¬ 
structed outside the walls of Piacenza should be 
destroyed; that the convention of the. 24th of 
December, 1847, should be annulled; that the 
occupation of the Romagna should cease; and 
that the principle of non-intervention should 
be proclaimed and respected. By inviting the 
Dukes of Modena and Parma to give their 
people institutions similar to those existing in 
Piedmont; and the Grand Duke of Tuscany to 
re-establish the Constitution to which he had 
freely consented in 1848. By obtaining from 
the Sovereign Pontiff the administrative separa¬ 
tion of the provinces beyond the Apennines, in 
conformity with the propositions communicated 
in 1856 to the Cabinets of London and Paris. 
May England obtain the realization of these 
conditions! Italy, relieved and pacified, will 
bless her ; and Sardinia, who has so often in¬ 
voked her co-operation and assistance in favour 
of her unfortunate fellow-countrymen, will vow 
to her an imperishable gratitude.” 

7 .—An American merchant-vessel puts into 
Cork harbour with Baron Poerio and sixty-six 
other Neapolitan exiles on board. They had 
been permitted to leave Naples in virtue of 
what the King called an act of grace, on 
condition that they would transport themselves 
to America for the term of their natural life. 
They afterwards compelled the captain to alter 
his course to an English port. The exiles were 
received with all the sympathy due to their 
unmerited suffering. 

— Kerry Assizes opened for the trial of the 
Phoenix conspirators. In the first case against 
O’Sullivan, the jury were unable to agree on a 
verdict, and were discharged. On the 30th he 
was found guilty, and sentenced to ten years’ 
penal servitude. 

— Mr. Walpole’s Church Rates Abolition 
Bill thrown out on the second reading, by 254 
to 171. 

9 .—Earl Cowley reports to the Earl of 
Malmesbury the result of his conferences with 
the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs: 
“ With respect to the reform of administration 
to be introduced into the Roman States, Count 
Buol expresses himself willing, either to resume 
the negotiation which had been commenced 
with the French Government upon that sub¬ 
ject in 1857, but afterwards allowed to drop 
by that Government, and not by him, or to 
fall back upon the recommendations made by 
the five Powers to the Pope in 1831-32. He 
prefers the latter measure, because he thinks 
it more likely to be attended with success. 
He would not, however, object to the former; 
but in that case the proposal must come from 
the French Government. The matter stands 
thus : France had made certain propositions 
to Austria, to which counter-propositions had 
( 536 ) 


been offered; but Austria had never Deen able 
to obtain the opinion of the French Govern¬ 
ment upon those latter. She had more than 
once asked for that opinion; and it remained 
with the French Government to take the nex f 
step. Upon the third point mentioned in your 
Lordship’s despatch of the 22d ult., namely, a 
security for the better relations between the 
Governments of Austria and Sardinia, Count 
Buol says, that your Lordship must address 
yourself to Turin. It is not, he maintains, 
from the conduct of Austria that the present 
critical state of affairs has arisen, but from the 
ambitious and encroaching policy of Sardinia. 
Austria desires no better than to renew those 
amicable relations which had for so many years 
united the two Governments, but it could only 
be done on one condition—a complete change 
of external policy on the part of the Sardinian 
Government. With the internal policy of Sar¬ 
dinia Austria had nothing to do, and has no 
desire to interfere. Count Buol gives the 
further assurance that Austria, notwithstanding 
the provocations which she has received, has 
no intention of attacking Sardinia, as long as 
the Sardinian troops keep within their own ter¬ 
ritory ; but he insists that as long as Sardinia 
remains armed there can be no security for 
peace.” 

14 .—The Swiss Cantons declare their neu¬ 
trality on the Italian question. 

19 .—The Dutch barque Batavia destroyed 
by fire in the Mersey, with a cargo of silk, 
cloth, and fine goods, valued at 16,000/. 

21 . —On the motion for the second reading 
of the Reform Bill, Lord John Russell moved, 
“ That it is neither just nor politic to interfere 
in the manner proposed in the Government 
Bill with the freehold franchise, as hitherto 
exercised in the counties of England and 
Wales ; and that no readjustment of the 
franchise will satisfy the House or the country, 
which does not provide for a greater extension 
of the suffrage in cities and boroughs than is 
contemplated in the present measure.” The 
debate was adjourned over several evenings, 
and ended in the defeat and dissolution of the 
Ministry. 

23 .—In the case of the Rev. Mr. Poole, 
accused of introducing the practice of the con¬ 
fessional at St. Barnabas’s, Pimlico, the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, before whom the case 
came up on appeal by mandamus from the 
Court of Queen’s Bench, pronounces a decision 
confirmatory of that of the Bishop of London 
revoking Mr. Poole’s licence. 

25 .—In the adjourned debate on the Govern¬ 
ment Reform Bill, Lord Palmerston, in sup¬ 
porting Lord John Russell’s resolution, said: 

Some persons say the Ministry will resign. 
Sir, I believe no such, thing. (Laughter.) i 
think it will be a dereliction of duty on their 
part if they do resign. I do not want them to 
resign. (Laughter.) I say to them, as I think 
Voltaire sq,id of some Minister who had incurred 






MARCH 


MARCH 


1S59. 


l.is displeasure, ‘ I won’t punish him; I won’t 
send him to prison; I condemn him to keep 
his place.’ (Much laughter.) They took the 
government with its engagements. They un¬ 
dertook a measure of reform, and they will be 
flinching from their duty to the Crown and the 
country if, in consequence of such a vote as 
that proposed by my noble friend, they fling up 
their places, and throw upon us the difficulty of 
dealing with this subject. (Hear! and a laugh.) 
In ordinary cases, I am quite ready to admit, 
when a question arises out of the contests of 
two political parties—when that question is 
one, for instance, relating to our foreign rela¬ 
tions—a question of peace or war, or one of 
general policy, with respect to which the Go¬ 
vernment and the majority of the House of 
Commons may disagree—it would be a per¬ 
fectly constitutional course for them to pursue 
to appeal to the country, and that the majority 
by whom their conduct happened to be cen¬ 
sured should afford them every facility in 
making that appeal; that, however, is not 
the present question. Is it right, I ask, that 
the Government should throw the British Con¬ 
stitution to be scrambled for and discussed 
upon every hustings throughout the country? 
(Cheers.) Is that the course which a Con¬ 
servative Administration thinks it its duty to 
pursue ? (Renewed cheers.) I do not believe, 
Sir, they would act so if they could ; and I 
believe they could not if they would.” 

26 .—Heard before the Master of the Rolls 
the case of Bradbury and Evans v. Dickens, 
being an action to restrain the popular novelist 
from announcing in his advertisements of All 
the Year Round that Household Words would 
be discontinued. Mr. Dickens consented in 
future advertisements to use the phrase “dis¬ 
continued by him.” 

23.—1,800/. subscribed at a meeting in 
Willis’s Rooms to liquidate the debt on the 
buildings of the London Mechanics’ Institu¬ 
tion in Southampton-row, and release Lord 
Brougham and other trustees from pecuniary 
responsibility. 

— In answer to a question by the Earl of 
Clarendon regarding Lord Cowley’s mission 
to Vienna, Lord Malmesbury said : “Unless 
some untoward and almost impossible accident 
should occur, we may hope that peace will not 
be broken, and that the Congress which will 
probably assemble at the end of next month 
will eventuate in those results which your Lord- 
ships and all Europe desire. ” 

— The body of the great anatomist, John 
Hunter, raised from its original resting-place 
in the church of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, 
was this day re-interred with honour in West¬ 
minster Abbey on the north side of the 
nave, between Wilkie and Ben Jonson. 

29 .—In the adjourned debate on the second 
reading of the Reform Bill, Mr. Gladstone, 
who opposed both the Bill and Lord John 
Russell’s resolution, made an appeal in favour 


of continuing the smaller boroughs. ‘ 11 Allow 
me,” he said, “in explanation of my meaning, 
to state the case of six men—Mr. Pelham, 
Lord Chatham, Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Can¬ 
ning, and Sir Robert Peel. Mr. Pelham 
entered this House for the borough of Seaford 
in 1719, at the age of twenty-two ; Lord Chat¬ 
ham entered it in 1735, for Old Sarum, at the 
age of twenty-six ; Mr. Fox in 1764, for Mid¬ 
hurst, at the age, I think, of twenty; Mr. Pitt 
in 1781, for Appleby, at the age of twenty- 
one; Mr. Canning in 1793, for Newport, at 
the age of twenty-two ; and Sir R. Peel in 
1809, for the City of Cashel, at the age of 
twenty-one. Now here are six men, every one 
of whom was a leader in this House. I take 
them because the youngest is older than the 
youngest of those who now sit here, and because 
the mention of their names can give rise to no 
personal feeling. Here are six men whom you 
cannot match out of the history of the British 
House of Commons for the hundred years 
which precede our own day. Every one of 
them was a leader in this House; almost every 
one of them was a Prime Minister. All of 
them entered Parliament for one of those 
boroughs where influence of different kinds 
prevailed. Every one of them might, if he had 
chosen, after giving proof of his powers in this 
House, have sat for any of the open consti¬ 
tuencies of the country ; and many of them did 
so. Mr. Pelham, after sitting for Seaford in 
one Parliament, represented Sussex for all the 
rest of his life. Lord Chatham never, I think, 
represented an open constituency. Mr. Fox, 
after sitting for Midhurst, became the chosen 
for Westminster. Mr. Pitt went from Appleby 
at a very early age to the University of Cam¬ 
bridge. Mr. Canning went from Newport to 
Liverpool, and Sir R. Peel from Cashel to 
the University of Oxford. Now, what was 
the case of Sir R. Peel ? The University, on 
account of a conscientious difference of opinion, 
refused the continuance of his services. They 
might have been lost to the British Parliament 
—at that moment at all events. But in West- 

bury he found an immediate refuge—for so 
it must be called: and he continued to sit 
for a small borough for the remainder of his 
life. Mr. Canning, in the same way, not 
losing but resigning the representation of Liver¬ 
pool, found it more conducive to the public 
business that he should become the represen¬ 
tative of a small borough for the rest of his 
days. What does this show ? It shows that 
small boroughs were the nursery-ground in 
which these men were educated—men who not 
only were destined to lead this House, to 
govern the country, to be the strength of 
England at home and its ornament abroad, 
but who likewise, when once they had an 
opportunity of proving their powers in this 
House, became the chosen of large consti¬ 
tuencies, and the favourites of the nation.” 

29 —Gavazzi riots in Galway. The lec¬ 
turer was obliged to take refuge in the police 
barracks. 


( 537 ) 











MARCH 


1859. 


APRIL 


30 . —Explosion at the powder works of 
Curtis and Harvey, Hounslow. Of the press- 
house, where the explosion originated, nothing 
remained to mark the site but a huge hole in 
the ground. Several men employed in the corn- 
ing-house were killed, the scattered fragments 
of their bodies being gathered together into a 
promiscuous heap to await a coroner’s inquest. 

31 . —Defeat of the Derby Ministry at the 
close of the debate on the second reading of 
the Government Reform Bill. The Chancellor 
of the Exchequer wound up with a speech of 
great vigour against Lord John Russell and 
his resolution. “ There was one quality,” he 
said, “which had rather marred than made 
his fortune—a sort of restlessness which will 
not brook that delay and that patience which 
are sometimes needed in our constitutional 
government for the conduct of public affairs. 
The moment that the noble lord is not in 
power he appears to me to live in an atmo¬ 
sphere of coalitions, combinations, coups d'etat, 
and cunning resolutions. (Cheers and a laugh.) 
An appropriation clause may happen to every 
man once in his life. But there is only one 
man living of whom it can be said that in 
1835 he overthrew the Government of Sir R. 
Peel upon an impracticable pretext; that in 
1852 he overthrew the Government of Lord 
Derby with an objectless coalition ; that in 
1855 he overthrew the Government of Lord 
Aberdeen by a personal coup d'itat; and that 
in 1857 he overthrew the Government of 
the member for Tiverton by a Parliamentary 
manoeuvre. (Cheers.) Now, I beg the noble 
lord at this moment to throw the vision of his 
memory back for an instant to the year 1852. 
He sat before me then the head of a mighty 
host. He drew the fatal arrow that was to 
destroy our Government. He succeeded. He 
destroyed in breathless haste the Government 
of Lord Derby: but did he destroy anything 
else ? Did he not destroy, also, the position of 
a great statesman ? Did he not destroy almost 
the great historic party of which he was once 
the proud and honoured chief? (Cheers.) The 
noble Lord does not sit opposite me now; but 
had he not hurried the catastrophe of 1852, and 
had he bided his time according to the periodic 
habit of our Constitution, he would have re¬ 
turned to these benches the head of that great 
party of whichhe was once the chief and greatest 
ornament. ... With regard to the more im¬ 
portant branch of foreign affairs, I can say 
truly, although we had an inheritance of trouble, 
and although, probably, during the period of 
our official existence we have had as many 
difficulties to contend with as could well fall to 
the lot of any Ministry—although during the 
last three months the question of peace or war 
has sometimes appeared to be that only of a 
moment—still we have so managed affairs that 
all immediate dangers seem to have vanished, 
and there is a prospect of arrangements which, 
if concluded, will in my opinion lead to a per¬ 
manent and a happy peace. (Cheers.) I 
may be permitted to say, in answer to the 

( 538 ) 


noble lord, that, if in the course of time 
the present servants of the Queen find them¬ 
selves upon the hustings before their consti¬ 
tuents, I, for one, have that confidence in a 
great and generous nation, that I believe at 
such an hour they will not forget the difficulties 
under which we undertook the administration 
of affairs, nor perhaps be altogether unmindful 
of what, under such difficulties, we have ac¬ 
complished for their welfare. (Cheers.) It is 
by our conviction in the justice of the people 
of England, it is because we believe in the 
power of public opinion, that we have been 
sustained in this House during our arduous 
struggle, and are sustained even at this moment 
amid all the manoeuvres of parliamentary in¬ 
trigue and all the machinations of party war¬ 
fare.” It was a quarter to one o’clock when 
the House proceeded to a division amid a 
scene of intense excitement. The numbers 
were—for the second reading of the bill, 291 ; 
for Lord John Russell’s resolution, 330 : ma¬ 
jority against Ministers, 39. As the numbers 
were announced, the House rang with a tri¬ 
umphant shout from the Opposition. After a 
short irregular discussion on an amendment 
regarding the ballot, which Mr. Wyld sought 
to push to a division against the wishes of 
many friends of the measure, the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer said, “ It will perhaps be con¬ 
venient to know that I shall propose that this 
House at its rising do adjourn until Monday.” 

April 1. — At the Liverpool Assizes, 
James William Mitchell, engineer, was sen¬ 
tenced to fifteen years’ penal servitude for 
causing the death of Lauder, a stoker or. 
board the Bogota steamer, trading between 
Panama and Valparaiso, in so far as he had 
assisted the chief engineer (not in custody) in 
confining the unfortunate man in the stoke¬ 
hole, where he was literally roasted to death ; 
the horrid fact being seen and heard by many 
of the crew. 

— The lions’van of Womb well’s menagerie 
upset in a storm at Holywell, North Wales. 
The exhibitor and three boys killed. 

4 -.—Intimation made in both Houses of 
Parliament, that in consequence of the defeat 
sustained on the Reform Bill, on Tuesday 
night, the Ministry had resolved on advising 
an appeal to the country. The necessary 
measures would, therefore, be proceeded with 
as early as possible in anticipation of a disso¬ 
lution. Lord Derby said, it was not upon this 
or that measure of reform the appeal was to 
be made ; for after the vote in question the 
Government felt themselves at perfect liberty 
to reconsider the whole question without pre¬ 
judice. “We appeal to the people whether, 
as lovers of fair dealing and plain and straight¬ 
forward conduct in public men, they will 
sanction the overthrow of a Ministry who, in 
honourably endeavouring to discharge their 
duty, have fallen, not in pursuance of a differ¬ 
ence of opinion brought forward in fair Par- 





APRIL 


1859. 


APRIL 


liamentary conflict, but who have been over¬ 
thrown in consequence of the success—the un¬ 
deserved, but I will not call it the unanticipated 
success—of what I must be permitted to term 
an ingenious manoeuvre.’’—Speaking of the 
Reform question, the Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer said : “ There is the Conservative 

view of the question, and there is—not to use 
the epithet in the least degree offensively—the 
revolutionary view of the question. That 
is to say, there is that Conservative view 
which, in any change that it recommends, 
would wish to preserve and maintain the pre¬ 
sent character of the House of Commons, 
which is a representation of the various interests 
and classes of the country ; and there is that 
revolutionary view which would attempt to 
alter the character of the House of Commons, 
and make it a representation merely of the 
voice of a numerical majority.” Reserving to 
the Government to deal hereafter with this 
question as it thought fit, Mr. Disraeli thought 
at present it had fulfilled its pledge at great 
personal and party sacrifices, and he would 
not enter into any further specific engagements 
on that head. 

6 .—Twenty-six lives lost in the Mair Col¬ 
liery, Neath, by an irruption of water into 
the workings. 

9.—The Times publishes an alarming tele¬ 
gram, dated Vienna, last night. “The long- 
expected crisis is at hand. A corps of 50,000 
men goes from this city to Italy to-morrow and 
on following days. Another corps of 60,000 
men is to be assembled here. A reserve 
corps of 70,000 men will be placed in Bo¬ 
hemia and Moravia. The reserves of the army 
in Italy and of the army corps about to leave 
this city have been called in.” Though the 
intelligence was received with suspicion, it was 
known that events were transpiring, which in 
all likelihood would make it only premature. 
Consols fell from 95^ to 94^. 

— Professor Czermak, of Pesth, exhibits his 
newly invented laryngoscope to the Medical 
Society of Vienna. 

— Died at Calcutta, whither he had been 
conveyed a prisoner after the capture of Canton, 
the Chinese mandarin Yeh. 

11.—At Ramsgate, near the Dumpton-stairs, 
the naked body of a man was discovered, under 
circumstances leading to the belief that a cruel 
murder had been committed. The left hand 
was cut off at the wrist, the four fingers were 
cut off from the right hand, the ring finger was 
cut off between the first and second joints, and 
in the breast was a deep stab, the immediate 
cause of death. The inquiries before the 
coroner made it more than probable that the 
deceased had committed suicide, and destroyed 
his clothing, ring, carpet-bag, and all other 
articles on his person which could be traced, 
for the purpose of avoiding identification. 
Evidence was adduced to show that he was 
probably a Dutchman named Matterig. 


12 . —The Queen in Council orders the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury to prepare a form ol 
prayer and thanksgiving for the constant and 
signal success obtained by the troops in India, 
whereby the blessings of tranquillity and order 
had been restored to her Majesty’s subjects in 
the East. 

— Meeting at Willis’s Rooms, in support of 
the Drinking Fountains movement. The first 
in the metropolis was erected on the 21st, near 
the comer of St. .Sepulchre’s churchyard, at 
the expense of S. Gurney, M.P. 

13 . —David Ritchie, secretary to the Com¬ 
mittee of the Treasury at the Bank of England, 
killed in King William-street, by a cask of 
wine falling on him from the top of a loaded 
waggon. 

— Died, aged 76, Lady Morgan, novelist. 

14 . —Don Arrom de Ayala, Spanish consul 
for Australia, commits suicide by discharging 
the contents of a pistol through his head in Blen¬ 
heim Park. ‘ ‘ My Lord, ” he writes to the Duke 
of Marlborough, in a letter found on the body, 
“ I humbly ask your Lordship’s pardon and for¬ 
giveness, for the great liberty I have taken in 
coming to put an end to my dreary and miser¬ 
able existence in your park. It may be a child¬ 
ish feeling, but one cannot blow his brains out 
in a common road, on one of these cultivated 
fields full of cottages, and life, and civilization, 
and railways, and establishments of all kinds, 
of which your blessed country of England 
abounds. So I have not found another proper 
place to die decently than your handsome park, 
and you must bear the inconvenience of a dead 
man in your grounds. I mean no offence. I have 
yesterday visited your house, hoping that the 
sight of good things, and chiefly good paintings, 
would do me good, and soften the wild ideas 
that had led me to put an end to my life ; but 
all of no use. Your manor is one of the most 
noble, splendid things I ever saw in my life, and 
I have travelled about and seen everything 
worth seeing. You have the finest Rubens that 
can be seen : that should have a great attraction 
for me under other circumstances, but now they 
have been of no use ! ” 

— The thanks of both Houses of Parliament 
voted to the various civil functionaries, and 
to the army in every rank, native and Eu¬ 
ropean, for the eminent skill, courage, and 
perseverance during the military operations by 
which the late insurrection in India had been 
effectually suppressed. 

15 .—Explosion of a boiler at Edwards’ 
Spinning Mill, Scouringburn, Dundee, occa¬ 
sioning the loss of nineteen lives, and serious 
injury to fourteen others, besides the damage 
to property. Most of those killed were either 
scalded to death or crushed by the falling 
material. At the moment of the explosion 
the entire building above the boiler per¬ 
ceptibly rose into the air, and fell down a 
mass of ruins to the ground. 

— Oxford and Cambridge boat-race on 

(539) 







APRIL 


APRIL 


1 859. 


the Thames at Putney, won by Oxford; the 
Cambridge boat swamped by a steamer. 

16 .—Died at Cannes, aged 53 > Alexis 
Charles Henry de Tocqueville, a writer of 
deserved authority on the principles of political 
government. 

18 . —Tantia Topee, the only Indian rebel 
who had gained a name for generalship in the 
field, hanged at Sepree, in terms of the finding 
of a court-martial. 

— Discussion in the House of Lords on 
the present state of Europe. Lord Malmes¬ 
bury stated that Government had endeavoured 
to mediate between France and Austria, by 
sending Lord Cowley on a special mission to 
Vienna. On hi^ return he found that nego¬ 
tiations had been going on between France 
and Russia during his absence, the conse¬ 
quence of which was a proposal from Russia 
that a Congress of the five great Powers should 
be held. Her Majesty’s Government accepted 
this ; but difficulties arose, which existed up to 
this time, regarding the composition of the 
Congress and the disarmament of the antago¬ 
nistic Powers. The Government regretted that 
their efforts had not been more successful in 
averting a war, which would be no common 
one, but a theatre for every wild theorist 
and unprincipled adventurer. The discussion 
turned chiefly on the position taken up by 
Sardinia in the contest. “ England,” said the 
Earl of Derby, ‘ ‘ is deeply interested in the 
maintenance of peace. She is prepared to 
make almost any sacrifice for that object; but, 
in the interest of peace, she cannot assume a 
position which would place her in a helpless 
and defenceless condition ; and if a war broke 
out, whatever be the consequences, our 
neutrality, as long as it may last, must to a 
certain extent be an armed neutrality, enabling 
us to take our part on that side, whatever it 
may be, which the honour, the interests, and 
the dignity of the country may indicate as 
deserving our support.” 

19 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
The official notice by which Parliament was 
dissolved appeared in the Gazette on the 23rd. 
The writs for new elections were also issued on 
the same day. 

20 . —Meeting at Rochdale to promote the 
return of Mr. Cobden, then absent on private 
business in America. Mr. Bright spoke vigo¬ 
rously on behalf of his friend. 

— Election addresses. Lord John Russell 
wrote to the electors of London, that if returned 
again it would be his endeavour to procure 
the immediate enactment of a sound, moderate, 
and constitutional measure of Reform. “In 
all that I have said I have refrained from 
attributing unworthy motives to the Ministry. 
The tendency of measures we can discuss ; the 
motives which inspire them we cannot. To 
accuse men in power of clinging to office, and 
men out of power of seeking place, is the com¬ 
mon language of all times. It is difficult to 
( 540 ) 


be sagacious and clear-sighted ; it is easy to 
be suspicious and uncharitable.” To the 
electors of Tiverton Lord Palmerston said, 
the question was whether the bill proposed bv 
the Government was a good or a bad bill. 
Noticing the plea urged on behalf of Govern¬ 
ment that it was desirable they should hold 
office during the delicate negotiations now 
going on with continental Powers, his Lord- 
ship wrote : “ A Government to be listened to 
with deference abroad ought to have strength 
and stability at home. But the * present 
Administration exhibits itself to Europe at the 
outset of an approaching Congress as having an 
irreconcilable difference with Parliament, of 
whose assistance it will have deprived itself 
during what may be a critical period of the 
negotiation. ” «. 

21.—Threatened rupture between Franee and 
Austria. The Duke of Malakhoff (Pelissier) 
writes from the French Embassy, London, 
at 8 this morning, to the Earl of Malmes¬ 
bury : “It has become impossible to under¬ 
stand the proceedings of Austria. A despatch, 
which left Paris half an hour after midnight, 
reached me this morning before five o’clock. 

I did not wish to have you awoke, and I 
transmit it to you at a rather moi'e convenient 
hour. ‘ Austria has just addressed a summons 
to Sardinia. Count Buol having communi¬ 
cated it to the English Minister, you will 
know its exact terms through Lord Malmes¬ 
bury. To answer in such a manner the me¬ 
diating proposition of England, accepted by 
France, Russia, and Prussia, is to take the 
whole responsibility of the war. I hope that 
the Cabinet of London will look upon it in 
this light Report to me what they think of 
it. Public opinion in England will stigmatize, 

I hope, the conduct of Austria in this circum¬ 
stance.’ I shall have the honour of waiting upon 
you, my dear Count, as soon as you express 
the wish.” Lord Malmesbury writes on the 
same day to Lord A. Loftus at Vienna : “ A 
meeting of the Cabinet was held as soon as 
possible after the receipt of your lordship’s 
telegram of yesterday afternoon, announcing 
that a summons to Sardinia to disarm had 
been despatched from Vienna in the previous 
night; and, on its breaking up, I desired your 
lordship, by telegraph, to acquaint Count 
Buol that her Majesty’s confidential servants 
had determined to protest, in the strongest 
manner, against the step taken by Austria, 
which they looked upon as inevitably in¬ 
volving the early breaking out of war in Italy. 
By this precipitate step the Cabinet of Vienna 
forfeits all claim upon the support or sympathy 
of England, whatever may be the consequences 
that may ensue from it; and her Majesty’s 
Government see only one means of averting 
the calamities with which Europe is threatened. 
That result might possibly be attained, if the 
Austrian Government would declare its readi¬ 
ness to act on the principle to which the Pleni¬ 
potentiaries acceded in the Conferences of Paris 
of 1856; and her Majesty’s Government still 









APRIL 


APRIL 


1859. 


cherish the hope that Austria may even now 
be induced, according to the terms of the 23d 
Protocol of the 14th of April, to refer her 
differences with other Powers to the friendly 
mediation of an impartial and disinterested ally.” 

23 .—Baron de Kellersberg arrives at Turin 
with a summons from the Austrian Govern¬ 
ment calling upon Sardinia to disarm, under 
the threat of immediate hostilities if she re¬ 
fused to comply. To this peremptory demand 
Count Cavour transmitted, on the 25th of 
April, a reply to Count Buol, at Vienna, in 
which he said : “The question of the dis¬ 
armament of Sardinia, which constitutes the 
groundwork of the demand which your Ex¬ 
cellency addresses to me, has been the subject 
of numerous negotiations between the great 
Powers and the Government of his Majesty. 
These negotiations have ended in a proposition 
made by England, to which France, Prussia, 
and Russia have adhered. Sardinia, in a 
spirit of conciliation, accepted it without re¬ 
serve or arriere pensie. As your Excellency 
cannot be ignorant either of the proposition 
of England or of the reply of Sardinia, I 
could not add anything to make known to you 
the intentions of the Government of the King 
as regards the difficulties which might prevent 
the meeting of the Congress. The conduct of 
Sardinia in these circumstances has been ap¬ 
preciated by Europe. Whatever may be the 
consequences it may lead to, the King, my 
august master, is convinced that the responsi¬ 
bility will fall upon those who were the first 
to arm, who refused the propositions made by 
a great Power, and deemed just and reason¬ 
able by the others, and who now substitute a 
threatening summons in their stead.” The 
next day, King Victor Emmanuel issued a pro¬ 
clamation to his troops:—“Soldiers! Austria 
is increasing her armies on our frontier, and 
threatens to invade our territory, because here 
liberty reigns with order, because not might, 
but concord and affection between the people 
and the Sovereign here govern the State, be¬ 
cause the groans of oppressed Italy here find 
an echo: and Austria dares to ask us, who are 
armed only in self-defence, to lay down our 
arms and submit to her clemency. That insult¬ 
ing demand has received the reply it deserved : 
I rejected it with contempt. Soldiers, I tell 
you this, because I know that you will take an 
insult to your king and to your nation as an 
insult to yourselves. The announcement I 
make to you is the announcement of war ! 
Soldiers, to arms ! ” 

— The French army of Italy leaves Paris to 
aid the Sardinians, disembarking at Genoa on 
the 25th. 

26 . — Austria commences hostilities by 
moving her army across the Ticino into Pied¬ 
montese territory. 

27 . —Revolutionary outbreak at Florence, 
and flight of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. A 
provisional government administered the affairs 
of the duchy till the nth of May, when a 


Commissioner was appointed by the King of 
Sardinia, w ith the approbation of the Tuscan 
people. 

27 .—Intelligence from Vienna that France 
and Russia had agreed upon the terms of a treaty 
offensive and defensive. A third edition of the 
Times announced, “ The British Government 
has offered its direct mediation between Austria 
and France upon the basis of Lord Cowley’s 
proposals. Austria, having accepted this offer, 
has postponed the declaration of war for a day 
or two. The French troops are now crowding 
into Sardinia.” The Times added, from another 
source, “France has declined the offer made 
by the British Government.” 

23 .—The Emperor of Austria issues a pro¬ 
clamation announcing his intention to invade 
Sardinia, “to put a stop to the hostile acts 
which for a series of years have been com¬ 
mitted against the indisputable rights of my 
Crown.” Count Buol wrote in defence of the 
step: “The possessions of Austria in Italy 
are guaranteed her by the very Powers which 
gave Genoa to Sardinia. Lombardy was, 
during many centuries, a fief of the German 
empire, and Venice was given to Austria in¬ 
stead of her Belgian provinces. Sardinia tells 
us that the real cause of the discontent of the 
inhabitants of Lombardy and Venice is the 
dominion of Austria on the Po and Adriatic. 
The right of Austria to Lombardy and Venice 
is irrefragable, and it will be defended against 
every attack. France, which long shared with 
Sardinia the moral responsibility of the sad 
state of things in Italy, now openly supports 
the revolutionary movement which has begun. 
The second French Empire is about to realize 
its long-cherished ideas, for the throned Power 
in Paris has informed the astonished world 
that ‘political wisdom’ will replace those treaties 
which have so long formed the basis of European 
international law. The traditions of the first 
Napoleon have been resuscitated, and Europe 
is not ignorant of the importance of the struggle 
which is about to begin.” 

— The Pomona emigrant vessel strikes on 
the Blackwater Bank, Wexford, the sea making 
a clean breach over her, and sweeping the pas¬ 
sengers off the decks. Of 409 persons on board 
only 23 were saved by launching the whale-boat. 
Most of those who perished met their end 
in the fore part of the ship, where their bodies 
were found in clusters after the vessel slipped 
off the rock. 

— Panic on the Stock Exchange, caused 
by the warlike preparations in France and 
Austria, the first-named Power proposing to 
raise a loan of 20,000,000/., and the second 
of 6,600,000/. There was a fall of 6 per cent, 
in English Stock, and of from 8 to 20 per cent, 
in Foreign Stock. Consols, which at the 
opening of the week were 93!, fell to-day 
(Thursday) to 88£ ; Exchequer Bills, from 35.r. 
to 5^. prem. It was calculated that witl in 
twenty-four hours the depreciation in the 

(540 









APRIL 


1859. 


MAY 


value of stock and shares amounted to 
50,000,000/. On Wednesday seven heavy 
failures were announced, to-day eighteen, and 
next day nineteen. The Bank advanced the 
rate of interest from 2\ to 34 per cent., and 
next week to 44 per cent. Within ten days 
confidence was in a great measure restored, it 
being then made known that this country did 
not intend to take any part in the contest in 
Italy, and that the French loan was likely to 
be all taken up in France. 

23 .—Sir Moses Montefiore obtains an inter¬ 
view with Cardinal Antonelli on the subject of 
the Jewish youth Mortara, who in June last 
had been removed by priests from the dwelling 
of his father, at Bologna, and placed beyond 
paternal control. The plea for this proceeding 
was, that the child had been secretly baptized 
some years previously; but, on the other side, 
relatives alleged that, if the ceremony had ever 
been gone through at all, it must have been by 
an illiterate servant who was herself only about 
fourteen years of age, and was otherwise done 
under circumstances which rendered such cere¬ 
mony invalid and illegal by the laws of the 
Pontifical Government. Sir Moses was unsuc¬ 
cessful in his mission. 

29 . —The Austrians cross into Sardinian 
territory, and Victor Emmanuel places himself 
at the head of his army. 

— Died at Naples, aged 66, Dr. Dionysius 
Lardner, natural philosopher. 

30 . —Few of the elections during this month 
excited more than a local interest. At Carlisle, 
Sir James Graham, in reply to the taunt of 
being a “ weathercock, ” said: “No Church- 
rates shall be levied in Carlisle on my account, 
even to place me on the top of a church steeple. 
But there is a place which I am anxious to 
occupy, and it is for you to say whether that 
shall be or not. The place I desire to occupy 
is at the top of the poll; and by the weather¬ 
cock at Carlisle, when we come here on the 
day of election, when the hustings are open 
and the poll is closed, we shall then see which 
way the wind blows, and whether the weather¬ 
cock is placed at the top of the poll or not.”— 
Lord Stanley was proposed by the Conserva¬ 
tives for London, but withdrawn early. Mr. 
B. Osborne was defeated at Dover by the Con¬ 
servative Sir H. Lush, of the Admiralty; and 
Mr. Hudson, at Sunderland, by Mr. Lindsay. 
At Birmingham, the Conservative candidate, 
T. D. Acland, could not obtain a hearing, and 
polled only a third of the votes given to Bright 
and Scholefield. At Tiverton, Lord Palmerston 
reviewed the policy of the Government as a 
mediating Power, and censured them for defe¬ 
rence shown to Austria. At Aylesbury, Mr. 
Disraeli described the war as arising out of the 
present condition of Italy, and stated that, 
though the policy of England was one of peace, 
it was of the utmost importance she should be 
prepared for war. He believed the result of 
the elections would be a considerable gain to 

(542) 


the Ministry. The final result showed that 
they won twenty-five seats. 

May 1.—In consequence of an outbreak 
among the Sardinian Annexationists, the 
Duchess Regent of Parma is compelled to 
withdraw from her capital. She returned in a 
few days, and issued a proclamation to her 
subjects; but the complications which arose 
were so serious, that she was once more com¬ 
pelled to retire to neutral territory to await the 
issue of the war. 

— General thanksgiving for the restoration 
of tranquillity to India. 

2 . —Died at Edinburgh, the Very Rev. John 
Lee, D.D., Principal of the University. 

3 . —The Albert Bridge, at Saltash, designed 
by Brunei to carry the Cornwall Railway across 
the Tamar, opened by Prince Albert. It em¬ 
braces within the two spans a distance of 2,240 
feet, and is of a height sufficient to permit the 
largest vessels to sail beneath it without any 
impediment in the highest tides. 

— The French Emperor directs a commu¬ 
nication to be made to the Corps Legislatif 
announcing the commencement of war with 
Austria. “ That country,” he said, “ in caus¬ 
ing her army to enter the territories of the 
King of Sardinia, our ally, declares war against 
us. She thus violates treaties and justice, and 
menaces our frontiers. All the great Powers 
have protested against this aggression. Pied¬ 
mont having accepted the conditions which 
ought to have ensured peace, one asks, What 
can be the reason of this sudden invasion ? It 
is that Austria has brought matters to this 
extremity, that she must either rule up to the 
Alps, or Italy must be free to the shores of the 
Adriatic; for in this country every comer of 
territory which remains independent endangers 
her power. Hitherto moderation has been the 
rule of my conduct; now energy becomes my 
first duty. Let France arm, and resolutely 
tell Europe, ‘I desire not conquest, but I 
desire firmly to maintain my national and tra¬ 
ditional policy. I observe the treaties on con¬ 
dition that no one shall violate them against 
me. I respect the territories and the rights of 
neutral Powers, but I boldly avow my sym¬ 
pathies for a people whose history is mingled 
with our own, and who groan under foreign 
oppression. * ” 

4 . —The Foreign Secretary (Earl Malmes¬ 
bury) issues a circular to her Majesty’s ministers 
abroad, instructing them as to our position in 
the probable conflict between France and Sar¬ 
dinia, on the one side, and Austria on the other. 
“The negotiations turned generally on two 
points: the one relating to disarmament, the 
other to the admission of the Italian States, in 
some form or other, to the proposed Congress. 
The Cabinet of Vienna insisted, at first, as 
an indispensable condition to its entry into the 
Congress, that Sardinia should, in the first 
instance, disarm and disband the free corps 




MAY 


MA Y 


1S59. 


which she had enrolled ; but it finally acqui¬ 
esced, with some modifications, in a proposal 
made by her Majesty’s Government, and 
declared it would be contented if a general dis¬ 
armament were carried out by Austria, France, 
and Sardinia, previously to the meeting of 
Congress. The Government of France was 
prevailed upon to admit, for itself, the principle 
of a general disarmament; but it hesitated for 
a long time before it consented to press the 
acceptance of it on Sardinia; and at length only 
agreed to do so on condition that the Italian 
States should be admitted to send representa¬ 
tives to the Congress, not simply as advocates 
but as plenipotentiaries, having an equal position 
and voice with the plenipotentiaries of the 
great Powers in the deliberations that might 
ensue. The refusal of Austria to accept the 
last proposal of her Majesty’s Government was 
accompanied, on her part, by a peremptory 
summons to Sardinia to disarm, and to disband 
the free corps. Her Majesty’s Government, 
on receiving this intelligence, addressed to the 
Cabinet of Vienna the strongest remonstrances 
on the impolicy of this proceeding, and directed 
her Majesty’s minister at that court to place 
on record a formal protest against it. This 
precipitate measure was the more to be re¬ 
gretted, inasmuch as the Cabinet of Turin, 
which had previously declined to comply with 
the combined representations of England and 
Prussia on the subject of disarmament, had 
announced, on the very day that the summons 
was despatched from Vienna, though the 
Austrian Government were unacquainted with 
the fact when the summons was despatched, 
that, as France had united with England in 
demanding the previous disarmament of Sar¬ 
dinia, the Cabinet of Turin, although foreseeing 
that such a measure might entail disagreeable 
consequences for the tranquillity of Italy, was 
disposed to submit to it. In this state of things, 
all hopes of accommodation seemed to be at 
an end: nevertheless her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment resolved to make one more attempt to 
stay hostilities ; and they accordingly formally 
tendered the mediation of England between 
Austria and France, for the settlement of the 
Italian question, on bases corresponding with 
the understanding arrived at between Lord 
Cowley and Count Buol, at Vienna. But this 
too failed; and her Majesty’s Government 
have only to lament the little success which has 
attended all their efforts, jointly with other 
Powers or singly, to avert the interruption of 
the general peace. In the present position of 
the contending parties, it would obviously be 
to no purpose to attempt to restrain them from 
engaging in a deadly struggle. Her Majesty’s 
Government will, however, watch the pro¬ 
gress of the war with the most anxious atten¬ 
tion, and will be ready to avail themselves of 
any opportunity that may arise for the exercise 
of their good offices in the cause of peace. It 
is their earnest desire and firm intention to 
observe the most scrupulous neutrality between 
the co^tending parties.” 


5 . —Died, aged 86, Prince Metternich, Aus¬ 
trian diplomatist. 

6. —Died, aged 92, Alexander von Hum¬ 
boldt, a natural philosopher of vast attainments 
and experience. 

IO.—The Emperor Napoleon quits Paris to 
join the army of Italy, having previously con¬ 
ferred the title of Regent on the Empress. He 
was met at Genoa by King Victor Emmanuel 
on the 13th. 

12 . —Notice issued from the War Office, 
sanctioning the formation of volunteer rifle- 
corps, under the provisions of the Act Geo. III. 
cap. 54, as well as of artillery corps in towns 
where there were forts or batteries. The 
movement for the formation of these corps 
spread with great rapidity throughout England 
and Scotland. 

— Government issue a declaration of neu¬ 
trality in the war about to commence between 
Italy and Austria. 

13 . —At the Central Criminal Court, Wagner 
and Bateman, pretending to carry on the 
business of law-stationers, in York-buildings, 
Adelphi, but in reality known to be chiefs of 
a gang of forgers, were sentenced to penal ser¬ 
vitude for life. Members of the gang of lesser 
standing were sentenced to terms of penal ser¬ 
vitude varying from 10 to 20 years. During 
the two years the gang was known to carry on 
its cunningly devised schemes, it was thought 
there had been obtained from bankers between 
8,000/. and 10,000/., while the cheques re¬ 
fused amounted to more than double that sum. 

— Fall of a scaffolding at the Westminster 
Palace Hotel. The workmen commenced as 
usual at 6 A. M. Many had ascended and were 
at work on the scaffoldings; some were on 
the stage laying their courses, others were 
ascending the ladders; when suddenly, without 
any apparent cause, the poles snapped like 
reeds, and the piles of timber and bricks fell 
with a tremendous crash to the ground, bear¬ 
ing with them the unfortunate labourers. Five 
were found quite, dead, two died after removal, 
and five others were conveyed to the hospital 
labouring under severe injuries. 

17 .—Meeting in the Sheldonian Theatre, 
Oxford, to take steps for organizing an Oxford 
and Cambridge Mission to Central Africa. 

20.—City Non-intervention meeting, pre¬ 
sided over by the Lord Mayor, and addressed 
by M. Kossuth. Other meetings of a similar 
character were held in different towns of the 
kingdom. 

— First engagement between the French 
and Austrian troops, at Montebello. The 
Emperor writes in his despatch to the Empress- 
Regent :—“A body of Austrians about 15,000 
strong attacked the advanced posts of the 
corps under Marshal Baraguay d’Hilliers, but 
were repulsed by General Forey’s division, 
which behaved admirably, and cleared the 
village of Montebello of the enemy after an 
obstinate fight of four hours. The Pied 

(543) 






MAY 


1859. 


JUNE 


montese cavalry, commanded by General Ger- 
may, fought with extraordinary energy. Two 
hundred prisoners were taken, including one 
colonel. The loss on the French side amounts 
to 500 killed and wounded. The Austrians 
have been retreating since yesterday evening.” 

21 . —In a review of Mr. Mill’s “ Essay on 
Liberty,” in Fraser's Magazine for April, 
Mr. Buckle brought serious charges against 
Mr. Justice Coleridge, for his conduct at the 
trial of Pooley, of Liskeard. (See July 30,1857.) 
The imputations were that Sir John Cole¬ 
ridge was acting in concert with others, and 
in particular with his own son, the counsel 
for the prosecution; that he had something 
to do with getting up the prosecution, and 
unduly favoured it, because it was instituted by 
clergymen with whose sentiments he agreed ; 
that he might have refused to put the law in 
force ; and that he acted as he did because the 
trial took place in an obscure town, and because 
the prisoner was poor and undefended. To all 
these charges Mr. J. D. Coleridge, the counsel 
concerned, gives now an unqualified denial, 
and shows that Mr. Buckle, instead of having 
investigated the case for himself, as he alleged, 
had been content to accept a one-sided state¬ 
ment prepared, in 1857, by Mr. Holyoake. 

22 . —Died at Naples, aged 49, Ferdinand 
II., King of Naples. 

25 .—Tuscany joins France and Sardinia 
against Austria. 

26 —-The Bishop of Aberdeen suspends 
Mr. Cheyne from the office of the ministry, he 
“ having received the first and second admoni¬ 
tions prescribed by the canon without evincing 
any regret for the ecclesiastical offences which 
he has committed.” 

23 . —Completion of the electric telegraph 
between Suez and Aden. Brigadier Coghlan, 
the political resident at Aden, sent a message 
to the Queen, intimating that her Majesty’s 
possessions at Aden were now in telegraphic 
communication with Egypt. The acknowledg¬ 
ment was received from Suez in less than five 
minutes. 

29 .—During a severe storm at Nottingham, 
Mr. Lowe, of the Beeston Observatory, found 
hailstones falling from I inch to i| inch in 
diameter, the average size of all he saw 
being half an inch. The shapes were most 
grotesque. 

31 .—Battle of Palestro. At seven o’clock 
A.M., 25,000 Austrians endeavoured to retake 
the position of Palestro. The King, command¬ 
ing the 4th Division in person, and General 
Cialdini, at the head of the 3d Regiment of 
Zouaves, resisted the attack for a consider¬ 
able time, and then, after having assumed the 
offensive, pursued the enemy, taking 1,000 of 
them prisoners, and capturing eight pieces of 
cannon. During the combat at Palestro, 
another fight took place at Confienza, in which 
the Austrians were repulsed by the Fanti Divi¬ 
sion after a two hours’ conflict. 

U 44 ) 


31 .—The new Parliament assemble in the 
Palace at Westminster, and re-elect John 
Evelyn Denison, Esq., to be Speaker. 

June 2.—Burning of the troop-ship Eastern 
Monarch at anchor, Spithead. She was return¬ 
ing from India with 352 invalid soldiers, 30 
women, and 53 children on board, besides her 
officers and crew. The latter were engaged 
in the task of furling the sails, when a violent 
explosion was heard in the after part of the 
ship. The skylights over the poop were 
blown out, and the poop-ladders carried away. 
In a moment the whole decks were filled with 
a choking vapour, and the flames burst out, 
running like wild-fire along the deck. It was 
seen in a few minutes that it would be impos¬ 
sible to save the ship ; the four boats were 
then lowered down, and mainly through the 
aid of the disciplined soldiers, the whole of the 
women and children were passed down the 
sides. Such was the fortitude and humanity 
of these men, that the loss of life amounted to 
no more than one woman and five children, 
killed or suffocated in the explosion, one 
soldier who died from exhaustion after he was 
brought on shore, and one child. Assistance 
presently reached the vessel from Portsmouth, 
and all hands were taken off, the ship being 
towed into shallow water off Haslar Hospital, 
where she burnt to the water-edge. The 
cause of the explosion was said to be the care¬ 
lessness of the steward in entering the store¬ 
room with a naked light. He was afterwards 
tried for the offence and acquitted. 

A.—Battle of Magenta. ‘ ‘ Yesterday, ” writes 
the Emperor, “ our army was under orders to 
march on Milan across the bridges thrown 
across the Ticino at Turbigo. The operation 
was well executed, although the enemy, who 
had repassed the Ticino in great force, offered 
a most determined resistance. The roadways 
were narrow, and for two hours the Imperial 
Guard sustained unsupported the shock of the 
enemy. In the meantime General McMahon 
made himself master of Magenta. After 
sanguinary conflicts we repulsed the enemy 
at every point, with loss on our side of about 
2,000 men placed hors de combat. The loss of 
the enemy is estimated at 15,000 killed and 
wounded.” The Austrian news to the 5th was 
of an undecided character. The conflict was 
then represented as still going on. “ Eye-wit¬ 
nesses,” says the imperial bulletin, “ report 
that our troops join battle with joyous shout, 
and display endurance and bravery fully worthy 
of the most famous deeds of the imperial 
army.” 

^ 6.—Meeting of the Liberal party in Willis’s 
Rooms, to arrange an immediate vote of want 
of confidence in Ministers. Among the 
speakers were Lord Palmerston, Lord John 
Russell, Mr. Bright, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and 
Mr. Horsman. 

The swearing in of members being now 
completed, the new Parliament is formally 







JUNE 


JUNE 


iS59- 


opened by the Queen in person. The Royal 
Speech made reference to the war in Italy, 
where a policy of strict neutrality was to be 
observed, the renewal of diplomatic inter¬ 
course with Naples, and the increase of the 
navy to an extent exceeding that sanctioned by 
Parliament. On the subject of Parliamentary 
Reform her Majesty was made to say: “ I 

should with pleasure give my sanction to any 
well-considered measure for the amendment of 
the laws which regulate the representation of 
my people in Parliament; and should you be 
of opinion that the necessity of giving your 
immediate attention to measures of urgency 
relating to the defence and financial condition 
of the country will not leave you sufficient 
time for legislating with due deliberation 
during the present session on a subject at 
once so difficult and extensive, I trust that at 
the commencement of the next session your 
earnest attention will be given to a question 
of which an early and satisfactory settlement 
would be greatly to the public advantage.” 

7 . —Commencement of a No-confidence 
debate in the House of Commons. On the 
motion for the Address, the Marquis of Hart- 
ington moved : “ That it is essential for the 
satisfactory result of our deliberations, and for 
facilitating the discharge of your Majesty’s high 
functions, that your Majesty’s Government 
should possess the confidence of this Plouse 
and of the country ; and we deem it our duty 
respectfully to submit to your Majesty that 
such confidence is not reposed in the present 
advisers of your Majesty.” The Chancellor 
of the Exchequer admitted that it would be 
advantageous to the country to know whether 
they possessed the confidence of the House or 
not. Defending the conduct of the Govern¬ 
ment after the vote on the resolution of Lord 
J. Russell, he commented with sarcastic 
severity on the speech of Sir James Graham 
at Carlisle, the reckless statements of which, 
at first reading, he professed to have attributed 
to the young gentleman whom Sir James 
was then introducing to the borough. 
“ When I read that charge upon the Minis¬ 
try which, I was told, was to be the basis 
of a vote of want of confidence, and which 
was made without the slightest foundation, 
and with a bitterness which seemed to me 
to be perfectly gratuitous, I naturally said, 
f Young men will be young men.’ Youth will 
be, as we all know, somewhat reckless in asser¬ 
tion ; and when we are juvenile and curly— 
(laughter)—one takes a pride in sarcasm and 
invective. (Laughter.) One feels some interest 
in a young relative of a distinguished member of 
this House ; and although the statements were 
not very agreeable to her Majesty’s Ministers, 
I felt that he was a chip of the old block. (Great 
laughter and cheers.) I felt—and I hope my 
colleagues shared in the sentiment—that when 
that young gentleman entered this House, he 
might, when gazing upon the venerable form 
and listening to the accents of benignant wis¬ 
dom that fell, and always fall, from the right hon. 

( 545 ) 


gentleman the member for Cailisle—(laughter) 
—he might learn how reckless assertion in time 
might mature into accuracy of statement— 
(laughter)—and how bitterness and invective, 
however organic, can be controlled by the vicis¬ 
situdes of a wise experience. (Laughter and 
cheers.) Yet the statements made in that speech 
of the right hon. gentleman have been circu¬ 
lated in every form, and for a time have been 
credited in every quarter in this country. . . . 
They have believed that the allowance to inn¬ 
keepers for the billeting of soldiers was 
absolutely increased at the arbitrary will of a 
War Minister in order to bribe the publicans 
to vote for Government candidates—(laughter) 
—though every gentleman in this House must 
be perfectly aware that their predecessors had 
passed the Act by which that increase of allow¬ 
ance was constitutionally made, and that the 
increase had been for some time in operation. 
The public did believe that barracks were built 
and contracts given, when contracts were never 
entered into and when barracks were never 
built. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) The public 
really did believe that my Lord Derby had sub¬ 
scribed—had boasted, to use the language of 
the right hon. gentleman, of having subscribed— 
20,000/. to a fund to manage the elections. (A 
laugh.) Lord Derby has treated that assertion 
with silent contempt. (Cheers.) All the other 
assertions made at the time have been answered 
in detail, and therefore I suppose he thought 
the time would come when he could leave it to 
me to say for him, what I do say now, that 
that statement was an impudent fabrication. 
(Loud and repeated cheers.) The conduct of 
foreign affairs was made another ground of 
censure on the Ministry. How could an opinion 
be formed before the papers were produced ? 
Was success to be the only test of ability in 
negotiations? Were there no unsuccessful ne¬ 
gotiations previous to the war with Russia? 
You had then Lord Aberdeen and Lord Claren¬ 
don, men of admirable ability and experience, 
to conduct your negotiations. But had you 
nobody else? (Laughter.) Why, there was 
the noble lord the member for Tiverton, 
who, like Coriolanus, showed his wounds yes¬ 
terday, and is an avowed candidate for power. 
He is of opinion—as some others are, too—that 
he has some knowledge of foreign affairs, and 
he takes every opportunity of intimating that 
he is the only man who can wage war or pre¬ 
serve peace. Lord Aberdeen and Lord Claren¬ 
don had the assistance of the member for 
Tiverton. I will say nothing of the noble 
lord the member for London, because his 
experience as Foreign Secretary is but limited. 
(Laughter.) Well, what did the member for 
Tiverton, and Lord Aberdeen, and Lord 
Clarendon do in the way of negotiation to 
prevent the war? Why, the shame of these 
negotiations is really not yet forgotten in 
England. (Cheers.) The State paper in 
Vienna is not yet entirely blotted out of the 
consciousness of the people of this country. 
(Loud cheers.) You had great advantages, and 

N N 





JUNE\ 


JUNE 


1859. 


you signally failed. You had a majority in 
Parliament, you had wise and experienced 
statesmen, you had a still greater stake to urge 
you to exertion and to increase your responsi¬ 
bility, and yet you were utterly discomfited. 
(Cheers.) You had something yet more than 
we had, with our poor means to preserve peace. 
You had an Opposition numerous and fairly 
ambitious, but in the midst of your negotiations 
that Opposition did not bring forward votes 
of want of confidence, nor propose cunning 
resolutions to embarrass the public service. 
(Loud cheers.) We aided you in your difficul¬ 
ties, and supported you heartily and truly. 
(Cheers, and a cry of ‘ No.’) Is there any 
one can murmur ‘ No ’ ? I defy any man to 
bring an instance during that war in which we 
brought forward a single motion to embarrass 
you ; and when by your general misgovemment 
and misconduct of the war there arose a public 
outciy which called for your fall, it was a 
member on your own side of the House who 
struck the blow, and it was by the votes of 
several members of the Liberal party that you 
were ejected from office. (Cheers.) .... I 
hardly know who are our rivals : still less do I 
know who are to be our successors. If it is 
the noble lord and his friends, I might con¬ 
trast his policy with ours, his failures with ours, 
and make out a case upon which the House 
might adjudicate. But then the noble lord— 
who lives not in the good old days of constitu¬ 
tional rivalry, but in the days of reconciled 
sections—(a laugh)—will tell the House, ‘You 
cannot judge of my resources by the gentlemen 
who are sitting near me ; others will come to 
my aid, and by their unquestioned abilities 
and their varied experience, and with the bright 
evidence of their triumphant careers, I shall 
form an Administration which will put you out 
as the glorious sun does a farthing rushlight— 
(laughter)—and the whole country will imme¬ 
diately see that they have a strong Govern¬ 
ment entitled to their confidence.’ (Cheers.) 
There is also the noble lord below the gang¬ 
way ;—let me look below the gangway. (Lord 
John Russell here took off his hat and bowed, 
amid great cheering and laughter.) I see there 
two of the most eminent members of this 
House, who have long and frequently been 
servants of the Crown, and who I know are 
taking a very active share in the proceedings 
out of the House. In the days of our youth 
Willis’s Rooms were managed by patronesses. 
(Laughter.) The distinguished assemblies that 
met within those walls were controlled by a 
due admixture of dowagers and youthful beau¬ 
ties—young reputations and worn celebrities— 
and it was at once the pride of sociely and the 
object of ambition for all to enter. (Laugh¬ 
ter.) Now Willis’s Rooms are under the 
direction of patrons, and there are two of those 
patrons below the gangway. (Laughter.) They 
are the noble lord the member for the City 
of London and the right hon. gentleman 
the member for North Wiltshire, who have 
signed the vouchers for the new contract. 

(546) 


(Laughter.) They are two of the most eminent 
statesmen who are to form this strong Govern¬ 
ment, before whose celebrity we are to be ex¬ 
tinguished. We have some experience of those 
great statesmen. We know how the noble 
lord conducts negotiations. (Laughter.) We 
know how the right hon. gentleman conducts 
war. (Laughter.) You say that we have failed 
in our negotiations, and that we cannot be 
trusted in the event of possible war. Will the 
noble lord and the right hon. gentleman help 
you much? (Cheers and laughter.) I cannot 
presume to pursue the research. ” 

7 . —The Austrians again defeated at Maieg- i 
nano. 

©.—The French Emperor and the King of 
Sardinia enter Milan amidst exhibitions of great i 
enthusiasm on the part of the people. 

9 .—In the adjourned debate on the No- 
confidence motion, Sir James Graham took 
occasion to reply to Mr. Disraeli’s strictures on 
his Carlisle speech, and in particular drew the 
Speaker’s attention to the use which kad been 
made of the phrase “ impudent fabrication.” 
Mr. Disraeli rose to order, and explained that 
those words were intended to apply to the 
authority quoted by Sir James, and not to the - 
honourable baronet himself. The Speaker ! 
also gave this as his impression of the sense in 
which the words were to be apprehended. The , 
member for Carlisle continued:—“Certainly, 
Sir, what the right honourable gentleman has 
said, confirmed by your high and unimpeach¬ 
able authority, is some satisfaction to my 
wounded feelings. (A laugh and cheers.) But 
the right hon. gentleman went on to remark ,j 
upon the mild influences of age, presenting in 
his own person a contradiction to the Horatian 
maxim, ‘ Lenit albescens anitnos capilltis; ’ be¬ 
cause he was an illustration of the fact that 
one might lose one’s curls and still retain one’s I 
taste for sarcasm. (Laughter and cheers.) I 
must say, Sir, on this occasion, that I had the j 
honour of a seat in the House when the right j 
hon. gentleman first took his place in it. I 
early, indeed immediately, recognised his great 
abilities, and without envy, without the 
slightest grudging, I have watched his rise to 
his present pre-eminence. But intemperate 1 
language in a position such as the right hon. • 
gentleman occupies is always a proof to me of 
a failing cause—(cheers)—and I regard that 
speech, and those expressions, as a happy . 
omen of the coming success of this motion. 1 
(Renewed cheers.) The right hon. gentleman j 
will pardon me if I express to him an opinion. . 
I regard him as the Red Indian of debate. ] 
(Laughter.) By the use of the tomahawk he 
has cut his way to power, and by a recurrence « 
to the scalping system he hopes to prevent the 
loss of it. (Cheers and laughter.) When the 1 
right hon. gentleman uses towards one who ‘ 
offered him no offence—(oh, oh,)—language , 
of the tone and character which he has applied 
to ine, I say this, that I was astonished by the 
rudeness of the assault—(oh, oh, and cheers) 











TUNE 


1859. 


JUNE 


—but I readily forgive it on account of the feel¬ 
ing of anger and of disappointment at blighted 
hopes by which it was dictated. (Oh, oh, 
and cheers.) 

* Nunc ad te, et tua magna, Pater, consulta revertor.’ ” 

9 . —The House of Lords pronounce a deci¬ 
sion in the great Thellusson will case, which 
had been litigated for the long period of sixty- 
one years, at an expense which frustrated the 
design of the testator to accumulate a series 
of colossal fortunes for remote descendants. 
When the case was being argued before the 
Leers, the following questions, by the ad¬ 
vice of the Lord Chancellor, were put to 
the learned judges who sat as assessors :— 
First. Whether the devise by the testator of 
his lands, tenements, and hereditaments, after 
the decease of the several persons during whose 
lives the rents and profits of the same were 
directed to be accumulated (if it had been a 
devise of legal estates), to the * eldest male 
lineal descendant then living of Peter Isaac 
Thellusson, and Charles Woodford Thellusson, 
and Charles Thellusson respectively, in tail 
male, is capable of an intelligent construction, 
or is void for uncertainty ? Second. If at the 
time directed by the testator for the division of 
the estates into three lots, and for the con¬ 
veyance to be made thereof, Peter Isaac Thel¬ 
lusson had had three sons, all of whom were 
dead, and the eldest of the three sons had left 
a son under age, and the second son had left 
a son 21 years of age, and the third son had 
left a son 30 years of age, and supposing it had 
been a devise of legal estates, which of the sons 
of the three sons would have been entitled to 
take under the devise? The learned Lords, 
having taken time to consider, delivered their 
several opinions. In answer to the first ques¬ 
tion, they were unanimous that the devise was 
capable of an intelligible construction. With 
regard to the second question, there was a 
diversity of opinion; but the majority con¬ 
curred in holding that the word “ eldest,” used 
in the will as descriptive of the person who is 
to take a lot as a purchaser, when the time of 
accumulation ceased, does not mean the oldest 
man among his male lineal descendants, but 
that the testator meant and intended that the 
person who would be heir-at-law of Peter 
Isaac in tail male should take one of the lots 
as purchaser, by the designation of his eldest 
male lineal descendant. The property thus fell 
to the surviving heir of the elder branch, Charles 
Thellusson. 

— In the Court of Common Pleas, the 
judges decide against the claim set up by the 
new Earl of Shrewsbury to the estates which 
had heretofore descended with the title. Ber¬ 
tram Arthur, the last Earl of Shrewsbury of 
the Roman Catholic line, conceiving himself 
to be relieved from the disabilities imposed by 
the conditions and limitations contained in the 
deeds before referred to, went through the 
legal form of “ suffering a recovery,” executed 
a disentailing deed, and by his will It vised his 

( 547 ) 


estates to trustees in trust for various persons, 
but chiefly for a younger son of the Duke of 
Norfolk. The Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot 
sought to recover the estates from the trustees 
by an action of ejectment in the Court of 
Common Pleas, asserting the subsistence and 
continuing validity of the restraints on aliena¬ 
tion imposed by the Parliamentary Settlement, 
and denying the validity of the act of the de¬ 
ceased earl. Since the proceedings on the 
claim to the earldom had established that Earl 
Talbot was the heir in tail male of the first 
earl, and therefore now Earl of Shrewsbury, 
the controversy was reduced to the legal ques¬ 
tion of the validity and effect of the several 
deeds and settlements referred to. A formal 
verdict was, therefore, taken for the plaintiff, 
with leave reserved to the defendants to move 
the court to enter the verdict for them if it 
should so appear to the court after cause 
shown. 

10. —Defeat of Lord Derby’s Ministry. On 
this the third evening of the debate on the 
amendment to the Address, a division took 
place showing a majority of 13 against the 
Government, in a House of 637, the largest 
recorded in any recent division. The re¬ 
maining members were thus accounted for: 
Speaker, I ; double return (Aylesbury), I ; 
vacant (Cork),, 1 ; absent Liberals, 10; absent 
Conservatives, 4: total, 654. The result was 
received with prolonged cheering by the Op¬ 
position. When it had somewhat subsided, 
Mr. Disraeli moved that the House at its rising 
adjourn to twelve o’clock on Saturday, by 
which time the Committee now to be appointed 
might be prepared with their report on the 
Address. After a scene of great excitement 
the House broke up about half-past 2 a. m. 

11 . —Repeatedly defeated with great loss in 
the open field, the Austrian force withdraws for 
protection within the Quadrilateral. 

12. —-The mail-steamer Alma wrecked on a 
reef forming part of the desolate Isle of 
Hamish, one day from Aden. The whole of 
the passengers and crew were conveyed to 
the island, where they suffered considerably 
for four days, till relieved by the war-steamer 
Cyclops. The India and China mail was saved, 
but the greater part of a valuable cargo and all 
the passengers’ luggage was destroyed. The 
certificate of Davies, the chief officer in charge, 
was suspended for a twelvemonth, the main 
charge against him being carelessness in failing 
to consult his chart. 

— Fire in Perth, destroying nearly the whole 
of Kinnoul-street and the south side of Union- 
street. * \ 

13 . —The rumours in connection with the 
formation of a new Ministry received an extra¬ 
ordinary addition to-day in the shape of a 
detailed account of the private interview, which 
had taken place on the afternoon of the 11th, 
between her . Majesty and Earl Granville. 
“Her Majesty,” it was said, “after listening 

N N 2 





JUNE 


JUNE 


1859. 


to all the objections which Lord Granville had 
to offer, commanded him to attempt to form 
an Administration, which should at once be 
strong in ability and parliamentary influence, 
and should at the same time comprehend within 
itself a full and fair representation of all the 
sections into which the Liberal party has noto¬ 
riously been divided. Feeling, probably, that 
it might be urged as an objection to this course 
that Lord Granville, who has never yet held 
the office of Prime Minister, would thus be 
placed in a position paramount to that occu¬ 
pied by Lord Palmerston and Lord John 
Russell, who had each filled the office of First 
Minister of the Crown, and led the Liberal 
party in the House of Commons, her Majesty 
was pleased to observe that she had, in the 
first instance, turned her thoughts towards 
Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell, each 
of whom had served her long and faithfully in 
many high offices of State. Pier Majesty felt, 
however, that to make so marked a distinction 
as is implied in the choice of one or other as 
a Prime Minister of two statesmen so full of 
years and honours, and possessing so just a 
claim on the consideration of the Queen, would 
be a very invidious and unwelcome task. Her 
Majesty also observed, that Lord John Russell 
and Lord Palmerston appeared to represent 
different sections of the Liberal party ; Lord 
Palmerston the more Conservative, and Lord 
John Russell the more popular section. Im¬ 
pressed with these difficulties, her Majesty cast 
her eyes upon Lord Granville, the acknow¬ 
ledged leader of the Liberal party in the House 
of Lords, in whom both Lord John Russell 
and Lord Palmerston had been in the habit of 
placing confidence, and who might have greater 
facilities for uniting the whole Liberal party 
under one Administration than could be en¬ 
joyed by either of the sectional leaders.” 

14 . —Diplomatic relations resumed with 
Naples by England and France. 

15 . —The Morning Herald , commenting on 

the Ministerial defeat, writes : “ Everything 

was done to influence waverers ; places were 
promised and rewards freely offered, which 
were, we fear, in many instances accepted. 
One case, more flagrant than the rest, demands 
notice. At the late election Mr. Digby Sey¬ 
mour was returned for Southampton by the 
aid of the Conservative electors, to whom he 
had pledged himself not to vote against the 
Derby Government on the question of No- 
confidence. In accordance with this pledge, 
Mr. Digby Seymour spoke on the first night of 
the debate in support of Ministers : yet his 
name figures in the list of the majority against 
the Government.” On Thursday, in conse¬ 
quence, Mr. Seymour applied to the Court of 
Queen’s Bench for a criminal information 
against the Herald for libel. He most em¬ 
phatically and unequivocally denied that he 
had been swayed as suggested ; adding, that 
he stated to the electors of Southampton he 
would give no “factious vote” against the 

(548) 


Derby Government ; and in the Blouse of 
Commons he said that he would vote for 
the Government unless some promise was 
given by the Liberal leaders that they were 
prepared to legislate upon Reform. That 
promise was afterwards given by Lord John 
Russell. Lord Campbell said Mr. .Seymour 
had had an opportunity of clearing him¬ 
self by his affidavit, and had done so ; he did 
not think it a case calling for a criminal infor¬ 
mation. In an after-dinner speech to his 
constituents at Southampton, on the 29th Sep¬ 
tember, Mr. Seymour explained that he had, 
on the 10th, sent a note to Sir W. Hay ter, 
asking for an explanation on certain points in 
Lord John Russell’s Reform scheme. He hap¬ 
pened to be absent when Lord John was 
addressing the House ; but, from the explana¬ 
tion he received, he was satisfied that his vote 
should be given to the Opposition. 

17 .—Mr. Gladstone writes to the Provost 
of Oriel with reference to his prospects of re- 
election for Oxford as a member of Lord Pal¬ 
merston’s Cabinet : “ Various differences of 

opinion, both on foreign and domestic matters, 
separated me, during great part of the Admi¬ 
nistration of Lord Palmerston, from a body 
of men with the majority of whom I had acted, 
and had acted in perfect harmony, under Lord 
Aberdeen. I promoted the vote of the House 
of Commons in February of last year which 
led to the downfall of that Ministry. Such 
having been the case, I thought it my clear 
duty to support, as far as I was able, the 
Government of Lord Derby. Accordingly, on 
the various occasions, during the existence of 
the late Parliament, when they were seriously 
threatened with danger or embarrassment, I 
found myself, like many other independent 
members, lending them such assistance as was 
in my power. And, although I could not 
concur in the late Reform Bill, and considered 
the dissolution to be singularly ill-advised, I 
still was unwilling to found on such disap¬ 
proval a vote in favour of the motion of Lord 
Hartington, which appeared to imply a course 
of previous opposition, and which has been the 
immediate cause of the change of Ministers. 
Under these circumstances it was, I think, 
manifest that, while I had not the smallest 
claim on the victorious party, my duty as 
towards the late advisers of the Crown had 
been fully discharged. Tt is hardly needful to 
say that, previously to the recent vote, there 
was no negotiation or understanding with me 
in regard to office; but when Lord Palmerston 
had undertaken to form a Cabinet, he ac¬ 
quainted me with his desire that I should join 
it. . . . With respect to Reform, I under¬ 
stood the counsels of Mr. Walpole and Mr. 
Henley, and I believe that if they had been 
followed the subject of Reform would in all 
likelihood have been settled at this date, with¬ 
out either a dissolution of Parliament or a 
change of Administration. But I have never 
understood the principles on which that subject 
has been managed since the schism in the late 









JUNE 


JUNE 


1859. 


Government. I also think it undeniable that the 
fact of the dissolution, together with the return 
of an adverse and now no longer indulgent ma¬ 
jority, rendered the settlement of this question 
by the late Ministers impossible. I therefore 
naturally turn to the hope of its being settled 
by a Cabinet mainly constituted and led by the 
men together with whom I was responsible for 
framing and proposing a Reform Bill in 1854. 
... I understand that misgiving exists with 
respect to my sitting in a Cabinet of which 
Mr. Gibson is a member, and which Mr. 
Cobden will be invited to join. The very 
same feelings were expressed, as I well re¬ 
collect, when the late Sir William Molesworth 
entered the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen. Sir 
William Molesworth never, to my knowledge, 
compromised his political independence ; and 
these apprehensions were, I think, not justified 
by the subsequent course of events. . . . Were 
1 permitted the mode of address usual upon 
elections, I should, after this preliminary ex¬ 
planation, proceed to submit with confidence 
to my constituents that, as their representative, 
I have acted according to the obligations which 
their choice and favour brought upon me, and 
that the Ministry which has thought fit to 
desire my co-operation is entitled in my person, 
as well as otherwise, to be exempt from con¬ 
demnation at the first moment of its existence. 
Its title to this extent is perhaps the more 
clear, because among its early as well as its 
very gravest duties will be the proposal of a 
Reform Bill which, if it be accepted by Par¬ 
liament, must lead after no long interval to a 
fresh general appeal to the people, and will 
thus afford a real opportunity of judging 
whether public men associated in the present 
Cabinet have or have not forfeited by that act, 
or by its legitimate consequences, any confi¬ 
dence of which they may previously have been 
thought worthy.” 

17 .—Lord Derby makes official announce¬ 
ment of the.resignation of the Ministry in the 
House of Lords. He pledged himself not only 
to abstain from any factious opposition, but to 
give his successors what support he could 
consistently with his duty to the country. Lord 
Derby was aware that the late Ministry had 
been overthrown, not on any one specific point, 
but on the broad grounds as to which party 
should hold office, and he was ready to abide 
by the result of the contest. He then referred 
to the report in the Times of the conversation 
between the Queen and Earl Granville, and 
expressed his surprise at the publication of 
matters of so confidential a character.—Earl 
Granville, in reply, said he had asked and 
obtained permission from her Majesty to state 
to his political friends the result of what oc¬ 
curred, but it was never intended it should be 
communicated to any newspaper, nor had he 
done so. At the same time he could not see 
that any injury had resulted from the publica¬ 
tion, seeing her Majesty appeared therein as 
desirous as ever of walking in the spirit of the 
Constitution.—Mr. Disraeli made a brief minis¬ 


terial statement in the House of Commons ; but 
as none of the new Ministers were present, not 
having undergone the ordeal of re-election, 
the discussion was comparatively tame. The 
House adjourned from time to time till the 
30th, when Lord Palmerston intimated that, 
having been entrusted by her Majesty to form 
a Ministry, he had succeeded in accomplishing 
the task, and the various offices were now filled 
up. Lord Granville also made in the course of 
the same evening such explanations as his nego¬ 
tiations made necessary. 

17 .—Warrant issued under the royal sign 
manual, dispensing with the forms of prayer 
hitherto used on the 5th November, 30th 
January, and 29th May. 

13 .—The Thames Police-court was occu¬ 
pied during the greater part of this day in 
granting summonses to Dr. John Godfrey 
against persons described as disorderly, who 
met nightly before his house in Mount-place, 
Whitechapel, and annoyed him by shouts and 
yells regarding his alleged familiarity with 
female patients, and in particular by referring 
to a case of libel against the East London 
Observer bearing on his alleged offence, in 
which case he had lately been defeated. 

20 .—First council of the new Cabinet held 
at the official residence of the First Lord of the 
Treasury, Downing-street. Among the Minis¬ 
ters present were Lord Palmerston ; Lord 
Campbell, Lord Chancellor ; Earl Granville, 
President of the Council ; Mr. Gladstone, Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer ; Lord John Russell, 
Foreign Secretary; Sir G. C. Lewis, Plome 
Secretary; Duke of Newcastle, Colonial 
Secretary ; Mr. Sidney Herbert, Secretary for 
War; Sir C. Wood, Indian Secretary ; Mr. 
Cardwell, Secretary for Ireland ; Sir George 
Grey, Duchy of Lancaster; and Mr. M. Gibson, 
Poor Law Board. Mr.- Cardwell was after¬ 
wards removed to the latter office, in room of 
Mr. Milner Gibson, who went to the Board of 
Trade in place of Mr. Cobden, who, though 
designated for this post, afterwards declined 
to join the Ministry. (See Table of Adminis¬ 
trations. ) 

— Commencement of the Handel Fes¬ 
tival, in commemoration of the centenary of 
his death, at the Crystal Palace. The central 
transept was converted into a vast music hall, 
360 feet long by 216 wide, containing an area 
of 77,000 square feet, exclusive of the increased 
auditorial space gained by the several tiers of 
galleries. The choir numbered 2,765, and 
the band 393 performers. The first day was 
devoted to the “ Messiah ; ” the second to 
the “ Dettingen Te Deurn,” with selections 
from “Saul,” “Samson,” “Belshazzar,” and 
“Judas Maccabaeus;” and the third, or closing 
day, to “Israel in Egypt.” On the first day 
there were present 17, i °9 hearers, on the 
second 18,000, and the third 26,826. The 
receipts of the three days were upwards of 
33,000/., and the expenses 18,000/. 

(549) 







JUNE 


JUL Y 


1859. 


20 . —Perugia captured by the Pontifical 
troops. 

21. —Sir Alexander Cockburn succeeds 
Lord Chancellor Campbell as Lord Chief 
Justice. 

2 - 4 .—Battle of Solferino. The Moniteur de¬ 
spatch says : “ The Austrians, who had crossed 
the Mincio for the purpose of attacking us 
with their whole army, have been compelled 
to abandon their positions and to withdraw to 
the left bank. They have blown up the bridge 
of Goito. We have taken thirty cannons, more 
than 7,000 prisoners, and three flags.” The 
number engaged on the side of the Allies was 
reported to be 145,000, of whom 16,800 were 
killed or wounded, and 350 taken prisoners. 
On the side of Austria 170,000 were engaged, 
of whom 21,000 were killed or wounded. 
The Austrian official account said : “In the 
afternoon a concentrated assault of the enemy 
was made upon the heroically-defended town 
of Solferino. Our right wing repulsed the 
Piedmontese; but, on the other hand, the 
order of our centre could not be restored. 
Losses extraordinarily heavy, a violent thunder¬ 
storm, the development of powerful masses 
of the enemy against our left wing, and the 
advance of his main body against Volta, caused 
our retreat, which began late in the evening.” 

25 .—In order to aid Mr. Bruce, who had 
been detained on his mission to Pekin, Ad¬ 
miral Hope makes an attempt to reduce the 
new forts at the mouth of the Peiho. Among 
the storming party on shore the casualties 
amounted to 252 killed and wounded; on 
board the gunboats 25 were killed and 93 
wounded. Two of the gunboats, the Plover 
and Lee , grounded, and fell into the hands of 
the enemy, and another, the Cormorant , was 
so damaged by the fire from the forts that 
she sank at her anchors. Prince San-ko-lin- 
sin immediately forwarded a despatch to the 
Emperor announcing this victory over the 
rebellious barbarians. “As the action,” he 
Writes, “ was about to commence, an officer 
with a communication from the Tautai of 
Tien-tsing was sent once more to warn them. 
The barbarians would not permit the letter 
to be handed in, and their vessels advancing 
like a swarm of bees right up to the second 
fort upon the southern bank, bore straight 
down upon the iron chains twice; but being 
all brought up by these, they opened fire upon 
our batteries. Our soldiers, pent in as their 
fury had been for a long time, could no longer 
be restrained ; the guns of every division, large 
and small, opened upon all sides, and at even¬ 
ing the fire had not ceased.” 

27 .—Nomination-day at Oxford University. 
Mr. Gladstone was proposed in a Latin speech 
by the Dean of Christ Church, and the Mar¬ 
quis of Chandos by the President of St. John’s. 
The polling commenced the same day, and 
continued till Friday the 31st, when the voting 
stood : Mr. Gladstone, 1,050; Marquis of 

(55°) 


Chandos, 859. Mr. Gladstone polled 28 moro 
votes than in 1853, and the Opposition 36 less 

2S.—The Galway Company’s steamer 
Argo wrecked near Trepassey Bay, Cape 
Race. The boats were got safely into the 
water, and conveyed the passengers to a cove 
about a mile off, without any loss of life, 
although they endured considerable hardships. 
In the afternoon the ship fell over, filled, and 
became a total wreck. The captain’s certifi¬ 
cate was suspended for six months. 

— Between Singapore and Bombay fifty 
pirates and twelve convicts burst from their 
confinement on board the Ararat, commanded 
by Captain Correya, and attempt to take pos¬ 
session of the ship by murdering the crew. 
Through the energy of the officers the bloody 
design was frustrated, and, with the exception 
of such as were shot in the engagement, or 
leaped overboard, the whole of the desperadoes 
were driven back to their hold. 

29 . — Marshal, Mortimer, and Eicke found 
guilty in the Court of Queen’s Bench of traf¬ 
ficking in the sale of army commissions. The 
indictment was laid at the instance of the 
Duke of Cambridge. 

30. —In explaining the policy of the new 
Government, Lord Palmerston said that, so far 
as foreign relations were concerned, ‘ ‘ the course 
which we intend to pursue is that which has 
been chalked out for us by those who preceded 
us—a strict neutrality in the contest which is 
now waging.” He promised a Reform Bill 
early next session. 

July 2.—The Gazette publishes the new 
statutes of nine of the Oxford colleges—All 
Souls, New, Balliol, Oriel, Trinity, Worcester, 
Wadham, Brasenose, and Jesus—as well as 
two ordinances of a partial character respect¬ 
ing the next election of Fellows at Magdalen 
and the establishment of a Linacre Professorship 
of Physiology at Merton. 

— Renewal of the controversy regarding the 
antiquity and genuineness of the manuscript 
emendations contained within Mr. Collier’s 
Shakspeare, or “Perkins Folio,” as it was 
called, of date 1623. The present possessor ot 
the volume, the Duke of Devonshire, having 
consented to place it in the hands of the 
Museum officials for a short time^ Mr. N. E. S. 
Hamilton, of the MS. Department, now 
writes to the Times that the emendations on 
the margin could not be older than the date 
of the present binding, which he thought 
might be about the middle of George the 
Second’s reign ; that a close examination 
showed the margin to be covered with half- 
obliterated pencil lings in the undisguised cur¬ 
rent hand of the present day, and that over these 
the imaginary ancient corrector had written 
in a hand of the seventeenth century the 
emendations which had made the Perkins 
Folio famous. As touching the good faith of 
Mr. Collier, subsidiary issues were also rais d 




JUL\ 


JULY 


**S9- 


regarding his alleged discovery of Shakspeare 
documents in the Ellesmere Collection and at 
Dulwich College, the originals of which either 
could not now be seen or did not show passages 
pretended to have been transcribed from them 
by Mr. Collier. Mr. Collier defended him¬ 
self from these imputations by describing the 
character and history of the disputed folio, 
showing that he had purchased it from Mr. 
Rodd in 1849 ; that, though not noticed by 
him for years afterwards, the emendations on the 
margin had been seen at the time by the Rev. 
Dr. Wellesley, New Inn Hall, Oxford (who now 
spoke to the fact); that they were also known 
to have been there by Mr. F. C. Parry, a 
former possessor of the volume ; that, so far as 
the modern pencillings were concerned, he 
was certain there were none in the folio 
prior to the time it passed from the Duke of 
Devonshire into the hands of the officials of the 
Museum; and finally, that the emendations 
were too valuable for any one concerned in 
them even as suggestions, to throw away the 
merits on any ancient anonymous writer. On 
the other points Mr. Collier defended himself 
by reference to documents yet accessible, and 
the testimony of critics who had been con¬ 
vinced of their genuineness after careful ex¬ 
amination. The Dulwich manuscripts, he 
averred, were in the condition he had described 
them at least as far back as 1796; and with 
regard to the Players’ Petition of 1596, if it 
was a forgery at all, it was a forgery committed 
long before he set foot within the State Paper 
Office. For the greater part of a year the 
controversy was engaged in with all the 
zeal and ill-feeling characteristic of modern 
Shakspearian criticism. 

4 -.—Came on in the Court of Exchequer 
the case of Swinfen v. Chelmsford, being an 
action raised by the successful litigant in the 
Swinfen estates* case against Lord Chelmsford, 
formerly counsel on her behalf, for unduly 
compromising her claim at Stafford Assizes. 
The plaintiff’s second plea involved a serious 
charge against the judge, Sir Cresswell Cress- 
well, an allegation being made that, after the 
commencement of the trial, he clandestinely 
and illegally communicated with the defendant, 
her counsel, and gave him to understand that 
he had formed an unfavourable opinion of the 
plaintiff’s case, and that she would probably 
lose the verdict, for the purpose of intimi¬ 
dating the defendant and inducing him to 
compromise the case. This allegation the 
defendant denied, Damages were laid at 
10,000/. The jury, on the second day of trial, 
found a verdict for the defendant-, the Lord 
Chief Baron directing that, as regarded the 
charge of collusion between the defendant and 
Sir C. Cresswell, there was no evidence to go 
to the jury. 

5 .—Proposed annexation of Savoy to P'ranee. 
Lord John Russell writes to Earl Cowley :— 
Her Majesty’s Government have learned 
with extreme concern that the question of 


annexing Savoy to France has been in agita¬ 
tion. . . . If Savoy should be annexed to France, 
it will generally be supposed that the left bank 
of the Rhine, and the ‘ natural limits,’ will be 
the next object; and thus the Emperor will 
become an object of suspicion to Europe, and 
kindle the hostility of which his uncle was 
the victim.” On the 8 th Earl Cowley writes 
from Paris: “In the course of the interview 
which I had with Count Walewski this after¬ 
noon, his Excellency said that I might give 
your Lordship the assurance that the Emperor 
had abandoned all idea of annexing Savoy to 
France.” 

5 .—Lord Lyndhurst, now in his 88 th year, 
in a long and eloquent address on our rela¬ 
tions with the Continent, urges the House of 
Lords to lend what aid it can to increase our 
national defences. “ If I am asked,” he said, 
in conclusion, “ whether I cannot place reli¬ 
ance in the Emperor Napoleon, I reply with 
confidence that I cannot, because he is in a 
situation in which he cannot place reliance on 
himself. He is in a situation in which he must 
be governed by circumstances, and I will not 
consent that the safety of this country should 
be placed on such contingencies. Self-reliance 
is the best road to distinction in private life. 
It is equally essential to the character and 
grandeur of a nation. It will be necessary for 
our defence that we should have a military force 
sufficient to cope with any Power or combina¬ 
tion of Powers that may be brought against us. 
.... The question of the money expense,” 
said the aged peer, “sinks into insignificance. 
It is the price we must pay for our insurance, 
and it is but a moderate price for so important 
an insurance. I know that there are persons 
who will say, ‘ Let us run the risk.’ Be it so. 
But, my Lords, if the calamity should come, 
if the conflagration should take place, what 
words can describe the extent of the calamity, 
or what imagination can paint the overwhelm¬ 
ing ruin that would fall upon us ? I shall be 
told, perhaps, that these are the timid counsels 
of old age. My Lords, for myself, I should 
run no risk. Personally, I have nothing to 
fear. But to point out possible peril, and how 
to guard effectively against it, that is surely to 
be considered, not as timidity, but as the 
dictates of wisdom and prudence. I have con¬ 
fined myself to facts that cannot be disputed. 

I think I have confined myself also to in¬ 
ferences which no man can successfully contra¬ 
vene. I hope what I have said has been in 
accordance with your feelings and opinions. 

I shall terminate what I have to say in two 
emphatic words, Vce victisl —words of solemn 
and most significant import. ” 

7 .— An armistice agreed upon between the 
Emperor of Austria and the Emperor of the 
French, the news causing a rise of 14 pei 
cent, in Consols. The armistice led to the 
signing of preliminaries of a treaty of peace 
at Villafranca on the nth. The conditions of 
peace were: “That the two sovereigns will 

( 55 ?) 






JUL Y 


JULY' 


1859 - 


favour the erection of an Italian Confederation. 
That the Confederation shall be under the 
honorary presidency of the Holy Father. 
Austria cedes to the Emperor of the French 
her rights over Lombardy, with the exception 
of the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera, so 
that the frontier of the Austrian possessions 
shall start from the extreme range of the for¬ 
tress of Peschiera, and shall extend in a direct 
line along the Mincio as far as Grazio; 
thence to Scorzarolo and Luzana to the Po, 
whence the actual frontiers shall continue to 
form the limits of Austria. The Emperor of 
the French shall hand over ( remettra ) the 
ceded territory to the King of Sardinia. Venetia 
shall form part of the Italian Confederation, 
though remaining under the Crown of the Em¬ 
peror of Austria. The Grand Duke of Tuscany 
and the Duke of Modena return to their States, 
granting a general amnesty. The two Em¬ 
perors will ask the Holy Father to introduce 
indispensable reforms into the States. A full 
and complete amnesty is granted on both sides 
to persons compromised in the late events in 
the- territories of the belligerent parties. ” 

8 . —Died at Stockholm, aged 60, Oscar I., 
King of Sweden and Norway. 

12. —Under the influence of the peace news 
Consols advanced on the London Exchange 
from 93! to 96. Turkish and Sardinian secu¬ 
rities rose 5 to 7 per cent. 

— The temperature of the air in shade to¬ 
day was 924°; and on the 13 th and 18th, 93 0 . 
The mean temperature of the whole month 
was 68-1°. 

—- The Emperor of Austria issues an 
order of the day :—“ My people I found ready 
for any sacrifice, and sanguinary battles have 
proved to the world the heroism and contempt 
of death of my gallant army, which, having to 
fight in inferior numbers, and after thousands 
of officers and soldiers have sealed with their 
blood their faithfulness to their duties, still 
looks joyfully forth with unbroken strength 
and courage to the continuance of the struggle. 
Being left without allies, I only yield to un¬ 
favourable political relations, in face of which 
it becomes my paramount duty not to waste in 
purposeless efforts the blood of my soldiers 
and the sacrifices made by my people. I now 
conclude peace founded on the Mincio line.” 

— The Pope protests against any inter¬ 
ference by Sardinia in the affairs of the 
Romagna. 

13 . —Sir John Trelawny’s bill for the aboli¬ 
tion of church rates read a second time, on 
the motion of Mr. Dillwyn, by 263 votes to 193. 
The Ministry generally supported the bill, with 
the exception of Mr. Gladstone. 

— The ecclesiastical property of Mexico 
confiscated by President Juarez. 

14 . —Submarine telegraph completed be¬ 
tween England and Denmark. 

15 . —The Federal Council of Switzerland 

(552) 


1 suppresses all foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
in Swiss territory. 

16 . —Speaking at the dinner to the late 
Ministry given in Merchant Taylors’ Hall, the 
Earl of Derby said: “In my opinion, as I 
have avowed on former occasions, the late war 
was commenced upon insufficient grounds, 
and on false pretexts; for, of all the purposes 
which were put forward to justify it, there is 
not one which has been supported or attained 
by the struggle which has taken place, while 
there are several which are placed in greater 
jeopardy than before.” Lord Malmesbury 
said: “ If we had interfered, it must have been 
by sea: and if our fleet had been added to that 
of Franee, how would it have been employed ? 
In bombarding the beautiful city of Venice, and 
destroying its marble palaces ! and for every 
Austrian killed by our shot, a dozen Italians 
would have been slain. But even if we had 
joined in these operations, and there was to 
have been an armistice, do you think that we 
should have been consulted any more than the 
King of Sardinia—who, as far as we know, after 
all the achievements of his army in the field, 
was left in blissful ignorance of the overtures 
going on between his ally and his enemy, 
until he was informed that hostilities were at 
an end? Our admiral in the Adriatic would 
have suddenly seen a boat approach his ship, 
bearing a flag of truce, and a French officer 
would have stepped on board to tell him that 
as soon as he pleased he might return in all 
happiness and peace to Portsmouth. (Cheers 
and laughter.) That would have been our 
position if we had joined in this war, to judge 
from the way in which the principal actor in 
the drama has dealt towards his coadjutors.” 

— The Emperor Napoleon re-enters Paris 
1 after his Italian campaign. 

17 . —Death of the Queen Consort of 
Portugal. 

18 . —In introducing his Budget, the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) said 
he estimated the revenue for the coming 
year at 64,340,000/., and the expenditure at 

i 69,207,000/. ; for the army the expense would 
I be 13,300,000/., and for the navy, 12,782,000/. 

I The deficiency of 4,867,000/. he proposed to 
make up by adding 4 d. to the tax on incomes 
above 150/., which would produce 4,000,000/., 
and diminishing the malt credits from eighteen 
to twelve weeks, which would give 780,000/. 

19 . —Count Cavour withdraws from the Sar¬ 
dinian Ministry, and is succeeded by Ratazzi. 

20 . —Mr. Charles Kean, having retired from 
the stage, is entertained at a banquet at St. 
James’s Hall, presided over by the Duke of 
N ewcastle. 

— Addressing Ministers regarding the close 
of the Italian war, the Emperor of the French 
said : “ When we arrived beneath the walls of 
Verona, the struggle was about inevitably to 
| change its nature, as well in a military as in 
I a political aspect. Compelled to attack the 










JULY 


1859. 


JULY 


enemy in front, intrenched as he was behind 
great fortresses, and protected on his flank by 
the neutrality of the surrounding territory, and 
about to begin a long and barren war, I found 
myself in face of Europe in arms, ready either 
to dispute our successes or to aggravate our re¬ 
verses. Nevertheless, the difficulty of the enter¬ 
prise would not have shaken my resolution, if 
the means had not been out of proportion to 
the results to be expected. It was necessary to 
crush boldly the obstacles opposed by neutral 
territories, and then to accept a conflict on the 
Rhine as well as on the Adige. It was neces¬ 
sary to fortify ourselves openly with the sup¬ 
port of revolution. It was necessary to go on 
shedding precious blood, and at last risk that 
which a sovereign should only stake for the in¬ 
dependence of his country. If I have stopped, 
it was neither through weariness or exhaustion, 
nor from abandonment of the noble cause which 
I desired to serve, but for the interests of 
France. I felt great reluctance to curb the 
ardour of our soldiers, to withdraw from my 
programme the territory from the Mincio to 
the Adriatic, and to see noble illusions and 
patriotic hopes vanish from honest hearts. In 
order to serve the independence of Italy, I 
made war against the mind of Europe, and as 
soon as the destinies of my country were im¬ 
perilled I concluded peace.” 

21.—The Home Secretary announces that a 
plan had been suggested by the Corporation of 
the City of London, by which a considerable 
portion of the site of Smithfield Market would 
be rendered available for the purposes of public 
recreation. 

— Resolutions embodying the financial plans 
of the Government proposed by the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, and after considerable dis¬ 
cussion agreed to. 

— Abdication of the Grand Duke of Tuscany 
in favour of his son, Ferdinand IV. 

23 . —After a long discussion on the present 
educational machinery of the country, Mr. 
Lowe obtains the consent of the House to a 
vote of 836,920/. for ordinary purposes, and 
93,394/. for the Science and Art Department. 

— The House of Commons vote 2,000/. 
for the purchase of Sir George Hayter’s picture 
of the “Opening of the first Reformed Parlia¬ 
ment.” 

24 . —Commencement of a strike among the 
building trades in the metropolis, which lasted 
ten weeks, and led to the stoppage of many 
important works. The claim was for a reduc¬ 
tion in the working time to nine hours per day, 
the wages to continue the same. The inten¬ 
tion being to compel the great houses, one by 
one, to succumb, Messrs. Trollope’s was first 
selected, and 470 men at once ceased working. 
The other masters, however, in self-defence, 
soon closed their doors, and kept the unionists 
out till they had made arrangements for carrying 
on work, at least on a limited scale, by the aid 


of non-union men, in terms of the following de¬ 
claration : “I declare that I am not now, nor 
will I during the continuance of my engagement 
with you, become a member of or support any 
society which directly or indirectly interferes 
with the arrangement of this or any other 
establishment, or of the hours or terms of 
labour ; and that I recognise the right of em¬ 
ployers and employed individually to make any 
trade engagement on which they may choose to 
agree.” 

23 .—The Sheddon case (see Feb. 1) again 
before the Court of Probate and Divorce, in 
the form of a petition under the Legitimacy 
Declaration Act, praying that William and 
Arabella Sheddon might be declared the legiti¬ 
mate son and granddaughter of Ann Shed¬ 
don, who died at New York in 1798. Miss 
Sheddon appeared in person to move for a 
commission to examine witnesses in America 
with respect to the marriage of her grandfather. 
This she did with great clearness and ability, 
saying that the only object which she and 
.her father had in view in presenting the peti¬ 
tion was to have the question of their legi¬ 
timacy or illegitimacy fairly raised and decided, 
and to remove the stain which had so long 
rested upon them. The motion was opposed by 
Dr. Deane on behalf of R. S. and W. Patrick, 
the heir-at-law and next of kin, on the ground 
that the question of law, whether the previous 
decisions of the House of Lords were not a bar 
to the present proceeding, ought to be deter¬ 
mined before the expense of a commission was 
incurred for the purpose of obtaining evidence 
upon the question of fact. It was also sub¬ 
mitted that, if a commission were issued, the 
petitioners should be ordered to give security 
for costs, as the litigation upon the questions 
raised by the petition had been going on for 
the last sixty years, and the petitioner, Mr. 
Sheddon, was liable for a large sum incurred 
as costs in that litigation, which he was unable 
to pay. Miss Sheddon having replied, Sir C. 
Cresswell said he was of opinion that the com¬ 
mission ought to be granted, and he should order 
it to be issued for the examination of witnesses 
in New York, without calling upon the peti¬ 
tioners to give security for the costs. 

26 .—The Moniteur publishes a semi-official 
article, denying that France had in any way 
caused burdens to be placed on the English 
people on account of “ national defences,” and 
affirming that the increase had sprung from 
a pretended exaggeration of French designs. 

— Fire in the brandy vaults of the London 
Dock, destroying fifty casks of spirits.* 

— Wreck of the Turkish steamer Silistria y 
twenty-four hours after leaving Alexandria. 
None of the crew or Turkish passengers 
affbi'ded the least assistance ; the pumps being 
manned and the buckets wrought by the 
European passengers and twenty-eight Aus¬ 
trian sailors who were on board. The captain, 
Mustafa Bey, through whose ignorance or 
1 carelessness the ship struck, consented to 

( 553 ) 








JULY 


AUGUST 


1359 - 


throw overboard a part of the cargo; but the 
Turkish passengers, in a paroxysm of fanaticism, 
rose upon the Europeans, and threatened them 
with the pistol and dagger if they interfered 
in the management of the ship. They after¬ 
wards commenced to plunder in every direction, 
and threw overboard several of the passengers 
when attempting to reach the boats. Most 
of those remaining on board were taken off 
next day by an Egyptian Government brig. 

27 . —At the Lincoln Assizes, Carey and 
Picket, two lads, were sentenced to be exe¬ 
cuted for their share in what was known as the 
Stickney murder, where an old man, who had 
been drinking in their company, was beaten to 
death with bludgeons, robbed of 23J-. 6 d., and 
then thrown into a ditch. Each of the prisoners 
made confessions accusing the other of the 
principal share in the deed. 

28 . —In the House of Commons, Lord John 
Russell introduces a discussion on the Italian 
policy of the Government. The papers pro¬ 
duced were ordered to lie on the table. 

— Debate in the Coinmons on the affairs of 
Italy, and the possible effect of the Confer¬ 
ence proposed by the Emperor of the French. 
Mr. Disraeli accused Lord John Russell of 
always acting towards Italy as if there were an 
old Whig party there, and endeavouring to set 
up a kind of Brookes’s Club at Florence, 
after his poetic ideal of Petrarch. 

August 1.—On bringing forward the Indian 
Budget, Sir Charles Wood said the debt of 
India in April 1857, before the mutinies broke 
out, was 59,462,000/.; the military expenditure, 
ordinary and extraordinary, 12,561,000/. In 
1857—58 the general expenditure amounted to 
40,226,000/.; the revenue, to 31,706,000/. In 
1 85 8-59 the expenditure was 48,500,000/., and 
the revenue 33,800,000/. The total debt at 
present was 81,580,000/. 

2. —At the Hereford Assizes, Job Isaac 
Jones, attorney’s clerk, was charged with the 
murder of Harriet Baker, at Ledbury. It was 
sought to be established for the Crown, that 
the prisoner was seen to enter the rooms occu¬ 
pied by the deceased, who kept his master’s 
office clean; that he had there secured the 
keys of the office and robbed the desk ; that 
he had a weapon in his chest with which the 
blows might have been inflicted ; that the 
embers of the stolen notes were found in his 
fireplace; that the torn pieces of two stolen 
cheques were found in a place to which he 
had access ; that a quantity of postage-stamps 
corresponding with those left in the office were 
found in his possession; and that, though his 
circumstances up to the time of the murder 
and robbery were notoriously straitened, he was 
afterwards known to have in his possession 
III. or 12/. in sovereigns—the number stolen 
from the office. The jury returned a verdict 
of Not guilty. 

3 . —Aggregate meeting of operative builders 
in Hyde Park to protest against the “fiendish 

( 554 ) 


document ” or declaration issued by the mas¬ 
ters, and to bind all present to support the nine 
hours’ movement. The “strike” now engaged 
in was carried on with much bitterness till 
November. 

6 .—Five persons killed by an explosion at 
Ballincoolig Powder Mills, Cork. 

8 . —Lord Elcho renewed his motion for 
an address to her Majesty, as expressive of 
the opinion of the House, that it would be 
consistent neither with the honour nor the 
dignity of this country to take part in any 
Conference for the purpose of settling the 
details of a peace the preliminaries of which 
had been arranged between the Emperor of 
the French and the Emperor of Austria. At 
the close of the debate, Lord Elcho expressed 
himself satisfied with the discussion, and with¬ 
drew his motion. Sharp reference was made 
by various speakers to the irregular and 
informal communication of the views of the 
British Cabinet to France through Prussia. 

— Victor Emmanuel II. makes a triumphal 
entry into Milan. 

— The tribes of the Caucasus reduced to 
subjection by Russia. 

9 . —Sir Rutherford Alcock, British diplo¬ 
matic agent in Japan, protests against outrages 
recently committed upon Europeans in that 
country. 

10. —The Committee on the Pontefract elec¬ 
tion, finding that Mr. Overend and Mr. Chil¬ 
ders had agreed to refer their differences to 
Lord March, and afterwards failed in accom¬ 
plishing a compromise, agree to place the 
parties in the positions they occupied at the 
close of the poll, and resume the inquiry from 
that point. By the award of Sir J. D. Coleridge 
the seat fell to be vacated by Mr. Overend. 

11. —Fall of the bridge across the Thames 
at Walton, built in 1750. “I had crossed 
the river,” writes a spectator, “just below the 
bridge, in a punt with a friend, to take a sketch 
of it from the Walton side, when the falling of 
a few stones from the broken arch warned us 
to quicken our speed ; and before we had well 
reached the shore, the pier suddenly gave way, 
and the two large arches on either side, with 
the roadways for some 150 or 200 yards, fell 
into the river below with a tremendous crash. 
The water splashed up like a fountain, and the 
sudden displacement caused the river to rise 
in a wave 4 or 5 feet high, which, rolling down 
the stream with irresistible force, carried boats, 
punts, logs of timber, and everything within 
reach, before it.” No lives were lost. 

13 .—Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
Regarding the proposed Peace Conference, her 
Majesty “has not yet received the informa¬ 
tion necessary to enable her to decide whether 
she may think fit to take part in any such 
negotiation. ” 

14 -.— 1 The army of Italy makes a triumphal 
entry into Paris. The Emperor expressed him- 





AUGUST 


1859. 


AUGUST 


self as sorry to part with so formidable and 
well-organized a force, and bade them never 
forget what they and he had achieved together. 
“If France had done so much for a friendly 
people, what should she not do for her own 
independence ? ” 

15 . —Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court the trial of Thomas Smethurst, surgeon, 
for the murder by slow poison of Miss Isabella 
JIanks, a person with whom he had also 
entered into a bigamous connection, and by 
whose death he was to obtain possession of 
considerable sums of money. The trial ex¬ 
tended over six days, the jury at the close 
bringing in a verdict of Guilty. The prisoner 
was thereupon sentenced to be executed. The 
case gave rise to a considerable discussion in 
public, the result of which was that the Home 
Secretary was induced in the first instance to 
grant a reprieve, and finally to recommend a 
pardon, as stated in his letter to the Lord 
Chief Baron :—“ As your Lordship suggests 
in your report that reference should be made 
to the judgment of medical and scientific 
persons selected by the Secretary of State, 
for the purpose of considering the symptoms 
and appearances of the deceased Isabella 
Banks, and the result of the analysis, I have 
sent the evidence, your Lordship’s reports, 
and all the papers bearing upon the medical 
evidence of the case, to Sir Benjamin Brodie, 
from whom I have received a letter, of 
which I enclose you a copy, and who is of my 
opinion, that, although the facts are full of 
suspicion against Smethurst, there is not 
absolute and complete evidence of his guilt. 
After a very careful and anxious consideration 
of all the facts of this very peculiar case, I have 
come to the conclusion that there is sufficient 
doubt of the prisoner’s guilt to render it my 
duty to advise the grant to him of a free 
pardon, which will be restricted to the par¬ 
ticular offence of which he stands convicted, 
it being my intention to institute a prosecution 
against him for bigamy. The necessity which 
I have felt for advising her Majesty to grant a 
free pardon in this case has not, as it appears 
to me, arisen from any defect in the constitu¬ 
tion or proceedings of our criminal tribunals. 
It has arisen from the imperfection of medical 
science, and from the fallibility of judgment, in 
an obscure malady, even of skilful and expe¬ 
rienced medical practitioners.” At the trial 
for bigamy, which came on November 20th, 
Smethurst set up a plea that his marriage with 
Miss Banks was good, in so far as his reputed 
wife had committed bigamy by marrying him 
while her former husband, passing under the 
assumed name of Johnson, was still alive. He 
was found guilty of the imputed offence, and 
sentenced by Baron Bramwell to twelve months’ 
imprisonment with hard labour. 

16 . —The foundation-stone ofanew “Taber¬ 
nacle ” for the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon laid at 
Newington. 

— Tuscany declares in favour of a united 


kingdom of Italy under the sceptre of Victor 
Emmanuel. Parma, Modena, and Bologna 
joined the alliance in a few days. 

16 . —The Emperor Napoleon publishes an 
amnesty to Frenchmen imprisoned or in exile 
for political offences. 

17 . —Inquiry in the Court of Session into the 
frauds carried on by the original chief partners 
of the Carron Company. Under the original 
deed of 1773, the Company were allowed to 
buy the shares of any retiring partner : and it 
now appeared that the managers, Dawson and 
Stainton, availed themselves so far of this 
permission as not to permit for thirty-five 
years any shares to be purchased by any 
stranger or partner other than a member of the 
families of Stainton or Dawson; and the charge 
now was, that “by means of false balances, ab¬ 
stracts, and accounts, and a general system of 
misrepresentation and concealment, the share¬ 
holders were kept in ignorance of the true 
value of the stock, and were thus induced to 
sell their shares at prices greatly below their 
actual worth.” 

— M. Blondin commences his performances 
on a rope stretched above and across the Falls 
of Niagara. He ran on the rope, crawled 
along it like an ape, stood on it, swung from it 
by one foot, and finally carried a man across it 
on his shoulders. 

18 . —Various outward physical evidences of 
a so-called revival of religion in Ireland en¬ 
gaged considerable attention about this time. 
The excitement afterwards spread to England 
and Scotland. 

21 .—Commencement of disturbances in the 
church of St. George-in-the-East, London, 
in consequence of the rector, the Rev. Bryan 
King, adopting an elaborate ritual, and refusing 
to allow time for the Sunday afternoon lecture 
by the Rev. Plugh Allen. The Bishop of 
London undertook unsuccessfully to arbitrate 
in the case, and the scenes on Sundays in the 
church, for many weeks in succession, were of 
the most scandalous description. (See Nov. 6.) 

2Q.—Schamyl, the Circassian chief, captured 
in his stronghold at Gounil, and sent with his 
eldest son a prisoner to St. Petersburg. 

— Commencement of the sale of Lord North- 
wick’s collection of pictures, at Thirlestone 
House, Cheltenham. It continued eighteen 
days, the number of pictures disposed of being 
1,881, and the amount realized 95,725/. His 
Lordship’s collection of coins was sold during 
twelve days in December, and brought 8,565/. 

— Concordat between Rome and Spain, the 
latter Power engaging to send an army of occu¬ 
pation into the Roman States if the French 
withdrew. 

— Extension of political rights among the 
Russian serfs. 

27 .—Died at Putney, aged 75, Leigh Hunt, 
poet and essayist, and friend of Shelley. 

( 555 ) 





AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


18 


31 .—The Belgian Assembly of Deputies, by 
a majority of 20, pronounce in favour of the 
fortification of Antwerp. The proposal was 
afterwards adopted by the Senate, and received 
the Royal Assent. 

September 3 .—The Assembly of the Ro¬ 
magna adopt a resolution expressive of their 
refusal to live any longer under the temporal 
sway of the Pope. On the same day a deputation 
from Tuscany waited upon Victor Emmanuel 
to propose, in the name of the whole Tuscan 
people, the annexation of that State to Pied¬ 
mont. The King promised in both cases to 
support their desires before the great Powers. 

5.—Captain Peard, “Garibaldi’s English¬ 
man,” writes from the camp of the General at 
Modena, denying the rumours circulated against 
him in England, of shooting Austrians like 
game while altogether indifferent to the cause 
of Italian independence. 

7 . —The Great Eastern steamship leaves her 
moorings at Deptford for Portland Roads. 

9.—Explosion on board the Great Eastern 
during her trial trip, off Hastings. For the 
double purpose of heating the water before 
it passed into the boilers, and of keeping the 
saloons cool, a “jacket” or casing was placed 
around the lower part of each funnel. The 
common stop-cock with which it was fitted 
had by inadvertence or ignorance been turned 
to close the pipe, while the communication 
between the casing and the boilers had 
also been cjat off. In consequence, as the 
water within the casing became heated, and 
the steam got compressed, the “jacket” water 
was converted into steam, the power of 
which increased from moment to moment as 
speed was put on. At last a terrific explosion 
took place. The fore part of the deck ap¬ 
peared to spring like a mine, and the great 
funnel rose into the air. There was a 
confused heavy roar, amid which came the 
awful crash of timber and iron mingled tor 
gether with frightful uproar, and then all was 
hidden in a rush of steam. Blinded and 
almost stunned by the overwhelming concus¬ 
sion, those on the bridge stood motionless in 
the white vapour till they were reminded of the 
necessity of seeking shelter by the shower of 
wreck—glass, gilt work, saloon ornaments, and 
pieces of wood, which began to fall like rain in 
all directions. The prolonged clatter of these 
as they fell prevented any one aft the bridge 
from moving, and though all knew that a fear¬ 
ful accident had occurred, none were aware of 
its extent, or what was likely to happen next; 
all that could be ascertained was that the 
vessel’s sides were uninjured, and the engines 
still going. The whole centre of the ship 
seemed to be one vast chasm, and from it was 
belching up steam, dust, and then smoke 
lighted with flame. When the great funnel 
of eight tons, weight blew up, it tore away 
everything—decks, cabins, and far below this 
again steam-gearing of every kind. The furnace- 
( 556 ) 


59 - 


doors being burst open, fire poured on one side 
on the unfortunate firemen, and scalding vapour 
on the other. As many as ten were injured so 
severely that death either relieved them from 
their sufferings on the spot, or followed close 
upon a short period of unconsciousness or ap¬ 
parent insensibility to pain. Captain Harrison 
and the officers of the ship showed the most 
prompt courage and ready fertility of resource 
in meeting the calamity. Some one shouted out 
to Atkinson, the pilot, to save himself. “ I’m 
no engineer,” he replied ; “ I’m a pilot ; I’ve 
charge of the ship, and I mean to stick to her.” 
Most of the passengers also behaved with great 
coolness and humanity, and, before the vessel 
had advanced far from the scene of the disaster, 
were busy personally attending the wounded 
or collecting subscriptions on their behalf. The 
Great Eastern arrived in Portland harbour 
about ten o’clock on the morning of the 10th, 
neither crew nor paddles having been stopped 
from the time she left the Thames. 

IO.—In consequence of the determination 
of his Irish tenantry to conceal the murder of 
one of his tenants, named Crow, the Earl of 
Derby issues instructions to warn off the 
whole of the occupants on the Down estate, 
Tipperary, with the exception of the im¬ 
mediate friends of the deceased and a few 
others. This step gave rise to severe 
animadversion on the part of the Irish press, 
but Lord Derby explained at Liverpool that 
the warning was given with the view of pro¬ 
tecting the well-disposed on his estate, and. 
punishing those whom he believed to have 
connived at the crime. 

14 -.—Died at Coblentz, in his 71st year, 
Sir James Stephen, Professor of Modem 
History in the University of Cambridge, and 
formerly Under-Secretary for the Colonies. 
Sir James was also known as a contributor to 
the Edinburgh Review on subjects relating to 
the history of the Church and the development 
of religious opinion. 

15 .—Died, at his residence, Duke-street, 
Westminster, from paralysis, induced, it was 
believed, by the late disaster on board the Great 
Eastern , Isambard Kingdom Brunei, engineer, 
aged 54. His chief work was the Great 
Western Railway, including Saltash and Chep¬ 
stow bridges, and all the other great works on 
that line and its branches; and to his sug¬ 
gestions was due the series of vast steam-ves¬ 
sels, the Great Western , Great Britain , and 
Great Eastern. 

19 .—Died at Rothesay, aged 55, John 
Pringle Nichol, Professor of Astronomy in the 
University of Glasgow, and author of “ The 
Architecture of the Heavens,” &c. 

21 .—At the Lewes Agricultural Show, a 
portable steam-engine, shown by Cheale and 
Son, exploded, causing the death of the en¬ 
gineer in attendance, four persons, spectators, 
and several cattle in the show-yard. 

— Captain M'Clintock arrives off the Isle 








SEPTEMBER 


OCTOBER 


1859. 


of Wight with news of the fate of the Franklin 
Expedition. He writes to the Secretary of the 
Admiralty: “I beg you will inform the 
Lords Commissioners of the safe return to this 
country of Lady Franklin’s final Searching 
Expedition, which I have had the honour to 
conduct. Their Lordships will rejoice to hear 
that our endeavours to ascertain the fate of 
the Franklin Expedition have met with com¬ 
plete success. At Point Victory, upon the 
north-west coast of King William’s Island, a 
record has been found, dated the 25th of April, 
1848, and signed by Captains Crozier and 
Fitzjames. By it we were informed that her 
Majesty’s ships Erebus and Terror were aban¬ 
doned on the 22d of April, 1848, in the ice, 
five leagues to the N.N. W., and that the sur¬ 
vivors, in all amounting to 105 souls, under 
the command of Captain Crozier, were pro¬ 
ceeding to the Great Fish River. Sir John 
Franklin had died on the nth of June, 1847. 
Many deeply interesting relics of our country¬ 
men have been picked up upon the western 
shore of King William’s Island, and others 
obtained from the Esquimaux, by whom we 
were informed that, subsequent to their aban¬ 
donment, one ship was crushed and sunk by 
the ice.” (See May 28, 1847.) 

27 . —Explosion, at Birmingham, of Phillips 
and Pursall’s percussion-cap factory, in which 
there were stored, in process of finishing, 
five million and a half of caps, from 3,000 to 
4,000 cartridges, containing about 40 lbs. of 
gunpowder, and a large quantity of other 
explosive material. The entire building was 
blown to atoms, and twenty-one of the work¬ 
people burnt or buried in the ruins. In the 
priming-shop, where the disaster was supposed 
to have originated, the whole of the workmen 
were killed. 

28 . —Died, aged 81, Carl Ritter, Prussian 
geographer. 

October 1 . —The new bell “Big Ben,” of 
Westminster, ceases striking the hours, having 
become more hopelessly cracked than even its 
predecessor. 

4.—In the course of a conversazione in 
St. George’s Hall, Wolverhampton, the Attor¬ 
ney-General, Sir Richard Bethell, addresses the 
Christian Young Men’s Institute of the place. 
“ If I were to look back on my own life, 
to derive from it anything like a lesson for the 
guidance or instruction of others, I should say 
that of all the success that individually I have 
met with in my career, I should ascribe the 
greater part, not to the possession of any parti¬ 
cular ability, but, in the great* variety of in¬ 
stances, more to the benefit I have found re¬ 
sulting from a feeling in one’s favour produced 
whenever I have been fortunate enough to have 
it in my power to confer any advantage or any 
kindness on others. I am perfectly confident 
that the principle of mutual benevolence, of 
a universal desire to do good, derived from 
Christianity, and which is the first lesson in¬ 


culcated when you are taught to read the New 
Testament, is one of the best and most sure 
modes of securing even temporaiy success in 
life. (Cheers.) I venture to derive that con¬ 
clusion from it, because it is peculiarly, and in 
every sense of the word, a Christian conclusion ; 
and if you compare the lessons of the New Tes¬ 
tament with the lessons of any other school of 
morality, high as are some of the excellent 
lessons of morality in heathen philosophers, 
they differ essentially, inasmuch as all Christian 
goodness is founded wholly and entirely on the 
principle of love and mutual benevolence. I 
am extremely glad, therefore, to find that you 
have combined in the whole of your institu¬ 
tion, and in all its regulations, the necessity of 
making the study of Christianity one of the 
primary objects.” 

5 .—Coroner’s inquiry at Stepney into the 
circumstances attending the death of the infant 
child of Miss Yaroth, born in the school-house 
at Mile-end, Stepney, with the connivance of 
the incumbent, the Rev. J. Bonwell, M.A., 
and buried in secret by his desire. The medical 
attendant on the occasion was Dr. Godfrey, of 
Mount-place, Whitechapel. The jury found 
the conduct of the incumbent and sexton 
“ highly censurable.” The Commissioners 
under the Church Discipline Act afterwards 
instituted proceedings, and carried the case 
before the Bishop. 

8 .—M. About having been personally at¬ 
tacked by the Bishop of Orleans for his book 
“ The Roman Question,” replies in the columns 
of the Opinion A T ationale :—“ Perhaps you 
would have done better to speak in more 
courteous terms of a literary man and a gentle¬ 
man. For only to suppose such a misfortune 
as that fifteen or twenty years hence you should 
find me on the next bench to you in the French 
Academy, you would be forced either to leave 
your seat, or to admit that you had gone a 
little too far. But religious polemics have 
their peculiar customs. The torture which 
religion no longer dares to use in practice, 
it imports, as far as possible, into its lan¬ 
guage. The sacred fire of the Inquisition 
now bums only in the eloquence of man. I 
was made to feel it in the first mandate—I 
mean the first article—of your new friend, M. 
Veuillot. When I was told that this Pere 
Duchesne of the Church had declared war 
upon me, I expected to have some formidable 
arguments to meet. I buckled on my best 
logical and historical armour. How simple 
was I ! M. Veuillot merely insulted me as 
you have done, Monseigneur, and he denounced 
my book to the police. For it is easier to 
ruin an editor than to ruin an argument ; there 
is no reply so irrefutable as a seizure. Accord¬ 
ing to law, I might, Monseigneur, require you 
to insert this, my answer, in your next number— 
I mean your next mandate. But I will not be 
too exacting; I am satisfied with being in the 
right. I respectfully kiss your pastoral ring, 
and humbly bow, Monseigneur, to the sacred 
character with which vou are invested.” 

(557) 






OCTOBER 


1859 


OCTOBER 


©.—The Sardinian Ambassador withdraws 
from Rome. 

11 . — -The Lord Provost of Edinburgh an¬ 
nounces that Sir David Brewster had accepted 
the Principalship of Edinburgh University, to 
which he had been elected by the Town 
Council. 

12 . —Died, at his residence, Gloucester- 
place, aged 56, Robert Stephenson, engineer 
of the London and Birmingham Railway, the 
High Level Bridge at Newcastle, the Britannia 
and Conway Bridges over the Menai Straits, 
and the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence. 
The remains of the great engineer were interred 
in Westminster Abbey, near Telford, whose 
suspension-bridge divides with .Stephenson’s 
tubular bridge the admiration of visitors to the 
Menai Straits. 

13 . —The Theatre Royal, Hull, destroyed 
by fire. The wardrobe and dresses of the 
company were also burnt. It was one. of the 
finest of provincial theatres, and worthily placed 
at the head of the so-called York circuit. 

14 . —The Glasgow Water-works opened by 
the Queen at the outflow of Loch Katrine. 
To overcome the first great engineering 
difficulty of drawing the water from the lake, 
it was necessary to tunnel a mountain 600 feet 
below the summit for 2,325 yards in length and 
8 feet in diameter. This was the first of a 
series of 70 tunnels, measuring in the aggregate 
13 miles. The bogs were traversed by 3I 
miles of vast iron pipes, and the rivers and 
valleys crossed by 9! miles of aqueducts. The 
system was estimated to be able to supply the 
city with 50,000,000 gallons daily. The total 
cost was about 1,500,000/. Her Majesty, the 
Prince Consort, and two Princesses arrived at 
the works from Edinburgh, which city they 
had reached on their journey from Balmoral 
southward. The weather was of the most 
untoward description, the rain falling in torrents 
throughout the greater part of the day. There 
was, however, a large gathering of people to 
welcome her Majesty on the occasion. The 
ceremony consisted of the presentation of an 
address on the part of the Water-works Com¬ 
missioners, and a suitable reply from her Ma¬ 
jesty, and was ended by the Queen putting in 
motion the apparatus by which the waters of 
the lake were admitted into the tunnel. By 
the aid of the electric telegraph the event was 
at once made known in Edinburgh and Stirling 
by the firing of the castle guns. 

16 .—Anti-slavery outbreak at Harper’s 
Ferry, a town on the borders of Virginia and 
Baltimore. Under the leadership of John 
Brown, or “Old Brown,” as he was some¬ 
times called, a noted Kansas Abolitionist, the 
arsenal was seized, the trains stopped, and the 
telegraph wires cut. A number of people 
were also slain in the encounter which took 
place with the military. Brown was captured, 
and tried for high treason. When asked in 
court what remarks he had to make, he com- 
( 558 ) 


posedly answered, “ Gentlemen, make an end 
of slavery, or slavery will make an end of you.” 
The same steadiness of purpose marked the 
demeanour of this zealous Abolitionist on the 
scaffold to which he was condemned. \Vhen 
asked for a signal that he was ready, John 
Brown replied, “I am always ready.” He was 
executed on the 2d of December, but the efforts 
of his life and the manner of his death gave an 
increase of vitality to the Abolition struggle, 
and was thought to have had a sensible influ¬ 
ence in hastening on the war between the 
North and the South. 

20.— The Emperor Napoleon advises Victor 
Emmanuel to form an Italian confederation, but 
the latter rejects the scheme as impracticable, 
and expresses an intention of maintaining his 
engagements with the Italians. 

22. —Spain declares war against Morocco, 
the immediate inciting cause being the refusal 
of the latter Power to cede territory claimed by 
the former for the protection of its settlements 
on the North African Coast. 

23 . —Indecisive battle between the forces of 
the Argentine Republic and of Buenos Ayres, 
near the city of Buenos Ayres. 

26 .—Wrecked in Redwharf Bay, near 
Moelfra, Anglesea, during the severe storm 
which set in the previous day, the well-known 
Liverpool and Australian steamer Royal Char- / 
ter , homeward bound. The number lost ^ 
reached the frightful total of 459. The ship 
was unhappily kept near a dangerous lee 
shore, in the hope of meeting with a pilot for 
Liverpool. In this she was disappointed, and 
at about 10 P.M. of the 25th, with a northerly 
gale blowing, she let go two anchors a few miles 
to the east of Point Lynas. So violent, how¬ 
ever, was the wind and sea that the chain 
cables parted, although the engines were 
working at full speed to lessen the strain. In 
spite of every effort the vessel was now forced 
ashore, and struck the rocks astern in four 
fathoms water. Up to this period (3 A. M.) not 
the slightest alarm was evinced among the 
passengers, a large portion of whom were 
women and children. The masts and rigging 
were now cut adrift, but caused no relief, as 
the ship continued to thump on the sharp- 
pointed rocks with fearful rapidity. Shortly 
after she struck, the ship was thrown broadside 
on, perfectly upright, upon the shelving stony 
beach, the head and stem lying due east and 
west, the former not being more than twenty 
yards from a projecting rock. At this juncture 
one of the crew, a Portuguese named Joseph 
Rogers, nobly, ventured to struggle through 
the heavy surf, and convey a rope on shore. 
Though it was not believed even yet that dan¬ 
ger was imminent, the captain gave the order, 
and Rogers ably fulfilled the duty. A strong 
hawser was then passed and secured on shore, 
and to it was rigged a boatswain’s chair. While 
this was going on a fearful scene was being 
enacted in the saloon. An attempt had been 








OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


1359. 


made by Mr. Hodge, a clergyman, to perform 
a service; but the violent thumping of the 
vessel on the rocks, and the sea which poured 
into the cabin, rendered this impossible. The 
passengers now collected here, and Captain 
Taylor and Captain Withers endeavoured to 
allay their fears by the assurance that there 
was at any rate no immediate danger, when a 
succession of tremendous waves struck the 
vessel, and broke her in two amidships. 
Shortly afterwards the foremost portion was 
again torn through, and the ship began to break 
up rapidly. A few of the crew saved themselves 
by means of the hawser; some were hurled, 
bruised, but living, upon the rocks by the 
waves; all the officers perished. Captain Taylor 
was the last man seen alive on board. He 
had lashed himself to a spar, but did not suc¬ 
ceed in getting ashore. The effect of the sea 
on the great iron safe in which the ship’s trea¬ 
sure was contained showed the fury of the 
storm. It was so totally broken up and de¬ 
stroyed that it could not be discovered in form, 
while the smaller iron boxes were crushed and 
ground to atoms, sovereigns and lumps of gold 
being forced into the very substance of the 
iron. 

26 .—While the wreck of the Royal Charter 
was dwarfing all the other calamities of the 
storm, a feeling of pride was excited throughout 
the country by the conduct of the Channel 
Fleet, under Admiral G. Elliot. On the 25th, 
the squadron, consisting of four line-of-battle 
ships, Hero , Trafalgar, Algiers , and Aboukir, 
and three frigates, Mei'sey, Emerald , and Melpo¬ 
mene , was caught in the gale while exercising 
between the Land’s End and Plymouth. Seeing 
it doubtful if the rear vessels in line could 
make the Sound, the Admiral decided to wear 
the fleet together and face the weather. In the 
afternoon it blew a perfect hurricane, and for 
three hours the whole fmy of the tempest was 
poured upon the squadron. When it began at 
length to abate a little, the four line-of-battle 
ships and one of the frigates were still in com¬ 
pany, and all doing well. The Mersey and the 
Emerald had steamed into Plymouth, but the 
five remaining vessels kept in open order 
throughout that terrible night, wore in succes¬ 
sion by night signal at about 1 A. M., made the 
land at daylight, formed line of battle, came 
grandly up Channel under sail, at the rate of 
11 knots an hour, steamed into Portland, and 
“ took up their anchorage without the loss of a 
sail, a spar, or a rope yam.”—The strength 
of the Great Eastern was severely tried in the 
gale, but she rode it out without sustaining 
serious damage. It was computed that during 
the forty-eight hours over which the storm ex¬ 
tended, 106 vessels were lost on the British 
toast, and the crews of 29 drowned, 15 
partially so, 62 saved. Much damage was 
done to the breakwaters and harbour works on 
the south and west coasts, as well as to lines 
of railway and telegraph wires. 

— Lord Brougham entertained at a public 
banquet in Edinburgh. 


28 .—Under the new Act regulating the 
Universities of Scotland, the University of 
Edinburgh this day elected Lord Brougham to 
the office of Chancellor, the votes standing— 
Lord Brougham, 655 ; Duke of Buccleuch, 
419. 

31 .—In the Court of Probate, a person de¬ 
scribing herself as the wife of Major Yelverton, 
R. A., sued for the restoration of her conjugal 
rights.. The marriage, it was alleged, took 
place in Scotland, and the parties cohabited in 
each of the three kingdoms, and also in France. 
The respondent was charged with having de¬ 
serted the petitioner at Bordeaux, and with hav¬ 
ing since married another person in Scotland. 
The points raised in the discussion were—first, 
whether Major Yelverton, who was an Irishman 
by birth, and never served in England, had, 
nevertheless, acquired an English domicile, by 
reason of the headquarters of the Royal Artil¬ 
lery being at Woolwich; and, secondly, whether 
the petitioner, having been deserted by the 
respondent, had power to acquire a different 
domicile from that of her alleged husband. Sir 
C. Cresswell said the question was one of great 
importance, and one that was likely frequently 
to arise. The petition was afterwards dis¬ 
missed on the ground of want of jurisdiction, 
Sir C. Cresswell describing the Divorce Court 
as a court for England, and not for the United 
Kingdom. (See Feb. 21, 1861.) 

— The new kingdom of Italy divided into 
seventeen provinces. 

November 1.—Meeting in the Senate 
House, Cambridge, to carry out the union 
with the Oxford Mission, for establishing “one 
or more stations in Southern Central Africa, 
which may serve as centres of Christianity and 
civilization, for the promotion of the spread 
of true religion, agriculture, and lawful com¬ 
merce, and the ultimate extirpation of the slave 
trade.” 

5 . —Accident at the Star Green Pit, Hanley 
Potteries, caused by the ascending cage being 
permitted by the engine-man to pass beyond 
the pit-mouth. Of the fourteen men in the 
cage, thirteen were thrown out; six fell down 
the shaft and were dashed to pieces; four 
landed on the iron pavement at the pit-mouth, 
one of whom was killed on the spot. The 
occupants of the descending cage were all 
severely injured by the violence of the shock 
received on reaching the bottom 

6 . —St.George’s-in-the-East riots. Although 
the incumbent had agreed, in accordance 
with the Bishop’s decision as mediator, to lay 
aside the vestments which had latterly been 
made an excuse for disorder, and also to take 
the most convenient hour preceding the lecture 
for service, the disturbance in the church 
throughout the day was so serious as to lead to 
the closing of the building altogether in the 
evening. On the 13th, the rioting may be said 
to have reached a climax, for the yelling, fight¬ 
ing. and stamping were not only as shameless 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1859. 


and profane as ever; but, to add to the confusion, 
two trained dogs were let off among the offici¬ 
ating priests and choristers. For months the 
Thames Police Court was occupied almost 
daily with charges arising out of these disturb¬ 
ances, preferred in most instances against idle, 
ill-disposed lads, or vagabonds who stirred up 
the riots for the sake of plunder. The purely 
religious zealots were few in number. 

9 . —The Scotch College of Bishops confirm 
the sentence of suspension passed on the Rev. 
Mr. Cheyne, Aberdeen, by 3 votes to 2. 

10. —Festival at the Crystal Palace to cele¬ 
brate the centenary of the poet Schiller. After 
a speech by Dr. Kinkel on the genius of the 
poet, a colossal bust by Gross was uncovered. 
The “Song of the Bell,” to Romberg’s music, 
formed a principal part of the concert follow¬ 
ing. In the evening there was a torchlight 
procession in the grounds. 

— The preliminaries of peace signed at 
Villafranca converted into a definite treaty at 
Zurich. 

— Treaty signed by which Buenos Ayres 
renews its connection with the Argentine Con¬ 
federation. The alliance continued till August 
following, whenhostilities were renewed between 
the Powers. 

11. —The King of Sardinia refuses to permit 
his cousin, the Prince of Carignan, to accept 
the temporary Regency of the vacant Italian 
dukedoms. The Chevalier Buoncompagni was 
afterwards chosen to act, pending the meeting 
of a Congress. 

12. —Mr. Gladstone, M.P., elected Rector 
of Edinburgh University by a majority of 116 
over Lord Neaves, the numbers being 643 and 
527 - 

— The Wakefield Election Commissioners 
succeed in unravelling the secret of the myste¬ 
rious “Man in the Moon,” who appeared to 
have been mixed up with most of the recent 
cases of bribery in the borough. A draper in 
the town said he had engaged the Man in the 
Moon. Serjeant Pigott: Who is he? Moore: 
Well, I’d rather not disclose his name yet; 
but I can produce him if necessary. The secret 
has been so well kept, that it would be a pity 
to disclose it before it is necessary. (Laughter.) 
Serjeant Pigott: Can you produce him to-day ? 
Moore : Oh, yes; he is hard by. I can bring 
him in at once. Mr. Serjeant Pigott: We 
shall be delighted to see him. Moore then left 
the court, and in about five minutes returned 
with the “Man in the Moon,” who was next 
examined. He said his name was Whitehead, 
and his calling that of an upholsterer at 
Bradford, but he had “always been in the 
habit of taking part in electioneering affairs.” 
His evidence contained few new facts in addi¬ 
tion to those previously gleaned from the can¬ 
didates (Leatham and Charlesworth), and their 
agents. Questioned as to his own identity, 
Mr. Serjeant Pigott said: I suppose you knew 
you went by the name of “ The Man in the 
(560) 


Moon ” while you were here ? Whitehead : 
Well, I believe that was my designation. Mr. 
Serjeant Pigott: And there is no doubt about 
your identity? Whitehead : Oh dear no, I’m 
the man, sure enough. (Laughter.) 

12 .—Insubordination, amounting almost to 
mutiny, on board the 91-gun ship Princess 
Royal, , in Portsmouth harbour. The men 
having asked for leave till Monday (the 14th) 
to celebrate the launch of the Victoria, the 
Port-Admiral assented to one half going ashore, 
but ordered the other half to remain. While 
the one half were leaving, a message was sent 
to the Admiral, informing him that the whole 
of the hands must have liberty, or none would 
go. He thereupon sent an order to turn back 
the section advancing, and keep all on board. 
This led to a general riot among the men, 
which was only subdued by the interference of 
the marines. One hundred and eight were 
tried in one batch, and condemned to three 
months’ hard labour in Winchester Gaol. From 
circumstances which afterwards transpired, 
showing that ill-temper and mismanagement 
prevailed among the chief officers, public sym¬ 
pathy was arpused on behalf of the seamen, and 
they were discharged before the expiry of their 
term. 

14 . —Crowded meeting of the Royal Geo¬ 
graphical Society, to listen to Captain M ‘Clin- 
tock’s memoir of his voyage in search of Sir 
John Franklin. 

16 .—Died at Cheshunt, aged 96, James 
Ward, Esq., the oldest Royal Academician. 

15. —Garibaldi writes from Nice:—“As 
underhand machinations are continually im¬ 
peding the freedom of action attached to the 
rank I occupy in the army of Central Italy, 
and which I made use of in the endeavour to 
attain the object which every good Italian has 
in view, I leave the military service for the 
moment. On the day when Victor Emmanuel 
shall again call his soldiers to arms for the 
redemption of the country, I will once more 
find a weapon of some sort, and a place by the 
side of my brave companions.” 

20. —Died at Hookwood Park, Surrey, 
aged 81, the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, 
an able Indian servant, and historian of 
Cabul. 

21. —The Divorce Court gives judgment for 
a dissolution with costs, in the case of the 
Hon. Mrs. Theresa Caroline Rowley v. the 
Hon. Hugh Rowley, on the ground of adul¬ 
tery, cruelty, and desertion, one or other of the 
offences appearing to have been indulged in 
daily from the date of marriage till the lodging 
of the petition. 

— Wreck of the Montreal steamship In¬ 
dian, on the coast of Newfoundland. The sea 
was comparatively quiet at the lime, and the 
captain was judged to have been misled by a 
new light on the Seal Rocks not laid down on 
his chart. She had 38 passengers and a crew of 








NOVEMBER 


1859. 


DECEMBER 


70 men on board, of whom 27 were drowned. 
The others were taken off in boats belonging 
to the ship, or by a schooner sent from the 
shore by one of the survivors. The wreck was 
freely plundered by the inhabitants along the 
coast. 

22 .— Died, aged 41, George Wilson, Esq., 
Professor of Technology in the University of 
Edinburgh. 

24 -.—The Victoria tubular bridge at Mont¬ 
real (R. Stephenson, engineer) opened. 

28 . —Died at Sunnyside, New York, aged 
75, Washington Irving, essayist and historian. 

— A lunatic, lodging in King’s Head-court, 
Shoreditch, murdered his wife by ripping her 
open, and then cut off her head, which he 
placed in a basin. The murderer’s infant 
daughter was found lying sleeping on a pillow 
on the floor beside the head. 

29 . —Collision in the Firth of Clyde be¬ 
tween the Glasgow and Londonderry steamer 
Eagle and the timber-laden ship Pladda, water¬ 
logged, in tow of a steam-tug. The former 
sank soon after the accident, and 20 out of 46 
on board were drowned. 

30 . —Four Liverpool merchants having 
written to the Emperor Napoleon to ascertain 
what his intentions were respecting the invasion 
of England, M. Mocquard writes : “ Great fear 
or great confidence can alone explain the step 
you have taken. On the one hand, you are 
affected with an imaginary disease, which seems 
to have attacked your country with the rapidity 
of an epidemic. On the other, you count on 
the loyalty of him from whom you ask an 
answer. Yet it was easy for yourselves to give 
that answer, if you had coolly examined the 
real cause of your apprehensions. That cause 
you would have found only in the din excited 
among your countrymen by the most chimerical 
alarms; for, up to the present moment, in no 
circumstance whatever is there a word of the 
Emperor, or an act, which would permit of a 
doubt respecting his sentiments, and conse¬ 
quently, his intentions towards your country. 
His conduct, invariably the same, has not for a 
moment ceased to be that of a faithful and irre¬ 
proachable ally. That which he has been he 
wishes (and on his behalf I declaim to you) to 
continue to be. In proof of the fact, you have 
the approaching community of distant perils 
between your soldiers and ours. Thus hence¬ 
forth completely reassured, combat an error 
which is too extended. Great nations are made 
to esteem, and not to fear each other.” 

December 5 .—Came on for hearing, before 
the Divorce Court, the petition of James 
Morton Bell, praying for a dissolution of his 
marriage with Ellen Jane Bell, on the ground 
of adultery with the Marquis of Anglesey, and 
also asking for damages to the extent of io,oco/. 
from the co-respondent. The jury found a 
verdict for the petitioner, and awarded the 
damages claimed. The court then pronounced 

(S61) 


a decree of dissolution, and condemned the co¬ 
respondent in costs. 

8 .— Died, at Edinburgh, aged 73, Thomas 
de Quincey, author of “The Confessions of an 
English Opium-Eater,” and other works. 

14 .—Prince Mettemich re-opens diplomatic 
relations between France and Austria, by ap¬ 
pearing at the Tuileries as Ambassador of the 
latter Power. 

16 . —Died, aged 74, Wilhelm Carl Grim, 
antiquary and philologist. 

17 . —The royal palace of Fredericksburg, 
one of the noblest edifices'in Denmark, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

— Died at Weybridge, aged 70, John 
Austin, the most philosophical jurist of his 
time, and a distinguished though l'etiring mem¬ 
ber of the circle which crowded round the chair 
of Jeremy Bentham. 

20 .—Heard in the Court of Common Pleas, 
the case of Oakley v. the Moulvie Ood-Deen, 
being an action .to recover 5,000/. advanced on 
a bill of exchange for 6,500/. alleged to be 
accepted by the defendant as the English agent 
to the King of Oude. The bill had been drawn 
by Henry Chard, endorsed by him to Viscount 
Forth, and by the letter to Oakley, who now 
sought to recover the amount said to have been 
advanced. The Moulvie pleaded fraud in ob¬ 
taining the bill; and, second, that the plaintiff's 
agents knew of the fraud. The jury gave effect 
to both pleas. 

— Publication of another Imperial pamphlet, 
“ Le Pape et le Congres,” bearing on its title- 
page the name of M. de la Gueronniere, but 
presumed to indicate the policy of, if not to be 
written by, the Emperor himself. 

— An Imperial rescript published, appointing 
an industrial legislation for the whole Austrian 
Empire, excepting Venetia. 

24 . —Modena, Parma, and the Romagna 
formed into the Province of ^Emilia. 

— Native forces on the frontier of Oude, 
said to be led by Nana Sahib, dispersed by the 
British. 

25 . —Military riot at Aldershot camp, arising 
out of a controversy between the 24th Foot and 
a company of the Tower Hamlets Militia, as to 
which had got the best Christmas dinner. The 
discussion waxed so hot that the 24th crossed 
over to the quarters occupied by their oppo¬ 
nents and fired upon them with loaded rifles. 
Four of the militiamen were wounded and one 
killed. 

26 . —The Blervie Castle wrecked passing 
through Dover Straits, and all hands lost— 
34 of the crew, and 22 passengers destined for 
Adelaide. 

28 .—Died suddenly, aged 59, Thomas 
Babington, Lord Macaulay, the historian of 
the English Revolution, critic, poet, and poli¬ 
tician. He was buried with honour in West¬ 
minster Abbey on the qlh of January. 

o o 






JANUARY 


i 860 . 


JANUAR V 


i860. 

January 1 . —In pronouncing a benediction 
on the French army, the Pope takes occasion 
to censure the pamphlet of M. de la Gue- 
ronniere. “ Presenting ourselves at the feet of 
the God who was, is, and shall be throughout 
eternity, we implore Him, in the humbleness 
of our hearts, to shed down abundantly His 
blessings and His light on the august chief of 
that army and nation, in order that, being 
guided by that light, he may walk safely in his 
difficult path, and more than this, perceive the 
falsity of certain principles which have been 
put forth in these latter days in an opuscule 
which may be termed a signal monument of 
hypocrisy, and an ignoble tissue of contradic¬ 
tions. We hope that with the aid of that 
light—nay, more, we are persuaded that with 
the aid of that light he will condemn the prin¬ 
ciples contained in that opuscule; we are more 
convinced of this, because we possess certain 
documents which some time ago his Majesty 
had the goodness to send to us, and which are 
a veritable condemnation of those principles. 
It is with this conviction that we implore God 
to shed His blessings on the Emperor, on his 
august Consort, on the Prince Imperial, and on 
the whole of France.” While the benediction 
was being conveyed to Paris, it was crossed 
by an Imperial epistle to the Pope from the 
Tuileries: “ After a serious examination of the 
difficulties and dangers which the different com¬ 
binations presented, I say it with sincere regret, 
and however painful the solution may be, what 
seems to me most in accordance with the true 
interests of the Holy See would be to make a 
sacrifice of the revolted provinces. If the Holy 
Father, for the repose of Europe, were to re¬ 
nounce those provinces which for the last fifty 
years have caused so much embarrassment to 
his Government, and were in exchange to 
demand from the Powers that they should 
guarantee him possession of the remainder, I do 
not doubt of the immediate restoration of order. 
Then the Holy Father would assure to grateful 
Italy peace during long years, and to the Holy 
See the peaceful possession of the States of the 
Church. I am sure your Holiness will not 
misconstrue the sentiments which animate me. 
You will understand the difficulty of my posi¬ 
tion ; you will give a kind interpretation to my 
frank language, remembering all that I have 
already done for the Catholic religion and its 
august Head.” 

— General Prim at the head of the Spanish 
army defeats the Moors at Castillejos. 

4 .—Count Walewski retires from the post of 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and is succeeded 
by M. de Thouvenel, formerly French Ambas¬ 
sador at Constantinople. Lord Cowley left 
the French Court at this time on a diplomatic 
mission to London. 

— David Hughes, solicitor, sentenced at 
( 562 ) 


the Central Criminal Court to ten years’ penal 
servitude, on various charges of defrauding his 
clients by misappropriating their funds, and of 
refusing to surrender to proceedings in bank¬ 
ruptcy. 

5 . —The Emperor Napoleon announces his 
intention of relieving French commerce from 
many existing restrictions. 

6 . —Died, aged 77, William Spence, F.R S., 
entomologist. 

IO.—Pemberton Mills, situate on the Mer- 
rimac river, Massachusetts, falls in ruins upon 
600 or 700 workpeople engaged in the factory. 
In the course of the evening, when the most 
active efforts were being made to rescue the 
survivors, the mass of fallen material caught 
fire, and scores of the miserable people—many 
of them women and children—were consumed 
while their voices were still heard and recog¬ 
nised in unavailing shrieks for help. The total 
number of lives lost in this calamity was said 
to be at least 300. 

12.—In opening the Diet to-day the King of 
Prussia announces several important changes in 
the military organization of the kingdom. 

15 . —Count Cavour resumes his place in the 
councils of the King of Sardinia. 

16 . —The founders of the Institution of 
Naval Architects meet for the first time in the 
Hall of the Society of Arts, and formally re¬ 
solve to establish an association for promoting 
the improvement of ships, and all that specially 
appertains to them. The first general meeting 
of the Institute was held 1st March, when an 
inaugural address was delivered by the Right 
Plon. Sir John Pakington. 

17 . —Mr. Cobden appointed Plenipotentiary 
to negotiate a treaty of commerce with France. 
“ Having stated the basis which appears to 
be best suited to the proceeding,” Lord John 
Russell writes, “I have now to mention cer¬ 
tain reserves which her Majesty’s Government 
have to make on behalf of England, and which 
they presume the Government of his Majesty 
the Emperor of the French may also make on 
behalf of France. The freedom of each 
Government to regulate trade in all matters 
lying beyond the stipulations of the treaty will 
remain entire; but it may be well, for the 
purpose of avoiding misapprehension, to specify 
points which might otherwise remain open to 
doubt. The two Governments will be free, for 
example, to extend to all countries the conces¬ 
sions they engage to make to one another; and 
this extension will, on the part of England, 
probably be effected by a simultaneous act. 
The two Governments are to be at liberty to 
regulate all the conditions of import and ex¬ 
port, as to place and otherwise, for particulai 
articles, and to designate the ports at which 
any branch of trade may be carried on, of course 
with reference to the due economy of Cus¬ 
toms establishments, which does not permit a 
trade imposing difficult rnd costly duties on 






JANUARY 


i860. 


JANUARY 


officers of the revenue to be carried on except 
in places of considerable resort and significance. 
Again, the abolition or limitation of duty 
would not preclude either Government from 
imposing upon goods such charges as are 
known in this country by the name of rates or 
dues, and as are intended, not for the purpose 
of raising a general revenue at the cost of 
trade, but merely either to sustain or to miti¬ 
gate the cost imposed upon the public by the 
necessary establishments at the respective ports. 
Lastly, it may be requisite to advert to the 
time at which the meditated changes shall take 
effect. On the side of England, her Majesty’s 
Government will propose that, with respect to 
all those articles which are to be set free from 
duty, and removed altogether from the tariff, 
those articles shall become free on the day suc¬ 
ceeding that on which a resolution in Com¬ 
mittee of the House of Commons, affirming 
the proposed freedom from Customs duty, shall 
have been duly reported and agreed to by the 
House itself.” 

18 .—Statue to Lord Clive inaugurated at 
Shrewsbury, Earl Stanhope delivering an 
address on the occasion. 

20 . —Died in London, aged 65, Sir William 
Charles Ross, A.R.A., miniature-painter to 
her Majesty. 

21 . — Captain Harrison, of the Great 
Eastern , drowned in Southampton water, by 
the capsizing of a small boat carrying him from 
the ship to the town. The boat, which was 
fully manned by six picked seamen and the 
captain’s coxswain, was seized in a sudden 
squall near the dock-gates, and upset before 
her trysail could be lowered. Boats were at 
once put off from the Indus to the rescue, but 
when Captain Harrison was reached, the body 
was floating a little under water, and life quite 
extinct—death being apparently the result of 
apoplexy caused by the intense cold. The 
coxswain was found insensible close by, and 
survived only till the evening. A fine youth, 
son of the chief purser, was also drowned; 
the chief purser himself (Mr. Lay), and Dr. 
Watson, were among those saved with the 
crew. 

— Suppression of U Univers , the organ of 
the Ultramontane party in France. 

23 . —Treaty of Commerce between France 
and England signed at Paris. Ratifications 
exchanged February 4. 

24 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech alluded to the 
communications carried on with the Emperor 
of the French, “ with a view to extend 
the commercial intercourse between the two 
countries, and thus to draw still closer the 
bonds of friendly alliance between them.” 
The other principal subjects referred to were 
the Peace Congress for settling the affairs of 
Italy ; the conflict at the Peiho, caused by the 
resistance of the Chinese to the treaty of Tien¬ 
tsin ; the San Juan difficulty; the entire sup¬ 

(563) 


pression of the Indian Mutiny ; the acceptance 
of the extensive offer of voluntary service re¬ 
ceived from all ranks ; and the new measure to 
be brought in for placing the representation of 
the people “upon a broader and firmer basis.” 
The discussion which ensued on the motion for 
the Address had reference chiefly to the condi¬ 
tion of Italy and the approaching Congress. 

29 . —The long-continued and unseemly dis¬ 
turbances in the church of St. George’s-in-the- 
East (see Aug. 21 and Nov. 6, 1859) reached a 
pitch to-night which the Times rightly described 
as “ devilish.” The appearance of the Rev. 
Bryan King with his attendant priests and 
choristers was the signal for the commencement 
of the most discordant noises and fearful impre¬ 
cations. One mode of annoyance long practised 
had been to “ say” the responses in the loudest 
possible tone, in order to drown the “ chant ” of 
the choir. This irreverent proceeding was now 
extended into blasphemy, the disturbers of the 
service substituting indecent and wicked imita¬ 
tive responses. When the service was concluded 
and the clergy had withdrawn, the mob made 
a rush at the altar ; the hassocks were hurled 
at a beautiful chandelier suspended over the 
apse, and a large cross was assailed by missiles 
from the gallery, where there were groups of 
blackguards singing comic songs. The rioters 
were latterly expelled by the police, which 
force for several Sundays afterwards afforded 
a small measure of protection to the people 
worshipping in the church. The disturbance 
gradually died out as the churchwardens them¬ 
selves became more tolerant of the ministrations, 
and more alive to their duty of seeing the peace 
preserved within the fabric of which they had 
the charge. 

— Died near Bonn, aged 90, Ernst Moritz 
Arndt, a venerable German poet and patriot. 

30 . —In the House of Lords the Bishop of 
London urges upon the Government the neces¬ 
sity of taking steps to protect the parishioners 
of St. George’s-in-the-East in the free exercise 
of worship in the church there. Earl Gran¬ 
ville admitted that the proceedings were a very 
great scandal, and highly discreditable to all 
the parties concerned. When disturbances 
first occurred there was a difficulty in ascer¬ 
taining the law by which magistrates could 
punish offenders; the only Act giving that 
power was one of Philip and Mary, respecting 
which the question arose whether it applied 
to the Protestant Church, it having been origin¬ 
ally passed with a view to Roman Catholic 
places of worship. It was held that the law 
might apply in the present instance, but there 
were still difficulties in carrying it into effect. 
In the House of Commons the Home Secretary, 
Sir G. C. Lewis, demurred to designating the 
scandalous scenes as “outrages,” though they 
were doubtless offences against the decorum and 
propriety of public worship. Pie expressed his 
regret that the incumbent’s mode of performing 
public worship in St. George’s-in-the-East should 
be such as to create so much dissatisfaction. 

O O 7 





JANUARY 


i860. 


FEBRUAR V 


31 .—The emigrant ship Endymion de¬ 
stroyed by fire in the Mersey. The passengers 
being all got out in safety, the captain scuttled 
the vessel and ran her on shore; but, as the 
tide was receding, this attempt to save the hull 
was attended with no advantage. 

February 1 . —Mr. M‘Mahon’s bill for per¬ 
mitting an appeal in criminal cases thrown out 
on a second reading without a division, the 
Home Secretary pointing out the probable 
consequence of the proposed change; the de¬ 
delay and uncertainty it would impart to the 
administration of our criminal law ; the multi¬ 
plication of trials, which would compel an ad¬ 
dition to the judicial bench ; the cost of new 
trials, and the equal justice with which the 
prosecutor might claim such a privilege with 
the prisoner. 

— Meeting of delegates of the Marriage 
Law Defence Association at Willis’s Rooms, to 
co-operate in the efforts now being made to 
oppose the bill for legalizing marriage with 
a deceased wife’s sister. Vice - Chancellor 
Wood proposed a resolution, which was car¬ 
ried unanimously, “ that such marriage, or any 
other within the prohibited degrees, would be 
fraught with grave danger and injury to reli¬ 
gion, morality, and family life.” 

■ 4 .—The Spaniards capture Tetuan. Ttwas 
afterwards evacuated pending negotiations for 
peace, but retaken March 23. 

6 .—In connection with the renewed rumours 
regarding the annexation of Savoy and Nice to 
France, Lord John Russell writes to Sir J. 
Hudson at Turin: “In speaking to Count 
Cavour respecting the rumoured annexation of 
Savoy, you will not disguise from Count Cavour 
that, in the opinion of her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment, it would be a blot in the escutcheon of 
the House of Savoy if the King of Sardinia 
were to yield to France the cradle of his an¬ 
cient and illustrious House. You will point 
out that if the military position of Sardinia 
will be weak, in face of the fortresses possessed 
by Austria on the Mincio and the Adige, that 
weakness will not be cured by placing on 
another frontier the great power of France 
in possession of the passes of the Alps, com¬ 
manding an easy access to Italy in any case of 
hostile discussion between the French and 
Sardinian Governments.” Earl Cowley writes 
from Paris on the 10th : “I had an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing the Emperor yesterday, and I 
had the honour of having some conversation 
with him on the subject of the annexation of 
Savoy to France. His Majesty did not deny 
that, under certain eventualities, he might think 
it right to claim a proper frontier for France; 
that he believed the wish of the Savoyards 
was to be united to France ; and that he could 
not understand why, in the case of the Duchies, 
the wishes of the populations were to be at¬ 
tended to, and that the same principle should 
not prevail with respect to Savoy. His Ma¬ 
jesty, however, disclaimed all intention of an- 
( 5 ^) 


nexing Savoy against the will of the Savoy ards 
themselves, and without having consulted the 
Great Powers.” M. Thouvenel, the French 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, then sought to 
justify the annexation: “ Historical tradi¬ 
tions, which it is needless to recall, have accre¬ 
dited the idea that the formation of a more 
powerful State at the foot of the Alps would 
be unfavourable to our interests, and although, 
in the arrangement developed in this despatch, 
the annexation of all the States of Central 
Italy to Sardinia should not be complete, it is 
certain that in the point of view of external re¬ 
lations it would be equivalent in reality to an 
analogous result. The same provisions, how¬ 
ever distinct they may be, claim the same 
guarantees; and the possession of Savoy and of 
the country of Nice—excepting the interests of 
Switzerland, which we always desire to take 
into account—also presents itself to us in that 
hypothesis as a geographical necessity for the 
safety of our frontier. ” 

7 . —The Marquis of Normanby moves an 
Address to the Queen, directing her Govern¬ 
ment to use their best endeavour to prevent 
the transfer of Savoy and Nice to France. 
The motion was opposed by Government, and 
withdrawn after discussion. 

— Lord John Manners’s motion for leave to 
bring in a bill permitting the Divorce Court 
to hold its sittings with closed doors, thrown 
out by 268 to 83 votes. 

8. —Sir John Trelawny’s Church Rates 
Abolition Bill read a second time, by a ma¬ 
jority of 263 to 234. 

IO.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces the annual Budget, the statement 
having been unavoidably deferred from the 
6th, in consequence of his illness. Mr. Glad¬ 
stone began by noticing the circumstances 
which made the present a memorable year in 
British finance—the relief of 2,146,000/. from 
payment of interest on the National Debt; the 
lessening of war-duties on tea and sugar ; the 
expiry of the period for which the Income- 
tax was voted, and the new commercial treaty 
with France. He estimated the charges for the 
ensuing year at 70,000,000/., and the income at 
60,700,000/. The deficiency to be made up 
partly by a renewal of the tea and sugar duties 
as they now stood for fifteen months, and 
partly through the operations of the new 
French Treaty, which he recommended the 
House to adopt. “France,” he said, “en¬ 
gaged to reduce the duties on English coal 
and coke, flax, and pig-iron, in 1861. On the 
1st of October, 1861, France would reduce 
duties and take away prohibitions on British 
productions mentioned, on which there was an 
ad vciloreiii duty of 30 per cent. There was a 
provision that the maximum of 30 per cent, 
should, after a lapse of three years, be reduced 
to a maximum of 25 per cent. England en¬ 
gaged, with a limited power of exception, to 
abolish immediately and totally all duties on 
manufactured goods ; to reduce the duty < n 





FEB REAR V 


i860. 


FEB REAR Y 


brandy from 15J. to 8j. 2d. ; on wine from 
5 j. 1 od. to 3J. ; with power reserved to in¬ 
crease the duty on wine, if we raised our duty 
on spirits. England engaged to charge upon 
French articles subject to Excise the same 
duties which the manufacturer would be put 
to in consequence of the changes. The treaty 
was to be in force for ten years. ” Speaking 
of Mr. Cobden, the Chancellor of the Exche¬ 
quer said he could not help expressing his 
obligation to him for the labour he had, at 
no small personal sacrifice, bestowed upon a 
measure which Mr. Cobden, not the least 
among the apostles of free trade, believed to 
be one of the greatest triumphs of free trade 
ever accomplished. “ It is a great privilege 
for any man who, having fifteen years ago 
rendered to his country one important and 
signal service, now enjoys the singular good 
fortune of having it in his power—undecorated, 
bearing no mark of rank or of title from his 
Sovereign, or from the people—to perform 
another signal service in the same cause 
for the benefit of, I hope, a not ungrateful 
country.’’ 

11. —Treaty of friendship, commerce, and 
navigation, between Great Britain and the Re¬ 
public of Nicaragua. 

12 . —Died at Scinde House, Clapham Park, 
aged 74, General Sir William Napier, K.C.B., 
historian of the Peninsular War. 

13. —Apologizing for his inability to attend 
a meeting called at Birmingham to express 
sympathy with the Pope, Dr. Newman, of 
the Oratory, writes : “ If ever there was a 
Pontiff who had a claim on our veneration by 
his virtues, and our affection by his per¬ 
sonal bearing—whose nature it is to show 
kindness, and whose portion it has been to 
reap disappointment—it is his present Ploli- 
ness. From the hour that he ascended the 
throne he has aimed at the welfare of his 
States, temporal as well as spiritual, and up 
to this day he has gained in return little else 
than calumny and ingratitude.” 

14. —Lord Normanby brings the affairs of 
Italy under the notice of the House of Lords, 
by a motion directly for papers, but indirectly 
to convey a strong censure upon the newly-con¬ 
stituted authorities in Tuscany, and upon the 
acts of the Sardinian Government. 

16 . —On the proposal that the House go 
into Committee, Mr. Disraeli submitted an 
amendment: “That this House does not 
think fit to go into Committee on the Customs 
Acl, with a view to the reduction or repeal of 
the duties referred to in the treaty of com¬ 
mence between her Majesty and the Emperor 
of the French, until it shall have considered 
and assented to the engagement in the treaty.” 
The amendment was defeated on a division by 
a majority of 293 to 230. 

17. —The American emigrant barque Lima , 
which left Havre on the 15th, with 75 pas¬ 
sengers and a crew of 26, wrecked on the 


Rocher de Quilleboeuf. The occurrence was 
seen by thousands, but the vessel was so 
quickly broken up that of all on board only 
three were rescued, and of these one died after¬ 
wards from injuries and exposure. 

18 . —Close of the most prolonged and 
(writes the Guardian) perhaps the most im¬ 
portant session of Convocation which has been 
seen since its revival. Among the subjects 
which engaged the attention of both Houses 
were, the addition of services for particular 
occasions to the Book of Common Prayer; 
the sending of missionary bishops to the 
heathen not within the bounds of her Ma¬ 
jesty’s dominions; the repeal of the 29th 
Canon, which forbids parents to stand as 
sponsors for their own children ; the law of 
simony; the question of pew-rents; and the 
means to be adopted for lessening the scandals 
which have lately been so prevalent among 
the clergy. 

19 . —Collision off Beachy Head between 
the steamer Undine , from Dublin, and the 
schooner Heroine , of Bideford. The steamer 
went down with about 40 of the 70 on board, 
those saved getting off in a jolly-boat to Dover. 
Two or three were afterwards picked up by 
the Thetis floating near the wreck. 

— The British North American steamship 
Hungarian wrecked off Cape Ledge, Nova 
Scotia, and all on board, about 200 in num¬ 
ber, drowned. So total was the destruction 
that the very corpses were carried away by the 
ocean current, only three bodies being found 
near the scene of the wreck. Sixteen mail- 
bags were recovered, but the contents were 
beaten to pulp. The Hungarian left Liver¬ 
pool on the 5th for Portland, U.S., with a crew 
of 74 persons, 45 cabin and about 80 steerage 
passengers. 

20 . —At Tottenham station on the Eastern 
Counties line, a train runs off the rails, causing 
the death of the engine-man, stoker, and two 
passengers on the spot, and injuries to about 
a score others, three of whom afterwards died. 
The coroner’s jury found “that the deceased 
met with their deaths from the breaking of 
the tire of one of the leading wheels of the 
engine, in consequence of the defective weld; 
and we are of opinion, that had proper caution 
and vigilance been used, the same might have 
been detected.” 

21. —Debate on the Budget, raised by Mr. 
Ducane’s motion, “ That this House, recog¬ 
nising the necessity of providing for the in¬ 
creased expenditure of the coming financial 
year, is of opinion that it is not expedient to 
add to the existing deficiency by diminishing 
the ordinary revenue, and is not prepared to 
disappoint the just expectations of the country 
by re-imposing the Income-tax at an unneces¬ 
sarily high rate.” The discussion extended 
over two nights, and resulted in a majority for 
Government of 116, in a House of 562. 

23 .—Speaking to-night in the adjourned 

( 565 ) 






FEBRUARY 


i860. 


MARCH 


Budget debate concerning the French Com¬ 
mercial Treaty, Mr. Bright happily illustrated 
his opinion by a reference to the writings of 
Mr. Disraeli. “ In one of those very admirable 
books which the right hon. gentleman wrote, 
partly for the instruction, and perhaps rather 
more for the amusement of his countrymen, 
he described the mode of living of an English 
nobleman of great wealth in Paris. He says : 
‘ Lord Monmouth’s dinners at Paris were 
celebrated. It was generally agreed that they 
had no rival. Yet there were others who had 
as skilful cooks—others who for equal purposes 
were as profuse in their expenditure. What 
was the secret of his success ? His lordship’s 
plates were always hot; whereas in Paris, in 
the best-appointed houses, and at dinners 
which for costly materials and admirable art 
in preparation cannot be surpassed, the effect 
is considerably lessened by the fact that every 
person at dinner is served with a cold plate. 
The reason of a custom, or rather a necessity, 
which one would think a nation so celebrated 
for their gastronomic tastes would better 
regulate, is, that the French porcelain is so 
inferior that it cannot endure the ordinary 
heat for dinner.’ Now the right hon. 
gentleman, with an instinct that we cannot too 
much admire, breaks out into something like 
an exclamation. He says : ‘ Now, if we had 
only had that commercial treaty with France 
which has been so often on the point of comple¬ 
tion, and the fabrics of our unrivalled potteries 
were given in exchange for their capital wines, 
the dinners of both nations would be improved ; 
England would gain a delightful beverage, and 
the French (for the first time in their lives) 
would dine off hot plates.’ And he 
concludes with an expression which I recom¬ 
mend to his devoted followers : ‘ An un¬ 

answerable instance of the advantages of 
commercial reciprocity ! ’ ” (Great laughter.) 

25 .—The French Government recommends 
the complete annexation of Parma and Modena 
to Sardinia, the establishment of a protectorate 
in the Romagna, and the incorporation of Savoy 
and Nice with the French Empire. 

27 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer ex¬ 
plains the Government scheme for remitting 
a portion of the wine-duties. The lighter 
wines of France and the Rhine he proposed to 
admit at a duty of ir. to ir. 6 d. per gallon. 

“ A portion of the lighter wines of Portugal, 
Spain, and the Mediterranean, will also be 
admitted at a duty of u. 6 d. per gallon ; while 
the greater portion of the Spanish as well as 
the greater bulk of the Portuguese, and a consi¬ 
derable amount of the Sicilian, together with 
the wines of the South of France, will have to 
pay a duty of 2 s. Next of the scale of duties. 
A uniform duty cannot be adopted, because 
wines vary in quality more than any other 
product. Anything more than a mere nominal 
duty would be unequal in its operations. But 
we cannot impose a nominal duty only, since 
the principle on which wine-duties are levied 
lies at the root of half our indirect taxation— 
(566) 


the imposition of duties on strong liquors. The 
lowest duty is a high rate on the lowest kind of 
wine. Therefore, in order to give fair play to 
the scheme, that duty must not exceed ij.” 
Entering minutely into various objections, Mr. 
Gladstone showed that the alcohol in beer is 
more equally taxed than the alcohol in spirits 
properly so called; and that the competition 
between beer and spirits and beer and wine is 
only indirect. The Government could not 
reduce the duty below 2 s., when the spirit 
approaches forty degrees of proof, without im¬ 
perilling the 12,000,000/. of revenue raised on 
British and foreign spirits. Therefore, 2 s. 
was as low as they could go. He had care¬ 
fully considered ingenious proposals for an 
ad valorem duty, but he did not think that any 
head of a revenue department would undertake 
to administer the law on such a principle. 

28 . —The steamer Nimrod, from Liverpool 
to Cork, wrecked in a severe storm off" St. 
David’s Head, and all on board—about 40 in 
number—perished. The winter storms this 
season were of unusual severity. In January, 
206 wrecks were reported, and a loss of 53 
lives; this month they amounted to 137, in¬ 
volving a loss of 90 lives. 

29 . —Sardinia accedes to the French pro¬ 
posals of the 25th, except in the case of 
Tuscany, Savoy, and Nice, which were to be 
referred to the votes of the people. 

March 1.—Fall of Ramsay-terrace; over¬ 
looking Princes-street-gardens, Edinburgh. 
The terrace, erected by the late Lord Murray to 
commemorate the author of “The Gentle 
Shepherd,” had been thrown up on an im¬ 
perfect foundation, and recent heavy rains 
completed the work of destruction. 

— In his speech at the opening of the 
legislative session, the Emperor of the French 
thus referred to the annexation of Savoy, 
which had for so many months been involved 
in secrecy to the disquiet of European Courts : 

“ Looking to the transformation of Northern 
Italy, which has put all the passes of the Alps 
in the hands of a powerful State, it was my 
duty, for the security of our frontier, to claim the 
French slopes of the mountains. This reassertion 
of a claim to a territory of small extent has 
nothing in it of a nature to alarm Europe and 
give a denial to the policy of disinterestedness 
which I have proclaimed more than once ; for 
France does not wish to proceed to this ag¬ 
grandizement, however small it may be, either 
by military occupation, or by provoked insur¬ 
rection, or by underhand manoeuvres, but by 
frankly explaining the question to the Great 
Powers. They will, doubtless, understand in 
their equity, as France would understand it 
for each of them under similar circumstances, 
that the important territorial re-arrangement 
which is about to take place gives us a right to 
a guarantee indicated by Nature herself. . . . 
For the last eleven years I have sustained 
alone at Rome the power of the Holy Father, 
without having ceased a single day to revere 





MARCH 


i860. 


MARCH 


in him the sacred character of the chief of 
our religion. On another side the population 
of the Romagna, abandoned all at once to 
themselves, have experienced a natural excite¬ 
ment, and sought during the war to make 
common cause with us. Ought I to forget 
them in making peace, and to hand them over 
anew for an indefinite time to the chances of a 
foreign occupation ? My first efforts have been 
to reconcile them to their sovereign, and, not 
having succeeded, I have tried at least to up¬ 
hold in the revolted provinces the principle of 
the temporal power of the Pope.” 

1. —Lord John Russell introduces the Ca¬ 
binet scheme of Parliamentary Reform. He 
proposed to reduce the borough franchise to 
61 .—a step which would have the effect of 
increasing the number of voters from 440,000 
to 634,000. Twenty-five seats were to be taken 
from small places returning two members, and 
divided among new constituencies. The measure 
was received with great indifference, and, after 
a succession of languid debates, withdrawn on 
the nth of June. 

2 . —Explosion at the Burradon Colliery, 
near Killingworth, Newcastle, causing the 
death of seventy-six men and boys employed 
in the workings. The pit, being on the low 
main, had a bad reputation, yet only those 
working on the “broken” section used Davy 
lamps; those engaged in the “whole” used 
candles. The bodies were found in groups 
in various parts of the workings as they had 
fallen and died in their flight. Some were 
scorched and killed by the explosion; but by 
far the greatest number appeared to have died 
from the effects of choke-damp. 

— In laying on the table of the House 
the correspondence relating to the annexation 
of Savoy, Lord John Russell said he had no 
knowledge of any treaty between France and 
Sardinia on the subject, but the Emperor had 
pledged himself to take no steps in the matter 
without consulting the other Powers. Later 
in the evening, in the course of a discussion 
raised by Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Bright said : 
“ I don’t want the Government to give the 
slightest countenance to this transfer, nor do 
I want them, on the other hand, to give the 
slightest opposition to it. The opposition, if 
you give it, must be futile; you cannot pre¬ 
vent the transference of Savoy, but you may, 
if you like, embroil Europe and bring Eng¬ 
land into collision with France. I say, ‘Perish 
Savoy ’—(cries of ‘Oh, oh !’)—though Savoy, 
I believe, will not perish, or even suffer— 
rather than we, the representatives of the 
people of England, should involve the Govern¬ 
ment of this country with the people and the 
Government of France in a matter in which 
we have really no interest whatever. ... If 
those two kingdoms have agreed on the 
transfer, and the people of Savoy themselves 
are favourable to it, I say it is contrary to 
the interests of England, and to the honour 
of the English Government, to pretend to in¬ 
terpose against a transaction which, though I 


would never have recommended or promoted 
it, is yet, I am sure, not worth the imposition 
of a single tax on Englishmen, or the expen¬ 
diture of a single drop of blood for one mo¬ 
ment to prevent it.”—Lord John Manners repu¬ 
diated these sentiments, and expressed his con¬ 
fidence that the hon. member for Birmingham 
stood alone in the expression of such opinions. 
—On the 5th, Mr. Roebuck said the House of 
Commons had, by a declaration of its opinions 
on a former occasion, stopped the Emperor in 
his career, and they might do so again when, 
under a pretence of entering into closer com¬ 
mercial relations with us, he was casting dis¬ 
honour upon England, and breaking up all the 
treaties to which this country was a party. 

2 .— Count Cavour to M. de Thouvenel:— 
The Sardinian Government “would never 
consent, with even the greatest prospective 
advantages, to cede or exchange any one 
of the parts of the territory which has 
formed for so many ages the glorious inherit¬ 
ance of the House of Savoy. But the King’s 
Government cannot refuse to take into con¬ 
sideration the changes which passing events in 
Italy may have introduced into the situation of 
the inhabitants of Savoy and Nice. At the 
moment when we are loudly demanding for 
the inhabitants of Central Italy the right of 
disposing of their destiny, we cannot, without 
incurring the charge of inconsistency and in¬ 
justice, refuse to the King’s subjects dwelling 
on the other side of the Alps the right of freely 
manifesting their will. However poignant 
the regret we should feel if the provinces, 
once the glorious cradle. of the monarchy, 
should decide on demanding their separation 
from the rest of the King’s dominions in order 
to join other destinies, we should not refuse 
to acknowledge the validity of this manifesta¬ 
tion declared legally and conformably with the 
prescriptions of Parliament.” 

5 .—The Austrian Reichsrath reformed by 
Imperial patent, and commanded to meet an¬ 
nually for the discussion of public business. 

— The American House of Representatives 
adopt a resolution for appointing a committee 
to inquire into the charges made against Presi¬ 
dent Buchanan of giving bribes to ensure the 
success of a bill legalizing slavery in Kansas. 

7 .—Pier Majesty holds a levee in St. James’s, 
for the purpose of receiving the officers of the 
newly-formed Volunteer Rifle Corps. About 
2,500 attended, representing an effective force 
of 70,000 men. Earl Grey, the Under Secre¬ 
tary at War, in addressing the officers, said 
it would depend upon themselves whether the 
movement was to be worthy of England, or 
whether it was to become a mere laughing¬ 
stock. Before the end of the summer he 
thought the number of Volunteers would reach 
100,000 men. The proposal was received 
with such universal favour, that by the date 
spoken of the number of Volunteers enrolled 
numbered 180,000, of whom 40,000 had been 
formed into battalions, so admirably trained and 

567) 




MARCH 


i860. 


MARCH 


armed, that the official inspection pronounced 
them fit to take their place in line of battle. 

8 .—From Shanghai Mr. Bruce addresses 
an ultimatum to the Chinese Government, de¬ 
manding an ample apology for firing on our 
ships from the Talcu forts, the ratification of 
the Treaty of Tien-tsin, an indemnity of 
4,000,000 taels, and the reception of a resident 
ambassador at Pekin. The terms were rejected, 
the despatch being described as written in lan¬ 
guage insubordinate and extravagant. “For 
the future he (the English Minister) must not 
be so wanting in decorum.” 

— Mr. Byng’s motion for an address to her 
Majesty expressing the satisfaction of the 
House with the Commercial Treaty with 
France, carried by 282 to 56. Apart from its 
connexion in point of time with the annexation 
question—which the opponents of the treaty 
made the most of—the principal discussion 
took place on the nth article, relating to the 
exportation of coal from this country. A con¬ 
siderable number of Conservatives left the 
House before the division. 

11. — Commencement of the voting in 
Tuscany and the ^Emilia (comprising the 
Duchies of Parma and Modena and the 
Legations) on the question of annexation to 
Sardinia or a separate kingdom. The people 
appeared to decide by an immense majority in 
favour Of annexation. On receiving the 
homage of ^Emilia, the King said: “In 
uniting to my ancient provinces, not only the 
States of Modena and Parma, but also the 
Romagna, which has separated itself from the 
Papal Government, I do not intend to fail in 
my deep devotion to the Chief of the Church. 
I am ready to defend the independence neces¬ 
sary to the supreme minister of religion, the 
Pope, to contribute to the splendour of his 
Court, and to pay homage to his sovereignty. ” 

12. —The second reading of the Government 
bill abolishing the paper-duty carried by 245 
to 192. 

— Lord John Russell makes a formal ex¬ 
planation of the position of the Government 
with reference to the negotiations going on for 
the annexation of Savoy and Nice by France. 
He denied that the Government had encouraged 
either Sardinia or France in their designs upon 
other countries. It was for European objects 
that they had employed the influence of Great 
Britain, and employed it peacefully to recon¬ 
cile differences, prevent war, and lay the foun¬ 
dations of peace between the Great Powers of 
Europe. If in doing so they could enable 
Italy to regain her independence, and raise a 
country which for three centuries had been 
sunk and degraded, into one of the leading 
Powers of Europe, so far from being ashamed 
and shrinking from any responsibility, he should 
always take a pride in having been allowed to 
participate in such an object. In the debate 
which ensued the conduct of the Government 
in not making the annexation a pretext for war 
was generally approved of. 

(568) 


13 .—M.Thouvenel writes to Count Persigny, 
justifying on the ground of treaties the ces¬ 
sion to France of the Savoy slope of the Alps. 
“ In accordance with our requirements {con- 
venances) and with the will of the King of 
Sardinia, and without contravention of the 
general interests of Europe, the cession of 
Savoy and the country of Nice to France raises 
no questions incompatible with the best-estab¬ 
lished and most rigorous ndes of public law. 
If the character, the language, and the customs 
of the populations destined to be united to 
France assure us that the cession is not con¬ 
trary to their feelings; if we reflect that the 
configuration of the locality has intermixed 
their commercial and their political interests 
with our own ; if we say, lastly, that the Alps 
constitute the barrier which must eternally 
separate Italy from France, we may confine 
ourselves to conclude from this that the new 
frontier to be established between Piedmont 
and ourselves finds its sanction in the force of 
circumstances. It is not in the name of the 
idea of nationality, it is not as a natural frontier, 
that we prosecute the adjunction of Savoy and of 
Nice to our territory ; it is solely as a guarantee, 
and under circumstances such as the mind 
cannot conceive, that they should reproduce 
themselves anywhere else.” ... In the same 
Moniteur was published the reply made, four 
days earlier, to the protest of Dr. Kern on be¬ 
half of the Swiss Government. ‘ ‘ The Emperor 
is greatly surprised at such a step, thinking after 
the friendship he had shown to the Federal 
Council, confidence might have been placed in 
the justice of France.” The Moniteur also 
published an account of the reception by the 
Emperor of the councillors of the principal 
towns of Savoy, with their addresses, and the 
Imperial reply. The councillors concluded 
their address: “From the shores of Lake 
Leman to the valleys of Mount Cenis those 
who have been honoured with the votes of 
their fellow-citizens have hastened to your 
Majesty to express the joy that Savoy will 
feel when she will be fully reunited to France, 
and when she may always have with that 
great and noble nation but one cry—that of 
‘ Vive I’Empereur! ’ ‘ Vive la France !’” The 
Emperor, in his reply, having epitomised 
the arguments contained in the above de¬ 
spatches, added : “ My friendship for Switzer¬ 
land made me look upon it as possible to 
detach in favour of the Confederation some por¬ 
tions of the territory of Savoy; but in face of 
the repulsion shown among you at the idea of 
seeing a country dismembered which has known 
how to create for itself through centuries a 
glorious individuality, and thus give itself a 
national history, it is natural to declare that I 
will not constrain the wishes of the popula¬ 
tions to the profit of others. As regards the 
political and commercial interests which unite 
certain portions of Savoy to Switzerland, it 
will be easy, I think, to satisfy them by special 
arrangements.” 

* 5 .—The Great Tasmania , which had left 




MARCH 


i860. 


MARCH 


Calcutta on the 9th of November with above 
1,000 of the disbanded troops, arrives in the 
Mersey, a floating plague-ship, with above 400 
of her miserable passengers in the last stage 
of fever, cholera, or dysentery. The vessel 
was greatly overcrowded at starting, the men 
were in the worst possible condition from 
weeks of unrestrained indulgence ; to crown 
all, it was discovered on mid-ocean that most 
of the food on board was unfit for human 
use, and that the water with even short 
rations would hardly carry them to St. Helena. 
There was only one medical officer on board, 
aided by a dispenser, and the medicine-chest 
was found to be as badly furnished as other 
departments of the ship. About 80 died on 
the passage ; those now suffering were removed 
as quickly as possible to the infirmaries, and 
the survivors of a branch of that once formid¬ 
able force which had broken the strength of 
the great Mutiny by exertions unsurpassed in 
history, now crept out like skeletons stealing 
from a plague-stricken city. 

15 .—The College of Bishops deliver judg¬ 
ment in the case of Dr. Forbes, of Brechin, a 
Bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church, 
charged w ith holding heretical opinions on the 
subject of the Eucharist. The presentment 
accused the Bishop of maintaining and teaching, 
in a charge delivered to his clergy on the 
5th of August, 1857, and since published and 
republished by him, doctrines contrary and 
repugnant to, unsanctioned by, and subversive 
of, certain of the Articles of Religion, and cer¬ 
tain parts of the formularies for public worship 
used in the Scottish Episcopal Church, in so 
far as he taught: (1) That ‘"‘the Eucharistic 
sacrifice is the same substantially with that 
of the cross;” (2) that “supreme adoration is 
due to the body and blood of Christ myste¬ 
riously present in the gifts,” and that “the 
worship is due not to the gifts, but to Christ 
in the gifts;” (3) “that in some sense the 
wicked do receive Christ indeed, to their con¬ 
demnation and loss,”—whereby the doctrines 
(i) of the oneness of the oblation of Christ 
finished on the cross, of the perfect pro¬ 
pitiation which He there once made, and of 
the Holy Eucharist being a memorial or com¬ 
memoration of His death and sacrifice on the 
cross; (2) of the non-adoration of the sacra¬ 
mental bread and wine and non-corporeal pre¬ 
sence of Christ’s natural flesh and blood therein; 
and (3) that the wicked are in no sense partakers 
of Christ—were contradicted and . depraved. 
Several other passages in the presentment were 
also cited as tending generally to deprave the 
doctrines of the Articles and Formularies, by 
drawing aside the plain and full meaning thereof. 
The Synod, having taken time for deliberation, 
this day delivered their judgment, which was in 
substance as follows : “ That the College of 
Bishops, having considered the presentment, 
See., and having heard parties fully thereon, 
find that the said presentment is relevant and 
pioven to the extent and effect after-mentioned ; 
more particularly find, with reference to the 


charge contained under the first and second 
heads of the presentment, that the teaching of 
the respondent there complained of is un¬ 
sanctioned by the Articles and Formularies of 
the Church, and is to a certain extent incon¬ 
sistent therewith ; find that the third charge of 
the presentment is not proven. But, in consi¬ 
deration of the explanations and modifications 
offered by the respondent in his answers in 
reference to the first charge ; and in considera¬ 
tion, also, that the respondent now only asks 
toleration for his opinions, and does not claim 
for them the authority of the Church, or any 
right to enforce them on those subject to his 
jurisdiction, we, the College of Bishops, feel 
that we shall best discharge our duty in this 
painful case by limiting our sentence to a 
declaration of censure and admonition : and we 
do now solemnly admonish, and in all brotherly 
love entreat, the Bishop of Brechin to be more 
careful for the future, so that no fresh occasion 
may be given for trouble or offence, such as has 
arisen from the delivery and publication of the 
primary charge to his clergy complained of in 
the presentment.” 

17 .— Died at Ealing, aged 64, Mrs. Anna 
Jameson, authoress of “The Characteristics of 
Women,” and a cultivated worker in the de¬ 
partments of Literature, Art, and the social 
advancement of her sex. 

19 . —In the course of the debate on the 
proposal for reading Lord John Russell’s 
Reform Bill a second time, Mr. Disraeli, while 
he would offer no opposition to the measure 
at this stage, said if anything could be devised 
calculated to introduce into Parliament a 
temporising spirit, it was the machinery by 
which the representation of the minority in 
the constituent body was to be secured. ‘ ‘ The 
destruction of spirit and energy in our public 
life. would, I cannot help thinking, be the 
consequence, and therefore it is that I, for one, 
am entirely opposed to the second object 
which the noble lord seeks to obtain by his 
scheme of dealing with the redistribution of 
seats. ” 

20 . —Correspondence between the King of 
Sardinia and the Pope, relating to the events 
in Italy. The King writes: “If your 
Holiness should receive with beneficence the 
present overture for a negotiation, my Go¬ 
vernment, ready to offer homage to the high 
sovereignty of the Apostolic See, would be 
also disposed to bear in a just proportion the 
diminution of the revenues, and to concur in 
providing for the security and independence of 
the Apostolic See. Such are my sincere inten¬ 
tions, and such are, I believe, the wishes of 
Europe. And now that I have, with words of 
sincerity, declared my feelings to your Holi¬ 
ness, I will await your determination, in the 
hope that, through the goodwill of the two 
Governments, an agreement may be realized 
which, founded on the feelings of the princes 
and the content of the people, may settle 
the relations of the two States on a stable 

1569 





MARCH 


i860. 


MARCH 


foundation. From the kindness of the Father 
of the Faithful I expect a gracious reception, 
which may afford a well-founded hope of 
extinguishing civil discord, of pacifying exas¬ 
perated minds, and of sparing every one the 
serious responsibility of the evils which might 
arise from contrary counsels. ” The Pope 
replied : “ The events which have taken place 
in some of the provinces of the States of the 
Church impose on your Majesty the obliga¬ 
tion, as you write to me, of accounting to me 
for your behaviour in respect to them. I 
might contest certain assertions contained in 
your Majesty’s letter, and say, for instance, 
that the foreign occupation in the Legations 
had been for some time past confined to the 
city of Bologna, which never was a part of the 
Romagna. I might answer that the pretended 
universal suffrage was not spontaneous, but 
imposed ; and here I abstain from* asking your 
Majesty’s opinion on universal suffrage, as well 
as from declaring to you my decision. I might 
answer that the Papal troops were hindered 
from re-establishing the legitimate Government 
in the insurgent provinces by causes known 
also to your Majesty. I might answer this and 
much more on the subject ; but what still more 
imposes on me the obligation of not consenting 
to your Majesty’s plans, is the spectacle of the 
immorality daily increasing in those provinces, 
and of the insults offered to religion and its 
ministers ; so that, even were I not bound by 
solemn oaths to maintain the patrimony of the 
Church intact—oaths which forbid me to enter 
upon any negotiations whatever tending to 
diminish its extent—I should consider myself 
bound to reject every project, so as not to 
stain my conscience with a consent which 
would carry with it the sanction of, and direct 
participation in, those disorders, and would 
have the effect of justifying an unjust and 
forcible spoliation. For the rest, I not only 
cannot receive cordially your Majesty’s propo¬ 
sals, but, on the contrary, protest against the 
usurpation which is being accomplished to the 
loss of the States of the Church; and I leave on 
the conscience of your Majesty, and all abettors 
of this act of spoliation, the fatal consequences 
which may ensue. I am persuaded that your 
Majesty, in reading over, with a mind more 
tranquil, less prejudiced, and better acquainted 
with the real facts, the letter which you ad¬ 
dressed to me, will find much to repent of. I 
pray the Lord to grant you that grace of which, 
in your present difficult position, you have so 
great need.” 

23 . —-The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces his proposal, afterwards accepted by 
the House, to increase the Income-tax to lod. 
in the pound. 

24 . —In the matter of the Carron Iron 
Company compromise, the Master of the Rolls 
rejects the plea made on behalf of Stainton’s 
representatives that the first payment con¬ 
stituted a general compromise, and finds that 
the recently-discovered defalcations constitute 

( 570 ) 


a new and independent claim against the 
Stainton estate. 

24 . —Signature of the Treaty of Annexation 
of Savoy and Nice to France. The preamble 
declared that, “ His Majesty the Emperor 
of the French having explained the considera¬ 
tions which, in consequence of the changes 
that have arisen in the territorial relations be¬ 
tween France and Sardinia, caused him to de¬ 
sire the annexation of Savoy and of the arron- 
dissement of Nice to France ; and his Majesty 
the King of Sardinia having shown himself 
disposed to acquiesce in it, their Majesties 
have decided to conclude a treaty to this effect,” 
His Majesty the King of Sardinia consents to 
the annexation of Savoy and of the arrondisse- 
ment of Nice to France, and renounces for 
himself and all his descendants and successors, 
in favour of his Majesty the Emperor of the 
French, his rights and titles over the said terri¬ 
tories. It is understood between their Majes¬ 
ties that this annexation shall be effected 
without any constraint of the wishes of the 
populations, and that the Governments of the 
Emperor of the French and the King of Sar¬ 
dinia will concert together as soon as possible 
upon the best means of appreciating and 
verifying the manifestations of those wishes. 

— The Gotairo or Regent of Japan assas¬ 
sinated. 

25 . —Austria protests against the annexation 
of the Italian duchies to the new kingdom of 
Italy. 

26 . —The Pope issues Letters Apostolic pro¬ 
nouncing the major excommunication against 
the invaders and usurpers (not named) of 
certain provinces in the Pontifical States. 

‘ ‘ The first evident signs of the hostile attacks 
were seen at the Paris Congress of the year 
1856, when that Power, among other hostile 
declarations, proposed to weaken the temporal 
power of the Pope and the authority of the 
Holy See ; but last year, when war broke out 
between the Emperor of Austria and the Em¬ 
peror of the French and the King of Sardinia, 
no fraud, no sin was avoided, which could 
excite the inhabitants of the States of the 
Church to sedition. Hence instigators were 
despatched, a great deal of money was spent, 
arms were supplied, excitement was created 
by bad pamphlets and journals, and fraud of 
every kind was employed, even on the part 
of those who were members of the Embassy of 
that country at Rome, without any regard to 
honesty and international right, as they asserted 
their dignity in order to be enabled to misuse 
it, and to pursue their dark projects for damag¬ 
ing our Papal Government. . . . Having in¬ 
voked the light of the Holy Spirit in private 
and public prayers, and having taken the ad¬ 
vice of the reverend brothers the Cardinals of 
our Holy Romish Church, we declare, in ac¬ 
cordance with the authority which we hold 
from Almighty God and the most holy Apostles 
Peter and Paul, and also in accordance with 
our own authority, all those who have taken 




MARCH 


i860. 


MARCH 


part in the sinful insurrection in our provinces, 
iu usurping, occupying, and invading them, or 
in doing such deeds as we complained of in 
our above-mentioned allocutions of the 20th 
of June and the 20th of September in last year, 
or those who have perpetrated some of those 
acts themselves) those who have been their 
warranters, supporters, helpers, counsellors, 
and followers, as well as those who connived 
at executing the above-mentioned deeds under 
whatever pretence and in whatever manner, 
or who perpetrated them themselves, to have 
taken on themselves the atonement of the major 
excommunication and religious punishment as 
they are determined in our Apostolic Constitu¬ 
tion, and by the decrees of the General Councils, 
especially that of Trent (Sess. £2, chap. ii. on 
Reforms); and, if necessary, we excommuni¬ 
cate them again, we anathematize them, further 
declaring that they are to lose all privileges 
and graces, an indulgence which they enjoyed 
until now from our Papal predecessors, and 
that they cannot in any measure be released or 
absolved of these censures by any one except 
ourselves or the Romish Pontiff then reigning, 
except at the moment of death, but not in the 
ev'nt of their recovery, when they are again 
subject to the above punishment, and are un¬ 
able to receive any absolution until they have 
retracted, revoked, annulled, and abolished 
in public all they have committed, and have 
brought everything back fully and effectively 
to its former state, and have given complete 
satisfaction to the Papal power. . . . The pre¬ 
sent letter, as is.well known, cannot be safely 
published everywhere, and especially in such 
places where it should be most required; there¬ 
fore we will that this letter, or copies of it, shall 
be posted on the doors of the Lateran Church, 
on those of the church of the Prince of the 
Apostles {Basilica Principis Apostolorum), on 
those of the Apostolic Chancery and General 
Curia {Curia Generalis), in Monte Citaris, and 
at the corner of the Field of Flora of the city 
{in acie Campi Flora de Urbe), a- is usual, and 
the so posted and published letters, and each 
of those letters, shall have the same power upon 
every one whom it concerns as if they had been 
presented nominatim persona liter.” 

26 .— Mr. Horsman makes another attack 
on the French Emperor and the policy of 
Ministers. He denounced the conduct of the 
Emperor in Italy as full of deceit. “ I say,” he 
repeated, “ that he has deceived the English 
Ministers, and has made them his tools for 
deceiving the English Parliament. (Opposition 
cheers.) I say that he has treated them with 
a duplicity which they had not the candour 
to avow, and with a contempt which they had 
not the spirit to resent. (Renewed cheers.) 
And, speaking of his proceedings in Savoy and 
Sardinia, and the manner in which he has 
announced his policy to Europe, I say he has 
added insolence to aggression, and perfidy to 
injustice ! ”—Lord John Russell, who on rising 
was received with loud cheering, said the hon. 
gentleman had raised a great many spectres, with 


which he had fought much more than with any 
reality existing. The chief was that the Minis¬ 
ters were continually rebuking the House for 
freedom of speech. On the contrary, Govern¬ 
ment had been satisfied with the forbearance 
shown. Once only it was thought Mr. Sey¬ 
mour Fitzgerald had forgotten the responsibility 
of his position, but he subsequently made a 
speech of such moderation and good intention, 
that he was perfectly satisfied. “But I must 
say that, as the right hon. gentleman the 
member for Stroud has given us so much warn¬ 
ing and advice, and so much objurgation, I 
may be permitted to give him one piece of 
advice—that, seeing there is on the other side 
of the House an indisposition to enter upon any 
violent course of opposition, or any factious 
misrepresentation, I wonder that he does not 
himself take his place on the front seat of the 
Opposition bench—(Ministerial cheers)—and 
endeavour to show, to the shame of the right 
hon. gentlemen opposite, what faction can effect. 
(Renewed cheers.) . . . Sir, my opinion, as I 
declared it in July and January, I have no 
hesitation to repeat—that such an act as the 
annexation of Savoy is one that will lead a 
nation so warlike as the French to call upon its 
Government from time to time to commit other 
acts of aggression, and, therefore, I do feel 
that, however we may wish to live o» the most 
friendly terms with the French Government— 
(cheers)—we ought not to keep ourselves apart 
from the other nations of Europe—(loud cheers 
from both sides of the House)—but that, when 
future questions may arise, as future questions 
will arise, we should be ready to act with others, 
and to declare, always in the most moderate 
and friendly terms, but still firmly, that the 
settlement of Europe, the peace of Europe, 
is a matter dear to this country; and that 
settlement and that peace cannot be assured if 
it is liable to perpetual interruption—(loud 
cheers)—to constant fears, to doubts and 
rumours, with respect to the annexation of this 
one country, or the union and connexion of 
that other; but that the Powers of Europe, if 
they wish to maintain that peace, and respe.ct 
each other’s rights, must respect each other’s 
limits, and, above all, restore and not disturb 
that commercial confidence which is the result 
of peace, which tends to peace, and which 
ultimately forms the happiness of nations. 
(Loud cheers.) ” 

26 . —The foreign ambassadors at the Neapo¬ 
litan Court present a joint address to Francis II. 
recommending political reforms. 

27 . —Prussia protests against the annexation 
of Savoy to France. 

29 . —The Queen of Spain agrees upon pre¬ 
liminaries of peace with Morocco, the Emperor 
consenting to pay 20,000,000 piastres as in¬ 
demnity, and to leave Tetuan in the meantime 
in the hands of Spain. A treaty was signed 
April 27. 

30 . —Sir Robert Peel draws attention to the 
position of Switzerland, in consequence of the 

(S7-l' 




APRIL 


1860. 


APRIL 


annexation of Savoy to France, and endeavours 
to show from documents sent to him from 
Chambery, that the pretended popular vote 
was the result of coercion on the part of French 
agents. He also censured Mr. Bright for first 
describing the annexation as a “ miserable ques¬ 
tion,” and then attempting to fix the guilt of 
the agitation on the House of Orleans. 

April 1 .—Died in London, aged 60, Colonel 
William Mure, of Caldwell, author of a care¬ 
fully written “History of the Language and 
Literature of Ancient Greece.” 

2 .—At the opening of the Sardinian Parlia¬ 
ment, the King said: “Out of gratitude to 
France, for the sake of Italy, to cement the 
union of the two nations, whose origin, prin¬ 
ciples, and destinies are common, a sacrifice 
was necessary, and I have made the one which 
was dearest to my heart. With reserve of the 
suffrage of the people, of the consent of Parlia¬ 
ment, and with due regard to the right secured 
to Switzerland by virtue of international laws, 
I have stipulated a treaty of annexation of 
Savoy and of the county of Nice to France.” 
The Treaty of Cession was submitted to Parlia¬ 
ment on the 12th, and approved of by a majority 
of 229 against 33 votes. Garibaldi, who sat as 
deputy for Nice, his native town, was amongst 
those who spoke and voted in the negative. 

4 . — Revolutionary outbreak at Palermo, 
Messina, and Catania. 

12 .— Considerable excitement was created 
in mercantile circles in the metropolis by the 
sudden and unexpected rise of the rate of dis¬ 
count, first to 44, and now to 5 per cent. The 
step was said to be owing to the withdrawal 
of 1,550,000/. by the great discount house of 
Overend, Gurney, and Co., in resentment at 
the application of the Bank rule against re-dis- 
counting. The experiment terminated in the 
amount being returned to the Bank in the course 
of a week, and discount was thereupon reduced 
to its former rate. 

— At a Reform meeting in Manchester, Mr. 
Bright defended the right of working men to 
engage in strikes when the condition of trade 
made such a step necessary. “It has never 
yet been proved,” he said, “that trades unions 
or that strikes are always bad. I dare say that 
in nine cases out of ten—it may be, for aught I 
know, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred— 
a strike had been better avoided. But the 
strike is the reserved power; and if I were a 
working man I should never say I would sur¬ 
render my right, in combination with others, 
to take such steps as are legal and moral for 
the advancement of my interests and the in¬ 
terests of those who worked with me. But if 
these strikes are sometimes—it may be often, it 
may be mostly—bad, and that, I think, all 
classes of persons would agree to, still the 
House of Commons and Mr. Whiteside and 
his party are not the parties to upbraid the 
working men with what they do upon this 
( 572 ) 


matter. The House of Commons itself was 
a great trades union from 1815 to 1846. 
(Cheers.) You know that the shibboleth of 
the country members was wheat at so much, 
barley at so much, oats at so much; and one 
of them, wishing to be minute in the profession 
of his faith—the member for the North Riding 
of Yorkshire—was for establishing a propor¬ 
tionate price for new milk cheese. (Laughter.) 
Now, we combined against this system. We 
‘struck.’ (Loud applause.) Why, Nature her¬ 
self, constant and beneficent as she always 
is, ‘ struck’ against this inhuman system. The 
very harvest rotted in your fields. As in the 
old time the bondsmen of Egypt were liberated 
by means of the plagues of Egypt, so famine, 
and fever, and an exodus greater than that 
which Moses led, was necessary, and came and 
succeeded in striking off the manacles from the 
industry of the people of this kingdom.” 

16 . —The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone in¬ 
stalled as Rector of Edinburgh University. 
He addressed the students on the subject of 
university work, and the spirit in which it 
ought to be undertaken. 

17 . —Great fight for the championship, at 
Farnborough, between Tom Sayers and Heenan 
the “ Benicia Boy,” an American. The contest 
being generally regarded as a kind of interna¬ 
tional trial of “pluck,” gave rise to excitement 
in quarters where such events are seldom talked 
of, and even revived for a time the faded glories 
of the prize-ring. Peers, it was said, were 
there, and peers’ sons; members of Parliament 
in plenty; authors, poets, painters, soldiers, 
even clergymen, ‘ ‘ men about town,” members 
of “the Fancy,” a vast variety of lowlife— 
much of it of a suspicious character, and some 
of it long past suspicion. Sayers, aged 34, 
who at present held the belt, stood 5 feet 
84 in., and when in fair fighting trim weighed 
from 10 st. 10 lbs. to 10 st. 12 lbs. Heenan, 
aged 28, a native of Troy, U.S., stood about 
6 feet 2 inches, and was otherwise firmly knit 
together. Umpires and a referee having been 
appointed, there was a toss for a choice of 
position. This was won by Heenan, and he 
selected the highest ground, where he would 
have the sun on his back, thereby placing 
Sayers in , such a position that he would 
have the full glare in his eyes. In a few 
minutes over two hours, thirty-seven rounds 
were fought—the last five amid great confusion, 
owing to the police and others breaking in 
upon the ring—and the men were then hurried 
away by their friends, Heenan all but blind 
from punishment in the face, and Sayers with 
his powerful right ann useless. The appro¬ 
priation of the stakes and honours gave rise 
to a sharp controversy in pugilistic circles—a 
controversy which was far from being settled 
by the presentation of a belt to each of the 
champions. 

19 *—In the House of Lords, Earl Grey ob¬ 
tains the appointment of a committee to inquire 
“what would be the probable increase of the 





APRIL 


i860. 


ma y 


number of electors from a reduction of the 
franchise, and whether any, and what, change 
was likely to be made in the character of the 
constituencies by such increase.” 

23 .—Earl Cowley having obtained special 
leave of absence from the embassy at Paris, 
defends himself in the House of Lords from a 
charge brought against him by Lord Normanby, 
of treating - as private communications notes 
which had passed between the Foreign Minister 
and the French Ambassador on the subject of 
the annexation of Savoy, at a time when the 
interference of Britain might have been more 
effective than it afterwards was. 

• — Close of the voting in Savoy and Nice 
on the question of annexation to France. In 
Savoy, 130,533 voted in favour, and 235 
against ; in Nice the votes were 25,743 for 
annexation, and 160 against it. 

— Baron Brack, Finance Minister of Aus¬ 
tria, commits suicide. A deficiency in the na¬ 
tional accounts had previously been discovered 
of 1,700,000/. 

— Insurrection in Spain, leading to a renun¬ 
ciation of the claim to the throne put forward 
on behalf of the Count of Montemolin, eldest 
son of the late Don Carlos. This renunciation 
was afterwards annulled at Cologne. 

26 . —Died, the Duke of Terceira, President 
of the Portuguese Council. 

27 . —Captain Speke and Mr. Grant embark 
in the steam-frigate Forte at Portsmouth, on 
their expedition to explore the source of the 
Nile in Central Africa. After some delay at 
the Cape and Mozambique, they arrived at Zan¬ 
zibar on the 15 th August, and commenced their 
journey across the continent early in October. 

— The third reading of the Church Rates 
Abolition Bill carried in the House of Commons 
by 235 to 226. 

29 .—The Liverpool Sailors’ Home, the 
foundation-stone of which was laid by Prince 
Albert in 1846, destroyed by fire. The whole 
of the inmates, about 120 in number, escaped ; 
but the flames spread with such rapidity that the 
retreat of many was cut off, and they were 
rescued through the window by ladders. Two 
men rendering assistance fell into and were 
consumed in the burning ruins. 

May 1.—The Pope appeals to his “beloved 
children” of every nation for the loan of 
50,000,000 francs. 

3 .—After a debate carried on in a languid 
manner for six nights, and protracted over a 
period of two months, the Government 
Reform Bill was read a second time without a 
division, and ordered to be discussed in com¬ 
mittee on the 4th of June. 

— Died in Belgrave-square, aged 72, Dr. 
Thomas Musgrave, Archbishop of York. He 
was succeeded by Dr. Longley. 


4 -. —The Prussian Chambers resolve to aid 
the inhabitants of Schleswig and Holstein in 
the maintenance of their political rights. 

— Statue of Mendelssohn inaugurated at 
the Crystal Place by a torchlight procession. 

5 .—Garibaldi sails from Genoa with a body 
of 2,000 men, whom he had induced to volunteer 
to assist the Sicilians in the insurrection against 
Francis II. At Talamona he issued a procla¬ 
mation : “ ‘Italy and Victor Emmanuel ! ’— 
that was our battle-cry when we crossed the 
Ticino ; it will resound into the very depths of 
./Etna. As the prophetic battle-cry re-echoes 
from the hills of Italy to the Tarpeian Mount, 
the tottering throne of tyranny will fall to pieces, 
and the whole country will rise like one man.” 
The Piedmontese official Gazette said the Go¬ 
vernment disapproved of the expedition, and 
attempted to prevent its departure. On the 9th 
of October, when the insurrection had accom¬ 
plished its design, the King in an address to 
the people of Southern Italy said: “ The 
people were fighting for liberty in Sicily when 
a brave warrior devoted to Italy and me— 
General Garibaldi—sprang to their assistance. 
They were Italians. I would not, I ought not, 
to restrain them.”—On the 10th of May Gari¬ 
baldi effected a landing at Marsala, and assumed 
the title of Dictator of Sicily “ in the name of 
Victor Emmanuel of Italy.” On the 27th he 
attacked Palermo in the most daring manner, 
and drove the Neapolitan troops into the citadel, 
which they afterwards evacuated during an 
armistice. 

7 .—In the course of a debate raised by Mr. 
Horsman as to the connexion of Mr. Walter, 
M.P., with the Times , Lord Palmerston said: 
“My right hon. friend has stated that he did 
not know what the influence was which drew 
Mr. Delane, one of the editors or managers of 
the Times , to me ; and if by that statement he 
means to imply a wish on my part to exercise 
any influence over the line of conduct which is 
pursued in the case of that journal, I can only 
say in answer to this charge, in the words of 
Mrs. Malaprop, that I should be but too glad to 
plead guilty to the soft impeachment, and to 
know that the insinuation which it involves 
was really founded on fact. (A laugh.) If 
there are influences whic]j, as the right hon. 
gentleman says, have fortunately led Mr. 
Delane to me, they are none other than the 
influences of society. My right hon. friend 
has observed, in that glowing address which 
he has just delivered to us, that the contribu¬ 
tors to the press are the favourites and the 
ornaments of the social circles into which they 
enter. In that opinion he is, it seems to me, 
perfectly correct. The gentlemen to whom he 
refers are, generally speaking, persons of great 
attainments and information. It is, then, but 
natural that their society should be agreeable. 
My acquaintance with Mr. Delane is exactly 
of that character. I have had the pleasure of 
meeting Mr. Delane frequently in society, and 
he has occasionally done me the honour to 

( 573 ) 







MA V 


i860. 


MA Y 


mix in society under my roof. That society 
was, I may add, composed of persons of all 
shades of politics—(cheers)—of various pur¬ 
suits ; and I need hardly say I feel proud when 
persons so honour me without undertaking any 
other engagement than that which Mr. Delane 
always makes good—of making themselves 
agreeable during the time of their stay. ” 

8 . —The Government proposal to repeal the 
Excise duty on paper carried by a majority of 
9 in a house of 429. 

— Died, aged 74, Horace Hayman Wilson, 
Boden Professor of Sanscrit in the University 
of Oxford, 

9 . —In the Central Criminal Court the Rev. 
Mr. Hatch is successful in his attempt to pro¬ 
cure a conviction for perjury against the girl 
Plummer, II years of age, who had charged 
him with indecent conduct to her in his own 
house, and for which he was now undergoing 
confinement in Newgate. In the first case 
the mouth of Mrs. Hatch, a most essential wit¬ 
ness on her husband’s behalf, was necessarily 
closed ; but now, in the way the prosecution 
was laid, she was put into the witness-box, 
and gave evidence showing it to be impossible 
that Mr. Hatch could have committed the 
offence charged against him without her cog¬ 
nizance. In this she was corroborated by other 
visitors at the house. Baron Channell summed 
up the evidence in an address of eight hours’ 
duration. The jury were absent two hours, 
and delivered their verdict as follows : “We 
find the prisoner, Mary Eugenia Plummer, 
guilty; and while we recommend her to the 
utmost extent of mercy, we venture at the same 
time to express a hope that your lordship, if you 
have the power to do so, will direct that any 
imprisonment to which she may be subjected 
may be accompanied by a proper course of 
training and education, of which she has 
hitherto been deprived, and probably would 
still be deprived, at home.” The verdict was 
received with applause. After a suitable ad¬ 
monition, she was sentenced to three weeks’ 
imprisonment, and then to be sent to a reforma¬ 
tory for two years. 

10. —Died at Florence, aged 50, Theodore 
Parker, American theologian. 

11 . —Sir C. Wood explains that the recall 
of Sir C. Trevelyan from Madras was rendered 
necessary by his having published a protest 
against the financial measures of Mr. Wilson, 
the Finance Minister. 

12. —Died, aged 55, Sir Charles Barry, R. A., 
architect of the new Houses of Parliament. 

15 .—George William Pullinger, late chief 
cashier of the Union Bank of London, tried 
before Mr. Baron Channell at the Central 
Criminal Court, for defrauding that bank to 
the extent of over 260,000/. The whole of the 
large payments into the Bank of England pass¬ 
ing through his hands, Pullinger found that he 
( 574 ) 


virtually possessed the entire control of these 
funds, inasmuch as the pass-book forming the 
only check remained in his handc till it was 
consigned to the ledger-keeper. Emboldened 
by his success in altering this pass-book for 
trifling amounts, he persevered in his crime to 
meet alleged losses on the Stock Exchange, 
and ended by appropriating the almost incre¬ 
dible amount above mentioned. The fraud 
was detected on the 19th April, when the pri¬ 
soner was accidentally absent. He was now 
sentenced to fourteen years’ penal servitude on 
the first indictment, and six years’ on the 
second. 

15 . —Discussion in the Plouse of Lords on 
the resignation by Sir C. Trevelyan of the 
post of Governor of Madras. 

— Meeting in St. Martin’s Hall to protest 
against the conduct of the Lords in threatening 
to reject the clause of the Budget relating to 
the repeal of the paper-duty. Mr. Bright was 
the chief speaker. 

— The Neapolitans defeated by Garibaldi 
at Calatifimi. 

16 . —At the meeting of the National Re¬ 
publican Convention at Chicago, Abraham 
Lincoln was selected as candidate for the Pre¬ 
sidency of the United States. 

— Died, aged 68, Lady Noel Byron. She 
married the Poet in January 1815, separated 
thirteen months afterwards, and lived since then 
in the quiet performance of acts of charity. 

18 .—At Sandown Fort, Isle of Wight, 
Sergeant Whitworth, R.A., murders his wife 
and six children by cutting their throats with 
a razor, and then attempts to commit suicide 
with the same weapon. Whitworth was tried 
at the Winchester Assizes, but was found to 
be in a state of mind not capable of understand¬ 
ing or pleading to the indictment. 

21.—After a long debate in a crowded House 
the Lords reject the bill repealing the paper- 
duty by a majority of 193 to 104 votes. The 
principal speeches in opposition were delivered 
by Lord Monteagle, who moved the rejection 
of the resolution, by the Earl of Derby, and by 
Lord Lyndhurst, who completed his eighty- 
eighth year on the day of debate, and who 
showed from the journals of the House, and the 
conferences which had taken place with the 
other branch of the Legislature, that it was no 
unusual thing for their Lordships to exercise 
their constitutional veto upon bills repealing as 
well as on bills proposing taxes. He found 
precedents for the step in 1689, when a poll bill 
was thrown out; in 1709, when an alteration in 
the malt duties was made; in 1790, when a 
bill for removing stamps was rejected; in 1805, 
when a bill abolishing Custom-house fees was 
rejected ; and again in 1808, when a bill repeal* 
ing certain duties on coal, and altering others, 
was thrown out without even a complaint being 
raised. “ I may be told,” concluded the vene¬ 
rable peer, “there is a surplus. That is a 






ma y 


1860. 


a t a y 


perilous matter into which I do not choose to 
enter. It forms no part of the programme 
which I have marked out for myself.' I leave 
that to my noble friend opposite (Lord Mont- 
eagle), who, I have no doubt, will sufficiently 
clear up that portion of the subject. The 
question comes to this : if your Lordships are 
satisfied, as you must be, that you have not 
only the power but the constitutional right to 
reject this bill, and if you are satisfied that 
there is an actual deficiency—that next year 
there must be an enormous deficiency—and 
that the present state of Europe is such as 
to create continual anxiety; then I ask your 
Lordships, will you consent to give up, not for 
the present year only, but permanently, a sum 
of nearly a million and a half? (Cheers.) That 
is the proposition I put to your Lordships, and 
I am satisfied what your answer will be. As I 
said I would confine myself to this question of 
privilege, I will only further observe that the 
illusions—perhaps I may say the delusions— 
created by the introduction of the Budget seem 
to have passed away ; and we have learnt that, 
although brilliant eloquence has charms, yet, 
like other seductions, it is not without its 
dangers. The same schemes may bear the 
impress of genius, of imprudence, of rashness. 
Satis eloquential, sapientiee paruni, is not an 
irreconcilable combination. If my noble friend 
will move the amendment of which he has given 
notice, I shall give him, for the reasons I have 
stated, my cordial support. ” 

22 .—Wreck of the Peninsular and Oriental 
Steam Company’s ship Malabar in the harbour 
of Point de Galle, Ceylon. Lord Elgin and 
Baron Gros were on board with their suites, 
and among the many precious things lost were 
papers and credentials bearing upon the Treaty 
of Tien-tsin, which they were going out as 
Ambassadors Extraordinary to compel the 
Chinese Government to ratify. The vessel in 
a sudden gale was swept from her temporary 
moorings and drifted on a reef close at hand, 
where her bottom was stove in. The passengers 
and crew, with a portion of the luggage and 
cargo, were saved: portions of the latter were 
afterwards recovered by divers. 

— Died at Fulham, aged 44, Albert Smith, 
an agreeable contributor to the amusements of 
the day. 

25 .—Lord Palmerston obtains the appoint¬ 
ment of a committee to ascertain and report on 
the practice of each House with regard to the 
several descriptions of bills imposing or repeal¬ 
ing taxes. 

— The Home Secretary announces that the 
Crown had resolved to grant the prayer of the 
petition submitted by Convocation, for permis¬ 
sion to revise the 29th Canon, prohibiting any 
parent from being godfather to his own child. 

27 . —Capture of Palermo by Garibaldi. 

28 . —So calamitous were the storms of 
the early summer, that on this day alcne 
143 wrecks took place off the English coast, 


36 of them being completely beaten to pieces. 
One fleet of Yarmouth fishing-boats was en¬ 
tirely swamped, and every person on board 
drowned : they numbered 186, and left among 
them 72 widows and 172 children. Subscrip¬ 
tions on their behalf were collected to the 
amount of 10,000/. 

28 . —At the annual meeting of the Royal 
Geographical Society, the Founder’s gold 
medal was presented to Lady Franklin and 
Sir Leopold M‘Clintock—to the former as a 
testimony of “ the services rendered to science 
by her late gallant husband, and also as a 
token of respect and admiration for the 
devotedness with which she has pursued those 
inquiries which have resulted in clearing up 
the fate of the crews of the Erebus and Terror, 
and at the same time in making important 
contributions to our geographical knowledge 
of the Arctic regions ; ” to the latter “ in ac¬ 
knowledgment of the very great and valuable 
services he had performed—services appreciated 
not only throughout this country, but through¬ 
out all Europe and America.” Lady Franklin, 
in acknowledging the honour, claimed for her 
husband the crowning discovery of the North¬ 
west Passage, which cost himself and his com¬ 
panions their lives. 

29 . —In the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies, 
after the adoption of the Treaty of Cession, 
Signor Ratazzi rose to demand explanations 
of Count Cavour, who in reply expressed his 
regret at having been compelled to say very 
delicate things, but the responsibility attached 
to his remarks upon the question must rest 
with Signor Ratazzi. Count Cavour further 
said: “We have no guarantees from France 
in favour of the annexed provinces of Italy, as 
we have not asked for any. We have con¬ 
sidered the declarations of France that she 
would ensure a policy of non-intervention on 
the part of the foreign Powers to be sufficient. 
France has not exercised the least pressure 
respecting the autonomy of Tuscany : she has 
limited herself to simple non-official diplomatic 
conversations, in which we have declared 
the autonomy of Tuscany must disappear. 
To this France has not made the least objec¬ 
tion.” 

— Speaking at Manchester on the rejection 
of the Paper Duties Bill, Mr. Bright reminded 
his hearers that there was no dissolution for 
the House of Lords. “ If a peer dies, there 
is no measurable instant of time between the 
death of him who dies to-day and him who 
votes to-morrow. The spirit does not pass 
from the body into space with greater rapidity, 
or with a more unseen motion, than passes 
the legislative power from the dead peer to 
the living one. The only things that do not 
die are the prejudices, the alarms, the self- 
interests, the determination to combine for the 
interest of their body, which necessarily, in 
all countries and in all ages, have acted upon 
irresponsible powers like that which our House 
of Lords is now assuming to become. Our 

(57 5 > 






JUNE 


i860. 


JUNE 


taxes are drawn from the capital of the coun¬ 
try, from the skill of its population, from the 
toil of all those who work, as no other people 
in the world perhaps do work ; and I sSy that 
we shall have reason for ever to be ashamed of 
ourselves that our children will have to be 
ashamed that they come from us—if we do not 
now resist every attempt to take from the 
House of Commons that which the Constitu¬ 
tion has given to them, and which we find to 
be essential to our security and our freedom— 
namely, the absolute, the irreversible, and 
uncontrolled management of the taxation and 
the finances of this great kingdom.” 

June 1.—Prince Albert lays the foundation- 
stone of the Dramatic College, at Maybury, 
near Woking. 

4.. —President Buchanan writes to the Queen, 
inviting the Prince of Wales to visit Washing¬ 
ton : “To her Majesty Queen Victoria. I 
have learned from the public journals that the 
Prince of Wales is about to visit your Majesty’s 
North American dominions. Should it be the 
intention of his Royal Highness to extend his 
visit to the United States, I need not say how 
happy I should be to give him a cordial 
welcome to Washington. You may be well 
assured that everywhere in this countiy he will 
be greeted by the American people in such a 
manner as cannot fail to prove gratifying to 
your Majesty. In this they will manifest their 
deep sense of your domestic virtues, as well 
as^their conviction of your merits as a wise, 
patriotic, and constitutional sovereign. Your 
Majesty’s most obedient servant, James 
Buchanan.” —“ Queen Victoria to President 
Buchanan. My good Friend, I have been 
much gratified at the feelings which prompted 
you to write to me, inviting the Prince of 
Wales to come to Washington. He intends to 
return from Canada through the United States, 
and it will give him great pleasure to have an 
opportunity of testifying to you in person that 
these feelings are fully reciprocated by him. 
He will thus be able, at the same time, to 
mark the respect which he entertains for the 
chief magistrate of a great and friendly State 
and kindred nation. The Prince of Wales will 
drop all royal state on leaving my dominions, 
and travel under the name of Lord Renfrew, 
as he has done when travelling on the Continent 
of Europe. The Prince Consort wishes to be 
kindly remembered to you. I remain your 
very good friend, Victoria R.” 

5 . —The Committee of the Society of Arts 
appointed to decide on a uniform musical pitch, 
present a report recommending the adoption of 
the Stuttgard pitch—528 for C = 440 for A. 

6 . —Act of Union between Buenos Ayres 
and the Argentine Confederation signed at 
Parana. 

9 .—Died at Venice, aged 59, G. P. R. James, 
Consul-General for the Austrian ports of the 
Adriatic, and a most prolific novelist. 

( 576 ) 


9 .—The Channel Fleet anchors off St. 
Margaret’s Hope, Firth of Forth, and is for 
several days a source of great attraction to the 
inhabitants of Edinburgh and the east country. 
The fleet afterwards came round to the Clyde, 
and lay several days off Greenock. 

— In accordance with an address from the 
Plouse of Commons, the ancient form of pro¬ 
clamation “For the Encouragement of Piety ” 
was revised and issued to-day by the Queen. 

11 . —The Refreshment Houses and Wine 
Duties Bill read a third time in the Commons, 
and passed. 

— After another debate, protracted over six 
nights, Lord John Russell intimates that Govern¬ 
ment intend to withdraw their Reform Bill this 
session. The resolution to abandon the mea¬ 
sure appeared to be hastened by the support 
given to Mr. Mackinnon’s motion for delaying 
legislation on the subject till the result of the 
census was seen. Mr. Disraeli censured the 
Government for the delay and waste of time 
which had arisen from differences with their 
own supporters. 

— Died, aged 63, the Rev. Professor Baden 
Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry in the 
University of Oxford. 

13 . —Inquiry at Norwich into the charge 
preferred against the Rev. Canon Dalton, priest, 
and three other lay Roman Catholics, of ab¬ 
ducting William H. Vansittart, a youth of 
sixteen, son of the M.P. for Windsor. A per¬ 
son in disguise, but described as one Father 
Euguine, had obtained in a clandestine manner 
an interview with the lad in the rectory grounds 
of Rockheath, where he had been sent for 
safety, and advised him “to cut and run ” to 
Canon Dalton’s. 

14 . —The French take possession of their 
Piedmontese acquisitions. 

16 . —Inter-view at Baden between the Em¬ 
peror Napoleon and the German sovereigns. 

— The Grenadier Guards celebrate their 
bicentenary by a banquet in the hall of St. 
James’s Palace, presided overby Prince Albert. 
The Scots Fusiliers made a similar celebration 
in Willis’s Rooms on the 19th. The non-com¬ 
missioned officers and privates of these regi¬ 
ments celebrated the event by a common 
festival at the Crystal Palace, provided at the 
expense of the officers of the regiments. 

17 . —The Great Eastern leaves the Needles 
on her first voyage across the Atlantic, and 
reaches New York after a successful run of 
ten days and a half. She was received with 
great enthusiasm in her passage up the river, 
and was afterwards visited by thousands when 
in harbour, where she lay till the middle of 
August. The return run from New York to 
Halifax was accomplished in forty-six hours, 
a shorter time than it had ever been performed 
in before. Throughout the whole voyage her 
speed averaged fourteen knots an hour. 






JUNE 


i860. 


JUNE 


19 .—The Church Rates Abolition Bill 
thrown out in the House of Lords on a second 
reading by a majority of 128 to 31. 

21 . —Massacre of Maronite Christians by 
Druses at Deir-el-Kamer. The number of 
slain was put down at from 1,100 to 1,200. 
“I travelled,” writes Lord Dufferin, “ over 
most of the open country before the war was 
over, and came to Deir-el-Kamer a few days 
after the massacre. Almost every house was 
burnt, and the street crowded with dead 
bodies, most of them stripped and mutilated 
in every possible way. My road led through 
some of the streets : my horse could not even 
pass, for the bodies were literally piled up. 
Most of those I examined had many wounds, 
and in each case was the right hand either 
entirely or nearly cut off; the poor wretch, 
in default of weapons, having instinctively 
raised his arm to parry the blow aimed at 
him. I saw little children of not more than 
three or four years old, stretched on the 
ground, and old men with grey beards. Bey- 
rout itself was threatened by the infuriated 
and victorious Druses, and the presence of an 
English pleasure-yacht in the harbour, with a 
single gun, was supposed to have had more 
effect in averting danger than all the troops 
of the Turkish Pasha, who rather connived at 
the massacre. ” On the 9th of July sim ilar out¬ 
rages began at Damascus. A mob, consist¬ 
ing of the lowest order of Moslem fanatics, 
assembled in the streets, and instead of being 
dispersed by the Turkish troops, of whom 
there were 700 in the town, under the com¬ 
mand of Ahmed Pasha, they were allowed to 
increase until they began a general attack upon 
the houses in the Christian quarters, and com¬ 
mitted many murders. The soldiers sent to 
quell the disturbance joined the mob, and next 
day the work of destruction was renewed with 
greater violence. The Consulates of France, 
Austria, Russia, Holland, Belgium, and Greece 
were destroyed, and their inmates took refuge 
in the house of Abd-el-Kader, who behaved 
nobly on the occasion, and sheltered about 
1,500 Christians from the fuiy of the assailants. 
For this conduct he afterwards received the 
thanks of the British Government. 

-— The town of Melezzo surrenders to Gari¬ 
baldi. 

23 .—Volunteer review in Flyde Park. The 
Queen, with Prince Albert, several members 
of the Royal Family, and the King of the 
Belgians, arrived on the ground at four o’clock, 
and drove along to the extreme left of the 
line of Volunteers on the Bayswater-road, and 
thence along the whole front to the extreme 
right at Albert Gate. The Queen and suite 
then took up their station in the Royal Stand, 
erected about the centre of Park-lane, when 
the whole of the assembled Volunteers, number¬ 
ing 21,000 men, commenced to march past in 
companies. This accomplished, and the corps 
in their original position, the line advanced 
Ui battalion columns and cheered her Majesty, 

(577) 


by signal, with vociferous earnestness. Of the 
great force thus assembled, 15,000 belonged to 
the metropolis, and 6,000 to the provinces. 
Woolwich sent no fewer than 1,800men; Man¬ 
chester, about 2,000; the City of London, 
1,800; and the Inns of Court, 450. Her 
Majesty left at six o’clock, and by eight the 
immense gathering was clear out of the park 
without accident. 

24 ,—Died at Villegruis, near Paris, aged 
75, Prince Jerome Buonaparte, ex-King of 
Westphalia. 

23 .—Francis II. promises a Liberal Ministry, 
the adoption of the national flag, and a vice¬ 
regal and Liberal government for Sicily. 

27 . —A French tailor named Dherang com¬ 
mits suicide in Hyde Park, by wounding him¬ 
self in two places with a pistol, and then cutting 
his throat. He had two or three days before 
consummated a career of great cruelty towards 
his wife by murdering her, and then locking 
up the body in their lodgings in Oxford-street. 
On now breaking into the room, the body of 
the poor woman was found stretched on the 
floor in a pool of blood. The head was cut 
off and placed in a cupboard, and an attempt 
had also been made to separate the limbs. The 
witnesses at the inquest concurred in describing 
the suicide as in some respects a maniac. 

28 . -Lord W. G. Osborne, son of the Duke 
of Leeds, examined in the Cambridge Insolvent 
court, and sentenced to six months’ imprison¬ 
ment for irregular business transactions with 
Jew clothes-dealers and dog-fanciers. 

2 9 .—Mysterious child-murder at Road, W ilts. 
On this evening the household of Mr. S. S. Kent, 
a sub-inspector of factories in the district, con¬ 
sisted of himself, his wife, three daughters— 
Mary Anne, aged 29; Elizabeth, 27; Con¬ 
stance, 16—a son, William Saville, 15 ; all 
children by a former marriage;—a daughter, 
Mary Amelia, 5 years ; Francis Saville, 3 years 
and 10 months ; and a daughter about 2 years 
old ; children of the present Mrs. Kent: to¬ 
gether with three servants—nursemaid, cook, 
and housemaid. Next morning the nurse gave 
the alarm that Francis Saville was missing from 
the cot in her room. She had missed him as 
early as five o’clock, but said that for two hours 
she was under the belief that he had been taken 
into Mrs. Kent’s own room, as he was ailing a 
little. Ordering a thorough search to be made 
about the premises, Mr. Kent set off to Trow¬ 
bridge to inform the police. Before his return, 
the body of the child was found thrown 
down a privy, wrapped in a blanket taken 
from the nursery, and its throat cut in the 
most shocking manner. The examining sur¬ 
geon thought it must have been dead at least 
five hours. As the doors and windows had all 
been carefully closed at night, and no marks 
of forcible entrance could be found anywhere, 
suspicion was mainly directed to the parties 
sleeping in the house. The nursemaid, Eliza¬ 
beth Gough, naturally came in for a heavy 
share, and she was twice taken before the 

p I* 







JUNE 


i860. 


JUL V 


Wiltshire magistrates for examination; but 
her answers being on all occasions consistent 
with known facts, and as no single suspicious 
act could be proved to involve her in any way, 
she was discharged. Mr. Kent himself lay 
for some time under general suspicion on ac¬ 
count of his hurried departure to Trowbridge, 
to get rid, as was alleged, of the evidences 
of crime. In the absence of a culprit, public 
excitement rose to an extraordinary height, 
and latterly took the turn of accusing Con¬ 
stance Kent of having murdered her half-brother 
through petty jealousy. Whicher, an expe¬ 
rienced London detective, was sent down to 
assist the local police ; and he, having obtained 
a warrant, took Constance into custody as the 
murderess. The ground of arrest was that 
one of the young lady’s night-dresses was 
missing. It appeared by the washing-list 
that she had three of these articles. The house¬ 
maid deposed, that when, on the Monday after 
the murder, she collected the family* linen to 
be sent to the washerwoman, she received 
from Miss Constance that which she had Avorn 
the week before ; it was soiled exactly as such 
an article worn for a week would be ; she put 
it in the basket, placing*other clothes of bulk 
on the top of all; the other two night-dresses 
of Miss Constance, which had been brought 
home from the wash, the servant aired for use. 
The servant said that, when she had packed 
the clothes-basket, Miss Constance came and 
asked her to get a glass of water, and followed 
her as she did so to the top of the back stair; 
she was not gone a minute, and when she 
returned, her young mistress, standing where 
she had left her, drank the water and retired. 
The clothes-basket had no appearance of having 
been touched, and was delivered by the cook 
to the laundress and her daughter the same 
morning. According to the statement of 
the laundress, when she opened the clothes- 
basket at her own house, Miss Constance’s dress 
was missing, nor could it afterwards be found. 
The supposition was, that either during the 
absence of the maid for the glass of water, or 
in the interval between the packing by the 
housemaid and delivery by the cook, Miss 
Constance had opened the basket and taken 
away the dress. It was not, however, suggested 
that there had been any suspicious conduct 
on the young lady’s part, nor was there any 
conceivable motive why she should wish to 
abstract this dress, since it was believed that 
there were no marks whatever upon it; nor did 
her accusers attempt to account for their own 
failure to discover any trace of the garment; 
concealment, or destruction by fire, seemed 
almost impossible, as the house was then in 
possession of the police, who were investi¬ 
gating the case with eager jealousy. The 
murder continued shrouded in mystery for five 
years, when a confession was made by the 
• Miss Constance above referred to, which 
showed with what just cause suspicion had. 
been from the first directed against her. (See 
April 25, 1865.) 

(578) 


29 .—The Commons Privilege Committee 
present their report on the practice of each 
House with regard to the several descriptions 
of bills imposing or repealing taxes. The 
Committee found, by a majority of fourteen, 
that the privilege of the Commons did not 
extend so far as to make it unconstitutional for 
the Lords to reject a bill for the repeal of a 
tax. The report was drawn up by Mr. Wal¬ 
pole, and gave an elaborate classification of all 
the precedents on the subject from the year 
1628 downwards, that year being selected be¬ 
cause the previous cases were most ably com¬ 
mented oh in the great precedent of 1671 ; and, 
secondly, because that was the year in which 
the present form of granting supplies might be 
said to have been practically established. A 
draft report by Mr. Bright appeared in the pro¬ 
ceedings of the Committee, arguing that if the 
Lords cannob begin a tax—if they cannot in¬ 
crease or abate a tax—yet if they may prolong 
a tax by refusing their assent to its repeal when 
that repeal has been voted by the House of 
Commons—then “it appears to the Committee” 
that the fundamental and inherent right of the 
House of Commons to an absolute control 
over taxation and supply is not only menaced 
but destroyed. 

July 1 . — Died at Laufzorn, near Munich, 
aged 80, Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert, 
natural philosopher. 

2.—The first meeting of the National 
Rifle Association held at Wimbledon, her 
Majesty commencing the proceedings by firing 
the first shot—a “centre.” For six successive 
days the furze covers and copses of Wimbledon 
rang with the incessant crack of rifles, the large 
number of the butts and the smartness of the 
competition giving the fusilade the features of 
a severe skirmish. 292 Volunteers entered for 
the regulated prizes, and 594 for those open to 
all comers. In the competition, the first or 
Queen’s Prize of 250/., Avith the gold medal of 
the Association, was Avon by Mr. Ross, of the 
7th North York. In the determining contest 
he made eight points at 800, seven points at 
900, and nine points at 1,000 yards. For 
“pool shooting” the receipts amounted to 
440/.; the total admission money was 2,000/. 
(See Index, “Wimbledon.”) 

— Several important failures in the leather 
trade was announced to-day, the most extensive 
being that of Streetfield and Co. 

5 .—Debate on the Privilege Question in the 
House of Commons, Lord Palmerston suc¬ 
ceeding in carrying the following resolutions :— 
“ That the right of granting aids and sup¬ 
plies to the Crown is in the Commons alone, 
as an essential part of their constitution, and 
the limitation of all such grants as to. matter, 
manner, measure, and time, is only in them. 
That although the Lords have exercised the 
power of rejecting bills of several descriptions 
relating to taxation by negativing the Avhole, 
yet the exercising of that power by them has noi 





JULY 


i860. 


jul y 


been frequent, and is justly regarded by this 
House with peculiar jealousy, as affecting the 
right of the Commons to grant the supplies, 
and to provide the ways and mean? for the 
service of the year. That to guard for the 
future against an undue exercise of that power 
by the Lords, and to secure to the Commons 
their rightful control over taxation and supply, 
this House has in its own hands the power so 
to impose and remit taxes, and to frame bills 
of supply, that the right of the Commons as to 
the matter, manner, measure, and time may 
be maintained inviolate.” The Opposition 
generally concurred in the resolutions, which 
led Mr. Gladstone to censure them as being 
less alive than they ought to be to the constitu¬ 
tional privileges of the House. Lord Fermoy 
gave notice of a motion tending to renew the 
agitation, but, on division, “the previous ques¬ 
tion” w r as carried by 177 to 138 votes. 

9. —The Prince of Wales leaves England 
on his visit to Canada and the United States, 
accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle. They 
arrived at St. John’s, Newfoundland, on the 
24th. Halifax was visited on the 30th ; Que¬ 
bec, Aug. 18 ; Montreal, Aug. 25 ; and Ot¬ 
tawa, Sept. 1. The Prince and suite arrived 
at Detroit, in the United States, on the 20th 
September, and afterwards visited Washington 
(where he was entertained by President Bu¬ 
chanan), Oct. 3 ; Philadelphia, Oct. 9 ; New 
York, Oct. 11 ; and Boston, Oct. 17. The 
Royal party embarked on the return voyage 
at Portland, Oct. 20. (See Nov. 15.) 

10. —In consequence of hostility on the part 
of Dissenters, Government consent to the with¬ 
drawal of the religious denomination clause of 
the Census Bill. 

— The Montemolin renunciation of the 
Crown of Spain repudiated by various mem¬ 
bers of the family. 

12 . —Orange riot at Derrymacash, near 
Lurgan. The Protestant party, in repelling an 
attack near the chapel, discharged their fire¬ 
arms, killing two of their opponents and wound¬ 
ing fifteen others. In Londonderry the judge of 
assize, the bishop, and clergy were insulted by 
the display of Orange flags on the cathedral 
tower. 

— Ann Barker sentenced to death at 
Oxford Assizes for attempting to murder her 
child by throwing it down an old well in Ipsden 
Wood, about 134 feet deep. It was found living, 
and not much injured, on a bed of leaves, mould, 
and brushwood, by two men, accidentally ex¬ 
amining the place. When trying to sound the 
depth of the well, they were alarmed by wdiat 
appeared to be the cries of a child coming from 
the dark bottom ; and after many ingenious de¬ 
vices had been tried, they induced a boy to de¬ 
scend, who brought up a fine healthy male child, 
about thirteen months old. The only injuries 
it had received were a severe bruise on the back 
of the head, and bruises on the back and arm, 
some of which it was thought might have hap¬ 

( 579 ) 


pened during its thirty-nine hours’ dreary im¬ 
prisonment in the well. The child was now 
produced in court, and seemed not much the 
worse for its extraordinary adventure. The 
sentence upon the mother was afterwards com¬ 
muted to five years’ penal servitude. 

IS.— Lord Clyde arrives at Dover from 
India, and is presented with a formal address 
on landing. 

— During an eclipse of the sun, this day, 
between one and three o’clock, the mercury 
fell from 114 0 to 65.7°. 

19. — Commenced at York Assizes the series 
of trials for bribery in connexion with the last 
election at Wakefield. The Liberal candidate, 
Mr. W. H. Leatham, was convicted, as were 
also the sub-agents, Noble, Boyes, and Taylor 
“the Pump.” The charge against the Con¬ 
servative candidate, Mr. J. B. Charlesworth, 
was postponed till next assizes. 

20. —Garibaldian victory at Melazzo, the 
last of the fortresses in Sicily occupied by 
Royalists. 

21 . —The great European Powers resolve 
on an expedition to Syria, for the protection 
of European Christians in that country from 
the fanaticism of Mahomedan Druses. 

23. —Lord Palmerston explains the inten¬ 
tions of the Government with respect to the 
recommendations of the National Defence Com¬ 
mission for fortifying the dockyards, and estab¬ 
lishing a central depot for arms and stores. 
He proposed that a vote be taken in the mean¬ 
time for 2.000,000/. to be charged on the Con¬ 
solidated Fund, and raised by annuities for a 
term not exceeding thirty years. The resolution 
was agreed to on the 2d August, after various 
amendments had been proposed and rejected. 

■— Thomas Hopley, late head-master of a 
private school at Eastbourne, tried at Lewes 
Assizes, for causing the death of Reginald 
Channel Cancellor, a pupil committed to his 
care by one of the Masters of the Court of 
Common Pleas. The young lad, it appeared, 
was labouring under disease of the brain. He 
was stolid, stupid, and not able to learn. He 
was often silent when asked to repeat a lesson 
which he had just read, and sometimes did 
not appear to know the difference between a 
sixpence and a shilling. The case was one for 
medical care and gentle treatment. Hopley 
took a schoolmaster’s view, and thought the 
weakness obduracy, to be broken down by ex¬ 
cessive corporal punishment. On the morning 
of the 22d of April the poor lad was found 
dead in bed, and Hopley took steps to make a 
hasty burial. But the screams of horror heard 
through the night by servants and pupils, 
and the blood-stained instruments of punish¬ 
ment lying about the room, were too glaring 
marks of crime to be passed over, and in a day 
or two a formal medical examination was made 
of the body. The legs and arms of the corpse 
were found to be coated with e travasated 

p P 2 






JULY 


i860. 


JULY 


blood; the cellular membranes under the skin of 
the thighs were reduced to jelly—torn to pieces 
and lacerated Dy the blows that had been in¬ 
flicted. There were two holes in the right 
leg, about the size of a sixpence and an inch 
deep, which appeared to have been made by 
“jobbing” a thick stick into the flesh. On 
the whole, the appearance was that of a human 
creature who had been mangled by an infu¬ 
riated and merciless assailant. Mrs. Hopley was 
also known to have been up during the night of 
the tragedy endeavouring to wash out the 
bloody evidences of the crime from the carpet, 
floor, benches, and bed. Hopley denied that 
the lad was dead, or even suffering much when 
he left him. “ When I brought the rope,” he 
said, “and inflicted punishment for the last 
time, I burst into tears, and Cancellor then 
placed his head upon my breast and asked to be 
allowed to say his lesson. I afterwards prayed 
with him and left him, saying, ‘ Heaven knows 
I have done my duty to that poor boy.’” 
Hopley was found guilty, and sentenced to four 
years’ penal servitude. From his prison he 
sent out a defence, entitled “Facts bearing on 
the Death of R. C. Cancellor; with a Supple¬ 
ment and Sequel,” urging the formation of a 
grand “model educational establishment,” 
with himself as the model Christian master, 
and his wife, married and educated by him for 
this express purpose, ‘ ‘ to aim at becoming the 
model Christian mistress.” (See July 13, 1864.) 

25 .—The Emperor of the French writes to 
M. de Persigny complaining of the unjust 
suspicions directed against the Imperial Govern¬ 
ment : ‘ * Affairs appear to me to be so com¬ 
plicated, thanks to the mistrust excited every¬ 
where since the war in Italy, that I write to 
you in the hope that a conversation, in perfect 
frankness, with Lord Palmerston, will remedy 
the existing evil. Lord Palmerston knows 
me, and when I affirm a thing he will believe 
me. Well, you can tell him from me, in the 
most explicit manner, that since the Peace of 
Villafranca I have had but one thought—one 
object—to inaugurate a new era of peace, and 
to live on the best terms with all my neigh¬ 
bours, and especially with England. I had 
renounced Savoy and Nice ; the extraordinary 
additions to Piedmont alone caused me to 
resume the desire to see provinces essentially 
French reunited to France. It was difficult 
for me to come to an understanding with 
England on the subject of Central Italy, 
because I was bound by the Peace of Villa¬ 
franca. As to Southern Italy, I am free from 
engagements, and I ask nothing more than a con¬ 
cert with England on this point, as on others ; 
but, in Heaven’s name, let the eminent men 
who are at the head of the English Govern¬ 
ment lay aside petty jealousies and unjust mis¬ 
trusts. Let us understand one another in good 
faith, like honest men as we are, and not like 
thieves who desire to cheat each other. To sum 
up, this is my innermost thought—I desire 
that Italy should obtain peace, no matter how, 
but without foreign intervention, and that my 

(580) 


troops should be able to quit Rome without 
compromising the security of the Pope. I could 
very much wish not to be obliged to under¬ 
take the Syrian expedition, and, in any case, 
not to undertake it alone : firstly, because it 
will be a great expense ; and secondly, because 
I fear that this intervention may involve the 
Eastern Question : but, on the other hand, 
I do not see how to resist public opinion in my 
country, which will never understand how we 
can leave unpunished, not only the massacre of 
the Christians, but the burning of our consu¬ 
lates, the insult to our flag, and the pillage of 
the monasteries under our protection. ” 

25 .—The long-continued rioting in the 
church of St. George’s-in-the-East is put at rest 
to-day by the departure of the Rev. Bryan King 
from the parish. 

— Vice-Chancellor Stuart delivers judg¬ 
ment in the case raised by the relatives of the 
deceased Miss Nottidge to recover from Prince, 
of the Agapemone, 5,728/. Three per Cent. 
Annuities, transferred to him under the exer¬ 
cise of improper influence. The bill, he said, 
alleged that the gift had been obtained by mis¬ 
representation and deception, and was made 
under the influence of a gross delusion, incul¬ 
cated and encouraged by the defendant for his 
own purposes. Of the undue dominion of the 
defendant over the mind of Miss Nottidge there 
was evidence that, by falsely and blasphemously 
pretending to a direct Divine mission, he had 
imposed on these weak women, and obtained 
a gift of the whole of their fortunes. As to 
Miss Louisa Jane Nottidge, the case was very 
clear; she had fortunately escaped the degra¬ 
dation of such a marriage as had been made the 
means of conveying all the money of her sisters 
into the pocket of the defendant; but the de¬ 
fendant’s own statements showed that he had 
obtained this gift of all her property by im¬ 
posing a belief in his supernatural character 
upon her weak mind. This successful impos¬ 
ture was the influencing motive for the gift, and 
therefore vitiated it entirely. The Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor concluded by decreeing that the transfer 
had been improperly obtained, and must be set 
aside, and the money restored to the plaintiff 
as the legal personal representative of the de¬ 
ceased ; and that the defendant should pay all 
costs of the suit. (See June 25, 1849.) 

27 .—The King of Sardinia having urged on 
Garibaldi the necessity of abstaining from further 
operations against Naples till an opportunity 
could be afforded to Sicily of declaring her 
attachment to a united Italy, the General writes 
to-day from Melazzo : “Sir, your Majesty 
knows the high esteem and the devotion which 
I feel towards your Majesty; but such is the 
present state of things in Italy that, at the 
present moment, I cannot obey your Majesty’s 
injunctions, much as I should like it. I am 
called for and' urged on by the people of 
Naples. I have tried in vain, with what in¬ 
fluence I had, to restrain them, feeling as I do 
that a more favourable moment would be de- 







yULY 


i860. 


AUGUST 


sirable. But if I should now hesitate, I should 
endanger the cause of Italy, and not fulfil my 
duty as an Italian. May your Majesty, there¬ 
fore, permit me this time not to obey ! As 
soon as I shall have done with the task im¬ 
posed on me by the wishes of the people which 
groans under the tyranny of the Neapolitan 
Bourbon, I shall lay down my sword at your 
Majesty’s feet, and shall obey your Majesty for 
the remainder of my lifetime. ” 

23 .—Garibaldi concludes a truce with the 
Neapolitans, who agree to evacuate Sicily, re¬ 
taining the Castle of Messina. 

31 .—Lord John Russell addresses a note to 
tl e Sardinian Government, dissuading it from 
attacking Austria or Naples. 

August 2. —Died at Madras, aged 64, 
Sir Henry George Ward, Governor of the 
Presidency. 

4 . —A French force despatched to Syria to 
protect the Christians of the Latin Church from 
the excesses of the excited Maronites and 
Druses. 

5 . —Charles XV. of Sweden, and his Queen, 
crowned at Drontheim, King and Queen of 
Norway. 

6. —Mr. Gladstone’s resolution for removing 
so much of the Customs duty on paper as 
exceeded the Excise duty at home, carried by a 
majority of 33 in a House of 499. This was 
the last contest of the session, and the last de¬ 
bate in which the principle of Protection was 
openly maintained. 

7 . — Her Majesty reviews her northern army 
of Volunteers in the park adjoining Holyrood 
Palace, Edinburgh. The line taken up by 
the corps extended from the wall of the Palace 
to the rising ground at the eastern extremity of 
the park. On the northern side, directly facing 
Arthur’s Seat, a gallery was erected for the 
use of her Majesty and distinguished visitors. 
The great mass of spectators, reckoned at 
hundreds of thousands, occupied the slopes of 
Arthur’s Seat, rising tier on tier to the pic¬ 
turesque summit. The force assembled was 
ranged in two divisions. The first consisted 
of Mounted Rifles, 84; Artillery (two bri¬ 
gades), 3,451 ; Engineers, 211 ; Rifles (three 
brigades), 8,501 ; total, 12,247. The second 
division, Rifles (four brigades), 8,257. Total 
on the ground, 20,522, about 18,000 of which 
were Scottish corps. Her Majesty and suite 
first rode slowly from end. to end of the line, 
and then returned to her position in the centre, 
when the corps commenced marching past in 
battalions. On the last brigade returning to 
its original ground, the line was re-formed, and 
the whole force advanced, presented arms, and 
saluted. This having been graciously acknow¬ 
ledged by her Majesty, the men burst into an 
enthusiastic cheer, which was taken up and 
repeated again and again by the multitude 
assembled on the hill-side. 


9 . —Bursting of a cannon in the Volunteer 
Artillery battery at Arch cliff Fort, Dover. 
Six persons were blown over—Lieut. Thomp¬ 
son, who died in half an hour; Sergeant Mon¬ 
ger, who received mortal injuries from the con¬ 
cussion ; and four others, whose injuries were 
not of so vital a character. The gun was an 
old one, cast in 1805, and had been used in 
the war-ships Ed^ar, Barham, and Asia. Since 
being altered at Woolwich, in 1845, it had been 
fired 180 times. 

— The House of Lords, sitting as a Com 
mittee of Privileges, admit the claim of the 
Right Hon. Theobald Fitzwalter Butler to the 
title and dignity of Baron of Dunboyne in tha 
peerage of Ireland. 

— The House of Commons vote 60,000/. 
for the Galway subsidy, by a majority of 145 
to 39. 

11.—Died, aged 55, the Rt. Hon. James 
Wilson, political economist and financial 
member of the Indian Council in Calcutta. 

13 . —The march of the Allied troops in 
China having been delayed by rain till yester¬ 
day, they now came up with the enemy at 
Tangku, defeating the Imperial troops with 
little loss, and capturing forty-five guns. The 
Allied forces next attacked the Taku forts. 

14 . —Fracas between Mr. Justice Blackburn 
and Sheriff Evelyn at Surrey Assizes, Guild¬ 
ford. The Sheriff published a placard, in 
which he stated that, by the Judge’s orders, 
the public were systematically kept out of his 
court, contrary to law; adding also, that he 
(the Sheriff) had given directions for the court 
again to be opened, and prohibited his officers 
from giving any assistance to keep the public 
out. To-day the Lord Chief Justice charac¬ 
terised the proceedings as “a painfully con¬ 
tumacious contempt of the court,” and fined 
the Sheriff in the sum of 500/. 

15 . —Three English tourists in the Alps— 
Rochester and Vavasour, of Cardiff; Fuller, 
of London—and the guide, F. Tairraz, killed 
by slipping over a precipice when descending 
the Col du Geant to Cormayeur. Another 
fatal Alpine accident, owing mainly to the 
carelessness of his guide, occurred a fortnight 
later to the Rev. W. G. Watson, chaplain of 
Gray’s Inn, when passing over the snow, en 
glissade, from the Col to the Windacher 
Thai. 

16 . —At the Central Criminal Court, Wil¬ 
liam Godfrey Youngman was sentenced to be 
executed for having, in his father’s house, 
Manor-place, Walworth, murdered his mother, 
one brother aged seven, another aged eleven, 
and a young woman named Mary Wells 
Stretter, by first stabbing them, and then cut¬ 
ting their throats. The only conceivable 
motive the prisoner appeared to have for his 
appalling crime was the idea that he could 
recover from an insurance office the sum of 
100/. for which he had induced Stretter to 

( 581 ) 






AUGUST i860. AUGUST j 


insure her life. He charged his mother with 
having committed the murders, and said he 
had only killed her in self-defence when at¬ 
tacked. Youngman was executed on the 
morning of the 4th of September, in fi'ont of 
Horsemonger-lane Gaol, in presence of 30,000 
spectators, being a larger number than had 
assembled at any execution since that of the 
Mannings. 

17 .—Fire at the West Kent Wharf, South¬ 
wark, destroying oil, butter, lard, wool, and 
oats, stored in the warehouses, to the esti¬ 
mated value of 200,000/. The fire originated 
in a small explosion of gas, which ignited a 
bale of jute. Next night, the Phoenix flour 
and baking mills, Ratcliff - highway, were 
burned down, and the whole of the biscuits 
intended for the expeditionary force in China 
destroyed. 

19 . —The body of a young woman found 
in the Queen’s Park, Edinburgh—the face 
blackened and disfigured, the nose broken, 
and marks of strangulation on the throat. She 
was last seen about midnight in the company 
of three soldiers of the 13th Light Dragoons. 
Next day, a boy discovered some clothes, 
slightly stained with blood, thrust into the 
materials of the old Trinity Church, which 
were identified as having belonged to the 
deceased, and presumed to have formed part 
of a small bundle she was seen carrying. A 
soldier at the barracks, spoken to as one of 
three seen in company with the deceased, 
was examined before the magistrates prepar¬ 
atory to committing him for trial j but the 
prosecution did not make out a strong case 
against him: nor was any other clue ever 
discovered. 

— Garibaldi lands at Spartivento from 
Sicily, and drives back the Neapolitan soldiery 
so far as to be able to command the navigation 
of the Straits. He afterwards set out for 
Reggio. 

20 . —The Australian Exploring Expedi¬ 
tion, under Burke and Wills, starts from Mel¬ 
bourne in great state with a caravan of 
twenty-seven camels, horses, waggons, and 
assistants. It w^as exactly a quarter to four 
o’clock when the Expedition got into order fit 
for marching out of the Royal Park. A lane 
was opened through the crowd, and in this 
the line was formed, Mr. Burke mounted on a 
little grey pony at the head. The Mayor of 
Melbourne mounted one of the drays to wish 
the Expedition God speed, and to call for 
three cheers for the Expedition and its chief. 
Burke replied that ‘ ‘ no Expedition had ever 
started under such favourable circumstances 
as this. The people, the Government, the 
Committee—all have done heartily what they 
could do. It is now our turn, and we shall 
never do well till we justify what you have 
done in showing what we can do.” Pro¬ 
ceeding by way of Toro wo to Swamp to 
Cooper’s Creek, the Expedition entered upon 
comparatively unknown land, and reached the 


shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria early in 
February 1861. The return homeward was a 
series of mistakes and calamities. The stores | 
left at various points of the journey had been j 
seized by the natives, and the Relief Committee ^ 
at Melbourne were late and unfortunate in pro- I 
viding for the wants of the explorers. Burke 
and Wills died from exhaustion near Cooper’s 
Creek, which was reached on the evening of 
the day the relieving party had left. The only j 
survivor of the Gulf party, John King, was dis- ■; 
covered existing among the natives and re¬ 
lieved by Howitt’s party on September 15th, ; 
in a condition when a few hours would, to all 
appearances, have put an end to his suffer¬ 
ings. Howitt writes : “I found King sitting I 
in a hut which the natives had made for him. ’ 
He presented a melancholy appearance— j 
wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be distin¬ 
guished as a civilized being but by the remnant 
of clothes upon him. He seemed exceedingly 
weak, and I found it occasionally difficult to 
follow what he said. The natives were all 
gathered round seated on the ground, looking 
with a most gratified and delighted expression.” 

— David Wemyss Jobson convicted of 
libelling Sir James Fergusson by imputing to 
him cowardly conduct when serving in the 
Crimea, and also with writing threatening 
letters to Mr. Disraeli, and sentenced by the 
Recorder to twelve months’ hard labour. 

24 .—In the course of a debate on foreign 
affairs, Lord Palmerston made a statement 
with reference to the cession of Savoy, of great 
significance after the personal appeal which 
the Emperor had made in his letter to M. de 
Persigny: “The Treaty of Turin has not 
received formal acknowledgment by any of the 
Powers—certainly not by this country—and 
cannot, at present, be said to form part of 
the public law of Europe. The cession of 
Savoy to France was a very peculiar trans¬ 
action, and does not come within the ordinary 
category of cessions of territory made by one 
sovereign to another. The territory of Savoy 
was held by the King of Sardinia subject to 
very peculiar conditions attached to it by the 
Treaty of Vienna, to which all the eight 
Powers of Europe were parties. It was not 
competent for the King of Sardinia to cede, 
nor, as I hold, for France to accept, that terri¬ 
tory, thus emancipating it from the conditions 
under which it stood as part of the dominions 
of Sardinia. The conditions had mainly for 
their object the preservation of the neutrality 
and independence of Switzerland; and it is 
clear that Savoy in the hands of France 
stands in a very different position in regard 
to the maintenance of the neutrality of Swit¬ 
zerland than when in the hands of Sardinia. 
France being a much stronger Power, and 
differently situated in many respects, there is 
greater danger to Switzerland from it than 
from Sardinia. The cession was objetcion- 
able, not only on that account, but on account 
of the manner in which it was made. All the 
circumstances connected with it from first to 








AUGUST 


i860. 


SEPTEMBER 


last—the denials at one time, and avowals at 
another; the promises made, as reported by 
the President of Switzerland in his Message 
of March ; the promises made in January and 
February by the French Government to the 
Minister of Switzerland, that whenever the 
cession should be completed Faucigny and 
Chablais should be transferred to Switzerland 
(a promise afterw r ards retracted, and appa¬ 
rently never intended to be performed)—all 
these circumstances must produce a most 
painful impression in the mind of every man 
in regard to all the parties who were con¬ 
cerned in the transaction. (General cheering.) 
It had certainly produced a painful impression 
on the mind of all the other States in Europe— 
an impression showing that they considered 
that, for the future, forethought and precau¬ 
tion must be the duty of every Power.” 

24 .—The Times publishes an address pre¬ 
sented to the Rev. F. D. Maurice by members 
of the Church of England, lay and clerical, 
tendering to him their congratulations on his 
recent nomination by the Crown to the in¬ 
cumbency of Oxford Chapel, St. Marylebo»e, 
“as a slight and tardy recognition of your 
eminent services, not only as one of the most 
learned theologians of the day, but more par¬ 
ticularly as a wise and benevolent co-operator 
with the working classes of the community, 
upon whose minds you have been eminently 
successful in bringing the practical truths of 
the Gospel to bear, and in leading them to 
regard the Church of our common Lord and 
Master Jesus Christ as the great instrument 
designed by Providence for the regeneration of 
mankind and the alleviation of society.” 

26 . —Fire in Kesterton’s coach-factory, 
Long Acre, extending to, and finally destroy¬ 
ing, the fine concert-room of St. Martin’s Hall, 
erected by Mr. Hullah, in 1847, for the accom¬ 
modation of 3,000 persons. 

27 . —Holden, formerly- a police-constable 
at Dungannon, executed for the murder of 
his sergeant, M‘Clelland, and the attempted 
murder of Sub-inspector Matthews. When 
being sentenced, at Tyrone Assizes, he inter¬ 
rupted the judge, and begged that he might be 
shot instead, saying that he had a few per¬ 
sonal friends in the force whom he would 
select for the duty. To the last he seemed 
possessed by a morbid conviction that there 
was a system of treachery and injury designed 
against him in the force of which he was a 
member. 

— Fire at Smyrna, destroying 700 houses. 

— Died at Konigsberg, aged 70, Christian 
Lobeck, philologist. 

28 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 

29 . —Dr. Lushington gives judgment in the 
Court of Arches in the case of the Rev. James 
Bonwell, incumbent of St. Philip’s, Stepney, 
prosecuted for immorality under the Church 
Discipline Act. Having gone carefully through 
the evidence, the learnt judge said the con¬ 


clusions were simply these—that the evidence 
against Mr. Bonwell was entirely uncontra¬ 
dicted ; that he seduced the young woman 
Elizabeth Yaroth, he being a married man, and 
falsely representing himself to be single; and 
that he had thereby caused great scandal to the 
Church of which he was minister. The sentence 
was deprivation from office and payment of 
costs. 

31 .—In prospect of an attack by Sardinia 
on Venetia, Lord John Russell writes to Sir 
James Hudson, British Minister at Turin: 
“ The only chance Sardinia could have in such 
a contest w r ould be the hope of bringing France 
into the field, and kindling a general war in 
Europe. But let not Count Cavour indulge 
in so pernicious a delusion. The Great Powers 
of Europe are bent on maintaining peace, and 
Great Britain has interests in the Adriatic 
which her Majesty’s Government must watch 
with careful attention. ” 

— Garibaldi accepts the title of Dictator of 
the Two Sicilies. 

— The Emperor and Empress of the French 
leaves Paris on a visit to Savoy, Corsica, and 
Algiers. 

September 1.— The Lancashire Volunteers, 
to the number of 11,000, reviewed in Knowsley 
Park, and afterwards entertained by the Earl 
of Derby. The refreshments provided on the 
occasion included between five and six tons of 
pies, several thousand rolls, and twenty-five 
hogsheads of the famous Knowsley ale. 

4 . —Collision near the Helmshore station of 
the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, occa¬ 
sioned by the breaking of a coupling of an ex¬ 
cursion train, one half.falling back on an incline, 
up which another train, also heavily laden with 
excursionists, was just entering. The trains 
were seen approaching each other for some dis- 
tance, and an attempt was even made to lessen 
the momentum of each by the use of breaks, 
but without much effect. The last of the 
runaway carriages were dashed to pieces, and 
their passengers scattered over the line, killed 
and maimed. Ten died on the spot, or soon 
after, and seventy-seven were injured. The 
excursion trains were despatched from Man¬ 
chester at intervals of ten minutes each. 

5. —The Duke of Newcastle informs the 
Mayor and Corporation of Kingston, Toronto, 
that he cannot advise the Prince of Wales to 
accept their proffered hospitality, on account 
of the extent to which they had permitted their 
Orange zeal to interfere with the invitation. 

6 . —The King of Naples issues a manifesto 
to the Courts of Europe: “Since a daring 
condottierQ > with all the force which revolu¬ 
tionary Europe possesses, has attacked our 
dominions in the name of one of Italy’s sove¬ 
reigns, a kinsman and an ally, we have, by all 
the means in our power, fought during five 
years for the independence of our States. The 
fortune of war has been against us. The 






SEPTEMBER 


i860. 


SEPTEMBER 


daring enterprise which that sovereign, in the 
most formal manner, protested he ignored, 
and which, nevertheless, pending the treaties 
for an intimate alliance, received in his States 
principally help and support—that enterprise 
which the whole of Europe, after having pro¬ 
claimed the principle of non-intervention, looks 
at with indifference, leaving us alone to struggle 
against the common enemy—is on the point of 
extending its unhappy effects even to our capital. 
The hostile forces are nearly approaching us. 
On the other hand, Sicily and the provinces of 
the Continent long since and in all ways under¬ 
mined by revolution, having risen under so 
much pressure, have formed provincial govern¬ 
ments with the title and under the nominal 
protection of that sovereign, and have confided 
to a pretended Dictator the authority and the 
full arbitrament of their destinies. Powerful in 
our rights, founded on history, on international 
treaties, and on the public law of Europe, while 
we depend on prolonging our defence as long 
as possible, we are not less determined to make 
every sacrifice to spare the horrors of a struggle 
and of anarchy to this vast metropolis, the 
glorious seat of antiquity, the cradle of the arts 
and the civilization of the kingdom. In conse¬ 
quence, we will move with our army outside 
our walls, confiding in the loyalty and affection 
of our subjects for the maintenance of order 
and respect to the authorities. In taking such 
a resolution, we feel at the same time the duty 
which is dictated to us by our ancient and un¬ 
shaken rights, our honour, and the interests of 
our heirs and successors, and still more of our 
beloved subjects; and we strongly protest 
against all the acts hitherto consummated, and 
the events which have taken place, or will 
happen hereafter.” After issuing this pro¬ 
clamation, the King left Naples for Gaeta, 
where he had resolved to make a stand against 
the successful condottiero. 

7 . —Count Cavour informs Cardinal Anto- 
nelli that Sardinia would feel herself justified 
in invading the Papal States unless the Pope 
disbanded the troublesome and irregular 
mercenary troops in his pay. The Emperor 
Napoleon thereupon caused a despatch to be 
sent to the French Embassy at Rome, stating 
that if the Piedmontese troops were guilty of 
such culpable aggression into the Pontifical 
territories he should be obliged to oppose them. 
Cardinal Antonelli wrote that the Holy See 
could only repel the menace with indignation, 
“ strong in its legitimate rights, and appealing 
to the law of nations, under the aegis of which 
Europe has hitherto lived, whatever violence 
the Holy See may be exposed to suffer, with¬ 
out having provoked it; and against which it 
is my duty now to protest energetically in the 
name of his Holiness.” 

8 . —Garibaldi, having defeated the troops of 
Francis II. at Reggio and San Giovanni, enters 
Naples as a first-class passenger in the railway 
train from Salerno. He was accompanied, 
among others, by Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., who 
appeared to act in some sort as his adviser. 

(584) 


8. —The Lady Elgin, American mail-steamer,' 
run into during an excursion trip on Lake 
Michigan, and 300 of her passengers drowned. 
Within a quarter of an hour the engine of the 
ill-fated vessel fell through her bottom, and her 
hull went down, leaving nothing but the hurri¬ 
cane deck, two boats, and some loose fragments 
floating about the waves. The greater part of 
those on board perished in a mass in the cabin, 
the two small boats taking off qnly twenty- 
one between them. Among the persons who 
perished was Mr. Herbert Ingram, M.P. for 
Boston—well known as the proprietor of the 
Illustrated London News —and his son. 

9 . —V'ctor Emmanuel proclaimed King of 
Italy at Naples. 

10. —Explosion at Meffort Powder Works, 
Argylshire, causing the death of six men—all 
who were on the premises at the time. The 
disaster took place in the “coming-house,” 
where about three tons of gunpowder were 
stowed, and extended to another building, 
eighty yards distant, in which, however, no¬ 
body was employed at the time. 

— Sardinian troops to the number of 25,000 
enter the Papal States. These were followed 
next day by a similar number. 

12 . —The fortress of Pesaro, garrisoned by 
1,200 men, surrenders to the Piedmontese army 
under Cialdini. Fano, Urbino, Perugia, and 
Spoleto (where the troops included 300 Irish 
volunteers under Major O’Reilly), were after¬ 
wards taken by assault. 

— Captain Macdonald committed to prison 
at Bonn for resisting the railway authorities 
there. The English residents interfered in a 
manner which led to a diplomatic correspon¬ 
dence with this country. The affair was ami¬ 
cably settled on the 1st May following. 

13 . —John Dalliger, a marine in the China 
Fleet, executed at the yard-arm for attempting 
to shoot Lieut. Hudson of the Severn, and also 
the second master. The rigging of every ship 
was manned by all hands to witness the exe¬ 
cution. Punctually at one o’clock the prisoner 
was brought out, stripped of his uniform; a 
rope was passed round h.is neck, the signal 
given, and in two seconds the bowmen had run 
him up to the fore-yard-arm. There a loop 
was loosed, and the body fell with a jerk at 
least six feet. 

15 . — Garibaldi expels the Jesuits from 
Naples and declares the estates of the Crown 
national property. 

18 .—The Chinese Imperial Commissioners 
having expressed a desire to resume negotia¬ 
tions, the two secretaries of the embassy, 
Messrs. Parkes and Loch, accompanied by 
M. de Norman, attache, Capt. Brabazon, Lieut. 
Anderson, Mr. Bowlby of the Times , and some 
others, depart for Tang-chow, to arrange the 
necessary preliminaries for an interview. They 
found the place occupied by Imperial soldiers, 
under the Tartar general San-ko-lin-sin, and. 







SEPTEMBER 


i860. 


OCTOBER 


while they were on the ground, the outposts 
commenced a sharp fight with the Allied troops. 
Parkes and Loch were seized by the Chinese 
and carried before the General, who received 
them with rudeness and insult. The rest of the 
party, including eighteen sowars of Fane’s 
Horse, were carried into the interior, where all, 
with the exception of a few of the sowars, 
miserably perished, owing to the excessive 
cruelty with which they were treated, their 
hands and feet being bound so tightly with cords 
that in some instances the flesh burst and morti¬ 
fication ensued. Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch 
were conveyed prisoners to Pekin, and confined 
separately in prisons of the most filthy descrip¬ 
tion. On the 22d Mr. Parkes was removed 
from the common prison to a separate ward, 
about eight feet square, on the opposite side of 
the court; and four gaolers were appointed to 
watch him. Here he received frequent visits 
from a Mandarin, named Hang-ki, whom he 
had known at Hong Kong, and who was sent 
by Prince Kung, the Emperor’s brother, to 
endeavour to extract information from him, and 
make use of him to obtain favourable terms 
with the British plenipotentiary, Lord Elgin. 
At last he was told that he should be taken 
out of prison; but Mr. Parkes generously re¬ 
fused to leave it unless he were accompanied 
by Mr. Loch. The result was, that on the 
29th of September Hang-ki came to the prison 
with an order for the removal of both, from 
the Board of Punishments, to a temple, where 
quarters were provided for them, and where 
they were well treated until their final release. 
In the meantime, Lord Elgin refused to nego¬ 
tiate unless the prisoners were returned; and 
on the 25th of September he replied to over¬ 
tures from Prince Kung that the army would 
advance to the assault of Pekin, unless within 
three days the prisoners were surrendered and 
the Convention formally signed and ratified. As 
Prince Kung continued to evade these demands, 
the army marched forward to Pekin. 

18 . —Died at Moffat, Dumfriesshire, aged 
54, Joseph Locke, M.P. for Honiton, railway 
engineer. 

19 . — Slater and Vivyan, two keepers at 
Colney Hatch Asylum, tried at the Central 
Criminal Court, and acquitted, on a charge of 
manslaughter, in respect of a patient named 
Swift, who died after a severe struggle with 
another keeper not in custody. 

28 . — -The Garibaldians capture Ancona, 
General Lamoriciere surrendering with the 
entire garrison as prisoners of war. This 
achievement concluded the campaign in the 
Marches. 

— The Pope pronounces an allocution 
condemning the Sardinian Government, and 
praying that the pride of the Church’s enemies 
might be broken, the hearts of prevaricators 
changed, and those who attacked her put to 
flight. 

29 . — At the Camp, Aldershot, Private 


Johnson, of the 41st Foot, shoots Sergeant 
Chipt and Corporal Coles, in revenge for 
having been sentenced to twelve days’ extra 
drill. He feigned drunkenness when appre¬ 
hended, and insanity when put on his trial at 
Winchester Assizes, on the 12th December; 
but the jury with short deliberation found him 
guilty, and he was sentenced to be executed. 

October 1 . — The forces of the King of 
Naples defeated by Garibaldians on the Vol- 
turno. 

5 .—During the continuance of a severe storm, 
which swept over the northern part of Britain, 
the lone island of St. Kilda was rendered almost 
desolate. Every house was unroofed, the scanty 
crops were blown into the sea with the soil in 
which they grew, every shed and shelter was 
swept away, and the very boat by which they 
kept up a communication with the mainland 
was blown out of its haven and destroyed. In 
this crisis of the island H.M. S. Porcupine ap¬ 
peared in the bay, and, on becoming acquainted 
with the state of matters, Captain Otter not 
only gave relief himself, but induced the High¬ 
land Society and others to send out abundance 
of food and seed to the starving islanders. 

7 .—General Guyon, commander of the 
French troops in the Papal States, informs 
the inhabitants of Viterbo that his column is 
approaching the town, and will require accom¬ 
modation. The Gonfaloniere answers: “ The 
Municipal Commission of this town, of which 
I have the honour to be president, is disagree¬ 
ably surprised at the receipt of your communi¬ 
cation that a column of French troops is coming 
here. Relying on the assurance of your Em¬ 
peror that no intervention would take place in 
Italy, we proclaimed the Government of King 
Victor Emmanuel, the friend and ally of 
France. His Majesty sent a commissioner 
to govern us, and we have maintained the 
most perfect order with the unanimous consent 
of all the citizens. Persons and property were 
never so secure here as they have been since 
the installation of the King’s Government, and 
we can conscientiously say that we do not deserve 
to have our tranquillity troubled. If, however, 
your orders, General, should be such that you 
cannot change your determination, you will 
not meet with the slightest resistance, but you 
will find the town deserted, unless you assure 
us that you will not be followed by the re¬ 
action. I myself and the entire municipality 
will seek a place of safety, as will also the 
other citizens, who are almost all liable to 
prosecution by the clerical Government.” 

—Loss of the Galway Company’s American 
steamship Connaught. She became water¬ 
logged and altogether unmanageable when 
about 300 miles off Boston on her outward 
voyage; and, to add to the horror of the situa¬ 
tion, it was then discovered that she was on 
fire between decks. A small American brig 
of 198 tons burthen answered the Connaughf s 
signal of distress, coming up at the moment 






OCTOBER 


i860. 


OCTOBER 


when the fire was bursting out on the deck 
and threatening to devour everything in its 
way. First the women and children, and 
latterly the whole of the passengers and crew, 
amounting in all to 591 people, were taken 
on board the little brig and landed safely at 
Boston. The Connaught , with all her cargo, 
passengers’ luggage, and 10,000/. in gold, 
received at St. John’s, went down soon after. 

8. —Mr. William Brown’s munificent gift to 
Liverpool of a Free Library was this day 
formally handed over to the Corporation, and 
inaugurated by a procession, dinner, and 
speeches. 

9 . —The King of Sardinia issues a manifesto 
to the people of Southern Italy, explaining and 
justifying his proceedings since the Treaty of 
Villafranca. He concludes: “I have pro¬ 
claimed Italy for the Italians, and I will not 
permit Italy to become a focus for cosmo¬ 
politan sects, who may meet there to contrive 
schemes of reaction or of universal demagogic 
intrigues. People of Southern Italy! my 
troops advance among you to maintain order. 
I come not to impose my will, but to make 
yours respected. You may freely manifest it. 
Providence, who protects the cause of the just, 
will suggest the vote which you should place 
in the urn. Whatever the gravity of events, 
I wait calmly the judgment of civilized Europe 
and of history, conscious of having fulfilled my 
duties as a King and as an Italian. My policy 
will, perhaps, not be inefficacious in recon¬ 
ciling the progress of nations with the stability 
of monarchy. As for Italy, I know that there 
I bring to a close the era of revolutions. ” 

10. —The Peruvian frigate Callao upset 
when being drawn into the dry dock at San 
Lorenzo, and 150 of the people on board 
drowned, including many of the sick and 
wounded in hospital. The vessel afterwards 
went to pieces. 

12 . —The Allied troops enter Pekin. The 
siege-guns were in position, and the Chinese 
Government had been informed that the can¬ 
nonade would be opened on the following day, 
at noon, unless the city were previously sur¬ 
rendered, and one of its gates placed in our 
hands. The result was that all the demands 
of the Allies were unconditionally acceded to, 
the gate was thrown open to the troops, and 
for the first time in history the flags of Eng¬ 
land and France floated victoriously on the 
walls of Pekin. The Emperor had abandoned 
his capital on pretence of attending a hunting 
expedition. Being ignorant at the time of the 
barbarous treatment of the prisoners, Lord 
Elgin simply made provision for having 
them delivered up to him ; but a few days 
later, when their fate was ascertained, he com¬ 
municated to Prince Kung the only conditions 
upon which the city would be spared : ‘ ‘ What 
remains of the palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen, 
which appears to be the place at which several 
of the British captives were subjected to the 
(586) 


grossest indignities, will be immediately levelled 
to the ground : this condition requires no assent 
on the part of his Highness, because it will 
be at once carried into effect by the Com¬ 
mander-in-chief. A sum of 300,000 taels 
must be paid down at once to the officers 
appointed to receive it, which sum will be 
appropriated, at the discretion of her Majesty’s 
Government, to those who have suffered, and 
to the families of the murdered men. The 
Convention drawn up at Tien-tsin must be im¬ 
mediately signed. It will remain as it is, with 
the single change that it shall be competent for 
the armies of England and France to remain 
at Tien-tsin until the whole indemnities spoken 
of in the said Convention are paid, if the 
Governments of England and France see fit 
to adopt this course.” The Summer Palace, 
consisting of a great variety of buildings, scat¬ 
tered over a park of immense size, and which 
had contained, before it was plundered, all the 
luxuries Chinese art could furnish or wealth 
supply, was accordingly set on fire by a detach¬ 
ment of our troops, and totally destroyed. The 
Convention was signed at Pekin on the 24th of 
October. 

12 .—Died, aged 72, General Sir Harry G. 
W. Smith, an officer of the Peninsular Army, 
who greatly distinguished himself in the Sikh 
campaign of 1840. 

14 -.—Professor Henslow contributes to the 
Athenceitm the result of his investigation in the 
much-talked-of gravel pits of Amiens and 
Abbeville. From the extremely loose texture 
of the different beds, or rather bands, of gravel, 
from the confused intermixture of various 
samples, and from the broken and fragmentary 
character of the ivory found with the flint in¬ 
struments, he was led to believe that the beds 
were formed by a comparatively recent flood, 
which carried with it masses of various geolo¬ 
gical formations, and thus utterly confused 
their chronological arrangement. He had, 
therefore, returned from his excursion impressed 
with the conviction that the facts he witnessed 
did not of necessity support the hypothesis of 
a pre-histori-c antiquity for these works of man ; 
and that the bones of extinct animals found 
associated with the Celts need not necessarily 
be supposed to have belonged to individuals 
contemporary with the men who formed the 
flint instruments. 

18 .—Garibaldi publishes a decree stating 
that Naples ought to be incorporated with the 
Italian Kingdom. 

20. —The Emperor of Austria, suddenly 
entering (as M. Deak described) the path of 
Constitutionalism, issues a diploma conferring 
on the Reichsrath legislative powers and the 
control of the national finances. 

21 . —The Neapolitans vote in favour of the 
annexation of their country to the Sardinian 
States. The Sicilians afterwards carried a 
similar vote. 

22. —Imperial interview at Warsaw between 






OCTOBER 


i860. 


OCTOBER 


the Emperor of Russia and the Emperor of 
Austria. 

25 .—Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court the trial of George Mullins, for the 
murder of Mrs. Emsley, an aged widow lady 
of considerable means, but parsimonious habits, 
residing in Grove-road, Stepney. She was last 
seen alive on the evening of the 13th August, 
and on the 17th, when suspicion was excited 
by her disappearance, it was found that she 
had been barbarously murdered in the lumber- 
room of her house, and a considerable amount 
of her property stolen. From information 
given by Mullins, a neighbour named Emm, 
w ho collected rents for the murdered woman, 
w r as apprehended, and a portion of the stolen 
property found in an outbuilding adjoining 
his house, but to which Mullins or any other 
person might have had access. The other evi¬ 
dence against Emm was of the most inconclusive 
description. Mullins himself (who had for¬ 
merly been a sergeant in the K division of 
the Metropolitan Police) was apprehended, the 
theory being that he had acted against Emm, 
first with the view of diverting suspicion 
from himself, and next, to secure the large 
reward of 300/. offered by Government for the 
discovery of the murderer. It was now estab¬ 
lished in evidence that Mullins was seen going 
in the direction of the cottage on the night of 
the murder; that he could get easy access to 
the house, from the circumstance that he was 
employed by the deceased to job about her 
property ; that she w r as murdered when in the 
act of exhibiting paper-hangings ; that when 
last seen he had in his hand a plasterer’s ham¬ 
mer, with which the wounds might have been in¬ 
flicted ; that the marks in the clotted blood on the 
stair-head corresponded with an old boot worn 
on the night in question by the prisoner ; that 
on his mantelpiece was found a piece of tape 
corresponding to that binding the parcel con¬ 
cealed near Emm’s house, and also a piece of 
wax, with which the thread tying an inner 
parcel was covered—evidently for the purpose 
of strengthening the suspicion against Emm, 
who was by trade a shoemaker. It was also 
proved that Mullins was seen near to where 
the parcel was found a few days before he 
informed against Emm ; and, finally, that his 
wife had disposed of a silver pencil - case 
known to have been in the possession of the 
deceased when she was murdered. On the 
second day of trial, the jury, after deliberating 
upwards of three hours, returned a verdict 
of Guilty, and sentence of death was passed, by 
the Lord Chief Baron. Mullins was executed on 
the 19th of November, having written a state¬ 
ment, not exactly in the form of a confes¬ 
sion, but declaring his belief that Emm was 
innocent 

26 .—The King of Piedmont with his army 
having crossed the frontier into the Abruzzi, 
Garibaldi advances with a body of volunteers 
to meet his Majesty, then marching upon the 
line of the Voltumo. The interview took place 
between Teano and Speranzano. “ Seeing the 


red shirts,” writes a witness, “ the King took 
a glass : and having recognised Garibaldi, gave 
his horse a touch of the spur, and galloped to 
meet him. When ten paces distant the officers of 
the King and those of Garibaldi shouted ‘Viva 
Victor Emmanuel!’ Garibaldi made another 
step in advance, raised his cap, and added, in a 
voice which trembled with emotion, ‘ King of 
Italy ! ’ Victor Emmanuel raised his hand to 
his cap, and then stretched out his hand to 
Garibaldi, and with equal emotion replied, ‘ I 
thank you. ’ ” 

26 . —Spain withdraws her Minister from 
Turin, and protests against the invasion of the 
Papal territories by Sardinia. 

27 . —Several of the European Courts ex¬ 
pressing disapproval of the late proceedings 
of the King of Sardinia, Lord John Russell 
now writes to Sir James Hudson, our Minister 
at Turin: “Her Majesty’s Government do 
not feel justified in declaring that the people 
of Southern Italy had not good reason for 
throwing off their allegiance to their former 
Governments ; her Majesty’s Government can¬ 
not, therefore, pretend to blame the King of 
Sardinia for assisting them. There remains, 
however, a question of fact. It is asserted by 
the partisans of the fallen Governments that 
the people of the Roman States were attached 
to the Pope, and the people of the kingdom of 
Naples to the dynasty of Francis II.; but that 
Sardinian agents and foreign adventurers have 
by force and intrigue subverted the thrones of 
those sovereigns. It is difficult, however, to 
believe, after the astonishing events which we 
have seen, that the Pope and the King of the 
Two Sicilies possessed the love of their people. 
How was it, one must ask, that the Pope found 
it impossible to levy a Roman army, and that 
he was forced to rely almost entirely upon 
foreign mercenaries ? How did it happen, again, 
that Garibaldi conquered nearly all Sicily 
with 2,000 men, and marched from Reggio to 
Naples with 5,000? How but from the uni¬ 
versal disaffection of the people of the Two 
Sicilies ? Neither can it be said that the testi¬ 
mony of the popular will was capricious or 
causeless. .... It must be admitted, un¬ 
doubtedly, that the severance of ties which 
bind together sovereigns and their subjects is 
in itself a misfortune : notions of allegiance 
become confused, the succession of the throne 
is disputed ; adverse } parties threaten the peace 
of society ; rights and pretensions are opposed 
to each other, and mar the harmony of the 
State. Yet it must be acknowledged, on the 
other hand, that the Italian revolution has 
been conducted with singular temper and for¬ 
bearance. The subversion of existing power 
has not been followed, as is too often the case, 
by an outbreak of popular vengeance. The 
extreme views of democrats have nowhere 
prevailed. Public opinion has checked the 
excess of public triumph. The venerated forms 
of constitutional monarchy have been asso¬ 
ciated with the name of a prince who repre¬ 
sents an ancient and glorious dynasty. Such 

(537) 









OCTOBER 


i860. 


NOVEMBER 


having been the causes and the concomitant 
circumstances of the revolution of Italy, her 
Majesty’s Government can see no sufficient 
ground for the severe censure with which 
Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia have 
visited the acts of the King of Sardinia. Her 
Majesty’s Government will turn their eyes 
rather to the gratifying prospect of a people 
building up the edifice of their liberties, and 
consolidating the work of their independence, 
amid the sympathies and good wishes of 
Europe.” 

30 . —Died, aged 85, Admiral Cochrane, 
Earl of Dundonald, a dashing commander, and 
an innocent victim of the Stock Exchange 
frauds of 1814. 

31 . —The Middlesex magistrates quash a 
conviction obtained against Rosier for dis¬ 
orderly conduct in the church of St. George’s- 
in-the-East, partly on the ground that the 
police magistrate had not fixed a time when 
the fine of 3/. was to be paid. 

— The 5 th European regiment at Dinapore, 
India, disbanded for mutiny. 

November 3 .—Explosion of the steamship 
To;ming in Yarmouth Roads. Eight of the 
crew were blown into the sea and drowned ; 
the mutilated fragments of other three were 
found in the ship; seven were frightfully 
scalded; and most of the live stock on 
board was killed and crushed into a shapeless 
mass. The survivors were taken off by fishing- 
boats, and the wreck towed by a smack into 
Yarmouth harbour. 

— The Sardinian army commences the siege 
of the fortress of Gaeta, where Francis II. had 
resolved to make a final stand. 

4 .— Chappell’s pianoforte factory, Crown- 
street, Soho, destroyed by fire, and one woman 
killed by an explosion which took place. 

6. —Died, at Merchiston Hall, Hants, aged 
74, Admiral Sir Charles Napier, M.P. for 
Southwark. 

— Abraham Lincoln, the Republican can¬ 
didate, elected President of the United States. 

7 . — King Victor Emmanuel enters Naples in 
state, and issues a proclamation to the Nea¬ 
politan and Sicilian people :— “The results of 
the vote by universal suffrage give me the 
sovereign power over these noble provinces. 
I accept this new award of the national will, 
moved, not by any monarchic ambition, but 
by conscientious feelings as an Italian. The 
duties of all Italians are augmented. Sincere 
concord and constant self-denial are more than 
ever necessary. All parties must bow before 
the majesty of the Italian nation, which God 
uplifts. We must here inaugurate a Govern¬ 
ment which may give security of free existence 
to the people, and of severe rectitude to public 
opinion. I put my reliance on the efficacious 
co-operation of all honest men. Where power 
is bounded by the laws, and strengthened by 
freedom, the Government has as much influence 

(588) 


on the public welfare as the people excel by 
public and private virtues. We must show 
Europe that, if the irresistible force of events has 
broken through the conventionalities grounded 
on the calamities by which Italy was for 
centuries afflicted, we know how to restore to 
the united nation the empire of those un¬ 
changeable principles without which every 
society is infirm, and every authority is exposed 
to struggle and uncertainty.” 

8 . —Died, aged 61, Sir Charles Fellows, 
traveller and archaeologist 

9 . —Miss Sheddon commences her pleadings 
before a full Divorce and Probate Court in the 
Legitimacy Declaration case of Sheddon v. 
Patrick. After occupying the court about 
fourteen days, the Judge Ordinary dismissed 
the appeal, being of opinion that the balance 
of testimony was against Ann Wilson being 
legally married earlier than the death-bed 
marriage celebrated at New York in 1798. 

— Garibaldi departs from Naples for his 
retired home at Caprera. 

11 . —-The famous Kildare-street club-house, 
Dublin, destroyed by fire, and three of the 
female servants burnt. The plate and wines 
were saved, but the furniture, pictures, and 
library were all consumed. 

13 . —Vice-Chancellor Wood gives judgment 
in the suit of Di Sara v. Borghese, arising 
GK.it of the will of the late Earl of Shrewsbury. 
The plaintiff, the Duchess Di Sara, the only 
surviving child of the late Princess Bor¬ 
ghese, formerly the Lady Catherine Gwen- 
daline Talbot, second daughter of John, Earl 
of Shrewsbury, claimed to be entitled, upon 
the preliminary contract for the marriage of 
her mother, to one moiety of the real estate 
and also one moiety of the personal estate, of 
which the Earl of Shrewsbury was possessed 
at the time of his death, besides a dowry in 
money of 40,000/., which the contract also 
stipulated, and of which one-half had been 
paid. The Vice-Chancellor gave judgment, 
that the effect of the preliminary contract was 
to retain to the Earl of Shrewsbury the power 
of disposing of his estate to strangers ; and 
as the Earl did so, the result was that nothing 
but the dowry of 40,000/. went to the Borghese 
family. 

14 . —Commercial treaty arranged between 
Russia and China. 

15 . —After an unusually slow and disagree¬ 
able voyage, the Prince of Wales arrives at 
Plymouth in the Hero , having left Portland on 
the 20th October. 

16 . —The “limited” mail-train from Scot¬ 
land runs into a cattle-train being shunted at 
Atherstone station, killing nine of the drovers, 
who were asleep in the last van, and smashing 
four of the loaded trucks. The fireman of 
the “limited” was the only person who lost 
his life or was seriously injured in that train. 

19 *—The Bishop of Down and Connor 








NOVEMBER 


i860. 


DECEMBER 


driven from a meeting of the Propagation 
Society in Belfast by a band of Orangemen, 
who were incensed at the prohibition of service 
on the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne. 

21 .—To moderate her intense grief for the 
loss of her sister, the Duchess of Alba, the 
Empress of the French crosses the Channel, 
and makes a series of hurried visits to various 
persons and places in England and Scotland. 
Her Majesty was attended only by the Marquis 
La Grange and two ladies in waiting. She 
put up a day or two at Claridge’s Hotel, and 
then started for the north, where she permitted 
the private character of her visit to be so far 
broken through as to receive addresses from 
the corporations of Edinburgh and Glasgow. 
After a rapid tour to Dunkeld, Taymouth 
Castle,Stirling, Hamilton Palace, Loch Katrine, 
and Loch Lomond, the Empress returned to 
London by way of Manchester and Leaming¬ 
ton. On the 4th December she was received 
by her Majesty at Windsor Castle, and returned 
to Paris on the 13th. 

24 . —Died suddenly, in Plolborn, aged 80, 
the Rev. George Croly, LL. D., of St. Stephen’s, 
Walbrook. 

25 , —In connexion with various ministerial 
changes now felt to be necessary, the Emperor 
Napoleon issues a decree conceding greater 
freedom of discussion to the Chambers, and 
appointing two sets of officials—speakers and 
administrators. 

— President Miramon being driven from 
office by the oppressed Mexicans, Juarez enters 
the city with a victorious army, and resumes 
the reins of government. 

27 . —The army of Garibaldi disbanded. 

28 . —Died at Bonn, aged 69, the Chevalier 
Bunsen, formerly Prussian Ambassador at the 
Court of St. James’s, and author of various 
learned works on the history of the Christian 
Church. 

30 .—Heard in the Court of Common Pleas 
the case of Emma Kemp, milliner, v. the 
Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. In 
January last the plaintiff was going in an om¬ 
nibus with an undergraduate named Graham, 
of Emmanuel College, and some musicians, 
to a private party to be given at Shelford 
by Graham, in celebration of his B.A. degree, 
when the Proctor and his assistants, or “ bull¬ 
dogs,” stopped them at Barnwell, and took the 
plaintiff and other young women into custody. 
She was sentenced by the Vice-Chancellor to 
fourteen days’ imprisonment, and was actually 
confined for four. The defence pleaded was 
“Not guilty; authority under certain University 
statutes; and the immemorial custom of the 
Proctors to apprehend suspected women. ” The 
questions put to the jury were, whether the 
Vice-Chancellor had examined the plaintiff, 
and might be reasonably satisfied that she was 
in company with undergraduates for idle, dis¬ 
orderly, or immoral purposes. After many 
adjournments, the jury declared that they could 


not say “ Yes” or “No” to the questions as 
submitted, but all agreed that further inquiry 
should have been made before the girl was im¬ 
prisoned. This was entered as a verdict for 
the plaintiff—damages, 40^. In this, as in the 
case of another young woman, named Ebbon, 
a bill of exception was tendered, in order that 
the whole question of the public powers of the 
University might be argued before a higher 
court. 

December 1 . — Explosion in the Black Vein 
Pit of Risca Colliery, Newport, causing the 
death of 142 workmen, and between 30 and 
40 horses employed in the pit. From the 
inquiry which took place into the cause of this 
catastrophe, it seemed not improbable that the 
explosion was caused by one of the men reck¬ 
lessly exposing his lamp for the purpose of 
lighting a pipe. The ventilating arrangements 
were so extensive that they were calculated to 
drive 48,000 cubic feet of air per minute down 
the shaft, and were proved by test, after the 
accident, to be then forcing down 37,500 feet 
per minute. The inspection of the works was 
said to be efficient and systematic; the men 
were provided in every instance with safety- 
lamps of the most approved construction, and 
these were said to be examined and locked by 
a special officer before they were delivered to 
the workmen. Of the 142 bodies brought to 
the surface, 72 appeared to have died from the 
effects of choke-damp; 65 bore the marks of 
burns; 3 were evidently burnt to death; and 
3 died from injuries caused by the “falls.” 

— King Victor Emmanuel II. makes a 
public entry into Sicily. 

4 . —In the Court of Exchequer the case of 
O’Malley Irwin v. Lever, for services alleged 
to be rendered in starting the Galway Steam- 
packet Company, was withdrawn. 

— At a meeting of the clergy and laity of 
the rural deanery of Amersham, Buckingham¬ 
shire, Mr. Disraeli avows his opinion that the 
question of Church-rates necessarily involves 
the existence of a National Church. “The 
clergy,” he said, “must make members of 
Parliament understand, that though this was 
not a party question it was a political one, and 
a political question on which, in their minds, 
there ought not to be, and there could not be, 
any mistake. He could assure them from his 
own knowledge, that there were many mem¬ 
bers of Parliament who, on this question, gave 
careless votes, and thought by so doing they 
were giving some vague Liberal satisfaction 
without preparing any future inconvenience for 
themselves. Let their clerical friends, Whig 
or Tory, Conservative or Liberal, make these 
gentlemen understand that, in their opinion, 
on the union of Church and State depend, in a 
large measure, the happiness, the greatness, 
and the liberty of England. ” 

5. —M. Poinsot, president of one of the 
chambers of the Imperial Court, murdered in 
the railway train between Troyes and Paris. 

(580! 





DECEMBER 


i860. 


DECEMBER 


Two pistol shots, had pierced the head ; and 
a third shot had been fired at the heart, but 
repelled by the clothing. The skull was also 
seriously fractured, and with such violence 
had the instrument of attack been used, that 
the brains of the deceased were scattered about 
the compartment. The assassin succeeded in 
making good his escape while the train was in 
motion, carrying with him the watch and 
railway-rug belonging to his victim. 

7.— At the Durham Assizes, Thomas Smith, 
pitman and poacher, was sentenced to death 
for murdering his companion Batty, neai 
Winlaton, with a “morgan rattler,’’ or life- 
preserver. Though many weeks elapsed before 
he was apprehended, the conscience-stricken 
murderer seemed unable to move far from the 
neighbourhood of the crime, a-nd was at last 
apprehended at Port Mulgrave, Yorkshire, 
whither hunger and weakness had led him.—At 
the same assizes Milner Lockey was sentenced 
to death for murdering Thomas Harrison, at 
Urpeth Mill, by stabbing him with a knife, 
after making an attempt on the life of his own 
wife, whom he charged with undue familiarity 
with the deceased. Smith and Lockey were 
hanged on the 27th December. 

— In an examination in bankruptcy concern¬ 
ing the transactions of Messrs. Streatfeild & Co., 
bankrupts with 750,000/. of debts, and Lau¬ 
rence, Mortimore, & Co., with 300,000/., both 
leather merchants, it appeared that, though 
enjoying the highest of credit, they had for 
years been carrying on an involved series of 
accommodation-bill transactions with small 
firms or persons altogether imaginary, to the 
extent of, in 1857, 240,000/. ; 1858, 320,000/. ; 
1859, 293,000/.; and i860, 117,000/. The 
bankrupts said the banks were not only will¬ 
ing to take their “ paper,” but in almost every 
instance solicited it—one writing for a “ tea¬ 
spoon” (5,000/.), and others for “spoons” of 
various sizes up to a “gravy-spoon” (20,000/.). 

7 . —Contest at Oxford between Mr. Max 
Miiller and the Rev. Monier Williams for the 
Boden Professorship of Sanskrit. The polling 
commenced at two o’clock and continued till 
half-past seven, when the numbers stood— 
Williams, 843; Muller, 610: majority for 
Williams, 223. 

12. —The Queen visits Oxford for the first 
time since her accession, on the occasion of the 
leave-taking of the Prince of Wales. 

13 . —Died, aged 76, George Hamilton 
Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen, Prime 
Minister from Dec. 1852 till Jan. 1855. 

15.—The Court of Chancery pronounces 
judgment in the long-litigated claim of the 
Rajah of Coorg against the East India Com¬ 
pany, for the recovery of two promissory notes 
which he held against them, and which they 
had given to him as security for the repay¬ 
ment of two loans. The Company pleaded that, 
having captured and annexed Coorg, these 


notes, by the right of conquest, formed part of 
the booty of war, as the Rajah, they argued, 
had lent the money in his sovereign and not in 
his private capacity. This was the view now 
taken by the Master of the Rolls, who dismissed 
the bill, but without costs. 

16. —Abolition of passports in France. 
M. de Persigny addresses a circular to the 
Prefects of the Departments informing them 
that the Emperor had decided, “ that from the 
1st of January next, and by reciprocity, the 
subjects of the Queen of Great Britain and 
Ireland coming into France will be admitted to 
circulate on the territory of the Empire without 
passports. I request you, in consequence, to 
give the necessary instructions that English sub¬ 
jects may be received in France on the simple 
declaration of their nationality.” 

17 . —Royal proclamation issued authorizing 
the new bronze coinage of penny, half-penny, 
and farthing pieces. 

— Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Common Pleas, the case of Anna Maria Cob- 
den Hooper against Thomas Charles Warde, 
of Clapton House, Warwickshire, magistrate, 
and formerly high-sheriff of the county. The 
plaintiff, who (with her mother’s consent) had 
lived in the house in the capacity of Warde’s 
mistress, complained that the defendant had 
several times assaulted her, and also compelled 
her to have intercourse with servants in the 
house. There was a count in trover for detain¬ 
ing articles of jewellery, and another count for 
money lent. The defendant denied that he had 
been guilty of the assaults, having acted only in 
self-defence. He also denied that the jewels 
were the property of the plaintiff; and as to 
the money lent, alleged payment. The evidence 
given by the plaintiff, and confirmed by others, 
disclosed a course of disgusting and shameless 
conduct on the part of the defendant. At the 
close of the second day’s proceedings the jury 
found a verdict for Miss Hooper—damages for 
the jewellery, 100/. ; for the loan, 80/.; and for 
the assaults, 500/. The Lord Chancellor after¬ 
wards caused the defendant’s name to be erased 
from the Commission of the Peace, on the 
ground that he had shown a recklessness of 
conduct, and an unconsciousness of the distinc¬ 
tion between right and wrong, which proved 
him to be a person wholly unfit to be entrusted 
with the power of taking part in the adminis¬ 
tration of criminal law. 

19 . —Died at Dalhousie Castle, aged 48, 
Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General of India 
from January 1848 to March 1856. 

20 . —Explosion in Hetton Colliery, Durham, 
causing the death of 23 men, mostly masons, 
employed in the pit at the time, repairing the 
road and rolley-ways. 

— South Carolina secedes from the United 
States. On this *day the State Convention 
sitting at Charleston adopted the following 
ordinance:—“An ordinance to dissolve the 
union between the State of South Carolina 







DECEMBER 


1860-61. 


JANUARY 


and other States united with her under the 
compact entitled the Constitution of the United 
States of America: We, the people of the 
State of South Carolina in Convention assem¬ 
bled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby 
declared and ordained, that the ordinance 
adopted by us in Convention, on the 23d 
day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, 
whereby the Constitution of the United States 
of America was ratified, and also all acts 
and parts of acts of the General Assembly of 
the States ratifying amendments of the.said 
Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the 
union now existing between South Carolina 
and other States, under the name of the United 
States of America, is hereby dissolved.” In 
subsequent sittings the Convention passed a 
variety of ordinances—one appointing the 
existing officers of the United States officers 
of the State of South Carolina exclusively; 
declaring that “all ships owned wholly or in 
part by citizens of slave-holding States should 
be registered as vessels of South Carolina; 
and directing all moneys collected by the said 
officers to be paid into the State Treasury for 
the use of the said State.” Another ordinance 
empowered the Governor and his Executive 
Council to issue a proclamation to the world, 
“that this State is, or she has a right to be, 
a separate, sovereign, free, and independent 
State; and as such has a right to levy war, 
conclude peace, negotiate treaties, leagues, or 
covenants, and to do all acts whatsoever that 
rightfully appertain to a free and independent 
State.” 

24 .—Christmas Eve the coldest night, and 
Christmas Day the coldest day, recorded for 
fifty years. The temperature at four feet above 
the ground was 8° below zero ; and on the 
grass 13’8° below zero, or 45‘8° of frost. In 
Staffordshire a thermometer registered 15 0 below 
zero, and one at Pennicuick, near Edinburgh, 
I4 0 below zero. 

26 . —decrees published by Victor Em¬ 
manuel II., annexing the Marches, Umbria, 
Naples, and Sicily to his new Italian domi¬ 
nions. 

27 . —Lord John Russell causes intimation 
to be made that despatches had been received 
at the Foreign Office enclosing a convention 
putting an end to hostilities with China, signed 
on the 24th of October by the Earl of Elgin 
with the Plenipotentiary of the Emperor of 
China. 

29 .—The iron-clad line-of-battle ship 
Warrior launched from the yard of the 
Thames Iron Ship-building Company. She 
measured 380 ft. in length, 58 ft. in extreme 
breadth, and 41 ft. 6 in. in depth. Her engines 
were 1,200 horse-power, and her gross tonnage 
9,000 tons. She was designed to carry thirty- 
six 68-pounders, or 95 cwt. guns, on the main 
deck, ten Armstrong 70-pounders on the 
upper deck, and two Armstrong ioo-pounders 
on pivots—forty-eight guns in all. 

( 591 ) 


l86l. 

January 1 .— Died at the Palace of Sai s 
Souci, Potsdam, aged 65, Frederick William 
IV., King of Prussia. He was succeeded by 
his brother, the Regent, Prince William. 

4 . —Accident on the Shrewsbury and Here¬ 
ford Railway, near Dinmore, several of the 
carriages being thrown down an embankment 
into the river Lugg: two female passengers 
perished from immersion or exposure to the 
intense cold.—On the same evening a casualty 
occurred on the North-Western line, near 
Camden station, three of the carriages getting 
detached from the Liverpool express train in 
the Primrose-hill tunnel: one thrown off the 
rails caused the death of one passenger and 
serious injury to others.—A third accident 
occurred on the London, Chatham, and Dover 
Railway, near Sittingbourne, causing the death 
of one passenger ; and a fourth near the same 
place, next day, in which the engineman and 
fireman were killed. 

5 . —Boiler explosion near Langton, York¬ 
shire, causing the death of two farm-labourers, 
and injury to six others, who at the moment, 
were seated round the engine, partaking of 
their customary refreshment. 

7 . —At Ballymote, Sligo, a young man 
named Phibbs murders the two Callaghans 
and a servant girl, by cutting their throats. 
Though a considerable portion of the stoler 
money and other property was found in his pos¬ 
session covered with blood, the first jury before 
which he was tried, at Sligo, refused to return 
a verdict. He was again tried at the next 
assizes, found guilty, and executed. 

— A keeper ac Astley’s Theatre killed by 
the lion “ Havelock.” It had wrenched off 
the bars of its cage, and was, with three others, 
at large in the arena, when the spring was 
made on the unfortunate man. Death was 
supposed to have ensued instantly from the 
first spring at the neck, but the brute continued 
to carry the keeper in his mouth round the 
arena for some minutes, and was seen thus 
engaged by other servants, too terror-stricken 
at the moment to attempt a rescue. The lions 
were afterwards led quietly back to their cage. 

8. —The Hartley Institution, at Southamp¬ 
ton, founded by private munificence, to pro¬ 
mote the study and advancement of science, 
opened by Lord Palmerston. At the dejeuner 
which wound up the proceedings of the day 
his Lordship was the oldest burgess present, 
having been admitted in 1807. 

9. —Secession of Mississippi from the United 
States. Alabama followed on the nth; Flo¬ 
rida on the 12th ; Georgia on the 19th ; Louisi¬ 
ana on the 28th; Texas, February 1st; Virginia, 
April 17; Arkansas, May 6; Tennessee, May 8; 
and North Carolina, May 20. 

— In his Message to Congress, President 






JANUARY 


1861. 


JANUARY 


Buchanan made reference to the fact that, in 
several States which have not yet seceded, the 
forts, arsenals, and magazines of the United 
States have been seized. This, he thought, was 
by far the most serious step which had been 
taken since the commencement of the troubles. 
“ My opinion,” he said, “ remains unchanged, 
that justice, as well as sound policy, requires us 
still to seek a peaceful solution of the questions 
at issue between the North and the South.” 

9 . —Grand display of fireworks on the ice 
in St. James’s and other parks. 

— The first direct collision between the 
Federal Government and the South occurs in 
Charleston harbour, the troops in Fort Sump¬ 
ter firing on the Star of the West when attempt¬ 
ing to reach the city with reinforcements for 
the batteries. 

12 .—The Prince Alfred steamer, trading 
between Leith and London, wrecked in a fog 
off Flamborough Head. 

15 .—The Court of Queen’s Bench grant a 
writ of Habeas Corpus to bring before it the 
fugitive slave Anderson, who was being kept 
a prisoner in Canada, pending the decision 
of the colonial authorities on the demand of 
the United States Government for his delivery 
under the Extradition Treaty. The demand 
was based on a charge of murder, alleged to 
have been committed in the State of Missouri, 
in the year 1853. One Digges, when attempting 
to capture Anderson, received a blow from 
which he died. The slave fled, and was ulti¬ 
mately conveyed to Canada through the aid 
of certain liberation machinery known as the 
“ underground railway.” When the case came 
before the Canadian courts, Chief Justice 
Robinson sought to construe the Extradition 
Treaty with more rigour than English lawyers 
thought should be imported into such a ques¬ 
tion. “According to our law,” he said, “homi¬ 
cide committed in resistance to lawful authority 
is murder. The authority by which Digges 
attempted to capture Anderson was unques¬ 
tionably lawful by the law of Missouri, where 
the struggle took place. Although we are 
not bound to go to the local law for our de¬ 
finition of murder, we are bound to look to it to 
ascertain whether Digges was invested with 
lawful authority. We find that he was; and 
then we apply to this ascertained fact our own 
definition of murder, according to which the 
slave, though morally justified in the eye of our 
law, is nevertheless guilty of the crime of 
murder.” The English court now granted the 
writ on a simple affidavit that Anderson was 
illegally detained at Toronto ; and the only 
question which it considered was that of its 
own jurisdiction to issue such a writ into the 
province of Canada. The writ was directed to 
the Governor of Canada, as well as to the 
sheriff and gaoler of Toronto ; and there was 
no doubt it would have been obeyed if Ander¬ 
son had not been set at liberty by the authority 
of a colonial court. The writ arrived in 
Toronto on February 1st; and on that same 
(592) 


day a writ of habeas corpus was granted by 
the Canadian Court of Common Pleas, on 
which the prisoner was brought up, and, after 
argument, discharged for informality in the 
warrant of commitment. A question which 
had excited a wide and painful interest was 
thus disposed of, without the necessity of de¬ 
termining the difficult legal controversy which 
had been agitated as to the duty of Great 
Britain under the Extradition Treaty with the 
United States. 

15 .—The Neapolitan General Lovera defeats 
the Sardinians at Tagliacozzo. 

17 .—Died in the United States, aged 37, 
Lola Montes, an adventuress and intriguante , 
who created some commotion in Bavaria in 
1847. 

19 .—-The last French ship-of-war leaves 
Gaeta, and a strict blockade is enforced by the 
Sardinian admiral Persano. 

— Died at Linwood, Lyndhurst, aged 61, 
Mrs. Gore, novelist. 

21 .— Explosion at Chatham arsenal, caused 
by the accidental bursting of a grenade- in pro¬ 
cess of manufacture. The first explosion was fol¬ 
lowed by a number of others of lesser magnitude 
as the various heaps of grenades and fusees in 
that department of the factory ignited. 

— In the Divorce Court, Mrs. Lavinia 
Janetta Horton Ryves petitioned under the 
Legitimacy Declaration Act for a declaration 
that her father, John Thomas Serres, and Olive, 
his wife, daughter of a so-called Princess, of 
Cumberland, were lawfully married, and that 
she was their lawful child, and a natural-born 
subject of her Majesty. The court allowed 
that she had established her three allegations. 
(See June 6, 1866.) 

28 . —Dr. Baly, physician to her Majesty, 
killed on the South-Western Railway, near 
Wimbledon. The carriage in which he was 
seated was dragged down the embankment, 
and fell in broken pieces on the passengers. 
The death of this distinguished physician led 
to a protracted investigation, but the exact cause 
was not discovered. The coroner’s jury recom¬ 
mended that additional break-power should 
be applied to all railway trains. The guard* 
engine-driver, and pointsman were praised for 
their promptitude and presence of mind. 

— The agitation raised by the Protestant 
Alliance succeeds in removing Mr. W. B. D. 
Turnbull from the Record Office, on the ground 
of his strongly expressed Roman Catholic con- 1 
victions. He writes this day to the Master of 
the Rolls: “I am at a loss to express the 
pain which I feel at finding myself still the < 
cause of a religious controversy, which seems 
to be becoming more embittered day by day. | 
Strong though my religious convictions may 
be considered by some, I am not the le;s 
conscious of my own rectitude, and I feel that 

I am the innocent object of a persecution 
which, consistently with the precepts of our I 
common Christianity, cannot be justified. 





i86i. 


FEBRUARY 


JANUARY 


This state of things, however, must now be 
brought to an end ; for I cannot, for my own 
individual advantage, allow the public mind to 
be disturbed by an acrimonious discussion of 
my own merits or demerits, from which no 
commensurate beneficial results can possibly 
arise. I therefore, with many thanks for your 
kind patronage, and with deep gratitude foi 
the kind protection which you have so feelingly 
afforded me, beg to resign into your hands the 
Calendershio of the Foreign State Papers 
with which you honoured me in the month 
of August 1859.” The Master of the Rolls 
writes next day to Mr. Turnbull: “ It is 
with much regret that l have read your letter 
resigning your present employment. I feel, 
however, that I cannot press you to retain a 
situation which subjects you to so much perse- 
cutior as that to which I have inadvertently 
exposed you. My regret at your resignation 
is, however, mainly founded on the public 
loss which will, I believe, be sustained by the 
discontinuance of your services ; nor will it be 
easy to find a gentleman both willing to carry 
on the arduous task in which you have been 
engaged, and also possessed of the peculiar 
knowledge and capacity required for that pur¬ 
pose. I cannot conclude without expressing 
the high esteem I entertain for yourself per¬ 
sonally, and the pain I feel that any society of 
English gentlemen, professedly founded on 
religious principles, should have been found 
to exist in this country, who have considered it 
consistent with the charity on which those 
principles are based to endeavour, by ex parte 
statements and confidential canvassing to re¬ 
move from an employment for which he is pe¬ 
culiarly fitted a gentleman so honourable and 
trustworthy as I consider you to be. ” 

28 .—Revolutionary outbreak in Herzegovina 
against the Turkish rule. 

31 .—At Sheemess dockyard a “travelling 
crane ” used in the boiler shop gives way when 
in use, and falls with a crash on a boiler beneath, 
causing the death of two men on the spot, and 
serious injury to other three. 

February 2. —The Rev. J. Sumner Brock- 
hurst, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, sen¬ 
tenced by the University Court to four years’ 
suspension from all degrees, for assaulting 
with a horsewhip the Rev. Edward Dodd, 
Fellow of Magdalen College and Vicar of St. 
Giles’s, Cambridge. The accused admitted 
the offence, and said he had been impelled 
to it by a- sense of the dishonour which Mr. 
Dodd was reported to have cast on religion by 
omitting the name of Christ from the common 
grace in the hall on one occasion when a Jew 
was present. 

— Monaco purchased by the French under 
treaty for 4,000,000 francs. 

4 -. —In the Imperial Address, at the open¬ 
ing of the French Chambers, the Emperor 
said : “At Rome I have thought it necessary 
to augment the garrison, when the security of ; 

( 593 ) 


the Holy Father appeared to be menaced. I 
despatched my fleet to Gaeta at the moment 
when it seemed to be the last refuge of the 
King of Naples. After leaving it there for 
four months, I have withdrawn it, however 
worthy of sympathy a royal misfortune so 
nobly supported might appear. The presence 
of our ships obliged us to infringe, every day, 
that principle of neutrality which I had pro¬ 
claimed, and gave room for erroneous inter¬ 
pretations.” The reference to the abandon¬ 
ment of the King of Naples by the Emperor 
gave rise to a sharp debate on the 1st of March, 
in which the Marquis Larochejaquelin and 
Prince Napoleon sustained the principal parts. 
“The treaties of 1815,” said the latter, “are, 
no doubt, to be respected, but on condition of 
execrating and tearing them whenever it may 
be possible. (Applause.) These treaties have 
been respected by Europe, but on condition of 
violating them to our prejudice. Remember 
Cracow ! Gentlemen, it is the glory cxf the 
Emperor that he has torn the treaties of 1815 
with the point of the sword ; and the people 
are grateful to him for the act. (Much ap¬ 
plause.)” 

5 .—The third session of the sixth Parlia¬ 
ment of Queen Victoria opened by her Ma¬ 
jesty in person. It was promised that measures 
would be laid before both Houses for the 
Consolidation of important parts of the criminal 
law ; for the improvement of the law of bank¬ 
ruptcy and insolvency ; for rendering more easy 
the transfer of land ; and for establishing a 
uniform system of rating in England and Wales. 
Referring to America, her Majesty was made 
to say : “ It is impossible for me not to look 
with great concern upon any event which can 
affect the happiness and welfare of a people 
nearly allied to my subjects by descent, and 
closely connected with them by the most inti¬ 
mate and friendly relations. My heartfelt wish 
is that these differences may be susceptible of 
a satisfactory adjustment.” In the House of 
Lords the customary Address was agreed to 
without a division, although Lord Derby took 
occasion to comment with severity on the 
policy of the Government with reference to 
France and Italy—a policy, he said, which 
had placed on the people of this country an 
amount of taxation absolutely unprecedented 
in time of peace, and only made more intoler¬ 
able by the financial freaks of the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer. Speaking of the unity of 
nationalities, he said, “No doubt all the people 
in Italy might be called Italians ; 

* As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 

Shoughs, water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are ’cleped 

All by the name of dogs.’” 

In the Commons, an amendment moved by 
Mr. White, on the subject of Reform, was 
negatived by a majority of 129 to 46, and the 
Address thereafter carried without a division. 

— Fire at Blenheim Palace, destroying the 
picture-gallery, and the fine series of Titians 
presented to the first Duke of Marlborough by 

Q Q 







FEBRUAR V 


1861. 


FEBRUARY 


Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy. A gigantic 
and much-esteemed painting by Rubens, “The 
Rape of Proserpine,” also fell a prey to the 
ilames. The fire was supposed to have ori¬ 
ginated in the bakehouse or storeroom, over 
which the Titian gallery was built. A portion 
of the collection had been engraved in mezzo¬ 
tint, by John Smith. 

6. —Died at Oxford, aged 79, the Rev. 
Bulkeley Bandinel, D.D., Keeper of the Bod¬ 
leian Library. 

— Explosion in the Earl of Shaftesbury’s 
Coppice Pit Colliery, Cannock Chase; five 
men and two boys killed. 

— In the Prussian Chambers, Baron von 
Vincke carries an amendment against the 
Ministry, in favour of strengthening the alli¬ 
ance with England, and promoting the consoli¬ 
dation of Italy. 

7 . —Lord Palmerston obtains the appoint¬ 
ment of a committee to consider whether, by 
any alteration in the forms and proceedings of 
the House, the despatch of public business 
could be more effectually promoted. A com¬ 
mittee for a similar purpose was fixed next day 
by the House of Lords. The most important 
change recommended, and afterwards carried 
out, was the substitution of Thursday for Friday 
as a Government night, and the adoption of 
Tuesday as a Supply night. 

8 . —Four men choked in a City sewer, while 
endeavouring to clean out that portion of the 
system lying between the Old Bailey and Far- 
ringdon-street. Three were found lying dead 
near each other, and a fourth was discovered 
far down the main sewer in Bridge-street. The 
fatal gas was pronounced to be sulphuretted 
hydrogen, thought to be created by the dis¬ 
charge of a quantity of acid water from copper- 
works in Warwick-lane. 

— In a committee of the whole House, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer introduces the 
preliminary resolutions on which he designed to 
found his new Post Office Savings’ Bank Bill. 

— The Southern States’ delegates assemble 
at Montgomery, Alabama, to agree upon a con¬ 
stitution. Mr. Jefferson Davis was called upon 
to preside. 

9 . —Though Admiral Fitzroy had sent the 
warning telegram to the north-east ports three 
days since, “ Caution ; gale threatening from 
the south-west and the northward,” about a 
hundred vessels confidently left the Tyne, and 
were caught in a fierce storm when off the 
South Durham coast. On the shore near West 
Hartlepool between forty and fifty vessels were 
seen at one time struggling against inevitable 
disaster. On the Longscar Rocks a Chinese 
ship, the Kelso, with a cargo valued at 50,000/., 
was lost 5 and at Whitby the lifeboat was cap¬ 
sized in one of her many errands of mercy 
during the storm, and thirteen of the crew 
drowned. A similar calamity befell the life¬ 
boat at Blakeney, on the Norfolk coast; and at 

( 594 ) 


Kingstown, Ireland, Captain Boyd, of H. M.S. 
Ajax, with five of his men, was swept off the 
breakwater while heroically endeavouring to 
rescue the crews of three brigs which had 
drifted to destruction behind the east pier. 
This serious maritime calamity excited much 
sympathy throughout the country, and sub¬ 
scriptions were at once set on foot in aid of the 
destitute relatives of the sufferers. Gold medals 
were awarded to Lieut. Dyer, of the Ajax, and 
to Mr. John Walsh, Lloyd’s agent, who had 
also rendered good service at the wreck of the 
Tayleure in 1854. 

11 . —The Attorney-General obtains leave to 
introduce a bill for amending the laws relating 
to bankruptcy and insolvency. 

12 . — The iron steamer Metropolis wrecked 
near Elizabeth Castle, Jersey. Cargo lost; 
crew and passengers saved. 

13 . —The fortress of Gaeta, the last in pos¬ 
session of the King of Naples, surrenders to 
the Sardinians under General Cialdini. The 
siege, accompanied with repeated attacks on 
the walls, had been carried on from the 3d 
November. 


14 .—The thanks of both Houses of Parlia* 
ment voted to the officers and men in her 
Majesty’s service who had been engaged in the 
recent operations in China. In the House of 
Lords the Secretary for War, Lord Herbert, 
made special reference to the cordial co-opera¬ 
tion which had prevailed between the two 
branches of the service on the occasion ; and 
in the House of Commons Lord Palmerston 
described the operations as performed amid 
considerable difficulty, without any mistake. 
Lord John Russell explained that the reason 
why General Montauban and Baron Gros dis¬ 
sented from the destruction of the Summer 
Palace was not because it was an act of unjusti¬ 
fiable barbarism, but because they thought it 
would strike such terror into the Chinese as 
might lead to their breaking off with the treaty. 

— Sir George Lewis obtains leave to bring 
in a bill for conferring the four seats vacant by 
the disfranchisement of Sudbury and St. Alban’s 
on the West Riding, South Lancashire, Chelsea 
and Kensington, and Birkenhead. The bill was 
afterwards modified in its progress through the 
House, one member being assigned to East 
Lancashire, and the West Riding divided, each 
to return two members. There was a general 
concurrence in awarding a member to Birken¬ 
head. 


IS. —The Supreme Court in Paris disallow 
the claim of legitimacy set up by Jerome, son 
of Jerome Buonaparte and Elizabeth Paterson 
of Philadelphia. 


16 -—Discovery of the Durden-Holcroft 
frauds, carried on at the Henrietta-street branch 
of the Commercial Bank of London ; John 
Durden, a ledger-clerk, whose duty it was to 
keep the accounts between D and H, with the 
corresponding pass-books, having devised a 






FEBRUARY 


1861. 


FEBRUARY 


system whereby certain customers on paying 
money into the bank had the sum entered to 
their credit, and also to the credit of a confede¬ 
rate named Holcroft, an insolvent bootmaker, 
whom he instructed to open an account at the 
bank. Squaring his own daily balance in this 
way, Durden contrived to hoodwink the chief 
ledger-clerk, and managed at the same time to 
be constantly at the desk himself, so that none 
of his neighbour clerks had access to his books, 
through which the fraud might at once have 
been discovered. This was at length brought 
about through Durden’s absence, from ill- 
health. He made no attempt to deny his 
guilt, and stated that his plunder amounted to 
about 66,992/. Durden was tried at the Cen¬ 
tral Criminal Court, and sentenced to fourteen 
years’ penal servitude. His accomplice, Hol¬ 
croft, escaped, on the technical plea that he had 
no particular knowledge of the larcenies with 
which they were jointly charged. 

17 .—Arrest of M. Mires, the great French 
banker and contractor. He was afterwards 
sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. 

— Died at Exmouth, aged 68, Francis Danby, 
Associate of the Royal Academy, well known 
for his large imaginative paintings. 

13 .—The new Parliament of Italy meets at 
Turin in a large wooden structure erected for 
the occasion. The most important debates 
had reference to Rome and Venetia, as essen¬ 
tial parts of a united Italy. “ Opportunity, 
matured by time,” said Baron Ricasoli, “will 
open our way to Venice. In the meantime 
we think of Rome. This is for the Italians 
not merely a right, but an inexorable necessity. 
We do not wish to go to Rome by insurrec¬ 
tional movements—unreasonable, rash, mad 
attempts—which may endanger our former 
acquisitions and spoil the national enterprise. 
We will go to Rome hand in hand with 
France.” 

— Jefferson Davis inaugurated, at Montgo¬ 
mery, Alabama, as President of the Confede¬ 
rate States. “Mutual interest,” he said, 
“would unite goodwill and kind offices. If, 
however, passion or lust of dominion should 
cloud the judgment or influence the ambition 
of the North, we must prepare to meet the 
emergency, and maintain by the final arbitra¬ 
ment of the sword the position which we have 
assumed among the nations of the earth. We 
have entered upon a career of independence 
which must be inflexibly pursued through many 
years of controversy with our late associates of 
the United States.” 

19 . —The iron-built ship City of Glasgow 
wrecked near Belfast, two days on her voyage 
out. 

20 . —Died, aged 70, Augustin Eugene 
Scribe, a French dramatic writer. 

21 . —Violent storm, destroying much pro¬ 
perty on land and at sea, and memorable for 
the ruin of the north wing of the Crystal 

( 595 ) 


Palace, Sydenham. All stood well till about 
half-past seven o’clock P.M., when, during one 
of the fierce gusts which swept over the struc¬ 
ture, some men in the carpenter’s room heard 
a slight crashing of glass and iron, and imme¬ 
diately ran out to the terrace-garden. In 
another minute, with an appalling crash, the 
tower at the lower end of the wing fell over 
among the trees, and lay in fragments on the 
ground. In the course of two or three minutes 
the wing gradually gave way in pieces of 30 or 
40 yards at a time, till a total length of about 
110 yards was demolished.—During the same 
gale the spire of Chichester Cathedral fell to 
piec'es almost on its own base, sinking, specta¬ 
tors said, like a large ship foundering quietly 
at sea.—From 9 A.M. to 5 P.m. the pressure 
varied from 3 to 12 lbs., and from 5 p.m. to 
9 p.m. from 13 to 36lbs., on the square foot. 
When the wing of the Crystal Palace fell, the 
anemometer at Lloyd’s was registering 36 lbs. 
pressure. The barometer fell to 28 ^o 0 . 

21 .— Commenced in the Court of Common 
Pleas, Dublin, before Chief Justice Monaghan 
and a special jury, the case of Thelwall v. 
Yelverton. It was in the form of an action to 
recover the sum of 259/. 17^. 3*/. for board, 
lodging, and necessaries supplied to the de¬ 
fendant’s wife and her servant; but its main 
design was to establish the validity of a marriage 
between Teresa Longworth and Major the Hon. 
William Charles Yelverton, son of Lord Avon- 
more, and heir to the title. In his examination 
the defendant admitted the intimacy proved by 
the plaintiff, but said he had never promised her 
marriage, nor gone through any valid marriage 
ceremony in either Scotland or Ireland. From 
his first connexion with her in the Crimea to 
their final separation he had, he said, no other 
intention than making her his mistress. His 
evidence was received with manifest marks of 
disapprobation by the court, and was in opposi¬ 
tion to the spirit of much of the correspon¬ 
dence produced. The trial lasted eleven days, 
the laborious summing up of the Chief Justice 
showing a manifest leaning towards Mrs. Yelver¬ 
ton. Mrs. Yelverton was waiting in an adjoin¬ 
ing apartment during the retirement of the jury; 
and when she heard the summons of the judge 
to receive the verdict she fell on her knees with 
her hands clasped before her. The people sat 
in painful silence. “ How say you, gentlemen, 
do you find there was a legal Scotch mar¬ 
riage?” “We do, my lord.”—“How say 
you, gentlemen, do you find there was a legal 
Irish marriage?” “Yes, my lord.”—“Then 
you find Major Yelverton was a Catholic on the 
latter occasion?” “Yes, my lord.”—Then 
arose a thundering cheer, repeated over and 
over again: cheers for Mr. Whiteside, for 
the Chief Justice, for Serjeant Sullivan, and 
for the jury, reverberated through the court 
without the slightest interference on the part 
of the officials. The excited people outside 
surrounded Mrs. Yelverton as she left the 
court, took the horses from her carriage, and 
drew her in triumph to the hotel. Here she 

Q.Q 2 







FEBRUAR) 


i86t. 


MARCH 


was compelled to address her noisy admirers 
from the balcony window: “My noble-hearted 
friends, ” she said, ‘ ‘ you have made me this day 
an Irishwoman by the verdict that I am the wife 
of an Irishman. I glory to belong to such a 
noble-hearted nation. You will live in my 
heart for ever, as I have lived in yours this day. 
I am too weak to say all that my heart desires, 
but you will accept the gratitude of a heart 
that was made sad, and is now more glad. 
Farewell for the present; but for ever I belong, 
heart and soul, to the people of Dublin.” 

22 .—Died, Lord Braybrooke, editor of 
“ Pepys’s Diary.” 

25 . —Collapse of a tunnel on the Midland 
Railway at Sheffield, killing six men who were 
at work on an adjoining building, and severely 
injuring a seventh. 

26 . — Meeting of both Houses of Convoca¬ 
tion. The first business taken up was the 
alteration of the 29th Canon, to admit of 
parents being made sponsors for their own 
children. The Bishop of Oxford’s motion re¬ 
commending the change was carried without 
a division. In the Lower House, Dr. Jelf 
brought up the question of “Essays and Re¬ 
views” (published in Feb. i860), by moving 
an Address to the Upper House, asking it to 
take synodical action upon a book full of 
erroneous views, and applied by atheists and 
Socinians to further their ends. After some 
discussion, the motion was withdrawn in favour 
of an amendment by Dr. Wordsworth : 
“That the Clergy of the Lower House of Con¬ 
vocation of the Province of Canterbury, having 
regard to the unanimous censure which has 
been already pronounced and published by the 
Archbishops and Bishops of both provinces on 
certain opinions contained in a certain book 
called ‘Essays and Reviews,’ entertain an 
earnest hope that, under the Divine blessing, 
the faithful zeal of the Christian Church may 
be enabled to counteract the pernicious influ¬ 
ence of the erroneous opinions contained in the 
said volume.” 

— The House of Lords, sitting as a Com¬ 
mittee of Privilege, decide against the claim of 
Vice-Admiral Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Berke¬ 
ley Castle, to a seat in the House of Peers as 
Baron of Berkeley. Sir Maurice claimed to 
sit by tenure, citing precedents in ancient 
times to show that former Barons of Berkeley 
sat by tenure. The Lords held that the ancient 
right to sit by tenure, if it ever existed, had been 
superseded by personal dignity. 

— Austria issues decrees enlarging the Con¬ 
stitution of the Empire, and establishing it as 
a fundamental law for the representation of the 
people that the Reichsrath should consist of 
two Chambers—Peers and Deputies. Provin¬ 
cial statutes were also published at the same 
time regulating the representation of the dif¬ 
ferent Diets of the Empire. 

27 . —Sir William Hayter, so long political 
secretary to the Treasury, chief whip and 

( 596 ) 


manager of the Liberal party, entertained in 
Willis’s Rooms on the occasion of his retire¬ 
ment, and presented with a testimonial in 
silver weighing 1,100 ounces. 

27 . —The Bishop of Poitiers publishes a reply 
to the pamphlet, “La France, Rome, et 
l’ltalie, in which he compares the Emperor 
to Pilate. 

28 . —During this month 285 vessels were 
reported as having been wrecked on the shores 
of the United Kingdom. Among the most 
important in distant seas was the Miles Bartole % 
troop-ship, from Hong Kong for England, lost 
in Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope; but by 
the bravery and discipline of the company on 
board—the 3d Foot—the whole were conveyed 
safely ashore, and soon afterwards obtained 
relief from the Governor of the Cape. 

— Disturbance in Warsaw arising out of the 
celebration of the battle of Grochow. It was 
finally suppressed by the military, who fired 
upon the people and killed six. The rioting 
was renewed on the occasion of their funeral. 

March 2. —A new Tariff Bill (Morrill), al¬ 
most prohibitory, so far as foreign commerce 
was concerned, passed by the Northern States 
of the American Union. 

3 . —The Emperor Alexander of Russia 
issues a decree emancipating the serfs through¬ 
out his vast dominions. The proprietors, re¬ 
taining their rights of property on all the lands 
belonging to them, were to grant land to the 
peasants, at a fixed regulated rental, and to 
see that each fulfilled his obligations to the 
Government. The document concluded: “And 
now, pious and faithful people, make upon thy 
forehead the sacred sign of the cross, and join 
thy prayers to ours to call down the blessing 
of the Most High upon thy first free labours, 
the sure pledge of thy personal well-being and 
of the public prosperity. ” 

4 . —Fatal occurrence in the bear-pit at 
Berne, Captain Lorts, of the British anny, 
falling accidentally into the compartment occu¬ 
pied by the old bear. An attempt was made 
to rescue him about an hour afterwards, when 
the brute attacked the young man with great 
ferocity, and finally killed him in presence of 
many excited friends who had come to render 
assistance. 

— The new President of the United States, 
Abraham Lincoln, enters formally upon the 
duties of his office. In the course of his ad¬ 
dress he said : “I have no purpose, direct 
or indirect, to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the States where it exists. I believe 
I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no 
inclination to do so. No State,” the President 
further remarked, “ can, upon its own mere 
motion, lawfully get out of the Union : resolves 
and ordinances to that effect are legally void, 
and acts of violence within any State or States 
against the authority of the United States 







MARCH 


MARCH 


i 86 k 


are insurrectionary or revolutionary according 
to circumstances. ” 

4 . —Debate in the House of Commons on 
the affairs of Italy. On the motion for going 
into Committee of Supply, Mr. Pope Hen- 
nessy called attention to the active inter¬ 
ference of Lord John Russell in promoting what 
Mr. Pope Hennessy styled “Piedmontese 
policy,” and assailed both that policy and the 
past and present conduct of the Foreign Secre¬ 
tary. Reference having been made to the 
courage manifested by the King during the 
siege of Gaeta, Mr. Gladstone replied: “It 
is all very well to claim consideration for him 
on account of his courage ; but I confess I feel 
much more admiration for the courage of the 
honourable member for Dundalk (Sir G. 
Bowyer) and the honourable member for King’s 
County (Mr. Hennessy) : for I think I would 
rather live in a casemate listening to the whiz¬ 
zing of bullets and the bursting of shells, than 

come before a free assembly to vindicate- 

(Loud cheers, which prevented the remainder 
of the sentence being heard). The miseries of 
Italy,” he concluded, “ have been the danger 
of Europe. The consolidation of Italy, her 
restoration to national life—if it be the will of 
God to grant that boon—will be, I believe, 
a blessing as great to Europe as it is to all 
the people of the Peninsula. It will add to 
the general peace and welfare of the civilized 
world a new and solid guarantee. ” 

— In the House of Lords, the Marquis 
of Normanby moves for a Select Committee 
to inquire into the circumstances attending 
the appointment and resignation of Mr. W. 

B. D. Turnbull in the Record Office, where 
he was engaged calendering documents of the 
reigns of Edward and Mary. (See Jan. 28.) 
Negatived by 41 votes to 26. 

5 . —At the Assizes, Newcastle, William 
Bewick, a man of position and education, and 
until lately a Justice of Peace for Northumber¬ 
land, was sentenced to four years’ penal servi¬ 
tude for shooting two sheriff’s officers. He had 
been deprived of his commission for falsely 
imprisoning a man and his wife, and, refusing 
to pay the costs in the case, an attorney 
obtained judgment against him, and sent two 
officers to take possession. They each swore 
that he first threatened to shoot them, then 
locked himself up in the house, and finally 
fired upon them in a cowshed where they had 
taken refuge. 

— Three Commissioners from the Southern 
States arrive in Washington, to discuss the 
questions in dispute with the Federal Govern¬ 
ment. Mr. Secretary Seward declined to 
recognise them. 

7 .—Frontier treaty concluded between Sar- 1 
dinia and Fiance. 

11 .— In introducing the Navy Estimates, 
Lord Clarence Paget urges upon the House 
the necessity of proceeding at once with the 
construction of iron-cased vessels similar to the 


French La Gloire and the English Warrior. 
The discussion which subsequently took place 
on the relative merits of iron and wood war¬ 
ships led to important changes in their con¬ 
struction. 

11 . —Bursting of the Bridgewater Canal at 
Lumb Bresk, near Warrington. The embank¬ 
ment gave way on the south-west side, causing 
a considerable breach, down which the water 
rushed with great velocity, carrying with it 
sand, earth, and blocks of stone. 

12. —At the Exeter Assizes, Private Robert 
Hacket, of the 61st Regiment, was sentenced 
to be executed for shooting his sergeant, Henry 
Jones, in the barracks at Plymouth, on the 5th 
January last. The murderer and his victim 
had served in India together, and were on the 
best of terms till the day in question, when 
a trifling quarrel in the mess-room led to 
the capital offence for which the prisoner was 
now convicted. He was executed, maintaining 
to the last that he had no intention of shooting 
Sergeant Jones, and attributing the crime to the 
effect of drink. 

13 . —Mr. Locke King’s motion for lowering 
the county franchise to a 10/. qualification de¬ 
feated, on the second reading, by a majox*ity of 
248 to 229. Mr. Disraeli was among those who 
objected to deal with the question of extending 
the suffrage in counties otherwise than by a 
complete and comprehensive measure in con¬ 
nexion with the borough franchise, and with 
all that affected the representation of the people 
in Parliament. 

— A large clerical deputation waits upon 
the Archbishop of Canterbury to present an 
address signed by 800 of their order, praying 
his Grace to devise measures for banishing 
from the Church the authors of such heresies 
as appeared in “Essays and Reviews.” In 
reply, his Grace deprecated the idea of any 
section of the Church involving itself in a 
tedious and uncertain law-suit, and urged his 
hearers to wait with patience till they saw the 
satisfactory replies which he was sure were 
preparing in abundance in the Church. 

— Messina surrenders to the Sardinians 
under Cialdini. 

14 . —At the Royal Institution, Professor 
Owen enters upon an exposition of the distinc¬ 
tive characters of the negro (or lowest .variety 
of the human race) and the gorilla, which had 
recently become an object of interest with 
scientific men. 

16 .—Died, at Frogmore House, in her 75th 
year, the Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen 
Victoria. Addresses of condolence were pre¬ 
sented to her Majesty by both Houses of Par¬ 
liament. 

— The survivors of the wreck of the 
Middlesex, of New York—15 out of 68 on 
board—were rescued this day from the Blaskets 
Rocks by the villagers of Dingle, Kerry, after 
drifting on the ocean for five days without 

( 597 ) 










MARCH 


186 r 


MARCH 


food or water. Two were so exhausted that 
they died soon after being taken ashore. 

17 . —The Italian Parliament declares Victor 
’ Emmanuel King of Italy. On the 5th April 

Francis II. protested against the assumption 
of the title by the King of Sardinia. A protest 
was also made by the Pope. 

18 . —The House of Lords deliver judgment 
in the case of Brook v. Brook, to the effect 
that if the parties be domiciled in England, 
they cannot contract a valid marriage by going 
through the ceremony in a country where such 
a marriage is legal. 

— Hayti united to Spain. 

19 . —In the House of Commons, Mr. Dunlop 
moves for the appointment of a Select Com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the correspondence 
relating to Affghanistan presented to the House 
in 1839, and the character of the mutilation to 
which the despatches of Sir Alexander Burnes 
had been subjected. Lord Palmerston resisted 
the inquiry, contending that Burnes had been 
imposed upon by Dost Mahomed, and that the 
Government, who had the direction, and were 
responsible for the results, of the war, judged 
of the proceedings of Dost from a much wider 
range of facts than Bumes had access to. Mr. 
Bright said : “ My honourable friend, Mr. 
Dunlop, has told us of the marvellous care 
which had been taken, so that the guilty person 
must have been, not only a man of ability, but 
a man of genius. Of course, there are men of 
genius in very objectionable walks of life : but 
we know that the noble lord is a man of genius, 
or he would not have been on that bench for 
the last fifty years ; and we know also that 
Lord Broughton is a man of varied accom¬ 
plishments. I ask again, will the noble lord 
tell us who did it?—he knows who did it. 
Was it his own right hand, or Lord Broughton’s 
right hand, or was it some clever secretary in 
his or in the India Office ? The House has a 
right to know : we wish to know, because we 
want to drag the criminal before the public; 1 
we wish to deter other Ministers from com¬ 
mitting a like offence.” Motion rejected by 159 
votes to 49. 

— The Sardinian Ambassador intimates 
to the British Government that Victor Em¬ 
manuel had assumed the title of King of Italy. 
On the 30th Earl Russell answered : “ Having 
laid your communication before her Majesty 
the Queen, I am commanded to state to you 
that her Majesty, acting on the principle of 
respecting the independence of the nations 
of Europe, will receive you as the Envoy of 
Victor Emmanuel II., King of Italy.” 

20. —The cities of Mendoza, San Juan, and 
San Louis, populous towns of the Argentine 
Republic of South America, destroyed by an 
earthquake, the first and principal shock of 
which occurred about 8.30 this evening, suc¬ 
ceeded by other shocks which spread over the 
three following days. The total number of 
persons who perished in this great convulsion 

(598) 


of nature was estimated at 15,000. Not only 
were the largest buildings in the cities men¬ 
tioned above cast down, but the whole district 
was broken up, rivers being turned from theii 
courses, and roads and bridges involved in one 
general ruin. In the Jesuit church of Mendoza, 
where a large number had gathered for even¬ 
ing service, the walls and roof fell down on the 
worshippers and enclosed them in one huge 
sepulchre. A fire also broke out . among the 
ruins of the city, and led to the loss, it was 
believed, of about 600 people. Troops, accom¬ 
panied by physicians, with food, clothing, and 
medicine, were at once despatched to protect 
the destitute survivors from the crimes perpe¬ 
trated on them by bands of plunderers who 
flocked to the ruined cities. 

21 . —At the Assize Court of the Isere, 
Grenoble, Benjamin Reynaud, a venerable- 
looking person, sixty-six years of age, of good 
education and easy fortune, was tried for 
murdering his daughter by stabbing her with 
a poniard. He appeared to have been excited 
to the deed by a contemptuous expression used 
in a note from one of his mistresses to his 
daughter. He also shot a young man with 
whom the latter had an assignation, and 
attempted to commit suicide by firing a pistol 
into his mouth. The jury found Reynaud 
guilty with extenuating circumstances, and he 
was sentenced to imprisonment for life. 

22. —At Taunton Assizes, Matthew Wed- 
more and Charles Wedmore, brothers, were 
sentenced to death for the murder of an aged 
female relative, at Dundry, on the 9th January 
last. The two ruffians first attacked deceased’s 
husband for the sake of his money, and then 
turned on the old woman, whom they beat to 
death with a pair of tongs. They were executed 
together on the 5th April. 

26 . —-This day (Good Friday) five men lost 
their lives on Hollingworth Lake, near Roch¬ 
dale, through a collision between two pleasure- 
boats. 

27 . —At the Brecon Assizes, Wm. Williams 
was sentenced to be executed for shootiug 
his mother, Ann Williams, at Grwyney, Tal¬ 
garth, on the 18th October last. The jury 
recommended the prisoner to mercy on the 
ground of his youth and ignorance ; but the 
crime was so barbarous, and committed with 
so much premeditation, that no effect could 
be given to the recommendation. He was 
executed on Tuesday, April 23d. 

28 . —Meeting at the Mansion House to take 
steps to raise money for the relief of the starv¬ 
ing people of North-West India. It was at 
one time feared that public sympathy could not 
be aroused in favour of this pressing and wide¬ 
spread calamity. On taking his seat on the 
23d, the Lord Mayor (Cubitt) said that on 
making inquiry he found there were almost 
none of influence or station who were likely to 
come forward and take part in a requisition 
for a meeting, and he had, therefore, been 









MARCH 


1861. 


APRIL 


recently compelled to write to Calcutta that 
he had not been able to meet the wishes of 
the Relief Committee formed there. After this 
public statement money began to flow in 
abundantly, and when the lists were finally 
closed, about the end, of June, it was found that 
the large sum of 107,585/. had been collected. 
Of this sum 50,500/, was remitted to Calcutta, 
and 54,000/. to Bombay. 

31 .—The remains of Napoleon I. interred 
in the tomb so long prepared for them in the 
crypt of the Invalides. The Emperor was pre¬ 
sent with his court, and a large number of the 
soldiers of the First Empire. 

April 1 . —In Sheffield, the constituents of 
Mr. Roebuck refuse to hear any defence of 
the charges made against him in connexion 
with the Galway Steamboat Company and 
certain Austrian Government contracts. The 
Mayor was compelled to leave the chair in con¬ 
sequence of the noise and confusion caused by 
the excited electors. Mr. Roebuck obtained a 
hearing next day, entered at length into a 
vindication of his character and votes, and 
obtained a vote of confidence. 

— Volunteer sham-fights—at Brighton under 
Lord Ranelagh, and at Wimbledon under Lord 
Bury. 

6 .—Upsetting of a ferry-boat at Govan, near 
Glasgow, whereby seven people were drowned, 
and the lives of thirty others placed in great 
jeopardy. The accident was mainly owing to 
a panic seizing some of the passengers while 
the boat was being hastily overcrowded with 
people from one of the Clyde steamers. 

— Six people drowned in Dublin by the 
upsetting of an omnibus, near Portobello- 
bridge, into the Great Canal The horses in 
the vehicle became restive on the crown of the 
bridge, and having their heads towards the 
east parapet for the purpose of taking the 
ascent at an angle, backed with great violence 
against the opposite side, which gave way at 
the shock and permitted the omnibus and 
horses to fall into the canal. 

8.—Census of Great Britain and Ireland 
taken this evening (Sunday), being the seventh 
decennial enumeration under the authority of 
Parliament. The registering staff was much 
more complete than on any previous occasion, 
and the returns embodied a greater variety 
of information, though one item — the at¬ 
tendance at churches—was omitted on the 
present occasion. The total population of the 
British Isles was taken at 29,334,788, as com¬ 
pared with 27,511,926 in 1851 : of this number 
England and Wales contributed 20,061,725, 
as compared with 17,927,609 in 1851; and 
Scotland gave 3,061,329, as compared with 
2,888,742 ; but Ireland showed a decrease of 
787,842, the number in that portion of the 
United Kingdom being set down at 5,764,543, 
as compared with 6,552,385 in 1851. The net 
increase in England and Wales for the decen¬ 


nial period was 12 per cent., but over the entire 
kingdom only 6 per cent. 

8. — Another outbreak at Warsaw, suppressed 
by the military after the slaughter of about 100 
people. 

— Civil and political rights granted to Pro¬ 
testants throughout the Austrian Empire ex¬ 
cept in Hungary and Venice. 

9 . —The Earl of Elgin lands at Dover after 
his special mission to China and Japan. In 
replying to the congratulatory address pre¬ 
sented to him, his Lordship said: “The 
Chinese, no doubt, still labour under the dis¬ 
advantages, and exhibit the defects, which 
ignorance of the world and isolation engender 
both in individuals and society ; but they are, 
nevertheless, a people eminently industrious, 
peaceable, intelligent, and commercial, and 
are therefore calculated, when the shackles 
and trammels which impede the true exercise 
of their natural energies shall have been shaken 
off, to contribute largely, both as producers 
and consumers, to the sum of human pros¬ 
perity and natural well-being.” 

10. —Mr. Baines’s proposal to reduce the 
borough franchise to 61 . negatived by a ma¬ 
jority voting for “the previous question.” 

12 . —A young man, named William Hors¬ 
ley, murdered in the Pack Horse Inn, Carlisle ; 
strangulation, it was generally believed, having 
been effected by his mother-in-law, Mrs. David¬ 
son, in a fit of jealousy, caused by his paying 
attention to some other woman than herself. 
Mrs. Davidson committed suicide the same 
night. 

—- Commencement of the sale of the famous 
Uzielli collection of gems, pottery, and paint¬ 
ings, which lasted over eight days, and brought 
prices formerly unheard of in the world of 
Art. 

13 . —Publication of the Due d’Aumale’s 
letter to the Emperor of the French. “One 
thing,” the Prince wrote, “astounds me ; and 
that is, that my grandfather found no favour 
in your sight : for you, like him, sat on the 
left side of a Republican Assembly. There, 
indeed, the resemblance stops ; for he .expiated 
his fault. He left the National Convention to 
mount the scaffold, while you descended from 
the benches of the Mountain to enter the 
splendid mansion in which the Duke of Orleans 
was born. . . . When the Buonapartes threaten 
to shoot people, their word may be relied upon. 
And note this, Prince, that of all the promises 
made by you and yours, that is the only one 
upon which I could rely. For it must be 
admitted that the present French Government, 
all-fortunate as it has been in many respects, 
is less successful as regards the fulfilment of 
promises than in other things. One man only 
swore to the Republican Constitution, and 
that man was the author of December 2. 
The same man said, ‘ The Empire is peace : * 
and we have had the wars of the Crimea and 
Lombardy. In 1859 Italy was to be free to 

( 599 ) 





APRIL 


MAY 


1861. 


the Adriatic : Austria is still at Verona and 
Venice. The temporal power of the Pope was 
to be respected : we know what has become 
of that: and the Grand-dukes are still waiting 
for their restoration which was announced by 
the Peace of Villafranca.” 

13 . —The Federal garrison of Charleston sur¬ 
render the fortress to the Confederates. 

14 . —Fire in Patrick-street, Dublin, causing 
the death of eleven people—nine of them 
children. 

15 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces his annual financial statement in a 
Committee of Ways and Means. The expen¬ 
diture he estimated at 70,000,000/., and the 
income at 71,823,000/., this being the largest 
estimate of revenue ever made. He proposed 
to apply the surplus in the reduction of the 
Income-tax by one penny per pound—the 10 d. 
being reduced to 9 d., and the 7 d. to 6 d .—and 
to abolish the duty on paper. The first-men¬ 
tioned reduction would absorb 850,000/. and 
the latter 665,000/. The proposal to abolish 
the paper-duty led to protracted discussion on 
the motion for going into Committee. 

— Mr. Samuel White Baker, accompanied 
by his wife, leaves Cairo, on an expedition to 
discover the sources of the Nile. After a year’s 
exploration of the Abyssinian frontier, they 
arrived at Khartoum, June nth, 1862. They 
remained in that neighbourhood till the close of 
the year, when they commenced their voyage 
up the White Nile, reaching Gondokoro early 
in February 1863. (See Feb. 15, 1863.) 

—- President Lincoln issues a proclama¬ 
tion, calling out the militia of the several States 
of the Union to the aggregate number of 

75 , °°°' 

17 .—A bill legalizing marriage with a 
deceased wife’s sister thrown out on a division 
on the second reading, by a majority of 177 
to 172. 

— Proceedings were this day taken by the 
contending States in America which made a 
peaceable solution of their differences all but 
impossible ; President Davis issuing letters of 
marque, and President Lincoln declaring the 
Southern ports in a state of blockade. 

19 . —The State of Maryland desiring to re¬ 
main neutral in the quarrel between North and 
South, the mob in Baltimore attack a party of 
Massachusetts troops on their march through 
to Washington. Secretary Seward wrote to the 
Governor, that the force to be sent through the 
State was designed for nothing but the defence 
of the capital. “The President,” he wrote, 
ft cannot but remember that there has been a 
time in the history of the American Union 
when forces designed for the defence of the 
capital were not unwelcome anywhere in the 
State of Maryland.” 

— Died, aged 80, General Sir C. Pasley, 
military engineer. 

£1.—Attempted murder in the house of 
(600) 


G. Higgins, Chapel-street, Islington, a youth 
named Frederick Strugnell making a savage 
attack on the female servant, Ann Redkisson, 
to prevent her rising an alarm of “ Thieves ! ” 
whom he had introduced to plunder the house. 
He was sentenced to death for the capital 
offence, but respited. 

24 .—Debate in the House of Commons on 
the proposal to facilitate election for univer¬ 
sities by permitting the use of voting-papers. 
A bill authorizing this novel experiment was 
passed during the session through both Houses 
of Parliament. 

28 . —The Confederate Congress passed an 
Act authorizing the President to borrow fifteen 
millions of dollars on the credit of their own 
States, by the issue of bonds at eight per cent., 
the principal and interest being secured by an 
export duty on cotton of one-eighth of a cent 
per pound. 

29 . —Treaty of Commerce and Navigation 
between her Majesty and the Sultan signed at 
Kaulidja. 

May 1.—At a Mansion House banquet, 
Lord Derby explains the reasons which induced 
the Conservative party to support the present 
Ministry in office, rather than involve the coun¬ 
try in a new series of embarrassments arising 
from the present divided state of parties. 

3 .—President Lincoln issues a proclamation 
calling into the service of the United States 
42,000 volunteers, and directing that the regular 
army should be increased by 22,714 officers 
and men, and the navy by 18,000 seamen. The 
following day Mr. Secretary Seward wrote to 
the American minister at Paris : “You cannot 
be too decided or too explicit in making known 
to the French Government that there is not 
now, nor has there been, nor will there be, 
the least idea existing in this Government of 
suffering a dissolution of this Union to take 
place in any way whatever. There will be 
here only one nation and one government, and 
there will be the same republic and the same 
constitutional union that have already survived 
a dozen national changes and changes of go¬ 
vernment in almost every other country. These 
will stand hereafter, as they are now, objects 
of human wonder and human affection. You 
have seen, on the eve of your departure, the 
elasticity of the national spirit, the vigour of 
the national Government, and the lavish devo¬ 
tion of the national treasures to this great cause. 
.... The insurgents have instituted revolu¬ 
tion with open, flagrant, deadly war, to compel 
the United States to acquiesce in the dismem¬ 
berment of the Union. The United States 
have accepted this civil war as an inevitable 
necessity. ” 

6 .— Vice Chancellor Sir John Stuart de¬ 
livers judgment in the case of the Kossuth 
notes. The Emperor of Austria prayed that 
Messrs. Day, who had undertaken to furnish 
Kossuth with a large quantity of paper-money 





MA Y 


1861 


MAY 


for circulation in Hungary, should deliver up 
the same, and that the plates should be de¬ 
stroyed. At the same time he obtained an 
injunction restraining the Messrs. Day from 
delivering the notes to Kossuth, Sir John 
Stuart holding that the paper-money prepared 
was intended for circulation in Hungary. The 
question now was, whether the Messrs. Day 
could be allowed to possess this large quantity 
of printed paper manufactured for such a pur¬ 
pose. The defence was, that the court had no 
jurisdiction. Sir John Stuart was of a con¬ 
trary opinion. The regulation of the currency 
he held to be a great prerogative right of sove¬ 
reign power. A public right recognised by the 
law of nations is a legal right, because the law 
of nations is part of the common law of Eng¬ 
land. Whereas in the present case the existing 
rights of a plaintiff as sovereign of Hungary 
are recognised by the Crown of England, the 
relief which he seeks in this case is for the pro¬ 
tection of that legal right against the acts of 
the defendants. That protection can only be 
effectually afforded by the relief prayed in this 
suit, and there must be a decree against the 
defendants according to the prayer of the bill. 
Judgment confirmed on appeal, June 12. 

6 . —In a Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. 
Gladstone announces his intention of including 
all the chief financial propositions of the 
Budget in one bill, instead of dividing it into 
several. This course was objected to by Mr. 
Disraeli and other members of the Opposition 
as contrary to precedent and constitutional 
usage, and designed to limit the powers of the 
House of Lords. Lord Robert Cecil charac¬ 
terised the step as designed “ to avenge a 
special political defeat, to gratify a special 
pique, and to gain the doubtful votes of a 
special political section.” Sir James Graham, 
though suffering from illness, spoke with 
great vigour and eloquence on the side of the 
Government proposal. “It is open,” he said, 
“ to the Lords to reject the whole ; or, if they 
think fit, they may alter a part of it; but, 
according to the well-known principle, altering 
a portion is equal to the rejection of the whole. 
I have heard a sort of hustings-cry, ‘ Down 
with the paper-duty, and up with the tea-duty.’ 
Now, I do not wish to raise an invidious 
hustings-cry ; but if we are to have a hustings- 
cry—if that fatal issue should be joined, ‘ Up 
witlTthe Lords, and down with the Commons,’ 
—if that issue be taken, I do not think that 
gentlemen on this side need be afraid of going 
to their constituents with that cry ; and I very 
much mistake if the power and authority of 
the House of Commons would not be con¬ 
firmed by a large majority.” The proposal of 
the Government was carried after several nights* 
debate by a majority of 296 to 281. The 
Lords afterwards consented to the arrange¬ 
ment. 

7 . — On the motion of Mr. Maguire, Govern¬ 
ment consent to the production of certain 
papers connected with the mission of Mr. 


Gladstone as Lord High Commissioner to the 
Ionian Islands in 1858, and also with the sub¬ 
sequent administration of Sir Henry Storks. 

8 . —In answer to Mr. Gregory, Lord John 
Russell announces in the House of Commons 
that, after consulting the law-officers of the 
Crown, the Government were of opinion that 
the Southern Confederacy of America, accord¬ 
ing to principles which appear to be just prin¬ 
ciples, must be recognised as a belligerent 
Power. 

10. —Debates in both Houses of Parliament 
on the subject of the French occupation of 
Syria, which had been consented to under a 
convention by the British Government, in con¬ 
sequence of the calamitous outbreaks in that 
country. Several speakers laid the blame of 
the late unhappy events in that country upon 
the Ottoman Government. 

11 . —Mr. Seward writes to the Spanish 
minister on the subject of the blockade of 
the Southern ports: “The blockade will be 
strictly enforced upon the principles recognised 
by the law of nations. Armed vessels of neutral 
states will have the right to enter and depart 
from the interdicted ports.” 

— Commencement of the sale of the Scaris- 
brick collection of pictures and articles of 
vertu. Among the most notable lots were the 
Guido “St. James,” which brought 1,250 
guineas, and the Aldobrandini Caesar tazzas, 
which brought 1,280/. 

* — The Stoker tragedy at Gateshead : Mary 
Stoker, aged 39, wife of a pitman, cutting the 
throats of her daughters, Mary and Margaret, 
and then her own, while in a state of mental 
depression. Before life was quite extinct, she 
was able to articulate, “ I had it to do ; there 
was some one spoke to me from behind my 
back; and I was frightened that the canny 
bairns would want.” 

id —Lord Shaftesbury directs the attention ) * 
of the House of Lords to that part of the Report 
of the Education Commissioners relating to 
Ragged Schools, which he characterised as 
untrue, unfair, and ungenerous. The Duke 
of Newcastle defended the Report, and the 
motion for papers was subsequently with¬ 
drawn. 

— In the Hungarian Diet, M. Deak pro¬ 
tested against the Emperor’s diploma of 20th 
October, i860, by which the existence of the 
Hungarian Government was made to depend on 
a foreign assembly. The first address adopted 
by the Diet was not received by the Emperor ; 
noi was it till the members addressed him as 
the hereditary King of Hungary, that he pro¬ 
mised to restore the Constitution under con¬ 
ditions tending to the development of the 
whole empire. 

— Neutrality proclamation issued by her 
Majesty, warning all subjects of the Queen from 
enlisting in the sea or land service on either 
side of the American belligerents, from supply¬ 
ing munitions of war, equipping vessels foi 

601) 







MAY 


l86l. 


JUNE 


privateering purposes, engaging in transport 
service, or doing any other act calculated to 
afford assistance to either party. 

14 . —Under the title of “The New Travel¬ 
ler’s Tales,” Dr. Gray, Keeper of Zoology, 
British Museum, begins a correspondence, in 
which various scientific men of note take part, 
impugning the accuracy and importance of the 
travels and discoveries of M. de Chaillu in 
Africa. 

15 . —Mr. Adams arrives as American minis¬ 
ter in London, in room of Mr. Dallas. 

— General Butler occupies Baltimore with 
2,000 men, and proclaims martial law, on the 
plea that the district was in a highly disaffected 
state towards the Union. 

18 .—The Post-Office Secretary causes inti¬ 
mation to be made that the Galway postal 
contract is at an end, in consequence of the 
Company having failed to comply with the 
stipulations. It was renewed in July 1863, 
when 15,000/. was voted for a subsidy; but 
again terminated, after a succession of failures, 
in February 1864. 

20 .—A missionary named Gordon and his 
wife cut to pieces by the savages of Erromanga. 

— Died, aged 65, Prince Michael Gortscha- 
koff, Lieutenant-General of Poland. He was 
succeeded by the Grand Duke Constantine. 

24 .—Falling in of a portion of the Metro¬ 
politan Underground Railway, Euston-road, 
St. Pancras. About four o’clock the wholp 
of the earth in front of the pavement on the 
north side, the pavement itself, and the walls 
and railings in front of no less than eight, 
houses, fell in with a loud crash. Previous 
warnings regarding danger at this part of the 
line had led to the withdrawal of the workmen 
before the accident. 

27 .—Explosion at Waltham powder mills ; 
one man killed, and three injured. 

30 .—Father Daly, of Galway, and the Pre¬ 
mier. A rumour being current in the House 
that the votes of Irish members on the Budget 
division had been influenced by the decision of 
the Government with reference to the Galway 
contract, Lord Palmerston now explains what 
had taken place at the interview with the Rev. 
Father, who waited on him to urge the claims 
of the Company. “I said the question must 
be discussed publicly in the House of Com¬ 
mons, not privately in my room. Mr. Daly 
said if I would not discuss it with him, would 
I do so with a deputation of Irish members. I 
said I did not see that it was a matter between 
me and the Irish members, but between the 
Government, and the Galway Company ; nor 
did I see what the Irish members had to do 
with it more than to take part in the discussion 
that must follow on the motion. (Laughter.) 
Mr. Daly said I was mistaken, because the 
Irish members must take some action on the 
subject. I said, ‘ Yes, that action will be on 
the discussion.’ (Cheers and laughter.) ‘Well,' 
(602) 


Mr. Daly said, ‘ that won’t exactly do— 
(laughter) : I wish to bring a deputation of 
Irish members to you on Monday.* But Mon¬ 
day, I told him, was the day appointed for the 
Budget, and the Galway contract.js* a different 
question. (Laughter.) I said, ‘ There is no 
discussion on Monday about the Galway con¬ 
tract. There is no reason why I should receive 
a deputation on that day; and, moreover, if 
I were to receive a deputation, I know already 
everything they could say to me, and I can 
only tell them what I tell you—namely, that it 
is a public question, to be discussed in the 
House of Commons, and not in a private room 
in my house. ‘Well, but,’ said Mr. Daly, 

‘ I am anxious that you should see them on 
Monday, because they must take action on 
the subject—(laughter)—and that action must 
be taken on Monday evening.’ (Renewed 
laughter.) ‘Oh,’ said I, ‘I now understand 
you—(much laughter) ; and when it is put to 
me in that way, I must, with all due deference 
and respect for the Irish members, entirely 
decline seeing any of them.’ ” 

June 1.—M. Blondin commences a series 
of performances at the Crystal Palace on a 
rope stretched at a great distance from the 
ground. 

3 . —Sir Charles Wood makes a short preli¬ 
minary statement respecting the finances of 
India, on which to found a resolution, asking 
the assent of the House to affirm the expediency 
of raising money in the United Kingdom for 
the service of India. The Indian financial 
statement was made on the 25th of the follow¬ 
ing month, when a loan of 5,ocx),000/. was 
proposed to assist the railways. 

— Arrangement concluded regarding the 
Wilton-Dickson scandal. In connexion with 
the dismissal of Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson 
from the 2d Tower Hamlets Militia, that 
officer charged the Colonel, Lord Wilton, 
with (1) having introduced to the officers 
a female of loose habits ; (2) with keeping her 
in his hut on Woolwich Common on a certain 
day till the regiment was ready for inspection ; 
(3) that he had received the regimental salute 
in company of the said female ; and, generally, 
with conduct unbecoming an officer and gentle¬ 
man, derogatory to the position of a deputy- 
lieutenant of the Tower Hamlets, and espe¬ 
cially disgraceful to a privy councillor, a peer 
of the realm, and a magistrate. In antici¬ 
pation of a Court of Inquiry ordered by Mr. 
Secretary Herbert for to-morrow, it was now 
agreed:—(1) That Colonel Dickson shall ap¬ 
pear before the Court of Inquiry and state that 
he has placed himself in the hands of his 
friend Mr. Duncombe, M.P., who has recom¬ 
mended him to withdraw the charges made 
against the Earl of Wilton, being satisfied with 
the explanations which have been given; and 
Colonel Dickson is to ask permission of the 
court to withdraw the same. (2) Mr. Dun¬ 
combe and Mr. Edwin James, on behalf of 






JUNE 


JUNE 


1861. 


Lord Wilton undertake to use their best efforts 
with the authorities of the War Office and 
Horse Guards to restore to Lieut.-Col. Dickson 
the position he has lost in his profession, and 
endeavour to obtain for him some employment 
consistent with his former rank. (3) Colonel 
Dickson having incurred a large expense, 
arising out of the dispute and charges against 
him connected with the Tower Hamlets Militia, 
and in the action brought by him against Lord 
Wilton, Mr. Duncombe has represented this 
to Mr. Edwin James ; and he has agreed, on 
Lord Wilton’s behalf, to pay-Colonel Dickson 
600/. upon this arrangement being carried out. 
The first article of the arrangement was carried 
out at the Court of Inquiry ; the third was dis¬ 
charged by Lord Wilton on the 14th; but the 
second led to much after-dispute and bad feel¬ 
ing among the parties mixed up in the scandal. 

4 . —The Lord Mayor of Dublin, attended 
by a deputation of the Corporation in their 
robes, appears at the bar of the House of 
Commons to present a petition praying for the 
restoration of the subsidy to the Galway Steam 
Packet Company. 

— Wreck of the Montreal Steam Navigation 
ship Canadian , on an iceberg, while passing 
through the Straits of Belleisle. Out of a 
crew of 97 and 112 passengers, 35 were drowned 
by the upsetting of one of the eight boats in 
which those on board took refuge. The mail 
also was lost. 

5 . —Horticultural fete on the occasion of 
opening the new grounds of the Royal Horti¬ 
cultural Society at Brompton. In answer to 
an address presented to him on the occasion, 
his Royal Highness the Prince Consort said, 
“That which last year was still a vague con¬ 
ception is to-day a reality, and I trust will be 
accepted as a valuable attempt at least to reunite 
the science and art of gardening to the sister 
arts of architecture, sculpture, and.painting.” 

6 . —Died at Turin, in his 52d year, Camillo 
Benso di Cavour, known in this country as 
Count Cavour, the Prime Minister of the King 
of Italy, regenerator of the kingdom, and one 
of the most popular of modern Italian states¬ 
men. His disorder was of a typhoid character, 
and his physicians bled their patient again and 
again, till his nervous system, previously re¬ 
duced to great debility by hard work and 
anxiety, succumbed to their weakening attacks. 
When it became known in Turin that the mi¬ 
nister was in a dying state, a mournful crowd 
occupied the area before his palace, and sat 
day and night, mute, and apparently unchanged, 
watching with eager eyes every movement 
within the dwelling. It was said that the 
shadow of despair which fell over the whole 
city when the announcement of his death was 
made could be likened to nothing but the con¬ 
sternation felt on the arrival of the despatches 
which told of the fatal defeat of Novara in 
1849. Baron Ricasoli was afterwards placed 
at the head of affairs. 


6 . —A Slavonian Diet assembles at St. Mar¬ 
tin, and decides to maintain their nationality 
separate. 

7 . —The British ship Prince of Wales 
wrecked at Albardas, Rio Grande ; the natives 
of the district plundering the vessel and killing 
some of the crew. The refusal of the Brazilian 
Government to make restitution led to re¬ 
prisals being made by Great Britain, and 
latterly to a suspension of diplomatic inter¬ 
course between the two countries. The dis¬ 
pute, in its latest form, was referred for 
arbitration to the King of the Belgians, who 
decided in favour of Great Britain. 

10. —The American Federals under General 
Butler defeated by the Confederates at Big 
Bethel. 

11 . —The Surrey Music Hall destroyed by 
fire, originating, it was supposed, from a port¬ 
able fire left unguarded by some workmen 
engaged in repairing the roof. Before the last 
engine left the scene of disaster the lessee had 
converted the refreshment-room into a tem¬ 
porary concert-room, and the entertainments 
were carried on again. 

— Overflow of water in Clay Cross Col¬ 
liery, causing the death of twenty-one men and 
boys employed in the lower workings. 

12. —Williamson, the manager of the Royal 
Exchange Fire and Life Assurance Company, 
at Manchester, sentenced to fifteen years’ penal 
servitude, for defrauding that company of 
I >35°^- ^y making claims for losses through 
imaginary fires, and claims in excess of proper 
amounts in the case of actual fires. 

— Royal assent given to the bill repealing 
the duty on paper. 

14 .—Thermometer 82° in the shade, 108° in 
the sun. During the march of the Guards 
from Kingston to Guildford one private died 
of sunstroke, and two others were stricken 
down. 

— Professor Faraday, having been invited 
to take part in one of Home’s spiritual mani¬ 
festations, writes to Sir Emerson Tennent: 
“ I do not wish to give offence to any one, 
or to meddle with this subject again. I lost 
much time about it formerly in the hope of de¬ 
veloping some new force of power ; but found 
nothing worthy of attention. I can only look 
at it now as a natural philosopher ; and because 
of the respect due to myself I will not enter 
upon any further attention or investigation 
unless those who profess to have a hold upon 
the effects agree to aid to the uttermost. To 
this purpose they must consent (and desire) to 
be as critical upon the matter, and full of test- 
investigation in regard to the subject, as any 
natural philosopher is in respect of the germs 
of his discoveries. How could electricity, that 
universal spirit of matter, ever have been de¬ 
veloped in its relation to chemical action, to 
magnetic action, to its application in the explo¬ 
sion of mines, the weaving of silk, the exten¬ 
sion of printing, the electro-telegraph, the 








JUNt. 


iS6r. 


JUXE 


illumination of lighthouses, &c., except by 
rigid investigation, grounded on the strictest 
critical reasoning, and the most exact and open 
experiment? and if these so-called occult mani¬ 
festations are not utterly worthless, they must 
and will pass through a like ordeal.” 

17.— Spain asserts her neutrality in the 
American civil war. 

19. _At the close of a debate on the third 

reading of Sir John Trelawny’s Bill to abolish 
Church-rates, the House divided equally, 274 
voting with the “Ayes,” and 274 with the 
“ Noes.” The Speaker, on the occasion, gave 
his casting vote in favour of the “Noes,” as 
he thought a division to pass or reject the 
measure was different from a division in the 
preliminary stages, when the “Ayes” had 
invariably the benefit of the casting vote. The 
bill was consequently thrown out. 

_ The race-horse Klarikoff, which ran fifth 

in the Derby, burnt to death in a horse-van, on 
the Great Northern Railway, while being con¬ 
veyed to Malton. 

20 . —The old East India House, Ltaden- 
hall-street, sold by tender for 155,00c/. 

— The morning papers publish a corre¬ 
spondence purporting to have been forwarded 
by Mr. Hepworth Dixon, and relating to a 
threatened attack on that gentleman by the 
author of “ Puck on Pegasus,” which had been 
somewhat severely handled in the Athenceum. 
Mr. Dixon immediately wrote to the Times 
that the pretended correspondence was as 
visionary as the famous Mr. Toots’s confiden¬ 
tial correspondence with the Duke of Welling¬ 
ton. “ I have never seen Mr. Pennell—never 
received any letter from him—never, to my 
knowledge, read a line of his writing in my 
life. You have been imposed upon by a 
fabricator. ” 

21 . —Publication of the Times with a triple 
supplement, containing about 4,000 advertise¬ 
ments. 

22. —Great fire at the wharves adjoining 
London-bridge, extending over a space, and 
destroying property, to an extent probably 
unparalleled since the conflagration of 1666. 
About four o’clock this (Saturday) afternoon the 
fire was discovered by a lighterman raging in 
what was called the old counting-house of 
Cotton’s Wharf, situated close to the water-side. 
The warehouses here had an extensive river 
frontage, and extended to Tooley-street back¬ 
ward. They were filled with merchandise of i 
every description—Russian tallow, oils, salt- j 
petre, hemp, gums, rice, and sugar being in j 
greatest abundance. Every floor of each of the j 
huge warehouses may be said to have been 
loaded with goods, and of the whole of this 
valuable property, estimated at upwards of 
1,000,000/., scarcely a particle was saved. To 
be added to this loss there was the destruction 
of the entire western range of Alderman 
Humphrey’s warehouse, flanking the new dock 
known as Hay’s Wharf, and the burning of 

(604) 


four warehouses and quay, comprising Cham¬ 
berlain’s Wharf, adjacent to St. Olave’s 
Church. But exciting public feeling far more 
strongly than even the immense destruction 
of property was the death of the leader of 
the fire brigade, Mr. Braidwood, who was 
buried in a mass of the falling ruins the 
first night of the outbreak, while in the act 
of encouraging his men in their perilous labour. 
The fire burned for four days with a fierceness 
which made it doubtful whether the whole of 
that quarter of the metropolis might not fall a 
prey to the flames, nor was it for the long period 
of fifteen days that the fire could be said to 
have lost its terror by bursting forth in fresh 
and unexpected quarters. Besides Mr. Braid- 
wood, two other persons perished in the con¬ 
flagration, and a number unknown lost their 
lives in the river while attempting to re¬ 
cover tallow and other salvage which poured 
out in vast quantities from the blazing ware¬ 
houses. About ten o’olock on Saturday 
night, a spectator wrote that the fire seemed 
to be at its worst. Probably between eight and 
, nine there was a greater body of flame than at 
any subsequent period, but the broad light of 
a summer evening drowned its glare. It 
was not till night-fall that the tremendous 
I terrors of the spectacle could be appreciated. 
The whole south bank of the river, from 
London-bridge to below the Custom-house, 
seemed one stupendous pile of fire, glowing at 
its core with an intensity that made it painful 
to look at, and casting a ruddy glare on 
everything far and near. As warehouse after 
warehouse caught fire, the barrels of saltpetre 
and tar with which some were filled exploded, 
and came pouring forth in streams of liquid 
fire which floated out upon the water in great 
sheets, and broke up at last into islands of 
flame, which went floating up the river. Mr. 
Braidwood’s body was eagerly sought for in 
the ruins till found, and interred in Abney-park 
Cemetery with great honour a few days after¬ 
wards. 

23 . — Died at Stratheden Lodge, Kensing¬ 
ton, in his 81st year, the Right Honourable 
John Lord Campbell, Lord Chancellor of 
England, a judge who, by an industry and 
perseverance unparalleled, raised himself from 
the commonest walk in the legal profession. 
He was succeeded on the woolsack by the 
Attorney-General, Sir Richard Bethell. 

— Loss of the Baltic steamship on Nick- 
man’s Ground, through the ignorance of the 
steersman. 

— The Emperor Napoleon recognises 
Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy. 

24 . — The foundation-stone laid of a monu¬ 
ment to Sir William Wallace, to be erected on 
the Abbey Craig, Stirling. 

25 . —The new order of the Star of India 
instituted—to comprise the Sovereign as Grand 
Master, and twenty-five knights (European 
and native), exclusive of honorary knights. 










1 861. 


jul y 


JUtfE 


25 .—Died, aged 38, Abdul-Medjia-Khan, 
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He was suc¬ 
ceeded by his brother, Abdul Aziz. 

27 .—The Great Eastern leaves the Mersey 
with troops for Canada ; the total number on 
board being about 3,300. She was caught in 
a storm about 283 miles westward of Cape 
Clear, and sustained damage to an extent 
which compelled her to put back to Kinsale. 

23 .—The Baron de Vidil, an adherent of 
the exiled House of Orleans, makes a mur¬ 
derous attack upon his son with a loaded whip, 
while riding together in a secluded lane near 
Twickenham. The young man was carried 
into a neighbouring public-house, followed by 
his father, who alleged that the injuries were 
the result of an accident on the road. In his 
depositions the younger Vidil said : “I had 
just got a little way up the lane leading to the 
main road, when he said we had made a 
mistake, and must turn back. I turned back 
without saying a word. It is very shady in 
that comer. I saw no one near. I got a little 
ahead of the Baron, he being on the right. I 
had gone a pace or two when I felt a violent 
blow on my head. I turned round, being all 
right on the saddle, and saw the Baron’s hand 
uplifted with something in it. With this he 
struck me another blow, and again raised his 
arm, when I hurried on my horse ; and having 
got on a little way, I got down quietly, 
putting my leg over as usual, and ran on to 
where a woman and man were standing. I 
caught hold of the woman’s dress and clung to 
her, praying her to protect me.” Though the 
injured lad was quite communicative imme¬ 
diately after the assault, he gradually became 
less so, and finally, at the police examination, 
refused to give any information whatever tend¬ 
ing to criminate his father. “If you insist 
upon my speaking,” he said, “ I am in a dread¬ 
ful position. You do not know all. I under¬ 
stand that my father has accused me to a 
certain extent—he has made a charge against 
me. If he says anything against me, then I 
shall be compelled to tell everything. I wish 
him to know that if he insists I must tell 
all.” The Baron fled to Paris immediately after 
the occurrence, was apprehended there, and 
tried at the Central Criminal Court on the 24th 
August; but as the son still refused to give 
evidence to criminate his father, the jury could 
find the prisoner guilty of unlawfully wounding 
only, and he was sentenced to twelve months’ 
imprisonment with hard labour. 

29 . —Died at the Casa Guidi, Florence, an 
hour beyond daybreak, and after a long illness, 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a gifted poetess 
and patriotic woman. 

30 . —This evening, about ten o’clock, a 
comet of extraordinary splendour burst into 
view, and continued for many nights a spectacle 
exciting both wonder and admiration. Its 
place when first seen was near Ursa Major, 
and directly beneath the pole star. The tail 


consisted of a curved brush of light, bending 
over it in the direction of the two “ pointers.” 
It could be traced for a space varying from 
70° to ioo°, and had a length, by calculation, 
of 16, 000,000 or 18,000,000 miles. 

30 .—Juarez elected President of the Mexican 
Republic with dictatorial powers. 

— Excitement in India occasioned by the 
publication of “ Nil Darpan,” a Hindoo drama 
libelling the indigo-planters. The translator, 
the Rev. James Long, was sentenced to fine and 
imprisonment, while the Lieutenant-Governor 
of Bengal, who encouraged the work, and his 
Secretary, Mr. Seton-Kerr, who had without 
authority distributed copies, were severely cen¬ 
sured, and resigned in September. 

July 2 .—Discussion in the House of Com¬ 
mons on the Derry veagh evictions, and the crimes 
which had been committed in connexion there¬ 
with. Mr. Butt’s motion for a committee of 
inquiry was negatived by 88 to 23 votes. 

— The Lords Justices of Appeal decide a 
case of considerable importance in connexion 
with the bankruptcies of Lawrence and Mor- 
timore, leather-merchants. The Bank of Eng¬ 
land claimed to be mortgagees on an estate at 
Egham, bought by the bankrupts, to the extent 
of 83,000/. Mortimore bought the estate ori¬ 
ginally, but as it was too large for him, and 
rising in value, he proposed to his partners to 
join him, and the purchase-money was paid 
out of partnership funds. The accounts were 
kept also in the partnership books. The Lords 
Justices held that the property having been 
purchased as a speculation, must be held to be 
part of the partnership property, and pass to 
the assignees. 

— Meeting held in Exeter Hall, to welcome 
the fugitive slave, John Anderson, whose case 
had recently excited much interest. (See Jan. 

I 5 ) 

4 . —Speech-day at Harrow. Lord Palmer¬ 
ston laid the first stone of the new library 
intended to commemorate the mastership of 
Dr. Vaughan. 

5 . —The Hungarian Diet vote an address to 
the Emperor of Austria praying for the restora¬ 
tion of the old Constitution and the coronation 
of the Emperor at Pesth. 

— The Southern Confederates defeated at 
Carthage by Colonel Sigel’s troops. 

— Died, at Paris, aged 91, Prince Adam 
Czartoryski, a distinguished Polish exile. 

6 . —Died, aged 73, Sir Francis Palgrave, of 
the Record Office, historian and antiquary. 

8.—Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Common Pleas, before Lord Chief Justice Erie 
and a special jury, the case of Turnbull v. 
Bird. The plaintiff, as before mentioned, 
was appointed Calenderer in the State Paper 
Office by the Master of the Rolls, and was 
compelled to resign in consequence, as he 
alleged, of attacks made upon him by the 









JULY 


JULY 


1861. 


Protestant Alliance, of which the defendant 
was secretary. Among other injurious state¬ 
ments circulated regarding him, one was con¬ 
tained in a memorial prepared for presentation 
to Lord Palmerston, to the effect that, since 
certain documents had been placed in his hands, 
an important letter from the Queen Dowager 
of Scotland to the then commander of the 
French army, and said to tell strongly against 
the Papists, had disappeared. Another was 
contained in a paragraph copied from the 
AthcucEum into the Alliance’s Monthly Letter: 
“Mr. Turnbull retires from the task of writing 
officially the ‘ History of Religion in England 
under Queen Mary.’ There will now be peace 
in the Record Office, and among the six thou¬ 
sand of the Protestant Alliance and of the 
Scottish Reformation Society.” In a letter to 
Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. Turnbull omitted the 
latter clause of the above paragraph, and ap¬ 
peared otherwise to believe that the words, 
“ Record Office,” as he copied them, referred 
to the State Paper Office, and not, as explained 
by Lord Shaftesbury, to the Record newspaper 
office. His Lordship, however, did not hesi¬ 
tate to write that the statement that the de¬ 
fendant was engaged to “write officially the 
‘History of England under Queen Mary,’” 
was a grave error, and not to be justified. 
The trial extended over three days, and resulted 
in a verdict for the defendant. Mr. Turn- 
bull died soon after, suffering. from the per¬ 
secution to which he considered he had been 
subjected. 

8 . —The Lower House of Convocation adopt 
a resolution to defer the further consideration 
of “ Essays and Reviews,” pending the result 
of the suit instituted by the Bishop of Salis¬ 
bury against Dr. Rowland Williams, Vicar of 
Broadchalk, one of the Essayists. 

— On a division, the motion for adopting 
the Italian style for the new Foreign Office was 
negatived by 188 to 95 votes. Lord Palmerston 
made a lively defence of the condemned order 
against the criticism of Lord, John Manners. 

9 . —At Epworth, Isle of Axholme, the wife 
of a farmer named Wilson, while in a fit of 
desponding insanity, takes away the lives of her 
three children by drowning them one after 
another in the water-cistern. 

11 . —Sir John Pakington directs the atten¬ 
tion of the House to the Report of the Educa¬ 
tion Commissioners, with the view of learning 
to what extent -the Government intended to 
adopt its recommendations. Mr. Lowe thought 
the Commissioners had not provided any 
remedy for the three faults they pointed out, 
viz. superficial and imperfect tuition ; schools 
not so widely spead over the country as was 
necessary ; and general complication of system. 

12. —Frightful encounter between two men in 
a house in Northumberland-street, Strand. The 
surviving actor in the tragedy, Major Murray, 
gave an account of the occurrence to the effect 
that when he was passing up from Hungerford 

<6o6) 


Bridge he was accosted by a stranger and 
questioned regarding the intention of the 
Grosvenor Hotel directors to borrow money. 
With the view of discussing certain details 
connected with the proposal Major Murray 
was induced to accompany the stranger to a 
residence he described as his chambers, No. 16, 
Northumberland-street. “ I asked him for 
Iiis card of address; he said, ‘ Immediately^’ 
got up from the table, walked round me 
and began rummaging among the papers of a 
desk. I thought he ^as looking for his card, 
and took no particular notice- Presently I felt 
a touch in the back of my neck—there was 
a report of a pistol, and I dropped off the 
chair on the ground. I was perfectly paralysed. 

I could not move any part of my body. My 
head, however, was quite clear. I was tying 
with my face to the fender, and when he fired 
I believe he left the room. After some little 
time I felt returning life in my leg and arm, 
and was just raising myself on my elbow 
when I heard a door open, and he came in 
again. He immediately walked up behind me 
and fired a pistol into my right temple. I 
dropped back on the carpet, and the blood 
gushed all over my face and eyes and mouth in 
a regular torrent. He either stooped or knelt 
down close behind me, for I could feel his 
breath, and he watched close to see if I was 
dead. I then made up my mind to pretend to be 
so. I felt that the bleeding was bringing life 
back to me fast all over my body, which was 
tingling to the fingers’ ends. I knew if I could 
get on my feet I should be able to make a fight 
for it. After he had knelt behind me for some 
time, he got up and walked away; I then 
opened my eyes and took a look round, and 
saw a pair of tongs within a few inches of my 
hand. Feeling that my strength was returning 
to me, and there being the whole length of the 
room between us, I seized the tongs and sprang 
to my feet. He was then at the window. 
Hearing me move, he turned and faced me. 

I at once rushed at him and made a heavy 
blow at him with the tongs, which missed. I 
then seized them short by the middle and made 
a dash into his chest and face, which knocked 
him over on his back. I got my knees on his 
chest and tried to smash his head with the 
tongs. They were too long, and he got them 
in both his hands firmly. I struggled hard for 
some time to get them away, but he was as 
strong as I, and I could not do it. I looked 
round for something else to hit him with, and 
close to my right hand I saw a large black 
bottle, which I caught in my right hand, and, 
shaking the tongs with my left to keep him 
occupied, I hit him full with all my force, on 
the middle of the forehead, smashing it to pieces. 
That made him quiver all over, but still he did 
not let go the tongs, so I caught hold of a 
metal vase and dashed it at his head with all 
my might, but I missed him. Then, as I saw 
there was nothing else at hand, I set to work 
desperately to get the mastery of the tong-, 
which he was holding all the time. During 









JUL V 


1 36 1 . 


JUL Y 


all this he was on his back, close under the 
window nearest the door. After a long 
struggle I got the tongs. As they came into 
my hands I lost my balance and fell back, but 
was up again in an instant, and by that time 
he was rising into a sitting position, which 
gave me a full fair blow at his head with the 
tongs, and I gave it him with all my might 
and main. I repeated it three or four times. 
He hid his head under the table to escape 
my blows, and I then hit him over the back 
of the neck ; and in order to disable his 
hands I hit him hard over the wrists. I then 
thought he was sufficiently disabled, and tried 
to get out, but the door of the room was 
locked. I then went through the folding-doors 
of the front room and tried that way, but that 
door was locked too. In coming back through 
the folding-doors I met hi-m again face to face, 
walking towards me; I took a step back in 
order to get a full swing, and hit him on the 
head again with the tongs. He fell forward 
on his face through the folding-doors as if he 
was dead. I pushed his feet through the doors, 
shut them, and threw up the window to get out. ” 
It was in endeavouring to effect his escape at 
this point that Major Murray was seen by some 
workmen, and assisted to the ground. He had 
then in his hands the tongs used in the struggle, 
broken, bent, and covered with blood and hair. 
He appeared for a few minutes unconscious 
of his injuries, but was soon overcome with 
their severity, and conveyed to Charing Cross 
Hospital. The alarm being at once given 
to the police, an entry was forced into the 
chambers where the struggle took place, 
and their occupant found in the condition 
described by Major Murray. It was then 
ascertained that the unknown assailant was 
a Mr. Roberts, money-lender, who rented 
the chambers. He also was conveyed to 
Charing Cross Hospital, but sank in a few 
days under his injuries, having been able to 
make little more reference to the encounter 
than “ Murray did it all. He first shot himself, 
and then attacked me with the tongs.” The 
mystery was unravelled at the coroner’s inquest, 
when a certain Annie Maria Moodie, of Elm 
Lodge, was examined. She passed as Mrs. 
Murray, and had for several years lived under 
his protection. Roberts had been recently 
making advances to her, which she treated 
with considerable coldness, but could not reject 
altogether on account of certain pecuniary 
obligations. Roberts knew of her connexion 
with Murray, and designed the attack, it was 
thought, to get him out of the- way. 

13 .—The American Minister communicates 
to Lord John Russell the draft Convention 
between the two countries relating to the rights 
of belligerents and neutrals in time of war. 
It stipulated that “ Privateering is and re¬ 
mains abolished ; the neutral flag covers 
enemy’s goods, with the exception of contra¬ 
band of war ; neutral goods, with the exception 
cf contraband of war, are not liable to capture 
under enemy’s flags ; blockades, in order to be 


binding, must be effective, that is to say, main¬ 
tained by a force sufficient really to prevent 
access to the coast of the enemy.” 

14 . —Oscar Becker makes an attempt to 
assassinate the King of Prussia when taking his 
morning walk in the Lichtenthal Allee, Baden- 
Baden. His Majesty was slightly wounded in 
the neck. 

17 . —The Lord Mayor entertains Mr. Cob- 
den at dinner in the Mansion House, in recog¬ 
nition of his services in negotiating the French 
Treaty. 

— The Mexican Congress resolve to sus¬ 
pend payment of public bonds for two years 
—a step which leads to a rupture of diplomatic 
relations with England and France. 

20 . —The Congress of the Confederate 
States assembles at Richmond, Virginia, which 
henceforward is recognised as their capital. 

21 . —Battle of Bull Run or Manassas Junc¬ 
tion, resulting in the defeat of the Federals, 

18,ooo strong, under General M‘Dowall, and 
their flight in great confusion to Washington. 
The loss on their side was estimated at 19 
officers and 462 men ; wounded, 64 officers 
and 947 men. Two regiments of volunteers, 
whose term of office expired the preceding day, 
insisted on their immediate discharge, and 
dropped Jo^the rear at the commencement of 
the action. The Confederate loss was trifling, 
and considerable fear was entertained that they 
would march forward on Washington, then 
almost defenceless. The appearance of the 
defeated Federal troops in the streets of the 
capital gave rise to great excitement there. 

— A gentleman of fortune, at Clapham, 
named Littleton, commits suicide in a fit 
of excitement induced, it was believed, by his 
wife having drowned herself in the Long Pond 
after a domestic quarrel. 

22. —Mr. J. C. D. Charlesworth, M.P., 
convicted at York of bribery at the Wakefield 
election of 1859. The case was partly heard 
before, but broke down by the refusal of 
Fernandez, an important witness, to bear tes¬ 
timony. The judge, on that occasion, instead 
of permitting a withdrawal of the charge, dis¬ 
missed the action, so as to allow of a new 
trial. Fernandez now acknowledged that he 
had used a portion of the 500/., entrusted to 
him by Mr. Barth Charlesworth, in bribing 
the electors—50/. having been given in one 
case, and lesser sums in another. 

— At the Cambridge Assizes, Augustus 
Hilton was found guilty, on his own plea, of 
murdering his wife at Wisbeach, and sen¬ 
tenced to be executed. He resolutely refused to 
alter his plea, nor would he permit any effort 
to be made for a commutation of the sentence. 

— The Court of Session give a decision in 
favour of the pursuer in what was known as 
the “ Cardross case.” In 1858, John M‘Millsr, 
Free Church minister, of Cardross, was sus¬ 
pended by the General Assembly for charges ol 








JUL Y 


1861. 


AUG US T 


immorality, which had been fully discussed in 
the inferior courts. He appealed to the civil 
courts to protect him, on the ground that the 
proceedings were informal in so far as the As¬ 
sembly had decided upon points not before 
them in the way of appeal. He was then called 
before the Assembly, and being interrogated 
regarding his appeal to the civil court, answered 
in the affirmative. M'Millan was, thereupon, 
deposed from the office of the ministry. On 
the case coming up in the Court of Session, 
the Judge Ordinary commanded the Assembly 
to produce their rules, or “satisfy production,” 
as it was called; the Assembly refused, alleging 
that the matter was spiritual, and not subject 
to the review of the civil courts, and lodged an 
appeal. The Court of Session now rejected 
the appeal unanimously, on the ground that, 
although the Assembly could make any rules 
it liked, it must adhere to them when, as in 
this case, they involved a contract. They could 
enable a majority to depose a minority with¬ 
out forms, but if they once established forms 
they must abide by them. After the case had 
occupied the court in many different phases, 
M ‘Millan withdrew his pleadings, and the 
claim fell to the ground. 

24 -.—Lord John Russell delivers a farewell 
address to the electors of the City of London, 
on the occasion of vacating his seat preparatory 
to his elevation to the House of Lords. He 
remarked of himself, that he felt like the great 
emperor, who, three Centuries ago, having been 
engaged in all the great transactions of his 
time, and thinking that he would like to see 
what would happen after his death, had all the 
pomps of his funeral prepared, and assisted 
himself as chief mourner at the ceremony. 

26 .—At the Maidstone Assizes, Henry 
Sherry sentenced to death for wilfully setting 
fire to his father’s house and barn, at Stour- 
mouth, near Canterbury. 

— The amendment of the Commons to 
the Lords’ amendments on the Bankruptcy 
Bill, with their reasons for disagreement, came 
on for consideration in the House of Lords. 
The Lord Chancellor (Bethell) warmly sup¬ 
ported the decision of the House of Commons 
in favour of the appointment of a chief judge. 
If this was a job, he said, he alone was 
responsible for it. Lord Chelmsford having 
replied to the insinuations of the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor against the Select Committee, and 
vindicated the decision of that Committee 
as entirely removed from party motives, 
stated his opinion that the appointment of 
a chief judge was unnecessary, as the duties 
which he would have to do were efficiently 
performed by those to whom they were now 
entrusted. The House resolved to adhere 
to its amendment on this clause, striking the 
chief judge out of the Bill, by a majority of 
80 to 46. The Bill was afterwards accepted 
by the Commons in this state. The Spectator , 
referring to the debate in the Lords, said : 
“The language which the Lord Chancellor, 
(608) 


so recently arrived amongst the peers, did not 
hesitate to use to his astonished audiences was 
not such as to increase his own dignity. The 
Christian principles which have been, as the 
Wolverhampton electors learnt from his own 
lips, a comfort and a sustenance to Sir Richard 
Bethell through his life, seemed almost as if 
they were going to desert him at the last. If 
a person of such piety could lose his temper, 
and forget himself, we should have said that, 
in a fit of passing weakness, Sir Richard 
Bethell was not what he once was in imagina¬ 
tion at Wolverhampton.” 

27 .—Rupture of diplomatic relations be¬ 
tween Mexico and England and France, owing 
to a decision of the Mexican Congress to sus¬ 
pend payment to foreigners for two years. 

29 . —At the Derby Assizes, George Smith, 
aged 20, was found guilty of the wilful 
murder of his father, by shooting him in his 
own house. The prisoner made a defiant 
denial of his guilt to the court, but quailed 
as the time approached for execution, and 
left a written confession of his crime. 

— Died, at the Great Western Railway 
Hotel, Paddington, in his 66th year, the Duke 
of Buckingham and Chandos, of some note in 
the political world in his day, but more famous 
for having alienated the princely estates which 
had fallen in to his long-descended house. 

30 . —Lord John Russell takes his seat in the 
House of Lords as Earl Russell of Kingston- 
Russell, in Dorset, and Viscount Amber!ey 
of Ardsalla, in Meath. 

31 . —The contest for the vacant seat in the 
City terminated in favour of Mr. Western 
Wood, 5,747 voters polling for him, against 
5,241 for Lord Mayor Cubitt. 

August 1.—A second fire in Tooley-street, 
destroying the premises of Curling and Co., 
wharfingers. Engines being still employed 
on the embers of the recent great fire, several 
were promptly at work on this new outbreak, 
and prevented it extending to the adjoining 
warehouses. 

2 . —Died, at Wilton House, near Salisbury, 
aged 50, Lord Hexbert of Lea (Sidney Her¬ 
bert), celebrated not more for the elegance of 
his accomplishments than for laborious ex¬ 
ertions in the reform of the War Office, 
where he presided as Secretary till July last. 
He had retired to Spa with his family for 
the purpose of recruiting his energies, worn 
out in the public service ; but it was too late. 
He daily became, weaker and weaker, and 
feeling that his end was near, he desired to be 
brought home, that he might die among his 
family. He was borne to his ancestral seat at 
Wilton—a seat which he had done so much 
to adorn, but where he could seldom reside. 
The evening on which he was carried within 
his hall it was found that his sight was gone ; 
on the third evening he died. 

3 . -Died, aged 69, Father Joachim Ventura, 








AUGUST 


1861. 


AUGUST 


an eloquent Jesuit preacher, known as the 
“ Italian Bossuet.” 

5 . —At the close of the second and last of 
the aristocratic fetes given at Cremome, Mr. 
Lythgoe, aeronaut, makes an ascent in the 
balloon Royal Normandy. After a voyage of un¬ 
usual peril a descent was made near Lowestoft. 

6 . —Came on at Croydon Assizes the trial 
of Johann Carl Franz, for the murder of Martha 
Halliday, at Kingswood Rectory, on the loth 
of June last. The case presented in a marked 
manner the difficulties besetting merely circum¬ 
stantial evidence ; one series of strong coinci¬ 
dences which appeared to establish incontestably 
the prisoner’s guilt being met by another series 
of coincidences tending as strongly to con¬ 
firm his innocence. On the night in ques¬ 
tion the rectory was entered by two men for 
the purpose of plunder ; Mrs. Halliday, wife 
of the parish clerk, was the only inmate. 
Startled, it was presumed, at the forcible 
entry made into her apartment, the burglars 
to prevent her raising an alarm thrust a 
stocking down her mouth, and bound her 
hands and feet with cord of a peculiar make 
said to have been purchased at Reigate that 
afternoon. Scared, it was thought, in the act of 
plundering the house, the burglars fled from the 
premises almost empty-handed, leaving Mrs. 
Halliday choked in bed, where she was found next 
morning by her husband. A packet of papers 
picked up in the room, and written in German, 
referred to the career, appearance, and move¬ 
ments of Johann Carl Franz, the prisoner, a 
native of Schandau, in Upper Saxony. He was 
apprehended in London, when he gave the name 
of Salzmann, but afterwards admitted that his 
real name was Carl Franz, and further that he 
was the owner of the documents bearing his 
name. At the trial it was clearly established 
in evidence that he was the person to whom 
the papers or “service-book,” as it was 
called, had been delivered in Saxony, and 
it was further sought to be shown by wit¬ 
nesses, more or less positive, that Franz was 
one of two persons who purchased the ball 
of string in Reigate ; that he was seen near the 
rectory on the night of the murder; and that 
there was found, tied round a shirt left by him 
at his lodgings, a piece of hempen cord 
matching exactly with that used to bind Mrs. 
Halliday. The defence appeared at first of 
great weakness and irrelevancy, Franz alleging 
that the papers produced had been stolen from 
him, with others he enumerated, by a poor 
countryman with whom he was travelling; 
that, wandering about London in a destitute 
condition, he heard of the murder at Kings¬ 
wood being charged against him; that he 
therefore changed his name, and kept out of 
the way of the police ; and that, so far as the 
piece of cord was concerned, he had picked it 
up at a tobacconist’s door, not far from his 
lodgings in Whitechapel. Between his exami¬ 
nation and trial evidence was procured to 
establish that the peculiar twine was manufac- 

(609) 


tured within a few yards of the place men¬ 
tioned by the prisoner ; that he was not the 
person who had waited on Mdlle. Tietjens 
under the name of Krohn, one of whose papers 
was found in the bundle ; and that he actually 
had lost at least some of his papers was proved 
by the production of a railway guard’s testi¬ 
monial, and a kind of diary describing his 
journey from Hull to Liverpool and Stafford¬ 
shire, which had been found by two tramps in 
a roadside hovel on the borders of Northamp¬ 
tonshire. This latter document was produced 
by the Crown as an evidence of identity of 
handwriting. The jury, after much hesitation, 
returned a verdict of Not Guilty. 

6 . —Parliament prorogued by commission. 
The Royal Speech announced that the French 
army of occupation had been withdrawn from 
Syria. Reference was also made to the For¬ 
feited Seats Bill, the Bankruptcy Bill, the 
Indian Government Bill, and the relief of ship¬ 
ping from passing tolls, as among the impor¬ 
tant measures to which her Majesty had given 
her sanction during the session. 

7 . —Explosion and fire at Summerlee coal¬ 
pit, near Hamilton, causing the death of 
twelve men employed in the works. About 
forty others were rescued alive by the courage 
and perseverance of volunteer assistants who 
descended the shaft. 

8 . —Two children eight years of age, named 
Barratt and Bradley, tried at the Chester 
Assizes, for the murder of George Burgess, 
aged two years and nine months, by throwing 
him into a pool, and afterwards beating him 
with sticks. The offence was committed in 
the most deliberate and cruel manner, the 
little infant being first stripped by the youths, 
and then flung into the water. A verdict of 
manslaughter was returned, and Mr. Justice 
Crompton sentenced them to a month’s im¬ 
prisonment each, and at the expiration to be 
sent to a reformatory for five years.—At the 
same Assizes Michael Doyle received sentence 
of death for a murderous assault on the person 
of Jane Brogine, a woman with whom he co¬ 
habited. He sought to deprive the poor crea¬ 
ture of life by smashing her on the head with 
a stone, and trampling on her body. The 
ruffian was executed on the 27th of August. 

— M. Deak delivers to the Hungarian 
Diet his famous answer to the Imperial re¬ 
script. “We solemnly protest,” he said, 
“against the exercise on the part of the 
Reichsrath of any legislative or other power 
over Hungary in any relation whatsoever; 
we declare that we will not send any repre¬ 
sentative to the Reichsrath ; and further, that 
the election by any other instrumentality will 
be an attack on our Constitution; and that 
any person elected by such means cannot in 
any respect represent Hungary.” The Emperor 
dissolved the Diet on the 21st, and soon after 
placed the kingdom under martial law. 

12 . —The King of Sweden visits England. 

R R 







AUGUST 


1861. 


SEPTEMBER 


12. —At his triennial visitation, the Bishop of 
Salisbury enters at great length into the reasons 
which had induced him to institute proceedings 
against Dr. Rowland Williams. 

13 . —Died, at Lower Walmer, Kent, Thomas 
W. Atkinson, a traveller of much celebrity 
in the Eastern dominions of Russia. 

14 . —Signed at London the Treaty be¬ 
tween her Majesty and the Grand Duke of 
Hesse, for the marriage of the Princess Alice 
Maud Mary with Prince Frederick William 
Louis of Hesse. 

16 - —President Lincoln interdicts all com¬ 
mercial relations with the seceded States. 

17 . —Matricide and suicide at Fen Ditton, 
where Thomas Harvey murdered his mother 
in the cellar of the house by beating her with 
a hammer, and then hanged himself on a tree 
in the garden. 

18 . —Disturbance at Ville-la-Grande, Swit¬ 
zerland, arising out of the arrest of two French 
subjects by the Swiss authorities. (See Oct. 27.) 

19 . —Ten persons drowned at Scarborough 
by the upsetting of a small pleasure boat, 
which was returning somewhat overcrowded 
from a trip to Flam borough. 

21 . —The Queen, with the Prince Consort, 
the Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred, enter 
Kingstown on their third visit to Ireland. The 
Curragh was visited on the 24th, and Killarney 
on the 26th and 27th. 

22 . —Death of the Emperor of China, Hien- 
fung, and accession of his son Tsai-sun. 

— Died, at Harrogate, aged 72, Richard 
Oastler, popularly known in the manufacturing 
districts as the “ Factory King.” 

25 . —Serious accident in the Clayton Tun¬ 
nel of the Brighton Railway. Owing to a 
misunderstanding regarding the signals “train 
out ” and “ train in,” an engine-driver was in¬ 
duced by the sight of a hand danger-signal to 
back his train to the Brighton end ; but before 
its egress the signal-man, thinking the tunnel 
was clear, permitted a parliamentary train to 
dart in, when the two came into violent col¬ 
lision. The engine of the parliamentary train 
crushed the last carriage of the other—an ex¬ 
cursion train—into fragments, and then mounted 
over and crushed the next carriage, upon the 
ruins of which it rested m a nearly upright 
position. In the central compartments of the 
last carriage, and in each of the four compart¬ 
ments of the other, were numerous passengers 
now involved in one general calamity. The 
mutilated and crushed bodies of the killed and 
injured were mixed up with the wreck of the 
carriages, while the hot steam was pouring out 
from the engine on the suffering passengers. 
Twenty-three people were taken out dead, and 
176 were more or less injured. 

26 . —James Rae, clergyman, sentenced to 
ten years’ penal servitude, for forging and ut¬ 
tering a warrant or order for the payment of 

(610) 


6,000/., with intent to defraud. Some time 
after the decease of his uncle, and when he had 
been defeated in various attempts to defeat 
the validity of his will, he produced a letter 
purporting to have been written by his uncle, 
in which was enclosed a cheque upon his 
bankers in Macclesfield for 6,000/. Rae took, 
proceedings in Chancery to obtain that sum out 
of the estate of the testator. The trustees 
treated the letter as a fraudulent device, and 
now established in evidence, that not only were 
the letter and cheque forgeries, but that the 
prisoner had even forged the post-office stamp 
upon the envelope of the letter. 

27 .—Lord Palmerston installed at Dover 
as Warden of the Cinque Ports. In his ad¬ 
dress at the evening banquet, he said there 
were two securities for peace,—“ the one con¬ 
sists in a state of perfect insignificance, the 
other in a state of perfect defence. The security 
arising from perfect insignificance England, 
I think, will never enjoy. The securities for 
peace arising from a perfect state of defence un¬ 
connected with, any notion of aggression, not 
coupled with hostility towards any one, but 
confined solely to a manly determination to 
protect and maintain what we have, is a security 
which I trust this country will long continue to 
possess. And so far from that being a reason 
why the most friendly relations should not be 
kept up with foreign Powers, in my opinion it 
is the only true, solid, and stable foundation 
upon which those friendly relations and the 
hope of a durable peace can rest.” 

29 .—War commenced between the Argen¬ 
tine Republic and Buenos Ayres, which had 
withdrawn from the Confederacy in 1853. An 
engagement took place at Pavon, on the 17th 
September, when the forces of the Republic, 
under Urquiza, were defeated by General 
Mitre. 

— Capture of Forts. Hatteras and Clark, 
North Carolina, by the American Federals. 

September 2.—Collision on the Hamp¬ 
stead Railway between an excursion train, con¬ 
veying certain servants of the North London 
Company from Kew, and a ballast train, which 
had been shunted on to the “up ” line till the 
engine-driver could bring himself by a “ cross¬ 
over” to the head of his carriages. The 
engine of the excursion train was thrown ofl 
the rails, dragging six of the carriages after it 
down an embankment; three were precipitated 
over the wing-wall of a bridge into the road 
below, piled one above another, a fourth rested 
on the wall half over, and a fifth lay on the 
edge of the embankment. The passengers in 
the uninjured portion, though seriously hurt 
by the concussion, threw themselves out ol 
the doors and windows, and rushed across the 
fields shrieking, sobbing, and fainting. A few 
rendered what assistance they could to the 
railway servants in rescuing the dead and 
dying from the frightful wreck lying around. 
Sixteen people lost their lives in this calamity, 






SEPTEMBER 


1861 . 


SEPTEMBER 


twenty had limbs broken, and over 300 received 
injuries of a lesser description. An official 
investigation led to the conclusion that the 
accident was caused mainly by the neglect of 
a signal-man named Rayner, who had taken 
off certain danger-signals before the excursion 
train came in sight, and while the ballast train 
was in the act of shunting from the siding to 
the down line. 

5 .—Fire in Paternoster-row, breaking out 
in a corn warehouse in London House Yard, 
and embracing within its destructive sw-eep 
the tallow warehouse ,of Messrs. Knight and 
Son. The publishing warehouses on both sides 
of the Row suffered severely, some being 
destroyed altogether, and the contents of others 
so much injured by fire or water as to be 
altogether valueless. No less than six serious 
fires occurred in the metropolis this week.* 

12 . —The Prince of Wales discharges his 
first public duty by presenting a new stand of 
colouis to the 36th Regiment at the Curragh 
Camp, where he had been stationed for some 
time. 

15 . —Exhibition of Italian industry opened 
by King Victor Emmanuel at Florence. 

16 . —First orders issued establishing Post 
Office Savings-banks under the Act of last 
session. 

17 . —At Preston Barracks, Private Patrick 
M'Cafferay, of the 22nd Regiment, shoots 
Lieut. -Col. Crofton and Captain Hanham while 
walking in the barrack-square. Col. Crofton 
expired on Sunday, and Captain Hanham on 
the Monday following. M'Cafferay appeared 
to have been incited to the act by a sentence of 
fourteen days’ imprisonment passed upon him 
for neglect of duty. 

18 . —Explosion at Bedart’s oil-cake manu¬ 
factory, Rotherhithe, causing the death of ten 
workmen employed on the premises. In the 
course of the afternoon the feed-pipe to the 
engine was discovered to be out of order, and 
while an engineer was engaged in its repair the 
head of the boiler with the bars of the furnace 
underneath were blown out like a cannon shot 
among the workmen. As soon as an entry 
could be made into the ruins of the engine- 
house, it was found that not one employed 
there had escaped, five being killed on the 
coot, three surviving only a few hours, and 
two dying on the morning of the 24th. 

— Father Passaglia issues a pamphlet point¬ 
ing out the evils with which the temporal 
power was threatening the Church. He affirmed 
that disunion was springing up in Italy among 
the priests themselves, and that the people 
were abandoning the churches. He also 
alleged that the temporal power of the Papacy 
was only expedient during a period in history 
which had passed away. 

— Case of Richard Guinness Hill, or 
‘the Rugby Romance,” as it was called. On 
(611) 


the 5th of January, 1859, Mrs. Hill, a lady of 
considerable means in her own right, was de ¬ 
livered of a male child at Rugby, when on a 
journey from Ireland to London with her hus¬ 
band. The marriage contract drawn up be¬ 
tween the parties made it more advantageous 
to the husband, so far as money was con¬ 
cerned, that there should be no surviving 
family after the decease of Mrs. Hill. Withm 
a few days after her confinement she was 
induced, at the pressing solicitation of her 
husband, to let the child be taken out to 
nurse ; but as to where it was taken, or who 
the person was who had it in charge, Hill 
preserved a mysterious silence, which ulti¬ 
mately led to their separation. The matter 
was then put into the hands of Brett, a 
London detective, who displayed great in¬ 
genuity in tracing the lost infant, and now 
discovered it in a state of extreme wretched¬ 
ness in a squalid lodging-house off Drury-lane. 
The course of the inquiry went to show that 
Hill, to hide as far as possible the existence 
of the child, commenced by causing a mislead¬ 
ing entry to be made in the register at Rugby ; 
he then hurried up to London, and obtained 
an ally in the person of a poor woman whom 
he found selling laces, or begging, in Wind¬ 
mill-street, Haymarket, and who, after various 
interviews with a person answering to the 
description of Hill, consented to receive the 
child, and bring it up as her own, for a fixed 
allowance of 16/. per annum. Hill next went 
back to Rugby, obtained the consent of the 
mother, as before mentioned, to let the child 
be taken out to nurse, and, in company with a 
servant named Catherine Parsons—an im¬ 
portant link in the chain of witnesses—carried 
the child up to London. At the Euston 
Station they were met by the street wanderer 
before referred to, and two female companions 
whom she had brought with her in a cab. The 
infant was then handed to her in a shawl in 
which it had been wrapped by its mother 
before leaving Rugby. From that time to the 
present, this poor heir to 14,000/. had spent 
his existence among these wretched women, 
suffering great physical injury, and subjected 
to all the miseries arising from want of food 
and clothing. The house in which - it was 
found appeared to be occupied from top to 
bottom by prostitutes and beggars. It was 
insinuated during the investigation that Hill 
was not the father of the child, and some 
colour was given to the statement by the pro¬ 
ceedings which took place when he was 
brought up for trial on a charge of causing 
a false entry to be made in the register at 
Rugby. The jury then pronounced a ver¬ 
dict of Not Guilty, on the ground that the 
registrar was dead, and the proof, therefore, 
insufficient to secure a conviction. 

21 .—The Confederates capture Lexington, 
Missouri. 

23 .—The clipper ship Sovereign of the Seas 
burnt in Sydney harbour. 

K R 2 






SEPTEMBER 


iS 5 l 


OCTOBER 


23 . —Died at Heidelberg, aged 85, Professor 
Friedrich Christoph Schlosser, German his¬ 
torian. 

24 . —Six ballet girls burnt to death in the 
Continental Theatre, Philadelphia, the muslin 
clothes in which five of them were dressed 
having come into contact with the blazing gar¬ 
ments of another accidentally lighted at the gas. 

25 . —Died, aged 61, Joseph Maudslay, en¬ 
gineer. 

26 . —William Cogan tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for the murder of his wife, 
by cutting her throat during a fit of drunken 
brutality. He attempted to commit suicide 
at the same time, but did not inflict injury 
sufficient to cause death. He was now 
sentenced to death, and executed on the 14th 
October. 

27 . —A Dublin cabman named John Curran 
commits a savage outrage on the person of Miss 
Jolly, a young lady, whom he was driving in 
the direction of Churchtown. She defended 
herself with remarkable bravery and self- 
possession till, aided somewhat by the restless¬ 
ness of the horse, he was compelled to leave 
her, bruised and battered, but able with diffi¬ 
culty to make her way in the darkness of 
midnight to the railway station at Milltown, 
where the help she stood in need of was readily 
administered. Curran was tried for the offence 
on the 26th of October, and sentenced to two 
years’ imprisonment with hard labour. 

— William Molony tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for murdering his wife, the 
case being chiefly remarkable for the prosecu¬ 
tion depending mainly on one witness, who 
swore to having seen the prisoner in his own 
house inflict the fatal stab, though he took no 
steps to inform the police of the occurrence. 
Molony was sentenced to death, but after¬ 
inquiry led the Home Secretary to advise a 
commutation of the capital sentence. 

— Fall of the iron bridge in process of 
construction at Lendal, York, one of the large 
girders dropping into the river when being 
hoisted to its place on the roadway. Five of 
the workmen were killed. 

October 1.—Mark Frater stabbed in a 
street in Newcastle by a cabinet-maker, 
named Clark, in revenge, it was believed at the 
time, for having pressed Clark in the capacity 
of collector of assessed taxes. When Clark 
was taken, almost red-handed, he exclaimed, 
“It is all right;—he robbed me, and now I 
have paid him. You can charge me with 
wilful murder.” When put on his trial for 
the offence, the jury returned a verdict of 
Wilful Murder, in which the judge con¬ 
curred ; the prisoner remarking that he was 
“ a very good sort of old wife.” The Home 
Secretary afterwards ordered an inquiry into 
the state of Clark’s mind, and being satisfied 
that he was then, if not previously, quite insane, 
ordered him to be sent to a lunatic asylum. 
(612) 


1.—Commercial Treaty between Great Bri¬ 
tain, France, and Belgium came into opera¬ 
tion. 

3 .—One of the keepers of the Longships 
Lighthouse, Land’s End, commits suicide by 
stabbing himself with a penknife. 

6. —Meeting at Compiegne between the Em¬ 
peror Napoleon and the King of Prussia. *The 
King of Holland joined them on the 12th. 

7 . — Died, at the residence of Mr. White 
Melville, St. Andrew’s, Archibald William 
Montgomerie, thirteenth Earl of Eglinton, a 
popular Scottish nobleman. 

8. —Viscount Forth, eldest son of the Earl 
of Perth, commits suicide in the Spa Hotel, 
Gloucester, by partaking of a bottle of laudanum 
while in a state of nervous excitement, induced 
partly by the sudden death of his mistress in 
childbirth. 

13 .—Died, aged 76, Sir William Cubitt, 
F.R.S., engineer. 

1 - 4 .—Burning of the stables attached to the 
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Twelve 
horses destroyed. 

— Russia declares Poland in a state of 
siege. 

18 . —William I. of Prussia and Queen Au¬ 
gusta crowned at Konigsberg. 

19 . —Massacre of British colonists (Mr. 
Wills and family), by aborigines, on the 
Comet River, Queensland. 

21 . —Canton restored by Britain to the 
Chinese. 

— The Federal army under General M'Clel- 
lan defeated by the Confederates at Ball’s 
Bluff. 

22 . —Shakspeare’s House and Garden pur¬ 
chased for the nation (through J. O. Halli- 
well) for 3,400/. In the auctioneer’s announce¬ 
ment the premises were described as “a 
convenient and highly desirable residence for 
a private family or professional gentleman, 
and presents an unusual opportunity for capi¬ 
talists, builders, and others, on account of 
its extensive frontage in the centre of the 
town.” 

23 . —Vincent Colucci tried at the Central 
Criminal Court, for obtaining money under 
false pretences from Miss Frederica Johnstone, 
a lady of considerable means, to whom he had 
been introduced as an artist. An intimacy 
sprung up between the parties, and a marriage 
was arranged between them, when the nu¬ 
merous solicitations for money opened the 
young lady’s eye to Colucci’s real character 
and position. To secure the return of her 
letters she offered to give him 2,000/., and 
handed him that amount (less 100/. which he 
had obtained before) at an interview which 
took place by appointment at the Pantheon, 
Oxford-street, on the 3d of August. The 







OCTOBER 


1861. 


NOVEMBER 


sealed parcel which he placed in her hands 
was found, on examination at home, to con¬ 
tain only one letter and a few old newspapers. 
Colucci was now sentenced to three years’ 
penal servitude. 

24 . —George and Frederick Clift sentenced 
to ten years’ penal servitude for feloniously 
setting fire to a dwelling-house and stable at 
Peckham, with intent to defraud the Globe 
Insurance Company, with whom a policy of 
2,800/. had been taken out. The Clifts repre¬ 
sented that the stable was a warehouse, and 
full of valuable quills, but an inspection 
of the premises when the fire broke out 
showed there was little or nothing in it, while 
from the dwelling-house the furniture had been 
entirely removed. George Clift was seen hurry¬ 
ing from the premises in a stealthy manner 
when the fire broke out. 

— Explosion in a powder-mill at Ballin- 
colig, near Cork, causing the death of five 
men. 

25 . —Died, at Netherby, aged 64, Sir 
James Graham, Bart., a statesman of high 
reputation in the House for eloquence and 
business ability, and long the trusted friend of 
the late Sir Robert Peel. 

— The foundation stones of two public 
buildings—the new Post Office, and an Indus¬ 
trial Museum—laid in Edinburgh by the Prince 
Consort, who, with the Queen and the rest of 
the Royal Family, passed the preceding night 
at Holy rood en route from Balmoral to 
Windsor. 

27 .—A detachment of French troops cross 
into the Swiss portion of the ValleedesDappes 
in consequence of the arrest of two French 
subjects at Ville-la-Grande. An international 
commission was appointed to settle the dis¬ 
pute, but separated without coming to any de¬ 
cision. The difficulty was ultimately arranged 
by a treaty concluded at Berne towards the 
close of the following year, in which, to provide 
against future embroilments, the frontiers of 
the valleys were more strictly defined than 
before. 

29 .—As indicating to some extent the feel¬ 
ing of the Cabinet towards America, the Duke 
of Argyll said to-day, at a dinner given by 
his tenantry, at Inverary: “Whatever we 
may think of the contest, in fairness to our 
American friends we ought to admit that no 
more tremendous issues were ever submitted to 
the dread arbitrament of war than those which 
are now submitted to it on the American con¬ 
tinent. I do not care whether we look at it 
from the Northern or from the Southern point 
of view. Take the mere question of what is 
called the right of secession. I know of no 
government which has ever existed in the 
world which could possibly have admitted the 
right of secession from its own allegiance. 
There is a curious animal in Loch Fyne which 
1 have sometimes dredged up from the bottom 
of the sea, and which performs the most extra¬ 


ordinary and unaccountable acts of suicide and 
self-destruction. It is a peculiar kind of star¬ 
fish, which, when brought up from the bottom 
of the water, and when any attempt is made to 
take hold of it, immediately throws off all its 
arms, its very centre breaks up, and nothing 
remains of one of the most beautiful forms in 
nature but a thousand wriggling fragments. 
Such, undoubtedly, would have been the fate 
of the American Union if its Government had 
admitted what is called the right of secession. 
Gentlemen, I think we ought to admit, in fair¬ 
ness to the Americans, that there are some 
things worth fighting for, and that national 
existence is one of them.” 

31 .—Opening of the Middle Temple Library 
by the Prince of Wales, who was made a Bencher 
on the occasion. His Royal Highness, at the 
close of a brief address, said : ‘ ‘ While heartily 
congratulating you on the completion of this 
great work, I venture to express a fervent hope 
that the students within its walls may largely 
profit by the advantages so wisely and liber¬ 
ally provided for them, and may successfully 
emulate the fame of their ancient predecessors.” 
The new Library was erected from designs by 
Mr. Abraham at a cost of 14,000/. The open¬ 
ing ceremony was followed by a service in the 
Temple Church, a dSjeuner in the hall, and a 
conversazione in the evening. 

— Convention concluded between Great 
Britain, France, and Spain, regarding Mexico, 
“feeling themselves compelled, by the arbi¬ 
trary and vexatious conduct of the authorities 
of the Republic, to demand from the autho¬ 
rities more efficacious protection, as well as a 
fulfilment of obligations contracted.” A joint 
expedition was afterwards despatched, Fiance 
and Spain sending 6,000 men, and Great 
Britain one line-of-battle ship, two frigates, 
and 700 supernumerary marines. 

November 1 . —The first investiture of the 
Most Exalted Order of the Star of India held 
by her Majesty at Windsor Castle. His High¬ 
ness the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, Lord 
Clyde, Sir John Lawrence, General Pollock, and 
Lord Harris were invested on the occasion. 

2 . —Severe storm on the east coast of Eng¬ 
land, destroying much shipping between Yar¬ 
mouth and Newcastle. The loss of life was 
also considerable, particularly in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Scarborough, where Lord Charles Beau- 
clerk and two others were crushed between the 
Spa-wall and their boat. 

4 .—Failure of the Bank of Deposit, a 
fraudulent joint-stock speculation, carried on 
nominally under a Board of Directors, but in 
reality by one manager, Peter Morrison. Com¬ 
mencing about seventeen years since with an 
available capital of 8,000/., the association 
continued its operations with daily and yearly 
losses—the amount in some years being more 
than equal to the whole capital received—and 
now the sum due to depositors amounted to 

( 6 * 3 ) 






NOVEMBER 


1861. 


NOVEMBER 


348,096/. The investments were found, in 
most instances, to “have no market value 
whatever.” 

8 .—Seizure of the Confederate Commis¬ 
sioners, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, on board 
the Trent , West India mail steamer. “ Shortly 
after noon,” writes Commander Williams, “ a 
steamer having the appearance of a man-of- 
war, but not showing colours, was observed 
ahead and hove to; we immediately hoisted our 
ensign at the peak, but it was not responded to 
until, on nearing her, at 1.15 P.M., she fired a 
round shot from her pivot-gun across our bows, 
and showed American colours. Our engines 
were immediately slowed, and we were still ap¬ 
proaching her when she discharged a shell from 
her pivot-gun immediately across our bows, 
exploding half a cable’s length ahead of us. 
We then stopped, when an officer with an 
armed guard of marines boarded us, and de¬ 
manded a list of the passengers, which demand 
being refused, the officer said he had orders to 
arrest Messrs. Mason, Slidell, McFarland, and 
Eustis, and that he had sure information of 
their being passengers in the Trent. Declin¬ 
ing to satisfy him whether such persons were on 
board or not, Mr. Slidell stepped forward, and 
announced that the four persons he had named 
were then standing before him, under British 
protection, and that if they were taken on board 
the San Jacinto , they must be taken vi et 
armis. The commander of the Trent and my¬ 
self at the same time protested against this 
illegal act—this act of piracy carried out by 
brute force, as we had no means of resisting 
the aggression, the San Jacinto being at the 
time on our port-beam, about 200 yards off, her 
ship’s company at quarters, ports open, and 
tampions out. Sufficient time being given 
for such necessaries as they might require being 
sent to them, these gentlemen were forcibly 
taken out of the ship ; and then a further de¬ 
mand was made that the commander of the 
Trent should go on board the San Jacinto , but 
as he expressed his determination not to go, 
unless forcibly compelled likewise, this latter 
demand was not carried into execution. At 
3.40 we parted company, and proceeded on our 
way to St. Thomas.” An additional formal 
affidavit was made by Commander Williams 
at the Admiralty, on the 27th, after the Trent 
reached Southampton. The excitement in the 
public mind at this wanton aggression on an 
unarmed vessel being very great, a Cabinet 
Council discussed the question on the 28th, and 
on the 30th Earl Russell wrote to Lord Lyons, 
the British Minister at Washington, “ that 
intelligence of a very grave nature had reached 
her Majesty’s Government.” After describing 
the nature of the outrage, the Foreign Secre¬ 
tary instructed Lord Lyons that her Majesty’s 
Government trust that when this matter shall 
have been brought under the consideration of 
the Government of the United States, that 
Government will, of its- own accord, offer to 
the British Government such redress as alone 
would satisfy the British nation,- namely, the 
toi4) 


liberation of the four gentlemen, and their de¬ 
livery to your Lordship, in order that they may 
again be placed under British protection, with 
a suitable apology for the aggression which 
has been committed.” Another despatch in¬ 
structed Lord Lyons that in the event of Mr. 
Seward asking for delay, “in order that this 
grave and painful matter should be delibe¬ 
rately considered, you will consent to a delay 
not exceeding seven days. If at the end of 
that time no answer is given, or if any other 
answer is given, except that of a compliance 
with the demands of her Majesty’s Government, 
your Lordship is to leave Washington with all 
the members of your Legation, bringing with 
you the archives of the Legation, and to repair 
immediately to London.” Remonstrances and 
advice were also sent to the American Govern¬ 
ment by the Courts of France, Austria, and 
Prussia. Earl Russell’s despatch was received 
by Lord Lyons between eleven and twelve 
p.m. on the 18th of December. On the 
afternoon of the following day he waited 
upon Mr. Seward, who was reported to have 
received the communication seriously, but 
without any manifestation of dissatisfaction. 
He asked till the following day to consider the 
matter, and consult with the President. On the 
26th he forwarded a despatch to Lord Lyons 
reviewing the transaction, and arguing the 
question at issue on the five following grounds: 
—(1) Were the persons named and their sup¬ 
posed despatches contraband of war ? (2) 

Might Captain Wilkes lawfully stop and search 
the Trent for these contraband persons and des¬ 
patches? (3) Did he exercise that right in a 
lawful and proper manner ? (4) Having found 
the contraband persons on board, and in pre¬ 
sumed possession of the contraband despatches, 
had he a right to capture the persons? (5) Did 
he exercise that right of capture in the manner 
observed and recognized by the law of nations ? 
These questions he answered in the affirma¬ 
tive so far as America was concerned, but 
admitted two special difficulties which beset 
his side of the case—the want, namely, of 
specific instruction by the commander of the 
San Jacinto from his Government, and his 
permitting the Trent itself to proceed on her 
voyage after he had satisfied himself that she 
was carrying contraband of war. On these 
grounds he consented to restore the Commis¬ 
sioners to the protection of the British Govern¬ 
ment. Lord Lyons forwarded Mr. Seward’s 
despatch on the 27th December, the important 
document reaching London on the 9th January. 
In acknowledging its receipt the following day, 
Earl Russell wrote, that he did not think it 
necessary at that time to discuss the question 
under the five heads suggested by Mr. Seward 
(this was done in a later despatch, of date 
January 23), but he remarked drily, that in the 
meantime “it will be desirable that the com¬ 
manders of the United States cruisers should be 
instructed not to repeat acts for which the 
British Government will have to ask for re¬ 
dress, and which the United States Govern- 







NOVEMBER 


i S6i. 


NOVEMBER 


ment cannot undertake to justify.” The 
Confederate Commissioners were placed on 
board a British war-ship, and arrived in this 
country, with their secretaries, on the 29th of 
January. Congress passed a vote of thanks to 
Captain Wilkes for his seizure, and he was 
otherwise honoured at various public meetings 
in the States. 

9 . —Died at Tunbridge Wells, aged 85, 
General Sir Howard Douglas, F.R.S. 

11. —Died at Lisbon, of typhus fever, aged 24, 
Pedro V., King of Portugal. Don Fernando 
and Prince John, his two brothers, died of the 
same malady, the former on the 6th November 
and the latter on the 22d December. 

12 . —At a dinner at Fishmongers’ Hall, Mr. 
Yancey, a Commissioner from the Confede¬ 
rate States, thus eulogized the South : “ Why 
should there not be peace ? Simply because the 
North will not admit that to be a fact, which 
old England, followed by the first Powers of 
Europe, has recognized, and which the Confe¬ 
derate Government and armies have repeatedly 
demonstrated to be a stem and bloody fact— 
the fact that we are a belligerent Power. 
There can be no basis for negotiations, or for 
peace proposals or consultations, so long as 
the Confederates are deemed to be and are 
treated as rebels. But when our adversary 
shall become sufficiently calm to treat us as a 
belligerent Power, the morning of peace will 
dawn in the horizon. When that hour shall 
arrive, I think I may say the Confederate 
Government will be inflexible upon one point 
only—its honour and its independence. For 
the great interests of peace and humanity it 
will yield much that is material or of secondary 
importance.” 

14 . —M. Achille Fould appointed by the 
Emperor Napoleon to the office of Minister of 
Finance. 

18 . —President Davis presents his first Mes¬ 
sage to the Confederate Congress, in which he 
reviewed the events of the year, and congra¬ 
tulated the South on the victories obtained 
at Bethel, Bull’s Run, Manassas, Springfield, 
Lexington, Leesburg, and Belmont. “If we 
husband our means,” he said, “and make a 
judicious use of our resources, it would be 
difficult to fix a limit to the period during 
which we could conduct a war against the 
adversary whom we now encounter. The very 
effort which he makes to isolate and invade us 
must exhaust his means, whilst they serve to 
complete and diversify the production of our 
industrial system. The. reconstruction which 
he seeks to effect by arms becomes daily more 
and more palpably impossible. Not only do 
the causes which induced us to separate 
still exist in full force, but they have been 
strengthened ; and whatever doubt may have 
lingered in the minds of any must have been 
completely dispelled by subsequent events.” 

19 . —The Nashville , Confederated States’ 
war-steamer, captures and burns the Harvey 


Birch , United States’ merchant-vessel, in the 
English Channel. 

20 —Died at Portree, Isle of Skye, aged 
76, Professor Necker, formerly of Geneva, 
mineralogist. 

21 . —The Molloy tragedy in Dublin; a 
waiter of that name making a murderous attack 
on his wife, and cutting the throats of two 
children, while in a state of great mental irri¬ 
tation, brought on, it was believed, by severe 
distress. 

22—Died at Lancing, Sussex, aged 64, 
Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, Radical M. P. for 
Finsbury. 

— The Confederate war-steamer Nashville 
arrives in Southampton harbour, having on 
board in irons the crew of the Federal mer¬ 
chantman Harvey Birch , which she had cap¬ 
tured and burnt. 

— Died at Sorreze, in the department of 
the Tam, aged 58, Father Henry Dominic 
Lacordaire, a distinguished Dominican preacher 
and political reformer. 

24 . —Fall of an old house in the High- 
street of Edinburgh. About ten minutes past 
one o’clock, this (Sunday) morning, when all 
the inmates were in bed, suddenly, and with¬ 
out any previous warning, the ancient tene¬ 
ment collapsed and fell in shapeless ruins upon 
its own base, some of the outer walls falling 
into the street, and others choking up the 
close at its side. Upwards of eighty persons 
were buried in the ruins. Amid great dangers 
from falling fragments the work of rescue was 
almost instantly commenced, and carried 
on eagerly over Sunday. About fifty were 
got out alive, some of them severely in¬ 
jured ; the remaining great company of 
sufferers were found to have been killed by 
falling beams and stones, or suffocated in the 
rubbish. Of those rescued, a considerable 
number were children. On the rebuilding of 
the premises a memorial tablet was inserted 
in the front, illustrating a touching incident in 
the disaster—the rescue of a boy who was heard 
to encourage the workers above his prison 
with the remark, “Dig away, lads, I’m no 
deid yet.” 

25 . —Chester Station Hotel destroyed by 
fire. 

26 . —The Italian Minister leaves Madrid in 
consequence of the refusal of the Spanish Go¬ 
vernment to restore the Neapolitan archives. 

27 . —Richard Reeve, a dissipated youth of 
18 years of age, found guilty, at the Central 
Criminal Court, of murdering his step-sister, 
aged 10, by hanging her in a cellar of their 
house in Drury-court. Being strongly recom¬ 
mended to mercy on account of his youth and 
the bad example set at home, the capital sen¬ 
tence was afterwards commuted to penal ser¬ 
vitude for life. 






NOVEMBER 


lS6l. 


DECEMBER 


28. —George Inkpen found guilty of mur¬ 
dering his sweetheart, Margaret Edmunds, in 
so far as he had aided and abetted her in the 
act of self-destruction by consenting to bind 
himself to her, that both might commit suicide 
together in the Surrey Canal. When they 
reached the banks of the canal, the young 
woman, who was alleged to be in a desponding 
state of mind, asked him if he had got a hand¬ 
kerchief with which they could tie themselves 
together, but when it was produced she thought 
it would not be long enough to go round 
them both. She then took from her pocket a 
piece of tape, and the prisoner took from his 
a boot-lace, with which they bound themselves 
tightly. Placing her arms on his neck, they 
flung themselves together into the canal. They 
turned over in the water two or three times, 
when either the lace or tape broke, and they 
were separated. The woman sunk at once, but 
the man rose to the surface, and reached the 
opposite bank of the canal, up which, though 
somewhat tipsy, he managed to crawl. In 
reply to questions now put by the judge, the 
jury said they believed the statement of the 
prisoner to be in every respect true, and that 
he had not been actuated in the slightest 
degree by malice. Sentence of death was 
passed, but not carried out. 

30.— Mr. Jefferson Davis elected President 
of the Confederate States, for six years. 

December 2. —Great fire at Antwerp, de¬ 
stroying the Entrepot and Belgian sugar refinery. 
Two firemen and eight assistants were killed 
by the falling in of the roof of the first-men¬ 
tioned building. 

— President Lincoln opens the 37th Con¬ 
gress of the United States. The appropria¬ 
tions asked for the service of the ensuing fiscal 
ear were computed for a force of 500,000 men. 
'he disaster of Bull’s Run was but “the 
natural consequence of the premature advance 
of our brave but undisciplined troops which 
the impatience of the country demanded. The 
betrayal, also, of our movements by traitors 
in our midst enabled the rebels to choose and 
intrench their position, and, by a reinforcement 
in great strength at the moment of victory, to 
snatch it from our grasp.” The President 
then referred to a method of blockades adopted 
at certain of the Southern ports, which created 
much indignation throughout Europe :—“ One 
method of blockading the ports of the insur¬ 
gent States and interdicting communication, 
as well as to prevent the egress of privateers 
which sought to depredate on our commerce, 
has been that of sinking in the channels vessels 
laden with stone. The first movement in this 
direction was on the North Carolina coast, 
where there are numerous inlets to Albemarle 
and Pamlico Sounds and other interior waters, 
which afforded facilities for eluding the block¬ 
ade, and also to the privateers. For this 
purpose a class of small vessels were purchased 
m Baltimore, some of which have been placed 
(616) 


in Ocracoke Inlet. Another and larger de¬ 
scription of vessels were bought in the Eastern 
market, most of them such as were formerly 
employed in the whale-fisheries. These were 
sent to obstruct the channels of Charleston 
harbour and of Savannah river; and this, if 
effectually done, will prove the most econo¬ 
mical and satisfactory method of interdicting 
commerce at those points. ” 

3 .—Died, in Park-square, Regent’s Park, 
aged 83, Sir Peter Laurie, for many years 
connected with the magistracy of the City of 
London. 

4—The Londonderry monument inaugu¬ 
rated at Seaham; the Duke of Cleveland, Mr. 
Disraeli, and Mr. Mowbray making speeches at 
the luncheon which followed in the Town Hall. 

— The United States Government refuse to 
join the allied European Powers in the attempt 
to restore order in Mexico. 

6—Came on for trial at the Chester Assizes 
the case of Jemima Morgan, or Thompson, a 
young woman of loose character, charged with 
murdering George Henry Davies, with whom 
she had been living for some weeks. The 
almost unprecedented circumstance that the 
unwilling survivor of two voluntary suicides 
should be tried for the murder of her less 
fortunate companion gave considerable interest 
to this case. On the 27th October last, while 
in a state of great depression, she agreed to 
commit suicide with Davies, and each procured 
for the other a quantity of laudanum which 
they had contrived to introduce into their 
lodgings. The prisoner alarmed the other 
inmates shortly after the dose had been par¬ 
taken of, and they were both conveyed to the 
infirmary. She rallied so far as to be able to 
appear at the police-court next day, but Davies 
gradually sunk, and expired the following 
morning. The jury acquitted the prisoner. 

8- —Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, destroying 
Torre del Greco, a city of 20,000 inhabitants, 
built on the slopes of the mountain towards 
the sea. About three o’clock in the afternoon 
a large opening was made in the ground above 
the town, and about half a mile below the 
crater of 1774. The first one was thrown up 
beneath some houses, which were blown up 
into the air. Some other ones were found, 
near the same place and on the top of the 
mountain. At two o’clock next morning the 
great crater burst out with tremendous noise, 
throwing stones and ashes to a great height. 
Streams of lava next began to descend the 
sides of the mountain, and, uniting together, 
flowed down in one vast glowing river on the 
city. The mountain continued in a state of 
agitation during this month. 

9 - —Died in Dublin, aged 53 years, John 
O‘Donovan, an Irish antiquarian of rare insight 
and accomplishments. 

11 . —Illness of the Prince Consort. An 
uneasy feeling was excited to-day by the pub- 







DECEMBER 


1861. 


DECEMBER 


lication of a bulletin announcing that “His 
Royal Highness is suffering from fever, unat¬ 
tended by unfavourable symptoms, but likely, 
from its symptoms, to continue for some 
time. ” 

12 —Thomas Jackson, aged 19, private in 
the 78th Regiment, sentenced to death at 
Winchester Assizes for shooting Sergeant John 
Dixon in the barracks at Aldershot. He con¬ 
fessed the crime, and only regretted that the shot 
did not bring down another of the company. 
He died on the gallows as he had lived in 
the barracks—hardened and unrepentant. 

14 .—Death of the Prince Consort. This 
sad and unexpected national calamity was 
announced in an Extraordinary Gazette in the 
following terms:—“Whitehall, Dec. 15. On 
Saturday night, the 14th inst., at ten minutes 
before eleven o’clock, his Royal Highness the 
Prince Consort departed this life at Windsor 
Castle, to the inexpressible grief of her Majesty 
and of all the Royal Family. The Queen, his 
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, their 
Royal Highnesses the Princess Alice and the 
Princess Helena, and their Serene Highnesses 
the Prince and Princess of Leiningen, were all 
present when his Royal Highness expired. The 
death of this illustrious Prince will be deeply 
mourned by all her Majesty’s faithful and 
attached subjects, as an irreparable loss to her 
Majesty, the Royal Family, and the nation.” 
The calamity was made known to the inha¬ 
bitants of the metropolis about midnight, by 
the tolling of the great bell of St. Paul’s ; 
and early on Sunday morning the telegraph 
spread the intelligence in time sufficient to 
permit reference being made to the calamity in 
most of the churches throughout the kingdom. 
The bulletins issued on the day of the Prince’s 
decease, showing the progress of the fever 
under which he suffered, were:—“9 A.M. 
His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has had 
a quieter night, and there is some mitigation of 
the severity of the symptoms.”—“ 10.40 a.m. 
There is a slight change for the better in the 
Prince this morning.”—“4.30 p.m. His Royal 
Highness the Prince Consort is in a most 
critical state.”—“Midnight. His Royal High¬ 
ness the Prince Consort became rapidly weaker 
during the evening, and expired, without suffer¬ 
ing, at ten minutes before eleven o’clock.” 
About four o’clock in the afternoon, it will be 
seen, a relapse took place, and the Prince, 
who, from the time of his severe seizure on 
Friday, had been sustained by stimulants, 
began gradually to sink. When the slight 
improvement took place in the morning, it was 
agreed by the medical men that, if the patient 
could be carried over one more night, his life 
would, in all probability, be saved. But the 
sudden failure of vital power which occurred 
in the afternoon frustrated these hopes. Con¬ 
gestion of the lungs, the result of complete 
exhaustion, set in; the Prince’s breathing 
became continually shorter and feebler, and 
he expired without pain. He was sensible, 
•and knew the Queen to the last. “Of the 


devotion and strength of mind,” writes the 
Times , “shown by the Princess Alice al 
through these trying scenes, it is impossible- 
to speak too highly. Her Royal Highness 
has indeed felt that it was her place to be 
a comfort and support to her mother in this 
affliction, and to her dutiful care we may 
perhaps owe it, that the Queen has borne her 
loss with exemplary resignation, and a com¬ 
posure which, under so sudden and so terrible a 
bereavement, could not have been anticipated.” 
After the death of the Prince, the Queen, 
when the first passionate burst of grief was 
over, called her children around her, and, with 
a coolness which gave proof of great natural 
energy, addressed them in solemn and affection¬ 
ate terms. Her Majesty declared to her family 
that, though she felt crushed by the loss of one 
who had been her companion through life, she 
knew how much was expected of her, and she 
accordingly called on her childi-en to give her 
their assistance, in order that she might do 
her duty to them and to the country.—The 
concern for her Majesty’s health, felt by all 
classes, was manifested by the interest taken 
in the daily bulletins. On Sunday, at noon, 
it was announced :—“The Queen, although 
overwhelmed with grief, bears her bereave¬ 
ment with coolness, and has not suffered in 
health.” On the 18th it was intimated :— 

‘ ‘ The Queen had several hours of undisturbed 
sleep last night, and is calmer this morning.” 
Addresses of condolence were forwarded from 
all parts of the kingdom ; but the sudden and 
terrible blow produced a commotion of feelings 
which almost forbade the use of the ordinary 
language of respect and sorrow. 

15 . —Dr. Staley consecrated Bishop of 
Honolulu, at Lambeth. 

16 . —Commission opened by the Court of 
Chancery, before Mr. Commissioner Warren, 
Q.C., to inquire into the sanity of William 
Frederick Windham, Esq., of Fellbrig Hall, 
Norfolk. The Court sat till the 30th of Janu¬ 
ary, thirty-four of the intervening days being 
occupied by the examination of about 150 wit¬ 
nesses, many of whom spoke to the habits of 
wild prodigality and debauchery indulged in 
by the subject of the inquiry. The jury found 
that he was of sound mind, and capable of 
managing himself and his affairs. 

17 . —William Beamish tried at Warwick 
Assizes for poisoning his wife. He attempted 
to avert the suspicion attached to him by pre¬ 
tending to have found in his wife’s dress a 
letter addressed to “Jane Stokes,” in which 
she admitted having taken the arsenic herself, 
and hoped that no one would be blamed for it. 
He was found guilty, and shortly before his 
execution made a formal confession of the 
crime, as also of forging the letter. 

— The Spanish portion of the allied expe¬ 
dition to Mexico lands at Vera Cruz, and after¬ 
wards occupied the fortress of St. John 
d’Ulloa. 

18 . —Henry Wells Young, a solicitor in 

(617) 







DECEMBER 


1861. 


DECEMBER 


•good practice, sentenced to twenty years’ penal 
servitude for defrauding the Bank of England 
by uttering forged documents to sell and trans¬ 
fer stock, amounting in the aggregate to 5,666/. 
The prisoner had been employed as the legal 
adviser of the persons in whose name the 
money stood in Consols, and thus became ac¬ 
quainted with the handwriting of the parties 
, and the particulars of their estate. 

18 . —At the York Assizes, James Waller, a 
notorious poacher, was sentenced to be executed 
for shooting a gamekeeper on the estate of Mr. 
Horsfall, Hawkeswaith Hall. 

19. —Fire at Winyard Hall, Durham, the 
residence of the Marchioness of Londonderry, 
destroying the chapel and the entire west 
wing, 

20 . —At the Stafford Assizes, Brandrick, 
Jones, and Maddox, with four others, were 
tried for the murder of John Bagott at Bilston, 
on the 29th September. The victim in this case 
was a tailor and draper of eccentric habits, 
who was known to keep a considerable sum of 
money secreted about his house, and on the 
night in question was noticed to have been 
carried home drunk. The premises were 
broken into and plundered, and Bagott was 
found with his head lying over the fender, 
suffocated or “ burked ” by the application of a 
sooty hand to the mouth. Four men of loose 
character were apprehended on suspicion, but 
the discovery of a portion of the missing pro¬ 
perty in the hands of the three mentioned above 
led to the apprehension of the actual perpe¬ 
trators of the crime. Brandrick, a determined 
criminal, was executed ; but the lives of the 
other two were spared. 

— Earl Russell writes to Lord Lyons at 
Washington, urging him to remonstrate with 
the United States Government regarding the 
sinking of vessels in Charleston harbour. 
“ Even as a scheme of embittered and san¬ 
guinary war, such a measure is not justifiable. 
It is a plot against the commerce of nations 
and the free intercourse of the Southern States 
of America with the civilized world. It is a 
project worthy only of times^of barbarism. ” 

22.—This being the first Sunday after the 
promulgation of the news of the Prince Con¬ 
sort’s death, the services in most of the churches 
throughout the kingdom made special reference 
to that calamity. Mr. Garden, the sub-dean, 
officiated at the Chapel Royal, at Whitehall, 
which was draped in black throughout; Dean 
Trench, at Westminster ; and DeanMilman, at 
St. Paul’s. Dean Milman embodied the feelings 
of all classes of her Majesty’s subjects inasermon 
of touching simplicity and beauty. “ From the 
highest to the lowest,” he said, “ it was felt that 
a great example had been removed from among 
us—an example of the highest and the humblest 
duties equally fulfilled—of the household and 
every-day virtues of the husband and father, 
practised in a quiet and unostentatious way, 
without effort or aid, as it were, by the spon- 
(61S) 


I 

I taneous workings of a true and generous nature. 
To be not only blameless, but more than blame¬ 
less, in those relations was not too common in 
such high positions. But his duties to the 
Queen’s subjects, as well as to the Queen—his 
duties to the great English family dispersed 
throughout all the world, as well as to the 
young family within the chambers of the Palace 
—were discharged with calm thought and silent 
assiduity. No waste of time in frivolous amuse¬ 
ment, in vain pomp and glory, but usefulness in 
its highest sense : schemes of benevolence pro¬ 
moted ; plans for the education of the people sug¬ 
gested and fostered with prudent and far-seeing 
counsel, and with profound personal interest; 
great movements for the improvement of all 
branches of national industry, if not set on foot, 
maintained with a steady and persevering im¬ 
pulse—in short, notwithstanding foreign birth 
and education, a full and perfect identification 
of himself with English interests, English 
character, English social advancement. All 
these things had sunk gradually, if not slowly, 
into the national mind. He was ours, not 
merely by adoption, but as it were by a second 
nature. ” 

23 . —Proclamation made at Jassy and 
Bucharest, that the Danubian Principalities of 
Moldavia and Wallachia were now united into 
one state, under the title of Roumania. The 
first meeting of the united elective assembly 
was held early in February following, when 
Prince Alexander John Couza declared that 
Roumania should for ever continue an inde¬ 
pendent State. 

— Funeral of the Prince Consort, in St. 
George’s Chapel, Windsor. The ceremony, 
though sufficiently stately, was almost private, 
only the Princes, a few of the highest digni¬ 
taries of the realm, and the Royal household 
being included in the cortege. Throughout the 
kingdom, the people marked their sense of 
their Sovereign’s grief by a general abstinence 
from business, the shops being closed in 
London and most of the provincial towns, the 
churches draped in black, and the “ decent 
mourning ” ordered by the Lord Chamberlain 
almost universal. 

— In view of the threatened Federal aggres¬ 
sion on British territory in America, troops are 
despatched to-day to strengthen the Canadian 
garrisons on the frontier-line. 

24 . —Capt. Maury, the eminent American 
meteorologist, resigns his post at the Washing¬ 
ton Observatory, and writes to Admiral Fitzroy 
a letter explanatory of his motives for doing 
so and joining the Confederate army. 

29 .—H.M.S. Conqueror , 100 guns, wrecked 
on a coral reef during the voyage from Port 
Royal to Bermuda. The armaments, stores, 
and a portion of the machinery were landed 
on the island known as Rum Cay, but the ship 
itself, considered the pride of the navy, was 
ground to pieces on the rock. 





JANUARY 


1862, 


JANUARY 


1862 

January 1 .— German is substituted for the 
French language in Prussian diplomatic des¬ 
patches. 

— The French clergy reminded of their 
duty “towards Caesar,” by the Emperor Napo¬ 
leon. 

3 .—The blockade of the Confederate ports 
having cut off, in a great measure, the supply 
of cotton to this country, meetings are held this 
day at Wigan, Blackburn, Preston, and some 
other towns in Lancashire to devise measures 
for the relief of the distressed operatives. A 
Central Relief Committee was established at 
Manchester in April. 

7. —The Anglo-French portion of the allied 
expedition against Mexico arrives at Vera 
Cruz. 

8. —Public anxiety set at rest by receipt per 
Europa of news that the American Govern¬ 
ment had resolved to release Messrs. Slidell 
and Mason. The Europa arrived off Queens¬ 
town on the 6th. The journey from Cork to 
Dublin, 166 miles, occupied 4 hours 3 minutes ; 
Kingstown to Holyhead, 3 hours 17 minutes ; 
Holyhead to London, 264 miles, 5 hours. Not¬ 
withstanding that the condition of the money 
market was such that in the morning the 
Bank of England had reduced the rate of dis¬ 
count from 3 to 2\ per cent., the Funds re¬ 
ceived a sensible impulse. Bargains were made 
“after hours,” at a rise of 4 P er cent., and 
in the morning there was a further advance of 
§ per cent. The highest price at which 
Consols were quoted, on the 9th, was 93!,— 
or 3^ per cent, higher than the point to which 
they had fallen during the interval of suspense 
and anxiety. The released Commissioners 
arrived at Southampton on the 29th by the 
La Plata. 

9. —The Federal sloop-of-war Tuscarora 
anchors in Southampton water to watch the 
Nashville cruiser, which had arrived there for 
repairs with the crew of the captured Harvey 
Birch on board. The decision of our Govern¬ 
ment to let twenty-four hours elapse between 
the sailings of the vessels enabled the Nashville 
to elude her watchful foe, and she afterwards 
committed considerable damage among Federal 
merchantmen. She was, at length, chased 
into Gibraltar, where she disarmed and passed 
into the merchant service. 

10. —The Commissioners of the Allied 
Powers, England, France, and Spain, issue a 
joint proclamation to the Mexicans, warning 
them of the danger certain to follow from their 
present lawless proceedings. “To you ex¬ 
clusively,” they said, “ without the intervention 
of foreigners, belongs the task of constituting 
yourself in a permanent and stable manner. 
Your labour will be the labour of regeneration, 
which all will respect, for all will have con¬ 
tributed to it. The evil is great—the remedy 
urgent.” 


14 -.—The pythoness in the Zoological Gar¬ 
dens lays about 100 eggs, the whole of which 
were addled in the cold occasioned by the 
absence of the creature when casting its skin. 
She abstained from food for the long period of 
thirty-two weeks. 

— Meeting at the Mansion House to orga¬ 
nize measures for raising a national memorial to 
the PTince Consort. 

16 . — Great calamity at Hartley Colliery, 
near Newcastle-on-Tyne. About half-past 
10 a.m., when the whole of the works were 
in full operation, the huge iron beam con¬ 
nected with the pumping apparatus suddenly 
snapped asunder, and the entire gearing, weigh¬ 
ing over twenty tons, fell down the shaft, 
carrying away in its descent stages, props, and 
lining. There were then 199 men employed 
in the workings, and five coming up the shaft 
to the pit-mouth. The mass of falling material 
became entangled in the lining before it 
reached the bottom, and in one or two places 
the sides collapsed, shutting off all communica¬ 
tion with the unfortunate workmen below. 
For seven days and nights the most heroic 
efforts were made to reach the sufferers, but 
without effect, though at times the communica¬ 
tion was so near that they could be heard work¬ 
ing their way through the obstruction, and even 
signalling to those above. From the time the 
beam broke the water was known to be 
rushing into the workings at the rate of 1,500 
gallons per minute. A “ stythe ” also began 
to accumulate in the pit, poisoning those im¬ 
prisoned below, and interfering greatly with 
the clearing operations above. On the morn¬ 
ing of the 20th the remains of the five killed 
in the shaft were brought up from the “ high 
seam,” and conveyed to their families. The 
“ yard seam,” w'here most of the men had 
taken refuge, was not reached till the 22d, 
when the whole of them were found to have 
been suffocated by the stythe, to all appearance 
two or three days before. They were lying in 
rows on each side, all quiet and placid as if 
sleeping off a heavy day’s work. Boys were 
lying with their heads on the shoulders of their 
fathers, and one poor fellow had his arm 
clasped round the neck of his brother. In a 
book, taken from the pocket of the overman, 
was found a memorandum dated “Friday 
afternoon (17th), half-past 2 o’clock. —Edward 
Armstrong, Thomas Gledson, John Hardie, 
Thomas Bell, and others took extremely ill. 
We had also a prayer-meeting at a quarter to 
2, when Tibbs, H. Sharp, J. Campbell, H. 
Gibson, and William Palmer-(sentence in¬ 

complete). Tibbs exhorted to us again, and 
Sharp also.” Others had scratched messages 
to their families on their flasks, boxes, and 
whatever could carry an inscription. The 
pit-mouth, w’here for days the relatives had 
watched in eager hopefulness the work of 
excavation, was now crowded with grief- 
stricken widows and orphans, who followed the 
bodies to their homes as they were brought up. 

.619) 









JANUARY 


1862. 


FEBRUARY 


So comprehensive was the calamity, that of the 
entire male population of three pit-hamlets 
only twenty-five were not employed at the 
time of the accident. Almost every cottage 
had a coffin, some two, one five, and another 
poor woman no less than seven, containing the 
remains of a husband, five sons, and a boy 
whom they had brought up and educated. 
The funerals, in most instances, took place on 
Sunday, the relatives following the’coffins to 
the graves, singing with mournful tenderness 
the hymn, “O God, our help in ages past” 
The calamity excited universal sympathy. The 
Queen, with her own deep sorrow fresh upon 
her, caused repeated telegraphic messages to 
be sent to her at Osborne. “ The Queen ” (so 
ran the first) “is most anxious to hear that there 
are hopes of saving the poor people in the 
colliery, for whom her heart bleeds.” On the 
23d her Majesty commanded Col. Phipps to 
write :—“ Her tenderest sympathy is with the 
poor widows and mothers, and her own misery 
only makes her feel the more for them. Her 
Majesty hopes that everything will be done as 
far as possible to alleviate their distress, and 
her Majesty will have a sad satisfaction in 
assisting in such a measure. ” The subscription 
in aid of the widows, orphans, and other 
relatives, reached the large sum of 81,000/., 
one-fourth of which Was collected by the Lord 
Mayor at the Mansion House. 

18 .—First meeting of the new Legislative 
Council for India. 

25 .—Commenced before the Supreme Court 
of Bombay the great Maharaj libel case, 
which for months back had excited intense 
interest in all religious circles, native and 
European, throughout the Presidency. The 
defendant, who seemed to be a member of 
the Soodhar Lele, or Reforming party of the 
natives, and edited the Satya Prdkash , a 
Gujarati newspaper, disclosed in one of his 
articles the indecent and immoral practices of 
the Vallabhacliaryan gurus, and accused the 
plaintiff (one of these gurus) of adulterous 
intercourse with his female disciples. The 
plaintiff complained that these charges were 
false and malicious, and injuriously affected 
him in his individual character as a member of 
society, as a Brahmin, as a Maharaj, as a 
Hindoo priest, and as a member of the sect of 
Vallabhacharya. The defendant pleaded not 
guilty, and, secondly, that the charges made 
in the publication were true. This latter 
plea was of great length, and set out various 
points of doctrines from books alleged to be 
of religious authority in the sect, and relied 
upon them as justifying the publication. It 
also put in issue various facts and circum¬ 
stances in proof of the evil reputation of the 
Maharajas as a body for immorality ; and it 
finally charged specific acts of immorality 
committed by the plaintiff as part of his 
religious system, and in the presence of various 
witnesses produced in court. The trial lasted 
many days, and occasioned an elaborate 
'626) 


summing up on the part of the judge, Sir 
Joseph Arnould, who also expressed the 
obligations the community were under to the 
defendant for exposing the shocking immo¬ 
rality which had been elevated to the rank 
of a religion. On the technical plea of not 
guilty, 5 rs. damage was awarded to the plain¬ 
tiff, but the defendant was acquitted of the 
higher charges of defamation and libel, and had 
awarded to him the costs of defence. 

26 .—A Ministry of Marine established in 
Austria under the direction of Count Wicken 
bourg. 

— Died, at his residence, Bloomsbury-square, 
aged 82, Rev. Thomas Hartwell Home, Bib¬ 
lical critic. 

February 1 . —Treaty signed at Paris be¬ 
tween France and the Prince of Monaco, for 
the cession of Mentone and Roquebrune to 
France. 

3 —Died, aged 88, Jean Baptiste Biot, a 
French mathematician and natural philosopher, 
discoverer of the circular polarization of light. 

6 .—Parliament opened by commission. 
The Royal Speech, as was to be expected, 
made tender reference to the affliction in 
which her Majesty was involved by the 
calamitous, untimely, and irreparable loss of 
the Prince Consort. “It has been, however, 
soothing to her Majesty, while suffering most 
acutely under this awful dispensation of Pro¬ 
vidence, to receive from all classes of her sub¬ 
jects the most cordial assurance of their 
sympathy with her sorrow, as well as their 
appreciation of the noble character of him, 
the greatness of whose loss to her Majesty and 
to the nation is so justly and so universally 
felt and lamented.” The Speech also referred 
to the satisfactory settlement of our difference 
with the United States regarding the seizure 
of the Confederate Commissioners, and to the 
Convention concluded with France for the 
purpose of obtaining from Mexico a redress for 
grievances inflicted on foreign residents within 
that country. Measures were also promised 
relating to the improvement of the law, and 
the simplification of title in land. 

— The Prince of Wales (travelling as Baron 
Renfrew) leaves England for a tour in the East, 
accompanied by General Bruce, the Rev. A. P. 
Stanley, and others. Alexandria was reached 
on the 1st March ; the Pyramids, on the 5th ; 
Thebes, on the 15 th ; Jaffa, on the 28th ; and 
Jerusalem, on the 31st March. On Monday, 
the 7th April, the Prince and a small suite 
were permitted as a mark of unparalleled 
favour, to enter the tombs of the patriarchs 
at Hebron. At Mount Gerizim the party 
witnessed the celebration of the Samaritan 
Passover; and on Easter-day, on the shores 
of the Sea of Galilee, Holy Communion was 
celebrated by Dr. Stanley. After spending 
several weeks in Syria, a homeward route was 
taken by way of Smyrna, Constantinople, 
Athens, Cephalonia, and Malta. On the even- 








FEBRUARY 


I862. 


FEBRUARY 


ing of the 4th of June his Royal Highness 
reached Windsor Castle. 

6.—Fort Henry, Tennessee, captured by the 
American Federals. Fort Donnelson, in the 
same State, was taken a few days later; and 
the City of Nashville on the 25th. 

11 . —This morning the water in the disused 
Hendre mines, near Mold, Flintshire, broke 
into the adjoining Bryn Gwiog lead mines, 
and drowned sixteen of the workmen, only one 
of the whole employed succeeding in escaping 
by a rope up the shaft. 

13 .—The Revised Education Code intro¬ 
duced into the House of Lords by Earl Gran¬ 
ville, and to the Commons by Mr. Lowe. 
Adverting to the cry raised against the new 
Minutes by the clergy and teachers, Earl 
Granville explained that he did not make the 
slightest technical alteration in the old system 
of religious teaching: and as to the blow struck 
at training colleges, he admitted it was sudden 
and severe ; but the assistance granted to these 
establishments averaged no less than 68 per 
cent, of the whole expense, showing how little 
voluntary efforts were excited by such large 
grants.—Agreeing with the Royal Commis¬ 
sioners that it would not be right to inter¬ 
fere with the foundation of the existing mode 
of administering the grant, Mr. Lowe said the 
Committee of Council had come to the con¬ 
clusion that the system of appropriated grants 
should be abolished, and capitation grants 
substituted—infants under six years being 
entitled to capitation without examination. 
He entered very fully into the question of the 
claims of the schoolmasters, which in their 
integrity, he maintained, had no foundation in 
principle or justice, but explained the length 
Government would go, under the circum¬ 
stances, to meet those claims. 

19.—Explosion in the Cethin Colliery, near 
Merthyr Tydvil, causing the death of forty-nine 
workmen, employed in what was known as 
the “ four-foot ” seam. About 200 engaged in 
other workings were rescued. The whole 
country was agitated by wailing and woe, and 
in the villages and on mountain-sides were to 
be seen groups of miners repeating the tragic 
tale with the violence and pathos of Welsh 
eloquence. The sufferers were interred with 
romantic solemnity in the wild cemetery of 
Cefn. 

— The Queen causes Sir Charles Grey to 
write to the committee of the Prince Consort 
Memorial Fund “ It would be more in ac¬ 
cordance with her Majesty’s feelings, and, she 
believes, with those of the country in general, 
that the monument should be directly personal 
in its object. After giving the subject her 
maturest consideration, her Majesty has come 
to the conclusion, that nothing would be more 
appropriate, provided that it is on a scale of 
sufficient grandeur, than an obelisk to be erected 
in. Hyde Park, on the site of the Great Exhi¬ 
bition of 1851, or on some spot immediately 


contiguous to it. Nor would any proposal 
that could be made be more gratifying to the 
Queen herself personally ; for she can never 
forget that the Prince himself had highly ap¬ 
proved of the idea of a memorial of this 
character being raised on the same spot in re¬ 
membrance of the Great Exhibition.” In 
a second letter the Queen expressed her in¬ 
tention of personally contributing towards 
erecting the memorial, that “it might be re¬ 
corded in future ages as raised by the Queen 
and people of a grateful country to the memory 
of its benefactor.” 

22 .—The newly-elected Confederate Presi¬ 
dent, Jefferson Davis, delivers an inaugural 
address at Richmond, in which he describes 
the past year as one of the most eventful in the 
annals of the American continent, a new Go¬ 
vernment having been established, and its 
machinery put in operation over an area ex¬ 
ceeding 700,000 square miles. 

24 .—At the Carlisle Assizes, William 
Charlton, engine-driver on the Newcastle and 
Carlisle Railway, was found guilty of the 
murder of Jane Emmerson, an old woman who 
took charge of a level crossing on the line at 
Durran Hill, near Carlisle. The motive for 
murder in the case appeared to be robbery, 
7/. being stolen from the house, besides some 
sheets, three spoons, and a ring. The chief 
circumstance relied on by the prosecution was 
the correspondence of the prisoner’s shoe with 
a footmark left in the congealed blood. There 
were two peculiar circular marks on the toe, 
which the prisoner had endeavoured to efface 
by drawing the nails, but close examination 
showed that the holes corresponded, and the 
nails themselves were found hidden close by 
the prisoner’s house. It was also established 
that he knew the habits of the deceased, had 
ample opportunities for committing the crime, 
and was seen in the neighbourhood on the 
night of the murder. In returning their ver¬ 
dict, the jury recommended Charlton to mercy 
on the ground of his previous good conduct, but 
the Home Secretary declined to interfere, and 
the sentence was duly carried out, the prisoner 
setting all doubt about his guilt at rest by 
making a full confession. 

— Stormy debates in the French Senate. 
The Marquis de Boissy said it was not France 
but England which gained most by the last 
Italian wars. “There is one thing,” he said, 

‘ ‘ I regret; it is this, that the money spent in 
these wars was not differently employed. We 
could with much more advantage have gone 
to London; and we would have had the 
advantage of going with a friendly nation, 
instead of going to Sebastapol with one who 
is our ally in name, though in point of fact 
our enemy in every circumstance; and as 
dangerous, if not more so, under the name 
of ally, as under that of enemy. ” 

25 .—Sir Robert Peel having, in reply to cer¬ 
tain remarks made by the O’Donoghue at a 
meeting in Dublin, described him as a manikin 

(621) 










FEB ROAR 1 


1862. 


MARCH 


traitor devoid of respectability, is challenged 
to fight through Major Gavin, M.P. for 
Limerick. By the Premier’s advice the 
“second” was referred to him, and he brought 
the matter before the House to-night, as a 
violation of the privilege of speech—a step 
which had the desired effect of preventing any 
breach of the peace. 

27 . —Prince Napoleon attacked the Marquis 
de Larochejaquelin as the author of the 
programme of a counter-revolution. “ I look 
upon the Empire,” he said, “as due to the 
well-understood principles of revolution. To 
me the Empire signifies the glory of France 
abroad, the destruction of the treaties of 1815 
within the limits and the resources of France, 
and the unity of Italy, which we have contri¬ 
buted to free. At home the glory of France is 
in the preservation of order by a complete 
system of wise and real liberties, comprising 
the liberty of the press, and unlimited popular 
instruction, without religious congregations, and 
without institutions which would impose upon 
us a return to the bigotry of the Middle Ages.” 

28 . —Exposure , of the Threepwood conspi¬ 
racy. On 5th March last, William Bewicke 
was sentenced at Newcastle Assizes to four 
years’ penal servitude for the imputed offence 
of firing a loaded rifle at two sheriff officers 
with whom he had an altercation concerning a 
distress-warrant issued against him as owner of 
Threepwood Hall. The shot was alleged to 
have been fired from the window of a small 
water-closet, and a piece of flattened lead was 
produced as one of the bullets used on the 
occasion. Important evidence in defence com¬ 
ing to light after the trial, the two officers, 
with an assistant, a witness on the first trial, 
were now put in the dock charged with con¬ 
spiracy. After a trial, which occupied the. 
entire day, the jury returned a verdict of Guilty 
against the two officers, Dodd and Hutchinson, 
and next day the assistant Dalgleish pleaded 
guilty to the charge contained in the indict¬ 
ment. 

March 1.—The Tae-ping attack on Shang¬ 
hai repulsed by an Imperial and Anglo-French 
force. 

— Lord Elgin arrives at Calcutta as Gover¬ 
nor-General of India. He was installed into 
office on the 12th ; Earl Canning leaving India 
six days later. 

8.—The United States’ steamship Merrimac 
(seized by the Confederates and christened the 
Virginia) steams out of port to attack the 
Federal squadron in Hampton Roads. The 
engagement commenced at 3 P. M. , and within 
an hour she had sunk the Cumberland, cap¬ 
tured and burnt the Congress, disabled and 
driven the Minnesota ashore, and defeated the 
St. Lawrence and Roanoke, which sought shelter 
under the guns of Fortress Monroe. Two 
small steamers were also blown up, and two 
transports captured. The Cumberland went 
down with all hands on board, her tops only 
(622) 


remaining above water, lut many of her 
people weie saved by boats from the shore. 
Next day the Federal iron-clad ship-of-war 
Monitor arrived from New York, and engaged 
the Virginia. Both vessels separated after a 
short contest without any decisive result, and 
went into port to repair damages. 

9.—The Ocean Monarch, 2,199 tons, which 
left New York for Liverpool on the 5 th, laden 
with provisions, founders in a gale. Twenty-two 
of the crew abandoned the vessel, and they, 
as well as three left on board, were rescued by, 
a passing schooner. 

11 . — Mr. Horsfall introduces, but with¬ 
draws after a debate, a resolution declaring 

• that “the present state of international mari¬ 
time law, as affecting the rights of belligerents 
and neutrals, is ill-defined and unsatisfactory, 
and calls for the early attention of her Majesty’s 
Government. ” 

— Mr. Walpole lays on the table of the 
House of Commons a series of eleven resolu¬ 
tions condemning the Revised Education Code 
introduced by Government. The discussion 
commenced on the 24th, and ended in the 
Government modifying their scheme to meet 
the wishes of the House, and promising that in 
future any alteration contemplated in the Code 
would be laid for one month before Parliament 
previous to coming into operation. 

— The Prussian Chambers dissolved, on ac¬ 
count of their resistance to the military ex¬ 
penditure of the Government. 

12 . —The shop of Dodds Brothers, jewellers, 
Cornhill, entered by burglars during the night, 
and property carried off to the value of 3,000/. 
Suspicion was directed against the shop porter 
as an accomplice, and he was at once arrested 
and committed for trial. 

— Mr. George Peabody, American mer¬ 
chant in London, announces the munificent 
gift of 100,000/. to the poor of the metro¬ 
polis. “I have,” he wrote to the trustees, 
“few instructions to give or conditions to im¬ 
pose, but there are some fundamental prin¬ 
ciples from which it is my solemn injunction 
that those entrusted with its application shall 
never, under any circumstances, depart. First 
and foremost among them is the limitation of 
its uses, absolutely and exclusively, to such 
purposes as may be calculated directly to ame¬ 
liorate the condition and augment the comforts 
of the poor who, either by birth or established 
residence, form a recognized portion of the 
population of London. Secondly, it is my in¬ 
tention that now, and for all times, there shall 
be a rigid exclusion from the management of 
this fund of any influences calculated to im¬ 
part to it a character either sectarian as re¬ 
gards religion, or exclusive in relation to local 
or party politics.” Without seeking to limit 
the discretion of the trustees, the donor sug¬ 
gested that at least a portion of the fund 
might be applied to the construction of such 
improved dwellings for the poor as would 









MARCH 


1 85 ?. 


MARCH 


combine in the utmost possible degree the essen¬ 
tials of hcalthfulness, comfort, social enjoy¬ 
ment, and economy. 

14 .—At the Stafford Assizes, the Rev. 
Horatio Samuel Fletcher, incumbent of St. 
Leonard’s, Bilston, and a magistrate for the 
county, was found guilty, under the Fraudulent 
Trustees Act, of feloniously appropriating 
various sums of money which came into his 
hands as Secretary to the Bilston Savings 
Bank. From the evidence it appeared that 
the entire management of the Institution had 
lapsed into the hands of the reverend gentle¬ 
man, who acted as secretary, treasurer, and 
trustee. A defence was set up that the pri¬ 
soner was not a trustee within the meaning 
of the Fraudulent Trustees Act,—“a trustee 
for public purposes,” or “a trustee for depo¬ 
sitors,” or “a trustee under an express trust 
created by an instrument in writing.” The 
points were left for the decision of the Court 
for Crown cases reserved. 

17 . —Thompson, a grinder, tried at the 
Sheffield Assizes, for a trade-outrage committed 
in a house in Acorn-street, on the 23d No¬ 
vember last; the dwelling was set on fire by 
an explosive charge thrown in at the window. 
One inmate, a woman named O’Rourke, was 
burnt to death, and another blinded. Evidence 
was adduced to show that the prisoner was 
one of the most violent of the “ turn-outs ; ” 
that he had been heard to threaten Wasney, 
who lived in O’Rourke’s house; that he had 
purchased a case at one place, and explosive 
powder at another, shortly before the outrage 
was committed ; and that he was one of two per¬ 
sons seen running away from the house when 
the case was thrown in. The jury, however, 
thought the evidence insufficient, and returned 
a verdict of Not Guilty. The following day 
three other grinders were charged with blowing 
up a nailmaker’s shop at Thorpe, near Rother¬ 
ham ; and though the alibi pleaded in defence 
on this occasion was unusually well supported, 
the jury found all guilty, and Mr. Justice 
Mellor sentenced them to fourteen years’ penal 
servitude. They afterwards received a free 
pardon. 

18 . —Encounter in the House of Lords be¬ 
tween the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chelms¬ 
ford, in a discussion concerning those officials 
of the late Insolvent Court who had been de¬ 
prived of their retiring allowance through an 
omission in the new Bankruptcy Act. The 
Lord Chancellor, being charged with negligence, 
insincerity, and tyranny, retaliated by accusing 
his assailant of personal dislikes, and of being 
for weeks together in daily confidential inter¬ 
course with him, without hinting in the slightest 
degree that it was his intention to assail him 
with a series of charges which were entirely 
founded on perversions of fact. It will,” said 
the Lord Chancellor, “ be a lesson to me for 
tbe future with whom I engage in confidential 
intercourse.” Lord Derby protested against 
such language as undignified and undeserved, 


and was followed by Earl Granville arid Earl 
Russel.', who each defended the Government. 
There was an unusually large attendance in 
the House to-night, many of those present being 
ladies. 

22 . —Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean presented 
with a service of silver plate subscribed for by 
Etonians “ as a tribute to the genius of a great 
actor, and in recognition of his unremitting 
efforts to improve the tone and elevate the 
character of the British stage. ” The Chancellor 
of the Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) acted as 
spokesman for the donors. 

23 . —Campden House, Kensington, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. This interesting relic of 
former times was built by Sir Baptist Hickes, 
a wealthy silk-mercer of Cheapside, founder of 
Hickes’ Hall, and afterwards created Viscount 
Campden by James I. The mansion was 
occupied by a Mr. Woolley, who had spent 
large sums in restoring it and furnishing it 
with rare examples of art, particularly in carv¬ 
ing and tapestry. Nothing was saved. (See 
Sept. 29, 1863.) 

— Died, at St. Petersburg, in his 93d year, 
Charles Robert Count von Nesselrode, Chan¬ 
cellor of the Empire, and chief among the 
diplomatists at the court of Czars Alexander 
and Nicholas. 

26 .—Came on for hearing at Warwick Lent 
Assizes, before Lord Justice Cockburn and a 
jury, the case of Kennedy v. Broun and wife, 
being a civil action raised to recover the sum 
of 20,000/. from the successful litigant in the 
Swinfen estate case, in accordance with a 
promise made, for services rendered by her 
solicitor and advocate, Charles Rann Kennedy. 
The connexion of the plaintiff with Mrs. 
Broun (formerly Swinfen) appeared to have 
commenced in May 1856, at a time when her 
objections to the compromise which had been 
effected in her behalf were notorious. From 
that time up to the latter part of 1861, when 
she married the plaintiff, Mr. Broun—a pro¬ 
ceeding which caused the final rupture—Mr. 
Kennedy appeared to have acted in all the 
proceedings above mentioned as her leading 
legal adviser and counsel, and to have devoted 
himself with great energy to her interests. 
According to the statement of Mrs. Broun, 
the action against Lord Chelmsford (see July 4, 
1859) was brought in express contradiction to 
her wishes, and solely through the advice of Mr. 
Kennedy. He was paid from time to time 
various sums for fees, but great ambiguity 
seemed to prevail as to the relation in which 
he stood towards Mrs. Broun with respect to 
remuneration. She asserted that he had 
undertaken her cause solely from motives of 
friendship, and with no other prospect of 
reward but what might be the result of her 
success. Mr. Kennedy, in consequence, as 
he asserted, of his great devotion to her in¬ 
terests, was reduced to very low circumstances, 
and became desirous of having some sect r'ty 
for the sum in which he considered Mrs. Broun 

<623) 






MARCH 


1862. 


APRIL 


to be indebted. With this view, in May 
1859 he wrote to her at Swinfen Hall, de¬ 
siring her to come up to London and see 
him, as he wished to communicate with her 
as to obtaining a seat in Parliament. She 
accordingly came, and was conducted by him 
to her lodgings. On the next day she took 
a walk with him to the Zoological Gardens, 
and whilst seated on a bench in that place of 
recreation promised to execute a deed con¬ 
veying to him the reversionary interest in the 
Swinfen Hall estates, expectant on her decease. 
In accordance with this promise, Mr. Kennedy 
drew a deed and caused it to be engrossed. 
The effect of this deed was to reserve a life- 
estate in Swinfen Hall estates to Mrs. Broun, 
and, subject to such life-interest, to convey the 
estate in fee-simple to Mr. Kennedy. No 
right of cutting timber, nor any power of 
leasing, was reserved to Mrs. Broun. Previous 
to the promise above mentioned, Mr. Kennedy 
had asked her whether she did not consider 
herself indebted to him to the extent of 
20,000/., and she answered in the affirmative. 
Mrs. Broun was afterwards taken by Mr. 
Kennedy to the office, of Mr. Collis, who had 
been her solicitor in the action against Lord 
Chelmsford, and who appears to have been 
an old friend of Mr. Kennedy. After a brief 
explanation of the deed to her by Mr. Collis, 
and without further communication with any 
one, Mrs. Broun signed the document, Mr. 
Collis being the attesting witness. Every part 
of the plaintiff’s statement was denied by the 
defendant. She represented him as having 
sought the position of her advocate ; said that 
no remuneration was to be given him unless he 
got it from her adversary ; that he alone had 
pushed on the action against Lord Chelmsford 
for the purpose of making a name—or “spoiling 
the Egyptians ” (as she said), and then dividing 
the plunder; that he urged her on from one 
step to another in litigation ; and she swore 
positively that she never directly or indirectly 
promised him any such sum as 20,000/. for his 
services. In the course of the trial the plaintiff 
felt himself compelled to bring out in evidence 
that the frequent and lengthy consultations 
necessary in the Swinfen case led to their 
being often in each other’s society, and that 
she had even lived with him for some time as 
his mistress. On this point the Lord Chief 
Justice on summing up expressed his deep 
regret that the plaintiff should have so far 
forgot himself as to publish among Mrs. 
Broun’s lady friends the dreadful libel that had 
been put in evidence. His lordship also read 
and commented on the letters, and comparing 
them with each other, and the defendant’s 
own admission, asked the jury to say whether 
her friendship for Mr. Kennedy was only that 
of a sister. But while adverting to them and 
to the poems, one of which, accepted by the 
defendant as an expression of the plaintiff’s 
sentiments, was full of the passionate outbursts 
of a lover, he felt bound to say that, having 
read them carefully, there was nothing in them 
(624) 


to show that she had lived with Mr. Kennedy 
as his mistress, or that there was anything 
between them but a desire to consummate their 
marriage at some future time when circum¬ 
stances permitted it. That even was bad 
enough; and while they must look upon the 
conduct of Mr. Kennedy as a married man 
with a family, and as having written the libel, 
with honest indignation, and denounce and 
deprecate it, they must at the same time do 
him even-handed justice. Mr. Kennedy con¬ 
ducted his own case, examining Mrs. Broun 
with much minuteness as to their past con¬ 
nexion and the relation in which they stood 
to each other, and addressing the court with 
great fervour in support of his claim. Late 
on the evening of the third day of trial the 
jury, after a brief deliberation, gave a verdict 
affirming the right of the plaintiff to the sum 
claimed. 

28 . —French victories in Cochin China, lead¬ 
ing to the cession of six provinces. 

29 . —Fire at Kingston, Jamaica, destroying 
property valued at 250,000/. 

April 1.—The Mars steamship, trading be¬ 
tween Waterford and Bristol, wrecked in a fog 
on the Welsh coast, and fifty of the passengers 
and crew drowned. Six only were saved, who 
succeeded in getting into one of the ship’s 
small boats, but, being without oars or rudder, 
were tossed helplessly about during the night, 
and thrown ashore at daybreak near St. Gar- 
van’s Head. 

3 .—Died, aged 62, Admiral Sir J. C. Ross, 
Arctic navigator. 

9 .—A bill, introduced by Mr. Bouverie early 
in the session, designed to give relief to parties 
desirous of withdrawing from the obligation 
imposed by holy orders in the Church of Eng¬ 
land, defeated on a second reading by a 
majority of 98 to 88. 

— Conference of Orizaba, resulting in the 
withdrawal of England and Spain from the 
Mexican expedition. The French commis¬ 
sioner, insisting that the object of the alliance 
was not to encourage conciliatory measures but 
to obtain satisfaction from the Mexican Govern¬ 
ment, proceeded with his own force towards 
the capital. 

15 .—Boiler explosion at the Millfield Iron 
Works, Priestfield, Staffordshire, resulting in 
the death of twenty-eight workmen and serious 
injury to ten others. Three-fourths of the 
boiler, weighing about eight tons, was thrown 
between 200 and 300 feet into the air, and fell 
at a distance of 250 yards from the spot where 
it had been fixed. The dispersion of the brick¬ 
work and masonry of the furnaces, with their 
contents of molten iron, and the burning coals 
from the fire, completed the appalling catas¬ 
trophe. 

15 . -President Davis issues a conscription 
proclamation, requiring all men between the 
ages of 18 and 45 years to bear arms. 




APRL 


1862. 


ma y 


18 .—Bath Theatre destroyed by fire. The 
cause of the disaster was never ascertained with 
certainty. The last performance in the house 
took place on the previous Wednesday, when 
the Lyceum drama of “ Peep o’ Day ” was 
played, and the house closed, so far as theatrical 
representations were concerned, until Saturday 
in Easter week. 

21 .— The ship Emily St. Pierre enters the 
port of Liverpool with a crew of Federal sea¬ 
men as prisoners, Captain Wilson having by 
great personal daring recovered his vessel from 
the parties who captured her when attempt¬ 
ing to run the blockade at Charleston harbour. 
In answer to a demand made by the American 
Minister for reclamation, Earl Russell replied 
that her Majesty’s Government had no jurisdic¬ 
tion or legal power whatever to take or to 
acquire possession of the vessel, or to interfere 
with her owners in relation to their property 
in her. 

— The Volunteer corps in the metropolitan 
counties reviewed at Brighton by Lord Clyde 
and other distinguished officers appointed by 
the Horse Guards. The proceedings of the 
day were thought to give a very satisfactory 
solution to the question as to the efficiency of the 
Volunteers as a defensive force. A division of 
20,000, collected from every part of the metro¬ 
polis and a district exceeding sixty miles square, 
were conveyed to Brighton Downs in a few 
hours, fully equipped for action. A mimic fight 
was gone through, and the whole force dislo¬ 
cated and brought safely back to their homes 
before nightfall. Lord Clyde expressed marked 
approval both of officers and men. 

24 -.—New Orleans surrenders to the Federal 
fleet under Commodore Farragut. Two days 
afterwards the city was occupied by General 
Butler, who issued a proclamation declaring 
that women who showed any contempt for his 
officers or soldiers should be treated as pros¬ 
titutes plying their vocation. The spirit and 
terms of the proclamation were universally exe¬ 
crated, and formed the subject of a debate in 
the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston said 
he was prepared to say that no man could have 
read that proclamation without a feeling of the 
deepest disgust—a proclamation to which he 
did not scruple to attach the epithet of infamous. 
Englishmen, he continued, must blush to think 
that it came from a man of the Anglo-Saxon 
race—a man who was a soldier, and had raised 
himself to the rank of a general. 

26 .—Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Probate, before Sir C. Cresswell and a jury, the 
claim set up by Dr. Smethurst to obtain pos¬ 
session of 1,800/. left by his paramour, Miss 
Bankes. Probate was opposed by the brother- 
in-law and two sisters of the testatrix, on the 
ground that the deed was not duly executed ; 
that it was procured by undue influence and 
control, and that the deceased was not of sound 
mind at the time of execution. A concluding 
plea of fraud was added during the trial. The 

(625) 


jury, after an hour’s consultation, found a ver 
diet for the plaintiff on all the issues, thus 
establishing the validity of the will. 

29 . —Mary Timney executed at Dumfries for 
the murder of Ann Hannah, at Carsphad, a 
small farm in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, 
on the morning of the 13th January last. The 
execution was rendered unusually touching and 
remarkable from the hysterical appeals of the 
poor woman on her passage to the gallows, that 
mercy might even then be extended to her for 
the sake of her poor children. 

30 . —The Japanese ambassadors arrive in 
England from France, and take up their resi¬ 
dence at Claridge’s Hotel. 

May 1 . — The International Exhibition, at 
Brompton, opened with an imposing public 
pageant. Captain Fowke’s structure consisted 
of two vast domes of glass, 250 feet high and 
160 feet in diameter, connected by a nave 800 
feet long, 100 feet high, and 85 feet wide, 
with a closed roof, and lighted by a range of 
windows after the manner of the clerestory of 
a Gothic cathedral. The domes opened later¬ 
ally into spacious transepts, and the nave into 
a wide central avenue and interminable side- 
aisles and galleries roofed with glass. An 
address was presented by the Commissioners 
to the Duke of Cambridge, who represented 
her Majesty on the occasion, and expressed 
the warm interest she took in the Exhibition, 
and her hope that its success might amply ful¬ 
fil the intentions and expectations with which 
it was projected. After a formal procession 
through the building, the Duke of Cambridge 
in a loud voice said, “ By command of the 
Queen, I now declare the Exhibition open.” 
It continued a source of national and almost 
world-wide attraction till the 1st November, 
when the total number of visitors, exclusive of 
attendants, was found to have been 6,117,450, 
about 50,000 under the gross number of visitors 
to the Exhibition of 1851. The foreign ex¬ 
hibitors then numbered only 6,566 ; they were 
now 16,456. 

2 . —Died at Taunton, aged 67, the Rev. 
Joseph Wolff, an Eastern traveller and linguist, 
whose mission to Bokhara to ascertain the fate 
of Captain Stoddart and Col. Conolly excited 
much interest. (See April 19, 1844.) 

4 .—Bursting of the great sluice in con¬ 
nexion with the Middle Drainage Level, at 
Wiggenhall, St. Germans, King’s Lynn. The 
tidal waters of the Ouse spread over 10,000 
acres of rich land, a calamity which in¬ 
volved farmers and peasantry in one common 
ruin. The weight and torrent of waters 
borne along the banks of the straight long 
drain swept backwards and forwards for 
eight days. It was well known the bank must 
give way sooner or later. At an early hour 
on the ninth morning, as many as two hun¬ 
dred persons were gathered together near one 
manifestly weak spot, waiting for what they 

s s 







AT A Y 


1862. 


MA Y 


knew must come. At the distance of about 
three feet from the top of the bank a thin spout 
of water burst through a hole in the side of the 
earthen wall, and poured out on the surround¬ 
ing land. Mass after mass almost instantly 
gave way, till a breach of one hundred yards 
permitted the pent-up waters of the Ouse to 
spread over the whole of the cultivated country 
of Marshland and Smeeth. The depth of 
water varied, according to the tide, from five 
to ten feet, but its influx and efflux were so 
rapid that an opposing wind made it surge and 
swell like the waves of a troubled sea. To 
cut off the water-supply from this inland sea, 
and stop the tidal-stream in the full strength 
of its flow, cunningly contrived coffer-dams 
were erected; but it was not till the middle of 
June that the oft-baffled engineers could say 
the country was free from danger. To obviate 
the evil likely to arise from the blocking-up of 
the Middle Level line of drainage, huge siphons 
of cast iron were placed across the dam, their 
aggregate capacity being such as to equal the 
whole discharge of water through the old 
sluices. The accumulated waters on the flooded 
land were gradually drained away through the 
local works. The loss caused by the inunda¬ 
tion was set down at 25,000/. 

5 . —The French Mexican force defeated by 
General Zaragoza on the heights around Puebla. 
Marquez joined the expeditionary force with 
3,000 men on the 18th. 

6 . —A thunder-storm having its centre about 
Newark bursts over England. Hailstones were 
reported to have fallen on this occasion measur¬ 
ing six inches in circumference, and weighing 
four ounces. About 5 o’clock in the after¬ 
noon it was so dark at Nottingham Observa¬ 
tory that a book could scarcely be read at the 
window, and the landscape appeared to be 
closed in on all sides, at the distance of half 
a mile, by a kind of storm-cloud wall. The 
rain fell in torrents, and flashes of bluish-red 
lightning followed each other in rapid suc¬ 
cession. 

8 . —The Danish Government addresses a 
circular on the Holstein question to the ambas¬ 
sadors at Paris, London, St. Petersburg, and 
Stockholm. 

11 . —The iron-clad Merrimac blown up by 
the Confederates to prevent her capture.’ 

12 . —Mr. H. B. Farnall appointed Special 
Commissioner to make inquiries into the opera¬ 
tion of the Poor Laws in the distressed cotton 
districts of Lancashire. The operatives ob¬ 
jected to the labour-test imposed by the Poor 
Laws, consisting as it did chiefly of stone¬ 
breaking, injurious to the health of men used 
to indoor employment. 

16 .—In Manchester, William Taylor stabs 
a house-agent named Meller, after mur¬ 
dering his own three children, and laying them 
out in their own bed-room for interment. 
Their death was supposed to have been caused 
(626) 


by the administration of chloroform, or suffoca¬ 
tion. On the breast of one of the children was 
pinned a paper bearing the incoherent expres¬ 
sions : “ We are six, but one at Harptry lies. 
Meller and sons are our cruel murderers, but 
God and our loving parents will avenge us. 
Love rules here. We are all going to our sister 
to part no more.” The murderer, Taylor, on 
delivering himself up, appeared unconscious of 
having committed any crime. His wife was 
captured soon after, and tried along with him 
at Liverpool Assizes. A plea of insanity was 
set up for the husband, but the jury returned 
a verdict of Guilty, and he was executed at 
Manchester. Mrs. Taylor was acquitted. 

16 .—Died, aged 67, Thomas Wakley, coro¬ 
ner, and editor of the Lancet. 

— Died, at Wellington, New Zealand, aged 
66, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a political 
economist of great experience in the principles 
of colonization. 

20 .—Treaty ratified at London between her 
Majesty’s Government on the one hand, and 
the United States of America on the other, for 
the suppression of the African slave-trade. A 
copy was laid on the table of the House of 
Lords the same evening, when Lord Brougham 
suggested that some arrangement should be made 
by which the right of search, now conceded 
within thirty leagues of the coasts of Africa 
and Cuba, might be further extended to within 
thirty leagues of the island of Porto Rico. 

— Rupture of diplomatic relations between 
Prassia and Hesse, in consequence of disrespect¬ 
ful treatment experienced by the Prussian am¬ 
bassador. 

22.—Mrs. Vyse, Ludgate Hill, poisons her 
two children by administering Battle’s Vermin 
Powder, and then attempts to commit suicide 
by cutting her throat. She was found sitting 
in her room on the first floor with the blood¬ 
stained razor in her hand, by two female 
inmates, who, with rare presence of mind, 
stopped the haemorrhage in a temporary way 
till a surgeon was called in, and the wound 
effectually bound up. At the trial it was 
established in evidence that Mrs. Vyse was of 
an extremely affectionate disposition, and up to 
the time of the murder manifested the utmost 
tenderness towards her children. A verdict 
was returned of Not guilty on the ground of 
insanity, and the unfortunate woman was 
ordered to be detained in custody during her 
Majesty’s pleasure. 

— Earl Russell, writing to Sir C. Wyke, 
the English Commissioner in Mexico, on the 
failure of the Mexican expedition, through the 
presence and Imperialistic designs of General 
Almonte, says: “Her Majesty’s Government 
think that the presence of General Almonte 
in Mexico, under the protection of the French 
army, might fairly be considered as a provoca¬ 
tion to civil war.” The French army under 
General Lorencez was left to prosecute the 
enterprise alone. 







MA \ 


1862. 


JULY 


24 .—The New Bridge at Westminster 
opened in its entirety for public traffic. The 
barriers were removed at 4.30 A.m. on this 
the morning of the Queen’s birthday, and the 
event signalled by a salute of 25 guns. The 
cost of the new structure was estimated at 4/. 
per square foot, or less than half the expense 
of London, Southwark, or Waterloo bridges. 

26 .—Died at Damascus, aged 40, in the 
course of a tour through the East, Henry 
Thomas Buckle, author of the “ Intro¬ 
duction to the History of Civilization in 
England. ” 

June 2.—At a meeting of the Opposition 
at Lord Derby’s residence, St. James’s-square, 
it was unanimously resolved to support Mr. 
Walpole’s amendment on Mr. Stansfeld’s re¬ 
solution urging the Government to reduce the 
expenditure in a way which would not only 
equalize revenue and outlay, but afford the 
means of reducing impositions of a temporary 
and exceptional character. 

3 .—Lord Palmerston frustrates the Opposi¬ 
tion tactics by treating Mr. Walpole’s amend¬ 
ment on Mr. Stansfeld’s resolution as a vote 
of want of confidence. Mr. Walpole refused 
to engage in the discussion on these terms, 
and withdrew his amendment, leading Mr. 
Disraeli to describe him as “a Derby favourite 
who had bolted.” Mr. Stansfeld’s resolution 
was rejected by 367 to 65, and another, pro¬ 
posed by Lord Palmerston, expressive of the 
opinion that, while it was necessary the nation 
should be efficiently protected, the House was 
satisfied with the past and hopeful of future 
reduction, was carried without a division. The 
debate was protracted till 1.15 a.m., the House 
at its close adjourning till the 5th, for “The 
Derby.” 

7 . —The Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council confirm the sentence of depriva¬ 
tion passed on the Rev. Mr. Heath, for hetero¬ 
dox sentiments contained in his printed ser¬ 
mons. 

8 . — The Grand Duke Constantine appointed 
Governor of Poland. 

9 . —The Duke of Devonshire installed as 
successor to the Prince Consort in the 
Chancellorship of Cambridge University. 

— The United States Senate decree the 
abolition of slavery in all territories of the 
Union. Ten days afterwards the Federal 
House decreed the confiscation of all slaves 
held by rebels. 

10. —Fires at St. Petersburg, destroying pro¬ 
perty estimated at 1,000,000/. 

12 . —Visit of the Prince of Wales to the Em¬ 
peror of the French at Fontainebleau. 

17 .—Special Commission opened at Lime¬ 
rick for the trial of parties concerned in the 
numerous assassinations which had disgraced 
this county for some months. Mr. Justice 

(627) 


Fitzgerald, in his opening charge, said it would 
be impossible to fix upon a period of six weeks 
during the last 30 or 40 years in which so many 
terrible crimes had been perpetrated. Beckham 
was found guilty of shooting Francis Fitzgerald 
in the presence of his wife at Kilmallock, and 
executed on the 16th July. His companion 
Walsh, who contrived to elude the police for 
some weeks, was afterwards found guilty, and 
executed on the 1st September. One of the 
brothers Dillon was also found guilty as an 
accessary before the fact, and executed. At 
Clonmel, the trial of one of the Hallorans for 
shooting M. Gustave Thiebault at Boytonrath, 
on the 28th April, failed from the unwillingness 
of witnesses to speak to facts known to be 
familiar to them. Bohan, charged with shoot¬ 
ing at Colonel Knox, was also acquitted, and 
received back among the peasantry of Temple- 
more with marks of unbounded joy. 

17 . —Died, aged 50, Charles John, Earl Can¬ 
ning, Governor-General of India, 1855-62. 

18 . —At the Central Criminal Court, Charles 
Talbrook was sentenced to penal servitude for 
life for striking his own grandmother with in¬ 
tent to murder, the prisoner urging with appa¬ 
rent seriousness that he had been bewitched 
by the old woman, and only desired to draw 
blood from her to break the spell. 

21.—Explosion at Walker’s percussion 
factory, Birmingham, the pile of buildings in 
which it occurred being shattered to fragments. 
Nine persons killed, and fourteen seriously- 
hurt. 

23 , 25 , 27 .—The Triennial Handel Fes¬ 
tival celebrated at the Crystal Palace. About 
4,000 vocal and instrumental performers as¬ 
sembled in the Handel Orchestra on this 
occasion, to give due effect to the works of 
the great master. 

25 . —In consequence of repeated attacks 
by natives, the British embassy at Jeddo is 
removed to Yokohama. 

— With the view of hastening the fall of 
Richmond, General M'Clellan commences a 
series- of engagements on the Chickahominy, 
which were continued with great slaughter daily 
till the 1st of July, when the Army of the Poto¬ 
mac was compelled to withdraw to a protected 
bend on the James River. The Confederate 
forces were principally under the direction of 
General Lee and General Jackson. 

26 . —Italy abandons the passport system, so 
far as travellers from England are concerned. 

28 .—Inauguration of the Coutts drinking 
fountain, in Victoria Park, London. 

July 1.—The Princess Alice Maud Mary 
married to Prince Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt. 

3 .—The English mails of the 3d June reach 
Bombay in the P. and O. steamer Behar , being 
the quickest passage on record. 


S S 2 







JULY 


1862. 


JULY 


5 . —Died at Paris, aged 95, Due Pasquier, 
Chancellor of France in the reign of Louis 
Philippe, and a courtier of high rank and influ¬ 
ence during the first Empire. His recollection 
of the events of the Reign of Terror, in which 
he figured, was vivid and minute, he being at 
the time older than St. Just, and only eight 
years younger than Robespierre. 

7 . —In a discussion on going into committee 
on the Fortification (provision for expenses) 
Bill, a personal altercation took place between 
Mr. Cobden and Lord Palmerston, the member 
for Rochdale charging the Premier with being, 
to a great extent, responsible for the invasion 
panics which periodically disturbed this country. 
Lord Palmerston replied that Mr. Cobden, 
although a great authority on Free-trade, was 
on naval and military matters in a state of 
blindness and delusion, and therefore unsafe as 
a guide or adviser on the question of national 
defences. 

8. —At Preston, near Weymouth, a maniac 
named Cox, who was about to be removed to a 
pauper lunatic asylum, having first stunned the 
visiting surgeon by striking him with a bed¬ 
post, murders him by sawing off his head, one 
of his hands, and feet. 

IO.—Russia recognises the kingdom of 
Italy. 

— Mr. Peabody presented with the free¬ 
dom of the City of London, in acknowledgment 
of his recent munificent gift to the poor. 

14 . —Tried before the High Court of Justi¬ 
ciary, Edinburgh, William Davidson, clerk, 
charged, under twenty-five counts, with em¬ 
bezzlement and appropriation of the funds of 
Colonel M‘Dowall of Logan, and of his em¬ 
ployer, Mr. David M‘Culloch, factor. He 
pleaded guilty to eight of the charges, and was 
sentenced to eight years’ penal servitude. 

15 . —The London Gazetle announces that 
letters patent had been passed under the Great 
Seal, removing Edwin John James from the 
office of one of her Majesty’s Counsel. He 
had previously resigned the Recordership of 
Brighton, and withdrawn from Brookes’s and 
the Reform Club. In the early part of the 
year the Benchers of the Inner Temple estab¬ 
lished serious charges against him concerning his 
pecuniary relations with Lord Worsley, son and 
heir of the Earl of Yarborough ; with Mr. 
Fryer, attorney, Wimborne ; and another, of a 
criminal nature, relating to the case of Scully 
v. Ingram, in which James acted as counsel for 
the plaintiff, and accepted money at the same 
time from the defendant. 

16 . —Grand banquet at Willis’s Rooms in 
honour of M. Roaher,t he French Minister of 
Commerce. 

17 . —Mr. Glaisher makes his first scientific 
ascent from Wolverhampton in Coxwell’s new 
balloon, 69 feet in height, 54 in diameter, and 
with a capacity of 95,000 cubic feet of gas. 
The leading facts sought to be ascertained 

(628) 


were connected with the decrease of tempera¬ 
ture and the distribution of moisture throughout 
the atmosphere. The aeronauts attained, on 
this occasion, a height of 26,177 feet, or nearly 
five miles. The temperature, when the bal¬ 
loon left the earth, was 55 0 , decreasing to 26° 
when two miles up, but again increasing to 
42 0 at four miles, while at five miles it was 
only 16°, with the air dry and electricity posi¬ 
tive. Another ascent was made from the 
Crystal Palace on the 30th; from Wolver¬ 
hampton again on the 18th August; from 
London on 21st August, when a scene of 
great beauty was witnessed at sunrise ; and a 
Third at Wolverhampton on the 5th September, 
when the daring voyagers were nearly frozen 
to death, the temperature at five miles being 
2° Fahr. Mr. Glaisher, on this occasion, be¬ 
came unconscious, and registered no observa¬ 
tions above 36,000 feet. Mr. Coxwell contrived 
to null the valve string with his teeth, when 
the balloon began to descend, and as they 
neared the earth the adventurers gradually 
regained consciousness. 

17 . —President Lincoln sanctions a bill con¬ 
fiscating the property and emancipating the 
slaves of all persons who continued sixty days 
in arms against the Union. 

18 . —At the Winchester Assizes, George 
Nicol Gilbert, a criminal twice convicted pre¬ 
viously for minor offences, was sentenced to be 
executed for the murder of Ann Susan Hall, at 
Midgham Farm, near Fordingbridge, on the 
22d June. The young woman having re¬ 
sisted with all her power an attempt to violate 
her person, the prisoner first sought to stifle 
her cries by choking her, and then turned her 
face downwards into a muddy ditch, near 
which the body was found. Gilbert made a 
full confession of his guilt previous to execu¬ 
tion. 

— The steamship Glasgow , from New 
York, arrives in Liverpool with the intelligence 
that the Federal army was in full retreat from 
before Richmond, and that Beauregard had 
refused M‘Clellan’s offer to surrender on con¬ 
ditions. 

— Discussion in the House of Commons 
on the motion proposed by Mr. Lindsay: 
“That in the opinion of this House the States 
which have seceded from the Union of the Re¬ 
public of the United States have so long 
maintained themselves under a separate and 
established government, and have given such 
proof of their determination and ability to 
support their independence, that the propriety of 
offering mediation with a view of terminating 
hostilities between the contending parties is 
worthy of the serious and immediate attention 
of her Majesty’s Government. ” Lord Palmer¬ 
ston contended on the part of the Government 
that the Cabinet up to this time had pursued 
a wise and prudent course, and it would be 
better for the House to leave them to judge of 
the fittest occasion for proffering their friendly 







JULY 


IS 62 . 


AUGUST 


offices. The motion was withdrawn without 
a division. 

19 . —The Cotton District Relief Fund origi¬ 
nated at a meeting held in Bridgewater House, 
presided over by the Earl of Derby ; 11,000/. 
subscribed among those present, the Queen 
giving 2,000/., and the Viceroy of Egypt, who 
was in London at the time, 1,000/. 

— A petition presented under the Legiti¬ 
macy Declaration Act to the Court for Divorce 
Causes, by James Augustus Shiel Bouverie, 
praying for a declaration that the marriage of 
his father, Francis Kevelin Bouverie, to his 
mother, Elizabeth Bouverie, was a valid mar¬ 
riage, and that he was their legitimate son 
and heir. The respondents were the brothers 
and sisters of the above Francis Kevelin Bou¬ 
verie, who pleaded that the petitioner was not 
legitimate, and tendered evidence in court that 
he was the child of one Bell, with whom 
Mrs. Bouverie had eloped from Castle Dawson 
in October 1835. The petitioner was born on 
the 12th July, 1836. At the close of the trial, 
the Judge Ordinary said the rule of law had 
never been disputed, that when two married 
persons were living together no inquiry or 
speculation could be allowed as to who was 
the father of a child to which the wife had 
given birth. Its legitimacy was a presumption 
juris et de jure. By his lordship’s direction the 
jury returned a verdict for the petitioner upon 
all the issues. 

22 .—In order to mitigate the severity of the 
distress now being felt in Lancashire from the 
limited supply of American cotton, Mr. Villiers, 
President of the Board of Trade, obtains leave 
to introduce a bill enabling every parish over¬ 
burdened by local distress to claim a contribu¬ 
tion from the common fund of the union, and 
permitting entire unions similarly situated to 
call for a contribution from other unions in the 
county. In committee, an addition was made to 
the bill, enabling unions to raise money by loan, 
as well as to resort to the expedient of a rate-in¬ 
aid. The liability to a rate-in-aid was to arise as 
soon as the expenditure of a parish exceeded 3-r. 
in the pound; and the power to borrow was 
conferred on guardians, subject to the sanction 
of the Poor-law Board, whenever the expendi¬ 
ture of a union exceeded 3J. in the pound on the 
whole rateable value. The measure ultimately 
passed through both Houses, and received the 
Royal assent. 

— At the Clonmel Assizes, Richard 
Burke was found guilty of poisoning his wife, 
by mixing strychnine in medicine which she 
received at his hands. The jury recommended 
him to mercy on account of his previous good 
character. He was, however, executed on the 
25th of August. 

26 .—Garibaldi addresses an inflammatory 
proclamation from Palermo to the Hungarians; 
and a few days later another to the Italians, 
calling on them to resist “arrogant foreign 
oppressors.” 


27 . —The American steamer Golden Gate 
burned on her voyage from San Francisco to 
Panama, and 204 of her passengers and crew 
drowned. Of the treasure on board, valued 
at 1,400,000 dollars, part was afterwards re¬ 
covered by divers. 

28 . —The African travellers, Speke and 

Grant, arrive at Ripon Falls. The former re¬ 
cords in his journal: “ The expedition had 

now performed its function. I saw that old 
Father Nile, without any doubt, rises in the 
Victoria N’yanza, and, as I had foretold, that 
lake is the great source of the holy river which 
cradled the first expounder of our religious 
belief. . . . The most remote waters or top- 
head of the Nile is the southern end of the lake, 
situated close on the third degree of south 
latitude, which gives to the Nile the surprising 
length in direct measurement, rolling over 
thirty-four degrees of latitude, of above 2,300 
miles, or more than one-eleventh of the circum¬ 
ference of our globe. ... I now christened the 
‘ stones ’ Ripon Falls, after the nobleman who 
presided over the Royal Geographical Society 
when my expedition was got up; and the 
arm of the water from which the Nile issued, 
Napoleon Channel, in token of respect to the 
French Geographical Society for the honour 
they had done me just before leaving England, 
in presenting me with their gold medal for the 
discovery of the Victoria N’yanza.” 

29 . —Under pretence that she was proceed¬ 
ing on a trial trip, the steamer Alabama is per¬ 
mitted to depart from the Mersey, although 
instructions had been sent down to the local 
authorities at Liverpool to detain her pending 
an inquiry as to her ultimate destination. She 
proceeded with all haste to Terceira, and there 
took on board Captain Sumner, who declared 
that the vessel was intended to act against the 
shipping of the Federal States. She at once 
set out on her destructive career. 

30 . — Died in Dublin, Eugene O’Curry, Esq., 
a laborious and accomplished Irish antiquary. 

— Mr. Broddell, solicitor, Mallow, shot in 
Dobbyn’s Hotel, Tipperary, by young Hayes, 
for having issued a notice to quit the land oc¬ 
cupied by the Hayes family. The murderer 
mqde his escape in the most deliberate manner ; 
and, though at one time a bailiff himself, ob¬ 
tained the sympathy of the peasantry among 
whom he took refuge from the officers of 
justice. 

August 1.—The bodies of two brothers 
named Bittleston, clerks, found on Walton 
Heath, both exhibiting evidence that they had 
shot themselves. A paper recommending the 
bodies to the care of whoever found them was 
picked up near the spot. 

2 . —Earl Russell writes to Mr. Mason regard¬ 
ing the claim made by the latter to have the 
Confederate States recognised as a separate 
and independent Power: “In order to be 
entitled to a place among the independent 

(629) 






AUGUST 


1862. 


AUGUST 


nations of the earth, a State ought not only to 
have strength and resources for a time, but 
afford promise of stability and permanence. 
Should the Confederate States of America win 
that place among nations, it might be right 
for other nations justly to acknowledge an 
independence achieved by victory, and main¬ 
tained by a successful resistance to all attempts 
to overthrow it. That time, however, has not, 
in the judgment of her Majesty’s Government, 
arrived. Her Majesty’s Government, there¬ 
fore, can only hope that a peaceful termination 
of the present bloody and destructive contest 
may not be far distant.” 

2 . —Commercial treaty between France and 
Prussia signed. 

3. —A pleasure-boat upset on the Ribble, 
after a narrow escape from collision with a 
schooner, and five women and two children 
drowned. 

4 -. —At the Lewes Assizes, John Flood, a 
well-conducted private of the 18th Hussars, 
was found guilty of shooting John O’Dea, a 
soldier in the same regiment, while under a fit 
of rage at an indignity to which he had been 
subjected by the company. The extreme sen¬ 
tence of the law was afterwards commuted to 
transportation for life. 

— President Lincoln calls for a second levy 
of 300,000 men to be draughted from the' 
militia for nine months’ service. 

7 . —The Thames Embankment Bill receives 
the Royal assent, empowering the Metropolitan 
Board of Works to embank the river from 
Westminster to Blackfriars, and make ap¬ 
proaches thereto. In the discussion on the 
second reading in the House of Commons it 
was alleged that the Duke of Buccleuch had 
appeared before the Committee in opposition 
to public interests, but the debate which ensued 
on this point relieved his Grace from the odium 
of such a charge, though Mr. Cowper was of 
opinion that in some respects the Duke had 
not acted as might have been anticipated. 

— Parliament prorogued by Commission. 

IO.—At Warwick Assizes, George Gardner 
was found guilty of shooting his fellow-servant, 
Sarah Kirby, at Studley, on the 23d of April 
last. In his confession the prisoner said that 
the deceased never would draw him the 
proper quantity of beer, and that vexed him. 
While hesitating whether he should kill the 
girl or not, and unable to make up his mind, 
he determined to solve his doubt by throwing 
up the “ spud ” of the plough. If it had fallen 
down flat, he said, he would not have killed 
her, but it came down point foremost, and he 
therefore left the field with the determination 
to take her life. 

12 . —The iron sailing-vessel Ganges cap¬ 
sizes in the Thames, near the entrance of the 
Grand Surrey Dock, and five of the Lascar 
crew are drowned in the hold. The vessel 
was afterwards raised by lighters. 

(630) 


13 .—At the Lancaster Assizes, Walter 
Moore was found guilty of murdering his wife 
at Black Lane-ends, Keighley, by cutting her 
throat with a razor. In this instance the 
convict anticipated his doom a few hours, 
committing suicide in the water-closet, by 
thrusting his head into the pan and letting on 
the water. 

— The Chinese territory of Macao ceded to 
Portugal. 

15 . —Fire in Cumberland-street, Hyde Park, 
causing the loss of three lives—Mr. Barrett, 
the occupant of the mansion, and two of his 
children. 

16 . —Considerable uneasiness excited in com¬ 
mercial circles by an intimation from the 
solicitor to the Bank of England, that a quan¬ 
tity of genuine paper prepared for notes had 
been stolen from the paper-mill, and was pre¬ 
sumably in the hands of forgers. 

18 .—Commenced at Guildford Assizes the 
case of Roupell v. Waite, which led to an 
exposure of the forgeries and frauds committed 
by William Roupell, late M.P. for Lambeth. 
The plaintiff, Richard Roupell, brought the 
action to recover an estate of about 163 
acres, called Norbiton Park Farm, near King¬ 
ston, Surrey, of which the late Mr. Richard 
Palmer Roupell died seised on the 12th 
Sept., 1856, the plaintiff claiming the estate 
as the only legitimate child and heir-at-law 
of his deceased father. His claim was dis¬ 
puted by the defendant under a conveyance, 
dated July 1861, made to him by William 
Roupell, the natural brother of the plaintiff. 
Thd title of William Roupell to convey, and 
of the plaintiff to hold, the Norbiton lands, 
depended upon the validity of a deed purport¬ 
ing to be a deed of appointment and gift to 
William Roupell by his father; “and inas¬ 
much,” said Mr. Serjeant Shee, “as the 
title of the plaintiff cannot be impugned 
without producing that deed, I undertake, 
before I sit down, to state and to prove, after 
I have concluded my address, that that deed 
was a forgery—the forgery of William Roupell. 
Though I succeed in proving that Richard 
Roupell, the plaintiff, is heir-at-law of the 
deceased Mr. Roupell, and in proving that the 
deed of July 1855 is a forgery, yet if there was 
a will of the late Mr. Roupell devising the 
property to other persons than the plaintiff 
Richard, his title as heir-at-law would be 
defeated. And inasmuch as after the death 
of Richard Palmer Roupell a will was set up 
by William Roupell purporting to be the last 
will of the deceased, and probate was obtained 
of that will by William Roupell as an executor 
named in it, I must satisfy you that that will 
is not the real will of the late Richard Palmer 
Roupell; and I undertake to prove to you that 
it is, every word of it, and every signature 
upon it, a forgery by William Roupell.” In 
the course of the trial William Roupell was 
placed m the witness-box, and, first under an 







AUGUST 


1862. 


SEPTEMBER 


examination-in-chief, and then under a severe 
cross-examination by Mr. Bovill, gave the 
most circumstantial details as to the time, 
place, and circumstances of the imputed frauds 
and forgeries. At the close, Mr. Serjeant Shee 
informed the court that it had been agreed to 
withdraw a juror, the plaintiff and defendant 
afterwards to divide the value of the property 
in dispute, and the plaintiff also to confirm the 
defendant’s title by all proper means. The 
forged documents were thereafter impounded, 
and William Roupell taken into custody. He 
was tried at the Central Criminal Court on the 
24th September before Mr. Justice Byles, 
and, pleading guilty to the charge of forgery, 
was sentenced to penal servitude for life. His 
career, he admitted, had been one continued 
mistake, and he now only desired that com¬ 
plete justice should be done to all parties con¬ 
cerned. 

20. —Died, aged 5°, J. L. Ricardo, poli¬ 
tical economist. 

21 . —Memorial cairn erected at Balmoral. 
On one tablet an inscription recorded that it 
was—“To the beloved memory of Albert the 
Great and Good Prince Consort, erected by his 
broken-hearted widow, Victoria R.” Upon 
another was the quotation : “He being made 
perfect in a short time fulfilled a long time : 
for his soul pleased the Lord, therefore hasted 
He to take him away from among the wicked.” 
(Wisdom of Solomon, iv. 13, 14.) 

— The insurrectionary movements of Gari¬ 
baldi in Sicily now assume a character so for¬ 
midable as to lead to the island being placed in 
a state of siege. 

22. —President Lincoln, in a letter to Mr. 
Horace Greeley, writes : “ My paramount ob¬ 
ject in the struggle is to save the Union, and 
not either to save or destroy slavery. If I 
could save the Union without freeing any slave 
I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing 
all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save 
it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I 
would do also that. What I do about slavery 
and the coloured race, I do because I believe 
it helps to save the Union ; and what I forbear 
1 forbear, because I do not believe it would 
help to save the Union.” 

24 -.—St. Bartholomew’s day. The English 
Nonconformists celebrate the two hundredth 
anniversary of the ejection from the Church of 
the 2,000 ministers in 1662. 

26 .—Trial of speed at Spithead of the new 
iron-clad war-ship, the Black Prince. She 
drew 26 ft. 10 in. aft and 26 ft. 6 in. forward, 
and accomplished an average speed of 12'209 
knots an hour, being about two knots per hour 
under the speed of her sister-ship the Warrior , 
although the latter had been worked with 5 lbs. 
less pressure on the safety-valve. 

23 . —Railway collision at Market Har- 
borough, caused by the second division of an 
excursion-train running into the hrst, the engine 
of which was then taking in water at the 


station. Only one person was killed, but 11 
were seriously injured, and 131 received slight 
bruises. 

28 . — General Cialdini repulsed at Reggio by 
the insurrectionary forces under Garibaldi. 

— General Forey ana 2,500 French soldiers 
land in Mexico. 

29 . —Affray at Aspromonte between a party 
of Garibaldians, with the General at their head, 
and the Royal troops, under Major-General 
Pallavicino. Garibaldi and his son being each 
wounded, a signal was given to cease firing, 
and negotiations were entered into between the 
parties. Garibaldi was conveyed to Spezzia, 
where, after considerable suffering, a ball was 
extracted from his ankle by Professor Partridge, 
of King’s College, whom Garibaldi’s friends in 
this country despatched to Italy. He issued a 
defence on the 1st September, denying any in¬ 
tention of engaging with the troops of Victor 
Emmanuel, and blaming the Government of 
Ratazzi for all that had happened to oppose 
the liberation of Rome. A decree of amnesty 
was passed the 5th of October. 

30 . —The Federal army defeated a second 
time at Bull Run. To the intense consterna¬ 
tion of the Northern people, Lee and Jackson 
followed up their advantage by an immediate 
invasion of Maryland. 

September 2.—The festival of Preston 
Guild celebrated, after the customary lapse of 
twenty years. 

5 . — Convention signed at Constantinople by 
Russia, France, and Turkey, respecting the 
protection of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 

6. —Died, aged 82, John Bird Sumner, D.D., 
Archbishop of Canterbury. He was succeeded 
by Dr. Longley, Archbishop of York. 

80—Fire at Brownlow Hill Workhouse, 
Liverpool, causing the death of twenty-three 
inmates, mostly children, who were asleep 
in the northern dormitory. Their escape was 
almost completely cut off when the flames were 
discovered ; and though the most heroic efforts 
were made to carry them all out, the above 
number perished miserably amid the falling 
ruins. 

—- The Cotton Famine now begins to as¬ 
sume an intensely severe form in Lancashire. 
Twenty-four Poor Law Unions in the distressed 
districts afforded outdoor relief to 140,165 
persons, at a weekly cost of 7,922/., being nearly 
100,000 persons in excess of the correspond¬ 
ing period of last year. 

9 .— Explosion of gunpowder at the Nance- 
kuke Powder Mills, near Redruth, Cornwall, 
killing six of the women employed in the drying 
house. 

— Montenegro consents to a treaty affirm¬ 
ing the sovereignty of the Porte. 

12 .—Treaty of friendship and commerce 
signed between England, France, and Mada- 







SEPTEMBER 


1862. 


SEPTEMBER 


14 . —General M ‘Clellan defeats the Con¬ 
federates, and drives them out of Maryland. 

— Mr. Richardson, of the British embassy of 
Japan, murdered, and his companions assaulted, 
by adherents of the Prince of Satsuma. 

16 . —Commenced at the Glasgow Circuit 
Court, before Lord Deas, the trial of Jessie 
M‘Intosh, or M‘Lachlan, for the murder of 
Jessie M‘Pherson, in the dwelling-house, 
Sandyford-place, on the night of the 4th July 
preceding. The prisoner pleaded Not guilty. 
A special defence was also lodged in the fol¬ 
lowing terms : “ The panel pleads Not guilty, 
and, without prejudice to that plea, specially 
pleads that the murder alleged in the indict¬ 
ment was committed by James Fleming, re¬ 
siding with John Fleming, accountant, in or 
near Sandyford-place. ” From some unexplained 
incident thought to point in the direction of 
old Fleming, who was an inmate of the house 
at the time of the murder, he was appre¬ 
hended at an early stage of the preliminary 
inquiry, but liberated in a few days, and now 
examined as a witness for the Crown. The 
murder was discovered on the afternoon of the 
7th July, the examining surgeon testifying that 
the woman had been murdered with extreme 
ferocity; that her death had taken place within 
three days; that a severe struggle had en¬ 
sued before death ; that such an instrument as 
a cleaver for cutting meat, or a similar weapon, 
was that most likely to have caused the fatal 
injuries ; that all the wounds on the neck and 
head, with the exception of those on the fore¬ 
head, had been inflicted by a person standing 
over the deceased as she lay on her face on the 
ground ; and that the body had been drawn by 
the head, with the face downward, along the 
lobby from the kitchen to the front room. It 
was now set forth in evidence that the prisoner 
was on terms of intimacy with the deceased, 
and often visited at the house in Sandyford- 
place ; that on the 4th of July she was very 
much in want of money, being then behind 
with her rent, and with many articles in pawn; 
that on the above evening she dressed herself 
in a particular manner described by one of the 
witnesses—part of it being a brown merino 
gown, bonnet, and boots, none of which were 
now forthcoming ; that she went out saying she 
was going to see Jessie M‘Pherson, and was 
seen about half-way to Fleming’s house ; that 
she did not return till next morning between 
eight and nine o’clock ; that within a few 
hours she pawned various articles of silver plate 
stolen from the house in Sandyford-place; that 
she was seen wearing certain articles of clothing 
known to have belonged to the deceased; 
and that to the prisoner was traced the de¬ 
spatch of a box to Plamilton, found to contain 
most of the clothing stolen from the house. 
At the close of the fourth day of trial, the jury 
returned a verdict of Guilty on the double 
charge of murder and theft. A long circum¬ 
stantial statement was thereupon read by her 
counsel, setting forth that she was present in 
(632). 


Fleming’s house on the night of the murder; 
that the murder was committed by Mr. Fleming, 
sen., when the prisoner was out for drink; 
that he had sworn her over to secrecy “on 
a big Bible with a black cover on it,” and that 
the plate had been carried off to give rise to 
the belief that the murder had been committed 
by some one who broke into the house. Lord 
Deas, after an address, enlarging on the hor¬ 
rible nature of the crime, and sharply censuring 
the prisoner for her attempt to cast the guilt 
on the shoulders of an innocent old man, ad¬ 
judged the prisoner to be executed on the 
morning of the nth October. This case gave 
rise to much controversy in the newspapers, 
the guilt or innocence of the prisoner being 
made matters of personal predilection ; and a 
semi-official inquiry was made by Mr. Young, 
advocate, at the instance of the Lord Advocate 
acting for the Home Secretary. An important 
fact then sought to be established was, that 
the prisoner’s statement (which corresponded 
with ingenious accuracy to certain evidence 
tendered by the Crown) had been made to# 
her agents so far back as 13th August. The 
result was that the Crown deferred so far to 
a loudly expressed, if not widely felt, desire to 
spare the prisoner’s life, as to commute the 
extreme sentence to one of penal servitude. 

22 . —President Lincoln issues a procla¬ 
mation, declaring his intention, on the next 
meeting of Congress, to recommend the pass¬ 
ing of a bill enacting that, on and after the 
1st January, 1863, all persons held as slaves 
within any State, the people whereof shall be 
in rebellion against the United States, shall be 
thenceforward and for ever free. The pro¬ 
clamation added : ‘ ‘ The Executive will in due¬ 
time recommend that all citizens of the United 
States who shall have remained loyal thereto 
throughout the rebellion shall, upon the resto¬ 
ration of peace, ... be compensated for all 
losses by acts of the United States, including 
the loss of slaves.” 

— General Forey issues a proclamation to 
the Mexicans, promising them entire liberty in 
the choice of a new government. 

23 . —After a long and exciting debate, the 
Prussian Chambers reject by 308 to 11 votes 
the Government propositions for the military 
expenditure of the kingdom. Van der Heydt 
1 hereupon resigned, and was succeeded by Herr 
Otto von Bismarck-Schoenhausen. The Peers 
afterwards passed the Military Bill; but the 
dispute between the two chambers led the 
King to close the session pn the 13th October, 
and declare his intention of governing inde¬ 
pendently of the Constitution. 

24 . —Earl Russell recommends Denmark to 
give to Holstein and Lauenberg all that the 
Germanic Confederation desire for them, and 
to give self-government to Schleswig. 

25 . —Catherine Wilson, “the poisoner,” 
tried at the Central Criminal Court for ad¬ 
ministering poison to Mrs. Soames Bedford- 








OCTOBER 


1862. 


OCTOBER 


square. There was another case against her 
for administering poison to Mrs. Ann Atkinson, 
Kirkby Lonsdale, and a third for administering 
oil of vitriol to Sarah Carnell, with intent to 
murder. For this last she had been tried in 
the same court, June 19th, and acquitted. She 
was now found guilty on the first of the above- 
mentioned charges, and sentenced to be exe¬ 
cuted, which sentence was carried into effect 
on the morning of October 20th. 

October 2.—Louis I. of Portugal, born 
1838, married Pia, youngest daughter of the 
King of Italy, bom 1847. 

5 .—Riot in Hyde Park, originating in an 
attack made the preceding Sunday by Irish 
Papists upon a meeting of working men, 
called to express sympathy with Garibaldi, 
and to adopt a protest against the French 
occupation of Rome. Driven off the ground on 
the first occasion, the party calling themselves 
Garibaldians now mustered in great strength, 
charging the Irish with vigour in all direc¬ 
tions, and obtaining possession of a mound 
of rubbish used as a kind of platform by 
the speakers. The fight raged throughout 
the afternoon, and resulted in a considerable 
number of persons being taken to the hospitals 
much injured. An attempt to renew the dis¬ 
turbance the following Sunday was put down 
in a summary way by the concentration of a 
large body of police in the Park. In Birken¬ 
head, on the 8th and 15th, the rioting between 
the Papist and Garibaldian partisans was of 
the most aggravated description, and nearly 
resulted in the death of two police constables. 
At the Chester Assizes, a ringleader, one 
Lennon, who had made himself conspicuous by 
the use of an iron bar, was sentenced to fifteen 
years’ penal servitude. 

7.—In an after-dinner speech, at Newcastle, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed it 
as his opinion, that Jefferson Davis had really 
succeeded in making the South an indepen¬ 
dent nation. Coming from a Cabinet Minister 
at a time when neutrality was understood to 
be the policy of the Government, the announce¬ 
ment, as was to be expected, caused considerable 
sensation at the dinner-table, and much com¬ 
ment outside. In answer to Mr. Mozley, of 
Manchester, who wrote on behalf of many 
cotton-shippers, Mr. Gladstone replied, that 
his words at Newcastle were no more than the 
expression, in rather more pointed terms, of an 
opinion which he had long ago stated in public, 
that the effort of the Northern States to sub¬ 
jugate the Southern ones was hopeless by reason 
of the resistance of the latter. 

13 . —Collision between two passenger trains 
on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, near 
Winchburgh, causing the almost instant death 
of 15 persons, and injuries more or less severe 
to about 100 others. The immediate cause 
of the calamity was the ignorance of a 
pointsman who permitted the train from the 
west to pass on to a single line of rails in use 


during the repair of the line, where it met 
with the train from Edinburgh proceeding 
at its ordinary speed. The scene which fol¬ 
lowed was of the most heartrending descrip¬ 
tion. The engines and tenders of both trains 
were smashed to pieces ; the first carriage of 
the Scottish Central train from Edinburgh, a 
third-class, was completely destroyed, as was 
also a third-class carriage in front of the Glas¬ 
gow train. Piled above the broken debris of. 
these carriages were a large number of the 
carriages of the Glasgow train with their 
numerous passengers. The groans of the 
injured and dying, and the shrieks of the 
terrified occupants of the carriages, were ago¬ 
nizing, while the horrors of the scene were 
still further intensified by the darkness of the 
night and the nature of the ground, the line 
running through a deep cutting of rock at the 
spot where the accident occurred. The cala¬ 
mity was considered one of the most serious 
which ever occurred on a Scottish line, and led 
to a fall in the value of the Company’s stock 
representing a depreciation of 100,000/. 

19 .— TYieBencoolen, East Indiaman, wrecked 
in a severe storm on the Cornish coast, and 
twenty-seven of the crew drowned. Among 
other vessels lost in the British seas during this 
storm were the Sir Allan M‘JVab, timber laden, 
from Quebec, and the Si. Louis , of Marseilles. 
The steamer Hamburg ; trading between Havre 
and Brest, sank after coming into collision 
with the French bark Jzianita. 

21. —-Died, atBrome Park, Surrey, aged 80, 
Sir Benjamin Brodie, Bart., a surgeon of great 
eminence, and President of the Royal Society. 

22. —The Due de Grammont-Caderousse 
kills Mr. Dillon in a duel at Paris, the quarrel 
being occasioned by the latter inserting in Le 
Sporty of which he was sub-editor, certain acri¬ 
monious comments on his opponent’s conduct 
at a race-meeting. 

— Insurrection in Greece against the 
government of King Otho. In order to avoid 
bloodshed, he announced on the 24th that he 
intended to quit the kingdom, and embarked 
thereafter on board a British man-of-war. 

27 .—The Mexican Congress protest against 
the French invasion and proclamation, intima¬ 
ting that they would have entire freedom in 
the choice of a new government. 

29 . —At the Central Criminal Court, Robert 
Cooper, or Copeland, was sentenced to be exe¬ 
cuted for the murder of Ann Jane Barnham, 
at Isleworth. She was found in an insensible 
state from a gun-shot wound, in Brezil Mill- 
lane, and the crime was gradually traced to the 
prisoner, with whom his victim had at one 
time lived. 

30 . —Samuel Gardener, sweep, tried at the 
Central Criminal Court for the murder of his 
wife. It was pleaded in defence that the case 
might be one of suicide, that no motive of cor¬ 
responding magnitude could be discovered, and 
that it was possible the crime was committed by 








OCTOBER 


1862. 


NOVEMBER 


' the prisoner’s mistress, Humbler, who resided 
in the house. The coroner’s jury had found a 
verdict of Guilty against both these parties. 
Gardener himself was now found guilty, and 
sentenced to the extreme penalty of the law, a 
sentence afterwards commuted to one of penal 
servitude for life. 

31 .—Writing to the Mayor of Wigan re¬ 
garding the distress in the cotton district, Lord 
Lindsay says : “We owe it to ourselves, and 
to our wealthy principality, to show that we are 
no laggards in providing for the wants of those 
who are now dependent upon us for relief and 
assistance. And when we think of the noble 
patience with which the operatives endure this 
adversity—an adversity not brought on by their 
own fault, but by external circumstances over 
which they have had no control—I think we 
shall consider, not how little, but how much we 
can each of us supply towards the great and 
crying necessity before us. ” 

— Dr. Colenso, Bishop of Natal, pub¬ 
lishes the first part of his inquiry into the age 
and authorship of the Pentateuch. 

November 2.—The Joint Stock Compa¬ 
nies Act comes into operation, making regis¬ 
tration compulsory on the part of all companies 
composed of more than twenty persons. 

4 . —The Gazette announces the intended mar¬ 
riage of the Prince of Wales to the Princess 
Alexandra of Denmark. 

5 . —General Burnside supersedes M‘Clellan 
as commander of the Federal Army of the 
Potomac. 

6. —The Reindeer, or turf, scandal corre¬ 
spondence. Colonel Burnaby, part owner of 
a horse named Palm Oil, having changed its 
name to Reindeer, asked the dinner-com¬ 
pany at Mamhead how the name was spelt. 
“ ‘Oh,’ said Sir W. Codrington, ‘there is but 
one way of spelling it, viz., “Reindeer”’ to 
which Colonel Burnaby replied, ‘ I will bet 
you a pony on fifty that you are wrong.’ I 
then laid him 10/., and one or two others laid 
him the same. Speaking of authorities, Col. 
Burnaby next said, ‘How do you spell “re¬ 
ferable”?’ He then said, ‘You are wrong 
again.’ I then laid him 10/. on that. After 
booking these bets, Colonel Burnaby said, ‘ I 
will now take two to one I win both bets, ’ and 
I laid him 20/. to 10/. he did not; and I believe 
another gentleman laid him a similar bet to 
mine for a larger amount. Mr. Ten Broeck 
then said that lie was so convinced we were 
right that he would bet 100/. to 1 /. on it, which 
Captain Stewart took.” 

8 . —Explosion of the locomotive-engine 
Perseus , in the engine-shed of the Great Wes¬ 
tern Railway, caused by a corrosion along a 
line of rivets which had gradually weakened 
the plates. Two cleaners and a lighter-up 
were killed, and considerable damage done to 
the engine-shed. 

(634) 


10. —Died, at Cambridge, aged 66 years, 
Mr. Jonas Webb, long celebrated for his suc¬ 
cessful experiments in improving the breed of 
sheep. 

11 . —Lambeth suspension-bridge opened for 
traffic. It was considered the cheapest of the 
London bridges, having cost only 30,000/.— 
less than 1 /. per superficial foot. 

12 . —Mrs. Norman makes a successful de¬ 
fence against a company of burglars who at¬ 
tempt to plunder the residence of her hus¬ 
band, at Whalley-bridge, Derbyshire. One of 
them was so severely wounded by a shot from 
her revolver, that he could with difficulty be 
carried off by his companions. They were all 
captured soon afterwards. 

13 . —Died, at Tubingen, the place of his 
birth, in his 75th year, Johann Ludwig Uhland, 
one of the greatest of modern German poets. 

— Earl Russell writes to Earl Cowley, 
that the Emperor of the French had, through 
his Ambassador, proposed to her Majesty 
as well as the Emperor of Russia, that 
the three Courts should endeavour, both at 
Washington and in communication with the 
Confederate States, to bring about a suspen¬ 
sion of arms for six months, during which 
every act of hostility, direct or indirect, should 
cease, at sea as well as on land. “ After 
weighing all the information which had been 
received froni America, her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment are led to the conclusion that there is 
no ground, at the present moment, to hope 
that the Federal Government would accept 
the proposal suggested, and a refusal from 
Washington at present would prevent any 
speedy renewal of the offer.” 

19 . —The Peninsular and Oriental Steam¬ 
ship Company’s steamer Colombo wrecked in a 
fog-squall on the island of Minicoy, Travan- 
core. The whole of the passengers, and 257 
out of the 630 mail-boxes on board were saved. 
The passengers were kindly treated by the 
natives, and remained on the island in tents for 
ten days, when they were taken off by the 
Ottaway, telegraphed for from Bombay. 

20. —Fire at Price and Co.’s, oil refiners, 
Blackfriars. The property destroyed was con¬ 
siderable, but no lives were lost. 

21 . —The Exchange Hall, Grantham, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

— The ancient church of Austin-friars, City, 
destroyed by fire, originating, it was believed, 
in the carelessness of workmen employed in 
executing some necessary repairs. 

22 . —Heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
the action raised by Serjeant Glover against the 
Count de Persigny and M. Billault, to recover 
14,000/. alleged to have been promised by the 
French Government to the proprietors of the 
Morning Chronicle for their advocacy of Im¬ 
perial projects. 










XOVEMBER 


186 2 . 


DECEMBER 


26 .—Commencement of the memorable 
sessions of the Central Criminal Court, where 
Baron Bramwell, by the well-directed severity 
of his sentences, put a sudden check to the 
brutal garotte crimes which for months back 
had been the terror of London society. An 
Act of Parliament was passed the following 
session to punish such offences by flogging. 

December 1.—Died, aged 78, James Sheri¬ 
dan Knowles, dramatist. 

— The Greek Government order a plebis- 
citi to be taken for the election of a king. A 
general desire being manifested among the 
Hellenes that Prince Alfred should accept the 
throne, England, France, and Russia replied 
on the 13th, that it was their intention to ex¬ 
clude the dynasties of the three protecting 
Powers. 

2 .—At a meeting held in Manchester Town 
Hall to devise means for increasing the relief 
to distressed cotton operatives, and attended by 
Lords Derby and Sefton, Sir Philip Egerton of 
Tatton, and other great land-owners, 70,000/. 
is subscribed, 60,000/. being added afterwards. 

— Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, the case of Seymour v. Butterworth, 
an action for libel brought by W. D. Sey¬ 
mour, Q.C. andM.P. for Southampton, against 
Mr. Butterworth, law-publisher. The libel 
appeared in the May number of the Law 
Magazine and Law Reviezu, in the form 
of an article upon the plaintiff, purporting to 
be a commentary upon his professional career. 
Mr. Seymour had boasted to the electors of 
Southampton that his elevation to the Record- 
ership of Newcastle was a proof of his profes¬ 
sional success. The writer alleged that it was 
given in return for parliamentary support to the 
Government, and further, that at the very time 
the statement was made there was evidence 
before the plaintiff that the Benchers of the 
Middle Temple had censured and almost dis¬ 
barred him for unprofessional conduct in his 
relations with attorneys. Seymour complained 
of having been maligned and persecuted by his 
brethren of the Northern Circuit because he 
was an Irishman, and had, therefore, joined 
them “with the curse of Swift” upon him. 
“ It is only just to Mr. Digby Seymour,” 
writes the critic, “ to say, that there are two 
kinds of Irishmen, and that the cordiality ex¬ 
tended to the one is by no means secure to the 
other. There is the Irish gentlemen, generous, 
accomplished, and urbane—perhaps the highest 
type of the genus gentleman to be found in the 
United Kingdom. There is also the Irish 
blackguard—swaggering, foul-mouthed, and 
shameless ; the most insolent of upstarts, the 
most unblushing of swundlers ; never destitute 
of a quarrel, never at a loss for a lie. For, as 
the Irish gentleman is of rare quality, so the 
Irish blackguard is consummate in his growth. 
Ireland is always great in extremes, more espe¬ 
cially in her psychological productions. She 
has reared generals who have led their armies 


to certain victory, and she has reared also 
the tribe of cabbage-garden heroes. She has 
adorned our Parliament with splendid orators 
and consummate statesmen, and has afflicted 
it also with a breed of bawling demagogues 
and venal fools. And so it happens that this 
green and prolific island, with the singular 
versatility of her race, has supplied to the bar 
of England some of its brightest ornaments and 
some of its blackest sheep; bestowing on the 
former a learning and eloquence which Eng¬ 
lishmen are proud to admire, and enriching 
the latter with a power of impudence and a 
fertility in fraud which defy all description, as 
(to the initiated intellect) they pass all 
knowledge.” At the close of the second 
day’s proceedings the jury returned a verdict 
for the plaintiff—damages 40X. 

3 . —Boiler explosion at the Midland Iron 
Works, Masborough, killing nine of the work¬ 
men, and injuring many others. 

8 . —Series of explosions in the Edmund’s 
Main Colliery, Barnsley, causing the death of 
sixty workmen employed in the pit. When 
firing a charge of powder for the purpose of 
blasting, the gas issuing from the coals became 
ignited, and immediately set fire to the sur¬ 
rounding heaps. The men made many deter¬ 
mined attempts to extinguish this, as they had 
done other fires in the same seam, but it in¬ 
creased with unusual rapidity, till a terrific 
blast up the shaft gave those above warning of 
the fearful character of the explosion which had 
taken place below. The lifting machinery was 
wrought with precision and speed, and it was 
for a time hoped that all would be rescued; 
but a second explosion destroyed the communi¬ 
cation between certain parts of the mine and 
the shaft, and sixty men and boys were en¬ 
closed in one gloomy sepulchre. A third 
explosion took place about one o’clock, which 
not only put an end to all doubt as to the fate 
of the workmen, but caused the death of five 
additional volunteer searchers, who had gal¬ 
lantly encountered the unknown horrors of the 
pit to rescue their brethren. The fire was only 
extinguished by turning a stream of water down 
the shaft, and flooding the workings. 

IO.—At the Winchester Assizes, Ferdinando 
Petrina, an Austrian seaman, was indicted for 
the wilful murder, on the high seas, of the cap¬ 
tain of the English brigantine Winthrop , the 
captain’s wife, and the-first mate Jones. In 
the course of the voyage from San Francisco to 
Monte Video the prisoner rushed on deck in 
an excited state, put out the light, and, with a 
cry of “No more farinha,” commenced a 
butchery which ended in the death of the above 
parties. He was sentenced to be executed, 
and died, on the 30th December, fully admit- 
ting his guilt. 

— Concluded in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, after a five days’ trial, before Mr. Justice 
Crompton and a common jury, the case of 
Hall v. Semple, being an action against a 

( 635 ) 






IECEMBER 


1862-63. 


JANUARY 


medical man for illegally causing the plaintiff 
to be seized and confined in a lunatic asylum, 
and, on another count, for falsely and mali¬ 
ciously, and without reasonable and probable 
cause, giving and getting to be given, medical 
certificates of his insanity, with a view to his 
confinement under the Lunacy Act, 1863, 16th 
and 17th Victoria, cap. 96. The plaintiff him¬ 
self was examined at great length, and his 
married daughter, his son-in-law, and many 
near friends and neighbours, some of whom had 
known him all his life. They one and all gave 
strong evidence, not only that he was perfectly 
sane, but that there never was the least pretence 
for supposing that he was not so ; and, indeed, 
that he was remarkably sensible. Dr. Griffiths, 
a medical man, who had attended the family 
for twenty-eight years, gave similar evidence. 
The defendant, Dr. Semple, who. had been 
twenty-six years in practice, stated in evidence 
that he had furnished his certificate chiefly on 
the testimony of the plaintiff’s wife, confirmed 
by the opinion of Dr. Grey, who had given a 
similar certificate some years before, and also 
from his own observation, at an interview with 
the plaintiff himself, and the testimony of seve¬ 
ral persons to whom Mrs. Hall referred him. 
The jury now returned a verdict for the plaintiff 
on the second count of the indictment, which 
set forth that the defendant, in signing his cer¬ 
tificate, had acted negligently, and without 
reasonable care and caution. Damages 150/. 

13 . —At the Worcester Assizes, William 
Ockeld, aged 70 years, was sentenced to be 
executed for murdering his wife, quite as old 
as himself, by beating her to death with a mop, 
the only provocation alleged in defence being 
that the old woman disturbed the prisoner at 
night by moaning in bed. He was executed 
on the 2d January. 

— Battle of Fredericksburg. The Confe¬ 
derates, after an obstinate engagement, beat 
back the Federal army under General Burnside, 
who was compelled, three days afterwards, 
to withdraw the remnant of his forces across 
the Rappahannock. The Southern generals who 
most prominently distinguished themselves in 
this series of actions were Lee, Longstreet, and 
“Stonewall” Jackson. 

14 . —Austria protests against the Greek 
revolution, and declares in favour of Otho I. 
and his family. 

18 .—The Newcastle steamer Lifeguard 
founders in a storm at sea with all hands. 
Very little of the wreck was ever discovered, 
but it was generally thought she had gone 
down off Flamborough Head. 

— The remains of the lamented Prince 
Consort removed from the temporary resting- 
place provided for them in the vaults of St. 
George’s Chapel, Windsor, to the new mauso¬ 
leum erected for the purpose by her Majesty in 
Frogmore Park. The ceremony took place at 
an early hour in the morning, and was of a 
purely private character. 

(636} 


24 .—Mr. H. G. Elliott, Plenipotentiary 
from Great Britain, arrives in Athens, and 
presents a memorial to the provisional Govern¬ 
ment, declaring the conditions under which 
the Ionian Isles would be ceded by the pro¬ 
tecting Powers. 

26 . —Fire in Portland-place, Soho, destroy¬ 
ing the greater part of the house No. 6, and 
suffocating six children of the Spencer family 
(from four to fourteen years of age) who had 
been brought home from Battersea School to 
enjoy the Christmas holidays with their parents. 

27 . —The Lancashire distress reaches a 
climax this week, the relief lists showing the 
alarming total of 496,816 persons to be depen¬ 
dent on charitable or parochial funds. There 
was no disturbance in the distressed districts, 
nor any complaining among the famine-stricken 
operatives. The weekly loss of wages at the 
same time was estimated at about 168,000/. 
So far as the health of the district was con¬ 
cerned, the reports of the medical officers 
unanimously declared that, apart from epide¬ 
mic maladies, whose origin and progress were 
similar to those of other countries in which 
no distress existed, the health of the popula¬ 
tion was in a satisfactory condition, there being 
no ascertainable connexion between the origin, 
character, or spread of these diseases and the 
distress. 

30 . —Chester Town Hall and Exchange 
destroyed by fire, commencing in the rooms 
over the Council Chamber. 

31 . —Western Virginia admitted as a sepa¬ 
rate State of the American Union under the 
name of Kanawha. 


1863. 

si 

January 1 . —President Lincoln issues a 
proclamation that all persons held as slaves 
within the Confederate States are and hence¬ 
forward shall be free, and that the Execu¬ 
tive Government of the United States, including 
the military and naval authorities thereof, will 
recognise and maintain the freedom of said 
persons. “And I hereby enjoin upon the 
people so declared to be free, to abstain from 
all violence, unless in necessary self-defence ; 
and I recommend to them that in all cases, 
when allowed, they labour faithfully for reason¬ 
able wages. And I further declare and make 
known that such persons of suitable condition 
will be received into the armed service of the 
United States, to garrison forts, positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man vessels 
of all sorts in said service. And upon this, 
sincerely believed to be an act of justice war¬ 
ranted by the Constitution upon military neces¬ 
sity, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
mankind and the gracious favour of Almighty 
God.” With reference to this proclamation, 
Earl Russell wrote to Lord Lyons, January 
j 17: “The proclamation of the President 






JANUARY 


1863. 


JANUARY 


enclosed in your Lordship’s despatch of the 2d 
inst. appears to be of a very strange nature. 
It professes to emancipate all slaves in places 
where the United States cannot exercise any 
jurisdiction or make emancipation a reality ; 
but it does not decree emancipation of slaves 
in any States, or part of States, occupied by 
Federal troops, and subject to United States 
jurisdiction, and where, therefore, emancipa¬ 
tion, if decreed, might have been carried into 
effect. . .'. The proclamation makes slavery at 
once legal and illegal, and makes slaves either 
punishable for running away from their masters, 
or entitled to be supported and encouraged in 
so doing, according to the locality of the plan¬ 
tation to which they belong, and the loyalty of 
the State in which they may happen to be. 
There seems to be no declaration of a principle 
adverse to slavery in this proclamation. It is 
a measure of war, and a measure of war of a 
very questionable kind. As President Lincoln 
has thrice appealed to the judgment of man¬ 
kind in his proclamation, I venture to say I 
do not think it can, or ought to, satisfy the 
friends of abolition who look for total and 
impartial freedom for the slave, and not for 
vengeance on the slave-owner.” 

2. —The English envoy at Brazil orders 
the seizure of several merchant vessels, in 
reprisal of alleged insults offered to the officers 
of H.M.S. Forte and for the pillage of the 
Prince of Wales , a trading vessel wrecked on 
the Brazilian coast. The native Government 
afterwards paid, under protest, the indemnity 
demanded by the English envoy. 

— Close of a series of battles at Murfrees¬ 
boro’ between the Northern and Southern 
forces. The Confederates, led by General 
Bragg, were ultimately beaten back by General 
Rosencrans. 

3 . —Sunnyside Bleaching Works, Salford, 
destroyed by fire. 

6 . —Fire at Plymouth, breaking out in an 
isolated block of buildings used as an hotel, 
assembly room, and theatre. 

— Loss of the London and Liverpool steamer 
Liverpool, and the barque La Plata , bound to 
Lima, through coming into collision off Point 
Lynas, in St. George’s Channel. No lives 
were lost, the crew and passengers in each vessel 
taking to their boats, in which they kept afloat 
till next morning, when assistance arrived. 

7. —Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court, before Mr. Justice Blackburn, the trial 
of the prisoners Buncher, butcher ; Burnett, la¬ 
bourer ; Brewer, mould-maker; and Griffiths, 
printer, indicted for uttering forged notes 
of the Bank of England printed on paper 
stolen from the mills at Laverstoke. The 
entire details of this mysterious and successful 
fraud were laid bare by the approver Brown, 
who was employed as an assistant at the 
mills, and contrived to secrete quantities ol 
paper manufactured for 5/., 10/., and 50/. 
notes. Through him these sheets were con¬ 


veyed to Buncher and Burnett, and from them 
they passed to the printer Griffiths at Birming¬ 
ham, where quantities were seized along with 
the forged plates. While proceeding to a 
field where certain of the plates had been 
buried, Griffiths admitted that he had printed 
the whole of the notes forged on the Bank 
of England for the last seventeen years. He 
printed for Buncher on this occasion 180 5/. 
notes, and twenty 10/. ; and twenty 5/. notes 
for another person, most probably “the woman 
in black ” who met Brown by arrange¬ 
ment at the Waterloo station on various occa¬ 
sions, and received from him a portion of the 
stolen paper. When Buncher (whose osten¬ 
sible business was a butcher in Westminster) 
received the notes back from Birmingham, 
they appeared generally to have been exchanged 
for a certain quantity of gold in a house, North 
Kent-terrace, New Cross. Griffiths was sen¬ 
tenced to penal servitude for life, Buncher 
to twenty-five years, Burnett to twenty years, 
and Williams to four years’ penal servitude. 
Robert Cummings, who was next placed in the 
dock charged with having a quantity of the 
stolen paper in his possession for unlawful 
purposes, was acquitted, on the technical plea 
that there was no other evidence than the 
approver’s to connect him with Griffiths or any 
other of the gang. 

7 . —Alexander Milne, jeweller, Edinburgh, 
murders James Paterson in a dwelling-house 
in South Frederick-street. The latter, who 
was a working jeweller, entered Milne’s shop 
about 11 o’clock, and a few minutes afterwards 
he was seen to come out at the area door, 
climb over the railings, and enter an adjoining 
shop, where he fell down, and expired in a few 
minutes, having been stabbed to the heart. 
Milne had been drinking heavily for some 
time, and for two or three days preceding 
the murder was violently excited by imagi¬ 
nary injuries inflicted, he alleged, by Paterson 
among others. Milne gave various accounts 
of the occurrence, sometimes admitting and 
even justifying the murder, then expressing 
regret for it, and once he made a de¬ 
claration to the effect that he was playing 
with the dagger when Paterson entered, and 
could not prevent him rushing against it. 
Milne was tried before the High Court of 
Justiciary on February 9th, when the jury, 
though finding him guilty of murder, gave 
effect to the plea of insanity set up in his 
behalf by recommending him to mercy. 

8 . —Accident at the Knottingley station of 
the Great Northern Railway, caused by the 
York and Leeds trains running into each other 
at the junction there. Many of the passengers 

1 were injured. 

9. —-Ceremonial opening of the Metropolitan 
Railway. A banquet in celebration of the 
event was held at the Farringdon-street ter- 

' minus, several of the speakers giving interest¬ 
ing details of the difficulties which had to be 
overcome in laying down a line of railway in 

( 637 ) 









JANUAR Y 


I 36 3 . 


JANUARY 


the underground world of London. When the 
line was open to the public, next day, about 
30,000 people were conveyed between the 
various stations. 

9 . —At Locarno, Lago Maggiore, the dome 
of the church of La Madonna del Sasso crashes 
through the roof of the building, and entombs 
in its ruins 53 females who were worshipping 
there at the time, 

14 *.— The Poles rise against the Russian 
conscription—designed, as described by Lord 
Napier, “to make a clean sweep of the 
revolutionary youth of Poland ; to shut up the 
most energetic and dangerous spirits in the 
restraints of the Russian army; to kidnap 
the opposition, and carry it off to Siberia or 
the Caucasus.” At midnight police agents' 
and soldiers commenced the work in Warsaw. 
They surrounded the houses noted down in 
their list, and a detachment entered each to 
seize the men designated to serve, the parents 
being taken as guarantees in the case of 
absence of young men. During the first even¬ 
ing about 2,500 were carried off. Next day 
thousands took flight, and commenced an 
organized resistance against Russia, which 
soon spread over the entire area of Russian 
Poland. A Central Committee sitting at 
Warsaw was the main directing body in this 
struggle for freedom. Langiewicz fought for 
a time at the head of the national forces as 
Dictator of Poland, but disappeared in a 
mysterious manner after a desperate encounter 
with the Russians on the 18th March. He 
was afterwards known to have crossed the 
Vistula and given himself up to Austria. 

— The Prussian Chambers open their session 
at Berlin, the deputies soon after carrying an 
address stating that the ministers had carried 
on the administration against the Constitution. 
Count Bismarck objected, on the ground that 
while the ministry in England was the ministry 
of the Parliament, in Prussia they were bound 
to be the ministry of the King. The King 
refused the claim of the deputies to control the 
finances of the kingdom. 

18 . —Death of Said, Viceroy of Egypt, and 
accession of his brother Ismail. 

19 . —In reply to an address from the work¬ 
ing men of Manchester, President Lincoln 
writes: “I know and deeply deplore the 
sufferings which the working men at Man¬ 
chester, and in all Europe, are called to 
endure in this crisis. It has been often and 
studiously represented that the attempts to 
overthrow this Government, which was built 
upon the foundation of human rights, and to 
substitute for it one which should rest ex¬ 
clusively on the basis of human slavery, was 
likely to obtain the favour of Europe. Through 
the action of our disloyal citizens, the working 
men of Europe have been subjected to a severe 
trial, for the purpose of forcing their sanction 
to that attempt. Under these circumstances 
I cannot but regard your decisive utterances 

(638) 


upun the question as an instance of sublime 
Christian heroism which has not been sur¬ 
passed in any age or in any country.” 

19 .—Minute drawn up by Lord Derby for the 
guidance of the Executive Committee of the 
Lancashire Relief Fund. “The committee had 
not only to distribute the alms entrusted to 
them by pubKc beneficence, but so to dis¬ 
tribute them that on the one hand they may. 
not place the honest and industrious on the 
same footing with the idle and profligate ; and, 
on the other hand, that they may not abuse 
public liberality by making their funds con¬ 
tribute to the relief of those who have unex¬ 
pended means of their own.” 

— Died, aged 74, Horace Vemet, French 
historical painter. 

22 .—Fall of Lytham Lighthouse, erected 
on the Lancashire coast, at a dangerous spot 
known as “The Double Stanners.” The de¬ 
struction was partly owing to the fierceness of 
the gale which swept round it some days pre¬ 
viously, and partly to the action of the sea, 
which had worked itself beneath the founda¬ 
tion of the structure. 

26 . —Three men killed at Bradley Colliery, 
near Bilston, in consequence of the rope giving 
way when they were being let down the shaft. 

— At the Princess’s Theatre, Oxford-street, 
two ballet-girls seriously injured, the dress 
of one taking fire at the side-lights, that of 
the other when she was attempting to rescue her 
companion. One of them died from the injuries 
received. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict 
of accidental death, but strongly urged the 
necessity of light dresses being rendered unin¬ 
flammable by the manufacturer and laundress. 

27 . —The Archbishop of Canterbury replies 
to an address of the clergy of the rural deanery 
of Chesterfield on the subject of the heresies 
of Bishop Colenso : “ It is to be deplored for 
his own sake as well as for the sake of those 
whose minds may be perplexed, not certainly 
by the force of his arguments, but because 
they are advanced by a bishop, that he should 
have felt himself called upon at once to 
publish his crude sentiments, which deeper 
study and more profound reflection might 
most probably have induced him to renounce, 
but which the hasty step he has now taken 
may, it is to be feared, render impossible. 
You may be assured that no effort shall be 
wanting on my part, nor, I trust, on the part 
of my right reverend brethren, to vindicate the 
faith of the Church in this instance, as far as it 
is in our power to do so.” 

30 . —Charles Clark, Esq., a magistrate for 
Staffordshire and formerly Mayor of Wolver¬ 
hampton, shoots himself in his bed-room in a 
fit of nervous excitement. 

31 . —Died at Bowood, in his 84th year, 
Henry, Marquis of Lansdowne, a statesman 
of deserved influence with both the great 
political parties, and widely known for his 











JAXUAR V 


1863. 


FEBRUARY 


judicious patronage of artists and men of 
letters. 

31 .—The Confederates attack the blockading 
squadron before Charlestown, and compel it to 
retire for a short time. 

February 5 .—The fifth session of the pre¬ 
sent Parliament opened by Royal Commission. 
The first paragraph of the Speech made refer¬ 
ence to the treaty concluded with the King 
of Denmark for the marriage of the Prince 
of Wales and the Princess Alexandra. The 
Greeks, it was said, had expressed a desire that 
Prince Alfred should accept the Greek crown, 
but “ the diplomatic engagements of her Ma¬ 
jesty’s crown, together with other weighty con¬ 
siderations, have prevented her Majesty from 
yielding to the general wish of the Greek nation. 
If the Republic of the Seven Islands should 
declare a deliberate wish to be united to the 
kingdom of Greece, her Majesty would be pre¬ 
pared to take such steps as may be necessary 
for a revision of the treaty of November 1815, 
by which that Republic was reconstituted and 
was placed under the protection of the British 
Government.” Another sentence referred to 
the civil war raging in the Northern States of 
America, her Majesty having abstained from 
taking any step with a view to induce a cessa¬ 
tion of the conflict, because it did not appear 
that such overtures could be attended with a 
probability of success. The distress in the 
cotton districts, and the generosity with which 
relief was being administered, were also referred 
to. In the course of the debate on the Address, 
the home and foreign policy of the Government 
was discussed at considerable length. No 
division took place in either House on the 
Address. 

— At an afternoon sitting of the House of 
Lords, the Prince of Wales takes his seat for 
the first time. His Royal Highness wore 
the scarlet robe with ermine bars, proper to 
his rank as Duke of Cornwall, over the uni¬ 
form of a general in the army. He also wore 
the “George,” and the Star of the Order of 
India. The oath having been administered, a 
procession of Peers moved towards the throne, 
and the Duke of Cambridge pointing to the 
chair of state on the right, his Royal Highness 
took his seat there, covered. Rising imme¬ 
diately afterwards he again, advancing to the 
woolsack, shook hands cordially with the 
Lord Chancellor, who offered his congratula¬ 
tions. His Royal Highness then retired by 
the Peers’ entrance. In the evening the Prince 
attended the debate on the Address, taking his 
seat on the cross-benches. 

— Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, before Lord Chief Justice 
Cockburn and a special jury, the case of Clark 
v. the Queen, being an action (the first of the 
kind) raised under Mr. Bovill’s Petition of 
Right, by an inventor of certain methods 
of constructing iron ships, against the Admi¬ 
ralty, for an alleged use and application of his 


invention, or of his plans and drawings, in 
the construction of the Warrior and others of 
our new iron vessels of war. The Petition of 
Right was filed so long ago as March 1861, 
plaintiff framing his case, not only upon his 
patent, but also on a second and distinct count, 
an alleged contract by the Admiralty to accept 
and use his plans and remunerate him for their 
use. Particulars of infringement were then de¬ 
livered, which comprised “ longitudinal framing 
on each side of internal keel,” and “plates 
of vertical framing set up according to the 
invention;” “vertical floors;” “longitudinal 
framing inside and out; mode of securing tim¬ 
ber to external framing ; a particular mode of 
framing in floors ; timber between two thick¬ 
nesses of metal; and tonguing and grooving 
plates.” Two main points in dispute were 
whether these were included in the alleged 
invention, and if so whether they were novel¬ 
ties, so that they could legally be the sub¬ 
jects of a patent. The tables of the Court 
were covered with sections and models of the 
Warrior and other similar vessels, while the 
Court in some degree, crowded as it was with 
eminent scientific men, had the aspect of a 
mechanical museum or conversazione of the 
Society of Civil Engineers. The amount claimed 
in name of damages was 500,000/. The trial 
lasted over five days, in the course of which 
a great number of marine engineers of eminence 
and Admiralty officers were examined. Mr. 
Watts, the Chief Constructor of the Navy, said 
he had designed the Warrior without any aid 
whatever from the petitioner’s designs. In his 
charge the Lord Chief Justice formally directed 
the jury to consider—(1) Whether the patent had 
been infringed in the building of the Warrior, 
&c., either in the use of the separate framework 
and the wooden planking, or the tonguing and 
grooving. (2) Whether the petitioner’s speci¬ 
fication and drawings showed vertical and lon¬ 
gitudinal framing separate from the plates. 
(3) Whether, if so, that was a new invention 
or had been previously used. (4) Whether it 
was so described in the specification that a 
competent workman could therefrom construct 
such a framework. (5) Whether the complete 
specification departed from the provisional. 
(6) Whether the petitioner had been employed 
by the Admiralty, or had furnished draw¬ 
ings, &c., on the terms he alleged. The jury 
then retired to consider their verdict, and were 
absent above an hour. On their return into 
Court they returned answers to the above 
questions thus:—(1) That the patent has not 
been infringed— i.e. in the construction of the 
hull. (2) That the petitioner’s specification 
does not show longitudinal and vertical fram¬ 
ing separate from the plates. (3) As to the 
question of novelty they desired to be excused 
from answering. (4) The jury likewise de¬ 
sired to be excused from answering as to 
whether the specification described the inven¬ 
tion sufficiently, and the Lord Chief Justice 
said it was not now material. (5) The jury 
said the complete specification did contain some 

( 639 ) 








FEBRUAR / 


1863. 


FEBRUARY 


matters- which were not in the provisional. 
(6) They found that the petitioner had not 
been employed by the Admiralty. This, of 
course, amounted to a verdict for the Crown, 
and was so entered. The jury added, that they 
desired to say nothing as to the validity of the 
plaintiff’s patent on other points. 

7 . —Wreck of H.M.S. Orpheus on a sand¬ 
bank in Manukau harbour, west coast of New 
Zealand. From the inquiry which took place, 
it appeared that either she was not kept far 
enough to the north, or that the middle bank 
had very recently extended itself unknown to 
the pilots ; for very shortly after passing the 
bar, and when about two miles from the Head, 
the ship struck on what was subsequently dis¬ 
covered to be the extreme northern edge of the 
middle bank, and at about fifty feet from the 
deep water. The order was given to back 
astern, but the engines never moved ; the ship 
immediately broached to with her head to the 
north, and the waters made one complete 
sweep over the port broadside, tearing to 
pieces and carrying everything before them ; 
the heavy bumping of the ship then forced 
up the hatchway fastenings, and she conse¬ 
quently soon filled with water. The small 
steamer Wonga-Wonga picked a number of 
the survivors off the wreck ; but of 260 officers, 
crew, and marines on board, no less than 190 
were drowned, many of them being carried 
beneath the wreck by the eddies and under¬ 
currents which formed about the vessel when 
the strong flood-tide set in. About eight hours 
after the Orpheus struck, the masts went one 
by one, the people in the tops being heard 
cheering and encouraging each other as they 
fell. The commander, Commodore Burnett, 
C.B., was among those drowned. His body 
was recovered by the natives, and buried in 
the first instance on the coast, but afterwards 
disinterred, and removed to Auckland, where 
it was interred with military honours. 

8 . —Treaty concluded at Warsaw between 
Russia and Prussia, for united action in sup¬ 
pressing the Polish insurrection. 

©.—The Bishop of Lincoln’s palace at Rise- 
holme partly destroyed by a fire, believed to 
have originated in the chimney of the servants’ 
hall. 

— The George Griswold arrives at Liverpool 
laden with provisions, the gift of Americans 
to the Lancashire fund for the relief of the 
distressed operatives. The commander was 
presented with an address by the Chamber 
of Commerce, expressive of thankfulness for 
the munificent and well-timed gift. Another 
vessel, the Achilles , arrived in the Mersey, on 
the same charitable mission, on the 24th. 

12 . —The Prince of Wales entertained by 
the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, and 
presented with the freedom of that Corporation. 

13 . —The Upper House of Convocation, at 
the request of the Lower, agree to the ap¬ 
pointment of a Committee to inquire into the 

(640) 


teaching of Bishop Colenso’s work on the 
Pentateuch. 

13 .—Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Common Pleas, Guildhall, before Lord Chief 
Justice Erie and a special jury, the case of 
Collingwood v. Berkeley and others, which led 
to an exposure of what the Times described as 
one of the greatest swindles of the day. The 
action was brought by the plaintiff, Isaac Col¬ 
lingwood, against the Hon. F. H. F. Berkeley, 
N. J. Fenner, E. Loder, and others, as Direc¬ 
tors of the British Columbia Overland Transit 
Company (Limited), to recover the sum of 
45/. paid by the plaintiff for his passage and 
transit to British Columbia, and the amount of 
damage and costs he had been put to from the 
failure on the part of the defendants to carry 
out a contract they had entered into with him 
to convey him to Columbia, and for leaving 
him without any provision for conveying him 
further, at St. Paul’s, Minnesota, in the United 
States of America. The Overland Transit 
Company was projected by Colonel Sleigh, 
with the avowed object of conveying emigrants 
to British Columbia. He caused an attractive 
prospectus of the project to be drawn up, and 
prefixed to it a list of first-class names as 
Directors. How many of these gentlemen, or 
whether any of them, had been consulted, did 
not appear, but there was no doubt that several 
had not, and in some instances peremptory 
orders were given to omit names. Berke¬ 
ley was among those who appeared to have 
given their consent before the prospectus was 
issued. It was next duly announced that the 
first batch of emigrants would be transported 
to British Columbia in the course of May, vid 
Quebec, Chicago, and St. Paul’s, Minnesota. 
Thence they were to be conveyed to their des¬ 
tination, partly by water, partly by land, under 
the protection of a “powerful escort,” and it 
was stated that plenty of cattle and provisions 
would be taken, that the prairies abounded 
in wild buffalo, and that the rivers swarmed 
with fish. Accordingly, Mr. Collingwood, with 
thirty-one other passengers, having paid their 
passage-money of 42/. each to cover everything, 
sailed on May 31, from Glasgow, in charge of 
the Company’s agent, Mr. Hayward, and arrived 
without mishap at St. Paul’s. There they found 
nothing whatever in readiness—no lodging, no 
provisions, no covered waggons or other means 
of transport, no escort, and no money to pur¬ 
chase or hire any of these. Hayward had 
brought none with him ; Hines, the agent at 
St. Paul’s, had got none ; neither Messrs. Bur¬ 
bank, the contractors for the transport of emi¬ 
grants, nor any one else would take the Com¬ 
pany’s bills, and there was nothing for it but to 
send Mr. Collingwood back, and to camp out 
in the meantime under canvas. Mr. Colling¬ 
wood hurried back to England in no enviable 
mood, and knocked at the door of No. 6, 
Copthall-court, Throgmorton-street, where the 
office had been. It was gone ; the Company’s 
name was erased, and the laundress in occupa¬ 
tion could tell him nothing about it. He 










FEBRUARY 


1863. 


FEBRUARY 


sought out the Company’s solicitor, but found 
that the bubble had burst, and that the Directors 
repudiated the agency of Colonel Sleigh. A 
verdict was now given against all the Directors 
except Fenner. Damages 160/. 

15 . —Following the course of the White 
Nile from Ripon Falls, Lake N’yanza, Speke 
and his party enter Gondokoro, where they were 
met, not by Consul Petherick, as had been 
intended, but by Mr. Samuel Baker, and hos¬ 
pitably entertained. 

16 . —With reference to the suspension of 
intercourse with Brazil, following on the dis¬ 
pute regarding the wreck of the Prince of 
Wales in the Rio Grande, Lord Derby, in the 
House of Lords, said that more unjusti¬ 
fiable proceedings were never taken by any 
representative of the Crown against a friendly 
government than those which appeared to have 
been taken by Mr. Christie, and he trusted to 
hear that they had been disapproved of by her 
Majesty’s Ministers. Earl Russell justified the 
conduct of the Government on the ground, 
mainly, that the Brazilian authorities had pre¬ 
vented an inquiry being made into the matter 
of our complaints. 

17 . —In the Court of Probate and Divorce, 
Sir C. Cresswell gives judgment in the noto¬ 
rious case of Gipps v. Gipps and Hume. 
Augustus Pemberton Gipps prayed for a 
dissolution of his marriage with Helen Etough 
Gipps, on the ground of her adultery with 
William Wentworth Fitzwilliam Hume. The 
respondent pleaded a denial of the charge. 
The co-respondent also denied the charge, and 
further alleged that the petitioner had been 
guilty of connivance and of wilful neglect and 
misconduct, conducing to the adultery if it 
had been committed. He also averred that 
the petitioner had filed a former petition 
charging adultery between the respondent and 
co-respondent, and that when the petition was 
about to be heard the petitioner, in considera¬ 
tion of a large sum of money to be paid to 
him by the co-respondent, agreed to withdraw 
the petition ; that the co-respondent had paid 
to the petitioner a large sum of money, and 
that when the petition came on for hearing the 
petitioner produced no evidence in support 
of it, and the verdict was thereupon entered 
for the respondent and co-respondent. The 
petitioner by his replication traversed the 
allegations of connivance and wilful neglect 
and misconduct, and as to the other averments 
in the co-respondent’s answer, pleaded that 
they were irrelevant except as evidence of con¬ 
nivance, and that they contained a partial and 
incorrect statement of the circumstances of the 
former suit.—Petition dismissed. 

— The Earl of Rosse installed Chancellor 
of Trinity College, Dublin. 

— In explanation of the intention of the 
Oxford High Church party to bring the teach¬ 
ing of Professor Jowett under the notice of the 
Vice-Chancellor’s Court, Dr. Pusey writes: 
(641) 


“It is impossible to look upon Professor 
Jowett’s teaching otherwise than as a part of a 
larger whole—a systematic attempt to revo¬ 
lutionize the Church of England. The publi¬ 
cation of the ‘Essays and Reviews’ was a 
challenge to admit that teaching as one of 
the recognised phases of faith in the English 
Church. The subjects on which we are told 
on high legal authority that there is evidence 
that Professor Jowett has distinctly contravened 
the teaching of the Church of England, are 
great and central truths. These are, the doc¬ 
trine of the Atonement, the inspiration of Holy 
Scripture, and the agreement of the creeds with 
Holy Scripture. Painful, then, as it is to have 
to act against one with whom in this place we 
must needs be brought into contact—painful 
as are many other consequences of an appeal 
to law—yet I hold myself bound by my duty 
to God, to the Church, and to the souls of 
men, to ascertain distinctly whether such con¬ 
tradiction of fundamental truths is to be part 
of the recognised system of the University.” 
Next day Mr. Godfrey Lushington wrote : “ Of 
the prosecutors, Dr. Pusey, too well known to 
fame to make any statement, has been suspended 
from the University pulpit for heterodoxy, he 
has been condemned in person by Dr. Ogilvie, 
one of his co-prosecutors, and indirectly by 
the other, Dr. Heurtley, and he and his fol¬ 
lowers were saved from impending academical 
exile by the intervention of the very man he 
is now prosecuting.” 

18 . —The French Government invites Russia 
to tranquillize Poland. 

19 . —In view of the marriage of the Prince 
of Wales, and in response to a Royal message 
on the subject, the House of Commons unani¬ 
mously adopt Lord Palmerston’s motion to 
settle 100,000/. per annum on his Royal 
Highness—40,000/. to be drawn from the Con¬ 
solidated Fund, and 60,000/. from the revenues 
of the Duchy of Cornwall; 10,000/. was also 
voted for the separate use of the Princess of 
Wales, and 30,000/. per annum in the event 
of her surviving his Royal Highness. 

20 . —The Pneumatic Despatch Company 
commence operations by sending the mail-bags 
through the tubing from Euston Station to the 
post-office in Eversholt-street. 

23 .—In the House of Commons Lord 
Clarence Paget introduces the Navy Estimates, 
and moves for a vote of 10,736,032/., being 
a reduction of 1,058,273/. as compared with 
the preceding year. The number of seamen 
and marines to be the same—76,000 men. 

— The leader of the Polish insurgents, Louis 
Microslawski, defeated and put to flight by 
Russians. 

— Unveiling of the Wedgwood statue at 
Stoke-on-Trent. 

27 .—At Oxford, in the Chancellor’s Court, 
Montague Bernard, Esq., Assessor, delivers judg¬ 
ment in the case instituted by the Rev. Dr. Pusey 

T T 





FEBRUARY 


1863. 


MARCH 


and two other Doctors of Divinity against the 
Rev. Benjamin Jowett, Professor of Greek in 
the University, for heresy contained in certain 
of his published writings. Objections were 
taken by defendant’s proctor that the court 
had no jurisdiction in spiritual matters; that 
it was unfit to do justice to the case ; and 
that it had no power over a Regius Professor. 
The Assessor now gave judgment that the 
protest in which these objections were em* 
bodied should be disallowed, but that the case 
must not be carried further. 

27 .—In the course of a debate on the Navy 
Estimates, Sir F. Smith made certain obser¬ 
vations leading Mr. Reed, Chief Constructor 
of the Navy, to write him an epistle which 
the House adjudged to be a breach of its privi¬ 
leges. Mr. Reed now appeared at the bar in 
custody of the Serjeant-at-arms, and expressed 
his regret for having written the letter, as he 
was now sensible that he had entirely misunder¬ 
stood the purport of Sir F. Smith’s observations. 
He was therefore excused from further attend¬ 
ance. 

— Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, Guildhall, before Lord Chief 
Justice Cockburn and a special jury, the libel 
case of Campbell v. Spottiswoode, being an ac¬ 
tion raised by the Rev. Dr. Campbell, for some 
years editor of the British Banner , and now 
editor and proprietor of certain religious papers 
—the British Ensign and the British Standard 
—against the printer of the Saturday Review , 
for an alleged libel in one of its articles. The 
first sentence of the article referred to a series of 
“Letters to the Prince Consort,” published 
by the plaintiff in his paper in i860. The 
general tenor of these letters, as admitted by 
the Doctor in cross-examination, was to warn 
the religious public of the dangers which might 
arise to the Prince of Wales from his being at 
Rome in the company of Roman Catholic pre¬ 
lates ; from his visit to Canada, where Roman 
Catholics were in the ascendant; and from his 
being sent to Oxford for education. In August 
1861 there was an article in the Saturday 
Review commenting upon these letters, and 
alluding to a hoax said to have been practised 
upon the Doctor in respect of their subject. 
In September 1861 there commenced in the 
British Ensign and British Standard a series 
of letters from the plaintiff as editor, on the 
subject of “ Missions to China.” One of these 
letters, published in that month, was addressed 
to the Queen, and contained a passage which 
was reprinted and commented upon in the 
article alleged to be libellous. On the 6th of 
June, 1862, there appeared in the British Stan¬ 
dard following a long letter from the plaintiff, 
as editor, on the same subject, a letter from 
the publisher, stating : “Co-operation is ear¬ 
nestly invited to aid in sending forth on all 
sides facts, arguments, and appeals calcu¬ 
lated to awaken compassion for the lost mil¬ 
lions of the land of China.” Other passages 
referred to the encouragement given to the 
(642) 


scheme by various friends, some known, others 
unknown. An article on the subject in the 
Saturday Review of the 14th June contained 
the following : “To spread the knowledge of 
the Gospel in China would be a good and an 
excellent thing, and worthy of all praise and 
encouragement; but to make such a work a 
mere pretext for puffing an obscure newspaper 
into circulation is a most scandalous and 
flagitious act, and it is this act, we fear, we 
must charge against Dr. Campbell. Buy the 
letters, and save the heathen. ... No doubt 
it is deplorable to find an ignorant credulity 
manifested among a class of the community 
entitled, on many grounds, to respect ; but 
now and then this veiy credulity may be turned 
to good account. Dr. Campbell is just now 
making use of it for a very practical purpose, 
and to-morrow some other religious speculator 
will cry his wares in the name of Heaven, and 
the mob will hasten to deck him out in purple 
and fine linen. When Dr. Campbell has 
finished his ‘Chinese Letters,’ he will be a 
greater simpleton than we take him for if he 
does not force off another 100,000 copies of his 
paper by launching afresh series of thunderbolts 
against the powers of darkness. In the mean¬ 
while, there can be no doubt that he is making 
a very good thing indeed of the spiritual waters 
of the Chinese.” In summing up, the Lord 
Chief Justice said to the jury : “ If you think 
that the only effect of the article was fairly to 
discuss the proposal of the plaintiff, then find 
for the defendant. If you think that the effect 
is to impute base and sordid motives, then your 
verdict ought to be for the plaintiff. If, at the 
same time, you are of opinion that the writer 
did so under an honest and genuine belief that 
the plaintiff was fairly open to these charges, I 
invite you, while you find your verdict for the 
plaintiff with such damages as you think proper, 
to find that matter of fact specially ; and T 
shall, in that event, reserve leave to the de¬ 
fendant to move to enter the verdict for him, 
if the Court should be of opinion that the 
matter of fact so found in his favour entitles 
him to the verdict.” The jury then retired to 
consider their verdict, and returned, after the 
lapse of an hour, with a verdict for the plaintiff 
for 50/., at the same time finding specially 
‘ ‘ That the writer of the Saturday Review be¬ 
lieved his imputations to be well founded.” 
On the 18th April an application was made in 
the Court of Queen’s Bench for a rule to show 
cause why the verdict for the plaintiff should 
not be set aside and entered for the defendant. 
Rule refused. 

March 2 .—Earl Russell writes to the British 
Minister at St. Petersburg that her Majesty’s 
Government view with the deepest concern the 
state of things now existing in Poland: “Great 
Britain, as a party to the treaty of 1815, and 
as a Power deeply interested in the tranquillity 
of Europe, deems itself entitled to express its 
opinions upon the events now taking place, 
and is anxious to do so in the most friendly 





march: 


1863. 


MARCH 


spirit towards Russia, and with a sincere desire 
to promote the interests of all parties concerned. 
Why does not his Imperial Majesty, whose 
benevolence is generally and cheerfully acknow- 
leged, put an end at once to this bloody con¬ 
flict by proclaiming mercifully an immediate 
and unconditional amnesty to his revolted Polish 
subjects, and at the same time announce his 
intention to replace without delay his kingdom 
of Poland in possession of the political and civil 
privileges which were granted to it by the Em¬ 
peror Alexander I. in execution of the stipula¬ 
tions of the Treaty of 1815? If this were done 
a national Diet and a national Administration 
would in all probability content th; Poles, and 
satisfy European opinion.” 

6 . —Russia relieves the Polish peasantry from 
the oppressive rights of the nobility and landed 
proprietors. 

7 . —A public reception, remarkable for its 
splendour and enthusiasm, given to the Prin¬ 
cess Alexandra of Denmark on her arrival in 
this country. She was met at Gravesend by 
the Prince of Wales, and received by the Lords 
of the Admiralty and the dignitaries of the 
town. An address presented on the occasion 
expressed the delight of the Mayor, aldermen, 
and burgesses of the borough at the honour 
conferred on the town by selecting it as that 
part of her adopted country which she had 
chosen first to honour with her presence. The 
journey by rail to the metropolis was performed 
in a leisurely manner, to afford some satisfac¬ 
tion to the eager crowds which gathered at 
every station along the line. When Bricklayers’ 
Arms Station was reached, a royal and official 
deputation were waiting on the platform to 
receive the illustrious bride and bridegroom. 
A slight luncheon was also partaken of here 
before they set out on their progress through the 
metropolis. The route lay by way of the Old 
Kent and Dover-roads, the Borough High-street, 
across London-bridge (where the procession was 
augmented by the Lord Mayor, Corporation, 
and City companies), King William-street, 
the Mansion House (where the Lady Mayoress 
presented a tasteful bouquet to the Princess), 
Cheapside, St. Paul’s Churchyard (where seats 
were erected to accommodate about 12,000), 
Ludgate-hill, Fleet-street, the Strand, Pall- 
mall, Piccadilly, and Hyde Park (where the 
Volunteers mustered in great force), to the station 
of the Great Western Railway at Paddington. 
Probably the most notable feature of the wel¬ 
come was the decoration of London-bridge, 
which was taken in hand and completed at 
great expense by the Corporation. Along the 
entire route the people were packed in such 
masses as excited wonder that even so gigantic 
a population as London could furnish the spec¬ 
tacle. Not a building could be descried from 
which did. not wave some flag, floral device, or 
other token of welcome ; the whole route, too, 
being literally overarched with a canopy of 
banners, garlands, and streamers. The police 
arrangements in the City were unfortunately 

( 643 ) 


not of the most perfect description for permit¬ 
ting the different deputations to join the pro¬ 
cession, and at the Mansion House and Temple 
Bar the lives of spectators were for hours 
placed in great jeopardy. From Paddington 
the Prince and Princess continued their journey 
to Slough, where carriages were waiting to 
carry them through Eton to Windsor, which 
was reached about 5.30 p.m. The welcome at 
the close of this royal progress was as cordial 
and universal as that which greeted them on 
their entry into the metropolis. 

8 . —Resignation of Sir Rowland Hill of his 
office of Secretary to the Post Office announced 
in the House of Lords, and a high tribute paid 
to him as one who had introduced and com¬ 
pleted an improvement which had, perhaps, 
conferred more benefit on mankind than any 
other invention. 

IO.—Marriage of the Prince of Wales and 
the Princess Alexandra of Denmark solemnized 
with great pomp in St. George’s Chapel, 
Windsor. Regarded as a work, of art, the cere¬ 
mony was described by spectators as perfect. 
“Everything had been foreseen, and everything 
provided for. From the first to the last, one 
event followed another with a certain ease of 
action and unity of design which left nothing to 
be desired. At the words ‘ I, Albert Edward, 
take thee, Alexandra,’ &c., the Prince repeated 
word for word after the Primate, though now 
and again, when it was the turn of the young 
bride she could be heard*to answer almost 
inaudibly. The concluding prayer was solemnly 
repeated, and Prince and Princess rose while 
the Primate joined their hands and uttered the 
final words—‘ Those whom God hath joined 
together let no man put asunder. ’ Soon after, 
the guns in the Long Walk were heard booming 
forth, and the steeples throughout the town 
seemed to fill the air with sound. Raising his 
voice, the Primate solemnly pronounced the 
benediction, during which the Queen, now 
deeply affected, was observed to kneel in her 
rivate closet and bury her face in her hand- 
erchief. The Bride and Bridegroom then 
joined hands, and turning to the Queen gave a 
nod of kindly , friendship, which the Queen re¬ 
turned in kind. In another minute, the Queen, 
giving a similar greeting to the Prince, quitted 
the closet, and to strains of inspiring music the 
whole pageant went pouring out of the choir in 
a gorgeous stream or flood of colours of waving 
plumes and flaming jewels.” After a short in¬ 
terview with her Majesty, at the Castle, the 
Prince and Princess set out for Osborne. The 
festivities attendant upon the marriage were 
of the most universal and elaborate description. 
Bridal banquets were held in every town 
of note in the kingdom ; and in the even¬ 
ing the great cities presented a spectacle in 
the way of illumination never surpassed 
for magnificence. In all the principal streets 
of London the illumination was very general, 
and especially brilliant in those through 
which the royal pageant of Saturday had 

T T 2 






MARCH 


MARCH 


1S63. 


passed. The banners used on that occa ¬ 
sion still floated from the houses in the 
line of route, while the triumphal arches and 
all the rest of the varied ornamentation con¬ 
tinued to give an additional interest to the 
spectacle. The people turned out to witness 
it in incredible numbers, and roamed about 
till an advanced hour, the greater number 
being on foot. The shops and warehouses 
were generally closed, and the day observed as 
a holiday. Gratuitous performances were given 
at all the theatres in the evening. 

10. —The provincial government of Bengal 
prohibit the throwing of dead bodies into the 
Hooghly, and the burning of the dead within 
a certain distance of Calcutta. 

11 . —Died, aged 61, Lieut.-Gen. Sir James 
Outram, a hero of the Indian army, described 
by an opponent as sans peur et sans reproche. 

12 . —Santa Anna lands at Vera Cruz and 
announces his adhesion to the French inter¬ 
vention. 

15 .—The Prussian ports blockaded by Den¬ 
mark, and the bombardment of Duppel com¬ 
menced. 

— Mr. Ashley Eden, English envoy at 
Bhootan, seized at Poonakha, and, after a series 
of indignities, compelled to sign a treaty giving 
up Bhootan to the Assam Doors. 

20 . —Langiewicz declares himself Dictator 
of Poland ; he was, however, arrested in a few 
days, and the guiding of the insurrection fell 
upon a central committee stationed at Warsaw. 

21 . — Riot among the distressed operatives 
at . Staleybridge, caused by a resolution of 
the Local Relief Committee to issue tickets 
instead of money at the rate of 3-r. a week, 
and to retain always a day’s amount in hand. 
Several shops and clothing stores were broken 
into and plundered, but the mob quickly dis¬ 
persed when they saw a troop of Hussars 
advancing from Ashton barracks. Of eighty- 
two rioters apprehended, twenty-nine—all, with 
one exception, Irish—were committed for trial 
at Chester Assizes, and received sentences of 
various terms of imprisonment. An attempt 
was made to renew the disturbances at Ashton, 
but the rioters were thoroughly checked and 
driven off the ground by the police and special 
constables called out for the protection of the 
town. 

26 .—The Lord Chancellor introduces a Bill 
for the augmentation of small benefices, which 
afterwards passed through both Houses. 

— Died, aged 46, Leopold Augustus Egg, 
R. A. 

30 .—Prince George of Denmark, brother 
of the Princess of Wales, proclaimed King 
of Greece. At the same time the Senate 
at Athens offered the thanks of the Greek 
nation to the Queen of Great Britain for the 
benevolent intention she had manifested of 
renouncing her protectorate over the Ionian 
( 644 ) 


Isles with a view to their incorporation into the 
kingdom of Greece. 

30 . —The King of Denmark issues a procla¬ 
mation, consolidating and giving a constitution 
to his dominions, exclusive of those attached 
to the Confederation of Germany ; Holstein to 
have independent rights, but Schleswig to be 
annexed. 

— Lord Palmerston visits Glasgow, where 
he is installed as Lord Rector of the University, 
and afterwards entertained at a public banquet. 
Speaking of our relations with foreign countries 
at the banquet, his Lordship said: “I am glad 
to say that there never was a period when this 
country was upon better terms of friendship 
with all the other nations of the world. 
(Cheers.) I advert not to those contending 
parties in America who sue us like rivals who 
sue a fair damsel—(laughter and cheers)—each 
party wanting us to take up her cause, and 
each feeling some little stinging resentment on 
account of that neutrality which both have 
characterised as unfriendliness. But setting 
aside those feelings, which create no irritation 
in our mind, and do not in any degree diminish 
that friendly feeling which ought to prevail 
between kindred races as they and we are—I 
say, barring that, we may safely congratulate 
ourselves that there is no Government, no 
nation, with which we have political or com¬ 
mercial intercourse, with whom we are not on 
terms of the most satisfactory friendship.” 
In his address to the students he pressed upon 
them the necessity of paying special attention 
to the more useful parts of education—the 
study of our own literature, physical science, 
and the mechanical arts. Next day he was 
entertained by the Clyde Trustees, and con¬ 
veyed down the river to Greenock, where he 
was presented with an address in the Town 
Hall. In the evening his Lordship attended 
and spoke at a soiree in the Glasgow City 
Hall. On the 1st April he continued his 
journey northward to Edinburgh, where he 
was presented with the freedom of the city, 
and afterwards entertained at a banquet in the 
Music Hall. Referring to Italy in his speech, 
he said: “ There is unfortunately still, on the 
part of that beautiful and noble land, an 
incubus which weighs on what ought to be 
their capital. I cannot but believe that truth 
and justice must in the end prevail, and there¬ 
fore, much as I lament the shorn condition of 
the Italian kingdom, I cannot but believe that 
a brighter future is in store for it, and that a 
time will come when all who are concerned in 
regulating its destinies will feel that it is for 
their advantage, as well as for the advantage of 
the Italians, that Italy should be in full posses¬ 
sion of her capital.” 

31 . —In answer to an address, presented to 
him by the clergy of the Archdeacomy of 
Lindisfarne, on the subject of Bishop Colenso’s 
book, the Bishop of Durham writes : “It has 
been suggested, as I learn from the news¬ 
papers, by the clergy of some rural deaneries 






MARCH 


1863. 


APRIL 


in other dioceses, that the Bishops in England 
‘should unitedly suspend Bishop Colenso, 
authoritatively and by inhibition, from all 
ministrations in the home dioceses.’ In such 
a proceeding I could not concur ; not merely 
because a general inhibition, would be without 
legal authority, and therefore practically in¬ 
effective, but much more because I am fully 
satisfied that such a warning to the clergy of 
my diocese is wholly uncalled for ; and, were 
I to issue it, it would imply on my part a sus¬ 
picion that some of them were unsound in 
doctrine, and would give a sanction to Bishop 
Colenso’s unwarrantable assertion that a large 
number of the clergy agree with him in his 
heterodoxy. I have the utmost confidence 
that there is not an incumbent in my diocese 
who would not consider it a calumny if it were 
thought that he was capable of admitting 
Bishop Colenso into his pulpit ; and I am not, 
therefore, disposed to issue a prohibition which 
would imply a censure upon my clergy which 
they little deserve. ” 

31 .—The Archbishop of Canterbury addresses 
the clergy of his diocese on the subject of the 
Colenso heresies. “You invite me,” he wrote, 
“ to take the necessary steps for upholding the 
belief in the inspired Word of God, and for 
vindicating the Church of England from the 
scandal which attaches to her in consequence 
of the recent publications of one of her bishops. 
But you are not perhaps aware that in the case 
of the Bishop of Natal the primary jurisdiction 
rests with the metropolitan of Southern Africa, 
the Bishop of Capetown. This prelate has 
just returned to his province, and is prepared 
to institute those judicial proceedings which 
will try whether the charges brought against 
Bishop Colenso can be sustained. It is not 
for me to anticipate the judgment which may 
be delivered in his case ; but you are aware 
that he has refused to resign the see of Natal, 
although he cannot deny that he is unable to 
exercise the most important functions of that 
office ; and persists in disseminating, as bishop 
of his diocese, opinions which derive their 
chief weight from the office he still holds in 
connexion with the Church of England. 
Under these circumstances, it becomes my 
painful duty, in conformity with the rule of 
discipline in our Church, when proceedings 
are about to be instituted against any clerk, by 
reason of conduct which causes great scandal, 
to caution all the clergy of my diocese against 
admitting Bishop Colenso into their pulpits, 
or allowing him to minister in the Word or 
Sacraments in their respective parishes, until 
he shall have cleared himself from the grave 
imputations which at present attach to him.” 

— The French army in Mexico enter Puebla 
after a bombardment of four days. 

April 5 .—Nine miners killed in the diago¬ 
nal descent of Botallack mine, Cornwall, the 
chain to which the “ ship ” was attached 
having parted at the surface, and permitted 


the carriage to rush down with fi ightful velocity 
to the lowest, or 190 fathom, workings. 

6 .— The Alexandra , a three-masted wooden 
vessel, seized at Liverpool by the Commis¬ 
sioners of Customs, on the ground of a breach 
of the 7th section of the Foreign Enlistment 
Act, which provided that if any person within 
the United Kingdom should equip, furnish, 
fit out, or arm, or attempt or endeavour to 
equip, &c., or procure to be equipped, or 
should knowingly aid or be concerned in the 
equipping, with intent that such ship should be 
employed in the service of any foreign State 
as a transport or store ship, or with intent to 
cruise or commit hostilities against any State 
with whom his Majesty shall not then be at 
war, every person so offending shall be guilty 
of a misdemeanour. The owners, Sillem and 
others, resisted the seizure, and the case came 
on for trial before Lord Chief Baron Pollock 
and a special jury, in the Court of Exchequer 
at Westminster, on the 24th June. 

— Tried at the Central Criminal Court the 
brothers Joseph and Isaac Brooks, charged 
with shooting William Davey, a police-con- 
stable at Acton, on the 19th January last. The 
crime in this instance appeared to have been 
committed from the most trifling motive—a 
suspicion that Davey had been over-officious 
in watching a quantity of old timber which the 
Brooks were presumed to have removed for 
their own use. A gun, redeemed from a pawn¬ 
shop in Hammersmith by Joseph Brooks, on 
the night of the murder, was found concealed in 
his bed, and in one of his pockets a quantity of 
shot corresponding with that which had formed 
the fatal charge. The principal witness against 
the first-mentioned prisoner was a young girl 
named Jane Lake, to whom he was to have 
been married in a few days, and who spoke 
under great excitement as to his movements on 
the night in question. Other witnesses iden¬ 
tified him as a person they had seen leaning on 
his gun at Acton-green, within a few minutes 
of the time Davey was shot. The juiy ac¬ 
quitted Isaac, but returned a verdict of Guilty 
against Joseph Brooks, who afterwards con¬ 
fessed the crime, and was executed at the Old 
Bailey on the 27th April. 

— Came on for hearing at Gloucester, before 
Mr. Justice Crampton and a jury, the case of 
Corbett v. Palmer and another, being an action 
brought by Mr. Corbett, clerk to the Worces¬ 
tershire and Staffordshire Canal Company, 
against Mrs. Palmer and her husband, for 
breach of promise of marriage by the lady 
when Miss Chandler, and before marrying 
Palmer. The intimacy between the parties 
was admitted, as was also the correspondence 
proving the engagement of marriage. His 
Lordship, in summing up, said the law of Eng¬ 
land entitled either the lady or gentleman, in 
cases of this kind, to sue the other for bread, 
of promise, though undoubtedly there was a 
difference in the position of the two when 
jilted. To a woman it was perhaps the only 




APRIL 


1863. 


APRIL 


chance of her life, but a man might form other 
connexions more easily. The jury returned a 
verdict for the plaintiff—damages 20/. 

7 . —At a meeting of the supporters of the 
midnight-meeting movement for the reclama¬ 
tion of fallen women, held at Freemasons’ 
Hall, it is stated that- there were 50,000 
“unfortunates” in London alone, and about 
40,000 in the rest of the United Kingdom. Of 
that number upwards of 40,000 perished an¬ 
nually by disease, starvation, and suicide, while 
the average term of their course of life did not 
exceed seven years. It was further stated, 
that, through the midnight-meeting movement, 
thirty-three gatherings had taken place, and, 
of the 7,500 who had attended, 500 were re¬ 
ported as rescued. 

— The Federal ironclads, under the com¬ 
mand of Admiral Dupont, make an unsuccess¬ 
ful attack on Charleston. 

8 . — The Sultan of Turkey arrives at Alex¬ 
andria on a visit to his Viceroy. 

9 . —Emma Jackson, a woman of light 
character, murdered in a brothel in George- 
street, Bloomsbury, by a person (as presumed) 
who was seen to enter the premises with 
her, about seven o’clock A. m. This indivi¬ 
dual was never discovered, nor was any clue 
found by which he could be traced—a cir¬ 
cumstance, as was remarked at the time, of 
great mystery, seeing there were people living 
in an adjoining room, and also immediately 
below that in which the death-struggle had 
taken place. The unfortunate girl was found 
dead, covered with wounds, about four o’clock 
on the afternoon of the 10th, suspicion having 
been then excited in the minds of some of the 
other female lodgers in the house at the long- 
eontinued quietness in her apartment. 

10. —The President of the Confederate 
Slates issues a manifesto, warning his country¬ 
men against engaging too much in the cultiva¬ 
tion of their ordinary lucrative cotton crops. 
He appealed to them to lay aside all thought 
of gain, and to devote themselves to securing 
their liberties, without which these gains would 
be valueless. “ It is true that the wheat harvest 
in the more southern States, which will be 
gathered next month, promises an abundant 
yield ; but even if this promise be fulfilled, the 
difficulty of transportation, enhanced as it has 
been by an unusually rainy winter, will cause 
embarrassments in military operations and 
sufferings among the people, should the crops 
in the middle and northern portions of the 
Confederacy prove deficient. But no uneasi¬ 
ness may be felt in regard to a mere supply of 
bread for men. It is for the large amount of 
com and forage required in the raising of live 
stock, and the supplies of the animals used in 
military operations, too bulky for distant trans¬ 
portation, that the deficiency of the last harvest 
was mostly felt. Let your fields be devoted 
exclusively to the production of corn, oats, 
beans, pease, potatoes, and other food for 

(646) 


man and beast; let com be sowed broadcast 
for fodder in immediate proximity to railroads, 
rivers, and canals; and let all your efforts 
be directed to the prompt supply of those 
articles in the districts where our armies are 
operating. You will thus add greatly to their 
efficiency, and furnish the means, without 
which it is impracticable to make those prompt 
and active movements which have hitherto 
stricken terror into our enemies’, and secured 
our most brilliant triumphs. ” 

11 . —Bishop Colenso disputes the right of 
his brother bishops to say that he is unable to 
use the prayers of the Liturgy, or otherwise 
discharge the duties of his episcopal office. 
“It is not enough,” he writes, “for a bishop 
to make a general charge of heresy, even in 
the case of an incumbent in his own diocese. 
He is bound to specify the particulars of the 
offence before he can take any measures 
against him. As the bishops are now pro¬ 
ceeding, I cannot but regard them as acting in 
a way which has not been seen or tolerated in 
this Church and country since the days of 
Bonner and Laud. I am untried and unheard. 
No definite charge has yet been made, though 
proceedings are threatened against me ; yet the 
bishops venture, in public and official docu¬ 
ments, to accuse me of scandalous, dishonest, 
and heretical conduct. And the Archbishop 
of Canterbury has already pronounced judg¬ 
ment upon me without a trial, though he would 
himself be the judge before whom my case 
would have to be heard, should I have to 
appeal from a decision of the inferior court. 
In short, I may be right or wrong in my 
theology ; that is a question which I must 
leave to be settled by time and investigation. 
But, meanwhile, I stand upon my rights as an 
Englishman, and I protest against a course of 
conduct which is as illegal as it is contrary to 
the first principles of the Reformation.” 

12. —Bavaria protests against any settlement 
of the Greek succession prejudicial to the claims 
of its own dynasty. 

13 . —Died, aged 57, Sir George Comewall 
Lewis, scholar and statesman, Wai Secretary 
at the time of his decease. 

15 .—The new court at the South Kensington 
Museum opened for the exhibition of the 
wedding gifts presented to the Princess of 
Wales. 

— Sir Morton Peto’s bill to enable Non¬ 
conformists to have their funerals celebrated 
with their own religious services, and by 
their own ministers, in the graveyards of 
the Established Church, thrown out in the 
House of Commons by a majority of 221 to 96. 

— The Rev. Samuel Mason, LL.D., 
Dublin, commits suicide by throwing himself 
from the deck of the steamer Ulster , when near 
the Kish light-ship. 

— Mr. Gladstone introduces the annual 
financial scheme of the Government. The csti- 






APRIL 


1863. 


APRIL 


mated charge was 07,749,000/., and the revenue 
71,490,000/. He proposed to equalize the duty 
on chicory and coffee, and to place upon an 
equal footing certain taxes upon licences, 
removing anomalies therein, making clubs 
liable to the duties payable for the sale of 
wines and spirits, and withdrawing the ex¬ 
emption, under the Income-tax Acts, of cor¬ 
porate trust property and of charitable endow¬ 
ments. These additional taxes would amount 
t > 133,000/. a year, raising the estimated sur¬ 
plus to 3,874,000/. He proposed to reduce 
the duty on tea to is. per pound, to take 2 d. 
per pound off the general rate of Income-tax, 
and to equalize the tax on incomes between 
100/. and 200/. The surplus of 534,000/. the 
Government did not propose to part with, and 
he appealed to the Committee to support 
them in retaining this amount in hand. The 
proposed alterations in the hackney-carriage 
dues and the club licences were subsequently 
withdrawn, as was also the scheme for taxing 
charitable and trust-corporation funds, under 
circumstances to be afterwards referred to. 

18 .—Rockingham House, near Boyle, Ros¬ 
common, the seat of Viscount Lorton, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

20.—Debate on the second reading of the 
bill intended by Sir George Grey to give the 
inmates of prisons not being members of the 
Established Church the benefit of the at¬ 
tendance of ministers of their own religious 
persuasion. It was supported by Lord Derby 
and many other members of the Conservative 
party. On the occasion of the second reading 
in the Upper House, on the 8th of June, the 
leader of the Opposition said : “ I am well 
aware, not only that I differ on this question 
from several of my noble friends around me, 
but that this measure has met with much ap¬ 
prehension and prejudice—honest prejudice, no 
doubt—and that it is not likely to be popular 
in the country. But where I have clearly seen 
my way with regard to the justice and policy 
of a measure, I hope that I never have shrunk, 
and that I never shall shrink, from incurring 
the risk of unpopularity; and I think I have 
made a much greater sacrifice than in taking 
a course which connects me with unpopularity 
out of doors, when I find myself differing on 
this question from noble friends around me, 
with whom, on most occasions, it has long 
been my happiness to act. All considerations of 
this sort, however, must give way to those of 
policy and justice ; and upon the higher prin¬ 
ciple of Christian charity and religion I deem 
it my duty to give a conscientious and a cordial 
vote in favour of the second reading.” The 
bill received the Royal assent on the 28th 

J ul y. 

— Lord John Russell writes to the 
American Minister, Mr. Adams: “ With 

regard to the complaints which you have made 
from time to time of British sailors who have 
entered the Confederate service, I have to re¬ 
mark that no steps have hitherto been taken by 


the United States authorities to prevent British 
subjects from entering the military or naval 
service of the United States. Mr. Seward 
has, on the contrary, justified the means used, 
provided they were not bribery or intimida¬ 
tion, to induce British sailors to enter the 
Federal service. You will readily perceive the 
justice of the request I am about to make ; 
namely, that before you repeat your com¬ 
plaints that British sailors have entered the 
service of the so-called Confederate States, 
you will furnish me with proofs that all British 
subjects serving in the Federal army or navy 
have been discharged, and that orders have 
been given not to enlist or engage such persons 
to serve in arms contrary to the tenor of her 
Majesty’s proclamation.” 

20 .—In consequence of the widely-expressed 
feeling of dissatisfaction at the police arrange¬ 
ments made by the City of London on the 
occasion of the entry of the Princess Alexandra, 

Sir George Grey obtains leave to introduce a 
bill into Parliament to amalgamate the City 
with the Metropolitan Force. The City au¬ 
thorities strenuously opposed the measure, and 
in the end it was thrown out on the ground 
of non-compliance with the standing orders. 

22 .—The Queen approves of Mr. Gilbert 
Scott’s design for the National Memorial to the 
late Prince Consort, in the form of an Eleanor 
cross with spire and statues. Next day Parlia¬ 
ment voted 50,000/. for the erection, in addition 
to the 60,000/. received in voluntary subscrip¬ 
tions. 

— Earthquake at Rhodes, causing the de¬ 
struction of about 2,000 dwelling-houses and 
hundreds of the inhabitants. 

—• The King of Denmark informs the Rigs- 
raad that, though his ordinance of the 30th of 
March had been opposed by the great German 
Powers, he would not be diverted from his 
original intention. 

25 .—Loss of the Montreal Ocean Com¬ 
pany’s steam-ship Anglo-Saxon, on a reef off 
Clamb Cove, a few miles eastward of Cape 
Race. There was a thick fog at the time, and 
the vessel was presumed to be in a position 
seventeen miles south of Cape Race. Certain 
of the crew reached the rocks by means of a 
studding-sail-boom, and, with the help of some 
of the passengers, got a hawser secured to a 
rock to keep the vessel from listing out, by 
which the female passengers were landed on 
the rocks from the foreyard-arm. Several of 
the first-class passengers managed to get into 
the two effective boats. About one hour after 
striking, the ship’s stem swung off from the 
rocks, and she settled down very fast, listing to 
port, and sinking in deep water. The captain, 
with many of the passengers and crew, were 
on deck at the time, and went down with the 
vessel. Of 440 people on board, 300 were v/ 
drowned. 

27 .—In the House of Commons, Mr. Wilson 
Patten makes a statement regarding the amount 

(^ 47 ) 





APRTL 


MA y 


1863. 


and sources of the munificent fund collected 
for the relief of the Lancashire distress. The 
Central Relief Committee, 959,000/. ; in 
clothing and provisions, 108,000/. subscriptions 
from different localities, 306,000/. ; private 
charity, 200,000/. : Mansion House Committee, 
482,000/. ; Poor-Law Board, 680,000/. Total, 
2,735,000/. Of this sum, the county of Lan¬ 
caster contributed 1,480,000/. At this date 
there was a gross balance on hand of 845,000/. 

29 .—A meeting of clergymen, gentlemen, 
owners of property, and employers of labour 
held at London House, at the request of the 
Bishop, in order to consult as to the best 
means of meeting the spiritual wants of the 
poorer districts of the metropolis. After a 
conversational discussion, a resolution was car¬ 
ried to raise 100,000/. each year, for the next 
ten years, in order to carry out the four objects 
of the Diocesan Society, viz. the building of 
churches, the endowment of parsonages, the 
employment of curates, and the general pur¬ 
poses of Church extension in the metropolis. 

— Sir John Trelawny’s bill abolishing 
Church-rates thrown out on the second reading 
by a majority of 10 in a House of 560 members. 
The former divisions on this much-debated 
measure had shown—in 1855, a majority of 
28 for abolition; in 1856, 43; in 1858, 53; 
in 1859, 74 ; in i860, 29. In 1861, the votes 
being equal, the bill was lost by the casting 
vote of the Speaker ; and in 1862 it was nega¬ 
tived by a majority of 1. 

May l.—M. Gustave Thiebault assassinated 
on his grounds, near Cahir, Tipperary. He was 
found dead and much disfigured, lying on the 
roadside, his gun near him, both barrels dis¬ 
charged, and the stock smashed off near the 
butt. A broken pitchfork and a heavy stone 
lay on his face, the flesh of which was torn off 
as with the cock of the gun. The coroner’s 
jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against 
Thomas Halloran, one of two brothers, arrested 
on suspicion. 

— The elections to the French Legislative 
Assembly carried in Paris by the Opposition, 
who also secured seats for their candidates 
in the districts of Charente, Oisne, Rhone, 
Seine-Inferieure, and even in the Seine-et- 
Oisne, which included Versailles, where the 
Government influence was understood to be 
exceptionally powerful. M. Thiers, who had 
been in retirement since the coup-cP-etat, was 
among the nine new Deputies sent up by 
Paris. 

2 . —Commencement of a series of battles, 
at Chancellorsville, between the Federals 
under General Hooker and the Confederates 
under General Lee. The former was com¬ 
pelled to recross to the north bank of the Rap¬ 
pahannock with great loss. In one of the 
engagements, General Jackson (“ Stonewall 
Jackson”) received a wound in the arm, from 
the effects of which he died a few days after¬ 
wards in hospital. In the confusion attending 


one of the fiercest of the engagements, it was 
thought lie had been fired upon in mistake by 
some of his own troops. 

3.— The Polish Central Committee declares 
itself a provisional government, and rejects the 
conditions of the Emperor’s amnesty. 

4.. — Abandonment of Mr. Gladstone’s 
proposal regarding the taxation of charities. 
In the morning, a deputation, numerous and 
influential beyond all precedent, waited upon 
the right hon. gentleman at his official resi¬ 
dence in Downing-street. His Royal Highness 
the Duke of Cambridge represented the Cor¬ 
poration of Christ’s Hospital, which he said 
would be mulcted of about 2,000/. per annum 
if the scheme were carried out; the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, the Corporation of the 
Sons of the Clergy, and the Clergy Orphan 
Corporation ; while the Bishop of London, the 
Earl of Shaftesbury, and many other prelates 
and members of both Houses of Parliament 
were present to press for a continuance of mat¬ 
ters as they were. Mr. Gladstone received the 
memorials, and heard the different speakers urge 
the case of the various charities they were 
connected with, but reserved his defence of the 
proposal till the scheme was formally brought 
before the House in the evening. The right 
hon. gentleman then went at great length into 
the question, and defended it as a practical, 
well-considered scheme. In combating the 
assertions which had been freely made out of 
doors, that if the hospitals should be compelled 
to pay the income-tax they must necessarily 
close some of their wards or reduce their beds, 
he said : “ It was not my intention to make 
any remarks on the management of hospitals of 
this kind, which we must all regard with so much 
favour and respect; but when at every turn the 
threat is flung in my face that if this measure is 
carried out the number of patients must be 
diminished, then I am obliged to give it parti¬ 
cular consideration. I do not believe that the 
beds of patients will be reduced. Those who, 
in the case of the protected trades, declared 
that if protection were withdrawn they must 
dismiss so many of their workmen, were not 
men who told lies. They really believed what 
they said, but were not aware that more econo¬ 
mical arrangements would enable them to *eep 
these workmen, pursue their trade, and make 
larger profits than before. One of the great 
evils of the present system is, that while you 
bestow public money on these establishments 
you dispense with all public control over them, 
and thus annul all effective motives for eco¬ 
nomy. Endowed institutions laugh at public 
opinion. The press knows nothing of their 
expenditure ; Parliament knows nothing of it. 
It is too much to say that hospitals are managed 
by angels and archangels, and do not, like the 
rest of humanity, stand in need of supervision, 
criticism, and rebuke. Therefore, even in the 
case of St. Bartholomew’s I object to an ex¬ 
emption which, by its very nature, at once 
removes the principal motives for economical 







MAY 


1863. 


AfA V 


management. When the managers tell me 
that the exaction of 820/. will compel them to 
dismiss 500 patients, I am entitled to ask, Why, 
then, do you spend 220/. in a feast? What 
right have you to eat up in an hour 150 beds ? 

I confess I am amazed at the skill with which 
my opponents have put their best foot foremost, 
Their tactics and strategy have been admirable, 
but their case will not bear close scrutiny. 
What are the circumstances of Guy’s, of St. 
Thomas’s, and similar establishments ? Every 
year they are able to place 3,000/ or 4,000/. 
each in reproductive investments in land. 
They are thinking not merely of the sick, but 
of their own future aggrandizement and exten¬ 
sion. I was informed the other day that St. 
Thomas’s spends 15 per cent, of its income 
in improvements on land. Well, then, it is a 
matter for the State to consider, whether the 
indefinite enrichment of such corporations— 
even of those instituted for the best of purposes 
—when entirely removed from the control of 
public opinion, the press, or Parliament, is to 
go on without limit, and is to be augmented by 
contributions from the public purse. I do not 
believe that a single patient will be dismissed 
from one of the hospitals of London, if this 
proposal is agreed to; but if there were the 
slightest apprehension of such an occurrence, 
private charity would at once prevent it.” 

5 . —Mr. Bouverie obtains leave to introduce, 
but afterwards withdraws, a bill designed to 
repeal that clause in the Act of Uniformity 
which required several classes of persons to 
make a declaration of conformity to the Liturgy 
of the Church of England, and thus operated as 
a barrier against Nonconformists otherwise 
qualified to obtain fellowships and other acade¬ 
mical rewards at the Universities. 

6. —Died, Dost Mahommed, Sovereign of 
Affghanistan. 

8 . —The Queen visits the invalid soldiers in 
the Royal Military Hospital at Netley, the 
foundation-stone of which had been laid by the 
Prince Consort seven years since. 

11 .—Rumour having given currency to a 
statement that the affairs of the popular singer 
Mdlle. Adelina Patti would be made the subject 
of a Chancery suit at the instance of one Mac¬ 
donald, who described himself as her “next 
friend,” and Mons. Alfred Vidil, a suitor for 
her hand, the lady made affidavit this day : 
“Until I read the name of James William 
Macdonald, who styles himself my next friend, 
I never heard of such a person, nor did I 
ever, to my knowledge, see him, nor did I ever 
communicate with him in any way. There is 
not one word of truth in any of the allegations 
against him or against my said father in any 
of the affidavits filed in this cause. I wholly 
deny that I am or ever was treated with cruelty 
by them, or either of them, or that my liberty 
is or ever was controlled, or that I am or ever 
was kept short of money, or that my jewellery 
or any part of it has been or is appropriated 


by them or either of them. On the contrary, 

I have and always have had whatever money I 
require, and all my jewellery has always been 
and is under my own control, and I could 
convert the whole of it into money at once if 
I were so disposed.” On the matter coming 
before the Vice-Chancellor the bill was dis¬ 
missed with costs, to be paid by the so-called 
“ next friend.” 

11 . —Exciting scene in the Prussian Chamber 
of Deputies, arising from the opposition of the 
members to the policy of the King’s Ministers 
on the Army Reconstruction Bill. “ If,” 
remarked Herr von Roon, the Minister of 
War, “ such utterances are indulged in against, 
the Cabinet or a member of the Cabinet, this 
in my opinion is no more than a piece of 
arrogance.” Herr von Bockum Dolffs, the 
second President of the House, happened to 
occupy the chair at the time the Minister of War 
made this remark. “ I am under the necessity,” 
he immediately interposed, “ of interrupting the 
Minister of War.” The Minister, here cutting 
short the President, cried out rather impetuously, 
“I beg not to be interrupted.” Herr von 
Bockum (ringing his bell): “ It is I who have 
to speak, and I interrupt the Minister of War.” 
Herr von Roon : “ I beg your pardon. It is 
I who have begun to speak, nor shall I cease 
until I have done. I am constitutionally en¬ 
titled to speak whenever I like, and no bell, 

no gesture, no interruption--” (The President 

rings violently. Cries of “order.”) Herr von 
Bockum, the Vice-President : “ If I see fit 

to interrupt the Minister of War, the Minister 
has to desist forthwith. (Tremendous cheers 
on the left.) Should my command be dis¬ 
regarded by the Minister, I shall order my hat 
to be brought.” Herr von Roon: “I have 
nothing in the world to say against your hat 
being brought. (Cries of “ silence,” and “ sit 
down.”) But you compel me to say-(Dis¬ 

turbance, cries of “sit down,” and “ put him 
out.”) Gentlemen, I find 350 voices to be 
louder than one. I insist on my constitutional 
right. By virtue of the Charter I am entitled 
to speak whenever I please. Nobody has 
a right to cut short one of his Majesty’s 
Ministers.” Herr von Bockum.(ringing his 
bell): “I said I would interrupt the Minister, 
and I do so.” The scene soon assumed a 
tumultuous character. Words uttered by the 
Minister were contradicted by a hundred 
voices, violent outcries resounding from every 
quarter, the galleries not excepted. Herr von 
Bockum put on his hat, and, supported by a 
volley of cheers, rose from his seat. With 
him rose the members. In the lull which 
immediately ensued, the President declared 
the House adjourned for one hour. 

12 . —Radama II., King of Madagascar, as¬ 
sassinated, and his widow Radobo proclaimed 
Queen. 

16 .—Mr. Robert Rawlinson, who had been 
appointed to inquire into the advisability of 
employing the distressed cotton operatives on 

( 649 ) 





2/a y 


1863. 


JUNE 


public works, reports that “a vast amount of 
useful work may be beneficially undertaken 
and executed by the best of the distressed men 
out of employment.” Any loss on the work in 
the first instance would, he thought, be more 
than made up to the locality in a saving of the 
poor-rate. 

19 .—The Lower House of Convocation pre¬ 
sents to the Upper a report on Bishop Colenso’s 
work on the Pentateuch, which they find to 
contain errors of the gravest and most danger¬ 
ous character. The Prelates answered, “That 
this House, having reason to believe that the 
book in question will shortly be submitted to 
the judgment of an ecclesiastical court, declines 
to take further action in the matter, but that 
we affectionately warn those who may not be 
able to read the published and convincing 
answers to the work which have appeared, of 
its dangerous character.” 

— Henry Valentine Smith, known in theatri¬ 
cal circles as “ Swanborough,” and a favourite 
actor at the Strand Theatre, commits suicide 
by cutting his throat, in his bed-room, in a fit 
of mental depression. 

26 . —Herat captured by the forces of Ma¬ 
homet Khan of Affghanistan. He died within 
a few weeks of his triumph, leaving the succes¬ 
sion to his throne to be disputed by two sons. 

27 . —In reply to an address from the Cham¬ 
ber of Deputies, the King of Prussia states that 
the Ministry possess his entire confidence, and 
that he purposes again to carry on the Govern¬ 
ment of the country without a parliament. 

28 . —In the House of Commons Mr. Wal¬ 
pole presented a petition from Mr. Church¬ 
ward, whose contract for the Dover post-office 
packets had been suddenly terminated. The 
Chancellor of the Exchequer defended the 
course pursued, and the Report was agreed to 
by 205 votes to 191. 

30 , —Accident on the Brighton Railway, 
between Streatham and Balham, the engine 
exploding when proceeding at a rapid rate, and 
dragging the greater part of the train down an 
embankment. The engine-driver and three 
passengers were killed on the spot, and serious 
injuries were sustained by between thirty and 
forty of the Grenadier Guards, returning fron: 
rifle practice at Eastbourne. 

31 . —'-The Crown Prince of Prussia remon¬ 
strates with his father on his arbitrary conduct 
in dissolving the deputies. 

June 1.—Came on in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the matter of the Earl of Winchelsea 
ex parte Willes, Mr. Hawkins, Q.C., moving 
for a rule calling on the Earl and a Mr. James 
Kennett to show cause why a criminal in¬ 
formation should not issue against them for 
certain libels upon the applicant, Mr. Willes, 
the “Argus” of the sporting world. The 
libel appeared in the Sporting Gazette, and 
was contained in a rhyming prophecy which 
Lord Winchelsea was alleged to have con¬ 

(650) 


tributed to that journal under the signature of 
“John Davis.” 

“ Adown the eventful course the beaten lay. 

And Pindar was the ‘ Argus ’ of that day ; 

* Our own reporter/ with a scale of fees, 

At whose bureau you purchased what you please. 

‘ No fee, no puff! ’ ‘ Half-price ’—praise only horse i 

‘ Full price’—dish owner up with friendly sauce: 

‘ Full price and douceur with the run of table ’— 

Butter horse, man, and everything you are able/* 

An explanation being demanded, Lord Win¬ 
chelsea replied that he made it a rule not to 
answer impertinent questions, and on the same 
day Mr. Willes’s solicitor received a note 
signed “John Davis,” denying that there was 
anything to complain of, except the fact of 
mentioning Pindar and “Argus” in the same 
paragraph. The Court was of opinion that it 
was not such a matter as would justify their 
interference, and that Mr. Willes’s proper 
remedy would be by action or by indictment. 

— Lord Ebury moved an address for the 
appointment of a committee to inquire into the 
present compulsory and indiscriminate use of 
the Burial Service of the Church of England, 
but the motion was withdrawn on the under¬ 
standing that the bishops would prepare a mea¬ 
sure to relieve the scruples of the clergy. 

3 . —Mr. Soames’ bill for closing public- 
houses on Sunday thrown out on a second 
reading, by 278 to 103 votes. 

4 . —In the House of Commons Mr. Bagwell 
moves a resolution that it is impolitic any 
longer to exclude Ireland from the operation 
of the Volunteer system. Lord Palmerston op¬ 
posed the resolution, not from any doubt of the 
loyalty of the Irish, but because religious zeal 
was likely to lead to dangerous results when 
each party was armed. Resolution negatived 
by 156 to 45. 

5 . —Mr. Fortescue calls the attention of 
the House of Commons to the circumstances 
attending the death, after four weeks’ im¬ 
prisonment, of Regimental Sergeant-Major 
Lilley of the 6th Dragoons, at Mhow, in 
India, on the 25th of May, 1862 ; and to the 
imprisonment at the same time, for a still 
longer period, of Troop Sergeant-Majors Duval 
and Wakefield of the same regiment, without 
either of the three having been brought to 
trial, or any formal charge having been pre¬ 
ferred against them ; and to ask whether the 
commanding officer (Colonel Crawley), under 
whose authority those things took place, was 
still to be left in command of the regiment. 
Further inquiry promised. 

8i—The Prince and Princess of Wales visit 
the City in state, and are entertained at a 
banquet in Guildhall by the Corporation. An 
address was also presented to his Royal High¬ 
ness expressive of the pleasure felt by the 
Corporation that he should have assumed the 
freedom of the City in virtue of the citizen¬ 
ship of his lamented father. The banquet on 
the occasion was of unusual splendour, the 
City companies having sent in most of their 






JUNE 


1863. 


JUNE 


rich ornaments and plate. The feast was 
followed by a ball, which was kept up till one 
o’clock, when the Royal visitors left with an 
escort of Life-guardsmen. The route from 
Marlborough House to the City was brilliantly 
illuminated, and great enthusiasm was mani¬ 
fested by the mass of spectators who lined 
the streets. 

9 .—Discussion in the House of Commons 
on Mr. Buxton’s resolution to relax the strin¬ 
gency of Subscription under the Act of Unifor¬ 
mity. 

— Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, the case of the Queen v. Lieu¬ 
tenant-Colonel Calthorpe ex parte the Earl of 
Cardigan, in the form of a rule for a criminal 
information against the defendant. The. case 
arose out of certain imputations upon the con¬ 
duct of Lord Cardigan in the memorable Light 
Cavalry charge at Balaklava during the Cri¬ 
mean war, made by General Calthorpe in a 
work entitled “Letters from Head-Quarters, 
by a Staff Officer.” The main charge made 
against his lordship was one of cowardice, the 
General alleging that his lordship, although 
well known to be a consummate horseman, 
had allowed his horse during the charge to 
take him to the rear. Lord Cardigan ap¬ 
plied repeatedly to General Calthorpe to 
retract his statement, but without any other 
result.than a note to the following effect in the 
second edition: “The author had relied on 
statements furnished by officers actually en-. 
gaged in the charge ; but as the excellence of 
Lord Cardigan’s horsemanship is unquestion¬ 
able, the idea that his horse ran away with 
him is no doubt erroneous.” Lord Cardigan 
came before the Court last term, and obtained 
a rule for a criminal information, which came 
on for argument this day. Mr. Garth was 
heard in support of the rule, and many affi¬ 
davits were produced on behalf of Lord Car¬ 
digan. At the conclusion of a lengthened 
judgment, the Lord Chief Justice said he was 
glad the discussion had so completely vindi¬ 
cated the gallant Earl, but the Court had no 
alternative but to discharge the rule. The 
other judges concurred, and the rule was ac¬ 
cordingly discharged, but without costs. 

— Came on for hearing in the House of 
Lords, before a Committee of Privilege, the 
petition of the Earl of Dundonald, praying 
that he was entitled to vote for representative 
peers in Scotland, and that he was the lawful 
son of the late Earl. The petitioner’s brother, 
Captain the Hon. L. Cochrane, of her Ma¬ 
jesty’s ship Warrior , claimed the peerage, as 
the eldest son bom after the marriage of his 
father and mother. The Dowager Countess of 
Dundonald was examined, and detailed the 
circumstances which led first to a private mar- 
raige, at Annan, in Scotland, in 1812, and then 
to a more public ecclesiastical ceremony, when 
her husband was about to leave this country. 
Their Lordships concurred that the Countess 
had fully explained the validity of the first 


marriage, and that the petitioner had rnaue 
good his claim. 

10. —Inauguration ot the Albert Memorial 
of 1851, at the Horticultural Gardens, South 
Kensington. A large and fashionable gather¬ 
ing assembled to receive the Prince and Prin¬ 
cess of Wales, on whom devolved the duty of 
receiving addresses from the Council of the 
Horticultural Society and the Executive Com¬ 
mittee of the Memorial. With the exception 
of her Majesty, most of the Royal Family were 
present, and took part in the procession through 
the grounds. Besides other inscriptions re¬ 
lating to the Exhibition, one tablet bore that 
the Memorial, then uncovered, was erected by 
public subscription. “Originally intended 
only to commemorate the International Ex¬ 
hibition of 1851, now dedicated also to the 
memory of the great author of that under¬ 
taking, the Good Prince, to whose far-seeing 
and comprehensive philanthropy its first con¬ 
ception was due, and to whose clear judgment 
and untiring exertions in directing its execu¬ 
tion the world is indebted for its unprece¬ 
dented success — Albert Francis Augustus 
Charles Emmanuel, the Prince Consort. Born 
August 26, 1819. Died December 14, 1861.” 
Her Majesty visited the Memorial on the 12th. 

— The French army under General Forey 
enters the Mexican capital, President Juarez 
having previously transferred his seat of govern¬ 
ment to San Luis de Potosi. 

11 . —The Due de Chartres married, at 
Kingston, to his cousin, the Princess Amelie 
of Orleans, daughter of the Prince de Join- 
ville. 

14 -.—The Montreal Ocean steam-ship Nor¬ 
wegian wrecked in a thick fog on St. Paul’s 
Island, near the North-east Light. She had on 
board 58 cabin and 271 steerage passengers, 
who, with the crew and mails, were all saved. 
A portion of the cargo was also recovered. 

15 . —The House of Commons,by a majority 
of 267 to 135, vote 123,000/. to purchase the 
seventeen acres of land at South Kensington, 
where the Exhibition building stands. The 
proposal made by the Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer, on the 2d July, to vote 105,000/. for 
the purchase of the building itself, was nega¬ 
tived by a majority of 166 in a House of 408 
members. 

16 . —The Prince and Princess of Wales 
attend the Oxford Commemoration, during the 
ceremonies incident to which the degree of 
D.C.L. was conferred on his Royal Highness. 
At the proceedings in the Sheldonian Theatre, 
the Chancellor (Earl Derby) addressed the Prince 
in a Latin speech, which was greatly admired, 
both for the beauty of its Latinity and the 
happy choice of topics it displayed. In the 
evening the Prince and Princess were enter¬ 
tained at a state banquet, in the hall of Christ 
Church. Next day the Royal visitors attended 
the Commemoration proper, and in the evening 
witnessed the time-honoured procession of 

(05 0 




JUNE 


1863. 


JUNE 


boats on the Isis. The Prince and Princess 
left Oxford for Windsor on the afternoon of 
the 18 th. 

17 . —Earl Russell forwards to Lord Napier, 

at St. Petersburg, the text of the note on the 
Polish question which had been drawn up con¬ 
currently with France and Austria. “ Her 
Majesty’s Government,”he said, “would deem 
themselves guilty of great presumption if they 
were to express an assurance that vague decla¬ 
rations of good intentions, or even the enact¬ 
ment of some wise laws, would make such an 
impression on the minds of the Polish people 
as to obtain peace and restore obedience. In 
present circumstances, it appears to her Ma¬ 
jesty’s Government that nothing less than the 
following outline of measures should be 
adopted as the bases of pacification (1) 
Complete and general amnesty. (2) National 
representation, with powers similar to those 
which are fixed by the charter of the i5~ 2 7th 
November, 1815. (3) Poles to be named to 

public offices in such a manner as to form a 
distinct national Administration, having the 
confidence of the country. (4) Full and 
entire liberty of conscience; repeal of the re¬ 
strictions imposed on Catholic worship. (5) 
The Polish language recognised in the king¬ 
dom as the official language, and used as such 
in the administration of the law and in educa¬ 
tion. (6) The establishment of a regular and 
legal system of recruiting. These six points 
might serve as the indications of measures to 
be adopted, after calm and full deliberation. 
But it is difficult, nay, almost impossible, to 
create the requisite confidence and calm while 
the passions of men are becoming daily more 
excited, their hatreds more deadly, their de¬ 
termination to succeed or perish more fixed 
and immovable.” 

— Captains Speke and Grant, the now 
famous African travellers, arrive at Portsmouth 
on board the Pera , and are presented by the 
Corporation with an address expressive of the 
pleasure they felt in welcoming travellers 
“whose recent discoveries have solved the per¬ 
plexing problem of all ages, by ascertaining the 
true source of one of the most wonderful rivers 
on the face of the earth.” On the 22d they 
received a most enthusiastic reception at the 
Royal Geographical Society, and made a brief 
statement of their discoveries. 

18 . —The King of the Belgians, as arbitrator 
between the British and Brazilian Governments, 
in the dispute concerning the arrest, by the 
guard of Brazilian police stationed at Tijaca, 
of three officers of the British navy, pro¬ 
nounces his opinion that in the mode in which 
the laws of Brazil have been applied towards 
the English officers, there was neither premedi¬ 
tation of offence nor offence given to the British 
navy. 

-- The Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Animals obtain a conviction before 
a bench of magistrates, at Loughborough, 

(652) 


against the Marquis of Hastings, for cock-fight¬ 
ing at Donnington Hall. The Marquis was 
adjudged to pay the full penalty of 5/. and 
the three gamekeepers concerned 2/. each. 

19. —Argued before the Judicial Committee 
of the Privy Council, the cases of Williams v. 
the Bishop of Salisbury and Wilson v. Fendall, 
the appellants in both cases being charged 
with publishing opinions in the book known as 
“Essays and Reviews” at variance with the 
teaching of the Church of England (see Feb. 
8, 1864). 

— Discussion in the House of 1 -ords con¬ 
cerning the atrocities committed by Russia in 
Poland. 

22. —The House of Commons resolves to 
postpone, in the meantime, the discussion of a 
motion which Mr. Pope Hennessy had given 
notice of, for an address to the Crown,, ex¬ 
pressing the regret of the House at learning 
that the Emperor of Russia had set up a claim 
to the sovereignty of Poland, which was in 
violation of the Treaty of Vienna, and praying 
her Majesty to adopt measures in concert with 
other Powers which might preserve the legiti¬ 
mate right of Poland, and tend to produce a 
durable peace. 

23 . —Carlo Valerio, a tight-rope dancer, 
killed in Cremorne-gardens by a steel hook 
giving way, which suddenly slackened the wire 
on which he was performing, and threw him 
to the ground among the spectators. 

— At a meeting of the Shakspeare Com¬ 
mittee held in the apartments of the Royal 
Society of Literature, and presided over by 
the Duke of Manchester, it was resolved 
that a national celebration of the three-hun¬ 
dredth birthday of the poet should be held on 
the 23d April, 1864. 

— Discussion in the House of Lords on the 
case of Mary Ann Walkley, who was said to 
have died from over-work, and from sleeping 
in a badly ventilated room at a fashionable 
milliner’s in Regent-street. 

24 . —In the Court of Exchequer, the jury 
return a verdict for the defendants in the case 
of the Alexandra , seized at Liverpool under 
the Foreign Enlistment Act. In summing up, 
the Lord Chief Baron Pollock directed the 
jury that, if there was to be a conviction under 
the Act, it must be upon evidence and not sus¬ 
picion. If they thought the object really was 
to build a ship in obedience to an order, and in 
compliance with a contract, leaving those who 
bought it to make what use of it they thought 
fit, then it appeared to him that the Foreign 
Enlistment Act had not been in any degree 
broken. 

— The British Orphan Asylum at Slough 
opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales. 

— A new provisional government established 
under the title of “the Regency of the Mexi¬ 
can Empire.” 





JUNE 


JUNE 1863. 


24 . —The Japanese close their ports against 
foreign traders. 

26 . —The Guards give a grand ball to the 
Prince and Princess of Wales in the picture- 
galleries of the Intemational Exhibition build¬ 
ing. The decorations «vere of surpassing 
splendour, it being calculated that the gold 
and silver plate represented a gross value of 
two millions sterling. The company was 
limited to 1,400. 

— In answer to Mr. B. Osborne, Mr. Card- 
well said that the appointment of a Select Com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the present ecclesiastical 
settlement of Ireland would open a contro¬ 
versy which had convulsed and disorganized 
the country. 

— Died, aged 70, General Sir Joshua 
Jebb, well known in the annals of prison dis¬ 
cipline. 

27 . —In the case of Dickson v. Combermere 
and others, charged with conspiring to remove 
the plaintiff from the command of the 2d Tower 
Hamlets Militia, the jury return a verdict for 
the defendants. The case occupied the Queen’s 
Bench over eight days. 

— The American mail steamer Persia arrives 
at Liverpool with the intelligence that General 
Lee had commenced offensive operations 
against the North by an invasion of the State 
of Pennsylvania with the army of the Rappa¬ 
hannock. 

23 . —General Meade supersedes Hooker 
in the command of the Federal Army of the 
Potomac. 

29 . —Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, Guildhall, before the Lord 
Chief Justice and a special jury, the case of 
Morrison v. Belcher, being a claim of damages 
for a libel written by the defendant, Admiral 
Sir Edward Belcher, concerning the plaintiff, 
a retired naval officer, and editor of the astro¬ 
logical publication known as “ Zadkiel’s Al¬ 
manac.” Shortly after the death of Prince 
Albert, Mr. Alderman Humphrey was led to 
make some observations from his place on the 
magisterial bench regarding certain prophecies 
said to be contained in “Zadkiel”for 1861. 
Commenting thereon, a writer in the Telegraph 
asked : “ Who is this * Zadkiel,’ and are there 
no means of ferreting him out and hauling 
him up to Bow-street as a rogue and vaga¬ 
bond ? ” Sir Edward Belcher thereupon ad¬ 
dressed a letter to the Telegraph , describing 
“Zadkiel” as a pretended naval lieutenant, 
who in 1852 had imposed upon many people 
with a crystal globe by which he pretended to 
hold intercourse with spirits. This was the 
libel complained of. Witnesses were now ad¬ 
duced to show that, though the plaintiff had 
visited several houses of note with his magic 
crystal, he had not received any money for 
doing so, nor did it appear that he had wilfully 
deceived anybody. Among those examined 
were the Earl of Wilton, Sir E. B. Lytton, Lord 
Harry Vane, the Marchioness of Aylesbury, 


the Bishop of Lichfield, and the Master of the 
Temple. Verdict for the plaintiff—damages 

20.T. 

29 . —Vicomte de Morilo, a French officer 
of the Legion of Honour, commits suicide by 
shooting himself in a railway train, near 
Newark-on-Trent. 

— Memorial statue to Lord Herbert of Lea 
uncovered at Salisbury. 

30 . —Re-opening of Hereford Cathedral, 
after extensive alterations and restorations. 

— In the debate on Mr. Roebuck’s mo¬ 
tion to recognise the Southern States as an 
independent Power, the hon. member for 
Sheffield gave an account of his interview with 
the Emperor of the French, and of some 
important declarations made by the Emperor, 
who gave him authority, he said, to disclose 
them to the House. The Emperor of the 
French said : “As soon as I learnt that the 
rumour of an alteration of my views was cir¬ 
culating in England, I gave instructions to my 
Ambassador to deny the truth of it. Nay, more; 
I instructed him to say that my feeling was not, 
indeed, exactly the same as it was, because it 
was stronger than ever in favour of recog¬ 
nising the South. I told him also to lay 
before the British Government my under¬ 
standing and my wishes on this question, and 
to ask them still again whether they would 
be willing to join me in that recognition.” 
“Now, Sir,” continued Mr. Roebuck, “there 
is no mistake about this matter. I pledge my 
veracity that the Emperor of the French told 
me that. And, what is more, I laid before 
his Majesty two courses of conduct. I said, 
‘Your Majesty may make a formal applica¬ 
tion to England.’ He stopped me and said, 

‘ No, I cannot do that; and I will tell you 
why. Some months ago I did make a formal 
application to England. England sent my 
despatch to America. That despatch, getting 
into Mr. Seward’s hands, was shown to my 
Ambassador at Washington. It came back 
to me, and I feel that I was ill-treated by such 
conduct. I will not,’ he added, ‘ I cannot, 
subject myself again to the danger of similar 
treatment. But I will do everything short of 
it. I give you full liberty to state to the 
English House of Commons my wish, and to 
say to them that I have determined in all 
things’—(I will quote his words)—‘ I have 
determined in all things to act with England; 
and, more than all things, I have determined 
to act with her as regards America.’ Well, 
Sir, with this before us, can the Government 
be ignorant of this fact? I do not believe 
it. With this before them, are they not pre¬ 
pared to act in concert with France ? Are 
they afraid of war? War with whom ? With 
the Northern States of America? Why, in 
ten days, Sir, we should sweep from the sea 
every ship. (Exclamations of dissent.) Yes, 
there are people so imbued with Northern 
feeling as to be indignant at that assertion, 







JULY 


1863. 


JULY 


But the truth is known. Why, the Warrior 
would destroy their whole fleet. Their armies 
are melting away; their invasion is rolled 
back ; Washington is in danger; and the only 
fear which we ought to have is, lest the inde¬ 
pendence of the South should be established 
without us.” On the 13th July Mr. Roebuck 
moved that the order for resuming the debate 
be discharged. 

July 1 . — Prince Gortschakoff forwards 
to the Russian Ambassador in London the 
Emperor’s answer to the representation made 
on behalf of the Poles by the Courts of 
London, Paris, and Vienna, as parties to the 
Treaty of Vienna. He declined to discuss 
in detail the six points placed before Russia, 
on the plea that the most of them had 
already either been decreed or were about to 
be initiated. “ If Lord John Russell,” he 
wrote, ‘ * were exactly informed of what passes 
in the kingdom of Poland, he would know, as 
we do, that wherever the armed rebellion has 
striven to acquire substance, to give itself a 
visible head, it has been crushed. The masses 
have kept aloof from it, the rural population 
evinces even hostility to it, because the dis¬ 
orders by which agitators live ruin the indus¬ 
trial classes. The insurrection sustains itself 
only by a terrorism unprecedented in history. 
The principle of action of the directing com¬ 
mittees from without is, to keep up agitation at 
all cost, in order to give food for the declama¬ 
tions of the press, to abuse public opinion, and 
to harass the Governments, by furnishing an 
occasion and a pretext for a diplomatic inter¬ 
vention which should lead to military action. 
Desirable as it may be speedily to place a term 
to the effusion of blood, this object can only be 
attained by the insurgents throwing down their 
arms and surrendering themselves to the cle¬ 
mency of the Emperor. Every other arrange¬ 
ment would be incompatible with the dignity 
of our august master, and with the sentiments 
of the Russian nation.” In any case, the 
Prince insisted on the re-establishment of order 
as an indispensable condition, which must 
precede any serious application of the mea¬ 
sures destined for the pacification of the 
kingdom. 

— The Dutch abolish slavery in their West 
Indian possessions. 

— Commencement of a series of engage¬ 
ments at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, between the 
Federal and Confederate armies. The latter, 
under General Lee, attacked the former, com¬ 
manded by General Meade, and drove them 
into a well-defended position on Cemetery 
Hill, to the south of the town. After a suc¬ 
cession of severe onslaughts, the Confederates 
were defeated on the afternoon of the 2d, and 
again more seriously on the 3d, on the occa¬ 
sion of a gallant attack by General Pickett 
on the Federal position. The Confederates 
thereupon withdrew, leaving about 3,000 
prisoners in the hands of General Meade. 
Vicksburg surrendered the following day. 

( 654 ) 


6 . —Public intimation having been made 
that Lord Barcaple intended to withdraw from 
the Free Church, in consequence of the 
Assembly’s acquiescence in Dr. Candlish’s 
attack on the Queen for permitting a verse 
from the Apocrypha to appear on the monu¬ 
ment to the Prince Consort at Balmoral, 
Dr. Candlish now writes to explain that he 
spoke for himself alone, not for the Assem¬ 
bly, far less for the Church. “ And it is 
scarcely reasonable, I submit, to saddle me 
with the blame of involving a dumb Assembly 
in my peculiar treason, and depriving a de¬ 
fenceless Church, on that account, of one 
of its ornaments and supports. But I must 
allow that, whatever the learned Judge’s mode 
of punishing one in many and many in one 
may say for his logic or his law, it speaks 
volumes for his loyalty. It was relevant,” he 
thought, “to a discussion upon the subject of 
Popish leanings in influential quarters to 
adduce as an instance the inscription of an 
Apocryphal text on the tomb or cairn of a 
Protestant Prince—a novelty, I am persuaded, 
in our country’s monumental literature, for 
which it will be hard to find a precedent 
satisfactory, I say not to a theologian, but even 

to a mere antiquarian.Infidels and 

latitudinarian divines are simply preparing the 
way for Rome when they affect or seem to put 
the Apocrypha on the same footing with the 
Bible. I cannot get rid of the impression that 
the Balmoral inscription manifests a tendency 
in that most dangerous direction. I have said 
so ; and whoever is responsible for it, I must 
say so still. I say it with the deepest sorrow, 
if it is the Queen who is responsible; which, 
however, I do not believe. I say it with in¬ 
dignation, whoever else it may be. ” 

— Debate in the House of Commons con¬ 
cerning an alleged breach of neutrality laws, 
in permitting British officers to serve in the 
Chinese army. Lord Palmerston said he could, 
not understand the censure of Lord Naas, who 
seemed to imply that we were wrong in teach¬ 
ing the Chinese the art of government, of regu¬ 
lating their finances, of increasing their revenue, 
and improving their administration. He ad¬ 
mitted these charges, and claimed credit for 
them. The Plouse afterwards went into Com¬ 
mittee of Supply. 

7 . —Died at Linden Grove, Bayswater, aged 
78, William Mulready, R.A. 

IO.—The Mexican Assembly resolve to adopt 
an hereditary monarchical government under a 
Roman Catholic emperor, and to invite the 
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, eldest bro¬ 
ther of the Emperor of Austria, to accept the 
imperial title. The provisional government 
afterwards assumed the style of the “ Regency 
of the Mexican Empire.” 

13 .— Treaty of London, approving of the 
election of Prince William of Denmark to the 
throne of Greece, signed by England, France, 
and Russia. 








JULY 


1863. 


JULY 


13 .—Commencement of a series of conscrip¬ 
tion riots at New York and Boston. 

15 . —The tribe of the Waikatoes, dwelling 
near Auckland, begin a new outbreak by mur¬ 
dering two settlers. General Cameron after¬ 
wards marched against the aborigines. 

16 . —Another phase of the Roupell forgeries 
came on to-day for hearing, at Chelmsford 
Assizes, before Mr. Baron Channell and a 
special jury. The action was brought to re¬ 
cover an estate at Great Warley, Essex, con¬ 
sisting of two farms, viz. Bury, in the occupa¬ 
tion of Hawes ; and Bolens, in the occupation 
of Springham. The real parties to the action 
were Richard Roupell, plaintiff, as son and 
heir, and also as devisee of his father, the late 
Richard Palmer Roupell, with certain persons, 
stated to be trustees for widows and children 
who took a mortgage of the estate, in July 1857, 
from William Roupell; and the real defendants 
were the mortgagees, let in to defend as land¬ 
lords in terms of a deed of gift by old Roupell 
to his son William, of date 9th January, 1856. 
As will be seen above, William Roupell mort¬ 
gaged the property after his father’s death ; 
but if the deed were genuine, the old man did 
not die seised of the estate, and Richard could 
not take it either as heir-at-law or as devisee 
under the disputed will of 1850. On the othet 
hand, the plaintiff, who must recovex on his 
own right, was bound to prove that both the 
deed of gift and the will of September 1856 
were forgeries; for if the former were genuine, 
the mortgagees had a title, and if the latter were 
genuine, the estate was left to his mother, and 
the plaintiff had no claim at all. The case for 
the defendant was thus founded on the deed 
of gift of January 1856, while the plaintiff 
pleaded that both deed and will were forgeries. 
William Roupell was again brought from pri¬ 
son to the witness-box, and explained in the 
most minute manner how he had forged his 
father’s name, and obtained the signatures of 
two 'attesting witnesses—not absolutely neces¬ 
sary—by representing to them that they were 
attesting a lease signed by himself. His 
evidence was confirmed by these two per¬ 
sons, Trueman and Dove. They denied that 
they ever saw Roupell, the father, sign any 
deed ; but they declared that their own signa¬ 
tures were genuine, and that the only person 
present when they signed was William Roupell. 
So far the convict’s evidence was strongly cor¬ 
roborated. The case as to the will of 1856 
also rested almost entirely on the evidence of 
William Roupell, who not only swore that he 
forged the document in question, but also gave 
evidence as to the contents of the will of 1850, 
declaring that under it the Warley estate was 
given to Richard. This will, he said, he de¬ 
stroyed, after keeping it for years ; and the loss 
was irremediable, since the draught had 
been also destroyed by the proctor. William 
Roupell was not cross-examined, the defen¬ 
dants deeming him unworthy of credit, butTrue- 
man and Dove, the witnesses for the two tenants, 


were severely handled. Between the examina¬ 
tion of witnesses, and the discussion of points 
of law, the proceedings were protracted over 
nine days. The answers of the jury, after first 
retiring, were as follows To the first ques¬ 
tion,—Was the deed of gift executed in the 
presence of the two witnesses?—It was not. 
Upon the second question, as to whether it was 
executed by the testator, they were not agreed. 
To the third question,—Was the will of 
September 2, 1856, the will of the testator?— 
they found it was not so. To the fourth ques¬ 
tion,—Whether the willof 1850devised the estate 
to the plaintiff ?—they answered that there was 
not sufficient evidence to enable them to find. 
The jury retired again about six o’clock. At 
ten, being still unable to agree, and declaring 
that there was no prospect of their coming to a 
unanimous conclusion, the learned Judge, after 
conferring with counsel on both sides, declared 
the jury to be discharged : and so this long- 
contested case ended, like the suit tried at 
Guildford, without any decision. 

20 .—Mr. Horsman draws the attention of 
Parliament to the oppressive measures of 
Russia in Poland, asking the House to agree 
to a resolution, “ That, in the opinion of this 
House, the arrangements made with regard to 
Poland by the Treaty of Vienna have failed to 
secure the good government of Poland or the 
peace of Europe ; and any further attempt to 
replace Poland under the conditions of that 
treaty must cause calamities to Poland and 
embarrassment and danger to Europe.” As 
Lord Palmerston declined to commit the 
Government to any more active policy than 
remonstrance till an answer had been obtained 
from Russia to the six points recently placed 
before her by the great Powers, the motion 
was withdrawn after a debate. 

The “female Blondin ” killed at Aston- 
park, Birmingham, while performing on the 
tight-rope for the entertainment of a company 
of the Order of Foresters. The chair in which 
the first part of the performance had been 
carried through was removed, and a bag 
placed over the head of the performer as an 
additional blindfold. In this condition she 
again moved on the rope, holding the balancing 
pole in her hand, and cautiously feeling her 
way. She had trodden but three faltering 
steps when the rope collapsed, the platform on 
which the attendant was standing fell back, 
and the poor woman was dashed to the ground. 
Her death was instantaneous. The Foresters 
persevered with their entertainment till the 
evening. A letter written to the Mayor of 
Birmingham, by command of the Queen, 
stated: “Her Majesty cannot refrain from 
making known to you her personal feelings of 
horror that one of her subjects—a female 
—should have been sacrificed to the gratifi¬ 
cation of the demoralizing taste, unfortunately 
prevalent, for exhibitions attended with the 
greatest danger to the performers. Were any 
proof wanting that such exhibitions are de- 

(655) 





JULY 


1863. 


AUGUST 


moralizing, I am commanded to remark that 
it would be at once found in the decision 
arrived at to continue the festivities, the 
hilarity, and the sports of the occasion after 
an event so melancholy. The Queen trusts that 
you, in common with the rest of the towns¬ 
people of Birmingham, will use your influence 
to prevent in future the degradation to such 
exhibitions of the Park, which was gladly 
opened by her Majesty and the beloved Prince 
Consort, in the hope that it would be made 
serviceable for the healthy exercise and rational 
recreation of the people.” The Mayor (Sturge) 
replied : “For the future I have every reason 
to hope that, notwithstanding Aston-park is 
beyond the jurisdiction of the authorities of 
Birmingham, their influence, and that of 
their fellow-townsmen, will henceforth limit 
its use exclusively to the healthy exercise 
and rational recreation of the people, so 
that the gracious intentions of her Majesty 
and her revered Consort may not be frustrated, 
but realized. In the meantime, I trust that 
exhibitions of so dangerous and demoralizing a 
character may be interdicted by parliamentary 
enactment ” 

24 . —With reference to the Volunteer 
Review at Wimbledon on the 18th, the Com¬ 
mander-in-chief writes: “I can only express 
my satisfaction at the zeal with which all on 
the ground carried out the instructions they 
received ; and I have a firm conviction that the 
Volunteer force is now becoming a very efficient 
body of men, and valuable as a great auxiliary 
to the regular army of the country.” 

28 . —Parliament prorogued by Commis¬ 
sion. The Royal Speech made reference to 
the condition of Poland, the civil war in 
America, the kingdom of Greece, the outrage 
in, and cessation of diplomatic intercourse with, 
Japan, and to the most prominent measures 
carried during the session. 

29 . — Died, aged 69, Sir Cresswell Cresswell, 
first Judge of the Divorce Court. 

31 . —The Master of the Rolls delivers 
judgment in the case of Broun v. Kennedy, 
setting aside the deed executed by Mrs. 
Broun in 1859, giving a reversionary estate 
in fee simple in the Swinfen Hall estates, on 
the ground that such deed had been obtained by 
surprise and the exercise of undue influence. 
The deed to be delivered up to be cancelled ; 
Kennedy to reconvey his interest in the estate, 
and pay the costs of suit. His Honour also 
expressed his concurrence in the decision 
arrived at by the Court of Common Pleas, that 
a barrister was not allowed to sue for the 
recovery of fees. 

August 1.— Died at Abingdon House, 
Kensington, her Highness Maharanee Jendau 
Kower, widow of the late Maharajah Runjeet 
Singh, ruler of the Sikhs, and mother of the 
present Maharajah Dhuleep Singh. Her High¬ 
ness was interred in Kensal-green Cemetery, 

(656) 


after some opposition on the part of hei 
attendants, who wished the body conveyed to 
India. 

2 . —Died, aged 59, Paul Delaroche, French 
painter. 

3. —Accident on the Lynn and Hunstanton 
Railway, occasioned by the engine coming in 
contact with a bullock upon the line. Five of 
the passengers were killed, some of them so 
mutilated as to defy recognition. 

— The Prince of Wales visits Halifax, to 
open the new Town Hall. 

4 . —The King of Prussia declines to attend 
the Congress of German sovereigns summoned 
to Frankfort for the purpose of reconstructing 
the Germanic Confederation. 

5. —Settled, by compromise, at Cork As¬ 
sizes, the protracted process of litigation known 
as the Egmont property case, involving the 
ownership of lands computed to be worth 
12,000/. a year. The action was in the form 
of an issue directed by the Court of Chancery 
for the purpose of ascertaining whether a cer¬ 
tain instrument was the last will of Henry, Eari 
of Egmont. It purported to devise all the 
freehold and personal estates, together with 
the right of presentation to two livings in 
England, to Edward Tierney, of Fitzwilliam- 
street, Dublin, making him, indeed, the sole 
residuary legatee, after payment of a few com¬ 
paratively small charges. The Egmonts and 
Tierneys first became acquainted at Brighton 
in the reign of George IV. One result of this 
intimacy was, that Edward Tierney, recog¬ 
nised as a friend and counsellor of the Eg¬ 
monts, was appointed agent to the estates, 
then very much involved. Immediately after 
the accession of Henry, Lord Percival, the 
testator, to the Egmont title, it became neces¬ 
sary, in order to meet the embarrassments 
of the family, to borrow money. This was 
done, and two trust-deeds executed, whereby 
the whole estates were conveyed to Lord Per¬ 
cival, Mr. Teed, and Mr. Edward Tierney. 
These trustees were to pay certain sums to Lord 
Egmont and his son, Lord Percival; they were 
to bar all entail, and to invest the property in the 
name of the Earl of Egmont, so as to give him 
power to dispose of it ultimately to the testator, 
Lord Percival. In consequence of the pecu¬ 
niary position in which he was placed, Lord 
Percival, although a man of great refinement, 
gave way to drink. When he succeeded to the 
title, he had property valued at 200,000/., but 
upon it there was a debt of 100,000/., besides a 
further sum of 23,000/. owing to Mr. Tierney. 
The Earl died in 1841, and in his will made 
Edward Tierney his heir and residuary legatee. 
Subsequent to the Earl’s death, the property 
had been greatly improved, no less a sum than 
70,000/. having been expended upon it by 
Mr. Tierney. Owing to the peculiar form oi 
the pleadings, the question being the validity 
of a will, the Rev. Sir Lionel Darell appeared 
as plaintiff against the Earl of Egmont (Lord 




A C/C C/ST 


AUGUST 


I 863. 


Arden), whereas he was in reality defendant, 
resisting the claim of his opponent to get pos¬ 
session of the estates, which were alleged to 
have been obtained by fraud and false repre¬ 
sentation. The terms of the compromise were, 
that the estates were to be surrendered to the 
Earl of Egmont, who, in return, was to pay 
Sir Lionel Darell 125,000/., and to require no 
account of the mesne rents and profits since 
the death of the testator. The Earl also be¬ 
came bound to pay all costs incurred. 

6 . —Commercial treaty concluded between 
England and Italy. 

— Sir Henry Storks, acting under the au¬ 
thority of the Queen’s proclamation, dissolves 
the Ionian Parliament, ‘ ‘ with a view to con¬ 
sult, in the most formal and authentic manner, 
the wishes of the inhabitants as to their future 
destiny.” The result was a unanimous reso¬ 
lution in favour of union with Greece. A 
protocol ceding the Isles was given effect to 
in June 1864. 

11 .—An English fleet, under the command 
of Captain Kuper, enters the Bay of Kagosima 
to demand satisfaction from the Prince of 
Satsuma for an attack made on the English 
travellers within the bounds of his jurisdiction, 
Sept. 14, 1862. Failing to obtain any satis¬ 
factory answer to the demands made, three 
steamers were seized on the 15th, when sud¬ 
denly all the batteries opened a fire of shot and 
shell on the squadron. The Admiral at once 
proceeded to bombard the city, laying a great 
part of it in ruins, and completely destroying 
the batteries. Satsuma afterwards consented to 
do his utmost to apprehend the murderers, and 
paid his portion of the indemnity demanded, 
25,000/. 

14 . — Died, at the residence of General 
Eyre, Chatham, aged 71 years, Lord Clyde, 
“who by his own deserts, through fifty years 
of arduous service, from the earliest battle in 
the Peninsula to the pacification of India in 
1858, rose to the rank of Field-Marshal and a 
peerage. ” 

15. —The Moniteur publishes an Imperial 
decree, warning the Bishops who had under¬ 
taken to advise the electors as to their political 
duty at the recent election of deputies that 
they must confine their interference to religious 
duties. 

17 . —A Congress of German Sovereigns as¬ 
sembles at Frankfort. The Emperor of Aus¬ 
tria presided, and in his opening speech rela¬ 
tive to the reforms which the Congress should 
initiate, expressed his regret that he had not 
been able to induce the King of Prussia to 
participate in the work of unity. The 35 
States of the Confederation, or Bund, included 
1 empire, 5 kingdoms, 7 grand-duchies, 1 
electorate, 8 duchies, I landgravate, 8 princi¬ 
palities, and 4 free towns. The entire popu¬ 
lation was computed at 44,802,050, and the 
military force of the Confederation at 503,072 
men. 

(* 57 ) 


20 .—In reply to a second pressing invita¬ 
tion to attend the Congress of Sovereigns at 
Frankfort, the King of Prussia writes : “ My 
conviction is still the same as that expressed in 
my explanation of the 4th inst., and I retain it 
the rather as I have yet received no official 
information of the basis of the propositions. 
The information which has reached me by 
other means only strengthens me in the view 
not to fix my determination until, by busi¬ 
ness-like deliberations on the matter by my 
Council, the proposed changes in the Federal 
| Constitution may be harmoniously discussed 
in their relations to the just power of Prussia 
and to the just interests of the nation. I owe 
it to my country and the cause of Germany, 
to give no explanations which may bind me 
to my Federal allies before such discussion has 
taken place. Without such, however, my 
participation in the discussions would be im¬ 
practicable.” 

24 .— Mr. Coxwell’s balloon collapses soon 
after ascending from a fete at Basford Park, Not¬ 
tingham, and, descending with great rapidity, 
causes the death of an amateur aeronaut 
named Chambers, who had volunteered to 
take the place of the aerial scientific navi¬ 
gator. The car struck the ground and re¬ 
bounded several feet, when it was caught hold 
of by a party of young men. Chambers was 
stretched at the bottom of the car, life nearly 
extinct, more, it was believed, from the effects 
of the gas in the balloon than even the serious 
fractures he had sustained. 

26 .— Heard in Edinburgh, before Lord 
Barcaple and a jury, the case of Craig v. 
Tennent, being an action for seduction in which 
the damages were laid at 1,000/. The pursuer 
was the daughter of a surgeon at Strathaven, 
and the defender acted as a bank-agent there. 
The case was chiefly remarkable for the expo¬ 
sure it led to of the easy morality prevailing in 
that district during the courting season. The 
pursuer herself admitted that on one evening, 
when a number of young people met for di¬ 
version, there might have been rolling on the 
floor and kissing going on. “Toozling” was 
the custom of the place, and was familiarly 
known as “ the batts.” Another witness re¬ 
membered the defender and a medical friend 
“bedding” Miss Craig, and afterwards “tooz¬ 
ling ” about the house. This also was a custom 
of the place, though it was not established 
in evidence that such practices were a neces¬ 
sary preliminary of marriage, for, during the 
period of their occurrence, the pursuer had 
been heard to speak slightingly of the defender 
as “small-legged Tammy.” A justice of the 
peace had been present at one of the “tooz¬ 
ling ” scenes, and gone through the ceremony 
of a sham marriage. The defender at first 
pleaded that he had never been guilty of any 
improprieties with the pursuer, and then that 
improprieties had been continued over the whole 
period of their intimacy. The village doctor 
was called on the side of the defender, ^nd also 

U u 











august 


1^63. 


ncTOPFK 


several female witnesses, who all testified that 
the occurrences referred to were quite common 
in and around Strathaven, and nobody there 
thought anything of them. The jury returned 
a unanimous verdict for the pursuer, and gave 
damages for the full amount claimed, 1,000/. 

29 . —Came on for trial at the Croydon As¬ 
sizes, before Baron Bramwell and a special 
jury, the case of Wolley v. Pole, involving the 
plaintiff’s right to recover from the Sun and 
other insurance offices the sum of 29,000/., as 
insurance effected on the mansion of Campden 
House and furniture, prior to its destruction 
by fire on the 23d March, 1862. After a long 
time spent in investigating the claim, and the 
circumstances of the fire, the offices determined 
to dispute the policies on the ground of fraud 
and arson, and this was the crime which was 
now submitted to the jury. The first action, 
in which the Secretary of the Sun Office 
appeared as defendant, was arranged to be 
taken as decisive of the others. The main 
facts sought to be brought out in evidence 
against the plaintiff were, that he had increased 
the insurances far beyond the value of the 
fittings; that many of the articles insured 
had been removed from the house ; that his 
movements on the night of the fire were open to 
grave suspicion ; that the furniture and books 
were spread about so as to burn readily, and, 
finally, that he was in such pecuniary difficulties 
as to furnish a motive for the crimes alleged 
against him. After a trial extending over 
five days, the jury returned a verdict for the 
plaintiff. 

September 1.—Termination of the Frank¬ 
fort Congress. In the course of the sittings 
resolutions were carried in favour of the 
formation of a Chief Directory of sovereigns, a 
Federal Council with an assembly of 302 dele¬ 
gates, and a Federal Court of Justice: Prussia 
to preside at the Council or Directory only 
in the absence of Austria. 

— The Haytian insurgents seize the capitol, 
and proclaim a republic under Colonel Palengo. 

3 .—Lelewel at the head of 700 Poles attacks 
and defeats a superior Russian force, but sus¬ 
tains ,great losses in the encounter. Three 
days afterwards the Russians commenced an 
attack which resulted in the death of Lele¬ 
wel, and the retreat of his followers into 
Galicia. 

9 . —Earl Russell visits Dundee, and is pre¬ 
sented with the freedom of the burgh, prepara¬ 
tory to opening the public park presented to 
the citizens by Sir David Baxter. In an after- 
dinner speech given in his honour a few days 
later at Blairgowrie, Perthshire, his lordship 
expressed an opinion that, so far as Reform was 
concerned, we were at the present time entitled 
B to rest and be thankful.” 

10. —The Queen disembarks at Woolwich, 
on her return from Germany. 

11 . —Four men executed in front of Kirk- 

(658) 


dale Gaol, Liverpool:—Alvarez, a Spanish 
seaman, for stabbing James Harrison, in 
Oldhali-street, on the 12th May; Benjamin 
Thomas, a Welsh sailor, for beating to 
death, with a potato-masher, the woman with 
whom he lodged, on the same day ; Job 
Hughes, for murdering his wife by trampling 
on her, on April 30; and James O’Brien, an 
Irish sailor, for stabbing Elizabeth O’Callaghan, 
in a brothel in Spitalfields. 

17 —Died, aged 74, Edward Ellice, Esq., 
M. P. for Coventry, the Nestor of the Whig 
party. 

20 .—Died, aged 79, Jacob Grimm, philo¬ 
logist and antiquary. 

23 .—A coroner’s inquest held at the vestry- 
room of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, on the 
body of George Beamire, an eccentric person 
of property, a barrister, who had been found 
dead in his room, to which for years no one 
had been admitted. The walls were covered 
with pictures of, value, and in various comers 
of his apartments piles of clothing were found 
mixed up with silver plate and rare books—- 
all thickly covered with dust. A verdict was 
returned that death was caused by exhaustion 
from low fever, accelerated by neglect. 

— The Ionian Assembly declare in favour 
of uniting the Islands to the kingdom of Greece, 
and thank Great Britain and the joint pro¬ 
tecting Powers. This Assembly, declining the 
pecuniary stipulations, was afterwards pro¬ 
rogued. 

25 . —Inquiry before the Castle Hedingham 
magistrates, into the death of an old Frenchman 
commonly called “Dummy,” who practised 
fortune-telling to a little extent, and had in¬ 
curred, in consequence, the evil reputation of 
being a wizard. Aggrieved by his refusing 
to heal their imaginary ailments, and deter¬ 
mined at, the same time to rid the parish of a 
person of such baleful influence, a mob, com¬ 
posed for the most part of small shopkeepers 
and women, fell upon the old man on the 3d 
August last, and, besides half-suffocating him 
in a ditch, otherwise maltreated him so severely, 
that he died in a few days from the injuries 
received. Emma Smith and Samuel Stam¬ 
mers, ringleaders in the outrage, were now 
committed to take their trial at the Chelmsford 
Spring Assizes. 

26 . —Died, aged 49, Frederick William 
Faber, D. D., founder and superior of the 
Oratory of St. Philip Neri, Brompton. 

October 3 .—The Archduke Maximilian 
consents to accept the crown of Mexico, pro¬ 
vided his election be ratified by a free vote of 
the whole Mexican people. 

6.—Earthquake shocks felt in the central 
and western parts of England, the shocks being 
nearly simultaneous from Milford Haven to 
Burton-on-Trent, and from the Mersey to 
Plymouth. 







OCTOBER 


1863. 


NOVEMBER 


6 . —Discourteous treatment of the Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland by the Earl of Leitrim. 
In his progress through the western parts of 
the island, Lord Carlisle and his party were 
refused accommodation at the little inn of 
Maam, in Connemara, in consequence of the 
following letter written to his tenant, the inn¬ 
keeper, by the Earl of Leitrim : “ King, I 
will be obliged to you to fill the hotel with my 
tenants forthwith. Let every room be occupied 
immediately, and continue to be occupied; and 
when so occupied you will refuse admittance 
to Lord Carlisle and his party. If there should 
be the slightest difficulty as to filling the hotel, 
the occupation of the rooms, my desire is that 
you will fill each room with the workmen ; 
but you must not admit Lord Carlisle, and 
consequently the rooms should be filled pre¬ 
vious to his coming there. Any orders you 
may have received notwithstanding, I rely on 
your observing my wishes to the letter.— 
Leitrim. P.S.—I will pay for the tenants 
using the rooms. ” Lord Leitrim was after¬ 
wards removed from the Commission of the 
Peace. 

— Died, aged 55, Mrs. Frances Trollope, 
novelist. 

8 . —Died, aged 76, Richard Whately, D.D , 
Archbishop of Dublin, a theologian who com¬ 
bined zeal with discretion and learning, and a 
political economist who added a practical 
sympathy with the people to a thorough un¬ 
derstanding of their habits. 

12. —Died, aged 91, J. S. Copley, Lord 
Lyndhurst, born a British citizen in Massachu¬ 
setts when it was a loyal colony. He was re¬ 
cognised in the House of Lords as an orator of 
uncommon readiness and power, and in the 
first and second Peel ministries filled the office 
of Lord Chancellor. (See Table of Adminis¬ 
trations. ) 

13 . —Inauguration of the Albert Memorial 
at Aberdeen, in presence of the Queen and 
several members of the Royal Family. Her 
Majesty (through Sir George Grey) said: “I 
could not reconcile it to myself to remain 
at Balmoral, while such a tribute was being 
paid to his memory, without making an exer¬ 
tion to assure you personally of the deep and 
heartfelt sense I entertain of your kindness and 
affection; and, at the same time, to proclaim 
in public the unbounded reverence and admi- 
rat on, the devoted love, that fills my heart for 
him whose loss must throw a lasting gloom 
over all my future life. ” 

17 . — Explosion at Morfa Colliery, Glamor¬ 
ganshire, causing the death of thirty-nine work¬ 
men, being almost all the labourers in the pit 
at the time. 

18 . —The 50th anniversary of the battle 
of Leipsic celebrated with great enthusiasm 
throughout Germany. 

19. —Lord Palmerston entered as a co¬ 
respondent in the Divorce Court, A person 

( 659 ) 


named O’Kane filed a petition this day alleging 
his marriage with Matilda Margaret Augustus 
Morris, on the 2d of October, 1851, at St. 
George’s-in-the-East, London. He then stated 
cohabitation at 2, John-street, Commercial- 
road ; Gravesend ; Tralee ; and 2, Grove Place, 
Brighton ; and the birth of a son and four 
daughters. There was next an allegation to 
the effect that on the 16th June, 1863, at 
Cambridge House, and at other times and 
places, the respondent committed adultery with 
the co-respondent, Viscount Palmerston, in 
consideration of which damages were claimed 
for 20,000/. The respondent, Mrs. O’Kane, 
answered this petition on the 1st day of 
November, by a denial both of the adultery 
and the marriage. The noble co-respondent 
did not answer, but instead of doing so—and 
as a preliminary step—he, on the 17th of 
November, 1862, obtained in chambers an order 
that the petitioner should specify more pre¬ 
cisely the place and mode in which the 
marriage was celebrated, and also the places 
and times at which the adultery was com¬ 
mitted. With this order the petitioner did 
not comply, and took no further steps in the 
suit. At a subsequent stage of the proceed¬ 
ings the petition was removed from the file, an 
affidavit being sworn to that the petition was 
presented, filed, and served for the purpose of 
extortion only, and that the petitioner had no 
case on its merits. 

20 .—The Transylvanian deputies accept the 
Austrian constitution, and take their seats in 
the Reichsrath. 

22.—The Prince of Wales elected President 
of the Society of Arts. 

24 -.—Middling New Orleans cotton sold in 
Liverpool at 29^/. per lb. This was the 
highest point it reached, the market for ten 
days previously being more excited than at 
any other period during the famine. Through¬ 
out 1861 the same quality was quoted at II \d., 
and in 1862 at 24^. In 1854 the current rate 
was 5 d. per lb. 

26 . —The Japanese Government removes its 
recent restrictions on foreign commerce at all 
the ports except Yokohama. 

27 . — The Russian Government forbid 
mourning to be worn by Poles in Warsaw in 
memory of those who had fallen in the insur¬ 
rection. 

28 . —Sarah Emily Mitchell tried at the 
Central Criminal Court, for stabbing her infant 
child with a dagger, and attempting afterwards 
to commit suicide. She was acquitted on the 
ground of insanity. 

30 —King George I. arrives at Athens. 

November 3.—Inquiry at the Marylebone 
Police-court into the charges made against 
Jane Plenderson, lady’s maid to Miss Domville, 
Connaught-place, of procuring in a fraudulent 
manner jewellery to the amount of over 2,000/, 

U U 2 




NOVEMBER 


1863. 


NOVEMBER 


from Mr. Hancock and other jewellers in 
London. There were found in her room 
ornaments to the value of 800/., 200 pairs of j 
gloves, and 273 1 . in money. She was com- [ 
mitted for trial, and convicted at the Central 
Criminal Court. 

4 >. —The Emperor of the French issues an 
invitation to the Sovereigns of Europe to as¬ 
semble in Congress at Paris for the settlement 
of various international difficulties. “Called 
to the throne,” he wrote to her Majesty, “by 
Providence, and the will of the French people, 
but trained in the school of adversity, it is per¬ 
haps less allowable for me than for others to 
ignore the rights of sovereigns and the legiti¬ 
mate aspirations of the people. Thus I am 
ready, without any preconceived system, to 
bring to an International Council a spirit 
of moderation and justice, the ordinary por¬ 
tion of those who have undergone so many 
different trials. If I take the initiative in 
such an overture, I do not yield to an im¬ 
pulse of vanity, but because I am the sove¬ 
reign to whom ambitious projects have mostly 
been attributed. I have it at heart to prove, 
by this frank and loyal overture, that my 
sole object is to arrive, without convulsion, at 
the pacification of Europe. If this proposal 
be agreed to, I beg your Majesty to accept 
Paris as the place of meeting. If the princes, 
allies and friends of France, should think fit to 
enhance by their presence the authority of the 
deliberations, I shall be proud to offer them 
cordial hospitality. Europe will, perhaps, see 
some advantage in the capital whence the 
signal of confusion has so often arisen becoming 
the seat of conferences destined to lay the basis 
of a general pacification. I take this opportu¬ 
nity of renewing to you the assurances of the 
high esteem and inviolable friendship with 
which I am, Madam my Sister, your Majesty’s 
good brother— Napoleon.” Earl Russell en¬ 
tered at length into the question in a despatch, 
dated 25th November. He concluded : “ If 
the mere expression of opinions and wishes 
would accomplish no positive results, it appears 
certain that the deliberations of a Congress 
would consist of demands and pretensions put 
forward by some and resisted by others ; and, 
there being no supreme authority in such an 
assembly to enforce the decision of the majo¬ 
rity, the Congress would probably separate 
leaving many of its members on worse terms 
with each other than they had been when they 
met. But if this would be the probable result, 
it follows that no decrease of armaments is 
likely to be effected by the proposed Congress. 
M. Drouyn cle Lhuys refers to a proposal 
made by Lord Clarendon in one of the 
last sittings of the Congress of Paris. But 
her Majesty’s Government understand that 
proposal to have reference to a dispute between 
two Powers to be referred to the good offices 
of a friendly Power, but in no way to the as¬ 
sembling of a General Congress. Not being 
able, therefore, to discern the likelihood of 
those beneficial consequences which the Em- 
(660) 


peror of the French promised himself when 
proposing a Congress, her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment, following their own strong convictions, 
after mature deliberation, feel themselves unable 
to accept his Imperial Majesty’s invitation.” 

5. — The Attorney-General moves for a rule 
for a new trial in the case of the Alexandra, on 
the ground of misdirection by Lord Chief Baron 
Pollock, and also upon the ground that the 
verdict was against the evidence. When the 
rule came to be argued, two of the judges 
thought it should be made absolute, and two 
that it should be discharged. By the with¬ 
drawal, as is the custom in such cases, of 
the judgment of the junior judge, a decision 
was entered that the rule should be dis¬ 
charged. An appeal on behalf of the Crown 
was made to the Court of Error, Exchequer 
Chamber (February 6), but Sir Hugh Cairns 
there stated the objection, that the Court of 
Exchequer had no power by law to make the 
rule under which the appeal had been brought. 
He contended that the only power given by 
the 26th Section of the Queen’s Remem¬ 
brancer’s Act to the Court of Exchequer was 
to regulate the internal arrangements within 
their own court, and not to create new courts. 
They could not go outside their own court and 
give to suitors rights external to their court, 
or give them power of appeal from their de¬ 
cision to the Privy Council or the House of 
Lords. Four of the judges were of opinion 
that the Court had no jurisdiction, and three 
that it had. The case was ultimately carried 
to the House of Lords, the point argued with 
much subtlety on both sides being the technical 
question of the jurisdiction of the Court of 
Exchequer Chamber. The House pronounced 
a decision on the 6th of April, showing a great 
diversity of opinion among the law lords, but 
deciding by a majority in favour of the Lord 
Chancellor’s opinion, that the appeal should 
be dismissed with costs. 

— The French Chamber opened by the Em¬ 
peror. M. Thiers, lately elected, was observed 
to form the centre of a new opposition. 

6 . —Czuchowski, the last of the Polish leaders 
of any eminence, defeated at Radom, and 
taken prisoner, wounded and dying. 

7 . —William Samuel Hunt poisons his wife 
and two children in a cab by administering 
prussic acid to them, which he mixed with 
beer called for at a public-house in Bishops- 
gate-street, while being driven to West- 
bourne Grove. Hunt left the cab himself 
in Hoi born, instructing the driver to pro¬ 
ceed to the address originally given, when 
the occupants were found to have been dead 
for some time. 1 wo days afterwards he 
poisoned himself with aconite while the police 
were endeavouring to effect an entrance into 
his house. 

The new Prussian Chamber of Deputies 
opened by the King, who expressed a wisli to 
act in harmony with the representatives if they 
would carry out his measures. 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


IS6 3 . 


IO.—The splendid new war-vessel Prince 
Consort narrowly escapes foundering in a gale 
in the Irish Channel. While vast quantities 
of water were shipped on deck, an undetected 
leak below permitted her engine-room to be 
flooded within a few inches of the fires. The 
engines, however, were powerful enough to 
drive the huge mass through the storm till a 
safe anchorage was reached off Kingstown. 

15 . —Death of Frederick VII., King of 
Denmark, and accession of Christian IX., 
father of the Princess of Wales. The follow¬ 
ing day Frederick, Duke of Augustenburg, 
issued a proclamation in which he claimed the 
succession to Schleswig-Holstein. 

17 .—Commenced, at Aldershot, the court- 
martial on Lieutenant - Colonel Crawley, 
charged “(1) with conduct unbecoming an 
officer, and to the prejudice of good order and 
military discipline, in having at Mhow, during 
the month of May, A. D. 1862, when the Regi¬ 
mental Sergeant-Major Lilley was confined in 
close arrest, caused the orders under which he 
was so confined to be carried into effect with 
unnecessary and undue severity, whereby the 
said Regimental Sergeant-Major lilley and his 
wife were subjected to great and grievous hard¬ 
ships and suffering ; (2) for conduct unbecom¬ 
ing an officer and a gentleman, and to the pre¬ 
judice of good order and military discipline, 
in having at Mhow, on or about the 7th June, 
A. i>. 1862, in the course of an address made by 
him before the general Court-martial which 
was then being held for the trial of Paymaster 
T. Smales, 6th Enniskillen Dragoons, ex¬ 
pressed himself in the following language, or 
words to the like effect: * Close arrest neces¬ 
sarily implies a sentry over a prisoner, but it 
does not necessitate his being placed over a 
prisoner’s wife or family, and I can assure the 
court that no person could be more shocked 
than I was when I learned from the evidence 
of Sergeant-Major Lilley that his wile had been 
incommoded or' annoyed by the precaution 
taken for his safe custody. It was Lieutenant 
and Adjutant Fitzsimon’s fault if any such 
thing occurred, for it was his duty as Adjutant 
to have seen the post assigned to the sentry, 
and to have taken care that no such improper 
interference with the privacy of the Sergeant- 
Major’s wife could have taken place. As it 
was, immediately I became acquainted with 
the statement of Sergeant-Major Lilley, I sent 
off orders to have the sentry removed to a post 
where he could perform his duty equally well 
without annoying or interfering with Mrs. 
Lilley:’ thereby representing that the said 
Lieutenant and Adjutant Fitzsimon was in fault 
for what had occurred, whereas in truth, and 
in fact, Lieut.-Colonel Crawley then well knew 
that the said Lieutenant and Adjutant Fitz¬ 
simon had acted in the said matter by the 
express order and direction of the said Lieut.- 
Colonel Crawley.” The examination of wit¬ 
nesses was continued till the 17th of Decem¬ 
ber, when Colonel Crawley addressed the 


Court in defence, and claimed a complete 
acquittal. The Court found him Not guilty on 
both counts, and restored him the command ol 
the regiment. Several witnesses who seemed 
to be actuated by an animus against Colonel 
Crawley, and had given their evidence in a 
hesitating, unsatisfactory way, were transferred 
to other regiments or dismissed the service. 

19 . —The inhabitants of Kiel petition the 
German Diet in favour of the claim of the 
Duke of Augustenburg to the succession. Two 
days afterwards the States of Holstein refused 
to swear allegiance to the new King of Den¬ 
mark. 

— The Common Council of London vote 
a portion of land in Victoria Street, and a sum 
of 20,000/., for the construction of dwellings 
for the poorer classes. 

20 . —Died at Dhurmsala, valley of Cash- 
mere, aged 52, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, 
Governor-General of India. On the 19th the 
Viceroy was quite conscious of his critical state 
and perfectly composed. He then made his 
will, directed Colonel Strachey to design a 
tomb for his remains ; approved of the design 
when submitted to him ; dictated the words of 
the telegram to England expressing his duty 
to the Queen, and requesting her to appoint 

! a successor ; gave instructions respecting the 
returti of his family to England, took an affec¬ 
tionate leave of all present, and waited calmly 
till the end came. 

ki 4 .—The Cobden-Delane dispute. In a 
speech at Rochdale to-night, Mr. Cobden 
said : “ With regard to some things in foreign 
countries, we don’t compare favourably. You 
have no peasantry but that of England which 
is entirely divorced from the land. There is no 
other country in the world where you will not 
find men holding the plough and turning up 
the furrow upon their own freehold. I don’t 
want any agrarian outrages by which we should 
change all this ; but this I find, and it is quite 
consistent with human nature, that w'herever I 
go the condition of the people is generally 
pretty good, in comparison with the power they 
have to take care of themselves; and if you 
have a class entirely divorced from political 
power, while in another country they possess 
it, they will be treated there with more consi¬ 
deration, they will have greater advantages, 
they will be better educated, and have a better 
chance of having property, than in a country 
where they are deprived of the advantage of 
political power.” Commenting on this and 
other speeches delivered at the same meeting, 
the Times wrote : “This language, so often 
repeated, and so calculated to excite discontent 
among the poor and half-informed, has really 
only one intelligible meaning—‘ Reduce the 
electoral franchise ; for when you have done 
so you will obtain an Assembly which will 
seize on the estates of the proprietors of land, 
and divide them gratuitously among the poor.’ 
. . . . It may be right to reduce the franchise, 
but certainly not as a step to spoliation. '* Mr. 





NOVEMBER 


1863. 


DECEMBER 


Cobden addressed himself direct to Mr. J. T. 
Delane, of the Times, who at once took upon 
himself personally the responsibility of the 
interpretation put upon the speeches. That 
interpretation Mr. Cobden described as a libel¬ 
lous outrage upon two members of the House 
of Commons, and an insult to millions of 
honest, industrious Englishmen. “Nobody,” 
he wrote, “knows better than yourself, except 
the writer who actually penned the scandalous 
passage in question, that this accusation against 
Mr. Bright, of wishing to divide the land of 
the rich among the poor, is nothing but the 
resort to a stale rhetorical trick (this only ag¬ 
gravates the character of the libel). To draw 
away public attention from the real issue, and 
thus escape from the discussion of a serious but 
for the moment an inconvenient public topic, 
in order to trail a red herring across the true 
scent, the cry of spoliation was raised.” Mr. 
Delane defended himself by alleging that he had 
been dragged into the correspondence entirely 
by the exaggerated intensity Mr. Cobden at¬ 
tached to the oft-quoted phrase, “Mr. Bright’s 
proposition for a division among the poor of 
the lands of the rich.” “You seem to assume 
that I charged you with proposing that this 
division should be accomplished by violence. 
But your own words were there to prove to me 
that such was not your meaning, and to confute 
me instantly if I had attempted to attach that 
interpretation to it. There are, however, as 
no one knows better than yourself, other and 
more effective, because more enduring, means 
than violence for the division of the land of the 

rich among the poor.You suggest so 

obviously that it is by legislative measures— 
rendered possible by giving political power to 
the peasantry—you propose to ‘ amend the un¬ 
equal distribution of the land between the rich 
and the poor,’ that no one would think of 
charging you with endeavouring to effect this 
great change by violence. For myself,” Mr. 
Delane concluded, “ I can but repeat that cer¬ 
tain passages in your speech will in my opinion 
bear no other interpretation than that ascribed 
to them ; and you have yourself quoted the 
very passage upon which I rely to justify my 
opinion.” 

25 —Suppression of the insurrection among 
the mountain tribes in the Punjaub, headed by 
Ram Singh. 

— First Fenian Convention assembles at 
Chicago. 

December 1.—Opening of the new railway 
between Charing Cross and Greenwich. 

2 .—The Prussian Chambers, by a majority 
of 231 to 63, pass a resolution : “That the 
nonour and interest of Germany demand that 
all the German States should preserve the rights 
of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, that 
they should recognise the hereditary prince of 
S chles wig -H olst ein -S onderburg - Augustenburg 
as Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, and they should 
lend him assistance in vindication of his rights.” 
(6G2) 


In reply to this the King of Denmark: announced 
his intention of resisting all revolutionary move¬ 
ments in Holstein. 

6 . —Lady Blantyre recovers 584/. in name 
of “ damages ” from the St. James’s Hotel Com¬ 
pany, for loss sustained in money and jewels 
while staying at their premises in Piccadilly. 
Mr. Bovill contended that the company could 
not be liable, seeing they had hung up a notice 
in every room—“ The company do not hold 
themselves responsible for property lost in the 
hotel unless placed in the special charge of the 
manager.” Mr. Justice Byles ruled that the 
liability of a hotel-keeper was undoubted. It 
was not only the law of England until modified 
by a recent Act of Parliament, but it was the 
law of every country in the world. With 
respect to the notice furnished on the card, it 
was of no value whatever, for it could not take 
away the responsibility of the defendants. 

8 . —Two thousand persons—mostly women 
—burnt in the church of La Compania, 
Santiago, Chili, in the course of a festival in 
honour of the Immaculate Conception. Every 
corner of the building, from the ground to the 
ceiling, and especially about the altar, was a 
sea of muslin and drapery flooded with every 
variety of illumination. Not content with even 
this display, the chief priest of the church, a 
man named Ugarte, in one of his attempts 
to outstrip the Catholic world, invented a 
celestial post-office in the building, through 
which direct communication in writing was 
obtained with the Virgin, and in which offer¬ 
ings accompanying the letters were to be 
deposited. At half-past six, though the 
building was crammed to suffocation, the crowd 
outside clamoured for admittance and pressed 
against the closed doors. At a quarter to 
seven high mass began with all the pomp and 
splendour customary on such occasions, the 
perfume of the frankincense pervading the 
building, and the plaintive sounds of the 
organ seeming to inspire feelings of holy awe 
at the grand solemnity. The staff of acolytes 
engaged for hours in lighting the endless 
festoons of lamps now reached the precinct 
of the high altar; all the tapers were safely 
lit, and there remained but to ignite a silver 
crescent containing paraffin which had been 
placed at the foot of a large image of the 
Virgin. A careless acolyte, it was thought, 
mismanaged the lighting of this ornament, and 
the flame rising to an extraordinary height came 
in contact with the muslin and gold draperies 
round the altar. These, from their light 
and inflammable texture, communicated the 
fire to the cloth-of-gold conopy above, which 
in its turn was soon in a blaze with all 
the other decorations round the church. For 
the closely packed and excited crowd to escape 
from the building was impossible. The doors 
were few in number and closely blockaded 
outside. There were also many ladies who, 
in ignorance of the true state of affairs, did 
not rise from their knees as quickly as they 





DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1863. 


might have done. The consequence was 
that those pressing from the centre of the 
church towards the doors stumbled over them, 
and in a few minutes great walls twelve feet 
high of fainting, trampled, and dying girls, 
entangled in each other’s dresses, barricaded 
the only three exits which the church pos¬ 
sessed, thus excluding from all outward help 
upwards of 1,800 ladies who now found them¬ 
selves face to face with death. The inside of the 
great dome, composed mostly of timber, was 
soon in a blaze, and showers of molten lead fell 
upon the seething mass of humanity below. 
The flames at last reached the festoons on which 
thousands of paraffin lamps were hung, and, 
snapping the cords asunder, the coloured globes 
and their contents descended on the heads of the 
people, enveloping them in one sheet of liquid 
fire. From the windows of the opposite 
houses people could be seen rushing to and fro 
amid the flames in the body of the church ; 
others stretching out their hands imploringly 
for help ; and high above the din of even the 
swinging bell in the tower coukl be heard the 
piercing cries of agony. A few minutes after 
eight the roof fell, burying beneath it all whom 
the fury of the fire had spared. A few, dis¬ 
figured by the flames or mangled by the crush, 
were dragged out and laid in the adjoining 
Senate-house, but it was thought that not fewer 
than two thousand—the rank and beauty of the 
city—perished in the calamity. The charred 
embers were gathered together and buried 
in a huge trench prepared for their reception, 
1,500 blackened skulls being counted and 
acknowledged as received by the authorities of 
the burial-ground for interment. The priest 
Ugarte was believed to have escaped by a 
private door in the sacristy. 

9 . —Sir John Lawrence leaves England to 
assume the duties of Governor-General of 
India. 

10. —Tom King defeats the American 
champion, Heenan, in a pugilistic encounter 
near Wadhursi, Sussex. At the twentieth 
round the ring was broken into by the excited 
spectators, and for five additional rounds the 
fight was carried on amid much confusion. 
Heenan was then unable to respond to the 
call of his second. 

12 .—Tried, at Derby Assizes, George Victor 
Townley, charged with murdering Miss Eliza¬ 
beth Goodwin, a young lady who had con¬ 
tracted a marriage engagement with him, but 
afterwards broke it off for reasons satisfac¬ 
tory to herself and friends. The murder 
was committed on the evening of the 21st of 
August last in the grounds of Wigwell Hall, 
Derbyshire, in the course of an interview he 
had solicited for the purpose of ascertain¬ 
ing her final intentions. A defence of insanity 
was set up and corroborated by Dr. Forbes 
Winslow, who had two interviews with the 
prisoner since the murder. The jury after an 
absence of five minutes returned a verdict ol 
Guilty, and Mr. Baron Martin, who entirely 


concurred in the finding, sentenced Townley to 
be executed on the 31st inst. A report under 
the Lunacy Act, signed by various justices and 
medical men, was afterwards sent to the Home 
Secretary, who was induced thereby to com¬ 
mute the capital sentence, although a more 
formal examination, authorized by himself, 
resulted in a report declaring that Townley was 
then perfectly sane. He was afterwards re¬ 
moved to Bethlehem Hospital. 

14 .—Destructive flood in Melbourne, the 
Yarra-yarra rising forty feet above its usual 
level. 

16 . —Tried at the Central Criminal Court, 
before Mr. Justice Blackburn, Samuel Wright, 
bricklayer, charged with the murder of Maria 
Green, a woman with whom he cohabited in 
a lodging-house in Waterloo-road, on the morn¬ 
ing of the 13th instant. He pleaded guilty 
to the charge, and, though repeatedly warned 
as to the consequences of his admission, refused 
to alter his plea, and received sentence of 
death. The swiftness with which in this 
instance conviction followed the perpetration 
of the crime, and the refusal of the prisoner 
to take advantage of any ground which might 
be suggested in his favour, coupled with his 
doubtful sanity, led to great efforts being made 
to obtain a mitigation of the sentence—par¬ 
ticularly as such abundant mercy had been 
shown to the other murderer, Townley—but 
the Home Secretary refused to interfere, and 
the capital sentence was carried out amid 
many evidences of public dissatisfaction. 

17 . —At Kingston Assizes, Joseph Mahaig, 
a sergeant of the 3d Buffs, receives sentence of 
death (afterwards commuted) for poisoning 
Elizabeth Wolerer, a woman with whom he 
cohabited, at Guildford. He attempted to 
commit suicide, and lay for some time in a 
neglected state beside the corpse in the bed. 

18 . —Fire in Wood-street and Milk-street, 
City, destroying property and merchandise 
estimated at over 100,000/. 

19 . —Mr. Hall, the Danish Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, addresses the Ministers of 
Prussia, Austria, Saxony, and Hanover, pro¬ 
nouncing the decree of the Federal Diet for 
giving effect to the “procedure of execution” 
111 the Duchies, passed on the 7th, as deprived 
of all binding force, owing to the illegal exclu¬ 
sion of the Plenipotentiary of Denmark from 
the assembly. After announcing that the 
proffered mediation of the British Government 
had been accepted, he protested against the 
unquestionable encroachment which had been 
assumed towards the King, who reserved to him¬ 
self to take such further steps as he might con¬ 
sider reconcilable with his rights and interests. 

22.—-The Holstein Diet meet at Hamburg, 
and resolve to appeal to the Federal Diet in 
favour of Duke Frederick of Augustenburg. 
Next day a detachment of Saxon and Hano¬ 
verian troops entered Holstein. 

24 .—An unexpected sadness fell on many 

(663) 




DECEMBER 


1863-64. 


JANUAR V 


a Christmas festivity throughout the kingdom 
by the. death this morning of Mr. Thackeray, 
the greatest of English novelists since Fielding, 
and a satirist who combined in a surprising 
degree the rare gift of brilliant humour with 
tender sympathy and high moral purpose. 

26 . —Explosion in the Maesteg Colliery, 
Glamorganshire, causing the death of fourteen 
men and boys who were working at the time 
with unprotected lights. 

27 . —The Prince of Augustenburg pro¬ 
claimed Duke of Schleswig-Holstein at Elms- 
horn by the title of Frederick VIII. The 
Prince made a public entry into Kiel on the 
30th. 

29 .— Four Italians, Greco, Imperatori, 
Trabuco, and Scaglioni, arrested in Paris on 
the charge of conspiring to assassinate the 
Emperor. 

31 . —Earl Russell addresses a note to the 
Federal Diet, demanding in the interests of 
peace, (1) That a Conference of the Powers 
which signed the Treaty of London, in conjunc¬ 
tion with a representative from the German 
Confederation, shall meet in Paris or London 
to settle the differences between Germany and 
Denmark. (2) That the status quo shall be 
maintained until this Conference shall have 
finished its labours. 


1864. 

January 1.—Opening of the new South¬ 
wark-street, extending from the High-street to 
Blackfriars-road. 

3 . —Died, aged 63, William Behnes, sculptor. 

5. —The statue of Oliver Goldsmith, in 
Trinity College, Dublin, inaugurated by Lord 
Carlisle. 

6 . —The Federal Commission suppresses the 
administration of Holstein, and institutes a 
Ducal Government at Kiel. Ten days after¬ 
wards Austria and Prussia required Denmark 
to suppress the Constitution of November 
1863 within forty-eight hours. This being 
refused, an Austro-Prussian army, under Mar¬ 
shal Wrangel, entered Holstein on the 21st. 

— Another ballet-girl burnt to death at the 
Pavilion Theatre, through her dress coming in 
contact with an unprotected light. 

7. —Garibaldi withdraws from the Italian 
Chamber of Deputies. 

8. —At two minutes to nine o’clock this 
evening the Princess of Wales was safely de¬ 
livered of a son. Her Royal Highness had 
been one of a skating party at Virginia Water 
in the afternoon. 

9. — Explosion of the barque Lotty Sleigh , 
Jjing in the Mersey, laden with gunpowder. 
While the steward of the vessel was in the 
act of filling a lamp from a can of paraffin oil, 
the liquid, by some means, became ignited, 

(664) 


The can was instantly dropped, and the 
burning fluid spread over the vessel. When 
the flames reached the gunpowder, an ex¬ 
plosion took place which was felt along the 
entire line of docks and far into the city, 
where doors and windows where shivered to 
pieces. Even at Birkenhead the shock had 
the effect of extinguishing the gas-lights in 
shops and private dwelling-houses, as well as 
in the streets. In each town the inhabitants 
were rushing about in a state of wild dis¬ 
traction, and it was midnight before a com¬ 
plete sense of security returned. No lives 
were lost, the crew of the Lotty Sleigh having 
been taken off by a passing boat a few minutes 
before the explosion. 

12 . —Sir John Lawrence enters Calcutta as 
Governor-General of India. 

14 .—Correspondence between Professor 
Kingsley and Dr. Newman, concerning the 
meaning of certain words used by the latter in 
a sermon on “Wisdom and Innocence,” pub¬ 
lished in 1844. In the current number of 
Macmillan’s Magazine, “C. K.” wrote: “So 
again of the virtue of truth. Truth for its own 
sake has never been a virtue of the Roman 
clergy. Father Newman informs us that it 
need not, and on the whole ought not to be ; 
that cunning is the weapon which Heaven 
has given to the saints wherewith to withstand 
the brute male force of the wicked world 
which marries and is given in marriage.” Dr. 
Newman instantly complained of this as “a 
grave and gratuitous slander,” and expressed 
amazement that Mr. Kingsley should have 
used such language. “I ask,” he writes, “for 
no explanation—that concerns the author and 
editor. If they set about proving their point, 
or, should they find that impossible, if they say 
so, in either case I shall calk them men. But 
if they only propose to say that I have * com¬ 
plained,’ and that ‘they yield to my explana¬ 
tions, ’ or * that they are quite ready to be con¬ 
vinced if I will convince them,’ and so on 
. . . that is, if they ignore the fact that the 
onus probandi of a very definite accusation lies 
upon them—then, I say, they had better let it 
all alone.” As the terms, even more than the 
language, of Dr. Newman’s letters made it 
apparent that Professor Kingsley’s opinion of 
the meaning of the words in dispute was a 
mistaken one, a note was drawn up for inser¬ 
tion in the Magazine , expressing regret at 
having so seriously mistaken him, but of which 
note Dr. Newman gravely disapproved, after 
contrasting the actual words with what might 
be “the unjust but too probable popular ren¬ 
dering.” To-day Professor Kingsley writes : 
“Dr. Newman has by letter expressed in the 
strongest terms his denial of the meaning which 
I have put upon his words. It only remains, 
therefore, for me to express my hearty regret 
at having so seriously mistaken him.” On 
this Dr. Newman commented: “You have 
made a monstrous charge against me ; direct, 
distinct, public. You are bound to prove it 
as directly, as distinctly, as publicly or to 







JANUARY 


1864. 


FEBRUARY 


own you can’t. ‘Well,’ says Mr. Kingsley, 

‘ if you are quite sure you did not say it, I’ll 
take your word for it; I really will.’ My 
•word ! I am dumb. Somehow I thought that 
it was my word that happened to be on trial. 
The word of a Piofessor of lying, that he does 
not lie ! But Mr. Kingsley reassures me : 
‘We are both gentlemen,’ he says; ‘I 
have done as much as one English gentleman 
can expect from another.’ I begin to see : he 
thought me a gentleman at the very time that 
he said I taught lying on system. After all, 
it is not I, but it is Mr. Kingsley who did not 
mean what he said. Habemus confitentum 
reum. So we have confessedly come round to 
this, preaching without practising; the common 
theme of satirists from Juvenal to Walter 
Scott ! ‘ I left Baby Charles and Steenie 

laying his duty before him,’ says King James 
of the reprobate Dalgarno. ‘ O Geordie, 
jingling Geordie, it was grand to hear Baby 
Charles laying down the guilt of dissimula¬ 
tion, and Steenie lecturing on the turpitude of 
incontinence.’ While 1 feel, then, that Mr. 
Kingsley’s February explanation is miserably 
insufficient in itself for his January enormity, 
still I feel also that the correspondence which 
lies between these two acts of his constitutes 
a real satisfaction to those principles of his¬ 
torical and literary justice to which he has given 
so rude a shock. Accordingly, I have put it 
into print, and make no further criticism 
on Mr. Kingsley.” Professor Kingsley after¬ 
wards discussed the question in a pamphlet, 
and was supported by one or two other writers; 
but the most important result of the contro¬ 
versy was the contribution made to the history 
of modern religious thought in the Church of 
England, by the publication of Dr. Newman’s 
“ Apologia pro Vita sua.” 

23 .—One of the lions in the Agricultural 
Hall, Islington, attacks and seriously mutilates 
a keeper. 

— Opening of the Irish National Gallery in 
Dublin, and inauguration of the statute of 
William Dargan. 

29 .—Died at Hampstead, aged 83, Miss 
Lucy Aikin, a well-known writer in the de¬ 
partments of history and biography. 

31 .—The proposal of Austria and Prussia 
that the troops of the German Confederation 
should be restricted to the occupation of Hol¬ 
stein, and should not interfere with Schleswig, 
having been rejected by the Diet of Frankfort, 
the two Powers announced that they should 
take the matter into their own hands as parties 
to the Treaty of London of 1852, and they 
summoned Denmark to annul the Constitution 
by which Schleswig was incorporated into that 
kingdom. Denmark applied for time to ob¬ 
tain the sanction of the Rigsraad, which was 
refused. In reply to the summons of Marshal 
Wrangel to surrender Schleswig, General de 
Meza, the Danish commander, said he had 
orders to defend the duchy. 


February 3. —The Prussians bombard and 
afterwards burn Missunde. 

4 . —Parliament opened by Royal Commis¬ 
sion. The Speech intimated that the condition 
of the country was on the whole satisfactory. 
The revenue had fully realized its expected 
amount; the commerce of the United King¬ 
dom was increasing; and, while the distress 
in the manufacturing districts had been in 
some degree lessened, there was reason to look 
forward to an increased supply of cotton from 
various countries. On the all-engrossing ques¬ 
tion of the Schleswig-Holstein dispute, the 
Royal Speech announced that the death of the 
late King of Denmark brought into immediate 
application the stipulation of the Treaty of 
1852, which declared that it was conducive to 
the preservation of the balance of power, and 
of the peace of Europe, that “ the integrity of 
the Danish monarchy should be maintained, 
and that the several territories which have 
been hitherto under the sway of the King of 
Denmark should continue so to remain. Her 
Majesty has directed that a Commission shall be 
issued for the purpose of revising the forms of 
subscription and declaration required to be 
made by the clergy of the Established Church.” 
In the debate which followed, the Earl of Derby 
made a graceful allusion to the birth of an heir 
to the Prince of Wales : “It appears to me 
that as we advance in life we look with a 
warmer and kindlier sympathy upon the open¬ 
ing prospects of those who are entering upon 
that career, towards the close of which so many 
of us are hurrying. But I am sure there is not 
one of your lordships who does not view with 
the deepest interest the happy career of that 
youthful pair upon the birth of whose heir we 
are now congratulating the Sovereign. I am 
sure there is not one of your lordships who 
does not offer up a fervent prayer to the Throne 
of Grace that that bright prospect may remain 
unclouded, and that long after the youngest oi 
your lordships have passed away from this 
scene, the throne of these realms may be occu¬ 
pied by the descendants of the illustrious Prince 
and his new-born heir. * Et Jiati natorum , et 
qui nascentur ab Mis?’” Turning to the 
policy pursued by the Government, the language 
used by the noble earl was the reverse of com¬ 
plimentary : “ The foreign policy of the noble 
earl (Russell), as far as the principle of non¬ 
intervention is concerned, may be summed up 
in two truly expressive words—‘meddle’ and 
‘muddle.’ During the whole course of his 
diplomatic correspondence, wherever he has 
interfered—and he has interfered everywhere—- 
he has been lecturing, scolding, blustering, and 
—retreating. Seriously—for, though there may 
be something ludicrous about it, the matter is 
of too great importance to be treated only in a 
light and jocular manner—I cannot but feel 
as an Englishman that I am lowered and humi¬ 
liated in my own estimation, and in that of 
other nations, by the result of the noble earl’s 
administration of foreign affairs. Thanks to 
the noble earl and the present Government, 





FEBRUARY 


1864. 


FEBRUARY, 


we have at this moment not one single friend 
in Europe: and, more than that, this country, 
the chief fault of which was, that it went too 
direct and straightforward at what it aimed ; 
which never gave a promise without the inten¬ 
tion of performing ; which never threatened 
without a full determination of striking; which 
never made a demand without being prepared 
to enforce it,—this country is now in such a 
position, that its menaces are disregarded, its 
magniloquent language is ridiculed, and its 
remonstrances are treated with contemptuous 
indifference, by the small as well as by the 
great Powers of the Continent. ”—Earl Russell 
defended the policy of the Government. In 
the House of Commons the most important 
speeches were delivered by Mr. Disraeli on the 
one side, and Lord Palmerston on the other. 
Eventually, in both Houses, the Address was 
agreed to without a division. 

6 .—The Danes retreat from the Dannewerlce, 
leaving behind them the whole of the heavy 
artillery by which the forts were defended. 

8 . —The Lord Chancellor (Lord Westbury) 
delivers the judgment of the Judicial Com¬ 
mittee of the Privy Council in the “ Essays and 
Reviews” case of Rowland Williams v. the 
Bishop of Salisbury ; and Wilson v. Fendall. 
All the charges against Dr. Williams were 
rejected by the Judge in the Arches Court, 
except those contained in the 7th and 15th 
articles. The 7th article as reformed sets forth 
certain passages, wherein it was alleged that 
Dr. Williams had advisedly maintained and 
affirmed that the Bible or Holy Scripture is an 
expression of devout reason, and the written 
voice of the congregation—not the Word of 
God, nor containing any special revelation of 
His truth, or of His dealings with mankind, 
nor of the rule of our faith. An opinion was 
now pronounced that the words “ an expres¬ 
sion of devout reason, and therefore to be 
read with reason in freedom,” ought not to 
be taken in the sense ascribed to them by 
the accusation. It was deemed unnecessary 
to put any interpretation on the words “writ¬ 
ten voice of the congregation,” inasmuch as 
they were satisfied that, whatever might be the 
meaning of the passage included in the article, 
they did not, taken collectively, warrant the 
charge which had been made, that Dr. Williams 
had maintained the Bible not to be the Word 
of God, nor the rule of faith. The 15th article 
of charge was part of a supposed defence of 
Baron Bunsen against the accusation of not 
being a Christian, which was alleged to trans¬ 
gress the nth Article (of the Thirty-nine 
Articles): “ We are accounted righteous before 
God only for the merits of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, by faith, and not of our own works 
or deservings.” It is fair (said the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor) to Dr. Williams to observe, that in 
the argument at the bar he repudiated the in¬ 
terpretation which had been put upon these 
words, that the doctrine of merit by transfer is a 
fiction, and he explained “ fiction” as intended 
( 666 ) 


by him to describe the phantasm in the mind 
of an individual that he has received or enjoyed 
merit by transfer. “ Upon the whole,” he 
concluded, “we cannot accept the interpre¬ 
tation charged by the promoter as the true 
meaning of the passage included in the fifteenth 
article of charge, which in effect is that Di. 
Williams asserts that justification by faith means 
only the peace of mind or sense of Divine 
approval which comes of trust in a righteous 
God. This is not the assertion of Dr. Williams. 
We are, therefore, of opinion, that the judg¬ 
ment against him of one year’s suspension must 
be reversed. The charges against Mr. Wilson 
must be reduced to the 8th and 14th. In the 
one Mr. Wilson was alleged to affirm that the 
Scriptures were not written under the inspira¬ 
tion of the Holy Spirit, and that they were not 
necessarily at all, certainly not in part, the 
Word of God. The caution of the framers 
of our Articles forbids our treating their lan¬ 
guage as implying more than is expressed; 
nor are we warranted in ascribing to them 
conclusions expressed in new forms of words, 
involving minute and subtle matters of contro¬ 
versy. After an anxious consideration of the 
subject, we find ourselves unable to say that 
the passage extracted from Mr. Wilson’s 
Essays, and which forms the subject of this 
article of charge, is contradicted by, or plainly 
inconsistent with, the Articles or Formularies to 
which the charge refers, and which alone we 
are at liberty to consider. The 14th article 
alleged that Mr. Wilson had advisedly declared 
and affirmed in effect, that after this life, and 
at the end of the existing order of things on 
this earth, there will be no judgment of God 
awarding to those men, when He shall appear, 
everlasting life or eternal happiness ; but with 
respect to a judgment of eternal misery a hope 
is encouraged by Mr. Wilson, that this may 
not be the purpose of God. ” On this point the 
Lord Chancellor said : “We are not required 
or at liberty to express any opinion upon the 
mysterious question of the eternity of final 
punishment, further than to say that we do not 
find in the Formularies to which this article re¬ 
fers any such distinct declaration of our Church 
upon the subject, as to require us to condemn as 
penal the expression of a hope by a clergyman 
that even the ultimate pardon of the wicked 
who are condemned in the day of judgment may 
be consistent with the will of Almighty God. 
Their Lordships, therefore, will humbly re¬ 
commend to her Majesty that the sentence be 
reversed, and the reformed articles rejected 
in like manner as the rest of the original 
articles were rejected by the court below— 
namely, without costs; but inasmuch as the 
appellants have been obliged to come to this 
court, their Lordships think it right that they 
should have the costs of this appeal.” The 
Archbishops of Canterbury and York did not 
concur in the judgment, so far as it related to 
the 7th article against Dr. Williams, and the 
8th against Mr. Wilson. Pastoral letters were 
afterwards issued by both prelates. 





FEBRUAR Y 


1864. 


FEBRUARY 


8. —In answer to Lord Robert Cecil, Lord 
Palmerston announces that our Government 
had remonstrated with Prussia and Austria on 
their proceedings in Holstein and Schleswig in 
regard to the Duke of Augustenburg, as in¬ 
consistent with the good faith by which, under 
the Treaty of 1852, these Powers were bound 
to maintain the integrity of Denmark. 

— Sir George Grey obtains leave to intro¬ 
duce a bill making further provision for the 
confinement and maintenance of insane pri¬ 
soners, rendered necessary in consequence of 
Townley and others having escaped under the 
operation of the present law. 

9 . —Letters patent passed under the Great 
Seal appointing a Commission to consider and 
revise the various forms of subscription and 
declaration required to be made by the clergy 
of the United Church of England and Ireland, 
and to report their opinion how far they may 
be altered and simplified, consistently with due 
security for the declared agreement of the clergy 
with the doctrine of the Church and conformity 
to its ritual. Report completed 9th February, 
1865. 

10. —The Austrians and Prussians occupy 
North Schleswig. 

— Debate in the House of Commons on 
the recent operations against Japan. Mr. 
Buxton submitted a resolution : “ That this 
House, while only imputing to Admiral Kuper 
a misconception of the duty imposed on him, 
deeply regret the burning of the town of 
Kagosima on purpose, as being contrary to 
those usages of war which prevail among 
civilized nations, and to which it is the duty 
and the policy of this country to adhere.” 
Defeated by 164 to 85. 

— Debate in the House of Lords on the 
seizure of the steam-ram Alexandra at Birken¬ 
head, Opposition speakers alleging that the 
Government had been coerced by threatening 
letters from the American Foreign Secretary. 

— Accident on the Gothland incline of the 
Maltby and Whitby railway, caused by the 
breaking of the wire rope to which the train 
was attached. Shooting round a curve across 
the Elderbeck with extreme velocity, the train 
left the rails and the foremost carriages rolled 
into a ditch. Two passengers were killed and 
fourteen injured. 

11 . —The fine old Elizabethan structure of 
Hiilfield Hall, Warwick, destroyed by fire. 

— A subtle discussion was this day engaged 
in before the Court of Queen’s Bench relating 
to the meaning of the word “team.” A lessee 
of the Duke of Marlborough was required by 
the terms of his lease ‘ ‘ to perform each year 
one day’s team work, with two horses and one 
proper peison, when required.” The tenant 
refused to send a cart to carry coals, al¬ 
though he offered to send horses and man ; an 
issue was therefore joined. The case was tried 
in the first instance at the Oxford Assizes, and 
a verdict found for the Duke ; but the point 


was reserved and came on for decision before 
the judges now sitting in banco. The question 
was argued very ingeniously by counsel on both 
side, and illustrated by quotations from various 
sources. On behalf of the Duke a passage 
in Caesar “De Bell. Gall.” iv. 33, was quoted 
concerning the ancient Britons leaping from 
the war-chariots —-percurrereper temonem. As 
the “team” here mentioned was held to signify 
the beam or pole to which the horses were har¬ 
nessed, the quotation, it was answered, proved 
that the team meant the carriage without the 
horses. On the same side the line in Gray’s 
“Elegy,”—“ How jocund did they drive their 
team a-field,”—was held to imply both horses 
and cart. On the part of the defendant the 
illustrations were more numerous and pertinent, | 
ranging from Spenser’s ploughman guiding his 
“toilsome team,” to Dryden’s “long team of 
snowy swans on high.” Ultimately this rea¬ 
soning prevailed, and the Court decided by a 
majority, Mr. Justice Mellor dissenting, that the 
tenant had performed his contract in tendering 
horses and man without the cart. 

12 .—In consequence of an attack made 
upon the Fantees by the King of Ashantee 
to retake certain slaves, Governor Pim, the 
British resident at Cape Coast, orders a force 
to proceed against him. The expedition was 
smitten with pestilence, and returned unsuccess¬ 
ful and dispirited. 

— Concluded at Edinburgh the case of 
Angus Mackintosh, of Holme, Inverness, 
against Dr. John Smith and Dr. Lowe, being 
a claim for damages of 5,000/. for illegal deten¬ 
tion in Saughton Hall Asylum during the sum¬ 
mer of 1852. The pursuer had raised various 
actions in the interim against parties con¬ 
cerned in his apprehension and detention, but 
never succeeded in getting a verdict in his 
favour. After seven days’ trial the jury, by 
a majority of three-fourths, again returned a 
verdict in favour of the defendants. 

14 .—Died in his 58th year, William Dyce, 
Esq., R.A. 

— Found dead, from drink and destitution 
in the streets of Douglas, Isle of Man, the 
Hon. Jane Yelverton, sister-in-law to Lord 
Avonmore—locally known as “Jenny Keefe.” 

— Tried at the Central Criminal Court, before 
Mr. Baron Bramwell, John Lyons, Francisco 
Blanco, Ambrosio or Mauricio Duranno, Basilio 
de los Santos Marsolino, and Miguel Lopez, 
Spaniards ; George Carlos, Greek; and Marcus 
Vartos (or Watto), a Turkish subject, all 
charged with murder on the high seas, within 
the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, 
on the 10th September, 1863. The prisoners 
wei'e all seamen on board the English ship 
Flowery Land ,, and they were indicted for 
the murder of the captain, though the mate, the 
captain’s brother, the steward, and several 
others on board bad also been barbarously 
slaughtered. The Flowery Land left the port 
of London on the 28th July, 1863, for Singa- 







FEBRUARY 


1864. 


FF.BRUAR V 


pore, with a cargo consisting of wine and other 
commodities, and twenty persons on board—a 
crew of nineteen and one passenger. From 
time to time the crew showed symptoms of in¬ 
subordination, but they were kept in check by 
punishment till about three o’clock on the 
morning referred to. This was the mate’s 
watch on deck, when the captain was below, 
and could not therefore be communicated 
with. The captain’s brother and the second 
mate, Tiffin, were also below at the time. 
They slept in a cabin, and certain of the crew 
in a house on deck. An attack was made 
almots simultaneously on the captain and 
mate. The latter, who appeared to have been 
taken unawares, was struck down on the deck 
with handspikes. He cried for mercy, but his 
assailants belaboured him with their weapons 
about the head and face until every feature 
was obliterated, and he was then thrown, 
shrieking for pity, into the sea. The captain, 
possibly alarmed by the noise, appeared to 
have left his sleeping berth in the cabin and 
to have got as far as the companion, where the 
mutineers despatched him with daggers. The 
captain’s brother appeared to have been trying 
to escape by the companion ladder, but was 
attacked and beaten about the head until he 
died. Nothing more was seen of him, and 
it was presumed the body was thrown into 
the sea. They proceeded next to put a rope 
round the dead body of the captain, for the pur¬ 
pose of throwing it overboard, but the second 
mate, Tiffin, interposed, and asked to be al¬ 
lowed to sew it up in canvas. Permission was 
granted, and after the last offices had been thus 
performed, the body was thrown into the sea. 
They afterwards proceeded to gather together 
the plunder on board and divide it among them¬ 
selves. As the second mate was the only sur¬ 
vivor who knew anything about navigation, he 
was instructed by Lyons, who could speak 
English fairly, to run the ship to the coast of 
Brazil. This was done after many murderous 
onslaughts among the mutineers. When within 
ten miles of land the ship was scuttled, and, 
with the exception of the cook and steward, 
who were beaten to death with champagne 
bottles while struggling in the water, the 
whole of the survivors took to the small boats 
with what provisions they could stow into 
them. When land was reached Tiffin managed 
to separate himself from his companions, and 
gave information which led to the arrest of 
the prisoners. The facts mentioned above 
were now established in evidence by the second 
mate and others of the crew who had seen the 
outrages committed. Seven of the prisoners 
were found guilty of murder, and sentenced to 
death. Carlos, tried a second time for scuttling 
the ship, was sentenced to ten years’ penal 
servitude. 

16 .—The Commissioners appointed in July 
1861, to inquire into the working of the 
Public Schools, present their Report. They 
had held 127 meetings and . examined 130 wit¬ 
nesses, chiefly governors, masters, and past 
( 668 ) 


and present scholars of various standing. The 
nine schools to which special attention was 
directed, were in some sense representative 
institutions—Eton, Winchester, and Westmin¬ 
ster being attached to ecclesiastical corpora¬ 
tions ; St. Paul’s and Merchant Taylors’ to 
City Companies ; Shrewsbury to the municipal 
corporation of the place ; and Harrow and 
Rugby as managed by trustees. The general 
conclusions come to were that “their course of 
study is sound and valuable in its main ele¬ 
ment, but wanting in breadth and flexibility— 
defects which destroy in many cases, and im¬ 
pair in all, its value as an education of the 
mind. In their organization and teaching, re¬ 
garded not as to its range, but as to its force 
and efficiency, we have been unable to resist 
the conclusion that these schools, in very dif¬ 
ferent degrees, are too indulgent to idleness, or 
struggle ineffectually with it; and that they 
consequently send out a large proportion of 
men of idle habits, and empty and unculti¬ 
vated minds. In their discipline and moral 
training we have been able to speak of them 
in terms of high praise.” 

17 . —The second reading of Mr. Laird’s 
Chain Cable and Anchor (Testing) Bill carried 
in the House of Commons without a division. 

18 . —In the action of Vyse v. Lewis, being 
a claim made by Madame Bonaparte Vyse, 
cousin to the Emperor of the French, against 
William Lewis, of the firm of Lewis and 
Home, solicitors, for neglecting to pay certain 
claims which she alleged she had authorized 
him to discharge, and which led to her being 
taken into custody for a short time on her 
arrival in Dublin, the jury returned a verdict 
for the plaintiff—400/. on the special count, 
and 150/. on the money count. 

— The Danes quit Schleswig, and afterwards 
declare both duchies in a state of blockade. 

19 . —Pengwem Hall, Wales, the seat of the 
Mostyn family, destroyed by fire. 

22 . —Five of the seven pirates convicted 
of the murder of the captain of the Flowery 
Land executed in front of Newgate, in presence 
of an. immense gathering of people. The 
sentence upon the other two was commuted 
to transportation for life. 

— Mr. Gifford Palgrave attends at the 
Geographical Society meeting, and gives an 
account of his travels in Central and Eastern 
Arabia,—“telling his tale,” as a critic re¬ 
marked, “ more as Herodotus would have 
recited an Olympiad than like a commonplace 
voyager of the nineteenth century. ” 

23 . —Indignation meeting in Dublin to pro¬ 
test against the erection of a monument to 
Prince Albert in the City. The interior of the 
Rotunda was during the whole evening a scene 
of the wildest disorder, the seats and tables 
being tore up for weapons by the excited 
belligerents. The Sullivan or “National” 
party were ultimately ejected by their 





FEBRUARY 


1864. 


MARCH 


*’ Fenian ” adversaries, who now appeared for 
the first time in force in Ireland. 

23 . -—Denmark opposes the proposal of Eng¬ 
land to submit the disputed question of the 
succession to a Conference of the Powers con¬ 
cerned in the Treaty of 1852. 

24 . —Subscription commenced in London 
in aid of the wounded Danes. 

25 . —The English Government decline to 
assist Denmark with material aid in the contest 
with Austria and Prussia. 

— The four Italians charged with con¬ 
spiring to assassinate the Emperorof the French 
found guilty and sentenced—Greco and Tra- 
buco to transportation for life ; Imperatori and 
Scaglioni to twenty years’ imprisonment. Greco 
admitted that the proposal to assassinate the 
Emperor came from Mazzini, who furnished 
the money, bombs, and weapons. 

Marcli 1.—The Federals, under General 
Kilpatrick, attack Richmond, but are driven 
back with great loss. 

3 . —The Marquis of Harrington moves the 
Army Estimates, whichhesaid were 14,844,888/. 
being a decrease of 215,349/. The number of 
men was 146,766. 

6.—The Polish peasantry relieved from the 
oppressive rights of the nobility by an imperial 
ukase. 

10. —The infant son of the Prince and 
Princess of Wales christened in the private 
chapel of Buckingham Palace. The Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury administered the rite, 
the Queen naming the young Prince, Albert 
Victor Christian Edward. A select company 
of Church dignitaries and State officers were 
present. 

— Excitement among the Hindoos, caused 
by a Government proclamation prohibiting the 
throwing of dead bodies into the Hooghly, or 
the burning of them within a certain distance 
of Calcutta. 

11 . —disastrous inundation at Sheffield, 
caused by the bursting of the Bradfield reser¬ 
voir, eight miles above the town. Early in 
the evening the reservoir gave indications of 
its inability to resist the heavy pressure con¬ 
sequent upon the recent floods, and the inha¬ 
bitants in the hamlets immediately adjoining 
were somewhat prepared for the calamity ; 
but lower down the valley no warning was 
given, and when the great dam burst at mid¬ 
night the pent-up flood rushed down the course 
of the stream, dealing death and destruction 
on every hand. Entire villages were suddenly 
swept away; huge manufactories, mills, and 
warehouses were all engulfed in the roaring 
current, and for a wide distance on either side 
tracks of desolate ruins marked the site of pros¬ 
perous farms, steadings, and stores of agricul¬ 
tural produce. Nothing could be saved from 
the swift fury of the flood. Tearing down the 
course of the river at an immense speed, the 
inundation swept through Sheffield, a few 


minutes past twelve o’clock, with a roar which 
startled the entire town. Shooting along the 
discoloured waters were the wrecks of villages 
above, while piled up against the piers of 
Lady’s-bridge, as high as the stone wall of the 
parapet, were rafters, flooring, roofing, and an 
immense collection of miscellaneous articles, 
carried down in quantities sufficient to block 
up the archway. Persons who were in the 
streets when the flood broke out said that in 
the stillness of the night there was suddenly 
a long, loud, and terrible roar, which increased 
in its intensity ; and as they stood listening 
and wonder-stricken, there came, sounding 
above the roar, a sudden hissing noise, as 
of water dashing on a rock ; this was quickly 
followed by piercing shrieks, first distant, then 
increasing, till up the streets, in. every direc¬ 
tion away from the flow of the river, ran 
hundreds of persons in their night-dresses, 
some dragging little children by the hand, 
others, half-dressed, tripping and falling, while 
from many went up the wild shrieking ex¬ 
clamation— “ O God ! the flood, the flood !” 
The loss of life was appalling—as many as 
270 being probably, swept into the current. 
They were found, on the subsidence of the 
waters, in every variety of age and condition—- 
children drowned unconsciously beside their 
sleeping mothers, and strong men clutching 
at the wreck which the fury of the waters had 
drawn around them. Others appeared to have 
made a hurried escape from their homes, but to 
have been encompassed by the waters in the 
confusion and darkness of the night. While 
the loss of life in the lower parts of Sheffield 
was considerable, it was still more serious 
further up the valleys, there being at Malin’s- 
bridge neither a living person nor the vestige 
of a house to be seen. A large number of 
dead bodies were also found at Rotherham, 
and along the valleys of the Loxeley and 
Rivelin. A lengthened inquiry took place as 
to the cause of the calamity, from which it 
appeared that the reservoir had been originally 
constructed in a defective manner, and was 
inattentively looked after. The coroner’s jury 
returned a verdict that, in their opinion, 
there had not been that engineering skill and 
attention in the construction of the works 
which their magnitude and importance de¬ 
manded'; and further, they were of opinion that 
the Legislature ought to take such action as 
would result in a Government inspection of all 
works of this character, and that such inspec 
tion should be frequent, regular, and sufficient. 
A subscription, headed by the Queen, was 
started for the relief of the sufferers, and 
during the parliamentary session an Act was 
passed appointing Commissioners to ascertain 
the claims for compensation against the Shef* 
field Water-works Company by persons whose 
property had been injured or destroyed by the 
inundation. 

12 . —General Grant appointed Commander- 
in-chief of the Federal forces of the American 
Union. 

(669) 







MARCH 


1864. 


APRIL 


15 . —The Prussians commence the bom¬ 
bardment of Diippel. 

16 . —An address, purporting to be signed 
by 137,000 members of the Church of Eng¬ 
land, presented in Lambeth Palace to the Arch¬ 
bishops of Canterbury and York, thanking 
them for their late pastoral letters, and praying 
that they might “be enabled, with the other 
Bishops of the United Church of England 
and Ireland, to take effectual counsel for up¬ 
holding, amid the peculiar dangers of the pre¬ 
sent times, the Divine authority of Holy 
Scriptures, and the integrity of the faith, so 
that the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour may 
be taught in all its purity among ourselves, and 
handed over without diminution or addition to 
our children’s children.” The Primate replied: 
“ I accept with cordial satisfaction the expres¬ 
sion of your gratitude for the pastoral letter 
which I recently addressed to the clergy and 
laity of my province, under circumstances of no 
ordinary gravity. Articles of belief which had 
ever been held by the Church Catholic, and by 
all its several branches, seemed to be im¬ 
pugned, and deep anxiety pervaded the minds 
of a large proportion of the members of our 
Church. I thus felt myself called upon to 
give my reasons for having dissented from the 
recent judgment of the Judicial Committee of 
the Privy Council. The principle on which 
I proceeded is the very principle laid down 
and recognised by that judgment itself—namely, 
that any rule or teaching is to be ascribed to the 
Church, only as we find it to be expressly or 
distinctly stated in her Articles or Formularies, 
or which are plainly to be involved in, or to be 
collected from, that which is written. The 
doctrines in question seemed to me to be so 
‘plainly involved in, and to be collected from,’ 
the Articles and Formularies of our Church, 
that I had no alternative but to dissent from 
a judgment that pronounced the contrary. 
And it is most gratifying to me to find that 
the course I then pursued is so consonant with 
the views and feelings of that large and im¬ 
portant body of Churchmen whom you repre¬ 
sent, and that there is so resolute a determina¬ 
tion on their part to maintain and uphold the 
cardinal doctrines of our Church.” 

— Mr. Dodson, in moving the second 
reading of the Tests Abolition (Oxford) Bill, 
explained that its object was, by abolishing the 
test, to open degrees to persons of any religious 
sect. Sir W. Heathcote and Mr. Selwyn op¬ 
posed the measure as separating the University 
from the Church, but the second reading was 
carriecV*by 211 to 189. 

17 . —Discussion in the House of Commons 
concerning Mr. Stansfeld, member for Halifax. 
At the trial in Paris of Greco and others for 
conspiring to assassinate the Emperor of the 
French, it was stated by the Procureur-Im- 
perial in his speech, that a paper had been 
found in the possession of one of the accused 
persons, directing him to write for money to 
Mr. Flowers, at 35, Thurloe-square, Brompton,' 

(670) 


“ where,” the Procureur added, “ a member of 
the English Parliament resided, who, in 1855, 
had been appointed banker to the Tibaldi con¬ 
spirators.” Mr. Cox, member for Finsbury, 
first referred to the matter incidentally, when 
Mr. Stansfeld indignantly repudiated the state¬ 
ment made by the Procureur-Imperial. It 
was quite true that he lived at No. 35, Thurloe- 
square, Brompton, but he knew nothing what¬ 
ever of the prisoner Greco, or of Mr. Flowers, 
whose letters were addressed to his house. He 
had, however, been on intimate terms with M. 
Mazzini for the past eighteen years, and he 
was persuaded that no man had ever been 
more cruelly or wrongfully maligned than he 
was. To-night, on going into Committee 
of Supply, Sir Henry Stracey moved as an 
amendment, “That the speech of the Procu- 
reur-Imperial on the trial of Greco, implicating 
a member of this House and of her Majesty’s 
Government in the plot for the assassination 
of our ally, the Emperor of the French, de¬ 
serves the serious consideration of this House.” 
After a debate, in the course of which Lord 
Palmerston said he thought the explanation 
of Mr. Stansfeld perfectly satisfactory, the 
amendment was negatived by 171 to 161. The 
subject was revived the following night by 
Lord Elcho ; and, as it appeared that a series of 
premeditated attacks was designed against the 
member for Halifax, he placed his resignation 
of the office of Junior Lord of the Admiralty 
in the hands of the Prime Minister. After 
some hesitation and delay the resignation was 
accepted. 

22 .—In closing the Danish Rigsraad, the 
King said: “We are still alone, and do not 
know how long Europe will look with indiffer¬ 
ence upon the acts of violence perpetrated 
against us. We are ready to do everything 
that may serve to obtain peace ; but the 
enemy must know that the period is still dis¬ 
tant when we shall be compelled to submit to 
a humiliating peace. This is the King’s fare¬ 
well to you.” 

27 . —In order to promote the establishment 
of Industrial Exhibitions, the Royal assent is 
given to a measure modifying that portion of 
the Patent-laws which refused protection to 
inventions exhibited before being protected, in 
so far as articles displayed at these working- 
class exhibitions were, concerned. Successful 
exhibitions were afterwards organized for West 
London (Floral Hall), North London (Agri¬ 
cultural Hall), Bristol, Preston, Glasgow, and 
Leeds. 

30 .—Re-appearance of the Queen in public 
for the first time after her great bereavement, 
the occasion being a flower-show at the Horti- . 
cultural Gardens, Kensington. 

April 1 .— Report presented to Congress, 
showing that the war had raised the expenditure 
of the United States from 15,905,975/. in i860, 
to i7>3 6 7,3 i 7'- in 1861, to 117,215,954/. in 
1862, and to 183,941,813/. in 1863. The 







APRIL 


APRIL 


1864. 


numbers of men called into military service on 
the Federal side since the commencement of 
the war were—under the President’s first call, 
April 19, 1861, 77,875; Volunteers for the 
war, 1861, 660,971 ; call of July I, 1862, 

300,000; Militia, August 1862, 300,000; 
Militia, June 1863, 120,000; Conscription, 
July, 1863, 250,000 ; since 17th October, 1S63, 
700,000—total, 2,480,846. 

2 . — Died, aged 64, Mr. T. P. Cooke, actor. 

3. — General Garibaldi arrives in England. 
He reached Southampton this (Sunday) after¬ 
noon, on board the Ripon , and was received 
by the Mayor, whose guest he remained till 
next day, when he proceeded with his friend, 
Mr. Seeley, M.P., to the Isle of Wight. The 
welcome given to the Italian deliverer was 
of the most exciting and enthusiastic descrip¬ 
tion ; ladies and gentlemen of the most elevated 
station struggling with the mob in the streets 
to press his hand or catch a glimpse of his 
countenance. In London, which was reached 
on the nth, Garibaldi’s entry partook of the 
character of a Royal progress, work being in a 
great measure suspended in the metropolis, 
and deputations and societies of all kinds fol¬ 
lowing in his train. The route was crowded 
with a dense mass of spectators, who cheered 
with an excitement almost delirious at the 
sight of their favourite hero. It was nearly 
four hours before the carriage of the Duke of 
Sutherland, in which he was seated, could 
make its way from Nine Elms to Stafford 
House, where he resided during his stay in 
London. For ten days the excitement was 
kept up at an extreme pitch by a succes¬ 
sion of fetes, visits, and welcomes—the most 
important probably being the great demonstra¬ 
tion at the Crystal Palace on the 16th, where 
he received an address from the London 
Italian Committee, and spoke to an audience 
computed at between 20,000 and 30,000 in 
number. A grand concert was given here in 
his honour, and the enthusiasm of the im¬ 
mense company increased to an almost uncon¬ 
trollable point by the singing of the “ Garibaldi 
Hymn” and the “National Anthem.” On 
being presented with a sword from the Italians 
in London, the General said : “I thank you, 
Italians, for this beautiful present. I promise 
you I will never unshoath it in the cause of 
tyrants, and I will draw it only in support of 
oppressed nationalities. I hope yet to carry it 
with me to Rome and.Venice.” Addresses 
and presentations were also given to him from 
the City of London and many other municipali¬ 
ties throughout the kingdom who solicited the 
honour of a visit. To the disappointment of 
many, Garibaldi left London for Italy, some¬ 
what unexpectedly, on the 22d. In a parting 
address he said: “I came here with the 
primary object of thanking the English na¬ 
tion for their sympathy for me and for my 
country, and this my first object is accom¬ 
plished. ... If I have caused some trouble and 
disappointment to many friends, I ask their 


pardon ; but I cannot draw the line between 
where I could and where I could not go, and 
therefore, for the present, these are my thanks 
and my farewell.” A visit to Cliefden Park 
(the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland’s) for two 
days, and to Penquite (Colonel Peard’s), com¬ 
pleted his stay in England. He was conveyed 
to Caprera in the Duke of Sutherland’s yacht, 
accompanied by his noble host and a few mem¬ 
bers of his family. 

5. —With a view of counteracting Imperial 
designs in Mexico, the Washington House of 
Representatives unanimously resolve that “ the 
people of the United States will never recog¬ 
nise a monarchical government which has 
been established in America on the ruins of 
a Republican government, and under the 
auspices of a European Power.” Five days 
afterwards the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian 
of Austria received a Mexican deputation, at 
Miramar, and consented to accept the Imperial 
dignity, under the title of “ Maximilian the 
First, Emperor of Mexico.” 

7. —The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces his annual financial statement. As indi¬ 
cating the increasing extent of our trade, he 
stated that our gross exports and imports now 
amounted to 444,000,000/., being about three 
times the value at which they stood in 1842, 
when Parliament first began to set itself delibe¬ 
rately to the task of revising our commercial 
legislation, and representing as nearly as 
possible 1,500,000/. for every working day in 
the year—a magnitude of industry, or of opera¬ 
tions connected with industry, so vast that, if it 
did not stand upon uncontrovertible figures, it 
could hardly receive belief. He estimated the 
total amount of the expenditure for the year at 
66,890,000/., and of the revenue at 69,460,000/. 
With the surplus of 2,570,000/. he proposed to 
reduce the Income-tax a penny m the pound, 
and to lower the fire-insurance duty from 3-r. 
to ij. 6 d. so far as stock in trade was concerned. 
The entire relief from taxation he estimated at 
3,000,000/. The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
expressed himself as opposed to repeal or even 
reduction of the duties on malt, which was 
now being advocated by professed friends of 
the agricultural interest. At a later period of 
the session he introduced a measure conceding 
to some extent the demands of the Anti-malt- 
tax party, in the form of a bill authorizing 
the remission of so much of the duty as had 
hitherto been levied upon malt for the con¬ 
sumption of cattle. 

9 .—In the course of the debate on the 
policy of the Government on the SoWeswig- 
Holstein dispute, Earl Russell defended the 
course he had taken in urging Denmark to fulfil 
the engagements it had made to Germany, and 
asserted that it would have been most unwise 
for England to enter into hostilities against 
Germany without the aid of France, Russia, 
and Sweden. They were equally parties to 
the Treaty; and England was not bound to act 
alone. . 

(671) 








APRIL 


1864. 


APRIL 


12 . —By a majority of 101 to 93, Lord 
Robert Cecil carries the following resolution, 
censuring by implication the Vice-President of 
the Committee of Council on Education for 
tampering with the Reports of Inspectors : 
“ That in the opinion of this House the muti¬ 
lation of the Reports of her Majesty’s Inspectors 
of Schools, and the exclusion from them of 
statements and opinions adverse to the educa¬ 
tional views entertained by the Committee of 
Council, while matters favourable to them are 
admitted, are violations of the understanding 
under which the appointment of Inspectors 
was originally sanctioned by Parliament, and 
tend entirely to destroy the value of their Re¬ 
ports.” Mr. Lowe thereupon resigned the 
office of Vice-President, and obtained the ap¬ 
pointment of a committee, which entirely ex¬ 
onerated him, and led to the above resolution 
being rescinded. 

— Capture of Fort Pillow, Kentucky, by 
General Forrest, who massacres the greater 
portion of the Federal garrison. 

13 . —In explanation of his opposition to 
Mr. Locke King’s County Franchise Bill, Lord 
Palmerston said : “ I hardly think it was expe¬ 
dient for my hon. friend to bring forward his bill 
at the present juncture, for it is plain that there 
does not now exist the same anxiety for organic 
change which was observable some time ago. 
The fact is, that organic changes were introduced 
more as a means than as an end, the end being 
great improvement in the whole of our com¬ 
mercial legislation. All such changes as were 
desirable have long since been effected, as the 
result of our organic reforms ; and therefore, 
there is so much less desire for further innova¬ 
tions. There are also considerations connected 
with external affairs, tending to abate our 
anxieties for organic changes. The wants 
which are taking place in other countries, and 
which are in a great measure the result of their 
constitutional systems, have made the people 
of this country much less anxious for change.” 
The bill was thrown out on the second reading 
by 254 to 227 votes. 

14 . —Spain seizes the Chincha Islands from 
the Peruvian Government, and declares its in¬ 
tention of retaining them till reparation is 
made for outrages committed by Peruvian sub¬ 
jects in the Basque colony of Talamon. The 
guano of the island had previously been pledged 
as security for the Peruvian public debt. 

18 .—The fortress of Diippel, besieged by 
the Prussians since the 15th March, surrenders. 
Three days afterwards the King of Prussia 
visited the theatre of war, when he found that 
the main body of the Danish garrison had 
retired into Jutland. 

22.—In the House of Lords, Earl Derby 
submits a resolution : “ That in every Metro¬ 
politan railway a provision should be made for 
cheap trains morning and evening, for the la¬ 
bouring classes, who are experiencing increased 
difficulties from the destruction of dwellings 


suited to their means, by the extension of rail¬ 
ways into the heart of the town.” The resolu¬ 
tion was accepted by the Government after a 
debate. 

23 .—The three hundredth anniversary of 
Shakspeare’s birthday celebrated with rejoicings 
in various cities of the kingdom, but pre-emi¬ 
nently at the poet’s birth-place, Stratford-on- 
Avon. Here were several interesting exhibi¬ 
tions of Shakspearian relics ; and in the Town 
Hall the Mayor (Flower) received an address 
from the Free German Institute of Arts and 
Sciences at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, presented 
by Professor Max Muller, of Oxford. In the 
afternoon a banquet was held in the pavilion, 
which had been fitted up to combine the different 
purposes of a dining-room, theatre, and ball¬ 
room. The chair was occupied by the Earl of 
Carlisle, who touched in his happiest manner 
upon the peculiarities of Shakspeare’s genius. 

‘‘Presumptuous,” he said, “as the endeavour 
may appear to classify, there would seem to be 
a few great tragedies which occupy summits of 
their own. ‘Macbeth,’ ‘ Hamlet,’ ‘Lear,’ 
‘Othello,’ I feel we may take our stand within 
that unassailable quadrilateral, and give our 
challenge to all the world. 1 feel indeed tempted 
to upbraid myself when I think of all the out¬ 
lying realms of strength and comeliness which 
I thus seem to leave outside ; the stately forms 
of Roman heroes, the chivalry marshalled 
around our Plantagenet kings, the wit of Mer- 
cutio, Beatrice, and Falstaff—the maiden grace 
of Imogen and Miranda; Ariel the dainty 
sprite, Oberon and his elfin court ; the memo¬ 
ries which people the glades of Ardennes, the 
Rialto of Venice, the Garden of Verona, giving 
to each glorious scene and sunny shore a 
stronger lien upon our associations than is 
possessed even by our own native land. It 
is time that I should call upon you, in the right 
of all the recollections which must throng 
in your own breasts far more copiously and 
vividly than I could hope to present them to 
you—by the thrill you have felt in the crowded 
theatres amid all the splendours of dramatic 
pageantry—by the calmer enjoyment of your 
closet leisure—by the rising of your soul when 
the lines which breathe and warm have led 
you to recognise and adore the Giver of such 
gifts to men—to join me in drinking, not with 
the solemn silence which a more recent death 
might have enjoined, but with the reverential 
love and the admiring fervour due to the day 
and the man—the memory of Shakspeare ! ” 
The other entertainments at Stratford com¬ 
prised dramatic entertainments, a concert, and 
excursions to places of Shakspearian interest. 
Two sermons were also preached in connexion 
with the commemoration by the Archbishop 
of Dublin and the Bishop of St. Andrew’s. 
Other celebrations took place in London— 
where a tree was planted on Primrose-hill— 
at the Crystal Palace, Agricultural Hall, and 
in some of the large towns throughout the 
kingdom ; but it was generally thought that the 









APRIL 


1864. 


MAY 


result accomplished was less than the prepara¬ 
tory arrangements suggested. 

25 .—First sitting of the Conference of Lon¬ 
don, and a suspension of hostilities in the 
Duchies proposed by Earl Russell. 

28 .—Sir Thomas Fitzgerald commits suicide 
by throwing himself into the Suir, near his 
residence of Golden Hill, while in a state of 
great mental depression arising from pecu¬ 
niary difficulties. He despatched notes to two 
friends, intimating his intention, and describing 
the place where his body would be found. 
The peasantry resisted the burial of the body 
in the churchyard, and it could only be car¬ 
ried out after some delay in presence of a 
strong body of constabulary. 

May 1 . —Died, aged 73, Jacob Meyerbeer, 
German musical composer. 

3 .—John Devine executed in front of New¬ 
gate for murdering his master, Joseph Derclc, 
Marylebone, by beating him on the head near 
his own residence in Chesterfield-street. De- 
vine had at the same time robbed his victim 
of two sovereigns and a peculiar old-fashioned 
watch, which were clearly traced to his posses¬ 
sion on the night of the murder. He con¬ 
fessed the crime immediately before execution. 

— Generals Lee and Longstreet, having 
united their forces, quit their entrenchments 
at Mine Run, and march towards Fredericks¬ 
burg. Two days afterwards they encountered 
General Grant at Wilderness, where a severe 
engagement took place, but without any de¬ 
cisive result. Victory was claimed by both 
combatants. Lee retired upon Spottsylvania, 
where he was again encountered by Grant on 
the 10th, and a series of desperate encounters 
took place between the armies. A Federal 
general writing to Washington says, “ Every¬ 
body is fighting, and has been for eight 
days.” The Federal loss was stated to be 
40,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. 
General Lee made good the position he had 
taken up. 

6 . —Intimation given in both Houses of 
Parliament that an agreement had been come 
to in the Conference between the Danish and 
German representatives that there should be a 
suspension of hostilities for one month from 
the 12th instant. This was further extended 
during the proceedings of the Conference in 
London. 

11 .— In the discussion on Mr. Baines’s Bill 
for lowering the borough franchise, the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer alarmed his colleagues 
by a declaration in favour of a very wide ex¬ 
tension. “We are told,” he said, “that the 
working classes do not agitate ; but is it de¬ 
sirable that we should wait till they do agitate ? 
In. my opinion, agitation by the working classes 
upon any political subject whatever is a thing 
not to be waited for, not to be made a condition 
previous to any parliamentary movement, but on 
the contrary is to be deprecated, and, if possible, 

( 673 ) 


prevented by wise and provident measures. 
An agitation by the working classes is not like 
an agitation by the classes above them having 
leisure. The agitation of the classes having 
leisure is easily conducted. Every hour of 
their time has not a money value ; their wives 
and children are not dependent on the applica¬ 
tion of those hours of labour. But when a work¬ 
ing-man finds himself in such a condition that he 
must abandon that daily labour on which he is 
strictly dependent for his daily bread, it is only 
because then, in railway language, the danger 
signal is turned on, and because he feels a 
strong necessity for action, and a distrust in 
the rulers who have driven him to that neces¬ 
sity. The present state of things, I rejoice to 
say, does not indicate that distrust; but if we 
admit that, we must not allege the absence of 
i agitation on the part of the working classes as a 
reason why the Parliament of England, and tire 
public mind of England, should be indisposed 
to entertain the discussion of this question.”— 
Mr. Baines’s motion was defeated by 272 against 
216. 

15 . —After reviewing the events which had 
happened in the Duchies, Herr von Bismarck 
writes : “The Government of the King can¬ 
not consider itself in any way longer bound by 
the obligations it contracted on the 8th of May, 
1852, under other circumstances. Prussia con¬ 
cluded this treaty with Denmark, and not with 
the other Powers ; the ratifications were only 
exchanged between Copenhagen and Berlin, 
not between Berlin and London or St. Peters¬ 
burg. Even if—which we do not admit—the 
London Treaty had been intended to create 
obligations between us and the neutral Powers, 
these would become void, together with the 
treaty, as soon as the latter lapsed through 
non-fulfilment of its preliminary conditions.” 

— Mr. Moens, a British subject, seized by 
Italian brigands and only released, after a con¬ 
finement of over three months, by payment of 
a ransom of 5,000/. 

16 . —In the French Corps Legislatif, M. 
Laboulie proposes to refund to the family of 
M. Lesurques, who was wrongfully executed in 
1796 for the robbery of the Lyons mail, the sum 
of 54,585fr. 75c. which had been taken from 
him as the proceeds of the supposed robbery. 
The vote was carried by a majority of one, but 
afterwards cancelled. 

18 . —The seventy-first anniversaiy of the 
Royal Literary Fund celebrated by a banquet 
in St. James’s Hall, presided over by the 
Prince of Wales. The meeting was, in a pe¬ 
cuniary point of view, the most successful ever 
held ; 2,000/. having been collected, including 
roo guineas from the Queen, and a similar 
amount from the Prince of Wales. 

19 . —Died, aged 59, Nathaniel Hawthorne 
American novelist. 

20 —Died in .he Lunatic Asylum, Nort 1 - 
ampton, aged 71 John Clare, the “Northamp¬ 
ton poet.” 


X X 





ma y 


1864. 


JUNE 


22.— Died, aged 70, Marshal Pelissier, 
Duke of Malakhoff, and Governor-General of 
Algeria. 

24 .—The anniversary of the Queen’s birth¬ 
day celebrated with the customary rejoicings, 
for the first time since the death of the Prince 
Consort. 

27 .—Hereditary peerages abolished in Por¬ 
tugal. 

— The tercentenary of the death of Calvin 
celebrated in Edinburgh. 

2 8. —Volunteer review in Hyde Park; 21,743 
men under arms. 

— The Emperor Maximilian and Empress 
land at Vera Cruz. A proclamation was at 
once issued : “ With the blessing of God, 
progress and liberty will not fail us if all 
parties, guided by a strong and loyal govern¬ 
ment, and preserving that religious sentiment 
which has distinguished our country from the 
most remote periods, unite to obtain the ends I 
have pointed out. The civilizing flag of France, 
to which you are indebted for the return of 
peace and order, represents the same principles. 
It is what was told you some months back 
in sincere and disinterested language by the 
Commander-in-chief when he announced to 
you a new era of prosperity. . . . Mexicans ! 
the future of our fine country depends upon 
you. I shall ever be actuated by the purest 
intentions, and a firm determination to respect 
your laws and make them respected. ... To 
the Empress is confided the enviable task of 
consecrating to the country all the noble senti¬ 
ments of a Christian and all the affection of a 
tender mother.” 

— In the London Conference, Earl Russell 
submits the following among other resolutions : 
“ In order to prevent a future contest and to 
satisfy Germany, it would be necessary, in our 
opinion, entirely to separate Holstein, Lauen- 
burg, and the southern part of Schleswig from 
the Danish monarchy. To justify so vast a 
sacrifice on the part of Denmark, and to 
maintain the independence of the Danish 
monarchy, it is desirable, in our opinion, that 
the line of the frontier should not be drawn 
more to the north than the mouth of the Schlei 
and the line of the Dannewerke.” Denmark 
consented in principle to this proposal, but 
insisted that she should only be asked to cede 
Lauenburg on special conditions. Austria and 
Prussia declined to accede to the proposed 
boundary line, and adhered to the one first traced 
by themselves from Apenrade to Tondern. 

30 . —Marriage of Louis Philippe Albert 
D’Orleans, Comte de Paris, eldest grandson of 
King Louis Philippe, with the Princess Marie 
Isabelle d’Orleans, eldest daughter of the 
Duke and Duchess de Montpensier, solemnized 
in the Roman Catholic Chapel at Kingston. 

31 . —Debate on Mr. Cobden’s motion asking 
the House to agree to a resolution declaring 
that the policy of non-intervention by force of 

(674) 


arms in the internal affairs of foreign countries, 
which we proposed to observe in our relations 
with the States of Europe and America, should 
be observed in our intercourse with China. 
The resolution was ultimately withdrawn. 

Settlement of the Hutchinson Will case, 
affecting the competency of the testator, a con¬ 
vert to the Roman Catholic Church, and a mem¬ 
ber of the Brompton Oratory, to dispose of his 
property by will. The plaintiff, the Rev. Thomas 
Francis Knox, propounded the will and codicil 
of the Rev. William Hutchinson deceased. 
The defendants, Dr. Alfred Smee and Mrs. 
Smee, pleaded that the will was not according 
to the requirements of the statute ; that the tes¬ 
tator was of unsound mind, and was unduly in¬ 
fluenced by the plaintiff and others. The will 
was dated 7th July, i860, and the codicil 7th 
August, i860. The testator died on the 12th 
July, 1863. Alfred Smee, one of the defen¬ 
dants, married Elizabeth, the testator’s sistcj. 
who was the other defendant. The testator, 
son of George Hutchinson, a cashier in the 
Bank of England, was born in 1822, and his 
sister in 1818. After their father’s death, the 
testator, who inherited considerable property, 
and his sister, were brought up by William 
Smee with his own children, and, as already 1 
mentioned, Alfred Smee married the testator’s 
sister, who was amply provided for under her 
father’s will. The testator entered Cambridge j 
University in 1843, and in 1845 went to Italy, : 
and made the acquaintance of Dr. Faber, a 
a member of Oxford University. He had 
previously expressed his intention to become 
a Catholic, a change violently but unsuccess- I 
fully opposed by Alfred Smee, who, in a letter j 
dated 17th September, 1845, said such resolu¬ 
tion arose not from reason but from a mind ! 
diseased, and that he was lending himself 
to the “ mummery ” of a relentless body, | 
who would rob him of every farthing. On ; 
the 21 st of the same month the testator was [ 
received into the Roman Catholic Church I 
at Birmingham, and subsequently became a 
member of the Oratory at Brompton. For three j 
weeks before his death he was under the 1 
professional care of the defendant, Alfred 
Smee, medical practitioner. The value of his j 
property at his death did not exceed 5,000/. I 
After hearing evidence, the Judge Ordinary ji 
(Wilde) said he thought the testimony in favour 
of the validity of the will was overwhelming, I 
and condemned Mr. Smee in the costs of the lj 
proceedings. 

June 1 . —Died at Edinburgh, aged 74, Sir 
John Watson Gordon, President of the Royal f 
Scottish Academy. 

— The Ionian Islands ceded to Greece by 
Great Britain and the other protecting Powers. 

2 .—The Prince and Princess of Wales visit 
Cambridge, and are received with great cere- j 
mony by the Master of Trinity and the digni¬ 
taries of the various colleges. 











yr.'Yx 


1864 


JUNE 


4 .—Died, aged 73, Nassau W. Senior, 
political economist. 

6 . —Grant of 20,000/. to Sir Rowland Hill, 
in acknowledgment of his services in the Post 
Office, and in pursuance of a message from 
the Queen. 

— “The Club,” or, as called since Gar- 
lick’s death, the Literary Club, celebrates its 
centenary in the Clarendon Hotel. 

7. —Collision at Egham with a train of ex¬ 
cursionists to Ascot races. Four persons were 
killed and twenty-five injured. 

8 . —The National Convention of the Repub¬ 
lican party in America assembled at Baltimore 
vote the candidature of President Lincoln for 
the ensuing election. The Chicago Conven¬ 
tion, or Democratic party, nominated General 
M‘Clellan. 

— Mr. Lawson’s Intoxicating Liquors Bill, 
providing that a majority of two-thirds of the 
qualified voters of any parish might prevent the 
sale of such liquors within their boundary, 
thrown out on a second reading by 292 to 35 
votes. 

13 .—General Grant crosses the James River, 
and marches against Petersburg, Virginia, 
where he was repulsed in two assaults. 

14 -.— Experiment at Shoeburyness with Cap¬ 
tain Palliser’s chilled shot. In every case it 
went through the 44-inch armour plate, and 
deep into the backing beyond. Another pecu¬ 
liarity observed was, that after penetrating the 
plate, the shot broke up into minute fragments 
of from four to eight ounces weight, so that 
the projectile carried in itself almost the pene¬ 
trative powers of steel shot, and the explosive 
fragments of the most powerful shell. 

17 . —Sir John Hay’s motion censuring 
Government for the impolitic and disastrous 
expedition sent out from the Cape Coast against 
the King of Ashantee, defeated by the narrow 
majority of 7, in a House of 459. 

— Died, from the effects of a railway acci¬ 
dent in May last year, Dr. Cureton, F.R.S., 
an Oriental scholar of great attainments, Canon 
of Westminster, and Rector of St. Margaret’s, 
aged 56 years. 

18 . —Died at Bangor, aged 61, William 
Smith O’Brien, a prominent and convicted 
Irish agitator. 

19 . —The Confederate cruiser Alabama sunk 
by the Federal war-steamer Kearsage off Cher¬ 
bourg. The Alabama left Cherbourg harbour 
about ten o’clock this (Sunday) morning, 
the Kearsage , which had long been in hot pur¬ 
suit, being then several miles out to seaward 
with steam up ready for action. The log of 
Mr. Lancaster’s yacht Deerhound furnishes 
the following details : — “ 10.30. Observed the 
Alabama steaming out of the harbour towards 
the Federal steamer Kearsage. —11.10. The 
Alabama commenced firing with her starboard 
battery, the distance oetween the contending 

(67 5) 


vessels being about one mile. The Kearsage im¬ 
mediately replied with her starboard guns; a 
very sharp, spirited firing was then kept up, 
shot sometimes being varied by shells. In 
manoeuvring, both vessels made seven complete 
circles at a distance of from a quarter to half 
a mile. At 12 a slight intermission was ob¬ 
served in the firing, the Alabama making 
head sail and shaping her course for the land, 
distant about nine miles. At 12.30 observed 
the Alabama to be disabled and in a sinking 
state. We immediately made towards her, 
and on passing the Kearsage were requested 
to assist in saving the Alabama ’s crew. At 
12.50, when within a distance of 200 yards, 
the Alabama sank. We then lowered our two 
boats, and, with the assistance of the Alabama’s 
whale-boat and dingy, succeeded in saving 
about 40 men, including Capt. Semmes and 13 
officers. At 1 P. M. we steered for Southampton. ” 
With great bravery, Captain Semmes kept the 
guns ported till the muzzles were actually under 
water, and the last shot was fired as the Ala¬ 
bama went down. When her stern was com¬ 
pletely under water the captain gave orders for 
the men to save themselves as best they could, 
and every one jumped into the sea and swam 
to the boats which put off to their rescue. 

21 . —“Essays and Reviews” condemned in 
Convocation:—“That this Synod having ap¬ 
pointed Committees of the Upper and Lower 
House to examine and report upon the volume 
entitled ‘Essays and Reviews,’ and the said 
Committees having severally reported thereon, 
doth hereby synodically condemn the said 
volume as containing teachings contrary to 
the doctrines received by the United Chuixh of 
England and Ireland, in common with the 
whole Catholic Church of Christ.” When the 
judgment was brought down to the Lower 
House, the Archdeacon of Taunton moved :— 
“That this House respectfully and heartily 
tender its thanks to his Grace the President 
and the Bishops of the Upper House for their 
care and defence of the faith as manifested in 
the Report upon the book entitled ‘ Essays and 
Reviews’ now read to the House, and that 
the House do thankfully accept and concur in 
the condemnation of the book by the Upper 
House.” Canon Blakesley moved as an 
amendment:—“That whereas on the 13th of 
February, 1863, it was referred to the Com¬ 
mittee of Privilege to examine the precedents 
for the censure of books, and report to the 
House thereon ; and whereas that Report has 
not yet been presented, this House respectfully 
represents to his Grace the President, that in 
their opinion no further proceedings can be 
satisfactorily or safely taken by the Lower 
House in the matter until they have had before 
them the Report in question, and have ha<J 
an opportunity of giving it full consideration. ” 
For the motion, 39; amendment, 19. Another- 
amendment proposed by Canon Selwyn was to 
the effect that:—‘ ‘ This House regrets it can¬ 
not concur in the judgment proposed by their 
Lordships of the Upper House on the book 

X X 2 






1864. 


JULY 


JUcVE 


called ‘Essays and Reviews,’ inasmuch as 
the judgment does not state any particular 
proposition contrary to the doctrine of the 
United Church of England and Ireland, on 
which the judgment is founded.” This was 
not allowed to be put to the House. A motion 
that Dr. Rowland Williams, one of the essay¬ 
ists, be heard in terms of his petition, was also 
negatived. 

21 . —In the House of Commons, Mr. H. 
Berkeley moved that at the next general elec¬ 
tion “it was expedient that a fair trial should 
be given to the vote by ballot.” Lord Palmer¬ 
ston opposed it as inconsistent with the cha¬ 
racter of Englishmen, and the motion was 
rejected by 212 to 123 votes. 

22 . —The Conference of London meets for 
the last time, the belligerent Powers being 
unable to agree upon a boundary line satis¬ 
factory to each. On behalf of Denmark, M. 
de Quaade said that his Government would 
make great sacrifices in order to obtain the 
restoration of peace, but there were limits 
beyond which they would not go, and his 
instructions forbade him to consent to any 
other line than that proposed by the English 
Plenipotentiaries in the sitting of the 28th 
May, and accepted by Denmark. This decla¬ 
ration ended the debate, and the Conference 
broke up. Hostilities were resumed in Schles¬ 
wig next day; but as Denmark saw that the 
neutral Powers were not likely to aid her in 
the struggle, she gradually withdrew her armies 
from the territories in dispute. 

24 -.— The Archbishops of Canterbury, York, 
Armagh, and Dublin issue an address to the 
Church on the subject of foreign missions : 
“We earnestly and affectionately entreat you to 
make a new and great effort for a large increase 
of our present missionary funds. ... We are 
convinced that in no other way can the work 
be done than by every parish, or part of its 
separate parochial existence, raising its own 
contributions for the work ; and we therefore 
beseech our brethren of the clergy to preach 
one sermon annually, and make a collection 
for Church of England Missions ; and we pray 
our brethren of the laity to help them, not only 
by their contributions to this annual collection, 
hut by becoming regular subscribers, if they 
are not such at present, or if they are, by in¬ 
creasing on a new scale of Christian liberality 
their aid to the funds of the societies they 
support, and by forming themselves into asso¬ 
ciations for more completely effecting this 
great work of God.” 

26 - —The Empress of Mexico invested with 
the dignity of Regent in the event of the death 
of her husband. 

27 .—Came on for hearing before the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council, the petition 
of Bishop Colenso, praying that her Majesty 
would be pleased to declare the petitioner to 
be entitled to hold his see until the letters 
patent granted .to him should be cancelled by 

I676) 


due process of law for some sufficient cause 
of forfeiture, and to declare that the letters 
patent granted to the Bishop of Capetown, in 
so far as they purported to create a court of 
criminal justice within the colony, and to give 
to the Archbishop of Canterbury an appellate 
jurisdiction, had been unduly obtained from 
her Majesty, and did not affect the petitioner’s 
rights. The petitioner also prayed that the 
pretended trial and sentence were void and of 
no effect, and that an inhibition, as was usual 
in ecclesiastical cases, should issue against the 
proceedings under the sentence pending the 
appeal. The petition was ordered to stand 
over till the Michaelmas sittings of the Judicial 
Committee. 

27 . —M. Vambery attends at the Geographical 
Society, and details his travels in the character 
of a dervish through Central Asia. 

29 . —The Prussians bombard and capture 
the Island of Alsen, with 2,400 men serving 
in the batteries. 

July 1 . —Mr. Dodson’s bill, designed to 
abolish the tests required on taking degrees 
at Oxford, read a third time by the casting 
vote of the Speaker. On the formal motion 
that the bill do pass, it was thrown out by 
173 to 171. 

4 .—Commencement of Mr. Disraeli’s no- 
confidence motion :—“To thank her Majesty 
for having directed the correspondence on 
Denmark and Germany, and the protocol of 
the Conference recently held in London, to be 
laid before Parliament; to assure her Majesty 
that we have heard with deep concern that the 
sittings of the Conference have been brought 
to a close without accomplishing the important 
purpose for which it was convened ; and to 
express to her Majesty our great regret that, 
while the course pursued by her Majesty’s 
Government has failed to maintain their 
avowed policy of upholding the integrity and 
independence of Denmark, it has lowered the 
just influence of this country in the capitals of 
Europe, and thereby diminished the securities 
for peace.” As an amendment to the last sen-, 
tence of the resolution, Mr. Kinglake pro¬ 
posed to substitute the words :—“ To express 
the satisfaction with which we have learned 
that at this conjuncture her Majesty has been 
advised to abstain from armed interference in 
the war now going on between Denmark and 
the German Powers.” “It is not for us,” 
said Mr. Disraeli, “it is not for any man in 
this House, to indicate to the Ministers what 
should be the foreign policy of the country. 
The most we can do, is to tell the noble lord 
what is not our policy. We will not threaten 
and then refuse to act. We will not lead on 
our allies with expectations we do not intend 
to fulfil. And, Sir, if it ever be the lot of 
myself, and of those with whom I act, to carry 
on important negotiations of this country, as 
the noble lord and his colleagues have done, 
I trust we shall not, at least, carry them on in 








JULY 


JULY 


1864. 


such a manner as that it will be our duty to 
come to Parliament and announce that we 
have no ally, and then to declare that England 
can never act alone. Sir, these are words 
that ought never to have escaped the lips of 
any British Minister. They are sentiments 
which ought never to have entered his heart. 
I repudiate them and reject them. I remember 
that there was a time when England had not a 
tithe of our resources, when, inspired by a 
patriotic cause, she triumphantly encountered 
a world in arms. And, Sir, I believe, now, if 
the occasion were fitting, and our independence 
and our honour were attacked and assailed, 
if our empire were endangered, I believe that 
England would arise in the magnificence of her 
might, and struggle triumphantly for those 
objects for which men live and nations flourish. 
But, Sir, I for one will never consent to go 
to war to extricate British ministers from the 
consequences of their own indiscretion ; and it 
is in this spirit that I have drawn up this 
address to the Crown. I have drawn it up in 
the spirit in which the Royal Speech was de¬ 
livered at the commencement of this session. 
I am ready to vindicate the honour of this 
country when it is necessary, but I have drawn 
it up in the interests of peace.”—Mr. Gladstone 
at once replied : “This is the very first occa¬ 
sion that the British House of Commons has 
been called upon, for the sake of displacing a 
Government, to record the degradation of its 
country. Why cannot the right hon. gentle¬ 
man speak plainly in his motion ? Why does 
he not adopt the language of our forefathers, 
who, when they were dissatisfied with a Go¬ 
vernment, addressed the Crown, and prayed 
that the Government might be dismissed ? 
They said boldly that the conduct of the Go¬ 
vernment was open to such and such charges, 
and they prayed that other men might be put 
in their places. But the right hon. gentleman 
was afraid to raise that issue. He has, indeed, 
plucked up courage to propose this motion; 
but why has he not done it in the proper 
constitutional form in which votes of want of 
confidence have hitherto been drawn? Never 
before, as far as I know, has party spirit led 
gentlemen in this country to frame a motion 
which places on record that which must be 
regarded as dishonourable to the nation. I go 
back to the time of Sir R. Walpole, of Lord 
North and Mr. Fox, but nowhere do we find 
such a sterile and jejune affair as this resolution. 
Those charges were written in legible and plain 
terms; but the right hon. gentleman substitutes 
language which might, indeed, be sufficient for 
the purpose of rendering it impossible for the 
Government to continue in office, but which 
cannot transfix them without its sting first 
passing through the honour of England. For 
the reasons I have stated, I look forward with 
cheerfulness, to the issue whioh has been raised 
with regard to our conduct. Nay, more, I 
feel the most confident anticipation that both 
the House and the country will approve of the 
course taken in this difficult negotiation by her 


Majesty’s Government, and that they will reject 
a motion which both prudence and patriotism 
must alike emphatically condemn.”—In the 
course of the last night’s debate great amusement 
was created by Mr. Bernal Osborne’s brilliant 
sallies against the Government. The Cabinet he 
described as a museum of curiosities. “There 
are some birds of rare and noble plumage, 
both alive and stuffed. But, Sir, unfor¬ 
tunately there is a difficulty in keeping up the 
breed, and it was found necessary to cross it with 
the famous Peelites. I will do them the justice 
to say that they have a very great and able 
minister amongst them in the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, and it is to his measures alone that 
they owe the little popularity and the little sup¬ 
port they get from this Liberal party. But it 
cannot be said by their enemies or friends that 
they have been prolific in measures since they 
have been in office. Then there is my right 
hon. friend who is not connected with the 
Whigs by family (Mr. Gibson). He is like 
some ‘ fly in amber,’ and the wonder is how 
the devil he got there. The hon. member for 
Rochdale (Mr. Cobden) and the hon. member 
for Birmingham must have been disappointed, 

I think, in this ‘ young man from the country. ’ 
When he married into the family we expected 
some liberal measures from him ; but the right 
hon. gentleman has become insolent and almost 
quarrelsome under the guidance of the noble 
lord. Well, what are we to expect? We know 
by the traditions of the great Whig party that 
they will cling to the vessel, if not like ship¬ 
wrecked sailors, at least like those testaceous 
marine fish which adhere to the bottom, thereby 
clogging the engines and impeding the progress. 
Should this Parliament decide on terminating 
its own and their existence, they will find 
consolation that the funeral oration will be 
pronounced by the hon. member for North 
Warwickshire (Mr. Newdegate), and that some 
friendly hand will inscribe on their mausoleum, 
‘Rest and be thankful.’”—Ministers having 
arranged to accept a division on Mr. King- 
lake’s amendment, after a discussion extending 
over three nights, the numbers were found to 
be:—For Mr. Disraeli’s motion, 295 ; for the 
amendment, 313. Majority for Ministers, 18. 
A motion similar in terms to Mr, Disraeli’s 
was carried in the House of Lords against 
Ministers by a majority of 9. 

7. —The Savoy Chapel destroyed by a fire 
originating in the carelessness of certain work¬ 
men making repairs in the gas-pipes below the 
organ. The fire was discovered soon after two 
o’clock P.M., when no person was in the build¬ 
ing. The doors at the time were locked, and 
before they could be opened the interior was 
one mass of flame, which burst out of the 
north window, and caught the back of the 
houses in the Strand. The structure was 
erected in 1505, and had been the scene of 
many events of historical importance. The 
Queen, who had greatly improved the building 
in 1843, now once more took upon herself the 
cost of restoring the fabric, 

( 677 ), 







JULY 


1864. 


JULY 


8 . —Foundation-stone of the Thames Em¬ 
bankment, extending from Westminster Bridge 
to Blackfriars, laid by Mr. Thwaites, chairman 
of the Metropolitan Board'of Works. 

9. —Murder of Mr. Thomas Briggs, on the 
North London Railway. On the arrival of the 
9.45 train at Hackney, from Fenchurch-street, 
a gentleman called the attention of the guard 
to the state of a compartment of a first-class 
carriage, No. 69, in the train. He had opened 
the door with the intention of getting in, and 
placing his hand on one of the cushions found 
it to be covered with blood. On a minute 
examination being made, not only the cushion, 
but the floor, side, and windows, were found 
besmeared with blood. There was found inside 
the carriage a hat, walking-stick, and small 
leathern bag. Almost at the same moment, 
the driver and stoker of an engine which had 
been working the Hackney Wick and Stratford 
traffic discovered a person on the line, near the 
Milford Arms Tavern, covered with blood, and 
the head greatly disfigured as if by blows from 
some blunt instrument. He was alive at the 
time, but unconscious, and died soon after 
being taken into the tavern. From letters 
found in his pocket he was identified as Thomas 
Briggs, chief clerk in the bank of Messrs. 
Robarts and Co., Lombard-street. He was 
seen by his niece’s husband, at Peckham, that 
evening, about 8.30, getting into an omnibus 
to take him to Fenchurch-street Station, from 
which place he purposed proceeding by train 
to his residence, near Hackney. On minute 
examination, it was found that there was 
4/. 10 s. in gold and silver in a trousers pocket, 
and a silver snuff-box in his coat Through 
Mr. Briggs, jun., the police ascertained that 
when his father left home in the morning he 
wore a gold watch with an Albert chain, and a 
gold eye-glass attached to a hair guard. On 
examining the waistcoat, it was seen that a 
watch had been torn from the waistcoat pocket, 
and the chain broken off by the link or hook, 
which still hung to the button-hole. The gold 
glasses were also missing. The stick and bag 
found in the compartment were identified as 
belonging to Mr. Briggs. The hat had never 
been in his possession. The murder remained 
a mystery, without the least clue to its dis¬ 
covery, for a week, though Government was 
prompt in offering a reward of 100/., to which 
another 100/. was added by deceased’s em¬ 
ployers. The first trace was obtained in the 
discovery of the chain, which was found to 
have been exchanged for another, at Mr. 
Death’s, Cheapside, by a man having the ap¬ 
pearance of a foreigner. On the 18th, a cabman, 
named Jonathan Matthews, gave important in¬ 
formation. He identified the hat as one which 
he had bought for an acquaintance, named 
Franz Muller, a native of Cologne, who at one 
time lodged in his house, and had quite recently, 
when visiting, given one of his children a card 
box, used by jewellers, bearing the name of 
Mr. Death. On the Monday after the murder, 
when in Matthews’ house, this Muller was 

(678) 


seen to have a gold chain, and a ring corre¬ 
sponding with that taken from Mr. Briggs. 
He was then slightly lame, and accounted for 
it by having sprained his ankle. With the aid 
of a photograph presented by Muller himself to 
Matthews’ sister, whom he courted, Mr. Death 
was able to identify him as the person who had 
exchanged the chain at his shop. On proceed¬ 
ing to his lodgings at Old Ford, Bow, Muller 
was not to be found, though he had been there 
about 11 o’clock on the night of the murder, 
and then appeared very much confused. It 
was subsequently ascertained from a letter 
posted at Worthing, on the 16th, that he had 
sailed in the ship Victoria , for New York. 
Inspector Tanner thereupon obtained a warrant 
for Muller’s apprehension, and, accompanied by 
Serjeant Clarke, Mr. Death, and the cabman 
Matthews, left London for Liverpool to pro¬ 
ceed to New York in the City of Manchester 
steamer, expected to reach its destination four 
days before the Victona. 

10. —The Bill introduced by the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer for amending the law relating 
to the purchase of Government Annuities 
through the medium of savings-banks, and to 
enable the granting of life insurances by the 
Government, receives the Royal assent. 

11. —Mr. Coxwell’s balloon destroyed by a 
mob in Leicester, when nearly ready for ascend¬ 
ing in celebration of a Foresters’ fite. 

— Sweden declares in favour of neutrality 
in the Schleswig dispute, and suspends the 
warlike preparations with which she had fol¬ 
lowed up the protest of January last. 

13 .—Came on in the Divorce Court, the 
case of Hopley v. Hopley, being a petition 
presented by Mrs. Hopley for separation, on 
the ground of cruelty, from her husband, for¬ 
merly schoolmaster at Eastbourne, and now at 
large on a ticket-of-leave. (See July 23, i860.) 
The allegations were of the following tenure : 
“ On our marriage day I began to write a letter 
to one of my sisters. He objected to the style 
in which it was written, and otherwise his con¬ 
duct seemed harsh and unreasonable. We did 
not occupy the same bed for two or three 
nights. The reason he gave was that I was 
not yet fitted to be the mother of his children, 
and he saw no reason why our children should 
not be model children, or ‘ second Christs. ’ 
He wrote down rules in a book, and I had to 
learn and study them every day. He told me 
his object was to make me a ‘model wife.’ 
In January 1856, when I was expecting my 
first child, I was repeating a lesson to him in 
his study, when, apparently annoyed at some 
mistake I made, he struck me a violent blow 
on the head. Five days after my confinement 
I went out in a fly by his desire, and the child 
was taken with us in a fish-hamper. He beat 
it with his hand when it was not more than a 
fortnight old. I once had a fish-bone in my 
throat, and he told me he thought a great 
blessing was about to befall him, as I would be 







JULY 


1864 


jul i 


respondent appeared in person, and cross- 
examined his wife respecting the doctrines he 
had propounded in public lectures as to the 
education of children, his project for establish¬ 
ing a model school, the way in which their 
courtship had been carried on, and many other 
irrelevant matters. The jury were agreed on 
the first issue, that Hopley had been guilty of 
ci uelty, but on the second they were of opinion 
by a majority that there had been condonation 
on the part of the wife. 

13 .—Mr.Bouverie’s Uniformity Act Amend¬ 
ment Bill, enabling fellowships in colleges of 
Universities to be held without a declaration 
of conformity to the Liturgy of the Church of 
England, thrown out on the second reading by 
157 to 101. 

15 .—Discussion in the House of Lords on 
the proceedings of Convocation with reference 
to “ Essays and Reviews.” Lord Houghton, 
in terms of a notice formerly given, asked her 
Majesty’s Government whether they had taken, 
or were willing to take, the opinion of the law 
officers of the Crown as to the powers of the 
Convocation of the Province of Canterbury to 
pass a synodical judgment on books written 
either by clergymen or laymen, as to the im¬ 
munity of members of that body from proceed¬ 
ings at common law consequent on such judg¬ 
ments, and as to the form according to which 
such judicial power must be exercised if it 
belongs to that body. Lord Chancellor Bethell 
replied: “There are three modes of dealing 
with Convocation when it is permitted to come 
into action and transact real business. The 
first is, while they are harmlessly busy to take 
no notice of their proceedings. The second 
is, when they seem likely to get into mis¬ 
chief to prorogue and put an end to their 
proceedings ; the third, when they have done 
something clearly beyond their powers, is to 
bring them before a court of justice and 
punish them. ... Not only did it require 
Convocation should be put into motion by 
the Crown, but, it is said, no ordinance or 
sentence - nothing of which Convocation might 
choose to pronounce—should have any vali¬ 
dity until it had received the sanction of the 
Crown ; and if any attempt were made to give 
any force to them without that sanction, the 
parties so offending should incur the penal¬ 
ties of a praemunire. I am afraid my noble 
friend has not considered what the pains and 
penalties of a praemunire are, or his gentle 
heart would have melted at the prospect. The 
Most Reverend Prelate and the bishops would 
have to appear at the bar, not in the solemn 
state in which we see them here, but as peni¬ 
tents in sackcloth and ashes. (A laugh.) And 
what would be the sentence? I observe that 
the Most Reverend Prelate gave two votes— 
his original vote and a casting vote. I will take 
the measure of his sentence from the sentence 
passed by a bishop on one of these authors— 
a year’s deprivation of his benefice. For two 
years, therefore, the Most Reverend Prelate 


would be condemned to have all the revenues 
of his high position sequestrated. (A laugh.) 
I have not ventured—I say it seriously—I have 
not ventured to present the question to her 
Majesty’s Government; for, my lords, only 
imagine what an opportunity it would be for 
my right hon. friend, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, to spread his net and in one haul 
take in 30,000/. from the highest dignitary, 
not to speak of the hoi polloi , the bishops, 
deacons, archdeacons, canons, vicars, all in¬ 
cluded in one common crime, all subject to 
one common penalty! (Much laughter.)_As¬ 

suming that the report of the judgment which 
I have read is a correct one, I am happy to 
tell your Lordships that what is called a 
synodical judgment is simply a series of well- 
lubricated terms—a sentence so oily and so 
saponaceous that no one would grasp it. (A 
laugh.) Like an eel, it slips through your 
fingers—it is simply nothing, and I am glad to 
tell my noble friend (Lord Houghton) that it 
is literally no sentence at all. (Renewed 
laughter and ‘Hear.’) If, my lords, the 
volume had been the work of one hand, the 
sentence might have had some effect; but, 
seeing that the volume is nothing more than 
two covers holding together separate essays, 
and seeing that this sentence does not attribute 
any offence to anything but the volume contain¬ 
ing those separate writings, not one of the 
authors is condemned, and each one of them 
may say: ‘This thing that is condemned is 
not mine; it belongs to you. ’ In this way the 
volume and the sentence which condemns it 
may be handed round from one to another, and 
the application of the sentence be repudiated by 
all the authors. As a judgment, the sentence 
has no meaning whatever ; this judgment is no 
judgment at all. . . . With regard to your 
meeting among yourselves as a debating club, 
expressing your opinion whether this or that 
law is a good or a bad one, even that is not a 
very small, nor is it a proper thing; because 
you may thereby involve yourselves in circum¬ 
stances of great peril. Let me bring before you 
the predicament in which any individual mem¬ 
ber of the Episcopal Bench may stand. You, 
the Upper House, come to a particular deter¬ 
mination; but, suppose the author of one of 
these essays is presented to a living or any other 
piece of ecclesiastical preferment, and suppose 
that one of the bishops who has been a party to 
these proceedings is called upon to institute. 
The bishop will naturally say, ‘ How can I 
institute a man whose work I have joined in 
condemning ? ’ But, in declining to institute, 
the bishop might possibly become liable to a 
praemunire, or be involved in the consequences 
of another hard word, duplex querela. I call 
upon the bishops to pause before they place 
themselves in such a position—to pause for 
their own sakes, even if they have no re- 
gard to the injustice, to the anomaly, to, 
the unreasonable spectacle of condemning a 
man whom they have no power to convene, 
whom they have no authority to hear, and 

( 679 ) 







JULY 


JUL V 


1S64. 


upon the bishops to pause before they place 
themselves in such a position—to pause for 
their own salces, even if they have no re¬ 
gard to the injustice, to the anomaly, to 
the unreasonable spectacle of condemning a 
man whom they have no power to convene, 
whom they have no authority to hear, and 
whom, when he presents himself as a suppliant, 
their own timidity and fear of going beyond 
their tether compel them to dismiss. Those 
who concur with me may probably think that 
by protesting against such a course they may 
save themselves from consequences; but if 
there be any attempt to carry Convocation 
beyond its proper limits, their best plan after 
protesting will be to gather up their garments 
and leave the place, remembering the pillar 
of salt, and resolving not to cast a look behind. 
(Laughter.) I am happy to say that in all 
these proceedings there is more smoke than 
fire. The words of condemnation are innocent 
and innocuous, though they do not probably 
proceed from a spirit that is equally harmless. 
As to the question of the noble lord, after 
what, I trust, may be this acceptable attempt 
on my part to expound the law, I have only to 
assure the noble lord that it is not the intention 
of the Government to take any further steps in 
the matter.”—The Archbishop of Canterbury 
replied, that in the course taken by Convocation 
there was no touch of malice, the object being 
simply to vindicate the Church of England from 
complicity with opinions considered to be mis¬ 
taken and dangerous. The Bishop of Oxford 
complained of the tone adopted by the noble 
lord on the woolsack. “If a man has no 
respect for himself, he ought at all events to 
respect the audience before which he speaks ; 
and when the highest representative of the law 
in England in your Lordships’ court, upon a 
matters involving the liberties of the subject and 
the religion of the realm, and all those high 
truths concerning which this discussion has 
arisen, can think it fitting to descend to ribaldry 
in which he knows that he can safely indulge, 
because those to whom he addresses it will have 
too much respect for their characters to answer 
him in like sort—I say that this house has 
ground to complain of having its character un¬ 
necessarily injured in the sight of the people of 
this land by our occupying so high a position 
within it. ... I know enough of this House, 
and of the people of England, to know that it 
is not by trying, in words which shall blister 
those upon whom they fall, to produce a mo¬ 
mentary pain on those who cannot properly reply 
to them, that great questions should be solved; 
but that it is by dealing with them with calmness, 
with abstinence from the imputation of motives, 
and above all, with the most scrupulous regard 
to stating upon every point that which shall 
prevent any man in this House being led to a 
conclusion other than that which the facts war¬ 
rant.” The Bishop further justified the step 
taken by Convocation, and concluded: “ I 
would rather subject myself, in the presence of 
my countrymen and of your noble House, to 
(680) 


any amount of that invective and insinuation, 
and all those arts of, I will not say what part 
of the bar of England, of which we have seen 
something to-night—I would, I repeat, rather 
a thousand times incur it all, than have to look 
back on my death-bed on myself as one of those 
who had not striven for the truth of our Esta¬ 
blished Church, and had not encountered, be¬ 
cause I was afraid personally of the conse¬ 
quences anything which the maintenance of 
that truth might entail.” 

15 . —Lieutenant Edward John Eyre ap¬ 
pointed Governor of Jamaica. 

16 . —Elopement of Lady Florence Paget 
with the Marquis of Hastings. They were 
married at St. George’s, Hanover-square, in 
the presence of a few friends. 

19 . —Suppression of the Taeping rebellion, 
the city of Nanking being this day captured by 
the Imperialists, and the chief leaders taken 
prisoners. 

20. —Truce between Germany and Den¬ 

mark, preparatory to a conference for the 
restoration of peace, which assembled at Vienna 
on the 26th. > 

21 . —The third reading of the Scottish 
Episcopal Disabilities Removal Bill carried in 
the House of Commons by 34 to 10. The 
measure afterwards received the Royal assent. 

— Tolls abolished in Middlesex. 

— Sir C. Wood makes his annual statement 
of the finances of India. In three years, 
8,313,000/. of debt had been paid off; there 
was a balance in the Treasury of 10,000,000/., 
and a surplus On the year’s income of 1 ,827,346/. 

22 . —Private Thomas Cooper, of the Cold¬ 
stream Guards, one of the markers at the 
Wimbledon Rifle Competition, accidentally 
shot by a musketly instructor. 

— In answer to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, 
Earl Russell expresses his belief that the docu¬ 
ments recently published in the Morning Post , 
relating to the policy of Russia, were malicious 
fabrications, and there was no reason whatever 
for supposing that Power to be planning for a 
revival of the Holy Alliance. 

29 .—The House of Lords pronounced 
judgment in the Yelverton case. The Lord 
Chancellor (with Lord Brougham, who was 
absent) considered it proved that there was a 
solemn interchange of consent to become 
husband and wife between the parties at 
Edinburgh, on the 12th of April, 1857, when, 
according to the respondent, Major Yelverton, 
read aloud the Marriage Service of the Church 
of England at her lodgings. His Lordship 
concluded an elaborate review of the case by 
stating that he must give as the conclusion of 
the examination, “that there was, and is now, 
a relation of marriage adequately constituted 
by the Scotch law between the appellant and 
the respondent, and that they are now legally 
man and wife.” On the other hand a majority, 
consisting of Lords Wensleydale, Chelmsford, 






JUL Y 


1864. 


AUGUST 


and Kingsdown, decided against Mrs. Yel- 
verton. 

29 .—Pari .ament prorogued by Commission. 
The Royal Speech expressed regret at the 
renewal of the hostilities with Denmark, but 
hoped that the negotiations now opened be¬ 
tween the belligerents themselves might restore 
peace to the north of Europe. The incorpora¬ 
tion of the Ionian Republic into the kingdom 
of Greece, and the dispute between the Sultan 
and the Hospodar of Moldo-Wallachia, were 
also alluded to along with the important Acts 
of the session. 

31 .—General Grant makes a furious assault 
on Petersburg; but, though he exploded a 
mine which carried off about 500 Confederate 
troops, and laid open the inner line of defence, 
he was received with such determined resist¬ 
ance by the Confederates, as compelled him to 
retire with a computed loss of 10,000 men. 

August 1.—Preliminaries of the Treaty of 
Vienna accepted by the King of Denmark, in 
terms of which the Duchies were ceded to 
Austria and Prussia. Being invited to express 
an opinion on the moderation displayed by the 
German Powers, Earl Russell wrote to Bis¬ 
marck : “If it is said that force has decided 
this question, and that the superiority of the 
arms of Austria and Prussia over those of 
Denmark was incontestable, the assertion must 
be admitted. But in that case it is out of place 
to claim credit for equity and moderation. ” 

4 . —In consequence of repeated outrages, 
Brazil addresses an ultimatum to U ruguay. The 
conditions being rejected, war broke out between 
the Powers on the 9th. 

6 . —Close of the protracted and irregular 
war in New Zealand by the unconditional sub¬ 
mission of the Maori chiefs. 

8 . —Commencement of a series of riots in 
Belfast between the Romanists and Orangemen, 
the immediate cause being the inauguration 
by the former of a statue of Daniel O’Connell. 
A caricature of the Liberator was carried 
about by the Protestant party, and afterwards 
burnt—an indignity which roused the feelings of 
the Catholics to an ungovernable pitch, and led 
to a struggle of several days’ duration. Paving- 
stones, brickbats, and stout oak sticks were the 
weapons called first into requisition, but they 
gave place in time to old guns and weapons 
* of a still more dangerous character. The 
outbreak spread in a mitigated form to Cork 
and Dundalk. Towards the close of the year 
Government appointed a commission of inquiry 
to investigate into the cause of the outbreak. 

IO.—Died, at Alice Holt, near Famham, 
aged 75, Charles Wentworth Dilke, for many 
years intimately connected with the Athenceum. 

15. —Admiral Farragut defeats the Confe¬ 
derate fleet in Mobile Bay. 

19 .—Polish refugees expelled from Turkey. 


23 . —Election riots at Geneva ; suppressed 
by the Federal troops who occupied the city. 

24 . —The Federal steam-frigate Niagara 
arrives in Dover Roads with the crew of the 
Georgia, formerly a Confederate cruiser, but 
seized while sailing under British colours and 
owned by a Liverpool merchant. She had 
latterly been chartered by the Portuguese 
Government for the purpose of carrying 
passengers between Lisbon and the West 
Indies. 

— Franz MUller apprehended at New 
York on board the Victoria. He denied all 
knowledge of the murder; but after the usual 
preliminary examination he was delivered up 
under the Extradition Treaty, and arrived in 
Liverpool in custody on the 17th September. 

30 .—The Perth Memorial to the Prince 
Consort inaugurated in presence of her Majesty. 

— The Federal General, Paine, command¬ 
ing in Western Kentucky, issues a proclama¬ 
tion urging the most remorseless measures 
against the Confederates: “ The first and 
great commandment is, that all you disloyal, 
rebellious people shall not circulate one dollar 
of capital in all this land. Not a dollar, no 
debt or bill of exchange can be paid or made 
without my signature, and I pledge you I will 
not approve any money transactions of a dis¬ 
loyal man. All his capital, all his money, 
every cent of it, shall be placed at the disposal 
of the Government. I will teach you that, 
having encouraged this rebellion, having com¬ 
forted and aided your country’s enemies, you 
must—ay, shall—reap a traitor’s reward. Talk 
about your rights ! Why, you have no rights 
to talk about. A loyal citizen is the only one 
left with rights at this time. And yet you 
come to me asking for a banking privilege. 
Great God ! the devil might as well ask the 
Almighty for a front seat in heaven. No ; if 
in your prosperity you have despised this great 
and good Government, you may soon have the 
privilege to love it in your adversity. Not 
only this, but you ought—ay, you must fight 
for this Government. The second command¬ 
ment is, that all you notorious rebels get out of 
your houses and leave my district, so that 
Union men and women may come here to help 
me to redeem this country. What do I care 
about your tobacco interest, the market value 
of your niggers or cotton ? I shall shoot every 
guerilla taken in my district; and if your 
Southern brethren retaliate by shooting a 
Federal soldier, I will walk out five of your 
rich bankers, brokers, and cotton men, and 
make you kneel down and shoot them. I will 
do it, so help hie God! You men of such 
large influence will be held responsible for the 
peace of this district. If a Union man is mur¬ 
dered by these guerillas here, the same fate 
awaits five of you gentlemen. I have sworn it, 
and it shall be done. I am going to manage 
this district so that when I am done with it 
men and women who remain can come to- 

(6S1) 




SEPTEMBER 


1864. 


SEPTEMBER 


gether in the name of the Lord and say, ‘ We 
belong to the United^ States.’ ” 

September 1 .— General Sherman defeats 
the Confederates at Jonesborough, and com¬ 
pels Hood to evacuate Atlanta, which he 
subsequently makes his own head-quartei's. 
Later in the month severe engagements took 
place between Sheridan and Early, in the 
valley of the Shenandoah. 

3 . —The Prince and Princess of Wales em¬ 
bark at Dundee on their voyage to Denmark. 

S. —The Japanese Government manifesting 
a desire to evade the responsibilities of their 
treaties, an Anglo-French and Dutch fleet enter 
the Straits of Simonosaki and destroy the bat¬ 
teries. 

7 . —The Confederate General Hood refusing 
to move women and children from Atlanta, 
Sherman issues an address that this movement 
should be made at once for the sake of hu¬ 
manity : “ If we must be enemies, let us be' 
men, and fight it out as we propose to-day, and 
not deal in such hypocritical appeals to God 
and humanity. God will judge us in due time, 
and He will prove to us whether it be more 
human to fight with a townful of women and 
the families of a ‘ brave people ’ at your back, 
or to remove them in time to places of safety 
among their own friends and people.” 

8. —Unveiling of the memorial statue of 
Sir G. C. Lewis at Hereford, Lord Palmerston 
paying a graceful tribute to his late colleague. 
The inscription on the monument bore that 
it was to commemorate “ a wise and honest 
statesman, a profound scholar, and kind and 
firm friend.” 

— Accepting the nomination of the Chicago 
Convention, General M‘Clellan. issues an ad¬ 
dress regarding the Presidency, which large 
numbers of his supporters declared to be un¬ 
satisfactory, so far as the continuance of the 
war was concerned. 

IO.—Joseph Myers, aged 44, and Jane 
Sargisson, executed at Leeds, being the first 
execution which had taken place in that city. 
They had each been found guilty of murder 
at the recently established assizes for the West 
Riding. 

— Bishop Colenso prohibited from preach¬ 
ing at Clay brook, through an inhibition from 
the Bishop of Peterborough served on him 
in the church. 

13 .—Convention concluded between the 
Kingdom of Italy and the French Empire : 
—Art. 1. Italy engages not to attack the pre¬ 
sent territory of the Holy Father, and to pre¬ 
vent even by force every attack upon that terri¬ 
tory from without. 2. France shall withdraw 
her troops from the Pontifical States in pro¬ 
portion as the army of the Holy Father shall 
be organized. The evacuation shall, neverthe¬ 
less, be accomplished within the space of two 
years. 3. The Italian Government engages to 
raise no protest against the organization of a 


Papal army, even if composed of foreign Ca¬ 
tholic volunteers, sufficient to maintain the 
authority of the Holy Father, and tranquillity 
as well in the interior as upon the frontier of 
his States, provided that this force do not 
degenerate into a means of attack against the 
Italian Government. 4. Italy declares herself 
ready to enter into an arrangement to take 
under her charge a proportionate part of the 
debt of the former States of the Church; Flo¬ 
rence to be substituted for Turin as the 
capital. 

IS. —Captain Speke killed by the accidental 
discharge of his fowling-piece while shooting at 
NestonPark, Wilts. He appeared to have been 
getting over a low stone wall, when, by some 
mischance, his gun went off while the muzzle 
was pointed to his chest. He was sensible for 
only a few minutes. On one of the party coming 
up, Speke said feebly, “Don’t move me.” In 
a few minutes he breathed his last. The death 
of this great discoverer threw a sudden gloom 
over the proceedings of the British Association 
then sitting at Bath, a discussion on the sources 
of the Nile being expected to take place next 
day between him and Captain Burton. Sir R. 
Murchison expressed the general feeling in a 
resolution, “ That the geographers and ethno¬ 
logists of the British Association having heard 
with profound regret of the fatal accident, which 
has befallen Captain Speke, and by which they 
have suddenly lost so eminent an associate, 
resolve that their most heartfelt condolence be 
offered to his relatives on his being cut off in 
so awful a manner in the fulness of his strength 
and vigour.” 

17 .—Died at Florence, aged 89, Walter 
Savage Land or, scholar and poet. 

19 .—Fire in Gresham-street, City, destroy¬ 
ing the ancient and stately hall of the Haber¬ 
dashers’ Company, and many of the elegant 
carvings and paintings for which it was cele¬ 
brated. The carpet warehouses of the Messrs. 
Tapling were also consumed. 

21 .—The Russians commence an attack 
upon the important fortress of Tchemkent, in 
Khokhand. In spite of a violent fire from 
the magazine the Russians forced the gates, 
and in an hour from the commencement of the 
assault were masters of the fortress with its 
magazines, built upon a formidable eminence, 
strongly armed with munitions of war and a 
garrison of 10,000 of the Khan’s best troops. 

— Commencement of a series of riots at 
Turin, in consequence of the contemplated 
transfer of the Court and Parliament to Florence. 

23 .—At the Social Science Meeting, in 
York, Sir J. P. Wilde, in his capacity of presi¬ 
dent of the department of Jurisprudence, de¬ 
livered an address on Law Reform, which was 
the means of drawing general attention to this 
important subject. The time has surely come 
(he said) when those who really revere our 
noble laws should have it at heart to place them 
beyond cavil, and give them that hold on the 





SEPTEMBER 


1864. 


OCTOBER 


good sense of the people which they have ever 
had in their affection. * 

24 .—Failure of the Leeds Banking Com¬ 
pany, owing chiefly to the frauds and forgeries 
practised upon it by an ironfounder named 
Marsden, and one Scaife, in his employment. 

October 1 (Sunday).—Great calamity at 
Erith, caused by the explosion of about 1,000 
barrels of gunpow'der, containing 100 lbs. each. 
The buildings of the Messrs. Hall were blown 
to dust, and the embankment in front thrown 
with great violence into the Thames. The 
explosion was heard and felt at Charing-cross, 
a distance of fifteen miles. Five men were 
known to have been killed on the spot, five 
others were missing, presumably killed, and 
three died after removal to Guy’s Hospital; 
the seriously injured amounted to twelve. 
The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of “ acci¬ 
dental death.” 

5 .—Cyclone at Calcutta, destroying pro¬ 
perty in the river and city to an amount too 
large ever to be accurately estimated. On the 
4th the weather was showery, with light and 
variable winds, and occasionally severe light¬ 
ning, but it was not till an hour after midnight 
that the barometer began to fall, the wind 
being then light from the N. E. In the morn¬ 
ing the breeze gradually freshened, with squally 
and heavy rain, till about ten o’clock, when it 
veered to the east, and blew with increased 
fury. Between eleven and twelve, and with 
a noise like distant thunder, the cyclone 
burst over the city, tearing up trees, carry¬ 
ing off the roofs of houses, overturning 
walls and buildings, and heaping up mounds 
in the streets and roads, through which it 
was impossible for passengers to make their 
way. On the river the effect of the storm was 
even more disastrous. Tier after tier of vessels 
broke adrift, in most cases taking moorings, 
buoys, and tackle with them, and drove 
about in clusters of six or eight entangled 
together, and carrying with them ships at 
anchor in the stream, and everything else with 
which they came in contact. To add to the 
disaster, the tide this afternoon was unprece¬ 
dentedly high, and all the vessels driven to lee¬ 
ward on the opposite bank were carried up as 
far as high water could float them, so that when 
the flood retired they were left aground, some 
distance from the river. Of more than 200 
ships in the Hooghly only about ten could be 
kept at their moorings. The Govindpore was 
run into amidships, cut to the water-edge, and 
her crew only saved by a feat of rare heroism 
performed in carrying a line from the shore to 
the sinking vessel. It was calculated that about 
forty people, principally natives, were killed in 
the city and suburbs. 

8 . —Statue of father Mathew inaugurated 

at Cork. 

IO.—A conference of delegates assembled 
at Quebec, to consider the advisability of 
forming a Federal union of the provinces of 


North America. The proceedings received the 
sanction of her Majesty’s Government, with 
the exception of the resolution relating to the 
exercise of the prerogative of pardon, which 
it was thought should be vested in the 
Governor-General instead of Lieutenant-Go¬ 
vernors appointed by the Central Government. 

10. —Commercial treaty concluded between 
China and Spain, permitting the latter power 
to send a representative to Pekin and trade 
with the Philippine Islands. 

11 . —Church Congress opened at Bristol. 
At one of the meetings Dr. Pusey advocated 
the revival of synodical action, more especially 
in view of the recent decision of the Privy 
Council. The principal discussions took place 
on Home Missions and Lay Agency. Brother 
Ignatius (Lyne) was permitted to address the 
Congress amid some interruption. 

18 . — Died at Clumber Park, aged 53, 
Henry Pelham Clinton, Duke of Newcastle, a 
statesman of the Peelite school, and War 
Minister in Lord Aberdeen’s Cabinet. 

19 . —Confederate refugees in Canada cross 
the frontier into Vermont and attack the town 
of St. Albans. A number of them were ar¬ 
rested and tried at Montreal, but discharged on 
the technical plea that the warrant for their 
arrest was not under the hand of the Governor- 
General of Canada, as the Imperial Act 
required in such cases. General Dix after¬ 
wards issued an order instructing all military 
commanders on the frontier that where any 
act of depredation or murder was attempted, 
whether by marauders or persons acting under 
commissions from the rebel authorities at Rich¬ 
mond, the perpetrators were if possible to be 
shot down on the spot, or followed if neces¬ 
sary into Canada and seized there. This order 
was disavowed by President Lincoln, who, 
however, proposed in his Message that, after 
six months’ notice had been given to England, 
a naval force should be formed on the Lake 
to prevent Confederate raids from Canada. 

27 .—Came on at the Central Criminal 
Court, before the Lord Chief Baron (Pollock) 
and Mr. Baron Martin, the trial of Franz 
Miiller for the murder of Mr. Briggs on the 
North London Railway, upon the 9th July 
last. The trial excited intense interest in the 
public mind, though this was caused rather 
by the flight and subsequent capture of the 
prisoner than by the crime itself, which was 
entirely of an unimaginative character, and 
prompted simply by robbery. The web ol 
circumstantial evidence which the Crown wove; 
round the prisoner was of the most convincing 
kind. His need of money, his inability to. 
account for his movements on the night of the 
murder, his possession of the stolen article 
the discovery and identification of his hat in 
the railway carriage, his possession of Mr. 
Briggs’s hat, slightly reduced in height, and his 
sprained ankle, presumably received in the 
struggle, or when dropping from the train,— 

(683) 








OCTOBER 


1864. 


NOVEMBER 


were all spoken to with precision and fulness. 
On the part of the defence, conducted by Mr. 
Serjeant Parry, an attempt was made to throw 
discredit on the character of the witness 
Matthews, the cabman, and evidence was given 
on that side to show that at the hour the 
murder was committed the prisoner was in a 
cottage in the Vassal-road, Camberwell. After 
an absence of fifteen minutes, the jury returned 
a verdict of Guilty, and Mr. Baron Martin 
sentenced him to be executed, his address to 
the prisoner warning him to prepare for his 
certain fate, as a commutation of the sentence 
need not be expected. At its close the prisoner 
said: “I should like to say something. I am 
at all events satisfied with the sentence which 
your lordship has passed. I know very well it 
is that which the law of the country prescribes. 
What I have to say is, that I have not been 
convicted on a true statement of the facts, but on 
a false statement.” Muller’s firmness here gave 
way, and he was led sobbing from the dock. 

29 . —Died at Hammersmith, aged 57, John 
Leech, of Punch , the most fertile humorist 
known in modern pictorial art. 

30 . —The British colonial vessel Saxon 
seized at Angra Pequina by the Federal war 
steamer Vanderbilt , under pretence that she 
was trading in the interests of the Confederates. 
The mate of the Saxon was shot in the course 
of an altercation with one of the Federal 
officers placed on board. 

— Treaty of peace concluded at Vienna 
between Denmark and Germany ; Denmark to 
resign the Duchies, pay a sum of money or an 
equivalent for war expenses, and agree to a 
rectification of the Jutland frontier. 

November 4. —H.M.S. Racehorse wrecked 
in the China seas about five leagues south-east 
of Chefoo Cape. The ship’s company were 
sent aft, told the position of the ship, and that 
if they held on till daylight there was every 
hope of all hands being saved. Unfortunately 
the endurance of only a few was equal to this, 
the poor fellows dropping off one by one from 
the effect of the cold and the force of the sea. 
Only nine were saved—three officers and six 
men. 

8 . —Southwark Bridge opened to the public 
free. 

— The illustrious French advocate, P. A. 
Berryer, while on a visit to Lord Brougham, 
entertained at a banquet in the hall of the 
Middle Temple. The company was the most 
brilliant and accomplished that could be 
assembled in the metropolis. The Attorney- 
General presided, and was supported by most 
of the judges and distinguished law officers of 
the Crown. 

— Abraham Lincoln elected a second time 
President of the United States. 

IO.—Concluded, before the Master of the 
Rolls, the case of Gedney v. Smith. The 
action arose upon a bill filed by Miss Harriet 

(684) 


Francis Holgate Gedney, a minor, to obtain 
a declaration that she was the child of Mr. 
Patteson Arthur Holgate Gedney, by his late 
wife Harriet Gedney, and the execution of two 
settlements securing certain property under the 
marriage settlement of that lady and gentle¬ 
man to the issue of that marriage. The de¬ 
fendants, as the representatives of Mrs. Ged- 
ney’s family, and entitled to the reversion of 
a considerable part of the settled property, 
failing any real or legitimate child of the mar¬ 
riage of Mr. and Mrs. Gedney, contended that 
the plaintiff was no child of such marriage, but 
the child of some stranger procured for the 
purpose of arresting the gift over in default of 
children. At the time, it was alleged that al¬ 
though Mrs. Gedney was said to be pregnant 
she was not in the family-way at all, but suffer¬ 
ing from a disease contracted from her husband; 
that at the very time of her going into lodgings 
in Park-street, Grosvenor-square, she could not 
be near her confinement; that just at the time 
when it was alleged she was confined Dr. Goss 
had gone to a lying-in asylum in the Borough, 
and bought a child from a poor woman, one 
Lydia Fletcher (exactly answering the descrip¬ 
tion of the plaintiff as a child), on the repre¬ 
sentation to the mother that such child would 
be adopted by, and brought up as, a lady ; 
that the whole allegations as to Mrs. Gedney’s 
confinement and the plaintiff being her child 
were a tissue of inventions from beginning to 
end ; and that Mrs. Gedney confessed to her 
father on her death-bed that they were so. 
The examination of witnesses being concluded 
this day, the jury returned a verdict for the 
defendants—that in their opinion the plaintiff 
was not the child of Mr. and Mrs. Gedney. 
They expressed a hope that the innocent suf¬ 
ferer by their verdict would still be protected 
by some member of the family. 

11 . —Died at the Stationery Office, of which 
he was Comptroller, aged 75, John Ramsay 
M‘Culloch, political economist, and author of 
the “Commercial Dictionary.” 

— The 50th anniversary of the union of 
Norway and Sweden celebrated with great 
rejoicing throughout those kingdoms. 

12 . —The Governor-General of India issues 
a proclamation announcing his intention of an¬ 
nexing permanently the Bengal Dooars and 
part of the Bhootan hill territory. An army was 
forthwith despatched, and occupied Gopul- 
gunge on the 28th. 

14 .—Execution of Franz Muller for the 
murder of Mr. Briggs. He was attended by 
Dr. Cappel, of the German Lutheran Church, 
to whom he made the only statement ap¬ 
proaching a confession which he vouchsafed. 
“Muller,” the Doctor said in German, “in a 
few moments you will stand before God. I ask 
you again, and for the last time, are you guilty 
or not guilty ? ”—Muller: “Not guilty.”—Dr. 
Cappel: “You are not guilty?”—Muller: 
“God knows what I have done.”—Dr. 
Cappel : “ God knows what you have done. 








NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


£864. 


Does He also know that you have committed 
this crime?”—Muller: “Ja; Ich habe esgethan” 
(Yes ; I have done it). At this moment the bolt 
was drawn, and the voice appeared to be 
choked as if in the act of seeking utterance. 

17 .—Came on for hearing in the Divorce 
Court, before Sir J. P. Wilde, and a special 
jury, the case of Codrington v. Codrington, 
being a petition from Admiral Henry John 
Codrington, praying for a divorce from his 
wife, Helen Jane Codrington (formerly Smith), 
on the ground of adultery with Lieutenant- 
Colonel Anderson, of the 26th Regiment, and 
with Lieutenant Mildmay, of the Rifle Bri¬ 
gade. The case was one of unusual blackness 
even for the Divorce Court. In 1856 the Ad¬ 
miral was ordered to the Crimea, and left his 
wife a companion of her own choosing, Miss 
Emily Faithfull, of the Victoria Press. When 
the Admiral returned in 1857 he found his 
wife’s feelings towards him apparently changed, 
and some disagreement occurred, followed by the 
dismissal of Miss FaithfulL In 1858 the Admi¬ 
ral was sent to Malta as dockyard superinten¬ 
dent, and here, it was alleged, Mrs. Codrington 
contracted improper intimacy with each of the 
co-respondents. The chief witnesses were the 
boatmen of the Admiral’s gondola, who averred 
that they often found the boat was put out of 
trim when she was returning from parties at 
night with either Anderson or Mildmay; and 
the domestics of the Admiral’s establishment, 
who had witnessed them in suspicious cir¬ 
cumstances in the house and also in the lanes 
and byways contiguous. The respondent 
denied her guilt, and pleaded that the Admiral 
not only systematically neglected her by 
sleeping apart, but paid improper attention to 
Mrs. Watson, wife of the Rev. Joshua Watson, 
a clergyman at Malta, and a friend of both 
parties. Mrs. Codrington also charged her 
husband with attempting a gross assault on 
Miss Faithfull when they were sleeping together 
in their bedroom. Mrs. Watson, in the course 
of her examination, gave evidence of an alleged 
confession made to her by Mrs. Codrington of 
her guilt with Lieutenant Mildmay—a con¬ 
fession, she said, on which she always intended 
to keep the seal of secrecy, but felt now at 
liberty to divulge in consequence of being 
subpoenaed as a witness. When Mrs. Watson 
made this declaration at a preliminary hearing 
of the case on the 30th of August, opposing 
counsel were compelled to ask for a new trial 
on the ground of surprise. They now sought 
to invalidate her testimony by imputing impro¬ 
per intimacy with the petitioner. After a trial 
extending over four days the juiy found the 
adultery established in both instances, and 
further, that Admiral Codrington had not by 
his wilful neglect or misconduct conduced to 
the misconduct of his wife. The Judge there¬ 
fore ordered a decree Nisi for the divorce. 

20 .—Maj-or Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird, 
of the 20th Regiment, attacked by Japanese 
near the Temple of Kamakura. Baldwin was 


murdered oh the spot, and Bird some hours 
after he had been conveyed to a tea-garden to 
get his wounds dressed. 

23 .—In addressing the Rochdale Reform As¬ 
sociation Mr. Cobden made pointed reference to 
the ignorance manifested by the people of this 
country concerning American institutions and 
even American geography : “If I were a rich 
man,” he said, “I would endow a professor’s 
chair at Oxford and Cambridge to instruct the 
undergraduates of those Universities in Ameri¬ 
can history. I will undertake to say, and I 
speak advisedly, that I will take any under¬ 
graduate now at Oxford or Cambridge, and I 
will bring him a map of the United States and 
ask him to put his finger on Chicago, and I 
will undertake to say that he does not go within 
a thousand miles of it. Yet Chicago is a place 
of 150,000 inhabitants, from which one or 
two millions of people in our own country are 
annually fed. These young gentlemen know 
all about the geography of ancient Greece and 
Egypt. Now, 1 know I shall be pelted with 
Greek and Latin quotations for what I am 
going to say. When I was at Athens I sallied 
out one summer morning to seek the famous 
river, the Ilissus, and after walking some 
hundred yards or so up what appeared to be 
the bed of the mountain torrent, I came upon 
a number of Athenian laundresses, and I found 
that they had dammed up this famous classical 
river, and were using every drop of its water 
for their own sanitary purposes. Why, then, 
should not these young gentlemen, who know 
all about the geography of the Ilissus, know 
also something about the geography of the 
Mississippi ? I am a great advocate of culture 
of every kind, and I say when I find a man 
like Professor Goldwin Smith, or Professor 
Rogers, who in addition to profound classical 
learning have a vast knowledge of modern 
affairs, and who, as well as scholars, are pro¬ 
found thinkers, these are men whom I know 
to have a vast superiority over me, and I bow 
to them with reverence for their superior ad¬ 
vantages ; but to hurry young men from college 
with no knowledge of the country in which 
the great drama of modern politics and national 
life is now being worked out; who are ignorant 
of a country like America, but who, whether 
it be for good or for evil, must exercise more 
influence in this country than any other class— 
to bring the young destitute of such knowledge 
and to place them in responsible positions in 
Government, is, I say, imperilling its best in¬ 
terests ; and earnest remonstrances ought to be 
made against such a state of education by every 
public man who values in the slightest degree 
the future welfare of his country.” 

24 -.—The London and Aberdeen iron 
steamer Stanley wrecked at the mouth of the 
Tyne, while attempting to run in for shelter 
from a severe storm sweeping along the north¬ 
east coast. Owing to the repeated failures in 
fixing a communication with the shore, most 
of the passengers and crew were drowned within 







NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1864. 


sight and hearing of an anxious but excited 
crowd, whom the disaster had drawn to the 
spot. The same fate befel the Friendship , 
of Colchester, which drifted to within a few 
yards of the Stanley , and greatly intensified 
the horror of the disaster. Two of the life¬ 
boat crew were also lost in their attempts to 
render asftstance. In the same storm, the 
Dalhousie steamer, trading between Dundee 
and Newcastle, was lost at the mouth of the 
Tay, with all hands—twenty passengers and 
fourteen of the crew. 

25 .—Died, in his 68th year, David Roberts, 
Esq., R.A. He was suddenly stricken with 
aooplexy, in Bond-street, this afternoon, and 
died in the evening. 

— In reply to a manifesto addressed by 
the Confederates to the different Courts in 
Europe, Earl Russell writes : “ Since the 
commencement of the civil war which broke 
out in 1861, her Majesty’s Government have 
continued to entertain sentiments of friendship 
equally for the North and for the South. Of 
the causes of the rupture, her Majesty’s 
Government have never presumed to judge ; 
they deplored the commencement of this 
sanguinary struggle, and anxiously look for¬ 
ward to the period of its termination. In the 
meantime they are convinced that they best 
consult the interests of peace, and respect the 
rights of all parties, by observing a strict and 
impartial neutrality. Such a neutrality her 
Majesty has faithfully maintained, and will 
continue to maintain.” 

— Fire at Bermondsey, destroying the 
extensive range of warehouses adjoining 
Sufferance Wharf, filled with saltpetre and 
other combustible materials. 

— At a meeting of the Oxford Diocesan 
Society for augmenting the endowment of 
small benefices, Mr. Disraeli delivered an 
address which was generally considered to 
embody the future Church policy of the Con¬ 
servative party. “ Instead of believing,” he 
said, “that the age of faith has passed, when I 
observe what is passing around me, what is 
taking place in this country, and not only in 
this country, but on the Continent, in other 
countries and in other hemispheres, instead of 
believing that the age of faith has passed; I 
hold that the characteristic of the present age 
is a craving credulity. Why, my Lord, man 
is a being born to believe ; and if you do 
not come forward—if no Church comes for¬ 
ward with its title-deeds of truth, sustained 
by the tradition of sacred ages and by the 
conviction of countless generations to guide 
him, he will found altars and idols in his 
own heart and in his own imagination. 
But observe what must be the relations of a 
powerful Church without distinctive creeds, 
with a being of that nature. Rest assured that 
the great principle of political economy will 
be observed. Where there is a great demand, 
there will be a proportionate supply; and 
commencing, as the new school may, by re- 
( 686 ) 


jecting the principle of inspiration, it will end 
by every priest being a prophet; and begin¬ 
ning as they do by repudiating the practice of 
miracles, before long we shall be living in a 
flitting scene of spiritual phantasmagoria. 
There are no tenets however extravagant, 
no practices however objectionable, which 
will not in time develop under such a state 
of affairs ; opinions the most absurd, and 
ceremonies the most revolting, are perhaps to 
be followed by the incantations of Canidia and 
the Corybantian howl. (Loud cheers and 
laughter.) But consider the country in which 
all this may take place. Look at the Europe 
of the present day and the Europe of a hundred 
years ago. It is not the same Europe ; its very 
form is changed. Whole nations and great 
nations which then flourished are no longer 
found. There is not a political constitution in 
Europe existing at the present time which then 
existed. The leading community of the con¬ 
tinent of Europe has changed all its landmarks, 
altered its boundaries, erased its local names ; 
the whole jurisprudence of Europe has been 
subverted, even the tenure of land, which of all 
human institutions most affects the character 
of man, has been altered—the feudal system 
has been abolished, not merely laws have been 
changed, not merely manners have been 
changed, but customs have been changed. 
And what happened ? When the turbulence 
was over—when the shout of triumph and the 
wail of agony were alike stilled—when, as it 
were, the waters had disappeared, the sacred 
heights of Sinai and Calvary were again 
revealed, and, amid the wreck of thrones and 
tribunals of extinct nations and abolished laws, 
mankind bowed again before the Divine truths 
that had been by Omnipotent power in His 
ineffable wisdom entrusted to the custody and 
the promulgation of a chosen people.... 

I hold that the highest function of science is 
the interpretation of nature—and the interpre¬ 
tation of the highest nature is the highest 
science. Wha tis the highest nature ? Man is 
the highest nature. But 1 must say that when 
I compare the interpretations of the highest 
nature with the most advanced, the most 
fashionable and modem school of modern 
science—when I compare that with older 
teachings with which we are familiar—I am 
not prepared to say that the lecture-room is 
more scientific than the Church. What is the 
question which is now placed before society 
with the glib assurance which to me is most 
astounding? That question is this—is a man 
an ape or an angel ? My Lord, I am on the 
side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation 
and abhorrence those new-fangled theories. I 
believe they are foreign to the conscience of 
humanity ; and I say more—that, even in the 
strictest intellectual point of view, I believe the 
severest metaphysical analysis is opposed to 
such conclusions. But, on the other hand, 
what does the Church teach us ? What is the 
interpretation of this highest nature ? It teaches 
us that man is made in the image of his Creator 







DECEMBER 


1864. 


DECEMBER 


—a source of inspiration, of solace—a source j 
from which can flow only every right principle 
of morals and every divine truth. I say there¬ 
fore, that when we are told that the teachings 
of the Church are not consistent with the dis¬ 
coveries of science, and that in that sense the 
inferiority of the Church is shown, I totally 
deny the proposition. I say that the scientific 
teaching of the Church upon the most im¬ 
portant of all subjects is, in fact, infinitely 
superior to anything that has been brought 
forward by these discoveries. In fact, it 
is between these two principles that society 
will have to decide. Upon our acceptance 
of that divine truth of which the Church 
is the guardian, all sound and coherent and 
sensible legislation depends: it is the only 
security for civilization ; it is the only guarantee 
of real progress.” 

December 4. —Died at Castle Howard, 
aged 62, George William Frederick Howard, 
Earl of Carlisle, a popular statesman and 
pleasing writer. 

— The premises of Messrs. Baum, bullion 
dealers, Lombard-street, broken into, and over 
10,000/. in home and foreign coinage stolen. 
The thieves had secreted themselves about the 
premises previous to closing on the after¬ 
noon of the 3d, and entered the strong room 
by a hole made in the wall. The safes in 
this apartment, where the treasures had been 
deposited, were burst open by the use of mor¬ 
tise chisels and crowbars. 

5 . —Mr. Seward writes to Mr. Adams regard¬ 
ing the money collected in England for distribu¬ 
tion among distressed Confederate prisoners : 
“You will now inform Lord Wharncliffe that 
permission for an agent of the committee de¬ 
scribed by him to visit the insurgents detained 
in the military prisons of the United States, 
and to distribute among them 17,000/. of 
British gold, is disallowed. Here it is expected 
that your correspondence with Lord Wharn- 
cliffe will end. That correspondence will 
necessarily become public. On reading it the 
American public will be well aware that while 
the United States have ample means for the 
support of the prisoners, as well as for every 
other exigency of the war in which they are 
engaged, the insurgents, who have blindly 
rushed into that condition, are suffering no 
privations that appeal for relief to charity, 
either at home or abroad. The American 
people will be likely to reflect that the sum 
thus insidiously headed in the name of hu¬ 
manity constitutes no large portion of the 
profits which its contributors may be justly 
supposed to have derived from the insurgents, 
by exchanging with them arms and munitions 
of war, for the productions of immoral and 
everlasting slave labour ; nor will any portion 
of the American people be disposed to regard 
the sum thus ostentatiously offered for the re¬ 
lief of captured insurgents as a too generous 
equivalent for the devastation and desolation 


which a civil war, promoted and protracted 
by British subjects, has spread thoughout the 
States, which before were eminently prosperous 
and happy.” 

7. —M. Garnier-Pages and twelve others 
(several of them members of the O rps Legis¬ 
late) fined 500 fr. in a Paris police-court, for 
transgressing the 291st article of the penal 
law, prohibiting the assembling of more than 
twenty people for any purpose whatever. A 
speech of such surprising ability was made in 
their favour by M. Jules Favre, that the aged 
M. Berryer said nothing could be added, and 
he would therefore not occupy the time of the 
court by speaking for the clients who had put 
their case into his hands. 

8 . —The Pope issues an Encyclical letter 
on this the tenth anniversary of the declaration 
of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. 
“In order,” wrote the Holy Father, “that God 
may accede more easily to our prayers and our 
wishes, and to those of all His faithful ser¬ 
vants, let us employ in all confidence as our 
Mediatrix with Him the Virgin Mary, who 
has destroyed all heresies throughout the 
world, and who, the well-beloved mother of 
us all, is very gracious and full of mercy; 
allows herself to be touched by all, shows her¬ 
self very clement towards us all, and takes 
under her pitying care all our miseries with un¬ 
limited affection ; and who, sitting as Queen 
upon the right hand of her Son our Lord 
Jesus Christ in a golden vestment, shining with 
various adornments, knows nothing which she 
cannot obtain from the Sovereign Master. Let 
us implore also the intervention of the blessed 
Peter, chief of the Apostles, and his co-Apostle 
Paul, and of all those saints of heaven who, 
having already become the friends of God, 
have been admitted in the celestial kingdom, 
where they are crowned and bear palms, and 
who, henceforth certain of immortality, are en¬ 
tirely devoted to our salvation. Lastly, let us 
ask from God from the bottom of our heart 
the abundance of all His celestial benefits for 
you. We ourselves bestow upon you, vener¬ 
able brethren, and upon all clerks and faithful 
of the laity committed to your care, our 
Apostolic benediction from the most loving 
depths of our hearts, in token of our charity 
towards you. ” The Apostolic letter was accom¬ 
panied by an appendix of eighty propositions, 
containing the principal modern errors in¬ 
veighed against by the Pope. Under the latter 
head the following notions were condemned as 
heretical Seven referring to pantheism, natu¬ 
ralism, and absolute rationalism, seven to 
moderate rationalism, four to religious indif¬ 
ference, twenty to errors against the Church, 
nine to errors of philosophy, ten to errors 
connected with Christian marriage, and six 
to modem liberty and the temporal sove¬ 
reignity of the Pope. Under the latter head, 
the following opinions were condemned as 
heretical:—That the Pope can and ought 
to become reconciled to progress, liberalism, 

{687) 







DECEMBER 


1864. 


DECEMBER 


and modern civilization. That it is not fitting 
that in the present day the Catholic religion 
should be the exclusive religion of the State. 
That it is untrue that civil liberty of wor¬ 
ship and freedom of the press conduce to 
the corruption of morals and to propagate in¬ 
difference. Among the political and philoso¬ 
phical errors the Pope condemned were these : 
—Authority is nothing more than the union of 
material force and of numbers. A happy in¬ 
justice of facts inflicts no injury upon the 
sanctity of right. It is allowable to oppose 
and revolt against legitimate princes. Viola¬ 
tions of oaths, and every act contrary to the 
eternal laws, are permissible in the cause of 
patriotism. The Pope further condemned 
Biblical, Socialist, and secret societies, and 
all persons who held that there was hope of the 
eternal salvation of those who do not belong to 
the true Church, or that Protestantism was 
only another form of true belief, and equally 
pleasing to God. 

8 . —The Suspension Bridge, formerly at 
Hungerford, London, opened with much cere¬ 
mony at Clifton as a new roadway across the 
Avon. Of the money invested in the stone 
work, 8,000/. had accrued from 1,000/. left for 
that purpose in 1753 by Alderman Vick. 

14 .—Dublin was this week excited and 
scandalized by a libel trial in which the parties 
were Sir William Wilde, one of the leading 
physicians of the Irish capital, and Miss Mary 
Josephine Travers. She had, as appeared in 
evidence, consulted the defendant for some 
slight ailment, accompanied by her mother. 
Sir William, according to her statement, per¬ 
sisted in further cultivating her acquaintance, 
and she frequently met him during the next 
six or eight years ; at length, she said, one day 
in 1862, he first rendered her unconscious by 
pressing his hand upon her throat, or putting 
chloroform to her nostrils, in his consulting- 
room, and then committed a felonious assault. 
After this, so her story went, she continued to 
meet him, but only to have revenge ; which 
took the form of attempting to poison herself 
in his study, sending him doggerel verses, 
borrowing his money, but rejecting his advances, 
bringing essence of garlic into his house when 
she came, and continually holding over his head 
the threat of exposure. Lady Wilde, wife of 
Sir William, gave Miss Travers umbrage by 
passing her in the hall without speaking ; and 
henceforth she too was persecuted. Miss 
Travers, who, it seems, had some literary 
pretension, inserted a spiteful review of a work 
by Lady Wilde in some of the Dublin papers ; 
and also sent her anonymous letters. At length 
the young lady, last year, printed and had 
hawked about the streets a pamphlet, in which, 
under the name of “Florence Boyle Price,” 
she set forth her version of the connexion which 
had existed between herself and “Dr. and 
Mrs. Quilp,” as she nicknamed Dr. and Lady 
Wilde. In May last, Lady Wilde wrote the 
following letter to the young girl’s father 
( 688 ) 


(described as “professor in the Dublin 
University, and sub-librarian in Marsh’s 
library : ”—“ Sir, you may not be aware of the 
disreputable conduct of your daughter at Bray, 
where she consorts with all the low newspaper 
boys in the place, employing them to dissemi¬ 
nate offensive placards in which my name is 
given, and also tracts in which she makes it 
appear that she has had an intrigue with Sir 
William Wilde. If she chooses to disgrace her¬ 
self, that is not my affair ; but as her object 
in insulting me is the hope of extorting money, 
for which she has several times applied to Sir 
William Wilde, with threats of more annoy¬ 
ance if not given, I think it right to inform you 
that no threat or additional insult shall ever 
extort money from our hands. The wages of 
disgrace she has so basely treated for, and de¬ 
manded, shall never be given to her.” On this 
letter Miss Travers brought her action for libel. 
The trial lasted from Monday till Saturday, and 
ended in a verdict for the plaintiff—damages, 
one farthing. 

14 .—Came on for hearing before the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council the appeal of 
Bishop Colenso against the sentence of Dr. 
Gray, Bishop of Capetown and Metropolitan 
of South Africa. This very important case, 
which treated of the whole position, authority, 
and character of the so-called Church of Eng¬ 
land in the colonies, and of the persons who 
assume to hold office in it, arose out of the 
proceedings taken by the Bishop of Capetown, 
Dr. Gray, for the purpose of depriving the 
Bishop of Natal, Dr. Colenso, of his episcopal 
see and jurisdiction, on the ground that his 
published writings were contrary to the Articles 
and Formularies of the Church. Dr. Colenso 
at the outset protested against the whole pro¬ 
ceedings, denied the jurisdiction in hac re of 
the Metropolitan, and announced his intention 
of appealing against any sentence that might 
be pronounced against him. Notwithstanding 
this protest, the Bishop of Capetown claimed 
to exercise coercive jurisdiction over his suffra¬ 
gan bishop, by virtue of the letters patent 
under which the office of metropolitan bishop 
had been conferred upon him by the Crown, 
whereby it was provided that any proceedings 
against either of his suffragan bishops of 
Grahamstown or Natal should originate and 
be carried on before the Bishop of Capetown, 
with a final appeal to the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury ; and, accordingly, the Bishop of Cape¬ 
town proceeded to try the charges of heresy 
brought against the Bishop of Natal; and, 
having heard the case, he pronounced a sen¬ 
tence of deposition against the latter, and sub¬ 
sequently prohibited the clergy in the diocese 
of Natal from yielding obedience to their de¬ 
posed bishop. The Bishop of Natal was 
advised that the exercise of this jurisdiction on 
the part of the Metropolitan was not only an 
assumption of power unknown in the history 
of the Western Church, Catholic or Protestant, 
but that it was plainly at variance with fhe 
settled principles of constitutional law as ap- 









DECEMBER 


1864. 


DECEMBER 


plied to colonies or settlements which have 
acquired legislative institutions of their own. 
He accordingly presented a petition of com¬ 
plaint and appeal to the Queen as Sovereign 
of this realm, and as the head of the Church 
of England, praying that the letters patent 
granted to the Bishop of Capetown, in so 
lar as they purported to create a court of cri¬ 
minal justice within the colony of Natal, and 
to give the Archbishop of Canterbury appellate 
jurisdiction in causes between the Metropolitan 
of Capetown and his suffragan bishops, and 
in so far as they derogated from the Bishop of 
Natal’s rights under his own letters patent, 
were of no force or avail in the matters com¬ 
plained of, and that the pretended trial and 
proceedings before the Bishop of Capetown, 
and the sentence pronounced by him, were null 
and void in law. The petition of complaint 
and appeal also prayed that, if necessary, the 
Bishop of Natal might be heard upon the 
merits of the case, by way of appeal from the 
sentence of Bishop Gray. This petition was 
presented to the Queen through the Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, in the spring of 1864, 
and was referred to the Judicial Committee of 
the Privy Council to hear the same, and report 
their opinion to her Majesty. The case of 
the Bishop of Capetown, as presented by his 
counsel at the bar, was, that the letters patent 
under which the office of metropolitan bishop 
was conferred upon the Bishop of Capetown 
expressly authorized him to exercise coercive 
jurisdiction over his suffragan bishops, and 
that the only appeal from his decision was to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury; that if such 
letters patent were insufficient in point of law 
to confer such jurisdiction, the Bishop of Natal 
had, by taking the oath of canonical obedience 
to the Bishop of Capetown as Metropolitan, 
submitted himself as a matter of contract to the 
jurisdiction of the latter; and, lastly, that if 
neither of these positions were sound in point 
of law, and if, consequently, the proceedings 
and sentence at Capetown were a nullity, 
the Bishop of Natal might disregard them 
altogether, but that he had no right to come 
to the Sovereign to ask for a declaration as to 
their invalidity—that he might defy the sen¬ 
tence, and, if necessary, call upon the civil 
tribunal at Natal to protect him against the 
consequences of such sentence. The case was 
argued over four days, Messrs. James, Stephen, 
Westlake, and Clarke appearing for Bishop 
Colenso, and Sir Hugh Cairns with the Queen’s 
Advocate for Bishop Gray. At the close of 
the pleadings, on the 19th, the Lord Chancellor 
intimated the case would receive from their 
Lordships their most serious consideration, 
and if they considered it necessary to go into 
the dispute on its merits, proper intimation 
would be given to all the parties concerned. 

16 .—Collision in the Blackheath tunnel of 
the North Kent Railway; a passenger train, 
proceeding at the rate of forty miles an hour, 
running into a ballast train moving slowly 
up the turtnel on the same rails. Five plate- 
(689) 


layers, thrown from the ballast train, were 
killed on the spot, and in the passenger train, 
though there were no deaths, the injuries were 
numerous and severe. 

20 .—General Sherman completes his thirty 
days’ raid through Georgia by appearing at 
Savannah. He had driven 1,200 head of 
cattle through, though he started with only 
200, and fed his army on full rations during a 
march of 300 miles. He also gathered on his 
way over 700 able-bodied negroes, and so 
many horses, mules, and waggons as to em¬ 
barrass him. The army found and lived on 
the choicest of provisions, Georgia poultry 
forming no inconsiderable item in the bill of 
fare. During a considerable portion of their 
march the line extended over a breadth of 
country sixty miles wide, forty miles at times 
intervening between the right and left wings. 
Sherman’s whole loss from wounds, sickness, 
stragglers, and all other causes, up to the time of 
arriving in front of Savannah, was about 1,000. 
The average daily march was twelve miles. 

22.—General Sherman writes to President 
Lincoln: “ I beg to present you, as a Christ¬ 
mas gift, the city of Savannah, with 500 heavy 
guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 
25,000 bales of cotton.” 

24 -.—The Federal fleet, under Admiral 
Porter, make an unsuccessful attack on 
Wilmington. 

27 .— In view of the many recent fatal acci¬ 
dents on the railways of the United Kingdom, 
the Queen causes a letter to be sent to the 
Directors of the most important lines, express¬ 
ing her hope that they will “carefully con¬ 
sider every means of guarding against these 
misfortunes, which are not at all the necessaiy 
accompaniments of railway travelling. It is 
not for her own safety that the Queen has 
wished to provide, in thus calling the attention 
of the company to the late disasters (her 
Majesty is aware that when she travels extra¬ 
ordinary precautions are taken); but it is on 
account of her family, of those travelling upon 
her service, and of her people generally, that 
she expresses the hope that the same security 
may be insured for all as is so carefully pro¬ 
vided for herself. The Queen hopes it is 
unnecessary for her to recall to the recollec¬ 
tion of the railway directors the heavy respon¬ 
sibility which they have assumed, since they 
have succeeded in securing the monopoly of 
the means of travelling of almost the entire 
population of the country.” 

— Francis Wane executed at Chelmsford, 
for the murder of his paramour Amelia Blunt, 
at Chadwell-heath. 

— In answer to a farewell address from the 
inhabitants of Schleswig, the King of Den¬ 
mark said : “Of all the cares and sorrows 
which have been heaped upon me during my 
brief reign, nothing has more depressed my 
mind, nothing weighed more deeply on my 
heart, than the brave, faithful, and loyal 

Y Y 





DECEMBER 


1864-65. 


JANUAR V 


Schleswipers, who have, on so many difficult 
occasions, constantly given the most brilliant 
proofs of fidelity and devotion to Denmark, and 
the Danish royal house, and who have cherished 
no dearer or more zealous wish than to remain 
united with the kingdom under my sceptre. 
But, my Iriends, we must all bow to the will 
of Providence ; and I will pray to the Almighty 
that He may give, both to you and to me, the 
requisite strength and endurance to bear the 
bitter pangs of separation. 5 ’ 

31 .—Birley’s Hanover-street Mills, Preston, 
destroyed by fire, adding about 260 work¬ 
people to the already overcrowded list of per¬ 
sons subsisting on parochial or other charity. 


1865. 

January 1.—The French Minister of Justice 
addresses a circular to the Bishops of the 
Gallican Church, intimating that the publica¬ 
tion of the Pope’s Encyclical could not be 
authorized, as it contained propositions con¬ 
trary to the principles on which the Consti¬ 
tution of the empire was based. Thirty four 
Ultramontane prelates protested against the 
prohibition. 

2 .—New Exchange at Birmingham opened. 
Mr. Bright spoke at great length, express¬ 
ing an opinion that manufacturers and mer¬ 
chants, as a rule, had generally been either 
too modest, or not sufficiently acquainted 
with their true position. From the commer¬ 
cial classes, he said, and not from monarchs 
or great lords of the soil, had come whatever 
there was of social, or civil, or religious free¬ 
dom to the inhabitants of this country. On 
the subject of strikes, he said he was not sure 
that they should be altogether abandoned. 
“I call the power to strike among workmen 
a reserve power, which, under certain circum¬ 
stances, it may be their duty to exercise. At 
the same time, I think that, in my experience, 
in nineteen cases out of twenty, at least, the 
exercise of that power may be fairly questioned ; 
and ‘in many of these cases it has been a mer¬ 
ciless curse to those by whom it has been 
exercised. 55 

— Fatal occurrence at Springthorpe’s Music 
Hall, Dundee. An exhibition of gymnastic 
performances was to have taken place in a 
large hall under a Dissenting place of worship, 
to which entrance was gained by descending 
a flight of thirteen steps. A crowd assembling 
outside were pressing against the door, only one 
half of which was opened, when the other half 
was forced in and those in front at the top of 
the steps thrown forward with great violence. 
Others again fell on them, and a scene of the 
wildest and most inextricable confusion re¬ 
sulted. No fewer than nineteen were trampled 
on, crushed to death, or suffocated—the most of 
them boys and girls—and many more grievously 
injured. 

(690) 


4 -. —At a distribution of prizes of the Romsey 
Labourers’ Encouragement Association, Lord 
Palmerston took occasion to offer a few obser¬ 
vations on the subject of education among 
the poor. Children, he said, should be taught 
to write a large hand, to form each letter well, 
and never to mind whether it looks beautiful 
or not. If it answers the purpose of being 
easily read, that is the thing which ought to 
be aimed at. 

11.—At the Central Criminal Court, Major 
W. B. Lumley pleaded guilty to writing letters 
to Mr. Desborough, his solicitor, challenging 
him to a duel, and apologized to the prosecutor. 
He was bound over to keep the peace. 

— Commenced at the Central Criminal Court 
the trial of Ferdinand Edward Karl Kohl, a 
German sugar-baker, charged with murdering 
his countryman, Christian Fuhrop, in the Plais- 
tow Marshes, on the 3d of November last. In 
September it appeared the prisoner went to 
Germany, but afterwards returned, bringing 
with him a young man, the deceased, who went 
to lodge first with a Mrs. Warren, and after¬ 
wards with Kohl himself. Fuhx*op was last 
seen alive in the Plaistow Marshes, and the pri¬ 
soner was then with him. On the morning of 
the Monday after the murder, and before its 
discovery, the prisoner gof, up at half-past five 
o’clock. He had no work to do, and there 
was nothing specially to call him out. He was 
seen that morning about eight o’clock in the 
reed-bed, and in the afternoon he was again 
seen jumping out of the reed-bed. A further 
search discovered a clasp-knife near where the 
body and head were found. Beyond all doubt 
the prisoner was poor, while the deceased was 
well to do; and on the day after the murder the 
pri oner had in his possession several sove¬ 
reigns. One of the witnesses described how 
the prisoner shrank from looking at the body 
after it had been carried into the Graving 
Dock Tavern, and fell in a fainting state 
against the wall when his attention was drawn 
to the wound in the neck. Mr. Best addressed 
the jury for the defence, but called no witnesses. 
After an absence of about forty minutes they 
returned a verdict of Guilty. 

13 .—Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, burned, and 
great damage inflicted on the adjoining Roman 
Catholic Church of St. Mary’s. Six people 
were killed by the falling of a wall, one of 
them, Mr. George Lorimer, the City Dean of 
Guild, being in the act of rescuing other 
sufferers from the conflagration. 

I 4 -—The new blockade-runner, Lelia , lost 
off Great Ormshead in a storm which burst 
across the Irish Sea from the North. The 
master, with about forty of the officers and 
crew, were drowned, and seven more were 
added to the sufferers in this calamity by the 
upsetting of a lifeboat, sent out to take the 
survivors off the lightship. 

— The Athencpum announces (inaccurately) 






JANUARY 


1865. 


FEBRUAR Y 


that the Poet-Laureate had accepted a baronetcy 
conferred on him by the Queen. 

18 .—Addressing his constituents at Bir¬ 
mingham on the subject of Parliamentary 
Reform, Mr. Bright said : “An Englishman, 
if he goes to the Cape, can vote; if he goes to 
Australia, can vote; if he goes to the Cana¬ 
dian Confederation, can vote. It is only in 
his own country, and on his own soil, where 
he was bom—the very soil which he has 
enriched with his labour and the sweat of his 
brow—that he is denied this right, which in 
every community of Englishmen in the world 
would be freely accorded to him. (Loud and 
prolonged cheering.) I agree very much with 
the gentlemen at the Torquay dinner as to 
the apparition which alarmed, but I hope 
did not disturb, their formidable and robust 
digestion. This apparition is not a pleasant 
one ; this state of things is dangerous, and one 
which cannot perpetually last. It may happen 
that the eyes of the five or six millions all over 
the kingdom may be fixed with an intense 
glare on the doors of Parliament. It was so 
in the years 1831 and 1832. There are men 
in this room who felt then, and who know 
now, that it required but one spark to the 
train, and this country would have been in the 
throes of a revolution ; and these men who are 
so alarmed at the proposition to give a 10/. 
vote for counties, and a 61 . vote for boroughs, 
would have repented in sackcloth and ashes if 
they had given a vote against Earl Grey’s 
Reform Bill. Accidents are always hap¬ 
pening, not only to individuals, but to nations. 
It was the action of the French Revolution in 
1830 that precipitated the great movement in 
this country. There may be accidents again ; 
and I do not hold that to be statesmanlike 
which allows the security, the tranquillity, the 
loyalty of a people to be disturbed by any 
accident over which they have no control. 
(Cheers.) If these five or six millions of 
people once unitedly fix their eyes with an 
intense look on the doors of the House of 
Commons, who shall say nay? (Cheers.) Not 
the mace upon the table of the House ; not 
the 400 easy gentlemen who lounge in and out 
of that decorated chamber under the same 
roof; not a dozen gentlemen, who call them¬ 
selves statesmen, and who doze in Downing- 
street ; not even a power appalling and more 
menacing that have their lodgings higher 
up in Whitehall. I say that, as opinion now 
stands, there is no power in this country 
that can say nay for one single week to the 
five or six millions, if they are intent on 
making their way within the walls of Par¬ 
liament. This is the apparition which frightens 
the gentlemen at Torquay ; but it also gives 
trouble in other quarters to which I would 
pay more respect. . . . Wh 0 is there that will 
meet me on this platform, or who will stand on 
any platform, and will dare to say to an open 
meeting of his fellow-countrymen that these mil¬ 
lions, for whom I am now pleading, are too 
ignorant, or vicious, or destructive, to be trusted 
(691) 


with the elective franchise? I, at least, will 
never thus slander my countrymen. I claim for 
them the right of admission, through their 
representatives, into the most ancient and 
venerable Parliament which at this hour exists 
among men ; and when they are thus admitted, 
and not till then, it may be truly said that 
England, the august mother of free nations, 
herself is free.” 

18 . —Died suddenly, aged 71, Charles 
C. F. Greville, Esq., late joint-clerk of the 
Privy Council, and well known in the upper 
circles of the metropolis 

19 . — Died, aged 55, P. J. Proudhon, French 
socialist and writer on political economy. 

24 . —At the first annual meeting of the 
supporters of the Bishop of London’s Church 
Extension Fund, it is reported that the total 
receipts to the 31st of December, 1864, were 
100,456/. 13^. 6 d., and a further sum of 
72,003/. u. lod. had been promised. 

— Died, aged 64, August Kiss, German 
sculptor. 

25 . —Karl Kohl executed at Chelmsford for 
the murder in Plaistow Marshes. (See Jan. 11.) 
He was attended to the scaffold by Dr. Cappel, 
but made no confession. 

26 . —Announcement made in Melbourne 
that Australia had ceased to be a colony to 
which British convicts were liable to be sent. 

— The Roman Catholic Free School-room 
at St. Peter’s, Westminster, falls in, severely 
injuring about 100 people. 

28 .—Treaty signed at Callao, between 
Peru and Spain, confirming the former in the 
possession of the Chincha Islands, on condition 
of paying an indemnity of 60,000,000 reals. 
The islands were restored Feb. 3. 

30 .—Burning of the Surrey Theatre, Black - 
friars-road. The fire was discovered at the 
conclusion of the pantomime, but before the 
audience had left. Owing to the promptness 
and order in which the people left the building, 
there was little confusion and no loss of life. 
The actors in most cases had to escape in 
their theatrical costumes. 

February 3. —Tried at. the Central Criminal 
Court, Serafino Pelizzioni, an Italian, charged 
with stabbing Michael Harrington, in the 
course of an altercation in a public-house on 
Saffron Hill on 26th December last. He was 
found guilty and sentenced to be executed on 
the 22d—Mr. Baron Martin, in passing sen¬ 
tence, stating that he never heard more direct 
and conclusive evidence. (See March 2.) 

3. —Conference in Hampton Roads between 
President Lincoln and certain Confederate 
Commissioners regarding peace. The latter 
said they had no authority to negotiate except 
on the basis of the recognition of the South. 
The President informed them that such recog¬ 
nition was utterly and totally out of the ques- 

Y Y 2 






FEBRUARY 


1865. 


FEBRUARY 


tion, and that the one condition necessary for 
peace, or truce, or armistice, was that “the 
authority of the National Government should 
be recognised and obeyed over the whole terri¬ 
tory of the United States.” The conference 
thereafter broke up. Mr. Seward at once 
wrote to the American Minister in London : 
“ What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to 
favour was the postponement of the question 
of separation, upon which the war is waged, 
and a mutual direction of the efforts of the 
Government, as well as those of the insurgents, 
to some extrinsic policy or scheme for a season, 
during which passions might be expected to 
subside, and the armies be reduced, and trade 
and intercourse between the people of both 
sections be resumed. ” 

5 .—Jewel robbery at Manchester, on the 
premises of Mr. Howard, Market-street. 
The ceiling of the shop was lined with iron, 
but in the interval between Saturday after¬ 
noon and Monday the thieves, after breaking 
through the floor above, succeeded in taking 
off one of the plates. The property stolen was 
valued at 3,000/. 

— Great watch and jewel robbery at Mr. 
Walker’s, 63, Cornhill. The robbery was 
most elaborately planned, and only accom¬ 
plished through the exertions of an expedition 
of well-equipped thieves. The cleverest of 
the gang—Caseley—had taken Mr. Walker, 
his family, his habits, and his doings, under 
the closest surveillance for seven weeks before, 
night and day, until at last everything connected 
with his going and coming, his business and his 
habits, was thoroughly known. This infor¬ 
mation being complete, a party of five thieves 
repaired to the premises at ten minutes past six 
on the evening of Saturday the 4th. The house 
was let and occupied in floors, Mr. Walker’s 
shop being on the ground floor, Sir Charles 
Crosley’s offices immediately above, and other 
offices above those, while below Mr. Walker’s 
shop was a room tenanted by a tailor. The 
occupants, when the thieves arrived at the 
spot, had not yet all left for the night, but the 
offices on the second floor were empty, and 
to these three of the robbers at once ascended 
by the common staircase. The other two re¬ 
mained in the street to watch and give signals. 
At twenty minutes to eight the signal was given 
by the confederates outside that Mr. Walker’s 
foreman, who appears to have been the last 
on the premises, was gone. The first proceed¬ 
ing of the operators was to “test” the safe in 
which the booty was secured, and this experi¬ 
ment was conducted by the insertion of a thin 
wedge of steel into the almost imperceptible 
chink left between the door of the safe and its 
side. Then a little bar was inserted to relieve 
the wedge, then another wedge a little larger 
to release the bnr, then another bar a little 
bigger still to release the second wedge, until 
after ten or a dozen such steps, the chink was 
opened sufficiently for the introduction of the 
“alderman.” The instrument thus dignified 
(692) 


in name was a long iron bar, sometimes as 
much as five feet in length, jointed together in 
pieces, so as to be carried in a small case. 
With the end of the “alderman” fairly intro¬ 
duced, and the arm of a strong man acting at 
the other extremity of the lever, the safe had no 
longer any chance. The door was prized open 
by the force of this powerful lever, and the booty 
seized. At a quarter before four on Sunday 
afternoon the thieves were “up in Sir Charles 
Crosley’s office, washing their hands,” and by 
twenty minutes to five they were miles away 
on the Guildford-road, with a load of plunder 
valued at 6,000/. 

6 .—In the case of Woodward v. Clarke, 
breach of promise, the jury returned a verdict 
for the lady—damages 2,000/. Defendant 
pleaded that he had made an “error in judg¬ 
ment,” and enclosed in his last note two re¬ 
ligious hymns for consolation. 


7 .—Parliament opened by Commission. In 
the Royal Speech reference was made to the 
operations this country had been compelled 
to undertake against Japan, the war in New 
Zealand, the Confederation of North America, 
and the disastrous hurricane at Calcutta. Bills 
were promised for the revision of the statute 
law, the concentration of the law courts, the 
relief of the poor, public schools, and the law 
relating to patents and inventions. The cus¬ 
tomary Address was voted without a division, 
Lord Derby describing the Speech as one very 
proper to be addressed by an aged Minister to 
a moribund Parliament. Earl Russell referred 
to a claim which he understood was likely to 
be made by the United States Government upon 
this country for compensation for injuries in¬ 
flicted upon the merchant shipping of American 
subjects by the Alabama and other vessels 
which had been clandestinely fitted out in 
British ports. The Address was voted in each 
House without a division. 


— The “adjusting” scandal at Loehend, 
Inverness-shire, illustrating in a curious way the 
rough simplicity of a rural population amenable 
mainly to clerical advice and discipline. The 
Free Church minister of Dores writes to the 
editor of the Inverness Courier: “Sir,—Two 
females from Loehend called on me this night 
with a view to the publication of the accom¬ 
panying document as an advertisement in the 
Courier. I hereby give my concurrence to the 
foresaid proposal. Have the goodness to send 
the document to Dr. Campbell, that he may 
insert one or two words which are wanting in 
the certificate, which must have been hurriedly 
written.— A. Macpherson.” The enclosure 
referred to was in these words : “A rumour 
having been circulated tending to affect the 
character of the fair sex of Loehend in refer¬ 
ence to the body of a child lately found in 
Loch Ness, the inhabitants of the district 
deemed it expedient to get their character ad¬ 
justed by Dr. Campbell, from Inverness, who, 
on Monday last, met all the young and un- 
married females of the place in the vestry of 




FEBRUAR Y 


1865. 


FEBRUARY 


the Free Church, and cet tided as to their 
characters being free from reproach. A re¬ 
ward of 5/. is hereby offered to any party who 
can give correct information to the Rev. Mr. 
Macpherson, Dores, of any one attributing the 
perpetration of the crime to any of the females 
within the bounds of Lochend.” The sur¬ 
geon’s certificate was attached to the above : 
“Lochend, January 25th. I hereby certify 
that I have examined a number of young 
women of Lochend, and have no reason to 
believe that any of them have {sic) been re¬ 
cently confined.—W. A. Campbell.” A wide 
publicity having been given to the details of 
this scandal by the Times and Lancet , it was 
taken up by the Free Church Commission and 
the principal parties afterwards censured by 
the local Presbytery. 

7 . —The Benchers of the several Inns of 
Court, presided over by Mr. Macaulay, M.P., 
decide, by a majority of 12 to 11, that ordained 
clergymen should be henceforth eligible for 
call to the bar. 

8 . —Fire in Philadelphia, destroying forty- 
seven buildings, and an immense amount of 
property stored therein. Several lives were 
also lost. 

9 . —The numerous robberies in the City 
excite a panic of distrust, which leads to a 
meeting of aldermen and residents, who carry 
a resolution that had the police exercised the 
care and watchfulness the City had a right to 
expect from them, the Cornhill burglary would 
not have happened. 

10. —Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, the case of Woodgate v. 
Rideout, being an action for libel against the 
publisher of the Morning Post. It arose out 
of the great Egmont-Darrell case, and had 
reference mainly to a remark made by the 
Solicitor-General, that the action was raised 
because Mr. Woodgate, solicitor to the late 
Earl, had been refused the payment of 1,300/. 
which he claimed from the Darrells. In 
commenting upon the statement, the Morn¬ 
ing Post likened Mr. Woodgate to the famous 
firm of “Quirk, Gammon, and Snap.” This 
was the libel complained of. Mr. Walpole, M. P., 
and the Earl of Egmont were called on behalf 
of the plaintiff to show that he had manifested 
no undue desire to press on the Egmont case. 
No witnesses were called for the defence ; but 
Mr. Lush urged that a newspaper was not 
amenable for the correctness of what had been 
stated in court to be fact, and that the writer 
in the Morning Post was justified in Lis com¬ 
ments upon assumed facts. In summing up, 
the Lord Chief Justice said there was no doubt 
that, in point of law, a report of proceedings 
in a court of justice, if it were a fair case, 
although it might contain matter which of 
itself was libellous, would be privileged. The 
administration of justice was a matter of uni¬ 
versal interest to all the world ; but the ques¬ 
tion the jury had to decide in this case was 


whether the defendant’s comment upon the 
proceedings was a fair one, particularly as it 
had been made not at the close, but during 
the progress of the trial. Verdict for the 
plain riff—damages 1,000/. 

11 . — Came on for hearing in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench, the case of Lewis v. Powell, 
being an action to recover 50,000/. in name of 
damages from Colonel Powell, M.P. for Car¬ 
diganshire, for breach of promise of marriage. 
Colonel Powell was fifty years of age, partially 
paralysed, and was assisted in his correspond¬ 
ence by the lady’s brother. Plaintiff and cer¬ 
tain relatives were visiting the Colonel in 
London last year, when he proposed to her 
and she accepted him, stating to his medical 
man that “she understood she was to be more 
a nurse and a companion than a wife. ” Colonel 
Powell’s relatives afterwards induced him to 
break off the match. Verdict for the plaintiff 
—2,000/. damages. 

— Movement among the higher circles of 
London to abolish the practice of tradesmen 
giving gratuities to servants. The Prince of 
Wales causes a circular to be issued to-day, 
checking the system in his own household. 
“Concluding that every tradesman would lend 
his co-operation in putting down such a practice 
—dishonest in itself, and equally prejudicial to 
the interests of his employer and himself—he 
has directed to discharge from his service 
every servant who may receive, and to cease 
employing every tradesman who may pay, such 
a percentage ; or who may make a present of 
any kind in consideration of his Royal High¬ 
ness’s custom.” 

12 . —Victor Townley, the Derbyshire mur¬ 
derer, commits suicide by throwing himself 
over the staircase of Pentonville Prison. A 
fellow-prisoner who sat next to him in the 
chapel said : “ Townley remained till the last 
two verses of the last hymn were being sung, 
when he got up and said to me, ‘It is the 
319th Hymn,’ which it was, and having opened 
the book, he sang two verses in a very loud 
voice. I never heard him do that before, for 
he scarcely ever opened his lips. When the 
hymn was finished he shut the book, and tak¬ 
ing it in his hands, walked out of the chapel 
followed by me. He made a full stop at the 
bottom step leading out of the chapel into the 
circular gallery, dropped his prayer-book, took 
hold of the rails of the gallery with both hands, 
and with his two feet on the steps of the stair, 
made a spring over. He went head over heels., 
and fell flat on his face below.” The surgeon 
who examined the body after death said there 
was no traceable disease of the brain. The 
chaplain said that he found Townley perfectly 
insensible to the sin of the murder he had com¬ 
mitted. He thought him morally insane. The 
coroner’s verdict was “Suicide when in an 
unsound state of mind.” 

— Died, Algernon Percy, Duke of North¬ 
umberland, first Lord of the Admiralty in 
Lord Derby’s first Administration. 

(693.) 







FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1865. 


14 . —On a motion of the Bishop of Oxford, 
the Upper House of Convocation agree to pre¬ 
sent an address to her Majesty praying for an 
increase of the Episcopate. 

15 . —Died, at his residence, York-place, 
Baker-street, Cardinal Wiseman, aged 63. A 
solemn requiem mass was celebrated on the 
23d, in Moorfields Cathedral, and the body 
afterwards conveyed in great state to Kensal- 
green Cemetery. 

17 . —In both Houses of Convocation dis¬ 
cussion takes place concerning the constitution 
of the Court of Final Appeal in ecclesiastical 
causes. Petitions praying for a change from 
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 
were ordered to lie on the table. 

— Charleston evacuated by General Hardee, 
and the city taken possession of by the Fede- 
rals under General Gillmour. 

18 . —The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, 
communicates to the Vice-Chancellor of the 
University the determination of the Dean 
and Chapter of that House to increase the 
yearly salary of the Regius Professor of Greek 
(Professor Jowett) to the sum of 500/. Counsel 
to whom the case had been submitted were 
of opinion that while the Dean and Chapter 
were not under any obligation to augment the 
professorship to any amount beyond the 40/. 
at present paid, they had come to the conclu¬ 
sion, “on grounds of general expediency,” 
and “under the great difficulties of the case,” 
to recommend that such measures should be 
taken as would secure increase to the above 
amount. 

— Debate in Convocation concerning the 
abrogation of the law preventing clergymen 
entering the Inns of Court. The Bishop of 
Oxford supported the resolution, though he 
deprecated its possible consequences, there 
being, he was informed, in Paris alone 750 
cab-drivers who had once been priests—a state¬ 
ment afterwards modified in consequence of 
a remonstrance from the Abbe Rogerson. 

22 . —The Federals seize Wilmington. 

23 . —Saville House, Leicester-square, de¬ 
stroyed by fire, originating in an escape of gas 
from the cellars. 

—The Confederate Congress pass a bill 
authorizing the enlistment of negro slaves for 
soldiers. 

24 . —Capture of the Comhill burglars. 
Inspector Potter of the G division thus de¬ 
scribed the seizure : ‘ ‘ Between two and three 
o’clock this afternoon I went to 142, White- 
chapel-road, in company with Inspector 
Brennan, of the F division, Sergeant Moss, 
of the City Police, and other officers. I placed 
constables at the back of the house, and then 
entered the shop, where I found the two 
Jeffreys and the two Brewertons. I said, 

‘ Barret and Bruton,’ the names by which I 
knew them, ‘ you must consider yourselves in 
custody for being concerned in several jewel 

( 694 ) 


robberies in the City and the Strand.’ We 
seized the two men by the collar, upon which 
I saw the woman Jeffrey pass something to the 
woman Brewerton. I immediately gave her 
into the custody of Ranger and another officer. 
The woman Brewerton ran upstairs, and I 
followed her. She succeeded in locking herself 
into a room before I could get to her. I said, 

‘ Let me in immediately, or I will break open 
the door. ’ She did not open it, and I therefore 
broke it in. I saw her putting jewellery into 
her pockets, and I seized her. She struck me 
in the face, and caught hold of me by the 
whiskers. Sergeant Moss came to my assist¬ 
ance, and released me. I said, ‘Give me what 
I saw you putting into your pockets.’ She said, 

‘ I have nothing.’ We secured her, and took 
from her pocket three parcels containing ten, 
twenty-five, and thirty gold chains respectively, 
together with some other articles of jewellery, 
all of which have been identified by Mr. 
Walker.” The immediate effect of the arrest 
was the recovery of about 1,400/. worth of the 
jewellery stolen from the premises of Mr. Wal¬ 
ker, in Cornhill, and a considerable sum of 
money supposed to have been the produce of 
several burglaries. A number of watches were 
also dragged up from Thames, where they had 
been sunk when the thieves became aware the 
police officers were on their track. 

24 . —St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, re¬ 
opened after a complete restoration, at the cost 
of 150,000/., wholly sustained by Mr. Guinness, 
brewer. 

— Mr. Pope Hennessy’s motion for an 
address to the Crown expressing the regret 
of the House at the decline of the population 
of Ireland, negatived by a majority of 107 
to 31. 

25 . —Fall of a sugar refinery in Bonnington- 
road, Leith, and loss of four lives. 

28 .—Upsetting of a boat belonging to the 
training ship Worcester , in the Thames, off 
Erith. Of twenty-two cadets who had entered 
the boat for the purpose of inspecting the 
Drainage-works, eight were drowned—some 
of them sinking quite close to the shore in 
attempting to save their comrades. 

March 1.—King Victor Emmanuel makes 
a triumphal entry into his new capital of 
Florence. 

— Mr. Edward Senior, Poor Law Com¬ 
missioner, killed by a railway train at a level 
crossing of the Irish Midland Great Western 
Railway, near Longford Bridge. 

2 . —Gregorio Mogni, tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for the manslaughter of Har¬ 
rington, in the disturbance at the Anchor 
public-house, Saffron-hill—a crime for which 
Pelizzioni, before mentioned, had been sen¬ 
tenced to be hung. The latter had been 
respited mainly through the exertions of an 
Italian committee, headed by Mr. Negretti, 
who procured, after the trial, much new evi- 







MARCH 


MARCH 1865. 


dence concerning the perpetration of the deed. 
Mogni was a cousin of Pelizzioni, and was 
working in Birmingham when he gave himself 
up to Mr. Negretti to save his friend, who had 
been unjustly condemned. As the disturbance 
turned out to have more the appearance of a 
general riot than was at first supposed, Mogni 
was only indicted for manslaughter, and being 
now found guilty—partly on the evidence of 
Pelizzioni—was sentenced to penal servitude 
for five years. Pelizzioni was again placed at 
the bar on the 12th of April, charged with 
stabbing the potman Rebbeck, in the same 
disastrous brawl in which Harrington was 
killed. After a trial extending over four days, 
in the course of which evidence of the most 
conflicting and complicated character was pro¬ 
duced, the jury returned a verdict of Not 
guilty. The convict Mogni was put into the 
witness-box on one of the days, and admitted 
that it was he, and not Pelizzioni, who stabbed 
the potman. Pelizzioni, who had thus re¬ 
peatedly escaped from the meshes of the law, 
was afterwards liberated on a free pardon. 

3. —Mr. Newdegate’s motion for a Select 
Committee to inquire into the existence, cha¬ 
racter, and increase of monastic or conventual 
establishments in Great Britain negatived by 
a majority of 106 to 79. 

4 . —Matthew Atkinson sentenced to be ex¬ 
ecuted at Durham for beating his wife to 
death at “The Spen,” near Winlaton. In 
passing sentence, Mr. Justice Mellor commented 
severely on the cowardice of his neighbours, 
who were cognizant of the murderous work he 
was engaged in, but expressed themselves as 
afraid to venture into the house when he was 
in such a state of drunken fury. They heard 
him declare that he meant to kill her, but he 
threatened to shoot the first man that entered, 
and no one gave him a chance. He even came 
out and had a talk about the matter in the 
course of the fatal process, conversing for nearly 
fifteen minutes with some of his fellow-work¬ 
men ; but, on his remarking that he must 
finish his victim, they allowed him to go back 
and do it. About half-past twelve he came 
out again and intimated his entire success. 
“ I’ve finished her,” he said, “this time,” and 
when they went in they saw that he had 
almost finished the fire-irons in doing it. A 
shocking scene occurred at his execution on the 
morning of the 16th. When the drop moved 
the rope snapped close to the noose, and the 
prisoner fell a distance of about fifteen feet. 
It was thought that, if not killed, he must 
be considerably injured by the fall. About 
twenty minutes afterwards a workman ap¬ 
proached the scaffold, and replaced the drop. 
The hangman also re-appeared and at¬ 
tached a new rope to the beam; and a few 
minutes later the condemned man a second 
time ascended the scaffold, with a firm step, 
apparently none the worse for the fall he had 
received. The deadly pallor which overspread 
his features when he ascended the seaffold on 


the first occasion seemed to have disappeared, 
and the murderer placed himself beneath the 
drop without assistance, and seemed anxious 
to give the executioner as little trouble as pos¬ 
sible. Askern, the executioner, performed his 
office this time with great celerity, and in less 
than a minute Atkinson had ceased to exist. 

4. —The South Staffordshire ironmasters 
turn out their workmen and blow off furnaces, 
in order to compel the North Staffordshire men 
then on strike to come to terms with their em¬ 
ployers. In all, about 70,000 men were thus 
idle, and 100,000/. per week, formerly paid as 
wages, directed into other channels. 

— Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln and 
Andrew Johnson, as President and Vice- 
President of America. The President main¬ 
tained his lofty honour with homely dignity; 
but the Vice-President created great scandal 
by appearing in a most excited and, as was 
commonly reported, intoxicated state. “I am 
a-going for to tell you ”—(said the Vice-presi¬ 
dent) * ‘ here—to-day—yes, I a-going for to tell 
you all that I am a plebeian. I glory in it. I 
am a plebeian. The people—yes, the people 
of the United States, the great people—have 
made me what I am ; and I am a-going for to 
tell you here to-day—yes—here to-day—in this 
place—that the people are everything. We 
owe all to them. If it be not too presump¬ 
tuous, I will tell the Foreign Ministers sitting 
there that I am one of the people. I will say 
to Senators and others before me, I will say to 
the Supreme Court which sits before me, that 
you all get your power and place from the 
people. And, Mr. Chase,” he said, suddenly 
addressing the surprised Chief Justice by name, 
“your position depends upon the people.” 

6 . —Lord Stanley draws the attention of the 
House of Commons to the rumour concerning 
the irregularities committed by Mr. Edmunds 
as Clerk of the Patent Office. The Attorney- 
General promised to lay a report on the sub¬ 
ject before the House when the pending in¬ 
quiries were completed. The following evening 
the Lord Chancellor went at length into the 
circumstances connected with Mr. Edmunds’ 
retirement, and admitted that he was aware of 
irregularities in the Patent Office when he pre¬ 
sented a petition to their Lordships in which 
that gentleman resigned the office he held in 
the House of Lords, and prayed that he might 
be permitted to retire on the ordinary pension. 
The Earl of Derby, and others, expressed an 
opinion that the Lord Chancellor was to blame 
for bringing the claim of Mr. Edmunds for a 
pension before the House, and concealing the 
irregularities of which he was aware. A com¬ 
mittee was appointed to inquire into the case. 

— In the Court of Arches, Rev. Mr. Drury, 
Vicar of Claydon, was admonished, and con¬ 
demned in costs, on a suit promoted by the 
Bishop, for officiating at the “ Monastery ” of 
Norwich, an unlicensed and unconsecrated 
place. 


( 695 ) 











MARCH 


1865. 


MARCH 


7 . —Sir Fitzroy Kelly’s motion “that in 
any future remission of individual taxation, the 
House should take into consideration the duty 
on malt, with a view to its early reduction and 
ultimate repeal,” defeated by 251 against 170. 

9. —In the Rolls Court, the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington obtains an interim injunction against 
Lord Robert Montagu, preventing him from 
disposing of certain letters addressed to Lady 
Olivia Sparrow, by the late Duke and Duchess. 

10. —Great excitement caused in Birming¬ 
ham by the stoppage of the old-established 
bank of Attwood, Spooner, and Co., with 
liabilities estimated at over 1,000,000/. 

— Died at Paris, aged 53, the Duke de 
Moray, an early friend of the present Emperor 
and prominent statesman of the second Em¬ 
pire. 

— The Edinburgh Court of Session give 
judgment on Miss Longworth’s petition to 
refer her entire case to the oath of Major Yel- 
verton. The court by a majority refused the 
reference, holding it to be a matter in their 
equitable discretion, and that as this was a 
question of status, affecting the right of third 
parties, already established by final judgment, 
the petition could not be granted. The re¬ 
ference was as to the nature of a contract, to 
which contract Mrs. Forbes and children could 
not be parties, and there was no precedent for 
sustaining a reference in such a case. Lord 
Deas differed, holding that reference to a 
party’s oath was a competent mode of proof; 
that the object was to ascertain the truth ; that 
if Major Yelverton affirmed the alleged mar¬ 
riage with Miss Longworth on oath he was to 
be believed ; and, therefore, that if the rights 
of Mrs. Forbes and children were affected, 
they suffered no injustice from the law, being 
simply in the same position as if the first mar¬ 
riage had been established by evidence in the 
cause. His lordship held that under a re¬ 
ference to oath of the first marriage it would be 
incompetent to inquire whether there had been 
a second marriage at all. “Miss Longworth’s ” 
counsel then moved the court to cite Mrs. 
Forbes-Yelverton, but the court decided that 
the case was at an end. 

13 .—Discussion in the House of Commons 
on the defences of Canada, arising from a re¬ 
port laid on the table by Government. Mr. 
Bright severely censured the politicians and the 
press of this country for the countenance and 
favour they had shown to the Confederates. 

— Report of the Royal Commissioners 
appointed to inquire into the riots- in Belfast 
laid upon the table of the House of Commons. 
They recommended that Belfast should be 
converted into a county; that the police force 
should be raised to 400 men by the addi¬ 
tion of 140 ; the cost to be borne, one half by 
the county and the other by the Consolidated 
Fund ; that the force should be under a chief- 
constable with magisterial functions, although 
without a seat at petty sessions; and lastly, 
(696) 


that two stipendiary magistrates be appointed 
—the one Protestant and the other Roman 
Catholic. The Commissioners express theii 
apprehension that the recurrence of riots simi¬ 
lar to those which have so often disgraced the 
town is not improbable, and they state that, as 
Irishmen, they make their report with shame 
and sorrow. 

14 . —The Queen visits the Hospital for Con¬ 
sumption at Brompton, and inspects with great 
minuteness the method adopted for the relief of 
the patients. 

— At the Maidstone Assizes, an action 
was brought by Elizabeth Acford against the 
Honourable William Felix Lionel Tollemache, 
commonly known as Lord Huntingtower, to 
recover 15/., one quarter’s annuity granted to 
her by the defendant in consideration of past 
cohabitation. Defendant pleaded that the 
plaintiff was his wife, and that she conse¬ 
quently had no ground of action against him. 
He also pleaded that she had broken the con¬ 
dition upon which the annuity was granted to 
her, by molesting and annoying him. After 
hearing evidence, the Lord Chief Baron said 
in his opinion there was primd facie evidence 
to establish the plea that the plaintiff was the 
wife of the defendant. The verdict would 
therefore be for the defendant upon that plea, 
and for the plaintiff upon the other, alleging 
that she had forfeited the condition of the 
bond, by molesting the defendant, to support 
which not a tittle of evidence had been ad¬ 
duced. He should, however, reserve for fur¬ 
ther consideration the question whether he was 
correct in his view of the law upon the sub¬ 
ject of the plea of marriage. A verdict to the 
effect named was accordingly returned. 

15 . —The Belfast rioters sentenced to terms 
of imprisonment varying from two years to 
three months. Laverty, charged with shooting 
Gorman, was acquitted, as the jury could not 
agree upon a verdict. 

— The Marquis of Hartington brings for¬ 
ward the Army Estimates in a Committee of 
Supply. The amount was 14,348,447/., being 
a decrease from the previous year of 495,641/. 

17 .—Charlotte Winsor and Mary Tane 
Harris tried at Exeter for the murder of the 
infant child of Harris, an unmarried servant 
girl. The prisoner Winsor was a woman with 
whom the child had been placed to nurse ; 
no one witnessed the murder, if such it was ; 
but one day when Harris was at the cottage, 
the grandchild of Winsor, a little girl of seven 
years, who nursed the child and became at¬ 
tached to it, was sent on an errand, and 
when she returned the child had disappeared, 
the woman saying its aunt had taken it away. 
After their apprehension the women made 
statements criminating each other, but not 
bearing the semblance of truth. The jury, 
after being locked up from seven o’clock till 
nearly midnight, said they could not agree, and 
Mr. Baron Channell discharged them, but 




MARCH 


1865. 


MARCH 


ordered the prisoners to be detained in cus¬ 
tody. (See July 25.) 

20 .—The Lord Chancellor delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the Privy Council in the Colenso ap¬ 
peal case. Their lordships intended, he said, 
humbly to report to her Majesty their judg¬ 
ment and opinion that the proceedings taken 
by the Bishop of Capetown, and the judgment 
or sentence pronounced by him against the 
Bishop of Natal were null and void in law. 
The ground of this decision was, that the 
Crown has by law no power to constitute a 
bishopric, or to confer coercive jurisdiction, 
within any colony possessing an independent 
legislature ; and that the letters patent which 
purport to create the existing see of Capetown 
and the existing see of Natal were issued after 
these colonies respectively had acquired such 
legislatures. Consequently the sees do not 
exist; neither bishop is in the eye of the law 
the bishop of his see, nor has either of them in 
law* any jurisdiction whatever. 

22. —Amongst the last, if not the very last 
letter written by Mr. Cobden, was one ad¬ 
dressed to Mr. T. B. Potter, on Mr. Hare’s 
new scheme of representation. “ I return 
Mill’s letter. Everything from him is entitled 
to respectful consideration. But I confess, 
after the best attention to the proposed repre¬ 
sentation of minorities which I can give it, I 

am so stupid as to fail to see its merits. 

After all, it is opinions that are to be repre¬ 
sented. If the minority have a faith that their 
opinions, and not those of the majority, are the 
true ones, then let them agitate and discuss 
until their principles are in the ascendant. 
This is the motive for political action, and the 
healthy agitation of public life. I do not like 
to recognise the necessity of dealing with the 
working man, as a class, in the extension of 
the franchise. The small shopkeeper and the 
artisan of the towns are socially on a level. ” 

23 . —At the close of a discussion on the 
Canada Defences Bill, Mr. Cardwell intimated 
that he had just received a telegram from Lord 
Monck, stating that the Government at Wash¬ 
ington intended to withdraw the notice they had 
given for the abrogation of the Treaty of 1817, 
and that the passport system was to cease im¬ 
mediately. The intelligence was received with 
loud cheering. 

— Dr. Pusey writes to the Churchman 
with reference to the late decision of the Privy 
Council in the Colenso case: “It is no con¬ 
cern of ours which of the two sets of lawyers 
was right. The present advisers of her Ma¬ 
jesty have limited the Church’s powers ; and 
we may thank God for the limitation, and 
pardon gladly the gratuitous insolence of the 
Erastianism of the preamble, for the results 
Which, with no goodwill of Erastians, must 
result from it.” 

24 . —Thomas Ellis, known at Shrewsbury 
as “John Morgan,” sentenced to five years’ 
penal servitude for assuming the character of a 


police inspector, and'procuring the apprehen 
sion of Charles Ashworth on a charge of theft. 

25 .—The statues of Professor Wilson and 
Allan Ramsay unveiled in Princes-street Gar¬ 
dens, Edinburgh. 

— Sheffield theatre destroyed by fire. 

27 . —The Morning Herald draws public 
attention to a new scandal against the Lord 
Chancellor, arising out of his proceedings in 
filling up the office of Registrar in Bankruptcy 
at Leeds. 

— In moving the second reading of the 
Union Chargeability Bill, Mr. Villiers insisted 
that the measure introduced no novel principle, 
but was in strict conformity with the original 
design of the Poor Law, the promoters of 
which had always intended the Union to super¬ 
sede the parish for every purpose connected 
with the relief of the poor. The bill proposed 
to remove the restraint hitherto imposed on 
the free circulation of labour, and it would also 
place the burthen of maintaining the indigent 
on a wider basis than at present. In com¬ 
mittee, an adverse amendment was moved by 
Mr. Bentinck, to the effect that it be an in¬ 
struction to the Committee, with a view to 
rendering the working of the system of Union 
Chargeability more just and equal, to facilitate 
in certain cases the alterations of the limits of 
existing Unions. This was lost on a division, 
as was also another proposal made by Mr. 
Henley to refer the whole subject to a Select 
Committee. Mr. Villiers’ measure ultimately 
passed through both Houses, and received the 
Royal assent. 

28 . —In the course of a debate on Mr. 
Dillwyn’s motion, ‘ ‘ That the present position 
of the Irish Church Establishment is unsatis¬ 
factory and calls for the early attention of her 
Majesty’s Government,” the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer (Mr. Gladstone) said: “There is 
not the slightest doubt that if the Church of 
England is a national Church, and that if the 
condition upon which the ecclesiastical endow¬ 
ments are held were altered at the Reformation, 
that alteration was made mainly with the view 
that these endowments should be entrusted to 
a body ministering to the wants of a great 
majority of the people. I am bound to add 
my belief that those who directed the govern¬ 
ment of this country in the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth acted in the firm conviction that that 
which had happened in England would happen 
in Ireland ; and they would probably be not 
a little surprised if they could look down the 
vista of time, and see that in the year 1865 the 
result of all their labours had been that, after 
300 years, the Church which they had endowed 
and established ministered to the religious 
wants of only one-eighth or one-ninth part of 
the community.” Though he was not pre¬ 
pared to submit the remedy required, he could 
not refuse his consent to so much of Mr. Dill¬ 
wyn’s resolutions as declared that the condition 
of the Irish Chuich was unsatisfactory. Mr. 

( 697 ) 






MARCH 


1865. 


APRIL 


Whiteside replied at som§ length to the speech 
of Mr. Gladstone, and contended that the 
modern Irish Church was the true representa¬ 
tive of the ancient one. “The want of prin¬ 
ciple, the want of policy, the want of profound 
convictions upon such questions as the present, 
could not be supplied by eloquence, however 
great, or abilities, however they might capti¬ 
vate, might also mislead. Was it a proper 
mode to deal with a great institution, linked 
with the Monarchy, planted in the soil of the 
country, the ministry, as he believed of the 
Monarchy itself, to ask whether it was in a 
satisfactory condition ? Why, the condition of 
the Christian Church was scarcely satisfactory 
in any part of the world. It had still to con¬ 
tend against the vices and sins and crimes and 
follies of mankind ; it was sometimes baffled 
and defeated, but he did not show himself to 
possess a very' exalted idea of the Christian 
Church who relied upon its comparative failure 
as a reason for its abolition.” (Cheers.) The 
adjournment of the debate was carried on a 
division by 221 to 106, but it was not resumed 
during the present session. 

30 . —Close of Colonel Waugh’s eight years’ 
litigation in bankruptcy, Commissioner Goul- 
burn this day handing him his certificate, with 
the remark that he thought he had been suffi¬ 
ciently punished. 

31 . —Discussion in the House of Commons 
on Mr. Maguire’s motion for a Select Com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the laws regulating the 
relations between landlord and tenant in Ire¬ 
land, with a view to their more equitable 
adjustment. On the termination of the debate 
Mr. Maguire agreed to adopt Lord Palmer¬ 
ston’s suggestion, for the appointment of a 

• committee with the limited object of inquiring 
into the tenure and improvement of land in 
Ireland under the Act 23 and 24 Victoria, 
cap. 153. 

April 1 . —Close of the sale of the Pourtales 
Collection, Paris, the twenty-seven days’ work 
having produced 109,241/. The amount was 
about equally made up between paintings, 
bronzes, Etruscan vases, engraved stones, jewel¬ 
lery, and coins. 

— Sir Charles Trevelyan’s India Budget 
shows a large deficiency in revenue. Govern¬ 
ment afterwards refused to sanction his scheme. 

2 .—After a siege, conducted, with more or 
less closeness and activity, for 1,452 days, and 
in the course of which many desperate engage¬ 
ments took place, the Confederates retire from 
their capital, Richmond, and leave an unop¬ 
posed entry to be made by General Grant. 
The streets were crowded with furniture and 
every description of wares, dashed down to be 
trampled in the mud or burnt where they 
lay. The flames gradually died out at various 
points as material failed to feed them; but 
in particular localities the work of destruction 
went on until towards three or four o’clock, 
when the mastery of the flames was obtained, 
(698) 


and Richmond was saved from utter desolation. 
The chief fighting which led to this step took 
place with the army under General Sherman at 
an outwork known as Little Five Forks. The 
news of this Federal victory, which virtually 
closed the campaign against the South, was re¬ 
ceived with great rejoicings at Washington, 
and arrived here by the Australasian on the 
15th. With the fall of Richmond closed the 
long series of battles which had been waged 
between the Northern and Southern States. 
The total number fought was said to be 252. 
Of these, 89 took place on Virginia soil, 37 
in Tennessee, 25 in Missouri, 12 in Georgia, 
10 in South Carolina, 11 in North Carolina, 
7 in Alabama, 5 in Florida, 14 in Kentucky, 

I in the Indian territory. Once the wave of 
war rolled into a Northern State, and broke 
in the great billow of Gettysburg. Of the 
above, 17 were naval engagements. 

2.—Died at his residence, Suffolk-street, aged 
60, Richard Cobden, M.P., an apostle of Free 
Trade in its early and unpopular days, and a 
zealous labourer in later times for its extension 
to other countries. “ The two great achieve¬ 
ments of Mr. Cobden’s life,” said Lord Palmer¬ 
ston, when referring to the loss which the House 
had sustained, “were, in the first place, the- 
abrogation of those laws which regulated the 
importation of corn, and the great development 
which that gave to the industry of the country; 
and, in the second place, those commercial 
arrangements which he negotiated with France, 
and which have largely tended to improve the 
trade and extend the commercial intercourse of 
the two countries. When this last achievement 
was accomplished it was my lot to offer to 
Mr. Cobden those honours which the Crown 
could bestow for such important services, and 
which were not derogatory for him to accept; 
but that same disinterested spirit which regu¬ 
lated all his private and public conduct led him 
to decline those honours which might most 
properly have recognised and acknowledged 
his public services. I can only say that the 
country has sustained a loss, and every man in 
it. ” Speaking for the Opposition, Mr. Disraeli 
said : “There were some men who, although 
they were not present, were still members of 
the House—independent of dissolutions or the 
caprices of constituencies, and even of the 
course of time. I think that Mr. Cobden is 
one of those men ; and I believe that when the 
verdict of posterity shall be recorded upon his 
life and conduct, it will be said of him that he 
was, without doubt, the greatest politician that 
the upper-middle class of this country has as yet 
produced, and that he was not only an ornament 
to the House of Commons, but an honour to 
England.” Mr. Bright (who was most deeply 
affected, and hardly audible) said : “I am 
utterly unable to address the House, but the 
sympathy shown on all sides for my departed 
friend has deeply gratified me. I cannot now 
attempt to utter the feelings with which I am 
overwhelmed. At some calmer moment, when 
I may have the opportunity of addressi. g my 







APRIL 


1865. 


APRIL 


countrymen, I will endeavour to show the 
lesson which I think may be learned from the 
life and character of my friend. I can only 
say that, after many years of most intimate and 
most brotherly friendship with him, I little 
knew how much I loved him until I found that 
I had lost him.” The funeral of the deceased 
statesman took place at Lavington on the 7th, 
and was attended by all his old friends of the 
League, with Mr. Gladstone and about one 
twelfth of the entire House of Commons. The 
French Government and press also paid the 
highest tributes to the memory of Mr. Cobden. 

3. —Addressing a meeting at Rochdale called 
for the purpose of selecting a successor to Mr. 
Cobden in the representation of the borough, 
Mr. Bright thus touched upon Mr. Brett, the 
Conservative candidate : “ These men are all 
in favour of the good that has been done by 
men who have given years of their lives—(loud 
cheers)—men you have encouraged, from youth 
to manhood, in the spread of just principles and 
the establishment of wise laws, and who have 
done all this in the teeth of the combined 
opposition—of all the Mr. Bretts in England. 
Then the Mr. Bretts come forward, and say 
that the repeal of the Corn-laws was a good 
thing, and the French treaty a valuable mea¬ 
sure, and the freedom of the press a great 
blessing; but still Mr. Brett stands with Lord 
Derby—and if you will ask him about any one 
single question, not of the past, but of the 
future—of the next twenty years, you will have 
to fight as great a fight for every future good 
against the Mr. Bretts, just as you have fought 
against his class and order of mind during the 
last twenty years.” (Cheers.) At the close of 
the poll the numbers were—Potter, 646; 
Brett, 496. 

— The chief magistrates of the burghs of 
Scotland entertain the Lord Provost of Edin¬ 
burgh (Lawson) to dinner in the new hall of 
the Douglas Hotel. 

4. —The great southern section of the Main 
Drainage Works of the Metropolis opened by 
the Prince of Wales. The length of this Cloaca 
Maxima is ten miles, with a sewer of four feet 
diameter at the upper end and two huge cul¬ 
verts at the lower, seven feet both ways, and 
of which a section was exhibited above ground 
this day at Crossness. At a luncheon prepared 
for the large company of Royal and distin¬ 
guished visitors who witnessed the opening 
ceremony, the Prince of Wales wished success 
to the great undertaking. 

5. —The lock-out in South Staffordshire 
terminated, the masters opening their works on 
condition that the men did not subscribe for 
the maintenance of those out on strike in the 
northern part of the county. 

7 . —Close of the Southern struggle for inde¬ 
pendence. General Grant writes to General 
Lee : “The result of the last week must con¬ 
vince you of the hopelessness of further resistance 
on the part of the army of Northern Virginia in 


this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it 
as my duty to shift from myself the responsibi¬ 
lity of any further effusion of blood, by asking 
of you the surrender of that portion of the 
Confederate States army known as the army of 
Northem Virginia. ” Lee answered: ‘ ‘ Though 
not entirely of the opinion you express of the 
hopelessness of further resistance on the part 
of the Army of Northern Virginia, I recipro¬ 
cate your desire to avoid useless effusion of 
blood, and therefore, before considering your 
proposition, ask the terms you will offer on 
condition of its surrender. ” After the exchange 
of certain other notes, Grant wrote on the 9th : 
“ Rolls of all the officers and men to be 
made in duplicate—one copy to be given 
to an officer designated by me, the other to be 
retained by such officer as you may designate. 
The officers to give their individual paroles not 
to take arms against the Government of the 
United States until properly exchanged, and 
each company or regimental commander to 
sign a like parole for the men of his command. 
The arms, artillery, and public property to be 
parked and stacked, and turned over to the 
officers appointed by me to receive them. This 
will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, 
nor their private horses or baggage. This done, 
each officer and man will be allowed to return 
to their homes, not to be disturbed by the 
United States authority, so long as they observe 
their parole, and the laws in force where they 
may reside.” Lee at once replied that the 
terms were accepted, and that he would pro¬ 
ceed to designate the proper officers to carry 
the stipulation into effect. 

10. —“ Tattersall’s ” removed from the old 
familiar spotat St. George’s Corner, Hyde Park, 
to new premises at Knightsbridge-green. 

— The Emperor of Mexico promulgates an 
Imperial Constitution. 

11. —Captain Colbome tried at the Central 
Criminal Court for a libel on Mr. Davis, at¬ 
torney, contained in a pamphlet purporting to 
give a description of money-lenders who ob¬ 
tained their living by preying upon young men 
of fortune.—Fined 20/. 

13 . — Outbreak of disturbances between 
Paraguay and the Argentine Republic. To¬ 
day the Paraguayans seize two war-steamers. 
War was declared on the 16th. 

14 . —An unlooked-for and terrible calamity 
befel the American nation this day in the 
assassination of President Lincoln under cir¬ 
cumstances which place it among the most 
exciting and dramatic occurrences of modern 
times. “ It has become my distressing duty,” 
writes Mr. Stanton to the American Minister 
in London, “to announce to you, that last 
night his Excellency Abraham Lincoln, Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, was assassinated 
about the hour of half-past ten o’clock, in his 
private box at Lord’s Theatre in the city [of 
Washington]. The President about nine 
o’clock accompanied Mrs. Lincoln to the 

(699) 





APRIL 


1865. 


APRIL 


theatre. Another lady and gentleman were 
within the box. About half-past ten, during a 
pause in the performance, the assassin entered 
the box, the door of which was unguarded. 
He hastily approached the President from 
behind, discharging a pistol at his head. The 
bullet entered the back of his head, and pene¬ 
trated nearly through. The assassin then 
leaped from the box on to the stage, brandish¬ 
ing a large knife or dagger, and exclaiming 
‘ Sic semper tyrannis , ’ and escaped in the 
rear of the theatre. Immediately upon the 
discharge the President fell to the floor insen¬ 
sible, and continued in that state till twenty 
minutes past seven this morning, when he 
breathed his last. About the same time the 
murder was being committed at the theatre, 
another assassin presented himself at the door 
of Mr. Seward’s residence, gained admission 
by representing he had a prescription from 
Mr. Seward’s physician which he was directed 
to see administered, and hurried up to the 
third-storey chamber, where Mr. Seward was 
lying. He here discovered Mr. Frederick 
Seward, and struck him over the head, inflict¬ 
ing severe and, it is feared, mortal wounds, and 
fracturing the skull in two places. He then 
rushed into the room where Mr. Seward was 
in bed, attended by a young daughter and a 
male nurse. The male attendant was stabbed 
through the lungs, and it is believed will die. 
The assassin then struck Mr. Seward with a 
knife or dagger twice in the throat and twice 
in the face, inflicting terrible wounds. By 
this time Major Seward, eldest son of the 
Secretary, and another attendant, reached the 
room, and rushed to the rescue of the Secre¬ 
tary. They were also wounded in the conflict, 
and the assassin escaped. No artery or im¬ 
portant blood-vessel was severed by any of the 
wounds inflicted upon him, but he was for a 
long time insensible from the loss of blood.” 
The audience was said to be perfectly still, 
listening to the dialogue between “ Florence 
Trenchard” and “May Meredith,” when the 
sharp report of a pistol rang through the house. 
The sound did not appear to excite much 
attention. The screams of Mrs. Lincoln 
first disclosed the fact to the audience that 
the President had been shot, when all pre¬ 
sent rose to their feet and rushed towards the 
stage, many exclaiming, ‘ ‘ Hang him ! hang 
him !” The excitement was of the wildest 
description, and of course there was an abrupt 
termination of the theatrical performance. The 
“leading lady” of the theatre, Miss Laura 
Keene, who stood at the side of the stage 
when the assassin sprang from the box, 
endeavoured in vain to restore consciousness 
to the dying President. On a hasty examina¬ 
tion it was found that he was shot through the 
head, above and below the temporal bone, and 
that some of the brain was oozing out. He 
was removed to a private house opposite the 
theatre, and the Surgeon-General of the 
Army, and other surgeons, sent for to attend 
to his condition. M. B. Field saw the Presi- 
(700) 


dent in his last moments: “I proceeded at 
once to the room in which the President was 
lying, which was a bedroom in an extension, on 
the first or parlour floor of the bouse. The 
room was small, and ornamented with prints—a 
very familiar one of Landseer’s, a white horse, 
being prominently over the bed. The bed was 
a double one, and I found the President lying 
diagonally across it, with his head at the out¬ 
side. The pillows were saturated with blood, 
and there was considerable blood on the floor 
immediately under him. There was a patch- 
work coverlid thrown over the President, which 
was only so far removed, from time to time, as 
to enable the physicians in attendance to feel 
the arteries of the neck or the heart, and he 
appeared to have been divested of all clothing. 
His eyes were closed and injected with blood ; 
both the lids, and the portion surrounding the 
eyes, being as black as if they had been bruised 
by violence. He was breathing regularly, but 
with effort, and did not seem to be struggling 
or suffering. For several hours the breathing 
continued regularly, and apparently without 
pain or consciousness. But about seven o’clock 
a change occurred, and the breathing, which had 
been continuous, was interrupted at intervals. 
These intervals became more frequent and of 
longer duration, and the breathing more feeble. 
Several times the interval was so long that we 
thought him dead ; and the surgeon applied 
his finger to the pulse, evidently to ascertain if 
such was the fact. But it was not till twenty- 
two minutes past seven o’clock in the morning 
that the flame flickered out.” The assassin of 
the President was recognised on the spot to 
be a person named John Wilkes Booth (the son 
of an actor once well known in England as 
a rival of Edmund Kean), and it was soon 
learned that he had an associate named Har- 
rold. In spite of the vigilance of a large force 
of police, they contrived to effect their escape 
on horseback from the capital. Booth was 
known to have engaged a horse to be ready 
for mounting near the theatre when the deed 
was perpetrated. Every possible honour was 
paid to the remains of President Lincoln ; the 
body was embalmed, and, after solemn funeral 
ceremonies, in Washington and New York, 
removed to Springfield, Illinois, for inter¬ 
ment. The news of the assassination called 
forth expressions of sincere sympathy from 
every part of Europe ; innumerable addresses 
from public bodies and miscellaneous meetings 
were forwarded, through the American Minister, 
to the people of the United States ; besides 
which, Queen Victoria and the Empress Eugenie 
addressed autograph letters of condolence 
to the widow of the President. The Queen’s 
was addressed, “ From a widow to a widow.’* 
Any acknowledgment that may have been 
received was not made public. Addresses of 
condolence were voted in both Houses of 
Parliament. Intimation of the calamity was at 
once made to Vice-President Johnson, who 
took the necessary oaths as President Lincoln’s 
successor on the following day. 




APRIL 


1865. 


MAY 


18 .—X)Uppel captured by the Prussians. 

24 . —Died at Nice, aged 21, the Czarewitch 
Nicholas, heir-apparent to the Emperor of 
Russia. 

25 . — Great excitement caused in London 
by a statement in the evening papers that 
the mystery of the Road murder (see June 29, 
i860) was at length solved, and that Miss 
Constance Kent had given herself up as the 
murderess. Shortly before four o’clock two 
inspectors conducted the prisoner to the private 
room of Sir Thomas Henry, Bow-street. Miss 
Kent was attired in deep mourning, and wore 
a thick veil which almost screened her face 
from view. She was said to be slenderer and 
much taller than when formerly in custody. 
She was attended by the Lady Superior of St. 
Mary’s Hospital, Brighton, in which establish¬ 
ment she had been a “visitor” during the last 
two years, and by the Rev. A. D. Wagner, 
of St. Paul’s, Brighton, to whom she had con¬ 
fessed her guilt. He detailed the circumstances 
under which the confession was made ; and in 
answer to questions put in various forms, said 
the act was entirely spontaneous on her part; 
he held out no inducement to her, and was 
merely a passive agent in the matter. He 
understood it not as a private but an open 
public confession. Again warned by the pre¬ 
siding magistrate as to the serious character of 
the step she was taking, Miss Kent handed to 
the clerk a written confession:—“ I, Constance 
Emilie Kent, alone and unaided, on the night 
of the 29th of June, i860, murdered at Road 
Hill House, Wiltshire, one Francis Saville 
Kent. Before the act was done mo one knew 
of my intention, nor afterwards of my guilt. 
No one assisted me in the crime nor in the 
evasion of discovery. ” She spoke firmly, though 
sadly, and was accommodated with a seat 
during the inquiry. She was then given into 
the custody of an inspector, who, in company 
with Mr. Wagner and Miss Graem, conveyed 
her to Trowbridge for examination by the 
Wilts magistrates, and by whom she was ulti¬ 
mately committed for trial. 

26 . —In anticipation of the efforts being 
made to organize measures for ejecting Mr. 
Gladstone fiom the representation of Oxford 
University, the Rev. E. B. Pusey writes to 
the Times , that ‘ ‘ knowing his high principles, 
firm belief, and religious character, I have per¬ 
fect confidence in his future course. Amid the 
troublous times in which our lot is cast, and 
looking on to a future of our Church which 
on earth I may never see, I have more confi¬ 
dence in his high-principh.d sagacity and far¬ 
sightedness than I have (however much I may 
respect some) in any other statesman.” Sir J. 
T Coleridge and others also addressed the elec¬ 
tors on Mr. Gladstone’s claims on their support. 

— Capture of the assassins of President 
Lincoln. They were traced to-day to a barn 
near Port Royal, in Maryland, where Booth 
was seen supporting himself on crutches; it 
was then known he had broken his ankle in 


the leap from the President’s box to the stage, 
his spur, it was said, having caught in the folds 
of the Union flag. After some little parley, 
Harrold surrendered; but Booth steadily re¬ 
fusing to do so, and being well armed, the bam 
was fired. Whilst the unhappy man was en¬ 
deavouring to extinguish the flames he was shot 
dead by a cavalry sergeant named Corbett. 
Harrold was conveyed to Washington, and 
afterwards put on his trial along with the assail¬ 
ant of Mr. Seward, and some others. The 
body of Booth was reported to have been cut 
into pieces and sunk in the Potomac. 

27 . —Lord Chelmsford calls the attention of 
the House of Lords to the treatment which 
certain British subjects were receiving in 
Abyssinia. Earl Russell, in reply, said the 
delay in answering the King’s letter, which 
was said to be the immediate cause of the 
arrest, was owing in a great measure to the 
disturbed state of Abyssinia. 

— In introducing a bill for regulating the 
police force in Belfast, Sir Robert Peel said 
that, during the late riots, 316 people were 
seriously injured, 146 were arrested, and 13 
killed. The loss caused by the stoppage of 
mills and other works was 50,000/. ; and in 
order to put an end to the strife it was neces¬ 
sary during the three worst days, August 15-17, 
to introduce into the town, in addition to the 
local police, a constabulary force of 978 men ; 
12 officers and 252 cavalry; 57 officers and 
1,045 infantry ; 3 officers and 36 men of the 
artillery, with two guns. He proposed to in¬ 
crease the police force from 161, its present 
number, to 450, one-half to be paid out of the 
Consolidated Fund. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces his annual financial statement, being the 
seventh he had presented to the House since 
the commencement of the present Parliament. 
The revenue for the year was calculated at 
70,170,000/., and the expenditure at 66,139,000/. 
The relief given by the proposed reduction was 
on tea, 2,300,000/. ; income-tax (reduced from 
6 d. to 4<7.), 2,600,000/.; fire insurance duty, 
520,000/.—in all, 5,420,000/. 

28 . —Illness of Lord Palmerston. A rumour 
was generally circulated this evening that the 
Premier was lying dangerously ill at B rochet 
Hall', and not likely to recover. 

30 .—Died by his own hands, and in his own 
house, Admiral Fitzroy, chief of the Govern¬ 
ment Meteorological Department. 

May 2.—In the Divorce Court, in the cases 
of Codrington v. Codrington, and Chetwynd v. 
Chetwynd, the decree nisi was made absolute. 

3 .—Mr. Baines’ bill for reducing the borough 
franchise rejected by a majority of 288 to 214. 
Lord Elcho moved, and Mr. Adam Biack 
seconded, the opposition to the measure. M r. 
Lowe censured the proposal in severe terms. 
“The British Constitution,” he said, “was the 
most complicated the world had ever seen. 

(70 f\ 





MA Y 


1865. 


ma y 


The number and variety of interests, and the 
manner in which these are entwined with each 
other, serve to make up a most curious piece 
of mechanism, but, in practice, well confirms 
the precept which Aristotle laid down two 
thousand years ago in the words, ‘ Happy and 
well governed are those states where the middle 
part is strong and the extreme weak.’ (Cheers.) 
That description well embodies the leading 
merit of our Constitution. Are we prepared 
to do away with a system of such well-tried 
efficiency as no other country was ever happy 
enough to possess since the world was a world, 
and to substitute for it a form of government 
with which we are well acquainted—that of 
clear Democracy? In America it answers its 
purpose very well. In States like those of 
Greece it may have been desirable. But for 
England in its present state of development and 
civilization, to make a step in the direction of 
Democracy appears to me the strangest and 
wildest proposition that was ever broached by 
man. The good government which America 
enjoys under her Democracy—whatever esti¬ 
mate hon. gentlemen may be disposed to 
place upon it—is absolutely unattainable by 
England under a Democracy; and for this 
reason, America in her boundless and fertile 
lands has a resource which removes and 
carries off all the peccant political humours 
of the body politic. Turbulent demagogues 
out there become contented cultivators of 
the land; there are no questions between 
landlord and tenant—every one can hold land 
if he chooses, and transmit it to his children. 
The wealth which America possesses is of a 
kind which America did not make, and 
which she cannot destroy. It is due to the 
boundless beneficence of the Giver, beside 
whose works those undertaken and executed 
by the human race sink into insignificance. 
The valleys even of the Nile, the Tigris, 
the Euphrates, seem ridiculously small when 
compared with the valley of the Mississippi, 
which it has been calculated would afford 
residence to 240,000,000 people without over¬ 
crowding. No tumult, no sedition, can ever 
destroy these natural advantages. But what 
is- our property here ? It is the fabric of 
the labour of generations, raised slowly and 
with infinite toil, and to continue it it is 
indispensable that it should rest on secure 
foundations. ” 

—The Emperor Napoleon visits Algeria, 
and issues a proclamation instructing the Arabs 
from the Koran in the path of duty and sub¬ 
mission. 

4 .—Treaty of alliance against Paraguay 
signed by the Argentine Republic, Brazil, and 
Uruguay. 

9. —The Committee appointed to inquire 
into the “Edmunds scandal” present their 
Report to the House of Lords. They found 
the first charge, that of purchasing stamps 
with the public money and appropriating the 
discount, fully established in evidence; the 
(702) 


additional charges of retaining the public 
money in his own hands and employing the 
same to his own use they also found proven. 
With regard to the Lord Chancellor, the Com¬ 
mittee, after a debate and division, reported 
that they could not coincide with the view 
taken by him of his public duty. In their 
opinion it was incumbent on him, who pre¬ 
sented the petition of Mr. Edmunds to the 
House of Lords, in some manner to have 
the circumstances under which Mr. Edmunds’s 
resignation of the clerkship had taken place, 
and with which the Lord Chancellor was of¬ 
ficially acquainted, and not to have left them 
to decide the question of a pension with no 
clearer light than that which could be derived 
from vague and uncertain rumours. ‘ ‘ The 

Committee have, however, no reason to believe 
that the Lord Chancellor was influenced by 
any unworthy or unbecoming moiives in thus 
abstaining from giving any information to the 
Committee. . . . All the witnesses concur in 
stating that these transactions took place with¬ 
out the slightest knowledge of them on the part 
of Lord Brougham ; that he was no party to 
the arrangement for the appropriation of any 
part of the salary of the Clerk of the Patents 
in any other manner than for the sole benefit of 
Mr. Edmunds.” 

9. —The Dublin International Exhibition 
opened by the Prince .of Wales. 

10. —Mr. Jefferson Davis captured by a 
company of Federal cavalry near Irwinsville, 
Georgia. He was accompanied by his family 
and a few friends. 

11 . —The Italian Court transferred to Flo¬ 
rence. 

12 . —-The Marquis of Westmeath draws the 
attention of the House of Lords to the con¬ 
duct of the Rev. A. D. Wagner in refusing 
to answer a question put to him by the magis¬ 
trates at Trowbridge, on the ground that what he 
knew was communicated to him under the seal 
of confession. The Lord Chancellor (Bethell) 
said he must congratulate the noble marquis 
on the industry and success with which he had 
accomplished the understanding of the law in 
England on this subject; an understanding so 
complete that it was quite supererogatory to put 
any question to the Lord Chancellor. “The 
noble marquis has very correctly stated the 
law, and with a much greater profusion of 
words than it would have been in the power 
of the Lord Chancellor to utter. . . . There can 
be no doubt that in a suit or criminal proceed¬ 
ing a clergyman of the Church of England 
is not privileged so as to decline to answer a 
question which is put to him for the purposes 
of justice, on the ground that his answer would 
reveal something that he has known in confes¬ 
sion. He is compelled to answer such a ques¬ 
tion, and the law of England does not even 
extend the privilege of refusing to answer to 
Roman Catholic clergymen in dealing with a 
person of their own persuasion. There can be 
no doubt, therefore, that Mr. Wagner was 









MAY 


MAY £ 865 . 


under an obligation to have answered the 
question put to him if it had been insisted on. 
The magistrates appear to have had ample 
material without the information which Mr. 
Wagner declined to give, and therefore I must 
assume that they acted on good grounds in not 
visiting him with the consequences with which 
he might have been visited. ” 

12 .— The Earl of Shaftesbury moves an 
address to the Crown praying that her Majesty 
would be pleased to direct the Children’s 
Employment Commissioners to inquire into 
an organized and demoralizing system of labour 
known as “ agricultural gangs.” Agreed to. 

14 . —The monument to Dante, at Florence, 
unveiled in presence of the King of Italy and 
a brilliant assembly. 

15 . —At the inauguration of a statue to the 
First Napoleon at Ajaccio, Prince Napoleon 
makes a speech on the consistency of the 
Napoleonic traditions. “ I love liberty,” he 
said, “ under all its forms, but I will not con¬ 
ceal my decided preference for that which I call 
the liberty of all—a liberty influenced by free 
public opinion manifested by free and public 
meetings.” The Emperor thereupon addressed 
his cousin: “The political programme which 
you place under the segis of the Emperor can 
only serve the enemies of my Government. To 
judgments which I cannot accept you add senti¬ 
ments of hate and rancour which no longer 
belong to our time. ” Referring to the colossal 
figure of the First Napoleon, he said it was im¬ 
possible to take the whole in at once. “ But 
what is clear to the eyes of every one is, that in 
order to prevent intellectual anarchy, the for¬ 
midable enemy of true liberty, the Emperor 
established, first in his family and then in his 
Government, a severe discipline which ad¬ 
mitted of but one will and one action. I 
cannot henceforth depart from the same line of 
conduct.” The Prince in consequence resigned 
his office of Vice-President of the Privy 
Council. 

— The Rev. A. D. Wagner writes to the 
Times that he has been most unjustly charged 
by a portion of the community with commit¬ 
ting the grave offence of betraying Miss Con¬ 
stance Kent’s sacramental confession: “It 
was at Miss Kent’s own request, and by her 
authority, that I communicated to two persons 
only the fact of her guilt. These two were Sir 
George Grey and Miss Graem, and the follow¬ 
ing document, written by Miss Kent herself, 
and given to me a few days before Easter, 
proves that I have only acted in all I have done 
in accordance with her instructions. The note, 
which is entirely Miss Kent’s own composition, 
is as follows : ‘ Sir,—It is by particular request 
that the bearer now informs you of my guilt, 
which it is my desire to have publicly made 
known.—Constance E. Kent. To Sir G. Grey.’ 

I may add that the written paper which Miss 
Kent gave to Sir Thomas Henry at Bow-street 
was also, to the best of my belief, entirely her 


own composition. I never saw it, nor was I 
aware of her having written any paper at all, 
till she herself produced it in court.” 

15 . —In reply to Lord Houghton’s question 
respecting the intention of her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment to withdraw the recognition of belli¬ 
gerent rights from the Southern States, Earl 
Russell said belligerent rights had never been 
conceded to them. “We simply recognised a 
state of war which existed, beyond any doubt, 
between the Federal and the Confederate 
States. The United States Government, in 
fact, recognised the existence of such a war by 
the proclamation which the President issued in 
March 1861, in which he declared the ports of 
the Confederate States under blockade. As 
soon as that proclamation was issued, the 
English Government had only the alternative 
either to acknowledge the belligerent rights of 
the North, and on the other hand of the South, 
or to refuse to acknowledge the blockade. The 
English Government took the former course, 
which followed inevitably upon their acknow¬ 
ledgment of the rights of blockade claimed by 
the United States.” 

— Mr. Ferrand draws the attention of the 
House of Commons to the position of the Lord 
Chancellor with reference to recent appoint¬ 
ments in the Leeds Court of Bankruptcy, pro¬ 
ceedings which the Attorney-General explains, 
and to some extent defends. As the Lord 
Chancellor was said to court inquiry in this 
matter, Government consented to the appoint¬ 
ment of a Select Committee, when the question 
was again brought before them on the 23d inst. 
(See June 27.) 

16 . —After a discussion extending over 
several days, and during which various motions 
and amendments were proposed, the Lower 
House of Convocation agreed to a general 
resolution, “ that the present Court of Final Ap¬ 
peal on ecclesiastical matters is open to grave 
objection, and that its working is unsatisfactory.” 
Two*days afterwards it was agreed, in con¬ 
junction with the Upper House, to address her 
Majesty on the subject of altering the 36th 
Canon, relating to subscription. 

20.—Mr. Disraeli issues an address to the 
Buckinghamshire electors: “Although the 
state of public affairs is, on the surface, little 
disturbed, the impending appeal to the country 
involves consequences as momentous as any 
recurrence to its sense by the Crown has, per¬ 
haps, hitherto offered. The maintenance of a 
National Church involves the question—' 
Whether the principle of religion shall be an 
element of our political Constitution; whether 
the State shall be consecrated; or whether, dis¬ 
missing the sanctions that appeal to the higher 
feelings of man, our scheme of government 
should degenerate into a mere system of police. 

I see nothing in such a result but the corrup¬ 
tion of nations and the fall of empires. On the 
extension of the electoral franchise depends, in 
fact, the distribution of power. It appears to 

( 703 ) 







MAY 


1865. 


JUNE 


me that the primary plan of our ancient Con¬ 
stitution, so rich in various wisdom, indicates 
the course we ought to pursue in this matter. 
It secured our popular rights by entrusting 
power, not to an indiscriminate multitude, but 
to the Estate, or Order, of the Commons; and 
a wise Government should be careful that the 
elements of that Estate should bear a due rela¬ 
tion to the moral and material development of 
the country. Public opinion may not, perhaps, 
be yet ripe enough to legislate on the subject, 
but it is sufficiently interested in the question to 
ponder over it with advantage. So that, when 
the time comes for action, we may legislate in 
the spirit of the English Constitution, which 
would absorb the best of every class, and not 
fall into a democracy, which is the tyranny of 
one class, and that one the least enlightened. 
The leaders of the Conservative party, although 
they will never shrink from the responsibility of 
their acts, are not obtrusive candidates for 
office. Place without power may gratify the 
vain, but can never satisfy a noble ambition. 
Who may be the Ministers of the Queen, is an 
accident of history; what will remain on that 
enduring page is the policy pursued and its con¬ 
sequences on her realm. That will much de¬ 
pend upon the decision and determination of the 
constituencies of the United Kingdom in the 
impending general election.” 

24 .—The General Assembly of the Church 
of Scotland, by a majority of 173 to 140, con¬ 
demns the “innovation” made in the form of 
worship in Old Greyfriars Church by Dr. Lee, 
particularly with reference to the use of the 
organ and reading of prayers. 

26 .—Kirby Smith, the last of the Confede¬ 
rate generals in arms, closes the war of secession 
by surrendering. 

— A crowded and disorderly meeting held 
at Brighton to protest against the practice of 
the confessional in the Church of England. 
Mr. Whalley was the chief speaker, complain¬ 
ing much of the indifference shown by the 
House of Commons on the subject. Mr. 
Wagner was attacked in the streets on the 
following Sunday, and compelled to give his 
assailants into custody. 

— Died at his seat, Walton Hall, Wake¬ 
field, aged 83, Charles Waterton, traveller and 
naturalist. He was buried in his favourite 
wood, and his funeral conducted in an imposing 
manner after his own directions. 

30 .—Commercial treaty concluded between 
Great Britain and Prussia. 

Jure 2.—’Earl Russell writes to the Lords 
Commissioners of the Admiralty that “the 
armies hitherto kept in the field by the Con¬ 
federate States having for the most part sur¬ 
rendered or dispersed, her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment are of opinion that neutral nations cannot 
but consider the civil war in North America 
at an end. As a necessary consequence, her 
Majesty’s several authorities in all ports, har- 
( 704 ) 


bours, or waters, must henceforth refuse per¬ 
mission to any vessel of war carrying a 
Confederate flag to enter. ” 

3 .—This morning, at eighteen minutes past 
one o’clock, her Royal Highness the Princess of 
Wales was safely delivered of a son—Prince 
George. 

5 .—Royal Dramatic College at Woking 
opened by the Prince of Wales. 

— Died at Lancrigg, near Grasmere, aged 
78, Sir John Richardson, F.R.S., an eminent 
naturalist and Polar voyager. 

7 . —Accident on the Shrewsbury and Ches¬ 
ter Railway at Rednal, resulting in the death 
of seven passengers and serious injury to about 
fifty others. After a long investigation the 
coroner’s jury returned a verdict of accidental 
death, but at the same time expressed their 
opinion that great blame was attached to the 
officials of the Great Western Railway in not 
providing sufficient break-power, and better 
carriages and engines for the trains. 

— The marriage of Baron Ferdinand de 
Rothschild with Miss Evelina Rothschild cele¬ 
brated with great pomp at the residence of the 
bride’s father, Piccadilly. 

8 . — Rev. Henry Edward Manning, D.D., 
formerly of Balliol College, Oxford, and Rector 
of Wood-Lavington, consecrated Roman Ca¬ 
tholic Archbishop of Westminster in the church 
of St. Mary, Moorfields. 

— Died at Rockhills, Sydenham, aged 62, 
Sir Joseph Paxton, designer of the Crystal 
Palace. 

— Questioned on the subject of the Irish 
Church, Mr. Gladstone writes to the Warden 
of Trinity College, Glenalmond (Dr. Hannah): 
“It would be very difficult for me to sub¬ 
scribe to any interpretation of my speech on 
the Irish Church like that of your correspon¬ 
dent, which contains so many conditions and 
bases of a plan for dealing with a question 
apparently remote, and at the same time full 
of difficulties on every side. My reasons are, 

I think, plain. First, because the question is 
remote, and apparently out of all bearing on 
the practical politics of the day, I think it 
would be for me worse than superfluous to 
determine upon any scheme or basis of a 
scheme with respect to it. Secondly, because 
it is difficult, even if I anticipated any likeli¬ 
hood of being called upon to deal with it, I 
should think it right to take no decision be¬ 
forehand on the mode of dealing with the 
difficulties. But the first reason is that which 
chiefly weighs. As far as I know, my speech 
signifies pretty clearly the broad distinction 
which I make between the abstract and the 
practical views of the subject. And I think I 
have stated strongly my sense of the responsi¬ 
bility attaching to the opening of such a ques¬ 
tion, except in a state of things which gave 
promise of satisfactorily closing it. For this 
reason it is that I have been so silent about the 





JUNE 


186<. 


JUNE 


matter, and may probably be so again; but I 
could not as a minister and as member for 
Oxford allow it to be debated an indefinite 
number of times and remain silent. One 
thing, however, I may add, because I think 
it a clear landmark. In any measure dealing 
with the Irish Church, I think (though I 
scarcely expect ever to be called on to share 
in such a measure) the Act of Union must 
be recognised and must have important con¬ 
sequences, especially with reference to the 
position of the hierarchy.” The letter con¬ 
cluded with a hope that Dr. Hannah would 
“ see and approve my reasons for not wishing 
to carry my own mind further into a question 
lying at a distance I cannot measure.” 

9 . —While the accident on the Shrewsbury 
and Chester line was engaging public attention, 
the feeling of insecurity was again aroused this 
day by another alarming occurrence on the 
South-Eastern line, near Staplehurst. The first 
tidal train timed to leave Folkestone at 2.30 
p. m. started with about no passengers, and 
proceeded all right for about thirty miles. At 
Staplehurst the line crosses a stream, which, in 
summer, shrinks to the proportions of a rivulet. 
On the bridge itself the line was under repair, 
the rails being lifted and an opening of some 
width made in the soil. Into this gap the train 
dashed at full speed, and eight of the fourteen 
carriages were thrown into the ravine beneath. 
The destruction was so complete that the 
broken fragments did not occupy a greater 
space than one entire carriage. The injury to 
life and limb was of the most appalling charac¬ 
ter. Ten of the passengers were dragged to 
the brink bruised to death or drowned in the 
stream, and twenty others maimed so fright¬ 
fully that it was with great difficulty they could 
be removed from the scene of disaster. The 
most immediate assistance was given by the 
passengers in the carriages which remained on 
the line, prominent amongst them being Mr. 
Charles Dickens and Mr. S. Read of the Illus¬ 
trated News. The evidence produced before 
the coroner showed that the regulation of the 
company for the safety of the passengers had 
been neglected, and the jury accordingly re¬ 
turned a verdict of manslaughter against Joseph 
Gallimore, district inspector, and Henry Benge, 
foreman platelayer. 

14 .—The French Courts pronounce a deci¬ 
sion in the case of the Countess de Civery 
against the Duke of Brunswick. About a year 
ago the Countess—who represented herself as 
the daughter of the Duke—and “Lady Char¬ 
lotte Colville ” made a demand upon him for 
35,000 francs for board and lodgings. Mr. 
Allan, who appeared for the defendant, stated 
that “Lady Colville” was simply a beauty of 
the demi-monde named Charlotte Munden, and 
that the Duke had met her in the green-room of 
Drury-lane Theatre. The Court declared the 
claim set up by the Countess to be unfounded, 
and dismissed the suit. 

— Mr. Goschen’s Oxford Test Abolition 

( 705 ) 


Bill read a second time by a majority of 206 
to 190. 

16 .—Explosion of fire-damp in the New Pit 
Colliery, Tredegar, causing the death of twenty- 
six workmen. 

19 . —Died, Richard Thornton, Esq., one of 
the most daring and successful merchants of the 
city of London. He left a fortune estimated at 
between two and three millions sterling. 

— Died, aged 51, George Wingrove Cooke, 
author of various historical treatises. 

— The Lord Chancellor lays on the table a 
bill for completing the revision of the statute- 
law and expurgation of the Statute-book. The 
noble lord said that the statutes of the realm 
at present filled forty-four quarto volumes. 
The bills presented by him on former occa¬ 
sions carried the revision and expurgation down 
to the reign of James II. inclusive, and the 
bill which he had now the honour to introduce 
completed the entire work of revision. If it 
passed into a law, the new edition of the whole 
of the living statutes which would follow would 
probably be comprised in ten volumes only, of 
the same average size as at present. The next 
step would be to arrange-the statute-law in \he 
form of a digest, under the most appropriate 
heads, forming a complete analytical arrange¬ 
ment, and then to revise and expurgate the 
unwieldy and still increasing mass of the de¬ 
cided cases, reducing them to such as consti¬ 
tuted the body of existing authorities, and 
which might in their turn be digested and 
arranged. 

21 . —Mr. Samuel Baker*, the African tra¬ 
veller, writes from Khartoum :—“ There is no 
longer any mystery connected with the Nile, 
nor any necessity for expeditions on that head, 
unless it be desired to explore the great lake I 
have discovered—the Albert Nyanza. This 
can only be done by building a vessel for the 
purpose on the lake. I shall never undertake 
another expedition in Africa. For the last 
three years I have not had one day of enjoy¬ 
ment ; nothing but anxieties, difficulties, fatigue, 
and fever. . . I should not have been contented 
to see a foreigner share the honour of discover¬ 
ing the Nile-sources with Speke and Grant: 
it happily belongs to England. ” 

24 .—The Prussian Government fix upon 
Kiel as the principal station for their new 
fleet. 

26 .—The Spanish Minister for Foreign 
Affairs intimates to the Papal Nuncio that 
his Government had now determined to recog¬ 
nise the new kingdom of Italy, and so put an 
end to the isolation of Spain from other Euro¬ 
pean Courts on Italian questions. 

— Alsen attacked by the Prussians; sur¬ 
rendered on the 29th. 

— The ship William Nelson , with 448 emi¬ 
grants on board, burned in latitude 41° 20, 
long. 52 0 23'. Passengers and crew were 
nearly all consumed or lost in the sea in their 

z z 





JUNE 


jul y 


1865 


attempts to escape to the boats. A few sur¬ 
vivors were picked up by the Lafayette , and 
landed at Havre. 

27 . —The Committee on the Leeds Bank¬ 
ruptcy Court Inquiry present their report to 
the House of Commons. So far as the Lord 
Chancellor was concerned, they entirely exone¬ 
rated him from any intention of appointing his 
son to Leeds ; they were also satisfied “ that no 
imputation can fairly be made against the Lord 
Chancellor with regard to the appointment of 
Mr. Welch ; and they further consider that no 
improper motives are to be imputed to the 
Lord Chancellor in connexion with the resig¬ 
nation of Mr. Wilde and the granting him a 
pension, although they believed the pension was 
granted hastily and without due examination.” 
In the debate which ensued on the presenta¬ 
tion of the Report, Lord Palmerston said he 
thought the Lord Chancellor had not got fair 
play. 

— Treaty of peace and commerce con¬ 
cluded between Great Britain and Madagascar. 

— The cattle-plague or “Rinderpest” be¬ 
gins to be noticed spreading in the dairies 
at Islington and Lambeth. In the former dis¬ 
trict one cowkeeper lost 106 animals. 

— The Russians in Central Asia make 
another advance towards Bokhara, by seizing 
the important stronghold of Tachkend. 

28 . —Discovery of the Nile-source Albert 
Nyanza. Earl Russell causes intimation to be 
made to the Geographical Society that letters 
had been received from Khartoum, dated 10th 
May, stating that Mr. Baker had succeeded in 
discovering the second great source of the Nile 
—second not in importance, but only in the 
order of discovery, to the Victoria Nyanza of 
Speke. Mr. Consul Stanley, from Alexandria, 
spoke of the discovery as that of “ The second 
and main source of the Nile, at Lake Albert 
Nyanza, north latitude 2° 17'.” 

— Died at Stanford Rivers, aged 77, Isaac 
Taylor, member of an old literary family, and 
a contemplative essayist of great reputation. 

29 . —Fire at Sotheby & Co.’s auction rooms, 
destroying literary property of great value, 
including the Biblical portion of Mr. Offor’s 
library, then being disposed of 

30 . —The Derby won for the first time by a 
fore gn horse—Count Lagrange’s Gladiateur. 

July 3 .—Disaster to Mr. Coxwell’s balloon 
Research. Ascending with a party from the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Belfast, the balloon 
continued its course with success, till an endea¬ 
vour was made to effect a landing on ground 
which turned out not to be suitable for the pur¬ 
pose. Here the car got a good deal knocked 
about, and at Mr. Coxwell’s suggestion a leap 
was made by the voyagers for their lives. Three 
reached the ground, bruised and frightened, 
wnen the balloon, lightened of its weight, shot 
up with great rapidity, before the other two 
(706) 


could escape. One of them was subsequently 
thrown out, and fell a distance of about twenty 
feet ; while the other was again borne up¬ 
wards and carried through the clouds for hours, 
vainly endeavouring during a portion of the 
time to pierce the silk for the purpose of letting 
the gas out. Ground was at one time neared, 
at Glengariff, but the balloon again ascended 
with velocity, and shaped a course towards the 
Irish Channel. Seizing an opportunity when 
it was bumping along the coast, the solitary 
occupant of the car, Mr. Runge, threw himself 
out, fortunately at a spot where the fall was 
broken by a hedge. The balloon was found 
torn to pieces on the shore of Islay. 

3 .—Commenced before the High Court 01 
Justiciary, Edinburgh, the trial of Dr. Edward 
William Pritchard, Glasgow, charged with 
poisoning his wife and mother-in-law, in the 
course of the months of February and March 
last. The apprehension of the prisoner on his 
return from burying Mrs. Pritchard, in Edin¬ 
burgh, excited an interest which increased in 
intensity as step by step the complicated 
succession of cruelties came to be unravelled. 
The leading facts brought out in evidence by 
the Crown were, that Mrs. Pritchard was 
seized with illness, the symptoms being con¬ 
stantly recurring sickness and vomiting. In 
November last she went to Edinburgh, on a 
visit to her parents, and while there recovered 
tolerable health. On returning to her husband’s 
house, a few days before Christmas, she had a 
relapse of the old complaint, which continued 
at intervals with greater or less severity down 
to the day of her death. On the roth of February 
Mrs. Taylor came from Edinburgh to nurse her 
daughter. Two days afterwards that lady had 
an attack of sickness on eating some tapioca 
which had been prepared for her daughter; 
and on the evening of the 25th was suddenly 
seized with an illness which terminated her 
life within four or five hours. Dr. James Pa¬ 
terson, who had been sent for to see the old 
lady on her death-bed, declined when called 
upon to grant a certificate, and sent a letter to 
the Registrar, intimating that in his opinion the 
death was sudden, unexpected, and mysterious 
The Registrar took no action in the mattei 
beyond applying to Pritchard, who forthwith 
gave a certificate, falsifying at once the cause 
of death and the duration of illness. Three 
weeks later Mrs. Pritchard herself died, her 
symptoms having been the same as those she 
had exhibited throughout. The examination 
of her body showed that the illness which 
Pritchard described as gastric fever was in 
reality due to the oft-repeated administration 
of tartansed antimony, which the prisoner was 
known to have purchased in large quantities. 
It was shown, too, that throughout his wife’s 
illness he had been in close attendance upon 
her. The poor woman’s food had sometimes 
been taken to her by his hands; sometimes it 
had been prepared under his supervision ; and 
at all times he had had easy access to her cup 
and platter. The servant girls, on tasting food 










JUL Y 


jul \ 


1865. 


prepared for their mistress—but which in some 
way or other had passed through their master’s 
hands—were seized with sickness ; while other 
inmates of the house suffered in the same way, 
probably in consequence of using dishes in 
which poisoned food had been served. In 
the case of Mrs. Taylor, it was proved that 
she too had been dosed with antimony, but 
the symptoms manifested just before her death 
were shown to be the effects of aconite, a 
poison which the prisoner had in his posses¬ 
sion, and which was discovered by Dr. Penny 
to have been introduced into a bottle of Batt- 
ley’s mixture used by the old lady. At the 
time all this slow poisoning was going on 
in the prisoner’s household, his circumstances 
were in a state rendering the removal of his 
victims in the highest degree advantageous to 
him. Another feature brought out in evidence 
was the unparalleled combination of consum¬ 
mate hypocrisy with relentless cruelty shown 
by the prisoner’s letters and diaries. In a 
letter to his father-in-law, dated 3d March, the 
prisoner wrote—“We found dear Mary Jane 
(his wife) had been very sick between two and 

three o’clock.No sleep came to her 

longing wish last night; and oft she woke me 
—to know why no slumber came. This is 
very trying to her, and more heartrending to 
me.” Again, on the 6th of the same month : 
“ Mary Jane has had no sleep—still I am in 
great hopes she is somewhat better otherwise, 
not being so sick, and feeling more strength.” 
In a letter to his daughter, dated 13th March, 
he wrote : “I am so sorry to tell you dearest 
mamma is too weak to write to-day, and did 
not like you should have no letter. ” Then, in 
subsequent letters to Mr. Taylor, occurred 
such expressions as the following:—“I am 
vexed and grieved deeply that dear Mary Jane 
seems making little progress,” and “ We are 
all in grief at Minnie’s wretched nights—no 
sleep, and the sickness has been worse yester¬ 
day and to-day.” Still more significant were 
such entries as the following:—“March 2, 
Th. : Buried Mrs. Taylor, poor dear grandma, 
in Grange Cemetery j” or, “ 18th, Sat.: At 
I a. m. , Mary Jane, my beloved, passed away 
or again, “ 18th, Saturday : Died here, at 1 
A.M., Mary Jane, my own beloved wife, aged 
38 years—no torment surrounded her bedside— 
but, like a calm, peaceful lamb of God, passed 
Minnie away. May God and Jesus, Holy 
Ghost, One in Three, welcome Minnie. Prayer 
on prayer till mine be o’er, everlasting love. 
Save us, Lord, for thy dear Son.”—The prin¬ 
cipal witnesses for the Crown were servants 
in the prisoner’s family, with one of whom 
he had formed an improper intimacy—and 
chemical experts, who revealed with exact¬ 
ness and clearness the manner in which the 
crime had been accomplished. An attempt 
was made in cross-examination to weaken 
their testimony, but no scientific witnesses 
were called in the prisoner’s favour. In sum¬ 
ming up the Lord Justice Clerk commented in 
severe terms on the carelessness of Dr. Pater- 
( 707 ) 


son in not making known his suspicion as to 
the poisoning of Mrs. Taylor. On the fifth day 
of trial the jury returned a verdict of Guilty on 
both charges as libelled, and the prisoner was 
thereafter sentenced to be executed at Glasgow, 
on the morning of the 28th instant. Between 
the date of his conviction and execution 
Pritchard made a variety of confessions with 
reference to his crimes—first that his wife’s 
death was the result of an overdose of chloro¬ 
form which he wilfully administered in a 
moment of excitement; and that Mrs. Taylor’s 
death was the result of an overdose of Battley’s 
solution of opium, with which he had nothing 
more to do than placing the aconite in the 
bottle after death to prevent suspicion, should 
any inquiry take place. A second confession 
was so untruthful that it was never made 
public; a third, given out ten days before his 
execution, admitted the perpetration of both 
crimes, and the justice of his sentence. He 
was hanged in front of Glasgow gaol in presence 
of an immense crowd. 

3 .— Censure of the Lord Chancellor by the 
House of Commons. After a lengthened 
debate, in which various attempts were made 
to modify its terms, Mr. Ward Hunt carried 
the following resolution in its original form as 
against “the previous question,” by a majo¬ 
rity of 177 to 163 :—“ That the evidence taken 
before the Committee of this House on the 
Leeds Bankruptcy Court, discloses that a great 
facility exists for obtaining public appointments 
by corrupt means ; that such evidence, and 
also that taken before a Committee of the 
House of Lords in the case of Leonard 
Edmunds, and laid before this House, shows 
a laxity of practice and a want of caution on 
the part of the Lord Chancellor in sanctioning 
the grant of retiring pensions to public officers 
over whose heads grave charges are impend¬ 
ing, and in filling up the vacancies made by 
retirement of such officers, whereby great en¬ 
couragement has been given to corrupt prac¬ 
tices ; and that such laxity and want of caution, 
even in the absence of any improper motive, 
are, in the opinion of this House, highly repre¬ 
hensible, and calculated to throw discredit on 
the administration of the high offices of 
State.” 

— Royal assent given to the County Courts 
Equitable Jurisdiction Bill, conferring upon 
County Courts all the powers of the Court of 
Chancery in suits by creditors, legatees, de¬ 
visees, heirs-at-law, or next of kin, and also in 
other cases of legal procedure concerning 
estates not exceeding the value of 500/. 

— Royal assent given to a bill for placing 
the affairs of Greenwich Hospital under a new 
management. Under its provisions, inmates 
of the Hospital willing to reside elsewhere 
were permitted to remove with pensions re¬ 
stricted to the amount they had received in¬ 
doors. The office of the Commissioners 
was abolished ; and it was enacted that, on the 

Z z 2 






7UL V 


1865. 


jul y 


death of the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, 
the control of the Hospital and School should be 
vested in the Admiralty, who should appoint 
an officer of rank, not lower than a vice-admiral, 
to act as visitor, and a comptroller of the 
Greenwich Hospital estates to exercise a general 
superintendence over the lands and other pro¬ 
perty. When the Act took effect on the 30th 
September, a considerable number of the 
pensioners passed out to reside with friends or 
relations. 

5.—Royal assent given to Earl Granville’s 
bill based on the Report of the Royal Com¬ 
missioners for relaxing the subscription to 
certain clerical oaths. In lieu of the old form 
pledging his “assent and consent'’ to every¬ 
thing contained in the Book of Common 
Prayer, the Declaration proposed by the Bill 
to be made before Ordination was as fol¬ 
lows :—“I assent to the Thirty-nine Arti¬ 
cles of Religion and the Book of Common 
Prayer, and of the ordering of Bishops, Priests, 
and Deacons. I believe the doctrine of the 
United Church of England and Ireland as 
therein set forth to be agreeable to the Word 
of God ; and in public prayer and administra¬ 
tion of the Sacraments, I will use the form in 
the said Book prescribed, and none other, 
exeept. so far as shall be ordered by lawful 
authority.” An attempt was made by the 
Archbishop of Dublin to postpone the bill till 
Convocation in Ireland had been consulted ; 
but the measure, as proposed, passed through 
both Houses. 

— Resignation of Lord Chancellor Bethell. 
He took his seat on the woolsack at- five 
o’clock, and proceeded at once to make his 
statement. “ I have deemed it my duty,” he 
said, ‘ ‘ out of the deep respect I owe to your 
lordships, to attend here to-day that I may in 
person announce to you that I tendered the re¬ 
signation of my office yesterday to her Majesty, 
and that it has been by her Majesty most gra¬ 
ciously accepted. My lords, the step which I 
took yesterday only, I should have taken several 
months ago if I had only followed the dictates 
of my own judgment—(cheers)—and acted on 
my own views alone. But I felt that I was not 
at liberty to do so. As a member of the Govern¬ 
ment I could not take such a step without the 
permission and sanction of the Government. 
.... With regard to the opinion which the 
House of Commons has pronounced, I do not 
presume to say a word. I am bound to accept 
the decision. I may, however, express the 
hope that after an interval of time calmer 
thoughts will prevail, and a more favourable 
view be taken of my conduct. ... I may add, 
in reference to the appellate jurisdiction of your 
Lordships’ House, that I am happy to say it is 
left in a state which will, I think, be found to 
be satisfactory. There will not be at the close 
of the session a single judgment in arrear, save 
one in which the arguments, after occupying 
several days, were brought to a conclusion only 
yesterday. In the Court of Chancery, I am 
(708) 


glad to be able to inform your lordships, that 
I trust there will not remain at the end of the 
present sittings one appeal unheard, or one 
judgment undelivered. I mention these things 
simply to show that it has been my earnest 
desire, from the moment I assumed the seals of 
office, to devote all the energies I possessed, 
and all the industry of which I was capable, to 
the public service. (Cheers.) My lords, it 
only remains to thank you, which I do most 
sincerely, for the kindness which I have uni¬ 
formly received at your hands. It is very pos¬ 
sible that by some words inadvertently used, 
some abruptness of manner, I may have given 
pain, or exposed myself to your unfavourable 
opinion. If that be so, I beg of you to 
accept the expression of my regret, while l 
indulge in the hope that the circumstance may 
be erased from your memories. I have no 
more to say, my lords, except to thank you 
for the kindness with which you have listened 
to these observations.” (Loud cheers.) 

5. —In consequence of the refusal of the 
Prussian Chamber to vote supplies, the King 
issues a Royal decree, countersigned by all the 
Ministers, intimating that he placed at the dis¬ 
posal of the Minister of Marine a sum not to 
exceed 500,000 thalers for the construction of 
heavy cast steel guns for the fleet, and the 
Minister of Marine and Finance would require 
to account to him for the employment of the 
sum used at the end of the year. 

6 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
At twelve o’clock the Lords Commissioners 
entered the House. Sir Augustus Clifford 
having summoned the Commons to be present, 
Earl Granville read the Royal Speech. The 
House was then prorogued to the 12th instant. 
The two Houses having formally saluted each 
other, the Commons returned to their own 
chamber, where the Speaker, standing at the 
table, read the Royal Speech. The members 
present, headed by Mr. Brand, then advanced 
to the table, shook hands with Mr. Denison, 
and exchanged congratulations upon the termi¬ 
nation of the Session. This Parliament (the 
sixth of Queen Victoria) was dissolved by 
a Royal Proclamation made public the same 
day. 

— Numerous election addresses published 
from candidates for the new Parliament. To 
Tiverton the Premier writes :—“ How long the 
Ministry of which I have the honour to be a 
member may continue to direct the affairs of 
this great nation must depend upon the will 
of the Parliament now about to be elected ; 
but I think I may be allowed to say for my¬ 
self and my colleagues, that a just judgment 
of our past administration will entitle us 
to the same measure of goodwill which has 
been extended to us by the Parliament now 
dissolved.”— To Birmingham Mr. Bright 
writes :—“The Administration which, in 1859, 
climbed into office under the pretence of its 
devotion to the question of Parliamentary 
Reform has violated its solemn pledges. Its 







yuL y 


jul y 


1865. 


chiefs have purposely betrayed the cause they 
undertook to defend, and the less eminent 
members of it have tamely acquiesced in that 
betrayal. The Ministry have for six years 
held office, which, but for promises they made, 
and which they have broken, they could not 
have obtained possession of even for a day. . . 
The Parliament is about to expire—the Ministry 
will soon undergo such changes as will make it 
totter to its fall; but the question of Reform lives, 
and at this moment in the eyes of its opponents 
takes a more distinct shape than at any other 
period since the passing of the bill of 1832. I 
trust the result of the coming general election 
will show that, notwithstanding the treachery 
of official statesmen and the indifference of the 
expiring Parliament, the cause of freedom based 
on a true representation of the nation is ad¬ 
vancing with an irresistible force to its final 
triumph.” To Cambridge University Mr. Wal¬ 
pole said:—“The Conservative principles 
which have always guided me in my public 
conduct—combining, as they do, a firm de¬ 
termination to maintain in their integrity our 
invaluable institutions both in Church and 
State, with a sincere desire to improve and 
amend them, so as to secure them, in their ut¬ 
most efficiency, for those who come after as 
well as for ourselves—are, I believe and am 
happy to think, steadily and constantly gaining 
ground, and that, too, notwithstanding the 
efforts which have recently been made to demo¬ 
cratize, if possible, by organic changes, our mixed 
form of government, and to undermine the basis 
of our National Church Establishment in Eng¬ 
land and Ireland.”—Mr. J. S. Mill, writing 
from Avignon, gave a lengthy exposition of his 
principles to the electors of Westminster :— 
“With regard to Reform Bills, I should vote 
at once both for Mr. Baines’s bill and for Mr. 
Locke King’s, and for measures going far beyond 
either of them. I would open the suffrage 
to all grown persons, both men and women, 
who can read, write, and perform a sum in the 
rule of three, and who have not, within some 
small number of years, received parish relief. 
At the same time, utterly abominating all class 
ascendency, I would not vote for giving the 
suffrage in such a manner that any class, even 
though it be the most numerous, could swamp 
all other classes taken together. In the first 
place, I think that all considerable minorities 
in the country or in a locality should be repre¬ 
sented in proportion to their numbers. I 
should be prepared to support a measure which 
would give to the labouring classes a clear half 
of the national representation.” 

7 . —Payne, Azteroth, Harrold, and Mrs. 
Surratt, executed at Washington for their share 
in the assassination of President Lincoln. 

IO.—The Court of Queen’s Bench give 
judgment in the case of Dr. Therry and another 
v.. Lord Fermoy and another—an action 
brought to recover 30,000/., half in cash and 
half in shares, the alleged price of a concession 
from the Austrian Government for establishing 


a bank in Vienna, obtained by the plaintiffs and 
assigned to the defendants. The Lord Chief 
Justice, in delivering the decision of the court 
for the plaintiffs, said they were to have been 
paid 10,000/. in cash and 10,000/. in shares ; 
but as these were now valueless, it was im¬ 
possible to fix an amount of damage in respect 
of them. Consequently, the judgment of the 
court would be substantially for 10,000/., and 
the amount of expenses agreed upon between 
the parties that had been incurred in obtaining 
the definite concession. 

10. —Fire in the binding department of the 
British Museum, destroying several MSS. of 
value. 

11 . —The first election for the new Parlia¬ 
ment took place this day. In the city of 
London, Goschen, Crawford, Lawrence, and 
Rothschild, all Liberals, were elected, over 
Fowler and Lyell, Conservatives. In West¬ 
minster, Mr. Mill was at the head of the poll; 
the numbers being—Mill, 4,384 ; Grosvenor, 
4,379 > Smith, 3,812. In Lambeth, Hughes 
and Doulton were successful. Walpole and 
Selwyn wei-e returned unopposed for Cambridge, 
and F. Peel ejected at Bury. In Edinburgh 
the contest was unusually keen, and resulted 
in the defeat of the old member, Mr. Adam 
Black. The numbers there were—M‘Laren, 
4,354; Moncreiff, 4,148; Black, 3,797; 
Miller, 3,721. Of the 657 members returned 
to the new Parliament, 367 were described as 
Liberals and 290 as Conservatives. In the 
change, the Liberals lost 33 seats, and gained 
57. There was one double return for the 
county of Dumbarton, and Mr. Gathorne Hardy 
was returned for two places—Leominster and 
Oxford University. At Cheltenham one man 
was shot during an election brawl. 

12 . —At the nomination at Birmingham, 
Mr. Bright made a pointed attack on Mr. 
Disraeli. “ Five millions of grown-up men,” 
he said, “ had no direct representation in the 
House of Commons, in a country whose great 
foundation of government was a representa¬ 
tive system and the representative principle. 
What was the answer made to this claim? 
The Prime Minister answers it by contemp¬ 
tuous silence. He has not referred to it in that 
long and carefully written address he has issued 
not only to the electors of Tiverton, but to the 
electors of the United Kingdom. But what 
says Lord Derby, speaking through the mouth 
of his prophet Disraeli ? Why, he says, lateral 
extension of the franchise is what is wanted. 
He says to the great body of working men—to 
these five million men—It is true you are shut 
out ; the Reform Bill was not satisfactory; 
the representation may be amended; your 
complaint is just, and we will admit—somebody 
else. Now, Mr. Disraeli is a man of brains, of 
genius, of a great capacity of action, of a 
wonderful tenacity of purpose, and of a rare 
courage. He would have been a statesman if 
his powers had been directed by any ennobling 
principle or idea, but, unhappily, he prefers a 

(709) 






JULY 


JULY 


1S65. 


temporary and worthless distinction as the head 
of a decaying party, fighting for impossible 
ends, to the priceless memories of services ren¬ 
dered to his country and to freedom, upon 
which only in our age an enduring fame can be 
built up. (Loud cheers.) ‘ The fancy franchise ’ 
has failed. The lateral extension will also 
fail ; we who advocate honest, open, clearly 
understood, and definite measures—we shall 
succeed. ” 

13 . —-In his speech from the hustings at 
Aylesbury, Mr. Disraeli took occasion to ask 
what Mr. Gladstone had done with the Ter¬ 
minable Annuities. “Nobody knows. It 
has been kept a profound secret; but as Par¬ 
liament has been dissolved, I will tell you. 
It was a most wonderful thing. Parliament 
was assembled, the House was very full, as 
it always is when Mr. Gladstone is going to 
make a great speech, or to perform some con¬ 
siderable feat. We knew that he was going to 
perform some considerable feat that night. He 
had 2,200,000/. of taxation which was dying a 
natural death. It was a fund to which English¬ 
men had been looking for relief for half a 
century. There was not a sore or distressed 
interest in the country which did not say to 
itself, ‘ Ecod, when these terminable annuities 
fall in we shall have a chance.’ The men who 
paid income-tax said, ‘ Well, Peel took us in 
about that; he told us we should only have it 
for four years, and now it’s increased, but there 
is an end to the longest lane, and when those 
terminable annuities fall in we shall have a 
good cut at the income-tax.’ My friend 
thought that the malt-tax payers would get 
a chance. Well, what did Mr. Gladstone do 
with them? It was a feat of legerdemain 
which exceeded any conjuring of M. Robert. 
He took one million and turned it into ducks, 
then he took another million and turned it 
into drakes, and for half-an-hour these ducks 
and drakes flew cackling about the House of 
Commons, until at last we got ashamed of one 
another, and we ordered strangers to with¬ 
draw, and determined to keep it a profound 
secret until Parliament was dissolved.” 
(Laughter.) 

14 . — Emma, ex-Queen of the Sandwich 
Islands, arrives at Southampton, on a visit to 
this country for the purpose of obtaining aid to 
erect a Christian Church at Honolulu. 

— Fatal occurrence on the Matterhoti., 
Mr. E. Whymper, the Rev. Charles Hudson, 
Mr. Hadow, and Lord Francis Douglas, mem¬ 
bers of the Alpine Club, set out from Zermatt, 
on the 13th, all equally desirous of conquering 
the peak of the Matterhorn, or Mont Cervin, 
hitherto inaccessible. Mr. Hudson had brought 
from London wire cables to facilitate the ascent, 
but finding Mr. Whymper ready to start he left 
them at the hotel, and set off with his unex¬ 
pected comrades. They passed the night of 
the 13th on the snow at the foot of the Cervin, 
with their guides, Michael Croz, of Chamounix, 
Peter Taugwalder, of Zermatt, and his son. 


Lord Francis Douglas, who was but nineteen 
years of age, alone slept, overcome by fatigue ; 
the others remained awake. At daybreak they 
pursued their journey, and, finding the ascent 
much easier than they expected, pushed on, 
and reached the summit about two o’clock in 
the afternoon. At that time they were dis¬ 
tinctly seen from Zermatt with the aid of a 
telescope ; they remained on the summit till 
three o’clock, when they began to descend. 
The story of the disaster was thus told by Mr. 
Whymper:—“As far as I know, at the 
moment of the accident, no one was actually 
moving. I cannot speak with certainty, neither 
can the Taugwalders, because the two leading 
men were partially hidden from our sight by an 
intervening mass of rock. Poor Croz had laid 
aside his axe, and in order to give Mr. Hadow 
greater security, was absolutely taking hold of 
his legs and putting his feet, one by one, into 
their proper positions. From the movements 
of their shoulders, it is my belief that Croz, 
having done as I have said, was in the act of 
turning round to go down a step or two him¬ 
self ; at this moment Mr. Hadow slipped, fell 
on him, and knocked him over. I heard one 
startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him 
and Mr. Hadow flying.downwards : in another 
moment Hudson was dragged from his steps, 
and Lord F. Douglas immediately after him. 
All this was the work of a moment ; but im¬ 
mediately we heard Croz’s exclamation, Taug¬ 
walder and myself planted ourselves as firmly 
as the rocks would permit; the rope was tight 
between us, and the shock came on us both 
as on one man. We held, but the rope broke 
midway between Taugwalder and Lord F. 
Douglas. For two or three seconds we saw 
our unfortunate companions sliding downwards 
on their backs, and spreading out their hands 
endeavouring to save themselves ; then they 
disappeared one by one, and fell from preci¬ 
pice to precipice on to the Matterhorn Glacier 
below, a distance of nearly 4,000 feet in height. 
For the space of half an hour we remained on 
the spot without moving a single step. The 
two men, paralysed by terror, cried like infants, 
and trembled in such a manner as to threaten 
us with the fate of the others. . . . For more 
than two hours afterwards I thought every 
moment that the next would be my last; for 
the Taugwalders, utterly unnerved, were not 
only incapable of giving assistance, but wer<\ 
in such a state that a slip might have been ex¬ 
pected from one or the other at any moment. 
I do the younger man, however, no injustice, 
when I say that immediately we got on to the 
easy part of the descent he was able to laugh, 
smoke, and eat, as if nothing had happened. 
There is no occasion to say any more about the 
descent. I looked frequently, but in vain, for 
traces of my unfortunate companions, and we 
were in consequence surprised by the night 
when still at a height of 13,000 feet. We 
arrived at Zermatt, at 10.30 on Saturday 
morning, July 15.”—On the following morning 
three of the bodies were discovered; that of 





JCLY 


JUL I 


1865 


Lord Francis could not be found. As it was 
thought impracticable to remove the remains, 
they were buried in the snow with a brief ser¬ 
vice, but afterwards brought down and interred 
in the cemetery at Zermatt. Later in the season 
portions of the body of the young nobleman 
were discovered through the exertions of Lord 
Queensberry. —The feeling of regret occa¬ 
sioned by this Alpine disaster was greatly 
deepened by the intelligence received about the 
same time that the Rev. Mr. Wilson, Fellow of 
Trinity, had lost his life on the Riffelberg. 

16 .—At the Winchester Assizes, George 
Bloomfield, a person of considerable means, 
was sentenced to death for shooting Caroline 
Colborne, at Shirley. He endeavoured to de¬ 
stroy himself at the same time, but the shots 
were not directed against any vital part. A 
defence of insanity was set up; Mr. Justice 
Keating ruled that the aberration would re¬ 
quire to be of such an extent as to disable the 
prisoner from distinguishing between right and 
wrong, with reference to the nature and guilt 
of the act which he had committed. 

18 .—Defeat of Mr. Gladstone at the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford. The polling commenced in 
the Convocation House at nine o’clock on the 
morning of the 13th. At the close of the first 
day Mr. Gladstone was in a minority of 6 
below his opponent, Mr. Gathome Hardy. On 
Saturday the minority had increased to 74, and 
on Monday to 230. On this day a circular, 
signed by Sir J. T. Coleridge, chairman of 
Mr. Gladstone’s Committee, was issued to the 
electors still unpledged, intimating that there 
was reason to fear the seat was in danger, and 
pressing upon them the duty of recording their 
votes in his favour. “ The Committee do not 
scruple to advocate his cause on grounds above 
the common level of politics. They claim for 
him the gratitude due to one whose public life 
has for eighteen years reflected a lustre on the 
University herself. They confidently invite 
you to consider whether his pure and exalted 
character, his splendid abilities, and his emi¬ 
nent services to Church and State do not con¬ 
stitute the highest of all qualifications for an 
academical seat, and entitle him to be judged 
by his constituents as he will assuredly be 
judged by posterity.” On the 18th (Thurs¬ 
day), the last day of polling, the contest was 
less exciting than at the commencement, as 
it was certain Mr. Gladstone had little chance 
of success. He managed, however, to lessen the 
majonty against him, the numbers at the close 
being—Heathcote, 3,236; Hardy, 1,904; Glad¬ 
stone, 1,724 : majority of Hardy over Gladstone, 
180. The total number of voters who polled 
was 3,850—a number nearly double that on any 
former occasion. In the course of the con¬ 
test Mr. Gladstone received 415 plumpers; 
Heathcote, 43 ; and Hardy, 16. The votes 
split between Gladstone and Heathcote were 
1,307 ; between Heathcote and Hardy, 1,886; 
between Gladstone and Hardy, 2. Balliol 
gave 107 votes to Gladstone, and 90 to Hardy; 


Christ Church, 206 to Gladstone, and 291 to 
Hardy. Of the 3,669 who actually voted, 
689 voted in person, and 2,980 by voting- 
papers; 2,532 clergymen voted, and 1,137 
laymen. Of the former, 1,166 voted for Glad¬ 
stone, and 1,328 for Hardy. The latter had 
also a majority of 18 in the laity. At a meet¬ 
ing held in the Theatre, after the close of the 
poll, Sir W. Heathcote and Mr. Gathome 
Hardy were declared duly elected. “Gentle¬ 
men,” wrote Mr. Gladstone from Hawarden, 
“ after an arduous connexion of eighteen years, 
I bid you respectfully farewell. My earnest 
purpose to serve you, my many faults and 
shortcomings, the incidents of the political 
relation between the University and myself 
established in 1847, so often questioned in 
vain, and now at length finally dissolved, I 
leave to the judgment of the future. It is one 
imperative duty, and one alone, which induces 
me to trouble you with these few parting 
words—the duty of expressing my profound 
and lasting gratitude for indulgence as gene¬ 
rous, and for support as warm and enthusiastic 
in itself, and as honourable from the character 
and distinction of those who have given it, as 
has, in my belief, ever been accorded by any 
constituency to any representative.” 

18 .—Mr. Gladstone a candidate for South 
Lancashire. He was nominated on the 17th 
with other candidates at the little town of 
Newton. “I appear before you,” he wrote, 
“as a candidate for the suffrages of your divi¬ 
sion of my native county. Time forbids me 
to enlarge on the numerous topics which justly 
engage the public interest. I will bring them 
all to a single head. You are conversant— 
few so much so—with the legislation of the 
last thirty-five years. You have seen—you 
have felt its results. You cannot fail to have 
observed the verdict which the country gene¬ 
rally has, within the last eight days, pro¬ 
nounced upon the relative claims and positions 
of the two great political parties with respect 
to that legislation in the past, and to the pro¬ 
spective administration of public affairs. I 
humbly, but confidently—without the least 
disparagement to many excellent persons from 
whom I have the misfortune frequently to 
differ—ask you to give your powerful voice in 
confirmation of that verdict, and to pronounce 
with significance as to the direction in which you 
desire the wheels of the State to move. Before 
these words can be read I hope to be among 
you in the hives of your teeming enterprise. 
Mr. Gladstone made his appearance in Man¬ 
chester in the afternoon of this day, and ad¬ 
dressed a crowded meeting in the Free-trade 
Hall. “ At last, my friends,” he said, “lam 
come among you—and I am come, to use an 
expression which has become very famous, and 
is not likely to be forgotten, I am come among 
you ‘unmuzzled.’ (Enthusiastic and prolonged 
cheers.) After an anxious struggle of eighteen 
years, during which the unbounded devotion 
and indulgence of my friends maintained me in 
the arduous position of representative of the 

(7ii) 









1865. 


JULY 


jul v 


University of Oxford, I have been driven from 
my seat. I have no complaint to make of the 
party which has refused to me the resumption 
of that place. I cannot say that I am glad of 
it, but they are the majority, and they have 
used their power. As they have used it, I 
appeal to you, the men of my native county, 
to know whether that which has disqualified 
me from representing the University of Oxford 
has also disabled me from representing you. 
But, gentlemen, do not let me come among you 
under false colours or with false pretences. I 
have loved the University of Oxford with a 
deep and passionate love, and as long as I 
breathe that attachment will continue ; if my 
affection is of the smallest advantage to that 
great, that ancient, that noble institution, that 
advantage, such as it is, and it is most insignifi¬ 
cant, Oxford will possess as long as I live. But 
don’t mistake the issue which has been raised. 
The University has at length, after eighteen 
years of self-denial, been drawn by what I 
might, perhaps, call an overweening exercise of 
power, into the vortex of mere politics. W ell, you 
will readily understand why, as long as I had a 
hope that the zeal and kindness of my friends 
might keep me in my place, it was impossible 
for me to abandon them. Could they have 
returned me by a majority of one, painful as it 
is to a man of my time of life, and feeling the 
weight of public cares, to be incessantly strug¬ 
gling for his seat, nothing could have induced 
me to quit that University to which I had so 
long ago devoted my best care and attachment. 
But by no act of mine I am free to come among 
you. (Great cheering.) And, having been thus 
set free, I need hardly tell you that it is with 
joy, with thankfulness, and enthusiasm, that I 
now, at this eleventh hour, a candidate without 
an address, make my appeal to the heart and 
the mind of South Lancashire, and ask you to 
pronounce upon that appeal. (Renewed cheers.) 
Mr. Bazley and Gentlemen,—As I have said, I 
am aware of no cause for the votes which have 
given a majority against me in the University 
of Oxford, except the fact that the strongest 
conviction that the human mind can receive, 
that an overpowering sense of the public 
interests, that the practical teachings of ex¬ 
perience, to which from my youth Oxford her¬ 
self taught me to lay open my mind—all these 
had shown me the folly and, I will say, the 
madness of refusing to join in the generous 
sympathies of my countrymen, by adopting 
what I must call an obstructive policy.” The 
polling took place on the 20th, when Mr. 
Gladstone was returned third, the numbers 
being—Egerton, 9,171; Turner, 8,806; Glad¬ 
stone, 8,786; Legh, 8,476; Thompson, 7,703 ; 
Hey wood, 7,653. The first, second, and fourth 
stood as Conservatives ; the third, fifth, and 
sixth, as Liberals. 

18 .—Earthquake on the slope of Mount Etna, 
destroying the village of Fondi di Macchia, 
with considerable loss of life. 

2 0 , -The foundation-stone of the new 
(712) 


Blackfriars Bridge laid by the Lord Mayor, in 
presence of the Corporation and chief civic 
dignitaries. (See Nov. 6, 1869.) 

21.—Came on at Salisbury Assizes, before 
Mr. Justice Willes, the trial of Constance 
Emilie Kent, charged on her own confession 
with the murder of her brother, Francis Saville 
Kent, on the night of 29th of June, i860. The 
prisoner appeared in the dock dressed in deep 
mourning, and having on a thick veil. She 
first went to the back of the dock and had some 
conversation with her solicitor; she then put 
up her veil and came to the front. The Clerk 
of Assizes stated the nature of the indictment, 
and asked the prisoner, “ How say you, Con¬ 
stance Emilie Kent, are you guilty or not 
guilty?” The prisoner in a low voice said, 
“Guilty.” Mr. Justice Willes: “Are you aware 
that you are charged with having wilfully, 
and intentionally, and with malice, killed your 
brother ? ” Prisoner made no reply. After a 
pause, the Judge proceeded: “Do you plead 
guilty to that?” No reply. The Judge: 
“ What is your answer ? ” Prisoner was under¬ 
stood to say “Yes.” The Judge : “I repeat, 
you are charged with having wilfully, intention¬ 
ally, and with malice, killed your brother. 
Are you guilty or not guilty?” Prisoner: 
“Guilty, my lord.” The Judge : “ The plea 
must be recorded.” Mr. Coleridge, as counsel 
for Constance Emilie Kent, acting in her be¬ 
half under her own direct instructions, said : 
“ I desire to say two things before your lord- 
ship passes sentence. First, solemnly in the 
presence of Almighty God as a person who 
values her own soul, she desires me to say that 
the guilt is hers alone; that her father and 
others who have so long suffered most unjust 
and cruel suspicions are wholly and absolutely 
innocent. Next, she desires me to say that she 
was not driven to this act, as has been asserted, 
by any unkind treatment of her mother-in-law ; 
she met with nothing at home but tender, for¬ 
bearing love. I hope I may add, my lord, 
not improperly, that it gives me a melancholy 
pleasure to be made the organ of these state¬ 
ments, because, on my honour, I believe them 
to be true.” The learned judge in the usual 
terms, but deeply affected, passed the awful 
sentence of the law upon the prisoner, who, 
after standing for a short time in the dock, 
covered her face with her veil and was con¬ 
ducted back to her cell. 

23 . —A splice having been made with the 
shore end of the Atlantic Cable off Valentia, 
the Great Eastern sets out on her paying-out 
voyage across the Atlantic, accompanied by 
the Sphinx and Terrible. Faults were dis¬ 
covered next day, when 84 miles had been paid 
out; and again on the 29th, 707 miles; but on 
each of these occasions the cable was recovered 
from the bed of the ocean and the defects made 
good. 

24 . —The Prince and Princess of Wales 
and party descend Botallack Mine., near the 








JULY 


AUGUST 


1865. 


Land’s End, and inspect the workings at the 
200-fathom level. 

25 .—Mary Jane Harris, aged 23, and Char¬ 
lotte Winsor, aged 45, again brought up at 
Exeter Assizes, on the charge of murdering the 
infant child of the first-mentioned prisoner. 
This time it was resolved that Harris should 
be admitted as Queen’s evidence. She made 
a revelation which not only shocked the Court, 
but sent a thrill of horror through every house¬ 
hold in the kingdom. “In February last,” she 
said, “ I was a servant at Mrs. Wansey’s, Tamar 
Villas, Torquay. Before I went there I had 
been confined of a male child. I took the child 
to Mrs. Winsor’s, near Shipley Bridge. As we 
were taking the child there, I said there had 
been one child picked up in the country. The 
prisoner said, ‘I wonder I had not got myself 
into it once before.’ She had put away one for 
a girl who was confined at her house, who had 
promised to give her 3/., but she did not give it 
her. I asked her how she did it. She said 
she put her finger under the jugular vein. She 
said she had stifled one three weeks old for 
Elizabeth Darwin, and thrown it into Torbay, 
and when it was picked up it was nearly washed 
all to pieces ; that she had put away one for her 
sister. While her sister was staying at the house, 
she had directed a letter to be left at the Jolly 
Sailor for the father of the child, and she re¬ 
ceived a 5/. note by return of post. She said 
she only gave her 2/., but that when her husband 
returned from sea, she would make her a hand¬ 
some present ; but she had not done it. I then 
went on with her to her house and had tea. I 
asked her if she was not afraid. She said, ‘ To 

-with you ; it’s doing good,’ and she would 

help any one that would not split upon her. I 
was leaving, and she said, ‘ I’ll do whatever 
lays in my power for your child.’ I said, ‘ All 
right,’ and went away.. I saw my child a fort¬ 
night after in Mrs. Wansey’s kitchen. The 
prisoner brought it. She said if I would give 
her 5/. she would do away with the child. I 
said I had not 5/. to give her. She asked me 
to give her a note to the father of the child. I 
said I could not do that. She said, ‘ Get it any¬ 
how else; I’ll put them all by for thee if thee 
hast forty. ’ “ The jury now found Winsor guilty, 
and Mr. Justice Keating sentenced her to death, 
holding out no hope of mercy. Without seek¬ 
ing to justify the frightful crimes proved against 
her, this wretched woman’s case was afterwards 
taken up on constitutional grounds, Lord Wens- 
leydale urging it to be without parallel that 
any person should be tried twice for the 
same offence. The question was solemnly de¬ 
liberated upon by the Judges at Westminster, 
the capital sentence being from time to time 
deferred till a decision could be arrived at. 
This decision was in favour of the conviction, 
but the criminal had been so often reprieved 
that it was thought public justice would be 
satisfied with inflicting a punishment short of 
the original sentence. She was, therefore, con¬ 
signed to a prison for the term of her natural 
life. 


26 .—A meeting of the subscribers to the 
Colenso fund held in the Freemasons’ Tavern, 
and 3,300/. presented to the Bishop as a token 
of respect on leaving for his distant diocese. 

— Gallimore and Benge tried at Maidstone 
Assizes on the charge of manslaughter in con¬ 
nexion with the late accident at Staplehurst. 
No evidence was led against the first mentioned, 
and he was discharged. Benge was sentenced 
to nine months’ imprisonment. 

29 .— Meeting of members of the Guild of 
Literature and Art, at Stevenage, to celebrate 
the completion of three houses erected by the 
Guild on land given by Sir E. B. Lytton. At 
the dinner which followed at Knebworth, the 
host described the new buildings as comprising 
“three houses, for the artist, the scholar, and 
the man of letters, modest in themselves, but 
of such a character that a gentleman may in¬ 
habit them with a small but well-assured pen¬ 
sion. I associate,” he continued, “with the 
toast of the evening the name of a man whose 
writings are equally the delight of the scholar 
and the artisan ; whose creations dwell in our 
hearts as familiarly and fondly as if they were 
our own kinsfolk, and who has united an un¬ 
rivalled mastery over the laughter and the tears 
of millions with as genial and sweet a philo¬ 
sophy as ever made the passions move at the 
command of virtue.” Mr. Dickens replied, 
speaking in the handsomest terms of the genius 
of their accomplished host. “The ladies and 
gentlemen,” he said, “whom we shall invite 
to occupy the houses we have built will never 
be placed under any social disadvantage. They 
will be invited to occupy them as artists, re¬ 
ceiving them as a mark of the high respect in 
which they are held by their fellow-workers. 
As artists I hope they will often exercise their 
calling within those walls for the general ad¬ 
vantage ; and they will always claim on 
equal terms the hospitality of their generous 
neighbours. ” 

31 .—Meeting of the London cowkeepers to 
establish a national society for the prevention 
of cattle-diseases. 

— The Inman steamer Glasgoiv destroyed 
by fire on her voyage from New York to Liver¬ 
pool. The passengers and crew were saved, 
with the ship’s plate and a portion of the 
luggage. The fire had its origin in the acci¬ 
dental fall of a lamp among the cotton in the 
steerage. 

August 2.—The Privy Council cause inti¬ 
mation to be given to the President of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, of the steps they 
had taken for checking the spread of the cattle- 
plague, and of the symptoms by which the 
disease might be detected. 

— “A sad and memorable day,” writes 
Mr. W. Russell, “in the annals of Atlantic 
telegraphy. After midnight the wind rose, ac¬ 
companied bv heavy showers of rain and dense 
drifts of fog, and increased to a strong gale 
from the south-west, but the ship scarcely felt 

(711) 








AUGUST 


AUGUST 


1865. 


it, and went on paying out cable without let 
or hindrance at a high rate of speed—seven 
knots an hour. At 8 A. M., when in about 
2,000 fathoms water, and with 1,186 miles of 
cable paid out, a serious fault was discovered 
to exist about six miles from the ship. To 
recover this portion the Great Eastern was 
stopped, and the cable passed from the stern 
to the bow of the ship. After getting in two 
miles,—the fault being still overboard,—the 
engine’s eccentric gear and the picking-up 
machinery got out of order, and the cable 
unfortunately snapped asunder. The machi¬ 
nery was still in motion, the cable and the 
rope travelled aft together, one towards 
the capstan, the other towards the drum, 
when, just as the cable reached the dynamo¬ 
meter, it parted, thirty feet from the bow, 
and with one bound leaped, as it were, 
over and flashed into the sea. It is not pos¬ 
sible for any words to portray the dismay with 
which the sight was witnessed and the news 
heard. It was enough to move one to tears, 
and when a man came aft with the inner end 
still lashed to the chain, and one saw the tor¬ 
tured strands, torn wires, and lacerated core, it 
is no exaggeration to say that a strange feeling 
of pity, as though for some sentient creature 
mutilated and dragged asunder by brutal force, 
passed through the hearts of the spectators.” 
It was at once resolved to put the Great 
Eastern over the track of the cable, and if pos¬ 
sible lift it with the powerful grapnel apparatus 
on board. The last attempt was made on the 
nth. At 9.40 P.M. Greenwich time, just as 
765 fathoms had been got in, a shackle on the 
hemp hawser passed through the machinery, 
and in a moment afterwards the rope parted 
near the capstan, and flew over the bow with 
a whistling sound like the rush of a round shot. 
Signal was at once made to the Terrible , 
orders were given to get up steam, and all 
haste made to return from the disastrous spot. 
After a parting salute from the Terrible, the 
Great Eastern turned homeward, and reached 
Crookhaven on the 17th, and Sheerness on 
the 20th. 

4 . —Died at Blackhills, near Elgin, W. E. 
Aytoun, Professor of Rhetoric in the University 
of Edinburgh, and author of “ Lays of the 
Scottish Cavaliers,” &c. 

—. Frightful ravages by the cholera at Con¬ 
st mtinople ; as many as 2,000 are said to have 
died to-day. 

8 .—Stephen Forwood, alias Ernest Southey, 
murders three children of a woman with whom 
he cohabited, and then shoots his own wife and 
child. Three children, boys, were brought by 
Southey, on the 6th, to a coffee-house in Red 
Lion-street, Holborn, to be provided with beds 
for a night or two preparatory to their leaving 
for Australia. On Tuesday evening, the 7th, 
he saw them off to bed, the two youngest, aged 
six and eight, in one room, the eldest, aged 
ten, in another. He returned to the house 
soon after this, asked for a candle to see 

( 7 M) 


that the children were all right, remained up¬ 
stairs with them a short time, and went away, 
promising to return in the morning. In the 
morning the children did not come down, and 
on the chambermaid entering the room, she 
found them all dead—apparently suffocated. 
Steps were immediately taken to discover the 
man who had brought the children to the 
coffee-house, but he was not apprehended 
before he had greatly aggravated the horror 
of his crime. The children, it appeared, were 
not his own, but belonged to a woman named 
White, who lived away from her husband, and 
with Southey. His own wife was living in dis¬ 
tress with her daughter at Ramsgate. Thither 
Southey went the morning following, and, 
gaining access to the room which they occu¬ 
pied, shot both wife and daughter dead at the 
fireplace. He was immediately taken into 
custody, when it was found that he was the 
person “wanted” for the triple murder in 
Red Lion -street. Southey was known to have 
been living a loose blackguard life lately, fre¬ 
quenting gaming-houses, and trying to entrap 
thoughtless players into his toils. He now 
threw the blame of his crimes on “Society.” 
“I charge back,” he said, “the guilt of these 
crimes on those high dignitaries of the State, 
the Church, and Justice, who have turned a 
deaf ear to my heartbroken appeals ; who 
have refused me fellow-help in all my frenzied 
efforts, my exhausted struggles; who have 
impiously denied the sacredness of human 
life, the mutual dependence of man, and 
the fundamental and sacred principles on 
which our social system itself is based.” 
Southey was committed to Maidstone Gaol on 
the verdict of the coroner’s jury, and tried at 
the assizes in December, for the murder of his 
wife and daughter. An attempt was made to 
feign madness, and even to prove it in evidence, 
but the jury, after a few minutes’ deliberation, 
brought in a verdict of Guilty. The murderer 
was executed at Maidstone on the 1 ith January, 
1866. 

10. —Mr. Secretary Seward, in acknowledg¬ 
ing the receipt of an interlocutory degree pro¬ 
nounced by the Vice-Chancellor, in the case 01 
the United States against Prideaux and others, 
to recover 1,356 bales of cotton, writes to 
Mr. Adams:—“The United States do not 
admit that the combination of disloyal citizens 
which have raised the standard of insurrection 
is now, or at any time has been, a Government 
de facto , or in any sense a political power, 
capable of giving, taking, holding, or maintain¬ 
ing corporate rights in any form, whether 
municipal or international.” 

11 . —Died, at his house in Wimpole-street, 
Joseph Parkes, Esq., Taxing Master in Ex¬ 
chequer, a Liberal politician of much influence, 
and the compiler of an ingenious argument 
identifying the author of the Junius Letters with 
Sir Philip Francis. 

—. Major De Vere, of the Royal Engineers, 
shot in the barrack square, Chatham by Private 








AUGUST 


1865. 


AUGUST 


John Curry, from an upper window. The mur¬ 
derer was seen to give a smile of satisfaction 
when the victim of his revenge dropped into 
the arms of a brother-officer, and permitted 
himself quietly to be taken into custody. He 
was tried for the crime at the Central Criminal 
Court, found guilty, and executed at Maidstone 
October 12. 

12 .— Died, at Kew, aged 80, Sir William 
Hooker, F.R.S., Curator of the Royal Botanic 
Gardens. 

14 -.—Convention of Gastein, dividing the 
Danish Duchies between Prussia and Austria 
—the latter to occupy one, Prussia to defend 
both. Austria to cede Lauenberg to Prussia 
for 2,500,000 Danish dollars ; Kiel to be made 
a Federal harbour for the new German fleet. 
Concerning this treaty, Earl Russell wrote, 

“ All rights, old or new, whether based upon 
a solemn agreement between Sovereigns, or on 
the clear and precise expression of the popular 
will, have been trodden under foot by the 
Gastein Convention, and the authority of force 
is the sole power which has been consulted 
and recognised. Violence and conquest, such 
are the chief bases upon which the dividing 
Powers have established the Convention.” 
The smaller German States manifested their 
opposition to the Convention in the Diet at 
Frankfort. 

15 . —Bishop Colenso leaves England for 
Natal. 

— The English fleet visits Cherbourg, and 
is received with great honour and hospitality. 

— Prince Alfred’s cook stabbed by Count 
Eulenberg, during a street-brawl in Bonn. 

17 . —The Brazilian allies defeat the Para¬ 
guayans, and march upon Corrientes. 

20 .—Interview between the Emperor of 
Austria and the King of Prussia at Salzburg. 
Convention of Gastein confirmed. 

— The emigrant ship Eagle Speed wrecked 
on Roy Mutlah sands, Calcutta, with 947 pas¬ 
sengers, principally coolies, on board, 265 of 
whom were lost principally through the care¬ 
lessness and inhumanity of the crew. 

23 .— Esther Lock, Bankside, Southwark, 
while labouring under great mental depression, 
murders her three children by cutting their 
throats. 

— Constance Kent makes a further de¬ 
tailed confession as to the manner in which she 
accomplished the murder of the infant Richard 
Saville Kent. She was examined by Dr. 
Bucknill and Mr. Rodway, her solicitor, with 
the permission of the Lord Chancellor. The 
former reported that “ A few days before the 
murder she obtained possession of a razor from 
a green case in her father’s wardrobe, and se¬ 
creted it. This was the sole instrument which 
she used. She also secreted a candle, with 
matches, in a corner of the closet in the 
garden, where the murder was committed. 
On the night of the murder she undressed I 


herself and went to bed, because she expected 
that her sister would visit her room. She 
watched until she thought all the household 
were asleep, and soon after midnight she left 
her bedroom, went downstairs, and opened 
the drawing-room door and window-shutters. 
She next went up into the nursery, withdrew 
the blanket from between the sheet and 
counterpane, and placed it on the side of 
the cot. She then took the child from his 
bed and carried him downstairs. She had 
on her night-dress, and in the drawing-room 
put on her goloshes. Having the child in 
one arm, she raised the drawing-room window 
with the other hand, went round the house 
and into the closet, lighted the candle, and 
placed it on the seat. The child was wrapped 
in the blanket and still asleep, and while he 
was in this position she inflicted the wound in 
the throat. She says that she thought that 
the blood would never come, and that the 
child was not killed ; so she thrust the razor 
into its left side, and put the body, with the 
blanket round it, into the vault. The light 
burned out. The piece of flannel which she 
had with her was torn from an old flannel 
garment placed in the waste bag, and which 
she had taken some time before and used in 
washing herself. She went back into her bed¬ 
room, examined her night-dress, and found 
only two spots of blood on it. These she 
washed out in the basin, and threw the water, 
which was but little discoloured, into the pan 
in which she had washed her feet. She put on 
another of her night-dresses and got into bed. 
In the morning her night-dress had become dry 
where it had been washed. She folded it up 
and put it into the drawer. Her three night¬ 
dresses were examined by Mr. Foley, the police 
superintendent, and she believes also by Mr. 
Parsons, the medical adviser of the family. 
She thought the blood stains had been 
effectually washed out, but on holding the 
dress up to the light a day or two afterwards, 
she found that the stains were still visible. She 
secreted the dress, moving it from place to 
place, and eventually burned it in her own 
bedroom, putting the ashes or tinder into the 
kitchen grate. It was about five or six days 
after the child’s death, that she burned the 
night-dress. On the Saturday morning, having 
cleaned the razor, she took an opportunity of 
replacing it unobserved in the case in the ward¬ 
robe. She abstracted her night-dress from the 
clothes-basket when the housemaid went to 
fetch a glass of water. The stained garment 
found in the boiler hole had no connexion 
whatever with the deed. As regards the motive 
of her crime,” says Dr. Bucknill, “it seems 
that, although she entertained at one time a 
great regard for the present Mrs. Kent, yet if any 
remark was at any time made which in her 
opinion was disparaging to any member of the 
first family, she treasured it up and determined 
to avenge it. She had no ill-will against the 
little boy except as one of the children of her 
stepmother.” She said she had not said her 

(715) 





AUGUST 


1865. 


SEPTEMBER 


prayers for a year before the murder, and that 
the circumstance which revived religious feel¬ 
ings in her mind was thinking about receiving 
sacrament when confirmed. She stated, too, 
that if the nursemaid had been convicted she 
should at once have confessed. Dr. Bucknill 
said that the circumstances of her early life in¬ 
dicated a peculiarity of disposition and great 
. determination of character, which foreboded 
that for good or evil her future life would be 
remarkable. Although he advised her counsel 
that at the time of her trial she was sane, Dr. B. 
is “of opinion that, owing to the peculiarities 
of her constitution, it is probable that under 
prolonged solitary confinement she would be¬ 
come insane. The validity of this opinion is 
of importance now that the sentence of death 
has been commuted to penal servitude for life ; 
for no one could desire that the punishment of 
the criminal should be so carried out as to cause 
danger of a further and a greater punishment 
not contemplated by the law.” 

25 . —The Privy Council issues an Order pro¬ 
hibiting the importation of cattle into Ireland. 
Another Order was issued on the 26th, giving 
powers not previously conferred for appointing 
veterinary inspectors in any place where the 
authorities shall have reason to apprehend the 
approach of the disease. A fine of 20/. was 
also authorized to be inflicted for transgressing 
Orders formerly issued. 

26 . —Theed’s bronze statue of Prince Albert 
inaugurated by the Queen at Rosenau, the 
Prince’s birth-place. 

— Charles Christopher Robinson, a young 
man of good prospects, murders his sweetheart, 
Harriet Seagar, at Wolverhampton, and then 
attempts to commit suicide. 

27 . —Trades Demonstration at the Crystal 
Palace, in favour of opening the national art 
museums on Sunday afternoons. 

— Died, at Gordon House, Isleworth, aged 
69, Judge Haliburton, author of “Sam Slick,” 
and other novels illustrative of American life. 

— Died, aged 75, Sir George Brown, G. C. B., 
a Peninsular veteran, who led the forlorn hope 
at the storming of Badajoz, and commanded 
the light division which distinguished itself so 
much at the battle of the Alma. 

23 .— The French fleet visits Portsmouth, 
and is received with great honour and rejoicing 
by the chiefs of the Admiralty and officers of 
the Channel Squadron. On the 31st the French 
Minister and officers of the French squadron 
were entertained by the corporation of Ports¬ 
mouth, and on the 1st September by the Lords 
of the Admiralty, at the Royal Naval College. 

September 2.—Died, at Dunsink Observa¬ 
tory, aged 60, Sir William Rowan Hamilton, 
Professor of Astronomy in Trinity College, 
Dublin. 

— Died, aged 74, Johann Franz Encke, 
astronomer. 

(716) 


5 . —Fire at Constantinople, destroying 
15,000 houses, besides mosques and other public 
buildings. 

— Sir Bartle Frere receives the chiefs of the 
Deccan in a great durbar held at Poonah. 

6. —Earl Granville writes to the Times con¬ 
cerning the ravages made by the cattle-plague 
on a farm which he hired at Golden-green, 
Finchley-road. When he left England for 
Germany a month since, there were 130 milch- 
cows in four sheds. Yesterday, in the two 
largest and best managed he found only one. 
Experiments were freely permitted with the 
diseased animals, but in no case were any of 
the remedies prescribed effectual. 

9 . —The Emperor and Empress of the French 
visit the Queen of Spain at San Sebastian. 

10. —Died, aged 59, General Lamoriciere, 
French general and statesman. He was the 
captain of the first Zouave regiment, and 
opposed the Imperial projects of the President 
with a vigour which led to his being placed 
under arrest in December 1851. 

11. —Statue of Dr. Jenner inaugurated at 
Boulogne. 

— Thomas Wood, cashier in the Bank of 
London, examined before the Lord Mayor on 
a charge of embezzling 3,570/., the property of 
his employers. 

13 .—The Princess of Wales visits the Tower 
of London for the first time. 

15 . —The Dublin police quietly surround 
the office of the Irish People , a Fenian organ, 
seize the material, and arrest all the men on 
the establishment, together with two or three 
others who were recognised by the detec¬ 
tives when they made their appearance in the 
crowd which followed the prisoners to the 
station. Other arrests were made at Cork 
and Enniscorthy. On the 16th, 100/. reward 
was offered for such information as would lead 
to the apprehension of James Stephens, a noted 
conspirator. 

16 . —Herr von Bismarck created a Count. 

21 . —The Emperor of Austria suspends the 
Constitution of the Empire, preparatory to 
bringing the Hungarian and Croatian Diets 
within the Fundamental Law promulgated by 
the February Patent concerning the repre¬ 
sentation of the people. 

22. —Died, aged 71, John Frederick Herring, 
a popular animal painter. 

26 . —Numerous deaths from cholera in 
Marseilles, Toulon, and other cities in the 
south of France. 

27 . —The Pope issues an allocution, con¬ 
demning Fenianism and Freemasonry. 

30 .—At the examination of the Fenian 
prisoners in Dublin, the following letter from 
O’Keefe to Luby was read :—“It is nonsense 
to assert that many of the titled class may be 
excellent men, and should be received by the 







OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1S65. 


people as useful recruits of the popular cause. 
My reply is, Timco Dcinaos et dona ferentes. I 
even fear The O’Donoghue, believing him to 
be a tool of the aristocracy. The Irish aristo¬ 
cracy must be pounded down by the Liberal 
press, and slain afterwards by the hands of an 
aroused and infuriated people. This is the 
only way to liberate Ireland. Everything else 
is nonsense.” The principal witness against 
the Dublin Fenians was an informer, named 
Nagle, who spoke to the circulation of treason¬ 
able documents, the collection of money, and 
secret drilling. 

October 1.—The Morning Star publishes 
a pretended list of Confederate bondholders, 
which leads to explicit denial of the imputa- 
tation being made by the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, Mr. Delane of the Times , and 
others. 

A .—Royal Commission appointed to inquire 
into the cattle-plague. (See Oct. 31.) 

5. —The Emperor of Mexico issues a pro¬ 
clamation denying to the Republican troops 
the rights of belligerents, and ordering their 
execution, wherever found, within twenty-four 
hours after capture. The American Senate 
and House of Representatives thereupon re¬ 
solved, “(1) That we contemplate the pre¬ 
sent condition of affairs in the Republic of 
Mexico with the most profound solicitude ; 
(2) That the attempt to subject one of the 
Republican governments of this continent by 
a foreign Power, and to establish on its ruins a 
monarchy sustained solely by European bayo¬ 
nets, is opposed to the declared policy of the 
United States Government, offensive to our 
people, and contrary to the spirit of our in¬ 
stitutions. ” 

— John Hunter, a sculptor’s assistant re¬ 
siding at the Grange, near Edinburgh, murders 
his mother and sister, by beating them with an 
iron rod while labouring under a fit of mental 
derangement. 

6 . —Died, aged 91, Dr. Chas. Richardson, 
author of a “ New Dictionary of the English 
Language.” 

7. — Outbreak of negroes in Jamaica. About 
150 men, armed with sticks, came this day 
(Saturday) to Morant Bay with the avowed 
purpose of rescuing a person who was to be 
tried there for some trifling offence. The 
apprehension of one of their number for dis¬ 
orderly conduct in the Court House led to 
great fighting and confusion, and compelled 
the Custos of the district, Baron von Ketelholdt, 
to issue warrants for the apprehension of twenty- 
eight of the more prominent of the rioters. 
On endeavouring to take one Paul Bogle into 
custody, he was surrounded and protected by a 
large company of armed blacks, who seized 
the policemen and compelled them to take an 
oath that they would act against the Govern¬ 
ment. On the nth an encounter took place 
in the square of-the Court House, the rioters 


overpowering the few volunteers present, and 
setting fire to the building. They then com¬ 
menced a wild murderous onslaught on the 
white people, killing and mutilating in the 
most shocking manner all whom they came 
across, and even extending the area of their 
excesses to the plantations bordering on Morant 
Bay. “Skin for skin,” wrote Paul Bogle; 
“ the iron bars is now broken in this parish, 
the white people send a proclamation to the 
Governor to make war against us, which we 
all must put our shoulders to the wheels and 
pull together. The Maroons sent the pro¬ 
clamation to meet them at Hayfield at once 
without delay, that they will put us in a 
way how to act. Every one of you must leave 
your house, take your guns ; who don’t have 
guns take your cutlasses down at once. Come 
over to Stony Gut, that we might march over 
to meet the Maroons at once'without delay. 
Blow your shells ! roll your drums ; house to 
house take out every man ; march them down 
to Stony Gut; any that you find take them in 
the way; take them down with their arms ; 
war is at us, my black skins ! war is at hand 
from to-day till to-morrow. Every black man 
must turn at once, for the oppression is too 
great ; the white people are now cleaning up 
they guns for us, which we must prepare to 
meet them too. Chear, men, chear, in heart 
we looking for you a part of the night or before 
daybreak.” When the news reached Governor 
Eyre at Spanish Town, he caused a body of 
troops to be sent by sea to Morant Bay, and 
issued a proclamation declaring that martial 
law prevailed throughout the entire county of 
Surrey, except in the city of Kingston. He 
proceeded to Morant Bay himself in the Corn¬ 
wall, and saw the commanding officers mete 
out summary justice to the persons concerned 
most prominently in the revolt. Short trials, 
followed in most instances by shooting or 
hanging, went on for many days in succes¬ 
sion. Five tried on board the Wolverine were 
hanged on the stone archway of the burnt 
Court House, where the worst of the mas¬ 
sacres had taken place. Throughout his tour, 
the Governor wrote, “ I found everywhere the 
most unmistakeable evidence that George Wil¬ 
liam Gordon, a coloured member of the Plouse 
of Assembly, had not only been mixed up in 
the matter, but was himself, through his own 
misrepresentation and seditious language ad¬ 
dressed to the ignorant black people, the chief 
cause and origin of the whole rebellion. Mr. 
Gordon was now in Kingston, and it became 
necessary to decide what action should be 
taken with regard to him. Having obtained 
a deposition on oath that certain seditious 
printed notices had been sent through the 
post office, directed in his handwriting, to 
the parties who had been leaders in the re¬ 
bellion, I at once called upon the Custos to 
issue a warrant and capture him. For some 
little time he managed to evade capture, but 
finding that sooner or later it was inevitable, 
he proceeded to the house of General O’Connor 

(717) 






OCTOBER 


1865 . 


OCTOBER 


and there gave himself up. I at once had him 
placed on board the Wolverine for safe custody 
and conveyance to Morant Bay.” He was 
tried by court-martial there, and hanged on 
the morning of the 23d. “I have seen,” 
writes Governor Eyre, “the proceedings of 
the court, and concur both in the justice of 
the sentence and the policy of carrying it out. ” 
Besides Gordon, the Governor wrote that 
the persons prominently concerned in the 
outbreak were black people of the Baptist 
persuasion connected with him, political dema¬ 
gogues and agitators, a few Baptist missionaries 
and a portion of the press. Humanly speak¬ 
ing, he said he believed that the promptitude 
and vigour of action which had at once grap¬ 
pled with and punished the rebellion, had been 
the saving of Jamaica. Although the steps 
taken by Governor Eyre met with the entire 
approval of the Legislative Council and House 
of Assembly, it was thought by many persons 
in this country that he had shown undue haste 
and severity in his treatment of the rebels, and 
Government resolved to suspend him, at least 
till inquiry could be made into the extent and 
character of the outbreak. Sir Henry Storks 
was sent out as temporary Governor, and a 
Royal Commission of Inquiry was issued at 
the close of the year. 

11. -—Publication in the Gazette of the neu¬ 
trality correspondence between Earl Russell 
and Mr. Adams, the American Minister. As 
comprehending the whole duty of this country 
the former submitted : ‘ Her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment are ready to consent to the appointment 
of a Commission to which shall be referred all 
claims arising out of the late civil war which 
the two Powers shall agree to refer to the 
Commissioners.” 

12 . —Died, aged 50, W. Vincent Wallace, 
Esq., composer of “ Maritana,” and other 
operas. 

15 . —Opened at Leipzic a Congress of Ladies, 
convened for the consideration of plans to im¬ 
prove feminine education, and extend the circle 
of employments open to women. 

16 . —Great Fenian Congress at Philadelphia, 
continuing over several days. There were 600 
delegates present, presided over by “Head 
Centre” Colonel J. O. Mahoney, of the 99th 
New York Militia. 

17 . —Illness of Viscount Palmerston. The 
following bulletin was issued at 5 P. M. :— 
“In consequence of having taken cold, Lord 
Palmerston has been seriously ill, but he has 
steadily improved during the last three days, 
and is now much better.” At 9 a.m. next 
morning : — “ Lord Palmerston’s condition 
altered suddenly for the worse in the even¬ 
ing of yesterday, and he is now gradually 
sinking.” 

18 . —Died at Brockett Hall, Henry John 
Temple, third and last Viscount Palmerston, 
K.G., Prime Minister of England. He was 
within two davs of completing his eirhtv- 

nm 


first year, and had sat in the House since 1806, 
when he entered it as member for Horsham. 
He was buried with public honours in West¬ 
minster Abbey on the 27th. The death of 
the Premier caused a fall of \ per cent, in 
Consols. 

23 .— H.M.S. Bulldog grounded in the 
harbour of Cape Haytien, whither she had 
been sent in vindication of certain outrages 
perpetrated on the British flag. She was sub¬ 
sequently blown up to prevent her falling into 
the hands of the enemy. A court-martial 
found that negligence had been shown by 
Captain Wake and Mr. Behena. Both were 
reprimanded, and the former was dismissed 
the ship. 

25 .—Writing from Morant Bay, Lieutenant 
Adcock reports to Brigadier-General Nelson 
the result of his pursuit of the rebel blacks. 
“ I have the honour to inform you that on the 
morning of the 23d instant I started with 
thirty men for Duckinfield, and visited several 
estates and villages. I burnt seven houses in 
all, but did not even see a rebel. On re¬ 
turning to Golden Grove in the evening, sixty- 
seven prisoners had been sent in by the 
Maroons. I disposed of as many as possible, 
but was too tired to continue after dark. On 
the morning of the 24th I started for Morant 
Bay, having first flogged four and hung six 
rebels. I beg to state that I did not meet a 
single man upon the road up to Keith Hall ; 
there were a few prisoners here, all of whom 
I flogged, and then proceeded to John’s-town 
and Beckford. At the latter place I burned 
seven houses and one meeting-house ; in the 
former four houses. . We came so suddenly 
upon these two villages that the rebels had no 
time to retire with their plunder; nearly 300 
rushed down into a gully, but I could not get 
a single shot, the bushes being so thick. We 
could all distinctly hear their voices in the 
wood all round, but after the first rush not a 
man was to be seen, and to follow them with 
any advantage was impossible. ” Captain Ford 
writes on the same subject :—“We made a raid 
with thirty men, flogging nine men and burning 
their negro houses. We held a court-martial 
on the prisoners, who amounted to about fifty 
or sixty. Several were flogged without court- 
martial, from a simple examination. . . . This 
is a picture of martial law. The soldiers enjoy 
it—the inhabitants here dread it. If they run 
on their approach, they are shot for running 
away. ” 

28 .—The cattle attacked with rinderpest 
during the past w r eek, so far as came under 
the notice of the Inspectors, were 1,873. Since 
the outbreak the total number reported to be 
attacked were 17,673; killed, 6,866; died, 
7,912; under treatment, 2,047; recovered, 
848. 

31 .—Explosion of a gasometer in the works 
of the London Gas Company, Nine Elms. A 
large building called the meter-house was 
completely destroyed, and ten of the workmen 











OCTOBER 


1865 


NOVEMBER 


killed. Those who saw the explosion de¬ 
scribed it as one vast upheaving of flame, shoot¬ 
ing high in the air with a burst which shook 
everything around. People nearly a mile off 
were thrown violently down, and persons who 
lived in houses adjacent were severely scorched. 
The flames mounted so high that, even though 
it was the middle of the day, they guided the 
firemen to the scene from long distances. 

31 .—The Commission appointed to investi¬ 
gate the origin, nature, and extent of the disease 
prevailing among cattle, make their first report. 
Appended to the document was a series of 
practical suggestions drawn up by three mem¬ 
bers of the Commission who were profes¬ 
sionally qualified to deal with sanitary subjects, 
and which it was thought might be useful at 
this time to owners of cattle. A majority only 
of the Commissioners assented to the follow¬ 
ing paragraph :—“ Against a disease which is 
highly contagious, undiscoverable at a certain 
stage, and too widely diffused for an army of 
inspectors to cope with it, there is clearly but 
one remedy which would be certainly and 
absolutely effectual. That remedy is to pro¬ 
hibit everywhere, for a limited time, any move¬ 
ment of cattle from one place to another. 
Enforce this, and within a time which cannot 
last very long the disease is at an end. It 
must stand still, and it must starve for want of 
nutriment. This great sacrifice would certainly 
eradicate the evil; we cannot say so, of any 
sacrifice less than this.” 

November 1 . —Mr. Gladstone visits Glas¬ 
gow, and is presented with the freedom of the 
city. In his reply he made a touching allu¬ 
sion to the heavy losses which the country had 
recently sustained in the ranks of official life. 
“It has been my lot to follow to the grave 
several of those distinguished men who have 
been called away from the scene of their 
honourable labours—not, indeed, before they 
had acquired the esteem and confidence of the 
country, but still at a period when the minds 
and expectations of their fellow-countrymen 
were fondly fixed upon the thought of what 
they might yet achieve for the public good. 
Two of your own countrymen—Lord Elgin 
and Lord Dalhousie—Lord Canning, Lord 
Herbert, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, and 
the Duke of Newcastle, by some singular dis¬ 
pensation of Providence, have been swept 
away in the full maturity of their faculties and 
in the early stages of middle life—a body of 
men strong enough of themselves in all the 
gifts of wisdom and of knowledge, of expe¬ 
rience and of eloquence, to have equipped a 
Cabinet for the service of the country. And 
therefore, my lord, when I look back upon 
the years that have passed, though they have 
been joyful years in many respects, because 
they have been years in which the Parlia¬ 
ment of this country has earned fresh and 
numerous titles to the augmented confidence 
of its citizens, they are also mournful in that I } 


seem to see the long procession of the figures 
of the dead, and I feel that those who are left 
behind are, in one sense, solitary upon the 
stage of public life.” (Cheers.) The Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer visited Edinburgh on 
the 3d, and delivered to the students his vale¬ 
dictory address as Rector of the University, the 
subject selected for illustration being “ The 
Place of Ancient Greece in the Providential 
Order of the World.” 

1.—Died at Acton-green, aged 66, John 
Lindley, F.R.S., an eminent botanist and 
landscape-gardener. 

4 . —Dr. Beke leaves London on a mission 
to Abyssinia, in connexion with the Abyssinian 
Captives’ Liberation Fund. 

5 . —The Master of the Rolls gives judg¬ 
ment in a case which had come before the 
Court in various forms as to a bequest of a 
sum of about 60,000/. in the will of the late 
Lord Henry Seymour. The will was made in 
France, and written in the French language; 
the passage causing the controversy being 
“ Aux Hospices de Paris et de Londres.” 
The question the English courts had to deter¬ 
mine was, what institutions were included under 
the word ‘ ‘ hospices. ” After examining a num¬ 
ber of French definitions of the word, his 
Honour held that such a word, and the gift 
covered by it, did not include “ hospitals ” as 
generally understood in this country, but must 
be confined to such institutions as gratuitously 
received within their walls and permanently pro¬ 
vided for persons incapacitated from taking care 
of themselves, either from old age combined 
with poverty, or neglected infancy, or mental 
incapacity, or from bodily ailments not sus¬ 
ceptible of cure. Such a gift did not include 
such hospitals as discharged their patients 
when cured or when incurable, such as Bar¬ 
tholomew’s and St. George’s Hospitals; of 
hospitals merely for the relief of sickness, and 
not admitting inmates, such as dispensaries. 
The gift must be construed and confined 
strictly within the meaning of the French 
word “hospice,” and the various claimants 
must be marshalled accordingly. 

6 . —The Confederate cruiser, Shenandoah , 
arrives in the Mersey, and is deserted by her 
officers and crew. According to the state¬ 
ment of Captain Waddell, she disarmed and 
started for England as soon as authentic intel¬ 
ligence was obtained of the close of the war. 
The vessel was delivered over to the Consul 
of the United States on the 9th. (See Nov. 27.) 

— The Gazette announces the accession of 
Earl Russell to the office of First Lord of the 
Treasury, vacant by the death of Lord Palmer¬ 
ston. The Earl of Clarendon succeeded to 
the Foreign Office. In the other offices there 
was no change from the Palmerston Cabinet. 

10. —Died, aged 83, M. Dupin, French 
jurist and statesman. 

11. —Mr. Carlyle elected Rector of Edin* 

( 719 ) 





NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


burgh University by a majority of 657 to 310 
over Mr. Disraeli. 

11 . —James Stephens, the Fenian head centre, 
captured and lodged in Richmond Bridewell, 
Dublin. 

12 . —Died, aged 55, Mrs. Gaskell, author 
of “ Mary Barton” and other novels. 

15 . —Conference between prelates of the 
Anglican and Greek Churches to promote 
harmonious intercourse. 

— Disorderly proceedings in Highgate 
Cemetery, on the occasion of the funeral of 
Tom Sayers, the pugilist, which was attended 
from his residence, in Camden Town, by a 
long procession of costermongers, dog-fanciers, 
professional fighters, and thieves. They over¬ 
powered the police at the cemetery gates, took 
forcible possession of the ground, and kept up 
a scene of fighting and disorder, which, it was 
feared, might end in some cases fatally. 

16 . — Meeting of Oxford University in the 
hall of Oriel College, to consider the question 
of the extension of the University, with a view 
especially of the education of persons needing 
assistance, and desirous of admission to the 
Christian ministry. After some discussion, it 
was resolved that each college and hall should 
name one member to make up a committee 
to consider what steps should be taken with a 
view to this extension of the University. 

24 .—Through the connivance of a warder, 
the Fenian head centre, James Stephens, 
escapes from Richmond Prison, Dublin. A 
reward of 1,000/. was offered for his appre¬ 
hension. 

— Came on for hearing in the Divorce 
Court, the case of Broadwood v. Broadwood 
and the Duke of St. Albans, a suit instituted 
by the petitioner for the purpose of obtaining 
a divorce from the respondent on the ground 
of adultery with the co-respondent and others, 
known as “the Colonel” and “ O.” The 
respondent, in her pleas, denied the adultery, 
and charged the petitioner with conducing 
thereto by his own cruelty, neglect, and adul¬ 
tery with a Mrs. Plunkett, with whom he was 
at present living. Before her marriage, the 
respondent appeared to have introduced her¬ 
self to the young Duke of St. Albans as “a 
fast and very loose young female, up to every 
vice under the sun, except humbug, and well 
worthy of your notice.” The jury found that 
the respondent had been guilty of adultery 
with the co-respondent and others, and that 
Broadwood himself had been guilty of adultery. 
The judge dismissed the petition with costs as 
against Mrs. Broadwood, but made no order 
as against the Duke of St. Albans. 

26 . —Died, aged 44, Heinrich Barth, African 
explorer. 

27 . —Came on in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the case of the Queen v. Cobbett, the 
defendant being charged under fifty-five counts 
with engaging subjects to serve in arms against 

(720) 


865 . 


a foreign Power not at war with England. He 
was captain of the Sea King , which left London 
ostensibly for Bombay, but put into Madeira, 
where she was boarded by Confederate officers, 
and equipped as a cruiser under the name of the 
Shenandoah. On the main question, whether 
the defendant induced any person to enlist in a 
foreign service, or prevailed upon any of his 
crew to remain after the vessel was sold, the 
jury returned a verdict of Not guilty. 

30 .—Fenian trials commenced at Dublin, 
before the Special Commission. Thomas Clarke 
Luby, of the Irish People, was first placed at 
the bar on the restricted charge of treason- 
felony. The informer, Nagle, said that at 
certain meetings in the People office drill- 
forms were produced. “There was a blank 
space in which the name of the captain, or B, 
was entered; the squares then showed how the 
captain, the sergeant, or C, and the rank and 
file, or D, were armed ; also the strength of 
the company. A * V ’ signified a man armed 
with a rifle; the inverted V signified a man 
armed with a gun or pistol. A stroke signified 
that the man was armed with a pike. A circle 
signified a man not armed at all. I learned 
from Mulchay that the object of the society 
was to overthrow the Queen’s Government in 
Ireland, and when that was done the Republic 
was to be established.” Mr. Best addressed 
the Court for the prisoners, but called no wit¬ 
nesses. The jury returned a verdict of Guilty, 
and Luby was sentenced to twenty years’ penal 
servitude. John O’Leary was sentenced to 
penal servitude for a similar term. On the 9th 
December O’Donovan (Rossa) was sentenced 
to penal servitude for life. 

— An important question in the law of in¬ 
ternational copyright heard before the Lord's 
Justices, in the form of an appeal from a judg¬ 
ment pronounced by Vice-Chancellor Kinders- 
ley. The plaintiffs, Messrs. Sampson Low 
and Co., publishers, instituted the suit to re¬ 
strain Messrs. Routledge and Co., publishers, 
from printing, publishing, or selling the work 
by Miss S. Cummins, entitled “ Haunted 
Hearts,” which was published by Messrs. Low 
and Co. in May, 1864. Miss Cummins, a 
native of the United States, resided at Mont¬ 
real at the time of the assignment of the copy¬ 
right to the plaintiffs, and also at the time of 
their entry of the assignment at Stationers’ 
Hall, and they submitted that, though she was 
an alien and a native of a country between 
which and the United Kingdom no interna¬ 
tional law of copyright subsists, her residence 
within British dominions at those periods, and 
the publication of her work for the first time in 
England, were sufficient to meet the objection 
of the defendants that, being a native of the 
United States, she could neither possess nor 
assign copyright in her work. The Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor decided in favour of the plantiffs : h mce 
this appeal by the defendants. Lord Justice 
Turner gave judgment at considerable length, 
remarking, in conclusion, that the question in 






DECEMBER 


1865 


DECEMBER 


this case was, not what were the rights of the 
authoress in Canada, but what were her rights 
in this country, and the law of the country left 
no doubt upon that question. The 25th section 
of the Act under consideration enacted that all 
copyright should be deemed to be personal pro¬ 
perty, and it was decided that an alien might 
by common law acquire within this realm, by 
gift or other lawful means, personal property, 
and might maintain an action in respect of it. 
Therefore he agreed with the Vice-Chancellor, 
and the appeal must be dismissed. Lord 
Justice Knight Bruce was of the same opinion. 
The appeal was accordingly dismissed, with 
costs. 

December 4 . —In the annual Message to 
Congress, President Johnson makes allusion 
to the differences with Great Britain, arising 
from the damage committed upon American 
commerce by Confederate cruisers. “The 
formal accordance of belligerent rights to the 
insurgent States was unprecedented, and has 
not been justified by the issue. .. . The sincere 
desire for peace by which I am animated led 
me to approve the proposal already made, to 
submit the questions which had thus arisen 
between the countries to arbitration. These 
questions are of such moment that they must 
have commanded the attention of the great 
Powers, and are so interwoven with the peace 
and interests of every one of them as to have 
ensured an impartial decision. I regret to in¬ 
form you that Great Britain declined the arbi¬ 
trament, but, on the other hand, invited us to 
the formation of a joint commission to settle 
mutual claims between the two countries, from 
which those for the depredations before 
mentioned should be excluded. The propo¬ 
sition, in that very unsatisfactory form, has been 
declined.” 

— Died, aged 42, Captain Fowke, R.E., 
designer of the South Kensington Museum and 
the International Exhibition of 1862. 

— Commenced in Edinburgh, before Lord 
Jerviswood and a jury, the case of Longworth 
(Mrs. Yelverton) v. Beresford Hope and Cooke, 
being an action for an alleged libellous article 
inserted in the Saturday Review, regarding the 
plaintiff. “We have'no notion,” wrote the 
critic, “of making a heroine of such a person 
as Miss Longworth. She is out of keeping 
with society, both as it is and as it ought to 
be. She is an adventuress, launched into the 
world nobody knows how, with a previous 
history which has never been told. She is a 
sceur de charite, but she meets and courts 
adventures little in keeping with her semi¬ 
conventual dress and office. She sinners it and 
saints it by turns, or at once. She is made 
up of passion and prudence, of hard intellectual 
vigour and sensuous thoughts and feelings. 
She writes as no modest woman writes, and 
she schemes as no modest woman would scheme. 
She has religious scruples, but they do not re¬ 
strain her from provoking at least to sin. T he 
best that can be hoped for her is that she will 
(721) 


abandon that world which will act most kindly 
by forgetting her, and forgiving her offence 
against society.” The jury, by a majority of 
nine to three, returned a verdict for the defen¬ 
dants. 

8.—The judges of the Court of Session, in 
Edinburgh, decide unanimously against the 
Rev. G. H. Forbes, who had appealed against 
the authority of the recent canons adopted by 
the Scottish Church, declaring the Communion 
Office in the English service to be of primary 
use, and permitting the Scotch Office only 
under certain restrictions. Lord Neaves gave 
an elaborate judgment, tracing the history ot 
Episcopacy in Scotland from the Revolution to 
the present time. 

— Mr. Secretary Cardwell having desired 
on behalf of her Majesty’s Government that 
Governor Eyre should furnish more exact in¬ 
formation than he had yet done concerning the 
military shootings and hangings at Morant 
Bay, the Governor now writes : “It is very 
probable that some occurrences may have taken 
place which cannot be justified, during the pre¬ 
valence of martial law, and where so much 
was necessarily left to the discretion of, or 
where an unforeseen responsibility was by cir¬ 
cumstances forced upon, subordinate autho¬ 
rities, differing greatly in character, ability, 
temper, experience, and judgment. Such cases 
can only be sincerely deplored. . . As regards 
the general features of, and mode of carrying 
out, the retribution which was so necessarily 
and justly dealt to those who were principals 
in this most cruel and unprovoked insurrection, 
I do not doubt but that ample justification will 
be forthcoming by the officers under whose 
immediate directions and supervision it took 
place. Those officers were Major-General 
O’Connor, in Kingston ; Brigadier-General 
Nelson, in the districts east of Morant Bay; 
and Colonel Hobbs, in the district north-west 
of Morant Bay.” 

10. —Died at Laeken, Brussels, Leopold, 
first King of the Belgians, in his 75th year. 

11 . —Meeting held in Exeter-hall to de¬ 
nounce Governor Eyre and his subordinates, 
for the excessive severity used in suppressing 
the Jamaica insurrection. 

— Miss Mary Eyre, sister of the Governor 
of Jamaica, indignant at the course pursued 
by the Abolition party in this country, wrote 
to the Star: “ It is not fair, sir, it is not Eng¬ 
lish, to publish only letters abusing a man, and 
stigmatizing him as ‘ a wholesale murderer and 
a Robespierre,’ who ought to be hung with the 
same rope with which he hung Gordon, and 
none in his defence. His sister surely may 
say a word for him.” This brought down on 
her a number of anonymous communications, 
two of which she sent to the Times: “ Madam, 
you have done a smart thing, no doubt, trying 
to defend your bloody murderous brother, who 
deserves a rope if any one ever did, and I hope 
he will got it. The 50/. you speak of makes 






DECEMBER 


1865-66. 


JANUARY 


his character the blacker. It is stolen goods ; 
plundered from the poor blacks. A greater 
scoundrel never walked the earth, and to help 
him he got the bloody Nelson and others to 
work, and ‘ rum’d ’ the sailors, that they might 
cut up the poor people because they are black 
and coloured. The curse of the nation and the 
world will ever rest upon your family for those 
bloody crimes. * Blood cries for vengeance 
upon you all. ,,, —“Madam, I have just read 
your silly letter, and just as sure as your das¬ 
tard of a brother murdered poor Mr. Gordon, 
so shall he swing for it at the Old Bailey. ” 

11.—Sir Henry Storks appointed temporary 
Governor of Jamaica. He left England on the 
18th with the Commissioners (Messrs. Gurney 
and Maule) appointed to inquire into the recent 
disturbances. 

1 *2.—Exhibition of Arts and Industry opened 
at Glasgow by the Duke of Argyll. It con¬ 
tinued a source of considerable attraction till 
the close of March, 1866. 

13 . —The Samphire mail-steamer, plying 
between Dover and Calais, run into by the 
American barque Fanny Buck. Several of 
the passengers were drowned. 

14 . —The Emperor of Austria opens the 
Hungarian Diet at Pesth, and announces that 
after the settlement of certain questions affect¬ 
ing the Constitution, the representatives might 
discuss the programme of the coronation. 

16 .—The cattle-plague inspectors report 
that the number of animals attacked during the 
past week had risen to 6,054. The number 
now reported as attacked since the outbreak 
was 73,549; killed, 13,931 ; died, 41,491; 
under treatment, 11,082; recovered, 7,045. 

19 . —Count Eulenberg sentenced to four 
months’ imprisonment for his participation in 
the fatal attack on M. Ott, Prince Alfred’s 
cook. 

20. —The Ibis steamer, trading between 
London and Cork, lost on the Julien Rock, near 
the harbour of the latter port. Her machinery 
first broke down, and then the rope of the 
Sabrina , by which she was taken in tow, snapped 
asunder. 

— Explosion of fire-damp in the Upper 
Gethin coal-pit, Merthyr Tydvil, causing the 
death of thirty men and boys, nearly all who 
were on the heading at the east level when the 
disaster occurred. 

24 .—Died at Pisa, aged 72, Sir C. L. East- 
lake, President of the Royal Academy. 

28 .—The eight hundredth anniversary of 
the foundation of Westminster Abbey cele¬ 
brated by special service, and a sermon preached 
by Dean Stanley. 


1866. 

January 1. —Fire in St. Katherine’s Dock, 
consuming portions of two bonded warehouses 
and a large quantity of tallow and oil. 

(722) 


3 . —In an address at Rochdale on the 
subject of Parliamentary Reform, Mr. Bright 
remarked that he had seen a paragraph the 
other day cut from an Indian newspaper which, 
describing the immensely extensive household 
of a native prince, stated that there were 
hundreds of what were called prophesying 
Brahmins in his establishment. “ A Brahmin 
is a Hindoo priest, and is of great authority. 
Now, I have no doubt whatever that there are 
prophesying Brahmins in the great Whig 
House somewhere, and I dare say they are 
foretelling all sorts of evils that may come from 
the passing of this bill. I venture to foretell 
Lord Russell that their counsels, if followed, 
will be not only perilous, but I believe they 
will be fatal counsels to him and to his Govern¬ 
ment. There is in an old poem that I read with 
great pleasure many years ago—the ‘ Faery 
Queen ’—a line which I think may teach us 
something in our present position, ‘ No fort 
is fencible, no wall is strong, but that con¬ 
tinual battery may rive.’ I feel certain that 
the fort of selfishness and monopoly cannot be 
held for ever, and that the walls of privilege 
cannot through all time resist the multitude 
that are gathering to the assault. In all the 
nations of the world of this day, I believe the 
powers of Good are gaining steadily on the 
powers of Evil. I think it is eminently so in this 
country. Let us take courage, then. We are 
endeavouring by constitutional means to com¬ 
pass a great constitutional end; to make Parlia¬ 
ment not only the organ of the will, but the 
honest and faithful guardian of the interests, of 
all classes in the country. It is a great and 
noble purpose which we have set ourselves to 
do, but it is a purpose which cannot fail, if 
we are true to it and to ourselves.” (Loud 
and prolonged cheering.) 

— Crewe Hall, Cheshire, the seat of Lord 
Crewe, destroyed by fire. From the moment 
the flames were discovered on the top of the 
eastern wing, the progress of the fire was ex¬ 
tremely rapid ; and before anything like com¬ 
bined efforts could be made to arrest it the 
flames had spread along the marble hall, pic¬ 
ture-gallery, drawing-room, and chapel. 

4 . —The Bank of England raises the rate 
of discount from 7 to 8 per cent. 

8 .—A member of the Ball Mall staff of 
writers (Mr. James Greenwood) passes this 
night in the casual’"’Ward of Lambeth work- 
house, and reveals in a graphic narrative the 
irregularity, neglect, and disorder which pre¬ 
vailed in such places. The revelations made 
led to casual wards being placed under the 
control of the police. 


— M. du C haillu attends a meeting of the 
Royal Geographical Society, and details the 
adventures which had befallen him in the 
course of his second journey into Western 
Equatorial Africa. He described the existence 
of a race of dwarfs averaging from four feet 
four to four feet five inches in height, in the 
existence of which the chairman, Mr. Craw- 








JANUARY 


1866. 


JANUARY 


ford, felt himself compelled to state he en¬ 
tirely disbelieved. 

9 .—Commenced in the Admiralty Court 
the pleadings in the great Banda and Kirwee 
Prize-money case, involving the distribution of 
a sum estimated at 800,000/. The claimants 
were the respective armies, divisions, or 
columns under General Sir George Whitlock, 
Sir Hugh Rose, General Robinson, General 
Smith, Sir Thomas Hamilton, General Wheeler, 
General Carthew, the Futtehpore column 
(which was afterwards under General Max¬ 
well), General Sir J. Roberts, and lastly the 
executors of the late Lord Clyde, who was 
Commander-in-chief in India at the time. The 
proceedings in the suit were printed, and filled 
seven folio volumes, some of them containing 
upwards of three hundred pages, and there 
were between thirty and forty counsel (includ¬ 
ing twelve Queen’s Counsel) engaged in the 
case. The questions to be decided were, whether 
the actual captors—Sir George Whitlock and 
his army—were entitled to the whole of the 
booty, or whether the other columns supporting 
the military movements which made the capture 
possible were entitled to share to any extent, 
and also whether the executors of the late 
Lord Clyde were entitled to a share. On one 
of the days of hearing, Mr. Bovill brought 
forward a Scriptural argument bearing on 
the division of prize-money. In the Book of 
Samuel, it was narrated that David, with 
a part of his army, pursued the Amalekites, 
and took much spoil; and since some portions 
of David’s army had been left on the road in 
charge of the baggage while the remainder 
pursued the enemy, the question was raised 
whether the pursuers alone should take their 
booty, or, share it with those who remained 
behind. King David decided that the whole 
army should share the spoil, because those who 
had been left behind on duty formed a neces¬ 
sary part of the scheme of capture. The argu¬ 
ments were now protracted till the 28th Feb. 
Dr. Lushington delivered judgment on the 
30th June. He disallowed Sir Hugh Rose’s 
claim as a constructive captor on the ground 
that no junction had ever been effected be¬ 
tween his forces and those of General Whitlock. 
“The result of the judgment is,” he said, 
“that I declare Lord Clyde and his staff, 
personal as well as general, entitled to share 
in the booty captured at Banda and Kirwee ; 
and, subject to this right, I award the whole 
of the booty to General Whitlock and his 
forces, including amongst the latter the troops 
under General Keating, and any other 
troops left by General Whitlock on his 
march, but who, at the time of the capture, 
formed a portion of his division, and were still 
under his command. I disallow all other 
claims. I shall direct that the costs of the 
various parties be paid out of the fund.” 
These costs, it was thought, would amount to 
75,000/. The judgment alone filled twenty- 
nine printed pages. 

JO. —Severe storm in the English Channel 
( 723 ) 


Off Torbay as many as thirty wrecks were 
observed at one time. The loss of life there 
and at other places along the coast was consi¬ 
derable. A heavy snow also interrupted for a 
time the greater part of the telegraphic system. 

11 .—Mr. Goschen appointed Chancellor of 
the Duchy of Lancaster, and made a Cabinet 
Minister. 

— Wreck of the iron steamship London 
in the Bay of Biscay, and loss of 220 lives. 
She left Gravesend on the 30th December, but 
met with such severe weather in the Channel 
that she was obliged to put into St. Helen’s 
Road for shelter. She arrived at Plymouth 
on the 4th, and embarked an unusually large 
number of passengers. On the 7th she en¬ 
countered a fierce gale, and being heavily 
laden sustained considerable damage. On 
the 8th and 9th fresh disasters occurred, 
the masts being carried away by the deck and 
also the port life-boat. Though the sea was 
in the wildest commotion, the screw was still 
kept moving, and Captain Martin resolved to 
put back to Plymouth ; but this design was 
frustrated by a huge sea breaking over the 
vessel on the night of the 10th. The hatch¬ 
way over the engine-room was entirely de¬ 
molished, and the fires submerged. The chief 
engineer remained at his post until the water 
had risen above his waist, when he went on 
deck and reported that his fires were out and 
his engines rendered useless. Captain Martin, 
with calm conviction, remarked that he was 
not surprised ; on the contrary, he had ex¬ 
pected such a result. Finding his ship at 
length little more than a log on the water, 
he immediately ordered the maintop-sail to be 
set, in the hope of keeping her before the wind. 
This difficult work had scarcely been accom¬ 
plished, when the force of the tempest tore the 
sail into ribbons, with the exception of one 
comer, under which the ship lay-to through¬ 
out the night. The donkey-engine (supplied 
with steam by a boiler upon deck) and all the 
deck pumps were kept going throughout the 
night, and the passengers of all classes, now 
aroused to a sense of their imminent danger, 
shared with the crew the most arduous labour. 
Notwithstanding every effort the water gained 
upon the pumps, and the gale continuing at its 
height, cross-seas with tremendous force were 
constantly breaking over the vessel, which at 
length succumbed to the unequal conflict. 
From this moment the motion of the ship was 
low and heavy, and she refused to rise to the 
action of the waves. At a quarter after 4 
o’clock on the morning of the nth she was 
struck by a sea, which carried away four of 
her sternposts and admitted floods of water 
through the breach. From this time all efforts 
were useless, and at daybreak Captain Martin, 
whose cool intrepidity had never for a mo¬ 
ment forsaken him, entered the cuddy, where 
all classes of passengers had now taken refuge, 
and, responding to a universal appeal, calmly 
announced the end of all human hope. His 
solemn words were as solemnly received—a 

3 a 2 






JANUARY 


1866. 


JANUAR V 


resigned silence prevailing throughout the assem¬ 
bly, broken only at brief intervals by the well- 
timed and appropriate exhortations of the Rev. 
Mr. Draper, whose spiritual services had been 
incessant during the last twenty-four hours. 
At io A.M., the ship still rolling deeply, an 
attempt was made to launch the starboard 
pinnace, but a sea struck her as she reached 
the water, and the boat sank, leaving a crew 
of five men struggling for their lives. As 
the ship was lying-to three of them managed 
to scramble up the sides of the ship, and the 
other two were caught up by ropes thrown to 
them. After this the exhausted crew appeared 
indifferent to their fate, and no further effort at 
launching the remaining boats was made until 
i O’clock, when the ship was evidently set¬ 
tling down, and the port pinnace was got over 
the side. Even at this moment the sea was so 
heavy that those of the passengers who were 
within reach of the boat appeared to prefer 
the frail shelter of the sinking vessel to the 
obvious dangers of a small boat in a raging 
sea. At this crisis Captain Martin, always 
at hand, addressing Mr. Greenhill, his chief 
engineer, under whose command this par¬ 
ticular boat was rated, said, “ There is not 
much chance for the boat. There is none for 
the ship. Your duty is done. Mine is to 
remain here. Get in, and take the command 
of the few it will hold.” Thus prompted, Mr. 
Greenhill, with his fellow-engineers and some 
few others, numbering only nineteen souls, 
quitted the ship, with only a few biscuits in 
the shape of piovisions, and no water. The 
pinnace had scarcely cleared the wake of the 
vessel, upon the poop of which upwards of 
fifty of the passengers were grouped, when 
a tremendous sea was seen to break over the 
doomed circle. When the ship rose slowly 
again, they were discovered to have been swept 
into the surging waters. Another moment, and 
the vessel herself, settling down stern foremost, 
threw up her bow into the air and sank 
beneath the waves. The pinnace, having no 
sails on board, would only keep afloat before 
the wind, and was repeatedly in danger of 
swamping. At 3 A.M. on the 12th they sighted 
the sails of a brig the crew of which overheard 
their shouts, but failing to get into the track 
of the boat after several fruitless attempts, she 
bore away. A few hours later they were sighted 
by the Italian barque Adrianople , which bore 
down on the drifting pinnace and rescued the 
miserable occupants from the dreadful fate which 
for so many hours had been staring them in the 
face. These few survivors of the great com¬ 
pany of the London were landed safely at 
Falmouth. Among those who went down 
with the ship were G. V. Brooke, tragedian 
(who wrought with great eagerness to keep 
her afloat), Dr. Woolley, Principal of Sydney 
College, Rev. Daniel Draper, a Wesleyan 
minister, and Mr. Palmer, editor of the Law 
Revieiv. The inquiry which took place did 
not show that any precaution to secure the 
safety of the vessel, had been omitted, but the 

( 724 ' 


opinion of some of the survivors was that she 
was too heavily loaded with dead weight. 

18 . —Died, in his 75th year, Dr. Petrie, 
Vice-President of the Royal Irish Academy, 
and a writer of deserved authority in the 
archaeology of his native country. 

19 . —Died, in his 74th year, Rev. S. R. 
Maitland, D.D., for many years Librarian at 
Lambeth Palace, and author of various works 
in the department of theological history. 

23 . —The writ of error in the conviction of 
Charlotte Winsor argued before the judges in 
the Court of Queen’s Bench. Twenty-five 
pleas were raised :—1. That she had not been 
tried and convicted according to law. 2. That 
the jury on the first trial were discharged with¬ 
out agreeing to a verdict. 3. That they were 
discharged without the consent or motion of 
the convict or the prosecution. 4. That there 
was no illness on the part of any of the jury, 
rendering it necessary to discharge them. 5. 
That the jurors were not any of them in¬ 
capacitated from giving a verdict on the evi¬ 
dence. 6. There was no sufficient cause shown 
why the learned judge took upon himself to 
discharge the jury. 7. That when he found 
the jury could not agree, the learned judge 
ought to have directed the jury to return a 
verdict of Not guilty. 8. That the jury having 
been so discharged, Winsor ought to have 
been discharged, and not again put in peril for 
the same murder. 9 was a similar objection ; 
and the remaining allegations, though varied in 
form, were the same in substance, except one, 
that the evidence of the approver was illegal. 
The convict was brought up, in custody, from 
Newgate, where she had been confined since 
last term. At the close of the pleadings the 
Court gave judgment for the Crown, thus re¬ 
affirming the conviction of the prisoner. (See 
July 25, 1865.) 

24 . — M. de Cabrowe and his mother, 
French people of good birth, but in a state of 
extreme destitution, commit suicide together 
by hanging themselves in their lodgings in 
Paddington. Written instructions regarding 
the disposal of their bodies were found in the 
room, with a statement of the extreme suffer¬ 
ings they had endured. 

25 . —The Jamaica Special Commission com¬ 
mence to take evidence at Spanish Town. 

26 . —Died at Rome, aged 75, John Gibson, 
Esq., R.A., sculptor. He left 32,000/. to the 
Royal Academy, on condition that a suffi¬ 
cient space should be allowed for the exhibi¬ 
tion of his works, open to the use of students at 
the Royal Academy, and exposed to the public 
according to such regulations as the Council 
might deem best. 

27 . —From the second report of the Cattle 
Plague Commissioners, it appeared that up to 
this date, out of the 120,740 cases of disease 
reported, 16,742 had been killed, 73,750 died, 
16,086 had been under treatment, and 14,162 







JANUARY 


1866 . 


FEBRUARY 


recovered. In Yorkshire, 19,331 cases had 
been reported, and in the comparatively small 
county of Cheshire, 17,971. 

29 .—Formation of a secret mercantile con¬ 
federacy to buy up and thereby raise the price 
of pig iron. It was quoted to-day at 62 s. ; but 
the purchasing operations were carried through 
on a scale of such magnitude, that early in April 
producers to keep their time-bargains had to 
purchase back on their own account at 8 ij. The 
amount involved in the speculation was said to 
be over 2,000,000/. 

February 1.—A memorial from the Eng¬ 
lish Church Union on the subject of the 
Ritualistic innovations in the Church, signed by 
about 500 clergymen, presented to the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth. His Grace 
assured the deputation that it was his most 
anxious desire to promote uniformity in public 
worship to the utmost of his power, and to 
reconcile the conflicting interests of the dif¬ 
ferent parties in the Church without any sacri¬ 
fice of principle.—On the same day, Earl 
Russell was waited upon by a deputation re¬ 
presenting “ The Association for Promoting a 
Revision of the Prayer-book, and for Securing 
Purity and Simplicity in the Public Worship 
of the Church of England.” His Lordship 
undertook to bring the question before the 
Cabinet, and especially to consult with the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. 

—- The new Parliament commences its 
labours by electing Mr. Evelyn Denison to 
the office of Speaker. The swearing-in of 
members was then proceeded with. 

— Mr. Francis Grant elected President of 
the Royal Academy, Sir Edwin Landseer de¬ 
clining to accede to the wishes of a large majo¬ 
rity that he would accept the office. 

2.—The Convocation of the Provinces of 
Canterbury and York commence their sittings. 

6.—Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, the case of Fitzgerald v. Northcote and 
Stone. The plaintiff was the son of the Right 
Hon. Mr. Justice Fitzgerald, one of the Puisne 
Judges of the Irish Court of Queen’s Bench; 
the defendants were Dr. Northcote, Principal 
of the Roman Catholic College at Ascott, 
near Birmingham, and Mr. Stone, the “ Pre¬ 
fect ” or disciplinary officer of that establish¬ 
ment. Nominally, the action was for assault 
and false imprisonment, and to recover a pocket- 
book ; the real issue was whether the plain¬ 
tiff’s son was properly or improperly expelled 
the college. The defendants pleaded in justi¬ 
fication various special pleas, the substance of 
which was that the youth had started a “con¬ 
spiracy,” as it was called, among the lay boys 
of the college, against the clerical boys, or the 
boys destined for the priesthood, with the 
object of holding them up to ridicule and 
obloquy, and that it was necessary, in order to 
uphold the discipline of the college, to seize 
his pocket-book in order to find out aii about 


the supposed conspiracy, and then to expel 
him ; further, until he could be expelled, to sepa¬ 
rate him from the other students, and with 
that view to confine him in his room. Dr. 
Northcote himself was the principal witness 
for the defence, and was cross-examined with 
considerable humour and ingenuity by Mr. 
Coleridge. Verdict for the plaintiff—damages 

5 * 

6. —Died at Mount Trenchard, Limerick, 
aged 76, Lord Monteagle—formerly Mr. Spring 
Rice, and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 
1835 to 1839. 

— Parliament opened by the Queen in per¬ 
son. The Royal Speech, which was read from 
the Throne by the Lord Chancellor, made 
reference to our friendly relations with foreign 
Powers, the close of the civil war in the United 
States, the renewal of diplomatic relations with 
Brazil, the outbreak in Jamaica, the commercial 
treaties entered into with Japan and Austria, 
the cattle-plague, and the Fenian disturbance 
in Ireland. On the subject of Parliamentary 
Reform, it was said: “I have directed that 
information should be procured in reference to 
the right of voting in the election of members 
to serve in Parliament for counties, cities, and 
boroughs. When that information is complete 
the attention of Parliament will be called to 
the result thus obtained, with a view to such 
improvements in the laws which regulate the 
right of voting in the election of Members of 
the House of Commons, as may tend to 
strengthen our free institutions and conduce to 
the public welfare.” The Address was agreed 
to without a division in the House of Lords. 
In the Commons The O’Donoghue sought to 
insert a paragraph calling upon Ministers to 
examine into and remove the disaffection in 
Ireland, but was defeated on a division by 346 
to 25 votes. The conduct of Governor Eyre in 
suppressing the Jamaica insurrection, and the 
policy of the Government orders on the cattle- 
plague, were discussed at subsequent sittings. 

— Sir Charles Wood resigns the office of 
Secretary of State for India, and is raised to the 
Upper House, as Viscount Halifax. He was 
succeeded by Earl de Grey in the India Office. 
The Marquis of Hartington entered the War 
Office. 

7 . —Several of the morning newspapers com¬ 
ment on an interview said to have taken place 
between Earl Russell and Mr. Bright, on the 
subject of Parliamentary Reform. 

11 . —Died, aged 80, W. T. Brande, chemist, 
author of a “ Dictionary of Science, Literature, 
and Art.” 

12. —Sir George Grey introduces the Go¬ 
vernment Bill for suppressing the cattle-plague. 
Mr. Bright objected to the compensation clauses 
as contrary to the principle adopted by Parlia¬ 
ment on past occasions of public suffering to 
vote money out of taxes to remedy a misfor¬ 
tune of this kind ; and it was a grievance which 
every tax-payer would complain of, if his money 

( 725 ) 







FEBRUARY 


1 866 . 


FEBRUARY 


were applied to the compensation of well-to-do 
farmers and rich landowners who might suffer 
from the affliction.—Mr. Lowe said, the object 
was not to compensate people for what they 
had lost, but for what they had lost through 
the direct agency of the Government by the 
destruction of their property for the public 
good.—Mr. Stuart Mill did not object to com¬ 
pensation on principle, but thought the Bill 
did what it ought not, and did not do what 
it ought. It compensated an entire class of 
persons connected with the land for that of 
which they bore-their share with the rest of the 
community; and it did not do what it ought 
to do in equalizing the circumstances of that 
class itself. For, inasmuch as the compensa¬ 
tion was to be a local charge, the consequence 
was that those portions of the agricultural in¬ 
terest which had not suffered at all would 
have to pay least; and those who suffered most 
would have to pay most. On the whole, there¬ 
fore, he preferred a general rate upon the land 
or upon cattle to any local rate. 

12 . —Earl Russell informs Lord Ebury that 
it is not the intention of Government to advise 
the issuing of any Commission for the revision 
of the Liturgy. “The former Commission,” 
he writes, “ upon the terms of subscription 
arrived at a conclusion which gave greater 
freedom of opinion to every person in holy 
orders ; but a Commission for the revision of 
the Liturgy would in all probability lead to 
heated discussion, and its report, if it framed 
any, would be sure to offend and irritate a 
large party in the Church. As her Majesty’s 
Government are most anxious to promote 
peace and goodwill, and not to open the way 
to discord, they must decline to adopt the pro¬ 
posal which your Lordship and the deputa¬ 
tion accompanying you have made. ” 

13 . —Sir George Grey obtains leave to 
introduce a bill for the purpose of reducing all 
the oaths taken by members of Parliament to 
one simple form : “1 do swear I will bear 
true allegiance to Queen Victoria, and defend 
her to the utmost of my power from all con¬ 
spiracies and treasons against her person, crown, 
and dignity.” 

r — Cholera conference opened at Constan¬ 
tinople. 

14 . —Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, before the Lord Chief Justice and a 
special jury, thi case of Walker v. Milner—an 
action raised by Mr. Walker, jeweller, Corn- 
hill, against the firm of Milner and Son, of 
Moorgate-street, for breach of a warranty on 
the sale of an iron safe. The declaration stated 
that Mr. Milner agreed to sell the plaintiff a 
certain iron safe, and promised that it was 
sufficiently strong to resist any attempt or vio¬ 
lence that might be made upon it by thieves ; 
and that he, relying upon that promise, bought 
and paid for it, but that it was not sufficiently 
strong to, resist the efforts of thieves to break 
it open, and was, in fact, broken open, and 
property stolen therefrom to the amount of 

(726) 


6,000/. The case was chiefly remarkable for 
the insight it gave into the manner the robbery 
had been effected in Mr. Walker’s premises on 
the 4th February last. The convict Caseley 
was put into the witness-box, and described 
with perfect frankness every detail of the 
burglary, from the time it was planned till its 
successful completion. It was this Caseley 
who forced the safe, and he now gave a 
minute account of the manner in which it 
was accomplished. The jury found that there 
was no warranty, which was, of course, a 
verdict for the defendant. 

14 -.—Fire in Oxford-street, destroying a 
considerable portion of Laurie and Mamer’s 
carriage factory. 

— The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland informs 
the Government that, after the most careful 
consideration, the time, in his opinion, had ar¬ 
rived for a suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
Act. “The state of affairs,” he wrote, “is 
very serious. The conspirators, undeterred by 
the punishment of so many of their leaders, are 
actively organizing an outbreak to destroy the 
Queen’s authority. Sir Hugh Rose details the 
various plans they have in contemplation, and 
he draws no exaggerated picture. There are 
scattered over the country a number of agents 
who are swearing-in members, and who are 
prepared to take the command when the 
moment arrives. These men are of the most 
dangerous class. They are Irishmen imbued 
with American notions, and possessed of con¬ 
siderable military experience. There are 340 
such men known to the police in the provinces, 
and about 160 in Dublin. There are several 
hundred men who have come over from Eng¬ 
land and Scotland, who receive is. 6 d. a day, 
and are waiting for the time of action. Any 
one may observe these men loitering about at 
the corners of the streets. As to arms, we have 
found no less than three regular manufactories 
of pikes, bullets, and cartridges in Dublin. . . . 
The most dangerous feature of the present 
movement is the attempt to seduce the troops. 
... I have watched every symptom here for 
many months, and it is my deliberate convic¬ 
tion that no time should now be lost in sus¬ 
pending the Act. I cannot be responsible for 
the safety of the country, if power is not forth¬ 
with given to the Government to seize the 
leaders.” 

15 .—Mr. Hunt’s proposal that no cattle 
should be moved on a railway before the 28th 
of March, carried in committee against the 
Government by 264 to 181 votes. Speaking 
again on the question of compensation, Mr. 
Lowe questioned the truth of a statement made 
that the English cattle producer would gain on 
account of a rise in prices. “Has he not,” he 
asked, “got powerful competition, and will 
not advanced prices increase an importation 
of 10,000 head of cattle to 20,000? That 
which is to be the indemnification of the Eng¬ 
lish cattle-dealer will have to be divided with 
all Europe, and some of the money will go to 








FEBRUARY 


1866. 


MARCH 


Transatlantic producers.” Mr. Mill replied at 
once, that in an article of general consumption 
the effect of a scarcity was generally a rise in 
prices out of all proportion to the extent of 
that scarcity. Mr. Lowe had asked if it was 
not to be considered absurd that because a 
man or any of his family is not mad, he is not 
to be taxed for a lunatic asylum. “Now, I ask, 
is there any economical law by which the 
patients of a lunatic asylum are compensated 
for the expense of their maintenance in that 
asylum ? ” 

15 .—Mr. . Cardwell obtains leave to bring in 
a bill for the government of Jamaica similar to 
that now in operation at Trinidad. He pro¬ 
posed that an Order in Council should give it 
effect for three years, and if successful that it 
should be made perpetual. 

17 .—Bill for suspending the Habeas Corpus 
Act in Ireland passes both Houses of Parlia¬ 
ment. It gave power to the Lord Lieutenant 
to detain in custody any suspected person whom 
he may have already arrested, and, with the con¬ 
currence of six members of the Privy Council 
in Ireland, to arrest any others between this 
date and the 1st of March, 1867, and detain them 
up to that time, the prisoners not having any 
legal remedy in the meantime. In the debate 
to which the introduction of the bill gave rise, 
Mr. Bright said he had never spoken in the 
House with a deeper sense of shame and humi¬ 
liation, and called on the House not to let the 
year pass over “ till it has done something to rid 
us of this blot, for blot it is, upon the reign of 
the Queen and the administration of her states¬ 
men, upon the civilization and justice of the 
people of this country. ” 

20. — Mr. Clay, M.P. for Hull, obtains 
the assent of the House to introduce a bill 
conferring an educational franchise. (See 
May 30.) 

21. —Disorderly midnight meeting in Lon¬ 
don, called with a view of reclaiming fallen 
women. 

22. —In the Prussian Chamber, a motion 
favoured by the Government having been 
rejected by a large majority, Count Bismarck 
reads two decrees amid the breathless silence of 
the House, calling the Deputies to the Palace, 
and summarily proroguing the sitting. 

— The allowance to the Princess Helena 
fixed at 6,000/. a year, and her dowry at 
30,000/., as in the case of the Princess Alice. 
Th£ provision for Prince Alfred fixed at 
15,000/. a year, payable from the day on which 
he attains his majority. 

'— The House of Commons agree to an 
Address to the Queen, praying her Majesty to 
order the erection of a monument to Lord 
Palmerston in Westminster Abbey. 

— Revolution at Bucharest, a body of troops 
surrounding the house of the Hospodar, Prince 
Couza, and compelling him to abdicate. 


24 .—Dr. Whewell, Master of Trinity Col¬ 
lege,. Cambridge, thrown from his horse be¬ 
tween Shelford and Trumpington, and injured 
so severely that death resulted on the 6th 
March. Pie was born in 1795. 

— Died, at his residence, St. James’s 
Palace, the Hon. Sir C. B. Phipps, Keeper of 
her Majesty’s Privy Purse. 

26 .—Lord C. Paget introduces the Navy 
Estimates. Amount required for the year, 
10,388,153/. 

28 .—The Times gives currency to a rumour 
that Earl Russell had tendered his resignation, 
and recommended the Duke of Somerset as 
his successor. 

March 2.—-In the Divorce Court, the jury 
in the case of Cavendish v. Cavendish (Lady 
hlinor) and Lord Cecil Gordon, give a verdict 
for the petitioner, and assess the damages on 
the co-respondent at 10,000/. 

— Mr. Gregory introduces, but afterwards 
withdraws, a resolution, urging that it should 
be a recognised maxim of maritime law that 
private property was free from capture. 

3 . —Benjamin Coleman, editor of the Spi¬ 
ritual Magazine, fined 5 °l. for circulating 
libels defamatory of the character of Mr. 
Sothern, actor. 

4 . —Great Fenian mass-meeting at New 
York, presided over by Mahony, who an¬ 
nounced that fighting had commenced in Ire¬ 
land, and asked that funds might be furnished 
to such an extent as would enable an expedition 
to leave America within six weeks. 

5 . —Heard, in the Court of Probate, the 
testamentary suit of Bellew v. Bellew and 
others. The question was, whether a docu¬ 
ment propounded by Mr. Henry Bellew as the 
will of his late sister, Miss Caroline (com¬ 
monly called Countess Bellew), was her will, 
or a forgery on the part of a Mrs. Casse, a 
friend and neighbour of the deceased, who 
lived at Stockleigh House, Regent’s Park. 
Miss Frances Bellew, eldest sister of the de¬ 
ceased, opposed probate. In 1863, Mrs. Casse 
said the Countess called on her and expressed 
her intention of making out a new will, as one 
she had made in 1851 was lost. The proposed 
new will was accordingly drawn up and exe¬ 
cuted, a copy taken, and left with Mrs. Casse. 
This copy was now produced, no original 
being found, and probate asked. It disposed 
of about 26,000/., giving her sister 500/., “ to 
keep her from want,” a sum of 500/. to Mrs. 
Casse, and the residue, after small legacies, to 
her brother. Mrs. Casse, who was now up¬ 
wards of eighty years of age, admitted in cross- 
examination that she lived for many years 
with the late Lord Saltoun as his wife, and 
made a claim upon his estate on the faith of 
documents which the executor successfully re¬ 
sisted as not genuine. The jury returned a 
verdict that they were not satisfied as to the 
genuineness of the will—a decision followed 

(727) 








MARCH 


1866. 


MARCH 


by the prosecution of Mrs. Casse for forgery, 
and of one Verlander for perjury. 

5.—The Marquis of Hartington moves the 
Army Estimates, explaining in detail how the 
vote of 14,095,000/. was to be appropriated. 

— Died, aged 71, Dr. John Conolly, writer 
on lunacy. 

7 . —Mr. Hardcastle’s Church-rate Aboli¬ 
tion Bill carried through a second reading by 
285 to 252, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
expressing it as his opinion that, though Go¬ 
vernment were not prepared to take up the 
question, the time had arrived when a settle¬ 
ment might be made acceptable to Church¬ 
men on the one hand and Dissenters on the 
other. 

— Publication of the Queen’s Warrant in¬ 
stituting a new decoration of the “Albert 
Medal,” to be awarded in cases where it shall 
be considered fit, to such persons as shall en¬ 
danger their own lives in saving, or endeavour¬ 
ing to save, the lives of others from shipwreck 
or other perils of the sea. 

12.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces the Government Reform Bill. As¬ 
suming in his exordium that Reform was 
emphatically the business of the House of 
Commons, he reviewed the recent history of 
the Question, explained the difficulties and 
complications with which it was beset, and 
argued that from the time now at the dis¬ 
posal of the Parliament the Government were 
compelled to restrict their labours to a Fran¬ 
chise Bill alone. He proposed first to create 
an occupation franchise in counties, including 
houses beginning at 14/. rental, and reaching 
up to 50/.—the present occupation franchise ; 
secondly “to introduce into counties the pro¬ 
vision which copyholders and leaseholders with¬ 
in parliamentary boroughs now possess for the 
purpose of county votes. The third is a savings- 
bank franchise, which will operate in counties 
and towns, but which will have a more import¬ 
ant operation in the counties. In towns we 
purpose to place compound householders on 
the same footing as ratepayers. We propose 
to abolish tax and rate-paying clauses, and to 
reduce 10/. clear annual value, and to bring in 
the gross estimate rental from the rate-book as 
the measure of the value, thus, pro tanto , 
making the rate-book the register. We pro¬ 
pose also to introduce a lodger franchise, both 
for those persons holding part of a house with 
separate and independent access, and for those 
who hold part of a house as inmates of the 
family of another person. Then there is the 
io/. clear annual value of apartments without 
reference to furniture. We propose to abolish the 
necessity in the case of registered voters for re¬ 
sidence at the time of voting. And lastly—I say 
lastly, because there are some other provisions, 
but I do not think it needful to trouble the House 
with them now—we propose to follow the ex¬ 
ample set us by the right hon. gentlemen op¬ 
posite, and the Government of Lord Derby, in 
1859, and sustained and supported, I must say, 
(728) 


by many great authorities, and to introduce a 
clause disabling from voting persons who are 
employed in the Government yards. ... If 
issue is taken adversely on the bill, I hope it 
will be taken directly. I trust it will be taken 
upon the question whether there is or is not to 
be an enfranchisement downwards, or if it is to 
be taken at all. We have felt that to be essen¬ 
tial to usefulness; essential to the character 
and credit not merely of the Government, not 
merely of party, but of this House, and of suc¬ 
cessive Parliaments and Governments, who all 
stand pledged with respect to this question of 
the representation. We cannot consent to look 
upon this large addition, considerable although 
it may be, to the political power of the work¬ 
ing classes of this country, as if it were an ad¬ 
dition fraught with nothing but danger. We 
cannot look upon it as the Trojan horse ap¬ 
proaching the walls of the sacred city, and 
filled with armed men, bent upon ruin, plunder, 
and confiscation. We cannot join in compar¬ 
ing it with that “monstrum infelix”—we 
cannot say,— 

* Scandit fatalis machina muros, 

Foeta armis: mediaeque minas illabitur urbi.’ 

I believe that those persons whom we ask you 
to enfranchise ought rather to be welcomed as 
you would welcome recruits to your army. 
Give to those persons new interests in the 
Constitution—new interests which, by the bene¬ 
ficent working of the laws of nature and 
Providence, shall beget in them new attach¬ 
ment to the Constitution : for the attachment 
of the people to the Throne, and to the laws 
under which they live, is, after all, more than 
your gold and your silver, more than your fleets 
and your armies—at once the strength, the 
glory, and the safety of the land. ” 

13 . —The adjourned debate on the Reform 
Bill was resumed in a very full House by Mr. 
Lowe, who began by referring to the great 
power which had been won by the House of 
Commons:—It has outlived, he said, the 
influence of the Crown. It has shaken off the 
dictation of the aristocracy. In finance and in 
taxation it is supreme. ‘ ‘ But, Sir, in propor¬ 
tion as the powers of this great assembly are 
great and paramount, is the exploit of amending 
its Constitution one of the highest and noblest 
efforts of statesmanship; and to tamper with 
it lightly, or to deal with it unskilfully, is one 
of the most signal marks of presumption and 
folly.” Speaking of the present constituencies, 
he used the following words, which were 
frequently commented on by the Reforming 
party in the subsequent agitation: “You 
have had the opportunity of knowing some of 
the constituencies of this country, and I ask, if 
you want venality, ignorance, drunkenness, 
and the means of intimidation—if you want 
impulsive, unreflecting, and violent people, 
where will you go to look for them—to the top 
or to the bottom ? It is ridiculous to blink the 
fact that, since the Reform Act, great competi¬ 
tion has prevailed amongst the voters of between 






MARCH 


1866. 


MARCH 


20/. and io/. rental—the io/. lodging and beer¬ 
house keepers. ... We know what sort of 
persons live in these small houses ; we have all 
had experience of them under the name of 
‘freemen,’ and it would be a good thing if 
they were disfranchised altogether. . . . The 
Chancellor of the Exchequer,” he concluded, 

“ though he had no time for reasons, had found 
time for a quotation. It was a quotation of a 
very curious kind ; for, not finding in his large 
classical repertory anything that would describe 
the state of perfect blrss which his bill would 
produce, he was induced to give us one to 
show what the bill would not do : he said— 

‘ Scandit fatalis maChina muros, 

Foeta armis.’ 

That, said the right hon. gentleman, is not my 
bill. Now, that is not a very apt quotation ; 
but there was a curious felicity about it which 
he little dreamed of. The House will remem¬ 
ber that among the proofs of the degree in 
which public opinion was enlisted in the cause 
of Reform, he stated that this is the fifth Re¬ 
form Bill which has been brought forward 
since 1851. Now just attend to the sequel of 
the quotation. I am no believer, I am happy 
to say, in the ‘sortes Virgilianse,’ but I wish 
the House to hear what follows :— 

‘ O Divum domus Ilium, et inclyta bello 
Moenia Dardanidilm ! quater ipso in limine portae 
Substitit, atque utero sonitum quater arma dedere.’ 

But that was not all:— 

‘ Instamus tamen immemores caecique furore 
Et monstrum infelix sacrata sistimus arce.’ 

(Cheers and laughter.) I abominate the pre¬ 
sage conveyed in these last two lines; but I 
mix my confidence with fear. I know that I 
am addressing a new Parliament, whose inten¬ 
tions are as yet hidden under the veil of futu¬ 
rity. It may be that they will not take the 
advice that was tendered to us with so much 
eloquence and authority by my right hon, 
friend ; it may be that we are destined to avoid 
this enormous danger by which we are con¬ 
fronted, and that, to use the language of my 
right hon. friend, we may not be forced to 
compound with danger and misfortune. But 
it may be otherwise. All I can say is, that if 
my right hon. friend succeeds in carrying this 
measure through Parliament, when the pas¬ 
sions and interests of the day have gone by I 
shall not envy his retrospect. I covet not a 
single leaf of the laurel that may encircle his 
brow. His be the glory, if such it be, of carry¬ 
ing this measure. Mine be it that, to the very 
utmost of my ability, I have resisted it.”—Mr. 
Bright said Mr. Horsman was the first member 
of this new Parliament who had expressed his 
grief. “ He retired into what may be called his 
political Cave of Adullam, to which he invited 
every one who was in distress, and every one 
who was discontented. He has long been 
anxious to found a party in this House, and 
there is scarcely a member at this end of 
the House who is able to address us with 
effect, or to take much part, whom he has not 


tried to bring over to his party and his cabal. 
At last he has succeeded in hooking the 
right hon. gentleman the member for Caine. 

I know it was the opinion many years ago of 
a member of the Cabinet, that two men could 
make a party; and a party formed of two men 
so amiable, so genial, as both of those right 
hon. gentlemen, we may hope to see for the 
first time in Parliament, a party perfectly har¬ 
monious, and distinguished by a mutual and 
unbroken trust. But there is one great dif¬ 
ficulty in the way. It is very much like the 
case of the Scotch terrier that was so covered 
with hair that you could not tell which was 
the head and which was the tail. (Laughter.) 
Now, I said at the beginning that I did 
not rise to defend the bill. I rose for the 
purpose of explaining it. It is not the bill 
which, if I had been consulted by its framers, 

I should have recommended. If I had been a 
Minister, it is not the bill which I should have 
consented to present to the House. I think it 
is not adequate to the occasion, and that its 
concessions are not sufficient. But I know the 
difficulties under which the Ministers labour, 
and I know the disinclination of Parliament to 
do much in the direction of this question. I 
shall give it my support because, as far as it 
goes, it is a simple and honest measure, and 
because I believe if it becomes law it will give 
some solidity and duration to everything that 
is good in the Constitution, and to everything 
that is noble in the character of the people of 
these realms.” 

17 . —The morning papers announce that a 
Conservative gathering was held yesterday at 
the residence of the Marquis of Salisbury, 
when it was unanimously agreed that the 
Government Reform Bill should be opposed. 

20 .— Day of humiliation in London, ap¬ 
pointed by the Bishop of the diocese to be 
observed on account of the cattle-plague. 

— Judge Wilde pronounces judgment in the 
case of Hyde v. Hyde and Woodmansee, in 
which the plaintiff, formerly a Mormon, sought 
legal release from the woman with whom he 
contracted a so-called marriage in Utah, but 
who declined to follow him when he renounced 
Mormonism, and betook herself to another 
man. The question was, whether the con¬ 
nexion could be considered a marriage so as 
to be voidable by the Court, or whether it was 
no marriage in the eye of English law. The 
Judge decided that it was no marriage, and 
that the petition could not, therefore, be enter¬ 
tained. 

— Earl Grosvenor gives notice that he 
intends to move on the second reading of the 
Reform Bill: “ That this House, while ready 
to consider, with a view to its settlement, 
the question of Parliamentary Reform, is of 
opinion that it is inexpedient to discuss a bill 
for the reduction of the franchise in England 
and Wales until the House has before it the 
entire scheme contemplated by Government 

(729) 






MARCH 


1 866. 


MARCH 


for the amendment of the representation of 
the people.” 

21 . — Oxford Tests Abolition Bill read a 
second time by a majority of 217 to 103. Mr. 
J. D. Coleridge, in a “maiden speech,” intro¬ 
duced the measure, and was followed by Mr. 
G. O. Trevelyan, who also spoke for the first 
time, and supported the bill. 

— Prince Alfred installed as Master of the 
Trinity House. 

22 . —Government censured by a majority of 
ioi against 70 for limiting the designs for the 
new Law Courts to six architects. 

23 . —With reference to the amendment pro¬ 
posed by Earl Grosvenor, that it was inexpe¬ 
dient to consider the bill for the reduction 
of the franchise until the House had before it 
the entire scheme for the representation of 
the people, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
intimates to-night that the Government would 
not only resist that amendment, but treat it as 
a vote of want of confidence. He promised, 
however, that after the second reading and 
before going into committee, Government 
would be prepared to state distinctly their 
intentions with reference to the franchises for 
Scotland and Ireland, and also as to the re¬ 
distribution of seats. Mr. Kinglake and Mr. 
Oliphant thereupon withdrew the amendments 
which stood in their names. 

24 . — Died at Claremont, where she had 
resided in quiet dignity during her long exile, 
Marie Amelie, ex-queen of the French, aged 84. 

— Prussia forwards a circular-despatch to 
the minor German States, in which she points 
out the necessity for their taking up a definite 
position upon one side or other “ in the 
struggle which the armaments of Austria seem 
to render more and more imminent.” The 
note accuses Austria of having violated the 
Treaty of Gastein, and assumed a threatening 
attitude. “ It is urgent for Prussia to know if, 
and to what extent, she may rely upon assist¬ 
ance in case she -should be attacked by Austria 
or forced into war by unmistakeable menaces.” 
The Austrian Minister at Berlin presented a 
despatch on the 31st, disclaiming hostile in¬ 
tentions. 

26 .— Reform meeting at Birmingham. A 
letter was read from Mr. Bright, in which he 
said : “ Parliament is never hearty for Reform 
or for any good measure. It hated the Reform 
Bill of 1831 and 1832. It does not like the 
franchise bill now upon its table. It is to a 
large extent the offspring of landed power in 
the counties and of tumult and corruption in 
the boroughs, and it would be strange if such 
a Parliament were in favour of freedom and of 
an honest representation of the people. But, 
notwithstanding such a Parliament, this bill 
will pass if Birmingham and other towns do 
their duty.” Referring to the Opposition as 
“a dirty conspiracy,” he continued : “What 
should be done, and what must be done, under 
these circumstances? You know what your 

(730) 


| fathers did thirty-four years ago, and you know 
' the result. The men who, in every speech 
1 they utter, insult the working men, describing 
them as a multitude given up to ignorance and 
vice, will be the first to yield when the popular 
will is loudly and resolutely expressed. If 
Parliament-street from Charing-cross to the 
venerable Abbey were filled with men seeking 
a Reform Bill, as it was two years ago with 
men come to do honour to an illustrious Italian, 
these slanderers of their countrymen would 
learn to be civil if they did not learn to love 
freedom.” At Manchester Mr. Bright urged 
an immediate organization for meetings and 
petitions—“as men living in a free country, 
with representative‘institutions, determined to 
partake in some measure of that representa¬ 
tion, and to be free.” 

27 . —Alliance offensive and defensive be¬ 
tween Prussia and Italy. Italy engages to 
declare war against Austria as soon as Prussia 
shall have either declared war or committed 
an act of hostility. Prussia engages to carry 
on the war until the mainland of Venetia, with 
the exception of the fortresses, and the city 
of Venice, is in the hands of the Italians, 
or until Austria declares herself ready to cede 
it voluntarily. The Prussian Government 
further engages to obtain for Italy the pos¬ 
session of the mainland of Venetia, always 
excepting the fortresses, and will guarantee to 
Italy the maintenance of her present posses¬ 
sions. King Victor Emmanuel, upon his part, 
declares that he will attack Austria upon the 
Mincio with 80,000 men, and will throw 
40,000 across the Po; at the same time the 
Italian fleet will cruise in the Mediterranean, 
engage the Austrian men-of-war, and make an 
attack upon Venice. King Victor Emmanuel 
further promises not to lay down his arms 
until the Prussians shall be in legal possession 
of the Elbe Duchies. 

28 . —The eminent American merchant, Mr. 
Peabody, having added another donation to 
his munificent gift of last year for the improve¬ 
ment of the dwellings of the poor of London, 
her Majesty addressed to him the following 
autograph letter: “The Queen hears that 
Mr. Peabody intends shortly to return to 
America, and she would be sorry that he should 
leave England without being assured by herself 
how deeply she appreciates the noble act of 
more than princely munificence by which he 
has sought to relieve the wants of the poorer 
class of her subjects residing in London. It is 
an act, as the Queen believes, wholly without 
parallel, and which will carry its best reward 
in the consciousness of having contributed so 
largely to the assistance of those who can little 
help themselves. The Queen would not, how¬ 
ever, have been satisfied without giving Mr. 
Peabody some public mark of her sense of his 
munificence, and she would gladly have con¬ 
ferred upon him either a baronetcy or the 
Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, but that 
she understands Mr. Peabody to feel himself 








MARCH 


1866. 


APRIL 


debarred from accepting such distinctions^ It 
only remains, therefore, for the Queen to give 
Mr. Peabody the assurance of her personal 
feelings, which she would further wish to 
mark, by asking him to accept a miniature 
portrait of herself, which she will desire to 
have painted for him, and which, when finished, 
can either be sent to America or given to him 
on his return, which, she rejoices to hear, he 
meditates, to the country that owes him so 
much.” Mr. Peabody replied on the 3d April, 
from the Palace Hotel, Buckingham Gate : 
“ Madam,—I feel seriously my inability to ex¬ 
press in adequate terms the gratification with 
which I have read the letter which your Majesty 
has done me the high honour of transmitting 
by the hands of Earl Russell. On the occasion 
which has attracted your Majesty’s attention 
of setting apart a portion of my property to 
ameliorate the condition and augment the 
comforts of the poor of London, I have been 
actuated by a deep sense of gratitude to God 
who has blessed me with prosperity, and of 
attachment to this great country, where, under 
your Majesty’s benign rule, I have received so 
much personal kindness, and enjoyed so many 
years of happiness. Next to the approval of 
my own conscience, I shall always prize the 
assurance which your Majesty’s letter conveys 
to me of the approbation of the Queen of 
England, whose whole life has attested that 
her exalted station has in no degree diminished 
her sympathy with the humblest of her sub¬ 
jects. The portrait which your Majesty is 
graciously pleased to bestow on me I shall 
value as the most precious heirloom that I 
can leave in the land of my birth, where, 
together with the letter which your Majesty 
has addressed to me, it will ever be regarded 
as an evidence of the kindly feeling of the 
Queen of the United Kingdom to a citizen of 
the United States.” 

29 . — Died at Bournemouth, aged 74, 
the Rev. John Keble, vicar of Hursley, the 
amiable and accomplished author of “ The 
Christian Year.” 

30 . — Died, aged 47, Gordon Cumming, the 
famous “Lion Hunter.” 

April 1 . —Sunday riot at Northmoor-green, 
Bridgewater, caused by the incumbent attempt¬ 
ing to celebrate Easter service with great 
ritualistic pomp. 

2.—Thomas Carlyle installed as Lord Rector 
of Edinburgh University. He was received 
with extraordinary enthusiasm, and delivered 
an extemporaneous address, full of all his old 
fire and originality, to a crowded company of 
students and admiring friends. He began by 
referring to his connexion with the University 
fifty-six years since, counselled the students to 
learn, not to cram—to find out the work they 
were fitted for, and to regard all honest laboui 
as the best cure for the miseries of life. He 
-recommended the study of history, particu¬ 
larly the history of our own country—advised 


them to avoid literature as a profession—eulo¬ 
gized Cromwell and Knox, and spokf* regretfully 
of the ‘ ‘ vocality ” of the present age. ‘ ‘ It seems 
to me,” he said, “ that the finest nations in the 
world—England and America—are all going 
to wind and tongue. This will appear suffi¬ 
ciently tragical by and by, long after I am 
away out of it. Silence is the eternal duty 
of a man. He won’t got to any real under¬ 
standing of what is complex, and what is mere 
than any other pertinent to his interests, with¬ 
out maintaining silence.” Again : “We have 
got into the age of revolution. All kinds of 
things are coming to be subjected to fire, as 
it were : hotter and hotter the wind rises 
around everything. Curious to say, now, in 
Oxford and other places that used to seem 
to lie at anchor in the stream of time, regard¬ 
less of all changes, they are getting into the 
highest humour of mutation, and all sorts of 
new ideas are getting afloat. It is evident that 
whatever is not made of asbestos will have to 
perish in this world. It will not stand the 
heat it is getting exposed to. And in saying 
that, it is but saying in other words that we are 
in an epoch of anarchy—anarchy plus the con¬ 
stable. There is nobody that picks one’s pocket 
without some policeman being ready to lake 
him up. But in every other thing he is the 
son, not of Cosmos, but of Chaos. He is a 
disobedient, and reckless, and altogether a 
waste kind of object. A commonplace man 
in these epochs, and the wiser kind of man— 
the select, of whom I hope you will be part— 
has more and more to see to it, to look forward, 
and will require to move with double wisdom; 
and will find, in short, that the crooked things 
that he has to pull straight in his own life or 
round about, wherever he may be, are mani¬ 
fold, and will task his strength, wherever he 
may go.” Reminding his young hearers that 
there was a nobler ambition than the gaining 
of all the gold in California or the votes on the 
whole planet, he urged them to attend to their 
health as the greatest of all temporal blessings, 
and to stand up to their work whatever it might 
be—not in sorrows or contradictions to yield, 
but to push on towards the goal. Delivering 
with tender earnestness, “ A small bit of verse 
from Goethe—a kind of marching music of 
mankind,” he added, “one last word, Wir 
heissen euch hoffen ” (we bid you be of good 
hope). 

2 . —President Johnson issues a proclamation 
formally declaring the Confederate insurrection 
at an end. 

— Died, aged 53, F. W. Fairholt, artist and 
antiquary. 

5. —The Emperor Napoleon announces his 
intention to withdraw the French troops from 
Mexico. 

6 . —Among the numerous meetings held 
during Easter-week, in England, on the sub¬ 
ject of Parliame. tary Reform, the greatest in¬ 
terest was excited by the gathering in Liver- 

(731) 












APRIL 


1866 


APRIL 


pool, attended as it was by the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer and several other Cabinet 
Ministers, and where the pledge was renewed 
that the Government would stand or fall by 
their bill. “ Having produced this measure,’’ 
said Mr. Gladstone, “founded in a spirit of 
moderation, we hope to support it with deci¬ 
sion. It is not in our power to secure the 
passing of the measure; that rests more with 
you, and more with those whom you represent, 
and of whom you are a sample, than it does 
with us. Still we have a great responsibility, 
and are conscious of it; and we do not intend 
to flinch from it. (Here the whole audience 
rose in a body, and cheered for several minutes.) 
We stake ourselves—we stake our existence as 
a Government—and we also stake our political 
character, on the adoption of the bill in its main 
provisions. You have a right to expect from 
us that we should tell you what we mean, and 
that the trumpet which it is our business to 
blow should give forth no uncertain sound. 
Its sound has not been, and, I trust, will not 
be, uncertain. We have passed the Rubicon— 
we have broken the bridge, and burned the 
boats behind us. We have advisedly cut off 
the means of retreat, and having done this, we 
hope that, as far as time is yet permitted, we 
have done our duty to the Crown and to the 
nation.” 

9 . —The Commissioners appointed to inquire 
on the spot into the origin, nature, and circum¬ 
stances of the disturbances in Jamaica conclude 
their report,—finding, “ I. That the distur¬ 
bances in St. Thomas-in-the-East had their 
immediate origin in a planned resistance to 
lawful authority. 2. That the causes leading 
to the determination to offer that resistance 
were manifold : (a) That a principal object of 
the disturbers of order was the obtaining of 
land free from the payment of rent; ( b) that an 
additional incentive to the violation of the law 
arose from the want of confidence generally felt 
by the labouring classes in the tribunals before 
which most of the disputes affecting their in¬ 
terests were carried for adjudication; (c) that 
some, moreover, were animated by feelings of 
hostility towards political and personal op¬ 
ponents, while not a few contemplated the 
attainment of their ends by the death or expul¬ 
sion of the white inhabitants of the island. 3. 
That though the original design for the over¬ 
throw of constituted authority was confined to 
a small portion of the parish of St. Thomas-in- 
the-East, yet that the disorder in fact spread 
with singular rapidity over an extensive tract of 
country; and that such was the state of excite¬ 
ment prevailing in other parts of the island, 
that had more than a momentary success been 
obtained by the insurgents, their ultimate over¬ 
throw would have been attended with a still 
more fearful loss of life and property. 4. That 
praise is due to Governor Eyre for the skill, 
promptitude, and vigour which he manifested 
during the early stages of the insurrection ; to 
the exercise of which qualities its speedy termi¬ 
nation is in a great degree to be attributed. 5. 

(732) 


That the military and naval operations appear 
to us to have been prompt and judicious. 6. 
That by the continuance of martial law in its 
full force to the extreme limit of its statutory 
operation, the people were deprived for a 
longer than the necessary period of the great 
constitutional privileges by which the security 
of life and property is provided for. Lastly, 
that the punishments inflicted were excessive: 
(a) that the punishment of death was unneces¬ 
sarily frequent; ( b) that the floggings were 
reckless, and at Bath positively barbarous; ( c ) 
that the burning of 1,000 houses was wanton 
and cruel. All which we humbly submit to 
your Majesty’s consideration.” 

11 . —Mysterious murder in Cannon-street. 
The victim, a widow, named Sarah Millson, 
was housekeeper to, and lived on the premises 
of, Messrs. Bevington, leather-sellers. About 
nine o’clock at night, when sitting by the fire in 
company with another servant, the street bell 
was heard to ring, and Millson went down to 
the front, remarking to her neighbour that she 
knew who it was. She did not return, although 
for an hour this did not excite any suspicion, 
as she was in the habit of holding conver¬ 
sations at the street-door. A little after ten 
o’clock the other woman—Elizabeth Lowes— 
went down, and found Millson dead at the 
bottom of the stairs, the blood then flowing 
profusely from a number of deep wounds in 
the head. Her shoes had been taken off, and 
were lying on a table in the hall, and as there 
was no blood on them it was presumed this 
was done before the murder. The house¬ 
keeper’s keys were also found on the stairs. 
Opening the door to procure assistance, Lowes 
observed a woman on the doorstep, screening 
herself apparently from the rain which was 
falling heavily at the time. She moved off as 
soon as the door was opened, saying in answer 
to the request for assistance, “Oh dear, no; 
I can’t come in ! ” The gas over the door had 
been lighted as usual, at eight o’clock, but was 
now out, although not turned off at the meter. 
A policeman and surgeon were soon on the 
premises, and removed the body. The evi¬ 
dence taken by the coroner showed that the 
instrument of murder had probably been a 
small crowbar used to wrench open packing- 
cases ; one was found near the body unstained 
with blood, and another was missing from the 
premises. From documents found in posses¬ 
sion of the murdered woman, suspicion was 
directed towards William Smith, living with 
his sister at Eton, and who was known to have 
been employed to recover money said to be due 
by Millson to an inmate of one of the work- 
houses. With this clue to begin the inquiry 
the police succeeded in weaving round Smith a 
web of circumstantial testimony which led to 
his being committed for trial. 

12 . —Debate commenced on the second 
reading of the Reform Bill. The Chancellor 
of the Exchequer spoke at some length on the 
necessity for legislating on the subject, the pro* 
priety of proceeding by stages, and defended 






APRIL 


1866. 


APRIL 


the working classes from the charges which he 
said had been brought against them of igno¬ 
rance, drunkenness, venality, and yiolence.— 
Mr. Lowe protested against the gross systematic 
and wilful perversion of his words. He had 
spoken, he said, entirely of the venality and 
violence which election committees had shown 
to prevail in existing constituencies. “Noman 
in the world has been subjected to more abuse 
than I have been during the last month, and 
that abuse has been procured by the deliberate 
misrepresentation of my language. I make 
my protest in the face of the House against this 
species of political warfare.”—Earl Grosvenor 
moved his amendment, which was seconded by 
Lord Stanley. Mr. Kinglake, Mr. J. S. Mill, 
and Sir George Grey were among those who 
spoke in favour of the Government; and Sir E. 
B. Lytton, Lord Robert Montague, and General 
Peel against. 

16 . —The Emperor of Russia fired at while 
entering his carriage at St. Petersburg. The 
pistol was turned aside by a workman, after¬ 
wards ennobled for the act. 

— Bamed’s Banking Company at Liverpool 
stop payment. 

17 . —After many stupendous and ingenious 
efforts to complete the launch of H. M. iron¬ 
clad vessel the Northumberland , a sufficiency of 
propelling power was this day put forth, and 
the huge mass glided safely into the Thames 
amid the cheers of a great company whom the 
novelty of the scientific appliances had drawn 
together. 

— At the Guildhall, Mr. George Peabody 
distributed the prizes gained by the successful 
competitors at the Working Classes Industrial 
Exhibition. 

20 . —Letters from Aden of this date make 
mention that news had been received from 
Captain Cameron, dated Magdala, February 
26, stating that he and his fellow-prisoners had 
been released from their chains on the previous 
day, and were about to proceed to Gaffat, to 
be given up to Mr. Rassam. The letter further 
reported everything as being friendly, and stated 
that Messrs. Stern and Rosenthal were not to 
be subjected to any further trial. 

21 . —In reply to an Austrian proposal to 
disarm, Prussia replies that she would do so 
when Austria herself set the example. 

— Considerable excitement was created to¬ 
day (Saturday), by the Times announcing, in a 
prominent manner, that the Austrian Ambas¬ 
sador had been withdrawn from Berlin. In 
the next publication it was intimated that the 
document on which the statement was based 
was a forgery, though purporting to have 
emanated from the Foreign Office with the 
authority of Lord Clarendon. 

23 .—Died, aged 88, Charles Grant, Lord 
Glenelg, Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1819, 
President of the Board of Trade in 1.827, and 
Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1834 
to 1839. 


25 . —The Fellowship of Colleges Declara¬ 
tion Bill, brought in by Mr. Bouverie, carried 
through committee in the Commons by 208 to 
186 votes. 

26 . —On this the seventh evening of the 
debate on the Reform Bill, Mr. Lowe spoke 
with extraordinary vigour for two hours and a 
half against the measure, endeavouring to show 
the false principles upon which it was founded, 
the avowed coercion which was being brought 
to bear on the House of Commons, the exten¬ 
sive and powerful tyranny which would be 
exercised through the bill by trades unions, 
and the fatal injuries which democracy would 
inflict upon the English Constitution. Amid 
the triumphant cheers of a large portion of the 
House, he devoted considerable time to proving 
that the principle of Mr. Gladstone’s measure, 
and the idea that, however covertly, lay at the 
root of all his reasoning, was the fitness of the 
poorer classes for the franchise, and their inde¬ 
feasible claim to it as soon as they were fit— 
and not any conviction that the objects of good 
government would be materially aided by their 
admission. He pointed out that every one of 
Mr. Gladstone’s plans went, not towards en¬ 
franchising 200,000 men, but towards enfran¬ 
chising all, since all were “flesh and blood—• 
fellow-citizens and Christians—and fathers of 
families.” Mr. Lowe said he thought they had 
more reason every day they lived to regret 
the loss of Lord Palmerston. * * By way of a 
mortuary contribution, it seems to me that the 
remaining members of his Cabinet laid in his 
grave all their moderation, all their prudence, 
and all their statesmanship. The Government 
have performed an immense exploit. They have 
carried the great mass of their party—men of 
moderate opinions and views—they have carried 
them over from their own views and laid them 
at the feet of the member for Birmingham. 
They are brought into contact now with men 
and principles from which six months ag.o they 
would have recoiled. (No, and Opposition 
cheers.) That is what has happened to part 
of them. The rest of us are left like sheep in 
the wilderness. And after the success of this 
extraordinary combination—for I can give it no 
other name—we, who remain where we were, 
are charged with being conspirators and traitors. 
We are told that we are bound by every tie to 
support Lord .Russell. I dispute that. I never 
served under him. I have served, unfortu¬ 
nately, for a little less than ten years under two 
Prime Ministers, one being Lord Aberdeen, 
and the other, Lord Palmerston. Both these 
Governments Lord Russell joined ; both these 
Governments he abandoned; and both these 
Governments he assisted to destroy. I owe 
him no allegiance. I am not afraid of the 
people of this country; they have shown re¬ 
markable good sense—remarkable indeed in 
contrast with the harangues that have been 
addressed to them. Nor am I afraid of those 
who lead them; and here I differ from my 
right honourable and gallant friend the member 
for Huntingdon. Demagogues are the common- 

(733) 







APRIL 


is 66. 


APRIL. 


places of history; they are found everywhere 
where there is popular commotion. They have 
all a family likeness. Their names float lightly 
on the stream of time; they finally contrive to 
be handed down somehow, but they are as little 
to be regarded for themselves as the foam which 
rides on the top of the stormy wave, and be¬ 
spatters the rock it cannot shake ; but what I 
do fear, what fills me with the gloomiest mis¬ 
givings, is when I see" a number of gentlemen 
of rank, property, and intelligence, carried away 
without even being convinced, or even over¬ 
persuaded, to support a policy which many 
of them in their hearts detest and abhor. 
Monarchies exist by loyalty, aristocracies by 
honour, popular assemblies by political virtue. 
When these things begin to fail, it is in their 
loss, and not in comets, eclipses, and earth¬ 
quakes, that we are to look for the portents 
that herald the fall of states. ”• Though he 
could not agree with the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, there was, happily, one common 
ground left them—the Second ^Eneid. “ My 
right honourable friend returned again to the 
poor old Trojan horse. I will add one more to 
the excerpt from the story of that noble animal, 
after which I will promise to turn him out to 
grass for the remainder of his life. The pas¬ 
sage which I wish to call attention to presents 
a sketch of the army, and not only of the army, 
but of the general also 

‘ Arduus armatos mediis in manibus adstans 
Fundit equus, victorque Sinon incendia miscet 
Insultans, portis alii bipatentibus adsunt, 

Millia quot magnis nunquam venere Mycenis.’ 

(‘ The fatal horse pours forth the human tide, 

Insulting Sinon flings his firebrands wide : 

The gates are burnt; the ancient rampart falls ; 

And swarming myriads climb its crumbling walls.’) 

1 have now, Sir, traced as well as I could what 
I believe would be the natural result of a mea¬ 
sure which seems to my poor imagination 
destined to absorb and destroy one after the 
other those institutions which have made Eng¬ 
land what she has hitherto been, and what I 
believe no other country ever was, or ever will 
be. Surely the heroic work of so many cen¬ 
turies, the matchless achievements of so many 
wise heads and strong hands, deserve a nobler 
consummation than to be sacrificed to revolu¬ 
tionary passion, or to the maudlin enthusiasm 
of humanity. But if we do fall, we shall fall 
deservedly. Unconstrained by any external 
force, not beaten down by any intestine 
calamity: in the plethora of wealth and the 
surfeit of our too exuberant prosperity, we are 
about, with our own rash and unconstrained 
hands, to pluck down on our own heads the 
venerable temple of our own liberty and our 
law. History may record other catastrophes 
as signal and as disastrous, but none more 
wanton and more disgraceful.” 

27 . —Fire at the West India Docks, Poplar, 
destroying one of the new warehouses and about 
14,000 bales of jute stored therein. 

— Conclusion of the debate on the second 
reading of the Reform Bill. Besides the division 
( 734 ) 


itself, the main features of this the eighth and 
last night’s discussion of the measure were 
the speeches of Viscount Cranbome and Mr. 
Disraeli, and the closing reply of the Chan¬ 
cellor of the Exchequer. The leader of the 
Opposition spoke for nearly three hours, in¬ 
sisting that it was impossible to fathom the 
effects of this Franchise Bill till the complete 
scheme was before them; defending Conserva¬ 
tives from the charges now brought against 
them of dealing unfairly with this and other 
questions; and laying down such principles as 
he thought ought to be kept in view in framing 
a Reform Bill. “These principles,” he said, 
“ are English, and not American principles. It 
ought to proceed upon the principle that we are 
the House of Commons, and not the House 
of the people; and that we represent a great 
political order of the State, and not an indis¬ 
criminate multitude. And in estimating what 
share the working classes should possess in the 
power of the State—a share which I do not at 
all begrudge them—we ought to act and to form 
that estimate according to the spirit of the 
English Constitution.”—Mr. Gladstone spoke 
in his most effective style for fully two hours. 
Repudiating with scorn Mr. Lowe’s assertion 
that he wished to coerce the House of Com¬ 
mons, he asked, “Does my right honourable 
friend not recollect that, in one of his plays, 
Aristophanes conveys, through the medium 
of some character or other, a rebuke to some 
prevailing tendency or sentiment of the time 
—I cannot recollect now what it was, it is too 
long ago since I read it—but that character, 
addressing the audience, says, ‘ But now, my 
good Athenians, pray recollect I am not speak¬ 
ing of the city; I am not speaking of the public, 

I am only speaking of certain depraved and 
crooked little men.’ (Laughter.) The right 
hon. gentleman, when he addressed the hon. 
member for Westminster, showed his magnani¬ 
mity by declaring that he would not take the 
philosopher to task for what he wrote twenty- 
five years ago; but when he caught one who 
thirty-six years ago, just emerged from boyhood, 
and still an undergraduate at Oxford, had ex¬ 
pressed an opinion adverse to the Reform Bill 
of 1832, of which he had so long and bitterly 
repented, then the right hon. gentleman could 
not resist the temptation. He, a parliamentary 
leader of twenty years’ standing, is so ignorant 
of the House of Commons that he positively 
thought that he got a parliamentary advantage 
in exhibiting me to the public as an opponent 
of the Reform Bill of 1832. (Cheers.) As 
the right hon. gentleman has exhibited me, let 
me exhibit myself. It is true, I deeply regret 
it, but I was bred under the shadow of the 
great name of Canning; every influence con¬ 
nected with that name governed the politics of 
my childhood and my youth; with Canning I 
rejoiced in the removal of religious disabilities, 
and in the character which he gave to our 
policy abroad; -with Canning I rejoiced in the 
opening he made towards the establishment o* 
free commercial interchanges between nations, 









APRIL 


1866. 


APRIL 


with Canning, and under the shadow of that great 
name, and under the shadow of that yet more 
venerable name of Burke, I grant, my youthful 
mind and imagination were impressed just the 
same as the mature mind of the right hon. 
gentleman is now impressed. I had conceived 
that fear and alarm of the first Reform Bill in 
the days of my undergraduate career at Oxford 
which the right hon. gentleman now feels; and 
the only difference between us is this—I thank 
him for bringing it out—that, having those 
views, I moved the Oxford Union Debating 
Society to express them clearly, plainly, forci¬ 
bly, in downright English, and that the right 
hon. gentleman is still obliged to skulk under 
the cover of the amendment of the noble lord. 

I envy him not one particle of the polemical 
advantage which he has gained by his discreet 
reference to the proceedings of the Oxford 
Union Debating Society. My position in re¬ 
gard to the Liberal party is in all points the 
opposite of Earl Russell’s. Earl Russell might 
have been misled possibly, had he been in this 
place, into using language which would have 
been unfit coming from another person. But it 
could not be the same with me; I am too well 
aware of the relations which subsist between 
us. I have none of the claims he possesses. 
I came among you an outcast from those with 
whom I associated, driven from them by the 
slow and resistless force of conviction. I came 
among you, to make use of the legal phrase¬ 
ology, in form A pauperis. I had nothing to 
offer you but faithful and honourable service. 
You received me with kindness, indulgence, 
generosity, and I may even say with some mea¬ 
sure of confidence, and the relation between us 
is this, that you never can be my debtors, but 
that I must for ever be in your debt. It is 
not from me, under such circumstances, that 
any word will proceed that can savour of the 
character which the right hon. gentleman im¬ 
putes to me. ” Mr. Gladstone closed the debate 
with the renewed assurance that the Govern¬ 
ment would stand or fall by the bill. “We 
stand with it now,” he said, “we may fall with 
it a short time hence, and if we do we shall rise 
with it hereafter. I shall not attempt to mea¬ 
sure with precision the forces that are to be 
arrayed in the coming struggle. Perhaps the 
great division of to-night is not the last that 
must take place in the struggle. You may 
possibly succeed at some point of the contest. 
You may drive us from our seat. You may 
bury the bill that we have introduced, but for 
its epitaph we will write upon its gravestone 
this line, with certain confidence in its fulfil¬ 
ment— 

‘ Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.’ 

You cannot fight against the future. Time is 
on our side. The great social forces which 
move on in their might and majesty, and 
which the tumult of our debates does not for 
a moment impede or disturb—those great 
social forces are against you; they are mar¬ 
shalled on our side, and the banner which we 


now carry, though perhaps at this moment it 
may droop over our sinking heads, yet it soon 
again will float in the eye of heaven, and it 
will be borne by the firm hands of the united 
people of the three kingdoms, perhaps not to 
an easy, but to a certain and to a not distant 
victory.” (The right hon. gentleman resumed 
his seat amid loud and long-continued cheer¬ 
ing.) 

27 . —Scene at the division on the Reform 
Bill. “ When Mr. Gladstone sat down, the 
Speaker,” writes a spectator, “put the question 
in the dry technical form so puzzling to stran¬ 
gers, ‘ The question I have to put is, that the 
words to be left out stand part of the ques¬ 
tion. You that say Aye, say Aye.’ (A tre¬ 
mendous shout of assent from the Ministerial 
benches.) ‘You that say No, say No.’ (A 
still more deafening shout from the Opposi¬ 
tion.) ‘ Strangers must withdraw.’ The mem¬ 
bers then rose to their feet, and made their 
way to their respective lobbies. Slowly the 
crowd filtered through the wickets, and were 
numbered by the tellers. The Ayes gathered 
in crowds at the bar, and the Noes behind the 
Speaker’s chair; but by degrees members found 
their way to their seats on the floor and in 
the galleries. In about twenty minutes a 
strange electric-like excitement began to mani¬ 
fest itself. Mr. Walpole passed along the 
front Opposition bench, and whispered to 
Mr. Disraeli the word ‘six.’ It was eagerly 
caught up, and repeated along the Opposition 
benches, but it was generally believed to be 
only a guess at the probable Ministerial ma¬ 
jority. Mr. Brand then made his appearance. 
He had ‘ told ’ the Noes ; and then the omi¬ 
nous figures ‘313’ flew from mouth to mouth 
as the number of the Opposition. It was larger 
than the Liberals had feared or the Tories 
hoped ; and although the numbers for the 
Government were not yet known, the number 
of the ‘Noes’ increased the excitement on 
the Conservative benches. At length Mr. 
Childers burst through the mob at the bar, and 
rushing up the floor to the Treasury Bench, 
delivered the ill-news in a half-audible whisper 
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He seemed 
to repeat the word ‘ Five ! ’ in a tone of disap¬ 
pointment. The Tories did not hear this, and 
the House had still to wait for the appearance 
of the Government teller. After a movement 
of the crowd at the bar, and amid cries of 
‘ Make way for the tellers,’ Mr. Adam emerged 
and made his way up the floor. The House 
was charged with electricity like a vast thun¬ 
dercloud ; and now the spark was about to be 
applied. Strangers in the galleries rose in 
their seats—Conservative M.P.’s sat upon the 
edges of benches—the crowd at the bar pushed 
its way half up the floor—the Royal princes 
leaned forward in their inconvenient standing- 
place—and the officers of the House, partici¬ 
pating in the universal excitement, had no eyes 
or ears for any breach of rule or order. The 
tellers range themselves in due form and order, 
—Mr. Brand, with the paper in his hand, on 

(735) 








APRIL 


1866. 


MAY 


his left Mr. Adam, next him Lord Stanley, and 
then Earl Grosvenor. They bow and walk 
up the floor, and again make due obeisance 
to the chair. Then Mr. Brand, in loud, dis¬ 
tinct, and manly tones, reads—Ayes to the 
right, 318; Noes to the left, 313. Hardly 
had the words left his lips than there arose a 
wild, raging, mad-brained shout from floor and 
gallery such as has never been heard in the pre¬ 
sent House of Commons. Dozens of half-frantic 
Tories stood up in their seats, madly waved 
their hats, and hurrahed at the very top of 
their voices. Strangers in both galleries clapped 
their hands. The Adullamites on the Minis¬ 
terial benches, carried away by the delirium of 
the moment, waved their hats in sympathy 
with the Opposition, and cheered as loud as 
any. The Chancellor of the Exchequer in his 
speech had politely performed the operation of 

* holding a candle to ’—Lucifer; and he, the 

prince of the revolt, the leader, instigator, and 
prime mover of the conspiracy, stood up in 
the excitement of the moment—flushed, tri¬ 
umphant, and avenged. His hair, brighter 
than silver, shone and glistened in the brilliant 
light. His complexion had deepened into 
something like bishop’s purple. His small, 
regular, and almost woman-like features, al¬ 
ways instinct with intelligence, now mantled 
with liveliest pleasure. He took off his hat, 
waved it in wide and triumphant circles over 
the heads of the very men who had just gone 
into the lobby against him. ‘ Who would have 
thought there was so much in Bob Lowe ? ’ 
said one member to another; ‘ why, he was 
one of the cleverest men in Lord Palmerston’s 
Government! ’ * All this comes of Lord 

Russell’s sending for Goschen ! ’ was the reply. 

* Disraeli did not half so signally avenge him¬ 
self against Peel,’ interposed another; ‘ Lowe 
has very nearly broken up the Liberal party. ’ 
These may seem to be exaggerated estimates of 
the situation ; but in that moment of agitation 
and excitement, I dare say a hundred sillier 
things were said and agreed to. Anyhow, 
there he stood, that usually cold, undemon¬ 
strative, intellectual, white-headed, red-faced, 
venerable-looking arch-conspirator! shouting 
himself hoarse, like the ringleader of school¬ 
boys at a successful barring out, and amply 
repaid at that moment for all Skye-terrier wit¬ 
ticisms and any amount of popular obloquy ! 
But see, the Chancellor of the Exchequer lifts 
up his hand to bespeak silence, as if he had 
something to say in regard to the result of the 
division. But the more the great orator lifts 
his hand beseechingly, the more the cheers are 
renewed and the hats waved. At length the 
noise comes to an end by the process of ex¬ 
haustion, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
rises. Then there is a universal hush, and 
you might hear a pin drop. He simply says 
—‘ Sir, I propose to fix the Committee for 
Monday, and I will then state the order of 
business.’ It was twilight brightening into 
day when we got out into the welcome fresh 
air of New Palace Yard. Early as was the 

(736) 


hour, about three hundred persons were assem¬ 
bled to see the members come out, and to 
cheer the friends of the Bill. It was a night 
to be long remembered. The House of Com¬ 
mons had listened to the grandest oration ever 
yet delivered by the greatest orator of his age ; 
and had then to ask itself how it happened that 
the Liberal party had been disunited, and a 
Liberal majority of sixty ‘muddled away.’” 
There voted for the Government 318 Liberals 
and 2 Conservatives against 282 Conservatives 
and 33 Liberals. There was one pair—Roe¬ 
buck and Treherne; absent, 6 Liberals and 3 
Conservatives, mostly from serious illness. 
These, with 11 seats vacant, and the Speaker, 
made up the full House of 658. The division 
was amongst the largest, if not the very largest, 
which ever took place within the walls, of the 
House of Commons. 

28 . —Prussia makes a peremptory demand 
on Saxony to give an account of the reasons 
for increasing her army. 

— Fall of a railway bridge on the Mitcham 
and Sutton Railway, causing the death of six 
men. 

30 . —O’Neill, a Dublin policeman, shot 
while on duty near Ormond Market. 

— Collision on the South Coast Railway, 
near Caterham Junction, a passenger train 
running into another laden with chalk. Two 
persons were killed and several injured. 

— Prussian note despatched to Vienna, de¬ 
claring that Austria’s proposals for disarma¬ 
ment were completely nullified by the measures 
she had taken against Italy. “The Govern¬ 
ment of his Majesty,” wrote Count Bismarck, 

‘ ‘ thinks there is no reason why Austria should 
prepare to ward off an attack on her posses¬ 
sions in Italy. If Austria should not think fit 
to place the whole Imperial army on a real 
peace footing, it will not be possible for Prussia 
to carry on the important and momentous 
negotiations with the Imperial Government in 
any other way than by maintaining an equi¬ 
librium in the warlike preparations of the two 
Powers.” Count Mensdorff replied: “It is 
our duty to provide for the defence of the 
Monarchy, and if the Prussian Government 
finds, in our measures against Italy, a motive 
for upholding her own readiness for war, we 
can but fulfil that duty which admits of no 
foreign control, without entering into any fur¬ 
ther discussion as to the priority or magnitude 
of the several military movements. ” 

May 1 .—Address to the Crown agreed to 
for the appointment of Commissioners to in¬ 
quire into the corrupt practices prevailing at 
the last election for Totnes, Yarmouth, Rei- 
gate, and Lancaster, in all of which members 
had been unseated by Parliamentary Com¬ 
mittees. 

2 . —Order issued by the Austrian Govern¬ 
ment to place the armies on a war footing. 

— A bill for legalizing marriage with a 






MAY 


1866 . 


MAY 


deceased wife’s sister thrown out on a second 
reading by 174 to 155. 

3 . —Debate in the French Corps Legislatif 
on the impending conflict between Italy and 
Austria. M. Rouher, Minister of State, said : 
“We do not claim to exercise any guardian¬ 
ship over Italy. She is unfettered in her reso¬ 
lutions, because she is alone responsible for 
them ; but the interest we feel towards her 
obliged us to explain ourselves categorically. 
She knows that, as we should highly disap¬ 
prove of Austria making any attack upon her, 
so also are we thoroughly determined to throw 
upon her all the perils and risks of any attack 
she may make upon Austria. The declaration 
of the Government is summed up as follows : 
* A pacific policy, an honest neutrality, and 
complete liberty of action.’”—M. Thiers de¬ 
clared that France, which had lavished treasure 
and blood for Italy, had the right to prevent 
her from any act of aggression that she might 
contemplate, and that Italy was bound in grati¬ 
tude to listen to France. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces the annual Budget. He calculated the 
expenditure for the year at 66,225,000/., and 
the revenue at 67,575,000/. He proposed to 
remove the duty from timber and pepper, to 
modify the duty on wine in regard to the pro¬ 
portion of alcohol, and to reduce the stage- 
carriage and post-horse duty from a penny 
to a farthing a mile. This would absorb 
562,000/. of the estimated surplus of 1,350,000/. 
The balance he purposed applying to the re¬ 
duction of the National Debt. He showed at 
some length that the expense of our present 
armaments, and the interest on the debts which 
have been bequeathed to us by former wars, 
amount together to 83 per cent, of the national 
expenditure, leaving only 17 per cent, to defray 
the civil charges. The Chancellor of the Ex¬ 
chequer also referred to the debt of other 
countries as compared with our own, and the 
provisions that might require to be made for 
maintaining our industrial supremacy in view 
of the possible exhaustion of our coal-fields. 

4. —The King of Italy issues a decree 
ordering the formation of twenty battalions of 
volunteers to be placed under the command of 
Garibaldi. 

X 5 . —The annual banquet of the Royal Aca¬ 
demy was this year honoured with the presence 
of the Prince of Wales and several other royal 
personages. The new President, Sir Francis 
Grant, presided for the first time. 

6 , —In reply to an address from the inhabi¬ 
tants of Auxerre, the Emperor Napoleon said : 
“I am happy to see that the reminiscences 
of the first Empire have not been effaced 
from your memory. Be certain that, on my 
side, I have inherited the sentiments of the 
head of my family for the energetic and 
patriotic populations who supported the Em¬ 
peror in good and evil fortunes. I have, 
moreover, a debt of gratitude to pay to the 
(737) 


department of the Yonne. It was one of the 
first to give me its suffrages in 1848, because 
it knew, like the majority of the French 
nation, that its interests were mine, and that, 
like it, I detested those treaties of 1815 which 
some parties of the day wish to make the sole 
basis of our foreign policy. I thank you for 
your sentiments. In the midst of you 1 breathe 
at ease, for it is among the laborious popula¬ 
tions of the towns and rural districts that I 
find the true genius of France.” 

6 . —Destruction of Scott, Inglis, and Co.’s 
spinning works, Bridgeton, Glasgow. Sixty 
thousand spindles in working order, and sixty 
thousand in preparation, were destroyed. 

7 . —Attempt to assassinate Count Bismarck 
when returning on foot along the Unter den 
Linden, after an audience with the King. 
Upon reaching the Schadow Strasse, he was 
fired at from behind by a man who discharged 
at him two barrels of a revolver. Both shots 
missed the Count, who immediately turned 
and seized the man. In the struggle which 
ensued between them three more shots were 
fired, but the Count remained unhurt, with the 
exception of a slight contusion. His clothes 
were also burned by the three last discharges. 
The assassin, a young student named Blind, 
committed suicide in prison by stabbing him¬ 
self with a pocket-knife. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces the Distribution of Seats Bill. By 
grouping together a number of small boroughs, 
giving one or two representatives only to each 
group, he gained forty-one seats, and eight 
others were to be reduced to one representative 
each, making a total of forty-nine. These 
he proposed to distribute among populous 
counties to the number of twenty-six ; to give 
an extra representative to Liverpool, Man¬ 
chester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Salford ; to 
divide the Tower Hamlets into two divisions, 
with two members each; to create seven new 
electoral boroughs with one member each, and 
one (Kensington and Chelsea) with two ; and 
to give seven seats to Scotland. The Scotch 
and Irish Reform Bills were also introduced, 
the former by the Lord Advocate, and the 
latter by Mr. Secretary Fortescue. 

8 . —Died, Philip Stanhope Worsley, poet 
and translator of Homer. 

9 . —The Frankfort Diet resolves to sup¬ 
port Saxony, and to ask specific assurances 
from Prussia. 

— Colonel Hobbs commits suicide by 
throwing himself from the deck of the Tyne 
on her voyage between Kingston and St. 
Thomas. The inquiry as to the part he had 
taken in suppressing the Jamaica outbreak, 
and the criticism to which he was in conse¬ 
quence subjected, had so affected Colonel 
Plobbs that he was pronounced of unsound 
mind, and was coming home invalided in the 
charge of an army surgeon. 

10. —Disastrous commercial panic. Suspen- 

3 B 






MAY 


1866. 


ma y 


sion of Overend* Gurney, and Co. (limited). 
“ We regret to announce,” wrote the secretary 
about half-past three o’clock, “ that a severe 
run on our deposits and resources has com¬ 
pelled us to suspend payment, this course being 
considered under advice the best calculated to 
protect the interest of all parties.” The lia¬ 
bilities were stated at the enormous amount of 
ai, 000,000/. When the private firm was trans¬ 
formed into a limited company last year, the 
capital was set down at 5,000,000/, in 100,000 
shares of 50/. each, the paid-up capital being 
1,500,000/. As a private firm the profits were 
understood to be about 250,000/. per annum. 
Some months back the shares touched ten 
per cent., but the bankruptcy of a large con¬ 
tractor, with heavy losses through the failure 
and frauds of Pinto, Percy, Ashby, and Co., 
operated to shake the establishment very 
seriously. It also got to be generally known 
that the firm was trading vastly beyond even 
its fixed capital. This (Thursday) morning the 
shares opened at about 3 discount, but after¬ 
wards dropped to \\ discount, and closed at 104 
to 94 discount. The excitement when the doors 
closed, and the intelligence became generally 
known, was intense. The Bank of England 
was applied to for assistance, and there ap¬ 
peared every disposition to afford it; but after 
examining the books of the company, and con¬ 
sulting with the heads of other banking estab¬ 
lishments, it was found that no assistance which 
could be given would be effectual. The market 
was under the influence of a favourable tele¬ 
gram from Vienna when a sudden and severe 
fell in Overend shares completely changed its 
character. 

11 .—' To-day, “Black Friday,” the commer¬ 
cial panic swept over the City with most dis¬ 
astrous results. All descriptions of securities 
were indiscriminately pressed for sale with an 
absolute disregard of their value, and spe¬ 
culative engagements were closed by the 
brokers in the greatest possible haste, with¬ 
out reference to their clients, and in many 
cases contrary to their instructions. In some 
cases bank and finance shares were offered 
for nothing. This morning the Bank raised 
the rate of discount from 8 to 9 per cent., 
and for special advance to 10 per cent. The 
pressure even at these terms was enormous, 
and it was only on an exceptional bill that 
accommodation could be obtained. Mean¬ 
while disaster after disaster was reported at 
the Stock Exchange. First came the English 
Joint Stock, for 800,000/.; then the great con¬ 
tracting firm of Peto and Betts, for 4,000,000/.; 
followed by Shrimpton, railway contractor, for 
200,000/. ; the Imperial Mercantile Credit As¬ 
sociation, whose paid-up capital was 500,000/. ; 
and the Consolidated Discount Company, 
250,000/. All day the crowd surged along 
Lombard-street; banking-houses were crammed 
with customers having more the appearance 
of an unruly plundering mob than sober capi¬ 
talists ; ana here and there speculators mus¬ 
tered in sullen steadiness before the closed 
(738) 


doors of some establishment whose credit had 
crumbled to ruins in the storm. Further dis¬ 
aster was still in prospect. The shares of Agra 
and Mastermans’ Bank, which at the begin¬ 
ning of the year were 33 premium, closed this 
day at 1 discount. 

11. —George Wellington Green, a Bristol 
merchant of eminence, commits suicide by 
throwing himself off the Clifton Suspension 
Bridge. 

— About midnight Mr. Gladstone inti¬ 
mated in the House of Commons that, as the 
result of numerous and protracted interviews 
with bank directors and the heads of other 
financial projects, Government had determined 
on authorizing the suspension of the Bank 
Charter Act. Through a desire to extend x-e- 
lief, the Bank of England had that day raised 
its loan and discounts to something over 
4,000,000/., thereby reducing the reserves to 
about 3,000,000/. The necessary authority, 
he said, would be forwarded to the Directors 
in the morning. This greatly allayed the 
panic, though numerous failures continued to 
be reported day after day, chiefly in connexion 
with the great firms which had fallen in the 
first fury of the storm. 

12 . —An irruption of water fi*om old adjoin¬ 
ing workings takes place into the Furze-hill 
Wood Mine near Harrowbridge. 

— Meeting at Lambeth Palace, presided 
over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to per¬ 
petuate the memory of Mr. Keble. It was 
resolved that a sum of 50,000/. be raised for the 
accomplishment of an object which he was 
known to have much at heart—namely, the 
establishment of a college or other institution 
in which young men now debarred from Uni¬ 
versity education might be trained in simple and 
religious habits, and in strict fidelity to the 
Church of England, with the hope that, among 
other advantages, it would tend to promote the 
supply of candidates for Holy Orders. 

14 . —-The second reading of the Redistribu¬ 
tion Bill carried without a division, the sitting 
being chiefly taken up by Mr. Disraeli, who 
made a lengthened adverse criticism of the 
Government proposals. 

— The cattle-plague appears in Ireland, 
at Drennan, County Down, but through the 
energetic measures adopted it was prevented 
from spreading. 

15 . —At the annual meeting of the Church 
Pastoral Aid Society, the Earl of Shaftesbury 
took occasion to express the following opinion 
regarding the new anonymous work “ Ecce 
Homo,” which was at this time exciting a wide 
interest in religious circles. “Sir,” he said, 
“ how men are deluded, how they are misled 
by those who should be their guides ! I confess 
I was perfectly aghast the other day when 
speaking to a clergyman, and asking liim his 
opinion of the most pestilential book ever 
vomited, I think, from the jaws of hell—I 
mean ‘ Ecce Homo.’ When I asked him what 








MA Y 


1866 . 


JUNE 


was his opinion of that book, he deliberately 
told me—he being a great professor of evan¬ 
gelical religion—that the book had excited his 
deepest admiration, and that he did not 
hesitate to say that it had conferred great 
benefit upon his own soul. Why, if we are to 
have this miserable and uncertain teaching,— 
if the guides to whom we look for light and 
help can approve such works as that,—how can 
we expect that the mass of the people, the mass 
even of the educated middle classes, who are 
supposed to think for themselves, will not be 
led to wander out of the right way ? ” 

16 . —President Johnson vetoes the Bill ad¬ 
mitting Colorado as a State of the American 
Union. 

18 . —At a meeting of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel it was resolved to 
postpone the election of Bishop Colenso as 
vice-president. A resolution was also carried : 
“That the Bishop of Capetown be requested 
under existing circumstances to give such 
episcopal superintendence, and supply for the 
present such Episcopal ministration as he 
may be able to afford, or to obtain from any 
other South African bishops, to the Society’s 
missionaries in Natal.” 

19 . —Died at Paris, aged 6i, Rev. Francis 
Mahoney, better known as “Father Prout,” 
wit, poet, and journalist. 

— New Museum at Edinburgh opened by 
Prince Alfred, who, a few days later, was 
created duke, with the name of the city for 
title. 

20 . —The Russian troops in Central Asia 
gain an important victory over the Ameer 
of Bokhara, near Idjar. The latter fled to 
Djonzah, nearly eighty miles southward, being 
unable to rally on the rear-guard at Oratepe. 

25 .—Invitations for a Conference despatched 
by England, France, and Russia, to Austria, 
Prussia, Italy, and the German Diet. 

— Fire at Ottery St. Mary, Exeter, de¬ 
stroying a large number of small houses and 
the National School. 

28 .—Government defeated by 248 to 238 
on Sir R. Knightley’s motion—“That it be 
an instruction to the Committee on the 
Franchise Bill to make provision for the pre¬ 
vention of corruption and bribeiy. ” The motion 
to consider the Franchise Bill and the Distri¬ 
bution Bill together was adopted without dis¬ 
cussion. The debate was adjourned on Captain 
Hayter’s resolution—“That this House, al¬ 
though desirous that the subject of franchise 
and the redistribution of seats should be con- 
. sidered together, is of opinion that the system 
l of grouping proposed in the present bill for 
the redistribution of seats is neither convenient 
nor equitable, and that the scheme is otherwise 
not sufficiently matured to form the basis of a 
satisfactory measure.” 

— The Consolidated Bank, which had just 
taken up the business of the Bank of London, 
suspends payment. 

(739) 


30 . —Discussion on the second reading of 
Mr. Clay’s Education Franchise Bill adjourned 
without a division. Mr. Clay afterwards with¬ 
drew the Bill. 

31 . —In the adjourned debate on Captain 
Hayter’s resolution, Mr. Lowe made another 
speech of marked ability in opposition to the 
Government proposals, closing with one more 
earnest protest against Democracy. “ We are 
about to exchange,” he said, “certain good for 
more than doubtful change; we are about to 
barter maxims and traditions that have never 
failed, for theories and doctrines that have 
never succeeded. Democracy you may have 
at any time. Night and day the gate is open 
that leads to that bare and level plain where 
every ants’ nest is a mountain and every thistle 
a forest tree. But a Government such as that 
of England is the work of no human hand. It 
has grown up the imperceptible aggregation of 
centuries. It is a thing which we only can 
enjoy, which we cannot impart to others, and 
which, once lost, we cannot recover for our¬ 
selves. Because you have contrived to be at 
once dilatory and hasty, it is no reason for 
pressing forward rashly and improvidently. 
To precipitate a decision even in the case of 
a single human life would be cruel; it is more 
than cruel—it is parricide—in the case of a 
Constitution which is the life of this great 
nation. If it is to perish, as all mortal things 
must perish, give it at any rate time to gather 
its robe around it that it may fall with decency 
and deliberation. 

“‘To-morrow ! 

Oh, that’s sudden ! spare it! spare it! 

It ought not so to die 1 ’ ” 

— At the trial of the Fenian Sergeant 
M ‘Carthy in Dublin to-day, Detective Talbot 
stated in evidence that on the 6th January he 
was at Clonmel with the prisoner by appoint¬ 
ment, with Morrisy, a working “B,” and a 
person named Daniel, a sub-centre, and that 
there, in Burke’s public-house in Clonmel, in 
company with Bombardier Low of the Artillery, 
M‘Carthy stated here was the man who had 
enlisted the forty-four Fenians of whatever 
artillery was then in Clonmel. The object 
of the Fenian brotherhood, the witness stated, 
was to make war on the Queen, to establish 
a republic, to seize on all property and kill every 
person who opposed them. They were to rise 
on a certain night, when arms would be dis¬ 
tributed to them. 

June 1.—The German Diet informed by 
Austria that all efforts to arrange amicably the 
dispute with Prussia concerning the Duchies 
had been fruitless. 

2 .—The Canadian Volunteers march against 
a party of Fenians who had crossed the Niagara 
river near Buffalo, and established themselves 
in an empty mill known as Fort Erie. The 
Volunteers were in the first instance unsuccess¬ 
ful, but being reinforced in large numbers they 
afterwards drove the Fenians across the river, 

3 B2 






june 


1866. 


JUNE 


where many of them were captured by the 
Federal soldiers. Six seized on the Canada 
side were tried by drum-head court-martial and 
shot. On the 7th President Johnson issued a 
proclamation against the Fenians, and on the 
same day Roberts, a head-centre, was arrested 
in New York. General Sweeney, the orga¬ 
nizer of the raid, was arrested at St. Alban’s on 
the 6th. 

A .—As inducing him to return to the Liberal 
ranks and vote against Captain Hayter’s motion, 
Earl Grosvenor said that its success might lead 
to the breaking up of the Government, and, in 
the present state of European politics, it would 
be a great misfortune if the country were de¬ 
prived of the services of Lord Clarendon.—Mr. 
Disraeli took occasion to comment on this, 
and referred to the repeated failures of the 
Foreign Secretary in Congresses and Confer¬ 
ences, charging him, among other shortcom¬ 
ings, with entering into a conspiracy to trammel 
the free press of Belgium.—The following 
evening Lord Clarendon brought up the subject 
in the House of Lords, and quoted the follow¬ 
ing as his answer to the proposition on the 
subject made at the Congress of Paris : “As 
regards the observations offered by Count 
Walewski on the excesses of the Belgian press, 
and the dangers which result therefrom for the 
adjoining countries, the Plenipotentiaries of 
England admit their importance, but as the 
representative of a country in which a free and 
independent press is, so to say, one of the fun¬ 
damental institutions, they cannot associate . 
themselves to measures of coercion against the 
press of another State.” (See March 30, 
.1856.) “The right honourable gentleman,” 
Lord Clarendon continued, “ either knew 
or did not know of the protocol from which I 
have quoted when he made the charge against 
me. If he did know of it, then I should be pre¬ 
pared to characterise the charge against me as 
it deserves ; but if he did not know of what I 
said or did upon that occasion, I scarcely think 
your Lordships will believe the declaration I 
have made to be altogether unnecessary.”— 
Mr. Disraeli returned to the charge on the 8th, 
and described the various understandings come 
to at the Congress of Paris as culminating in 
the Conspiracy Bill which drove Lord Palmer¬ 
ston’s Government from office. 

— Much to the relief of the Government— 
which was considered in peril—Captain Hayter 
consents to withdraw his resolutions. A scene 
of great irregularity and violence took place 
in the division lobbies at the close of the 
debate, when the motion was put that the 
Speaker leave the chair. 

5 . —Abandonment of the proposed Confer¬ 
ence at Paris, in consequence of the refusal of. 
Austria to assent to the programme for the 
settlement of disputes without hostilities, she 
demanding as a previous stipulation that no 
territorial addition should be made to any of 
the contending states. (See July 20.) 

(740) 


5—Testimonial presented to Captain Maury, 
at Willis’s Rooms. 

6 . —Stoppage of the Agra and Mastermans’ 
Bank, causing, from the peculiar character of 
its operations, and its numerous agencies in the 
East, a greater amount of loss and incon¬ 
venience than had yet been felt by any recent 
commercial disaster. Some idea of the run 
upon this bank may be gathered from the fact 
that, since the commencement of the crisis, 
they had paid no less than 3,000,000/. over the 
counter. The immediate cause of the failure 
was a run on the branches in India, produced 
by false telegrams from London that the mother 
bank had stopped. 

— Fire in Westmoreland-street, Dublin: 
six persons burned to death in consequence of 
the breaking of the fire-escape. 

— The debate on the third reading of Fel¬ 
lows of Colleges Declaration Bill, adjourned 
without a division till 18th July. 

— Came on for hearing, in the Court of 
Probate, before Lord Chief Justice Cockbum, 
Lord Chief Baron Pollock, Judge Wilde, and a 
special jury, the case of Ryves and Ryves v . 
the Attorney-General, involving important in¬ 
terests under the Legitimacy Declaration Act. 
The petitioners instituting the suit were, La- 
vinia Jannetta Horton Ryves, of Maitland- 
park, St. Pancras, and her son William Henry 
Ryves. The petition alleged that the peti¬ 
tioners were natural-born subjects of her Ma¬ 
jesty, and that the first-named petitioner was the 
legitimate daughter of John Thomas Serres 
and Olive his wife, the said Olive being, while 
living, a natural-born British subject, and that 
the petitioners were legally domiciled in Eng¬ 
land ; that the first-named petitioner’s mother, 
Olive, was the legitimate daughter of Henry 
Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, and Olive 
Wilmot, his wife, respectively deceased; and 
that the said Olive was born on the 3d of 
April, 1772; that the first-named petitioner’s 
grand-parents, the said Duke of Cumberland 
and Olive Wilmot, were, on the 4th of March, 
1767, lawfully married in England at the house 
of Thomas Lord Archer, in Grcsvenor-square, 
London, and that the said marriage was so¬ 
lemnized by the Rev. James Wilmot, D.D., 
who was the father of the said Olive Wilmot, 
that the first-named petitioner was lawfully 
married on the 22d of November, 1822, to 
Anthony Thomas Ryves, from whom she was, 
on the 16th February, 1841, divorced a 
mens A et thoro by the Arches Court of Can¬ 
terbury, and that there was issue of the 
marriage William Henry Ryves, the second 
petitioner, and other children; that the peti¬ 
tioner, William Henry Ryves, was the legitimate 
son of the first-named petitioner, and was bom 
at Durham-cottage, Vauxhall, in the parish of 
Lambeth, on the 3d of March, 1833, and was 
baptized at Lambeth Church on the 30th of 
June, 1840. The petition prayed the Court to 
pronounce that Henry Frederick, Duke of 
Cumberland, and Olive his wife, were, - on the 










JUNE 


1866. 


JUNE 


4th of March, 1767, lawfully married, and that 
the mother of the first-named petitioner, the 
said Olive, afterwards Olive Serres, was their 
legitimate child, and that she was born on the 
3d of April, 1772 ; and that the first-named 
petitioner was lawfully married to Anthony 
Thomas Ryves, and that the second petitioner 
is her legitimate son and heir, and a natural- 
born subject of her Majesty. The Attorney- 
General had been cited in pursuance of the Act, 
and filed an answer denying that the first- 
named petitioner’s mother was the legitimate 
daughter of Henry Frederick, Duke of Cum¬ 
berland, and Olive Wilmot, and that the said 
petitioner’s alleged mother was born as set 
forth in the petition, and that Henry Frederick, 
Duke of Cumberland, was lawfully married 
to Olive Wilmot, as set forth in the petition, 
and that the other allegations in the petition 
were true. The answer concluded with a 
prayer for the rejection of the petition. Issue 
was joined upon this answer. The case was 
supported by a multitude of semi-official docu¬ 
ments, of the nature of wills, certificates, and 
memoranda relating to the alleged marriage of 
the Duke of Cumberland with Olive Wilmot, 
and purporting to be signed by King George III., 
the Earl of Chatham, Solicitor-General Dun¬ 
ning, Lord Brook, and the Rev. Dr. Wilmot, 
who was reputed to have performed that, as 
well as other secret Royal marriages, and whose 
certificates seemed planned from the beginning 
to connect a scheme of elaborate imposture. 
The documents had nearly all been through 
the law courts before, in connexion with the 
claim set up forty years since by the so-called 
Olive, Princess of Cumberland (or Serres),mother 
of the senior petitioner. Experts were now put 
into the witness-box, who gravely testified to 
the genuineness of the signatures, with one or 
two qualified exceptions; but the weight of the 
evidence, as gleaned in cross-examination, was 
not only against their authenticity, but tended 
to show that the occurrences they certified could 
not possibly have happened. The Attorney- 
General treated them as the creation of a vain, 
disordered brain, and more than hinted that 
the mother of the petitioner had, in her day, 
been the prime mover in the absurd claim. 
An insurmountable technical difficulty also 
arose in the progress of the case. If Mrs. Ryves 
succeeded in making out that her mother was 
a Royal Princess, she would have established 
at the same time her own illegitimacy. The 
alleged marriage of the Duke of Cumberland 
was celebrated before the Royal Marriage Act ; 
and consequently, if Mrs: Serres had been the 
Duke’s daughter, she would have been a Prin¬ 
cess of the Blood Royal. But that Act had 
been passed before her marriage with Mr. 
Serres, and would have rendered it invalid, 
so that her issue would have been illegitimate. 
After a trial extending over seven days, in the 
course of which the aged petitioner herself was 
subjected to a close cross-examination, the 
petition was dismissed and the documents 
ordered to be impounded. 


7 . —Discussion on Lord Stanley’s proposal to 
postpone clause 4 of the Reform Bill, relating 
to the county franchise, till the re-distribution 
clauses were settled. Negatived by 287 to 260. 

8 . —The Duke of Edinburgh takes his seat 
in the House of Lords. 

9 . —Inquiry into the alleged neglect and 
irregularity prevailing in the Strand Union 
Workhouse, where a poor man, Owen Daly, 
had been permitted to die mainly of bed-sores. 

10. —Triple collision in the Welwyn Tunnel 
of the Great Northern Railway, resulting in the 
death of a guard and fireman. 

11 . —Garibaldi arrives at Genoa from 
Caprera. 

— In committee on the Reform Bill, Mr. 
Hunt moved, “That the 14/. franchise in 
counties should be rateable value instead of 
gross estimated rental.” This was opposed 
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the 
debate continued until it was moved that the 
Committee report progress. Negatived by 303 
to 254. It was then moved that the House 
adjourn; but this, after a sharp debate, was 
negatived by 254 to 212. 

— In the Commons, Mr. Kinglake makes 
a speech on the complications which at present 
threatened the peace of Europe. He remarked 
that the Government, in consenting to enter the 
Conference without first ascertaining what the 
views of Austria were, had departed from Lord 
John Russell’s pitiless logic of two years since. 
In answer to the question whether there was 
any ground for believing that peace might be 
preserved, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
said he was afraid there was none upon which 
any solid expectations could be built, although 
there was a momentary arrest of the military 
proceedings in Prussia, and in the departure of 
the King from Berlin. 

— In a letter to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, the 
Emperor of the French expresses his desire 
to avoid participation in the continental war, 
and states his opinion that Austria for an 
equitable compensation should cede Venetia to 
Italy. 

12 . —Prince Teck married, at Kew, to the 
Princess Mary of Cambridge. 

— In the House of Commons, Mr. Hussey- 
Vivian introduces an interesting discussion on 
the subject of our national coal-fields, and 
combats the views of Jevons and Armstrong as 
to their probable early extinction. 

— Lord Dunkellin gives notice of his inten¬ 
tion to move, “ That the proposed 7 1 . borough 
franchise be a rating qualification.” 

— Diplomatic relations cease between Prus¬ 
sia and Austria. A Prussian declaration of 
war followed immediately thereafter, and on 
the 15th her armies entered Saxony and Han¬ 
over. On the 17th one division took posses¬ 
sion of Slade, and on the 18th another entered 
Dresden. 


(74U 








JUNE 


1866. 


JUNE 


13 . —Mr. Coleridge’s Test Abolition Bill 
passed through committee, after an amend¬ 
ment, moved by Sir W. Heathcote, for securing 
fellowships and headships of colleges against 
Dissenters, had been negatived by 245 to 171. 

14 . —Explosion of fire-damp in Dukinfield 
Colliery, near Ashton. A few were brought at 
once to the surface alive, but injured, others 
made their escape to distant portions of the 
workings, but the number suffocated amounted 
to thirty-seven, making, it was said, the dread¬ 
ful total of 386 lives lost in this pit since its 
commencement, five years ago. 

— Commenced at the Old Bailey the trial 
of William Smith, alias Denton, for the Cannon- 
street murder. The prisoner proved a com¬ 
plete alibi. About a dozen witnesses from 
Windsor were examined, who accounted almost 
minute by minute for the prisoner’s time 
throughout the evening of the murder. He 
appeared to have been chiefly occupied in 
playing at cards for pints of beer at a local 
public-house. The jury, without any hesita¬ 
tion, found the prisoner Not Guilty. The 
prisoner exclaimed, “ Thank you, gentlemen; 
I am as innocent as a baby,” and the judge 
added that it was due to the prisoner to say 
that he was “ not merely not guilty, but inno¬ 
cent.” The jury said, “We think so too, my 
lord.” 

16 . —Austria declares her intention to afford 
Saxony military aid against Prussia, who accepts 
this as a declaration of war. 

17 . —The Emperor of Austria issues a war 
manifesto addressed “to my Peoples,” in 
which he reviews the course of events “which 
had at length compelled him to draw the 
sword.” “We shall not be alone in the struggle 
which is about to take place. The princes and 
peoples of Germany know that their liberty and 
independence are menaced by a Power which 
listens but to the dictates of egotism, and is 
under the influence of an ungovernable craving 
after aggrandizement; and they also know that 
in Austria they have an upholder of the free¬ 
dom, power, and integrity of the whole of the 
German fatherland. We and our German 
brethren have taken up arms in defence of the 
most precious rights of nations. We have been 
forced so to do, and we neither can nor will 
disarm until the internal development of my 
Empire and of the German States which are 
allied with it has been secured, and also their 
power and influence in Europe.” General 
Benedek was appointed Commander-in-chief 
of the Austrian army of the North, and his 
forces were distributed along the frontier 
separating Moravia from Saxony and Silesia. 
The plan of the Prussian campaign was ar¬ 
ranged by General von Moltke in Berlin. 
They were also greatly indebted to their 
needle-guns ( Ziindnadelgewehr ), a breech-load¬ 
ing musket, which enabled them to fire with 
terrible rapidity, and at times almost paralysed 
the Austrians. 

(742) 


18 .—Government defeated on Lord Dun- 
kellin’s amendment in favour of a borough 
franchise based on rating instead of rental, by 
a majority of 315 to 304. “Frequent as had 
been the exciting divisions during the session, 
this scene,” says the Times , “surpassed them 
all in the frantic enthusiasm with which the 
defeat of the Government was received. When 
Lord Dunkellin took from the clerk the paper 
containing the numbers, the storm of cheers 
prevented him reading them out for a good 
minute; and when the decisive character of the 
majority became known, it was again accom¬ 
panied by the waving of hats, clapping of hands, 
not only by members, but by strangers, and 
other unparliamentary demonstrations.” Mr. 
Gladstone fixed the renewal of the Committee 
for the evening sitting at six o’clock, adding 
the significant intimation, “ that no Government 
business would now be taken at the twelve 
o’clock sitting.” 

— The Bishop of London presents a peti¬ 
tion to the House of Lords from Miss Burdett 
Coutts, praying that in any measure for amend¬ 
ing the law with respect to the bishops and 
clergy in the colonies of Capetown, Adelaide, 
and British Columbia, full legal effect might be 
given to her Majesty’s Royal letters patent con¬ 
stituting the sees of those colonies respectively; 
and that, in case any of the bishops of the said 
sees should surrender his letters patent, the 
funds forming the endowment of his bishopric 
might be applied according to the intentions 
of the founder thereof, or else revert to the 
founder. A debate ensued, which resulted in 
the appointment of a Select Committee to in¬ 
quire into this and other petitions of a similar 
character. 

19 . —Earl Russell in the House of Lords, 
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 
Commons, intimate that, in consequence of the 
result in the division yesterday on Lord Dun- 
kellin’s motion, they had communicated to her 
Majesty (then at Balmoral) the result of their 
deliberations at the Cabinet Council held in the 
afternoon. Both Houses adjourned to Monday 
the 25th. 

— The armies of Prince Frederick Charles 
and of the Crown Prince of Prussia receive 
orders to march against Austria. 

20 . —Italy declares war against Austria. 

22.—Prince Frederick Charles issues from 
Gorlitz a general order to the First Army: 

“ Soldiers ! Austria, faithless and regardless of 
treaties, has for some time, without declaring 
war, not respected the Prussian frontier in 
Upper Silesia. I therefore, likewise without 
a declaration of war, might have passed the 
frontier of Bohemia. To-day I have caused 
a public declaration to be sent, and to-day 
we enter the territory of the enemy in order 
to defend our own country. ... We rely on 
the God of our fathers, who will be mighty 
in us, and will bless the arms of Prussia. 
So forward, with our old battle-cry-— r With 











JUNE 


1866. 


JUNE 


God for King and fatherland ! Long live the 
King ! ’ ” 

23 . —Mr. Gladstone’s sinking fund scheme 
abandoned, and a supplementary estimate of 
495,000/. voted. 

— The Italian army, numbering between 
80,000 and 90,000 men, crossed the Mincio on 
their march against the Austrians. They were 
met at Custozza next day by Archduke Albert, 
and defeated after a severe engagement of two 
hours’ duration. 

24 . —Fire at Newcastle, destroying property 
valued at 70,000/., and damaging the lower road¬ 
way of the high level bridge. 

25 . —Intimation made in both Houses of 
Parliament that Ministers had tendered their 
resignation, but that her Majesty, hesitating to 
accept the same till she could have personal 
communication with them, was then journey¬ 
ing towards Windsor, and had appointed to¬ 
morrow at one o’clock for an audience. 

26 . —The Court of Session, Edinburgh, 
gave judgment in the case of Campbell v. 
Campbell, involving the succession to the earl¬ 
dom and estates of Breadalbane. A decision 
was given by ten to two for Campbell of Glen- 
falloch, and against Campbell of Boreland, 
who challenged the legitimacy of Glenfalloch’s 
father. 

— Engagement between the First Prussian 
Army and the Austrians, near Reichenberg. 
The latter fell back upon Miinchengratz, which 
they made an unsuccessful attempt to defend 
on the 28th. 

— The Queen sends for Lord Derby, and 
entrusts him with the formation of a Ministry. 

— Earl Russell makes a statement of the 
steps taken by Ministers since the late defeat. 
On tendering their resignation to her Majesty, 
she desired them to reconsider their determina¬ 
tion, as it appeared to her that they had only 
been defeated on a point of detail; and it was 
further urged that the present state of the 
Continent made it very inexpedient that a 
change of Government should take place. 
Subsequent communication with her Majesty 
led her to attach more importance to the de¬ 
feat, and the construction of a new Ministry 
would now be entrusted to other hands. Earl 
Russell complained that the treatment which 
the Reform Bill had received was hardly in 
accordance with the voluntary promise of Lord 
Derby that his friends would offer it no factious 
opposition.—Lord Derby repudiated this charge 
with great warmth, and stated that he had 
never advised any of his friends to meet the bill 
with more than reasonable opposition. It had 
been defeated, he said, not by the opponents 
of the noble Earl, but by those whom he 
included among his political supporters. The 
House adjourned till Friday the 29th.—In the 
Commons Mr. Gladstone explained the circum¬ 
stances which led the Government to determine 
that they would stand or fall by their measure. 


“It was a pledge,” he said, “a Government 
should rarely give. It was the last weapon in 
the armoury of the Government: it should not 
be lightly taken down from the walls ; and if it 
is taken down, it should not be lightly replaced, 
nor till it has served the purposes it was meant 
to fulfil. The pledge had been given, however, 
under the deepest conviction of public duty, and 
had the effect of making them use every effort 
in their power to avoid offence, to conciliate, 
support, and unite, instead of distracting.” 
The House adjourned till next day, on the 
understanding that a further adjournment might 
then take place. There was considerable 
excitement in Palace Yard to-night on the 
assembling of the House. 

27 . —The Austrians defeated at Nachod. 
Early this morning Field-Marshal Ramming left 
Opocno with his corps and a division of heavy 
cavalry, partly on the Skalitz, partly on the 
Neustadt road, both converging on Nachod. 
“At 10 a . m . the vanguard of Lowenfeldt’s 
division of Steinmetz’s corps, advancing west¬ 
ward from Nachod towards Skalitz, had just 
issued, a few companies strong, from a deep 
defile at the junction of the Nachod and Neu¬ 
stadt roads, when it was attacked in the left 
flank by Ramming with two brigades. In a 
moment the Prussian front, meeting a wither¬ 
ing fire of the Austrian artillery, was thrown 
back upon the Nachod pass. Two squadrons of 
dragoons, ordered to stop an Austrian cuirassier 
regiment, were driven back like chaff Con¬ 
fusion seemed to cover the advance, and the 
Crown Prince, entangled in the whirl, was for a 
moment unable to extricate himself from the 
mass of dismounted dragoons, loose horses, 
infantry columns, artillery and ammunition 
waggons, mingling with each other in the 
narrow and steep pass. The first moments of 
surprise over, the Crown Prince ordered up 
artillery to his right, and in the course of the 
day upwards of eighty guns were in position at 
one time, sweeping the ground which sinks from 
Wysokow downward towards Skalitz. The 
Austrians, whose sole purpose during the day 
had been to turn the Prussians’ right, were 
driven back step by step, until, at four o’clock, 
the whole of Steinmetz’s corps had debouched, 
fighting, out of the pass of Wysokow. The 
object which Ramming had been ordered to 
attain was not effected. He retired upon 
Skalitz, dispirited and entirely broken, having 
brought into action 29 battalions, 16 squadrons, 
and 100 guns, against 22 battalions of Prus¬ 
sians ; he lost 6,000 dead and wounded, 
2,500 prisoners, three standards, and six guns, 
in comparison with the Prussian loss of 59 
officers and 1,132 privates killed and wounded. 
At Skalitz Ramming reported to Benedek that 
he was repulsed, and could not hold his ground 
without assistance. Benedek sent Archduke 
Leopold, whose corps had come no further than 
Josephstadt, forwards to Skalitz, with orders to 
take the command of the remnant of Ramming’s 
disordered force, and to assume the offensive 
from Skalitz against Steinmetz. The Crown 

(743) 







June 


i 866. 


JULY 


Prince of Prussia, on his part, brought up six 
battalions of Mutius’s corps from the rear to 
strengthen Steinmetz on the field.” 

27 . —Prussian reverse at Trautenau. “ Gene¬ 
ral Bonin’s vanguard under General Grossmann, 
advancing in the morning from Goldenols, en¬ 
tered Trautenau and cleared it of the enemy 
after a short but sharp resistance. Advancing 
from thence towards the heights south of the 
town, it met, on a plateau, the Mondel brigade 
of Gablentz’s corps, and there a fight began 
in which neither side could do more than 
hold its own, the Prussians endeavouring 
to gain a strong footing in the steep hills, 
at the top of which General Mondel was re¬ 
ceiving constant reinforcements, the Austrians 
m their part trying to drive back the Prus¬ 
sians, reinforced by their main body, into the 
defile beyond Trautenau. In process of time 
Gablentz had pushed forward his entire force, 
whilst General Bonin stood in reserve behind 
Trautenau with 10,000 men, and even refused 
the 1st offer of the division of guards, which had 
reached Qualitsch in his rear to assist him. 
His strange infatuation did not long remain 
unpunished. The van under General Gross¬ 
mann began at three o’clock in the afternoon 
to give way, and its retiring movement was 
soon necessarily followed by the division on its 
left; at half-past seven Gablentz was in posses¬ 
sion of the field of battle, the Prussians in full 
retreat through Goldenols, but still too strong 
to be pursued by the exhausted Austrians.” 

28 . —-Capitulation of Langensalza, the Hano¬ 
verian army of 19,000 men surrendering to the 
Prussians under General Vogel von Falkenstein. 

29 . — Earl Derby having sought to include 
in the new Ministry certain members of the 
Liberal party, Earl Grosvenor waits upon 
him this day, and intimates that those members 
who had attended a meeting called to consider 
the proposal had resolved unanimously not to 
accept office, though some of them might give 
him an independent support. 

— Reform demonstration in Trafalgar- 
square, attended by about 10,000 people. A 
resolution was passed declaring Earl Russell 
deserving of censure for not having advised 
her Majesty to dissolve the present anti-Reform 
Parliament, and declaring that the people 
would not in future support any measure of 
Reform short of registered manhood suffrage. 
It was also declared that “ the meeting views 
with alarm the advent of the Tories to power, 
as being destructive to freedom at home and 
favourable to despotism abroad.” The Re¬ 
formers then proceeded to Carlton-gardens, 
where the loud cries of “Gladstone for ever” 
brought Mrs. Gladstone to the balcony, ac¬ 
companied, in the absence of her husband, by 
some members of her family. They afterwards 
traversed Pall Mall, hooting and cheering as 
they passed the different club-houses on their 
route. 

— The Austrian Archduke Leopold en¬ 
gages the Prussians before Skalitz, but is com- 
(744) 


pelled to retire and leave the town in possession 
of the enemy. Count Clam Gallas, with the 
First Austrian Corps d’Armee, attacks Prince 
Frederick Charles, but is beaten back through 
the town of Gitschin. This exposed the left 
flank of General Benedek, at Dubenee, and 
he therefore ordered his army to fall back in 
the direction of Koniggratz. The Prussians were 
at this time not only on his left but in his rear, 
and at the same moment another great army 
was marching to effect its junction with them 
where he was altogether exposed. He instantly 
wheeled back his left and centre, and then re¬ 
tiring his left took up a line at Koniggratz, at 
right angles to the line he had occupied to the 
west of Josephstadt. Alarmed at the position 
which he felt himself compelled to take up, 
Benedek is said to have telegraphed to the 
Emperor, at Vienna, “ Sire, you must make 
peace. ” 

30 . —The King of Prussia sets out from 
Berlin for the seat of war. 

— The Great Eastern leaves the Medway 
for Berehaven, with the new Atlantic cable on 
board. 

July 2.—Another Reform demonstration in 
T rafalgar-squarc. 

3 . —Battle of Sadowa or Koniggratz—the 
greatest engagement of the war and the most 
disastrous for Austria. “It was ten o’clock,” 
writes Lieut. Hozier, of the Times , “when 
Prince Frederick Charles sent General Stub- 
nopl to order the attack on Sadowa, Dohil- 
nitz, and Mokrowens. The columns advanced 
covered by skirmishers, and reached the river- 
bank without much loss, but from there they 
had to fight every inch of their way. In the 
wood above Benatek the 27th Prussian regiment 
went in nearly 3,000 strong with 90 officers, and 
came out on the further side with only two of¬ 
ficers and between 300 and 400 men standing ; 
all the rest were killed or wounded. The Aus¬ 
trians were pressing hard and successfully against 
their enemy, when about half-past one o’clock 
the nature of the engagement was entirely 
changed by the arrival of the Crown Prince of 
Prussia with the First Army, and who at once 
made a harassing attack on the Austrian right. ” 
“Suddenly,” says another Times correspondent, 
who viewed the battle from the tower of Konig¬ 
gratz, “a spattering of musketry breaks out of 
the trees and houses of Klum right down on the 
Austrian gunners, and on the columns of infantry 
drawn up on the slopes below. The gunners fall 
on all sides, their horses are disabled—the firing 
increases in intensity—the Prussians press on 
over the plateau : this is an awful catastrophe; 
two columns of Austrians are led against the 
village, but they cannot stand the fire, and 
after three attempts to carry it, retreat, leaving 
the hill-sides covered with the fallen. It is 
a terrible moment. The Prussians see their 
advantage; they here enter into the very 
centre of the position. In vain the staff officers 
fly to the reserves and hasten to call back 






jul v 


1 866 . 


jul v 


some of the artillery from the front. The 
dark blue regiments multiply on all sides, and 
from their edges roll perpetually sparkling 
musketry. Their guns hurry up, and from the 
slope take the Austrians both on the extreme 
right and the reserve in flank. They spread 
away to the woods near the Prague road, and fire 
into the rear of the Austrian gunners. . . . The 
lines of dark blue which came in sight from 
the right teemed from the vales below as if the 
earth yielded them. They filled the whole 
background of the awful picture of which 
Klum was the centre. They pressed down 
on the left of the Prague road : in square, 
in column, deployed, or wheeling hither and 
thither—everywhere pouring in showers of shot 
with deadly precision—penetrating the whole 
line of the Austrians. At three o’clock, the 
efforts of the latter to occupy Klum and free 
their centre had failed ; their right was driven 
down in a helpless mass towards Koniggratz, 
quivering and palpitating as shot and shell tore 
through it. * A lies ist verloren ! ’ Artillery still 
thundered with a force and violence which 
might have led a stranger to such scenes to 
think no enemy could withstand it. The 
Austrian cavalry still hung like white thunder¬ 
clouds on the flanks, and threatened the front 
of the Prussians, keeping them in square and 
solid columns. But already the trains were 
steaming away from Koniggratz, placing the 
Elbe and Adler between them and the enemy. ” 

3 . —Severity of the slaughter at Koniggratz. 
The Prussians lost in dead, wounded, and miss- 
ing 359 officers and 8,794 men, and the Aus¬ 
trians 1,147 officers and 30,224 men. The pro¬ 
portion of the losses to the total force engaged 
on each side was, for the Prussians, ; for 
the Austrians, 7 ; for both together, XT- In the 
battle of Malplaquet (1709) the proportion of 
losses was £ ; at Rossbach (1757), -^5- ; at 
Leuthen (1758), ; at Zorndorf (1758), | ; at 

Austerlitz (1805), at Eylau (1807), at 
Wagram (1809), £ ; at Borodino (1812), £; at 
Leipsic (1813), £ ; at Belle Alliance (1815), ^ ; 
at Solferino (1859), The three greatest of 
the above battles were those of Leipsic, 
Koniggratz, and Wagram, at which the total 
number of troops engaged was 460,000, 
430,000, and 320,000 respectively. The three 
bloodiest were Leipsic (90,000 men lost), 
Borodino (loss 74,000), and Belle Alliance 
(loss 61,000). The number engaged at the 
Wilderness (the largest American battle) were 
141,000 Federals and 52,000 Confederates. 
Each side had one-seventh of its strength put 
hors de combat , whereas at Grant’s battle of 
Pittsburg each lost a full fourth. 

— Garibaldi attacks the Austrians at Monte 
Suello, but is compelled to retire after receiv¬ 
ing a wound in the thigh. He crossed the 
frontier into the French district on the 14th. 

5 . —The Moniteur makes public the impor¬ 
tant announcement that Austria had ceded 
Venetia to France. At the Bourse a scene of 
indescribable confusion took place. Entrance 


into the building became impossible from t'.ie 
multitude of speculators of all classes who 
thronged its precincts, eager to realize the pro¬ 
fits of the expected rise. The advance in 
prices proved to be beyond all former prece¬ 
dents. Italian Five per Cents, which lately 
stood at 36, opened at once at 59, and rose 
during the day to 6o|. The shares of the 
Credit Mobilier rose nearly 200 fr. In London 
Italian stock advanced from 40 to 64. 

5 . —The marriage of the Princess Helena 
with Prince Christian solemnized at Windsor 
Castle. 

6 . —In the House of Commons new writs 
were ordered for the seats occupied by members 
of the new Ministry. 

— At a banquet given by the Lord Mayor 
to the King and Queen of the Belgians, Mr. 
Disraeli returns thanks for the toast of the new 
Ministers. 

9 . —In the House of Lords Earl Derby 
explains the circumstances connected with the 
formation of his new Ministry, and the policy 
it would support. Without desiring to give it 
anything of the character of a coalition, he 
had at first attempted to construct one on an 
enlarged basis, by including within it some 
members of the Liberal party who had helped 
to bring about the present crisis ; but he had 
been unable to accomplish this, and was there¬ 
fore compelled to construct the Ministry out 
of his own more immediate supporters. Dis¬ 
puting a report now being widely spread, that 
a Conservative Government was necessarily a 
warlike Government, he said it would be their 
earnest endeavour to keep this country on 
terms of goodwill with all surrounding nations, 
and not to entangle it with any single mono¬ 
polizing alliance ; neither to interfere vexa- 
tiously, nor to volunteer unasked advice. 
On the subject of Reform, he described him¬ 
self and his colleagues as entirely unpledged, 
and they were not likely to introduce any 
measure without having a fair prospect of 
carrying it. “ Nothing,” he said, “would give 
me greater pleasure than to see a very con¬ 
siderable portion of the class now excluded 
admitted to the franchise ; but, on the other 
hand, I am afraid that the portion of the com¬ 
munity who are most clamorous for the passing 
of a Reform Bill are not that portion who 
would be satisfied with any measure such as 
could be approved of by the two great political 
parties in the country. I do not mean to say 
it is an argument against introducing it, but I 
greatly fear that any such measure would not put 
a stop to the agitation which prevails, and would 
only be made a stepping-stone for further 
organic changes. As I said before, I reserve 
to myself the most entire liberty as to whether 
the present Government should or should not 
undertake in a future season to bring in a 
measure for the amendment of the repre¬ 
sentation of the people.” After a short dis¬ 
cussion the House adjourned to allow time for 
the re-election of Ministers. 


(745) 










JULY 


1866. 


JULY 


9 . —Sir F. Pollock resigns the dignity of 
Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and is succeeded 
by Sir Fitzroy Kelly. 

10. — Collision in the English Channel 
between the steam sloop-of-war Atnazon (Comm. 
Hunter, R.N.) and the screw steamer Osprey. 
As the vessels neared each other, about one 
o’clock A. M., the Amazon put her helm hard 
a-starboard, and exhibited the green light, while 
the Osprey put her helm hard a-port, and ex¬ 
hibited the red light. The result was that the 
Amazon ran into the Osprey on her port quarter, 
striking her at about one-third of her length 
from the stem. As it was seen from the first 
there was no hope of keeping her afloat, a few 
of the crew and passengers managed to creep 
along the bowsprit of the Amazon , and the boats 
of the latter also picked up a number who threw 
themselves overboard. The whole of the saloon 
passengers —mostly women and children—went 
down with the Osprey. An inspection of the 
Amazon now revealed the appalling fact that it 
was not likely she could be kept afloat for many 
minutes, a large hole forward letting in water in 
such quantities as drowned the fires, and even 
forced the engineers to abandon the engine- 
room. Under the orders of Captain Hunter, 
six boats were launched with the greatest order 
and regularity ; the survivors of the Osprey and 
her own officers and crew filled them, under 
safe direction, to the water-edge ; and the entire 
company put off as the Amazon was begin¬ 
ning to settle in the sea, though the actual 
sinking could not be noticed on account of a 
slight fog. They were at this time eighteen 
miles off Dartmouth. No provisions, water, 
or property of any kind could be taken with 
them. The survivors made for the land, and 
fortunately met with three fishing smacks, who 
took on board as many as possible to lighten 
the boats. They all reached Torquay about 
four P.M. on the Ilth. At the inquiry which 
subsequently took place, the court pronounced 
an opinion that the Amazon was lost by a 
grave error of judgment on the part of Sub- 
Lieut. Loveridge, the officer of the watch, in 
putting the helm to starboard instead of port 
when first sighting the Osprey. Commander 
Hunter had his sword returned, and received 
the praise of the court for his energy, prompt¬ 
ness, and humanity. 

— Manifesto issued by the: Emperor of 
Austria: “To my people! The heavy mis¬ 
fortunes which have befallen my Army of the 
North, notwithstanding its most heroic re¬ 
sistance to the enemy, the increased dangers 
thereby menacing the Fatherland, the calami¬ 
ties of war with which my beloved kingdom of 
Bohemia is being desolated, and which threaten 
other parts of my empire, and the painful and 
irreparable losses sustained by so many thou¬ 
sands of families, have moved to its inmost 
core my heart, which beats with so warm and 
fatherly a feeling for the good of my peoples. 

I have addressed myself to the Emperor of the 
French, requesting his good offices for bringing 
about an armistice with Italy. Not merely did 
( 746 ) 


the Emperor readily respond to my demand, 
but, with the noble intention of preventing any 
further bloodshed, he even of his own accord 
offered to mediate with Prussia for a suspension 
of hostilities, and for opening negotiations for 
peace. This offer I have accepted. 

12. —Volunteer dinner at Wimbledon to the 
Belgian riflemen. 

13 . —In the course of a discussion in Com¬ 
mittee of Supply, General Peel intimates that 
it is the intention of Government to furnish the 
army with breech-loaders. 

— The Great Eastern commences paying 
out the Atlantic telegraph off Valentia, the 
track taken being about midway between the 
lines of 1858 and 1865. By noon next day 
she had gone 136 miles, and lowered 145 knots 
of cable. In the course of the evening a tele¬ 
gram was received on board from the seat of 
war in Venetia, announcing that the Austrians 
had evacuated the whole country between the 
Mincio and the Alps. On this occasion no¬ 
thing occurred to mar the steady progress of 
the expedition. 

14 . —-The Birmingham Banking Company, 
established in 1829, suspends payment, with 
liabilities estimated at 2,000,000/. 

•— The German Federals defeated at As- 
chaffenburg by the Prussians. 

16 . —The new Ministers take their seats in 
the Commons after re-election. The only one 
unseated was the Scotch Lord Advocate 
(Paton), at Bridgewater. 

— Sir J. P. Grant appointed Governor of 
Jamaica in room of Lieutenant Eyre. He was 
sworn into office at Kingston on the 6th of 
August. 

18 . —Mr. Clay withdraws his bill for an 
educational franchise. 

— Queen Emma, of the Sandwich Islands, 
attends a meeting of the Hawaiian Mission 
Fund, held in Willis’s Rooms. Her Majesty 
left England the following week on a visit to 
America. 

19 . —Discussion in both Houses on the pre¬ 
sent condition of affairs on the continent of 
Europe. In the Commons Lord Stanley de¬ 
livered his “ maiden speech ” as Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, and defended the proceedings 
of the Government in taking conjoint action 
with France to secure a cessation of hostili¬ 
ties. 

— Referring to the prohibition issued 
against holding political meetings in Hyde- 
Park, the new Home Secretary (Walpole) 
stated to-night in the Commons : “There is 
nothing in the notice signed by Sir Richard 
Mayne to imply that processions, orderly con¬ 
ducted, are illegal—there is nothing in that 
notice to prevent persons from holding meet¬ 
ings in the usual way for the purpose of dis¬ 
cussing politics, or any other subject; but I. 







7UL V 


1866. 


JULY 


think that any one holding the office which I 
have the honour to hold is bound to attend to 
the public peace of this metropolis ; and if he 
believes that the parks, which are open by the 
permission of her Majesty for the benefit of 
all her Majesty’s subjects, are likely to be 
devoted to any purpose that would interfere 
with the quiet recreation of the people, and 
might lead to riot and disorderly demonstra¬ 
tions, he would be most blameable if he did 
not issue an order similar to that which I have 
given.” 

20 . —In expressing his inability to be pre¬ 
sent at the Reform Meeting in Hyde-park, 
Mr. Bright thus writes to the Council of the 
League regarding the resolution come to by 
Government to prevent the meeting being 
held where it was proposed: “You have 
asserted your right to meet on Primrose-hill 
and in Trafalgar-square. I hope after Monday 
night no one will doubt your right to meet in 
Hyde-park. If a public meeting in a public 
park is denied you, and if millions of intelli¬ 
gent and honest men are denied the franchise, 
on what foundation do our liberties rest, or 
is there in the country any liberty but the 
toleration of the ruling class ? This is a 
serious question, but it is necessary to ask it, 
and some answer must be given to it. ” 

— Naval engagement off Lissa, in which 
the Austrian fleet under Admiral Tegethoff 
defeats the Italian fleet under Admiral Persano. 
The former consisted of ^ iron-clads, 6 fri¬ 
gates, I line-of-battle ship, 9 gunboats, and 3 
paddle steamers—in all 26 sail; the latter 
was more numerous, there being 11 ironclads, 
a steam-ram, the Affondatore , on board of 
which the Admiral hoisted his flag, and a 
line-of-battle ship. The Palestro was blown 
up with all on board when approaching to 
assist the Re d’Italia, then hard pressed by the 
Austrian ironclads. The engagement lasted 
two hours. 

— Count Bismarck, in a secret despatch to 
the Prussian Ambassador at Paris, says : “The 
King has only agreed to the armistice with 
great reluctance, and out of regard for the 
Emperor Napoleon ; and his consent was made 
conditional on his being secured a consideraole 
acquisition of territory in Northern Germany in 
the event of peace being concluded. The King 
attaches less importance to the establishment of 
a North-German Federal State than I do. On 
the other hand, he values, above all, annexa¬ 
tions of territory, which I also consider as a 
necessary adjunct of federal reform, as other¬ 
wise Saxony and Hanover would be too large 
for a close union. ... I send you confidentially, 
for your personal information and guidance, the 
following words of his Majesty : ‘ I would 

rather resign than withdraw without acquiring 
a considerable amount of territory for Prussia.’ ” 
The publication of this despatch in 1869 by a 
staff officer of the Austrian army, gave rise to 
an angry correspondence between Prussian 
and Austrian writers. 


21. —Hirst meeting of the Cobden Club at 
Richmond.. Mr. Gladstone presided, and passed 
a warm eulogium on the great free-trade states¬ 
man. Earl Russell took advantage of the 
opportunity to defend his home and foreign 
policy, and censured Ministers for being a 
party to an arrangement with France regarding 
Venetia, which could not but be offensive to 
the Italians. 

22 . —Armistice for five days agreed upon 
between Prussia and Austria. 

23 . —Riot in Hyde Park, arising out of an 
official notice issued to prohibit its use by the 
Reform League for a great political demon¬ 
stration. Early in the afternoon a notice signed 
by Sir Richard Mayne was extensively posted 
throughout London, stating that the park 
gates would be closed to the public at five 
o’clock. The Committee of the Reform 
League met in the afternoon to conclude their 
arrangements, and resolved not to abandon 
what they considered their line of duty. The 
numerous processions were to march with 
banners and music to the Marble Arch, 
where properly appointed persons would de¬ 
mand admittance on their behalf if necessary. 
By five o’clock thousands were standing near 
the chief entrances. The police were at first 
posted inside the gates; but a few missiles, 
now a stone and then a stick, being thrown, 
the men were marched outside. A line o 1 
ordinary policemen, in a semicircle, stood be¬ 
fore the gates, protected in front by mounted 
constables. As soon as the banners of the first 
procession were seen, a cheer was raised, and 
a space was opened for the leaders to pass 
along to thegates. Mr. Edmond Beales, Colonel 
Dickson, Mr. George Brooke, and other pro¬ 
minent members of the Reform League 
alighted from the foremost carriage, and, ad¬ 
dressing the nearest mounted officer, Mr. Beales 
requested a quiet admittance to the Park: the 
officer told him he could not go in, and in 
answer to Mr. Beales’ question, “Why?” he 
said, “ I have authority to prevent you.” Mr. 
Beales asked who gave him the authority, and 
the reply was, “Our Commissioner.” The 
leaders of the Reform party, thus repulsed, 
stepped back into their carriages amidst loud 
cheering and a little murmuring on the part 
of those whose curiosity would, perhaps, have 
been better satisfied had resistance been carried 
further. As much of the procession as could 
be organized in the dense mass, variously 
estimated at from a hundred to two hundred 
thousand persons, followed the carriages of the 
Committee towards Oxford-street, along which 
they proceeded. At length the head of the 
demonstration reached Trafalgar-square, where 
the speaking was brief, and confined to the 
proposing and seconding of two resolutions, 
urging the prosecution of lawful and constitu¬ 
tional means for the extension of the franchise, 
and thanking Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, and 
others, for being faithful to the cause, while 
others had basely deserted it. While the 

(747) 








JUL 5 


July 1866 . 


leaders were marching to Trafalgar-square, 
more exciting work engaged the attention of 
the crowds who remained at Hyde Park. A 
large portion, finding a forcible entry by the 
gate prevented, moved westward, and in one 
bold dash smashed down the railings of the 
park in sight of the police, and entered the 
ground cheering and waving handkerchiefs. 
The railings at Park-lane were broken in about 
the same time, and in a few minutes several 
thousands had entered the park. Encounters 
between the police and mob now became 
rife, the former using their truncheons freely, 
and the latter stones and other missiles. Be¬ 
fore long several prisoners and wounded persons 
were removed; and the most serious conse¬ 
quences were apprehended when a detachment 
of Foot Guards arrived, under the command of 
Colonel Lane Fox. The Guards were cheered 
by the mob, and took up a position near the 
gate, where they remained throughout. A body 
of the Life Guards soon after arrived, and were 
cheered in the same manner. They, however, 
galloped off to some other part of the park. 
When the police were left to themselves, they 
were again pelted and attacked by the mob, 
and one or two of their number unhorsed. 
After a series of charges against the mob the 
police were reinforced by a second detachment 
of Foot Guards, drawn up in front of the gate, 
and who, with the first detachment, received 
orders to be in readiness to fire should it be¬ 
come necessary. Encounters between the police 
and the mob then became less frequent, and 
finally quiet was restored when another body 
of Life Guards augmented the soldiery, and 
combined to help in removing the mob from 
the park. 

25 .—In compliance with a wish expressed 
by the Home Secretary, a deputation from the 
Reform League, consisting of Mr. Beales, 
Colonel Dickson, and others, wait upon the 
right hon. gentleman at the Home Office, with 
reference to the disturbances in Hyde-park. 
Mr. Beales said it was impossible to overrate 
the gravity of the present crisis, and, as an 
essential means of restoring quiet, advised the 
Government to withdraw the police and mili¬ 
tary from the park. On their part they would 
do what they could to soothe the exasperation 
under which the public were naturally labour¬ 
ing. Mr. Walpole: “ I have to thank you in 
the first place for coming here, and in the 
second for the conciliatory tone you have all 
used in reference to the present unhappy pro¬ 
ceedings.” The right hon. gentleman paused 
for a few seconds, evidently much affected. He 
then went on to say that if he had been pre¬ 
viously informed they intended to try their right 
to the use of the park in a legal way, Govern¬ 
ment would have given them every facility 
for doing so. On condition that they would 
not insist on their presumed right in the mean¬ 
time, and would assure their friends that Go¬ 
vernment had only one desire, namely, to meet 
them in the frankest manner, and further on 
condition that there was no disturbance and no 
(748) 


attack on property, the Home Secretary under¬ 
took that there should be no display of military 
or police in the park. Mr. Beales and his 
friends thereupon proceeded to the park, and 
caused intimation to be given that no further 
attempt would be made to hold a meeting there 
‘ * except only on next Monday afternoon (July 
30) at six o’clock, by arrangement with the 
Government. ” 

27 .— Completion of the Atlantic Telegraph 
Cable. This evening, at about five o’clock, 
English time, the cable was completed between 
Europe and America. Conversation had been 
carried on throughout the day between the 
electricians Gooch and Glass, until word was 
sent to Valentia to cease signalling, as they 
were about to make the splice with the shore- 
end at Trinity Bay. This was completely 
effected on the 28th. Lord Stanley was at 
once informed “ that the most perfect com¬ 
munication had been established between Eng¬ 
land and America.” Messsages passed from 
the Queen to the President, expressing a hope 
that it would be an additional bond of union 
between the two nations; and the Earl of Car¬ 
narvon caused her Majesty’s congratulations to 
be conveyed to Viscount Monk, at Ottawa, on 
the successful completion of the undertaking. 
On the 31st messages passed along the cable 
and across the American continent to Vancou¬ 
ver’s Island. 

30 .— John Richard Jeffrey murders his son, 
a child about six years of age, by hanging him 
with a handkerchief in a cellar in Seven Dials. 
The murderer gave himself up, though not till 
evidence had been obtained clearly connecting 
him with the crime. He was tried for the 
offence before Mr. Justice Willes, on the 20th 
of September, found guilty, and sentenced to 
be executed on the 9th of October. 

— With reference to the severe visitation 
of cholera in the Bethnal-green district, Mr. 
Glaisher, the meteorologist, records this day: 
“ On looking from the grounds of the Royal 
Observatory, Greenwich, under the trees to¬ 
wards the boundary walls of the park, I saw 
the same dense blue mist, which has continued 
without intermission to the present time, 
though somewhat less in density this morning. 
Ordinary mists pass away when the wind 
blows with a pressure of £ lb. on the square 
foot. Since last Monday we have had pres¬ 
sure of the wind varying from J lb. to 9 lbs. 
blowing continually for sixty to seventy hours, 
yet there has been no change in this blue 
appearance. I have examined the atmosphere 
daily for this blueness, particularly during the 
last twelve months, and have never seen any¬ 
thing like it since 1854. This blue mist is 
apparent on all sides; it extends fully to the 
top of the trees, though it is not then so easy 
to distinguish. It is most easily discernible 
through as much atmosphere as possible, 
viewed from under a tree, looking under other 
trees. Thus seen, the boundary walls of 
Greenwich Park, and all objects near them. 













JUL Y 


1866. 


AUGUST 


are coloured blue; or through gaps in trees, 
if there are others at a sufficient distance to 
form a background, when it resembles thin 
smoke from a wood fire. The intensity of the 
blue is increased when viewed through a tele¬ 
scope with a low power. It is of great im¬ 
portance to know whether it is general over 
the country. The only other tint of mist I 
know connected with the prevalence of epi¬ 
demic is that of a yellow mist, perceptible in 
like manner, when scarlatina is prevalent: in 
neither case is there any excess of humidity in 
the air. ” 

31 .— Mr. Charles Buxton brings the Jamaica 
disturbances before the House of Commons, 
and moves a series of resolutions, the effect of 
which, as he explained, was to condemn what 
was done after the disturbances were sup¬ 
pressed, and to award compensation to persons 
who had relations killed or property destroyed. 
After a : debate, one resolution, expressing in 
general terms regret at the occurrence of the 
outbreak, was agreed to. 

August 1 . —Mr. Gladstone’s Compulsory 
Church Rate Abolition Bill read a second time, 
the understanding being that it would not be 
carried further. 

— Died, aged 44, Carlo Luigi Farini, 
Italian statesman and historian. 

2. —The Queen subscribes 500/. to the Bishop 
of London’s Fund for relieving the cholera 
sufferers in the East end of London. “The 
sufferings,” wrote her Majesty, “of a large 
number of poor persons from cholera in a par¬ 
ticular district of London, though fortunately as 
yet only in a limited one, have most painfully 
attracted the Queen’s attention; and her Majesty 
consequently learnt with satisfaction the pro¬ 
posal contained in your letter published this 
morning, to arrange with the Metropolitan 
Relief and District Visiting Association, of 
which your Lordship is President, for the 
proper administration of a special Cholera 
Fund.” Mrs. Gladstone also originated a 
scheme to provide a temporary home for chiD 
dren whose parents had died of the epidemic .) 

— A bill to continue the suspension of the 
Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland from the 1st 
September to 1st March passes through Com¬ 
mittee by 105 to 31 votes, and reached its final 
stage in the House of Lords on the 8th. 

3 . —Came on for hearing in Edinburgh, 
before the Lord President and a jury, the Esk 
pollution case, involving important interests to 
manufacturers and residents along the banks 
of rivers. The prosecutors were the Duke 
of Buccleuch, owner of Dalkeith Park, and 
Viscount Melville, owner of Melville Castle, 
who proceeded against the owners of eight 
paper-mills on the banks of the North Esk in 
Mid Lothian. On (heir behalf numerous wit¬ 
nesses were called to prove that twenty or 
thirty years ago the stream had been a good 
trouting river, that the water was fit and was 


used for domestic purposes, for the watering of 
cattle, &c., whereas now, owing to the enormous 
increase of the paper trade, and the consequent 
increase of pollution, the fish could not live in 
the river, and the water was not only unavail¬ 
able for domestic uses, but emitted putrescent 
odours, and was covered with froth, while in 
the bed there was a deposit of precipitated 
organic matter, which, whenever stirred from 
any cause or when the river was low, gave off 
offensive effluvia. Medical testimony was ad¬ 
duced to prove the quantity of organic matter 
emanating from the paper-mills, and the effects 
on the comfort and health of the inhabitants. 
For the defence it was observed that the paper 
mills had been in the river since 1709. Pro¬ 
fessional witnesses of eminence gave evidence 
that the organic matters from the paper-mill 
discharges were inconsiderable, and that the oxi¬ 
dizing power of the atmosphere and the flow of 
the river had a rapid effect upon them, so that 
the water practically recovered itself in the run 
between one mill and another. It was also 
sought to be shown that the sewage of a 
populous locality admitted to the river was 
much more noxious than the mill discharges. 
The great interest of the case to the paper 
manufacturers was also dwelt upon, their mills 
being the chief source of employment to the 
villagers. The success of the prosecution in 
this case, it was said, would extinguish the 
paper trade on the North Esk, at present em¬ 
ploying several thousand persons. The jury, 
after three hours’ absence, by a majority of nine 
to three gave a verdict against the mills. 

4 . —Rev. Professor James Martineau (Unita¬ 
rian) having been brought forward as a candi¬ 
date for the vacant chair of Mental Philosophy 
and Logic in University College, London, the 
Council this day, by a majority of five to four, 
agree to a motion proposed by Mr. Grote, 
that they “ consider it inconsistent with the 
complete religious neutrality proclaimed and 
adopted by University College to appoint to 
the chair of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic 
a candidate eminent as a minister and preacher 
of any one among the various sects dividing the 
religious world. ” 

— During the past week 1,053 deaths from 
cholera were reported in London. 

5 . —On opening the Berlin Chambers the 
King returned thanks “for God’s gracious 
goodness, which has assisted Prussia amid 
heavy but successful sacrifices, not only in 
averting from our frontiers the danger of hostile 
attack, but in enabling the army of the country, 
by a rapid career of victory, to add fresh 
laurels to its inherited fame, and to smooth 
the course for the national development of Ger¬ 
many.” 

8 . —In consequence of the large territorial 
additions made to Prussia in terms of the late 
treaty with Austria, the Emperor Napoleon 
makes a demand for a rectification of the frontier 
of France in accordance with the treaty of 1814. 
The territory claimed included Sarrelouis and 

(749) 







AUGUST 


1866 . 


AUGUST 


Landau. Prussia at once refused, and the Em¬ 
peror withdrew his demand. 

©.--Reform meeting in the Guildhall, pre¬ 
sided over by the Lord Mayor (Phillips). With 
the exception of the heads of the League, the 
chief speakers were working men. The ordi¬ 
nary resolutions were carried concerning resi¬ 
dential and registered manhood suffrage and 
the ballot. 

— Lieut. Brand, R.N., of Jamaica Court- 
martial notoriety, writes to Mr. Chas. Buxton, 
M.P., who had charged him with recklessly 
causing the death of upwards of 200 persons: 
“You may be a very fine buckra among the 
polished gentlemen at Exeter Hall who wanted 
Mr. Eyre suspended with a rope, and the old 
ladies of Clapham; but when you come with 
your peculiar little assertions in print, and such 
barefaced lies too, I think it is time for the 
trampled worm to turn. If you have a spark 
of gentlemanly or generous feeling left, you will 
contradict your letter relative to my court, or 
I shall expect you to give me satisfaction in 
a way more suited to my tastes. And you 
know, Sir, that it is a damned cowardly thing 
for you to write officers (who did their best, and 
whose acts were fully approved by their supe¬ 
riors) down, when you well know that they are 
not allowed to write to a newspaper. How¬ 
ever, England and the Admiralty are my 
judges, not Buxton and Co. P.S.—I have 
written ‘ private ’ on this by advice, as my 
friends say, ‘ He was not ashamed to write 
falsehoods about the beardless boy, so he may 
sneak into the Admiralty and say he is afraid 
of him;’ but you need not be so. We have a 
new Admiralty, my friend.” In reply to an 
offer that the disgrace of publication might be 
avoided if an apology were offered, Brand wrote 
by the following mail from Jamaica: “You 
may publish this too if you like, also your 
answer to my first; it will only be telling the 
world of your own cowardice. Only do not 
clip them at all. Fair play is my motto, and 
true blue my colour. Please do not write 
any more, as I am very nervous, and you 
frighten me.” Having satisfied themselves of 
the authenticity of the letters, the Admiralty 
suspended Lieutenant Brand, and caused him 
to be sent home. 

9 . —Visit of the Prince and Princess of 
Wales to York. On the nth 25,000 Volun¬ 
teers were reviewed in their presence by the 
Duke of Cambridge, and on the 12th the 
ceremonial unveiling took place of the Prince 
Consort memorial window in the Guildhall. 

10. —Parliament prorogued by commission. 
The Royal Speech made reference to the war 
between Prussia and Austria, Fenian disturb¬ 
ances in Ireland and Canada, recent commer¬ 
cial disasters, the lessening severity of the cattle- 
plague, and the spread of cholera. 

11. —The Emperor Napoleon makes offer of 
Venetia to Italy. “My purpose has always I 

(750) 


been to restore it to itself, so that Italy should 
be free from the Alps to the Adriatic. Mis¬ 
tress of her own destinies, Venetia will soon be 
able to express her will by universal suffrage; 
Your Majesty will recognise that in these cir¬ 
cumstances the action of France has again been 
exercised in favour of humanity and the inde¬ 
pendence of population.” 

12 .—Ex-Governor Eyre arrives at South¬ 
ampton from Jamaica. 

15 . —Several persons killed in the crowd ai 
the Emperor’s fete in Paris. 

16 . —After ninety-seven days, the longest 
interval by far of so high a rate, the Bank 
Directors, this morning, reduced the minimum 
rate of interest from 10 to 8 per cent. In 1857 
10 per cent, was sustained for forty-two days. 
Previously the highest rate had been 8 per cent, 
for twenty-eight days, in 1847. 

— A Royal message laid on the table of the 
Prussian Chamber of Deputies, for the incor¬ 
poration of Hanover, Electoral Hesse, Nassau, 
and Frankfort. Bills were immediately intro¬ 
duced, establishing universal suffrage, and pro¬ 
viding for a deputy to every 100,000 electors. 

— Calcutta letters of this date record that 
there are sights to be witnessed in that city 
which would lead the stranger to believe that 
it was perishing of famine and pestilence. 
“ Since the famine has been allowed to reach 
such hideous proportions in the rural districts, 
it is inundating the capital. All who can 
crowd from the interior afflicted subdivision 
of Jehawabad, in the rich country of Hooghly, 
and the misery of what was once the flourishing 
indigo district of Meddea, as well as from the 
more wretched Midnopore and distant Orissa, 
flock to the charities of Calcutta. Official 
reports, giving statistics, show that at twenty- 
two places 17,475 poor are daily fed, in addi¬ 
tion to the sick in the hospitals; and as this 
number is increasing by about 250 a day, it 
may be said that 20,000 starvelings are now 
subsisting on charity daily in Calcutta. The 
number of pauper bodies buried at one ghaut 
alone rose from fifty, at which it stood last year, 
to 329 in the first nine days of this month.” 

— Concluded at Philadelphia, the meet¬ 
ings of the great National Convention con¬ 
vened to support President Johnson in his 
detennination to permit Constitutional freedom 
in the Southern States. 

— Bribery Inquiry Commissioners com¬ 
mence their sittings. Great Yarmouth was 
opened to-day, Reigate on the 22d, Totnes on 
the 23d, and Lancashire on the 27th. 

17 . —The King of Italy grants an amnesty 
to the Aspromonte offenders. 

19 *—Collision off Aldborough, between the 
screw steamer Haswell and the General Steam 
Navigation Company’s steamer Bruiser. The 
latter had on board 128 persons, 99 of whom 
were taken on board the Haswell. The others 






AUGUST 


1366 . 


AUGUST 


went down with the Bruiser , which sunk within 
fifteen minutes after the collision. 

21 . —Ex-Governor Eyre entertained at a 
public banquet at Southampton. Professor 
Kingsley and Earls Cardigan and Hardwicke 
made speeches in praise of the energy, hu¬ 
manity, and wise discretion of their guest. 

22 . — The British Association commences its 
sittings at Nottingham. The President, Mr. W. 

R. Grove, Q.C., delivered an inaugural address 
on “ Continuity,” which gave rise to consider¬ 
able criticism and controversy. At this meet¬ 
ing the Association consented to make a new 
department for the discussion of the various 
questions arising out of the researches of An¬ 
thropologists. In the Geographical section, Sir 

S. W. Baker and Mr. Palgrave gave an account 
of the countries visited by them. 

— The Tornado , of Glasgow, seized off 
Madeira by the Spanish frigate Gerona, on pre¬ 
tence that she was destined as a vessel of war 
for the Chilian service. Her owners, Isaac 
Campbell and Co., at once communicated with 
Lord Stanley, stating that the vessel “was 
British built, carries a British register, is manned 
by a British crew, and is owned by ourselves, 
who are British subjects. She was cleared from 
the port of Leith on the 9th inst. for Rio 
Janeiro by her Majesty’s Custom authorities 
and by the Brazilian consul. She is, moreover, 
totally unarmed, and carries nothing but coals, 
provisions, and stores necessary for the voyage. ” 
Lord Stanley instructed our minister at Madrid 
to inquire into the circumstances of the seizure, 
and report without loss of time. 

23 . —Treaty of peace executed at Prague 
between Prussia and Austria. The Emperor 
accedes to the union of Venetia with Italy, 
recognises the dissolution of the hitherto-exist¬ 
ing Germanic Confederation, and consents to a 
new organization of Germany without the parti¬ 
cipation of the Austrian empire. By Article 11 
the Emperor engages, in order to cover part of 
the costs incurred by Prussia in the war, to pay 
the King the sum of forty million Prussian 
dollars, subject to a deduction to be made for 
the war costs in Schleswig, and the free pro¬ 
visioning of the Prussian army until the con¬ 
clusion of peace. 

— Writing in reply to many communications 
addressed to him as the presumed chairman 
of the Eyre Defence Fund, Mr. T. Carlyle 
writes: “For my own share, all the light that 
has yet reached me on Mr. Eyre and his his¬ 
tory in the world goes steadily to establish the 
conclusion that he is a just, humane, and 
valiant man, faithful to his trusts everywhere, 
and with no ordinary faculty for executing 
them; that his late services in Jamaica were 
of great, perhaps of incalculable value, as cer¬ 
tainly they were of perilous and appalling 
difficulty—something like the case of fire 
suddenly reported in the ship’s powder-room in 
mid-ocean, where the moments mean the ages, 
and life and death hang on your use or misuse 
of the moments; and, in short, that penalty and 


clamour are not the things the Governor merits 
from any of us, but honour and thanks, and wise 
imitation, should similar emergencies arise, on 
the great scale or on the small, in whatever we 
are governing. The English nation have never 
loved anarchy, nor was wont to spend its sym¬ 
pathy on miserable mad seditions, especially of 
this inhuman and half-brutish type, but always 
loved order, and the prompt suppression of 
seditions, and reserved its tears for something 
worthier than the promoters of such delirious 
and fatal enterprises who had got their wages 
for their sad industry. Has the English nation 
changed, then, altogether? I flatter myself it 
has not—not yet quite; but only that certain 
loose superficial portions of it have become a 
great deal louder, and not any wiser, than they 
formerly used to be. At any rate, though 
much averse at any time, and at this time in 
particular, to figure on committees, or run into 
public noises without call, I do at once feel 
that as a British citizen I should and must 
make you welcome to my name for your Com¬ 
mittee, and to whatever good it can do you ; 
with the hope only that many other British 
men, of far more significance in such a 
matter, will at once or gradually do the like ; 
and that, in fine, by wise effort and persistence, 
a blind and disgraceful act of public injustice 
may be prevented, and an egregious folly as 
well—not to say, for none can say or compute, 
what a vital detriment throughout the British 
empire, in such an example set to all the colo¬ 
nies and governors, the British empire has. ” 

23 . —The new Lord Lieutenant (the Marquis 
of Abercorn) makes a triumphal entry into 
Dublin. 

24 . —Treaty signed between Austria and 
France respecting the cession of Venetia. 

26 . —Holland and Hareland’s saw-mills and 
workshops, Bloomsbury, destroyed by fire. 

27 . —Reform demonstration at Birmingham, 
the number attending being estimated by news¬ 
papers favourable to the movement at 250,000. 
An immense procession left the city for Brook 
Fields, where various platforms were erected 
to accommodate the speakers who addressed 
the crowds. The rain fell heavily during the 
greater part of the proceedings, but the Re¬ 
formers determined on carrying out their 
original programme, and kept the gathering 
together till the afternoon. A meeting for a 
similar purpose was held in the Town-hall in 
the evening, and was addressed by Mr. Bright, 
Mr. Scholefield, and Mr. Beales—the last of 
whom made publication of the fact that, for the 
part he had taken in this agitation, he had 
been removed from the office of Revising 
Barrister for Middlesex. Mr. Bright was 
especially severe on Mr. Lowe, whom he. 
accused of maligning the working classes in 
his speech of 13 th March last, and urged his 
hearers to press on in their agitation for re¬ 
storing the British Constitution with all its 
freedom to the British people. 

<750 






AUGUST 


1866. 


SEPTEMBER 


28. —The Turks gain a victory over the 
Cretans at Aghios Myron. 

29. —First meeting of a committee formed 
to establish an Eyre Defence Fund, Mr. T. 
Carlyle in the chair. The following evening 
a meeting composed chiefly of working men 
was held at Clerkenwell-green, at which the 
ex-Governor was denounced as a monster and 
murderer, and burnt in effigy. 

31. —After a stormy meeting of the share¬ 
holders of the London, Chatham, and Dover 
Railway in St. James’s Flail, it was agreed to 
appoint a committee to investigate the affairs 
of the company. 

September 1 . —The new Cannon-street 
terminus of the South-Eastern Railway opened 
for passenger traffic. There was some con¬ 
fusion and delay incident to the despatch of an 
extraordinary number of trains for the first day, 
but no serious casualty occurred. 

— Thomas Grimes executed in Liverpool 
for the murder of James Barton at the Boke- 
burn Colliery, near Wigan, in January 1863. 
The unfortunate victim in this case, after being 
robbed, was thrown into the furnace, whether 
before or after death was never clearly estab¬ 
lished, and nothing could be found belonging 
to him except a few buttons among the ashes. 
The circumstances of the crime were now 
brought to light by a confederate, who turned 
upon Grimes, and put the police on the track 
of the murdered man’s watch, found in the 
canal. Grimes himself was at the time under¬ 
going penal servitude for another offence, but 
his friends readily admitted that they had seen 
the watch produced in his possession imme¬ 
diately after the murder. He made various 
criminatory statements after his conviction, 
but died this morning affirming his innocence. 

2 . —As Eliza Hawkins, one of the sect of 
Plymouth Brethren, was preaching to a crowd 
in the immediate neighbourhood of the ruins 
of the late fire at Ottery St. Mary’s, Devon, 
a tottering chimney fell, killing six and more 
or less injuring twelve. 

— The Great Eastern succeeds in raising the 
Atlantic Cable of 1865. “ Precisely at 12.50 

this (Sunday) morning” (writes the Secretary) 
“the cable made its appearance upon the grap¬ 
nel, and, save when the voices of Captain An¬ 
derson and Mr. Canning were heard giving an 
order, one could almost hear a pin drop, such 
was the perfect silence which prevailed. The 
signal being given to haul up, the western end 
of the bight was cut with a saw, and grandly 
and majestically the cable rose up to the frown- 
ning brows of the Great Eastern , slowly pass¬ 
ing round the sheave of the bow, and then over 
the wheels on the forepart of the deck. Even 
then there was no excitement, though men 
were seen to cross the platform and to touch 
the rope in order to feel satisfied that success 
had been achieved. The greatest possible care 
had to be taken by Mr. Canning and his assist¬ 
ants to secure the cable by putting stoppers 


on between the V wheel and the pick-up 
machinery, and to watch the progress of the 
grapnel rope and shackles round the drum, be¬ 
fore it received the cable itself. At the expira¬ 
tion of some ten minutes the chief electrician 
(W. Smith) relieved our suspense by stating 
that, as far as he had then gone, he believed 
the tests to be perfect; but another minute had 
scarcely elapsed when he took off his hat and 
gave a cheer, which, as can be easily under¬ 
stood, was lustily taken up in the room, and 
having been heard outside, was echoed from 
stem to stern of the ship. ” A successful splice 
having been effected with the cable on board, 
the paying-out process was recommenced, and 
continued without mishap or interruption till 
the 8th, when the great ship entered Trinity 
Bay, and a perfect connexion was formed with 
the American continent. 

2 . —M. Drouyn d’Lhuys resigns the portfolio 
of Foreign Affairs to the French Government, 
and is succeeded by the Marquis de Moustier. 

3. —The amount received at the Mansion 
House up to this evening for the relief of the 
sufferers from cholera was 17,000/. Of this sum 
7,000/. had been dispensed in grants to local 
committees, and 5,000/. set apart for the main¬ 
tenance of children made orphans. 

— The Welsh hold a national Eisteddfod at 
Chester, where competitive performances take 
place on the harp, and in the recitation of 
Welsh songs. Apologizing for not being 
present, Mr. Matthew Arnold wrote to the 
Chairman of the Social Science Section, that 
the cultivation of Celticism was an antidote 
to the English vice of Philistinism. “A re¬ 
presentation,” he wrote, “to the University 
of Oxford from the Eisteddfod urging the im¬ 
portance of establishing a chair of Celtic at 
Oxford could not, I think, but have weight 

with the University.We in England 

have come to that point, when the continued 
advance and greatness of our nation is threatened 
by one cause, and one cause above all—far 
more than by the helplessness of an aristocracy 
whose day is fast coming to an end—far more 
than by the rawness of a lower class whose 
day is just only beginning—we are imperilled 
by what I call the Philistinism of our middle 
classes. On the side of beauty and taste, vulga¬ 
rity ; on the side of morals and feelings, coarse¬ 
ness ; on the side of mind and spirit, unintelli¬ 
gence—‘ this is Philistinism.’ ” 

6 .— Died at Stratton, Hants, aged 70, Lord 
Northbrooke, formerly Sir Francis Baring, and 
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Ministry of 
Lord Melbourne. 

— Close of the great annual ocean race from 
Foo-cho w- foo to London. The Serica, A riel , and 
Taeping passed Foo-chow-foo bar, for London, 
on tire 3°th of May. The Fiery Cross sailed 
from the same place on the previous day, and 
the Taitsing left on the 31st. The next heard 
of them was from Anger, Straits of Sunda, as 
follows \-Fiery Cross passed through on the 









SEPTEMBER 


1866. 


SEPTEMBER 


19th of June; the Ariel, Serica, Taeping, and 
Taitsing, on the 23d June, all within a few hours 
of each other—running the distance from Foo- 
chow-foo, about 2,780 miles, in twenty-three 
days. Yesterday, Lloyd’s agent telegraphed 
the arrival of three of the ships in the Downs. 
The Ariel and Taeping arrived at 8 A.M., and 
the Serica passed Deal at 1 P.M. They had all 
steam-tugs in attendance, and were pushing on 
for the river with all expedition. The distance, 
14,060 miles, was run in 99 days ; and it ap¬ 
peared that the Ariel and Taeping ran almost 
neck and neck the whole passage, the Serica 
following close in their wake. The result of 
tnis extraordinary race was declared to be as 
follows :— Taeping, docked in London Docks 
9.45 P.M. —1 ; Ariel, docked in East India 
Docks 10.15 P * M *— 2 J Serica, docked in West 
India Docks 11.30 P.M.—3. The Taeping, 
therefore, was winner of the premium, about 
5,000/., to be paid to the first sailing-vessel in 
dock with new teas from Foo-chow-foo. 

7.—In reply to an address from the inhabi¬ 
tants of Salisbury, Mr. Gladstone delivered a 
political speech defending the proceedings of 
the Government with reference to the intro¬ 
duction and management of the late Reform 
Bill, and promising that a fair consideration 
would be given to any well-digested scheme 
brought forward by their successors—provided 
it was introduced promptly and showed a spirit 
of moderation and justice. 

13 . —A correspondent of the Pall Mall 
Gazette, commenting upon the neglected state 
of the monuments of our Plantagenet kings 
in the ruined abbey of Fontevrault, suggests 
that it would be a graceful act for the Emperor 
of the French to present them to this country. 
“ The graves have been long ago plundered, 
but there are still preserved, hidden in a dark 
corner of the convent chapel, begrimed with 
the dust and dirt of ages, the effigies in marble 
which once adorned the tombs of Henry II. 
and Eleanor of Guienne, of Richard Coeur 
de Lion, and—most beautiful and best pre¬ 
served of all—Isabelle d’Angouleme, the wife 
of John.” 

14 . —Letters from Orissa mention that as 
many as eighty corpses of starved natives are 
found lying in the streets in the morning. In 
the Cuttack district 3,000 deaths from famine 
and pestilence were reported in one week. 

16 .—An Imperial manifesto, signed by M. 
Lavalette on behalf of the Emperor Napoleon, 
explains to the French diplomatic agents in 
foreign parts the language they are to hold 
in their communications regarding recent events 
on the Continent. The document was on the 
whole of a peaceable character:—“From the 
elevated point of view from which the Imperial 
Government regards the destinies of Europe, 
the horizon appears to be cleared of all mena¬ 
cing eventualities ; formidable problems, which 
ought to have been resolved because they could 
not be evaded, pressed upon the destinies of 
( 753 ) 


the people: they might have been imposed at 
a more inopportune period; they have received 
their natural solution without too violent 
shocks, and without the dangerous co-opera¬ 
tion of revolutionary passions. A peace which 
reposes upon such basis will be a durable peace. 
As to France, in whatever direction she looks, 
she can perceive nothing which can impede 
her progress or interrupt her prosperity. Pre¬ 
serving friendly relations with all Powers, 
directed by a policy which has generosity and 
moderation for its strength, relying upon her 
imposing unity ; with all her extended genius, 
her treasures, and her credit, which fertilize 
Europe; with her developed military forces, 
surrounded henceforth by independent nations ; 
she will appear not less great, she will remain 
not less respected.” 

18 . —Captain Jervis dismissed from her 
Majesty’s service for having (according to the 
principal charge), at Simla, on the 22d May, 
“neglected to obey the order of his Excellency 
the Commander-in-chief communicated to him 
by the military secretary, to attend a commitlee 
of audit which had been assembled by orders 
of his Excellency for the purpose of having 
the accounts kept by Captain Jervis on behalf 
of the Commander-in-chief, the said com¬ 
mittee having been ordered for the purpose 
of affording Captain Jervis an opportunity of 
relieving himself from the imputations on his 
character as an officer and a gentleman.” 

19 . —On the arrival of the Great Eastern at 
Liverpool, Captain Anderson and his officers 
are presented with an address, in recognition 
of the successful exertions they had made to 
recover the lost Atlantic cable. 

20. —The Prussian troops returned from the 
war make a triumphant entry into Berlin. On 
the 22d the King met another detachment 
outside the Brandenburg gate, and, mounted on 
his black charger “ Sadowa,” rode with them 
through the streets of the capital. The army 
was afterwards reviewed, and the King and 
Princes presented with wreaths by a company 
of young ladies dressed in white. 

22. —The Princess Dagmar leaves Copen¬ 
hagen for St. Petersburg. She was received 
into the Russian Church in the Palace Chapel 
of Zarsko-Selo, in presence of the Imperial 
family. 

23 . —Lamirande, late cashier of the Bank 
of France at Poitiers, carried clandestinely 
from Montreal, although Justice Drummond, 
before whom the application was made, was of 
opinion that the fraud charged against him did 
not fall within the terms of the Extradition 
Treaty. 

25 .—Destructive floods in the Seine, Loire, 
and Arc. 

27 .—Reform demonstration in Manchester, 
attended by a gathering estimated at from 
15,000 to 100,000. Mr. Bright spoke in the 
evening, again attacking Mr. Lowe and de 

3 c 




SEPTEMBER 


1866. 


OCTOBER 


scribing Lord Derby as no leader of his party 
in a high sense. “He is not its educator, 
he is not its guide ; but he is its leader in all 
foolish contests in which, in its ignorance and 
in its selfishness, it involves itself with the 
people. ” 

28 .—Meeting at the Mansion House to 
organize measures to relieve the famishing 
natives of Orissa. 

October 1.—The layers of the Atlantic 
cable entertained at Liverpool at a banquet 
presided over by Sir Stafford Northcote, Pre¬ 
sident of the Board of Trade. Intimation was 
made in the course of the evening that it was 
her Majesty’s intention to confer the honour of 
knighthood on Captain Anderson, and Messrs. 
Thomson, Glass, and Canning, electricians; 
and a baronetcy on Mr. Gooch, M. P. 

— Destructive hurricane in the Bahamas. 
H. M. gunboat Nimble was blown ashore 
among others. 

—- Sir James Knight Bruce retires from the 
Bench of the Court of Chancery, creating the 
first vacancy (with the exception of the wool¬ 
sack) which had occurred for fourteen years. 
He was succeeded by Sir Hugh Cairns. 

2. —The King of Hanover addresses a pro¬ 
test to the Cabinets of Europe against the 
annexation of Hanover by Prussia, and appeals 
for aid against the oppression of right by 
might. 

3 . —Treaty of peace between Austria and 
Italy signed at Vienna. 

— The Social Science Association- com¬ 
mences its sittings at Manchester, under the 
presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury. 

— Revolt of the youths attending the agri¬ 
cultural penitentiary in the Island of Hyeres, 
Levant. Fourteen boys were burnt in a ware¬ 
house by their companions. 

4 . —Insurrection in Candia. Letters from 
Athens of this date mention that the attack oi 
the combined Turkish and Egyptian troops, 
under Mustapha Pasha, had completely failed. 
The Turks, it w r as further said, continue their 
barbarities in the province of Heraclea, where 
they have put about 300 women, children, and 
old men to the sword. 

— New Town Hall at Hartlepool opened. 

6. —Dr. Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta, drowned 
while going from the shore to his yacht, at 
Kooshtea, on the Gorai river.' 

7 . —At a meeting of the Senate of the 
Queen’s University, in Dublin, the supple¬ 
mental charter admitting the Catholic Uni¬ 
versity into the system of the Queen’s was 
adopted by a majority. 

8 . —A demonstration in favour of Reform 
is made by the West Riding of Yorkshire at 
Woodhouse-moor, Leeds. Mr. Bright was 
present, with Mr. Beales and Mr. Ernest 
Jones. 

{754) 


8.—The Empress of Mexico reported to 
have become insane since her arrival in Europe 
on a mission relating to the disturbed condition 
of her husband’s empire. Her unfortunate 
condition was first manifested in an interview 
with the Pope, when she declared there had 
been a conspiracy set on foot to destroy her by 
poison. 

— The evacuation of the Quadrilateral com¬ 
menced by Austria. 

IO.—Peschiera handed over by the French 
Commissioner to the Italian municipality. 
Next day, General Menabrea, the Italian nego¬ 
tiator at Vienna, handed over to the Austrian 
Government 87^ million lires, being the amount 
of the Italian indemnity, and received from 
Count Mensdorff the iron crown of Lom¬ 
bardy. 

— Addressing his constituents at Elgin, Mr. 
Grant Duff, M.P., spoke of the complaints 
made against Mr. Gladstone as leader of the 
Liberal party :—“I watched him closely, and 
I really cannot say that I think this reproach 
is well founded. Far from it. I think, 
considering the well-known peculiarities of 
Mr. G’adstone’s disposition, he put a very 
remarkable restraint upon himself, and met 
a singularly malignant Opposition in a very 
good spirit. He has a horrible foreboding 
that—to use his own words—time is on the 
side of those very politicians who, when he 
started in public life, were at the opposite 
pole of the political sphere, against whom 
all the strength of his youth and of his man¬ 
hood was directed. Read his early speeches, 
study his early books; he has travelled far 
since then, and may well murmur from time 
to time at that destiny which may lead him, 
before he dies, like the Sicambrian of old, 
to bum what he adored, and to adore what 
he burnt.” 

12 .—Another stormy meeting of the Chat¬ 
ham and Dover Railway Company in St. 
James’s Hall. The nature of the report pre¬ 
sented was such as to preclude the Times from 
offering any suggestions as to the best mode 
of extricating the company from its difficulties, 
on account of the utter impossibility of arriving 
at any positive conclusions from the chaotic 
mass of transactions which constituted the 
entire history of the undertaking. Sir Morton 
Peto tVas accused of receiving 303,900/. tc 
retire debentures, and applying 128,000/. of 
the sum for other purposes. In explanation, he 
said that a financial company held an enormous 
amount of the securities of his firm, and they 
lodged with them debentures more than equal 
to all they owed them ; he therefore thought 
that, as no loss could accrue to the railway or 
to the financial company, he was justified in 
using the money as he did. Several of the 
directors admitted the irregularities which pre¬ 
vailed in the management, and advised the 
shareholders to place business men at the head 
of their affairs. 





OCTOBER 


1866. 


OCTOBER 


14 -.— Fire at Quebec, destroying about a third j 
part of the city. 

15 . —Attempt made by agents of the Saw- 
grinders’ Union in Sheffield to kill or maim 
one Feameyhough, who had withdrawn from 
their society. His house was blown up with 
gunpowder, but the inmates escaped with 
trifling injuries. The masters offered 1,000/. 
reward, and the Government 100/., for such 
information as would lead to a discovery of the 
perpetrators. 

— The Great Yarmouth Election Commis¬ 
sion close their sittings in the borough by 
examining the Mayor as to what he knew of 
the practices at former elections. 

16 . —Reform demonstration in Glasgow. 
The Times estimated the number present at 
150,000. Addressing a meeting in the even¬ 
ing, Mr. Bright spoke of the House of Com¬ 
mons as utterly unworthy of the confidence of 
the people. “If the clerk of the House,” he 
said, “were placed at Temple Bar, and had 
orders to lay his hand upon the shoulder of 
every well-dressed and apparently clean-washed 
man who passed through the ancient bar until 
he had numbered 658, and if the Crown sum¬ 
moned those 658 to be the Parliament for the 
United Kingdom, my honest conviction is that 
you would have a better Parliament than now 
exists. ” 

— The Queen opens the Aberdeen Water¬ 
works, designed to supply 6,000,000 gallons 
of pure water from the Dee. Her Majesty, on 
this occasion, addressed the assembly personally 
for the first time since the death of the Prince 
Consort. 

— New constitution promulgated for the 
government of Jamaica, 

17 . —In the course of a journey in Scotland 
the Archbishop of Canterbury lays the foun¬ 
dation-stone of an ecclesiastical building at 
Inverness, to be called the Cathedral of Moray. 
The Primate was entertained at a public ban¬ 
quet in the afternoon, when he took occasion 
to say, “ I rejoice to be able to give testimony 
to my anxious desire to seal the union and 
communion between the Episcopal Church in 
Scotland and the Church of England. The 
Episcopal Church is the only true representa¬ 
tive of the Church of England in Scotland.” 
The Times, in a leading article, censured the 
Archbishop’s taking part in the ceremony as a 
gratuitous interference in the ecclesiastical affairs 
of a sister kingdom, where the established form 
of worship was so far different from his own as 
to make him a Dissenter. 

13 .—Some unpleasantness having arisen 
in the Church Conference on the nth through 
the misapprehension of a phrase used by Dr. 

A. J. Stephens in the debates on the Teign- 
mouth case, he writes to say :—“I deny that I 
ever designated or intended to - designate the 
mixed chalice of water and wine as either 
‘ negus ’ or ‘ grog.’ A discussion arose before 
the Commissioners at Exeter as to the meaning 

(755) 


of the word ‘wine.’ Dr. Deane contended, 
on behalf of the respondent, that ‘ wine ’ and 
* wine and water ’ meant the same thing; and 
if he could have established that proposition, 
it is clear the mixed chalice could be legally 
used in the United Church. I replied, If water 
be mixed either with wine or spirit, the character 
of the liquid is changed as well as its name, the 
one being called ‘ negus ’ and the other ‘ grog.’ ” 

19 . —Venice was handed over to the muni¬ 
cipal authorities this morning at eight o’clock. 
At the same moment General Alemann left for 
Trieste amid marks of respect from the crowd. 
The Italian flag was hoisted on the tower of 
St. Mark and saluted with a salvo of 101 guns. 
General di Revel, the municipal authorities, and 
the National Guard proceeded to the railway 
station to meet the Italian troops, who were 
received with great enthusiasm. The city was 
decorated with flags, and a general illumination 
took place in the evening. 

20 . —King Leopold gives a banquet at 
Brussels to the English Volunteers who crossed 
the Channel to compete with their Belgian 
brethren. 

21 . —Another riot at Northmoor Green, 
Bridgewater, arising out of the ritualistic prac¬ 
tices of the rector, Mr. Hewitt. On this occa¬ 
sion a procession of disreputable characters 
paraded the streets with paper decorations, 
and otherwise commenced disturbances which 
threatened for a time the destruction of both 
life and property. 

— Risk Allah Bey tried at Brussels on a 
charge of murdering Charles Readly. In De¬ 
cember 1857, Risk Allah, formerly a colonel in 
the Turkish army, and also a licentiate of the 
London College of Surgeons, married Mrs. 
Lewis, a widow with a child by a former 
husband, the above Charles Readly. The 
mother of the young man died in i860, leaving 
to Risk Allah her fortune of 25,000/., of which 
5,000/. was to revert to Charles Readly on at¬ 
taining his majority. In the event of Readly’s 
premature death, the 5,000/. would of course 
become the property of Risk Allah, who had 
further insured Readly’s life for 1,000/. In 
March 1865 Risk Allah and his stepson were 
staying at the Hotel du Rhin, Antwerp, where 
Readly became somewhat unwell, and had 
need of much attendance. Besides themselves, 
there was in the hotel only a sea captain and 
his wife, who left on the 30th. At three o’clock 
on that morning Readly rang his bell, and the 
porter having answered the summons, was 
asked to fetch Risk Allah. They together found 
Readly reclining against the bed, and having 
induced him to lie down, they left. The cham¬ 
bermaid of the hotel, Philom&ne Brouwers, on 
coming downstairs at seven o’clock, peeped 
through the keyhole, and, as she states, dis¬ 
tinctly saw Readly lying asleep, breathing peace¬ 
fully. The sea captain and his wife had by this 
time left the hotel: there were, consequently, in 
the house no strangers except Charles Readly 
1 and his stepfather. About half-past seven Risk 

3 c 2 








OCTOBER 


1866. 


OCTOBER 


Allah descended, took breakfast, and walked 
about in front of the hotel till nine o’clock. 
Then he walked upstairs, knocked at Readly’s 
door, received no answer, and thereupon called 
up one or two of the servants. The outer door 
being locked, they entered by a door communi¬ 
cating with another room ; and here Philomene 
said that an article of furniture which was 
generally placed against this door at night had 
been removed. Readly was found bathed in 
blood, a large wound being apparent on the 
left side of the neck. A gun which Risk 
Allah had at one time carried into the room 
was found discharged; and he, lifting it, was 
said to have apostrophized it in these words: 
“ Wicked gun, it is you who are the cause of 
this! ” He also picked up a bit of paper which 
had been lying on the table, and showed the 
words written on it, “I have done it!” to the 
people with this remark, “ See, the poor fellow 
says that he has done it himself.” Risk Allah 
then approached the body, and, according to 
the testimony of the people present, pulled out 
one of the arms of the young man from beneath 
the coverlet in order to see whether he was yet 
cold. It was shown that Readly’s arms were 
both underneath the coverlet, and contended 
that the muzzle of the gun, to have produced 
such a wound, must have been some little 
distance from the young man’s neck. The 
circumstance looking suspicious, Risk Allah 
was arrested; but the court liberated him the 
same day, holding that Readly had committed 
suicide. A singular train of circumstances led 
to the revival of the case. Last February two 
forged letters of exchange, drawn on the 
National Bank in favour of “ Charles Readly, ” 
were presented for payment at a bank in 
Brussels. Risk Allah had, on January 30, 
dropped a blank cheque-book in Paris, and the 
forged cheques were found to be part of this 
book. Detectives were set to work, and 
speedily discovered that a suspicious intimacy 
had existed betwe*en Risk Allah and a man 
named Osman, who had been convicted of 
villany in various parts of the world. It 
seemed to them that the two men had entered 
into a partnership in fraud, and, as the business 
of inquiry progressed, serious doubts began to 
be raised about the Antwerp affair, especially 
when it became known how much Risk Allah 
had profited by young Readly’s death. Finally, 
for Belgian law admits of an acquitted person 
being recalled for further examination, Risk 
Allah was put upon his trial. It extended 
over six days, in the course of which numerous 
witnesses were examined as to the relations 
existing between the prisoner and Readly, and 
the impossibility of the latter committing sui¬ 
cide in the position in which he was found in 
bed. The President of the Court submitted no 
less than sixty distinct questions to the jury, 
on which they were required to give separate 
findings. All of these questions, with the excep¬ 
tion of the last two, referred to the two cheques 
negotiated by Osman in Brussels. On each of 
the sixty issues submitted to the jury at the 
( 756 ) 


close of the trial, it was necessary for the fore¬ 
man to take the votes of his fellow-jurors by 
ballot. On returning into court, the foreman 
read out the findings of the jury to the several 
questions, and declared the result to be the 
acquittal of the accused. 

23 . —At the usual Christchurch annual 
dinner, Lord Malmesbury, who presided, de¬ 
nied the statement recently made by Mr. 
Bright to the effect that, if a Reform Bill were 
passed by the Commons, it would be sure to 
be rejected by the Lords. There was nothing, 
he said, in the past history of the House of 
Peers to justify such an assertion, and he 
believed that the members of that assembly 
would always be ready to accept the clear and 
deliberate judgment of the country whenever 
it should be manifested through the votes of 
their representatives in the other House of 
Parliament. 

24 . —An Intercolonial Exhibition opened 
at Melbourne. 

25 . —The Rev. F. D. Maurice, of Vere- 
street Chapel, elected Professor of Casuistry, 
Moral Philosophy, and Moral Theology, at 
Cambridge. 

27 .—Attempt to assassinate the Emperor of 
Austria at Prague. 

29 . —The voting in Venetia for or against 
incorporation with Italy resulted in 641,758 in 
favour, and 69 against. 

— Explosion of fire-damp in Pel ton Fell 
Colliery, near Newcastle, causing the death 
of twenty-four men and boys employed in the 
Busty or ninety-four fathom seam. Three at 
the bottom of the shaft were saved, but much 
injured. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict 
that there was no evidence to show what was 
the cause of the explosion, but they were of 
opinion that negligence had been manifested 
by the officials down the pit in not enforcing 
the rules, and also on the part of the men in 
not carrying them out. 

— The Pope issues allocutions protesting 
against the attempts of Italy on Rome, and the 
violation by Russia of the Concordat of 1848. 

30 . —The new buildings of the Cambridge 
Union Society formally opened, Earl Powis, 
High Steward of the University, presiding. 
Lord Houghton delivered an inaugural address, 
in which he said: “This is not my Cambridge 
Union. My Cambridge Union was a low, ill- 
ventilated, ill-lit apartment at the back of the 
Red Lion Inn, cavernous, tavemous—some¬ 
thing between a commercial room and a district 
branch meeting-house. How can I compare it 
with this superb building—these commodious 
apartments—these perhaps over-luxurious ac¬ 
companiments of architecture, which you will 
have to enjoy? But I remember that these 
old and humble walls, at the time I first stood 
within them, had recently echoed voices which 

England would not willingly let die.It 

was in company with Mr. Sunderland and Mr. 
Arthur Hallam that I formed part of a depu- 








OCTOBER 


1866. 


NOVEMBER 


tation sent from the Union of Cambridge to 
the Union of Oxford. And what do you think 
we went about ? Why, we went to assert the 
claims of Mr. Shelley to be regarded as a 
greater poet than Lord Byron. (Cheers and 
laughter.) Now, at that time we were all 
very full of Mr. Shelley. We had printed his 
‘ Adonais’ for the first time in England, and 
a friend of ours suggested that, as he had been 
expelled from Oxford, and very badly treated 
in that University, it would be a grand thing 
for us to defend him there. So, with the full 
permission of the authorities here, we went to 
Oxford—at that time a long, dreary postchaise 
journey of ten hours—and we were hospitably 
entertained by a young student of the name of 
Gladstone ; who, by the by, has himself been 
since expelled. (Laughter and renewed cheer¬ 
ing.) We had a very interesting debate, one 
of the principal speakers at which reminded 
me of the circumstance the other day—he at 
present enjoying a somewhat different position 
—namely, that of Archbishop in the Roman 
Catholic Church. We were very much shocked, 
and our vanity not a little wounded, to find 
that nobody at Oxford knew anything about 
Mr. Shelley.” At the close of the inaugural 
proceedings, a debate was engaged in, the 
question being, “ That this House views with 
regret the late substitution of a Conservative 
Government for a Liberal one.” 

30 .—At a banquet given to Mr. Bright by 
the Dublin Liberals in the Rotunda, the mem¬ 
ber for Birmingham delivered a long address on 
the evils of Ireland, which he traced mainly to 
the Established Church and the dispossession 
of the soil by the Irish people. “You will 
recollect,” he said, “that the ancient Hebrew 
in his captivity had his window open towards 
Jerusalem when he prayed; you know that the 
follower of Mahommed, when he prays, turns 
his face towards Mecca: and the Irish peasant, 
when he asks for food and freedom and bless¬ 
ings, his eye follows the setting sun, the aspira¬ 
tion of his heart reaches beyond the wide At¬ 
lantic, and in spirit he grasps hands with the 
great Republic of the West. If that be so, I 
say then that the disease is not only serious, 
but that it is even desperate.” 

November 3 .—Some controversy having 
been raised by Lord Houghton’s reference to 
the Shelley debate at Oxford, Archbishop 
Manning now writes:—“It was, I think, a 
passage of arms got up by the Eton men of the 
two Unions. My share, if any, was only as a 
member of the august committee of the green- 
baize table. I can, however, well remember 
the irruption of the three Cambridge orators. 
We Oxford men were precise, orderly, and 
morbidly afraid of excess in word or manner. 
The Cambridge oratory came in like a flood 
into a mill-pond. Both Monckton Milnes and 
Hallam took us aback by the boldness and 
freedom of their manner. But I remember the 
effect of Sunderland’s declamation to this day. 
It had never been seen or heard before among 


us; we cowered like birds, and ran like sheep. 

I was the other day reminding the Secretary of 
the India Board of the damage he did me. 
He was my private tutor, and was terrifically 
sitting right opposite to me. I had just rounded 
a period when I saw him make, as I believed 
in my agony, a sign of contempt, which all but 
brought me down. I acknowledge that we were 
utterly routed. Lord Houghton’s beautiful re¬ 
viving of those old days has in it something 
fragrant and sweet, and brings back old faces 
and old friendships very dear as life is drawing 
to its close.” 

5 . —The Czar formally recognises the Hos- 
podar as Prince of the Danubian Principalities. 

— Berwick, mariner, Webb, mariner, and 
Dean, commission agent, examined at the Man¬ 
sion House on the charge of scuttling the ship 
Severn while on her voyage from Newport to 
Shanghai, with intent to defraud the under¬ 
writers. (See February i, 1867.) 

— Fire at Hampstead-road, resulting in the 
death of three children, chiefly through the 
negligence, as found by the coroner’s jury, of 
two police-constables on duty at the time. 

6 . —The Master of the Rolls delivers judg¬ 
ment in the case of Colenso v. Gladstone and 
others, which had excited considerable interest 
in ecclesiastical circles, from its bearing on the 
status of the Colonial Episcopate. Dr. Colenso 
filed a bill against Mr. Gladstone, M.P., Vice- 
Chancellor Wood, the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury, and others, Trustees of the Colonial 
Bishoprics’ Fund, calling upon them to set 
aside a sum of 10,000/. out of the fund, for the 
purpose of securing the income of the Bishop of 
Natal, and calling upon them also to pay him 
his salary of 362/., which they had withheld 
since 1864 on account of a deprivation from his 
office by Bishop Gray, Metropolitan of South 
Africa, which the judgment of the Judicial 
Committee of Privy Council had since declared 
to be illegal. The defendants contended that 
according to that judgment Dr. Colenso had 
never been a Bishop at all within the mean¬ 
ing of the original founders of the Colonial 
Bishoprics’ Fund, who intended that the Bishop 
of Natal should be subject to the Metropo¬ 
litan. The Trustees, therefore, did not feel 
themselves justified in paying over their funds 
to a Bishop of that class. Lord Romilly 
now pronounced an elaborate judgment, in 
which he entered at length into the duties and 
functions of a Bishop, the extent to which the 
letters patent of the Crown had failed in en¬ 
abling the plaintiff to perform these duties, 
the objects for which the funds in the hands 
of the defendants were contributed, and the 
contract Which they had entered into with the 
Crown on the one hand and the plaintiff on 
the other. Verdict for the plaintiff, with costs. 

7 . —The Times announces that it is the in¬ 
tention of her Majesty’s Government to with¬ 
draw their diplomatic representative from the 
Court of Saxony, and to break up the establish¬ 
ment of the British Legation at Dresden. 

(757) 






NOVEMBER 


1866. 


NOVEMBER 


7 .—The King of Italy makes a triumphal 
entry into Venice. 

9 . —Great rejoicings at St. Petersburg on the 
occasion of the marriage of the Czarewitch 
with the Princess Dagmar of Denmark. 

10. —Dr. Livingstone writes from the “coun¬ 
try of the Chepets—“ It has been quite im¬ 
possible to send a letter coastwise ever since 
we left the Rovuma. The Arab slave-traders 
take to their heels as soon as they hear the 
English are on the road. I am a perfect bug¬ 
bear to them. Eight parties thus skedaddled ; 
and last of all my Johanna men, frightened 
out of their wits by stories told them by a 
member of a ninth party who had been plun¬ 
dered of his slaves, walked off and left me to 
face the terrible Mazitu with nine Nassickboys.” 
Additions were made to the above in January, 
when the traveller was among the Bibisa, and 
in February, when he was in Bemba; but this 
intelligence of safety under his own hand did 
not reach England till April 1868. 

— Wreck of the screw-steamer Ceres at 
Carnsoi-e Point, near Wexford. She went 
ashore in a gale, about 6 P.M., and out of 
forty-two passengers twenty-nine were lost, 
with nine of the crew. The Board of Trade 
censured the master, Captain Pascoe, for not 
using the lead, and suspended his certificate 
for two years. 

11. — The Royal mail steamship Atrato 
placed in quarantine, having arrived in South¬ 
ampton water with many cases of yellow fever. 

12. —C’. F. Brown, “Art emus Ward,” opens 
his entertainment in the Egyptian Hall. 

14 . —Meteoric shower of great splendour 
and duration. “ From midnight to I o’clock,” 
wiites Mr. Hind, from the Observatory at 
Twickenham, “ 1,120 meteors were noted, the 
numbers gradually increasing. From I A.M. 
to I h. 7 m. 5 s. no less than 514 were counted, 
and we were conscious of having missed very 
many, owing to the rapidity of their succes¬ 
sion. At the latter moment there was a rather 
sudden increase to an extent which rendered it 
impossible to count the number, but after 1.20 
a decline became perceptible. The maximum 
was judged to have taken place about I.io ; 
and at this time the appearance of the whole 
heavens was very beautiful, not to say magni¬ 
ficent.” 

15 . —Unveiling of the Franklin memorial, 
erected in Waterloo-place, from designs by 
Noble, “ to the great Arctic navigator and his 
brave companions, who sacrificed their lives in 
completing the discovery of the North-west 
Passage, 1847. Erected by the unanimous vote 
of Parliament.” 

— For the first time since October no 
deaths from cholera were registered this day 
for the East district of London. During the 
prevalence of the epidemic, 5>54^ were known 
to have fallen victims, exclusive of 2,692 who 
died from diarrhoea and other cognate ail- 
( 758 ) 


ments. The Mansion House Relief Fund 
held a closing meeting November 29 th. 

16 . —Great floods in Derbyshire and Lan¬ 
cashire, spreading over tracts of country never 
known to be under water before, and destroying 
much exposed property along the river banks. 
At Ormskirk a coal mine was flooded. 

17 . —The Spectator announces that Professor 
de Morgan had resigned his chair in University 
College, in consequence of the recent decision 
arrived at by the Council of that body to reject 
Professor Martineau’s candidature for the chair 
of Philosophy and Logic on the ground of his 
denominational reputation. 

— Reform demonstration in Edinburgh. 

19 . —Opening of the Diet of the Austrian 
Empire, the Hungarians meeting at Pesth, 

20. —Ecclesiastical gathering in the British 
Hotel, Jermyn-street, to hear a statement made 
by M. Julius Ferrette, who claimed to be Bishop 
of Iona. He produced letters of consecration 
purporting to show that “Julius, Metropolitan 
of the World, who is Peter the Humble, other¬ 
wise styled Metropolitan of the See of the 
Syrians, and the Most Reverend Julius, Arch¬ 
bishop (Ecumenic of the Orthodox Syrians 
and Metropolitan of Syria, resident in Homs 
(Emesa), has thought good to direct his at¬ 
tention to the state of the English Church, 
and he makes it known that on the 2d of 
June, 1866, in the divinely preserved city of 
Emesa, as the servant of God, the Presbyter 
Julius Ferrette has been ordained Bishop by 
the imposition of our hands, and has been ap¬ 
pointed to the Island of Iona and its depen¬ 
dencies.” Bishop Julius offered to re-ordain 
priests and deacons in the English Church 
without altering their status therein ; but his 
ecclesiastical pretensions did not meet with 
any countenance. 

— Sir John Lawrence holds a durbar at 
Agra, remarkable for splendour and the number 
of native chiefs who assembled to do homage. 
The city and the river Jumna were illuminated. 

—- Reform banquet at Birmingham, attended 
by Mr. Bright and twenty-five other members 
of Parliament. 

21 . —Sudden outbreak of cholera in Fife. 
In the village of Methill-hill, Leven, there 
were thirty deaths in the three days preceding 
the present 

23 .—Died, aged 65, Sulpice Paul Chevalier, 
well known as a French caricaturist under the 
nom de plume of Gavarni. 

26 .—Lord Chief Justice Erie retires from 
his seat in the Court of Common Pleas, the 
Attorney-General, in name of the bar, eulo¬ 
gising the great ability with which his lord- 
ship had reconciled positive law with moral 
justice. Vice-Chancellor Kindersley retired 
from the Court of Chancery at the same time. 

— Lord John Manners refuses to let the 







NOVEMBER 


I 866. 


DECEMBER 


League Reformers arrange their intended pro¬ 
cession in Hyde Park, though solicited as a 
favour, and without prejudice to the dispute 
presently pending as to the right of the people 
so to occupy any of the parks. 

30 .— The Queen visits Wolverhampton to 
unveil the memorial erected there to the Prince 
Consort. At the conclusion of the ceremony, her 
Majesty conferred the honour of knighthood 
upon the Mayor, Mr. Morris. 

December 1 . —Concluded in the Court of 
Queen’s Bench the case of Hunter v. Sharpe, 
being an action raised by a physician against 
the printer of the Pall Mali Gazette , for a libel 
published therein on the loth November last. 
After obtaining an M.D. degree in New York 
University the plaintiff commenced practising 
in that city. Resolving to make pulmonary 
diseases his specialty, Hunter studied the 
symptoms of his own delicate constitution, 
and adopted the practice of inhalation, which 
eminent medical men had previously recom¬ 
mended, but had not till then been systemati¬ 
cally carried out. He had such a large practice 
that four medical men, each holding an English 
degree, were engaged to assist him. In 1858 
Hunter came to England, where he published 
a book setting forth his system, and spent, ac¬ 
cording to his own testimony, about 1,000/. in 
advertising. In 1865 a Mrs. Merrick accused 
him of taking improper liberties with her, and 
pending the investigation of that charge the libel 
now complained of appeared. It was headed, 
“Impostors and Dupes,” and said: “One of 
the evils which were a curse to English society 
was the advertising practices of a certain class 
of medical impostors.” Referring to plaintiff as 
one of them, the article continued : “ The Mer¬ 
rick-Hunter story is a fresh illustration of the 
state of the law in the matter of these abomi¬ 
nable advertisements.” On behalf of the plaintiff, 
evidence was led showing the extent of his trade 
and the success attending his mode of treatment. 
On the other side, various eminent medical 
practitioners expressed opinions adverse to the 
plaintiff’s system. In summing up, at the 
close of the fifth day’s trial, the Lord Chief 
Justice laid it down that the defendant would 
be entitled to a verdict on the plea of Not guilty 
if the jury were of opinion that though the 
article was not in all respects completely cor¬ 
rect, it was nevertheless written with remark¬ 
able care, in good faith, and in a moderate 
spirit. He fully endorsed the proposition that 
if a public writer, in commenting upon a mat¬ 
ter of public concern, exercised honestly his 
powers of criticism, he would be justified in so 
doing, even although the facts might fall short 
of what he had supposed them to be. The 
criticism in such a case was privileged, and 
he was entitled to the protection of his pri¬ 
vilege. V erdict for the plaintiff—damages, one 
farthing. 

3 . — London Trades Demonstration in 
favour of Reform. For days previously the 


League party had given out that this was to 
be one of the most mighty gatherings yet wit¬ 
nessed in support of their principles, and much 
pre-arrangement and negotiation was under¬ 
taken with the view of permitting it to pass 
along the thoroughfares in an effective and 
orderly manner. The day turned out to be 
unfavourable for such a demonstration. The 
anticipated 200,000 workmen dwindled down 
to between 25,000 and 30,000, and the march 
from the parade-ground, Whitehall, to Beau¬ 
fort House, Chiswick, was accomplished in a 
quite peaceable, if somewhat irregular, order. 
Many of them, indeed, did not reach the 
scene of the display till evening had set in, 
and some then turned homewards without 
taking further part in the demonstration. 
Brief speeches were made by Mr. Beales and 
Colonel Dickson. One Leicester, a glass- 
blower, spoke with exceptional vehemence :— 
“Every stage of that contest had called foith 
its martyrs, and they had a martyr before them 
in Mr. Beales. The question was, would they 
suffer these little-minded, decrepit, hump¬ 
backed, one-eyed scoundrels who sat in the 
House of Commons to rob and defraud them 
any longer of their rights—whether those who 
had squandered the people’s earnings like 
water should continue to do so? From one 
end to the other of this land their fiat had 
gone forth that they meant to be free. What 
had Lord Derby done? He had translated 
Homer. But he could not make one of those 
beautiful specimens of glass work which had 
been carried in procession that day. There 
was not a stocking-weaver in Leicester, or a 
clodhopper in the kingdom, rendering service 
to the State, who was not quite as useful as 
Lord Derby. What the people meant to do 
was to drive the devil out of the House of 
Commons and let God Almighty in.” The 
crowd dispersed with cheers for Bright, Glad¬ 
stone, and Beales. 

4 .—At a Reform meeting of the London 
Trades to-night in St. James’s Hall, Mr. Bright 
urged continued agitation and organization. 
Mr. Ayrton, M. P., censured the Queen for 
not recognising the people when they gathered 
in such numbers in front of one of her palaces- 
Mr. Bright at once repudiated the insinuation 
contained in the speech of the member for the 
Tower Hamlets. “I am not accustomed,” he 
said, “ to stand up in defence of those who are 
possessors of crowns. But I could not sit 
and hear that observation without a sensation 
of wonder and of pain. (Loud cheers.) I 
think there has been, by many persons, a great 
injustice done to the Queen in reference to 
her desolate and widowed position. (Cheers.) 
And I venture to say this, that a woman, be 
she the Queen of a great realm, or be she the 
wife of one of your labouring me.i, who can 
keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the 
lost object of her life and affection, is not at all 
likely to be wanting in a great and generous 
sympathy with you.” (Loud and prolonged 
cheers.) Mr. Ayrton afterwards sought to 

(759) 








DECEMBER 


1866. 


DECEMBER 


make an explanation, but could not get a 
hearing. 

A .—The Convent of Arkadi, Crete, attacked 
by the Turks, was blown up by its defenders, 
and between 300 and 400 killed. 

6. —The Roman Catholics of the metropolis 
hold a meeting in St. James’s Hall to express 
sympathy with the Pope. 

7 . —In consequence of the activity of the 
Fenian plotters in Ireland, the Lord-Lieutenant 
issues a proclamation placing such portions of 
Kildare and Mayo as had not been previously 
proclaimed under the provision of the Peace 
Preservation Act. 

8 . —The Pope addresses an invitation to 
Roman Catholic bishops to assemble at Rome 
in June next, to celebrate the 18th centenary of 
the martrydom of the Apostles Peter and Paul, 
and the canonization of several of the faithful. 

11. —The last detachment of French troops 
leaves Rome. At eight o’clock this morning 
the French flag upon the castle of St. Angelo 
was hauled down and the Pontifical hoisted 
in its stead. General Montebello said to the 
Pope on leaving : “ The Emperor withdraws 
his troops from Rome, but not his support— 
his Majesty leaves in the Eternal City the pro¬ 
tection of France.” His Holiness granted his 
benediction, and promised to pray for the Em¬ 
peror, “It is said that his health is not good ; 
I pray for his health. It is said that his soul 
is not at peace; I pray for his soul. The 
French nation is Christian. Its chief ought to 
be Christian also.” 

— In the Divorce Court Sir James Wilde 
lays down an important legal precedent in the 
case of March v. March and Palumbo. Hitherto 
the Court had been in the habit of making pro¬ 
vision for a woman out of her husband’s means; 
but where the wife was the guilty party, the 
same rule was not applied. Mrs. March, the 
respondent, had an income of about 1,400/.; 
and the judge now directed that 200/. should 
be appropriated yearly to the education of a 
child of the marriage, and that 440/. per annum 
should be paid to the petitioner. The juris¬ 
diction for this purpose had been recently 
created by statute, and the judge pointed out 
the grounds of public morality and policy on 
which it is founded. “It would be of evil 
example (he said) if this Court were to decide 
that the entire fortune of a wealthy married 
woman was to be reckoned as part of the pros¬ 
pects of an adulterer, or the resources of a 
second home for the guilty woman.” 

12 . —Explosion in the Oaks Colliery, near 
Barnsley, causing a destruction of life unparal¬ 
leled in the history of such calamities. About 
six o’clock in the morning the whole of the 
hewers, boys, and drivers, numbering about 
370, went down the shaft to commence their 
daily labour. They continued in the workings 
till twenty minutes past one this afternoon, 

(760) 


I when the banksman was alarmed by the sound 
of an explosion in the pit and a tempestuous 
rush of air and soot up the shaft. One of the 
cages, and the rope to which it was attached, 
were considerably damaged by the explosion ; 
but in the face of those obstacles no time was 
lost by the authorities in descending the pit. 
At the bottom of the workings, immediately 
adjoining the shaft, eighteen men, seriously in¬ 
jured, but still living, were discovered, and 
at once conveyed to the surface, where they 
were promptly attended to. Between thirty 
and forty bodies had been brought to the sur¬ 
face when a second explosion occurred, the 
following morning, causing the death of a 
company of twenty-eight searchers who had 
gallantly volunteered to enter the workings. 
Among these were Mr. Jeffcock, mining engi¬ 
neer, Sheffield ; Jewitt, Newcastle; Smith, ma¬ 
nager of Lundhill Colliery; Sugden, deputy, 
and C. Seddon, under-deputy. As this second 
explosion not only destroyed any hope that 
might exist of recovering men alive from the 
workings, but made a renewed descent almost 
impossible, the distracted relatives, who till 
then had crowded round the pit, were now 
gently removed to places of greater safety. 
About five o’clock on the morning of the 14th, 
the signal-bell was heard to ring, giving indi¬ 
cations that some one was alive at the bottom 
of the shaft. Mr. Mammott, who was in at¬ 
tendance, and Embleton, junior, resolved once 
more to brave the perils of the pit; and on 
descending found Samuel Brown, one of the 
explorers of the previous day. When the cage 
came to the surface, the excitement was of the 
most intense description. Brown, though weak, 
was quite conscious and able to give an account 
of his experiences. He had wandered about 
the north incline for a long distance, falling over 
the mangled corpses of those slain by the blast. 
At last he found his way to the shaft and 
pulled the signal. He was of opinion there 
was no other living being in the pit. As 
explosion after explosion continued to take 
place, the consulting engineers resolved upon 
extinguishing the fire raging through the 
workings by filling up the shaft—an under¬ 
taking only accomplished after protracted and 
perilous labour. The bodies recovered were 
interred in the cemetery at Barnsley the 
following Sunday, the 23d, the* different com¬ 
panies of mourners presenting most touching 
spectacles from the earnestness of their grief 
and the great number of bereaved widows and 
children. The Bishop of Ripon had been most 
unceasing in his exertions to impart comfort to 
the bereaved households. The Queen also 
showed her sympathy by two telegraphic mes¬ 
sages—one inquiring for the particulars of the 
calamity, and the other announcing a gift of 
200/. for the use of the sufferers. A relief fund 
was immediately organized, and contributions 
flowed abundantly in from all parts of the 
kingdom. The total number who perished 
through the disaster was set down at 340. 
Eighty-six were recovered from the pit; 18 






DECEMBER 


1866. 


DECEMBER 


of whom were alive, though six of these died 
soon after being brought to the surface. 

13 . —While the public mind was excited by 
the Oaks calamity, another colliery disaster 
of great magnitude happened at Talk-o’-the- 
Hill, North Staffordshire. About 200 men 
and boys were at work in the pit when the 
explosion took place at noon. Shaft No. 1, 
leading to the workings, was much damaged ; 
but No. 2 was in fair order, and down this 
crowds of eager volunteers hastened to search 
the pit. Their efforts were attended with con¬ 
siderable success. Fifty in a short time were 
sent alive to the surface, and throughout the 
afternoon twos and threes were frequently 
brought up in the cage to the relief of distracted 
households. Still the loss was considerable, 
and but for the overwhelming occurrence at 
Barnsley would have engaged the public mind 
as among the most calamitous events in the 
annals of colliery disasters. The deaths 
amounted to eighty-five. Evidence was ad¬ 
duced before the coroner’s jury to show that 
the explosion had been caused by the careless¬ 
ness of workmen in the pit exposing their safety 
lamps, and that in general there had been a lax 
observance of the rules laid down for securing 
the safety of those employed in the workings. 
As in the Oaks case, much public sympathy was 
shown, from the Queen downwards, for the be¬ 
reaved and suffering families. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 56, Joseph 
Robertson, LL.D.,a zealous and accomplished 
antiquarian, particularly in the department of 
records and ecclesiastical history. 

14 . —In an address to the electors of Guild¬ 
ford, Mr. Garth, M.P., charged Mr. Bright 
with never having dared to stand for his own 
place, with refusing to subscribe to the cotton 
famine relief fund, and with wishing to support 
the suffering workmen by loans, that he might 
have them as serfs at his beck and call. A 
correspondence ensued, which ended in the 
charges being explained away. “ On a review 
of your speech and your letter,” writes Mr. 
Bright, “I came to this conclusion—that you 
wished to get into Parliament, and were not 
particular as to the path which might lead 
to it. You threw dirt during your canvass, 
doubtless knowing that if needful you could 
eat it afterwards. There are many men who 
go through dirt to dignities, and I suspect 
you have no objection to be one of them.” 
Another correspondence relating to misrepre¬ 
sentations of Mr. Bright by Mr. H. D. Sey¬ 
mour in the Fortnightly Review was at this time 
being carried on. On the 25th January Mr. 
Bright was presented with an address by his 
workmen expressive of ‘‘their entire sympathy 
with and respect for him under the malignant 
slanders which had been urged against him 
as their employer.” 

15 . —In his speech at the opening of the 
Italian Parliament, the King promises that he 
will respect the Pontifical territory, and en¬ 
deavour to distinguish and conciliate the 


Catholic interests and national aspirations 
which were interwoven and contending with 
each other at Rome. 

1 5 . —German Plenipotentiaries meet at Berlin 
to frame a new constitution for North Ger¬ 
many. 

16 . —M. Deak’s address in reply to the 
Emperor of Austria’s Rescript adopted by 
the Hungarian Diet, and presented to the 
Emperor on the 23d. 

19 .—Fall of an iron girder at the Aldersgate 
Station of the Metropolitan Railway, causing 
the death of four people who were in the last 
carriage of a passing train. 

22 .—J. H. Surratt, an alleged accomplice 
in the murder of President Lincoln, and after¬ 
wards a soldier in the Pope’s Zouave corps, 
surrenders to the American authorities at 
Alexandria. 

25 . —Yacht race across the Atlantic. The 
Henrietta, Vesta, and Fleetwing started from 
New York at 1 P.M. on the nth, and the 
first of the three which arrived at Cowes was 
to receive a prize of 90,000 dollars. At 5.40 
this afternoon the Henrietta appeared off 
Cowes, having accomplished the passage in 14 
days 4 hours and 40 minutes. The Fleetwing 
arrived about twelve hours after the Henrietta, 
and the Vesta two hours after the Fleetwing. 
With the exception of the Dreadnought, the 
Henrietta made the quickest passage on record. 
She had no accident, did not lose a rope, and 
made the entire passage on one tack. She 
averaged throughout the passage 218 miles 
a day. The Fleetwing when eight days out 
encountered a heavy southerly gale; the sea 
boarded her, carrying away her jibboom, and 
washed six men overboard, all of whom were 
lost. 

26 . —Mazzini issues a proclamation to the 
Italian people, urging them to concentrate their 
hearts on Rome, which represents “the mis¬ 
sion of Italy among the nations ; the word of 
our people ; the eternal gospel of unification 
to the peoples.” 

30 .—Fire at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, 
destroying or greatly injuring the Tropical 
Department, the whole of the Natural History 
Collection, the Assyrian, Alhambra, and By¬ 
zantine Courts, the Queen’s apartments, the 
Library and Frinting Offices, the Indian, Archh 
tectural, Model, and Marine Galleries. The 
fire appeared to have originated in a paint and 
store room in the north-eastern wing, and 
spread rapidly towards the main body of the 
building, along the flooring and other wood¬ 
work, which in the Tropical end had become 
exceedingly inflammable. Being Sunday, there 
were fewer watchmen on the premises than 
usual; and some difficulty was also experienced 
in collecting the workmen belonging to the 
Palace to render the necessary assistance. 
Captain Shaw arrived with a detachment of 
the Metropolitan Brigade and performed ser¬ 
vices of the greatest value, afterwards formally 

(761) 





DECEMBER 


1866-67. 


JANUARY 


acknowledged by the directors. The damage 
sustained by this national temple of instruction 
and amusement excited the widest feelings of 
regret among all classes. 

31 .—Mr. J. G. Bennett, New York, makes 
offer of his yacht Henrietta as a present to 
Prince Alfred. The gift was declined. 


1867. 

January 2.—Replying to Mr. Guedalla, a 
member of the Reform League, who desired 
to know whether the recent Reform meetings 
had not modified his harsh, unjust, and un¬ 
fortunate opinion about the working classes, 
Mr. Lowe writes: — “The Reform League, 
having fastened upon me assertions which I 
have not made, has loaded me with the most 
virulent abuse, and has striven to make me an 
object of the hatred, perhaps a mark for the 
vengeance, of my fellow-countrymen. With 
such a body and its leaders, of whom you 
appear to be one, I have no courtesies to 
interchange. When I think proper to give an 
opinion on the recent popular demonstrations, 
it is not to the Reform League that I shall 
offer it.” 

— Heavy fall of snow in London, followed 
by a severe frost, which continued about a 
fortnight. On some of the days traffic was 
almost put a stop to in the metropolis, and for 
cabs fares as high as 15^. and even 20 s. were 
charged for journeys of about a mile. When 
the thaw came, much damage was caused by 
the ice and floods in the river. 

— The Emperor of Austria issues an Im¬ 
perial patent, dissolving the old and command¬ 
ing the election of new Diets throughout the 
empire. 

6 . —The parish church of St. John the 
Baptist at Croydon destroyed by fire, origi¬ 
nating in the overheating of a flue. The 
registers dating from 1538 were saved ; but 
the fine series of archiepiscopal monuments 
was destroyed. 

7 . —A reorganization having been effected 
of the Agra Bank, trampled down during the 
last money panic, the company again com¬ 
menced trading this day. 

— At Washington the House of Represen¬ 
tatives pass a resolution directing a committee 
to inquire into offences committed by the 
President, the vote being—Ayes, 107 ; Noes, 
38. This was the first step to an impeach¬ 
ment. 

IO. J. F. Wilkinson, late managing di¬ 
rector of the Joint Stock Discount Company, 
sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to 
five years’ penal servitude for misappropriating 
the Company’s funds. 

— Double execution at Maidstone : Fletcher 
for the murder of a warder in Chatham convict 
prison, and Ann Lawrence for the murder of 
her child. 

(762) 


12.—The Emperor Napoleon writes to M. 
Ollivier:—“ What makes me uneasy on the 
subject of a law on the press is not to find the 
force which shall repress, but the manner of 
defining a law on infractions which merit re¬ 
pression. The most dangerous articles may 
escape all condemnation, whilst insignificant 
ones may fall under the penalty of the law. 
Here has always been the difficulty. Never¬ 
theless, to strike the imagination by decisive 
measures I would wish at one stroke to establish 
what has been called the cro wning of the edifice, 
I should like to do this and never undo the 
work, for a settlement is necessary to me and 
to the country. I must mark out resolutely the 
goal that I desire to reach without having the 
appearance of being forced, year by year, to make 
successive concessions, for one always falls, as 
said M. Guizot, on the side towards which one 
leans, and I wish to march straight and firmly, 
without oscillating, now to the right, now to the 
left. You see I speak to you very frankly ; you 
have inspired me with an entire confidence, and 
my inspirations will always seem to me the 
better for being in conformity with yours. ” 

15 .—A long series of isolated accidents on 
the ice was crowned this day by one of fearful 
magnitude, which took place on that part of 
the ornamental water in the Regent’s Park im¬ 
mediately opposite Sussex-terrace. Although 
the ice there was looked upon by the icemen 
as unsafe, being formed chiefly of melted snow, 
there were, it was thought, about 500 skaters 
exercising thereon in the afternoon—some of 
them ladies—and no less than 2,000 others 
looking on from the banks. Suddenly, and 
without any warning, the ice at the sides gave 
way, and in a few seconds the entire sheet 
split up into fragments a few yards square. 
A general rush was made to the banks, 
which, unfortunately, broke up the soft ice 
into still smaller pieces. Score after score 
of those who had been enjoying themselves 
on its surface slipped down between the pieces 
and appeared to be at once sucked under the 
ice. At least 200 were at one time strug¬ 
gling in the water and screaming for help. 
A few with great presence of mind threw- 
themselves flat upon the surface of the broken 
sheet, and thus not only preserved their own 
lives, but were instrumental in saving others. 
The icemen on duty, and spectators of all 
kinds and conditions, did their best to dra«- 
people to land, but in the wild excitement of 
the first moment’s surprise many went down 
without a chance of recovery. Men, women, 
and children were seen clinging to the edges 
of the broken ice, shouting for the assistance 
which those who witnessed their sufferings 
were powerless to render, and in a brief time 
sinking with a few faint waves of the hands 
above the water. A detachment of police 
was soon on the spot, and rendered great 
service in preserving order, and permitting 
systematic efforts to be made for recovering 
bodies. This unexpected and overwhelming 
calamity threw a feeling of sadness over 








JANUARY 


1867 


FEBRUAR I 


the entire metropolis. The number drowned 
amounted to forty-one. 

16 .—The Court of Queen’s Bench gives 
judgment in the case of Hornby v. Clive, an 
appeal from a decision of magistrates at Brad¬ 
ford dismissing an information under the F riendly 
Societies Act against the treasurer of a society 
of working men, on the ground that the 
objects of the society, being partly those of a 
trade union, were not within the Act. The 
Lord Chief Justice confirmed the decision of 
the Court below. “I am far from saying (he 
remarked) that a trade union constituted for 
such purposes would bring the members within 
the criminal law, but the rules are certainly 
such as would operate in restraint of trade, and 
would, therefore, in that sense be unlawful; 
and upon the same principle upon which a 
Court of Error held (confirming a decision of 
this Court) that a bond given by a master to 
observe rules which were in restraint of trade 
was so far unlawful that it could not be en¬ 
forced in law, we think that these rules of a 
society of workmen having a like effect are in 
the same sense illegal. That is to say, if a 
civil action was brought on any contract or 
obligation arising out of the rules, they could 
not be recognised and enforced in such action.” 

19 .—The Emperor Napoleon issues a de¬ 
cree authorizing members of the Senate and 
Legislative Body to address interpellations to 
the Government. 

21.— Meeting at the Mansion House to 
decide measures for relieving the distress in 
the East end of London. 

— Conference at the London Coffee" House 
concerning the alleged indifference of the work¬ 
ing classes to public worship. 

24 .—Judgment given by the Court of 
Queen’s Bench in the case of Bryant v. Foot— 
an action raised by the Rector of Horton, 
Bucks, to determine his right to receive a 
marriage fee of 13J. From the year 1808 to 
the year 1854 the fee actually paid was either 
13^. 6 d. or 13J., with an occasional additional 
sum, varying from 2 s. 6 d. to 3-r. 6 d., for the 
publication of banns. There was no evidence 
a? to what had been paid before 1808. Upon 
this state of facts it was argued, on the one 
side, that there was sufficient evidence from 
which to presume an ancient fee ; and that the 
Court were bound to draw the inference that 
the fee was ancient, and therefore to hold it 
valid and legal. On the other side, it was 
insisted that the mere amount of the fee 
claimed, considering the difference in the 
value of money in ancient and modern times, 
showed that it could not be ancient, but, in 
legal language, “ rank.” The case was ar¬ 
gued at length in a former term, and the 
Court took time to consider their judgment. 
The judges were now divided in opinion, 
and therefore delivered judgment separately. 
Mr. Justice Mellor first gave judgment against 
the Rector, that the fee was not legal. The 


rule laid down appeared to be that, in general, 
the presumption was to be made that the pay¬ 
ment was immemorial, unless some evidence 
was given to the contrary. He thought the 
“rankness” of the fee sufficient to disprove 
its antiquity. The Lord Chief Justice and 
Mr. Justice Lush were also against the fee, and 
Mr. Justice Blackburn in favour of the Rector. 

24 .—Schleswig-Holstein formally incorpo¬ 
rated with the Prussian monarchy. 

31 .—Sir E. Landseer’s long-promised lions 
for the base of the Nelson Monument unveiled, 
with little or no ceremony. 

Died, Sir William Snow Harris, F.R.S., 
inventor of a new method of constructing 
lightning-conductors. 

February 1 . —Tried, at the Central Cri¬ 
minal Court, the four prisoners committed on 
the charge of scuttling the ship Severn. They 
were Holdsworth, an insurance-broker in Lon¬ 
don and Liverpool; Berwick, a retired mer¬ 
chant captain, living near Liverpool; Webb, 
chief mate of the vessel; and Dean, who pre¬ 
tended to act as clerk to Holdsworth. Captain 
Leyland was admitted Queen’s evidence, and 
confessed that he was cognisant of the nefa¬ 
rious proceeding. The ship was scuttled by 
Webb boring holes in her bottom, and a log¬ 
book afterwards forged to show that she had 
been lost through stress of weather. The hull 
of the vessel had been insured for 9,500/., the 
freight for 3,600/., and some cases said to con¬ 
tain swords and fire-arms, but really full of 
salt, had been specially insured for 1,500/. 
Altogether the insurances were at least 5,000/. 
beyond the value of ship and cargo. Suspi¬ 
cion was raised that the ship had been wil¬ 
fully scuttled, and eventually a prosecution 
was instituted by Lloyd’s Salvage Association. 
The defence set up by the several prisoners 
was in each case self-exculpatory at the ex¬ 
pense of the others, and the jury found them 
all guilty, but recommended Dean to mercy 
as the tool of Holdsworth. After the verdict, 
it was stated that Berwick had on two pre¬ 
vious occasions been directly charged with 
the wilful destruction of ships, and that no 
less than fifteen vessels, belonging either to 
him or his father-in-law, had been sunk at sea. 
Berwick and Holdsworth were sentenced to 
twenty years’ penal servitude, Webb to ten years 
and Dean to five years. 

— Mr. J. Stuart Mill, M.P., installed Rector 
of the University of St. Andrew’s. His in¬ 
augural address had reference chiefly to the 
proper subjects of University training. He 
maintained that the function of a University 
.was not to make educated men specialists, 
and that what the student ought to bring away 
was a general culture to illuminate the techni¬ 
calities of his future special pursuits. 

2 .—A Reichsrath extraordinary, summoned 
by the Emperor of Austria early in January, was 
this day revoked in consequence of an arrange¬ 
ment having been effected with Hungary. 

( 763 ) 







FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1867. 


5 . —Parliament opened by the Queen in 
person. The Royal Speech, read by the Lord 
Chancellor, made reference to the termination 
of the German war, the negotiation with the 
United States regarding the Alabama claims, 
the war between Chili and Peru, the insurrec¬ 
tion in Crete, the union of the provinces of 
Nova Scotia, the famine in India, the condi¬ 
tion of Ireland, and the supply of water to the 
metropolis. On the subject of Parliamentary 
Reform one paragraph stated, “Your atten¬ 
tion will be again called to the representation 
of the people in Parliament, and I trust that 
your deliberations, conducted in a spirit of 
moderation and mutual forbearance, may lead 
to the adoption of measures which, without 
unduly disturbing the balance of political 
power, shall freely extend the elective fran¬ 
chise.” It was also intimated that a Trades 
Union Commission had been appointed, and 
bills were promised on the subject of the Fac¬ 
tory Act, mercantile marine discipline, local 
charges on shipping, embarrassed railway 
companies, the metropolitan poor, bankruptcy 
amendment, and compensation for improve¬ 
ments in Ireland. In the course of the debate 
on the Address, Earl Russell complained that 
instead of the Reform Bill of last year getting 
fair play, as Earl Derby promised on behalf 
of his party, it had been met by underhand 
methods and factious combination on the part 
of those who could combine for nothing else. 
Earl Derby declined to follow Earl Russell 
through the history of late Reform Bills, and 
promised that the scheme of the Government 
would be submitted on the nth. In each 
House the Address was agreed to without 
a division. 

6 . —Application made at Bow-street police- 
court for warrants to apprehend Colonel Nelson, 
late Brigadier-General at Jamaica, and Lieut. 
Herbert Brand, the president of the court- 
martial upon G. W. Gordon, on a charge of 
wilful murder. Mr. Fitzjames Stephen founded 
his application upon the following proposi¬ 
tions :—I. The legality of the proceedings de¬ 
pended upon the meaning of the Jamaica Acts. 

2. The Jamaica Acts do not define martial law. 

3. The common law prevails in Jamaica, except 
in so far as it is altered by the island legisla¬ 
tion. 4. Therefore we must resort to the com¬ 
mon law to ascertain the meaning of the ex¬ 
pression “martial law” in the Jamaica Acts. 
5. Martial law may mean one of two things : 
(<z) It may mean a system of rules enforced by 
sanctions of their own, which can be substi¬ 
tuted for the common law by proclamation 
when anything happens which the Government 
chooses to call rebellion, the common law 
being for the time altogether abolished, (b) It 
may mean the exercise of military power for 
the purpose of suppressing armed resistance, 
such exercise of power being authorized and 
limited by the common law. 6. If the first 
meaning is the true one, those who execute 
martial law are not responsible for any excess 
which thev may commit, except to their own 

(764) 


officers, because, the common law being sus¬ 
pended, no offence against it can be committed. 
If the second meaning is the true one, then 
those who execute martial law are responsible 
for any excess which they may commit, for 
they are acting as ministers of the common 
law, and in the discharge of a duty imposed 
upon them by it; and excess in the discharge of 
such a duty is a crime. 7. Martial law is legal 
in England only in the second, and not in the 
first sense ; and, therefore, by propositions 1 to 
4, it is legal in Jamaica also, in the second 
sense only, and not in the first. 8. Therefore 
the proposition that those who put Mr. Gordon 
to death have a right to rely simply on the 
fact that they acted under martial law, with¬ 
out proving before a jury that what they did 
was necessary in fact, involves the proposition 
that the Crown may suspend the common 
law at pleasure, and substitute for it a differ¬ 
ent system called martial law in cases of re¬ 
bellion. 9. But if this be true, the sovereign 
is above the law, and is able to suspend 
it when he thinks such a step necessary 
for his own safety ; and this is absurd. Apart 
from this, he argued that if the Jamaica Legis¬ 
lature used the words “martial law” in any 
other sense than that explained above, they 
acted ultra vires , because they acted in direct 
opposition to the Petition of Right; but these 
arguments were quite independent The facts 
of Gordon’s arrest, the proclamation of martial 
law, and of the trial, sentence, and execution 
of Gordon, were then formally proved by wit¬ 
nesses from Jamaica. But the evidence that 
Colonel Nelson and Lieutenant Brand were in 
London being somewhat vague, the case was 
adjourned till next day, when more definite 
evidence was adduced. Both officers afterwards 
attended the court, and, after a lengthened 
examination of witnesses, Sir T. Plenry com¬ 
mitted them for trial at the Central Criminal 
Court, bail however being accepted in each 
case. 

7 .—Heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
the case of Strauss v. the Atheneeum. Plain¬ 
tiff’s novel “The Old Ledger,” having been 
described as “vulgar, profane, and indelicate,” 
he brought an action at Kingston Assizes for 
libel ; but at the earnest request of his own 
counsel, Serjeant Ballantine, this was settled 
by the defendant consenting to the withdrawal 
of a juror, each party to pay his own costs. 
The Atheneeum of 7th April, 1866, contained 
an article written by the editor, Mr. Dixon, 
justifying the original criticism, and pleading 
for the creation of some simple court, of easy 
access, in which vexatious suits at law might be 
checked in their initiatory stage. For this 
second criticism Dr. Strauss now brought an¬ 
other action. Evidence having been heard on 
both sides, Chief Justice Cock burn said to the 
jury: “It is all very well for the plaintiffs 
counsel to contend that literature should be free 
and unfettered. Be it so. But then if you give 
on the one hand the utmost latitude to literary 
composition, there ought to be at least the 





FEBRUARY 


1867 


FEBRUARY 


same latitude to literary criticism. It was urged 
by the plaintiff’s counsel, truly enough, that in 
criticising a man’s work it is not proper to 
allude to his private circumstances. But in 
this instance the object was to explain how the 
defendants came to consent to waive a verdict, 
and to show that they had substantially attained 
the same result ; because, if they had got a 
verdict, in all probability they would not have 
obtained their costs.” The jury, after a few 
minutes’ consultation, found a verdict for the 
defendants. 

8 . —The Home Secretary obtains leave to 
bring in a bill to enable Commissioners to take 
evidence upon oath respecting trades union 
outrages at Sheffield. One deputation of em¬ 
ployers had placed in his hand a list of 200 
alleged outrages, and another, composed of 
working unionists, expressed a strong desire 
to have them investigated. The bill afterwards 
passed through both Houses, and received the 
Royal assent. 

— Treaty between the States of the new 
North German Confederation signed at Berlin. 
The troops of the Confederation were to be under 
the supreme command of Prussia, and it was 
mutually agreed to maintain the independence 
and integrity of the contracting States. The 
first Parliament met on the 24th. 

9. —In the Vice-Chancellor’s Court, Sir R. 
Malins decides that the shareholders in Over¬ 
end, Gurney, and Co. could not escape liability 
on the plea that the directors had made false 
statements in the prospectus of the company. 

11.—Alarm at Chester, caused by a body of 
Fenians entering the town with the supposed 
design of taking possession of the Castle. 
The attack had been planned in Liverpool 
some days previously, but the police and 
military authorities were duly prepared, and 
no outbreak occurred. When they saw the 
preparations, many of the reputed Fenians 
stole secretly out of the town to neighbouring 
villages. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces the Government scheme of Reform by 
announcing, in a speech of considerable length, 
that it was his intention to proceed by means 
of resolutions. The two principles which had 
been observed in framing them was that no 
borough was to be wholly disfranchised except 
for bribery, and that in re-arranging the dis¬ 
tricts representatives would be given to all 
places reasonably entitled to the privilege. 
Mr. Disraeli spoke for fully two hours, de¬ 
tailing the various schemes of Reform which 
had been submitted to the House of Commons 
in recent years, and the causes of their failure. 
He defended the House of Commons from the 
charges brought against it out of doors, main¬ 
taining that England, in the vicissitudes of her 
heroic history, had chiefly by her House of 
Commons maintained and cherished that public 
spirit which was the soul of commonwealths, and 
without which empire had no glory, and the 
wealth of nations was but the- means of corrup¬ 


tion and decay. He concluded by moving 
that on the 25th the House resolve itself into a 
committee to take into consideration the second 
and third of William IV. chapter 45. 

11 . —Reform demonstration in the Agri¬ 
cultural Hall, Islington. In the course of the 
evening some members who had driven 
rapidly from the House announced to the 
meeting the intentions of the Government as 
to Reform. The resolutions were received 
with marked disfavour. 

12 . —Earl Russell presents, but afterwards 
withdrew, a petition from Mr. Rigby Wason, 
charging Lord Chief Baron Kelly with having, 
on the nth April, 1835, while pleading as 
Queen’s Counsel before an Election Committee, 
pledged his honour as a gentleman to the truth 
of a statement which he knew to be false. The 
Lord Chancellor and Lord St. Leonards made 
severe strictures on the falsehood and malignity 
of the statements in the petition. 

— Fenian rising in the neighbourhood of 
Killamey. The police and military were speedily 
concentrated in that quarter, and the leaders— 
many of whom had arms and treasonable docu¬ 
ments in their possession—taken into custody. 
Captain Moriarty was captured next day near 
Cahirciveen. 

13 . —Imperial Rescript read in the Hun¬ 
garian Diet, announcing that the Emperor 
assented to the demands embodied in the Diet’s 
address of 17th J anuary last, relative to the re¬ 
organization of the army, and adjourned it for 
Parliamentary treatment. 

14 -.—Intimation made that it was intended 
to raise Sir H. Cairns to the peerage, and also 
Lord Justice-General M‘Neill of the Scotch bar. 

15 .—Discussion in the House of Lords on 
the anomalous position of the Church in the 
colonies as regulated by recent Privy Council 
judgments. The Earl of Carnarvon assented 
to the production of the papers asked for by the 
Bishop of London. 

— In answer to various members who 
were placing notices on the paper regarding 
the Reform Resolutions, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer said that on the evening of the 25th 
he would give such explanation regarding these 
resolutions as was due to the House. 

— In the course of a discussion on the 
affairs of Crete and Servia, Lord Stanley said 
that England had endeavoured to offer advice 
in such a manner as to leave with the Porte 
itself, to whom it more properly belonged, the 
initiative in making such concessions as were 
considered necessaiy, and our representations 
on the subject had been met in a spirit of 
moderation and good sense. 

17 .—Lieut. Brand, having been dismissed 
her Majesty’s service, now writes to Mr. 
Buxton :—“ I have learned enough to con¬ 
vince me that you could not have been actuated 
by any other than an honest conviction that you 
were fulfilling a public duty, and stating what 





FEBRUARY 


1867. 


FEBRUARY 


you believed to be true. I therefore regret 
that I should have written to you as I did, and 
I feel sure that if you are not already con¬ 
vinced the heavy charges against me were 
not well founded, you will, before long, be 
assured of the fact by the issue of the pro¬ 
ceedings which have been taken against me.” 
Mr. Buxton, in reply, admitted that some 
words he had spoken were extremely harsh, 
although he could not as yet withdraw them. 

IS.—In answer to an inquiry in the House 
of Commons, as to the Government defence 
furnished to Colonel Nelson and Lieut. Brand, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer'said he had 
no doubt whatever that when an officer in 
her Majesty’s service, obeying the commands 
of his superior officers, performs acts which are 
afterwards legally impugned, it was the duty of 
the Government to defend him. 

19 . —Deputation from the members of the 
National Club to the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury for the purpose of presenting an 
address on Ritualism. The address set forth 
that some of the clergy had revived Romish 
practices in the Reformed Church, among 
which habitual confession to a priest, the wear¬ 
ing of Romish vestments, the use of incense 
and of candles lighted in the daytime, the 
mixing of water with wine, and the offering of 
the Holy Sacrament as a propitiatory sacri¬ 
fice, were particularly specified. It appealed 
to his Grace to use his great influence as 
Primate to discourage and suppress these inno¬ 
vations. In his reply the Archbishop said: 
“ Whatever changes may be fairly considered 
to be symbolical of erroneous doctrine, and to 
favour that which was deliberately rejected 
by the Church of England—whatever I have 
reason to believe is offensive to the great bulk 
of a congregation, and calculated to estrange 
them from the Church of their forefathers—all 
this I shall readily discountenance ; but I must 
not be understood to promise any interference 
with that legitimate latitude which is permitted 
in the ordering of the services of the Church.” 

— Discussion in the House of Commons 
on Mr. Seely’s resolution condemning our 
dockyard and Admiralty administration. 

20. —The Princess of Wales delivered of a 
daughter—the Princess Louisa. Bulletins for 
some days previously had been making refer¬ 
ence to the sufferings of her Royal Highness 
from acute rheumatism. 

21 . —The House of Commons pass a bill 
further suspending the Habeas Corpus Act in 
Ireland. 

— Meeting of Ministerial supporters at 
Lord Derby’s official residence. The details 
of the measures to be submitted to the House 
in the evening were gone over, the Premier 
making a declaration that this would be the 
last time he would attempt to deal with the 
question of Reform. Further, he said, nothing 
would induce him to accept again the onerous 
post he now occupied. 

(766) 


22. —Riotous proceedings at Wolver¬ 
hampton, caused by attacks made on Roman 
Catholics by Murphy, an itinerant Protestant 
lecturer. The military and special constables 
were called out. 

— The Archbishop of Canterbury issues 
invitations to “ bishops in visible communion 
with the United Church of England and 
Ireland ” to attend a Pan-Anglican Council, 
to be held at Lambeth, under his Presidency, 
on the 24th September and three following 
days. “Such a meeting,” he wrote, “would 
not be competent to make declarations or lay 
down definitions in points of doctrine. But 
united worship and common councils would 
greatly tend to maintain practically the unity 
of the faith, while they would bind us in straiter 
bonds of peace and worldly charity.” 

23 . —Died, aged 90, Sir George T. Smart, 
musical conductor. 

23 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
details the scheme of Reform intended to 
be based on the resolutions submitted to the 
House. The occupation franchise in boroughs 
was to be reduced to 61 . rating ; in counties 
to 20 1 . : the franchise was also to be extended 
to any person having 50/. in the Funds, 30/. in 
savings’ bank for a year, payment of 20/. of 
direct taxes, a University degree, the profession 
of a clergyman, or any minister of religion, any 
learned profession, or a certificated schoolmaster. 
Yarmouth, Lancaster, Reigate, and Totnes were 
to be disfranchised, and twenty-three boroughs 
with less than 7,000 inhabitants were to have 
one member each. Of the thirty seats thus 
placed at the disposal of the House he pro¬ 
posed to allocate fourteen to new boroughs 
in the northern and midland districts, fifteen 
to counties, and one to the London University. 
The new Parliamentary boroughs were Hartle¬ 
pool, Darlington, Burnley, Staley bridge, St. 
Helens, Dewsbury, Barnsley, Middlesborough, 
Croydon, Gravesend, and Torquay. The se¬ 
cond division of the Tower Hamlets to return 
two members. New county divisions to have 
two additional members each—North Lanca¬ 
shire, North Lincolnshire, West Kent, East 
Surrey, Middlesex, South Staffordshire, and 
South Devon. South Lancashire to be divided, 
and to have one additional member. The total 
expected addition to borough constituencies 
would be 212,000; and to county do., 206,500. 
Mr. Lowe opposed the method of proceeding 
by resolution, and called for a plain simple bill 
which would bring the matter fairly to an 
issue. Mr. Gladstone would not oppose the 
plan submitted by Government, provided the 
resolutions were made more definite. From a 
phrase used a few nights later by a member of 
the Cabinet as to the hurried manner in which 
this measure was prepared, it came to be spoken 
of as “ The Ten Minutes’ Bill.” 

26 .—The North American Confederation 
Bill read a third time in the House of Lords. 

— A. meeting of 289 members of the Op- 






FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1867. 


position takes place at the residence of Mr. 
Gladstone, to consider the position of the 
House with reference to Reform. It was 
agreed to defer any action till the resolutions 
were embodied in a bill. 

26 ,,—The Chancellor of the Exchequer an¬ 
nounces the intention of the Government to 
abandon the method of proceeding by reso¬ 
lutions on the Reform question, and promises 
to introduce a bill on the earliest possible day, 
probably Thursday, 7th March. 

March 1.—Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald arrives 
at Bombay to assume the government of the 
presidency in the room of Sir Bartle Frere. 

2.—At the close of a Cabinet Council to¬ 
day, when a majority present consented to 
introduce a “real and satisfactory” Reform 
Bill, three of the Ministers resigned—General 
Peel, War Secretary; Earl of Carnarvon, 
Colonial Secretary; and Lord Cranbome, 
Secretary for India. Explanations were made 
in both Houses of Parliament on the evening 
of the 4th, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
announcing that the split in the Cabinet had 
been caused by the wish of the majority to re¬ 
turn to their ‘ ‘ original policy ” on the Reform 
question. He proposed to introduce the new 
bill on the 18th. The fuller explanation given 
in the Plouse of Lords by the Premier and the 
Earl of Carnarvon (who avowed that the new 
bill would make an entire transfer of political 
power in five-sixths of the boroughs) gave rise 
to some complaints in the Lower House; but 
Mr. Disraeli refused to make any disclosures 
regarding his measure. 

— Second meeting of the Cobden Club, 
presided over by Lord Houghton. 

— In the Divorce Court, in the case of 
Maxwell v. Maxwell and Westcar, the jury 
returned a verdict for 10,000/. damages against 
the co-respondent, who had attempted to prove 
connivance and carelessness on the part of the 
plaintiff. 

— Dr. Milman installed as Bishop of Cal¬ 
cutta, in Calcutta Cathedral. 

4. — Nine children burnt in a school-room 
at Accrington, Lancashire, the premises taking 
fire in an apartment on the ground floor, used 
as a heald-knitting room. Though the retreat 
of the children from the upper floor was cut 
off with alarming suddenness, about ninety 
were rescued by neighbours, who courageously 
mounted ladders placed against the burning 
building, and drew the scholars out by the 
windows. Those who perished appeared to 
have been suffocated by the smoke. 

— President Johnson vetoes the Military 
Government Bill, and the Tenure of Office Bill, 
by which the Executive was prohibited for the 
future from removing any public officers with¬ 
out the consent of the Senate. 

5. — Renewed Fenian disturbances through¬ 
out Leinster and Munster. At the police bar¬ 


racks at Tallaght one of the insurgents was shot, 
and at Glencullen they succeeded in capturing 
the police force and a number of weapons. The 
constables were released after a short detention, 
and the Fenian party fled with the arms and 
ammunition towards Kilakee. At Drogheda 
and Thurles the telegraph wires were cut and 
the railway torn up; and at Kilmallock there 
was a smart encounter between the Fenians 
and the constabulary, three of the former being 
killed and fourteen taken prisoners. Dermore 
police barracks were burnt down, and a coast¬ 
guard station near Kilrush plundered. To add 
to the alarm, the mail train from Cork to 
Dublin was sent off the rails; but no disaster 
ensued. The police station at Burnfoot, be¬ 
tween Blarney and Mallow, was sacked and 
burnt, the constables surrendering, after nar¬ 
rowly escaping being burnt to death. The 
insurgents seemed to have had an intention of 
converging on the Mallow Junction, but their 
own timidity and the rapid movement of troops 
defeated the design, and they withdrew in the 
direction of the Toomes mountains. 

•— Further Ministerial explanations in the 
House of Commons by Mr. Disraeli, Lord 
Cranborne, and General Peel. Lord Stanley 
said:—“Right hon. gentlemen have spoken 
as if it were the intention of those who sat 
upon these benches to go in a more democratic 
direction that even gentlemen opposite would 
be inclined to take, and to bring in a bill 
which would reduce the franchise to an exces¬ 
sive extent. I say plainly and frankly that I 
can conceive no circumstances which would 
render the adoption of such a course by us in 
our position either expedient or honourable, 
even were any who sit on these benches pre¬ 
pared to follow it. I say this distinctly, be¬ 
cause I wish to save some hon. members on 
that side of the House disappointment. If the 
member for Caine, or any of those who sit near 
him, believe seriously that it is the intention of 
the Government to bring in a bill which shall 
be in accordance with the view which has 
always been so ably and so consistently advo¬ 
cated by the member for Birmingham, they are 
greatly mistaken.” 

6 . -- Died at Southampton, aged 33, Charles 
Brown, “ Artemus Ward,” humorist. 

— Mr. Coleridge’s Oxford Tests Abolition 
Bill read a second time in the House of 
Commons. 

— Panic on the French Bourse, occasioned 
by warlike rumours on the Luxemburg question. 

7 . —Lord Stanley intimates in*the House of 
Commons that, in consequence of the interest 
felt in this country on the subject, the Emperor 
Napoleon had offered the Plantagenet tombs 
at Fontevrault as a gift to the Queen, and they 
would be removed as early as possible. He 
was not aware, he said, that former applica¬ 
tions of the English Government had been 
refused, nor did he know that it was at the 
earnest entreaty of the people of Anjou that 
the statues had been removed from Versailles 

(767) 








MARCH 


1867. 


MARCH 


to their original site. The proposed removal 
giving rise to considerable dissatisfaction in 
France, the tombs were permitted to remain at 
Fontevrault. 

7 . —Report received that the African traveller, 
Dr. Livingstone, had been murdered by the 
Mazitu, on the western side of Lake Nyassa. 
The intelligence was brought to Zanzibar by a 
party of Johanna men who had set out with the 
great explorer to accompany him on his travels, 
and who declared they saw him fall under the 
blows of his assailants. In writing to the chair¬ 
man of the Geographical Society on the nth, 
the President, Sir R. Murchison, indicated the 
points in which their narrative required con¬ 
firmation, and the desirableness of at once taking 
steps for testing the accuracy of the report. 

8 . —The Lord Mayor of Dublin having been 
made a deputy-lieutenant for the county, 
Lord Cloncurry writes to the lord-lieutenant 
< Howth) to cause his name “to be removed 
from that dishonoured list. In the present un¬ 
happy and disgraced state of Ireland, entirely 
caused by the mendacious, mercenary, profes¬ 
sional agitators who so abound in this unfor¬ 
tunate country, it is a singular time to select to 
honour one who for many years was only noto¬ 
rious as a fomenter of agrarian disturbances.” 

— Mr. Disraeli announces to the Commons 
that the reconstruction of the Ministry was com¬ 
plete. 

11 .—The Earl of Shaftesbury introduces a 
bill regulating the use of sacrificial vestments, 
which was read a first time. 

13 . Edward Simpson, better known as 
“ Flint Jack,” and widely celebrated for his 
manufacture of sham antique and geological 
specimens, sentenced to twelve months’ im¬ 
prisonment at Bedford. 

— Sir Colman O’Loghlen’s Libel Bill re¬ 
ferred to a select committee. He proposed to 
make speakers at public meetings liable for 
what they said, and to relieve from responsi¬ 
bility the printer of a faithful and accurate 
report of a libellous speech, unless he refused 
to publish an explanation; also to prevent a 
plaintiff recovering costs unless he was awarded 
more than 5/. damages. It also permitted a 
defendant to pay a sum of money as damages 
into court, and thereby—if the jury should 
think the sum sufficient—entitle him to recover 
costs from an unsuccessful plaintiff. When 
money was so lodged in court, a judge at 
chambers to have power to compel the plain¬ 
tiff to give security for costs before proceeding 
further. Lastly, the bill prohibited indictments 
for libel being preferred without the leave of 
the Attorney-General. 

14 -.—Continued illness of the Princess of 
Wales. The bulletin of this day announces 
“ no important change in the condition of her 
Royal Highness. The inflammation of the 
knee-joint, though still causing pain, and inter¬ 
rupting sleep, is slowly diminishing.” 

15 .—Resolution carried in the House of 

( 768 ) 


Commons abolishing flogging in the army in 
time of peace, the numbers on the division 
being 108 to 107. 

16 .—The French troops leave Mexico. 

18 .—In the presence of a crowded House, 
and of many illustrious visitors, the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer introduces the new Reform 
Bill. The proposals, embodied in a long ad¬ 
dress, were—That in boroughs the electors 
should be all who paid rates, or twenty shil¬ 
lings in direct taxes; the franchise should also 
be extended to certain classes qualified by edu¬ 
cation, or by the possession of a stated amount 
of property in the Funds, or in savings’ banks; 
rated householders to have a second vote. As 
in the former bill, seats were to be taken from 
the smaller boroughs and those recently re¬ 
ported against for bribery, and given to more 
populous places—fourteen to boroughs, fifteen 
to counties, and one to London University. 
As a security against the power of mere num¬ 
bers, he described minutely a system of checks, 
based on residence, rating, and dual voting. 
Mr. Gladstone criticised the scheme with some 
severity, and described the securities as illusions 
or frauds, which would be abandoned whenever 
it suited the Ministry. 

— Exciting scene in the French Chamber, 
caused by M. Rouher making reference to the 
2d of December as saving the nation from 
anarchy. M. Thiers, who had been proscribed, 
and M. Jules Favre excitedly declared their 
desire that the day might be buried in oblivion. 

— The Queen of Denmark arrives in London 
on a visit to the Princess of Wales, still lying 
in a precarious condition. The King arrived 
on the 20th. 

19 . —Publication of secret treaties of July 
and August 1866 between Prussia and the 
Southern States of Germany, in terms of which 
the military contingents of Bavaria, Wurtem- 
burg, Baden, &c., are placed at the disposal of 
Prussia, thus incorporating Germany into one 
entire empire for defensive military purposes. 

20 . —Second reading of Mr. Hard castle’s 
Bill for the Abolition of Church Rates carried 
by a majority of 263 to 187. Mr. Newdegate’s 
Church Rates Commutation Bill thrown out 
by 177 to 45. 

25 .—At the meeting of the Royal Geo¬ 
graphical Society reports were read from Dr. 
Seward and Dr. Kirk concerning the reported 
death of Dr. Livingstone. The President, 
Sir R. Murchison, still clung to the hope that 
he was alive. There was a particular route 
traversed by the Portuguese in 1796, which 
he thought it possible Dr. Livingstone had 
taken. This would also account for no letters 
being received from him. Sir Samuel Baker 
said it was with great pain that he entertained 
a different opinion, but from his own expe¬ 
rience in Africa he felt perfectly certain of 
what had been Dr. Livingstone’s fate. Mr. 
Crawford agreed with the last speaker that the 
great traveller was dead. Dr. Kirk, he said. 









MARCH 


1867. 


MARCH 


was a man of great discrimination, and he ex¬ 
pressed no hope whatever as to the safety of 
the eminent explorer. Mr. Waller believed 
that Dr. Livingstone had fallen with his face 
to the enemy, and that enemy was the slave- 
trade. Captain Sherard Osborne considered 
it to be the duty of that Society not to wait, 
but to explore. 

25 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer hav¬ 
ing moved the second reading of the Reform 
Bill, Mr. Gladstone criticised at considerable 
length its defects : (1), the absence of a larger 
franchise; (2), the absence of means to pre¬ 
vent the traffic in votes that would infallibly 
arise in a large scheme affecting the lowest 
class of householders; (3), the vexatious dis¬ 
tinctions between compound householders and 
direct ratepayers which the bill contained and 
aggravated ; (4), the tax-paying franchise ; (5), 
the dual vote; (6), the inadequacy of the re¬ 
distribution scheme; (7), the high figure of the 
county franchise; (8), the use of voting papers ; 
(9), the fancy or special franchises. He also 
pleaded that Government should give the House 
a clear intimation of its intentions regarding the 
bill, that they might know whether there was 
any possibility of bringing it to a satisfactory 
condition in committee. 

26 . —In the House of Lords the Archbishop 
of Canterbury intimates that the bishops had 
abandoned their contemplated bill on vest¬ 
ments, as there was a probability of a Royal 
Commission being issued to inquire into the 
practices complained of. 

— In the discussion on the second reading, 
Mr. Bright declared that if he was driven 
now, or at any future stage of the Reform 
Bill, to oppose the Government, it was be¬ 
cause the measure bore upon its face marks 
of deception and disappointment, and because 
‘ ‘ I will be no party to any measure which 
shall cheat the great body of my country¬ 
men of the possession of that power in this 
House on which they have set their hearts, 
and which I believe by the constitution of this 
country they may most justly claim. ” In closing 
the debate, Mr. Disraeli said : “I hear much 
of the struggle of parties in this House, and I 
hear much of combinations that may occur, and 
courses that may be taken, which may affect 
the fate of this bill. All I can say on the part 
of my colleagues and myself is, that we have 
no other wish at the present moment than, 
with the co-operation of this House, to bring 
the question of Parliamentary Reform to a 
settlement. (Loud cheers.) I know the par¬ 
liamentary incredulity with which many will 
receive avowals on our part that we are only 
influenced in the course we are taking by a 
sense of duty, but I do assure the House, if they 
need such assurances after what we have gone 
through, after the sacrifices we have made, 
after having surrendered our political con¬ 
nexions with men whom we more than re¬ 
spected—I can assure them that we have no i 
other principle that animates us, but a con- 

1769 ) 


viction that we ought not to desert our posts 
until this question has been settled. Rest 
assured that it is not for the weal of Eng¬ 
land that this settlement should be delayed. 
You may think that the horizon is not dis¬ 
turbed at the present moment. You may 
think that surrounding circumstances may be 
favourable to dilatory action. Some of you may 
think, in the excitement of the moment, that 
ambition may be gratified, and that the country 
may look favourably upon those who prevent 
the passing of this bill. Do not believe it. 
Thei'e is a deep responsibility with regard 
to this question, which rests not upon the 
Government merely, but upon the whole 
House of Commons. We are prepared, as 
I think I have shown, to act in all sincerity 
in this matter. Act with us, cordially and 
candidly, and assist us to carry out—as we are 
prepared to do as far as we can act in accord¬ 
ance with the principles which we have not con¬ 
cealed from you—this measure, which we hope 
will lead to a settlement of the question con¬ 
sistent with the maintenance of the represen¬ 
tative character of this House. Act with us, I 
say, cordially and candidly : you will find on 
our side complete reciprocity of feeling. Pass 
the bill, and then change the Ministry if you 
like.” The bill was read a second time without 
a division. 

26 .—The engineers and firemen of the 
Brighton Railway strike for shorter hours. 

28 . —In Committee, after a debate and a 
division of 247 to 67, a resolution is passed 
guaranteeing a loan of ^3,000,000 to Canada 
for the construction of a railway between Hali¬ 
fax and Quebec. 

29 . —The magistrates of Market Drayton 
having issued a warrant against Ex-Governor 
Eyre at the instance of the Jamaica Committee, 
now refuse to commit him on the charge of 
wilful murder, on the ground of no sufficient 
evidence of guilty malice, and no likelihood 
that a jury would convict. 

— The Esterhazy jewels sold by Christie 
and Manson for 37,7^0/. A sword belt 
adorned with a single stone of seventeen carats 
realized 4,000/., and the well-known Hunga¬ 
rian uniform of pearls, 2,175/. IOj ‘- 

— Scene in the House of Commons, occa¬ 
sioned by Sir H. Edwards declaring that 
Orangemen had as much right to be repre¬ 
sented in that House as Fenians or Fenian 
sympathisers. A motion was made to have 
the words taken down, but after a remonstrance 
from the Chancellor of the Exchequer regard¬ 
ing the revival of the evil personalities of thirty 
years since, an explanation took place, and the 
offensive words were withdrawn. 

30 . —Discussion in the North German Par¬ 
liament regarding the cession of Luxemburg 
to France by the King of Holland. Count 
Bismarck said the Prussian Government does 

I not adopt the opinion that an arrangement has 
been entered into between Holland and France. 

3 & 






MARCH 


1867. 


APRIL 


but cannot, on the other hand, assert the contrary 
to be the case. He was “ prevented from 
giving any further explanation by the nature 
of the affair.” 

30 .—In the course of an interview with Mr. 
Gladstone, one of the League deputation ob¬ 
jected to the savings’-bank franchise, on the 
ground that depositors were intensely selfish, 
and generally not interested in politics. They 
felt that for men who left others to struggle for 
their political rights, and for the maintenance 
or advancement of their wages, or for the 
maintenance of privileges with regard to their 
trade,—that for these to be the first to 
receive political enfranchisement would be a 
gross injustice. Mr. Beales announced the 
intention of the League to have another de¬ 
monstration in Hyde Park on a convenient 
day after Easter. 

— Lord Stanley forwards a despatch to the 
Spanish Government demanding compensation 
and apology for the outrage on the British ship 
Queen Victoria y seized fourteen miles from the 
coast, on pretence of being engaged in the 
Chilian service, and taken into Cadiz for con¬ 
demnation before the prize court. 

April 1 . —The Paris International Exhibi¬ 
tion formally opened by the Emperor. 

2 .—In the House of Lords, the Duke of 
Buckingham, replying to the Earl of Claren¬ 
don, states that negotiations had certainly been 
entered into for the sale of Russian America 
to the United States, but he did not think the 
transaction was one calculated to create any 
uneasiness regarding our own North American 
colonies. 

— Lord Derby and the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer receive a deputation from the 
Reform League, who urge the abandonment 
of the residential qualification and the rating 
clause, and the adoption of a lodger franchise. 

4 .—The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces the annual financial statement. He 
estimated the income at 69,340.000/. and the 
expenditure at 68,134,000/., showing a sur¬ 
plus of 1,206,000/. Criticising in the most 
favourable manner Mr. Gladstone’s scheme of 
terminable annuities, he proposed, he said, 
to follow the principle so far as to convert 
6,000,000/., yielding an interest of 180,000/., 
into an annuity of 444,000/., terminating in 
April 1885. This would absorb 750,000/. 
He also proposed to equalize the marine in¬ 
surance duty at its present lowest rates, so as 
to avoid the present unfair practice of taxing 
risk, or imposing a penalty upon-the incurring 
of danger. This would dispose of 210,000/., 
leaving 246,000/., which he thought would be 
an adequate surplus to retain in hand, con¬ 
sidering the state of the balance and the gene¬ 
ral condition of the revenue. The statement this 
year was of an unusually simple and brief descrip¬ 
tion, and was favourably received. — Mr. Glad¬ 
stone took advantage of the opportunity to 
( 770 ) 


urge the importance of reducing our debt, and 
referred triumphantly to the example now being 
set by America—sufficient, he said, not only , 
to incite us, but to shame the nations of the 1 
Continent into an abandonment of that suicidal ( 
policy by which they were wasting in warlike 
preparations the resources created by the thrift 
and industry of the people. 

5 .—At a large meeting of Liberal members at 
Mr. Gladstone’s house (about 240 were said to 
be present) it was arranged to entrust Mr. Cole¬ 
ridge with a resolution to propose, on the House 
going into committee on the Reform Bill on j 
the 8th: “That it be an instruction to the j 
committee that they have power to alter the ! 
law of rating, and to provide that in every j 
parliamentary borough the occupiers of tene- ! 
ments below a given rateable value be relieved 
from liability to personal rating, with the view 
to fix a line for the borough franchise, at which 
all occupiers should be entered on the rate¬ 
book, and should have equal facilities for the 
enjoyment of such franchise as a residential 
occupation franchise.” In the course of the 
discussion to which the proposal gave rise, 
Mr. Gladstone admitted that the borough fran¬ 
chise and lodger franchise might be dealt with 
in committee, but in regard to personal rating 
they must put a gentle pressure on the Govern¬ 
ment, and arm the committee with power to 
alter the law of rating, so as to deal with the 
exemption from personal liability below a 
certain line.—Mr. Locke thought the instruc¬ 
tion should be limited to that portion which 
gave power to alter the law of rating, as the 
last clause was objectionable to many who take 
a different view as to the mode in which the 
question should be settled. 

— Mr. Lowe’s motion, asking the House 
to dissent from so much of the minute of the 
Committee of Council on Education as pro¬ 
vided for an increase of the grant now made 
to primary schools, negatived by a majority of 
203 to 40. 

— In answer to Sir Robert Peel, Lord 
Stanley said that he knew nothing about any 
written protest from Russia against the cession 
of Luxemburg. Considering the scheme pro¬ 
posed by the King of Holland was conditional 
both upon the consent of the people and of 
Prussia., and seeing from the first that the latter 
was not likely to be given, he did not feel him¬ 
self called upon to make any remonstrance on 
the part of the British Government. 

7 . —Died, aged 77, Abel Francis .Villemain, 
French statesman and historical writer. 

8. —Addressing a deputation representing 
various Constitutional Working Men’s Asso¬ 
ciations, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
described Mr. Coleridge’s ' “ Instructions ’’ as 
emanating from the most factious party tactics, 
and, under the hypocritical pretence of friend¬ 
ship, designed to strike at the very root and 
cardinal principles of the measure. 

In the Tea Room” of the House of 









APRIL 


1867. 


APRIL 


Commons a meeting takes place of between 40 
and 50 Liberal members who dissented from 
Mr. Gladstone’s policy of binding the com¬ 
mittee by Instructions. After a slight opposi¬ 
tion by two or three members, a proposal was 
formally made and carried, to cut down the 
Instructions; and a deputation was appointed 
to wait on Mr. Gladstone to inform him of what 
had been done, but to assure him at the same 
time that they would support him with the 
utmost loyalty during the discussion in com¬ 
mittee. To avoid an open division, and, after 
this defection, an almost certain defeat, Mr. 
Gladstone arranged to limit the Instructions to 
the first clause of the resolution. As the mem¬ 
bers comprising this meeting kept more or less 
together in the discussions which afterwards 
took place on the Reform Bill, they came to 
be popularly known as the Tea-Room party. 

8 . — When the House of Commons assembled 
this afternoon, Mr. Locke asked whether, in the 
event of the second clause being withdrawn 
from the Instructions, Government would accept 
the first. Mr. Disraeli declined at first to answer 
a hypothetical question, but on being assured 
that it had been put with the knowledge of Mr. 
Coleridge, he said that Government had all 
along presumed the committee would have 
power to alter the rating, so that to induce 
them to accept it did not require even a gentle 
pressure. He also thought it would have 
been as well that the mover of the resolution 
should have declared his own intentions.—Mr. 
Coleridge disclaimed any desire to disturb or 
oppose the Government; and though no pre¬ 
cise arrangement had been made with Mr. 
Locke, he was on the whole not unwilling to 
withdraw the latter part of the resolution if it 
would facilitate the passing of the measure 
this year. Mr. Gore moved the adjournment 
of the House, on the ground that the sudden 
collapse of Mr. Coleridge’s resolution made it 
impossible to proceed. This was opposed by 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a desul¬ 
tory debate ensued, in which Mr. B. Osborne 
and Mr. Lowe were the chief speakers. The 
House afterwards went into committee on the bill. 

— Special Commission. for the trial of the 
Fenian prisoners opened at Dublin. The 
calendar contained the names of about 300; 
one half indicted for treason, and the other for 
treason-felony. 

— From the complications likely to arise 
out of the Luxemburg question, Consols, which 
during the last week had ranged at about 91 
to fell to-day to 89^. 

9. —In consequence of Mr. Gladstone having 
given notice of a series of resolutions on Re¬ 
form, Mr. Disraeli intimates to his supporters 
that they are the relinquished Instructions in 
another form, and if any of them are adopted, 
it will be impossible for the Government to 
proceed with the bill. 

10. —The Tests Abolition (Oxford) Bill 
passes through committee, with a danse added 
to embrace Cambridge within its operation. 

( 77 *) 


10. —Lord Chief Justice Cockburn attends at 
the Central Criminal Court, and charges the 
Grand Jury in the case of Colonel Nelson and 
Lieut. Brand. His address occupied nearly six 
hours. It dealt in the most careful manner 
with all the complicated questions of law and 
fact to which the imputed offences give rise, 
tracing with great minuteness the history of 
martial law and of military law, which ulti¬ 
mately took the form of “ articles of war,” and 
pointing out to the jury how the principles he 
set before them bore on the prisoners. The 
Chief Justice laid down these propositions:— 
First, that though it is a great and fundamental 
principle of our laws and Constitution that 
martial law, as it is called, cannot be legally 
proclaimed or established at the arbitrary will 
of the Executive, and without the authority, ex¬ 
pressed or implied, of the Legislature; yet that 
in the particular case of the late Jamaica insur¬ 
rection such authority in fact existed. To use 
the words of the Chief Justice: “According to 
the view ‘of the inhabitants of Jamaica’ (with 
reference to what is the law of the island), the 
Governor, either from his commission or from 
this enactment of the Jamaica Legislature, was 
entitled and empowered to proclaim martial 
law.” Secondly, that though the legality of 
Gordon’s original arrest may be questionable, 
and though his removal for trial from Kingston 
(where martial law was not in force) was un¬ 
doubtedly illegal; still, when the man was 
actually brought down to the tribunal in 
Morant Bay, “ it was not for the tribunal” (viz. 
that of which Colonel Nelson and Lieutenant 
Brand were members) ‘ ‘ to inquire how he 
(Gordon) came amongst them.’’ The only 
question for that tribunal then was, “whether, 
being in fact within the jurisdiction of martial 
law, Gordon was or was not liable to be tried ?” 
Thirdly, the Chief Justice laid it down that 
though the evidence on which Gordon was 
convicted by the military tribunal was such that 
no civil judge in England could have held to 
be legally sufficient, yet if the military judges 
having, as they had, jurisdiction, acted honestly 
and bond fide on the belief that this evidence 
proved the man’s guilt, that exonerated them. 
“I should say,” said the Chief Justice, “that 
where there is jurisdiction, but the person hav¬ 
ing that jurisdiction, acting under some mis¬ 
apprehension, exercises it in a case in which it 
ought not to been exercised, then he is not re¬ 
sponsible.” The Gx*and Jury, after deliberating 
for about half an hour, came into court to 
announce that they returned with both bills 
“ not found.” The prisoners were thereupon 
discharged. 

11. —In the early part of the business of the 
House of Commons this afternoon, Mr. Hib- 
bert asked the Government whether they would 
agree to an amendment of which he had given 
notice, to the effect that it should only be 
necessary for a compound householder to tender 
the amount of his composition-rate in order to 
entitle him to be registered. The Chancellor 
of the Exchequer replied that the question was 

3 U 2 






APRIL 


APRIL 


1867. 


one of great difficulty, but at the same time it 
was one for fair discussion. In the adjourned 
debate which took place next day, Mr. B. 
Osborne brought out that an understanding 
had been come to on this amendment between 
the Government “whip,” Colonel Taylor, on 
the one side, and Mr. Dillwyn, on behalf of 
various Opposition members, on the other. 
Certain minutes were produced embodying the 
arrangement, but after they had been read an 
explanation was offered that the conversation 
out of which the minutes had arisen turned 
chiefly on the expediency of adjourning the 
debate till after Easter, in order to enable the 
Cabinet to consider more maturely the various 
amendments proposed on the bill. 

11 . —Commencement of discussion in Com¬ 
mittee on the Reform Bill. Clauses I and 2 
were agreed to without much discussion. Clause 
3, as submitted by Government, was, that every 
man should be entitled to be registered as a 
voter possessed of these qualifications :—1. Is 
of full age, and not subject to any legal in¬ 
capacity ; 2. Is on the last day of July in any 
year, and has, during the whole of the preced¬ 
ing two years, been an inhabitant, occupier, or 
owner, or tenant of any dwelling-house within 
the borough ; 3. Has, during the time of such 
occupation, been rated in respect of the pre¬ 
mises so occupied by him within the borough 
to all rates (if any) made for the relief of the 
poor in respect of such premises ; and 4. Has 
before the 20th day of July in the same year 
paid all poor-rates that have become payable 
by him in respect of the said premises up to the 
preceding 5th January. On qualifications 2, 
3, and 4, Mr. Gladstone had the following 
amendments on the paper :—2. Whether he in 
person, or his landlord, be rated to the relief 
of the poor, he is, on the last day of July in any 
year, and has been during the whole preceding 
twelve months, the occupier of any house, shop, 
or other building, being either separately or 
jointly with any land within such borough 
occupied by him as owner, or occupied by him 
as tenant under the same landlord ; 3. Such 
premises must be of the yearly value of 5/., or 
upwards ; 4. Such occupier must have resided 
in the borough, or within seven statute miles of 
some part of the borough, for the six months 
immediately preceding the said last day of July 
in such year. The debate on these rival clauses 
extended over two nights, the discussion having 
reference chiefly to the comparatively limited 
scheme of enfranchisement as proposed by 
Government in so far as it virtually fined all 
compound householders below a 10/. rental 
who sought to exercise the right of voting. On 
the second evening of the debate, Mr. Beresford 
Hope, after a taunting allusion to the Tadpoles 
and Tapers of certain amusing story-books, 
declared that, sink or swim, dissolution or no 
dissolution, whether he was in the next Parlia¬ 
ment or out of it, he for one, with his whole 
heart and conscience, would vote against the 
Asian mystery. ‘ ‘ I can assure the hon. gentle¬ 
man,” replied Mr. Disraeli, “ that I listened 
( 772 ) 


with great pleasure to the invectives he delivered 
against me. I admire his style ; it is a very 
great ornament to discussion, but it requires 
practice. I listen with the greatest satisfaction 
to all his exhibitions in this House—(oh ! oh !) 
—and when he talks about an Asian mystery, 

I will tell him that there are Batavian graces in 
all that he says, which I notice with satisfac¬ 
tion, and which charm me.” The discussion 
ended in a vote, which took place amid great 
excitement, and showed a majority of 21 for 
Government in a House of 599 members. An 
adjournment was then made till over Easter. 

12 .—The House of Lords give judgment in 
the case of Forbes v. Eden, the question being 
whether the new canons enacted by the Scotch 
Episcopal Synod were binding -upon the appel¬ 
lant, and whether he was not entitled to damages 
for the injuries and loss he had sustained by 
their enforcement. The appellant was Episcopal 
minister of Burntisland, and the respondent, 
Dr. Eden, Primus of the Scotch Episcopal 
Church. The Lord Chancellor gave it as his 
opinion that no civil court could take cogni¬ 
zance of the rules of a voluntary religious 
society, made for the regulation of its own 
affairs, except so far as they related to collateral 
questions affecting the disposal of property. 
Appeal dismissed. 

— An address presented by the Roman 
Catholic nobility to Dr. Newman expressive of 
their sorrow at recent anonymous attacks to 
which he had been subjected, and assuring him 
“ how heartily we appreciate the services which, 
under God, you have been the means of render¬ 
ing to our holy religion.” 

15 .—Admiral Persano found guilty by the 
Italian Senate of cowardice at the battle of 
Lissa, and dismissed the service. The charge 
was made out partly by the admission 01 the 
Admiral himself, and partly from his leaving 
his own flagship, the Re d' Italia, to take refuge 
in the turret of the Affondatore. 

18 .—The Lancet announces that a small but 
appreciable change for the better had taken 
place in the condition of the Princess of Wales. 

— Withdrawal of Mr. Gladstone from the 
leadership of the Liberal party. In answer to 
a question by Mr. Crawford, one of the mem- | 
bers for the City, as to whether he intended to 
persevere in moving the different amendments, * 
of which he had given notice, on the Reform 
Bill, Mr. Gladstone now writes : “ The country 
can hardly fail now to be aware that those 
gentlemen of Liberal opinions whose convic¬ 
tions allow them to act unitedly upon this 
question, are not a majority, but a minority of 
the existing House of Commons, and that they 
have not the power they were supposed to 
possess of limiting or directing the action of the 
Administration, or of shaping the provisions of 
the Reform Bill. Still, having regard to the 
support which my proposal with respect to 
personal rating received from so large a num¬ 
ber of Liberal members, I am not less willing 





APRIL 


1867. 


APRIL 


than heretofore to remain at the service of the 
party to which they belong ; and when any 
suitable occasion shall arise, if it shall be their 
wish, I shall be prepared again to attempt con¬ 
certed action upon this or any other subject for 
the public good. But, until then, desirous to 
avoid misleading the country and our friends, 

I feel that prudence requires me to withdraw 
from my attempts to assume the initiative in 
amending a measure which cannot, perhaps, be 
effectually amended except by a reversal, either 
formal or virtual, of the vote of Friday the 

II th ; for such attempts, if made by me, would, 
I believe, at the present critical moment, not 
be the most likely means of advancing their 
own purpose. Accordingly, I shall not proceed 
with the amendments now on the paper in my 
name, nor give notice of other amendments 
such as I had contemplated ; but I shall gladly 
accompany others in voting against any attempt, 
from whatever quarter, to limit yet further the 
scanty modicum of enfranchisement proposed 
by the Government, or in improving, where it 
may be practicable, the provision of the bill.” 

18 .—Died, aged 86, Sir Robert Smirke, 
architect. 

22.—At a great Reform Demonstration in 
Birmingham Mr. Bright said that from the 
preamble of the Government bill to the last 
word in it there was not a single proposition 
any real, earnest, intelligent reformer would 
consent to. The bill, he continued, has gone 
into Committee, and the very first vote in the 
Committee has confirmed the very worst feature 
of the bill. The Liberal party has, by the 
treachery of some of its members, abdicated 
its functions, and handed the future fortunes 
of the bill over to its friends who were not the 
friends of Refonn. Speaking of Mr. Gladstone, 
“ I will venture,” he said, “to say this, that 
since 1832 there has been no man of the official 
rank or class, and no statesman, who has im¬ 
ported into this question of Reform so much of 
conviction, so much of earnestness, so much of 
zeal, as has been imparted during the last two 
years by the present leader of the Liberal 
party. (Cheers.) Who is there in the House 
of Commons who equals him in knowledge of 
all political questions? Who equals him in 
earnestness? Who equals him in eloquence? 
Who equals him in courage and fidelity to his 
convictions ? If these gentlemen who say they 
will not follow him have any one who is equal, 
let them show him. If they can point out any 
statesman who can add dignity and grandeur 
to the stature of Mr. Gladstone, let them pro¬ 
duce him. It is a deplorable thing that last 
year a small section of forty men or there¬ 
abouts, of professing Liberals, destroyed the 
honest and acceptable—I speak of the people 
—the acceptable bill of the late Government, 
and with it also destroyed the Government 
which proposed it. About an equal number 
have this year to a great extent destroyed the 
power of the Opposition, and may assist an 
anti-reforming Government to pass a very bad 


measure on the greatest question of our time ; 
and having done all the mischief which they 
could, they begin to write silly letters to their 
constituents. What can be done in parlia¬ 
mentary parties if every man is to pursue his 
own little game ? A costermonger and donkey 
would take a week to travel from here to 
London, and yet by running athwart the Lon¬ 
don and North-Western line they might bring 
to total destruction a great express train ; and 
so, very small men—(loud cheers)—very small 
men, who during their whole political lives 
have not advanced the question of Reform by 
one hair’s-breadth, or by one moment in time, 
can, at a critical hour like this, throw themselves 
athwart the objects of a great party, and mar, 
it may be, a great measure that ought to affect 
the interests of the country beneficially for all 
time.” 

22 . —Intimation given to the British Go¬ 
vernment that Spain had agx*eed to restore the 
Queen Victoria and her cargo, to indemnify the 
owners for their losses, and to punish their 
officers who were in fault for seizing the 
vessel. 

— Strike of the London tailors to compel 
the masters to agree to a universal and uniform 
time-log, by which the time allowed for making 
a garment, and each portion of it, should 
be fixed, the wages for that time to be paid as 
each locality might determine. At a meeting 
in the Alhambra it was announced that an 
offensive and defensive alliance had been made 
with the operative tailors of Paris and Brussels, 
in terms of which workmen in those cities 
would refuse to fill up the place of those on 
strike. 

— Sir R. Murchison writes that a Living¬ 
stone search expedition should be at once 
organized, as letters had been received from 
Zanzibar which afforded ground for believing 
the traveller to be still alive. 

23 . —At Buckhurst-hill, near Woodford, 
Essex, Frederick Alexander Watkins makes a 
murderous attack with a dagger upon Matilda 
Griggs, a young woman with whom he was 
keeping company. She was found by a police¬ 
man saturated with blood, and leaning heavily 
against the fence in a field near where the 
assault was committed. As she was to all ap¬ 
pearance dying, a formal declaration was taken, 
in which she declared that she met Watkins 
outside her father’s house. “He asked me if I 
would walk with him, and while we were walk¬ 
ing along he charged me with speaking to other 
young men, and I said that I did not. Pie then 
asked me to get into a field over a paling, and 
I did so. He then struck me on the head two 
or three times, and afterwards drew out a dagger, 
which he stabbed into my back, breast, and face, 
several times. I saw the dagger, and knew, be¬ 
sides, that he was in the habit of carrying one 
with him. When I fell on the grass he ran 
away. I lay for a long time, and heard the 
clock of Buckhurst-hill strike ten. When I 
felt my strength returning, I crawled along the; 

(773> 








APRIL 


1867 . 


MA Y 


grass through a fence into another field, and 
there I again lay down for some time. I once 
more got up, and was making my way home 
when the policeman met me.” When Watkins 
left the poor girl he said he knew that she was 
not dead, but thought she would not last long. 
He ran away in the direction of Epping Forest, 
attempting to poison himself with oxalic acid, 
but finding it ineffectual, walked into Epping 
police-station and gave himself up about five 
o’clock the following morning. Contrary to all 
expectation, Matilda Griggs recovered, and, on 
the case coming on for trial, she refused to give 
evidence against her assailant. 

25 .—Sir W.Gray succeeds Sir Cecil Beadon 
as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. 

27 .—Died in London, from the effects of a 
gun-shot wound, Lord Llanover, formerly Sir 
Benjamin Hall, at one time Chief Commis¬ 
sioner of Woods and Forests. 

29 . —Intimation made by Lord Stanley in 
the House of Commons that there was every 
reason for believing that France and Prussia 
would accept the proposal made by the neutral- 
Powers for a conference on the Luxemburg 
question. 

30 . —Mr. Trevelyan’s resolution for the 
abolition of the purchase system in the army 
negatived by 116 to 75. 

May 1 . —Proclamation issued from the Home 
Office warning and admonishing all people to 
abstain from attending or taking any part in 
the League meeting announced to be held in 
Hyde Park on the 6th. In the evening the 
League issued a counter-manifesto calling on 
the people to assert their right to use the parks, 
and to attend the meeting called as they came 
from their work. A meeting was also held in 
the evening, when, after certain violent allu¬ 
sions to resistance, a resolution was carried, 
pledging all present to attend the meeting in 
the Park, and declaring, “that the consequence 
of endeavouring to prevent it must rest with 
those who are wicked enough to take this 
course.” 

— The Fenian prisoners Burke and Doran 
convicted of high treason at Dublin, and sen¬ 
tenced to death. The principal witnesses were 
the ** informers” Keogh and Massey, who had 
been associated with the prisoners in all their 
recent movements, and described their designs 
with great minuteness. Burke made a speech 
stigmatising the manner in which he had been 
convicted, but expressing himself ready to die 
for Ireland. 

— Mr. Stern writes from his prison in Abys¬ 
sinia : * * The ruthless ferocity of the King has 
exhausted the patience of the most timid and 
servile, and all appear now to be animated by 
one deep and ardent passion—the overthrow of 
the tyrant. The army he once had at his be¬ 
hest is scattered in bands of rebels all over the 
country; and as he can never recruit again his 
incredibly diminished hordes, he will either be 
' 774 ) 


forced to make the Amba his last asylum and 
tomb, or, followed by a few faithful adherents 
and the most valuable captives, seek a home in 
the marshy jungles and entangled fever-villages 
of the lowlands.” 

2 . —Government defeated in committee on 
Mr. Ayrton’s amendment that the period of 
residence in boroughs at rentals below 10/. 
should be one year instead of two. Vote, 278 
to 197. The following evening the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer announced that Government 
would accept the alteration. 

3 . —After a smart debate regarding the • 
intimation made by the League that they were 
determined to hold their demonstration in Hyde 
Park, Mr. Walpole obtains leave to bring in a 
bill, providing that no meeting of a public 
character should take place in any of the royal 
parks without the permission of her Majesty; 
and that any one convening or assisting at such 
a meeting should, on conviction, be liable to a 
penalty not exceeding 10/., or two months’ im¬ 
prisonment. 

— Mr. Bright presents a petition to the 
House regarding the sentences of “excessive 
and irritating severity” passed upon Fenian 
prisoners, and praying “that the punishments 
might be more applicable to men whose crime 
and whose offence are alike free from dis¬ 
honour, however misled they may be as to the 
special end in view, or the means they have 
adopted to attain that end.” After a brief dis¬ 
cussion touching the language in which the 
prayer of the petition was couched, it was 
ordered to lie on the table. 

■ 4 .—Numerous swearings-in of special con¬ 
stables in anticipation of the League meeting. 

6 .—At a meeting of his parliamentary sup¬ 
porters in Downing-street, Lord Derby made 
an elaborate defence of the Home Secretary 
against the undeserved censures which were 
being poured upon him for his proceedings in 
connexion with the Hyde Park meeting. He 
also explained the law of the case, which cer¬ 
tainly supported the Crown to an indisputable 
right to the Park, though the manner of en¬ 
forcing that right was admittedly a matter of 
great difficulty. As now advised, the meeting 
appeared to be perfectly legal, and the Go¬ 
vernment had no intention of putting it down 
by force, though they considered it right to 
make the most complete preparations for re¬ 
storing the peace in the event of any disorder 
arising out of the assembling together of so 
many people. 

— Reform League Demonstration in Hyde 
Park. The people assembled peaceably in 
large numbers, and were addressed at ten dif¬ 
ferent platforms or sections by members of the 
League Executive and one or two members of 
Parliament. Contrasting somewhat with the 
severe and even denunciatory character of cer¬ 
tain speeches, there was a good deal of noisy 
fun and running backwards and forwards to the 
different platforms, but nothing in the slightest 






MAY 


1867, 


MAY 


degree approaching to any outbreak against 
constituted authority. The gathering was de¬ 
scribed as rather flat, and as orderly as an 
Exeter Hall May meeting. 

6 . —In committee on the Reform Bill, Go¬ 
vernment consents to Mr. Hibbert’s proposal 
that the whole amount of rate paid by the 
tenant should be deducted from the landlord’s 
rent. It was also intimated that a properly 
regulated lodger franchise would not be op¬ 
posed. 

7. — First meeting of the London Conference 
on the Luxemburg Question, under the pre¬ 
sidency of Lord Stanley. 

— Discussion on Sir J. Gray’s proposal to 
fix a night for the House to take into considera¬ 
tion the temporalities and privileges of the 
Established Church in Ireland, with a view to 
remove their anomalies. Mr. Gladstone wel¬ 
comed the “previous question” as a relief from 
the necessity of affirming a proposition which 
might excite hopes at present impossible to be 
realized. The time, however, he thought was 
not far distant when the Parliament of England, 
which at present undoubtedly had its hands full 
of other important business engagements, would 
feel it to be a duty to look this question fairly 
and fully in the face; “and I confess that I am 
sanguine enough to cherish a hope that, though 
not without difficulty, a satisfactory result will 
be arrived at, the consequences of which will 
be so happy and pleasant for us all that we 
shall wonder at the folly which has so long 
prevented its being brought about.” The At¬ 
torney-General for Ireland characterised Mr. 
Gladstone’s speech as directly communistic in 
its tendency; and insisted that every argument 
he had used for the spoliation of the Irish 
Church was equally applicable to the property 
of individuals. The “ previous question” was 
carried by 195 to 183. 

B. — The North German Constitution 
adopted by the Prussian Chamber of Deputies. 

9.— The retirement of Mr. Walpole intimated 
in the House of Lords by the Premier, who de¬ 
clared that the Home Secretary was no more 
to blame for the apparently vacillating conduct 
of the Cabinet than any other member. The 
department had recently great extra labour 
thrown upon it at a time, unfortunately, when 
it was deprived of the services of a permanent 
efficient Under-Secretary. Mr. Walpole was 
succeeded at the Home Office by Mr. Gathorne 
Hardy. 

— In committee on the Reform Bill, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed that the 
occupant of premises claiming to vote must 
have been rated as an “ ordinary occupier ” in 
respect of his premises, and not compounded 
for. Carried, after a long debate, by 322 
against 256. In the course of the debate the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer took an opportu¬ 
nity of challenging Mr. Gladstone’s imputation 
that the Government had been guilty of fraud 
and dissimulation. The words were withdrawn, 


but the withdrawal was accompanied by a 
statement that the measure had been adjusted 
to give the appearance of an extension of the 
franchise, while care was taken that it should 
not be realized. “ Now,” said the Chancellor, 
of the Exchequer, “ I must say I prefer the 
original invective of the right hon. gentleman— 
the denunciations of Torquemada to the inter¬ 
pretation of Loyola. I prefer to meet a clear 
charge of fraud and dissimulation, rather than 
be told, in language like that I have just named 
to the House, that we have been guilty of con¬ 
duct unworthy in my opinion of all public 
men.” 

9 .—The 1 ooth Anniversary of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 
celebrated in St. James’s Hall, under the presi¬ 
dency of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

11 .— Signed in London, a treaty for the 
evacuation of Luxemburg by the Prussians, the 
demolition of the fortress, and the neutraliza¬ 
tion of the territory under the joint guarantee 
of the great Powers. 

— Deputations from various provincial Re¬ 
form Associations, accompanied by several mem¬ 
bers of Parliament, wait upon Mr. Gladstone to 
present addresses expressive of confidence in 
him as a leader of the Liberal party. After 
referring to the unfortunate divisions among 
themselves, he passed on to speak of the de¬ 
lusive character of the Government scheme of 
Reform: “ An arrangement which it is pro¬ 
posed to found in the absurd, preposterous, 
and mischievous distinctions of personal rating, 
as now regulated in this country for social pur¬ 
poses, I hold to be a totally unfit basis for the 
franchise. Any measure which rests on such a 
basis I wholly disown and reject; and if it 
should be clothed with that perfect authority 
which belongs to the law in this country, I 
shall combine my obedience to that law with 
the liberty to which every man is entitled to 
endeavour, by every legitimate means, to effect 
a change in a portion of it which I deemed 
to be so unjust to the people. . . . To these 
enactments, while I continue to be on the 
floor of the House of Commons, I shall con¬ 
tinue to offer an unqualified and unhesitating 
opposition. ” The Chancellor of the Exchequer 
was understood to refer to this speech on the 
Monday night following, when, in consequence 
of violent language used out of doors, he was 
led to express a hope that attempts would not 
be made surreptitiously to rescind or perplex 
the vote the House had already come to on the 
rate-paying clauses of the bill. “ I should have 
been very glad if these spouters of stale seditions 
had not taken the course they have done. It 
may be their function to appear at noisy meet¬ 
ings, but I regret very much they should have 
come forward as obsolete incendiaries of that 
character to pay homage to one who, wherever 
he may sit, must always be the pride and orna¬ 
ment of this House. 

« * Who would not smile if such a man there be ? 

Who would not weep if Atticus were he?’" 

(775) 




MAY 


ma y 


1867. 


Mr. Gladstone curtly replied, that when autho¬ 
rity came into the field for the purpose of for¬ 
bidding and denouncing, unless it could carry 
its prohibition or denunciation to some positive 
issue, the result was that authority itself lost 
credit and power. 

13 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces the Scotch Reform Bill; the franchise 
to be similar to the English; but it was pro¬ 
posed to give seven additional members to that 
division of the kingdom—three for counties, 
two for boroughs, and two for Universities. 
There was also to be a rearrangement of, and 
an addition to, the present system of grouping. 
The House then went into committee on the 
English Bill, and a lodger franchise was carried, 
to operate where there was a twelvemonth’s 
residence and a clear yearly value of 10/. 

14 . —Lord Shaftesbury’s Clerical Vestments 
Bill thrown out on a second reading by 61 
votes against 46. A Royal Commission was 
now promised to inquire into the Ritualistic 
observances. 

— Greatorex and the brothers Grimshaw 
tried at Edinburgh, and sentenced, the former 
to twenty years’ and the two latter to fifteen 
years’ penal servitude, for forging and uttering 
upwards of 1,300 one-pound notes of the Union 
Bank. Part of the gang were detected at 
Dalkeith, and from inquiries then instituted j 
the entire set of lithographic and engraving I 
materials used in the manufacture of the notes | 
was seized in Glasgow. Greatorex had been i 
followed to New York and apprehended there. I 

15 . —The long-protracted and fierce dispute 
between the Imperial and Republican forces in 
Mexico terminates to-day, in the betrayal of the 
Emperor Maximilian to the Juarist General j 
Escobedo, by General Lopez. He had been | 
shut up in the city of Queretaro since the 1st 
of April. 

16 . —In consequence of the adverse criticism 
which the scheme had experienced, Lord R. 
Montagu intimates that it was not intended 
that the South Kensington officials should per¬ 
severe with the publication of their Art Cata¬ 
logue in the Times. 

17 . —Fracas in the House between Mr. 
Layard and Mr. H. Lewis, the former having 
asked in the lobby if the latter was not afraid 
of certain symptoms in going back to his con¬ 
stituents, and receiving an answer admitted to 
be couched in strong Saxon English. The 
House declined to take any notice of the en¬ 
counter, the Speaker expressing a determina¬ 
tion not to permit such expressions to be again 
brought up for discussion. 

— The House of Commons consider the 
abolition of the compound householders, in 
terms of a resolution submitted by Mr. Hodg- 
kinson, proposing to add to clause 3, that no 
person other than the occupier shall be rated 
to parochial rates in respect of premises occu¬ 
pied by him within the limits of a parliamentary 
borough, all acts to the contrary notwithstand¬ 

(77<>) 


ing. In the course of the discussion, Mr. Lowe 
made another animated appeal to some of the 
gentlemen of England, with their ancestry be¬ 
hind them and their posterity before them, to 
save the Constitution from the hands of a multi¬ 
tude struggling with want and discontent. “ I 
was taunted the other night,” he said, “ by the 
hon. member for the Elgin boroughs, that the 
fates and destinies had been too strong for me. 
I have no fear of them, sir; what has been too 
strong for me is the shabbiness, the littleness, 
and the meannesses that have met together. 
Upon a former occasion when I addressed the 
House, I took upon myself to make a prophecy. 
I said that if we embarked upon this course of 
democracy, we should either ruin our party or 
our country. Sir, I was wrong; it is not a 
question of alternatives; we are going to ruin 
both.” The final settlement of the clause was 
delayed till the 27th, when the House resolved 
that there should be no more compounding. 
On the same evening Mr. Mill’s proposal to 
substitute “person” for “man” in the county 
franchise clause was rejected by 196 to 73. A 
majority of 201 to 157 carried a proposal to 
grant the franchise to copyholds of the annual 
value of 5/. 

17 .—Grand ball at the British Embassy, 
Paris, in honour of the visit of the Prince of 
Wales. 

— Died, aged 73, Clarkson Stanfield, R.A. 

20 .—The Queen attended at South Ken¬ 
sington to lay the first stone of the Albert Hall 
of Arts and Sciences, designed to perpetuate 
the memory of the late Prince Consort. In 
replying to an address read by the Prince of 
Wales, her Majesty said: “ It has been with a 
struggle that I have nerved myself to a com¬ 
pliance with the wish that I should take part 
in this day’s ceremony; but I have been sus¬ 
tained by the thought that I should assist by 
my presence in promoting the accomplishment 
of his great designs to whose memory the grati¬ 
tude and affection of the country are now rear¬ 
ing a noble monument, which I trust may yet 
look down on such a centre of institutions for 
the promotion of art and science, as it was his 
fond wish to establish here. It is my wish 
that the hall should bear his name to whom it 
will have owed its existence, and be called the 
‘Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences.’” 
The foundation-stone was then lowered into its 
place, and the customary formalities having been 
gone through by her Majesty, the Archbishop 
of Canterbury offered up a prayer that the arts 
there fostered might be the arts of peace, minis¬ 
tering to the welfare and happiness of mankind. 
The orchestra and chorus then proceeded to 
deliver the vocal and instrumental music of 
“ L’lnvocazione all’ Armonia,” composed by 
the late Prince Consort. The solo tenor parts 
of the piece were given by Signor Mario with 
such beautiful distinctness and effect that her 
Majesty stopped to thank him when pass¬ 
ing from the building. The proceedings were 
brought to a close by the “National Anthem.” 









MAY 


1867. 


JUNE 


21 . —Commenced in the Court of Arches the 
discussion on the admission of the articles in the 
case of Martin v. Mackonochie, involving the 
legality of the ritualistic practices observed in 
celebrating worship in the church of St. Alban’s, 
Holborn. After some discussion it was decided 
that the articles should be sent back to be re¬ 
formed in two particulars, as to the greater 
degree of the elevation of the consecrated ele¬ 
ments, and as to the law, statute and ecclesias¬ 
tical, under which the offences were charged. 

— Royal Proclamation issued, declaring the 
British North American provinces one division, 
with the name of Canada. 

22 . —The “ Derby” stakes run to-day, with 
snow on the course. (See Index, “ Races.”) 

23 . —The Duke of Edinburgh left London to 
join the Galatea on a voyage to the Australian 
colonies. 

— Died, aged 74, Sir Archibald Alison, his¬ 
torian of the wars of the French Revolution. 

25 .—In addressing a meeting of “Brother 
and Sister Reformers” in St. James’s Hall, Mr. 

J. S. Mill said, that if the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer had not deceived the House of Com¬ 
mons, he had at least encouraged members a 
good deal to deceive themselves. “ I ought to 
be ashamed to make the confession myself, but 
he quite succeeded with me.” In the House, 
Mr. Mill afterwards admitted that Mr. Disraeli 
had completely acquitted himself. 

27 . —In committee the county occupation 
franchise was fixed at 12as a mean between 
10/. and 15/., the qualification to be either house 
and land, or house or land. On the first pro¬ 
posal, which was to omit the words of the 
clause for the purpose of afterwards allowing 
the insertion of an amendment, to prevent the 
creation of faggot votes, by making it compul¬ 
sory to have a dwelltng-house on the land, 
Government were beaten by 196 to 193 ; but 
when the substantive motion was put to insert 
“dwelling-house,” it was rejected by 212 to 
209. 

— Reprieve of the Fenian convict Burke an¬ 
nounced in both Houses of Parliament. 

28 . —Government withdraw their proposals 
to attach a franchise to educational or pecu¬ 
niary qualifications; and also the dual vote 
clause. 

29 . — Mr. Fawcett’s Act of Uniformity 
Amendment Bill read a second time by 200 to 
156. Petitions were presented against it by Sir 
W. Heathcote and Mr. Selwyn, and it was also 
opposed by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Hardy. 

30 . —The franchise clauses of the Reform 
Bill being now settled, the House, in com¬ 
mittee, proceeded to deal with the redistribu¬ 
tion part of the scheme. The disfranchisement 
of Yarmouth, Lancaster, Reigate, and Totnes 
was agreed to after a faint protest from Sir G. 
Bowyer, as to the penal character of the mea¬ 
sure. On clause 9, Mr. Mill brought forward > 


his scheme for the representation of minorities, 
founded on the principle that any member might 
be returned by as many voters residing any¬ 
where as was equal to the gross number of 
names of the entire register divided by 658; 
or if less than 658 candidates received the full 
quota of votes, then those who had the largest 
number. The proposal was withdrawn after 
discussion. 

31 .—Debate on the Government redistri¬ 
bution scheme, by which it was proposed to 
cut down all constituencies under 7,000 to one 
member each. Mr. Laing’s proposal to fix the 
minimum at 10,000, and secure thirty-five seats 
instead of twenty-three, was carried against 
Government by 306 to 171. Serjeant Gazelee 
afterwards proposed to disfranchise all boroughs 
which had a population of less than 5,000, but 
this was rejected by a majority of 269 to 217. 

June 1.—Royal visits to Paris. The Em¬ 
peror Alexander of Russia arrived to-day; the 
King of Prussia on the 5th ; the Viceroy of 
Egypt on the 16th; and the Sultan on the 
30th. 

3 .—The Commissioners appointed to in¬ 
quire into the perpetration of trade outrages 
in Sheffield commence their sittings. 

— First stone of the Holborn Valley Viaduct 
laid. 

— Royal Commission authorized to inquire 
into the differences of practice which had 
arisen ‘ ‘ from varying interpretations put upon 
the rubrics, orders, and directions for regu¬ 
lating the course and conduct of public wor¬ 
ship, the administration of the sacraments, and 
the other services contained in the Book of 
Common Prayer, according to the use of the 
United Church of England and Ireland, and 
more especially with reference to the orna¬ 
ments used in the churches and chapels of the 
said United Church, and the vestments worn 
by the ministers thereof at the time of their 
ministrations. ” 

— Messrs. Overend, Chance, and Barstow, 
Examiners appointed by the Trades Union 
Commission, commence their inquiries into the 
outrages alleged to have been committed at 
Sheffield. 

5 . —Several letters appear in this morning’s 
Times , complaining of robberies and assaults 
committed by an organized body of “ roughs ” 
who accompanied a militia regiment in its 
march through the streets of the metropolis 
on the 3d. 

-— By a majority of 164 to 150, it was 
agreed to refer to a Select Committee Mr. 
Ewart’s Oxford and Cambridge Education Bill, 
designed, as he explained, to restore the an¬ 
cient University system, and to open them to 
all classes as national institutions, without sub¬ 
jecting the students to any tests. 

6 . —Berezowski, a Pole, attempts to assassi¬ 
nate the Czar by firing into a carriage in which 

(777) 






June 


1867. 


JUNE 


he was seated with the Emperor Napoleon 
and his two sons. Both sovereigns escaped 
unhurt, but the horse of one of the equerries 
was wounded ; a second attempt was made, 
but the barrel burst and rendered powerless 
the assassin’s hand. In its account of the 
outrage, the Moniteur said that the Emperor 
Napoleon, turning towards the Emperor Alex¬ 
ander smiling, said, “Sire, we shall have been 
under fire together.” The Czar replied, more 
seriously, “Our destinies are in the hands of 
Providence. ” Berezowski was at once arrested, 
and with difficulty saved from being torn to 
pieces. 

8 . — The Emperor and Empress of Austria 
crowned King and Queen of Hungary at Pesth, 
amid circumstances of great outward festivity 
and splendour. It was noticed that among the 
absentees was M. Deak, who had wrought so 
eagerly for this mark of Imperial favour to his 
country. 

9 . — Departure of the Livingstone Search 
Expedition under the command of Mr. E. D. 
Y oung. 

— Died at Dublin, aged 73, Dr. Anster, 
translator of “ Faust.” 

— Died at Vienna, from injuries received 
by fire, the Archduchess Mathilde, daughter 
of the Archduke Albrecht, aged twenty-one 
years. 

13 .— The Court of Exchequer gives judg¬ 
ment in the case of Slade v. Slade, involving 
the title to certain landed estates and a baro¬ 
netcy. An action of ejectment was brought by 
General Marcus Slade, Colonel of the 50th 
Regiment, and brother of the late Sir Frede¬ 
rick Slade, Q.C., against Sir Alfred Slade, 
the eldest son of Sir Frederick, to recover pos¬ 
session of the manor of North Petherton, in the 
county of Somerset, and other lands entailed 
in the Slade family. Sir Frederick married in 
December, 1833, at St. George’s, Hanover- 
square, Maria Barbara, daughter of Charles 
Browne Mostyn, of Kiddington, and had by 
her several children, of whom Alfred, the de¬ 
fendant, was one, and the eldest son. The case 
on the part of the General was that the marriage 
between Sir Frederick and his wife was void 
because the lady had previously contracted 
marriage at Milan, in 1825, with an Austrian 
gentleman named Baron C. Von Korber, who 
survived till the year 1853. In reply to this, 
it was urged that the marriage of Lady Slade 
at Milan was void, and that she was, there¬ 
fore, free to marry again. The validity of 
Lady Slade’s marriage turned entirely upon the 
Austrian law, which was the law in force in 
Milan in 1825, and on this point many profes¬ 
sional and learned men had been examined on 
both sides under a commission. Their lord- 
ships were now divided in opinion, Baron 
Bramwell and Baron Pigott being in favour of 
the plaintiff, and the Lord Chief Baron and 
Mr. Baron Martin for the defendant. As is 
customary in such cases, the junior Baron with* 
( 778 ) 


drew his judgment, and a verdict was entered 
for the defendant. 

13 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer inti¬ 
mates that in consequence of the success of 
Mr. Laing’s amendment, placing additional 
seats at the disposal of the House, 20 would 
be given to counties, 19 to boroughs, and one 
to the Universities of London and Durham 
united. 

17 . —In Committee, Mr. Laing’s amend¬ 
ment that six boroughs, having each a popula¬ 
tion above 150,000, should have three members 
instead of two, negatived by 247 to 239. On 
the Government proposal to unite the Uni¬ 
versity of Durham with that of London in 
returning a representative, a division took 
place, when an amendment to omit the 
word “ University” was carried by 183 to 169. 
Next day, the motion to insert the word 
“Universities” in place of the omitted 
“University,” was carried by 226 to 225; 
but the motion to insert Durham after Lon¬ 
don, in the same clause, was rejected by 234 
to 226. 

— A Conservative meeting, convened in 
St. James’s Hall to protest against the con¬ 
tinued agitation of the League, overpowered 
by a band of Reformers, who forced their way 
into the building. 

— Numerous arrests at Birmingham, arising 
out of the riots connected with anti-Popery 
lectures. Mr. Whalley, M.P., and Murphy, 
addressed their adherents this evening in the 
Town-hall, the latter declaring that he would 
carry out his lecture though they walked across 
his dead body. The Mayor, who had ordered 
him to leave the town (he said), was his servant, 
and must protect him. 

18 . —After considerable discussion in Con¬ 
vocation, the University of Oxford agree, by 
a majority of 32 to 31, to grant from the Uni¬ 
versity chest a contribution of 500/. towards 
the fund being now raised for the exploration 
of Palestine. 

19 . —Disgraceful trade-union disclosures in 
Sheffield. The Examiners had a few days 
since committed a sawgrinder, named James 
Hallam, to prison for refusing to disclose all 
he knew regarding the working of his union. 
He now agreed to tell all, and apparently did 
so under promise of a certificate of indemnity. 
The examination thus proceeded. Mr. Over¬ 
end : On the Saturday night before Linley was 
shot, were you not seen in Wilson’s snug with 
a pistol in your pocket ? (No answer; the pri¬ 
soner showed signs of distress, his breathing 
became heavy, and his face wore an expression 
of anxiety.) Say yes or no. After a slight 
pause, the witness collected himself, and an¬ 
swered : Yes, I was. (Sensation.) Where 
did you get that pistol from? (No answer.) 
Where did you get that pistol from? (No 
answer, the witness looking fixedly at Mr. 
Overend, and apparently struggling with a 
choking sensation in the throat.) For what 




JUNE 


1867. 


JUNE 


purpose did you buy the pistol ? (No answer.) 
You know, if you tell the truth, you have 
nothing to be afraid of. You will be entitled 
to your certificate if you tell the whole truth. 
Now, I ask you for what purpose did you buy 
that pistol ? (No answer. The witness shook 
from head to foot.) Answer the question. 
Now, for what purpose did you buy it ? (The 
witness looked fixedly at Mr. Overend for a 
few seconds, and then, trembling so violently 
as scarcely to be able to support himself, he 
rose from his seat, staggered up to Mr. Over¬ 
end, and whispered something which could 
only be heard by the Examiners.) Mr. Overend : 
Oh, we’ll give you the indemnity if you will 
tell the truth. Witness : And the party that 
was with me too ? Mr. Overend : And him 
too, if he will tell the truth; if he will come 
forward and ask for his indemnity. Now, I ask 
you.—The witness attempted to stagger back 
to his seat, but was unable to guide himself 
to it, and Mr. Jackson supported him. After 
sitting a second or two in the chair, trembling 
more violently than ever, he leaned back and 
fainted. He was laid down upon the floor, 
and the usual means of restoration were ap¬ 
plied, his hands being chafed, a smelling- 
bottle' applied to his nostrils, and brandy 
poured down his throat. In about five minutes 
he opened his eyes, made a convulsive snatch 
at his throat, and relapsed into unconscious¬ 
ness. He was then carried into an adjoining 
room, and laid upon an ottoman under an open 
window. After about a quarter of an hour he 
was led into the court again, weak as an infant, 
and trembling in every limb. Mr. Overend : 
Will you tell me for what purpose you bought 
that pistol ? Witness, sadly : To shoot Linley. 
Was there anybody associated or joined with 
you in shooting Linley? Yes. Who was it? 
Crookes. Who shot him—did you or Crookes ? 
The witness was unable for a moment to 
answer this question ; recovering himself, he 
said, in an all but inaudible whisper : “ I com¬ 
pelled Crookes to shoot him. ” Samuel Crookes 
was afterwards examined, Broadhead calling 
out, as he stepped into the witness-box, “Tell 
the truth, Sam ; everything.” He confessed 
to shooting Linley. He had no quarrel with 
him, nor did he intend to kill him, but 
Linley was doing a great deal of injury to them 
at that time, for he was employing a great 
many boys, and injuring the trade altogether. 
They spoke to Broadhead about this, and 
Broadhead agreed to give them, he thought, 
20/. They were to injure Linley, but not to 
kill him. Witness did not want to do it then, 
but Hallam compelled him. Witness wanted 
to hit him in the shoulder, but Linley was in 
such a position when he fired that he hit his 
head. 

19.—The Emperor Maximilian shot at Que- 
retaro, along with Generals Miramon and 
Mejia. At the Emperor’s request they were 
all confined together, and passed the greater 
part of the night preceding their execution in 
religious exercises. At seven o’clock the notes 


of a military band were heard, and Captain 
Gonzales entered the chapel with bandages 
to blindfold the prisoners. Miramon submitted 
to the operation quietly. Mejia refused, and 
as the captain was about to use force, the 
Bishop whispered a few words to the General, 
who then acquiesced. But the Emperor, com¬ 
ing forward, declared that, as to himself, he 
would not be blindfolded. After a moment’s 
hesitation, Gonzales, with a friendly salutation 
to Maximilian, went and took his place at the 
head of the escorting party. The procession 
then moved forward, a squadron of Lancers in 
front, followed by the band playing a funeral 
march. A battalion of infantry, formed in 
two lines, composed the remainder of the 
escort. When it reached the principal gate 
of the hospital, Mejia said aloud, “ Sire, give 
to us for the last time the example of your 
noble courage ; we follow your Majesty.” 
When the procession reached the summit 
of the hill, Maximilian looked steadily for a 
moment at the rising sun ; then, taking out his 
watch, he pressed a spring which concealed a 
portrait in miniature of the Empress Charlotte., 
He kissed it, and handing it to the Abbe 
Fischer, said : “ Carry this souvenir to Europe 
to my dear wife ; and if she be ever able to 
understand you, say that my eyes closed with 
the impression of her image, which I shall 
carry with me above ! ” The cortege had now 
reached the great exterior wall of the cemetery, 
and the bells were slowly tolling for a funera 
knell. The Bishop, advancing, addressed the 
Emperor: “Sire, give to Mexico, without any 
exception, the kiss of reconciliation in my 
person; let your Majesty, in this supreme 
moment, accord pardon to all.” The Em¬ 
peror was unable to conceal the emotion which 
agitated him ; he allowed the Bishop to em¬ 
brace him ; then, raising his voice, he said : 
“Tell Lopez that I forgive him his treachery; 
tell all Mexico that I pardon its crime.” His 
Majesty then pressed the hand of the Abbe 
Fischer, who, unable to utter a word, sank at 
the feet of the Emperor, bathing with tears 
the hand which he kissed. Many present 
wept bitterly. Maximilian gently extricated 
his hands, and, advancing a step, said with a 
melancholy smile to the officer commanding 
the executing party: “A la disposicion de 
usted.” At this moment, on a sign given by 
the officer, the muskets were levelled against 
the Emperor’s breast: he murmured a few 
words in German, and the discharge enveloped 
the spectators in smoke. Miramon fell heavily 
to the ground; Mejia remained erect, and 
waved his arms about. A ball through his 
head ended his agony. The Emperor fell 
back upon the cross which sustained his 
corpse ; the body was immediately raised nnd 
placed in the coffin, as were those of the two 
generals. All three were buried without delay 
in the cemetery, the Bishop giving the absolu¬ 
tion. General Corona subsequently summoned 
the prelate, and demanded the surrender of 
certain letters. One addressed to the Arch- 

( 779 ) 




JUNE 


1867. 


JUNE 


duchess Sophia was not opened, as she, being 
the mother of the Emperor, could not be sup¬ 
posed to receive any dangerous communication 
from her son. That to the Empress Charlotte 
was unsealed. It was written in French. 
“ My dear beloved Carlotta,—If God one day 
permits your recovery, and you read these lines, 
you will learn the cruelty of the ill-fortune 
which has unceasingly pursued me since your 
departure for Europe. You took with you all 
chance and all my soul. Why did I not listen 
to your counsel ? So many events, alas ! so 
many sudden blows have broken all my hopes, 
that death is for me a happy deliverance, and 
not an agony. I fall gloriously, as a soldier, 
as a king—vanquished, but not dishonoured. 
If your sufferings be too great, if God call you 
speedily to rejoin me, I will bless the Divine 
hand which has so heavily pressed upon us. 
Adieu, adieu ! Your poor Max.” 

20 . —The Increase of the Episcopate Bill, 
permitting the creation of three new sees, 
at Southwell, St. Albans, and Cornwall, read a 
third time in the House of Lords.—The Arch¬ 
bishop of York intimates that he objects to the 
composition of the Ritual Commission, and 
must decline to serve upon it. 

— The voting-paper clause in the Reform 
Bill rejected by 272 to 234. 

— Sir H. F. Doyle elected Professor of 
Poetry at Oxford. He obtained 294 votes, 
being 91 over Dr. Kynaston and Dean Alex¬ 
ander. 

— The city of Mexico surrenders to the 
Juarists after a siege of sixty-nine days. 

— Treaty between Russia and America, 
under which the latter Power agreed to pur¬ 
chase the territory known as Russian America, 
or Wal-Russia, for 7,200,000 dollars. 

21 . —The excitement regarding the Sheffield 

trade-union outrages culminated to-day in the 
examination of the arch-plotter Broadhead. 
His confession was thus summarised:—1. He 
hired Dennis Clark to blow up Helliwell for 
being brought into the trade contrary to rule. 
“ We expected if he was admitted a member 
we should have him on the box, and it was 
to drive him from the trade he was blown up.” 
Price either 3/. or 5/. 2. He caused the horse 

of Elisha Parker to be hamstrung. 3. He hired 
George Peace to hire some one to shoot Parker. 
Price 20/. to 30/. 4. He hired some one (he 

thought Crookes, the murderer of Linley) to 
blow up the boilers of Firth and Son. Price 5/. 
5. He hired Crookes to lame Helliwell. He 
explained laming to mean “wounding him in 
one of his limbs so as to prevent him working.” 
Crookes watched him several nights with a gun, 
and was in the act of firing when another man 
got in the way. 6. He wrote a threatening 
letter to Messrs. Firth and Son, of Sheffield, 
saying, “ If I but move my finger you are sent 
to eternity as sure as fate. ” 7. He paid Crookes 
for throwing a canister of gunpowder down the 

(780) 


chimney of the house of Samuel Baxter. Baxter 
had “held himself aloof from the trade,” and 
Broadhead thought he “ought to contribute.” 
8. He hired Crookes to try and blow up Joseph 
Wilson’s house. Price perhaps 10/. 9. Pie em¬ 
ployed Crookes to throw a can of powder down 
Pool’s chimney. The object was “to alarm 
Linley, who was living with Pool ” (his brother- 
in-law). “ Pool has done us no harm whatever. ” 
Price 5/. or 10/. 10. He employed Crookes to 

blow up Holdsworth, by putting powder in his 
cellar, for employing non-society men. Price 6/. 
11. He employed Crookes to blow up Reaney’s 
house for giving Feamehough work. 12. He 
paid Crookes 15/. to blow up Fearnehough. 13. 
He embezzled 30/. to pay for shooting Parker. 
He wrote letters expressing his abhorrence of 
these acts, “ and for that,” he says, “ I know I 
shall be held up to the execration of the whole 
world.” Upon making this observation, “he 
commenced weeping.” 

21 . —In reply to Mr. Grant Duff, Lord R. 
Montagu said he differed in many points from 
the recommendations of the Scotch Education 
Commission, and thought it would be impos¬ 
sible to establish, as they recommended, one 
uniform system when the conditions were so 
varied. 

24 . —Mr. Cardwell’s proposal to exclude 
members of Oxford and Cambridge Univer¬ 
sities from voting in the term as occupiers of 
premises, carried by 200 to 179. Mr. Colville’s 
proposal to give county votes to copyholders in 
boroughs rejected by 256 to 230. 

— Died, aged 61, Horatio M'Culloch, a 
Scotch landscape painter of great reputation. 

25 . —The Royal patent promulgating the 
North German Constitution issued at Berlin. 

— In the House of Lords Earl Russell sub¬ 
mits a resolution authorizing the presentation 
of an address to her Majesty, praying “ that her 
Majesty will be pleased to give direction that, 
by the operation of a Royal Commission or 
otherwise, full and accurate information be 
procured as to the nature and amount of the 
property and revenues of the Established 
Church in Ireland, with a view to their more 
productive management, and to their more 
equitable application for the benefit of the 
Irish people.” The resolution in this form 
was lost by a majority of 90 to 38, but another 
was adopted praying simply for the appoint¬ 
ment of a commission. 

26 . — Grand Festival Concert at the Crystal 
Palace in aid of the restoration of that portion 
of the building recently destroyed by fire. 

— The 300th anniversary of the foundation 
of Rugby School celebrated. 

— Gorgeous ecclesiastical festivals at Rome 
on the occasion of celebrating the eighteenth 
centenary of St. Peter. Twenty-five newly 
acknowledged martyrs were canonized. The 
Pope published an Allocution at the Con¬ 
sistory, expressing joy and consolation at the 




juive 


JUL Y 


1867. 


presence of the assembled dignitaries “sum- | 
moned (his Holiness said) to share our anx- I 
ieties, and anxious to soothe our continually 
increasing grief.” 

26 . —Royal warrant signed granting an in¬ 
crease of pay to the army. 

29 . —Collision on the railway at Walton 
Junction, near Warrington, a passenger train 
running into some coal trucks then being 
shunted. The fore part of the passenger engine 
was driven into the breaksman’s van of the 
coal train and firmly lodged there. The first 
two passenger carriages were smashed to pieces, 
five of the passengers being taken out dead, 
and thirty-five seriously hurt. Two of the 
latter died afterwards. This calamity was oc¬ 
casioned by the points not having been shifted 
when the passenger train came up. 

— Public breakfast in honour of Mr. Lloyd 
Garrison held in St. James’s Hall. Mr. Bright 
presided, and delivered a glowing eulogy on the 
band of anti-slavery labourers in America. 
Quoting the Epistle to the Hebrews, he said : 

“ Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of 
Barak, of Samson, of Jephtha, of David, of 
Samuel, and the prophets : who through faith 
subdued kingdoms, obtained promises, stopped 
the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of 
fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of 
weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in 
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” 

“ I ask, if this grand passage of the inspired 
writer may not be applied to that heroic band 
who have made America the perpetual home 
of freedom.” Were they not, he asked, “on 
Fame’s eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed ? ” 

July 1.— Mr. Horsfall’s proposal to give a 
third member to Liverpool, Manchester, and 
Birmingham accepted by Government, with the 
addition of Leeds, and carried by 297 to 63. 
Proposals made next day to give an additional 
member to Sheffield and Bristol were negatived, 
the former by 258 to 122, and the latter by 235 
to 136. 

3 . —Farewell dinner given to Lord Cowley 
by the French Foreign Minister. 

— The town of Basse Terre, the capital of 
the island of St. Kitt’s, destroyed by fire. 

4 . —Mr. Hibbert’s clause making it illegal 
for candidates to pay the expense of convey¬ 
ing voters to the poll carried by 166 to 102 
votes. 

5. —Mr. Lowe’s motion for giving cumulative 
votes to places returning three members, after 
two nights’ discussion, rejected by 314 to 141. 

6 . —The Viceroy of Egypt arrives in Lon¬ 
don, and takes up his quarters at Lord Dudley’s 
mansion, which had been placed at the dis¬ 
posal of Government for the reception of his 
Highness. 

8 . —The Sheffield Trade Outrage Examiners 
close their inquiry, being the twenty-fourth day 
of hearing evidence. 


9 -—The Princess of Wales drives out for the 
first time since her recent severe rheumatic 
affection. 

— In the House of Lords the Earl of Derby 
read a despatch relating to the Emperor Maxi¬ 
milian, which had been received this afternoon 
from the Paris embassy :—“ Moustier has just 
received a telegram from the French Minister 
at Mexico, dated the 27th of June. It reports 
that the Emperor Maximilian was shot on the 
19th, in spite of every effort made to save him. 
The tone of the victorious party was defiant 
toward all foreign Powers, including the United 
States ; they refused to give up the Emperor’s 
body. The French Minister was preparing to 
depart with his legation, but although hitherto 
unmolested, he thought he might be detained 
as a hostage for the surrender of General Al¬ 
monte.” “Mylords,” the Earl of Derby said, 

‘ ‘ I must say that I share in the feelings of all 
your lordships at this most unnecessary, most 
cruel, and most barbarous murder, which must 
excite horror in every civilized country. It is 
a murder purely gratuitous, and, so far from 
producing any beneficial effect, can only add to 
the miseries of which that unhappy country has 
been so many years the subject, and which I 
fear it is only too probable that it will have to 
sustain for many years to come.” 

10. —The solicitor to the Jamaica Committee 
urges Mr. Attorney-General Rolt to institute 
proceedings against Ex-Governor Eyre under 
the provisions of the Act 42 George III., cap. 
85. On the 13th the Attorney-General replied, 
that having looked over the statement sub¬ 
mitted, he saw nothing that could induce him 
to alter the conclusions at which he had pre¬ 
viously arrived. 

11 . —About 2,400 Belgian Volunteers arrive 
in London, on an invitation from a committee 
of English riflemen. They were entertained 
next day by the Lord Mayor, and afterwards 
visited many places of interest in and about the 
metropolis. On the 13th they were received by 
their brother Volunteers at Wimbledon, where, 
though the weather was somewhat unfavour¬ 
able, the combined troops were reviewed by 
the Prince of Wales. 

X, 12.—The Sultan arrives at Dover on a visit 
to her Majesty. He was met on landing by 
the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, 
and his tributary, the Viceroy of Egypt, also 
then on a visit to England. A special train of 
great length conveyed his Majesty and suite to 
Charing Cross Station, where a reception was 
accorded him of extraordinary enthusiasm and 
splendour. Accompanied by various members 
of the Royal Family, her Majesty’s Ministers, 
and a detachment of Grenadier Guards, the 
Sultan drove slowly down Parliament Street 
and along the Mall to Buckingham Palace, the 
residence set apart for his Majesty. He visited 
the Queen at Windsor next day. On the 15th 
a state visit was made to Covent Garden Opera 
House, and on the 16th he attended a festival 

178i) 








JULY 


JULY 


1867. 


performance given in his honour at the Crystal 
Palace. The fleet was reviewed at Spithead on 
the 17th, in presence of the Queen, the Sultan, 
and the Viceroy of Egypt, and on the same even¬ 
ing an entertainment was given to the Sultan 
by the City corporation in the Guildhall. The 
series of festive welcomes culminated in a 
grand reception and ball given by Government 
in the new India Office on the evening of the 
1.8th. The only private visit made was paid 
to Lady Palmerston on the 22d. The Sultan 
left London on the 23d, proceeding to Constan¬ 
tinople by way of Vienna. 

15 . —The cloud of amendments which had 
gathered round the Reform Bill in its progress 
through Committee was this evening cleared 
off, and the measure read a third time. The 
occasion was taken advantage of by Lord 
Cranborne and Mr. Lowe to censure what they 
described as the vacillating and deceitful con¬ 
duct of Ministers. “If you borrow your poli¬ 
tical ethics,” said the late Secretary for India, 
“ from the ethics of the political adventurer, 
you may depend upon it the whole of your 
representative institutions will crumble beneath 
your feet. It is only because of that mutual 
trust in each other by which we ought to be 
animated, it is only because we believe that 
expressions and convictions expressed and pro¬ 
mises made will be followed by deeds, that we 
are enabled to carry on this party government 
which has led this country to so high a pitch of 
greatness. I entreat hon. gentlemen opposite 
not to believe that my feelings on this subject 
are dictated simply by my hostility to this 
measure, though I object to it most strongly, as 
the House is aware. But even if I took a con¬ 
trary view, if I deemed it to be most advan¬ 
tageous, I still should deeply regret to find that 
the House of Commons had applauded a policy 
of legerdemain. And I should above all things 
regret that this great gift to the people—if gift 
you think it—should have been purchased by a 
political betrayal which has no parallel in our 
parliamentary annals, which strikes at the root 
of all that mutual confidence which is the very 
soul of our party government, and on which 
only the strength and freedom of our repre¬ 
sentative institutions can be sustained.” Mr. 
Lowe said: “The right hon. member for 
Lancashire proposed last year a 5/. rating, and 
he had to give it up. Then comes the hon. 
member for Birmingham ; what does he say ? 
He had been agitating the country for house¬ 
hold suffrage—not meaning, as we see by his 
conduct this session, to get household suffrage. 
He has got it now, and I ask, is he of opinion 
that it is easy to stop when you like in the path 
of concession ? The hon. member is something 
like Don Giovanni—which, by the way, is 
Italian for John. The Don asked the Com- 
mendatore to supper because he thought he 
could not come ; but the Commendatore did 
come. He said, ‘Don Giovanni, you have 
invited me; and I am here ! ’ (Loud laughter.) 
That is very much the position of the hon. 
member for Birmingham. He invited house- 
(782) 


hold suffrage, and it has come ; you can never 
stop when once you set the ball rolling. ... I 
believe it will be absolutely necessary to com¬ 
pel our future masters to learn their letters. 
(Cheers and laughter.) It will not be unworthy 
of a Conservative Government, at any rate, to 
do what can be done in that direction. I was 
opposed to centralization. I am ready to accept 
centralization. I was opposed to an education 
rate. I am now ready to accept it. This ques¬ 
tion is no longer a religious question; it is a 
political one. From the moment that you 
intrust the masses with power, their education 
becomes an absolute necessity, and I believe 
that the existing system is one which is much 
superior to the much-vaunted continental 
system. But we shall have to destroy it; it is 
not quality but quantity we shall require. You 
have placed the government in the hands of 
the masses, and you must therefore give them 
education. You must take education up the very 
first question, and you must press it on without 
delay for the peace of the country. Sir, I was 
looking to-day at the head of the lion which 
was sculptured in Greece during her last agony 
after the battle of Chseronea, to commemorate 
that event, and I admired the power and the 
spirit which portrayed in the face of that noble 
beast the rage, the disappointment, and the 
scorn of a perishing nation and of a down¬ 
trodden civilization, and I said to myself ‘ Oh 
for an orator, oh for an historian, oh for a poet, 
who would do the same thing for us! ’ We also 
have had our battle of Chseronea; we have 
had our dishonest victory. That England, that 
was wont to conquer other nations, has gained 
a shameful victory over herself; and oh that a 
man would rise in order that he might set forth, 
in words that could not die, the shame, the 
rage, the scorn, the indignation, and the despair 
with which the measure is viewed by every 
Englishman who is not a slave to the trammels 
of party, or who is not dazzled by the glare of 
a temporary and ignoble success ! ” Mr. Disraeli 
wound up the debate in a speech of con¬ 
siderable length and power, taking Mr. Lowe 
to task at its conclusion for the language he 
had used towards the Government. “Our 
conduct, according to him, is infamous—that 
is his statement—because in office we are 
supporting Parliamentary Reform, which he 
disapproves, and to which we have hitherto 
been opposed. Well, if we disapprove the 
bill which we are recommending the House 
to accept and sanction to-night, our conduct 
certainly is objectionable. If we from the 
bottom of our hearts believe that the measure 
which we are now requesting you to pass is 
not, on the whole, the wisest and best that 
could be passed under the circumstances, I 
would even admit that our conduct was in¬ 
famous. But I want to know what the right 
hon. gentleman thinks of his own conduct 
when, having assisted in turning out the 
Government of Lord Derby in 1859, because 
they would not reduce the borough franchise 
—he, if I am not much mistaken, having 








JUL V 


jul v 


1867 


been one of the most active managers in that 
intrigue—he accepted office in i860 under 
the Government of Lord Palmerston, who 
brought forward a measure of Parliamentary 
Reform which he disapproved, and more than 
disapproved, because he invited his political 
opponents to defeat it? And yet the right 
hon. gentleman talks to us of infamy. Sir, 
the prognostications of evil uttered by the 
noble lord I can respect, because I know they 
are sincere—the warnings and the prophecies 
of the right hon. gentleman I treat in another 
spirit. I for my part do not believe that the 
country is in danger. I think England is safe 
in the race of men who inhabit .her, that she 
is safe in something much more precious than 
her accumulated capital—her accumulated ex¬ 
perience—she is safe in her national character, 
in her fame, in the tradition of a thousand 
years, and in that glorious future which I 
believe awaits her.” 

16. —The Reform Bill read a first time in 
the House of Lords. 

— The Increase of the Episcopate Bill read 
a second time in the House of Commons by a 
majority of 45 to 34. 

— The House of Lords affirm the decision 
of the Scotch Court of Session in favour of the 
claim made by Campbell of Glenfalloch to the 
Breadalbane estates. 

17 . —Vice-Chancellor Page Wood orders the 
Pall Mall Gazette and Morning Post to pay the 
costs of the motion calling upon the Court 
to commit the publishers for contempt, in 
printing extracts from the affidavits of the 
claimant to the Tichboume baronetcy, with 
the view (as was alleged) of prejudicing his 
case before hearing. Other newspapers, into 
which the articles complained of had been 
copied, were ordered to pay their own costs. 

18 . —The Earl of Shaftesbury’s bill, pro¬ 
viding that no girl under the age of thirteen 
should be employed in agricultural labour for 
hire, and that no girl under the age of eighteen 
should be employed at all in a public gang, 
read a second time in the House of Lords. 

— Ball given to the Belgian Volunteers 
at the Agricultural Hall, Islington. In anti¬ 
cipation of a visit from the Sultan, the hall 
was decorated with extraordinary splendour, 
and supper was set out for over 7,000. The 
Prince of Wales and many of the nobility 
were present. 

20.—George Britten murders his wife at 
Woolverton, near Road, by beating her on the 
head, and then attempts to conceal the crime 
by setting fire to his house and partly burning 
the body. He was executed at Taunton on 
the 29th of August. 

22 .—Debate in the House of Lords on the 
second reading of the Reform Bill. In recom¬ 
mending the measure to their lordships, the 
Earl of Derby said he believed the bill to be 
at once large, extensive, and conservative, and 


if it should receive their sanction, it would 
effect a settlement, that would for a long time 
be considered satisfactory, of a question which, 
while it remained unsettled, must be a source 
of perpetual agitation, and an obstruction to 
all other useful legislation.—Earl Grey, who 
spoke under evident physical debility, proposed 
an amendment, that the bill was at present 
unsatisfactory, but might be improved in 
future stages.—The Earl of Carnarvon severely 
censured the Government for the inconsis¬ 
tent policy they had shown in connexion with 
the bill. “ Your lordships,” he said, “ are 
called to hazard a great experiment in a 
country of old traditions, and with an area of 
soil both limited and coveted—on a country 
whose trade is sensitive, and whose com¬ 
merce rests on the precarious footing of 
credit. Even if success were to crown your 
work, you would not be justified. The mere 
fact that you are making such an experiment 
under such circumstances is a sufficient condem¬ 
nation of it. It is very painful for me to have 
to speak in these terms of a measure introduced 
by those with whom I have for a great number 
of years acted in relations of political and per¬ 
sonal friendship; still there are times when even 
personal feelings are but as dust in the balance, 
and when even the displeasure of personal and 
political friends must be cheerfully accepted. I 
have spoken very freely and very strongly, 
and it may, perhaps, be thought by some very 
bitterly also ; but there has not in fact been 
any personal bitterness in what I have said. 
If, indeed, I had wished to speak bitterly, I 
could easily have done so. I need only have 
gone back to those famous speeeches of 1846 
and 1847, in which the right hon. gentleman, 
now Chancellor of the Exchequer, made the 
iron of his sarcasm enter into the soul of one 
who, whatever the shortcomings of his policy, 
was, I believe, a highminded and disinterested 
statesman.” He pleaded with Earl Grey not 
to press his amendment, as there would be 
sufficient time to make amendments in Com¬ 
mittee, and they would enter upon its con¬ 
sideration in a better and higher spirit if the 
subject were lifted altogether above party preju¬ 
dice and promise. In the adjourned debate 
which took place the following evening, the 
measure was sharply censured by Earl Russell 
and the Earl of Shaftesbury, and as warmly 
defended by the Lord Chancellor and Lord 
Cairns. The Earl of Derby, in replying 
to the Earl of Carnarvon’s disclaimer of per¬ 
sonal hostility, said it reminded him of the 
barrister who said, ‘Now, my lord, I have an 
argument which I will not mention, and it is 
this.’ In the same way my noble friend in 
substance remarked, ‘ If I were inclined to be 
bitter, which I won’t be, I should allude to a 
subject which I won’t allude to—namely, the 
conduct of the right hon. gentleman towards 
Sir Robert Peel in 1846.’ Remembering the 
words of the Psalmist, I would rather say, 
‘ Let the righteous rather smite me friendly, 
and reprove me.’ I confess that I bow my 

( 783 ) 








JULY 


1 867 . 


AUGUST 


head to the chastisement which my noble friend 
has thought fit to inflict upon me, and I only 
thank my stars that, after such an exhibition 
of his friendship, I am not likewise to incur his 
hostility. (Laughter.) God help those who 
are subjected to the outpouring of the venom 
of his wrath!” All opposition being withdrawn, 
the bill was read a second time and sent to 
Committee. 

22. —The Empress of the French visits the 
Queen at Osborne. 

— The Scotch Reform Bill read a second 
time without discussion. 

23 . —In a debate concerning the undue 
detention of the Tornado by Spain, Sir R. P. 
Collier hoped that Lord Stanley would insist on 
the termination of all proceedings within a 
reasonable period, because the time was ap¬ 
proaching when the delays which had arisen in 
the case would amount to a denial of justice ; 
in a short time the owners would be in the 
same position as if there had been no trial at 
all. The time had now come for entering on 
a new course of negotiations ; it must be dis¬ 
tinctly understood that there should be limits to 
the arrogance and impertinence of the weaker 
power, and some limit also to the forbearance 
of the strong. 

24 . —Mr. Fawcett’s bill, throwing open the 
Fellowships and Foundation Scholarships of 
Dublin University to students of all denomi¬ 
nations, thrown out by the casting vote of the 
Speaker, the division showing 108 on each 
side. 

25 . —The Tests Abolition (Oxford and 
Cambridge) Bill thrown out in the House of 
Lords on a second reading, by a majority of 
74 to 46. 

— Royal assent given to the bill abolishing 
the Declaration against Transubstantiation. 

26 . —In the course of a debate on the Abys¬ 
sinian captives, Lord Stanley intimates that 
Government had under their consideration a 
variety of schemes for organizing an expedition 
to rescue the prisoners. 

29 . —In committee on the Reform Bill, 
Viscount Halifax’s resolution, declaring the 
redistribution clauses insufficient, rejected by 
100 to 59. Lord Cairns’ amendment to admit 
the occupants of rooms in halls and colleges 
carried by 124 to 76, and a second also pro¬ 
posed by him, limiting the lodger franchise to 
15/. instead of 10/. was earned by 121 against 
89. The Earl of Harrowby’s amendment, rais¬ 
ing the copyhold franchise from 5/. to 10/., 
was carried by no to 56. 

30 . —The Lords in committee reject Earl 
Grey’s proposal to omit the clause of the 
Reform Bill relating to compound householders 
by 143 to 43. Lord Lyttelton’s amendment, 
“ That no one should be allowed to vote who 
could not write legibly,” was rejected without 
a division, as was also the Marquis of Clan- 
ricarde’s for disqualifying borough freemen. 

( 784 ) 


Lord Cairns’ proposal, “ That no person should 
vote for more than two candidates (except in 
the City, of London, when three might be 
voted for),” was carried on a division by 142 
against 5*- 

— The House of Lords give judgment in 
the appeal raised by Mrs. Yelverton, or Long- 
worth, and argued by her at the bar of the 
House, to refer the matters in dispute between 
herself and Major Yelverton to the oath of 
the latter. In defence, it was pleaded that the 
case had already been finally decided ; that the 
rights of third parties were involved ; and that 
it involved a charge of bigamy against the re¬ 
spondent. Judgment was now given that refer¬ 
ence to oath was inadmissible. 

August 1 .—Earl Grey’s resolution raising 
the limit at which towns should return two 
members from 10,000 to 12,000, rejected, after 
a sharp debate, by 98 votes to 86. Lord 
Lyveden’s proposal to disfranchise all boroughs 
with less then 5,000 inhabitants was also re¬ 
jected by 93 to 37. 

2 .—The Marquis of Salisbury’s voting-papers 
clause added to the Refoi'm Bill, by a majority 
of 114 to 36. 

— Debate on Mr. Seymour’s motion, cen¬ 
suring the late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal 
(Sir C. Beadon) for his share in the deplorable 
series of regulations which had so greatly 
aggravated the famine in Orissa. The motion 
was withdrawn after discussion, and the papers 
requested ordered to be laid before the House. 

— Report presented to the Trades Union 
Commissioners by the Examiners appointed to 
inquire into the acts of intimidation and out¬ 
rage committed in Sheffield. It simply de¬ 
tailed the lawless proceeding of the Unions as 
established in evidence, and made no recom¬ 
mendation for their future regulation. 

— On the motion of Earl Russell, the House 
of Lords agreed to restore the lodger qualifi¬ 
cation in the franchise bill to 10/., as originally 
fixed by the House of Commons. 

— The committee on the Ecclesiastical 
Titles Act decide, by the casting vote of the 
chairman, to report that the repeal of the Act 
would in no way enable the hierarchy of the 
Roman Catholic Church to assume any civil 
or temporal precedence within the realms, or 
cause any detriment or inconvenience to the 
State, or to any class of her Majesty’s subjects. 
Mr. Walpole and five others dissented. 

5 . —The League held another Reform de¬ 
monstration in Hyde Park, convened by 
placards headed “to your tents, O Israel,” 
and calling upon the working classes to ex¬ 
press the public indignation at the Parks Pro¬ 
hibition Bill, attempted to be passed through 
an expiring and self-condemned Parliament 
by the enemies of all popular rights ; and also 
to protest against the attempt of the House of 
Lords to rob the lodger of his franchise. The 
gathering turned out to be insignificant and 
harmless. 









AUGUST 


1867. 


AUGUST 


©•—The Reform Bill read a third time in 
the House of Lords, Lord Stratheden making 
an unsuccessful attempt to get a clause in¬ 
serted empowering the House of Commons 
after every general election to find seats for 
persons accidentally excluded, and who might 
be considered of importance to the country. 
In closing the debate on the measure the Earl 
of Derby said : “ I have had the honour of 
holding a seat in one or the other Houses of 
Parliament for five-and-forty years, and during 
that space of time I do not recollect another 
instance of a measure of such vast importance, 
and involving such great and extensive change, 
passing through Parliament with so little dis¬ 
play of party spirit, or so little of acerbity and 
acrimony, as have marked the progress of the 
Bill to which your Lordships have just given 
your assent. ... No doubt we are making a 
great experiment, and taking a leap in the dark, 
but I have the greatest confidence in the sound 
sense of my fellow-countrymen, and I entertain 
a strong hope that the extended franchise which 
we are now conferring upon them will be the 
means of placing the institutions of this country 
on a firmer basis, and that the passing of the 
measure will tend to increase the loyalty and 
contentment of a great portion of her Majesty’s 
subjects.” 

— Mr. Brett’s resolution for an address 
praying that her Majesty would give effect to 
the recommendation to mercy which the Simla 
courtmartial had coupled with its finding 
against Captain Jervis, negatived by 64 votes 
to 48. 

— In addressing a meeting called at Man¬ 
chester to protest against the alterations made 
in the Reform Bill by the House of Lords, 
Mr. Bright described the changes introduced as 
“the offspring and spawn of feeble minds.” 
He condemned and repudiated the whole 
scheme from beginning to end, and said that 
any one who adopted the principle of the re¬ 
presentation of minorities must shake the faith 
and lose the confidence of every true friend of 
reform and of freedom. 

— Sir F. Wilde delivers the judgment of 
the Court of Probate in the case of Smith and 
others v. Tebitt and others. The object of 
the suit was to establish the validity of the will 
(which disposed of nearly half a million of pro¬ 
perty) of Mrs. Thwaites, late of Charmandean, 
Worthing, and Hyde-park Gardens, London, 
and the question involved was, whether certain 
grotesque religious delusions under which it 
was alleged she had for years laboured were 
such as to affect her testamentary capacity. 
It was alleged in evidence that the testatrix 
believed that she was on terms of intimacy with 
the Creator; that she was the third person in 
the Trinity; that Dr. Smith was the Father; 
that they would both assist in the judgment of 
the world, which would take place in her 
drawing-room, which she had furnished at 
great cost, in the conviction that she was there 

(785) 


to give birth to the Saviour. Having referred 
to the alienation from the members of the 
family, and her relations with Dr. Smith and 
his brother, Mr. Samuel Smith, his lordship, 
in conclusion, declared that he could not re¬ 
concile her conduct with the action of a sound 
mind, and that the court should, therefore, 
pronounce against the will. The will left large 
legacies, and made Mr. Samuel Smith, w r ho 
had acted as a sort of manager of her property, 
residuary legatee. The decision now given was 
in favour of the relatives, from whom, while 
living, the testatrix held completely aloof. 

6 .— Frightful outbreak of cholera at Albano, 
Italy. During the evening of this, the first 
day of attack, 117 cases and 15 deaths occurred 
in a population of 6,000. The Queen Dowager 
of Naples was among the early victims. 

8 . —Died at Weybridge, Surrey, in her 74th 
year, Sarah Austin, widow of the author of 
“The Province of Jurisprudence determined,” 
a translator from the French and German, who 
had won the praise of the highest critical tribu¬ 
nals, and an active worker in social schemes of 
practical utility and beneficence. 

— The Commons consider the Lords’ 
amendments on the Representation of the 
People Bill. The first, which altered “rate 
for the relief of the poor ” into “ poor rate ” in 
clause 3, was rejected, as was also the next, 
which gave votes to the resident graduates and 
undergraduates for Oxford and Cambridge 
cities. Clause 5, giving votes to copyholders 
of 5/. annual value, which the Lords had struck 
out, was restored after a division of 235 to 188. 
The clause for restricting the number of candi¬ 
dates to be voted for where there are more 
than two to be elected was agreed to after a 
division of 253 to 204, and 258 to 188. The 
clause providing for the voting by papers was 
rejected by 258 to 206. Several verbal amend¬ 
ments were also agreed to, and a committee 
appointed to draw up the reasons to be assigned 
to the Lords for their dissent. 

— Mr. Gladstone, explaining to a corre¬ 
spondent in New York his statement at the 
Newcastle banquet, that the South had really 
formed itself into an independent nation, 
writes : “ I must confess that I was wrong ; 
that I took too much upon myself in expressing 
such an opinion. Yet the motive was not bad. 
My ‘sympathies’ were then—where they had 
long before been, where they are now—with 
the whole American people. I probably, like 
many Europeans, did not understand the nature 
and working of the American Union. I had 
imbibed conscientiously, if erroneously, an 
opinion that twenty or twenty-four millions of 
the North would be happier, and would be 
stronger (of course assuming that they would 
hold together) without the South than with it, 
and also that the negroes would be much nearer 
to emancipation under a Southern Government 
than under the old system ot the Union, which 
had not at that date (August, 1862) been aban¬ 
doned, and which always appeared to me to 

3 e 








A UGUST 


AUGUST 


1867. 


place the whole power of the North at the 
command of the slaveholding interests of the 
South. As 'far as regards the special or separate 
interest of England in the matter, I, differing 
from many others, had always contended that 
it was best for our interest that the Union 
should be kept entire.” (See Oct. 7, 1862.) 

8 . —The Church Rate Abolition Bill thrown 
out in the Commons by 82 votes to 24. 

12 . —President Johnson dismisses Mr. Se¬ 
cretary Stanton from the War Office. 

13 . —The Sheffield Saw-Grinders’ Society, 
after full deliberation, refuse to expel Broad- 
head and Crookes, on the ground that the 
deeds with which their names stood connected 
were not crimes, but arose from the want of 
properly regulated tribunals for binding work¬ 
men to what was “honourable, just, and good.” 

— Replying to the toast of the House of 
Commons at the Lord Mayor’s banquet this 
evening, Mr. Disraeli propounded the newest 
theory of Toryism : “ I have seen, in my time, 
several monopolies terminated ; and recently I 
have seen the termination of the monopoly of 
Liberalism. Nor are we to be surprised that 
when certain persons believed that they had an 
hereditary right, whenever it was necessary, to 
renovate the institutions of their country, they 
should be somewhat displeased that any other 
persons should presume to interfere with those 
changes which, I hope in the spirit of true 
patriotism, they believed the requirements of 
the State rendered necessary. But I am sure 
that when the hubbub has subsided—when the 
shrieks and screams which were heard some 
time ago, and which have already subsided into 
sobs and sighs, shall be entirely appeased—■ 
nothing more terrible will be discovered to have 
occurred than that the Tory party has resumed 
its natural functions in the government of the 
country. For, my Lord Mayor, what is the 
Tory party unless it represents national feel¬ 
ing? (Cheers.) If it do not represent national 
feeling, Toryism is nothing. It does not de¬ 
pend upon hereditary coteries of exclusive 
nobles. It does not attempt power by attract¬ 
ing to itself the spurious force which may acci¬ 
dentally arise from advocating cosmopolitan 
principles or talking cosmopolitan jargon. The 
Tory party is nothing unless it represent and 
uphold the institutions of the country. (Cheers.) 
For what are the institutions of the country? 
They are entirely in theory, and ought to be 
entirely, as I am glad to see they are likely to 
be in practice, the embodiment of the national 
necessities and the only security for popular 
privileges. (Cheers.) Well, then, I cannot 
help believing that because my Lord Derby 
and his colleagues have taken a happy oppor¬ 
tunity to enlarge the privileges of the people 
of England, we have not done anything but 
strengthen the institutions of this country, the 
essence of whose force is that they represent 
the interests and guard the rights of the people. ” 
(Cheers.) 

(7**) 


13 . —The Public Parks Regulation Bill 
“ talked out ” of the House of Commons. 

14 . —The Cathedral Church of St. Bartho¬ 
lomew, Frankfort, destroyed by fire. 

— Mathilde Frigard, thirty-five years of 
age, tried at the Assize Court, Melun, for the 
mysterious murder of Sidonia Margaret Mer- 
tens in the Forest of Fontainebleau. The 
deceased was understood to be a widow, of 
light habits, and possessed of considerable 
property. Soon after the two became ac¬ 
quainted the prisoner obtained possession of 
certain deposit-receipt books belonging to de¬ 
ceased, and thus became interested in procuring 
her death. Her attention to Madame Mertens 
redoubled. She took her out constantly to 
restaurants, gave her delicious dinners, and 
induced her to drink wines, which always 
brought on a strange kind of drowsiness. On 
May 7, Frigard proposed a trip to Fontaine¬ 
bleau. They arrived at 7 p. m. of that day, and 
passed the night at the Hotel de France et 
d’Angleterre. A letter written by Madame 
Mertens to a M. Lasserre left no doubt as to 
the object of the journey in her mind. The 
next day, May 8, at 7 A.M., the two women 
took a carriage to the forest. The woman 
Frigard returned alone. She inquired if her 
friend had come in, and on being answered in 
the negative, said she had lost her in the forest. 
She then said she would doubtless find her at 
the railway station, and added it was not the 
first time they had parted company when out 
together. She left for Paris by the quarter- 
past six train. For several days following, 
persons going along the Mont Fessart road 
observed, at a point distant about three kilo¬ 
metres from Fontainebleau, a woman lying on 
the grass about twenty-five yards off the road, 
her head concealed by a parasol. At last, on 
May 13, a person who had seen her in the 
same position more than once, suspected some¬ 
thing wrong, went off the road to look closer, 
and found a corpse in a state of decompo¬ 
sition. The body was lying on the back. 
The right hand clutched a handful of grass, 
which seemed to have been torn up in the 
agony of dying. This corpse was that of 
Madame Mertens. She had on her a gold chain 
and several jewels ; but her portemonnaie, in 
which there was at least 300 francs when she left 
Paris, contained only ten centimes. Her keys 
—the keys of her lodgings, and the key of her 
strong box, in which she kept her money and 
papers—were gone. The position of her bonnet, 
gloves, and fan showed that death must have 
surprised her in her sleep. The medical men 
reported that she must have been suffocated by 
a simultaneous pressure on the neck with the 
hand, and on the epigastrium with the knee. 
The jury found Frigard guilty with extenuating 
circumstances. 

15 -—Lord Lyttelton’s Increase of the Epi¬ 
scopate Bill thrown out in the House of Lords 
on the discussion for accepting or rejecting the 
Commons’ amendments. 







AUGUST 


1867. 


A UGUST 


15 . —Royal assent given to the Reform Bill 
by the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Malmes¬ 
bury and Lord Colville acting as Commis¬ 
sioners for that purpose. The proceedings 
were of the ordinary formal and routine kind, 
and attended by only a few members of 
Government. 

— The House of Lords gives judgment in 
the case of Oakes v. Turquand, and Peek v. 
Turquand, representative cases put forward to 
decide the question of liability on the part 
of certain contributories to the company of 
Overend, Gurney, and Co. The two appel¬ 
lants were shareholders, and the question was, 
whether they would be relieved from their 
liability as contributories now that the estate is 
winding up, on the ground, as alleged by them, 
that they had been induced to join the com¬ 
pany by fraudulent misrepresentations. In the 
Court below, Vice-Chancellor Malins thought 
that the directors had been guilty of fraud, 
and if the question had been merely between 
the company and the appellants, he would 
have had no hesitation in coming to the con¬ 
clusion that the latter were entitled to the re¬ 
lief they sought; but whatever might be their 
rights against the company, the petitioners 
could have no right to have their names erased 
from the list of contributories until the whole 
of the debts of the company were paid. The 
Lord Chancellor now affirmed the decree of 
Vice-Chancellor Malins, but with a variation 
as to costs, which must be borne by each of 
the appellants in respect of his own case. 

17 . —Renewal of insurrectionary attempts in 
Spain. Madrid declared to be under martial 
law. 

18 . — Imperial interview at Salzburg be¬ 
tween the Emperor Napoleon and the Emperor 
of Austria, which gave rise to much anxiety 
and discussion, as the object was generally 
reported to be the formation of an anti-Prussian 
alliance. 

19 . —The Greek blockade-runner Arkadi 
captured and destroyed by the Turkish war¬ 
ship Jzeddin. 

— The Royal Commissioners on Ritualism 
agree upon their first report Directing their 
earliest attention to vestments, the Commis¬ 
sioners report that they found that “while vest¬ 
ments are regarded by some witnesses as 
symbolical of doctrine, and .by others as a dis¬ 
tinctive vesture whereby they desire to do 
honour to the Holy Communion as the highest 
act of Christian worship, they are by some 
regarded as essential, and they give grave 
offence to many. We are of opinion that it is 
expedient to restrain, in the public services of 
the United Church of England and Ireland, all 
variations in respect of vesture from that which 
has long been the established usage of the 
said United Church ; and we think this may 
be best secured by providing aggrieved 
parishioners with an easy and effectual process 
for complaint and redress. We are not yet 
(7*7) 


prepared to recommend to your Majesty the 
best mode of giving effect to these conclusions, 
with a view at once to secure the objects pro¬ 
posed, and to promote the peace of the Church; 
but we have thought it our duty, in a matter to 
which great interest is attached, not to delay 
the communication to your Majesty of the re¬ 
sults at which we have already arrived.” R. 
J. Phillimore, Beresford Hope, and T. W. 
Perry signed the report with explanations. 

19 .—Sir D. Brewster writes to the Athenceum 
that the so-called Newton-Pascal correspon¬ 
dence said to have been discovered by M. 
Chasles, and published in the Comptes Rendus , 
must be forgeries. He mentioned, among 
other reasons, that Newton never wrote in 
French; his letters to Varignon and other 
French savants were always in Latin—a state¬ 
ment afterwards corroborated by Professor De 
Morgan, who showed from the philosopher’s 
own admission that at the age of thirty-one he 
could not read French without the continual 
use of a dictionary. (See Sept, io, 1869.) 

21 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
The Royal Speech read on the occasion made 
reference to a peremptory demand addressed 
to the King of Abyssinia regarding the pri¬ 
soners, and which would be supported by 
force if necessary. Among the other measures 
noticed as having engaged the attention of 
Parliament was the Reform Bill, and a hope 
was expressed that the large number of “my 
subjects admitted for the first time to the 
exercise of the elective franchise might dis¬ 
charge the duties devolving upon them in a 
manner worthy of themselves and of the con¬ 
fidence which Parliament had reposed in 
them. ” 

/ — The Queen visits the Duke of Roxburgh 
4 t Floors Castle, on her journey to Balmoral. 

— The Mont Cenis Summit Railway (Fell’s 
system) traversed over its whole length of forty- 
eight miles by an engine and two carriages, 
conveying the engineers and various officers of 
the company. 

22 . —Sixteen journeyman tailors convicted 
at the Old Bailey of illegally practising the 
“picket” system in carrying on the strike 
against the employers. After a suitable ad¬ 
monition from Baron Bramwell, they were 
dismissed upon their own recognizances to 
appear for judgment when called on, with the 
exception of one found guilty of assault in ad¬ 
dition, who was sentenced to three months’ 
imprisonment. 

— The Sheffield magistrates refuse to grant 
a renewal of a public-house licence to William 
Broadhead. He afterwards left England for 
America, but failing to find employment there, 
returned to his associates at Sheffield, and, like 
Spollen of the Broadstone mystery, commenced 
lecturing upon his career. 

24 . —Horrible case of murder and mutila¬ 
tion of a child at Alton. Early in the after¬ 
noon, while a number of children were playing 

3 E 2 








A UGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1867. 


in the meadow near Alton Church, a young 
man came up to the group, and to increase 
their amusement distributed a few coppers 
among them. He spoke in particular to one 
pretty little girl, named Fanny Adams, and, 
according to the story of the other children, 
endeavoured to get her to accompany him into 
a hop plantation close at hand. Exhibiting 
an unwillingness to walk in that direction, he 
lifted her in his arms and carried her off. 
Later in the day she was missed by her 
parents, and on search being made the first 
indication of foul play was the discovery 
of a pool of blood near the entrance to the 
plantation. A little further on the searchers 
came upon the dissevered head of the poor 
child, resting on two hop-poles laid along 
the ground. Within twenty yards, and be¬ 
tween the growing hops, were found a leg 
and thigh, with a stocking and a boot on ; and 
near the same spot the right arm and hand, 
severed from the body, were discovered. A 
little farther to the right the left hand, severed 
from the wrist, was found, and some distance 
below were the mutilated remains of the trunk. 
The other foot, the left, was picked up in a 
field adjoining the hop plantation, where it 
had evidently been thrown with sufficient force 
to carry it over two high hedges and an inter¬ 
vening lane. The left arm was also picked up 
in the same field. At this time the intestines 
and heart were missing, but on the following 
Sunday morning further search was made, 
when both these portions were discovered, the 
former not far from the spot where the trunk 
had been found, and the heart in an adjoining 
field, where it had been thrown. The body 
displayed several stabs and gashes, the ribs 
being severely punctured. The calves of the 
legs and thighs had been completely ripped up, 
and the intestines entirely removed, leaving 
the mere frame of the body only. The 
right ear was picked up in a corner of the hop 
ground by itself. The eyes were found by a 
police-constable floating in the river Wye. 
Suspicion being at once directed against Frede- 
rick Baker, clerk in a solicitor's office, he was 
taken into custody, and several marks of blood 
discovered on his clothes. In his office desk 
was also found a diary, recording, in his own 
handwriting, under date Saturday, 24th August, 
“ Killed a young girl; it was fine and hot.” 
He admitted the writing to be his, and also 
indirectly confessed to the barbarities. “ I did 
not mean to do it,” he said, “but was intoxi¬ 
cated after I saw the women.” The circum¬ 
stances of suspicion were so numerous, and 
bore so directly on Baker, that he was com¬ 
mitted for trial. 

25 . —Died at his residence, Regent’s Park, 
aged 73, Professor Faraday, the greatest of 
modern chemists. 

26 . —When setting out for Lille, the Em¬ 
peror of the French authorized Baron Roths¬ 
child to announce to the financial world, if he 
so pleased, that his intentions were perfectly 

(788) 


pacific. Addressing the President of the 
Chamber of Commerce at Lille, the Emperor 
said, “ Business would progress better if certain 
journals did not exaggerate the situation. I 
hope that commerce will improve with the 
certainty of peace, and I shall do everything 
in my power to re-establish confidence. ” 

26 . —The first engine and train passes over 
the Mont Cenis Railway, the summit elevation 
being 6,700 feet above the level of the sea. 

27 . —The municipal authorities of Paris sup¬ 
press the exhibition of the miraculous cure 
pretended to have been made by the Zouave 
Jacob. 

September 3 .—At a meeting of the Lon¬ 
don Working Men’s Association, concerned in 
organizing a Reform Banquet in the Crystal 
Palace, letters were read from Earl Russell 
and Mr. Gladstone. The former, in declining 
the invitation in consequence of a visit to Ire¬ 
land, said : “It would not be candid of me to 
stop here. I must add, therefore, that I am 
too uncertain what effects Lord Derby’s ‘ leap 
in the dark ’ may produce to be a fit and 
enthusiastic companion for those who wish to 
celebrate the passing of the Reform Bill of 
1867. Other measures unconnected with the 
Reform of Parliament appear to me to be 
necessary to assure the future of this country.” 
Mr. Gladstone wrote: “It appears to me 
that such a celebration as your committee pro¬ 
pose is amply justified by the great extension 
of the franchise which has been given by the 
Act, and that it will tend to create an enhanced 
sense of the duty which it imposes, as well as 
the powers and privileges it confers.” 

4 . —Louis Bardier, a currier, residing in 
Old Kent-road, murders Emma Snow, who re¬ 
sided in his house, and by whom he had three 
children. The murderer committed the crime 
after considerable forethought, and the poor 
victim lived long enough to make a declaration 
that she was awoke by Bardier’s application of 
the knife to her throat. Pie was tried at the 
Central Criminal Court, found guilty, and 
executed on the 15th. 

— Trades Union Inquiry opened at Man¬ 
chester, leading to startling revelations of the 
tyranny practised by many trade societies, but 
most perseveringly and systematically by the 
bricklayers. The outrages particularly spoken 
to by men who had taken part in them were the 
midnight attacks at Rusholm, in April 1862, 
and at Smallshallowfield, near Ashton, in June 
of the same year. 

5 . —The Council of India meet for the first 
time in the new India Office. 

7 .—Count Bismarck issues a circular to the 
diplomatic agents of Prussia in Germany, on 
the subject of the late Salzburg interview. 
He had heard with great satisfaction the 
assurance from the Austrian and French govern¬ 
ments that the visit of the Emperor Napoleon 
I was due to a sentiment which the Prussian 









SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


186;. 


Government honours, and in which it par¬ 
ticipates, and that the interview of the two 
sovereigns retained the character of its origin. 

“ According to these explanations, the internal 
affairs of Germany were not the topic of the 
conversations of Salzburg in the manner which 
the first rumour led us to suppose. This fact 
is particularly fortunate, seeing that the recep¬ 
tion which these rumours and suppositions met 
with in all Germany showed once more how 
insupportable to the German national sentiment 
is the idea of seeing the development of the 
affairs of the German nation put under the 
tutelage of a foreign element, or governed by 
other considerations than those which the 
national interests of Germany demand. From 
the beginning we imposed on ourselves the task 
of directing the current of the national develop 1 
ment of Germany into a channel where it can 
produce not a disturbing but a fruitful influence. 
We have avoided all that could precipitate the 
national movement, .and have sought to im¬ 
prove, and not to excite. These efforts, we 
venture to hope, will be crowned with success, 
if foreign powers will avoid, with equal care, 
everything which can lead the German people 
to believe that they are the subject of foreign 
combinations which would legitimately excite 
their sentiments of dignity and of national 
independence. ” 

8 .— Accident on the Midland Railway, 
caused by a cattle train running into a ballast 
train in the Peak Forest Tunnel. 

— An International Peace Congress as¬ 
sembles at Geneva under the presidency of 
Garibaldi. The discussions were conducted in 
such a disorderly manner that the Conference 
broke up in confusion on the 12th. When the 
peace deputies had taken their departure from 
the Canton, the welcome intelligence was 
spread abroad, ‘ ‘ Geneva is now quiet. ” In 
one of his addresses Garibaldi said, “ It is no 
longer ‘ Rome or death,’ it is ‘ Rome and life.’ 
Our enemies are not the priests only; our chief 
enemy is the French Emperor. There is no 
Italy without Rome. We are told that there 
are 40,000 there. If we make a new appeal 
we shall not be 40,000, but 1,000,000, and 
united with a brave army we shall accomplish 
our redemption. Many of us are accustomed 
to the fire of battle, but we shall not bestow 
the honour of the bayonet on mercenaries and 
priests. We shall bundle them out with the 
butt-ends of our guns.” 

— .The last of the Prussian troops leave 
Luxemburg. 

IO.—The King of Prussia opens the North 
German Parliament with a speech urging still 
closer unity among the various States. 

18 . —Fenian rescue at Manchester, and mur¬ 
der of Police-sergeant Brett. Some days since 
two men were arrested as vagrants in the city; 
and in the course of their examination before 
the magistrate, it turned out that they were the 
two prominent Fenian conspirators known as 


“ Colonel ” Kelly and “ Captain ” Deasy. Re¬ 
manded for further inquiry, they were this after¬ 
noon about to be removed in the police-van to 
the gaol, a short distance from the city. Before 
the van started the police observed some indi¬ 
cations that a rescue was to be attempted. Two 
men were seen hovering in a suspicious manner 
about the precincts of the court, and one oi 
them was apprehended, though not till he had 
drawn a dagger and attempted to wound his 
captor. In consequence of this it was thought 
necessary to put Kelly and Deasy in irons be¬ 
fore taking them to the van, which was guarded 
by eleven policemen. As it proved, however, 
far more formidable precautions were necessary. 
The van had proceeded down Hyde Road to a 
point where it is crossed by a viaduct, when 
a volley was suddenly fired into it, and a party 
of between thirty and forty Fenians, well armed, 
rushed upon the policemen. The attacking 
party appeared to be under the command of a 
man named William O’Meara Allen, who 
received a signal of the approach of the van 
from a man walking along the road with a 
crutch. He stepped into the road, firing a 
revolver, first at the driver, then at a police¬ 
man seated on the box, and subsequently at 
the horses, which were killed. The van, being 
thus stopped, was immediately surrounded, and 
a confused encounter took place, in which the 
police were for a few minutes completely beaten 
off. The sergeant in charge inside the van re¬ 
fusing to open the door, Allen fired a pistol 
through the ventilator, and wounded him so 
severely that he died in a short time. The 
door was then forced open, the keys of the 
inner apartments taken from Brett’s person, 
and the two ironed Fenians liberated from their 
boxes. The attack, as it appeared to a female 
prisoner in the open lobby of the van, was 
thus described : “I heard a sound like a large 
stone being thrown at the side of the van, and 
then a pistol fired, like as it were at the horse’s 
head, in front. Then some one came to the 
back of the van, at the outside, and the trap¬ 
door was opened. It had been open on the 
swivel all the time we were going. Brett closed 
the trap, but did not fasten it. Some one 
came and began to knock at the back of the 
door. Brett looked through the ventilator, 
and said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s these Fenians !’ 
The women began to scream, and said they 
should all be killed. The man outside then 
asked Brett to give him the keys, but he would 
not, although the attacking party promised 
they would do no harm beyond letting two 
men out of the van. Brett said, ‘ No, I will 
stick to my post to the last. ’ Some one then 
on the top of the van got a large stone and 
beat a hole through above Brett. The women 
said, as they were pulling him back, ‘You’ll 
be killed,’ as a stone was then being forced 
into the trap, and Brett could not close it 
again. A man came and put a pistol through 
the trap, as Brett was looking through the 
higher part of the ventilator. I pulled him 
back then, crying, ‘ Oh, Charlie, come away 5 

( 789 ) 







SEPTEMBER 


1867. 


OCTOBER 


look there.’ When I was doing this his head 
came on a level with the trap, and the pistol 
was then discharged. Brett fell in a stooping 
position against the door. Allen came to the 
door and asked for the keys, but we said we 
dare not give them up. He threatened to blow 
our brains out if we did not, when another 
woman took the keys out of Brett’s pocket, 
and handed them through the opening.” The 
police soon succeeded in apprehending Allen, 
and two other prominent actors named Larkin 
and Gould, but Kelly and Deasy managed to 
elude their vigilance. 

19 .—At the harvest-home at Hughenden, 
Mr. Disraeli carefully omitted all allusion to 
party warfare, on the plea that he was not 
“quite up to politics’ in September. His 
address had reference mainly to the cultivation 
of the soil and the improvement of labourers’ 
dwellings. 

_ The new docks at Barrow-on-Fumess 

opened with great display and ceremony, the 
inaugural banquet being attended by the Dukes 
of Devonshire and Buccleuch, Mr. Gladstone, 
numerous members of Parliament, and a host 
of city dignitaries. In the course of the evening 
Mr. Gladstone proposed the toast of “The 
Town and Trade of Barrow,” twenty years 
since a hamlet with a population of less than 
400, but, through the discovery of a rich bed 
of ironstone, was now ringing with the industry 
of 17,000. 

21 .—In answer to the Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury, Dean Stanley writes that he hesitates 
to take upon himself the responsibility of 
granting the use of Westminster Abbey to the 
members of the Lambeth Conference, but he 
would be very glad if they could see their way 
to attend there for the promotion of some special 
object in connexion with home or foreign mis¬ 
sions of unquestioned importance, or “for the 
promotion of brotherly goodwill and mutual 
edification amongst all members of the Anglican 
Communion.” The Archbishop replied, regret¬ 
ting “that we shall not be able to avail ourselves 
of your kind offer under the specified conditions. 
It is obvious from the tenor of your letter that 
the Abbey is not open to us.” 

24 .— The Pan-Anglican Synod commences 
its sittings at Lambeth. The opening sermon 
was delivered by the Bishop of Illinois. There 
were 78 prelates present, of whom 18 were 
English, 9 Irish, 7 Scotch, 23 from British 
colonies, and 21 from the United States of 
America. The subjects discussed were (1) The 
best way of promoting the reunion of Christen¬ 
dom ; (2) The notification of the establish¬ 
ment of new sees ; (3) Letters commendatory 
from clergymen and laymen passing to distant 
dioceses; (4) Subordination in our Colonial 
Church to Metropolitans; (5) Court of the 
Metropolitan ; (6) Questions of Appeal; (7) 
Condition of Union with the Church at home; 
(8) Notification of proposed missionary bishop¬ 
rics ; (9) Subordination of missionaries. In 
connexion with the Conference, a series of 
(790) 


public services took place at the church of 
St. Lawrence Jewry. 

24 . —The Italian Government issue a pro¬ 
clamation, designed to check the Garibaldian 
agitation, which, “ under the glorious name of 
Rome, is trying to force the country to violate 
international stipulations consecrated by the 
vote of the Parliament and the honour of the 
nation. In a free State no citizen can rise 
above the law, or substitute himself in the 
place of the high power of the nation, and 
thus disturb, by violent means, the organi¬ 
zation of the country, and lead her into the 
gravest complications.” 

— Garibaldi arrested in Sinalunga, Arezzo, 
by order of the Italian Government, when 
organizing measures for invading the Ponti¬ 
fical territory. There was a slight attempt at 
disturbance in consequence in several Italian 
cities, but it was put down without bloodshed. 
Garibaldi was taken in the first instance to 
Alexandria, and afterwards permitted to pro¬ 
ceed home to Caprera. 

— Allocution pronounced by the Pope, de¬ 
ploring and rebuking the great injuries and the 
serious wrongs inflicted for several years by 
the sub-Alpine Government, “ in despite of all 
divine and human laws, as well as ecclesiasti¬ 
cal censures and punishments, upon the Catholic 
Church, upon us and this Apostolic seat, upon 
the bishops and ministers, upon the religious 
orders of both sexes, and upon other pious 
institutions. ” 

26 . —The prisoners implicated in the Fenian 
outrage at Manchester examined before the sit¬ 
ting magistrate at the police court Their safe- 
conduct from the city gaol to the court was 
secured by an escort of norse and foot soldiers, 
and the van in which they were confined was 
driven at a rapid pace through the streets. An 
application made by counsel for the removal 
of the handcuffs from all the prisoners was dis¬ 
allowed, on the plea that the police-officers 
were responsible for their safety, and knew 
best what was necessary to secure it. The 
result of the examination was that twenty- 
seven of the prisoners were charged with 
murder, and remanded. 

28 . —McDonnell, a bandsman of the 2d 
Life Guards, shot in Vemon-place, Blooms- 
bury-square, by a person presumed to be act¬ 
ing in Fenian interests. 

30 . —Reform fete at the Crystal Palace. 

October 1 . —In the Church Congress pre¬ 
sently sitting at Wolverhampton an important 
debate takes place to-day on “the best means 
of bringing Nonconformists into union with the 
Church. ” 

2 . —The new docks at Belfast opened by the 
Lord Lieutenant. 

— Lord Brougham writes to the Globe: 
“Lord Brougham has attained his ninetieth 
year, and is anxious about the course things 
are to take after him. His most important 









OCTOBER 


186;. 


OCTOBER 


death-bed legacy is the repression of electoral 
corruptions. These want no new laws, but the 
vigorous improvement of the existing laws. 
The law is clear that the ex-official power is 
sufficient to arm the Government with all 
proper authority.” 

2. —Panic on the French Bourse, originating 
in unfounded reports concerning the Emperor’s 
health, and warlike intentions. 

3 . —In addressing his constituents at Elgin, 
Mr. Grant Duff said that democracy lay before 
them on a not very distant horizon. The wisest 
course for all was to accept the inevitable, and 
take care that all our political and social ar¬ 
rangements should be reviewed during the next 
thirty years. He commented with some seve¬ 
rity on the conduct of Lord Elcho and the 
Adullamite party. “ These more or less moon¬ 
struck gentlemen found a congenial leader in 
a distinguished person, who would seem to 
labour under the strange hallucination that he 
is the dispenser of oracles, ‘ the lord of life, 
and poesy, and light. ’ How is it that he never 
rises even to strike down the peaceable repre¬ 
sentative of Perth without seeming to say, by 
gesture if not by word of mouth, 

‘ I am the eye by which the universe 
Beholds itself, and knows itself divine.’ 

Against two of us North-country members, Mr. 
Dyce Nicol and myself—poor children of the 
Arctic night—humble but harmless creatures— 
this bright being has been of late discharging 
his shafts; but the lightning of Jove hallows 
that which it strikes, and why not the missiles 
of an allied and hardly less exalted divinity?” 

— The Empress of the French and the 
Prince Imperial narrowly escape drowning at 
St. Jean de Luz. 

5 .—Died, aged 67, M. Achille Fould, French 
Finance Minister. 

7. —The advance brigade of the Abyssinian 
expedition leaves the harbour of Bombay. They 
landed at Zulla on the 21st. 

— Dr. Smith, formerly senior physician to 
the Royal Berks Hospital, commits suicide 
while labouring under mental depression. 

— Fire in Stephen’s shipbuilding yard, Dun¬ 
dee, destroying two vessels ready for launching, 
most of the timber in that and an adjoining 
yard, and all the working sheds. The damage 
was set down at 60,000/.. 


9.— Explosion in Hammond’s firework fac¬ 
tory, Canongate, Edinburgh, causing the death 
of five persons, and serious injury to eleven. 
The thickly-peopled tenement in which the 
disaster occurred was destroyed either by 
the violence of the explosion, or the fire which 
succeeded. The city was still further excited 
by a calamitous fire which took place in the 
same neighbourhood the following night, com¬ 
mencing in a tan-yard in Grey’s Close, off 
the High-street, and spreading with alarming 
rapidity among the crowded dwellings ad¬ 


joining. The sense of public insecurity was 
raised to an alarming degree by a rumour, 
circulated during the height of the disaster, 
that a party of Fenian conspirators had set 
fire to the General Post Office, the windows 
of which were lighted up by the conflagra¬ 
tion. 

IO.—The modification of the Concordat 
discussed in the Austrian Lower House of the 
Reichsrath. 

— Earl Russell writes from Raby Castle to 
contradict a paragraph which had appeared in 
the John Bull , that he had fallen down in a fit 
during his recent visit to Ireland. 

— Fire at Dalhousie Castle, near Edinburgh, 
destroying a portion of the building and various 
articles of furniture. 

13 . —Engagement between Garibaldian and 
Papal troops at Monte Libretto. The General 
made his escape from Caprera next day. 

15 . —Scene at Newgate, at the execution of 
John Wiggins, for the murder of Agnes Oaks, 
with whom he lived. He refused to advance 
on to the drop, seized the rope with his hand, 
and kept screaming convulsively for several 
minutes that he was innocent. After a severe 
struggle the warders got the rope out of his 
grasp, and kept him by force on the drop till 
Calcraft made the necessary preparations for 
drawing the bolt. The Frenchman, Bardier, 
was executed at the same time, at Horsemon- 
ger-lane, for the murder of his paramour, Ann 
Snow. 

16 . —At a banquet given at Dublin to Father 
Lavelle, of Partry, the health of the Archbishop 
of Tuam was proposed, as “ a prelate venerable 
in years, mild as a child, pure as a virgin, holy 
as St. Patrick, and patriotic as Heber M‘Mahon 
or Lawrence O’Toole. ” In addressing the com¬ 
pany, Father Lavelle said that resistance to 
authority, simply as such, was never condemned 
by the Irish Church. The only societies ever 
condemned by the Church were those that con¬ 
spired against honest and legitimate authority; 
and, so far from cursing or condemning people 
honestly standing up in their might against un¬ 
just authority, the Church of God in her mercy 
and wisdom bestowed upon them her divinest 
blessing. 

17 . —Lord Derby entertained at a banquet 
in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. In re¬ 
sponding to the toast of “the health of the 
Premier,” his lordship defended the policy of 
the Government with reference to Reform, con¬ 
trasting the stability of the principle on which 
it was settled with the shifting schemes of the 
Opposition, and expressing a belief that classes 
enfranchised by its operation would discharge 
their trust honestly, and with advantage to all 
interests in the kingdom. He had been taken 
to task for describing the measure as “a leap 
in the dark,” but he was not inclined to with¬ 
draw the phrase, though its use by him was 
possibly imprudent. Noticing a current report 
that he intended to resign, Lord Derby said 

(79S) 






OCTOBER 


1867. 


OCTOBER 


he had not the slightest intention of doing 
so. “ At my time of life, with the increasing 
frequency of these attacks, which from time to 
time unfit me for the discharge of public busi¬ 
ness, it is impossible I can look forward to any 
very lengthened period of public service, but 
I have no present intention of relinquishing 
the position which I hold by the favour of my 
Sovereign, and the support of the great Con¬ 
servative party.” 

19 —Tailors’ strike terminated in the metro¬ 
polis. 

21 . —The King of Prussia and the Emperor 
of Austria meet at Oss. 

— John Thomas Bell, otherwise known as 
“the Hon. Mr. Bruce,” sentenced to five 
years’ penal servitude for stealing rings and 
other articles, valued at 800/., from the bed¬ 
room of the Marchioness of Hastings at an 
hotel in Albemarle-street. When arrested, the 
prisoner stated that he met a lady he did not 
know in Bond-street, spoke to her, went with 
her to her house, and was presented by her 
with the rings—a story which, fostered perhaps 
by the magistrate talking of “mystery,” gave 
rise to various scandals. 

22 . —Garibaldi, having escaped from Ca- 
prera, harangues the people of Florence, and 
starts to join the insurgent bands on the Roman 
frontier. He also issued the following pro¬ 
clamation: “Italians! at Rome our brothers 
are raising barricades, and since yesterday even¬ 
ing they have been fighting against the bravos 
of Papal tyranny. Italy expects of us that every 
one will do his duty.” 

— Insurrectionary movement in Rome, lead¬ 
ing to various desultory engagements between 
the Papal troops and insurgent volunteers. The 
most serious feature in the outbreak was the 
blowing up of the Serristori Barracks, which 
led to the death of between thirty and forty 
Zouaves. (See Nov. 24, 1868.) 

— At the adjourned inquest on the body of 
the bandsman M‘Donnell, a female witness 
named Janman, who pretended to have wit¬ 
nessed the attack, broke down in cross-exami¬ 
nation, and a police inspector gave it as the 
result of inquiries at Diss and Chichester that 
she was a “notorious liar and schemer.” 

— Intimation given in the Moniteur that 
France did not intend to proceed with any 
armed intervention in favour of Rome. 

23 . —Intelligence received by the Cape mail 
that Dr. Livingstone had been seen alive be¬ 
yond the scene of his reputed murder. 

—- Special Commission opened at Man¬ 
chester for the trial of the twenty-six Fenian 
prisoners charged with attacking the police- 
van and murdering Police-sergeant Brett. In 
charging the grand jury, Mr. Justice Black¬ 
burn said: “ Not as a matter of law, but as a 
matter of practical common sense, he must say 
it could not be doubted that those who con¬ 
tinued the attack on the police after fire-arms 
( 792 ) 


had been used--continuing to aid and assist 
those who they knew intended dangerous vio¬ 
lence—which did in fact cause the death of 
the unfortunate man Brett, were concerned in 
the common design of using dangerous violence 
against the police, and guilty of murder, though 
they might have had no ill-will against Brett 
individually. It was possible they did not 
know that Brett was in the van—they might 
not even know of his existence—yet still they 
were all responsible for the act that one of 
their company committed in carrying out the 
common design of using dangerous violence 
towards any of the police who might resist 
their efforts in procuring the rescue of the 
prisoners. All who were engaged in the com¬ 
mon design were guilty of murder equally with 
the man who fired the shot. The only diffi¬ 
culty in considering the case was in regard to 
the number of the prisoners concerned in the 
attack. He need not tell them that the case 
against each individual prisoner was to be 
looked at as the evidence bore upon him in 
particular. They would have to look to the 
design, which resulted in the death of Brett,— 
whether the prisoner was doing such acts, and 
conducting himself in such a way, as to lead to 
the conclusion that he was one who had this 
common end in view; and they must consider 
that point in regard to each individual pri¬ 
soner.” The grand jury retired for upwards of 
an hour, and returned with a true bill against 
Allen, Larkin, Gould, Maguire, and Shore. 
An attempt made to remove the trial to the 
Central Criminal Court was at once disposed 
of by Mr. Justice Blackburn as impossible, 
seeing they were there under a Special Com¬ 
mission issued on the advice of the responsible 
advisers of the Crown, and the judges could do 
nothing to contradict or defeat the special object 
for which they were sent. 

23 . —The Emperor of Austria arrives in 
Paris on a visit to the Emperor Napoleon. 

25 . —Circular issued to diplomatic agents 
by the French Government explanatory of its 
position towards Italy, and suggesting a Con¬ 
gress for the settlement of the Roman question. 
“As soon,” it was said, “as the Pontifical 
territory shall be liberated, and security is re¬ 
established, we shall have accomplished our 
task, and we shall withdraw.” 

— General Cialdini being unable to form a 
Government at Florence, the task was under¬ 
taken by General Menabrea, formerly Ambas¬ 
sador at Vienna. 

26 . —A French iron-clad squadron leaves 
Toulon for Civita Vecchia with troops to sup¬ 
port the Pope. 

— Garibaldi, at the head of four battalions 
of volunteers, defeats the Pontifical troops at 
Monte Rotondo. 

27 . —The King of Italy issues a proclama¬ 
tion to put down the insurgents on the frontier, 
as bands “excited and seduced by a party 
without my authorization or that of my Go- 





OCTOBER 


1867. 


OCTOBER 


vernment. . . . The dangers which disorders 
and rash schemes may create amongst us must 
be opposed by maintaining the firm- authority 
of the Government and the inviolability of the 
laws. The honour of the country is in my 
hands, and the confidence the nation has shown 
in me during the saddest periods cannot fail me. 
When calm shall be restored to men’s minds, 
and public order shall be fully re-established, 
according to the vote of Parliament, my Go¬ 
vernment, in agreement with that of France, 
will endeavour with all loyalty to make a prac¬ 
ticable arrangement calculated to put an end to 
the serious and important Roman question. ” 

27 . —The King of Greece married at St. 
Petersburg to the Grand Duchess Olga Con- 
stantinovina. 

29 .— A destructive hurricane sweeps across 
the West India Islands. The first despatch re¬ 
ported the Rhone lost at Peter Island, the Wye- 
at Buck Island, the Conway at Tortola, the Der¬ 
went ashore at St. Thomas, the Tyne and Solent 
dismasted, but serviceable. St. Thomas pre¬ 
sented one wide scene of desolation and death, 
as many as 500 lives being reported as lost. 
The island of Tortola was said to have been 
completely submerged with all the inhabitants, 
and though more exact information showed this 
to be an exaggeration, it was found that little in 
the way of either life or produce had been left 
on the island. 

— Conservative banquet given to Mr. 
Disraeli in the Com Exchange, Edinburgh. 
The hall was crowded, about 1,300 sitting 
down to dinner, and 120 ladies (among whom 
was Mrs. Disraeli) accommodated in a gallery 
at the lower end of the room. In acknow¬ 
ledging the enthusiastic manner in which his 
health had been toasted, the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer took occasion to vindicate the 
Government scheme of Reform, by showing 
that the Conservative party were quite at 
liberty to deal with it, and that they had so 
dealt with it as to make something like a 
permanent settlement. “Seven memorable 
years elapsed, from 1859 to 1866, when Lord 
Derby was called again to power, and during 
these seven years the question of Parliamentary 
Reform was before the public mind and under 
the examination of Parliament. During that 
period of seven years, with the advice—I may 
say under the instructions—of my colleagues, I 
expressed the principles, upon which any mea¬ 
sure of Parliamentary Reform ought to be estab¬ 
lished. Now, mark this, because there are 
things which you may not have heard in any 
speech which has been made in the city of 
Edinburgh. (Laughter.) I had to prepare the 
mind of the country, and to educate—if it be 
not arrogant to use such a phrase—to educate 
our party. It is a large party, and requires its 
attention to be called to questions of this kind 
with some pressure. I had to prepare the mind 
of Parliament and of the country on this ques¬ 
tion of Reform.” Mr. Disraeli made allusion 
to the absence of Sir George Sinclair, who had 


declined to let his name be placed on the Com¬ 
mittee. “ Pardon,” he said, “ some feeling on 
my part, when I remember that it is in conse¬ 
quence of my conduct—in consequence of our 
unprincipled withdrawal of securities, and the 
betrayal of our friends, who insisted upon being 
betrayed, that I miss to-day the presence of 
one of my oldest and most valued friends. I 
should have liked to have been welcomed by 
his cordial heart, and with the ripe scholarship 
which no one appreciated more than myself. 
He has commemorated the withdrawal .of his 
confidence in a letter, which, strange to say, 
has not a quotation. (A laugh.) No one 
could have furnished a happier one. I can 
picture him, Sir—I can picture him to myself 
at this moment, in the castellated shades of 
Thurso, with the Edinburgh Review on one 
side, and on the other the ‘ Conservative Sur¬ 
render.’ (Laughter and loud cheers, which 
were again and again renewed.) The man 
who has written the summary of the session in 
the Edinburgh is not mounted, I fear, on the 
fiery barb of Francis Jeffrey. I should say 
that the article was written by a very clever 
man, who has made a very great mistake. I 
see many gentlemen who have doubtless been, 
as magistrates, like myself, inspectors of 
peculiar asylums. (Laughter.) You meet there 
some cases which I have always thought at the 
same time the most absurd and the most dis¬ 
tressing. It is when the inmate believes that all 
the world is mad, and that he himself is alone 
sane. (Laughter, and loud and continued cheer¬ 
ing. ) But, to pass from such gloomy images, 
really these Edinburgh and Quarterly Reznews 
no one more admires than myself. But I 
admire them as I do first-class, first-rate post- 
houses, which in old days, for half a century or 
so, to use a Manchester phrase, ‘ carried on a 
roaring trade.’ Then there comes some revo¬ 
lution of progress which nobody can ever have 
contemplated. They find things are altered. 
Boots of the ‘ Blue Bell ’ and the chambermaid 
of the ‘ Red Lion ’ embrace, and they are quite 
of accord in this—in denouncing the infamy of 
railroads.” (Laughter and cheers.) Having 
stated his conviction that it was not only the 
interest but the intention of the great Powers 
of Europe to favour permanently the cause of 
peace, Mr. Disraeli concluded: “I am the 
last man who would attempt to depreciate the 
difficulties which a British Minister has to meet, 
or would attempt to exaggerate the qualities 
which my colleagues possess. Indeed, when I 
remember the interests of these British Isles, 
so vast, so various, and so complicated—when 
I even recall to recollection the differences of 
race, which, however blended, leave a very 
significant characteristic—when I recollect that 
the great majority of the population of the 
United Kingdom rise every day and depend 
for their daily sustenance on their daily labour 
—when I recollect the delicate nature of or.r 
credit, more wonderful in my opinion than a.l 
our accumulated capital—when I remember 
that it is on the common sense, the prudence, 

( 793 ) 





OCTOBER 


NOVEMBER 


186/. 


and the courage of a community thus circum¬ 
stanced that depends the fate of uncounted 
millions in ancient provinces, and that around 
the globe there is a circle of domestic settle¬ 
ments that watch us for example and inspira¬ 
tion—when I know that not a sun rises upon a 
British Minister that does not bring him care, 
and even inexpressible anxiety—an unexpected 
war, a disturbed and discontented colony, a 
pestilence, a famine, a mutiny, a declining 
trade, a decaying revenue, a collapse of credit, 
perhaps some insane and fantastic conspiracy— 
I declare I feel very often, I wonder where 
there is the strength of heart to deal with such 
colossal circumstances. (Hear, hear.) But 
when I withdraw from the pressure of indivi¬ 
dual interest, and take a larger and deeper 
view of human affairs, I recognise that in this 
country, whatever may have been the tumult 
and the turmoil of our now almost countless 
generations, there have been three master in¬ 
fluences, that have at all times controlled and 
commanded our powers and passions, and they 
are industry, liberty, and religion. (Hear, hear.) 
So long as this sacred combination influences 
the destiny of this country, it will not die ; 
history will recognise its life, not record its 
decline and fall. (Cheers.) It will say, this 
is a great and understanding people, and it is 
from such materials we make the magnificence 
of the nation establish the splendour of the 
terrestrial globe.” 

30 . —General Menabrea, the new Italian 
Premier, issues a diplomatic note announcing 
that his Government had now authorized the 
advance of troops across the frontier. Three 
days later the following appeared in the official 
Gazette: “The French Moniteur having an¬ 
nounced that the French flag waves upon the 
walls of Civita Vecchia, the Government of the 
King, in conformity with the declarations made 
by it previously to friendly Powers, and in 
view of such an eventuality, has given the 
order to the royal troops to cross the frontier 
and occupy certain points in the Pontifical 
territory.” 

— The French troops, under General Du¬ 
mont, enter Rome. They were said to have 
been silently and sullenly received, but with¬ 
out any open manifestation of hostilities. 

— Freedom of the city of Edinburgh con¬ 
ferred upon Mr. Disraeli. The University also 
honoured him with the degree of LL.D., along 
with Mr. Lowe, M. P., then on a visit to the 
city to address the members of the Philoso¬ 
phical Institution on the subject of “Educa¬ 
tion, Primary and Classical.” 

31 . —Orange demonstration at Hillsborough, 
presided over by the Marquis of Downshire. 
The proceedings were orderly. 

— Died, at Monkston, aged 67, the Earl of 
Rosse, celebrated for the monster telescope 
constructed by himself at Birr Castle. 

— Two police constables shot in Dublin 
early this morning while on duty. 

( 794 ) 


November 1. — A cyclone of great fury 
bursts over Bengal. In the city of Calcutta it 
was reported to be even more destructive than 
that of 1864. It was calculated that as many 
as 1,000 lives were lost, and 30,000 native huts 
swept away. About 3 P. M. the barometer be¬ 
gan to fall, and the wind came down in fierce 
gusts. At dusk it increased slightly in vio¬ 
lence. By 10 p.m. the fastenings of doors and 
windows began to be severely tested, and the 
storm (writes a witness) rushed over the city 
with a fierce, murmuring roar, like a heavy surf 
beating on a shingle beach. This roar never 
lulled till daybreak, but every minute swelled 
up into a tempest of wind and rain, marking 
the approach of furious squalls. The hurricane 
fortunately swept down the river, and had thus 
to battle with the tide, instead of bringing with 
it so dreaded an auxiliary as the storm wave. 
The ships in harbour were therefore enabled to 
ride out the storm with less injury than might 
have been anticipated. 

— Dr. Norman Macleod and Dr. Watson 
entertained at dinner in Willis’s Rooms pre¬ 
paratory to leaving for India as a deputation to 
the Scotch Presbyterian mission there. 

— The Marquis de Moustier forwards a 
despatch to Florence strongly condemning the 
occupation of Papal territory by the King’s 
troops. 

— Conviction of Fenian prisoners at Man¬ 
chester. The evidence for the Crown went to 
show that Allen used a hammer and stones 
upon the door of the van, trying to break it 
open, and that he fired the shot which killed 
Brett, after threatening to shoot him unless he 
gave up the keys. He also shot a constable in 
the leg, and a bystander in the foot; and re¬ 
peatedly threatened to “blow out the brains” 
of any one who came near him to interfere. 
Larkin hammered with a stone at the door of 
the van, and took an active part in the stone¬ 
throwing. He also fired three shots at one 
policeman without effect. Gould fired a shot 
which grazed a policeman’s coat. Shore was 
proved to have thrown stones ; but of Maguire 
it was only established that he was “loafing 
about ” with Allen and Gould before the out¬ 
rage, and handed up stones to a man at the top 
of the van. For others an alibi was set up, 
and, sometimes under the correction of the 
judges, Mr. Seymour did what he could for the 
prisoners by getting the witnesses to contradict 
themselves. After an absence of two hours the 
jury returned a verdict of Guilty against all the 
five prisoners. Allen expressed himself as 
pleased with his position; Larkin said his life 
had been sworn away falsely; Gould claimed 
the protection due to an American citizen. 
Shore and Maguire denied being present, the 
latter referring to the ten years he had spent in 
her Majesty’s navy as a proof that he was not 
likely to be a conspirator. All expressed regret 
for the death of Brett. Sentence of death was 
passed by Mr. Justice Mellor. 










NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1S67. 


1 *—The new Metropolitan Street Traffic Act 
comes into operation. 

2 -—Dinner given to Charles Dickens, in the 
Freemasons’ Tavern, before his departure on 
an American tour. 

3 . —Garibaldi abandons his position at Monte 
Rotondo, with the object, as he explained, of 
first concentrating the volunteer forces at 
Tivoli, and then withdrawing from all active 
participation in the insurrection. “We shall 
now look on,” he said, “as spectators, and 
await the solution which our troops and the 
French army will give to the Roman problem ; 
and, in the event of that solution not being in 
conformity with the wishes of the nation, the 
country will find within itself fresh forces to 
begin again and solve the vital question by 
itself.” 

— Paris Exhibition closed. 

4 . —In addressing the Lord Mayor elect 

(Allen) on presentation, the Lord Chancellor 
said : “ With regard to the rights and pri¬ 

vileges of the Corporation, this is an age in 
which nothing can be expected to stand on 
foundations of mere custom and antiquity. . . 
If anything requires reformation, you will do 
well to apply your mind to it with that view, 
instead of allowing a rude hand to be laid upon 
these rights and privileges, which may sweep 
them away entirely.” The ancient state coach 
was dispensed with this year in the procession. 

— Bread riots at Exeter. The military called 
out, and the Riot Act read. 

— After a series of sharp engagements the 
Garibaldian garrison of Mentana capitulate to 
the united Papal and French troops. 

— Garibaldi arrested at Figline on his 
journey to Caprera, and carried to Spezzia. 
The General protested against the act, and 
claimed the protection due to an Italian deputy 
and an American citizen. He was released on 
the 26th. 

5. —On this and the following evening a 
Garibaldian demonstration, amounting to a 
serious insurrection, takes place in Milan. 

— The Gazette announces the appointment 
of a Royal Commission to inquire into, and 
report upon, the Irish Church, its revenues and 
incumbrances, as well as their management, 
administration, and distribution. 

— Commencement of a series of riots at 
Oxford, arising out of the usual disorderly 
celebration of Guy Fawkes’ Day, combined 
with some irritation at the price of bread. 

— Died, aged 59, Leopold O’Donnell, Duke 
of Tetuan, Spanish general and statesman. 

6 . —The second batch of Fenian prisoners 
at Manchester acquitted of the charge of mur¬ 
der. The remaining lot were dismissed next 
day. 

7. — The Canadian United Parliament of the 
New Dominion opened at Ottawa for the first 
time with great ceremony by Lord Monck. 


8.—Disastrous explosion in the Ferndale 
Colliery, Rhondda Vach Valley, South Wales. 
About 170 men and boys went down in the 
morning to the four-fathom seam, where the 
famous Merthyr steam coal was wrought. 
Things went on as usual till shortly after one 
o’clock, when an explosion occurred which 
shook the pit and set the whole workings in a 
blaze. Three men employed at the bottom of 
the shaft to hitch the trains on the carriage 
were blown away, two of them being killed, 
and the third escaping in an extraordinary 
manner without injury. The blast then ascended 
the shaft with a tremendous roar, and drove the 
men at the top from their posts. As soon as 
the shaft was sufficiently clear to permit of a 
descent being made, an exploring party entered 
the workings, and made the sad discovery that 
there could not be more than two or three 
survivors of all the company of workmen who 
were engaged in the pit. The rolley ways be¬ 
ing blocked up in many places by masses of 
fallen coal, the work of recovering the bodies 
was often difficult, and always dangerous, but 
within a week they were nearly all got at and 
sent to the pit-mouth, which was surrounded 
day and night by distressed relatives and spec¬ 
tators. (See June 10, 1869.) 

11. — Conservative demonstration in the 
Crystal Palace, composed chiefly of the work¬ 
ing men of the metropolis. Lord John Man¬ 
ners addressed the company after dinner on the 
political future of England. 

12 . —Admiral Tegethoff is permitted to 
leave Mexico with the body of the Emperor 
Maximilian. 

15 . —This‘evening the following appalling 
and, as it turned out, exaggerated intelligence 
was received by the Atlantic Cable: “New 
York, November 15, 6 p.m. The island of 
Tortola has been submerged ; 10,000 lives were 
lost.” (See Oct. 29.) 

16 . —The three Fenian leaders, “Colonel” 
Warren, “General” Halpin, and “Captain” 
Costello, found guilty of treason-felony at the 
Dublin Special Commission, were brought up 
for judgment, and sentenced—the two first- 
mentioned to fifteen years’ and the last to 
twelve years’ penal servitude. All three claimed 
to be citizens of the United States, and made 
violent speeches, Warren declaring that he 
“would not give 37 \ cents for a lease of the 
British Constitution.” 

— Died, aged 80 years, Madame de Flahault, 
a prominent member of the upper diplomatic 
circles in Europe, and a grand-daughter of 
Thrale, the friend of Dr. Johnson. 

18 . —The French Chambers opened by the 
Emperor. His Majesty was at pains to declare 
that he “accepts frankly” the changes which 
have taken place in Germany. As to the occ 11- 
pation of Rome, he explained that it was only 
provisional; that the September Convention 
existed for him only till it was replaced by a 
new international act j that he had invited a 






NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1867. 


conference to meet; and that the speedy recall 
of his army might be anticipated. 

18 . —A deputation of Fenian sympathisers, 
headed by one Finlen, force their way into the 
Home Office for the purpose of urging a com¬ 
mutation of the sentence of death passed upon 
the Manchester murderers. Mr. Gathorne Hardy 
refusing to see them, a letter was handed to 
Finlen on the stairs by one of the office- 
keepers, who also intimated that no noisy dis¬ 
cussion could be permitted. Finlen thereupon 
peremptorily ordered him to hold his tongue, 
telling him that he was “ a mere servant of the 
place, and not a member of the deputation.” 
A discussion followed, and several speeches of 
a threatening character were made. Mr. Hardy's 
requests through the door-keeper, that they 
would withdraw, was received with derisive 
groans and hisses. Finlen again addressed the 
wonder-stricken door-keeper, “We are going, 
sir; stand back ; ” then turning to the mob, 
who kept possession of the stairs and lobbies, 
“We will use every effort, thew and muscle, to 
save these men's lives. They shall not be 
sacrificed. I would turn all the Tory Govern¬ 
ments into the sea rather than see these brave, 
plucky, and glorious Fenians immolated in the 
way it is intended to do. (Loud cheers.) Mr. 
Hardy is in that room, and he and his colleagues 
must know that it shall be proclaimed far and 
wide that, if these men’s lives are sacrificed, 
their own lives will not be held sacred, or their 
position as advisers of a good and gracious 
Queen maintained in the face of such paltry, 
bloody, and miserable conduct.” This noisy 
and for the place unprecedented display was 
cut short by the entrance of the police, who 
summarily turned out the intruders while declar¬ 
ing that they would hold torchlight meetings 
nightly, and solicit help from all the large towns 
in the kingdom. 

19 . —Meeting of Ritualists in St. James’s 
Hall to adopt a memorial to the Royal Com¬ 
missioners that it was inexpedient to promote 
any alteration of the existing law, or in any 
way to restrain the lawful liberty of the clergy 
and the right of the laity. 

— Parliament opened by Commission, the 
Royal Speech making mention that it was 
called together at this unusual season mainly 
to sanction the expedition which it had been 
judged necessary to organize for the purpose of 
rescuing the helpless captives in Abyssinia. ‘ ‘ I 
confidently rely upon the support and co¬ 
operation of my Parliament in my endeavour at 
once to relieve their countrymen from an unjust 
imprisonment, and to vindicate the honour of 
my Crown.” Referring to the disturbance in 
Italy, a hope was expressed, now that the ob¬ 
ject for which interference had been made 
was accomplished, that the Emperor Napoleon 
would find himself enabled, by an early with¬ 
drawal of his troops, to remove any possible 
grounds of misunderstanding between his Ma¬ 
jesty and the King of Italy. Reform bills 
were promised for Scotland and Ireland, and 
(796) 


also measures relating to public schools, educa¬ 
tion, mercantile marine, law amendment, and 
the modification of the orders in Council pro¬ 
hibiting the importation of foreign cattle. The 
Address was agreed to in each House without a 
division ; the speakers in the Lower House 
making feeling reference to the illness of Mrs. 
Disraeli, which naturally toned down the spirit 
of the debate. 

21 . —The Fenian convict Shore respited. 

22 . —Intimation made in the House of Com¬ 
mons that the Fenian convict Maguire, con¬ 
demned at Manchester, had not only been re¬ 
spited, but restored to her Majesty’s service. 

— A deputation, consisting of Finlen and two 
other Fenian sympathisers, travel to Windsor 
for the purpose of submitting an address to the 
Queen in person, urging clemency to the Man¬ 
chester convicts. Sir John Cowell and General 
Grey returned their memorial, with an intima¬ 
tion that it must be presented through the 
Secretary of State. 

23 . —Allen, Larkin, and Gould executed at 
Manchester. Every possible preparation was 
made in anticipation of a disturbance, but no- 
thingoccurred callingforthe interference of either 
military or special constables, a large number 
of whom had been sworn in during the week. 
Owing, doubtless, to the earnest entreaties of 
the magistrates, the number of people present 
was greatly under that at ordinary executions. 
Allen stepped on to the scaffold first, and at his 
appearance all noise in the crowd below was 
hushed. Every head was uncovered, and some 
few hands, it was said, were clapped; but 
whether as rejoicing in his execution, or sympa¬ 
thising with the murder he had committed, it 
was impossible to say. The rope was put 
round his neck, his feet were fastened, and the 
white cap drawn over his face amid solemn 
silence. Gould came next, praying, with the 
clergyman, earnestly and fervently. On reach¬ 
ing the drop, he shuffled near to Allen, and, as 
well as his bonds allowed, shook hands with him 
and kissed him through his white cap. It may 
have been that Larkin saw something of this final 
leave-taking between men passing into eternity, 
or possibly that seeing his companions thus 
capped and bound for death unnerved him ; for 
his courage seemed to sink at the last moment, 
and he could barely totter on to the drop. 
Hardly had he done so, and the white cap been 
drawn over him, than he fainted, and fell heavily 
against Gould. In an instant the under-hangman 
seized Larkin and held him upright; while the 
exhortations to bear this last ordeal with firmness 
as an atonement for their great sins were pressed 
upon them in loud prayers. The men turned 
their faces towards the sounds, and gave from 
beneath their white caps muffled sounds of 
earnest responses. In spite, however, of his 
evident efforts, Larkin seemed to grow more 
faint, his knees sunk two or three times, and 
the hangman, hurriedly warning those near at 
hand from the vicinity of the drop, stepped 
back, and casting one professional glance of 






NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1867. 


eager interest to see that all was right, drew a 
little bolt: amid a loud boom the men dropped, 
and the long-suppressed noises of the crowd 
broke out in a subdued muffled hum of terror 
and surprise, above which arose distinctly the 
solemn words of prayer for those that were 
dying. Allen died almost instantly, so also did 
Gould. The sufferings of Larkin, however, 
seemed very great, and it was nearly two 
minutes before he ceased beating the air in in¬ 
effectual struggles. 

23 . —Discussion in Committee of Supply 
upon the credit of 2,000,000/. demanded by 
Government for the Abyssinian Expedition. 
This sum, as explained by the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, was all that could be spent 
within the financial year ; and if King Theo¬ 
dore should surrender the captives without 
actual war, it would about represent the cost 
of placing Sir R. Napier’s force in Abyssinia. 
Any objection offered to the vote was based on 
the allegation that the Government, in defiance 
of the spirit of the Constitution, involved the 
country in a war without consulting Parliament, 
and even after an intimation had been given 
that war might be avoided. The vote was 
agreed to after a somewhat languid discussion. 
The prisoners for whose deliverance the 
Abyssinian force was to operate, were at least 
eight in number—Mr. Cameron, her Majesty’s 
Consul at Massowah, who arrived at Gondar in 
June 1862, accompanied by his secretary, Mr. 
Kerans, and by three servants, named M‘Kelvey, 
Makerer, and Pietro ; the first three of the 
above-named were British, the fourth French, 
the fifth Italian. Mr. Rassam, her Majesty’s 
envoy to Abyssinia, arrived at the Emperor’s 
camp in January 1866, with Lieutenant Pri- 
deaux and Dr. Blanc, attached to the mission ; 
the last two British, Mr. Rassam, a Syrian by 
birth, but British by employment. There were 
thirteen other persons stated to be detained in 
captivity by King Theodore, whose case was 
especially recommended to the British Com¬ 
mander-in-chief, although the military force 
was not proceeding to Abyssinia specifically 
to effect their release. These were, M. Barde 
(French), painter and teacher of languages, 
formerly secretary to Consul Cameron ; Rev. 
H. Stern (Hesse), and Rev. H. Rosenthal 
(Mecklenburgh), missionaries ; Mrs. E. Rosen¬ 
thal, British born ; Rev. Mr. Flad, missionary, 
Mrs. tlad, and three children, all Prussians ; 
Rev. M. Staiger and Rev. M. Brandeis, mis¬ 
sionaries, belonging to Baden ; M. Schiller 
(Prussian) and M. Esler (Hungarian), natural 
history collectors. Lastly, there were European 
workmen in the service of King Theodore, 
with their wives and children, thirty-five in all, 
not known to be imprisoned. 

24 . —Three funeral processions in memory 
of the “Manchester martyrs” traverse differ¬ 
ent portions of London, and assemble in Hyde 
Park to denounce the Government. At the 
conclusion of the speeches all the Roman 
Catholics present knelt down on the grass with 


their heads uncovered, and read the prayers 
prescribed by their Church for the souls of the 
dead, the responses being uttered by the crowd 
with great solemnity. 

25. — Seven members of the family of 
Edward Cook suffocated in a fire which took 
place within a farm-house at Middlewich, 
Cheshire. 

26. —The Donro arrives with the West India 
Mail, and full accounts of the disastrous hurri¬ 
cane at St. Thomas and other islands on the 
29th ult. 

27. —The Evangelical party meet in Willis’s 
Rooms to form a Church Association “ to 
defend the menaced faith of the Protestant 
Church of England.” 

28. —The House of Commons vote an ad¬ 
dition of a penny to the Income-tax to defray 
the expenses of the Abyssinian Expedition ; 
and by a large majority sanction the payment 
of the Indian troops engaged out of Indian 
revenues. 

29. —Commencement of a debate in the 
French Senate on the Roman Question, Car¬ 
dinal de Bonnechose taking advantage of the 
occasion to describe Garibaldi as “ the evil 
genius of the Italian peninsula.” The Arch¬ 
bishop of Bordeaux asked if his hearers did 
not perceive in the attack on the temporal 
power “ a threatened subversion of all morality, 
without which the elements of civilization 
would be confounded in an infernal chaos.” 

— The Greek war steamer Bubulino , lying 
in the Mersey, blown to pieces by the explo¬ 
sion of her boiler. Several of the crew were 
killed, and nearly all injured. 

December 1.—Commencement of a severe 
storm which extended over the greater part of 
England on this and the two following days. 
The destruction to shipping along the north-east 
coast was considerable. 

2 . —In the House of Lords, Earl Russell 
moves a series of resolutions relating to educa¬ 
tion, pressing for its extension among the 
middle and working classes, and the appoint¬ 
ment of a Minister of Education, with a seat 
in the Cabinet. The discussion was closed by 
moving ‘ ‘ the previous question. ” 

3. — The London cabmen strike w r ork at 
four o’clock this afternoon, as a demonstration 
against the provision of the Metropolitan Street 
Traffic Act which required a lamp to be carried 
after dark. At a preparatory meeting in Exeter 
Hall, a deputation was appointed to wait upon 
the Home Secretary next day, and on his under¬ 
taking to introduce a clause into the Bill, con¬ 
ferring a discretionary power upon himself as 
to the use of lamps, the cabs were again placed 
on their stations. 

— The French flag formally lowered at 
Rome. 

— It is publicly announced to-day that l)r. 

( 797 ) 







DECEMBER 


186; 


DECEMBER 


SeUvyn, Bishop of New Zealand, is to be 
transferred to the vacant see of Lichfield. 

4 . — In the debate on the Roman Question in 
the Corps Legislatif, M. Thiers said: “No 
sovereign should create voluntarily on his own 
frontier a state of twenty-five millions of in¬ 
habitants. By committing such a fault we 
have not promoted either the welfare of France, 
Italy, or Europe. Italy, in becoming a great 
monarchy, at the same time becomes a dis¬ 
turbing agent, and an instrument of revolution. 
The Germanic Confederation, which for fifty 
years was the principal authority for maintain¬ 
ing the peace of the world, has disappeared, 
and has been replaced by a military monarchy, 
which disposes of forty millions of men. You 
are placed between two unities, one which you 
made, and the other which you permitted. 
They are joining hands over the Alps, and only 
consent to preserve peace on condition that you 
allow the one to complete itself by seizing on 
the States of the Pope, and the other to 
swallow up the German Governments of the 
South. ... We have made no one happy, 
neither the Pope, nor Italy, nor France. You 
have not placed the Pope out of the reach of 
danger, and you have deprived Italy of her 
strength by removing her crown from the 
strong city of Turin to the soft and pleasant 
city of Florence, which received it with a 
smile. Sicily is absolutely detached from the 
Government; Naples ready to rise; Milan 
unsettled; and Turin, irritated, speaks openly 
of destroying Italian unity. And that unhappy 
King, enclosed in the Pitti Palace—built for 
the Medici, and not for the wolves of Savoy— 
not daring to return to his native country, where 
his statutes are overthrown, he is well punished 
for having played the Mazzinian part of the 
overthrower of thrones.” Towards the close 
of the debate, M. Rouher created an ex¬ 
traordinary sensation by plainly announcing 
that Italy would not be permitted to seize upon 
Rome. France would never submit to such a 
violence on her honour and on Catholicity in 
general. “ She demands from Italy the rigor¬ 
ous and energetic execution of the Convention 
of September ; and if this be not conceded, 
she will supply the deficiency herself.” M. 
Rouher afterwards explained, amid increasing 
confusion, that by Rome he intended to speak 
of the present Pontifical territory in all its 
integrity. The vote showed that the policy of 
Government was approved of by 237 to 17. 

— Came on, in the Court of Arches, the 
case of Martin v. Mackonochie, involving the 
legality of the ritualistic practices at the church 
of St. Alban’s, Holborn. 

5. —Debate on the Abyssinian Expedition 
in the House of Lords, occasioned by the 
Earl of Derby asking the concurrence of their 
lordships to the resolution of the Commons 
proportioning the expense to be charged to 
India. The Earl of Ellenborough said he 
viewed the expedition with the deepest regret, 
because it would be impossible for the troops 

( 798 ) 


to keep up their communication with the sea, 
and it would otherwise be likely to draw us 
into great and serious complications. 

5 . —Personal explanations in the House of 
Commons regarding a missing letter said to 
have been sent to the Queen by King Theodore, 
and lost in the Foreign Office during the Secre¬ 
taryship of Mr. Layard. The latter com¬ 
mented with some asperity on the remark made 
by Dr. Beke, that he had given instructions to 
leave Mr. Stern in captivity on account of a 
personal quarrel. 

— The King of Italy grants an amnesty to 
all engaged in the invasion of the Papal 
States. 

6 . —Her Majesty’s Theatre, Haymarket 
(the Opera-house), destroyed by fire. Shortly 
before 11 P.M., people in Pall-mall and Re¬ 
gent-street were startled by an immense body 
of flame darting out from the roof of the 
theatre, and in less than ten minutes the entire 
building was seen to be one mass of fire. 
The wind was blowing strongly from the 
north-east, and the immense body of fire 
poured forth from the burning theatre like a 
volcano, emitting a thick shower of fiery 
flakes, which covered the roadways and pave¬ 
ments of the adjoining streets. When the 
engines arrived soon after eleven, the flames 
had taken possession of the houses on each 
side of the Opera Arcade, and the houses in 
Pall-mall, opposite the United Service Club ; 
and at these points the firemen, mounting the 
colonnade in front of the houses, began to 
pour great bodies of water on the burning 
mass. At half-past eleven the fire had reached 
its most destructive aspect. The great height 
of the theatre caused the flames to be visible 
at a long distance ; and by their light, masses 
of peQple could be seen blocking up the whole 
of the approaches to the building, while every 
window, house-top, and available space was 
also filled with spectators. At one o’clock the 
fire in the south portion of the theatre had 
burnt itself out, and the firemen were enabled 
to direct the whole of their efforts to the houses 
in Pall-mall. By this means the further spread 
of the fire in that direction was prevented. 
Mr. Mapleson, the lessee, lost property esti¬ 
mated at 12,000/., and Madame Titiens 1,000/. 
in jewellery. The grand organ, which cost 
800/., and all the stage scenery and decorations, 
painted for the most part by Telbin, Grieve, 
and Callcott, were destroyed. Mr. Graves, 
print-seller, was among the sufferers, the fire 
having extended to his galleries in Pall-mall, 
and destroyed many paintings of great interest 
and value. The fire was thought to have 
originated in the overheating of flues under 
the stage. 

— The advanced brigade of the Abyssinian 
Expedition reaches Senafe. The natives were 
reported to be friendly in their behaviour, and 
offering supplies. Water abundant. 

7 . —Parliament adjourned till February 13, 







DECEMBER 


1867. 


DECEMBER 


7 . —A resolution for the impeachment of 
Fresident Johnson defeated in the House of 
Representatives by 108 to 57 votes. 

8 . —The Pope signs a bull convening the 
universal Episcopate for an CEcumenical 
Council, to assemble at Rome in December 
1869. 

— This (Sunday) afternoon, a monster 
funeral procession paraded the streets of 
Dublin, in celebration of the execution of the 
Fenian “ martyrs.” An address was delivered 
at the Glasnevin Cemetery, by John Martin, 
of ’48 notoriety, who denounced England, and 
English rule in Ireland, with much bitterness. 
Other processions of a similar character took 
place at Middleton and Skibbereen, and in one 
or two English towns. 

— The Roman Committee issue a document 
proclaiming Victor Emmanuel King in the 
capital. 

10. —Sir Eardley Gideon Culling Eardley, 
Bart., brought up at Bow-street upon a war¬ 
rant, charging him with having, on the 12th 
September, married a lady named Elizabeth 
Allen, his former wife, Emily Florence, whom 
he had married at New Yoi’k in 1859, being 
still alive. He was tried at the Central Crimi¬ 
nal Court, Jan. 18, found guilty, and sentenced 
to eighteen months’ imprisonment with hard 
labour. 

11 . —About mid-day the authorities in Scot- 

land-yard received an anonymous note : ‘*1 

have to report that I have just received in¬ 
formation from a reliable source, to the effect 
that the rescue of Richard Burke from prison, 
in London, is contemplated. The plan is to 
blow up the exercise wall by means of gun¬ 
powder ; the hour between 3 and 4 P. M. ; and 
the signal for ‘ all right,’ a white ball thrown 
up outside when he is at exercise.” This 
information was at once communicated to the 
Governor of the House of Detention, and 
police arrangements made to counteract the 
conspiracy; but the officers placed on duty, 
notwithstanding the suspicious proceedings of 
which they were witnesses, appeared to think 
that the attempt, if made at all, would be in 
the way of undermining or blowing up the 
wicket-gate. 

12 . — An American Fenian “ Senate ” issue 
an address “to the liberty-loving people in 
England, in view of the efforts made by some 
of the leading English Liberals to save the 
lives of the men lately executed in Manchester, 
and to show to the English people that the 
hostility of Irish nationalists is directed not 
against them, but against the tyranny under 
which the people of England and Ireland both 
suffer.” 

— Frederick Baker tried at Winchester 
Assizes for the barbarous murder and mutila¬ 
tion of the child Fanny Adams, at Alton, on 
the 24th August last (p. 787). The only defence 
set up was a plea of insanity spoken to by 
relatives. A verdict of Guilty was returned, 


and Mr.-Justice Mellor sentenced the prisoner 
to death, which sentence was carried into effect 
on the morning of the 24th. Baker left a 
written confession of his frightful crime. - 

12 . — Proclamation issued from Dublin 
Castle, prohibiting funeral processions arranged 
to “honour certain persons lately executed at 
Manchester for the crime of murder.” 

13 . —Fenian outrage at Clerkenwell House 
of Detention, to rescue the prisoners Burke 
and Casey. At about a quarter before four 
o’clock in the afternoon some persons were 
seen to wheel a barrel into the thoroughfare 
called Corporation-lane, one side of which for 
some distance is formed by the prison-wall. 
About midway along, the barrel was set down 
on end and covered with a piece of tarpauling. 
This was seen by many people, and the police 
at this very moment were on special duty round 
the walls of the prison, having got information 
that an attempt of some kind was to be made 
against it. What followed was also seen by a 
few, though the quickness of movement among 
the conspirators led to some confusion in 
actually identifying them. One man was seen 
to cross from the side opposite the barrel, 
place a squib or fuse in the end, and coolly 
apply a match, after which he hastened along a 
narrow court leading out of the lane; in 
another moment the explosion ‘followed. The 
wall, for sixty yards, heaved and shook and 
fell inwards with a loud crash. Had Burke or 
Casey been taking exercise at the time, as was 
anticipated, they could hardly have escaped 
injury ; but from information communicated to 
the Governor they were then locked up in 
their cells. The tenements opposite the prison- 
wall were crowded with poor occupants, who 
felt themselves in one moment engulfed in the 
ruins of falling walls and heavy timber. Some 
of the houses were blown to pieces; others 
had their fronts tom down ; and for a wide 
circle there was not a whole window to be 
seen. An explosion of this magnitude, heard 
as it was not only over the metropolis, but for 
miles around it, at once drew effective help to 
the spot, and eager workers were soon engaged 
in the painful task of removing the dead and 
injured to the neighbouring hospitals. .Six 
persons were killed outright by the explosion, 
six more died from its effects, and 120 people 
were wounded. The locality was early taken 
possession of by the police, aided by a small 
military force, and none except those engaged 
in the work of rescue permitted to enter. Next 
morning the Chancellor of the Exchequer sent 
a responsible messenger, with 500/. of public 
money, to meet the most immediate wants of 
the survivors. The Queen was, as usual, 
benevolently active and anxious in her inquiries 
regarding the wounded in the hospitals—the 
larger portion of whom were women and 
children. The outrage created such a feeling 
in the metropolis that it became dangerous for 
any person to be known as in the slightest 
degree associated with members of the Fenian 
brotherhood or their guilty transactions. Three 

( 799 ) 









DECEMBER 


1867. 


DECEMBER 


parties were instantly seized on suspicion of 
being concerned in the conspiracy : Timothy 
Desmond, a tailor by trade ; Jeremiah Allen, 
bootmaker; and Ann Justice ; all of whom 
had been in the habit of visiting the prisoners 
in the House of Detention, and were known to 
have been in or about Corporation-lane a few 
minutes before the explosion. Government 
offered a reward of 300/. for the conviction of 
the principal criminal—the man who actually 
fired the match—and 100/. for the conviction 
of any accomplice. 

14 . —On the Fenian prisoners, Burke and 
Casey, being brought up at Bow-street to-day, 
Dr. Kenealey, their counsel, announced that 
he felt constrained to retire from their case. 
He did not intend to impute that the prisoners 
had any complicity in the crime of Friday 
night, but he could not disguise from himself 
that those who instructed him may be probably 
supposed to sympathise with that outrage, and 
that it was their duty to satisfy him that they 
were not concerned in the act; as they had not 
done so, he must commit the defence of the 
prisoners to other hands. 

17 .— Explosion of nitro-glycerine on New¬ 
castle Moor, whither it had been conveyed 
from the town to be cast into a waste gully. A 
policeman and. two carters were blown to 
pieces; Mr. Bryson, town surveyor, was in¬ 
jured so severely that he died in a few days ; 
and the sheriff, who had accompanied the party 
in an official capacity, was also much hurt. 
The public mind was so excited at this time 
that it naturally connected the secret storing of 
the inflammable compound in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the local branch of the Bank of Eng¬ 
land with Fenian schemes; but it was not 
established, on full inquiry, that it was destined 
for any other than mercantile purposes. 

19 . —Sir Henry Storks made Comptroller- 
in-Chief at the War Office. 

— In consequence of the alarming rumour 
regarding Fenian risings in the metropolis, 
large numbers of the inhabitants are on this 
and following days sworn in as special con¬ 
stables at the different police offices. 

20 . —Papal Allocution. “ While Satan, 
his satellites and his sons, do not cease to set 
loose in the most horrible manner their fury 
against our divine religion, against us, and 
against the chair of St. Peter, to vex and 
torment the population of most unhappy Italy 
—so long devoted to us—the God of mercy 
and of goodness manifests Himself in the most 
ostensible and admirable manner to His Church. 

. . . You are aware, venerable brethren, how 
our soldiers, who are deserving of all praise, 
distinguished themselves by their fidelity ; with 
what admirable courage they fought against 
the bands of those criminal men, and how 
gloriously they fell on the field for the sake of 
the Church. Nor are you ignorant that the 
most august and most powerful Emperor of the 
noble and generous French nation, considering j 

(800) 


the serious dangers that surrounded us, sent his 
valiant soldiers, who, as well as their dis¬ 
tinguished commanders, with the utmost zeal 
and ardour, especially in the combats of 
Mentana and Monte Rotondo, rejoiced to come 
to the aid of our soldiers, to fight courageously 
in their ranks, and brave death for the Holy 
See, thus covering their name with glory.” 

20.—In the action for libel raised by Mr. 
Rigby Wason against the Tunes , arising out of 
the petition presented to the House of Lords 
by Lord John Russell against the Lord Chief 
Baron, the jury to-day returned a verdict for 
the defendant. 

22 . —The Italian ministry resign, in con¬ 
sequence of a defeat on their Roman policy by 
201 to 199 votes. General Menabrea undertook 
the formation of a new cabinet. 

23 . —The Roman Catholic Dean of Limerick, 
and eighteen of his brother priests, issue a de¬ 
claration on the grievances of Ireland, in which 
they conclude, first, that Ireland is poor and 
helpless, not by any fault of the Irish race, but 
by the force and fault of English legislation. 
Secondly, that the said English legislation 
exercised its power not only in pauperising 
Ireland for a season, but in destroying nearly 
all the sources of Irish national wealth, and 
thus making poverty a permanent condition of 
the country. Thirdly, that the danger to public 
order, both at home and abroad, has been 
produced by said poverty and degradation. 
Fourthly, that the very nature of the remedies 
required to make Ireland rich and contented 
renders it impossible for a British Parliament 
to adopt and apply them ; and, besides that, 
home aspirations and the plea for Irish inter¬ 
vention from abroad can never be met unless 
by restoring Ireland her nationality—re-estab¬ 
lishing the Sovereign and the Lords and Com¬ 
mons of Ireland. 

27. —Died at her residence, Richmond- 
terrace, Whitehall, aged 69, Maria, Countess 
of Harrington, formerly Miss Foote, a popular 
actress of the Kemble and O’Neill period. 

— A party of Fenians seize a Martello 
tower at Queenstown, occupied by two coast- 
guardsmen, and carry off unnoticed about 300 
lbs. of gunpowder. 

28 . —Explosion at Hall’s powder-mills, 
Faversham, three buildings being blown up in 
succession and eleven lives destroyed. Beyond 
the fact that the accident commenced in the 
“ corning” mill, no explanation of its origin 
was ever ascertained, as all the witnesses 
perished in the disaster. For a time it was 
feared that the “glazing’’-house and magazine 
would also blow up, as the powder in the 
former was lying about in heaps, and the six 
feet thick walls, much shaken by the con¬ 
cussion, were also greatly heated. Large elm- 
trees were tom up by the force of the explosion ; 
in other places the ground was ploughed up into 

| furrows, and the river front of the premises 




DECEMBER 


1867-68. 


JANUARY 


entirely swept away. Only small portions of 
the remains of the workmen were recovered, 
and hardly any could be identified. 

28 .—Died at Paris, aged 62, Baron Maro- 
chetti, R.A., sculptor. 

30 . —In Cork, a party of eight Fenians enter 
the shop of Allpott, gunsmith, and in broad 
daylight, in a crowded thoroughfare, and with¬ 
out the slightest opposition even in the way of 
raising an alarm, gather up sixty revolvers, 
with 1,500 lbs. of gunpowder, and walk off 
with their plunder. 

31 . —Rev. J. J. Hornby elected Head Master 
of Eton College in room of Dr. Balston, re¬ 
signed. 

1868. 

January 4-. —Sir Robert Napier lands in 
Annesley Bay, and proceeds to the front. 

6 . —Grand banquet at Naples in honour of 
the Italian statesman Rattazzi. 

— The American House of Representatives 
• pass resolutions thanking General Sheridan 
for his services, and censuring President 
Johnson for removing him from his command ; 
also one ordering the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs to take immediate action in the mal¬ 
treatment of American citizens by the British 
authorities in Ireland. 

7 . —Generals Woodford, Gomm, Ross, and 
Burgoyne, four Peninsular veterans, gazetted 
to be Field-Marshals. 

8 . — The sudden and mysterious disappear¬ 
ance of the Rev. B. Speke creates an uneasy 
excitement in the metropolis, which was no 
way lessened by the circumstantial statements 
sent out by his friends as to his regular habits 
and exemplary life. He arrived in London 
this evening with the avowed intention of 
attending a friend’s wedding, was known to 
have made at least one call, and purchased a 
hat, but afterwards left no trace of his proceed¬ 
ings. A reward of 500/. was offered for his 
recovery. He was discovered about the close 
of February at Padstow in Cornwall, habited 
as a bullock-driver, and apprehended as a 
person named Ayre whom the police were 
“ wantirig” at Hull. His sudden disappearance 
was said to be owing to the suffering he ex¬ 
perienced from hypochondriasis. 

9. —The Fenian prisoners, Burke, Casey, 
and Shore, or Mullady, finally examined at 
Bow-street, and committed for trial at Warwick 
Assizes. 

11.— The Pope withdraws two briefs of 
rebuke pronounced in June 1866, and Sep¬ 
tember 1867, against Cardinal Andrea, and 
restores him to the Bishopric of Sabine. 

15.—The Guardian intimates that the Rev. 
W. Macrorie, incumbent of Accrington, had 
accepted the nomination to the Bishopric of 
(8oi) 


Natal, subject to the approval of the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury. 

15 . —The United States Senate reinstate Mr. 
Stanton as Secretary of the War Department. 

— Michael Barrett and James O’Neil, appre¬ 
hended in Glasgow for unlawfully using fire¬ 
arms on the Green, turn out, on examination 
before the magistrates, to be prominent mem¬ 
bers of the Fenian conspiracy, and are re¬ 
moved to London in custody. They were 
there identified as being concerned in the 
Clerkenwell explosion, Barrett being distinctly 
sworn to as the man who fired the barrel. 

— Among those who applied for adjudica¬ 
tion in bankruptcy at the Essex County Court 
was Matilda Griggs, aged seventeen, the young 
woman who on the 23d April last was the 
victim of what was known as the Buckhurst 
Hill tragedy. She was detained in custody to 
satisfy a claim by the Crown of 40/., the amount 
of recognizances entered into by her to appear 
and prosecute Watkins, who first seduced and 
then tried to murder her. After describing the 
attack made upon her, the manner in which she 
passed the night between the calves, and the 
intention she still had of marrying Watkins as 
being the cause of her reluctance to prosecute, 
the Registrar said that as she was not a trader 
he could not deal with her petition at present, 
and she must remain in gaol. Public attention 
having been drawn to the case, the claim of 
the Crown was paid by private generosity, Mr. 
Ruskin and Mr. Brown, of Bond-street, having 
the honour of sending each the full amount. 

— Education Conference opened at Man¬ 
chester. The chief points discussed were—- 
Compulsory Rating, Secular Schools, the ope¬ 
ration of India Civil Acts, and compulsory 
attendance. A committee was appointed to 
frame a bill on the subject. 

16 . —Disturbances in Japan, the three lead 
ing princes, Satsuma, Choisy, and Soso, seizing 
the young Mikado and taking possession of 
Yeddo. 

— The body of the Emperor Maximilian 
received with honour at Trieste. 

17 . —The notorious George Francis Train 
arrested as a Fenian on the arrival of the 
Scotia at Queenstown. He was soon after 
liberated, and commenced a career of abuse 
against the Government, which was cut short 
by his being again arrested by his English 
creditors. 

— In order to put an end to extensive com¬ 
peting schemes promoted by rival companies, 
the Caledonian and North British Railway 
Directors enter into an agreement to work 
their lines under a joint-purse arrangement. 

18 . —Intelligence received that the Living¬ 
stone Search Expedition had returned satisfied 
that the great traveller was not killed, as 
the Johanna men reported, but that they had 
deserted him when setting out from Marenga. 
They obtained traces of him further on, and 

3 r 






1868. 


FEBRUARY 


JANUARY 


were on the whole satisfied that he was still 
alive, and would probably return by the Nile. 

18 . —The Fenian leader Clancy captured in 
Tottenham Court-road by two police officers. 
He threw one of them down and attempted to 
shoot the other ; but the chase was continued 
till he was run down in Bedford-square. On 
the road to George-street station he said, “ I 
think I have had a very good battle and fought 
a fair duel, and I am only sorry I have not got 
payment for it.” 

— Seditious Fenian placard posted on the 
front of the Mansion House. 

— The remains of the Emperor Maximilian 
deposited in the Imperial crypt of the Capuchin 
Church at Vienna. 

20 . —Public intimation having been given 
that the Metropolitan of Capetown intended 
to consecrate—in Scotland or elsewhere—an¬ 
other Bishop of Natal in room of Dr. Colenso, 
the Bishop of London remonstrates with him 
on the impropriety and irregularity of the step., 

21 . —Miss Milboume murdered in her resi¬ 
dence, Heneage-street, Manchester, by three 
men, who also robbed the house of all the 
valuables they coilld secure. 

22 . —Fire at the Royal Military College, 
Sandhurst, destroying the left wing of the 
quarter occupied by the officers. 

— Banquet to her Majesty’s Ministers at 
Bristol, presided over by the Duke of Beaufort. 
The principal speakers were Lord Stanley, Sir 
J. Pakington, and Mr. Hardy, who enlarged 
upon the late Reform measure, the Irish Church 
question, and the Abyssinian expedition. 

— Died at his residence in London, aged 
59, Charles Kean, actor. 

— Writing on th z Alabama claims, “ His- 
toricus ” thus concludes an elaborate argument 
in the Times: “Is the question whether a 
state of civil war did exist in the United States 
before the issue of the Queen’s proclamation of 
May 13, 1861, a matter upon which any one 
either in England or America is entitled to 
entertain a reasonable doubt ? I have shown 
what Mr. Seward, the recognised organ of the 
American Government, said at the time when 
the events were in progress. I have quoted 
the decision of a Court which is not only the 
supreme judicature of America, but the final 
judge of the Constitution. If, in the teeth of 
such admissions, a Government is entitled to 
resuscitate a State claim, where is to be the end 
of liquidation ? If, when you have not only got 
in writing the concession of your adversary that 
he has no claim against you, but have, further, 
a judicial decision in his own country, recorded 
at his instance, which authoritatively disproves 
his pretensions, you are again to submit the 
same question to arbitration, what subject is 
left on which you are safe from persecution ? 
I can only say that a nation which, under such 
circumstances, should voluntarily submit itself 
to unreasonable vexation, would amply deserve 
(So 2) 


the unjust and perpetual oppression which it 
would infallibly invite.” 

23 . —Conference at the Society of Arts on 

the subject of technical education. The pro¬ 
gramme discussed included : 1.(0) The ne¬ 

cessity for an improved national education for 
the working classes generally. ( b) Improved 
primary education, and the measures necessary 
for securing the same, (c) Additional facilities 
in primary schools for affording elder children 
the means of learning the elements of scientific 
knowledge. 2. The necessity for the establish¬ 
ment of schools for technical and industrial edu¬ 
cation in relation to science and art, in which 
pupils, after leaving the primaiy schools, may 
obtain instruction suited to the special industries 
with which they may be connected as workmen, 
foremen, or managers. 3. The best means for 
securing the object 4. How far technical edu¬ 
cation can be promoted by the aid of existing 
educational endowments. 

24 . —Violent storm, extending over the 
greater part of the island. On the. west coast 
the wind-gauge showed a sudden rise in the 
pressure from 7 lbs. to 42 lbs. per square foot, 
while the velocity rose from 11 miles an hour 
to an average of 62 and in some of the fiercest 
gusts to 100 miles an hour. 

February 1. —Came on for hearing, in the 
Court of Queen’s Bench, before the Lord Chief 
Justice and a special jury, the action raised by 
the Countess D’Alteyrac, to recover certain 
goods and furnishings from Lord Willoughby 
D’Eresby. The plaintiff was the divorced wife 
of Count d’Alteyrac, of high family and posi¬ 
tion in France, and an officer in the French 
Navy; and the defendant was Grand Chamber- 
lain of England. The parties became acquainted 
in Paris in 1847, and in 1849 they lived toge¬ 
ther as man and wife in London, and continued 
to do so until 1864, when a disagreement took 
place between them. A daughter, the result 
of the cohabitation of the plaintiff and defend¬ 
ant, was now living, and her education had 
been superintended by the defendant. The 
latter, after the separation, sold all the pro¬ 
perty at Caen Lodge, Twickenham, for 8,000/., 
which property the plaintiff claimed as hers; 
and to recover it this action was raised. The 
plaintiff had watched Lord Willoughby through 
a long illness with great affection, and was ad¬ 
dressed and treated by him and certain relatives 
as Mrs. Willoughby. His father, however, ob¬ 
jected to the connection, and cut the defendant 
off from succeeding to the large estates of the 
family, till he could show, to the satisfaction of 
trustees, that he was legally married to some 
other person. At the close of the first day’s 
examination, the judge’s suggestion for having 
the case settled out of court was concurred in ; 
and Mr. Vernon Harcourt, as referee, after¬ 
wards adjudged the sum of 5,000/. to be paid 
to the Countess, and 1,200/. a year secured 
for life. 

_ 4 . —Mr. Bright addresses a meeting at Bir- 








FEBRUARY 


1868. 


FEBRUARY 


mingham in support of his scheme for estab¬ 
lishing a peasant proprietary in Ireland. 

5 . —The Central Protestant Defence Asso¬ 
ciation hold a large meeting in Dublin to move 
resolutions—In favour of loyalty to the Throne : 
On Irish Protestant wealth, position, and intel¬ 
ligence ; its right to protection; and the wrong 
of dealing with Ireland as if it were a separate 
kingdom. 

6. —Mr. Bonamy Price elected Professor of 
Political Economy at Oxford by a majority of 
427 over Mr. Thorold Rogers. 

— A horse-flesh dinner held at the Langham 

Hotel. 

7 . —At a meeting of the Reichsrath Com¬ 
mittee on the War Budget, Baron von Beust 
said he considered the foreign relations of 
Austria to be of so peaceful a nature that all 
danger of a war must appear as a thing only to 
be brought about by extraordinary events. On 
the other hand it appeared necessary to main¬ 
tain the army on such a peace footing as would 
enable Austria if necessary to assume an atti¬ 
tude inspiring respect, and at a short notice to 
send her army into the field ready for action. 

— Mr. Edward Thornton, the newly ap¬ 
pointed Minister at Washington, presented to 
the President. 

— The Fenian Captain Mackey, the leader 
of the attack on Ballyknockane Barracks in 
March last, arrested in Cork after a desperate 
resistance with loaded weapons. 

9 . —Mr. H. Rassam, one of the Abyssinian 
captives, writes from Magdala : “You will be 
glad to learn that the Emperor still continues 
his mock friendship towards me, and constantly 
sends me very polite messages. He is now 
within eight hours’ ride of this place, but at the 
rate he has been travelling, since he left Debra 
Tabor in October, he is not expected to join us 
here before the middle or end of next month. 
A large mortar, which he had cast in Debra 
Tabor, weighing about 1,500 lbs., has been the 
cause of his delays. Pie is determined to bring 
this huge piece of ordnance to the fortress. 
We are all looking anxiously for the arrival of 
the British force, and I have not the least fear 
that we shall be treated roughly by our captor 
when he hears of the approach of our troops. 
So long as he looks on me as a friend we 
are all night. Thank God, both my fellow- 
captives and myself are enjoying good health.” 

10. —Died, aged 87, Sir David Brewster, 
Principal of Edinburgh University, and an 
eminent writer on optics. 

— At Manchester a meeting called to express 
disapprobation of the Irish Church carries, by 
a large majority, an antagonistic resolution 
declining to pronounce an opinion in favour of 
its destruction, because there was no evidence 
before it to justify such a proceeding, and 
because the meeting had no desire to excite the 
angry passions of controversy throughout the 
country. 

(&> 3 > 


10. —Among other untoward items of intel¬ 
ligence from Abyssinia—principally relating to 
the transport service—Colonel Dunn is said to 
have been killed at Senafe by the accidental 
discharge of a fowling-picce. 

— M. Arrivabene (a son, it was reported, 
of Count Arrivabene), member of the Stock 
Exchange, commits suicide by shooting him¬ 
self in a wood near Maidenhead. 

11 . —The “Oxford” Music-hall, London, 
burnt. The fire originated in a gallery oppo¬ 
site the stage, and completed its work of de¬ 
struction within an hour of discovery. 

12 . — Education Conference at Willis’s 
Rooms, called by Archdeacon Denison to con¬ 
sider a series of resolutions in favpur of the 
denominational system, and the exemption of 
State schools from the operation of a Con¬ 
science Clause. 

— Lord Chief Justice Cockburn remon¬ 
strates with the Lord Chancellor against the 
judges being called upon to try election peti¬ 
tions. “ In conformity with your Lordship’s 
wishes,” wrote the Chief Justice, “I have con¬ 
sulted the judges, and I am charged by them, 
one and all, to convey to you their strong and 
unanimous feeling of insuperable repugnance 
to having these new and objectionable duties 
thrust upon them. We are unanimously of 
opinion that the inevitable consequence of 
putting judges to try election petitions will be 
to lower and degrade the judicial office, and to 
destroy, or at all events materially impair, the 
confidence of the public in the thorough impar¬ 
tiality and inflexible integrity of the judges, 
when, in the course of their ordinary duties, 
political matters come incidentally before them. 

. . . The functions which the judges are called 
upon to discharge are altogether beyond the 
scope of the duties which, on accepting the 
office of judges, we took on ourselves to fulfil. 
We are at a loss to see how Parliament can, 
with justice or propriety, impose on us labours 
wholly beyond the sphere of our constitutional 
duties, and which no one ever contemplated 
the possibility of our being called upon to per¬ 
form. I have further to point out, that we 
are thoroughly satisfied that the proposed 
scheme is impracticable, and that the per¬ 
formance by the judges of the onerous duties 
which this bill proposes to cast on them is 
neither more or less than a sheer impossibility. 
The time of the judges is known to be more 
than fully occupied. We would venture to ask 
which court is to be suspended, in order to 
furnish judges even for occasional petitions, to 
say nothing of the trial of petitions after a 
general election, when, if any material portion 
of the work of trying petitions is to be done by 
the judges, Westminster Hall would have to 
be shut up altogether ? Is a judge to set aside 
her Majesty’s commission, and leave the gaols 
undelivered, and causes untried, while he is 
occupied in investigating the unclean doings in 
a corrupt borough?” The Lord Chief Justice 
goes on to suggest that, owing to the accidents 

3 F 2 










FEBRUARY 


1868. 


FEBRUARY 


which determine professional success and busi¬ 
ness at the bar, there are always a certain 
number of counsel whose business is not pro¬ 
portioned to their known abilities and learning, 
and whose sound judgment and judicial apti¬ 
tude are recognised by the references which are 
frequently submitted to them as arbitrators. 
“ Many of these,” he says, ‘‘ would probably be 
willing to undertake the trial of election peti¬ 
tions, and it might safely and conveniently be 
entrusted to them, while to put such duties on 
the judges would be a most fatal mistake.” In 
conclusion, he repeats an emphatic and earnest 
protest, and states that he and his brother 
judges rely on the Lord Chancellor, as the 
head of the profession, to protect them, if 
possible, against this, in every respect, most 
objectionable measure. 

13 . —Parliament resumes its sittings in pur¬ 
suance of the adjournment in December last. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
troduces the Government bill to amend the 
law relating to election petitions, and to pro¬ 
vide more effectually for the prevention of 
corrupt practices. After describing the details 
of the scheme, and the opposition which had 
been made by the judges to the task of deciding 
upon petitions, he said it was now proposed to 
found a new Parliamentary Election Court, with 
judges at a salary of 2,000/. a year, and that 
appeals from decisions of revising barristers 
should also be referred to that Court. 

— Died at Bristol, aged 71, William Hera- 
path, chemist and toxicologist. 

14 . —In an all but empty House, the Earl of 
Mayo moved for leave to bring in a bill to con¬ 
tinue the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act 
in Ireland till March 1869 ; or, if Parliament 
should not then be sitting, till three weeks after 
the beginning of the session. The number of 
persons now in custody under warrants signed 
by the Lord Lieutenant was 96. The number 
of arrests had been—in January 1867, 14 ; 
February, 21 ; March, in ; April, 31; May, 7; 
June, 38; July, 8. During August, September, 
and October there were only two arrests, but 
within the last three months the number had 
risen to 33. Of the persons arrested, 10 were 
described as officers, 25 clerks, 90 artisans, 11 
farmers, 66 labourers, and 28 shopkeepers. 
Leave was given to bring in the bill, though 
several members expressed regret that it had 
not been preceded by remedial measures. 

— Mr. Walpole moves the second reading 
of the Public Schools Bill—a measure based on 
the report of the Royal Commission, and sub¬ 
stantially the same as that of last year, but 
excluding Merchant Taylors’ and St. Paul’s, as 
being more or less of a private character, under 
the control of two of the City Companies. 

— The advance column of the Abyssinian 
expedition reaches Antalo. 

16 . —-The Abyssinian army encamps at Ar- 
ranzum. Sir Robert Napier held an interview of 
(804) 


a satisfactory nature with Prince Kassai of Tigre 
on the 24th, and on the r6th set out for Antalo. 

17 . —Illness of Lord Derby. Considerable 
excitement was created in political circles by 
the continued illness of the Premier, who was 
now considered in so dangerous a state that 
Lord Stanley was called in great haste to 
Knowsley. 

— Earl Russell publishes his views on the 
Irish question in the form of a letter to the 
Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue. Among 
the remedial measures which he concluded to 
be necessary, he said that the endowment of 
the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the 
endowment of the Presbyterian Church, and 
the reduction of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church to one-eighth of the present revenues 
of Ireland, would be just and salutary. 

— The Lord Advocate introduces the Scotch 
Reform Bill, designed to assimilate the fran¬ 
chise there to what prevailed in England under 
the bill of last session. It was proposed to give 
seven additional representatives to Scotland, and 
to increase the number of the House to that ex¬ 
tent ; two of the additional members to be given 
to the Universities, three to counties, and one 
to Glasgow. 

18 . — Fire at the Charing Cross Railway 
Station, originating in the “custom-house” 
adjoining the river, and destroying the south 
end of the platform roof. 

— A deputation of Trade Societies’ Dele¬ 
gates waits upon Mr. Gladstone for the purpose 
of explaining the actual working of Trades 
Unions, and of refuting the statements made by 
him in a speech at Oldham in December last. 

— Died at Ampthill Park, Bedfordshire, 
Lord Wensleydale (Baron Parke), aged 86. 

— The Upper House of Convocation (pro¬ 
vince of Canterbury) engage in the discussion 
of a resolution on Ritualism submitted by 
the Bishop of London: “That this House, 
viewing with anxious concern the increasing 
diversity of practice in regard to ritual ob¬ 
servances, as causing disquiet and contention, 
and perceiving with deep regret that the resolu¬ 
tions adopted at the Convocations of Canter¬ 
bury and York have failed to secure unity, 
deems it expedient for the peace of the 
Church,—I. That the limits of ritual obser¬ 
vance should not be left to the uncontrolled 
discretion of individual clergymen, and ought 
therefore to be defined by rightful authority. 
2. That some easy and inexpensive process 
•ought to be provided, whereby, while the liber¬ 
ties of the officiating clergymen and their 
parishioners are protected, the evils of un¬ 
restrained licence in such matters may be 
checked.” The debate was protracted over 
two days, and ended in a division, Showing a 
majority of 12 to 4 in favour of the resolution. 
The Bishop of Oxford urged the inconsistency 
of adopting two courses, one of which implied 
the failure of the other. “ I do not,” he said, 
“ think this a likely way of restoring peace 





FEBRUARY 


1868. 


FEBRUARY 


and truth to the Church. I think the only 
probable means of attaining such an end is, 
that we should have a distinct statement of 
what the law of the Church is now ; and that 
we should not invite men in one breath to 
have recourse to the law, and tell them with 
the next that, if the law is not in accordance 
with our views, we will have it made so.” As 
finally agreed to and sent down to the Lower 
House, the resolution expressed that other 
means than individual discretion “should be 
provided for enforcing the rule laid down at 
the end of the rubric concerning the service 
of the Church, for duly interpreting all diver¬ 
sities taken from common usage, and, if neces¬ 
sary, for removing ambiguity in the existing 
law.” The Lower House adjourned the dis¬ 
cussion on the resolution, finding it inexpedient 
to proceed in that way in the meantime. 

19 . —General Flores, President of Uruguay, 
assassinated. 

— The pass of Humaita, the bulwark of 
Paraguayan power, forced by Brazilian iron¬ 
clads under Captain de Carvaho. 

— Mr. Gladstone’s Compulsory Church-rates 
Abolition Bill read a second time. In the 
course of the debate Lord Cranbome asked, 
“ What shall we gain if we adhere to the prin¬ 
ciple of ‘ No surrender ’ ? That is a question 
which must be answered by the circumstances 
of the time. We must look not only to the dis¬ 
position of the nation out of doors, but to the 
course of events in this House—the principles 
upon which parties guide their movements-- 
the laws by which public men regulate their 
own conduct. Looking to these matters, and 
taking the most impartial view in my power, 
I am bound to say that I do not think any 
gain to the Church will result from prolonging 
this contest. (Cheers.) I do not conceal from 
the blouse for a moment that it is with the 
deepest reluctance of feeling that I give up any¬ 
thing that the Church possesses, but I am 
bound to look at both sides of the question, 
and not to content myself with a stolid op¬ 
position ; not to give way to that tendency 
by which it seems so many of us are apt to 
be affected, of pursuing for many years a steady 
obstruction, and then giving way to an unrea¬ 
sonable panic. I think it wiser to accept the 
terms that are now offered to us, because I am 
distinctly of opinion that wc may go further 
and fare worse.” (Cheers.) 

— In the Lower House of Convocation, 
Canon Seymour presented a petition praying 
that the Upper House would take measures for 
declaring — first, that the Church of England 
accepts as valid the excommunication of Dr. 
Colenso, and that, until he be reconciled unto 
and received into the Church by proper autho¬ 
rity, they will by the Thirty-third Article hold 
him to be “ cut off from the Church and ex¬ 
communicated ; ” and second, that they ac¬ 
cept the spiritual validity of the act of the 
Bishop of Capetown in deposing Dr. Colenso. 
The petition was accepted, against an amend¬ 


ment proposed by the Dean of Ely; but the 
Upper House declined acceding to the prayer, 
andT appointed a committee to inquire into 
the canonicity of the sentence of deposition, 
and to examine Dr. Colenso’s writings since 
published. 

19.—Mr.Beresford Hope elected member for 
Cambridge University in room of Lord Justice 
Selwyn by a majority of 531 over Mr. Cleasby. 
The gross number polled was 3 , 3 s 1 * 

21 . —President Johnson issues an order re¬ 
moving Mr. Stanton from the office of War 
Secretary, and appointing Adjutant-General 
Thomas ad interim . Mr. Stanton resisted the 
order, and caused Thomas to be apprehended. 

22 . —The Times correspondent, writing from 
the camp Ad Abagin, states that letters had 
been received from the prisoners, dated Mag- 
dala, January 30, and from Mr. Flad, in Theo¬ 
dore’s camp, dated the 19th of the same month. 
It was said Theodore was still engaged in 
his exertions to get his ordnance and heavy 
baggage into Magdala, and that, on account of 
the difficulties of the road, he would not be 
in that fortress until the first week of March. 
“The reports among the country people here 
are that Theodore is advancing against Wag- 
shum Gobazye, of Lasta, who is at Lalibala, 
in the south of his province. Abyssinians assert 
positively that Theodore will fight the British 
army. 

— A young man named Lee commits suicide 
by throwing himself from the tower of the 
Crystal Palace. 

24 . —The House of Representatives, after a 
lengthy and exciting debate, resolve to impeach 
the President by 126 to 47. 

25 . —The Washington democrats delegate 
Thaddeus Stevens and John A. Bingham to 
appear at the bar of the Senate, and in the 
name of the House of Representatives to im¬ 
peach the President of high crimes and mis¬ 
demeanours. Next day the Senate referred 
the matter to a select committee of seven. 

— Resignation of the Earl of Derby. In 
the House of Lords, the Earl of Malmesbury 
intimates that in consequence of failing health 
the Premier had tendered his resignation to her 
Majesty, who was graciously pleased to accept 
the same, and empower the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer to form a Government “ if possible.” 
A similar intimation was made in the House 
of Commons by Lord Stanley, who moved the 
adjournment of the House till the necessary 
arrangements could be completed. Mr. Glad¬ 
stone said: “With reference to the special 
cause which the noble lord has by a singular 
destiny been called upon to be the person to 
announce to this House, I cannot help express¬ 
ing for myself what I am sure will be the uni¬ 
versal sentiment, the regret that a career so 
long, so active, and in many respects so distin¬ 
guished and remarkable, as that of his father, 
should have been brought to a close by the 
failure of his bodily health and strength.” 

(805) 







FEBRUARY 


1868. 


FEBRUARY 


26 . —At Newcastle Assizes two burglars 
were sentenced to fifteen years’ penal servitude 
for breaking into a house at Haltwhistle in 
October last. The chief witness against them 
was a young girl named Elizabeth Storey, who 
defended her mistress and herself, first with an 
old gun and then with a poker, against the 
murderous assaults of the criminals. Mr. 
Justice Lush complimented Storey on her 
fidelity and courage, and ordered 5/. to be 
paid to her. 

— Mr. Disraeli and the Premiership. The 
Oivl this morning states that General Grey, 
who defeated Mr. Disraeli at High Wycombe 
in 1832, was the bearer from Osborne of the 
Queen’s autograph letter, announcing that she 
had selected him as successor to Lord Derby, 
and commanding him “to submit what altera¬ 
tions in the Cabinet his experience suggested.” 
The Times wrote: “ The Chancellor of the 

Exchequer has served the Conservative party 
for more than twenty years. He slowly re¬ 
constructed its Parliamentary organization, and 
has thrice brought it into power. By the 
public he has always been regarded as the 
ruling spirit of the Cabinet, and it has been 
evident to all men that the Reform Bill of last 
session was only carried by his courage, his 
readiness, and his unfailing temper in the 
House of Commons. The time has arrived 
for the servant to become the master; nor 
could Mr. Disraeli have accepted a lower 
place without a loss of dignity which would 
have been unworthy of himself and discredit¬ 
able to his party.” A few days later the 
Fall Mall Gazette wrote: “One of the most 
grievous and constant puzzles of King David 
was the prosperity of the wicked and the 
scornful ; and the same tremendous moral 
enigma has come down to our own days. In 
this respect the earth is in its older times what 
it was in its youth. Even so recently as last 
week the riddle once more presented itself in 
its most impressive shape. Like the Psalmist, 
the Liberal leader may well protest that verily 
he has cleansed his heart in vain, and washed 
his hands in innocency; all day long he has 
been plagued by Whig Lords, and chastened 
every morning by Radical manufacterers; as 
blamelessly as any curate he has written about 
* Ecce Homo;’ and he has never made a 
speech, even in the smallest country town, 
without calling out with David, How foolish 
am I, and how ignorant! For all this, what 
does he see? The scorner who shot out the 
lip and shook the head at him across the table 
of the House of Commons last session has now 
more than heart could wish; his eyes, speaking 
in an Oriental manner, stand out with fatness, 
he speaketh loftily, and pride compasseth him 
about as a chain. It is all very well to say 
that the candle of the wicked is put out in the 
long run, that they are as stubble before the 
wind, and as chaff that the storm carries away. 
So we were told in other times of tribulation. 
This was the sort of consolation that used to be 
offered in the jaunty days of Lord Palmerston. 

(806) 


People used then to soothe the earnest Liberal 
by the same kind of argument. ‘Only wait,' 
it was said, ‘ until he has retired, and all 
will be well with us.’ But no sooner has 
the storm carried away wicked Whig chaff 
than the heavens are forthwith darkened by 
new clouds of Tory chaff. That the writer of 
frivolous stories about ‘ Vivian Grey ’ and 
‘ Coningsby ’ should grasp the sceptre before 
the writer of beautiful and serious things about 
‘ Ecce Homo ’—the man who is epigrammatic, 
flashy, arrogant, before the man who never 
perpetrated an epigram in his life, is always 
fervid, and would as soon die as admit that he 
had a shade more brain than his footman— 
the Radical corrupted into a Tory before the 
Tory purified and elevated into a Radical—is 
not this enough to make an honest man rend 
his mantle and shave his head and sit down 
among the ashes inconsolable? Let us play 
the too underrated part of Bildad the Sliuhite 
for a space, while our chiefs thus have unwel¬ 
come leisure to scrape themselves with pot¬ 
sherds and to meditate upon the evil way of 
the world.” 

27 . —In the action raised by Mr. Sinclair, 
engineer of the Great Eastern Railway, against 
Lord Redesdale, Chairman of Committees in 
the House of I.ords, for having stated in the 
Times that the plaintiff had resigned, and was 
pecuniarily interested in Mr. Brassey’s contract 
for the Dunmow branch, a verdict was given 
by consent against Lord Redesdale, with 40*. 
damages and costs. 

— Mr. Disraeli has an audience of her 
Majesty, and kissed hands upon his appoint¬ 
ment as First Lord of the Treasury. The first 
Cabinet Council was held on the 2d March. 

— Sir Thomas Henry dismisses an appli¬ 
cation made at Bow-street Police Court for a 
warrant to apprehend Mr. Eyre for the murder 
of Gordon. 

29 . —Dismissal of Lord Chelmsford. The 
Chancellor had an audience of her Majesty 
to-day to deliver up the Great Seal. A person 
signing “Truth” wrote to the Herald: 
“ From the leading article in the Tunes of 
yesterday the public would naturally infer that 
Lord Chelmsford had voluntarily retired from 
the high position of Lord Chancellor. Such, 
however, is not the fact. His lordship had 
no option but to resign the custody of the 
Great Seal when informed by Mr. Disraeli that 
his name could not be included in the list of 
the new Government. It is stated that Mr. 
Disraeli’s object in removing Lord Chelmsford 
and in promoting Lord Cairns was to obtain 
additional debating power on the Ministerial 
side of the House of Lords; but, on reading 
this day’s Times, I incline to a different con¬ 
clusion, and I cannot but attribute his Lord- 
ship’s removal from office to the last act of his 
ministry, which was to place on the Bench a 
judge chosen simply for his fitness to be a 
judge, in spite of unusual pressure upon him 
to make a less worthy choice.” The Minis- 






FEBRUARY 


1863 


MARCH 


terial journal appended the following note: 
“We publish the foregoing letter in deference 
to the desire of one who has a right to speak 
as to the facts of the case. Into Mr. Disraeli’s 
motives we cannot of course enter. But we 
may state on the best authority that the terms 
of Mr. Disraeli’s letter to Lord Chelmsford 
were courteous, and even flattering; stating, 
in effect, that although Mr. Disraeli could not, 
from various circumstances, offer the noble lord | 
the position he held in the late Administration, 
yet that it would afford him the greatest plea¬ 
sure if the noble lord would point out any 
other mode in which he might request her 
Majesty to signify her appreciation of his dis¬ 
tinguished services.” 

29 .— Died at Nice, aged 82, Louis, ex-King 
of Bavaria. 

March 2.—Murders at Todmorden Vicarage 
by Miles Wetherall. The criminal in this case 
had been paying his addresses to a servant maid 
living at the vicarage of the Rev. A. Plew; and 
in consequence of his visits the girl was dis¬ 
charged. Yesterday (Sunday) he went to York 
to see her, and on returning to-day appeared 
to have resolved on taking vengeance upon 
her late master and mistress and upon the 
housemaid, who was supposed to have told of 
his visits. About half-past ten this evening 
Mr. Plew, who was preparing to retire to his 
bedroom, heard a noise at the back door. He 
passed out by the hall and proceeded to the 
back of the house, where he saw Wetherall, 
who snapped a pistol at him, which missed 
fire. Wetherall next attacked Mr. Plew with 
a hatchet, but the vicar closing with him, they 
went struggling backwards into the lobby of 
house, through the back door. The noise 
alarmed the servants, and the housemaid, 
cook, and nurse came to see what was the 
matter. Some of these seized Wetherall by 
the hair and clothes to hold him back. The 
result was that Mr. Plew escaped by the front 
hall door, but not until he had received two 
long scalp wounds at the back and another at 
the top of the head, several vertical cuts on the 
forehead, one ear tom from top to bottom, and 
other wounds. The housemaid sought shelter 
in the dining-room, and for a time kept the 
murderer at bay by placing her back against 
the door. Wetherall, however, contrived to 
get his right arm through the door, and dis¬ 
charged ‘ a pistol at her, shooting her dead. 
He next went into the kitchen, armed himself 
with a poker, and proceeded upstairs to a bed¬ 
room, in which Mrs. Plew was lying, and where 
she had recently given birth to a child. The 
nuise said he could not go there, but he told 
her not to mind, as he had finished those below, 
and forced his way past her. Stripping down j 
the bedclothes, he fired at Mrs. Plew, but the j 
ball did not take effect. He next attacked her 
with the poker, inflicting some severe scalp 
wounds, breaking her nose, and otherwise in¬ 
juring her. While in the act of striking another 
blow at her, his arm was arrested by Mr. Stans- j 


feild, the Church organist, who had seen Mr. 
Plew, and who was accompanied by two others. 
By these men he was secured and given over 
to the police. Mr. Plew was able not only to 
identify Wetherall, but described the mode of 
attack, and was thereafter subjected to a close 
examination by the prisoner. The reverend 
gentleman died from his wounds on the 12th, 
and the infant on the same day. Mrs. Plew 
died in March, 1869. Wetherall was tried at 
Manchester on the 13th, sentenced to death, 
and executed. Mr. Justice Lush, before whom 
the prisoner was brought, described the out¬ 
rage as almost without parallel in the annals 
of crime. 

2 .— -The Paraguayans make a night attack on 
two Brazilian ironclads. Twelve hundred picked 
men, armed with swords, revolvers, and hand 
grenades, in forty-eight canoes, boarded the 
vessels. They for a time gained possession of 
the decks; but the Brazilians, shutting them¬ 
selves up in the revolving turrets of the moni¬ 
tors, opened a terrific fire on them, and even¬ 
tually drove them back. A struggle of two 
hours’ duration was put an end to by a third 
ironclad, which did great execution among the 
Paraguayans by running down their canoes. 
The Brazilians had thirty-two men and several 
officers killed and wounded. The Paraguayans 
lost, it is supposed, about 400 men. The 
Brazilian admiral stated that, in the hope of 
rescuing those in the water, he caused boats to 
be lowered ; but on their approach the Para¬ 
guayans invariably dived, thus preferring to 
be drowned rather than fall into the hands of 
their foes. 

— The Washington House of Representa¬ 
tives adopts the articles of impeachment 
charging President Johnson with having vio¬ 
lated the Tenure of Office Act in removing 
Stanton without the consent of the Senate, and 
with violating the Army Bill by trying to induce 
General Emory to obey orders not sent through 
General Grant, Commander-in-chief. 

— Lord Cairns sworn into the office of Lord 
Chancellor in presence of the Master of the 
Rolls and a crowded court. 

— A grocer’s firm in the Borough having 
written to Mr. Gladstone complaining of the 
growth of the co-operative movement among 
officials in the Civil Service, he replies that in 
the retail trade there was a total inversion of 
the natural order of things, which was that 
men in business should be borrowers from, not 
lenders to, men out of business. “ This (the 
credit) system also aggravates the risk of bad 
debts, which form an additional charge to a 
good debtor ; and it is connected with a general 
irregularity and uncertainty which must also be 
paid for. I do not doubt that we, the con¬ 
sumers, are much in fault. But I cannot help 
thinking that traders are much in fault also, 
and that much might be done by a vigorous 
effort and by combination among traders in 
favour of ready-money dealings, either abso¬ 
lutely or as encouraged by discounts.” 









MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


2 .—Bamum’y Museum, New York, destroyed 
by fire. 

3 • —The Prussian Government issue a decree 
sequestrating the private property of the ex- 
King of Hanover. 

5 . —The new Premier addresses a meeting of 
his supporters in Downing-street. He began 
by alluding briefly to the loss the country, the 
Conservative party, and he personally had suf¬ 
fered in Lord Derby’s retirement. But he was 
glad to be able to give assurance that the party 
would still have the benefit of the noble Lord’s 
direction and counsel, and he expressed the 
hope that in a short time the noble Lord would 
be enabled to return to his old seat in the House 
of Lords. He admitted the difficulties that 
lay in their path as a minority having to deal 
with the great questions now pressing on their 
attention. But the past two years had given 
them great triumphs, and he had every confi¬ 
dence that with a firm front they might add to 
them fresh triumphs in 1868. Mr. Disraeli 
next alluded to the Scotch Reform Bill, which, 
he said, must be carried with its main features 
intact, in order that the whole question of Re¬ 
form might not be re-opened; to the Irish 
Reform Bill, which would be introduced at 
once; and to the Report of the Boundary Com¬ 
mission, which, as the result of the delibera¬ 
tions of a thoroughly impartial tribunal, must 
be respected. In regard to the treatment of 
Irish questions, he left the Secretary of Ireland 
to make the Ministerial statement on the occa¬ 
sion of the discussion on Mr. Maguire’s motion. 
The right hon. gentlemen concluded, amidst 
great cheering, by expressing his confidence 
in the future, and reiterating his expressions 
of gratitude for the warm support he had ex¬ 
perienced. 

— The Disraeli Ministry take their seats. In 
the House of Lords, the Earl of Malmesbury 
explained that he had not on a former occasion 
said Mr. Disraeli was authorized to form a 
Ministry “if possible,” but “as soon as pos¬ 
sible.”—Earl Russell took an early opportunity 
of attacking the Government for inconsistency. 
“We know now,” he said, “that for three 
years the Government has been carried on upon 
the principle that, having declared against any 
reduction whatever in the franchise, the Minis¬ 
ters of the Crown, while they were persuading 
people to follow them in that course, meant all 
the time to make a larger reduction in the fran¬ 
chise than was proposed by the Liberal party. 
The consequence was a course of deception, 
which has been called by another name, but 
which I think must prevent any reliance upon 
a Government which openly avows that it does 
not mean what it says, but professes one thing 
and means another.” (Cheers.) The Duke of 
Marlborough (with some warmth) asked the 
noble Lord what he meant. Lord Russell: 
“If the noble Duke wishes to know what I 
mean, I must refer him to a speech made by 
the present Prime Minister at Edinburgh, in 
which the course taken by the Government was 
(808) 


not called a course of deception—it was not 
called, as Mr. Disraeli formerly called the Go¬ 
vernment of Sir Robert Peel, * an hypocrisy ’— 
it was called a ‘ process of education.’ (Laugh¬ 
ter. ) But the use of that word does not prevent 
the fact being quite clear, which the present 
First Lord of the Treasury did not endeavour 
to excuse or apologize for, of which he even 
boasted, that during seven years, during which 
the fears of the country had been excited re¬ 
specting a reduction of the franchise, against 
which Mr. Disraeli protested in the House of 
Commons, afterwards congratulating the elec¬ 
tors of Buckinghamshire that no such reduction 
of the franchise had taken place—during all 
that time he had been educating his party with 
a view to bring about a much greater reduction 
of the franchise, and what he would at one 
time have called a greater ‘ degradation of the 
franchise,’ than any which his opponents had 
proposed. (Cheers.) ” 

5 . —The House of Commons was crowded 
to hear the new Premier’s declaration of policy. 
After a tribute to the great merits of the late 
Premier, Mr. Disraeli said : “In succeeding to 
the position of Lord Derby I have succeeded 
to the principles on which he established his 
Administration some years ago, and which he 
has more or less advocated and upheld for the 
last twenty years, maintaining an unbroken and 
unswerving course. For twenty years past I 
have been in confidential co-operation with 
Lord Derby, and I must, therefore, be cogni¬ 
zant of the principles and opinions he holds 
on all the great questions of the day. With 
respect to the foreign policy of the present 
Administration, we shall follow that course 
which has been pursued under the guidance of 
my noble friend near me, I believe I may say, 
with the approbation of Parliament, and I 
think I may add, with the confidence of Europe. 
(Cheers.) That policy is a policy of peace—not 
of peace at any price for the mere interests of 
England, but a policy of peace, from the convic¬ 
tion that such a policy is for the general interests 
of the world. We do not believe that policy is 
likely to be secured by selfish isolation, but, on 
the contrary, we believe it may be secured by 
sympathy with other countries, not merely in 
their prosperous fortunes, but even in their 
anxieties and troubles. If such a policy be con¬ 
tinued, I have no doubt, when the occasion 
may arise—and periodical occasions will arise 
when the influence of England is necessary to 
maintain the peace of the world—that influence 
will not be found inefficient, because it is founded 
on respect and regard.” Next came his do¬ 
mestic policy : “ I say at once that the present 
Administration will pursue a liberal policy. 
(Cries of ‘Hear’ from different parts of the 
House.) I mean a truly liberal policy—a policy 
that will not shrink from any changes which 
are required by the wants of the age we live in, 
but will never forget that it is our happy lot to 
dwell in an ancient and historic country, rich 
in traditionary influences, that are the best 
security for order and liberty, and the most 





MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


valuable element of our national character and 
our national strength. (Cheers.)”—Mr.Bouverie 
moved the adjournment of the House in order 
to make some comments on the Ministerial 
programme. “Why are Conservatives now in 
the possession of power ? Simply because the 
Liberal party, though an undoubted majority 
in this House, and representing a vast pre¬ 
ponderance of opinion in the country, does not 
deserve to be called a party. That may be an 
unpalatable truth, but it is truth notwithstand¬ 
ing. We have leaders that won’t lead, and fol¬ 
lowers that won’t follow. Instead of an organ¬ 
ized party, we are little better than a rabble. 
(Laughter.) We have none of the advantages 
of party except strength of .numbers, which the 
right hon. gentleman opposite wants. It is a 
great public calamity, most detrimental and in¬ 
jurious to the public interests, that the Govern¬ 
ment of the country should be carried on by 
those who are in a minority in the House of 
Commons.” The motion for the adjournment 
of the House was afterwards withdrawn, and 
the order of the day proceeded with. 

5 . —The second reading of the Capital 
Punishments within Prisons Bill (now extended 
to Scotland) carried by a majority of 181 to 25. 

6 . —The Premier sends the following letter 
(dated Downing-street) to the newspapers with 
reference to Earl Russell’s remarks in the 
House of Lords: “Sir, Lord Russell ob¬ 
served last night in the Plouse of Lords that I 
‘ boasted at Edinburgh, that, while during 
seven years I opposed a reduction of the 
borough franchise, I had been all that time 
educating my party, with the view of bringing 
about a much greater reduction of the franchise 
than that which my opponents had proposed. ’ 
As a general rule, I never notice misrepresenta¬ 
tion of what I may have said ; but as this 
charge against me was made in an august 
assembly, and by a first Minister of the Crown, 
I will not refrain from observing that the charge 
has no foundation. Nothing of the kind was 
said by me at Edinburgh. I said there that the 
Tory party, after the failure of their bill of 
1859, had been educated for seven years on the 
subject of Parliamentary Reform, and during 
that interval had arrived at five conclusions, 
which with their authority I had at various 
times announced, viz. — 1. That the measure 
should ]}e complete. 2. That the representa¬ 
tion of no place should be entirely abrogated. 
3. That there must be a real Boundary Com¬ 
mission. 4. That the county representation 
should be considerably increased. 5. That the 
borough franchise should be established on the 
principle of rating. And that these five points 
were accomplished in the Act of 1867. This 
is what I said at Edinburgh, and it is true.” 

— In a debate on the Alabama claims, Lord 
Stanley said this country had conceded every¬ 
thing asked for when the dispute began. At 
that time the question of premature recognition 
of belligerent rights had not assumed its pre¬ 
sent importar.ee. Incidentally it was mentioned, 


but that was all. “But by a curious process, 
that grievance, whatever its value may be, has 
been gaining importance in the minds of 
American public men, just in proportion as we 
are willing to remove other causes of com¬ 
plaint. Suppose we had not recognised the 
South, and suppose that fortune had decided in 
their favour, would they be entitled to call us 
to account for not having recognised them soon 
enough, and thereby having injured their pros¬ 
pects ? So stated, the question seems absurd. 
But if we are responsible one way, we are 
responsible the other. If damages are to be 
given for premature recognition, as injuring one 
side, why not for tardy recognition, as injuring 
the other ? In what position is a neutral power 
placed whenever a war breaks out ? This is not 
a question for the moment only. It is a ques¬ 
tion of general international law. It is a ques¬ 
tion which will create a precedent, and we are 
bound not merely to do what is convenient for 
the moment, but to do what is right in the 
light of the duties of nations in general to¬ 
wards each other. (Cheers.) After all, in 
recognising the Confederates, we simply de¬ 
clared that to be a civil war, which Mr. Seward, 
on the part of the American Government, had 
declared to be such. These documents were 
not private letters, but state papers, which have 
been since published and laid before the public. 
They bear date nine, twelve, and sixteen days 
before the Queen’s Proclamation. I will read 
only one, and that shall be brief. On the 4th 
of May, nine days before the issue of the 
Queen’s Proclamation, Mr. Seward writes in 
these terms : ‘ The insurgents have instituted 
revolution, with open, flagrant, and deadly war, 
to compel the United States to acquiesce in the 
dismemberment of the Union. The United 
States have accepted this civil war as an in¬ 
evitable necessity.’ (Correspondence relating 
to foreign affairs accompanying the President’s 
Message to Congress in December 1861, p. 
165.) I should be sorry to say anything that 
would look like want of courtesy to the emi¬ 
nent and accomplished diplomatist by whom the 
correspondence has been conducted throughout, 
and than whom no man in the United States 
has probably had greater experience. But if 
the question were one which we could discuss 
apart from politics, and if we were not thou¬ 
sands of miles apart, but could meet face to 
face, I should venture to ask him whether he 
could with gravity call upon me solemnly to 
refer to the arbitration of some neutral body, 
or some third party, this question, Whether 
we, the British Government, had a right, on 
the 13th of May, to declare that to be civil 
war, which in various documents, especially 
in one dated the 4th of May, he, Mr. Seward 
himself, had christened by that name? (Cheers.) 
Let it be also noted, that the highest Court in 
America had also declared the state of things 
then existing to be civil war. Besides, if there 
were no war, there was, of course, no blockade, 
and we might claim damages for every blockade- 
runner captured. Claims such as these would 

(809; 






MARCH 


1868, 


MARCH 


mount up to an almost inconceivable total, and I 
I really cannot think that the statesmen of the 
United States would be willing to let in these 
enormous claims for the sake of insisting upon 
a point which practically, and in its immediate 
application, is not important, though I admit 
that indirectly it may have considerable import¬ 
ance.” 

0 . —Came on for hearing in the Rolls Court, 
the case of Lord Brougham v. Dr. Cauvin, 
being a claim for literary work performed by 
desire and for the interest of the plaintiff. From 
the preliminary proceedings which took place 
in this case it appeared that Dr. Cauvin was 
selected by Lord Brougham to prepare the 
memoir of his life, and in particular to look 
over and arrange the letters received from King 
William, Lord Melbourne, and other eminent 
men during the past half-century. There was 
no bargain as to remuneration, nor was there 
any principle laid down by which remuneration 
was to be afterwards fixed. When the first 
volume approached completion, Dr. Cauvin 
made an application for payment, on account, of 
a sum so large as induced William Brougham, 
on behalf of his brother, to object till a state¬ 
ment was furnished of the entire probable 
payment expected. Dr. Cauvin thereupon re¬ 
fused to restore the letters and other documents 
entrusted to him ; and the aid of the Court of 
Chancery was now sought to enforce recovery 
of them. A special claim was made to-day to 
have Lord Murray’s letters delivered up, but 
the Chief Clerk thought they had better remain 
in Dr. Cauvin’s possession till an order was 
made regarding the whole. When the case 
came up for judgment in July 1869, the Court 
awarded 330/. to the defendant, and costs from 
the period he offered to submit the dispute to a 
referee. 

7 .— Fall of the premises in the Strand for¬ 
merly occupied by Holloway and Son. The 
building was about to be removed in con- j 
nexion with the improvements around the new 
Law Courts. 

9 . —The Scotch Reform Bill read a second 
time without a division. In the early part of 
the debate an amendment was moved by Mr. 
Hadfield opposing any increase of members of 
the House, but it was not pressed to a division. 

10. —Debate on Mr. Maguire’s motion, that 
the House resolve itself into a Committee to 
take the condition of Ireland into immediate 
consideration. The chief interest in the dis¬ 
cussion was excited by Lord Mayo making a 
declaration of the intended Irish policy of the 
Government. A Commission was to be ap¬ 
pointed to inquire into the whole state of the 
relations between landlord and tenant ; and in 
the meantime a bill would be introduced pro¬ 
viding for an easy compensation for money laid 
out in improvements, and another for rendering 
more efficient the working of Irish railways. 
The question of the general education of the 
people was already under the consideration of 

(810) 


a Commission ; and with regard to the Univer¬ 
sities, the Government proposed to leave Trinity 
and the Queen’s Colleges as they were, and to 
grant a charter to a Roman Catholic University. 
The senate would consist of a chancellor and a 
vice-chancellor, four prelates nominated by the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy, and six elected lay¬ 
men. With regard to endowment, it would of 
course be necessary to ask Parliament to provide 
for the expenses of the building, and the officers 
and professors, and probably Parliament would 
not feel indisposed to endow certain University 
scholarships. He could not propose the en¬ 
dowment of any colleges until something was 
known of what the nature of the colleges were 
likely to be. With regard to the Irish Church, 
it was not proposed to take any immediate 
action during the present session of Parliament. 
Seeing that an inquiry was now going on, which 
would be completed in the course of a few 
months, it was not desirable to legislate until 
the result of that inquiry was made known. 
He did not believe that the Irish Church could 
be overthrown without a fierce and protracted 
struggle ; and if it were to fall, it would inflict 
incalculable injury on the country.—The debate 
was protracted over four nights, and ended in 
the withdrawal of Mr. Maguire’s resolution. 
On the third night, Mr. Bright spoke against 
the Government proposals. “ I recollect,” he 
said, “that Addison, a good while ago now, 
writing about the curious things that happened 
in his time, said there was a man in his county 
—I do not know whether it was in Bucking¬ 
hamshire or not—(a laugh)—he was not a 
Cabinet Minister, he was only a mountebank— 
(great laughter)—but this man set up a stall 
and to the country people he offered to sell 
pills that were very good against the earth¬ 
quake. (Roars of laughter.)” And then Mr. 
Bright went on to apply his story by showing 
that there was a social and political earthquake 
in Ireland, and that the proposal to found a 
University for the sons of the Catholic gentle¬ 
men of Ireland was Mr. Disraeli’s pill against 
the earthquake.—Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Dis¬ 
raeli wound up the debate on the 16th. The 
former went at considerable length into the 
question of education in Ireland, the land laws, 
and the Church. Speaking of appeals which 
had been made urging the Irish people to loyalty 
and union, Mr. Gladstone concluded : “Sit, 
that is our object too, but I am afraid that as 
to the means the differences are still profound, 
and it is idle, it is mocking, to use words unless 
we can sustain them by corresponding sub¬ 
stance. That substance can be supplied only 
by the unreserved devotion of our efforts now, 
in this, perhaps the last, stage of the Irish crisis, 
to remove the scandal and the mischief which 
have so long weakened and afflicted the empire. 
For that work I trust strength will be given to 
us. If we are prudent men, I hope we shall 
endeavour as far as in us lies to make some 
provision for a contingent, a doubtful, and pro¬ 
bably a dangerous future. If we be chivalrous 
men, I trust we shall endeavour to wipe away 








MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


all those stains which the civilized world has 
for ages seen, or seemed to see, on the shield 
of England in her treatment of Ireland. If 
we be compassionate men, I hope we shall 
now, once for all, listen to the tale of woe 
which comes from her, and the reality of which, 
if not its justice, is testified by the continued 
migration of her people—that we shall ‘raze 
out the written troubles from her brain, and 
pluck from her memory the rooted sorrow.’ 
(Cheers.) But, above all, if we be just men, 
we si tall go forward in the name of truth and 
right, bearing this in mind—that, when the 
case is proved, and the hour is come, justice 
delayed is justice denied.”—Mr. Disraeli de¬ 
scribed himself as the most unfortunate of 
Ministers in being called upon to deal with 
“ the crisis of a national controversy” almost 
before he had taken his seat. “ But,” he asked, 
“ what was the first element of this portentous 
crisis ? It was the suspension of the Habeas 
Corpus. But the Government found it so when 
they came to office. They found that their pre¬ 
decessors, at whose head was the right hon. 
gentleman, attached much more gravity to this 
state of things then than they did now. The 
other elements of the crisis were Emigration 
and the Irish Church. But the right hon. gen¬ 
tleman had been a powerful member of the most 
powerful Government of the present day, yet 
he had not until now felt the immediate, urgent 
necessity of dealing with these questions. The 
Government had already intimated that they 
were prepared to deal with every one of the 
questions raised by the right hon. gentleman 
when the proper time came ; but in his opinion 
the first was the Irish Reform Bill, which would 
have been brought in that night if it had not 
been for this debate. He protested against the 
assumption that the Government intended to 
ask the House to endow and charter a Roman 
Catholic University. What they intended was 
to ask it to pay the same expenses as they did 
for the London University. The Government 
desired to show their recognition of the fact 
that something must be done for higher educa¬ 
tion in Ireland, and had proposed what they 
thought a most practicable plan, against which 
he had heard no valid objection.”. . . Speak¬ 
ing of the religious feelings of the Irish, Mr. 
Disraeli said : “If there is,a people who may 
be described as the most religious people in the 
world, it is the people of Ireland. It is there no 
affair of race ; and whether a man be Presby¬ 
terian, or Anglican, or Roman, religion is one 
of the great elements of his life, and the day 
does not pass without religious convictions exer¬ 
cising an immense influence over his actions. 
Now, I say that a religious people will always 
be in favour of ecclesiastical endowments. They 
may quarrel among themselves upon particular 
points, but a religious people will always be in 
favour of co-operations that give importance 
and precision to their convictions; and therefore 
I think that we are embarking in a very dan¬ 
gerous course when, at a period at which no one 
could have anticipated it, a right hon. gentle¬ 


man of great standing in the country comes for¬ 
ward suddenly, as it were from ambush—(oh, 
oh)—and announces that he proposes to destroy 
an institution which he has himself often advo¬ 
cated, and which he has told us to-night has 
existed from the time of the Tudors: but 
we are invited to follow this policy in deference 
to the principles of a greater master upon this 
subject, who, with the honourable candour 
which, I think, is part of his character, has 
told us what is the issue at stake—namely, 
whether we should terminate in this country 
ecclesiastical endowments. ” Describing it as an 
indecency on the part of the present House of 
Commons to attempt to settle the question of 
the Irish Church without appealing to the en¬ 
larged constituencies, Mr. Disraeli concluded : 
“No one pretends that the material effect of 
endowments is not advantageous to Ireland, 
and there is no doubt that their abolition would 
be injurious. It would deprive a country which 
complains of an absentee proprietary of many 
residents who are men of character, with some 
affluence, and whose social action is admitted 
to be beneficial. It strikes me as a general prin¬ 
ciple that our mission in Ireland should be to 
create, and not to destroy. (Cheers.) If the 
Church in Ireland is violently abolished, I 
should say you would add immensely to the 
elements of discord, violence, and confiscation.” 

11 . —In answer to a deputation which waited 
upon him with a memorial against Mr. Bou- 
verie’s bill admitting Dissenters to the full 
enjoyment of University honours, the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury said: “Having been 
myself, as a Royal Commissioner, instrumental 
in the settlement by which, ten years since, the 
endowments of those Colleges were secured to 
the Church, I cannot be a party to any measure 
which would disturb that settlement, while it 
placed the government of the University, and 
the training of our youth within it, in the hands 
of those who might feel themselves in con¬ 
science bound, not only to exclude from their 
teaching the distinctive doctrines of the Church 
of England, but even to sap the foundations of 
Christianity. What would be the character of 
the religious instruction given by those who 
might be of any creed or of no creed, I will 
not attempt to describe ; but of this we may 
be assured, that under such a system religious 
teaching would in time be altogether abolished.” 

— Tried at Manchester Assizes, William 
Dodd, treasurer of an Operative House-paint¬ 
ers’ Association, charged with having em¬ 
bezzled the funds of the Society to the amount 
of 800/., and also with having forged a banker’s 
pass-book in order to conceal his defalcations. 
The facts were not disputed ; but the defence 
set up was that the association was an illegal 
one, and that the charge of embezzlement could 
not, therefore, be sustained. With regard to 
the charge of forgery, it was urged that in law 
there was no account in existence as between 
the bankers and the society, and that, therefore, 
the crime of forgery could not have been com- 

(811) 





MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


mitted. Mr. Justice Lush, after consulting with 
Mr. Justice Mellor, decided against both these 
pleas. “ Although,” said his Lordship, “ it 
had been held that trade societies were not 
within the protection of the Friendly Societies 
Act, and therefore could not avail themselves 
of the special remedies given by that Act, they 
were in no other sense illegal societies, and 
their property, as well as their persons, were 
as much protected as the property and the per¬ 
sons of any other society. ” The prisoner was 
found guilty, and sentenced to five years’ penal 
servitude. (See Jan. 16, 1867.) 

12 .—Attempted assassination of the Duke of 
Edinburgh at Sydney. In the course of his 
visits over the colony the Duke consented to 
join in a picnic at Clontarf, organized partly 
in his own honour, and partly to benefit the 
funds of a Sailors’ Home. While engaged in 
conversation with Sir William Manning, a little 
apart from the Governor and the Lord Chief 
Justice, a person was observed to take deliberate 
aim at his Royal Highness with a revolver, and, 
before the design could be frustrated, fire one 
barrel. The shot took effect about the middle 
of the back, an inch or two to the right of the 
spine. The Duke fell forward on his hands 
and knees, exclaiming, “ Good God ! my back 
is broken.” Sir William Manning instantly 
rushed on the assassin, who leaped back a step 
and aimed the weapon at Sir William. Stoop¬ 
ing to evade the shot he lost his balance and 
fell. The second charge did not explode, and 
the third entered the ground, the assassin being 
seized at the moment of firing and his hands 
pinioned to his sides by Mr. Vial. His Royal 
Highness was conveyed to his tent with all 
gentleness and promptness, as it was evident he 
was suffering great pain. On examining the 
wound, it was found that the bullet had traversed 
the course of the ribs round by the right to the 
abdomen, and lodged there immediately below 
the surface. No vital part appeared to have 
been touched, and there was hope from the first 
that if the bullet could be extracted any fatal 
result might be avoided. To the anxious crowds 
who pressed round the tent the Duke sent a 
message : “ I am not much hurt ; I shall be 
better presently.” He never lost consciousness, 
though he experienced considerable prostration 
from loss of blood and the shock to his nervous 
system. At five o’clock his Royal Highness 
was placed on a litter and borne by men of the 
Galatea to the deck of the Morpeth, a solemn 
silence being preserved by the people, who 
stood on either side while the cortege passed. 
The Prince, who was lying upon a stretcher 
with a soft mattress under him, and his head 
supported by pillows, was lowered into his 
barge, which was manned by a number of his 
own sailors. On arriving at the landing-place 
he was carefully raised out of the boat. The 
moment the assassin was seized a crowd gathered 
round him, and it was for some time feared that 
the people would not be dissuaded from inflict¬ 
ing summary vengeance on the spot. As it was, 
he was cut and bruised to an extent which made 
(812) 


his removal to Darlinghurst prison a labour of 
some difficulty. He gave his name as Henry 
James O’Farrel, and plainly avowed that his 
intention was to have murdered his Royal High¬ 
ness. It was at first widely reported that he 
was only one of several Fenian emissaries who 
had cast lots to take the Duke’s life ; but this 
was afterwards disowned, and whatever his own 
political views were, it did not appear that any 
one beside himself was acquainted with the in¬ 
tended assassination. “I wish,” O’Farrel said 
in his confession, “ distinctly to assert that there 
was not a human being in existence who had 
the slightest idea of the object I had in view 
when I meditated on—and, through the merci¬ 
ful providence of God, failed in carrying into 
effect—the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. 
I have written to the printers of two Irish 
periodicals an address to the people of Ireland. 
So certain was I of the death of the Duke of 
Edinburgh, that I stated therein that which I 
believed would be the fact; and I think I have 
more than implied that I was but one of an 
organization to carry the same into effect. I 
need but say that the truth of the latter portion 
rests upon a slighter foundation than the former; 
in fact, that, unless from mere hearsay, I had no 
foundation for stating that there was a Fenian 
organization in New South Wales.” After 
various preliminary investigations O’Farrel was 
tried on the 26th, found guilty, and executed 
on the 21st April. The recovery of the Prince 
was so rapid that on the 18th he was pro¬ 
nounced convalescent; on the 24th he walked 
out and paid a visit to the Galatea , and on the 
25 th personally interceded with the governor in 
favour of O’Farrel. Though progressing thus 
far favourably, it was thought the climate might 
be against a complete recovery, and his Royal 
Highness was therefore ordered home with the 
Galatea. He received before leaving many 
evidences of the loyalty of the colonists, and 
the horror with which they viewed the attempt 
made upon his life. 

13 .— In the House of Lords the Duke of 
Argyll, when calling attention to the incon¬ 
venience arising out of the ratepaying clauses of 
the Reform Act of last session, took occa¬ 
sion to censure Government for abandoning 
every issue they had raised in the discussion of 
the question, and the Conservative party for 
permitting themselves to be “educated” out 
of every opinion they had expressed. The 
misrepresentation (he said) in the letter of the 
Prime Minister of the points at issue between 
the two great contending parties was so broad 
—he had almost said so gross—that he con¬ 
ceived it absolutely necessary, for the honour 
of the Liberal party—for the honour of Par¬ 
liament—that some of the misrepresentation 
should be exposed. As to the principle of 
rating, “it was utterly untrue” that it had 
ever been a point at issue between the two 
great parties—a statement which the noble 
Duke sought to substantiate by a reference to 
the Premier’s speeches, wherein it was stated 
that the most preposterous consequences would 





MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


arise from the adoption of a rating instead of a 
value qualification. “And yet,” he repeated, 
“this very Minister now alleged that for seven 
years he had been urging this as a most im¬ 
portant point upon the conscience and con¬ 
viction of the country.” His account of the 
Reform contest was entirely inaccurate, and 
wholly unjustified by the facts of the case; 
and he was grieved to observe that people 
seemed to be amused rather than shocked— 
were, indeed, beginning to regard these things 
as the ordinary tricks of professional poli¬ 
ticians.—The Lord Chancellor in the course of 
his reply said: “The term ‘personal rating’ 
is an equivocal term, and I could not help 
thinking that in the latter and larger part of 
his speech the noble Duke gave about as con¬ 
spicuous an instance as could well be imagined 
of the personal rating which he so strongly de¬ 
precated. There is, however, one misfortune 
about the personal rating of this kind, that the 
person rated happens not to be a member of 
your Lordships’ House; and I undertake to 
tell the noble Duke that if he had been a 
member of this House there would have been 
no doubt whatever that the rating would have 
been amply repaid.” The Lord Chancellor 
then went on to defend the Premier from the 
false issues which he described as having been 
raised by the Duke of Argyll concerning the 
disputed Edinburgh speech. The question was, 
whether the Prime Minister admitted that he 
had pursued the tactics denounced by Earl 
Russell. “ I indignantly deny that anything of 
the kind was said at Edinburgh. The noble 
Duke became extremely fervid and eloquent 
about the tricks of politicians and the honour 
of your Lordships’ House. I rejoice to think 
that in your Lordships’ House accuracy of state¬ 
ment has always been regarded as it ought to 
be. I think, therefore, that before any mem¬ 
ber of the House makes a charge against the 
First Minister of the Crown, who cannot be 
here to rebut it, to the effect, that he made at 
Edinburgh a particular statement which would 
have the result of depriving his Government of 
confidence, he ought at least to be satisfied 
that such a statement was made. ” Earl Russell 
supported the Duke of Argyll, and complained 
that the charges against the Government had 
not been fairly met. 

13 . —Monsignor LucienBuonaparte and eight 
other ecclesiastics created cardinals. 

14 . —His Excellency the Plon. C. T. Adams 
presented with an address by the British branch 
of the International League of Peace and Liberty 
on the occasion of retiring from the American 
Embassy in London. 

— At the coroner’s inquest on the body of 
Lady Tichborne, the new claimant for the 
baronetcy is examined as a witness regarding 
the last days of the deceased. He had re¬ 
cently appeared in England claiming to be 
Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne, eleventh 
baronet, and heir to the title and estates of the 
family. The claimant stated that after meet¬ 


ing with various misfortunes, consequent on a 
voyage he had undertaken twenty-seven years 
ago, he reached Australia, and remained there 
up to the time of his leaving for England, 
lie was admitted by the deceased lady to be 
her son, and was in immediate and friendly 
relation with her up to the time of her death; 
but his identity was denied by the other mem¬ 
bers of the family interested in the disposal 
of the property. At the funeral, on the 20th, 
the two parties quarrelled, and Lord Arundel 
of Wardour, the uncle of the infant now in 
possession of the estates, withdrew from the 
procession. 

16 . —Died at Torquay, aged 64, Dr. Robert 
Lee, of Old Greyfriars, Edinburgh, a promi¬ 
nent minister of the Scotch Church, and Pro¬ 
fessor of Biblical Criticism in the University of 
Edinburgh. 

19 . —The Earl of Mayo introduces the Irish 
Reform Bill into the House of Commons. It 
proposed to fix the borough franchise at 4/., 
occupiers below that rental not paying rates in 
Ireland. Dublin was to have a third member 
on the three-cornered principle, and there was 
to be a limited redistribution of seats, but no 
alteration in the number of members. 

20 . —In Paris, M. Greunier of the Figaro , 
and M. Richard of the Situation , were fined— 
the former 1,000 fr., the latter 5,000 fr.—for 
publishing articles disrespectful to the Legis¬ 
late body. 

— “Captain” Mackay, a Fenian leader, 
sentenced to twelve years’ penal servitude for 
treason-felony. 

21 . —Defeat of the Papal party in Vienna. 
At to-day’s sitting of the Upper House of the 
Reichsrath, a proposal of Count Mensdorff, 
that the debate upon the Civil Marriage Bill 
should be adjourned, was defeated by 65 votes 
against 45, and the proposals of the minority 
of the Committee were then rejected by 69 
against 34 votes. In to-day’s sitting of the 
Committee of the Upper House of the Reichs¬ 
rath upon the Public Schools Bill, the majority 
agreed to all the principal features of the bill 
as passed by the Lower House. The minority 
proposed that the bill should be referred to a 
committee, which should be instructed to draw 
up a new bill, having for its basis the preserva¬ 
tion of the influence of the Roman Catholic 
Church over the religious and moral education 
of the young, and the maintenance of the de¬ 
nominational system in the popular middle 
schools. 

— The remains of the Italian patriot, Daniel 
Manin, conveyed with great pomp to Venice. 

23 .—Mr. Gladstone gives notice of his in¬ 
tention to move the following resolutions on 
the subject of the Irish Church: “ First, that 
in the opinion of this House it is necessary 
that the Established Church of Ireland should 
cease to exist as an Establishment—due re¬ 
gard being had to all personal interests and 






MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


to all individual rights of property. Secondly, 
that, subject to the foregoing considerations, it 
is expedient to prevent the creation of new per¬ 
sonal interests by the exercise of any public 
patronage, and to confine the operations of 
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland to 
objects of immediate necessity or involving 
individual rights, pending the final decision of 
Parliament. And third, that an address be 
presented to her Majesty, humbly to pray 
that, with a view to the purposes aforesaid, 
her Majesty be graciously pleased to place at 
the disposal of Parliament her interest in the 
temporalities of the archbishoprics, bishoprics, 
and other ecclesiastical dignities and benefices 
in Ireland, and in the custodies thereof.” Mr. 
Disraeli undertook that arrangements would 
be made for commencing the discussion on 
Monday the 30th. 

23 .— President Johnson files answers to the 
articles of impeachment denying all the charges 
preferred against him. A delay of thirty days 
was requested, but refused by 41 to 12 votes. 

24 *. —The Duke of Marlborough lays on the 
table of the House of Lords the Government 
measure relating to elementary education. It 
was proposed to give payments for results on a 
secular principle, so that when a school offered 
itself to be inspected, and showed that it com¬ 
plied* with the conditions of the grant as to 
sanitary arrangements and space, it should not 
be denied the benefit of the Government grant. 
At the same time,, it was intended to insert in 
the schedule of the bill the management clauses 
which relate to Church of England and other 
denominational schools, exactly as they now 
stand. In order that small schools, in poorer 
districts, might participate in the grant, it was 
proposed, without abandoning the system of 
certificates, to take a limit below which schools 
might receive a portion of the annual grant 
without the employment of a certificated 
teacher. 

— In reply to an address from the Con¬ 
servative and Constitutional Association, the 
Premier writes to the President, the Earl of 
Dartmouth: “We have heard something 
lately of the crisis of Ireland. In my opinion, 
the crisis of England is rather at hand ; for the 
purpose is now avowed, and that by a powerful 
party, of destroying that sacred union between 
the Church and State which has hitherto been 
the chief means of our civilization, and is the 
only security for our religious liberty.” The 
Earl of Derby, in reply to another address, 
wrote: “ It was not without a pang, and only 
under a conviction of the absolute necessity of 
the step, that I found myself compelled to ask 
permission to withdraw from the service of a 
sovereign to whose gracious favour I am so 
deeply indebted, and to sever my official con¬ 
nexion with a party which for so many years 
has honoured me with its confidence, and for 
many members of which I entertain a per¬ 
sonal as well as political regard. It was, 
however, very satisfactory to me to be em- 
(814) 


powered to transfer the office which I had 
had the honour of holding to one whose co¬ 
operation and friendship I had enjoyed for 
more than twenty years, and who, I am per¬ 
suaded, will prove himself not unmindful of 
those great constitutional principles which it 
has been the study of my life to uphold, and 
to which, so far as my health will permit, 
I shall not cease to give my earnest, though 
unofficial, support.” 

25 . — The Prime Minister holds his first 
reception in the new Foreign Office, magni¬ 
ficently fitted up for the purpose. The com¬ 
pany was large and distinguished, the Prince 
and Princess of Wales and other members of 
the Royal Family being present. 

— The Minister of Public Instruction 
threatens to close the University of Bologna in 
consequence of a demonstration made by the 
students in favour of three professors who 
had been suspended for expressing Republican 
sentiments. 

26 . — The House of Lords appoints a com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the operation of the 
Ecclesiastical Titles Act, a bill for the repeal of 
which was now before the House of Commons. 

— In Committee on the Mutiny Bill, Mr. 
Otway, by a majority of 152 to 127, carried a 
motion prohibiting courts-martial from passing 
sentence of corporal punishment in time of 
peace within the Queen’s dominions. 

— President Johnson vetoes the bill pro¬ 
hibiting appeals from the Circuit to the Su¬ 
preme Court, on the ground that it leaves cases 
involving life and liberty wholly exposed to the 
judgment of the inferior courts, and has a retro¬ 
spective effect in interdicting appeals already 
before the Supreme Court. 

27 . —Amid great cheering from the Minis¬ 
terialists, Lord Stanley announced his intention 
this evening of proposing the following amend¬ 
ment on Monday next on the motion for going 
into Committee on the Irish Church Establish¬ 
ment :—“That this House, while admitting 
that considerable modifications in the tempo¬ 
ralities of the United Church in Ireland may, 
after pending inquiry, appear to be expedient, 
is of opinion that any proposition tending to 
the disestablishment or disendowment of that 
Church ought to be reserved for the decision 
of the new Parliament.” In answer to Mr. 
Gladstone, Lord Stanley said his resolution 
was not to be proposed as an amendment in 
Committee, but at the first stage of the dis¬ 
cussion, on the motion that the Speaker leave 
the chair. 

28 . — Sir R. Phillimore delivers the judg¬ 
ment of the Arches Court in the ritual case of 
Martin v. Mackonochie. The cases of incense 
and mixing water with the wine were decided 
to be illegal. Lighted candles during the cele¬ 
bration of Holy Communion the Dean held 
to be lawful; and with regard to the fourth 
charge—the “elevation” of the elements—that 







MARCH 


1868. 


MARCH 


he thought should have been proceeded with 
before the bishop, and not as a criminal pro¬ 
secution. This judgment was appealed from 
to the Privy Council, who on the 24th Dec. 
decided against Mr. Mackonochie on all points, 
and ordered him to pay the costs of suit and 
appeal. 

28 .—Died from the effects of a fall off his 
horse, Earl Cardigan, aged 72. 

— Toulon railway station burned. 

— Rioting in Belgium, arising out of a dis¬ 
pute between the miners and their employers. 
At Charleroi the military were called out, and 
several of the rioters wounded. 

— At a dinner given to Mr. Brand for the 
purpose of presenting him with a testimonial 
in recognition of his long services as Liberal 
whip, Mr. Gladstone, who occupied the chair, 
made a speech of considerable significance with 
reference to the impending discussion on the 
Irish Church. “Having put our hand to the 
plough,” he said, “we shall not look back. I 
have entertained from the first a confident hope 
and belief that a long and arduous struggle 
would be accompanied with complete success. 
After the sample with which we have become 
acquainted of the steps by which we are to be 
opposed, I feel more confident than ever of the 
completeness of our success. I feel less appre¬ 
hensive as to the intolerable length of the con¬ 
flict. These are very grave and serious matters, 
and we cannot too seriously ponder them. 
Rely upon it, the issues involved are not those 
of this or that Minister, nor are they even— 
which is far more important—-of this or that 
party. They are in the highest degree imperial 
questions. They go to the very root of our 
national security and prosperity. Now, there¬ 
fore, is the time to address ourselves, not as 
to a trivial work, but as to one demanding 
every exertion we can make, and with a firm 
determination that, so far as depends upon 
us, efforts shall not be wanting to establish 
throughout the civilized world the good name 
of England in her relation to her sister Ireland, 
and to make these kingdoms united not merely 
by the paper bonds of the law, but by the 
blessed law of concord and harmony which 
is written on the heart of man.” 

30 .—Commencement of the debate on Mr. 
Gladstone’s Irish Church resolutions. The 
first division took place on the motion that the 
House go into Committee on the resolutions, 
as against Lord Stanley’s amendment. Mr. 
Gladstone, having moved that the Acts relating 
to the Irish Church be read, spoke for an hour 
and a half on the failure of the Establishment, 
and the necessity that was now laid upon them 
of at least suspending appointments to any 
of the higher dignities. “ If I was asked,” he 
said, “ as to my expectation of the issue of the 
struggle, I begin by frankly owning that I for 
one would not have entered into it unless I 
believed that the final hour was about to sound. 
(Hear, hear.) I hope the noble lord will 
fi-rgive me if I say that before Friday last I 


thought the thread of the remaining life of 
the Irish Established Church was short. Since 
Friday last at half-past four o’clock, and since 
the few moments when he stood at the table, 
I regard it as shorter still. (Cheers.) The 
issue is not in our hands. What we have had 
and have to do, is to consider well and deeply 
before we take that first step in an engage¬ 
ment such as this ; but having entered into the 
controversy we must quit ourselves like men, and 
make every effort to remove what still remains 
of the scandal and calamity of the relation 
between England and Ireland, and use our 
best exertions to build up with the cement of 
honour and concord the noble fabric of the 
British empire.”—Lord Stanley then submitted 
his resolution, urging the House to adopt it, as 
it would leave the new Parliament perfectly free 
and unfettered, and prevent them from rushing 
hastily into a question with which they were 
constitutionally incompetent to deal. Lord 
Cranboume denounced the Government for 
acting as if they meant to betray the Irish 
Church, and described their policy as unworthy 
and ambiguous. On the second night of the 
debate Mr. Hardy treated the resolutions as 
an attack upon the rights of property, and 
objected entirely to the principle of disestablish¬ 
ment. He also taunted Mr. Gladstone with 
hastily changing his views on the Irish Church, 
and quoted in corroboration a portion of the 
letter addressed by him to Dr. Hannah in 
1865 (see June 9, 1865). On the third night 
Mr. Lowe made a fierce attack on the Govern¬ 
ment as well as on the Irish Church. The 
former, he said, came before the House with 
two different lines of policy, as explained by 
Lord Stanley and Mr. Hunt, and generally was 
entrapping members in a manner calculated to 
lower the character of public men. Of the 
Church he said, “ You may call it sacred, you 
may unite it by Acts of Parliament to the 
English Church, you may, like Mezentius, link 
the dead with the living. His object was to 
kill, for he knew that coupling with a dead 
body would be death to the living. Your 
object is to save, and yet you adopt the same 
process. You see the living Church of England, 
the dying Church of Ireland. Why are you so 
anxious to unite them, seeing how much they 
are different? You put machinery in motion 
which may destroy the Irish Church, and which 
may involve the English Church also. Rely on 
it, all your efforts are in vain. You may do 
your utmost, but you will not save the Irish 
Church, nor will the country give you the 
power of having the pleasure of destroying 
her. You will not be able to play over again 
your game of last year. The net of the fowler 
will not again ensnare the birds. The Irish 
Church is founded on injustice, on the dominant 
rights of the few over the many, and it shall 
not stand. (Cheers.) You call it a missionary 
Church : if so, its mission is unfulfilled. It 
has utterly failed. It is like some exotic brought 
from a far country, tended with infinite pains 
and useless trouble. It is kept alive with the 

(815) 








MARCH 


1868. 


APRIL 


greatest difficulty and at great expense in an 
ungenial climate and an ungrateful soil. The 
curse of barrenness is upon it. It has no 
leaves, puts forth no blossom, and yields no 
fruit. Cut it down ; why cumbereth it the 
ground ? ” The debate was concluded on the 
night of the 3d April, the fourth night of dis¬ 
cussion, in the course of which Mr. Disraeli 
defended himself and his colleagues, and re¬ 
plied also with some severity to Mr. Lowe. “The 
High Church Ritualists,” he declared, “and the 
followers of the Pope have been long in secret 
combination, and are now in open confederacy. ” 
In reply to the taunting laughter with which 
this statement was received, the Premier further 
alleged that the proposals of Mr. Gladstone 
were not confined to mere political arrange¬ 
ments, but attacked the Crown itself. Mr. 
Gladstone wound up the debate, remarking, in 
the course of his speech, that there were some 
portions of the Premier’s statement of which 
he failed to see the relevancy, and other portions 
apparently due to the influence of a heated 
imagination. The division showed—for the 
resolutions, 331; against, 270: majority against 
Ministers, 61. The remaining members of 
the House were thus accounted for—Speaker, 
1 ; tellers, 4; vacant seats, 6; pairs and 
absentees, 46. 

30 . —The impeachment of President John¬ 
son opened before the Senate by General 
Butler. 

31 . —The negotiations of the Government 
with the Irish Roman Catholic prelates were 
thus described by Lord Mayo in reply to a 
communication of this day’s date received 
from Archbishop Leahy and Bishop Derry : 
“With great clearness and frankness you set 
forth the alterations which you recommended 
should be made in the framework of the new 
institution, as it was described in a memoran¬ 
dum which I had the honour of placing in 
your hands. The alterations which you said 
that you considered necessary were principally 
based on the assumption that there was not 
sufficient scope given in the constitution of the 
University and its governing body for the exer¬ 
cise by the Roman Catholic prelates of their 
authority in matters appertaining to faith and 
morals, or over the books that were to be used 
by the students. In order, therefore, fully to 
provide for the exercise of that episcopal 
control which you appear to deem essential, 
you said that it was not competent for laymen 
or even clergymen of the second order, how¬ 
ever learned, to judge authoritatively of matters 
relating to faith and morality, and that the very 
least power that could be claimed for the bishops 
or the senate would be that of an absolute 
negative on the use of all books that might be 
deemed objectionable, and a power of veto on 
the first nomination of the professors of the 
University, as well as an authority for their 
dismissal. You also made propositions with 
regard to the election of the chancellor and the 
members of the senate, which would practi- 

(816) 


cally have put an end to anything like a system 
of free election on the part of the general body 
of the University. I apprised you in my letter 
of the nth May, delayed, as I then informed 
you, by my unavoidable detention in Ireland, 
and my consequent inability to consult my 
colleagues, that these proposals could not be 
entertained; and on the 17th I received from 
you a note, which was but a simple acknow¬ 
ledgment of my letter. As no intimation was 
afterwards given of your desire to continue the 
correspondence, and as no notice beyond for¬ 
mal acknowledgment was taken of my last 
letter, I could come to no other conclusion 
than that the communications were at an 
end.” 

April 1.—Sir Robert Napier telegraphs :— 
“ Head-quarters and 1st brigade at Abdium, 
ten miles from the Jidda river. 2d Brigade 
twelve miles in rear, with elephant batteries, 
will concentrate at Sindary on the left bank of 
the Jidda, while the road across is being re¬ 
paired. Distance from River Bashilo, 20 
miles ; from Magdala, 30 miles. Latest news 
from prisoners, 25th March, all well; troops 
all well.” Received here 21st April. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer obtains 
leave to introduce a bill enabling the Post¬ 
master-General to acquire and maintain the 
electric telegraphs within the kingdom. 

6 . —News received in Washington of the 
murderous outrages perpetrated in Georgia by 
a new organized band of desperadoes known as 
the Ku-Klux-Klan. 

— The Duke of Edinburgh leaves Sydney 
in the Galatea , being escorted to the Heads by 
a fleet of steamers and small boats. 

— The Dresden Second Chamber sanction 
the abolition of capital punishment by a 
majority of two-thirds. 

7 . — Darcy M‘Ghee, a prominent statesman 
in the New Dominions, shot on the steps of 
his residence in Ottawa. The victim in this 
case was said to have incurred bitter dislike by 
the zeal he had shown in the prosecution of 
disloyal Irishmen in Canada. 

8. —Letters received in London from Dr. 
Livingstone, dated from a district greatly beyond 
where he was said to have been murdered, and 
announcing that the traveller was in good health. 

9 . —With the view of excluding President 
Johnson from office, Mr. Sumner introduces a 
bill into the Senate, providing that no person 
should be eligible to the Presidency or Vice- 
Presidency for a second time. 

— Sir Harry Parkes, British Minister at 
Jeddo, attacked by Japanese 'on his return to 
the Residency, after a visit to the Mikado. 

— In a letter dated “ Hughenden Manor, 
Maunday Thursday,” the Prime Minister writes 
to the Vicar of Addington (Rev. A. Baker) ; 
“Reverend Sir, I have just received your 
letter, in which, as one of my constituents, you 
justify your right to ask for some explanation 







APRIL 


1368. 


APRIL 


of my alleged assertion that the High Church 
Ritualists had been long in secret combination, 
and were now in open confederacy, with Irish 
Romanists for the destruction of the union 
between Church and State. I acknowledge 
your right to make this inquiry ; and if I do 
not notice in detail the various suggestions in 
your letter, it is from no want of courtesy, but 
from the necessity of not needlessly involving 
myself in literary controversy. You are under 
a misapprehension if you suppose that I in¬ 
tended to cast any slur upon the High Church 
party. I have the highest respect for the 
High Church party; I believe there is no body 
of men in this country to which we have been 
more indebted, from the days of Queen Anne 
to the days of Queen Victoria, for the mainte¬ 
nance of the orthodox faith, the rights of the 
Crown, and the liberties of the people. In 
saying this I had no wish to intimate that the 
obligations of the country to the other great 
party in the Church are not equally significant. 

I have never looked upon the existence of 
parties in our Church as a calamity; I look 
upon them as a necessity, and a beneficent 
necessity. They are the natural and inevitable 
consequences of the mild and liberal principles 
of our ecclesiastical polity, and of the varying 
and opposite elements of the human mind and 
character. When I spoke, I referred to an 
extreme faction in the Church, of very modern 
date, that does not conceal its ambition to 
destroy the connexion between Church and 
State, and which I have reason to believe has 
been for some time in secret combination, and 
is now in open confederacy, with the Irish 
Romanists for the purpose. The Liberation 
Society, with its shallow and short-sighted 
fanaticism, is a mere instrument in the hands 
of this confederacy, and will probably be the 
first victim of the spiritual despotism the 
Liberation Society is now blindly working to 
establish. As I hold that the dissolution of 
the union between Church and State will cause 
permanently a greater revolution in this country 
than foreign conquest, I shall use my utmost 
energies to defeat these fatal machinations. 
Believe me, Rev. Sir, your faithful member and 
servant,—B. Disraeli.” 

lO. —Discovered in an empty house af 
Hackney Wick the body of a lunatic named 
Heaseman, who had committed suicide under 
circumstances leading to the belief that another 
mysterious and frightful murder was now 
brought to light. 

— Release of the Abyssinian prisoners. 
Defeated in an engagement on the heights of 
Islamgie, King Theodore now began negotia¬ 
tions for the delivery of the European captives, 
though not till he had slain in the most re¬ 
morseless manner a large number of his native 
prisoners. Lieutenant Prideaux and Mr. Flad 
were the parties fixed upon by the King to carry 
out the final negotiations. “We were dis¬ 
missed,” writes the former, “with the message, 
* j had thought before this that I was a strong 

(Si 7) 


man, but I have now discovered that there are 
stronger : now reconcile me.’ We then left 
him, accompanied by Dejaj Alame, his son-in- 
law, for the British camp at Aroge, where 
we arrived after a two hours’ ride, and were 
warmly greeted by the many friends I had not 
seen for so long a time, and had scarcely ex¬ 
pected ever to see again. After breakfast and 
a short stay in the camp, we returned to his 
Majesty, bearing a letter from Sir Robert 
Napier, couched in firm but conciliatory terms, 
and assuring the King that, provided he sub 
mitted to the Queen of England and brought 
all his prisoners and the other Europeans to the 
British camp, honourable treatment would be 
accorded to himself and to all his family. 
When we arrived, he was sitting on the brow 
of Selasse, overlooking the British camp, and 
apparently in anything but a pleasant humour, 
having been previously joined by Mr. Wald- 
meier. We presented ourselves before him, 
and delivered to him a letter, which was twice 
translated to him. At the conclusion of the 
second reading he asked in a deliberate manner, 

‘ What does honourable treatment mean ? does 
it mean that the English will help me to subdue 
my enemies, or does it mean honourable treat¬ 
ment as a prisoner ? ’ I replied to him that on 
the first point the Commander-in-Chief had said 
nothing, that all his wishes were contained in 
his letter, and that the English army had simply 
come into the country to rescue their fellow- 
countrymen, and, that object effected, they 
would then return. This answer evidently 
pleased him but little. All his hopes of re¬ 
establishing himself by British aid were dashed 
to the ground, and he had thenceforward to lead 
the precarious life of a brigand chief. His lips, 
always as thin as a sword-blade, quivered ner¬ 
vously ; the horse-shoe on his forehead grew 
deeper : but, controlling himself, he motioned 
us to seat ourselves at a little distance from him, 
while he dictated an answer to his chief scribe, 
and, when it was finished, called us forward, 
delivered it over to us, and bade us depart. 
The pith of this incoherent epistle was simply 
that he had hitherto surrendered himself to 
no man, and was not prepared to do so now. 
Our second stay in the British camp lasted 
about a couple of hours, at the expiration of 
which time the Commander-in-Chief felt him¬ 
self called upon to despatch us, however reluc¬ 
tantly, to the fortress. We took our departure 
hoping for the best, but fearing the worst. This 
time no letter was handed to us, but simply a 
verbal communication of the same purport as 
the former note. It was growing dusk as we 
neared Selasse for the second time ; and we 
were beginning to make the last ascent, when 
we encountered a European, accompanied by 
several Abyssinians. This proved to be Meyer, 
one of the German artisans, who communicated 
to us the welcome intelligence that the King 
had liberated Mr. Rassam, Dr. Blanc, Consul 
Cameron, with the remaining Magdala pri¬ 
soners, and that they were now descending the 
hill—news which was corroborated by the ac- 

3 G 







APRIL 


1868. 


APRIL 


companying natives. On receipt of these tidings 
we turned the heads of our mules, and, in com¬ 
pany with Mr. Meyer, arrived in the camp as 
the bearers of good news, not only to ourselves, 
but to every one of those who surrounded us. 
Shortly afterwards Mr. Rassam and his party 
arrived ; and it was with heartfelt gratitude 
that we laid our heads on the pillow that night, 
secure at last after so many dangers. In the 
course of the following morning the remainder 
of the Europeans, accompanied by their families, 
arrived. The King also, as it was Easter Sun¬ 
day, sent a present of 1,000 cows and 500 
sheep to the Commander-in-Chief, who seeing 
that his Majesty had avoided complying with, 
perhaps, the most important terms of the com¬ 
munication addressed to him—namely, his own 
submission—had no option left but to decline 
them.” 

10 .—King Theodore writes to Sir R. Na¬ 
pier :—“ In the name of the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost, one God : the King of 
Kings, Theodorus ! May it reach the beloved 
servant of the great Queen of England. I am 
writing to you without being able to address 
you by name, because our intercourse has arisen 
so unexpectedly. I am grieved at having sent 
you my writing of yesterday, and at having- 
quarrelled with you, my friend. When I saw 
your manner of fighting, and the discipline of 
your army, and when my people failed to ex¬ 
ecute my orders, then I was consumed with 
sorrow to think that although I killed and 
punished my soldiers, yet they would not re¬ 
turn to the battle. Whilst the fires of jealousy 
burned within me, Satan came to me in the 
night, and tempted me to kill myself with my 
own pistol; but reflecting that God would be 
angry with me if I were to go in this manner, 
and leave my army without a protector, I sent 
to you in a hurry, lest I might die and all things 
be in confusion before my messenger would 
reach you. After my messenger had gone I 
cocked my pistol, and, putting it in my mouth, 
pulled the trigger. Though I pulled and pulled, 
it would not go off. But when my people 
rushed upon me, and laid hold of the pistol, it 
was discharged just as they had drawn it from 
my mouth. God having thus signified to me that 
I should not die but live, I sent to you Mr. Ras¬ 
sam that same evening, that your heart might 
be made easy. To-day is Easter : be pleased 
to let me send a few cows to you. . . .You 
require from me all the Europeans, even to my 
best friend, Mr. Waldmeier. Well, be it so : 
they shall go. But, now that we are friends, you 
must not leave me without artisans, as I am a 
loyer of the mechanical arts.” 

13 . — Capture of Magdala. “By three 
o’clock,” writes Sir Robert Napier, “the 
Abyssinians having .nearly all cleared away 
from Islamgie, I ordered the attack of Magdala 
to be commenced at once. The attacking force 
consisted of the 2d Brigade, led by the 33d 
Regiment, accompanied by detachments of the 
Royal Engineers and Madras and Bombay Sap¬ 

(818) 


pers and Miners, to clear away obstacles—the 
1st Brigade to be a close support. The enemy 
carefully concealed themselves from view, so 
that the place seemed almost deserted; although 
when entered by our troops it was found to be 
thronged with soldiers who had thrown away 
their arms. The attack was ably conducted by 
Sir Charles Staveley, and gallantly carried out 
by the troops. The Royal Engineers and Sap¬ 
pers, and leading sections of the 33d Regiment, 
were long before they could force an entrance ; 
and during this time nine officers and men re¬ 
ceived wounds. At length an entrance was 
effected by means of the ladders near the gate, 
and by the leading men of the 33d, who scaled 
a rock and turned the defence of the gateway. 
The enemy were driven to the second barricade, 
and when that was carried all resistance ceased. 
Amongst the dead near the outer gate were 
found several of Theodore’s most devoted chiefs 
—one of whom had urged Theodore to murder 
all the captives, a course from which he was 
dissuaded by others. At the moment when the 
barricade was forced by the 33d Theodore fell 
—as we have since learned, by his own hands. 
His troops fled immediately—some by the Kaffir 
Burr gate, which we found choked with arms 
which had been cast away in their flight. The 
command of Magdala was entrusted to Briga¬ 
dier-General Walby, who held it with the 33d 
and wing of the 45 th Regiments. So thickly 
was the fortress inhabited, and so great was the 
crowd of people, that it was no easy matter to 
establish order. Guards were placed at the 
gates and such places as required protection. 
The family of Theodore were committed to the 
care of Mr. Rassam, who was requested to do 
all that was in his power for their comfort and 
protection. ” 

14 . — Engagement between Turkish troops 
and the Cretan insurgents at Apocorona. 

— The Prince and Princess of Wales leave 
London on a visit to Ireland. 

15 . — The Prince and Princess of Wales ar¬ 
rive at Kingston, and proceed by road in an 
open carriage to Dublin, which was entered 
amid great enthusiasm. The address presented 
by the Corporation congratulated the Prince on 
becoming a Knight of St. Patrick, and on his 
intention of unveiling the statue of Edmund 
Burke. It also expressed a hope that the 
Queen would command a suitable residence to 
be prepared for her in Ireland, and would take an 
opportunity to dwell as frequently as possible 
among her subjects there. The Princess was 
separately addressed, as having justified the 
welcome which greeted her on landing by her 
deeds of charity and kindness in the country of 
her birth as well as in England. On the 16th, 
the Royal visitors attended Punchestown Races; 
on the 18th, the installation took place in St. 
Patrick’s Cathedral, followed by a banquet; 
and from the 20th to the 24th, the Prince and 
Princess were engaged in a round of visits and 
entertainments. They left Dublin on the even¬ 
ing of the last-mentioned day, and returned by 






APRIL 


1868. 


APRIL 


way of Wales, a visit of considerable interest 
and ceremony being made to Caernarvon. 

15 . —Howard Featherstonhaugh, a Deputy- 
lieutenant of Westmeath, shot when driving 
home with his servant from Killacan station. 
He was one of the largest proprietors in the 
county, and there had recently been several 
evictions on his estate. The assassins stopped 
the vehicle in a secluded part of the road at 
Knocksheban, dragged their victim to the 
ground, and then fired at him so closely as to 
scorch the clothes he had on. Mr. Feather¬ 
stonhaugh was returning from Dublin, whither 
he had gone to join in the welcome to the 
Prince of Wales. 

. —: Calamity on the Erie Railway at Carr’s 
Rock, causing the instantaneous death of twenty 
persons, and serious injury to over fifty others. 

16 . —Decided in the Exchequer Court the 
action raised by the Duke of Buccleuch against 
the Metropolitan Board of Works. Sometime 
since his Grace obtained a verdict for upwards 
of 8,000/. for . the loss of a pier which the Board 
of Works had taken away from his new house 
at Whitehall when they made the Embankment. 
The Board brought an action into the Exche¬ 
quer Court to set aside this verdict, on the 
ground that the lease of the land from the 
Crown to the Duke made no mention of a 
pier. It was proved, however, that the pier 
had always been there. Baron Martin plea¬ 
santly referred to the mention made of it in Sir 
Walter Scott’s novel of the “Fortunes of 
Nigel,” and the Court held that the lease, 
though it made no mention of a pier, must be 
supposed to convey it and everything else that 
belonged to the property at the time the lease 
was made. They therefore confirmed the ver¬ 
dict in favour of the Duke. 

— Meeting in St. James’s Hall, London, to 
express sympathy with the agitation now being 
carried on for the disestablishment of the Irish 
Church. Earl Russell, who presided, said, so 
far as the question of disendowment was con¬ 
cerned, the great point was to secure equality. 
“ I think the people of Ireland are entitled to 
demand that all her Majesty’s subjects in that 
country should be placed upon a footing of 
equality, and it is rather a secondary question 
whether that equality should be obtained by 
endowment of all the different communions, or 
by the disendowment of them all. (Loud cries 
of ‘ disendowment.’) I do not disguise my pre¬ 
ferences on that subject; but I say, at once, 
that as I perceive that the Protestant people in 
general of England and Scotland do not wish to 
endow all these communions., and on the other 
hand that the Roman Catholics in Ireland do not 
wish to accept any endowment, I at once dis¬ 
card any preferences of my own, and seek for 
general disendowment.” The meeting was large, 
enthusiastic, and orderly. 

17 . —Another meeting on the Irish Church 
question held in St. James’s Hall, by “ The 
United Protestant Defence Committee.” The 

(S19) 


meeting was not so large as the one held uudei 
the auspices of the disendowment party, and 
the confusion was observed to be more violent 
and frequent. 

18 .— The North German Parliament adopts 
a resolution calling upon the Chancellor of the 
Confederation to open negotiations with foreign 
Powers for the purpose of establishing it as a 
fundamental principle of international law that 
private property at sea should not be considered 
liable to capture in time of war. 

— Charles Dickens entertained at dinner at 
Delmonico’s, New York, by the Press of the 
United States. 

— Died at Harringer, Bury St. Edmunds, 
aged 76, General Simpson, a Peninsular vete¬ 
ran, who succeeded Lord Raglan as Comman- 
der-in-Chief in the Crimea. 

— The Abyssinian expedition commences 
its return march from Magdala. 

20 .—Came on at the Central Criminal 
Court, before Chief Justice Cockbum and Mr. 
Baron Bramwell, the trial of the Fenian pri¬ 
soners, William Desmond, Timothy Desmond, 
English, O’Keefe, Barrett alias Jackson, and 
Ann Justice, charged with being concerned in 
the explosion at the Clerkenwell House of 
Detention in December last, and causing the 
death of Ann Hodgkinson and others. The 
first witnesses called were the approvers 
Mullady and Vaughan, who exposed the 
desperate schemes and needy condition of 
the conspirators. The latter stated in evi¬ 
dence :—“I was sworn in as a Fenian in 
1865 by Timothy Desmond. I saw him on 
the day of the explosion, between half-past 
one and half-past two. I was at work at the 
time at Pugh’s-place, near Golden-square. 
He came into my room and hollered out 
‘Ahoy.’ I said, ‘Halloa, Tim, have you been 
muddling it ? ’ He replied, ‘ I have just seen 
my son off to sea this morning.’ I could see 
he had been drinking, but I should not say he 
was drunk. He asked my wife if she had 
seen his wife. She told him she had not, and 
I said, ‘You don’t mean to say, Ned, youi 
wife has hooked it from you?’ He replied, 
‘Yes and added, ‘she shall never lie beside 
me again.’ He kissed my wife and bade her 
good-bye, and said he was going to take a 
jump. My wife told him not to be so foolish. 
He then leant over the door and whistled to 
me, and said in a whisper, ‘ The thing must be 
done.’ I asked him what he meant, and he 
answered, ‘ They’re going to blow up the 
House of Detention.’ I asked him when, and 
he said, ‘ The thing must be done. We have 
found out from Ann Justice, by going in with 
Casey’s dinner, the time at which they exercise 
in the yard, and the trick must be done be¬ 
tween half-past three and four o’clock.’ He 
then bade me good-bye, and said, ‘Jemmy, 
when I am blasted into eternity, pray for me ; 
or if I get off and am arrested, the next place 
will be Millbank.’ He then kissed and shook 

3 g 2 









APRIL 


1868. 


APRIL 


hands with me and went away. I didn’t see 
him again until he was a prisoner. I saw 
English about seven o’clock on the evening of 
the explosion. He came to the door leading 
to my room, and said, ‘For God’s sake, Jemmy, 
give me as much as you can, for we want to 
send them off.’ I asked him to whom he 
referred, and he answered, ‘What ! haven’t 
you heard?’ I said, ‘No;’ and he then said, 

‘ The House of Detention is blown bang up.’ 
I then gave him two shillings, and told him I 
could spare no more, as business was slack. 
He said, ‘ For God’s sake* give me as much as 
you can—I want it badly.’ The next morning 
I saw him reading the placard of a news¬ 
paper, and saying aloud the word ‘ diabolical. ’ 
I said, ‘ Halloa, Ned;’ and then he added, ‘We 
will burn the whole of London yet, and that 
will be a sight more diabolical.’ I then wished 
him good-bye. I was at Bow-street at half¬ 
past twelve that day.”—At the close of the case 
for the prosecution on the 23d, the Lord Chief 
Justice said he thought there was no case 
against the woman Justice, and proceedings 
were therefore withdrawn against her so 
far as the charge of murder was concerned. 
This was also done with reference to O’Keefe 
on the 24th. An alibi was set up in defence 
of Barrett, witnesses being produced in Court 
who swore that they had seen and spoken to 
him in Glasgow the day before, and also on the 
afternoon of the explosion. Mr. Murdoch, a 
shoemaker, stated that he saw Barrett on the 
12th December, when he came to his house in 
company with a man named Mullan. “He 
asked me if I would sole and heel a pair of 
boots; and I told him I would, and promised 
to have them ready the next evening. Barrett 
came the next morning, and then I had not 
touched the boots. I le returned the next day 
about three o’clock, but the boots had not 
yet been touched. He then abused me. 
Two shoemakers of mine came in, and I 
asked them to do me a favour to sole and 
heel a pair of boots. While the boots were 
being repaired Barrett sent out for an even¬ 
ing paper. At that time he had, to the 
best of my belief, about three or four days’ 
beard on him. I’ve never seen him since.” 
The alibi was but indifferently supported in 
Court, and broke down altogether under an 
extra-judicial inquiry which subsequently took 
place. The proceedings were protracted till 
Monday the 27th, when the jury returned a 
verdict of Not Guilty as regarded the two Des¬ 
monds and English, and Guilty as regarded 
Barrett. Previous to judgment the latter re¬ 
quested permission to address the Court, and 
entered at considerable length into the charac¬ 
ter of the evidence on which he had been 
convicted. He concluded by stating in an im¬ 
posing manner that he hoped God in His infinite 
mercy might make the sacrifice of his humble 
life a means of benefiting his unfortunate 
country, and he would mount the scaffold with 
confidence in that hope. The Lord Chief 
Justice announced his concurrence in the ver- 
(820) 


diet of the jury, and then solemnly adjudged 
the prisoner to be executed. The prosecution 
against the other prisoners on the main charges 
was abandoned. 

20 .—Sir Robert Napier issues an order of 
the day to the Abyssinian army:—“I congratu¬ 
late you with all my heart on the noble way in 
which you have fulfilled the commands of our 
Sovereign. You have traversed, often under a 
tropical sun or storms of rain and sleet, 400 
miles of mountainous and difficult country. 
You have crossed many steep and precipitous 
ranges of mountains more than 10,000 feet in 
altitude, where your supplies could not keep 
pace with you. When you arrived within 
reach of your enemy, though with scanty food, 
and some of you for many hours without either 
food or water, in four days you passed the 
formidable chasm of the Bashilo and defeated 
the army of Theodore, who poured down upon 
you from their lofty fortress, in the full confi¬ 
dence of victory. A host of many thousands 
have laid down their arms at your feet. You 
have captured or destroyed upwards of thirty 
pieces of artillery, many of great weight and 
efficiency, with ample .store of ammunition. 
You have stormed the almost inaccessible 
fortress of Magdala, defended by Theodore 
with the desperate remnant of his chiefs and 
followers. After you forced the entrance, 
Theodore—who never showed mercy—dis¬ 
trusted the offer of mercy which had been 
held out to him, and died by his own hand. 
You have released not only the British cap¬ 
tives, but also those of friendly nations ; you 
have unloosed the chains of more than ninety 
of the principal chiefs of Abyssinia. Magdala, 
on which so many victims had been slaughtered, 
has been committed to the flames, and remains 
only a scorched rock. ... I shall watch over 
your safety to the moment of your re-embarka- 
tion ; and to the end of my life shall remem¬ 
ber with pride that I have commanded you.” 

21 . —Apprehension of Fenians, with Greek 
fire in their possession, near Buckingham 
Palace. 

22. —Commercial treaty between Great 
Britain and Austria signed. 

— Monster meeting in Mr. Spurgeon's 
Metropolitan Tabernacle on the Irish Church 
question, presided over by Mr. Bright. 

— Count Bismarck defeated in the North 
German Parliament on the official responsibi¬ 
lity clause of the Confederation Debt Bill by 
a majority of 18. The bill was afterwards 
withdrawn. 

— Marriage of Prince Humbert with the 
Princess Margherita of Savoy celebrated at 
Turin. 

— At Bow-street, the sitting magistrate de¬ 
clines to hear the charge preferred against 
Mr. Eyre of issuing an illegal proclamation. 

23 . —The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. 
Ward Hunt) introduces the annual financial 
statement. During the bygone year there had 








APRIL 


1868. 


APRIL 


been a deficiency of 370,000/. of actual as 
compared with estimated revenue, arising prin¬ 
cipally from uncollected arrears in the income- 
tax department. The gross income for the 
ensuing year he estimated at 71,350,000/., and 
the expenditure at 70,428,000/., showing a 
surplus of 922,000/. This surplus, however, 
was only on ordinary outlay, and did not apply 
to the extra cost incurred by the Abyssinian 
expedition, for which Mr. Hunt calculated 
that 3,000,000/. would have to be provided in 
addition to the 2,000,000/. already granted. 
He proposed to meet that demand by increas¬ 
ing the income-tax to 6 d. per pound, and 
issuing Exchequer bills in anticipation of in¬ 
come-tax to the amount of 1,000,000/. These, 
w r ith the surplus on ordinary revenue, would 
make a net surplus, for 1868-9, of 722,000/. 
The Budget was favourably received. 

23 . —Died Lieutenant Pollard, “the Avenger 
of Nelson;” deceased being the midshipman 
on board the Victory who brought down the 
marksmen from the main-top of the Redoubtable , 
whence the shot was fired so fatal to the hero 
of Trafalgar. 

24 . —To counteract rumours now being 
industriously circulated, Mr. Gladstone sends 
the following statement to the daily news¬ 
papers : “Though reluctant to attempt any 
encroachment on your space with reference to 
personal matters, I feel that I have no alterna¬ 
tive at a time when personal charges, however 
irrelevant, are employed as a means of injuring 
or impeding a great cause. Within the last 
fortnight, or thereabouts, the following state¬ 
ments, purporting to be of fact, have been assi¬ 
duously circulated respecting me in different 
parts of the country :—First, that when at 
Rome I made arrangements with the Pope to 
destroy the Church Establishment in Ireland, 
with some other like matters—being myself a 
Roman Catholic at heart. Second, that during 
and since the Government of Sir Robert Peel 
I have resisted, and till now prevented, the 
preferment of Dr. Wynter. Third, that I 
have publicly condemned all support to the 
clergy in the three kingdoms from Church or 
public funds. Fourth, that when at Balmoral I 
refused to attend her Majesty at Crathie Church. 
Fifth, That I have received the thanks of the 
Pope for my proceedings respecting the Irish 
Church. Sixth, That I am a member of a 
High Church Ritualist congregation. Aware 
how in times of public excitement rumours 
grow and gather through the combined action 
of eagerness, credulity, and levity, I will not 
bestow a single harsh word on any of these 
statements; neither will I advert to the cause 
to which some of them may be due, for I am 
determined to avoid, as long as it may be pos¬ 
sible, envenoming a great political controversy, 
and what I think a noble cause, with the ele¬ 
ments of religious bigotry and hatred. But I 
will in the first place declare that these state¬ 
ments, one and all, are untrue in letter and in 
spirit, from the beginning to the end; and 
since it is impossible for me to continue en 


tangled as I have recently been in the meshes 
of correspondence which such fictions entail, 
I venture to request all persons whatever, 
that may be interested in the matter, if any 
like statements should hereafter come under 
their view, in the interest of truth, to withhold 
their belief.” 

27 .—The morning papers publish telegrams 
relating to the attempted assassination of the 
Duke of Edinburgh, by the Fenian O’Farrel, 
at Sydney, and of the capture of Magdala and 
release of the Abyssinian captives. The first 
was in the form of a brief despatch from Earl 
Belmore to the Colonial Secretary. It reached 
London early on the morning of the 26th, but 
was not spread to any extent till the after¬ 
noon, in order that her Majesty might pre¬ 
viously be made acquainted with the occur¬ 
rence. In the evening special prayers were 
offered up in many of the churches, and in 
some the Queen’s anthem was sung. —Sir Robert 
Napier’s despatch was dated from Magdala, 
April 14, and made mention of the release of 
the captives and the- successful assault on the 
fortress. “ Our loss,” he reported, “ is small; 
and the army will return immediately.” 

— Addresses to the Queen agreed to in 
both Houses of Parliament expressive of sorrow 
and indignation at the attempt made on the 
life of the Duke of Edinburgh. 

— In view of the unsettled condition in 
which he was leaving the country, Sir Robert 
Napier issues the following proclamation to 
the chiefs and people of Abyssinia:—“We 
proclaim that Dajazmaz Gobazee is the friend 
of the British. He appointed Dajaz Mashasha 
his representative here. Those who would be 
treated as friends by the British Commander 
should obey Dajazmaz Gobazee, the officers 
appointed by him, and no other. We desire 
there should be peace in the country.” 

— The Secretary of State for India sends 
the following Royal message to Sir Robert 
Napier: “The Queen sends hearty congratu¬ 
lations and thanks to Sir Robert Napier and 
his gallant force on their brilliant success. I 
congratulate your Excellency with all my heart: 
you have taught us once more what is meant 
by an army that can go anywhere and do any¬ 
thing. From first to last all has been done 
well. I must ask leave for a motto. My own 
suggestion would be ‘ Qualis ab incepto. * ” 

— During the discussion in Committee of 
the first of Mr. Gladstone’s Irish Church re¬ 
solutions, the Premier was appealed to in order 
to get the division taken to-uight. He replied 
that Government, feeling the extreme import¬ 
ance of the issue, would afford every facility 
for its discussion, and he could give no pledge 
to interfere in any way with the full and free 
expression of the opinions of every member 
who desired to declare his views on a question 
which it was not concealed must lead to great 
and even revolutionary changes. 

— Mandamus granted by the Court of 

(821) 






APRIL 


MAY 


1868. 


Queen’s Bench directing the Bishop of London 
to hear a charge of heresy against the Rev. W. 
J. E. Bonnet of Frome. 

28 .—Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court the trail of the Fenian prisoners, Burke, 
Casey, and Mullady, charged with treason- 
felony. 

— In reply to a deputation, the Duke of 
Richmond said that the clause of the Railway 
Regulations Bill relating to the enclosure of 
parcels would be amended in Committee. The 
clause was afterwards withdrawn. 

— The Earl of Derby draws the attention 
of the House of Lords to Mr. Gladstone’s 
resolutions, as being unconstitutional, in so far 
as they asked her Majesty to place at the dis¬ 
posal of Parliament certain temporalities which 
had only been discussed in the Lower House. 

30 .—A force of 1,200 Argentines, under the 
command of General Rivas, effect a landing on 
the Chaco, below the part exposed to the fire 
of Humaita. Works were immediately thrown 
up: and when next day the Paraguayans, 
strengthened from Timbo, attempted to carry 
the position by assault, they were routed by the 
united fire of the infantry and of the Taman- 
dare and Behia, whose guns protected the 
flanks. In their retreat towards the road to 
Humaita, the repulsed Paraguayans came sud¬ 
denly upon the Argentine Exploring Legion of 
Volunteers, who shamefully broke their ranks 
and fled. Many threw themselves into the 
river, where the Tamandare , coming to their 
aid, picked them up. The remainder not 
killed or captured managed to escape to the 
Brazilians. 

— Concluded, after a discussion extending 
over eleven nights, the debate in Committee on 
Mr. Gladstone’s first resolution relating to the 
Irish Church. Mr. Gladstone replied this even¬ 
ing to his opponents, and Mr. Disraeli closed 
the discussion. The latter opposed the reso¬ 
lution, because there were many other institu¬ 
tions besides the Irish Church which did not 
fulfil the purposes forwhich they were instituted; 
because it would be impossible to avoid inter¬ 
fering with other Established Churches; and 
because the scheme involved elements of con¬ 
fiscation and revolution. Division:—For the 
resolution, 330; against, 265: majority against 
Government, 65. On the numbers being de¬ 
clared, Mr. Disraeli said:—“ The vote at which 
the Committee has now arrived has altered 
the relations between the Government and the 
House of Commons; and therefore, as it is 
necessary for us to consider our position, I 
shall, with the permission of the House, move 
the adjournment of the House till Monday.” 
Mr. Gladstone assented to this arrangement; 
but afterwards placed a notice on the paper, 
pledging the House to take up the second re¬ 
solution on Monday, before proceeding with the 
Committee of Ways and Means. The House 
adjourned at 3 A.M. on Friday the 1 st. 

— Sir W. Collier applies to the Court of 
1822) 


Queen’s Bench for a writ of mandamus to hear 
the evidence against ex-Governor Eyre, and to 
proceed thereon. Granted. 

30 .—Lord Malmesbury intimates in the 
House of Lords that it is the intention of Govern¬ 
ment to refer the Church Rates Compulsory 
Abolition Bill to a Select Committee of the 
Upper House. 

May 1 . —Police-Constable David Paton 
shoots a brother-constable, John Cruickshanks, 
in the village of Sherburn, Durham, and then 
commits suicide by shooting himself. Resent¬ 
ment at being “reported” was said to be the 
exciting cause of this deed. 

— The brothers Arthur and Hector Smith, 
the former 14 and the latter 12 years of age, 
make a murderous assault upon Mary Ann 
Nunn, housekeeper in premises in Catherine- 
street, Seething-lane, London. Detected in the 
act of robbing the house, one brother seized 
the woman, while the other attacked her with 
a mallet, and inflicted the injuries. 

2 . —The impeachment of President Johnson 
quashed by a majority of two votes on the 
eleventh article of impeachment, charging him 
with denying the right of Congress to legislate. 

3 . —The portion of the Thames south side 
Embankment, extending from Westminster 
Bridge to Lambeth, opened for foot passen¬ 
gers. There was little or no ceremony. 

4 -. —The Earl of Malmesbury in the House 
of Lords, and Mr. Disraeli in the House of 
Commons, enter into explanations regarding 
their proceedings since the adverse vote of the 
30th. The Premier said that he had waited 
next day upon her Majesty, and told her that 
“ the advice which her Ministers would, in the 
full spirit of the Constitution, offer her, would 
be that her Majesty should dissolve this Parlia¬ 
ment, and take the opinion of the country upon 
the conduct of her Ministers, and on the ques¬ 
tion at issue; but, at the same time, with the 
full concurrence of my colleagues, I represented 
to her Majesty that there were important occa¬ 
sions on which it was wise that the Sovereign 
should not be embarrassed by personal claims, 
however constitutionally valid and meritorious; 
and that if her Majesty was of opinion that the 
question at issue could be more satisfactorily 
settled, or that the interests of the country 
would be promoted, by the immediate retire¬ 
ment of the present Government from office, 
we were prepared to quit her Majesty’s service 
immediately, with no other feeiing but that 
which every Minister who has served the Queen 
must entertain, viz. a feeling of gratitude to 
her Majesty for the warm constitutional support 
which she always gives to her Ministers, and I 
may add—for it is a truth that cannot be con¬ 
cealed—for the aid and assistance which any 
Minister must experience from a sovereign who 
has such a vast acquaintance with the public 
affairs. Sir, I in fact tendered my resignation 
to the Queen. Her Majesty commanded me 
to attend her in audience on the next day, when 







a/a v 


MAY 


1868. 


her Majesty was pleased to express her pleasure 
not to accept the resignation of her Ministers, 
and her readiness to dissolve Parliament so 
soon as the state of public business would 
permit. Under these circumstances, I advised 
her Majesty that, although the present con¬ 
stituency was no doubt admirably competent 
to decide upon the question of the disestablish¬ 
ment of the Church, still it was the opinion of 
her Majesty’s Ministers that every effort should 
be made that the appeal should, if possible, 
be directed to the new constituencies which 
the wisdom of Parliament provided last year; 
and I expressed to her Majesty that, if we had 
the cordial co-operation of Parliament, I was 
advised by those who are experienced and 
skilful in these matters that it would be 
possible to make arrangements by which that 
dissolution could take place in the autumn of 
this year.” Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Lowe, and Mr. 
Bright censured the Government for not resign¬ 
ing unqualifiedly, and said that from the circum¬ 
stances connected with their accession to office 
they were not entitled to hold the rod over 
members as to whether they would appeal to 
the old or new constituencies. 

4 -. —Graystoke Castle, Penrith, destroyed by 
fire. 

5 . —In answer to repeated questions in the 
House of Commons, Mr. Disraeli explains that 
the power held by the Government to dissolve 
Parliament related entirely to the Irish Church 
question, and that if any other difficulty arose, 
it would be the duty of Ministers again to 
repair to the Sovereign. 

— Sir Robert Napier reaches Ashangi on 
the homeward march with the rear-guard of 
the Abyssinian army. 

6 . —Meeting in St. James’s Hall, presided 
over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to ex¬ 
press sympathy with the Irish branch of the 
National Church. Resolutions were proposed 
and spoken to by the Lord Mayor, the Bishop 
of Oxford, the Bishop of London, and Dean 
Stanley. A statement made by the Dean, that 
the traditions of the Liberal party in this 
country were all in favour of the union be¬ 
tween Church and State, was received with 
a storm of disapprobation, which compelled 
him to resume his seat. 

7 . —Mr. Gladstone’s second and third Irish 
Church resolutions earned in Committee with¬ 
out a division. In a debate which followed, 
concerning the withdrawal of the Maynooth and 
other grants, considerable difference of opinion 
was manifested among the Liberal members, 
and displeasure expressed at the absence of 
Mr. Disraeli. The latter on returning said it 
was not his duty to obtrude his advice on the 
House with respect to every possible topic. 
The discussion, he continued, had only antici¬ 
pated, what he always expected would be the 
case, that there would be a quarrel among the 
Liberal party over the division of the plunder. 
Mr. Bright retorted that Mr. Disraeli, in bring¬ 


ing the name of the Sovereign to the front in 
this question, had been guilty of the greatest 
crime and misdemeanour a Prime Minister 
could commit. “ The right honourable gentle¬ 
man,” he said, “the other night, sometimes 
with pompousness and sometimes with servility 
—(oh! oh!)—talked at large of the interviews 
he had with his Sovereign. I venture to say 
that a Minister who deceives his Sovereign— 
(oh ! oh !)—is as guilty as the conspirator who 
would dethrone her. ” Mr. Disraeli concluded 
the interlude by charging the member for Bir¬ 
mingham with indulging in stale invective, and 
challenged him to bring any charge he had to 
make to the vote of the House. 

7 . —Died at Cannes, in his 90th year, Henry 
Lord Brougham, lawyer, statesman, and philo¬ 
sopher. He was found dead in bed after a 
day’s quiet exercise in his garden, and was 
buried at Cannes. 

8 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench, Mr. Jus¬ 
tice Blackburn issues an order for Mr. Vaughan? 
the Bow-street police magistrate, to hear the 
charges preferred by the Jamaica Committee 
against ex-Governor Eyre, and to commit him 
for trial if necessary. 

— Mr. Gladstone’s resolutions, as finally 
reported to the House, were in these words : “ 1. 
That it is necessary that the Established Church 
of Ireland should cease to exist as an establish¬ 
ment, due regard being had to all personal in¬ 
terests and to all individual rights of property. 
2. That, subject to the foregoing considerations, 
it is expedient to prevent the creation of new 
personal interests by the exercise of any per ¬ 
sonal patronage, and to confine the operations 
of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Ireland 
to objects of immediate necessity, or such as 
involve individual rights, pending the final 
decision of Parliament. 3. That an humble 
address be presented to her Majesty, humbly to 
pray that, with a view to preventing, by legisla¬ 
tion during the present session, the creation of 
new personal interests through the exercise of 
any public patronage, her Majesty would be 
graciously pleased to place at the disposal of 
Parliament her interest in the temporalities of 
the archbishoprics, bishoprics, and other eccle¬ 
siastical dignities and benefices in Ireland, and 
in the custody thereof. 4. That when legisla¬ 
tive effect shall have been given to the first 
resolution of this Committee, respecting the 
Established Church of Ireland, it is right and 
necessary that the grant to Maynooth and the 
Regium Donum be discontinued, due regard 
being had to all personal interests. ” 

— Alexander Arthur Mackay, aged 18,' 
murders his mistress, Emma Grossmith., of Ar¬ 
tillery-passage, Norton-Folgate, by beating her 
with a rolling-pin and furnace-rake. He got 
clear off from the scene of his crime, but was 
apprehended next month at Maidstone, while 
undergoing imprisonment in the gaol there for 
another offence. He was tried for the crime at 
the Central Criminal Court, and sentenced by 





MAY 


1868. 


MAY 


Mr. Justice Lush to be executed on 8th Septem¬ 
ber. Mackay was the first executed within 
the precincts of Newgate under the Act of this 
session. 

10. —The governor of Ayr Prison (Suther¬ 
land) commits suicide by cutting his throat 
in a London coffee-house. 

11. —The bill providing for executions taking 
place only within the walls of prisons read 
a third time in the House of Lords and passed. 

12 . —Robert Smith executed at Dumfries 
for the murder of a little girl (whom he first 
violated) in a wood near Annan, followed 
by a murderous attack on an aged woman 
in Cummertrees village, with the view of con¬ 
cealing his crime. 

— Lord Royston, Comptroller of the 
Household, appears in the House of Commons 
with her Majesty’s answer to the address on 
the subject of the Irish Church : “I have re¬ 
ceived your address praying that, with a view 
to preventing, by legislation during the present 
session, the creation of new personal interests 
by the exercise of public patronage, I would 
place at the disposal of Parliament my interest 
in the temporalities, the archbishoprics, bi¬ 
shoprics, and other ecclesiastical dignities and 
benefices of Ireland, and in the custody thereof. 
Relying on the wisdom of my Parliament, I 
desire that my interest in the temporalities of 
the United Church of England and Ireland in 
Ireland may not stand in the way of the con¬ 
sideration by Parliament of any measure re¬ 
lating thereto that may be entertained in the 
present session. (Cheers.)” Mr. Gladstone : 
“ Having heard her Majesty’s gracious answer 
to the address, I will to-morrow move for leave 
to bring in a bill to prevent for a limited time 
any new appointments in the Church in Ireland, 
'and to restrain for the same period in certain 
respects the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners. As I suppose that it will be 
the wish of the House to have the bill printed 
and in the hands of members as soon as pos¬ 
sible, there will be no objection to my asking 
for leave to bring in the bill to-morrow at 
any period when I may be able to do so.” 

13 . —The foundation-stone of the new St. 
Thomas’s Hospital laid by the Queen, on the 
right bank of the Thames, near Lambeth Pa¬ 
lace, in presence of many peers, members of 
the House of Commons, the president and 
governors, and about 5,000 spectators. Her 
Majesty said : “It is with sincere pleasure 
that I lay the first stone of the noble building 
which you are about to dedicate to the use of 
the suffering poor. St. Thomas’s Hospital, 
founded by my predecessor, Edward VI., from 
the services which it rendered to humanity, 
naturally attracted the attention of my esteemed 
husband, whose heart and mind were ever 
interested in institutions of so beneficial a 
character. It is a solace to me to follow his 
example in promoting the objects which you 
have in view. I think that your hospital upon 

(824) 


its new site, by various improvements which 
experience and sanitary skill suggest, will 
secure the greatest benefit to its suffering in¬ 
mates, and provide an admirable school for 
nurses, and for the promotion of medical schools 
of science. I thank you for the loyal and sym¬ 
pathising expression of your feeling at the late 
attempt to take away the life of my dear son, 
the Duke of Edinburgh, and join in your 
prayers that the same good Providence which 
preserved him from the assassin will soon 
i restore him in health and safety to his family 
I and country.” 

13 . —Mr. Gladstone obtains leave to bring in 
a bill suspending for a limited time the exer¬ 
cise of patronage in the Irish Church. Read 
a first time without a division. 

— Mr. Bame, Oxford, accidentally shot by 
his friend, Mr. A. W. Gordon, while rowing 
in a punt on the river. 

— The Washington House of Representa¬ 
tives pass a bill admitting North and South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana 
to representation in Congress, on condition of 
their having ratified the constitutional amend¬ 
ment, and of never depriving of suffrage those 
persons who are now entitled to vote. 

14 -. —Russian progress in Central Asia. To¬ 
day Samarcand was occupied, and four days 
afterwards a detachment was sent northward to 
seize and destroy the fortress of Tchilek. On 
the 23d about one-third of the entire Russian 
force left Samarcand to attack the important 
fortress of Ourgout, which was taken after a 
severe encounter with the Bokharians. Kara 
Tepe was next taken, and a camp formed at 
Katy-kurgan. The masses of Bokharians as¬ 
sembling here became so considerable that on 
the 11 th June General Kaufmann marched in 
great haste from Samarcand and defeated the 
j Khan’s troops in a sharp engagement at Zera 
Boulak. During his absence an attempt was 
made to recapture Samarcand, but the Russians 
held the citadel with great bravery against 
overwhelming numbers, till General Kaufmann 
returned by forced marches and raised the 
siege. 

— Lopez enrols a regiment of Amazons 
to assist Paraguay against Brazil. 

— An address on the subject of the Irish 
Church presented by Irish prelates to the 
Queen at Windsor. 

15 . —Mr. Serjeant Armstrong gives notice 
of a vote of censure on the Government : 
“That in the opinion of this House the position 
of her Majesty’s Ministers is opposed to the 
principle of representative government, subver¬ 
sive of constitutional government, and incom¬ 
patible with the character and dignity of 
Parliament.” 

— Six men killed at Cannock Chase Col¬ 
liery by the breaking of a chain to which the 
cage they were descending in was attached. 

— I he widow of King Theodore of 







MAY 


1868. 


MA Y 


Abyssinia dies in the British camp at Haik- of enabling Government to consider its posi- 
huilut. I tion. 


16 .—M. Emile Ollivier, speaking to-day in i 
tiie French Chamber on the subject of war be¬ 
tween France and Prussia, used language re- j 
called to the detriment of his consistency in | 
1870, when in power:—“War many persons j 
think necessary, and that there is a question of 
honour to be settled between France and Ger¬ 
many. This is said, written, propagated—(in¬ 
terruption)—but, according to me, war would 
be a disaster. I do not speak in the name of 
Fraternity those sentiments which have nothing 
to do with politics. I speak in the name of in¬ 
terests. Experience has confirmed the saying of 
Montesquieu, ‘ Men of war have been the ruin 
of Europe.’ War has never done anything, 
never settled anything. In vain you will be vic¬ 
torious, in vain repulse Germany and conquer 
the Rhine; after victory you will be able to 
disarm less easily than before the war. You 
will be obliged to augment your armies, and 
the public uneasiness will not cease. War is 1 
therefore, according to me, a solution imprac¬ 
ticable, wicked, an empiricism. The true solu¬ 
tion is peace, peace with disarmament, peace 
with liberty, that liberty without which peace 
is neither glorious nor sure. ” 

18 .—At the close of an uproarious meeting 
in Edinburgh, called to consider the question 
of adopting the Public Libraries Act, 71 vote 
in favour of it, and 1,106 against. 

— Mr. Baxter’s motion that it be an instruc¬ 
tion to the Committee on the Scotch Reform 
Bill to disfranchise all English boroughs which 
had a population of less than 5,000 at the last 
census, for the purpose of giving increased 
representation to Scotland, carried against 
Government by 217 to 196. Mr. Disraeli pre¬ 
ferred Sir R. Knightley’s plan, discussed at the 
same time, of reducing certain small boroughs 
at present returning two members. Mr. ! 
McLaren proposed, “ That no arrangement ! 
respecting additional members can be just or 
satisfactory which does not treat Scotland, as 
regards the number of its representatives in 
Parliament, as an integral portion of the United 
Kingdom, entitled to be placed on a footing of 
perfect equality with England and Ireland in 
proportion to its present population, and the 
revenue which it yields to the national ex¬ 
chequer, as compared with the present propor¬ 
tion of revenue in England and Ireland; and that 
to establish this equality at least fifteen additional 
members should now be provided for Scotland.” 
This was also carried against Government by 
118 to 96. They immediately met with a 
third defeat by Mr. Bouverie carrying his pro¬ 
posal to insert a clause : “. . .is and has been, for 
a period of not less than twelve months next 
preceding the last day of July, an inhabitant, 
occupier, or a lodger of part of any dwelling- 
house, such part being of the annual value of 
£10 or upwards.” Mr. Disraeli complained 
of this as an unjust decision, and moved that 
the Chairman report progress for the purpose 


18 .—Munches House, Galloway, struck by 
lightning and afterwards burnt to the ground. 

— The Powell American Expedition, con¬ 
sisting of twenty-one people, drowned by the 
upsetting of their boat in the Colorado Rapids. 

20 . —The Jamaica Committee make out such 
a preliminary case as induces Mr. Vaughan, 
Bow-street magistrate, to commit ex-Governor 
Eyre for trial. The latter said he had now 
been for two years and a half the victim of 
unceasing rancorous persecution, but he was 
convinced that those who had combined 
for such a purpose would not influence or be 
accepted “by the higher tribunal to which 
this action is now to be referred, or the large 
majority of my fellow-countrymen, to whose 
sense of justice and common-sense I confidently 
entrust my honour as a gentleman and my cha¬ 
racter as a public servant.” 

— Sir Colman O’Loghlen’s Press Libel 
Bill carried into Committee by 100 to 38. 

21 . —Mr. Disraeli makes a Ministerial state¬ 
ment with reference to the defeats sustained on 
the 18th. The Government looked upon Mr. 
Bouverie’s amendment as very seriously inter¬ 
fering with the principle of the entire Reform 
scheme ; but thinking the House had assented 
to it somewhat precipitately, he proposed to 
add words to the effect that no elector in a 
Scotch burgh should be entitled to exercise the 
suffrage, who was not rated to the poor, and had 
not paid his rates. This compromise was after¬ 
wards accepted by the House. 

— The Chicago Convention unanimously 
nominate General Grant for the Presidency. 

22. —Vice-Chancellor Gifford gives judg¬ 
ment in the case of Lyon v. Home, a suit in¬ 
stituted in June 1867, to set aside certain gifts 
to the defendant, Daniel Home, the well-known 
spiritual “medium.” Mrs. Lyon, 75 years of 
age, with some property o£ her own, married a 
wealthy husband, by whom she was left a 
widow in 1859, with about 100,000/. at her 
own disposal. She was devoted to the memory 
of her husband, and from mysterious intima¬ 
tions during his lifetime she was possessed 
with a belief that in some way she would meet 
him again at the end of seven years. In July 
1866 she learnt that her expectations could be 
very simply fulfilled by applying to Mr. Home. 
He was then resident secretary of an institu¬ 
tion called “The Spiritual Athenaeum,” in 
Sloane-street. Mrs. Lyon read his book en¬ 
titled “ Incidents of my Life,” and wrote to 
him immediately afterwards. Receiving no 
answer, she called on October 2, and had an 
interview with him. Within little more than 
a week from that date she had given him a sum 
of 24,000/. Immediately after this Mrs. Lyon 
and Mr. Home adopted towards each other 
the warm language of “mother” and “son ;’* 
and on the 8th November the newly made 

(825) 









MAY 


1868. 


MA Y 


mother made a will, in which she assigned all 
her property to this affectionate son. On the 
ensuing 10th of December she presented Mr. 
Home with another 6,000/., to make up the 
24,000/. to a round sum of 30,000/. Mr. Home 
then assumed the name of Lyon. Once 
more, towards the end of January 1867, she 
assigned him a mortgage security of 30,000/., 
taking care, however, meanwhile to have a 
strong legal deed prepared in order to secure 
the interest as an annuity for herself. At this 
point Mr. Home’s star had reached its zenith. 
In February Mrs. Lyon called in Sloane- 
street, and got back one of her letters. In 
March she ceased to sign herself “ affectionate 
mother.” In May she saw a solicitor, who 
assured her she had been imposed upon ; but 
she could not accept the lawyer’s advice with¬ 
out consulting another “medium.” The fami¬ 
liar spirit of Miss Berry confirmed her sus¬ 
picions, and in June she had an interview with 
Mr. Home, in which she indulged in vitupera¬ 
tion not less warm than her previous expres¬ 
sions of affection. She demanded the sur¬ 
render of the mortgage, and Mr. Home in a 
subsequent letter to his “dear mother” offered 
to resign the deed provided she would leave 
him and his “in undisputed possession” of 
the first 30,000/., with permission to resume 
his own name. On the 17th the “mother” 
arrested her “son” and threw him into White- 
cross-street Prison ; and this suit was instituted 
to set aside both the gift and the assignment 
of the mortgage. The judge was of opinion 
that the evidence proved that at the time when 
these gifts were made the relation of the defen¬ 
dant to the plaintiff was such as in cases de¬ 
cided by Lord Eldon and Lord Cottenham, 
when the Court held that the donor whilst 
making the gift was subject to hallucination, or 
under influence. Therefore there must be a 
decree for re-transfer of the 60,000/. by the 
defendant to the plaintiff, who was ordered to 
pay her own costs and those of Mr. Wilkinson, 
the solicitor. The defendant was ordered to 
pay his own costs only. 

22 .—The Irish Church Suspensory Bill read 
a second time by a majority of 312 to 258. 
The 5th June was fixed for going into Com¬ 
mittee. 

— Mr. Rearden (Athlone) gives notice 
that on Monday, the 25th, he would ask the 
First Lord of the Treasury whether it was true 
that her Majesty, on account of ill-health, had 
gone to Scotland, and did not intend to return 
to England for the remainder of the season ; 
and if so, whether it was the intention of the 
Government, out of consideration for her 
Majesty’s health, comfort, and tranquillity, to 
advise her Majesty to abdicate? (Loud cries 
of “Order.”) The Speaker: “The House 
has anticipated what I had to say by its ex¬ 
pression of opinion in regard to the terms em¬ 
ployed in the notice of the hon. member. No 
doubt any question may be addressed by a 
member of this House to the confidential ad¬ 
visers of the Crown on any matter relating to 
(826) 


the discharge of public duties, but such ques¬ 
tions must be addressed in respectful and 
Parliamentary terms. The question of the 
hon. member certainly does not appear to me 
to be couched in such terms. (Cheers.)” Mr. 
Rearden thereupon apologized. 

22.—The First Division of the Court of 
Session give judgment in the case of Tennent 
v. Tennent’s trustees. The pursuer, Gilbert 
Rainy Tennent, brought the action for the 
purpose of asserting his. rights, as partner of 
the firm of J. and R. Tennent, Wellpark 
Brewery. It was not disputed that he had 
been a partner in 1855, but the question now 
was whether, by a deed executed in 1858, 
he had forfeited all interest therein. The 
Court by a majority held that the pursuer had 
not established his case, and assoilzied the 
defendants. . 

— Capture of Samarcand by the Russians. 
The force of the Ameer of Bokhara was said to 
have consisted of 400 A Afghans and 8,000 con¬ 
tingents. The Russian General was at the 
head of 8,000 men with 16 guns. The battle 
occurred at the Khokan Gate of Samarcand, 
lasted from sunrise to breakfast-time, and ended 
in the death of from 300 to 400 of the defen¬ 
ders, and the wounding of 200. The Ameer’s 
eldest son, Tora Kalan, was present, and, with 
Sikandar, proposed to hold out in the fort ; 
but the citizens shut the gates against them, 
and Sikandar surrendered to the victors ; Tora 
Kalan fled to Bokhara, 104 miles off, and the 
Ameer himself remained at Kermina. Next 
day the Russians entered the city, fired a salute 
at Timour’s tomb, and seized the fort, with its 
stores and 23 guns. 

24 . —The Invalide Russe announces the 
conclusion of a treaty between Russia and 
Khokan. 

—The Glasgow and Bordeaux steamer, 
Garonne , wrecked on her homeward voyage 
off the Land’s End. At night, in thick weather, 
she struck on the Bucks rocks (about a mile 
and a half westward of Lamoma), filled rapidly, 
and in twenty minutes was totally lost, with her 
captain, mate, two stewards, and fifteen of her 
passengers. Only two of the latter were 
saved. The inquiry instituted by the Board of 
Trade exonerated the owners from all blame, 
freed the crew from the charge of having saved 
themselves without trying to save the pas¬ 
sengers, and attributed the loss to the captain, 
who had not made sufficient allowance for the 
state of the tide eastward of the vessel, and 
at a critical period was not sufficiently collected 
to give distinct orders, but abandoned himself 
to despair. 

26 . —Michael Barrett executed in front of 
Newgate for his complicity in the Clerkenwell 
explosioa of December last. The convict had 
been respited from the date originally fixed to 
allow of inquiries being made into the alibi set? 
up during trial. Pie made no public confession, 
nor did he directly or indirectly allude to the 






MAY 


1868 


JUNE 


justice of his sentence. The number of spec¬ 
tators was not large, and they were observed 
to conduct themselves with unusual decorum. 
The Private Execution Bill having now passed 
both Houses, and awaiting only the Royal 
assent, this was the last public hanging which 
took place. 

26. —Explosion at Kensington Firework 
Factory, Liverpool, causing the death of three 
out of the five workmen employed on the 
premises. 

— Mr. Gladstone writes to advise the elec-' 
tors of Worcestershire in a contest presently 
going on in the county: “The Government 
proclaimed, ten weeks ago, that they were 
friendly to religious equality in Ireland, pro¬ 
vided it was brought about by endowing other 
Churches, including the Romish, in Ireland, 
not by disendowing the Protestant Churches; 
and by way of earnest they propose at once to 
create a Roman Catholic University, and to pay 
the expenses out of the taxes of the country. ” 

— President Johnson acquitted on the 
second and third articles of impeachment. 

i 9. —In the House of Lords Earl Russell 
again censures the Government for continuing 
in office without having the confidence of the 
House of Commons, or being able to carry 
their measures. In the Commons Mr. Disraeli 
intimated that Government intended to confine 
the work of the session mainly to the Reform 
Bills and estimates, Foreign Cattle and Tele¬ 
graph Bills, with perhaps the Bribery and 
Bankruptcy Bills. 

— Explosion of a fog-signal manufactory at 
Saltley, arising from the building being ignited 
by lightning during a severe thunderstorm. 
Four girls employed in the works were killed. 

30. —Revolutionary disturbances at Port- 
au-Prince, and defeat of Salnave, President of 
Hayti. 

June 1 . —The Premier opens an Industrial 
Exhibition at Halton Park, Tring. 

2 . —The Vice-Chancellor gives judgment in 
the action raised by the Patent Office against 
Mr. Edmunds, late clerk of the patents. In 
one respect, the presiding judge said, the 
arguments and evidence which had been used 
and read on behalf of Mr. Edmunds had been 
in his favour; they had cleared his character 
from any imputation, and showed that his con¬ 
duct arose from mistake. It was, therefore, 
not without regret that his Honour had come 
to the conclusion that the arguments which 
had been used on Mr. Edmunds’ behalf upon 
the other points of the case were unsuccessful. 
There was abundant authority to show that the 
jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery over 
accountants to the Crown existed. That being 
so, there came the question of the discounts for 
stamps. As to this, it was clear that if the 
sums on which the profits were made were Mr. 
Edmunds’ own, he would be entitled to the 


! discounts ; if not, he would not be so entitled, 
j on the well-known doctrine that a trustee can¬ 
not make profit of his trust. As to the ques¬ 
tion upon the construction of the statute, his 
Honour was clear that the sum of 12/. ioj., 
charged for parchments, was one of those fees 
and emoluments in lieu of which the salary 
was given ; and for these Mr. Edmunds must 
account. There would be declarations in con¬ 
formity with the above rulings, and an account 
with all just allowances, and without any dis¬ 
turbance of settled accounts. 

2 .— Came on in the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
before Mr. Justice Blackburn, the case of ex- 
Govemor Eyre. His Lordship delivered a long 
charge to the grand jury, in the course of which 
he reviewed the law of the country with refer¬ 
ence to the declaration and exercise of martial 
law, from Magna Charta down to the present 
time, and said that to keep up martial law for 
a period of thirty days after an armed resist¬ 
ance had been put down was unreasonable ; 
and no one could doubt that it exceeded much 
the prerogative of the Crown. A third and 
great question was whether Mr. Eyre caused 
Gordon and four others to be brought into the 
proclaimed district and tried. There could be 
no doubt that Gordon was a pestilent firebrand, 
in close communication with those actually in 
insurrection, and using violent language, but he 
did not think, the evidence against Gordon 
amounted to more than that. He thought he 
was a violent pestilent agitator, whose injudi¬ 
cious language caused the rebellion ; but that he 
was not a party to an organized conspiracy for 
a rising throughout the island. It was, how¬ 
ever, generally believed at the time that he 
was so, and no doubt Mr. Eyre really believed 
that he was guilty. If they thought that Mr. 
Eyre considered at the time that Gordon was a 
violent fellow, whom it was better not to try by 
the ordinary law of the island, conceiving that 
by some technicality he might escape punish¬ 
ment, but to send him to Morant Bay, try 
him by court-martial, and get rid of him, 
it was an act of great and lawless oppression, 
and they ought to find the bill; but if they 
were of opinion that he acted in a contrary 
spirit, and used ordinary firmness, judgment, 
and moderation, and from a bona fide belief 
in the honest discharge of his duties, they 
would not find the bill. The grand jury, 
after a long consultation, returned a verdict of 
No bill. At the sitting of the Court on the 8th, 
the Lord Chief Justice sought to remove a mis¬ 
apprehension that Mr. Justice Blackburn spoke 
in the name and with the authority of his brother 
judges. “ Had I understood (he said) that 
the law would have been laid down as it is 
understood to have been stated, I should have 
felt it to be my duty to attend in my place in 
Court on the occasion of the charge being 
delivered, and to declare my views of the law 
to the jury. I must add, as my justification for 
not having done so, that I certainly under¬ 
stood from the learned judge—though I must 
now suppose I misunderstood him—that he 

(827) 









JUNE 


1868, 


JUNE 


deemed it unnecessary to raise the question 
of the legality of martial law, or the effect 
of the Jamaica statutes. As regards the 
very serious case of Mr. Gordon, I believe 
I am right in saying that, almost on the eve 
of the delivery of the charge, the opinion 
of Mr. Justice Blackburn himself was, that the 
apprehension and removal of Mr. Gordon 
were, in point of fact, unjustifiable. It is 
not without much pain, and only under an 
imperious sense of public duty, that I make 
these observations. The bar have known me 
long enough not to misconstrue my motives. 
I am influenced only by the desire of pro¬ 
tecting myself against being held responsible 
for opinions from which I dissent, and to pre¬ 
vent doctrines from going forth stamped with 
the authority of this the highest Court of cri¬ 
minal jurisdiction in the realm—the House of 
Lords alone excepted—to which doctrines its 
assent has not been given.” Mr. Justice Black¬ 
burn made a short statement in reply, in which 
he frankly acknowledged that he accepted the 
whole responsibility of his charge to the jury. 
Mr. Justice Lush being afterwards appealed 
to concerning the draft paper embodying the 
substance of the law intended to be laid down, 
wrote :—“I returned the paper to my brother 
Blackburn at the time, and I find it is now 
at his house ; but I well remember that it 
contained only the general proposition men¬ 
tioned by you in the Court yesterday, adding 
that the application of that principle to the 
particular case required him to tell the jury 
what was the law of Jamaica. In no other 
way did it refer to that law, nor did it state 
anything about martial law, or refer to the 
case of Gordon. I have shown this to my 
brother Blackburn, and he agrees that it is an 
accurate account of what the paper contains.” 

2. —Negro riots at Washington arising out 
of a local election contest between the Radicals 
and Conservatives. 

3 . —Ex-Governor Eyre publishes a letter 
defending his administration in Jamaica, and 
justifying the steps he had taken to suppress 
the rebellion. 

— Mr. Bright attends a meeting of the 
Welsh National Reform Association at Liver¬ 
pool, and delivers a speech strongly condemna¬ 
tory of the Government and the Irish Church. 
He was entertained at a public breakfast next 
morning in the Philharmonic Hall. 

4 . —The report was issued to-day of the 
trials lately concluded of the war-ships Warrior, 
Minotaur, and Bellerophon. These iron-clads 
were tried in the usual manner at the measured 
mile, and afterwards for six hours’ consecutive 
steaming outside the Isle of Wight. At the 
measured mile the following were the results :— 
Minotaur, 14*411 per hour ; Warrior, 14*79; 
Bellerophon, 13*874. In the six hours’trial the 
Minotaur lost in speed *246 of a knot per hour, 
and her revolutions fell off *953 per minute; 
and the Warrior lost *143 of a knot, and her 
revolutions fell off *8 per minute ; but in the 

(828) 


Bellerophon the case was reversed—she gained 
*176 of a knot per hour in speed, increased the 
revolutions by *943 per minute, and developed 
about 200 more horse-power than on the 
measured mile. 

4 . —Discussion in the House of Commons 
on Mr. Gladstone’s letter to the electors of 
Worcestershire. In answer to Sir J. Bateson, 
Mr. Disraeli said he must have been imposed 
upon by an electioneering hoax, for the letter 
was not only a caricature of Mr. Gladstone’s 
usual happy style, but contained assertions re¬ 
garding the intentions of Government to endow 
the Roman Catholic priesthood which could 
not possibly be established. Mr. Gladstone 
owned the letter and defended the sentiments 
therein expressed by the following telegram 
forwarded from Downing-street to the Presby¬ 
terian General Assembly of Belfast:—“I am 
directed by Lord Derby to acknowledge the 
receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, on 
the subject of the increase of the Regiutn 
Donum. His Lordship desires me to inform 
you that he regrets that, as the estimates for 
1868 have been completed, it is impossible for 
anything to be done this year. The subject 
shall be borne in mind before the estimates for 
next year are prepared.” Mr. Disraeli still 
disputed the assertion of the letter, and pointed 
out the distinction which existed between in¬ 
creasing the Regium Donum and endowing the 
Romish clergy. The Earl of Mayo also com¬ 
plained that an erroneous interpretation had 
been put upon his words. (See April 31.) 

5 . —Mr. J. S. Mill presents a petition from 
the Home and Foreign Affairs Committee of 
Macclesfield, asking for a Select Committee to 
inquire into the circumstances attending the 
unjustifiable war with Abyssinia and the murder 
of King Theodore. 

6. —The advanced portion of the Abyssinian 
army commences to embark at Suez. 

— The Emperor of Russia issues an Im¬ 
perial ukase granting an amnesty, with certain 
restrictions, to all foreigners detained in Siberia, 
on condition of their keeping out of Russian ter¬ 
ritory. Poles in Siberia undergoing a term of 
punishment of less than twenty years to be 
permitted to return to their homes. 

— The American poet Longfellow arrives 
in England. He received the honorary degree 
of LL.D. at Cambridge on the 16th. 

7 . —Seventeen persons stabbed in the streets 
of Trebizond by an infuriated Persian. 

8 . —Preliminary investigation at the Marl- 
borough-street Police-court, into the charges 
preferred against Madame Rachel (or Leverson) 
of obtaining various sums of money from Mrs. 
Borradaile, with intent to defraud. In 1866 the 
widow Borradaile, attracted apparently by the 
prisoner’s advertisement of the power she pos¬ 
sessed of making people “beautiful for ever,” 
called and consulted her as to something being 
done for her skin. The prisoner undertook to 
renew the widow by the use of cosmetics, and 






JUNE 


1868. 


JUNE 


also promised to provide for her an advan¬ 
tageous matrimonial alliance. For the first, 
1,000/. was paid ; and through representations 
made regarding the love with which she was 
said to have inspired Lord Ranelagh she was 
induced to advance 2,000/. more in cash, 600/. 
in jewellery,and a bond over certain properties 
for 600/. She was even informed, without 
exciting any suspicion, that his Lordship had 
been captivated by her appearance in the bath¬ 
room ; nor did the foolish, ardent letter dic¬ 
tated by Madame Rachel to a tool “ William,” 
who represented his Lordship at various inter¬ 
views, move her to any other feeling than joyous 
expectancy. To such an extent did Mrs. Borra- 
daile lavish her means on Madame Rachel, that 
the latter, emboldened by success, caused her 
patron to be thrown into Whitecross-street 
Prison on a charge of failing to complete 
certain pecuniary obligations in which she had 
got involved. This led to more exact inquiry 
being made as to the relation in which Mrs. 
Borradaile stood to the vendor of cosmetics, 
and the result was that she was apprehended 
on the charge of obtaining money and goods 
on false pretences. The case was tried at the 
Old Bailey in August; but the jury,being unable 
to agree upon a verdict, were discharged, and 
Madame Rachel removed to Newgate to await 
a new trial. On the second trial before Mr. 
Commissioner Kerr, the judge “charged” the 
jury strongly against the prisoner, chiefly on 
the ground that one of the letters produced 
showed that the whole might have been dic¬ 
tated by her for purposes of fraud. The jury 
found Madame Rachel guilty, and Mr. Com¬ 
missioner Kerr sentenced her to five years’ 
imprisonment. 

8 . —The Scotch Reform Bill passes through 
Committee, the discussion to-night relating 
principally to the minority clause as applied 
to Glasgow—carried in favour of Government 
—the lodger franchise, and voting papers. 

9 . —Died, at Burrator, Devonshire, aged 65, 
Sir James Brooke, K.C.B., late Rajah of 
Sarawak. 

10 . —William Rodger, shorthand writer, 
sentenced to eight years’ penal servitude, by 
the Edinburgh High Court of Justiciary, for 
obtaining jewellery at various times to large 
amounts from Messrs. Marshall, Princes-street, 
and others, the false pretences generally relating 
to his intended marriage with a young lady of 
fortune. 

_ The Married Women’s Property Bill 

read a second time by the casting vote of the 
Speaker, 123 voting on either side. 

— Prince Michael of Servia shot by three 
assassins, and afterwards stabbed, while walk¬ 
ing in the grounds of Topschidere, Belgrade. 

11. _Mr. Hardy obtains leave to introduce 

a bill designed to shorten as far as possible the 
time for completing the registration in the new 
constituencies. 

— Mr. Hibbert’s amendment on the Boun¬ 


daries Bill, omitting the twenty-five large towns 
which the Commissioners reported should not 
be dealt with at present, carried in Com¬ 
mittee against Government by 184 to 147 
votes. 

11 . — The foundation-stone of Gateshead 
Town Hall laid by the Mayor. A platform 
erected for the accommodation of visitors gave 
way under the pressure to which it was sub¬ 
jected, but no lives were lost. 

— Died at London, aged 84, John Craw¬ 
ford, ethnologist and Oriental linguist. 

12. —Lord Mayo intimates that all nego¬ 
tiation for the granting of a charter to any 
Catholic University was at an end. 

13 . —Came on in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, before the Lord Chief Justice and a 
special jury, the case of Risk Allah v. White¬ 
hurst, being an action for libel against the 
Daily Telegraph , in which the damages were 
laid at 20,000/. The case arose out of the 
trial in Brussels, where the plaintiff was charged 
with the murder of his stepson, Readly. He 
now alleged that the defendant had, in a series 
of letters, which their special correspondent 
wrote from Brussels to the Telegraph , from the 
beginning to the end assumed the guilt of the 
plaintiff, and suppressed the great bulk of the 
evidence that was given in his favour ; and that 
even when compelled to state some of the 
evidence given in his favour, they did every¬ 
thing they could to destroy its force. The 
plaintiff further complained that the report was 
altogether an unfair, partial, and one-sided 
report; that during the trial the grossest libels 
and calumnies were circulated against him ; 
that after these letters had appeared, and when 
the trial was over, the plaintiff acquitted, 
and his innocence demonstrated, a leading 
article appeared in the defendant’s paper reiter¬ 
ating all the charges—not in an honest and 
bold statement that the charges were true, but 
by insinuation and innuendo, declaring the belief 
of the writer that the plaintiff was a murderer 
and a forger. The trial extended over six days, 
and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff— 
damages, 960/. Another action against the 
Standard failed, as an explanation had been 
inserted in their case. 

15 . —The Fell Railway over Mont Cenis 
opened for public traffic. 

— The triennial Handel Festival commenced 
at the Crystal Palace. 

16 . —Mr. Bright’s motion for a Committee 
to inquire into the allegations contained in a 
petition from the Nova Scotia House of As¬ 
sembly, as to the dissatisfaction felt at the Con¬ 
federation Act, rejected by 183 to 87 votes. 

— The ignominious defeat of the Marquis of 
Hastings’ mare, Lady Elizabeth, first favourite 
for the last Derby, gave rise to more than usual 
disputes on “settling day.” Admiral Rous 
writes that when the Days discovered she had 
lost her form * * they reversed a commission to 

(829) 





JUNE 


1868. 


JUNE 


back her for the 1,000 Guineas Stakes at New¬ 
market, and they declared that Lord Hastings 
would not bring her out before the Derby, on 
which he stood to win a great stake. I am 
informed that when Lord Hastings went to 
Danebury to see her gallop, they made excuses 
for her not to appear. If he had seen her 
move, the bubble would have burst; but the 
touters reported she was going like a bird. 
She has never been able to gallop the whole 
year. Lord Hastings has been shamefully de¬ 
ceived.” Lord Hastings, in reply, denied that 
any deception had been practised on him, and 
stated that his second horse, the Earl, had been 
scratched by his own express desire and au¬ 
thority. This statement was confirmed by 
Henry Padwick. 

17 .—At a banquet in Merchant Taylors’ 
Hall Mr. Disraeli delivers a manifesto on the 
Union of Church and State. “The Consti¬ 
tution of England,” he said, “ is not a paper 
constitution. It is an aggregate of institutions, 
many of them founded merely upon prescrip¬ 
tions, some of them fortified by muniments, but 
all of them the fruit and experience of an 
ancient and illustrious people. And the conse¬ 
quence of this peculiar constitution has been 
this—one experienced by no other European 
nation—that in England society has always 
been more powerful than the State—(hear)— 
for in moments of difficulty and danger, in mo¬ 
ments of emergency, there has always in this 
country been something round which men could 
rally ; and by those means we have achieved the 
two greatest blessings of civilized communities, 
which are seldom reconciled—the enjoyment 
alike of order and of liberty. Now, among 
these institutions, not the least considerable is 
the Church ; and it is in the alliance between 
Church and State—an alliance between equal 
and independent powers, which entered into a 
solemn covenant for the national good—that 
one of the principal causes may be recognised 
why we have enjoyed those two great blessings 
of freedom and order. To that union we are 
indebted for this great result, that the exercise 
of authority in England has been connected 
with the principle of religion—a union which, 
even in rude times, made power responsible, 
and which prevented government, even in com¬ 
paratively barbarous periods, from degenerating 
into mere police—(hear, hear)—a union which, 
in happier times, has elevated, and purified, 
and ennobled the exercise of power. And, my 
lords and gentlemen, in the age in which we 
live, the duties of government each year be¬ 
come more social than political. I am at a 
loss to know how these duties can be fulfilled 
if the State be not in intimate relation with an 
order of men set apart, and who, by their piety, 
their learning, and their social devotion, not 
only guide and control, but soften and assuage, 
the asperities of conflicting creeds.” Turning 
to foreign affairs Mr. Disraeli said : “ When 
we acceded to office, the name of England 
was a name of suspicion and distrust in every 
foreign Court and Cabinet. There was. no 
fao) 


possibility of that cordial action with any of 
the great Powers which is the only security for 
peace ; and, in consequence of that want of 
cordiality, wars were frequently occurring. But 
since we entered upon office, and public affairs 
were administered by my noble friend who is 
deprived by a special diplomatic duty of the 
gratification of being here this evening, I say 
that all this has changed; that there never 
existed between England and foreign Powers a 
feeling of greater cordiality and confidence 
than now prevails ; that while we have shrunk 
from bustling and arrogant intermeddling, we 
have never taken refuge in selfish isolation ; and 
the result has been that there never was a 
Government in this country which has been 
more frequently appealed to for its friendly 
offices than the one which now exists.” 

18 . —Mr. Gladstone’s Suspensory Bill intro¬ 
duced into the House of Lords by the Earl of 
Clarendon, and read a first time. 

— The steamer Feroze , with Sir Robert 
Napier on board, and the Mauritius , with 
Consul Cameron and General Staveley, arrive 
at Suez on their homeward journey. 

— The Scotch Reform Bill read a third time 
in the Commons. The Irish bill discussed in 
Committee. 

19. —Prince Arthur gazetted to a lieutenancy 
in the Royal Engineers. 

21 . —The troop-ship Crocodile arrives at 
Plymouth with the first detachment of troops 
from Abyssinia. 

22 . —Disorderly meeting in the Guildhall, 
presided over by the Lord Mayor, and called 
for the purpose of expressing opinions on the 
disestablishment of the Irish Church. Reso¬ 
lutions condemning and approving of the 
Government policy were passed amid scenes 
of cheering and shouting which led in some 
instances to assault and battery. 

— Came on before the House of Lords the 
appeal of Mrs. Ryves from the judgment of the 
Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, 
which declared that Olive Serres was not the 
legitimate daughter of the Duke of Cumber¬ 
land, and that there was no valid marriage 
between the Duke and Olive Wilmot. Their 
Lordships, without going into the merits of the 
case, dismissed the appeal, on the objection 
that no application being originally made for 
a new trial, and no bill of exceptions having 
been tendered to the ruling of the learned judge 
in the Court below, an appeal under such cir¬ 
cumstances did not lie to their Lordships. (See 
June 6, 1866.) 

— Fire at Bremen, destroying several tobacco 
warehouses and two timber yards. 

— Her Majesty holds a “ breakfast ” in the 
gardens of Buckingham. Palace. 

23 . —The Scotch Reform Bill read a second 
time in the House of Lords. 

— The Pope delivers an allocution respect¬ 
ing religious affairs in Austria. His Holiness 






JUNE 


1868. 


JULY 


deplored and condemned as abominable the 
marriage and other laws depriving the Church 
of control over schools, and establishing free¬ 
dom of the press and liberty of conscience. 
The Pope declared these laws null and void, j 
censured their authors, approvers, and execu¬ 
tors, praised the conduct of the Austrian bishops j 
as defenders of the Concordat, and hoped that j 
the Hungarian prelates would follow in their 
footsteps. 

24 . —The Servian elections show a majority 
in favour of the accession to the throne of 
Prince Milan, nephew of the late Prince Mi¬ 
chael. He was proclaimed by the Skuptschina 
on the 2d July. 

— Address presented to ex-Governor Eyre 
by 240 merchants largely interested in West 
India property. 

25 . —Inauguration of the Luther Monument 
at Worms. Queen Victoria forwarded the fol¬ 
lowing message to the King of Prussia:—“Pray 
express to the committee for the erection of the 
Luther Memorial my most hearty congratula¬ 
tions upon the successful completion of their 
task. Protestant England cordially sympathises 
with an occasion which unites the Protestant 
princes and peoples of Germany.” 

— In the House of Commons, in reply to 
Mr. Grant Duff’s criticism on the Premier’s 
speech at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, which he 
described as a repetition of the Slough offence 
of 1858, Mr. Disraeli owned to the correct¬ 
ness of the report so far as our foreign relations 
were concerned when the present Government 
acceded to power, and stated further that the 
words so reported expressed the literal truth 
of the state of affairs. It was not his intention 
however to cast any imputation on the abilities 
of the Earl of Clarendon, who had been in the 
Foreign Office only a few months before. Earl 
Russell was the Minister mainly responsible for 
the untoward state of our foreign relations.— 
Mr. Gladstone censured the Premier for indul¬ 
ging in exaggerated eulogy upon his own policy, 
and censuring political opponents whom it was 
well known Lord Derby wished to include in 
his Cabinet. 

— In an unusually large House Earl 
Granville moves the second reading of the Irish 
Church Suspensory Bill. It was opposed by 
Earl Grey, the Earl of Malmesbury, the Arch¬ 
bishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, 
and the Earl of Derby. The latter protested 
against the bill as an invasion of the rights of 
property, and because it was based on prin¬ 
ciples which, when applied to Ireland, could 
not fail to be extended to England, creating 
confusion and dissension for a lengthened 
period on subjects that were most likely of all 
others to produce angry feeling and contention 
among different classes. On the second night 
of the debate the Earl of Carnarvon said that, 
bearing in mind the attitude of the Govern¬ 
ment towards the clergy of the English Church 
in their education scheme, he regarded the 


policy of the Government with distrust and sus¬ 
picion, whose courting of the Roman Catholics 
with one hand and the Orangemen with the 
other could only result in discredit and failure. 
It would be safer for the Irish Church, whilst 
still unbroken by defeat, to come to terms 
with her declared opponents than to place trust 
in her professed friends. The debate was con¬ 
tinued over a third night, June 29th. A divi¬ 
sion took place about 3 a.m. the following 
morning. Contents, 97 ; Not Contents, 192 ; 
majority against the bill, 95. Apart from the 
spiritual Peers, there were 6 Dukes, 4 Maiquises, 
25 Earls, 3 Viscounts, and 59 Barons on the 
Liberal side; against 7 Dukes, 7 Marquises, 
56 Earls, 15 Viscounts, and 85 Barons on the 
Conservative benches. 

25 . —Humaita evacuated by the Paraguayans, 
after a siege protracted over two years. 

26 . —The Duke of Edinburgh arrives at 
Portsmouth in the Galatea. He was met by 
several members of the Royal family and the 
Mayor and Corporation, who presented an ad¬ 
dress. His Royal Highness proceeded in the 
evening to Windsor, where he was received by 
the Queen. 

27 . —Mr. Adams, late American Minister, 
leaves England. 

—- Completion of the Solway Viaduct, 1,940 
yards in length, and designed to carry the kail- 
way across the Frith. 

29 . —Formal promulgation of the Pontifical 
Bull summoning a General Council of the 
Catholic Church to meet in the Basilica of the 
Vatican on the 8th December, 1869, the anni¬ 
versary of the proclamation of the dogma of 
the Immaculate Conception. All ecclesiastics 
entitled to be present were enjoined to ap¬ 
pear, or, if prevented, to be represented 
by proxy. The Bull expressed a hope that 
princes and other rulers would afford the eccle¬ 
siastics all possible facilities for making the 
journey to Rome—the object of the Council 
being to secure the integrity of the faith, re¬ 
spect for religion and the ecclesiastical laws, 
the improvement of public morals, the estab¬ 
lishment of peace and concord, and the re¬ 
moval of the ills affecting civil and religious 
societies. The Bull finally adverted to the 
necessity for maintaining the temporal power, 
the sanctity of matrimony and the religious 
education of youth, and deplored the efforts of 
the enemies of the Church to overthrow these 
principles. 

30 . —The Irish Reform Bill read a second 
time in the House of Lords. 

July 1.— The University Tests Bill read a 
second time in the House of Commons by 198 
votes to 140. 

— Sir Robert Napier entertained by the 
British Ambassador -at Paris, and presented 
with an address. He arrived at Dover the 
following morning, and was received by the 
Mayor and Corporation. He proceeded to 








/ 


jul v 


1868. 


JUL V 


London during the day, and in the evening to 
Windsor on a visit to the Queen. 

2.—Thanks of both Houses of Parliament 
voted to Sir Robert Napier and the army of ; 
Abyssinia. In the Lords the resolution was 
moved by the Earl of Malmesbury,and seconded 
by Earl Russell ; in the Commons, by Mr. 
Disraeli, and seconded by Mr. Gladstone. 
Speaking of the difficulties encountered by the 
Commander-in-Chief, the Premier said:—“He 
had, in order to enter the country which he 
was about to invade, to construct a road over 
a wall of mountain, using the bed of an ex- i 
hausted torrent for this purpose, and actually 
entered a high table-land, wild and in great . 
part barren, continuously intersected with I 
chains of mountains of a very high elevation, 
sometimes breaking into gorges >and ravines 
which appeared unfathomable. Yet over 
this country, for more than 300 miles, he 
guided and sustained a numerous host- 
many thousands of fighting men—as nume¬ 
rous a following of camp attendants, and 
vast caravans of camels, which in number ex¬ 
ceeded both. He led cavalry and infantry 
over this country ; and, what was perhaps the 
most remarkable part of this expedition, he 
led the elephants of Asia, bearing the artillery 
of Europe, over broken passes, which might 
have startled the trapper, and appalled the 
hunter of the Alps. (Cheers.) When he ar¬ 
rived at the place of his critical rendezvous, 
he encountered no mean foe; and if the manly 
qualities of the Abyssinians sunk before the 
resources of our warlike science, our troops 
had still after that engagement to scale a 
mountain fortress of such intrinsic strength 
that it would have been impregnable to the 
world had it been defended by the persons 
who assaulted it. (Cheers.) Thus all these 
difficulties and all these obstacles were over¬ 
come, and that was accomplished which not 
one of us ten years ago could have fancied 
even in his dreams, and which it must be 
peculiarly interesting to Englishmen under all 
circumstances to recall to mind ; and we find 
the standard of St. George hoisted upon the 
mountains of Rasselas.” 

— During a discussion in Committee on the 
Boundaries Bill in the House of Lords, Earl 
Beauchamp proposed to amend one clause so 
far as to enlarge the boundaries of Birming¬ 
ham and Birkenhead. Earl Granville and 
Earl Russell protested against this course as a 
violation of the understanding come to in the 
Commons respecting the settlement embodied 
in the bill. Earl Malmesbury supported the 
alteration, and said “ the House of Lords 
could not be controlled in its action by the 
Commons.” Seeing the Government deter¬ 
mined to press the alteration, the Opposition 
Peers rose in a body and left the House. Earl 
Beauchamp disowning any attempt to take 
the House by surprise, thereupon consented 
to adjourn further discussion on his amend¬ 
ment till the 6th. Next night, however, after 
(832) 


explanations by Earl Malmesbury, it was 
withdrawn altogether. 

2 . —The Common Council of Vienna protest 
against the offensive expressions used in the 
Papal Allocution; and affirm that Government 
possesses their entire confidence. 

4 . —The Duke of Edinburgh, with the Prince 
and Princess of Wales, visits the Crystal Palace, 
and receives an emnusiastic reception. 

— President Johnson proclaims an amnesty 
to all parties engaged in the late rebellion, 
except those under indictment on a charge of 
treason, and restoration of all rights in property, 
except as to slaves. 

— Information received at the Foreign Office 
that the port of Mayatlan, Mexico, was block¬ 
aded by the British war-vessel Chanticleer, in 
retaliation for injuries to British subjects. The 
step was disapproved of by the British Admiral 
in the Pacific, and instructions at once sent 
to raise the blockade. 

6 . —Her Royal Highness the Princess of 
Wales was this morning safely delivered of a 
daughter—Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary. 

— Died, at Jersey, aged 70, Samuel Lover, 
author of many popular Irish lyrics. 

7 . —Captain Negroni, a French officer of 
considerable notoriety in the China expedition, 
sentenced by the Correctional Tribunal of 
Paris to one month’s imprisonment and a fine 
of 3,ooof. for fraudulently misrepresenting the 
value of certain curiosities which he had given 
in pledge. 

— The Scotch Reform Bill read a third 
time in the House of Lords and passed. The 
Irish bill passed through Committee. 

8. —Stormy scene in the French Chamber, 
occasioned by the Minister of Finance defend¬ 
ing the Mexican expedition as “legitimately 
commenced, gloriously prosecuted, and unfortu¬ 
nately terminated.” 

— The brothers Smith, aged respectively 
12 and 14 years of age, sentenced at the Old 
Bailey, one to seven years’ penal servitude, and 
the other to eighteen months’ hard labour, for 
the murderous assault on Mary Anne Nunn, 
housekeeper. 

— The House of Commons Building Com¬ 
mittee issue a Report recommending the con¬ 
struction of a new and more commodious 
chamber on the site now occupied by the com¬ 
mon court and the dining-rooms. 

— The Duke and Duchess of Montpensier 
ordered to leave Spain on the ground of stirring 
up disaffection to the existing Government. 

9 . —The House of Commons, by a majority 
of 124 to 104 against Government, resolve to 
add another amendment to the Lords’ amend¬ 
ments on the Scotch Reform Bill, providing 
that occupiers under 4 1. a year, if otherwise 
qualified, should for the present year be entitled 
to vote though they had not paid rates. The 









JULY 


1868. 


JULY 


amendment was rejected next evening by the 
Lords, and not further insisted on. 

9 . — Professor Longfellow entertained at 
dinner in the Langham Hotel. The health of 
the poet was proposed by Mr. Gladstone. 

10. —The House of Commons assent to the 
proposal contained in her Majesty’s message, of 
voting 2,ocx)/. per annum to Sir Robert Napier 
and his next heir male. It was announced, at 
the same time, that her Majesty had been 
pleased to advance him to the dignity of Baron 
Napier of Magdala. 

11 . —The Moniteur of this day publishes the 
official announcement of the concession for 
twenty years granted to Baron Emile Erlanger 
of Paris and Mr. Julius Reuter of London, for 
laying and working a submarine telegraph line 
between France and the United States of 
America. The concession required that tele¬ 
graphic communication shall be established be¬ 
fore September 1869, unless prevented by 
accidents which cannot be controlled, and 
which must be duly notified to the French 
Government. 

12 . —Orange riot at Monaghan, resulting in 
the death of one Roman Catholic. 

13 . —Lord Taunton carries a motion in the 
House of Lords that no railway bill which pro¬ 
posed to increase rates should be read a second 
time until a special report from the Board of 
Trade was laid on the table. 

14 . —Mr. Bright entertained at Limerick, 
and presented with an address. Referring, in 
reply, to the sojourn with Mr. Peabody in the 
valley of the Shannon, he said that Ireland 
could be made one of the fairest flowers of the 
earth. He suggested to the Imperial Parlia¬ 
ment to undo the legislation of the last 300 
years, without doing any great injury to the 
ecclesiastical arrangements of the country, and 
so as not to affect individual interests. He 
referred to the land question, showing that his 
plan was to restore to the farming classes a 
proprietary right, without any spoliation of the 
interests of the present owners of the soil. 
Speaking of the Established Church, he said 
that it was to the earnest, thoughtful, and 
honestly-minded Protestants in the country that 
the argument was to be addressed ; and were 
he addressing a similar number of those men 
to that of which the meeting was composed, 
he would ask them if they approved of the 
ecclesiastical settlement of the country made 
300 years ago, or whether the present state of 
the country was satisfactory ? The hon. gentle¬ 
man concluded as follows : “We are met in 
the city of the violated treaty—violated, as I 
admit, incessantly during almost centuries of 
time. Let us make a new treaty—not on parch¬ 
ment, not bound with an oath. Its end should 
be this—justice on the part of Great Britain, 
forgiveness on the part of Ireland. (Cheers.) 
It shall be written in the heart of three nations, 
and they would pray to the common Father of 

($ 33 ) 


all, in whose hands were the destinies of 
nations and of States, that He would make it 
last for ever and ever.” 

15 . —Inauguration of the Memorial Window 
set up in Guildhall by the operatives of the 
Lancashire cotton districts in acknowledgment 
of the sum of 500,000/. raised by the Mansion 
House Relief Committee during the cotton 
famine. 

16 . —Professor Henry Morley publishes in 
the Times an Epitaph which he considered to be 
the work of Milton, and to have been written 
by him on the blank leaf of the Museum copy 
of Milton’s English and Latin Poems, 1645. 
The genuineness of the Epitaph was disputed 
by competent critics. 

— Engagement at Humaiti between the 
Brazilian allies and Paraguayans, in which the 
former were reported to have lost between 
4,000 and 5,000 men. The garrison was 
afterwards withdrawn from the fortress, and 
joined the army of Lopez on the Tebicuari. 

17 . —Six boys drowned while bathing near 
the village of Prestatyn, North Wales. 

— Prince Gortschakoff writes to Russian 
representatives at foreign Courts: “Russia 
having assented to the proposals of the Berlin 
Cabinet, that commissioners and experts from 
the different Governments should meet at St. 
Petersburg to draw up a protocol, excluding 
the use of explosive missiles in future warfare, 
these commissioners will assemble on the 13th 
October.” 

18 .—A deputation from the Hyde Park 
Demonstration Committee, headed by the no¬ 
torious Finlen, wait upon Mr. Gladstone at 
his residence in Carlton-house-terrace to assure 
him of the continued support of the working 
classes, to express the hope that he would not 
be discouraged by the adverse vote of the House 
of Lords, and to inform him of the intention 
of the working men of London to hold a 
demonstration in Hyde Park on Sunday after¬ 
noon condemnatory of the recent vote in the 
House of Lords. Mr. Gladstone said he was 
always happy to receive a deputation of real 
working men, such as the one before him. He 
was not discouraged by the vote of the House 
of Lords, and had no doubt they would be 
alive to the public opinion as expressed at the 
next election. With respect to the demonstra¬ 
tion, that was a matter for the consideration of 
themselves, and about which he was not called 
upon to express an opinion further than to say 
that some good reasons had been urged by the 
deputation why it should be held. The demon¬ 
stration was held next day (Sunday). This 
interview was referred to in the House of 
Commons by Sir Charles Russell on the 24th, 
when Mr. Gladstone defended himself from 
the imputation sought to be cast on his pro¬ 
ceedings. 

— Mr. Fawcett’s proposal to throw re¬ 
turning officers’ expenses at elections upon the 
rates carried by 78 to 69. 

3 * 







JULY 


1868. 


JUL Y 


20 .—Government defeated in Committee on 
the Irish Registration Bill, the polling booth , 
clause being thrown out by a majority of 84 
to 74. ! 

— Came on at Carlisle Assizes, before the 
Lord Chief Baron, the trial of Jonathan Arm- j 
strong, yeoman, charged with forging the will | 
of his late father with intent to regain possession 
of certain land, which his mother had sold 
under the real will. The prisoner’s father died 
»n December 1854, having previously made a 
will in 1847, devising his whole real and per¬ 
sonal estate to his wife. The property was 
subsequently bought by a Mr. Cooke, of Camer- 
ton Hall. He having also died, his executors 
sought to recover possession of certain closes 
of land not mentioned in the devise of John 
Armstrong. On the solicitor of the plaintiff 
visiting York Court to inspect Armstrong’s will, 
he found to his astonishment that it had been 
revoked by a new will giving to the wife only a 
life interest in the property, and insuring its 
reversion to the son on her death : this new 
will was followed by a codicil, which directed 
that the persons named therein should lose all 
benefits of its bequests if they disputed the 
validity of the will. The documents were put 
into the hands of an expert, who speedily 
showed that they were clumsy forgeries, and 
undoubtedly in the handwriting of young Arm¬ 
strong. The spelling was bad, and the prisoner 
was connected by this bad spelling with other 
writing which was certainly his. Armstrong 
was found guilty, and sentenced to seven years’ 
penal servitude. 

— In allusion to coercive measures alleged 
to be exercised by the Duke of Portland to¬ 
wards his tenants, his Grace writes : “ There 
is not a single individual in the kingdom 
thoroughly well acquainted with public affairs 
who, if a gentleman, would deny upon his 
honour, or, if otherwise, on his oath (unless a 
fit subject for committal for perjury !), that party 
motives, and party motives alone, have been 
the guiding star of the mover of the present 
onslaught on the Church and unholy alliance 
with Demagogues and Papists, whose openly 
avowed objects are to pull down the best and 
most ancient institutions of the country, and set 
up Yankeeism in politics, and Voluntaryism 
and Popishdom in religion. I have only further 
to remark that the threat of swamping public 
opinion by force of money—‘ a thousand pounds 
subscription, and others,’ you say—is all of a 
piece with the farce of the whole article, 
coming, as it does, from so professedly virtuous j 
and indignant a politician ; and in regard to the 
mysterious allusion to ‘ drawing-room influ- j 
ence, ’ I presume that is a hit at the well-known 1 
opinions of the highest personage in the realm, , 
our beloved Queen—the ablest, and best, and 
most patriotic sovereign this country ever had j 
the blessing to possess, and whose rare gift of | 
insight into the true character of the public 
men around her has too truly taught her the 
danger of the advent to power of those who 
. ( 834 ) 


now so recklessly, at all hazards, aspire to it, 
no matter at what cost to the best interests of 
the country.” 

21. —The Government bill for acquiring 
the electric telegraphs of the kingdom passes 
through Committee. 

— Inauguration at Romsey of the Palmerston 
Memorials—a statue in the town and a stained 
glass window in the Abbey Church. A large 
number of the deceased Premier’s friends and 
political supporters took part in the proceedings. 

— Disturbances in the Danubian Princi¬ 
palities. Engagements take place to-day 
near Rustschuk. 

22. —Lord Napier presented with the free¬ 
dom of the City of London. 

23 . —In the discussion which ensued on 
bringing up the report of the Corrupt Practices 
at Elections Bill, the Commons reject the amend¬ 
ment formerly carried by Mr. Fawcett charging 
the expenses of hustings, polling places, &c., 
on the local rates. 

— Thomas Walls, railway porter, tried at 
Dover Assizes for shooting A. Walsh, station- 
master, Dover, on the 1st May. He was found 
guilty, and sentenced, in terms of the recent 
Act, to be executed within the walls of Maid¬ 
stone prison on the 13th August. 

24 . —Bribery Bill passes the House of Com¬ 
mons. 

— Flood at Baltimore, destroying a large 
part of the town, and causing the death of many 
of the inhabitants. 

26 . —Died at Holwood, Kent, aged 78, Lord 
Cranworth (Rolfe), Lord Chancellor in the 
Ministries of Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston, 
and Earl Russell. 

— Clause introduced into the Railway 
Regulation Bill, enjoining railway companies, 
unless specially excused by the Board of Trade, 
to attach a smoking carriage to every train con¬ 
sisting of more than one carriage of each class. 

27 . —Trial of the Servian conspirators at 
Belgrade. With the exception of Jose Jeremiah, 
who was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, 
and against whom no proof of complicity in 
the assassination of Prince Michael was dis¬ 
covered, all the other accused persons who had 
been arrested, to the number of fourteen, were 
condemned to death to-day. Prince Alexander 
Karageorgewich, his secretary Trivowich, and 
Philip Hankovich, who had not been captured, 
were sentenced, in default, to twenty years’ im¬ 
prisonment. The condemned conspirators were 
executed next day in the Black Valley. 

— Cadore, North Italy, destroyed by the 
fall of the hill of Antelao, supposed to have 
been loosened from the adjoining mass by the 
action of melted snow. 

— Lord Napier of Magdala takes his seat in 
the House of Lords. 

2 3 -—Lord Strathnaim, Commander-in-chief 
in Ireland, calls the attention of the House of 











JUL Y 


1868. 


AUGUST 


Lords to the necessity which existed for in¬ 
creasing the number of polling places at Irish 
elections, in order that voters might have more 
adequate protection than had hitherto been 
afforded them. Lord Malmesbury said the 
fault in this matter did not rest with the 
Government, but with the Opposition, who 
had designedly and wickedly thrown out of 
the Corrupt Practices Bill a clause specially 
designed to increase polling places in Ireland. 

29 . —At a banquet given to her Majesty’s 
Ministers by the Lord Mayor, Mr. Disraeli 
defended the past session from the charge of 
barrenness brought against it, congratulated 
his hearers on the peace which the Government 
had been able to keep with foreign countries, 
and spoke with great confidence of the manner 
in which the enlarged constituencies would dis¬ 
charge the trust now reposed in them. 

— The marriage of Mdlle. Adelina Patti 
with the Marquis de Caux celebrated in the 
Roman Catholic Church, Park-place, Clapham. 

— At a meeting of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, the Bishop of 
Capetown intimates that, as all difficulties 
with regard to the consecration of a Bishop 
of Natal had now been removed, it was his 
intention to proceed shortly to South Africa 
and consecrate Mr. Macrorie “ as bishop for the 
faithful clergy in the diocese of Natal.” 

— Garibaldi writes from Caprera: “Our 
people, without abandoning the labour which 
preserves the body, should think of freeing 
their mind. For what kind of liberty is to 
be expected from a nation which every day 
falls down at the feet of priests, the pedestal 
of every tyranny, and the soldiers of the most 
atrocious of Italy’s tyrants? I shall believe 
that our people mean freedom when I see 
the shop of St. Peter turned into an asylum 
for the indigent, when I see the flask of St. 
Januarius broken on the tonsured pate of the 
ludicrous sorcerer. Come what will, I shall 
die unhappy if on the day you fight for Italy’s 
liberty—which I hope will be soon—I cannot 
follow you, at least in an ambulance.” 

30 . —The Thames Embankment from West¬ 
minster Bridge to the Temple opened for traffic, 
with little ceremony.—The Abbey Mills pump¬ 
ing station of the Metropolitan Main Drainage 
system was also opened this day. 

— Disastrous panic in Manchester, arising 
out of an alarm of fire raised in Lang’s Victoria 
Music Hall. The occupants of the upper gal¬ 
lery, alarmed at the breaking of a gas pendant, 
rushed in large numbers down the winding 
staircase leading to the street, and with such 
fury that those who stumbled or fell were 
trampled to death by their excited neighbours. 
The centre rail of the stairs also gave way 
under the violent pressure to which it was sub¬ 
jected, and a large number of the terrified 
victims of their own fear were thrown in a 
mass to the bottom. When relief came, a few 
of those on the top were found to be alive, but 

(835) 


others near the bottom were inextricably wedged 
together, and died from suffocation or bruises. 
Twenty-three were known to have lost their 
lives in this calamity, while at least an equal 
number suffered from external or internal in¬ 
juries. The Coroner’s jury returned a verdict 
of “Accidental death,” but at the same time 
expressed an opinion that the staircase and 
handrails were quite insufficient for a place 
where such large numbers assembled, and that 
suitable provision should at once be made for 
the safety of future audiences. They further 
recommended that power should be given to 
the Corporation to appoint an officer to inspect 
theatres, music halls, and places of a similar 
description, and that no licences should be 
granted to the lessees of such buildings unless 
they could provide properly for the public 
safety. 

31 . —Close of the last Parliament elected 
under the Reform Bill of 1832. The Royal 
Commissioners took their seats at two o’clock, 
shortly after which the Royal Assent was given 
to a large number of bills, the Electric Tele¬ 
graph Bill among the rest. The Lord Chan¬ 
cellor read the Queen’s Speech, congratulating 
Parliament on the friendly relations of this 
country with foreign Powers, the success of 
the Abyssinian expedition, and the restoration 
of comparative quiet in Ireland. “ It is my 
intention,” the Speech concluded, “ to dissolve 
the present Parliament at the earliest day that 
will enable my people to reap the benefit of 
the extended system of representation which 
the wisdom of Parliament has provided for 
them. I look with entire confidence to their 
proving themselves worthy of the high privilege 
with which they have thus been invested, and 
trust that, under the blessings of Divine Pro¬ 
vidence, the expression of their opinion on the 
great questions of public policy which have 
occupied the attention of Parliament and re¬ 
main undecided, may tend to maintain unim¬ 
paired that civil and religious freedom which 
has been secured to all my subjects by the 
institutions and settlements of my realm.” 

August 1 . —A duel arising out of an article 
entitled “The Epilogue,” which appeared in 
La Liberty takes place this evening between 
MM. Jecker and Odysse Barot. They met on 
the skirts of the forest of Soignees, near the 
avenue which leads to Waterloo. Barot was 
hit in the region of the abdomen, but the ball 
appeared to have been turned aside by a button, 
and was afterwards found in his waistcoat 
pocket. Mutual explanations then took place, 
and the principals left the ground with their 
friends. 

3 .—Rumoured failure of one of the Atlantic 
telegraph cables. 

— Insurrectionary movements reported from 
Spain, bands of armed citizens suddenly appear¬ 
ing over the province of Arragon. Ministerial 
organs pronounced them to be smugglers, but 

3 h 2 







AUGUST 


1868. 


AUGUST 


admitted that they were acting under the direc¬ 
tion of a Brigadier-General. 

4 . — Jefferson Davis, late President of the 
Confederate States, arrives at Liverpool. 

5 . —Unveiling of Foley’s statue of Lord 
Clyde, erected in Glasgow. 

— M. Rochefort fined 5of. for refusing to 
insert a Government communiquS in the Lan- 
terne. On the 14th he was fined (in absence) 
lo,ooof. for another offence against the Govern¬ 
ment, and sentenced also to one year’s imprison¬ 
ment. The publication was afterwards sup¬ 
pressed with great assiduity. 

— Mr. Gladstone commences his electoral 
campaign in South-west Lancashire, by ad¬ 
dressing the constituency at St. Helen’s. His 
views on the Irish Church question were, if 
possible, more pronounced than he had ex¬ 
pressed in the House of Commons. “There 
are a great number of things,” he said, “that 
are absolutely impossible. You can’t amend 
this Church in one respect or direction, with¬ 
out offending in some other respect or direc¬ 
tion, and making the case worse than before. 
The reason of it is that there is no basis. It is 
wholly disabled and disqualified for performing 
the purposes for which it exists; and conse¬ 
quently I spoke in literal truth, and not in 
mere sarcasm, when I said, ‘ You must not take 
away its abuses, because if you take them away 
there will be nothing left.’” Speaking of the 
effect of the proposed disestablishment on the 
Church here, he said nothing appeared to him 
more idle than to attempt to draw a parallel 
between the case of the Church of Ireland and 
the case of the Church of England. ‘ ‘ The 
duty of a religious establishment is a duty to 
the nation at large. The idea of a religious 
establishment ministering only to a handful of 
the people is an unnatural and monstrous idea; 
and when you have arrived at such a state of 
things, it is time that Establishments should 
cease to exist. (Cheers.) In many parts of 
the country the Church of England is the sole, 
and in many other parts the principal if not 
the sole, religious agency; and only in the 
most populous parts is she confronted by the 
friendly competition of the other religious 
bodies. Still I think the Church of England 
enters into the natural life and purpose of the 
country, and is associated in a great degree 
with the feelings, the traditions, as well as the 
history of England; and there are, in my 
opinion, very many who do not formally be¬ 
long to her communion, who would with deep 
regret witness her downfall. (Cheers.) The 
great difference between the two Churches is 
summed up in the .fact that the Church of 
Ireland is a Church established by law, which 
neither does nor can do the work of an Estab¬ 
lishment; but the Church of England, estab¬ 
lished by law also, in most parts of the country 
does the sole, and in many others the chief 
part of the work of an Establishment.” Mr. 
Gladstone wag accompanied by his colleague, 
Mr. H. R, Grenfell. Other addresses were 


delivered in rapid succession at Warrington, 
Liverpool, Newton-Bridge, Wigan, and Orms- 
kirk. 

5 . —Excessive heat in London ; the thermo¬ 
meter ranging 123 0 in the sun, and barometer 
29°'8 i. Swarms of musquitoes were reported 
to be infesting the neighbourhood of the docks. 

— The Lower House of the Hungarian 
Diet adopt the principle of the Organization 
Bill, by a majority of 235 against 33 votes. 

6 . —Died, in his 94th year, the Right Hon. 
Stephen Lushington. 

— Forty-seven miners killed by an explosion 
of fire-damp in the Ste. Henriette pit, Jenappes, 1 
Belgium. 

— Fire at the Brighton Railway Terminus, ] 
London Bridge, confined mainly to the vaults ] 
under the platform in which it originated. 

— Her Majesty, whose health had recently i 
caused much anxiety in the Royal household, j 
sets out on a journey to Switzerland. She 
passed from Cherbourg to Paris on the 7th, j 
and arrived at Lucerne on the 8th. 

8. —The Dublin Gazette announces the eleva¬ 
tion of the Marquis of Abercom to a dukedom. J 

— Lord Napier of Magdala entertained at 
Welshpool. He made a speech on the occa- |, 
sion in defence of the policy he had pursued 
from the day he landed in Abyssinia, and em- j 
phatically asserted that Theodore had not 
been deceived, as was alleged, into freeing the 'v 
captives, on condition that his fortress should 1| 
not be attacked. 

9 . — The morning journals criticise, generally 
unfavourably, the rumoured appointment of the 
Earl of Mayo as Governor-General of India. 
Other governors appointed at this time by Mr. 
Disraeli were, Sir James Fergusson to South 
Australia, and Mr. Ducane to Tasmania. 

— In answer to an address presented by 
the Mayor of Troyes, the Emperor Napoleon 
urged the citizens to continued industry, “for 
nothing to-day threatens the peace of Europe.” 

10. —Fire in King-street, Southwark, de¬ 
stroying several cottages and four large hop 
warehouses. 

11 . —Died in Paris, Ada Menken, actress 
and equestrian performer. 

— The Parisian students make a hostile 
political demonstration on the occasion of the 
Prince Imperial distributing the annual prizes 
at the Sorbonne. Young Cavaignac, who had 
obtained the first prize for Greek, refused to 
accept his reward at the hands of the Prince, a 
proceeding in which he was encouraged by the 
advice of his mother and the frantic cheers of 
the students. 

13 .—Died, aged 75, Thaddeus Stevens, an ! 
active and influential politician of the United | 
States. 

— Earthquake in Central America, destroy¬ 
ing within a few days the cities of Arica, 1 






AUGUST 


1868. 


AUGUST 


Arequipa, Iquique, and Ecuador, with fleets of 
merchant vessels along the entire coast. The 
loss of life was beyond all precedent—as many, 
it was thought, as 40,000 having perished in the 
ruins of falling cities, or been engulfed in the 
yawning earth. In many places the sea first 
retired a space, and then rushed over the towns 
on the shore with great violence. The intelli- 
I gence produced a fall in this country of 1 £ per 
I cent, in Peruvian, and 1^ in Ecuador bonds. 

14 -.—Collision off the Eddystone Lighthouse 
; between H.M. S. Warrior and Royal Oak , two 
of the Channel squadron then proceeding to 
! Ireland. The gale in which the squadron was 
1 caught increasing in severity, a signal was made 
from the admiral’s ship to take in a second reef 
| of topsails. While the ships were so employed, 
the Warrior forged ahead, came up under the 
I lee of the Royal Oak , and ran into her starboard 
; quarter. The vessels were twenty minutes 
locked together, and sustained considerable 
damage. Some blame was at first thought 
I to attach to Captain Boys of the Warrior, 
but a court-martial afterwards summoned at 
I Devonport entirely acquitted him. 

— Dr. Pusey addresses a letter to the Pre- 
L sident of the Wesleyan Conference, pleading 
! that the Methodists should co-operate with 
r the Oxford Tories in resisting Mr. Coleridge’s 
scheme for throwing open the honours and 
emoluments of the Universities to men of all 
creeds and denominations. “ Supposing the 
present state of things to be changed,” Dr. 
j Pusey suggested “ two alternative expedients.” 
The first was that subscription to the Nicene 
Creed should be substituted for subscription to 
the Thirty-nine Articles; the other, that new 
colleges should be founded out of the revenues 
of the old ones for “the different bodies who 
hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” He 
observed that “either of these ways would be 
I a religious vray,” and would be “far prefer¬ 
able” to Mr. Coleridge’s plan, “which would 
entrust the education of our youth to (as it may 
be) deist or atheist.” Conference decided to 
abstain from dealing with the subject “for the 
present.” It was of this letter the Rev. J. W. 
Burgon, of Oriel, declared, “That of all the 
wild expedients I have ever seen committed to 
paper by a good man, I have never in my life 
met with anything more wild, more imprac¬ 
ticable, than this to which you have sub¬ 
scribed your honoured name.” He said it 
must not be thought for an instant that Dr. 
Pusey has expressed the sentiment of the Uni¬ 
versity, for he believes that not five Churchmen 
in the University would endorse it. He held 
that Mr. Coleridge’s bill, irreligious as it was, 
would have been far less mischievous in its 
operation than the proposal of which Dr. Pusey 
is the advocate. 

— Died, Matthew James Higgins, well 
known in the public controversies of the day 
as “Jacob Omnium.” 

— Mr. W. Scully’s bailiff and a policeman 


murdered at Ballycohey, Tipperary,while serving 
notices of eviction. 

15 .—His Excellency Mr. Reverdy Johnson, 
the new United States Minister, lands at South¬ 
ampton. 

— Certain questions having been proposed 
by General Rosencranz regarding the wishes and 
intentions of the inhabitants of the Southern 
States, General Lee answers to-day: “The 
people earnestly desire tranquillity and the 
restoration of the Union; they deprecate dis¬ 
order and excitement as the most serious 
obstacle to their prosperity. They ask a re¬ 
storation of their rights under the Constitu¬ 
tion ; they desire relief from oppressive misrule. 
Above all, they would appeal to their country¬ 
men for the re-establishment in the Southern 
States of that which has justly been regarded 
as the birthright of every American, the right 
of self-government. Establish these on a firm 
basis, and we can safely promise on behalf of 
the Southern people that they will faithfully 
obey the Constitution and laws of the United 
States, treat the negro with kindness and 
humanity, and fulfil every duty incumbent on 
peaceful citizens, loyal to the Constitution of 
their country.” 

16 . —Telegrams from Madrid of this even¬ 
ing’s date announce that the Spanish Govern¬ 
ment is in a disorganized state. 

17 . —Demonstration at the Crystal Palace in 
professed defence of the Throne, the Church, 
and the Constitution, but more particularly of 
the Irish Church. The gathering, which was 
thinly attended and passed off peaceably, was 
presided over by Lord Fitzwaiter. The only 
Bishop present was the Australian Bishop of 
Perth, and the only M.P. Mr. Newdegate. It 
was intimated in the course of the proceedings 
that the Duke of Portland had subscribed 2,000/. 
to aid the cause of the association. 

19 .—Fire at Northumberland House, de¬ 
stroying portions of the picture-gallery, ball¬ 
room, and stables. 

—• Sir W. Brett, solicitor-general, Serjeant 
Hayes, and Mr. Cleasby, Q.C., mentioned as 
the judges to be appointed under the Bribery 
Act of last session for trying election petitions. 

— Great eclipse. To-day a shadow, such 
as never before fell on the earth within his¬ 
toric times, swept at the rate of 200 miles an 
hour from the Straits of Bab-el-Mandel across 
the two Indian peninsulas, over Borneo and 
Celebes, and, touching the northern extremity 
of Australia, passed out many hundreds of 
miles (before leaving the earth) upon the 
Pacific Ocean. 

— Appalling accident to the Irish limited 
mail train at Abergele, North Wales. After 
leaving Chester the train proceeded at its usual 
high speed, till nearing Abergele it came into 
violent collision with certain tracks which had 
broken off at the station and run down the 
incline. The effects were most disastrous. The 

(837) 









AUGUST 


1868. 


SEPTEMBER 


engine was completely smashed, several of the 
foremost carriages were thrown across the line, 
and a number of the passengers killed or in¬ 
jured. But the loss of life in this way must 
have been trifling compared with what fol¬ 
lowed. A few of the passengers had liberated 
themselves from their carriages, and were doing i 
what they could to assist each other, when the | 
horrible discovery was made that the front j 
carriages were enveloped in flames. The 
petroleum with which the trucks had been j 
loaded swept along with a swiftness and in- j 
tensity making escape or even aid impossible. 
Death was so sudden that at the inquiry which 
subsequently took place few could say they 
either saw the sufferings of their fellow-pas¬ 
sengers or heard their cry for help. Twenty- 
eight parcels of charred human remains were 
laid in Abergele Church, to await the Coroner’s 
inquest. They were in such a condition as 
made it difficult to distinguish sex, or even to 
be sure of the number of persons represented. 
Other five were less mutilated, and gave en¬ 
couragement to the belief that all had died 
instantaneously, either from the collision itself 
or the sudden ignition of the petroleum by 
which it was followed. Of the thirty-three 
killed, ten were thought to be males, thirteen 
females, and of ten the sex could not be dis¬ 
tinguished. The remains were buried in one 
grave in Abergele Churchyard. Lord and 
Lady Famham, with a companion and three 
attendants, were among those who perished in 
the disaster. The Duchess of Abercom and 
family were in the train, but, occupying an end 
carriage, escaped with others unhurt. The 
manner in which the coroner at first conducted 
the inquiry gave rise to some dissatisfaction 
among relatives, but they latterly concurred in 
his proceedings, and lent what help they could 
to carry them out. After a lengthened examina¬ 
tion of witnesses, the jury found a verdict of 
manslaughter against the two breaksmen of the 
goods train. They also censured the Llandulas 
station-master for neglect of duty ; recom¬ 
mended that longer time should be allowed for 
shunting before passenger trains are due; and 
that during the shunting process the points 
should be kept open into the siding, to prevent 
runaway trucks escaping to the main line. 
They were satisfied that the doors of the 
carriages were not'locked on the platform side, 
and expressed the deepest sympathy with the 
relatives. The breaksmen surrendered, and 
were admitted to bail. 

20.—Mr. Gladstone replies to the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer’s defence of the finance 
schemes of the Government. “We left the 
income-tax,” he said, “at <\d. in the pound. The 
expenditure of 1859-60 was arranged by the 
Tory Government. It was early in July that, 
on coming into office, I had to meet a deficit 
of, I think, four and a half millions, in a year 
of which all the arrangements had been made, 
and of which between three and four months 
had actually gone.” A detailed statement dealt 
with the expenditure for the army, navy, and | 

(838) 


Civil Service—the extent to which these had 
fallen short of or exceeded the estimates pro¬ 
posed by different Governments. The Liberal 
party, he calculated, saved about 1,800,000/. 
between 1862 and 1865, while the Tory Govern¬ 
ment exceeded in two years 1,145,000/., besides 
the cost of the Abyssinian war. The financial 
schemes carried through between 1862 and 
1865 gave the country reduction of taxation 
to the extent of 2,276,000/ annually. 

20 .—Replying to claims for compensation 
made by the owners of the captured Tornado , 
Lord Stanley writes that, after having consulted 
the proper law advisers of the Crown, he con¬ 
siders that the final issue of the proceedings in 
the Tornado case must be awaited before any 
decision is arrived at as to the course to be 
adopted with reference to the claim of members 
of the crew for compensation. 

26 .—A letter appearing in the Times purport¬ 
ing to be from the Hon. Stuart Wortley, and 
offering to restore 18,000/. which he had received 
through his connexion with the Credit Foncier, 
Mr. Wortley now writes that the epistle was a 
hoax, and that he had never received 18,000/., 

“ or any sum in any degree approaching to that 
amount.” 

29 . —General Garibaldi resigns his seat as 
Deputy in the Italian Parliament. 

30 . —Duel at Vesinet, near St. Germain, 
between M. Paul Cassagnac, of the Pays, and 
M. Lissagary, editor of the Avenir, published 
in the Gris , and which had laid itself out to 
oppose the re-election of M. Gamier de 
Cassagnac for that department. M. Lissagary 
was dangerouly wounded. 

September 1.—The Earl of Mayo an¬ 
nounces to the electors of Cockennouth that 
he did not intend to ask their suffrages on the 
occasion of the present election, as he had 
accepted the office of Governor-Genexal of 
India. 

3 .— The Archbishop of Dublin, in his Visita¬ 
tion Charge, tells his clergy that the Irish 
Church was assailed by Englishmen because 
Irish outrages have overflowed into England. 
He asserted that the Roman Catholic priesthood 
will never allow the Roman Catholic popula¬ 
tion under their influence to be thoroughly 
reconciled to Imperial rule. The proposal to 
disestablish the Irish Church was made, the 
Archbishop thought, with levity and precipita¬ 
tion. “ The Roman Catholics will be but feebly 
and languidly pleased, whilst the Protestants 



— Died at Baden, aged 69, Professor 
Schonbein, famous as the discoverer of ozone 
and the inventor of gun-cotton. 

— Mr. Reverdy Johnson entertained at a 
banquet in Sheffield. He spoke in a hopeful 
way of our relations with the United States, 
and trusted that both countries would always 





SEPTEMBER 


1868, 


SEPTEMBER 


be found standing side by side. Later in the 
evening, Mr. Roebuck created some surprise by 
speaking of the admixture of races in America 
as something different from what is found here, 
and as a difference for the worse. He asked 
his hearers to picture to themselves the wild 
Irishman, the fiery Frenchman, the assassina¬ 
ting Italian, and the dumbfounded Spaniard 
all going out in one mass to be worked up in 
America. 

4 . — Fire in Southampton Docks, destroying 
the greater portion of the West India Com¬ 
pany’s factory. 

5 . —This day (Saturday) the great cab strike 
which had been threatened through the week 
in the metropolis reached its culminating point. 
With the exception of what were termed pri¬ 
vileged cabs, there were few or none plying for 
hire, any that attempted to do so being generally 
surrounded by a mob of cabmen and hustled back 
to the yard. At a meeting convened on Primrose- 
hill, a resolution was agreed to—“That we, 
the cab-drivers of London, on account of the 
unfair treatment and refusal of the various rail¬ 
way companies to throw' open their stations to 
us, are reluctantly but fully determined not to 
take out any proprietor’s cabs until such time 
as those railways are open to each and all of 
us ; and that this resolution is to take effect 
from this day.” The strike failed in its purpose 
of opening up the railway stations to all cabs. 

6 . —An informal announcement made that 
Government, as a response to the recent Rus¬ 
sian successes in Central Asia, have resolved to 
occupy a portion of Southern Afghanistan ; to 
fortify Quetta, near the Bolan Pass, in Belooch- 
istan ; to form several strategical lines of rail¬ 
way across the Punjaub, and otherwise set 
the Indian frontier in order either for offence 
or defence. 

7 . — Several officers stationed in the garri¬ 
sons of Tarragona and Badajoz dismissed on 
suspicion of being concerned in insurrectionary 
movements. 

9.—The Queen leaves Lucerne for Paris on 
her homeward journey. 

— The Brussels International Congress of 
Workmen adopt resolutions, declaring that 
their claims cannot be completely settled by 
means of strikes. They recommended the 
establishment of councils of arbitration. 

11.—Dr. M'Neile gazetted to be Dean of 
Ripon. 

13 . —A harvest festival celebrated with great 
ritualistic pomp in the Church of St. James the 
Great, Haydock, Lancashire. 

14 . —Mr. Reverdy Johnson presents his cre¬ 
dentials to the Queen at Windsor. 

15. —In a speech at Kiel the King of Prussia 
said : “ I do not see throughout Europe any 
cause for the disturbance of peace. What will 
still more reassure you, I perceive in the repre¬ 
sentatives of the army and navy assembled here 


the vigour of the Fatherland, who have proved 
that they do not shun the combat if compelled 
to fight it out.” The speech led to serious 
fluctuations on the Paris Bourse during the next 
few d^ys. 

15 . —Wheelan tried at Ottawa for the murder 
of Mr. Darcy M'Ghee, and sentenced to be 
executed on the loth December. He denied 
being a Fenian, or entertaining any feeling of 
hostility whatever against M'Ghee. A series 
of appeals led to the execution being deferred 
to the nth February, 1869, when Wheelan was 
hanged within the precincts of Ottawa prison. 
He made no confession. 

16 . —Fire in the premises of William Stoker, 
Washington, Newcastle, caused by the acci¬ 
dental upsetting of a jar of diamond oil. Two 

i of the family were burnt to death in the room, 
two died afterwards, another was injured 
severely, and four less so. 

18 .—Announcement made to-day that Sir 
John Young (formerly Governor of the Ionian 
Islands) had been selected to succeed Lord 
Monck as Governor-General of the Canadian 
Confederation. 

— Interview at San Sebastian between the 
Queen of Spain and the Emperor Napoleon III. 
It was immediately rumoured that the aid 
solicited by the Queen had been refused. 

— Explosion in the cartridge manufactory of 
Metz, causing the death of thirty men and six 
women. As many as no were said to have 
been injured. 

— The King of Prussia, in replying to an 
address presented by the Burgomaster of Kiel, 
said : “I thank you for this festive reception. 
I remember my former presence among you in 
1864. Then the future of the Elbe Duchies 
was still uncertain ; now their destiny is 
decided. This reception is a moral guarantee 
that public opinion is no longer antagonistic to 
the established Parliaments, and is now be¬ 
coming reconciled to the changes which have 
taken place.” His Majesty also assured the 
clergy of Schleswig-Holstein that by the an¬ 
nexation to Prussia complete freedom of wor¬ 
ship has been guaranteed to all creeds. 

— Revolution in Spain. The banished 
generals return from the Canary Islands and 
raise the standard of insurrection in Andalusia. 
The fleet pronounce against the present Go¬ 
vernment, as does also the garrison of Cadiz. 
Great excitement in Madrid, but no fighting. 
It was rumoured in the capital that the Queen, 
then at St. Sebastian, had consented to abdi¬ 
cate. Reports from the provinces were for 
several days confused and contradictory. 

21 . —Gobazye said to have crowned himself 
Emperor of Abyssinia. 

22. —Telegram received at Madrid that the 
whole of the provinces of Andalusia, Gallicia, 
Corunna, and Santander, with the whole of the 
soldiers and sailors in Ferrol, had pronounced 

i in favour of the revolution. There was sharp 

(839) 









1868. 


SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


fighting at Santander, terminating in the defeat 
of the Government party. In several places 
the statues of the Queen were thrown down. 
Her friends also admit to-day that she could not 
leave San Sebastian with any reasonable hope 
of reaching the capital in safety. The country 
declared to be in a state of siege. 

24 . —Died at Queen’s-hill Lodge, Ascot, 
aged 77, the Very Rev. Henry Hart Milman, 
Dean of St. Paul’s, authbr of “The History of 
the Jews,” “Latin Christianity,” &c. 

25 . —Fall of the “ Old Sugar House,” at 
Hull. Seven people employed on the pre¬ 
mises were killed, and two boys in the street. 

— Bouverie - Mill Correspondence. Mr. 
Edwin Chadwick, C.B., having appeared as a 
candidate before the electors of the Kilmarnock 
district of burghs, armed with a strong recom¬ 
mendation in his favour by the member for West¬ 
minster, Mr. Bouverie now complains of this as 
tending to divide the Liberal ranks, and wanting 
in that toleration for minor differences, without 
which party action was impossible.—Mr. Mill 
replied, from Avignon, that every man should 
consider first, not his own claims and wishes, 
but the public interest. “For my own part, 
I can disclaim acting ungenerously towards 
yourself when I warmly support the candida¬ 
ture of Mr. Chadwick, because I would very 
gladly put him in my own place if I saw a 
probability of success. I consider Mr. Chad¬ 
wick to be an altogether exceptional man, to 
whom it would be an honour to any other man 
to give way, because, however superior he may 
consider himself, or might actually be, to Mr. 
Chadwick in some things, there are others (of 
extreme importance in Parliament) in which 
Mr. Chadwick has not his equal in England, 
nor, so far as I know, in Europe.” To this 
Mr. Bouverie replied: “ If I were to act on 
your advice, the result would be a substitution 
of your individual opinion for the free choice of 
the constituency. In Westminster, where Mr. 
Chadwick is, perhaps, better known than in 
.Scotland, I have your high authority for the 
statement, that the constituency would not be 
likely to accept him, even upon your recom¬ 
mendation. Upon what knowledge, may I 
ask, of the Kilmarnock burghs do you presume 
that he would be more acceptable to them? 
If you are a fit judge of Westminster in this 
matter, may not I be permitted to form a 
judgment of Kilmarnock? If I knew any¬ 
thing of my present constituency, I should 
say they would be extremely likely to form 
opinions for themselves, without the aid of 
anybody, however eminent, and that those 
who have just been added to the register will 
not be a whit less keen and discerning than 
their neighbours in forming and exercising 
their own judgment. You will pardon me, 
therefore, for declining your invitation to give 
way for the purpose of obtaining the return of 
Mr. Chadwick, as unconstitutional, unwise, and 
not likely to be attended with success; and if 
you will permit me a word of advice in return, 
(840) 


I would say that the best hope of our common 
political adversaries lies in the Liberal consti¬ 
tuencies being exposed to a contest among 
Liberals, and that those who aspire to play 
leading parts among us would do well not to 
exaggerate this evil.” 

27 .—Died, aged 58, Count Walewski, for¬ 
merly French Ambassador at the Court of 
St. James’s. 

— Explosion at the Moxley Steel and Iron 
Works, Wolverhampton, killing II puddlers, 
and injuring others, some of them at a great 
distance from the furnace. 

29 .—Flight of the Queen of Spain. In an 
encounter between the Spanish insurgent troops, 
under Marshal Serrano, and the Royalists, 
under the Marquis de Novaliches, at Ancola 
Bridge, the latter was defeated, and severely 
wounded. The provinces generally were now 
giving in their adhesion to the revolution, and 
at Madrid the Cabinet ceased even pretending 
to carry on the Government of the country in 
the name of Queen Isabella. Her Majesty left 
St. Sebastian on the morning of the 30th, and 
was accompanied to the frontier by Spanish 
halberdiers. The Queen breakfasted at Hen- 
daye at 11 A.M., and arrived at Biarritz at 2.25, 
where she had an interview, lasting fifteen 
minutes, with the Emperor Napoleon, the 
Empress Eugenie, and the Prince Imperial. 
She arrived at Bayonne at 2.45 P.M. by special 
train, accompanied by the Prefect of the Lower 
Pyrenees. The Queen was received at the 
railway station by the Sub-Prefect, the Mayor, 
and several members of the late Spanish Minis¬ 
try. Senor Gonzales Bravo had five minutes’ 
conversation with Queen Isabella. The royal 
fugitives, with Marfori, Intendante of the 
Palace, her husband and family, took up their 
residence at the Castle of Pau, placed at her 
Majesty’s disposal by the Emperor Napoleon. 
On the day of her flight the Queen issued a 
protest against the conspiracy which has “flung 
Spain into all the horrors of anarchy. ... If 
the towns and the provinces, yielding to the 
first pressure of violence, submit for a time to 
the yoke of the insurgents, soon public feeling, 
hurt in its most sensitive and noblest parts, will 
shake off its torpor, and show the world that 
the eclipse of reason and of honour in .Spain 
cannot last long. Until that time arrives, I 
have thought proper, as Queen of Spain, and 
after due deliberation and sound advice, to 
seek in the states of an august ally the security 
requisite to enable me to act under these diffi¬ 
cult circumstances in conformity with my posi¬ 
tion as a queen, and with the duty that devolves 
on me to transmit unimpaired to my son my 
rights sanctioned by law, acknowledged and 
sworn to by the nation, and fortified by thirty- 
five years of sacrifice, vicissitudes, and tender 
affection. ... A monarchy embodying fifteen 
centuries of struggles, patriotism, victories, and 
grandeur cannot be destroyed by fifteen days of 
perjury and treason. Let us have faith in the 
future. The glory of the Spanish people was 





OCTOBER 


1868. 


OCTOBER 


ever connected with its kings. The misfortunes 
of its kings ever fell heavily on the people. In 
my firm and patriotic hope that right, honour, 
and legitimacy will be maintained, I believe 
that your minds and your efforts will ever unite 
with the energetic decisions and maternal 
affections of your Queen.” 

October 1 . —Sir Henry Lawrence appointed 
a member of the Council of India. 

— Explosion in the Green Pit Colliery, 
Ruabon, Wales, causing the death of ten 
workmen and injuring eleven others. 

— A Provisional Government formed at 
Madrid issue a proclamation deposing Queen 
Isabella, and substituting the sovereignty of 
the people. 

— Attempt said to have been made to as¬ 
sassinate the Viceroy of Egypt by dropping a 
steel ball, armed with sharp barbs, into his 
carriage, while passing through the streets of 
Alexandria. 

2.—In his address to the electors of Buck¬ 
inghamshire, the Premier writes: “The leader 
of the Opposition in the House of Commons 
seized the occasion of an expiring Parliament, 
which had proclaimed its inadequate representa¬ 
tion of the country, to recommend a change of 
the fundamental laws of the realm, and to pro¬ 
pose a dissolution of the union between Church 
and State. Her Majesty’s Government offered, 
and will offer, to this policy an uncompromising 
resistance. The connexion of religion with the 
exercise of political authority is one of the main 
safeguards of the civilization of man. It instils 
some sense of responsibility even into the de¬ 
positaries of absolute power; but, under any 
circumstances, the absence or severance of such 
a tie will lower the character and duties of 
Government, and tend to the degradation of 
society. . . . Instead of Ireland being made an 
exception to the fundamental condition of our 
Constitution, there are many important reasons 
why the Established Church should be main¬ 
tained in that country. Its suppression would 
aggravate religious hostility and party rancour, 
would suppress a resident class of men whose 
social virtues are conducive, as all agree, to 
the welfare of the country, and would further 
diminish the security of property in a land 
where its tenure and enjoyment are not as 
unquestioned as they hitherto have been in 
other parts of her Majesty’s dominions. But 
even in Great Britain the spoliation of the 
Church in Ireland would not be without its 
effect. Confiscation is contagious, and when 
once a community has been seduced into 
plunder, its predatory acts have seldom been 
single. . . . Amidst the discordant activity of 
many factions, there moves the supreme pur¬ 
pose of one power. The philosopher may 
flatter himself he is advancing in the cause of 
enlightened progress; the sectarian may be 
roused to exertion by anticipations of the down¬ 
fall of ecclesiastical systems. These are tran¬ 
sient efforts—vain and passing aspirations. The 


ultimate triumph, were our Church to fall, 
would be to that power which would substitute 
for the authority of our sovereign the supre¬ 
macy of a foi-eign prince—to that power with 
whose traditions, learning, discipline, and orga¬ 
nization our Church alone has hitherto been able 
to cope, and that, too, only when supported by 
a determined and devoted people.” 

2 .—Taking advantage of the approaching 
dissolution of Parliament, Sir W. Heathcote 
retires from the representation of Oxford 
University, on the ground of ill-health. The 
Liberal party at once put themselves into com¬ 
munication with Sir Roundell Palmer, for the 
purpose of inducing him to come forward as 
a candidate. He at first consented ; but the 
chances appearing to be against his election, 
Sir Roundell afterwards returned to his Rich¬ 
mond constituents. 

— Successful experiments with the Mon- 
crieff gun-carriage at Shoeburyness. They were 
repeated a week afterwards. 

— Boiler explosion at Elsecar Ironworks, 
Newcastle, with loss of several lives. 

— Statue of James Watt unveiled at Bir¬ 
mingham. 

4 . — Boat upset on the Thames, near West¬ 
minster Bridge, and four of the passengers 
drowned. 

5. —Interview between the Patriarch of 
Constantinople and the Papal emissaries re¬ 
garding the forthcoming (Ecumenical Council 
called at Rome. On behalf of the Greek 
Church the Patriarch declared the convening of 
the Council vain and fruitless, so long as Rome 
held—(1) That there is in the Universal Church 
of Christ any bishop, supreme ruler, or head, 
other than the Lord. (2) That there is any 
patriarch infallible and unerring, speaking ex 
cathedra and above (Ecumenical Councils, in 
which latter is infallibility, when they are in 
accordance with Scripture and Apostolic tra¬ 
dition. (3) That the Apostles were unequal. 
(4) That the Pope had pre-eminence of seat, 
not by human and synodical arrangement, but 
by Divine right. After an appeal from the 
Latin priests, based mainly on the decrees of 
the Council of Florence, the Protosyncallus 
was directed to return the Papal letter to the 
bearers. 

_ A Provisional Government installed at 

Madrid, presided over by Generals Serrano and 
Prim and Sehor Olozaga. 

7.— The Herald announces that the Queen 
had nominated the Very Rev. the Dean of Cork 
(McGhee) to the See of Peterborough ; and that 
the Rev. Henry Longueville Mansell, D.D., 
Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 
the University of Oxford, and Canon of Christ 
Church, had been appointed to the Deanery of 
St. Paul’s. 

_ Lord Ranelagh addresses a letter to the 

South Middlesex Corps, of which he was 
colonel, for the purpose of explaining his con- 

(84 1 ) 







OCTOBER 


1868. 


OCTOBER 


nexion with the Rachel affair. He described 
himself as the victim of “an idle curiosity,” 
which tempted him, in common with other 
gentlemen, to drop occasionally into Rachel’s 
shop, and thus give her an opportunity of using 
his name, and making him a mark for public 
scandal. He also complained of the conduct 
of Mr. Serjeant Ballantine during the progress 
of the case, and expressed a reluctance to 
change moralities with him. “If those who 
live in glass houses should abstain from stone¬ 
throwing, surely those who occupy regular 
crystal palaces should be still more guarded 
in that respect.” 

8 . —The Prince and Princess of Wales visit 
Glasgow, and lay the foundation-stone of the 
new University buildings on Gilmore hill. The 
Lord Provost (Lumsden) was knighted soon 
afterwards, in acknowledgment of the mag¬ 
nificent reception accorded to the Royal visitors. 

9 . —Mr. Gladstone issues an address to the 
electors of South-west Lancashire. After re¬ 
viewing the facts connected with the downfall 
of the last Russell Ministry, he passed on to 
advocate a repeal of the rate-paying limitations 
in the Reform Act, and condemned as unneces¬ 
sary the addition of 3,000,000/. more, by the 
present Government, to the public expenditure 
of the country. In the removal of the Irish 
Establishment he saw the discharge of a debt 
of civil justice, and the disappearance of a 
national, almost a world-wide, reproach. “ Rest 
as we are, by common consent, we cannot. 
Endowment of all, after the events of the last 
session, is out of the question. Retrenchment 
or mutilation of the existing Church, by reduc¬ 
tion of its spiritual offices, has been proposed 
by a Royal Commission ; but I do not yet learn, 
from the last and most authentic declarations of 
the Ministry, that they adopt it, or indeed any 
other method of proceeding. We (the Op¬ 
position) have done our part. The matter now 
rests with you. Our path at least lies before 
you, broad, open, and well defined; our policy 
has advocates who do not shrink from its 
avowal. It is the policy of bringing absolutely 
to an end the civil establishment of the Church 
in Ireland. It has received the solemn sanc¬ 
tion of the representatives whom the nation 
chose in 1865. For the line of action, the 
only one just and the only one available, I con¬ 
fidently ask your approval.” Mr. Gladstone 
spoke within the next few days at Warrington, 
Liverpool, Newton Bridge, and Southport. 

— Died in Edinburgh, aged 79, Sir George 
Sinclair, of Ulbster, a popular and accom¬ 
plished country gentleman, who had been 
greatly mixed up in Scottish ecclesiastical 
controversies. 

10. —The German Polar Expedition returns 
to Bremen. 

— Case of Lord Albert Clinton heard in the 
Bankruptcy Court; claims, 30,000/. An order 
for release was granted. 

— Meeting held at Blaydon, to express 
(842) 


sympathy with a lady representing herself to be 
the Countess of Derwentwater, and who had 
recently “squatted” on the grounds of Dilston 
Castle. She was afterwards forced to remove 
her camp. 

11. —Lord Westbury withdraws from the 
Scottish Law Inquiry Commission. “ You will 
pardon me,” he writes to Lord Advocate 
Gordon, “if I see in what has passed clear 
proof that you and certain persons in Edin¬ 
burgh had determined that Lord Colonsay 
should be the head and regulate the inquiries of 
the Commission, and that you were indifferent 
whether I assented to it or not. I have read 
the names of your Commissioners, and I decline 
to serve on your Commission with much regret. ” 
In a previous letter Lord Westbury had in¬ 
dicated ill-health, and possible absence from 
the country, as a reason for not serving on the 
Commission. 

12 . —General Prim, writing to Le Gaulois , 
expresses astonishment at certain portions of the 
press alleging that Spain was not proceeding 
with the work of regeneration fast enough. 
“Eight days sufficed for us to overthrow a 
dynasty three hundred years old, and to estab¬ 
lish a new Government. We shall not delay 
now to consolidate our position through a Con¬ 
stituent Assembly on the basis of our pro¬ 
gramme, which is known to you. We shall 
then have succeeded in attaining the political 
ideal of contemporary Spain, namely, a really 
constitutional monarchy founded upon the most 
extended Liberal basis compatible with that 
kind of Government.” 

— In the case of Glen v. the Caledonian 
Railway Company, the Lord Ordinary (Kin- 
loch) recalls the interdict formerly granted 
against the payment of dividend declared at 
last general meeting of the Company. 

14 -.—The Bishop of Chichester inhibits the 
Rev. Mr. Purchas from carrying on his ritualistic 
services at Brighton. 

— Died at Bristol, aged 46, Dr. Herapath, 
a well-known analytical chemist 

16 . —General Peel announces his intention 
of withdrawing from the representation of 
Huntingdon. 

19 . — The Spanish Government issue a 
decree appointing Senor Rosas President of 
the Council of State. Another commanded 
the suppression of all convents and monasteries 
founded since 1837, and the reduction of all in 
existence prior to that date ; property, moveable 
and immoveable, to revert to the State. 

— In the course of an electioneering speech 
at Sheffield, Mr. Roebuck referred to a speech 
he had made at a meeting in Paradise-square 
during the struggle between the Northern and 
Southern States of America, and to the opinion 
entertained of it by the Prime Minister, Lord 
Palmerston: “The moment I got into his 
room—he was standing writing at his desk, as 
he always did—he turned round and put out 









OCTOBER 


I868. 


OCTOBER 


his hands, and said, ‘ Roebuck, Roebuck, what 
a devilish good speech you made in Sheffield ! ’ 
(Cheers and laughter.) I said, ‘My Lord, I 
am greatly obliged to you, and flattered for the 
kind phrase you have used about my speech * 
—though it was rather a hard one, you know 
—(laughter)—‘ I am very much flattered.’ 

* Flattered ? ’ he said. ‘ Why, I am entirely of 
your opinion, but I dare not officially say so.’ 
Now that struck me, according to the old 
woman’s phrase, all of a heap,—that a man in 
power should say to me openly and without 
disguise, that he was entirely of my opinion, 
and lead the people of England directly the 
opposite way. That, said I, is modern political 
morality. (Laughter.) I did my work with 
the gay and pleasant old Lord, and bowed my 
way out of his room. ” 

20 . —In the Austrian Reichsrath, Count 
Taufe presented a bill relating to the military 
forces, particularly to the Landwehr and 
Landsturm. He stated that the proposals sub¬ 
mitted by him were based upon the principles 
of freedom. The term of service in the line 
would be three years, and in the reserve seven 
years. The strength of the army and navy on 
a war footing would be 800,000 men ; and he 
showed that these figures demonstrated the 
unity of the two portions of the empire. 

21. —Mr. Bright declines to become arbiter 
on the claims of the different Liberals at present 
contesting Nottingham. “ The question in 
dispute is one for the electors, and I do not see 
how any person or persons outside your borough 
can hope to be of use in an attempt to settle it. ” 

— Severe earthquake shocks experienced at 
San Francisco and other parts of the State of 
California. 

22. —The Hon. Reverdy Johnson presented 
with an address, and entertained at Liverpool 
at a banquet attended by Lord Stanley, Mr. 
Gladstone, and others. The new ambassador 
referred to two of the questions in dispute be¬ 
tween America and this country as all but 
settled, and the third as likely to be settled 
equally honourably. In replying to the toast 
of the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone spoke 
hopefully of the increase of commerce as likely 
to lessen the chances of war and bloodshed, 
and highly eulogized the new ambassador. 

— The Australian , on her voyage from 
Sydney to London, wrecked on the north of 
St. Christopher’s. The crew, passengers, and 
3,100 ounces of gold were saved. 

— Freedom of the City of London presented 
to Field Marshal Sir John Fox Burgoyne. 

23 . —Case of Mr. Doulton, M.P., heard be¬ 
fore the Constitutional Tribunal, Brussels. Mr. 
Doulton negotiated the carrying out of certain 
public works (the purification of the Seine) in 
favour of the Belgian Public Works Company, 
and he further obtained a contract from a Bel¬ 
gian contractor, named Mention, to carry out 
certain works for the sum of 50 °>°oo/. This 


was afterwards discovered when the works were 
being carried out by the same contractor at a 
contract made with the Company itself, and ne¬ 
gotiated by the defendant Doulton, of 600,000/. 
It came out in evidence at the trial of Mr. 
Doulton, who was charged with making a 
fraudulent contract with his contractor, that 
the sum of 100,000/. was to be handed over to 
Mr. Doulton, who actually received, at the rate 
of i6jf per cent, on the payments made to 
Mention, about 148,000 francs ; part of which, it 
was stated in evidence, was divided with Mr. 
Albert Grant, late M.P. for Kidderminster. 
Doulton was to have 100,000/. in deferred 
shares for his services, and become managing 
director, with a salary of 4,000/. a year. The 
verdict of the court was that Mr. Doulton had 
fraudulently received the money, and, in fact, 
had made a fraudulent contract; but the Court 
held he had not brought himself within the 
meshes of the Belgian Penal Code. The De¬ 
puty Procureur at once entered an appeal against 
this decision, but it was confirmed at the close 
of the year. 

23 . —Disastrous storm in the English Chan¬ 
nel. The Devon , Government lighter, was lost on 
the Prisson rocks, Penzance, and sixteen of her 
crew drowned; and the Leichardt, a New Zea¬ 
land passenger ship, sunk in the Thames after 
a collision with the North Star. 

24 . —Manifesto issued by the Spanish Pro¬ 
visional Government setting forth the results of 
the revolution, and promising to respect the 
popular decision regarding the future form of 
government. 

25 . —The Spanish Provisional Government 
recognised by England, France, Russia, and 
Portugal. 

26 . —Disorderly election meeting at Rugby, 
caused by the refusal of Mr. Newdegate’s sup¬ 
porters to listen to Dr. Temple’s reasons in 
favour of the disestablishment of the Irish 
Church. 

27 . —Lord Mayo gazetted Governor-General 
of India. 

— At a banquet given by the Manchester 
Chamber of Commerce and Cotton Supply 
Association, the Marquis of Salisbury, speak¬ 
ing of the House of Lords, said the Upper 
House was not yet one of the subjects of the 
day; he expected that it would become one, 
and looked forward to that contingency with 
nothing of apprehension. Everybody was the 
better for being looked after, and he would 
abide by the principle that any institution 
which could not hold its own ground on the 
free and fair discussion of its merits should 
cease to exist. 

— Letters from Madrid mention that the; 
Provisional Government were about to deliver 
up the Tornado , and pay an indemnification 
of 25,000/. to the owners, and 12,500/. to the 
crew. 

— Died at Stafford House, the Dowager 

(845) 





OCTOBER 


1868. 


NOVEMBER 


Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes 
to her Majesty during the different Whig Ad¬ 
ministrations, till the death of the late Duke in 

1861. 

27 .—Died at Addington Park, aged 74, 
Charles Thomas Longley, D. D., Archbishop of 
Canterbury, a man of calm and benignant 
spirit, of great discretion and unobtrusive but 
thoroughly practical piety. His policy was 
uniformly moderate, and his aim conciliatory. 

— The sporting world, and many outside, 
thrown into consternation by a report that in 
all probability the Derby would not be run at 
Epsom in future, and possibly not at all for the 
next few years, in consequence of a dispute with 
the present lessee of the ground. The differences 
were afterwards arranged amicably. 

— In conformity with a fiat for a writ of 
error granted by the Attorney-General, appli¬ 
cation was made at the Central Criminal Court 
for a record of the facts upon which the con¬ 
viction of Madame Rachel had taken place. 
The chief point at issue was whether Mr. Kerr, 
as a judge of the City of London Court, had 
any legal right to dispose of cases at the Old 
Bailey, and the special object of the application 
was to obtain a record that the trial took place 
before him at the last sessions. Statement 
furnished. 

— Inquiry at the Marlborough-street Police- 
court into the charge of bigamy preferred by 
Major W. B. Lumley against his reputed wife, 
Eliza Wright Haines. 

— A new map of France issued, showing 
that the increase of Prussia had not destroyed 
the balance of power to her detriment, and that 
with her army, 40,000,000 people, and Algeria, 
she had “nothing to fear from any one.” 

30 . —The Recruiting Bill passed by the 
Lower House of the Austrian Reichsrath; the 
army not to be increased in the meantime. 

— Fall of a warehouse in Rigby-street, 
Liverpool, four of the workmen inside being 
smothered under the linseed stored on the 
fourth floor. 

31 . — Earthquake shocks experienced at 
Leamington. 

— Leeds Fine Arts Exhibition closed. 

November 2.—Died suddenly, in Edin¬ 
burgh, James B. Manson, of the Daily Re- 
vieiv. 

3 .—Mr. Bright presented with the freedom 
of the City of Edinburgh. Referring to the 
exertions he had made, in company with Mr. 
Cobden, tor the repeal of the Corn Laws, he 
said: ‘ ‘ When I look back to him whose name 
must ever be foremost in any history or memory 
of that struggle—when I consider his remark¬ 
able industry, his wonderful sagacity, his en¬ 
larged information, the combined force and 
gentleness of his character, his most persua¬ 
sive speech—when I look back upon his trans¬ 
cendent merits—I confess that I am amazed 

(844) 


that it took all that, and the energy, and the 
labour, and the resolution of scores and hun¬ 
dreds and thousands besides, to repeal the Com 
Laws. I say I am amazed that on so clear a 
question it should be necessary to make so 
great an effort to bring Parliament and the 
people to comprehend their true interests. . . . 
I am one of those who have never believed 
that there is anything very mysterious in the 
art or knowledge of politics; that, with regard 
to what we call statesmanship—honest states¬ 
manship—it is not an abstruse and a difficult 
branch of knowledge; that if, when we come 
to consider a public question, we were able to 
strip it of all the things which do not really 
belong to it, and to get at the pith and kernel 
of the matter, I think that our intellects are so 
much on a par, and that as a whole we are so 
anxious to act honestly and rightly, that nearly 
on all occasions we should be able to come to 
an early and a wise agreement as to the course 
which the public shall pursue. ” Again, speak¬ 
ing of the Russian war, he said: “I always 
said that no country justice—and there are 
not many of them who are very particular— 
(laughter)—would send any man to jail for 
three months on evidence such as the people 
of England—I beg pardon of a gentleman in 
Glasgow who writes to me on the subject—I 
mean the people of Great Britain and Ireland—- 
had for that unhappy struggle. The result 
was that 250,000 men died or were killed in 
the course of that conflict, and that hundreds 
of millions of treasure created by the nations 
engaged were squandered—that the armaments 
all over Europe and in this country have been 
maintained at a higher rate ever since—that 
we in this country have found our military 
armaments increasing by 10,000,000/. a year, 
and 10,000,000/. in twenty years comes to 
200,000,000/., besides that sum spent in the 
war itself. And after all this, we find that 
there is still a great Eastern question—that 
Russia is stronger than ever, for Russia has 
manumitted her serfs, and that Turkey is not 
stronger but weaker from the efforts made 
to save her.” Mr. Bright concluded: “The 
century in which we live—and the middle of 
which we have passed—is a century remark¬ 
able for its changes; and I have no doubt 
whatever that it will be so regarded in future 
times. There is a great battle going on at this 
moment, and without exaggeration one may 
say that it is a battle with confused noise, 
although it is not a battle, like that which 
the prophet described, ‘ with garments rolled 
in blood.’ But there is a confused noise 
throughout the country from John o’ Groat’s 
to Land’s End; all over Great Britain and 
over Ireland men are discussing great ques¬ 
tions—questions which are to affect the unity 
of the empire, our own condition, the condi¬ 
tion of the posterity that are to follow us, and 
to affect all the narratives of the future his¬ 
torians of this kingdom. Well, I say, then, 
let us in this battle, and in these discussions, 
bear our part; let us avoid heat of passion 




NOVEMBER 


1 868. 


NOVEMBER 


as much as we can; let us strip from all these 
questions that which does not belong to Jhem; 
let us grasp with all our might the pith and 
kernel of them; and let us honestly endeavour 
to find a true solution for whatever difficulties 
beset the nation.” (Applause.) 

3 . —A cable telegram announces that General 
Grant had been elected President, and S. 
Colfax Vice-President, of the United States. 

— Sir James Fergusson entertained at a 
banquet in Willis’s Rooms previous to taking 
his departure for South Australia. 

4 . —Diet opened by the King of Prussia, who 
stated that his relations with foreign Powers 
were in every respect satisfactory and friendly. 
He also expressed his good wishes for the 
“future prosperity and power” of the Spanish 
nation, and concluded by remarking that ‘ ‘ the 
sentiments of the sovereigns of Europe, and the 
national desire for peace, give ground for trust¬ 
ing that the advancing development of the 
general welfare will not only suffer no material 
disturbance, but will also be freed from those 
obstructing and paralysing effects which have 
only too often been created by groundless fears, 
taken advantage of by the enemies of peace and 
public order.” 

5.—Mr. Bright elected an honorary member 
of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, 
making a speech on the occasion, in which he 
recommended his hearers to press for a “Free 
Breakfast Table,” or an abolition of the duties 
on tea, coffee, and sugar. He was presented 
with a congratulatory address in the Corn Ex¬ 
change in the evening, and again spoke at 
length on the questions of taxation, retrench¬ 
ment, and education. He had no notion of 
calling a country happy and prosperous when 
pauperism was increasing to the extent it was 
doing here. “You may have an ancient 
monarchy, with the dazzling glitter of the 
sovereign; and you may have an ancient 
nobility, with grand mansions and parks, and 
great estates; and you may have an ecclesias¬ 
tical hierarchy, covering with worldly pomp 
that religion whose virtue is humility; but, 
notwithstanding all this, the whole fabric is 
rotten, and doomed ultimately to fall; for the 
great mass of the people by whom it is sup¬ 
ported is poor, and suffering, and degraded. 
What is there,” he asked, “that man can’t 
do if he tries? The other day he descended 
to the mysterious depths of the ocean, and with 
an iron hand he sought, and he found, and he 
grasped, and he brought to the surface, the lost 
cable, and with it he made two worlds into 
one. I ask, are his conquests confined to the 
realms of science ? Is it not possible that 
another hand, not of iron, but of Christian 
justice and kindness, may be let down to 
moral depths even deeper than the cable 
fathoms, to bring up from thence Misery’s 
sons and daughters, and the multitude who 
are ready to perish? This is the great pro¬ 
blem which is now before us. It is not one 
for statesman only—it is one not for preachers 


of the Gospel only. It is one for every man in 
the nation to attempt to solve. The nation is 
now in power, and, if wisdom abide with power, 
the generation to follow may behold the glorious 
day of which we, in our time, with our best 
endeavours, can only hope to see the earliest 
dawn.” 

6 . —The Archbishop of York opens the 
session of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institu¬ 
tion with an address on the present condition 
of philosophy. 

— The new French ambassador to Rome, 
the Marquis de Bonneville, received by the 
Pope, who expressed the most coi'dial senti¬ 
ments towards the Emperor and France. 

8 . —Renewed eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 
and opening of two new cones. 

9 . —At the Lord Mayor’s banquet to-night, 
the principal interest centred in the speeches 
of Mr. Reverdy Johnson and the Premier. 
Referring to the differences between this 
country and America, the former said they 
were now ended. “How that end has been 
brought about I forbear to say, except that it 
has been brought about without touching in 
the slightest degree the rights or the honour of 
either nation. (Cheers.) From 1846 to the 
present time, from one cause or other, there 
were clouds which alarmed the people of both 
countries. We have removed those clouds, 
and leave both nations in an undimmed sun¬ 
shine of peace.”—Mr. Disraeli, noticing the 
rival jealousies of France and Prussia, thought 
that Lord Stanley, who had so successfully 
terminated the difference in the severe, long- 
enduring misunderstanding with America, “ can 
do nothing better than confer with the other 
great Powers of Europe, and step in between 
these two great countries, animated, as I 
believe they are, by no aggressive feeling, but 
occupying the position which they do from 
peculiar causes, which could not have been 
anticipated, and which seldom or ever occurred 
before. I say that with the wise and generous 
mediation of the other equal Powers of Europe 
I have myself the conviction that as happy a 
termination will be brought to this misunder¬ 
standing as has been brought to the misconcep¬ 
tions which existed between the United States 
and ourselves—(cheers)—and I hope that when 
this day next year I have the honour of respond¬ 
ing to the toast of her Majesty’s Government 
—(great laughter and cheers)—I may be per¬ 
mitted, my Lord Mayor, to remind you of these 
observations, and that the ambassadors of 
France and Prussia may make similar observa¬ 
tions to those which have fallen from my hon. 
friend the minister for the United States.” 

— Died at his London residence, aged 26, 
the Marquis of Hastings, celebrated in the 
sporting world for the extent of his bets and 
their unsuccessful result. In the absence of 
male issue the marquisate became extinct. 

— The Court of Common Pleas gives judg¬ 
ment in the case of Miss Becker, which in- 

( 845 ) 







NOVEMBER 


1868. 


NOVEMBER 


volved the right of women to exercise the 
suffrage. The judges all agreed that there 
was not sufficient evidence for saying that by 
the common law women had a right to vote 
for members of Parliament, while on the other 
hand there was the uninterrupted practice of 
centuries to show that women had not so voted. 
The Lord Chief Justice thought the term “men” 
in the Act did not include women; and even if 
it did, then women would come within the term 
“incapacitated.” 

9. —Sentence passed at Belgrade on the rest 
of the prisoners accused of complicity in the 
murder of Prince Michael. Maistrovich, in 
accordance with the demand of the public 
prosecutor, was condemned to death, three 
to five years’ imprisonment, and three others 
were acquitted. 

10. — Spanish electoral law promulgated: 
every citizen of twenty-five years, who was not 
deprived of his political rights, entitled to vote ; 
the voting to be by provinces; and the number 
of deputies to the Cortes to be 350. 

— Some disappointment was experienced 
by a statement in the newspapers this evening, 
that Mr. Reverdy Johnson’s announcement 
concerning the settlement of the differences 
between this country and America did not 
mean that they were absolutely disposed of, 
but only that such arrangements for their 
settlement had been made as would transfer 
them from the sphere of political negotiation 
to the arbitrament of a disinterested and deci¬ 
sive tribunal. 

— Convention signed between England and 
the United States for the settlement of out¬ 
standing claims. The fourth article was in 
these words : ‘ ‘ The Commissioners shall have 
power to adjudicate upon the class of claims 
referred to in the official correspondence be¬ 
tween the two Governments as the ‘ Alabama 
claims; ’ but before any of such claims are 
taken into consideration by them, the two high 
contracting parties shall fix upon some sovereign 
or head of a friendly State as arbitrator in 
respect of such claims, to whom such class of 
claims shall be referred in case the Commis¬ 
sioners shall be unable to come to a unanimous 
decision upon the same.” 

— The French Avenir National , Tribune , 
and several provincial newspapers seized for 
publishing a list of subscriptions for the purpose 
of erecting a monument in the cemetery of 
Montmartre to M. Baudin, a representative of 
the people, who was killed during the coup 
d'etat in 1851 (see December 2, 1851). The 
Government alleged that the publication of these 
subscription lists was an attempt to disturb the 
public peace. The aged Legitimist, M. Ber- 
ryer, wrote: “On the 2d of December, 1851, 

I proposed and obtained from the National 
Assembly, united at the Mairie of the 10th 
A rrondisement, a decree declaring the dis¬ 
missal and outlawry of the President of the 
Republic, inviting citizens to resistance against 
the violation of the law of which the President 
(846) 


was guilty. This decree was made as public 
as possible in Paris. My colleague, M. Baudin, 
energetically obeyed the orders of the Assem¬ 
bly ; he fell a victim to them, and I feel myself 
obliged to take part in the subscription which 
has been opened for the erection of an expia¬ 
tory monument over his tomb.” 

10. —Addressing a meeting of gun manu¬ 
facturers in Birmingham on the question of 
national expenditure, Mr. Bright recommended 
that the framing of the estimates should be 
taken out of the hands of the Horse Guards, 
the Admiralty, and the Cabinet, and placed 
under the control of a Committee of the House 
of Commons. 

— Agitation among the undergraduates at 
Cambridge to improve the college dinners. 
The subject was discussed to-day in the Union, 
and a resolution carried, by 223 to 17, that 
the present system was execrable, and no per¬ 
manent improvement possible until irrespon¬ 
sible cooks were made college servants. 

— Rising of the natives at Poverty Bay, 
New Zealand, and massacre of fifty-four 
settlers. A British force afterwards despatched 
to the locality succeeded in slaying two hundred 
of those concerned in the outrage. 

11 . —Committee formed in London for 
the protection of holders of foreign bonds, 
400,000,000/. worth of which were said by 
Mr. Goschen to be negotiated in the City. 

— A supplement to the Gazette contains a 
proclamation for dissolving the present Parlia¬ 
ment, and ordering the writs for a new one to 
be returnable on the 10th December next. The 
election excitement, which had been raging in 
many places for months, was now greatly 
heightened, and dwarfed all other matters of 
domestic interest. Probably the widest and 
keenest interest was felt in the Westminster and 
South-West Lancashire contests ; the former 
centring in Mr. J. S. Mill, and the latter in 
Mr. Gladstone. Local excitement appeared to 
be most violent at Newport and at Blackburn, 
where the Protestant lecturer Murphy had 
succeeded in rousing the polemical feelings of 
the people. A troop of cavalry and an infan¬ 
try company were despatched thither on the 
12 th. 

12 . —Excitement at Paris caused by the 
Premier’s suggestion at the Mansion House 
banquet that the Foreign Secretary should 
interfere between France and Prussia. 

— Imperial ukase issued at St. Petersburg, 
ordering a conscription of four persons in every 
thousand throughout the empire. 

13 . —Addressing his constituents at King’s 
Lynn, Lord Stanley said that every month 
which had passed since the Reform Bill became 
law has lessened the anxiety felt, and confirmed 
him in the judgment that the Government had 
acted quite right. If causes of quarrel could 
be avoided for a year or two, he thought that 
mere weariness or exhaustion would bring about 
at least a partial disarmament. Trouble, he 








NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1S68. 


said, was gathering in the East. “It may come j 
too quickly, or it may be deferred for years, 
but come it probably wilL Now, that is a slate 
of things to which we ought not to shut our 
eyes. Fifteen years ago, we refused to see in 
time what was then obviously impending; and 
the result was that, to everybody’s dissatisfac¬ 
tion, we drifted—it was a very happy phrase— 
into the Crimean war. I do not think that the 
dangers which threaten the Turkish empire 
arise from the same source now as then. It is 
rather internal than external peril by which that 
empire is threatened. No foreign alliances, no 
European guarantee, can protect a Govern¬ 
ment against financial collapse, or against re¬ 
bellion in its own provinces. In those matters 
every country must be left to work out its own 
destiny. Greece, that little State about which 
our grandfathers were so enthusiastic, and which 
we in the present day are rather too much 
inclined to depreciate—Greece might be the 
model State of the East, and exercise on the 
Christian race an almost incalculable influence, 
if, instead of indulging in vain dreams of 
aggrandisement, they would make their in¬ 
ternal government more worthy of a civilized 
country and of the destinies which I believe 
to be before them.” 

14 -.—The Britannia Pier, Yarmouth, de¬ 
stroyed during a heavy gale. 

— The Tribunal of the Correctional 
Police of the Seine gives judgment in the case 
of the journalists prosecuted for publishing a 
list of subscriptions to the Baudin Monument, 
and of others who had taken part in a demon¬ 
stration at his grave. They were fined in 
sums varying from 2,ooof. to 65of., with the 
alternative of imprisonment from one month 
to six. 

15 . —Died at Passy, near Paris, aged 76, 
Giacchkno Rossini, the most popular composer 
of Italian lyric drama in the present century. 
He was publicly interred with honour in the 
church of the Trinity, on the 21st. 

16 . —Numerous borough and city nomina¬ 
tions throughout England. In most places 
where a poll was demanded the voting took 
place the following day. London returned 
three Liberals and one Conservative, Baron 
Rothschild being among the defeated; West¬ 
minster, one Liberal and one Conservative 
—Mr. W. H. Smith polling about 1,500 votes 
over his opponent, Mr. J. S. Mill. It was 
also noticed that the most of those who had 
little else than Mr. Mill’s recommendation to 
commend them to a constituency failed in their 
contests ; the most prominent instances, pro¬ 
bably, being Mr. Beales at the Tower Ham¬ 
lets, Mr. Bradlaugh at Northampton, Mr. 
Odgers at Chelsea, and Mr. Chadwick at 
Kilmarnock. There was no contest at the 
Universities, Mr. Mowbray taking the place of 
Mr. Heathcote at Oxford, and Mr. Walpole 
and Mr. Hope being re-elected for Cambridge. 
Mr. Lowe was elected the first member for 
London University without opposition. As 


the prospects of Mr. Gladstone in South-west 
Lancashire were at least doubtful, he was put 
up for Greenwich and carried, along with Mr. 
Alderman Salomons, by about 1,700 over his 
highest Conservative opponent. At Exeter the 
Solicitor-General was rejected in favour of Mr. 
J. D. Coleridge. In Leeds and Manchester the 
minority clause permitted the Conservatives to 
secure seats; but in Glasgow and Birmingham, 
where it also prevailed, they were defeated. 
Mr. Roebuck lost his seat at Sheffield, Mr. 
Osborne at Nottingham, Mr. Horsman at 
Falkirk, Mr. H. A. Bruce at Merthyr-Tydvil, 
Lord Amberley at South Devon, Mr. Milner 
Gibson at Ashton, and Sir G. Bowyer at Dun¬ 
dalk. A personal dispute between the two 
Liberal candidates for Middlesex—Lord En¬ 
field and Mr. Labouchere—permitted the Con¬ 
servatives to carry Lord George F. Hamilton. 

16 . —It is now announced with confidence 
that Dr. Tait, Bishop of London, is to be pro¬ 
moted to the See of Canterbury. The Bishop 
of Lincoln (Dr. Jackson) succeeded to the see 
of London. 

17 . —Election riot at Cambridge, resulting 
in the death of a porter belonging to Christ’s 
College. 

— The championship of the Thames gained 
by Renforth, a Tyne waterman, over Kelley. 

— Earthquake shocks experienced at 
Cologne. 

18 . —The Lunatic Asylum at Cleveland, 
United States, destroyed by fire, and six of the 
patients burnt to death. 

19 . —Salnave repulsed in an attack on the 
Haytian fortress of Jacmel, and 300 of his 
followers reported as killed. 

— Nomination day for Bucks. The Pre¬ 
mier, addressing his constituents at Aylesbury, 
claimed credit for passing the Reform Bill, 
praised Lord Stanley, and deprecated the haste 
of Mr. Gladstone in bringing the Irish Church 
to the fi-ont when the Ministry were pre¬ 
pared to bow to the decision of the country. 
He repeated that when they succeeded to 
office the relations of England to foreign 
countries were full of courtesy rather than 
confidence. He did not blame Lord Clarendon, 
who had been Foreign Secretary only a few 
months. “We were viewed with suspicion and 
distrust, and that suspicion and distrust were 
occasioned by the management of our affairs 
by Earl Russell in Denmark, in Germany, in 
Russia—by the line which he took with re¬ 
ference to Denmark, to Germany, and to 
Poland. The consequence was that he had 
estranged this country. It required a great 
deal to do it, but he did it.” Fenianism the 
Premier traced to a foreign origin. “In 
America, where a great many military men 
were Irish—and the Irish are a valorous and 
adventurous people—they had acquired great 
skill and experience, and they knew that in 
Ireland there is always a degree of morbid 
discontent which they believe they might fan 








NOVEMBER 


1868. 


NOVEMBER 


into flame, and which might lead to the re¬ 
volutionary result they desired. The whole 
nature of the race will account for it. An 
Irishman is an imaginative being. He lives 
on an island in a damp climate, and con¬ 
tiguous to the melancholy ocean. He has no 
variety of pursuit. There is no nation in the 
world that leads so monotonous a life as the 
Irish, because their only occupation is the cul¬ 
tivation of the soil before them. These men 
are discontented because they are not amused. 
The Irishman in other countries, where he has 
a fair field for his talents in various occupa¬ 
tions, is equal, if not superior, to most races; 
and it is not the fault of the Government that 
there is not that variety of occupation in Ireland. 
I may say with frankness that I think it is the 
fault of the Irish. If they led that kind of life 
which would invite the introduction of capital 
into the country, all this ability might be 
utilized; and instead of those feelings which 
they acquire by brooding over the history of 
their country, a great part of which is merely 
traditionary, you would find men acquiring 
fortunes, and arriving at conclusions on politics 
entirely different from those which they now 
offer.” The Premier was elected without op¬ 
position, along with Mr. Dupre and Mr. Lam¬ 
bert, both supporters of his Government. 

19 . —-Judgment given in the Court of Com¬ 
mon Pleas in favour of the legality of the 
meetings known as “ Sunday Evenings for the 
People.” 

20 . —Mr. Burlingame (American) and his 
colleagues of the Chinese embassy are presented 
to the Queen by Lord Stanley, and deliver their 
credentials. An arrangement was afterwards 
made with Lord Clarendon for having disputes 
between the two countries referred to the 
supreme Government of each, and not to pro¬ 
vincial authorities. 

— The Lord Justice-General (Inglis) elected 
Chancellor of Edinburgh University—an office 
rendered vacant by the death of Lord Brougham 
—by 210 votes over Mr. Gladstone, the polling 
being 1,730 against 1,570. 

21 . — Nomination day for South-west Lan¬ 
cashire. Mr. Gladstone spoke amid consider¬ 
able interruption on the question of Reform, 
economy, and the Irish Church, and sought to 
show that the position he had taken up with 
regard to the whole of them entitled him to ask 
with confidence that the constituency he was 
addressing would again return him to Parlia¬ 
ment. “ Some persons have said that you 
need not return me for South-west Lancashire 
because I may sit somewhere else. They say 
that I had better go away—(cries of “ No, no ”) 
■—from the place where I was born, from the 
place where I was bred, from the place where 
my family have been for ninety years, and 
where they still pursue the honourable com¬ 
merce of this country. You may just as well, 
in my opinion, say, ‘ I will turn a man out of 
his proper house because somebody else will 
have the charity to take lum in as a beggar and 

(848) 


a vagrant. ’ I don’t, gentlemen, desire to be a 
Parliamentary vagrant. My ambition is not 
merely to have a seat in Parliament, but to 
have that seat which you are going to give me. 
(Cheers.) I agree with my friends who have 
warned me that time is flying, and I will ask 
you to listen to me no longer than while I say 
this. My wishes and desires have been true to 
you, as the needle to the pole. I have not 
spoken a word, I have not drawn a scratch of 
the pen, to obtain any other seat in Parliament 
than yours. (Cheers.) And now the question 
for you, gentlemen, is, when the voice of the 
nation sounds in your ears, and speaks^ in 
accents which not even Mr. Turner or Mr. 
Cross can misunderstand—for I know that Mr. 
Cross will not deny that the battle of this 
election is already fought and won throughout 
the country—(cheers)—I ask you, therefore, 
gentlemen, not to separate yourselves from the 
body of the nation. (Great cheering.) You 
are part of England. (Cheers.) You are 
great; but England is greater. (Renewed 
cheering.) With England Scotland joins, and 
with Scotland Ireland—(cheers)—for in Ire¬ 
land, too, many of the Protestants of the 
north—(loud cheering, and great interruption) 
—we know by the news of to-day that for the 
Tory town of Belfast—(cheers)—and the yet 
more Tory town of Londonderry—(renewed 
cheering)—a Liberal candidate is returned. 
(Great cheers.) Voices, gentlemen, are to be 
weighed as well as counted ; and of you I ask, 
with the fullest confidence that you will accept, 
seal, and grant the request, that I may have 
not merely a seat in Parliament, but that I 
may be permitted and enabled to speak the 
words of truth and justice in the House of 
Commons in the name and with the authority 
of the men of South-west Lancashire.” The 
polling took place on the 24th, and resulted 
in the defeat of the Opposition leader by 260 
votes. He thereupon issued an address to his 
supporters, and another to the electors of 
Greenwich thanking them for their “un¬ 
paralleled kindness.” 

22. —Fenian gathering in Hyde Park com¬ 
memorative of “ the martyrdom of the Man¬ 
chester patriots.” 

23 . —The literature of the Irish Church 
question receives an addition to-day by the 
publication of the pamphlet “A Chapter of 
Autobiography,” by Mr. Gladstone. “ At a 
time,” he said in the Introduction, “when the 
Established Church of Ireland is on her trial, 
it is not unfair that her assailants should be 
placed on their trial too—most of all, if they 
have at one time been her sanguine defenders. 
But if not, the matter of the indictment against 
them, at any rate that of their defence, should 
be kept apart, as far as they are concerned, 
from the public controversy, that it may not 
darken or perplex the greater issue. It is in 
the character of the author of a book called 
‘ The State in its Relations with the Church ’ 
that I offer these pages to those who may feel 







NOVEMBER 


1868. 


NOVEMBER 


a disposition to examine them. They were 
written at the date attached to them, but their 
publication has been delayed until after the 
stress of the general elections.” 

24 . —The Lord Mayor formally opens the 
New Meat Market at Smithfield, and the new 
road leading to the Holborn Valley Viaduct. 

— The Croatian deputies appear for the first 
time in the Hungarian Diet, and were warmly 
received. The magnates took their seats in the 
Upper House next day. 

— The two Italian soldiers Monti and 
Tognetti executed at Rome for their participa¬ 
tion in the attack on the Serristori barracks in 
October 1867. The event caused considerable 
excitement at Florence, and in the Chamber 
of Deputies next day Signor Curti asked the 
Government what course they intended to take 
after this fresh defiance by the Papacy to Italy. 
General Menabrea said that he did not disguise 
the political significance of the unjustifiable 
act of the Pontifical Government, which the 
Italian Government made every possible effort 
to avert, but he deprecated discussion as inexpe¬ 
dient. General Bixio and others spoke warmly 
in favour of a vigorous and decided policy in 
respect to the Papacy and French intervention 
in Rome, and ultimately the following motion 
was adopted by 147 to 119 votes: “The 
Chamber, fully concurring in the censure passed 
by the Government upon the acts of the Papacy, 
passes to the order of the day.” 

25 . —Mr. J. A. Froude elected Rector of St. 
Andrew’s University by a majority of 14 over 
Mr. Disraeli. 

— In the case of Wason v. Walter (of 
the Times), involving the right of a newspaper 
to publish a report of a debate in the House of 
Lords, in which statements were made of a 
defamatory character, the Queen’s Bench gave 
judgment in favour of the defendant. 

— Wreck of the Hibernia steam-ship, ten 
days from New York to Glasgow, and about 
700 miles off the Irish coast. The previous 
day, during a heavy gale, the screw shaft broke 
in the stern-tube, and the screw itself became 
a kind of battering-ram by which that quarter of 
the ship was completely opened up. Although 
the pumps were used with great assiduity, and 
attempts made to lighten her by throwing cargo 
overboard, the water gained so rapidly that 
Captain Munro, who behaved throughout with 
great coolness and intrepidity, ordered the boats 
to be got ready about four a.m. They were 
five in number—three lifeboats and two quarter- 
boats. Of that described as No. 1 the captain 
took the command himself, though he was the 
last to leave the vessel. No. 2 was commanded 
by the first officer; No. 3 by the second officer 
(Davies); (No. 4 had been destroyed, a few 
days previously;) No. 5 by the third officer; 
and No. 6 by the boatswain. In boat No. 1 
there were originally 33 persons, but two after¬ 
wards swam to No. 5 ; in No. 2, also 33 ; in 
No. 3 there were 28 ; and Nos. 5 and 6 had 
(849) 


each 21. The weather at the time of launch¬ 
ing was a little rough, but all were let down 
in order, quietness, and safety, delicate ladies 
entering the boats without a murmur, carrying 
children happily insensible to the perils they 
had to encounter. A little provision and water 
was allowed to each boat, and all pushed off 
from the sinking ship with the wish to keep as 
close together in the track of vessels as pos¬ 
sible. This design was frustrated by the 
weather. The boats got separated in the 
gale, and the chief mate’s, in which a mast 
and sail had been fitted up, was observed to 
capsize with all on board—thirty-three in 
number. The captain’s boat, thought to be the 
most heavily laden, was picked up about seven 
r. m. by the Star of Hope (Captain Talbot), 
bound from Quebec to Aberdeen. About mid¬ 
night the boatswain’s boat was also picked up 
with all on board safe ; but though the Star of 
Hope remained many hours in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the wreck, no trace could be obtained 
of those still missing. Of No. 2, described 
as being extra well furnished, no intelligence 
was ever ascertained. Boat No. 3, under the 
charge of Davies, was associated with a series 
of calamities and privations unparalleled in 
even the gloomy annals of seafaring disaster. 
As both water and provisions were limited, 
the supply for the twenty-eight on board was 
at once fixed at the lowest minimum capable 
of sustaining existence. The orders of Davies 
were implicitly obeyed by all who had sense 
to follow them. A few, maddened by drink¬ 
ing salt water, were from time to time bound 
to the bottom of the boat; two others, to 
escape the horror of the privations, committed 
suicide while in a state of delirium; and four, 
among them a mother and child, died from 
exhaustion and exposure. For an entire week, 
and without anything to vary the monotony of 
their sufferings, the miserable survivors strove 
to reach the Irish shore. On the evening of 
the eighth day from the wreck, a wave struck 
the already disabled boat, when the bulk of 
those on board, moving in one helpless mass, 
caused her to capsize, and all were thrown 
into the sea. Nineteen perished here. Three 
of those who came to the surface—Davies 
himself, with Quartermaster Blair, and Reilly, 
a common seaman, contrived to get hold of 
the boat while riding keel upwards, clambered 
up the sides, and sat on the keel for an hour, 
till a wave again capsized her, and all three 
were once more thrown into the sea. They 
again came up together, held on till the boat 
righted, and, bruised and exhausted as they 
were, again made for the coast. After two 
days of indescribable agony, they sighted Tory 
Lighthouse on Sunday evening, but had to 
keep out again that night, as the sea was 
running dangerously high. They made land 
next day, and ran the boat ashore at a 
well-selected point on Fannet shore, Donegal . 
Here they were noticed by a few fishermen, 
who carefully conveyed them to what shelter 
they could afford, and attended to their wants 

3 1 








NOVEMBER 


1868. 


DECEMBER 


till assistance was obtained through the owners 
of the Hibtrnia. 

26. —Explosion in the north-west section of 
the Hindley Green (Arley) Pit, Wigan, causing 
the death of sixty-one of the seventy people en¬ 
gaged in that portion of the workings. As the 
shaft was comparatively uninjured, and the pit 
free from fire, a descent was soon made, and 
most of those in the other sections relieved. 
Of those killed, the great majority had fallen 
under the influence of the choke-damp. Fifteen 
at least appeared to have lost their life in the 
confusion resulting from the first alarm of the 
explosion. A few found near the shaft were 
presumed to have been burnt to death by the 
flames from the pit furnaces, which were forced 
by the temporary reversion of the ventilation 
into the adjacent roads. 

— At Cairo, Lord Napier of Magdala in¬ 
vests the Viceroy of Egypt with the Order of 
the Star of India. 

27 . —Collision of H. M.S. Crocodile with the 
Canadian barque John Ehuyer, from Callao to 
Antwerp. The latter sunk, with four of her 
crew ; the rest, eight in number, were saved in 
boats from the Crocodile. A court-martial 
found Lieut. Ramsbotham, of the Crocodile , 
guilty of negligence ; but in respect of its being 
his first watch under steam, and his previous 
good character, the Court only sentenced him to 
lose two years’ rank, and to be severely repri¬ 
manded. 

28 . —The Gazelle of this date confirms a 
rumour current for a few days, that Mrs. Disraeli 
had been elevated to the peerage, with the title 
of Viscountess Beaconsfield of Beaconsfield. 

29 . —Republican demonstration in Madrid. 

— The remains of Prince Albert removed 

from St. George’s, Windsor, to the new 
Mausoleum at Frogmore. 

— Collision on the Western Railway, 
Bohemia, causing the death of twenty-nine 
passengers and the serious injury of sixty. 

— Died at Angerville, aged 78, M. Berryer, 
a brilliant orator of the French bar, and fore¬ 
most of the Legitimist politicians. He ad¬ 
dressed a note to the Count de Chambord as 
his sovereign a few hours before his death. 

30 . —The elections being now nearly over, 
it was seen that the greatness of the Liberal 
majority placed all doubt as to the fate of the 
present Ministry at an end. To-day it was 
calculated at 121, or 60 over the majority un¬ 
derstood to be available in the last Parliament. 
The numbers were thus made up : English 
boroughs, 213 Liberals, 94 Conservatives ; 
Scotch burghs, 25 Liberals, o Conservative ; 
Irish boroughs, 28 Liberals, 13 Conservatives ; 
English counties, 50 Liberals, 114 Conserva¬ 
tives ; Scotch counties, 23 Liberals, 7 Con¬ 
servatives , Irish counties, 34 Liberals, 24 Con¬ 
servatives. Lancashire showed a majority of 
two to one in favour of the Conservatives, 
Northumberland about the same for the Libe¬ 

(850) 


rals, and Durham more than five to one. In 
North Lancashire, where the houses of Stanley 
and Devonshire were understood to be interested 
in the contest, the Marquis of Hartington, 
representing the latter, was defeated by about 
1,500 votes. The most extraordinary Liberal 
victories were, however, gained in the Scotch 
counties. Perth and Dumfries were carried by 
unknown strangers against Government candi¬ 
dates of great local influence. Mid-Lothian, 
the centre of the Buccleuch power, and North 
Ayrshire, a new division, were also won by 
Liberals. The total number of petitions lodged 
was hi, 59 of them being against Liberal and 
52 against Conservative seats : of these, 24 
were withdrawn against Liberals, and 20 against 
Conservatives. In the case of 63 sent for hear¬ 
ing, 24 Liberals and 17 Conservatives were 
declared duly elected, while 9 Liberals were 
unseated against 13 Conservatives. 

December 1 . — The new City Meat and 
Poultry Market opened for business. 

— Four more men sentenced to death at 
Rome for participation in the insurrection of 
October 1867. 

— The Spanish Provisional Government 
issue a circular warning civil governors to be 
on their guard against disturbances springing 
from reactionary plots. 

—The Italian Deputies approve of a bill 
granting civil and political rights to all Italians 
of the provinces of the peninsula not yet united 
to the kingdom of Italy. 

— Mr. Gathorne Hardy has an interview 
with a deputation at the Home Office for the 
purpose of receiving an Address to the Queen 
from the Church and State Defence Society. 
This was understood to be the last official act 
of the Home Secretary. 

2 .—Resignation of the Disraeli Ministry. 
This morning the Premier proceeded to Wind¬ 
sor, and had a consultation with her Majesty. 
He returned to town in time for a Cabinet 
Council, which sat an hour and a half. In the 
evening, Mr. Disraeli addressed his statement 
from Downing-street to the London papers. 
After a recital of the circumstances which led 
to the dissolution, he wrote: “Although the 
general election has elicited, in the decision of 
numerous and vast constituencies, an expres¬ 
sion of feeling which, in a remarkable degree, 
has justified their anticipations, and which, in 
dealing with the question in controversy, no 
wise statesman would disregard, it is now clear 
that the present Administration cannot expect to 
command the confidence of the newly elected 
House of Commons. Under these circumstances, 
her Majesty’s Ministers felt it due to their own 
honour, and to the policy they support, not to 
retain office unnecessarily for a single day. 
They hold it to be more consistent with the 
attitude they have assumed, and with the con¬ 
venience of public business at this season, as 
well as more conducive to the just influence of 
the Conservative party, at once to tender the 





DECEMBER 


1S68, 


DECEMBER 


resignation of their offices to her Majesty, 
rather than to wait for the assembling of a 
Parliament in which, in the present aspect of 
affairs, they are sensible they must be in a 
minority. In thus acting, her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment have seen no cause to modify those 
opinions upon which they deemed it their duty 
to found their counsel to the Sovereign on the 
question of the disestablishment and disendow- 
ment of the Church. They remain convinced 
that the proposition of Mr. Gladstone is wrong 
in principle, probably impracticable in appli¬ 
cation ; and, if practicable, would be disastrous 
in its effects. While ready at all times to give 
a fair consideration and willing aid to any plan 
for the improvement of the Church in Ireland, 
to the policy which they opposed last session 
—rife as they believe it to be with many 
calamities to society and the State—they will 
continue, in whatever position they occupy, to 
offer an uncompromising resistance.” 

2 . —Anniversary of the coup d'etat in Paris. A 
demonstration was attempted at Baudin’s grave, 
but the cemetery gates were closed by the 
police, and several people who resisted their 
authority apprehended. 

— Dr. Mansel installed as Dean of St. 
Paul’s. 

— Died, George Prynne, first Professor of 
Political Economy, Cambridge. 

3 . —In the Court of Exchequer Chamber 
the Lord Chief Justice delivers judgment in the 
case of Grinel v. Bristowe, raised to recover 
8 ool. and interest, the amount of a call of io/. 
per share upon eighty shares in Overend, 
Gurney, & Co. (Limited), made after the sale 
of the shares by the plaintiff to the defendants, 
who were stock-jobbers and members of the 
Stock Exchange. The shares were transferred 
by the plaintiff to the nominees of the defend¬ 
ants, but these nominees having omitted to 
execute the transfers or to cause themselves to 
be registered as the owners, and the plaintiff 
thus remaining the registered holder of the 
shares, he had been compelled to pay a call 
since made. The plaintiff then brought an 
action against the defendants to be indemnified 
in respect to these payments. The facts were 
turned into a special case, and argued in the 
Court of Common Pleas, when the majority of 
the judges gave judgment for the plaintiff. 
Against that decision the defendants appealed. 
The Lord Chief Justice now reversed the 
finding of the Court of Common Pleas, and 
directed a verdict to be entered for the de¬ 
fendants. 

4 . —In obedience to a royal summons con¬ 
veyed to Hawarden Castle by General Grey, 
Mr. Gladstone proceeded to Windsor and had 
an audience of her Majesty this afternoon. He 
was then understood to have accepted the com¬ 
mands laid upon him to form a Ministry. Mr. 
Gladstone returned to town about six o’clock, 
and met several of his colleagues. 

— The Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, 

( 851 ) 


acting upon her Majesty’s cong'e d'tlire , unani¬ 
mously elected Dr. Tait, Bishop of London, to 
succeed the late Dr. Longley as Archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

4 —The King of Wurtemberg opens his Par¬ 
liament with a speech, in which he promised 
the introduction of various measures of reform, 
and avowed that he would “defend the inde¬ 
pendence of Wurtemberg, protect the national 
interests, and fulfil faithfully and in a patriotic 
spirit his duties towards the whole Germanic 
Fatherland.” 

— Collision on the Ohio, between the 
steamers United States and America , causing 
the death of 70 people. 

5 .—Panic on the London Stock Exchange 
caused by untruthful rumours of the sudden 
death of the Emperor Napoleon. 

— Through Lord Stanley Mr. Peabody 
makes another donation of 100,000/. in aid of 
the London poor, bringing the gross sum given 
by him for that purpose up to 350,000/. 

— Mr. Gladstone had made such progress 
in the construction of his Ministry that he is 
able to wait on the Queen at Windsor this 
afternoon, and submit a list of names for the 
more important offices. What had hitherto 
been a vague rumour concerning the presence 
of Mr. Bright in the Cabinet now obtains 
general credence. 

— Insurrection at Cadiz. The outbreak 
gradually acquired such importance as com¬ 
pelled the Provisional Government to lay a 
portion of the fleet alongside the city for the 
purpose of bombarding it if necessary. The 
Republican party were ultimately put down by 
the Government troops. 

7 . —Severe storm in and around London ; 
destructive also at sea, the North Briton being 
cast ashore on the Long Rock near Penzance. 

— At a meeting of Congress to-day it was 
agreed to present a joint resolution to the Pre¬ 
sident asking for the recall of Mr. Reverdy 
Johnson from the English embassy. 

— In his Message to Congress, President 
Johnson states that the Alabama claims are not 
yet quite arranged. Certain portions of the 
protocol not approved of by America were 
returned to England, and the resignation of 
Mr. Disraeli’s Ministry had for the moment put 
a stop to negotiations. The Senate refused to 
hear the Message read, and adjourned. 

— Turkey despatches an ultimatum to the 
Greek Government, demanding explanations 
of the past, and reassuring guarantees for the 
future, as regarded Crete. Vienna news of the 
24th made mention of a Conference to be held, 
for settling the dispute between the two 
countries. 

8 . — Stormy meeting of the Society for the 
Promotion of Christian Knowledge at Free¬ 
masons’ Tavern. A proposal made to grant 
2,000/. to the Bishop of Capetown was nega¬ 
tived by 765 to 674 votes. 


3 1 2 







DECEMBER 


1868. 


DECEMBER 


9 . —Her Majesty holds two Privy Councils 
-—the first at one r. M., when Mr. Disraeli and 
his colleagues attended to deliver up the seals 
of office ; the second at three, at which Mr. 
Gladstone and the new Ministry were sworn 
into office. Besides the new Premier, there 
were present Sir W. Page Wood, Lord 
Clarendon, Lord Granville, the Duke of Argyll, 
Mr. Lowe, Mr. Bright, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. 
Childers, the Marquis of Hartington, the Earl 
De Grey and Ripon, Lord Kimberley, Mr. 
Fortescue, Mr. Bruce, &c., who had an audi¬ 
ence with the Queen, and received the seals of 
office. At this Council Mr. Childers and Mr. 
Bright were sworn in as Privy Councillors, and 
took their seats. 

10. —Banquet at Fishmongers’ Hall, at¬ 
tended by the Lord Chancellor and other 
members of the new Cabinet. Sir W. Page 
Wood expressed the pleasure he felt in now 
being able to give an active support to Mr. 
Gladstone; and the Chancellor of the Exche¬ 
quer made a humorous reply for the House of 
Commons, intimating his intention to do all he 
could to remove from the country the burden 
of taxation, so that we might enjoy the best 
institutions in the world without having to pay 
for them. 

— The first session of the eighth Parlia¬ 
ment of Queen Victoria opened by Royal 
Commission. On the motion of Sir George 
Grey, seconded by Mr. Walpole, the Right 
Hon. J. Evelyn Denison was unanimously 
elected Speaker. The swearing-in of members 
was proceeded with next day. 

— The Gazette announces that the Queen 
had been pleased to create the new Lord 
Chancellor, Sir W. Page Wood, a baron, 
with the title of Baron Hatherley of Down 
Hatherley in the county of Gloucester. 

— The Premier issues his address to the 
electors of Greenwich, stating that he was 
actively engaged “ in the endeavour to form an 
Administration, which may, I trust, deserve 
the confidence of the country ; and will cer¬ 
tainly use every effort in office to give effect to 
the great measures which, out of office, its 
members generally have agreed in recommend¬ 
ing to the country.” 

— The Rev. Mr. Macrorie, the rival of Dr. 
Colenso for the Bishopric of Natal, leaves 
England for the Cape. 

— Wreck of the Gossamer on Prawl Point; 
the master, his wife, and eleven seamen 
drowned. 

11 . —The Speaker of the new Parliament 
presents himself at the bar of the House of 
Lords to obtain her Majesty’s approval of the 
choice made by the House of Commons. This 
approval was expressed through the Lord 
Chancellor, who had also her Majesty’s com¬ 
mands to confirm the Commons in all their 
rights and privileges. 

13 .—Died, aged 84, Dr. Cooke, Belfast, a 

(85?.) 


prominent member of the Ulster Protestant 
party. 

13 . —Two railway guards burnt to death, on 
the Brighton line, by an explosion of mineral 
oil, at the Three Bridges station. 

14 . —The Greek blockade-runner Enosis , 
chased into a Syrian harbour, and blockaded 
there by Hobart Pasha. 

— The American House of Representatives, 
by a majority of 154 to 6, pass a resolution 
against all forms of repudiation of the national 
debt. 

15 . —In the House of Lords to-day the Lord 
Chancellor read a Royal Message, informing 
members that “since the time when her Ma¬ 
jesty deemed it right to call you together for 
the consideration of many grave and important 
matters, several vacancies have occurred in the 
House of Commons. It is therefore her Ma¬ 
jesty’s pleasure that an opportunity may now 
be given to issue writs for supplying the vacan¬ 
cies so occasioned, and that, after a suitable 
recess, you may proceed to the consideration of 
such matters as will then be laid before you.” 
The Lord Chancellor took the oaths and his 
seat as Lord Hatherley, after which the House 
adjourned till nth February. 

— In the House of Commons, Mr. Ayrton 
moves the issue of new writs for the election of 
as many members of the new Government as 
had been returned twenty-one days. The case 
of Mr. Goschen gave rise to a short discussion. 
His election had been petitioned against, but the 
House had no official knowledge whether the 
seat was claimed. Sir R. Palmer pointed out 
that all the House required was information 
from one of its members, and the mere fact of 
the writ being moved for was proof sufficient 
that the seat was not claimed. The writ was 
therefore ordered to be issued with the others. 
Several notices of motion were afterwards given, 
and the House adjourned till the 29th. The 
elections were in all cases unopposed, and took 
place in most instances on the 21st. (See Table 
of Administrations.) 

16 . —A British fleet appears off Nankin, to 
support a claim made for redress for injuries 
inflicted on British missionaries. 

18 .—Consols quoted at 92 ex dividend, being 
the lowest point touched during the year, with 
the exception of Jan'. 1, when they opened at 
91! to 92. 

— Rupture of diplomatic relations between 
Turkey and Greece. 

20 . —Lord Mayo, the new Viceroy of India, 

lands at Bombay ; and also Lord Napier of 
Magdala, to reassume his command of the 
troops there. / 

— The American steamer Starry Banner 
wrecked on the coast of Ireland, and 122 of 
the passengers drowned ; 42 were picked up 
after being exposed for three days on a raft. / 

21 . —Addressing an assembly of cardinals 







DECEMBER 


1868. 


DECEMBER 


to-day, the Pope is reported to have said : 
“The King of Sardinia has abased himself 
so low as to ask the pardon of two assassins— 
the King of Sardinia, who saw no guilt in the 
murders of the two priests at Sienna—the same, 
who had not the smallest coin for the sufferers 
by the floods in Upper Italy; but who gave $,000 
francs for the widow of an assassin. This king, 
whom you know so well, and whom you recom¬ 
mend to our Lord, demands the pardon of two 
malefactors worthy of the last punishment.” 

21.—In the Ministerial re-election to-day,the 
addresses naturally of greatest interest were 
those delivered by the Premier at Greenwich 
and the President of the Board of Trade at 
Birmingham. Both gave clear indication of 
the intention of Government to support the 
ballot. Mr. Gladstone said : “I have at all 
times given my vote in favour of the method of 
'pen voting ; but I have done so before, and 
io so now, with this important reservation, 
that, whether by open voting or by whatever 
means, free voting must be secured. ” Mr. Bright 
said that when Mr. Gladstone asked him to join 
his Administration, “I have reason to know 
that he made that proposition with the cordial 
and gracious acquiescence of her Majesty the 
Queen.” Explaining that the state of his health 
prevented him undertaking the arduous duties 
of the India Office, he passed on to speak of 
the necessity that existed for an Administration 
working harmoniously together. “ It is there¬ 
fore possible that in seeking the maintenance of 
this harmony the members of the Administra¬ 
tion may appear at times to take a different line 
to that which they have taken when uncon¬ 
nected with the Government. If there should 
be any such occasions—if any one of my con¬ 
stituents should find that I have on any occasion 
to come been in a lobby different to that in 
which at some former period I have been found, 
let him have such patience as he can ; let him 
understand this, that until I say I have changed 
my views, my views remain unchanged ; and 
that the different course which I am compelled 
to take is one which does not affect principle so 
much as time and opportunity, or that it is a 
temporary and inevitable concession to the 
necessity of continuing harmony of discussion 
amongst the members of the Government. I 
must ask you to look always at the general 
result.” Regarding the ballot the right hon. 
gentleman said : “I am very glad to tell you 
that when I went up to London last week I 
found, I was going to say, almost nobody— 
(laughter and cheers)—professing to be on the 
Liberal side of the House of Commons who 
was not in favour of the ballot. (Hear, hear, 
loud and prolonged cheers.) Those who had 
previously been in its favour were strongly con¬ 
firmed by recent transactions; and many, and 
some important persons, who heretofore have 
withheld their countenance from it, now admit 
with the greatest freedom that what they have 
seen of late has entirely changed their opinion, 
and that they believe with our present wide 
suffrage—I don’t know why it should be more 


just in the one case than in the other—the 
adoption of the ballot is not only proper, but is 
inevitable.” He had not aspired at any time, 
he said, to the rank of a Privy Councillor, or 
to the dignity of a Cabinet office. “I should 
have preferred much to have remained in the 
common rank of the simple citizenship in which 
heretofore I have lived. Thei'e is a charming 
story contained in a single verse of the Old 
Testament, which has often struck me as one of 
great beauty. Many of you will recollect that 
the prophet, in journeying to and fro, was very 
hospitably entertained by what is termed in the 
Bible a Shunammite woman. In return for the 
hospitality of his entertainment he wished to 
make her some amends, and he called her and 
asked her what there was that he should do for 
her. ‘ Shall I speak for thee to the King or to 
the Captain of the Host ? ’—and it has always 
appeared to me to be a great answer that the 
Shunammite woman returned. She said, ‘I dwell 
among mine own people.’ (Great applause.) 
When the question was put to me whether I 
would step into the position in which I now 
find myself, the answer from my heart was 
the same—I wish to dwell among mine own 
people. (Great applause.) Happily, the time 
may have come—1 trust it has come—when in 
this country an honest man may enter the ser¬ 
vice of the Crown, and at the same time not 
feel it in any degree necessary to dissociate him¬ 
self from his own people. (Great applause.) ” 

21. —Congratulatory address from the clergy 
of the diocese of London presented to Dr. 
Tait, upon his elevation to the Primacy. 

— Proposal made in the Italian Chamber 
for the suspension of the payment of the Italian 
quota of the Pontifical debt, negatived by 21 1 
to hi votes. On the same day the Pope 
issued an allocution severely censuring the 
proceedings of “the King of Sardinia.” 

22. —Madame Rachel liberated on bail, 
pending the result of the arguments on a writ 
of error granted to try the right of Mr. Com¬ 
missioner Kerr to sit as a judge in the Central 
Criminal Court. 

— The ship Southern Empire , bound from 
New Orleans for Liverpool, founders at sea 
with all on board. 

23. —Lord Cairns delivers the judgment of 
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 
in the case of Martin v. Mackonochie, involving 
the legality of the ritualistic practices observed 
in the church of St. Alban, Holborn. On 
both the charges submitted —the kneeling or 
prostrating before the consecrated elements, 
and the use of lighted candles—Lord Cairns 
decided against Mr. Mackonochie. Lighted 
candles, he held, were not “ ornaments ” within 
the meaning of the Rubric. Mr. Mackonochie 
was also condemned in the costs of appeal as 
well as the costs of hearing in the court below. 
At a meeting of the Ritualistic party held after¬ 
wards with reference to this judgment the 
opinion was very generally expressed that the 
time had come when the Church should demand 

( 853 ) 









DECEMBER 


1868-69. 


JANUARY 


to be delivered from the burden of its connexion 
with the State. 

23 . —Explosion at the Faversham gunpow¬ 
der works ; five men killed, and four injured. 

24 . —Metropolitan District Railway opened 
between Westminster and Brompton. 

— Died, at Greenwich, aged 82, Abraham 
Cooper, the oldest Royal Academician. 

— The Marquis of Bute received into the 
Roman Catholic Church at Nice, by Monsig- 
neur Capel, an English priest. 

— The Duke de Montpensier issues a mani¬ 
festo to the people of Spain. 

— Wreck of the John Duncan on her 
voyage from America to Liverpool, and loss of 
13 of her crew. 

25 . —President Johnson issues a proclama¬ 
tion, pardoning all Confederate leaders unpar¬ 
doned at this date. 

26 . —In reply to an address from the Sacred 
College, Pius IX. said : “ Many Popes were 
persecuted, imprisoned, exiled ; but they came 
out of prison with glory, and returned trium- 

hant from exile. Such are the lessons of 

istory which our contemporaries seem to have 
forgotten, but which for all that are not the 
less true. In considering the present state of 
Europe, in seeing so many thrones overturned, 
they believe that the Church also is to fall. 
But if even we were entirely isolated, if we 
should be deserted by all (which I do not be¬ 
lieve we shall be) the voice of the Roman pon¬ 
tiffs will always find an echo in the world, be¬ 
cause it is promised that support of which you 
have full knowledge.” 

— Another severe storm. Several wrecks 
took place in the English Channel, attended 
with loss of life. At Rochdale next day a 
building used as a place of worship was blown 
down, and about sixty people injured. 

27 . —Died, aged 72, Sir Richard Mayne, 
chief of the metropolitan police force. 

— Treasury minute issued, assigning new 
duties to the Third Lord of the Treasury, Mr. 
Stansfeld. 

28 . —President Lopez issues a proclamation 
calling upon his followers to avenge their late 
reverses. 

29 . —Conference of the great Powers for 
the settlement of the differences between Tur¬ 
key and Greece arranged to meet in Paris early 
in January. 

— Treasury minute issued relating to the 
bankruptcy or insolvency of members of the 
Civil Service. Pecuniary embarrassment occa¬ 
sioned by imprudence to be punished by for¬ 
feiture of all claim to promotion or increase of 
salary until the offender shall have relieved 
himself from the discredit of such a position. 

— Parliament reassembles in pursuance of 
the last adjournment, and the newly elected 
Ministers take the oaths and their seats. Writs 
( 8 * 4 ) 


having been moved for the additional seats 
rendered vacant by acceptance of office, a 
further adjournment was made to February 
16, 1869. 

30 .—Explosion in the Queen’s Pit, St 
Helen’s, Wigan, causing the instant death of 
twenty-two of the workmen, and the serious 
injury of three others, being the entire number 
employed in the workings at the time. 

— The surrender of the Cretan Government 
announced at Constantinople. 

— Dr. Tait confirmed as Archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

— Died, aged 60, James David Forbes, 
D.C.L., late Principal of the United Colleges, 
St. Andrew’s, and author of various works on 
physical science. 


I869. 

January 1 . —The Overend-Gumey prosecu¬ 
tion. Commenced at the Mansion House, the 
inquiry into the charge made against H. E. 
Gurney, R. Birkbeck, Ii. G. Gordon, W. 
Rennie, H. F. Barclay, and W. H. Gurney, 
members of the late firm of Overend-Gurney 
and Co., charged with having “unlawfully and 
deceitfully conspired together, and by divers 
false pretences, and divers false statements 
with reference to the affairs and conditions of 
the company, induced the complainant (Dr. 
Thom, of the Canadian bar) and the public 
generally to subscribe and take shares in the 
said company, with intent to cheat and defraud 
them of large sums of money.” The old firm 
of Overend-Gurney was established at the close 
of last century, and continued for many years 
to be conducted with honour and prosperity by 
the ancestor of the first-named defendant. From 
a statement prepared by the official liquidator 
it appeared that from 1851 to i860 the partners 
of the old firm divided an annual profit of 
146,000/., while a further sum of 365,000/. was 
carried to the reserve fund in order to meet bad 
and doubtful debts. In only one of these years, 
1853, was a very bad debt incurred, when, 
although profit to the extent of 212,000/. was 
made on their general business, the firm lost 
219,000/. through the Davidson and Gordon 
frauds. Between i860 and 1865, certain 
friends of the old partners were introduced 
into the firm, and from this date commenced a 
system of reckless speculation which absorbed 
the greater part of the 5,000,000/. understood 
to be lodged with them on deposit. In the 
latter years of the firm’s existence it was 
difficult to ascertain the precise value of their 
commercial transactions. In 1861 and 1862 
the profits appeared to have been divided, 
though in each of these years 36,000/. was 
credited to the partners in name of salaries. 
Matters became worse the following years, till 
in 1865 it was not thought they had more than 
120,000/. in cash to meet the large sum lodged 





JANUARY 


1869. 


JANUARY 


with them on deposit at call within seven days. 
Instead of calling the creditors of the house 
together, it was agreed, after an unsuccessful 
negotiation with the National Discount Com¬ 
pany, to reorganize the business under the 
Limited Liability Act, the managing directors 
continuing to act as in the old company. On 
the 12th July the Gurney company was pro¬ 
visionally registered, and on the 13th a pro¬ 
spectus was issued, fixing the capital at 
5,000,000/., in 100,000 shares of 50/. each, but 
with only 15/. per share to be called up ; 
500,000/. was to be paid to the old company in 
name of good-will—one half in cash, and the 
other half in shares. The total number of 
shares allotted to the public was to be 83,334, 
the remainder being reserved for the use of the 
directors. The business to be cultivated was 
described to be of a first-class character only ; 
yet on the 1st August, when the new proprietary 
entered on possession, it was now shown that 
no less than 4,000,000/. transferred as absolute 
cash, or available assets, had been absorbed 
in ruinous mercantile schemes or worthless 
personal credits. Besides the public formal 
deed of incorporation, a secret deed was after¬ 
wards discovered referring to what was called 
“exceptional accounts,” indicating the absorbed 
capital, and giving the defendants power, be¬ 
tween the 31st July 1865 and 31st December 
1868, to get rid of the liabilities they re¬ 
presented. It was on this deed chiefly the 
plaintiff sought to establish the charge of fraud. 
He, on what he called faith in the hereditary 
character of the house, had purchased sixty 
shares, upon which he paid 900/., and after¬ 
wards an additional 1,500/. in calls. Other 
purchasers now called to explain the operations 
of the company were \V. Peek, the younger, 
who bought 2,000 shares, and lost 100,000/. ; 
C. Read, Bury St. Edmunds, 150, J. Holme, 
Carlisle, 120, and R. B. Barrow, Derby, 200, 
in 1865, at 2/., 3/., and 4/. premium. The 
cross-examination was designed to bring out the 
fact that the defendants themselves were indi¬ 
vidually ignorant of the true state of the com¬ 
pany, the business being chiefly carried on 
through the manager, Mr. D. Chapman, and 
others, and that as soon as they became 
acquainted with the serious losses incurred they 
endeavoured to make what compensation they 
could by the sale of their own private estates. 
It was admitted, indeed, that these sales were 
among the earliest indications given to outside 
shareholders of the rottenness of the concern. 
The preliminary inquiry was protracted from 
day to day till the 27th inst., when the Lord 
Mayor, amid loud cheers, announced his deci¬ 
sion to commit the whole of the defendants for 
trial. The defendants were released on bail of 
10,000/. each, and two sureties of 5,000/. each. 
(See Jan. 22 and Dec. 13th.) 

— Addressing the Order of Ancient Druids 
at Oxford, Mr. Cardwell, speaking of the re¬ 
sults of the late general election, said, “The 
infant Hercules strangled a serpent in his 
cradle; but the new Parliament has gone 


further, for it has effected a change of govern¬ 
ment even before it came into existence, and 
before the roll of its members was complete.” 

1. —The ship Ocean Home , from Antwerp to 
Liverpool, burnt at Spithead. 

— Severe fighting between the Spanish 
troops and insurgents at Malaga. 

— At the annual public reception of the 
diplomatic body to-day, the Emperor of the 
French stated that he was “ready to say that 
a spirit of conciliation animates all the Euro¬ 
pean Powers, and that, the moment a difficulty 
arises, they agree among themselves to smooth 
it away, and avert complications.” The speech 
made by the King of Prussia on a similar occa¬ 
sion, the same day, was equally pacific. 

— Sir W. Carroll installed as Lord Mayor 
of Dublin, in opposition to the Conservatives, 
who abstained from voting, on the ground that 
the election was a violation of an understood 
compact to return a Protestant and Catholic 
alternately. Contrary to expectation, the new 
Mayor of Cork (Sullivan) was also installed 
intq office to-day, and made a declaration ex¬ 
pressive of his belief that the Government of the 
country, for months back, had been merely a 
police system, an officer’s suspicions being suffi¬ 
cient to secure the conviction and imprison¬ 
ment of any person against whom they took a 
dislike. 

2 . —Inquiry at the Lambeth Police Court 
regarding the confession made by William 
Sheward, who delivered himself up, the pre¬ 
vious evening, as the person who had murdered 
his wife at Norwich, and dismembered her 
body, in June 1851. He said he could keep 
the secret no longer, and had on several days 
past left home with the intention of destroying 
himself. “ I went, last night,” he said, “to a 
house in Richmond Street, Walworth, where I 
first saw my first wife, and that so brought it to 
my mind that I was obliged to come and give 
myself up. You will find it quite true, and 
that they know all about it at Norwich.” The 
chief constable of the Norwich police attended 
in a few days, and Sheward’s statement was 
found to correspond exactly with facts ascer¬ 
tained in connexion with the discovery of re¬ 
mains there in 1851 (see June 21); he war. 
removed in custody to that city, and there 
subjected to further examination. The result 
was, that evidence was at once forthcoming, 
establishing his residence in the city, with his 
wife, on the date in question, that she then mys¬ 
teriously disappeared, without, however, exciting 
much comment among neighbours (the prisoner’s 
explanation being that she had gone to friends 
m Australia) ; that he afterwards married a 
second wife in Norwich, by whom he had se¬ 
veral children, and attempted for some time to 
carry on the business of a pawnbroker. As he 
still adhered to a confession found to correspond, 
in its most minute details, with facts other¬ 
wise ascertained, Sheward was fully committed 
to take his trial. In reply to a question as to 
the condition in which the remains were found, 





JANUARY 


JANUARY 


1869. 


Sheward said, “ Oh, don’t say any more ; it is 
too horrible to talk about.” 

2. —The inhabitants of Westminster, through 
Dean Stanley, present to their fellow-parish¬ 
ioner, Lord Hatherley, an address of con¬ 
gratulation on his elevation to the woolsack. 

— General Caxias, leader of the Brazilians 
in Paraguay, announces the successful termina¬ 
tion of the war, and leaves for Rio Janeiro. 
He was succeeded in the command by the 
young Comte d’Eu, eldest son of the Duke de 
Nemours, married, in 1864, to his cousin, the 
Princess Imperial Isabella, heir-apparent to the 
Brazilian throne. 

— Sirdar Khan and Mahomed Azim Khan 
defeated in the neighbourhood of Ghuznee by 
the Ameer Shere Ali Khan. 

— Ferry-boat upset crossing the Gareloch, at 
Rosneath, and four people—two passengers 
and two boatmen—drowned. 

3 . —Mr. Bright refuses, as President of the 
Board of Trade, to clear the seas of bottle¬ 
nosed whales and porpoises, which a Scotch 
correspondent, named Drew, believed to be 
“depriving our hardy fishermen of their living 
by devouring and destroying the greatest quan¬ 
tity of fish.” 

— Mr. Bright, writing to a correspondent at 
Chicago on the subject of capital punishments, 
says: “To put men to death for crimes, civil 
or political, is to give proof of weakness rather 
than strength, and of barbarism rather than 
Christian civilization. If the United States 
could get rid of the gallows, it would not stand 
long here. One by one we ‘ Americanize ’ our 
institutions; and I hope, in all that is good, we 
may not be unwilling to follow you. ” 

4 . —A naval court-martial sits at Portsmouth, 
for the trial of Captain Wilmshurst, of the 
Flora, and governor of the Island of Ascension, 
charged with purchasing and reselling for his 
own benefit certain articles saved from the 
wreck of the merchant ship Bremensis , and 
thereby defrauding the underwriters. Fully 
and honourably acquitted on the 13th. 

— Died, aged 83, Commander R. L. 
Connelly, one of the last survivors of the 
battle of the Nile. 

— Died at Leamington, Alexander Cam¬ 
eron Campbell, of Monzie, Perthshire. 

5 . —The Gazette announces the appointment 
of Sir John Young as Governor-General of 
Canada; of Sir James Ferguson as Governor 
of South Australia; and of Mr. Du Cane as 
Governor of Tasmania. 

— The allied troops of Brazil and the 
Argentine Confederation occupy Ascension, 
President Lopez retreating with his army to¬ 
wards the north. 

9 .—Conference opened at Paris regarding 
the dispute between Turkey and Greece. The 
negotiations were protracted over ten days, in 
the course of which it was agreed that Greece 
(856I 


for the future should abstain from favouring or 
tolerating the formation, within its territory, of 
all bands meant to act against Turkey, and 
take the necessary measures to prevent the arma¬ 
ment in its ports of vessels intended to aid, in 
whatever manner, any attempt at insurrection 
within the possessions of his Majesty the Sultan. 

9 .—Died suddenly, aged 44, Percy S my the, 
Viscount Strangford, an accomplished linguist 
and Orientalist of the very highest order. 

11 . —The American House of Representa¬ 
tives, by a majority of 119 to 47 votes, pass a 
bill repealing the Tenure of Office Act, framed 
for the purpose of fettering the exercise of Pre¬ 
sident Johnson’s official patronage as opposed 
to the interests of the Republican party. 

— The American steamer Gulf City wrecked 
on the coast of North Carolina, and twenty-five 
persons drowned. 

12 . —The Earl and Countess of Mayo arrive 
at Calcutta, and proceed in state to the Govern¬ 
ment House. 

— At a meeting of clergy and laity con¬ 
nected with the Ritualist party held in Free¬ 
masons’ Hall, a resolution was passed, affirm¬ 
ing that they did not consider the existing Court 
of Final Appeal “ qualified to declare the Law 
of the Church of England upon either doctrine 
or ceremonial; ” but that with respect to the 
particular judgment of the Court in Mr. Mack- 
onochie’s case, it was “a matter best left to the 
individual judgment and circumstance of each 
priest who has been accustomed to use the cere¬ 
monials in question. ” Another resolution was 
also passed, pledging the meeting to use all 
lawful means to promote the teaching of the 
doctrines impugned by the recent decision ; 
and a third declaring the judgment to exhibit 
“unusual and exceptional-severity.” 

13 . —The Prince of Wales’ Theatre, Glas¬ 
gow, destroyed by fire. 

■— Addressing the electors of Halifax at a 
banquet given in his honour, Lord Halifax (who, 
as Sir C. Wood, had represented the borough 
for thirty-three years) praised the middle-class 
Parliaments of his time as having secured civil 
and religious liberty, and abolished class legis¬ 
lation. 

14 . —Convention for the settlement of the 
Alabama claims signed in London by Lord 
Clarendon and Mr. Reverdy Johnson. 

— Mrs. Lumley, the reputed wife of Major 
Lumley, convicted at the Old Bailey of bigamy. 
The judge reserved several points of law raised 
in the case, and admitted the prisoner to bail. 

15 . —The Great Eastern commences laying 
the deep-sea portion of the French Atlantic 
Telegraph. 

— Severe earthquake shocks experienced 
in the Indian and Pacific seas. 

— The Judges on Election Petitions now 
commence to hear evidence. (See Nov. 30.) 









1869. 


JANUARY 


JANUARY 


15 . —Died, aged 91, Sir Henry Ellis, Princi- ' 
pal Librarian of the British Museum, 1827-56. 

16 . —Lord Spencer, the new Lord Lieu¬ 
tenant of Ireland, makes his public entry into 
Dublin. 

!8.—Martin Brown, or Vinall, aged 23, a 
deserter from the Royal Artillery, executed for 
the murder of an old herdsman, named Baldy, 
near Lewes. 

_ The French Chamber opened by the 

Emperor, who claimed for the Imperial Go¬ 
vernment that, on a soil shaken by revolu¬ 
tions, it had been able to adopt all the benefits 
of liberty, while it had been sufficiently strong 
to bear even its excesses, and had given to the 
country seventeen years of increasing quiet and 
prosperity. France, he continued, as regaids 
her military resources, is now on a level with 
her destiny in the world. Referring to the ap¬ 
proaching dissolution of the Legislative body, 
the Emperor declared his determination not 
only to promote all real progress, but also 
‘ ‘ to maintain, without discussion, the essential 
bases of the Constitution, which the national 
voice has placed under shelter from all attacks.” 
The Emperor believed that the nation will 
sanction his policy, and “ once more proclaim 
by its votes that it does not desire revolution, 
but wishes to rest the destinies of France upon 
the intimate alliance of power with liberty.” 

19. —Proceedings in the bankruptcy of Lord 
Arthur Clinton. The preliminary statements 
disclosed debts and liabilities to the extent of 
35,000/.; assets, nil. 

_ Sir John Lawrence leaves Calcutta, 

having discharged the duties of Governor-Gene¬ 
ral since 1863. 

20 . —In the case of Bewick v. Bewick, the 
Judges of the Divorce Court confirm the de¬ 
cision of the Judge Ordinary allotting Mrs. 
Bewick permanent alimony at the rate of 280/. 
per annum. Bewick himself made seveial 
violent appeals to the Court to modify the 
amount. 

_ The Prince of Wales receives the order 

of the Black Eagle from the King of Prussia at 
Berlin, the collar presented being the one pre¬ 
viously worn by Prince Albert. 

22._The Cuban colonists rise against the 

Spanish troops. 

_ The excitement occasioned in commercial 

circles by the inquiiy into the affairs of the 
Overend-Gurney Company culminated to-day 
in the examination of an entirely new witness— 
Mr. Edwin Watkin Edwards, official assignee 
in the Court of Bankruptcy. He stated that in 
1859 he was engaged by Overend, Gurney, and 
Co., at a salary of 5,000/. a y ear > to advise them 
as to advances, and generally to make himself 
useful in settling difficulties with customers. 
All lie did for them was done after his office 
hours in the Bankruptcy Court—that is, after 


four in the afternoon. He watched various 
concerns which owed the firm money. Amongst 
others, he was interested for them in the At¬ 
lantic Royal Mail Company, the East India and 
London Shipping Company, Stefanos Xenos, 
Manuel and Co., Zachary C. Pearson, John 
Scott Russell, and C. J. Mare. Mr. Edwards, 
however, was troubled with such a bad memory 
that, though he advised the firm in all these 
transactions, he could not remember what he 
communicated to them. They provided him 
with 100 shares to become a director of the 
Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Company. The 
company’s debt to Overend, Gurney, and Co. 
increased while he was watching it from 
200,000/. to 839,000/. He conducted a nego¬ 
tiation with Mr. Z. Pearson on behalf of Overend, 
Gurney, and Co., and Pearson made him a pre¬ 
sent of 2,000/. He had dealings with Stefanos 
Xenos for the company, and Xenos gave him 
500/. a year and a yacht. He was arbiter 
between Lascaridi and Lever, who were both 
indebted to the company, and his impression 
was that neither gave him anything, but he 
would not like to swear it. He did not like to 
swear positively to anything; he had such a 
bad memory that his mind was an entire blank 
on the subject. His impression was that he 
received nothing beyond his salary of 300/. as 
umpire. He was introduced to the firm of 
Overend and Gurney by Mr. Daniel Ward 
Chapman, one of the partners. With this 
gentleman he had some monetary transactions, 
and the first year’s salary of 5,000/. he advanced 
to Mr. Chapman in bank-notes as he received 
it, and had never been repaid. This loan to 
Mr. Chapman was kept secret from the other 
partners. His connexion with the firm, Mr. 
Edwards stated, terminated in 1864. Mr. 
Birkbeck, in rather coarse terms, reproached 
him with having led the company into losses, 
and said they would have no more to do with 
him. He immediately had an interview with 
Mr. H. E. Gurney, and obtained a flattering 
certificate of character from him. At the same 
time 20,000/. was put to his credit. Pie drew 
4,000/. then, and the rest as soon as the new 
company was formed. Mr. Serjeant Ballan- 
tyne’s inquiry, as to whether the witness had 
received any communication from the Lord 
Chancellor, was answered in a few days by 
an official note from his Lordship command¬ 
ing his officer to make a full explanation of 
his proceedings. This, though given with 
a minuteness of detail sufficiently startling to 
ordinary business men, was not considered satis¬ 
factory, and Mr. Edwards was dismissed from 
his office in the Bankruptcy Court. Mr. Ste¬ 
fanos Xenos afterwards charged Mr. Edwards 
with causing the ruin of the Greek and Oriental 
Steamboat Company, and generally with acting 
prejudicially for the interests of the house of 
Overend-Gurney. 

22.—Died, aged 83,Sir W. J.Newton, minia¬ 
ture painter to her Majesty. 

_Died, aged 9 years, Leopold, Prince Royal 

of Belgium. 









JANUARY 


I869. 


FEBRUAR V 


23 . —Died, aged 70, William Ewart, late 
M. P. for the Dumfries burghs, a zealous advo¬ 
cate for the abolition of the punishment of 
death. 

24 . —The first Protestant meeting for public 
worship held in Madrid. 

— The Civil Governor of Burgos murdered 
within the precincts of the Cathedral by a mob 
of priests incited, it was said, to the act by his 
proceedings under a decree of the Provisional 
Government declaring the entire collection of 
art in churches and cathedrals to be national 
property. A disturbance took place in the 
evening near the residence occupied by the 
Papal Nuncio, whose refusal to recognize the 
Provisional Government had excited against 
him the enmity of the population. 

25 . —The Rev. Mr. Macrorie consecrated 
Bishop of Maritzburg at Capetown. 

— Meeting in Dublin to promote the uncon¬ 
ditional release of the Fenian prisoners. 

— Mr. Bruce, the new Home Secretary, 
rejected at Merthyr-Tydvil, obtains a seat to¬ 
day for Renfrewshire, Scotland, vacant by the 
sudden death of Captain Spiers, of Elderslie. 

— Amongst other Admiralty reforms now 
introduced, Mr. Childers warns civil employes 
against procuring the aid of Members of Parlia¬ 
ment in support of any claims they have to 
urge, as pressure of this kind applied to the 
Board ‘ ‘ will be treated by their Lordships as 
an admission that the case is not deserving of 
consideration on its own merits.” 

26 . —The elections for the new Constituent 
Assembly at Madrid being nearly over, it is 
found that there have been returned 150 Pro- 

ressists, 80 Unionists, 80 Republicans, 2 
foderates in favour of Queen Isabella, and 
20 Absolutists in favour of Don Carlos. 

— Seven shrimpers lost on the sands at the 
mouth of the Ribble, near Lytham, during a 
fog. 

— Died, aged 50, Ernest Jones, an active 
politician of the advanced Liberal school, and 
presently a candidate for the representation of 
Manchester. 

28 .—The Lord Chamberlain addresses a 
circular to theatrical managers regarding the 
impropriety of costumes used by ladies in pan¬ 
tomimes and bmlesques now being performed 
in the metropolitan theatres. “ Now that the 
question has been taken up by the press, and 
public opinion is being expressed upon it, he 
feels himself compelled to call the serious 
attention of the managers to the subject; for 
he cannot but remark the discredit that now 
justly falls on the stage, and the objections 
which are being raised against it by many who 
have hitherto frequented the theatres, but who 
now profess themselves unwilling to permit the 
ladies of their families to sanction by their pre¬ 
sence such questionable exhibitions.” 

— Earl Russell publishes a third letter to 
Mr. Chichester Fortescue on the subject of the 
Irish Church. 

(858) 


29 . —By a majority of 256 to 7 ° votes the 
Prussian Parliament carry a resolution in favour 
of confiscating the private property of the ex- 
King of Hanover. 

— Writ of certiorari granted removing the trial 
of the Overend-Gurney directors to the Court 
of Queen’s Bench. 

— The Court of Queen’s Bench give judg¬ 
ment in the case of Phillips v. Eyre, an action 
for false imprisonment during the Jamaica in¬ 
surrection, and in which the defendant, the ex- 
Govemor, pleaded that his acts were covered 
by the Act of Indemnity passed by the local 
Legislature. Judgment for the defendant. 

30 . —The Captain-General of Cuba issues a 
proclamation threatening death to all insur¬ 
gents who did not submit to Spanish rule 
within one month. 

— Another severe storm experienced over 
the island. At Penzance a railway viaduct was 
thrown down. 

- Died, aged 71, William Carleton, author 
of “Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry ” 
and other works. 

31 . —The Synod for the diocese of Dublin 
and Kildare meet in Dublin to protest against 
Mr. Gladstone’s Church Bill. At other dio¬ 
cesan conferences the measure was denounced 
•as “highly offensive to Almighty God.” At 
Cork, Lord Bandon declared compromise ut¬ 
terly impracticable, as the plunder of the 
Church was only preparatory to the plunder 
of the land. At Tralee, the Rector of Kenmare 
spoke in favour of the bill, but he was imme¬ 
diately hissed down. 

February 1.—Rising in Algeria against the 
French. 

— The Grand Jury find a true bill against 
the directors of the Overend-Gumey Company. 

2 . —The Court of Exchequer inflict two 
penalties of 50/. each on Charles Bradlaugh for 
printing and publishing his National Reformer 
without making the necessary declaration, or 
entering into the recognizances required by 
law. 

3 . —False report circulated in Liverpool of 
the destruction of the Eddystone Lighthouse. 

— Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, before Lord Chief Justice Cockburn and 
a jury, the case of Saurin v. Starr and another, 
an action of assault, libel, and trover raised 
by an Irish lady, formerly a Sister of Mercy, 
against Mrs. Starr, Lady Superior, and Mrs. 
Kennedy, a sister in authority, of the convent 
of the order at Hull. The charge of assault 
had relation to the lady’s expulsion from the 
convent at Hull, and the libel complained of 
was embodied in communications addressed 
to the Roman Catholic Bishop of the diocese, 
imputing to her grave offences. She was, 
moreover, accused of habitual violation of truth. 
The plaintiff, whose conventual name was Sister 
I Mary Scholastica, was admitted into the Con- 








FEBRUARY 


1869. 


FEBRUARY 


vent of Mercy in Bagot-street, Dublin, in the 
year 1851, bringing with her a portion of 300/. 
The defendant Mrs. Starr had been admitted a 
short time previously, and she and the plaintiff 
soon became great friends. Miss Saurin’s life 
in the convent at Dublin was described as being 
entirely happy. In the year 1858, however, 
the authorities of the order determined upon 
optning a branch convent at Clifford, near Tad- 
caster, in Yorkshire, and Mrs. Starr was trans¬ 
ferred to England to act as Lady Superior. 
It was desired that Miss Saurin should accom¬ 
pany her, she being regarded as one eminently 
qualified to take part in the work of education. 
After some time differences arose between Miss 
Saurin and the Lady Superior, in respect of 
her conduct as a religieuse; especially it was 
complained of her that, in disregard of the 
rules of the convent, she held converse with 
people outside. After a time a convent was 
opened at Hull, and Miss Saurin was removed 
there; she worked hard at the schools, she 
said, but notwithstanding all her efforts distrust 
was exhibited towards her by the other sisters— 
indeed, she was in a great degree withdrawn 
from their society. At length she was dis¬ 
missed from the convent and from the sister¬ 
hood at the commencement of 1866, the money 
she had brought into the order being returned 
to her. Substantially the complaint resolved 
itself into a charge of wrongful dismissal from 
the convent for reasons founded on falsehood 
and malice. The count in trover had reference 
to the detention at the convent of certain 
articles of clothing belonging to the plaintiff. 
The damages claimed amounted to 5,000/. 
The defendants paid 5/. into court as suffi¬ 
cient to satisfy the count in trover. They pleaded 
in effect that the plaintiff in entering the Sister¬ 
hood of Mercy voluntarily subjected herself to 
the rules of the order, and especially to submit 
herself to the authority of the Roman Catholic 
bishop of the diocese, who had supreme control 
over the sisterhood; that while an inmate of 
the convent she constantly violated its rules; 
and that, finally, she was dismissed the order 
with the full authorization of the diocesan. 
The trial excited considerable interest in re¬ 
ligious circles from anticipated revelations of 
convent life, but though it was protracted to 
an unusual length, and carried on with great 
seeming minuteness, nothing was brought out 
beyond the petty details of convent discipline, 
and the dislike with which the plaintiff was 
regarded by the other inmates. The examina¬ 
tion of witnesses went on till the 23d, when 
Mr. Mellish commenced to address the Court 
for the defendants. The Lord Chief Justice 
summed up on the 26th, putting five distinct 
issues before the jury—assault or no assault, 
imprisonment or no imprisonment, robbery or 
no robbery, libel or no libel, conspiracy or no 
conspiracy. On the evening of that day—the 
twentieth of hearing—the jury, after an absence 
of nearly three hours, found a verdict for the 
plaintiff on the counts for conspiracy and libel 
for 500/., including, however, in that sum the 


300/. already returned. On the minor counts 
a verdict was entered for the defendants. 

4 . —Sir Charles Slingsby and five other 
members of the York and Aynsley hunt 
drowned in the Ure, near Newby Hall, by 
the upsetting of a ferry-boat on which the 
huntsmen had hastily crowded to continue 
the chase across the river. 

5 . —Died, the Marquis de Moustier, late 
F/ench Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

— The French barque Virgine wrecked in 
the Isle of Man, and eight lives lost. 

— Hull Theatre burnt. 

6 . —The King of Italy formally resumes 
excavations in the buried city of Herculaneum. 

7 . —Collision in a gale off the Lizard, be¬ 
tween the Calcutta (with 270 miles of the 
Persian Gulf cable on board) and the Prussian 
barque Emma, from Cardiff. The latter sank 
at once, with her master and six of the crew; 
and the Calcutta was abandoned, though not 
before twelve of her hands were drowned in 
attempting to launch a life-boat. The rest of 
the crew and the servants of the telegraph 
company were saved, after considerable ex¬ 
posure, in boats which landed them at 
Penzance. 

— Died, aged 81, Joseph Hodgson, F.R.S., 
late President of the Royal College of 
Surgeons. 

8 . —Died, John Epps, M.D., an eminent 
homoeopathist. 

— Mrs. Cooper and her grandfather, an old 
pensioner, eighty-six years of age, and nearly 
blind, murdered, in their house at Poplar, by 
the husband of the first-mentioned victim, who 
committed suicide. 

9 . —Fire in Cape Colony, laying waste a 
tract of country 400 miles long and from 15 to 
20 miles broad. 

— The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland enter¬ 
tained by the Lord Mayor of Dublin at a ban¬ 
quet in the Mansion House. Cardinal Cullen 
was present, and spoke of Lord Spencer as an 
energetic young nobleman, who was deter¬ 
mined to carry out the benevolent views of his 
Government towards “this afflicted country." 

10. —Mr. Reverdy Johnson entertained at a 
banquet in Glasgow, and presented with an 
address expressive of satisfaction at the result 
of the negotiations between the two countries. 

— The Fishmongers entertain the Episcopal 
Bench at a banquet, and next night her 
Majesty’s Ministers. The Archbishop of York 
spoke of the bishops as the most liberal ele¬ 
ment in the House, seeing they were the only 
peers created for life; a statement which Mr. 
Bright characterised as an excess of hilarity, 
“though," he admitted, “it was possible, with a 
bishop’s income, I might have been as merry 
as any of them, with an inexhaustible source 
of rejoicing in the generosity, if not in the 
gratitude, of my countrymen.” 

S ( 859 ) 







FEBRUARY 


1869. 


FEBRUARY 


11 . —Wheelan, the assassin of Mr. Darcy 
M'Ghee, executed at Ottawa. 

— The steamer Nelly Stevens burnt on the 
Red River Arkansas, and 63 persons drowned. 

12. —The Gazette announces a change in the 
dress of gentlemen attending Court. 

— Six men drowned near Dursey Island, 
Bantry Bay, while attempting to relieve the 
1 ighthouse-keeper. 

— A deputation of agriculturists wait upon 
the Premier, to urge upon him the substitution 
of the present district poor-rate by a national 
rate, combined with local administration. 

13 . —Wreck of the American mail steamer 
Hermann on the coast of Japan, and loss of 
200 lives. 

— Died at Nice, Fuad Pasha, Turkish 
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Grand Vizier 
of the Sultan. 

— Died at Madrid, G. A. Bergenroth, a 
persevering and accomplished labourer among 
the ancient Spanish State papers preserved at 
Simancas. 

14 . —Eight persons killed by the falling of 
the chimney of a paper-mill at South Wood- 
side, Glasgow. 

15 . —The remains of Booth, the assassin of 
President Lincoln, given up to his relatives, 
and removed to Baltimore for interment. 

16 . —Parliament opened by Royal Commis¬ 
sion. The Royal Speech, read by the Lord 
Chancellor, made reference to the Convention 
for settling the differences between Turkey and 
Greece, to the diplomatic negotiations with the 
United States, and to the disturbances in New 
Zealand. Inquiry was promised into the present 
mode of conducting Parliamentary and muni¬ 
cipal elections ; and bills relating to education 
in Scotland, and for securing the principle of 
representation in the control of county rates, 
promised to be introduced. ‘ ‘ The ecclesiastical 
arrangements of Ireland,” it was stated, “will 
be brought under your consideration at a very 
early date, and the legislation which will be 
necessary in order to their final adjustment will 
make the largest demands upon the wisdom 
of Parliament. I am persuaded that, in the 
prosecution of the work, you will bear a careful 
regard to every legitimate interest which it may 
involve, and that you will be governed by 
the constant aim to promote the welfare of 
religion through the principles of equal justice, 
to secure the action of the undivided feeling 
and opinion of Ireland on the side of loyalty 
and law, to efface the memory of former con¬ 
tentions, and to cherish the sympathies of an 
affectionate people. ” The address was agreed 
to in each House without a division, the debate 
exciting less interest than Mr. Gladstone’s 
announcement that he would introduce the 
Government measure relating to the Irish 
Church on the 1st of March. To compensate 
to some extent for the absence of her Majesty 
at the opening of the new Parliament, it was 

(860) 


arranged that the House should present the 
Address in person, but owing to the illness of 
Prince Leopold this also had to be departed 
from. 

17 . —Vice-Chancellor Malins gives judgment 
in the case of Gray v. Lewis, a suit in which 
Mr. George Gray, of Rathmines, had filed a 
bill against Mr. Harvey Lewis, M.P., Sir J. 
Gray, M.P., and others, to recover 230,000/. 

' alleged to have been misappropriated by the 
defendants as directors of Lafitte and Co., 
Limited, and the National Bank. In order to 
get the shares of the Lafitte Company taken up, 
the promoters obtained, through the Ottoman 
Financial, the aid of the National Bank 
Directors, who supplied them with the amount 
required from the funds of the Lafitte Com¬ 
pany—a proceeding which the Vice-Chancellor 
now characterised as “ false, fraudulent, and 
fictitious.” He decided that the amount claimed 
must be restored with interest. 

— Collision, off Toulon, between the Turkish 
war steamer Latouche Treville , and the pas¬ 
senger steamer Prince Pierre. The latter sank 
with fifteen of the company on board. 

18 . —Died, aged 94, Charles Baldwin, a 
political writer of the old Tory school, and 
founder of the Standard newspaper. 

— The Foreign Affairs Committee of the 
American Senate recommend the rejection of 
the Alabama Claims Treaty negotiated between 
Mr. Reverdy Johnson and the Earl of Claren¬ 
don. President Grant was said to have ex¬ 
pressed an opinion that the claim ought to be 
based, not on the number or character of the 
vessels destroyed by privateers, but on the fact 
that the entire trade of the States was driven 
from the seas, and the war itself protracted by 
the countenance given to the South by Great 
Britain. 

19 . —After four preliminary examinations the 
Lord Mayor commits R. S. Lane and J. Childs 
for trial, on the charge of issuing a call 
circular to the shareholders of the Merchant’s 
Company containing statements which they knew 
to be false. 

— At the final sitting of the Conference of 
Paris to-day, it was formally declared that 
diplomatic relations between Turkey and Greece 
were again resumed. 

— The Inman steamer City of Paris , and 
the Cunard Company’s Russia, arrive off 
Queenstown, the former thirty minutes in ad¬ 
vance of the latter, after a close run from New 
York of about 3,000 miles. 

20 . —The American Senate’s Negro Suffrage 
Constitutional Amendment Bill agreed to in the 
House of Representatives, by 140 to 33 votes. 

— The Belgian Senate pass a bill prohibiting 
the purchase of any of their railways by French 
companies. 

— An insane lady, known as the Baroness 
Brayer, residing in the Rue Lafitte, Paris, shoots 
her husband and son, and then commits suicide. 






FEBRUARY 


MARCH 


1869. 


21. —The Austrian frigate Radetzky blown 
up off Lima, and about 380 people killed. 

22 . —The Moncrieff contrivance for mount¬ 
ing and protecting heavy artillery adopted by 
the Government, and the inventor awarded 
15,000/. for his ingenuity. 

— Baron Rothschild elected, without opposi¬ 
tion, one of the members for the City of London, 
in room of the late Mr. Bell. 

— The Duke of Edinburgh again visits 
Melbourne in the Galatea. 

23 . —Convocation opened by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, who received the congratulations 
of both Houses on his elevation to the Primacy. 
In the northern Province, the Archbishop of 
York stated that he had been compelled with 
great reluctance to set the law in motion against 
the Rev. Mr. Voysey, for heresies published in 
his periodical called “ TheSlingand the Stone.” 
A motion in favour of admitting laity to Con¬ 
vocation was lost by 27 votes to 8. On the 
24th, the proposal to disestablish the Irish 
Church gave rise to an animated debate. 
Archdeacon Denison deplored the “ great 
national sin ” into which the country seemed to 
be plunging. Dr. Jebb called upon the assembly 
to express its utter detestation of a most un¬ 
godly, wicked, and abominable measure. Arch¬ 
deacon Moore insisted that at all hazards the 
Queen must interfere to prevent ‘ ‘ this dreadful 
thing”—“better jeopardize her crown than 
destroy the Church.” Dr. Kaye complained 
of the persecution of the Irish Church for the 
last 300 years. The Deans of Westminster 
and Ely and the more moderate men tried to 
calm their excited brethren, but to no purpose. 
To the mild address to the Queen sent down 
from the Upper House an inflammatory para¬ 
graph was added, declaring that the Irish Church 
could not be touched without repudiating the 
Reformation. The Upper House refused to 
receive the amendment introduced into the 
address. On the 25th a petition presented by 
Archdeacon Denison from ninety-nine “priests 
of the Church of England,” praying that in 
teaching the doctrine of the Real Presence 
they might be protected from the imputation 
of unfaithfulness to the Church of England, 
was referred to the Committee of Privileges. 

25 .—The Duke of Argyll introduces a bill 
for the improvement of education in Scotland. 
The measure, founded on the report of a select 
committee, proposed to establish a central board, 
consisting of representatives elected by the 
counties, boroughs, and universities, with power 
to the Crown also to appoint its representatives. 
The entire control and management of all 
schools in Scotland was to be entrusted to 
its care, while the funds to be placed at its 
disposal were to be entirely free from Privy 
Council regulations. 

_ Gold discovered in Sutherlandshire. 

_ Five men killed at Bethnal Green, by the 

fall of a coal depot, on the Great Eastern Rail¬ 
way. 


25 .—Eire at Valparaiso, destroying property 
valued at a quarter of a million dollars. 

28 .—Died, aged 79, Alphonse de Lamartine, 
French poet, historian, and statesman. 

— Died, aged 64, Raymond Theodore de 
Troplong, President of the French Senate. 

March 1.—Mr. Gladstone in a crowded House 
obtains leave to introduce a bill “ to put an end 
to the Established Church in Ireland, to make 
provision in respect of the temporalities thereof, 
and of the Royal College of Maynooth. ” Refer¬ 
ring to the determination of the country to have 
the Irish Church question dealt with promptly, 
he then described the perplexing details by 
which it was beset, and the determination of 
the Cabinet to put an end to the entire system 
of public endowments in Ireland. The great 
object, he said, was final legislation, so that all 
controversy between rival religionists should be 
at once put aside. To allow of the necessary 
arrangements being made to meet the new con¬ 
dition of things, it was not intended that the 
Act should take effect before the 1st of January, 
1871. Immediately upon its forming, however, 
he proposed the appointment of a commission 
to endure for ten years, in which the entire 
property of the Church of Ireland would be 
vested, subject to life interests. Appointments 
might be made to spiritual offices without in¬ 
vesting the person presented with a freehold, 
and he might receive during the interval the 
full income as nearly as could be calculated ; 
but his title was to terminate when the pro¬ 
visional period was at an end, and when the 
disestablishment of the Irish Church was com¬ 
pleted. The vested interests of the clergy 
presented many difficulties, but as a rule he in¬ 
tended to follow the pattern set by the Canadian 
measure. With respect to bishops, all peerages 
were to lapse immediately; and so far as the 
College of Maynooth was concerned, he pro¬ 
posed to place it on precisely an analogous foot¬ 
ing to the Established Church, viz. a valuation 
of the annual grants at fourteen years’ purchase. 
The gross value of the Irish Church property 
Mr. Gladstone estimated at 16,000,000/. From 
this fell to be deducted the life interests of in¬ 
cumbents of all kinds, which would amount to 
4,900,000/.; compensation to curates, 800,000/.; 
by compensations, 900,000/. ; and Maynooth 
engagements, 1,100,000/. With the large sur¬ 
plus Mr. Gladstone proposed to make provision 
for the blind, deaf, and dumb, and other charities 
and lunatic asylums, for the relief (as expressed 
in the bill) of unavoidable calamity or suffering, 
but not so as to cancel the obligation of pro¬ 
perty for the relief of the poor. “This measuie, 
Mr. Gladstone said, “ is in every sense great- 
great in its principle, great in the multitude 
not merely of its dry and technical but in its 
important though intricate details. It is not 
only a great measure ; it is a lasting measure. 
It is a measure which will show to one and all 
of us what mettle we are made of. (Cheers.) 
Upon all of us it brings great responsibility. 

I 1 (861) 







MARCH 


1869. 


MARCH 


First and foremost upon those who occupy this 
bench. We are deeply chargeable, and guilty, 
if we have either dishonestly or prematurely 
and unwisely challenged so gigantic an issue. 
I know well the punishment which is due to 
rash politicians, and which ought to follow men 
who, with hands unequal to the task, attempt 
to guide the chariot of the sun. But the re¬ 
sponsibility, though heavy, does not exclusively 
press upon us ; it presses upon every man who 
takes a part in the discussion and the decision of 
this question. Every man who approaches this 
discussion is under the most solemn obligation 
to raise the level of his vision, and to expand 
his soul to the greatness of this principle. The 
working of our constitution is now on its trial. 
I do not believe there ever was a time when the 
wheels of the legislative machinery were set in 
motion under conditions of peace and constitu¬ 
tional order more fitted to deal with the question 
so proposed, and more especially when the 
credit and fame of this Assembly are involved. 
This House is now called upon to address itself 
to a task which would have demanded the best 
energies of the best of our fathers and ancestors. 
I believe it will prove itself worthy of the task. 
Should it fail, the fame of this Assembly will 
suffer disparagement. Should it succeed, its 
fame will receive no small or insensible addition. 

(Hear, hear, and cheers.) I must not ask 
hon. gentlemen opposite to concur in these 
sentiments. Grateful as I feel to them for the 
patience and courtesy with which they have 
heard statements in which they do not concur, 
I must not ask them to agree with me, but I do 
ask them to credit me and the colleagues who 
are with me when I say that we are sanguine of 
the issue. We know the controversy is near its 
end, and for my part I may say I am deeply 
convinced that when the day of final consum¬ 
mation shall send forth the words that give the 
force of law to this work of peace and justice, 
those words will be echoed from every shore 
where the names of Ireland and Great Britain 
are known, and the answer will come back in 
the approving verdict of civilized mankind. 
(Loud cheers.)”—On the part of the Opposition, 
Mr. Disraeli intimated that while still of opinion 
that the proposed alienation of the Irish Church 
property to secular uses was confiscation, the 
Ministry had yet a right to place their policy 
before the country, and it was not therefore 
intended to place any obstacle in the way of 
this being done at the present stage of the 
measure. The bill was thereafter read a first 
time. 

1. —Great meeting in Edinburgh, on the sub¬ 
ject of Christian missions in India, presided 
over by the Lord Justice-General. 

— Edmund Lockyer, one of the candidates 
at the recent election for the Wick burghs, 
sentenced by the High Court of Justiciary to 
twelve months’ imprisonment, for intercepting 
and opening letters addressed to Miss Sinclair, 
Edinburgh. 

2 . —Died at Crosthwaite, aged 101, Sally 

(862) 


Yoredale, widely known as the “Queen of 
Barrowdale. ” 

2 . —Died, aged 89, Field-Marshal Viscount 
Gough, who entered the army at the early age 
of 15, and saw much active service in the 
Peninsula, China, and India. 

— Another double murder and suicide com • 
milted at Poplar, a man named Bradshaw 
cutting the throat of his landlady, Mrs. Brown, 
and her daughter, and then his own. 

— Bombay Post Office destroyed by fire. 

3 . —Mr. Fawcett’s Election Expenses Bill 
rejected by 168 to 165 votes. 

— Defeat of the Spanish troops by the 
Cuban insurgents at Villa Clara. 

A. —Supplemental grant of 3,600,000/. voted 
for defraying the cost of the Abyssinian ex¬ 
pedition. 

— The Home Secretary’s motion for a com¬ 
mittee to inquire into the mode of conducting 
Parliamentary and municipal elections agreed 
to. 

— Amid loud cheers from the Opposition, 
Mr. Gathorne Hardy gives notice that, when 
the Irish Church Bill next comes up for con¬ 
sideration, Mr. Disraeli would move that it be 
read a second time that day six months. 

— A conference at the rooms of the Society 
of Arts unanimously resolve that there was no 
occasion for calling into existence, at present, 
any new society having for its object the im¬ 
provement of the condition of the agricultural 
labourer. 

— Elopement of the wife of Captain Vivian 
(M.P. for Truro and a Lord of the Treasury) 
with the Marquis of Waterford. They were 
traced to Paris; but Mrs. Vivian refused to 
return to her husband. (See Aug. 4.) 

— The North German Parliament opened 
by the King of Prussia. 

— General Grant takes the oath of office 
as a President of the U nited States, and issues 
a proclamation in which he states: “I will 
interpose my veto to defeat measures to which 
I am opposed; but all laws will be faithfully 
executed, whether they meet with my approval 
or not. I shall have a policy to recommend, 
but none to enforce against the will of the 
people. The laws are to govern all those 
approving, as well as those opposing them. 

I know no method to secure the repeal of 
obnoxious laws so effectual as their stringent 
execution.” Every dollar, he presumed, of the 
National debt must be paid in gold unless other¬ 
wise stipulated at the time of being contracted. 

S.—Benjamin Higgs, in the employ of the 
Great Central Gas Company, absconds after 
appropriating to his own use sums of money 
belonging to the company stated to amount to 
71,214/. From his position as bookkeeper, he 
contrived to secure entire control over the money 
paid in by the sub-collectors, and for years he 
appeared to have systematically appropriated 





MARCH 


MARCH 


1869. 


large sums to his own use. His salary was 
under 145/. per annum ; but he lived in the 
most magnificent style at Tide End House, 
Teddington, in which neighbourhood a new 
mansion was presently being built for him at 
an estimated cost of 50,000/. 

6 . —Died suddenly, aged 65, Sir J. Emerson 
Tennent, formerly Permanent Secretary to the 
Board of Trade, and Governor of Ceylon. 

8 . —The steamer Cambria , trading between 
Trieste and London, wrecked on the coast of 
Brolo, Sicily, and eighteen of her crew drowned. 

— The Legislature of Newfoundland pass a 
resolution in favour of a union with Canada. 

9 . —The clipper-ship Blue Jacket burnt at 
sea on her voyage home from New Zealand. 
Nine survivors, greatly exhausted from exposure, 
but still able to guard 15,000/. of the ship’s 
gold, were picked up on the 29th, and landed 
at Stanley, Falkland Islands. 

— Information forwarded from Hong Kong 
of the wreck of the Pacific mail-steamer 
Herman , with 300 Japanese troops on board. 

11 .—Strike in the cotton trade at Preston. 

— Died, aged 68, the Earl of Glasgow, a 
popular supporter of the turf. 

— Destruction by fire of Durham Theatre, 
once the property of the Kemble family. 

13 .—Dissolution of the Reform League, and 
formation of a Vigilance Committee to watch 
the course of public affairs. 

— The economical reforms introduced by the 
new Board of Admiralty lead to the closing to¬ 
day of the Royal Dockyard at Deptford. 

— Died, aged 77, Sir William Clay, formerly 
M.P. for the Tower Hamlets. 

16 . —The Lord Mayor of Dublin appears at 
the bar of the House of Commons, and pre¬ 
sents a petition praying for perfect religious 
equality in Ireland, an amnesty to political 
prisoners, consolidation of Irish railways, and 
a reduction of the tariff for goods and pas¬ 
sengers. 

17 . —Bursting of a dam in Brierley Hill pit, 
leading to the flooding of the workings. With 
one exception, all the miners contrived to main¬ 
tain existence by breathing close to the water, 
and, to the intense joy of their relatives around 
the pit-head, were rescued after an imprisonment 
varying from five to six days. 

— St. Patrick’s Day. Soiree at Cork in 
honour of the liberated Fenians. O’Mahoney 
said he regretted nothing in the past, and was 
hopeful for the future. “Colonel” Warren 
declared himself in favour of the sabre as a 
means of uplifting a down-trodden nation. 

18. —Madame Rachel recommitted to New¬ 
gate, one of her bail having asked to be re¬ 
lieved from his surety on the plea of her in¬ 
tended flight from the country. 

— Partial opening of the Suez Canal, the 
waters of the Mediterranean being admitted 


into the Bitter Lakes in presence of the 
Viceroy. 

18 .—On the order of the day for the second 
reading of the Irish Church Bill, Mr. Disraeli 
opposes the measure in a speech dealing chiefly 
with those features of the measure which ap¬ 
peared to him as justifying acts of spoliation 
and confiscation against private as well as public 
property. “There were,” he said, “many 
private properties in Ireland—some of them 
large and some of them rich—and they belong 
to Irish gentlemen, most of them living in Ire¬ 
land ; but there are Irish gentlemen in Ireland, 
accomplished men, the most witty, eloquent, 
and entertaining in the world—(laughter)—but 
they are gentlemen who have not estates that 
are either large or rich. (Laughter.) Now, 
after the announcement of this principle of 
sheer forfeiture, without the application of that 
forfeiture to any body which could cany out 
the original intention of the founders—after 
the public proclamation by the right hon. 
gentleman of those astounding principles— 
what would be the natural course which Irish 
gentlemen, having no estates, would take? 
This is a serious matter, and it is only by 
trying it in this way you can discover the 
validity of the arguments in its favour. Let 
me suppose there is a deputation to the right 
hon. gentleman of Irish gentlemen in this un¬ 
fortunate position—(laughter)—their argument 
would be this: We find ourselves in an anoma¬ 
lous position—(loud laughter)—our breeding is 
not inferior to that of our habitual companions; 
our education is the same; our pursuits are 
similar; we meet in the same hunting-field; we 
drink the same claret—(laughter)—we stand 
opposite to one another in the same dance; 
and our feelings are hurt because some of our 
companions have estates of 6,000/., 8,000/., or 
10,000/. a year—broad acres and extensive 
woods. (Laughter.) We know the spirit of 
the age in which we live. (Roars of laughter 
and loud cheers.) We know that selfishness is 
not for a moment to be tolerated. We there¬ 
fore don’t ask for the estates of our more for¬ 
tunate companions, but we only ask you to 
take them away from them; establish, as one 
of your great measures of Irish regeneration, 
social equality, and let all Irish gentlemen, 
like the Irish Roman Catholic Church, live 
upon voluntary contributions.” Applying the 
principles of the measure to corporate property 
Mr. Disraeli continued: “I speak in the capital 
of an ancient nation, remarkable above all the 
nations of the world for its old and rich en¬ 
dowments. Charity—in its most gracious, in 
its most learned, and in its most humane form, 
has established institutions in this country to 
soften the asperities of human existence. 
(Cheers.) Now, Sir, there are three great 
hospitals in this very city endowed with estates 
which might entitle them to rank with the 
wealthiest of our Peers. Their united rentals 
alone considerably exceed 100,000 1 . a year. 
The House knows well the great establish¬ 
ments to which I refer--St. Bartholomew’s, St. 

( 86 "?) 








MARCH 


MARCH 


1869. 


Thomas’s, and Guy’s Hospitals. (Hear, hear.) 
But there are other hospitals in this city where 
the physicians are not less skilful, where the 
surgeons are not less celebrated, where the 
staff is not less devoted, and who give all their 
energies and learning, and even their lives, to 
mitigate the sufferings of humanity. (Cheers.) 
Must it not be a most painful anomaly—must 
it not be, according to the new principles, 
most painful to their feelings, as the existence of 
the Irish Protestant Church is to the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy of Ireland—must it not be 
most painful to those eminent physicians and 
surgeons and their devoted staffs, to feel that, if 
the great end is accomplished, they must be 
supported by voluntary contributions, which 
sometimes entail humiliations? Why should 
not a Minister come forward, and, in the en¬ 
lightened spirit which seems to inspire all the 
right hon. gentleman’s policy, concede to these 
gentlemen that this painful anomaly should be 
done away with, and that St. George’s Hospital, 
and perhaps Westminster Hospital, all now de¬ 
pending upon voluntary contributions, should 
be placed on an equality, by depriving them of 
those great endowments which gave a factitious 
importance to their profession? (Hear, hear.) 
There is a great deal to be said for this. The 
Minister would have 120,000/. a year, and could 
in the most handsome manner give it to the 
farmers of England to reduce the county rates. 
(Laughter, and cheers.) I ask seriously, Is it 
possible, if you are to adopt these new prin¬ 
ciples for Ireland, that you should not apply 
them also to England? What does the right 
hon. gentleman ask, and what are the terms he 
offers the Irish Protestant Church? Well, he 
makes four propositions. The first is, that the 
vested interests of every individual should be 
respected : that, I say, goes for nothing. There 
is no combination of circumstances by which 
any human being who is Prime Minister of this 
country could propose, any confiscation of pro¬ 
perty without securing the vested interests. 
You would outrage the feelings of Parliament 
and the conscience of the country by adopt¬ 
ing any other course. (Cheers.) ” 

19 .—Continuation of debate on the Irish 
Church Bill, Dr. Ball, the Irish Attorney- 
General of the last Administration, making 
to-night a closely reasoned speech against the 
measure. He was followed by Mr. Bright, 
who declared that the policy pursued in Ire¬ 
land up to this time had made Catholicism not 
only a faith to which the people clung with 
desperate tenacity, but a patriotism for which 
numbers of her children were willing to suffer 
and die if necessary. He taunted the Opposi¬ 
tion with being perfectly alive to the evils of 
Ireland, but afraid or incompetent to deal with 
them. Byway of encouragement to the disestab¬ 
lished Irish Church, Mr. Bright referred to what 
had been accomplished since 1843 by the Free 
Church of Scotland, which had gone out of the 
Establishment absolutely naked—“not a church 
left them, nor a glebe-house, nor a curtilage, 
nor a commutation, nor, I will be bound to say, 
'864) 


with a single good wish or ‘ God bless you ! ’ 
on that side of the House. They had built 900 
churches, 650 manses, 500 schools, three theo¬ 
logical colleges, and two training institutions. 
“ And yet the learned member for Dublin 
University has the courage to say, in the pre¬ 
sence of many members of the Nonconformist 
body, that the ministers of the voluntary churches 
are rather of a low class—(Hear, and laughter) 
—that they are not high born. As to being 
high born, I think the prophets of old were 
many of them graziers. The apostles were 
fishermen and handicraftsmen. (Hear, hear.) 
It was a religion, as we are told, to which 
‘ not many noble and not many mighty were 
called.’ (Cheers.) It may be that in this age 
and in this country the light of the Reformation 
and of Christianity may be carried through the 
land by men of humble birth with just as much 
success as may attend a man who is born in a 
great mansion or palace.” As to the uses to 
which it was proposed to apply the endow¬ 
ments, “If I were particular on the point 
about the sacred nature of these endowments, 
I should even then be satisfied with the pro¬ 
visions of this bill, for after all I hope it is not 
far from Christianity to charity. We know 
the Divine Founder of our faith has left much 
more of the doings of a compassionate and 
loving heart than He has of dogma. (Hear, 
hear.) I am not able to give the verses or 
the chapters, but what always strikes one most 
in reading the narratives of the Gospels is how 
much of compassion there was, how much of 
dealing kindly with all that were sick and all 
that were suffering. Do you think that it will 
be a misappropriation of the surplus funds of 
this great transaction to apply them to some 
objects such as those described in the bill? 
Don’t you think that such charitable dealing 
will be better than continuing to maintain by 
these vast funds three times the number of 
clergymen that can be the slightest use to the 
Church with which they are connected ? (Hear, 
hear.) We can do little, it is true. We cannot 
re-illume the extinguished lamp of reason; we 
cannot make the deaf to hear; we cannot make 
the dumb to speak; it is not given to us— 

* From the thick film to purge the visual ray, 

And on the sightless eyeballs pour the day.’ 

But at least we can lessen the load of affliction, 
and we can make life more tolerable to vast 
numbers who suffer.” (Loud cheers.) Mr. 
Bright concluded: “Sir, when I look at this 
great measure—and I can assure the House 1 
have looked at it much more than the majority 
of members, because I have seen it grow from 
line to line, and from clause to clause, and 
have watched its growth and its completion 
with a great and increasing interest—I say, 
when I look at .this measure, I look at it 
as tending to a more true and solid union be¬ 
tween Ireland and Great Britain. I see it 
giving tranquillity to our people. (A laugh 
from the Opposition, followed by Ministerial 
cheers.) When you have a better remedy I at 
least will fairly consider it. (Cheers.) I say I see 







MARCH 


1869. 


MARCH 


tranquillity given to our people, greater strength 
to the realm, and new lustre and new dignity j 
added to the Crown. (Hear, hear.) I dare ; 
claim for this bill the support of all thoughtful 
and good people within the bounds of the 
British empire—(Hear)—and I cannot doubt 
that it will be accompanied by the blessing 
of the Supreme in its beneficent results; for I 
believe it to be founded upon those principles 
of justice and of mercy which are the glorious 
attributes of His eternal reign. (Loud cheers.)” i 

19 . —The friends of Mr. Roebuck at Sheffield j 
present him with an address and 3,000/. 

— The Belgian Government accept the 
proposal made by France to settle the dis¬ 
puted railway arrangements by a commission. 

— Mr. J. A. Froude installed as Rector 
of the University of St. Andrew’s. He de¬ 
livered an address on the occasion, regarding 
the influence of the Reformation in Scotland, 
education, and university training. 

20. —The Chancellor of the Exchequer de¬ 
clines to accede to the request made by a 
deputation from the Meteorological Society of 
Scotland that they might participate in the 
grant of 10,000/. annually voted to the Royal 
.Society. His experience of Government grants 
was this : “ People found schools, for instance, 
with the greatest enthusiasm, and the greatest 
wish to promote the interests of education and 
of religious teaching; they make great sacrifices, 
and do a great deal of most praiseworthy work; 
but from the moment they begin to finger 
Government money it seems as if it produces a 
revolution in their minds, and the whole object 
of the schools seems to be perverted from the 
real intention of the people who found them, 
and directed to the getting of the greatest pos¬ 
sible amount of Government money. Nothing 
impairs or relaxes the efforts of voluntary 
societies more than the receiving of Govern¬ 
ment money, and I really believe that if I were 
to give you 300/. I should be doing you the 
greatest unkindness of which I could possibly 
be guilty.” 

— The steamer Italian wrecked off Cape 
Finisterre, and twenty-six of her crew drowned. 

22 .—Sir Roundell Palmer, resuming the ad¬ 
journed debate on the Irish Church Bill, said 
that naturally all his impulses would lead 
him to support the Government measure, but a 
sense of imperious and overwhelming necessity 
led him to an opposite course. He considered 
that there was certainly a crisis in the affairs of 
Ireland; still he believed the condition of that 
country to have been gradually improving for 
years past. The remedy for any discontent 
was not that proposed by Mr. Gladstone. His 
bill was disestablishment, accompanied by uni¬ 
versal disendowment; and to this act of in¬ 
justice he could never give his consent. 

__ John Dolan and John McConville 
executed within the precincts of Durham jail, 
the former for murdering Ward at Sunderland, 
the latter for murdering Trainer at Darlington. 

(865) 


22 . —Died Lieut.-Colonel Sleigh, founder of 
the Daily Telegraph. 

23 . —The adjourned debate on the Irish 
Church Bill was resumed to-night by Mr. Wal¬ 
pole, who treated the measure as nothing less 
than a legislative revolution—a destruction and 
violation of fundamental laws, and an abolition 
of institutions hitherto esteemed as essential to 
the well-being of the community. Mr. Glad¬ 
stone wound up the debate, which had now 
been protracted over four nights. On a division, 
Ministers were found to have a majority of 118 
in a House of 618 members. 

— The House of Commons adjourns for the 
Easter recess. 

24 -.—A journey on bicycles from Liverpool 
to London undertaken by two members of the 
Liverpool Velocipede Club. 

— Three men drowned at Sunderland by 
the upsetting of a pleasure-boat in which the 
party had commenced quarrelling. 

— Died, aged 90, Thomas Brown, a member 
of the publishing house of Longman and Co., 
and a liberal contributor to the decoration of 
St. Paul’s. 

— Died, aged 90, General Jomini, writer on 
military science. 

26 . —Demonstration in Trafalgar-square in 
honour of the memory of Ernest Jones. 

27 . —Great Durbar at Umballa, the Earl o( 
Mayo welcoming Shere Ali of Afghanistan in 
the name of the Queen, and expressing his hope 
that the interview would be the commencement 
of a new era of mutual confidence. 

28 . —The South London Music Hall burnt. 

— The Holy Communion administered ac¬ 
cording to the Protestant rite in Madrid for the 
first time since the days of Philip II. 

29 . —The Greek Chamber dissolved by Royal 
decree. 

— Came on at Norwich the trial of William 
Sheward, charged on his own confession with 
the murder of his wife in June 1851. (See 
June 21, 1851.) The great difficulty with which 
the prosecution had to contend was the discre¬ 
pancy between the age of Mrs. Sheward at the 
time of her death (54) and the age of the woman 
of whom the remains found formed part, as esti¬ 
mated on their first examination in 1851 by the 
medical gentlemen called in to inspect the dis¬ 
jecta membra. The official handbill issued on 
the subject of the murder in June, 1851, re- 
feired to the remains of the person supposed 
to have been murdered as those of a woman 
“between sixteen and twenty-six.” On the 
i other hand, it was shown that the portions of 
the body which the medical men were able to 
examine did not include those by which they 
could have formed a conclusive opinion, and as 
a matter of fact they seem to have based their 
conclusion very much upon the mere appear¬ 
ance of the skin. The jury took an hour and a 
quarter to consider the case, and then returned 
a verdict of gudty. Sheward was sentenced to 

3 K 










MARCH 


1869. 


APRIL 


death in the usual form, Mr. Baron Pigott 
making no observations upon the peculiar 
character of the case. 

29 . —The training-ship Ferret wrecked off 
Dover in a storm, which also interfered with the 
arrangements made for carrying out the annual 
Volunteer review in that locality. Eighty-six 
of the lads on board the training-ship made a 
narrow escape. 

30 . —Sir John Lawrence gazetted to the 
Peerage as Baron Lawrence of the Punjaub 
and of Grately, in the county of Herts. 

— Sir Sydney Waterlow, ejected from his 
seat for Dumfriesshire on the ground that he 
was a contractor under Government, is de¬ 
feated to-day, in the new contest rendered 
necessary, by his old Conservative opponent, 
Major Walker. 

— Draft of the new Spanish constitution 
presented to the Cortes. The clause relative 
to religion proposed that the Roman Catholic 
Church should be supported by State funds, 
but that toleration should be extended to all 
other bodies. 

— Mr. Reverdy Johnson entertained at New¬ 
castle. 

31 . —Bill for the modification of the Tenure 
of Office Act in America agreed to, after a 
Conference between both Houses. 

April 1.—Explosion in Highbrook colliery, 
Wigan, causing the death of thirty-six work¬ 
men. 

— Lord Stanley installed Lord Rector of 
Glasgow University, and afterwards entertained 
at a banquet in the city. 

—- Arrival of the Prince and Princess of 
Wales at Constantinople. 

2 . — Discussion in Committee of Supply on 
the new constitution of the Admiralty, the 
dismissal of clerks, and the closing of dockyards. 

— Reduction of the African squadron for 
the suppression of the slave trade announced 
in the House of Commons by the First Lord 
of the Admiralty. 

3 . —Prince Arthur holds a levee at St. 
James’s Palace, on behalf of her Majesty. 

— Lord Cloncurry commits suicide by throw¬ 
ing himself from the window of his residence, 
Lyons, Kildare. 

— The Provisional Government of Spain 
issue a decree permitting the introduction of 
Bibles in foreign languages into the country. 

5 . —In the course of a discussion in the 
House of Lords on the recent operations in 
Formosa, where the natives were first exasper¬ 
ated by the missionaries and then bombarded, 
Lord Clarendon condemned the conduct of the 
British officials, and stated that the consul had 
been reprimanded and removed to another port. 

6 . —Sir J. P. Wilde gazetted Baron Pen¬ 
zance of Penzance. 

(S66) 


6. —At the anniversary dinner of the Royal 
Asylum of St. Ann’s Society, Mr. Reverdy 
Johnson announces that he had sent in his re¬ 
signation to his Government, and was likely to 
be succeeded by Mr. Lothrop Motley. He did 
not know, he said, whether the United States 
were dissatisfied with the Convention he had 
signed; but of this he was assured, that England 
would never accede to demands opposed to hex 
rights and honour. 

7 . —Don Fernando, ex-King of Portugal, 
declines to accept the crown of Spain. 

—■ Fire in the silver mines of Nevada, 
causing the loss of thirty-six lives. 

— Numerous diocesan conferences held 
throughout Ireland, to discuss the Disestab¬ 
lishment Bill. At one the measure was pro¬ 
nounced to be “highly offensive to Almighty 
God. ” At another, at Ossory, the Bishop main¬ 
tained that the bill was “framed in a spirit of 
inveterate hostility to the Church.” The Earl of 
Carrick regarded the passage of the bill as the 
“ greatest national sin ever committed. ” Lord 
de Vesci moved a resolution, referring to the 
measure as a “perilous weakening of the foun¬ 
dations of property ; ” and the Archdeacon of 
Ossory bade the meeting “ trust in God and 
keep their powder dry.” He explained, how¬ 
ever, that, in making this reference, he made 
no allusion to “carnal weapons.” At Cork 
Lord Bandon declared “compromise utterly 
impracticable. ” If the Church were plundered 
to-day, he asked, what security had he for his 
property to-morrow? At Tralee, Mr. Wade, 
the rector of Kenmare, was bold enough to 
speak in favour of the bill, but he was at once as¬ 
sailed by hisses and cries of “traitor” and “turn 
him out.” At a meeting held near Newry, the 
Rev. Mr. Stokes is reported to have said that if 
a single Protestant cathedral, Protestant church, 
or Protestant parsonage-house in the most re¬ 
mote or distant parts of Connaught or Munster 
was handed over to the apostate Church of Rome 
they would know where to find cathedrals that 
were just as good as the cathedrals handed 
over. “They knew where to find the Roman 
Catholic cathedral of Armagh, and they felt 
that their 200,000 stout arms would be able to 
hold it. They would say to the pastors of 
every Protestant church that, before they gave 
it up to any apostate system, a barrel of gun¬ 
powder and a box of matches would send it to 
the winds of heaven.” 

— Orange demonstration at Exeter Hall “in 
opposition to the proposed spoliation of the 
Irish Church, and the aggrandisement of May- 
nooth out of its spoils.” Mr. Charley said that 
in his part of the country there were thousands 
of Protestants who thought Mr. Gladstone was 
“ a traitor to his Queen, his country, and his 
God,” and added that the righteous retribution 
which he (Mr. Charley) would visit upon Mr. 
Gladstone was “perpetual exclusion from 
power for having dared to put his hand on the 
ark of God.” The Rev. Mr. Aldwell observed 






APRIL 


APRIL 


1869. 


that he was not afraid to speak of the present 
Cabinet as a “Cabinet of brigands ; ” and if, 
for doing so, he was called uncharitable, he 
answered that “ charity rejoiceth in the truth.” 
Petitions were adopted to the Queen and to 
the Upper House, the first praying her Majesty 
to dismiss her present advisers, and the other 
asking the Lords to reject the Irish Church Bill. 

7 . —Ellen Cook tried at the Central Criminal 
Court, and sentenced to fifteen years’ penal ser¬ 
vitude, for mutilating her husband. 

8 . —Dr. Jackson enthroned Bishop of Lon¬ 
don, at St. Paul’s. 

— Destruction, by fire, of the town of Bonny, 
West Africa. 

— Exposures at the Edmonton petty sessions 
of the fraud practised by the National and Pro¬ 
vincial Union Assurance and Loan Society, in 
placing on the directorate butlers and other 
servants living in the fashionable quarters of 
London. 

— The Habitual Criminals Act passes the 
House of Lords. It was designed to make fur¬ 
ther provision for the suppression of crime by 
ticket-of-leave men and old offenders, and gave 
authority for their summary apprehension, when 
there was any suspicion they were obtaining 
their livelihood by dishonest means. 

— The Chancellor of the Exchequer intro¬ 
duces the annual Budget. He estimated the 
revenue for the ensuing year at 72,855,000/., or 
264,000/. in excess of the past year, and the ex¬ 
penditure at 68,223,000/., showing a reduction 
for the corresponding period of 2,261,000/., 
effected principally in the departments presided 
over by the Secretary of State for War and the 
First Lord of the Admiralty. The extra charge 
on account of the Abyssinian war (which had 
cost in all 9,000,000/.) would so far absorb the 
surplus, as to leave little more than 32,000/. avail¬ 
able for other purposes. Mr. Lowe then dwelt at 
considerable detail upon the inconvenience and 
expense which were occasioned by the existing 
method of collecting taxes, through amateur 
agency, and in two or three instalments ; and 
explained the changes which he proposed to 
introduce into the system. The assessed taxes 
he proposed—following the example of the dog 
tax—to transform into Excise licences, payable 
at the commencement of the year; and the land 
and income tax and the house duty he proposed 
in future to collect in a single payment at the be¬ 
ginning of the year, between January and April. 
The taxes already incurred would be levied ac¬ 
cording to the old principle—omitting the col¬ 
lection in October—and the licences would 
come into operation on the 1st of April, 1870. 
These changes would produce a gain of 
3,350,000/., and raise the actual surplus of the 
year to 3,382,000/. How should this windfall 
be employed? was the next question. He pro¬ 
mised the reduction of the income tax by a 


plus would be applied to the rearrangement and 
reduction of the assessed taxes, measures which 
would include the abolition of the taxes on hair- 
powder and post-horses and the licences for the 
sale of tea, a large reduction of the duties upon 
cabs and carriages, and the readjustment- 
involving a slight increase—of the duty upon 
armorial bearings. These reductions and altera¬ 
tions would involve a remission of taxation to 
the amount of 3,060,000/., of which 2,940,000/. 
would come into operation during the present 
year ; and after all this had been accomplished, 
there would remain an absolute net surplus 
of 442,000/. The Budget was, as a whole, 
favourably received, though some discontent 
was expressed at the proposal to collect the in¬ 
come tax and house duty in a single payment. 

9 . —Earl Russell’s Bill, empowering the 
Crown to confer life peerages for distinguished 
public services, introduced and read a first 
time. 

— Mr. Fawcett’s motion, in favour of ap¬ 
pointments to the Civil and Diplomatic Services 
being left to open competition, rejected by 281 
to 30 votes. 

— Died, aged 89, William Pleydell Bou- 
verie, Earl Radnor, a prominent member of 
the Liberal party in the early part of the cen¬ 
tury. 

— J. T. Gambier and W. Rumble—the 
former a chief clerk in the Admiralty, and the 
latter an inspector of machinery afloat—tried at 
the Central Criminal Court, and sentenced to 
eighteen months’ hard labour for conspiring to 
defraud certain persons contracting with the 
Board of Admiralty. 

— Acceptance by the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ 
pany of the proposal of the British Government 
to cede all their territorial rights in North 
America to the Dominion of Canada, on pay¬ 
ment of 300,000/. compensation. 

10. —Complimentary banquets given to Mr. 
Dickens in Liverpool, and to the Lord Advo¬ 
cate of Scotland (Moncrieff) in St. James’s 
Hall, London. The latter was presided over 
by the Duke of Argyll. 

— The American House of Representatives 
pass a resolution authorising the President to 
recognise any Republican Government that 
might be formed in Cuba. 

— Strike of miners in Belgium, followed by 
alarming riots at Liege, Borinage, and Seraing. 

11 . —The Jubilee Mass of Pope Pius IX. 

I observed with great solemnity at Rome, and 
j generally by Catholics of the Western Church. 

12 . —Fall of an iron bridge spanning Skel- 
ton-beck, Saltbum-on-the-Sea, causing the death 
of two workmen employed on the structure, and 
serious injury to a third. 


r ienny, the abolition of the shilling duty still 
levied upon corn, and the abolition of the duty 
on fire insurance. Another portion of the sur- 
(867) 


— Grant of pensions by the Emperor 
Napoleon to all the surviving soldiers of the 
First Empire, “ to re-awaken great historical 
memories, ” 

3 K - 









APRIL 


APRIL 


1869. 


12 . —Meeting of the Conservative party at 
Lord Lonsdale’s house, Carlton-terrace, to 
consider the course that should be adopted 
with regard to the Irish Church Bill. Mr. 
Disraeli spoke at some length, and advised 
his followers not to waste their energies upon 
isolated amendments, but to concentrate them 
upon a few which they might have some hope 
of carrying. Eleven amendments of great 
length, prepared by Dr. Ball, were then sub¬ 
mitted and agreed to with some slight altera¬ 
tions. The purport of the most important 
of these was, that the glebes should be given 
over to the Church without purchase; that all 
private endowments since the Reformation (not 
since the Restoration, as Mr. Gladstone pro¬ 
poses) should be respected ; and that the com¬ 
pensation for the Maynooth Grant should not 
come out of the Church funds. There were 
about 120 gentlemen present; among those 
absent was Lord Stanley. 

13 . —The Senate of the United States, by 
an overwhelming majority—54 to I—reject the 
Alabama Claims Treaty. Senator Sumner 
made a violent speech against England, his 
three leading points being that the escape and 
career of the Alabama , and the manner in which 
her depredations were viewed by the British 
Government, constitute an offence against the 
national dignity, for which England ought to 
offer an apology, or make some similar moral 
atonement; secondly, that in estimating the 
material damages inflicted by the rebel cruisers, 
the total loss to American commerce caused 
by the fear of the cruisers, consisting in 
the abandonment of the carrying trade by 
American shipowners, and the sale of their 
ships to foreigners, must be taken into ac¬ 
count ; and he hinted that the cost of carrying 
on the war, for at least a portion of the time, as 
a probable consequence of English sympathy, 
ought to be taken into account also. “ The truth 
must be told,” he said, “ not in anger, but in 
sadness; England has done to the United States 
an injury most difficult to measure. Consider¬ 
ing when it was done, and with what compli¬ 
city, it is most unaccountable. At a great epoch 
of history—most true that was, it was a great 
epoch—not less momentous than that of the 
French Revolution, or that of the Reforma¬ 
tion, when civilization was fighting a last battle 
with slavery, England gave her name, her in¬ 
fluence, her material resources to the wicked 
cause, and flung a sword into the scale with 
slavery.” 

— Church Conference meets at Dublin, to 
protest against the Irish Church Bill. 

— A company of emigrants, 320 in number, 
selected from the East end of London, leave 
Liverpool for Canada. 

14. —Mr. Russell Gurney’s Married Wo¬ 
men’s Property Bill read a second time, and re¬ 
mitted to a select committee. 

— The Hon. John Lothrop Motley ap¬ 
pointed United States Envoy to Great Britain. 
* f£68) 


14 . —In his Report to the Board of Trade * 
on the Abergele disaster, issued to-day, Colonel 
Rich writes : “I fear that it is only too true 
that the rules printed and issued by railway 
companies to their servants, and which are 
generally very good, are made principally with 
the object of being produced when accidents 
happen from the breach of them, and that the 
companies systematically allow many of them 
to be broken daily, without taking the slightest 
notice of the disobedience.” Colonel Rich 
also condemned the practice on the part of the 
companies of locking the railway carriages, 
and the system on the part of the public of 
treating railway officials—a system which was 
rapidly increasing, and sure to be attended with 
its chapter of accidents. 

15. —Lord Lawrence takes the oaths and his 
seat in the House of Lords. 

— The motion to go into Committee on the 
Irish Church Bill carried, after a debate of six 
hours, by 355 votes to 229. 

— The Naturalization Treaty with Great 
Britain ratified by the United States Senate. 

16 . —In Committee on the Irish Church Bill, 
Mr. Disraeli moved the rejection of clause 2, 
providing for the dissolution of the union 
between the Churches of England and Ireland, 
his object, as explained, being to maintain a 
uniformity of doctrine between the two bodies, 
and to continue to the Irish establishment a 
right equal to that enjoyed by the Catholic, in 
having a supreme head. The amendment was 
rejected by 344 to 221 votes. 

— A proposal made in the North German 
Parliament, for the appointment of a responsible 
Federal Ministry, carried against Count Bis¬ 
marck by in to 100 votes. 

— The sloop Nelly (Watson), trading be¬ 
tween Ayr and Belfast, founders in a gale near 
the entrance of Belfast Lough, the captain’s 
wife and four children going down with her, 
while a fifth, a boy, who got into the small boat 
belonging to the sloop, died in his father’s 
arms, in a state of delirium, the following day. 
The latter was rescued in a state of great ex¬ 
haustion. 

17 . —Destructive fires at cotton mills in 
Blackburn, Oldham, and Bolton. 

— The foundation stone of a Metropolitan 
District Asylum for South London laid at 
Caterham, by Dr. Brewer. 

— Died, aged 61, Rev. Dr. Cook, Professor 
of Ecclesiastical History in the University of 
St. Andrew’s. 

— Mr. and Mrs. Powell, of North Wales, 
with their son and three attendants, murdered 
by a party of Abyssinian marauders on the Tuc- 
cagia. 

— The Spanish Cortes authorise the Pro¬ 
visional Government to send the whole fleet, if 
necessary, to Cuba for the suppression of the 
insurrection. 








APRIL 


1869. 


APRIL 


18 . —The schooner Elizabeth , trading be¬ 
tween Sunderland and Dundee, wrecked on the 
coast of Northumberland, and the captain, mate, 
seaman drowned. 

— Attempt to upset the train conveying 
King Victor Emmanuel, at Foggia, on his 
journey to Naples. 

19 . —A company of 216 Dockyard workmen 
leave Portsmouth for Canada. Another party 
left on the 30th. 

— In Committee on the Irish Church Bill, 
clauses 3 to 9, relating to the constitution and 
power of the Commission, were postponed, as 
well as clause 10, prohibiting future appoint¬ 
ments to any ecclesiastical benefice or office. 
The amendment on clause 12, to postpone the 
transfer of Church property to the Com¬ 
missioners from January 1871 to January 1872, 
was rejected by 301 to 194 votes. A second 
division on the clause itself showed 214 to 103 
votes. To clause 13 an addition was made, on 
the motion of Mr. Hardy, preserving to the 
existing prelates and deans the titles and pre¬ 
cedence they now enjoy; but his proposal to 
omit from clause 14 the words deducting the 
compensation to the curates from the income 
payable to the incumbent was rejected by 330 
to 232 votes. 

20. —In a debate concerning a site for the new 
Law Courts, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
surprised the advocates of Carey-street and the 
Embankment alike, by the production of a new 
design, occupying about six acres between 
Howard-street, running from Surrey-street 
across Norfolk-street to Arundel-street and 
the Embankment. This plan, he said, did not 
involve an expenditure for building of more 
than 1,000,000/., while the Carey-street site, 
“conceived in a frenzy of concentration,” 
would amount to about 4,000,000/. 

— Mr. Shipman, late manager of the Agra 
and Masterman’s Bank, sentenced to twelve 
months’ imprisonment by the Bankruptcy 
Court for culpable irregularities in advances 
made to a customer of the bank with whom 
Shipman was in partnership. 

— William Sheward executed at Norwich 
for the murder of his wife in 1851. Between 
his sentence and execution, the criminal made a 
detailed confession, describing the murder of 
his victim with a razor, in the course of a 
short quarrel about money, the mutilation of 
the body from day to day, after working hours, 
and the boiling of certain portions in the hope 
of reducing it to a shapeless mass. 

— Burning of the steamer Uselda on the 
Missouri, causing the loss of 54 lives. 

21. —Mr. Chambers’s bill for legalizing 
marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, retro¬ 
spectively as well as prospectively, read a 
second time, by 243 to 144 votes. 

:— The Wedgwood Memorial Institute, 
Burslem, opened by Earl de Grey and Ripon. 

— Lord Justice-General Inglis installed as 
Cliancellor of the University of Edinburgh. 


21. —Sixteen workmen killed in the Delbole 
slate quarries, Camelford, Cornwall, by the fall 
of poppet-heads, with which the drawing 
engines were connected. 

22 . —Lord Lyttleton’s Increase of Episcopate 
Bill rejected by 43 votes to 20. 

— Mr. Charles Dickens seized with sudden 
illness at Preston, and conveyed back to 
London. 

— Meeting at Berlin of an International 
Conference of the Association for the Care of 
Sick and Wounded Soldiers. 

23 . —In the discussion in Committee to-night 
on the Irish Church Bill, the Ministerial majority 
again held well together in three divisions, 
ranging from 100 to 112. Mr. Disraeli’s 
amendment, that a general commutation of 
the life interests of the clergy should be made 
at fourteen years’ purchase, and the proceeds 
handed over as capital to the Church, was re¬ 
jected by 294 to 194 votes. 

24 . —The Hungarian Diet opened at Pesth, 
by the Emperor Francis Joseph. 

— Died, aged 85, Captain J. G. Philipps, 
reported to be the last surviving officer present 
at the battle of the Nile, on which occasion he 
served in the Minotaur. 

25 . —Four outrages reported from Ireland. 
Mr. Bradshaw, a justice of peace, living at 
Cappagh-white, Tipperary, was shot through 
the head on his own grounds, and then barbar¬ 
ously mutilated. Captain Tarleton, a landlord 
proprietor, was also shot on his own grounds of 
Creggan, Athlone. An attempt was made to 
blow up the residence of Dr. Blunden, of 
Parkmore, Tipperary ; and Mr. Cullen, J. P., 
of Carry Lodge, Drumkerin, Leitrim, was fired 
at, but escaped unhurt. 

— Protocol signed at Paris for settling the 
railway disputes between France and Belgium. 

26 . —Availinghimself of the discussion raised 
on a clause of the Irish Church Bill, Mr. 
Disraeli contrasted the professions of kindly 
feeling and promises of indulgence for the 
Church, with which the Government started, 
with the cruel spoliation it now seemed de¬ 
termined to carry through. On clause 27 he 
proposed an amendment that glebe houses 
should be surrendered free of charge, in accord¬ 
ance with the views expressed last year by Mr. 
Bright and Mr. Gladstone. The Premier under¬ 
took to consider the proposal; but on the 29th 
it was rejected by 318 to 227 votes. 

—- The Court of Queen’s Bench refuse an 
application for a mandamus to the Bishop of 
London, directing him to issue a commission to 
inquire into the orthodoxy of Mr. Bennett’s 
teaching regarding the Eucharist, 

— The ship Gertrude boarded at Passage, 
Cork, and plundered of all firearms. 

— The session of the French Legislative 
body dosed by commission. 

27 . -The Mayor of Cork (O’Sullivan) sug- 

(869) 







APRIL 


1869. 


MAY 


gests the assassination of some member of the 
Royal family. In proposing the toast of “ Our 
Exiled Countrymen,” at a parting entertain¬ 
ment given to Warren and Costelloe, his 
worship was reported to have said : “ Allen, 
Barrett, Larkin, and O’Brien had sacrificed 
their lives for this country. There was in 

Ireland at this moment a young prince-” (A 

Voice : “ He be d-d.”) This interruption 

- was reported to have been received by the com¬ 
pany with applause. The Mayor continued : 
“When that noble Irishman, O’Farrell, fired 
at the Prince in Australia, he was imbued with 
as noble patriotic feeling as Allen, &c. (Ap¬ 
plause.) O’Farrell was actuated by the same 
principles as the Pole who attempted to assas¬ 
sinate the Emperor of Russia for trampling on 
the liberties of the people of Poland.” Later 
in the evening the Mayor said he stood there 
to acknowledge his word under the sceptre of 
Queen Victoria, and to answer to the Govern¬ 
ment. A proposal to invite Prince Arthur to 
the city during the race-week was carried, after 
a stormy debate, by 25 votes to 5. The invita¬ 
tion was declined in the name of the Prince. 

27 . —Meeting of the “old hospitallers ” in 
the great hall of Christ’s Hospital, to protest 
against the operation of the Endowed School 
Bill on the Institution. 

— The French Legislative body dissolved by 
the Emperor. 

28 . —Prince Arthur visits Londonderry, and 
is serenaded by the Apprentice Boys. Towards 
evening a trifling confusion was created by some 
one dropping stones from the ramparts, but it 
had the effect of drawing out the rival factions 
in a state of such excitement as to lead to a 
serious riot. The police were compelled to fire 
in self-defence, and two people were killed on 
the spot, while ten others sustained severe in¬ 
juries. 

— Mr. Commissioner Bacon gives judgment 
in the bankruptcy of Lord Alfred Clinton, 
ordering that 100/. a year be set aside for 
creditors, until 5-r. per pound was paid, under the 
penalty of having the present order of discharge 
revoked. The affairs of his brother, Lord Albert 
Clinton, were taken up next day by Mr. Com¬ 
missioner Winslow. 

— All Saints Church, Surrey-square, Old 
Kent-road, destroyed by fire. 

— The ship Bolingbroke , with a valuable 
cargo, wrecked in the Hooghly. 

•— Formal opening of the new market, built 
by Miss Burdett Coutts, in Columbia-square, 
Bethnal Green. 

29 . —Mr. Hardy’s amendment on clause 29 
of the Irish Church Bill, substituting 1560 for 
1660 as the year from which private endow¬ 
ments were to be recognised, rejected by 306 to 
220 votes. 

— The Indian Act Amendment Bill read a 
second time in the House of Lords after a dis¬ 
cussion having reference chiefly to the relative 
powers of the Chief Secretary and his Council. 

(870) 


30 .—In the course of a discussion on Mr. 
Grove’s motion regarding the condition of 
Ireland, Lord Claude Hamilton charges the 
President of the Board of Trade (Mr. Bright) 
with countenancing Fenianism by a letter 
written in 1866, by attending one of their 
demonstrations in Dublin, by jesting at the 
scheme to surprise Chester Castle, and by 
sympathy with Barrett, condemned for his 
share in the Clerkenwell explosion. The 
encouragement thus shown “has induced the 
Fenian assassins to conceive that they had a 
friend in the Government in the person of the 
right hon. gentleman.”—Mr. Bright made a 
vigorous reply, adhering to the main argument 
of the challenged letter : “I say that the con¬ 
dition of things in Ireland which has existed 
for the last 200 years, for the last 100 years, 
for the last 50 years, would have been utterly 
impossible if Ireland had been removed from 
the shelter and the influence and the power of 
Great Britain. I repeat that if Ireland were 
unmoored from her fastenings in the deep and 
floated 2,000 miles to the westward, those 
things that we propose to do, and which in all 
probability may be offered to the House in the 
next session, would have been done by the 
people of Ireland themselves, and that if they 
had become a State of the American Republic 
under the condition of that country those 
things would have been done. The time has 
come when Acts of constant repression in 
Ireland are unjust and evil, and when no more 
Acts of repression should ever pass this House, 
unless attended with Acts of a remedial and 
consoling nature. ” 

— Concluded before the Lord Mayor the 
preliminary examination into the charges of 
fraud made against Stuart Lane and others, 
directors of the Merchants’ Company (Limited). 
His worship thought there was no case for a 
jury, and dismissed the summons. 

— Sir Robert Phillimore declines to accept 
“letters of request ” in the case of Sheppard v. 
Bennett, vicar of Frome. 

— The city of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, 
destroyed by a flood, and many of the inhabit¬ 
ants drowned. 

May 1 . —Rossini Festival at the Crystal 
Palace. 

— Meeting of Cork magistrates to call upon 
the Government to take proceedings against 
the Mayor for language inciting to rebellion 
and murder. Next day (Sunday) an open-air 
demonstration was held to express sympathy 
with his worship. 

— Celebration in aid of “ The Evangelical 
Protestant Deaconesses’ Institute and Training 
Hospital,” at Tottenham, modelled on the prin¬ 
ciple of the establishment at Kaiserwerth, on 
the Rhine, as a voluntary association of Chris¬ 
tian women for the performance of works of 
active benevolence. 

3 .— Nine clauses of the Irish Church Bill 







MAY 


1869. 


MA 1 


carried in Committee, the discussion mostly 
turning on the 32d, regulating the sale of tithe 
rent-charges to landowners at 22^ years’ pur¬ 
chase, or by annual instalments of 4^ per cent, 
of the money for 52 years. Professor Fawcett 
and others objected to the proposal as an extra¬ 
vagant waste of public money to commute a 
payment for ever into one for fifty-two years, 
the large sum of 8,000,000/. being in this way 
absorbed by Irish landlords for the purpose of 
securing the passing of the bill. 

3 . —Demonstration in St. James’s Hall against 
the Irish Church Bill. Resolutions were passed 
protesting against the measure as “subversive 
of rights and destructive of interests secured by 
fundamental laws and international treaty,” and 
expressing a hope that the House of Lords will, 
“in the exercise of their undoubted constitu¬ 
tional privileges, refuse their assent to a mea¬ 
sure so prejudicial to the Protestant religion and 
so perilous to the peace and integrity of the 
empire.” 

— Prince Arthur leaves Belfast to visit the 
Isle of Man. 

— The Royal Academy Exhibition opened 
for the first time in the new rooms at Burlington 
House. 

— The four hundredth anniversary of the 
birth of Machiavelli celebrated at Florence, 
and a tablet uncovered proclaiming him to 
be “the brave and enlightened precursor of 
the unity of fatherland.” 

4. —Mr. Whalley’s amendment, to exclude 
the Maynooth clause from the Irish Church 
Bill, rejected after a discussion in which the 
hon. member was severely censured by Mr. 
Newdegate for making Protestantism ridiculous 
in Parliament. In the course of the evening 
Mr. Gladstone intimated that the Commissioners 
under the bill would be Lord Monck, Mr. 
Justice Lawson, and Mr. G. A. Hamilton. 

— Died at Bray, aged 96, the Right Hon. 
Thomas Lefroy, ex-Lord Chief Justice of Ire¬ 
land. 

5. — Debate in the House of Commons con¬ 
cerning the disloyal language used by the Mayor 
of Cork, the Irish Attorney-General introducing 
a bill for the purpose of removing him from 
office. In deference to a generally expressed 
opinion, Mr. Fortescue undertook that the pre¬ 
amble of the bill would be proved by evidence 
at the bar, and that the Mayor would have an 
opportunity of exculpating himself if he was 
able. 

6 . — Nine hours spent in Committee on the 
Irish Church Bill. An amendment by Sir G. 
Jenkinson to the effect that Maynooth should 
not be compensated out of Church funds was 
rejected by 318 to 192 votes. Mr. Aytoun’s 
amendment to give the professors and students 
direct personal compensation, instead of a 
capital sum to the college, was also lost by 
305 to 198 votes. 

— General Menabrea commissioned to form 
a new Italian Ministry. 


7 . —The Irish Church Bill passes through 
Committee at a morning sitting protracted from 
two to seven o’clock. 

— In the Court of Arches Sir R. Phillimore 
gives leave to Mr. A. J. Stephens, Q.C., to 
appeal to the Privy Council against his decision 
not to accept the “letter of request” from the 
Bishop of Bath and Wells, in the case of the 
Rev. Mr. Bennett of Frome. 

— The Marquis of Salisbury questions the 
Government as to the sense in which Mr. 
Bright’s recent declaration on the Irish land 
question was to be received, and censures 
Government for the inclination they exhibited 
of yielding to increased agitation.—Earl Gran¬ 
ville admitted that Mr. Bright had committed 
an indiscretion. He would hardly have liked 
to say that of a colleague if Mr. Bright had not 
himself told him, “I made the mistake of not 
prefacing what I had to say by stating that, if 
I were left to myself, I should say so and so.” 
Mr. Bright’s excuse was to be found in his 
habits as a popular speaker free from official 
restraint. 

8 . —The Court of Exchequer pronounce 
judgment for the defendant in the case of 
Maxted v. Paine—an action brought by the 
plaintiff, the seller of 100 shares in Overend, 
Gurney, and Co. (Limited), to recover from the 
jobber, to whom his broker had in the first 
instance sold them, 1,400/., the amount of two 
calls on seventy of the shares, which the 
plaintiff had been compelled to pay since the 
sale. 

— Died, at St. Petersburg, aged 59, Sir 
Charles Wentworth Dilke, Bart., an active 
promoter of the industrial Exhibitions of 1851 
and 1862. 

IO.—A jury in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
gives a verdict of 3,750/. damages against the 
Peninsular and Oriental Company for injuries 
sustained by Lieut.-Col. Taylor in falling down 
the bullion hatchway of the Pera. The com¬ 
pany pleaded in defence that the plaintiff had 
no business on board when the accident hap¬ 
pened, and that it might have been avoided 
with ordinary care on his own part. 

— Major Beswick, chief constable of Birken¬ 
head, examined before the Lord Mayor, at the 
instance of the Bank of England, on the charge 
of uttering a power of attorney to transfer 431/. 
Three per Cent. Consols, standing in the names 
of Henry Thomas Maxted and Frederick Bes¬ 
wick in the Bank books, part of a trust fund 
left by a Miss Cundy, of Gibraltar. He was 
afterwards tried for the offence at the Central 
Criminal Court, and sentenced to five years’ 
penal servitude. 

— Between 2,000/. and 3,000/. worth of 
watches and jewellery stolen from the premises 
of Mr. Toren, upon the South-Eastern Railway 
incline, London Bridge. 

— ; Meeting of Deans at Lambeth Palace 
to consider certain proposed reforms in the 
Church. 

( 871 ) 








MAY 


1869. 


MAY 


10. —The Lords adopt amendments to the 
Scotch Education Bill in favour of the con¬ 
tinuance of the denominational system. 

— Completion of the great railway system 
affording unbroken communication between the 
Atlantic and Pacific shores of the American 
continent. 

11. —The Court of Queen’s Bench decide 
against the writ of error in the case of Madame 
Rachel. 

— The South Staffordshire Industrial and 
Fine Art Exhibition at Wolverhampton opened 
by Earl Granville. 

— In the hearing of a crowded House, which 
the exceptional nature of the bill against the 
Mayor of Cork had drawn together, Mr. 
Maguire announced that O’Sullivan had re¬ 
signed office, and emphatically repudiated the 
meaning which had been put upon his words. 

12 . —Fire in the harbour of Cincinnati, de¬ 
stroying six steamships laden with valuable 
cargoes. 

— Sir W. Lawson’s Permissive Bill rejected 
in the Commons by 193 to 87 votes. 

13 . —Parliament adjourns for the Whitsun¬ 
tide holidays. 

— The Spanish Cortes reject a proposal for 
the establishment of a Confederate Republic by 
182 to 64 votes. 

14. —The remains of Daniel O’Connell re¬ 
moved from the vault where they had lain 
twenty-two years to a new tomb erected in 
Glasnevin Cemetery. 

— Proclamation issued announcing that the 
old copper coinage will cease to be current 
after 31st December. 

- - Election riots at Paris. 

15 . —Monument to Richard Oastler, the 
* 1 Factory King,” at Bradford, unveiled by 
the Earl of Shaftesbury. 

— The mail steamer Cheduba lost in a 
cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, with all on 
board, 

— The Naval Reserve Squadron leaves 
Portsmouth for a fortnight’s cruise. 

— Died, aged 70, the Rev. Alexander Dyce, 
Shakspearian commentator. 

18 . —Collision off the Copelands, near Bel¬ 
fast, between the steamers Marquis of Abercorn 
and Lord Gough. In an hour the former was 
under water. 

— Died, aged 53, Peter Cunningham, author 
of the “ Handbook of London ” and other anti¬ 
quarian writings. 

19. —Mr. Reverdy Johnson leaves London 
on his return to America. His successor, Mr. 
Motley, arrived on the 29th. 

20 . — Clauses in the new Spanish constitu¬ 
tion, providing for monarchical Government, 
carried by 214 to 71 votes. 

— Addressing his constituents at Bradford, 
(872) 


Mr. Forster replies to Mr. Sumner’s war-speech 
on the Alabama claims, and shows that the 
neutrality proclamation was not issued as an 
act of hostility to the United States, but be¬ 
cause such a warning was necessary to subjects 
of this country. 

21 . —Stormy meeting at Cork on the occa¬ 
sion of electing a new Mayor. Mr. O’Sullivan 
was denounced as a traitor, and refused a hear¬ 
ing by the audience. 

22 . —The Dublin Gazette publishes the 
Queen’s commands to the Lord-Lieutenant 
expressive of her Majesty’s gratification at the 
reception given to Prince Arthur in Ireland. 

— Open-air demonstration in Belfast against 
the Irish Church Bill. 

24 . —Her Majesty’s fiftieth birthday cele¬ 
brated with special rejoicings. 

— The Paris elections again carried by the 
Opposition; Thiers, Jules Favre, and Emile 
Ollivier were among those rejected in the first 
ballot. 

— The Austrian Consul at Leghorn assas¬ 
sinated, and General Grenneville, with whom 
he was walking, wounded. 

— Wreck of the Margaret of Aberdeen, 
and the Zetus of Leith, on the Cariboo Rocks, 
off the island of Anticosti, North America, 
and loss of all hands except one. 

25 . —Explosion in the Sinking Pit, near 
Pontypool, causing the death of seven work¬ 
men. 

— Return of the French iron-clad corvette 
Belliqueuse to Brest after a voyage round the 
world—the first vessel of this description which 
undertook such a feat. 

26 . —The discussion on the new constitu¬ 
tion finished in the Spanish Cortes. 

28 .—A farmer, named Power, beaten to 
death at Rathgormac, on the borders of Tip¬ 
perary and Waterford, his imputed offence 
being the occupancy of a farm from which 
another person had been evicted. 

30 . —Dr. Livingston writes from Ujiji re¬ 
questing that boatmen and goods be sent from 
Zanzibar to enable him to proceed to the north 
of Lake Tanganyika, for the purpose of con¬ 
necting the sources he had discovered with the 
Nile of Speke and Baker. 

31 . —Dissolution of the London Beefsteak 
Club, dating from 1735* 

— The Irish Church Bill read a third time 
and passed by the House of Commons. To¬ 
wards the close of the debate Mr. Disraeli 
entered on an historical retrospect of the state 
of Ireland during the preceding thirty years, 
showing that up to the present date there had 
been a similarity of policy adopted by each 
Government. He contended that the social 
position of Ireland was rapidly improving, and 
the present time was not consequently that 
in which such a system of confiscation and 
injustice should be inaugurated on entirely 








JUNE 


1869. 


JUNE 


imaginary grounds of pacification. The result 
of the present measure would be simply to 
lead to the ascendency of the Papal power in 
Ireland, a state of things that would end in a 
reaction.—Mr. Gladstone,in reply, declared that 
he was only carrying into effect the policy of 
Pitt and Castlereagh, the authors of the Union, 
who had pledged themselves to establish re¬ 
ligious equality in Ireland. He denied that 
his measure was in any way unjust, illiberal, or 
harsh. “The Church,” he concluded, “may 
have much to regret in respect to temporal 
splendour, yet the day is to come when it will 
be said of her, as of the Temple of Jerusalem, 
that ‘The glory of the latter house is greater 
than that of the former ; ’ and when the most 
loyal and faithful of her children will learn not 
to forget that at length the Parliament of Eng¬ 
land took courage, and the Irish Church was 
disestablished and disendowed.” On a division 
there appeared—for the third reading 36U 
against 247 : majority 114. 

June 1.— Replying to an address presented 
by the Liverpool and American Chamber of 
Commerce, the new Minister, Mr. Motley, states 
that President Grant and the American people 
“are animated now, as always, by the hope 
and the desire of maintaining sincere and 
amicable relations with her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment and with the people of this empire, upon 
the basis of entire justice and of dispassionate 
regard for the rights and duties of both 
countries.” For his own part, he should en¬ 
deavour to do his best towards promoting a 
good understanding between the two nations. 

— Conference of Protestant Delegates at 
Worms, to issue a declaration against “the 
supposition expressed in the Papal letter of the 
13th of September, 1868, that Protestants would 
return to unity with the Catholic Church.” 

_ Opening of the German Industrial Ex¬ 
hibition at Wurtemburg. 

_ The Furness and Windermere Railway 

opened. 

2 . —Died suddenly, after a speech against the 
proposed reduction of the Spanish army, Gene¬ 
ral Henrique O’Donnell. 

— Inauguration of the Palmerston statue 
at Liverpool. 

— Colliery riot at Mold. The military were 
called out, and four people shot. 

_ Intimation made by the Earl of^ Zetland, 

at the quarterly “commemoration” of the 
United Grand Lodge of Freemasons, that the 
Prince of Wales had been made a Freemason 
by the King of Sweden, and desired to join 
one or more English lodges. 

3. —Lord John Russell’s Life Peerage Bill 
passes through Committee, an agreement having 
been come to that only two should be created 
in any one year, and that the total number 
should not exceed twenty-eight. 

— Died, aged 83, John Cam Hobhouse, 


Baron Broughton, a friend and correspondent 
of Lord Byron. 

4 . —Discussion in the House of Lords on 
the Alabama claims, Lord Stratford de 
Redcliffe critioizing Mr. Sumner’s speech, and 
referring to Mr. Motley’s appointment as an 
omen of precipitate diplomacy. 

— Her Majesty’s ship Cadmus ran ashore 
on the rocks near Salcombe. 

5. —Meeting of Conservative peers at the 
Duke of Marlborough’s, to decide upon the 
steps to be taken for defeating the Irish Church 
Bill on the second reading. Lord Derby and 
Lord Cairns denounced the measure in the 
strongest terms, and it was agreed that its 
rejection should be moved by the Earl of 
Harrowby. Lords Salisbury, Stanhope, and 
Carnarvon approved of having the bill read a 
second time that it might be amended in com¬ 
mittee. 

— Numerous meetings throughout Ireland 
to protest against the Church Bill. At Cooks- 
town one speaker declared that “ the devil had 
ascended into the Cabinet, and one of his sticks 
was the Prime Minister, the other Paul Cullen.” 
At Tannamore Hill, Tyrone, the chairman, an 
Orange deputy grand-master of the county, 
said, “They were ready, at the beat of the 
dram, to go out, and take their Minie rifles, 
and march to the Boyne as their fathers did 
before them ; ” and a Presbyterian minister 
declared that, if the Government pursued their 
present policy, “ they would have another Derry 
and another Boyne.” Another was reported to 
have said that “ If Barrett was executed for 
blowing up a prison, the time might not be far 
distant when for attempting to blow up our 
venerable Protestant constitution Gladstone 
and his co-conspirators might be hanging ‘as 
high as Haman ; ’ ” and a Mr. R. H. Foster 
declared that, if the bill were passed, “they 
would give the Union an Irish wake and a 
Protestant burial.” 

6.—The new Spanish constitution pro¬ 
mulgated with great ceremony in front of the 
Hall of Congress. 

8. —Extinction of the duty on corn, the 
shilling scale ceasing to exist from this date. 

9. —Explosion of a boiler at Bingley, near 
Bradford, causing the death of nine people, 
mostly children, amusing themselves in the play¬ 
ground of an adjoining school. The coroner’s 
jury returned a verdict of manslaughter against 
the engine-tenter, who was among the killed, 
and recommended Government inspection of 
steam boilers. 

— Public breakfast at Willis’s Rooms, to 
receive deputations from the Irish Church Con¬ 
ference and the Presbyterian Church. 

— The Canadian House of Commons pass 
resolutions admitting Newfoundland into the 
Confederation. The Nova Scotian Plouse of 
Assembly protest against incorporation. 

IO.—Another explosion at Femdale colliery, 

( 873 ) 












JUNE 


1869. 


JUNE 


Glamorganshire, causing the death of sixty 
workmen, out of 120 employed in the Duffryn 
district at the time. (See Nov. 8, 1867.) 

12 .—The Great Eastern sailsfrom Sheerness, 
with the French Atlantic cable on board. She 
arrived at Brest on the 20th, when a com¬ 
munication was made with the shore end, and 
the great vessel proceeded westward on her 
voyage, attended by the Chilt cm and Scan¬ 
dinavia. 

— Mr. S. G. Finney, late manager of the 
English Joint-Stock Bank, committed for trial 
on a charge of perjury. 

14 .—Debate commenced in House of Lords 
on the second reading of the Irish Church Bill. 
An unusual number of peers were present, and 
the excitement created by the discussion ex¬ 
tended over all parts of the House. In mov¬ 
ing the second reading, Lord Granville said that, 
great as was their lordships’ power, they could not, 
more than the House of Commons, more than 
the constitutional sovereigns of the country, or 
even, he would say, than despotic monarchs in 
other empires—they could not thwart the 
national will when deliberately and constitution¬ 
ally expressed. Last year their lordships had 
decided to abide the verdict of the people ; 
that verdict had been given, and they could 
not now consistently ignore it, merely because 
it went against their own predilections. “ Heads 
I win, tails you lose,” was a maxim for school¬ 
boys, not legislators. To the principle of the 
bill the Government were pledged, but they 
would respectfully consider any amendments of 
detail. The motion for the rejection of the 
measure was submitted by Lord Harrowby, who 
traced its origin to the combined influence of 
Papists and Nonconformists. The debate was 
continued by Lord Clarendon, Lord Stratford 
de Redcliffe, and the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury, who all supported the second reading. 

— In reply to an invitation to attend a 
meeting in support of the Irish Church Bill at 
Birmingham, to-night, Mr. Bright wrote that if 
the Lords should delay the passing of the bill 
for three months, “ they will stimulate discus¬ 
sion on important questions, which, but for their 
infatuation, might have slumbered for years.” 
Instead of doing a little childish tinkering 
about life peerages, he recommends their lord- 
ships to “ bring themselves on a line with the 
opinions and necessities of our day,” and adds : 
“In harmony with the nation they may go 
on for a long time, but throwing themselves 
athwart its course they may meet with acci¬ 
dents not pleasant for them to think of.” There 
are, however, Mr. Bright says, “ not a few 
good and wise men among the peers,” and he 
hopes their counsels may prevail. The letter 
was referred to in both Houses of Parliament, 
but Ministers disclaimed any official knowledge 
of the contents of the document, though they 
were compelled to declare that it was not more 
severe than the language which had been applied 
to the Dill and its promoters. 

( 874 ) 


15 . —Attempt made to assassinate Signor 
Lobbia in the streets of Florence. 

— Discussion in the Upper House of Con¬ 
vocation concerning a proposed modification of 
the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed ; 
and in the Lower on the Irish Church Bill, in 
which Dr. Jebb (supporting Archdeacon Deni¬ 
son’s resolution) used language for which he 
was called to order by the Prolocutor. 

— In the adjourned debate on the Irish 
Church Bill, the Bishop of St. David’s made 
an able speech in defence of the measure. He 
stigmatized as heathenish the vain and super¬ 
stitious notion that Church property was in any 
sense divine, that material offerings might be 
accepted by the Most High as supplying some 
want of the Divine nature. No material offer¬ 
ings were so acceptable to God as those which 
were most beneficial to man. Miss Burdett 
Coutts’s market at Spitalfields was as religious 
a work as Mr. Guinness’s restoration of Dublin 
Cathedral. He was as eager as any one for 
Protestant ascendency, but ascendency of a 
religious, moral, and intellectual character, the 
ascendency of truth and reason over error. Of 
that ascendency he did not believe this Church 
to be a pillar. He had no fear of, because no 
belief in, the power of the Pope. Everywhere 
he saw it on the decline, and a serious blow 
would be dealt at it in Ireland by removing a 
grievance which gave the priesthood an artificial 
hold on the sentiment of the people. He con¬ 
fessed, however, his sympathy with a “level¬ 
ling up ” policy, if practicable. After Lord 
Chelmsford and Lord Penzance, pitted against 
each other, the first against and the other for 
the bill, the Duke of Richmond, in a brief 
vigorous speech, explained his reasons for 
assenting to the second reading and endea¬ 
vouring to modify the bill in committee. The 
Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. Magee) followed 
in a speech of dashing eloquence, which drew 
forth enthusiastic applause from peers and 
“strangers.” Setting aside the arguments as 
to the Coronation Oath, Act of Union, and 
sacrilege, he challenged the bill on the three 
grounds that it was not consistent with justice, 
policy, or the verdict of the nation. It would 
increase the fanaticism of all the religious sects, 
and set them warring the one against the other ; 
and it would be found that paradisaical amity 
and happiness had not been produced as the 
result of paradisaical scantiness of dress. Lord 
De Grey, Lord Clancarty, and Lord Monck also 
spoke, and then Lord Malmesbury moved the 
adjournment of the debate in Lord Derby’s 
name. 

16 . —The Spanish Cortes, by a majority of 
*93 to 45 > agree to the Ministerial proposition 
for establishing a Regency. Marshal Serrano 
was sworn into office on the 18th. 

— A defeat on the Irish Church Bill being 
considered as probable, Ministerial journals 
give currency to rumours concerning a short 
prorogation, the reintroduction of the measure, 
and the creation of a number of new peers. 






JUNE 


1869. 


JUNE 


16 . —Died, aged 66, Edward John Stanley, 
Lord Stanley of Alderley, Postmaster-General 
1860-1866. 

— Died, at Cheltenham, Captain Charles 
Sturt, one of the earliest and most adventurous 
explorers of Australia. 

17 . —The debate on the Irish Church was 
resumed by Lord Derby, who in a spirited 
speech denounced it as a measure the political 
folly of which was only equalled by its moral 
turpitude. He called upon their lordships to 
reject it at once. “ My lords (he concluded), 
I am now an old man, and, like many of your 
lordships, I have already passed threescore 
years and ten. My official life is entirely 
closed ; my political life is nearly so ; and, in 
the course of nature, my natural life cannot 
now be long. That natural life commenced 

. with the bloody suppression of a formidable re¬ 
bellion in Ireland, which immediately preceded 
the Union between the two countries. And 
may God grant that its close may not witness 
a renewal of the one and a dissolution of the 
other.” The debate was continued by Lord 
Kimberley, the Duke of Cleveland, and the 
Duke of Devonshire, in favour of the bill ; Lord 
Salisbury, Lord Stanhope, and Lord Nelson in 
favour of the second reading with a view to 
amendments in committee ; and the Bishop of 
Ripon, Lord Colchester, and Lord Redesdale 
altogether against the bill. 

— Four persons killed by an explosion at 
Curtis and Harvey’s powder-works, Hounslow. 

-— The new North German Federal harbour 
of Jahde (Wilhelmshaven) opened by the King 
of Prussia. 

18 . —The second reading of the Irish Church 
Bill carried in the House of Lords by a majority 
of 33. The debate was continued by Earl 
Russell, who challenged some of the details of 
the bill, but on its general principle his approval 
was unequivocal. He confessed, however, he 
would like to see some glebe lands and chapels 
given to the Episcopalian clergy with a view to 
keeping them amongst the people, and thus 
promoting the civilization of the country. To 
the relief of the county cess from such a source 
he objected ; and the provision set apart for 
lunatics would require a whole province to go 
mad in order to absorb it.—The Duke of 
Abercorn urged the House to disregard any ex¬ 
citement in the public mind on this subject, 
taunted the Government with subservience to 
Roman Catholic priests and Nonconformists, 
and traced the measure to the personal ambition 
of a single Minister.—The Duke of Argyll 
remarked that the stress with which the Oppo¬ 
sition dwelt upon the loyalty of the Irish 
Protestants implied unjustly the disloyalty of 
the Roman Catholics; and another alarming 
Inference from their speeches was that even the 
loyalty of the former, our only stay and support, 
was of too mercantile a nature to be much 
depended on. Such insinuations were unfair 
to both parties, and had a most mischievous 


effect.—Bishop Selwyn, presenting himself as 
a disestablished and disendowed prelate of 
fourteen years’ standing, offered an “un¬ 
prejudiced opinion” against the bill.—The 
dinner-hour was over, and the House had again 
filled, when Lord Westbury rose from the 
bench immediately behind the Ministry, and 
proceeded to pour down on their heads a bitter 
denunciation of their policy and motives. 
Borrowing from Burke, he called them “ admi¬ 
rable architects of ruin.” Their bill was absurd 
and profane, the child of fear and offspring of 
weakness—a mere instrument of wanton de¬ 
struction.—The Lord Chancellor defended the 
bill in a speech asserting the right of the State 
to deal with corporate property with far more 
latitude than with private property.—Lord 
Cairns rose about one o’clock, and spoke for 
two hours in an argumentative strain, basing his 
resistance to the bill chiefly on the necessity of 
maintaining the Royal supremacy in Ireland, 
and the cruelty of stripping a Church for the 
mere sake of depriving it of property which 
the despoilers were puzzled to dispose of. At 
three o’clock a.m. the division was called, 
resulting in the carrying of the bill by 179 to 
146 votes. The division appeared to have taken 
place in the fullest blouse within living memory 
—325 peers having personally recorded their 
votes, while eighteen paired. 

18 . —The new Southwark Park opened by 
Sir John Thwaites, accompanied by Mr. Layard 
and Mr. Locke, the borough members. 

19 . —Came on in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
the case of George Henry de Strabolgie Neville 
Plantagenet Harrison against the publishers of 
the Cornhill Magazine , for an article in the 
April number of that periodical, in which the 
plaintiff, under the title of “Don Ricardo,” 
was referred to as General Plantagenet Harrison, 
and described as a swindler who had been 
escorted by the authorities in Spain out of that 
country to Gibraltar, and there handed over to 
the English authorities. The defence was that 
in the publication of the article the writer had 
no malicious intention against the plaintiff, or 
any desire to injure him; and was, in fact, 
ignorant of the real existence of any person 
called General Plantagenet Harrison. The 
plaintiff, who described himself as a genealo¬ 
gist, stated in examination that he seriously 
believed himself to be heir general of Henry VI., 
and rightful Duke of Lancaster, Normandy, and 
Aquitaine. A jury gave him 50/. damages. 

21 .—Came on in the second Court of Queen’s 
Bench the case of Cadogan v. Piper, an action 
raised by the Hon. Frederick Cadogan against 
the proprietor of the North Wilts Herald , for 
the publication of a libel in connexion with the 
recent election contest, and embodied in the 
contents of a certain yellow handbill, circulated 
in the Conservative interest, and which was 
subsequently republished in the defendant’s 
paper, and secondly in a letter signed “ Scru¬ 
tator,” which appeared in the number pub¬ 
lished next after the decision of the election, 

$ 75 ) 







JUNE 


1869. 


JUNE 


when Mr. Cadogan was placed at the head of 
the poll. The handbill accused Mr. Cadogan of 
having made use of his position as vice-chair¬ 
man of the Submarine Telegraph Company to 
obtain information of which he made use on the 
Stock Exchange (see October 27, 1857); and 
of having, whilst in the service of the Commis¬ 
sioners of the International Exhibition of 1862, 
used his influence to obtain for a Frenchman 
named Veillard the refreshment contract, for 
which service Veillard had agreed to give him, 
if successful, 2,400/. The trial lasted till the 
25th, when the jury returned a verdict for the 
plaintiff: damages, 40/. 

21 . —Sale of the Duke of Newcastle’s effects, 
at his mansion in Carlton House Terrace, 
commenced. 

— Meeting at the Royal Institution, presided 
over by the Prince of Wales, to promote the 
erection of a memorial in honour of Professor 
Faraday. 

— The case of the Earl of Wicklow opened 
by Sir Roundell Palmer, before a Committee for 
Privileges of the House of Lords. William, 
fourth Earl of Wicklow, died on the 22d 
March last, without leaving any male issue. 
His next brother, who had predeceased him, 
the Hon. and Rev. Francis Howard, had three 
sons by his first marriage, all of whom were 
dead. The succession was claimed by this 
brother’s son by a second marriage, Charles 
Francis Howard. But another claim was pre¬ 
ferred in the name of an infant, William George, 
alleged to be the issue of a marriage between 
William George, eldest son of the Hon. and 
Rev. Francis Howard by his first marriage, with 
a certain Miss Helen Richardson. The question 
turned mainly on the incidents of this infant’s 
birth ; and the extremely suspicious circum¬ 
stance*, attending it were the strongest argu¬ 
ments urged against the claim. In June 1863, 
four months after his marriage, Mr. W. C. 
Howard was living with his wife in London at 
a Mr. Bloor’s, an outdoor officer of Customs. 
After a very short stay there they left Bloor’s 
house, returning some six months later, when 
Mrs. Howard found quarters in the immediate 
neighbourhood. Her husband did not cohabit 
with her in these lodgings; but met her, by Mr. 
Bloor’s permission, in Mr. Bloor’s house. From 
the end of 1863 Mr. Howard, it was said, was 
in hiding from his creditors in Ireland. In the 
spring of 1864 Mr. Bloor went over to Ireland 
on Mrs. Howard’s behalf to arrange with her 
husband for her confinement. On the 16th of 
May, Mrs. Howard expressed her intention of 
withdrawing from London for a time, and 
accordingly left the house in a cab with one 
large box to go to the railway station. In a very 
short time she returned, saying that she felt very 
ill, and went to bed. On Mr. Bloor’s return¬ 
ing home from business, Mrs. Bloor at once 
despatched him for Dr. Wilkins, a medical man 
whom Mrs. Howard specially requested might 
be sent for, though he was not the usual atten¬ 
dant of the house, and lived at some distance. 
(876) 


Bloor left the house at about 8 or 8.30 p.M. ; 
but on his return at 9.30 he heard from Mrs. 
Bloor that the child was born, and Mrs. How¬ 
ard would not therefore require the attendance 
of Dr. Wilkins. Some weeks after, however, 
according to the statement of the Bloors, Dr. 
Wilkins did see and prescribe for the child. 
To complicate matters Dr. Wilkins died before 
the case came on. The evidence of the persons 
who saw the child was generally harmonious and 
consistent, but De Bandenave, a fellow-lodger, 
who in the early stages of the case offered to act 
as Mrs. Howard’s agent, was missing when their 
lordships wished to examine him. In the 
course of her evidence, Mrs. Howard stated 
that Mrs. Bloor and Miss Rosa Day were 
present when the child was born. She herself 
was so weak she did not know what occurred. 
A little boy, fair-haired, five years of age, and 
dressed in white, was presented at the bar, as 
the child she then gave birth to. The solicitor 
to the Wicklow family in Ireland admitted 
that Mrs. Howard’s movements had been closely 
watched by her husband, who had reason for 
believing that she was carrying on an adulter¬ 
ous intrigue with De Bandenave. The examina¬ 
tion of witnesses was continued till the 4th of 
August, when the solicitor addressed the Com¬ 
mittee on behalf of Mrs. Howard, and Sir 
John Karslake replied upon the whole evidence. 
The proceedings were closed on that date for 
the session, on the understanding that the case 
might be reopened by either party on the pro¬ 
duction of fresh evidence. (See March 1, 1870.) 

21 . — One man killed, and several injured, by 
the accidental collision of two squadrons of 
cavalry, during a field-day at Aldershot. 

22 . —The Viceroy of Egypt arrives in London 
on a visit. He was met at Charing Cross Station 
by the Prince of Wales, and conveyed to Buck¬ 
ingham Palace. 

— Miss Shedden concludes her case in the 
House of Lords, being the twenty-first day of 
hearing. The application for a new trial in the 
suit of Shedden v. the Attorney-General and 
Patrick, in the Court of Probate, was refused 
by Lord Penzance. 

— Four armed Fenians break into the resi¬ 
dence of Mr. Pope Grey, Ballinlough House, 
Cork, and demand delivery of all weapons in 
his possession. A courageous defence was made 
by the inmates, and the leader or “captain” 
shot at the hall door; his companions then 
made their escape. 

— Lord Carrington horsewhips Mr. Gren¬ 
ville Murray, at the door of the Conservative 
Club, in retaliation for an offensive article in 
the Queen's Messenger , of which publication 
Murray’s son was registered proprietor. Mr. 
Murray withdrew to his club, and, after con¬ 
sideration, resolved to prefer a charge of assault 
against Lord Carrington. A preliminary in¬ 
quiry took place at Marlborough-street Police 
Court, on the 7th July. The charge of assault 
was not denied; but his counsel cross-examined 








JUNE 


1869. 


JUNE 


Mr. Grenville Murray very severely as to his 
connexion with the Queen's Messenger , and the 
authorship of the article said to reflect upon 
Lord Carrington, entitled “ Bob Coachington, 
Lord Jarvey.” After much wrangling, he 
denied the authorship of the article, but de¬ 
clined to answer the questions relating to his 
connexion with the paper. A number of 
letters, articles in manuscript, and a corrected 
proof of an article were shown to him, but he 
declined to say whether they were in his hand¬ 
writing. He admitted that he had written some 
articles jn the Queen's Messenger , but said that 
he would rather have cut off his right hand than 
have written others. Lord Carrington was 
ultimately bound over to keep the peace in 
reference to one summons, and committed for 
trial on the second, charging assault. At the 
close of the proceedings a disgraceful struggle 
took place between the friends of the contend- 
ing parties for the possession of a box contain¬ 
ing papers relating to the Queen's Messenger , 
and said to have been improperly transferred to 
the keeping of Lord Carrington’s solicitor, 
Mr. N ewman. 

23 . —Three lives lost by a collision at New 
Cross Station, between a goods train and an¬ 
other conveying passengers from the Licensed 
Victuallers fete. The accident gave rise to 
numerous lawsuits against the London and 
Brighton Railway Company, in which damages 
in some cases were awarded to the extent of 
2,500/. 

24 . —Proclamation of the Emperor Napoleon 
to the army at the camp of Chalons, exhorting 
the troops to keep in remembrance the battles 
of their fathers and their own achievements, 

‘ * since the history of our wars is the history of 
the progress of civilization.” 

26 . —Prince Alamayoo, son of King Theodore 
of Abyssinia, leaves England for India, in the 
care of Captain Speedy. 

— Sheriffs Cotton and Hutton entertain the 
Lord Chancellor and and her Majesty’s Judges, 
at a banquet in Haberdashers’ Hall. 

27. —Died, aged 62, Sir William A’Beckett, 
late Chief Justice of the colony of Victoria. 


28 .—The Endowed Schools Bid read a 
second time in the House of Commons. 

— Died, aged 66, Rev. Dr. J. H. Todd, 
of Trinity College, Dublin, author of various 
works illustrating the antiquities of Ireland. 

— The Prince of Wales, accompanied by the 
Princess, lays the foundation-stone of a new 
block of buildings connected with the Idiot 
Asylum at Redhill. 

— Breakfast given by her Majesty in the 
wardens of Buckingham Palace, in honour of 
the Viceroy of Egypt. His Highness was pub¬ 
licly welcomed next day at the Crystal Palace , 
and on the 30th a fete was given in his honour 
by the Countess of Waldegrave, at Strawberry 

Hill. , 

— Murder and suicide of the Duggan family, 


Hosier-lane. Early in the morning the police 
on duty at Smithfield station received a letter 
written by Duggan, stating that their services 
would be required at his house in Hosier-lane— 
a street very near the police-station—at ten 
o’clock, and that if they found the doors locked 
they were to force an entrance. Policemen 
were at once sent to the house, and the whole 
family—Duggan, his wife, four boys, and two 
girls—were found lying dead in their "beds, 
poisoned with prussic acid. In another letter, 
written to a relation, Duggan complained that he 
was led to commit the crime through harsh 
treatment recently experienced ; but this was dis¬ 
proved in evidence before the coroner, whose 
jury found that the father had murdered his 
wife and six children in a state of mental 
aberration. 

29 . —Mr. G. Moore’s motion for an inquiry 
into the treatment of political prisoners rejected 
by 171 to 31 votes. 

— The newly elected Legislative Body of 
France meet for the first time. 

30 . —For the six months ending to-day, 
20,087,000 people are reported to have been 
carried over the Metropolitan Railway system. 

— The Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council decide that the Dean of Arches must 
hear the charge of heresy preferred against the 
Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, vicar of Frome. 

— Explosion of two cartloads of nitro¬ 
glycerine, near Carnarvon, causing the death of 
five people, and much damage to property in 
the neighbourhood. The entire valley, to the 
foot of Snowdon, was said to have experienced 
the violence of the explosion. 

— Speaking at a Ministerial banquet given 
by the Lord Mayor, the Prime Minister said 
that every change proposed in the Irish Church 
Bill should be respectfully considered, even 
though at the first moment, nay, it might pos¬ 
sibly be, at the last moment, Ministers should 
not be able to regard it as an improvement. 
The respectful consideration, however, must be 
subject to the recollection of the position in 
which the Government stand, of the words 
they have spoken, of the pledges they have 
given, of the commission they have received. 
Government had pledged itself to general dis¬ 
establishment and disendowment, and that 
all claims should be dealt with impartially; 
“and,” continued Mr. Gladstone, “there was 
a third pledge also, not less momentous nor 
less definite than the rest, a pledge freely 
tendered to Parliament, and freely tendered 
at the hustWs, but I do not hesitate to say 
a pledge which if not freely tendered would 
have been extorted by the national sense and 
opinion- namely, that after the satisfaction of 
these equitable claims on principles of equality 
1 as between different religious denominations, the 
remaining portion of what is now the property 
of the Church of Ireland should be applied for 
the benefit of the Irish people, but not to the 
maintenance of a Church nor the support of a 

( 877 ) 











JUL Y 


JULY 1869. 


clergy. These were the conditions which, as a 
matter of historical fact, attended our concession. 
Tiiey form a clear and manifest covenant between 
us and the country. We tendered the terms of 
that covenant when we sat in the exile of 
Opposition; we shall not forget it now that 
we are installed in the seat of power. ” 

July l. —Lord Carnarvon’s amendment on 
the Irish Church Bill, providing for the com¬ 
mutation of the life interests of the clergy at 
fourteen years, carried by 155 to 86 votes. It 
was also agreed to continue to the bishops, after 
disestablishment, the privilege of being sum¬ 
moned by rotation to Parliament. 

— The Viceroy of Egypt leaves London for 
the Continent. 

3 . —By a majority of 213 to 69, the Lords 
carry the Marquis of Salisbury’s proposal to 
relieve the Irish Church from the payment of 
building charges on the glebe houses ; and by 
146 to 113 votes reject the Duke of Cleve¬ 
land’s Concurrent Endowment scheme. 

— Riots at Portdown, Belfast; two Orange¬ 
men killed. 

3 . —Speaking at a Trinity House banquet, 
in presence of the Prince of Wales, her Ma¬ 
jesty’s Ministers, and many members of the Op¬ 
position, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said 
the discussion in the House of Lords on the 
Irish ChuFch Bill was placing the Commons in 
a painful position. “ The clear and definite 
outline we had drawn becomes blurred and in¬ 
distinct ; all sorts of—I will not say tricks— 
experiments are tried on our performance; and 
we are compelled to stand by with our arms 
folded to watch this excruciating process without 
being allowed to interpose a word. (Cheers 
and laughter.) That is no doubt a painful posi¬ 
tion for the House of Commons to be in, but 
the darkest night is nearest the dawn, and we 
console ourselves with the reflection that after 
these alterations have been made in our per¬ 
formance it will return to us, and we shall have 
to give it the final touch. (Loud cheers and 
laughter.) And we are not without hope that 
we may be enabled to reform what has been 
blurred, to restore the outline, and make the 
picture, if not exactly the same as before, yet 
so much the same, at least, as to be satisfactory 
in all points of view. (Cheers.)”—Mr. Disraeli, 
speaking in the name of the honorary brethren, 
said, * ‘ Perhaps, in the execution of your duties, 
Mr. Deputy Master, you may experience cares 
and anxieties not less than those which the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer has with so much 
tact and taste recalled to our recollection—(a 
laugh)—and sure I am you will feel this. 
Whatever may be your public duties, you may 
encounter them successfully with the temper 
and forbearance which generally in public 
affairs meet their due reward ; and you may 
feel sure in the transactions of public life that 
there is no wise rule that it is more sedulously our 
duty to observe than this—that it is unwise to 
(878) 


introduce difficult subjects, upon which men 
may differ, when it is unnecessary to obtrude 
them on public notice. (Cheers.)’’ 

3.—In the case of Farrar (appellant) v. Close 
(respondent), the Court of Queen’s Bench 
decide, by a majority, that the defaulting secre¬ 
tary of a trade society could not be prosecuted, 
because the rules sanctioned the employment 
of funds for illegal purposes. An information 
was laid against Close at Bradford on the 
ground that, being secretary to the Amalga¬ 
mated Carpenters and Joiners’ Society, he had 
in his possession the sum of 40/. belonging to 
the society, and that he had wilfully misappro¬ 
priated it. The Justices stated, on their juris¬ 
diction being objected to by the respondent, that 
though they were decidedly of opinion that the 
case as laid in the information against the defen¬ 
dant was fully proved, yet they must dismiss the 
charge, on the ground that the rules of the 
society were in restraint of trade, and so not 
within the 18th and 19th Victoria, chapter 63, 
but established for purposes illegal, being con¬ 
trary to public policy. (See Hornby v. Clive, 
January 16, 1867.) The Judges were now 
equally divided in opinion; but, in accordance 
with the usual practice, the junior withdrew his 
judgment, and a verdict was entered against the 
appellant. 

4 -. —Gift by Mr. Peabody of another million 
of dollars to his American Southern Education 
Fund, the entire capital being now two mil¬ 
lions, and the annual income 130,000 dollars. 

5 . —Termination of the M onkwea-rmouth 
colliery strike, by which 1,200 men and boys 
were kept idle for two months. 

— The Archbishop of Canterbury’s proposal 
to give the Ulster glebes to the Irish Church 
body carried in committee by 105 to 55 votes. 

— Lord Hartington introduces a series of re¬ 
solutions with basis of a bill for the purchase of 
the telegraphs, fixing the price at twenty years’ 
purchase, and referring details to arbitrators. 
The gross revenue was set down at 673,838/., 
the expenditure at 359,484/. ; and the gross 
sum required 5,715,047/. 

6. —Lord Cairns’ amendment, reserving for 
future discussion the disposition of the Irish 
Church surplus, carried by 160 to 90 votes. 

— Private investiture of the Orders of the 
Bath, Star of India, and St. Michael and St. 
George, by the Queen, at Windsor. 

7 . —Mr. Hughes’s Trades Union Bill read a 
second time in a thin House. 

— The new Alexandra Dock, at Lynn, opened 
by the Prince of Wales. 

— Tried in the Court of Queen’s Bench the 
case of Padwick v. Peters, an interpleader issue 
directed to be tried by Mr. Baron Martin, to 
determine whether a certain execution and 
judgment obtained in May last by Henry Pad¬ 
wick, in an action against Henry Pelham 
Alexander (Duke of Newcastle), were legal 








JULY 


1869. 


JULY 


and valid ; and, secondly, whether certain 
horses seized at the suit of the defendant on 
the 3d of June, in execution by the Sheriff of 
Nottinghamshire, under a writ of fieri facias , 
were at the time of the seizure the property of 
Henry Pad wick. Verdict for the plaintiff. 

8.—Earl Russell’s Life Peerages Bill re¬ 
jected, on the motion for a third reading, by 
106 to 77 votes. 

10. —The International Enfield trophy, at 
Wimbledon, won by England. 

11 . —Died at Bushy Heath, aged 88, William 
Jordan, formerly editor of the Literary Gazette. 

^— Captain Lambert, of Castle Lambert, 
Galway, shot at four times on his own lawn, 
and severely wounded. A man named Barrett 
was apprehended on the charge, and, after vari¬ 
ous examinations, removed for trial to Dublin, 
on the ground that a fair jury could not be im¬ 
panelled in his own district. 

12 . —Imperial message read in the French 
Legislative Body, announcing the Emperor’s 
intention to accord to the Chamber that exten¬ 
sion of power which is compatible with the 
fundamental basis of the Constitution. The 
Senate will be immediately convoked to con¬ 
sider the propriety of enabling the Legislative 
Body to regulate its own proceedings and 
“elect its bureaux of simplifying the mode 
of moving amendments; of binding the Go¬ 
vernment to submit to the Legislative Body 
all changes of Customs duties stipulated by 
treaties with foreign Powers; of “voting the 
budget by chapter”— i.e. in greater detail; 
of enabling the Ministers to be members of 
the Legislative Body ; and of “extending the 
right of interpellation.” The Government will 
further take into consideration some ques¬ 
tions concerning the position of the Senate, 
“ the more efficient solidarity which will be 
established between the Chamber and the 
Government,” the “presence of all the Mi¬ 
nisters in the Chambers,” the “discussion of 
affairs of State in the Council,” and “a real 
understanding with the majority elected 
by the country.” The Emperor has always 
shown himself “disposed to relinquish in the 
public interest certain of his prerogatives ; ” 
and the proposed changes “ constitute the 
natural development of those which have suc¬ 
cessively been made in the institutions of the 
Empire. ” The Emperor adds that “ they must 
at the same time leave intact the prerogatives 
which the people has most explicitly confided 
to him, and which are the essential condition 
of power and of the preservation of order and 
society.” 

— The Irish Church Bill read a third time 
in the House of Lords, the last division taking 
place on Lord Stanhope’s amendment, on 
clause 28, providing residences for Roman 
Catholic parish priests and Presbyterian minis¬ 
ters, which was carried by 121 to 114 votes. 

13 . —Foundation-stone of new buildings for 


the London Orphan Asylum laid at Watford 
by the Prince of Wales. 

13 .— Died on the Nile, near Cairo, where 
she had been long compelled by broken health 
to reside, Lady Duff-Gordon, aged 48, a trans¬ 
lator of unusual accomplishments, and author of 
a collection of attractive letters from Egypt and 
the Cape. 

— Died, aged 71, Lord Taunton (Henry 
Labouchere), who filled various offices in Go¬ 
vernments formed between 1832 and 1859. 

14 ..— Mr. Locke King’s Real Estates Intes¬ 
tacy Bill read a second time in the Commons by 
169 to 144 votes. 

— Numerous meetings held for the purpose 
of strengthening the Government in its resist¬ 
ance to the Lords’ amendments on the Irish 
Church Bill. 

— Finney, late manager of the English Joint - 
Stock Bank, sentenced to twelve months’ im¬ 
prisonment, for misappropriation of money and 
publishing false statements. 

— Completion of the French Atlantic 
cable, a message being received at Brest from 
St. Pierre this evening. 

— Collision on the United States Erie 
railway, caused by the shunting of a goods 
train as an express was approaching. Eight 
passengers were bruised or burnt to death by 
the carriages taking fire, and many others in¬ 
jured. 

15 *—On the order of the day being read for 
the consideration of the Lords’ amendments to 
the Irish Church Bill, Mr. Gladstone explains 
the intentions of the Ministry as to their accept¬ 
ance or rejection. The first, he said, related 
to the preamble, and he should propose to restore 
it to its original form. The second related to 
the date at which the bill was to come into 
operation, and he should propose to restore 
it to the one originally fixed. The third re¬ 
lated to the annuities to the curates, which he 
should propose to agree to, with some modi¬ 
fications. The fourth, which related to the tax 
on ecclesiastical incomes to be handed over to 
the Church body, he should move to disagree 
with. The fifth, which occurred in the 25th 
clause for the protection of annuitants, he 
should propose to agree to the amendments. 
The sixth, which related to the fourteen years’ 
commutation, as it might be caked, he should 
move to disagree with, but he should propose, 
by way of amendment, an addition to the clause 
as amended by the House of Lords, the nature 
of which he would explain at the proper time. 
The seventh, which removed the conditions ot 
payments for the glebe houses, &c., he should 
move to disagree with. The eighth, which re¬ 
lated to the Ulster glebes, or, more properly, 
the Royal grants, he should move to disagree 
with, offering, however, 500,000/. in lieu of all 
private benefactions. The ninth, which allowed 
a deduction of the poor rates from the tithe 
rent-charge, he should move to disagree with. 
The tenth, which related to the disposal of the 

( 879 ) 








JULY 


JULY 


1869. 


residuary surplus, depended upon the preamble, 
and that he would also move to disagree with. 
But he should propose to insert the words 
which would secure to Parliament the control 
over the surplus during the interval of its being 
realized. Lastly, he should move to strike 
out the clause which had been inserted pro¬ 
viding for what was shortly called “concurrent 
endowment.”—There were two divisions on 
the preamble, the effect of the first being to re¬ 
store the words prohibiting the application of 
the surplus to religious endowments of any kind 
by 346 by 222 votes, and the second striking 
out the words postponing the application of the 
surplus, by 246 to 164 votes. The other amend- ! 
ments of the Lords were rejected down to the 
seventh, with the exception of the fifth, agreed 
to, and the sixth postponed. On the 16th the 
amendment giving the Ulster glebes to the 
Church body was disagreed with by 344 to 240 
votes, and the proposal to postpone the appro¬ 
priation of the surplus by 290 to 218. 

16 . —Dr. Vaughan, Vicar of Doncaster, 
gazetted to the office of Master of the Temple, 
in room of Dr. Robinson, resigned. 

17. —Inquiry at the Marlborough Police 
Court into the charge of perjury preferred by 
Lord Carrington against Mr. Grenville Murray 
in connexion with his denial of the authorship 
of certain articles in the Queen's Messenger. 
The printer and publisher of the paper were 
examined, and gave evidence as to the author¬ 
ship of the articles, as well as the general 
management of the newspaper. 

18 . —Prince de la Tour d’Auvergne departs 
from the French Embassy in London to assume 
the duties of Minister for Foreign Affairs, and 
is succeeded by the Marquis de Lavalette. 

— The University Tests Bill rejected in the 
House of Lords on the motion for a second 
reading, by 91 to 54. 

— The Prince and Princess of Wales visit 
Manchester on the occasion of the Royal 
Agricultural Society’s show. 

19 . —Mr. Warburton, High Sheriff of Queen’s 
County, fired at while driving to Maryborough 
to swear in the grand jury. 

20 . —The Thames Tunnel closed as a public 
footway. 

— Corporal Brett, of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, 
shot in the camp at Aldershot by Private Dixon 
of the same regiment, in retaliation, it was pre¬ 
sumed, for having his misconduct reported to a 
superior officer. 

— Fanny Oliver tried at the Worcester 
Assizes for poisoning her husband by prussic 
acid, with the double object, it was alleged, of 
concealing an improper intimacy she had formed 
with another person, and to procure money from 
a burial society with which her husband was 
connected. She was found guilty, and sen¬ 
tenced to be executed, after an incoherent 
address to the judge and jury, declaring her 
innocence of the crime and entire trust in the 

(880) 


mercy of Heaven. The extreme penalty was 
afterwards commuted. 

20.—Disturbances at Cracow arising out of 
the discovery of an imprisoned nun in the con¬ 
vent of the Barefooted Carmelites. Acting on 
information furnished in an anonymous letter, 
a judge visited the convent, and found in a 
filthy cell, seven paces long by six paces wide, 
a half-naked insane woman known as Sister 
Barbara Ubryk, who, at the unaccustomed sight 
of light and human beings, folded her hands 
and pitifully implored, “I am hungry; have 
pity on me, give me meat, and I shall be 
obedient.” The Bishop liberated the wretched 
sufferer, placed her under proper treatment, 
and censured the other nuns for their cruel 
neglect. 

— Animated debate in the House of Lords 
on the Irish Church Bill as sent back from the 
House of Commons. Lord Granville reviewed 
the amendments and counter-amendments. Of 
sixty-two amendments, thirty-five were adopted 
by the Commons, eleven re-amended, and only 
thirteen rejected.—Lord Cairns spoke scornfully 
of the so-called “concessions,” which amounted 
to little more than the acceptance of grammati¬ 
cal amendments. He was willing to let the 
Government have their own way in regard to the 
date of disestablishment and Ulster glebes, but 
the capitalization of life interests as a church 
fund, full compensation to incumbents and cu¬ 
rates, and the postponement of the surplus were 
vital points which could not be surrendered. 
—Lord Grey could not help suspecting that the 
Government cared very little for the bill itself, 
certainly little in comparison with the opportu¬ 
nity it furnished of giving a triumph to the 
House of Commons and subjecting the House 
of Lords to humiliation and degradation in the 
eyes of the public.—The Duke of Argyll re¬ 
sented the charges of that “ chartered libertine 
of debate,” Lord Grey, whom he accused of 
violating the decencies of debate.—Lord Salis¬ 
bury said his objection to the preamble of the 
bill was, that it was false and foolish : false, be¬ 
cause every one of the objects to which this 
surplus was to be devoted involved the employ¬ 
ment of religious persons in the hospitals, asy¬ 
lums, and reformatories which were to be sub¬ 
sidized ; foolish, because the words had no 
enacting effect, and could not bind Parliament 
in the least. It was not the verdict of the 
nation, it was not even the verdict of the House 
of Commons; it was the will, the arrogant will, 
of a single man to which they were now called 
upon to yield.—Lord Winehelsea likened the 
Premier to Jack Cade, hinted at the coming of 
an Oliver Cromwell, and announced himself 
ready for the block, sooner than surrender. 
Amid great excitement, a division then took 
place, the result being that 95 votes were given 
for the retention of the words as to religious 
purposes, and 173 against. Lord Granville, 
accepting the division as covering the whole 
preamble, moved the adjournment of the debate, 
that the Government might consider their posi¬ 
tion, and the House broke up. 









JULY 


JULY 


1869. 


21 . —Married Woman’s Property Bill read 
a third time in the House of Commons. 

- Small boat upset in the Clyde, near Card- 
ross, and a family of M'Craes and Thomsons, 
eight in number, drowned. 

— Another explosion in Evans and Co.’s 
Queen Pit, Playdock, Wigan, ccusing the death 
of fifty-eight workmen, about half the number 
who had descended in the morning. 

22 . —-The new Albert Docks at Hull opened 
by the Prince of Wales. 

— At the Middlesex Sessions, Loi*d Car¬ 
rington is found guilty of assaulting Mr. Gren¬ 
ville Murray, but under strong provocation, and 
ordered to enter into his own recognizances in 
100/. to appear for judgment when called upon. 

— Compromise agreed to between the Lords 
and Commons on the Irish Church Bill. Lord 
Cairns conceded the clauses extending the date 
of disestablishment from January to May 1871. 
Government consented that the liability of in¬ 
cumbents for the salaries of curates should be 
confined to the case where a curate had been 
employed for five years. As to diocesan com¬ 
mutation, the Government had added another 
5 per cent. (12 per cent, in all), and made the 
acceptances of three-fourths instead of four-fifths 
of the clergy of a diocese for a commutation 
sufficient. The Government had also agreed 
to exempt from the commutation any residence 
and land in an incumbent’s own occupation, 
if the incumbent should so desire. Lastly, 
there was the question of the disposal of the 
surplus. The Government, on this point, had 
consented to amend clause 68, to the effect that 
it should provide for the employment of the 
surplus for the relief of unavoidable calamity, 
and in such manner as Parliament should here¬ 
after direct. 

23 . —Compromise on the Irish Church Bill 
accepted by the Commons. 

— Indian financial statement submitted to 
the Lords by the Duke of Argyll. In re¬ 
spect to the construction of railways, a plan was 
detailed for Government taking them all into 
its own hand, making new lines, also on its own 
account, and for borrowing the necessary capital 
on its own credit instead of through the medium 
of boards sitting in London. 

_ Story’s statue of the philanthropist Pea¬ 
body, at the Royal Exchange, unveiled by the 
Prince of Wales. 

24 . —Engagement between Carlists and 
Spanish troops at Manzanares, Ciudad Real. 
The former were defeated. 

— The case of Furlong v. Bowland, in which 
the defendant, an Irish priest, was charged with 
denouncing the plaintiff from the altar in the 
most relentless terms, compromised by the de¬ 
fendant paying 200/. in money for damages and 
costs. 

2g__Royal assent given to the Irish Churchy 

Bill by Commission. 

(881) 


26 . —The grand jury at Londonderry Assizes 
return a true bill against ten policemen for 
firing on the mob during Prince Alfred’s visit 
to the city. A farm-labourer named Foley 
found with his skull beaten in near Tralee. 

— At the sitting of the Foreign Budget Com¬ 
mittee of the Hungarian Delegation, Count 
Beust took occasion to discuss the foreign rela¬ 
tions of the Austrian Empire. Since she had 
relinquished her Italian territories her interests 
had been identical with those of France, while 
with Prussia he had endeavoured to establish 
more cordial relations than those which existed, 
but had not been met in a similar spirit. (See 
Aug. 4.) 

27 . —Mr. Longfellow, the American poet, 
at present on a visit to England, receives at 
Oxford the honorary degree of D.C.L. 

—- The Rev. Julius M. Elliott, of Brighton, 
killed by falling from a glacier on the Schreck- 
hom. 

— The Select Committee on Election Prac¬ 
tices report in favour of the ballot, that it 
presented many advantages—that it would put 
an end to some of the evils in our electoral 
system, and that it would tend to mitigate 
rather than to aggravate those which it would 
not entirely remove. 

28 . —Marriage of the Crown Prince of Den¬ 
mark and Princess Louisa, daughter of the 
King of Sweden, at Stockholm. 

— The monster iron dock, designed for the 
use of naval vessels at Bermuda, arrives safely 
at its destination after a voyage of thirty-five 
days from England. 

29 . —Mr. Grenville Murray failing 10 appear 
to-day to answer the charge of perjury, and the 
police magistrate refusing to give credence to 
the plea of a sudden attack of illness in Paris, 
whither he was said to have gone to see his 
son, his recognizances were ordered to be 
estreated and a warrant issued for his appre¬ 
hension. 

30 . --The New Law Courts’ Site Committee 
decide by 9 to 7 in favour of Carey-street. 

— The House of Lords pronounce judgment 
against the appellant in the Sheddon case. 

— The Emperor of the French sends the 
first message through the new Atlantic cable to 
President Grant. 

— Died Sergeant M. Cantillon, of the Old 
Imperial Guard, who obtained considerable 
notoriety as a legatee of Napoleon I., in consi¬ 
deration of having attempted to shoot the 
Duke of Wellington in 1815. 

31 . —Renewed hostilities between the British 
colonists and natives of New Zealand. 

— At the Cardiff Assizes a' jury give a 
verdict for 50/. damages against Mr. Thomas, a 
Baptist preacher, for the abduction of Esther 
Lyons, a Jewish girl, whom he had sought,, 
in conjunction with his wife, to convert to 
Christianity. ‘ ' 

3 L 













AUGUST 


AUGUST 


August 1 .-—Died, aged 61, the Right Rev. 
Walter Kerr Hamilton, D.D., Bishop of Salis¬ 
bury. He was succeeded by Dr. Moberly. 

— Mdlle. Tinne, an enterprising African 
traveller, and two Dutch sailors, her only 
European attendants, murdered in the Ouadi 
Berdjondi, one day’s journey from Scharaba, 
and five days to the west of Mourzouk. 

2 .—The reforms contemplated by the Em¬ 
peror Napoleon submitted to the Chambers. 
The Ministers to depend only upon the Empe¬ 
ror; to deliberate in Council under the presidency 
of his Majesty ; to be responsible, but to be 
impeached only by the Senate. They might 
be Senators or Deputies, and have the right of 
being present at the sittings of either assembly. 
The sittings of the Senate to be public. “ The 
Senate will make its own parliamentary regula¬ 
tions, may indicate any modification of which 
it may consider a law susceptible, and decide 
that such law be sent back for reconsideration 
by the Legislative Body, and may oppose the 
promulgation of a law by the adoption of a 
resolution to that effect, accompanied by a 
declaration of motives. The Legislative Body 
will make its own standing orders, and will 
appoint each session its president, vice-presi¬ 
dent, and secretaries. The Senate and Legis¬ 
lative Body will have the right of ‘ interpella¬ 
ting’ the Government, and may adopt orders 
of the day with preamble. Such orders of the 
day must be referred to the bureaux, if required 
by the Government. No amendment can be 
discussed until it has been referred to a com¬ 
mittee and communicated to the Government. 
If the Government accepts it, the Legislative 
Body will then definitively pronounce upon it. 
The budget of expenditure will be voted by 
chapter. All modifications which may hence¬ 
forth be made in the customs’ tariffs in inter¬ 
national treaties will only become obligatory on 
receiving the sanction of law.” 

— Explosion at the Burg colliery, in the 
valley of the Planenscher Grand, near Dres¬ 
den, causing the death of 269 workmen. 

— Drinking-fountain erected by Cowasjee 
Jehangheer Readymoney, in Regent’s Park, 
opened by the Princess Mary of Teck. 

— Five persons drowned in the Mersey, by 
the sinking of a flat, laden with salt. 

3 . —The mail steamer Germania, trading 
between New York and Hamburg, wrecked in 
Trepany Bay, Newfoundland. 

— The Indian Budget submitted to the 
House of Commons by Mr. Grant Duff. The 
gross receipts for the past year amounted to 
48,534,412/., and the debt was put down at 
65,554,000/. He said that 4,000 miles of rail¬ 
way had now been opened, while 1,800 were 
then under construction. 

— Foundation stone of a monument to the 
German geographer, Mercator, laid at Duis¬ 
burg. 

4 . - -Resignation of the Portuguese Ministry 

(882) 


i sex} 


formed by the Marquis Sa de Bandiera, and , 
accession to power of the Duke de Soule. 

A.— Despatch addressed by Baron Theile to 
the Prussian Minister at Vienna, contradicting 
Count Beast’s statements as to the unfriendly 
feeling of Prussia towards Austria. 

— In the Court of Divorce, Lord Penzance 
grants a decree nisi, with costs, in the case 
of Vivian v. Vivian and Waterford—a petition 
for divorce presented by Captain Vivian, M. P. 
for Truro, and one of the Lords of the Treasury, 
for a dissolution of marriage with his wife, 
Florence Grosvenor Vivian, on the grounds of , 
her adultery with the co-respondent, the Marquis 
of Waterford. 

6. —The Chancellor of the Exchequer in¬ 
timates in the House of Commons that he is 
in favour of the scheme for reducing the bullion 
in the sovereign from 123^ to 122J grains ; and 
intended to mature the plan during the recess. 

7 . — Finsbury Park, occupying the ground of 
Hornsey Wood, opened by the Chairman of 
the Metropolitan Board of Works. 

— At Croydon Assizes, before the Lord 
Chief Baron, a jury give a verdict of 40J. 
damages against Mr. Grant, of the Morning 
Advertiser , for publishing a libel on Miss Emily 
Faithfull, in so far as he had described her as 
an atheist, with other “ ladies of Freethought 
principles,” in his work “The Religious Ten¬ 
dencies of the Times.” 

8. —Attempt made by a young man to shoot 
the clergyman celebrating Divine service in the 
Protestant Cathedral of Berlin, in order, as Ke 
author of the outrage declared, “to rouse the 
public mind from its apathy, and chase away 
the mists of superstition.” 

9 . —The Scotch Education Bill, as amended 
by the Commons, rejected in the Lords by 55 
to 43 votes. 

10. —Mr. Ruskin elected to the Slade Pro¬ 
fessorship of Art at Oxford. 

— I11 the Esmond will case, tried at Carlow 
Assizes, a jury give a verdict in favour of the 
validity of the document leaving property 
amounting to about 21,000/. to Trinity College, 
Dublin. 

11 . —Parliament prorogued by Commission. 
Referring to the Act passed for disestablishing 

j the Irish Churcn, it was said to be her Majesty’s 
i hope that “this important measure may here- 
; after be remembered as a conclusive proof of 
1 the paramount anxiety of Parliament to pay 
S reasonable regard, in legislating for each of the 
three kingdoms, to the special circumstances by 
which it may be distinguished, and to deal on 
I principles of impartial justice with all interests 
j and all portions of the nation. ” 

— Explosion of a steam-tug off the Cus- 
| tom-house quay, on the Thames, causing the 
death of three men. 

— Died at Richmond, aged 56, the Right 
Hon. Sir C. J. Selwyn, Lord Justice of the 
Court of Appeal in Chancery. 


I 

i 


! 












AUGUST 


1869. 


SEPTEMBER 


12 . —Banquet given at Brussels, in honour 
of Lord Clarendon, attended by the King and 
Queen of the Belgians. 

— Jonah Detheredge executed at Portland, 
for the murder of a prison warder, manifesting 
on the scaffold the same hardened impenitence 
he had exhibited at his trial. 

13 . —Collapse of the Albert Life Assurance 
Company, an application being made to-day 
to the Court of Chancery for the appointment, 
of a provisional liquidator. The actual liability 
on policies, assuming the office to be broken up, 
was about 3,000,000/., the value of the annuities 
150,000/., and, in addition, claims admitted, j 
annuities overdue, and general debts amounting 
to iio,ooo/., making an aggregate immediate 
liability of 3,260,000/., to meet which there 
were assets amounting to only 210,000/., and 
the possible produce of calls upon the share¬ 
holders, which under an absolute liquida¬ 
tion were estimated to yield not more than 
100,000/. 

— Died, aged 67, Adolphe Niel, Field 
Marshal of France. 

14 . —Prince Arthur embarks at Liverpool ' 
for Canada. He arrived at Halifax on the 
22nd. 

— Twenty persons killed on the Ohio river, 
by the explosion of the steamer Cumberla 7 id. 

— Riotous disturbance near Brighton, be¬ 
tween Belgian and English workmen, arising 
from an attempt made by the former to force 
themselves into a Foresters’ Court. 

— Tried at Croydon Assizes, the case of 
Allington v. Echoes' proprietors, an action for 
libel, in so far as the defendants, commenting on 
an assault committed in the Prince of Wales 
Theatre, questioned the plaintiff’s right to de¬ 
scribe himself as a gentleman, and suggested 
that he was probably the son of an eating- 
house keeper and a waiter in his father’s employ. 
Damages, 500/. 

15 .—The Emperor Napoleon issues a pro¬ 
clamation granting a complete amnesty for all 
political offenders, in order “to celebrate the 
centenary of the birth of Napoleon I. by an 
act which responds to our feelings. ” 

— Rejoicing at Suez, to celebrate the meet¬ 
ing of the waters. of the Red Sea and 
Mediterranean in the Bitter Lakes on the Suez 
Canal. 

16 .—The King of Prussia’s gift of a statue 
of Field-Marshal Keith unveiled at Peterhead, 
the birthplace of the old soldier. 

20 .—Inquiry at the Mansion House into the 
charges preferred against Clement Harwood, 
33, Abchurch Lane, through whom Messrs. Har¬ 
wood and Co., bankers, had been robbed and 
defrauded of 15,000/. by means of bills forged 
or stolen. The prosecution was afterwards with¬ 
drawn, and the young man, a relation of one 
of the prosecutors, sent out of the country. 

(883) 


23 .—The inhabitants of Deal present an 
address to Mr. Gladstone at Walmer Castle, 
where he had been living for the benefit of his 
health. 

24 ..—-The Empress of the French and the 
Prince Imperial leave Paris on a visit to 
Corsica. 

25 . —Fire at Chawleigh, Devon, causing the 
destruction of twenty-one houses, besides much 
agricultural property. 

— Bill introduced into the Melbourne Par¬ 
liament, providing for the gradual abolition of 
State grants to religion in five years. 

26 . —Died, aged 54, Baron Henri Leys, 
Belgian artist. 

27 . —The International boat race between 
the Universities of Oxford and Harvard, won 
by the Oxford crew by a length and three- 
quarters. 

— Dr. Lanigan, of Waterford, while in a 
state of excitement from drink, murders his 
wife, and then commits suicide by shooting 
himself. 

28 . —Suicide of Joel Cousens, who threw 
himself into the Avon from Clifton Suspension 
Bridge. 

29 . —James Hunter, a Scotch farmer, resid¬ 
ing near Newport, Mayo, shot dead when re¬ 
turning home on a car with his wife and family. 
The victim in this case had recently the misfor¬ 
tune to be successful in contesting his right to a 
piece of bog ground, over which a neighbour, 
named O’Neil, insisted he had a right to cut. 
On the same evening two young men and one 
elderly woman were barbarously assaulted near 
Mullingar. 

30 . —Close of the session of the Austro- 
Hungarian Delegations by the Chancellor of 
the Empire. 

— The Rev. Charles Kingsley nominated to 
a canonry in Chester Cathedral. 

31 . —Don Carlos leaves Spain for England. 

September 1 .—In this month’s number of 
Macmillan's Magazine an article appeared by 
Mrs. H. B. Stowe, entitled “The True Story 
of Lady Byron’s Married Life.” Mrs. Stowe 
asserted that the cause of Lady Byron’s separa¬ 
tion from her husband was “an adulterous in¬ 
trigue ” of the latter “with a blood relation so 
near in consanguinity that discovery must have 
been utter ruin and expulsion from civilized 
society. ” This accusation was based on a direct 
statement made to Mrs. Stowe by Lady Byron 
in 1856. The article caused a vast amount of 
public excitement, and was keenly discussed for 
some time by the journals and periodicals of 
England, America, and the Continent. 

— The Prince of Wales elected a Past 
Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons, 

— Opening of that portion of the Thames 
Embankment extending from Westminster 
Bridge to Vauxhall. 


3 L 2 










SEPTEMBER 


1869. 


SEPTEMBER 


1. —The Catholic hierarchy publish a series 
of ^solutions adopted at a meeting in Maynooth 
College on the education and land questions. 
They condemned the mixed system of education, 
demanding complete secular education on purely 
Catholic principles, a share of the funds of the 
royal and endowed schools, and a re-arrange¬ 
ment of the Queen’s Colleges on the denomina¬ 
tional system. They added a general resolution 
on the land question, expressing their belief 
that its- settlement was essential to the peace of 
the kingdom. 

— Prince Napoleon, addressing the French 
Senate, declares that the Empire, which had 
hitherto been based upon the personal autho¬ 
rity of the Emperor, had now been transformed 
into an Empire based upon liberal principles. He 
proclaimed his entire devotion to the Emperor and 
the Prince Imperial, and said: “ It is necessary to 
be unreservedly liberal. Those who are opposed 
to the reforms which have already been intro¬ 
duced are the enemies of the Government.” 
The Prince reminded the Senate of the ex¬ 
pression used by a statesman, that everything 
could be done with bayonets but sit upon them; 
and added, in the same way, everything can be 
done with despotism, but make it last. He 
approved of the course taken by the Emperor 
in not having appealed to a plebiscitum, on the 
ground that such step should only be taken at 
moments of supreme importance. He then 
entered into a statement of the omissions of the 
Senatus Consultum, and said he wished at least 
that the Government should be deprived of the 
faculty of choosing mayors outside the Muni¬ 
cipal Councils. 

3 . —Destruction by fire of Day and Martin’s 
noted blacking warehouse in Holbom. 

A. —Her Majesty, now residing at Inver 
trosachs, Stirling, visits Loch Lomond. 

— Serious illness of the Emperor Napoleon, 
causing a panic on the French Bourse. 

— Died at Melbourne, aged 77, John P. 
Fawkner, the first colonist who erected a habi¬ 
tation on the banks of the Yarra Yarra. 

— Dr. Cumming, of the Scotch Church, 
London, having manifested an intention of 
taking part in the discussion at the Oecumeni¬ 
cal Council, the Pope writes to-day, through 
Archbishop Manning, that no room can be 
given for the defence of errors already con¬ 
demned, and that non-Catholics had only been 
invited to take advantage of the Council by 
“ withdrawing from a state in which they can¬ 
not be sure of their salvation.” His Holiness 
vaguely referred to Dr. Cumming as “ Dr. 
Cumming of Scotland.” 

5.—Festival at Prague, in honour of the 
Protestant Reformer, John Huss. Many Rus¬ 
sians, Sclaves, Frenchmen, and Englishmen 
were present. 

— Severe thunderstorm in the North of 
England. Two lovers were struck dead by light¬ 
ning, while crossing a footpath between Farsiey 
(884) 


and Stanningley, the bodies being found lying 
side by side without any mark of injury beyond 
a few scratches caused by the fall. 

6 . —The French Senate, by 134 to 3 votes, 
adopt the Senatus Consultum modifying the 
Constitution of the Empire ; and an Imperial 
decree gave effect to the resolution on the 8th. 

— The convict William Dixon executed at 
Aldershot for the murder of Captain Brett. 

— The romantic Hermitage erected in the 
Duke of Athol’s grounds, at Dunkeld, mali¬ 
ciously blown up by the introduction of a barrel 
of gunpowder, to which a train was attached 
outside. 

— Colliery explosion in Avondale district, 
Pennsylvania, causing the death of no persons. 

— Died, aged 86, General Perronet Thomp¬ 
son, a zealous advocate of Free Trade, and 
formerly M.P. for Hull and Bradford. 

7 . —Mr. Arthur S. .Sullivan’s new oratorio 
of “The Prodigal Son” performed at the 
Worcester Musical Festival, in the Cathedral. 

S.— The National Guard at Madrid rise in 
mutiny. 

9 . —Died at his residence in the Museum, 
aged 58, Thomas Watts, keeper of the Printed 
Book Department. 

— The rumours regarding the continued ill- 
health of the Emperor Napoleon cause the 
French funds to fall to 7of. 15c., or 10c. lower 
than yesterday. 

10. — Denis Vrain Lucas, the author of the 
pretended Newton-Pascal coi-respondence, ap¬ 
prehended at Paris on the charge of forging 
numerous documents with the intention of 
deceiving M. Chasles and others. 

11. —Died at Brockett Hall, aged 83, Lady 
Palmerston. She was buried in Westminster 
Abbey on the 17 th. 

— The Wallace Monument formally handed 
over to the keeping of the Town Council of 
Stirling. The total cost of the structure was 
13,401/. ij. 8 d., of which sum 12,902/. i6j. Sd. 
had been up to this date collected by public 
subscription. 

12 . —“Triduum” Festival commenced at 
Dublin by Cardinal Cullen, to celebrate the 
passing of the Irish Church Bill. The Lord 
Mayor was present at the opening, and twelve 
bishops at the closing service on the 14th. 

13 . —ThePeninsular and Oriental Company’s 
steamer Carnatic lost on the north edge of the 
Shadwan Reef, Gulf of Suez, with the Indian 
mails and cargo, and specie valued at 40,000/. 
She struck about 1 A.M., but kept so well to¬ 
gether for several hours, that passengers and 
crew continued in an undecided state when 
and in what manner she should be abandoned. 
She ultimately broke in two amidships, the 
after-part sinking into deep water with several 
people who had remained in that part of the 
vessel. The survivors made for the island ot 







SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1S69. 


Shadwan, from which they were taken in a few 
hours by the Sumatra. The total loss was five 
passengers, nine of the officers and crew, and 
fifteen natives—in all twenty-nine. At the 
court of inquiry which subsequently took place, 
the certificate of the master, Captain Jones, 
was suspended for six months. 

13 . —Solway Junction Railway opened, a 
viaduct of great strength and ingenuity, con- [ 
necting the shores of England and Scotland. ! 

— Jonathan Judge, formerly a soldier, but 
latterly employed in shipbuilding yards, suf¬ 
focates himself, his wife, and two children with 
charcoal in their house at Bromley, excited 
to the deed, it was believed, by extreme desti¬ 
tution. 

— Fifty persons drowned at Konigsburg by 
the breaking of a wooden bridge. 

— Centenary of the birth of Humboldt cele¬ 
brated in Germany. 

14 . —Meeting of the General Synod of the 
Church in Ireland, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 
Dublin, to draw up a new Constitution suitable 
for the altered condition of the Church. The 
business in both Houses was the considera¬ 
tion of a solemn protest against the measure 
“whereby the Imperial Legislature has both 
deprived the Church of Ireland of its prescrip¬ 
tive right, and confiscated the endowments 
which the piety of our ancestors had devoted 
to the service of God.” A message was sent 
to the Lower House containing a scheme for 
the formation of a Church Body of the clergy 
of each diocese to elect representatives varying 
in number. The total for Ireland to be 124. 
One dean and one archdeacon for each united 
diocese and the Regius Professor of Divinity, 
Trinity College, to be ex-officio members; the 
Provost and Fellows of the College to return 
one member. Archdeacon Lee moved a pre¬ 
face defining the position of the laity, and sug¬ 
gesting election from among communicants, and 
declaring that questions of doctrine and disci¬ 
pline should be reserved for the bishops and 
clergy. 

— Publication of the Grand Vizier s reply 
to the Viceroy of Egypt, expressing the Sultan’s 
satisfaction at the assurance given by his High¬ 
ness of fidelity to the Porte and strict compli¬ 
ance with the conditions of the firman; but 
insisting for the future upon the observance of 
the following pointsThat the Egyptian 
army should be reduced to 30,000 men, and 
that the needle-guns ordered beyond that num¬ 
ber, as well as the ironclads now in course of 
construction, should be countermanded; that 
the taxes should be collected in the name of 
the Sultan, and with his Majesty’s sanction; 
that authorization should be asked previous to 
contracting any future foreign loans; that no 
direct official intercourse should be held by 
the Viceroy with foreign Governments; and that 
better treatment should be shown towards Mus¬ 
sulman pilgrims.” On the above understand¬ 
ing the Sultan would be-glad to see the Viceroy 
at Constantinople. 


15 . —Termination of the nailers’ strike in 
Worcestershire, by which 20,000 people w r ere 
kept idle for twelve weeks ; and of the Denboy 
Main Colliery lock-out, which had extended 
over a period of twenty-six weeks—both the 
result of arbitration and concession on each 
side. 

— Died, the Rev. Michael Kieran, D.D., 
Roman Catholic Bishop of Armagh, and Pri¬ 
mate. 

16 . —Mr. Chester, of the Alpine Club, killed 
on the Lyskaam while attempting to save a dog, 
and his two guides seriously injured. 

— Died, aged 63, Thomas Graham, D.C.L., 
F. R.S., Master of the Mint, and ranking among 
the most eminent chemists of the century. 

17 . —Order made by Vice-Chancellor James 
for winding up the Albert Insurance Company. 

18 . —Closing of the Woolwich Dockyard, 
after having been employed for naval purposes 
for nearly three hundred years. 

— Died at Bishopstowe, aged 92, the Right 
Rev. Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, noted 
in his day as a zealous controversialist and de¬ 
termined litigant. 

19 . —Meeting at Clonmel, attended, it was 
said, by 20,000 people, to urge the release of 
the Fenian prisoners. Numerous meetings were 
being held almost daily throughout Ireland 
with the same object. 

— Three people drowned in the Lea by the 
upsetting of a small boat. 

20 . —The Right Hon. George Patton, Lord 
Justice Clerk, Scotland, commits suicide by first 
cutting his throat and then throwing himself 
into the waters of the Almond, Perthshire. The 
publicity given to scandals connected with the 
Bridgewater election inquiry, and the near ap¬ 
proach of his own examination as one of the 
candidates, acting on a mind unusually sensi¬ 
tive to even the appearance of impropriety, was 
understood to have been the immediately incit¬ 
ing cause of an act unparalleled in the history 
of the Scottish judicial bench. 

— Pere Hyacinthe, of the Barefooted Car¬ 
melites, issues a manifesto against the abuses of 
the Roman Catholic Church. “It is my pro¬ 
found conviction,” he said, “that if France in 
particular, and the Latin races in general, are 
given up to social, moral, and religious anarchy, 
the principal cause undoubtedly is not Catholi¬ 
cism itself, but the manner in which Catholi¬ 
cism has for a long time been understood and 
practised.” 

— Fetes in Belgium commemorative of the 
declaration of their independence, and to re¬ 
ceive a company of British Volunteers. 

— The acting Governor of Tarragona mur* 
dered by a Republican mob. 

21. —Dresden Court Theatre destroyed by 

fire. - 

22. —Great excitement in Paris caused by the 

(& 5 ) 














SEPTEMBER 


1869. 


OCTOBER 


discovery of the murdered bodies of the Kinck 
family—six in number—buried in a field at 
Pantin. The wound which occasioned the 
death of the mother had been inflicted with a 
hatchet or some other heavy instrument, while 
the children were stabbed and cut in many 
places with a knife ; one lad of sixteen, who 
had apparently sought to defend the family, 
being almost hacked to pieces. As the details 
of the tragedy continued to be developed day 
by day, immense crowds visited the ground, 
and memorials of the unfortunate family were 
eagerly bought up. On one of the days when 
the crowd at Pantin was unusually great, 
another body was discovered, which proved to 
be the eldest son of the family, GustaVe Kinck. 
The clue obtained by the police led to the 
apprehension of an artisan named Traupmann. 
He turned out to be the person who, unaided, 
so far as known, had murdered the entire family, 
including the father, with whom he was on inti¬ 
mate terms, and who, he sought to insinuate, had 
. helped in the massacre. 

22 .—Two petitions presented to Vice-Chan¬ 
cellor James for winding up the European 
Assurance Society. Liabilities on policies esti¬ 
mated at about 10,000,000/.; assets under 
500,000/. 

— William Taylor, a private in the 57th 
Regiment, sentenced to be executed for shoot¬ 
ing Corporal Skullin at Devonport, in revenge 
for what the prisoner considered to be unneces¬ 
sary severity in drill. 

— Captain Vivian Craig, late Governor of 
Pentonville Prison, sentenced to three months’ 
imprisonment for embezzling sums of money 
belonging to Government, the Solicitor for the 
Treasury recommending him to mercy on ac¬ 
count of his former exemplary conduct. 

— Public reception given to the Duke of 
Edinburgh by the Mikado of Japan. 

24 . —Professor Seeley announced as the new 
Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. 

25 . —Gold panic at New York, caused by 
nefarious speculations on the Stock Exchange. 

— Mr. Fish, the new Foreign Secretary for 
the United States, forwards to Lord Clarendon 
a despatch setting forth the grievances sustained 
by the precipitate declaration of neutrality on 
the part of Great Britain, and from the freedom 
with which she “ permitted armed cruisers to 
be fitted out, harboured, and equipped in her 
ports to cruise against the merchant ships of the 
United States, and to burn and destroy them 
until American maritime commerce was swept 
from the ocean.” At present, he said, the Pre¬ 
sident was prepared neither to pronounce what 
indemnities are due from Great Britain either 
for the destruction of the property of individual 
citizens or for the larger account of the vast 
national injuries inflicted on the United States, 
nor to measure the relative effect of the various 
causes of injury, nor to “ discuss the important 
changes in the rules of public law the desirable¬ 
ness of which has been demonstrated by the in- 
( 886 ) 


cidents of the last few years. ” He will be ready, 
however, whenever the British Government 
“shall think the proper time has come for a 
renewed negotiation, to entertain any proposi¬ 
tion which that Government shall think proper 
to present.” (See Nov. 6.) 

25 . —The Irish National press now commence 
to indulge in language of unusual violence 
against Government. The People maintained 
that the Church Act came to them stained with 
the blood of Allen and other martyrs, and by 
the sufferings of those still unjustly kept in 
prison. 

— Insurrection at Barcelona, leading to 
serious loss of life among the Republicans. 

26 . —Return of Dr. Hall to the United 
States from an Arctic exploration of five years’ 
duration. He had found the graves of many of 
the Franklin party, and brought back several of 
their relics. 

27 . —Addressing the members of the West 
Hertfordshire Agricultural Association at Wat¬ 
ford, Lord Clarendon took occasion to allude 
to the present peaceful prospects of the Con¬ 
tinent: “In the office I have the honour to 
hold, I am not only enabled but compelled to 
know much of what passes in foreign countries, 
and in the councils of foreign countries. I have 
been for some time on the Continent, and I 
returned last week. I had there the oppor¬ 
tunity of collecting opinions, and I have seen 
some persons who exercise no little influence on 
the destinies of Europe; and although I have 
not the gift of prophecy, though I do not pre¬ 
tend to see further into futurity than other men, 
yet I cannot help, on this occasion, expressing 
my belief that at no time within the last three 
years—at no time since the war between Prussia 
and Austria—have we had a fairer prospect of 
maintaining the inestimable blessings of peace.” 

— Riot at Lurgan, caused by the disorderly 
conduct of members of a brass band returned 
from Portadown, whither they had proceeded 
to interrupt the trial of Orangemen. 

28 . —Explosion of petroleum in Bordeaux 
harbour, causing the instant destruction of six¬ 
teen vessels and serious damage to others. 

29 . —Lord-Advocate Moncreiff elevated to 
the seat of the Lord Justice Clerk. He was 
succeeded in office by the Solicitor-General, Mr. 
George Young. 

— Formation in Tipperary of an Irish Tenant 
League, to obtain fixity of tenure and protect 
tenants joining the League from any arbitrary 
exercise of landlord powers. 

30 . —In the case of Barrett, tried at Galway 
for the murder of Captain Lambert, the jury 
were discharged to-day, not being able to agree 
upon a verdict. 

Rapid spread of fopt-and-mouth disease 
among cattle this month. 

October 1—-The Empress of the French 
leaves Paris for a tour in the East 






OC TOLER 


1869. 


OCTOBER 


1 . —Died, aged 52, the Right Rev. Samuel 
Waldegrave, D.D., Bishop of Carlisle. He 
was succeeded by Dr. Goodwin, Dean of Ely. 

— Explosion of fireworks in a shop in 
Moscow Road, Bayswater, causing the death 
of a family of four people residing in the upper 
part of the premises. 

2 . —Inquiry commenced at the Birmingham 
Police Court into the charges made aga-inst Fanny 
Letitia Baker, involving the forgery of two bills, 
bigamy, and attempted murder. She was after¬ 
wards sentenced at the Borough Sessions to 
seven years’ transportation. 

— In compliance with a demand made by 
the Comte d’Eu, the Provisional Government 
of Assuncion issue a decree abolishing slavery 
throughout all the dominions of the Republic. 

— Frauenstein, near Chemnitz, in Saxony, 
destroyed by fire. 

4 .—Mr. Nicholson, a Meath magistrate, 
fired at and wounded, as were also Mrs. Nichol¬ 
son and the coachman, the latter severely. 

— Frederick Hinson shoots his paramour, 
Maria Death, at Wood Green, and then beats 
a man Boyd to death with his gun in a fit of 
jealousy at the discovery of an intrigue carried 
on in his absence. 

— The Danish Rigsdag opened by the King. 
Referring to the addresses presented by the 
Danes of Schleswig on the marriage of the 
Crown Prince, his Majesty said : “As our joy 
has been theirs, so is their sorrow ours. We 
firmly believe with them that those who are 
and wish to remain Danes will be once more 
united to Denmark.” The Prussian Govern¬ 
ment, the King added, were not at present pre¬ 
pared to resume negotiations upon the subject, 
but he expressed his conviction that justice 
and the well-understood interests of the two 
countries would produce a solution of the 
difficulty which should restore relations of 
durable friendship between Denmark and the 
North German Confederation. 

6 . —The Church Congress engage in a dis¬ 
cussion on “ Recreations for the People,” Arch¬ 
deacon Denison speaking strongly in favour of 
harvest homes, and dancing or cricket between 
services on Sundays. 

— Announcement made of various changes 
in the Episcopal bench. The Bishop of Oxford 
to be promoted to the See of Winchester, and 
succeeded by the Rev. J. F. Mackarness, rector 
of Honiton ; Lord Arthur Hervey to be the 
new Bishop of Bath and Wells; and Dr. Temple, 
Head Master of Rugby, to be raised to the 
vacant See of Exeter. 

— A tide of unusual magnitude being re¬ 
ported as certain to take place to-day, great 
preparations were made at various seaports to 
provide against loss or damage, but it was in 
most instances found unnecessary, the flow not 
being so great as the spring-tides of March 
last. 

— The Prussian Chambers opened by the j 


King, who expressed a hope that the foreign 
policy of the Government, directed by him in 
the same spirit as heretofore, would be followed 
by the same good results, “ the establishment 
of peaceful and friendly relations with all foreign 
Governments, the development of traffic, and 
! the maintenance of the authority and indepen- 
I dence of Germany.” 

7 . —Great gathering of Mormons at Salt 
Lake City, to adopt a memorial to Congress 
praying for the admission of their settlement as 
a State into the Union. 

; 9 .—Collision on the Midland Railway, be¬ 

tween excursion trains returning from Notting¬ 
ham Goose Fair, the mail express running into 
one set of carriages “ there to be run into, be¬ 
cause their driver was afraid he would other¬ 
wise run down another excursion train in front, 
detained on its journey because it had already 
run down a luggage train.” Nine passengers 
were killed, eleven seriously wounded, and 
many others slightly bruised. 

10. —Fire in a dwelling-house at Newington 
Butts, causing the death of the M'Micken 
family—a husband, wife, and two children. 

— Fenian amnesty, meeting held in Dublin, 
said to have been attended by 50,000 people. 

11 . —Opposition to the appointment of Dr. 
Temple to the See of Exeter, on the ground of 
his complicity in the authorship of “ Essays 
and Reviews.” At a meeting of the English 
Church Union at Devonport, to-day, a resolu¬ 
tion was unanimously adopted, asking the Dean 
and Chapter to refuse to elect on the congi 
d'tlire. Dr. Pusey described the appoint¬ 
ment as a “horrible scandal,” and denounced 
as a “ miserable excuse ” the statement that Dr. 
Temple ought not to be held responsible for the 
opinions of his co-essayists. “And now, with¬ 
out any token of repentance, a writer who, by 
continuing to appear as one of its contributors 
through all those many editions, made himself 
responsible before God and man for the evils 
which ensued, with the blood of all those souls 
upon his head, having expressed no sorrow that 
he occasioned others to throw off the faith, is 
recommended as the guardian of the faith 
which once he destroyed, as the chief pastor of 
the sheep whom once he betrayed to the wolf. ” 
He suggested the possibility that the Chapter of 
Exeter and the bishops, rather than submit to 
the injunction to elect and consecrate, might 
prefer to incur the penalty of prcemunire; but 
“disestablishment,” he said, “appears to me 
now our only remedy; ” it “ must come in ten 
years at latest, and better to be bared of all 
external help, if need be, now than when 
paralysed. ” 

— Louis Keyzor, aged 80, shot at Whitton, 
near Hounslow, by John Hydon Green, aged 
82, who afterwards committed suicide. Keyzor, 
the owner of a large portion of Whitton, had 
threatened to summon Green for a nuisance 
which he refused to remove, and the latter, 
known to be of a slightly crazy disposition, 

(S87) 











OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1869. 


stationed himself near his landlord’s house, 
and shot him as he passed out. Green then 
went back to his own residence and shot him¬ 
self through the heart. 

12 .—-Died, aged 53, Mr. "B. B. Woodward, 
Librarian to the Queen, and editor of the 
Fine Arts Quarterly Review. 

— The National Education League assemble 
for deliberation at Manchester. 

14 . —Bunhill Fields Burying-ground opened 
for public recreation by the Lord Mayor. 

— Fire at Glasgow, destroying the Vulcan 
Oil works and the Eagle Foundry. 

15 . —New Town-hall at Chester opened by 
the Prince of Wales. 

— Vice-Chancellor James dismisses the pe¬ 
tition for winding up the European Assurance 
Society, with costs. 

16 . —Valencia surrenders to the Government 
troops, after a bombardment of three hours. 

18 . —Replying to an address from the 
Limerick Amnesty Association, Mr. Gladstone 
writes that “while the Government desire to 
carry clemency for the Fenian convicts to 
the farthest limit the supreme consideration of 
public safety permits, it is their decided con¬ 
clusion that to advise the release of the prisoners 
would be contrary to their duty as guardians of 
the public security and peace. He fails to dis¬ 
cover any proof that those misguided men have 
abandoned the designs against the public peace 
which were cut short by their imprisonment, 
and this fact is the more important because it 
is known to the Government that the Fenian 
conspiracy is not extinct in the United Kingdom 
or America, while it is unhappily notorious 
that journals widely disseminated in Ireland 
continue to maintain a tone which must tend to 
engender discontent and disaffection, with the 
social and political dangers that necessarily 
follow.” 

— Archbishop M‘Hale and the Tuam clergy 
issue four resolutions regarding the present 
state of Ireland. So far as the land question 
was concerned, they declared that nothing short 
of an equitable covenant, regulated by the 
price of produce, and entire security against 
eviction, would satisfy the demands of the 
Irish people. They also stated that the “ma¬ 
lignant influence” of the Protestant Church 
continued in the educational establishments, 
maintained “ in deference to Protestant ascen¬ 
dency.” It was not sufficient to “ prescribe the 
model schools as Queen’s Colleges alone, or to 
support a Catholic University, whilst the ele¬ 
mentary schools ” were ‘ ‘ in too many instances 
under the vicious control of the enemies of our 
religion.” The resolutionists expressed them¬ 
selves in favour of the amnesty movement, and 
asked the “gaolers” to reflect on their own 
public manifestoes on the subject of the in¬ 
surgents in Spain and in Italy. 

19 . —Mr. Moncreiff, late Lord-Advocate, 
installed into office as Lord Justice Clerk. He 

( 888 ) 


was succeeded in office by the Solicitor-General, 
Mr. George Young, and in his seat for the 
Universities by Mr. Edward Gordon, formerly 
Lord-Advocate in Earl Derby’s Government. 

19 . —Lord Houghton formally unveils the 
monument erected in Kensal Green to the 
memory of Leigh Hunt. 

— Five persons killed by a boiler explosion 
at Bramley’s iron foundry, Accrington ; and 
three by an explosion of gunpowder at Black 
Beck Mills, Windermere. 

20. —Meeting of clergymen and laymen in 
London, to prepare petitions calling upon the 
Dean and Chapter of Exeter to oppose the 
election of Dr. Temple as bishop of that See. 

— Disastrous storm at the Cape of Good 
Hope, lasting over four days. 

- — David Dick, farmer, Muirhead, Arbroath, 
shoots his wife, and then commits suicide, while 
labouring under mental excitement. 

21 . —Insurrection in Dalmatia, excited by 
the opposition of the people to the new Austrian 
laws regarding military service. 

22. —Nine persons killed by an explosion a 
Newbury Colliery, Frome. 

23 . -—Died, aged 44, John Conington, 
Corpus Professor of Latin at Oxford. He was 
succeeded by the Rev. E. Palmer, M. A. Balliol. 

— Died at Knowsley, aged 71, Edward 
Geoffrey Stanley, fourteenth Earl of Derby, 
K.G., three times Premier of England (1852- 
58-66), and Chancellor of the University of 
Oxford. 

24 . —Accident on the Great Northern Rail¬ 
way, caused by the London train running off 
the rails near Welwyn, where the line branches 
off to Hertford. One of the carriages was 
smashed to pieces, two passengers were killed 
on the spot, and a third died next day. 

-— The steamer Ossian run down near Anhalt, 
by the Clarei?iont, and five of the crew drowned. 

— Disorderly demonstration in Hyde Park 
to promote the liberation of Fenian prisoners. 

26 .—Mr. Layard, Commissioner of Works, 
gazetted to be British Minister at Madrid. He 
was succeeded in office by Mr. Ayrton, and in 
his seat by Lieut.-Col. Beresford, a Conservative. 

— The Gazette announces the issue to the 
Dean and Chaper of Exeter of the congS 
d'el ire for the election of Dr. Temple. In a 
letter addressed to a newspaper the Bishop 
Nominate expresses his regret that so much 
anxiety and excitement should have been caused 
by his nomination to the See of Exeter. He 
would be glad if he could justly do anything to 
allay this feeling. But to allow that a bishop 
. or rector designate should be called upon after 
nomination to make any other declaration than 
those required by law, would be so serious an 
infringement of the lawful liberty guaranteed 
to ministers of the Church that he dare not 
sanction it by his own example. Dr. Temple 
declines to make any explanatory statement, 
and feels confident that personal intercourse 








OCTOBER 


1869. 


NOVEMBER 


with the clergy of his diocese will dissipate 
all uncomfortable feeling. 

26 . —Proceedings commenced in the Arches 
Court against the Rev. Mr. Bennett, of Frome, 
for having taught, as was alleged, the real ob¬ 
jective Presence in the sacramental elements, 
the offering of sacrifice by the priest, and the 
adoration of our Lord in the Sacraments. 

— Professor Sir J. Y. Simpson presented 
with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh. 

27 . —The steamer Stonewall burnt on the 
Mississippi, off Cairo, and 220 people drowned. 

— Severe storms, causing great damage to 
shipping on the northern and eastern coasts. 

28 . —The inhabitants of Rugby present an 
address to Dr. Temple, congratulating him on 
his appointment to the See of Exeter, and ex¬ 
pressive of their regret at his leaving the town. 
The Bishop nominate stated in reply that it was 
only after long consideration that he thought it 
his duty to take the position to which he was 
called by the authorities of the State and the 
voice of many friends, who thought he would 
be more useful in his new sphere. 

— In the case of the Duke of Newcastle, 
Mr. Commissioner Winslow decides that only 
those persons having privilege of Parliament, 
who were traders, were subject to the law of 
bankruptcy. 

— Declaration of 110 k members of the 
Spanish Constituent Cortes/to support General 
Prim in elevating the Duke of Genoa to the 
throne. 

— Died suddenly, aged 67, John Bruce, 
historian and archaeologist, formerly vice-presi¬ 
dent of the Society of Antiquaries. 

29 . —Broadhead, the Sheffield Unionist, 
makes a public appearance in that town, pre¬ 
vious to leaving for America, where he hoped 
to “avoid the cruel finger of suspicion pointing 
to him as the instigator of terrible crimes. ” 

30. —Collision off Greenock, between the 
steamers William Connal , from Glasgow to 
Havre, and the Tern, from Antwerp to Glasgow. 
The former sank almost instantly. 

31 . —Died at Fonthill Gifford, aged 75, the 
Marquis of Westminster. 

November 1.— Attack upon a party of 
tenant-right farmers at the Orange stronghold 
of Drumalure, Cavan. Edward Norton, of 
Belturbet, shot dead, another wounded in the 
forehead, and several slightly injured. 

_ Tenant-right meeting at Limerick broken 

up by Fenians, who declared that they would 
permit no public agitation of any kind till the 
prisoners were released. 

_ Cardinal Cullen announces a jubilee to the 

faithful, commencing to-day, and lasting till the 
termination of the (Ecumenical Council. 1 he 
indulgences applicable to souls in purgatory. 
The Cardinal, in his pastoral, spoke of Irish 
Protestants as presently “ groping in the dark,- 


in a vain effort to build up with mortal hands 
an edifice worthy to be called divine.” 

1. —The Prince of Wales, at present the guest 
of Lord Londesborough, visits Scarborough and 
is presented with an address by the corporation. 

2 . —Meeting in the Round Room of the 
Rotunda, Dublin, to initiate a new movement 
for the recovery of Church property. The 
Disestablishment Act was denounced with great 
fervour. 

— Tenant-right meeting at Monaghan, re¬ 
markable chiefly for the attendance of between 
7,000 and 8,000 farm-labourers. Three cheers 
were given for the Queen, and a declaration of 
confidence made in favour of Mr. Gladstone. 
As at other meetings, the chief resolution car¬ 
ried advocated fixity of tenure at a fair rent. 

3. —Ten men killed by the explosion of a 
boiler on the gunboat Thistle, at Sheerness. 
The coroner’s jury found that the accident was 
caused by the escape of steam from the fracture 
of the crown of the furnace of a steam boiler, 
resulting' from overheating, occasioned by a 
deficiency of water; but that there was no evi¬ 
dence to show the cause of such deficiency. 
The jury considered the boiler to have been 
well constructed and of proper materials. 

4 . —Died in London, at the residence of his 
friend Sir Curtis Lampson, in the 75th year of 
his age, George Peabody, a munificent bene¬ 
factor to the poor of the metropolis and to the 
charities of his native country. The remains 
of the great philanthropist were placed in 
Westminster Abbey preparatory to being con¬ 
veyed in one of her Majesty’s ships to America, 
for interment in his native city, Danvers, Massa¬ 
chusetts. Under his will Mr. Peabody leit an 
additional 150,000/. for the erection of dwellings 
for the poor in London, making in all 500,000/. 
given for this object. 

— A whale, 82 feet in length and 30 in girth, 
cast ashore at Longniddry, Haddington. 

5. —The Rev. Charles Kingsley gazetted to a 
canonry in Chester Cathedral. 

— Vice-Chancellor Malins refuses to allow 
Dr. Thom 5,000/. out of the Overend and Gurney 
estate for the prosecution of the directors, and 
expresses an opinion that if his sanction had 
been asked for proceeding in the manner pro¬ 
posed against the directors, he did not think it 
probable it would have been granted. 

— A duel was arranged to take place this 
morning at Boulogne, between The O’Donoghue 
and Mr. G. H. Moore, but explanations were 
made that The O’Donoghue did not refer to 
Mr. Moore personally in his letter to the Am¬ 
nesty Association, and that Mr. Moore, on the 
other hand, disclaimed any intention of casting 
any sneer on the ancient family of The 
O’Donoghue. 

— Rumours being now current that it was 
designed to effect a union between the Orange 
and Fenian factions, Mr. Johnstone, of Bally- 
killeg, speaking at Belfast to-night, protested 

(889) 








NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1869. 


against it as untrue, though he was ready to 
admit that the Ultramontanes who would place 
them under the Pope were greater enemies to 
Ireland than those who decried the establish¬ 
ment of a Fenian Republic. 

5 . —M. Rochefort,oneofthe “Irreconcilable” 
candidates for Paris, arrested when crossing the 
Belgian frontier, but released in a few hours by 
order of the Emperor, who directed that he 
should have a safe conduct granted to him 
during all the time over which the election 
would extend. 

6 . —The Queen opens the new bridge at 
Blackfriars and the Holborn Viaduct. The 
long line of streets through which her Majesty 
passed from Paddington to the City, and back 
again, were crowded with people, who cheered 
the Royal cortege as it passed along. At the 
southern end of the new bridge at Blackfriars 
her Majesty was received with the usual forma¬ 
lities of a State visit, and an address was pre¬ 
sented and a reply returned. The Queen, 
having declared the bridge open, drove over it, 
along Farringdon-street and round by Smith- 
field, to the eastern end of the Viaduct, which 
she opened with a similar ceremonial, and then 
went back to Paddington by way of Holborn. 
The Lord Mayor gave a banquet at the Mansion 
House in the evening, when the Queen’s reply 
to the address presented was read, expressive of 
the pleasure it had afforded her to visit the 
City to open new works, in which she recog¬ 
nized ‘ * the spirit of enterprise and improvement 
which has ever characterised the citizens of 
London.” 

— Lord Clarendon replies to Mr. Secretary 
Fish’s despatch regarding the Alabama claims 
(see Sept. 25). The President’s proclamation 
of blockade, he said, was known in London on 
the 2d of May, and a copy of it was received 
officially from the British consul in New York 
on the 5th of May. The fact that a copy was 
not received from Washington until the 10th 
of May, “was in itself a proof of the existence 
of civil war, ” since the delay arose from ‘ ‘ the 
communication between Washington and Balti¬ 
more being cut off in consequence of the Con¬ 
federate troops threatening the capital. ” As to 
the fictitious character of the assumed belli¬ 
gerency, Lord Clarendon remarked that a large 
group of States occupying a compact geogra¬ 
phical area had established a de facto Govern¬ 
ment, with all the machinery of military and 
civil power. The Federal posts within this 
territory had all been evacuated, except Fort 
Sumter, which had been captured a month 
previously. Both Presidents had called for a 
levy of troops, and a Confederate force was ‘ ‘ in 
occupation of the Shenandoah lines and threat¬ 
ening Washington.” One President had of¬ 
fered to grant letters of marque; the other had 
proclaimed a blockade which, as regards Vir¬ 
ginia and North Carolina, “ was declared to be 
effective on the 30th of April. ” As to the dis¬ 
tance of Great Britain from the scene of hos¬ 
tilities, her dominions, wrote Lord Clarendon, 


touched “ the United States on two sides, while 
certain British islands lie immediately in front. 
Collisions between British and American vessels 
were imminent from the moment the blockade 
came into operation, and several actually oc¬ 
curred before the news of the proclamation of 
neutrality reached America. Only one vessel 
of whose character the Government had any 
evidence escaped from a British port, while five 
were stopped. Even in the case of the Alabama 
the result of a trial might have been doubtful ; 
the international illegality of her sale to the 
Confederates is not certain, and on two occa¬ 
sions subsequent to her leaving Liverpool she 
was allowed to escape by the negligence of 
Federal officers. It was not the duty of neutrals 
to prevent blockade-running ; the Confederate 
agency in England was modelled on that esta¬ 
blished by Franklin in Paris for the assistance 
of the American provinces ; and the Federal 
troops were plentifully provided with arms and 
munitions from this country. Under these cir¬ 
cumstances the British Government cannot 
make any new proposition until they have 
clearer information regarding the basis upon 
which the Government of the United States 
would be disposed to negotiate.” 

6. —The Great Eastern leaves Portland with 
the cable to be laid down between Bombay and 
Suez, 2,735 nautical miles being placed in her 
own tanks, and 1,225 in her companion vessels, 
the Hibernian , Chiltern , and Hawk. 

— Died, aged 49, M. Eugene Forcade, 
French journalist. 

7 . — The Rev. F. Maurice closes his ministry 
at St. Peter’s, Vere-street, by a sermon having 
reference to the development of modern 
religious belief. 

— Callaghan, a quay porter, shot in Cork 
harbour, to prevent, it was presumed, an in¬ 
tended breach of fidelity on his part to the 
Fenian Association. 

8 . — At a meeting of the Royal Geographical 
Society to-day, letters were read from Dr. 
Livingstone, dated July 1868, in which he 
expressed his belief that he had found the 
sources of the Nile, but had received no news 
from anybody for two years. 

— The Wexford Board of Guardians adopt 
Lord Granard’s memorial to Mr. Gladstone, 
demanding a recognition of the principle of 
fixity of tenure at a reasonable rent. This 
result, it was submitted, could be secured on the 
basis of the Ulster custom, supplemented by a 
Government valuation, “declaratory of what 
should be considered the maximum of rent 
recoverable by process of law; ” by a provision 
for retrospective compensation for improve¬ 
ments ; and by an enactment rendering illegal 
the “ compulsory sale of tenant right” for any 
other cause than non-payment of rent. 

— The Marquises of Lansdowne and Bland- 
ford married at Westminster Abbey, to the 
Ladies Maud and Alberta, daughters of the 
Duke of Abercom. 









NOVEMBER 


1869. 


NOVEMBER 


9 .—At the Lord Mayor’s banquet to-night, 
the Premier referred with satisfaction to the state 
of our foreign relations, and, in lamenting the 
increase of crime and outrage in Ireland, de¬ 
clared that any one who lifted his hand to harm 
his neighbour there was not only guilty before 
man, but he was above all the enemy of the 
best interests of his country. 

— The Poor Law Board authorize the 
Bethnal-green Guardians to board out pauper 
children, subject to careful inspection, as in 
Scotland, where the system had prevailed for 
some time. 

— The Emperor of Austria, presently on a 
tour in Palestine, arrives at Jerusalem, accom¬ 
panied by several Bedouin chiefs. 

— M. Prevost-Paradol, addressing the mem¬ 
bers of the Philosophical Institution in Edin¬ 
burgh, states that the main idea of the liberal and 
enlightened part of the French people is that 
deep political reforms are wanted, not so much 
in the external forms and springs of govern¬ 
ment as in its internal working and administra¬ 
tive organization. Centralization was now en¬ 
tirely discredited. The administration of cri¬ 
minal justice also demanded serious reforms ; 
and the Liberal party in the French Church and 
the best portion of the Liberal party out of it 
desired a peaceful separation of Church and 
State upon truly liberal and equitable terms. 

11 .— Dr. Temple elected Bishop of Exeter 
in pursuance of her Majesty’s conge d'Hire. 
On the votes being taken it appeared that thir¬ 
teen were given for Dr. Temple and six against 
him, the opposition being led by Dr. Trower, 
sub-dean of the cathedral. The Chapter deli¬ 
berated only about half an hour. There was a 
full congregation in the cathedral to hear the 
result, and considerable excitement in the city. 

— Explosion in Hendrefargan Colliery. 
Swansea Valley, causing the death of six 
people. 

— Tenders invited by the Metropolitan 
Board of Works for a 3 \ per cent, loan of 
2,500,000/. 

_ Mr. W. Fothergill Cook, one of the 

inventors of the electric telegraph, gazetted a 
knight. 

_ The Marquis of Salisbury elected Chan¬ 
cellor of Oxford University in room of the late 
Earl of Derby. 

13 .—The Irish Fenian organs call for the 
nomination of the convict O’Donovan Rossa 
as a candidate for the county of Tipperary. 

14..— Fire at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor 
Park, destroying the greater portion of the new 
buildings, with the furniture and pictures. 

_William O’Brien, Molhill, Leitrim, agent 

for property in Sligo, shot at and afterwards 
strangled. He was also stabbed behind with a 
long knife or dagger. Not content with this 
dreadful treatment, the murderers took a stone 
30 lb. in weight, and broke in the breast and 
some of the principal ribs of their victim. 


14 -.—Tenant-right meetings at Waterford 
and Youghal interrupted by Fenian or “ Bally- 
bricken Boys,” who either caused the audience 
to disperse or compelled the speakers to con¬ 
fine their observations to the prisoners. At 
Dublin even the Amnesty Committee, which 
sought to effect liberation by respectfully peti¬ 
tioning the Government, was compelled to 
suspend its business by threats and defiant 
language. 

— Died at Brighton, aged 82, Sir James 
Prior, author of a “Life of Goldsmith.” 

15 .—Permanent buildings commenced at 
Kensington for the series of annual exhibitions 
of Industry and Art to begin in 1871. 

— Meeting of Roman Catholics in Bir¬ 
mingham to denounce the scheme of the 
Education League as godless, and the schools 
designed under it as the most sectarian of all 
schools, “ representing nearly all the irreligious 
minority of deists and secularists. ” 

— Explosion at Ince Colliery, Wigan, causing 
the death of twenty-six workmen—the entire 
company employed at the time—and firing the 
works, ultimately subdued by diverting a heavy 
volume of water down the shaft. 

— Manifesto issued by Opposition deputies 
in France, demanding that the nation be “ freed 
simultaneously from the monarchical compro¬ 
mises which corrupt it, and from the democratic 
violence by which it is degraded.” 

— The Straits Settlement annexed for eccle¬ 
siastical purposes to the diocese of Labuan. 

17.—The Suez Canal formally opened amid a 
series of festivities participated in by the Em¬ 
press of the French, the Emperor of Austria, 
the Crown Prince of Prussia, Prince William of 
Orange, the English and Russian Ambassadors 
at Constantinople—all at present the guests of the 
Khedive—and a large company of English and 
continental merchants. At Port Said religious 
ceremonies in the open air were celebrated by 
the Ulemas and Catholic priests. Monsignore 
Bauer, the almoner of the Empress Eugenie, 
spoke at the Catholic ceremony. He applauded 
the consummation of the work, and thanked 
the Khedive, who had immortalized his reign 
by co-operation in one of the greatest under¬ 
takings that any century had produced. The 
speaker dwelt upon the complete liberty which 
the Khedive had granted to Christianity, 
thanked the Empress Eugenie for the deep 
sympathy she had displayed for the work, and 
also thanked M. de Lesseps for the great exertions 
he had made to effect its completion, and the 
princes and the representatives of foreign Powers 
for their presence. A grand processional fleet, 
composed of forty vessels, then set out from 
Port Said in the direction of Ismaila. The 
canal was found to be unequal in depth, but it 
was thought that e\*en the shallowest portion 
could be so far improved as to complete the 
original design of the projector. The French 
yacht Aigle, with the Empress on board, entered 
the Red Sea on the evening of the 19th. The 

(891) 











NOVEMBER 


1869. 


NOVEMBER 


largest vessel which passed through at the 
opening drew 16 feet. 

13 .—The Archbishop of Canterbury attacked 
with a serious illness. 

— Proposals submitted by America to the 
Maritime Powers, with the view of securing the 
complete neutrality of ocean telegraphs in time 
of war. 

19 . —Mr. Justice Hayes seized in West¬ 
minster Hall with paralysis, from which he 
died on the 24th. 

20. —Lord Justice Giffard reverses the de¬ 
cision of Mr. Commissioner Winslow that the 
Duke of Newcastle could not be made a bank¬ 
rupt. 

— Outrageous proclamation circulated in 
Ulster, warning Roman Catholics from dealing 
with Protestant tradesmen. “We give notice, ” 
says the document, “to all heretics of every 
denomination, and damned Orangemen, that if 
they transgress our laws we will consume them 
by night in their houses.” 

— The Rev. Henry Hayman, B.D. of St. 
J-tin's College, Oxford, head master of St. 
Andrew’s College, Bradford, elected head 
master of Rugby, in room of Dr. Temple, now 
Bishop of Exeter. 

21. —Imperial decree for the establishment 
of a Superior Council of Commerce in France 
to investigate the results of free-trade legis¬ 
lation. 

— The clipper ship Spindrift , in charge of 
a pilot, run ashore at Dungeness. The Board 
of Trade inquiry resulted in a judgment that 
the vessel at the time of the wreck being in 
charge of a qualified Trinity House pilot within 
compulsory pilotage waters, “and the pilot not 
being proved to have been incompetent from 
intoxication or other causes for performing his 
duties, the master would not have been justified 
in taking the charge out of his hands.” They 
censured the master for the laxity observed 
on board among the crew, in not having 
proper watches set, but returned his certificate. 
The court having no power to pronounce upon 
the conduct of the pilot, that was left to the 
Board of Trinity Brethren to inquire into if 
thought necessary. 

22 . —A coroner’s jury find that the death of 
a pauper in St. Pancras parish was accelerated 
by the condition of the infirmary, and that it 
had been overcrowded for the last three years. 
They also were of opinion that the Board of 
Guardians failed in their duty to the parish in 
not carrying into effect the recommendations of 
the Poor Law Board. 

— Three “Irreconcilable” candidates— 
Rochefort, Cremieux, and Arago—elected de¬ 
puties for Paris. 

24 . —The southern portion of the Thames 
Embankment, from Westminster Bridge to 
Vauxhall, opened. 

25 . —The “National Address” and an 
address from Volunteer officers presented to 

(892) 


the King of the Belgians at Buckingham 
Palace, and a banquet given to the King at 
the Mansion House. 

25 . —M. de Lesseps, the projector of the Suez 
Canal, married at Ismaila, amid rejoicings parti¬ 
cipated in by the Empress of the French. 

— Murder in the office of the New York 
Tribune; Daniel M‘Farland shooting Albert 
D. Richardson, employed on the staff of fhe 
paper, in revenge, as he explained at the time, 
for seducing his wife and afterwards keeping 
her under his protection. Richardson survived a 
few days after receiving the wound, and gave 
his consent to be united in marriage to Mrs. 
M‘Farland, an officiating minister being found 
in the person of the Rev. H. W. Beecher, who 
performed the ceremony in the dying man’s 
chamber, in presence of a few kindred spirits 
whom the extraordinary character of the event 
had drawn together. M‘Farland was tried for 
the murder in May following, and a jury re¬ 
turned a verdict of Not Guilty. 

— O’Donovan Rossa returned for Tipperary 
by a majority of 103 over his opponent, the 
numbers being—Rossa, 1,131; Heron, 1,028; 
the total electors on the roll for the county 
amounting to 8,934. 

— The High Church “ Twelve Days’ Mis¬ 
sion” in London brought to a close by a 
service in the church of St. Lawrence Jewry; 
the preceding evening being signalized in three 
churches, where the programme of the Mission 
was carried out in its integrity, by celebra¬ 
ting the service known as the Renewal of Bap¬ 
tismal Vows. 

— Died, at Berlin, aged 59, Madame Grisi, 
vocalist. 

26 . — The Princess of Wales gives birth to a 
daughter, the Princess Augusta. 

— The Sultan despatches an ultimatum to 
the Khedive of Egypt, desiring complete sub¬ 
mission in financial affairs. 

28 —Prince Gortschakoff resigns the office 
of Minister for Foreign Affairs in Russia. He 
was succeeded by General Ignatieff. 

29 .—Meeting of Masters of Colleges and 
Fellows held at Cambridge in favour of the 
abolition of University tests. 

— The Cork Town Council almost unani¬ 
mously reject a proposal made by ex-Mayor 
O’Sullivan to vote 100/. out of the borough 
funds for the relief of the families of the 
Fenian prisoners. 

— Opening of the Legislative Body by the 
Emperor Napoleon. Declaring it to be diffi¬ 
cult in France to establish the regular and 
peaceful exercise of liberty, he proceeded to 
notice excesses committed by the public jour¬ 
nals and at public meetings, and observed 
that, although impotent attacks have only 
had the effect of showing the solidity of the 
edifice founded by universal suffrage, still the 
prevailing uncertainty, and the situation of the 
country, demanded more than ever frankness 






NOVEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1869. 


and decision. Circumlocution must be laid 
aside. France wanted liberty, but liberty 
united with order. “For order,” he said, “ I 
will answer. Aid me, gentlemen, to - save 
liberty.” To attain this object it was neces¬ 
sary to keep at an equal distance from reaction 
and from revolutionary theories. Between 
those who pretended to preserve everything 
without change, and those who aspired to over¬ 
throw everything, there was “ a glorious ground 
to take up,” and it was the object of the re¬ 
forms he submitted to the nation some months 
ago to inaugurate a new era of conciliation and 
progress. 

30 .—Preliminary meeting at the residence 
of Dean Ramsay, Edinburgh, to resuscitate a 
movement for the erection of a monument or 
other memorial in memory of Dr. Chalmers. 

December 1 . —The Prince of Wales admitted 
a member of the United Grand Lodge of Free¬ 
masons in England. 

— TheArchbishop of Dublin and a majority of 
the clergy withdraw from the General Conven¬ 
tion of the Irish Church, on the ground of their 
difference with the najority as to the amount 
of lay representation. 

— Came on in the Chancery Court, York 
Minster, before the Chancellor, G. V. Harcourt, 
the case of Noble v. Voysey, a suit promoted by 
the Archbishop’s secretary against the Vicar of 
Healaugh and Tadcaster, charged with having 
expressed in “The Sling and the Stone” 
opinions at variance with the Articles of Reli¬ 
gion, Holy Scripture, and the formularies of the 
Church, in regard to the doctrines of the Atone¬ 
ment, Justification, the Incarnation, and the 
Inspiration of Holy Scripture. A commission 
of inquiry reported that there was sufficient 
primd facie ground for instituting further pro¬ 
ceedings, and in July the Archbishop inhibited 
the defendant from performing any services of 
the Church in the diocese of York until the sen¬ 
tence should have been given. The formal 
articles containing the charges were thirty-eight 
in number. The particular question to be 
determined was the admission of the articles 
which had been filed against the defendant. 
Mr. Voysey contended that it was lawful for 
clergymen of the Church of England to contra¬ 
dict any explanation of any mystery which is 
not inserted in the Thirty-nine Articles, and 
that without being called upon to supply any 
other explanation of his own. “The main 
object,” he continued, “of all his teaching had 
been to vindicate the veracity of history and 
the morality of the Divine government, and 
not to teach those inventions of men which 
were as degrading to man as the darkest 
forms of heathen idolatry. He was not aware 
of having exceeded the liberty with which he 
was endowed, and he should be surprised if an 
adverse sentence proved the contrary.” Mr. 
Voysey then proceeded at great length to com¬ 
ment upon the charges alleged against him. 
With regard to Holy Scripture, Mr. Voysey 


contended that “he had only indulged in that 
fair criticism which others had done before, 
and as the highest court in the land gave him 
authority to do, and no section of the Act of 
Uniformity forbade him to treat the question as 
he had done relative to St. John’s Gospel. The 
question had been left open, and it was only for 
the Legislature to close it. The question was, 
whether the liberty he contended for existed, 
not whether it was wise that it should exist.” 
After deliberation the Chancellor gave judg¬ 
ment admitting the articles. (See Nov. 10,1870.) 

2 . —Proclamations issued at Cork and Lime¬ 
rick prohibiting public processions. 

— A screw steam-lighter blown up on the 
Clyde, causing the death of five people—all on 
board. 

— Pre-Synodal Congregation in the Sistine 
Chapel, Rome, where the Pope delivers an 
allocution and receives the oaths of the officers 
of the approaching Council. 

— Sir Samuel Baker and his immediate staff 
leave Cairo for Suez, to take command of the 
Khedive’s troops designed to suppress the slave 
trade along the course of the White Nile. 

— The Spanish Minister of Finance charges 
the ex-Queen Isabella and Donna Maria 
Christina with having stolen the Crown jewels 
in the most scandalous manner. 

3 . —Eight persons killed by the explosion of 
a boiler at the Britannia Iron Works, Wolver¬ 
hampton. 

— Mr. Layard presents his credentials to 
the Spanish Government, and is received as 
British Ambassador at Madrid. 

— Fusion of parties in the French Chambers, 
the Right Centre led by M. Emile Ollivier 
uniting with the Left Centre led by the Marquis 
d’Andelarre. 

— Tenant-right meeting at Longford, pre¬ 
sided over by the High Sheriff. Addi^ssing 
his constituents at Liskeard on the claims 
advanced at these meetings, Mr. Horsman pro¬ 
tested against fixity of tenure being granted to 
the tenants, because “any compliance with it, 
in the sense in which it is demanded, would 
render the existence of Mr. Gladstone’s Govern¬ 
ment not worth three weeks’ purchase after the 
meeting of Parliament.” 

4 . —The Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council pronounce Mr. Mackonochie to have 
disobeyed the monition in so far as kneeling 
before the consecrated elements was concerned, 
and condemned him in the costs of the motion. 

— Motion for the withdrawal of the Anglo- 
French Treaty of Commerce of i860, laid be¬ 
fore the French Legislative Body. 

5. — A political manifesto against the con¬ 
tinued personal government of the Emperor, 
signed by M. Ollivier and 116 members of the 
Right Centre. 

6. —The first section of the East London 
Railway, from New Cross to Wapping, opened. 

(S93) 








DECEMBER 


1869. 


DECEMBER 


6 . —Meeting of members of Convocation held ! 
at Oxford to support the abolition of University j 
tests. 

— The recently formed Protectionist body | 
known as the “Manchester Reciprocity Associa- j 
tion” hold a meeting in the Free Trade Hall, ; 
to urge upon the Government the necessity of 
granting an inquiry into the present stagnation , 
of trade, with a view to obtain justice for 
British industry. It was also recommended 
that a guarantee fund should be raised for the 
purpose of limiting the operation of the French 
Treaty. 

— Opening of the second session of the 
41st Congress of the United States, Presi¬ 
dent Grant describing the country as blessed 
with peace at home, and free from entangling 
alliances abroad. He recommended Congress 
to adopt measures to restore American com¬ 
merce, which was nearly driven from the seas 
during the rebellion ; stated that reconstruction 
was progressing favourably, seven of the rebel¬ 
lious States having been restored to the Union; 
advised that the Virginia delegation be admitted 
to seats in Congress; and recommended a gradual, 
not immediate, return to specie payments. With 
respect to Cuba, President Grant said that the 
American people and the Government sym¬ 
pathised with the insurgents, but he thought 
the contest in the island had ‘ ‘ never assumed a 
condition which amounts to a war in a sense 
of international law, or which would show an 
existence of de facto political organization on 
the part of the insurgents sufficient to justify a 
recognition of belligerency. ” Expressing his 
approval of the Clarendon-Johnson treaty as a 
wise step in the interests of peace, the President 
hoped that the time would soon arrive when the 
two Governments would approach a solution 
of the Alabama claims with an appreciation of 
what was due to the rights, dignity, and honour 
of each country, and so secure a firm and con¬ 
tinuous peace, through the only grave question 
which the United States at present had with 
any foreign nation. 

— Died at Twickenham, aged 48, the 
Duchess d’Aumale. 

7 . —Lord Penzance pronounces judgment 
for a judicial separation in the case of Kelly v. 
Kelly (clerk), in which coercion amounting to 
cruelty was alleged against the respondent. 

— The Derry Orangemen denounce the 
Government. Captain Madden declared that 
if he had been a voter in Tipperary he 
would have plumped for the Fenian candidate. 
Mr. Johnstone, M.P., held that it was no part 
of an Orangeman’s duty to draw a sword or 
fire a shot between the English Government 
and the Fenians. 

8 . —The Turco-Egyptian difficulty arranged 
by the Viceroy accepting the ultimatum of the 
Sultan, and announcing his intention to repair 
to Constantinople to assure the Sultan of his 
faithful allegiance. 

— Protestant demonstration at Belfast. The 
(* 44 ) 


Duke of Abercom attributed the revival of 
Fenianism to the policy of the Government. 
Lord O’Neill declared that Mr. Gladstone de¬ 
served to be sent to gaol with the Fenians. 

8 . — The opponents of Dr. Temple carry 
out their threat of opposing the confirmation of 
his election. The ceremony took place at Bow 
Church, which was crowded to excess, and 
upwards of twenty policemen stationed in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the building. Contrary to the 
course followed in the Hampden case, the 
Vicar-General, Sir Travers Twiss, allowed the 
objectors to be heard; the opposition was 
chiefly conducted by Dr. Deane, Q.C., who ap¬ 
peared for Bishop Trower and other remon¬ 
strants. The arguments lasted two hours, and 
at the close the Vicar-General decided that the 
statute gave him no discretion, and that he was 
bound to confirm the choice of the Dean and 
Chapter. If the selection was thought an im¬ 
proper one, it should, he said, have been appealed 
against at an earlier stage. The usual decla¬ 
ration was then made, and Dr. Temple left the 
church, loudly cheered. 

— The (Ecumenical Council at Rome opened 
on this the anniversary of the declaration of 
the dogma described as the Immaculate Con¬ 
ception. The weather was wet, but did not 
materially interfere with the opening ceremony 
as a spectacle. At daybreak the route of the 
procession was thronged by an immense con¬ 
course of spectators, and at nine o’clock, amid 
the ringing of the bells of all the churches in the 
city and salvoes of artillery from the Castle of 
San Angelo and Mount Aventine, the proces¬ 
sion fonned in the Upper Atrium of the Vatican, 
descended the Scala Ruegia, and passed 
through the Lower Atrium into the Cathedral. 
Regular and secular clergy were ranged on 
either side. The procession consisted of six 
archbishop-princes, 49 cardinals, 11 patriarchs, 
680 archbishops and bishops, 28 abbots, and 
29 generals of religious orders. In all about 
800 ecclesiastics preceded the Pope, who was 
carried into the cathedral in the gestatorial 
chair. After mass had been chanted by 
Cardinal Patrizi, the “Archbishop of Iconium ” 
delivered the inaugural discourse, and the Pope 
gave his benediction. His Holiness afterwards 
received the homage of the members of the 
Council. The appointed prayers followed, and 
the Pope three times invoked the aid of the 
Holy Ghost for the Council. Persons not 
members of the assembly then quitted the hall. 
The prelates approved the decree opening the 
Council, and the Te Deum followed, the 
ceremony terminating at half-past two o’clock 
in the afternoon. The tribunes of the Council 
Hall were occupied by the Sovereigns and 
Princes present in Rome (the Empress of 
Austria among them), the members of the 
diplomatic body, and the Roman and foreign 
nobility. 

9 . —Troops despatched from Liverpool for 
Dublin, and others concentrated at Tipperary, 









DECEMBER 


i860. 


DECEMBER 


10. —The Spanish Cortes pass a bill raising 
the state of siege formerly proclaimed through¬ 
out the kingdom. 

11, —The Rev. C. Merivale, D. C. L., gazetted 
to the deanery of Ely, vacant by the promotion 
of Dr. Goodwin to the See of Carlisle. 

— Confirmation of Dr. Wilberforce as Bishop 
of Winchester. 

13 .—Resolutions passed by the American 
House of Representatives, by 128 to 42, against 
the renewal of the Canadian Reciprocity Treaty. 

— Judgment for the defendant in the Court 
of Queen’s Bench, in the libel case of Dawkins 
v. Paulet, the plaintiff having been described 
as incompetent in the field, and unfit to conduct 
the business of a battalion in barracks. 

— Commenced in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench the trial of the directors of the Overend- 
Gurney Company, on the charge of wilfully 
publishing false statements with a view to in¬ 
duce the public to purchase shares. The evi¬ 
dence was similar in character to that laid before 
the Lord Mayor (see January 1), and, with 
the speeches of the counsel, was protracted 
over nine days, when the jury, amid the ap¬ 
plause of many present, returned a verdict 
acquitting the directors. 

— Frederick Hinson, the Wood Green 
murderer, executed within the walls of New¬ 
gate. 

— The Austrian Reichsrath opened by the 
Emperor -with a speech congratulating the 
members on the progressive development of the 
empire. 

14 . —The Dublin Grand Orange Lodge 
adopt a resolution originally devised for the 
county of Monaghan, thanking “ the gallant 
gentlemen and Conservative electors of Tip¬ 
perary for standing aloof on the occasion of the 
recent election, and allowing the Fenians and 
other opponents of the Government to scout 
the Government candidate, and assert their 
right to return the man of their choice; there¬ 
by expressing their disgust at the general con¬ 
duct of their rulers, and the failure of conces¬ 
sion to the disloyal of the land in bringing about 
peace in Ireland.” 

15. —Deputations from the Universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge, and various Noncon¬ 
formist bodies, wait upon Mr. Gladstone to 
urge the abolition of the tests imposed at those 
seats of learning. 

— Dr. Shorthouse, editor of the Sporting 
Times , tried at the Central Criminal Court for 
a defamatory libel on Sir Jos. Hawley, in so far 
as he had insinuated that the baronet was guilty 
of “roping” and “milking” in regard to the 
scratching of two horses for the Liverpool Cup. 
Sir Joseph Hawley denied that there was any 
ground for these insinuations ; and the Duke 
of Beaufort and General Peel stated that there 
was nothing dishonourable or contrary to the 
laws of the Turf in what Sir Joseph had done. 
The jurv found the defendant guilty, and he 


was sentenced to pay a fine of 50/. and to be 
imprisoned for three months. 

15 .—Mr. O’Connor, Moorock Lodge, King’s 
County, attacked in his house by four armed 
men, who dragged him outside and cut oft' his 
nose. They also seized what weapons were in 
the house. 

— Died suddenly, aged 83, James, Earl of 
Crawford and Balcarras, and first Baron Wigan 
in the peerage of England. 

— The Duke of Edinburgh lands at Cal¬ 
cutta, on a visit to the Viceroy, and is welcomed 
with extraordinary enthusiasm. 

17 .—Three men killed by an explosion at 
Curtis and Harvey’s powder-mills, Hounslow. 

— Sarah Jacobs, the “ Welsh fasting-girl,” 
dies from exhaustion, after being watched for a 
week by professional nurses from Guy’s Hos¬ 
pital. At the coroner’s inquest her father stated 
she had lived for more than a year without 
food, and that the natural functions were en¬ 
tirely suspended. The jury returned a verdict 
that the child died of starvation and negligence, 
and that neglect to induce the child to take 
food on the part of the father constituted 
manslaughter. 

IS.—The 181st anniversary of the closing 
of the gates of Derry celebrated with great 
enthusiasm by the Apprentice Boys of the 
“ Maiden City.” They attended Divine service 
in the cathedral in the forenoon, and in the 
afternoon burnt Lundy amid great cheering and 
firing of cannon. The Catholics held a rival 
celebration at Gallagher’s Hill, and burnt the 
effigy of the Great Deliverer. Contrary to 
many surmises industriously circulated for 
weeks past, no collision took place between the 
rival factions. 

— Commencement of serious disturbances 
on the Red River Settlement, arising from op¬ 
position to the transfer of the territory to 
Canada. 

19 .—Charles Murphy, bailiff, of Beleek, 
Down, attacked in his own house and maltreated 
for refusing to take a Fenian oath. 

20. -Tenant-right meeting at Newtown- 
limavady, Londonderry. The principal resolu¬ 
tion adopted claimed “joint ownership” for 
the tenant in conjunction with the landlom. 

21 . —Dr. Temple consecrated as Bishop of 
Exeter at Westminster Abbey, together with 
the Bishops of Bath and Wells and the Falkland 
Isles. Written protests against Dr. Temple’s 
consecration had been sent in by the Bishops 
of Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, and Lincoln, 
and the Bishops of Bangor, Llandaff, Peter¬ 
borough, and Rochester had, in a less formal 
manner, signified their dissent from the pro¬ 
ceedings. The prelates who performed the 
ceremony, acting under a commission from the 
Primate, were the Bishops of London, St. 
David’s, Worcester, and Ely. Before the con¬ 
secration was proceeded with, Dr. Jackson 

I delivered judgment, rejecting the request which 










DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1869. 


had been made for delay. The right rev. pre¬ 
late held that Dr. Temple’s election to the See 
of Exeter having been duly confirmed, the 
Archbishop was bound to proceed with the 
consecration. No one would have more re¬ 
joiced than his lordship had Dr. Temple 
thought fit to make such a declaration as had 
been often asked for, but delay would be use¬ 
less, and there was no alternative but to obey 
the Royal mandate. 

21 .— Came on in the Second Division of 
the Court of Session, Edinburgh, the case of 
Stewart v. Gelot, involving the validity of 
certain pecuniary transactions between Dr. 
Stewart, late of Assuncion, Paraguay, and 
Madame Lynch, favourite mistress of President 
Lopez. Towards the end of 1866 the Dictator 
quarrelled with Dr. Stewart, accused him of 
having designs upon his life, and altogether con¬ 
ducted himself in such a manner as to place his 
medical attendant in great bodily peril. For 
the purpose of securing the favour of Madame 
Lynch, Dr. Stewart was induced to grant her 
various bills of exchange, drawn on his brother 
in Scotland, but they did not bear to be “ for 
value received,” nor were they accepted in this 
country on presentation. Dr. Stewart was 
taken prisoner by the allied army in 1868, and 
escaped from the power of Lopez. He now 
pleaded that the bills had been extorted by 
force and fear, and that the holder, Gelot, of 
Paris, must be considered simply as the agent 
of Madame Lynch. The trial led to minute 
revelations as to the cruelties practised by Pre¬ 
sident Lopez, and the unscrupulous treatment 
experienced by the European residents within 
the dominions over which he exercised de¬ 
spotic authority. The jury returned a verdict 
for the pursuer, subject to the decision of the 
court on a point of law raised regarding the 
position occupied by Gelot in the transaction. 

23 .—Mr. Cardwell holds a conference with 
Volunteer officers, and propounds to them the 
views of Government as to future allowances 
and requirements. 

25 . —Fire in Sandwich-street, Burton-cres¬ 
cent, causing the death of the wife of a police¬ 
man who lived on the top floor, and who had 
been confined only seven days previously, four 
of her children, and a neighbour’s little girl who 
had come to spend the Christmas evening with 
the family. The coroner’s jury severely cen¬ 
sured the conduct of the landlord in insisting on 
the removal of his goods without mentioning 
that there were people in the house. 

— Resignation of the Forcade Ministry in 
France. 

— The Pope celebrates High Mass in St. 
Peter’s, in presence of the Fathers of the 
Council, the Empress of Austria, the Bourbon 
Princes, the whole of the Corps Diplomatique, 
and General Dumont and his staff. 

27 —Fatal panic at Bristol, eighteen people 
being trampled or crushed to death in the pas¬ 
sage leading to the pit artd'gallery of the Theatre 
(896) 


Royal. The confusion was thought to have 
originated with the fainting or falling of a 
woman in the crowd pressing up the passage 
for admittance to the pantomime. 

27 . —Commenced at Paris, the trial of Traup- 
mann, the murderer of the Kinck family. Upon 
a large table in front of the judges were spread 
out the various pieces de conviction which were 
to be used against the prisoner. The clothes of 
each victim were placed separately, and, in 
spite of the precautions taken, were reported to 
have been unsavoury. This exhibition of silk 
dresses, little boots and hats, and a bit of bread 
and sausage which one of the Kinck children had 
been eating when struck down by the murderer, 
created a painful impression. Alongside of 
these relics were ranged the various instruments 
employed by Traupmann in killing and burying 
his victims. The prisoner himself was de¬ 
scribed as a small, slight, and juvenile-look¬ 
ing man with a thin, wearied kind of face, not 
very pale. His look was rather timid than 
otherwise, owing, perhaps, to the fact of such a 
crowd gazing at him, and his eyes seemed to 
seek out the members of the jury. During the 
reading of the indictment he evinced hardly any 
emotion, and appeared to listen with the utmost 
indifference to the most terrible part of his 
crimes—the killing of Madame Kinck and her 
two younger children. He persisted in stating 
that the elder Kinck was concerned with him in 
a forgery affair, that Jean Kinck was poisoned 
by one of their accomplices, and that he himself 
did nothing. Traupmann’s counsel, M. Lachaud, 
pleaded that the crimes had been committed 
under the influence of a mental disease which 
rendered the prisoner irresponsible for his acts, 
and that he was a ferocious animal who should 
be muzzled and not killed. The trial was con¬ 
tinued over four days, till the 30th, when the 
jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and the pri¬ 
soner was condemned to death. On hearing 
the sentence he smiled and bowed to the court. 

— The Emperor Napoleon puts an end to 
the reign of personal government, by authoriz¬ 
ing M. Emile Ollivier to construct a Constitu¬ 
tional Government. “ I address myself,” writes 
the Emperor, “with confidence to your patriotism 
in order to request that you will designate the 
persons who can, in conjunction with yourself, 
form a homogeneous Cabinet, faithfully repre¬ 
senting the majority of the Legislative Body ; 
and resolving to carry out, in the letter as 
well as in the spirit, the Senatus Consultum of 
September 8. I rely upon the devotion of a 
Legislative Body to the great interests of the 
country, as well as upon yours, to aid me in the 
task I have undertaken to bring into regular 
working a constitutional system.” 

— Centenary festival at Bonn in honour of 
the German patriot and poet Arndt. 

28 . —The General Congregation of the 
GEcumenical Council commence the discussion 
of the drafts of canon law relating to the mai lers 
of faith. In these drafts no mention was made of 
the question of the Pope’s personal infallibility ; 











DECEMBER 


JANUAR Y 


1809-70. 


but they utter a formal condemnation of unor¬ 
thodox* doctrine, and of independent philosophy 
and morals. 

28 . —Died at his residence, Bayswater, aged 
58, Thomas Creswick, R.A. 

29 . —Dr. Temple enthroned in Exeter 
Cathedral, and afterwards preaches a sermon 
from the text, “ The Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us. ” 

— Petition presented to President Grant* 
purporting to be signed by a number of inhabit¬ 
ants of Victoria, praying for the annexation of 
British Columbia to the United States. The 
petitioners profess the most profound feelings 
of loyalty and devotion to her Majesty and her 
Government, “ but are constrained by the duty 
they owe to themselves and families” to protest 
against union with Canada, and to seek a con¬ 
nexion with the United States. 

30 . —Addressing the Fathers of the Council 
assembled at Rome, Monsignore Strossmeyer, 
Bishop of Bonia and Sirmio, denounces the 
Jesuits as manipulating and directing the business 
of the Council in a manner liable to be disas¬ 
trous to the interests of the Church. 

31. —Collision on the Caledonian Railway at 
Forgandenny, the London mail train running 
into a slow passenger train from Glasgow, 
usually joined at Larbert to the Edinburgh car¬ 
nages, but from its lateness and length per¬ 
mitted this night to proceed alone. Two men 
were killed and seven seriously injured. 


1.—Prussian diplomatic agents in foreign 
countries accredited as representing the North 
German Confederation alone. 

— War Office circular issued regulating the 
details of legal proceedings raised against 
persons subject to the Mutiny Act. 

— New Bankruptcy Act comes into opera¬ 
tion, leading to the liberation of 94 prisoners 
confined for debt in Whitecross-street prison, 
one of them for the long period of twenty-seven 
years. The Gazette of the 4th contained a list 
of 527 bankruptcies. 

3 . —The Ollivier Ministry constituted in 
France. 

— Resignation of the Prim Ministry in Spain, 
consequent upon the refusal of the Italian Go¬ 
vernment to permit the Duke of Genoa to 
accept the crown. 

4 . —Meeting in Exeter Hall to consider the 
subject of emigration as a remedy for the exist¬ 
ing distress among the working classes. 

5. —Attempt to assassinate Marshal Serrano, 
at Madrid. 

— The residence of the American Minister 
(the Hon. J. L. Motley) entered by thieves, 
and property to the amount of about 1,000/. 
carried off. 

— Governor M‘Dougall and family leave 
the Red River Settlement, for Canada. 

6. —Baron Haussmann, the creator of modem 
Paris, dismissed from the office of Prefect of 
the Seine. 


1870. 


January 1 .— At the annual reception of the 
Diplomatic Body at the Tuileries, the Emperor 
Napoleon expressed himself as highly satisfied 
with the relations existing between his Govern¬ 
ment and Foreign Powers. “The year 1870 
I am sure, cannot but consolidate this general 
agreement, and tend to the increase of concord 
and civilization.” To a deputation from the 
Legislative Body the Emperor said:— In 
sharing responsibility with the great bodies of 
the State, I feel more confident of overcoming 
the difficulties of the future. When a traveller, 
after a long journey, relieves himself of a por¬ 
tion of his burden, he does not thereby weaken 
himself ; he gathers fresh strength to continue 
on his course.” 


— The Pope censures Russia as the only 
Power which had sought to impede the action 
of the Council by preventing the bishops of 
Poland from appearing to tell the tale of that 
martyred nation s sufferings; and praises France 
tor maintaining the tranquillity of the Papal 
States by the presence of her soldiers. 

— Rupture between Italy and Morocco, aris¬ 
ing from a demand made by the Italian Charge 
d’Affaires for a mitigation in the punishment 
of an offender charged with inciting the Moors 
to kill the Spaniards. 


( 897 ) 


— The Fathers of the Council at Rome 
present to the Pope a written profession of the 
Catholic faith, in accordance with the formula 
laid down by Pope Pius IV. 

— A Conference, convened by the Council of 
the Statistical Society, assembles in Cannon- 
street Hotel, with the view of getting the 
Custom House returns of imports and exports 
made more useful and trustworthy. 

— Discussion at the Royal Society on the 
Suez Canal, opened by a paper read by Mr. 
Bateman, C.E., who represented that body at 
the opening, and now expressed a favourable 
opinion as to the manner in which the great 
work had been carried out. 

— The interest excited in the Byron con¬ 
troversy is illustrated by the Pall Mall Gazette 
publishing, through the aid of the Atlantic Cable, 
a lengthy abstract of Mrs. Stowe’s “Lady 
Byron Vindicated,” issued in New York 
yesterday. 

7 .—Riotous outbreak at Thomcliffe Colliery, 
between unionists and non-unionists. 

— The London and Aberdeen steamer 
Gambia founders off the Plumber. Crew saved. 
The King Lear of Cardiff founders at the 
mouth of the Bristol Channel, and carries with 
her thirty-eight of the crew on board, whose 
means of escape had been cut off by insufficiency 
of accommodation in the small boats. The 

3 M 











JANUAR V 


JANU 4 T \ V 


iS^O. 


Si. Bede also founders off Flamborough Head, 
after a collision with the Black Swan. 

7 . —Bill filed and inquiries directed by the 
Master of the Rolls to discover the next of kin 
of a stockholder of the West New Jersey 
Society, instituted in 1693, and still existing for 
the purpose of satisfying claims. 

— Inquiry commenced in the Vestry Hall, 
St. Pancras, into the chaiges made against Dr. 
James, medical officer of the Union, in con¬ 
nexion with the management of the Infirmary. 

8 . —First commitment under the new 
Debtors’ Act to Whitecross-street prison. 

— Severe gale in and around London, the 
anemometer at Lloyd’s registering a pressure 
of 27lbs., and at Blackheath of 35lbs. to the 
square foot. Damage was done to the roof of 
the Crystal Palace, and to various buildings in 
the metropolis. 

— The Cossipore, of Liverpool, founders off 
Cape Cornwall. Nineteen of the crew were 
drowned, including Captain White ; and the 
remainder, also nineteen in number, were 
picked up by the steamer Navarre. 

— Sir Samuel Baker arrives at Khartoum 
with his expedition, after an unprecedented 
journey of thirty-two days from Suez. 

— Died, aged 83, Catherine, widow of Sir 
Astley Paston Cooper, Bart. 

9 . —First meeting of the Consultative and 
Advising Committee for reorganizing the Irish 
Church within the united diocese of Dublin, 
Glendalough, and Kildare. Sir Edward Grogan 
submitted a list of queries, which he proposed 
should be addressed to the clergymen and 
officials of each parish in the united diocese, 
for the purpose of eliciting information as to the 
present position of affairs, and what would be 
required for the future maintenance of the 
respective churches and congregations. 

— The Princess Mary Adelaide safely de¬ 
livered of a son at Kensington Palace. 

— Died, aged 82, General Sir De Lacy 
Evans, formerly commander of the Spanish 
Legion, and leader of the Second Division at 
the Battle of the Alma. 

— Died at Nice, aged 102 years, the Marquis 
of PaCh-Badens, attached in his young days to 
the suite of Queen Marie Antoinette. 

10. —Discussion at the Geographical Society 
on the Suez Canal, introduced by Lord 
Houghton, who had been chosen to represent 
members at the opening. 

— Conference of Delegates to decide upon 
the details of the forthcoming Workmen’s 
International Exhibition, held at the rooms of 
the Society of Arts. A public meeting was 
held in the evening, presided over by Professor 
Huxley. 

— Farewell dinner to Charles Matthews, at 
Willis’s Rooms, previous to setting out on “ a 
provincial tour to the antipodes.” 

— The French Legislative Body resumes its 
(898) 


sittings after the Christmas recess; the new 
Minister, M. Ollivier, stating that his Cabinet 
will pursue the task it has undertaken, “and 
will work with perseverance until the pro¬ 
gramme we have drawn up has been realized. 
For this we have need of the confidence of the 
Sovereign, who, with great magnanimity, has 
granted it. We require, moreover, the confi¬ 
dence of the Chamber, which we ask of all. 
To the majority the Ministry will be grateful 
for its support, and to the Opposition for its 
criticism. When other men shall have gained 
over a majority in the Chambers, the Ministry 
will hasten to hand over to them the burden of 
public business. Let there be no more recrimi¬ 
nation—no more regrets. We must constitute 
a national Government adapting itself to the 
march of progress in such manner that French 
democracy may witness the realization of pro¬ 
gress without violence and liberty without revo¬ 
lution.” M. Ollivier concluded amidst loud 
cheering. M. Gambetta, an “Irreconcilable,” 
afterwards attacked the Ministry, and declared 
that a day would come when a majority of the 
people, without appealing to force, would succeed 
in establishing a Republic. 

IO.— Prince Pierre Bonaparte, son of Lucien 
and cousin to the Emperor, shoots Victor Noir 
(Salmon) and attempts to shoot UlricFonvielle 
in the course of an interview within the Prince’s 
house in the Rue d’Auteuil, for the purpose of 
arranging a duel between him and M. Pascal 
Grousset, who had described the Prince as a 
renegade Republican and a brutal Corsican 
capable of any act of violence. Prince Pierre 
had first addressed himself to M. Rochefort, in 
whose newspaper the article appeared,and whom 
the Prince taunted with refusingto fight duels in 
compliance with the orders of his constituents. 
“If by chance you consent to draw the bolts 
which render your honourable person doubly 
inviolable, you will find me neither in a palace 
nor a chateau. 1 live simply 59, Rue d’Auteuil, 

I and I promise you that if you present yourself 
no one will say that I have left the house.” M. 
Grousset, the writer of the article, assumed all 
responsibility, and sent two young assistants to 
arrange the details of the duel. Two ac¬ 
counts were given of what took place. M. 
Fonvielle stated that “ the Prince, after reading 
the challenge, said : ‘ I have called out M. 
Rochefort because he is the porte-drapeau (flag- 
officer) of the crapule. As to M. Grousset, I 
have nothing to say to him. Are you all one 
(solidaires) with these charognes ? ’ * Monsieur,’ 

I answered, ‘ we come to you loyally and cour¬ 
teously to fulfil the mission entrusted to us by 
our friend.’ ‘ Are you solidaires with these 
wretches?’ Victor Noir answered, ‘We are 
solidaires with our friends.’ Then, suddenly 
advancing a step, and without any provocation 
on our part, Prince Bonaparte struck M. Victor 
j Noir on the face with his left hand, and at the 
same time drawing a six-barrelled revolver 
which he had concealed in his pocket, he fired 
| point blank upon M. Noir. Noir started, pressed 
both hands against his breast, and rushed out 











JANUARY 


1870. 


JANUARY 


of the door by which he had entered. The 
cowardly assassin then fell upon me, and fired 
oint blank. I then seized a pistol which I 
ad in my pocket, and while I was about taking 
it out of its case, the scoundrel rushed upon 
me; but when he saw I was armed, he 
drew back, got into the doorway, and pointed 
his revolver at me. Seeing then in what a 
trap we had fallen, and fearing that if I fired it 
would be sure to be said that we were the 
aggressors, I opened a door behind me, and 
ran out, crying, ‘ Murder ! ’ A second shot 
was fired after me, and made a hole in my 
paletot. In the street I found Noir, who had 
had strength enough to get down stairs, but 
was dying.” The Prince, on the other hand, 
wrote immediately after the occurrence that 
when the seconds were introduced and stated 
their business, he replied that his affair was 
with M. Henri Rochefort, and not with his 
acolytes. “ * Read this letter,’ said M. Victor 
Noir. ‘ It is read,’ I answered ; ‘ and,’ I added, 

‘ are you responsible for it ? ’ He replied to me 
by a blow, and immediately M. de Fonvielle, 
in order to prevent me from returning it, drew 
a pistol. Seeing myself thus menaced, I 
rapidly drew a pistol from my pocket and fired 
on M. Victor Noir. M. de Fonvielle crouched 
behind a chair and tried in vain to cock his 
pistol, and fired at me without result. He 
then escaped, passing close to me, and I did 
not attempt to stop him, as I might easily have 
done. However, on getting beyond the first 
door, he again pointed his pistol at me, and I 
fired a third bullet, which the small calibre of 
my weapon prevented from taking effect. I 
shall confine myself to adding that these gentle¬ 
men have left at my house a box of pistols and 
a sword-cane, which will suffice to show that 
the letter of M. Pascal Grousset was only a 
pretext to draw me into an ambush perfectly 
well prepared.” The Prince was immediately 
arrested, and as the public mind became greatly 
excited, an Imperial decree was at once issued 
commanding that he be brought to trial before 
the High Court of Justice.—M. Rochefort wrote: 
“ I had the weakness to believe that a Bona¬ 
parte could be anything else than an assassin ! 
I dared to imagine that a loyal duel was 
possible in this family in which murder and 
ambush are traditional and customary. Our co¬ 
editor, Pascal Grousset, shared my error, and 
to-day we weep for our poor friend Victor 
Noir, assassinated by the bandit Pierre Napoleon 
Bonaparte. For eighteen years France has 
been in the bloody hands of these cutthroats, 
who, not contented with shooting down Re¬ 
publicans with grapeshot in the streets, draw 
them into filthy snares and massacre them at 
home. French people, have you not had 
enough of this ? ” 

10. —Died, aged 72, John Tidd Pratt, Regis¬ 
trar ol Friendly Societies. 

11, _Speaking to his constituents at Bir¬ 

mingham to-night, on the Irish land question, 
Mr. Bright said : “We propose then a new 
conquest of Ireland, without confiscation and 

( 899 ) 


without blood, with only the holy weapon of a 
frank and a generous justice which is every¬ 
where potent to bring together nations which 
have been long separated by oppression and 
neglect. (Loud cheers.) Now, from this new 
policy we hope for great changes in Ireland, 
not that Ireland is to be made a paradise, but 
that Ireland shall be greatly' improved. It 
may be—probably it is, or will seem like—the 
language of great exaggeration if I quote the 
lines of Pope in one of the most exquisite poems 
in our language :— 

* Then crime shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail. 
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale, 

Peace o’er her realm her olive wand extend, 

And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.’ 

(Cheers.) I say that this may appear the 
language of great exaggeration, but if we are 
able to suppress conspiracy, if we are able to 
banish agrarian crime—(cheers)—if we can 
unbar the prison doors—(cheers)—if we can 
reduce all excess of military force, if we can 
make Ireland as tranquil as England and Scot¬ 
land now are—(cheers)—then, at least, I think 
we may have done something to justify the 
wisdom and the statesmanship of our time. 
(Cheers.)” Mr. Bright warned his hearers 
against the new reciprocity movement, as Pro¬ 
tection under another name, advised working 
men against being deceived by interested agita¬ 
tors, and recommended them to press for such a 
retrenchment in taxation as would not only give 
all who heard him a free breakfast table, but 
free trade in land as well. “ That question is 
coming on, and is inevitable. Within ten years 
—probably within five—it will be the great 
question for discussion at all public political 
meetings. I believe that an alteration of the 
land laws of England, such as might be made 
without lessening by sixpence the value of any 
man’s property, would do much to arrest that 
tide of pauperism which is constantly flowing 
from the agricultural counties into our great 
I centres of industry.” At a public breakfast 
i next day Mr. Bright deprecated the appearance 
| of working men in Parliament as likely to 
increase the evils of class representation— 
a statement which led to a controversy with 
the supporters of Mr. Odger, then contesting 
Southwark. 

11 . —Mr. J. S. Mill writes from Avignon that 
he is entirely opposed to the principle of the 
Contagious Diseases Act. “ I believe the 
medical efficacy of it to be doubtful, and I 
believe it to be impossible to carry it out with¬ 
out a degree of oppression which would more 
than overbalance any advantages that could be 
gained.” 

— Resolution introduced into the American 
Senate, and referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations, instructing the Secretary of 
1 State to inquire into the expediency of pro¬ 
posing the transfer of British Columbia to the 
I United States as a condition of a treaty for the 
settlement of the differences between America 
and Great Britain. 

3 M 3 








JANUARY 


JANUAR Y 


1870. 


11 . — Salnave captured on the Dominican 
frontier. He was tried by court martial on the 
15 th, found guilty on the general charges of 
cruelty and bloodshed, and shot the same day. 

12 . —Came on in the Court of Queen’s Bench 
an appeal against the conviction by the magis¬ 
trates of Huntingdon of a man named Allen, 
for non-compliance with a magistrate’s order to 
have his child vaccinated, the question for de¬ 
termination being, Did a previous conviction 
free the appellant from all liability to future 
penalties, or was he liable to punishment and 
to fresh convictions every time he was informed 
against for being still in contempt of the law ? 
The Chief Justice thought the magistrates were 
justified in ruling that there should be a second 
conviction. It might be that they had decided 
too hastily that the medical practitioner had al¬ 
lowed his mind to be warped by certain theories 
respecting the advantages of vaccination ; but 
that involved a question of fact with which 
the court had nothing to do. The convic¬ 
tion was upheld accordingly. 

— Replying to a deputation who waited upon 
him to procure some mitigation in the sentences 
passed on Fenian prisoners, Mr. Bright said : 
“ Though I have been one who has always spoken 
strongly in favour of changes, and changes 
which we showed by demonstration were right 
to be made, still, for all that, I am bound to say 
that I know no greater enemy to our country 
than the man who attempts by force of arms to 
disturb the public peace and to break down the 
authority of the laws. Least of all are those to 
be excused who, being in a country to which they 
have emigrated, and thereby escaped from what 
they supposed to be the tyranny and oppression 
here, are free to do what they please, yet con¬ 
spire against our common country. I cannot see 
that any kind of allowance is to be made for 
such persons. ... It will be to me the greatest 
possible delight, as I believe it would be most 
certainly to every member of the Government, 
if they could at once throw open the prison 
doors and let all these men go free. But they 
must consult what they believe to be the safety 
of the country, and they must take into con¬ 
sideration the general state of public opinion on 
this subject throughout the United Kingdom. 
The Government cannot go before, and it ought 
not to lag much behind, public opinion.” 

— The old Star and Garter Hotel at Rich¬ 
mond destroyed by fire, in which the manager 
also perished. The supply of water was very 
limited, so that the building, with its valuable 
furnishings, was soon in ruins. The fire was 
thought to have originated in the cellars of the 
hotel. 

— The Diocesan Synod of Down, Connor, 
and Dromore adopt a report strongly recom¬ 
mending the making of commutations in the 
manner proposed by the Act. 

— Marshal Prim explains in the Spanish 
Cortes the late Ministerial crisis, and declares 
that the election of a monarch would crown 
the edifice of the revolution. 

(900) 


12. —The Pope by a special decree places the 
Fenian societies among others formerly con¬ 
demned for plotting against the Church or 
properly constituted authorities. 

— Threatened disturbances in Paris, on the 
occasion of M. Victor Noir’s funeral. The 
streets were traversed by soldiers to an extent 
which completely overawed the disorderly but 
unarmed crowd. “My friends,” said M. Roche¬ 
fort, “let us avoid any useless shedding of blood, 
and retire.” 

— Died, aged 87, Sarah Belzoni, widow of 
the well-known explorer of Egyptian antiqui¬ 
ties. 

13 . —The Right Hon. E. Sullivan, M.P. for 
Mallow, sworn in as Irish Master of the Rolls, 
in room of Mr. Walsh, deceased. 

— Free-trade debate in the French Chamber, 
M. de Butenval expressing a regret that the 
example of Sir Robert Peel had not been more 
boldly followed. 

14 -. —Statue of Prince Albert placed in the 
Memorial Clock Tower, Belfast. 

— The Master of the Rolls gives judgment in 
the case of Smith v. Brownlow, a suit for an 
injunction to restrain Earl Brownlow from 
encroaching upon the rights of the tenants 
upon the common of the manor of Berkhamp- 
stead. His lordship’s view was that the rights 
of the tenants of the two manors of Berkhamp- 
stead and Northchurch were indiscriminate and 
indistinguishable, and except as to one or two 
particulars, such as the right to estovers, the 
evidence in favour of the tenants’ rights was 
clear and practically uncontradicted. The 
attempt made by the late earl to enclose the 
waste was only a repetition of former at¬ 
tempts, for which there was as little justifica¬ 
tion now as there had been in former ages. 
The declaration was that the plaintiff and the 
other freehold and copyhold tenants of the 
manor of Berkhampstead were entitled, as to 
the right of pasture for commonable cattle 
(including pannage for swine, though not com¬ 
monable) as appendant, and as to all other 
rights of pasture and other commonable rights 
(including right to cut gorse, fern, and under¬ 
wood) as appurtenant to the said freehold and 
copyhold tenements—namely, a right of com¬ 
mon of pasture upon the said common, and 
upon so much of the four pieces of waste as 
were unenclosed, for all sorts of cattle, levant 
and couchant, as might be required for fodder 
and litter for cattle as above, and for fuel and 
other purposes of agriculture and husbandry. 

15 .—Murder in Bucker’s Hotel, Finsbury ; 
Jacob Spinosi, one of the porters, beating to 
death, with a tumbler or candlestick, one of the 
“ unfortunate ” class, named Cecilia Aldridge, 
whom he had secretly introduced into the 
house. Spinosi was tried at the Central Criminal 
Court, March 2, found guilty, and sentenced to 
be executed, but reprieved. 

— Died, aged 77, Sir T. H. Maddock, 









JANUARY 


1870 


formerly Deputy-Governor of Bengal and 
President of the Council of India. 

17 .—The French Legislative Body vote for 
the prosecution of M. Rochefort, for seditious 
writings, by 226 to 34 votes. 

— The Greek Archbishop Lycurgus, of 
Syra and Tenos, now on a visit to Liverpool, 
presented with a congratulatory address by 
priests and deacons of the Anglican Church 
residing in that neighbourhood. 

— Addressing his constituents at Bradford, 
Mr. Forster, Vice-President of the Privy 
Council, states that the House of Commons is 
so convinced of the urgency and importance 
of the question of primary education, that no 
difficulty, religious, irreligious, or economical, 
would be allowed to stand in the way. “ I am 
certain (he said) that public opinion will not 
allow dogmatic differences to be an obstruction 
to a national system of education ; I am quite 
sure that it will not allow the State itself to 
interfere, or empower others to interfere, with 
the religious education of any individual; and 
I am also sure that public opinion will not 
allow the State to prevent the teaching any 
more than the preaching of religion. (Cheers.) 

— Bavarian Parliament opened by the King. 
After regretting that it would be necessary to 
impose fresh taxes, his Majesty said: “The 
apprehension that our country’s rightful inde¬ 
pendence is threatened is entirely unfounded. 
Faithful to the treaty of alliance with Prussia, I 
shall, when duty calls, be ready, in conjunction 
with my powerful ally, to contend on behalf 
of Germany’s, and therefore of Bavaria s, 
honour. However much I may wish and hope 
for the restoration of a national union of the 
German States, I shall, nevertheless, agree 
only to such a constitution of Germany as will 
not endanger Bavaria’s independence.” 

18 .—M. Ollivier attacked in the French 
Chambers for abjuring his early principles in 
order to get into office. He replied that ‘ * as 
far back as 1857 I declared that I was opposed 
to revolution, which could only bring with it 
national disaster. I implored the Government 
to give liberty to France, and the Emperor 
having complied with that demand, I have de¬ 
voted myself to the task of accomplishing the 
triumph of liberal ideas.” Loud interruptions 
from the Left occurred during M. Ollivier s 
declarations, and M. Gambetta was called to 
order by the President. 

— Mr. John Hardy, M. P., committed for trial 
at Burton-on-Trent, on a charge of libel against 
one of his tenants, an auctioneer, whom he 
charged with gross fraud and extortion for 
giving evidence against him in a suit with 
another tenant. The case was afterwards 
settled out of court. 

_ Treasury minute issued regarding the 

Edmunds defalcations. Mr. Greenwood was 
stated to have acted throughout the proceedings 
as a meritorious public servant, while the late 
clerk of the Patent Office was alluded to as a 


JANUAR Y 


public defaulter,” “ guilty of malversation, ” and 
“ in the habit of appropriating sums of money 
belonging to the public.” 

18 . —Died, aged 53, Rev. Rowland Williams, 
Vicar of Broadchalk, Wilts, prosecuted by the 
late Bishop of Salisbury for his essay on 
Bunsen’s Biblical Researches, contributed to 
“Essays and Reviews.” 

19 . —M. Ollivier writes :—“Now in Italy, 
Prussia, Austria, and Bavaria, in every tongue 
and according to all rites, prayers are offered 
up to the god of battles supplicating hecatombs 
of human beings. We do not join our voice to 
those which blaspheme. We do not believe in 
the god of battles. We believe in a God of 
justice and peace, in a God who holds in His 
hands the hearts of princes and of nations, and 
who bends them as He wills; we ask Him to 
keep the chief in whose hands our destinies are 
placed from precipitate resolutions and unjust 
designs. ” 

— Traupmann executed at Paris for the 
murder of the Kinck family at Pantin. He 
walked to the guillotine quickly and in an 
agitated manner, but the dimness of the early 
morning prevented the movements on the 
scaffold being seen by the immense crowd 
present. 

— Strike at Creuzot among the workmen of 
M. Schneider. Unnecessary interference with 
savings’ banks was given out as the cause, but 
as it was thought likely to have some connex¬ 
ion with the present political agitation in the 
capital, a body of military was despatched to 
preserve order in the district. 

— M. Guizot attends the reception of the 
new French Minister, M. Ollivier, being his 
first appearance in official circles since his re¬ 
tirement in 1848. 

20 .—The Judges in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench decide that they have power to issue a 
mandamus to the Bridgwater Election Com¬ 
missioners to give a certificate of indemnity to 
Mr. Lovibond, a witness to whom they had 
refused one. Their lordships were also of 
opinion that the case was one in which their 
power should be exercised, inasmuch as they 
believed that Mr. Lovibond had made such 
disclosures in his evidence as entitled him to an 
indemnity. 

— The Lord Mayor (Besley) draws public 
attention to the necessity of organizing a 
scheme and collecting money to aid emigration 
to the colonies. 

— Died, aged 82, Sir G.F.Seymour, G.C.B., 
Admiral of the Fleet. 

22. — M. Rochefort sentenced to six 
months’ imprisonment and to a fine of 3,000 
francs, for publishing seditious articles in the 
Marseillaise ; and his coadjutor, M. Pascal 
Grousset, to imprisonment for a similar period 
and a fine of 2,000 francs. 

— The sisters Steedman, three in number, 

1 drowned in Lochleven, Kinross, while attempt- 

(901) 










JANUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1870. 


ing to save each other from the ice, on which 
one of them had ventured after a favourite dog. 

23 .—Fifteen persons killed at St. George’s 
Roman Catholic Chapel, Liverpool, in a panic 
caused by a false alarm of fire. 

24 -.—Collision off Yokohama, between the 
steamer Bombay and the American war vessel 
Oneida. The Bombay struck the Oneida on 
her starboard quarter, carrying away her poop 
decks, cutting off her whole stern, and running 
one of her timbers entirely through the bows of 
the Bombay at the water line. Three times the 
Oneida hailed the Bombay with “Ship, ahoy!” 
“Stand by!” “You’ve cut us down!” blew 
her whistle and fired her guns, none of which, 
however, the officers of the Bombay said they 
noticed, though guns were distinctly heard at 
Yokohama, twenty miles away. The Oneida 
went down stern first, in about twenty fathoms 
sj of water, with twenty officers and 150 men. 
Only two boats could be launched, and in 
these 61 of the crew kept afloat till assist¬ 
ance arrived. In the darkness of the night, 
Captain Eyre of the Bombay did not think 
the Oneida seriously injured, and continued 
on his voyage to Yokohama. At the inquiry 
which afterwards took place, his certificate 
was suspended for six months. The American 
Naval Court found that Captain Eyre was 
to blame beyond excuse, and fixed the respon¬ 
sibility of the loss of the Oneida and crew on 
him and his officers. In reply to Captain 
Eyre’s memorial for the return of his certifi¬ 
cate, the Board of Trade expressed an opinion 
that the conclusions of the court at Yokohama 
were justified by the evidence, and the sentence 
of suspension “inadequate to the gravity of the 
offence.” It was open, the Board thought, for 
those who had suffered loss by the death of 
relatives, to raise an action for damages, against 
the owners of the Bombay. 

25 . —Died at Cheltenham, aged 60, Sir 
Charles H. Darling, K. C. B., late Governor of 
Victoria. 

— Died, aged 85, the Due de Broglie, Peer 
of France. 

26 . —Meeting at the Mansion House to 
promote the objects of the National Emigration 
League. 

27 . —Replying to a deputation of members 
of the Metropolitan Association for procuring 
cheap and regular railway trains for the accom¬ 
modation of working men, Mr. Bright ex¬ 
pressed his willingness to promote the move¬ 
ment, but thought it likely some modification 
would require to be made in the scale regulating 
compensation for injury. 

— Drowned at sea, on a voyage from Bos¬ 
ton to Melbourne, George, Earl of Aberdeen, 
aged 29 years. 

— The Great Eastern arrives at Bombay 
with the Suez cable. 

28 . —Lecturing at Exeter on the subject of 
the Suez Canal, Sir Stafford Northcote said he 
believed it would greatly influence trade be- 

(902) 


tween England and India, and it would still 
more open the communications between the 
Mediterranean ports and India. It would, 
moreover, aid enormously the prosperity of 
Egypt itself, which had a great future before it. 
He justified Lord Palmerston in much of his 
opposition to the Canal, but said England could 
afford to rejoice that his prophecies had not 
been fulfilled. 

28 . —The General Assembly of the Irish 
Presbyterian Church, having adopted the prin¬ 
ciple of commutation, adopt a Sustentation 
Fund scheme proposed by a committee of the 
whole body. 

— Madame Lombart murdered by a valet 
(who had been accused of drunkenness) in her 
mansion in the Faubourg St.Honore, in presence 
of her paralyzed husband. 

— The steamship City of Boston sails from 
Halifax for Glasgow, with a crew of 98 and 
over 100 passengers. She was not afterwards 
heard of, and was thought to have foundered 
among ice, with all on board. 

— Died at Rome, the ex-Grand Duke of 
Tuscany. 

29 . —Prince Arthur arrives at New York. 

30 . —After an animated debate protracted 
over several days, the French Legislative Body 
appoint a committee to inquire into the working 
of the commercial treaties. 

31 . —Visit of 145 English mayors, with their 
wives, to Brussels. 

— Subscriptions closed for the new Russian 
loan, about 50,000,000/. being taken up in 
London. 

February 1 .—Meeting of the National 
Reform Union at Manchester, to support the 
Ministry, in the belief that measures would be 
proposed for settling the Irish land difficulty, 
Education, University Tests, and the Ballot. 

— Thirty-four clergymen of the Church of 
England join in a memorial to Mr. Gladstone, 
setting forth the grievances under which they 
labour in consequence of the supposed indeli¬ 
bility of orders. 

— Died, aged 87, Dr. John Bright, formerly 
physician to the Westminster Hospital. 

2 . —Conference for the purpose of discussing 
the Irish land question opened in Dublin. 

— Disorderly meeting at Southwark, to 
mediate between the rival claims of Sir S. 
Waterlow and Mr. Odger to represent the 
borough. 

— By a majority of 217 votes to 43, the 
French Legislative Body reject M. Grevy’s 
proposal giving to the deputies power to sum¬ 
mon the army for their defence when neces¬ 
sary. 

— Replying to an address presented at a 
banquet held in honour of the appointment of 
a Bishop’s Suffragan at Nottingham, the Greek 
Archhishop of Syra and Tenos expressed his 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUAR Y 


1870. 


earnest desire that the Greek and English 
Churches might be foremost in giving “ the 
watchword of unanimity, so much to be de¬ 
sired,” and might join together “the seamless 
coat of Christ our Saviour, which has been rent | 
so much ” by heretics ; and “ is now rent more 
and more, on the one hand by the arrogance j 
of the Latin Church, which impiously and 
licentiously aspires to supremacy, distracts the 
peace of all the Church, and tears asunder the 
bond of union in Christ, and on the other hand 
by that spirit of ill-conceived liberty according 
to which the bonds of the ancient Church are 
severed ruthlessly, and the ancient landmarks 
which our fathers set are removed.” 

3.—A deputation from the National Emigra¬ 
tion League waits upon Mr. Gladstone to urge 
the desirableness of State aid for the removal of 
workmen and their families from this country. 

— Died at Cannes, aged 76, Marshal Saint- 
Jean d’Angely, an officer who had fought in 
most of the battles of France, from Moscow to 
Solferino. 

At .—Transfer of the telegraph lines of the 
United Kingdom to the Post Office depart¬ 
ment. 

— A 9-inch Moncrieff gun-carriage success¬ 
fully tried at Woolwich, the largest yet used 
for experiments. 

— M. Guizot accepts the presidency of an 
extra-Parliamentary Commission, sanctioned by 
the Emperor, for remodelling the system of 
superior education. 

5. — The Bavarian Premier, Prince Hohen- 
lohe, explains to the Munich deputies that 
he was favourable to the formation of a South 
German Bund in preference to joining with 
the North, where their votes would be swamped 
and their independence imperilled. Pie did 
not think that the destiny of Bavaria de¬ 
pended more on Vienna than on Munich; but 
at the same time he could not ignore the fact 
that if Austria, in alliance with Prance, were 
to attack Germany, Bavaria and the South 
would be in a very dangerous position. “What,” 
continued the Prince, “is then the duty of a 
Bavarian Minister in this matter? To watch 
that no opportunity should be given for such a 
coalition, and on the other hand to do every¬ 
thing to diminish the breach which since 1866 
has separated Austria from Prussia.” 

_ Robbery of 10,000/. from a clerk when 

presenting cheques at the Birkbeck Deposit 
Bank, London. 

6. _Rumoured appointment of M. Prevost- 

Paradol as French Minister at Washington. 

7. — Conference at the Society of Arts on 
the subject of national education. Resolutions 
were adopted advocating the creation of a de¬ 
partment of Education, the furnishing elementary 
instruction to every child, “with due regard to 
re 1 iirious instruction where possible, compulsory 
attendance at school according to the principle 
of the Factory Acts, the continuance of Govern¬ 


ment aid to existing denominational schools, 
subject to the acceptance of a conscience clause, 
and the retention of school fees, to be applied 
to the augmentation of the incomes of teachers. 

7 . —Storm at Wick, destroying the break¬ 
water and throwing down a portion of the new 
harbour works. The atmospheric disturbances 
were so serious as to lead to the cessation of 
all telegraphic communication throughout the 
kingdom for several hours. 

— A motion made by members of the 
Extreme Left, to stay the apprehension of M. 
Rochefort till the end of the session, rejected 
by 191 to 45 votes. The “Irreconcilable” 
deputy was arrested in the evening. 

— The Prussian Parliament refusing to 
adjourn in consideration of the meeting of the 
North German Parliament, Count Bismarck 
said he regretted that Prussia and the Con¬ 
federation should be treated as conflicting 
interests. “ I must, once for all, protest against 
the idea of any such antagonism. The fact 
that great national events are in progress does 
not imply the humiliation of Prussia. It has 
been determined that the Parliament and the 
Diets shall not simultaneously be in session. If 
you think that this decision may apply to the 
other members of the Confederation, but not 
to Prussia, because here we are at home, if this 
is the path you have struck out for yourselves, 
then our ways diverge so greatly that we may 
perhaps not meet again.” 

— Died, aged 60, Lieut.-General Sir Charles 
Windham, “hero of the Redan.” 

8. —Parliament opened by Commission. The 
Irish Land Bill was spoken of in the Royal 
Speech as a measure calculated “to bring about 
improved relations between the several classes 
concerned in Irish agriculture, which collec¬ 
tively constitute the great bulk of the Irish 
people.” Bills were also promised relating to 
Education, University Tests, Naturalization, 
Rating, and Licences. Lord Caims in the 
Lords, and Mr. Disraeli in the Commons, 
mildly criticized the Government proposals, 
and the Address was voted without a division. 

— Disturbances in Paris, arising out of the 
Rochefort prosecution, and leading to about 
150 arrests. 

— Mr. Ruskin delivers his inaugural lecture 
as Slade Professor, in the Sheldonian Theatre, 
Oxford. 

9. —At the meeting of Convocation to-day, 

I Archdeacon Freeman said that without having 
I been authorized to make a formal announce¬ 
ment to the House, he had received permission 
! from his diocesan to make any use of the in¬ 
formation he pleased ; and he had therefore to 
state that Dr. Temple’s Essay would not appear 
in any future edition of “Essays and Reviews,” 
if, indeed, another edition should ever be called 
for. The Dean of Exeter further explained 
that Dr. Temple’s Essay had not been prepared 
1 for publication along with the other Essays. 
1 ( 903 ) 












FEBRUARV 


FEBRUARY 


1870. 


Archdeacon Denison thereupon intimated that 
he “ would surcease from the opposition ” he in¬ 
tended proceeding with against Bishop Temple. 
On the nth the Bishop somewhat detracted 
from the importance of the concession, by 
explaining that in withdrawing the Essay he 
did not mean any retractation of what he had 
written, or condemnation of the other essayists. 
He admitted the book might have done harm— 
Luther’s writings had perhaps done harm—but 
it had done much more good. It was better, he 
thought, to allow discussion within the Church 
than to compel it to take an unhealthy form 
outside. 

10. —In the Upper House of Convocation, 
the Bishop of Winchester, supported by the 
Bishops of Gloucester and Bristol, St. David’s, 
Llandaff, and some others, carries a resolu¬ 
tion :—“That a committee of both Houses 
be appointed, with power to confer with any 
committee that may be appointed by the Con¬ 
vocation of the northern province to report 
upon the desirableness of a revision of the 
Authorized Version of the Old and New Testa¬ 
ments, whether by marginal notes or otherwise, 
in all those passages where plain and clear 
errors, whether in the Hebrew or Greek text, 
originally adopted by the translators, or in the 
translations made from the same, shall, on due 
investigation, be found to exist.” 

— New writ moved for Tipperary, in room 
of O’Donovan Rossa, who, having been adjudged 
guilty of felony and sentenced to transportation 
for life, “was incapable of being elected a 
member of the House.” 

— Mr. Lowe introduces bills transferring the 
office of Master of the Mint to the Chancellor 
of the Exchequer (with the salary abolished), 
and for abolishing the office of Registrar of 
Friendly Societies. 

11 . —The championship of the billiard-table 
won by Cook against Roberts. 

12 . —Died, aged 86, George Hogarth, 
musical critic. 

13 . —Died at Agra, Lalla Jotee Pers|d, 
known as “the great contractor” and head 
of the commissariat department during the 
Sikh wars. 

14. —The North German Parliament opened 
by the King of Prussia, who announced that 
union with South Germany on national grounds 
was the object of his incessant attention. “ The 
sentiment of national unity to which the pre¬ 
sent treaties owe their existence, the mutually 
pledged word of German princes, and the 
community of supreme national interests, tend 
to give our relations with South Germany a 
solidity which is independent of the changing 
waves of political passions.” The King, in 
conclusion, expressed his confidence in the 
continuance of peace. 

— The Earl of Carnarvon introduces a 
debate on the colonial policy of the Government, 
Lord Derby on the occasion making his first 
speech in the House of Peers. 

( 904 ) 


15.—In presence of a crowded House, and in 
a speech of three hours’ duration, Mr. Glad¬ 
stone introduces the Irish Land Bill. He dis¬ 
cussed in the most minute manner the question 
of (1) Loans to occupiers and landlords. (2) 
The judicial machinery for administering the 
Act. (3) The different classes of holdings— 
Ulster custom ; customs analogous to Ulster; 
tenancies at will; and leases. (4) Damages for 
eviction. (5) Improvements. (6) Leases. The 
question, Mr. Gladstone said, ‘ ‘ What is an im¬ 
provement ? ” had given the Government much 
trouble, and the definition he gave was that it 
must be something which shall add to the let¬ 
ting value of the land, and must be suitable to 
the holding. The bill would reverse the pre¬ 
sent presumption of law; it would presume all 
improvements to be the property of the tenant, 
and it would be for the landlord to prove the 
contrary. Retrospective improvements would 
be included, but only so far back as twenty 
years, except in the case of permanent build¬ 
ings and reclamations of lands. With regard 
to holdings under lease, Mr. Gladstone said any 
owner might exempt his lands from the custom, 
always excepting the Ulster custom, which would 
be legalized, and from the scale of damages, by 
giving to his tenant a lease for thirty-one years, 
provided that the lease were approved by the 
court, and gave the tenant at the close of it a 
right to compensation for manures, permanent 
buildings, and reclamation of land. Mr. Hardy 
(in the absence of Mr. Disraeli from indisposi¬ 
tion) gave expression to the wish of the Oppo¬ 
sition to deal with the measure in a candid and 
conciliatory spirit. Bill read a first time. 

— The disputes between the two Liberal 
candidates permit the vacant seat for South¬ 
wark to be carried by a Conservative, the 
numbers at the close of the poll being—Beres- 
ford, 4,686; Odger, 4,382; Waterlow, 2,966. 

— Petition presented to the Home Secretary 
by the working men of London, praying the 
attention of her Majesty’s Government to the 
vast importance of maintaining the existing 
relations between England and her colonies. 

— The Irish Church Convention commences 
its sittings in Dublin. 

— The French Moniteur announces that the 
army contingent of 1870 is to be reduced by 
15,000 men. 

— Reported conspiracy in Paris against 
the Emperor, leading to numerous arrests. In 
the Chamber, M. Jules Favre advocated an 
immediate dissolution, on the plea that the 
present Ministerial majority was composed of 
those elected under the old regime. 

— The Foreign Ministers of France and 
Austria protest against the proclamation of the 
Infallibility doctrine of the (Ecumenical Council. 

16 .—Came on in the Court of Probate and 
Divorce the case of Mordaunt v. Mordaunt, Cole, 
and Johnstone. In the summer of last year a 
petition was presented to the Judge Ordinary 
for dissolution of marriage by Sir Charles Mor- 











FEBRUARY 


1870. 


FEBRUARY 


daunt, Bart. Lady Mordaunt entered no plea, 
and it was soon known that the state of her 
health was such as to make it matter of ques¬ 
tion whether she was in a state of mind to be 
legally competent to take such a step. The 
Judge Ordinary, therefore, having reason to 
believe that the representations made on this 
head were well founded, directed a jury to be 
empanelled to try the special issue of the 
sanity or, ''•sanity of the respondent, and this 
was the question accordingly now submitted 
to their decision. Dr. Deane, Q. C., who ap¬ 
peared for the respondent, said that there were 
two theories which might be held regarding 
the condition of Lady Mordaunt—that she was 
really disabled and irresponsible, or that she 
was deceiving those about her, and playing a 
part for the purpose of misleading her own 
nearest relations. His (Dr. Deane’s) own theory 
was somewhat different from either. It was that 
Lady Mordaunt, about the 30th of April last, 
had been suffering from a disease of the nervous 
system affecting the brain and the spinal cord, 
from which she had continued to suffer ever 
since. The citation was served upon her at 
Walton Hall on the 30th April last. She re¬ 
mained there till May 15, when she removed 
first to London, then to Worthing, then to Brom¬ 
ley in Kent, and afterwards to London. Since 
the suit was instituted she had been seen by Dr. 
Priestley, Dr. Jenner, Dr. Wood, and Sir James 
Simpson, all o^whom testified as to her insanity 
at the time of their visits. The case for the 
petitioner was opened on the 18th by Mr. 
Seijeant Ballantine, who described the con¬ 
fession of guilt made by Lady Mordaunt after 
the birth of her child on the 28th February, 
1858, to her nurse, to Mrs. Cadogan, and to 
Sir Charles himself. She said to her husband, 
“Charley, you are not the father of the 
child. Lord Cole is the father of the child, 
and I myself am the cause of its blindness. ” 
For a quarter of an hour she did not speak. 
When she spoke again, she said, “Charley, I 
have been very wicked; I have done very 
wrong.” “I said (repeated Sir C. Mordaunt 
in examination), ‘With whom?’ She said, 

* With Lord Cole, with Sir F. Johnstone, the 
Prince of Wales, and others.’ She spoke in 
tones of great distress and remorse. I said 
nothing. I can’t say I believed even then, but 
my suspicions were aroused. I had several 
conversations with Mr. Cadogan (the vicar), 
and subsequently made inquiries which resulted 
in the suit I instituted. When Lady Louisa 
came down I communicated to her what I had 
heard from her daughter. I left the house 
about the 4th of April, and the last time I saw 
my wife was on or about the 24th of March. I 
was many days without seeing her, and during 
that time I found a number of letters from the 
Prince of Wales, some flowers and verses in an 
envelope, and two hotel bills of the Alexandra 
and the Palace Hotel. I asked the lady’s-maid 
where the key was, and I got the key and 
opened the desk. The letters of the Prince of 
\Vales were in the same envelope with what 


might be called a valentine.” In a diary of 
1869, in Lady Mordaunt’s own handwriting, 
opposite the 3d of April, were the words ‘ ‘ 230 
days from the 27th of June,” a day on which 
Lord Cole was said to have been in the house 
till one o’clock in the morning, in the absence 
of her husband then in Norway. Evidence 
was also given regarding her intimacy with 
Captain Farquhar, and the visits she received 
from him at her hotel in London at a time when 
she pretended to be alone. The public interest 
in this trial reached its climax on the 23d, when 
the Prince of Wales voluntarily suomitted him¬ 
self for examination, and specifically denied that 
there had ever been any improper familiarity or 
criminal connexion of any sort between himself 
and Lady Mordaunt. Sir Frederick Johnstone 
made a similar declaration. On the 25th the 
jury returned a verdict that Lady Mordaunt was 
on the 30th April in such a condition of mental 
disorder as to be unfit and unable to answer 
the petition or instruct an attorney for her de¬ 
fence. They were also of opinion that she 
had been ever since and was then in the same 
unfit state. 

16 . —St. John’s Church, Bethnal Green, de¬ 
stroyed by fire. 

17 . — Mr. Forster introduces the Government 
Bill to provide for public Elementary Education 
in England and Wales. The measure was 
based upon the principle of direct compulsion 
as regarded the attendance of children, and to 
effect this, power was to be given to each School 
Board to frame bye-laws compelling the attend¬ 
ance at school of all children from five to 
twelve years of age within their district. The 
schools formed by the bill would be subject to 
three regulations : (1) It must be shown that 
they possess a certain amount of efficiency in 
education before a Government grant will be 
made. (2) They will be required to submit 
to the examination of an undenominational 
inspector. (3) A “ conscience clause” will be 
attached as a condition of the receipt of Go¬ 
vernment assistance. The management of the 
schools would be vested in Boards, to be 
locally elected. In boroughs the School Boards 
would be elected by the town council, and in 
country districts by the vestries. The school 
fees would not be abolished. Power would, 
however, be given to the School Boards to 
establish free schools in localities where the 
poverty of the inhabitants rendered them de¬ 
sirable, and in the paying schools the Boards 
would also have the power to grant free tickets 
to children whose parents were unable to pay 
the fees, care being taken that no stigma 
accompanied their possession. The bill pro¬ 
posed to supplement the funds necessary to 
carry out the scheme by local rates, and by 
grants from the public treasury, in the estimated 
proportion of one-third from each source, the 
remaining third coming from the school fees. 
If the charge upon the poor-rate under this 
head should exceed in any parish threepence in 
the pound, a special additional grant v culd be 








FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1870. 


made to such parish from the public funds. 
With respect to the religious aspect of the 
education to be imparted in the public schools 
the bill made no order, neither saying that 
religion should be excluded from the course of 
lessons, nor that it should be taught in any 
particular way. 

17 . —The honorary degree of LL. D. conferred 
on the Archbishop of Syra and Tenos at Cam¬ 
bridge, and the honorary degree of M.A. on 
his two attendant Archimandrites. Similar 
honours were conferred at Oxford on the 19th. 

— M. Ollivier issues a report, approved by the 
Emperor, abrogating the decree of 12th August, 
1851, empowering the Government to transport 
to Cayenne or Algeria citizens condemned for 
belonging to secret societies. 

— The Pope opens an exhibition of articles 
used in Roman Catholic worship. 

18 . —Mr. Goschen obtains leave to introduce 
a bill providing for the equal distribution over 
the metropolis of a further portion of the charge 
for poor relief. 

— The Lord Chancellor introduces the 
Judges’ Jurisdiction Bill, the object of which 
was to enable any judge of any one of the 
superior courts at Westminster to sit, upon 
request, in any of the other two courts, with 
the same authority as if he were a member of 
such other court. 

■— Convention announced between the Greek 
Government and a French company for cutting 
a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. 

— Prince Pierre Bonaparte committed to 
take his trial before the High Court of Justice 
for the murder of M. Victor Noir and the 
attempted murder of M. de Fonvielle. (See 
21 st March.) 

19 . —Barrett, charged with firing at Captain 
Lambert, again acquitted, by a Dublin jury. 

— The inhabitants of St. Domingo vote in 
favour of annexation to the United States. 

— Failure of the Ruffo S cilia Bank at 
Florence. 

— Died at Paris, aged 58, Baron Nathaniel 
de Rothschild, one of the partners of the great 
mercantile house. 

21 .—Mr. Goschen obtains the appointment 
of a Select Committee to inquire into the sub¬ 
ject of local taxation levied within areas, unions, 
parishes, and townships. 

— A proposal having been made that the 
Earl of Derby should assume the leadership of 
the Conservative party in the House of Lords, 
his lordship writes to Lord Colville that he con¬ 
siders his inexperience a fatal disqualification. 
“ Besides,” he adds, “the function of a party 
leadership, honourable and important as it is, 
does not seem to me one for which I am by 
habit or temperament well qualified.” 

— The Archbishops of Canterbury and York 
assure the Archbishop of Armagh that “our 
efforts shall not be wanting, whenever you may 
(906) 


call upon us to render such assistance on this 
side the Channel as we may be able to do to 
our beloved sister Church. We have hitherto 
abstained from any public action in the matter, 
deeming it best that the Church in Ireland 
should first frame her constitution, and should 
then suggest to us the manner in which we may 
best serve her interests.” 

21 . — Debate in the French Corps Legislatif 
on the policy of the Ollivier Cabinet, M. Jules 
Favre speaking for two hours with great 
vigour against their recent proceedings. A re¬ 
solution, expressing confidence in the Cabinet, 
was carried next day by a majority of 236 to 
18 votes. 

— Opening of the Columbia Fish Market. 

— Commenced at Paris the sale of the great 
San Donato collection of pictures. One of the 
gems of the gallery, “ Henri VI. and the 
Spanish Ambassador,” sold for 83,000 f. The 
sale was continued till the 25 th February, 
when the amount realized was found to be— 
for pictures, 899,800 f. ; and for sculpture, 
77,800 f. 

22. —Lord Chelmsford’s bill designed to lessen 
the evils of Sunday trading read a second time 
in the House of Lords, and referred to a 
committee. 

— Nomination day at Waterford, leading to 
party riots and bloodshed. 

— The steamship Golden &ily, fr«m San 
Francisco to the United States, wrecked off the 
Mexican coast. The crew, with the mails and 
treasure, were saved by the Colorado. 

23 . —Life Assurance Companies’ Bill read a 
second time, the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
expressing a doubt whether the proposed in¬ 
terference of Government would meet the 
difficulties of the case. 

— The Convocation of the Province of 
York, decline to appoint a committee to confer 
with the committee nominated by the southern 
province to report upon a revision of the 
Authorized Version of Scripture. 

— Vrain Lucas, charged with forging 
numerous autographs and documents sold by 
him to M. Chasles, of the French Academy, 
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. 

— M. Emile Ollivier announces that his Go¬ 
vernment will not use pressure at elections for 
the purpose of securing the return of candidates 
favourable to their own views, as they con¬ 
sidered that the old electoral system “was 
now a thing of the past. The Imperialists on 
the Right thereupon threatened to withdraw 
their support. 

— Died at St. Petersburg, Anson Bur¬ 
lingame, the Chinese Ambassador. 

24 . —Mr. Cardwell’s War Office Bill, framed 
to create two new offices, a clerk of the 
Ordnance and a Financial Secretary, read a 
second time. 

— Mr. Bernal Osborne returned for Water¬ 
ford by the narrow majority of eight. Great 






FEBRUARY 


1870. 


MARCH 


disorder prevailed in the town, and several 
persons were seiiously injured. 

24 . —Conference of members of Parliament 
belonging to the various Nonconforming bodies, 
at the Alexandra Hotel, to discuss the details 
of the proposed Government Education Bill. 
A general opinion was expressed that secular 
instruction only should be given in the schools 
supported by local rates. 

— In the North German Parliament, 
Count Bismarck, while willipgly recognizing the 
patriotic efforts made by Baden, thought she 
could do more to serve the national cause by 
refraining from joining the Bund in the 
meantime. 

25 . —Sir John Lubbock returned for Maid¬ 
stone. 

— Mr. Hibbert obtains leave to Introduce a 
bill for the relief of persons admitted to the 
office of priest or deacon in the Church of 
England, who might desire to resign such 
office. 

— The Irish Church Convention affirm the 
principle of a perpetual Episcopal veto. 


26 . —The Duke of Richmond selected to 
lead the Conservative party in the House of 
Lords. 

— Mr. Heron, Q.C., elected M.P. for 
Tipperary by a majority of four over his oppo¬ 
nent, the Fenian Kickham. 3,343 electors voted 
out of a constituency of 8,996. 

_ The first coloured Senator, Mr. Revels, 

from Mississippi, takes his seat in the United 
States Senate. 


28 . _A deputation of merchants connected 

with the China trade, accompanied by several 
members of Parliament, wait upon Lord Claren¬ 
don to state their objections to the Convention 
recently concluded by Sir Rutherford Alcock 
with the Chinese Government. 

_ The Navy Estimates moved by Mr. 

Childers, the total amount asked for being 
9 250,00o/. The principal changes, he ex¬ 

plained, made during the year had been the 
establishment of the Controller of the Navy as ( 
a permanent part of the Board of Admiralty, 
the appointment of a Financial Secretary, the 
concentration under one roof of the scattered 
departments of the service, and the reduction 
of the redundant establishments at the dock- 
vards and other naval establishments. Ihe 
First Lord stated the number and class ot 
vessels proposed to be built forthwith, explained 
the views of the Admiralty upon the questions 
of the guns, the coastguard service and the 
other reserve forces, set forth the scheme of 
education inaugurated in the fleet, and the new 
plan of promotion and retirement. 

— Count Montalembert defends himself in 
a letter to a friend from the charge of incon¬ 
sistency in having formerly opposed Gallicamsm 
and now condemning the Ultramontane party 
at Rome “ Without having either the will or 
the power to discuss the question now debating 


in the Council, I hail with the most grateful 
admiration, first, the great and generous 
Bishop of Orleans, then the eloquent and 
intrepid priests who have had the courage to 
place themselves across the path of the torrent 
of adulation, imposture, and servility by which 
we risk being swallowed up.” 

March 1 . —The proceedings in the Wicklow 
Peerage case take an unexpected turn to-day, 
Sir Roundell Palmer informing the Committee 
that he was now in a position to prove that in 
the month of August, 1864, Mrs. Howard and 
another lady visited a workhouse in Liverpool, 
and there procured a recently bom child from 
its mother, one Mary Best, a pauper lying-in in 
the workhouse hospital. He had obtained the 
attendance of the head nurse and two under¬ 
nurses, who could swear to Mrs. Howard’s 
identity. The Solicitor-General requested an 
adjournment, in order to meet the new case 
thus presented. Their lordships, however, ex¬ 
pressed a wish to cross-examine Mrs. Howard 
at once ; but she had suddenly disappeared 
from the House of Lords, and search after her 
at her lodgings and elsewhere proved ineffectual. 
The case was then adjourned. At the next 
sitting, a week afterwards, Mrs. Howard ap¬ 
peared before the Committee, but refused to be 
sworn, contending that the fresh witnesses who 
had been produced against her should be ex¬ 
amined first. Persisting in her refusal, she was 
committed to the custody of Black Rod for 
contempt of court, and the new witnesses were 
examined, as was also Mary Best. They un¬ 
hesitatingly identified Mrs. Howard as the 
person who purchased the child in the work- 
house. Their lordships promised to give judg¬ 
ment before Easter. (See March 3 1 *) 

— The long-continued struggle in Paraguay 
closed by the death of Lopez; General Camera, 
of the Brazilian cavalry, overtaking the Dictator 
to-day at Aquidubon, and as he refused to sur¬ 
render, he was cut down sword in hand at the 
head of a small body of troops who manifested 
attachment to their leader till the last. 

2 . —Mr. Plimsoll’s Railway Travelling Bill, 
compelling railway companies to supply foot 
warmers in second and third class carriages in 
cold weather, rejected on the proposal for a 
second reading by 108 to 76 votes. 

3. —The Army Estimates introduced by Mr. 
Cardwell. The total charge for the year was 
stated to be 12,975,000/., being a decrease of 
1,136,900/. as compared with 1868 69. 

— Mr. E. Deutsch, in a letter to the Times* 
points out the peculiarities of the broken relic 
known as the Moabite Stone, the oldest Semitic 
lapidary record yet discovered. 

7 —Debate commenced on the second read¬ 
ing of the Irish Land Bill. In the House of 
Lords the Earl of Carnarvon introduced a 
debate on the affairs of New Zealand. 

— M. Ollivier describes his Ministry as the 
result of a powerful effort of the country and 

( 907 ) 










MARCH 


1870. 


MARCH 


the will of the Chambers. “ Our partisans are 
neither courtiers nor flatterers ; they are the 
friends of former days, the comrades in our 
contests; and the new friends who have 
joined us have not done so because of our 
sudden elevation, but to render homage to a 
long persistence in the same principles, and to 
assist in procuring the triumph of our cause. ” 

7 . —Prince Henry of Bourbon, brother of 
the ex-King Consort of Spain, issues a mani¬ 
festo, in which he declares that the Duke of 
Montpensier “represents the nucleus of the 
Orleanist conspiracy against the Emperor 
Napoleon III., in which certain Spaniards of 
note have been engaged. But let these French 
and Spanish conspirators understand well that, 
in case of a fall of the Imperial dynasty, it 
would not be the Orleans family that would in¬ 
herit, but Rochefort—that is to say, the French 
Republic. Let them know, also, that in Spain 
the man of prestige and national veneration is 
the illustrious Espartero, and not this braggart 
of a French pastrycook.” (See March 12.) 

8 . —A nominal premium of seventy guineas 
quoted as the insurance rate of the missing 
steamship City of Boston. 

9. —Sir Digby Wyatt, the new Slade Pro¬ 
fessor of Fine Arts, delivers his inaugural lecture 
in the Senate House, Cambridge. 

— Mr. M'Laren’s Church-rate Bill thrown out 
on the motion for a second reading by 225 to 
103 votes. 

— Conservative banquet in the hall of the 
City Terminus Hotel, in celebration of the 
victories gained in the City Registration Court. 

11 .—Conclusion of debate on second read¬ 
ing of Irish Land Bill. Mr. Disraeli (evidently 
weak from recent illness) spoke to-night, group¬ 
ing with amusing minuteness the different objec¬ 
tions which had been urged against the measure. 
He rose to address the House at 9.49, and 
dashed off into a bantering attack on Mr. 
Horsman, who had accused all Governments 
up to the present of trifling with the question, 
and whom the member for Buckinghamshire 
repeatedly described as “a superior person” 

(a nickname used in the Danish debate in 
1864): when Secretary to the' Irish Lord-Lieu¬ 
tenant, he had excused himself for not bring¬ 
ing in bills on the plea that his office was 
a complete sinecure. “We, knowing what 
a superior person he was, did not put an un¬ 
charitable construction upon his conduct, but 
said, ‘ This is a part of some profound policy 
which will end in the regeneration of Ireland 
and in the consolidation of her Majesty’s United 
Kingdom. ’ ” Mr. Disraeli was especially happy 
in a grotesque picture which he drew of the 
two Judges of assize perambulating the coun¬ 
try with a train of “excited and ambitious” 
lawyers expecting to bemadeSolicitors-General, 
or to be returned for boroughs. “ Well, when 
the Judges come to the first town where their 
great exploits are to be fulfilled, and their great 
feats accomplished, where multitudes are wait- I 
(90S) 


ing to receive them, and where all the galleries 
are full of ladies—particularly if the cases are 
of a delicate character—all this great business 
is to be arrested, because the first cases to be 
brought before the Judges of assize are appeals 
from the assistant barristers on the relations 
between landlord and tenant in Ireland. ”—Mr. 
Gladstone followed. Speaking of the handful 
of opponents, he closed : “ The oppression of a 
majority is detestable and odious; the oppres¬ 
sion of a minority is only by one degree less 
detestable and odious. The face of justice is 
like the face of the god Janus; it is like the 
face of those lions, the work of Landseer. ” 

11. —Martyrs’ Memorial at St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital uncovered by the Earl of Shaftesbury. 

— Explosion at Kaimes’ powder mills, 
Rothesay, causing the death of five workmen 
and serious injury to the works. 

— Rumour from Paris that the old feeling 
of hostility between France and Russia was 
increasing in intensity. 

— The Duke of Edinburgh arrives at Bom¬ 
bay. 

— Sale of the Knowsley stud of race-horses; 
amount realized 4,725 guineas. 

— The Grand Jury of Queen’s County deem 
it their duty to express an opinion that “the 
insecurity of life and property, the impunity of 
crime, and the spread of secret societies, which 
now so widely prevail, constitute a state 
of social disorganization demanding the most 
serious consideration of a responsible Govern¬ 
ment, and the immediate application of strong 
and decided means of correction.” 

12 . —Duel at the Artillery Practice ground, 
Carabancheles, Madrid, between the Duke of 
Montpensier and the Infante Don Henry of 
Bourbon. The combatants were known to have 
long entertained feelings of hostility to each 
other, but the immediately exciting cause of 
the meeting was understood to be the offensive 
manifesto issued by the Infante on the 7th, 
coupled with the rumour that he was said to 
have accused the Duchess of Montpensier of 
lending herself to the Government then in 
power at Madrid. Shots were exchanged first 
at ten, and then at nine yards, the Infante firing 
first on each occasion. At eight yards he also 
fired first, and missed. The Duke now took 
deadly aim, and killed his opponent with a shot 
which entered the forehead. He appeared to 
be much affected at the result, and was conveyed 
from the ground by his friends and physicians. 
A court-martial held at San Sebastian con¬ 
demned the Duke to a month’s exile, and to 
pay the family of the deceased 6,000 dollars, 
but refused to pass any censure on his conduct. 

13. —Died, aged 60, Charles Forbes,the Count 
de Montalembert, a distinguished leader at one 
time of the Ultramontane party in France, and 
author of “The Monks of the West,” &c. 

14 . —Lord Crichton’s motion censuring 
Government for dismissing Captain Code from 






MARCH 


MARCH 


1870. 


the shrievalty of Monaghan rejected by 193 
to 113 votes. 

14 . —Mr. Cardwell intimates his intention 
of withdrawing a proposal formerly made for 
abolishing the ranks of cornet and ensign in the 
army ; a Commission to be appointed to inquire 
into the question of over-regulation prices. 

— Order issued by Vice-Chancellor James 
for winding up the Manchester and London 
Life Assurance Society, founded in 1852, and 
afterwards absorbed by the Albert Company. 

15 . —The Upper House of the Baden Diet 
unanimously adopt the Jurisdiction Conven¬ 
tion with the North German Confederation. 

— Meeting of Conservatives at the residence 
of the Earl of Lonsdale, to discuss contem¬ 
plated amendments on the Irish Land Bill. 

— Mr. Dickens gives a final “Reading” in 
St. James’s Hall; the pieces selected being 
“ The Christmas Carol” and the “ Trial” from 
“ Pickwick.” 

— Fall of 25 centimes in French Rentes, 
owing to rumoured difficulties between the 
Ollivier Ministry and Prussia on the subject of 
the Treaty of Prague. 

— The Elections Committee agree upon a 
report. On the question of local rating for 
expenses the votes were 7 to 7, or the Ballot 
9 to 8, and for the abolition of public nomina¬ 
tions 5 to 6'. 

— After an inquiry protracted over nine 
days, the magistrates find that there was no 
case against the medical men so far as the 
death of the Welsh fasting-girl was concerned, 
but the father and mother were committed for 
trial at the next assizes. 

— Dr. Newman writes to the Standard that 
it was not true he had stigmatized the promoters 
of Papal Infallibility as an insolent aggressive 
faction. “That I deeply deplore the policy, 
the spirit, the measures of various persons, lay 
and ecclesiastical, who are urging the definition 
of that theological opinion, I have neither in¬ 
tention nor wish to deny ; just the contrary. 
But, on the other hand, I have a firm belief, 
and have had all along, that a Greater Power 
than that of any man or set of men will over¬ 
rule the deliberations of the Council to the 
determination of Catholic and Apostolic truth, 
and that what its Fathers eventually proclaim 
with one voice will be the Word of God. 

— From a report prepared by M. de Lesseps 
it appeared that the total number of vessels 
which passed through the Suez Canal from the 
day of its opening up to the present date was 
209, representing 146,631 tons; of these 56>°52 
tons were English vessels, 34 , 39 ° French, 17,666 
Egyptian, 14,625 Austrian, 7,386 Italian, 4, 
Russian, 4,000 Norwegian, 3,200 Dutch, 880 
German, 528 Spanish, 3,015 Prussian, 369 I or- 
tuguese, and 342 Turkish. Of the 209 vessels, 
200 were steamers, the others were sailing 
vessels. The tolls collected were from 79 
vessels of 54,644 tons ( x 3 ° vessels bein S 


exempt, having passed through on the occa¬ 
sion of the opening of the canal), realizing 
593,411fr. 58c., and the amount from small 
vessels as transit dues was 20, i86fr. 5° c * 

16 . —M. Lubanski, merchant, Marseilles, 
robbed and murdered by a fellow-passenger in 
a railway carriage travelling between that city 
and Vienna. The body was found on the line 
bearing no less than thirty-four wounds inflicted 
with a dagger or knife. The empty compart¬ 
ment also showed every appearance of a severe 
struggle. A young man named Bayon, after¬ 
wards tried at Valence for the- offence, ad¬ 
mitted stabbing M. Lubanski, but endeavoured 
to extenuate the offence by describing it as the 
result of a quarrel about a cushion. He was 
found guilty without extenuating circumstances 
and sentenced to death. 

17. —Mr. Chichester Fortescue introduces 
the Peace Preservation (Ireland) Bill, designed 
to secure the safety of life and property in that 
country. 

— Collision off the Needles,between the Nor¬ 
mandy and the steamship Mary of Grimsby: the 
former sank with thirty-two of her passengers. 

18 . —After a debate extending over three 
nights, the Education Bill is read a second 
time without a division, Mr. Dixon withdrawing 
his amendment declaring that no measure for 
the elementary education of the people would 
afford a satisfactory or permanent settlement, 
which left the question of religious instruction 
in schools supported by public funds and rates 
to be determined by local authorities. Mr. 
Gladstone, in closing the debate, indicated a 
willingness on the part of the Government to 
substitute for the conscience clause a clear and 
definite line of separation between secular and 
religious teaching, and the insertion in com¬ 
mittee of a clause making it compulsory on the 
part of local authorities to grant the use of the 
school building to the representatives of the 
religious views of minorities. 

19. —Several of the Catholic Powers looking 
with suspicion on the gathering of the Council 
at Rome, Cardinal Antonelli writes to Count 
Daru, French Minister for Foreign Affairs, that 
the questions to be discussed in no way affect the 
relations between the Church and the State in 
the various European countries, and that their 
scope is purely religious. Count Daru replied 
that France desired everything to be removed 
from the schema deecclesid which she feared would 
have grave consequences for the legal and social 
order of the European States, as several articles 
in it would involve the entire subjection of civil 
society to the Church. Such is unmistakably 
(continues the note) the object of the schema de 
ecclesid; for by declaring the infallibility of the 
Church it extends her province to all questions 
of politics and science. “ It is evident that if 
such principles were put in practice, Govern¬ 
ments would have only so much power and 
civil society only so much liberty, as the Church 
would choose to allow them. Nor is this all : 

( 9 ° 9 ) 













MARCH 


MARCH 


1870. 


after all political and religious power has been 
placed in the hands of the Church, all the 
power of the Church is to be concentrated in 
the hands of the Pope. Such principles are 
not accepted in any part of Europe, and if the 
schema is passed, a general anathema will have 
to be laid by the Pope on all the institutions 
and peoples of Europe.” 

19 . — Fire inWatts’ printing-office,Gray’s-inn- 
road, destroying a large quantity of Oriental 
literature. 

— General Escoffier, Prefect of Ravenna, 
assassinated in his own house, by Cattaneo, 
an inspector of police. 

20 . —Died from the effects -of a fall in the 
hunting-field, Archibald Kennedy, Marquis of 
Ailsa. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 82, the Earl of 
Roden, an Orange partisan deprived by Lord 
Clarendon, in 1849, of his office of Custos 
Rotulorum of the county of Louth. 

21 . —The Emperor Napoleon desires M. 
Ollivier to lay before him the draft of a 
Senatus Consultum “ which shall firmly fix the 
fundamental dispositions deriving from the 
plebiscite of 1852, and which shall divide the 
legislative power between the two Chambers, 
and restore to the nation that portion of con¬ 
stituent power it had delegated to me.” 

— Came on at Tours, before the High 
Court of Justice, the trial of Prince Pierre 
Bonaparte, charged with shooting Victor Noir. 
Fonvielle gave his evidence to-day in a highly 
excited manner, and P. Grousset became so 
violent as to lead to his removal from the 
court. Under interrogation, the Prince ad¬ 
mitted firing the shot, but declared that it was 
impossible for any man of courage to have 
acted otherwise. M. Rochefort and Madame 
Noir were among the witnesses examined. On 
the 27th the jury returned a verdict acquitting 
the Prince. On the part of M. Salmon-Noir 
pere, Maitre Bernheim demanded an indemnity 
of 100,000 francs (4,000/.) for the loss, by the 
Prince’s hand, of his son. The Court, after 
retiring to deliberate, decided that 25,000 
francs (or 1,000/.) should be paid by the Prince 
as an indemnity to Salmon pere and mere, and 
condemned Prince Pierre Bonaparte to the 
expenses of the partie civile. 

22 .—Stormy debate in the Council at Rome, 
Cardinal Schwarzenberg denouncing with great 
fervour the canons which anathematize Protes¬ 
tants and threaten them with everlasting punish¬ 
ment. Bishop Strossmayer also objected to 
Protestantism being described as the source of 
atheism ; and when he touched on the ques¬ 
tion whether the dogmas should be passed by 
a majox-ity of votes, or only, as in former 
Councils, when all the members are unani¬ 
mous, the Council lost all patience. Cries of 
“Hsereticus! hsereticus!” and “Damnamus 
eum ! ” were heard on all sides. One bishop 
exclaimed, “At ego non damno eum,” upon 
which the others repeated, “Damnamus,” and 
(910) 


I shouted to the speaker, “Tu es protestans ! 
taceas ! ab ambone descendas!” Ultimately 
Bishop Strossmayer was compelled to leave the 
tribune without finishing his speech. 

22. —The Peace Preservation (Ireland) Bill 
read a second time by a majority of 425 to 13 
votes. 

23 . —The Burials Bill, opening parish church¬ 
yards for the performance of religious services 
other than those of the Church of England, read 
a second time by a majority of 233 to 122 votes. 

— Earl Russell writes from San Remo to 
Mr. Forster, that “ the prospect of obtaining a 
national unsectarian education, founded on the 
exclusion of all catechisms or formularies, is, in 
the present temper of the nation, so fair a one 
that I think the country may well wait a year 
for the accomplishment of so great a blessing.” 

— Submarine telegraph communication es¬ 
tablished between Bombay, Aden, and Suez. 

— Renewed disturbances at Creuzot, arising 
out of political excitement among the work¬ 
men. 

— A motion made in the Lower House 
of the Austrian Reichsrath, urging increased 
economy in the war estimates, and immediate 
action to promote a general disarmament among 
European Powers, rejected by 64 to 53 votes. 

24 . —The American House of Representa¬ 
tives pass a bill depriving the Mormon poly¬ 
gamists Qf U tah of the rights of citizenship, and 
punishing them by fine and imprisonment. 

— The trial of Messrs. Vanderbyl and 
Fennelly for bribery at the last Bridgewater 
election was commenced before Mr. Justice 
Hannen, at Taunton. The jury found Mr. 
Fennelly guilty, with extenuating circum¬ 
stances, but acquitted Mr. Vanderbyl. Dr. 
Hamilton Kinglake was found guilty of a 
similar offence on the 26th. 

—■ The Irish Church Convention resolve 
that the Primate shall be selected in future by 
the bench of bishops out of their own number : 
the vote standing—clergy, 77 for, 22 against; 
laity, 85 for, 38 against. 

25 . —The 27th clause of the Peace Preserva¬ 
tion Bill, dealing with newspapers encouraging 
or propagating treason and sedition, carried 
in Committee, after an animated discussion, by 
333 to 56 votes. 

— Meeting of the National Education 
League in St. James’s Hall, to consider certain 
objections to the Government Bill, in so far as 
it did not provide education boards for every 
part of the country, the partial and uncertain 
manner in which it made education com¬ 
pulsory, and the extent to which it recognized 
the denominational system.- 

— The Mercurius , from San Francisco for 
Liverpool, wrecked on the Roccas Reef, 
and sixteen of her crew, including the captain, 
drowned in the small boats where they had 
taken refuge. 














MARCH 


1 8*70 


APRIL 


25 . —Alexandra Theatre, Glasgow,destroyed 
by fire. 

26 . —The Peace Preservation Bill read a 
third time in the Commons and passed ; the 
Solicitor-General accepting an amendment on 
Clause 30, excluding the Crown, in the event of 
an action being brought against it for illegal 
seizure, from submitting, in justification, articles 
published before the passing of the Act. 

— At to-day’s sitting of the French Legis¬ 
lative Body, M. Jules Favre’s proposal for the 
abrogation of Article 291 of the Penal Code, 
relative to the right of holding public meetings, 
was referred to a committee with the assent of 
the Government. 

— Lady Lopes, aged 70, burnt to death in 
her own dining-room, East Hill House, Frome. 

— Died, in the 85th year of his age, Mr. 
C. Green, an aeronaut, said to have made 700 
ascents. 

28 . —Discussion on the Irish Land Bill in 
Committee, four of the 340 amendments of 
which notice had been given being disposed of 
in a debate of seven hours’ duration. A pro¬ 
posal for putting all local usages on the footing 
of the Ulster custom, and legalizing them, was 
rejected by 325 to 42 votes. 

— Affray at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, 
caused by the active interference of the officers 
of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals, to stop a debasing exhibition known 
as the “ Grand Spanish Entertainment of Bull 
Fighters.” 

— The Senatus Consultum or “crown of 
the edifice” introduced to the French Senate 
by M. Ollivier, who appealed to the patriotism 
of his hearers to aid the Sovereign in giving 
liberty to their country. “ If the Senate,” he 
said, “loses a great part of its constituent power, 
on the other hand it acquires by its new 
legislative attributes a field of activity better 
calculated to utilize the knowledge and ex¬ 
perience of its members.” By the first article 
of the Senatus Consultum it was declared that 
“the Senate shares the legislative power with 
the Emperor and the Legislative Body, and 
possesses the right of initiating laws.” Never¬ 
theless, all bills for the taxation of the country 
must be first voted by the Legislative Body. 

29 . —The Peace Preservation Bill read a 
second time in the House of Lords, after a 
short debate. 

_Mr. Newdegate’s motion for the appoint¬ 
ment of a select committee to inquire into the 
existence, character, and increase of conven¬ 
tual establishments in Great Britain, and into 
the terms upon which their property was held, 
carried by 131 to 129 votes. 

_ In the course of a discussion on M. 

Picard’s resolution for questioning the Ministry 
as to the constituent power, M. Ollivier asked 
that as a mark of confidence, the debate on the 
subject be adjourned; if this should be refused, 
he (M. Ollivier) must decline to continue to 


hold office. M. Picard insisted on his motion, 
and, after a scene of great tumult, the Chamber 
voted the close of the debate by 184 against 
64, and then passed a resolution, by 147 votes 
against 76, adjourning the interpellation. 

29 . —Died, Dr. Carl Friedrich Neumann, 
German historian and Orientalist. 

30 . —The Archbishop of Syra and Tenos 
leaves Folkestone for Boulogne. 

— The American House of Representatives 
adopt the Senate Bill for admitting Texas into 
the Union. Negro suffrage ratified to-day. 

— First meeting (presided over by the Earl 
of Derbyl of the Society for Organizing Chari¬ 
table Relief and Repressing Mendicity. 

— The new Bavarian Minister, Count Bray, 
made a declaration of his policy for preserving 
the independence of the kingdom. “Our 
situation (he said) is unassailable. Every 
attack, every threat made in earnest, will 
occasion complications to which not even the 
greatest Powers would expose themselves. I 
promise an open, honest, loyal policy. No 
secret treaties, no secret engagements, no poli¬ 
tical secrets exist. We will be Germans, but 
at the same time Bavarians.” 

31 . —The Committee of Privileges pro¬ 
nounce judgment in the Wicklow Peerage 
case, that Mrs. Howard had altogether failed 
to establish a claim on behalf of her alleged 
child ; and that the original claimant, Charles 
Francis Arnold Howard, had made out his right 
to vote as at the election of representative peers 
for Ireland. 

— Conference at the Society of Arts to dis¬ 
cuss the question of the relation of the State 
to Science, and the necessity for official inquiry 
into the subject by Royal Commission. 

— The House of Commons, on the sug¬ 
gestion of Mr. Gladstone, consent to his proposal 
for morning sittings, for the purpose of disposing 
of the Irish Land Bill and certain other mea¬ 
sures now blocking up the way of public busi¬ 
ness. 

— Announcement made at the opening of the 
Portuguese Parliament that a proposal would 
be submitted to the Chambers for establishing 
Ministerial responsibility. 

_The first part of the Constitutio de Fide 

carried in the Roman Council by 650 to 26 
votes. 

— Died at St. James’s Palace, aged 66, 
General the Hon. Charles Grey, private secre¬ 
tary to the Queen and Joint Keeper of the 
Privy Purse. 

April 1 .—After an animated debate in the 
North German Parliament, Count Bismarck 
secures a vote in favour of the payment of 
30,840 thalers by Prussia, as remuneration for 
the special services rendered by the diplomatic 
agents of the Bund. 

— Lawrence and Margaret Lynch, brother 
and sister, sentenced to death at Tullamore for 

(91O 








APRIL 


1870. 


APRIL 


the murder ot a man named Dunne at Philips- 
town. They were executed on the 27th May. 

2 . —Railway between Calcutta and Bombay 
opened for through traffic. 

— In the case of the Norwich bribery 
prosecution the jury returned a verdict acquit¬ 
ting Mr. Edward Stracey. 

— The India financial statement prepared 
by Sir Richard Temple gives the estimated 
receipts for 1870-71 at 52,327,755/., and the 
expenditure at 52,164,315/. The army ex¬ 
penditure showed a reduction of 734,551/. as 
compared with the bygone year. 

4 . —Mr. Disraeli’s amendment on the 3d 
clause of the Irish Land Bill, limiting the com¬ 
pensation to cases where it was claimed for un¬ 
exhausted improvements, or on account of inter¬ 
ruption in the course of husbandry, rejected in 
Committee by 296 to 220 votes. Next night 
Government carried an amendment establishing 
the right of an evicted tenant to compensation 
“ for the loss which the court shall find to have 
been sustained by him in quitting his holding.” 

— Meeting at the Society of Arts to organize 
the educational division of the Annual Inter¬ 
national Exhibitions commencing in 1871. The 
Prince of Wales presided, and made a speech 
expressing approval of the design and his will¬ 
ingness to assist in carrying out the wishes of 
the Society’s committee. 

— M. Renan restored to his chair of 
Oriental Languages in the College de France 
after a suspension of eight years. 

— M. Ollivier announces that in conse¬ 
quence of the proposed reforms affecting the 
essential basis of the plebiscitum of 1851, the 
Emperor had determined to submit the Senatus 
Consultum to the approval of the people. This 
resolution was opposed by M. Jules Favre and 
other Republican deputies; but on a division 
next day Ministers were found to have a ma¬ 
jority of 227 to 43 votes. 

5 . —The Governors of Christ’s Hospital meet 
for the consideration of a scheme submitted by 
the Committee of Almoners for the reconstruc¬ 
tion of the charity and the removal of the 
hospital to the country. Rejected. 

— Mr. P. A. Taylor’s motion for leave to 
introduce a bill “ to restore the ancient con¬ 
stitutional practice of payment of members ” 
rejected by 211 to 24 votes. 

6 . —Dr. Newman, writing to Dr. Ullathome 
on the Infallibility dogma, asks: “ What have 
we done to be treated as the faithful never 
were treated before? When has a definition 
de fide been a luxury of devotion and not a stem 
painful necessity? Why should an aggressive 
insolent faction be allowed to ‘ make the heart 
of the just sad, whom the Lord hath not made 
sorrowful?’ Why cannot we be let alone when 
we have pursued peace and thought no evil?... 
If it is God’s will that the Pope’s infallibility is 
defined, then is it God’s will to throw back 
‘ the times and the moments ’ of that triumph 
which He has destined for His kingdom, and I 

(912) 


shall feel I have but to bow my head to His 
adorable, inscrutable Providence.” 

7 . —In Committee on the Irish Land Bill, the 
1 imit above which contracts were to be left free 
was reduced from 100/. to 50/. Words were 
also to be inserted in the Equities Clause 
directing the judge to take into consideration 
the nature and duration of any lease under 
which a tenant claiming compensation might 
have held, so that while a lease for thirty-one 
years was to be regarded as the “unit of 
stability,” every shorter term would count as a 
fractional stability, and reduce the compensation 
in proportion. The Equities Clause was to be 
expounded in the sense of an amendment of 
which notice had been given by Sir Roundell 
Palmer. By the interpretation thus affixed to 
it, a tender of a thirty-one years’ lease by the 
landlord, though not operating, as it was at first 
intended it should, as an absolute bar to the 
tenant’s claim for compensation, was to be given 
its due weight by the court; and if the tenant’s 
refusal of it turned out to be justified by no 
peculiarity in its terms, the judge was to account 
such refusal “unreasonable conduct,” and either 
reduce the damages or give none at all. 

— Longford election declared void on the 
ground of general corrupt dealing. 

— MM. Ollivier and Jules Janin elected 
to the vacant chairs in the French Academy. 

— The Grand Duke of Baden, in closing his 
Parliament, expressed his conviction that the 
treaties recently concluded with the Northern 
Bund showed a satisfactory progress in the 
union of German-speaking people. 

8 . — Meeting of the Education Union in St. 
James’s Hall, to counteract League efforts by 
supporting “ liberty of teaching.” 

9 . — Owing to a difference of opinion on the 
plebiscite, MM. Daru and Buffet withdraw 
from the Ollivier Cabinet. 

— Glamorgan Inn, Cardiff, burnt, and five 
of the inmates suffocated. 

10. —Austria addresses a note to the Pope 
expressing her concurrence with France as to the 
mischievous results likely to follow from the 
declaration of the Infallibility dogma. 

— A religious service in Mr. Martineau’s 
chapel, Little Portland Street, conducted by 
Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, a leader of the 
Brahmo Somaj, a society of Hindoo Reformers 
who had renounced caste and idol worship, 
without embracing Christianity. Baboo Sen 
was afterwards entertained in the Hanover- 
square Rooms, and delivered various addresses 
throughout England and Scotland. 

11 . —Seizure and murder of English travel¬ 
lers by Greek brigands. A party consisting of 
Lord and Lady Muncaster, Edward Lloyd, 
barrister, Mrs. Lloyd and child, Frederick 
Grantham Vyner, Edward Herbert, secretary 
to the British Legation, and Count Albert de 
Bovl, secretary to the Italian Legation, accom¬ 
panied by various servants, an interpreter, and 





APRIL 


1870. 


APRIL 


an armed escort supplied by the Minister of 
War, visited Marathon to-day, and had reached 
Raphini on their return to Athens, when they 
were stopped and overpowered by a party of 
brigands acting under the orders of the brothers 
Arvanitaki. The ladies of the party were 
somewhat roughly used at first, and hurried off 
with their friends towards the country lying be¬ 
tween Pentelicius and Mount Parnasse; but 
before nightfall they were released and per¬ 
mitted to continue their journey. On the 13th 
Lord Muncaster was allowed to proceed to 
Athens for the purpose of securing the consent 
of the Greek Government to the terms of 
release submitted by the brigands. They de¬ 
manded 32,000/. in money, a free pardon to 
themselves for present and past outrages, 
and the liberation of certain brigands then 
in custody. Thinking lightly of the threat to 
murder the captives if pursuit were attempted, 
and probably desirous of avoiding payment of 
the ransom demanded, the Greek Government, 
in the face of distinct promises to the contrary, 
despatched a body of troops to shoot or secure 
the brigands and in that way liberate the travel¬ 
lers. The British Minister at Athens, Mr. 
Erskine, anticipating the sanction afterwards 
obtained from Lord Clarendon, put himself into 
communication with members of the Greek 
Government, and laboured with untiring energy 
to procure the release of the captives even on 
the terms proposed by the brigands. The 
chief difficulty was connected with the amnesty, 
which the King could only grant for political 
offences. On the evening of the 14th, Arvani¬ 
taki was visited by persons from Athens, thought 
to be connected with leading members of the 
Opposition, to persuade the brigands to insist 
upon unconditional amnesty, with the view if 
possible of compelling the Government to con¬ 
voke an extraordinary session, and thus afford 
a favourable opportunity of driving the Ministry 
from power. Enraged at the active proceedings 
taken to procure their capture, the brigands 
carried the unfortunate travellers further into 
the interior, and after being subjected for 
several days to the most distressing anxiety as 
1o their fate, the whole of the captives remain¬ 
ing in their hands, four in number, were mur¬ 
dered in cold blood by their relentless captors. 
Under pressure of an imminent attack by the 
troops, Mr. Herbert and Count de Boyl were 
shot near Dhihissi, on the afternoon of the 21st, 
and Mr. Vyner and Mr. Lloyd at Skimatari 
on the 22nd. Besides the gunshot wounds, 
presumably the cause of death, several of the 
bodies presented the appearance of having been 
stabbed by some person standing behind. 
From the day of capture to their sad end, the 
party sustained each other with cheerful resigna¬ 
tion and true manliness. On the 15th Mr. 
Lloyd recorded in a memorandum book re¬ 
covered after his death Friday, 8 a.m. to 
7.30 p.m. Very fine day, and view of Mount 
Delphi in Euboea covered with snow. Left at 
8 A.M. Seven brigands, self on mule, Herbert 
a p.d De Boyl on white horses, Dormouse on 
( 913 ) 


brown without saddle. Baggage horse. Other 
brigands to follow. Pass wood of Tatoe, defile. 
Magnificent view over Athens, W. ; Euboea, 
E. Halt almost in sight of guard-house to 
breakfast. By Pass of Deceleia, 3,000 feet 
above sea. Guard-house. Fraternize with four 
soldiers. Alarm on descending to plain. Alex¬ 
ander sent on with Erskine’s toe (?) to troops 
seen below. Peace. Officer lunches with us and 
brigands. Across plain and through fine wooded 
country. Marcopoulos. Received by Demarch, 
and general fraternization with Albanian inhabi¬ 
tants. Fresh eggs. Reached village of Wallack 
shepherds. ” The pursuit of the gang was per¬ 
severed in till the greater portion were shot or 
secured, preparatory to being sent to Athens for 
trial and execution. 

11.—A convict named Rutterford sentenced to 
be executed to-day at Bury St. Edmunds, for 
the murder of a gamekeeper employed by the 
Maharajah Dhuleep Singh on his estate at Fris- 
well, receives a respite, a malformation in his 
neck making it doubtful whether the extreme 
sentence of the law could be carried out except 
under circumstances peculiarly revolting. 

— Mr. Lowe introduces the annual Budget. 
For the year 1869-70, the receipts had been 
75,334, oo °/., and the expenditure 67,505,000/. 
From the surplus of 7,869,000/., there had been 
paid 4,300,000/. on account of the Abyssinian 
war; 1,000,000/. Exchequer Bonds, and 

134,000/. Exchequer Bills. The cost of the 
telegraphs—6,750,000/. in all—had been de¬ 
frayed out of 7,000,000/. of Consols created for 
the purpose, of which 4,000,000/. had been 
taken by the National Debt Commissioners, 
and the rest disposed of in the market, almost 
without attracting any attention. Debt to the 
amount of 7,884,000/. had been paid off, and 
the Act authorizing the appropriation of a 
certain amount of the surplus to the liquidation 
of the debt would be carried out during the 
year. For 1870-71, the estimated income was 
71,450,000/., and the expenditure 67,113,000/. 
With the surplus of 4,337,000/. , Mr. Lowe pro¬ 
posed to reduce the sugar duties one half, ab¬ 
sorbing 2,350,000/. ; to reduce the income tax 
one penny, 1,250,000/.; and to abolish hawkers’ 
licences, hail and cattle insurance, impressed 
newspaper stamp, and railway tax. He also 
proposed to increase the surplus to the extent of 
150,000/. by substituting for the present game 
certificate a licence of 1 1 . from each person 
carrying a gun. The Budget was favourably 
received, its chief merit being considered to be 
the application of the just principle of making 
all members of the community contribute to the 
support of common burdens. 

12 .—In the General Congregation of the 
CEcumenical Council the voting on the remain¬ 
ing amendments to the Schema de P'ide termi¬ 
nates. Subsequently the entire text of the Con- 
j titutio de Fide was put to the vote, when 515 
| bishops unreservedly, and 83 conditionally, 
voted for the measure as it stands, making alto¬ 
gether 593 ayes. No contrary vote was given. 







APRIL 


18^0. 


APRIL 


15 . —Good Friday services celebrated in the 
streets of East London by Ritualist clergymen. 

— General Wimpffen commences a series of j 
successful attacks against the insurgent tribes on i 
the French frontiers of Morocco. 

17 . — Died suddenly, in Upper Styria, aged j 
72, the Duchess de Berri, mother of the Count j 
de Chambord. 

— Died, aged 67, J. C. Colquhoun, of Kil- 
lermont, chairman of the Church Association. 

— Died at Cimies, near Nice, aged 34, W. j 
J. Prowse, journalist. 

— Child murder in Glasgow, a little girl j 
named Burns, aged five years, being subjected ; 
to a shocking outrage and left dying on a stair 
in Stockwell-street. No clue to the murder 
was ever obtained. 

18 . —Mallow election declared void. Corrupt 
intentions were said to have been indicated in 
the constituency, but had not been carried out 
to any considerable extent. 

19 . —The Council of Edinburgh University 
reject Professor Masson’s proposal to admit 
ladies to the medical classes, by a majority of 
58 to 47 votes. 

20 . —In the Court of Queen’s Bench Sir 
J. Karslake obtains a rule nisi calling upon the 
printer and publisher of the Sheffield Daily 
Telegraph to show cause why a criminal informa¬ 
tion should not be filed against him for a para¬ 
graph which appeared in his publication on the 
4th inst. to the effect that a petition had been filed 
in the Divorce Court by the Earl of Sefton, 
and that his Royal Highness the Prince of 
Wales was to appear again as a co-respondent. 
Counsel made this application on behalf of the 
Earl and Countess of Sefton, and said that he 
had been instructed, not only on their behalf, 
but likewise on behalf of the Prince of Wales, 
to state that there was not the slightest possible 
foundation for the statement in question. 

— Died suddenly, G. H. Moore, M.P. for 
Mayo, and a zealous advocate of the cause of 
“ native government ” for Ireland. 

— Boiler explosion at Warrington, causing 
the death of five men. 

23 . —An Imperial decree published con¬ 
voking the French nation for the 8th of May 
in their comitia to accept or reject the following 
plebiscite : “The people approve the liberal 
reforms effected in the Constitution since i860 
by the Emperor, with the co-operation of the 
great bodies of the State, and ratify the 
Senatus Consultumof the 20th of April, 1870.” 

24 . —Imperial proclamation circulated in 
France in support of the plebiscitum. “ By 
balloting affirmatively you will conjure down 
the threats of revolution, you will seat order 
and liberty on a solid basis, and you will render 
easier for the future the transmission of the 
crown to my son. Eighteen years ago you 
were almost unanimous in conferring the most 
extensive powers upon me. Be now, too, as 
numerous in giving your adhesion to the trans- , 

( 914 ) 


formation of the Imperial regime. A great 
nation cannot attain to its complete develop¬ 
ment without leaning for support upon institu¬ 
tions which are a guarantee both for stability 
and progress. To the request which I address 
to you. to ratify the liberal reforms that have 
been realized during the last ten years, answer 
* Yes ! ’ As to myself, faithful to my origin, 
I shall imbue myself with your thoughts, fortify 
myself in your will, and, trusting to Providence, 
I shall not cease to labour without intermission 
for the prosperity and greatness of France.” 

25 . —Musurus Pasha, the Turkish Ambassa¬ 
dor, forwards to Lord Clarendon a protest on 
the part of the Turkish Government against 
the Khedive of Egypt making any financial 
arrangement which had not been previously 
authorized by the Sultan, and which would 
affect directly and indirectly the revenues of 
Egypt, “or be prejudicial to the rights which 
the public treasury of the province of Egypt 
has over the private fortune of his Highness 
on account of the management of the finances 
of that province.” 

— Died, aged 59, Daniel Maclise, elected a 
Royal Academician in 1841. 

26 . — At the adjourned meeting of the 
governors of Christ’s Hospital, the motion 
that the removal of the hospital was inex¬ 
pedient was carried by 71 votes against 57. 

27 . —By 184 to 114 votes, Mr. Chambers 
carries his resolution for going into Committee 
on the bill to legalize marriage with a deceased 
wife’s sister. 

*— The screw steamer Ganges leaves the 
Victoria Dock with 761 emigrants on board, 
sent out by the united efforts of the East-end 
Emigration Club and the British and Colonial 
Emigration Fund. 

— Fire at Broadclyst, near Exeter, destroy¬ 
ing the greater portion of the village, and 
rendering the inhabitants almost destitute. 

— Fall of the building occupied by the 
Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, 
causing the death of fifty-nine people and in¬ 
juries to about two hundred, crowding to hear 
a case of local interest. 

23 .—In the House of Lords the Earl of 
Clarendon details the negotiations he had been 
concerned in, along with Mr. Erskine, for 
procuring the release of the captives murdered 
by Greek brigands. Regarding the offer made 
at the request of the Greek Government to 
convey the captors to a place of safety in a 
British ship if necessary, the Foreign Minister 
said : “I could not consult any of my colleagues 
because they were all absent. I felt that the 
delay of even an hour might be fatal. (Hear, 
hear.) I did not therefore hesitate to take the 
responsibility. I know that my colleagues will 
generously share the responsibility with me, but 
I wish it to be understood that the course I 
took had its origin in peculiar circumstances, 
and that I alone am primarily responsible. If 






APRIL 


MA V 


1870. 


I did wrong, the urgent and peculiar circum¬ 
stances of the case may be pleaded as my 
excuse. I do not regret what I have done. 
When I consider that the lives of some of our 
countrymen were at stake, and bear in mind 
the grief and anxiety of their afflicted relatives, 

I should never have forgiven myself if the 
blame and the responsibility had been in ever 
so slight or indirect a manner attributable to 
my want of courage to undertake the responsi¬ 
bility of the course I have pursued.” The Earl 
of Carnarvon (cousin to Mr. Herbert) spoke 
with deep emotion regarding the responsibility 
of the Greek Government for the cruel crime 
committed. “ I myself, looking into the facts 
so far as they are stated in the papers, cannot 
but feel that these lives have been sacrificed 
either to criminal mismanagement or to some 
low party intrigue. But, on the other hand, | 
though they did not in their acts show mercy to 
us, I wish to deal justly by them. I cannot 
suspend my judgment, but I wish to suspend 
the expression of the judgment until the whole 
case in all its bearings is laid before Parlia¬ 
ment.” 

28 . —Died, aged 71, M. Marie, a prominent 
French statesman and President of the Re¬ 
publican Assembly of 1848. 

29 . —Attempt made to shoot Mr. Charles 
Buxton, M.P., in his own house, by a young 
man, named White, employed as his secretary. 

30 . —Arrests at Paris, in connexion with a 
plot said to exist for shooting the Emperor. 

A deserter named Beaury, seized in the Rue des 
Moulins, declared: “On January 10, having 
heard of Victor Noir’s death, and thinking 
there would be a disturbance, I did not return 
to barracks at night. I took part in the 
funeral of Victor Noir, and then, fearing to 
compromise myself, I passed into Belgium. I 
afterwards went to London with Fayolle, who 
had also deserted. We there found Flourens, 
and I entered into close relations with him. I 
spoke to him of my project of attempting the 
Emperor’s life, and he encouraged me in my 
resolution. I returned to Paris, where I cor¬ 
responded with Flourens. I received three 
letters from him. I destroyed the first two ; 
the third is that which was found upon me, and 
signed ‘ Gustave.’ I have had communications 
at Paris with Ballot, a friend of Flourens, who 
had charged him to supply me with money. 
On one occasion I received 40of. ; on a second, 
occasion, just before I was arrested, ioof. It 
was my intention to dress myself as a soldier, 
that I might the more easily approach the 
Emperor, and then use my revolver. ” 

May 2.—Dr. Ball’s motion in Committee on 
the Land Bill,exempting landlords from liability 
for damages if they gave a lease for twenty-one 
years, instead of thirty-one as proposed by 
Government, rejected on a division by 290 to 
209 votes. 

— In consequence of the strong opposition 
by Roman Catholics, Mr. Newdegate’s motion 
( 915 ) 


for a Convent Committee is discharged by 270 
to 160 votes, and another submitted by Mr. 
Gladstone carried, to inquire simply into the 
state of the law relating to monastic institutions 
and the terms on which they held their property. 
Mr. Newdegate afterwards complained that in 
the course of the debate he had been subjected 
to opposition of an unusual character, and even 
threatened with personal violence. 

2 . —Mr. Disraeli surprises his friends and 
critics by the publication of a new novel—“ Lo- 
thair.” 

— The proprietor of the Liverpool Porcupine 
sentenced in the Court of Queen’s Bench to 
imprisonment as a first-class misdemeanant in 
Kirkdale gaol for one month, for a libel on Mr. 
Fernie, shipowner, accused of wilfully causing 
the sinking of one of his vessels for the sake of 
the insurance. 

— In the American House of Represen¬ 
tatives a motion for the immediate settle^ 
ment of the Alabama and other kindred claims 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs. 

3. —Mr. Hughes’s motion for an address to the 
Crown praying for the omission from the new 
statutes for Shrewsbury, Winchester, Harrow, 
Charterhouse, and Rugby, of the words which 
make membership of the Church of England a 
qualification for the governing bodies, super¬ 
seded by a resolution moved by Mr. Glad¬ 
stone leaving it to the discretion of Government 
to ascertain whether any of these five schools 
would come under the exceptions of the 
Endowed Schools Act in favour of denomina¬ 
tional schools. 

— A motion in the House of Commons for 
a select committee to inquire into the operation 
of the commercial treaty with France negatived 
by 138 votes to 50. 

— The Lords Committee of Privileges decide 
that Cunningham Borthwick had established 
his claim to the dignity of Lord Borthwick, in 
the peerage of Scotland. 

— The Upper House of Convocation adopt 
the following resolutions on the subject of re¬ 
vising the present version of the text of Holy 
Scripture :—(1) That it is desirable that a 
revision of the Authorized Version of the Holy 
Scriptures be undertaken. (2) That the revi¬ 
sion be so conducted as to comprise both 
marginal readings and such emendations as it 
may be found necessary to insert in the text of 
the Authorized Version. (3) That in the above 
resolutions we do not contemplate any new 
translation of the Bible, or any alteration of 
the language, except where in the judgment ot 
the most competent scholars such change is 
necessary. (4) That in such necessary changes 
the style of the language employed in the exist¬ 
ing version be closely followed. (5) That it 
is desirable that Convocation should nominate 
a body of its own members to undertake the 
work of revision, who shall be at liberty to in¬ 
vite the co-operation of any persons eminent 

3 N 2 













AT A y 


MAY 


1870. 


for scholarship, to whatever nation or religious 
body they may belong. Resolutions similar in 
substance were afterwards concurred in by the 
Lower House. 

3 .—The General Congregation of the Roman 
Council, after voting the amendments, pro¬ 
ceeded to the general vote on the ‘ ‘ Schema 
de Parvo Catechismo.” One-tenth of the bi¬ 
shops replied by a non placet. These votes were 
given by German and Hungarian bishops who 
wish to preserve the Catechism in its present 
state. 

— News from Sydney to March 20, and 
Auckland to April 4, arrives to-day, for the 
first time, by the new Pacific route. 

— Died, aged 57, Richard Tattersall, senior 
partner and great grandson of the founder of 
the racing mart at “The Corner,” now of 
Knightsbridge. 

— This being the anniversary of the Polish 
Constitution of 1791, Prince Czartoryski de¬ 
livered an address to the Polish Historical 
Society in Paris. Though still suffering from 
Russian oppression, Poland, he said, had be¬ 
come convinced of the futility of appealing to 
foreign sympathy against her enemies, and had 
determined to link her destinies with those of 
her “ natural ally,” Austria. She hoped, in 
some distant future, to form part of a Con¬ 
federation which would extend from the Baltic 
to the Black Sea, and embrace Austria, Hun¬ 
gary, Servia, and Roumania; but meanwhile 
all her efforts would be directed to strengthen¬ 
ing and consolidating the Austro-Hungarian 
Empire. 

4 -.—After several divisions the Lower House 
of Convocation resolve to concur with the 
Bishops in praying that the Queen would give 
her sanction to the new Table of Lessons. 

— Mr. Jacob Bright’s bill for giving the 
parliamentary franchise to women read a second 
time, by a majority of 124 to 91 votes. The 
measure was afterwards opposed by Govern¬ 
ment, and thrown out on the 12th. 

5 .—Demetrio Pappa, formerly manager of 
the Oriental Commercial Bank, sentenced at 
the Central Criminal Court to penal servitude 
for five years, for embezzling and stealing a 
cheque belonging to the bank. Exclusive of a 
debt of 6,000/., his defalcations were thought 
to amount to 10,000/. 

— Commenced at Bow-street Police-court the 
examination into charges made against Ernest 
Boulton and Frederick William Park, of per¬ 
sonating women and frequenting places of public 
resort in female apparel for improper purposes. 
In the early stages of the examination it did not 
appear that the prisoners had been guilty of any 
more heinous offence than indiscretion, but as 
the case proceeded, Mr. Poland (instructed by 
the Solicitor to the Treasury) submitted evi¬ 
dence tending to show that the readiness and 
completeness with which the prisoners could 
personate female characters in private theatri¬ 
cals had gradually exceeded the bounds of pro- 
(916) 


priety and given occasion for scandal against 
them of the gravest description. In the letters 
produced, reference was made to the fact that 
Boulton was “living in drag.” This was ex¬ 
plained to be a slang phrase for dressing in 
women’s clothes. After many hearings the case 
was sent for trial to the Central Criminal Court 
There the grand jury found true bills on three 
indictments for felony against Arthur Pelham 
Clinton (commonly called Lord Arthur Pelham 
Clinton), Frederick William Park, and Ernest 
Boulton ; true bills for misdemeanour against 
the same three persons, and also against Louis 
Charles Hurt, William Sommerville, Martin 
Luther Cumming, John Safiford Fisk, and C. 

H. Thomas; and also true bills for misde¬ 
meanour against Lord Arthur Pelham Clinton, 
Martin Luther Cumming, Ernest Boulton, Fre¬ 
derick William Park, and C. H. Thomas. The 
last-named misdemeanour was the conspiring 
to disguise themselves as women, and fre¬ 
quenting public places so disguised for an un¬ 
lawful purpose. The Crown afterwards with¬ 
drew the charge of felony, and on July 6 the 
Lord Chief Justice sitting at Guildhall granted 
a writ of certiorari removing the trial of the 
indictments to the Court of Queen’s Bench. 
It was also arranged that bail should be ac¬ 
cepted for the prisoners. 

6 . —Collision off the Yorkshire coast this 
evening, between the Jesmond, , in ballast for the 
Tyne, and the Earl of Elgin y laden with coal 
for Bordeaux. The latter sank almost imme¬ 
diately with eight of her crew; twelve, includ¬ 
ing the captain, were saved by life-buoys and 
boats from the Jesmond. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 59, Sir James 
Y. Simpson, Bart., Professor of Midwifery in 
the University of Edinburgh, and widely cele¬ 
brated for his successful application of chloro¬ 
form in surgical operations. 

7 . —First annual meeting of the Protestant 
Deaconesses’ Institute and Training Hospital, 
a Dissenting sisterhood recently established at 
Tottenham, held under the presidency of Mr. 
Morley, M.P. During the first year thirty-five 
ladies had gone out as nursing sisters to attend 
patients, and 304 patients had been received 
into the institution. 

—- Died, aged 80, M. Villemain, secretary to 
the French Academy. 

— Prince Louis of Arenberg, military at¬ 
tache at the Austrian Legation, St. Petersburg, 
assassinated in his bedroom by thieves who had 
obtained an entry into the house. 

8 . —The result of the plebiscitum in France, 
including the Algerine vote, shows 7,336,434 
ayes against 1,560,709 noes. The depart¬ 
ments of France voted 7,016,227 ayes, 

I, 495,144 noes; the home army, 249,492 
ayes, 40,181 noes; the navy, 23,759 ayes, 
5,874 noes ; the civil population of Algeria, 
10,791 ayes, 13,481 noes ; the army of Algeria, 
36,165 ayes, 6,029 noes. 






MAY 


i ~ 70 . 


MAY 


8 . —Died at Chester, aged 78, the Marquis 
of Cholmondeley, Joint Hereditary Great Cham¬ 
berlain of England. 

9 . —The Marquis of Hartington introduces 
the Government measure for amending the law 
relating to the procedure at parliamentary elec¬ 
tions. The bill provided for the adoption of 
the ballot in voting, and the substitution of the 
present nomination system by presenting a list 
of candidates to the returning officer some days 
prior to the date fixed for the election. 

10. — Judgment given in the Bridgwater and 
Norwich bribery cases. The Lord Chief Justice 
sentenced Fenm lly to be imprisoned as a first- 
class misdemeanant for a period of twelve 
months, and pay a fine of 1,000/., and Dr. 
Kinglake to a fine of 200/. Mr. Justice Black¬ 
burn condemned Hardiment to undergo ten 
months’ imprisonment and pay a fine of 100/.; 
and Hulme to a fine of 100/. without imprison¬ 
ment, on account of his health. 

11 . —Discovery of a double murder in Chelsea. 
Acting under instructions received from Walter 
Miller, plasterer, a van proprietor named Piper 
attended this evening at the residence of the 
Rev. Mr. Huelin, 15, Paulton-square, for the 
purpose of removing a box said to contain a 
variety of goods. He was admitted by an 
elderly woman and conducted to the kitchen, 
where the box had been placed. On seeking 
to tighten the cord, Piper discovered blood 
oozing through the bottom, and, in opposition 
to Miller, commenced to make a minute exami¬ 
nation. Miller then left the apartment and 
made an attempt to poison himself. The box 
was found to contain the body of a female 
afterwards identified as that of Mrs. Ann Boss, 
housekeeper to Mr. Heulin. On Miller being 
given into custody, a portion of his clothing was 
identified as having belonged to Mr. Huelin, 
and in his custody were several deeds relating 
to property possessed by that gentleman. During 
the repairs of the premises in Paulton-square 
Mr. Huelin, with his housekeeper, occupied 
another of his houses in Wellington-square, 
and here, in the course of the following day, 
his body was discovered buried beneath the 
pavement of one of the closets. As in Mrs. 
Boss’s case, there was a cord tied round the 
neck, but in this instance death appeared to have 
been inflicted with a common spade. Both 
the murdered people were known to have called 
at the house in Paulton-square for the purpose 
of paying tradesmen employed there. Miller 
said to a neighbour, “ Jem, he’s got a nice 
little lump. I should like to get him down 
stairs and settle him and get what he’s got. I’d 
then cut to America.” Of Mrs. Boss, “ Jem, 
she’s got a tidy lot, hasn’t she ? I should like to 
get it and go to America.” After the murder 
Miller disguised himself for the purpose of 
diverting suspicion, but it was ascertained in a 
few days that he had been going between the 
houses, and was the person who had represented 
himself as Mr. Huelin’s nephew, and had en¬ 
gaged a charwoman and her daughter to look 


after the premises. Miller was tried for the 
murder, found guilty, and executed August 1. 

11 . —The Queen, accompanied by the Prince 
and Princess of Wales, formally opens the new 
buildings erected for the University of London 
in Burlington Gardens. An Address presented 
on the occasion made reference to the fact that 
it was in the year of her Majesty’s accession to 
the throne that the University began its labours 
‘ ‘ for the encouragement of a regular and liberal 
course of education among all denominations of 
the subjects of the Crown,” and offered dutiful 
thanks for consenting to open a building granted 
by Parliament and fully satisfying all the require¬ 
ments of the University. 

— Mr. Cross’s Benefices Bill, for prohibiting 
the sale of next presentations, read a second 
time. 

— State concert given by her Majesty at 
Buckingham Palace. 

12 . —Died, Count Stackelberg, Russian Am¬ 
bassador at Paris, and a prominent diplomatist 
at the Court of the Emperor Nicholas. 

13 . —After an explanation from Mr. Goschen, 
Dr. Brewer withdraws his motion for placing 
vagrants applying for food or shelter under the 
protection and regulation of the police. 

— Mr. Cowper-Temple’s motion, that Mr 
Barry’s abrupt dismissal from the superintend¬ 
ence of works at the Houses of Parliament was 
uncalled for and of doubtful expediency, re¬ 
jected by 152 to 109 votes. The Chief Com¬ 
missioner (Mr. Ayrton) denied that Mr. Barry ever 
had a regular appointment ; and in order to 
thwart the Royal Institute or “combination 
of architects,” no one would be employed in 
future unless he signed a paper agreeing to the 
terms laid down by the Board of Works. 

— Died at Hodnet Hall, aged 81, the 
Countess Valsamachi, wife of Bishop Heber, 
and niece of Sir William Jones. 

14.. —Earl De Grey and Ripon installed as 
Grand Master of the Freemasons of England, 
and a testimonial presented to Lord Zetland, 
the retiring Grand Master. 

— The Roman Council commence the dis¬ 
cussion of the Infallibility dogma contained in 
the five following canons :—(1) If any one 
should say that the episcopal chair of the 
Roman Church is not the true and real infallible 
chair of Blessed Peter, or that it has not been 
divinely chosen by God as the most solid, 
indefectible, and incorruptible rock of the whole 
Christian Church, let him be anathema. (2) 
If any one should say that there exists in the 
world another infallible chair of the truth of the 
Gospel of Christ our Lord, distinct and separate 
from the chair of Blessed Peter, let him be 
anathema. (3) If any one should deny that 
the divine magisterturn of the chair of Blessed 
Peter is necessary to the true way of eternal 
salvation for all men, whether unfaithful or 
faithful, whether laymen or bishops, let him be 
anathema. (4) If any one should say that 

( 9 * 7 ) 






MA y 


MAY 


18;o. 


each Roman Pontiff, legitimately elected, is not 
by divine right the successor of Blessed Peter, 
even in the gift of the infallibility of magis- 
terium , and should deny to any one of them 
the prerogative of infallibility for teaching the 
Church the Word of God pure from all corup- 
tion and error, let him be anathema. (5) If 
any one should say that general councils are 
established by God in the Church as a power of 
feeding the divine flock in the word of faith 
superior to the Roman Pontiff, or equal to him, 
or necessary by divine institution in order that 
the magisterium of the Roman Bishop should 
be preserved infallible, let him be anathema. 

14.. —New banqueting hall, Inner Temple, 
opened by the Princess Louise, as representing 
the Queen. 

16 . —Carried in Committee, by a majority of 
114 to 27, Clause 41 of the Irish Land Bill, 
providing for an advance of two-thirds in value 
to tenants for the purchase of holdings, repay¬ 
able by an annuity of 5 per cent, for thirty-five 
years. 

— H.M.’s gunboat Slaney wrecked in the 
Indian Ocean, off Parcel’s group, in a gale. 
Commander Elwyn, Lieutenant Evatt, Mr. 
Ryall the surgeon, and forty-three men were 
drowned. 

— The Due de Gramont appointed French 
Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

17 . —Bishop Wilberforce’s Sequestration of 
Benefices Bill, providing that uncertificated bank¬ 
rupt clergymen should, at the discretion of their 
bishop, forfeit the temporalities of their livings, 
read a second time. Lord Cairns and Lord 
Westbury opposed the measure, the latter in the 
course of his remarks describing their lordships 
as ‘ * only by courtesy called learned. ” 

— D’Arcy Irving, said for many weeks to 
have been the victim of Fenian espionage, 
apprehended in Enniskillen. He was after¬ 
wards found to be insane. 

—- The third of three international races won 
by the American yacht, Sappho. 

— The Prussians begin to occupy the Rhe¬ 
nish provinces. 

18 . —Mr. Gurney’sMarriedWomen’sProperty 
Bill read a second time, and Mr. Jacob Bright’s 
thrown out by a majority of 208 to 46. 

— In a discussion on the second reading of 
the Municipal Boroughs Bill, providing for the 
government of the entire London district by 
one great corporation, Mr. Buxton states that 
at present the metropolis was controlled by 
about 100 Acts of Parliament, had 7,000 hono¬ 
rary besides a host of paid officials, and was 
divided for one purpose into 39 districts, for 
another 16, for a third 54, and a fourth into 90. 

— The Treasurers and Benchers of the 
Inner Temple entertain the Prince of Wales, 
the Judges, and her Majesty’s Ministers in cele¬ 
bration of the opening of their new Hall. 

— Died at Farnham, Surrey, aged 79, J. 
W. Parker, a well-known London publisher. 

(918) 


18 . —Died at Montigny, near Dieppe, the 
Viscountess Dambray, widow of the Chancellor 
of France who signed the ordonnances of 1830, 
and the last representative of the Anjou branch 
of the Plantagenets. 

19 . —The Marriage with a Deceased Wife’s 
Sister Bill rejected by the House of Lords on 
the motion for a second reading by 77 to 73 
votes. 

— Marshal Saldanha issues a proclamation 
at Lisbon, and after a skirmish with the Guards, 
in which seven were killed and thirty wounded, 
is installed in the War Office with power to form 
a Ministry. 

20 . —Debate in the Commons on the Greek 
massacre, Sir Roundell Palmer insisting that the 
diplomatic character of Mr. Herbert furnished 
special ground for demanding redress, and Sir 
H. Bulwer arguing that Greece had failed to 
satisfy the ordinary requirements of a civilized 
State. 

21 . —The authorities of Christ Church, Ox¬ 
ford, assembled in public hall, pronounce sentence 
of expulsion against three undergraduates con¬ 
cerned in injuring books and furniture in the 
College Library; one other was rusticated for 
eighteen months, a fifth for twelve months, and 
two of the least culpable were “gated.” 

— The Emperor Napoleon, on receiving 
from M. Schneider the report on the plebisciturn, 
expressed his opinion that, in the question be¬ 
tween the Revolution and the Empire, the 
country had decided in favour of the system 
which guaranteed order and liberty. “Freed 
(he said) from the constitutional questions 
which divide the best minds, we must have but 
One object in view. To rally round the Con¬ 
stitution which has just been sanctioned by the 
country, by the honest men of all parties ; to 
ensure public security ; to calm party passions ; 
to preserve the social interests from the con¬ 
tagion of false doctrines ; to find by the aid of 
the highest intellects the means of increasing 
the greatness and prosperity of France; to 
diffuse education; to simplify the administrative 
machinery ; to carry activity from the centre, 
where it superabounds, to the extremities, where 
it is wanting ; to introduce into our codes of 
law, which are monuments, the improvements 
justified by experience ; to multiply the general 
agencies of production and riches ; to promote 
agriculture and the development of public 
works ; and, finally, to consecrate our labour to 
this problem, always resolute, and always 
seeking to find the best repartition of the 
burthens which press upon the taxpayers—such 
is our programme. In realizing it, our nation, 
by the free expansion of its powers, will 
advance the progress of civilization.” In con¬ 
clusion the Emperor said: “We must at the 
present time more than ever look fearlessly for¬ 
ward to the future. Who, indeed, could be 
opposed to the progressive march of a dynasty 
founded by a great people in the midst of 
political disturbances, and fortified by liberty ? ” 





MA V 


1870. 


MA Y 


21 . —In conformity with a report presented 
by Count Potocki, President of the Vienna 
Ministry, the Emperor issues a decree dissolv¬ 
ing the Reichsrath and all the Diets of Western 
Austria except that of Bohemia. 

— Two Englishmen, the Messrs. Bon- 
nell, uncle and nephew, captured by Spanish 
brigands in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, 
and detained in captivity till a ransom of 27,000 
dollars was paid. 

— Trial and condemnation of the Greek 
brigands captured in connexion with the mur¬ 
der of the English travellers in April last. 

22. —Commencement of the decennial exhi¬ 
bition of the Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau. 

— Died, aged 56, Sir J. Simeon, Bart., 
M.P. for the Isle of Wight. 

23 . —The Solicitor - General’s University 
Tests Bill, making their abolition compulsory 
instead of optional, read a second time by 191 
to 66 votes. 

— Debate in the House of Lords on the 
Greek massacre, the Earl of Carnarvon insisting 
on a complete investigation and ample repara¬ 
tion for the terrible outrage. Lord Clarendon 
promised complete inquiry, but objected at the 
same time to the extreme principle laid down 
regarding the protection due to ambassadors 
and their friends. 

— Died at Crawley, aged 61, Mark Lemon, 
one of the founders of Punch , and editor 
from its commencement in 1841. 

— Discovery of the murder of the Marshall 
family, at Denham, Uxbridge. Suspicion being 
excited by the unusual stillness prevailing for the 
last day or two around their humble roadside 
dwelling, the door was forced open, and the 
shocking spectacle was revealed of the murder 
of an entire family. The names of the victims 
were Emmanuel Marshall, aged thirty-five; 
Charlotte, his wife, thirty-three; Mary Ann 
Marshall, his sister, twenty-nine (to have been 
married in a few days); Mary Marshall, grand¬ 
mother, seventy-five ; and three children—Ger¬ 
trude, four; Theresa, six ; and Mary, eight. The 
bodies lay for the most part huddled together in 
the front room and back kitchen. Just inside the 
doors were found the bodies of Mrs. Marshall 
and Mary Anne Marshall, that of the younger 
woman inclining towards the other. A gown 
was loosely thrown over Mrs. Marshall’s night¬ 
dress, as though she had hurriedly put it on 
before coming downstairs. Mary Anne Mar¬ 
shall had nothing but her night-dress on. The 
heads of both were horribly disfigured, and 
there was a pool of blood quite close to them ; 
near this was a large smith’s hammer, with 
which they were supposed to have been murdered. 
There was also a large blood stain on the wall 
near the door, evidently caused by Mrs. Mar¬ 
shall’s head coming in contact with it. In a 
little room between the front parlour and the 
back kitchen the bodies of the two elder child¬ 
ren were found. They were piled on one 
another near the fireplace, and there was no 


doubt, from the position in which they were, 
that their inhuman murderer brutally flung them 
here after having smashed their heads with one 
of the terrible weapons afterwards discovered. 
The bodies of the poor children were partly 
uncovered. The body of old Mrs. Marshall 
and that of the youngest child were discovered 
in the back kitchen, and the wounds visible on 
them were even worse than those which caused 
the death of the others. The body of Marshall 
himself was found in the smith’s stop adjoining 
the house, in which he wrought, partly covered 
by sacks, and giving evidence, in the nature and 
number of the wounds, taken in connexion with 
the condition of the apartment, of a violent 
struggle having preceded death. He was partly 
dressed in his Sunday clothes, a circumstance 
tending to fix the period of attack early on the 
morning of the 22nd. As it was soon discovered 
that robbery had been committed in connexion 
with the murder, the police had little difficulty 
in tracking the assassin. On the afternoon of 
the 24th a tramp named John Jones, alias Owen 
or Jenkins, was apprehended, after some resist¬ 
ance on his part, at the Oxford Arms lodging- 
house, Reading, and the result of various 
examinations established in the most minute 
manner his intimate connexion with the crime. 
He was known to have arrived at Uxbridge on 
the afternoon of Saturday the 21st, ill dressed, 
and in complete poverty; he was seen and 
spoken to by a police constable approaching 
Marshall’s house early on the morning of the 
murder, and was encountered leaving it about 7 
A. m. by a woman then looking for a key lost 
on the road the previous evening. Within Mar¬ 
shall’s house Jones’s ragged clothes were found 
stained with blood; he returned to the Reading 
lodging-house dressed in raiment belonging to 
Marshall; and, finally, he had pawned the 
watch and sold other articles stolen from the 
premises. 

23 . —Acting under pressure said to have been 
exercised by Count Bismarck, the North Ger¬ 
man Parliament, by a small majority, rescind 
a former vote for abolishing death punishment. 

— Fire in a broker’s shop in Waterloo-road, 
causing the death of six children. 

24 -. —Availing himself of an obsolete but 
unrepealed standing order, Mr. Craufurd to¬ 
day succeeds in expelling strangers (including 
ladies and reporters) from the House during 
the discussion of Mr. Fowler’s motion for leave 
to bring in a bill to repeal certain provisions of 
the Contagious Diseases Act. 

— Mr. Watkin Williams’ motion for the dis¬ 
establishment of the English Church in Wales 
rejected by 209 to 65 votes. 

25 . —Mr. E. Royds, of Trinity Hall, Cam¬ 
bridge, killed while ascending Monte Salvatore 
accompanied by his sister and cousin. 

— Archbishop Manning addresses the Roman 
Council in favour of the declaration of the 
Infallibility dogma, and Dr. Clifford, Bishop ol 
Clifton, against it. 

( 919 ) 









ma y 


JUNE 


1870. 


25 . —Parts of shares of the New River 
Company, belonging to the set of thirty-six 
surrendered by King Charles II. for the 
annuity of 500/. known as ‘ ‘ The King’s 
Clogg,” sold at the rate of 48,0x50/. per share. 

— Large parties of Fenians reported to be 
on their way from Malone to the Canadian 
frontier. Their leader, O’Neill, was arrested 
next day by the United States Marshal, and 
the band entirely broken up by Canadian 
troops. 

— The committee appointed by Convoca¬ 
tion to revise the Authorized Version of the. 
Scriptures meets for the first time, and draws up 
certain fundamental rules in accordance with 
which the revision was to be carried out. The 
committee was to be divided into an Old and 
New Testament “ company, ” and various scho¬ 
lars and divines added to their number. 

—- Lady Amberley lectures at Stroud on 
the claims of women, insisting on the restora¬ 
tion to girls of the privileges due to them under 
many educational endowments; that equal 
privileges with boys should be afforded them 
for attaining the highest education ; that all 
professions should be open to them; that 
married women should no longer be debarred 
from the separate ownership of property; that 
a widow should be recognised by law as the 
only natural guardian of her children ; that the 
franchise should be extended to women ; that 
political and social interest and work should be 
open equally to them; that public opinion should 
sanction for women every occupation good and 
suited to their strength ; that there shpuld be no 
legal subordination in marriage ; and that the 
same wages should be given for the same 
work. 

— Mr. Goldwin Smith, of Cornell Univer¬ 
sity, New York, irritated by a passage in Mr.Dis- 
raeli’s “Lothair,” where he was alluded to as 
“a social parasite,” writes to the right honour¬ 
able gentleman that these words were “the 
stingless insults of a coward.” 

26 . —In closing the North German Parlia¬ 
ment the King of Prussia described the organi¬ 
zation of the army of the Confederation as 
complete, and the war force of the Bund in¬ 
creasing in a way likely to give this branch of 
the national defence an importance in harmony 
with the just demands of the German nation. 
“The same successes won by fidelity and vigo¬ 
rous labours for the general welfare and educa¬ 
tion, for freedom and order at home, afford 
also to foreign countries the certainty that the 
North German Confederation, in developing its 
internal institutions and its national treaty alli¬ 
ance with South Germany, is perfecting the 
strength of the German people, not to the 
greater danger, but to the more powerful sup¬ 
port of universal peace, to the preservation of 
which the respect and confidence of foreign 
people and Governments will contribute.” 

— Boiler explosion at Cleugh Hall Iron¬ 
works, Staffordshire, causing the immediate 
(920) 


death of four workmen, and injury to nine 
others, several of whom died afterwards. 

27 —The murdered Marshall family, seven 
in number, buried in Denham churchyard, amid 
many outward tokens of the grief excited in 
the neighbourhood by the perpetration of the 
terrible crime. 

— Ingots, plate, and valuable arms re¬ 
ported to have been recovered by divers from 
the French galleons sunk in Vigo Bay in 1702. 

— The Cambria wins the Atlantic yacht race, 
arriving at Sandy Hook, New York, an hour 
before the Dauntless. The latter lost three hours 
on her voyage in vainly endeavouring to save 
two of her crew who had fallen overboard. 

29 . —Canon Melville preaches his farewell 
sermon at Barnes, preparatory to resignation. 

— The Jews in Botuschany, Roumania, 
attacked by Greek Christians, and many of 
them massacred. 

— Died at Geneva, Captain C. D. Cameron, 
formerly British Consul at Massowah, whose 
long imprisonment by King Theodore partly 
led to the Abyssinian war. 

30 . —Thames Embankment Railway opened 
for public traffic. 

— The Irish Land Bill read a third time in 
the House of Commons, after a languid debate, 
and passed to the Lords. At one moment it 
was thought the order would pass without any 
discussion at all, the Speaker being in the 
middle of his question—“ As many as are of that 
opinion say Aye”—when Mr. Hardy, amid laugh¬ 
ter and cheers, rose to make a few observa¬ 
tions. The Premier defended the bill, and 
hoped that its success would not be imperilled 
by such amendments as Mr. Hardy suggested 
might be made ‘ ‘ in another place. ” 

31 . — Unveiling of the statue placed in West¬ 
minster Abbey in memory of Lord Palmerston. 

— Mr. H. Campbell’s motion for leave to 
bring in a bill applying the principle of repre¬ 
sentation to the local government and financial 
administration of counties rejected by 61 to 39 
votes. 

— At the sitting of the Roman Council to¬ 
day Monsignor Strossmayer attacked the In¬ 
fallibility dogma and its supporters with a 
vehemence which led to a large Ultramontane 
majority voting for the close of the discussion. 

— The Indian chiefs Red Cloud and Spotted 
Tail arrive at Washington, and are entertained 
by the President, preparatory to a “palaver” 
regarding the grievances said to have been 
suffered by the Sioux tribe at the hands of their 
enemies, the Cheyennes. 

June 1.—The King of Prussia, accompanied 
by Count Bismarck, leaves Berlin for Ems, on 
a visit to the Emperor of Russia. 

— Died at the English College, Rome, Dr. 
Grant, Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark. 






JUNE 


JUNE 


(870. 


1, —The result of the “Derby," run to-day 
at 3.29 P. m. and won by Kingcraft, was known 
in Bombay at 5.57, and in Calcutta at 6.25. 

2 . —A majority of the Court of Probate and 
Divorce give judgment upholding the order 
formerly made in the Mordaunt case, for staying 
the prosecution on the ground of insanity or 
mental incapacity of the respondent. 

-— Died, aged 85, Cyrus Redding, author of 
the “History of Wines” and many other books 
and magazine articles. 

4 . —Fire at the factory of Young, Strang, 
and Co., manufacturers, Brigtown, Glasgow, 
destroying property valued at from 20,000/. 
to 30,000/. 

5 . — The Rev. Edward Ffoulkes, a convert 
to Rome, and author of “The Church’s Creed 
and the Crown’s Creed,” received back into 
the Anglican communion at Lambeth, by 
Canon Gregory, acting for the Bishop of Win¬ 
chester. 

— Calamitous fire at Pera, Constantinople, 
laying waste the British Embassy, the American 
and Portuguese Consulates, the Naoum Theatre, 
the Palace of the Armenian Patriarch, many 
churches and mosques, and rendering houseless 
a great mass of the inhabitants, as many it was 
said as 24,000. The archives and plate of the 
Embassy were saved. It was thought about 
1,000 people were suffocated in the conflagra¬ 
tion or buried in the falling ruins. 

6 . —Lord Derby lays the foundation-stone of 
the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool. 

— The Royal Albert pleasure yacht upset in 
a squall off Hastings, and five of the passengers 
drowned. 

7. — Order in Council issued directing the 
principle of open competition to be applied to 
appointments in the Civil Service. 

S.—Indian Submarine Telegraph completely 
connected. An untruthful rumour circulated 
to-day of the total loss of the Dacia , with her 
telegraph cable and nearly all on board. 

IO.—A regret, little short of a personal loss, 
was experienced throughout the kingdom to¬ 
day by the announcement of the death of 
Charles Dickens, at his country house, Gad’s- 
hill, near Rochester. On the evening of the 
8th, when sitting at dinner, the novelist fell 
back in his chair stricken with paralysis, and 
became almost immediately unconscious—a 
state in which he continued till his death 
about the same hour yesterday. Mr. Dickens 
had given instiuctions for his interment in 
Rochester churchyard, but, at the pressing 
solicitation of many eminent in authority and 
character, his family concurred in a proposal 
submitted by Dean Stanley to let the body be 
interred in Westminster Abbey. In conformity 
with what was known to be Mr. Dickens’s 
special desire, this was done in a quiet, private 
way, on the morning of the 14th. Mr. Dickens 
was a Hampshire man, having been born in 
Portsmouth, Feb. 7, 1812. 


13 . —University Tests Bill passed through 
Committee and read a third time in the Com¬ 
mons, after an ineffectual attempt by Mr. Ste¬ 
venson to admit Nonconformists to Divinity 
degrees ; by Mr. Vernon Harcourt to omit the 
words confining the operation of the bill to 
existing colleges ; and by Mr. Fawcett to secure 
the abolition of clerical fellowships. 

— Meetings to discuss the new Education 
Bill held by the Roman Catholic laity at Nor¬ 
folk House, and by Nonconformists at St. 
James’s Hall. 

14 . —The directors of the Monarch Insurance 
Company committed for trial by the Lord 
Mayor, but liberated on bail. 

— Judgment given in the Belhaven peerage 
case in favour of the claim of Lieut. -Col. Robeit 
William Hamilton to be served heir male to 
the late Lord Belhaven and Stent on. 

— Mr. Buxton introduces, but withdraws 
after a short debate, a motion pledging the 
Government to deal with the subject of Scrip¬ 
ture revision, and not leave it in the hands ol 
Convocation, which could be scarcely said to 
represent even the Church of England. 

15 . —Certified copy of Queen Isabella’s abdi¬ 
cation said to have been received at Madrid. 

— Two divisions took place on Mr. Hard- 
castle’s bill for abolishing the minority system, 
giving two votes for three members. In the 
first 181 voted on each side, but on the Speaker 
giving the House an opportunity of expressing 
its opinion a second time, it was found that the 
opponents of the bill had a majority of two. 

16 . —Came on in the Arches Court the hear¬ 
ing of the charge of heresy against the Rev. W. 
J. E. Bennett, Vicar of Frome, in so far as he 
was said to have given utterance to unsound 
doctrines on the subject of the Real Presence. 
The arguments extended over three days, on 
none of which, however, Mr. Bennett ap¬ 
peared. 

— Mr. Gladstone announces the concessions 
which the Cabinet were willing to make on the 
Education Bill. These were the adoption of 
Mr. Cowper-Temple’s proposal to exclude all 
catechisms and religious formularies from the 
rate-founded schools; the severance of rate- 
aided voluntary schools from the local boards, 
with a maximum increase of 50 per cent, in the 
Privy Council grants, balanced by the with¬ 
drawal of building allowances; and the accele¬ 
ration, as far as possible, of the time when the 
Act could be put in force for the creation of 
new schools. On the motion of Mr. Disraeli 
the discussion on the amended bill was deferred 
till the 20th. 

17 . —After a debate extending over three 
nights, the Irish Land Bill is read a second 
time in the House of Lords without a division. 

— Dr. Scott, Master of Balliol College, 
Oxford, gazetted Dean of Rochester. He was 
succeeded at Balliol by the Rev. J. B. Jowett, 
Regius Professor of Greek. 


(921) 













JUiVE 


JUNE 


iB/O. 


13 .— Mr. Justice Willes decides (in the 
Edmunds case) that the Act abolishing im¬ 
prisonment for debt does not cover the case 
of debts due to the Crown. 

— Died in privacy, at Christchurch, whither 
he had withdrawn pending the criminal pro¬ 
ceedings against him in connexion with the 
Boulton and Park case, Lord Arthur Pelham 
Clinton, aged 30 years. He authorized his 
solicitor to prepare an explicit denial of any 
guilt on his part beyond that of indiscretion. 

19 . —Death of George Somers, the Notting¬ 
hamshire cricketer, from the effect of a blow on 
the head with a ball at Lord’s ground a few 
days back. 

— The Orleans Princes present a letter to 
the members of the French Legislative Body 
protesting against their continued exile. Their 
request was rejected by 174 to 31 votes. The 
report of the Committee on Petitions repre¬ 
sented that although there would be no danger 
to Franee in the return of the Princes, it might 
be a cause of trouble and agitation. The 
Government therefore wished the rejection of 
the petition. Subsequently M. Ollivier, in 
reply to the speeches of the Opposition, re¬ 
marked that it was the Republic and not the 
Empire which had passed the decree of banish¬ 
ment. He also called attention to the fact that 
the Princes had never made any declaration 
capable of being construed into a loyal ac¬ 
ceptation of the established order of things in 
F ranee. 

20. —A meeting to promote “ the reunion of 
Christendom” held at the Architectural Insti¬ 
tute, Conduit Street. 

— Earl Russell introduces, but withdraws 
after a debate, a motion for a Commission to in¬ 
quire into the relation between the mother 
country and the colonies, especially in reference 
to the defence of the latter. 

— The Speaker announces in the Commons 
that the University of Oxford proposed to con¬ 
fer on him the honour of a degree, and per¬ 
mission was cordially given for him to proceed 
thither to-morrow for the purpose ; Mr. Dis¬ 
raeli characterizing it as “an eminent honour 
from an illustrious University.” 

— Inquiry into the Brixton baby-farming 
case commenced at the Lambeth Police-court. 
Margaret Waters, with many aliases , was 
charged with neglecting to provide food and 
nourishment for the illegitimate male child of 
J. T. Cowan, and, in. conjunction with Mary 
Ellis, her sister, with having in their posses¬ 
sion four other infants, names unknown, not 
provided with food and nourishment. The 
frequency with which the dead bodies of in¬ 
fants had been recently found in out-of-the-way 
places about Peckham, Battersea, and Brixton 
(in all of which the prisoners had resided), 
coupled with many suspicious circumstances 
regarding the daily movements of Waters, led 
to a communication being opened up with her i 

(922) 


which at once placed both in the hands of the 
police. Her systematic trade in infants was 
spoken to by people at one time connected with 
the house, who knew of infants having been 
delivered to her at railway stations and even in 
the public streets, after which they were starved 
and otherwise neglected in a manner certain to 
lead to death. The prisoners were committed 
for trial. 

20 . —In the French Legislative Body, the Mi¬ 
nister of Public Works explains that French in¬ 
terests were perfectly protected by the Mont 
Cenis Railway. General Leboeuf further ex¬ 
plained that a Prussian army of 25,000 men 
would require four days to go from Basle to 
Milan, while by the railway now nearly finished 
French troops could be there before them. 

—- Accident on the Great Northern Railway, 
near Newark. A Manchester goods train left 
Retford station for London at one o’clock this 
morning, and when passing about a mile south 
of Newark one of the axles of a waggon broke 
close to the wheel, which led to several others 
being overturned. At this moment a return 
excursion train from London to Yorkshire 
reached the spot, and ran into the waggons 
thrown on to the down line. Thirteen people 
were killed on the spot, five died afterwards, 
and many were severely injured. 

— Five of the Greek brigands concerned in 
the Marathon massacre executed at Athens, in 
the space known as the Polygon, at the upper 
end of the Champ de Mars. 

21. —The Married Women’s Property Bill 
read a second time in the House of Lords, 
and referred to a Select Committee. 

— Mr. S. Beaumont’s motion for leave 
to introduce a bill relieving the Lords Spiri¬ 
tual (hereafter consecrated) from attendance in 
Parliament rejected by 158 to 102 votes. 

— The Marquis of Salisbury installed as 
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and 
many honorary degrees conferred in connexion 
with the Commemoration festival. 

— Outrages on the French population at 
Tien-tsin ; the Consul, with his family, guests, 
and several Sisters of Mercy, being slain amid 
circumstances of great barbarity, and the con¬ 
sulate and cathedral burned. 

22 . —The revisers of the Authorized Version 
of the New Testament meet for the first time at 
the Jerusalem Chamber, and sit five hours. 
Prior to engaging in this responsible under¬ 
taking, the party received Holy Communion in 
Westminster Abbey at the hands of Dean 
Stanley. There were bishops of the Es¬ 
tablished Church, two of them by their vene¬ 
rable years connected with the past generation ; 
the representatives of historic cathedrals and 
collegiate churches, of learned universities, of 
laborious parochial charges, and of the chief 
ecclesiastical Convocation; and with these, 
intermingled without distinction, were ministers 
of the Established and of the Free Church of 
Scotland, and of almost every Nonconformist 







JUNE 


JUNE 1870. 


Church in England—Independent, Baptist, 
Wesleyan, and Unitarian. The presence of .the 
last (Mr. Vance Smith) gave rise to a dis¬ 
cussion in Convocation, and a sharp controversy 
among ritualists. “I did not go (wrote Mr. 
Smith) under any false pretence of professing 
one thing while believing another; and, of 
course, I retained my own ideas as to the 
nature of the rite. No one asked me what 
these were, or required me to disavow them. 
And to me, I may add, the ceremony is simply 
a memorial service, done ‘ in remembrance ’— 
in grateful and devout remembrance—but 
further implying, of necessity, the open pro¬ 
fession of discipleship to Christ. Why should 
not Christian men of all Protestant names be 
able to ‘ do this,’ and make their confession of 
discipleship, in each other’s company ? ” 

23 . —Ceremonial opening of Keble College, 
erected as a memorial to the author of “The 
Christian Year.” 

— In Committee on the Irish Land Bill, 
the Duke of Richmond carries an amendment 
against the Government, altering the scale of 
compensation provided for holdings of various 
values. 

— Mrs. Gilliland succeeds in recovering 
3,000/. from the Peninsular and Oriental Com¬ 
pany in name of damages for the loss of her 
husband in the Carnatic. 

— Soiree at the residence of Mr. Pender, 
A rlington-street, attended by the Prince of 
Wales, to celebrate the opening of the sub¬ 
marine telegraph to India. Messages were 
sent to and received from Washington, Simla, 
and Bombay. 

24 ..—Various amendments carried against 
Government in the Lords Committee on the 
Irish Land Bill. 

_ Mr. Richards’ amendment on the 

Education Bill, making attendance at school 
compulsory, and payment to be made out of 
local instead of general funds, rejected by 421 
to 60 votes. 

_ The Gazette announces that the Queen, 

having accepted the surrender of Rupert’s 
Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company, has 
been pleased to appoint the Governor-General 
for the time being of the Dominion of Canada 
to be the Governor of Rupert’s Land until the 
admission of that territory to the Dominion. 

_ Commencement of a series of riots in 

Cork, by union and non-union operatives, lead¬ 
ing in some instances to loss of life. 

_ In the case of Phillips v. ex-Governor 

Eyre the Exchequer Chamber confirm the 
decision of the Court of Queen’s Bench, 
holding that it was perfectly competent for the 
local Legislature, by ex post facto legislation, to 
indemnify the Governor for tortuous acts done 
in the suppression of the rebellion, and that as 
the right of action in the colony itself had thus 
been taken away, it followed that no action was 
maintainable in England. 


25 . —Queen Isabella of Spain signs her 
abdication at Paris, in favour of her son the 
Prince of Asturias. 

— Peter Barrett again acquitted by a 
Dublin jury of the crime of firing at Captain 
Lambert. 

26 . —Died at Millbank, near Edinburgh, 
James Syme, F.R.C.S., late Professor of 
Clinical Surgery in the University of Edin¬ 
burgh, and for a short time Professor of Sur¬ 
gery in University College, London. 

— Died at the Hague, aged 61, Armand 
Barbes, a well-known French Republican. 

27 . —Died suddenly, at his house in Grosvenor 
Crescent, the Earl of Clarendon, Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, aged 70 years. He was in the 
House, though slightly ailing, on the 24th, and 
transacted business as late as the evening of 
the 25th. His lordship was buried privately, 
at Watford, on the 1st July. 

— In the House of Lords appropriate 
tributes were paid to the great merit of the 
Earl of Clarendon, and the business was limited 
as much as possible to the pressing details of 
the Irish Land Bill. 

— The Commons take up the discussion 
of the Education Bill in Committee. The first 
four clauses were agreed to without comment. 
On Clause 5 there was a division on Mr. 
Walter’s amendment, requiring the formation of 
a school board in every school district; rejected 
by 303 to 112. The Time Table Conscience 
Clause gave rise to much debate, but the 
Government were able, first, with aid from be¬ 
low the gangway, to defeat Mr. Pease’s proposal 
to strike out the words fixing the hours of 
religious instruction at the beginning or end of 
each school time, so that they should be left to 
be settled at the discretion of the managers or 
teachers, by 222 to 122 ; and then, by similar 
support from the Opposition, to reject by 379 
to 32 Mr. Dixon’s amendment with the view of 
securing that the children dissenting from re¬ 
ligious instruction shall be withdrawn from the 
school altogether during those hours. 

28 . —Concluded in the Court of Session, 
Edinburgh, after a six days’ trial, the action 
brought to set aside the will of the late W. M. 
Stewart, or “daft Lochnagar” as he was 
styled, on the ground that he was of unsound 
mind at the time the settlement was made. 
The sum involved in the case was said to 
be about 30,000/., and the evidence relied 
upon to set the deed aside consisted in the 
eccentric conduct of the testator when living, 
and the absurd provisions set forth in the will. 
The jury unanimously decided for the plaintiffs, 
thus setting aside the settlement. 

— The Ritual Commission hold their final 
meeting in the Jerusalem Chamber, West¬ 
minster Abbey. 

29. —Died at Bagshot Park, aged 82, Sir 
James Clark, Chief Physician to the Queen 
since her accession. 

(923) 









JUNE 


jul v 


1870. 


29 . —Resignation of Mr. G. 0 . Trevelyan, one 
of the Lords of the Admiralty, in consequence 
of his disinclination to vote in favour of the 
increased grant to denominational schools pro¬ 
vided by the Elementary Education Bill of the 
Government. 

30 . —By a majority of 252 to 95 votes, the 
Commons reject Sir S. Northcote’s proposal 
to eliminate from the Education Bill Mr. Cow- 
per-Temple’s proviso against distinctive re¬ 
ligious catechisms or formularies, and to leave 
the whole question of religious teaching at the 
discretion of each school board. A somewhat 
smaller division—250 to 81—disposed of Sir 
John Pakington’s demand that the reading of 
the Bible should form part of the daily lessons. 
Mr. Jacob Bright’s motion to exclude all refer¬ 
ence to the distinctive tenets of any religious 
denomination was rejected by 251 to 130 votes. 

— In the course of a debate in the French 
Legislative Body on the bill for fixing the army 
contingent for 1870, M. Thiers said: “Two 
conditions of peace are required—first, to be 
pacific; secondly, to be strong. Prussia requires 
to be pacific in order to attract the South of 
Germany; we need to be pacific in order not 
to give it her.” M. Thiers maintained that 
after Sadowa it was impossible for France to 
dispense with her army. M. Ollivier, replying 
to a question of M. Jules Favre, said : “The 
Government has no uneasiness whatever. At 
no epoch was the peace of Europe more assured. 
Irritating questions nowhere exist. The Euro¬ 
pean Cabinets understand that treaties should 
be maintained. We have developed liberty to 
assure peace, and the accord between the nation 
and the Sovereign has achieved a French 
Sadowa, the Plebiscitum.” 

— San Domingo Annexation Treaty re¬ 
jected by the United States Senate. 

July 1.—M. Prevost-Paradol leaves Paris to 
commence his diplomatic duties at Washington. 

— Foundation-stone of the new Gram¬ 
mar School at Reading laid by the Prince 
of Wales. The institution dated from the 
reign of Henry VII., and numbered, among its 
masters, scholars so eminent as Dr. Valpy. 

4 . —It is announced that Earl Granville will 
succeed the late Earl of Clarendon as Secretary 
of State for Foreign Affairs; that the Earl of 
Kimberley will become Colonial Secretary; 
that Viscount Halifax will take the post of 
Lord Privy Seal ; and that Mr. W. E. Forster 
will enter the Cabinet, retaining the office of 
Vice-President of the Committee of Council. 
(See Table of Administrations.) 

— Sir C. Dilke’s motion permitting the rate¬ 
payers in boroughs instead of town councils to 
elect school boards rejected by 150 to 145 votes. 
By an amendment moved by Mr. Hibbert, and 
accepted by Mr. Forster, the power of election 
in country districts was removed from select 
vestries (upon which it was in some instances 
conferred by the bill), and transferred in all 

(924) 


cases to the ratepayers. On the motion of Mr. 
W. M. Torrens, provision was made that in the 
metropolis the school boards shall be elected 
by the parishioners ; and at the instance of 
Lord F. Cavendish the cumulative vote was 
introduced into the method of election. 

4 . —Mr. Gladstone proposes “the health of 
M. de Lesseps ” at a banquet given to that 
gentleman by the Duke of Sutherland, at 
Stafford House. 

— The Spanish Ministry in Council this even¬ 
ing formally decide upon proposing Leopold, 
hereditaryPrince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, 
as a candidate for the throne. There had already 
been rumours on the subject, and the Con- 
slitutionnel of to-day gave prominence to the 
report. “ If,” it said, “ as everything leads us to 
suppose, Marshal Prim has acted without autho¬ 
rization, then the incident is simply reduced to 
an intrigue. But if, on the contrary, the Spanish 
people should sanction or advise such a step, 
we must, above all, regard the event with the 
respect due to the will of a people regulating 
its own affairs. Yet, while bowing to the 
sovereignty of the Spanish people, the sole 
competent judge in such a matter, we cannot 
suppress a feeling of surprise at seeing the 
sceptre of Charles V. confided to a Prussian 
Prince, the grandson of a Princess of the Murat 
family, whose name is only connected in Spain 
with painful reminiscences.” The “painful 
reminiscences ” were stated in other organs to 
be the bombardment of Madrid by Murat 
during the war of independence— ‘ ‘ a proceeding 
which filled every Spanish household with 
mourning, from San Roque to Irun, from the 
Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean.” Prince 
Frederick was more minutely described as “ the 
eldest son of the reigning Prince of Hohen- 
zollern, who in 1849 surrendered his sovereign 
rights to Prussia. His father lives at Dusseldorf, 
and is considered as a member of the Prussian 
Royal Family. The Prince is thirty-five years 
of age, and was married in 1861 to Marie, the 
sister of the present King of Portugal, by 
whom he has three sons. His younger brother 
is Prince Charles of Roumania. In religion he 
is a Roman Catholic.” French Rentes were 
quoted to-day at 72f. 67c. 

— The Irish Land Bill passes through Com¬ 
mittee in the Lords. 

— The University Tests Bill read a third 
time in the Commons by 247 to 113 votes. 

5 . —The Earl of Derby married in the 
Chapel Royal, St. James’s, to Mary Catherine, 
Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury. 

— In the course of the debate on the Budget 
in the French Chamber, the Minister of Finance 
mentioned that the estimates of 1871 showed a 
revenue of 2, i78,ooo,ooofr. 

— This afternoon Lord Granville, entering 
on his duties at the Foreign Office, is informed 
by Mr. Hammond, permanent Under-Secre¬ 
tary, that “in all his experience he had never 
known so great a lull in foreign affairs.” At mid- 






JULY 


1870. 


jul v 


night Mr. Layard telegraphs to London the choice 
of Prince Leopold by the Spanish Ministry. The 
same afternoon Lord Lyons receives the infor¬ 
mation from the Due de Gramont, with an 
intimation that France will use her whole 
strength to prevent the election, and a request 
for the co-operation of England in warding off 
this danger to the peace of Europe. In the 
evening M. Ollivier, at his reception, assures 
Lord Lyons that the official declaration on the 
subject shall be “as mild as is compatible with 
the necessity of satisfying public opinion in 
France.” 

6 . —Mr. Hughes’s Sunday Trading Bill read 
a second time in the Commons, by 109 to 64 
votes. 

— The Lower House of Convocation reject 
a proposal to protest against the Ultramontane 
pretensions of the Roman Council, by 26 to 22 
votes. The Upper House undertook to con¬ 
sider whether a committee should not be 
appointed to watch the proceedings of the 
Council. 

— At Madrid the candidature of Prince 
Leopold is avowed, and his election by the 
requisite majority of the Cortes declared to be 
certain. “ It is said that the Prince will come 
to Madrid on the 1st November, and will be 
brought from a German port by a Spanish 
squadron. His civil list is fixed at twenty 
millions. ” 

— Lord Granville writes to Lord A. Loftus, 
our Minister at Berlin, directing him to appeal 
to the “wise and disinterested magnanimity” 
of the King not to support Prince Leopold’s 
candidature, as it would be certain to distract 
the peace of Europe. 

— Interrogated in the Legislative Body, the 
Due de Gramont disclaimed any intention of 
interfering in the internal affairs of Spain ; but 
“we do not believe that respect for the rights 
of a neighbouring people obliges us to suffer a 
foreign Power, by placing a prince upon the 
throne of Charles V., to disturb the European 
equilibrium to our disadvantage—(cheers)—and 
thus to imperil the interests and honour of 
France. (Renewed cheers.) We entertain a 
firm hope that this will not happen. To prevent 
it we count upon the wisdom of the German 
nation and the friendship of the people of 
Spain ; but, in the contrary event, with your 
support and the support of the nation, we shall 
know how to do our duty without hesitation or 
weakness.” At the same time M. Ollivier 
said : “ The Government wished for peace 
passionately, but with honour. If a war be 
necessary, the Government will not enter upon 
it without the assent of the Corps Legislatif, 
for we live under a parliamentary regime . ” Lord 
Lyons reported that this declaration “does not 
at all go beyond the feeling of the country.” 

7. — The Prayer Book (Lectionary) Bill read 
a second time in the House of Lords. 

_ In the case of the Duke of Newcastle v. 

Morris, the House of Lords affirm the de¬ 
cision of the court below, deciding that the 


duke was liable to be made a bankrupt, and 
that therefore the adjudication of bankruptcy 
obtained against him by the respondent in 
January last was valid. 

7 .— By a majority of 156 to 106, Mr. W. H. 
Smith carries a motion against the Government 
condemning the erection of any public offices 
on that part of the Thames Embankment which 
is reserved to the Crown, and which has been 
reclaimed from the river at the cost of the rate¬ 
payers of the metropolis. 

— Crystal Palace fete in honour of M. de 
Lesseps attended by 26,000 visitors. The fire¬ 
works were on a scale of unusual magnifi¬ 
cence. Next day M. de Lesseps was presented 
with the Albert gold medal of the Society of Arts 
for his services to arts, manufactures, and com¬ 
merce in the constructing of the Suez Canal. 

— Eail Granville writes to Mr. Layard at 
Madrid, to use every pressure with the Spanish 
Government in order “to induce them to 
abandon the project of conferring the throne 
of Spain on Prince Leopold.” 

— M. Benedetti arrives at Ems for the pur¬ 
pose of waiting on the King of Prussia to obtain 
a prompt reply to the demands of France. 

— The Spanish Government officially notify 
to the European Powers their intention to pro¬ 
pose to the Cortes Prince Leopold as a candi¬ 
date for the vacant throne. 

8 . —The Due de Gramont informs Lord 
Lyons that the French Government is “still with¬ 
out any answer from Prussia, that this silence 
renders it impossible to abstain any longer from 
making military preparations,” and that “ some 
steps in this direction have already been taken.” 
The Due de Gramont suggests, “as another 
solution of the question,” that “the Prince of 
Hohenzollern might of his own accord abandon 
his pretensions to the Spanish crown,” and 
declares that “a voluntary renunciation on 
the part of the Prince would be a most for¬ 
tunate solution,” and he begged her Majesty’s 
Government to “use all their influence to bring 
it about.” 

— Prussian view of the Spanish difficulty. 
Speaking to Earl Granville to-day, Count 
Bemstorff said the offer of the crown of Spain 
to Prince Leopold did not appear to be an 
affair which concerned the Prussian Govern¬ 
ment. The North German Government had 
no desire for a war of succession, but if France 
chose to make war on them on the account of 
the choice of a King of Spain, such a proceed¬ 
ing on her part would be an evidence of a dis¬ 
position to quarrel v\ ithout any lawful cause. 
It was premature, however, to discuss the ques¬ 
tion as long as the Cortes had not decided on 
accepting Prince Leopold as King of Spain ; 
still, if France chose to attack North Germany, 
that country would defend itself. 

9. —Sale at Christie and Manson’s of the 
pictures, furniture, and curiosities belonging to 
the late Charles Dickens. The attendance-was 

(925) 







JULY 


1870 . JULY 


great, and the prices realized enormous, the 
pictures alone bringing nearly 8,000/. Frith’s 
“Dolly Varden,” painted by the artist when 
young, and sold then, it was said, for 40/., 
brought 1,000 guineas ; and the portrait of the 
novelist by Maclise 660 guineas. The “ Pick¬ 
wick” silver ladles were sold separately and 
realized 267 guineas, or nearly 10/. per ounce. 
“ Grip,” the stuffed raven, went at 120 guineas. 
The sale of the furniture was commenced at 
Gad’s-hill on the 10th August. 

9 . —One of the German official organs an¬ 
nounces that “the Prussian Government, while 
it respects the independence of Spain, is not 
conscious of having received any special mission 
to solve the complicated constitutional question 
on which the attention of Europe is fixed, but 
believes it will be most safe and politic to leave 
this problem in the hands of the Spanish people 
and their accredited representatives.” 

10. —Serious accidentneartheCitadel Station, 
Carlisle, the North mail train for London, at an 
early hour this morning, being run into by a goods 
train at a point where the North Eastern crosses 
the main rails of the Lancaster and Carlisle line. 
One third-class carriage in the middle of the 
train was dashed against a massive stone abut¬ 
ment and broken into a thousand pieces. Here 
five of the passengers were killed on the spot, 
and the injured in this and other carriages 
amounted to twenty. The signals had long 
secured the safe working of the lines at this 
dangerous point, but on this occasion the driver 
of the goods train was absent, and the engine 
under the charge of a young, inexperienced 
stoker. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict 
that the collision was occasioned by the reckless 
conduct and incompetency of Rewell, the driver 
of the goods train referred to. 

— The Due de Gramont informs Lord 
Lyons that the King of Prussia had admitted 
to M. Benedetti that he had, in fact, consented 
to the Prince of Hohenzollern’s accepting the 
crown of Spain, and that having given his 
consent it would De difficult for him now to 
withdraw it; ” that “the affair is now beyond 
all controversy one between France and the 
King,” but that “if the Prince of Hohenzol- 
lern should now on the advice of the King of 
Prussia withdraw his acceptance of the crown, 
the whole affair would be at an end.” 

— French Rentes quoted to-day at 69f. 95c.; 
English Consols showed a fall of § ; but all 
quotations were more or less nominal. 

11. —The Education Bill passes through Com¬ 
mittee, Mr. Trevelyan making the most notice¬ 
able speech against increased denominational 
grants, which had led to his withdrawal from 
the Government. 

— Earl Granville desires Lord Lyons to 
remind the Due de Gramont that the Imperial 
Government had at the outset of the Spanish 
difficulty requested her Majesty’s Government to 
exert their influence to prevent the serious 

(926) 


consequences which it was apprehended might 
ensue. 

11.—In the House of Lords, Earl Granville 
makes his first appearance as Foreign Minister 
to explain the recent policy of the Government, 
premising his statement with the remark that 
so late as last Tuesday (the 5 th), at a preliminary 
interview, before formally entering on the duties 
of his department, Mr. Hammond, of the Foreign 
Office, had remarked that he never recollected 
so great a lull in that department as had been 
broken by the tragedy of Marathon. Two 
hours later he heard of the candidature of 
Prince Leopold. On his return next day from 
Windsor he saw the French Ambassador, who 
desired her Majesty’s Government to use its 
influence for the maintenance of peace. ‘ ‘ I 
expressed regret that such strong language had 
been used at the outset of the affair by the 
French Government, but I admitted the exist¬ 
ence of a strong and excited public opinion in 
France, and stated that for the reasons which 
he gave—viz. our friendly relations with France 
and our anxious desire to contribute to the 
maintenance of European peace—I would en¬ 
deavour, without dictation and without any 
undue interference with the position of other 
countries, to impress upon them to the utmost 
the necessity of examining this important sub¬ 
ject under all its serious phases.” In accord¬ 
ance with these principles, he had been in com¬ 
munication not only with France, Prussia, and 
Spain, but all the Great Powers, and found a 
general desire for peace. He offered no pre¬ 
diction as to the result, but trusted in the sense 
and moderation of European Governments. 
Regarding the Marathon massacre, Earl Gran¬ 
ville deprecated the mixing up of special out¬ 
rage with the general question of the state of 
Greece and the duty of the protecting Powers. 
This was not the time for the latter, and as to 
the former, Lord Clarendon had attended to it 
with an anxiety which had shortened his life. 

— Panic on the Stock Exchange : Consols 
for money, 92 to 92^ ; for the Account, 92^ ; 
American markets also greatly unsettled. 

— Rumour made public of the intention 
of President Grant to withdraw Mr. Motley 
from London, as soon as a suitable successor 
could be selected. 

— Questioned to-day in the French Legis¬ 
lative Body as to the chances of war, the Due 
de Gramont replied that the Government 
understood the impatience of the Chamber and 
of the country, and shared their anxiety, but it 
was impossible at present to communicate to 
the House any final decision. The Govern¬ 
ment was expecting an answer which would 
guide it in its resolutions, “Up to the pre¬ 
sent,” the Duke added, “all the European 
Cabinets appear to admit the legitimacy of our 
complaints.” Regarding this phrase Earl Gran¬ 
ville wrote to Lord Lyons on the I 3th:— 

‘ ‘ While making every allowance for the" gene¬ 
rality of statements made in debate, I never¬ 
theless think it right to observe, though without 






JULY 


JULY 


1870. 


wishing to raise any formal question with his 
Excellency, that the Due de Gramont’s state¬ 
ment, in the terms in which it is reported, is 
not applicable to her Majesty’s Government. 
No such general admission has been made by 
me in writing to your Excellency or in con¬ 
versing with M. de Lavalette; and I have no 
doubt that a reference to M. de Lavalette’s 
reports to his Government will bear me out in 
what I say.” 

11. —Fire at Stamboul, destroying about 1,500 
houses in the poor Mussulman, Greek, and 
Armenian quarters. 

12 . —The Irish Land Bill being now returned 
to the Commons, Mr. Gladstone states gene¬ 
rally that Government were willing to agree to 
all the Lords’ amendments with the exception 
of the changes in the scale of compensations, 
the shortening of the alternative lease from 
thirty-one to twenty-one years, the clause re¬ 
lating to permissive registration of improve¬ 
ments, and portions of the clause defining dis¬ 
turbance by the act of the landlord. 

— The Select Committee appointed to in¬ 
quire into the law of compensation for railway 
accidents report in favour of the liability of 
companies, “ limited within a maximum amount 
of compensation for each class of fares. ” As 
the present system of trial by jury did not 
appear to work in a satisfactory way, the Com¬ 
mittee recommended the establishment of a 
court specially designed for such cases, and the 
limitation of liabilities to—first-class passengers, 
1,000/., second-class, 500/., and third-class, 
300/., with liberty to insure for additional 
amounts at reasonable rates. 

— The Thames Embankment formally 
opened by the Prince of Wales and the 
Princess Louise, in the unavoidable absence 
of her Majesty. This great undertaking, com¬ 
menced In 1862, is a little over one mile and a 
quarter in length, and a hundred feet in width 
throughout, divided into the carriage-way, 
opened to-day, sixty-four feet, a footway on the 
Strand side sixteen feet, and another on the 
river side twenty feet broad. The front em¬ 
bankment wall, composed of brickwork faced 
with 650,000 cubic feet of granite-work, is 
carried to a depth of 32^ feet below Trinity 
high-water mark, and carries the roadway four 
feet above high water, except at the extremities 
of Westminster and Blackfriars, where it gra¬ 
dually rises to twenty feet. In reply to an 
address presented by the Chairman of the 
Metropolitan Board of Works, the Prince of 
Wales said that in no public work of this vast 
capital have the liberal and enterprising spirit 
of its citizens and the genius- and resources of 
our civil engineers been more signally dis¬ 
played. Mr. Bazalgette, the engineer, was 
afterwards introduced to the Prince. The 
opening of this important roadway was made 
known in the metropolis by the firing of a royal 
salute. 

— Encounter ir Hyde Park between Majoi 


Gordon and Major Kane, retired officers of the 
Indian service, the combatants belabouring each 
other with their sticks, in retaliation for an 
affront alleged to have been offered at a private 
dinner table. 

12 . —Prince Antoine, of Hohenzollern, in¬ 
timates to the Spanish Ambassador at Paris 
that he had withdrawn the candidature of his 
son Prince Leopold, and was determined not to 
allow a secondary family question to grow into 
a pretext for war. This step was said to be 
approved by King William as head of the family, 
but he refused to take any official step as 
Sovereign of Prussia. 

— The Due de Gramont states to Lord 
Lyons that the present state of things was very 
embarrassing to the French Government. On 
the one hand, public opinion was so very much 
excited in France that it was doubtful whether 
the Ministry would not be overthrown if it 
went down to the Chamber to-morrow and 
announced that it regarded the affair as finished 
without having obtained some more complete 
satisfaction from Prussia ; on the other hand, 
the renunciation of the crown by Prince Leo¬ 
pold put an end to the original cause of the 
dispute. The most satisfactory part of the affair, 
M. de Gramont said, was, that Spain was at 
all events now quite clear of the dispute. The 
quarrel, if quarrel there was, was confined to 
France and Prussia. Lord Lyons therefore 
wrote to Earl Granville :—“I did not conceal 
from M. de Gramont my surprise and regret that 
the French Government should hesitate for a 
moment to accept the renunciation of the 
Prince as a settlement of the affair. I re¬ 
minded him pointedly of the assurance which 
he had formally authorized me to give to her 
Majesty’s Government, that if the Prince with¬ 
drew his candidature the affair would be at an 
end. I urged as strongly as I could all the 
reasons which would render a withdrawal on 
his part from this assurance painful and dis¬ 
quieting to her Majesty’s Government.” 

13. —Count Bismarck (who had arrived 
at Berlin) tells Lord A. Loftus, ^ that unless 
some assurance were given by France in an 
official form “ that the present solution of the 
Spanish question was a final and satisfactory 
settlement of the French demands, and that no 
further claims were to be raised; and if, further, 
a withdrawal or a satisfactory explanation of 
the menacing language held by the Due de 
Gramont were not made, the Prussian Govern¬ 
ment would be obliged to seek explanations 
from France.” Germany, he added, was pre¬ 
pared for war. 

— An occurrence which was reported to 
have taken place at Ems to-day exasperated 
the feelings of the French people, and tended 
greatly to hasten on the warlike preparations 
on both sides. The incident was telegraphed 
from Berlin in these words “This afternoon 
King William was walking with Count Lehn- 
dorff, his Adjutant, in the Kurgarten at Ems, 
when M. Benedetti accosted him and preferred 

(927) 








his last extravagant demand. The King turned 
round and ordered Count Lehndorff to tell M. 
Benedetti that there was no reply, and that he 
would not receive him again. Berlin is excited 
by this intelligence, and crowds are in front of 
the palace, crying ‘ To the Rhine ! ’ ” So dif¬ 
ferent were the real facts of the interview, that 
some days afterwards the Due de Gramont ex¬ 
plained to Lord Lyons that the King had not 
in any way treated M. Benedetti with the dis¬ 
courtesy ascribed to him. 

13 . — At the sitting of the Legislative Body 
the Due de Gramont said : “ The Spanish 
Ambassador in Paris officially announced yes¬ 
terday to the French Government the with¬ 
drawal of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern’s 
candidacy to the throne of Spain. The nego¬ 
tiations which we are carrying on with Prussia, 
and which never had any other object in view 
than the above-named solution, are not as yet 
terminated; it is therefore impossible for the 
Government to speak of the subject or to 
submit to-day to the Chamber and to the 
country a general statement of this affair.” 
Expressing disappointment at the language 
used, Earl Granville wrote to Lord Lyons that 
her Majesty's Government had hoped the Im¬ 
perial Government “would have readily ac¬ 
cepted the solution which M. de Gramont had 
told your Excellency would close the matter, 
and which may be accepted as having shown 
the desire of the King of Prussia to maintain 
peaceable relations with France.” In conver¬ 
sation with Lord Lyons to-day (apparently 
after receipt of the above despatch) the Duke 
said the withdrawal of the candidature “put an 
end to all question with Spain, but from Prussia 
France had obtained literally nothing. The 
King of Prussia refused to comply with the 
request of his nephew (the Emperor Alexander) 
to order the Prince of Hohenzollem to with¬ 
draw his acceptance of the crown, and had not 
given a word of explanation to France.” He 
then placed in the hands of Lord Lyons the 
memorandum: “Nous demandons au Roi de 
Prusse de defendre au Prince de Hohenzollern 
de revenir sur sa resolution. S’il le fait tout 
l’incident est termine.” In reply to the request 
whether France could count upon the good 
offices of England in obtaining this prohibition, 
Lord Lyons declined answering the question 
without further instructions. 

14 . —The University Tests Bill thrown out 
in the House of Lords on the motion for a 
recond reading, by a majority of 95 to 79, the 
larger number supporting an amendment pro¬ 
posed by the Marquis of Salisbury for the 
appointment of a Select Committee. The 
motion was supported by four Bishops—Exeter, 
London, Winchester, and Oxford ; and opposed 
by ten—Bangor, Chichester, Ely, Gloucester 
and Bristol, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, 
Llandaff, Rochester, and Salisbury. 

— Amid the marked stillness of the House 
this afternoon, Mr. Gladstone, in answer to Mr. 
Disraeli, states that the communications between 
(928) 


France and Prussia are not yet at au end, and 
Government would do all it could to preserve 
peace. 

14 . —In the Brighton ritual case,Elphinstone 
v. Purchas, the Privy Council decide that Mr. 
Hebbert may be substituted for the first pro¬ 
moter, deceased. 

— Walter Miller found guilty, at the Central 
Criminal Court, of the murder of Mr. Huelin 
and his housekeeper at Chelsea, and sentenced 
to be executed. Piper the carman, to whose 
courage the immediate detection of the criminal 
was chiefly owing, was rewarded with a dona¬ 
tion of 50/. 

— War feeling. From Paris the news this 
morning is: “Waris considered inevitable, and 
is expected to be declared to-morrow. The 
railways are conveying troops to the frontiers. 
The Emperor is in permanent council with 
Ministers and military.” Immense crowds of 
Parisians now congregated on the Boulevards 
singing the “ Marseillaise,” while others pressed 
round the approaches to the Corps Legislatif, 
eager for the latest news. The King of Prussia 
returned from Ems to Berlin this evening, and 
received a most enthusiastic welcome on entering 
his capital, as many it was thought as 100,000 
people being massed between the railway station 
and the Brandenburg Gate, cheering and singing 
the National Anthem. The Unter den Linden 
was illuminated and decorated with the North 
German and Prussian flags. 

— Earl Granville writes to Lord Lyons 
approving of his caution in not committing her 
Majesty’s Government, and stating that it was 
of opinion that a demand on Prussia covering 
the future cannot be justified by France. They 
had stated to the King, however, “that as 
his Majesty had consented to the acceptance by 
Prince Leopold of the Spanish crown, and had 
thereby, in a certain sense, become a party to 
the arrangement, so he might with perfect 
dignity communicate to the French Government 
his consent to the withdrawal of the acceptance, 
if France shall waive her demand for an engage¬ 
ment covering the future. Such a communica¬ 
tion, her Majesty’s Government have said, made 
at the suggestion of a friendly Power, would be 
a further and the strongest proof of the King’s 
desire for the maintenance of the peace of 
Europe.” This suggestion Prussia declined to 
adopt. 

15 . —As a last resource in the way of friendly 
mediation, Earl Granville instructs Lord Lyons 
and Lord A. Loftus to press the Courts of Paris 
and Berlin respectively to be so far controlled 
by the Treaty of Paris, that before proceeding 
to extremities they should have recourse to the 
good offices of some friendly Power acceptable 
to both. “ Her Majesty’s Government are ready 
to take any part which may be desired in the 
matter.” On behalf of Prussia Count Bismarck 
wrote on the 18th : “The possibility of entering 
into a negotiation of this nature could only be 
acquired by a previous assurance of the willing- 






yui. v 


1870. 


JULY 


ness of France to enter into it also. France 
took the initiative in the direction of war and 
adhered to it, after the first complication had, 
in the opinion also of England, been settled by- 
removal of its cause. If we were now to take 
the initiative in negotiating, it would be mis¬ 
understood by the national feelings of Germany, 
excited as they have been by the menaces of 
France. Our strength lies in the national feeling 
of justice and honour, whereas the French Go¬ 
vernment prove that they do not require this sup¬ 
port in their own country in the same measure.” 
France replied on the 19th, that much as she 
“ would be inclined to accept the good offices of 
a friendly Power, and particularly of England, 
the refusal of the King of Prussia to give the 
guarantee which France was obliged to ask in 
order to prevent dynastic combinations danger¬ 
ous to her safety anj the care of her dignity, 
prevented her from taking any other course 
than that which she had adopted.” 

15 .—A Ministerial message to the Corps Le- 
gislatif details the steps taken to secure a pledge 
that the candidature of Prince Leopold should 
never be revived. The document concludes : — 
* ‘ The engagement demanded the King refused to 
give, and terminated the conversation with M. 
Benedetti by saying that he would in this, as in 
all other things, reserve to himself the right of 
considering the circumstances. Notwithstand¬ 
ing that, in consequence of our desire for peace, 
we did not break off the negotiations. Our 
surprise was great when we learned that the 
King had refused to receive M. Benedetti, 
and had communicated the fact officially to 
the Cabinet. We learned that Baron Wer- 
ther had received orders to take his leave, and 
that Prussia was arming. Under these cir¬ 
cumstances we should have forgotten our dig¬ 
nity and also our prudence had we not made 
preparations. We have prepared to main¬ 
tain the war which is offered to us, leaving 
to each that portion of the responsibility 
which devolves upon him. (Enthusiastic and 
prolonged applause.) Since yesterday we have 
called out the reserve, and we shall take the 
necessary measures to guard the interest and 
the security and the honour of France. ’ At 
the evening sitting several members of the Left 
insisted that the precise text of the insulting 
Prussian note describing the interview at Eras 
should be submitted. M. Ollivier said: “If 
we had delayed longer, we should have given 
time to Prussia to complete her armaments. 
For the rest, one fact will suffice. The Pius- 
sian Cabinet has informed all Governments 
that it refused to receive our ambassador 
while the negotiations were still proceeding. 
If in my country a Chamber should be found 
who would suffer this, then I should not for 
five minutes remain a Minister.” After the 
statement of M. Ollivier, the Ministry presented 
bills demanding a credit of fifty millions of 
francs for the war budget, and sixteen millions 
of francs for the naval requirements. In the 
Senate the Due de Gramont made a similar 
declaration to that of M. Ollivier in the Corps 
( 929 ) 


Legislatif, and he was received with most en¬ 
thusiastic manifestations. On leaving the 
Luxembourg the senators were surrounded by 
a crowd of students and others, shouting “Vive 
l’Empereur ! ” “Vive la guerre!” “A bas 
Prusse! ” M. Ollivier was enthusiastically re¬ 
ceived by an immense majority of the deputies 
and by the crowd assembled outside. Mani¬ 
festations in favour of war were made at the 
Bourse this afternoon. Copies of messages 
were afterwards found at Versailles,showing the 
prefects throughout France to have been in fre¬ 
quent communication with the Emperor, and 
assuring him of the enthusiasm of the people in 
his favour. His Majesty, on the other hand, 
was pleased to allow the singing of songs 
hitherto forbidden in theatres and on the streets. 
French Rentes, 66 fr. 

15 . —The parents of “ the Welsh fasting girl ” 
—Evan and Hannah Jacobs—sentenced at 
Caermarthen Assizes, the former to twelve 
months and the latter to six months’ imprison¬ 
ment, with hard labour in each case, for 
fraudulent deception leading to the death of 
their daughter. 

— Sir R. J. H. Harvey, of Norwich, commits 
suicide by shooting himself in the shrubbery of 
his residence at Crown Point ; the immediately 
exciting cause, it was believed, of the rash act 
being the financial difficulties of his bank at 
Norwich. 

16 . —Working Men’s International Exhibi¬ 
tion, Agricultural Hall, opened by the Prince 
of Wales. 

— Meeting of the Federal Council of the 
North German Confederation. 

— M. Benedetti arrives in Paris to-day, and 
Herr von Werther takes his leave. 

— The King of Bavaria announces his inten¬ 
tion to support Prussia. 

— The Emperor receives the members of 
the Senate at St. Cloud. M. Rouher, address¬ 
ing his Majesty, said: “The guarantees de¬ 
manded from Prussia have been refused, and 
the dignity of France has been disregarded. 
Your Majesty draws the sword, and the country 
is with you, trembling with indignation at the 
excesses that an ambition over-excited by one 
day’s good fortune was sure, sooner or later, to 
produce. Your Majesty was able to wait, but 
has occupied the last four years in perfecting the 
armament and the organization of the army.” 
The Emperor replied: “I was gratified to 
learn with what great enthusiasm the Senate 
received the declaration which the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs has been instructed to make. 
Whenever great interests and the honour of 
France are at stake, I am sure to receive ener¬ 
getic support from the Senate. We are begin¬ 
ning a serious struggle, and France needs the 
co-operation of all her children. 1 am very 
glad that the first patriotic utterance has come 
from the Senate. It will be loudly re-echoed 
throughout the country.” 

18,—Xwo Fenians,Davitt and Wilson, found 

3 o 









JULY 


JULY 


1870. 


guilty, at the Old Bailey, of treason-felony in 
forwarding arms to be used by brother-con¬ 
spirators in Ireland, and sentenced, the first .to 
fifteen years’ penal servitude, and the second to 
seven years. 

18 ,—Rumours of a determination on the part 
of Russia to join in the Franco-Prussian war 
cause great excitement in the Corn market. 

— The French Legislative Body grant a war 
credit of 515,000,000 fr. 

— King William receives an address from 
the Berlin Town Council, thanking his Majesty 
for having repelled the unheard-of attempt 
made upon the dignity and independence of the 
nation, and asserting that France having de¬ 
clared war against Prussia, every man will do 
his duty. The address stated that, “however 
desirous Germany might be to carry out the 
work of peace, no sacrifice will be considered 
too heavy to oppose the present rapacious 
attack upon the independence of the Father- 
land. Prussia enters, in unison with Germany, 
upon a war to which she has been provoked by 
foreign arrogance.” The King replied : “God 
knows I am not answerable for this war. The 
demand sent me I could not do otherwise than 
reject. My reply gained the approval of all 
the towns and provinces, the expression of 
which I have received from all parts of 
Germany, and even from Germans residing 
beyond the seas. The greeting which was 
given me here on Friday last animated me with 
pride and confidence. Heavy sacrifices will be 
demanded of my people. We have been ren¬ 
dered unaccustomed to them by the quickly- 
gained victories which we achieved in the last 
two wars. We shall not get off so cheaply this 
time ; but I know what I may expect from my 
army and from those now hastening to join the ' 
ranks. The instrument is sharp and cutting. | 
The result is in the hands of God. I know 
also what I may expect from those who are 
called upon to alleviate the wounds, the pains 
and sufferings, which war entails. In conclusion, 

I beg you to express my sincere thanks to the 
citizens for the reception they have given me.” 

19 .—The English Government issue a procla¬ 
mation of neutrality. An order was also issued 
prohibiting all officers in the service from join¬ 
ing either army as newspaper correspondents. 

— M. Prevost - Paradol, the accomplished 
journalist and newly appointed French Minister 
at Washington, commits suicide by shooting 
himself in his bedroom while in a state of 
mental aberration, caused partly by the intense 
heat and partly by the warlike statements issued 
on behalf of that Government he had so long 
opposed and was now serving. 

— The Corps Legislatif, by a majority of 
209 to 19 votes, pass a bill prohibiting the 
unauthorized publication of news of military 
operations. 

— The Due de Gramont informs Earl Gran¬ 
ville, through the Marquis de Lavalette, tl at 
the French army would have hospitably wel¬ 
comed the English officers and correspondents 
( 930 ) 


who had applied to the Marquis de Lavalette 
for permission to accompany it ; but the Etat 
Major-General, with reference to possible incon¬ 
venience which might result from such permis¬ 
sion being given, had decided that no strangers 
unconnected with the army should be allowed 
to follow the French armies into the field. A 
similar regulation was issued from Prussian 
head-quarters, though in each case the strin¬ 
gency of the regulation was modified in a slight 
degree. Several correspondents fell into the 
hands of the belligerents and were roughly 
used*-- 

19 . —The King of Prussia opens the North 
German Parliament with a speech in which he 
throws the responsibility of the war on France. 
“ The Confederate Governments, and I myself, 
are acting in the full consciousness that victory 
and defeat are in the hands of Him who decides 
the fate of battles. With a clear gaze we have 
measured the responsibility which, before the 
judgment-seat of God and of mankind, must 
fall upon him who drags two great and peace- 
loving peoples of the heart of Europe into a 
devastating war. The German and French 
peoples, both equally enjoying and desiring the 
blessings of a Christian civilization and of an 
increasing prosperity, are called to a more 
wholesome rivalry than the sanguinary conflict 
of arms. Yet those who hold power in France 
have, by preconcerted misguidance, found 
means to work upon the legitimate but excit¬ 
able national sentiment of our great neighbour¬ 
ing people for the furtherance of personal 
interests and the gratification of passions. ” A 
bill was afterwards introduced demanding a 
credit of 120,000,000 thalers for military 
purposes. 

20 . —Masses of French troops despatched 
eastward to Metz and Strasburg. Rumour in 
London of hostilities near Forbach. French 
R.entes, 66 fr. ; English Consols, 8y| to 89^. 
Market dull. 

—• Replying to the King’s Speech from the 
Throne, the North German Parliament state : 
“We place our trust in our old and heroic 
King, to whom Providence has granted that he 
should, in the eve of life, bring to a close the 
war in which he fought in his youth. We 
place our trust, finally, in God, who will surely 
punish the wicked audacity of the invader. The 
people has risen unanimously, and public 
opinion throughout the world recognises the 
justice of our cause. Friendly nations see in 
our triumph a prospect of deliverance from the 
Bonapartist’s lust for power, and the injustice 
to which they have been subjected. The 
German people will attain its unity on the field 
of battle, in which are also at stake the honour, 
freedom, and peace of Europe and the welfare 
of peoples.” 

— Count Bismarck lays on the table of the 
North German Parliament the official papers 
relating to the war. From France there was 
only one—the Declaration of War. He also 
produced a telegram published in the news- 









jul v 


1870. 


jul\ 


papers, which had been described as a diplo¬ 
matic note by the French Government ; the 
statement of the facts of the dispute recently 
published by the Prussian Official Gazette ; and 
a report, dated the 12th instant, from Baron 
Werther, detailing a conversation with the 
Due de Gramont. Count Bismarck said he 
did not lay this last despatch before the King, as 
the demand therein made for a letter of apology 
from his Majesty appeared to him ridiculous. 
The other documents presented were England’s 
offer of mediation and its rejection by Prussia, 
and the Prussian circular to the German Govern¬ 
ments relative to the outbreak of war. 

21 .— In the course of a discussion on the 
diplomacy by which the declaration of war was 
preceded, Mr. Gladstone stated that both 
France and Prussia had given satisfactory 
assurances of their desire to respect the neu¬ 
trality of Belgium, Holland, and Luxemburg, 
assuming that they were able to defend each 
their own territory, and that it was not violated 
by either belligerent. The official correspond¬ 
ence was laid on the table of the House this 
evening. 

— The King of Prussia, on assuming the 
command of the Bavarian army, telegraphs to 
the King of Bavaria: “ By an unheard-of 
presumption we have been driven from the 
most profound peace into war. Your real 
German attitude has electrified your people, and 
all Germany is now united as it never was at 
any former time. May God bless our arms in 
the fortunes of war ! I tender you my most 
heartfelt thanks for faithful adherence to our 
treaty upon which Germany rests.” The King 
of Bavaria replied : “ Your telegram has 

awakened in me a joyful echo. The Bavarian 
troops, side by side with their glorious brethren 
in arms, will enter enthusiastically into the 
struggle for German right and German honour ! 
May the war tend to the welfare of Germany 
and the safety of Bavaria ! ” 

_ The Due de Gramont addresses a cir¬ 
cular to French representatives abroad, with the 
object of proving that the candidature of Prince 
Leopold had been secretly promoted by Prussia 
in the hope that France would be obliged to 
accept it as an accomplished fact. In answer 
to the Duke’s affirmation that in 1869 M. de 
Theile had given “ his word of honour” to M. 
Benedetti “ that the Prince of Hohenzollern 
was not and could not become a serious can¬ 
didate for the crown of Spain,” Count Bis¬ 
marck and Baron Theile declared that not a 
single word on the subject of Prince Leopold s 
candidature had ev»_r passed between either of 
them and M. Benedetti since they were first 
aware of the fact that the offer of the Spanish 
crown had been made. 

_ King William issues a proclamation 

fixing the 27th as a solemn day of prayer and 
Divine service, and decreeing “ that while the 
war lasts prayers shall be offered in all Divine 
services, that in this struggle God may lead us 
to victory, that He may give us grace to bear 

(930 


ourselves as Christian men even unto our 
enemies, and that it may please Him to allow 
us to obtain a lasting peace, founded on the 
honour and independence of Germany.” 

22 .—The Education Bill passes through its 
final stages in the House of Commons, Mr. Miall 
protesting that the Premier had led at least one 
section of the Liberal party through the Valley 
of Humiliation. “ Once bit, twice shy,” he said. 

“ We can’t stand this sort of thing much longer.” 
Mr. Gladstone replied that he had laboured not 
with the object of gaining Mr. Miall’s support, 
but for the general welfare of the country. “ I 
hope,” said Mr. Gladstone, “my honourable 
friend will not continue his support to the 
Government one moment longer than he deems 
it consistent with his sense of right and duty. 
For God’s sake, sir, let him withdraw it the 
moment he thinks it better for the cause he has 
at heart that he should do so. The Govern¬ 
ment had striven to smooth difficulties, to allay 
passions, to avoid everything that would excite 
or stimulate, to endeavour to bring men to 
work together, to rise above mere sectional 
views, to eschew all extremes, and not to make 
their own narrow choice the model of the 
measure they were presenting to Parliament, 
but to admit freely and liberally into its com¬ 
position those great influences which were 
found swaying the community.” 

— John Owen tried at Aylesbury Assizes, 
and found guilty of the murder of the Marshall 
family at Denham (see May 23). At the. 
conclusion of Baron Channell’s solemn address 
the prisoner stepped down from the box, saying 
in a jaunty manner, “ Thank you, sir.” The 
indignation of the people in court manifested 
itself in a way which led to the quick removal 
of this hardened criminal. 

.— Replying to an address presented by 
members of the Legislative Body, the Emperor 
says: “ We have done all in our power to 
avert the war, and I may say that it is the 
whole nation which has, by its irresistible 
impulse, dictated our decisions. I confide to 
you the Empress, who will call you around her 
if circumstances should require it. She will 
know how to fulfil courageously the duty which 
her position imposes upon her. I take my son 
with me ; in the midst of the army he will 
learn to serve his country. Resolved ener¬ 
getically to pursue the great mission which has 
been entrusted to me, I have faith in the success 
of our arms, for I know that behind me 
France has risen to her feet, and that God 
protects her.“ 

— The first decisive act of the war takes 
place to-day, the Prussians blowing up the 
abutment on the Baden shore of Kehl bridge. 
The bridge turrets were destroyed, and the 
debris thrown as far as the French shore. 

23 .—Sir R. Phillimore pronounces the judg¬ 
ment of the Arches Court in the case of Mr. 
Bennett, of Frome, who did not appear to 
answer the charge in the court of his metro¬ 
politan. Regarding the first charge-the Real 
k 302 








JULY 1870. JULY 


Presence—the Dean said that the retractation 
of the offensive words, though ungracious, was 
sufficient under the general law; and on the 
other charges—those relating to sacrifice and 
worship—he thought Mr. Bennett had not ex¬ 
ceeded the liberty which the law allows. 
Notice was given of appeal to the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council. 

23 . —The French Sikle of this evening 
demands that the restitution of Sarrelouis and 
Landau, with the adjacent cantons, should be 
the minimum of the demands to be made 
against Prussia. 

— Imperial proclamation. “ Frenchmen,— 
There are solemn moments in the life of peoples, 
when the national sense of honour, violently 
excited, imposes itself with irresistible force, 
dominates all interests, and alone takes in hand 
the direction of the destinies of the country. 
One of those decisive hours has sounded for 
France. Prussia, towards whom both during 
and since the war of 1866 we have shown the 
most conciliatory disposition, has taken no 
account of our good wishes and our enduring 
forbearance. Launched on the path of invasion, 
she has provoked mistrust everywhere, neces¬ 
sitated exaggerated armaments, and has turned 
Europe into a camp, where reigns nothing but 
uncertainty and fear of the morrow. . . . We 
do not make war on Germany, whose indepen¬ 
dence we respect. We wish that the peoples 
who compose the great German nationality may 
freely dispose of their destinies. For ourselves 
we demand the establishment of a state of affairs 
which shall guarantee our security and assure 
our future. We wish to conquer a lasting peace 
based on the true interests of peoples, and to 
put an end to that precarious state in which all 
nations employ their resources to arm them¬ 
selves one against the other. ... I am about 
to place myself at the head of that valiant army 
which is animated by love of duty and of coun¬ 
try. It knows its own worth, since it has seen 
how victory has accompanied its march in the 
four quarters of the world. I take with me my 
son, despite his youth. He knows what are 
the duties which his name imposes upon him, 
and he is proud to bear his share in the dangers 
of those who fight for their country. May God 
bless our efforts. A great people which defends 
a just cause is invincible.— Napoleon.” 

24 . —The Rev. Robert Moffat, a venerable 
African missionary, father-in-law of Dr. Living¬ 
stone, arrives in Southampton from the Cape, 
for the purpose of carrying through in this 
country the publication of the Scriptures in the 
Bechuana languag e. He had been for upwards 
of fifty years an agent of the London Missionary 
Society in Africa. 

— Slight skirmishing at Saarbruck, where 
the needle-gun was said to prove fully equal to 
the chassepot. 

— The Empress Eugenie visits the French 
fleet at Cherbourg, previous to its departure for 
the Baltic. 

( 932 ) 


25 .—Extraordinary sensation produced by 
the publication in the Times of a Projet de 
traite, some time since offered to Prussia by 
France, and again submitted during the late 
negotiations. “ Deeming it useful to draw 
closer the bonds of friendship which unite 
them,” it was provided by Article 1 that France 
should recognize Prussian acquisitions in the 
German war; 2, that Prussia should facilitate 
the acquisition of Luxemburg by France; 3, 
France would not oppose a Federal Union of 
North and South Germany ; and 4, “On his 
part, his Majesty the King of Prussia, in case 
his Majesty the Emperor of the French should 
be obliged by circumstances to cause his troops 
to enter Belgium or to conquer her, will accord 
the succour of his arms to France, and will sus¬ 
tain her with all his forces of land and sea 
against every Power which, in that eventuality, 
shall declare war upon her.” The fifth and last 
article provided for “ an alliance offensive and 
defensive, which they solemnly engage to main¬ 
tain.” It having been stated in both Houses 
of Parliament that explanations were looked 
for from the Governments of the contracting 
parties, M. de Lavalette assured Lord Gran¬ 
ville on the 27th that the plan contained in the 
projet de traite was one which “had originated 
with M. de Bismarck, and had been the subject 
of some conversation with M. Benedetti; but it 
never had any serious basis, and was rejected 
by both parties.” Count Bismarck, on the other 
hand, wrote : “ The document published by the 
Times contains one of the proposals which have 
been made to us since the Danish war by offi¬ 
cial and unofficial French agents, with the 
object of establishing an alliance between 
Prussia and France for their mutual aggrandize¬ 
ment. I will send the text of an offer made in 
1866, according to which France proposed to 
aid Prussia with 300,000 men against Austria, 
and to permit Prussia’s aggrandizement by six 
or eight millions of subjects in return for the 
cession to France of the district between the 
Rhine and the Moselle. The impossibility of 
agreeing to this course was clear to all except 
French diplomatists. On this proposition being 
rejected, the French Government began to cal¬ 
culate upon our defeat. France has not ceased 
to tempt us with offers to be carried out at the 
cost of Germany and Belgium. In the interests 
of peace I kept them secret. After the Luxem¬ 
burg affair the proposals dealing with Belgium 
and South Germany were renewed. M. Bene- 
detti’s manuscript belongs to this period. It is 
not likely that M. Benedetti acted without the 
Emperor’s sanction.” The document was de¬ 
scribed to be in M. Benedetti’s own handwriting, 
on paper used by the French Embassy. The 
French Ambassador, when explaining his own 
position in the negotiations, wrote that after the 
peace of Prague various combinations having 
reference to the integrity of France and Ger¬ 
many were put forward and became the sub¬ 
ject of conversation, in which M. de Bismarck 
was always disposed to make his own personal 
ideas prevail. “ In one of these conversations. 








JULY 


1870. 


JULY 


and in order to give myself an exact idea of his 
combinations, I consented to transcribe them in 
a manner (en quelque sorte ) at his dictation. 
The form, no less than the substance, shows 
clearly that I confined myself to reproducing a 
project conceived and developed by him. M. 
de Bismarck kept this document, wishing to 
submit it to the King. On my side, I reported 
in substance to the Imperial Government the 
communications which had been made to me. 
The Emperor rejected them as soon as they 
came to his knowledge. I am bound to say 
that the King of Prussia himself did not seem 
to wish to accept the basis of them ; and since 
that time, that is to say, during the last four 
years, I have never again entered upon any 
new exchange of ideas on the subject with M. 
de Bismarck.” The feeling in foreign Courts 
set in so strong against France, that on the 4th 
August the Due de Gramont publicly defied 
Count Bismarck to name one fact in support of 
his insinuations. “We opened no negotiations 
either in respect to Belgium or any other 
object.... Whatever may be the calumnies put 
forward by Count Bismarck through fear, he 
has forfeited every claim to be believed.” 

25 . —Questioned on the subject of the Pro¬ 
jected Treaty, Earl Granville in the House of 
Lords, and the Premier in the Commons, state, 
in almost identical terms, that though it was 
impossible to exaggerate the importance of the 
document, it was not in their power at present 
to give any detailed information, nor was it 
within the limits of their duty to make any 
remarks on its contents, or even to give any 
opinion as to the mode in which it had been 
communicated to the world. But its publica¬ 
tion, they thought, could not fail to draw from 
the spontaneous action of the two Powers con¬ 
cerned all the declarations necessary for its 
elucidation. 

— The Education Bill read a second time in 
the House of Lords. 

26 . —Clerical Disabilities Bill, permitting 
clergymen to resume the status of laymen, read 
a second time in the House of Lords. 

— Dr. Ball’s motion to extend the Census 
inquiry to the “ religious professsion ” of each 
individual, rejected by 90 to 77 votes. 

— Congratulatory addresses presented by 
South German Sovereigns to the Crown Prince 
of Prussia, commander-in-chief of their armies. 

— Heavy thunderstorm in London, during 
which St. Saviour’s Church, London Bridge, was 
struck by lightning. 

— The Prussians repulsed at Niederbronn. 

27 . —The Marquis de Banneville presents a 
despatch to Cardinal Antonelli, announcing the 
intention of the Emperor to withdraw all French 
soldiers from Rome. 

— The Empress Eugenie appointed Regent 
during the absence of the Emperor. 

23 .—The Duke of Argyll, in an almost 
deserted House, submits the annual statement 
of Indian finances. Instead of a surplus of 


52,000/. as was expected last year, there was a 
deficiency of 1,500,000/. The estimate for the 
current year was—revenue, 49,324,397/.; expen¬ 
diture, 49,443,760/.; deficiency, 119,363/. 

28 .—Discussion in both Houses on the nego¬ 
tiations which had preceded the outbreak of war 
between France and Prussia. The policy of the 
Government was generally approved. “Iam 
aware (said Lord Granville) of the great respon¬ 
sibility which weighs upon her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment. I know how bound we are to observe 
every event as it goes on, and I believe your 
Lordships will agree with me that it is right that 
we should abstain from all specific declara¬ 
tions of what we should or should not do 
in any possible contingency. I am quite con¬ 
vinced that in order to preserve the honour of 
this country, and in order to be of the greatest 
use in restoring peace, if such restoration is pos¬ 
sible, the best course we can pursue is, in words 
and in attitude, to maintain a dignified and a 
calm reserve.” 

— Meeting at the residence of Lord Ebury, 
to take into consideration the propriety of erect¬ 
ing a memorial to the late Earl of Clarendon. 

— German journals complain that England 
is not observing a fair neutrality, in so far as 
she is executing orders for cartridges to be sent 
to France. 

— The Emperor leaves St. Cloud for the 
seat of war, accompanied by the Prince 
Imperial and the members of his suite, after 
bidding adieu to the Empress and the Ministers 
present on the occasion. A train was in readi¬ 
ness at the Chemin de Fer de l’Est, by which the 
Emperor proceeded to Metz, where he arrived 
about seven o’clock P.M., and entered the 
Prefecture amid the cheers of the people. The 
Empress and Ministers returned to the Palace 
of St. Cloud. “ Partings (wrote the Pall Mall 
Gazette ) are at all times painful, but it would be 
difficult to conceive any farewell more tinged 
with sadness than that of the Emperor and the 
Empress on his departure from Paris. There 
are no two people in Europe who have played 
so prominent a part in history during the last 
twenty years as the royal couple whose fate 
hangs upon the result of the present war. When 
they meet again, if, indeed, they ever do meet, 
what an eventful story will have been told, and 
each line written in letters of blood ! To France, 
though the issues are great, the war is but one 
chapter in her history ; but to the Emperor and 
the Empress it may be the last chapter in the re¬ 
cord of their career. For him at least there is no 
future but in success ; in drawing the sword he 
has thrown away the scabbard, he has burned 
his ships. That gay and glorious city which as 
with an enchanter’s wand he has remodelled 
and rebuilt, will either close her gates to the 
fugitive or welcome the return of a victorious 
leader. Bold as the Emperor may be to beard 
Bismarck in his power, it will require more 
boldness still to reappear at home without his 

7 7 

army. 


( 933 ) 







jul y 


AUGUST 


1870. 


28 . —Proclamation to the army issued from 
the Imperial head-quarters, Metz : “The war 
which is now commencing will be a long and 
severe one, since it will have for the scene of its 
operations places full of fortresses and obstacles, 
but nothing is too difficult for the soldiers of 
Africa, the Crimea, China, Italy, and Mexico. 
You will again prove what the French army, 
animated by the sentiment of duty, maintained 
by discipline, and inspired by love of country, 
can perform. Whatever road we may take 
beyond our frontiers we shall find glorious 
traces of our fathers. We will prove ourselves 
worthy of them. The whole of France follows 
you with her ardent wishes, and the eyes of the 
world are upon you. The fate of liberty and 
civilization depends upon our success. 
Soldiers! Let each one do his duty, and the 
God of armies will be with us.— Napoleon.” 

— The Hon. Francis Charteris, eldest son 
of Lord Elcho, accidentally shoots himself in 
his father’s library, St. James’s Square. 

29 . —At the Lord Mayor’s banquet to-night, 
Mr. Gladstone took occasion to explain the 
earnest desire of this country to prevent the 
outbreak of hostilities, and the duty which now 
lay on the Government of observing a firm and 
impartial neutrality—a duty “ anxious and 
arduous to a degree perhaps only second to the 
conducting of war itself. ” 

— The Emperor assumes the chief command 
of the army at Metz. 

29 . —Died, aged 70, J. B. Payne, for many 
years Vice-President of the Society of British 
Artists. 

30 . —At a Cabinet meeting to-day it was re¬ 
solved to authorize Lord Granville to write to 
the Courts of France and Prussia, renewing the 
expressions of the satisfaction of her Majesty’s 
Government at the assurances given by the 
Emperor and the King respectively that they 
intended to respect the neutrality of Belgium, 
and proposing a treaty to the following effect:— 
That if the armies of either belligerent violated 
the neutrality of Belgium, Great Britain would 
co-operate with the other in its defence, but 
without engaging to take part in the general 
operations of the war. The treaty was to hold 
good for twelve months after the present war. 
This treaty was afterwards carried out, both 
Powers pledging themselves to a correspond¬ 
ing co-operation. 

— Rumours circulated in Paris that Mar¬ 
shals Bazaine and M‘Mahon had crossed the 
Rhine. No mention was made of any action 
having taken place. 

•— Father Hyacinthe protests, as a Christian 
and Catholic, against “the pretended dogma” of 
Papal Infallibility, and denies that the Council 
imposing it was in any sense GEcumenical. 

31 . —At the close of this month the French 
and German armies were found to be concen¬ 
trated in great force along the Rhine frontier. 
The former extended from Strasburg to the 
Luxemburg border, along an arc of a circle 

( 934 ) 


about 150 miles in length. The Germans 
J massed themselves chiefly between Saarbriick 
and Landau, a distance of little more than 
fifty miles. The French Army of the Rhine 
was divided into seven corps, besides the Im¬ 
perial Guard. The 1st, with head-quarters at 
Strasburg, was under the command of Marshal 
M‘Mahon. The 5th, under De Failly, came 
next, on the western reverse of the Vosges, 
near Sarreguemines. The 2nd, under Fros- 
sard, lay fronting Saarbriick. On its left was 
posted the 4th Corps, under General L’Admi- 
rault; while the 3rd, under Bazaine, continued 
the line to Sierck, on the north of Thionville. 
The 7th Corps, under General Felix Douay, 
was stationed at Belfort, in the Department of 
the Haut-Rhin; while the Imperial Guard at 
Metz, under General Bourbaki, and the 6th 
Corps, under the command of Marshal Can- 
robert, at Chalons, formed the reserves of the 
French army. French authorities put the total 
force as high as 350,000 men, but, excluding 
the corps at Belfort and Chalons, it did not 
appear that more than 250,000 were between 
the Moselle and the frontier when hostilities 
began. The Intendance service, uniting within 
itself all the departments of supply and trans¬ 
port, was from the commencement confused and 
inefficient The German forces were divided 
into three armies : the first, under the command 
of General Von Steinmetz, 90,000 strong; the 
second, under Prince Frederick Charles, com¬ 
prising the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 9th, joth, and 12th 
North German Corps, estimated at 260,000 
and 500 pieces of artillery ; and the third, com¬ 
manded by the Crown Prince, consisting of the 
5th, 6th, and nth North German Corps, the 
1st and 2nd Bavarian Corps, and the divisions 
furnished by Baden, Wurtemburg, and Htsse, 
in all about 200,000 men, also with 500 guns. 
The King of Prussia left Berlin to-day to assume 
the command of the German forces, proceeding 
to the centre by way of Mayence and Homburg. 
The Crown Prince directed the main body of 
his army from Mannheim towards the little 
walled town of Weissenburg, famous in the 
wars of the Spanish Succession as commanding 
the lines of the Lauter. Prince Frederick 
Charles led his troops by way of Coblentz and 
Treves. At this early period of the campaign 
a concentration of forces appeared likely to 
take place at Metz. As in the campaign 
against Austria in 1866, the disposition of the 
forces was arranged by General Von Moltke, 
who passed to the front in the King’s staff to 
carry out his plan of the war. 

August l. —The Irish Land Bill receives 
the Royal assent. 

— Mr. Cardwell proposes a supplementary 
vote of 2,000,000/. for the maintenance during 
the European war of 20,000 additional men in 
the army and navy. 

— Debate in the Commons on the recent 
diplomacy of the Government, Mr. Disraeli 
throwing doubts on the policy of silence and 
reserve hitherto observed, and requesting in- 







AUGUST 


AUGUST 


1870. 


formation as to the state of our naval and 
military resources. He thought that under the 
treaties of 1815 there was a way open for this 
country, in conjunction with Russia, to have 
influenced Prussia towards a peace policy; and 
in any case he thought the Government to 
blame for the reductions in the army and 
dockyard establishments at a time when the 
prospects of peace were uncertain. Mr. Glad¬ 
stone declared our position to be one of strict 
neutrality—not an “armed neutrality,” but a 
secure neutrality, backed and sustained by 
adequate measures of defence. “ Happily,” he 
said, “ we had peace establishments which 
were not only in the highest efficiency, but 
capable of easy and rapid expansion, and the 
reductions which had been made had promoted 
instead of diminishing our strength. We had 
now an army of 89,000 and a reserve of 41,000, 
as compared with 87,500 regulars and 19,000 
reserve in 1868; and a strong concentrated 
system of naval defence in every way superior 
to the old sporadic system. ” 

1. —Mrs. Mafke, of Woodhill, Liskeard, and 
a guide lost in a snow crevasse, while descending 
the slope of Le Corridor height, Mont Blanc. 

— Walton Bridge opened free of toll by the 
Metropolitan Board of Works and Corporation 
officials. 

2 . —Some dissatisfaction being expressed as to 
the effect of the Premier’s “secure neutrality” 
on Belgium, Earl Granville took occasion to¬ 
night to give a positive assurance that the 
Government were aware of the duty this country 
owed to Belgium, and declared his perfect con¬ 
fidence that if the Government followed judi¬ 
ciously and actively the course which the honour, 
the interests, and the obligations of the country 
dictated, they would receive the full support of 
Parliament and the nation. He added that the 
Ministry had taken steps last week to convey 
to other Powers in the clearest manner, though 
without adopting an offensive or menacing tone, 
what England believed to be right. In these 
circumstances Earl Russell withdrew the mea¬ 
sure he had laid on the table for calling out the 
militia. 

— Discussion in the Commons on the Greek 
massacre, Sir Henry Bulwer maintaining that 
Colonel Theagenis had given orders which 
caused the death of the captives, and which he 
knew at the time he gave them would be at¬ 
tended with this disastrous result. 

— Offensive operations commenced by the 
French, Saarbriick being shelled and taken 
to-day between one and two o’clock p.M. with 
slight opposition. The Emperor at once tele¬ 
graphed to the Empress : “ Louis has just re¬ 
ceived his baptism of fire. Pie showed ad¬ 
mirable coolness, and was not at all affected. 
A division of General Frossard has captured 
the heights which overlook the left bank at 
Saarbriick. The Prussians made but a short 
resistance. We were in the front rank, but the 
bullets and cannon balls fell at our feet. Louis 


has kept a bullet which fell quite close to him. 
Some of the soldiers wept at seeing him so 
calm. We have only lost one officer and ten 
men killed.— Napoleon.” 

3 . —Mr. Hughes’ Sunday Trading Bill lost 
in the Commons. 

— The coroner’s jury return a verdict of 
accidental death in the case of George Hodder, 
killed by being thrown with six others from a 
drag in Richmond Park on the 28th May last. 

4 . —The Ecclesiastical Titles Act Repeal Bill 
read a second time in the Commons. 

— First serious engagement in the war be¬ 
tween France and Prussia, the Crown Prince 
to-day attacking the position at Weissenburg 
held by that portion of M‘Mahon’s corps com¬ 
manded by General Abel Douay. The French 
were repulsed and dispersed after a severe 
struggle. The King at once telegraphed to the 
Queen at Berlin: “Under Fritz’s eyes, we to¬ 
day gained a brilliant but bloody victor}’ by 
storming Weissenburg and the Gaisburg behind 
it. Our 5th and 11 th corps and the 2nd Bavarian 
corps were engaged. Enemy in flight. Five 
hundred un wounded prisoners. One cannon and 
their camp in our hands. The French General of 
Division Douay dead. On our part General 
' Von Kirchbach slightly grazed. My regiment 
and the 58th had heavy losses. God be thanked 
for this first glorious achievement. May lie 
help further.” 

5 . —The Prefect of Paris issues a decree, 
“ rendered necessary by the internal manoeuvres 
of certain foreign residents against the safety of 
the State,” calling upon all persons natives of 
Germany to present themselves within three 
days before the Commissary of Police, in order 
to obtain permission to reside in France. 

6 . —Following up his important victory of 
the 4th, the Crown Prince attacks the united 
corps d’armee of Generals M‘Mahon, Failly, 
and Canrobert, drawn up in position at Woerth. 
M‘Mahon had under him 50,000 men in all, 
and occupied a strong defensive position on the 
slopes of the Vosges. The Crown Prince ar¬ 
rived from Weissenburg on the evening of the 
5th with an army of 130,000 men,and began the 
attack at seven the next morning. The French 
line was turned at two points and their left 
and centre broken, notwithstanding a desperate 
charge of cavalrywhich was ordered by M ‘Mahon 
as a last resort. The King telegraphed to 
Berlin: “Wonderful good fortune! This 
new great victory won by Fritz. Thank God 
for His mercy ! We have taken thirty cannon, 
two eagles, six mitrailleuses, 4,000 prisoners. 
M‘Mahon received reinforcements from the 
main army. A victorious salute (toi guns) 
was fired off upon the field of battle.” 

— Another disaster to the French arms 
at Forbach. To-day from noon till after 
dark a severe and well-contested battle was 
fought between Saarbriick and Forbach. 

| The 14th division commenced the engage- 
| ment, and was successively supported against 

( 935 ) 











A 7GUST 


AUGUST 


1S70. 


the French, who had fortified themselves, by 
three battalions and the battery of the 16th 
division. The heights of Spicheren, to the 
south of the exercise-ground, were taken by 
storm, and Frossard driven back upon Forbach. 
While this was going on, the 13th division 
advanced opposite Volklingen, took Rosseln, 
and by nightfall established the head of the 
column at Forbach. Among the slain was 
General Francis, the first officer of that rank 
who fell on the Prussian side. 

6 . —Excitement in Paris caused by intelli- 
of new disasters to the national arms. In the 
early part of the day rumours of a great French 
victory were flying through the city, and the 
consequent fever at the Bourse spread to the 
rest of the population. It was said that Prince 
Frederick Charles had been surrounded, if not 
actually taken prisoner, and that Landau was in 
the hands of a victorious French army. Rentes 
^closed at 67k 70c., or if. higher than the day 
before. The public mind was, however, thrown 
into a state of painful suspense by the discovery 
that r.o official confirmation of the reported 
victory had been received. The despatch an¬ 
nouncing it which had been stuck up at the 
Bourse was no longer to be seen there, and by 
mid-day the story was generally set down as 
a hoax. In answer to the demands from an 
excited crowd, M. Ollivier appeared on the 
balcony of his house, and declared that the 
author of the false news had been arrested. 
All intelligence would in future be communi¬ 
cated immediately. When the news was good, 
they would publish it with delight; ** when 
bad, we shall confide in your patriotism and 
patience.” In the evening the excitement 
assumed so serious an aspect that the Ministry 
was compelled to issue a proclamation, exhort¬ 
ing the people to be calm, patient, and orderly. 

7 . —Paris declared in a state of siege. 
Throughout the day the news from the Army of 
the Rhine was brief and unsatisfactory. The 
messages from the Emperor were either so 
vague as to indicate that even he did not know 
what was transpiring, or so contradictory as to 
lead to the belief that he wilfully concealed 
minute knowledge of the disasters. To-day he 
telegraphed from Metz: “My communica¬ 
tion with M‘Mahon is interrupted; L’Aigle 
announces that he has lost a battle, but retires 
in good order. I go to place myself in the 
centre of the position.” Again, two hours 
later: “ The retreat is being effected in good 
order. All may be regained (tout pent se re- 
tablir ).” About mid-day the Empress issued a 
proclamation from the Tuileries:—“French¬ 
men ! The opening of the war has not been in 
our favour. Our arms have suffered a check. 
Let us be firm under this reverse, and let us 
hasten to repair it. Let there be amongst us 
but a single party, that of France ; but a single 
flag, the flag of our national honour. I come 
into your midst. Faithful to my mission and 
to my duty, you will see me first where danger 
threatens to defend the flag of France. I call 

( 936 ) 


upon all good citizens to preserve order - ; to 
disturb it would be to conspire with our 
enemies.— Eugenie.” The Council of Minis¬ 
ters remained sitting en permanence , and in the 
afternoon put forth another proclamation, con¬ 
cluding as follows “ In the face of the grave 
news which has come to hand our duty is clear. 
We appeal to the patriotism and energy of all. 
The Chambers are convoked. Let us first 
place Paris in a state of defence, in order to 
facilitate the execution of the military prepara¬ 
tions. We declare the capital in a state of 
siege. Let there be no weakness—no divisions. 
Our resources are immense. Let us fight with 
vigour, and the country will be saved.” Then 
follows a decree convoking the Senate and 
the Legislative Body for the nth of August, 
and a second decree declaring the department 
of the Seine in a state of siege. 

8 . —In opening the Belgian Chambers the 
King expresses a hope that his country, “in¬ 
offensive and friendly towards all, will not 
witness the infringement of a neutrality which 
has been imposed on her, and guaranteed by 
each of the five great Powers of Europe. 
On her part, Belgium, in the position which 
international law has made for her, will not 
misapprehend either what she owes to other 
States, or what she owes to herself. She 
will be prepared, during the war, to give to a 
conscientious neutrality the loyal and sincere 
character which she has always endeavoured to 
maintain in her relations during peace. In 
accordance with the desires of the belligerents 
themselves, she will hold herself ready to de¬ 
fend herself with all the ardour of her patriotism 
j and all the resources which a nation derives 
from an energetic will. Already my Govern¬ 
ment has taken under its responsibility such 
military measures as circumstances demand, 
and to which the approbation of the two 
Chambers will not be denied.” 

— Explanation made in both Houses of 
Parliament regarding the guarantees given by 
Great Britain for the protection of Belgian 
neutrality and independence. (See July 30.) 
In defending “the wise and spirited policy” of 
the Government—a policy “not the less wise 
because it was spirited”—Mr. Gladstone said 
the special reason for entering into these new 
treaties was the reservation in the declarations 
of the two belligerents, which made the respect 
of the neutrality of Belgium by each dependent 
upon the action of the other. 

— General Changarnier arrives at Metz, and 
offers his services to the Emperor. ‘ * Sire, ” said 
the General on obtaining admission to the 
prefecture, “France is in danger. I am an old 
soldier ; I come to offer you my experience and 
my sword. My sword is, perhaps, not worth 
much, for I am seventy-eight years of age, but 
I think my head is still good.” The door was 
shut, and the interview lasted two hours. 

! When it again opened, the Emperor spoke. 

! ‘ ‘ Get dinner for the General, ” said he ; “ he has 
; not eaten since this morning. Also, tell the 









AUGUST 


1870. 


AUGUST 


Count d’Aure to choose horses for the Gene¬ 
ral : he belongs to us, gentlemen ; let his apart¬ 
ment be prepared.” 

8 . —The Prussians cross the Rhine at Colmar. 

— Evacuation of Papal territory by the 
French troops completed. 

— Died, aged 55, Sir John Thwaites, first 
Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works. 

9 . —The new Belgian Treaty signed by 
Count BernstorfT and Lord Granville on the 
part of their respective Governments. The 
French Ambassador also received authority to 
sign the same. 

— Unveiling of the memorial statue erected 
to the Earl of Carlisle on Brampton Moat, 
Cumberland. 

— The Times writes to-day that things are 
beginning to arrange themselves as if the Em¬ 
peror were never likely to reappear at the head 
of affairs, and as if people were considering 
how his presence might eventually be dispensed 
with altogether. “It seems, indeed, only to 
be a question who should first pronounce the 
word ‘ Abdication ! ’ ” The Pall Mall Gazette 
stated : “ We receive from Paris other assur¬ 
ances than that contained in the letter which 
we print elsewhere, that the French Empire is 
in danger of immediate collapse. This appre¬ 
hension is based upon a belief that the Em¬ 
peror is to all intents and purposes beaten 
already, and that within a very brief period the 
Germans will be on their way to Paris. It is 
thought—we now only repeat what we hear— 
that even if the Germans should be delayed, 
the Empire cannot live. Several eminent per¬ 
sonages in France who have been in close 
alliance with the Empire have left, or are pre¬ 
paring to leave, the country, and their example 
will be followed by others. Some friends of 
the Emperor have already prepared for the 
flight of the Empress and her son.” 

_ Fall of the French Ministry. At an 

afternoon sitting of the Senate M. Parriere, in the 
name of the Government, asked for the approval 
of the organization of the National Guard, 
the incorporation of the Garde Mobile in the 
regular army, and the hastening of the drawing 
for 1871. “The Prussians (he said) hope to 
profit by our internal divisions, but this hope 
will be deceived. If order should be disturbed, 
we shall make use of the powers conferred 
upon us by the state of siege, and we shall call 
to our aid other forces than those of the 
National Guard. Order is safety.” In the 
Corps Legislatif M. Ollivier made a similar 
communication and asked for the confidence of 
the Chambers. “ If other Ministers can better 
events, dismiss us, but immediately, as now we 
must not speak, but act.” M. Jules Favre 
brought forward a proposition for the immediate 
arming of all French citizens and the appoint¬ 
ment of a committee of fifteen deputies to be 
charg< -d with repelling the invasion. I n the cou rse 
of his speech he observed that the Emperor 


had shown his incapacity and ought to return 
to Paris, and that it was necessary the army 
should have another chief. This brought up 
M. Granier de Cassagnac, who said, were he a 
member of the Government, he would leave 
the members of the Left to be dealt with by a 
Council of War ; an observation which created 
considerable disturbance, and brought M. Jules 
Simon on to the floor of the Chamber, exclaim¬ 
ing, “We are prepared ; shoot us ! ” Other 
members followed, and a violent altercation 
ensued between them and certain members of 
the Government, whom they accused of having 
insulted them by laughing and offensive ges¬ 
tures. The President thereupon put on his 
hat and declared the sitting suspended. Even¬ 
tually, after considerable discussion, a motion 
proposed by Clement Duvemois was agreed to, 
to the effect that the Chamber, deciding to 
support a Cabinet capable of providing for the 
defence of the country, passes to the order of 
the day. This motion was carried with only 
six dissentients ; whereupon the Ministry, after 
a short adjournment of the Chamber, announced 
that their resignation had been accepted by the 
Empress, and that General Count de Palikao 
was charged with the formation of a new 
Cabinet. To check the disturbances around 
the Chamber of the Corps Legislatif this after¬ 
noon, the cavalry made various charges on the 
unarmed crowd, and several arrests were made. 
The National Guard in many instances either 
refused to act or fraternized with the people. 

IO.—Parliament prorogued by Commission, 
the Royal Speech making reference to the 
endeavours made “to check the operation of 
causes which might lead towards enlarging the 
area of the present conflict, and to contribute, 
if opportunity shall be afforded me, to the 
restoration of an early and honourable peace.” 
Among the other measures referred to were 
the Irish Land Act and National Education. 
From the first her Majesty anticipated the 
gradual establishment both of harmonious re¬ 
lations between owners and occupiers of land, 
and of general confidence in the provisions and 
administration of the law and in the just and 
benevolent intentions of the Legislature; and 
in the second was perceived a new guarantee 
for the moral and social well-being of the 
nation, and for its prosperity and power. In 
conclusion : “ I bid you farewell for the re:ess, 
with the earnest prayer that, when you are 
again summoned to your duties, I may be 
enabled to rejoice with you in the re-establish¬ 
ment of peace on the continent of Europe. ” 

— Strasburg invested and the leading lines 
torn up or occupied by the Prussians. General 
Uhrich at once issued a proclamation: “The 
ramparts are armed with 400 cannons. The 
garrison consists of 11,000 men, without 
reckoning the stationary National Gu ird. If 
Strasburg is attacked, Strasburg will defend 
herself as long as there shall remain a soldier, 
a biscuit, or a cartridge. The well-affected 
may reassure themselves; as to others, they 

< 937 ) 





AUGUST 


1870. 


AUGUST 


have but to withdraw.” The French army was 
now said to be retreating at all points towards 
the Moselle.' 

IO —Concluded at Blois, the trial of the 
prisoners alleged to be engaged in the “ Plebis¬ 
cite ” conspiracy against the Emperor’s life. 
Megy, the leader of the movement, and Beaury, 
specially entrusted with the assassination, were 
condemned to twenty years’ imprisonment— 
hard labour being added in the case of Megy. 
Many of the prisoners were acquitted, and 
others sentenced to various terms of imprison¬ 
ment. Verdier was acquitted, having given 
evidence for the Government. 

11.—After a strike protracted over eighteen 
months, the dispute at Thorncliffe is terminated 
to-day by the submission of the men. This 
contention was said to have cost the Miners’ 
Association upwards of 27,000/. 

— Mr. Leng, of the Sheffield Telegraph, tried 
at the Leeds Assizes for publishing a libel on 
the Earl and Countess of Sefton. Mr. Digby 
Seymour, Who appeared for Mr. Leng, said 
that his client had made an ample apology for 
the indiscretion of his sub-editor, and contended 
that Mr. Leng was not responsible, as when 
the paragraph was published he was ill at home, 
and unable to exercise his usual supervision 
over what went into the paper. The jury 
found a verdict for the Crown, and his lordship 
was about to pass sentence when Mr. Seymour 
asked for time to fde affidavits in mitigation of 
punishment. The Lord Chief Baron after¬ 
wards announced that judgment would be 
pronounced by a full Court of Queen’s Bench 
at Michaelmas term. 

— In the French Legislative Body, M. Jules 
Favre’s motion for the armament and reorgani¬ 
zation of the National Guard on the basis of 
the law of 1831 is carried unanimously. 

— In the Corps Legislatif, Count Palikao says 
the late reverses to the French arms would be 
repaired, and that revenge was both near and 
certain. Bills increasing the war credit from 
500,000,000 to one milliard of francs, and for 
giving a forced currency to the notes of the 
Bank of France, were declared urgent. Rentes 
quoted at 65f. 45c. 

— The Orleans family, presently in Brussels, 
offer their services to the French Government. 

— The King of Prussia issues a proclama¬ 
tion at Saarbruck to the inhabitants of the 
French territories occupied by the German 
armies :—“ The Emperor Napoleon having 
made, by land and by sea, an attack on the 
German nation, which desired and still desires 
to live in peace with the French people, I have 
assumed the command of the German armies 
to repel this aggression, and I have been led by 
military circumstances to cross the frontiers of 
France. I am waging war against soldiers, 
not against French citizens. The latter con¬ 
sequently will continue to enjoy security for 
their persons and property so long as they 
themselves shall not by hostile attempts against 
( 938 ) 


the German troops deprive me of the right of . 
according them my protection.” 

12 . — Rioting at Derry, arising out of the 
celebration of the Siege. 

— The Prussians secure the passes of the 
Vosges. 

— Suspension of specie payments by the 
Bank of France. 

13 . —In answer to a memorial signed by 
1,500 clergymen of the Church of England 
concerning the recent mixed communion in 
Westminster Abbey, the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury writes that it was deeply to be deplored 
harsh words should have been used in the heat 
of controversy, and uncharitable accusations 
made against good men, who had no desire but 
to follow the Lord’s command in asking for a 
blessing on their labour by uniting in this holy 
rite. “I think, moreover,” he adds, “it is a 
melancholy thing, whosoever may be to blame 
for it, that the religious faith of an individual 
communicant should have become the subject 
of newspaper controversy, not conducted 
throughout in the Christian spirit which thinks 
and speaks no evil.” 

— Intimation made in to-day’s sitting of 
the Legislative Body that Field-Marshal Bazaine 
was made sole commander-in-chief of the 
French army. 

— Nancy evacuated by the French. King 
William issues a proclamation to-day, an¬ 
nouncing the abolition of the conscription in 
the French territory occupied by German 
troops. 

— The Admiral of the French fleet, near 
Pleligoland, declares the North German coast 
in a state of blockade. 

14 -.—Another French defeat at Courcelles,the 
Emperor’s troops being driven into Metz after 
a sanguinary encounter, in which about 4,000 
were killed or wounded. The King of 
Prussia telegraphed to Berlin : “ The pursuit 
was continued up to the glacis of the outworks. 
The nearness of the fortress allowed the enemy 
in many instances to secure his wounded. After 
our wounded had been secured the troops 
marched to their old bivouacs at dawn. The 
troops have all fought with incredible and 
admirable energy, and also with enthusiasm. 

I have seen many and thanked them heartily.” 
The French had commenced to cross the left 
bank of the Moselle, near Pange. When half 
over the Prussians attacked, and an obstinate 
fight ensued, lasting four hours. Both sides 
claimed a victory. 

— Count Bismarck causes intimation to 
be made to the representatives of the North 
German Confederation abroad, that in the 
archives of the Foreign Office at Berlin is 
preserved a letter from Count Benedetti, dated 
August 5, 1866, and a draft treaty enclosed in 
that letter. “ The originals, in Count Bene- 
detti’s handwriting, I shall submit to the 
inspection of the representatives of the neutral 






AUGUST 


AUGUST 


1870. 


Powers, and I will also send you a photographic 
fac-simile of the same. I beg to observe that, 
according-to the Moniteur , the Emperor Napo¬ 
leon did pass the time from the 28th of July to 
the 7th of August, 1866, at Vichy. In the 
official interview which I had with Count Bene- 
detti in consequence of this letter, he supported 
his demands by threatening war in case of 
refusal. When I declined, nevertheless, the 
Luxemburg affair was brought upon the carpet, 
and after the failure of this little business came 
the more comprehensive proposal relative to 
Belgium embodied in Count Benedetti’s draft 
treaty published in the Times.” 

14 . — Mazzini arrested by the Italian Govern¬ 
ment and sent to Gaeta. 

— The Russians capture the town of Kitab, 
and hand over the entire Khanate of Shahrizeb, 
south of Samarcand, to the Emir of Bokhara. 

15 . —The Emperor Napoleon leaves Metz for 
Verdun with the Prince Imperial. “ In leaving 
you (he wrote) to oppose the invading enemy, 
I rely upon your patriotism to defend this great 
city. You will not allow the foreigners to 
seize this bulwark of France, and you will 
emulate the army in courage and devotion. I 
shall preserve a grateful memory of the welcome 
I have found within your walls, and I hope to 
be able to return in happier times to thank you 
for your noble conduct.” 

— Bazaine moves the remainder of his 
army out of Metz, which is left to its garrison, 
under General Coffinieres. 

— Napoleon Fete-day. Preparations made 
for a siege of Paris. Six hundred guns were 
said to be in position to-day on those parts of 
the fortifications first exposed to attack. The 
authorities busily engaged provisioning the city. 

— The Queen of Prusssia, “in the joyful 
and grateful emotion I feel at the victories of 
our armies,” forwards gold medals to the author 
and composer of “Die Wacht am Rhein.” 

— Thomas Ratcliffe executed at Dorchester 
for the murder of a warder at Portland. 

16 . —The towns of Cherbourg, Brest, 
L’Orient, and Rochefort placed in a state 
of siege. 

_ Severe fighting between Doncourt and 

Vionville, the Prussian corps d’armee under 
Prince Frederick Charles making a vigorous 
attack on the right of the French position held 
by Marshal Bazaine. Several French corps 
resisted, and the fight lasted till nightfall. 
French accounts stated that the enemy was 
“ repulsed along the whole line,” and that “we 
passed the night in the position we have con¬ 
quered.” The German official account stated 
that Marshal Bazaine was retreating from Metz 
to Verdun when attacked, and that, “notwith¬ 
standing the great superiority of the enemy, he 
was driven back to Metz.” Great loss on 
both sides. The French General Legrand, and 
the Prussian Generals Wedel and Doerney, 
killed. 


16 *—Proposal made in the Italian Chamber 
of Deputies to call out two more classes of 
the army, and obtain an additional credit of 
40,000,000 lire. 

17 . —Walter Lee, aged 38, a cripple, em¬ 
ployed as a potboy at the Drayton Arms, South 
Kensington, found murdered in an unfinished 
house in Gledhow Gardens. 

— The King of Prussia appoints General 
Von Bonin, commander-in-chief of the 3rd 
and 4th Army Corps, to the post of Governor- 
General of Lorraine; and Lieutenant-General 
Count Bismarck Bohlen, hitherto commandant 
of Berlin, Governor-General of Alsace. 

— In the Corps Legislatif General Palikao 
announces a success at Phalsbourg, where the 
enemy was said to have lost 1,300 men. “ I re¬ 
quest the Chamber (he said) to adjourn any 
further question until the receipt of more impor¬ 
tant news, which is expected.” M. Thiers ex¬ 
pressed a hope that Paris would in case of 
necessity oppose an invincible resistance to the 
enemy. For that purpose it would be necessary 
to make a waste around Paris for the enemy 
and cause abundance in the capital, by allowing 
the inhabitants of the surrounding country to 
take refuge in it with all their produce. 

— General Trochu appointed Governor of 
Paris, and chief of all the forces entrusted with 
the defence of the capital. He expressed in a 
proclamation his implicit faith in the success of 
the enterprise they were concerned in, if good 
order could only be observed among themselves. 
He entreated the inhabitants “to restrain by 
moral authority those ardent spirits who cannot 
restrain themselves, and to do justice by their 
own hands on those men who are of no party, 
and who perceive in our public misfortunes only 
the opportunity of satisfying detestable desires 
(appetits ). And in order to accomplish my 
work—after which, I assure you, I shall retire 
into the obscurity from which I emerge—I 
adopt one of the old mottoes of my native pro¬ 
vince of Brittany—‘ With God’s help, for the 
country ’ ( Avec Vaide de Dieu , pour la patrie ).” 

— Bazaine, having under him from 120,000 
to 130,000 men, occupies a series of eminences 
from Gravelotte to St Privat le Montagne. 

18 . —Continued fighting near Rezonville and 
Gravelotte, the attempt being renewed to-day 
to cut off Bazaine’s retreat. King William 
telegraphed from the bivouac near Rezonville, 
at 9 p.m. : “The French army, occupying a 
very strong position to the west of Metz, was 
to-day attacked under my leadership, and after 
nine hours’ fighting was completely defeated, 
cut off from its communications with Paris, and 
driven back towards Metz.” The French loss 
within the last three days was said to be 15,000 
in killed alone. In the Chamber, Count Palikao 
denied that any Prussian success had. been 
obtained to-day. On the contrary, he said, the 
enemy had been “driven back into the quarries 
of Jaumont.” 







AUGUST 


AUGUST 


I 870 . 


19 . —A coroner’s jury at Charlton, Wool¬ 
wich, return a verdict of manslaughter against 
two of the “ Peculiar People,” who had refused 
to call in medical assistance to their child. 

— Explosionat Brynn Hall Colliery, Ashton, 
causing the death of nineteen workmen em¬ 
ployed in the lowest or nine feet workings. 

— Bombardment of Strasburg commenced. 

— Died, aged 79, J. N. Harrison, first 
President of the Sacred Harmonic Society. 

20. —Austrian Provincial Diets opened with 
a message from the Emperor. 

— The Elcho Challenge Shield placed in the 
Guildhall, in presence of the Lord Mayor and 
a large company of Volunteers who marched 
from the Victoria Embankment. 

— The Marquis of Salisbury and Lord Cairns 
submit the award prepared by them regarding 
the affairs of the London, Chatham, and Dover 
Railway. The various stocks were converted 
into an Arbitration Debenture, or an Arbitration 
Preference, bearing interest at 44 per cent., and 
an Arbitration Ordinary, ranking immediately 
after Preference. 

— The camp at Chdlons broken up, and 
the troops marched to positions along the line of 
the Marne. 

21 . —Marshal M‘Mahon enters Rheims, 
and leaves next day for Rethel. The Emperor 
and Prince Imperial accompany the army. 

22 . —The Crown Prince of Saxony assumes 
the command of 100,000 troops to operate in 
the Ardennes. 

— At to-day’s sittings of the Legislative 
Body, the Count de Palikao announces the 
receipt of good news from Marshal Bazaine on 
the 19th. “I cannot (he said) give you the 
particulars, but the news gives proof of confi¬ 
dence and energy on the part of the Marshal, 
which we fully share.” 

— Prankerd, a schoolmaster at Bath, shoots 
two of his daughters and then poisons himself. 

— Died, aged 87, Sir Frederick Pollock, 
late Chief Baron of the Exchequer. 

23 . —Metz completely isolated, the Prussians 
having cut the communications between Thion- 
ville and Montmedy. 

— Stormy discussion in the Legislative Body 
caused by a motion submitted by M. Gambetta 
for putting an end to the mystery observed re¬ 
garding the movements of the Rhine army. 

24 . —The Earl of Derby lays the foundation- 
stone of a new borough hospital for Bootle, 
near Liverpool. 

- - A proposal to allow the Prussian wounded 
to be transported through Luxemburg to Aix- 
la-Chapelle opposed by France and abandoned 
by the Belgian Government. 

— Intimation made in the Legislative Body 
that the f rench Government had purchased 
40,000 rifles abroad, to be delivered within a 
week. At the evening s ; tting great commo- 
( 940 ) 


tion was caused by M. Jules Favre’s demand for 
information whether it was only for the dynasty 
the country was fighting. Marshal Bazaine 
was said to be too much occupied to send any . 
reports. A bill was brought forward to-day 
calling out all retired soldiers between the ages 
of 25 and 35, all retired officers up to 60, and 
all able-bodied generals up to 70. 

24 . —Artillery engagement between the garri¬ 
son of Strasburg and the besiegers. The right 
side of the Cathedral was reported to have been 
burned down to-day, and the arsenal destroyed. 

25 . —Official intimation given that the French 
loan of 750 millions of francs was entirely 
covered by subscriptions received. 

— Prussian reconnoitring parties reported 
at Chateau Thierry, fifty miles from Paris. 
The King’s head-quarters were advanced to-day 
from Pont-&-Mousson to Bar-le-duc. 

— General Trochu issues a decree ordering 
the expulsion from Paris of every individual 
having no means of subsistence, and whose 
presence would be a danger to public order 
and to the safety of persons and property, or 
who might act in such a manner as to weaken 
the measures taken for general defence and 
safety. About 2,000 were arrested. Rentes 
quoted to-day at 6of. 95c. 

— Mr. R.K.Bowley,the well-known manager 
of the Crystal Palace, commits suicide by 
throwing himself from a river steamboat at 
Greenwich while labouring under temporary 
derangement. 

— The jute warehouses at the Victoria 
Dock burned ; damage said to be 15,000/. 

26 . —George Dwyer committed from Bow- 
street, under the Extradition Act, to take his 
trial in Australia for the murder of a man 
named Wilson, with whom he had worked at 
the Loddon gold diggings, Victoria. Dwyer gave 
himself up in January last, and made a minute 
confession of the crime, in harmony with events 
spoken to by the Loddon police. The pri¬ 
soner now sought to deny his guilt. 

— Concluded at Liverpool, after a four days’ 
trial, the case of W. J. Fernie, managing 
director of the Merchants’ Trading Company, 
against the Universal Insurance Company of 
London, for the recovery of an insurance 
effected on the Golden Fleece, which sank in 
an “unaccountable” manner a few hours after 
leaving Cardiff. The jury gave a verdict for 
the defendants. 

— The small fortress of Vitry capitulates. 

— Died at the Governor’s residence, Chelsea 
Hospital, aged 89, Field-Marshal Sir Alexander 
Woodford, G.C.B. 

27 . —M. Thiers appointed a member of the 
Paris Defence Committee. 

— A detachment of Uhlans attack the rail¬ 
way station at Epernay. 

— Lieut. Ilarlh, a Prussian spy, executed 








AUGUST 


SEPTEMBER 


1870. 


in the barrack-yard of the Ecole Militaire, 
Paris. 

27 . —Died at his residence, near Richmond, 
Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, Joint Hereditary 
Great Chamberlain of England. 

28 . —Triumphal march into Berlin with 
French trophies of war. 

— Foreign inhabitants, unless naturalized, 
ordered to quit Paris and withdraw beyond 
the Loire. 

— The Belgians assemble an army in the 
valley of the Meuse to maintain their neutrality. 

30 .—The Select Committee appointed to in¬ 
quire into the constitution of the Diplomatic 
and Consular services, and their maintenance 
on the efficient footing required by the political 
and commercial interests of the country, report 
that they had “taken a large body of evidence 
upon the diplomatic branch of the inquiry 
referred to them, but they have not been able 
to enter upon the consular branch, and they 
see no prospect of being able to conclude their 
investigation in the present session. They have 
therefore agreed to report to the House the 
evidence they have already received, and to 
recommend that the committee should be re¬ 
appointed in the next session of Parliament.” 

— Information given that communication 
between Paris and Calais and Boulogne was to 
be discontinued. 

— The village of Vrigy, situated between 
Vouziers and Attigny, occupied chiefly by 
Turcos, stormed and taken by two squadrons 
of Prussian hussars. 

— Meeting at Berlin to promote an address 
to the King, expressing apprehensions at the 
reports current of foreign intervention being 
engaged to diminish the fruits of the con¬ 
test, and declaring that the demands to be 
raised by Germany for her future welfare must 
be determined by Germany alone. The people 
renew their vow loyally to persevere until the 
wisdom of the King, excluding all foreign inter¬ 
vention, shall create a state of affairs which 
shall guarantee better than formerly the peaceful 
conduct of the neighbouring people, establish 
the unity and freedom of the whole German 
Empire, and secure Germany against all at¬ 
tack. 

— The Prussians again attack the army 
of Marshal M‘Mahon, and drive him back with 
great loss towards the Belgian frontier. The 
King telegraphed to Berlin from Varennes: 
“M‘Mahon was beaten by the 4th and 12th 
Saxon and the 1st Bavarian Army Corps, and 
was driven back from Beaumont beyond the 
Meuse, near Mouzon. Twelve cannon and 
several thousand prisoners, together with a 
very large quantity of war material, are in our 
hands. Our losses are moderate. I am about 
to return to the battle-field to follow up the 
results of the victory. May God help us further 
in His mercy as He has done hitherto ! ” 


30 . — Strasburg library destroyed by the bom¬ 
bardment. 

31 . —Issue of new regulations for the Volun¬ 
teers, embodied in a series of War Office cir¬ 
culars. The principal features of the amended 
system were schools of instruction for officers 
at Woolwich, Chatham, Aldershot, Glasgow, 
London, and Manchester; an allowance of 5^. 
a day for a month for officers under instruction ; 
a grant of 2 1 . ioj. (in addition to the present 
grant) for every officer or sergeant who obtains 
a certificate of proficiency ; and the issue of 
Snider rifles to the Volunteers, under special 
regulations to secure their being kept in good 
condition and safe custody. 

— Proceedings in bankruptcy in the case of 
Daniel The O’Donoghue, M. P. for Tralee. 

— Commotion in the French Chamber 
caused by the reading of a letter announcing 
that the Prussians were firing upon the town of 
Strasburg and not upon the ramparts, with the 
view of causing a surrender by the terrors of a 
bombardment. The Chamber unanimously rose 
in honour of the besieged city, and declared 
that it had deserved so well of the country 
that it should never cease to be French. The 
Parisians now commenced to flock in large 
numbers round the statue of Strasburg in 
the Place de la Concorde, and many hung 
triumphal wreaths around the figure. 

— In retaliation for injuries said to have 
been inflicted on their troops, the Prussians 
burn the village of Bazeilles, most of the in¬ 
habitants perishing in a miserable manner 
among the ruins. 

— Red River disturbances suppressed by 
British and Canadian forces. 

September 1 . —Commencement of a series 
of fierce engagements round Sedan. Between 
five and six o’clock a.m. cannonading began 
on the whole line, some six miles in length. 
The Prussians had their front a little behind 
Bazeilles; the French behind Sedan. The troops 
of Prince Frederick Charles and also of the 
Crown Prince were engaged against the greater 
part of M‘Mahon’s forces. At about eight 
o’clock the former began to advance, crossing 
the Meuse by two bridges, against which mitrail- 
leurs were placed, breaking up whole regiments. 
The Prussian forces were, however, so over¬ 
whelming that they succeeded in crossing the 
river after a heavy loss. This operation was 
effected by the Crown Prince of Prussia with 
his Prussians and Wurtembergers, supported 
by the Bavarians under General Von der Tann, 
who pressed the French army hard at Bazeilles 
and Balan, and by the Saxons under their own 
Crown Prince, who held the east side of La 
Chapelle. The French repeatedly attempted 
in the course of the day to break through the 
circle which Von Moltke had directed to be 
drawn around them ; but time after time they 
were defeated with great loss, till in the end 
the mass of disordered troops was forced to ta^e 

(940 









SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


187O. 


shelter under the walls of the fortified city. 
This was about four p.m. “No other course 
(writes the King) was left than to bombard 
the town with the heavy battery. In twenty 
minutes the town was burning in several places, 
which, with the numerous burning villages over 
the whole field, produced a terrible impression. 
I accordingly ordered the firing to cease, and 
sent Lieutenant-Colonel Von Broussart, of the 
General Staff, with a flag of truce, to demand 
the capitulation of the army and the fortress. 
He was met by a Bavarian officer, who reported 
to me that a French parlementaire had an¬ 
nounced himself at the gate. Colonel Von 
Broussart was admitted, and on his asking for 
the Commander-in-Chief he was unexpectedly 
introduced into the presence of the Emperor, 
who wished to give him a letter for myself. 
When the Emperor asked what his message 
was, and received the answer ‘ to demand the 
surrender of the army and fortress,’ he replied 
that on this subject he must apply to General 
de Wimpffen, who had undertaken the com¬ 
mand, in the place of the wounded General 
M‘Mahon, and that he would send his own ad¬ 
jutant-general, Reille, with the letter to my¬ 
self.” The whole of the day’s fighting was 
witnessed by the King and Staff (with Count 
Bismarck) from the hill of Chevenge, three 
miles from the gate of Sedan. 

1. —Killed in the fighting at Sedan, Lieut- 
Colonel Christopher P. Pemberton, aged 32, 
special military correspondent of the Times. 

—- Died, aged 71, A. M. Dunlop, formerly 
M P. for Greenock, and for many years the 
trusted legal adviser of the Free Church in her 
resistance to the Civil Courts. 

2. —Surrender of Sedan, the Emperor giving 
himself up to the King, and the garrison, 
numbering 4,000 officers, 14,000 wounded and 
83,000 fighting men, laying down their arms. 
“ It was seven o’clock (writes the King) when 
Reille and Broussart came to me, tl e latter a 
little in advance ; and it was first through him 
that I learned with certainty the presence of 
the Emperor. You may imagine the impres¬ 
sion which this made upon all of us, but parti¬ 
cularly on myself. Reille sprang from his 
horse and gave me the letter of the Emperor, 
adding that he had no other orders. Before I 
opened the letter I said to him, ‘ But I demand, 
as the first condition, that the army lay down 
its arms. ’ The letter begins thus: ‘ N’ayant pas 
pu mourir k la tete de mes troupes, je depose 
mon epee a votre Majeste,’ leaving all the rest 
to me. My answer was that I deplored the 
manner of our meeting, and begged that a 
plenipotentiary might be sent with whom we 
might conclude the capitulation. After I had 
given the letter to General Reille, I spoke a few 
words with him as an old acquaintance ; and so 
this act ended. I gave Moltke powers to nego¬ 
tiate, and directed Bismarck to remain behind 
in case political questions should arise. I then 
rode to my carriage and drove here (Ven- 
dresse), greeted everywhere along the road with 

( 942 ) 


the loud hurrahs of the trains that were march¬ 
ing up and singing the National Hymn. ” Early 
this morning the Emperor entered the village 
of Donchery and had an interview with Count 
Bismarck at the door of a weaver’s cottage. As 
narrated by the Chancellor, the great point of 
the conversation was peace, but, so far as his 
Imperial Majesty was concerned, no assurance 
of it could be obtained. The Emperor stated 
that he had no power. He could not nego¬ 
tiate a peace; he could not give orders to the 
army, nor to Marshal Bazaine; the Empress 
was Regent of France, and on her and her 
Ministers must devolve negotiations. Count 
Bismarck thereupon remarked that it was of no 
avail to hold any further conversation on poli¬ 
tical matters with his Majesty, and that it would 
be of no use to see the King. The Emperor 
desired to see the King in person, but Count 
Bismarck declared that it was not possible 
to accede to his Majesty’s wishes until 
the capitulation had been signed. “ Then, as 
the conversation was becoming rather danger¬ 
ous, and as the situation was becoming diffi¬ 
cult on both sides, we ended it.” Count 
Bismarck afterwards went to see King Wil¬ 
liam The Emperor withdrew to consult his 
officers. Negotiations went on during several 
hours of that morning, and it was past eleven 
before the modifications which the French 
urged as to the officers’ side-arms and parole 
were agreed to. At last the capitulations 
were signed, as agreed upon by General 
Wimpffen, with General von Moltke and 
Count Bismarck:—The garrison and army of 
Sedan to surrender as prisoners of war, to be 
sent into Germany; the officers to be liberated 
on parole that they would not serve against the 
King of Prussia in case the war went on ; all 
horses, guns, and munitions of war to be given 
up. The Emperor’s detention in Germany was 
understood to be a part of the stipulation. 
When all this had been arranged, the King 
of Prussia met the Emperor at a chateau 
situated on a wooded knoll looking down to the 
Meuse at Frenoy. The King and his captive 
retired into the glass house off one of the 
saloons on the drawing-room floor, and they 
could be seen by the Staff outside engaged, in 
conversation. A circumstantial account of this 
interview, given by Dr. Russell, was said by 
Count Bismarck to be “based on invention,” 
but further explanation made the Chancellor’s 
censure apply only to a portion of what pre¬ 
tended to be a German translation of the narra¬ 
tive. The King spoke first. God, he said, had 
given the victory to his arms in the war which 
had been declared against him. The Emperor 
replied that the war had not been sought by 
him. He had not desired or wished for it, but 
he had been obliged to declare war in obedience 
to the public opinion of France. The King 
made answer that he was aware that it was not 
the Emperor’s doing. He was quite sure of 
it- “ Your Majesty made war to meet public 
opinion, but it was your Ministers who created 
that public opinion which forced on the war.” 









1870. 


SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


His Majesty, after a pause, remarked that the 
French army had fought with great bravery. 
“Yes,” said the Emperor, “but, Sire, your 
Majesty’s troops possessed a discipline in which 
my army has been wanting lately. ” The King 
remarked that for some years the Prussian army 
had been avading itself of all new ideas, and 
watching the experiments of other nations before 
’66 and subsequently. “Your artillery, Sire, 
won the battle. The Prussian artillery is the 
finest in the world ! ” The King bowed, and 
repeated that they had been anxious to avail 
themselves of the experiences of other nations. 

“ Prince Frederick Charles decided the fate of 
the day,” remarked the Emperor. “It was 
his army which carried our position. ” * * Prince 

Frederick Charles ! I do not understand your 
Majesty. It was my son’s army which fought 
at Sedan.” “And where, then, is Prince 
Frederick Charles?” “ He is with seven army 
corps before Metz.” At these words the Em¬ 
peror started and recoiled as if he had been 
struck ; but he soon recovered his self-posses¬ 
sion, and the conversation was continued. The 
King inquired if his Majesty had any conditions 
to make or propose. “None. I have no 
power. I am a prisoner.” “ And may I ask, 
then, where is the Government of France with 
which I can treat?” “In Paris the Empress 
and the Ministers have alone power to treat. 

I am powerless. I can give no orders and 
make no conditions.” After the interview with 
the King, the Emperor had a few moments’ 
conversation with the Crown Prince, and ap¬ 
peared much agitated when alluding to the 
kind and courteous manner of the King. The 
Emperor and suite departed under guard next 
morning for Wilhelmshohe,Cassel, placed at his 
disposal by the King. 

3 .—Fluctuation in the money market, and 
general excitement caused by the publication of 
the news of the surrender of Sedan. The 
important event was made known by the King’s 
message to the Queen at Berlin :—“ A capitula¬ 
tion whereby the whole army at Sedan are 
prisoners of w T ar has just been concluded with 
General Wimpffen, who was in command in¬ 
stead of the wounded Marshal M‘Mahon. 
The Emperor only surrendered himself to me, 
as he himself has no command, and left every¬ 
thing to the Regency in Paris. His place of 
residence I shall appoint after I have had an 
interview with him at a rendezvous which will 
immediately take place. What a course events 
have assumed by God’s guidance ! ” Prices on 
’Change all tended upward under the impression 
that the war was approaching its termination ; 
Consols were # higher for money, and the 
account 92^ to 92-^. French Rentes 58f. 80c. 

4..— Revolution in Paris. Last hours of the 
Empire. A meeting of the Corps Legislatif 
called for midnight commenced business a few 
minutes past one o’clock a.m. this (Sunday) 
morning. In the presence of the disastrous 
intelligence from Sedan, Count Palikao asked 
the Chamber to adjourn discussion till to¬ 


morrow. “We have not been abie to consider 
the state of affairs among ourselves, for it is 
but a few minutes ago since I was called out of 
my bed to attend this sitting.” After a few 
words from the President indicating approval 
of the order for adjournment, M. Jules Favre, 
on behalf of himself and a certain number of 
his colleagues, asked that when the Chamber 
next met it would deliberate upon the following 
propositions :—I. Louis Napoleon Buonaparte 
and his dynasty are declared to be divested of 
the powers conferred upon them by the Con¬ 
stitution. 2. A governing Commission, ap¬ 
pointed by the Corps Legislatif, shall be in¬ 
vested with all the powers of Government, 
and which shall have for its special mission to 
offer every resistance to invasion, and to expel 
the enemy from the territory. 3. General 
Trochu is continued in his functions as 
Governor-General of the city of Paris. “ I 
have not a word to add. I offer this proposition 
for your consideration. To-morrow we will 
state the reasons which have led to it.” The 
sitting closed about 1.30 a.m. A few hours 
later the Journal OJficiel made public the over¬ 
whelming disaster at Sedan:—“Frenchmen! 
A great misfortune has befallen the country. 
After the three days of heroic struggles, kept 
up by the army of Marshal M‘Mahon against 
300,000 enemies, 40,000 men have been made 
prisoners. General Wimpffen, who had taken 
the command of the army, replacing Marshal 
M‘Mahon, who was grievously wounded, has 
signed a capitulation. This cruel reverse does 
not daunt our courage. Paris is now in a state 
of defence. The military forces of the country 
are being organized. Within a few days a new 
army will be under the walls of Paris, and 
another is in formation on the banks of the 
Loire. Your patriotism, your concord, your 
energy will save P'ranee. The Emperor has 
been made prisoner in this contest. The Govern¬ 
ment co-operates with the public authorities, 
and is taking all measures required by the 
gravity of these events. ” At the mid-day session 
of the Legislative Body General Palikao 
brought in a bill for instituting a Council of 
Government and National Defence, to consist 
of five members, elected by the Legislative 
Body. The bill further proposed that the 
Ministers should be appointed with the ap¬ 
proval of the members of this Council, General 
Palikao occupying the post of Lieutenant- 
General of the Council. M. Thiers brought 
forward the following resolution, signed by 
forty-five members of the Left and Right 
Centres : “ In view of existing circumstances the 
Chamber appoints a Commission of Govern¬ 
ment and National Defence. A Constituent 
Assembly will be convoked as soon as cir¬ 
cumstances permit. ” General Palikao endorsed 
the proposal that the country should be con¬ 
sulted, “as soon,” he said, “as we have issued 
from our present embarrassments.” The Cham¬ 
ber ultimately declared urgency for both pro¬ 
positions, as well as that of M. Jules Favre, 
and they were collectively referred to the 

( 943 ) 











SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1870. 


bureaux with a view to the appointment of the 
Commission. When the sitting was resumed 
in the afternoon, the galleries of the Chamber 
were crowded and noisy. The members of the 
Left only were in their places. It was in vain 
the President attempted to obtain silence. 
MM. Gambetta and Cremieux appeared to¬ 
gether at the tribune, and the former begged of 
the people not to speak. For a minute some¬ 
thing like silence was obtained; but the 
populace arriving by the various passages and 
the Salles des Pas-Perdus, not finding any room 
in the already overcrowded tribunes, invaded 
the Chamber from behind. Several deputies 
of the Left succeeded in keeping them at bay 
for a little while, during which interval the 
President seconded the exhortations of M. 
Gambetta in pressing and energetic terms. 
A partial silence was again obtained, and 
Count de Palikao, followed by a few members 
of the majority, entered the Chamber ; but a 
minute or two afterwards the clamour arose 
again, and the crowd began to invade the floor 
of the hall ; whereupon the President put on 
his hat and retired, with Count de Palikao and 
the members who had accompanied him. By 
this time the Chamber was completely invaded 
by National Guards and Gardes Mobiles, in 
company with a noisy crowd, whose advance 
it was vain to attempt to repel. M. Jules 
Favre, having mounted the tribune, obtained a 
moment’s hearing. “No scenes of violence,” 
cried he ; “ let us reserve our arms for our 
enemies.” Finding it utterly impossible to 
obtain any further hearing inside the Chamber, 
M. Gambetta, accompanied by the members of 
the Left, proceeded to the steps of the Corps 
Legislatif, and there announced the dethrone¬ 
ment of the Emperor to the people assembled 
outside. They then hurried to the Hotel de 
Ville, and installed themselves as a Provisional 
Government. Other of the deputies who had 
left with Count de Palikao met at the President’s 
residence,and afterwards made a proposal to con¬ 
stitute a new Ministry. The deputation who pro¬ 
ceeded to the Hotel de Ville said this scheme 
was now too late, as the Republic had already 
been proclaimed and accepted by the people 
of Paris. At another midnight meeting of the 
Legislative Body, M. Thiers protested against 
the violence to which the Chamber had been 
exposed, and withdrew. The Government of 
National Defence consisted of General Trochu, 
President; Emmanuel Arago; Cremieux, Mi¬ 
nister of Justice ; Jules Favre, Minister for 
Foreign Affairs : Jules Ferry ; Gambetta, Mi¬ 
nister of the Interior; Gamier Pages ; Glais 
Bizoin ; Pelletan ; Ernest Picard, Minister of 
Finance ; Rochefort ; and Jules Simon, Minister 
of Public Instruction. Subsequently there 
were added to it General Le Flo, Minister for 
War; Admiral Fourichon, Minister of Marine; 
M. Dorian, Minister of Public Works ; and 
M. Magnin, Minister of Agriculture and Com¬ 
merce. These, with Count de Keratry, who 
had charge of the Prefecture of Police, and M. 
Etienne Arago, appointed Mayor of Paris, 
( 944 ) 


formed altogether a Government of eighteen 
members. Count Palikao was reported to have 
resumed command of the Army of Lyons. At 
midnight an immense crowd singing the “Mar¬ 
seillaise ” passed over the Boulevards, while the 
I National and Mobile Guards fraternized with 
the multitude, and were received with shouts 
of joyful enthusiasm. 

4 . —The Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen preaches 
a farewell sermon in Unity Church, Islington. 

5 . —The racing stud of Count Lagrange 
sold by Messrs. Tattersall; total amount realized 
22,630 guineas, or an average of a little over 
580 guineas each. 

— The Prince Imperial arrives at Namur, 
on his way to Liege. 

— The King of Prussia enters Rheims. When 
a small body of Uhlans entered the city yester¬ 
day, the municipal council decided to accept 
the situation and offer no opposition. One of 
the soldiers was fired at when riding slowly past 
the Hotel de Ville, which led to a threat on the 
part of General Tumpling to burn the town if 
any repetition of the offence was made. 

— Official proclamation of the Republic. 
“ Frenchmen ! The people have disavowed 
a Chamber which hesitated to save the country 
when in danger. It has demanded a Republic. 
The friends of its representatives are not in 
power, but in peril. The Republic vanquished 
the invasion of 1792. The Republic is pro¬ 
claimed. The revolution is accomplished in 
the name of right and public safety. Citizens ! 
watch over the city confided to you. To¬ 
morrow you will be, with the army, avengers of 
the country.”—A decree of the Ministry dis¬ 
solved the Corps Legislatif, and abolished the 
Senate and the Presidency of the Council of 
State. The Republic was also proclaimed at 
Lyons, Bordeaux, and other great towns, a 
complete amnesty being at the same time issued 
for all political offences. 

— The Prince Imperial arrives at Dover from 
Ostend. 

6 . —-Paris reported to be quiet, the only 
excesses indulged in being the defacing of Im¬ 
perial inscriptions and pictures. The Regalia 
were deposited with the Bank of France to-day. 

— Victor Hugo arrives in Paris. “I have 
returned (he said to the crowd at the railway 
station) simultaneously with the Republic, in 
order to defend Paris, the capital of civilization, 
which must not be violated by a savage in¬ 
vasion. Paris will triumph by the union of all 
souls and by effacing all resentments. By 
fraternity only will liberty be saved.” 

— The offer of the Orleans Princes (made 
in person), to serve in the army of France, de¬ 
clined by the Government of National Defence. 

— In his capacity of Foreign Minister, 
M. Jules Favre issues a circular to French 
diplomatic agents abroad, explaining that France 
had loudly condemned the war, and desired 
that Germany should be left mistress of her 
own destinies. “ On his side the King of 









SEPTEMBER 


1870. 


SEPTEMBER 


Prussia declared that he made war, not against 
Prance, but against the Imperial dynasty. The 
dynasty has fallen to the ground. France 
raised herself free. Does the King of Prussia 
wish to continue an impious struggle, which 
will be at least as fatal to him as to us ? Does 
he wish to give to the world of the nineteenth 
century the cruel spectacle of two nations 
destroying one another, and, in forgetfulness of 
humanity, reason, and science, heaping corpse 
upon corpse and ruin upon ruin ? He is free to 
assume this responsibility in the face of the 
world and of history. If it is a challenge, we 
accept it. We will not cede either an inch 
of our territory or a stone of our fortresses. A 
shameful peace would mean a war of exter¬ 
mination at an early date. We will only treat 
for a durable peace. In this our interest is that 
of the whole of Europe, and we have reason to 
hope that, freed from all dynastic considera¬ 
tions, the question will thus present itself be¬ 
fore the Cabinets of Europe. But should we 
be alone, we shall not yield. We have a reso¬ 
lute army, well-provisioned forts, a well-esta¬ 
blished enceinte , and, above all, the breasts of 
300,000 combatants determined to hold out to 
the last. When they piously lay crowns 
at the feet of the statue of Strasburg, they do 
not obey merely an enthusiastic sentiment of 
admiration, they adopt their heroic mot (tordre, 
they swear to be worthy of their brethren of 
Alsace, and to die as they have done. After 
the forts w r e have the ramparts ; after the ram¬ 
parts we have the barricades. Paris can hold 
out for three months and conquer. If she suc¬ 
cumbs, France will start up at her appeal and 
avenge her. France would continue ^the 
struggle, and the aggressor would perish. 

7._ The Captain , six-gun turret-ship, built on 

the plan of Captain Cowper Coles, founders at 
sea off Cape Finisterre, with Captain Burgoyne, 
the inventor, and a crew of officers and men 
numbering 5 00 011 board. Admiral Milne re¬ 
ported that on the evening of the 6 th the 
squadron was formed into three divisions, the 
Lord Warden (the Admiral’s ship), Minotaur , 
and Agincourt leading, the Captain being the 
last, astern of the Lord Warden. At 8 and 10 
p. M. the ships were in station, and there w as 
no indication of a heavy gale, although it looked 
cloudy to the westward. At 11 the breeze began 
to freshen, with rain. Towards midmght the 
barometer had fallen, and the wind increased, 
which rendered it necessary to reef; but before 
1 a, M. the gale had set in at south-west, and 
square sails were furled. “At this time. Ad¬ 
miral Milne says, “ the Captain was astern of 
this ship, apparently closing under steam. 1 he 
signal ‘open order’ was made, and at once 
answered ; and at 1.15 a.M. she was on the 
Lord Wardens lee quarter, about six points 
abaft of the beam. From that time until about 
I.30 A.M. I constantly watched the ship ; her 
topsails were either close reefed or on the lap, 
her foresail was close up, the mainsail having 
been furled at 5.30 P.M., but I could not see 
any fore and aft set. She was heeling over a 

( 945 ) 


good deal to starboard, with the wind on her 
port side. Her red bow light was all this time 
clearly seen. Some minutes after I again looked 
for her light, but it was thick with rain, and the 
light was no longer visible. When the day 
broke, the squadron was somewhat scattered, 
and only ten ships, instead of eleven, could be 
discerned, the Captain being the missing one.” 
Search was made in all directions by the ships 
of the squadron, but nothing was seen of the 
missing ship. Afterwards portions of wreck be¬ 
longing to the Captain were picked up, and then 
the body of a seaman. Admiral Milne said he 
could come to no other conclusion than that the 
Captain foundered, probably in cne of the 
heavy squalls between 1.30 and 2.15 A.M. of 
the 7th inst, at which time a heavy cross sea 
was running. It was at first thought that all on 
board had perished, but three days afterwards 
public anxiety was slightly allayed by a report 
that one warrant officer, Master-gunner May, 
and seventeen seamen had arrived at Corcubion 
on the evening of the wreck. They all belonged 
to the starboard watch, which came on duty at 
midnight. When drifting away from the wreck 
in their launch, the men saw Captain Burgoyne 
clinging to the steam lifeboat pinnace, bottom 
up, but it was impossible to reach him, although 
he was near enough at times to answer the ap¬ 
peals they made to him to try and seize the 
launch in which they were seated. The general 
opinion of the men appeared to be that, with 
the ship having a slight heel over, the pressure 
of a strong wind upon the under part of the 
hurricane-deck had a greater effect, or leverage 
upon the hull of the ship than the pressure of 
the wind in her three topsails. They also were 
nearly unanimous in opinion that when the 
Captain got her starboard side well down in 
the water, with the consequent weight of water 
on the starboard side of the turret-deck, and 
the pressure of the wind blowing from the port 
hand on the under surface of the hurricane-deck, 
and thus “pushing” the ship right over, she 
had no chance of righting herself again. One 
man said that, in answer to Captain Burgoyne s 
inquiry as to how much the ship was heeling 
over, be heard the answers given “18,” “23, 
and “ 25 ” degrees. This movement was never 
checked for a moment; for immediately the 
heel of the ship had been given as 25 degrees 
she was keel uppermost, and about to make 
her tremendous downward plunge, with the 
roar of the steam from her boilers still forcing 
upwards and out-screaming the noise of the 
storm. Among those lost with the Captain 
were a son of Mr. Childers, First Lord of the 
Admiralty, and a son of Lord Northbrook. 
The Captain was built on the design of Captain 
Cowper Coles, the inventor of the turret prin¬ 
ciple, by Messrs. Laird and Sons, Birkenhead, 
and was specially intended as a competitive 
ship with the Admiralty turret-ship Monarch 
designed by the Chief Constructor, Mr. Reed. 
The former had a freeboard of 9 feet, the latter 
of 14 feet. It was generally agreed that in the 
, whole Navy List there was not a more formi- 
i 3 P 









SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


dable fighting man-of-war. She was a double- 
screwed ship of 4,272 tons and 900-horse power, 
and carried iron armour of varying strength, 
being in the most exposed portions as much as 
8 in. thick, and elsewhere ranging between 7 
in., 4 in., and 3 in. In her two turrets she 
carried six guns of the heaviest calibre—an 
armament which made her more than the equal 
of any other ship in the Navy, and enabled 
Vice-Admiral Symonds to say of her, “ She is 
a most formidable ship, and could, I believe, 

' by her superior armament, destroy all the broad¬ 
side ships of the squadron in detail.” The 
Captain had made two successful voyages to 
Vigo, after the preliminary trip from Liverpool 
to the Channel, before the present fatal cruise. 
The national mind was so touched by the loss 
of the Captain , that the Queen only expressed 
the wish of her subjects when she desired that 
* ‘ measures may be taken to signify to the 
widows and relatives of the whole of the crew 
of all ranks who perished in the Captain the 
expression of her Majesty’s deep sympathy with 
them, and to assure them that the Queen feels 
most acutely the misfortune which has at once 
deprived her Majesty of one of the finest ships 
of war and of so many gallant seamen, and 
which has inflicted upon their widows and other 
relatives losses which must ever be deplored.” 
(See October 8.) 

7 . —The Rev. G. M‘Corkindale Gourock, 
Dr. Beane of Baltimore, and Mr. Randall of 
Quincy, with three guides, buried in a snow¬ 
storm while descending the Bosse Dromadaire, 
Mont Blanc. 

— The private correspondence of the Im¬ 
perial Court seized, when being taken through 
Calais to England, and a committee appointed 
for its examination and publication. 

S. —A boat from the training-ship Chichester 
run down off Woolwich, by the steamer Cor¬ 
morant; five of the boys, with the Rev. Mr. 
Hind, curate of Christ Church, Gravesend, 
were drowned. 

— The King of Italy announces to the Pope 
that he is compelled to assume the responsibility 
of maintaining order in the peninsula and the 
security of the Holy See. “Your Holiness 
will not see a hostile act in this measure of 
precaution. My Government and my forces 
will restrict themselves absolutely to an action 
conservative and tutelary of the rights, easily 
reconcilable, of the Roman populations with 
inviolability of the Sovereign Pontiff and of his 
spiritual authority, and with the independence 
of the Holy See. . . . Your Holiness, in deliver¬ 
ing Rome from the foreign troops, in freeing 
it from the continual peril of being the battle¬ 
field of subversive parties, will have accom- j 
plished a marvellous work, given peace to the 
Church, and shown to Europe, shocked by the 
horrors of war, how great battles can be won 
and immortal victories achieved by an act of i 
justice and by a single word of affection.” 

— The Pope having solicited the King of 
Prussia to stay the King of Italy in the exe- 
( 946 ) 


1870. 


cution of his project for sending an army into 
the Pontifical States, King William answers 
from the head-quarters of the German armies, 
near Rheims:—“I regret that the policy always 
adopted by myself and my Government prevents 
me absolutely from intervention in any such 
question. I am, besides, on the best terms with 
my brother the King of Italy, and I could not 
imperil the relations which exist between Ger¬ 
many and Italy for a political interest which 
does not in any way, as your Holiness seems to 
think, touch upon the interests of Prussia. I 
have no doubt, besides, that his Majesty the 
King of Italy and his Government, if they should 
be forced to enter the States of your Holiness in 
order to avert the excesses of the revolutionary 
party in Europe, would give to your Holiness 
every guarantee which can assure the free exer¬ 
cise of that spiritual authority which your Holi¬ 
ness ought to exert in the interest of the Church 
of which you are the acknowledged head. With 
the most earnest desire that peace and order 
may be shortly re-established in all parts of 
Europe, I beg your Holiness to believe me 
your sincere friend, William.” 

8. —The Paris theatres closed, and many of 
them turned into storehouses or hospitals. 

9 . —The Empress of the French lands at 
Ryde, and afterwards proceeds to join the 
Prince Imperial at Hastings. Camden House, 
Chislehurst, was selected as a residence by 
the Imperial exiles. 

— Decree issued from Paris, convoking the 
Electoral Colleges on the 16th Oct. to elect a 
National Constituent Assembly. 

— The powder magazine of Laon blown up 
after the town had formally surrendered and 
been entered by the Prussian troops, many of 
whom were killed. Among the latter was Duke 
William of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. This oc¬ 
currence (attributed by the King to treachery) 
led to a renewal of the bombardment of Metz. 

— From the large number of troops now 
entering Paris to assist in the defence, General 
Trochu declares that the safety of the city is 
assured. 

10. —Meeting of workingmen in St. James’s 
Hall, to consider the present condition of affairs 
on the Continent, the relations of the British 
Government with the belligerents, and to ex¬ 
press sympathy with the French Republic. 

11 . —French blockade in the Baltic raised. 

— The King of Italy orders his troops to 
enter Papal territory. 

— Commencement of the Beethoven cen¬ 
tenary celebrations at Bonn. 

— In Dublin Cardinal Cullen announces 
the celebration of “a solemn Tridium in 
honour of the definition of the Infallibility of the 
Pope as declared by the Vatican Council.” 

— Explosion of nitro-glycerine at Greenock, 
causing the death of five young people who 
had taken shelter from a shower in a deserted 








SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1870. 


smithy, where a small portion of the dangerous 
substance was kept in a tin hanging against the 

wall. 

11 . —Insurrection in the province of Viterbo, 
the people voluntarily placing themselves under 
the rule of Victor Emmanuel. 

12 . —Ordinary postal communication ceases 
from Paris, the Prussians being reported as 
having arrived in strength at Creil, Soissons, 
and CMteau-Thierry. 

13 . —General Williams of Kars gazetted 
Governor of Gibraltar. 

— Engagement between Uhlans and Francs- 
tireurs near Montereau, leading to a suspension 
of communication between Paris and Lyons. 

— M. Thiers arrives in London on an 
unauthorized diplomatic mission, and is visited 
at the Embassy by Earl Granville and Mr. 
Gladstone. He left on the 18th for Vienna 
and St. Petersburg. 

— The Strasburg garrison surprise the be¬ 
siegers by a spirited night sortie. 

14 -. —Accident to the Irish mail train at Tam- 
worth, the carriages, owing to a neglect on the 
part of a pointsman, rushing off the main line 
into a siding and down an embankment into 
the river Anker. The engine-driver, stoker, 
and one passenger were killed. 

— Unveiling of the statue of Mr. Gladstone 
in St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. The cere¬ 
mony was attended by the President and many 
members of the British Association, then hold¬ 
ing its annual meeting in that city. (See Index : 

“ Associations.”) 

— Addressing members of the Buckingham¬ 
shire Agricultural Association, Mr. Disraeli con¬ 
gratulated them on the fact that, without any 
disruption of political parties, the distribution 
of political power had been settled on principles 
which allowed every man to feel secure and 
confident in the political establishments of his 
country. He had always felt that if England 
was true to herself there was no fear. He be¬ 
lieved that “ England now is true to herself; 
and therefore, great, vast, and startling as are 
the changes that even hourly occur, we, as 
Englishmen, need not be appalled.” 

— A company of Uhlans appear at 
Senlis. Yesterday the north trains ran as far 
Pontoise ; to-day only as far as Chantilly. 

— The representatives of England, Spain, 
Austria, and Holland give intimation to M. Jules 
Favre that they will remain in Paris until the 
receipt of further instructions from their re¬ 
spective Governments. 

15.—The International Boat-race at Lachine, 
on the St. Lawrence, won by the Tyne crew. 

— Replying to Count BemstorfFs demand, 
that Great Britain would exhibit a neutrality so 
far “benevolent in spirit” to Germany as to 
prohibit the export to France of arms, ammuni¬ 
tion, and coal, Earl Granville writes :—“ We 
took the course which appeared to be according 1 
to the dictates of practice and precedent, at a 
( 947 ) 


time when it was impossible to know how the 
fortune of war would turn. Since then France, 
notwithstanding the display of her usual courage 
and gallantry, has met with nothing but re¬ 
verses. Germany has, on the other hand, given 
extraordinary proofs of her military ability and 
power, accompanied, as it. has been, by con¬ 
tinuous success. Your Excellency, as the re¬ 
presentative of a great and chivalrous nation, 
must agree with me that it would not be 
possible that we should now change the policy 
which we declared to our Parliament to be 
usual, just, and expedient, because it was stated 
by the victorious belligerent to be in some de¬ 
gree favourable to the defeated enemy. ” 

16 . —The Cork Town Council pass a vote of 
sympathy with France. 

— Mr. Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
presented with the freedom of the burgh of 
Elgin. 

— Unveiling of a monument erected in 
Bunhill-fields Burial-ground, to the memory of 
Daniel Defoe. 

— The Emperor of Russia confers upon the 
Crown Prince of Saxony the Military Order of 
St. George, in honour of the recent successes 
of his brave soldiers. 

— The Academies of the Institute protest 
against the bombardment of the monuments or 
museums of Paris. 

— Elections for the Municipal Councils 
throughout France fixed to take place on the 
25th inst., and for the Constituent Assembly on 
the 2nd October. 

— Prussian official newspapers announce that 
“it is a matter of supreme indifference to Ger¬ 
many whether France calls herself an empire, 
a monarchy, or a republic—we have had 
experience of all three, and find the one as 
good as the other—but so long as the French 
people have not formally announced their will, 
either by a general vote or the voice of their 
representatives, in full assembly, we must con¬ 
tinue to regard Louis Napoleon as the sole 
legitimate ruler of France. To the prisoner of 
Wilhelmshohe the King of Prussia still desires 
the respect to be paid which is due to an Em¬ 
peror of the French; and it may be that he is 
not altogether uninfluenced by a wish that the 
future historian shall recount how William of 
Prussia treated an humbled enemy with gene¬ 
rosity and magnanimity.” 

— In a circular dated from Meaux, Count 
Bismarck explains to North German agents at 
foreign Courts that “the unanimous voice of 
the German Governments and German people 
demands that Germany shall be protected by 
better boundaries than we have had hitherto 
against the dangers and violence we have ex¬ 
perienced from all French Governments for 
centuries. As long as France remains in pos¬ 
session of Strasburg and Metz, so long is its 
offensive strategically stronger than our defen¬ 
sive power, so far as all South Germany and 
North Germany on the left bank of the Rhine 







SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


1870. 


are concerned. Strasburg, in the possession of 
France, is a gate always wide open for attack 
on South Germany. In the hands of Germany, 
Strasburg and Metz obtain a defensive character. 
In more than twenty wars we have never been 
the aggressors of France, and we demand of the 
latter nothing else than our safety in our own 
land, so often threatened by her. France, on 
the other hand, will regard any peace that may 
be made now as an armistice only, and in order 
to avenge the present defeat will attack us in 
the same quarrelsome and wanton manner as 
this year, as soon as it feels strong enough for 
it from its own strength or from foreign alliances. 
In rendering it difficult for France, from whose 
initiative alone hitherto the disturbances of 
Europe have resulted, to resume the offensive, 
we at the same time act in the interest of 
Europe, which is that of peace. From Ger¬ 
many no disturbance of the European peace is 
to be feared.” 

16 . —Submarine cable laid between Jamaica 
and Cuba. 

17 . —The Austrian Emperor opens the 
Reich srath with a speech congratulating 
members on the peace prevailing throughout 
the empire. 

— M. Jules Favre, in a second circular, 
admits that it was true the majority of the 
Legislative Body cheered the warlike declara¬ 
tions of the Due de Gramont. “ But a few 
weeks previously it had also cheered the peace¬ 
ful declarations of M. Ollivier. A majority 
emanating from personal power believed itself 
obliged to follow docilely and voted trustingly; 
but there is not a sincere person in Europe who 
could affirm that France freely consulted made 
war against Prussia. I do not draw the con¬ 
clusion from this that we are not responsible. 
We have been wrong, and are cruelly expiating 
our having tolerated a Government which led 
us to ruin. Now we admit the obligation to 
repair by a measure of justice the ill it has 
done ; but if the Power with which it has so 
seriously compromised us takes advantage of 
our misfortunes to overwhelm us, we shall 
oppose a desperate resistance, and it will re¬ 
main well understood that it is the nation, pro¬ 
perly represented in a freely elected assembly, 
that this Power wishes to destroy. This being 
the question raised, each one will do his duty. 
Fortune has been hard upon us, but she is 
capable of unlooked-for revolutions which our 
determination will call forth.” 

— Outbreak of cholera at Kertch, the 
deaths up to this date amounting to 141. 

18 . —M. Jules Favre proceeds to the head¬ 
quarters of the King of Prussia, at Ferrieres, to 
consult with Count Bismarck as to the terms 
on which an armistice could be arranged. The 
Minister was unsuccessful, the Chancellor in¬ 
sisting as a preliminary condition on the surren¬ 
der of Strasburg, Toul, and Verdun. “ Prussia 
(it was given out) desires to continue the war 
so as to reduce France to the rank of a second- 

( 948 ) 


rate Power; Prussia wants Alsace and Lorraine 
as far as Metz by right of conquest, and, tc 
consent to an armistice, she dares to ask the 
surrender of Strasburg, Toul, and Mont Vale- 
rien. The inhabitants of Paris, in their exas¬ 
peration, would rather bury themselves in the 
ruins of their city than accept such terms. To 
such impudent pretensions we can only reply 
by fighting to the bitter end. France accepts 
the contest, and relies upon all her children.” 

18 . —Nancy occupied by the Prussians. 

— An attack on Toul repulsed with great 
loss to the Prussians. 

— Died at Geneva, Dr. Augustus Waller, 
F.R.S., author of many important contributions 
to the literature of physiology. 

19 . —Republican meeting in Trafalgar- 
square, to express sympathy with France, and 
urge the Government to “ take the initiative in 
the office of mediation between the conquerors 
and defeated, so that no stipulation dishonour¬ 
able to the people of France may impede the 
signature of an immediate armistice. ” 

— Conference at Liverpool to discuss the 
relation of the colonies to the mother country, 
and the desirableness of strengthening the ties 
which at present unite them. 

— The Standard publishes the conversation 
of a correspondent with Count Bismarck regard¬ 
ing the objects of the war. ‘“The present,’ 
said the Chancellor, ‘is the twenty-fifth time 
in the space of a hundred years that France 
has made war on Germany on some pretext or 
other. Now, at least, our terrible disease of 
divided unity being cured, we have contrived, 
by the help of the hand of God, to beat her 
down. It is idle to hope to propitiate her. 
She would never forgive us for beating her, 
even if we offered the easiest terms in the 
world, and forbore from asking for the ex¬ 
penses of the war. She could not forgive you 
for Waterloo, and it was only by accident that 
she did not make war upon you on account of 
it. She could not forgive Sadowa, though it 
was not fought against her, and she will never 
forgive Sedan. She must therefore be made 
harmless. We must have Strasburg, and we 
must have Metz, even if in the latter case we 
hold merely the garrison, and whatever else is 
necessary to improve our strategic position 
against attack from her.’ When I asked if the 
flight of the Empress and the Prince Imperial 
might not be regarded as an abdication, he 
said very positively he could not so construe it. 
The Empress had been forced to go by the 
gentlemen of the pavement, as the Corps Legis- 
latif had been obliged to suspend its sittings; 
but the action of the gentlemen of the pave¬ 
ment was not legal. They could not make a 
Government. The question was, Whom does 
the fleet still obey? Whom does the army 
shut up in Metz still obey ? ‘ Perhaps Bazaine 

still recognises the Emperor. If so, and if we 
choose to let him go to Paris, he and his army 
would be worth considerably more than the 








SEPTEMBER 


1870. 


SEPTEMBER 


gentlemen of the pavement and the so-called 
Government. We do not wish to dictate to 
France her form of government; we have 
nothing to say to it. That is her affair.’ ” 

19 . —The Prussian 5th corps and the 2nd 
Bavarian corps, after crossing the Seine at 
Villeneuve St. George, south of Paris, attack 
the division of General Vinoy on the heights 
of Sceaux, and capture seven guns and many 
prisoners. 

— The Pope, after thanking the army of 
the Holy See for its entire devotion to the de¬ 
fence of the Holy See, states that, so far as 
regards the duration of resistance, it shall consist 
only “in such a protest as shall testify to the 
violence done to us, and nothing more; in other 
words, that negotiations for surrender shall be 
opened so soon as a breach shall have been 
made. At a moment when the whole of Europe 
is mourning over the numerous victims of the 
war now going on between two great nations, 
never let it be said that the Vicar of Jesus Christ, 
however unjustly assailed, had to give his 
consent to a great shedding of blood. Our 
cause is the cause of God, and we put our 
whole defence in His hands.” 

20 .—Fall of the walls of a new house being 
erected at Hillhead, Glasgow, causing the 
death of six workmen and serious injury to 
five rescued from the debris. 

_ The King of Italy’s troops enter Rome 

after a short resistance from the Pope’s soldiers, 
who ceased fighting at the request of the Holy 
Father. A slight breach was made in the walls, 
through which General Cadoma entered. 

— The Crown Prince enters Versailles and 
commences to throw additional troops round 
Paris. The Provisional Government and foreign 
ambassadors remove to Tours. 

— Herr Jacoby arrested at Konigsberg and 
conveyed to the fortress of Lotzen, for advo¬ 
cating Republican principles and inciting his 
countrymen to protest against the annexation 
of Alsace and Lorraine. 

_ M. Felix Pyat issues a manifesto exhort¬ 
ing to a war of races. He urged Italians and 
Spaniards to unite with Frenchmen in sub¬ 
duing the fair-haired peoples. “The German 
race,” says M. Pyat, “ already govern French¬ 
men at Jersey, Italians at Malta, Spaniards at 
Gibraltar. Yesterday they ruled the whole of 
Italy, and were about to govern Spain. They 
occupy France, and their princes reign every¬ 
where. Belgium has a German king, Holland 
a German king, Russia a German Czar; Eng¬ 
land, even so national, has a German Queen; 
Spain hardly escaped a Hohenzollem. Who 
knows if France will not have one ?” 

21 . —Commenced at the Central Criminal 
Court the trial of Margaret Waters, widow, 
aged 35, and Sarah Ellis, 28, upon five 
separate charges of wilful murder, most of 
them describing the deceased as children whose 
names were unknown. After a trial extending 
aver three days, Waters was found guilty and 


sentenced to death. She admitted having lived 
a life of deceit and falsehood, but denied being 
accessory to the death of any of the children 
committed to her care. This statement was 
further amplified in a document drawn up 
shortly before her execution. 

21 . —Melun occupied by the Prussians. 

— Outbreak at Marseilles against the autho¬ 
rity of the Government of National Defence. 

22. —John Fitzgerald, master mariner, and* 
Hector Gillies, Isle of Skye, shipowner, con¬ 
victed at the Central Criminal Court of causing 
the wilful destruction of the ship Admiral 
Napier off Lamlash, Scotland. The first was 
sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment, 
and Gillies to five years’ penal servitude. 

— Jewish synagogue, Berkeley Street, con¬ 
secrated. 

— Strasburg Theatre fired by the besiegers, 
and about 200 people killed. 

23 . — The foundation-stone of the new 
buildings of Owens College, Manchester, laid 
by the Duke of Devonshire. 

— The fortieth anniversary of Belgian in¬ 
dependence celebrated at Brussels with unusual 
rejoicings. 

— General Bourbaki, with the connivance 
if not at the instigation of M. Bismarck, reported 
to have arrived at Chislehurst on a special 
mission to the Empress regarding the surrender 
of Metz. 

— Toul surrenders after a gallant resistance. 

25 . —Republican demonstration in Hyde 
Park, intended to “ compel ” the Government 
to do its duty in recognising M. Favre and his 
associates. 

26 . —A document, dated Wilhelmshdhe, and 
purporting to be signed by the ex-Emperor, 
issued from the office of La Situation , London, 
declares that, “inclined by generous measures 
to a close and loyal alliance with Germany, 
France would be the first to admit that a line 
of defence between the two Empires dominated 
by fortresses would have no longer reason to 
exist. As to the extreme sacrifices which Franee 
ought to make, she would not hesitate to make 
them the moment that she was allowed to per¬ 
ceive the immense advantages to both nations 
that would result from a peace which would have 
henceforth their own free will as its sole arbiter. 
Upon this basis the other Powers, which must 
maintain a complete reserve so long as France 
shall retain a hope of victory, would have a 
serious cause for intervention. ... It would 
be enough, I believe, for me to affirm that 
our honour has no injury to fear from a recon¬ 
ciliation based on the disarmament of for¬ 
tresses now become useless and upon the prin¬ 
ciple of a war indemnity—to be determined by 
inventory—for peace to become possible.” The 
authenticity of these “ I dees de VEmpereur” 
was afterwards officially denied. 

_ The views of statesmen as to mediation 

between the belligerents continue to be of the 

( 949 ) 










SEPTEMBER 


SEPTEMBER 


iS/O. 


most contradictory character. The Home 
Secretary, addressing his constituents in Scot¬ 
land, said he could not discover in the present 
state of things any such immediate or pressing 
danger to this country as would lead us sud¬ 
denly to change our system or to rush into rash 
resolutions. On the other side, Sir Henry 
Bulwer writes to the Times: —“If, on the verge 
of horrors at the mere thought of which Christi¬ 
anity and civilization shudder, it is deliberately 
determined that the morality of Great Britain 
is to be that of a man who will see a fellow- 
creature drown rather than run the risk of 
wetting his feet to save him—if, standing in 
view of an immeasurable calamity about to 
afflict the world, we are wrapped up in an un¬ 
changeable resolve to remain mute and motion¬ 
less, without making an effort, without saying a 
word to avert it—then, indeed, I cannot refrain ! 
from expressing my mournful apprehensions | 
that the day is not far distant when God will 
withdraw from us a power we have not known 
how to use worthily, and that a policy so calcu¬ 
lated to excite disgust by its selfishness, and 
contempt by its cowardice, will be as fatal to 
our future interests as to our past renown.” 

26 . —Intelligence from Lille announces that 
the French troops under General Maudlay had 
driven the Prussians from the plateau of Villejuif; 
the latter were also reported to have been 
worsted at Drancy and Pierrefitte. 

— Balloon couriers commence to be sent off 
from Paris. One landed to-day at Tours, with 
letters giving a hopeful account of resistance to 
the siege. 

— The correspondent of the Daily News, 
writing from St. Petersburg, speaks of the war¬ 
like preparations visible in that city, and the 
current rumours concerning the determination j 
of Prince Gortschakoff to demand a revision of 
the Treaty of Paris. 

— M. Jules Favre having asked permission 
for the diplomatic body in Paris to leave before 
the commencement of a bombardment, and to 
have notice for that purpose, and also that a 
courier might be permitted to leave with de¬ 
spatches once a week, Count Bismarck writes in 
reply : “I regret that military considerations 
forbid the giving of notice regarding the time 
and manner of the attack on the fortress of 
Paris. The customs of war do not ordinarily 
admit of correspondence with besieged for¬ 
tresses. Still we will gladly permit the forward¬ 
ing of open letters of diplomatic agents, pro¬ 
vided that they are unquestionable in a military 
point of view, We cannot, however, regard 
or treat as well founded the opinions of those 
who deem the interior of the fortifications of 
Paris during a siege ah appropriate centre of 
diplomatic intercourse. This also appears to 
be the view of those neutral Governments whose 
representatives have removed their residence 
to Tours.” 

27 . — Replying to a deputation of working 
men representing the trade societies of London, 
who desired recognition and mediation on the 

( 050 ) 


part of Government, Mr. Gladstone said he did 
not think there was any step possible for them 
to take which had not been taken to avert the 
calamity of war. The present Provisional Go¬ 
vernment, though recognised for all practical 
working purposes, had not been formally re¬ 
cognised by France itself; but when that country 
had decided what form of government she 
would have, this country would be ready to 
recognise it with alacrity. 

27 . —Orleans occupied by Prussians. 

— The Due d’Aumale accepts a request to 
come forward as a candidate for the depart¬ 
ment of La Charente in the forthcoming elec¬ 
tions for the Constituent Assembly. The Duke 
expressed an intention to give his present sup¬ 
port to the Government which was fighting and 
negotiating for France, and his future adhesion 
to the Government freely chosen by the Con¬ 
stituent Assembly. 

— Count Bismarck issues a circular to North 
German embassies and legations, explaining that 
the recent interview with M. Jules Favre had pri¬ 
mary reference, not to the conclusion of peace, 
regarding which negotiations could only take 
place after the principle of cession of territory 
had been admitted, but to an armistice per¬ 
mitting elections for a Constituent Assembly to 
take place. * ‘ Our first conversation in Cha¬ 
teau Haute Maison, near Moutry, was con¬ 
fined to an abstract inquiry into the general 
characteristics of the past and present ages. 
M. Favre’s oddly pertinent remark on this oc¬ 
casion was that they would pay any sum, tout 
Vargent que nous avons , but declined any ces¬ 
sion of territory. Upon my declaring such 
cession to be indispensable, he said in that case it 
would be useless to open negotiations for peace; 
and he argued on the supposition that to cede 
territory would humiliate—nay, dishonour— 
France. I failed to convince him that terms 
such as France had obtained from Italy and 
demanded from Germany, without even the 
excuse of previous war—terms which France 
would have undoubtedly imposed upon us had 
we been defeated, and in which nearly every 
war had resulted down to the latest, times— 
could have nothing dishonouring in themselves 
to a country vanquished after a gallant struggle, 
and that the honour of France was of no other 
quality or nature than the honour of all other 
countries. M Favre likewise declined to see 
that, as a question of honour, the present re¬ 
storation of Strasburg would be on a par with 
the former restoration of Landau and Sarre- 
louis, and that the honour of France was just 
as little bound up with the unlawful conquests 
of Louis XIV. as it had been with those of 
the First Republic or the First Empire.” Re¬ 
garding an armistice, Count Bismarck submitted 
the following alternative:—“Either the fortified 
place of Paris is to be given into our hands by 
the surrender of a commanding portion of the 
works, in which case we are ready to allow 
Paris renewed intercourse with the country, 
and to permit the provisioning of the town ; or, 










SEPTEMBER 


187O. 


OCTOBER 


the fortified place of Paris not being given into 
our hands, we shall keep it invested during the 
armistice, which latter would otherwise result 
in Paris being able to oppose us at its expiry, 
reinforced by fresh supplies, and strengthened 
by new defences. M. Favre peremptorily de¬ 
clined handing over any portion of the works 
of Paris, and also refused the surrender of the 
Strasburg garrison as prisoners of war.” At 
one of the interviews M. Favre called Stras¬ 
burg the key of the house, leaving it doubtful 
which house he meant. “I replied that Stras¬ 
burg was the key of our house, and we therefore 
objected to leaving it in foreign hands.” 

28 . —Strasburg surrenders early this morn¬ 
ing after a siege of unexampled severity. General 
Uhrich’s starving force amounted to. 17,000 men 
and 400 officers ; and they handed over to the 
Prussians 1,100 cannon, 12,000 chassepots, 
6,000 cwt. of ammunition, and 50 locomotives. 
The surrender was unconditional. An official 
account set forth that 400 houses had been 
burnt down, 1,700 civilians killed, and that 
8,000 people were shelterless. The public 
damage was set down at i8o,ooo,ooof. 

29 . —Notice issued from Prussian head¬ 
quarters that in consequence of General Ducrot 
having merely made a secret journey to Pont-k- 
Mousson, and not delivered himself prisoner 
there as stipulated, the consideration hitherto 
shown to captive French officers would have 
to be essentially restricted. 

— Prussia prohibits the solicitation of sub¬ 
scriptions for the poor of Bazeilles, as implying 
a false interpretation of “the sentence executed 
against the village in virtue of the laws of 
war.” 

30 . —The Government of Tours issue a 
decree ordering all Frenchmen between the 
ages of 21 and 40, and all those who have 
already volunteered, to be organized into a 
Mobilised National Guard ; all men from 25 to 
35 who are subject to the anny law to remain 
in the Mobilised Guard till their services are 
required by the Minister of War. Another 
decree places all Franc-Tireurs at the disposal 
of the Minister of War, and subjects them to 
the same discipline as that governing the 
National Guard Mobile. 

_ With the view of facilitating the ne¬ 
gotiations for an armistice, the Government 
Delegation at Tours fix upon the 2nd instead 
of the 16th October as the day on which the 
elections were to take place for the Constituent 
Assembly. (See Oct 7.) 

— Heavy fighting at Metz, near Colomby 
and Ars-la-Quenexy. 

October 1 . —New postal regulations autho¬ 
rizing the use of a halfpenny stamp for news¬ 
papers and printed matters under two ounces, 
with postal cards and open envelopes of the same 
value. 

— At Rome, up till 11.10 this evening, the 
votes in favour of union with Italy were 40,805 


ayes, and 1,500 noes. The Leonine City was 
said to be unanimous in favour of annexation. 

1.—The Grand Duke of Nassau repoited to 
have been shot in his carriage by Franc-tireurs. 

— In explanation of the statement put forth 
by the Government at Tours, that it was the in¬ 
tention of Prussia to reduce France to a second- 
rate Power, Count Bismarck writes : “ In my 
interviews with M. Favre we never got so far 
as to open business-like discussion on terms of 
peace. Only at his reiterated request I com¬ 
municated to the French Minister a general 
outline of those ideas which form the principal 
contents of my circular dated Meaux, the 16th of 
September. As yet I have never and nowhere 
raised demands going beyond those ideas. The 
cession of Strasburg, Metz, and the adjacent 
territory, alluded to by me on this occasion as 
part of the programme, involves the diminution 
of French territory by an area almost equal to 
that gained by Savoy and Nice; but the popu¬ 
lation of the territory we aspire to exceeds, it 
is true, that of Savoy and Nice by three- 
quarters of a million. 'Now, considering that 
France, according the Census of 1866, has 
38,000,000 inhabitants, and with Algeria, 
which latterly supplies an essential portion of 
her army, even 42,000,000, it is clear that a 
loss of 750,000 will not affect the position of 
France in regard to other Powers, but, on the 
contrary, leaves this great empire in possession 
of the same abundant elements of power by 
which in Oriental and Italian wars it was 
capable of exercising so decisive an influence 
upon European destinies.” 

— Count Bemstorff, the North German Am¬ 
bassador, writes to Lord Granville that the 
attitude of the British Government had changed 
with reference to the belligerents, and endea¬ 
vours to prove that the position now taken up 
of defending the supply of arms and ammuni¬ 
tion could not be justified either by English 
municipal or international law. “As for the 
hope expressed by your Excellency, that the 
German people will in a cooler moment judge 
less severely the attitude of the Government 
of Great Britain in this question than now in 
the heat of action, I regret that, in consequence 
of your Excellency’s note of the 15th ult., 
added to the knowledge that our enemy is 
being daily equipped with British arms, I 
cannot share it.” 

2 . —In the course of their attacks on Metz, 
the Prussians destroy the villages of Morelly 
and Nouilly. 

3. —The Danish Rigsdag opened by the 
King, who expressed a hope that the questions 
still pending with Prussia might be settled in a 
way securing future independence and ensuring 
good relations with southern neighbours. 

4.. —George Chalmers executed within the 
walls of Perth county prison for the murder 
of the toll-keeper at Blackhill in December last. 
He declared his innocence to the close and in 
the face of unusually persistent efforts from the 
officiating clergyman to relieve those present 

(950 












OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1870. 


“ from the very distressing position in which we 
are placed.” 

4. —Epemon occupied by the Germans after 
a sharp engagement. 

— Died at Cannes, whither he had retired 
for the purpose of recruiting his health, Prosper 
Merimee, French critic and historian, aged 67. 

5. —Lord Elcho, in a letter to the Times on 
our reserve forces, proposes that every man 
should be liable to be trained to efficiency 
either in the militia or the volunteers; that the 
ballot should be enforced for the militia to such 
an extent as to maintain that force in the num¬ 
bers deemed sufficient; that no substitute be 
allowed, but that men should be able to avoid a 
term of service in the ranks either by becoming 
thoroughly efficient volunteers, or by rendering 
themselves thoroughly qualified officers for the 
militia. 

— Reilly and Co., gunmakers, Oxford-street, 
fined 20/. for attempting to forward 2,000 gun¬ 
powder cartridges by railway to Paris, under 
pretence that the packages were filled with 
vegetables. 

— Intimation given that the Royal head¬ 
quarters of the German troops were to be 
removed from Ferrieres to Versailles. 

— Died, aged 63, William Allen Miller, 
F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry in King’s Col¬ 
lege, London. 

6-—Mr. Goldwin Smith writes: “Having 
left Germany unaided to fight for her life, we 
cannot now presume to protest against her 
taking advantage of the fortune of war to 
secure herself effectually against such attempts 
for the future. It is to be hoped that all true 
Liberals throughout Europe will be led by this 
experience to labour more steadily, and com¬ 
bine more closely, for the gradual abolition of 
dynastic and aristocratic institutions, and for 
the tranquil inauguration of Governments 
thoroughly in unison with those popular and 
industrial interests, the ascendancy of which is 
the only security for international peace, as 
well as for national progress and happiness.” 

— Died by his own hand, Dr. A. Matthies- 
sen, Professor of Chemistry, St. Bartholomew’s 
Hospital. 

7 .—Serious misunderstanding prevailing 
between the Government at Tours and the 
National Defence Committee in Paris regard¬ 
ing the contemplated election of deputies, 
M. Gambetta is selected by his compeers to 
proceed to the former city and explain the posi¬ 
tion of matters in the capital. He left Paris in 
the forenoon in a balloon named the “ Armand- 
Barbes,” accompanied by a secretary and aero¬ 
naut, passed safely over the Prussian lines, 
and reached Rouen in the evening. He at 
once Issued a proclamation announcing that 
Paris had been invested for seventeen days, 
but that up till now the fire had prevented the 
enemy from establishing the smallest work. 
“Every one is at the post assigned to him 
for fighting. The enceinte is uninterruptedly 
" '9S 2 ) 


covered by the National Guard, who from 
morning until night drill for the war with 
patriotism and steadiness. The experience of 
these improvised soldiers increases daily. Be¬ 
hind the enceinte there is a third line of defence 
formed of barricades, behind which the Parisians 
are found to defend the Republic, the genius of 
street fighting. All this has been executed with 
calmness and order by the concurrence and 
enthusiasm of all. It is not a vain illusion 
that Paris is impregnable. It cannot be cap¬ 
tured nor surprised. Two other means remain 
to the Prussians—sedition and famine. But 
sedition will not arise, nor famine either. Paris, 
by placing herself on rations, has enough to 
defy the enemy for long months, thanks to the 
provisions which have been accumulated, and 
will bear restraint and scarcity with manly 
constancy, in order to afford her brothers in the 
departments time to gather.” 

7 . —General Garibaldi arrives at Marseilles 
from Caprera. 

— Neu Brisach refuses to surrender, and is 
bombarded by the Germans. 

— Marshal Bazaine makes another desperate 
attempt to break through the Prussian lines in 
the direction of Thionville. 

S. —Judgment given by the naval court- 
martial on the loss of the Captain. They found 
that the vessel had “capsized by the pressure 
of sail assisted by the heave of the sea, and that 
the amount of sail carried at the time of her 
loss (regard having been had to the force of 
the wind and the state of the sea) was insuffi¬ 
cient to have endangered a ship endowed with 
a proper amount of stability.” The Court also 
found it their duty to record that the Captain 
was built in deference to public opinion as 
expressed in Parliament and through other 
channels, and in opposition to the views and 
opinions of the Controller of the Navy and his 
department, and that the evidence all tends to 
show that the Controller of the Navy and his 
department generally disapproved of her con¬ 
struction. It further appearing on evidence 
that before the Captain was received from the 
contractors a grave departure from her original 
design had been committed, whereby her 
draught of water was increased by about two 
feet, and her freeboard was diminished to a 
corresponding extent, and that her stability 
proved to be dangerously small, combined 
with an area of sail under these circum¬ 
stances excessive, the Court deeply regret 
that, if these facts were duly known and 
appreciated, they were not communicated to 
the officer in command of the ship ; or that, if 
otherwise, the ship was allowed to be em¬ 
ployed in the ordinary service of the fleet 
before these facts had been sufficiently ascer¬ 
tained by calculations and experiment.” In 
returning Mr. May’s sword, the president said 
the Court was satisfied that everything had been 
done to save life, and that the conduct of the 
survivors reflected credit on themselves and 
the service to which they belonged. 











OCTOBER 


1870. 


OCTOBER 


8 . —Mr. Ruskin writes to the Telegraph that 
neither the French nation nor their Emperor 
brought on war by any present will of their 
own. “Since the days of the First Empire 
no cottage in France has been without its 
Napoleonic picture and legend, fostering one 
and the same faith in the heart of every peasant 
boy, that there is no glory but in battle ; and 
since the founding of the Second Empire no 
street of any city has risen into its foolish 
magnificence without collateral proclamation 
that there was no pleasure but in vice.” 
As to our own duty, Mr. Ruskin wrote, “We 
ought to help France now if we did any¬ 
thing ; but of course there remains for us only 
neutrality—selling of coke and silence (if we 
have grace enough left to keep it). I have only 
broken mine to say that I am ashamed to speak, 
as being one of a nation regardless of its honour 
alike in trade and policy; poor, yet not careful 
to keep even the treasure of probity ; and rich, 
without being able to afford itself the luxury of 
courage.” 

— In answer to inquiries through Count 
Arnim, Count Bismarck assures the Pope that 
he might count upon the assistance of Prussia 
to secure his departure from Rome with all due 
honour. The Chancellor of the North German 
Confederation at the same time addressed the 
Italian Government on the subject, pointing 
out that it was the duty of the King of Prussia 
towards his Catholic subjects to aid in upholding 
the dignity and independence of the Pope. The 
Italian Government answered that no doubt 
could exist with regard to the intentions of the 
King of Italy to uphold the dignity and inde¬ 
pendence of the Pope. 

— Prussian attack on St. Quentin repulsed. 

— Conference at Vienna between M. Thiers 
and Count Beust. 

— The English steamer Despatch attacked 
in Jersey harbour by a French mob, to prevent 
her carrying grain away from the island. 

9 . —Garibaldi received by the Government 
at Tours, and appointed to the command of 
Volunteers. 

— Royal decree issued declaring that Rome 
and the Roman provinces constitute an integral 
part of the Kingdom of Italy. 

10. —Meeting of the London clergy at Sion 
College, to consider a proposal for renewing a 
Twelve Days’ Mission this year. An opinion 
given by the bishops was read, expressing a 
hope that no religious services should be used 
in church other than those which are contained 
in the Prayer-book, or consits of the very words 
of Scripture; that no ritual should be used in 
any church in excess of, or in addition to, the 
ordinary ritual of such church ; and, in parti¬ 
cular, that no unauthorized form be intro¬ 
duced as a renewal of baptismal vows; that 
although every facility should be given for 
personal private communication with the clergy 
to those who are troubled in conscience or who 
require further comfort, counsel, or instruction, 


the services shall not be made the occasion of re¬ 
commending the practice of habitual confession 
to the priest as a duty of the Christian life.” 

10. —Prussia issues a manifesto to foreign 
Powers, protesting against being held respon¬ 
sible for the calamities likely to arise in the 
event of the Provisional Government refusing 
to' capitulate till compelled to do so by 
starvation. “The absurd destruction of rail¬ 
ways, bridges, and canals within a certain dis¬ 
tance of Paris has not stayed the progress of 
the German armies for a moment; and all com¬ 
munications by land and water necessary for 
our purposes have been restored in a very short 
period. But we have only restored what we 
require for the military objects we have in view, 
and enough remains demolished to interrupt 
easy communication between the capital and 
provinces for a long time to come. The German 
commander in the case above mentioned will 
find it absolutely impossible to provision a 
population of nearly two millions even for a 
single day. Neither will the neighbourhood 
of Paris for a distance of many marches supply 
any means of succouring the Parisians, all that 
there is in it. being indispensably required for 
the troops. Nor shall we be able to remove 
a portion of the population by the country 
roads, as we have no available means of trans¬ 
port. The inevitable consequence of this will 
be that hundreds of thousands will starve. 
The French rulers cannot but foresee this as 
clearly as ourselves. We can only fight out 
the quarrel forced upon us, but those who 
bring on such extreme consequences will be 
responsible for them.” (See Oct. 20.) 

— The French defeated at Artenay by 
General Von der Tann. 

11 . —Margaret Waters, “baby-farmer,” exe¬ 
cuted within the precincts of Horsemonger-lane 
prison. She wrote a statement last night ex¬ 
plaining that her difficulties were first created 
by contracting a loan for which she had to pay 
exorbitant interest, and that when she resorted 
to baby-farming it was chiefly with the view of 
earning money to support herself. She ad¬ 
mitted laying down the bodies of five dead 
children, but declared that the whole of them 
died of convulsions or diarrhoea. She per¬ 
fectly understood why the case had been “got 
up” against her, but still thought that the 
parents of the illegitimate children, who wanted 
to get rid of them by any means, were more to 
blame than persons like herself. The prisoner 
walked to the scaffold with a firm step, and, 
after the rope had been adjusted, uttered, in a 
calm and composed tone, what was described 
by those who heard it as a beautiful extempore 
prayer. She appeared to die instantaneously. 

— The French make a sortie from Mont- 
medy and capture the garrison of Stenay. 

— Capture of Orleans after a sanguinary 
conflict between General Von der Tann and 
the Army of the Loire. The battle lasted from 
9.30 a.m. till 7 P.M., and was fought on very 
difficult ground. 

( 953 ) 




OCTOBER 


1870. 


OCTOBER 


11 . —General La Marmora arrives at Rome 1 
as Lieutenant-Governor of the Roman provinces. ! 

12 . —The Jockey Club carry a resolution for j 
resuming the Second Spring Meeting, discon¬ 
tinued since 1855. 

— General d’Aurelle de Paladine assumes 
the command of the Army of the Loire. 

— M. de Keratry arrives in the Departement 
du Nord in a balloon. 

— Died at Lexington, Virginia, aged 64, 
General Robert E. Lee, a brave and skilful 
leader of the Confederate army, who twice 
threatened by the capture of Washington to 
turn the tide of success, and accomplish a 
revolution which would have changed the 
destiny of the United States. 

13 . —The foundation-stone of the new Edin¬ 
burgh Infirmary laid with masonic honours by 
the Piince of Wales, who had the preceding 
day been installed as Patron of the brotherhood 
in Scotland. 

— Announcement made of the intended 
marriage of her Royal Highness the Princess 
Louise to the Marquis of Lome, eldest son of 
the Duke of Argyll. 

— The Middlesex magistrates refuse to renew 
a dancing licence to the Alhambra and High¬ 
bury Barn. 

— Breteuil and Epinal occupied by German 
troops, in each case after a slight resistance. 

— The French, without any provocation, it 
was reported, shell and thereby set on fire the 
Palace of St. Cloud. 

— Various encounters, but attended with no 
serious or decisive result, take place beyond 
the walls of Paris. M. Gambetta availed him¬ 
self of the opportunity to issue another procla¬ 
mation, urging the provinces to do their duty. 

14 -.—Capsizing of an iron vessel in Mitchell 
and Co.’s shipbuilding yard, Low-Walker, 
Tyne, causing the instant death of six work¬ 
men engaged near the keel, and serious injury 
to several others. 

— The railway station at Strasburg re¬ 
opened for traffic. 

— General Boyer arrives at Versailles with 
proposals for the capitulation of Metz. 

13 . —The King of Portugal opens the Cortes 
with an assurance of his determination to main¬ 
tain a strict neutrality in the war now going on 
between France and Germany. 

16 . --Soissons capitulates after four days’ 
fighting. 

— The North German Confederation issue 
Exchange Bills to the value of six and a half 
million thalers, bearing interest at the rate of 
3^ per cent, for six months. 

17 . —Advices from Havana make mention 
of a hurricane along the north coast of Cuba, 
in which as many as 2,000 lives were said to 
have been sacrificed. 

18 . —Chateav.dun taken by the Prussians, 
under Von der Tann, after a bombardment of 

954) 


ten hours’ duration. The Ministry at Tours 
now take alarm and prepare for flight to a city 
further removed from the enemy. 

18 . —Replying to Count Bismarck’s circular 
respecting the interview at Ferrieres, M. Jules 
Favre writes : “It is well that France should 
know to what lengths Prussia pushes her am¬ 
bition. She does not stop at the conquest of 
two of our provinces ; she coldly and systemati- 

' cally pursues her task of annihilating us. France 
1 has no illusions left. For her it is now a ques- 
J tion of existence. In proposing to her the 
j sacrifice of three departments as the price of 
peace, the thing offered her was dishonour— 
this she rejected. It is now proposed to punish 
her with death. Such is the position of affairs, 
but we prefer our present sufferings, or perils, 
and our sacrifices, to the consequences of the 
inflexible and cruel ambition of our enemy. 
France, even if ultimately vanquished, will 
remain so great in her misfortunes that she 
will become an object of admiration and sym¬ 
pathy to the whole world. She required, 
perhaps, to pass through a supreme trial—she 
will issue from it transfigured.” 

19 . —The Cambria steamer, trading between 
New York and Glasgow, wrecked in a severe 
storm on Instrahull rock, coast of Derry; of*>' 
170 people on board, only one passenger—John 
M. Garthland—was saved, and he had been 
drifting on a capsized boat for hours when 
picked up by a passing steamer. Several small 
boats, he was understood to say, were launched 
from the Cambria, but none were able to live 
through the gale in the dangerous locality where 
she struck. Two or three bodies were after¬ 
wards cast ashore and identified, as was also a 
portion of the wreck. 

— A torchlight meeting, small in numbers 
and otherwise insignificant in influence, held in 
Palace-yard, to urge on the Ministry the duty 
of instantly recognising the French Republic 
and mediating in her quarrel. 

— The Duke of Aosta formally notifies to 
the Regent of Spain his acceptance of the can¬ 
didature for the crown. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 71, George 
Moir, LL.D., formerly Professor of Rhetoric 
and Belles Lettres. 

20. —Lord Granville, writing to the British 
Ambassador at Berlin regarding Count Bis¬ 
marck’s circular of the 10th, remarks: “ There 
are degrees of bitterness, and the probability of 
a new and irreconcilable war must be greatly 
increased if a generation of Frenchmen behold 
the spectacle of the destruction of a capital—a 
spectacle connected with the death of great 
masses of helpless and unarmed persons, and 
with the destruction of treasures of art, science, 
and historical reminiscences which are of in¬ 
estimable value and cannot be replaced. Such 
a catastrophe would be terrible for France, and 
dangerous, as I believe, for the future peace of 
Europe ; while, as her Majesty’s Government 
believe, it would be more painful to none than 









OCTOBER 


1870. 


OCTOBER 


to Germany and its rulers.” Explaining the 
exertions put forth by her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment to secure the armistice, Lord Granville 
continued : “ During this war two moral causes 
have to an incalculable degree backed up the 
great material power of the Germans. They 
have fought for the purpose of repelling a 
threatened foreign invasion, and of asserting 
the right of a great nation to constitute itself 
in the manner best adapted to the full develop¬ 
ment of its capabilities. The fame of these 
exertions will be increased if it can be truly 
said in history that the King of Prussia ex¬ 
hausted every effort for the restoration of peace 
before the order for the attack on Paris was 
given, and that the conditions of peace were 
just, moderate, and in harmony with the policy 
and feelings of the present age.” Count Bis¬ 
marck replied, that he thought English media¬ 
tion was being misunderstood in Paris and 
encouraging further resistance, while it was 
quite clear that after recent experiments Ger¬ 
many could not take the lead in negotiations. 
“We shall most willingly receive every pro¬ 
posal which may be addressed to us from the 
French side and which may lead to peace 
negotiations, and we shall examine them with a 
serious desire to the re-establishment of peace.” 

20 . —The Society for Promoting Christian 
Knowledge resolve that a grant of money not 
exceeding 10,000/. shall be applied before 
the 1st of January ensuing to the building 
and enlarging of schools in connexion with 
the Church of England, and the erection of 
teachers’ residences. 

— A short Pontifical bull affixed to the 
doors of the principal churches in Rome, 
announcing the suspension of the CEcumenical 
Council in consequence of the sacrilegious 
invasion of Rome, which might restrict the 
liberty of the Pope and bishops leaving for their 
sees. The jubilee granted on the occasion of 
the Council was continued. 

— Prince Gortschakoff instructs Baron 
Brunnow to make intimation to Earl Granville 
that the balance of power established by the 
Treaty of 1856 in the East had been disturbed to 
the detriment of Russia, and that the Emperor 
intended to secure the just rights of that country. 

— Died at Romney Abbey, Herts, aged 63, 
Michael William Balfe, a popular English com¬ 
poser. 

21 . —Dr. W. Wright, of Queen’s College, 
elected Arabic Professor at Cambridge. 

— St. Quentin taken by the Prussians after 
a # slight resistance, and a fine of 80,000/. levied 
on the city. 

— Sortie in force from Mont Valerien re¬ 
pulsed with a loss to the French of two guns 
and 200 prisoners. 

23 .—Hopes of peace again excited by the 
publication in the Times of a despatch from 
Tours, announcing that England was likely to 
submit satisfactory terms to secure an armistice. 


24 -.— The fortress of Schelestadt capitulates; 
2,400 prisoners and 120 guns captured. 

— At Balmoral, her Majesty in Council 
declares her consent to the marriage of the 
Princess Louise with the Marquis of Lome. 

— M. Gambetta issues a menacing pro¬ 
clamation, urging the communes to increased 
resistance against the enemy, under pain of 
being denounced through the Moniteur. 

— Died in Dublin, aged 81, Lord Avon- 
more. He was succeeded in the title by Major 
Yelverton, defendant in the Longworth case. 

— Died at his residence, Gloucester Villa, 
Richmond, aged 93, Lord Onslow, the oldest 
member of the House of Lords, and a Har¬ 
rovian, belonging to a “set” even older than 
Byron and Peel. 

25 . —The statutes determining the constitu¬ 
tion of the new governing bodies of Winchester, 
Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, and the Charter- 
house Schools published in the Gazette. 

26 . —The Tours Government issue a decree 
authorizing the Minister of Finance to contract 
a loan of 10,000,000/. by public subscription in 
France and England. Issued at 84. 

— Intimation made that Senator Morton, 
the Minister selected to succeed Mr. Motley in 
London, declined that post on the ground that 
the ascendency recently gained by the Demo¬ 
crats in the Indiana Legislature would lead to his 
seat in the Senate being filled by a Democrat. 

27 . —Another war incident, stupendous in 
magnitude if not in its influence, took place to¬ 
day in the surrender of General Bazaine at Metz, 
with 150,000 prisoners (the Imperial Guard and 
3 marshals, 50 generals, and 6,000 officers 
among them), and 20,000 sick and wounded. 
“ This (wrote King William to Queen Augusta) 
is one of the most important events of the 
month. Providence be thanked ! ” The inter¬ 
view to arrange the surrender was held at 3 
A.M. this morning, with Major-General Von 
Stiele, Chef d’Etat-Major of Prince Frederick 
Charles. The general conditions of the terms 
of surrender were then agreed to, but the meet¬ 
ing was adjourned till 5 p.m., when the terms 
were finally agreed to at Frescati, outside Metz. 
The conditions were: (1) All the fortresses 
and arms to be given up to the Prussians. (2) 
All officers to be admitted to parole. (3) All 
others to be prisoners of war. At one o’clock, 
writes the Daily News correspondent, it was 
ordered that the French army should for¬ 
mally lay down its arms. “ There was no set 
ceremony, yet the affair was imposing from its 
very simplicity. It was conducted in detail, each 
corps laying down its arms in the neighbourhood 
of its own station. I saw the 3 r d Army Corps— 
that of Leboeuf—disarm itself. The Marshal 
himself came first, a scowl upon his swarthy 
features. He wheeled to one side, and stood 
by the single Prussian officer whose duty it was 
to superintend the stacking of the arms. Regi¬ 
ment after regiment the men defiled past, 
piling their arms in great heaps at the word 

(955) 







OCTOBER 


OCTOBER 


1870. 


of command from their own officers, who 
gave their parole and were allowed to retain 
their swords. This applies to most. There 
were, however, some who declined to accept 
the terms, and who preferred going with their 
men into captivity in Prussia. These laid down 
their swords as the men did their chassepots, 
building quite a little heap of them to the right 
of the great stacks of rifles. The disarmed 
French troops then returned to their bivouacs, 
which they occupied for one night more, be¬ 
fore quitting for other bivouacs round which 
shall stand Prussian sentries. For this last 
night they preserved a semblance of freedom. 
The Prussians left them to themselves. Except 
in the forts and at the two gates I have men¬ 
tioned, not a spiked helmet was to be seen 
nearer Metz than had been seen a week before. 
A large portion of those marched off to cap¬ 
tivity were demoralized by drink or destitution 
to an extent which made order or obedience 
out of the question. The cavalry seemed to 
have lost all self-respect; they greeted the 
Prussians with cheering, and several men 
broke from the ranks and sloughed forward 
through the mud with the intent to salute with 
a spirituous kiss the Prussian officers standing 
in front of their companies. It was curious to 
notice the opposite idiosyncrasies of the two 
nationalities. Grave and stern stood the Prus¬ 
sian victors, with, as it seemed, a silent pity 
rather than contempt for the demented tatter¬ 
demalions who proffered them the undesirable 
greeting; while the Frenchmen chattered and 
gesticulated, ‘ sacred ’ and spluttered, sang and 
laughed, as they marched through the gauntlet 
of humiliation.” This surrender of Metz, after 
a siege of seventy days, led to a serious charge 
being made against the honour of Marshal 
Bazaine by M. Gambetta and his supporters. 

27 . —-Foundation-stone laid of the new City 
of London Library. 

28 . —Hegel Monument at Berlin inaugurated. 

— M. Thiers again sets out from Tours to 

renew negotiations for peace at Versailles and 
Paris. 

— The Daily News publishes the trans¬ 
lation of a document defending the proceed¬ 
ings of the ex-Empress. “Since her arrival 
in England (it was said) the Empress Eugenie 
has not only remained a stranger to every 
intrigue, but has repelled with energy and 
dignity everything which looked like a Buona- 
partist conspiracy. It is not to be inferred 
that she has lost all hope of a restoration, nor 
is her present silence to be construed to the 
prejudice of the future; but, with a political 
sagacity which misfortune has rendered more 
clear-sighted than ever, she has perceived that 
the moment for dynastic speculations is not yet 
arrived, and that too great haste would infal¬ 
libly prove fatal to her hopes. At this moment 
her anxieties are of another kind. With the 
same fidelity as if she were still in France 
and in full possession of the power which the 
disaster of Sedan destroyed, her thoughts are 
956 ) 


occupied solely with the national defence. 
Upon that point her ideas are in complete 
accord with those of the Government of Tours 
—the refusal of all cession of territory.” The 
Prince and Princess of Wales visited the Em¬ 
press yesterday at Chislehurst 

28 . —The position of Le Bourget beyond St. 
Denis attacked and occupied by the French. 

— The Crown Prince of Prussia and Prince 
Frederick Charles made Field-Marshals, —“the 
first dignity of the kind,” wrote the King, “ in 
our house. ” 

29 . —Sir Roderick Murchison, in a letter to 
the Times , confirms the report of the murder of 
Mr. George Hayward, to whom the Founders’ 
Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society 
was awarded at last anniversary. Mr. Hay¬ 
ward appeared to have been assassinated and 
his property plundered about the beginning of 
last August, by the followers of the chief Meer 
Wate Khan, of Yassim. 

— The Sa-da-Bandiera Ministry in Portugal 
resign in favour of the party headed by the 
Bishop of Vizen. 

— General Bourbaki assumes the com¬ 
mand of the Army of the North. 

— French Rentes quoted at Lyons to-day 
at 52f. 50c. 

— The Empress Eugenie arrives incognito 
at Wilhelm shohe and has an interview with 
the Emperor—their first meeting since the 
departure from St. Cloud on the 28th July. 
Marshal Bazaine had also an interview with 
the Emperor this afternoon. The Empress re¬ 
turned to England on the 2nd Nov. 

— The Prussians occupy Dijon after an 
engagement in the suburbs which lasted from 
nine in the morning till half-past four in the 
afternoon.. The town was then bombarded, 
and the French commandant compelled to 
withdraw his forces. 

— Died at Jersey, whither he had fled from 
Paris, M. Baroche, a statesman who had filled 
various high offices at the Imperial Court, 
aged 68. 

31 .— Lieut.-General Sir James Scarlett re¬ 
tires from the command at Aldershot. 

— M. Gambetta issues a proclamation to 
the army, declaring that they had been de¬ 
ceived, not dishonoured. “For the last three 
months fortune has betrayed your heroism by 
folly and treason. Now, freed from your un¬ 
worthy chiefs, are you ready to wash out the 
outrage under leaders deserving your confi¬ 
dence? Advance ! Fight no longer for des¬ 
potism, but for the safety of your country, 
for your burnt homes, for your outraged 
families. France, your mother, is delivered 
over to the implacable fury of the enemy; 
it is a sublime mission, demanding entire 
sacrifice. Shame on those calumniators who 
dare to regard the army as the accomplice of 
the infamy of its chief, and to separate the 
army from the people. No; having justly 






OCTOBER 


1870. 


NOVEMBER 


stigmatized the treason of Sedan and the crime 
of Metz, I call upon you to avenge your 
honour, which is the honour of France. . . . 
The time of weakness and of treason is past. 
The destinies of your country are entrusted 
to your hands, because you are the youth and 
hope of the army. Conquer ! and when you 
have restored to France her rank among 
nations, you shall remain citizens of a peace¬ 
ful, free, and respected Republic. Long live 
France! Long live the Republic!” General 
Boyer replied from Brussels: “ More moderate 
than M. Gambetta, I will confine myself to a 
protest against his unqualified violence, and in 
the name of the whole Army of the Rhine, 
from which I received the mission which took 
me to Versailles and London, and in the name 
of its glorious leader, I declare that M. Gam¬ 
betta offends the public conscience, as much as 
our brave soldiers, in speaking of infamy and 
rascalities. We did not capitulate with honour 
or with duty, we capitulated with hunger.” 

31 .—Riotous outbreak in Paris, and deten¬ 
tion of members of the Government in the 
Hotel de Ville. A Committee of Public 
Safety and of the Commune of Paris was 
established, comprising Messrs. Ledru-Rollin, 
Victor Hugo, and Gustave Flourens. Towards 
8 p.m. General Trochu and MM. E. Arago 
and Jules Ferry were released from the hands 
of the rioters "by the 106th Battalion of the 
National Guard. Messrs. Jules Favre, Gamier- 
Pages, and Jules Simon, however, remained 
prisoners till3 A.M.,when battalions of National 
Guards under the command of M. Jules Ferry 
hastened in great numbers to the spot, dispersed 
the rioters who had assembled in the Hotel de 
Ville, and restored order. The disorders ap¬ 
peared to have been organized by partisans of 
the “Commune” and adversaries of the pro¬ 
posed armistice. 

_ Prince Gortschakoff issues a circular to the 

representatives of Russia abroad, announcing 
the resolution of the Emperor to be no longer 
controlled by the Treaty of 1856. Explaining 
the aversion with which Russia regarded the 
modifications of the treaty by the consolidation 
of the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, 
the repeated entry of foreign ships of war into 
the Black Sea, and the introduction of iron¬ 
clad ships as increasing the inequality of the 
Russian naval force there, Prince Gortschakoff 
proceeded:—“ Our august master cannot admit 
that treaties violated in their essential and 
general clauses should continue to be bind¬ 
ing in those clauses which affect the direct 
interests of his empire. His Imperial Majesty 
cannot admit, in fact, that the security of 
Russia should rest upon a fiction which has 
not withstood the ordeal of time, and that it 
should be endangered in consequence of his 
respect towards engagements which have not 
been performed in all their integrity. Relying 
on the sense of equity of the Powers signataries 
of the Treaty of 1856, and the consciousness 
these have of their own dignity, the Emperor 


bids you declare that his Imperial Majesty can 
no longer consider himself bound to the terms 
of the Treaty of March 18, 1856, in so far as 
these limit his rights of sovereignty in the Black 
Sea. That his Imperial Majesty considers it 
his right and his duty to give notice to his 
Majesty the Sultan of his withdrawal from the 
special and additional convention annexed to 
that treaty, which fixes the number and the 
size of the men-of-war which the two Powers 
bordering on the Black Sea reserve to keep in 
the said sea. That he conveys loyal informa¬ 
tion of this to the Powers and guarantors sig¬ 
nataries of the general treaty, of which the 
special convention constitutes an integral part. 
That in this respect he replaces the Sultan in 
full possession of all his rights in the same 
manner as he reclaims his own. In the dis¬ 
charge of this duty you will be careful to state 
that our august master has no other object in 
all this besides the security and dignity of his 
empire. It is by no means the intention of his 
Imperial Majesty to revive the Eastern question. 
On this as on all other points he harbours 
no other wish than the maintenance and con¬ 
solidation of peace. He entirely adheres, other¬ 
wise, to the general principles of the Treaty of 
1856, which have established the position of 
Turkey in the European concert. He is pre¬ 
pared to come to an understanding with the 
Powers who signed the treaty, either with a 
view to confirm its general stipulations, to 
renew them, or to substitute for them any other 
arrangement which may seem equitable and 
calculated to ensure the peace of the East and 
the European balance of power. His Majesty 
is convinced that this peace and this balance of 
power will receive an additional guarantee by 
being laid on more just and solid bases than 
those arising from a position which no Great 
Power could accept as a normal condition 
of existence.” Baron Brunnow communicated 
the despatch to Earl Granville on the 9th Nov. 
(See Nov. 10.) 

November 1 . —Dr. Westcott elected Regius 
Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. 

— In closing the Workmen’s International 
Exhibition at Islington, Mr. Gladstone ex¬ 
pressed a hope that wdien the next w'as held it 
might be when the sword was sheathed, and 
when Europe was not distracted and the minds 
of men pained, astonished, and bewildered at 
such events as were now daily heard of. 

— The conductors of the Knightsbridge 
Exchange Company fined at Bow-street, for per¬ 
mitting betting to be carried on in the premises 
pretended to be used as a private club. 

— The shore end of the Channel Islands 
cable laid at Compos Cave, near Dartmouth. 
Communication was completed on the evening 
of the 3rd. 

— The steam-tug Garlick founders between 
Lytham and Southport with all on board—five 
in number. 

— Died, aged 74, Captain Chamier, novelist. 

( 957 ) 









NOVEMBER 


1870. 


NOVEMBER 


1. —The Times correspondent at Berlin an¬ 
nounces that the King of Prussia is likely to 
receive the title of Emperor of Germany. 

— The Lyons clubs pass a resolution dis¬ 
missing the Government of National Defence, 
and proclaiming the establishment of the 
Revolutionary Commune of Marseilles, and of 
a Southern League, comprising the sixteen de¬ 
partments of the valley of the Rhone, as a 
separate and independent Republic. 

2 . —Murphy, land bailiff to Captain Lidwell, 
stoned to death at Templemore. 

— Disorderly meeting of Edinburgh students 
on the occasion of Dr. Simpson, the new Pro¬ 
fessor of Midwifery, opening his classes. The 
proceedings were brought to a hurried close. 

— Neu Breisach bombarded. Fort Mortier 
was taken on the 7th. 

3 . —The Daily News announces Mr. Glad¬ 
stone as the author of the article on “France, 
Germany, and England,” in the recently pub- j 
lished Edinburgh Review , wherein severe ob- 
servations were made on each of the belli¬ 
gerents. 

— The Prince Consort Memorial Window in 
the Guildhall unveiled by Prince Arthur ; and 
an equestrian statue of the Queen in front of 
St. George’s Hall, Liverpool, by the mayor, 
Mr. Hubback. 

— In consequence of the disorderly spirit 
manifested by the “ Reds,” the departments of 
the Rhone, Ain, Saone and Loire, Drome, and 
Ardeche are declared in a state of siege. 

— The candidature of the Duke d’Aosta 
formally announced in the Spanish Cortes by 
Marshal Prim. 

— Under the title of “ Campagne de 1870 : 
des Causes qui ont amene la Capitulation de 
Sedan par un Officier attache a l’Etat-Major- 
general,” the Emperor Napoleon issues an 
explanation of the schemes which had culmi¬ 
nated in the disaster of Sedan. His plan of 
the campaign—confided, at Paris, to Marshals 
M‘Mahon and Lebceuf alone—was to mass 
150,000 men at Metz, 100,000 at Strasburg, 
and 50,000 at the camp of Chalons. As soon 
as the troops should have been concentrated at 
the points indicated, it was the Emperor’s pur¬ 
pose to immediately unite the two armies of 
Metz and Strasburg; and, at the head of 
250,000 men, to cross the . Rhine at Maxau, 
leaving at his right the fortress of Rastadt, and 
at his left that of Germersheim. Meanwhile ! 
the 50,000 men at Chalons, under the command 
of Marshal Canrobert, were to proceed to Metz 
to protect the rear of the army and guard the 
north-eastern frontier. At the same time the 
fleet cruising in the Baltic would have held 
stationary, in the north of Prussia, a part of the 
enemy’s forces, obliged to defend the coasts ! 
threatened with invasion. The sole chance, 
however, of this plan succeeding was to surpass 
( 958 ) 


the enemy in rapidity of movement, and here it 
was that it broke down. The organization of 
the army was unfortunately defective; the 
Opposition having thwarted the Emperor’s 
schemes of reform, the troops comprising the 
army were dispersed over the whole country, 
the material was likewise scattered, and the 
generals were fettered by their limited powers 
and the red-tape stringency of the War Office. 
The Army of Metz, instead of 150,000 men, 
only mustered 100,000 ; that of .Strasburg only 
40,000, instead of 100,000; whilst the corps of 
Marshal Canrobert had still one division at 
Paris and another at Soissons ; his artillery, as 
well as his cavalry, was not ready. Further, 
no army corps was even yet completely fur¬ 
nished with the equipments necessary for taking 
the field. The Emperor gave precise orders 
to the effect that the arrival of the missing 
regiments should be pushed on; but he was 
obeyed slowly, excuse being made that it was 
impossible to leave Algeria, Paris, and Lyons 
without garrisons. It was, under these circum¬ 
stances, by the bold initiative of the German 
troops, who poured in simultaneously by the 
Sarre and by the Rhine, that the French were 
caught in the very act of formation. 

3 . —Attempts of the disorderly party in Paris 
to throw discredit on the Government for the 
Defence lead to an appeal being made to-day 
to the vote, when it was found to have 557,976 
supporters against 62,678 opponents. 

— At this evening’s sitting of the Cortes, 
Marshal Prim formally nominates the Duke 
d’Aosta as a candidate for the crown of Spain. 
He expressed his regret at the consequences 
which had resulted from the proposal to Prince 
Leopold, but was at the same time conscious 
that Spain was not the cause of the war. Senor 
Castelar’s vote of censure on the Government 
was rejected by 122 to 44 votes. 

6.— Rupture of negotiations carried on during 
the last week, for a twenty-five days’ armistice 
to Paris, M. Thiers being recalled from Ver¬ 
sailles to Tours, when it was ascertained that 
no concession would be made on the question 
of supplies “ The decisive deliberation took 
place about 9 a.m. yesterday, when General 
Ducrot and M. Jules Favre arrived at the 
Sevres bridge. A trumpet had sounded a few 
minutes previously in the direction of Sevres, 
and a cavalry soldier displayed a flag of truce ; 
on our own side a similar flag had also been 
displayed. At a quarter to ten a small green 
boat left the river bank in the occupation of the 
Prussians, having on board a person wrapped 
up in a black cloak, with a parcel of papers in 
one hand and a hawthorn stick in the other. 
This was M. Thiers, whom General Ducrot and 
M. Jules Favre had come to meet. A con¬ 
versation at once commenced, the three person¬ 
ages walking along the river bank, while the 
boat returned towards Sevres. About half an 
hour afterwards two Germans embarked in her, 
and joined MM. Jules Favre and Thiers, and, 










NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1870. 


after a few moments’ talking, at a sign from 
General Ducrot, a mounted orderly rode up to 
take a message, and went off towards Paris. 
The five persons continued walking up and 
down the river bank, sometimes all together, 
sometimes in groups of two, General Ducrot 
frequently remaining some distance behind, 
quietly smoking a cigar.” 

7 . —Prince Christian elected High Steward 
of Windsor. 

— The new buildings of Glasgow University 
at Gilmorehill opened by the Duke of Mon¬ 
trose, Chancellor. 

8 . —The Court of Queen’s Bench inflict a fine 
of 50/. upon Mr. Leng, of the Sheffield Telegraph , 
for the publication of the Sefton libel. 

— The Jesuit College at Rome closed by 
the civil authorities. 

— The Crown Prince of Prussia made a 
Russian Field-Marshal. 

— Another circular issued by M. Jules 
Favre, explanatory of the details of the recent 
negotiations and condemning the “inhuman 
policy of Prussia.” The means of consulting 
France, he said, was refused to the Government, 
and it thereupon interrogated Paris. ‘ ‘All Paris 
in reply rises in arms to show the country and 
the world what a great people can do when it 
defends its honour, its homes, and the indepen¬ 
dence of its country. ” An armistice, M. Favre 
explained, without revictualling, would have 
been “equivalent to a capitulation without 
honour and without hope.” French Rentes 
quoted in Paris to-day at 53f. 

— M. Guizot, writing to the Times , declares 
that after the recent Prussian proposals, France 
can do nothing but carry on, with such courage 
and strength as remains to her, a war h outrance, 
the responsibility of which no longer rests in 
her hands. In another communication the ex- 
Premier wrote: “I have four sons on the 
ramparts, and, in spite of all the difficulties in 
the way of correspondence, I sometimes get a 
few lines from them, and what they say gives 
me confidence.” 

9. — The Lord Mayor’s procession proceeds, 
for the first time, to Westminster by way of the 
Thames Embankment. At the annual banquet 
in the evening, Mr. Gladstone expressed the 
desire of the Government for an early and 
secure peace—“for a peace that would meet 
the fair and equitable claims of that Power 
which has proved itself the stronger in the 
present contest, and which also was at the 
origin of that contest the Power assailed ; that 
it shall not be too galling to the susceptible 
feelings of that gallant nation which has so long 
enjoyed a military ascendency in Europe ; and, 
most of all, that when that peace arrives, it 
shall be founded upon principles agreeable to 
the ideas and to the just sense of modern civili¬ 
zation—upon principles which will tend to pro¬ 
mote the future tranquillity of Europe and the 
stability of that peace we shall then enjoy.” 

,— Intelligence published of the loss of the 


Pluto from Hull for Trieste, and of the Geneva 
from Liverpool for St. John’s, with all hands. 

9 . —Slight naval engagement off Havana, 
between the Prussian war-steamer Meteor and 
the French steamer Bouvet. The latter with¬ 
drew disabled. 

— Verdun surrenders with 4,000 prisoners 
and 136 guns. 

10. —Earl Granville replies to Prince Gorts- 
chakoff’s despatch regarding the Treaty of 1856, 
explaining that the Russian theory of exer¬ 
cising an individual discretionary power as to 
its obligations would result in the entire de¬ 
struction of treaties in their essence. “For 
wheieas their whole object is to bind Powers to 
one another, and for this purpose each one of 
the parties surrenders a portion of its free 
agency, by the doctrine and proceeding now in 
question, one of the parties in its separate and 
individual capacity brings back the entire sub¬ 
ject into its own control, and remains bound 
only to itself. Accordingly Prince Gortscha- 
koff has announced in these despatches the 
intention of Russia to continue to observe 
certain of the provisions of the treaty. How¬ 
ever satisfactory this may be in itself, it is 
obviously an expression of the free will of that 
Power which it might at any time alter or 
withdraw ; and in this it is thus open to the 
same objections as the other portions of the 
communication, because it implies the right of 
Russia to annul the treaty on the ground of 
allegations of which she constitutes herself the 
only judge. The question therefore arises, not 
whether any desire expressed by Russia ought 
to be carefully examined in a friendly spirit by 
the co-signatary Powers, but whether they are 
to accept from her the announcement that by 
her own act, without any consent from them, 
she has released herself from a solemn covenant. 
I need scarcely say that her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment have received this communication with 
deep regret, because it opens a discussion which 
might unsettle the cordial understanding it has 
been their earnest endeavour to maintain with the 
Russian Empire ; and for the above-mentioned 
reasons it is impossible for her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment to give any sanction, on their part, to 
the course announced by Prince Gortschakoff. 
If, instead of such a declaration, the Russian 
Government had addressed her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment and the other Powers who are parties 
to the Treaty of 1856, and had proposed for 
consideration with them whether anything has 
occurred which could be held to amount to an 
infraction of the treaty, or whether there is 
anything in the terms which, from altered 
circumstances, presses with undue severity upon 
Russia, or which, in the course of events, has 
become unnecessary for the due protection of 
Turkey, her Majesty’s Government would not 
have refused to examine the question in concert 
with the co-signataries to the treaty. What¬ 
ever might have been the result of such com¬ 
munications, a risk of future complications and 
a very dangerous precedent as to the validity 






NOVEMBER 


1870. 


NOVEMBER 


of international obligations would have been 
avoided.” Notes similar in substance were 
presented by the representatives of Austria 
and Italy. 

IO. - Came on before the Judicial Committee 
of the Privy Council the appeal of the Rev. C. 
Voysey, rector of Healaugh, against a decision 
of the Chancellor of the Diocese of York, who j 
suspended him on a charge of heresy contained 
in certain sermons preached and afterwards 
published by him in a volume entitled “ The 
Sling and the Stone.” The appellant appeared 
in person, and addressed the Court with the 
view of showing that what he had written did 
not in any sense contradict or contravene the 
Articles of the Church of England in their 
plain and legitimate sense. He admitted that 
he had said there was no necessity for any 
atonement or sacrifice for sin, and he held that I 
to be true, and the Articles of Religion did not 
anywhere affirm the contrary. He had not said 
that Christ did not suffer for the sins of the j 
world ; but if he had said so, he should not have 
contravened the Articles of the Church. Some 
of his statements might be considered to be 
opposed to the Articles ; but he held that the 
Articles of Religion were not necessarily an 
expression of the commonly received doctrines 
of the Church, and he contended that it was 
legally permissible to teach the doctrines which 
he had published. He contended, moreover, 
that his views on the mediation of Christ, the 
necessity of prayer, and other matters charged 
were reconcilable with Scripture and the doc¬ 
trines of the Church. When explaining his 
views regarding atonement and justification the 
Bishop of London asked, “Do I understand 
you to say that there is no need of any atone¬ 
ment or justification?” Mr. Voysey said he 
did maintain that, and then proceeded to 
justify what he had preached and written in 
reference to the Divinity of Christ. He next 
quoted from articles, old creeds, and the works 
of divines, ancient and modern, to show that 
they would stand condemned if the judgment 
of the Council went against him on these 
points. The arguments were continued on 
each side till the 15th, when the appellant 
replied to the case as submitted by Sir Roundell 
Palmer and the Solicitor-General. The Lord 
Chancellor said their lordships would take time 
to consider their decision. 

— Great enthusiasm throughout France at 
the recapture of Orleans, General d’Aurelle de 
Paladine, at the head of the new Army of the 
Loire, beating back the forces of General Von 
der Tann, after two days’ hard fighting. About 
1,000 Prussians were made prisoners, and 
a score of munition and provision waggons 
captured. The victorious General at once issued 
an order of the day thanking his men for their 
exertions to retrieve the misfortunes of their 
country. 

— Neu Breisach capitulates to the Prussians, 1 
with 5,000 prisoners. 

11 .—In explanation of recent negotiations re- 
(960) 


garding an armistice, Count Bismarck' writes: 
“ As regards Alsace and Lorraine, no stipula¬ 
tion was insisted upon which could be con¬ 
sidered calling in question the possession of 
this German department by France before the 
conclusion of peace, and that we should make 
no charge against any inhabitant of Alsace for 
appearing as a deputy in the P’rench National 
Assembly. M. Thiers declined these proposals, 
and declared that he could only agree to an 
armistice on condition that it should embrace 
an extensive revictualling of Paris. In reply to 
the question as to what equivalent he could 
make for such a concession, M. Thiers said he 
could offer none other than the readiness of the 
Taris Government to allow the French nation to 
choose representatives. The King was justly 
surprised at such extravagant military preten¬ 
sions, and deceived in the expectations which 
he had associated with the prospect of negotia¬ 
tions with M. Thiers. The incredible demand 
that we should sacrifice the fruits of all the 
efforts we had made during two months, and 
the advantages which we had achieved, and 
restore the conditions of the struggle to the 
point at which we found them in the beginning of 
our investment of Paris, once more proved that 
pretexts are sought in the French capital to 
deny to the nation the power of recording its 
votes.” On his part, M. Thiers reported that 
Count Bismarck, on behalf of the Prussian 
generals, declared the armistice to be absolutely 
against the interests of the Prussians, and that 
he could only consent to the revictualling of 
Paris if the Government of the National Defence 
was prepared to concede some military equiva¬ 
lent,—as, for example, a military position round 
Paris. M. Thiers having replied, Count Bis¬ 
marck added that by a military position he 
meant “a fort, and perhaps more than one.” 
Thereupon M. Thiers stopped him immediately, 
and declared that to refuse Paris to be revic¬ 
tualled was equal to depriving her of her re¬ 
sources for resistance during a month, and that to 
demand a fort was nothing less than to demand 
a surrender of the ramparts. 

12 .— Mr. Odo Russell leaves London on a 
special mission to the King of Prussia at Ver¬ 
sailles, regarding the renunciation by Russia of 
the obligations of the Treaty of 1856. He ar¬ 
rived by way of Sedan on the 19th, and was 
received with honour. 

14 . —Public announcement made of the in¬ 
tention of Russia to withdraw from the Treaty of 
1856. The news caused great excitement on 
Change, Consols falling \ —92^ and 92^. 

15 . —Died at Linlithgow, aged 80, Mrs. 
Hogg, widow of the Ettrick Shepherd. 

16 . —The Duke d’Aosta elected King of 

Spain by 191 votes against 120. 64 deputies 

voted for the Republic, 22 for the Duke de 
Montpensier, 8 for Marshal Espartero, 2 for 
the Infant Alphonso, and 1 for the Duke de 
Montpensier’s daughter. 18 deputies abstained 
from voting. Considerable excitement pre¬ 
vailed at Madrid, but no disorder. 









NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


1870. 


16 . —Came on before the Judicial Committee 
of the Privy Council the case of Martin v. 
Mackonochie, the defendant being charged with 
disobedience in kneeling or prostration before 
the consecrated elements during the prayer of 
consecration, and in elevating the cup and 
paten above his head during the administration 
of Holy Communion. Mr. Mackonochie did 
not appear, but by affidavits denied the acts 
complained of. On the 25th Lord Chelmsford 
delivered the judgment of the Committee, 
finding Mr. Mackonochie guilty of disobedience 
and sentencing him to three months’ suspension 
from duty. 

17 . —In consequence of the threatening 
aspect of affairs in the East, merchants refuse 
to charter Russian vessels. At the opening 
Consols touched 91 £ to 91^, but recovered before 
closing to 91! and 92^. This slight improve¬ 
ment was thought to arise from the general 
satisfaction expressed at Earl Granville’s circu¬ 
lar, made public to-day, coupled with an im¬ 
pression that the attitude taken up would lead 
to the withdrawal of Russia’s demand. Russian 
stock fell 2 per cent., and Turkish to 2. 
French Rentes quoted at Marseilles at 54 ^- 
25c. 

— The heads of the great English Roman 
Catholic houses issue a protest against the 
invasion of the Papal States by Victor Em¬ 
manuel, as a proceeding opposed to the in¬ 
terests of public order, morality, and religion. 

— At an education meeting at Aylesbury, 
Mr. Disraeli described the abandonment of the 
religious clauses as reducing the Government 
measures from an Education to a mere Instruc¬ 
tion Bill, of a transitional character. 

_ The French defeated at Dreux, and the 

place captured. 

— Died at the Master’s Lodge, Charter- 
house, aged 75, the Ven. W. H. Hale, Arch¬ 
deacon of London. 

18 .—The Times publishes a letter from Mr. 
T. Carlyle, declaring it to be “the hopefullest 
public fact that has occurred in my time,” that 
“noble, patient, deep, pious, and solid Germany 
should be at length welded into a nation, and be¬ 
come Queen of the Continent, instead of vapour¬ 
ing, vainglorious, gesticulating, quarrelsome, 
restless, and over-sensitive France.’ Censuring 
France for the evil disposition manifested for 
centuries by France towards Germany, Mr. 
Carlyle wrote: “There is no law of nature that 
I know of, no Heaven’s Act of Parliament, 
whereby France, alone of terrestrial beings, 
shall not restore any portion of her plundered 
goods when the owners they were wrenched 
from have an opportunity offered them. To no¬ 
body, except to France herself for the moment, 
can it be credible that there is such a law of 
nature. Alsace and Lorraine were not got, 
either of them, in so divine a manner as to 
render that a probability. The cunning of 
Richelieu, the grandiose long-sword of Louis 
(961) 


XIV., these are the only titles of France to 
those German countries. . . . For the present, 

I must say, France looks more and more deli¬ 
rious, miserable, blamable, pitiable, and even 
contemptible. She refuses to see the facts that 
are lying palpable before her face, and the pe¬ 
nalties she has brought upon herself. A I 1 'ranee 
scattered into anarchic ruin, without recognis¬ 
able head ; head , or chief, indistinguishable 
from feet , or rabble ; Ministers flying up in 
balloons ballasted with nothing but outrageous 
public lies, proclamations of victories that were 
creatures of the fancy ; a Government subsist¬ 
ing altogether on mendacity, willing that horrid 
bloodshed should continue and increase rather 
than that they, beautiful Republican creatures, 
should cease to have the guidance of it : I know 
not when or where there was seen a nation so 
covering itself with afohonour. . . . They be¬ 
lieve that they are the ‘Christ of Nations;’ an 
innocent godlike people, suffering for the sins 
of all nations, with an eye to redeem us all: 
—let us hope that this of the ‘ Christ of Na¬ 
tions’ is the non plus ultra of the thing. I 
wish they would inquire whether there might 
not be a ‘ Cartouche of Nations,’ fully as likely 
as a ‘ Christ of Nations ’ in our time !” Mr. 
Carlyle expressed his belief that Count Bis¬ 
marck would get Alsace and what of Lorraine 
he wanted, and that it would “ do him and us 
and all the world, and even France itself by 
and by, a great deal of good.” 

18 . —Lieut.-Colonel Hogg elected Chairman 
of the Metropolitan Board of Works. 

— Numerous meetings of candidates sub¬ 
mitting themselves for election to the New 
School Boards. 

19. —Mr. J. S. Mill and Mr. J. A. Froude 
write to the Times against the warlike spirit 
now being encouraged against Russia. An 
opposite side was taken by Earls Russell and 
Shaftesbury. 

— The Irish organs of disaffection congratu¬ 
late their supporters on the threatened war with 
Russia, the Nation openly announcing that, 
in the event of hostilities occurring, Irishmen 
mean to secure, in the first place, a settlement 
of the Irish question. 

— Republican demonstration at Tours. 

20 . —Police order issued in Paris, directing 
that the supply of gas to all houses of refresh¬ 
ment shall cease after ^ p.m. 

_ Prince Gortschakoff replies to Earl Gran¬ 
ville, that so far as the question of treaty right 
was concerned, Russia had no wish to enter 
into any discussion, recall any precedent, or cite 
any example. “ Our august master had to dis¬ 
charge an imperious duty to his own country, 
without wishing to injure in any way the Go¬ 
vernments which were signataries of the 1 reaty 
of 1856. On the contrary, his Imperial Ma¬ 
jesty appeals to their sense of justice and to 
their regard for their own dignity. We regret 
to see that Lord Granville addresses himself 

3 Q 







NOVEMBER 


NOVEMBER 


187a 


principally to the form of our communications. 
The form was not our choice. We could have 
asked nothing better, surely, than to attain our 
end by an agreement with the signataries of the 
Treaty of 1856. But the principal Secretary of 
State of her Britannic Majesty well knows that 
the attempts made at different times to assemble 
the Powers in a general Conference with a view 
to remove the causes of difficulty which dis¬ 
turbed the general peace have invariably failed. 
The prolongation of the present crisis, and the 
absence of a regular Government in France, 
postpone still further the possibility of such an 
agreement. Meanwhile, the position in which 
the treaty left Russia has become more and 
more intolerable. Lord Granville will agree 
that the Europe of to-day is very far from being 
the Europe which signed the Ti'eaty of 1856. 
It was impossible that Russia should agree to 
remain the only Power bound indefinitely by an 
arrangement which, onerous as it was at the 
time when it was concluded, became daily 
weaker in its guarantees. Our august master 
has too deep a sense of what he owes to his 
country to force it to submit any longer to an 
obligation against which the national sentiment 
protests. We cannot admit that the abroga¬ 
tion of a purely theoretical principle to which 
no immediate effect is given, and which simply 
restores to Russia a right of which no Great 
Power could consent to be deprived, should be 
considered as a menace to peace ; or that in 
annulling one point of the Treaty of 1856 there 
is any implication that all are annulled. The 
Imperial Cabinet never had any such intention. 
On the contrary, our communication of Oct. 
19th (31st) declares, in the most explicit terms, 
that his Majesty the Emperor fully maintains his 
adhesion to the general principles of the Treaty 
of 1856, and that he is ready to come to an 
agreement with the signatory Powers of that 
ti'eaty,either to confirm its general stipulations, 
or to renew them, or to substitute for them any 
other equitable arrangement which may be 
thought suitable to secure the repose of the East 
and the equilibrium of Europe. There seems, 
then, to be no reason why the Cabinet of London 
should not, if it please, enter into an explanation 
with the signataries of the Treaty of 1856. For 
our part we are ready to join in any deliberation 
having for its object the settlement of guaran¬ 
tees for the consolidation of peace in the East. 
We are persuaded that fresh guarantees would 
be found in the removal of a permanent cause 
of irritation between the two Powers the most 
directly interested. Their mutual relations 
would be more firmly established on the basis 
of a good and solid understanding. ” 

21 . —Died, aged 76, Dr. F. C. Plumptre, 
Master of University College, Oxford. 

— The Prussians occupy Montargis without 
opposition. 

22 . —Thionville bombarded. It capitulated 
on the 24th, with 250 guns and 4,000 prisoners. 

23 —The Pope pronounces the greater ex- 
(962) 


communication against ail concerned in the 
annexation of Rome to Italy. 

23 . —Treaty by which Bavaria enters the 
German Confederation signed at Versailles. 

— M. Jules Favre issues a circular, stating 
that, in giving full powers to M. Thiers to treat 
for an armistice, the Government were convinced 
that the question of the revictualling of Paris 
was admitted. 

— Speaking at Boston, General Butler de¬ 
nounced the conduct of Great Britain with 
reference to the Alabama and fishery questions, 
and recommended non-intercourse in the event 
of reparation being delayed* If refused alto¬ 
gether, he recommended war. u The United 
States had a million and a half of sturdy Irish¬ 
men eager for war, and the conquest of Canada 
would follow. As a Republican he declared 
that war would be sustained by the majority of 
the Democratic party, and the rule of the Re¬ 
publican party would thereby be perpetuated 
for generations. ” 

24 . —Opening of the North German Par¬ 
liament, and introduction of a vote of credit for 
100,000,000 thalers. The King’s message re¬ 
ferred to peace as certain, if “ our unfortunate 
neighbours possessed a Government the mem¬ 
bers of which regarded their future as inseparable 
from that of their country. Such a Government 
would have seized every opportunity to place 
the nation to the head of which it has raised 
itself by its own supreme power, in a position 
to elect a National Assembly, and to deliberate 
upon the present and future of the country. 
But, instead, they prefer to sacrifice the forces 
of a noble nation in a hopeless struggle. The 
incalculable exhaustion and devastation which 
will be to France the consequences of a con¬ 
tinuance of the war under present circumstances 
must certainly diminish the power of the coun¬ 
try to such an extent that its restoration will 
require a longer period than would be the case 
in the ordinary course of war, but there is no 
doubt that such reminiscences of the struggle 
will rankle in the hearts of the French people 
as to make it very doubtful whether peace will 
be preserved whenever France shall feel her¬ 
self strong enough to recommence the struggle. 
Hence the necessity of a defensible frontier for 
Germany against the continuance by future Go¬ 
vernments of France of the policy of conquest 
which has been pursued for so many hundred 
years. At the same time it is necessary that 
the South Germans should be freed from the 
burden of the threatening position which 
France owes to former conquest.” A constitu¬ 
tion, it was stated, would be submitted for their 
consideration for a GermanConfederacy, “which 
has been agreed upon by the North German 
Confederation and the Grand Duchies of Baden 
and Hesse-Darmstadt, and which has been 
unanimously adopted by the Federal Council. 
The understanding which has been arrived at 
upon similar bases with Bavaria will also form 
the subject of your deliberations, and the 
agreement of views between the allied Govern- 









NOVEMBER 


1870 


NOVEMBER 


ments and Wiirtemberg respecting the object 
to be aimed at permits us to hope that similar 
agreement as to the method of attaining it will 
not be wanting.” 

25 . —Cabinet Council called to consider the 
reply of Prince Gortschakoff, which reached 
the Russian Embassy early this morning. After 
sitting three hours, an adjournment was made 
till Monday, the 28th. Rumours were favour¬ 
able to a peaceable solution of the difficulty, 
yet Consols fell during the day 

— The first contested election for a School 
Board under the new Education Act takes place 
at Manchester. Miss Lydia Baker secured 
one of the seats, being ninth on the list. The 
Roman Catholics were at the top of the poll, 
and the Secularists at the bottom. 

— After a five days’ hearing, the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor pronounces the judgment of the Judicial 
Committee in the appeal of Jackson v. Martin, 

' commonly known as the “ Ledbury Scandal ” 
case. His lordship reviewed the evidence, de¬ 
clared that the charges of immorality against 
Mr. Jackson had failed, and reversed the deci¬ 
sion of the Arches Court with costs. 

— M. Rollin, a Parisian aeronaut, makes a 
descent in the neighbourhood of Christiania, 
Norway, having travelled 750 leagues in less 
than fifteen hours. The average height of the 
course of the balloon was 2,500 yards, but at 
one moment it rose as high as 4,500. 

26 . —Count Bismarck addresses an invita¬ 
tion to the Courts of Vienna, Constantinople, 
Florence, and St. Petersburg, requesting them 
to empower their representatives in London 
“to assemble at a Conference with the repre¬ 
sentatives in that city of the signatory Powers 
of the Treaty of the 30th of March, 1856, 
in order to discuss the questions which are 
raised in connexion with the communications 
made in the circular of the Imperial Russian 
Cabinet dated 19th (31st) October.” This in¬ 
vitation was said to have been issued ‘ ‘ after 
the Cabinet of Great Britain had assured me, 
through Mr. Odo Russell, of its assent; and I 
had also reason to assume that the Cabinet of 
St. Petersburg was also ready to accept it.” 

— Accident at Harrow Station, the Liver¬ 
pool and Manchester afternoon express dashing 
into a train of empty coal-waggons in the process 
of being shunted off the down line. The driver 
of the express train was killed, with six of the 
passengers, and about a score more or less 
injured. 

27 . —Capitulation of La Fere, after two 
days’ bombardment. 

— After several skirmishes with outposts, 
the French Army of the North, under General 
Faure, about 30,000 strong, comes into colli¬ 
sion with Manteuffel’s forces, consisting of 
General Goeben’s corps, of cavalry and artil¬ 
lery. The French occupied a position between 
the Celle and the Somme rivers, with their 
left at Villiers Bretonneux, their centre at 

(963) 


Boves, and their right at Dury. At the com¬ 
mencement the fighting was favourable to them, 
but in the afternoon they were compelled to 
yield their positions at Villiers Bretonneux and 
Boves, and fall back. At Dury they main¬ 
tained their ground till the defeat of the left 
and centre compelled the whole army to move 
to the intrenched camp south of Amiens. The 
French retired with their shattered forces in 
fair order. 

28 .—Earl Granville informs Prince Gort¬ 
schakoff that her Majesty’s Government observed 
that his Excellency describes the declaration 
which has been made by Russia as an abroga¬ 
tion of a theoretical principle without immediate 
application. “ If these words are to be con¬ 
strued into an announcement that Russia has 
formed and stated her own opinion of her rights, 
but has no intention of acting in conformity 
with it without due concert with the other 
Powers, they go far to close the controversy in 
which the two Governments have been engaged. 
Her Majesty’s Government have no objection 
to accept the invitation which has been made 
by Prussia to a Conference, upon the under¬ 
standing that it is assembled without any fore¬ 
gone conclusion as to its results. In such case 
her Majesty’s Government will be glad to con¬ 
sider with perfect fairness, and the respect due 
to a great and friendly Power, any proposals 
which Russia may have to make. ” 

— At the close of another day’s severe fight¬ 
ing, the French Army of the North falls back 
from Amiens, and permits it to be occupied by 
the Prussians, under General Manteuffel. 

— Sharp fighting, and ultimate defeat of 
the Army of the Loire. Occupying the line 
from Nogent-le-Rotrou to Orleans, with the 
German army of Prince Frederick Charles op¬ 
posed to it along a line between Dreux and 
Auxerre, General Paladine this morning at¬ 
tempted an eastward movement to force a 
passage in the direction of Fontainebleau. He 
was met in the neighbourhood of Beaune-la-_ 
Rolande by the 10th Prussian Army Corps, 
reinforced by the 5th Infantry and 1st Cavalry 
Divisions, and repulsed with a serious loss in 
killed, wounded, and prisoners. Prussian ac¬ 
counts gave the numbers engaged as 70,000, 
and the killed or wounded at 5,000. The 
French troops withdrew to the west. 

— Acting in conjunction apparently with 
the Army of the Loire, General Trochu under¬ 
takes to-day the long-threatened attack on the 
Prussian lines round Paris. A violent can¬ 
nonade was opened to the south and south¬ 
west, and a demonstration made from Mont 
Valerien in the direction of Bezons. The firing 
lasted all night and into the following morning, 
when another demonstration, supported by gun¬ 
boats, was made in the direction of St. Cloud. 
About the same time sorties in force were 
made between Le Hay and Choisy, and another 
against the Saxon and Wiirtemberg troops on 
the north-east side of Paris. The French 
troops were beaten back at all points, and 

3 Q 2 









NOVEMBER 


1870. 


DECEMBER 


compelled after heavy losses to seek the pro¬ 
tection of their forts. 

29 . —Elections under the Education Act in 
the ten divisions of the Metropolitan district, 
about a hundred and fifty candidates coming 
forward for the forty-nine seats. Miss Garrett 
headed the poll at Marylebone, and received 
over 47,000, the largest number given to any 
candidate. Professor Huxley stood second in 
the same district. 

30 . —Replying to an Address praying for the 
interference of Government to secure for the 
Pope a continuance of such temporal authority 
as would protect him in the discharge of his 
spiritual duties, together with an adequate in¬ 
come, Mr. Gladstone writes : “ Her Majesty’s 
Government consider all that relates to the 
adequate support of the dignity of the Pope, 
and to his personal freedom and independence 
in the discharge of his spiritual functions, to 
be legitimate matter for their notice. Indeed, 
without waiting for the occurrence of an actual 
necessity, they have during the uncertainties of 
the last few months taken upon themselves to 
make provision which would have tended to 
afford any necessary protection to the person of 
the Sovereign Pontiff. The subjects to which 
I have adverted will continue to have their 
careful attention ; although they have had 
great satisfaction in observing that the Italian 
Government has declared in the most explicit 
manner its desire and intention to respect and 
defend the Pope’s freedom and independence, 
and to take care that adequate provision shall 
be forthcoming for the due support of his 
dignity.” This communication giving rise to 
some hostile criticism among his Liberal sup- 

orters, the Premier afterwards explained that 
e in no wise intended to pledge the Govern¬ 
ment to do anything to mix itself up with the 
Pope’s temporal power, but only to express its 
readiness to represent any personal grievance 
to the Italian Government should restraint be 
put upon the Pope’s person. 

— Another great sortie from Paris, sup¬ 
ported by heavy cannonading from all the forts 
and gunboats of the Seine, against the Prussian 
and WUrtemberg front, near Le Hay. The 
fighting went on from 11 A. M. to 6 P. M. , when 
the French were driven back along the entire 
line. Early in the morning, General Ducrot 
crossed the Marne on the left, successively oc¬ 
cupied Mesly and Mont Mesly, and engaged 
the enemy along the line from Champigny-sur- 
Marne to Brie-sur-Mame, with his back to the 
Marne. Rentes were quoted at Lyons to-day 
at 52k 50c. 

— Died at Bonn, Dr. Bischof, chemist and 
geologist. 

December 1.—M. Guizot writes, through 
the Patrie , to the Government of National 
Defence, proposing the election of a National 
Assembly and the termination of the Dicta¬ 
torship. He highly approved of what had 
(9 6 4) 


already been accomplished, but declared that 
“in the actual state of affairs the members of 
the Government do not suffice for the work on 
hand. The object of the war is to make 
peace ; the enemy to treat for peace, and the 
neutral Powers to second the efforts of France, 
must be met by a Government complete and 
efficacious, having a real chance of sustaining 
itself, and on which the Germans can count 
for the fulfilment of treaties.” The Count de 
Chambord M. Guizot described as “an iso¬ 
lated and inert pretender, pledged to wait 
without doing anything and without hoping 
for much. ” 

2. —Abbeville occupied by 1,000 Germans. 

— Meeting at Birmingham to protest 

against the threatened war with Russia. 

— Vienna despatches announce that all the 
Powers concerned had agreed upon a Congress 
on the Eastern question. 

— Meeting in Edinburgh to arrange details 
connected with the centennial celebration of 
the birth of Sir Walter Scott in August next. 

3 . —The Spanish deputation conveying the 
offer of the crown to the Duke of Aosta arrive 
at Florence, and are received in state by 
officers, of the Court. A formal tender of the 
crown was made next day, when the Duke 
said : “ Faithful to the traditions of my ances¬ 
tors, and though I do not ignore the difficulties 
of my new position and the responsibility to 
be assumed before history, I place my confi¬ 
dence in God and in the Spanish people, which 
has given proof that it knows how to unite 
respect for the law with liberty. To make 
myself worthy of my election I have but to 
follow loyally the example of the constitutional 
traditions in which I have been brought up. 
A soldier in the army, I shall at the same time 
be the first citizen to the representatives of the 
nation. I know not whether I shall have the 
good fortune to shed my blood for my new 
country and of adding a new page to those 
which already celebrate the glory of Spain ; 
but, in any case, I am sure that the Spaniards 
will be able to say of the King whom they 
have elected, his honesty could rise above the 
struggles of parties, and he had no other object 
but the peace and prosperity of the nation.” 
The Duke of Aosta’s speech was received with 
loud cries of “ Long live the King of Spain.” 

— The King of Bavaria, representing the 
German sovereigns, requests the King of 
Prussia to accept the title of Emperor of 
Germany. 

— Count Bismarck announces to the Prussian 
Ambassador in London the concurrence of 
the different Powers in the proposal of a Con¬ 
ference. Count Bernstorff is desired to commu¬ 
nicate the fact to Earl Granville, and to inform 
him of “our satisfaction at the unanimous 
acceptance of the proposal for a Conference, 
which I may regard as settled. Your Excellency 
will also express to him an expectation that the 
Cabinet of Great Britain, at whose the seat 







DECEMBER 


1870. 


DECEMBER 


Conference will assemble, will now take in 
hand the further management of the matter, 
and, naming a day for the opening, will invite 
the representatives of the Powers to the 
meeting.” 

A .—Orleans recaptured by the Prussians 
after severe fighting, in which the French lost 
heavily in guns and men. While the German 
centre and left, under Prince Frederick Charles, 
were storming the intrenched camp and driving 
the French army back on the Loire, the right 
wing, commanded by the Grand Duke of 
Mecklenburg, moved in a westerly direction 
and threatened to cut off Generals Pallieres 
and d’Aurelle de Paladine from Tours. In the 
three days’ fighting which preceded their entry 
into the city, the Prussians were reported to 
have lost over 5,000 men. They made 10,000 
prisoners, and took possession of 77 guns, se¬ 
veral mitrailleuses, and four gunboats. 

— General Ducrot addresses the Paris troops 
from Vincennes:—“After two days’ glorious 
battles, I have caused you to recross the Marne, 
because I was convinced that further efforts 
would be fruitless in the direction in which the 
enemy had had time to concentrate his forces, and 
to prepare means of action. Had we persisted 
in that way I should have uselessly sacrificed 
thousands of brave men. Far from aiding the 
work of deliverance, I should have seriously 
compromised it, and at the same time have led 
you to an irreparable disaster. But the conflict 
has only ceased for a moment; let us resume 
it with courage. Be ready ! ” 

5.— The Empress Eugenie visits the Queen 
at Windsor Castle. 

— The Italian Parliament opened by King 
Victor Emmanuel. “ With Rome,” he said, 
“for our capital, I have fulfilled my promise, 
and crowned the enterprise which was begun 
twenty-three years ago by my magnanimous 
father. Italy is free and united henceforth, and 
depends upon herself alone making her great 
and happy. We entered Rome by our national 
right, and shall remain there, keeping the pro¬ 
mises solemnly made to ourselves of freedom to 
the Church and the independence of the Holy 
See in its spiritual ministry and its relations 
with Catholicity.” 

— Opening Congress to-day, President Grant 
stated that the United States had kept aloof 
from the European war, declining intervention, 
but using their good offices for the protection 
of the citizens of the belligerent nations. His 
reference to Great Britain and the Alabama 
claims gave rise to considerable discussion and 
some uneasiness in the money market. No con¬ 
clusion, he regretted, had been reached for the 
adjustment of claims growing out of the course 
of the British Government during the rebellion. 
“ The Cabinet at London, so far as its views have 
been expressed, does not seem willing to con¬ 
cede that the British Ministry was guilty of any 
■negligence, or had done or permitted any act 
dining the war of which the United States have 


just cause of complaint. Their firm and unal¬ 
terable convictions are directly the reverse. He 
therefore recommends Congress to authorize the 
appointment of a commission to take proof of 
the amounts and ownership of the claims, and 
give notice of them to the representative of 
her Majesty at Washington ; and that authority 
be given for the settlement of these claims by 
the United States, so that the Government shall 
have the ownership of the private claims, as 
well as the responsible control of all demands 
against Great Britain. It cannot be necessary 
to add that whenever her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment shall entertain a desire for a full and 
friendly adjustment of these claims, the United 
States will enter upon their consideration with 
an earnest desire for a conclusion consistent 
with the sense of honour and dignity of both 
nations.” It was also stated that the course 
pursued by the Canadians towards the fisher¬ 
men of the United States during the past season 
had not been marked by a friendly feeling. 

6 .—Mr. Motley presents his letters of recall, 
and takes leave of the American Legation, now 
placed in charge of Mr. Secretary Moran pend¬ 
ing the appointment of a successor. 

— Accident at Brockley Whins station of the 
North-Eastern Railway, an express train from 
Sunderland to Newcastle being directed by the 
oversight of a pointsman to a line on which a 
coal train was coming in an opposite direction. 
The carriage nearest to the engine was broken 
to pieces, and the passengers thrown about the 
line. Four were killed instantly, the guard 
died in a few hours, and over a score were 
more or less injured. 

— General Manteuffel imposes on Rouen a 
war contribution of 15,000,000francs; 7,000,000 
to be paid at once. 

— The King of Prussia issues a general 
order stating that they were now entering on a 
new phase of the war, and that all attempts to 
relieve Paris had failed. 

7 . —The Rev. G. G. Bradley, of Marlborough 
School, appointed to the vacant Mastership of 
University College, Oxford. 

— Replying to an address from Malta con¬ 
cerning the Pope, Earl Kimberly writes : “ Her 
Majesty’s Government have not interfered in 
the civil affairs in the Roman States on the oc¬ 
casion of former events which have occurred 
during the reign of the present Pope, nor can 
they now so interfere ; but the deep interest 
which is felt by many millions of her Majesty’s 
subjects, in common with the Maltese, in the 
position of the Pope, renders all that concerns 
his personal dignity and independence and free¬ 
dom to exercise his spiritual functions fit sub¬ 
jects for the notice of the Government, and they 
have not failed to take such steps as are in their 
power to afford to the Pope the means of secu¬ 
rity in case of need.” 

— Fighting at Beaugency between a portion 
of the Mecklenburg troops and three French 
army corps under General Chanzy ; about i,oo« 

(9^5) 






DECEMBER 


1870. 


DECEMBER 


of the latter were made prisoners, and six of 
their guns taken. 

8 . —Decree issued by the Government at 
Tours, removing General d’Aurelle to the com¬ 
mand of the Camp of Instruction at Cherbourg, 
and appointing General Bourbaki to the chief 
command of the First Army of the North. 

9 . — Dieppe occupied by General Manteuffel, 
who left on the nth after obtaining supplies. 

— Mr. Noel, an Englishman domiciled at 
Negropont, and sixty Greek shepherds, com¬ 
mitted for trial at Athens on the charge of 
complicity in the massacre of English travellers 
at Marathon. 

— Conference at the rooms of the Social 
Science Association, to discuss “the admission, 
under proper safeguards, of persons not in 
Anglican holy orders to preach in the pulpits 
of the Church of England. ” 

— Meeting in St. James’s Hall to express 
sympathy with the Pope. Archbishop Manning ! 
spoke of the wickedness of the Italian Govern¬ 
ment and the moral imprisonment to which the 
Holy Father was subjected. He trusted that 
when France and Germany, who were now 
locked in deadly conflict, should be released 
and should return to such calmness as to admit 
of deliberation, Christian Europe would know 
that there was an interest higher than that of 
civil order—the Christian order of the world; 
and he hoped that our country would not look 
on and hold the clothes of those who stoned 
Stephen. 

— Disastrous explosions at Ludlow’s cartridge 
factory, Witton, Birmingham, causing the death 
of above forty young people employed about 
the works, and serious injury to all who hap¬ 
pened to be within the area over which the 
calamity was spread. The first of the five 
explosions was supposed to have occurred in a 
shed where the cartridges are made, and to 
have been caused by the accidental ignition of 
a woman’s apron as she stood warming herself 
at a stove. The sheet of flame resulting from 
this explosion extended to such a distance as to 
set on fire the two nearest sheds, which stood 
about fifteen yards off. All three were com¬ 
pletely wrecked, and the remainder more or less 
shattered by the concussion. 

— Bills laid on the table of the Italian 
Chambers for transferring the capital to Rome 
within eight months, and authorizing a credit 
of 17,000,000 lire. Another defined the guaran¬ 
tees to be given to the Pope in reference to 
the inviolability of the personal prerogatives 
of the Sovereign Pontiff “Laws will establish 
the conditions upon which such guarantees will 
be based, so as to secure, together with the 
privileges connected with the Leonine City, 
the independence and free spiritual authority 
of the Pope.” 

— Rumours circulated of the intention of 
Prussia to set aside the Luxemburg Treaty of 
1867, on the ground that the neutrality it 
guaranteed had been lepeatedly violated during 
(966) 


the present war by the following occurrences:— 

1. That Luxemburg inhabitants have made 
manifestations of sympathy towards France 
which have been tolerated by the Government. 

2. Convoys of provisions destined for Germany 
on arriving in Luxemburg territory were sent on 
to Thionville to provision the French garrison 
in that fortress, this step meeting with no op¬ 
position from the Government. 3. A large 
number of French officers who were prisoners 
of war, but had effected their escape, were able 
to pass through Luxemburg without impedi¬ 
ment. 4. A complete organization has existed 
in Luxemburg to aid the escape of French 
prisoners. Consols fell £ under the influence of 
the rumour. 

9 . —The French Delegate Government re¬ 
moves from Tours to Bordeaux. 

— Died at St. Leonards-on-Sea, aged 65, 
Thomas Brassey, a great railway contractor. 

10. —The North German Parliament, by a 
large majority, pass a bill authorizing the in¬ 
sertion of the words “Empire” and “Em¬ 
peror” in the Constitution. 

— Died at the residence of his son, near 
Dieppe, aged 67 years, Alexander Dumas, the 
most voluminous of modem novelists. 

11. —M. Gambetta announces that General 
Chanzy is protecting the lines of the Loire 
without ceding an inch of ground. 

12 . — The Lord Mayor refuses the use of the 
Guildhall for a so-called City meeting to ex¬ 
press sympathy with France. A second appli¬ 
cation met with a similar rebuff. 

— Collision near Barnsley, on the Man¬ 
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, 
a number of goods trucks in the course of being 
shunted running down an incline for two miles, 
and dashing into a passenger train drawn up 
at the platform of the Stairfoot station. Twelve 
people were killed on the spot, two died soon 
afterwards, and twenty were seriously injured. 

— The Italian Ministry announce their 
scheme for carrying out the programme of a 
Free Church in Italy. The Pope to be guaran¬ 
teed his sovereign rights, allowed to retain 
his guards, and provided with an income of 
3,255,ooof.; to retain the Vatican, the Church 
of Santa Maria Maggiore, Castel Gandolfo, 
and their dependencies, all exempted both 
from taxes and common law jurisdiction. The 
same immunity to be extended to any tem¬ 
porary presidency of the Pope, or Conclave, 
or Council. The Pope’s correspondence to be 
free. In pursuit of criminals, neither visits nor 
searches to be allowed. The Pope to be free 
to establish at the Vatican a post and telegraph 
office, choosing his own officials. The Papal 
despatches, couriers, and telegrams to be con¬ 
veyed as those of foreign Governments. Councils 
to require no preliminary permission for meet¬ 
ing. The Pope might prefer to benefices 
without royal permission. The oath of the 
bishops to the King, the Royal placet, and 
Exequator to be abolished. The seminaries 






DECEMBER 


1870. 


DECEMBER 


&nd other Catholic institutions to derive their 
authority from the Holy See alone, without 
any interference from the Italian scholastic 
authorities. 

12 . —Resolution introduced into the Ameri¬ 
can Senate giving President Grant discretionary 
power to suspend the laws permitting the car¬ 
riage of goods in bond over territory of the 
United States to the British American posses¬ 
sions or to Mexico. 

— Phalsburg surrenders, with 52 officers, 
1,839 men, and 65 guns. 

13 . —Tramway from Blackheath-hill to New 
Cross opened for traffic. 

14 . —Count Bismarck addresses a circular to 
Foreign Courts, complaining of the frequency 
with which French officers were breaking their 
word of honour, by escaping from captivity 
and joining the armies in the field. Another 
despatch to the Cabinet of Vienna notified the 
completion of German unity, and expressed a 
desire for friendly relations between Germany 
and Austria. 

— Moritmedy capitulates, With 65 guns and 
3,000 prisoners. 

15 . —First meeting of the London School 
Board. On the motion of Professor Huxley it 
was resolved, by a majority of 32 to 14, that no 
salary be given to the chairman. The voting 
for chairman afterwards took place, when Lord 
Lawrence was found to have a majority over 
Mr. Charles Reed, Mr. M‘Cullagh Torrens, 
and Professor Huxley. Mr. Reed was elected 
vice-chairman. 

— Her Majesty’s steamer Psyche , with the 
English Eclipse Expedition on board, wrecked 
on a sunken rock near Catania. All hands 
were saved, and also the scientific instruments. 

— A French detachment appears before 
Chateaudun, and is driven back next day. 

— King William of Prussia issues a pro¬ 
clamation warning inhabitants of Alsace and 
Lorraine against joining the French armies under 
the penalty of confiscation of property and 
banishment for ten years. Absence of more 
than eight days to be considered tantamount to 
joining the army. 

— Died, aged 71/ Patrick M‘Dowell, R. A., 
sculptor. 

16 . —Foundation-stone of the new General 
Post Office in St. Martin’s-le-Grand laid by 
Mr. Ayrton, M.P. 

— The Bank of France authorized to issue 
notes of 2of. New coins were also ordered to 
be struck with the effigy of the Republic. 

— Mr. Gladstone announces to Sir William 
Carroll, late Lord Mayor of Dublin, the in¬ 
tention of Government to release the Fenian 
prisoners now undergoing sentences for treason 
and treason-felony, on condition of their not re¬ 
maining in or returning to the United Kingdom. 
These prisoners, Mr. Gladstone wrote, were 
most justly condemned for participation, either 
secretly or by open violence, in a conspiracy 


which, if in any degree successful, would have 
filled Ireland with misery and bloodshed ; and 
the same principles of justice which dictated 
their sentences would amply sanction the pro¬ 
longation of their imprisonment if the public 
security demanded it. “It is this last ques¬ 
tion, therefore, which has formed the subject 
of careful examination by her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment, and they have been able to come to the 
conclusion that, under the existing circumstances 
of the country, the release of the prisoners, 
guarded by the condition which I have stated, 
will be perfectly compatible with the para¬ 
mount interests of public safety, and, being so, 
will tend to strengthen the cause of peace and 
loyalty in Ireland.” 

16 . —Engagement at Vendome between the 
troops under the command of General Chanzy 
and the Prussians under the command of the 
Duke of Mecklenburg. The French occupied 
the heights, and the Prussians attacked in great 
force, but were met by a murderous fire from 
the mitrailleurs, which inflicted heavy losses, 
estimated at 4,000 men. The French evacuated 
Vendome, and afterwards continued their move¬ 
ment of retreat to Le Mans, declared to be 
Chanzy’s plan of campaign. 

17 . —Centennial celebrations of the birth of 
Beethoven. 

— Black Sea Treaty Conference opened at 
the Foreign Office, Downing-street. 

— Statement made in the Spanish Cortes 
that the financial deficit for the last two years 
amounted to 323 millions of reals. In respect 
of internal engagements the Minister of Finance 
proposed the issue of Treasury Bonds to the 
amount of 900 millions of reals, bearing 12 per 
cent, interest, and redeemable at the price of 
issue at intervals of eighteen months. 

— Mr. Reverdy Johnson writes to the 
Times that if the convention he concluded with 
Lord Clarendon had not been repudiated, all 
the losses to- American citizens inflicted by the 
Alabama and other vessels fitted out as she was 
would long since have been fully discharged. 
The public sentiment of the people of Great 
Britain, as Mr. Johnson was enabled to see it, 
obviously favoured such payment. And, as far 
as he had an opportunity to learn it, the opinion 
of Parliament was to the same effect. Under 
the circumstances he thought the American 
Government was bound in law and in honour 
to permit the claimants to seek redress for 
themselves. “ No part of what is due to them 
belongs to the Government. It has no more 
right to seize upon it, to accomplish some end 
of its own, than it would have if the British 
Government was to transmit the amount claimed 
to the State Department for the benefit of the 
claimants, to refuse to pay it over, and appro¬ 
priate it to some purpose of its own. ” 

18 . —The Rev. Dr. Octavius Winslow, of 
Brighton, ordained as priest by the Bishop of 
Chichester. 

— Engagement at Nuits, lasting five hours, 

( 967 ) 










DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1870. 


and again resulting in favour of the Germans. 
General Werder reports :—“The enemy con¬ 
sisted of two marching legions from Lyons, 
the 32nd and 57th marching Regiments, Mobile 
Guards, and Franc-tireurs, with 18 guns. 
Altogether about 20,000 men, under General 
Kramer, took part in the fight, and defended 
themselves in strong positions very energetically. 
On night setting in, and after the capture of 
Nuits by us, they retreated southward. The 
bravery of our troops was truly admirable. Our 
losses were, unhappily, considerable. Thirteen 
officers were killed and twenty-nine were 
wounded, including General von Gliimer and 
Prince William of Baden, whose wounds are 
slight. About 700 of our men were killed and 
wounded. The enemy lost many officers and 
more than 1,000 men. Sixteen wounded 
officers, and 700 men unwounded, were taken 
prisoners by us. A large depot of rifles and 
ammunition, four gun carriages, three ammuni¬ 
tion waggons, and numerous arms were cap¬ 
tured.” 

18 .—The King of Prussia receives at Ver¬ 
sailles the deputation from the North German 
Diet, with the princes, generals, and states¬ 
men authorized to offer him the Imperial Crown. 
The chief speaker on the part of the deputies 
was Herr Simson, who had in 1849 unsuccess¬ 
fully solicited King Frederick William to accept 
a similar honour. King William now said : 

“ In receiving you here on foreign territory, 
far from the German frontier, the irresistible 
prompting of my feelings is to express my 
gratitude to Providence, whose wonderful dis¬ 
pensation has brought us together in this old 
French royal residence. God has given us 
victory in a measure for which I had hardly 
dared to hope and to ask, when, in the summer 
of the year, I first claimed your support for this 
great war. This support has been given to the 
fullest extent, and I thank you in my own 
name and that of the army, and in that of the 
country. ” Describing the successfuhsteps which 
had been taken to secure unity, and the emotion 
with which he had received the summons of the 
King of Bavaria to re-establish the Imperial 
dignity of the ancient German Empire, the 
King, visibly affected, concluded: “You are 
aware that on this question, touching such high 
interests and grand recollections of the German 
nation, it is not my own feelings, not even my 
own judgment, which can determine the de¬ 
cision. It is only in the unanimous voice of 
the German Princes and Free Cities, and the 
corresponding wish of the German nation and 
its representatives, that I can recognise that 
call of Providence which I can obey, and trust 
in God’s blessing it will be a source of satis¬ 
faction to you as well as to myself to know that 
I have received intelligence from his Majesty 
the King of Bavaria that the assent of the 
German Princes and Free Cities is secured, j 
and that the official ratification may be shortly 
expected.” 

— Republican demonstration in Trafalgar- 
square to express sympathv with the French 
(968) 


Government and to protest against its non¬ 
recognition by the Ministry of this countiy. 
j At the close of the proceedings a number of 
! those present formed themselves into order of 
[ procession and marched to the French Em- 
| bassy, Albert-gate, in order to place the reso¬ 
lutions adopted in the hands of the Charge 
d’Affaires. It was found that one of the porters 
was the only person in residence. 

19 . —Disturbance at Derry arising out of the 
resistance by the Apprentice Boys to a magis¬ 
terial proclamation prohibiting the annual cele¬ 
bration of the closing of the city gates. The 
effigy of Lundy in this case was burnt over the 
windows of the Corporation Hall, to which the 
military and police compelled them to confine 

| their demonstration. 

— The members of the Royal College of 
Surgeons, Edinburgh, resolve by a large 
majority to discountenance mixed classes for 
the study of medicine. 

— A committee composed of fifteen mem¬ 
bers, scientific and practical, appointed by the 
Admiralty to consider the present state of naval 
architecture, and the requirements of naval 
warfare. 

20. —Intimation made that Mr. Bright, whose 
health for several months back was far from 
satisfactory, had retired from the office of Presi¬ 
dent of the Board of Trade. He was succeeded 
by Mr. Chichester Fortescue. (See Table of 
Administrations.) 

— “Doctor’s Day” at Merchant Taylors* 
School; Dr. Hessey, head-master for the past 
twenty-five years, taking formal leave of his 
pupils. He was succeeded by the Rev. W. 
Baker, of St. John’s, Oxford. 

— M. Gambetta issues a circular denying 
the truthfulness of rumours propagated re¬ 
garding disturbance inside Paris. M. Flourens, 
he wrote, had been sent before a court-martial 
for the usurpation of military rank, and not for 
any matter connected with politics. 

21 . —The directors of the Monarch Insurance 
Company (the Queen v. Jocelyn) acquitted of 
fraud, by a Queen’s Bench special jury. 

— In the Crewe bequest case (Attorney- 
General v. Loddrell), the Master of the Rolls 
gives judgment to-day, that the Universities of 
Oxford and Durham were not entitled to share 
in the surplus income of Lord Crewe’s lands 
and hereditaments in the counties of North¬ 
umberland and Durham. 

— Tours captured by the Prussians after a 
short resistance. 

— The Luxemburg Chamber vote an address 
expressive of opposition to Prussia, and con¬ 
fidence in the Grand Duke’s determination to 
defend the rights and interests of the Duchy. 

— In his answer to Count Bismarck’s 
circular relative to the violation of neutrality 
by the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, Lord 
Granville expresses his regret that the - Grand' 
Ducal Government should have given cause for) 









DECEMBER 


DECEMBER 


1870. 


the reclamations made by the Government of 
the North German Confederation ; but before 
coming to a decided opinion upon the matter he 
must await the expression of the views of the 
other Governments interested, and especially the 
justification of the Government of Luxemburg. 

21 . —General Robert C. Schenck nominated 
United States Minister at the Court of St. 
James’s, in room of Mr. Motley, recalled. 

— Six English vessels, which had passed up 
the Seine to Rouen under Prussian permits, 
seized at Duclair by the German commandant, 
and sunk for the purpose of impeding the navi¬ 
gation of the river. The crews, after a brief 
delay, were sent home to England by way of 
Dieppe. Count Bismarck, on behalf of the 
Prussian Government, defended the right of 
belligerents to the use of neutral property 
within territory occupied by them, but, from 
a desire for “ the friendship and goodwill of 
England,” undertook to pay any just compensa¬ 
tion to the owners and sufferers. 

— Another sortie from Paris, in which about 
1,000 prisoners fell into the hands of German 
troops. Up till mid-day the French fire was 
unremitting and furious; after that hour the 
steady German fire began to tell, and by half¬ 
past two most of the forts were all but 
silenced. Shells fell in Montfermeil, while the 
horseshoe was threatened by French infantry 
and fired on from the fort batteries at intervals 
during the day. Except at Le Bourget, no 
infantry were actually engaged. 

— Died at Edinburgh, aged 93, John 
Ritchie, one of the originators of the Scotsman 
newspaper. 

22. —The eclipse to-day was well seen in 
London at the moment of greatest obscuration, 
the sun presenting the appearance of a brilliant 
crescent with its horns to the earth. 

_ Prince Charles of Roumania represents 

his position as fixed by the Treaty of Paris 
to be untenable, and calls the attention of the 
signatory Powers to that circumstance. 

_ The United States Senate pass a resolu¬ 
tion authorizing the President to appoint three 
commissioners to proceed on a visit to St. 
Domingo, in order to investigate into its poli¬ 
tical condition, and report the terms on which 
its annexation to the United States is desired. 

_Engagement on a tributary of the Somme, 

near Pont de Noyelle, between General Faid- 
herbe and General Manteuflfel. The former re¬ 
ported that his troops maintained the conflict 
admirably. “During the day villages were 
taken and retaken. At five o’clock our success 
was complete, our infantry having repulsed the 
enemy at the point of the bayonet. Between 
five and six o’clock the Prussians, taking 
advantage of the darkness, re-occupied some 
villages in the valley. Our troops bivouacked 
on their positions.” 

23 . —Fenian prisoners discharged this after¬ 
noon from Portland prison. 


23 .—George Campbell, of Eden wood, an¬ 
nounced as the new Lieutenant-Governor of 
Bengal. 

— The Cherbourg army advances to the relief 
of General Chanzy. 

— The First German army, under General 
Manteuffel, again attack the French in their 
position north-east of Amiens. Beaucourt, Mon- 
tigny, Frechencourt, Guerrieux, Pont Noyelles, 
Bussy, Vecquemont, and Daours were taken, 
and victoriously held against violent offensive 
onslaughts, until night put an end to the contest. 

— The Italian Parliament, after discussing 
the declarations of the Ministers in reference 
to the material difficulties in the way of an 
immediate transfer of the capital to Rome, 
approve the Government proposition that the 
transfer should take place within six months. 
The entire bill for the transfer was passed by 
192 against 18 votes. The Chamber also 
approved the motion which was brought for¬ 
ward by 200 members, expressing the gratitude 
of Florence for the patriotic conduct of the 
Romans during the siege. 

— To-day Consols were found to have varied 
during the year from 92^, on January I, to 
88£ during the war panic of July, and 91* 
present prices. On the same dates United 
States 5-20 bonds (1862) stood at 86f, 82, and 
88f. British railway stock—London and North 
Western, 123^, 119, and 128; Metropolitan, 
81^, 62, and 63 ; Caledonians, 76^, 69, and 86£. 

24 . —Dieppe and Fecamp strictly block¬ 
aded. 

— John Walter, eldest son of Mr. Walter of 
the Times , returned only two days since from a 
voyage round the world, drowned in the pond 
at his father’s residence, Bearwood, while 
attempting to save two younger brothers and a 
cousin who had got immersed while skating. 

25 . —Completion of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, 
authorized by the Sardinian Legislature in 
1857. The total length from Bardonn&che to 
Modani is rather more than seven miles and a 
half. At first the progress was very slow, and 
at the beginning of 1863 there remained fully 
six miles of tunnelling to be accomplished. At 
that time it was not anticipated the work 
could be completed before 1875 ; but, by the 
introduction of boring machines wrought by 
compressed air, rapid progress has since been 
made, more especially during the past four years. 
From Modani on the French side to the middle 
there is a rise of 1 in 45^, and from the middle 
to Bardonneche on the Italian side it falls 1 
in 2,000. The “ Grand Vallon,” under which 
the tunnel passes, is 11,000 feet high. 

— In Paris to-day (Christmas), instead of 
the usual distribution of horse-flesh, good rations 
of beef were given out, with a small quantity 
of salt butter. A bazaar was also opened at 
| the Ministry of Public Instruction for the bene- 
1 fit of victims of the war, and simple articles of 
I food exposed for sale side by side with objects 

I r (969) 




DECEMBER 


1870. 


DECEMBER 


of art and luxury. At Versailles the Germans 
celebrated Christmas with various festive dis¬ 
plays. 

25 . —Skirmish at Yvetot between 7.000 Prus¬ 
sians and 5,000 French troops from Havre. 
After two hours’ fighting the Prussians fell back 
with the loss of 200 men. 

— The Belgian steamer Borneo wrecked on 
a sandbank off Cape Santa Martha, on her 
return from the River Plate, and thirty-five of 
her crew and passengers drowned. 

26 . —Accident on the Great Northern Rail¬ 
way near Hatfield, three passenger carriages 
being thrown off the line and broken to pieces 
through the fracture of a tire of one of the 
wheels of a break van attached to a train from 
King’s Cross to Peterborough. Six passengers 
were killed instantly, being bruised and maimed 
almost beyond identification, and two women 
passing along the line were also killed by the 
overturning of the carriages. At the coroner’s 
inquest professional witnesses expressed it as 
their opinion that the broken tire was made 
of the best metal, and fixed in the most improved 
style, and that the cause of the fracture was 
the influence of the recent severe weather on 
the steel. The jury in their verdict expressed 
no opinion as to the cause of the accident. 

27 . —The Germans open the bombardment 
of Paris by an attack on Mont Avron, a hill 
newly entrenched about a mile eastward of the 
easternmost fort. 

— Flood at Rome, the Tiber bursting its 
banks, and inundating about three-fourths of 
the city. The Vatican was completely sur¬ 
rounded. 

28 . —The French fleet of fifteen iron-clads 
enters Cherbourg harbour. 

— Proclamation issued at Paris explaining 
the steps taken by the Government to provide 
the population with food, and calling upon the 
National Guards to arrest marauders and pil¬ 
lagers, who respected neither public not private 
property. 

— Marshal Prim shot in the Cala Alcala, 
Madrid, while passing in his carriage from the 
Cortes to the Ministry of War. The wound, in 
the shoulder, was at first given out as not of a se¬ 
rious nature, and even next day bulletins were 
issued stating that the General was “pro¬ 
gressing towards recovery,” but in the evening 
alarming symptoms were observed, and on the 
30th, though still retaining consciousness, the 
soldier-statesman, who had laboured so disin¬ 
terestedly for the safety of his country, died as 
the king of his selection was landing in the 
harbour of Carthagena. The Cortes passed a 
resolution expressive of their abhorrence of the 
crime, and placed the marshal’s family under 
the protection of the nation, but it did not 
appear that any active steps were taken to dis¬ 
cover the perpetrators. Prim was born at Reus, 
Catalonia, 6th Dec. 1814. 

(970) 


28 . —Died, aged 78, Philip Hardwick, R.A., 
architect of the new hall of the Goldsmiths’ 
Company and of the entrance to the Euston 
Station of the London and North-Western 
Railway. 

29 . —Mont Avron evacuated by the French, 
General Trochu superintending the operation 
under fire of the German guns. 

— Inviting M. Jules Favre to attend the 
London Conference on the 3rd January, Earl 
Granville writes that he will place on the 
order of the day only questions of form, and 
move an adjournment of a week in order “to 
obtain the valuable advantage of your ex¬ 
perience.” The invitation only reached Paris 
on the evening of the 10th, through the Minis¬ 
ter of the United States. 

— Died suddenly, in the railway train, while 
travelling from Manchester to Liverpool, George 
Wilson, a prominent member of the Free Trade 
party, and chairman of the League, aged 63 
years. 

— Died at Brussels, aged 64, M. Van Schen- 
del, Dutch artist. 

30 . —General Trochu issues a proclamation 
declaring that no dissension had arisen in the 
councils of the Government of Paris. “We are 
closely united in the face of the anguish and 
perils of the country, and in the thought and 
hopes of deliverance.” 

— The King of Italy, accompanied by his 
Ministers, sets out from Florence for Rome, 
which he enters next day. 

— The new King of Spain lands at Cartha¬ 
gena, and is received by Admiral Topete, who 
had succeeded Marshal Prim as President of 
the Council. 

— French Rentes quoted at Paris at 5if. 
70c., and the New Loan at 52f. 80c. At Mar¬ 
seilles and Lyons prices were slightly in advance. 

— Food prices in Paris to-day reached about 
the highest point experienced during the siege. 

Ioof. was given for a turkey, 6of. for a goose, 
and 25k for a small fowl. Carrots and turnips 
ranged from 50 centimes to a franc each, and 
potatoes reached the unheard-of price of 5of. 
the bushel. Cats were said to be hardly 
attainable, but dog-flesh was retailed at from 
2f. to 3f. per pound. Butter was from 15L to 
2of., lard 5f. per pound; and horse-steak 4f. 
per pound. 

31 . —Meeting of Paris Mayors under the 
presidency of Jules Favre to discuss the defence 
of the capital. 

— The Germans evacuate Gray, after a 
severe engagement with the Franc-tireurs of 
Bourras. 

— Up to this date the subscriptions to the 
National Society in aid of the sick and wounded 
French and German soldiers (instituted in 
August last under the patronage of the Queen) 
amounted to 289,674/. ; for the relief of the 
widows and orphans of the Captain to 46,000/. 





JANUARY 


1871. 


JANUARY 


1871. 

January 1 .—Severe frost; thermometers 
in the parks indicating 27 degrees. 

— The Irish Church disestablishing Act 
comes into force; collections made by all the 
congregations in aid of the Sustentation Fund. 

— The King of Italy returns to Florence 
from Rome. 

— Fire in the harbour of New Orleans, 
destroying six large steamers. 

— Sir Henry M. Durand, Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Punjaub, killed at Tank by 
a fall from an elephant. 

— At the New Year’s reception at Versailles, 
the King of Prussia said : “Great events must 
have passed to unite us on such a day and at 
such a place. I owe it to your heroism and to 
your perseverance, as well as to the bravery of 
the troops, that we have achieved such a 
success. But we have not yet reached our 
goal; important tasks are still before us ere 
we arrive at an honourable and lasting peace. 
Such a peace will be ensured if you continue 
to perform deeds such as have led us to this 
point. Then we can confidently look to the 
future for what God in His gracious will may 
destine for us.” At the banquet which took 
place afterwards, his Majesty said: “I raise 
my glass to welcome the new year. Upon the 
past year we look with gratitude; upon that 
now commencing with hope. Thanks are due 
to the army, which has sped from victory to 
victory. But my own thanks are due to the 
German princes present who belonged to the 
army before the war, and to those who have 
since joined it. Our hopes are directed to 
the. crowning of the edifice—an honourable 
peace.” The Grand Duke of Baden said, in the 
course of a speech on behalf of the other 
princes, in which the union of Germany was 
alluded to as happily achieved : “ This day is 
destined to witness the resurrection with re¬ 
newed vigour of the venerable German Empire. 
But your Majesty wishes only to assume the 
Imperial government when it has thrown its 
protection around all its members. We, how¬ 
ever, regard your Majesty as the supreme 
head of the German Empire, the crown of 
which is a guarantee of irrevocable unity.” 
He concluded his speech by a toast to “ King 
William the Victorious.” 

— Died at Cannes, aged 45, Alexander 
Munro, sculptor. 

2.—The contributors to the Royal Infirmary 
of Edinburgh reject a proposal for admitting 
female students to the wards by 100 to,96 votes. 

— Addressing his constituents at Oxford, 
Mr. Cardwell takes occasion to vindicate the 
proceedings of Government with reference to 
the enlistment of recruits, the supply of arms, 
and the manufacture of powder. 


2. —Prince Doria Pamfili announced as hav¬ 
ing accepted the mayoralty of Rome. 

— Mezieres capitulates; the Prussian troops 
entering at noon. 

— King Amadeus enters Madrid and pro¬ 
ceeds at once to the Church of Atocha, where 
the remains of Marshal Prim had been de¬ 
posited. He then went to the Cortes, where 
the Regent delivered a speech, in the course of 
which he said that the task of the revolution 
was at an end, having succeeded in establishing 
a monarchy based upon democratic institutions. 
The King next took the oaths to the Constitu¬ 
tion. Visits of condolence were afterwards paid 
to Marshal Prim’s widow, the Duchess de Reus. 

3. —Three German bankers sentenced at 
Berlin to terms of imprisonment varying from 
two years to three months, for taking up por¬ 
tions of the recent French loan. 

— Fighting at Bapaume. “At daybreak,” 
reported General Faidherbe, “the battle com¬ 
menced along the whole line. The 1st divi¬ 
sion of the 23rd Corps took the villages of 
Sapignies and Favreuil, supported on their left 
by the division of Mobilized Guards. The 
2nd division of the 22nd Corps entered, after 
severe fighting, into the village of Biefvillers, 
which had become the centre of the battle, and 
took the Prussian positions in the rear, which 
were very vigorously defended, as well as the 
village of Avresnes-les-Bapaume. The 1st 
division of the 22nd Corps captured at the 
same time Grevillers and Ligny Tilloy. At 
6 P.M. we had driven the Prussians from the 
whole battlefield, which was covered with their 
dead.” 

5. —The Times announces that M. Jules 
Favre, who had been selected to attend the 
London Conference, refused to leave Paris, 

— A “City” meeting, thinly attended and 
slightly disorderly, held in Cannon-street 
Hotel, to express sympathy with France and 
reprobation of the conduct of Prussia in 
having, since the surrender of Sedan, con¬ 
tinued the war “ for territorial aggrandisement, 
with a severity alike unwise and unmerciful.” 

— The German batteries commence a can¬ 
nonade against the forts on the south side of 
Paris. They were said to be throwing at this 
time 4,000 shells daily. 

6 . —Address from the Corporation of Frank¬ 
fort presented to King William at Versailles, 
congratulating him on his election to the Im¬ 
perial Crown of Germany, and praying that 
his Majesty would not overlook the his¬ 
torical title of that city to be the scene of his 
coronation. 

— Republican insurrection at Bamia, in the 
Spanish province of Granada. 

— Rocroi occupied by the Germans. 

7 . —Addressing the Preston Artillery Corps, 
Lord Derby urged the necessity of people 
making up their minds as to whether the forces 
of this country were to be used merely for 

( 971 ) 







JANUAR Y 


1871. 


JANUARY 


purposes of simple defence “or something 
more,” and suggested, as a scheme lor increas¬ 
ing the reserve forces, the assessment of every 
district in the country to contribute a certain 
proportion of men to the militia, or pay a 
sum of money equivalent for deficiency. 

7 . —Five of the Fenian prisoners leave Liver¬ 
pool for New York, as passengers on board 
the Royal Mail steamer Cuba. 

— Bombardment of Belfort commenced. 

8 . —Garibaldian troops defeated near Mont- 
bard, by Colonel Von Dannenberg. 

— Shells reported to have fallen to-day in 
the Jardin de Luxembourg, and upon the In- 
valides, Observatory, and Pantheon. Several 
buildings in the city were fired, and many 
Parisians reported to have been wounded in the 
streets. 

9 . —Disorderly meeting at Greenwich, called 
to urge on Mr. Gladstone the propriety of re¬ 
signing his seat for the borough. 

— Fighting at Villersexel, General Werder 
making a rapid movement against Bourbaki, 
and capturing over 600 prisoners, with two 
eagles belonging to the 20th French Corps. 
An attempt to recover ground between Moinay 
and Marat ended in the retreat of the French. 

— Despatch issued by Count Bismarck to 
North German representatives abroad, re¬ 
futing the charges brought by M. de Chaudordy 
against the German mode of carrying on the 
war. “The dictatorship (he wrote) which has 
assumed power in France by a coup de main , 
and which is neither acknowledged by the Euro¬ 
pean Powers nor by the French people, only 
considers the future of the country in the light 
of its own interests and passions. The rulers in 
Paris and Bordeaux suppress the loudly-uttered 
desire of the people for an expression of its 
will as forcibly as every other free utterance of 
opinion by word or letter. They extort from 
the people their money and their means to 
carry on the conflict, because they foresee that 
its end will likewise be that of their usurpa¬ 
tion. Such a Government requires for its very 
existence constantly to incite the passions and 
embitter the feelings of the two nations at war, 
because it requires the continuance of the war 
in order to retain its dominion over its fellow- 
citizens. ” 

10. —Explosion in the Renshaw Park Col¬ 
liery, Sheffield, causing the death of twenty 
workmen in one pit and six in another. 

— Meeting at St. James’s Hall, for the 
purpose of “calling upon the Government to 
recognise the French Republic, and to resist 
the policy of territorial spoliation.” 

— Addressing a person holding an official 
position at Bordeaux, Mr. Gladstone writes : 
‘ There is no request before us from the French 
Government for recognition. There never has 
been any since the mission of M. Thiers, several 
monthsago, veryshortly indeed after the Govern¬ 
ment was formed. Yet, for every practical pur- 

(972) 


pose, we have proceeded towards and with them 
just as if their origin had been the most formal 
in the world, and never by word or act have 
we implied that they were not entitled, in the 
highest degree, to our sympathy and respect.” 

10. —Peronne capitulates, the garrison, 
3,000 strong, surrendering themselves as pri¬ 
soners of war. 

— The Prussians make a fourth attack on 
Maison Crochard on the west side of Paris, but 
are repulsed with serious loss. The barracks 
at Fort Issy were burnt next day. 

— Commencement of a series of engage¬ 
ments north of Le Mans, between the French 
Army of the West, under General Chanzy, and 
the Second German Army, under Prince 
Frederick Charles and the Grand Duke of 
Mecklenburg. Next day the town of Le Mans 
was occupied by the Germans, and large stores 
seized, with bands of prisoners said to number 
18,000. General Chanzy reported his position 
as good excepting at La Tuilerie, where the 
Mobiles of Brittany disbanded themselves. 

— M. Jules Favre, replying to Earl Gran¬ 
ville’s invitation to attend the London Confer¬ 
ence, writes: “I thank your Excellency for 
this communication, and for the kindness shown 
me in facilitating the accomplishment of the 
duty imposed on me. It is, however, difficult 
for me to depart immediately from Paris, which 
for eight days has been given up to the horrors 
of a bombardment carried on against its in¬ 
offensive population, without the warning 
which is usual according to the law of nations. 
I do not feel it right to abandon my fellow- 
citizens at the moment when they are victims of 
this violence. Moreover, the communications 
between Faris and London are by the act of 
the commander-in-chief of the besieging army 
so slow and uncertain that I cannot, notwith¬ 
standing my good wishes, reply to your appeal 
in the terms of your despatch. You kindly in¬ 
formed me that the Conference would meet on 
the 3rd of January, and would then probably 
adjourn for a week. Apprised of this on the 
evening of the 10th, I could not profit by your 
invitation in proper time. Moreover, Count 
Bismarck, while allowing the letter to reach 
me, has not accompanied it with a safe-conduct, 
which is, however, indispensable. ... As 
soon as I have this document in my hands and 
the situation of Paris permits, I shall proceed 
to London, sure beforehand of not invoking in 
vain in the name of my Government the 
principles of right and morality which Europe 
has so great an interest in causing to be re¬ 
spected.” 

— Died in Paris, aged 95, Citizen Lambert, 
Recorder for two years to the first Revolu¬ 
tionary Tribunal, and Secretary to the Public 
Prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville. 

11 . —Died, aged 72, Paul Bedford, come¬ 
dian, one of the last survivors of the “old 
Adelphi favourites. 

12 . — Explosion at Luycett Colliery, New 






JANUAR Y 


JANUAR Y 


I8/I. 


castle-under-Lyne, causing the death of five 
men and serious injury to fifteen others. 

12 . —-The Master of the Rolls gives judgment 
against Charles Lafitte, banker, of Paris, con¬ 
cerning the claim for 150,000/. made by him 
against the company (now in course of liquida¬ 
tion) which had secured a transfer of the good¬ 
will of his business. 

— Jewellery to the value of 2,500/. stolen 
from one of London and Ryder’s assistants, in 
a private lodging, Upper Berkeley-street, Port- 
man Square, by a person feigning an intention 
to purchase, aided by a female who stealthily 
placed a handkerchief saturated with chloro¬ 
form over the messenger’s mouth. The parties 
■were afterwards traced to Leamington, where 
they were found to have been occupying for some 
time an apparently respectable position as Mr. 
and Mrs. Tarpey. She was apprehended there 
and conveyed to London, while he was in Bel¬ 
gium endeavouring to dispose of the plunder. 

— Letters from Paris announce that the 
bombardment of the city was increasing in 
severity. “From midnight until 2 a.m. about 
one projectile per minute has fallen in the 
St. Sulpice quarter. Forts Vanves, Issy, and 
Montrouge have been cannonaded with great 
violence, but our external batteries have opened 
a well-sustained fire, which appears to have 
caused great ravages in the Prussian batteries. 
After half-past three the enemy considerably 
slackened his fire, and only threw projectiles of 
small weight. The villages of Nogent and 
Fontenay were cannonaded, but only in a very 
feeble manner. Our forts in the east have very 
vigorously fired during the night, and especially 
about 1 A.M., on the whole line of the Prussian 
positions. The bend of the Marne was also 
bombarded during the night, but without any 
accident.” 

— Died at the Deanery, Canterbury, aged 
61, the Very Rev. Henry Alford, D.D., a 
Biblical critic and commentator of established 
reputation. 

13 .—Under pretence that he was engaged 
in Orleanist intrigues, M. Gambetta causes the 
Prince de Jolnville to be arrested at Le Mans, 
confines him in the Prefecture for five days, and 
then despatches him from St.Malo to England. 

— After a struggle protracted over six days, 
the army of Prince Frederick Charles captures 
the important position of Le Mans, and 
General Chanzy withdraws his troops in the 
direction of Alen§on northward, and Laval 
eastward. In the course of this contest 16,000 
prisoners were taken, with several guns, in¬ 
cluding mitrailleuses, six locomotives, and 200 
railway waggons. Chanzy gave out that Le 
Mans was only given up after “some shameful 
cowardice and an unaccountable panic caused 
a portion of our troops to abandon important 
positions compromising the safety of us all.” 

— General Bourbaki reports as follows : 
“ The villages of Arcey and St. Marie have just 
been carried brilliantly, and without our having 
suffered too great losses, considering the results 


obtained. I am still gaining ground, and am 
highly satisfied with my commanders of Army 
Corps and with my troops. By manoeuvring. 

I have caused the enemy to evacuate Dijon, 
Gray, Lure, and Vesoul, of which my scouts 
took possession yesterday. The fighting at Arcey 
and Villersexel does great honour to the First 
Army Corps, which has not ceased carrying on 
operations for the last six weeks during the 
most trying weather, marching constantly, not¬ 
withstanding the cold, snow, and glazed frost.” 

13 . —Died, aged 81, Dr. Thomas Mayo, for 
some time President of the Royal College of 
Physicians. 

14 . —French Rentes quoted in Paris at 5if. 
50c., and the new loan at 52k 65c. 

— New sovereign authorized to be issued with 
the image of St. George and the Dragon on 
the reverse, 

— Prince Karageorgewich sentenced to eight 
years’ close confinement for his complicity in 
the murder of Prince Michael of Servia in 
June 1868. 

15 . —The Prussians blow up the railway 
bridge over the Chier, on the line from Longwy 
to Arlon, and concentrate troops for the bom¬ 
bardment of the first-mentioned place. 

— General Trochu sends out a parlementaire 
with a letter to Count Moltke, remonstrating 
against the damage done by the fire of the 
batteries to schools and hospitals, which were 
under the protection of international humanity. 
Count Moltke replied it was by accident, 
owing to the great distance and fog, that such 
buildings had been struck, but that when the 
batteries were nearer the gunners could be 
more discriminate in their aim. 

— The General Outram , Indian coasting 
steamer, wrecked in a gale between Cochin 
China and Bombay, and about fifty people on 
board drowned. 

16 . —Count Bismarck refuses a safe-conduct 
to M. Jules Favre to attend the London 
Conference, on the plea that it would be a 
recognition of a Government which had not 
been recognised by France itself. M. Favre was 
referred to the commander of the besieging forces, 
where a safe-conduct would not be open to such 
construction, but cautioned against leaving 
Paris at a time when interests of more impor¬ 
tance than the Black Sea were at stake. 
“ Your Excellency would also leave behind in 
Paris the diplomatic agents and subjects of 
neutral States who have remained, or rather 
have been detained there, long after they had 
received permission to pass through the German 
lines, and who are, therefore, so much the more 
under the protection and care of your Excel¬ 
lency as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the 
Government de acto. I can, therefore, scarcely 
suppose that your Excellency, in the critical 
position of affairs, in the establishment of which 
you so materially assisted, will deprive yourself 
of the possibility of co-operating to effect a 
solution the responsibility of which rests 

( 973 ) 










JANUARY 


1871. 


JANUARY 


upon you.” In answer to an application for a 
safe-conduct on the 27th November, M. Bis¬ 
marck said that one would be placed at M. Jules 
Favre’s disposal, but he must send for it, as a 
German flag of truce had been fired on by the 
French. 

16 . —Alen£on captured by the Grand Duke 
of Mecklenburg and the 13th Corps. 

17 . —At the first business meeting of the 
Black Sea Conference to-day a special protocol 
was signed, recording it as an essential prin¬ 
ciple of the law of nations that no Power can 
liberate itself from the engagements of a treaty, 
nor modify the stipulations thereof, unless with 
the consent of the contracting Powers by means 
of an amicable arrangement. 

— In the case of the International steamer 
seized by Government on the ground that she 
had on board a cable intended to be used 
in the military service of France, Sir R. 
Phillimore gives judgment confirming the claim 
of the telegraph company to have the vessel 
released, on the ground that the primary object 
of the cable was of a commercial character. 
Considering, however, that there was a reason¬ 
able cause for detaining the vessel, the learned 
judge made no order as to costs or damages. 
An appeal on both sides was made to the 
Judicial Committee. 

— Rev. Dr. Currey, preacher at the Charter- 
house, elected Master in room of the late Arch¬ 
deacon Hale. 

— In answer to a request for permission of 
certain neutrals, not members of any diplomatic 
body, to withdraw from Paris, Count Bismarck 
writes: “For months neutrals in Paris had 
the option of leaving the city, and certainly, as 
far as the German commanders are concerned, 
there is no foundation for the statement con¬ 
tained in the letter of the foreign Ministers of 
the 13th, that neutrals had been prevented 
escaping from the dangers of the siege through 
the obstacles placed in their way by the 
belligerents. The facilities allowed to the 
members of the diplomatic body will be con¬ 
tinued as an act of international courtesy, 
although even thi$ is difficult and disturbs the 
operations of the German army ; but there is 
now only one way in which their numerous 
compatriots can be released from the dangers 
connected with the siege, and that is the 
capitulation of Paris.” Count Bismarck, in con¬ 
clusion, observed that “of course buildings in 
which there are women, children, and invalids 
are not intentionally fired at, but that from the 
construction of the fortresses and the great 
distance of the German batteries the damage 
which is accidentally inflicted cannot be 
avoided.” 

18 . —King William of Prussia proclaimed 
German Emperor within the Hall of Mirrors 
in the palace of the French kings at Versailles, 
in presence of all the German princes, under 
the standards of the army before Paris, and 
surrounded by representatives of the different 
regiments. When the King entered the hall 

(974) 


about mid-day, he walked with a stately step 
through the line of soldiers, followed by his 
son and the princes and generals of the Empire. 
He bowed to the altar, and to the eight clergy 
who stood on the steps, and then took up 
his place nearly beneath the allegorical picture, 
“ Le Roy gouverne par luy meme,” with 
“L’Ordre retabli dans les Finances” on his 
left, and the “Building of a Navy” on his 
right. The group formed round the King 
in a semicircle, of which his figure was the 
centre. He wore a general’s uniform, the 
riband of the Black Eagle (yellow), many 
orders, and carried his helmet in his hand. A 
chorale having been sung, the Court preacher 
and military chaplain, Rugger, read the Lord’s 
Prayer and a Litany, to which the responses 
were sung by the band and by the “ congrega¬ 
tion of the princes.” The 21st Psalm followed, 
after which the rev. chaplain delivered a dis¬ 
course, “ Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin ! ” ad¬ 
dressed to France. Then was sung a hymn, 
and the Lord’s Prayer was said, and next came 
the chorale, “ Nun danket alle Gott, ” &c., to the 
end. Count Bismarck at the Emperor’s com¬ 
mand read a proclamation, stating that “the 
German Princes and Free Towns having ad¬ 
dressed to us a unanimous call to renew and 
undertake with the re-establishment of the 
German Empire the dignity of Emperor, which 
now for sixty years has been in abeyance, 
and the requisite provisions having been in¬ 
serted in the Constitution of the German Con¬ 
federation, we regard it as a duty we owe to 
the entire Fatherland to comply with this call 
of the united German Princes and Free Towns, 
and to accept the dignity of Emperor. Accor¬ 
dingly, we and our successors to the Crown of 
Prussia henceforth shall use the Imperial title 
in all the relations and affairs of the German 
Empire, and we hope to God that it may be 
vouchsafed to the German nation to lead the 
Fatherland on to a blessed future, under the 
auspices of its ancient splendour. We under¬ 
take the Imperial dignity conscious of the duty 
to protect with German loyalty the rights of 
the Empire and its members, to preserve peace, 
to maintain the independence of Germany, and 
to strengthen the power of the people. We 
accept it in the hope that it will be granted to 
the German people to enjoy in lasting peace 
the reward of its arduous and heroic struggles 
within boundaries which will give to the 
Fatherland that security against renewed 
French attacks which it has lacked for cen¬ 
turies. May God giant to us and our succes¬ 
sors to the Imperial Crown that we may be the 
defenders of the German Empire at all times, 
not in martial conquests, but in works of peace 
in the sphere of national prosperity, freedom, 
and civilization.” Count Bismarck read slowly 
and formally, every phrase could be distinctly 
heard, and he gave full emphasis to the allusion 
to the frontier, as though he wished there 
should be no mistake about it. The crowd of 
officers and soldiers listened breathlessly to the 
end, when the Grand Duke of Baden advanced, 












JANUARY 


JANUARY 


18 ;:. 


and exclaimed in a loud voice, “ Es lebe seine 
Majestat der deutsche Kaiser Wilhelm, hoch !” 
The cheer was taken up with wild energy; the 
band playing “ Heil Dir im Sieger Kranz” and 
“ God Save the Queen.” The Emperor and 
Crown Prince embraced thrice, and the Ger¬ 
man princes paid homage to the former as 
“deutsche Kaiser.” This concluded the cere¬ 
mony. The new Emperor then received the 
deputations of officers from distant corps, and 
withdrew, accompanied by the princes, generals, 
and other illustrious personages. The deputa¬ 
tions, with other guests, were entertained by 
the Emperor in the afternoon, previous to their 
leaving Versailles, at the Hotel de France. An 
order of the day addressed to the army made 
mention that on this day, “ memorable for me 
and my house, I take, with the consent of the 
German princes and the adhesion of all the 
German people, in addition to my rank as 
King of Prussia, that of German Emperor. 
Your bravery and endurance, which I again re¬ 
cognise to the fullest extent, have hastened the 
work of the unification of Germany—a result 
which you have achieved by the expenditure of 
blood and lives. Let it always be remembered 
that the feeling of mutual friendship, bravery, 
and obedience renderejd the army great and 
victorious. Maintain this feeling: then will 
the Fatherland always regard you with pride 
as to-day, and you will always remain its strong 
arm.” 

13 .—General Bourbaki reports an unsuc¬ 
cessful attack on the German position between 
Montbeliard and Montrandois. Fie now com¬ 
menced a retreat southward by the Doub 
Valley road, in the direction of Besan^n. 
His force was said to number over 120,000. 

— The Swedish Parliament opened by the 
King, who alluded to the possibility of the 
present war spreading, and spoke of army organi¬ 
zation as the most pressing public question. 

— Died, aged 78, Sir George Flayter, 
Principal Painter-in-ordinary to her Majesty. 

19 * —The Times announces that Mr. Childers, 
for some time labouring under ill health, had 
sent in his resignation as First Lord of the 
Admiralty. The rumour was contradicted in 
the evening papers. 

— Another unsuccessful sortie from Paris 
undertaken with the view of reaching Versailles 
and cutting off communications. The French 
afterwards massed near Valerien. General 
Trochu reported to be wounded. 

— General Von Goeben attacks Faidherbe’s 
Army of the North before St. Quentin, and 
forces a retreat towards Cambrai. At night, 
French accounts stated, the men were so 
fatigued that it was impossible any longer to 
keep them in position. 

— The Upper House of the Prussian Diet 
congratulate the King on his accession to the 
Imperial dignity. The latter replied : “May 
it be vouchsafed to me to lay for a united 
Germany the foundation-stone of a glorious 


history, such as Prussia can show to-day after a 
period of 700 years. ” 

2o - The King of Saxony, congratulating 
King William on his accession to the Imperial 
dignity, hopes that Germany, under the vigor¬ 
ous and circumspect leadership of his Majesty, 
might “enjoy its blessings in their full measure, 
see the unavoidable wounds of this great 
stru ffgle close, and, as an esteemed member of 
the family of European nations, also make her 
voice respected abroad on behalf of everything 
that is good and just.” 

— In giving formal notice of his elevation 
to the Spanish throne, King Amadeus writes to 
Queen Victoria that he had only decided to 
accept the honour “in the firm and unalterable 
resolution to employ all our efforts and to con¬ 
centrate all our existence to the good and pros¬ 
perity of this great people.” To the Pope he 
wrote : “It will be our principal care, by our 
respect and adhesion to your Holiness to pro¬ 
cure that the constant relations between your 
Holiness and this generous nation may he those 
which the Spiritual Father of the Faithful ought 
to sustain with his true sons. ” 

21 .— Thanks voted in the Italian Parlia¬ 
ment to the engineers of the Mont Cenis 
Tunnel. 

— Marshal M‘Mahon protests against Count 
Bismarck’s allegation in a recent circular, that 
French soldiers had used explosive bullets at 
the battle of Woerth. 

— The siege batteries on the northern line 
of investment open fire against St. Denis and 
its forts. 

— In consequence of dissatisfaction expressed 
at a meeting of the Council of Defence, General 
Trochu resigns the leadership of the forces in 
Paris, and is succeeded by General Vinoy. 

— Commencement of serious riots in Paris, 
the “Reds” this evening breaking into the 
prison of Mazas and liberating Major Flourens, 
of the Belleville Artillery, disbanded some time 
since. Immediately afterwards M. Flourens 
and his fellow-rioters made a descent upon the 
Mairie of the 20th Arrondissement, but finding 
they were few in numbers and scantily provi¬ 
ded with muskets, they evacuated the Mairie, 
after appropriating 2,000 rations of bread. At 
noon on Sunday, 100 of the rioters, chiefly 
soldiers belonging to the National Guard, re¬ 
paired to the Hotel de Ville, and about one 
o’clock fired upon the few Mobiles to whom 
the Hotel was entrusted, severely wounding the 
adjutant of a Breton regiment in the hands and 
arms. On seeing their adjutant fall, the Mobiles 
returned the fire, five persons being killed and 
eighteen wounded. Simultaneously, a mus¬ 
ketry fire was poured into the windows of the 
Hotel from the houses opposite, occupied by 
the rioters ; but several regiments of National 
Guards arrived, and order was restored after 
twenty minutes of anarchy. In consequence of 
these proceedings, the clubs were ordered to be 
suppressed during the remainder of the siege. 

( 975 ) 







1871. 


JANUARY 


JANUARY 


22 . —Bridge over the Moselle, between 
Nancy and Toul, blown up by a band of 
Franc-tireurs. 

— A Garibaldian victory reported from 
Dijon. 

23 . —Another meeting in Trafalgar-square 
to express sympathy with France. 

— The garrison of Longwy succeed in dis¬ 
lodging the Prussians from the Huart factory 
in a hand-to-hand fight. At Mont Saint- 
Martin they attempted to take the cannon 
erected by surprise, but were repulsed. 

— The Pacific Company’s steamer Favorita 
burned in the harbour of Callao. 

24 -.—Unveiling of the monument at Kensal 
Green, in memory of Sir Richard Mayne, i 
erected by the officers and constables of the : 
Metropolitan force. 

— Count Bismarck announced as Chan¬ 
cellor of the German Empire. 

_ M. Jules Favre arrives at Versailles with 

proposals for a capitulation, .on condition of ^ 
the garrison being permitted to march out with 
the honours of war. He returned to Paris in 
the evening. A rumour was industriously cir¬ 
culated that M. Favre had arrived in England, 
with the view, it was presumed, of taking part in 
the Conference, and a deputation of Republican 
admirers assembled to meet him at Charing 
Cross in the name of the Reception Committee. 

25 .—Rumoured capitulation of Paris, the 
Times announcing in a leader that the capital j 
had fallen, and the proud city become a cap¬ 
tive. Discussing the probability of M. Favre 
being asked to surrender not in the name of 
Paris only, but of France, the Times wrote: 

“ M. Favre will, of course, refuse, protesting 
that he and his colleagues in Paris, having 
failed in defending the city, have no more 
authority to bind France than the commandant 
at Belfort or at Longwy ; but Count Bismarck 
will thereupon produce another weapon from 
his armoury. He will tell M. Favre that he 
yesterday obtained from the exiled Empress, 
with the full consent of the captive of Wilhelms- 
hohe, a complete acceptance of his terms, and 
that M. Favre and his associates have no choice 
but to yield and save the chance of maintaining 
a Republican organization, or refuse and admit 
an Imperialist restoration. If M. Favre still 
refuses, Count Bismarck must in the end give 
way. A capitulation of Paris absolutely un¬ 
conditional must to-day or to-morrow close 
their negotiations.” This statement regarding 
the Empress was afterwards authoritatively pro¬ 
nounced to be “inexact” in its details. The 
money market opened buoyantly to-day, but 
hardly maintained the slight advance quoted. 

-- Rumours being again in circulation re¬ 
garding the fate of Dr. Livingstone, Sir R. 
Murchison writes to the Times of news having 
been received from Zanzibar, announcing that j 
the explorer was alive, and had completed | 
an extensive journey to the west of Lake 
Tanganyika. 

(976) 


2 5.—Sable occupied by a German force 2,000 
strong. 

— Longwy capitulates after a bombardment 
of three days ; 4,000 prisoners and 200 guns 
were captured. 

— M. Gambetta arrives at St. Servan, 
having come from Cherbourg on board a 
French frigate which anchored in the roads 
of St. Malo. 

— The report from Paris to-day is that the 
forts can scarcely reply to the enemy’s bom¬ 
bardment. The death-rate in the capital this 
week showed a total of 4,465, being 483 in 
advance of last week. The civilians killed 
within the city since the commencement of the 
bombardment amounted to 107—31 children, 
23 women, and 53 men ; the wounded to 276—- 
36 children, 92 women, and 148 men. 

26 .—The first welcome result of the negotia¬ 
tions now going on at Versailles was experi¬ 
enced by the Parisians to-night in the cessation 
of the bombardment, carried on with destructive 
effect since the 5th inst. People, it was said, 
stole cautiously up from cellars unable to ex¬ 
plain the sudden change from the tempest of 
shell which had been falling on the town, and 
several were even preparing for flight, when 
they were informed by military authorities that 
they had three weeks’ grace. In the course of 
the day several shells fell on the Church of St. 
Sulpice and the hospital of Val-de-Grace. 

— The Times publishes a letter addressed 
by M. Guizot to Mr. Gladstone, urging upon 
the Prime Minister the duty of interference to 
stop what has now become (he holds) a war of 
aggression and aggrandizement. M. Guizot 
admitted that France was wrong at the outset, 
and that Prussia at first showed great modera¬ 
tion and good sense. But he maintained that 
after Woerth and Sedan Prussia might have 
made a magnanimous peace, and secured ex¬ 
ceptionally favourable conditions and guaran¬ 
tees for their performance. It was one of those 
opportunities which Napoleon I., if he had 
obtained a great victory, would have taken 
advantage of immediately. The real and 
earnest desire of France, M. Guizot concluded, 
“is for peace and the development of her 
fruitful industry. France is a country of as¬ 
siduous agricultural, industrial, and commercial 
work ; a country in which we find practical 
and scientific civilization, a strong vitality, and 
yet love of peace. She now wants time to reap 
the fruit of her past experience, and to learn 
the value of that political freedom for which 
she has not ceased to sigh for three-fourths of 
a century, although she has never known how 
to use it or to keep it. In such a path England 
is her most natural and valuable ally.” 

— Count Andrassy intimates, in the Lower 
House of the Diet at Pesth, that the recon¬ 
struction of the German Empire had been 
accomplished with the full consent of the 
Hungarian Government. 

— The Dcdegate Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
Count Chaudordy, replies to Count Bismarck’s 












JANUARY 


JANUARY 


1871. 


circular of the 9th, concerning war atrocities, 
and charging him with refusing M. Jules Favre 
a safe-conduct because he feared exposure at 
the Conference. ‘ ‘ The presence of the Minister 
for Foreign Affairs coming from this great 
capital, the centre of European civilization, 
where all Germany—the King of Prussia and 
Count Bismarck in particular—enjoyed such a 
brilliant hospitality, and which city they to-day 
strive to lay in ruins and to reduce by fire and 
famine, would, by the authority alone which 
would attach to his statements, have caused the 
Chancellor of the North German Confederation 
lively anxiety. Count Bismarck is fully aware 
that the mere recital of facts brought before the 
tribunal of Europe would strike a mortal blow 
at that astute and cruel policy which draws its 
inspirations from the sad recollections of past 
ages.” 

26 . —General Bourbaki, after passing in 
review the 18th Corps at Besa^on, attempts to 
commit suicide by shooting himself. A retreat 
of his disorderly followers was thereafter made 
towards Pontarlier, but they were intercepted 
by the German forces stationed at Mouchard 
and Salins, and driven into Swiss territory. 
Here a formal surrender was made, and the 
troops disarmed in terms of the Convention of 
Les Verrieres. 

— Sir Edward Thornton, in a letter to Mr. 
Fish, proposes, on behalf of her Majesty’s 
Government, the appointment of a joint com¬ 
mission for settling the different questions 
which had arisen out of the fisheries, as well as 
those which affect the relations of the United 
States towards her Majesty’s possessions in 
North America. In conformity with a desire 
expressed by Mr. Secretary Fish on behalf of 
President Grant, the design of the commission 
was extended so as to embrace an adjustment 
of the differences known as the Alabama claims, 
the President on his side concurring in the 
propriety of referring to the commission such 
other claims as grew out of acts committed 
during the civil war.. 

27. —M. Jules Favre again leaves Paris for 
Versailles, in company with General Beaufort 
and others, to discuss with Count Bismarck the 
details of an armistice intended to include the 
whole of France. General Trochu also as¬ 
sembled the chiefs of the army and explained 
the circumstances which had compelled the 
defenders to negotiate for an armistice. News 
from Bordeaux mention that capitulation is 
there looked on with great disfavour. 

— Decree authorized at'Berlin for increasing 
the new loan to 105,000,000 thalers. 

23 .—The Italian Parliament, by a majority 
of 94 votes to 39, pass a bill for transferring the 
capital from Florence to Rome. 

— Mr. Monsell, the new Postmaster-General, 
re-elected for Limerick County without opposi¬ 
tion. 

_ Eighty lives lost by the explosion of the 

steamer Arthur on the Mississippi. 

(977) 


23 .—Surrender of Paris after a siege carried 
on for 131 days. The result of the recent nego¬ 
tiations was forwarded in a message by the Em¬ 
peror-King to Queen Augusta :—“The troops 
of the line and the Mobiles will be interned in 
Paris as prisoners of war. The Garde Nationale 
Sedentaire undertakes the preservation of order. 
We occupy all forts. Paris remains invested. 
It will be allowed to revictual as soon as the 
armistice has been delivered up. The National 
Assembly will be summoned to meet at Bor¬ 
deaux in a fortnight. The armies in the field 
retain possession of the respective tracts of 
country occupied by them, with neutrality 
zones intervening. This is the blessed reward 
of patriotism, heroism, and heavy sacrifices. I 
thank God for this fresh mercy. May peace 
soon follow.” On his part M. Jules Favre 
instructed the Delegation at Bordeaux :—“ To¬ 
day we sign a treaty with Count Bismarck. 
An armistice of twenty-one days is agreed to, 
and an Assembly is convoked at Bordeaux for 
February 15. Make this known to all France. 
Let the armistice be carried out, and summon 
the elections for February 8th. A member of 
the Government is leaving for Bordeaux.” Dis¬ 
tricts specially exempted from the benefit of 
the armistice were Belfort, the siege of which 
was to be continued, and the Cote d’Or, Doubs, 
and Jura, the scene of the operations of Bour- 
baki’s army. French troops were to retire 
from the fortifications unarmed, the guns in the 
enceinte to be dismounted, and the carriages 
given up to the conquerors. The miserable con¬ 
dition to which the inhabitants of Paris had been 
reduced before resorting to capitulation was ob¬ 
served by a correspondent of the Daily News , 
who succeeded in entering the capital on the 
31st and got out two days afterwards. The city 
he found orderly and decent, with a certain 
narrow self-restraint mastering the tendency to 
demonstrate, and an utter absence of crime. 
The pinch for food was worse than ever pend¬ 
ing the result of negotiations for its supply, and 
future history may well concern itself with a 
theme so common as market rates : Two francs 
for a small shrivelled cabbage, I franc for a 
leek, 45 francs for a fowl, 45 francs for a rabbit 
(which might be taken for granted as cat), 25 
francs for a pigeon, 22 francs for a 2lb. chub, 
14 francs a pound for stickleback, 2 francs a 
pound for potatoes, 40 francs a pound for butter, 
cheese 25 francs a pound when procurable. 
M eat other than horseflesh absolutely not to be 
procured. “ I was assured that if I offered 
50/. down in bright shining gold for veritable 
beefsteak, I should have no claimant for the 
money! The last cow that changed hands 
‘ for an ambulance’ fetched 80/. Those left 
cannot now be bought for money.” Owing 
to a miscalculation as to the supply of food 
2,000,000 rations were at once sent in by 
authority of the Emperor William. Other 
supplies hastened by facilities placed at the 
disposal of shippers by the British Govern¬ 
ment commenced to pour into the starved city 
| within a few days. 


R 









JANUARY 


JANUARY 


1871. 


23 .—Versailles reports make mention to-day 
that at Blois Colonel Belew burnt the bridge, 
as the enemy on the left bank of the Loire was 
pressing forward against the town. On the 
following day the enemy withdrew again in a 
southerly direction. On the same day the 
Second Corps captured, at Nozeroy, a transport 
waggon. The 4th Reserve Division, on the 
26th, advanced as far as Passavant, capturing 
200 more prisoners. Reports from Arbois 
state that the advance guard of the 14th Divi¬ 
sion of the Army of the South having come 
up with the retreating French army a mile 
west of Pontarlier, on the Swiss frontier, 
Sombacourt and Chaffois were taken by storm, 
and about 3,000 prisoners and six guns captured. 
The news about General Bourbaki was still 
contradictory. 

29 . —Rumours circulated of the suicide of 
Generals Ducrot and Bourbaki. 

— German occupation of the Paris forts 
completed without resistance or disturbance. 
The German Emperor forwarded to Brussels 
the welcome intelligence that he had seen the 
Prussian colours on Fort Issy from his siege 
batteries. 

— At a political gathering held this after¬ 
noon in the great theatre, Bordeaux, a unani¬ 
mous protest against the armistice was passed, 
and a resolution voted, demanding, firstly, 
the maintenance of power in the hands of 
Gambetta ; secondly, war a outrance; and, 
thirdly, the assembling at Bordeaux of a com¬ 
mittee, the members of which should be elected 
by Republican associations in the principal 
towns of France. 

30 . —In the American House of Repre¬ 
sentatives to-day a resolution offered by General 
Butler was passed by 172 to 21, that the Con¬ 
gress of the United States, in the name and 
on behalf of the people thereof, do give 
O’Donovan Rossa and the Irish exiles and 
patriots a cordial welcome to the capital and 
the country. 

— Lyons journals publish the programme of 
a new Ultra-republican Society formed in 
Paris, under the auspices of MM. Ledru- 
Rollin, Delescluze, and Peyronton. They ad¬ 
vocated the establishment of an indivisible 
Republic, the constitution of a sole assembly 
empowered to elect a revocable Executive 
Power, the suppression of the permanent army, 
the creation of a national militia comprising all 
citizens, a reduction in the budget, the suppres¬ 
sion of all aristocratic titles, and the annulment 
of privileges. It also repudiated wars of con¬ 
quest, and urged that no negotiations could 
be entered into with the enemy as long as he 
remained in the country. 

31 . —Another adjournment of the Black Sea 
Conference, owing to the indisposition of Earl 
Granville. 

— The Spanish troops in the capital to the 
number of 40,000 take the oath of allegiance 
to the new king. 

(97S; 


31 .—The City of London Relief Committee 
despatch their first consignment of provisions 
for Paris. 

— Uneasy feeling in the money market, 
caused by a report from Berlin that the German 
conditions of peace included the cession of 
Alsace and Lorraine, with Belfort and Metz, 
the payment of a pecuniary indemnity of ten 
milliards of francs, the cession of Pondicherry 
in the East Indies, and the transfer of twenty 
first-class men of war. 

— At several meetings of electors held to¬ 
wards the close of this month, the members 
present were interrogated regarding the con¬ 
templated vote for a dowry to the Princess 
Louise, and in most instances expressed an 
intention of giving it their support. The most 
prominent exceptions were Mr. Fawcett, at 
Brighton, and Mr. P. A. Taylor, at Notting¬ 
ham. 

— From Bordeaux M. Gambetta issues a 
proclamation urging war a outrance, and re¬ 
sistance even to complete exhaustion. The 
period of the armistice would be well employed 
“in reinforcing our three armies with men, 
ammunition, and provisions.” What France 
wanted, he said, was an Assembly which desired 
war, and was determined to carry it on at any. 
cost. 

— M. Jules Favre intimates to the Sub¬ 
prefect of Havre :—“ Paris has negotiated 
because it had no more bread. It is urgently 
necessary that it should be revictualled. Every 
facility will be given in this respect. Repair 
your railway immediately. As soon as it is 
clear, you will send all disposable provisions 
and fuel by way of Rouen and Amiens. Act 
immediately.” 

— M. Gambetta issues another proclamation 
from Bordeaux, followed by a decree in name 
of the Delegate Government, enacting that all 
who from the 2nd of December, 1851, until 
the 4th of September, 1870, accepted the 
functions of Minister, Senator, Councillor of 
State, or Prefect, were disqualified as repi-e- 
sentatives of the people in the National Assem¬ 
bly. The decree also declared ineligible all 
persons wffio between the same dates had 
accepted official nominations, and whose names 
appeared in the lists of candidates recom¬ 
mended by Prefects to the suffrages of the 
electors, and who were described in the official 
Moniteur either as candidates of the Govern¬ 
ment or Administration, or as official candidates. 

A third decree prescribed the electoral arrange¬ 
ments. Count Bismarck protested against this 
decree as arbitrary and oppressive, and stated 
that only freely-elected deputies as stipulated in 
the Convention would be recognised by the 
Germans as representatives of France. The 
decree was also repudiated by M. Jules Favre 
and his colleagues in Paris, but the contention 
between the two authorities led to the elections 
being adjourned from the 5th to the 8th. 










FEBRUARY 


FEBRUAR V 


1871. 


February 1.—Pressed by the forces of 
General ManteufFel, Bourbaki’s army, to the 
number of 80,000, enters Swiss territory at 
Neufchatel, and is immediately disarmed. 
“This (telegraphed the German Emperor) is 
the fourth French army rendered incapable of 
further fighting.” 

— Victoria Mills, Bury, destroyed by fire, 
and five of the workmen burnt to death. 

— French Rentes quoted in Paris at 5of. 25c. 

2. —A postal service of unsealed letters 
organized between Paris and the departments 
through the German headquarters at Versailles. 
Temporary railway accommodation is also es¬ 
tablished to-day between Dieppe and Paris. 

— Clerical demonstration at Brussels in 
favour of the Pope’s temporal power. 

3 . —The Black Sea Conference meet at the 
Foreign Office, and remain in deliberation five 

hours. 

— Died at his residence, Eton-i-oad, Haver- 
stock-hill, T. W. Robertson, dramatist, aged 42. 

— The Duke d’Aumale, addressing the 
electors of France, writes, as to the question of 
war, “I had no share of responsibility, direct 
or indirect, in the events or the acts which have 
reduced the war and the actual situation. I 
ave a right to stipulate my entire liberty of 
appreciation or of reserve. I am further author¬ 
ized in doing so by the inaction which has been 
imposed upon me, when I urgently claimed the 
right of fighting for my country. On the second 
point I will explain myself with complete 
sincerity. When I consider the situation of 
France, her history, her traditions, the events 
of the last years, I am struck with the ad¬ 
vantage which a Constitutional Monarchy pre¬ 
sents. I believe it can respond to the legitimate 
aspirations of a democratic society, and gua¬ 
rantee, with order and security, every kind ot 
progress and of liberty. It is with a mixture 
of filial pride and of patriotic sorrow that I 
compare France in her actual state with what 
she was under the reign of my father. As to 
this opinion, I have a right to hold it as a man, 
and as a citizen I believe it my duty to express 
it; but I do not mingle with it any spirit 01 
party, any exclusive tendency. In my senti¬ 
ments, in my past, in the traditions of my 
family, I find nothing which separates me from 
the Republic. If it be under this form that 
France wishes freely and definitively to con¬ 
stitute her Government, I am ready to bow 
before her sovereignty, and I will remain hei 
faithful servant. Whether it be a Constitutional 
Monarchy or Liberal Republic, it is by political 
probity, patience, a spirit of concord, abnega¬ 
tion, that we can save, reconstitute, regenerate 
France.” 

_ Acknowledging the offer of the English 

Government to aid "in the relief of Paris, M. 
Jules Favre writes : “ Permit me to see in it a 
proof of that precious sentiment of union which 
ought to bind all nations together, and lead 

( 979 ) 


them to help each other, instead of fighting and 
destroying one another. It was reserved to 
your intelligent country to give to the world 
this example of solicitude for misfortune. I 
beg you to be the interpreter of my gratitude 
towards your fellow-citizens, towards the in¬ 
habitants of London. The inhabitants of Paris 
have suffered cruelly ; they still suffer much, but 
they console themselves with the thought of 
having done their duty, and of being recom¬ 
pensed by proofs of esteem and sympathy such 
as those which you are good enough to afford 
them. ” 

3 .—The first provision trains arrive at Paris, 
four entering by the Orleans, and four by the 
Lyons railway, each composed of fifty carriages 
with 4,500 tons of beef and flour. Between 
this date and the 7th the provisions forwarded 
to the starving people were said to have in¬ 
cluded 1,057 bullocks, 3,093 sheep, 14 cows, 
31 pigs, 856 tons of cereals, 8,050 tons of 
flour, 500 tons of biscuits, 285 tons of preserved 
beef, 162 tons of preserved mutton, 8 tons of 
salt, 80 tons of hams, 1,435 tons °f sal* pork, 
26 tons of fresh fish, 210 tons of codfish, 140 
tons of butter, nearly 1,000 tons of cheese, 74 
tuns of oil, 1,270 tons of vegetables, 10 tons of 
fruit, 27 tons of forage, 70 tons of cakes, 144 
tons of various provisions, 1,740 tons of coal, 
and 94 tons of oats. 

Ar .—For the twelve months preceding this 
date, 9,460,338 messages were forw'arded from 
postal telegraph stations in the United Kingdom, 
or on an average 181,929 each week; show¬ 
ing an increase on the previous year of about 
50 per cent. The outlay on works and work¬ 
ing was 720,000/., and the revenue 600,000/. 

5 . —Explosion of a powder waggon on the 
railway between Bandoz and St. Nazaire, caus¬ 
ing the death of sixty people, and serious injury 
to about 100 others. 

6 . —The Government of National Defence 
issue a decree, disbanding the regiments of 
the Mobilized National Guards of Paris. 

— Petroleum train fired on the Hudson River 
Railway, causing the death of thirty people. 

— M. Gambetta resigns his post of Minister 
of the Interior in the Delegate Government of 
Bordeaux, on the ground that he was no longer 
in agreement with it in “ideas or hopes.” 
At the same time he advised the Prefect of 
Lille that his opinion was, after mature reflec¬ 
tion, “on account of the shortness of time and 
the serious interests at stake, you would render 
to the Republic a supreme service in carrying 
out the elections of February 8, with the re¬ 
servation to adopt whatever determination may 
seem fit to you.” 

— Explosion in the powder magazine at 
Dunkirk, caused, it was thought, by the in¬ 
cautious use of lucifer matches, and leading to 
the almost instant death, by fire, of over sixty 
people, mostly women and children employed 
on the premises knowm as the old “Etablisse- 
ment des Bains.” 


3 R 2 







FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1S71. 


7 . —The Liverpool steamer Pacific wrecked 
on Linga Island, off Shetland, and twenty-six 
of the crew drowned. 

— The Daily News announces the retire¬ 
ment of Vice-Admiral Sir Spencer Robinson 
from the office of Controller of the Navy. This 
resignation was authoritatively contradicted in 
next day’s Times. On the 9th the Times con¬ 
firmed the original announcement by stating 
that Captain Robert Hay had succeeded Vice- 
Admiral Robinson as Controller and Third Lord 
of the Admiralty. (See p. 982.) 

— Publication of the Emperor of Austria’s 
letter empowering Count Hohenwart to form a 
new Cabinet. “ The Government knows that 
no State is stronger than Austria when on a 
friendly footing with foreign countries, and with 
a free development and a conciliatory policy at 
home. Having placed all nationalities on an 
equal footing, the Government will give free 
play to all legitimate peculiarities, but, on the 
other hand, will never more make precarious 
compromises with separatism at the expense of 
indispensable attributes of State unity. The 
Government takes its stand on constitutional 
right, upon which before all it will practise 
conciliation, while bringing into full play the 
fundamental laws of the State.” 

— Acknowledging the arrival of food supplies 
in Paris, M. Jules Ferry telegraphs to the Lord 
Mayor of London, president of the fund for 
relieving the distress :—“ I have taken charge 
of the first part of this magnificent and fraternal 
gift. The City of Paris expresses to the City of 
London its profound gratitude. In the ex¬ 
tremity of its misfortunes the voice of the 
English people has been the first that has been 
heard by it from outside with an expression of 
sympathy. The citizens of Paris will never 
forget the circumstance ; and if the souls of 
the two peoples are united, we shall have faith 
in the future.” 

— Members of the Buonaparte family de¬ 
clared to be ineligible for election in virtue of 
the laws April 10, 1832, and June 9, 1848, 
directed against persons who had reigned over 
France. 

— The whole departments of the Cote d’Or, 
Nuits, Beaume, Arnay-le-duc, Saulieu, Pouilly, 
Sombemon, exclusive of the Seine, occupied 
by the troops under the command of General 
Von Hann. 

— M. Ledm-Rollin declines the honour of 
election to the Bordeaux Assembly, and states 
that he will now bear but his “ own share in this 
lamentable catastrophe, which is already suffi¬ 
ciently heavy for the responsibility of a private 
citizen.” Generals Trochu and Ducrot also 
declined. 

8 . —Elections throughout France for the 
National Assembly called to meet at Bordeaux. 
M. Thiers was found to be returned for the 
greatest number of seats, and had also the 
largest number of votes. In Paris M. Louis 
Blanc headed the list with 216,000 votes: 

(980) 


Victor Hugo followed with 214,000, Garibaldi 
200,000, Edgar Quinet 199,000, Gambetta 
191,000, and Henri Rochefort 163,000. M. 
Thiers, twentieth on the list, polled 102,000. 
The Prince de Joinville headed the poll in the 
department of La Manche. At Strasburg the 
Mayor received the largest number of votes, 
9,937. M. Ledru-RoKin was elected at Toulon 
and General Garibaldi at Nice. M. Gambetta 
was elected at Marseilles, with Thiers, 
Trochu, and others. In the Departement du 
Nord the Monarchical candidates were suc¬ 
cessful, receiving an average of 195,000 votes 
against 47,000 on the Republican list. 

8 . —The ex-Emperor Napoleon issues a pro¬ 
clamation from Wilhelmshohe :—“Betrayed by 
fortune, I have preserved since my captivity 
that profound silence which is misfortune’s 
mourning. So long as the armies of France 
and Germany confronted one another, I ab¬ 
stained from all steps or words which might 
have divided the public mind. I can no longer 
be silent in the face of the disasters of my 
country without appearing to be insensible to 
its sufferings. When I was compelled to sur¬ 
render myself a prisoner I could not treat for 
peace; my decisions would have seemed dic¬ 
tated by personal considerations ; I left to the 
Government of the Regent the duty of deciding 
whether the interests of the nation required a 
continuance of the struggle. Notwithstanding 
unheard-of reverses France was not subdued. 
Our strongholds still held out, few depart¬ 
ments were invaded, Paris was in a state of 
defence, and the area of our misfortunes might 
have been limited. But while attention was 
fixed upon the enemy, an insurrection broke out 
in Paris. The seat of the national representa¬ 
tives was violated, the safety of the Empress 
was threatened, a Government installed itself 
by surprise in the Hotel de Ville, and the 
Empire, which the whole nation had just 
acclaimed for the third time, was overthrown, 
abandoned by those who should have been its 
defenders. ... As regards myself, bruised by 
so much injustice and such bitter deception, I 
do not come forward to day to claim rights 
which four times in twenty years you freely 
confirmed. In the presence of the calamities 
which afflict us there is no room for personal 
ambition. But so long as the people regularly 
assembled in its comitia shall not have mani¬ 
fested its will, it will be my duty to address 
myself to the nation as its real representative, 
and to tell it that all that may be done without 
your direct participation is illegitimate. There 
is but one Government which has issued from 
the national sovereignty, and which, rising 
above the selfishness of parties, has the 
strength to heal your wounds, to reopen your 
hearts to hope, your profaned churches to 
your prayers, and to bring back industry, 
concord, and peace to the bosom of the 
country.” 

9 -—The Italian Chamber of Deputies adopt 
the clause of the Guarantee Bill relating to the 
Pope’s Dotation. The Library and Gallery of 









FEBRUAR Y 


1871 


FEBRUARY 


the Vatican were afterwards declared to be 
national property. 

9. —Died at the Residentiary House, Amen- 
court, aged 73, Henry Melvill, D.D., Canon 
of St. Paul’s. He was succeeded in the 
Canonry by Dr. Lightfoot, Hulsean Professor 
of Divinity, Cambridge. 

— Parliament opened by the Queen in person, 
accompanied by the Prince and Princess of 
Wales, the Princess Louise, and other mem¬ 
bers of the Royal Family, who, preceded 
by the great officers of state, passed in proces¬ 
sion from Buckingham Palace to Westminster. 
The Royal Speech (read by the Lord Chan¬ 
cellor) was of unusual length, and began by a 
reference to the war raging till recently between 
France and Germany, in which it was said, I 
have maintained the rights and strictly discharged 
the duties of neutrality,” and been enabled 
“ on more than one occasion to contribute 
towards placing the representatives of the two 
contending countries in confidential communi¬ 
cation ” Her Majesty had offered congratula¬ 
tions to the King of Prussia on accepting the 
title of Emperor of Germany—an event “bear¬ 
ing testimony to the solidity and independence 
of that country, and conducive, it was hoped, to 
the stability of the European system ; had up¬ 
held the sanctity of treaties by commencing a 
Conference in London ; and was a party to a 
joint commission for adjusting several questions 
of importance with the United States. Allusion 
was made to the elevation of a Prince of the 
House of Savoy to the Spanish throne, to the 
inquiry into the Greek massacres—unhappily 
not yet carried to a termination answerable 
in all respects to my just expectations —to 
the massacre at Tien-tsin as justifying a policy 
of conciliation and forbearance, and to the 
friendship and good understanding Prevailing 
with sovereigns and states abroad The only 
reference to domestic affairs was a brief state¬ 
ment of the consent given to the marriage of 
the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome 
Bills were promised for the better regulation of 
the army and auxiliary land forces of the 
Crown—a change “from a less to a more 
effective and elastic system of defensive mili¬ 
tary preparation”—Religious Tests m Univer¬ 
sities; Ecclesiastical Tides, Disabilities of Trade 
Combinations, Courts of Justice and Appeal, 
Adjustment of Local Boundaries Licensing, 
Secret Voting, and Primary Education in Scot¬ 
land The Address was agreed to without a 
division, though Mr. Disraeli with 

some severity on an armed neutrality as a 
very serious thing for a nation that for a year and 
a half has been disbanding its veterans ; a very 
serious thing for a nation with skeleton bat¬ 
talions and attenuated squadrons, and batteries 
without sufficient guns, and yet more J™* £ 
gunners; a very serious thing for a ^ ^ 
is without a military reserve has left off ship 
building and reduced its blue-jackets. M . 
Disraeli thought the present war part of a great 
German Revolution, more important politically 
thmTthc French Revolution. It opened a new 


world and new objects, and had entirely de¬ 
stroyed the old balance of power. Its first 
consequence was the repudiation by Russia of 
the Treaty of 1856. And here our Govern¬ 
ment suffered the consequences of their own 
repudiation of the Saxon guarantee, for they 
exposed themselves to the answer from Count 
Bismarck that they had themselves done only 
four months before what they were now so 
angry with Russia for doing. The proper 
answer to Prince Gortschakoffs note was to 
warn Russia that she must take the conse¬ 
quences of such an act, and he believed that if 
we had answered thus we should have heard no 
more about it. The natural result of the Con¬ 
ference would of course be that Russia would 
get all she wanted—as Russia always did in 
conferences and congresses, especially when she 
met Prussia there. Mr. Gladstone explained 
that the conditions under which the Saxon 
guarantee was given had long since changed, 
and that Prussia was quite able to take care of 
herself. As to the neutrality of the Black Sea, 
he declared that Lord Clarendon and Lord 
Palmerston both set little value on it, and that 
neither Austria nor France regarded it as a 
restriction which could be permanently en¬ 
forced. Had we gone to war on that account, 
we should have had to do so alone. Accept¬ 
ing the challenge as to the state of our arma¬ 
ments, he appealed to the familiar test of 
arithmetic. The army of 1862, which Mr. 
Disraeli denounced as “bloated,” amounted to 
92,270, and in 1870 it was only 3,000 less ; the 
difference could scarcely be called attenuation, 
especially as we had now a reserve of 23,000, 
which we had not in 1862. Moreover, the 
estimates of 1868, for which Mr. Disraeli was 
responsible, gave only 87,500 men. Though 
anxious to take the most hopeful view of the 
armistice, he could not deny that the future of 
Europe was full of danger. He repudiated 
non-intervention as a rigid policy. Whatever 
our security, power, and independence, we had 
no right to wrap ourselves up in an absolute 
and selfish isolation. We had a history, we had 
traditions, we had living, constant, perpetual, 
multiplied intercourse and contact with every 
people in Europe. We should be unworthy 
of the recollections of our past, unworthy of 
the hopes of the future, unworthy of the great¬ 
ness of the present, if we disowned the obliga¬ 
tions which arose out of those relations to 
others more liable to suffer than ourselves. 

9 . __joint Commission announced to meet at 
Washington for settling Fishery disputes, Ala¬ 
bama claims, and other outstanding diffeiences 
between the United States and Great Britain. 

— Died in Boston, aged 80, George Ticknor, 
a cultivated American litterateur. 

10. —Earthquake shock experienced at Darm¬ 
stadt. 

— Mr. Gladstone introduces the new Uni¬ 
versity Tests Bill,- a measure similar in sub¬ 
stance to that rejected by the Lords last 


session. 


(981) 










FEBRUARY 


1871. 


FEBRUARY 


10. —General Le F 16 arrives at Bordeaux to 
undertake the direction of the Ministry of War. 

— Storm on the Bridlington coast causing 
serious destruction to life and shipping pro¬ 
perty. As many as eighteen vessels were 
thought to have foundered between Flam- 
borough Head and Auburn House. 

11 . —The Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council give judgment in the case of the Rev. 
C. Voysey. Basing their decision on the appel¬ 
lant’s denial of the Articles relating to original 
sin, the sacrifice and sufferings of Christ, the 
Incarnation, and the Trinity, their lordships 
confirmed the sentence of deprivation pro¬ 
nounced by the Chancery of York, and con¬ 
demned Mr. Voysey in costs. After a perusal 
of the appellant’s writings they were driven to 
the conclusion that he advisedly rejected the 
doctrines on the profession of which alone he 
was admitted to the position of a minister in the 
Church. The appellant was allowed a week 
within which he might retract his opinions—a 
permission he declined to avail himself of, 
though grateful (he wrote) that “another op¬ 
portunity has been afforded me of * expressly 
and unreservedly ’ reaffirming all those opinions 
which their lordships declare to be contrary to 
the Thirty-nine Articles, and of rejecting the 
offer of repurchasing my once cherished posi¬ 
tion in the Established Church by proclaiming 
myself a hypocrite.” 

— Mr. Childers’s “Minute” regarding the 
loss of the Captain leading to a difference of 
opinion as to the share of responsibility in¬ 
curred by Admiralty officials, the Prime Minis¬ 
ter (in the absence from ill health of the First 
Lord) endeavours to ascertain from Sir Spencer 
Robinson when it would be convenient for 
him to withdraw from the office of Controller. 
Sir Spencer replied that, not being a consenting 
party in any way to the transaction, he could 
only say that the arrangement was entirely in 
the Premier’s own hands. “ The fact that my 
office as Lord of the Admiralty is held, as you 
rightly state, during pleasure, will not, I hope, 
prevent you from acceding to my request that I 
should be allowed to see a memorandum which 
has led you to withdraw your confidence from 
me. I am sure you will see the justice of com¬ 
plying with this request, when you remember 
that in June last I consented to remain in a 
position far from satisfactory to myself at your 
request, on your representations that my services 
at the Admiralty were most valuable to the 
nation, and that their cessation would be in¬ 
jurious to the public interests.” To-day Mr. 
Gladstone writes:—“There will be no objec¬ 
tion whatever to the production of your reply 
to the minute of the First Lord. It is clearly 
due to you. But in order to avoid what would 
be an inconvenient precedent, the date of the 
reply should be posterior to your quitting 
office.” Sir Spencer, thereupon, closed the 
correspondence :—“ I regret that I cannot con¬ 
sent to alter the date of my reply to Mr. 
Childers’s Minute. Any inconvenience that 
(982) 


may arise from the precedent you refer to roust 
rest on Mr. Childers, who officially published 
a paper containing grave charges against my¬ 
self while I was one of his colleagues, without 
giving me an opportunity of explanation or 
remonstrance. He thus left me no alternative 
but to reply to him officially, or submit to the 
undeserved stigma he endeavoured to inflict on 
me.” 

11. —The 200, ocx), ooof. loan authorized by 
the City of Paris taken up by bankers in the 
capital. 

12 . —The National Assembly at Bordeaux 
meet this afternoon for a preliminary sitting, 
the oldest member, M. Benoit d’Arzy, occupy¬ 
ing the chair. Next day M. Jules Favre, in the 
name of his colleagues at Bordeaux and Paris, 
resigned their power as the Government of the 
National Defence into the hands of the repre¬ 
sentatives. Thanks (he said) to your patriotism 
and reunion, we hope that the country, having 
been taught by misfortune, will know how 
to heal her wounds and to reconstitute the 
national existence. “I hope that I shall be 
able to confirm to those with whom we have 
to negotiate, that the country can do its duty. 
(Loud cheers.) The enemy must know that 
we have the honour of France at heart. He 
will also know that all France will decide. In 
conformity with the eventuality already fore¬ 
seen by the Convention, a prolongation of the 
armistice will probably become necessary. Let 
us render this prolongation as short as possible, 
in order not to lose a moment, and let us but 
think of the sufferings of the population of the 
invaded districts.” The Chamber then adopted, 
a motion for the provisional application of the 
standing order of 1848 and 1851. At the same 
sitting General Garibaldi, “loving the Re¬ 
public but hating the priesthood,” renounced 
the office of Deputy with which he had been 
honoured by several departments. He also 
resigned command of the Army of the Vosges, 
and soon after took his departure for Caprera. 

— The report from Paris to-day is that the 
city is perfectly quiet and engaged in the task 
of revictualling. M. Jules Favre was leaving 
for Bordeaux. 

— The terms of the Paris war contribution 
finally arranged to-day : two millions sterling 
to be paid in cash; a similar amount in Bank 
of France notes, and four millions in bills on 
London. 

13 . —The Lord Advocate’s Education Bill 
for Scotland introduced and read a first time. 
The measure proposed to take the present 
system as a foundation, and to extend the 
area of rating to all lands and heritages, 
without exception, substituting real rent as the 
rule of rating, so that all would contribute 
ac cording to actual possession .The management 
of the schools, in like manner, to be extended 
to all persons who contributed to the rates. 
The ratepayers to elect school boards for de¬ 
ciding on the educational requirements of each 

j district and fixing where new schools should 








FEBRUARY 


1871. 


FEBRUARY 


be established. It was proposed in the first 
instance to work the whole system under the 
general supervision of a Committee of Privy 
Council for Scotch Education sitting in London 
and administering the Parliamentary grant. 
The bill on the whole was favourably received 
by the Scotch members, and after some detailed 
criticism on the composition of the proposed 
Board, and the concessions made to heritors 
presently rated for the support of schools, was 
committed for a second reading on the 27th. 

13.— The Cunard Mediterranean steamer 
Morocco, with a cargo valued at 150,000/., sinks 
in the Mersey, after coming into collision with 
the new Greek steamer Wyoming. 

14..— Replying to Lord Cairns* criticism of 
Mr. Gladstone’s statement in the House of 
Commons, Earl Granville reports that it was 
well known Lord Palmerston did not attach 
great importance to the Black Sea clauses of 
the Treaty of Paris, but on the contrary thought 
there might be a demand for their modification 
within ten years or possibly less. 

_Surrender of Belfort under a convention 

permitting the garrison to leave the fortress 
with all the honours of war. An armistice was 
concluded at the same time for the Cote d Or, 
Jura, and Doubs. 

15 . —Mr. Chambers’ Marriage with a De¬ 
ceased Wife’s Sister Bill read a second time in 
the Commons by 125 to 84 votes. 

_ In the Upper House of Convocation a 
motion submitted by the Bishop of Winchester, 
excluding Unitarians from the work of revising 
the Authorized Version of Scripture, was earned 
by a majority of 10 to 4. In the Lower House 
this resolution was so far modified as to preclude 
any expression of opinion on the point raised 
till a special committee appointed for the 
purpose had made their report. 

— Parliament of the Dominion of Canada 
opened, the Governor-General congratulating 
the House upon the auspicious circumstances 
of the country, and speaking m high terms of 
the gallant manner in which the Fenian in¬ 
vasion had been suppressed. Canada it was 
urged, made no demand beyond what she was 
entitled to by treaty and the law of nations, 
nor had she sought to maintain the rights of 
her people in any other than a considerate, 

friendly spirit. , 4ln i aA f 

16. —In the House of Lords the Duke of 
Somerset obtains the appointment of a com¬ 
mittee to inquire into “ the constitution of the 
Board of Admiralty with reference to recent 
changes, and to the practical working of the 
department.” 

__ Official intimation given that sealed letters 
may now be forwarded to Palis. 

__ Recent negotiations between M. Jules 
Favre and Count Bismarck, at Versailles, result 
in the prolongation of the armistice for five 
days— to the 24th. 

— Proposal made in the Italian Chamber 
for attaching a condition to the Pope s Guaran¬ 


tee Bill for expelling the Jesuits out of Italian 
territory. 

16 .—Replying to a question submitted by Sir 
J. Hay, as to whether Mr. Odo Russell was 
instructed by her Majesty’s Government to say 
that the Black Sea question was of a nature in 
its present state to compel us, with or without 
allies, to go to war with Russia, Mr. Glad¬ 
stone said Mr. Russell had on this point spoken 
without authority ; but he did not attach the 
slightest blame to Mr. Russell, “because it is 
perfectly well known that the duty of her Ma¬ 
jesty’s diplomatic agents requires them to ex¬ 
press themselves in that mode in which they 
can best support and recommend the proposi¬ 
tions of which they wish to procure accept¬ 
ance.” Mr. Odo Russell afterwards explained 
that the reasons inducing him to use such an 
argument were, that Great Britain was bound 
by the Treaty of 1856, that Prince Gortscha- 
kofi’s note assumed the right of Russia to 
renounce either the whole or part, that 
France was otherwise engaged, and Austria 
unprepared. 

— Mr. Gladstone’s motion for a grant of 
30,000/. as a dowry to the Princess Louise 
carried by a majority of 350 to I (Professor 
Fawcett) and two tellers—Mr. Taylor and Sir 
C. Dilke. 

17. —Came on in the Court of Queen’s 
Bench, the action raised by Mr. G. A. Sala 
against Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton, for 
libellous matter embodied in a work written by 
Mr. Hain Friswell, “Modem Men of Letters 
Honestly Criticized,” and of which the defend¬ 
ants were the publishers. The article advanced 
a number of insinuations of an offensive nature 
against the private character of the plaintiff, 
mixed up with some indiscriminate laudation 
of his talents and capacities. On the second 
day of trial the jury returned a verdict for the 
plaintiff—damages, 500/. 

— The Upper House of Convocation 
engage in the discussion of a petition signed 
by 900 clergymen of the Church of England, 
protesting against the decisions of the Judicial 
Committee of the Privy Council, on the ground 
that it was a lay tribunal and unsuited for the 
decision of spiritual affairs. After a debate as 
to the terms of the petition, it was ordered to 
lie on the table. In the Lower House Dean 
Stanley defended his proceedings in the matter 
known as the “ Westminster Communion.” 
Nothing, he said, wnich tne House might 
think fit to pass should prevent him from acting 
on the principle upon which he had acted 
when he was the celebrant in Plenry the 
Seventh’s Chapel; and, more, nothing which 
this House could pass could deprive him of his 
right as a clergyman to administer the Sacra¬ 
ment under other laws and other rules than the 
laws and rules of the Church of England. Nor 
would he allow himself to be brought down 
from the high position which his office gave 
him by any vote ; and he quoted the words of 
American bishops as to the true cathohcity of 

( 9 ® 3 ) 













FEBRUARV 


FEBRUARY 


1871. 


the English Church, in its being unfenced 
about by declarations required in some sects, 
thanking God from the bottom of his heart 
that the English Church was thus free, that he 
had had the opportunity of showing this before 
the face of the world, and that he was able thus 
to follow Bishop Wilson’s well-known acts. 

17 . —M. Thiers appointed Head of the 
Executive Power, and M. Grevy President of 
the Bordeaux National Assembly. A declara¬ 
tion laid on the table from the Deputies of the 
Lower and Upper Rhine, Meurthe, and Moselle 
affirmed that “Peace in consideration of a 
cession of territory will never be a durable 
peace, but merely a momentary truce, which 
would soon be followed by another war. As 
to ourselves, inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine, 
we are ready to resume fighting, and therefore 
we shall beforehand hold as null and void any 
offers, treaty, votes, or plebiscite which would 
have for effect to sever Alsace and Lorraine 
from France. We proclaim our right to remain 
united to French soil, and we formally engage 
to defend our honour.” The discussion on the 
declaration was voted urgent, and the Com¬ 
mittee to whom it was committed promised 
that it would be passed to the Deputies en¬ 
trusted to negotiate with Prussia. 

— Mr. Cardwell introduces the army esti¬ 
mates, the amount proposed to be voted being 
15,851,700/. or 2,886,700/. in excess of the 
preceding year. He took occasion to describe 
in detail the various features of army reform 
which the Government had resolved on intro¬ 
ducing. “We propose (he said) to increase 
the Militia, to organize the Volunteers, to pro¬ 
vide for compulsory service in cases of 
emergency, to abolish purchase, to withdraw 
from lord-lieutenants the power they have now 
in regard to the auxiliary forces (retaining their 
recommendation for first commissions), to com¬ 
bine the whole under general officers, to ap¬ 
point colonels on the staff in sufficient numbers 
to this army, to combine recruiting for the Line 
with that of the command of Reserves, to fuse 
together as we can the Regular and Reserve 
forces by appointing officers of the Regular 
army to positions in the Reserve, and by giving 
subalterns of Militia commissions in the Line. 
We propose to brigade them together, to find 
field artillery for all armies, to enable counties 
to get rid of the inconvenience of billets, to 
gain command of the railway communication 
of the country in case of emergency—in short, 
we propose to unite all the voluntary forces of 
the country into one defensive army, with 
power to supplement by compulsion in cases of 
emergency—all to be under the command of 
the general officers commanding in districts, sub¬ 
ordinate to one Commander-in-Chief, who will 
act with the approval of the Secretary of State ; 
and, therefore, the whole will be under the 
direction and supreme control of her Majesty’s 
responsible Ministers.” 

18 . —Rowell, the railway stoker concerned I 
in the fatal collision at Citadel Station, Carlisle, i 

(984) 


in July last, tried at the Cumberland Assizes, i 
and acquitted, on the charge of manslaughter. 
(See July 11.) 

18 . —Close of the Bavarian Diet, Prince Adal¬ 
bert in the name of the King expressing a deter¬ 
mination to remain loyally attached to the whole 
Fatherland. 

— The Danube, owing to an accumulation 
of ice, overflows its banks at Vienna and causes j 
about 3,000 people to quit their dwellings. 

19 . —In the National Assembly to-day M. 
Thiers read a speech, in which he stated that, 
though appalled at the painful task imposed ; 
upon him by the country, he accepted it with 
obedience, devotion, and love—sentiments of 
which France stood all the more in need, in¬ 
asmuch as she was unfortunate—more unfor¬ 
tunate than at any former period of her history. 
But, he added, she is still great, young, rich, and 
full of resources, and will always remain a 
lasting monument of human energy. M. Thiers 
then announced that in selecting the following 
members of the Ministry he had been guided ; i 
solely by the public esteem they enjoyed and 
their public character and capacities :—M. 
Dufaure—Minister of Justice ; M. Jules Favre 
—Minister of Foreign Affairs; M. Picard— 
Minister of the Interior; M. Jules Simon— 
Minister of Public Instruction ; M. Lambrecht 
—Minister of Commerce ; General Le Flo— 
Minister of War; Admiral Pothuan—Minister of 
Marine. M. Jules Favre said the Government 
has deemed it necessary to unite Parliamentary 
powers with those of the Executive, and pro- 
poses in consequence that, in order to facilitate 
the negotiations, the Assembly should appoint 
a committee of fifteen deputies to proceed at 
once to Paris, who will be in constant com¬ 
munication with the negotiators ; the latter em¬ 
powered to negotiate in the name of the country, 
and the commission to report to the Assembly, j 
A deputation proceeded to Versailles to-night 
to ascertain the German terms of peace. 

— Attempt to assassinate Senor Riaz Zor- 
rilla, ex-President of the Cortes, while walking 
near Calle San Roque, Madrid. 

20 . —In committee to-night on the Uni¬ 
versity Tests Bill, Mr. Fawcett’s motion to 
abolish the restrictions in favour of clerical head¬ 
ships and fellowships was rejected by 182 to 160 
votes. The majority included several mem¬ 
bers of the Opposition, while the minority 1 
were mostly pledged supporters of Government, j 
In the course of a debate on Mr. Stephenson’s 
amendment to remove from Clause 3 the ex¬ 
ception in favour of Divinity Degrees, Mr. 
Gladstone explained that he was under promise i 
to send up to the House of Lords a bill similar 
to last year’s ; so far as Mr. Fawcett’s wish that 
the Government would ponder was concerned, 
all he could say was that Government had 
seriously pondered the matter, and their deci¬ 
sion was irrevocable ; but it was open for Mr. 
Fawcett to take any course he liked. If the 
House disapproved of the measure, some private 

j member must take it up. 








FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


iSyi. 


20 . —The Bishop of Winchester’s Benefices 
Registration Bill, designed to enable clergymen 
incapacitated by age or infirmity to resign on 
a moderate pension, read a second time. 

— Mr. Forster introduces the Ballot Bill, 
securing secret voting, and providing as far as 
possible against personation by compelling the 
voter to use an official paper only available 
after he had entered the polling booth. The 
use of public-houses as committee-rooms during 
elections was prohibited, and also the old plan 
of nominating candidates and declaring the 
result of the poll. 

— The French mails forwarded to Paris by 
way of Calais for the first time since the in¬ 
vestment of the city by German troops. 
Regular railway service was established with 
Belgium on the 23rd. 

— Wide currency being now given to a 
rumour that the Germans intended to make a 
triumphal march into Paris, General Trochu 
writes :—“Since the enemy so desires, let the 
government of the city be given over to him, and 
let him bear alone the odium and responsibi¬ 
lities of his violence. As a mute and solemn 
protest, let the gates remain closed, and let 
him open them with his artillery, to which 
Paris disarmed will make no reply ; and let us 
leave the judgment of our cause to truth, 
justice, and history.” 

21 . — Mr. Trevelyan’s motion for altering 
the tenure of the Commander-in-Chief’s office, 
so as to enable the Secretary for War freely to 
avail himself of the best administrative talent 
and most recent military experience, rejected 
after debate by a majority of 201 to 83 votes. 

22 . —Versailles intelligence makes mention 
of a further extension of the armistice, to the 
26th, a concession looked on in the City as 
confirmatory of rumours now current regarding 
an immediate and lasting peace. M. Thiers was 
received by the Emperor William this forenoon, 
and General Chanzy by the Crown Prince. 

— President Grant gives a general audience 
at Washington to O’Donovan Rossa and other 
Fenian conspirators. 

23 . —The Ecclesiastical Titles (Repeal) Bill 
tead a second time in the House of Commons 
by 137 to 51 votes. 

— The University Tests Bill read a third 
time and passed by the House of Commons ; 
Mr. Fawcett protesting against the measure in 
so far as it did not deal with clerical fellowships. 

— In the course of a debate raised by the 
Earl of Carnarvon on National Defences, the 
Duke of Cambridge, speaking as the military 
officer who was in a great measure responsible 
for the efficiency of the army, said that from the 
day he first entered the army to the present 
moment he had supported every measure and 
every improvement which he believed had a 
tendency to promote the comfort of the British 
soldier. 


23 . —The Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council give judgment in the appeal of the 
Rev. Mr. Purchas, known as the “ Brighton 
Ritual case.” Their lordships considered that 
M r. Purchas had offended against ecclesiastical 
law by wearing the chasuble, alb, and tuniele 
during the Communion service ; by using wine 
mixed with water and wafer bread in the 
administration of the Communion; and by 
standing with his back to the people, between 
the Communion table and the congregation, 
during the consecration prayer. The charges 
of wearing a cap called a biretta, and of using 
holy water, were not sufficiently proved to 
enable their lordships to come to a decision; 
and on these points, therefore, the appeal was 
disallowed. The appellant was condemned in 
costs in both courts. 

— Lord Hartington gives notice of his in¬ 
tention to move for a Secret Committee to 
inquire into the state of the counties of West- 
meath, Meath, and King’s County, the exist¬ 
ence of unlawful combinations there, and the 
best means of suppressing them. The pro¬ 
posal gave rise to a sharp debate on the 27th, 
when Mr. Disraeli taunted the Premier with 
having recourse to a Committee of the kind 
proposed after being selected as the only man 
capable of dealing with the evils of Ireland, 
and backed by a majority which had legalized 
confiscation, consecrated sacrilege, and con¬ 
doned high treason. 

24 . —Mr. Grant-Duff submits to a thin 
House the Indian financial statement for the 
year 1870-71, showing an estimated revenue of 
51,000,000/. and an expenditure of 50,000,000/. 

— French Rentes quoted in Paris at 52k 5c. 

— Professor Jowett, Master of Balliol, enter¬ 
tained at a banquet at the Albion, presided 
over by Dean Stanley. 

— Explosion in the Pentre Colliery, Rhonda 
Valley, Glamorganshire, causing the death of 
thirty-eight workmen, the whole employed at 
the time in the Welsh steam seam, where the 
disaster occurred. 

— Count Bemstorff presents his credentials 
as German Ambassador to the Queen at Buck¬ 
ingham Palace, and the Due de Broglie as Am¬ 
bassador for the Government of France, now 
recognised by nearly all the European Powers. 

— Mr. Disraeli introduces a debate on the 
Black Sea Treaty by calling attention to the 
“ mysterious inconsistency ” of the Government 
regarding that question, and charges the Pre¬ 
mier with confounding his own private and 
unpopular views with the policy of the Govern¬ 
ment of 1856, so far as to impute to departed 
statesmen of great emiuence opinions which 
they did not hold, and contrary indeed to all 
their expressed convictions. Mr. Gladstone 
made an animated reply, imputing to his as¬ 
sailant artifice and ignorance, and explaining 
that the language said to have been used by 
Mr. Odo Russell recently at Versailles was in 
reality the language of Count Bismarck. As 






FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY 


1871. 


far as the object of the Conference was con¬ 
cerned, it was intended, he said, “ to receive, in 
a manner compatible wi h and conformable to 
public international la v, the representations 
that Russia may have to make, to give to 
those representations a fair, candid, and friendly 
hearing, and to consider, renovate, and, if need 
be, fortify any of the other provisions of the 
Treaty of 1856, against which it may be found 
by the Conference any reasonable objection can 
be raised.” 

24 . —Anniversary of the French Revolution 
of 1848 celebrated in Paris by a demonstration 
at the graves of citizens shot in the Place de la 
Bastile. 

25 . —Anxious discussion of terms of peace at 
Versailles, the conference to-day being pro¬ 
tracted over a period of fully eight hours. It 
is now given out as one result of the negotia¬ 
tions that Paris is to be occupied for a brief 
period by Germans. 

26 . —Treaty of Peace between Germany and 
France concluded at Versailles, the preli¬ 
minary conditions, after much patient negotia¬ 
tion, being signed this (Sunday) afternoon by 
the high contracting parties. The Emperor 
William, “ with a deeply-moved heart and 
with gratitude to God,” telegraphed the result 
at once to Berlin, while the French Executive 
gave instruction to all the Prefects, and recom¬ 
mended them to inform military commanders 
of the fact. The negotiations were conducted 
with the utmost secrecy, and removed altogether 
from any influence likely to be exercised by 
neutrals either for advice or guarantee. The 
most serious discussion took place regarding the 
surrender of Metz, which the French negotiators 
opposed till they saw that continued resistance 
imperilled the cause of peace, and might pro¬ 
bably end in a renewal of hostilities at the 
termination of the armistice at midnight. The 
only modification the Germans were understood 
to have made in the original severity of their 
terms was the restitution of the fortress of Bel¬ 
fort commanding the passes in the Vosges, con¬ 
ceded, it was said, as an equivalent for permit¬ 
ting the German army to march through Paris. 
The major conditions of the Treaty were the 
cession of Alsace and German Lorraine, and 
the payment of a war indemnity of five mil¬ 
liards of francs (200,000,000/.)—demands it was 
thought as great as Europe would allow, and 
not unlikely to create a permanent feeling of 
hatred between the two countries. The 
boundary of the new frontier was described 
as commencing at the north-west portion of 
the Canton of Cattenom, towards the Grand 
Duchy of Luxemburg, tending southward to 
Rezonville, south-eastward to St. Marie, and 
again southward to tile Swiss frontier by way 
of St. Maurice, Giromaguy, and Delle. The 
payment, it was stipulated, of one milliard of 


francs was to take place during 1871, and the 
remainder within three years from the ratifica¬ 
tion of the present preliminaries. The 3rd 
Article provided for the gradual withdrawal of 
the German troops from France in proportion 
as the indemnity was paid or financial gua¬ 
rantees given. By a Convention subjoined to 
the Treaty it was provided that “the part of 
the city of Paris in the interior of the enceinte 
comprehended between the Seine, the Rue du 
Faubourg St. Honore, and the Avenue des' 
Ternes, shall be occupied by German troops, 
the number of which shall not exceed 30,00c 
men. The mode of occupation, and the dis¬ 
positions for the lodging of the German troops, 
in this part of the city, shall be regulated by an 
understanding between two officers of the two 
armies ; and access to that quarter shall be 
interdicted to the French troops, and to the 
armed National Guard, while the occupation 
lasts.” The last conference over, M, Thiers 
and his friends returned to Paris, where a 
delegation and Council were summoned to 
receive their report preparatory to submitting 
it for ratification to the National Assembly. 

27 . —Deputies of the Extreme Left meet at 
Bordeaux, to protest against any peace based 
upon the cession of territory. 

28 . —Debate in the National Assembly at 
Bordeaux on the terms of the Treaty of Peace. 
In the afternoon, amid the most profound 
silence, M. Thiers said : “ We have accepted 
a pa tiful mission, and, after having used all 
possible endeavours, we come with regret to 
submit to your approval a bill for which we ask 
urgency. ‘Art. I. The National Assembly, 
forced by necessity, is not responsible, and 
adopts the preliminaries of peace signed at 
Versailles on the 26th of February.’ ” At this 
point M. Thiers was so overpowered by his 
feelings, that he had to descend from the 
tribune and leave the hall while the details of 
the treaty were read by M. Barthelemy St. 
Hilaire. At the conclusion of the debate, 
M. Thiers made an animated appeal to the 
Deputies to share the responsibility already in¬ 
curred, and not to refrain from voting. Next 
day, when the victorious Germans entered Paris 
in triumph, the terms of the treaty were ratified 
by 546 votes to 107. At the same sitting 
a formal proposal was submitted, amid enthu¬ 
siastic cheers, for the deposition of Napoleon 
III. as the person “ responsible for all our mis¬ 
fortunes, the ruin, the invasion, and the dis¬ 
memberment of France.” The ex-Emperor 
was permitted to leave Wilhelmshohe on the 
19th March, and on the 20th arrived at Dover, 
where he received a welcome reception, and 
was met by the Empress Eugenie and the 
Prince Imperial, with various members of the 
late Court, who accompanied him to Chlslc- 
hurst. 


( 986 ) 









INDEX 























* 








INDEX. 


A. 

Abbeville gravel pits, 586. 
Abd-el-Kader— 
in Algeria, 56, 182. 
surrender of, 229. 
petition, 268. 
intercession for, 322. 
release, 363. 

Abduction, Crellin, 116. 

Arbuthnot, 412, 529. 

Abercom, Duke of, 836. 
marriages, 890. 

Abercromby, Speaker, retires, 40. 

created Lord Dunfermline, 44. 
Aberdeen, Earl of— 

Ministry, 351, 372. 
policy, 372, 411. 
defeat of Ministry,. 429. 
death, 590. 

Aberdeen railway company, 209. 
Abinger, Lord— 

on public meetings, 120, 128. 
in Norfolk, 152. 
death, 152. 

Able-bodied poor, decisi n regarding, 
255 - 

About, M., 557. 

Abyssinia— 

Plowden, Consul, 233. 
treaty of commerce, 286. 
prisoners, 701, 774, 797 - 
Dr. Beke’s mission, 719. 
condition of prisoners, 733. 
expedition proposed, 784. 
sets out, 791. 

King Theodore’s letter, 798. 

Senate reached, 799. 
landing at Annesley Bay, 801. 
condition of captives, 803. 

Col. Dunn killed, 803. 

Antalo reached, 804. 
at Abagin, 80;. 
approach to Magdala, 816. 
release of prisoners, 817. 
capture of Magdala, 818. 
death of King Theodore, 818. 
return march, 819. 
order of the dav, 820. 
news of expedition, 821. 
proclamation, 821. 
royal message, 821. 
homeward march, 823, 828, 830. 
Theodore’s widow, 824. 
demand for inquiry, 828. 

Gobayze, Emperor, 839. 
expense, 862. 

Theodore’s son leaves England, 877, 
Achilli, Dr. 293. 

v. Newman, 356, 375. 

Adelaide, Princess Mary, 898. 
Adelaide, Queen, 53, 93, 288. 

Aden, capture of, 34. 

Admiralty circular, 858. 
frauds, 867. 

Aerial transit patent, 131. 

Affghan war:— 

“ Bokhara Burnes,” 6, 97. 

Rawlinson and Vickovich, 7. 

Burnes on Dost Mahomed, 7, 12, 15. 


Affghan war. continued — 
siege of Herat, 9. 

Vickovich at Cabul, n. 

Candahar chief, 11. 

Burnes leaves Cabul, 16. 
treaty with Shah Soojah, 21. 

Lord Auckland’s manifesto, 25. 
march of British troops, 31, 51. 
in the Bolan Pass, 38. 
enter Candahar, 39. 

Ghuznee taken, 47, 54. 

Cabul captured, 48. 
troops detained, 50. 

Envoy Macnaghten, 51, 73. 

Runjeet Singh’s force, 51. 

Hindoo Coosh expedition, 52. 
return of troops, 52. 
peace prospects, 53. 

Khelat captured, 55- 

Lord Auckland thanked, 57. 

promotions, 57. 

thanks of Parliament, 61. 

rising in favour of Dost Mahomed, 

74 - 

victory at Bameean, 75. 

British defeat, 76. 

the Dost surrenders, 77. 

views of Burnes, 78. 

views of Court of Directors, 79. 

attack at Khelat-i-Ghilzie, 85. 

the Douranee chiefs, 90. 

Sale at Jellalabad, 91, 93. 
predictions, 92. 
disturbance in Cabul, 92. 
state of troops in Cabul, 94. 
treaty, 95. 

assassination of Macnaghten, 05, 102. 
treasure given tip, 96. 
arrival of Indian mail, 5 X > 99 > IOI > 
112, 124. 

massacre of British troops, 96. 
arrival of Dr. Brydone at Jellalabad, 

97 - 

fort of Ali Musjid, 97. 

Duke of Wellington’s memorandum, 
98. 

another proclamation, 98. 
retirement of Lord Auckland, 100. 
surrender of Ghuznee, iot. 
success at Candahar, 102. 
renewed advance on Cabul. 104. 
state of Jellalabad, 104, 106. 
disaster at Hykulzye, 105. 

Pollock in the Khyber Pass, 105. 
enters Jellalabad, 106. 
death of General Elphinstone, 106. 
Akhbar Khan’s proposa's, 107. 
march on Cabul, 115, 116, 118. 
seizure of the gates of Somnauth, 
118. 

defeat of Akhbar Khan, 119. 
release of the captives, 119. 

Istaliff taken, ixp. 

Simla proclamation, 119. 

British troops withdrawn, 121. 
Somnauth proclamation, 122. 
peace rejoicings, 123. 
honours, 123 
reception of army, 124. 
correspondence, 598. 


African discovery^— 

Baikie, 431. 

Bartle, 444 
Livingstone, 467, 758. 

Speke and Grant, 573, 629. 
Gondokoro reached, 641. 
arrival in England, 652. 

Baker, 600, 705, 706. 

M. Chaillu, 722. 

Agapaemone cases, 278, 299, 468. 

Agra and Masterman bank stoppage, 


746, 762. 

Agricultural labourers 826. 
Agricultural Society formed, 18. 
charter, 63. 

Agricultural Society— 


Meetings— 

1839 Oxford. 

1840 Cambridge. 

1841 Liverpool. 

1842 Bristol. 

1843 Derby. 

1844 Southamp¬ 

ton. 

1845 Shrews¬ 

bury. 

1846 Newcastle. 

1847 Northamp¬ 

ton. 

1848 York. 

1849 Norwich. 

1850 Exeter. 

1851 Windsor. 

1852 Lewes. 

1853 Gloucester. 

1854 Lincoln. 


1855 Carlisle. 

1856 Chelmsford. 

1857 Salisbury. 

1858 Chester. 

X859 Warwick. 

1860 Canterbury. 

1861 Leeds. 

1862 Battersea. 

1863 Worcester. 

1864 Newcastle- 

on-Tyne. 

1865 Plymouth. 

1866 Bury St. 

Edmund’s. 

1867 (No show.) 

1868 Leicester. 

1869 Manchester 

1870 Oxford. 

1871 Wolver¬ 

hampton. 


1837 Dumfries. 

1838 Glasgow. 

1839 Inverness. 

1840 Aberdeen. 

1841 Berwick. 

1842 Edinburgh. 

1843 Dundee. 

1844 Glasgow. 

1845 Dumfries. 

1846 Inverness. 

1847 Aberdeen. 

1848 Edinburgh. 
1850 Glasgow. 
1852 Perth. 


(Highland). 

1856 Inverness. 

1857 Glasgow. 

1858 Aberdeen. 

1859 Edinburgh 

1860 Dumfries. 

1861 Perth. 

1863 Kelso. 

1864 Stirling. 

1865 Inverness. 

1866 (No show.) 

1867 Glasgow. 

1868 Aberdeen. 

1869 Edinburgh. 

1870 Dumfries 


1854 Berwick. 
labama, sailing of, 629. 
sunk, 675. 

President Johnson’s message, 721. 
claitrs, 802, 809, 845. 856. 
reported settlement, 845, 846, 851. 
treaty repudiated, 868. 


I 


Alberti frauds, 130. 

Albert Life Assurance Company, 883, 
885, 909. 

Albert Prince— 

visits the Queen, 53. 
marriage resolved upon, 53. 
naturalization bill, 59. 
made a K.G., 60. 
settlement, 60. 


arrives in England, 61. 


(9 S 9) 










ALB 


INDEX. 


AUS 


Albert, Prince, continued — 
marriage, 61. 
precedence, 62. 
accident, 65. 

anti-slave trade meeting, 67. 

Regent, 71. 

freedom of City of London, 74. 
Privy Councillor, 74. 

Orphan Asylum, 88. 

Colonel of Artillery Company, 143. 
musical rehearsal, 148. 
death of father, 149 
visits Saxe Coburg Gotha, 152. 
birthday celebration, 181. 

Memish Farm case, 191. 
visits Liverpool, 205. 

Chancellor of Cambridge University, 
215, 220, 300. 
gift to Mendelssohn, 216. 
proceedings against Strange, 263. 
proposed Exhibition of Works of all 
Nations, 279. 

declines to be Commander-in-Chief, 

2 9 <?- T. ^ , 
on Sir R. Peel, 312. 

visits Cambridge, 394, 
on the Queen’s Government, 438. 
Manchester Art Exhibition, 464, 484. 
opens Saltash bridge, 542. 

Liverpool Sailors’ Home, 573. 

illness, 616. 

death, 617. « 

rehgious services, 618. 

funeral, 618. 

memorials, 619, 621. 

cairn at Balmoral, 631, 654. 

body removed to mausoleum, 636. 

memorials, Hyde Park, 647. 

Exhibition, 651. 

Aberdeen, 659. 

Perth, 681 
Rosenau, 716. 

“Albert medal,” 728. 

York memorial window, 750. 
Wolverhampton, 759. 

Hall of Arts and Sciences, 776. 
Behast, 903. 

Guildhall, 950. 
remains removed, 850 
Aldborough arrests, 328. 

Aldershot accident, 876. 

Aleppo, massacre, 311. 

Alexandra, seizure of, 645, 652, 660. 
Alfred, Prince— 
allowance to, 727. 

Master of Trinity House, 730. 

Alfred the Great, anniversary, 285. 
Algeria, French in, 7. 

French outrage in, 177. 

(see also Abd-el-Kader.) 

Alhambra licence refused, 954. 

Alice, Princess, married, 627. 

Ali Morad case, 350. 

Alpine Accidents— 

Chester, 885. 

Elliot, Rev. J., 881. 

Matterhorn, 710. 

M ‘Corkindale and others, 946. 

Mrs. Morke, 935. 

Rochester and others, 581 
Amateur Dramatic Company, 182. 
Ambassadors withdrawn, 757. 
Amberley, Lady, lectures, 920. 

Adams, American minister retires, 813, 
831. 

America (see Canada and United 
States). 

Anchor trial, 357. 

Anderson slave case, 592. 

Andover union inquiry, 182, 207. 
Andrea, Cardinal, 801. 

“ Angel Gabriel ” riots, 456. 
“Antigone” performed, 166. 
Antiquarian Society anniversary, 325. 
Anti-State Church Conference, 154. 
Antwerp fortified, 556, 

(99°) 


Arbuthnot abduction, 412, 529. 
Archaeological Institute Meetings— 

1844 Canterbury. 1859 Carlisle. 

1845 Winchester, i860 Gloucester. 

1846 York. 


1847 Norwich. 

1848 Lincoln. 

1849 Salisbury. 

1850 Oxford. 

1851 Bristol. 


1861 Peterboro’. 

1862 Worcester. 

1863 Rochester. 

1864 Warwick. 

1865 Dorchester. 

1866 London. 


1852 Newcastle. 1867 Kingston- 

1853 Chichester. upon-Hull 


1854 Cambridge. 1868 Lancaster. 

1855 Shrewsbury. 1869 BurySt. Ed¬ 


munds. 
1870 Leicester. 


1856 Edinburgh. 

1858 Bath. 

Arstic discovery— 

Buck’s voyage, 6. 

Ross, 81, 103. 
vessels abandoned, 420. 

Dr. Rae, 420, 424, 463. 

Dr. Hall, 886. 

(see Franklin expedition.) 

Arenberg, Prince Louis of, assassi¬ 
nated, 916. 

Argentine Confederation, 382. 
treaty, 575. 

wars, 558, 681, 699,702, 715. 

Argyll, Duke of— 
and Dr. Trower, 267. 
on American war, 613. 

“personal rating,” 821. 

Arkadi captured, 787. 

Arkansas outrage, 18. 

Arkwright, Richard, will, 135. 
Armstrong gun, 530, 535. 

Armstrong of Sorbietrees shot, 324. 
Army brevet, 211. 

Army clothing, 454. 

Army Commission traffic, 550. 

Army pay income, 781. 

Arndt centenary, 896. 

Arnold, M., on Celticism, 752. 

Art catalogue, 776. 

“Artemus Ward,” in London, 758. 
Arthur, Prince, 830, 866. 
in Ireland, 870, 871, 872. 
sails foi Canada, 883. 
at New York, 902. 

Ascencion, slavery abolished, 887. 
Ascot races, 156. 

Ashantee disaster, 667, 675. 

Ashburton, Lord, 98. 

Ashley, J. J., thefts, 129. 

Ashley, Lord— 

Factory inquiry, 73. 

Education, 129. 

Factory bill, 200, 295. 
subdivision of parishes, 272. 
lodging houses, 329. 

(see Shaftesbury, Earl of). 
Association Meetings— 

(Archmological Association.) 

1844 Canterbury. 1858 Salisbury. 

1845 Winchester. 1859 Newbury. 


1846 Gloucester. i860 Shrewsbury 

1847 Warwick. 1861 Exeter. 


1848 Worcester. 1862 Leicester. 

1849 Chester. 1864 Ipswich. 

1850 Manchester. 1865 Durham. 

1851 Derby. 


1868 Cirencester. 


1853 Rochester. 1869 St. Albans. 


1854 Chepstow. 1870 Hereford. 

1855 Newport. 

(British.) 


Places. 


Presidents. 


1837 

Liverpool 

Earl of Burling¬ 
ton. 

H 

OO 

OO 

Newcastle 

Duke of North¬ 
umberland. 

*839 

Birming¬ 

Rev. Vernon Har- 

ham 

court. 

1840 

Glasgow 

Marquis of Brea- 
dalbane. 

1841 

Plymouth 

Prof. Whewell. 

1842 

Manchester 

l ord F. Egerton. 


Association Meetings, continued — 

1843 Cork Earl of Rossc. 

1844 York Dean of Ely. 

1845 Cambridge Sir J. Herschel. 

1846 Southamp- Sir R. J. Murchi- 


ton 

1847 Oxford 

1848 Swansea 


son. 

Sir R. H. Inglis. 
M arquisof N or th- 
ampton. 

Rev.T. R. Robin- 


1849 Birming¬ 

ham son. 

1850 Edinburgh Sir D. Brewster. 

1851 Ipswich Professor Airy. 

1852 Belfast Colonel Sabine. 

1853 Hull Wm. Hopkins. 

1854 Liverpool Earl of Harrowby 

1855 Glasgow Duke of Argyll. 

1856 Cheltenham Dr. C. G. B. Dau- 

beney. 

1857 Dublin Dr Lloyd. 

1858 Leeds Professor Owen. 

1859 Aberdeen Prince Albert. 

1860 Oxford Lord Wrottesley. 

1861 Manchester Wm. Fairbairn. 

1862 Cambridge Professor Willis. 

1863 Newcastle SirW .Armstrong 

1864 Bath Sir Charles Lyell. 

1865 Birming- Prof. Phillips. 

ham 

1866 Nottingham W. A. Grove. 

1867 Dundee Duke of Buc- 

cleuch. 

1868 Norwich J. D. Hooker. 

1869 Exeter G. Stokes. 

1870 Liverpool Prof. Huxley. 

1871 Edinburgh Sir W. Thomson. 

(Social Science.) 

1857 Birming- 1864 York. 

ham 1865 Sheffield. 

1858 Liverpool 1866 Manchester. 

1859 Bradford 1867 Belfast. 

1860 Glasgow 1868 Birming- 

1861 Dublin ham. 

1862 London 1869 Bristol. 

1863 Edinburgh. 1870 Newcastle. 

Assurance frauds, 867. 

Asylum, South London, 868. 

Atheist witness, in. 

Atlantic cable banquet, 754. 
steaming, 860. 

Atlas ironworks, fall of, 435. 
Atmospheric railway, 70. 

Atonement controversy, 175. 

Airato in quarantine, 758. 

Attwood, Spooner & Co., failure, 696. 
Auckland, Lord (see Aflfghan war). 
Auckland outbreak, 655. 

Audubon, naturalist, 137. 

Australia — 

rejoicings at Melbourne, 44. 

Sturt’s expedition, 181. 

Colonies Bill, 299. 

gold discovery, 320, 327. 

gold arrivals, 335, 345, 352, 354, 361, 

_ 367. 374 - 

first Parliament, 472. 
convicts withdrawn, 691. 

Church grants abolished, 883. 
Australian exploration— 

Leichardt, 160, 244. 

Gregory, 206, 471. 

Burke, and Wills, 582. 

Austria— 

Emperor crowned at Milan, 24. 
Cracow annexed, 210. 
disturbance in Milan, 223. 

Italian rising, 232. 

(see Italian war.) 
outbreak in Vienna, 241. 

Emperor, “ King of Poland,” 24a 
release of prisoners, 243. 
country in arms against, 243. 
flight of Metternich, 246. 
new Constitution, 247. 
success at Verona, 248. 
flight of Emperor, 249. 






A U S 


INDEX. 


KIR 


Austria, continued— 

Prague insurrection, 250. 
defeat at Goito, 251. 
opposed by Ban of Croatia, 251. 
defeat near Rivoli, 253. 

Emperor returns to Vienna, 257. 
murder of Count Latour, 263. 

Diet suspended, 263. 
surrender of Vienna, 264. 
abdication of Emperor, 266. 
Winuischgratz proclamation, 268. 
new Constitution, 273. 
success at Mortaro, 273. 
crowning victory at Novara, 274. 
Haynau, proclamation, 281. 
treaty of peace, 282. 
flogging of women, 285. 
protest against Bavaria, 286. 
reduction of army, 315, 
national guards dissolved, 334. 
Constitution annulled, 344. 

Emperor in Hungary, 359. 
funeral honours to Duke of Welling¬ 
ton, 361. 

newspaper correspondent arrested, 

369 - 

attempt to assassinate Emperor, 376, 
756 - 

treaty with Great Britain and 
France, 426. 

Vienna Conference, 433 - 438 - 
Concordat, 443. 

difference with France, 532, 534. 
Cowley mission, 535, 53” (see Italian 
war, 1859). 

diplomatic relations, 501. 
industrial legislation, 561. 

Reichsrath reformed, 567, 586, 596. 
protest against Italian annexation, 
570. 

civil rights extended, 599. 

Kossuth notes, 600. 

. ministry of Marine, 620. 

Transylvanian deputies, 659. 
constitution suspended, 716. 

Pesth diet, 7^2. 

armies placed on war footing, 736. 

(See Austro-Prussian War.) 
cedes Venetia, 745 - 
manifesto to people, 746. 
evacuates Quadrilateral, 754. 

Diet opened, 758. 

Deak’s address, 716. 

Reichsrath revoked, 763. 
re-organization of army, 765. 
coronation at Pesth, 778. 
death of Archduchess Mathilde, 
778 

modification of Concordat, 791. 

war budget, 803. 

defeat of Papal party, 813. 

Papal Allocution, 830, 832. 
military service, 843, 844. 

Consul at Leghorn, assassinated 
872. 

foreign policy, 881. 
close of session, 883. 

Emperor at Jerusalem, 890. 
Reichsrath opened, 895, 948. 
movement for disarmament, 910. 
Diets dissolved, 918. 

Provincial Diets opened, 94 °- 
Vienna Conference, 953. 
policy, 980. 

Austro-Prussian War— 

Prussian demands on minor states, 

73 °; 

Prussia and Italy, 73 °- 
call to disarm, 733. 
ambassadors withdrawn, 733, 741 - 
demand on Saxony, 736. 
proceedings of Frankfort diet, 737 - 
conference proposed, 739, 740 - 
negotiations fruitless, 739. 

Garibaldi arrives at Genoa, 741. 
aid to Saxony, 742. 


Austro-Prussian war, continued — 
manifestoes, 742. 

Italian defeat at Custozza, 743. 
Austrian defeat at Nachod, 743- 
Prussian reverse at Trautenau, 744- 
Hanoverian capitulation, 744. 
Skalitz, 744. 

Sadowa, 744. 

severity of slaughter, 745. 

Federal defeat at Aschaffenburg, 
746 ' 

engagement off Lissa, 747. 
armistice, 747. 
treaty of peace, 754. 

“ Aux Hospice” case, 719. 

Aytoun, Professor, 382, 714. 


B 


Baby farming case, 922. 

Baden— 

insurrection in, 277. 

New Constitution, 2^9. 

Convention with North Germany, 
909, 912. _ 

Baker expedition, 893, 898. 

Balleny Islands discovered, 35. 

Ballet girls burnt, 612, 638. 664. 

Ball, fancy dress, 177, 328, 408. 

Balloon accident, 162. 
ascents, 628. 
destroyed, 678, 706. 
ascents from Paris, 963. 

Baly, Dr. killed, 592. 

Banffshire, loss of life, 503. 

Bank of England— 

Act suspended, 225,227, 501, 504. 
paper stolen, 630, 637. 

Bankruptcy Act, 897, 898. 

Barber-Fletcher case, 153, 158, 304, 
450, 522. 

Bar-mess regulations, 196. 

Barned’s banking company. 733. 

Bame, Oxford, shot, 824. 

Barrow-on-Furness docks, 790. 

Barry, architect, dismissal of, 917. 
Bartholomew fair abolished, 443. 
Basevi, architect, killed, 183. 

Bathurst, severities in, 276. 

Battles— 

Aliwal, 193. Kostainizzn, 525. 

Alma, 416. Le Mans, 972, 

Balaclava, 421. 973. 

Bameean, 75. Lissi, 747. 

Bapaume, 971. Magenta, 544 

Bull Run, 607, Maharajpoor,i 4 6 

631. Meeanee, 128. 

Chancellorsville, Montebello, 543. 

648. Moodkee, 188. 

Chickahominy, Murfreesboro,’ 

627. 637. 

Chillianwallah, Nachod, 743. 

269. Novara, 274. 

Courcelles, 938. Oltenitza, 393. 

Custozza, 743. Palestro, 544. 

Eupatoria, 431. Sadowa, 744. 

Ferozeshah, 189. Sedan, 941. 
Forhach, 935. Skalitz, 744. 

Fredericksburg, Sobraon, 194. 

636. Solferino, 550. 

Gettysburg, 654. Tchernaya, 443. 

Goojerat, 272. Vionville, 939. 

Gravelotte, 939. Waitzen, 280. 

Hyderabad, 54, Weissenburg, 

131. 935 - 

Idstadt, 306. Wilderness, 673. 

lnkerman, 423. Woerth, 935. 

Baudin, M., killed, 340. 

demonstrations, 846, 847. 

Bavaria— 

King and Lola Montes, 215. 
insurrection in Munich, 240. 
abdication, 242. 

King on German unity, 901, 903. 
policy, 911. 


Bavaria, continued — 
joins Prussia against France, 929. 
close of Diet, 984.. 

(see Franco-Prussian war). 

Bay Island colony, 354. 

Beamire, eccentric barrister, 658. 

Beards in the army, 414. 

Beck, case of Baroness Von, 335. 
Bedchamber plot, 41. 

Beefsteak Club dissolved, 872. 
Beethoven statue, 180. 

centenary, 946, 967. 

Belfast— 

well accident, 284. 

Queen’s College, 288. 
docks, 790. 

(see Ireland and Riots.) 

Belgium— 

Royal visit, 24. 

public charities, 485, 486. 

railways, 860, 865, 869. 

address to King, 892. 

neutrality secured, 934, 936,937, 941 

independence anniversary, 949. 

Papal demonstration, 979. 

Belliqueuse voyage, 872. 

Bellot, Lieut., 338. 

monument, 393, 464. 

Bells for Westminster Palace, 471, .<99, 

577 - 

Bentinck, Lord George— 

opposes Corn Importation bill, 196. 
Coercion bill, 201. 
sugar duties, 205. 

Lord Lyndhurst on, 207. 
on potato failure, 208. 

Irish railway loan, 214. 

resigns Protectionist leadership. 229 

234- , . 

planters grievances, 233. 

Court dresses, 248. 
accuses Lord John Russell, 253. 
on Irish disturbance, 261. 
death of, 261. 
funeral, 262. 

Beresford Hope— 
on Marriage Laws, 293. 

Gorham case, 294. 

M.P. for Cambridge, 805. 

Beresford, Rev. Dr., 433. 

Berkeley quarrels, 210. 

Berkhampstead Common case, 900. 
Berlin Cathedral outrage, 882. 
Bermuda iron dock, 881. ^ 

Bernard, Dr. S., arrested, 510 
Berne bear-pit accident, 596. 

Berryer banquet, 684. 

Bethell, Sir R — 

Attorney-General, 471. 
censures certain law Lords, 51 x. 
address to Christian young men, 557 
Lord Chancellor (Westbury), 604. 
altercations with Lord Chelmsford, 
608, 623. 

“ Essays and Reviews,” judgment, 

666 . 

on synodical judgments, 679. 
Edmunds scandal, 695, 702. 

Leeds bankruptcy court, 697, 703, 
706. 

on confession privilege, 702. 
censured, 707. 
resignation, 708. 

Betting convictions, 957. 

Bhootan given up, 644. 

Bickersteth, Rev. R., 472. 

“ Big Ben” cracked, 499, 557. 

Billiard championship, 904. 

Birkbeck memorial, 107. 

Birkenhead, 146,162, 216. 

Birmingham—■ 

Political Union, 10. 

Conference, 30. 

Municipal election, 32. 

Chartist riots, 45, 46, 57. 
police bill, 56. 

(99*) 





















B 1 R 


INDEX. 


B V R 


Birmingham, continued — 

Corn Exchange opened, 225. 
Grammar School festival, 351. 
gaol cruelties, 442. 

Midland Institute, 450. 

Income Tax protest, 473. 

Aston Park opened, 522. 

Banking company suspends pay¬ 
ment, 746. 

Watt, statue, 841. 

Bishops, retirement, 465. 

Bismarck, Count— 

negotiates renunciation of Prince 
Augustenburg, 372. 

War Minister, 632. 
on Prussia and Denmark, 673. 
created a Count, 7x6. 
demand on Saxony, 736. 

Vienna note, 736. 

attempt to assassinate, 737. 

secret despatch, increase of territory, 


747 - . ^ 

on Prussian Parliament, 903. 
on Hade ■, 907. 

reveals “ Projet deTraite,” 932, 938. 
on French Covernment and boun¬ 
daries, 947. 

objects of war against France, 948. 
on bombardment of Paris, 950. 
armistice proposals, 950, 934, 960. 
Black Sea Conference, 963, 964, 975. 
Chancellor of German Empire, 976. 
treaty of Versailles, 986. 

(See Franco-Prusaian war.) 
Blackburn and Evelyn fracas, 581. 
Blackie, Professor, 51. 

Black Prince , speed, 631. 

Black Sea Conference, 974, 978, 979. 

Odo Russell’s Negotiations, 983. 
Blanc, Louis— 

Communist rising, 249, 253. 
threatened prosecution, 251. 
Blantyre jewellery case, 662. 

Blondin feats, 355, 602. 

Bloomer costume, 327. 

Boa-constrictor, 326. 

Boarding out pauper children, 891. 
Board of Works loan, 891. 

Boat-race, Oxford and Cambridge— 
1839 Cambridge 1859 Oxford 


1840 Cambridge 

1841 Cambridge 

1842 Oxford 

1845 Cambridge 

1846 Cambridge 
1849 Cambridge 
1849 Oxford 
1852 Oxford 
1854 Oxford 
1856 Cambridge 

1856 Oxford 

1857 Cambridge 

1858 Cambridge 
Boden Professorship contest, 590. 
Boers of Port Natal attacked, 107, no 
Bokhara— 


1860 Cambridge 

1861 Oxford 

1862 Oxford 

1863 Oxford 

1864 Oxford 

1865 Oxford 

1866 Oxford 

1867 Oxford 

1868 Oxford 

1869 Oxford 

1870 Cambridge 

1871 Cambridge 


mission of Stoddart, 23. 
and Connolly, 72. 
imprisonment, 95, 103, 114, 142. 
execution, 109, 125. 

Lord Ellenborough’s letter, 120. 
(s*e also Russia.) 

Bolivian rivers, freedom of, 385. 
Bologna University, 814 
Bona Dea , sufferings of crew, 398. 
Bondholders, foreign, 846 
Bonwell scandal, 557, 583. 
Booksellers’ dispute, 353. 

Boothby, Lady, 216. 

Borneo pirates, 2x8, 281. 
Borthwick, Peter, 123. 

Bosjesmans, 219. 

Botallack mine accident, 645. 
Boulton and Park case, 916. 
Bourbon family, 394. 

Bourdeaux, Duke of, 147. 

(992) 


Bouverie, E. P.— 
sites for churches, 179, 215, 249. 
Ecclesiastical Courts, 251. 
on Uniformity Act, 649, 679. 
Fellowship of Colleges declaration, 
733 , 740 - 

on lioeral party, 809. 

Mill correspondence, 840. 

Boyne Hill, confession, 528. 

Brabant, Duke of 389. 

Bradford poisonings, 529. 

Bradshaw’s attack on the Court, 54, 39, 
Braintree Church-rate, 8, 65, 107, 290, 
388. 

Brassey, presentation to Mr., 323. 

Brazil— 

slavery in, 309. 

dispute with England, 637, 641, 652 
war with Uruguay, 681, 715. 
Ascension occupied, 856. 

Bread, price of, 192. 

Breech-loaders for army, 746. 

Brentford, inundation, 80. 

Brewster, Sir D., 558. 

Bribery, 111. 

Committees, 488. 

Commission, 736, 750, 755. 

Judges, 837. 

Bridgewater Canal burst, 597. 

Briggs, murder of T., 678. 

Bright, John— 

advice regarding Corn laws, 113. 

Brougham correspondence, 127. 

threatened, 138. 

elected for Durham, 139. 

first speech in Parliament, 140. 

game laws, 169. 

reform in Ireland, 289. 

Hastings correspondence, 315. 

Irish tenant right, 362. 

Irish Church, 363. 
on N apier banquet, 403. 
on Russian war, 406, 423. 
appeal to Lord Palmerston, 432. 
defeated at Manchester, 483. 
elected for Birmingham, 593. 
on bishops and aristocracy, 529. 
reform scheme, 533. 
on Disraeli and French treaty, 566. 
on Savoy and Nice, 567. 
on press and paper duty, 575. 
strikes and working men, 690. 
Parliamentary reform, 691, 709. 
on Mr. Cobden, 698, 699. 

Garth controversy, 716. 
address at Rochdale, 722. 

Russell interview, 725. 
on Gladstone’s reform bill o 1866, 
7 2 9 - 

on Hyde Park meeting, 747. 
at the Rotunda, 757. 
defends the Queen. 759. * 
on Disraeli Reform Bill, 769, 773, 

785- 

on Gladstone, 773. 

Fenian petition, 774. 

Lloyd-garrison breakfast, 781. 

Irish peasant propriety, 802. 
on Disraeli’s Irish policy, 810. 
opposes Disraeli, 823. 

Welsh Reform Association, 828. 

at Limerick, 83 (. 

freedom of Edinburgh, 844. 

“ free breakfast table,” 845. 
national expenditure, 846. 
cabinet minister, 852. 
speech on re election, 853. 

“bottle nosed whales.” 856. 
on death punish ner.t, 856. 

Irish Church, 864. 

charged with countenancing Fenian- 
ism 870. 

on Irish Land question, 870, 871. 
on House of Lords, 874. 

Irish land question, 897. 
on Fenian prisoners, 900. 


Bright, John, continued — 
workmen’s trains, 902 
retires from Board of Trade, 968. 
Brighton Bill, killed, 16. 

Bristol— 
fraud, 119. 
fall of bridge, 433. 
ministerial banquet. 802. 
theatre accident, 896. 

Britannia Bridge— 

fixing of first tube, 278. 
tube completed, 293. 
second tube laid, 312 
British Association, i6r, 751. 

(See Associations.) 

British Bank, 265. 

British Queen launched, 19. 
steamer, 69. 

Broadhead, Unionist. 889. 

Brockhurst assault, 593. 

Brooke, Rajah, 2x8, 225, 232, 233, 332. 
Bronze coinage, 590. 

Brougham, Lord— 
altercation with Lord Melbourne, 10. 
on economy, xi. 

on Canadian disturbances, 13, 14 
slavery, 14, 16, 48. 

Durham ordinances, 32. 
attacks O’Connell, 35. 

Corn-law motion, 36. 
defeats Lord Melbourne, 48. 
rumoured fatal accident, 54. 
on M. de Tocqueville, 126. 

Bright correspondence, 127. 
on Examiner libel, 140. 
estate claimed, 140. 
on railway gambling, 172. 

French citizen, 244. 

Neapolitan Government, 280. 
on Mayoral banquet, 295. 
attack on Bunsen, 301. 
opposes Exhibition Commission, 
306, 308. 

attacks Daily News , 308. 
fight with poachers, 309. 

Penrith banquet, 4^9. 

Edinburgh banquet, 559. 

Chancellor Edinburgh University, 

on electoral corruption, 790. 
death, 823. 

Bruce, Home Secretary, 858. 

on French war, 950. 

Bruce, Sir J. K., 754. 

Brunei, accident to, 132. 

Buccleuch, Duke of, on Com Lawa, 
189, 190. 

Bucharest, revolution, 727. 
Buckingham, Duke of— 
testimonial, 109. 
on Corn-laws, 190, 194. 

Palace seized, 223. 
leaves England, 224. 
sale of estates, 248. 
divorce, 290. 

Buckingham Palace entered, 44. 
gardens, 179. 

Bude light experiment, 97. 

Buenos Ayres— 
blockaded, 181. 
defeat of Rosas, 318. 

Rosas overthrown, 346. 
lands at Plymouth, 352. 
wars, 610. 

Bull and tiger fight, 277. 

Bulwer, Sir Henry, on war, 930. 
Bunbury’sSt. Lucia proclamation, 15. 
Bungaree killed, 107. 

Bunhill Fields opened, 888. 
Buonaparte, Pierre, 287, 898. 
Buonaparte legitimacy, 594. 
Burglaries— 

Arlington, 310. 

Frimley Grove, 310. 

Great Raveley, 337. 
liolford House, 311. 














BUR 


INDEX. 


C H A 


Burglaries, continued — 

Kirdford, 333. 

Portvvay, 337. 

Rait, Glasgow, 391. 

South Wraxall, 95. 

Sutton Bonnington, 145. 

Uckfield, 316 

Whalley Bridge (Mrs. Norman), 

643- 

Burgoyne, Sir J., 464, 843. 

Burmah— 
dispute, 338. 

Irawaddy forced, 344. 
expedition, 350. 

Rangoon captured, 351. 

Bassein taken, 353. 

Pegu annexed, 367, 371. 
war concluded, 385. 

Burnley barrack tragedy, 93. 

Burns Festivals, 160, 533. 

Burton, Captain, fined, 167. 

Bute, Marquis of, 854. 

Butt, Isaac, charge against, 510. 
Buxton, Charles— 

Act of Uniformity, 651. 

Brand letters, 750. 
attempt to shoot, 915. 

Byng, dinner to, 62. 

retirement, 212. 

Byron forgeries, 243. 


C. 

Carul correspondence, in. 

(See Affghan war.) 
regiment, 147. 

Cadetship trials, 229. 

Caffraria— 

disturbance, 327. 
defence association, 331. 
submisson of Sandilla,' 345, 378. 
Macomo driven out, 350. 

General Cathcart’s circular, 358. 
Caffre wars, 259, 316, 422. 

-tribes, 324. 

Cagliari case of, 489, 522. 

Cairns, Lord, 765. 

Lord Chancellor, 807. 

California— 

gold excitement, 251, 320. 

Calvin celebration, 674. 

Cambridge, Duke of, 430, 500. 
pension, 306. 

Princess Augusta of, 137. 

Cambridge University— 

Hobson’s charity, 2. 

New Library, 6. 

Fitzwilliam Museum, 8. 
city election, 65. 

contest for High Stewardship, 78. 
Duke of Northumberland, Chancel¬ 
lor, 113. 
royal visit, 145. 
tradesmen, 155. 
power of Proctors, 216. 
case of Fiestel, 215. 

Prince Albert, Chancellor, 215, 22 . 
Public Orator, 264. 
reforms, 264, 434, 462. 

Royal Commission, 298, 300. 
riot, 423. 

contested election, 455. 

Heresy Board to be retained, 499. 
African mission, 559. 
case of Emma Kemp, 589. 

Duke of Devonshire, Chancellor, 627. 
Union buildings, 756. 

Beresford Hope, M.P., 805. 
college dinners, 846. 
tests, 892. 

election of Arabic Professor,955. 
Campbell, George, Lieutenant Go 
vernor of Bengal, 969. 

! Campbell, Lord, (Sir J.)— 

Edinburgh banquet, 54. 

( 993 ) 


Campbell, Lord, (Sir J.) continued — 
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 86. 
standing order rescinded, 180. 

Lord Chief Justice, 293. 
censures High Sheriff of Berks, 348. 
Lord Chancellor, 549. 
death, 604. 

Campbell, Sir Colin, governor of Nova 
Scotia, 63. 
at the Alma, 417. 
presentation, 463. 
vn. India. (See Indian Mutiny.) 
created a peer, 526. 
death, 657. 
statue, 835. 

Canada— 

Papineau party, 5. * 

threatened disturbance, 7, 
rising of the “ Liberty Boys,” 8, 9. 
encounter at St. Eustace, 11. 

Sir J. Colborne’s report, 12. 

Caroline seized, 12. 

Toronto attacked, 13. 

Sir F. Head’s resignation, 13. 

Earl of Durham, governor, 13. 
pacifying ordinance, 21. 
disallowed, 23, 28. 

Montreal theatre, 27. 

Beauharnois taken, 28. 
insurgents defeated, 29. 
trial of rebels, 30. 

Sir J. Colborne, governor, 32, 63. 
case of prisoners, 33, 40. 

Poulett Thomson, governor, 53. 
proclamation, 54. 

Parliament, 61. 
union, 61. 

Nova Scotia Assembly, 63. 
clergy revenues, 66, 68, 70, 73, 317, 
378, 30O, 382. 

death of Lord Sydenham, 90. 
hunter lodges, 91. 

French Canadians, 119. 

I Sir T.C. Metcalfe, governor, 125,166. 
corn bill, 134. 
ministry resigns, 146. 

| disturbance at Montreal, 275, 284. 
Quebec, seat of government, 460. 
Ottawa capital, 527. 

Federal union, 683. 
i defences, 696, 697. 
j railway loan, 769. 
proclamation, 777. 
new parliament, 795. 

D’Arcy M’Ghee shot, 816. 
alleged discontent, 829. 
j Sir J. Young, governor, 839, 856. 
Newfoundland union, 863, 873. 

Red River disturbances, 895, S97, 
941. 

Rupert's Land, 923. 

Parliament opened, 983. 

Candia insurrection, 754. 

: Candhsh, Rev. Dr. on Balmoral cairn, 
654 - T . 

Canning, Viscount, 442. 

Canterbury (Sumner), Archbishop of— 
confirmed, 241. 
fraud on, 335. 

(Tait) on dissenters, 811. 
illness, 892. 

I Canterbury colony, 326. 

Canterbury, Lord, 127. 

Can till on legacy, 509. 

Canty, “ receiver,’’ 331. 

Cape colonists, 279. 

Captain, loss of the, 945, 952, 970. 
Capetown, opposition to Bishop of, 851. 
Caraccas, revolution, 233. 

Cardigan quarrels, 75, 76, 467, 476. 

Sunday flogging, 83. 

Cardinal, creation of, 813. 

Cardross case, 697. 

Cardross, Lady, 108. 

] Cardwell, Mr. at Oxford, 855, 071. 
Carlisle cemetery, 455. 


Carlisle, R., funeral, 12Q. 

Carlisle, statue to Earl of, 937. 

Carlton Club and Peelites, 461. 

Carlyle,- Thomas— 
defends Mazzini, 157. 

Cromwell letters, 228. 

Irish remedial measures, 249. 
public schools, 256. 

“ nigger question,” 288. 

Duffy and “Big O.” 
rector, Edinburgh University, 719. 
rectorial address, 731. 
on Governor Eyre, 751. 
on German war. 961. 

Carmarthen election, 124. 

election of Council, 471. 

Carron frauds, 555, 570. 

Cartoon, exhibition, 138. 

“Casual” in Lambeth workhouse, 722. 
Cataract, operation for, 313. 

Cattle plague, 483, 886. 
prevention, 713. 
spread of, 716, 718. 
royal commission, 717, 719. 
number attacked, 722, 724. 

Bill for suppressing, 725, 726. 
day of humiliation, 729. 
appearance in Ireland, 738. 

Caunt and Bendigo fight, 181. 
Cavaignac, General, 265. 

Cavanagh, “fasting man,”93. 

Cawnpore massacre, 491. 

Caxton monument, 219. 

Census, 1851, 323. 

1861, 599. 

Census Bill, 578. 

Cephalonia, insurrection, 2S4. 

Ceylon— 

grievances, 272. 
governor of, 311, 323. 

Chaillu controversy, 602 
Chalmers, Rev. Dr., in London, 17, 
death of, 218. 

Chambers, W. and R., 88. 

Chambord, Count de— 
manifestoes, 352. 

Chancery Registrarship, 298. 

sittings, 364. 

Channel Fleet, 559, 576. 

Chantrey’s busts, 107. 

Charles et Georges affair, C03. 
Charterhouse brethren, 395. 

Chartist agitation— 

Birmingham meeting, 23. 

Palace yard meeting, 25. 

Napier defends Wellington, 25. 
royal proclamations, 32, 40. 
hostility to corn-law repealers, 33, 
39, 82, 84, 86, 98, 193, 250. 
threats, 37. 

Vincent arrested, 40. 

Convention, 42, 52. 

Kersal Moor meeting, 43. 
national petitions, 44, 246. 
Birmingham riots, 43, 46. 

Newcastle riots, 47. 
the “sacred month,” 47, 48. 
warning to magistrates, 48. 
attend cathedral service, 49. 
O’Connor arrested, 52. 
rising at Newport, 55, 56. 

Leeds meeting, 80. 
petitions, 85- 
disorder at Norwich, 91. 
political prisoners, 96. 

Glasgow Convention, 97. 
demonstration, 107. 
riots, 115, 117. 
seditious proclamation, 116. 
female Chartists, 121. 
renewed agitation, 241. 

Convention, 244, 245, 240. 
Kennington Common demonstration 
244 - 

trials, 252. 254. 

threatened rising in London, 252. 

3 s 


























C H A 


INDEX. 


Chartist agitation, continued — 

Ashton riots, 257, 258. 

Orange Tree plot, 258, 259. 
amnesty, 461. 

' Chatham and Dover railway, 752, 754. 
Ch tham and Dover railway award, 
940. 

Chartres, marriage of Due, 651. 
Chelmsford, dismissal of Lord, 806. 
Chemistry, College of, 202. 

Chester Town Hall opened, 888. 
Cheyne, case of Rev. Mr., 531, 544, 
560. 

Childers, Mr., resignation, 975. 

Chilian war, 34. 

China— 

Governor Elliot removes to Macao, 
9 - 

disturbances at Canton, 31. 
execution at Canton, 36. 
opium prohibited, 37, 38. 
merchants released, 50. 

British leave Canton, 43. 
affray at Hong Kong, 46. 
ground for interference, 47. 
affray in Bay of Coalloon, 51. 
attack at Hong Kong, 54. 
trade stopped, 56. 

Commissioner Lin’s letter, 58. 
English in Macao seized, 60. 
attack in Tongkoo Bay, 6x. 
correspondence in name of Queen, 
62. 

English shipping at Canton fired, 68. 
Canton siege, 70. 

Chusan captured, 70. 

Captain Eiliot resigns, 79. 

Bogue forts destroyed, 80. 

Keshen’s report, 80. 
peace, 80. 

cession of Hong Kong, 81. 

Canton captured, 85. 

Consul at Macao, 88. 

Amoy taken, 89. 

Chusan again taken, 91. 
rising at Ningpo, 102. 

Shanghai captured, in. 
Chin-Kiang-Foo taken, 1x4. 

Amoy cruelty, 123. 
army and fleet thanked, 128 
indemnity, 129. 

Hong Kong, 138. „ 

Canton opened, 139. 
mission churches, 173. 
ransom, 181. 

Canton again threatened, 216. 
massacre at Canton,228. 
junk Keying', 241. 

Bowring, consul, 269. 
rebels, 311. 

piratical fleet destroyed, 312. 
Taeping rebels, 320. 
imperial successes, 432. 
seizure of lorcha Arrow, 469. 
hostilities renewed, 499. 

Thistle murders, 473. 
attempted poisoning, 475. 
destruction of fleet, 486. 
capture of Canton, 505. 
Commissioner Yeh, 505. 

Peiho forts taken, 520. 
tKeaty of Tien-tsin, 524. 
attempt on the Peiho, 550. 
ultimatum, 568. 
success at Tangku, 581. 

Parkes and Loch seized, 584. 

Pekin entered, 586. 
treaty, 591. 
army thanked, 594. 

Canton restored, 612. 

Anglo-French aid, 622. 
rebellion suppressed, 680. 
Burlingame mission, 848. 

Nankin threatened, 852. 

Alcock Convention, 907. 

Tien tsin massacres', 922. 

(994) 


COB 


Chinchu Islands, 691. 

Chisholm, Mrs., emigrants, 310, 336, 
39 2 - 

Chloroform discovered, 211, 226. 
Chobham encampment, 384. 

Cholera— 

Paris, 261, 278. 
preparations for, 262, 263. 

Tooting, 268. 

New Orleans, 269. 

Britain, 278 
London, 284, 285. 

Newcastle, 390. 

Crimea, 413. 
deaths, 479. 

Constantinople, 714. 

France, 716. 
conference, 726. 

Glaisher’s observations, 748. 
sick fund, 749, 752. 
decline, 758. 
outbreak in Fife, 758. 

Albano, 785. 

Kertch, 948. 

Christ's Hospital School, 870. 

proposed removal of, 912, 914. 
Christian, Prince, 959. 

Christmas festivity, 505. 
severe frost, 591. 

Chunder Sen in England, 912, 944. 
Church Congresses— 

1863 Manchester. 

1864 Bristol. 

1865 Norwich. 

1866 York. 

1867 Wolverhampton. 

1868 Dublin. 

1869 Liverpool. 

1870 Southampton. 

1871 Nottingham. 

Church disturbance, 62, 144. 

Church of England— 

Tract XC. censured, 82. 

Bishop of London’s charge, 120. 
revival of monastic establishments, 
123. 

Tractarian movement, 165, 166. 
Ward censured, 164, 166. 

Oakeley censured. 1,78. 

Gorham case, 269-82. 

Denison case, 425, 429, 467, 468, 470, 
472, 483. 500. 
confessional, 52. 

special prayers discontinued, 533,549. 
foreign missions, 676. 

Bristol Congress, 683. 

Bishop of London’s Fund, 691. 
confessional, 703, 704. 
ritualism, 725. 

(See also Colenso, Convocation, 
“ Essays and Reviews,” Hamp¬ 
den, Liddell, Newman, Purchas, 
Pusey, Temple, and Voysey.) 
Church of Scotland— 

Auchterarder case, 16, 20, 38, 40, 43, 
iiS- 

Dr. Chalmers in London, 17. 
general assembly, 43, 84. 
suspended ministers, 44, 65, 67, 68, 
73, 85, 86, 88, no. 
original Burgher synod, 48. 
opposition to civil courts, 49. 
Marnoch case, 57, 80. 

Strathbogie case, 57, 60, 61, 79, 85, 

86 , 88 . 

Lord Aberdeen’s bill, 67, 69, 70, 82, 
136, 139 - 

patronage, 82, 84. 
agitation, 82. 

Sir James Graham, on Veto Act, 104, 
111, 124. 

Non-Erastian scheme, 105. 
patronage debate, 109. 

Robertson of Ellon censured, iro. 

convocation, 122. 

special commission, 125, 130. 


Church of Scotland, continued — 
inquiry refused, 129. 
financial scheme, 130. 
rupture in Presbyteries, 131 
Queen’s letter, 133. 

Disruption, 133. 
answer to protest, 135. 
innovations, 704. 

Church (Free) of Scotland— 
formed, 133. 

sites, 135, 179, 215, 249, 255 
pastoral address, 137, 144. 

Glasgow Assembly, 145. 

D’Aubigne and Monod, 176. 
gift by slaveholders, 200. 

Church (Scottish Episcopal), 72. 

Church (Irish)— 
proposed disestablishment, 139. 
complaint, 316. 
revenues, 383, 462. 
suspensory bill, 814-830. 
disestablishment bill, 860-871. 

(See Parliament.) 

Church (United Presbyterian), 217. 
Churchward contract, 650. 

City canal burst, 461. 

Civil Service, 436. 

new minute, 854. 

Civil Service competition, 921. 
Clanfadda, disturbance at, 166. 
Clanricarde and Trevelyan, 411. 
on Lord Aberdeen, 412. 

Handcock scandal, 431, 506. 
Clarendon, Earl of— 

entertained at Brussels, 889. 
on peace prospects, 886. 
replies to Secretary Fish, 890. 
death of, 923. 
proposed memorial, 933. 

Clare, Poet, 87. 

Clark, Sir James, and Lady Flora 
Hastings, 53. 

Clarkson, Thomas, presentation, 30. 
Clergymen at the bar, 693, 694. 
Cleveland, iron discovered, 335. 

Clifton, accident at, 224. 

Climbing boys, 73. 

Clinton bankruptcy, 842,857, 870. 
Clipper, scuttling, 519. 

Clive, statue, 562. 

Cloncurry, resignation- of Lord, 768. 

“ Clothing colonels” abolished, 410. 
Clotilde, marriage of Princess, 534. 
Clyde, Lord, 579. 

Glasgow statue, 836. ; 

(See Campbell, Sir Colin.) 

Coach upset, 26, 27. 

Coaches, last of, 145, 224 
Cobden, Richard— 
elected for Stockport, 88. 
altercation with Ferrand, 101. 

with Sir R. Peel, 127, 128. 
sugar duties, 137. 
insulted, 139. 
import duties, 152. 
agricultural distress, 171. 
the murrain in the Cabinet, 188. 
letter to tenant farmers, 193. 
entertained by King of the French, 
206. 

candidate for the West Riding, 217. 
economy in the public service, 229, 
293. 

on Feargus O’Connor, 250. 
testimonial, 251. 
financial reform, 267, 269, 272. 
banquet to, 275. 
arbitration, 278. 

opposes Russian and Austrian loans, 
285, 286, 290. 

forty shilling franchise, 288. 
defends gift of estate, 289. 
challenged, 300. 
defence, 317. 

reduction of armaments, 328. 
on Russian war, 429 



















COB 


INDEX. 


COR 


Cobden, Richard, C 07 iti?iued — 
attacked by Palmerston, 438. 
Turkish loan, 442. 

“ What next,” 453. 

China debate, 478. 
defeated at Huddersfield, 483. 
Rochdale election, 540. 

French treaty, 562. 
banquet, 607. 

China motion, 604. 

American institutions, 685. 
representation of minorities, 696. 
death, 699. 
tributes to, 699. 
club, 747, 766. 

Cockburn, Rev. W., 82. 

Cockburn, Sir A. J.— 
foreign policy debate, 303. 
Attorney-General, 323. 

Chief Justice, Common Pleas, 471. 
Lord Chief Justice, 550. 
election petitions, 803. 

Coinage proclamation, 872. 

Colborne, Sir John, 54. 

Colenso, Rev. Dr., consecrated, 394. 

“ The Pentateuch,” 634. 
address to Archbishop, 638. 

Bishop of Durham on, 644. 
Archbishop of Canterbury on, 645. 
protest, 646. 

censure of Convocation, 650. 
before Privy Council, 676, 688, 697. 
Claybrook prohibition, 682. 
testimonial, 713. 
leaves England, 715. 

S.P.G. resolution, 739. 
judgment, 757. 

Coleridge, Justice, retires, 522. 

Collier, J. P.— 

Shakspeare affidavit, 453. 
controversy, 550. 

Colliery accidents— 

Aberdare, 335. 

Agecroft, Manchester, 533. 

Arley, Wigan, 379, 401. 

Avondale, Pennsylvania, 884. 
Bardsley, Ashton, 509. 

Barnsley, 635. 

Bent Grange, Oldham, 385. 

Bradley, Bilston, 638. 

Brierley hill, 863. 

Burg, Dresden, 882. 

Burradon, Newcastle, 567. 
Brynmally, 468. 

Cannock chase, 824. 

Carlyn’s Hall, Dudley, 165. 

Cathin, 621. 

Clay Cross, 603. 

Cleaton Moor, Whitehaven, 264. 
Commonhead, Airdrie, 306. 

Coppice, Cannock Chase, 594. 
Crombach, 180. 

Cwmannan, 450. 

Cymmer, Pontypridd, 465. 

Darnley Main, Barnsley, 270. 
Downbrovv, Preston, 354. 

Dukinfield, Ashton, 742. 

Duffryn, 353, 511. 

Ferndale, 795, 873. . 

Furzehill Wood, Harrow - bridge, 

738 - 

Hartley 619. 

Haswell, 162. 

Haverfordwest, iso. 


Haydock, Wigan, 881. 
Hebburn, Newcastle, 278. 
Hendrefargan, Swansea, 891. 
Hetton, Durham, 590. 
Highbrook, Wigan, 866. 
Hindley Green, Wigan, 8jo. 
Houghton, Durham, 314. 
Ince, Wigan, 891. 

Jenappes, Belgium, 836. 
Jarjrow, Shields, 181. 

John Pit, Whitehaven, 27. 
Kirkless Hall, Wigan, 220. 

(qqO 


Colliery accidents, contmued — 

Lletty Shenkin, Aberdare, 282. 
Lundhill, 477. 

Maestig, Glamorganshire, 664. 

Mair, Neath, 539. 

Malaga Vale, Bedminster, 333. 
Morfa, 659. 

Newbury, Frome, 888. 

Newton, Seaham, 259. 

Oaks, 760. 

Oaks, Barnsley, 215. 

Page Bank, Durham, 528. 

Patricroft, 273. 

Pelton Fell, Newcastle, 756. 

Pentre, Rhonda Vale, 985. 

Primrose, Swansea, 529. 

Queen’s pit, Wigan, 854. 

Radstock, Wells-way, 55. 

Ramrod Hall, Oldham, 467. 
Rawmarsh, Rotherham, 343. 

Risca, 191. 

Risca Vale, Newport, 379, 589. 
Rock, Haydock, 295. 

Ruabon, Wales, 841. 

Sinking, Pontypool, 872. 

St. Hilda, Shields, 45. 

Star Green, Hanley, 559. 

Stormont Main, 131. 

Summerlee, 609. 

Talk-o’-the-hill, 761. 

Thistleyfield, 424. 

Thornley, Sunderland, 88. 
Tredegar, 705. 

Tyldesley, 531. 

Upper Gethin, 722. 

Victoria, Paisley, 321. 

Victoria, Wearmouth, 253. 
Washington, Newcastle, 334. 
William, Cumberland, 36. 

Collisions at Sea— 

Amazon and Osprey, 746. 

Ann Kemble and Bonetta, 403. 
Apollo and Monarch, 6. 

Atlantic and Ogsdenburg, 359. 
Bombay and Oneida, 902. 

Calcutta and Emma, 859. 

Crocodile and John Dwyer, 850. 
Duchess of Kent and Ravensbourne, 
357 - 

Eagle and Pladda, 561. 

Europa and Charles Bartlett, 279. 
Excelsior and Mail, 464. 

Hamburgh and Juanita, 633. 
Haswell and Bruiser, 750. 

Herald and Johanna Karl, 375. 
Hesper and Favourite, 406. 
Hopewell and Yauden, 77. 

Jesmond and Earl of Elgin, 916. 
Josephine Willis and Mangerton, 
454 - 

Latouche Treville and Prince Pierre, 
860. 

Leander and North American, 509. 
Liverpool and La Plata, 637. 
Marquis ' of Abercorn and Lord 
Gough, 872. 

Marshall and Woodhouse, 394. 
Morocco and Wyoming, 983. 
Normandy and Mary, 909. 

Olympus and Trade Wind, 411. 
Ossian and Claremont, 888. 

Pacha and Erin, 332. 

Samphire and Fanny Buck, 722. 

Sea Nymph and Rambler, 200. 
Silicia and Ercolano, 406. 

Sylph and Orwell, 165. 

Undine and Heroine, 565. 

United States and America, 851. 
Vesta and Arctic, 417. 

Warrior and Royal Oak, 837. 
William Connal and Tern, 889. 
Cologne, celebration, 258. 

Cathedral, 118, 356. 
disturbance, 239. 

Colonial connection, 275, 904. 
sees, 101, 117, 220, 742,765. 


Colonization, 131. 

Colonsay, Lord, (M’Neil), 765. 
Columbia, gold discovery, 518. 
Colville, Lady Jane, burnt, 134. 
Comet, 130, 605. 

Commercial distress, 112, 113, 114, 228 
Commissions, traffic in, 271. 
Concordat, 322 (see Austria). 
Confederate bondholders, 716. 
Conferences— 

London, 673, 674, 676. 

Paris (Greece), 854, 856, 860. 
Brussels (soldiers), 869. 

Black Sea, 963, 964, 967, 970, 971. 
admission to Anglican pulpits, 966. 
Confessional at Plymouth, 361. 
Connellan letter, 281. 

Conscience money, 132. 

Conservative, origin of name, 4. 
violence, 54. 
club, 169. 

demonstration, 795. 
leadership, 906, 907. 
banquet, 908. 

Consolidated bank suspension, 739. 
Consols, 164, 235, 244, 404, 410, 552, 
852, 926, 942, 961, 969. 

Conspiracy, law of, 49. 

Consumption Hospital, 329. 
Contagious Diseases Act, 899. 
Controversies— 

Bouverie-Mill, 840. 

Cobden-Delane, 661. 

Coleridge and Buckle, 544. 

Croker and Russell, 397. 

“ Fly Sheets,” 284. 

Graham and Napier, 419, 458. 
Kingsley-Newman, 664. 
Prior-Forster, 248. 

Shakspeare, 550. 

Stowe-Byron, 883, 897. 

Conventions— 

Turkey, 71, 74. 

St. Petersburg,.833. 

Alabama claims, 856. 

Convict-hulk system, 534. 

Convocation, 484, 509, 565, 575. 
revival of, 317, 331. 
adjourned, 318, 346, 376. 
royal license, 363. 
synodical action, 364. 
report on changes, 413. 
order of proceeding, 431. 
condemn Colenso, 640, 650. 

“ Essays and Reviews,” 675. 
court of final appeal, 694, 703. 
clergymen at the bar, 694. 
in session, 725. 
on Ritualism, 804. 

Colenso case, 805. 

Irish Church, 861. 

Temple explanations, 903. 

Scripture revision, 904, 906, 915. 
Table of Lessons, 916. 

Roman Council, 925. 
anti-Unitarian resolution, 983. 
“Westminster communion,” 983. 
Conway tubular bridge, 240. 
t 00k, family, suffocated, 797. 

Cook, W. F., knighted, 891. 

Coorg, case of Rajah of, 590. 

Corfu, 490. 

Corinth canal, 906. 

Cork— 

Queen’s College, 286. 
mayor of, denounced, 872. 

Corn and navigation laws, 233. 

Corn duty extinguished, 873. 

Corn-law agitation— 
first meeting of League, 32. 
Edinburgh meeting, 34, 

Manchester banquet, 58. 
Palace-yard conference, 62. 

} etitions, 63, 84, 86. x 
elections, 87. 

clerical conference, 89, 97. 

3 s 2 














COR 


INDEX .; 


D I P 


Corn law agitation, continued — 

Derby convention, 94. 

Cabinet dissensions, 98. 
bazaar, 98. 

Peel’s sliding scale, 99. 

Villiers’ motions, iox, 132, 157. 
Canadian wheat, 101. 
attack on Sir R. Peel, 113. 
correspondence of Duke of Cleve¬ 
land, 118. 

League fund, 120, 122, 123. 

Common Council resolutions, 123. 
League activity, 125, 130, 143, 148, 
182, 183. 

land burdens, 130, 146, 179. 
election contests, 145,146. 

Times declares the League, “ a great 
fact,” 146. 

adhesionof Marquis of Westminster, 
148. 

South Lancashire contest, 155. 

Co vent Garden bazaar, 175. 

Lord Morpeth joins the League, 185. 

returned for West Riding, 193. 
Lord J. Russell’s Edinburgh letter, 
185. 

Edinburgh meeting, 186. 
another fund, 190. 

Corporation addresses, 190. 
Manchester meeting, 191. 

League abused by Duke of Rich¬ 
mond, 195. 

Westminster and Nottingham elec¬ 
tions, 195. 

Corn Importation Bill, 195-202. 
rejoicings, 203. 

League dissolved, 204. 
final abolition, 270. 
preparations for reconstructing 
League, 349, 364. 

Coronation peerages, 21. 

Coronation stone, Kingston, 310. 

Costa Rica, 265. 

Cottenham, resignation of, Chancellor, 
300. 

Cotton, Bishop, drowned, 754. 

Cotton relief fund, 619, 628. 

H. B. Farnall, commissioner, 626. 
severity of famine, 631. 

Lord Lindsay, on, 634. 

Manchester meeting, 635. 
greatest severity, 636. 

Lord Derby’s minute, 639. 
arrival of supplies from America, 
640. 

amount raised, 648. 
employment of men, 650. 
memorial window, 833. 

Cotton, rise in price of, 659. 

Court dress changed, 860. 

Courvoisier, F., 65 

Covent Garden Opera House rebuilt, 
520. 

Cowley banquet, 871. 

Coxwell, balloon accident, 657. 
Crawford, Sharman, 162. 

Crawley court martial, 650, 661. 

Credit Fonder hoax, 838. 

Cremorne fete, 525, 609. 

Creole , affair of, 99, xoi. 

Cresswell, Sir C , 99. 

Cretan insurrection, 760, 818, 851, 854. 
Crimean banquet, 470. 

Crimean inquiry, 456, 459, 465, 477. 
Crinan canal accident, 534. 

Crogan, Colonel, 90. 

Croker, J. W.— 
on “ Conservative," 5. 
described by Sir G. Sinclair, 39. 
Russell correspondence, 397. 
death, 495. 

Crystal Palace— 
first pillar set up, 359. 
accident, 388. 

Owen banquet, 396. 
opened, 410. 

(996) 


Crystal Palace, continued— 

Patriotic Fund fete, 423. 

Peace fete, 461. 
fountains, 463. 

Robson frauds, 468. 

Sunday ticket case, 516. 

Handel festivals, 487, 549, 627, 829. 
Schiller centenary, 560. 

Mendelssohn fete, 573. 
north wing destroyed, 595. 
fire, 761. 

festival concert, 780. 

Duke of Edinburgh at, 832. 

Irish Church demonstration, 837.. 
Rossini festival, 870. 

Lessep fete, 925. 

Cuba— 

expedition against, 283. 

Lopez expedition, 300. 
captured, 334. 

outbreak in, 857, 858, 862, 867, 868. 
Cuban slave trade, 523. 

Culloden centenary, 197. 

Cumming, Rev. Dr., 884. 

Currey, Rev. Dr., Master of Charter- 
house, 974. 

Cushman, the Misses, 190. 

Custom House returns, 897. 

Customs’ reform, 341. 

Cyclone at Calcutta, 683. 


D. 

Daomar, Princess, 753. 

Daguerre, M., pictures, 33, 51. 
Dahomey slave trade, 264. 

Dalhousie, Earl of— 

Governor General of India, 224, 225. 
leaves India, 457. 
pension, 462. 
death, 590. 

Dallas banquet, 460. 

Dalmatia, insurrection, 888. 

Dalton, Canon, charge against, 576. 
Danish relief fund, 669. 

Dante monument at Florence, 703. 
Danubian principalities, 527, 618, 834. 
Dargan statue, 665. 

Davis, Jefferson, in England, 836. 
Deaconesses, Institute, 870, 916. 

Deaf and Dumb Refuge, 106. 

Death punishment, 70. 

Defoe monument, 947. 

Delafield bankruptcy, 282. 

Delbole quarry accident, 869. 

De Morgan, resignation of Professor, 
758 . 

Denison, J. E., Speaker, 483, 544, 724, 
852. 

Denman, Lord, retires, 293. 

Denmark— 

claim on Schleswig and Holstein, 
204. 

new constitution, 233. 
insurrection at Kiel, 243. 

Holstein independent, 243. 
defeats, 244, 246. 
armistice, 259- 

hostilities renewed, 261, 272, 273, 
275> ^ 

defeat at Duppel, 275. 
another armistice, 280. 
hostilities renewed, 296. 
treaty of peace with Prussia, 304. 
contest with the Duchies, 306. 
union of African settlements, 308. 
submission of Duchies, 311, 347. 
diets restored to Holstein, 345. 
new constitution, 414, 446. 

Sound dues, 486. 

Holstein constitution, 529. 
circular on Holstein question, 626. 
blockades Prussian forts, 644. 
proclamation, 644, 647. 

Duchies, German, 661. 


Denmark, continued — 
defends the Duchies, 663. 
opposes conference, 669. 
aid refused, 669. 
close of Rigsraad, 670. 
suspension of hostilities, 673. 
conference of London, 673, 674, 676. 
Alsen captured, 676. 
truce, 680. 

cession of Duchies, 680. 
treaty of peace, 684. 
farewell address to the Duchies, 639. 
marriage of Crown Piince, 881. 
Rigsdag opened, 887, 951. 

Deposit, Bank of, 613. 

Derby course, 844. 

Derby (Edward-Geoffrey), Earl of 
first ministry, 348. 
policy, 349. 

at Goldsmith s hall, 351. 
on statesmanship, 352. 

Chancellor of Oxford University, 

362. 

gives up Protection, 365 
eulogium on Wellington, 366. 
meeting of supporters, 366. 
fall of first Ministry, 370. 
altercation with Bishop of Oxford, 
380. 

Russian aggression, 398. 
sufferings of army, 427. 

China debate, 477, 478, 481. 
second Ministry, 510, 511. 
secessions, 535. 
defeat of Ministry, 538. 
appeals to the country, 538. 
no-confidence debate, 545, 546. 
defeat of Ministry, 547. 
resignation, 549. 
policy, 552. 

Irish tenantry, 556. 

Italian unity, 593. 

Conservative policy, 600. 
meeting of supporters, 627. 
on Princess of Wales, 665. 
trains for working men, 672. 
again Prime Minister, 743, 744. 
policy, >45- 
new ministry, 746. 
meeting of supporters, 766. 
defends Home Secretary, 774. 
on Earl Carnarvon, 784. 
the “ leap in the dark,” 785. 
Manchester banquet, 791. 
illness, 804. 
resignation, 805. 

Irish Church resolutions, 822. 
death, 888. 

(See also Stanley, Lord.) 

Derby (Edward-Henry), Earl of— 
in House of Lords, 904. 
declines leadership, 906. 

Stanley Hospital, 921. 
marriage, 924. 

Bootle Hospital, 940. 
national defences, 971. 

(See also Stanley, Ldrd.) 

Derby election, bribery, 358, 368, 370, 
400. 

writ suspended, 246. 

Derby settling day, 829. 

Derby “ sweeps,” 179. 

Derryveagh evictions, 605. 

D’Eu, Count, 107. 

Derwentwater, case of “ Countess ” of 
842. 

Dickens, Charles— 
banquets, 87, 99, 494, 819, 867 
edits Daily Net vs, 191. 
personal explanation, 523. 
illness, 869. 
final “reading,” 909. 
death, 921. 

Dillon, Job, arrest, 129. 

Dingwall poisonings^ 454. 

Diplomatic Service Committee, 947. 


















D I S 


INDEX. 


EAR 


Discount, rates of, x8j, -jzz, 750. 
Disraeli, Benjamin— 

candidate for Maidstone, 3, 5. 
first speech in Parliament, 9. 
letter on Maidstone election, 20. 
Austin libel case, 20, 30. 
on Melbourne ministry, 48. 
praises Peel, 85 
member for Shrewsbury, 88. 
on consular establishments, 102. 
commercial distress, 112. 

Irish Arms’ Bill, 140. 

Servia debate, 140. 
condition of Ireland, 150. 
opposes “our ” Sir Robert, 153. 
attacks Peel, 157, 168, 169, 171, 172, 
198, 199. 

at Manchester, 162. 
on Roebuck, 196, 199. 

Canning episode, 201. 

Lynn banquet, 206. 
on Hampden and Pym, 206. 
candidate for Buckinghamshire, 217, 
2x9. 

* on Jew Bill, 229. 

“ a free-trader, not a free-booter,” 11, 
240. 

on diplomacy, 253. 
wars, 257. 

Italian policy, 258. 

Sir C. Wood’s budgets, 259. 
the Church and the Throne, 270. 
taxation of real property, 273. 
agricultural relief, 284, 289, 292, 318, 
3 2 3 - , 

on Papal aggression, 313, 318. 
on Philip Pusey, 329. 
renounces Protection, 335. 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 348. 
address to constituents, 348, 357. 
promises revision of taxation, 354, 
357 . 365. 

eulogium on Wellington, 365. 
on the coalition, 370. 
budget rejected, 371. 
apologises for unnecessary severity, 


3 71. 

on Sir C. Wood and our relations 
with France, 376. 

Russian war, 401. 

censures Lord J. Russell, 408. 

on Crimean inquiry, 429. 

on Vienna negotiations, 437, 441. 

on Jew Bill, 459. 

reviews Palmerston policy, 405. 

on Indian mutiny, 492. 

Slough speech, 519, 520, 521. 

Reform Bill of 1859, 535. 
on Lord J. Russell, 538. 
no-confidence debate, 545. 
representation of minorities, 569- 
on church rates, 589. . * 

Denmark debate, 676. 
address to Oxford Diocesan Society, 
686 . 

to Buckinghamshire electors, 703. 
terminable annuities, 710. 
on Gladstone’s Reform Bill, 734 - 
criticises Lord Clarendon, 740. 
again Chatcellor of the Exchequer, 


745. 

defends Reform Bill, 769. 
Coleridge, “ Instructions,” 771. 
on Beres r ord Hope, 772. 
on Gladstone, 775. 
on Lowe, 782. 

new theory of Toryism, 786. 
Hughenden harvest home, 790. 
Edinburgh banquet, 793. 
University degree, 794. 

Prime Minister, 806. 
address to supporters, 808. 
“educating” policy, 80?. 

f jolicy of ministry, 808. 
etter to Earl Russell, 

Irish measures, 811. 


Disraeli, Benjamin, continued — 
le'ter to Earl Dartmouth, 814. 
first reception, 814. 
on Ritualists, 816. 

“ Maundy Thursday” letter, 816. 
defeated, 822, 825. 
dissolves Parliament, 822. 
proposed censure, 824. 
at Tring, 827. 

Worcestershire election letter, 828. 
on Church and State, and former 
Foreign policy, 830, 831. 
on Abyssinian army, 832. 
confidence in new constituencies 
835 - 

address to electors, 841. 
suggests mediation between France 
and Prussia, 845. . 
nomination day, 847. 

Mrs. Viscountess Beaconsfield, 850. 
resignation, 850. 

Irish Church Bill, 863. 
on Irish Land Bill, 908. 

“ Lothair,” 915. 

English neutrality, 934. 
safety of England, 947. 
on Education Act, 961. 
on “armed neutrality,” 981. 
on Irish secret committee, 985. 

Black Sea Treaty, 985. 

Dissenters, Scottish, 178. 

District poor-rate, 860. 

Divorce Court, 507. 

Dixon, Hepworth, 604. 

Dockyard economy, 863, 866. 
emigrants, 869. 
fortifications, 579. 

Doe and Roe, 363. 

Dolly’s Brae, affray at, 280, 282, 284, 


290, 292. 

Domville frauds, 659. 

Donati’s comet, 520. 

Douglas, Captain, case of, 122. 
Dover fort accident, 581. 
Dowlais, iron-works, 83. 

Doyle, Professor, 780. 

Doyle, Richard, 314. 

Dramatic College, 525, 704. 
Drownings at— 

Blackfriars bridge, 159. 

Black Rocks, Leith, 275. 
Cambridge, 63. 

Cardross, Clyde, 88x. 

Chelsea Reach, 45. 

Diglis, Severn, 160. 
Duddingstone, 34. 

Dunbar, 496. 

Durrey Island, Bantry, 860. 
Erith, 694. 

Gareloch, 856. 

Hollinwood, 14. 

Hollingworth, Rochdale, 598. 
Kilrush, 288. 

Konigsburg, 885. 

Lea, 885. 

Lochleven, Kinross, 901. 
Loire (French regiment), 297. 
Lytham (Ribble), 858. 

Mersey, 882. 

Newby Hall ferry, 859. 
Peterhead, 269. 

Plymouth Breakwater, 28. 
Prestatyn, North Wales, 833. 
Regent’s Park, 58, 762. 

Ribble river, 630. 

Rotherham, 87. 

Scarborough, 610. 
Shrewsbury, 490. 

St. James’ Park, 429. 
Sunderland, 865. 

Tyne, 335. ’ 

Ulverstone Sands, 200, 486. 
Waldimar monks, 332. 
Westminster bridge, 841. ^ 
Woolwich, 946. 

Worthing, 528, 


Drummond, E., shot by McNaughten, 
125. 

Drummond, Henry— 
on naval economy, 242. 
on convents, 322. 
on criminal classes, 460. 

Druro, massacre, 577, 579, 581. 

Dublin— 
panic, 79. 

election contest, 98. 

Queen visits, 149, 389, 610. 
address to the Queen, 176. 

University, 319. 

Dargan Exhibition, 382. 
omnibus upset, 599. 

Goldsmith statue, 644. 
anti-Aibert meeting, 668. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral, 694. 
International Exhibition, 702. 
University scholarships, 784. 

Sir W. Carroll, Lord Mayor, 855. 

(See Ireland.) 

Ducker, shot by Annette Myers, 234. 
Duelling, suppression of, 132, 152, 154 
Duels— 

Boldero and Berkeley, T14. 

Cardigan and Tuckett, 74, 76. 
Cassagnac and Lissagary, 838. 
Castlereagh and De Melcy, 20. 
Cournet and Barthelemy, 363. 

Due de Grammont-Caderousse and 
Dillon, 633. 

Fawcett and Munro, 138, 141, 148, 
152, 222. 

Figaro , 518. 

Hinckeldy and Rochow, 457. 

Jecker and Barrot, 835. 

Ledru-Rollin and Denjoy, 273. 
Londonderry and Grattan, 33, 44. 
Louis Napoleon and Count Leon, 
61. 

Mirfin and Eliot, 24, 25. 

Montpensier, 908. 

O’Donoghue and Moore, 889. 
Powerscourt and Roebuck, 36. 
Rushout and Borthwick, 18. 

Seaton and Hawkey, 176, 205. 

Thiers and Bixio, 285. 

Dumfrieshire election, 866. 

Dunbar harbour, 119. 

Duncombe, T.— 

O’Connell trial, 151. 
entertained by United Trades, igi 
Dundas, Col., dismissed the service, 
ii3- 

Dundee fatal occurrence, 690. 
Durden-Holcroft frauds, 594. 

Durham— 

Bishop of and Unitarians, 27. 
election, 131. 

Durham, Earl of— 
letter to Bowlby, 3. 
advice to electors, 5, 7. 
governor of Canada, 13. 
expense of mission, 16. 
proclamation, 20. 
resignation, 25, 26. 

(See Canada.) 
return to England, 31. 

Westminster Reform Association, 32, 
report on Canada, 35. 
death of, 72. 
monument, 161. 

Dutch abolish slavery, 654. 


E. 


Earthquakes— 

Arica, (Central America), 836. 
California, 843. 

Cologne, 847. 

Corinth, 510. 

Darmstadt, 981. 

Dublin, 365. 

England, 658. 

(997) 


















EAR 


INDEX. 


EXE 


Earthquakes, continued — 

Germany, 147. 

Greece, 388. 

Italy, 334. 

Jeddo, 448. 

Jellalabad, 100. 

Leamington, 844. 

Martinique, 33. 

Mediterranean shores, 469, 504. 
Mount Etna, 712. 

Norway, 196. 

Pacific, 856. 

Rhodes, 647. 

San Salvadore, 405. 

Scotland, 130. 

Shiraz, 381. 

Shrewsbury, 16. 

South America, 598. 

St. Domingo, 108. 

St. Iago, Cuba, 359. ' 

Tortola, 795. 

Venezuela, 386. 

West India Islands, 126. 

East India Company (see Parliament 
and India). 

East Indian House sold, 604. 

“Ecce Homo,” Lord Shaftesbury on, 
73 8 -. . 

Ecclesiastical Courts, 126. 

preferments, 469. 

Eclipse, 579, 837, 969. 
expedition, 967. 
superstition, 332. 

Ecuador expedition, 213. 

Edinburgh— 

Com law meetings, 34, 39. 
anti-corn law conferences, 34, 97. 
Campbell banquet, 54. 

Wellington memorial, 58, 356. 

Scott monument, 74, 206. 
municipal contest, 77. 

Dickens banquet, 87. 
case of Butters, 23. 
ueen visits, 117. 
ictoria Hall commenced, 117. 
Provost Forrest, 122. 

Disruption, 133. 

Westminster Assembly celebration, 
138. 

Waverley ball, 152. 

Calton monument, 161. 

Maynooth meeting, 172. 
voluntary demonstration, 178. 

Free trade meeting, 186. 

Knox memorial, 199. 

Philosophical Institution, 211, 845. 
Highland destitution, 212. 
annuity-tax disturbance, 254. 

Corn Exchange opened, 288. 
National Gallery, 308, 309. 
Presbytery rebuked, 392. 

Sardinian address, 452. 

Trinity Church case, 473. 
fire in James’ Court, 494. 
Freemasons’ Hall, 524. 

Fall of houses, 566, 615. 

Queen’s Park murder, 582. 

New Post Office and Museum, 613, 
, 739 - , 

Theatre burnt, 690. 

Lawson banquet, 699. 
explosion and fire, 791. 

Disraeli banquet, 793. 

Library Act rejected, 825. 

John Bright in, 844. 
female students, 914, 968, 971. 
new infirmary, 954. 
disorderly meeting of students, 958. 
Scott centenary, 964. 

University— 

case 1 of Professor Macdonald, 
226. 

Brougham, Chancellor, 559. 
Inglis, 846. 

Gladstone, Rector, 560. 

Wilson and Ramsay statues, 697. 

(998) 


Edinburgh, University, continued — 
Carlyle, 719, 731. 

(See also Church of Scotland, Glad¬ 
stone, Fires, and Trials.) 
Edinburgh, Duke of— 
takes seat in House of Lords, 714. 
voyage to Australia, 777. 
attempt to assassinate, 811, 821. 
leaves Sydney, 816. 
arrives at Portsmouth, 831. 
visits Melbourne again, 861. 
in Japan, 886. 
at Calcutta, 895. 
at Bombay, 908. 

Eddystone lighthouse rumour, 858. 
Edmund, case of Leonard, 695, 702, 
901, 922. 

Education— 
grants, 44, 216, 218. 
conference, 312, 488, 801, 803, 903. 
franchises, 504. 

League, 888, 891. 

Union, 912. 

Edwards, E. W., examination of, 857. 
Egham, affray at, 51. 

Eglinton tournament, 50, 67. 

Egypt— 

opposes Turkey, 40. 

Convention of, London, 71, 74. 
circular to Pashas, 72. 

Beyrout bombarded, 74, 76. 

Sidon taken, 75. 

St. Jean D’Acre taken, 77. 
Convention, disallowed, 79. 
peace, 80, 87. 
prize money, 162. 

Ibraham Pasha visits England, 201. 
railway, 337. 

Viceroy in London, 781, 876, 877, 
878. 

attempt to assassinate Viceroy, 841. 
investiture at Cairo, 850. 

Elcho, Lord, on reserve forces, 952. 
Election committee, 909. 

Elections, general— 

(1837), 3, 4, 5. 

• (1841), 86, 87, 88. 

(1847), 221, 223. 

(1852), 357, 358. 

(1857), 481, 482. 

( i8 59 )> 540 - 
(1865), 708, 709. 

(1868), 841, 846, 847, 850. 

Election petitions, 803, 804, 856. 

Elgin, Earl of— 
governor of Jamaica, 109. 
governor of Canada, 429. 
mission to China, 483. 
return, 599. 

Governor-General of India, 622. 
death, 661. 

Ellenborough, Lord— 
Governor-General of India, 92, 93, 
101. 

on security of Cabul, 104. 
gates of Somnauth, 113. 

Simla proclamation, 119. 
mediation for Stoddart and Conolly, 
120. 

Somnauth proclamation, 122. 
Meeanee proclamation, 129. 
recalled, 154. 
arrives in England, 162. 
on Lord Palmerston, 435. 

Oude proclamation, 518. 

Elliotson, Dr., dismissal of, 33. 

Elliott, Ebenezer, on Chartists, 52. 
Elliott, Rev. J. M., killed, 881. 
Elopement, 62, 184, 680. 

Elsecar, suffocation, 395. 

Elton, actor, 139, 141. 

Emigration, 868. 

Emigration League, 901, 902,903, 910, 
914. 

Emily St. Pierre re-capture, 625. 
Encumbered estates, 286. 


England, Bank of— 

charter suspended, 225, 227, 253, 501, 
73S. 

deposits, 284, 343. 
paper solen, 630. 
trials, 637. 

Engravings destroyed, 447. 

Erie, Lord Chief Justice, retires, 758. 
Erromanga murder, 602. 

Essays and Reviews— 
in Convocation, 596, 597, 606. 
Bishop of Salisbury prosecutes, 610, 
652. 

judgment of Privy Council, 666. 
address to Archbishop, 670. 
condemned by convocation, 675. 
Eton mastership, 801. 

Euphrates Valley railway, 353. 
European Assurance Society, 886, 888. 
Evangelical Alliance, 207. 
in Berlin, 496. 

Evans, Sir de Lacy, elected for West¬ 
minster, 195. 
thanked, 430. 

Exchequer frauds, 92, 101. 

balances, 244. 

Executions— 

Atkinson, M., 695. 

Batthyany, Count, 285. 

Barrett, Michael, 826. 

Bennison, Wm., 308. 

Blakesley, 93. 

Blum, Leipsic, 265. 

Bousfield, W., 458. 

Britten, George, 783. 

Brown, (deserter), 857. 

Canadian rebels, 36. 

Chalmers, George, 951. 

Cooper, 113. 

Courvoisier, 70. 

Dalliger, marine, 584. 

Detheridge, Jonah, 883. 

Devine, Job, 673. 

Dolan and McConville, 865. 

Doolan and others, 84. 

Doyle (for assault), 609. 

Flowery Land pirates, 668. 
Freeman, Sarah, 172. 

Geddes, John, 152. 

Geering, Mary Ann, 283. 

Good, Daniel, 1x0. 

Grimes, Thomas, 752. 

Hinson, Frederick, 895. 

Holden, constable, 583. 

Italian soldiers, 849. 

Italians, 381. 

Jeffrey, R. J., 748. 

Kalabergo, 349. 

Kohl, Karl, 691. 

Lecomte, 201. 

Leeds, 682. 

Liverpool, 658. 

Lopez, General, 334. 

Lynches (brother and sister), 911, 
Macfarlane and Blackwood, 388. 
Mackay, (first private), 823. 
Maidstone (double), 762. 

Mair, Allan, 114. 

Manchester Fenians, 796. 

Mannings, the, 286. 

Mansell, Private, 472. 

Marley, R., 472. 

Misters, Josiah, 82. 

Mobbs, Joseph, 389. 

Monaghan, 405. 

Moore, Waterford, 74. 

Muller, Franz, 684. 

Orsini and Pieiri, 514. 

Palmer, W., 463. 

Payne and others, 709. 

Pirates, 473. 

Ratcliffe, Dorchester, 939. 

Reid, Patrick, 232. 

Saville, William, 160. 

Seery, Bryan,19,2. 
i Sheward, William, 869. 









EXE 


INDEX. 


F E M 


Executions, continued — 

Smith, Rebecca, 284. 

Smith, Robert, 824. 

Tawell, John, 171. 

Thomas, Sarah, 274. 

Timney, Mary, 625. 

Topncr, J. C., 395. 

Triupmann, 901. 

Waters, Margaret, 953. 

Wane, Francis, 689. 

Wheelan, 860. 

Wiggins, John, 791. 

Willes and Smith, 323. 

Exeter, Bishop of— 
on Socialism, 60. 
v. Latimer, 243. 

petition to Queen returned, 315. 
on Archbishop of Canterbury, 324, 
326. 

(See Gorham case.) 

Diocesan Synod, 329. 
death, 885. 

Exeter city, 48. 

Exhibition (Great)— 

All Nations, proposed by Prince 
Albert, 279. 

meeting to promote, 285. 

Royal Commission, 289. 
subscriptions, 291. 
site selected, 293. 
banquet of Mayors, 295. 
opposition to site, 304, 306. 

Paxton’s design, 305, 306. 
tender accepted, 307. 
first column set up, 310. 

York banquet, 312. 

Goldsmiths’ prizes, 314. 

Paxton memorial, 317. 
opened, 325. 

Commissioners’ banquet, 326. 
first shilling day, 327. 

City banquet, 330. 
largest attendance, 336. 
close, 337. 
lectures, 339. 
promenade, 351. 
vote for removal, 354. 
memorial, 393 (see Crystal Palace). 
Exhibitions— 

Berlin, 354. 

British manufactures, 215, 240, 247. 
Cork, 355. 

Dublin, 382, 393. 

Educational, 912. 

Florence, 611. 

Glasgow, 722. 

Industrial, 670. 

International 625. 

Kensington (annual), 891. 

Leeds, 844. 

Manchester Art Treasures, 493, 498. 
Melbourne, 754, 756. 

New York, 386. 

Paris, 436, 449. 

Patriotic Fund, 433. 

Rome (ecclesiastical), 906. 

South Staffordshire, 872. 

Workmen’s International, 898, 929, 

957 - , 

Wurtemburg, 873. 

Explosions— 

A bdul-Medjid, 311. 

Accrington, 888. 

Algiers ponder magazine, 170. 
Ancoats, Manchester, 91. 
Apothecaries’ Hall, m. 

Apsley, Huddersfield, 503. 

Babulmo , war steamer, 797. 
Ballincoolig, 554, 613. 

Barling’s Fireworks, 285. 

Bayswater, 887. 

Benares (powder), 298. 

Bilston iron works, 452. 

Bingley, Bradford, 873. 
Birmingham, 557. 

percussion factory, 627. 


J 


Explosions, continued — 

Black Eagle, 535. 

Blaina, 2. 

Bordeaux harbour, 886. 

Brighton Railway, 852. 

Britannia Works, Wolverhampton, 
893 - 

Brynn Hall, Ashton, 940. 
Canongate, Edinburgh, 791. 
Carnarvon (nitro-glycerine), 877. 
Chatham arsenal, 592. 

Clerkenwell House of Detention. 799. 
Cleugh Hall, Staffordshire, 920. 

Cly de lighter, 893. 

Conham Ferry, Bristol, 338. 

Coton’s fire-work, 402, 525. 

Cricket steamboat, 223. 

Cumberland, steamer, 883. 
Dartford, 341. 

D’Emst’s factory, 101. 

Donna Maria, 311. 

Dundee gas-works, 93. 

spinning mill, 533. 

Dunkirk powder magazine, 979. 
Elsecar, Newcastle, 841. 

Erith (powder), 683. 

Faversham (gun cotton), 221. 

powder-mill, 28, 800, 854. 

Fog-signal factory, 478. 

Gibraltar, magazine, 390. 

Gipsy Queen, 164. 

Greenock (nitro-glycerine), 946. 
Hays, Ashton, 493. 

Hodge’s distillery, 108. 

Hogue Street, New York, 292. 
Hounslow powder mills, 294, 457, 
875 , 895. 

Kaimes (powder), 908. 

Kensington, Liverpool, 827. 
Langton, Yorkshire, 591. 

Lewes agricultural show, 556. 
Lighter, 6. 

Lotty Sleigh, 664. 

Luycett, 972. 

Melfort powder works, 584. 

M etz magazine, 839. 
Middlesborough, 121. 

Millfield, Staffordshire, 624. 
Masborough ironworks, 635. 

Moxley iron works, 840. 

Nancekuke, 631. 

Newcastle Moor, (nitro-glycerine 
800. 

Nine Elms (gas), 718. 

Perseus locomotive, 634 
Plover, 318. 

Preston, 257. 

Radetzky, frigate, 861. 

Railway powder waggon, 979. 

Red Rover, 306. 

Renshaw Park, Sheffield, 972. 
Rhodes’ powder magazine, 448. 
Rochdale, 4x3. 

Rotherhithe, 611. 

Samuda’s premises, 170. 

Saltley, (fog-signals),827. 

Seaford Cliff, Dover, 310. 
Sebastopol magazine, 448. 

Sheffield (incendiary), 122. 

Music Hall, 528. 

Spitalfields, 309. 

Spnngfield-lane, Salford, 314. 
Stockport, 322. 

Temezvar, Hungary, 323. 
Telegraph steamer, 104. 

Thames steam-tug, 882. 

Thistle, (Sheerness), 889. 

Tunes steamer, 383. 

Tonning, 588. 

Valmy, 314. 

Victoria, 16, 24. 

Walker iron works, 446. 

Waltham, 131. 

Waltham powder mills, 602. 
Warrington, 914- 
Witton, Birmingham, 966. 


Explosions, continued — 

Woolwich Arsenal, 182. 

(See Colliery Accidents and Rail¬ 
ways.) 

Eyre, Lieut. Governor— 
governor of Jamacia, 680. 
suppresses insurrection, 717. 
severities, 718, 721. 
xe-called, 718. 
report, 721. 
denounced, 721. 
arrives in England, 750. 
banquet, 751. 
defence fund, 751, 752. 
prosecutions, 781, 820, 822, 823, 82s, 
827, 828, 858. 
address to, 830. 


F. 


Fall of houses— 

Bethnal Green, 861. 

Brinthsway cotton-mill, 307. 
Broad-street, 397. 

Clare-street, Limerick, 291. 
Drury-lane, 98. 

Edgeware-road, 51. 

Edinburgh, 615. 

Fleet-street, 81. 

Free School, Westminster, 691 
Gracechurch-street, 327. 

Hillhead, Glasgow, 949. 

Holloway’s, Strand, 810. 

Hull, “ old sugar house,” 840 
Leith, (sugar refinery), 694. 
Liverpool, Rigby Street, 844. 

Palace Hotel (scaffolding), 543. 
Pemberton mills, 562. 

Penton-square, Cork, 458. 

Plymouth Cathedral, 486. 

Preston, 391. 

Radcliffe mill, Oldham, 164. 
Ramsay-terrace, Edinburgh, 566. 
Richmond, Virginia, 614. 

Strand, 390. 

Sugar-house, Glasgow, 264. 
Tokenhouse-yard, 468. 

Torquay, 532. 

Tottenham-court-road, 484. 
Underground railway, 602. 

Famine, Irish— 
resolutions, 185.. 
report of Commission, 191 
debate in Parliament, 195. 
fever bill, 196. 

Treasury order, 196. 

riots, 197, 199. 

seizure of grain, 208. 

prayer, 2x0, 216. 

opening of ports, 210. 

report from Skibbereen, 211, 212. 

relief measures, 213, 219, 220. 

Corn and Navigation laws, sus¬ 
pended, 213, 214. 
increase of suffering, 214. 
loan, 215. 

relief committee, 215. 
repudiation, 223. 

Famine in Orissa, 750, 753, 754. 
Faraday, Professor,chemical discovery, 
184. 

on table-turning, 385. 
on spiritualism, 603. 
death, 788. 
memorial, 876. 

Farren, Wm., actor, retires, 442. 
Faucher, Leon— 

Minister of Interior, 268. 
on the Republic, 284. 

Leigon of Honour, 335. 
opposes Imperial schemes, 344. 
death, 428. 

Faversham, suffocation, 268. 

Female Blondin killed, 655. 

' ( 999 ) 












F E N 


INDEX. 


F I R 


Fenian agitation— 
convention. 662. 
arrests in Dublin, 716. 

Philadelphia congress, 718. 

Stephens, capture and escape, 720. 
New York mass-meeting, 727. 

O’Neill shot, 736. 
enter Can .da, 739. 
districts “ proclaimed,” 760. 
alarm at Chester, 765. 

Killarney rising, 765. 
disturbance throughout Leinster and 
Munster, 767. 
reprieve, 777, 791. 
murder of Sergt. Brett, 789, 790. 
M’Donnel, shot, 790. 

Finlen deputation, 796. 
execution at Manchester, 796. 
funeral processions, 799. 

Cierkenwell explosion, 799, 800. 
American address, 799. 
special constables, 800. 

Queenstown outrage, 800. 

Cork outrage, 801. 

Burke and others committed for trial, 
801. 

Barrett and O’Neil apprehended, 801. 
capture of Clancy, 802. 
seditious placard, 802. 

Mackey, arrested, 803. 
convicted, 813.' 

Barrett and Desmond, trial, 819. 
apprehension, 820. 

Hyde Park meeting, 848. 
release of prisoners, 858. 

Gertrude boarded, 860. 
soiree, 863. 

outrage near Cork, 876. . 
treatment of prisoners, 877. 
meetings for release, 885, 887, 888. 
oppose other meetings, 889, 891. 
Orange Union, 889. 
porter shot, 890. 

Rossa for Tipperary, 891, 892, 904. 
roposed relief, 892. 
ailiff attacked, 895. 
condemned by Pope, 900. 
threaten Canada, 920. 
prisoners released, 967, 969, 972. 
Fergusson banquet, 845. _ 

Ferrieres peace negotiations, 948,950, 
954 - 

Feuch&res, Baroness de, 124, 138. 
Ffoulkes, Rev. E., 921. 

Field Marshals created, 801. 

Financial Reform Association, 277. 

Fine Arts Commission, Q3. 

Finney, S. G., committed, 874. 

Fires— 

Accrington School, 767. 

Adelphi Theatre, Edinburgh, 382. 
Aldermanbury, 181. 

Alexandra Theatre, Glasgow, 910. j 
All Saint's Church, Kent Road, 870. 
Amazon, steamship, 344. 

Ancoats, Manchester, 121. 
Annihilator works, 364. 

Antwerp Bourse, 526. 

Antwerp, 616. 

Astley’s Amphitheatre, 86. 
Austinfriars Church, 634. 

Austria, 528. 

Barnum’s Museum, 808. 

Basse Terre, 781. 

Batavia , barque, 536. 

Bath Theatre, 625. 

Belper, Derbyshire, 288. 

Benares, steamship, 246. 

Ben Caunt’s, 317. 

Berlin Opera House, 141, 320. 

Berlin Parliament House, 321. 
Bermondsey, 112, 433, 686. 
Bishopsgate, 55. 

Blackfriars, (Price and Co.),182,634. 
Blenheim Palace, 593. 

Bloomsbury, 516, 731. 

(IOOO) 


Fires, continued — 

Blue Jacket , 863. 

Bolton, 464. 

Bombay Post Office, 862. 

• Bonny, Africa, 867. 

Bremen, 830. 

Bridgton, Glasgow, 737, 921. 

British Museum, 709. 

Broadclyst, Exeter, 914.' 
Broadwood’s piano factory, 467. 
Brogden’s mills, Liverpool, 382. 
Brooklyn (U.S.), 261. 

Brownlow Hill workhouse, 631. 
Buckinghamshire, 321, 

Bucklersbury, 43. 

Cairo, 21. 

Caleb Grintshaiv, 286. 

Caledonian distillery, 460. 
Caledonian station, Edinburgh, 268. 
Campden House, 623. 

Camden-town station, 487. 
Canongate gas-works, 270. 

Cape Colony, 859. 

Carlsruhe Theatre, 215. 

Carton,' Maynooth, 452. 

Castle tavern, Bristol, 142. 

Chaillot, 449. 

Chamounix, 442. 

Charing Cross Station, 804. 
Cheltenham Theatre, 40. 

Chester Station Hotel, 615. 

Chester Town Hall, 636. 

Chowleigh, Devon, 883. 

Cincinnati harbour, 872. 

City, 396. 

Cleveland Asylum, 847. 

Cliefden House, 286. 

Clowes’ printing-office, 354. 

Collard and Collard, 343. 

College, Killarney, 2qo. 
Constantinople, 48, 255, 258, 359, 
716, 921. 

Cook’s circus, 112. 

Cottenham, 296. 

Cotton mills, 868. 

Covent Garden Theatre, 457. 
Cracow, 306. 

Croesus, troopship, 434. 

Crewe Hall, 722. 

Croydon Church, 762. 

Croydon terminus, 209. 

Crystal Palace, 761. 

Crystal Palace, New York, 529. 
Cumberland Lodge, 891. 
Cumberland Street, Hyde Park, 630 
Dalhousie Castle, 791. 

Davis’ wharf, 12. 

Derby Town-hall, 91. 

Donnybrook, 167. 

Dresden, Court Theatre, 885. 
Dublin, 600, 740. 

Dundee, 80, 791. 

Dunkeld Hermitage, 884. 

Durham Theatre, 863. 

Eastern City, 527. 

Eastern Monarch, 544. 

Edinburgh Theatre, 690. 

Ely Cathedral, hi. 

Endymion, 564. 

Erie, steamship, 88. 

Esher paper mills, 395. 

Etna, battery, 435. 

Europa, 400. 

Eynsham, Oxford. 158. 
Fish-street-hill, 285. 

Flixton Hall, 212. 

Fordington, Dorset, 62, 90. 
Frankfort Cathedral, 786. 
Frauenstein, Saxony, 887. 
Fredericksburg palace, 561. 

Garrick Theatre, 211. 

Glamorgan Inn, Cardiff, 912. 
Glasgow Polytechnic, 496. 

Glasgow , steamer, 713. 

Golden Gate , steamer, 629. 
Granuaile steamer, 216. 


Fires, continued— 

Gravesend, 211, 308. 

Grantham Exchange, 634. 
Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, 
166. 

Greystock Castle, Penrith, 822. 
Griffiths, steamer, 301. 

Gutta percha works, 384. 
Haberdasher’s hall, 682. 
Hamburg, 108. 

Hampstead road, 757. 

Hampstead water-works, 269. 
Harrow, 27. 

Haymarket Theatre, 798. 

Henry, (barque), 167. 

Hillfield hall, Warwick, 667. 
Holborn (Day and Martin’s), 884. 
Horse Guards, 93. 

Hull Theatre, 558, 859. 
Hungerford Hall, 404. 
Incendiary, 107, 116, 147. 
Invalides, Paris, 333. 

Italian Opera, Paris, 13. 

Ivy-lane, 67. 

James’-court, Edinburgh, 494. 
Kelsall’s mills, Rochdale, 396. 
Kildare-street, Dublin, 588. 
Kingston, Jamaica, 142, 624. 
Ladies’ dresses, 531. 

Launcelot’s Hay, Liverpool, 422. 
Laurie and Marner’s, 726. 

Lee Mill, Halifax, 391. 
Linlithgow town-hall, 220. 
Lincoln’s Inn, 269. 

Liverpool, 26,119, 147. 

London Bridge Station, 836. 
Docks, 524. 

Vaults, 553. 

Wharves, 604. 

Long Acre, 335, 583. 

Luton Hoo, 146. 

Manchester Theatre, 155. 
Mark-lane, 310. 
Martinhampstead, 182. 
Marylebone, 535. 

Maudsley’s works, 219. 
Maxwelltown Church, 119. 
Medway, 5. 

Memel, 418. 

Metropolis, 321. 

Millwall, 390. 

Minories, 124. 

Montreal Cathedral, 472. 
Montreal, steamer, 488. 

Munches House, Galloway, 825. 
Music Hall, South London, 865. 
Naworth Castle, 155. 

Nelly Stevens, 860. 

Nevada mines, 866. 

Newcastle, 743. 
race-stand, 163. 

Newcastle and Gateshead, 418. 
New Cross station, 317. 
Newington Butts, 887. 

New Orleans, 971. 

New York, 179, 395. 
Northumberland House, 837. 
Numerous, 143. 

Ocean Home, 855. 

Ocean Monarch, 259. 

Old Kent-road, 124. 

Olney, Buckinghamshire, 412. 
Olympic Theatre, 274. 

Ottery St. Mary, 739, 752. 
Oxford Music Hall, 803. 
Parkhurst prison, 308. 
Paternoster Row, 610. 

Pengwern hall, 668. 

Pera, Constantinople, 48, 255. 
Perth, 547. 

Plymouth, 637. 

Dockyard, 75. 

Philadelphia, 693. 

Pimlico (Cubitt), 415 
Preston, (Birley’s mills), 690. 
Pride of the Sea, 427. - 

















F I R 


INDEX. 


F R A 


Fires, continued — 

Prince of Wales Theatre, Glasgow, 
856. 

Priuces-street, Soho, 399. 

Quebec, 176, 398, 755. 

Raggett’s hotel, 176. 

Rangoon, 316. 

Raphoe Palace, 29. 

Renton, Glasgow, 351. 

Riseholme Palace, 640. 

Rockingham house, 647. 

Rose and Crown, 152. - 
Royal Exchange, 13. 

Royal Oak, Brecon, 375- 
Sandhurst College, 802. 

Sandon Hall, 252. 

SandwichStreet, BurtonCrescent, 896. 
San Francisco, 288, 326. 

Santiago church, 662. 

Sarah Sands, troopship, 500. 

Saville House, 694. 

Savoy chapel, 667. 

Sciennes, Edinburgh, 247. 

Shannon steamer, 212. 

Sheerness dockyard, 75. 

Sheffield Theatre, 697. 

Smyrna, 88, 179, 583. 

Soho, 588. 

Soho (Portland Place), 636. 

Sotheby and Co , 706. 

Southampton Docks, 839. 

Southwark, 329, 83G. 
warehouses, 604. 
wharf, 582. 

Sovereign of the Sea , 611, 
Spitalfields, 271. 

Stamboul, 927. 

Standon Hall, 252. 

“ Star and Garter,” Richmond, 900. 
St. Anne’s, Limehouse, 296. 

St. Anne’s, Montreal, 301. 

St. Deniol church, 499. 

St. George’s, Doncaster, 378. 

St. George’s hotel, 83. 

St. John’s, Bethnal Green, 905. 

St. John’s, Newfoundland, 201. 

St. Katherines dock, 722. 

St. Louis, 277. 

St. Matthias’, Liverpool, 245. 

St. Michael’s, Cambridge, 286. 

St. Petersburg, 627. 

Stirling Castle, 449. 

Strand, 6. 

Strathaven, 164. 

St >ke Canon, 84. 

Stonewall, steamer, 889. 
Sugar-refinery, London Docks, 952 
Sunderland, 433. 

Sunnyside, Salford, 637. 

Surrey Music Hall, 603. 

Surrey Theatre, 691. 

Tamworth, 28. 

Temple, 16. 

Titania, yacht, 352. 

Tooley-street, 141, 320, 608. 

Toulon Railway Station, 815. 
Tower of London, 92. 

Trident, steamer, 385. 

Uselda, steamer, 869. 

Valparaiso, 86 x. 

Varna, 415. 

Victoria (barque), 393 - 
Victoria Dock, 940. 

Victoria Mills, Bury, 979. 
Washington, Newcastle, 839. 
Washington (the capitol), 343. 
Waterloo Road, 9 * 9 - 
Watts’ printing office, 910. 
Westhead’s, Manchester, 295. 

West India docks, 734. 

IVilliam Nelson , 705. 

Whittington Club, 427. 
Whitechapel, 407. 

Whitfield’s “Tabernacle, 477 - 
Windsor Castle, 370. 

Winyard Hall, 6x8. 


Fires, continued — 

Wood street, 663. 

Woolwich military stables, 612. 
Wynnstay, 514. 

Wynward Park, 81. 

York Minster, 67. 

Fireworks, 592. 

Fishmongers’ Hall banquet, 852. 

Episcopal banquet, 859. 

Fitzherbert, Mrs., and Prince of Wales, 
22. 

Fleet Prison closed, 123. 

Flemish Farm rates, 191. 

“ Flint Jack,’’ 768. 

Flogging in the army, 206. 

Floods— 

Baltimore, 834. 

Brussels, 308. 

Cork, 393. 

Derby, 105. 

Derbyshire, 758. 

France, 462, 753. 

Inverness, 270. 

Loire and Rhone, 210. 

Melbourne, 663. 

Mexico, 870. 

Midland Counties, 365. 

Severn, 359. 

Tay, 224. 

Thames, 91, 291. 

Tyrol, 333. 

Wales, 385. 

Florence, (see Italy). 

Flores assassinated, 804 
Flowery Land pirates, 668. 

“ Flying Dutchman” and “ Voltigeur,” 
326. 

Fontevrault statues, 753, 767. 

Footmen fined, 65. 

“ Forbes Mackenzie” Act, 346, 388. 
Foreign office, 606. 

Forlini-Popoli seized, 317. 

Formosa bombardment, 866. 

Forster, Mr., on Education Question, 
901. 

Foschini outrage, 460. 

Fountains movement, 539. 

Fourier colony, 91. 

Fox, Flenderson, and Co., suspended 
payment, 470. 

Fox, Lane on Protestantism, 137. 
France— 

plot against the King, 17. 
hostilities with Mexico, 22. 
birth of Count de Paris, 24. 

M0I6 Ministry, 34. 

Paris riots, 42, 46. 

Queen insulted, 53. 

Syrian question, 58. 

Thiers’ ministry, 61, 76. 
disasters in Algeria, 67. 
column of July, 72. 

Louis Napoleon’s attempt at Bou¬ 
logne, 73. 

Boulonaise, thanked, 74. 

Eastern question, 75. 

King fired at, 76. 

Guizot Ministry, 76. 79. 
the King on the Pasha, 77. 
stormy debate, 78. 

Paris fortifications, 82. 
opening of Chambers, 95. 
new import duties, 112. 
death of Duke of Orleans, 114 - 
Regency, 116. 

English alliance, 126. 

Irish demonstration, 139 - 
narrow escape of Royal Family, 142 
Tangier and Mogadore attacked, 160 
peace, 161. 
amnesty, 162. 

King visits England, 162. 
secret service money, 170. 
fortifications, 175. 

Lecomte fires at the King, 197- 
attempt of Henri, 205. 


France, continue a — 

Spanish marriage negotiations, 208, 
214. 

frigates wrecked, 210. 
reception at Tuileries, 211. 
slavery, 216. 

charge against Ministers, 219. 
trial of corrupt officials, 220. 

Reform banquet, 220. 

Praslin murder, 222. 

Due d’Aumale, Governor of Al¬ 
geria, 224. 

Soult resigns office, 224. 

Guizot, succeeds, 224. 

Rouen banquet, 230. 

Chambers opened, 230. 

Reform debates, 232. 
sale of offices, 233. 
unity of Italy, 233. 
close of debate on address, 234. 
proposed Reform banquet, 234, 235. 
banquet prohibited, 235. 
disturbance in Paris, 235. 
resignation of Ministry, 235. 
erection of barricades, 235, 236. 
abdication and flight of the King. 
336. 

Duchess of Orleans in the Chamber 
of Deputies, 237. 

Republic proclaimed, 238. 

Provisional Government, 238. 

Bank of France, 238. 
news of the Revolution, 238. 

M. Lamartine, Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, 238, 239. 

Republic recognized, 239. 

ex-King’s sons at Gibraltar, 239. 

Assembly convoked, 239. 

burial of the dead, 240. 

expulsion of English workmen, 240. 

complains of English hospitality, 240. 

financial condition, 241. 

“ Liberty Processions,” 241, 243. 

election coercion, 241. 

run on the Bank, 241. 

discontent, 242. 

arming of Garde Mobile, 242. 

office of La Fressc attacked, 243. 

Belgian invasion, 244. 

distress, 246. 

national fete, 246. 

elections, 247. 

Cavaignac recalled, 248. 
opening of Assembly, 248. 
Communistic rising, 249, 274. 

Fete, Place de la Concorde, 250. 
Orleans protest, 250. 
election of President, 250. 

Orleans family condemned, 251. 
new Constitution, 253, 264, 265. 

Red Republican rising, 253. 
death of the Archbishop of Paris, 254. 
loans, 255. 

flight of suspected Deputies, 259. 
state of siege continued, 260. 
slavery abolished, 261. 
one Chamber, 262. 

President for four years, 263, 264. 
siege raised, 263. 

Louis Napoleon elected President, 
268. 

policy, 268. 

Minister of Interior retires, 268. 

M. Boulay, Vice-President, 270. 
Communistic clubs, 270. 
bonnets rouges removed, 271. 
resolves to aid the Pope, 275. 
army lands at Civita Vecchia, 275. 

' anniversary of the Republic, 276. 
Legislative Assembly, 277. _ 
renewed disturbance in Paris, 278. 
Gallican Bishops, 285. 
change of Ministry, 286. 
installation of Judges, 286. 
disturbance in Paris, 291. 

Socialist candidates, 295. 

(IOOI) 








FRA 


INDEX ; 


F R A 


France, continued — 

E. Sue returned for Paris, 298. 
Ambassador withdrawn from Eng¬ 
land, 300. 

excitement in Assembly, 305. 

Satory review, 311. 
vote against Ministry, 3x7. 
dotation bill rejected, 318. 
revision of Constitution, 330. 
close of session, 333. 
rumoured conspiracy, 339. 
coup d’etat, 339. 
arrest of Deputies, 340. 
death of M. Baudin, 340. 
slaughter of citizens, 341. 
effect of news on funds, 341. 
inscriptions effaced, 343. 
ceremony at Notre Dame, 344. 
arrests, 344. 

reorganization of National Guard, 345. 
new Constitution, 345. 

Orleans property confiscated, 345. 
titles of nobility restored, 345. 
election of Deputies, 346. 
festival of 15th August, 347, 359,939. 
the Empire proposed, 350. 

Arago refuses the new oath, 353. 

newspaper correspondents, 355. 

hereditary power, 360. 

invasion of England, 360. 

infernal machine, 361. 

the Empire proclaimed at Sevres,362. 

“The Empire is peace,” 362. 

Imperial message, 364. 

voting for the Empire, 368. 

the Empire recognized, 368. 

English alliance, 405. 

(See Russian War). 

National loan, 442. 
return of Imperial Guards, 452. 
Peace Conferences, 456, 458, 459. 
Legislative Body, 457. 

Count Walewski on the press, 459. 
peace banquet, 460. 

Regency, 463. 

Orleans Princesses, 463. 

Archbishop of Paris assassinated, 
474 - . 

Ministerial Deputies, 486. 

African expedition, 492. 
trial of Italian conspirators, 494. 
Louvre inaugurated, 495. 
attempt to assassinate Emperor, 506. 
hostility to Great Britain, 507. 
Empress Regent, 509. 

Marshal Pelissier ambassador, 517. 
inauguration of Cherbourg, 526. 
Montalembert trial, 530. 
Estrangement bill, Austria, 532. 
Cowley mission, 535. 
assists Austria, 541, 542 (see Italian 
war). 

Savoy annexation, 551. 

National burdens, 553. 
army enters Paris, 554. • 
amnesty, 555. 

retirement of Count Walewski, 562, 
563 - 

treaty of commerce, 562, 563. 

L’ Univers suppressed, 563. 

Savoy and Nice annexed, 570, 576. 
passports abolished, 590. 

Monaco purchased, 593. 

Rome and Naples, 593. 

Fould, Minister of Finance, 615. 
clergy and “ Caesar,” 619. 
Anti-English feeling, 621. 
treaties of 1815, 622. 
success in Cochin China, 624. 
opposition elections, 648. 
bishops warned, 657. 

September convention, 682. 
prosecution of deputies, 687. 
opposition to Papal Encyclical, 690. 
Prince Napoleon at Ajaccio, 703. 
fleet festivities, 715, 716. 

(1002) 


France, continued —• 
policy in Austro-Prussian war, 737. 
Emperor fete accident, 750. 
new foreign minister, 752. 

Imperial manifesto, 753. 
troops withdrawn from Rome, 760. 
troops withdrawn from Mexico, 768. 
excitement in Chamber, 768. 
International Exhibition, 770. 

Royal visits, 777, 792. 

Empress at Osborne, 784. 
narrow escape of Empress, 791. 
armed intervention at Rome, 792. 
Exhibition closed, 795. 

Roman policy, 795. 
debate on Italy, 798. 
editors fined, 813. 

Mexican expedition, 832. 

M. Rochefort, fined, 836. 

Sarbonne demonstration, 836. 
new map, 844. 

Baudin demonstration, 846, 847, 851. 
excitement in Paris, 846. 
fruit of Imperial Government, 857. 
rising in Algeria, 858. 

Legislative Body closed, 869. 
election riots, 872. 
opposition candidates, 872. 
meeting of new Legislative Body, 
877 - 

reform of Chambers, 879, 882. 
change of Ambassadors, 880. 
amnesty, 883. 

Corsica visited, 883. 

Prince Napoleon on reform, 884. 
Senatus Consultum adopted, 884. 
opposition manifesto, 891. 

Council of Commerce, 892. 

Paris deputies, 892. 

Legislative Body opened, 892. 
fusion of parties, 893. 

Treaty of Commerce, 893. 
manifesto, 893. 

Forcade ministry resigns, 896. 
Ollivier’s constitutional Government, 
896. _ 

new ministry, 897. 

Baron Haussman dismissed, 897. 
policy of Ollivier ministry, 898, 06. 
attacked by Gambetta, 898. 

Prince Pierre Bonaparte shoots Vic¬ 
tor Noir, 898, 906. 

Rochefort disturbances, 899, 900. 
Free Trade debate, 900, 902. 
Rochefort prosecutions, 901, 903. 
Ollivier defence, 901. 

M. Guizot, 901, 903. 
defence of Deputies, 902. 
Prevost-Paradol appointed to Wash¬ 
ington, 903. 

army to be reduced, 904. 
reported conspiracy, 904. 
transportation decree, 906. 
freedom of election, 906. 
complexion of Ministry, 908. 
rumoured hostility with Russia, 908. 

and Prussia, 909. 

Senatus Consultum, 910, 911, 912. 
public meetings, 911. 
stormy debate, 911. 

Academy elections, 912. 
split in Cabinet, 912. 

General Wimpffen in Morocco, 914. 
plebiscite, 914, 916, 918. 
arrests, 915. 

Due de Gramont, Foreign Minister, 
918. 

Orleans protest, 922. 
movement of troops, 922. 

Tien-tsin massacre, 922. 

Thiers on peace, 924. 

Spanish Throne and Prince Leopold, 
924, 925. 
revenue, 924. 

declarations by Gramont and Olli¬ 
vier, 925, 926, 929. 


France, continued — 

M. Benedetti at Ems, 925. 

Rentes, 926. 

complaints legitimate, 926. 

Prince Leopold withdraws, 927. 
tms interview, 927. 
interviews with Lord Lyons,927,928, 
war feeling, 928. 

Ministerial message, 929. 
war resolved on, 929. 

Prussian Ambassador leaves Paris, 
929 - 

Senate received at St. C oud, 929. 
war credit, 930. 
milita y news, 930. 

Prussian secret diplomacy, 931. 

(See Franco-Prussian War.) 
Empress at Cherbourg, 932. 

Projet de Traite, 932. 

Empress Regent, 933. 

Emperor leaves St. Cloud, 933. 
Germans in Paris, 935. 
excitement, 936. 

Capital declared in a state of siege, 

936 . 

“Tout peut se retablir,” 936. 
fall of Ollivier Ministry, 937. 
re-organization of National Guard, 

93 8 - 

new war credit, 938, 940. 

Orleans’ services refused, 938. 
suspension of specie payment, 938. 
Emperor at Verdun, 939. 

Napoleon fete day, 939. 

Thiers on defence of Paris, 939. 
General Trochu appointed Governor, 

939 - 

stormy debates in Chambers, 940. 
expulsion from Paris, 940, 941. 
Thiers, member of Defence Comit- 
tee, 940. 

communication stopped, 941. 
surrender of Sedan, 942. 
revolution, 943. 
last hours of the Empire, 943. 
Republic proclaimed, 944. 
Government of National Defence, 
. 944 - 

flight of Prince Imperial, 944. 
arrives in England, 944. 
commotion in Paris, 944. 
arrival of Victor Hugo, 944. 

Orleans’ services again declined, 944. 
Jules Favre’s circular on the war, 
944 -. , 

Imperial correspondence seized, 946 
theatres closed, 946. 
flight of the Empress to England 
946. 

electoral decree, 946. 

postal communication ceases, 947. 

M. Thiers’ mission, 947. 

Ambassadors in Paris, 947. 

Academy protest, 947. 

Favres’ second circular, 948. 
peace negotiations at Ferrieres, 948, 
950. 954. 

Republican manifesto, 949. 
outbreak at Marseilles, 949. 
balloon, carriers, 950. 

Due d Aumale, candidate for As 
sembly, 950. 

Tours decree, 931. 
armistice proposals, 950, 951. 
rival Governments, 952. 

Gambetta’s proclamations, 952, 956. 
proceedings of Empress, 956. 

Thiers’ proclamation, 956. 

Rentes, 956. 
outbreak in Paris, 957. 

Lyons clubs, 958. 

departments declared in state of 
siege, 958. 

renewed disturbance in Paris, 958. 
rupture of peace negotiations, 958, 

960. 











FRA 


INDEX. 


F R E 


France, continued — 

Guizot and Favre on defence of 
Paris, 959. 

Republican demonstration, 961. 
regulations in Paris, 961. 

M. Guizot proposes a National As¬ 
sembly, 964. 

Government removes to Bordeaux, 

966. 

new coinage, 967. 
state of Paris, 968. 

Christmas day in Paris, 969. 
fleet enters Cherbourg, 970. 
food proclamation, 970. 

Rentes, 970, 973. 

Trochu’s proclamation, 970. 
food prices, 970. 
meeting of Mayors, 970. 

Paris bombarded, 971, 972, 973, 975. 
Favre on London Conference, 972. 
Prince de Joinville arrested, 973. 
safe conduct refused to Jules Favre, 
.973- 

aid to neutrals, 974. 
riots in Paris, 975. 
proposed capitulation, 976. 

Gambetta at St. Servan, 976. 
bombardment of Paris ceases, 976. 
surrender of Paris, 977. 
exclusion of Bonaparte family, 980. 
elections to National Assemby, 980. 
Paris loan, 982. 

Bordeaux Assembly, 982. 

state of Paris, 982. 

renewed postal service, 978, 983, 985. 

Thiers head of Executive, 984. 

new Ministry, 984. 

Negotiation Committee, 984. 

Rentes, 979, 985. 

Due de Broglie, English ambassador, 

985. 

anniversary of Revolution of 1848, 

986. 

Treaty of Peace settled, 986. 
accepted by Bordeaux Assembly, 
986. 

Franco-Prussian War— 

France declares war, 929. 

Berlin war address, 930. 
despatch of French troops, 930. 
proceedings in North German Par¬ 
liament, 330. 

King William commands Bavarian 
army, 931. 

Kehl bridge blown up, 931. 

French demand®, 932. 

Imperial proclamation, 932. 
skirmishing at Saarbriick, 932. 

South German addresses, 933. 
affair at Neiderbronn, 993. 

Emperor Napoleon at Metz, 933, 

93J- 

Belgian neutrality, 934. 
war rumours, 934- . 
position on the Rhine, 934. 
affair at Saarbrttrk, 935. 
battles of Weissenburg, Woertb,and 
Forbach, 935. v 
Changarnier at Metz, 936. 

Prussians at Colmar, 937. 

Strasburg invested, 937, 94°-. 

King of Prussia’s proclamation, 938. 
the Vosges secured, 938. 

Bazaine, Commander-in-chief, 938. 
North German coast blockaded, 938. 
Courcelles, 938 

movements of the Emperor and Ba¬ 
zaine, 939. 

towns in a state of siege, 939. 
Vionville, 939. 

German Governor of Lorraine, 939. 
Gravelotte, 939. 

camp at Chalons broken up, 940. 
Rheims entered, 940. 
troops in Ardennes, 940. 

Palikao’s “ good news,” 940. 


Franco-Prussian war, continued — 

Metz isolated, 940. 
transport of wounded, 940. 
advance of Prussia, 940. 

Vitry capitulates, 940. 

Epernay attacked, 940. 

Lieutenant Harth executed, 940. 
Vrigy occupied, 941. 

Beaumont, 941. 

Bazeilles burnt, 941, 951. 
fighting before Sedan, 941. 
surrender of the Emperor Napoleon, 

94 2 - . 

Prussians enter Rheims, 944. 
explosion at Laon, 946. 

Paris reported to be safe, 946. 
blockade in Baltic raised, 946. 
Montereau, 947. 

Uhlans at Senlis, 947. 

Nancy occupied, 948. 

Toul attacked, 948. 
attack on heights of Sceaux, 948. 
Crown Prince at Versailles, 949. 
Melun occupied, 949. 

Bourbaki’s negotiations, 949. 

Toul surrenders, 949. 

Orleans occupied, 950. 

Strasburg surrenders, 950. 
conduct of prisoners, 951. 
fighting at Metz, 951. 

Epernon occupied, 951. 
head-quarters at Versailles, 952. 
Garibaldi joins French forces, 952. 
New Brisach bombarded, 952. 
Bazaine’s attempt, 952. 
attack on St. Quentin, 953. 
Volunteers under Garibaldi, 953. 
circular regarding impending cala¬ 
mities, 953, 954. 
defeat at Artenay, 953. 
sortie from Montmedy, 953. 

Orleans captured, 953. 
army of the Loire, 954. 

M. de Keratry, 954. 

Breteuil and Epinal occupied, 954. 
St. Cloud burnt, 954. 
fighting before Paris, 954. 

Strasburg station, 954. 

General Boyer at Versailles, 954. 
Soissons capitulates, 954. 
Chateaudun taken, 954. 

St. Quentin taken, 955. 
sortie from Mont Valerien, 955. 
rumours of peace, 955. 

Schelestadt capitulates, 955. 
Gambetta urges resistance, 955. 
another loan, 955. 
surrender of Metz. 955. 

Le Bourget occupied, 956. 

Bourbaki commands Army of the 
North, 956. 

Dijon occupied, 956. 

Fort Mortier taken, 958 
rupture of peace negotiations, 958. 
Havanna, 959. 

Verdun surrenders, 959. 

Orleans recaptured, 960. 

New Brisach capitulates, 960. 
defeat at Dreux, 961. 

Montargis occupied, 962. 

Thionville bombarded, 962. 

Thiers’ negotiations, 962. 

La Fere capitulates, 962. 
fighting before Paris, 963. 
army of the North, 963. 
fighting on the Loire, 963. 
sorties from Paris, 963, 964. 
Abbeville occupied, 964. 

Orleans re-taken, 965. 

Ducrot’s address to troops, 965. 
Rouen war contribution, 965. 
Beaugency, 965. 

General d’Aurelle superseded, 966. 
Dieppe occupied, 966. 
operations on the Loire, 966. 
Phalsburg surrenders, 067. 


Franco-Prussian war, continued — 
Montemedy capitulates, 967. 
Chateaudun, 967. 

Vendome, 967. 

Nuits, 967. 

Tours captured, 968. 

English vessels sunk at Duclair, 969. 
another sortie from Paris, 969. 

Pont de Noyelle, 969. 
advance of Cherbourg army, 969. 
Dieppe blockaded, 969. 
skirmish at Yvetot, 970. 
bombardment of Paris opened, 970. 
Mont Avron evacuated, 970. 

Germans quit Gray, 970. 

Mezi6res capitulates, 971. 

Bapaume, 971. 

Paris bombarded, 971, 972, 973, 975. 
Rocroi occupied, 971. 

Belfort bombarded, 972. 

Garibaldian defeat, 972. 

Villersexel, 972. 

Peronne capitulates, 972. 

Fort Issy burnt, 972. 

Le Mans, 972, 973. 

Chier bridge blown up, 973. 

Moltke and Troehu, 973. 

Alencon occupied, 974. 

Bourbaki’s retreat, 975. 
another sortie from Paris, 975. 

St. Quentin, 975. 

Troehu resigns, 975. 

Moselle bridge blown up, 973. 
Garibaldi at Dijon, 975. 
negotiations for capitulation of Paris, 
976. _ 

Sable occupied, 976. 

Longwy capitulates, 976. 

Count Chambordy’s circular, 976. 
Surrender of Paris, 977. 
movements on the Loire, 978. 
rumoured suicide of Bourbaki, 978. 
Germans occupy Paris forts, 978. 
Bordeaux protest, 978. 
new Ultra-Republican Society, 978 
rumoured conditions of peace, 978. 
Gambetta’s proclamations, 978. 
Favre’s intimation, 978. 
surrender of Bourbaki, 979. 
address of Due d’Aumale, 979. 
relief from England, 978, 979, 980. 
arrival of provisions in Paris, 979. 
resignation of Gambetta, 979. 
regiments disbanded, 979. 
decree against Bonaparte family, 
980. 

ex-Emperor’s proclamation, 980. 
General Le Flo, Minister of War, 
982. 

surrender of Belfort, 983. 
armistice extended, 983, 985. 
Trochu’s protest, 985. 

Treaty of Peace settled, 986. 
accepted by Bordeaux Assembly, 
986. 

Frankfort congress, 656, 657, 658. 
Franklin Expedition— 
sails, 176. 
last despatch, 179. 
winter at Beachey Island, 218. 
search expedition of Rae, 243. 
Richardson, 247. 

Ross and Bird, 248, 286, 336. 
the Lady Franklin , 297. 
the North Star , 311. 

Belcher, 351. 

Isabel , 379. 

reward offered, 273, 294. 
supplies, 277. 

names removed from Navy List, 403, 
Dr. Rae’s discoveries, 420. 
M'Clintock’s expedition, 490, 356, 
560, 575- 

Court of Session decision, 515. 
memorial, 758. 

Frederick the Great, statue of, 327. 

(IOO3) 

















F R E 


INDEX. 


G R A 


Freemasonry condemned, 7x6. 
Freemasons, Grand Master, 917. 

Free Trade Congress, 468. 

Freights, American, 120. 

Frere, Sir B., at Poonah, 716. 
Frightened to death, 146. 

Frome heresy case, 821, 869, 870, 871, 
877, 889. 

Frome, living of, 344, 351, 355. 

Frost, Chartist leader, 36, 38, 55, 468. 
Frosts, excessive, 13, 14. 

Froude, J. A., rector of St. Andrews, 
849, 865. 
on Russia, 961, 

Funds investment in English, 279. 


G. 

Gale, aeronaut killed, 309. 

Galway chapel accident, 124. 
port of, 301. 
subsidy, 581, 602, 603. 

Ganges capsized, 630. 

Garibaldi— 

triumph at Palestrina, 276. 
withdraws from Italian Army, 560. 
lands in Sicily, 573. 
victories, 574, 577, 579. 
refuses to disarm, 580. 
concludes a truce, 581. 
lands at Spartivento, 582. 

Dictator, 583. 
enters Naples, 584. 
expels the Jesuits, 584. 
victory at Volturno, 585. 

Naples for Italy, 586. 
meets Victor Emmanuel, 587. 
retires to Caprera, 588. 
army disbanded, 589. 
proclamations, 629. 
wounded at Aspromonte, 631. 
withdraws from chamber, 664. 
arrival in England, 671. 
at Genoa, 741. 

wounded at Monte Suello, 745. 
on Italian freedom, 835. 
resigns seat, 838. 
in France, 952, 972. 

Garotte crimes, 635. 

Garrick Club dispute, 522. 

Garrick Theatre disturbances, 47. 
Gastein, convention of, 715. 

Gateshead Town Hall, 829. 

Gavazzi, Father, 316, 384, 537. 

Geneva Peace Congress, 789. 

Geology, Museum of, 326, 354. 

George IV., statue, 148. 

Germany— 

Frankfort Congress, 243, 
diet, 247, 249, 261, 327. 
Lieutenant-General, 254. 
disturbance at Frankfort, 261. 
crown of, 274. 
diet split up, 276. 

Federal union, 293. 
action of Wurtemberg, 295. 
invitation of Austria, 298. 
new congress at Frankfort, 299, 312. 
Dresden Conference, 3x6. 
protects Holstein, 316, 317. 
Anglo-French protest, 317. 
annexation and incorporation, 331. 
revival of Empire, 968. 

Count Bernstorff, English ambas 
sador, 985. 

Germany, North— 
new constitution, 761. 
treaty, 765. 
constitution, 775, 780. 

Salzburg interview, 788. 

Parliament opened, 789. 
private property at sea, 8:9. 

Debt Bill rejected, 820. 

Federal ministry, 868 
death punishments, 919. 

(1004) 


Germany, North, continued — 
war loan, 954. 

Parliament opened, 962. 

Empire of Germany, 966. 

Germany, Empire of— 
rumoured revival, 958. 
proposal to King of Prussia, 964. 
Versailles deputation, 968. 

King William proclaimed Emperor, 

_ 9 - 7 +' . 

Gervimus imprisoned, 378. 

Gibbs, Lord Mayor, 162. 

Gibson, M., resigns seat, 45. 

elected for Ashton, 504. 

“ Gladiateur,” Derby, 706. 

Gladstone, W. E.— 
on negro apprenticeship, 16. 
promises protection, 90. 
Vice-President, Board of Trade, 149. 
report on railways, 149, 158. 
retirement, 167. 

Secretary for Colonies, 190. 
foreign policy debate, 303. 
tribute to Sir R. Peel, 304. 
letters on administration of law in 
Naples, 332, 333. 

University election of 1852, 355. 
returned, 357. 
rebukes Disraeli, 370. 
insulted at Carlton Club, 372. 
election contest (1853), 373, 374. 
National Debt Scheme, 380. 

(See Budgets). 

attempt to extort money from, 382. 
on Crimean inquiry, 429, 431. 
at Mold and Liverpool, 468. 

Ionian Commissioner, 531. 
on small boroughs, 537. 
letter on Palmerston cabinet, 548. 
again elected for Oxford, 550. 

Lord Rector, Edinburgh University, 
560. 

installation, 572. 

on Sir G. Bowyer, 597. 

budget in one bill, 601. 

on Confederate States, 633, 785. 

scheme for taxing charities, 647, 648. 

declares for extension of franchise, 

673- 

Denmark debate, 677. 
on Irish Church, 697. 
letter to Dr. Hannah, 704. 
defeated at Oxford, 711. 
candidate for South Lancashire, 711. 
elected, 712. 

at Glasgow and Edinburgh, 719. 
introduces Reform Bill of 1866, 728. 
at Liverpool banquet, 732. 
closes debate on second reading of 
Reform Bill, 735. 
sinking fund abandoned, 743. 
at Salisbury, 753. 
on Disraeli Reform Bill, 769. 
withdraws from leadership, 772, 775. 
on Irish Church, 775. 

Trade Society Delegates, 804. 
Co-operative Society, 807. 

Irish Church resolutions, 813, 814, 
815, 821, 822, 823. 
speech at Brand testimonial, 815. 
contradicts rumours, 821. 
suspensory Bill, 824, 826, 830. 
Worcestershire election, 827, 828. 
Finlen deputation, 833. 
a candidate for South Lancashire. 
836, 842. 

defends financial schemes, 838. 
elected for Greenwich, 847. 
nomination day, 848. 
defeated, 848. 

“ Chapter of Autobiography,” 848. 
Prime Minister again, 850, 
new ministry, 852. 
speech on re-election, 853. 

Irish Church Disestablishment Bill, 
860, 861, 874-880. 


Gladstone, W. E., co>itinued — 

Irish Land Bill, 904. 
on Irish Church, 877. 

Deal address, 883. 
on Fenian convicts, 888. 
on Irish crime, 891. 
on English neutrality, 934. 

Liverpool statue, 947. 
on mediation, 950. 

“ France, Germany, and England,” 
958. 

on temporal power of the Pope, 964, 
965 - 

releases Fenian prisoners, 967. 
Greenwich constituents, 972. 
recognition of French Government, 
972. 

on Black Sea Treaty, 981. 

Tests Bill, 981. 

Robinson correspondence, 982. 
Gladstone, Mrs. “ Home,” 748. 
Gladstone, Rev Mr., case of, 355. 
Glanderstone dam bursts, 124. 

Glasgow— 

Assembly of 1638, celebration, 32. 
cotton spinners, 12, 72. 

University degrees, 73. 
commercial failures, 96. 
threatened disturbance, 111. 
corn exchange, 122.' 

Lord Provost censured, 130. 
Wellington statue, 162. 
fall of a sugar-house, 264. 
Dunlop-street theatre accident, 271. 
Victoria bridge, 324. 

Western bank failure, 500. 
water-works opened, 558. 
ferry-boat upset, 599. 
fires, 731,921. 

Lord Clyde statue, 836. 

University buildings, 842. 

South Woodside accident, 860, 

Eagle Foundry burnt, 888. 

Theatre burnt, 910. 
new University Buildings, 959. 
Glenalmond College, 208. 

Glenelg, resignation of Lord, 35. 
Glenfinnon celebration, 181. 

Glen Tilt, encounter, 223. 

Glover, Mrs., retires from stage, 305. 
Godfrey, Dr. J., 549. 

Godiva procession, 329. 

Goerlitz, case of Countess, 227, 294. 
Goldsmid, J. L., 89. 

Goldsmith statue, 664. 

Gorham case, 269, 3x3. 

Bishop of London on, 284. 
judgment, 294. 
protest, 295. 
meetings, 296. 
appeal, 297. 

Court of Exchequer, 305. 
protest, 306. 

Archbishop of Canterbury on, 307.' 
Bishop of Exeter on, 308. 

Gorilla controversy, 534, 597. 

Goschen, Mr., a cabinet minister, 723. 
Gottingen Professors removed, 11. 
Gough and Edwardes, arrival of, 293, 
295, 296, 301. 

Goulburn, Mr., threatened, 129. 
Gounod’s “ Sappho,” 333. 

Graham, Sir James— 

China debate, 63. 

Home Secretary, 90. 
rejects Orange petition, hi 
Veto Act, 104, 111, 124. 

Factory Bill, 136, 149. 
conciliation of Ireland, 136. 
removal of magistrates, 138. 
O'Conilell trial, witnesses, 151. 
scene with Ferrand, 153. 
postal espionage, 156, 157,158. 
protection impossible, 319. 
on Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 3 -a 
freedom of Aberdeen, 336. 











G R A 


INDEX. 


IT U M 


Graham, Sir James, continued — 
on Derby Ministry, 358. 
on Disraeli, 378, 546. 

Napier correspondence, 407, 419. 
on Sebastopol inquiry, 431. 
at Carlis'e, 542. 
death of, 613. 

Graham, aeronaut, injured, 328. 
Grant-Duff at Elgin, 754, 790. 

Indian revenue, 985. 

Grant, General, 454. 

Grant, Sir F., 725. 

Grantham, Rev. G. 66. 

Granville, Earl— 

on Aberdeen ministry. 435. 
Ambassador Extraordinary, 465. 
consulted by the Queen, 547. 
defence, 549. 

Foreign Minister, 925. 
enters on duties, 925. 

Prince Leopold and Spanish Throne, 

925- . 

explanations, 926. 

instructions to Lord Lyons, 927, 928. 
on English neutrality, 935. 
replies to Count Bismarck, 955. 
replies to Prince Gortschakoff^ 959 > 
963. 

on Luxemburg difficulty, 968. 

Gray, Lieut. Basil, 56. 

Gray, Sir W., Lieut.-Governor of Ben¬ 
gal, 774. _ 

Great Britain — 
launched,139. 
tried, 167. 
royal visit, 174. 
speed,202. 
stranded, 208. 
floated, 223. 

Great Eastern — 
explosion, 556. 

Captain Harrison drowned, 563. 

voyages, 576, 605. . 

sails with new Atlantic cable,744.740. 

lifts old cable, 752. 

return, 753 . 

sails with French Atlantic cable, 874. 

Suez cable, 902. 

Great Tasmania , plague ship, 568. 
Greece— 

revolution, 142, 143. 
claims against, 290. 
blockade, 290, 291. 
mediation unsuccessful, 291. 
defeat at Damoko, 406. 
neutrality in Russian war, 408. 
abdication of King Otho, 633. 
plebiscite, 635. 

King George proclaimed, 644. 
Bavarian protest, 646. 

Treaty of London, 654. 

King George at Athens, 659. 
marriage of King, 793. 
blockade running, 852. • 

chamber dissolved, 865. 
massacre of English travellers, 9 12 » 
966. 

Greenwich election, 329. 

Greenwich Fair abolished, 483. 
Hospital reforms, 707. 
time, 233. . 

Greer-Perry, court-martial, 412- 
Gregory, Pope, encyclical, 67. 
Grenville Library, 183. 

Gretna marriages, 128, 473. 

Greville, C. C.— 

naturalization of Prince Albert, 60, 

rank^of Catholic Prelates, 314. 

Grey, Alice, impostor, 446. 

Griggs case of Matilda, 801. 

Grimsby Docks, 275. 

Grisi, Madame, 216. 

Guards banquet, 467, 576. 

Gueldres, Mary of, reinterred, 255 
Guild of Literature and Art, 713. 


Guizot, M.— 

arrives in England, 239. 
on “William the Conqueror,” 338. 
at M. Ollivier’s, 901. 
letter to Mr. Glaustone, 976. 

(See France.) 


H. 

Haberdashers’ Hall banquet, 877. 
Hacket, George, escape of, 315-. 
Half-farthings issued, 112. 

Halifax, Viscount, 725. 

Halifax, Mechanics Institute, 475. 
Hampden, kev. Dr»— 

Chairman of Theological Board 
109. 

memorial, 137. 

M‘Mullen appeal, 148. 

proposed for see of Hereford, 228. 

opposition, 223 , 230. 

elected, 230. 

ednfirmation, 232. 

mandamus refused, 233. 

consecration, 243. 

Handel Festivals, 487, 549, 627, 829. 
Hanover— 

King of, 2. 

constitution abolished, 3, 8. 
seven professors banished, 11. 

King’s pension, 17. 
crown jewels, 82^ 
chamber dismissed, 87. 
reform granted, 242. 
withdrawn, 436. „ 

crown jewels, 505. 
protest against annexation, 754. 
sequestration, 808. 
confiscation, 852. 

Hardinge, Sir H., 155, 159, 244. 
Commander-in-Chief, 361. 
retires, 465. 
death, 468. 

Hardy, Gathorne, 850. 

Hardy, John, committed for trial, 901. 
Harmer, Alderman, 75. 

Hartlepool Town hall, 754. 

Hartley Colliery disaster, 619, 

Harvest labour, 359. 

Harwood frauds, 883. 

Hastings, case of Lady Flora, 34, 37. 
death, 48. 

Hastings, Marquis of, fined, 652. 
marriage, 680. 

case of “Lady Elizabeth,” 829. 
death, 845. 

Hatch, case of Rev. Mr., 574. 
Hatherley, Lord Chance lor, 852, 856. 
Haussmann, Baron, dismissed, 878. 
Havelock, General— 
advance on Lucknow, 493. 
death, 503. 
pension, 504, 509. 

Hawai, King of, 463. 

Queen 6f, 710, 746. 

Haydon, assisted, hy Peel, 202. 
suicide, 203. 

Haynau, attack on General, 309. 
HaytePs “ Reformed Parliament,” 53. 
Hayter, Sir W , entertained, 596. 
Hayti, slave trade, 57, 
insurrection, 252. 
an Empire, 284. . 

Faustin I. deposed, 532. 
republic, 658. 
disturbance, 827, 847. 

Head, Sir F., resignation, 13. 

Heat, excessive, 329, 603. 

Heathcote, Sir William, 841. 

Hecla, eruption, 182. 

Hegel monument inaugurated, 956. 
Helena, dowry to Princess, 727. 
marriage, 745. 

Kelps, Arthur, on Lord Palmerston 

480. 


Henrietta yacht, 761, 762. 

Herat, capture, 650. 

Herbert, Sydney— 

on Miss Nightingale, 450. 
death, 608. 
statue, 653. 

Herculaneum excavations, 859. 
Hereford, case of Dr. Hampden, 
Bishop of, 228 - 230. 

Hereford Cathedral re-opened, 653. 
Heroic conduct, 269, 806. 

Herschel, Sir J., 314. 

Hesse-Cassel reforms, 240. 

occupied, 310, 312, 314. 

Hesse, Prince and Princess of, 610. 
Hessey, Rev. Dr., resigns, 968. 

Hewley charity, in, 115,252. 

Hicks, case of Ann, 331. 

Higgs, frauds, 862. 

Hill, case of R. Guinness, 611. 

Hill, Lord, censures officers, 56. 

Hill, Sir Rowland— 
testimonials, 166, 202. 

Secretary to Post Office,211. 
resignation, 643. 
grant to, 675. 

Hoax, (see Morning Advertiser). 485. 
Hobbs, American locksmith, 335. 

Hodder, George, killed, 935. 

Holland, King of, abdicates, 75. 
navy, 121. 

Holmfirth inundation, 346. 

Holy places, question of, 225, 347, 363, 
372, 631. 

(See Russian War.) 

Homoeopathy, 171. 

Honolulu grievances, 127. 

Bishop of, 617. 

Hood, Thomas, illness, 172. 
death, 175. 
monument, 413. 

Hook, Rev. Dr., sermon, 24. 

Hoossein Khan, mission of, 16, 46. 
Horse-flesh dinner, 803. 

Horse Races, (see Races, Derby and 
St. Leger.) 

Horsfall, Mr., on maritime law, 622. 
Horsman, E.— 

Bradshaw affair, 59. 

Episcopal incomes, 229. 
altercation with Lord J. Russell, 
292. 

attacks the Bishops, 298. 
Horticultural fete, 603. 

Houghton, Lord, at Cambridge, 756. 
Hounslow flogging case, 202. 

Houses (see fall of). 

Houses of Parliament— 
decoration, 159. 
opened, 216. 

experimental sitting, 301. 
first meeting in, 364. 
new chamber, 838. 

Hudson’s Bay territory purchased, 
867. 

Hudson, George— 

M.P. for Sunderland, 180. 
railway work, 199. 
shares, 206. 
banquet, 212. 

share purchase inquiry, 272. 
charges against, 277, 280, 281, 376, 
395 - _ 

Hughes, T.— 

Trades Unions, 878. 

Hugo, Victor, fined, 328. 
returns to Paris, 944. 
elected to Bordeaux assembly, 98*. 
Hull ferry-boat upset, 267. 

Hull Docks, 881. 

Humaita forced, 805, 

Humboldt centenary, 885. 

death, 543. 

Hume, Joseph— 

, household suffrage, 38, 340. 

Scottish reforms, 122. 

(1005) 
















M U H 


INDEX. 


I R E 


Hume, Joseph, continued — 
free admission to WestminsterAbbey, 
153 - 

expense of returns, 273. 
call of the House, 366. 
presentation, 414. 
death, 431. 

Hungary— 

war of independence, 262. 

Kossuth, dictator, 262. 
murder of Count Lamberg, 262. 

Ban of Croatia, 263, 264. 
defeat, 264. 

Pesth surrenders, 268. 
declares its independence, 275. 
successes, 275. 
reverses, 278, 279. 
victory at Comorn, 280. 
submission of Gorgey, 282. 
escape of leaders, 283, 330. 
protection to refugees, 285. 
surrender of Comorn, 285. 
Batthyany executed, 285. 
refugees executed in effigy, 335. 
regalia discovered, 390. 

German language to be used, 396. 
Deak protest, 601, 609. 
constitution, 605. 
coronation, 778. 

Organization Bill, 836. 

Croatian Deputies, 849, 

Diet opened, 869. 

approves of German Empire, 976. 

(See Turkey). 

Hungerford suspension bridge, 174. 
Hunter, reinterment of John, 537. 
Huntingtower, Lord, bankruptcy of, 
122. 

Hunt poisonings, 660. 

Hurstpierpoint, Training College, 384. 
Huskisson, statue, 234. 

Hyacintbe, Pere, 885, 934. 

Hyde Park, encounter in, 927. 

disturbances, (see Riots.) 
Hydrophobia, 76. 

Hyeres, revolt, 754. 


I. 

Immaculate conception dogma, 427. 
Import duties, 65. 

Income-tax, (see Parliament). 

India— 

death of Juwan Singh, 24. 

Kurnoul captured, 53. 

(See Affghan war). 

Lord Ellenborough, governor, 107. 
Gates of Somnauth, 118, 122, 124. 
battle ofMeeanee, 127, 129. 
Hyderabad, 131. 

Scindewar, 131, 138, 147, 170. 
revolution in Punjaub, 143. 
victory at Maharajpoor, 148. 

Sir H. Hardinge, governor, 155. 
Danish possessions, 169. 
railways, 175. 

(See Sikh war), 
express, 183, 190, 191. 

Agnew and Anderson murdered, 246. 
victory at Noonaree, 253. 

at Mooltan, 254, 268. 

Mooltan invested, 261. 
disaster at Ramnuggur, 265. 
at Chillianwallah, 269. 
surrender of Moolraj, 270. 
march to Lahore, 271. 

Sikh defeat at Goojerat, 272. 
submission, 273. 

Punjaub annexed, 274. 
army thanked, 275. 

Mooltan destroyed, 285. 

Ganges canal opened, 405. 

Oude annexed, 454. 
government of, 494, 508, 510, 516, 
522, 528. 

(IO06) 


India, continued — 
neutrality in religion, 517. 
the Queen, Empress, 529. 
famine fund, 598. 
order of Star, 604, 813. 

“ Nil Darpan ” drama, 605. 
legislative council, 620. 
mails, 627. 

sanitary provision, 644, 669. 

Punjaub insurrection, 662. 

Sir J. Lawrence, governor, 663, 664. 
Bhootan annexed, 684. 
famine, 750, 753. 

Agra, durbar, 758. 

Bombay Government, 766. 

Council of, 788. 

Calcutta cyclone, 794. 
missions, 794. 

Lord Mayo, Governor General, 836. 
defence of Southern Afghanistan, 

.839- 

Sirdar Khan defeated, 856. 

Umballa, durbar, 865. 
financial statement, 881, 882, 912, 
. 933 , 9 8 5 - 

India—(Governors-General)— 

Lord Auckland, March 1836. 

Lord Ellenborough, Feb. 1842. 
Viscount Hardinge, July 1844. 

Earl of Dalhousie, Jan. 1848. 
Viscount Canning, July 1855. 

Earl of Elgin, Aug. 1861. 

Sir J. Lawrence, Dec. 1863. 

Earl of Mayo, Oct. 1868. 

Indian Mutiny— 
disaffection at Dumdum, 475. 
at Barrackpore, 476. 

Berhampore, 478. 

Mangal Pandy executed, 483. 
Moorshedabad, 483. 

Meerut, 484. 

Delhi seized, 484. 
proclamation, 485. 

Colvin’s proclamation, 485. 

Lucknow, 486. 

Allahabad, 486. 

news of, 487, 488, 490, 492, 493, 495, 
498, 499, 505, 506, 517. 

Cawnpore 487. 

Sealcote, 490. 

Cawnpore massacre, 491. 

Havelock’s advance on Lucknow, 


493 - 

Eyre’s victories, 494. 
condition of Lucknow, 495. 

Sir Colin Campbell at Calcutta, 

495 - 

relief fund, 496. 

junction of Outram and Havelock, 

496 - 

capture of Delhi, 497. 

Islam fort, 497, 498. 

Lucknow relieved, 497. 

Greathead’s victories, 497. 
success of naval brigade, 499. 
rapid movements of Sir Colin Camp¬ 
bell, 500. 

relief of Lucknow, 502. 

Cawnpore memorial, 503. 
death of General Havelock, 503. 
march from Alumbagh to Cawn¬ 
pore, 503. 

arrival of wounded at Calcutta, 506. 
shooting Sepoys, 506. 
successes at Futteghur and Goruck- 
pore, 507. 

Ratghur taken, 508. 
thanks of Parliament, 509. 
second march from Cawnpore to 
Lucknow, 512. 

Oude proclamation, 512, 518. 
Lucknow again occupied, 515. 

Jhansi taken, 516. 
victory at Banda, 518. 

Gwalior captured, 523. 
final suppression, 532. 


Indian mutiny, continued — 

thanksgiving services, 539, 542. 
Tantia Topee hanged, 540. 
rebels dispersed, 561. 

India Office, 534. 

Inglis, Chancellor, 848, 869. 

Insane criminals, 137. 

Interment Bill, 299. 

International Boat Race, 883. 947 
Interviews, Impeiial— 

Baden, 576. 

Ems, 920. 

Compiegne, 6xe. 

Olmutz, 314, 319 
Oss, 792. 

Pillnitz, 284. 

Potsdam, 301. 

Salzburg, 715, 787, 788. 

San Sebastian, 716, 839. 

Sedan, 942. 

Stuttgard, 497. 

Toplitz, 284. 

Warsaw, 277, 586. 

Weimar, 498. 

Inverness, Duchess of, 63. 

Iona, “ Bishop of,” 875. 

Ionian Islands— 

Ward, Commissioner 275. 
despatches, 530. 

Gladstone,Lord High Commissioner, 
. 53 L 534 - 

Sir H. Storks, commissioner, 534. 
cession of, 636, 657, 658, 674. 
Ireland— 

Mulgrave letter, 4. 

National Association, 8. 
faction fight, 16. 

Tithe question, 18. 

murder of Earl of Norbury, 33. 

crime, 38, in. 

Repeal Association, 65. 

National Association, 71, 251. 
Corporation bill, 73. 

Government patronage, 75. 

Lord Chancellor Campbell, 86. 
riots, 107. 

Tipperary Commission, 112. 
altar denunciations, 131, 224. 
purchase of arms, 132, 135. 
mail coach contract, 132. 
dismissal of magistrates, 135, 180 
discontent, 139. 
land tenure, 145. 
outrage at Finnoe, 146. 

Catholic clergy, 146. 

Lord Heytesbury, Lord-Lieutenant, 
159 - 

Dissenting chapels, 162. 
clergy warned, 164. 
national education, 166, 182. 
Colleges, 175,177, 182, 185, 263, 308, 
344 - 

potato failure, 183. 

— famine, 185—223. 

(see Famine.) 

Coercion Bill, 195. 

Earl Grey’s motion, 196. 
affray at Birdhill, 199. 

Arms Bill, 206. 
poor relief, 207. 

Labour Rate Act, 207, 208, 209, 211. 
outrage, 210, 225, 226. 

Cork election, 219. 
aid to railways, 220. 
tenant right, 224. 
increase of outrages, 227. 

Dr. M'Hale on altar denunciation, 
227, 232. 

clergy admonished, 231. 

Special Commission, 231. 

the treason press, 242, 243, 244, 255 

prosecutions, 242, 249, 250. 

National flag raised, 243. 
rifle clubs, 244. 
deputation to France, 244. 

“Gagging Act,” 244, 246. 








r R e 


INDEX. 


I T E 


Ireland, continued — 

Irish Parliament, 245. r 

pike factories, 245. 
trials, 246. 

proposed National Guard, 248. 
Confederate Clubs, 255. 

Habeas Corpus suspended, (1S48), 
255 - 

rising of Smith O’Brien’s party, 256. 
encounter at Ballingary, 256. 
seizure of newspapers, 256. 
another Special Commission, 257. 
arrests, 257. 
convictions, 259. 
wanton destruction, 261. 
trial of rebels, 262, 264, 278. 

“ Home Office Letter,” 263. 
address to Lord-Lieutenant, 268. 
renewed suspension of Habeas 
Corpus, (1849) 270, .271 ; expiry, 
284. 

relief of distress, 271, 276. 
rate in aid, 273, 267, 277. 
affray at Dolly’s Brae, 280. 
dismissal of Lord Roden, 285, 286. 
“The Alliance,” 287. 
proposal to abolish^Lord-Lieutenant, 
293, 297, 300, 317, 321, 376, 516. 
magistrate shot, 300. 

Synod of Thurles, 308. 
income-tax, 323. 

Encumbered Estates Court, 336, 359. 
repayment of loans, 336, 337. 

Earl of Eglinton, Lord Lieutenant, 
349 - 

Dr. Cullen elected Roman Catholic 
Primate, 350. 
tenant right, 360. 

Tenant League censure, 374 
Earl of St. Germains, Lord-Lieu¬ 
tenant, 375. 
income-tax, 385. 
murder of Miss Hinds, 446. 
more outrages, 448. 

Encumbered Estates Court, 528. 
treason societies, 531. 
another Special Commission, 627. 
discourtesy to Lord Lieutenant, 659. 
Fenian outbreak, 716, 718, 720. 
suspension of Habeas Corpus, (1866), 
726, 727, 749, 766. 

Marquis of Abercorn, Lord Lieu¬ 
tenant, 751. 

Queen’s Colleges, 754. 

Church Commission, 780, 795. 
Roman Catholic remonstrance, 800. 
Protestant Defence Association, 803. 
Habeas Corpus suspended,(1868; 804. 
Lord Mayo’s negotiations, 816. 
Deputy Lieutenant shot, 819. 
increase of polling places, 834. 
Church defended, 838, 868. 

Lord Spencer, Lord Lieutenant, 857. 
banquet, 859. 
religious equality, 863. 
renewed outrages, 869. 

Mayor O’Sullivan’s speech, 869, 870, 
871, 872. 

Captain Lambert shot at, 879. 

High Sheriff fired at, 880. 
police indicted, 881. 

Mayo outrage, 883. 

“Triduum” festival, 884, 916. 
national press, 886. 

Tenant League, 886. 

Meath outrage, 887. 
clergy on land question, 888. 

Cavan outrage, 889. 
jubilee, 889. 

tenant right, 889, 893, 895. 

Sligo outrage, 891. 

Ulster warning, 892. 
procession prohibited, 893. 
troops forwarded to, 894. 

King’s County outrage, 895. 

Derry celebration, 895 


Ireland, continued — 

New Master of Rolls, 900. 
Presbyterian Church, 902. 

Queen’s County Jury, 908. 

Coote dismissal, 908 
sympathy with Franee, 947. 
press on prospects of war, 961. 
secret Committee, 985. 

Ireland—(Lords-Lieutenant— 

(See Table of Administrations). 

Irish land agitation— 
fixity of Tenure, 890. 
conference, 902. 

Gladstone’s Bill, 904. 
discussion in Committee, 911, 912, 
9 T 5 , 9 I 8 - 

read a third time, 920, 921. 
in House of Lords, 923. 
amendments accepted, 927. 

Irish Church—• 

new Constitution, 885. 
split in Convention, 893. 
reorganization, 898, 900. 

Convention, 904. 

English sympathy, 906. 

Episcopal veto, 907. 
election of Primate, 910. 
disestablished, 971. 

(See also Parliament.) 

Irish members charged with venality, 
382, 384, 399. 

Iron-clads, 597, 828. 

Iron “rig,” 725. 

Irvingite Cathedral, 396. 

Irving, case of D’Arcy, 918. 

Islington Cattle Market, 269. 

Italian war (1847-49)— 

Austria strengthens her garrisons, 
229. 

affray in Milan, 231, 233. 
disorder at Leghorn, 232. 
the Emperor refuses further con¬ 
cessions, 232. 
address of Radetzky, 232. 
outbreak at Pavia, 233. 
arrests, 233. 

disturbance at Padua, 234. 
martial law proclaimed in Lombardy, 
2 35 - 

fighting in Milan, 242. 
spread of insurrection, 242. 
provisional government at Venice, 
242, 243. 

entry of Italian troops, 243. 
female battalion, 245. 

Austrian success at Verona, 248, 250. 
Peschiera taken, 249. 
defeat at Curtalone, 251. 
annexation of Lombardy to Pied¬ 
mont, 251. 

Radetzky surprises Vicenza, 253. 
Venice and Sardinia, 254. 
retreat across the Mincio, 255. 
defeated at Verona and Goito, 256. 
Milan capitulates, 257. 

Bologna bombarded, 257. 
rising in Leghorn, 261. 
levy in Milan, 265. 

Insurrection in Como, 266. 
flight of Duke of Tuscany, 271, 281. 
Duke of Parma abdicates, 273. 
Brescia bombarded, 274. 

Genoa seized, 274, 275. 
defeat at Novara, 274. 
reaction, 275. 

surrender of Bologna, 277. 

Venice capitulates, 283. 

Emperor enters Milan, 335. 

Italian war (1859)— 
grievances, 335. 
views of Austria, 536. 

Swiss neutrality, 536. 
movement of Austrian armies, 539. 
mediation, 540. 
rupture, 540. 

warlike preparations, 541.. 


Italian war (1859), continued — 
Sardinia invaded, 542. 
battle of Montebello, 543. 

Palestio, 544. 

Magenta, 544. 

Malegnano, 546. 

Solferino, 550. 

Austria withdraws within Quadri¬ 
lateral, 547. 
armistice, 551. 
treaty of Villafranca, 552. 

Italy— 

insurrectionary movements, 182. 
fight of grand Duke of Lucca, 223. 
Lord Minto’s mission, 223, 229, 235, 
33 2 - 

King of Sardinia at Genoa, 225. 
Universities opened, 360. 
disturbance in Milan, 375. 
foreign occupation, 60, 
grievances, s 6 . 
affairs of, 464. 
kingdom of 555, 559. 
vacant Duchies, 560. 

Province of ./Emilia, 561. 
voting, 568. 

King proclaimed, 584, 598. 
annexation, 591. 

Parliament, 595. 

Messina surrenders, 597. 

Kingdom recognized, 598, 604. 
death of Count Cavour, 603. 
difference with Spain, 615. 
passports abolished, 627. 

September Convention, 682. 
king enters Florence, 694. 
court removes to Florence, 702. 
alliance with Prussia against Austria, 
730 - 

battalions under Garibaldi, 737. 

declares war against Austria, 742. 

amnesty, 750. 

receives Peschiera, 754. 

and Venice, 755. 

voting, 756. 

King enter/Venice, 758. 

Parliament opened, 761. 

Mazzini proclamation, 761. 
Government proclamation, 790. 
Garibaldi arrested, 799. 
engagement at Monte Libretto, 
791. 

Garibaldi escapes, 792. 
affair of the Serristori barracks, 792. 
849. 

Menabrea Ministry, 792, 800, 871. 
Monte Rotondo, 792, 745. 
proclamation, 792. 
occupies Pontifical territory, 794. 
Garibaldi arrested, 795. 
demonstration, 795. 

King proclaimed, 799. 

Ratazzi banquet, 801. 

Prince Humbert married, 820. 
extension of civil rights, 850. 
Pontifical debt, 853. 
attempt to upset royal train, 869. 
Mazzini arrested, 939. 
addition to army, 939. 

Roman territory to be occupied 
496 - 

insurrection in Viterbo, 947. 

Rome entered, 949. 

Rome annexed, 953. 

General La Marmora, 954. 
protest of English Catholics, 961. 
excommunication, 962. 

Parliament opened, 965. 
transfer of Capital, 966, 969, 977. 
Free National Church, 966. 

Rome the capital, 966. 

King in Rome, 970, 971. 

Vatican property, 980. _ 
proposal to expel Jesuits, 983. 


(1007) 















INDEX. 


L I N 


J A C 


J- 

Jackson, Bishop, 867. 

Jamaica— 

negro emancipation, 23. 

Baptist missionaries, 35. 

Legislature censured, 382. 
insurrection, 717. 
court martial, 718. 
shootings at Morant Bay, 721. 

Sir H. Storks, governor, 722. 
commission of inquiry, 724. 

Bill for better government of, 726. 
report by Commissioners, 732. 

Sir J. P. Grant, governor, 746. 

Brand letters, 750, 765. 
new constitution, 755. 

Wilson and Brand, prosecution, 764. 
(See Eyre). 

James, E. J , removed, 628. 

Janse, Professor, dismissed, 333. 

Japan— 

American treaty, 385. 

Jeddo massacre, 519. 

Jeddo bombarded, 526. 
missions, 531. 
outrages, 554.. 

Regent assassinated, 570. 
Ambassadors, 625, 627. 

Richardson murder, 631. 
ports closed, 652. 

Kagosima bombarded, 657. 
restrictions removed, 659. 

Simonosaki attacked, 682. 
murder of Baldwin and Bird, 685. 
Yeddo captured, 801. 

Sir H. Parkes attacked, 816. 

Jeddah massacre, 523. 

Jenner statue, 716. 

Jersey Republicans, 446. 

Society, 898. 

Jerusalem, protectorate, 83. 

Bishopric of, 88, 93, 97, 393, 523. 
Jervis, case of Captain, 753. 

Jew Alderman, 228. * 

Jew Oaths compromise, 525. 

(See Parliament.) 

Jewish Synagogue consecrated, 949. 
Jockey Club resolution, 954. 

Johnson, Reverdy— 

American minister, 837. 

entertained, 838, 839, 843, 845. 

proposed recall, 851. 

resigns, 866. 

treaty repudiated, 868. 

departure, 872. 

on A labama claims, 567. 

Joint-Mock Companies, 634. 

Jolly, outrage, 612. 

Jones, Ernest— 
at Bonner’s Fields, 251. 
trial, 256. 

demonstration, 865. 
death, 985. 

Jones, the boy, in Buckingham Palace, 
79, 82. 

Jowett, Professor— 
prosecution, 641. 
salary increased, 694. 

Master of Balliol, 922. 
banquet, 985. 

Julie, Mdlle., burnt, 449. 

Jury browbeat, 158. 

Jury quarrel, 159. 

Juvenile crime, 200. 


K. 

Kaffir war, 231. 

(See Caffre wars). 

Kalley, case of Dr., 171. 
Kean banquet, 552. 

testimonial, 623. 

Keane, banquet to Lord, 70 
Keble, Rev. J., 82. 

(IOO8) 


Keble. Rev. J., continued — 
death, 731. 
memorial, 738. 

Keith statue, Peterhead, 883. 

Kelly, Mrs. Sarah, shot, 459. 

Kelly, Sir Fitzroy, 746, 765, 800. 
Kensington, band, 460. 

Kensington gardens, panic in, 67. 
Kent, Constance, confession, 701, 703, 
7 I 5 * 

Kent, debts of Duke of, 53. 

Kent, Duchess of— 
grant to, 10. 
death of, 597. 

(See Queen Victoria). 

Kenyon, J., bequests, 473. 

Key, P. B., shot, 535. 

Kimberley, Earl, on temporal powei 
of the Pope, 965. 

Kinburn bombarded, 446. 

King and Heenan fight, 663. 

Kingsley, Canon, 883, 889. 

Newman controversy, 664. 

Kirby, Mrs. H., burnt, 411. 

Klarikoff burnt, 604. 

Knight, Charles, dinner, 156. 
Know-nothing party, 439. 

Knowsley collection, 336. 

Koh-i-noor diamond, 45, 304. 

Kossta affair, 384. 

Kossuth, Louis—■ 
on the Magyar race, 254. 
refugee, 258, 321. 

Dictator of Hungary, 262. 

France closed, 336. 
arrives at Southampton, 337. 
reception in London, 338. 
arrives at New York, 342. 
presented at Washington, 344. 

“ Friends of Italy,” 365. 
ammunition, 380. 

Polish anniversary, 426. 
Ku-Klux-Klan organization, 816. 
Kurrachee taken, 35. 


L. 

Labuan, Bishop of, 446. 
cession of, 264. 

Ladies’ dresses burnt, 531, 612, 638 
664, 9x1. 

Ladies’ Congress, Leipsic, 718. 

“ Lady Elizabeth,” race horse, 829. 
Lamartine, M.— 
on Eastern question, 58. 
minister for foreign affairs, 238, 239. 
death, 

Lambeth palace, death in, 80. 

suspension bridge, 634. 

Lamirande, case of, 753. 

Lancashire Relief Fund, (see Cotton 
Famine). 

Lancaster gun experiments, 414. 
Landor, W. S.— 
libel case, 527. 
death, 682. 

Landseer lions, 763. 

Landslip, Dorset, 58. 

Langdale, retirement of Lord, 322. 

death, 324. 

Laryngoscope, 539. 

Law Amendment Society, 201. 

Law Courts site, 869, 881. 
designs, 730. 

Law Reform, 682, (see Parliament). 
Lawrence, Sir H., 841. 

Lawrence, Sir John, 857. 

Lord, 866, 868. 

Layard, A. H.— ' 

N ineveh exploration, 284. 

Crimean Inquiry, 431. 
on Eastern question, 434. 

Lewis fracas, 776. 

Minister at Madrid, 888, 893. 

Lay baptism, 77 


League, (see Corn-law agitation). 

Lea river collision, 76. 

Leather failures, 578, 605. 

Leeds— 

Town Hall opened, 528. 
first execution, 682. 
banking failure, 682. 

Lefevre, C. S., elected Speaker, 43. 

retires, 480. 

Leghorn accident, 487. 

Leigh Hunt monument, 888. 

Leipsic anniversary, 659. 

Lendal bridge falls, 612. 

Lesseps, M. de— 
married, 892. 
in England, 924, 925. 

Lesurques robbery, 673. 

Letter-carriers attacked, 220. 

Levant disturbances, (see Egypt and 
Turkey). 

Lev6e, presentation cancelled, 349. 
Leviathan , launch of, 499, 509. 

Lewis, memorial to Sir G. C., 682. 
Libel cases— 

Achilli v. Newman, 356. 

Allington v. Echoes, 883. 

Beresford v. Morning; Chronicle, 61. 
Bishop of Exeter v. Western Times, 
243 - 

Bishop of Manchester v. Gutteriage, 

2 45 * . . 

Buffer v. Oliveira, 375. 

Bulwer, Lady, v. Court Journal, 62. 
63- 

Cadogan v. Piper, 875. 

Campbell v. Spottiswoode, ( Satur¬ 
day Review ), 642. 

Clarkson v. Kay ( Wesleyan Times, 
339 - 

Disraeli, B., 20, 30. 

Duke of Brunswick v. Satirist, 137, 
x 47 - 

Duncombe v. Daniel, 12. 

Easthope v. Westmacott, 7. 

Eliza Cook v. Advertiser, 218. 
Faithfull v. Grant, 882. 

Ferny v. Liverpool Porcupine, 915. 
Harrison v. CornhillMagazine, 875. 
Hawley v. Shorthouse, 895. 

Hogg v. Gregory, Satirist, 35. 
Hunter v. Sharpe, ( Pall Mall Ga¬ 
zette), 759. 

Hurlestone v. Spectator . 212. 

Leng, Sheffield Telegraph, 914, 938, 
959 - 

Lewis v. Ferrand, 210. 

Lucan v. Daily News, 472. 

Meara, Rev. Wade, 392. 

Milne v. Horne, 46. 

M‘Laren v. Ritchie, 466. 

O’Connor, 47, 67. 

O’Connor v. Bradshaw, 292. 

Paget v. Holt, 151. 

Queen's Messenger, 876, 880, 88 r. 
Risk Allah v. Daily Telegraph , 8.-9 
Sala v. Hodder.and Stoughton, 983. 
Seymour v. Butterworth, 635. 
Strauss v. A the nee ton, 526, 764. 
Tichbourne baronetcy, 783. 

Wakley v. Medical Times, 177. 
Wason v. Times, 800, 849. 

Watts, Alaric, 69. 

Willes v. Winchelsea, 650. 
Woodgate v. Rideout, 693. 
Yelverton ( Saturday Review), 721. 
Yescombe v. Landor, 527. 

Libel, law of, 128. 

Libraries, free— 

Select Committee, 273. 

Manchester, 359. 

Liverpool, 363. 

London, rejected, 448. 

Edinburgh, 825. 

Life peerages, 455, 867. 

Lightning accident, 415. 

Lincoln’s inn New Hall, 183. 













L T N 


INDEX ; 


L O W 


Lincoln, Lord— 
rejected at Nottingham, 195. 
returned for Falkirk, 198. 
divorce, 300. 

(See Newcastle, Duke of.) 

Lincoln, President— 

anti-slavery proclamation, 636. 
reply to Manchester memorial, 638. 
assassination, 699. 

(See United States). 

Lind Jenny— 
first appearance, 217. 

Queen's visit, 219. 
at Liverpool, 308. 
farewell concert, 463. 

Lion attack, 591, 665. 

“ Lion Queen” killed, 290. 

Liquor trade suppression, 328. 

Liskeard, vicar of, suspended, 159. 
Lissa, battle of, 747, 772. 

Literary Club centenary, 675. 

Literary Fund, 171, 673. 

Literary Fund anniversaries—(Chair¬ 
men.) 

1837 Duke of Somerset. 

1838 Marquis of Lansdowne. 

1839 Duke of Cambridge. 

1840 Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart. 

1841 Earl of Ripon. 

1842 Prince Albert, 

1843 Duke of Sutherland. 

1844 Marquis of Northampton. 

1845 Earl of Ellenborough. 

1846 Bishop of Lincoln. 

1847 Chevalier Bunsen. 

1848 Duke of Northumberland. 

1849 Viscount Hardinge. 

1850 Justice Talfourd. 

1851 M. Van de Weyer. 

1852 Lord Chief Justice Campbell. 

1853 Rt. Hon. B. Disraeli. 

1854 Lord Mahon. 

1855 Bishop of Oxford. 

1856 Duke of Cambridge. 

1857 Rt. Hon. W. F. Cowper. 

1058 Lord Palmerston. 

1859 Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone. 

1860 Bishop of St. David’s. 

1861 Due d’Aumale. 

1862 Earl Granville. 

1863 Earl Stanhope. 

1864 Prince of Wales. 

1865 Archbishop of York. 

1866 Lord Houghton. 

1867 Dean Milman. 

1868 Rt. Hon. B. Disraeli. 

1869 Lord Stanley. 

1870 Lord Duliferin. 

Lithotomy, unskilful operation, 413. 
Littledale, retirement of Justice, 81. 
Liturgy Commission, 726. 

Liverpool— 

St. George’s Hall, 21, 416. 
fires, 26. 

Collegiate institution, 124. 
tank burst, 190. 

Prince Albert visits, 205. 

Queen visits, 336. 

Corn Exchange accident, 355. 

free library, 363, 586. 

election void, 384. 

merchants and Napole*n III., 561. 

Sailors’ Home, 573. 

executions, 638. 

Lottv Sleigh explosion, 664. 
fatal panic, 902. 

Stanley Hospital, 921. 

Gladstone statue, 947. 

Colonial conference, 948. 
Livingstone, Dr., 497, 510, 514. 
letter from, 758. 

I reported murder, 768. _ 

discussionatGeographical Society,768 

search expedition, 773, 778, 801. 
rumour regarding, 792. 
news from, 8r6, 872, 890, 976. 

(IOO9) 


Loan, 462. 

Locarno, fall of church at, 638. 

Lochend scandal, 692. 

Lola Montes, 215, 234, 282. 

London— 

The Queen at St. James’, 1. 
Buckingham Palace occupied, 4. 
Thames Tunnel, 6, 115, 131. 

The Queen at Guildhall, 8. 

St. Paul’s made free, 11. 

Royal Exchange burnt, 13. 
river steamer, 13. 

Nelson monument, 16, 64, 288, 616, 
763 - 

Coronation, 21, 22. 

Bethlehem hospital, 23. 
wood pavement, 51, 65. 

Royal marriage, 61. 

New Royal Exchange, 65, 90, 97. 
Vauxhall sold, 90. 
fire in the Tower, 92. 
election meeting, 107. 

Chartist demonstrations, 107, 244. 
thunderstorm, 114. 

Fleet Prison closed, 123. 

League contest, 145. 

Royal Exchange opened, 163, 166. 
Wellington statue, 209. 
new County Courts, 224. 
visit of National Guard, 263. 

Coal Exchange opened, 286. 
banquet of Mayors, 295. 
death of Sir R. Peel, 304. 

Marble Arch removed, 322. 

Great Exhibition, 325. 
Victoria-street opened, 333. 

Central Railway Terminus, 339. 364. 
burial act, 357. 

Holloway prison, 362. 

New Houses of Parliament, 364. 
Wellington funeral, 366. 

Sir J. Kay, Chamberlain, 382. 
cab strikes, 386, 797. 

Lord Mayor’s show, 393. 

fog, 394 - , , ^ 

departure of the Guards, 401. 
declaration of war, 403. 

Churches Fund, 408. 

Corporation Report, 408. 

Patriotic Fund, 419. 
bread riots, 431. 

Emperor Napoleon at Guildhall, 


Corporation in Paris, 438. 
Smithfield closed, 439. 
new market opened, 439. 

Peel statue, 442. 

Bartholomew fair abolished, 443. 
library rate rejected, 448. 

Victoria Docks, 450. 

Board of Works, 452. 

Covent Garden theatre, 457. 
Corporation reform, 460. 
peace rejoicings, 462. 
return of the Guards, 464. 

Surrey Gardens accident, 469. 
South Kensington Museum, 488. 
Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum, 


490. 

Indian relief fund, 496, 754. 
commercial panics, 501, 738. 
postal districts, 506. 
state of the Thames, 524. 

Smithfield, 553. 
building strike, 553. ' 
great fire of 1861, 604. 

Middle Temple Library, 613. 
death of Prince Consort, 617, 618. 
Peabody gifts, 622, 628, 730, 733, 
851. . . . 

International Exhibition, 625. 
Westminster bridge opened, 6.7. 
Coutts', drinking fountain, 627. 
Lambeth suspension bridge, 634. 
Metropolitan railway, 637. 
entry of Princess Alexandra, 643. 


London, continued — 

Prince of Wales marriage rejoicings, 
645 - 

spiritual destitution, 648. 
dwellings for poor, 661. 

Southwark new street, 664. 

Garibaldi reception, 671. 

Conference of, 673, 674, 676. 

Thames embankment, 678. 
tolls abolished, 680. 

Southwark bridge opened, 684. 
drainage;works, 699. 

Blackfriars bridge, foundation stone, 
cattle plague, 716. 
funeral of Lord Palmerston, 718. 
Hyde Park reform riots, 747. 
University College, dispute, 749. 
Regent’s Park accident, 762. 

East end distress, 763. 
tailors strike, 773. 

Conference of, 775. 

Holborn Viaduct, 777. 
street robberies, 777. 

Sultan and Viceroy visit, 781. 
Corporation warned, 795. 

Street Traffic Act. 795. 

Corporation privilleges, 795. 
Haymaiket Theatre burnt, 798. 
Clerkenwell outrage, 799. 

Thames Embankment, 822, 835. 

St. Thomjs’s Hospital, 824. 

Main Drainage system, 835. 
excessive heat, 836. 

Dr. Jackson, Bishop, 847. 

Smithfield Market and Holborn 
Viaduct opened, 849, 850. 

New Meat and Poultry Market. 850. 
Columbia Square Market, 870. 
Southwark Park opened, 875. 
Regent’s Park fountain, 882. 
Finsbury Park opened, 882. 
Blackfriars Bridge and Holborn Val¬ 
ley Viaduct opened, 890. 

Columbia Fish Market, 906. 

Martyrs’ memorial, 908. 

University opened, 9x7. 

Inner Temple banquetting hall, 918. 
City library, 956. 

Board of Works Chairman, 961. 
School Board, 964, 967. 
new Post Office, 967. 
relief of Paris, 978. 

(See also Elections, Exhibitions, Ex¬ 
plosions, Fires, Hyde Park, Mur¬ 
ders,Obituary, Parliament,Thames 
and Trials.) 

London, Chatham, and Dover Rail¬ 
way, 752, 754. 

Londonderry, Marquis of— 
coercion of tenant voters, 4. 
altercation with Lord Lyndhurst, 20. 
duels, 33, 44- , 
contradiction of rumours, 47. 
reply to Ripon clergy, 49. 
on Melbourne Ministry, 62. 
mediates for Abd-el-Kader, 332. 
representation of Downshire, 347 
death, 402. 
monument, 616. 

Londonderry tragedy, 266. 

Lone Star Order, 359. 

Longfellow, H. W., in England, 828, 
833, 881. 

Longford election, 912. 

Lopes, death of Lady, 911. 

Lopez, death of, 907. 

Lome,Marquis of, and Princess Louise, 

955 * ^ . 

Louise, Princess— 

opens Inner Temple Hall, 9x8. 
Lome marriage announced, 955. 
dowry, 971, 983. 

Lovers killed, 884. 

Lowe Robert— 

M.P. for Kidderminster. 358. 
opposes Disraeli budget, 369. 

3 T 



















L O W 


INDEX. 


M E T 


Lowe, Robert, continued — 
sh’pping dues, 454, 456. 
censured, 672. 

on Franchise Bill of 1865, 701. 
on Gladstone’s Bill, 728, 733. 
on Hayter’s motion, 739. 
reply to Guedalla, 762. 
primary schools, 770. 
on fates and destinies, 776. 
opposes third reading of Bill, 782. 
University degree, 794. 
on Irish Church, 815. 

Chancellor of Exchequer, 852. 
on Government Grants, 865. 
on House of Lords, 878. 
gold coinage, 882. 
at Elgin, 947. 

Lubbock, Sir John. 907. 

Lucan, Earl of, defence, 433. 

Lucknow relieved, 502. 

Lunar motion, 460, 467. 

Luther monument, 831. 

Luxemburg— 

proposed cession, 769, 770, 771. 
conference, 774, 775. 
evacuated, 789. 
opposes Prussia, 968. 

Lynch law, 334. 

Lyndhurst, Lord— 

attacks Melbourne Ministry, 2. 
altercations with Melbourne, 15, 36. 
taunts Lord John Russell, 50. 
on Lord George Bentinck, 207. 
on Russian war, 4 ij. 
on national defences, 551. 
rejection of paper duty bill, 574. 
death, 659. , 

Lycurgus, Archbishop, in England,901, 
902, 906, 911. 

Lynn Dock opened, 878. 

Lyons, inundated, 77. 

.Lyons, Lord, 463. 

(See Franco-Prussian war.) 
Lytham Lighthouse, fall of, 638. 
Lytton, case of Lady, 525. 

Lytton, Sir E. B.— 

“ Letter to John Bull,” 324. 

“ Not so Bad as we Seem,” 327. 
on Russia, 437. 


M. 

Macaulay, T. B.— 

elected for Edinburgh, 44. 

War Secretary, 52. 

“ Windsor Castle ” letter, 52. 

China debate, 64. 
candidate for Edinburgh, 86. 
on Corn-laws, 128. 
on Somnauth proclamation, 129. 
condition of Ireland, 150. 
on Maynooth grant, 173, 174- 
Irish Church, 174. 
on Lord Grey, 189. 
re-elected for Edinburgh, 205. 

Lord Rector of Glasgow University, 

265, 2 73 - , . 

Edinburgh election, 355, 358. 
on Protectionist candidates, 358. 
addresses constituents, 364. 
opposes Judges Exclusion Bill, 383. 
last speech on India Bill, 385. 
retires, 453. 

Baron of Rothley, 496. 

High Steward of Cambridge, 519. 
death, 561. . 

Macdonald, Captain, imprisoned, 584. 
Macdonald, Professor, proceedings 
against, 226. 

Machiavelli celebration, 871. 
Mackenzie, W. F., 175. 

public-house Act, 346, 388. _ 
Macleod.Dr.Norman, entertained, 794. 
Macnaghten, SirW. (see Affghan War). 
Macreudy testimonials, 39, 47, 137. 
(IOIO) 


Macready, continued— 
riots, 277. 

/arewell, 320. 
banquet, 321. 

Macrorie, Bishop, 801. _ 

Madagascar, assassination of king, 649. 
Madia case, 362, 363, 367, 374, 376, 
379. 

Magdala captured, 818, (see Abys¬ 
sinian War.) 

Maine Liquor Law, 437. 

Malakhoff, Duke of, 466. 

Mallow election, 914. 

Malmesbury, Earl of, 386. 
views on Italian war, 542. 
on Reform, 756. 

Magee, Bishop, 841. 

Manchester— 

education meeting, 7. 
fracas in streets, 47. 
threatened riots, 48. 

Charter case, 50, 81. 
parks opened, 207. 

Bishopric of, 212, 219, 221. 
confirmation, 232. 

Free Trade banquet, 233. 

Christmas festivities, 269. 
free library, 316, 359. 

Royal Charter, 379. 

Peel statue, 391. 

Art Treasures’ Exhibition, 483, 499. 
Trade Union Inquiries, 788. 

Fenian outrage, 789. 

Irish Church meeting 803. 

Music Hall disaster, 835. 

Owen’s College, new buildings, 949. 
Manin, Daniel, 813 
“ Man in the Moon” bribery, 560. 
Manning, Archbishop, 704, 919. 

and Cambridge Union, 757. 

Mansell, Dean, 841, 851. 

Manufacturing distress, 92. 

Marble Arch, 322. 

Marco Polo, sailing, 390. 

Maria Theresa, military order of, 485. 
Marlborough launched, 424. 

Marquesas seized, 124. <* 

Marriage Laws, 564, 600. 

(See Parliament) 

Martineau, Rev. J., rejected, 749. 

and Professor Morgan, 758. 

Masons killed, 407. 

Mather, case of Erskine, 343, 356. 
Mathew, Father, temperance pledge, 
51, 56, 116, 141, 142. 

Matterhorn accident, 710. 

Matthews, Charles, dinner to, 898. 
Maurice, Rev. F. D.— 
dismissed, 392. 
address to, 583. 
professor, 756. 
closes ministry, 890. 

Maury, Captain— 
resigns, 618. 
testimonial, 740. 

Maximilian, Emperor, (see Mexico.) 
Mayatlan, blockade of, 832. 

Mayer, Samuel, 136. 

Mayne, Sir R., memorial, 975. 
Maynooth resolutions, 884. 

Mayo election, 307. 

Mayo, Lord— 

Irish Church negotiations, 816, 828. 
Governor-General of India, 836, 843. 
resigns seat, 838. 
lands at Bombay, 852. 
at Calcutta, 856. 

Mayors at Brussels, 902. 

Maza, Colonel, shot, 45. 

Mazzini, M.— 
a Roman citizen, 271. 
proclamation, 761. 

(See Italy and Rome.) 
M'Clintock’s discoveries, 556, 560, 575 
M'Clure’s discoveries, 312, 391. 
Mechanics Institution, London, 537. 


Medals, war, 2x9. 

Medical Association, 6. 

Meetings— 

Aborigines protection, 291. 
Administrative Reform, 435, 439 - 
Aged actors fund, 26. 

Anti-slavery, 16, 136. 

Ballot, 8. 

Canadian sympathy, 13. 

Conservative Peers, 873, 909. 

Deans, 871. 

Education, 7, 292, 907, 921. 
Emigration, 897, 902. 

Etonians, 215. 

Fallen women, 727. 

Financial and Parliamentary Reform, 
283. 

Franco-Prussian war, 946, 948, 949, 
954, 964, 966, 968, 971, 972, 975. 
Free Labour, 250. 

Gorham case, 296, 306. 

Head money (pirates), 291. 

Highland destitution, 212. 

Holbeck Heath, 80. 

Hungary, 281. 

Income Tax, 124. 

India Missions, 862. 

Irish Church, 8x9, 820, 823, 830, 858, 
866, 871, 872, 873, 879, 889. 
Labouring classes, 301. 

Liberal Members’, 281, 544. 

Marriage Laws, 564. 

Maynooth, 172, 173, 174. 

Mendicity, 9x1. 

Ministerial and Opposition, 478, 368 . 
National Reform Union, 902. 
Non-intervention, 543. 

Opium question, 65. 

Paisley distress, 5. 

Papal Aggression, 316. 

Protection, 276, 279, 290, 291, 298, 

2 99 - . . 

Queen and Melbourne Ministry, 43. 
Russian war, 390. 

Ritualism, 796, 856. 

Sunday opening of Museums, 71 
Sympathy with Pope, 966. 

Tailor grievances, 290. 

Taxes on Knowledge, 321. 

Turkey, 379. 

War (France), 76. 

Yorkshire women, 14. 

(See Chartist, Corn-law, and Re¬ 
form agitation). 

Melbourne, Lord— 

Ministry attacked by Lyndhurst, 2. 
altercation with Lyndhurst, 15. 
Ministry defeated, xg, 38, 48, 61, 6a, 
81. - 

letter to Lady Hastings, 37. 
vote of confidence, 39, 40. 
resignation, 40. 
resumes power, 41. 

Bedchamber plot, 41. 

Ministerial changes, 51. 
no confidence debate, 60. 
on Corn-laws, 84. 
no confidence debate, 85, 86. 
fall of Ministry, 90. 
fixed corn duty, 106. 
death, 265. 

Melville, Rev. Henry, 460. 
farewell sermon, 920. 
death, pSi. 

Menagerie accident, 150. 
Mendelssohn’s “ Elijah," 207. 
Merchants Company fraud, 860, 870. 
Mercator monument, 882. 

Merivale, Dean of Ely, 895. 
Mesmerism, 135. 

Metcalf, Lord, 166, 208. 

Meteoric showers, 758- 
Meteorological grant refused, 865. 
Metropolitan Railway, 854. 
Metropolitan Railway traffic, 877. 
Metz, M. Mettray, 462. 



















met 


INDEX. 


MUR 


Metz, surrender of, 955. 

Meux lunacy, 525. 

Mexico — 

rupture with France, 31. 
peace, 37. 

war with United States, 177. 
defeat at Palo Alto, 199. 

Santa Anna, at Vera Cruz, 207. 
Monterey taken, 209. 
defeats, 215, 216. 
capital seized, 224. 
negotiations rejected, 232. 
peace, 233. 

cession of California and New 
Mexico, 250. 

Santa Anna, President, 379. 

Dictator, 395. 
abdicates, 442, 

Alvarez, 452. 

ecclesiastical property, 459. 

Zuloaga President, 508. 

Miramcn President, 533. 
ecclesiastical property confiscated, 
552- 

Juarez in power, 589, 605. 
specie payment suspended, 607, 608. 
expedition against, 613. 
neutrality of United States, 616. 

St. John d’Ulloa taken, 6x7. 
Anglo-French force, 619. 
withdrawal of England and Spain, 
624. 

French defeated, 626. 

Imperial designs, 626. 
landing of General Forey, 631. 
proclamation, 632, 633. 
landing of Santa Anna, 644. 

Puebla entered, 645. 
capital entered, 

“Regency” government, 652. 
Maximilian, Emperor, 654, 658, 671. 
proclamation, 674. 

Empress Regent, 676. 
constitution promulgated, 699. 
belligerent rights denied, 717. 
Empress, reported insane, 754. 
Emperor betrayed, 776. 
executed, 779. 
capital surrenders, 780. 
news of surrender, 781. 

Emperor’s body, 795, 801, 802. 
M'Hale, Dr., on Irish Church, 284. 
M'how court martial, 650. 

Michael, Prince of Servia, shot, 821. 
Middle drainage inundation, 625. 
Middle Temple Library, 613. 

Midnight meetings, 646. 

Miguel, marriage of Don, 336. 

Militia to be called out, 408. 

Militia quotas, 357. 

Mill, J- S.— 

rector of St. Andrews, 763. _ 
charges Disraeli with deception, 777' 
Bouverie correspondence, 840. 
on Russia, 961. 

Milman, Rev. Dr. H. H. 

Dean of St. Paul’s, 286. 
on Prince Consort, 618. 
death, 840. 

Milman, Dr., Bishop of Calcutta, 767. 
Milton epitaph, 833- 
Ministerial re-election, 372. 

Ministry of Justice, 454- 
Minto, Lord, in Italy, 235. 

(See Italy and Papal aggression.) 
Mint mastership transferred, 904. 
Mires. M. arrested, 595- 
Miser Smith, 92. 

Missionaries massacred, 500. 
Missions, foreign, 676. 

Mitchell, John, escapes, 344- 
Mixed communion, 922, 938. 
McManus, escape of, 328. 

M’Neile, Dean of Ripon, 839. 
Moabite stone, 907. 

Model Lodging Houses, 380. 

(IOII) 


Modena, Duke of, to “ dear Forni,” 445. 
Moens seized, 678. 

Moffat, Rev. R., missionary, 932. 
Molesworth, Sir W.— 
on Lord Glenelg, 15. 
on Lord Durham, 31. 

M.P. for Southwark, 182. 
colonial expenditure, 256. 
colonial grievances, 279. 
joins Coalition Cabinet, 372. 
death, 447. 

Monarch Insurance Company, 921. 
Moncrieff banquet, 867. 

Moncrieff gun carriage, 841, 861, 903.^ 
Moncrieff, Lord Justice Clerk, 886, 
888 . 

Monster powder-blast, 125. 

Montague, injunction against Lord R., 
696. 

Montalembert, M. de— 
censures Socialists, 290. 
on Indian debate, 520. 
trial, 530. 

on ultramontanes, 907. 
death of, 908. 

Mont Cenis railway, 787, 829. 

tunnel completed, 969, 777. 
Monteagle, Lord, attempt to bribe, 131- 


death, 725. . 

(See also Rice, Spring.) 

Montefiore, Sir M.— 
sheriff, 2. 
knighted, 8. 

Montenegro, 631. 

Montreal, (see Canada.) 

Montrose, Duchess of, 45. 

Mooltan, (see India.) 

Moray Cathedral, 755. 

Mormon baptisms, 148. 
founder murdered, 157. 
memorial, 887. 

Morning Herald, Indian Express, 190. 

Morpeth, Lord— 
joins Anti-Corn Law League, 185. 
returned for West Riding, 193. 
retires, 263. 

(See Carlisle, Earl of.) 

Morning Advertiser hoaxed, 485. 

Mnrrknn. Rev. Mr.. 86. 


Mortara case, 54?. 

Motley, J. L., United States Am¬ 
bassador, 868. 
at Liverpool, 873. 
withdrawn, 926. 
presents letters of recall, 9^5- 
Muller, Max, 373. 

Murder, attempted, 68. 


Murders— 

Acton, 645. 

Albury Heath, 350. 
Aldershot, 585, 617, 880, 884. 


Aldermanbury, 103. 

Alton, 787. 

Angel Inn, Ludlow, 74 
Ballycohey, 837. 

Ballymote, 591. 

Bank clerk, 222. 

Bankside, Southwark, 7*5- 
Battersea bridge, 154, 198. 
Bedchambers, 224, 229. 

Belper, 343. . 

Bermondsey (Mannings), 283. 
Bergholty, Captain, 44. 
Bethnal-green (Tapping), 107. 
Bilston, 618. 

Birdcage Walk, 234. 

Blaw Wearie, 147- T _ , , , 

Bloomsbury (Emma Jackson), 040. 

(M‘Donnell), 790. 

Brayer, Paris, 860. 

Brett, Manchester, 789. 

Broadstone station, .471. 

Bucker’s Plotel, Finsbury, 900. 
Buckhurst hill, 773. 801. 

Burgos, 858. 

Burnham Abbey, 392. 


Murders, continued — 

Byer’s-green, 447. 

Camberwell (Horeau), 195. 

Canon Street, 732, 742. 

Carsphad, 625. 

Castleblaney (Bateson), 341, 405 
Chatham barracks, 714. 

Cleekhinion, 378. 

Cobham Park, 142. 

Coldbath Fields Prison, 252. 

Cornhill, 79. 

Corporal Brown, 389. 

Courvoisier, 65. 

Count Lamberg, 262. 

Count Latour, 263. 

Count Rossi, 265. 

Crathoine, 104. 

Cummertrees, Annan, 824. 
Dagenham, 203. 

Darcy M’Ghee, 816. 

Dean Forest, 122. 

Dobbyn’s Hotel, Tipperary, 629. 
Doddinghurst, 321. 

Dover Camp, 473. 

Dover Railway Station, 834. 

Dublin constables, 794. ' 

Duchess Laforce, 456. 

Ducker of the Guards. 234. 

D undry, 598. 

Drury Court, 615. 

Drury lane (Bostock), 195. 

Duggan family, 877. 

Durran Hill, 621. 

Eaglesham, 505. 

Eastcheap, 91. 

Edinburgh, South Frederick Street, 
! 637. 

Epworth, 606. 
j Escoffier, Ravenna, 910. 

Esher, 410. 

j Faubourg, St. Honore, 902. 

! Fen Ditton, 610. 

| Foley Place, 429. 
j Folkestone, 466. 

Fontainebleau Fore.-t, 786. 

I Foots Cray, 224. 

Forwood alias Southey, 714. 

Frater, Newcastle, 612. 

Gateshead Fell, 131. 

Grange, Edinburgh, 717. 

Greek brigands, 912. 

Grimwood, Eliza, 19. 

Guernsey, 395. 

Guildhall Coffee House, 207. 
Hampstead, (Delarue), 169. 
Hampton Court barracks, 22. 
Harvard University, 287. 

Hay market, 511. 

Hayward, George, 956. 

Heneage Street, Manchester, 802. 
Highbury Barn, 107. 
j Holbom (Forwood), 714. 

Holkham Wood, 332. 

Huddersfield police, 65. 

Hunt, W. S.. 660. 

Ipsden Wood, 579. 

| Ireland’s Eye, 369. 

j Isieworth, 633. 

I Islington, 600. 

Juniper-green, 295. 

Keighley, 630. 

Kennington-road, 351. 

Kinck family, 886, 896. 

Kingswood Rectory, 609. 
Knocksheban, 819. 

Lamonby (Crosby infant), 169. 
Ledbury, 554. 

Leeds (Jeffgate), 5. 

Lee, Walter, 939. 

Leighton Buzzard, 394- 
Lerwick, (Williamson), 5x6. 
Liverpool (Wilson), 274. 

Loddon, Victoria, 940. 

Lorenzo Beha, 394. 

Lubanski, 909. 

Ludgate Hill,(Vyse), 626. 

3 T i 




















MUR 


INDEX. 


NAP 


Muvders, continued — 

Marshall family, Uxbridge, 919, 920, 
93 i- 

Meiler, Manchester, 626. 

Midgham harm, 628. 

Mill bank prison, 286. 

Minories, 389, 452. 

Mirfield, 217. 

Molloy, Dublin, 615. 

“ Molly Maguires,” 172. 

Mormon founders, 157. 

Muirhead, Arbroath, 888. 

Newcastle (Millie), 31. 

(Frater), 612. 

iV ew York Tribune office, 892. 
Norbury, Earl of, 33. 

North London Railway, (Briggs), 
678, 681. 

Northumberland-street, 606. 

Norton-Folgate, 823. 

Norwich, 329, 855, 865. 
on board Her Majesty, 440. 

Pack Horse, Carlisle, 599. 
Parliament-street, 470. 

Parsonstown Barracks, 140. 

Paulton Square, 917. 

Penrith, 169. 

Plymouth barracks, 597. 

Poinsot, M. 589. 

Poplar, 859, 862. 

Powell, family, 868. 

Prankerd, Bath, 940. 

Praslin, 222. 

Pjeston Barracks, 6ri. 

Preston, 628. 

Prince Alfred’s cook, 715, 722. 

Prince Michael, 829. 

Queen’s Park, Edinburgh, 582. 
Ramsgate, 539. 

Rathgormac, 872. 

Road, (Kent), 577. 

(confession), 701. 

Roshampton (Good), 105. 
Ruardean-hill, 122. 

Runnymede, convict ship, 462. 
Russell, Lord W., 65. 

Saffron-hill, 691, 694 
Salt Hill, 165, 231. 

Sandown Fort, 574, 

Sandyford Place, Glasgow, 639. 
Saville Morton, 362. 

Seven Dials, 748. 

Sherburn, Durham, (constable), 822. 
Shoreditch, 561. 

Snareston, 457. 

Soho, 454. 

Stanfield Hall, 265. 

Stepney, (Mullins), 586. 

Stevenage, 514. 

St. Fergus, 405. 

St. Giles’, 171. 

Stickney, 554. 

Stirling Castle hulk, 457. 

Stockwell Street, Glasgow, 914. 
Stoker, Gateshead, 601. 

Sullivan, Mr., Lima, 495. 
Sunderland, 131. 

Sweethearts, 531. 

Talgarth, 598. 

Templemore, 958. 

Thaubin HeloJse, 511. 

Thiebault, Tipperary, 648. 

Tinne, Mdlle. (Africa), 828. 
Todmorden Vicarage, 807, 

Torton, 529. 

Trebizond, 828. 

Tulla, 284. 

Uxbridge (Alsop), 37. 

Marshall family, 919, 920. 

Veale, (at sea), 440. 

Vernon place, 790, 792. 

Victor Noir, (Bonaparte), 898, 
Walworth, 582. 

Warren-street, New-road, 427. 
Waterford (Lanigan), 883. 

Webster, Dr., 287. 

(IOI2) 


Murders, continued — 

Wenlock, 515. 

West Auckland, 379. 
Westminster (Mundell), 184. 
Weymouth (maniac), 628. 
Whitton, Hounslow, 887. 
Widow Saujon, 395. 

Wigwell hall, 663. 

Winlaton, 590, 695. 

Wtnthrop, brigantine, 635. 
Wolverhampton, 716. 

Wood Green, 887. 

Woods, Dundee, 23. 
Woolverton, 783. 

Museum bill, 71. 

Museum, British, 216. 

Royal Commission, 220. 
retirement of Sir H. Ellis, 458. 
new reading room, 484. 
Musical festivals— 

Birmingham, 6. 

Westminster Abbey, 22. 

Mute criminal, 411. 

Mutinies— 

Ararat , 550. 

Aratoom Opcar, 386. 

Berenice, 368. 

Creole, 92. 

Dinapore, 588. 

Fanny, 6. 

Feliciilade , 169. 

Mermaid, 

Queen of the Teign, 390. 
Stebouheath, 463. 

Tipperary militia, 464. 
Umritsur, Bengal, 291. 
Woolwich convicts, 343. 

(See Indian Mutiny.) 


N. 

Nana Sahib, 317. 

(See Indii.) 

Napier, Col. Sir W., defends Welling¬ 
ton, 25. 

Napier, Sir C.— 

banquets, 83, 402, 431. 
discretion, 296. 

commander of Baltic fleet, 402. 
address, 405. 

Graham correspondence, 407, 419. 
M.P. for Southwark, 447. 
death, 588. 

Napier, Sir C. J.— 
division orders, 122. 
banquet, 257. 

Commander-in-Chief in India, 273. 
praises Sepoy soldiers, 288. 
farewell address to Indian army, 315. 
death, 389. 
statue, 472. 

Napier, Sir R.— 

(See Abyssinian war.) 
entertained, 831. 
thanked by Parliament, 832. 
created Lord Magdala, 833. 
freedom of City of London, 834. 
takes seat in House of Lords, 834. 
entertained at Welshpool, 836. 
Naples— 

sulphur monopoly, 62, 65. 
constitution of 1812, 233. 

Messina bombarded, 235. 
vote for deposition, 245. 
insurrection, 249. 
aids the Pope, 276. 
capture of Palermo, 277. 

Gladstone pamphlets, 322, 333. 
declines mediation, 443. 
difference with France and England, 
470 , 548 . 

Milano’s attempt, 473. 
exiles from, 536. 
reform address, 571, 
insurrections, 573. 


Naples, continued — 
reform promised, 577. 
manifesto, 583. 

Garibaldian invasion, 577, 582. 
annexation to Sardinia, 586. 

Gaeta besieged, 588, 592, 594. 
united to Italy, 588. 

Napoleon I.— 
removal of remains, 66, 79. 
arms, 67. 

column at Boulogne, 88. 
re-interred in Invalides, 599. 
will of, 376, 415, 509. 
residence at Longwood sold, 518, 
funeral car, 529. 

Napoleon, Prince Louis— 
in Switzerland, 25. 
on Paris riots, 43. 
attempt at Boulogne, 73. 
trial, 75. 

escape from Ham, 200. 
note to de St. Aulaire, 200. 
bill stealing case, 220. 
tenders his services to the Republic, 
237 . 239. 

elected to the Assembly, 252. 
supported by Louis Blanc and Jules 
Favre, 252. 
resigns, 253. 
re-elected, 261. 

takes his seat in the Assembly, 262. 
promises to defend Republic, 265. 
elected President, 267. 

Strasbourg and Boulogne papers, 
268, 269. 

pacific intentions, 268. 
supports French force in Rome, 276. 
English furnishings sold, 277. 
at Ham, 281. 

Roman policy, 283. 
tour through southern provinces, 308. 
speech at Cherbourg, 309. 
hailed as Emperor at Satory, 311. 
rupture with General Changarnier, 
312, 316. 

the first duty of Government, 314 
addition to army, 314. 
order restored, 315. 
address at Dijon, 328. 
the social edifice, 335. 
alleged conspiracy, 338. 
address to officers, J39. 
abolishes the Constitution, 339. 
proclaims society saved, 342 
President for ten years, 343. 
speech at distribution of eagles, 353. 
closes Assembly, 356. 
at Strasbourg, 358. 

“ the elect of God,” 360. 
speech at Lyons, 361. 
dynasty established, 365, 371. 
Napoleon III., Emperor— 
proclaimed, 368. 
marriage, 375. 

London address, 379. 
assassination plot, 393. 
letter on Russian war, 358. 
review of troops, 413, 415. 
visits Queen Victoria, 434, 494. 
Pianori’s attempt, 434. 

Bellemarre’s attempt, 444. 
birth of Prince Imperial, 458. 
opens Legislative session, 476. 
Orsini’s attempt, 506. 

“the Emperor and England," 514. 
on slave trade, 529. 
address to Austrian ambassador, 533. 
joins the army of Italy, 543. 

(See Italian war.) 
enters Milan, 546. 
returns to Paris, 552. 
address to Ministers, 552. 

Italian Confederation, 558. 
reply to Liverpool merchants, -6i 
“Le Pape et le Congres,” 561. 
commercial freedom, 562. 









NAP 


INDEX. 


Napoleon III., Emperor, continued — 
advises the Pope, 562. 
remonstrance, 580. 
visits Algiers, 583. 

Empress in Fngland, 589. 
reform in chambers, 589. 
compared to Pilate, 596. 

D’Aumale’s letter, 599. 
invitation to Congress, 660. 
conspiracy, 664, 669. 
in Algeria, 702. 

withdraws troops from Mexico, 731. 
address at Auxerre, 737. 
views on Austro-Prussian war, 741. 
claims Sarrelouis and Landau, 749. 
offers Venetia to Italy, 750. 
letter to M. Ollivier on press prose¬ 
cutions, 762. 

authorizes interpellation, 763. 
at Lille, 788. 
at Troyes, 836. 
rumoured death, 851. 
new year reception, 855. 
pensions soldiers of First Empire,867. 
proclamation at Chalons, 877. 
rumoured illness, 884. 

Empress in the East, 886. 

“order and liberty,” 893. 

end of personal government, 896. 

peace prospects, 897. 

f ‘ plebiscite ” proclamation, 914, 916. 

future reforms, 918. 

war address to Senate, 929. 

Imperial proclamation, 932. 

(oee Franco-Prussian war.) 
leaves St. Cloud for Metz, 933. 
affair at Saarbruck, 935. 
at Verdun, 939. 
surrenders at Sedan, 942. 
captive at Wilhelmshohe, 943. 

“kffies dTEmpereur,” 949. 
causes of failure, 958. 
proclamation from Wilhelmshohe, 
980. 

arrives in England, 986. 
reception, 986. 

Nassau, Grand Duke of, 951. 

Natal rival bishops, 801, 802, 832, 
835. 

Natchez, city of, destroyed, 68. 
National union, 145. 

Naval architects, 562. 

Naval committee, 968. 

Naval reserve souadron, 872. 

Neild bequest, 363. 

Nelson and Brand trials, 764, 771. 
Nelson monument, 16, 64, 75, 763. 
Victory , 163. 
relics, 178. 
correspondence, 379. 

Nepaulese ambassadors, 300, 301. 
Neptune planet discoverers, 209, 210. 
N eufchatel independent, 239. 

difficulty, 354, 467, 481. 

Newcastle— 
royal address, 285. 

High Level Bridge opened, 309. 
High Sheriff censured, 329. 
cholera, 390. 
great fire, 419. 

Corn Exchange opened, 503. 
Newcastle, Duke of, dismissal, 40. 

on Maynooth grant, 173. 

Newcastle, Henry, Duke of,— 
Sebastopol despatch, 412, 413. 
defence, 430. 

accompanies Prince of Wales, 579. 
death, 683. 

Newcastle bankruptcy case, 889, 892. 
Newell, Miss, 124- 
Newfoundland, governor of, no. 
Newman, Rev. J. H.— 

Tract, XC., 82. 
resigns St. Mary’s, 144. 
joins Rome, 182. 
leaves Oxford, 191. 


Newman, Rev. J. H., continued — 
Achilli trial, 356. 
sympathy with Pope, 565. 
on Kingsley, 664. 
address to, 772. 
on Papal infallibility, 909, 912. 
Neutrality proclamations— 

Italian war, 543. 

American war, 601. 

German war, 930. 

New River Company share, 524, 920. 
Newspapers established— 

1837 Jurist. 

,, Era. 

,, Racing Times. 

1840 Tablet. 

1841 Gardener’s Chronicle. 

„ Nonconformist. 

,, (July 17) Punch. 

1842 Illustrated London News. 

1843 Builder. 

,, English Churchman. 

,, Economist. 

1846 Daily News. 

,, Guardian. 

1853 Press. 

„ Field. 

1855 Daily Telegraph. 

,, Saturday Review. 

1856 Engineer. 

,, Morning Star. 

1859 Chemical News. 

1865 Pall Mall Gazette. 

1869 Nature. 

„ Graphic. 

Newspapers, letting out of, 287. 
Newton, statue of Sir Isaac, 528. 
Newto '-Pascal forgeries, 787, 884, 906. 
New Zealand— 
first emigrants, 40. 
division of land, 48. 
exploring expedition, 53. 

Governor Hobson, 60. 
penal settlement, 65. 
sovereignty, 67. 
independence, 83. 
settlers attacked, hi, 170. 
war, 137, 159. _ 

parliamentary inquiry, 154, 177, 179. 

reverses, 178. 

submission, 188. 

swift passage from, 270. 

constitution, 352. 

close of Maori war, 681. 

Poverty Bay massacre, 846. 
renewed hostilities, 881. 

Ney statue, 395. 

Niagara Falls, reported destruction, 
81. 

Nicaragua blockaded, 116. 

disturbances, 440, 471, 516, 518. 

Nice and Savoy annexation, 564, 566, 
567. 568, 57L 573- 
Nichols, John, starved, 355. 

Niger expedition, 91, 92, 115. 
Nightingale, Miss F., 419. 
arrival at Scutari, 424. 
testimonial, 450. 

“ Nil Darpan Drama,” 625. 

Nile exploration— 

Speke, 526. 
discovery, 629. 

(See African discovery.) 

Noel, Rev., Baptist, 266. 

N orfolk curry powder, 190. 

Normandy, pretended Duke of, 29. 
Northampton poisonings, 252. 
Northumberland , launch, 733. 
Northumberland-street encounter, 606. 
Norton v. Norton, 388. 

Nottingham election, 83, 107, 843. 

accident at execution, 160. 

Nott, Sir William, 161. 
death, 166. 

(See Affghan war.) 

Nugget, gold, 384. 


O B 


o. 

Oaks Colliery explosions, 215, 760. 
Oastler, Richard, 150. 
death, 610. 
monument, 872. 

Obituary— 

A’Beckett, G A., 467. 

A’Beckett, Sir W., 877. 
Abercrombie, John, 164. 
Aberdeen, Earl of, 590. 
Aberdeen, George, Earl of, 90*. 
Abyssinia, Queen of, 824. 

Adair, Sir Robert, 446. 

Adams, J. Quincy, 235. 
Adelaide, Madame, 231. 
Adolphus, John, 179. 

Agnew, Sir Andrew, 273. 

Aikin, Lucy, 665. 

Ailsa, Marquis of, 910. 

Albert, Prince, 617. 

Alderson, Baron, 473. 

Alford, Rev. Henry, 972. 

Alison, Sir Archibald, 777. 

Allan, Sir William, 293. 

Amherst, Earl, 481. 

Anglesea, Marquis of, 407. 
Angou erne, Duchess of, 337. 
Angoulenie, Duke of, 156. 
Anson, General, 486. 

Anster, Dr., 778. 

Arago, M., 391. 

Argyll, Duke of, 54. 

Arndt, E. M., 563. 

Arnold, Rev. Dr., m. 
Ashburton, Lord, 249. 

Atkinson, T. W., 610. 

Attwood, T. (musician) 16. 

Attv ood, T. (politician), 457 
Auckland, Lord, 268. 

Audubon, James, 317. 

Augusta, Princess, 73. 

Austin, John, 561. 

Austin, Sarah, 785. 

Avonmore, Lord, 933. 

Aytoun, Professor, 714. 

Bail lie, Joanna, 320. 

Baily, Francis, 161. 

Bajee Rao, 317. 

Baldwin, Charles, 860. 

Balfe, M. W., 955. 

Balzac, Honore de, 308. 
Bandinel, Rev. B., 594. 
Banim,.John, 115. 

Barbes, Armand, 923. 

Barere, Bertrand, 80. 

Barham, Rev. R. H., 177. 
Baroche, M., 956. 

Barowloski, Count, 6. 

Barrow, Sir John, 265. 

Barry, Sir Charles, 574. 

Barth, H., 720. 

Barton, Bernard, 272. 

Bsssano, Duke of, 43. 

Bavaria, ex-king of, 807. 
Beaufort, Admiral, 305. 
Beauharnais, Hortense, 6. 
Beche, Sir T. H., 434. 

Beckford, William, 154. 

Bedford, Duke of, 54. 

Bedford, Paul, 972. 

Beechey, Admiral, 472. 

Beechey, Sir William, 34. 
Behnes, Wm., 664. 

Belgians, King of, 721. 

Belgians, Queen of, 311. 
Belgium, Prince Royal, 857. 
Bell, Sir Charles, 107. 

Bellot, Lieut, 388. 

Belluno, Duke of. 82. 

Belzoni, Sarah, 900. 

Bentinck, Lord George, 261. 
Beranger, J. P., 492. 

Beresford, General, 396. 
Bergenroth, G. A., 860. 

Berri, Duel bss dc, 914. 

(IOI3) 







O B T 


INDEX. 


OBI 


Obituary, continued — 

Berry, Miss, 367. 

Berryer, M., 850. 

Berzelius, Baron, 257. 
Besborough, Earl of, 217. 
Bickersteth, Rev. E., 293. 
Birkbeck, Dr., 94. 

Birt, J. B., 620. 

Bischof, Dr., 964. 

Bishop, -ir H. K., 434. 

Black, John, 440. 

Blainville, M. de, 298. 
Blessington, Countess of, 278. 
Bliss, Rev. Philip, 503. 

Blomfield, Rev. Dr., 494. 
Blumenbach, Professor, 60. 

Bode, Baron de, 209. 

Bonpland, M., 519. 

Bourne, Sturges, 167. 

Bowles, Rev. W. L., 296. 
Bradshaw, Mr., 390. 

Braham, John, 456. 

Braid wood. Inspector, 604. 
Brandenburg, Count, 313. 
Brande, W. T., 725. 

Brassey, Thomas, 966. 
Braybrooke, Lord, 515. 
Braybrooke, Lord, 597. 

Brewster, Sir David, 803. 

Bright, Dr. John, 902. 

Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 633. 
Broglie, Due de, 902. 

Bronte, Charlotte, 433. 

Brooke, Sir James, 828. 
Brougham, Lord, 823. 

Broughton, Lord, 873. 

Brown (“ Artemus Ward,”) 767. 
Brown, Robert, 522. 

Brown, Sir George, 716. 

Brown, Sir Samuel 349. 

Brown, Thomas, 865. 

Browning, Mrs., 605. 

Bruce, John, 889. 

Brunei, I. K., 556. 

Brunei, Sir I. M.. 288. 
Buckingham, Duke of, 608. 
Buckingham, J. S., 441. 
Buckiand, Rev. Dr., 467. 

'Buckle, H. T., 627. 

Bugeaud, Marshal, 278. 

Buller, Charles, 266. 

Bulow, Baron, 194. 

Bunsen, Chevalier, 589. 
Buonaparte, Prince Jerome, 577 . 
Buonaparte, Lucien, 70. 
Buonaparte, Prince Louis, 205. 
Burdett, Sir Francis, 148. 
Burlinghame, Anson, 006. 

Burns, Robert, 485. 

Bute, Marquis of, 242. 

Buxton, Sir T. F., 169. 

Byron, Lady, 574. 

Cabet, N. 469. 

Cadell, Robert, 270. 

Calhoun, J. C., 296. 

Cambridge, Duke of, 305. 
Campbell, Lord, 604. 

Campbell, Monzie, 856. 
Campbell, Rev. John, 63. 
Campbell, Thomas, 157, 158. 
Cambronne, Baron, 97. 

Cameron, Captain C. D., 920. 
Canning, Earl, 627. 

Canina, Chevalier, 469. 

Canino, Prince of, 493. 
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 234. 
Canterbury, Viscount, 179. 
Cantillon, Sergeant, 881. 
Cardigan, Earl, 815. 

Carleton, William, 858. 

Carlisle, Earl of, 687. 

Carlos, Don, 433. 

Catalani, Madame, 278. 
Cavaignac, General, 498. 

Cavour, Count, 603. 

Cayley, Sir George, 504. 

(1014) 


Obituary, continued -— 

Chalmers, Patrick, 412. 
Chalmers, Rev. Dr., 218. 
Chamier, Captain, 957. 

Chantry, Sir Francis, 94. 
Charteris, Hon. F., 934. 
Chateaubriand, M. de, 254. 
China, Emperor of, 610. 
Cholmondeley, Marquis of, 917. 
Christie, Captain, 434. 

C lare, John, 673. 

Clarendon, Earl of, 923. 

Clark, Sir James, 923. 

Clarke, Sir C. M., 496. 

Clarkson. Thomas, 209. 

Clay, Henry, 357. 

Clay, Sir William, 863. 

Clinton, Lord A. P., 922. 

Clyde, Lord, 657. 

Clogher, Bishop of, 147. 
Cloncurry, Lord, 392. 

Clowes, Wm., 214. 

Cobden, Richard, 698. 
Cochrane, Admiral, 588. 
Cockburn, Lord, 406. 
Codrington, Admiral, 325. 
Coleridge, Flartley, 269. 

Collins, Wm., 214. 

Colocotronis, Theodore, 126. 
Colquhoun, J. C., 914. 

Combe, George, 527. 

Comte, Auguste, 496. 

Conder, Josiah, 452. 

Conington, Professor, 888. 
Connelly, Commander, 856. 
Conolly, Dr. J., 728. 

Cook, Rev. Dr., 868. 

Cooke, G. W. 705. 

Cooke, Rev. Dr., 852. 

Cooke, T. P., 671. 

Cooper, Abraham, 854. 

Cooper, Bransby, 388. 

Cooper, J. F., 335. 

Cooper, Professor, 267. 

Cooper, Lady A. Paston, 898. 
Coppock, James, 503. 
Cottenham, Lord, 325. 

Craig, Sir J. Gibson, 293. 
Cranworth, Lord, 834. 
Crawford, Earl of, 895. 
Crawford, John, 829. 

Cresswell, Sir C., 656. 

Creswick, Thomas, 897. 
Crichton, Sir A., 462 
Crolly, Rev. Dr., 275. 

Croly, Rev. Dr. G., 589. 

Cubitt, Sir William, 612. 

Cubitt, Thomas, 452. 

Gumming, Gordon, 731. 
Cunningham, Allan, 121. 
Cunningham, Peter, 872. 
Cureton, Dr., 675. 

Czartoryski, Prince, 605. 
Daguerre, L. J M., 331. 
Dalhousie, Lord, 590 
Dalton, John, 159. 

Dambray, Viscountess, 9x8. 
Danby, Francis, 595. 

Daniell, Professor, 171. 

Daniell, W., 5. 

D’Arblay, Madame, 58. 
Darling, Sir C. H., 902. 
Darling, Grace, 121. 

D’Aumale, Duchess, 894. 

Davis; Thomas, 182. 

Del troche, Paul, 471. 

Denman, Lord, 417. 

Denmark, King of, 233, 661. 
Dennistoun James, 431. 

De Quincey, T., 561. 

Derby, Earl, 329. 

(Edward Geoffrey), 888. 
D’Este, Sir A. F., 268. 

Dickens, Charles, 921. 

Dilke, C. W., 681. 

Dilke, Sir C. W., 871. 


Obituary, continued — 

Disraeli, Isaac, 233. _ 

Doherty, Chief Justice, 309. 
Donizetti, G., 244. 

D’Orsay, Count, 359. 

Dost, Mahommed, 649. 

Douglas, Sir H.,615. 

Drummond, Thomas, 65. 

Ducrow, A., 98. 

Dumas, Alexander, 966. 

Dunbar, Professor, 342. 
Duncombe, T. S., 615. 

Dunlop, A. M., 924. 

Dupin, M., 719. 

Durham, Earl of, 72. 

Durrand, Sir H., 971. 

Dyce, Rev. A., 872. 

Dyce Sombre, 330. 

Dyce, Wm , 667. 

Dysart, Countess of, 75. 

Eastlake, Sir C. L., 722. 
Edgeworth, Maria, 277. 

Eglinton, Earl of, 612. 

Egypt, ex-Pasha of, 282. 

Egypt, Viceroy of, 265. 

Eldon, Earl of, 13. 

Elgin, Earl of, 93, 661. 

Ellesmere, Earl of, 477. 

Ellice, Edward, 658. 

Elliott, Ebenezer, 288. 

Ellis, Sir Henry, 857. 

Elphinstone, General, 106. 
Elphinstone, M., 560. 

Empson, Professor, 369 
Encke, J F., 716. 

Epps, John, 859. 

Eresby, Lord Willoughby d’, 941. 
Etty, Wm. , 287. 

Evans, Sir de Lacy, 898. 

Ewart, William, 858. 

Exeter, Bishop of (Phillpotts), S85 
Ex-Queen, 730. 

Faber, Rev. F. W., 

Fairholt, F. W., 731. 

Faraday, Professor, 788. 

Farini, C. L. ,740. 

Faucher, Leon, 428. 

Fawkner (Australian colonist 
Fellows, Sir C., 588. 

Ferguson, Cutlar, 29. 

Ferguson, Sir Adam, 428. 

Fesch, Cardinal, 43. 

Finden, William, 361. 

Fitzgerald, Lord, 132. 

Fitzroy, Admiral, 701. 

Flahault, Madame de, 975. 
Flaherty, Mary, 185. 

Follett, Sir William, 178. 

Forbes, J. D., 854. 

Forcade, Eugene, 890. 

Fould, Achilte, 791. 

Fowke, Captain, 721. 

Fox, Mrs. C. J., 113. 

Francia, Dr., 75. 

Frankfort, Lord, 359. 

Fraser, J. B., 454. 

Frederick IV., of Denmark, 56. 
French, ex-King of, 309. 

ex-Queen of, 730. 

Frere, J. H., 190. 

Fry, Mrs., 182. 

Fuller. Margaret, 306. 

Fust, Sir H. J., 347. 

Gaisford, Dean, 437. 

Galt, John, 39. 

Gaskell, Mrs., 720. 

“ Gavarni” (Chevalier), 758. 
Gay-Lussac, 299. 

Glasgow, Earl of, 863. 

Glenelg, Lord, 733 
Gloucester, Duchess of, 483. 
Geraid, Marshal, 351. 

Gesenius, F. H. W., 121. 

Gibelin, Colonel, 390. 

Gibson, John, 724. 

Gilbert, Davies, 58. 











O B I 


INDEX. 


O B I 


Obituary, continued — 

Gioberti V., 363. 

Godboy, Don Manuel, 336. 

Gordon, Lady Duff, 879. 

Gordon, Sir J. W., 674. 

Gore, Mrs.. 592. 

Gortschakoff, Prince, 602. 

Gough, Viscount, 862. 

Goulburn, Henry, 453. 

Grafton, Duke of, 161. 

Graham Sir James, 613. 

Graham, Thomas, 885. 

Grant, Rev. Dr., 920. 

Grant, Sir Robert, 22. 

Green, C., 911. 

Gregory XVI., Pope, 200. 
Grenville, Thomas, 212. 

Greville, C. C. F., 691. 

Grey, Earl, 179. 

Grey, General Charles, 911. 
Grierson, Sir Robert, 48. 

Grimm, Jacob, 658. 

Grim, W. C., 561. 

Grisi, Madame, 892. 

Grouchy, Marshal, 218. 

Guizot, Madame, 243. 

Gurney, J. J., 213. 

Gurney, S., 463. 

Gutzlaff, Rev. Charles, 333. 
Hahnemann, Samuel, 139. 

Hale, Archdeacon, 961. 

Haliburton, Judge, 716. 

Halkett, General, 468. 

Hallam, Henry, 533. 

Hall, Captain Basil, 161 
Hamilton, Sir William, 461. 
Hamilton, Sir W. R., 716. 
Hanover, King of, 339. 

Hardinge, Lord, 468. 

Hardwick, Philip, 970. 

Hardy, Sir Thomas, 52. 

Hare, Archdeacon, 429. 
Harrington, Countess (Foote), 800. 
Harris, J. C., 434. 

Harrison, General, 83. 

Harris, Sir W. S., 763. 

Harrison, J. N., 940. 

Harrowby, Earl of, 230. 

Hastings, Lady Flora, 45. 
Hastings, Marquis of, 845. 

Hatfield, James, 80. 

Hatfield, Sir Henry, 152. 
Havelock, General, 503. 
Hawthorne, N., 673. 

Haydn, Joseph, 453. 

Hayes, Justice, 892. 

Haynau, Marshal, 379. 

Hayter, Sir George, 975. 

Heath, Charles, 265. 

Heeren, Professor, xoi. 

Herapath, Dr., 842. 

Herapath, William, 804. 

Herbert, Lord, 608. 

Herring, J. F., 716. 

Herschel, Caroline L., 232. 
H'ggins, (“Jacob Omnium”), 837. 
Hill, Lord, 123. 

Hilton, William, 58. 

Hirschell, Rabbi, 121. 

Hodgson, Joseph, 859. 

Hodgson, Rev. F., 372. 

Hogan, (ohn, 516. 

Hogarth, George, 904. 

Hogg, Mrs., 960. 

Holland, ex-King of, 147- 
Holland, Lord, 76. 

Holman, Lieut., 493. 

Hone, William, 122. 

Hood, Thomas, 175. 

Hook, Theodore, 89. 

Hooker, Sir William, 715. 

Horne, Rev. T. H. 620. 

Humann, M., 107. 

Humboldt, A. Von, 543. 

Hume, Joseph, 431- 
Hummel, Nepomuk, 7. 


Obituary, continued — 

Hunt, Leigh, 555. 

Inglis, Sir R. H., 435. 

Ingram, {Royal George), 311. 
Irving, Washington, 561. 

Innes, of Stow, Miss, 56. 
Jackson, Andrew, 177. 

James, G. P. R., 576. 

Jameson, Mrs., 499. 

Jebb, Sir Joshua, 653. 

Jeffrey, Francis, 291. 

Jerdan, William, 879. 

Jerrold, Douglas, 486. 

Jervis, Sir John, 471. 

Johnson, Captain, 38. 

Jolly, Bishop, 22. 

Jomini, General, 865. 

Jones, Ernest, 858. 

Johnstone, Mrs., 567. 

Jourdan, M., 211. 

Kean, Charles, 802. 

Keble, Rev. John, 713. 

Keith, Viscountess, 483. 
Kemble, Charles, 424. 

Kemble, J. M., 482. 

Kent, Duchess of, 597. 

Kieran, Rev. M., 885. 

Kierrulf, Baron, 14. 

Kirby, William, 304. 

Kiss, August, 691. 

Kitto, John, 426. 

Knight, H. Gaily, 194. 

Knowles, J. S., 635. 

Konig, Charles, 335. 

Kurrach Singh, 77. 

Lablache, Louis, 508. 
Lachmann, Carl,'321. 
Iyacordaire, Father, 615. 

Lafitte, Jacques, 155. 

Laidlaw, William, 176. 
Lamartine, A. de, 861. 

Lamb, Mary, 217. 

Lambert, Citizen, 972. 
Lamoriciere, General, 716 
Lancaster, Joseph, 27. 

Lander, John, 55. 

Landon, Letitia Elizabeth, 27. 
Landor, W. S., 682. 

Langdale, Lord, 324. 
Lansdowne, Marquis of, 638. 
Lardner, Dr., 542. 

Las Casas, Count de, 109. 
Lauder, Sir T. D., 251. 

Laurie, Sir Peter, 616. 
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 490. 
Leech, John, 684. 

Lee, Dr. J., 542. 

Lee, Dr. R., 813. 

Lee, Miss Harriet, 333. 

Lee, General Robert, 954. 
Lefroy, Chief Justice, 871. 
Leigh, Lady Augusta, 337. 
Leiningen, Prince, 471. 

Lemon, Mark, 919. 

Lewis, Sir G. C., 646. 

Leys, Baron Henri, 883. 
Lieven, Princess, 475. 

Lilly white, cricketer, 415 
Lingard, Rev. Dr., 331. 
Linley, John, 719. 

Liston, John, 196. 

Llandaff, Bishop of, 285. 
Llanover, Lord, 774, 

Lobau, Count, 30. 

Lobeck, C., 583. 

Locke, Joseph, 584. 

Lockhart, J. G., 426. 

Lola Montes, 592. 
Londonderry, Marquis of, 402. 
Longley, Archbishop, 844. 
Lopes, Lady, 9x1. 

Lopez, General, 907. 

Loudon, J. C., X47. 

Loudon, Mrs. J. W., 525. 
Lovelace, Countess of, 367 
Lover, Samuel, 832. 


Obituary, continued — 

Lowe, Sir Hudson, 148. 

Lushington, Stephen, 836. 

Luttrell, Henry, 343. 

Lyndoch, Lord, 147. 

Lyndhurst, Lord, 659. 

Lyons, Lord, 530. 

Macadam, James, 357. 

Macaulay, Lord, 561. 

Macaulay, Zacharay, 18. 
Macgillivray, Professor, 359. 
Maddock, Sir T. H., 900. 

Maginn, William, 116. 

Magnusen, Finn, 230. 

Maclise, Daniel, 914. 

Maharanee Kower, 656, 

Mahmoud II., Sultan, 45 
Mahoney, F., (“ Father Prout,”) 
739 - 

Mai, Cardinal, 415. 

Maitland, Rev. S. R., 724. 

Maitland, Sir F., 58. 

Majendie, F., 446. 

Malcolm, Sir C., 328. 

Malcolm, Sir Pulteney, 32. 

Manby, Captain, 425. 

Manin, Daniel, 497, 813. 

Manson, J. B., 844. 

Mantell, G. A., 365. 

Marie, M., 915. 

Marmont, Marshal, 349. 

Marochetti, Baron, 801. 

Marryat, Captain, 257. 

Martin, John, 401. 

Martin, Jonathan, 17. 

Mathew, Rev. T., 472. 

Matilda, Princess Sophia, 164, 
Matthews, Mrs. C., 467. 

Maudslay, Joseph, 612. 

Maunder, Samuel, 276. 

Mayne, Sir Richard, 854. 

Mayor, Dr. T., 973. 

M‘Culloch, J. R., 684. 

M'Culloch, Horatio, 780. 

M’Dowell, Patrick, 967. 

M‘Gregor, John, 483. 

MTan, R. R., 472. 

Mehemet Ali, 282. 

Melbourne, Lord, 265. 

Melville, Rev. Henry, 981. 
Mendelssohn, Felix, 226. 

Menken, Ada, 836. 

Merrimee, Prosper, 952. 

Metcalfe, Lord, 208. 

Metternich, Prince, 543. 

Meyerbeer, Jacob, 673. 

Meyrick, Sir S. R., 244. 

Mezzofanti, Cardinal, 273 
Middleton, Viscount, 264. 

Miller, Hugh, 473. 

Miller, W. A., Professor, 95 
Milman, Rev. H. H., 840. 

Mitford, Mary Russell, 429. 

Moir, D. M., (“Delta”), 330. 

Moir, George, 954. 

Mole, Count, 450. 

Molesworth, Sir W., 447. 

Monk, Rev. Dr., 463. 
Montalembert, Count de, 908. 
Monteagle, Lord, 725. 
Montgomery, James, 407. 
Montgomery, Robert, 451. 

Moolraj, Dewan, 333. 

Moore, G. H., 914. 

Moore, Thomas, 348. 

Morgan, Lady, 539. 

Morier, Thomas, 274. 

Morny, Duke de, 696. 

Morrison, James, 499. 

Moustier, Marquis de, 859 
Mulready, William, 654. 

Munro, Alexander, 971. 

Murat, Caroline, 43. 

Mure, Colonel, 572. 

Murray, John, 138. 

Murray, Rev. Dr., 3S0. 

1 (IOI5) 
















O B I 


INDEX, 


O B I 


Obituary, continued — 

Musgrave, Dr. T., 573. 

Musset, Alfred, 483. 

Nagpo.e, Rajah of, 395. 
Napier, General Sir William, 5 
Napier, Sir C., 588. 

Napier, Sir C. J., 389. 
t Naples, ex-King of, 159. 
Naples, King of, 544. 

Nasmyth Alexander, 64. 
Nathan, Earon, 472. 

Neander, Professor, 305. 
Necker, Professor, 615. 
Nesseliode, Count, 623. 
Netherlands, King of, 146, 273. 
Newcastle, Dukes of, 317, 683. 
Neumann, Dr. C. F., 911. 
Newton, Sir W. J., 857. 

Nichol, Professor, 556. 
Nicholas, Czarewitch, 701. 
Nicolas, Sir N. H., 257. 

Niel, Marshal, 883. 

Norfolk, Dukes of, 104, 456. 
Northbrooke, Lord, 752. 
Northumberland, Duke of, 693. 
Norton, Thomas, 117. 

N ott, Sir William, 166. 

Oastler, Richard, 610. 

O’Brien, W. S., 675. 

O’Connell, Daniel, 217. 
O’Connor, Feargus, 443. 
O’Curry, Eugene, 629. 
O’Donovan, John, 616. 
O’Dounell, General, 873. 
Oehlenschlager, Adam, 291. 
Oersted, Professor, 321. 

Oken, Dr Lorenz 333. 

Onslow, Lord, 955. 

Opie, Mrs., 394. 

Orfila, J. B., 378. 

Orleans, Duke of, 114. 

Orleans, Duchess of, 519. 
Oude, ex-Queen of, 508. 
Outram, Sir James, 644. 

Owen, Robert, 530. 
Pach-Badens, Marquis of, 898. 
Page, Gamier, 87. 

Paginini, N , 67. 
Palafox-y-Melzi, 214. 

Palgrave, Sir F., 605 
Palmerston, Lord, 718. 
Palmerston, Lady, 884. 

Paris, Dr. J. A., 473. 

Parkes, Joseph, 714. 

Parker, Theodore, 574. 

Parker, J. W., 918. 

Parma, Archduchess of, 229. 
Parry, Admiral, 441. 

Pasha, Fuad, 860. 

Pasley, Sir C., 600. 

Pasquier, Due, 628. 

Paxton, Sir Joseph, 704. 

Payne, J. B., 934. 

Peabody, George, 889. 

Peel, Captain Sir W., 518. 
Pemberton, Lieut.-Col., 942. 
Pelissier, Marshal, 674. 

Pers&d, L. J., 904. 

Persia, Shah of, 261. 

Petrie, Dr., 724. 

Pfeiffer, Ida, 529. 

Plumptre, Dr. F. C., 962. 
Poisson, M., 65. 

Polignac, Prince, 215. 

Polk, ex-President, 278. 
Pollard, Lieut., 821. 

Pollock, Sir F., 940. 

Porter, G. R., 359. 

Porter, Miss jane, 300. 

Porter, Sir R. K., 107. 
Portugal, King of, 615. 
Portugal, Queens of, 394, 552. 
Pottinger, Sir Henry, 458. 
Powell, Rev. B.,576. 

Pozzo de Borgo, Count, too. 
Phillips, Capt., (Nile survivor), 
iOl6) 


65. 


869. 


Obituary, continued — 

Phillips, Samuel, 419. 

Phipps, Sir C. B., 727. 

Plunkett, Lord, 396. 

Praed, W. M., 46. 

Pratt, John Tidd, 899. 

Prescott, W. H., 534. 

Priessnitz, Herr, 339. 

Prior, Sir James, 891. 

Proudhon, P. J., 691. 

Prowse J. W., 9x4. 

Prussia, Kings of, 67, 591. 

Prynne, Professor, 815. 

Pugin, A. W., 360. 

Quintana, 481. 

Queen Dowager, 288. 

Rachel, Madame, 506. 

Radetzky, Marshal, 506. 

Radnor Earl, 867. 

Raglan, Lord, 404. 

Rauch, Christian, 540. 

Reach, A. B., 472. 

Recamier, Madame, 277. 

Redding, Cyrus, 921. 

Redschid, Pasha, 506. 

Rees, Owen, 6. 

Reggio, Duke of, 224. 

Reid, Sir W., 529. 

Retszch, Moritz, 487. 

Ricardo, J. L., 631. 

Richardson, Dr. C., 7x7. 
Richardson, James, 321. 
Richardson, Sir John, 704. 

Rintoul, R. S., 518. 

Ripon, Earl of, 534. 

Ritchie, John, 969. 

Ritter, Carl, 557. 

Roberts, David, 686. 

Robertson, Joseph, 761. 

Robertson, T. W., 979. 

Roden, Earl of, 910. 

Rogers, Samuel, 452. 

Romeo, Coates, 234. 

Roothan, Father, 382. 

Rorke, Martha, 74. 

Rossetti, Professor, 406. 

Rossini, G., 847. 

Ross, Sir J., 467. 

Ross, Sir j. C., 624. 

Ross, Sir W. C., 563. 

Rosse, Earl of, 794. 

Rothschild, Baron N., 906. 

Routh, President, 428. 

Royle, Dr. F., 506. 

Rubini, G., 402. 

Runjeet, Singh, 45. 

Russia, Emperor of, 432. 

Sacy, Silvestre de, 15. 

Said, Viceroy of Egypt, 638. 

Sale, Lady, 385. 

Salisbury, Bishop of, 882. 

Sardinia, ex-King of, 281. 
Saxe-Cobourg Gotha, Duke of, 149. 
Saxe-Weimar, Grand Duke ef, 385. 
Saxony, King of, 415. 

Scheffer, Ary, 523. 

Schelling, W. J. Von, 4x5. 
Schendel, Von, 970. 

Schlegel, Professor, 176. 

Schlosser, Professor, 6x2. 

Schonbein, Professor, 838. 
Schubert, G. H., 578. 

Schumann, R., 466. 

Schwarzenberg, Prince, 351. 
Scoresby, W., 482. 

Scott, Lt.-Col. Sir Walter, 2x4, 
Scribe, A. E., 595. 

Scrope, William, 356. 

Selwyn, W., 442. 

Selwyn, Sir C. J., 882. 

Senior, Edward, 694. 

Senior, N. W., 675. 

Seymour, Sir G. F., 901. 

Shad well, Sir L., 308. 

Shaftesbury, Earl of, 338. 

Sharpe, C. K., 322. 


Obituary, continued — 

Shee, Sir M. A-.. 308. 

Sherman, Thomas, 362. 

Sherwood, Mrs., 336. 

Shiel, R. L., 327. 

Sidmouth, Viscount, 150. 

Silvio Pellico, 396. 

Simeon, Sir J., 919. 

Simpson, General 819. 

Simpson, Sir J. Y., 916. 

Sinclair, Sir George, 842. 

Sismondi, M. de, 112. 

Sleigh, Lieut.-Col., 865. 

Smart, Sir G. T., 766. 

Smirke, Sir R., 773. 

Smith, Albert, 575. 

Smith, Gen. Sir H.,586. 

Smith, Horace, 280. 

Smith, James, 301. 

Smith, Sydney, 169. 

Smith, William, 41. 

Smyth, Admiral Sydney, 67. 
Somers, George, 922. 

Sontag, Madame, 411. 

Sophia, Princess, 250. 

Southey, Mrs., 413. 

Southey, Robert, 130. 

Soult, Marshal, 339. 

Spankie, Serjeant, 121. 

Speke, Captain, 682. 

Spencer, Earl, 182. 

Spence, William, 562. 

Stackelberg, Count, 917. 

St. Albans, Duchess of, 5. 

Stanley, Lord (of Alderley), 875 
St. Jean d'Angely, Marshal, 903 
Stanfield, Clarkson, 776. 

Stanhope, Lady Hester, 45. 
Stephen, Sir J., 556. 

Stephenson, George, 257. 
Stephenson, Robert, 558. 

Sterling, John, 161. 

Stevenson, Robert, 305. 

Stevens, Thaddeus, 836. 
Strangford, Lords, 437, 502, 856. 
Story, Joseph, 182. 

Stuart, de Rothesay, Lord, 184. 
Stuart, James, 286. 

Stuart, Lady Louise, 333. 

Stuart Lord Dudley C. 

Sturt, Captain C., 875. 

Sue, Eugene, 494. 

Sultan, Abdul-Medjid, 603. 
Sumner, Archbishop, 631. 

Sussex, Duke of, 131. 

Sutherland, Duchess of, 843. 
Sweden, Kings of, 152, 552. 
Sydenham, Lord, 90. 

Syme, Professor, 923. 

Talfourd, Justice, 402. 

Talleyrand, Prince, T9. 

Tattersall, Richard, 9x6. 

Taunton, Lord (Labouchere), 879. 
Taylor, Isaac, 706. 

Taylor, President, 305. 

Tagore, Dwarkanauth, 200 
Tarentum, Duke of, 75. 

Tegner, Bishop, 210. 

Temple, Sir W., 467. 

Tennant, Wm., 263. 

Tennent, Sir J. E., 863. 

Terceira, Duke of, 573. 

Tetuan, (O’Donnell), Duke of, 795 
Thackeray, W. M.,663. 

Thierry, A., 462. 

Thompson, General P., 884. 
Thomson, George, 320. 

Thomson, Rev. John, 76. 
Thornton, Richard, 705. 
Thorwaldsen, Albert, 152. 

Thorn, William, 235. 

Thwaites, Sir John, 937. 

Ticknor, George. 981.' 

Tieck, C. F., 328. 

Tieck, Ludwig, 381. 

Tindal, Chief Justice, 204, 













O B I 


INDEX. 


T A T. 


Obituary, continued—• 

Tocqueville, Alexis, 540. 

Todd, Dr. J. H., 877. 

Tomlin, James, 325. 

Tom Spring, 334. 

Tooke, Thomas, 511. 

Trollope, Mrs. F., 659. 

Trop'ong, M. de, 861. 

Turner, Dawson, 524. 

Tu ner, J. M. W., 343. 

Turner, Sharon, 214 
Tuscany, ex-Grand Duke of, 902. 
Tussaud, Madame, 297. 

Tviss, Horace, 276 
Tytler, P. F., 288. 

Uhland, J. L., 634. 

Ure, Dr A., 474. 

Vernet, Horace, 638. 

Ventura, Father, 608. 

Vernon, Robert, 277. 

Vestris, Madame. 467. 

Vidocq, F. F., 485. 

Villemain, A. F., 770. 

Villemain, M., 916. 

Vivian, Lord R. H., 121. 

Waghorn, Lieut., 289. 

Wakefield, E. G., 629. 

Wakley, Thomas, 626. 

Waldegrave, Bishop, 886. 

Walewski, Count, 840. 

Wallace, W. V., 718. 

Waller, Dr. A., 948. 

Walter, John, 221. 

Wa ter, John, 969. 

Ward, Baron. 5 2 8. 

Ward, Jame*, 560. 

Ward, Sir H. G., S^ 1, 

Waterton, Charles, 704, 

Watts, Thomas, 884. 

Webb, Jonas, 634. 

Webster, Daniel 363. 

Webster, Noah, 135. 

Weir, W illiam, 528. 

Wellesley, Marquis, 119. 
Wensleydale, Lord, 804. 

Wesley, Samuel, 6. 

Westmacott, Sir R., 467. 
Westminster, Marquises of, 168, 889 
Wetherell, Sir Charles, 207. 
Wharnclifie, Lord, 188. 

Whately, Archbishop, 659. 
Whewell, Rev. Dr. 727 
Wilde (Baron Truro), 448. 

Wilkie, Sir David, 85. 

Wilkins, Serjeant, 479 
William III., Prussia, 67. 

Williams, Rev. Rowland, 901. 
Wilson, George, 561. 

Wilson, H. H., 574. 

Wilson, James, 581. 

Wilson, John, 280. 

Wilson, Professor, 405. 

Wilson, George, 970. 

Windham, Lieut.-Gen., Sir C., 903. 
Wiseman, Cardinal, 694. 
Wittgenstein, Count, 137. 
Wolistonecraft. Mary, 317. 

Wolff, Rev. J. 625. 

Wolseley, Sir Charles, 209. 
Wombwell, Jeremiah, 314 
Woodford, Field Marshal, 940. 
Woodward, B. B., 888. 
Wordsworth, Mrs., 533. 
Wordsworth, William, 298. 
Worsley, P. S., 737. 

Wyatt, R- J-, 3 01 ' 

Wyatville, Jeffrey, 61. 

Wynne. Sir C. W. W., 309. 

Wyon, William, 338. 

Yoredale, Sally, 862. 

Yarreli, vV., 467. 

Yates, F. H., in- 
Yeh, Mandarin, 539. 

Yelverton, Jane, 667. 

York, Archbishops of, 229, 573. 
Zschokke, H., 4 5 2 - 


Obituary, continued -— 

Zumpt, G. C., 279. 

O’Brien, Smith— 

committed to custody, 198. 
split with O’Connell, 200. 
attempt to raise the peasantry, 256. 
seized at Ballingarry, 257. 
trial, 262, 269. 

expelled House of Commons, 277. 
pardoned, 401. 

Ocean race, 752. 

O’Connell, Daniel — 
on Election Committees, 15. 

Tithe question, 18. 
at Cork, 24. 

“ Precursor ” Society, 25, 28. 
attacks Brougham, 35. , 

on Irish members, 37. 
adulation of the Queen, 43, 56. 
advises registering, 52. 

Repeal Association, 65. 
vapour, 73. 
visits Ulster, 80. 
on Peel-Stanley party, 88. 

Lord Mayor of Dublin, 93. 

Repeal year, 124. 
denounces the Peel Cabinet, 132. 
Repeal meetings, 141, 145. 
trial, 146, 148, 149, 160, 161. 
moss offered up for, 146. 

Repeal in a twelvemonth, 146. 
condition of Ireland debate, 150. 
banquet to, 152. 
liberation, 161. 
absentee tax, 174. 

Cork demonstration, 177. 

restored to magistracy, 206. 

death, 217. 

funeral, 222. 

removal of remains, 872. 

O’Connell, John, and the reporters, 277. 
O’Connor, F.— 

proceedings against, 47, 62, 129. 
imprisonment, 67, 119. 

Times libel, 140. 

M P. for Nottingham, 221. 

Irish Parliament, 228. 

Chartist rioters, 244. 

French refugees, 323. 
mental aberration, 355. 

O’Donoghue bankruptcy, 941. 
CEcumenical Council— 
summoned, 831. 
opposed by Greek Church, 841. 
preliminary proceedings, 896. 

Jesuits denounced, 897. 

Russia censured, 897. 
profession of faith, 897. 
infallibility dogma, 904. 
opposition, 909, 912. 
stormy debates, 910, 920. 

Constitutio de Fide, 911, 913. # 

“ Schema de Parvo Catechismo,” 
916. 

discussion on Infallibility, 955. 
suspended, 955. 

Oil painting* s;olen, 470. 

Ojibbeway Indians, 147. 

Oldham, Lyceum, 468. 

Ollivier, M.— 

anti-war speech, 825. 

Omnibus upset, 2. 

Opium trade, 485. 

Orange disturbance, 588. 

Orangemen of Toronto, 583. 

Orange Society, 184. 

Orange Sovereignty, Cape, 295. 
Orange excesses, 894, 895. 

Orders, indelibility of, 902, 907. 
Oriental Home, Limehouse, 462. 
Orsini, F., escape, 458 

conspiracy, 506, 509, 511, S x 3 - 
Orleans, Duke of, 90. 

Orleans marriage, 674. 

Oscott, Synod, 357. 

Ostsee, case of, 433- 


Otway, Captain, 67. 

Oude, Queen of, 467. 

annexation, (see India). 

Overend, Gurney & Co.— 

Cole “warrant” swindles, 437, 531. 
re-discounting, 572. 
suspension, 737. 
prosecution, 854, 857, 858 
Overstone, Lord, 293. 

Oxford, City— 

Free Library, 362. 
election contest, 492. 

Oxford University— 

Martyr’s Memorial, 29, 85. 

Dr. Wynter, Vice-Chancellor, 76. 
injunction against, 80. 

Queen’s visit, 86. 

Professorship of Poetry, 97. 

Everett riot, 138. 

Dr. Symons, Vice-Chancellor, 162. 
Ward censured, 164, 166, 167. 
opposes Jew bill, 228. 

Magdalen Grammar School, 285. 
Royal Commission, 298,309, 326, 327. 
report, 351. 

Earl of Derby, Chancellor, 363. 

Dr. Cotton, Vice-Chancellor, 363. 
election contest, 373. 
commemoration, 384. 
retirement of Sir R. H. Inglis, 396 
extension bill, 403, 411, 412. 
Hebdomadal Board, 421. 

Ridley and Latimer celebration, 446. 
peace rejoicings, 462. 
m ddle class education, 486. 
new statutes, 487, 490, 550. 

African mission, 543. 

Test Bills, 670, 676, 705, 730, 742, 
776, 894^ 895.. 

salary of Greek Professor, 694. 
University extension, 720. 
test-, 771, 777, 784. . 

aids Palestine exploration fund, 778. 
election, 841. 

Marquis of Salisbury, Chancellor, 
891, 922. 
expulsion, 918. 

Balliol Mastership, 921. 

Speaker’s degree, 922. 

Keble College, 922. 

University College Mastership, 965. 
Oxford (Wilberforce) Bishop of— 
supports Corn Importation Bill, 202. 
supports Dr. Hampden, 230. 
translated to Winchester, 887. 
Oxford’s attempt on the Queen, 68,70. 


P. 

Pacific route, 916. 

Paget elopement, 680. 

Pahlen, case of Count, 413. 

Paisley distress, 94. 

Palestine Exploration Fund, 778 

Palace Court closed, 288. 

Palgrave on Arabia, 668. 

Palliser’s shot, 675. 

Pall Mall Gazette- 

on Mr. Disraeli, Premier, 806. 
parting of French Emperor and Em¬ 
press, 933. _ 

fall ot the Empire, 937. 

Palmer poisonings, 449, 524. 

Palmerston, Lord— 

on Persian designs, 16, 43. 

Ottoman Empire, 44. 

interview with Hoossein Khan, 46. 

on Eastern question, 76. 

“ lliona,” 92. 
on Corn-laws, 99. 
on Peel ministry, 116. 

Spanish marriages, 205. 
attacked by Montalembert, 232. 
Anstey on foreign policy, 236. 
defence *39, 281. 

(IOI7) 













P A I 


INDEX. 


PAR 


Palmerston, Lord, continued — 
doubts as to advantage of Canton, 
263. 

Sicily and Wallachia, 273. 
presentation of portrait, 302. 
defence of foreign policy, 302. 
banquet, 306. 

on Neapolitan Government, 333, 334. 

Kossuth deputation, 339. 

instructions to Lord Normanby, 341. 

dismissed, 343. 

explanation, 346. 

free trade resolution, 367. 

Melbourne Athenaeum, 389. 
advises Edinburgh Presbytery, 391. 
rumoured resignation, 395. 
censures Cobden, 403. 
forms Ministry, 431, 432. 

Crimean inquiry, 431. 
on Volunteer corps, 432. 
on Vienna Conferences, 435, 436. 
the “ peace-at-any-price ” party, 438. 
war speech at Melbourne, 446. 
ministerial changes, 450. 

Maynooth defeat, 460. 
at Manchester and Liverpool, 471. 
on treaty of Paris, 471. 

Southampton election, 473. 

China debate, 479. 
defeat of Ministry, 479. 
address to electors, 482. 

“ Isthmian Games,” 485. 
opposes Suez Canal, 490. 
determination to pass Divorce Bill, 


49 2 -. 

conspiracy to murder Bill, 509. 
Ministry defeated, 510. 
resignation, 510. 
second Ministry (1859), 549. 
policy, 550. 
on the press, 573. 

Savoy and Nice cession, 582. 

Hartley Institute, 591. 
public business, 594. 

Father Daly, interview, 602. 

Warden of Cinque Ports, 610. 

frustrates opposition, 627. 

visits Glasgow and Edinburgh, 644. 

in Divorce Court, 659. 

on county franchise, 672. 

on handwriting, 690. 

illness, 701, 718. 

death, 718. 

monument, 787. 

Romsey memorial, 834. 

Liverpool statue, 873. 

Westminster Abbey statue, 920. 

Pan Anglican Council, 766, 790. 

Panics— 

commercial, 75, 224, 498, 500, 501, 
541, 738, 767. 

Victoria Theatre, 268. 

“ Black Friday,” 733. 

French Bourse, 790. 

London Exchange, 851. 

Pan mure, Lord, 139. 

War Secretary, 437. 

Papal Aggression— 

hierarchy announced, 225. 
rank of prelates, recognized, 226. 
Quarterly Review on, 231. 
Archbishop of Westminster, 233. 
Papal Bull, 310. 
pastoral letter, 311. 
appeal, 312, 313. 

Lord J. Russell’s Durham letter, 313. 
Guy Fawke’s day, 313. 

Disraeli on, 313. 

Lord Mayor’s dinner, 314. 
address of English catholics, 314. 
York demonstration, 314. 

Duke of Norfolk on, 315. 

Sir G. Bowyer’s “Private History,” 

3 X 5 - . . . 

publishing activity, 315. 

University addresses, 3x5. 

(1018) 


/ 


Papal aggression, continued — 

Bishop of Durham on, 317. 
opening of Parliament, 318. 

Titles Bill, 318, 321, 322, 329, 330, 
360. 

opposition of prelates, 320. 

Catholic Defence Association, 334. 
Duke and Duchess of Norfolk, 335. 
dress and procession, 355. 

Papal Bulls, 228. 

Parachute descents, 4, 26. 

Paraguay, 168. 

Paraguayan War, 807, 822, 824, 831, 
833, 854, 856. 

Parcels Bill, 822. 

Paris to be fortified, 74. (See France.) 

, bombarded, 971, 972, 973, 975, 976. 
surrender, 977. 

(See Franco-Prussian war). 
Parliament Houses, decoration of, 
x 74 - 

Parliamentary proceedings— 
Abyssinian Expedition, 797, 798. 
Administrative Reform, 439. 
Admiralty administration, 766. 
Admiralty constitution, 983. 
Advertisement duty, 380. 

Affghan war, 66, 129. 

Agricultural gangs, 703, 783. 
Agricultural statistics, 318, 535. 
Alabama claims, 809, 873. 

Alien Bill, 245. 

Alexandra case, 667. 

American Federation, 766. 

Appellate jurisdiction, 462, 464. 
Arbitration Courts, 535. 

Army estimates 62, 82, 669, 696, 728, 
907, 909, 934. 
promotion, 432. 
purchase, 774. 

Armjj; reform, 984, 935. 

Ashantee expedition, 675. 

Assaults on women and children, 

484 - 

Ballot, 14, 44, 257, 490, 676. 

Ballot recommended, 881, 918. 

Ballot bill, 985. 

Bank charter, 47, 154, 156, 175, 253. 
Bankruptcy laws, 594. 

Beer Bill (Soames), 650. 

Belligerent rights, 703. 

Benefices augmentation, 644, 917. 

registration, 985. 

Biblical revision, 465. 

Birmingham Police, 48. 

Black Sea Treaty, 981, 983, 985. 
Brazil, 151, 465. 

Bribery Bill, 111, 414. 

Budget discussions— 

1837 (Rice), 3. 

1838 do. 18. 

1839 do. _ 45. 

1840 (Baring), 66. 

1841 do. 84. 

1842 (Peel) 102. 

1843 (Goulburn), 132. 

1844 do. 156. 

1845 (Peel), 168. 

1846 (Goulburn), 200. 

1847 (Wood), 215. 

1848 do. 235, 254, 259. 

1849 do. 278. 

1850 do. 295. 

1851 do. 319, 323. 

1852 (Disraeli), 352. 

1852 do. 368. 

1853 (Gladstone), 380, 381. 

1854 do. 402, 407. 

1855 (Lewis), 434. 

1856 do. 462. 

1857 do. 476. 

1858 (Disraeli), 518. 

1859 (Gladstone), 552, 553. 

1860 do. 564,565, 570. 

1861 do. 600, 601. 

1863 do. 646, 648. 


Parliamentary proceedings, cont.-- 
Budget discussions— 

1864 (Gladstone), 671. 

1865 do. 701. 

1866 do. 737 - 

1867 (Disraeli), 770. 

1868 (Hunt), 820. 

1869 (Lowe), 86> 

1870 do. 913. 

Burial service, 646, 650, 910. 
Canada clergy reserves, 66, 68, 70, 




a- , 

Canadian rebellion, 12, 13, 14. 
Canadian Union, 40, 44, 62. 

Census, 933. 

Ceylon grievances, 291, 327. 

Chain and Anchor Bill, 668. 
Chancery reform, 322, 328. 

Chartist petition, 246. 

China debate, 477, 478, 479 - 
China, 63. 

Church discipline, 22. 

Church rates, 273, 411, 45 7 , 53 6 > 552 , 
564, 573 , 577 , 604, 648, 7 2 8 , 7 49 , 
768, 786, 805, 822, 908. 

Church extension, 330. 

Churchward contract, 650. 

Civil list, 9, 10, it, 15. 

Civil and Diplomatic Services, 867. 
Civil Service examination, 490. 
Climbing boys, 73. 

Clerical disabilities, 624, 933. 

Clerical oaths, 708. 

Coal supply, 741. 

Coercion Bills, 195, 198, 199, 227, 


229. 

Colonization, 219. 

Compound householders, 306, 776, 
784 - 

Confederacy recognition, 628, 
Confession, privilege, 702. 
Conspiracy to murder, 509. 
Convents, 695, 911, 915. 

Contagious diseases, 919. 

Convict discipline, 215. 

Copyright, 17, 36, 80, 101, 105, 11c, 


112. 

Corn-laws, 16, 36, 38, 63, 84, ioi, 132, 
* 57 , x 77 - 

Corn Importation Bill, 106, 107. 

Corn Importation (Free Trade) Bill, 
195, 196, 197, 199, 200, 202. 

County administration, 920. 

County constables, 47. 

County Courts, 114, 207, 308. 

Crete and Servia, 765. 

Criminal conversation, 407. 

Criminal offence, 564. 

Crown demise, 3. 

Crown’s prerogative of mercy, 278. 
Crystal Palace, 333. 

Dissenting Chapels, 152, 156. 

Danish claims, 19, 81. 

Decimal coinage, 439. 

Denmark debate, 676. 

Deodands, 169. 

Designs, protection, 323. 

Diplomatic relation with Rome, 
2 35 - 

Disestablishment of English Church, 
pi' 9 - 

Divorce Bill, 410, 487, 488, 494, 495. 
Divorce Court, 564. 

Durham ordinances, 23. 
Ecclesiastical commissioners, 291, 
298. 

Courts, 460. 
duties, &c., 36. 
offences, 298, 301. 

Titles, 318, 321, 322, 329, 330, 333. 
Titles repeal, 784, 814, 935, 985. 
East India Bill, 350. 

Education, 216, 379, 463, 465, 606, 
Board, 35, 44. 
secular, 301, 327. 
code, 621, 623. 















PAR 


INDEX . 


L 


PAR 


Parliamentary proceedings, cont .— 
Education— 

franchise, 727, 739, 746. 

Minister, 797. 
report, 672. 
read a first time, 905. 
read a second time, 909. 

Cabinet concessions, 921. 
discussions in Committee, 923, 924, 
926 

read a third time, 931. 
in House of Lords, 933. 

(Scotland) Bill, 861, 872, 882, 982. 
petitions, 9, 804. 

Elections, 862, 917. 

Election petitions, 9, 804. 

Elementary education, 814. 
Encumbered estates, 249, 281. 
Endowed Schools, 877. 

Episcopal disabilities (Scotland), 680. 
Equitable jurisdiction, 707. 

European complications, 741. 

Factory bill, in, 131, 136, 149, 152, 
155.156. ’ 

Fenian sympathisers, 769. 

Flogging, 768, 814. 

Foreign enlistment, 428. 
Fortifications, 628. 

Franchise, 320, 323, 477. 

Franchise (county), 597. 

(b .rough), 599. 

Franchise (Earl Grey), 572. 

Franco-Prussian war, 931, 933. 

Free trade debate, 367. 

French treaty of commerce, 565, 

568, 915. 

Gagging Act, 244, 245, 246. 

Game laws, 169. 

Glenelg censure, 15. 

Greek brigand murders, 914, 918, 

9 * 9 , 935 - . . , _ 

Habitual criminals, 867. 

Hanover, King’s pension, 17. 

Health of towns, 216, 220, 256. 
Household suffrage, 38. 
Imprisonment for debt, 9. 

Increase of Episcopate, 694, 780, 783, 
869. 

Income-tax, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 
108, hi, 168, 215, 241, 242, 326. 
Indelibility of orders, 624, 933. 

India Bill, 383, 384. 
budget, 554. 
council, 870. 
finance, 602. 

government, 510, 516, 522, 525, 526. 
loan, 534. 

Indian mutiny, 488. 

Insane criminals, 130, 667. 
International copyright, 16, 23. 
Ireland, 150. . 

Ireland, (Maguire’s resolutions), 810. 
Irish Church, 174, 280, 653, 775. 
resolutions, 814, 815, 882. 
Suspensory Bill, 823, 826, 830, 831. 
disestablishment Bill— 

, introduced, 861. 

debate on second reading, 863, 
865. 

in Committee, 868, 869, 870, 871. 
read a third time, 872. 
read a second time, 875. 
debate in House of Lords, 874, 
875 - 

amendments, 878, 879. 
renewed debate, 880. 
compromise, 881. 
royal assent, 881. 

Irish colleges, 177, 179 - 
election petitions, 9. 
franchise, 293. 

Committees, 15. 
union distress, 292. 

Irish Land Bill— 
introduced, 904. 
debate on second reading, 907. 


Parliamentary proceedings, cont .— 

Irish Land Bill— . 
discussions in Committee, 911, 912, 
9 l 5 > 9 l8 - 

read a third time, 920, 921. 
in House of Lords, 923. 
amendments accepted, 927. 
royal assent, 934. 

Italy, 554, 565, 597. 

Jamaica disturbances, 39, 40,45, 749. 
Japan, 667. 

Jew Oaths Bill, 82,112, 179, 234, 248, 
250, 278, 279, 308, 326, 331, 379, 
380, 381. _ 

Judges’ jurisdiction, 906. 

Kensington land purchase, 651. 
Kilmainham Hospital, 380. 

Lancashire relief, 296. 

Landlord and tenant (Ireland), 698. 
Law Reform, 376, 476. 

Lectionary Bill, 925. 

Legitimacy Declaration Bill, 525. 
Libel, 768. 

Libraries, public, 308. 

Life assurance, 906. 

Life peerages, 455. 

Limited liability, 412. 

Liquor Bill, 575. 

Lords Justices, x8o. 

Malta ordinances, 40. 

Malt duty, 696. 
tax, 407. 

Maritime law, 727. 

Marriage laws, 104, 217, 293, 306, 
320, 600, 736, 869, 918, 983. 

Married Women’s Property Bill, 829, 
868, 881, 922. 

Maynooth grant, 172, 176 177, 378. 

inquiry, 353. 

Medical bill, 160, 169. 

Melbourne Ministry, 85, 90. 

Merchant seamen, 161. 

Merchant Shipping Bill, 386, 415. 
Militia, 347, 350, 493. 

Ministers’ money (Ireland), 485. 
Minority voting, 921. 

Municipal government (London), 
918. 

Napier services, 432. 

National debt, 380. 

Navigation Bill, 249, 271, 273, 275, 
276, 278, 399. 

Navy estimates, 101, 641, 727, 907. 
Negro apprenticeship, 16, 19. 
Neutrality laws, 654. 

Newspaper stamps, 333, 435, 439. 
Nice and Savoy, 564-568, 571-573- 
Nunneries, 382. 

Oaths Bill, 383, 408, 488, 490, 492, 
504, 509, 525, 726. 

Opium trade, 66. 

Orissa famine, 784. 

Oude proclamation, 518, 519. 

Oxford Test-, 771, 777, 784. 

Paper duty, 568, 574, 575, 581, 603. 
Parks regulation, 786. 

Payment of Members, 912. 

Peace preservation (Ireland), 909, 
910, 911. 

Periodical Press, 408. 

Permissive Bill, 872. 

Permissive education, 477. 

Persian war, 492. 

Poland, 652, 655. 

Police in boroughs and counties, 458. 
Police (Scotland), 305. 

Poor law administration, 219. 
commission, 91. 
amendment, 160. 

Poor law (England), 15. 

Poor law (Ireland), 14- 
Poor relief (Ireland), 207. 

Poor laws (Scotland), 180, 206. 

Poor Rates (Metropolis), 906. 
Population (Ireland), 694. 

Portugal, 219. 


Parliamentary proceedings, cont .— 
Postage, 11, 23, 39, 46, 48. 

Postal espionage, 156, 157, 158, 160 
168, 171, 

Post Office Savings Bank, 594. 

Press Libel Bill, 825. 

Primary Schools, 770. 

Prison ministers, 647. 

Private executions, 809, 824. 

Privilege report, 579. 

“ Projet de Traite,” 932. 

Property qualification, 518, 524. 
Publications, 488. 

Queen’s first message, 2. 

First Bills, 3. 

Queen’s person, 113. 

Railways, extension of lines, 227, • 

279 . 3 o8 > 3 2 6 , 33 i. 379 . 3 8o > 3 Si - 
Reform— 

Hume’s motions, 253, 278, 293. 
Manchester, Conference, 341. 

Lord J. Russell’s, scheme of 1852, 
. 347 - 

bill of 1854, 400, 402. 
withdrawn, 405. 

Disraeli’s bill (1859)— 
proposals, 535. 

Russell amendment, 536. 
Palmerston on, 536. 

Russell’s bill (i860), 567, 573, 576. 
73 °- 

Gladstone’s (1866), 579. 

Earl Grosvenor’s amendment, 
second reading, 732. 
distribution of seats, 737, 738. 
defeat on Sir R. Knightley’s mo¬ 
tion, 739. 

withdrawal of Hay ter s amend¬ 
ment, 740. 

county franchise, 741, 777. 
Dunkellin’s amendment, 741. 
Government defeated, 742. 
Disraeli’s Bill (1867), resolutions, 

765- 

“ Ten Minutes Bill,’ 766. 
Resolutions abandoned, 767. 
Ministerial resignations, 767. 

New Bill, 768. 
discussion on, 769. 
instructions, 770, 771. 
negociations, 771. 
discussion in Committee, 772. 
period of residence, 774. 
lodger franchise, 775. 
occupation clauses, 775. 
compound householders,776,784. 
countv franchise, 777. 
dual vote, &c., withdrawn, 777. 
redistribution of seats, 777, 778, 
780, 784 

voting papers, 780. 
copyholders, 780. 
conveyance ofvoters, 781. 
cumulative voting, 781. 
read a third time, 782. 
in House of Lords, 783, 784,785. 
Carnarvon censure, 783. 

Irish Bill, 813, 831, 832, 834. 
registration, 829. 
boundaries, 829. 
election expenses, 833. 
bribery, 834. 

Scotch Bill, 776, 784, 804, 819, 
825, 828, 830, 832. 

Real Estates’ Intestacy, 879. 
Refreshment houses, 576. 
Registration (Ireland), 66, 70,81, 63, 
x 55 - 

Registration (Scotland), 415. 
Reporters expelled, 277. 

Russian securities, 415. 

Russian war, 389, 411. 

Russian war, conduct of, 429, 430, 
44o- > 

Sacrificial vestments, 768, 769, 776. 
Salaries, 297. 

(IOiq) 




















PAR 


INDEX. 


POI 


Parliamentary proceedings, cotit .— 
Savings’ banks, 681. 

Savoy and Nice annexation, 564-568, 
o 571 - 573 - 

Schleswig-Holstein, 667, 671. 

Schools Bill, 804. 

School books, 324. 

Science and Art vote, 553. 

Scinde Ameers, 149. 

Scotch Education Commission, 780. 
Scotch Universities, 179. 

Script re revision, 921. 

Sebastopol inquiry, 440. 

Secondary punishment, 476. 

Secret Committee (Ireland), 985. 
Sequestration of Benefices, 918. 
Sessional orders, 271. 

Shipping dues, 454, 456. 

Sicily, stores sent to, 273. 

Sikh war, 196, 198. 

Sites for churches, 179, 215, 249. 
Slave squadron, 295, 525. 

Slave trade, 14, 50, 159, 180, 866. 
Sliding scale, 99. 

Somnauth proclamation, 126, 129. 
Southern independence, 653. 

Spirits in bond, 326. 

Spiritual Peers, 922. 

Stansfeld case, 670. 

Statute revision, 455, 705. 

Stockdale and Hansard case, 44, 48, 
59, 60, 61, 62, 65. 

Sugar duties, 156, 169, 179, 205. 
Sunday postal service, 301, 302, 309. 
Sunday trading, 434, 435, 441, 906, 

_ 9 2 5 > 935 - 

Surrender of criminals, 355. 
Suspensory (Irish Church) Bill, 823, 
826, 830, 831 
Syria occupation, 601. 

Tariff Bill, 112, 113. 

Taxes on knowledge, 297. 

Telegraphs purchased, 878. 

Ten Hours’ Bill, 217. 

Tests abolition, 670, 705, 730, 742, 
767, 880, 9x9, 921, 924, 928. 
Scotland, 352. 

Tests Bill, 981, 984. 

Thames Embankment and purifica¬ 
tion, 525, 526, 630, 925. 

Three and-a-half per cents, 151. 
Timber duties, 46, 196. 

Tithes (Ireland), 18, 22, 23. 

Trades’ unions, 14, 878. 
•Transportation, 65, 66, 380. 
Transubstantiation Declaration, 784. 
Unauthorized negotiations, 379, 407. 
Uniformity Act, 777. 

Union chargeability, 697. 

University Act, 777. 

Vacant seats, 353, 594. 

Vagrancy, 9x7. 

Valsamachi (Mrs. Heber), 917. 
Volunteer force, 386. 

Volunteers (Irish), 650. 

Voting papers, 600. 

War office, 906. 

Women franchise, 916. 

Parliament, Sessions of (see following 
dates). 

New 1837, Nov. 15, to Aug. 16, 1838. 

1839, Feb. 5, to Aug. 27, 1839. 

1840, Jan. 16, to Aug. 11, 1840. 

1841, Jan. 26, to June 22, 1841. 
New 1841, Aug. 24, to Oct. 7, 1841. 

1842, Feb. 4, to Aug. 12, 1842. 

1843, Feb. 2, to Aug. 26, 1843. 

1844, Feb. 1, to Sep. 3, 1844. 

1845, Feb. 4, to July 9, 1845. 

1846, Jan. 22, to Aug. 28, 1846. 

1847, Jan. 19, to July 23, 1847. 
New 1847, Nov. 23, to Sep. 5, 1848. 

1849, Feb. 1, to Aug. 1, 1849. 

1850, Feb. 31, to Aug. 15, 1850. 
X851, Feb. 4, to Aug. 8, 1851. 

1852, Feb. 2, to July x, 1852. 

(1020) 1 


Parliamentary sessions, continued — 
New 1852, Nov. 4, to Aug. 20, 1853. 
1854, Jan. 31, to Aug. 12, 1854. 
1854, Dec. 12, to Aug. 14, 1855. 

1856, Jan. 31, to July 29, 1856. 

1857, Feb. 3, to Mar. 21, 1857. 
New 1857, Apr. 30, to Aug. 28, 1857. 

1857, Dec. 3, to Aug. 2, 1858. 

1859, Jan. 3, to Apr. 19, 1859. 
New 1859, May 31, to Aug. 13, 1859. 

1860, Jan. 24, to Aug. 28, i860. 

1861, Feb. 5, to July 6, 1861. 

1862, Feb. 6, to Aug. 7, 1862. 

1863, Feb. 5, to July 28, 1863. 

1864, Feb. 3, to July 29, 1864. 

1865, Feb. 7, to July 6, 1865. 
New 1866, Feb. 1, to Aug. 10, 1866. 

1867, Feb. 5, to Aug. 21, 1867. 

1868, Nov. 19, to June, 31,1868. 
New 1868, Dec. 10, to Aug. 11, 1869. 

1870, Feb. 8, to Aug. 10. 

1871, Feb. 9. 

Parma, Duke of, assassinated, 403. 

flight of Duchess of, 542. 

Passaglia, Father, 611. 

Passion play, 919. 

Passion week amusements, 64. 
Patagonian missionaries, 345. 

Patti, Adelina, 649. 

Patriotic Asylum, 490. 

Patriotic Fund, 419. 

Paxton, Joseph— 

design for Crystal Palace, 305, 306. 
memorial, 317. 
banquet, 333. 
death, 704. 

Peabody, George— 
banquet, 330, 464. 
at Danvers, 469. 
gifts, 622, 628, 730, 851, 878. 

Mr., at the Guildhall, 733.. 

death, 

statue, 881. 

Peace Congress— 

Brussels, 213. 

Frankfort, 308. 

Geneva, 789. 

Paris, 628. 

Peace meetings, 233. 

Peard, Captain, 556. 

“ Peculiar People,” 94a 
Pedestrianism, 15. 

Peel, General, 842. 

Peel, Sir Robert— 
address to electors of Tamworth, 

“ Register, register, register,” 5. 
Conservative banquet, 17. 
opposes Melbourne Ministry, 39, 40, 
85, 86. 

fails to form ministry, 41. 
Bedchamber plot, 41, 42. 

Tamworth address, 86. 
new ministry, 90. 
sliding scale, 99. 

Budget of 1842, 102. 

Tariff Bill, 112. 
life threatened, 113. 
savans at Drayton, 121. 
altercation with Cobden, 127. 
defends Lord Ellenborough, 130. 
increase of clergy, 132. 
on Repeal, 132. 
opposed by Disraeli, 153. 

Bank Charter, Act, 154. 
defeated on sugar duties, 156. 
resolution rescinded, 157. 
attacked by Disraeli, 157, 168, 169. 
171, 172. 

Orange attack, 168. 

advice to young members, 170. 

potato disease, 182. 

Cabinet deliberations, 183, 184, 185. 
Trent Valley Railway, 184, 220. 
resigns, 187. 

correspondence with the Queen, 187. 
188. 


Peel, Sir Robert, continued — 
resumes office, 188. 
denounced, 188. 
letter to Madame Lievcn, 190. 
declares for a change in the Corn- 
laws, 191, 192. 

Tamworth meeting, 193. 
railways abandoned, 197. 
advice to Irish landlords, 198. 
Canning episode, 201, 202. 
fall of ministry, 203. 
resigns, 203. 

letter to Lo r d Hardinge, 204. 

Elbing address, 206. 
address to Tamworth electors, 221. 
proposed fixed duty, 280. 
freedom of Aberdeen, 285. 
protection not to be looked for, 288, 
292. 

denounced by Protectionists, 299. 
foreign policy debate, 303. 
fatal accident, 303. 
burial, 305. 

Harrow "speech day,” 305. 
memorials, 305, 359, 391, 442, 443. 
Peel, Sir R., junior, 306. 
narrow escape, 406. 
on Russia, 474. 
on Savoy, 571. 

O’Donoghue dispute, 621. 

Peerage cases— 

Belhaven, 921. 

Berkeley, 596. 

Borthwick, 915. 

D’Este, 155. 

Dunboyne, 581. 

Dundonald, 651. 

Ferrars, Earl, 138. 

Melfort, 384. 

Montrose, 323, 386. 

Mountgarret, 414. 

Newburgh, 526. 

Shrewsbury, 490, 522, 547. 

Stirling, 39. 

Townshend, 134. 

Tracy, 164, 257. 

Wicklow, 876, 907, 91 x. 

Peers rebuked, 46. 

Pension Commission, 17. 

Penzance, Lord, 860. 

Persia— 

outrages at an Embassy, 16. 

Hopssein Khan’s mission, 16, 46 
besieges Herat, 17, 21, 23. 
rupture with, 20. 

Russian officials, 28, 29. 

Karrack taken, 21. 
outrages, 28. 

designs on Affghanistan, 43. 
treaty of peace, 92. 
convention, 373. 
embassy removed, 454. 
seizure of Herat, 469. 
hostilities, 470. 

Karrack occupied, 472. 

Bushire taken, 472. 
landing of troops, 475. 
defeated at Khooshab, 476. 
peace, 479. 

attack on Mohammerah, 482. 
Petroleum train fired, 979. 

Philiips, Charles, defence, 287. 

Piety address, 576. 

Pimlico, suffocation, 215. 

Pinner School, 447. 

Pirie, Lord Mayor, 114.. 

Planets discovered, 189, 222, 247. 
Plassey, anniversary of battle, 488, 
Plantagenet tombs, 753, 767. 

Ploughing contest, 126. 

Plymouth Lighthouse, 146. 

Pneumatic despatch, 641. 

Poitevin, M., fined, 359. 

Poland— 

rising in Tarnow, 195. 
annexation of Cracow 211, ng. 











POT 


INDEX. 


FRD 


Poland, continued — 
republic proclaimed, 242. 
soldiers for the frontier, 242. 

Silesia and Posen, 245, 248. 
slaves freed, 428. 
insurrection, 638, 658. 

Polar expedition (German), 842. 

(See Arctic and Franklin.) 

Polish fete, 107. 

Political martyrs, monument, 125. 
Polish Constitution, 9x6. 

Pollock, Sir b ., 746. 

Polytechnic accident, 533. 

Ponsard's “ Divine William,” 472. 
Pontefract election, 554. 

Poole, case of Rev. A., 518, 522, 530, 
534 , 536. 

Poor Law agitation, 20. 

Poor Law Commissioners, 81. 

Poor Law, “Dark Document," 128. 
Pope Pius IX.— 
elected, 202. 
reforms, 219, 263. 
discontent, 222. 

Council of State, 224, 226. 

new Constitution, 234, 241. 

opposes Austria, 247. 

disturbance, 257. 

threatens excommunication, 286. 

appeals to Catholic powers, 272. 

advice of Great Britain, 274. 

aid to Ireland, 278. 

temporal power re-established, 280. 

motu fir opr io, 284. 

premised reform, 285. 

re-enters Rome, 297. 

blesses French troops, 297. 

English hierarchy, 310. 
foreign troops leave, 535. 
appeal, 573. 

allocution, 585, 756, 790, 800, 830. 
Encyclical letter, 687. 
sympathy with, 760. 
centenary festivals, 760. 
rebukes King of Sardinia, 852. 
on persecution, 854. 

Jubilee mass, 867. 
submits to aggression, 949. 
sympathy with, 966. 

(See Rome, Italy,and (Ecumenical 
Council.) 

( Portland Harbour, 281. 

Portland letter, 834. 

Portland Vase broken, 167. 

1 Portraits, Gallery of National, 354. 
Portsmouth Dock opened, 250. 
Portugal— 

flight of Terceira, 6. 

Douro navigation, 79. 
disturbance in Oporto, 97. 
rising in favour of Don Miguel, 197. 
Provisional Government, 210. 

British fleet in the Tagus, 211. 
Saldanha victory, 212. 
Sa-da-Bandiera’s expedition, 216,219. 
Conference of London, 217. 

Cortes opened, 231. 

Saldanha, Minister, 323, 326. 
capital punishment abolished, 357. 
death of Queen, 394. 

King visits London, 4x0. 

Pedro V., 446. 

Saldanha ministry resign, 463. 
cession of Macao, 630. 
marriage of King Louis, 633. 
hereditary peerage, 674. 
new Ministry, 882. 
ministerial responsibility, 911. 
Saldanha Ministry, 918. 
complaints against England, 933. 
neutrality, 954. 

Ministry resign, 956. 

Postage, Colonial, 359. 

Postage, Penny, 58, 65. 

Postage rate, 56, 58, 438. 

Postage report, 23, 55. 


Postal regulations, new, 951. 

Post Office Savings’ Banks, 61 x. 

Potato disease, 180, 181, 182, 183. 
Pottinger, Sir H., 165, 177. 

Powder blast, 125. 

Powell expedition lost, 825. 

Prague, insurrection, 250, 252. 

Prague festival, 884. 

Prayer, special, 246, 549. 

President , steamship, 56, 78, 83, 86. 
Preston Guild celebration, 119, 631. 
Prevost-Paradol in Edinburgh, 890. 
appointed to Washington, 003. 
departure, 924. 
suicide, 930. 

Price, Professor Bonamy, 803. 

Prim, Marshal, shot, 970. 

Prince Consort in danger, 660. 
Prince'S Royal—• 
birth, 78. 
christening, 81. 
marriage, 460, 485, 490, 508. 

Princess Royal , insubordination, 560. 
Printing, celebration of invention, 4. 
Prison discipline, 269, 392. 

Pritchard,Tahiti, case of, 151, 159, 161. 
“ Prodigal Son” Oratorio, 884. 
Protectionist demonstration, 234. 
Protection Societies, 150, 191, 288. 
Prussia— 

King of, visits England, 97. 
government, 121. 

King fired at, 159. 

new Constitution, 214, 267. 

Diet opened, 216. 

railways opened, 225. 

reform demanded, 241. 

fighting in Berlin, 242, 252. 

united Germany, 242. 

opposes Denmark, 246. 

occupies Jutland, 247. 

slaughter in Posen, 247. 

Brandenburg ministry, 264, 265. 

Berlin again in a state of siege, 265. 

army thanked, 268 

refuses Frankfort Constitution, 275. 

second Chamber dissolved, 275. 

martial law proclaimed, 277. 

occupies Carlsruhe, 278. 

armistice, 280. 

siege of Berlin raised, 281. 

Elbe and Weser blockade raised, 
282. 

King, head of Bavarian Constitu¬ 
tion, 284. 

alterations in Constitution, 289. 
oath taken by King and Chambers, 
292. 

Hohenzollern united, 295. 
opposed by Wurtemburg, 295. 

King fired at, 300. 
treaty with Denmark, 304. 

Zollverein congress, 305. 

again refuses to join Frankfort Diet, 


army called out, 313. 
failure of German Constitution, 314. 
reduction of army, 315. 
anniversary, 317. 
naval and military affairs, 394. 
Bunsen recalled, 409. 
policy on Eastern question, 401, 406, 
428, 433. 

Crown Prince, Regent, 499, 529. 
Hohenzollern Ministry, 529. 
army, 426. 

King at Cologne, 446. 
military organization, 562. 
protests against annexation of Savoy, 
571 - 

aids Schleswig, 573. 

English alliance, 594. 

Becker’s attempt, 607. 

William I. and Queen Augusta, 
crowned, 612. 


Prussia, continued— 

German substituted for French, 619. 
Chambers dissolved, 622. 
rupture with Hesse, 626. 
military expenditure Bill, 632. 
Bismarck defends the King, 638. 
ports blockaded by Denmark, 644. 
scene in the Chambers, 640. 

Bockum Dolffs’ hat, 649. 

Chamb rs dissolved, 650. 
declines Fraiixfort Congress, 636, 
657 - 

Chambers opened, 660. 
supports Duke of Augustenburg, 
662. 

Duppel captured, 701. 
fleet at Kiel, 705. 
attacks Alsen, 705. 

Chambers refu-es supplies, 708. 

Diet prorogued, 727. 

armies march against Austria, 742. 

King leaves for seat of war, 744. 

King returns thanks for victories, 
748. 

annexes Hanover, &c., 750. 
return of troops to Ber in, 753. 
incorporates Schleswig - Holstein, 

_ ?63 ' 

Secret Treaties with South Germany, 
768. 

North German Constitution, 775. 
King William at Kiel, 839. 

Diet opened, 845, 862. 
new harbour, 875. 
feeling towards Austria, 882. 
Chambers opened, 887. 
diplomatic agents, 897. 

Parliament and the Diet, 903. 

King on German unity, 904. 
vote for special services, 911. 
occupy Rhenish provinces, 918. 

King on armies of the Confederation, 
920. 

j ourney to Ems, 920. 

Prince Leopold and Spanish Throne, 

9 2 5 - 

expresses a desire for neutrality, 926. 
prepared for war, 927. 
war feeling, 928. 

Berlin address, 930. 
war caused by “ foreign arrogance,” 
930 - 

joined by Bavaria, 931. 
day 01 prayer, 931. 
blows up Bridge of Kehl, 931. 

(See Franco-Prussian war.) 
position on the Rhine, 934. 
war proclamation, 939. 

“ Die Wacht am Rhein,” q-?q. 
triumphant march into Berlin, 941. 
meeting at Berlin, 941. 

King William aud the Pope, 946, 
953 - 

Count Bernstorfl on “ benevolent neu¬ 
trality,” 947, 951. 

Emperor Napoleon, “ legitimate 
ruler,” 947. 

new boundaries necessary, 947. 

Dr. Jacoby arrested, 949. 
new Field Marshals, 956. 

King’s message to North German 
Parliament, 962. 
new phase of the war, 965. 
Luxemburg Treaty, 966. 
complaint against French officers, 
967 - 

warning to Alsace and Lorraine, 967. 
Versailles deputation, 968. 
new year’s reception, 971. 
bankers imprisoned, 971. 

Frankfort address, 971. 
defends warfare, 972. 

King William proclaimed Emperor 
of Germany, 974. 

Diet opened, 975. 


(102 i) 
















PUN 


INDEX. 


R A I 


Punch — 
commenced 1841. 

promotes the cause of law and order, 
254 - 

R. Doyle withdraws, 314. 

“ General Fevrier,” 432. 

“Crowing Colonel,” 514. 

Pusey, Rev. Dr.— 
sermon, 134. 
suspension, 135, 140. 
on Articles, 165. 
resumes preaching, 193. 
on Colenso case, 697. 
on Gladstone, 701. 
letter to Wesleyans, 837. 

Pythoness’ eggs, 619. 


Q 


Quaker petition, 4. 

Qiiarterly Review on Count Pulszky, 

298. 

on Sir C. Napier, 367. 

Quebec (see Canada). 

Queen Dowager, 53, 93. 

Queen Victoria— 
accession, 1. 
first council, 1. 
proclamation. 2. 
first message, 2. 
first Royal assent, 3. 
leaves Kensington, 4. 
prorogues Parliament, 4. 

(See also Parliament, sessions of.) 
visits Brighton, 6. 
return, 8. 

dines at Guildhall, 8. 
coronation, 16, 21. . 

birthday drawing-room, 19. 
at Drury-lane Theatre, 34. 
at Lansdowne House, 39. 

Melbourne Ministry, 41. 

Palace entered, 44. 

answer to Address on Education, 46. 

annoyed in Hyde Park, 47. 

rumours of marriage, 50. 

visit of Prince Albert, 53. 

letter to King of the Belgians, 53. 

Privy Council, 56. 

marriage treaty, 61. 

marriage, 61. 

at Drury-lane, 61. 

' Oxford’s attempt, 68. 
visits Woburn, &c., 88. 

Fancy dress ball, 109. 
attempt of Francis, in. 
attempt of Bean, 113. 
visits Edinburgh, 117. 

* return, 119. 
visits Walmer, 122. 
at Thames Tunnel, 139. 
marine excursion, 142. 
at Treportand Belgium, 142, 143. 
at Cambridge, 145. 
at Drayton, &c., 147. 
accident at Datchet, 148. 
visits Scotland, 161. 
at Blair Athol, 161. 
opens Royal Exchange, 163. 
on board the Victory, 163. 
at Burleigh, 164. 
at Stowe, 166. 
in Germany, 180, 181. 
opens Lincoln’s Inn Hall, 183. 
at Arundel, 211. 
voyage to Scotland, 222. 
visits ex-Royal family of France, 
248. 

opens Portsmouth Dock, 250. 
first visit to Balmoral, 261. 
fired at by Hamilton, 277. 
visits Ireland, 281, 389, 610. 
and Scotland, 282. 

Pate’s attack, 300, 305. 
dramatic entertainments, 315. 

(1022) 


Queen Victoria continued — 
on Papal aggression, 315. 
opens Great Exhibition, 325. 

City visit, 330. 

visits Liverpool and Manchester, 336. 
on Duke of Wellington, 360. 
visits Menai Straits, 362. 

Neild bequest, 363. 

Balmoral tower, 390. 
sympathy with sick and wounded in 
the Crimea, 427, 466. 
receives wounded Guards, 431. 
visits Emperor of French, 443. 
news of fall of Sebastopol, 445. 
visits Chatham Hospital, 460. 
Wellington College founded, 462. 
monument to Princess Elizabeth, 
472. 

distributes Victoria Cross, 488. 
at Manchester Exhibition, 490. 
opens Aston Park, 522. 
visits Prussia, 527. 
opens Leeds Town Hall, 528. 
Empress of Hindostan, 529. 
sends for Earl Granville, 547. 
Volunteer levee, 567. 
letter to President Buchanan, 576. 
visits Oxford, 590. 
third visit to Ireland, 610. 
illness and death of Prince Consort, 
616, 617. 

Hartley sufferers, 619. 

Albert memorial, 621. 
at Netley, 649. 

Aston Park accident, 655. 

German tour, 658. 

Sheffield inundation, 669. 
re-appearancc in public, 670. 
birthday rejoicings, 674. 
letter on railway accidents, 680. 
visits Hospital for Consumption, 696. 
at Wolverhampton, 759. 
letter to Mr. Peabody, 739. 
cholera sick fund, 749. 
opens Aberdeen waterworks, 755. 
Albert Hall, of Arts and Sciences, 
776 . 

Empress of French visits, 784. 
at Floors Castle, 787. 
answer to address on Irish Church, 
824. 

St. Thomas’ Hospital, 824. 
Buckingham Palace, “ breakfast,” 
830. 

journey to Switzerland, 836. 
return, 839. 
fiftieth birthday, 872. 
investiture of Knights, 878. 
visits Loch Lomond, 884. 
opens Blackfriars Bridge, 890. 
London University buildings, 917. 
State conceit, 917. 
visits Empress Eugenie, 964. 
birth of— 

1. Princess Royal, Nov. 21, 1840, 

78, 81. 

2. Albert Edward,Prince ofWales, 

Nov. 9. 1841, 93. 

3. Alice Maud Mary, April 25, 

1843, 131. 

4. Alfred Ernest Albert, Aug. 6, 

1844, 160. 

5. Helena Augusta Victoria, May, 

25, 1846, 200. 

6. Louisa Carolina Alberta, March, 

18, 1848, 242. 

7. Arthur William Patrick Albert, 

May 1, 1850, 298. 

8. Leopold George Duncan Albert, 

April 7, 1853, 379. 

9. Beatrice Mary Victoria Feo- 

dore, April 14, 1857, 483. 
Queen’s Bench, removal of trials, 454. 
Quoad Sacra churches, 187. 

Queen Victoria seized, 770, 773. 
Queen's Messenger assaults, 876. 


R. 


ST. LEGER. 
Mungo. 

Don John. 
Charles XII. 


Races— 

DERBY. 

1837 Phosphorus. 

1838 Amato. 

1839 Bloomsbury 

1840 Little Wonder. Launcelot. 

1841 Coronation. Satirist. 

1842 Attila. 

1843 Cotherstone 

1844 Orlando. 


1845 Merry Mo¬ 

narch. 

1846 Pyrrhus the 

the First. 

1847 The Cossack. 

1848 Surplice. 

1349 Flying Dutch¬ 
man. 

1850 Voltigeur. 

1851 Teddington. 

1852 Daniel 

O’Rourke. 

1853 West Austra¬ 

lian. 

1854 Andover. 


Blue Bonnet. 
Nutwith. 
Faugh-au-Bal- 
lagh. 

The Baron. 


Sir Tatton 
S3 7 kes. 

Van Tromp. 
Surplice. 

Flying Dutch¬ 
man. 

Voltigeur, 

Newminster. 

Stockwell. 


1855 Wild Dayrell. 

1856 Ellington. 

1857 Blink Bonny. 

1858 Beadsman. 

1859 Musjid. 

1860 Thormanby. 

1861 Kettledrum. 

1862 Caractacus. 

1863 Macaroni. 

1864 Blair Athol. 

1865 Gladiateur. 

1866 Lord Lyon. 

1867 Hermit. 

1868 Blue Gown. 

1869 Pretender. 

1870 Kingcraft. 


West Austra¬ 
lian. 

Knight of St. 

George. 

Saucebox. 

Warlock. 

Imperieuse. 

Sunbeam. 

Gamester. 

St. Albans 
Caller Ou. 

The Marquis. 
Lord Clifden. ■ 
Blair Athol. 
Gladiateur. 
Lord Lyon. 
Achievement. 

F ormosa. 

Pero Gomez. 
Hawthornden. 


Rachel, case of Madame, 828, 844, 853, 

863, 872. 

Raglan, Lord, 362. 

Field Marshal, 425. 
death, 404. 

Railway— 

Board of Trade reports, 833. 
smoking carriages, 834. 

Railway accidents— 

Abergele, 837, 868. 

Atherstone, 588. 

Barnsley, 9 66. 

Beeston, 164. 

Bicester, 335. 

Blackheath tunnel, 689. 

Bohemia, 850. 

Brockley Whins, 965. 

Burnley, 357. 

Camphill, Pennsylvania, 463. 
Carlisle, Citadel Station, 926. 

Carr’s Rock, Erie, 819. 

Caterham, 736. 

Church Fenton, 466. 

Clayton tunnel, Brighton, 6iol 
Croydon, 415. 

Dee bridge, 217. 

Dinmore, 591. 

Dixenfold, 378. 

Dunkitt, Ireland, 471 
Ealing, 378. 

Eastern Counties, 310. 

Egham, 675. 

Erie, United States, 879. 

Fall of canal bridge, 481. 
Forgandenny, 897. 

Glasgow, 307. 

Gothland, 667. 

Great Northern, 497. 

Hampstead, 61. 

H arrow, 963. 

Hatfield, 970. 

















R A I 


IXBEX. 


R I 0 


Railway accidents, continued — 
Helmshore, 583. 

Hornsey, 389. 

Howden, Hull, 73. 

Kenyon junction, 6. 

Knottingley, 637. 

Lewisham, 488. 

Lynn, 656. 

Masborough, 183. 

Market Harborough, 631. 
Metropolitan, 761. 

Midland, 596. 

Midland, 887. 

Mitcham and Sutton bridge, 736. 
Newark, 922. 

New Cross, 877. 

Newton-road, 261. 

Orange excursionists, 416. 

Oxford, 373. 

Peak Forrest Tunnel, 789. 

(Queen's letter, 689.) 

Rednal, 704. 

Round Oak, 527. 

Shrivenham, 248. 

Stuplehurst, 705, 713. 

Straffan, Ireland, 391. 

Streatham, 650. 

Sunning, 95. 

Sutton, 325. 

Tamworth, 947. 

Tottenham, 565. 

Tuxford road viaduct, 497. 
Underground, 602. 

Usk bridge burned, 251. 

Versailles, 108. 

Walton Junction, 781. 

Welwyn tunnel, 741. 

Welwyn, 888. 

Wimbledon, 592. 

Winchburgh, 633. 

Wolverton, 219. 

Railway blockade, 273. 
conference, 528. 
gambling, 180. 

gauge controversy, 177, 198, 207. 
joint-purse arrangement, 8 jo. 
legislation, 193, 204, 219. 
capital, 195, 206, 216. 
turn of the market, 197. 
schemes, 183, 184, 185, 190, 315. 
rates, 320. 

compensation for accidents, 9 2 7 - 
Railways opened— 

Bath and Bristol, 74. 

Berwick and Newcastle, 220. 
Calcutta and Bombay, 912. 
Caledonian, 234. 

Canadian Grand Trunk, 471. 
Charing Cross, 662. 

Chester and Holyhead, 248. 

Dublin and Galway, 333 - 
East London, 893. 

Edinburgh and Berwick, 202. 
Edinburgh and Glasgow, 100. 
Furness and Windermere, 873. 

Great Northern, 308. 

Great Northern (France), 261. 

Great Western, 72, 87. 

Irish South-coast, 254. 

Lincoln and Hull, 267. 

Liverpool and Birmingham, 3. 
London and Birmingham, 25, 361. 
London and Brighton, 91. 
Metropolitan, 637. 

Newcastle, Shields, &c., 44- 
Paris and Orleans, 132. 

Paris and St. Germains, 6. 
Peterborough and Lincoln, 263. 
Peterborough and Northampton, 
176. 

Ramsgate, 197. # 

Reading and Basingstoke, 264. 
Shrewsbury and Birmingham, 286. 
Solwayjunction, 885. 

South-Western (Scotland), 259. 
Trent Valley, 220. 


Ramshay, absurd behaviour of Judge, 
336. 

Ranelagh, defence of Lord, 841. 

Rapids navigated, 74. 

Rarey, horse-taming, 506, 52a. 

Rearden motion, 826. 

“ Rebecca and her Daughters” (see 
Riots). 

Reciprocity Association, 894. 

Recruit commission, 496. 

Redesdale, Lord, Chairman of Com¬ 
mittees, 318. 
on ladies, 436. 

Redpath frauds, 471, 475. 

Red River disturbances, 895, 897. 

Reece, case of Alicia, 475. 

Reed, E. J., at bar of House of Com¬ 
mons, 642. 

Reform Association, 109. 

Reformatory conference, 467. 

Reform Bill agitation— 

Bill of 1866, 728. 
opposition to, 729. 

Mr. Bright at Birmingham. 730. 

Liverpool meeting, 731. 

second reading of Gladstone’s Bill, 

734 - . . 

scene at division, 735. 

Trafalgar Square demonstration, 744. 
Hyde Park meeting, 746. 
riot, 747. 

Guildhall meet-ng, 750. 

Birmingham meeting, 75:. 758. 
Manchester meeting, 753. 

Lee .s meeting, 754. 

Glasgow meeting, 755. 

Earl Malmesbury, 756. 

Edinburgh meeting, 758. 

Hyde Park closed, 758. 

London Trades demonstration, 759. 
Islington Hall meeting, 765. 
opposition meeting, 7G6. 
ministerial resignations, 767, 768. 
new Bill, 769. 

savings Bank depositors, 771. 
ministerial deputations, 770. 

“Tea Room” party, 771. 
proclamation, 774. 

Hyde Park demonstrations, 774, 784. 
St. James’ Hall meeting, 778. 

Bill passed, 785. 

Crystal Palace banquet, 788, 790. 
League dissolved, 863. 

(Seealso“ ParliamentReform Bill ”) 
Regent’s Park, ice accident, 762. 

“ Reindeer ” betting case, 634. 

Renan, Professor, restored, 912. 

Repeal agitation— 

Kilkenny meeting, 135. 
rent, 138, 156. 

Tara-hill meeting, 140. 
scheme of representation, 141. 
outrages, 142. 

Mullaghmast meeting, 143. 

Clontarf meeting prohibited, 144. 
charge of conspiracy, 145. 
opening of Conciliation Hall, 145. 
government censured, 145.. 
true bill returned against traversers, 
146. 

tribute Sunday, 146. 

Smith O’Brien’s resolve, 156. 
unite with Orangemen, 168. 
levee in the Rotunda, 176. 

Cashel demonstration, 182. 
split with Smith O’Brien, 200, 202, 
2 ° 5 , 211. 

Young Ireland party, 216. 
the United Irishman incites to re¬ 
bellion, 239, 242, 243, 246. 
rifle clubs, 244. 
pike factories, 245. 
affray in Limerick, 247. 

Doherty at Dunboyne, 251. 
break-up of Association, 252. 

(See Ireland.) 


Reunion of Christendom, 922. 
Revenue frauds, 132, T34, 151. 
Revenue returns, 124, 131. 
Reviews, military— 

Aldershot, 464. 

Chatham, 281. 

Hyde Park, 22, 674. 

Volunteer, 577, 581, 5S3, 599, 625 
Wimbledon, 656. 

Woolwich, 22. 

Reviews, naval— 

Spithead, 178, 387, 460. 

“ Revival” meetings, 51, 497, 555. 
Reynolds sisters, destitution, 122. 
Richmond, Duke of— 

opposes Free Trade, 195, 200. 
war-medal banquet, 426. 

Rifle corps formed, 347. 

(See Volunteers.) 

Rinderpest, 706. 

Riots— 

Aldershot, 561. 

Ashton, 257. 

Ballarat, 426. 

Ballinhassig, 178. 

Barham Union, 289. 

Belfast, 357, 496. 

Belfast, 681, 696, 701. 

Belgium, 815. 

Birmingham (Chartist), 45, 46. 
Blackburn, 379. 

Brighton, 883. 

Caine, Wilts, 73. 

Cambridge (election), 847. 
Canton, 123. 

Carlisle (election), 87. 

Chartists in Wales, 40. 

Church vestry, 16. 

Cork, 357, 923. 

Cork saw-mills, 145. 

Cork Workhouse, 353. 
Courtenay, 19. 

Cracow, 880. 

Culsalmond, 93. 

Dolly’s Brae, 280. 

Derry, 938, 968. 

Dominica, 156. 

Drury-lane Theatre, 252, 264. 
Dublin, 514. 

Dumfries (food), 113. 

“ Dummy,” witchcraft, 658. 
Dunfermline, 180. 

Edinburgh University, 478. 
Egham Races, 51. 

Exeter (bread), 396, 795. 

Fen Ditton, 276. 

Florence, 682. 

France (food), 52, 213. 

Funchal, 161. 

Gavazzi, 384, 537. 

Geneva, 681. 

Glasgow, 43, 240. 

Highlands (food), 2x4. 

Hyde Park (Garibaldi) 633. 
(Reform), 747. 748- 
(Sunday), 440, 446. 
Inverness, 193. 

Ireland (food), 111. 

Irish famine, 197. 

Italian Opera, 112. 

Jersey harbour, 953. 

Leeds, workhouse, 12. 

Liege (bread), 390. 

Limerick, funeral, 165. 

Lisbon, 20. 

Lurgan, 886. 

Macready, 277. 

Martinique, 250. 

Methodist, 379. 

Mold (colliery), 873. 
Monaghan (Orange), 833. 
Monkwearmouth, 90. 
Montreal, 275, 284. 

Murphy, 778. 

Newport, Monmouthshire, 55. 
New York conscription, 655. 

( 1023 ) 

























R T O 


INDEX. 


R U S 


Riots continued- - 
Northampton, too. 

Northmoor Green (ritual), 731, 755. 
Orange, 135, 579 
Oxford University, 138. 

Oxford, 795. 

Pa'is, 4a, 74. 

Philadelphia, 154. 

Portdown («)range), 878. 

Railway labourers, 87. 

“ Rebecca,” 129, 136, 141, 142, 144. 
Rome, 88. 

Roskeen, Tain, 142. 

Six-mile Bridge (Clare), 358, 365. 
Staley bridge, 115, 644. 

St. Boswell’s fair, 280. 

Stepney (bread), 431. 

St. George-in-the East, 555, 559, 
563, 580, 588. 

Stockport, 356. 

St. Sid well’s, Exeter, 166. 

Tamworth, 327. 

Thom (Sir W. Courtenay), 19, 21. 
Thorncliffe Colliery, 897. 

Todmorden (Poor Law), 30. 
Trafalgar-square, 240. 

Truro, 18. 

Tuam churchyard, 18. 

Turloughmore, 139. 

Wash n<_ton, 828. 

Waterford (election), 906. 

West Hartlepool, 466. 

Wigan, 392. 

Wolverhampton, 766. 

Yeadon, 379. 

Risk Allah Bey— 
tried, 775. 
v. Whitehurst, 829. 

Ritchie, D , killed, 539. 

Ritualism— 

revival of monastic establishments, 
123. 

St. Barnabas, Pimlico, 301, 314. 
episcopal address, 322. 
lay remonstrance, 323. 
commission, 777. 
report, 787. 

National Club address, 766. 
meeting, 796. 

Evangelical opposition, 797. 
festival, 839. 

Purchas case, 842, 

Ritual services, 914. 

Ritual Commission, 923. 

Road murder, 577. 

Robberies— 

Bank, Ballarat, 419. 

Bank of England, 161. 

Bank of England paper, 630, 637. 
Baum, Lombard Street, 687. 

Berwick bank, 207. 

Birkbeck Bank, 903. 

Bowring, Dr., 225. 

Bristol, hi. 

Bullion, 436, 474. 

Charlecote Lucy, 298. 

Charlton Park, 470. 

Chloroform, 289. 

Cureton, Mr. 310. 

Dodd Brothers, 622. 

Falkirk bank, 498. 

Gold dust, 38, 45, 326. 

Howard, Manchester, 692. 
Lesurques (French mail), 673. 
London and Ryder (jewellery), 973. 
Lord Denman, 388. 

Manchester coach, 53. 

Motley, J. L., 897. 

Perseverance coach, 100. 

Rogers’ bank, 164, 224. 

Rogers, bill-broker, 19. 

Royal Academy, 250. 

Seething Lane, 822, 832. 

Sovereigns, 232, 261. 

Toren, jewellery, 871. 

United Service Club, 52. 

(IO24) 


Robberies, continued — 

Walker’s, Cornhill, 692, 693, 694. 
Windsor Castle, 82. 

Windsor plate, 458. 

Young, W.S., 51. 

Roberts, David, 121, 686. 

Robert, Sir Spencer, retirement of, 
980, 982. 

Robson frauds, 468. 

Rochefort, M., fined, 836, 890. 
Rochester banquet, 466. 

Rochester bridge destroyed. 474. 
Roebuck, A. J.— 
on Canadians, 14. 
election petitions, 108, 112, 114. 
secular education, 133. 

Somers correspondence, 178. 
foreign policy, 302. 

Papal aggression, 3x8. 

Crimean inquiry, 429, 432, 442. 
presentation, 468. 

Galway contract, 599. 
on Lord Palmerston, 842. 
presentation, 865. 

Rome— 

Papal edict torn down, 257. 
Diplomatic intercourse, 261. 

Count Rossi assassinated, 265. 
flight of the Pope, 265. 

Pope deposed, 268, 269. 
proceedings of Constituent Asse mbly, 
271. 

Mazzini, invitation, 271. 
new constitution, 275. 
armed French intervention, 276. 
attack of Oudinot, 277. 
proclamation of Triumvirate, 277. 
capture of, 279. 
refugees, 284. 
assassination, 292. 

Perugia captured, 550. 

Romagna, 556. 

protests against Sardinia, 552. 
relations with Sardinia, 569. 
excommunicates invaders, 570. 

King of Sardinia threatened, 584. 
territory entered, 584. 

Ancona seized, 585. 

Viterbo threatened, 585. 

French troops withdrawn, 760. 

St. Peter’s anniversary, 780. 
Garibaldian rising, 792. 
supported by French troops, 794. 
CEcumenical Council convened, 799. 
French ambassador received, 845. 
Italian soldiers executed, 849, 850. 
Pre-Synodal congregation, 893. 
Council opened, 894. 
high Mass, 896. 

French troops, 933, 937. 

Italian troops enter, 949. 
voting, 951. 

Jesuit College closed, 959. 
flood, 970. 

Mayor of, 971. 

Romeo Coates killed, 235. 

Romilly, Sir J., Attorney-general, 305. 
Romish converts, 183. 

Ronge excommunicated, 165. 

Rosse, Earl of, Chancellor, 641. 

telescope, 170. 

Rossini festival, 870. 

“ Stabat Mater,” 104. 

Rothschild, Baron, 306, 441, 861. 
Rothschild, marriages, 479, 704. 
Rouher banquet, 628. 

Roumania constituted, 618. 

Roumania, disturbance in, 920. 
Roumanian representation, 969. 

Royal Academy, 871. 

Royal British Bank, 454. 
failure of, 467. 
trial of Directors, 511. 

Royal George wreck, 52, 55. 

Royal Society, 246. 

Royds, E., killed, 919. 


Rubens statue, Antwerp, 74. 
Ruffo-Scilla Bank failure, 9^6. 

Rugby Romance,” 611. 

Rugby School— 

Tait, master, 114. 

Goulburn, master, 288. 

Temple, master, 501. 
anniversary, 780. 

Hayman, master 892. 

Rugeley, poisoning, 449, 453. 

Running Rein case, 155, 157. 

Rushin Castle, escape, 142. 

Ruskin, Slade Professor, 882, 903. 

on war, 953. 

Russell, actor, 87. 

Russell, Lord John— 

“ Finality,” 2, 279. 

address to electors at Stroud, 3, 4. 

Mulgrave letter, 4. 

speech on reform, 9. 

on public meetings, 26. 

at Drumlanrig, 74. 

announces dissolution, 86. 

candidate for City of London, 86, 87. 

charged with factious opposition, 107. 

Edinburgh freedom, 184. 

Edinburgh letter on Corn-laws, 185. 
attempts to form a ministry, 187. 
Glasgow freedom, 190. 
meeting of supporters, 201, 204. 
forms Ministry, 205. 
address to City of London, 205. 
declaration of policy, 205. 
advice to Irish landlords, 210. 
verdict against, 213. 
defends Dr. Hampden, 228. 
letter to the Dean of Hereford, 230. 
defeated, 250, 297, 398, 302, 305, 321, 
_ 328, 347 . 742 . 

Bribery bill, 255. 
visits Ireland, 260. 

Manchester address, 296. 
defends Palmerston, 302. 

Durham letter, 313. 

Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 318. 
defeated on Franchise Bill, 320. 
resignation, 320. 
resumes office, 320. 
defends Archbishop of Canterbury, 
326. 

Franchise Bill of 1852, 347. 

Militia Bill, 347. 
defeated, 347. 
resignation, 347, 348. 
meeting of supporters, 349. 
on Duke of Wellington, 361. 

Foreign Secretary, 373. 

Vienna negotiations, 388. 
speech at Greenock, 390. 
declares for war, 400. 
defence of policy, 409. 
on the fleet, 411. 
meeting of supporters, 413. 

Bristol address, 422. 

difference with Aberdeen Cabinet, 

425- 


resigns, 429. 

fails to form Ministry, 430. 
mission to Vienna, 431. 

Colonial Minister, 432. 
defence, 441. 
resigns, 441. 
on war loan, 442. 
education, 457, 459. 
on history, 462. 
on China vote, 481, 482. 

Reform Bill of i860, 567, 573, 567. 
advises Sardinia, 581. 
defends Sardinia, 587. 
farewell address to electors, 608. 
Earl, 608. 

Russell, Earl— 

on Confederate States, 629, 634, 686, 
703, 704. 

on Schleswig-Holstein, 632, 664. 
on Poland, 642, 652. 












R U S 


INDEX . 


S A 1. 


Russell, Earl, continued — 

United States, enlistment, 647. 
London City Police, 647. 
at Dundee, 658. 

“ Rest and be thankful,” 658. 
objects to Paris Conference, 660. 
neutrality correspondence, 718. 

Prime Minister, 719. 

Ministry defeated, 742. 
resigns, 743. 

rumour contradicted, 791. 
letters on Irish Church, 804, 858. 
censures Mr. Disraeli, 808, 827. 
on Iiish Church, 819. 

•Life Peerages Bill, 867, 873, 879. 
on Education Bill, 910. 

Colonial defence, 922. 

Russell, Odo, special mission, 960. 
Russia— 

progress in Central Asia, 38,682, 706, 
739, 824, 826. 

Emperor Nicholas in London, 155. 
on Swiss Confederation, 234. 
on Polish disturbances, 242, 243. 
interference in Hungary, 276, 277. 
captures Achula, 284. 

(See Russian War.) 
death of Emperor Nicholas, 432. 
accession of Emperor Alexander, 461. 
amnesty, 462. 
coronation, 465, 468. 
despatch concerning Naples, 467. 
Bessarabian frontier, 470. 

Grand Duke visits England, 486. 

' serfs, 507, 555. 

Caucasus subdued, 554 
capture of Schamyl, 555. 
emancipation of serD, 596. 
outbreak at Warsaw, 593. 
declares Poland in a. state of siege. 




612. 

Governor of Poland, 627. 
recognizes Italy, 628. 
rising of the Poles, 638, 641. 
treaty with Prussia, 640. 
advice of France, 641. 

Lord J. Russell advises, 642. 
relief of serfs, 643. 

Langiewicz dictator of Poland, 644. 
amnesty rejected, 648. 
reply to remonstrance, 654. 
success of Lelewel, 658. 
mourning forbidden, 659. 

Poles defeated, 660. 

relief of Polish peasantry, 669. 

“ Holy Alliance ” rumours, 680. 


seizes Tchemkent, 682. 
and Tashkend, 706. 

Emperor fired at, 733. 
victory in Bokhara, 739. 
recognizes Hospodar, 757. 
marriage of Czarewitch, 758. 
sale of territory, 770, 780. 
attempt to assassinate Czar, 777. 
Samarcand occupied, 824, 826. 
amnesty, 828. 
conscription, 846. 

modification of Black Sea Treaty, 
955, 960. 

Prince GortschakofFs circulars, 957, 
961. 

Earl Granville’s answers, 959. 
Minister for Foreign affairs, 892. 
new loan, 902. 
rumours regarding, 930. 

Shahrizeb, Bokhara, 939. 
honours to Crown Princes of Saxony 
and Prussia, 947, 959. 
rumoured revision of Treaty of Paris, 


950 - 

[ Russian war— 

disputes regarding Holy Places, 
347, 363, 372. 

Emperor on “ the sick man,” 374. 
activity of France, 375. 
MenschikofFs mission, 378. 

(1025) 


Russian war, continued — 
arrival of Ambassador at Constanti¬ 
nople, 379. 

MenschikofFs ultimatum, 381. 
Anglo-French alliance, 382. 
movements of the fleet, 382. 

Consols, 382. 

despatch of Count Nesselrode, 383, 
3 8 4 - 

occupation of Principalities, 383. 
knowledge of designs, 384. 
manifesto, 385. 

Pruth crossed, 385. 

Turkey protests, 386. 

note of the Four Powers, 386, 388, 

389- 

Turkish students, 390. 
fleet ordered to Constantinople, 390, 
39 1 - 

Russia declares war, 393. 
first encounter at Oltenitza, 393. 
attack on Sinope, 394. 
more notes, 395. 

engagement on the Danube, 396. 
Napoleon correspondence, 398. 

Baron Brunnow leaves London, 399. 
peace deputation, 400. 

“ Drifting into war,” 400. 
another Russian manifesto, 401, 406. 
policy of Austria and Prussia, 401, 
408. 

departure of the Guards, 401. 
ultimatum of Great Britain, 401. 
exports prohibited, 402. 
secret despatches, 402. 
hay frauds, 403. 
declaration of the causes, 403. 
Dobrudja occupied, 403. 
seizure of frigates, 405. 

French alliance, 405. 
departure of Lord Raglan, 405. 
orders in Council, 405. 

. Sir H. Symons on Emperor Nicholas, 
406. 

first prize, 406. 
war loan, 406. 
attack on Odessa, 406. 
general fast, 406. 
men and stores, 406. 

Tiger fired on, 408. 

Eckness and Gustafsvaern bom¬ 
barded, 408. 

siege of Silistria raised, 412. 
attack of Sebastopol pressed on, 412. 
victory of Giurgevo, 413. 
blockade in Gulf of Finland, 413. 
case of Count Pahlen, 413. 
resolution to attack Sebastopol, 413, 
414 - 

outbreak of cholera, 413. 
determination of the allies, 414. 
war vote, 414. 
action at Kuruk Dere, 414. 
Bomarsund occupied, 415. 
attack on Petropaulovski, 415. 
landing of troops in the Crimea, 415. 
battle of the Alma, 416, 417. 
vessels sank at Sebastopol, 417. 
operations at Balaklava, 417. 
death of Marshal St. Arnaud, 417. 
rumoured capture of Sebastopol, 418. 
Patriotic Fund, 419. 
opening fire on Sebastopol, 420. 
battle of Balaklava, 421. 
charge of the Light Brigade, 421. 
battle of Inkerman, 423. 

Miss Nightingale at Scutari, 424. 
disastrous storm, 424. 
sufferings of army, 426. 
army promotion, 427. 
army thanked, 428. 

Baltic fleet broken up, 428. 
attack on Eupatoria, 431. 
death of Emperor Nicholas, 432. 
national fast, 433. 
armistice, 433. 


Russian war, continued — 

Baltic fleet, 433. 

siege of Sebastopol renewed, 433. 
war loan, 434. 

Vienna conference, 433, 438. 
trade restrictions, 436. 
resignation of Canrobert, 436. 
distribution of war medals, 436. 
capture of Kertch, 437. 

Taganrog bombarded, 437. 
massacre at Hango, 438. 

Mamelon captured, 438. 

Redan and Malakhoff attacked, 439. 
policy of Austria, 440. 
death of Lord Raglan, <140, 441. 
loans, 442, 443. 

Sweaborg bombarded, 442. 
battle of the Tchernaya, 443. 
retreat from Sebastopol, 444. 
effect of the news, 445. 
victory at Kars, 446. 
levy, 446. 

Kinburn bombarded, 446. 
siege of Kars, 446, 460. 

Czar at Odessa and Crimea, 448. 
passage of the Ingour, 448. 

General Simpson resigns, 448. 
surrender of Kars, 450. 
siege operations, 451. 
new scheme of negotiations, 452, 453, 
454 - 

council of war, 453. 
peace, 453, 459, 461, 462. 

Sebastopol docks destroyed, 454. 
treaty, 458, 467, 474. 
thanksgiving services, 461. 
return of the Guards, 464. 
evacuation of Crimea, 464. 
Rutterford, reprieve, 913. 

Ryves, case of Mrs., 592, 830. 


S. 

Sachem Indians, 409. 

Sadleir suicide and frauds, 455, 
477 - 

Sailor’s Home, Shields, 474. 

Sale, Sir Robert and Lady— 

(See Atfghan war), 
arrive at Southampton, 139. 
entertained at London, 160. 
at Windsor, 164. 

Southampton, 165. 
killed, 188. 

Sale»rV 
Beif.af, 432. 

Dickens, Charles, 925. 

Esterhazy jewels, 769. 

Knowsley stud, 908. 

Lagrange racing stud, 944. 

Louis Philippe, 382. 

Newcastle, Duke of, 876. 

North wick, 555. 

Pembroke (coins), 257. 

Pourtales, 698. 

Rogers, 460. 

Royal Exchange materials, 16. 
Royal stud, 6. 

San Donato, 906. 

Scarisbrick, 601. 

Soulage, 472. 

Soult, 353. 

Stowe, 258, 261, 270, 276. 
Strawberry Hill, 106. 

Uzielli, 599. 

Worksop manor, 17. 

Salisbury, Marquis of, on House 
Lords, 843. 

Sa'nave cap.ured, 900. 

Salomons, M.P. for Greenwich— 
takes his seat, 331, 332, 333. 
trial, 342, 351. 

Lord Mayor, 446. 

Saltaire, festival, 390. 

Saltash Bridge, 542. 

3 
















S A L 


WDEX. 


S H 


Salt-mine, sinking of, 27. 

Salt monopoly, 208. 

Sandwich Islands, 127, 128, 147. 

Queen of, 710, 746. 

Santiago Cathedral burnt, 662. 
Sarawak, 531. 

grievances, 255. 

Sardinia— 

new constitution, 234. 
interference in Italy, 243, 244, (see 
Italian war), 
crosses the Adige, 244. 
defeated before Verona, 248. 
votes annexation of Lombardy, 254. 
armistice with Austria, 257. 
resumes hostilities, 273. 
overthrow at Novara, 274. 
abdication of Charles Albert, 274. 
Duke of Savoy king, 274. 
treaty of peace, 282. 
ratification, 289. 
the Siccardi law, 296. 
joins Western Powers, 429. 
declares war, 432. 
troops in the Crimea, 435. 

King visits England, 451. 
occupation of Papal territory, 462. 
difference with Austria, 481 (see 
Italian war). 

Count Cavour resigns, 552. 

King enters Milan, 554. 

Ambassador withdrawn from Rome, 
558 - 

Count Cavour again in office, 562. 
annexes Parma and Modena, 566, 
575 - 

cedes Savoy and Nice, 572. 
views on Venetia, 583. 
enters Papal States, 584. 
manifesto, 586. 

King enters Sicily, 589. 
defeat at Tagliacozzo, 592. 

(See also Italy.) 

Sattara, Rajah of, 88, 220. 

Saturday Review , 448. 

Sayers and Heenan fight. 572. 

Sayers’ funeral disturbance, 720. 
Saxony— 

death punishment abolished, 816. 
King congratulates German Empe¬ 
ror, 975. 

Scarborough elec'ion, 332. 

Scarlett, Lieut.-Gen. Sir J , 956. 
Schamyl, 284. 

captured, 555. 

Schiller, festival, 560. 
Schleswig-Holstein dispute— 

Prussia favours Duke of Augusten- 
burg, 662. 

Diet, 663. 

Duke proclaimed, 664. 

Earl Russell’s demand, 664. 
territory entered, 664, 665. 
retreat of the Danes, 666. 
advance of Austro-Prussian force, 
667. 

Danes quit Schleswig, 668. 

Duppel bombarded, 670. 
surrenders, 672. 

(See Denmark and Prus«ia.) 
Schoffler, M., martyred, 326. 
Schonbein’s gun cotton, 210. 

School Board elections, 961, 963, 964. 
School grant, 955. 

School report, 668. 

School statues, 915, 955. 

Science and State aid, 911. 

Scinde war, (see India). 

Scottish Rights Association, 393. 
Scott, diver, 80. 

Scott monument, 206. 

Scripture revision, 904, 906, 915, 920, 
92X, 922, 938. 

Sea serpent, 263. 

Sebastopol, fall of, 444, 454, 

Sedgwick, Professor, i6j. 

(1026) 


Seeley, Professv’r, 886. 

Selwyn, Rev. Dr , 798. 

Sepoy cruelties, 499, 5x6. 
Serpent-bite, 363. 

Servants’ gratuities, 693. 

Sei via, throne of, 119. 

Prince Michael shot, 829. 
election of Prince Milan, 831. 
trial of conspirators, 834, 846. 
Severn scuttling, 757, 763. 

Sewage accident, 315. 

Sewer accident, 594. 

Seymour, Lady, correspondence, 62. 
Seymour, W. D., 548. 
trial, 635. 

Shaftesbury, Earl of— 
challenged to fight, 385. 
on Sepoy cruelties, 499, 516. 
religious services bill, 504. 
ragged school, 601. 
on “ Ecce Homo,” 738. 

(See Ashley, Lord.) 

Shakspeare autograph, 522. 
commemoration, 652, 672. 
controversy, 550. 
house, 224, 612. 

Shakspeare’s Cliff, 270. 

Sheddon case, 588. 

Sheerness dockyard accident, 593. 
Sheffield— 

Athenaeum, 223, 286. 
canal bursts, 400. 
outrages, 533, 623, 755. 
inundation, 669. 

trade outrage commission, 777, 781. 
disclosures, 778, 780. 
report, 784. 

saw-grinders’ resolution, 786. 
Broadhead’s license refused, 787. 
Shelley forgeries, 347. 

Shenandoah cruiser, 719. 

Shiel, R. L., 50. 

O’Connell trial, 148. 

Jewish Disabilities, 234. 
Shipwrecks— 

Abercrombie Robinson, 117. 

Alma, 547. 

Amazon, 344. 

Anglo-Saxon, 647. 

Anna Jane, 390. 

Apollo, 6. 

Argo, 550. 

Argyll, 382. 

Ariel, 251. 

Atlantic, 265. 

Australian, 843. 

Ava, 510. 

Avenger, 229. 

Baltic, 604. 

Bencoolen, 194, 633. 

Birkenhead, 348. 

Blake (sufferings), 458. 

Blervie Castle,•561. 

Bolingbrooke, 870. 

Brechin Castle, 214. 

Bulldog, 718. 

Burgundy, 265. 

Cadmus, 873. 

Callao, 586. 

Cambria, 863. 

Cambria, 954. 

Canadian, 603. 

Captain, 945, 952. 

Carnatic, 884. 

Cataraqui, 180. 

Central America, 496. 

Ceres, 758. 

Charlotte, 416. 

Cheduba, 872. 

City of Bristol, 78. 

City of Boston, 902, 908. 

City of Edinburgh, 101. 

City of Glasgow, 402, 595. 

Clyde, 496. 

Colombo, 634. 

Commerce, 230. 


Shipwrecks, continued — 
Connaught, 585. 

Conqueror, 124, 6 id. f 
Cossipore, 898. ' 

Czar, 533. 

Dalhousie, 391, 686. 

Demerara, 339. 

Diana, 131. 

Duke of Sutherland, 379. 
Dunbar, 495. ■ f , 

Earl of Carrick, 505. 

Edinburgh, 401.. J / S~ 

Edmond, 314. 

Elizabeth, 869. 

Eva, 396. 

Exmouth, 217. 

Fazl Kereem, 385. 

Ferret, 866. 

Forerunner, 421. 

Forfarshire, 25. 

Floridian, 272. 

Forth, 269. 

Garlick, 957. 

Gambia, 897. 

Garonne, 826. 

Geneva, 959. 

Germania, 882. 

Gossamer, 852. 

Great Liverpool, 195. 

Gulf City, 856. 

Hannah, 276. 

Herman, 680, 863. 

Hibernia, 849. 

Hungarian, 565. 

Ibis, 722. 

Indian, 296, 560. 

Indian Empire, 523. 

Italian, 865. 

King Lear, 897. 

John, 435. 

John Duncan, 834. 

John Routledge, 456. 

Lady Elgin, 584. 

Lady Nugent, 408. 

Lelia, 690 
Lifeguard, 636. 

Lima, 565. 

London, 723. 

Lord Castlereagh, 69. 

Lord William Bentinck, 69. 
Malabar, 575. 

Margaret, 872. 

Mars, 624. 

Mary Graham, 425. 

Medina, 109. 

Memnon, 139. 

Mercurius, 910. 

Meridian, 389. 

Metropolis, 594. 

Middlesex, 597. 

Miles Bartole, 596. 

Minstrel, 84. 

Mobile, 361. 

Monarch, 6. 

Nelly, 868- 
Nessree, 384. 

New Commercial, 317. 

New York, 473. 

Nile, 426. 

Nimrod, 566. 

North Briton, 851. 

Northern Yacht, 28. 

Norwegian, 651. 

Ocean Monarch, 259, 622. 

Orion, 302. 

Orpheus, 640. 

Pacific, 454, 980. 

Pegasus, 139, 141. 

Pluto, 959. 

Plymouth, 328. 

Polyphemus, 434. 

Pomona, 541. 

Powhattan, 406. 

Prince Alfred, 592. 

Prince Frederick William, 

Prince of Wales, 603. 











S II I 


INDEX . 


S T A 


Shipwrecks, con tinued -— 

Protector, 27. 

Providence (life-boat), 288. 

Psyche, 967. 

Queen Victoria, 376. 

Racehorse, 684. 

Raleigh, 483. 

Randolph, 332. 

P.ebecca, 381. 

Reliance, 122, 

Richard Dart, 278. 

Royal Adelaide, 296. 

Royal Charter, 558. 

San Francisco, 396. 

Silistria, 553. 

Sir Allan McNab, 633. 

Slrney, 918. 

Solway, 131. 

Southern Empire, 853. 

Spindrift, 892. 

S pread -EaglepT^y- 

Staffordshire, 396. 

Stanley, 685. 

Starry Banner, 852. 

St. Bede, 898. 

St. Louis, 633. 

Suffolk fishing boats, 28. 

Syria, 78. 

Tayleur, 396. 

Tiber, 214. 

Tigress, 270. 

Tweed, 214. 

Tyne, 474. 

Victoria, 365. 

Virgine, 859. 

Waterloo, 1x7. 

W. H. Davis, 398. 

William and Mary, 381. 
Will-o’-the-Wisp, 431. 

Winchester, 407. 

Windsor Castle, 162. 

Wye, 793. 

Zetus, 872. 

Sick and Wounded Fund (National), 
970 - 

Shore, case of Rev. James, 180,234,273. 
Shrewsbury will case, 588. 

Siamese Ambassors, 501. 

Sibthorp, Col., 174, 229, 255, 318, 367. 
Sicily— 

revolt at Palermo, 232. 
declares for independence, 249. 
elects Duke of Genoa as King, 255. 
Messina bombarded, 260. 
stores sent to, 273. 
submission, 274. 

Garibaldian insurrection, 630. 

Sierra Leone, disaster to troops, 437. 
Sikh war—• 

crossing of the Sutlej, 187, 393. 
battle'of Moodkee, 188. 

Ferozeshah, 189. 

Aliwal, 193, 197. 

Sobraon, 194. 

Punjaub entered, 195. 
thanks of Parliament, 196. 
pensions, 198. 

Simla court martial, 785. 

Sims, Elizabeth Guelph, 44. 

Simpson, Professor, 889. 

Sintzennich, A., 131. 

Six-mile Bridge conflict, 538. 
Skelton-beck bridge, 867. 

Skrzynezki, Polish leader, 32. 

Slave trade, 67, 95, 175. 

Slavonian Diet, 603. 

Smethurst case, 625. 

Smith, Albert, on Mont Blanc, 333. 
death, 575. 

Smith, Gold win, on Disraeli, 920. 
on war, 952. 

Smith, Rev. Sydney, petition, 59. 
on repudiation, 145. 
death, 169. 

Smith,Sir H.,recalled fromthe Cape, 344 
arrives in England, 354. 

(IO27) 


Snake caught, 442. 

Socialism, 60, 61. 

Social Science Association, 498, 754. 

(See Associations). 

Society of Arts Centenary, 394, 412. 

(See Exhibitions.) 

Soldier’s Daughters’ Home, 523. 

Solway Viaduct completed, 831 
Sombre, Dyce, commission, 139, 158. 
Somers-Beaumont quarrel, 31. 

Sons of the Clergy bicentenary, 408. 
Sontag, reappearance of, 280. 
narrow escape, 288. 
death, 411. 

Soult, Marshal, in England, 21, 22. 
sale, 353. 
death, 339. 

South-Eastern Railway, 179. 

South Kensington Museum, 488. 
Southwark election, 902, 904. 
Sovereigns, light, 111. 

new, 973. 

Spain— 

Carlist encounter, 4. 

Espartero enters Madrid, 5. 
flight of Don Carlos, 7, 208. 

British Legion claims, 18. 

Madrid in state of siege, 28. 
surrender of Don Carlos, 49. 
Queen-mother resigns, 76. 
protest, 87. 

insurrection, 91, 123, 136. 

Espartero removed, 138, 139. 
Narvaez enters Madrid, 139. 
Espartero in England, 141, 143. 
Narvaez shot at, 146. 

Barcelona surrenders, 146. 
dissolution of Chambers, 146. 

Royal marriage negotiations, 147. 
recognizes Chili, 154. 
banishment of Prim, 164. 
church property restored, 172. 
new constitution, 174. 
renunciation of Don Carlos, 176. 
Narvaez expelled, 196. 

La Riva’s attempt against the Queen, 
217. 

amnesty, 223. 

Espartero recalled, 223. 
charge against Salamanca, 232. 
outbeak in Madrid, 238, 243. 
interference leading to rupture of 
diplomatic relations, 241, 246, 251, 
253. 

Cortes dissolved, 242. 
revolt at Madrid, 248. 

Cortes opened, 267. 
encounter with Cabrera, 269. 
assists the Pope, 277.. 
renewal of diplomatic intercourse, 
308. 

attempt to assassinate the Queen,346. 
disturbance in Saragossa, 401/ 
state of siege, 412, 413. 

Espartero restored, 415. 
removal of Queen-mother, 415. 
insurrection at Saragossa, 448. 
O’Donnell ministry, 464, 525. 
constitution of 1845 restored, 468. 
Armetp ministry, 499. 
birth of Prince of Asturias, 503. 
Concordat, 555. 
war with Morocco, 558. 
defeats the Moors, 562. 

Tetuan captured, 564. 
peace, 571. 
insurrection, 573. 

Montemolin renunciation, 579. 
protest against Sardinia, 587. 

Hayti united, 598. 
neutrality, 604. 
seizes Chincha Islands, 672. 
recognizes Italy, 705. 
insurrectionary movements, 787, 835. 
Montpensier family ordered to leave, 
832. 


Spain, continued —- 
disorganization, 837. 
officers dismissed, 839. 
revolution, 839. 
flight of the Queen, 840. 

Queen deposed, 841. 
provisional Government, 841 
Prim’s defence, 842. 

Rosas, President, 842. 
manifesto, 843. 
new electoral law, 846. 
demonstration in Madrid, 850. 
circular, 850. 
outbreak in Cadiz, 851. 

Montpensier manifesto, 854. 
fighting at Malaga, 855. 

Protestant meeting, 858. 

Governor of Burgos murdered, ;58- 
elections, 858. 

Protestant liberties 865, 866. 
new constitution, 866. 

Portugal refuses crown, 866. 
republic rejected, 872. 
constitution fixed, 872. 
new constitution promulgated, 873, 
Serrano, Regent, 874. 
engagement at Manzanares, 88 r. 

Don Carlos leaves, 883. 
rising of National Guard, 884. 
insurrection at Barcelona, 886. 
Valencia surrenders, 888. 

Duke of Genoa and Throne, 889, 897. 
Crown jewels, 893. 
siege raised, 895. 

Prim Ministry resigns, 897. 
attempt to assassinate Serrano, 897. 
“ crowning the edifice,” 900. 
Montpensier duel, 908. 
abdication of Queen Isabella, 923. 
Prince Leopold proposed for the 
the Throne, 924, 925. 
withdrawn, 927. 

Duke of Aosta— 

nominated for the Crown, 954,958. 
elected by the Cortes, 963. 
deputation to Florence, 964. 
national debt, 967. 
change of Ministry, 970. 

Marshal Prim shot, 970. 

King Amadeus lands, 970. 
enters Madrid, 971. 
insurrection in Granada, 971. 
intimation to Foreign Powers, 975. 
allegiance of troops, 978. 
attempt to assassinate Zorilla, 984. 
Spanish marriages, 205, 208, 209, 210. 
Spanish Pirates, case of, 169, 179. 
Spanish entertainment, 911. 

Spanish brigands, 919. 

Speaker’s illness, 435. 

Spectator on Melbourne Ministry, 41. 
Speke, Captain, killed, 682. 

(See African discovery.) 

Speke, Rev. B., disappearance of, 801. 
S. P.G. celebration, 328. 

anniversary, 757. 

Spirit rapping, 288. 

Spitalfield weavers, no. 

Springheeled Jack, 15. 

Spurgeon’s Tabernacle, 535. 

Squirrel imposture, 361. 

St. Alban’s election, 316, 323, 325, 338, 

347 , 349 , 351 - 
Stamp Act. 419. 

Stanfield Hall, forcible entry into, 25. 

38. 

murders, 265. 

Stanley, Lord (Edward Geoffrey)— 
colonial measures, 99. 
raised to House of Lords, 161. 
Tenants’ compensation, 177. 
difference with Peel on Corn-laws, 
184. 

leader of Protectionists, 200. 
opposes Corn Importation Bill, 200. 
on Dolly’s Brae affray, 202. 

3 U 2 












S T A 


INDEX. 


SYR 


Stanley, Lord, continued — 
on Lord Brougham, 295. 
defeats Ministry on Greek claims, 
3 QI * 

Protection petition, 306. 
banquet, 323. 
succeeds his father, 329. 

(See Derby, Earl of.) 

Stanley, Lord (Edward Henry)— 
on Protection, 356. 

Foreign Minister, 747. 

Irish Church resolutions, 815. 
Alabama claims, 809. 
at King’s Lynn, 846. 

Lord Rector, Glasgow University, 

866 . 

(See Derby, Earl of.) 

Stanley Rev., A. P., Professor, 474. 
and Pan-Anglican Bishops, 790. 

(See Convocation.) 

Stansfeld case, 670. 

Lord of Treasury, 854. 

Star of India Order, 604. 

St. Augustine College, 254. 

St. Barnabas, Pimlico, 301, *>18, 522. 
disturbance, 314. 

St. Bartholomew celebration, 631. 

St. Bride’s churchyard accident, 82. 

St. Cross Hospital case, 386. 
Steamboat scuttled, 139. 

Steam navigation to India, 27. 
Steamships Sirius and Great IVesteru, 
17- 

Steeplechase, 62. 

Stephen, James, 226. 

Stephenson, George— 
death, 257. 
statue, 405. 

Stephenson, Robert— 
presentation, 55. 

Menai bridge, 240, 293, 312. 
banquet, 334. 
death, 558. 

Stephens, explanation of Dr., 755. 
Stephens, poor-law agitator, 32. 
Stevenson, James, 130. 

St. George’s Church, London, 254. 

St. Leger (see Races). 

St. Luke’s Hospital dinner, 329. 

St. Mary’s Hospital, 178. 
dinner, 329. 

Stockdale v. Hansard, 44, 55, 57, 59, 
60, 61, 62, 65, 66, 86. 

Stockport distress, no. 

Stoker, case of Margaret, 196. 
Stoneleigh Abbey attacked, 163. 

Stonor judgeship, 403. 

Stopford, Admiral, 84, 86, 91. 

Storks, Sir H., 800. 

Storm, 495. 

Storms— 

Bahamas, 754. 

Black Sea, 424. 

Bridlington, 982. 

Calcutta, 794. 

Channel, 473. 

. Cuba, 954. 

Dartmoor, 376. 

Dublin, 297. 

Durham coast, 594. 

East coast, 613. 

East Wheal Rose mine, 205. 

English Channel, 843. 

Frith of Clyde, 105, 267. 

Funchal, 121. 

Golden City, 906. 

Havannah, 2x0. 

“ 7th January,” 33. 

Lancashire, 21. 

Limerick, 336. 

London, 79, 114, 205, 762, 851, 898, 
933. 971- 
Loodiana, 200. 

Newark, 626, 

North coast, 889. 

North-east coast, 78, 396, 797. 

(1028) 


Storms, continued — 

Nottingham, 544. 

Penzance, 858. 

Peteihead, 257. 

Prince Edward’s Island, 336. 
Rochdale, 854. 

Romney Marsh, 275. 

Snow, 395. 

St. Kilda, 585. 

Torbay, 723. 

United Kingdom, 291. 

West Coast, 802. 

West India Islands, 259, 793, 797. 
Wick, 903. 

Yarmouth, 575. 

Stowe, Mrs., in England, 382. 

St. Pancras Infirmary, S92, 898. 

St. Paul’s, Knightbridge, case of, 430, 
451, 482. 

Strahan, Paul, and Bates suspend pay¬ 
ment, 439. 

Strand workhouse inquiry, 741. 

Straits settlement, 891. 

Strasburg, siege of, 937, 940, 941, 947, 
„ 949. 950. 

S treat field, bankruptcy, 590. 

Strikes— 

new Houses of Parliament, 90. 
colliers, 111, 115. 
seamen, 317, 320. 

amalgamated engineers, 343, 344, 
345- 

cab, 386, 839. 

Preston, 391, 407. 

Building trade, 553, 554. 
Staffordshire ironworks, 695, 699. 
Brighton Railway, 769. 

London Tailors, 773, 792. 

-‘ picket ” system, 787. 

Preston (cotton), 863. 

Belgium (miners), 867. 
Monkwearmouth, 878. 
Worcestershire (nailers), 885 
Creuzot, 901, 910. 

Thorncliffe, 938. 

Stuart. Lord Dudley, assaulted, 13s. 
Subscription, clergy, 667. 

Sudbury disfranchised, 108. 

Suez Canal, 488, 490, 863, 883- 
opened, 89T. 
discussions, 897, 898. 

Sir S. Northcote on, 902 
Suffocation, 161. 

Sugar duties, 72. 

Sugden, Sir E., 90. 

appointment, 251. 

Suicides— 

Alsager, T. M., 211. 

Ancona, Mr., 139. 

Arrivabene, M., 803. 

Bittleston Brothers, 629. 

Blenheim Park, 539. 

Bowley, R. K., 940. 

Bresson, Count, 225. 

Brown Lucy, 52. 

Brack, Baron, 573. 

Bullhead, Glastonbury, 60. 

Cabrowe family, 724. 

Cloncurry, Lord, 866. 

Column of July, from, (Paris), 330. 
Congleton, Lord, in. 

Cousens (Clifton), 883. 

Crystal Palace Tower (from), 8o>'. 
Davis, Mary, 58. 

Dherang, 577. 

Donkin, Sir Rufane, 84. 

Duckett and Williams, 164. 

Ethersey, Commodore, 481. 

Forth, Viscount, 612. 

Francks, Dr, H., 448. 

Friesdale, Ann, 111. 

Green, G. W., 738. 

Green, J. H., 887. 

Gurwood, Col., 190. 

Harvey, Sir. R.J. H., 929. 
Heaseman (lunatic), 817. 


Suicides, continued -— 

Hobbs, ColoneL 737- 
Judge family, Bromley, 885. 
Kilmarnock, 163. 

Lanigan, Dr., 883. 
lighthouse keeper, 612. 

Littleton, Clapham, 607. 

Marilo, Vicomte, 693. 

Mason, Rev. S., 646. 

Matthiessen, Dr. A., 952. 

Mayor of Wolverhampton, 638. 
Mildmay, Sir Henry, 232. 

Miller, Hugh, 473. 

Moore, Walter, 630. 

Monument (from), 52, 54. 

Munster, Earl of, 104. 
Needlewoman, 161. 

Patton, Lord Justice Clerk, 885. 
Prevost-Paradol, 930. 

Price, Dr., 375. 

Rudge-Ingle, 336. 

Russell, C., 462. 

Sadleir, John, 455. 

Sadleir, Rev. Dean, 523. 

Smith, Dr., 791. 

Shakspeare’s Cliff (from), 359, 415. 
Smith, “ Swanborough, ” 650. 
Simpson, traveller, 72. 

Steele, T. 253. 

Stephan (York column), 300. 

Stalker, Major-General, 481. 
Sutherland, Ayr Prison, 824. 
Tatham, Wm., 456. 

Thornton, Colonel, 208. 

Townley, Victor, 693. 

Watson, Kobert, 29. 

Whispering Gallery, 458. 

York, Redhead, 248. 

Young, James, 327. 

Sullivan, Mr. shot, 495. 

Sunday train agitation, 100, 101, 210. 
_ 21 5 - 

Sunday evening services, 531. 

Sunday evenings for the people, deci¬ 
sion, 848. 

Sunderland lighthouse, 91. 
docks, 233. 

Surrey Music Hall accident, 469. 
Suspension bridge, 68S. 

Sussex, Duke of, and Royal Society, 
2 5- 

and Melbourne Ministry, 41. 
visits North of England, 55. 
on Regency Bill, 72. 
death, 131. 
funeral, 132. 

Sutherlandshire gold discoveries, 861. 
Sweating system, 147. 

Swedenborgian conference, 334. 
Sweden, King and Queen crowned,53 r. 
King of, in England, 609. 
neutrality, 678. 

Union celebrations, 684.. 
neutrality in Russian war, 396. 
Parliament opened, 975. 

Sword exercise, 160. 

Swindler seized, 324. 

Switzerland— 

Jesuits expelled, 169. 

The Sonderbund, 210. 
declared illegal, 221. 
warlike preparations, 224. 
conference, 225. 
hostilities, 225. 

Friburg taken, 226. 

Catholic Canton occupied, 226, 227 
peace negotiations, 227, 230. 
ignores Pope’s protest, 232. 
federal constitution, 261. 

Socialist insurrection, 317. 
rising in Friburg, 380. 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 55V 
Vide la Grande difficulty, 610, 613. 
Sydney University, 362. 

Syrian massacres, 577. 

expeditionary force. 58J, 601. 










T A B 


INDEX. 


T R I 


T. 

1 .ble turning, 385. 

Tahiti— 

appeal of Queen Pomare, 31, 125, 
146. 

French in, 118. 

Pritchard seized, 151. 

Tait, Rev. A C.— 

Master of Rugby, 114. 

Dean of Carlisle, 288. 

Bishop Of London, 460, 472. 
Archbishop of Canterbury, 847, 851, 
853 , 854. 

Talbot, marriage of Miss, 332. 

T: lfourd, Justice, sudden death, 402. 
Tamatave bombarded, 178. 

Tamburini disturbance, 65. 

Tamworth farmers club, 145. 

Tangier bombarded, 160. 

Tarragona, Governor, murdered, 885. 
Tattersall’s removed, 699. 

; Tavistock, Lady, and Lady Flora 
Hastings, 50. 

Tea frauds, 498. 

Tea deliveries, 383. 

“ Team ” discussion, 667. 

Technical Education Conference. 802. 
Teck, marriage of Prince, 741. 
Telegraph— 

electric, first experiments, 4. 
award, 83. 

Queen’s speech, 227. 

submarine to France, 291, 309, 339, 

364- 

Ireland, 354. 

Suez and Aden, 544. 

Varna, submarine, 435. 

England and Denmark, 552. 
Atlantic, 471, 4S4, 524, 526, 712. 
failure, 7x3. 
completed, 748. 
purchased, 816. 

French Atlantic, 833, 856, 879, 881. 
acquired by Government, 834. 
rumoured failure, 835. 

Bombay and Suez, 890, 910. 
Government purchase, 903. 

“ Derby ” race, 921. 

Pender soiree, 922. 

Jamaica and Cuba, 94S. 

Channel Islands, 957. 

Telegraph work, 979. 

Temperature, 552. 

Tempest, Lord E. Vane, 469. 

Temple, Rev. F., Master of Rugby, 
S 01, 

Rugby election meeting, 843. 

appointed Bishop of Exeter, 887. 

opposition, 887, 894. 

defence, 888. 

address to, 889. 

elected, 891. 

consecrated, 895. 

enthroned, 897. 

explanations in Convocation, 903. 
Tennyson baronetcy, 690. 

Texas, 78. 

Thackeray, W. M., lectures, 327. 
Thames— 

tunnel accidents, 6, 8. 
steamers, 13. 
tunnel banquet, 51. 
conservancy court, 88. 
tunnel opened, 115, 131. 

Royal visit, 139. 

( traffic, 151. 
fancy fair, 152. 
dangerous state of, 524. 
embankment, 678, 822, 835. 
championship, 847. 

Tunnel closed, 880. 

Embankment, 883, 920, 927, 958. 
South Embankment, 892. 
Thanksgiving, 418. 

Theatrical improprieties, 858. 


Thesiger, Sir F.— 

M.P. for Woodstock, 64. 
altercation with Baron Pollock, 271. 
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 329, 330. 
(See Chelmsford, Lord). 

Thief stolen, 446. 

Thiers, M.— 

on Eastern question, 75, 78. 
on republicans, 300. 
banished, 339. 
returns, 359. 

peace negotiations, 962, 986. 
Thirlwall, Rev. Dr., 72. 

Thomson, Poulett, 50, 53. 

Lord Sydenham, 73. 

Thornton forgeries, 208. 

Thorogood case, 72, 77. 

Threepwood conspiracy, 622. 

Thurles, Synod of, 308, 344. 

Thwaites will case, 785. 

Tichborne baronetcy, 783, 813. 

Tide, rumoured high, 887. 

Tiger attack, 499. 

Times — 

on Melbourne Ministry, 2. 

Conroy v. Lawson, 32. 
abuses T. B. Macaulay, 52. 

Bogle trial, 89. 
testimonial, 122. 

O’Connor libel, 140. 

Irish commissioner, 182. 
announces repeal of corn laws, 186. 
news of Sikh battles, 193. 

Scotch commissioner, 209. 
news of French revolution, 238. 
Euphrates Valley railway, 335. 

“an Englishman’s” letters, 343. 
condemns Turkey, 378. 
on the independence of the press, 399. 
secret Russian despatches, 402. 
urges an attack on Sebastopol, 411. 
on Lord J. Russell, 441. 

Crimean disaster, 424. 428. 
on fall of Aberdeen Ministry, 430. 
South-Western Railway case, 430. 
Russian peace news, 453- 
“railway and revolver” hoax, 469. 
publications, 488. 

Overend, Gurney & Co., 531. 
correspondent seized at Tangchow, 

584- 

imposed upon, 604. 
supplements, 604. 

Projet de Traite, 632. 
proposes Duke of Somerset as Pre¬ 
mier, 727. 

Wason case, 800, 849. 
on fall of the Empire, 937. 
on surrender of Paris, 976. 

Tipperary election, 891, 892, 904, 907. 

Bank affairs, 455. 

Tithe rates, 68. 

Titles, Roman Catholic, 165. 
Tocqueville, M. De— 

Brougham letters, 126. 
on the ‘coup d’etat,’ 342. 
death, 540. 

Tolls abolished, 680. 

Tom Thumb, General, 152. 

Toomavara evictions, 277. 

Tooting, cholera outbreak, 268. 
inquiry, 269. 

Tornado, seizure of, 751, 784,838, 843. 
Torture in India, 456. 

Tory, cruelties on board, 184. 
Tractarian movement, 165, 166. 

controversy (see Church, Newman, 
Pusey, and Trials). 

Trade depression, 112, 113. 

Trade delegates, 116. 

Trades Unions Inquiry, 788. 

(See also Sheffield). 

Trafalgar, launch, 92. 

Train, G. F., arrested, 801. 

Tramway opened, 967. 

Transit disasters, 492. 


Treaties— 

African slave trade, 626. 

Argentine, 560. 

Ashburton, 115, 130, 131. 

Athens, 306. 

Austria and Turkey, 411. 

Austria, 426. 

Austria, 426. 

Austria (commercial), 820. 

Bavaria, 962. 

Bayonne, 472. 

Belgium (commerce), 338, 012 
Bulwer-Clayton, 297. 

China (Spain), 683. 

China, 117. 

Clarendon-Dallas, 469. 

Costa Rica, 288. 

Denmark (succession), 352. 

France and Prussia (commerce), 630. 
France and Prussia (“Projet de 
Traite ”), 932, 938. 

France and Sardinia, 597. 

Gastein, 715. 

Greece, 654. 

Holland and Belgium, 39, 122. 

Italy (commercial), 657. 

Japan, 402. 

Jeddo, 527. 

Kaulidja, 600. 

Lahore, 196. 

Legitimacy, 354. 

Madagascar, 631, 706 
Milan, 282. 

Montenegro, 631. 

Nicaragua, 565. 

Panama navigation, 385 
• Paris, 458,467, 474. 

Paris (Mentone), 620. 

Persia (Herat), 373. 

Prussia (commercial), 704. 

Russia and China 520, 588. 

Russia and Khokan, 826. 

Russia and Turkey, 276. 

Sicily, 178. 

Sound Dues, 481. 

Sweden, 450. - 

Tien-Tsin, 524. 

Turkey, 29. 

Turkey and France, 347. 

United States (Naturalization), 868. 
Viilafranca, 552. 

Washington, 410. 

Zurich, 560. 

Tree, Miss Ellen, 51. 

Trent affair, seizure of Confederate 
Commander, 614. 

(See United States.) 

Treves, holy coat of, 141, 165. 
Trevelyan, Sir C., re-called, 574 
budget, 698. 
resignation, 924. 

Trials— 

Acherley, Lieut. 320. 

Achilli v. Newman, 356, 367, 375 
Agapemone case, 580. 

Allen (excise fraud), 487. 

Allington v Echoes, 883. 

Allen (vaccination conviction), 900. 
Alleynes, and D’Arcy, 341. 

Anderson (slave), 592. 

Armstrong, Jonathan, 834. 

Atkinson, John, (abduction), 414. 
Atkinson, “Priest,” 140. 

Atwell, 504. 

Auchterarder case, 16, 20, 38, 40, 115. 
Austin, Lieut, 442. 

Bacon family, 484. 

Bailey Rev. W., 126. 

Bainbrigge v. Bainbr gge, 307. 
Baker, Fanny L., 887. 

Baker, Frederick, 799. 

Balleny, Robert, 492. 

Banda and Kirwee prize money, 723. 
Bank of England forgers, 6.-7. 
Barber and Fletcher, 153, 158. 
Bardier, Louis, 788. 

(1029) 















T R I 


INDEX. 


Trials, continued — 

Barker, Ann, 579. 

Baronelli, L., 429. 

Barrett family, 464. 

Barret, Galway, 879, 886, 906, 923. 
Barratt and Bradley, children, 609. 
Barry v. Reid, 304. 

Barthelemy, Emmanuel, 427. 
Beamish v. Beamish, 450. 

Bean, 117. 

Beaumont, Edward, 87. 

Becker, Miss (suffrage), 846. 
Belaney, T. C., 161. 

Bellew v. Bellew, 727. 

Bell, J. T. (hotel robbery), 792. 

Bell v. Bell and Anglesey, 561. 
Benchey and Stone, 51. 

Bennett, Rev. J. W., 921, 931. 
Beresford, Major, 400. 

Beresford, Rev. W. D., 452. 

Bernard, Dr. S., 510, 516. 

Beswick, Major, 871. 

Bewick, Wm., 597, 622. 

Bewick v. Bewick, 857. 

Birch, James, 354. 

Birch v. Forster, 428. 

Birch v Somerville, 342, 347. 
Bigamy case, (Scott) 197. 

Blandford v. Satirist, 30. 

Bloomfield, George, 711. 

Bode, Baron de, 187. 

Bogle v. Lawson, {Times) 89. 

Bolam, Archibald, 48'. 

Bonaparte, Prince Pierre, 910. 
Boosey v. Purday, 327. 

Boulton and Park, 916. 

Bousefield, W., 454. 

Bouverie legitimacy, 629. 

Bower, Elliott, 362. 

Bradiaugh, Charles, 858. 

Brandrick and others, 6x8. 

Braintree church-rate, 8, 65, 107, 
290, 388. 

Breeks v. Woolfrey (purgatory), 29, 
3 1 - 

Bridgewater will, 389. 

Bridgewater bribery, 910, 917. 
Brighton ritual case, 928.. 

Brindle will case, 83. 

Broadwood v. Broadwood, 720. 
Brook v. Brook, 503, 517, 598. 
Brooks, Brothers, 645. 

Brougham v. Cauvin, 810. 

Brough, Mrs., 410. 

Brunswick v. Hanover, 148. 
Brunswick v. Holt, 147. 

Bryant v. Foot, (marriage fees), 

763- 

Buccleuch v. Metropolitan Works, 
819. 

Bulwer, Lady, v. Court Journal, 
62, 63. 

Buncher and others, 637. 

Bunn v. Lind, 235 
Burke, Richard, 629. 

Burke and others (conspiracy), 17. 
Burton, Captain, 167. 

Butler v. Oliveira, 375. 

Cadogan v. Piper, 875. 

Caldwell. Robert, 105. 

Campbell (Breadalbane Estates), 743, 
7 8 3 - 

Campbell v. Spottiswoode, 642. 
Canadian rebels, 30, 33, 40. 

Cannon, sweep, 362. 

Capron, T. W., 532. 

Cardiff, abduction, 881. 

Cardigan, Earl of, 81. 

Cardigan v. Calthorpe, 651. 

Cardross case, 607. 

Carpenter, Jeremiah, 514. 

Carrigan, Thornes, 452. 

Carrington v. Murray, 881. 

Carron Company frauds, 550, 570. 
Cauldwell. Oxford, 321. 

Cavan murderers, 37. 

(1030) 


Trials, continued — 

Cavendish v. Cavendish, 727. 
Chadwick. John, 226. 

Charlesworth (bribery case), 607. 
Charlton, William, 621. 

Charretie, Captain, 229. 

Chartist rioters, 48, 57, 118, 119, 259, 
262, 267. 

Chesham, Sarah, 321. 

Cheshire, Samuel, 458. 

Cheyne (Aberdeen), 531. 

Civery v. Brunswick, 705. 

Clarkson v. Kay, 339. 

Clark v. the Queen (patents), 639. 
Clark, Eliza, 199. 

Clift Brothers, 613. 

Cobbett (foreign enlistment), 720. 
Cochrane, Christina, 148. 

Codrington v. Codrington, 685, 
701. 

Cogan, William, 612. 

Coglan v. La Mert, 480. 

Colborne, Captain, 699. 

Cole, J. W., 421. 

Coleman, B., 727. 

Colenso case, 676, 688, 697. 

Colenso v. Gladstone and others, 757. 
Collingwood v. Berkeley, 640. 
Colucci, Vincent, 612. 

Communist insurgents, 274. 

Conroy v. Lawson, {Times), 32. 
Cook, Ellen (mutilation), 867. 

Cooke v. Wetherall, 181. 

Cooper and others, 45. 

Coppock (bribery), 73. 

Corbet v. Palmer (breach of pro¬ 
mise), 645. 

Cordery, Private, 152. 

Courtenay rioters, 23. 

Courvoisier, Benjamin, 68. 

Coyle, I. F., 338. 

Craig v. Tennent, 657. 

Craig, Captain V., 886. 

Crewe bequest case, 968. 

Cridland, magistrate, 412. 

Croker v. Ling, 476. 

Cuddy, Leiut., 141. 

Culling-Eardley, Sir E. G., 799. 
Culsalmond rioters, 104. 

Curry, John, 7x5. 

Dalmas, Augustus, 154. 

D’Alteyrac v. Lord Willoughby, 802. 
Dalton, Canon, 576. 

Danmecker, J. H., 94. 

Davidson, William, 628. 

Davidson and Gordon, 428. 

Davies, William, 515. 

Dawkins v. Paulet, 895. 

Deane v. Deane, 507. 

Dedea Redanies, 466. 

Delarue, James, 169. 

Denison, Archdeacon, 425, 429, 467, 
470, 472, 475, 483, 509. 

Desmond, Barrett and others, 819. 
Dickson v. Combermere, 653. 

Di Sara v. Borghese, 588. 

Disraeli, B , 30. 

Dixon v. Witton, 534. 

Dodd (Trade Societies), 811. 

Dolan, Peter, 159. 

Doolan and others, 83. 

Doulton, Mr., 843. 

Dove, Wm., 465. 

Doyle, Michael, 609. 

Drory, Thomas, 321. 

Drury, Rev. M., 693. 

Duffus family, 234. 

Duffy, C. G., 272. 

Duncombe v. Daniel, 12. 

Dundonald peerage, 651. 

Dunn (Coutt’s, perjury), 215. 
Durden, John, 594. 

Dysart, Earl of, 154. 

Easthope v. Westmacott, 7. 
Eastwood v. A thenaum, 526. 
Edmund’s case, 827. 


T R ] 


Trials, continued -— 

Egerton v. Brownlow, 334. 

Egmont will, 656. 

Ehlert, Prussian, 47. 

Ellis, “ Inspector,” 697. 

Esk pollution case, 749. 

Esmond, will, 882. 

Elou v . Clark, 486. 

Evans v. Dickens, 537. 

Evans v. Evans, 433. 

Evans v. Lawson, {Times), 220. 
Evans, T. D., 499. 

Exchequer bill case, 100. 

Eyre, Governor, 769, 8o6, 827. 
Fairholme v. Pringle, 515. 

Faithfull v. Grant, 882. 

Farrar v. Close (Trade Society). 878. 
Fenian, 720, 739, 771, 774, 795, 819, 
822, 929. 

Ferguson, Rev. T. T., 426. 

Fernie v. Universal Insurance Co., 
940. 

Finney, bank manager, 879. 
Fitzgerald and Gillies, 949. 
Fitzgerald v. Northcote and Stone, 
725 - 

Fletcher, Rev. H. S., 623. 

Flood, John, 630. 

Flowery Land , Pirates, 667 
Forbes, Rev. Dr. (heresy), 596.^ 
Forbes, Rev. G. H. (Scotch Com¬ 
munion Office), 721, 772. 

Forward, S., 714. 

Fowkes, John, 457. 

Francis, John, 111. 

Frankfort, Lord, 359. 

Franz, Johann Carl, 609. 

Frazer family, 351. 

Frigard, Mathilde, 786. 

Frost and others, 57, 58. 

Furlong v. Bowland, 188. 
Gathercole, Rev. Mr., 22. 

Gardner, George (plough “spud” 
case), 630. 

Gardener, S., 633. 

Gedt.ey, vicar of (lay-baptism), 77, 
IX 3 - 

Gedney v. Smith, 684. 

Geils v. Geils, 226, 247, 368. 

German bankers, 971. 

Gilbert, G. N., 628. 

Giles, Rev. J. A., 432. 

Gilliland v. Peninsular and Oriental 
Company, 923. 

Gilmour v. Gilmour, 362. 

Gipps v. Gipps and Hume, 641. 
Gladstone, Rev. Mr., 355. 

Glasgow cotton-spinners, 12. 

Glen v. Caledonian Railway Com¬ 
pany, 842. 

Glover, E. A., 516. 

Glover v. Persigny,634. 

Godfrey libels, 549. 

Goldsborough, Robert, 104. , 

Gompertz and Witham, 178. 

Good, Daniel, 109. 

Gordon, Ronald, 213. 

Gorham v. Bishop of Exeter, 294. 
Gould, Richard, 64. 

Granatelli, Prince, 280. 

Grant v. Grant and Vincent, 34. 
Gray v. Lewis, 860. 

Greatorex and Grimshaw, 776. 

Greek brigands, 919, 922. 

Gregory, Satirist, 35. 

Grinel v. Bristowe (Overend, Gur 
ney and JCo.), 851. 

Guernsey (Ionian despatches), 530. 
Hall v. Semple, 635. 

Hamilton, G. W., 141. 

Handcock v. Delacour, 43*. 

Harris, E. A., 459. 

Harrison v. Smith, Elder & Co., 
875 - 

Harvey and Ray, 432. 

Hatto, Moses, 392. 













INDEX ; 


T R I 


1 K I 


Trials, continued — 

Hawkey, Lieut., 205. 

Heath, Rev. M., 627. 

Heaviside v. Lardner, 72. 

Henty, John, 76. 

Hertford will, 130. 

Hetherington (blasphemy), 79. 
Hewley, Charity, in, 115. 

Hoare v. Baroness St. Mart, 264. 
Hocker, Henry, 169. 

Hodgson (Bradford poisonings), 529. 
Hooper v. Warde, 590. 

Hope v. Aguado, 431. 

Hope v. Executors, 165. 

Hopley, Thomas, 579. 

Hopwood will case, 434. 

Hornby v. Clive (Trades Unions), 

763- ^ 

Horne, George, 46. 

Hilton, A., 607. 

Hubert and others, 17. 

Hudson, George, 376. 

Hughes, David, 562. 

Hughes v. Lady Dinorben, 523. 
Humphreys, Alexander, (Stirling 
peerage) 39. 

Hunter v. Sharpe, (Pall Mall Ga¬ 
zette), 759. 

Huntingtower, Lord, 696, 

Hutchinson will, 674. 

Hyde v. Hyde (Mormon), 729. 
Inkpen, George. 616. 

International, steamCr, 974. 
Intimidation, 468. 

Irwin v. Lever, 589. 

Isaacs and Harewood, 333. 

Jackson v. Martin (Ledbury scan¬ 
dal), 963. 

Jeffrey, J. R., 748. 

Jeufosse family, 504. 

Jobson. D. W., 582. 

Joel, Lewis, 290. 

Johnstone, Captain {Tory) 184. 
Jordan, A. E., 333. 
Karageorgewitch, Prince, 973. 

Kelly v. Kelly, 894. 

Kemble divorce, 266. 

Kennedy v. Broun, 623, 656. 

Kerr, Robert, 215. 

Kerr and Gilbertson, 492. 

Kent, Constance, 712. 

Kinder v. Ashburton, 158. 

King, policeman, 434. 

Kirwan, Henry, 369. 

Kohl, Karl, 690. 

Kossuth v. Day, 600. 

Laffarge, Madame, 74, 88. 

Lafitte Co., 973. 

Lakey, Wm., 519. 

Landor, W. S. (libel), 527. 

Lani, Giovanni, 511. 

Lardner, Dr., 72. 

Leeman baronetcy, 22. 

Leigh family, 248. 

Leng, Sheffield Telegraph, 938. 
Lewis v. Ferrand, 210. 

Lewis v. Powell, 699. 

Lincoln divorce, 300. 

Lfng v. Croker, 476. 

Llanidloes rioters, 47. 

Lockyer, Edmund, 862. 

London Dock Company, 319. 

Lovell, Felix, 48. . 

Lovibond, (Bridgewater election), 
901. 

Lowe, Alice, 121. 

Low v. Routledge (copyright), 720. 
Lucan v. Daily News, 472. 

Lumley v. Gye, 401. 

Lumley, Major, 690. 

Lumley (bigamy), 844, 856. 

Lyon v. Home, 825. 

Macdonald and Mrs. Armitage, 488. 
Mackay, Arthur, 823. 

Mackintosh v. Smith, 667. 
Mackonochie case, 893, 961. 


Trials, continued — 

Macready v. Harmer, in. 

Mahaig, Joseph, 663. 

Maharaj libel, 620. 

Manchester Fenians, 790, 792, 794, 
795; 

Manchester charter, 50, 81. 
Manchester, Duchess of, will, 404. 
Mannings, 285, 286. 

March v. March and Palumbo 
(aliment), 760. 

Marchmont v. Marchmont, 531. 
Marley, Robert, 470. 

Martin v. Mackonochie, 777, 798, 
814, 853.: 

Masters, liability of, 266. 

Mastin v. Escott, 84. 

Maxted v. Paine (Overend, Gurney 
and Co.), 871. 

Maxwell v. Maxwell, 767. 

M'Cabe and Reid, 217. 

M'Lachlan Jessie, 632. 

McLeod, Alex. {Caroline), 91. 
M‘Laren v. Ritchie, 466. 
McNaughten, D., 129. 

Meara, Rev. W., 392. 

Medhurst, F. H., 39. 

Mein, P. W., 311. 

Metaire v. Wiseman, 321. 

M’Gill and others, (abduction) 116. 
Miard, Nathalie, 151. 

Miers, Robert, 17. 

Miller v. Solomons, 351. 

Miller, Walter, 917, 928. 

Milne, Alexander, 637. 

Mitchel, John, 250. 

Mitchell, J. W., 538. 

Mitchell, Sarah E., 659. 

Mogni, Gregorio, 694. 

Molony, William, 612. 

Monarch Insurance directors, 968. 
Monckton, Rev. F. G., 171. 

Monk, Thomas, 5x0. 

Montalembert, M., 530. 
Montmorency, Viscount, 139. 
Mordaunt v. Mordaunt and others, 
904, 921. 

Morgan, Jemima, 616. 

Morrison v. Belcher, 653. 

Moses, Moses, 406. 

Mottram and Williams, 151. 
Mountgarret peerage, 414. 

Moxon, Edward, 87. 

M‘Rae, Alexander, 80. 

Muller, Franz, 683. 

Mullins, George, 586- 
Munro, Lieut., 222. 

Napoleon, Prince Louis, 75. 
Negroni, Captain, 832. 

Nelson and Brand (Jamaica), 764, 
766, 771. 

Neville, Miss, 13. 

Newcastle v. Morris, 925. 

Nolan, Dr., 296. 

Norwich bribery, 912, 917. 

Nottidge v. Ripley, [Agapemone), 
278. 

Oakeley, Rev. F., 178. 

Oakes v. Turquand, 787. 

Oakley v. Moulvie-Ood-Deen, 561. 
O’Brien and others, 262, 269. 
O’Brien, W. S., 249 
O’Brien, Bronterre, 64. 

Ockeld, William, 635. 

O’Connell and others, 146, 148, 149, 
150, i55» 158. 

O’Connor, Feargus, 47, 62, 129.. 
O’Farrel, 812. 

Oliver Lemon, 529. 

Oliver, Fanny, 880. 

Operative shipbuilders, 468. 

Orford brothers, 37. 

Orsini and others, 5x1. 

Osborne, Lord W. G., 577. 
Overend-Gurney contributories, 787. 
895- 


Trials, continued — 
directors, 854. 
shareholders, 76s. 

Owen, John, 931. 

Oxford, Edward, 70. 

Padwick v. Peters, 878. 

Paget v. Cardigan, 142, 151. 

Palmer, William, 461. 

Pappa, Demetrio, 916. 

Pate, R., 305. 

Patten, Commander, {Osprey), 212. 
Paul, John, 476. 

Pelizzioni, 691. 

Persano, Admiral, 772. 

Petcherine, Rev. V., 451. 

Phillips v. Eyre, 923. 

Philip, Robert, 448. 

Phoenix conspirators, 536. 

Pierce, Burgess and Tester, 474. 

“ Plebiscite ” conspirators, 938. 
Pollard, Charles, 220. 

Pooley, Thomas, 493, 544. 

Pries, R. F., 374. 

Prince Albert v. Strange, 263, 269 
270. 

Pritchard, Dr., 706. 

Provis, impostor, 387. 

Purchas, Rev. Mr., 842, 985. 
Pullinger, G. W., 574. 

Queen v. Latimer, 243 
Rachel, Madame, 828, 844. 

Rae, James (clergyman), 610. 
Ratcliffe, Rev. G., 519. 

Redpath, L., 475. 

Reece v. Hampstead School, 475. 
Reilly and Co., 952. 

Revenue frauds, 151. 

Reynaud, Benjamin, 598. 
Richardson, Capt., Wm., 207. 

Rider v. Mills (factory system), 292. 
Risk Allah Bey, 755, 820. 

Rixon, Edward, (artists; 239. 
Robinson, Henry, X46. 

Robinson v. Bird, 140. 

Robinscn v. Robinson and Lane, 

523- 

Robson, W. J., 470. 

Rodger, William, 829. 

Rogers, Captain, 495. 

Roone, Jonathan, 504. 

Rose, Rev. W. H , 162. 

Roupell forgeries, 630, 655. 

Rowell, stoker, 984. 

Rowley v. Rowley, 560. 

Royal British Bank Directors, 512, 
518. 

Rugely, postmaster, 458. 

Rush, J. B., 274. 

Rutter v. Chapman, 50, 81. 

Ryves v. Attorney General, 740. 
Sala v. Hodder and Stoughton, 983, 
Sale and M‘Coy, 229. 

Salvi, Antonio, 496. 

Sanders v. Head, 136. 

Sattler, Christian, 506. 

Saturday Review (Yelverton), 721 
Saurin v. Starr, 858. 

Saward, J. T., 479. 

Servian compirators, 834, 846. 
Severn scuttling, 757, 763. 

Seymour v. Butterworth, 635. 
Seymour will, 719. 

Sheddon case, 487, 534, 553, 876, 881. 
Sheffield outrages, 623. 

Sherry, Henry, 608. 

Sheward, William, 855, 865. 
Shiel-Bouverie (legitimacy), 629. 
Shipman (bank manager), 869. 
Shore, Rev. James, 180. 

Shrewsbury peerage, 490. 
Sidebottom v. Adkins, 488. 

Sinclair v. Redesdale, 806. 

Slade v Slade, 778. 

Slater and Vivyan, 585. 

Sloane and wife, 315. 

Smethurst, T., 554. 

(lOJi) 















T R I 


INDEX . 


U N I 


Trials, continued— 

Smith alias Denton, 742. 

Smith, Beaumont, 94. 

Smith brothers, 822, 832. 

Smith, George, 608. 

Smith v. Earl Ferrers, 194. 

Smith, Jeremiah, 402. 

Smith, Madeleine H., 489. 

Smith, (revenue frauds) 175. 

Smith, Rev. S., 516. 

Smith v. Smith (Provis, impostor), 

3 8 7 - . . , 

Smith v. Tebitt (Mrs.Thwaites), 785. 
Smith, William, 405. 

Smith v. Earl Brownlow, 900. 
Sombre, Dyce, 139, 158. 

Somerset, Captain, 326. 

Somers, Celestina, 459. 
South-Western Railway v. Times , 

„ 43 °.' , • 

Spanish pirates, 179. 

Spollen, James, 494. 

St. Cross Hospital, 386. 

Stephen, Rev. J. R., 49. 

Stewart w.Gelot (Lopez transactions), 
896. 

Stewart will, 923. 

Stockdale v. Hansard, 44. 

Stoker, Margaret, 196. 

Stourton v. Stourton, 481. 

Stowell, Rev. Hugh, 74. 

Strahan, Paul and Bates, 447. 
Strauss v. Athenaeum, 764. 
Strugnell, F., 600. 

Suisse, Nicholas, 117. 

Swiofen v. Swinfen, 474, 500, 525, 
623, 656. 

Tailors’ “picket,” 787. 

Talbot, Miss Augusta, 324. 

Talbrook, Charles (witchcraft), 627. 
Tate (desertion), 531. 

Tawell, John, 171. 

Taylor (bigamy), 70, 242. 

Taylor v. Peninsular and Oriental 
Company, 87T. 

Taylor, Private, 886. 

“Team” discussion, 667. 

Tennent v. Tenneat’s trustees, 826. 
Teuton, John, 28. 

Thelluson will, 547. 

Theobald Mrs., 182. 

Therry v. Fermoy, 709. 

Thewles, v. Kelly, 316. 

Thomas v. Roberts (. Agapemone ), 
299. 

Thompson, alias Walker, 505. 
Thornhill v. Thornhill, 425. 

Thornton v. Portman, 100. 

Tibaldi and others, 494. 

Topner, J. C., 395. 

Townley, G. V., 663. 

Traupmann, 896. 

Travers, Miss, 688. 

Tunnicliffe (witchcraft), 482. 
Turnbull v. Bird, 605. 

Two children (child murder), 609. 
Vivian v. Vivian and Waterford, 882. 
Vivier, (courier), 106. 

Voysey, heresy case, 893, 960. 

Vrain-Lucas, 906. 

Vyse (Buonaparte) v. Lewis, 668. 
Wagner and Bateman, 543. 
Wakefield bribery, 579. 

Waldeck, M., 288. 

Walker v. Milner, 726. 

Wallace brothers (Dryad), 82. 
Walstob v. Spottiswoode, 202. 
Walter, James, 613. 

Waterford, Marquis of, 23. 

Waters, Margaret (baby farming), 
922, 949. 

Wason, Capt., (court martial), 326. 
Wason v. Times, 800, 849. 

Watts, Thomas, 834. ' 

Watts, Walter, 299. 

Webster, Dr., 287. 

(1032) 


Trials, C 07 itinued — 

Wedmore Brothers, 598. 

Westmacott v. Clark, 138. 

Westerton v. Liddell, 451, 473. 
Wetherall, Miles, 807. 

Wheelan, Ottawa, 839. 

Whiston, Rev. Robert, 287, 363. 
Whiteboy offences, 34. 

Wicklow Peerage, 876, 907, 911. 
Wielobycki, Dr. D., 474. 

Wilde v. Travers, 688. 

Wilkinson (Discount Company), 762. 
Williamson (insurance), 603. 
Williams, Thomas, 17. 

Willoughby, Rev. H. P., 416. 

Willes v. Winchelsea, 650. 
Wllmshurst, Captain, 856. 

Wilson, Catherine, 632. 

Wilson, J. Gleeson, 284. 

Winsor, Charlotte, 696, 713, 724. 
Wolley v. Pole, 658. 

Wood, Gloucester, (will), 36, 88. 
Woodgate v. Rideout, 693. 

Wood succession, 232. 

Woodward v. Clarke, 692. 

Wooler, J. N., 452. 

Wright, Samuel, 663. 

Yelverton case, 559, 595, 681, 696, 
784. 

Youngman, W. G., 582. 

Young, H. W., 617. 

Young, Sir Wm., 229. 

Yzsquierdo, mute, 411. 

Trotting match, 114. 

Truro, Lord Chancellor, 305. 

Tuam, Archbishop 791. 

Turf frauds, 177. 

Turnbull, case of W. B. D., 592, 597, 
605. 

Turkey- 

Grand Vizier abolished, 16. 
resisted by Egypt ,40. 
fleet given up, 40.] 

protects Hungarian refugees, 285, 
289. 

holy places, 347, 363. 
blockaded, 370. 

(See Russian War ) 
revolt in Albania, 398. 
the Sultan a K.G., 468. 
visits Lord Lyons, 482. 

Herzegovina outbreak, 593. 

Sultan visits Egypt, 646. 
expulsion of Polish refugees, 63 1. 
Cretan victory, 752. 

Sultan in London, 781. 
rupture with Greece, 852. 
dispute with Viceroy, 885, 892, 894, 
914. 

Tuscany— 

new constitution, 234. 
flight of grand Duke, 271, 541. 
opposes Austria, 544. 
abdication, 553. 

“Twelve days’ mission,” 892, 953. 
Tynemouth bar, 144. 


U. 

Uhland’s proclamation, 277. 

Ulster Synod, 70. 

Unit 2? States— 

Congress opened by Buren, 6, 9. 
anti-slavery petitions, 11. 
suspension of specie payments, 53. 
boundary question, 56. 

Pennsylvania insolvent, 60. 
Treasury notes sitting, 62. 
case of C reole, 97. 

Tariff Bill vetoed, 116. 
right of search, 123. 

Oregon question, 147, 168, 197, 202. 
Polk, President, 151. 
annexation of Texas, 153, 165, 169. 
military preparations, 166. 


nited States, continued — 

Mexican war, 177, 199. 

President Polk’s messages, 186, 197, 
212. 

Pakenham Convention, 202. 

Peace with Mexico, 233. 
cession of Upper California, 233. 
French Republic rejoicings, 246. 
slavery resolution, 267. 

Taylor, President, 273. 

California admitted, 308. 

Fugitive slave bill, 309. 

President Fillimore, 315. 
protection of flag, 341. 
fire at the Capitol, 343. 

British fisheries, 354. 

Order of the Lone Star, 359. 
views regarding Cuba, 369. 
slavery address, 394. 
neutrality in Russian war, 407. 
Kansas, a territory, 409. 

Elgin treaty, 410. 
bombardment of Grey town, 413. 

“ Know-nothing” Council, 439. 
enlistment of subjects of, 440, 445, 
45 i, 458 , 462, 463. 

Sumner, assault, 462. 

Kansas difficulty, 467. 

Buchanan, President, 471. 

North and South rivalry, 472. 
gift of Resolute, 472. 

Mormon difficulty, 504. 

Harper’s Ferry outbreak, 558. 
charges against President Buchanan, 

567- 

Lincoln for President, 574. 

President Buchanan to Queen 
Victoria, 576. 

Prince of Wales visits, 579. 

President Lincoln, 588. 
secession of Southern States, 590. 
President’s policy, 591. 
conflict commenced, 592. 

President Davis elected, 594. 
inaugurated, 595. 

Morrill Tariff, 596. 

Lincoln on the Union, 596. 

Southern Commissioners, 597. 

Charleston surrenders, 600. 

militia called out, 600. 

blockade of Southern ports, 600, 601. 

State of Maryland, 600. 

loan, 600. 

South recognized as belligerents 
601. 

neutrality proclamation, 601. 

Adams, minister, 602. 

Baltimore occupied, 602. 
battle of Big Bethel, 603. 

Carthage, 605. 
belligerent rights, 607. 

Confederate Congress, 607. 
battle of Bull Run, 607. 
trade interdicted, 610 
forts Hatteras and Clark captured, 
610. 

Lexington captured, 611. 
defeat at Ball’s Bluff, 612. 

Tretit affair, 614, 619. 

Davis's first message, 615. 

Harvey Birch burnt, 615. 

Davis elected for six years, 616. 
Congress, 616. 
remonstrance, 618. 

Canadian frontier, 618. 
resignation of Captain Maury, 618. 
Tuscarora and Nashville, 6iq. 
Tennessee captured, 621. 

Davis’s inaugu al address, 621. 
Merrimac and Monitor , 622, 626. 
conscription, 624. 

New Orleans captured, Butler’s pro 
clamation, 625. 

abolition of slavery, 627, 628, 632. 
Chickahominy engagement, 627. 
news of Federal disasters, 628. 







UNI 


INDEX. 


W A L 


United States, continued — 
levy of 300,000 men, 630. 

Lincoln on Union, 631. 
second defeat at Bull Run, 631. 
Confederates driven out of Mary¬ 
land, 6j2. 

M’Clell&n superseded, 634. 
armistice rejected, 634. 
battle of Fredericksburg, 636. 
Western Virginia, 636. 

President Lincoln’s anti-slavery pro¬ 
clamation, 636. 

atta k on Charlestown squadron, 639, 
646. 

advice to Confederates, 616. 
actions at Chancellorsville, 648. 
Pennsylvania invaded, 653. 

Meade supersedes Hooker, 653. 
attack on Richmond, 669. 

General Grant, commander, 669. 
cost of war, 670. 
views on Mexico, 671. 

Fort Pillow captured, 672. 

Wilderness fighting, 673. 

Baltimore Convention, 675. 

Grant repulsed, 675. 
assault on Petersburg, 680. 

Farragut in Mobile Bay, 68r. 
Niagara in Dover Roads, 681. 
General Paine’s proclamation, 681. 
battles of Jonesborough and Shenan¬ 
doah, 682. 

Sherman at Atlanta, 682. 

M'Clellan’s address, 682. 

St. Alban’s raid, 683. 
affray at Angra Pequina, 684. 
President Lincoln re-elected, 684. 
refuses British aid, 687. 

Sherman’s raid through G orgia, 689. 
capture of Savannah, 689. 
Wilmington attacked, 689. 

Hampton Road Conference, 691. 
Charleston evacuated, 694. 
W.lmington seized, 694. 
negro enlistment, 694. 

Inauguration day, 695. 
fall of Richmond, 698. 
close of the struggle, 699. 
a-sassination of President Lincoln, 
699. 

capture of assassin, 701. 

President Davis captured, 702. 
last surrender, 704. 
execution of Payne and others, 709. 
Seward on disloyal States, 714. 
neutrality correspondence, 71S. 
the Shenandoah in the Mersey, 719. 
close of resistance, 731. 

Colorado vetoed, 739. 

Philadelphia Convention, 750. 

Surrat surrenders, 751. 
vetoes by President, 767. 

Stanton dismissal, 786, 805. 
opposition to President Johnson, 799, 
801. 

Mr. Thornton, British Minister, 803. 
impeachment of President, 762, 805, 
807, 814, 816, 822, 827. 
bills vetoed, 814. 
disqualifying bill, 816. 
representation of Southern States, 
824. 

General Grant for President, 825, 
845- 

amnesty, 832, 854. 

claim of Southern States, 8 37. 

vote against repudiation, 852. 

Tenure of offi e act, 856, 866. 
Booth’s remains, 860. 

Alabama Claims, Treaty rejected, 
860. 

negro suffrage, 800. 

Grant, Pres dint, 862. 

Motley, J. L., ambassador, 868. 
Atlantic and Pacific railway, 872. 
gold panic, 886. 


United States, continued — 

Secretary Fish on British neutrality, i 

886 . 

telegraph neutrality, 892. 

Congress opened, 894, 965. 
Reciprocity Treaty opposed, 985. 
proposal to annex British Columbia, 
897, 899. 

St. Domingo annexation, 906, 924, 
969- 

Coloured Senator, 907. 
hostility to Mormons, 910. 

Texas admitted, 911. 

Negro suffrage, 911. 

Alabama claims, 915. 

Indian Chiefs at Washington, 920. 
Senator Morton, 955. 

Butler on Alabama claims, 962. 
President Grant on Great Britain 
and A labama claims, 965. 
discretionary power, 967. 

General Schenck, British Ministei, 
969. 

Fenian reception, 978, 985. 
joint Commission, 981. 

Universities Commission, 299. 
University College, 200. 
dispute, 749. 


V, 

Vaccination, 201. 

conviction, 900. 

Valerio killed, 652. 

Vallee de Dappes, affair of, 613. 
Vamb^ry, M., 676. 

Vancouver Island, 269. 

Vaughan, Dr., Master of the I'emple, 
880. 

Vaughan library, Harrow, 605. 
Vauxhall gardens sold, 90. 

Velocipede journey, 865. 

Velveteen correspondence, 124. 

Venice (see Italy). 

Vera Cruz disturbance, 509. 

Vernon gallery, 264, 277. 

Vessel upset, 954. 

Vestris, attempt to injure Madame, 
37. 

Vesuvius, eruption of, 23, 433, 521,616, 
845 -. 

Victoria Cross, 454, 478, 488, 526. 
Victoria (see Queen). 

Victoria, Princess, marriage, 65. 
Victoria Music Hall disaster, 835. 
Victoria Street opened, 333. 

Victoria Theatre accident, 91, 532. 
Victoria tubular bridge, 561. 

Victoria and Albert, launch, 131. 

Vidil, case of Baron, 605. 

Vigo Bay treasurers, 920. 

Vienna (see Austria). 

Villiers, elopement, 184. 

Virginia Water, accident, 88. 

Vivian elopement, 862. 

Volunteers— 

corps sanctioned, 345, 347, 543- 
Brussels banquet, 755. 
visit of Belgians, 781, 783. 
International trophy, 879. 
conference, 896. _ . 

Elcho Challenge Shield, 940. 
new regulations, 941. 

Wimbledon accident, 680. 
banquet, 746. 
meeting, 578. 
rifle shooting— 

(Queen’s Prize) 

i860 Private E. Ross, 7th North 
York. 

t86i Private Joppling, South Mid¬ 
dlesex. 

1862 Serjeant Pixley, Victorias. 

1863 Serjeant Roberts, 12th Salop. 


Volunteers continued — 

1864 Private Wyatt, London Rifle 

Brigade. 

1865 Private Sherman, 4th West 

York. 

1866 Private Cameron, 6th Inver- 

nesshire. 

1867 Serjeant Lane, 1st Gloucester, 

(Bristol). 

1868 Lieut. Carslake, 5th Somerset¬ 

shire. 

1869 Corporal Cameron, 6th lnver- 

nesshire. 

1870 Corp. Humphries, 6th Surrey. 
Voysey case, 893, 960, 982. 

Vyse, Mrs., poisonings, 626. 


W. 

Waghorn, Capt., overland journey, 

l8 3- ... 

Wagner, Mddle.,injunction against, 352 
Waiter shot, 388. 

Wakefield election inquiry, 560, 607. 
Wakeley, case of Mary Ann, 652. 
Wakeley, coroner, 105. 

Wales, Prince of— 
birth, 93. 
promotions, 23. 
christening, 97. 

Earl of Dublin, 284. 
tour in United States, 579. 
return, 588. 
presents colours, 611. 
opens Middle Temple Library, 613. 
Eastern tour, 620. 
visits Emperor of French, 627. 
marriage announced, 634. 
takes his seat in House of Lords, 
639. 

entertained by Fishmongers’ Com¬ 
pany, 640. 
settlement on, 641. 
marriage, 643. 

City visit, 650. 

at Oxford Commemoration, 651. 
opens Slough Asylum, 652. 

Guards’ entertainment, 653. 
at Halifax, 656. 

President of Society of Arts, 659. 
at Cambridge, 674. 
visits Denmark, 682. 
opens Dramatic College, 704. 
descends Botallack mine, 712. 
at Royal Academy banquet, 737. 
at York, 750. 
in Paris, 776. 
visits Ireland, 818. 
at Glasgow, 842. 
at Berlin, 857. 

Eastern tour, 866. 

Freemason, 879, 883, 893. 

Redhill Asylum, 877. 
at Lynn, 878. 
at Manchester, 880. 
at Scarborough, 889. 
evidence in Mordaunt case, 905. 
Reading Grammar School, 924. 
opens Thames Embankment, 927. 
Edinburgh Infirmary, 954. 
visits Empress of French, 950. 
Wales, Princess of— 
reception in London, 643. 
marriage, 643. 
marriage gifts, 646. 
birth of Prince Albert Victor, 664, 
669. 

of Prince George, 704. 
of Princess Louise, 706. 
of Princess Victoria, 832. 
of Princess Augusta, 892. 
at the Tower, 716. 
illness, 768. 

Waldegrave, Earl of, 84. 

Walhalla the, 121. 

(*033) 
















W V L 


IXDEX. 


Walker, filibuster, 463. 

Wallace monument, 463, 470, 604, 884. 
Walpole, S. H., Home Secretary- 
retires from Cabinet, 534. 
Church-rates Bill, 536. 
retrenchment resolution, 626. 
on Hyde Park Reform meeting, 745. 
on riot, 748. 
retires, 775. 

Walton bridge, fall of, 554. 

Walton Bridge free, 935. 

Ward, case of Rev. W. G., 164, 166, 
167, 323. 

Ward School panic, 339. 

War and Colonial offices divided, 410, 

413- , . 

Warner's invention, 159, 2.11. 

War office regulations, 190. 

War office circu'ar, 897. 

War medal, banquet, 329. 

Warrior launched, 591. 

Warsaw disturbance, 596. 

Warships, trial of speed, 828. 

Wason petition, 765. 

Waterford, Marquis of, fined, 23. 
accident, 112. 

Waterloo Eridge, human remains 
found on, 498 
Walford Asylum, 879. 

Waugh, bankruptcy of Colonel, 698. 
Waugh, solicitor, shot, 453. 

Waverley ball— 

Edinburgh, 152. 

London, 158. 

Webster, Miss, burnt, 165. 

Wedgwood memorials, 641, 869. 
Wellington, Duke of— 

attacked by Chartist agitators, 24. 
“The London Equitable,” 39. 
assists Sir R. Peel, 41. 
on Birmingham riots, 46, 47. 

Lord Warden banquet, 51. 
sudden illness, 55, 81. 

Edinburgh statue, 58, 356. 

Paisley deputation, 92. 
on Affghan war, 98. 
defends Peel, 106, 200. 
commander-in-chief, 116. 
statue, Royal Exchange, 157. 
Glasgow statue, 162. 

Wyatt’s statue, 209, 220. 
letter on National Defences, 231. 
on party processions, 294. 
on martial law, 323. 


Wellington. Duke, of continued -— 
last Waterloo banquet, 356. 
death, 360. 
lying in state, 365. 
funeral, 366, 369. 
monument, 492. 

Wellington College, 368, 395, 462, 534. 

Welsh fasting girl, 895, 909, 929. 

Westbury, Lord— 

withdraws from Scottish Law In¬ 
quiry, 842. 

(See Bethel!, Sir R.) 

Westcott, Professor, 957. 

Western Bank failure, 500, 509, 528. 

Westminster Abbey celebration, 722. 

“ Westminster Communmn,” 983. 

Westminster Bridge opened, 627. 

Westminster Palace Bells, 471,499,330, 
577- 

West Riding election, 267. 

Whale at Deptford, 122. 

Whale, attack of, 334. 

Whale stranded, 889. 

Whately, Archbishop— 

Irish Education Board, 386. 
death, 659. 

Wheat prices, 24, 88, 212, 216, 218. 

Whewell, Rev. W., 93. 
death, 727. 

Whirlwind at Rouen. 181. 

Whiston prosecution, 287. 

Wightman, Justice, at Newcastle, 307. 

Wilberforce, resignation of Archdeacon, 
* 15 / 

Wilkie memorial, 90. 

William IV., burial of, 3. 
statue of, 184. 

William of Normandy, statue, 338. 

Williams, Sir W. F., 461, 463, 464, 466. 

Williams, Gen., Governor of Gibraltar, 
947- 

Williams, Rev. J., 17. 
murdered, 56 

Wilton-Dickson scandal, 602. 

Winchelsea, Earl of, and Catholic 
Emancipation, 45. 

Winchester, Bishop of, 895. 

Windham, General, 466. 

Windham inquiry, 617. 

Winslow, Dr. O., admitted priest, 967. 

Wiseman, Rev. Dr , 308. 
enthronization, 315. 
addresses to, 316. 
sermon to poor Irish, 333. 


THE END. 


z o u 


Wiseman, Rev. Dr., continued — 
death, 694. 

Witch impostor, 143. 

Wolffe, Rev. Dr., mission, 153, 159, 
i73. x 75- 

Wolverhampton Congress, 790. 
Wombwell’s menagerie, 104, 538. 
Wood embezzlements, 716. 

Wood, Sir C — 
on Mr. Disraeli, 330. 
on France, 375. 

India Bill, 383. 

Wood, W., elected for London, 608. 
Woodstock election, 18. 

Woolwich Dockyard closed, S85. 
Worcester cadets drowned. 694. 
Worcester, suffocation, 468 
Wordsworth, W., Poet Laureate, 131. 
death, 298. 

Wordsworth on Copyright Bill, 17. 
Working classes, 293. 

Working class indifference, 760. 
Working clubs, aid to, 108. 

Workmen’s InternationalCongress,839. 
Working Men’s College, 423. 

Worms Protestant Conference, 873. 
Worsley hall, literary gathering, 415. 
Worthing life boat upset, 314. 

Wortley, S., and Credit Fonder, 838. 
Wright, Professor, 955. 

Wurtemburg Parliament, 851. 

Wyatt, SladeProfessor, 908. 


Y. 

Yacht, America , 334.--———< 

Yacht racing, 761, 918, 920. 

Yancey on Confederate States, 6.5. 
Yarmouth bridge, fall of, 175. 

pier destroyed, 847. 

Yelverton case, 559, 595. 

York, Dr. Musgrave, Archbishop of, 
232, 573 ; . . 

York Exhibition banquet, 312. 

Young England party, 162. 

Young Ireland party (see Repeal agi¬ 
tation). 


Z. 

Zouave Jacob’s cures, 788. 


LONDON: K. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS BREAD STREET HILL. 








ANNALS” CRITICISM. 


<< 


From the TIMES. 

We should not do justice to our author or his work if we did not add, that in compiling it he has largely 
consulted the Parliamentary Votes and Blue-books, diplomatic correspondence, the proceedings of learned societies, 
the law reports, registers, almanacs, contemporary Memoirs and diaries. The result is, that we have before us a 
trusty and ready guide to the events of the past thirty years, available equally for the statesman, the politician, the 
public writer, and the general reader. If Mr. Irving’s object has been to bring before the reader all the most 
noteworthy occurrences which have happened since the beginning of Her Majesty’s reign, he may justly claim 
the credit of having done so most briefly, succinctly, and simply ; and in such a manner, too, as to furnish him with 
the details necessary in each case to comprehend the event of which he is in search in an intelligent manner. In 
his treatment of these various events he has shown much good sense and discrimination ; for, while he is brief in his 
description of shipwrecks, floods, fires, explosions, and other accidents, where the physical details are for the most 
part uniform, he has measured other events by a different scale, and has not spared either pains or space in 
describing matters of social and political interest. A brief, but tolerably complete. Obituary adds much to the 
intrinsic usefulness of the work. It is obvious to remark that the events of the last few years are always those 
about which it is most difficult to gain accurate information. Men know all about Trafalgar and Waterloo; but 
as to the Crimean campaign, the Indian Mutiny, and the progress of the Reform question, they find themselves 
continually at a loss when they are suddenly called on to put their information to the test. This reflection will 
serve to show the great value of such a work as this to the journalist and statesman, and indeed to every one who 
fee’s an interest in the progress of the age. And we may add that its value is considerably increased by the 
addition of that most important of all appendices, an accurate and exhaustive Index. 

PALL MALL GAZETTE. 

In this closely printed volume of nearly 750 pages we find a chronological record of events answering to the 
description in the title. It is impossible to estimate the labour involved in such a work.; but, whatever it may have 
been, Mr. Irving will be rewarded by the gratitude of all persons concerned in the study or discussion of public 
affairs. His book might be described as the contents of the memory of the best informed persons of fifty years old 
and upwards, clarified, amplified, and completed. As we read the earlier pages we measure with astonishment 
the changes in the relations of classes and in the public sentiment which thirty years have produced ; while we 
cannot avoid the reflection how imperfectly, in comparison with their real importance, these changes have beer, 
either caused by or reflected in our legislation. The only way to give a notion of the interest of his work is by 
selecting a few details which strike the eye here and there as we turn over its pages. . . . From 1837, when the 

history begins, down to the middle of 1848, Chartism occupies a prominent place in our annals ; and speaking 
generally, the state of the country during that period was dangerous and explosive. Thus the riots in Kent, under 
John Thom, alias Sir William Courtenay, otherwise the Messiah (in 1838), exhibit a degree of ignorance and obscure 
disaffection which we should hardly find now in any part of the country. . . . Most of the controversies of 1844 

are still unsettled. Puseyism has become Ritualism, and battues no longer nc*id the countenance of a German 
prince, but the Church and the game laws are still an occasion of offence. On the endowment of Maynooth there 
was much lively debate, from which Mr. Irving has extracted this once famous sentence of the late Lord Macaulay : — 
“ The Orangeman raises his war-whoop ; Exeter Hall sets up its bray ; Mr. Macneile shudders to see more costly 
cheer than ever provided for the priests of Baal at the table of the Queen ; and the Protestant operatives of Dublin 
call for impeachment in exceedingly bad English.” In 1845, the potato disease in the autumn made the final 
success of the corn-law repealers certain, and Mr. Irving’s pages reflect the intense feelings of various kinds excited 
by Sir Robert Peel’s change of policy. . . . We take leave of Mr. Irving’s book with a cordial recommenda¬ 

tion. What we have gathered is the merest gleaning from a rich harvest. 

ATHEN2EUM. 

From newspapers, official reports, biographies, histories, dictionaries of dates, and other sources of information, 
Mr. Joseph Irving has gathered into a bulky volume of close type, with two columns of text to each page, a service¬ 
able collection of the more memorable of those countless facts which have made up the sum and substance of our 
national interests during the one and-thirty years from 1837 to the close of 1868. . . . Though capable of amend¬ 

ment in many particulars, the compilation is a sound and careful book, to which the man of letters or publ.c affairs 
may advantageously turn for information on a vast number of recent events when he wants an answer to the con¬ 
tinually recurring question, “ In what year did that occur?” Mr. Irving’s pages will also afford considerable amuse¬ 
ment to idle readers who search its columns for forgotten or dimly remembered particulars about eminent persons- 
From these extracts it may be seen that Mr. Irving’s compilation furnishes entertainment for lovers of old 
eossip as well as facts for the inquirers whom it is especially designed to enlighten. 

* [OVER. 


“ A NNA IS ” CRITICISM. 


L- 


NOTES AND QUERIES. 

This is unquestionably one of the most useful books that has come under our notice for some time ; it is one 
clearly destined to take its place by the side of the “ Dictionary of Dates ” and other books of the same class which 
every intelligent reader likes to keep within reach. In a clearly, though closely-printed volume of about 750 pages, , 

Mr. Irving gives us some notice of every event which has in any way excited or moulded our national life during 
the last thirty years, and this with sufficient detail to enable the reader to comprehend it in an intelligent manner. ] 
. This Chronicle, for so it may be called, based in a certain degree upon the newspapers of the time, but 
with such corrections and amendments as subsequent events proved to be called for, may be pronounced a compre¬ 
hensive history of a very important period of progress. Like all first attempts, it is not entirely free from errors or 
oversights ; but these are comparatively few ; and when we add that this Annual Register for thirty years (if we 
may be allowed such a bull) is furnished with a classified Index (which cannot contain less than from eight to ten 
thousand entries), our readers will at once recognise Mr. Irving’s “Annals of our Time ” as a most valuable addition 
to our books of reference. 


MANCHESTER EXAMINER AND TIMES. 

“ The Annals of our Time,” of which Mr. Irving has given us such a comprehensive record, begin with the acces¬ 
sion of Queen Victoria, on the 20th of June, 1837, and finish with the adjournment of parliament under the new 
cabinet of Mr. Gladstone, on the 29th of December, 1868. The interval embraces a period of more than thirty 
years, rich with events and changes, which, even in the aspect presented by this volume, make up great incidents 
in the formation of history. But Mr. Irving has by no means limited his observation or records to big things, or to 
events which live in the memory of everyone who heard or read of them at the time they occurred. . . . Turning 

to events of a more recent period, the reader cannot fail to peruse the record of them with interest, even when he 
is merely consulting the book as a reference. The mention of them here, in the brief but lucid form in which Mr. 
Irving has put them, comes as an aid to a recollection which has almost faded away, and looking over such a 
volume probably for the first time a man begins to feel that he has lived through a momentous historical era. We 
turn to the incidents of the year of revolutions, and there we find every great event noted with chronological accu¬ 
racy—with the fidelity which belongs to a first rate reporter, and yet with the clear incisive impartiality which 
should belong to an historian. . . . The mention of these matters will serve to show the completeness with 
which Mr. Irving has carried out his work. It is a perfect record of the past thirty years, and in conception of 
plan, clearness of style, and comprehensiveness of detail, which is neither encumbered nor involved, but includes 
only what is necessary to be known, it is all that can be desired. It is, in fact, one of the most useful books of the 
day, and as an excellent Index is attached, for the purpose of reference, it will readily be seen that no reading 
man should be without the volume. 


SCOTSMAN. 

This book is described by its author as a diurnal of events, social and political, which have happened in or had 
relation to the kingdom of Great Britain, from the accession of Queen Victoria to the opening of the present par¬ 
liament. The description is an accurate one. The book is one of the most comprehensive and painstaking of its 
kind that we remember ever to have seen. From 1837 to 1868 is a period within the memory of most of us, and 
yet how many events have happened within that time which, though of no slight importance, have yet almost 
passed out of memory, or are only remembered in a very general way. Mr. Irving has given us here a ready 
book of reference to all these things. Day by day the story of the years is told, and an admirably arranged Index 
enables any o'ie to turn at once to the particular event which he requires. Indeed, in this respect the book is almost 
perfect. If some particulars of an event be wanted, the exact nature of which is not remembered but the month of 
its occurrence can be recalled, it is only necessary to turn to that month, and within the limits of a page or two 
details are soon to be found . . . To politicians this book has the greatest possible value, because, although 

in some cases it may not give them exactly all they want, it enables them to go directly to the place where that 
all may be got. That there should be some errors in the book is not much to be wondered at; but those errors 
are comparatively trivial. Mr. Irving must have bestowed great labour on the compilation, and as a consequence 
he has given us a minute history of the thirty-one years over which the work extends. It is handsomely got up 
and contains in addition to its letterpress, a chart by which may be seen at a glance who has held any office in the 
Government at ar. / time from 1S37 until now. 

• Au. 

MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON. 



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